Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.

KALAMAZOO, MI — Efforts to help more high school students get to college and into better-paying careers are meeting some resistance, local advocates say.
 
"We're fighting national trends," says Bob Jorth, chief operating officer of The Kalamazoo Promise, the college scholarship program that covers the tuition and some academic fees for graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools.
 
"The trends nationally have been fewer people starting college right after high school,” Jorth says. And that may be a result of people struggling with the expense of higher education and wondering whether a college degree will pay off. Jorth says a rise in entry-level wages ($15 to $20 per hour right out of high school) may also be tempting some young people to skip higher education and head directly into the workforce.
 
Al JonesBob Jorth, chief operating officer of The Kalamazoo Promise, says the college scholarship program is fighting national trends.But Jorth says, "Research still shows that a college education more than pays for itself in the long run. And certainly, with The Promise, it's easier to get people to understand that.”
 
So as the free college tuition program approaches its 20th anniversary, its administrators are confident about its capacity to help young people find solid career paths. And with a growing amount of uncertainty resulting from potentially dramatic changes in federal funding for educational programs and organizations that have supported scholarship grants, The Promise appears to be a steady resource during troubled times.
 
"We started to realize that every student's story is unique,” says Von Washington Jr., chief executive officer of The Kalamazoo Promise. “Everybody is working hard and trying to come up to figure out how to work with students. We had to make a concentrated effort.”
 
The Promise itself is a trendsetter, with many areas in Michigan since instituting their own version of this historic program that covers the tuition and some academic fees for graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools system. Scholarship amounts vary depending on how many consecutive years a student has been in the school system.

They range from 65 percent of tuition costs for someone who has attended a four-year high school in KPS, to 100 percent for those who has been in the school system from kindergarten through 12 grade. To qualify, applicants and their families must be residents of the school district. The scholarships may be used to attend any accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or trade school in Michigan.
 
Last year, the program paid all or part of the tuition expenses of about 2,400 students. It expects to accommodate about 2,600 during 2025. And it anticipates that its monetary obligation for all the students it is shepherding through their undergraduate years of college will amount to more than $22 million this year.
 
The program is funded by a group of anonymous donors. The school district announced it in November 2005, and the 2006 high school graduating class were the first students to benefit.
 
"Through the end of 2024, we're at $229 million (spent in the program since its start), and about 8,700 students who have used the scholarships to date," Jorth says.
 
Al JonesThe meeting and events location of The Kalamazoo Promise includes this are with work produced by a local artist.He estimates that nearly 3,000 have earned bachelor's degrees, associate's degrees, or other credentials. About 500 have gone on to earn master's degrees, and about 200 have gone on to earn doctorates.
 
"We're going strong," Jorth says. " We're still trying to educate people about the opportunity and make sure people take advantage of it."
 
The Promise has stepped up its efforts to help KPS students plan for college and to provide assistance and support to its scholars after they enter college. What started as a staff of three in 2006 is now a team of about 30 people, including counselors to work with students at Kalamazoo Central, Loy Norrix, and Phoenix high schools, as well as the Kalamazoo Innovative Learning Program.

KILP is a hybrid (part-time in-person/part-time remote) program that helps junior and senior students recover lost credit and progress toward graduation. It is designed for students who are significantly behind in credits, and who need more flexibility in their schedules.
 
Al JonesStudents utilize the expensive space inside The Kalamazoo Promise’s location in downtown Kalamazoo."The biggest change for us is that we've just grown our team to do more than just give out the scholarship dollars," Jorth says
 
The Promise also relocated in 2021 from less than 1,000 square feet of space at 125 W. Exchange Place into a much larger space on two levels of the Warner Building, at 180 E. Water St. It has several thousand square feet of meeting and event space with areas for classes, multimedia broadcasting, and studying. There is also a family room, a library area, space to accommodate students with young children, and various nooks to allow students to sit and talk.

Along with the pathway coaches in the high schools and KILP, the program has case workers who work with students who have other challenges. They work primarily with high school seniors but also try to help all students understand The Promise and get them ready to figure out what they want to do after graduation.
 
Von Washington Jr. Is chief executive officer of The Kalamazoo Promise.Washington says other staff members reach out to scholars who started college but stopped for one reason or another. They have been able to help about 40 percent of those "stop-out" students return to school, versus a national average of about 15 percent for reclaiming students who started college but stopped.
 
"We have a couple of people who are working primarily on workforce types of things — internships, nontraditional kinds of post-secondary education in the trades, certificate programs, and things like that," Jorth says. 
 
Washington says the organization's Higher Promises internship program, which began matching its scholars with area companies about four years ago, has been very well received. It had about 100 young people working in summer internships last year and hopes to have at least that many this summer. But there are more students still looking for opportunities.
 
"Higher Promises has been so successful over the last four years," Washington says. "We had over 200 students applying this year. We don't have enough employers to fulfill that need. But we're continuing to work."
 
Washington says The Promise continues to be the most generous community scholarship program, working as a first-stage funder that has no hard requirements for academic performance or attendance. It also is usable for up to 10 years after graduation.
 
Without mentioning their name, Jorth says the family that has used The Kalamazoo Promise the most had seven children graduate from the Kalamazoo Public Schools system. "And all of them I believe will have completed a bachelor's degree." The eldest of them received partial scholarships because the family did not originally live in the KPS school district.
 
Al JonesCEO Von Washington Jr. wants the downtown location of The Kalamazoo Promise to be welcoming for students."They moved into the district," he says, "I can't remember whether they moved because of The Promise or what. I think the last one just graduated from the University of Michigan a year or two ago." 
 
The 20th-anniversary celebration for The Promise will include various events over the year, including community conversations about the program this spring, an event to celebrate the contributions of KPS teachers and staff members, and PromiseNet, a three-day gathering of organizations that are overseeing community-wide scholarship programs. The gathering brings together practitioners of promise programs, researchers, and others from all over the country. It is to be held on Nov. 9, 10 and 11, 2025 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites in downtown Kalamazoo.
 
"We're also finalizing a book," Jorth says. "It's mostly about scholars, and community members, and a little bit of history about The Promise and stuff like that. We'll also put out a 20-year report on The Promise like we did the 10-year report."

Al JonesStudents utilize the expensive space inside The Kalamazoo Promise’s location in downtown Kalamazoo.