In 2006, Dr. John McHugh, a retired physician and the instigator of Crusader Community Health, read in his morning paper about Kalamazoo Promise, a program that allowed children who graduated from Kalamazoo public schools to receive scholarships. He knew he wanted to give a similar opportunity to RPS 205 students, but he also knew he could not do it alone.

McHugh suggested a proposition to Alan Ginsberg, Dan Williams, Jan Jones, and Elaine Breck, community leaders who eventually became board members of what is now Rockford Promise.

Another board member is Keith Kruchten, who earned his Master degree in Student Development and College Administration from the University of Mississippi, and now serves as Scholarship Selection Committee Chairperson.

“When I moved back to Rockford, I took a step back to study what I could do to have the biggest impact on my community,” said Kruchten. “I realized that there is a great equalizer amongst all people and that is education. The more educated a person is, the more likely they will lead a happy, healthy life and be a productive member of society, and that is when I came across Rockford Promise and joined the board.”

Unfortunately, one of the main reasons most high school graduates are not able to go to college is because they simply cannot afford it due to their financial situation. The goal of the program is to provide these students with the opportunity of a post-secondary education. The program offers full tuition scholarships to qualifying students. However, the program does not simply give students money and let them loose; it provides unconditional support for students, in hopes that they either receive a degree or finish the program.

“I want to sign up for Rockford Promise because I won’t be able to afford tuition otherwise, especially with things like living on campus,” said Janelly Lizardi, senior. “So hopefully, by applying to Rockford Promise, I can get some sort of help financially. I hope to receive funds to at least start my first semester of college next year.”

It’s a competitive road to receiving a scholarship. Students must be planning on attending either Rock Valley College or Rockford University; complete an application for FAFSA; have an unweighted GPA of at least 3.0, an ACT score of at least 22 or SAT score of 1100-1200; be eligible for Illinois Monetary Award Program (MAP); be eligible for the Federal Penn Grant; and have already applied to the college of their choice.

“When we have to made the very difficult choices as to which of the many highly deserving applicants is going to receive the scholarship, we give preference to those who NEED it most, and for that reason, students who live in the Midtown and Ellis Height’s neighborhoods and surrounding areas are given preference,” explained Kruchten. “About half of our recipients lived within the designated neighborhoods for the last year.”

Funding is received only through private donations and a single event hosted every year called “Raise the Roof,” which raised almost $45,000 of revenue for the organization. Recent sponsors that have contributed to the program include the Rockford Urological Associates, the Swedish American Medical Group, The Wanda McNeil Scholar, the Clark Legacy Foundation, and The Martha Daniels Unitarian Universalist Church Scholar. This year, two of the listed scholarships were received by Dayana Rosales (Swedish America), and Magdaleno Mendoza (Rockford Urology). As well as those two, new programs were created as well; The Dr. Wameer Mardini Family Scholarship was received by Uwezc Msambya, and the St. Anthony Medical Center scholarship, was received by Alexis Jefferson.

“I received a full ride scholarship from Rockford Urological Associates, and am going to Rockford University to study nursing, and may possibly go to school to become a doctor afterward,” explained Magdaleno Mendoza.

Counselors recommend the program to students they believe might benefit from it most.

“I first found out about Rockford Promise from my counselor at Jefferson and I saw posters of it around East while I was there,” said Mendoza. “My counselor really motivated me to apply. She sat me down and she walked me through the whole process.”

Students are determined to meet the requirements necessary to be able to be chosen for the opportunity over everyone else.

“I was the first and only African to receive a full-ride scholarship, and when I first came to the United States five years ago, I didn’t speak English, and I feel like it was more of a struggle for me than for kids who were native to the land and language,” said Erica Bibalou, sophomore at Rock Valley College.

Note: facts for this story were compiled from the Rockford Promise website, www.rockfordpromise.org. All interviews and quotes are original.