The school year is kicking off just right for Spelman College and Florida A&M University! The STEM programs at both schools will receive government funding totaling over $4 million.
Spelman, an all-female historically Black liberal arts college, was recently awarded a $2 million grant by the Department of Defense to support their growth in STEM education. Using the funds, they will establish the Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM which will be the first of its kind serving as a hub for all STEM undergraduate research and training. “The Center aligns with the College’s strategic priorities and ensures that [their] students are empowered and equipped to enter competitive STEM fields.”
Florida A&M University (FAMU) is set to share in a $2.4 million grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in efforts to increase the number of women of color teaching in STEM fields. The grant was given to the Florida AGEP (Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate) consisting of 5 universities – of which 3 are HBCUs. Together, they will work with 300 doctoral, post-doctoral and early-career minority women faculty to advance their careers in STEM. Through the program, participants will receive hands-on training and mentorship from tenured faculty as they move through the ranks.
Quick Fact:
“Only 6,400 women of color with STEM doctorates hold assistant, associate or full professorships, compared with 19,800 white women, 20,500 men of color and 65,100 white men”
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Leading the way is Dr. Allyson Watson, the newly minted Dean of the College of Education at FAMU, who authored the NSF grant the school is receiving. She said, “the team of researchers we have collaborated with have been working tirelessly for years to promote women in STEM. The institutions involved have all contributed greatly in their own right to increasing the pipeline for women of color… This grant solidifies the urgency and necessity of the plight for our state and the nation.”
Sources: Spelman News, Tallahassee Democrat
Picture: FAMU-FSU Engineering
