Media Release: Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Awards $4 Million to 17 Exemplary Organizations
LANSDOWNE, VA – The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has awarded over $4 million to 17 organizations across the nation that have shown excellence in their fields of work and share the Foundation’s commitment to ensuring that high-achieving, low-income students are academically inspired and challenged during school, after school, and in the summers.
The organizations funded during this grant period are supported through two of the Foundation’s grant areas — Summer Academic Enrichment and Widening the Stage. In all, these organizations will improve educational pathways for 1,318 students across the country this year. All 17 grants provide continued funding for outstanding student programs.
“These grantees used previous awards to such impressive results that we felt they were worthy of additional funding,” said Emily Froimson, vice president of programs. “We are deeply committed to supporting partners who successfully and innovatively expand educational opportunities to talented, low-income students.”
Notable grantee results include:
- Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University’s Pathways to Peabody program – 40% of the conservatory’s elite performance academies are Pathways students, which has opened opportunities for low-income, aspiring musicians.
- Art of Problem Solving – expanded its residential summer program in math at Bard College to serve twice the number of New York City students compared with the year before. The program has a waiting list of nearly 100 students from 18 middle schools.
The following is a list of the organizations receiving funding in 2014 during this grant period:
Summer Academic Enrichment
Art of Problem Solving Foundation (Cambridge, MA)
Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
College of William & Mary, Center for Gifted Education (Williamsburg, VA)
Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (Baltimore, MD)
Maryland State Department of Education, Summer Centers for the Gifted (Baltimore, MD)
Noble Network of Charter Schools (Chicago, IL)
Purdue University, Gifted Education Resource Institute (West Lafayette, IN)
University of California Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)
University of Connecticut, Renzulli Academy (Storrs, CT)
Vanderbilt University, Programs for Talented Youth (Nashville, TN)
Widening the Stage
Boston University Tanglewood Institute (Boston, MA)
Levine School of Music (Washington, DC)
Merit School of Music (Chicago, IL)
Settlement School of Music (Philadelphia, PA)
The Harmony Project (Los Angeles, CA)
The Colburn School (Los Angeles, CA)
Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
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The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. Because we believe that high-potential, low-income students will excel educationally when given the resources to develop their talents, the Foundation supports exceptional students from elementary school to graduate school through scholarships, grants, direct service, and knowledge creation and dissemination. Founded in 2000 by the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, the Foundation has awarded $120 million for over 2,000 scholarships and $76 million in grants to organizations that support our mission. www.jkcf.org
