Excelsior Award finalist Rockford Promise makes future brighter, one student at a time

Go to the Rockford Promise website you'll have to click on "load more" 15 times to see all the photos of smiling young adults who have received scholarships to Rock Valley College or Rockford University or Northern Illinois University.

"Anywhere you go, you will run into a Rockford Promise scholar," said Rockford Promise Executive Director Kaylene Groh. "When I go to my local Starbucks drive-thru, I see a scholar. They're still in school, but they're working. They're making it happen."

Modeled after a similar scholarship program in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Rockford Promise is a publicly and privately funded program that offers college scholarships to graduates of Rockford Public Schools high schools.

To qualify, students must meet GPA requirements, spend all four years of high school and graduate from Auburn, East, Guilford, Jefferson or the Roosevelt Community Education Center. For the Rockford Promise program with NIU, students must live within the Rockford city limits.

After several years of awarding scholarships, Rockford Promise is a finalist for this year's Excelsior Award. The coveted accolade was established by the Rockford Register Star in 1979 to honor an organization or institution whose work has a positive effect on life in the Rock River Valley.

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In the spring of 2011, the not-for-profit doled out seven privately funded $500 scholarships.

Fast-forward 12 years, the agency awarded 154 students full-tuition scholarships using private and public funds from the city of Rockford, which in 2021 started donating $1.5 million a year to the program from casino revenue.

Part of the program's success lies in the organization's recognition that it must work beyond getting kids into college.

"We offer a lot of scholarship support pieces, and we're absolutely proud of that," Groh said. "We think that's really where you see the long-term success."

The support pieces are community members who serve as mentors, especially to freshmen who often find that first year of college to be a big transition.

Campus-based academic mentor coordinators meet on a regular basis with Rockford Promise scholars.

"We have a 92% graduation rate at Rockford University," Groh said. "Our students at RVC are graduating at three times the national rate."

NIU has not had its first graduating class yet, but Groh said NIU data shows that Rockford Promise students are staying in school at a higher rate than other students.

Connecting graduates with Rockford employers is the next step.

"We found that 70% of students who do an internship end up working for that company," Groh said. "So, if we can connect our students still in school with local internships and employers, the odds are in their favor that they will get a job with that employer."

In time, the school district should see a decrease in dropouts, truancy and teen pregnancy and an increase in graduation rates, said Rockford Promise Board President Maurice Redd. Higher levels of educational attainment should lead to reduced poverty and crime in the Rockford area.

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford Promise is an Excelsior Award finalist