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.
The Interdenominational Theological Center, a historically Black educational institution in Atlanta, received a grant from the Kalliopeia Foundation of San Rafael, California, to plan the development of the Black Church Food and Land Security Institute. The Center will design and establish the institute in partnership with the Black Church Food Security Network, a program founded in Baltimore that partners Black farmers and urban growers with historically Black congregations to create pipelines for fresh produce from “soil to sanctuary.”
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, received a $900,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to create the Astrophysics Future Faculty Launch Program. The postdoctoral research fellowships aim to increase the number of Ph.D. students from underrepresented groups who pursue careers in the academic world. Students who successfully complete the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s to Ph.D. Bridge Program will be eligible for fellowships in astrophysics at the University of Texas, Yale University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The first two students to receive the postdoctoral fellowships are Brittany Kamai and Samaiyah Farid
Students at colleges and universities that are members of the United Negro College Fund received more than $55,000 from the Ford Fund for emergency expenses related to campus closings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund paid travel costs for 54 students who couldn’t afford to get home as campuses evacuated and states across the nation issued stay-at-home orders.
