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.
Bethune-Cookman University has received a $1,199,901 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the historically Black educational institution’s project, “Developing Effective Mathematical Science School Teachers for High-Need Middle Schools.” The program aims to encourage talented STEM undergraduate students to pursue mathematical sciences teaching careers at elementary and secondary schools, especially in high-needs areas.
Carolyn Barnes, an assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, has been named a William T. Grant Scholar. The prestigious program will award her $350,000 over the next five years to support her study called “How Politics, Poverty, and Social Policy Implementation Shape Racial Inequality in Child Development in the Rural South.” The project will focus on rural North Carolina, where the poverty rate exceeds the national rate and where wide racial disparities in poverty exist.
Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has received a $150,000 gift from alumnus Ben Wilson and his wife Merinda to support STEM students from underrepresented groups. The donation will fund the E. E. Just Program, which provides these students with mentorships, research internships, and undergraduate fellowships. More than 85 percent of the most recent cohort graduated with a STEM degree, which is twice the average rate for minority students who arrive at Dartmouth interested in pursuing a STEM degree. Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) was a 1907 graduate of Dartmouth College and after receiving a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, he chaired Howard University’s department of biology.
