The JCD Foundation helps pay tuition, room and board, books and related supplies for Fox Valley students heading into advanced manufacturing, health sciences, and the building trades. Tell us what you want to do. We'll help you get there.
You don't need a 4-year degree to build a serious career.
JCD is a Fox Valley foundation for students who want to make things, heal people, or build stuff that lasts. We help pay for the training: tuition, room and board, books and related supplies, up to half the cost.
No trick essay prompts. No scholarship committee that confuses polish for potential. Tell us what you want to do, what it costs to get there, and show us you're ready to do the work.
We fund training in the three sectors the Fox Valley actually runs on — and that need people right now.
The backbone of the Fox Valley. Build, weld, program, and run the machines that run the world. John Dunham's own industry — now yours.
Training into the jobs every Fox Valley hospital is actively hiring for. Patient-facing, tech-forward, never boring.
The trades aren't the fallback. They're the move. Real skills, good wages, and the satisfaction of building something that's still standing in 80 years.
We asked the dentists and hygienists at Fairview Dental in Aurora what the job really takes. Seven questions, four minutes, their own words.
With thanks to the team at Fairview Dental.
At a community college, a four-year school, a private vocational school or another instruction-based program. Paid directly to the school.
School housing and meal plans, plus the books and supplies your courses require, bought through your school. All paid to the school.
JCD's assistance can't exceed 50% of tuition, room and board, and related educational expenses. Every award is set on the same criteria.
A review committee with experience in all three fields reads every application. Everyone hears back by March 31.
Two quick picks. We'll tell you on the spot.
John C. Dunham grew up in Aurora and graduated from West Aurora High School in 1928. He built Equipto, his family's company, into a steel shelving business known well beyond the Fox Valley. He relied on the trades every day, and his wife was a nurse — that's where our three career paths come from.
JCD carries his name forward — the belief that the next generation of makers, healers, and builders deserves a real shot at work that matters.We're built for students from East Aurora to Geneva, from Batavia to Oswego who want a career they can build with their hands, their skills, and their training.
Named for a Fox Valley manufacturer. Run by Fox Valley people. Built for you.
Opens December 1, 2026 and closes February 28, 2027. Tell us where you're headed and what it costs to get there. It saves as you go, so you can gather the pieces and come back.