CHICAGO -- When Diana Anisova was a high school freshman in Chicago's northwest suburbs, she heard about a program that would let her attend Harper College tuition-free.
“They told us about the requirements and I remember thinking, ‘What’s the twist?’ ” recalled Anisova, who spent her early childhood in Russia. “‘All you have to do is get As, Bs, Cs, get some community service hours and not fail any classes? That’s it? That’s what I’ve been doing.’”
Most who signed up as high schoolers didn’t follow through, but Anisova, now 20, stuck to her path, and later this month she’ll graduate from Harper without a penny of student loan debt. In the fall, she’s headed to the University of Illinois at Chicago to continue her studies with the goal of becoming a financial analyst.
