BALTIMORE and NEW YORK, May 11,
2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Johns
Hopkins University and Bloomberg Philanthropies announced
the launch of the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative devoted to
addressing historic underrepresentation in science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) fields, and preparing a new, more
diverse generation of researchers and scholars to assume leadership
roles in tackling some of the world's greatest challenges. The
$150 million effort funded by
Bloomberg Philanthropies will be endowed to create additional
pathways for students from Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to
pursue and receive PhDs in STEM fields.
"STEM fields play an increasingly important role in developing
innovative solutions to a wide range of pressing challenges, yet
STEM PhD programs don't reflect the broad diversity of our country.
So creating more equitable opportunities for more students is
critical to our country's future in so many ways," said
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of
Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of
New York City. "By supporting
JHU's world-class STEM program, and by partnering with historically
Black and minority-serving schools that have a strong record of
educating students who go on to get STEM PhDs, we will help
increase diversity in industries that will pioneer advances we have
not yet even imagined, and shape the lives of generations to
come."
Studies have shown that STEM PhD programs do not reflect the
broad diversity of talent and perspectives that other fields of
study have cultivated, nor have they effectively recruited scholars
matriculating from diverse undergraduate institutions. National
Science Foundation data show that in 2019, there were more
than 30 fields of science – including multiple disciplines in
biology, chemistry, physics, math, and engineering – in which fewer
than five PhDs were awarded to Black or Latinx students in
the United States. While Black
Americans comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population and Latinx
people 18 percent, in 2019 they received just three and seven
percent, respectively, of new engineering, math, physical sciences
and computer science PhDs, according to the NSF. The
deficits in STEM diversity extend beyond Black and Latinx
students; the percentage of science or engineering PhDs
awarded to Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
students has been stagnant at about a third of their share of the
population for a decade.
"Scientific discovery that continually advances human
flourishing and creates a healthier, safer world must be
fueled by the expertise and insights of people of
differing perspectives and ideas. Yet, decades of data and our
own experience show the persistent truth that PhD programs,
particularly in the STEM fields, do not reflect the full spectrum
of available talent," said Ronald
J. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins
University. "We cannot hope to produce the best
science nor ensure that our faculties
are truly representative until
we increase the diversity of our PhD
programs. Through the Vivien Thomas Scholars
Initiative, Johns Hopkins now has the opportunity and
imperative to invest ambitiously, think ambitiously, and act
ambitiously to begin correcting the longstanding inequity in PhD
education."
Although Johns Hopkins has increased
the diversity of its undergraduate student body in recent years,
historically under-represented minorities make up 11 percent of
students in Johns Hopkins' STEM PhD
programs, a slightly higher rate than the average of 9
percent its private research university peers report to the
Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data
System but still far from representative of the overall population.
Through the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative, the university will
dramatically scale up its efforts to diversify its STEM PhD
programs and graduate more diverse PhD recipients to help bring
sorely needed new voices and backgrounds to STEM industries and
workforces.
The PhD students recruited through this program will be known as
the Vivien Thomas Scholars, in recognition of one of Johns Hopkins' most celebrated figures. Thomas was
a Black surgical laboratory supervisor who is best known for his
work to develop a cardiac surgery technique to treat "blue baby
syndrome" (Blalock-Taussig shunt) at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in
the 1940s – a life-saving advance for which he did not receive
credit for decades. Thomas, who grew up in the Jim Crow South,
enrolled as a premedical student at Tennessee Agricultural and
Industrial College, an HBCU in Nashville, but was forced to drop out due to
the Great Depression and was never able to enroll in medical
school. Despite his lack of an advanced degree, Thomas spent his
career as a pioneering research and surgical assistant. In 1976
Thomas was awarded an honorary doctorate by Johns Hopkins University and named instructor of
surgery in the Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine.
The initiative will provide permanent funding to add a sustained
cohort of approximately 100 new slots for diverse PhD students in
JHU's more than 30 STEM programs, representing disciplines ranging
from neuroscience to physics to engineering. The initiative will
engage in active outreach to applicants matriculating from HBCU and
MSI institutions – encompassing more than 450 four-year colleges
and universities nationwide. More than a third of Black STEM PhD
holders earned their undergraduate degrees at HBCUs, reflecting
those institutions' generations of leadership in supporting the
talent of outstanding and diverse scholars. This gift will support
up to six years of stipend, health insurance and travel funding,
along with significant mentorship, research and professional
development opportunities. Up to six years of tuition for each PhD
student will be supported by the PhD programs, departments, or
schools. Initial pathway programs will begin this summer, with the
first cohort of Vivien Thomas Scholars entering Johns Hopkins PhD
programs in the fall of 2022.
More than $15 million in funding
will be dedicated to strengthening pathways for talented
undergraduates to pursue STEM PhDs at Johns
Hopkins and elsewhere. Those efforts will begin with direct
funding of programs at an initial cohort of partner HBCUs and MSIs
with an exceptional record of accomplishment in graduating students
who advance to STEM PhD careers. Each Inaugural Partner will
receive flexible funding, to be used at the institution's strategic
direction to continue to attract and prepare their undergraduate
students for STEM graduate training and STEM careers. Inaugural
partners will be critical in advising the Vivien Thomas Scholars
Initiative as a whole, engaging additional MSIs, and identifying
the optimal programming for scholars participating in the
initiative.
The Inaugural Partner institutions are Howard University; Morehouse
College; Morgan State
University; Prairie View
A&M; Spelman College; and
the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County.
"Spelman is eager to develop the partnership with
Johns Hopkins, one of the world's great
research universities," said Mary
Schmidt Campbell, PhD, president of Spelman College. "The goals of the Vivien
Thomas Scholars initiative align completely with our own and that
is to continue to increase the number of underrepresented
minorities who earn PhDs in STEM fields.
With Spelman graduating more black women who obtain
doctorates in STEM than any other college or university in the
country, per the National Science Foundation, we believe that our
faculty have a great deal to contribute in terms of recognizing the
assets that our students bring and, with effective pedagogical
strategies, building effectively on their strengths."
"I commend Mayor Bloomberg and President Daniels for making this
commitment to diversity in STEM graduate education," said Dr.
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president
of the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County. "We know that transformational philanthropy can
produce more STEM researchers from underrepresented groups. The
Meyerhoff Scholars Program, established with a visionary gift from
Baltimore philanthropist
Robert Meyerhoff in 1988, has
resulted in UMBC becoming the top U.S. producer of African American
graduates going on to earn MD/PhD degrees, including STEM
professionals and researchers around the country."
The funding will also support the establishment of new and
expanded undergraduate summer and post-baccalaureate experiences
for talented, diverse undergraduates to build connections with
Johns Hopkins faculty and students, and
provide exposure to the university's research and scholarship,
building on the success of existing pathways programs at Hopkins.
All summer pathways programming will be fully funded, including
housing and stipends for participants.
"Over the past decade, and through the enduring
support of Mike Bloomberg's
philanthropy, Johns Hopkins has been
intentional about building one of the most diverse and academically
talented undergraduate student bodies in the country," Daniels
said. "We must take a
similarly expansive approach to moving the needle in PhD
education. We need such diverse leadership in all spheres of
endeavor, and especially in our universities where bold ideas take
shape and are brought to bear on the world's great
challenges. We are truly grateful for Mike Bloomberg's vision and commitment in
pushing us to new heights."
Mike Bloomberg has long focused
on increasing equitable access and opportunity across higher
education and last year launched the Greenwood Initiative at
Bloomberg Philanthropies, an effort to accelerate the pace of Black
wealth accumulation in the United
States and address decades of systemic underinvestment in
Black communities. The Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative is the
third investment made by Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood
Initiative since its launch in September
2020. The first investment was a $100
million partnership with the nation's four historically
Black medical schools to help ease the debt burden of
approximately 800 Black medical students. The second investment was
more than $6 million to those four
schools to increase their mobile unit COVID-19 vaccination efforts
and help ensure equitable access to vaccines within Black
communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Mr. Bloomberg, a Johns Hopkins
alumnus, changed the lives of countless current and future
undergraduates at Johns Hopkins
University with his historic $1.8 billion gift for undergraduate financial aid
in 2018. In the short time since the gift was implemented,
Johns Hopkins has seen marked increases
in the diversity and excellence of its undergraduate programs. With
32.5 percent self-identifying as a member of a racial or ethnic
group that is historically underrepresented at the institution,
Hopkins' most recent entering class is the most diverse in the
university's history and also among the most highly talented in the
nation in terms of grade point averages and standardized test
scores.
"Capturing diverse talent in STEM is critical to maximizing the
creativity, excellence, and innovation necessary to create the best
science and to apply that science to improve the human condition
for all. We believe there is a wealth of untapped talent out there,
and that through sustained outreach and support, we can encourage
more students from diverse backgrounds to seek PhDs in these fields
and become the next generation of transformational leaders in
STEM," said Dr. Damani Arnold
Piggott, Assistant Dean for Graduate Biomedical Education
and Graduate Student Diversity at Johns
Hopkins University, who has been tapped to lead the
institution's new effort as the inaugural Associate Vice Provost
for Graduate Diversity and Partnerships. "We are going to be
privileged to have this cohort of scholars spend time with us on
their journeys, and to be able to contribute in some small way to
the amazing things they are going to do for the betterment of our
society."
About Bloomberg Philanthropies:
Bloomberg
Philanthropies invests in 810 cities and 170 countries around the
world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of
people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating
lasting change: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government
Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses
all of Michael R. Bloomberg's
giving, including his foundation, corporate, and personal
philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono
consultancy that works in cities around the world. In 2020,
Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $1.6
billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or
follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok.
About Johns Hopkins
University:
Johns Hopkins
is America's first research university. For more than 140 years
Johns Hopkins has been a world leader
in both teaching and research, with nine academic divisions — the
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of
Engineering, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Carey
Business School, the Peabody Institute,
the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and the
schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Education — plus the Applied
Physics Laboratory, a nonacademic division that supports national
security and pursues space science.
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SOURCE Johns Hopkins University