Arlan Hamilton is the founder and managing partner of California-based Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Backstage was founded in 2015 and has now invested nearly $5 million into 100 startup companies.
Hamilton is now funding a scholarship program for African or Caribbean Black students at the University of Oxford in England. Less than 3 percent of Oxford undergraduates are Black. The scholarship is the first at the university that is earmarked for Black students. Hamilton has spent time at Oxford as a consultant to the Oxford Foundry, an entrepreneurship center at the university.
Martin William, a professor and pro-vice-chancellor for education at Oxford, stated that “I am delighted that Arlan has chosen Oxford for this generous gift. Finance should not be a barrier to opportunity or education, and I hope that this announcement reminds Black students across the country that there are opportunities for them at the university.”
Hamilton also plans to start a scholarship fund at Dillard University in New Orleans, where her mother is an alumna.
Thank you ! This may encourage more minority students to venture internationally in search of a more “global” education. Oxford is a prime place to do so.
There could not be too many names like the Hewitt-Clarke listed and I have just read that that person may be linked by DNA though Ancestry as a 4th -6th Cousin of mine and that makes me very proud if it is correct.