Thirty of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities are the founding members of The American Talent Initiative. The program, 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.
The founding members have pledged to enhance their own efforts to recruit and support lower-income students, learn from each other, and contribute to research that will help other colleges and universities expand opportunities for lower-income students.
“If we’re serious about promoting social mobility in America, we need to ensure that every qualified high school student in the U.S. has an opportunity to attend college. I’m so glad that so many great colleges and universities have stepped up and committed themselves towards that goal. This is a vital first step towards creating a more meritocratic society,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term mayor of New York City.
The 30 founding members of The American Talent Initiative are listed below:
Amherst College |
Spelman College |
Bates College |
Stanford University |
Davidson College |
University of California-Berkeley |
Dartmouth College |
University of California-Los Angeles |
Duke University |
University of Maryland, College Park |
Franklin & Marshall College |
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor |
Georgetown University |
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill |
Georgia Institute of Technology |
University of Richmond |
Harvard University |
University of Texas-Austin |
Johns Hopkins University |
University of Washington |
Lehigh University |
Vanderbilt University |
The Ohio State University |
Vassar College |
Pomona College |
Washington University-St. Louis |
Princeton University |
Williams College |
Rice University |
Yale University |
Jah love. I am really happy to learn that so many prestigious and private Colleges and Universities in the U.S. including several IV League institutions and my Alma Mater, UC Berkeley, have committed to exploring ways to matriculate students (of color) from the working caste. I so wish that such programs existed when I sought to be accepted at College during the mid-1980s. And I hope and pray that the folks who are applying now, will find benefit greatly from this program. Blessed love.