Two grants received from Alcoa Foundation

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan is the recipient of two grants from the Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Foundation‘s Campus Partnership Program.

U-M’s International Institute received $47,600 to enhance the development of global awareness of U-M students in fields related to business, science, engineering, and technology. The grant is for the academic year 2000-01. This grant will support competitive recruitment of a diverse group of students to participate in an Alcoa Seminar, “Science, the Professions, and Global Diversity,” in April 2001. Those participating students will then undertake summer international internships partially supported by Alcoa Travel Grants. The Alcoa Seminar will be directed by Brad Farnsworth, director of U-M’s Center for International Business Education, and Mark Wilson, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and epidemiology.

Upon the completion of summer internships, those participating students will submit narrative reports and serve as peer advisors in informational workshops for other students considering overseas projects. U-M’s International Institute will also organize a public Alcoa Distinguished Lecture on Science, the Professions, and Global Diversity during winter term 2001.

The Alcoa Foundation also awarded a $15,000 grant to the Minority Engineering Program Office (MEPO) and U-M’s Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives to support Scholar Power FORUMS for science, engineering and math university students from underrepresented minority groups. U-M’s Office of the Provost will provide matching funds for the project. The FORUMS will address solutions and resources in areas of academic performance such as balancing academic, social, and work life; and successful exam taking.

U-M alumnus John Collins III, is vice president of Alcoa Inc., and president of Alcoa Mill Products in Bettendorf, Iowa. Collins serves as the company’s ambassador to U-M. This is the third year that U-M has received grants from the Alcoa Foundation. Previous grants supported the Minority Engineering Program Office’s summer Engineering Academy and the Center for the Education of Women‘s Junior Women Faculty Network.