Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, is set to receive the largest single financial donation ever made in history to an HBCU.
On Jan. 18, the school announced that Ronda Stryker and her husband William Johnston would be donating $100 million to the beloved institution. According to a press release, $75 million from the hefty donation will be allocated toward scholarships for future students, which will help to “remove any financial barriers that prevent qualified students from enrolling at Spelman.” The remaining $25 million will be used to improve student housing and to develop an academic course centered on public policy and democracy.
Striker and Johnston — who are white —hail from Kalamazoo, Michigan, MLive noted. Stryker, 70, has been a Spelman College Trustee since 1997. She is also a member of Harvard Medical School’s Board of Fellows. According to Spelman, the wealthy businesswoman has “worked for decades to empower women through higher education and advance opportunities for additional marginalized groups.”
Stryker is the granddaughter of the late Dr. Homer Stryker, an orthopedic surgeon and inventor from Kalamazoo. Homer founded Stryker Corporation in 1941, a medical device company, that offers innovative products and services in neurotechnology, spine and orthopedics. Johnston is the founder and board chairman of Greenleaf Trust, a wealth management firm in Michigan.
On Thursday, Dr. Helene Gayle, the president of Spelman College, gushed about the massive donation during an interview with CBS Mornings.
“The message that it sends is that they are worth it and I think that that’s huge,” Dr. Gayle said of Spelman’s students, before noting how HBCUs are historically underfunded.
“I think it also says that it’s worth investing in HBCUs more broadly, schools that have been far too under-invested in and so I think this is exciting for so many reasons.”
Dr. Gayle added, “This is really about securing the future for young women who want to go to Spelman far into the future. And we have this incredible group of young women with GPAs and grade point averages of 3.9. They go on to be doctors and lawyers. We’re the number one producer of Black women who go on to get PhDs in STEM. We do so much with so little and that’s why this gift is so transformative.”
Spelman has been gifted with several big donations in recent months.
In February 2023, Spelman received a $10 million donation from Michigan billionaires Rosemary K. and John W. Brown to help fund the construction of the school’s Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., Center for Innovation & the Arts, which is set to open in the fall, NBC News reported. The technology-rich learning hub caters to entrepreneurs, innovators and students majoring in the creative arts.
On Jan. 11, the United Negro College Fund received a $100 million donation from the Lilly Endowment Inc., a private philanthropic foundation. The generous gift aims to enhance the collective endowment for the 37 historically Black colleges and universities within UNCF’s membership, including Spelman.
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