Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, has announced a three-year, $399,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of an applied learning research curricular project on voting rights.

The project, done in collaboration with the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State, Tuskegee, and Prairie View A&M universities and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, is dedicated to producing research and teaching materials on the history of voting rights, with a special focus on the 26th Amendment—which gave U.S. citizens the right to vote when they turned 18 years old—in the form of written and video case studies, recorded lectures, and oral histories. The project highlights how academic institutions and their leaders can serve as civic actors in promoting and defending democratic principles. The four institutions involved offer unique insights into the role of colleges in the fight for voting rights, particularly the fight against discrimination based on race and age.

“The Andrew Goodman Foundation is excited to continue to partner with North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, and of course Bard College, to make youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. We look forward to welcoming Tuskegee University into our family, and are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for making this possible,” said Goodman Foundation president and CEO Charles Imohiosen. “This unique applied learning collaboration will allow the Andrew Goodman Foundation to share best practices and skills from our network and learn collectively with our partners, as we continue to train and empower young people with the key tools to be effective democracy practitioners.” 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/mrolands)