Fall 2019 Innovation Grants

Now in its ninth year, the Innovation Grants program has inspired so many wonderful programs on campus.  Take a moment, if you can, to review some of the past proposals as we celebrate the successful Fall 2019 proposal.

This fall we are funding two proposals.  While several of the other proposals certainly had merit, the committee provided feedback to the unsuccessful grant writers to indicate why their proposals were not funded.  The Committee reminds all potential grant writers that the program is intended:

*to improve the quality of life for the St. Lawrence community in new ways;
*that it cannot purchase replacement equipment;
*that grants should not require future university funding to sustain them;
*that we cannot hire new personnel or substitute grant funding for routine student positions; and
*that all proposals must have at least one employee sponsor for continuity.

We anticipate a Spring competition with a proposal deadline of Monday, March 23, 2020.

Successful fall proposals:

Language and Cultural Exchange Program

Robin Rhodes Crowell

The Language and Cultural Exchange Program is designed to promote and value the exchange of all languages and cultures. The program will match students, faculty, and staff with language and cultural partners in hopes that teams can meet regularly for language practice and/or cultural exchange. Teams may be two or more and anyone can access an online form to sign up for an exchange. Examples of how this program will work include: an English student can be matched with a native/near native English-speaking partner to meet for weekly conversation, but also a student studying Chinese can also get a native/near native Chinese speaking partner to meet for language practice. The program will work to include as many languages as possible. In addition, all involved will have the option to get a partner(s) to learn about the culture of a country prior to travel. Two examples of this would be for students going to Kenya may meet with Kenyans on campus for discussion prior to travel and faculty traveling to Brazil for research can meet with Brazilians on campus. The program will work to include as many cultures as possible and will draw on not only the international community but also those students returning from study abroad programs. The program will encourage two-way sharing so mutual benefit is achieved. In this way, multilingual ideology and the backgrounds and resources students bring to campus are valued and there is a way for all to practice speaking a language and learning about cultures.

Menstrual Products

Corinna Pilcher, Martina Leake, Emily Anderson, John O’Connor

Planned Parenthood Generation Action seeks to purchase menstrual products to distribute throughout our campus bathrooms at no cost to students. Our club has begun recruiting members to what we have titled a “TamPad Committee” who will assist in the organization and distribution of tampons and pads throughout our campus. We plan to supply bathrooms in the Student Center (6), Owen D. Young Library (6), and Madill (2). As of now, we have over 20 students, including people who identify as men and women, who would like to assist in supplying women’s, men’s, and gender neutral bathrooms with menstrual products. As a club on campus dedicated to educating young people about sexual health and reproductive freedom, we want to make this project a priority and use our foundation as a campus club to ensure its sustainability.

The Committee realizes that a similar proposal was funded Fall 2016, and felt the project was successful while funds were available.  The 2016 proposal writers hoped to achieve Thelmo funding through a club sponsorship, which took longer than expected. The Committee wants to give this innovative idea one more try so that the now-formed club ca seek Thelmo funding.