The federal government spends more than $30 billion each year on the Pell Grant program, which benefits well more than half of all Black students enrolled in undergraduate programs. But are colleges and universities doing a good job in graduating Pell Grant students?
Some 214 institutions have Pell graduation rates lower than 25 percent. Of the more than 60,000 Pell students initially enrolled at these institutions combined, only 9,904 of them (16 percent) graduated within six years.
A new study authored by Drew Allen of Princeton University and Gregory C. Wolniak of New York University found that a $1,000 tuition increase at 4-year, non-selective public institutions is associated with a 4.5 percent drop in campus diversity among full-time freshmen.
Many American families use the equity in their home to finance the higher education of their children or grandchildren. Since this source of wealth is less available to Black families, this places African Americans at a disadvantage in financing higher education.
QuestBridge, based in Palo Alto, California, connects high-achieving students from low-income families to 40 of the nation’s most selective colleges and universities.
On January 9, 1961, Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault became the first African-American students to register for classes at the University of Georgia. Now the 1961 Club, commemorating that event, has been established to raise funds from the more than 14,000 Black alumni of the university.
The University of Georgia School of Law has announced the establishment of the Benham Scholars Program aimed at increasing diversity at the law school. The new program is named after Robert Benham, the first African American justice on the Georgia Supreme Court.
Coach Darrell Walker uses his contacts in the sports, entertainment, and arts fields to secure donations of artwork and memorabilia that are auctioned off to raise money to pay for summer school tuition and other academic services for the players on this team.
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has become a new partner with the Posse Foundation. A Posse of 10 students from the San Francisco Bay area will become Lehigh students next fall. The university hopes to add additional Posses of 10 students each year.
The New York Times recently published its list of the Top Colleges Doing the Most for the American Dream. The rankings are based on the percentage of undergraduate students who receive federal Pell Grants as well as the net price students must pay to attend these institutions.
A new report from the Center of Education and Workforce at Georgetown University finds that nearly 90,000 students who are eligible for federal Pell Grants for low income families, are qualified to be admitted to the nation’s selective colleges and universities but do not enroll in these institutions.
The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan recently announced a $30 million expansion of its Leadership, Excellence, Achievement and Diversity (LEAD) scholarship program. To be eligible for a LEAD scholarship, a student must have African-American, Latino or Native American heritage.
The Formation Scholar awards at Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design, and Spelman College were established “to encourage and support young women who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious, and confident.”
Charlayne Hunter-Gault and her husband Ron Gault have created the Giving Voice to the Voiceless endowment at the University of Georgia. The endowment will provide grants to university students to promote social justice and global understanding.
The Broadening Ohio’s Workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-Agriculture scholarship offers a renewable $10,000 scholarship for first-year students and community college transfers. To be eligible, students must be Ohio residents and have had a minimum 3.0 grade point average in high school or community college.
Julian Bond, the noted civil rights leader, legislator, author, NAACP chair, and long-time faculty member at the University of Virginia who died in 2015, was the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Lowe’s Corporation has made a $500,000 contribution to the United Negro College Fund’s Emergency Student Aid program. The program offers financial aid to seniors at HBCUs who need funds in order to stay in school and complete their degree program.
The new scholarship at the medical school was made possible by a gift from Annie Marie Garraway, the sister of Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., the first Black graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Under the so-called Excelsior Scholarship plan, tuition at all two- and four-year college of the State University of New York System and the City University of New York System would be paid by the state for all full-time students from families whose income are below $125,000.
Robert F. Smith, founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners and the only African American man on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, has been identified by the Nigerian government as the Good Samaritan who is sponsoring the higher education of 24 women who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram.
In the fall of 2015, the National Merit Scholarship Program announced that it was ending its National Achievement Scholarship Program. Over the past 51 years, the program had awarded about $108 million to more than 34,000 college-bound African Americans. The replacement program will award funds to college graduates to pay off loans or for graduate study.
The American Talent Initiative, funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies, hopes to expand to 270 educational institutions nationwide. It has set a goal of enrolling and graduating 50,000 students from low-income families by 2025.
Earlier this month at halftime of the Big 10 Championship Game, Jarrius Adams won the Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway Football Throw-Off competition. Adams threw 11 footballs, 15 yards into a target during the 30-second contest beating his rival and winning the $100,000 scholarship prize.
The data shows that 80 percent of all students at HBCUs borrow money under federal student loan programs. One quarter of all HBCUs graduates had student loan debt of more than $40,000. This is four times the rate of non-HBCU graduates.
The Jackson Institute currently enrolls about 25 students in its master’s degree program in global affairs. About half of these students are from outside the United States. Two new fellowships will be available for African students or others who have shown an interest in studying Africa.
The Philip Freelon Fellowship Fund at the Harvard Graduate School of Design will be used to provide financial aid to African Americans and students from other underrepresented groups who are pursuing graduate degrees in design.
The FAMU Foundation Board of Directors approved the $5 million initiative to help the university increase its graduation rate, enhance academic programs, and recruit top talent.
Four years after they graduate from college, Black students have an average debt load that is $25,000 more than White students who had graduated from college four years earlier. And the amount of debt held by African American college graduates, when adjusted for inflation, has increased sixfold in the past 15 years.
The U.S. Department of Education recently released a new report on participation in the Pell Grant program. The need-based program provides up to $5,815 annually in federal funds for college students.
New data released by the university shows that there has been a significant drop in students of color from underrepresented groups. In 2015, students of color made up 28 percent of the entering class compared to 24 percent this year.
The four students from African nations have been awarded full scholarships at Penn State. The scholars will also receive mentoring and internship opportunities. The first cohort includes two students from Ghana and one each from Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
A new 188-page report from the U.S. Department of Education offers a wide-ranging summary of most of the important educational statistics on enrollment, financial aid, graduation rates, degree attainments etc. as they pertain to race all in one place.
Jackson State University in Mississippi has created an endowed scholarship fund in honor of Charles Holmes, the former professor and chair of the department of political science in the College of Liberal Arts.
Research conducted at Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis found that low-to-moderate income Black students and graduates accrue on average $7,721 more student debt than their White counterparts.
The Charles and Mildred Nilon Scholarship will be offered to students who “are committed to advancing educational opportunities in under-resourced schools, especially those that serve African American communities.”
Under the program, students who graduate from one of the City Colleges of Chicago who are admitted to Northwestern to complete their bachelor’s degree, will be eligible for up to $50,000 per year in scholarship money.
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