B&N Founder Funds $5.6 Million Scholarship for Black Medical Students
Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio and wife Louise Riggio have made a $5.6 million gift to Weill Cornell Medicine to establish a scholarship for medical students with financial needs who are Black
The scholarship, which is part of Weill Cornell Medicine’s debt-free scholarship program for financially eligible medical students, will cover the full cost of attendance for all four years of medical school. The Riggio scholarship replaces that portion of the scholarship package that the student would receive regardless of race and increases the overall pool of funding available to the debt-free scholarship program.
Riggio retired from B&N in 2016 to focus on his "philanthropic and social" interests. Earlier this year, he made a $250,000 donation to Poets & Writers to fund initiatives aimed at supporting Black and marginalized writers.
This article has been updated for clarity.
