Sut Ian Wong
This grant writing course is my third university writing class, and I have figured out that it will be the most exciting, useful, and stressful class out of all of them. This course is very different from other classes I’ve been in, especially in how Dr. Laura Trull allows her students to decide on important issues. For any particular problem we run into, she never tells us what the previous classes did to solve it; instead, she lets us figure it out on our own. This really encourages us to work together and think as a class, which is good practice for when we’re making decisions about the grants we’ll be writing. We are responsible for awarding two nonprofit organizations grants of $5,000 each at the end of the semester, and the process of deciding will be a grueling one.
I have never been a part of a project like this before, and it is a little out of my comfort zone. I will have to get more comfortable with speaking my mind in a unique classroom environment such as this. I’m very glad that I have such wonderful classmates who have already proven themselves to be role models to me in that way. It is my hope that I’m about to develop skills during this class that I am able to use again in my future with my career.
Basically, this class is all about what students think. Professor Trull is not leading us by the nose, but only telling us what needed to be done, and letting us figure out the best course of action. I am in the long-term planning committee, and our first task was to write a letter to James Madison University’s University Advancement. Our partnership with Learning by Giving will only last until 2020, so a plan needs to be written for how this course will be supported thereafter. We tried to picture what University Advancement would want to know about our class. The letter included introducing the course, what it can bring to JMU, students, and the Harrisonburg community, asking for help from University Advancement for funds in the future to continue this meaningful course, and expressing our willingness of the committee to offer our time and effort to help University's Advancement in return. Even we did not have much experience in professional writing, the first task went well for us, and the experience of being independent felt good. My committee and I have high expectations for ourselves, and I know their attitudes will encourage and inspire me to express my opinions with our future assignments.
This is not meant to be an easy class. Therefore, during this semester, I am hoping to contribute all that I can to make our work great. I need to be braver in speaking up my mind in class and practice professional behavior with my groupmates and especially with whichever agency I end up working with. I want to give my class, my committee, and my assigned agency my best based on all I’ll learn from the class - isn’t that all this Learning by Giving Foundation wants for students?