HUD awards Virginia Tech $90,000

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced recently that HUD will award $90,000 to Virginia Tech to help graduate students prepare for careers in community planning and development.

The grant to Virginia Tech is part of some $2,880,000 in grants HUD announced to 28 universities, colleges and other organizations around the country to benefit low-income and minority graduate students as they work toward their degrees and gain practical experience in their career field. HUD’s Community Development Work Study Program grants will provide $15,000 per student per year for students' tuition, travel, and books during the next two years.

"Today's students will become tomorrow's greatest resource for revitalizing our nation's communities," Jackson said. "The Bush Administration is committed to creating a new generation of leaders who will work to strengthen our neighborhoods and communities."

Colleges and universities will use the grants to offer financial aid and work experience to students enrolled in full-time graduate programs in community development or closely related fields such as urban planning, public policy, or public administration. Schools will select students who will benefit from work-study funding as well as secure work assignments and monitor student performance.

"This grant will help three economically disadvantaged graduate students pursue master’s degrees in urban planning, policy, or public administration, and subsequent careers in community development," said Ted Koebel, professor in the College of Architecture and Urban studies and director of the Center for Housing Research. "Recent graduates aided by this grant are working at the federal mortgage program Ginnie Mae, and for county planning and city housing authority programs."

The awards are made by HUD's Office of University Partnerships, which reaches out to colleges and universities in a number of ways to help use public resources to engage institutions of higher education in programs of community planning and development. For more information about the work-study program, go to http://www.oup.org/about/cdwsp.html.

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities, creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans, supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development as well as enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at http://www.hud.gov/

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.