| The Home Depot’s Retool Your School (RYS) campus improvement grant program is back for the sixth year with a $50,000 top prize.
The RYS program was established to provide support for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to fund a project to restore, maintain or upgrade the campus. For the first time, The Home Depot will award $50,000 grants in three separate categories, based on enrollment size.
Voting is under way. To vote, visit http://retoolyourschool.com/vote-now/. And keep voting! You can vote once every day on each Internet-connected device you own (for example, PC, tablet, smartphone) until April 20. Special unlimited voting periods also may be made available.
Winning an RYS grant would fund this proposal for A&T:
Create an eco-friendly student oasis or “Green Space” in the area between the New Science building, Sockwell Hall, and Smith Hall. This area will feature a natural green space, including trees, flowers, benches and fountains. The green space will tie the existing sidewalks into one connected walkway leading around, to and from the area out to John Mitchell Drive. The walk areas will be landscaped with bushes, trees and benches. This student oasis is expected to be used by all students as a tranquil and relaxed area away from traffic where students can come and decompress, connect to wifi, have a picnic or eat lunch, and most of all enjoy a nature garden on campus during any time of the year.
This year a total of $255,000 will be awarded to nine HBCUs. Each of the three size categories, called “clusters,” will award a Tier I Grant of $50,000, a Campus Pride grant of $25,000 and a Tier II Grant of $10,000. The Campus Pride grants will go to the school in each cluster with the most online votes and social media activity.
All HBCUs competing for grants will be placed into one of three clusters, based on student enrollment: Cluster 1 is for schools with enrollments of 4,000+ students; Cluster 2, 1,201 to 3,999 students; and Cluster 3, up to 1,200 students.
With the incorporation of clusters, participating HBCUs now compete only with schools that are similar based on enrollment size. |
