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 Fort Valley State University in Georgia received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for research on protecting peanut crops from burrower bug damage. The research will be under the direction of George Mbata, a professor of biology at the university. Dr. Mbata holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in zoology from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
The University of Chicago received $50 million challenge grant from alumna Harriet Heyman and her husband Michael Moritz. The funds will support the Odyssey Scholarship Program that is aimed at students with the greatest economic need. Many of the students in the program are minorities or the first in their families to attend college. The grant will also support the university’s Collegiate Scholars Program, which prepares students in the predominantly Black and Hispanic Chicago Public School System to excel at the nation’s leading colleges and universities.
Albany State University, the historically Black educational institution in Georgia, received a three-year, $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense for research on protecting troops and the general public from bioterrorist attacks. The research team, which includes Shayla Williams, an assistant professor of biology at Albany State, will study the toxic effect of organophosphate compounds in different types of cells.
The United Negro College Fund announced a new seven-year, $700,000 commitment from U.S. Bank to launch the Ujima Scholars Program that will help African American high school students from the Twin Cities in Minnesota prepare for college. These students will then receive college scholarships. Each student selected for the program will be paired with a mentor from U.S. Bank.
