Seton Hill awarded grant to help bolster math center
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Seton Hill University has received a $100,000 grant that will bolster the Greensburg school’s math center.
Presented by the Booth Ferris Foundation, a New York-based grant organization, the funds will be used at the Robert M. Brownlee Mathematics Enrichment Center to help strengthen the skills of undergraduate students with the help of faculty advisors and staff.
Seton Hill officials also will work to increase the proficiency of upper level students in business, science, technology, engineering and math fields.
“With nearly 60% of Seton Hill incoming freshmen majoring in science and business fields, the need for both assistance and enrichment in mathematics continues to grow,” Seton Hill President Mary C. Finger said in an announcement. “The grant from the Booth Ferris Foundation will provide students with the skills they need to succeed in their classes and in the highly-technical fields that await them.”
The center was announced last February when entrepreneur Robert M. “Bob” Brownlee of Deerfield Beach, Fla., made a centennial year commitment in memory of his late aunt, Sister Francesca Brownlee, who helped Seton Hill achieve its charter to becoming a college in 1918, and who served as the school’s first dean.
According to the school’s website, Brownlee donated more than $1 million to build the math facility and for an endowed scholarship.
Robert Brownlee is a Marine veteran, former police sergeant and entrepreneur whose life’s work has focused on public safety. He served in the Marine Corps and was a police officer with the Miami Police Department before turning his attention to entrepreneurship and founding several companies that specialized in public safety barricades.
“As many students come from high schools that do not have the resources to prepare students for college level math, the grant from the Booth Ferris Foundation will allow Seton Hill to identify these students early and offer them the assistance they need to find success in mathematics, gain confidence in their skills and move on to higher level mathematics courses,” Sister Susan Yochum, Seton Hill provost, said in the announcement.