Dive Brief:
- Information technology company Cognizant is committing to a three-year, $150,000 grant to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at Texas A&M University.
- The deal was announced Monday at an event in College Station with Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
- The funding will primarily be used to support the Texas A&M National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing's BioFORCE program, an experiential STEM outreach program that helps prepare high school students for the state's biotechnology and biomanufacturing workforces.
Dive Insight:
Cognizant is a recent transplant to Texas from New Jersey, and it currently counts 2,000 employees in the state among its 29,000 employees worldwide. Beyond the financial benefits of the grant, the other obvious gain for Texas A&M is in the boost it will likely see in its number of gainfully employed graduates entering STEM fields, as it's hard to imagine Cognizant wouldn't invest in the school without planning to make a few post-graduation hires over the next several years.