Dominican University in River Forest announced a new partnership with a Chicago-based organization focused on helping high school students and their parents succeed through debt-free college opportunities.
Hope Chicago, a two-generation economic mobility program offers debt-free college opportunities to Chicago Public School high school students and their parents.
The partnership with Dominican University, along with five other higher education institutions, was announced earlier this month.
“This is exactly who we are, who we serve, and what we are all about,” said Jason Harmon, assistant vice president for undergraduate enrollment at Dominican University. “The synergy is there.”
Hope Chicago is a two-generation economic mobility program that offers debt-free college opportunities, along with workforce opportunities, to Chicago Public School graduates and their parents. The collaboration between Hope Chicago and Dominican will help expand higher education access to “residents in some of Chicago’s most systemically disinvested neighborhoods.”
When participating students enroll in college, it unlocks the opportunity for a parent to continue education, which can take different forms from finishing a GED degree or even trade programs and work certification base programs.
“This is an all-inclusive situation here,” said Michele L. Howard, chief program officer at Hope Chicago. “One unlocks the other, but they have to do it together.”
Howard said the program currently works with students from Benito Juarez Community Academy in Pilsen, Al Raby School for Community and Environment, in Garfield Park, Morgan Park High School, in Morgan Park, Noble Johnson College Prep, in Englewood, and Farragut Career Academy in Little Village.
Harmon said the program is excited about the new partnership with Dominican, which aligns with the university’s expansion location in the Pilsen neighborhood that was announced in August 2023.
The university will occupy Resurrection’s La Casa Residence Hall, on South Paulina Street in Chicago, and the neighboring Resource Center, for a variety of programs, as well as for on-campus housing for students.
“A lot of the families that we have in the city want to stay in or close to the city so even traveling outside of Chicago can become difficult,” Howard said. “So, when we see an institution like Dominican that is working to circle back and make sure that they have access both in the city and outside the city in River Forest, we think that is going to create a greater dynamic for students and families to have access.”
According to Harmon, the university will ensure the scholarships and financial aid offered by the school, along with those offered by Hope, give students the opportunity to attend Dominican debt-free.
“The hope is removing the hurdles for students, in terms of that financial hurdle, which is significant for many students but particularly for these high schools, many of the students are low-income and financial aid is often something that stops their options for college,” Harmon said. “It is the commitment of the University that we will help make sure that financial aid is not going to be an issue for the students.”
Dominican University has a pretty “sizable scholarship fund” along with other options such as grants, both state and federal, to help cover the cost of attending, said Harmon.
Students would also have access to a point person at the university that can help guide them through the process as well as connect them with other resources, both in and off campus.
“We are always looking for ways of how we can best serve the community and continue to live our mission,” Harmon said.
Hope Chicago launched in 2022, and Howard said they have witnessed many success stories and have seen the positive impact of what helping in this way can have for not only students but their families.
“It has been a phenomenal experience,” Howard said. “In the first year we saw an immediate 30% increase in enrollment and similar in the second year. We only have two solid cohorts of traditional age students right now and about 90 parents who are engaging in higher educational workforce opportunities.”
Adding the newest university partners only continues to show the great post-high school education opportunities that exist in Illinois, Howard said.
“We knew that a high percentage, over 80% of students stay in the Chicago or Great Lakes region, students who graduate from Chicago Public Schools,” Howard said. “It was really important for us to have our state schools on board … now we have opened to more offerings.”
This partnership will help bring services that Dominican University offers students to the forefront, Harmon said.
“Dominican does an incredible job at offering wrap-around services for the students,” Harmon added. “Hope is very interested in those continued support for students. Schools that provide opportunity for high school students, many who are of color, low-income or first-generation, and those are often a lot of the students that we serve and serve really well, in terms of providing support from beginning to end.”
