LI Woman Earns MBA In Business, Promoted To McDonald's Area Supervisor

OCEANSIDE, NY — Students return for the new school year as they begin to plant the seeds for their future.

One Suffolk County woman did that with help from McDonald's, where she started working at 14 while in high school.

Karissa Woods, now 24, has worked her way from taking customers' orders at the Ronkonkoma location, where she's from, to becoming a store manager in Wantagh. Woods, who earned her MBA in finance this past May, was named an area supervisor, overseeing three franchisees in Suffolk, along with the Wantagh restaurant.

"It was a good, long journey," Woods told Patch.

When she was 18, she transitioned to college. A year later, Woods began to take on managerial responsibilities.

"I became an assistant manager and really got to learn about the business aspect of McDonald's," she said.

Initially, she was undecided about her vocation and chose liberal arts as her major. Woods' childhood desire was to become a teacher. However, she shifted her focus at Suffolk County Community College to "pursue a business degree," Woods said.

That was only the start of where her career path would ultimately take her.

At 21, while going to school and working full-time at McDonald's, Woods was promoted to restaurant manager.

"I was so excited. I was finally able to get my own store," she said. "I was able to combine my education and experience at McDonald's to be able to run a successful restaurant."

She didn't sit on her laurels at the Golden Arches, winning an award after the first year as manager for performing among the top 10 percent in the New York Metro region.

That led to her transfer to the busier Wantagh location. After completing her Bachelor's degree, Woods pursued the Master's of Business Administration.

Her journey is one of more than 100 local employee success stories made possible through Hunt Enterprises and McDonald’s Owner-Operator Katie Hunt-Rotolo, who operates restaurants exclusively on Long Island. In the last few years, Hunt Enterprises has awarded more than $560,000 in high school and college tuition assistance with the Archways to Opportunity program.

"When I started going to college, I didn't qualify for financial aid," she said. "My parents wanted me to work and pay for it myself."

But it was McDonald's, with its tuition assistance program, that made it happen.

"They really pushed the employees, especially the young ones, to be able to take advantage of this opportunity," Woods said. "It was very helpful."

Ultimately, though, Woods is most proud of her personal accomplishments.

"I probably would have never picked a business focus in life if I didn't have this job to see and understand the business side of everything," she said.