The promise of a better future starts by helping someone today.
The Part of the Promise Scholarship was established to keep one woman's promise going for generations to come.
April C. Harmon was once told by her high school guidance counselor that the best she could probably do was get a job in her town's local mill. Her potential and promise could have been limited because of her background but help from her community ensured it wasn't April went on to graduate from North Carolina Central University and became the first person in her family to earn a bachelor's degree, then a master's.
April's graduation gift to herself was simple...she never let another child feel what she felt. She spent the next almost thirty years as a school counselor keeping that promise and uplifting the next generation to see and believe in their wildest dreams. Taking every moment that she had to nurture the promise and potential within Norfolk Public School's blossoming young students.
The Part of the Promise Scholarship exists to keep making that offer. Each year, counseling departments across Norfolk Public Schools nominate graduating seniors who have shown exceptional character and a commitment to becoming a force for good in their communities. Recipients receive a $1,000 award toward their first year at an accredited HBCU or vocational school.
Since the program began, our organization has kept April's promise alive through the Part of the Promise Scholarship Fund. As of 2026, we've been honored to awarded $10,000 in scholarship funds to some of Norfolk's promising future leaders. This life changing fund is supported entirely by donations from community members, like you, who understand that the next generation deserves to reach their full potential. Every dollar came from someone who decided a young person's future was worth investing in.
Why HBCUs and vocational schools?
We fund two specific paths because both work, and both are chronically underfunded.
Historically Black colleges and universities represent just three percent of American colleges, yet they enroll ten percent of all Black students and graduate nearly twenty percent of all Black college graduates. They do it while costing, on average, twenty-eight percent less to attend than comparable institutions. The return is durable: UNCF estimates that an HBCU graduate earns roughly $927,000 more over a lifetime — about fifty-six percent more than they would have earned without that degree or certificate.
Vocational and trade programs deliver a parallel return on a shorter timeline. A licensed electrician earns a median of $62,350 a year with no bachelor's degree required, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects nine percent growth in the field through 2034 — roughly 81,000 openings annually. April believed a promising future came in more than one shape. Our scholarship is deliberately built to honor that.
UNCF, "African Americans and College Education by the Numbers"