Hastings College

Application for Grants

Student/faculty teams can apply for Envision Grants of up to $2,750 each for course development and projects engaging participants in social entrepreneurship locally, nationally, or abroad. An advisory board composed of faculty and administrators will award a minimum of 10 mini-grants annually. Teams may implement projects during an academic semester, the three-week January Term, or the summer. Although students and faculty from all disciplines may apply, we will encourage interdisciplinary projects combining business administration and a traditional liberal arts discipline such as philosophy, biology, English, or theater.

Applicants must submit a business plan including a description of the need to be addressed, design of an entrepreneurial project, line item budget, expected outcomes, and dissemination strategies. Each fall and spring, the Center for Servant Leadership will host an information session for prospective applicants to explain goals of the Envision Grants and guidelines for developing an effective business plan for a social entrepreneurial project. Successful plans will demonstrate the following:

• Experiential learning as a complement to a liberal arts education
• Faculty and student involvement in program development and administration
• Established learning goals for all participants and intended project outcomes
• Project design that reflects sound business practices and entrepreneurial thinking
• Willingness of participants to share project results at Hastings College’s Academic Showcase or another public event

An advisory board composed of the following people will review proposals three times annually:

Ron Chesbrough, M.Ed., vice president for student affairs; co-director of the Center for Servant Leadership

Anne Fairbanks, Ph.D., associate vice president for academic affairs; professor of English; co-director of the Center for Servant Leadership
Jack Kramer, MBA, CPA, chair, Department of Communication Arts, Business and Economics; professor of business administration and economics

Roger Doerr, MBA, professor of business administration and economics; 1995 Carnegie Foundation Nebraska Professor of the Year

Carol Meyer, Ph.D., professor of business administration; director of the Hastings College Business Project Management Institute

Jean Heriot, Ph.D., associate director of Vocation and Values; assistant professor of sociology and religion

Funded projects will demonstrate the value of a liberal arts education in society. For example, students may choose to develop fund-raising and marketing strategies for a local non-profit agency, travel abroad to help establish a local sustainable agriculture cooperative, produce a play with disadvantaged youth, intern with the philanthropic arm of a major corporation, teach money management skills at a local high school, or work with indigenous Native Americans in forging business partnerships with surrounding communities.

For each endeavor, students will use their liberal arts education and business skills to accomplish a project of social value. During the course of the projects, students will meet frequently with faculty partners, discuss their learning experiences, and reflect on strategies used in the experiential environment such as problem solving, diplomacy, persuasion, and other skills difficult to teach in a traditional classroom.

Applicants will develop new relationships with non-profit and for-profit entities but also may choose to partner with organizations and individuals already connected to Hastings College. For example, trustee Donald Jackson is chief operating officer for Easter Seals in Chicago, trustee Dr. Jessica Meeske leads the Sonrisa dentistry project for underprivileged children in Hastings.

After completing grant-funded projects, student and faculty teams will submit a final report to the advisory board detailing the results of their projects, expenditure of funds, and success in achieving desired outcomes. Students will share their results with peers and the public at the annual Hastings College Academic Showcase or another venue such as a campus forum or a presentation at the YWCA, Rotary Club, or a local high school.

Project directors will invite replication of our program by other liberal arts colleges by presenting at conferences, such as those sponsored by the Midwest Consortium for Service-Learning and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and by submitting articles for publication in periodicals such as the Student Affairs Leader, for which Project Co-Director Ron Chesbrough is a contributing writer. We will also publish an article in Hastings College Today, distributed to more than 20,000 alumni and friends worldwide, and on the college’s website.

APPLICATION FOR GRANTS