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.

The University of Houston received a $500,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the Culturally Responsive Intervention to Improve Maternal and Child Wellbeing project. The project seeks to help women in low-income neighborhoods who suffer from post-partum depression. McClain Sampson, an assistant professor in the Graduate College of Social Work and co-director of the project, notes that “women don’t want to be labeled as unfit or crazy so they just push through, but that’s dangerous. We are teaching them an evidenced-based method of problem solving. If we can help solve the smaller problems, then they can work to gain control over decision-making and management of moods.”

The Center for Women and Business at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, received a $1 million donation to support the university’s Women’s Leadership Program. The program offers scholarships of $10,000 per year to 40 first-year women students. Women selected for the program will also participate in skills and leadership training, visit area corporations, attend roundtable and panel discussions, and have access to corporate mentors.

Smith College, the highly rated liberal arts college for women in Northampton, Massachusetts, received a $496,638 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center that will be used to acquire equipment for the Center for Molecular Biology and the Center for Microscopy and Imaging. The new equipment will support student training in genomic and light microscopy research.

University of California, Irvine received a two-year, $210,000 grant from the NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division for research on the role of women in conflict resolution around the world. The grant will also support a website and sexual assault awareness training tailored for NATO employees. The research will be under the direction of Heidi Hardt, an assistant professor of political science at the university.