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.
With financial support from the American Express Foundation, New York University‘s Research Center for Leadership in Action has established the Ignite Fellowship for Women of Color in the Social Sector. The program will offer nine-month fellowships for 35 women of color in nonprofit organizations across the United States. The women will have the opportunity to learn best practices and develop leaderships skills in addition to networking with a large number of their peers.
Bethany Godsoe, executive director of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, stated, “Women of color who are heading up nonprofits are doing some of the most groundbreaking, complex and too often, under-recognized, work in the field. We are thrilled to support them at this mid-career stage, giving them space to reflect back on what they have accomplished and equipping them to reach the next level of impact going forward.”
Clark Atlanta University received a grant of $294,494 from the National Cancer Institute. The grant program, under the direction of Valerie Odero-Marah, an associate professor in the university’s Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development, is entitled, “The Role of SNAIL Signaling in Prostate Cancer Metastasis.”
The University of California at Los Angeles School of Dentistry received an $11 million grant from First 5 LA, a child advocacy organization that is funded by a tax on tobacco products. The grant money will be used to establish a dental care program for children ages 0 to 5 from underserved minority groups.
Claflin University, the historically Black educational institution in Orangeburg, South Carolina, received a $200,000 grant from First Citizens Bank. The money will be used to start an endowed scholarship fund for Claflin students.
Indiana University has received a three-year, $4.2 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development for programs to promote the higher education of women in South Sudan. Cooperating institutions in the project to create a supporting environment for women pursuing higher education in the war-torn nation are Virginia Tech, the University of Juba, and Upper Nile University.
The University of California at Berkeley has received a grant from the MasterCard Foundation to fund recruitment efforts for admissions officers in sub-Saharan Africa. Admissions officials traveled to 22 of the top high schools in the region in an effort to recruit undergraduate students to Berkeley. The trip resulted in the selection of eight students who will come to California next fall as MasterCard Scholars. Also the number of total applicants from the region jumped from 114 last year to 169 this year.
This is a wonderful initiative that UC Berkeley has undertaken, however, what efforts are being implemented to prepare and recruit economically challenged African American in Berkeley’s backyard for matriculation and ultimately graduation?