Breaking Cycles: How Education Transforms Lives

August 20, 2025 | By NRCF Donors

The yel­low school bus that car­ried Bob Ben­zel away from his fam­i­ly’s Nebras­ka farm each morn­ing rep­re­sent­ed more than transportation—it was his path­way to sur­vival. Those 45-minute rides, stretch­ing to over an hour in bad weath­er, filled with the cru­el taunts of “sis­sy” and worse from sib­lings and class­mates, would have bro­ken many chil­dren. But for Bob, endur­ing that dai­ly gaunt­let was the price of edu­ca­tion, and edu­ca­tion was his life­line out of pover­ty and iso­la­tion.

“I felt depressed from the time I was mere­ly four or four years old,” Bob recalls of grow­ing up gay on a farm out­side Pot­ter, Nebras­ka. “I tru­ly felt like — and was — an out­sider.”

The Pow­er of Per­sis­tence

Edu­ca­tion was very impor­tant to both Bob’s fam­i­ly and the fam­i­ly of his hus­band, Ger­ry Sul­li­van, but in dif­fer­ent ways.  Ger­ry’s moth­er nev­er had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to go to col­lege, as she grew up in a time when col­lege edu­ca­tion for women was not thought nec­es­sary; yet women were expect­ed to get jobs after grad­u­at­ing from high school, and help pay for the col­lege cost for their broth­ers. His moth­er and her sis­ters always regret­ted being denied the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther their edu­ca­tion.  

His father went to work in the cop­per mines in Butte, Mon­tana, and after work­ing there for a few years and see­ing min­ers die of black lung dis­ease, he real­ized he need­ed to go to col­lege to have oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties. He fin­ished not only col­lege, but also obtained a law degree. Due to these expe­ri­ences of Ger­ry’s par­ents, Ger­ry grew up with a deep under­stand­ing of the impor­tance and ben­e­fits of a col­lege edu­ca­tion.

Bob’s par­ents under­stood edu­ca­tion’s trans­for­ma­tive pow­er, but their sto­ry had a dif­fer­ent tra­jec­to­ry.  His moth­er was forced out of school in the eighth grade by her own father. She lat­er earned her GED and Asso­ci­ate’s degree.  After the death of Bob’s father, she sin­gle-hand­ed­ly raised four chil­dren. Her deter­mi­na­tion became Bob’s blue­print for resilience.

“I remem­ber peo­ple drop­ping out of high school fac­ing big issues,” Bob reflects. “They were down­trod­den, could­n’t func­tion, and need­ed some­thing to jump­start their edu­ca­tion­al life. I recall women with chil­dren who had dropped out because moth­er­hood and high school were under­stand­ably too much to bal­ance.”

Despite grow­ing up in an impov­er­ished area where only nine stu­dents grad­u­at­ed from his class, Bob per­se­vered. Through a com­bi­na­tion of Pell grants, work-study pro­grams, and schol­ar­ships, his entire col­lege edu­ca­tion cost just $5,000—an invest­ment that would change not only his life but the lives of count­less stu­dents he would lat­er teach.

From Stu­dent to Edu­ca­tor

Bob became a high school art teacher, work­ing with many at risk stu­dents includ­ing LGBTQ+ youth. He wit­nessed first­hand how stu­dents like him­self were “forced out of their homes while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly being forced into closets”—a painful real­i­ty that affect­ed not only stu­dents but also LGBTQ+ teach­ers.

“This was my impe­tus to start help­ing kids who looked like me,” he explains. “I got lucky with my edu­ca­tion costs. I want to give back and pay it for­ward now.”

As an edu­ca­tor, Bob became more than a teacher—he was an infor­mal coun­selor and men­tor who insist­ed his stu­dents pur­sue high­er edu­ca­tion. The impact of his work con­tin­ues decades lat­er, with for­mer stu­dents still vis­it­ing him and his hus­band Ger­ry. A for­mer stu­dent, whose father dis­cour­aged him from attend­ing col­lege, fol­lowed Bob’s advice and is now vice pres­i­dent of a real estate com­pa­ny.  Recent­ly, he vis­it­ed them, bring­ing his wife and moth­er along as a tes­ta­ment to the last­ing influ­ence of Bob’s men­tor­ship.

A Part­ner­ship in Pur­pose

“Our wed­ding was a stun­ning moment for both of us — some­thing nei­ther of us ever expect­ed would occur. Togeth­er, we’ve built a life com­mit­ted to expand­ing edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for oth­ers.  We rec­og­nize the tremen­dous impact that edu­ca­tion can have on break­ing cycles of pover­ty, as well as widen­ing per­spec­tives and giv­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties through access and rela­tion­ships,” Ger­ry empha­sizes.

Their involve­ment with Rain­bow Nation­al Col­lege Fund began dur­ing estate plan­ning con­ver­sa­tions with San Diego Foun­da­tion last year. The dis­cus­sions led them to a real­iza­tion: “We had to recal­i­brate. We want­ed to push for­ward to do some­thing pos­i­tive.”

The Urgency of Now

Even in pro­gres­sive Cal­i­for­nia, Ger­ry notes, LGBTQ+ youth face grave risks: “Not all kids can come out. Many are bul­lied, pushed out of the house. There’s abuse, sui­cide, drug addic­tion.” The polit­i­cal cli­mate adds anoth­er lay­er of urgency. “Things can change quick­ly, and not for the bet­ter,” he observes. “Just a few years ago, we joined a gay men’s book club and were dis­cussing the joys of gay mar­riage. But now this is also at risk.”

Bob remem­bers friends in Nebras­ka who start­ed their own fund—including a woman from Mex­i­co who could­n’t speak Eng­lish but enrolled in junior col­lege, tak­ing math class­es where she already under­stood the con­cepts. She learned Eng­lish, became a CPA, and now funds schol­ar­ships with her hus­band to give oth­ers the same chance at eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty.

Wis­dom for the Jour­ney

If Bob could speak to his 15-year-old self today, his advice would be sim­ple but pro­found: “Sur­vive! Grad­u­ate from high school and get out. Take advan­tage of the next four years to the degree that you can. You can’t pos­si­bly have any idea of what’s being laid out in front of you—be sure to take advan­tage of every oppor­tu­ni­ty and learn to trust oth­ers.”

To his young adult self, he would add: “Trav­el. There is a big­ger world out there!”

His favorite book, The Alchemist, cap­tures his phi­los­o­phy: “The uni­verse is open to you if you are open to the uni­verse. But it’s hard to stay open if doors are clos­ing all around you. With a focus on edu­ca­tion and career, you can broad­en your expe­ri­ences and widen your expo­sure to the world and your capac­i­ty for all of life’s expe­ri­ences.”

Build­ing Bridges to Suc­cess

Ger­ry envi­sions sys­tem­at­ic sup­port for col­lege-bound stu­dents: “Imag­ine if soci­ety had a manda­to­ry uni­ver­sal require­ment that every stu­dent had to take a col­lege skills class—about how to apply your­self while in col­lege. A nav­i­ga­tor would help guide stu­dents and check on them along the way.”  A for­mer stu­dent of Bob’s now in her six­ties led a pro­gram in Oma­ha, Nebras­ka, with these very goals in mind.

The cou­ple’s phil­an­thropy reflects this belief that sup­port makes the difference—both the men­tor­ing Bob pro­vid­ed as a teacher and the finan­cial sup­port their schol­ar­ships now pro­vide.

“The need to pay it for­ward is greater than ever now,” Bob con­cludes. Their sto­ry proves that edu­ca­tion does­n’t just change indi­vid­ual lives—it cre­ates rip­ple effects that trans­form entire com­mu­ni­ties, one stu­dent at a time.

A Lega­cy of Hope

From a bul­lied farm boy on a school bus to a teacher who changed lives to a phil­an­thropist open­ing doors for the next gen­er­a­tion, Bob’s jour­ney illus­trates edu­ca­tion’s pro­found pow­er. Togeth­er with Ger­ry, he con­tin­ues to ensure that oth­er young people—especially LGBTQ+ youth fac­ing their own challenges—have the oppor­tu­ni­ties and sup­port they need to not just sur­vive, but thrive.

“Look for opportunities—they are always there,” Bob says. In a world where doors often close, Bob and Ger­ry are com­mit­ted to open­ing new ones.

Want to Make a Dif­fer­ence?

Here’s how you can sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents: