Scholarships
AZA Professional Development Scholarships are available to Individual AZA Members and may be used towards AZA Professional Development courses. Scholarships are available to cover the costs associated with AZA Professional Development course registration fees, meals, lodging, and travel to attend the course. Scholarships are awarded on an annual basis each fall.
2025 scholarship applications are now closed. Scholarship applications for 2026 will open in June 2025.
Click the name of each scholarship below to learn more. AZA scholarships are available to AZA Individual Members who work at an AZA-accredited or certified facility.*
*Disney Advancement Scholarship applicants do not have to be AZA Individual Members.
AZA's Professional Development Committee offers the following full scholarships:
Scholarship opportunities are an AZA member benefit. Scholarships may only be used towards AZA Professional Development courses. In order to be eligible to apply, applicants must:
(1) Currently be employed at an AZA-accredited or certified facility, and
(2) Hold an Individual AZA membership *
*Disney Advancement Scholarship applicants are not required to be AZA Individual Members.
Applicants may only submit one (1) AZA scholarship application per year (example: an individual cannot apply for the Margaret A. Dankworth Scholarship and the Gary Clarke & Clayton Freiheit Scholarship in the same year). An individual cannot be awarded the same scholarship more than once. An individual is not eligible to receive any AZA scholarship more frequently than every three years. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that all application forms and recommendations are submitted before the application deadline. Applications are evaluated and recipients are chosen by the AZA Professional Development Committee and other AZA Committees as needed.
Please note: If you do not receive the scholarship and plan to take the course anyway, the scholarship application does not represent a reserved space in an AZA course. To secure a space in a course, you must submit register and pay the course registration fee in full. If you receive the scholarship, your full course registration payment will be refunded.
AZA's Professional Development course scholarships are made possible by the generous support of Disney's Animal Kingdom, Denver Zoo, and Zoo Conservation Outreach Group (ZCOG).
In partnership with AZA, the Zoo Conservation Outreach Group's (ZCOG) Conservation Training Scholarship Program is also pleased to offer a number of scholarships for our international zoo, aquarium, and conservation community colleagues.
More information and applications for ZCOG scholarships are available on the ZCOG website.
Contact ZCOG at [email protected] for questions about international scholarships.
Questions? Contact AZA's Professional Development Department.