Sam Maron ’17’s Company Addresses Both Nursing Needs and Student Debt

As a medical student, Sam Maron ’17 saw firsthand how difficult it was for hospitals to recruit and retain nurses and other healthcare professionals.

That shortage got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many nurses and other hospital staff were quitting. Maron realized that the problem is complex: How can you grow the pipeline for nurses and other health professionals when schools have limited funding and students graduate with massive debt? “I spent a lot of time thinking about these big systemic failures happening around us,” Maron says.

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Sam Maron ’17

Courtesy of Sam Maron ’17

Maron shared his concerns about this dilemma with John Katzman ’81, founder of The Princeton Review, while he was working part time for a tutoring company owned by Katzman’s education technology company, Noodle, in 2022.

“That conversation led to the Scholars Network, which eliminates much of that friction to ensure students get a great education and a career unsaddled by debt in a place that genuinely needs them,” Katzman says.

Katzman convinced Maron that he should put aside his plans to begin a clinical practice and instead use his knowledge of the medical profession to build this new company within Noodle. Eventually Maron agreed. “I felt torn between these two things I loved, which were patient care and systemic work,” he says. “I think I would make the same decision again.”

The company allows hospitals to retain staff while at the same time offering help with tuition to nurses and other health professionals who want to further their careers.

Nursing is one of several healthcare professions, including physical and respiratory therapy and pharmaceuticals, facing shortages. But solving the nursing shortage means confronting a paradox. By 2028, the U.S. could face a shortage of more than 267,000 full-time registered nurses, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. At the same time, nursing programs rejected more than 93,000 qualified applications in 2025 because they lacked the staff and capacity for more students, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Meanwhile, hospitals are losing millions of dollars a year due to staff turnover. An average hospital spends roughly $60,000 to replace a bedside registered nurse, according to a report by the national nurse recruitment firm NSI Nursing Solutions.

Growing up in the small town of Petersham, Massachusetts, where his father was a primary care doctor, Maron saw the challenges his father faced when a nurse left his practice. “It was hard to attract people to the area and then rebuild those relationships,” he says.

Maron majored in neuroscience at Princeton, and while his goal was to get a medical degree, he always envisioned combining his medical experience with his desire to be an entrepreneur. “I got exposed to all these different areas that I wouldn’t have if I had just been heads down in a preprofessional track somewhere else,” Maron says.   

He earned a master’s degree in global affairs through the Schwarzman Scholars program in Beijing before graduating with honors from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Maron started Scholars Network in 2022 during his fourth year in medical school. Now Maron, 32, who lives in New York with his wife and infant daughter, is senior vice president of Noodle and head of the Scholars Network. The company is approaching $100 million in employer sponsorship commitments, Maron says. It has worked with more than 50 hospitals and is partnering with the state of Pennsylvania on workforce development initiatives that include educational and student debt support for healthcare workers.

Being able to further their education and their careers without more debt and without increasing taxable income is a game changer for health professionals such as Kasey Bradley, a registered nurse in Pennsylvania. Bradley was a licensed practical nurse who wanted higher certification but already had $30,000 in loan debt. Through Scholars Network, her employer, Penn Highlands DuBois, paid $40,000 for Bradley’s schooling to become a registered nurse in exchange for a three-year commitment. “With this opportunity, I’m invested, I’m committed,” Bradley says. “I think I’ll stay there beyond my commitment, because I love my job. I love where I am. I’m very thankful.”

Students apply for the program while they are still in school. Scholars Network processes the applications and the schools choose candidates. Scholars Network then connects students with future employers who pay off their loans in exchange for a work commitment. While many healthcare employers offer employees tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness, Scholars Network verifies their employment and pays off the loans each month directly to lenders. That allows hospitals and healthcare systems to pay up to $5,250 annually while not increasing the nurse or healthcare professional’s taxable income.

Scholars Network acquired Unsaddl in April, a financial company owned by Chris Hsu ’18 and Steve Troy ’18 that helps companies manage student loan contributions, tuition reimbursement, and other benefits. Hsu and Troy have joined Scholars Network as vice president of product engineering and vice president of educational benefits, respectively. Hsu describes it as “a startup within a startup,” with a team of 10 in a 300-person company.

Maron says the merger made sense. “You have a talent acquisition team bringing people in, and a benefits team trying to keep them,” he says. “What we can now do is put both of those on the same platform.”

Maron met with administrators recently at a partner hospital and heard that the program was so successful “that all different units now are clamoring to get the scholars,” he says. “I feel really good when I hear stories of how people are having a great impact on patients’ lives."