UNC Charlotte’s Cato College of Education, a leader in literacy instruction and research, has been selected by the Mebane Foundation to help continue its legacy of supporting innovation in literacy education in North Carolina and beyond through a five-year grant and potential endowment of up to $23 million.
The decision follows a competitive statewide search to identify a partner to continue to carry on founder Allen Mebane’s commitment to support inventive educational endeavors as the foundation winds down operations over the next decade.
“We are grateful the Mebane Foundation selected UNC Charlotte as its long-standing partner,” Chancellor Sharon L. Gaber said. “This transformational investment will take Charlotte’s highly rated literacy programming and clinical experiences and move our teacher candidates to the next level.”
Through the free summer camps, elementary school students from across the Charlotte Region have access to a place where they can learn to read. They are also a setting for teachers-in-training to apply new educational techniques and skills learned at the University. More recently, the foundation provided additional support to develop Project Enrich, which provides evidence-based tutoring year-round to elementary school students who underperform in reading.
The foundation will increase its funding to Cato College over the next five years in support of teacher development, community partnerships, and research and innovation. It is expected the gift will then culminate in the Allen Mebane: Leaving a Legacy for Future Generations endowment to create and fund the Mebane Early Literacy Center into perpetuity.
The Mebane Foundation’s gift, one of the largest in UNC Charlotte’s history, comes after a report commissioned by the UNC System Board of Governors that designated the University as “strong” in literacy instruction, the highest rating achievable. UNC Charlotte is the only North Carolina public university to earn the distinction.
Read more about the historic gift and the foundation’s work here.
