Rales Foundation bets big on Carnegie Mellon STEM students

Carnegie Mellon University and the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation, named for a home-building supplies entrepreneur and his wife who built their fortune despite early struggles, hope a $150 million initiative will support a new generation of students trying to achieve that American dream. The foundation pledged $116 million Wednesday, in addition to $34 million from CMU, to endow scholarships for graduate students studying STEM from groups underrepresented in the fields, including racial minorities, women and first-generation college students. “But it’s also very much aligned with the mission of the university to educate the next generation and provide access and opportunity for everyone.” The foundation’s interest in funding the program came in part from Mitchell and Steven’s experience hiring for their company and seeing a need for more diverse voices in STEM fields, Josh Rales said. Beyond the financial barriers, Black and Native American students specifically, may also be stereotyped and underestimated by professors and institutions, said Ebony McGee, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University, who wrote “Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation.” Programs that broadly recruit from all underrepresented groups — not specifically Black students, who along with Latinos are underrepresented among higher degrees in STEM — won’t reach the most marginalized populations, McGee said. “Just take as many STEM everything, do all the internships, make sure you have the right grades and your race or your gender doesn’t matter,” said McGee, adding that it’s a disservice to those students.