The American Association of University Women (AAUW) and Pantene have awarded grants totaling nearly $50,000 to 11 student-led teams to fight stereotypes and biases on college campuses around the nation.

The 2014-15 AAUW Campus Action Project (CAP) grants, sponsored by Pantene's Shine Strong campaign, are one way the brand is supporting women.

"These projects hold great promise for student leadership development, visibility, creativity, and impact," AAUW Executive Director and CEO Linda D. Hallman said in a statement. "We deeply appreciate Pantene's support of our nationwide effort to empower women on college and university campuses."

The grantees are teams from Cheyney University in Pennsylvania; Clemson University in South Carolina; the College at Brockport in New York; Murray State University in Kentucky; Napa Valley College in California; Pacific Lutheran University in Washington; Sierra College in California; the University of Dubuque in Iowa; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and West Virginia Wesleyan College.

All the projects focus on the stereotypes and biases that affect college students. The Clemson University team, for example, is launching Run the World, a program to address how stereotypes affect women's professional advancement. At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the team's project, Telling Our Stories: I'm Not/I Am, will empower women of color to resist stereotypes when defining themselves and create their own counter-narratives.

"Pantene believes that women are stronger when they work together, and we are thrilled to have collaborated with AAUW and been able to provide these grant recipients with the opportunity to work as a team to fight the stereotypes and biases on their college campuses across the country," said Jodi Allen, Procter & Gamble vice president of P&G Hair Care & Color for North America. "We are certain these CAP grants will inspire action and change among these young leaders and those that their programs will reach."

Each year, the AAUW CAP grants provide funding to teams of students and faculty to create community-based solutions to some of the far-reaching problems explored in AAUW research, which includes the real-life effects of biases and stereotypes. In the past few years, the AAUW research reports Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation and Women in Community Colleges: Access to Success have addressed how stereotypes harm women's educational opportunities and salaries.