PITTSBURGH — It’s been five years since the City of Pittsburgh made a promise to its students -- graduate from high school and you’ll receive a scholarship for college.
Channel 11’s Trisha Pittman reported that since 2008, the Pittsburgh Promise has sent 4,600 Pittsburgh Public Schools students to college.
“While we are pleased with that, we are even more pleased by how well they are doing in college,” Promise executive director Saleem Ghubril said. “They are persisting at rates that are staggeringly high. They’re beating all sorts of state and national averages at every single type of institution.”
Jahmiah Guillory, who received a scholarship from Pittsburgh Promise, is one of those students achieving high academic success.
“Lord only knows where I’d be without the promise, this scholarship organization and the incentive to do well in high school,” Guillory said.
Guillory comes from a family of eight kids in Northview Heights. He said he pushed himself his senior year to earn the Pittsburgh Promise-required GPA of 2.5.
“The promise just helps reiterate that there is in fact hope for communities such as Northview Heights and varying other impoverished communities to do well,” Guillory said.
Guillory said in December he’ll graduate with a petroleum and natural gas engineering degree.
“I’ll be the first person in my family, but I won’t be the last. I have seven other siblings and they’ll all graduate college,” Guillory said.
Pittman reported that 707 students have graduated debt-free thanks to the Pittsburgh Promise.
WPXI
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