The Cultures of Professional Writing class awarded its first service-learning grant to Newark’s The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art, and Technology. The $250 grant supports their Kid’s Tech University program, which invites 100 youth ages 9-12 to engage in critical thinking and STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and math) exercises at local universities, including the Ohio State University at Newark.
The students in this penultimate class of the minor in professional writing learned grant-writing techniques, then each student worked with a contact at a local non-profit organization to develop a grant proposal. With proposals in, the students became the funding board as well, reading and rating each proposal for its overall clarity and persuasive power. Mikala Grubaugh’s proposal for Kid’s Tech came out on top. Grubaugh, a strategic communication major, is now spending her spring semester as an intern with the public relations office of The Works.
“This exercise gives students experience in preparing a particularly useful professional document, and at the same time it allows us to fund one of the many deserving local initiatives in our community,” said Elizabeth Weiser, who co-coordinates the minor in professional writing at Ohio State Newark. Funds for the grants are provided by an Ohio State University Service Learning Course Development Grant.