North Carolina A&T University is one of 10 historically Black colleges and universities that will receive a $5 million grant from Google to help expand opportunities for increase diverse representation in the STEM industry.
The gifts to the schools are one-time, unrestricted grants that will provide the schools with financial support for scholarships, career readiness preparation, entrepreneurship, mentoring, technological infrastructure and curriculum innovations.
“Google plays a significant, if not singular, role in the lives of people and organizations around the world, and we are delighted to see the company growing its involvement with North Carolina A&T,” said Harold L. Martin Sr., chancellor of the Greensboro university. “Through dialogue with CEO Sundar Pichai and other senior Google leaders, we have been pleased by the opportunity to deepen the company’s knowledge over the past year about the many opportunities that HBCUs offer Google and our country.
"The investments that Google is announcing today underscore their belief in our institutions. Along with my colleagues at North Carolina A&T, I look forward to building further on our rich and productive partnership. We are deeply grateful for Google's generosity."
Melonie Parker, chief diversity officer at Google, said the investment "further solidifies" Google's commitment to providing access and opportunities for underrepresented groups in tech.
"I'm delighted to provide our HBCU partners with a $50 million unrestricted grant. These institutions are actively shaping the next generation of Black leaders and are helping build a more diverse workforce across all industries," Parker said.
The other nine HBCUs receiving the grants are:
- Claflin University
- Clark Atlanta University
- Florida A&M University
- Howard University
- Morgan State University
- Prairie View A&M University
- Spelman College
- Tuskegee University
- Xavier University of Louisiana
The investment is the latest example of collaboration between A&T and Google. The university has hosted multiple Google-in-Residence managers in recent years, and three A&T faculty members from the Department of Computer Science have spent summers at Google as faculty-in-residence.
Last year, A&T sent its first participant to the Google Tech Exchange program, which brings college juniors to the company headquarters in Mountain View, California, for a semester of coursework and mentoring. Google has hired 24 A&T graduates over the last five years from bachelors, masters and Ph.D. programs.
Prior to the $5 million gift, Google has also made multiple other programmatic investments in A&T through the College of Engineering and its computer science department.
A&T graduates more Black engineers than any campus in the U.S., as well as the most Black math and statistics graduates at the master’s level.
