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Think Big.
Work Hard.
Achieve.

Our Scholarships

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need.

The Cooke Foundation stands with our Black Scholars, Alumni, Families, Staff, and entire diverse community to condemn systemic racism. Black Lives Matter. We are committed to fighting educational and economic inequalities.

Young Scholars Program

Offers the most personalized, generous scholarship and educational support to exceptionally promising students from families across the nation who have financial need.

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College Scholarship Program

An undergraduate scholarship program available to high-achieving high school seniors with financial need who seek to attend the nation’s best four-year colleges and universities.

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Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship

A highly-selective scholarship for the nation’s top community college students seeking to complete their bachelor’s degrees at selective four-year colleges or universities.

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$200 Million
Awarded in Scholarships
2,700 Cooke Scholars
Current Scholars and Alumni
$110 Million
Awarded in Grants
Dawson Dunning

“I was able to fast-track into my current career. The connections I made at Montana State University and in the wildlife film industry while a graduate student were the catalyst for realizing my dream. Now my wife and I run our own production company in Livingston, Montana."

Dawson Dunning
Cooke Scholar
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Dawson Dunning

Dawson Dunning

As amazing as it might seem, Dunning is a full-time freelance wildlife cameraman having earned a Master of Fine Arts in Science and Natural History Filmmaking at Montana State University. The often painstaking process of waiting for a shot, sometimes in freezing temperatures and uncomfortable positions, is more difficult than one might imagine. In recent years the results have gotten better and better, as evidenced by such series as “Planet Earth” and Dawson’s most recent work for the BBC, “Life Story.” "As a result of the support from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship, I was able to fast-track into my current career. The connections I made at Montana State University and in the wildlife film industry while a graduate student were the catalyst for realizing my dream. Now my wife and I run our own production company in Livingston, Montana."
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