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.

Marquette University in Milwaukee received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to implement curriculum and programming to support students as they gain undergraduate research expertise while cultivating a science identity and sense of inclusion in the science community. The grant program aims to create an environment that increases familiarity and comfort in research environments for students from underrepresented backgrounds in research. Researchers will focus on recruiting undergraduate students from underrepresented student populations, first-generation college students, and women. The grant is under the direction of SuJean Choi, professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Health Sciences at the university.

Kendra Scott, founder and executive chair of the Kendra Scott, LLC a global accessories brand headquartered in Austin, has committed a corporate and personal philanthropic investment to the University of Texas at Austin that will expand entrepreneurship offerings to help more than 24,000 women pursue their business aspirations in the coming decade. A combination of personal and company investments will create a $13.25 million endowment to provide expansion and support in perpetuity for the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, a cross-disciplinary program that empowers, equips, and builds a community for women and creatives traditionally underrepresented in entrepreneurial roles. The investment will seed and launch the Women in Entrepreneurship Specialization this coming fall, a partnership with the McCombs School of Business giving students the opportunity to earn a minor in entrepreneurship.

A $1.57 million grant from the U.S. Army will help support a transformative approach for breast cancer treatment developed by scientists in the Center for Drug Discovery for Rare Diseases at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The research aims to help individuals at a higher risk for developing tumors and those for whom therapeutics have failed to treat the disease.