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.
Clemson University in South Carolina received a $500,000 grant from Well Fargo to support its Call Me MISTER and Emerging Scholars programs. The goal of the Call Me MISTER program is to prepare more African American men to serve as teachers. The Emerging Scholars program aims to increase the number of college graduates from underrepresented groups.
The University of Florida received a $250,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a mobile tool that can be used to detect the warning signs of preeclampsia among pregnant women. About 15 percent of pregnant women in Africa develop preeclampsia, where the condition is far more prevalent than in developed nations.
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the historically Black educational institution in Princess Anne, received a $500,000 donation from Carnelious Jones, a Baltimore businessman that will be earmarked to recruit students to the university’s golf management program. The university is one of 20 in the nation, and the only HBCU, with a golf management major supported by the Professional Golfers Association.
Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, received a grant of nearly $100,000 from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation to boost retention and graduation rates of African American students. Money will be provided for tutors, case management, and study groups.
The University of Georgia received a five-year, $656,348 grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on how to improve the mental and sexual health of young, pregnant women in the African nation of Liberia. The research will be under the direction of Tamora Callands, an assistant research scientist in the university’s College of Public Health.
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., received a five-year, $19.8 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development for a fertility awareness and family planning project in sub-Saharan Africa.
Winston-Salem State University, the historically Black educational institution in North Carolina, received a $200,000 grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a study of a wellness counseling approach to combat obesity in African American women between the ages of 30 and 65. The study will offer a 16-week intervention program that includes fee health screenings, free exercise classes, wellness coaching, and a stipend for completing all programs.
Historically Black Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, received a three-year, $900,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency for an educational program for youth on the relationship between substance abuse and HIV infection. The Students Mobilized and Retooled to Transform (SMART) program is under the direction of Lorece Edwards, an associate professor in the university’s School of Community Health and Policy.
Tennessee State University in Nashville received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation for a program to increase the number of Black and other minority students in STEM fields.
The University of California at Los Angeles received a $7 million grant to conduct research on the relationship between substance abuse and HIV infection among African American and Latino men who have sex with men.
