Research initiatives at Texas Christian University are getting a $3 million boost thanks to a gift from the Bezos Family Foundation.
The donation created an endowed fund to cover the College of Education’s research and community-engaged projects.
Research is a top priority of the private university as it strives toward the coveted R1 status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, recognition signaling the highest level of research activity.
“With this endowment, we’ll continue to invest in the research, innovation and partnerships that define a great college education,” College of Education Dean Frank Hernandez said in a news release. “As TCU moves toward R1, this funding helps ensure we’re not only expanding knowledge, but preparing the next generation of educational leaders to do the same.”
A TCU News article from November acknowledged that the university must diversify sources of research funding as government agencies that previously provided support to schools significantly cut such spending.
The funding is the latest contribution to the Fort Worth university from the Bezos Family Foundation, a nonprofit created by Jackie and Mike Bezos to invest in the development and application of “the science of learning” as a way of supporting young people. Jackie and Mike Bezos are the parents of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and TCU alums Christina Bezos-Poore and Mark Bezos, who both graduated in 1992.
In 2020, the foundation donated $5 million to support an endowed chair for early childhood education and a scholarship program for KinderFrogs, the university’s lab school primarily for children with intellectual disabilities.
“Our partnership with TCU’s College of Education is a long-term investment in faculty-led and community-driven research that fuels innovation, strengthens faculty excellence and the student experience, and helps shape the future of learning on a national scale,” Jody Rosentswieg, managing director of strategic initiatives at the Bezos Family Foundation, said in the release.
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
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