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.
Tuskegee University and The Honors College at California State University, Los Angeles have received a $195,161 Institutional Impact Grant from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative and the Lilly Endowment Inc. The funding will support Tuskegee and Cal State LA’s “Designing an Inter-Campus, Cross-Cultural Character and Leadership Education Program Rooted in the Philosophy and Vision of Booker T. Washington” project, which aims to further both institution’s understanding of character and leadership development.
Spelman College in Atlanta has received a $210,901 grant from the National Security Agency to support the college’s STARTALK Student Program. The program, which successfully kicked off this summer, brings middle and high school students to the Spelman campus to participate in free Chinese language and cultural education workshops.
Florida A&M University has received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning into biology education at four HBCUs. The project will be led by Clement G. Yedjou, associate professor of biology at FAMU, in partnership with Jackson State University, Alcorn State University, and Grambling State University. Over the next three years, faculty from all four institutions will receive training in AI technologies and how to incorporate them into their courses. Additionally, course comparisons between AI-enhanced courses and traditional biology courses will be monitored to continually enhance course-effectiveness and student engagement.
Alabama State University has received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to increase the number of high-qualified STEM teachers from underrepresented backgrounds. The funds will be used to provide financial support to eight scholars from ASU’s STEM master’s degree programs as they attain their master of education degrees. Additionally, funding will support a collaborative partnership between ASU and the Montgomery Public School System.
Elizabeth City State University has received a $125,000 grant from the Lumina Foundation’s Adult Learner Initiative to enhance the university’s resources for adult learners. The new funds will support the “ECSU is For You” campaign, which aims to bring attention to the unique needs of adult learners and create a cultural shift across the university that better supports their education.
A team of researchers from Baylor University in Texas, the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and the University of Minnesota Medical School has been awarded $2.5 million through the National Institute of Health’s National Cancer Institute Cooperative Agreement Award program. The grant will support an ongoing research initiative aimed at promoting cervical cancer screening for women in Ghana. The new funds will be leveraged to train healthcare providers on effective cervical cancer screenings, implement cervical cancer toolkits at hospitals and organizational systems, and monitor the effectiveness and sustainability of cervical screenings in Ghana.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a $171,962 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to establish a two-week summer program for 25 high school teachers in Massachusetts to learn the fundamentals of African American studies. The program aims to prepare educators to teach the new Advanced Placement African American Studies course, as well as expand their current understanding of the field.
