The William Randolph Hearst Foundation granted an interinstitutional partnership grant to the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change and partners at Morehouse College and Spelman College to support a graduate school preparation initiative for underrepresented students at the three institutions, known as the Global Issues Honors Consortium.
This program seeks to increase the number of highly qualified and well-prepared students of color, and others committed to increasing diversity in global scholarship within graduate and professional programs in fields relating to global studies.
Dr. Karen Brown (Director of ICGC, University of Minnesota) collaborated with Dr. Clarissa Myrick-Harris (Division Chair of Humanities, Morehouse College) to initiate this project. An interinstitutional group of faculty to launch the planning process for this new initiative is underway.
This partnership comes at a critical time, as we seek to understand and address racial inequities in both Minnesota and around the globe. Each of our institutions aim to prepare students to work toward a more equitable world.
Morehouse and Spelman colleges are two of the top-ranking historically Black colleges (HBCUs) in the nation, both founded after the Civil War to provide access and equity in education for African Americans. Morehouse College is the only higher education institution committed to educating Black men, while Spelman College is dedicated to the education of women of African descent.
This initiative builds on the Global Issues Honors Consortium (supported by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) and its predecessor the Undergraduate Honors Program (supported by funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation) which were offered by ICGC from 1995–2010. The two programs grew from partnerships with several other institutions partnering with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to offer a rigorous academic curriculum and mentoring in research and writing. The most recent version of the program included a study abroad component in South Africa in partnership with the University of the Western Cape (and with the Aya Centre in Ghana in 2009).
Partner schools have included:
- University of Minnesota Morris
- Tougaloo College
- Dillard University
- The schools of the Atlanta University Center (Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta)
- Morris Brown University
- Chicago State University