Getting Adjusted

This is week two of taking over where the other intern left off on her grants. As promised, my workload hasn’t increased. It hasn’t decreased, but I feel that the stress level has. The work wasn’t too stressful before, but, like I mentioned last week, Federal government grants are a little scary to a first time grant-writer. We’ve decided to switch the focus right now to grants from organizations like the Charles Mott Foundation or the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The problem with these grants, however, is that we need to define a project that the money will fund. Many of the foundations don’t give grant money for scholarships, and that’s the main thing that the KEEP Foundation needs money for. Once we get this out of the way, I’m looking forward to actually writing some proposals. Up until now, I’ve just been reading requirements to see if we qualify or filling out forms.

I’ve been writing a lot of other things, even if I haven’t had the chance to write a complete proposal yet. One of my weekly duties is to write an entry on the KEEP Foundation blog. It’s harder than it sounds -- it’s easy to run out of ideas!

Some of the things we discussed in class last week have helped increase the effectiveness of e-mail communication with my supervisor. Sending one question at a time and e-mailing each completed project separately makes the e-mail communication easier for everyone.