The Rick Hooper Scholarship
The Rick Hooper Scholarship was established to honor the memory of Richard M. "Rick" Hooper, who died at age 40 in the August 19, 2003, terrorist bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.
Rick, a 1985 graduate of UC Santa Cruz, spent many years in the Middle East and became one of the UN's chief experts on the region. He became interested in the Middle East as a UCSC undergraduate while studying abroad, and he returned to join a campus student organization, the Palestine Support Group, dedicated to promoting awareness of the culture, aspirations, and human rights situation of Palestinians. He spent an extra undergraduate year studying at Birzeit University, studied Arabic on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Damascus and the American University of Cairo, and received a master's in Arab studies from Georgetown University.
Rick Hooper first joined the United Nations in 1990 as a refugee affairs officer in Gaza with the UN Relief and Works Agency. He later served at the agency's Vienna headquarters. Since 2001 he had been special assistant to the UN undersecretary general for political affairs. In 1995-96 and 1999-2001, he served as special assistant to the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. He had a long association with the Norwegian Institute for Applied Social Sciences and helped establish its Program for International Cooperation and Conflict Resolution. He was also founding director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum in New York.
Rick Hooper Scholarship Update: 2025
We are reaching out to share an update regarding the Rick Hooper Scholarship Fund. After thoughtful consideration, we have decided to pause the scholarship for this academic year. This decision demonstrates our dedication to providing an award amount that significantly impacts the recipient. Allowing the fund to grow will enable us to offer a more significant award next year.
We sincerely appreciate your understanding. Applications will reopen in Winter 2026, and we are excited to resume the program with a scholarship that provides significant support. This award honors academic merit and financial need, focusing on undergraduate students interested in the Arabic language, the Arabic-speaking or Muslim world, peace and conflict resolution, or Palestinian human rights.
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