PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A few years ago, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel enacted a program he says gives him as much pride as any he’s worked on in his public life.

Under his Chicago Star Scholars program, all students who graduate from the city’s public high schools with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher get free tuition at any of Chicago’s community colleges. If they maintain that GPA in community college, they’re eligible for tuition discounts of 20 to 50 percent one of Chicago’s 17 four-year colleges and universities.

“A young man came up to me [recently] and said, ‘I want to thank you,’” Emanuel said. “He told me, ‘I’m a Chicago Star scholar, I’m graduating this year from DePaul. I have zero debt and I have a job... paying $150,000 a year in computer science.’”

That moment made the trials and tribulations of being a big city mayor worthwhile, Emanuel said. “That’s why you do this.” The program reflects the need to emphasis education as a driver for economic opportunity and prosperity, Emanuel noted.

On Wednesday, May 2, he shared that perspective and more during a “fireside chat” with Brown President Christina Paxson, hosted by Brown Chancellor Samuel Mencoff at the University Club of Chicago.

An audience of approximately 180 was on hand for the hour-long chat, part of a series of events that aims to bring insights from members of the extended Brown community to alumni, parents and others to build community and create lifelong learning opportunities.

The Star Scholars program addresses what Paxson sees as one of the most critical areas of educational innovation: providing access to education regardless of a student’s ability to pay.

“If we want to expand educational opportunity, we have to be innovative in the ways we get under-resourced kids through high school, into higher education and then into the labor market,” Paxson said during the event. “And Brown is doing that in a number of ways.”