The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is the largest scholarship provider in the United States. The private, independent foundation is dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. It offers the largest scholarships in the U.S., comprehensive counseling and other support services to students from 8th grade to graduate school. Since 2000 it has awarded over $175 million in scholarships to nearly 2,300 students and more than $97 million in grants to organizations that serve outstanding low-income students.
History
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation was launched in 2000, funded by a bequest from entrepreneur and sports team owner
Jack Kent Cooke
Jack Kent Cooke (October 25, 1912 – April 6, 1997) was a Canadian-American businessman in broadcasting and professional sports. Starting in sales, Cooke was very successful, eventually becoming a partner in a network of radio stations and news ...
, who died in 1997.
Cooke had to leave high school in Canada in 1930 before graduating in order to help support his family during the Great Depression. He later went on to amass a fortune and move to the United States, eventually acquiring the
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
football team.
In his will, Cooke made provisions for the sale of the Redskins and some of his other assets to create a foundation to help extraordinary students with financial need – similar in many ways to himself as a young man – afford a college education.
The first executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation was Matthew J. Quinn, serving from 2000 to 2009, when Harvard University psychologist
Lawrence Kutner succeeded him.
Harold O. Levy
Harold Oscar Levy (December 14, 1952 – November 27, 2018) was an American lawyer and philanthropist who last served as the executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Having previously held leadership roles as a corporate attorney, ...
, a former New York City schools chancellor, led the foundation from September 2014 through May 2018. Current Executive Director Giuseppe “Seppy” Basili assumed the role in June 2018.
Scholarships and awards
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has awarded more than $175 million in scholarship assistance to nearly 2,300 high school and college students.
Cooke College Scholars and Undergraduate Transfer Scholars can receive up to $40,000 annually to cover tuition, living expenses, books and fees. In addition, the students who hold these scholarships are eligible to apply for a graduate school scholarship worth up to $50,000 a year, which is renewable for up to four years. Cooke International Awards at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge are worth up to $85,000 a year for graduate study.
Scholarships for high school, undergraduate and graduate students include academic advising, access to internship opportunities, funding for study abroad, and opportunities to network with other Cooke Scholars and alumni.
Here is a list of current Cooke Scholarship and Awards Programs:
*The Cooke Young Scholars Program serves students from 8th grade through high school with financial need who have earned all or mostly A grades since the 6th grade. The program has provided $21.7 million to help fund summer enrichment programs, extracurricular activities, educational travel, purchases of computers and other technology, individualized counselling to set academic goals, guidance on applying to colleges, and the costs of attending private and public high schools for 817 Young Scholars since 2001.
*The Cooke College Scholarship Program provides undergraduate scholarships to high school seniors with financial need. The scholarships are available to 12th graders who have earned a cumulative unweighted grade-point average of at least 3.5, along with minimum SAT combined critical reading and math scores of at least 1200, or a minimum ACT composite score of 26. The Cooke Foundation has selected 622 College Scholars since 2006 and awarded $22.8 million in scholarship support.
*The Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Program enables top community college students with financial need to complete their bachelor's degrees by transferring to selective four-year colleges or universities. Scholarships are available to current community college students or recent alumni who have earned a grade-point average of 3.5 or above. The Cooke Foundation has selected 808 Undergraduate Transfer Scholars since 2002 and awarded $34 million in scholarship support.
*The Cooke Graduate Scholarships have totalled $67.8 million for 673 students since 2002. In 2010 the award became available only to recipients of the Cooke College Scholarship and Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.
*The Cooke International Awards at Oxford and Cambridge Universities are scholarships of up to $85,000 a year for a Cooke Scholar with financial need who has already received a bachelor's degree. The awards enable a scholar to pursue a graduate degree at Lincoln or Brasenose College at the University of Oxford or Clare College at the University of Cambridge, all in the United Kingdom. This program was launched in 2015 and expanded in 2016.
*The Matthew J. Quinn Prize, named to honor the Cooke Foundation's founding executive director, is a $10,000 award given annually to one or more Cooke Scholars currently in college or graduate school or Cooke alumni. The prize recognizes outstanding achievements, such as publication of an important work, development of an innovative solution to a societal problem, or creation of a useful community program.
*The Matthew J. Quinn Youth Leadership Award is a $5,000 prize given annually to one or more current Young Scholars recognizing outstanding achievement, such as creation of a significant community program.
Cooke Prize
The Cooke Prize for Equity in Educational Excellence is a $1 million award – the largest of its kind in the nation – given to an elite college or university with an excellent record of admitting, supporting and graduating outstanding low-income students.
The Cooke Prize was first awarded in 2015, going to Vassar College in New York. In 2016 the prize was awarded to Amherst College in Massachusetts.
In the 2015–16 academic year 23 percent of Vassar's freshmen were low-income students (those receiving federal Pell Grants). Nearly 25 percent of Amherst students were receiving Pell Grants.
Grants
The Cooke Foundation awards grants to support strategic initiatives to expand educational opportunities for outstanding low-income students. It has awarded over $90 million in grants to organizations that serve such students.
Cooke Foundation grants support learning programs.
Grants to organizations working with such students in grades K-12 support programs that provide advanced learning opportunities outside the classroom for the brightest low-income students. The support is intended to help such students do well in school and lead to their increased enrolment in enriched coursework, including Advanced Placement courses and International Baccalaureate programs, to prepare them to handle college-level work and improve their chances of getting into a top college.
Grants to colleges and universities provide funding for support programs that help low-income students adjust to college, succeed once enrolled and graduate on time. Grants fall into four broad categories: college access and excellence; academic achievement; artistic advancement; and local support.
Research
In addition to operating its scholarship and grant programs, the Cooke Foundation conducts research on outstanding students with financial need.
One of the foundation's studies, issued in early 2016, is called
True Merit: Ensuring Our Brightest Students Have Access to Our Best Colleges and Universities" The report concluded that top colleges and universities in the United States continue to use outdated and inaccurate measures of student ability to deny admission to many outstanding low-income students. The study found that 3 percent of students at the most selective schools come from the 25 percent of families with the lowest incomes. In sharp contrast, 72 percent of students at the top schools come from the wealthiest 25 percent of the U.S. population. The "True Merit" report calls for colleges to change their admissions practices so that academically qualified low-income students have a fair chance at being admitted to top colleges and universities.
Earlier research by the Cooke Foundation that examined the challenges faced by highly talented students with financial need includes:
*2007 – "Achievement Trap: How America is Failing Millions of High-Achieving Students from Lower-Income Families" documented how students from families below the median income level who start school performing at high levels lose academic ground at every level of schooling. These students suffer a big drop in college when compared to wealthier students.
*2014 – Partnerships That Promote Success: Lessons and Findings from the Evaluation of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Community College Transfer Initiative" found that partnerships between two-year and selective four-year institutions increase the number of students who transfer, and that the transfer students perform well academically.
*2015 – "Breaking Down Walls: Increasing Access to Four-Year Colleges for High-Achieving Community College Students" documented that many more community college students could succeed at four-year colleges and universities than are given the chance.
*2015 – "Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities: A Report Card on State Support for Academically Talented Low-Income Students" assessed the extent to which all 50 states have policies in place to close the K-12 Excellence Gap and offered recommendations to states.
See also
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Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...
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Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. GAIN was developed at the UN 2002 Special Session of the General Assembly on Children. GAIN’s actions include improving the consumption ...
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List of wealthiest charitable foundations
This is a list of wealthiest charitable foundations worldwide. It consists of the 45 largest charitable foundations, private foundations engaged in philanthropy, and other charitable organizations such as charitable trusts that have disclosed the ...
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Philanthropy
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
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Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
Social enterprises ca ...
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Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of o ...
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Social responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the community that will inherit the world that individual leaves behind.
Social ...
References
External links
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Organizations established in 2000
Educational foundations in the United States
2000 establishments in Virginia
Non-profit organizations based in Virginia
501(c)(3) organizations