Betty White’s Zoo Pals Scholarships

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Applications for the 2025-26 school year will be posted as soon as they are available.

About Betty

Betty White was a supporter of the L.A. Zoo and a benefactor of the Zoo Pals Scholarship.

For more than fifty years, Betty White was one of the Los Angeles Zoo’s most ardent admirers and devoted benefactors. Throughout her busy Hollywood career, she remained a steady presence at the Zoo. Always ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work, she was a longtime GLAZA trustee, a Zoo Commissioner, served on countless committees, and worked behind the scenes to raise funds for new animal habitats and initiatives. And, because of plans that she put in motion before she died, her legacy will continue to live on in myriad ways here, including establishing a private foundation supporting the place she called her “home away from home.”

Betty passed away on December 31, 2021, just weeks shy of her 100th birthday. Betty’s own love of animals began very early, and she hoped to spark that same fascination in children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to visit the Zoo. The private foundation she established before her death has provided generous funding to various programs, including Zoo Pals. That funding allowed the Zoo to greatly expand the program’s offerings and capacity. In June 2023, the program was renamed “Betty White’s Zoo Pals” in her honor.