The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Florida International University and Miami Dade College a three-year, $2.85 million grant to support students pursuing higher education.
Known as “Making Diversity Meaningful in the Humanities: An MDC-FIU Pathway Partnership,” the grant will support programs that aim to assist about 5,000 students each year. It will fund efforts to streamline curricula for students on the MDC-to-FIU path, help students complete degrees, attract more students to humanities fields, foster collaboration among MDC and FIU humanities faculty, and reinforce the importance of the humanities to a democratic society.
“It is important that we actively support the humanities as these are the degrees that encourage us to think creatively and critically. We are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for supporting our collaboration with Miami Dade College to find ways to ensure our students graduate on time with the skills they need for their future careers,” said Elizabeth Bejar, vice president of academic affairs at FIU and co-principal investigator on the grant. “In this knowledge-based and technologically advanced economy success relies on dealing critically and logically with subjective, complex and imperfect information.”
This partnership will rely on collaboration across all levels – administrative, faculty, staff and students across Miami Dade College and Florida International University. The goal is for humanities students to have a cohesive and seamless experience across both institutions.
FIU and MDC will partner to have FIU advising staff located on eight MDC campuses to support students who are considering or pursuing humanities majors. FIU will host two residential summer bridge programs that will provide students with intensive exposure to humanities research and writing. Students also will gain academic and job skills through paid research fellowships with MDC and FIU faculty, as well as internships and externships at museums, archives, and botanical sites.
To learn more, please visit www.fiu.edu.
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