North Carolina Central University has received a $100,000 donation from the Meldrum Family Foundation to launch the Christopher S. Meldrum Chemistry Scholarship Fund. The scholarship will be awarded to college juniors majoring
in chemistry.

Prairie View A&M University (Texas) has received a $32,000 donation from Shell Oil Co. to support the university’s engineering program. The gift will provide funding for the Engineering and Science Concepts Institute as well as other engineering programs and organizations.

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Higher Education for Development Program have awarded $400,000 to the Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.) and $350,000 to Arizona State University to further partnerships with universities in Kosovo. RIT will work with the American University in Kosovo to create the Center for Energy and Natural Resource Development. ASU and the University of Pristina will partner to transform accountancy training in the country.

The Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University has received a three-year, $550,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support the center’s goals of improving diversity in U.S. newsrooms. The grant will be used to fund several of the center’s programs, including research, conferences and workshops.

Spelman College (Ga.) has received a $175,000 gift from Elder Bernice A. King and Home Depot Inc. to endow the Be A King Scholarship in honor of her mother, the late Coretta Scott King. The scholarships will benefit students pursuing degrees in education, music and psychology.

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the United Negro College Fund will split $1 million from the Siemens Foundation as part of the Siemens Teacher Scholarships Program. The two nonprofit organizations will distribute the scholarships to students at member historically Black colleges and universities who plan to teach science or math. UNCF has also received a $270,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment to fund three of the organization’s strategic development initiatives.

The University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois will use a $500 million grant from energy firm BP to create the Energy Biosciences Institute. The institute will focus primarily on biotechnology and biofuel production to minimize the damaging effects of energy use on the environment.

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