The Cooper Union Summer Art Intensive for pre-college students has been awarded a $35,000 donation from Jeff Gural, Chairman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and former member of The Cooper Union’s board of trustees. The funds will be used to give 13 New York City high school students full scholarships to attend the program, which runs from July 5 to August 1, and culminates with a student art exhibition, poetry reading, artist in residence presentations, and reception on August 3.  These latest scholarships add to three others made possible by Wishbone, a foundation created expressly to fund students’ summer program tuition, and one other offered by the Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura (the Dominican Culture Commissioner in the U.S.).

The Summer Art Intensive, one of several summer pre-college programs at The Cooper Union, is open to students ages 15-18 and accepts both residents and non-residents of New York City. Each student chooses from one of four different concentrations, drawing, graphic design, animation and digital photography. To apply to the scholarship, students fill out an application and submit a portfolio. 

Wishbone’s scholarships for the Cooper Union Summer Art Intensive are available to any student from New York or Connecticut who meets financial aid requirements. Mahnoor Sheik, a 16-year-old recipient of the Wishbone scholarship who will attend the pre-college summer program, says she was drawn to art since childhood and that she wants to attend the program because of its rigorous structure. Maryam Tayeh, 16 and also a 2016 Wishbone scholarship recipient, says applied to the program, in part, because of her excitement about field trips to museums and galleries, which she sees as a way to  “expand my artistic views and ideas, and mold my journey as my passion matures.”

Last summer, the Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura (CODOCUL) created a scholarship for a student of Dominican heritage to attend the Cooper Union Summer Art Intensive. Its first recipient, Miguel Rosa, was a tenth grader at H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square, Long Island when he was awarded the grant, which covers tuition and supplies. After studying photography and drawing last summer, Miguel said he “grasped a deeper understanding of Photoshop,” and  “I learned drawing techniques and exercises that helped to develop my visual and creative language.”

Rosa, who was born in the Dominican Republic, will be applying to art schools as well as liberal arts colleges, which is in keeping with his predecessors in the summer program: Ninety eight percent of students who have attended have gone on to college.