Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
The University of the Virgin Islands, the only educational institution outside the continental United States designated as a historically Black college or university, received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for its Minority Access to Research Careers program. In the past, two thirds of all students who have entered the MARC program at the University of the Virgin Islands have gone on to enroll in Ph.D. programs. Of those entering Ph.D. programs, 90 percent have earned a Ph.D. within 10 years. This is twice the nationwide completion rate for African American students who enter Ph.D. programs in STEM fields.
Historically Black Virginia State University received a $140,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia to plan for the establishment of a college laboratory school that will seek to improve the efforts of local K-12 school systems in preparing students for higher education and careers in STEM fields.
Livingstone College, the historically Black educational institution in Salisbury, North Carolina, received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support the college’s Upward Bound program. The program seeks to recruit and prepare low-income high school students for college. The Livingston College Upward Bound program is directed by Tamesha Hooker.
