Yale creates scholarship to send high school students to HBCUs

Yale University, in an attempt to address racial disparities, has created a program that will fund students from New Haven public schools who choose to attend historically black colleges and universities. 

The scholarship, called the “James W.C. Pennington Scholarship,” accords with Yale’s larger initiative to “build a stronger and more inclusive Yale,” which has been a goal of the school for many years now.

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The president of the university, Peter Salovey, released a message on December 12 explaining the reason for the scholarship and the benefits that it will include. 

According to the president, the school must take up the “responsibility to discover light and truth” of their past, which includes creating projects, such as this scholarship, to “grapple” with the university’s historical entanglement with slavery. 

The scholarship, funded by Yale, will allow accepted applicants to choose their school and give them $20,000 toward tuition and fees each year for four years. These students “will be supported in their academic, financial, and career entry success through mentorship opportunities, structured internships, resume workshops, and other programs organized by New Haven Promise.”

Like many schools, Yale continues to create efforts to investigate their actions in the context of previous historical events, attempting to repair earlier injustices.

[RELATED: Harvard University to spend $100 million on slavery reparations]

Although Yale is a top Ivy League university, it has not used this funding opportunity to encourage students to attend its own institution. 

Campus Reform reached out to all relevant parties and will update accordingly.