DeKALB — Rockford Promise hit a milestone of 1,000 scholarships awarded since the scholarship’s 10th year of existence in March. The scholarships have helped hundreds of NIU students attend college tuition-free.
Rockford Promise is a nonprofit organization that offers the Rockford Promise scholarship to qualifying high school students.
To be eligible, one must attend a Rockford public high school for four years and graduate with a minimum GPA of 3.0. While at NIU, scholars must maintain at least a 2.5 GPA and stay enrolled in at least 12 credit hours per semester.
Currently, the Rockford Promise partners are NIU, Rock Valley College, Rockford University and Saint Anthony College of Nursing.
The program covers all tuition and general fee expenses that aren’t covered by other financial aid, such as other scholarships or need-based grants like Pell and MAP grants.
Georgia Much, a first-year environmental studies major, received the scholarship in March 2025. The scholarship’s benefits convinced her to apply to NIU.
“Rockford Promise was a deciding factor when choosing to commit to NIU, but NIU was very high on my list even without the scholarship in hand,” Much said.
Much is grateful for the resources the scholarship grants to students.
“Rockford Promise helps so many students have access to a college education, and it is truly changing the lives of so many students for the better,” Much said.
NIU saw an increase of 96 students from Rockford Public Schools from fall 2020 to fall 2021, a figure corroborated by NIU Assistant Vice President for Student Financial Assistance Anne Hardy.
“We saw a 220% increase in the number of students from Rockford Public Schools who chose NIU compared to fall 2020,” Hardy said.
The current number of NIU students enrolled in the program sits at well over 300, according to Hardy.
“Since fall 2021, when the program started, we’ve had 586 students enroll from the Rockford Promise Program (for at least one semester). Currently, 383 students are enrolled this spring,” she said.
Hardy said the program encourages students to return to Rockford and invest in the community.
“One of the reasons that the city of Rockford is so involved in this program is because their hope that students will come back to the Rockford community to live there, to raise their families there, to work there, to contribute to the Rockford community,” she said. “We’re just now seeing those graduates going back to the Rockford community and beyond.”
Hardy is pleased with the program’s outcome for students.
“I’m just very proud to be a part of this program and seeing so many students be positively impacted by that, and I’m so impressed with the support provided not only by NIU but by Rockford Promise.”
