Graduate Scholarship Program
Investing in the Conservation Leaders of Tomorrow
Zoo New England is committed to equality and diversity in everything we do. As part of this commitment, we've partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) to help provide graduate scholarships to the conservation leaders of tomorrow from low-income countries.
Too often brilliant young conservationists from around the world find their career paths blocked by a lack of opportunity to continue their education and collaborate with colleagues from around the world.
The WCN Rising Wildlife Leaders Scholarship Program provides these young conservation leaders of tomorrow with just this rare opportunity – to get a Masters or PhD to advance their training and experience at some of the best universities in the world. They also get to travel and meet other colleagues from around the world and build important new relationships, and learn from global experts in ways that greatly builds and improves their nations’ capacity to protect wildlife.
Zoo New England is a proud partner in this important initiative. In February 2026 the WCN Graduate Scholarship Program provided 15 graduate scholarships to young conservation leaders from such countries as Myanmar, Bolivia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. These brilliant young conservationists will be advancing their careers at top-flight universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, and UC Santa Cruz.
The program also has a wildlife veterinarian graduate scholarship program, and we have awarded four scholarships to wildlife vets from countries such as Namibia, Uganda, and Nigeria to attend graduate programs at schools such as the University of Bristol and University of Edinburgh.
Some of the highly threatened and even critically endangered wildlife that these young conservationists have committed to saving include the mountain gorilla, cheetah, dugongs, African elephant, and white-headed vulture.
A third funding stream is for young Tribal conservationists from indigenous US Native American communities. This year we awarded two scholarships to young conservationists to further their academic careers at the University of Idaho and SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry.
These opportunities for advancement will empower these young conservationists to become international leaders in the effort to save the highly threatened species that they have already dedicated their lives to protect.
Learn more about this program and its extraordinary young conservation leaders.
