[337] June Anderson Center receives funds for scholarships, sexual assault education

MURFREESBORO — With two new grants in hand, an MTSU center will be better able to serve nontraditional students and change the conversation about gender-based violence.

The June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students has received a $50,000 grant from the Crankstart Foundation to provide financial aid to students between the ages of 25 and 50 who are returning to college after at least five years away from campus.

These scholarships are available to men and women full-time students regardless of GPA. Each recipient could obtain up to $5,000 per academic year.

“It’s going to give our nontraditional students the assistance that they need,” said Barbara Scales, director of the June Anderson Center. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to give away 14 of these scholarships.

To apply for the Crankstart scholarship or any other financial aid from the June Anderson Center, go to http://www.mtsu.edu/jac/scholarships.php and submit an application by April 24.

Crankstart, a nonprofit organization, was founded by Palo Alto, California-based venture capitalist Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, in 2000. As signatories to The Giving Pledge, Moritz and Heyman promised to give more than half of their wealth to charity.

Other billionaires who signed The Giving Pledge include business media magnate and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan; and Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett.

The Avon Foundation for Women awarded the June Anderson Center a one-year, $10,000 grant to participate in its inaugural National Leadership Institute: Changing the Narrative on Campus Gender-Based Violence. MTSU is one of only 20 schools in the nation to receive this grant.

University representatives attended an institute in Atlanta Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 to learn and share best practices for combating gender-based violence and to develop a sexual assault prevention and response action plan.

“We’ve hired two students to help us with our social media campaign around bystander education and around gender-based violence, which is stalking, dating sexual assault, intimate partner violence and domestic violence,” said Scales.

In addition, Scales said, part of the grant will be used to create a video to be used in training students how to react if they suspect an act of sexual violence might be imminent and to reject the tendency to remain uninvolved.

For more information, contact the June Anderson Center at 615-898-5812 or jacwns@mtsu.edu.