Ever have an idea for a service project, but no idea how to fund it? In college, there’s are various ways to obtain funding to make philanthropic dreams into reality.
Specifically at McDaniel, students apply each year for the Griswold-Zepp award in order to fund their volunteer projects. This year, Palabras to Words, McDaniel’s TESOL tutoring club of which I am the co-president, was one of four groups to receive funding. At Palabras to Words, we offer weekly, free, one-on-one tutoring sessions to adults in the Westminster community who are interested in improving their English. This year, we also offer childcare, which has caused a big increase in the number of women who are able to come to our tutoring sessions.
Our class picture from last semester!
Our club was awarded $450, and here’s how we’re spending it: $100 for pronunciation textbooks, $100 for childcare materials (paint, coloring books, etc.), and $250 for cultural events such as class dinners.
The grant money has allowed us a chance to grow and expand our efforts to meet the needs of the Spanish-speaking community in town. There are three other awesome projects that received funding: Fitness Buddies, which offers fitness and nutrition-related programming for Boys and Girls club students; Better Food for a Better Future, which involves planting a community garden, and Compassionate Care Communities, in which the recipient will live at a Farm Sanctuary in New York and then bring back knowledge about vegan nutrition and farming practices to McDaniel. To learn more about these projects, check out this article from the McDaniel website.
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