July 6, 2017
By Melissa Wylie
Forging a path. The HSI Pathways to the Professoriate program aims to train undergraduates at Hispanic-Serving Institutions for academic careers to better represent the country’s diverse student body, per The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Pathways project begins this summer at California State University at Northridge, where 30 undergraduate fellows will attend seminars to prepare them for a career in academia. The students were selected from three colleges: Cal State Northridge, Florida International University, and the University of Texas at El Paso.
The Chronicle reported that Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of undergraduates in the U.S. in 2015 but only five percent of the faculty. Ana Luszczynzka, Pathways coordinator at Florida International, told The Chronicle that the shortage of Hispanic professors often makes it hard for Hispanic students to imagine themselves at the head of a classroom.
"Without saying anything, what’s being evinced is that this is the province of white people," she told The Chronicle.
Big investment. Intel has pledged to commit $4.5 million to six historically black colleges and universities over the next three years to boost the representation of African-Americans in STEM educational paths, according to Education Dive.
Of the total funds, $3.9 million will go toward scholarships and academic opportunities for African-American students at HBCUs – historically black colleges and universities – who are studying computer science or electrical engineering. Intel will use the rest of the money to host on-campus workshops, per Education Dive.
Intel’s investment is part of its Diversity in Technology Initiative, which launched in 2015 with $300 million to achieve full representation of women and minorities in its workforce, according to Education Dive.
Protecting aid. Legislation in Maryland now prevents the state’s public colleges from cutting financial aid for students who receive private scholarships, the Washington Business Journal reported.
The law bans scholarship displacement, which occurs when institutions reduce a financial aid award to redistribute funds to other students, per the Business Journal. However, Maryland’s public schools can lessen aid packages with permission from a scholarship provider, or if the financial aid exceeds the student’s cost of college.
Source: Bizwomen
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