Dolly Parton Is Covering 100% Of College Tuition For All Dollywood Employees

As if we needed another reason to cherish Dolly Parton: starting this month, she’s covering 100% tuition (including textbooks!) for ALL Dollywood employees

Why do we love Dolly Parton? Let me count the ways: she’s an insanely talented, empowered and philanthropic national treasure that we don’t deserve. And no, this isn’t an exhaustive list of all of the reasons we f*cking love Dolly Parton, she just gave us yet another gem to add: she is now covering 100% of college tuition for Dollywood theme park employees.

As if donating $1 million to help fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine (and then humbly turning down a state-commissioned statue in her honor), working to help children while making free books accessible to all of them, or investing music royalties into a local Black community wasn’t enough, she’s once again proving that she’s the gift we don’t deserve. It was announced this week that starting on February 24, all Dollywood employees (even seasonal and part-time) who want to further their education will have 100% of college tuition covered.

But again, Dolly and her generosity doesn’t stop there. In addition to tuition costs, the new education benefits package will also cover all other related fees including textbooks. And not only will all types of employees be eligible to enroll in this program but also it will be open to all new hires from their first day of employment.

“One of The Dollywood Foundation’s key tenets is to ‘learn more,’” Dollywood Company President Eugene Naughton said in a statement, according to Local 12. “This program is created with that very tenet in mind. We want our hosts to develop themselves through advanced learning to fulfill the foundation’s other tenets: care more, dream more, and be more.”

And as the Foundation works to help further this tenant, it is clearly doing it while keeping in mind the realities of working 9 to 5 and just how much continued education costs in 2022. “When our hosts strive to grow themselves, it makes our business and our community a truly better place,” he added. “We care about our hosts’ development and we want their future to grow because of love — not loans.”