The promise started 12 years ago and now more students from El Dorado are attending college.

Twelve years ago, a promise was presented to the students of El Dorado. That promise was simple; if they graduated high school then their college would be paid for.

Now, the small town has seen more students going to and staying in college than ever before.

"They can’t give you the excuse that they can’t go to college," said Patrick Johnson, a visual arts teacher at El Dorado High School.

Since 2007, every El Dorado High School graduate has been offered the "El Dorado Promise."

Johnson remembers the day in January 2007 when a few students delivered the news to the rest of their class.

"Our world changed, my job changed because before there was the few kids that could go, but now everybody could go," he said. “There were many tears shed that day in my classroom, it was awesome.”

The idea came to life after Claiborne Deming, chairman of the Murphy Oil Corporation board, was given a newspaper article about a promise program in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

"If you could send someone to college, what more powerful message to them and what greater gift to them," he said. “We are a really big company in a relatively small town and that combination doesn’t happen very much."

According to Deming, an anonymous donor in Kalamazoo sent everyone to college.

It’s something he thought could benefit students as well as the community of El Dorado.

"About a month later, I pulled it out of my drawer and said, you know, it was a great time for the company, we were making a lot of money. Oil was over $100 a barrel, the biggest discovery in the history of the company had just come on stream, so we were flushed with cash," Deming recalled.

That’s when the promise came to life.

"They came up with the number of $50 million and went to the board and they approved it in five minutes," Deming said.

For every El Dorado high graduate since 2007, Murphy Oil has covered tuition and fees up to the equivalent of the maximum level of resident tuition at an Arkansas public university. But the scholarship can be used at any college out of state too.

Students must attend El Dorado all four years of high school, then maintain a 2.0 GPA or above in college to keep the promise up to 5 years.

“It was like a no brainer, I was going to go to college because why wouldn’t you," said Leslie Rogers, owner of Latest Wrinkle Boutique.

The promise allowed young college graduates like Rogers to start their career debt free.

“Not many people can say I had my tuition taken care of," she said.

She credits the El Dorado Promise for allowing her at only 23 years old to open her own boutique.

“I didn't have a student loan to take care of, I didn't have to worry about making a payment each month, I could focus on getting a business loan to open up my store," Rogers said.

Nearly 2,500 graduates of El Dorado High School have taken advantage of the scholarship.

“We took away their ability to just say, ‘This is as far as I can go.' So now they have to keep trying," Johnson said.

After the promise was announced, the community voted for a property tax increase to build the new high school that opened in 2011.

“What really didn't occur to us, or certainly to me, is that the whole culture of the high school, going back to elementary school, changed because students now who weren’t sure if they would go to college, know they can if they want to," Deming said.

Studies show that over the past 12 years since the promise started, there has been a 16.5 percent increase in college enrollment for El Dorado grads. There has also been a 10.7 percentage increase in students earning a bachelor’s degree.

“The demand for more difficult courses, get me ready for college has changed," Deming said.

The promise is something that impacted Johnson as both a teacher and parent.

“I had two daughters coming through the ranks so I knew what that was going to turn into," Johnson said with a laugh.

The promise covered $67,614 for both of his daughters to graduate college.

“We were able to get them all the way through without having to take out a single loan," Johnson said.

El Dorado was the second promise school in the nation, spurring a network of similar scholarship programs around the country. Deming estimates there are now 25 or 30 across the country.

It’s something felt throughout the thriving community, with new people moving in and promise graduates moving back home.

“It gave an economic undergirding for El Dorado and south Arkansas which is a challenged part of the state," Deming said.

A permanent promise has turned into a priceless opportunity for all kids in El Dorado to pursue their dreams.

“It’s going to go as long as we're around," Deming said.