by Ray Hayes
George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, recently established the George Lucas Family Foundation Endowed Student Support Fund for Diversity in 2016 at the University of Southern California. For those unaware, Lucas is the famed film director of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series while Hobson is the current Chair of the Board of Directors of Dreamworks. The couple while breaking barriers in their individual fields, have also championed diversity and inclusion for years. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Lucas family recently awarded the USC School of Cinematic Arts with a second endowment of $10 million to provide funding to Black and Hispanic students at the school. According to Michael Renov, Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at USC, “This endowed fund allows us to recruit storytellers whose voices are underrepresented in cinematic media, and whose inclusion benefits all of us.”
Lucas understands that some careers within the film industry are lacking in diversity and with the help of the generous donations to the USC film school minority representation gets a boost in support. Another great thing about the endowment is that the funds will be split evenly between both sexes with undergraduate/graduate minority students receiving “priority consideration for financial support.”
http://newcountry923.fm/2017/03/27/george-lucas-gives-another-10m-to-usc-for-student-diversity/
