Staff Spotlight: Jaime Schulang, MA, Director of Student Financial Affairs

Growing up, Jaime Schulang, MA, director of Student Financial Affairs at Salus University, always wanted to play the violin. She had watched children’s shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and was inspired by the appearances of world-famous violinist Itzhak Perlman on those shows.

She was tall for her age in middle school, so when the music teacher was looking for students to play some of the instruments, Schulang volunteered to take up the viola, which is similar to a violin, but larger, with a deeper, more mellow sound.

And, so began a lifelong love affair with the viola. She took lessons through middle school and high school and during her senior year in 1997, auditioned and was selected for the All-Philadelphia High School Orchestra, made up of musicians from the Philadelphia School District.

“The performance for that was at the Academy of Music, which at the time was where the Philadelphia Orchestra played because it was before the Kimmel Center was built,” said Schulang. “That was the driving force for me wanting to be part of that orchestra, that I would get to play at the Academy of Music. It was so cool.”

Schulang didn’t play viola much through her college years, instead concentrating on attaining her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Penn State in 2001. But after college, she got back into playing when a friend mentioned she was part of a community orchestra. That piqued Schulang’s interest and led to her joining the Bucks County Symphony Orchestra just two years later.

“I had no idea that community orchestras even existed,” she said. “My friend played viola, too, and she said you didn’t even have to audition and that the orchestra always needed violas.”

The Bucks County Symphony Orchestra has three subscription concerts each season in October, February, and April in addition to a family concert in December and a Pops concert in March.

It was during her second year with the orchestra where she and her viola crossed paths with Bobby Rydell, Philadelphia native and early 1960s teen idol whose hits included “Wild One” and a cover of “Volare.”

“I love oldies music and I saw him once with my parents,” said Schulang. “He was performing at one of the Bucks County high schools. I thought we were going to be performing with him, but we opened for him.” She was able to meet Rydell after the show and still has a poster of the event he autographed for her.

Schulang would also join the Bucks County Gilbert and Sullivan Society in 2012, which does an annual Father’s Day weekend show of a Gilbert and Sullivan production as well as a Messiah sing-along in December.

“It’s fun to play these pieces. First of all, we’re playing what professional orchestras play. In high school, we played scaled back versions of music to make it a little bit easier. But this is the full-on way it was written,” she said.

Still, her first classical music love is Beethoven and one of her bucket list items is to play all nine of his symphonies. She’s played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on two occasions — her favorite piece of music — but still has one symphony to go to achieve that bucket list item.

“I like classical music but I don’t consider myself a classical music buff,” she said. "I don’t know nearly as much as the other people do. But I listen to everything.”

She has, however, achieved another one of her bucket list items — to meet her musical idol, Itzhak Perlman. Her then boyfriend — now husband Adam Knobler — arranged for her to meet Perlman after a New York performance of the Israel Philharmonic in February 2019.

“I didn’t get a lot of time with him, but he was my inspiration for starting my musical journey. It was incredible,” she said.

Schulang now serves as a board member of the Bucks County Symphony and helps with the orchestra’s youth competition auditions every year. She often hangs fliers around Salus of the orchestra’s performances, encouraging students to come listen to classical music.

She originally came to Salus University as a temporary employee for a nonprofit at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) called World Council of Optometry. After a year and a half, she was hired permanently in Admissions and Financial Aid in 2006. She returned to school in 2013 and received her master’s degree in organizational leadership with a concentration in higher education from Rider University.

“I like that I am able to play a role in helping students achieve their career goals by providing them the financial assistance needed to fund their education,” she said. “Financial aid can be a daunting and confusing part of going to school and I enjoy seeing students leave may office with a greater understanding of the process than they did when they walked in.”