The gift of a college education should inspire others | Editorial

Robert Carr TCNJ

TCNJ President R. Barbara Gitenstein, left, and Robert Carr, founder of the Give Something Back Foundation, speak with Educational Opportunity Fund students before Tuesday's announcement. (Cristina Rojas | For NJ.com)

Robert Carr can appreciate how a helping hand at the right time can change a life. Growing up in an often cash-strapped family in rural Illinois, he received a modest $250 scholarship that helped him attend college.

Today, the 69-year-old Carr is a multimillionaire, the founder and chief executive officer of Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems, one of the nation's largest processors of debit and credit card transactions.

Carr is now using his wealth to give others the same opportunity he received as a young man. He created the

that aims to spur disadvantage kids to go to college and allows them to graduate debt-free.

Last month, he partnered with The College of New Jersey in Ewing to announce a $1 million donation that will help 50 low-income students attend TCNJ for free, aside from the cost of books. Carr has made similar arrangements with other institutions of higher learning, including Rowan University, and is looking to establish a link with another college in northern New Jersey.

What makes Carr's scholarships unique is that they are not meant solely for gifted high school graduates who need a financial boost. Rather, his foundation targets at-risk kids who are just starting high school as ninth-graders; kids who are not only impoverished financially but educationally; kids who may fall prey to the temptation to drop out of school and never realize their full potential.

"We want students that probably aren't going to go to college and they've maybe already made up their mind they're not going to be able to afford to go to college," Carr said at the TCNJ gathering on June 30 to announce the scholarships. "These kids typically need to take a more difficult curriculum than they are probably inclined to take, especially to get into a school like TCNJ."

A key component of the Give Something Back Foundation is its mentoring program that can help students struggling with a particular subject area, a behavior problem or perhaps a disability. The object here is to help high school students transition to and succeed in college - a goal that is often not a consideration in scholarship awards.

The other critical objective of the foundation is to allow students to graduate from college debt-free.  As Carr pointed out on his blog, "Huge student debt has derailed dreams, evoked a sense of betrayal and led to devastating consequences."

Carr is under no illusion that his largess will change the world. "Our goal is to change the lives of as many kids as we can," he said.

Still, the success of his foundation can serve as a template for other philanthropists. It also opens a debate on how accessible higher education is and how to pay for it.

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