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.
Oklahoma State University received a $513,000 grant from the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department for a program to help aspiring entrepreneurs in the African nations of Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa.
Clemson University in South Carolina, in partnership with Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, have been awarded a $349,697 grant from the National Science Foundation for a program to determine if a career development initiative can be successful in increasing the number of Black students seeking careers in STEM disciplines. The grant program is under the direction of Lamont A. Flowers, executive director of the Charles H. Houston Center for the Study of the Black Experience in Education at Clemson. Dr. Flowers is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. He holds a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.
Historically Black Hampton University in Virginia received a $1 million donation from the estate of Dr. Lois Price Spratlen. The funds will establish an endowed chair in her name at the university’s School of Nursing. Dr. Spratlen was a 1954 graduate of Hampton University. She spent most of her career as a professor of psychosocial nursing at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Indiana University in Bloomington received a two-year grant from the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department to develop a program that uses recreational sports to help boys and girls in the African nation of Ghana avoid substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.
North Carolina Central University, the historically Black educational institution in Durham, received a $350,000 grant from the Executive Leadership Foundation to support the university’s Summer Youth Business & Entrepreneurship Academy. High school students spend two weeks of the summer in a business immersion program at the university, which includes a business plan competition.
Harvard University received a three-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging for a study on how people in sub-Saharan Africa are dealing with health issues as more individuals are living longer.
Historically Black Delaware State University in Dover received a $326,138 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to launch a solar energy research and education program at the university.
Johnson C. Smith University, the historically Black educational institution in Charlotte, received a $2.5 million grant from the Duke Endowment. The funds will be earmarked for student scholarships.
