Heartland CEO talks about why he made 1M scholarship donation

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Robert Carr, CEO of Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems, announced the donation of $1 million in scholarship money for students to attend either The College of New Jersey or Rowan University. Scholarships will cover the students’ tuition, room and board.“We will be selecting 15 (students) a year, and we expect 50 of them to go on to college through our program,” Carr said.

The program will pick from qualified high school freshmen. To be eligible for the program, students must maintain a “B” average in college-preparatory courses and be suited to receive a Pell Grant.

“We want kids who probably aren’t going to go to college because they can’t afford to pay the cost of it,” Carr said. “We pick ninth-graders; we assign a mentor to them through all four years of high school.”

There are no “five-year plans” for the program, either. All students are required to take full-time classes and graduate in four years.

“I tell them they’ve got a good break here and they’ll get to go to college without having any debt,” Carr said. “And (that) their job, whenever they are able to, is to give back in whatever way you want to in the future, should they be able to do that.”

In that way, Carr is leading by example.

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