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McCormick and Kellogg Receive $80,000 Grant from the General Motors Foundation

Donation from General Motors

The McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have jointly received an $80,000 grant from the General Motors Foundation to support their education and student group initiatives.

The money was presented at the annual meeting of the McCormick Advisory Council on Sept. 24.

“We’re excited and thankful to the General Motors Foundation for their generous gift,” said Julio M. Ottino, dean of McCormick. “McCormick strives to partner with industry on many levels, including research and education. This grant will help provide students with more education and student group opportunities and will help in McCormick’s goal to give students a whole-brain engineering™ education.”

General Motors established the GM Foundation (GMF) in 1976 to ensure continuity of its philanthropic efforts. The GMF is committed to supporting organizations and programs designed to affect and improve the quality of life in communities. The GMF supports a variety of activities in four major areas: education, health and human services, environment and energy, and community development.

"The GM Foundation is proud to support these important educational initiatives within Northwestern University's engineering and business schools," said Alan Taub, GM vice president of Global Research and Development.  "At GM, we look at this grant as an investment in future leaders."

McCormick has received several grants from GMF since 2002, and the company has supported initiatives at McCormick and Kellogg for decades. This grant will support the EXCEL program, an intense five-week initiative that prepares minority students for their freshman year, and several McCormick student groups. It will also support the Segal Design Institute, a McCormick-based program dedicated to the study of human-centered design. GMF has supported the Segal Design Institute from its inception by advising faculty on overall project selection and by working with student study groups as advisers and subject matter experts.

At Kellogg, the grant will support student conferences, scholarships for females and minorities, resources for career development, and the MMM Program, a joint program between Kellogg and McCormick that trains master’s-level students in modern manufacturing and business.

“General Motors Foundation’s generosity will help our students plan conferences in which senior corporate leaders discuss their vision and outlook on a wide range of business topics,” said David Austen-Smith, senior associate dean at Kellogg and the Peter G. Peterson Professor of Corporate Ethics. “We are grateful to continue our successful partnership with GM, and we hope to do so for years to come.”