Charles Sheaff, co-founder of the Jacksonville Promise scholarship program, is the Journal-Courier’s Community Champion for May. The program provides scholarships for Morgan County high schoolers to attend Lincoln Land Community College or Illinois College.
Ben Singson/Journal-Courier
If you know someone who deserves to be recognized as a Community Champion, submit a nomination at bit.ly/JCChampions.
Journal-Courier
The co-founder of a scholarship program that for years has kept students in Jacksonville to attend college is being recognized as a Community Champion.
Charles Sheaff is the Journal-Courier’s Community Champion for May. Sheaff is a co-founder of Jacksonville Promise scholarship program, which provides four-year scholarships to Morgan County high schoolers looking to attend Lincoln Land Community College or Illinois College.
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A group of 65 students during the 2025-26 school year received scholarships ranging from $6,000 to $14,400, according to the program’s website. At the start of the school year, the program was supporting 155 students across all four levels of undergraduate higher education, 55 of whom were in their first year of college, Sheaff said. Some 64 students have applied for a scholarship for next school year, he said.
Jacksonville Promise began handing out scholarships in 2016, though a committee began exploring the idea in 2009. It was inspired by a similar program out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, which fully pays tuition for public school students who attend a public college in the state. At the beginning of the program, he said, most people did not believe it would make much of a difference to the local economy or the students.
“It took a long time before people became convinced that this really was going to be influential in students’ lives and be meaningful to the community,” Sheaff said. “It actually was a surprise to me.”
Sheaff said he is amazed at how far the program has come over the years, particularly how it has encouraged students to remain in the Jacksonville area. He described Jacksonville Promise as “the frosting on the cake” for many of them.
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According to a survey the program conducted of students who received the scholarship over the past 10 years, about one-third of respondents said it was likely that, had they not gotten it, they would have attended college outside of Jacksonville, he said. In the early years of the program, he was told by a recipient’s parent that the recipient would not have stayed in the area if not for the program.
“At that point in time, we were giving $1,000 a semester for a year and a half, which wasn’t a huge amount of an award, overall,” Sheaff said. “For that to have changed their minds about where they go to college surprised me.”
Sheaff hopes the program eventually is able to fully cover tuition and fees for Morgan County students, like the Kalamazoo program. Being able to do that would mean the area would reap the social benefits seen in Kalamazoo as the “indigent” section of the population takes advantage of what is, in essence, free college, he said.
“Kalamazoo has seen increased grades starting in first grade, decreased truancy, decreased behavioral problems in the classroom, increased college applications percentage-wise from high school and a decrease in crime,” he said.
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Looking back on the program, Sheaff is most proud of the fact that it was able to get off the ground to begin with. He attributes part of that to his own perseverance and part of it to his wife, Lynne, who works “20 hours a week” to process applications for the program. Jacksonville Promise is in a spot where it can continue running indefinitely, even after he passes the torch to someone else, he said.
“I think, at this point, it’s not something that’s going to die,” Sheaff said.
The Community Champions of the Month program was started to honor those whose actions make a lasting difference in the Jacksonville area.
Readers are being asked to nominate people who embody the best of our community. They might be volunteers, mentors, leaders of groups — anyone striving to improve the lives of others in the community.
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Each month, the Journal-Courier will select one Community Champion from the nominations and feature them in a story, sharing their journey, their motivations, and the impact they have made.
At the end of the year, all Community Champions will be featured together, and readers will have the opportunity to vote for the Journal-Courier’s Citizen of the Year. That person will be honored for their contributions and the difference they have made.
If you know someone who deserves to be recognized, submit a nomination through our online form at bit.ly/JCChampions.
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