Gates Foundation boosts Millennium Scholars

Will add $58 million to program aimed at minority, low-income students

Female vets face homelessness

Feds charge Pa. teens, police officers with hate crimes

President Obama related to Warren Buffett?

Barack Obama statue attacked by Facebook critics

How Hattie made history with a racist role

Slideshow

Breaking Barriers: U.S. minority leaders
From the first Hispanic governor (in 1853) to the first African-American to be elected president, learn about how ethnic barriers have been broken in the United States through the years.

more photos

Video: Race & ethnicity

More video

NYTimes' 'of color' site under scrutiny
Dec. 14: A New York Times Web site that targets people of color shoppers faces criticism. Msnbc's Contessa Brewer talks with Thegrio.com's Lola Adesioye about the controversy.

‘MTP’ reflects on MLK’s Nobel

Unemployment hits African Americans hardest

Meet Tiana, Disney’s first black princess

What help does New Orleans need most?

Slideshow

Martin Luther King Jr.
See the civil rights leader in speeches and marches from Alabama to Washington.

more photos

Black history quiz

AP	Take our video quiz and test your knowledge of black history

updated 6:27 a.m. ET Aug. 7, 2006

SEATTLE - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation says it will add $58 million to expand its $1 billion Millennium Scholars program to target low-income and minority students seeking graduate degrees in public health.

It’s the first time the foundation has added money to the scholarship program since it was established in 1999.

The program has already given scholarships to more than 10,000 students for undergraduate education in their choice of major and for graduate work in public health, education, science, math, engineering and library science.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

The foundation, which planned an announcement about the program on Monday, says it will help 20,000 students over 20 years.

The United Negro College Fund administers the Gates Millennium Scholars program, which has given money to students in every state and Washington, D.C., and has helped send them to more than 1,300 colleges and universities.

The new scholarship money will be used to increase the number of minorities pursuing graduate degrees in epidemiology, biomedical science, tropical disease, public health practice and nutritional science.

The Gates Foundation spends most of its money on fighting diseases around the world and on public health, so the scholars could potentially end up working for the foundation in its other projects.