N.C. A&T awarded Mellon Foundation Grant for Emergency Student Relief

EAST GREENSBORO (May 18, 2020) – As a response to the educational impact of COVID-19 pandemic, The Andrew Mellon Foundation awarded $110,000 to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to assist students with emergency needs.

The grant, awarded from the Mellon Foundation’s Higher Education and Scholarship in the humanities program area, will assist financially vulnerable students with technology, overdue tuition, residential bills, essential travel between home and campus, and other basic needs.

“We are excited to receive these funds that will assist our students who have been affected by this historic pandemic,” said Frances Ward-Johnson, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and the grant's principal investigator. “The funding will allow undergraduate and graduate students facing unexpected needs and hardships resulting from the pandemic to stay on track as they pursue their higher education goals.”

The university will also use a portion of the grant to cover costs related to administering grant funds to students. The funds will not be included in calculations for future financial aid and will not be used to reimburse expenses that have already been paid or replace or supplement existing financial aid.

Founded in 1969, the Mellon Foundation’s mission is to “strengthen, promote, and defend the centrality of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse, fair, and democratic societies.”