Bush Foundation Supports Local High Schools and Colleges

The Bush Foundation board of directors approved nearly $2 million in grants to the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis Public Schools on November 9, as part of its latest grant awards. The foundation also provided education funding for several other universities and colleges in the region, and for school readiness programs for toddlers in Rochester.

The University of Minnesota will receive $990,000 from the foundation for faculty development to improve teaching and student learning at its four campuses. Faculty on the Twin Cities campus will use the funding to try to improve the success rates of students who enroll in large classes that are currently lecture-centered. The grant will allow them to explore other methods of teaching that actively engage students in the learning process. Other University of Minnesota campuses at Morris, Duluth and Crookston will use the grant to develop methods to improve student learning tailored to their specific needs.

Hamline University in St. Paul received a $300,000 grant from Bush for faculty development focusing on international learning. Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., and Turtle Mountain Community College, a tribal college in Belcourt, N.D., also received faculty development grants. Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black college in Atlanta, Ga., received a grant of $300,000 to develop a scholarship of teaching and learning program.

In the area of elementary and secondary education, the Minneapolis Public Schools are part of a Bush Foundation pilot project to test innovative ways to improve high school graduation rates in selected school districts in Minnesota and South Dakota. The foundation awarded a $823,578 grant to fund an expansion of the school district's high school attendance program, "Check and Connect," to Edison High School. "Check and Connect" uses an intensive one-on-one monitoring process that creates positive relationships among the a student's school, teachers and family so they can work together to keep kids in school. The program is already operating at North and Roosevelt High Schools in Minneapolis.

Other highlights of the Bush Foundation's recent grant awards include:

• Two major Twin Cities human services agencies received grants for capital projects:  $250,000 to Neighborhood House in St. Paul for its new facility and $250,000 to Catholic Charities.
     
• Twin Cities Public Television received a $350,000 grant to help fund the upgrade of production and transmission equipment to digital.
     
• Churches United for the Homeless will use a $180,000 capital grant to renovate an old furniture warehouse in Moorhead, Minn., to provide emergency shelter.
      
• Twin Cities arts organizations Penumbra Theater and Children's Theater received grants of $75,000 and $325,000, respectively, through the Bush Foundation's Regional Arts Development Program (RADP), which is focused on improving the long-term operational capacity of mid-sized arts organizations. Ballet Works, Inc. of Minneapolis and the Minnesota Children's Museum also received RADP grants of $80,000 and $130,000, respectively.
      
• Seventh Generation Media Services, owner of radio station KLND on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in McLaughlin, S.D., received a $20,000 grant to help in the application process for federal funds to rebuild its translator. This will expand the station's ability to reach all parts of the Reservation.
     
• The Minnesota Institute of Public Health received $224,775 to develop training and public health prevention measures for farmers in the Red River Valley who apply pesticides to their crops.
     
• The Minnesota Project received $215,000 to develop local food systems in Minnesota through the Heartland Food Initiative. This concept will link local food producers with restaurants, chefs, businesses and institutions that will become markets for their products, as well as advocates for public policies that support sustainable agriculture practices.

In total, the Bush Foundation board of directors approved $8,825,332 in grants to 56 nonprofit organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota at its board meeting on November 9, 2004. 

top