Grants in Action

People looking at artworks on a wall with their backs facing the camera

The Mellon Foundation-funded Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education (CFMDE) responds to the ongoing global challenges posed by forced migration, through curriculum development, sponsoring collaborative research, and supporting displaced scholars across four college campuses: Vassar, Bard, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, and The New School. This past year Vassar successfully launched its new signature program, the Digital Scholars Teaching Fellowship program, which pairs displaced scholars (teaching virtually) with Vassar faculty members (teaching in person).

Seven women on a stage holding one of them in a dance position

Vassar students enrolled in an intensive class with Lecturer and Chair of Dance Miriam Mahdaviani collaborated with a professional instructor from Battery Dance, a New York City dance company, to create a pair of performances with students from Poughkeepsie High School.

Visitors viewing the crocheted reef project

During a long, cold Winter Break in the midst of the pandemic, more than 50 Vassar students, faculty, and administrators gathered on Zoom to take part in the first ever Grand Challenges Winter Creative Project. Participants learned to crochet and used those skills to build a massive crocheted “coral reef” to demonstrate the need to address climate change.