Morgan State U Wins $750,000 Grant to Improve STEM Equity
Morgan State University has won a three-year, $750,000 grant designed to support STEM education.
The grant comes from Intel's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Grant Program, a part of the company's diversity in technology initiative, which is designed to improve the representation of black students in fields related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Morgan State will use the funding to attract students to its five-year undergraduate to graduate track with an emphasis on curriculum, cohort scholarship programs, recruitment and peer mentoring and tutoring.
"With the future success of our nation firmly rooted in the expansion of a workforce prepared in STEM, we are pleased to have this opportunity to partner with one of the foremost names in technology in meeting that need," said Morgan President David Wilson in a prepared statement. "This initiative, which is consistent with Morgan's overall mission, furthers our status as a top producer of African Americans with engineering degrees and places the University in an even stronger position to introduce more students to the opportunities of the future ... opportunities that require a background in STEM."
The university was one of six HBCUs awarded a share of $4.5 million by the company. The others include:
To help improve the representation of African Americans in the STEM talent pipeline, "the Intel HBCU Grant will be utilized to supply multi-year investments in computer science, computer engineering and electrical engineering programs at the selected HBCUs," according to a news release from Morgan State University. "Of Intel's total funding for the program, $3.9 million will be distributed to the HBCUs to fund two-year scholarships and other academic initiatives, while the remaining $600,000 will go to support tech workshops and activities hosted by Intel."
"We are pleased to be able to include Intel among our growing number of partners dedicated to seeing more diversity in the field of technology," said Michael G. Spencer, Ph.D., dean of the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering at Morgan. "This collaboration allows the University to advance its mission of developing talented engineers and scientists in historically underrepresented in STEM fields."
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Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].