Saint Anselm College has been selected to receive a $350,000 grant from the Clare Boothe Luce Program of The Henry Luce Foundation, Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., college president, announced. The program supports women in the sciences.
Funding from this grant will provide full two-year scholarships – including tuition, room,
board, and fees - for four outstanding Saint Anselm women who are majoring in chemistry, physics, math or engineering. The scholarships will be awarded to four members of the Class of 2012, who will be selected in their sophomore year to receive the scholarship for their junior and senior years.
The college joins a prestigious list of colleges and universities to receive support from the Luce Program, including Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as fellow Catholic institutions such as the University of San Diego, Siena College and Loyola University, New Orleans.
Saint Anselm has long been a proponent of women faculty and students in the sciences. The college exceeds national averages in hiring and retaining female faculty members in math and the sciences (37.5%) and in the percent of female graduates in these majors (53%). Nearly one third of all female graduates in the relevant majors in the last ten years have enrolled in graduate school upon completion of their bachelor degrees. This grant is recognition of that commitment, as well as testimony to the legacy of a truly extraordinary woman, Clare Boothe Luce.
In a career that spanned seven decades, Clare Boothe Luce was a playwright, author, and journalist, congresswoman from Connecticut and U.S. Ambassador to Italy. She was instrumental in founding the Atomic Energy Commission; in 1981, President Reagan named her to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
She became a Roman Catholic following the 1944 death of her only child in an auto accident. After her own death in 1987, she left most of her estate to The Henry Luce Foundation, established by her husband, Henry Luce, co-founder and editor in chief of Time Inc. She dedicated her legacy to help women in fields in which they are underrepresented.
“I am humbled and grateful for this award and the confidence The Henry Luce Foundation has placed in Saint Anselm and our mission in Catholic liberal arts education,” said Father Jonathan.
Criteria for selection for this award, as well as communication about the application process will be announced in the Fall 2009 by Fr. Augustine Kelly, O.S.B., Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College.