James Michael Bennett, a member of the Providence College class of 2006 and a resident of Tucson, AZ, was named one of 77 Scholars in the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Program.

The graduate scholarships cover tuition, room, board, fees and books--up to $50,000 annually--for up to six years and are among the most generous academic awards offered in the United States.  Chosen after a selection process that drew 1,100 nominees, the recipients come from 33 states and nine foreign nations. 

Bennett will use his scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Loyola University of Chicago where he will study pure mathematics.  He eventually hopes to contribute research to the fields of topology, number theory and graph theory, and has a devoted interest in teaching at the college level. In addition to pursuing a career in math, Bennett dreams of writing and performing his own comedy.

A mathematics major at Providence College, Bennett received the College's Rev. Paul van K. Thomson Award in 2005 for most outstanding student in the Liberal Arts Honors program. 

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established in 2000 by the estate of Jack Kent Cooke to help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education. It focuses in particular on students with financial need. The Foundation's programs include scholarships to undergraduate, graduate and high school students, and grants to organizations that serve high-achieving students with financial need.

"The graduate scholarship recipients know hard work and sacrifice.  These scholarships recognize their devotion to education, reward their efforts, and provide an incentive to continue excelling . . . and, we hope, to benefit society," said Dr. Matthew J. Quinn, executive director of the Foundation.

Students attending any accredited college or university in the United States were eligible to apply.  Each institution could nominate up to two students.  Candidates then underwent a rigorous assessment at two stages by independent panels of academic experts, including graduate school deans, admissions counselors, and faculty.  The selection criteria included academic achievement and financial need as well as a will to succeed, leadership and community involvement.