LAKELAND, Fla. - Candace Payne, a.k.a. as "Chewbacca Mom," has made appearances on late night television shows, visited Facebook's headquarters, gone to Disney's Hollywood Studios to take a selfie with Chewbacca himself and numerous other appearances. Now, a university in Florida is giving her family full tuition.
Southeastern University, a private Christian school in Lakeland, announced it’s paying for school for not only her two children but also her husband. The school filmed her reaction in a video of Payne touring the campus.
Payne has a connection to the school through her home church of Oaks Fellowship in Red Oaks, Texas.
The founder and former leader of The Oaks School of Leadership at the church is now Southeastern’s vice president of strategic partnership.
“How about I make this the best tour ever?” the school’s Dr. Kent Ingle tells Payne in the video. “Since you’ve been bringing joy and laughter and great inspiration to a lot of people around the world, here at Southeastern we want to do that for you. Our gift to you is to provide you and your family full, tuition-free scholarships.”
“This is such an amazing gift to our family, I’m blown away,” Payne said. “I mean, my kids’ college is paid for!”
Last month, Payne celebrated her birthday and Kohl's wanted to keep the celebration going by giving her a $2,500 Kohl's gift card and 10,000 reward points.