The New York City-based Teagle Foundation has announced thirty-four grants totaling more than $6.5 million to higher education institutions and other organizations helping students to prepare for and succeed in college.

Grants awarded by the foundation through its Outcomes and Assessment initiative included $303,969 to the Association of American Colleges and Universities; $300,000 to Seattle University and Gonzaga University; and $300,000 to the Southern Education Foundation. In addition, the foundation awarded a grant of $40,000 through its Fresh Thinking initiative to Union College, Bard College, Colgate University, Hamilton College, Skidmore College, and Vassar College to help encourage sustained analysis of ideas and issues that can help strengthen and define the goals of liberal education.

The foundation committed a total of $3 million over three years through its College-Community Connections program, which focuses on boosting the college readiness of New York City high school students. Twelve grants of $240,000 each were awarded to support partnerships between community organizations and area colleges and universities, including Barnard College and the Harlem Educational Activities Fund; Cornell University and Henry Street Settlement; and Fordham University and the Citizens' Advice Bureau. The foundation also awarded a grant of $100,000 to New York University's Metropolitan Center for Urban Education to hold college preparatory programs at nonprofits in the city.

"These new grants are especially exciting because, collectively, they cover the areas where we believe strategic interventions can produce the greatest good — in the classroom, on campus, and in the national conversation," said Teagle Foundation president W. Robert Connor. "To have the opportunity to fund projects that work on all three levels is wonderful and a major step is ensuring this work will be widely used to improve student learning."