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FedEx gives $100K scholarship endowment to Mississippi Valley State

FedEx says the endowment will help ensure MVSU students won’t be turned away because they can’t afford to fund their education.

FedEx is giving $100,000 to Mississippi Valley State University to create a new scholarship endowment at the southern HBCU.

The delivery company’s logistics subsidiary, FedEx Logistics, announced the move on Monday in conjunction with the $1 million pledge FedEx made to MVSU a year ago to fund a customized career readiness program at the university, according to a press release.

Mississippi Valley State University campus is pictured in this undated photo. (Photo: Mississippi Valley State University on Facebook).

FedEx said the scholarship endowment will help ensure MVSU students pursuing a degree won’t be turned away because they can’t afford to fund their education at the Itta Bena, Mississippi-located college.

“FedEx Logistics will continue breaking down barriers so that underrepresented groups have a roadmap to access and achieve success,” FedEx Logistics President and CEO Dr. Udo Lange said in a written statement.

Historically underfunded HBCUs across the country have received large capital injections from major companies and wealthy philanthropists in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the racial reckoning that erupted in corporate America in its wake.

MVSU students toil away at the Fed Ex Logistics Center located on its campus. (Photo: Courtesy of Mississippi Valley State University)

Blue chip firms such as Google, Apple and Citigroup have launched programs to improve diversity at all levels of their workforces and increase racial equity in the U.S.

Last week, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, film producer Patty Quillin, announced plans to donate $10 million of their own money to help fund educational opportunities at Tougaloo College, another HBCU in Mississippi.

In 2019, FedEx Logistics opened a student-staffed satellite office at MVSU’s campus, creating a talent pipeline for its customs brokerage operations. The company said its scholarship endowment is a continuation of its commitment to the school.

MVSU President Dr. Jerryl Briggs Sr. said the new scholarship endowment will give the school’s students “a blueprint to aid in their educational and career path.”

“The company’s continued support,” he maintained in a statement, “has been paramount to our efforts to encourage and inspire our scholars.”

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Source: FedEx gives $100K scholarship endowment to Mississippi Valley State

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Ava DuVernay’s Array partners with Google for $500K film grant

The film grant is said to be a part of a partnership in hopes of amplifying “marginalized voices” and building toward “a more equitable and inclusive artistic community”

Ava DuVernay‘s Array is partnering with Google for a $500K feature film grant.

Reportedly available to up-and-coming creatives from “historically underrepresented communities,” the grant is titled The Array + Google Feature Film Grant.

Per Deadline, the grant will provide “funds allowing the recipient to produce their first full-length feature. The initiative speaks to ongoing efforts, on the part of Array and Google, to help amplify marginalized voices, thereby building toward a more equitable and inclusive artistic community.”

2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - ArrivalsAva DuVernay attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on February 09, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

DuVernay shared an official statement regarding the exciting announcement.

“Having started my filmmaking journey by self-funding projects, this is a full-circle moment. I’m pleased to partner with Google and Array’s grant advisory committee to identify an emerging writer/director to bring their vision to the screen.”

She continues, “Inclusive storytelling is at the heart of Array’s mission and we’re proud to also provide access to Array Crew in order to further ensure that the set of the grantee’s film reflects the full array of the world around us.”

Google Assistant’s entertainment partnerships lead, Elle Roth-Brunet, also shared a statement.

“We’re honored to help Array showcase talented creatives from underrepresented communities and to add volume to more diverse voices. The Array x Google Feature Film Grant is intrinsically aligned with Google Assistant’s commitment to speak with a diverse set of voices, and connect with more people to help in their everyday lives.”

The recipient of the grant will be chosen by a “indie film advisory committee,” per Deadline, that is composed of “Gabrielle Glore (festival director & head of programming, Urbanworld), Francis Cullado (executive director for visual communications media, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival), Crystal Echo Hawk (Founder and Executive Director, IllumiNative), María Rauqel Bozzi (senior director of education & international initiatives at Film Independent), and Jio Mami (Artistic Director, Mumbai Film Festival).”

As theGrio recently reported, DuVernay recently received an honorary doctorate from Yale University.

The accomplished director, writer, and producer took to Twitter to celebrate the accomplishment with her followers.

She wrote in the tweet, “My thanks to the special committee at @Yale for this honor. My mom is over the moon and has taken to calling me Dr. DuVernay. Hope that wears off. But the joy of your high regard will not. A thrill to share this with the formidable Class of 2021 and my esteemed fellow honorees.”

My thanks to the special committee at @Yale for this honor. My mom is over the moon and has taken to calling me Dr. DuVernay. Hope that wears off. But the joy of your high regard will not. A thrill to share this with the formidable Class of 2021 and my esteemed fellow honorees. https://t.co/MqNJDUOhuf pic.twitter.com/Em1UTHohym

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 24, 2021

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Source: Ava DuVernay’s Array partners with Google for $500K film grant