MWCC Awarded $500,000 Humanities Grant |
| Professor Michelle Valois, MWCC Humanities Initiative Project Coordinator, with Liberal Arts and Sciences Curriculum Award winners Wendy Anderson and Claudia Elbourn during the college's Evening of Excellence awards ceremony in May 2013. |
Mount Wachusett Community College has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant in the amount of $500,000 to endow the "MWCC Humanities Initiative" to deepen and sustain quality humanities programming and curriculum in North Central Massachusetts. The grant will be matched by $1 million raised by the MWCC Foundation, Inc. in a fundraising campaign to endow this project over the next six years.
The purpose of the endowment is to support collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching and research in the humanities and to engage MWCC students and residents in the North Central Massachusetts region studies and discussions of enduring themes and ideas from the world's rich cultural and intellectual traditions. The endowment will fund common annual themes to be integrated across campus curricula and woven into campus and community humanities programming.
"Federal support from entities like the National Endowment for the Humanities is playing a critical role in the preservation and promotion of our national identity and civic engagement in America," said Congresswoman Niki Tsongas. "Like many of the other great academic institutions here in the Third District, Mount Wachusett isn't just teaching students, but is preparing them to play an active role in the national conversation," she said.
"We are extremely excited with this opportunity to enhance our ability to serve students and the community by instilling an appreciation for the humanities and civic engagement within our curriculum," said President Daniel M. Asquino. "We are looking forward to raising the required match which will endow this initiative into the future."
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