Foundation to put 150 students through U. of Delaware
A charitable foundation that earlier this month pledged $1 million to put 50 students from low-income families through Rowan University has made a similar, and bigger, pledge in Delaware.
A charitable foundation that earlier this month pledged $1 million to put 50 students from low-income families through Rowan University has made a similar, and bigger, pledge in Delaware.
The Give Something Back Foundation, which is dedicated to helping financially disadvantaged students go to college, has donated $3 million to put 150 low-income Delaware residents through the University of Delaware, foundation officials said Monday.
"This is going to be very impactful for the most needy students in Delaware, and it's very exciting for us," said Chris Lucier, vice president for enrollment management at the university.
Tuition, fees, and room and board for in-state students at Delaware totaled $23,900 last year.
The foundation was started by Robert O. Carr, cofounder of a Princeton-based credit-card processing company, in his native Illinois in 2001. It expanded this spring to the East Coast, with an office in Princeton.
The program accepts only in-state students whose family incomes are low enough to qualify them for federal Pell grants. It pays tuition, fees, and room and board costs not covered by other financial aid. The goal is to get students through college free of debt.
The foundation soon will announce a donation to at least one more university - probably two - in New Jersey, said Kelly Dun, its senior vice president.
Don't get too jealous, Pennsylvania.
Dun said the foundation would look into similar donations to Pennsylvania universities in the next year. Dun said Carr would like his generosity to spur others to donate to the foundation so more needy students can be assisted.
"Bob is hoping that others will see, donating $1 million can put 50 kids through college," she said.
Under the program, students are identified while high school freshmen. They are provided mentoring, tutoring, and other support to help them get to and through college, Dun said. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA in high school and take college prep courses, she said.
Lucier especially likes that the program works with students through high school to make sure they take the right courses and have the help they need to stay on track for college.
Since 2010, Delaware has guaranteed that state residents will not have to take on more than 25 percent of their college costs in debt. That guarantee - which has cost the university $44 million since it started - was especially attractive to the foundation, Dun and university officials said.
At Delaware, the program will help 37 or 38 students in the first year before it increases to 150 in four years, Lucier said. The freshman class at the university is about 4,500.
Rowan will begin with 12 or 13 New Jersey residents this fall and for the three years after that, rising to 50.
Carr, who cofounded Heartland Payment Systems, received his bachelor of science degree in mathematics and a master of science degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Carr said this month that he credits a $250 scholarship he received as a high school senior with making his career possible.
"There are two things I tell students when they receive the program, the scholarship," Carr said. "One is, you can never, ever say in your whole life that you never got a break, because you're getting a big break. And secondly, all we ask of you is to be a good citizen and to give back, however that is."
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