ROCKFORD Five years ago, Rockford Promise handed out five scholarships to high school seniors. The number of students the nonprofit agency supports has grown every year since.
On Friday, community and education leaders gathered in the auditorium of East High School to celebrate the largest class of Rockford Promise scholars yet. This year, 160 seniors were granted scholarships, including 60 students from East High School.
Rockford Promise is a scholarship program created to cover the cost of tuition and fees for Rockford Public Schools graduates who have a 3.0 grade-point average and annual family gross income of under $75,000.
Six scholarship recipients will attend Rockford University, 40 students plan to go to Rock Valley College and 110 will enroll at Northern Illinois University next fall.