The Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren’t the only Super Bowl winners this season. Florida’s St. Petersburg College (SPC) has received a $15,000 grant from the Tampa Bay Super Bowl LV Host Committee to support a local social justice initiative.
The grant will fund the SPC Social Justice Institute, which will focus on establishing community partnerships around equity and diversity, social and ethnic inclusion, civic and cultural engagement, and community service.
“SPC’s Social Justice Institute is a community of thoughtful, educated, engaged and empowered leaders ready for change,” said SPC Foundation Executive Director Luz Randolph. “This, along with everything that has transpired over the last year, has sparked the conversation of creating a safe space for dialogue and innovation.”
As part of the initiative, the college will host several workshops, events and a two-day conference over the next several months.
* * *
South Florida State College (SFSC) has received a $47,000 grant from the state education department to develop entrepreneurship and small business leadership skills. The college will develop an entrepreneurship education and training (EET) program through a partnership with the School Board of Highlands County, CareerSource Heartland, Alpha Umi, Inc., and the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida.
In one part of the EET program, foundational entrepreneurial skills will be embedded into career technical education (CTE) curricula to help high school students develop employability skills. Upon completion, the students will receive an industry certification and a corresponding digital badge through Alpha Umi, Inc. If they enroll in a program at SFSC, they may convert the certification to two college elective credits for completing the requirements of SFSC’s course, Five Generations at Work.
The partnership also will develop a boot camp to help students develop professional skills to prepare them for job interviews and internships.
SFSC also will offer a new Introduction to Entrepreneurship course to provide an understanding of the general theories, principles, concepts and practices of entrepreneurship.
California
San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) Chancellor Constance Carroll is leaving a lasting impact on her community. The San Diego Foundation has pledged a gift of $200,000 to SDCCD’s tuition-free San Diego Promise in the retiring chancellor’s honor.
The gift includes a $100,000 outright gift and a $100,000 matching gift which will be made once SDCCD receives a similar amount from other donors.
The donation is part of a $1-million San Diego Promise campaign to open higher education to all.
“The San Diego Promise is removing barriers that too many students without adequate financial means face every day,” Carroll said. “I am honored by this generous gift which will directly benefit local students and spur additional philanthropic support from others in the community.”
Carroll retires June 30, after serving 17 years as the chief executive officer at one of the largest community college districts in California. She also is past chair of the San Diego Foundation.
Texas
Alamo Colleges is partnering with the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) for “Democratizing Racial Justice.” The project received a three-year, $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the foundation’s work to advance a more democratic society through racial justice and social equity.
The college district’s role is to create educators’ academies for faculty and shareable teaching guides, and to help strengthen transfer pathways to UTSA for students committed to studying racial justice as a career path.
Virginia
Patrick Henry Community College will work to improve outcomes for students of color using a $105,000 sub-grant. The funding is part of a $725,000 Lumina Foundation grant awarded to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
The Virginia Community College System will receive a $45,000 sub-grant.
Gov. Ralph Northam set a target of increasing educational achievement for students of color by 5 percentage points by 2024 and making Virginia the best-educated state in the nation by 2030 with 70% of working-age adults earning a degree or credential.
“This new funding will help Virginia further align our equity agenda with the promising efforts underway at six of our public institutions of higher education,” Northam said in a release. “The disruptive impacts of the pandemic on our education system have exposed an urgent need to address achievement gaps that have long persisted in historically underserved communities.”
