The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is the recipient of a $20 million donation from philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott, the largest gift from an individual in school history.
UMES is among 384 organizations across the country, including 16 other historically black institutions, which collectively will benefit from $4.15 billion in the latest round of donations from Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos.
“We’re grateful to Ms. Scott for recognizing the great work we do at University of Maryland Eastern Shore especially with first-generation college students and under-represented minorities,” said President Heidi M. Anderson.
In a lengthy online posting, Scott wrote the “384 carefully selected teams have dedicated their lives to helping others, working and volunteering and serving real people face-to-face at bedsides and tables, in prisons and courtrooms and classrooms, on streets and hospital wards and hotlines and frontlines of all types and sizes, day after day after day.”