Harper Promise and Campus Beauty

Transcript

Let’s hear from Kristen a Harper Promise Scholarship Program alum from Prospect Heights. She attended Harper practically free through the Promise Program. She earned her tuition in high school by getting good grades, volunteering and maintaining a strong attendance record. Let’s learn how you can get involved with the Promise program too, and earn free tuition. Take it away, Kristen.

– Thanks, Alex. In high school, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to major in so I decided that Harper would be the best option for me. I ended up making so many amazing friends and memories and I was able to take classes that I was actually interested in pursuing which helped me to make a path for my future. I enrolled in the Harper Promise Scholarship Program while in high school. With Promise, students can earn free tuition if they do things like get good grades and complete community service hours. Paying for college is tough for a lot of families, including mine so this was an opportunity that I just could not pass up. With the help of my advisor and my dual credit courses that I took in high school I was able to graduate with a degree a year early and at only 18 years old. While I was only at Harper for one year I was able to enjoy so much of its beautiful campus. People don’t always associate community colleges with the word beautiful, but look around, Harper completely defies that stereotype. I love spending time in the rotunda studying and hanging out with my friends in the quad and taking naps in hammocks around campus. Beauty and cleanliness were things that I really valued when looking for a college. I really wanted to experience nature but also be able to enjoy nice clean spaces and facilities inside campus buildings as well. Harper provided the perfect balance of both. Harper provided a college experience that was so beneficial to me. I was able to work hard to earn free tuition and I was able to jumpstart my education by graduating a year early. Everyone’s path to a degree is different and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t know what you wanna do. There will be people here every step along the way to help get you where you need to go. That’s it for me. Back to you, Alex.

– Thank you for telling us all about Harper’s awesome campus and the Promise Scholarship Program, Kristen. Not only does the Promise program help make college more affordable it contributes to the community. Since the program started, Promise scholars have saved more than $6 million in tuition and contributed nearly 500,000 hours of community service. That is amazing!