Schuler family backed out of their scholarship. A mutual aid network is filling in the gap

Former staff members of the Schuler Scholar Program, along with members of the public, are coming together to help a group of Chicago students stay in college after a wealthy north suburban family backed out on its promise to provide scholarships just weeks before the start of the fall semester.

The Schuler family announced in July it was suspending all scholarship payments, citing financial challenges. The news left many of the first-generation and low-income students, who scored stellar grades in their high schools’ most difficult classes to qualify for the scholarship, wondering whether they could afford to return to campus.

The Schulers had promised the students $2,500 per year for tuition, plus thousands more to cover health insurance.

Without that money, South Side native Marcus Jackson worried his parents would have to sacrifice even more than they do already to help him pay for his junior year at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. He was planning to take on a third job.

Now Jackson said he doesn’t have to do that, thanks to a mutual aid network set up on Instagram by former Schuler staffers to connect students with members of the public who can provide financial assistance.

Students can submit requests for help, which counselors verify and post to the page, along with where students are attending college, what they are studying, their unmet financial need — and how to send them money. Some of the posts include notes from students explaining why they need help.

For Jackson, it worked. This week he was visiting a friend when he received a Zelle notification that someone sent him $2,500 to make up for the funds the Schuler family promised him for the upcoming school year.

“I was like, ‘That's not real,’” he said.

While “$2,500 may not seem like a lot," Jackson said, his parents "take care of so many people … and college is expensive, and they're already helping me pay for it, and I have three siblings and a grandma that needs help. So … just being able to get a little bit of help — I know it takes a lot off their shoulders.”

Jackson said he does not know how to put his gratitude into words, and he has mixed feelings about having to rely on donations to achieve his college dreams.

“Getting blessed is definitely a great thing,” Jackson said. “But to have to get blessed to be able to continue something you work so hard for — it feels [sometimes] like, ‘What's the point?’ … But now the point is to make these people who invested in me proud.”

To get into the Schuler Scholars program and access counseling, tutoring and help paying tuition, high school students had to sign a contract saying they would abide by a list of rules and live under the watchful eye of program staff.

Students had to maintain a near-perfect grade point average, take advanced placement classes every year and attend regular meetings with program staff. To get into the program, they had to submit an application and go on a camping trip before the start of their freshman year of high school.

To get the $10,000 scholarship, students in the program, who are mostly Black and Brown, also had to attend one of the colleges handpicked by the Schulers — most of them small liberal arts schools that serve majority-white student populations.

The Schuler family did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

Family patriarch and former Abbott Laboratories executive Jack Schuler’s estimated personal wealth is reported to have dropped from about $1.1 billion to $200 million. Earlier this year, former employees said, Schuler and his family laid off nearly all of their scholarship program’s staff and started winding down operations.

But as recently as May, the family vowed to fulfill the scholarships they had already promised to students in college. That was just weeks before they pulled out completely.

“If I was in a position of power like Mr. Schuler, and I was promising all these kids all these things, I would hope I could just stay true to my word,” Jackson said.

If he gets to meet the good Samaritan who stepped in after the Schulers backed out, Jackson said, “First I would ask, ‘May I hug you?’ Because I don't want to be rude. But then I would give them a hug, and then maybe take them out to dinner or something because, I don't know if this person is super rich or not, but regardless of their financial status, they gave unselfishly.”

Lisa Kurian Philip covers higher education for WBEZ, in partnership with Open Campus.