Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina received a $1 million donation from alumnus Nicholas Perkins. A 2003 graduate of the university, Perkins is the founder and president of Perkins Management Services Company, a food service firm based in Charlotte that has government, academic, and corporate clients. The company employs over 400 individuals and serves more than 20,000 meals per day in 10 states. In making the gift, Perkins said that “while there are corporations and individuals with greater resources than I, I have made a personal commitment to support the education of underserved students that are seeking to advance in society. It is critically important that individuals support historically Black institutions financially.”
Rutgers University-Camden received a grant from the March of Dimes and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses. The grant will support a research study entitled, “The Relationship Between Birth Outcomes and Neighborhood Characteristics Within an Urban Population of African American and Hispanic Women.”
Siemens Inc. has made a donation of software to historically Black Virginia State University. The software is valued at $105.6 million. The technology will support six different student research programs at the university including manufacturing engineering, computer engineering, computer science, electronics engineering, logistics technology, and mechanical engineering.
Historically Black Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, received a $3 million gift from alumna Ada Anderson. The gift, the largest in the university’s history, will be used for the initial phase of the construction of a health center that will be named in honor of the donor’s daughter. Anderson and her husband operated several successful insurance and real estate ventures. She is now 92 years old and has no living descendants.
Fourteen institutions of higher education are each receiving three-year, $300,000 grants from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). The grants are part of the AAC&U’s Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) program, which is funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Among the 14 institutions receiving the grants are historically Black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Morgan State University in Baltimore.
North Carolina A&T State University, the historically Black educational institution in Greensboro, received a $200,000 grant from Wells Fargo Inc. that will be used to fund undergraduate and graduate student scholarships.
The Novant Health Foundation Rowan Medical Center in Salisbury, North Carolina, received a $261,891 grant from the Duke Endowment to establish a three-year wellness program for students at historically Black Livingstone College. The wellness program will focus on reducing obesity among the student population.
