Women's philanthropy group expands student success programs

ASU Foundation for A New American University’s Women & Philanthropy group awarded a $100,000 grant to the University Bridge program at Arizona State University. For more than 10 years, University Bridge has assisted first-time freshmen in making a successful transition from high school to ASU. The retention rate for students who participate in University Bridge has consistently exceeded that of their peers in the same entering cohort, and the grant from Women & Philanthropy will support the increasing costs associated with expanding the program from 450 students to 1,000.

University Bridge is one of six ASU programs awarded grants this year by Women & Philanthropy totaling $254,230. The grants, awarded at their 2011 Celebration Event, all support ASU programs designed to help the university address today’s most pressing challenges.

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
$50,000

The Math Community Center (MCC) will expand support services to students and optimize engagement opportunities in mathematics for students, teaching assistants, post-doctoral appointees and ASU mathematics faculty. The MCC will connect and substantially increase the capacity of the current Math Tutor Center to provide peer tutoring for students in lower-level courses with a new space staffed by graduate teaching assistants and faculty.

Young Writers Program Partnership
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
$50,000

This grant provides support for the Young Writers Program (YWP) and the National Endowment for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud program. It allows Piper to leverage its resources and reach a larger in-need community while getting a dedicated and experienced outreach program through the YWP.

Spirit of Enterprise Center
W. P. Carey School of Business
$30,000

Student Teams for Entrepreneurial Projects (STEP) provides a gateway to hands-on learning opportunities for W. P. Carey students that also provide meaningful results for client companies. With this funding, the STEP program will be able to work with a larger number and wider variety of organizations and start-up companies, specifically by hiring teaching assistants and a full-time graduate assistant, as well as covering program costs.

Marshall-Brennan Moot Court and Diversity Pipeline Program
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
$13,230

The program sends law students into underserved public high schools in the Phoenix metropolitan area to teach basic constitutional law, coach students in a national high school moot court competition and completely transform the lives of those who participate. Funds will sustain the local moot court competition and cover travel costs to participate in the national competition.

ASU Capital Scholars Washington, D.C. Summer Internship Program
School of Politics and Global Studies
$11,000

The Capital Scholars Program is a nine-week summer internship program in Washington, D.C. with the primary goal of helping students develop leadership and networking skills to be successful in their careers, active in the community and involved in policymaking. All funds will go directly to scholarships.

Formed in 2002, Women & Philanthropy grants are generated from the individual contributions of the more than 200 investors. Each member’s annual contribution of a minimum of $1,000 is pooled with others to allow the group to have a greater investment impact on ASU programs and scholarships. Grant proposals are solicited and reviewed each year by the Women & Philanthropy investment committee and narrowed to a handful of finalists. The entire membership then votes on those they want to fund. This structure empowers each investor to steward her gift and witness its impact.

Women & Philanthropy’s 2011 investment committee members include: Monique Millon, Linda Mueller, Janaki Ram and Cindy Watts of Paradise Valley; Judie Lyon of Payson; Debbie Hall, Paula Hardson (co-chair), Myra Page(co-chair) and Deanne Vickers of Phoenix; Alice Colston Kelley and Anne Donahoe of Scottsdale; and Jo Krueger of Tempe.

The mission of the ASU Foundation’s Women & Philanthropy program is to inspire and empower accomplished women by providing educational, networking and philanthropic opportunities to become visionary donors and a collective, significant force supporting Arizona State University’s creation of meaningful change in the world. Since its first year of funding, Women & Philanthropy has granted more than $1.7 million to support 56 ASU programs, initiatives and scholarships.