These are the sounds of soccer — the buzz of the scoreboard, a coach calling a player's name, the thud of a soccer ball as it's kicked.
A herd of players, clad in shin guards, rush toward Jessica Jazayeri.
The final few seconds tick away during the Monday night game, as the no-preference freshman shuffles back to defend the goal. Jazayeri eyes her teammates from the MSU women's club soccer team as they come closer.
She is ready.
For Jazayeri, playing on the club soccer team — let alone coming to MSU — would have been impossible without The Kalamazoo Promise.
The Promise, which is funded by anonymous donors, gives free or discounted college tuition at any public university or community college in Michigan to graduates from Kalamazoo Public Schools.
Without it, Jazayeri said her family couldn't have afforded her MSU tuition.
Even though it was only announced a little more than a year ago, the effects are already appearing — from the relief on some parents' shoulders to an increase of almost 1,000 students in the district, which adds about $7.5 million in state funding.
"There's a huge roadblock that's been cut through," said Susan Benton, a Kalamazoo high school guidance counselor. "Tuition was a huge worry."
And although The Promise is too new to calculate any long-term impact, there has been "a substantial jump" in the number of Kalamazoo students applying and enrolling at MSU, said Jim Cotter, MSU's acting admissions director.
In 2005 — before The Promise was announced — MSU admissions received only 55 applications from the two public high schools in Kalamazoo, about 80 miles southwest of East Lansing.
With the bulk of the applications already in for 2007, Cotter said 121 students from Kalamazoo applied to MSU, showing a significant increase from last year.
"The private schools are starting to see the crunch," said Rebecca Learner, another Kalamazoo high school guidance counselor. "I think more students are choosing the state universities."
How it began
Last fall, Michael Gouterman returned home exhausted from soccer practice and fell asleep. He was awakened by the telephone ringing.
On the other line was a friend who couldn't stop crying as she relayed the message: Free college tuition.
It was Nov. 10, 2005 — the day The Promise was announced.
Gouterman, who lived in the same house in Kalamazoo all his life, learned he wouldn't have to pay any tuition at MSU.
"I didn't know if it was a dream or a practical joke," said Gouterman, who is now a psychology freshman. "At first, it was a blur, not really thinking it was reality."
The Kalamazoo Promise — an endeavor that costs slightly less than $2 million to run in its inaugural year — works on a sliding scale.
The longer a student is enrolled in the school district, the higher the percentage off college tuition at any public Michigan institution, said Bob Jorth, executive administrator for The Promise.
For instance, if students attended the school system since kindergarten, their entire college tuition is paid for. If they enter the district in eighth grade, 70 percent of their tuition is covered.
"If they aren't here before ninth grade, they're not going to get anything," Kalamazoo high school guidance counselor Joyce Ryskamp said.
Calvin Boyd II attended the school system until eighth grade.
That summer, Boyd and his family moved to South Bend, Ind., when his father switched jobs.
"He had to transfer — otherwise he would've lost his job," the mechanical engineering freshman said.
One year later, Boyd returned to Kalamazoo to begin his sophomore year of high school. He said that move cost him The Promise.
For Boyd's peers who qualified for The Promise, they have to be accepted and enrolled full-time in a college or university and maintain at least a 2.0 grade-point average.
"If they fall out of grace, they blow it. If their grades drop, they will be discontinued," Ryskamp said. "But they can pick it up again. There is forgiveness."
Word about The Promise spread more than a year ago and began popping up across the country in national media coverage.
A classmate's father, who was traveling outside the continental U.S. on a business trip, glanced at a small blurb in a newspaper. He read about a school district where students could receive free college tuition, Gouterman said.
The words Kalamazoo caught the man's eye.
"This is all the way in Hawaii in a local paper," Gouterman said. "He was just dumbstruck by it."
Jazayeri remembered sitting in an Advanced Placement English class as she tuned into ABC's "Good Morning America" to watch an interview with district superintendent Janice Brown.
The spotlight shone on her city during those first few days after the announcement, but Jazayeri said she couldn't grasp the significance of The Promise initially.
"It didn't really sink in how it affected me until I got the financial aid letters from the schools I applied to," said Jazayeri, who attended the school district since sixth grade.
Later, Jazayeri learned her discount was 80 percent off her tuition at MSU — which costs an average of $8,806 for two semesters, said Val Meyers, associate director in MSU's Office of Financial Aid.
While The Promise radically trimmed down the cost of higher education for some, others — such as Kyle Chase — said their lives weren't dramatically altered.
"I don't really think it made much of a difference," Chase said.
"It basically substituted what I would have gotten in financial aid."
Out of the 37 MSU students who received The Promise, 21 were eligible for financial aid, Meyers said.
Without The Promise, Chase said she qualified for several thousand dollars from a subsidized loan with her financial aid package.
"When The Kalamazoo Promise came, it was basically made into an unsubsidized loan," the finance freshman said. "I would have been gaining interest on it for the next four years."
Chase called The Promise "a trade-off."
Road to East Lansing
It was quite a balancing act for Joan Duckworth when it came to paying for college tuition.
The 47-year-old mother of six had to be creative — everything from scholarships to savings to loans — to pay tuition for her children.
"You're living paycheck to paycheck, just as if you're starting out all over again," said Duckworth, a Kalamazoo resident.
"We've spent a fortune so far on college in this family."
After receiving a disbelieving phone call and watching the evening news about The Promise, Duckworth said she realized her family's financial situation had suddenly turned around.
"All the possibilities opened up," Duckworth said.
Her daughter, Christina DeLeeuw, qualified for free tuition at MSU.
DeLeeuw, now a nutritional sciences freshman, can use the money she saves on her undergraduate degree for medical school to become a dermatologist.
"I feel I'm almost less of a burden financially," DeLeeuw said.
Duckworth's youngest child, who is a sophomore in high school, will have an easier time paying for college, Duckworth said, adding that she will be able to start saving for retirement in her 50s.
As Jazayeri grew up in Kalamazoo, times were sometimes tough, and luxuries — such as that expensive summer vacation — were nonexistent.
"It's always been a money issue in our family," said Jazayeri, who lived with her single mother.
Before, MSU was an unrealistic option, because she would have taken out thousands of dollars in student loans and most likely graduate with debt, Jazayeri said.
But with The Promise and some additional scholarships to help pay for her room and board, she said MSU is affordable.
And East Lansing is the perfect place for a sports aficionado like Jazayeri.
She has thrown herself into the Big Ten sports atmosphere by joining Corner Blitz and the Izzone.
Jazayeri even keeps all her leftover ticket stubs and showcases a souvenir on her shelf — men's basketball freshman forward Raymar Morgan's white headband, still unwashed — which she nabbed at a game this month.
"If I were back (in Kalamazoo), I'd be working at the same restaurant. I'd still have the same friends," Jazayeri said. "Every day I say to myself, I'm happy I go here."
