MOOCs

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, edX Partner on Scholarship Opportunities

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 01/06/16

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is partnering with edX to offer special scholarship consideration to qualified students in grade 7 who complete a course through the massive open online course (MOOC) provider.

The offer, dubbed the Cooke edX Challenge, is part of the Cooke Young Scholars program, which "provides high-achieving students entering 8th grade with many benefits, including: individualized counseling to set academic goals; guidance on applying to colleges; and funding for summer educational programs, study abroad, internships and some school expenses," according to a news release.

"We're partnering with edX because we want the brightest young people in the United States with financial need to become Cooke Young Scholars," Cooke Foundation Executive Director Harold O. Levy said in a prepared statement. "A 7th grader who can successfully complete a college course offered by edX is clearly advanced, hard-working and motivated, and that's exactly the type of student who deserves serious consideration for our scholarship program." 

As many as 70 students will be selected for the program as they begin grade 8 in September. To qualify, students must have earned mostly As since grade 6, with no Cs in English, math, science or social studies. For three years, the average family income of young scholars recipients has been $30,000 and almost no young scholars have had an average family income of more than $60,000. Almost all, 96 percent, go on to win a Cooke College Scholarship, worth up to $40,000 and many win a Cooke Continuing Graduate Scholarship, which grants as much as $50,000 annually for four years.

To participate in the challenge, students will audit one of five courses, all of which are currently open for enrollment and the first of which launches January 18. Students who pass one of the qualifying courses and apply for the scholarship will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

The five courses include:

• Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe, from Australian National University, a self-paced course with a suggested completion time of nine weeks;
• University of California, Berkeley's six-week-long Solving Public Policy Problems;
• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, a nine-week course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• Princeton University's The Art of Structural Engineering: Bridges, also a nine-week course; and
• Tsunamis and Storm Surges: Introduction to Coastal Disasters, a six-week course from Waseda University.

"EdX is committed to increasing access to high-quality education for people all over the world," said edX CEO and MIT Professor Anant Agarwal in a prepared statement. "We're proud to work with the Cooke Foundation to open new doors to educational opportunity for excellent students who need financial assistance to reach their full potential."

More information is available at outreach.jkcf.org.