Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
North Carolina A&T State University, the historically Black educational institution in Greensboro, received a $1 million donation from alumnus Willie A Deese, a former executive of the pharmaceutical company Merck Inc. The gift will support several scholarship initiatives and provide funding for the university’s Center for Outreach in Alzheimer’s, Aging, and Community Health.
Historically Black LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis is teaming up with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in a grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the program is to increase the level of interest in careers in the field of developmental disabilities among students from underrepresented groups.
Michigan State University received grants totaling $2.3 million from the National Science Foundation to fund training programs aimed at increasing the number of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups who go on to pursue doctorates in economics. The grant will fund a two-month summer program offering undergraduate students the opportunity to enhance their mathematical and technical skills so they will be prepared for graduate study in economics.
North Carolina Central University, the historically Black educational institution in Durham, received a five-year, $1,179,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to establish the Educational Opportunity Center within the university’s Division of Student Affairs. The new center will provide counseling for students who dropped out of high school and for adult learners who are considering enrolling in college.
The University of California, San Francisco received a four-year, $29 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for programs aimed at eliminating malaria in South Asian and South African nations.
