We sat in class eagerly awaiting to learn how we were going to figure out all of the little steps and decisions. Before class, we were assigned to look over some sample grants to prepare four our conversation that night. Once in class we broke up into groups of three and discussed what we liked and disliked about the sample grant we were given. As a group, we came together and decided on key factors that we wanted to include as criteria for the grants we are proposing. We agreed that some important aspects to be included were budget breakdowns, timeline of services, description of agency, the amount of money they are requesting, and several other factors.
After that activity, we Skyped with a representative from the foundation, be we were left with more questions about how to make this process go smoothly. We spent some time discussing the ambassador program and how we as a class wanted to approach it. Some students wanted to created a committee system along with an executive like committee to ensure that the blog posts were getting done and were coordinated accordingly. There was also conversation of just a small group of people being responsible for the whole blog. We ended up deciding that we would make every student responsible for one blog post and create groups of three people per week to make these posts. At the end of that discussion we realized we needed someone who could actually create and be responsible for setting up and maintaining the blog. Additionally, we added an editor position to ensure that the posts are presented in the most professional manner possible.
Finally, our last conversation was about how we would get the word out about the money that we have to offer. We created two committees and had students sign up. One committee is responsible for writing up a request for proposals which explains the amount of money per grant we are offering, how to apply, the deadline, and the explanation of need for the organization. An additional committee was formed to disseminate our request for proposal through a variety of ways such as the JMU newspaper, The Breeze, the local JMU community, and the local news.
There are still several questions left unanswered about the rest of the semester, but we are excited for the ability to have an impact on our local community. We have a lot of freedom in how we make the criteria and decisions for these grants, but the beauty of all that is that we are getting field experience as we work with these organizations. I have no doubt that this will be an amazing semester working with all of the different people represented in our classroom and with the organizations in our community.