City to give $2 million to companies that hire City Colleges grads
BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reporter tsfondeles@suntimes.com May 12, 2012 6:28PM
Updated: June 14, 2012 8:31AM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a $2 million stipend for companies willing to hire City Colleges of Chicago graduates.
“You hire one of our community college kids, we’ll pay their stipend for the first four weeks of work,” Emanuel said Saturday during his commencement address to 3,300 graduates at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion. “. . . I want the rest of the country and all the people to know we got great community colleges with great kids who are ready to go to work.”
He also told the graduates — a record number for City Colleges, which granted only half that number of associates degrees a decade ago — about the importance of battling adversity.
He recounted his own near-death experience as a teen after an accident left him with a severed finger and led to multiple infections.
And he recalled his experiences handling abrupt responsibility changes in the White House.
“The truth is what defines your success will not be this moment, this milestone, this day of recognizing all you’ve accomplished,” he said. “It’s how you handle adversity that defines who you are. It is that sense of when you are set back, when you fall, how you get yourself up that determines how you’re going to be a success in life.”
The seven City Colleges of Chicago have more than 120,000 students enrolled each year.
