KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The Kalamazoo Promise was unveiled in a surprise announcement at a regular Kalamazoo School Board meeting 10 years ago this week. This week, it was celebrated with a convention of communities that have introduced similar scholarships.
Where will the Promise be after 20 years is tough to predict, but it’s likely to create more students like college graduate Jasmine Grandville who stuck around to make Kalamazoo a better place. She has already landed her first job in her major, criminal justice, after graduating from Western Michigan University on a Promise scholarship.
“I actually work at the Kalamazoo Probation Enhancement Program doing part-time work,” Grandville said. “It’s in my field.”
She says there is no way it would have happened without the scholarship.
“We had two parents, but it was a one-income home,” Grandville said. “There was no way she was going to put three kids through college.”
She graduated last spring. She estimates she saved $48,000 in tuition.
– John McNeill
