Good news for HBCU’s comes as Howard University receives its largest donation in the college’s 153-year history.
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According to The Washington Post, Howard, which is in Washington, D.C., announced on Wednesday that they proudly received a $10 million donation to go towards STEM programming from the Karsh Family Foundation.
The donation will fund the school’s science and technology program, which was founded in 2017. It will endow an existing Howard program aimed at increasing the number of minority students earning a Ph.D. or combined MD/Ph.D. in those fields.
“When we created this program, with the support of the Board of Trustees, we envisioned building a model program to demonstrate how higher education can serve as a pipeline to diversify STEM fields nationally, but we knew it wouldn’t be sustainable without external resources,” Howard President Wayne Frederick said in a statement according to Washington Business Journal. “This gift will ensure that Howard can train the nation’s brightest students who desire to obtain their Ph.D. or combined M.D./Ph.D. for generations to come.”
The gift will also fund the new Lomax KIPP Scholarships, which will pay college costs after financial aid for graduates of KIPP (Knowlege Is Power Program), a series of charter K-12 schools spread across the nation in underrepresented communities.
The newly created scholarship is named for Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund. Howard University plans to award the scholarship to two students each year.
The donation also provides for campus support for all KIPP alumni who attend Howard, of which there are currently 53.
It’s worth mentioning that the gift from Karsh is actually the second big donation that Howard has received in the past two weeks. Earlier in January, it received a 152-piece collection of African American art worth $2.5 million from the family of the late Ronald Walters, former civil rights activist and Howard professor. Walters was a professor in Howard’s political science department for 25 years and also chaired the department for nine years.
So Howard University is currently winning and spreading the love to our underrepresented youth. To them, I say kudos and may their good fortune continue.
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