A breach of several levees surrounding New Orleans, LA following Hurricane Katrina, left many of the local colleges and universities severely impacted. The Foundation recognized that Xavier, a historically black university founded in 1915 by St. Katharine Drexel, was a school with modest endowment and in particular need of help. To assure that the university recovered from this disaster to resume its mission of high-quality education, in the summer 2006, the Foundation approved a grant of $2.5MM for the school. Part of the grant funds were used to provide scholarships to attract deserving students to Xavier.