Families United in Educational Leadership (FUEL) was founded in January 2009 by social entrepreneur and economist Bob Hildreth, who had long had a passion for higher education. Through his personal experiences in philanthropy, Bob saw that, contrary to popular belief, low-income families do save money. And so, with an eye toward US education reform, Bob created a matched savings program for first-generation-to-college families that became the basis for FUEL.
The FUEL prototype is the La Vida Scholars Program for Latino honor roll students in grades 10 through 12, founded by Bob in 2007. La Vida’s first 12 graduates garnered 61 college acceptances and $2.6 million in local and national scholarships.
In 2009, FUEL was invited into Chelsea, Massachusetts. Today, Chelsea FUEL works with 200 families; in Boston, our partners include the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Hyde Square Task Force, and Trinity Education for Excellence Program. By integrating the FUEL model into various after-school programs in Greater Boston, we are building capacity for a national strategy.
Now, we are broadening our approach to include aspirational scholarship programs like the Chelsea Compact. In partnership with UMass Amherst and Bunker Hill Community College, this initiative provides up to 25 full scholarships annually to FUEL students in Chelsea who join the program during their freshman year. Our aim is to get more students to graduate from high school and enroll in college, which will ultimately translate into more educated entrants into the Massachusetts job force.
And it doesn’t stop here. We have big plans for the future, including replicating the FUEL program in additional communities in order to help more students graduate high school and go on to college.
