ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Morehouse College, the nation’s only historically Black liberal arts institution dedicated to educating and developing men, is partnering with Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, focused on life sciences and healthcare, to provide opportunities for exceptional scholars interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Engineering) careers. Verily has donated a $575,000 gift to fund the Verily Scholars Program, an endowed award that will support the education of scholars majoring in science, technology, or mathematics and provide them with all-expenses paid summer internships at Verily.
The internship program will expose Morehouse scholars to STEM careers. In addition, leading data scientists and engineers from Verily will also engage with Morehouse College as guest lecturers, career development advisors, and advisory board members with the goal of creating an institutional link between students and the biotech and life sciences industry.
“Black men are underrepresented in STEM careers, from the offices of Silicon Valley tech giants, and down the information highway to the health care industry where there are emerging opportunities in data science that offer very lucrative salaries,” said Monique Dozier, Vice President of the Office of Institutional Advancement at Morehouse College. “We are proud to be working with Verily to address this disparity, and I would like to thank them for their generous gift. Morehouse College is a center of excellence in STEM studies and moral leadership that prepares scholars for success in science and technology careers.”
The Verily Endowed Scholarship Fund will help to make a Morehouse education more affordable for students and connect rising scholars in life sciences, mathematics, and technology with industry leaders. The College educates 2,100 students annually, 50 percent of whom come from families with household incomes of $40,000 or less. A Morehouse education is transformative in economic, social, and professional mobility,
“To have a meaningful impact on healthcare, we must develop solutions that are accessible and useful to everyone, and that requires diverse perspectives and engagement from the beginning,” said Andrew Conrad, CEO and founder at Verily. “Morehouse College develops students who are academically excellent in science and technology and who are committed to leadership and service. Our goal with this endowment and annual internship program is to create a pipeline to help talented, historically underrepresented students enter the life sciences industry.”
About Morehouse College
Morehouse College is the only historically Black college dedicated to educating men. Founded in 1867, Morehouse is a private, liberal arts institution and the nation's top producer of Black men who go on to receive doctorates. The College is the top producer of Rhodes Scholars among HBCUs and was named to the list of U.S. institutions that produced the most Fulbright Scholars in 2019-2020. As the epicenter for thought leadership on civil rights, Morehouse is committed to helping the nation address the inequities caused by institutional racism, which has created social and economic disparities for people of African descent. Prominent Morehouse alumni include: Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General; Shelton "Spike" Lee, Academy Award-winning American filmmaker; Maynard H. Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta; Jeh Johnson, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; Louis W. Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Bakari Sellers, attorney and CNN political analyst; Randall Woodfin, elected as the youngest mayor of Birmingham in 120 years; and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator from Georgia. For more information, visit: https://morehouse.edu.
About Verily
Launched in 2015, Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on life sciences and healthcare. Verily’s mission is to make the world’s health data useful so that people enjoy healthier lives. Verily develops tools and devices to collect, organize and activate health data, and creates interventions to prevent and manage disease. Verily partners with leading life sciences, medical device, and government organizations, using deep hardware, software, scientific, and healthcare expertise to enable faster development, meaningful advances, and deployment at scale. For more information, please visit www.verily.com.
