(solemn music)
(slow piano)
- Baldwin has a long history of generational poverty.
And it's rural poverty.
Many of the students who did not proceed
with some type of post-secondary education
would end up on some type of public assistance.
- It's also one of the poorest counties in Michigan.
There's no manufacturing,
so there are not a lot of job opportunities.
When I first moved up here 12 years ago,
very few of our students went on to college.
College wasn't something that was in their thinking at all.
Many of them did not even graduate from high school.
- One of the things that was in the news
was an event that happened in Kalamazoo.
- This is how the crowd reacted 10 years ago
when the Kalamazoo Promise was announced.
A program that pays for college tuition
for Kalamazoo public school grads.
- If Kalamazoo could find an angel to subsidize a promise,
why couldn't we do that in Baldwin?
We began to knock on the doors
of the big corporations and foundations.
When we started to send out all the proposals
and set up meetings with the people, the market crashed.
We received the rejection letters and we were devastated.
But, we decided we'd put so much effort and so much time.
We went after all the graduates, parents,
graduating classes, anybody that would listen,
everybody gave.
We had some grandparents who said,
"I can only give $20 a month, is that okay?
Oh my gosh.
And we said, "That was more than we could expect"
- There was a little ribs place just to the south of Baldwin
that put up a jar, and they said
"We'll match everything that gets put in the jar"
We didn't anticipate the sort
of grassroots support that we got.
These are not people who had a lot of means,
but these were people who had a vision.
- I'm so happy to be part of it.
- [Student] I'm gonna cry tomorrow.
- Students who attend Baldwin High School
and graduate from Baldwin High School
are eligible to receive up to $5,000 a year for four years
for tuition and fees at any higher education institution
in the state of Michigan.
Before the promise began, about 1/3 of the students
went on to higher education.
In this year, 90% are on track to attend
a higher education institution.
- My name's Makayla George.
I applied to 13 colleges and universities.
I've been accepted to all 13 colleges and universities.
(crowd cheers)
- It's not just enough to have the carrot out there,
there also has to be a whole series of things
that we're doing that carry it the next level.
How do kids get prepared?
How do you build that motivation starting in kindergarten,
and the second grade and the fifth grade
and the eighth grade to keep kids on task,
to keep them working hard,
and to keep them getting prepared to be successful?
- I'm going to college! (kids laughing)
- I was homeless for a majority of my life and
because of that college was not even a thought in my mind.
I was too busy worrying about the next meal
instead of the next step in life.
With the opportunity like the Baldwin Promise,
I was able to afford something that was not there for me.
This moment means a lot more to me
than it means to a lot of other people.
For them it's like, "Yeah, we finally made it,
"we finally got here"
For me it's,
you did it.
(laughs)
- I've always been a dreamer, I've always had big dreams.
Michigan State's always been at the top of my list.
I've always wanted to be there, I've idolized the university
but I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to
do that coming from where I did, you know?
Low income family, being in the small town that I am.
I wasn't really sure if that was possible.
But the Promise has helped me and made me realize
that I can do that and actually, it's what I'm going to do.
- Do I think they envisioned it
to be as big as it has become?
No.
But I do think that I know they wanted
to give the students here in this community, hope.
They wanted to give them dreams.
They wanted the community, who for so long
has been looked down upon to have a sense of promise.
- When you grow up in an environment where you're told
"You can't be anything, you can't afford to be anything"
to go from that to, "You can be whatever you want to be"
it's like,
Whoa!
Really?
(upbeat music)