{"id":206077,"date":"2012-09-27T10:13:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206077"},"modified":"2023-10-23T10:15:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:15:57","slug":"retired-educator-pledges-estate-to-endow-scholarship-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/09\/retired-educator-pledges-estate-to-endow-scholarship-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Educator Pledges Estate to Endow Scholarship Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a biology teacher and department head for\u00a0E.O. Smith High School<\/a>\u00a0in Storrs, Jack Cohen helped educate young people for most of his life.<\/p>\n

Retired in 1989 after 31 years, Cohen still believes deeply in the value of education and has decided to support it even after he is gone.\u00a0 Cohen has pledged his considerable estate to establish an endowed scholarship fund at the University of Connecticut, which governed E.O. Smith during much of his tenure at the high school.<\/p>\n

Financial support for college is something Cohen knows about first hand.\u00a0 \u201cFriends of family helped me while I was in college,\u201d says Cohen, who relied on the G.I. bill after serving in the military during World War II to get his bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Missouri and his master\u2019s degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.\u00a0 He received a\u00a0master\u2019s degree in education<\/a>\u00a0from UConn in 1965.<\/p>\n

For the grandchildren of a close friend, Cohen has provided a helping hand, covering room and board. He continues to help with college expenses. \u00a0\u201cI have one more to get through college,\u201d says Cohen, who never had children of his own.<\/p>\n

Cohen\u2019s passion for helping is encouraged by his memory of a colleague\u2019s story about growing up poor and going to college with help from the family who employed her mother as a maid.\u00a0 \u201cAfter hearing that story, my wife said we should do something like that,\u2019\u201d says Cohen.\u00a0 His wife passed away more than 20 years ago but her memory will live on with his, through the fund that will carry their names, the Jack and Francine Cohen Scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fortunate that I have done well in life and I am happy I can help,\u201d says Cohen.<\/p>\n

The UConn Foundation, which raises funds from private sources to support the University, is ramping up its efforts to increase scholarship support for UConn students, says Heather McDonald, director of development for the\u00a0Neag School of Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the 2010-2011 academic year, 72 percent of UConn undergraduates applied for need-based financial aid and 76 percent of those who applied received it. But of those who received need-based financial aid, only 16% had their need fully met,\u201d says McDonald.\u00a0 \u201cWe are working to make our alumni and friends aware of the University\u2019s growing need for privately funded scholarships. Mr. Cohen\u2019s generous gift will make a huge difference to a lot of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on supporting the Neag School of Education, click here\u00a0or contact Heather McDonald at\u00a0hmcdonald@foundation.uconn.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a biology teacher and department head for\u00a0E.O. Smith High School\u00a0in Storrs, Jack Cohen helped educate young people for most of his life. Retired in 1989 after 31 years, Cohen still believes deeply in the value of education and has decided to support it even after he is gone.\u00a0 Cohen has pledged his considerable estate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":206078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-206077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 14:08:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206079,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206077\/revisions\/206079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206077"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206077"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}