Financial Grant

JRF awards students four-year scholarships of up to $7,500 per year to attend the four-year accredited college or university of their choice. JRF scholarships complement the financial aid students receive from their college or university for tuition and other education expenses (books, housing, etc.). Scholars are also financially sponsored to attend our annual four day Scholar's Networking Weekend in New York City every spring during each of their college years.

Mentoring

Selection committee members, corporate sponsors, community leaders, JRF Alumni and staff serve as mentors. Each Scholar is assigned a mentor to enhance his or her developmental experience. Mentors assist in a wide variety of areas, including academic guidance, career planning, internship placement and career/life balance.

Internships

Corporate partners provide and assist Scholars with summer internship placement and permanent employment, offering valuable career development opportunities. The JRF staff works diligently with both sponsors and Scholars to identify appropriate internships and to secure summer and semester positions. Further, JRF Scholars also benefit from ongoing career counseling and assistance with locating full-time positions upon graduation. JRF sponsors are encouraged to extend permanent employment to any graduating Scholar or Alumni that are fit for their organization.

Leadership Development

The Foundation provides workshops during the annual scholars' weekend, which focus on enhancing leadership skills, including business etiquette and ethics, cultural competence, conflict resolution, public speaking, and community service. Further, JRF provides opportunities for scholars to practice and demonstrate acquired skills through conferring leadership roles within their peer community, availing them of national and local media appearances, and serving as ambassadors at public events.

Networking Weekend

Each March, Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars travel to New York City for four days of developmental workshops, career exploration seminars, meetings with key public and private sector leaders, cultural and recreational outings and practical life skills classes. During Networking Weekend, Scholars meet with their sponsors and celebrate peer achievement at an awards luncheon. As important is the time JRF Scholars spend networking and inspiring each other with stories of their own personal successes and challenges, public service endeavors and other experiences. The Weekend culminates with JRF Scholars attending the Jackie Robinson Foundation's Annual Awards Dinner.

Public Service

JRF Scholars are required to participate in community service as part of their scholarship. Each Scholar must document these projects and keep them on file with JRF. Through these efforts, JRF Scholars impact thousands of lives and gain valuable skills and experiences in the process. Whether it is starting a non-profit to provide college preparatory training for low-income students, building houses in Third World regions, researching the AIDS epidemic or reading to local students, JRF Scholars are ambassadors of Jackie's philosophy that, "A life is not important except in its impact on other lives."

Rachel Robinson International Fellowship (RRIF)

The Rachel Robinson International Fellowship Program (RRIF) was established, with a generous grant from the Sheila C. Johnson Foundation, to promote and support international and study abroad opportunities for JRF Scholars. Fellows are selected on the basis of their leadership potential, academic excellence and commitment to community or national development. Scholars may use the fellowship for a variety of initiatives, such as additional financial support for a study abroad program, a volunteer or philanthropic effort, or in conjunction with an approved internship obtained through a third party organization or for-profit corporation.

Extra Innings Fellowship

In 2006, with a generous half a million dollar challenge grant from the Windmill Foundation and Ernest and Anna Steiner, JRF launched the Extra Innings Fellowship Program to help highly motivated JRF Scholars overcome one of the biggest challenges to their careers –the cost of advanced professional or graduate training. Through the Extra Innings program, JRF aims to promote the study of a broad range of topics that will have a substantive impact on communities across the country and contribute to the intellectual growth of tomorrow's leaders. Extra Innings Fellows receive up to $10,000 per year.

Scholar Recognition Awards

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars across the country are not only excelling in the classroom but are also affecting significant change and positively impacting the lives of others in their own communities. As ambassadors of Jackie Robinson's philosophy, "A life is not important except in its impact on other lives," JRF Scholars touch thousands of lives each year through their community service. Each year, the Foundation presents four awards to Scholars with particularly prodigious records of academic achievement and civic engagement:

• Ralph E. Ward Incentive Award
  Presented since 1989, the Ralph E. Ward Achievement Award recognizes the graduating Scholar with the highest cumulative grade point average. Recipients receive a $10,000 cash prize. Ward, the former chairman of Chesebrough-Pond's USA (now Unilever) was instrumental in initiating corporate support of the Foundation's scholarship program in 1973.
• Spike Lee Youth Motivation Award
  The Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) established the JRF/Spike Lee Youth Motivation Award with a generous gift from noted filmmaker Spike Lee. The award provides a $2,500 grant to the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholar who has performed the most outstanding community service during the preceding calendar year.
• Unilever Legacy of Leadership Award
  Original corporate sponsor Unilever created the Unilever Legacy of Leadership Award in celebration of its 100th sponsored scholar, to reinvigorate its commitment to supporting opportunity through education. This annual award, which carries a $10,000 prize, is given to a student who exhibits outstanding leadership qualities and makes a positive impact on lives, issues or society at large during the previous year. In addition, the Scholar is considered for a domestic internship at Unilever.
• Nike Prize
  In recognition of sport and its power to affect change, this award celebrates the impact an athlete and sport can have on society. Created in 2008, the Nike Prize grants $1,000 annually to the JRF scholar/athlete who exemplifies through his or her actions, the ways in which commitment, advocacy and innovation can unite to challenge a community to change.