This morning Aura announced that they will be providing a four-year scholarship to an outstanding, incoming freshman at Howard University. The inaugural scholarship is being awarded to Megdelawait Anbese.

Anbese is an incoming freshman in Howard University’s College of Engineering and Architecture and will receive $260,000 over her four years of study. The scholarship covers all expenses, including textbooks, food, housing and living expenses.

Aura is the leader in intelligent safety solutions and provides all-in-one digital protection for consumers. The company has a mission to bring together security, privacy and parental controls on an intelligent platform, while also making adaptive and proactive digital safety accessible to everyone.

Aura founder and CEO, Hari Ravichandran, spoke about the importance of scholarships like these being awarded to HBCU students.

“We are proud to support a pipeline of talent underrepresented in our industry by offering Ms. Anbese our inaugural Aura STEM Scholarship. A U.S. immigrant and first in her family to attend college, she overcame unique challenges in the pursuit of her dream: to obtain a degree in Computer Science and contribute to reversing the gender gap in technology,” Ravichandran.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, only 8.3% of computer and mathematical jobs are held by Black or African American people and 2.5% of science and engineering employees are Black women.

“Growing up, it was hard to envision myself in a STEM field, considering the shortage of women, and an even smaller percentage of women of color in the field. I’m sure there have been brilliant women in then past who have passed up a possible career in STEM because they couldn’t afford it, and scholarships like this one from Aura help to open the door for many more women,” scholarship recipient, Anbese said.

Aura has several other ways that that they are investing in next generation talent, for more information visit https://www.aura.com/aura-cares#inclusion.