Eda Viner knows all about the challenges of being a single parent. Enrolling two kids in university on her income as a real estate agent, she learned firsthand the financial burden that college tuition can cause on a household like hers.
“Everybody thinks that Boca is so rich, but the fact is that there are a lot of people that are struggling and working very hard to make ends meet, and they’re all around us,” she says. “I was one of those people, working very hard to send my kids to college, and for them to graduate without debt so they could move on and have a fruitful life.”
Since 2015, Eda and her husband, retired hedge fund executive Cliff Viner, have been assisting families in similar situations through their nonprofit, the Eda & Cliff Viner Community Scholars Foundation. A need-based, “last-dollar” scholarship often combined with Bright Futures or other student aid, their foundation has thus far helped 130 students attend Florida public universities, covering up to $10,000 of their tuition and related expenses each year.
Their students, whom they refer to as their “investments,” have a 95-percent graduation rate, thanks in part to the Viners’ rigorous acceptance process and their longtime commitment to each scholar.
“We’re a unique scholarship program for a lot of reasons,” Cliff says. “It’s a very substantial four-year commitment and investment in the student. Most of the time, you get a check, and that’s the end of it. They don’t follow you or make sure you graduate. The second thing is the mentorship. Every kid who goes to college with our scholarship gets a mentor from the community. At the beginning they have to call their mentor every week; we don’t want the kids running off the rails, losing interest, having to leave college. We want them to stay and graduate. Otherwise, you lose your investment.”
The Viners, who are involved in every aspect of their organization—Nicole Viner, Eda’s daughter, is the foundation’s executive director—begin seeking out new scholars each fall by presenting at high schools throughout South Palm Beach County. Students then apply for scholarships from December through March. To be accepted, students submit to an interview with Cliff and Eda, and if selected they must maintain a 3.0 GPA in college and complete at least 100 community service hours. Their notable graduates include Daniel, who was working while in high school while being raised by a single mother with a disability. He attended the University of Florida on a Viner Scholarship, graduating at the top of his class, and is set to receive his law degree, also from UF, this year. Another student was homeless, along with her single mother and autistic brother, when she was accepted as a Viner Scholar; she has gone from couch-surfing to attending medical school.
“These are extraordinary single stories, but almost all of them are great success stories,” Cliff says. “They’re going into law school, vet school, nursing school, engineering school, and they’re getting great jobs. … The 95 percent graduation rate is the success story, so to speak.”
The foundation is the capstone of the Viners’ successful careers in business, from Eda’s 15 years in real estate to Cliff’s founding of the III Finance Hedge Fund and former co-ownership of the Florida Panthers, which he sold in 2013, the same year he married Eda. It’s a second marriage for both of them, and together they raise a talented, blended brood of four children now dispersed in Florida, Pennsylvania and New York. In their downtime, they can be spotted at local theaters and restaurants; Cliff competes in swim meets and has been taking voice and guitar lessons. He even played guitar at a restaurant at Town Center mall, joking that he’s responsible for its demise: “I played at Rex Baron, and they closed it down!”
But once you get them talking about education, their passion is most infectious.
“If you really want to empower youth, the no. 1 thing you’ve got to give them is the best education,” Cliff says. “It’s something nobody can take away from them. They have it their whole lives, and they can work with it to make not just themselves better, but it makes it better for their parents right now. It makes it better for their children.”
This article is from the February 2023 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
