Philanthropist pledges $3 million to get 150 low income students through UDel debt free

The same organization that pledged $1 million to put 50 students from low income families through Rowan University earlier this month has made a similar pledge in Delaware, only bigger.

Robert O. Carr, cofounder of a Princeton-based credit-card processing company, has donated $3 million to put 150 low income Delaware residents through the University of Delaware, officials announced Monday.

The money comes through the Give Something Back Foundation, which Carr started in his native Illinois in 2001 and 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, and it pays all tuition, fees and room and board costs not covered by other financial aid. The goal is to get them through college debt free.

Tuition, fees and room and board for in-state students at the University of Delaware last year totaled $23,900.

The foundation soon will announce a donation to at least one more university - probably two - in New Jersey, said Kelly Dun, the foundation's senior vice president.

Don't get too jealous, Pennsylvania.

Dun said the foundation will look to make similar donations to Pennsylvania universities in the next year. What's more, 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.

The foundation, Dun said, heard a lot from high school guidance counselors, principals, school superintendents and other colleges after the donation to Rowan was announced.

"My email exploded," she said. "I've been to visit several of them. I've been to visit many of them."

Under the program, students are identified as high school freshmen and given 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.

"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 of Delaware.

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.

Delaware since 2010 has guaranteed state residents that they will not have to take on more debt than 25 percent of their college costs. That guarantee - which has cost the university $44 million since it started — was especially attractive to the foundation, both Dun and university officials said.

At the University of Delaware, the program will fund 37 or 38 students in the first year until it ramps up to a total of 150 by year four, 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, ramping up to 50.

Carr, who cofounded Heartland Payment Systems, received his bachelor of science degree in mathematics and master of science degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Carr told the Inquirer earlier 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 in that interview. "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."

For more information on the program, see  kdun@givesomethingback.org