Senator Hartley Celebrates Waterbury Promise Day at the State Capitol

Today, state Senator Joan Hartley (D-Waterbury) honored the Waterbury Promise Scholars in the Senate Chamber recognizing their academic achievements, perseverance, and the transformative impact of the Waterbury Promise program on higher education access and success for local students.

“Waterbury Promise is more than a scholarship—it’s a bold investment in the potential of our young people,” said Sen. Hartley. “By surrounding students with the support they need to succeed in college and beyond, we are not only opening doors for individual achievement but also building a stronger, more inclusive future for Waterbury and for Connecticut. Today, we celebrate the scholars whose drive and determination inspire us all and reaffirm our commitment to expanding opportunity for every student in our community.”

While the program is centered on a generous last-dollar scholarship, its success hinges on providing a full continuum of support services to help high-achieving and traditionally underserved Waterbury students get to college, thrive there, persist through graduation and be career ready to create a robust and diverse talent pipeline for the local, regional and state economies.

This transformative college access and success program continues to grow exponentially and register powerful results including:

-Providing academic, financial, social-emotional and career readiness supports to more than 600 scholars across 20 Connecticut colleges and universities to ensure college and career success;

-Exceeding $1.1 million in critical last-dollar scholarship disbursements to increase college affordability and reduce student debt burden;

-Fulfilling dozens of emergency funding requests for books, laptops, transportation, food and more from scholars facing financial hardship;

-Realizing a 90% college persistence rate and an 89% program retention rate;

-Celebrating its very first graduate from a four-year institution in 2025—Kimberly Cosgrove just earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UConn in three years’ time!;

-Honoring Class of 2024 and Class of 2025 graduates from CT State Naugatuck Valley and continuing to support their educational journeys in Connecticut as scholars transfer to pursue their bachelor’s degrees; and

-Significantly expanding career readiness programming and industry partnerships across key sectors (manufacturing, healthcare, finance and banking, law and more) to fuel CT’s next generation workforce

2025-2026 will be another milestone year for Waterbury Promise. The program will serve 4 cohorts in college concurrently (and well over 800 students) beginning this summer. Cohort 2025 is on track to be the largest one yet.

These supports are critical, given that 68% of Waterbury Promise Scholars are first generation college students, 78% are students of color, many come from low to moderate income households and some are even pursuing higher education without any parental support.

The 2025 scholars include:

-Kimberly Cosgrove

-Jaelyn Perreault

-Smith Bernard

-Sofia Giusti

-Harold Vilchez

-Rebecca Dasilva

-Maverick and Brandon Werneck