CHICAGO — Approximately 400 Hope Scholars and Parent Scholars across Illinois will complete college degrees or workforce credential programs by the end of summer 2026, graduating completely debt-free. Hope Chicago, launched in 2022 as the nation’s largest two-generation scholarship program, provides debt-free college and career pathways along with wraparound support services to students at five South and West Side Chicago high schools and one parent or guardian from each household.
The program’s model relies on partnerships with nearly 30 Illinois colleges and universities, including every public university in the state and eight private institutions such as Chicago State University, the City Colleges of Chicago system, and Loyola University Chicago. Scholars receive financial assistance, access to dedicated campus staff, emergency funding, stipends, and workforce-exposure opportunities designed to support persistence from high school through graduation and into careers.
Enrollment in college and career pathway programs across Hope Chicago’s five partner high schools rose from 51 percent before the program launched to 83 percent in the 2025–26 school year. Journey Short, a 2022 South Side Chicago high school graduate with a 2.34 GPA, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a 3.7 GPA in spring 2026 and plans to pursue a master’s degree in political science in fall 2026. "I knew that I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t quite understand how the lack of work I’d been doing up until then would affect my college journey. My list of colleges that were open and ready to accept me wasn’t high, and I knew that college would be expensive," Short said. "I know there’s a lot of talk about making scholarships only merit-based, but if it was merit-based, I wouldn’t have been able to receive this scholarship. Sometimes students just need the space to thrive, and I think Hope Chicago does exactly that."
Aaron Kuecker, chief executive officer of Hope Chicago, said in a podcast interview, "We see this as an opportunity to more quickly catalyze economic mobility in our neighborhoods. Our families, as they come out with the extra earning power and stability that a college or postsecondary credential can provide, have durability in the face of the sort of storms of life." He added, "There’s this in-it-together–ness of the family that yields higher education success, even in demographics, neighborhoods and socioeconomic strata that have not always found the higher ed systems working well on their behalf." Kuecker also said, "Debt-free access was certainly not just the door opener but also the imagination cultivator. Lifting that economic constraint, and then really coming with a posture that says, ‘We believe in the capacity of every single student,’ began to help our families believe their way forward into that future."
According to a 2023 study, the projected social and economic return for Hope Chicago’s first cohort alone is $143 million. Kuecker said it costs approximately $20 million to fully support a cohort of Hope Scholars and Parent Scholars through a four-year degree. The program is funded by a network of corporate, foundation, and individual donors, including several Chicago-based companies and philanthropic organizations.
No independent assessment of Hope Chicago’s claims was available.