Grant Proposal Night

    On February 28, I alongside the other Polytechnic Global Scholars had the opportunity to present our grant proposals that we had been crafting throughout the school year. Each group presented their proposal and project that goes along with it to a panel of three judges in hopes of securing funding for their project. Each team identified a UN Sustainable Development Goal that they felt passionate about and then partnered with a Non-Profit Organization to develop a grant proposal fitting certain needs. Fellow Global Scholar Grayson G. and I received full funding for our project alongside the other five groups who had their projects were fully funded as well.

    For our project, Grayson and I partnered with the local organization Miry's List, focusing of the SDG of Quality Education within the refugee and new arrival families in the Los Angeles area. We helped provide tablets and project boxes to Miry's List's Serving American Newcomers at Home(SANAH) learning program to help students with Miry's List improve their English language skills over the summer in preparation for their classes during the school year. While having to go in front of a panel of judges and field all of their questions was certainly a nerve-racking experience, I really valued this opportunity to write and present a grant proposal as it was a completely new experience for me, but is definitely a skill I may need in my future career, so learning about its process now was very helpful. As for my experience during the event, I was quite nervous before presenting, but as soon as I started speaking everything seemed to go well, and I felt that we had presented all the information we needed to in order to receive funding for the grant. The waiting period while judges deliberated was certainly tense, but feeling confident about the way we presented helped ease that. Nevertheless, finally hearing that we were fully funded to carry out our project was an amazing feeling along with knowing that I get to continue working with Miry's List towards our goals.

    Another great part of this experience for me was getting to finally hear the about the projects and presentations of my fellow Global Scholars, as it was clear how much effort and care they had each put into their respective projects. The kinds of projects, places, and people their grants worked with was so diverse and it will be exciting to see the various projects in action over the coming months, as well as getting to work with Miry's List on my project to see the grant money making a real impact.