Burns and RangeFoundation

Rooted in faith · Inspired by the range

Opening wide country
for young minds.

Burns and Range Foundation backs exceptionally talented students with merit scholarships, arts awards, and test prep, and helps their schools with classroom grants.

Our ProgramsApplications

Our Mission

Burns and Range Foundation opens doors for gifted young people, students of demonstrated talent who may have no other path to reach their goals, to learn, create, and serve. Grounded in faith in God, shaped by our founder's Catholic faith, and the enduring character of the American range, we support students and the schools that form them, so that faith, hard work, and opportunity can carry them as far as their gifts allow.

Faith

We believe every young person's gifts are given for a purpose.

Stewardship

Like good ranch land, talent grows when it is tended with care.

Grit

We back students willing to do the hard work in front of them.

Our Programs

Five ways we open the gate

Range Scholars

Merit scholarships for STEM and health

Merit scholarships for gifted students with a proven aptitude for building, healing, discovering, and solving. Range Scholars are selected by application and review across four broad tracks.

  • Science & Technology: computing, biology, chemistry, and emerging fields
  • Engineering & Mathematics: the builders and problem-solvers
  • Health & Medicine: future physicians, nurses, and caregivers
  • Earth & Physical Sciences: geology, physics, and the study of the land itself

Open Sky Arts Award

For young artists

Beauty points beyond itself. This merit award honors exceptionally talented young artists, selected on portfolio or audition, who need the means to keep advancing.

  • Visual arts, music, and the performing arts
  • Support for study, instruction, and materials
  • Selection by portfolio, audition, and review

Trailhead Prep

SAT/ACT prep and tutoring

Real ability shouldn't be held back by what private lessons cost. Trailhead Prep gives high-achieving students without access to private tutoring the preparation their record deserves.

  • SAT and ACT preparation support
  • Tutoring in core subjects
  • For strong students with demonstrated academic promise

Schoolhouse Grants

Small grants for Catholic schools

Practical, targeted grants that help Catholic schools give students more to work with, from the lab bench to the library shelf.

  • Science lab equipment
  • Art and music supplies
  • Books and classroom resources

Island & Range

Antigua and Barbuda

Our founding family's ties reach from the American West to the Caribbean. Island & Range extends our merit programs to gifted students, and our grants to schools, in Antigua and Barbuda.

  • Merit scholarships for Antiguan and Barbudan students
  • Test prep and tutoring access
  • Small grants for schools on both islands

Who We Look For

Gifted, driven, and ready

Our scholarships and awards are merit-based and selective. Recipients are chosen by application and review.

Demonstrated gift

Exceptional ability in a field of study or art.

Evidence

Honors, competition results, portfolio work, auditions, or a strong academic record.

Drive

The discipline to keep working at a high level.

Need for opportunity

A real path forward that might not otherwise be open.

How Selection Works

Three steps, carefully taken

1. Apply

Students, or schools for Schoolhouse Grants, submit an application with evidence of their gifts: records, honors, portfolio, or audition.

2. Review

Each application is read and weighed on demonstrated talent, drive, and need for opportunity.

3. Award

Selected recipients are notified and support is directed to their study, training, or classroom.

Partner Schools

An invitation to Catholic schools

If your school has gifted students who need more to work with, a lab, an instrument, the right books, we would like to hear from you. Schools in Indiana, the western range states, and Antigua and Barbuda are welcome to reach out about Schoolhouse Grants.

Introduce Your School

Questions

Frequently asked

Who can apply?

Students with demonstrated talent in STEM, health and medicine, the earth and physical sciences, or the fine arts, and Catholic schools seeking small classroom grants.

Is this open to everyone?

No. Our programs are merit-based and selective. Every award is made by application and review.

Do recipients become members?

Yes. Membership is voluntary and by approved application. Adult applicants join as members. For applicants under 18, a parent applies for membership and the student is accepted as a member through that parent. The membership agreement is provided before anyone is asked to sign.

Do I need to be Catholic?

Our work is shaped by our founder's faith, but scholarships and awards are judged on gifts, drive, and need for opportunity.

How can I support the mission?

Write to us. Members and friends of the association support the work through contributions, mentorship, and connections.

A creek winding through a sage valley beneath mountains at dusk

Our Story

Values from the open range

The range country of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho has long asked a lot of the people who live there: patience, honest work, care for what you have been given, and faith to see it through. Those are the values behind our name.

Burns and Range Foundation was established in 2025 to carry them forward. Shaped by our founder's Catholic faith, we leave religious instruction to the Church and focus on what we can do well: helping gifted young people get the education, training, and tools that let those gifts grow.

Brandy Hall, Founding Trustee

Support the Mission

Ride alongside us

Burns and Range Foundation PMA is a private membership association. Members and friends who share our mission make this work possible through contributions to the mission and through their time, mentorship, and connections.

Get in Touch

Contact

We'd be glad to hear from you

For questions about programs, membership, or partnering with us, email us.

Email
[email protected]