Spelman College has several interdisciplinary centers that support the institution’s mission of academic excellence. Whether global, leadership, spiritual, research or human rights efforts, our centers of excellence serve as a vital anchor in strategically coordinating the work of our faculty, students and staff.
The Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM was created in response to the overwhelming need for education, advanced training and continued support for women who are beginning or advancing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE), is the first-ever academic center of its kind to produce, train, and support a new generation of Black entrepreneurial talent. The CBE will be located on the campuses of Spelman College and Morehouse College. The CBE seeks to eliminate the access barrier between Black entrepreneurs, professional investors, and business builders by leveraging education, mentorship, access to capital, and opportunity. By building on a strong existing culture of entrepreneurship at Spelman and Morehouse, the CBE will grow the pipeline of Black business talent and innovation and help bridge the divide between the business and technology sectors and the next generation of Black entrepreneurs.
Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education was established with a $17 million anonymous gift to strengthen and expand international programs at Spelman College.
All the Gordon-Zeto programs are intentionally designed to provide a learning environment that engages students in comparative analysis of social systems that deepens their understanding of and appreciation for intercultural variation, as well as their ability to show openness to cultural difference.
The Gordon-Zeto Center provides leadership for the assessment of all global initiatives and streamlining of all global travel experiences. It also serves as a clearing house for building international partnerships with overseas institutions in a way that can achieve the realization of the learning outcomes of Spelman’s Going Global initiative.
Teaching Resource and Research Center was created in the fall of 2007 with resources from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education (Title III) to support the continued, long-term development of the faculty to meet the demands of 21st-century teaching and learning. TRRC has its roots in the rich tradition of Black women's commitment to the joyfulness of ideas, or what Anna Julia Cooper called "the thumping from within unanswered by any beckoning from without." (1892)
WISDOM Center, which stands for Women in Spiritual Discernment of Ministry, is a multidimensional student-centered leadership development program that was established in January 2003 with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. In our endeavors to strengthen the capacity of Sisters Chapel to bring the power and presence of its spiritual and civil rights legacy together with contemporary and culturally relevant expressions of faith and social justice, an educational infrastructure was established. The purpose of the WISDOM Center is to provide a safe space where students can reflect and critically examine what it means for women of African descent to be called by God and live out their faith.
Women's Research and Resource Center was created in 1981 with a grant from the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation. The goal was to provide an academic unit to the College that focused on curriculum development in Women’s Studies, research by and about women of African descent, and community outreach. WRRC is the first women’s research center at a historically Black college and the first one to offer a women ’s studies major.