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 Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum at Florida A&M University, under the direction of Timothy A. Barber, has been awarded two grants totaling more than $500,000 to help train current and future museum professionals, and to increase public access to its digital collections of African American history and culture. The Institute of Museums and Library Services issued a $360,000 grant to create an online database of artifacts, support staff training, and provide internship opportunities to university students. Additionally, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $150,000 grant to support long-term plans for addressing a backlog in the archive’s main collection vault.
Historically Black Clark Atlanta University received a $1 million donation from the Bernard Osher Foundation. The gift will fund 10 Osher scholarships each academic year. The scholarships are set aside for nontraditional students who have been out of college for at least five years and have plans to work after graduation.
The University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work Center for Restorative Change has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a mental health service professional demonstration project. The grant will fund the expansion of training for school-based mental health service providers with the goal of expanding the number of highly qualified, trained mental health providers, particularly those who identify as Black, African American and/or Hispanic/Latino.
Historically Black Alabama A&M University received a $620,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense for research aiming to produce new discoveries and advancement in the field of rare-earth luminescence. The grant issued to investigators in the university’s department of physics, chemistry and mathematics is titled “Investigation of the Effect of Metallic Nanoparticles Plasmonics on Rare-Earth Luminescence.”
Morgan State University, a historically Black educational institution in Baltimore, received a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a new research and education hub named the Center of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST). The center will launch new graduate programs and hold collaborative seminars, symposia, and educational outreach opportunities in STEM disciplines with the goal to produce highly talented graduates and diversify the high-technology workforce.
