The New York City-based William T. Grant Foundation has announced the latest class of William T. Grant Scholars, each of whom will receive $300,000 over five years to support their research in the social and behavioral sciences.

Through the program, the foundation supports the work of postdoctoral researchers from diverse disciplines pursuing research on young people and the various contexts in which youth interact. The annual award program, now in its twenty-fifth year, has funded a hundred and nineteen researchers since its inception.

This year's Grant Scholars and their research projects are Rachel Dunifon, a professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University ("The Role of Grandparents in the Lives of Adolescent Children"); Tama Leventhal, an associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Policy Studies ("Neighborhood Influences on Adolescent Development: Timing, Gender, and Processes"); Clark McKown, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago ("The Social and Developmental Ecology of Academic Inequity"); Lisa D. Pearce, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ("Religion's Role in the Shaping of Self-Image, Aspirations, and Achievement in Youth"); and Ren�e Spencer, an assistant professor at Boston University's School of Social Work ("Understanding the Mentoring Process: A Longitudinal Study of Mentoring Relationships Between Adolescents and Adults").

"The goal of this program is to identify exceptional early-career scholars and give them the financing, mentorship, and interdisciplinary experiences to make them even better," said Dr. Robert C. Granger, president of the William T. Grant Foundation.