Coldwater Township Sunrise Rotary Club member Jon Harpst has always had a vision to support and enhance post-high-school education in the Branch County region. After recruiting fellow club members and outside stakeholders to lead a new scholarship initiative, a proposal for project support was put before club membership and was passed with nearly unanimous support.
The Coldwater Sunrise Rotary Promise Scholarship Program was formed!
In early 2019, a Promise Endowment was established with a goal to create sustainable support for the Promise Program. The Promise team met with the KCC Foundation and a partnership was formed that continues to this day, resulting in a robust, unique and evolving Promise Program.
Initial support from the CTSRC and its Foundation provided at least three years of support for the program at up to $20,000 per year, with a focus on health care and industrial trades programs offered at KCC. Since the program launch six years ago, the Promise team has directly supported more than 150 scholarship awards totaling more than $125,000. Direct funding for year seven is already available.
The Sunrise Rotary Promise scholarships are last-dollar, needs-based awards and are unique in that recipients can receive multiple awards to support their academic goals over multiple years. Promise awardees tend to be nontraditional students, with approximately 70% of the awardees enrolled in one of KCC’s Nursing programs.
The initial goal set in 2019 was to achieve $500,000 of funding for the Promise Endowment. With generous support from Club members, the local business community and private donations, the goal was achieved in early 2024. The endowment is in position to take over Promise funding in 2026 and provide a generational impact to the region for years to come.
Additionally, the Coldwater Township Sunrise Rotary Foundation Board recently approved expanding scholarship eligibility to cover KCC students in Emergency Medical Services and mental and behavioral health programs, increasing their annual funding to $25,000 per year.
For more information or to make a donation to the Coldwater Sunrise Rotary Promise Scholarship Program, please contact Promise Committee Chair George Babcoke at 724-553-9099 or visit coldwatersunriserotary.com.
This article first appeared in the March 2025 edition of BruIN magazine. To read the issue online, please visit kellogg.edu/bruinmagazine.