Grand Canyon University makes good on 11 year promise: 15 students will go to college free

More than a dozen students are collecting on a promise to go to college for free if they get good grades.

Daron Beck and Jessica Reyes were in second grade at Granada Primary School in Phoenix  when Grand Canyon University administrators challenged them.

At the time, the students said they didn't know what a huge gift was being bestowed upon them, but now they do.

"Unpacking it was just like...'Wow' I'm actually here," said Beck who moved into his college dorm two days ago.

Beck remembers the day Grand Canyon University made its promise.

"We had come here to sing Happy Birthday for their 50th anniversary," Beck said.

Two days after that touching song in 1999, Grand Canyon graduate and Phoenix resident Sydney Browning was gunned down on the steps of the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

She was the first of seven to be murdered.

Browning had loved working with children.  So in her memory, Grand Canyon University administrators made the promise that they would keep for 11 years.

"How can you say thank you for such a gift," said Beck, "I tell people, I'm a Sydney's kid, because she'll never have kids and I'm just honored to be that."

Reyes is also at loss for words, "No words can describe...how blessed I feel."

Reyes said she always knew she wanted to go to college, "I knew I wanted to be a pediatrician, I always wanted to succeed."

While Beck said the promise is giving him an opportunity of a lifetime, "I know a lot of my friends ...they wanted to go to college, but then they couldn't because they didn't have the money."

Fifteen of the 60 students from Granada Primary will be incoming freshman this fall. 

Two more are expected to begin later this year.