Hearst Foundations award $500,000 in grants

Four Houston institutions will share $500,000 in grants announced by the Hearst Foundations this week.

The awards include $200,000 for the Memorial Hermann Foundation to support a system-wide supportive medicine program for chronically ill patients and $150,000 to Rice University for the Rice Emerging Scholars Program, which helps first-year students prepare for the challenging pace and rigor of classes in "STEM" subjects or science, technology, engineering and math.

Other local recipients are Child Advocates, which will receive $75,000 toward its court services program for children in foster care; and the Houston Zoo, which was awarded $75,000 to support workshops that help educators develop classroom teaching methods for STEM subjects.

The foundations also announced the following grants in Texas:

1 Julie Rogers "Gift of Life" Free Mammogram Program in Beaumont - $75,000 to expand cancer prevention and awareness programs

1 Southwest School of Art in San Antonio- $50,000 to support the Young Artist Programs which provide visual arts education services to low-income children and teens

1 Abilene Christian University in west central Texas - $100,000 to support its television studio upgrade to High Definition

The Hearst Foundations are independent private philanthropies operating separately from the Hearst Corp., which owns the Houston Chronicle.