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.
Georgia Southern University received a five-year, $3,250,000 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Service Administration. The grant will fund the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students program, designed to increase diversity in the health professions and nursing workforce by offering awards to institutions that provide scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are enrolled full time in a health profession or nursing program.
Historically Black Hampton University in Virginia has been awarded a five-year $1,554,390 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund research training programs that will incorporate didactic, research, mentoring, and career development elements to prepare trainees for the completion of research-focused higher degree programs in biomedical fields.
The United Negro College Fund received a $1 million donation from Amazon. The gift was awarded by the company’s Black Employee Network as part of the retailer’s social justice mission. The funds will be used to support the UNCF’s 37 member institutions.
A team of researchers from the College of Nursing at Ohio State University received a four-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for programs to reduce heart disease among young African Americans. The study will recruit 256 Black community college students who are overweight or obese. Researchers will work with the students to develop healthy habits to lower their risk of cardiovascular disease. Participants will be matched with a health coach for the first six months of the study. They’ll then be coached on how to keep off the weight they lost in the first part of the study for another six months.
Jackson State University, the historically Black educational institution in Mississippi, was awarded a $467,080 grant from the National Science Foundation to help develop the next generation of primarily local minority scientists. The grant will fund student research in chemistry, physics, biology, environmental science, and materials science. Researchers will conduct work on biosensors, ultrafast switches, photodetectors, and various photochemistry applications.
