Spelman College Receives $200,000 Grant From the Deloitte Foundation to Support Students Pursuing STEM Fields

ATLANTA (July 5, 2023) — Spelman College today announced a $200,000 grant from the Deloitte Foundation to provide scholarships for students majoring in economics, computer science and mathematics. The donation to Spelman will establish the Deloitte Foundation Scholarship Fund to support 20 incoming juniors who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in the aforestated majors during the 2023-2024 academic year. Each scholarship recipient will be awarded $10,000 in installments of $5,000 per semester by Spelman, if they continue to meet eligibility requirements. To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher and demonstrate notable leadership impact, as well as participate in community service engagements. The Deloitte Foundation’s financial support is intended to help the selected Spelman students complete their academic studies and advance inclusivity in STEM fields.

"The Foundation’s work helps open doors to opportunity for the workforce of the future by advancing equity, innovation, and excellence in education," said Erin Scanlon, Deloitte Foundation president. “We are honored to collaborate with Spelman College to establish the Deloitte Foundation Scholarship Fund and support these young women who are interested in STEM fields as they persist through college towards careers.”

"We are thankful to the Deloitte Foundation for their support and partnership through this scholarship fund,” said Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH, president of Spelman College. “Now more than ever, a gift such as this is important to inspiring and supporting the next generation of leaders and expanding the pipeline of diverse talent in STEM.

To learn more, please visit spelman.edu and @spelmancollege on social media.

Media Contacts:
Lydia Sermons, 470.898.6451, lydiasermons@spelman.edu
Denise Ward, 770.862.4028, deniseward@spelman.edu

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About the Deloitte Foundation
The Deloitte Foundation, founded in 1928, is a not-for-profit organization that supports education in the U.S. through a variety of initiatives that help develop the next generation of diverse business leaders, and their influencers, and promote excellence in teaching, research and curriculum innovation. The Foundation sponsors an array of national programs relevant to a variety of professional services, benefiting high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and educators. Learn more about the Deloitte Foundation.

About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 51 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 5 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 16th year among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal has ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, and collaborations have been established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.

To learn more, please visit spelman.edu and @spelmancollege on social media.