Cooke Foundation Partners with College Greenlight to Expand Reach to Thousands of Students

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May 11, 2015, 08:30 ET

LANSDOWNE, Va., May 11, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation today announced a new partnership with College Greenlight enabling it to reach thousands of low-income students across the country to make them aware that they are eligible for the Cooke Foundation's prestigious scholarships.

College Greenlight is the leading online college and scholarship platform for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students. It has 140,000 students registered on its site and works with 800 college access organizations and 4,000 counselors that support talented, low-income students.

"We have strongly encouraged our Young Scholars to use College Greenlight as a college and scholarship search tool for years," said Executive Director Harold O. Levy. "It was an obvious next step to formalize our relationship in order to reach even larger numbers of high-achieving, low-income students who could become Cooke Scholars."

The Cooke Foundation offers three national scholarship programs with pathways to its $50,000 a year Graduate Scholarship. Its Young Scholars Program, a selective pre-college scholarship for exceptionally high-performing middle school students with financial need, includes individualized academic advising as well as financial support. The College Scholarship Program is the largest undergraduate four-year scholarship program in the nation available to high-achieving high school seniors with financial need, and the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship is the largest scholarship for top community college students seeking to complete their bachelor's degrees at four-year colleges or universities. Awards may be as much as $40,000 per year and are available to any student living in United States.

The College Greenlight platform was developed to help high-achieving, low-income students overcome the challenges of college access, undermatching, and affordability by providing them with free resources to close the information gap and letting them know about college and scholarship opportunities that match their talents and potential.

"The Cooke Foundation scholarships are life-changing programs and we are delighted to promote them to students and counselors on our platform," said College Greenlight General Manager Jonathan April. "We share the mission of the Cooke Foundation—significantly growing the pipeline of high-achieving, low-income students enrolling and graduating from the nation's leading colleges and universities—and are thrilled to be expanding our partnership."

For more information about the Cooke Foundation's programs, visit www.jkcf.org, and for more about College Greenlight, visit www.collegegreenlight.com.

About College Greenlight
College Greenlight combats the underrepresentation of first-generation, low-income and minority students on college campuses across the country by providing free access to comprehensive college access tools, resources and support. Its nationwide online platform helps students expand their opportunities and addresses the challenges of access, undermatching, and affordability. Since launching in 2012, College Greenlight has become the leading free online college and scholarship platform for underrepresented and first-generation students. With 140,000 registered students, more than 800 organization and school partners, and more than 130 participating colleges and universities, the College Greenlight platform connects students to colleges where they can succeed, scholarship opportunities to fund their education, and resources to close the information gap. Visit www.collegegreenlight.com or contact [email protected].

About the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. By offering the largest scholarships in the country, comprehensive counseling and other support services to students from 7th grade to graduate school, the Foundation is dedicated to ensuring high-performing, low-income students have the support necessary to develop their talents and excel educationally. In addition to its scholarship programs, the Foundation provides grants for innovative, high-impact initiatives that benefit such students. By doing so, the Cooke Foundation seeks to use its resources to end the Excellence Gap, the disparity between the number of low and high income students who reach the top levels of academic performance. Founded in 2000, the Foundation has awarded $130 million in scholarships to 1,900 students and over $80 million in grants. www.jkcf.org

Media Contact: Audrey Mullen
202-270-2772

SOURCE Jack Kent Cooke Foundation