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 California San Francisco’s California Preterm Birth Initiative has received a $5.6 million research grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to compare the effectiveness of two enhanced prenatal care programs for low-income women. The two programs are “Glow!,” a Fresno-based group prenatal care with wraparound services intervention, and individual prenatal care with additional services provided by the Department of Public Health’s Comprehensive Perinatal Service Program (CPSP). The primary research goal is to compare the effectiveness of “Glow!” and CPSP in lowering a woman’s risk of preterm birth and reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The researchers also will compare women’s experience of respectful care and satisfaction of care.

Barnard College, a highly rated liberal arts college for women in New York City, has received a $1 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to support the CORE Academy, an initiative dedicated to the reform of economics education and enrichment of economic discourse. Currently, fewer than 30 percent of undergraduate students with economic majors in the United States are women. The new funds will allow Barnard faculty to collaborate with colleagues from Columbia University and other institutions to produce open-access teaching and learning materials designed to facilitate a deep understanding of real-world events.

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University in partnership with Barnard College has received a six-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund a pipeline program for women in engineering. Through the program, Barnard students will be able to obtain a bachelor’s degree from Barnard and a master’s degree in engineering from Columbia in just five years. The Columbia Engineering 4+1 Pathway for Accelerated Graduate Study will allow students to study a variety of undergraduate majors and form their own unique pathways. These majors include biochemistry, chemistry, economics, mathematics, statistics, physics, and others still under discussion.