Grants
Penn State Intercom......September 19, 2002

Hewlett Foundation presents
grant to Demography Program

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has awarded a three-year, $385,000 grant to the Population Research Institute and Graduate Program in Demography to support international demography training and research.

With this award for the 2002-2005 period, the foundation will have supported the University demography program continuously for 23 years.

Directed by Gordon F. DeJong, distinguished professor of sociology and demography and director of the Graduate Program in Demography, with Gretchen T. Cornwell, assistant professor of rural sociology and demography, the award provides stipend and tuition grants and dissertation awards for predoctoral developing country students in the dual-degree graduate program in demography and international population research initiation support for faculty.

Penn State is one of 15 U.S. universities being supported by the Hewlett Foundation Population Program, and has one of the largest demography training programs in this country. Nearly half of the 63 predoctoral graduate students associated with the program are international students.

The University's demography program is a unique interdisciplinary dual-title doctoral degree program with six participating departments: sociology, anthropology, economics, human development and family studies, rural sociology, and agricultural, environmental and regional economics.

New grants to help
low-income adults pursue education

The University's Academic Advancement Programs (AAP) have secured two new grants totaling $3 million to operate Educational Opportunity Centers in Philadelphia and Southwestern Pennsylvania over the next five years.

These programs are designed to assist low-income adults in planning for education beyond high school. The majority of the EOC clients who enroll in college will be the first in their families to earn a college degree.

The grants enable the University to provide personalized guidance each year to more than 1,000 adults in Philadelphia and 2,000 from nine counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. Services include career counseling, admissions and financial aid assistance, and referrals to GED programs and testing sites.

Through similar grants secured over the past 10 years, the University's EOCs already have helped more than 23,000 adults plan for education. More than 7,200 have enrolled in college or other postsecondary educational programs.

Educational Opportunity Centers are among the six federal TRIO programs established to help low-income citizens overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers to higher education. Penn State is one of a few higher education institutions in the nation to operate all of the TRIO programs.

EOC offices are located in downtown Philadelphia and on the McKeesport, Fayette and Beaver campuses. For information, call Dara Ware Allen at (412) 675-9077 or e-mail dwa2@psu.edu; or Diane Athanas at (215) 471-2240 or dea5@psu.edu.

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