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.
Florida Memorial University, the historically Black educational institution in Miami Gardens, received a $1.25 million grant for a program to train special education teachers for area schools. Students in the Project Preparing Leaders to Execute Effective Actions in Special Education (PLEEASE) will earn a master’s degree in exceptional special education. About 50 students will be trained in the program over the next five years.
Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo are sharing a grant for a study on how educational institutions can more effectively support underrepresented minority women in STEM fields. The co-principal investigators on the grant project are Mary Armstrong, associate professor of English and chair of the women’s and gender studies program at Lafayette College and Jasna Jovanovic, professor of psychology and child development at CalPoly.
Historically Black Hampton University in Virginia received an $800,000 grant from Parker Hannifin, the industrial and aerospace company, to create an endowed scholarship program for the university’s School of Business.
Howard University, the historically Black educational institution in the nation’s capital, received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Science and Technology. The grant will support research and provide financial assistance to students at the Material Measurement Laboratory in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
The grant program is under the direction of Vernon Morris, professor and chair of the department of chemistry and James Mitchell professor and dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Science. Dr. Morris is a graduate of Morehouse College and holds a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech. Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and holds a Ph.D. from Iowa State University.