Colorado College has received a $575,000 grant from the Sachs Foundation to support Black students interested in pursuing careers in education. The grant will be used to support summer fellowships, academic-year internships, and scholarships, including two Master of Arts in Teaching scholarships.

“We are enormously grateful to the Sachs Foundation for this generous and visionary grant,” says Acting Co-president Mike Edmonds. “The grant supports Colorado College’s goals of making a CC education financially accessible and helps advance our antiracism initiative.”

Manya Whitaker, associate professor and chair of the Education Department, says the partnership with the Sachs Foundation allows the department to continue its mission to teach for social justice. “Such a mission necessitates the active recruitment, development, and support of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) teachers, but especially Black teachers whose presence in the classroom yields positive social, cognitive, and academic outcomes for all students, regardless of race,” she says. “We are extremely grateful to the Sachs Foundation for removing the economic barriers that prevent many Black students from considering a career in the classroom.”

The primary mission of the Colorado Springs-based Sachs Foundation is to provide educational opportunities to Black and African American residents of Colorado who meet established academic and financial criteria.