Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
A $5 million gift from an anonymous donor will enable Sweet Briar College, a liberal arts educational institution for women in Virginia, to significantly expand its prestigious Presidential Scholars Program, the college’s highest scholarship award. Presidential Scholarships offer full and partial tuition scholarships to Sweet Briar’s top student candidates based on quantifiable academic achievements and a rigorous on-campus, invitation-only interview process. The average high school GPA of the college’s Presidential Scholars is 3.96. Currently, the college offers scholarships to 30 students; the gift allows the College to expand the number of participants by 40 percent. “These scholarships will help make Sweet Briar the college of choice for some of the nation’s brightest young women,” said Sweet Briar President Meredith Woo.
Stony Book University received a three-year, $957.000 grant from the State University of New York System for its Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Growth (PRODIG) faculty diversity initiative. The funds will support the hiring of women and faculty from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. The money will support the salaries of six faculty members over the next three years.
Murray State University in Kentucky received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to educate faculty who participate in hiring searches on implicit bias. The goal of the program is to increase the number of women faculty members in STEM disciplines at the university.