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.
Benedict College, the historically Black educational institution in Columbia, South Carolina, received a $100,000 grant from the Truist Foundation to support the implementation of the Benedict College WBC Mobile and Creative Entrepreneurial Demonstration Project, a new initiative designed to reach socially and economically disadvantaged women business owners in targeted rural areas of South Carolina. The state-of-the-art mobile office unit is scheduled to launch next spring and will be staffed with experienced business advisors. The unit will be equipped with seven computer training stations, smart boards, and wi-fi access.
The Center for Justice Research at historically Black Texas Southern University in Houston has received $410,000 in funding from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to continue its work in building and sustaining diversity within criminal justice research. The center aims to identify and develop cohorts of faculty and graduate researchers to gain knowledge and competencies in criminal justice and social justice research. The program will also work to identify diversion programs in the criminal justice system that effectively align with community-based goals, as well as develop a website resource tool that will provide evidence-based approaches to diversion.
The College of Veterinary Medicine at Historically Black Tuskegee University in Alabama received a five-year, $175,000 grant from Royal Canin, a leader in science-based cat and dog health nutrition. The company is a subsidiary of Mars Inc. The grant will help promote diversity in the veterinary field by providing discretionary financial support for veterinary students at the university. Only 2 percent of the nation’s veterinarians are African Americans.
Historically Black Delaware State University received a $1 million grant from Barclays U.S. Consumer Bank to support the university’s Global Institute for Equity, Inclusion, and Civil Rights. The Global Institute supports and integrates existing entities at the university and partners with organizations and diverse leaders with a shared value and social infrastructure to target resources to historically marginalized communities. The Institute primarily focuses on building equitable opportunities for global communities of color through community and economic development; case studies; market data; analytics; and participants’ actual lived experiences.
