JKCF in the News: Omaha Public Radio
Applications being accepted for the Cooke Scholarship
By Cheril Lee
February 24, 2015
Omaha Public Radio
Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of the Redskins and the Lakers, started a scholarship many years ago aimed at exceptionally high performing low income kids across the country.
Harold Levy, Executive Director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, says this is the largest scholarship available to kids at $40,000 a year.
Levy says if a student is awarded the scholarship in 8th grade, he or she can keep it through high school, college and graduate school if they maintain their grades.
Right now, the foundation is accepting applications from kids in 7th grade.
“What we look for are really smart and persistent kids with grit. We want kids who don’t give up. Kids who say ‘It can get done and I am going to do it. And I am going to break through whatever barriers there are.’ We look for kids who are not only smart but have also demonstrated leadership and the ability to stick with it when the odds seemed to be against them.”
The application deadline for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship is April 14th.