CHICAGO, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, awarded 25 City Colleges of Chicago graduates with $5,000 scholarships toward their degrees at four-year institutions.

CME Group has worked together with the Mayor's office since 2017 to support the Star Scholars program. Since then, CME Group has donated more than $1 million to support graduates who have earned an associates degree at a Chicago City College attain their higher education goals at four-year colleges or universities. The program, which started as the CME Group Mayoral Award for Student Achievement in 1986, has since expanded to provide millions of dollars in financial support to high-achieving Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students to pursue college degrees.

"The Star Scholars program is an investment in the talent, determination and future of young people across Chicago," said Mayor Brandon Johnson. "Thanks to CME Group's longstanding partnership and commitment to educational opportunity, more students are able to access higher education, achieve their goals and become the next generation of leaders shaping our city. We are proud to continue building pathways to opportunity for Chicago students and families."

"We are honored to invest in the Star Scholars program and its commitment to the next generation of talent in Chicago," said CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy. "These scholarships give students the resources to pursue higher education and unlock opportunities–whether in financial services or beyond–that can shape the course of their career and communities."

"The Star Scholars program is more than a financial gift, it's shown us time and time again to be a bridge that transforms the lives of our students through education, empowering extraordinary students who earned our Star Scholarship to reach their bachelor's degree and continue a path to upward mobility," said Chancellor Juan Salgado, City Colleges of Chicago. "I'm thankful for this partnership with CME Group because, together, I know we are supporting the next generation of Chicago leaders."

Scholarship recipients were selected from more than 391 Star Scholars who were on track to complete their associate degrees in spring 2026 with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Notably, 100% of this year's recipients intend to transfer to one of the 26 Star university partners in fall 2026 to pursue a bachelor's degree.

This year's award recipients were recognized by CME Group President and Chief Financial Officer Lynne Fitzpatrick, Deputy Mayor for Education and Youth Khari Humphries, and City Colleges of Chicago's Chancellor Juan Salgado at a celebratory luncheon and education seminar on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at CME Group headquarters in Chicago.

The Star Scholarship program at City Colleges of Chicago has helped approximately 20,000 CPS and Big Shoulders Fund high school graduates pursue their associate degrees debt-free. During the academic year 2025-2026, more than 1,000 Star Scholars completed their associate degrees, making up over one-fourth of the graduating class of 2026.

For more information on the Star Scholarship at City Colleges of Chicago, visit www.ccc.edu/starscholarship.

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P DJI"). "S&P®", "S&P 500®", "SPY®", "SPX®", US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE CME Group