Week 4
Detail the progress you're making on your RFP search. In about a week you really need to begin working on the preproposal (the permission memo). If you'd like to add some of your thoughts about the FDCenter's Short Course, that might be useful here too.
Searching for an RFP that I can use has been a bit frustrating. Since I presented on the Dept. of Ed., I really wanted to find something using that site. I found the HSI grant which I thought was very promising, but after doing some networking with individuals on campus I found out that HSI is the same thing as Title-V which we currently are not eligible for because the institution just finished a project with that grant. According to my sources, we are eligible to submit a project which must be collaborative. The institution has been working at a particular project but has not been successful getting anyone to collaborate. "We will sit this one out" is the official word.
Also, in conversations with other individuals I learned that the HSI grant and many other Dept. of Ed. grants require quite an extensive amount of work. Now I understand why Dr. Rice suggested that we search for foundations as funding agencies. My colleagues here urge me not to get discouraged and that my ideas are good ideas. Still the HSI grant will have to wait for another time.
Searching for an RFP that I can use has been a bit frustrating. Since I presented on the Dept. of Ed., I really wanted to find something using that site. I found the HSI grant which I thought was very promising, but after doing some networking with individuals on campus I found out that HSI is the same thing as Title-V which we currently are not eligible for because the institution just finished a project with that grant. According to my sources, we are eligible to submit a project which must be collaborative. The institution has been working at a particular project but has not been successful getting anyone to collaborate. "We will sit this one out" is the official word.
Also, in conversations with other individuals I learned that the HSI grant and many other Dept. of Ed. grants require quite an extensive amount of work. Now I understand why Dr. Rice suggested that we search for foundations as funding agencies. My colleagues here urge me not to get discouraged and that my ideas are good ideas. Still the HSI grant will have to wait for another time.
I continued my search and found that most of the Dept. of Ed. programs are for institutional support rather than individual support. I couldn't find a grant that matched my ideas at an individual level. The ideas that I had originally seem too focused and the grants that I found require specific qualifications for funding and I don't have those qualifications nor do I know anyone here who does and who would be interested in the project.
The grant that I found which seemed to fit is the FIPSE grant, again through Dept. of Ed. This is another project that looks like quite an undertaking. I didn't know exactly how my ideas would fit into the grant. So I had to shift my idea a bit. How could I refocus my idea to make the project more institutional and less individual and still solve my original problem?
I realized that my problem focuses on educational access and time constraints. This lead me to the idea of a online tutoring lab. I was being asked to look at several tutoring services which are offered nationwide. I have been suggesting that we do online tutoring for students for several semesters but have had no success. I figured here was the opportunity to solve that problem.
I talked to the director of Student Success (tutoring) and the Academics Director. They both thought the idea was good. I also found out the Director of Student Success is not interested in directing the program. He sees an online lab as being completely separate from what he is doing.
I went to talk informally to the VP for Student Development. During our conversation, I learned that she is involved in creating a way to offer student services to students who take online classes. She is referring to admissions, counseling and financial aid, but my idea of a tutoring lab fits right into her project.
Now it seems that my project will become part of a much larger project. I'm not sure how exactly I will deal with that in the proposal memo.
My second idea is much smaller in scope and I was determined to find an RFP which would fit that, so I had to go outside the Dept. of Ed. I want to do something concerning instruction and methodology. My ideas, some of them, fit with the larger idea of service learning.
I found an RFP for Learn and Serve America Higher Education Grant. "The purpose of higher education grants is to expand participation in community service and service-learning by supporting innovative community service programs carried out through institutions of higher education that act as civic institutions to meet the human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs of neighboring communities. Emphasis is placed both on institutional change to support service and service-learning within higher education and on community problem-solving and capacity-building." This seems to fit my idea.
Several other instructors have also shown an interest in beginning to do service learning in their courses. I approached them and asked if they would be willing to be part of a service learning project. They agreed.
So it seems like I have found the two RFPs for my projects.
The grant that I found which seemed to fit is the FIPSE grant, again through Dept. of Ed. This is another project that looks like quite an undertaking. I didn't know exactly how my ideas would fit into the grant. So I had to shift my idea a bit. How could I refocus my idea to make the project more institutional and less individual and still solve my original problem?
I realized that my problem focuses on educational access and time constraints. This lead me to the idea of a online tutoring lab. I was being asked to look at several tutoring services which are offered nationwide. I have been suggesting that we do online tutoring for students for several semesters but have had no success. I figured here was the opportunity to solve that problem.
I talked to the director of Student Success (tutoring) and the Academics Director. They both thought the idea was good. I also found out the Director of Student Success is not interested in directing the program. He sees an online lab as being completely separate from what he is doing.
I went to talk informally to the VP for Student Development. During our conversation, I learned that she is involved in creating a way to offer student services to students who take online classes. She is referring to admissions, counseling and financial aid, but my idea of a tutoring lab fits right into her project.
Now it seems that my project will become part of a much larger project. I'm not sure how exactly I will deal with that in the proposal memo.
My second idea is much smaller in scope and I was determined to find an RFP which would fit that, so I had to go outside the Dept. of Ed. I want to do something concerning instruction and methodology. My ideas, some of them, fit with the larger idea of service learning.
I found an RFP for Learn and Serve America Higher Education Grant. "The purpose of higher education grants is to expand participation in community service and service-learning by supporting innovative community service programs carried out through institutions of higher education that act as civic institutions to meet the human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs of neighboring communities. Emphasis is placed both on institutional change to support service and service-learning within higher education and on community problem-solving and capacity-building." This seems to fit my idea.
Several other instructors have also shown an interest in beginning to do service learning in their courses. I approached them and asked if they would be willing to be part of a service learning project. They agreed.
So it seems like I have found the two RFPs for my projects.
posted by Prof Santoy | 1:13 PM
1 Comments:
The education grants are typically larger grants, and, as you say, it's difficult to get people to collaborate on large projects. As we've talked about, Janie, developing a track record with smaller initiatives, and getting people involved in writing the grants for other smaller projects before moving to a larger one, is helpful. The material from the smaller ones can go into the larger ones.
Might develop your own database or spreadsheet of ideas, and include that HSI grant there. Easy to forget what time of the year each one is due. FIPSE is very large, and last year ran out of funding for other governmental projects. This is one to build up to, I suspect. We've written some FIPSE proposals, and made it to the second level. If you're interested in an inter-institutional project, we'd like to work with you. Sounds like you've found your two RFPs in a round-about way, which is usually the way it goes. You have excellent ideas, though, and keep moving toward them. Perhaps the smaller projects can be thought of in terms of objectives that meet the needs of the goals of larger projects.
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