Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

Meredith College, the liberal arts educational institution for women in Raleigh, North Carolina, received a $3.5 million donation from the Jud Ammons family of Raleigh. The gift is the largest in the college’s history. The funds will be used to renovate Johnson Hall and to construct a welcome center at the facility that will be named after Jo Ellen Ammons, a 1957 alumna who served four terms on the college’s board of trustees.

Texas Woman’s University received a $200,000 grant from Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to support its G-Force student-mentorship program for first-generation college students. The program operates recruitment centers in 11 public high schools. While Texas Woman’s University is officially co-educational, in 2014, women made up 89 percent of the undergraduate students.

Saint Catherine University, an educational institution for women in St. Paul, Minnesota, received a three-year $397,793 grant from the Great Lake Higher Education Guaranty Corporation that will fund 200 paid internships for university students over the next three years.

Wellesley College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in Massachusetts, received an anonymous $50 million donation from two alumnae. The gift will be used to support the new College to Career Initiative, a networking career-service project that will revamp Wellesley’s efforts to introduce its students to career opportunities throughout their undergraduate years and also later in life.