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 Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee Knoxville received a $10 million donation from alumnus Dwight Hutchins to support the Fred D. Brown Jr. Minority Engineering Scholarship program. The scholarship program was established in the college to help support engineering students from historically underrepresented populations. Hutchins has spent nearly 26 years at information services giant Accenture, including nearly 10 years in Singapore, where he serves as Asia Pacific managing director of strategy consulting practice for products.
Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, received two federal grants totaling $4.2 million. The first grant will support programs to improve retention and graduation rates of traditional African American students with a focus on enhanced academic coaching, supplemental instruction, peer-to-peer tutoring, and a series of university-wide special initiatives to support Black students in STEM fields. The second grant will be used to improve retention and program completion rates of African American and low-income students in the executive and professional education program.
Historically Black Talladega College in Alabama received a $125,000 grant from Alabama Power to assist in the ongoing development of the Civil Rights Garden on campus. The Garden will honor Hank and Billye Aaron, who have contributed more than $700,000 in scholarship money to Talladega College students through the Chasing the Dream Foundation; Arthur Bacon, a renowned local artist; Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young, who met on the campus of Talladega College; and Hank Thomas, one of the 1961 Freedom Riders.
The College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences at historically Black Florida A&M University received $2.5 million from the Florida Department of Children and Families to continue collaborative efforts to support the wellness of the state’s first responders. The award will facilitate the development and dissemination of an open access “Tactical Resiliency Toolkit” for first responders.
Elizabeth City State University, the historically Black educational institution in North Carolina, received a five-year grant totaling $825,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The grant will support programs helping students prepare for future careers in materials science and photonic engineering. The university will use the grant to perform research and education in the STEM disciplines, as well as fund internships for students to work with a laboratory research partner in California.
