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.

Towson University in Maryland received a grant from the First Financial Federal Credit Union to support the first year of the Outstanding Young Women Leaders program at the university. Baltimore County Public Schools principals may nominate up to three Grade 11 female students for the program. The Women’s Leadership Collective will select one student from each high school. Students selected for the program will experience interactions with university faculty, staff and students, guest speakers and panelists, an introduction to college life through cultural and fine arts events and performances, and a variety of leadership skills training and team building activities. The program is under the direction of Nancy Grasmick, the university’s Presidential Scholar. Dr. Grasmick was the State Superintendent of Maryland Public Schools for 20 years. Dr. Grasmick received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Towson University, her master’s degree in deaf education from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and her doctoral degree in communicative sciences from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

A research team led by biochemists at the University of California, Riverside, has received a four-year, $1.2 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study breast cancer and the racial disparities in the treatment of the disease.

Sweet Briar College, a liberal arts educational institution for women in Virginia, received a $1 million donation from philanthropist Richard C. Colton Jr. to support the renovation of the college’s stables, which will be named the Howell Lykes Colton ’38 Stables in honor of his mother. Sweet Briar started its formal riding program around 1920, making it one of the oldest programs in the United States.