NEWARK, N.J. — A group of rising high school seniors stood in a circle at Rutgers University—Newark’s campus, playing an icebreaker. Not that they needed it. The group had been living on campus together for three weeks, and already felt like family.

“We all just mesh well together. It's like an ecosystem,” said Sideeq Waziri, 17, who dreams of becoming an inventor. “I think we all just have similar goals and aspirations.”

Their common goal? Getting to and through college, no matter the obstacles.

And if all goes according to plan, they will, thanks to Cooperman College Scholars, a program that supports a select number of motivated low-income students in Essex County, New Jersey, including Waziri and 76 others. They are the first cohort to benefit from hedge fund CEO and philanthropist Leon Cooperman’s $25 million investment in them.

The 77 were chosen from a pool of 300 applicants, according to Twinkle Morgan, the program’s executive director. The students, mostly black and Hispanic, attend high schools that can’t necessarily give them the support they’ll need to get to college.

Cooperman’s efforts come at a time when the odds are stacked against low-income students. In 2013, only 45 percent of low-income high school graduates enrolled in college, as compared to 58 percent in 2007. And getting into college is just the first step. Once enrolled, low-income students struggle to adjust and often drop out.

Cooperman Scholar Sideeq Waziri, left, and pre-college program director Shawn Jenkins talk about college. Arianna Skibell

Those in the bottom quartile of income have only a 9 percent chance of graduating college by the time they’re 24. In other words, there’s a 91 percent chance that a low-income student won’t earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24.

In Essex County, only 27.5 percent of residents over age 25 have a bachelor’s degree. In Newark, where a majority of the Cooperman scholars attend public school, it’s around 9 percent.

“Not all of the students from the public high schools here have access to really great resources, like an incredible fully functional science lab, or a robust internship program,” said Shawn Jenkins, the educator who directs Cooperman’s pre-college programs. “We’re trying to create the opportunities for kids who already have the talent. It’s not brain surgery. It’s a very simple idea: The talented people are everywhere; all you have to do is give them the opportunity and they will thrive.”

Cooperman’s team members choose students they believe will graduate from college if provided additional help, including early exposure to a college campus, SAT/ACT prep courses and assistance with applications and financial aid forms. If scholarship awards don’t cover all their college costs, Cooperman’s donation will help make up the difference. And once Cooperman scholars are in college, the program will offer counseling and mentoring support.

Getting a head start

For three weeks last summer, the first class of Cooperman scholars lived on campus at one of the four partner colleges: Rutgers—Newark, Rowan University, Franklin & Marshall College and The College of New Jersey. The four separate cohorts took courses taught by college faculty at the school to which they were assigned. Cooperman officials worked with the scholars’ parents, explaining the college application process and helping the parents compile the financial documentation they’ll need in the months ahead.

The scholars had jam-packed days and tons of homework. They studied English literature, math and sociology. They learned how to write and structure essays. They visited and toured businesses such as Bloomberg L.P. and Audible Inc. And they took workshops in college readiness and financial management.

“I don’t want to go back to high school,” Waziri said afterward. “I want to go to college already.”

If the scholars are admitted to and enroll in one of the four partner schools next spring, Cooperman will pay up to $9,000 toward their tuition, books and other fees. If they choose another college, he will offer up to $2,000. The amount of the gift is based on Cooperman officials’ calculations predicting how much each student will likely be awarded in financial aid.

Making it work

The minimum GPA to qualify is 2.75. So while every student accepted to the program must be a viable college candidate, they’re not necessarily at the top of his or her class.

They are, however, all determined. Jenkins witnessed this fortitude one day when he was on his way back from a coffee run. He saw Jasmine Jackson, 17, crying, face in hands, outside her classroom. It was her turn to read her college personal statement aloud.

“You don’t have to read your personal statement,” Jenkins said. “If you feel like your comfort zone is being pushed too far, then take a step back. You can read an excerpt. You can read another piece. You don’t have to do it.”

Marne Benson, the Rutgers—Newark professor teaching the class, joined Jenkins outside. She echoed his sentiment, telling Jackson that writing the essay might be enough for now.

“Of course I want to read it,” Jackson said. “But it’s going to be hard.”

Jackson collected herself and returned to class. She passed out tissues as she made her way to the podium.

“You should never judge a book by its cover,” Jackson began, her voice wavering. “I have been a foster child for 11 years now. And within these years, I have wondered why people have children, if they are just going to neglect them.”

Jackson told her classmates that her mother had been a drug addict, that she would disappear, leaving Jackson and her siblings alone in the house for hours and sometimes days. When hunger hit, Jackson’s oldest sister, who was 12, would leave the house to steal food.

“When my mother would return home, most of the time she would bring strange people in our house,” Jackson read. “And she would always beat my sister and I even though we did not do anything.”

Eventually, social services intervened. Jackson was separated from all but one of her siblings and sent to live with her grandparents.

But, Jackson asserted, her experiences made her stronger. “Giving up is never an option,” she read. “If I survived that, I can survive anything.”

When Cooperman, 72, decided to donate $25 million to create his college readiness and scholarship program, that was exactly the kind of attitude he was looking for.

The man behind the money

“I believe in teaching kids how to fish, not giving them fish,” Cooperman says. “You’ve got to be motivated, you’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to have the smarts. And if you’ve got all that working for you, I'll empower you to get that education.”

Hedge fund CEO Leon Cooperman, shown with his wife Toby Cooperman, invested $25 million for kids to go to college. Courtesy Leon Cooperman

The son of Jewish immigrants, Cooperman was the first in his family to go to college. He was raised in the South Bronx, where his father worked as a plumber.

Cooperman spoke about his program from his soaring midtown Manhattan office at Omega Advisors, Inc., the hedge fund he founded in 1991. He placed a letter he wrote on his desk, addressed to Mr. Warren E. Buffett.



“This tells you my life story in a nutshell,” he said. “This was [after a] dinner I had with Bill and Melinda Gates, [former New York] Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Warren Buffett, when they asked me to take the Giving Pledge.”

The Giving Pledge is a campaign, made public by Buffett and Gates, urging the world’s wealthiest individuals to donate the majority of their fortunes to philanthropy. In the letter, Cooperman explains how he and his wife, Toby, are examples of what you can achieve – no matter your background.

Cooperman said he had the luck of being born into a two-parent household where educational attainment was encouraged and supported.

“Most of these kids I meet are from single-parent households,” he said. “Their parents are divorced or they've been abandoned by their father. My father was an important influence in my life.”

Cooperman said he attended Hunter College of the City University of New York for just $25 a semester. “You can't do that any more,” he said. “And these kids don't have the money. I had a top-notch education that opened up the door to a good career. You’re lost in society without an education.”

That’s why Cooperman decided to focus on helping students in Essex County – where he lived for 45 years – who have the drive but lack the means or support to go to college. And Cooperman insisted that, in the application process, the scholars demonstrate a serious and realistic interest in going to college.

Ultimately, Cooperman plans to fund 500 students, including the initial cohort of 77. If the program succeeds and he continues to have the means, he says he will invest more.

“I'm hoping to change the life of these kids,” he said. “These are splendid youngsters that deserve a break. If I can take these kids and we can change the graduation rate – to me, that's a life well lived.”

But is it enough?

Cooperman is not the first billionaire to donate his money to an education initiative. Some have invested specifically in individual students, such as George Weiss, who gave $5 million to one West Philadelphia sixth-grade class; others have set up location-based scholarship funds, like the Kalamazoo Promise. Increasingly, philanthropists are using their wealth to design projects that meet their own specific visions, with varying degrees of success.

Cooperman – who said he has worked 70 hours per week for the last 50 years – is “holding his breath” and “crossing his fingers” that his money will be well spent, adding: “I don't want to see the money tinkled away unproductively.”

Kevin Kruger, the president of NASPA – a member organization that works with college faculty and staff in supporting all aspects of student life, including college adjustment for low-income students – doesn’t think Cooperman should be worried.

The cohort model that groups students with friends who have a shared history and culture provides a vital emotional support in college. Pairing students with a faculty mentor, as Cooperman officials are doing, will encourage them to seek guidance outside the classroom – another marker of college success. Working with parents to fill out confusing financial aid forms is also invaluable, Kruger says.

“That program [Cooperman scholars] will work,” he says. “Those students will attain at a higher rate. I can guarantee it.”

Jenny Nagaoka – the deputy director of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research – studies the transition from high school to college. She says nonprofits and other organizations, such as the Cooperman College Scholars, do important work.

But, she says, schools have the ability to reach all students, while these programs tend to target only motivated ones, potentially leaving behind those who need the most help.

“If you really want to make sure that all students, particularly low-income students, are going on to college,” she says, “we need to pay close attention to schools.”

Of the thousands of Essex County public school students, only 77 were chosen as Cooperman scholars this year.

Yet for those it does serve, the program is already making a difference.

Waziri scored in the 83rd percentile on his SAT, takes International Baccalaureate classes and attends a highly ranked magnet school. But, he says, this summer was the first time he truly understood how to structure an academic essay.

“Professor Benson laid it out for me. It just clicked,” he says.

And if Waziri had not been a Cooperman scholar, who would be helping him write his college essay this fall?