Mark E Scheinberg

Mark Scheinberg, the president of Goodwin College, founded the institution when he was just 24 in 1981. He bought a small trade school called the Data Institute with the goal of offering pathways to careers for what he calls “forgotten students.” He rebuilt the school, achieved college status in 1999 and, five years later, decided to convert it to a nonprofit, giving up millions of dollars in assets. Goodwin has about 4,000 undergraduates and about 1,000 more students at two magnet high schools, and maintains its original mission. The latest graduating class had an average age of 30, 85 percent of them working while they took classes.