Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), an Ithaca-based non-profit organization that aims to facilitate community connections and support for students and staff within the Ithaca City School District, recently launched a new Student Leadership Grant for students in grades eight through twelve.
According to Steve Manley, the Executive Director of IPEI, the non-profit has traditionally made funding available to teachers and staff. However, this program is new, and allows students to request funds from IPEI directly for a specific project or program that they would like to see created in their school or broader community. Applications will be opened in this coming fall and spring of the 2023-2024 school year.
Millicent Clarke-Maynard, the pioneer of the IPEI project, described the original spark as a donation from a longtime donor, which inspired the idea to give students the opportunity to write grants that have traditionally only been available to teachers. By making funding available to students directly, IPEI hopes to give passionate students the funds to complete their projects and share it with the community. These projects could relate to art, STEM, or any broader community endeavors—Andrea Volckmar, the grant committee chair of IPEI, described that the idea of community-building and having an effect on the community is central to the original purpose of the grant.
The grant application can be found in the first QR code below, and submitted to Grants@ipei.org. A Frequently Asked Questions document can be found in the second QR code. Manley also emphasizes that IPEI strives to support students throughout this process, and students can email Grants@ipei.org if they wish to discuss their project with the grant review committee or a volunteer before they begin writing the grant.
The grant process does require the support of a mentor, who can be any adult willing to support students during their proposed project. As Manley described the mentor, they should be “someone with a little more life experience who can help a young person move through the experience of asking an organization for funding.” Mentors can be staff, teachers, counselors, or other community leaders.
Through the grant, students may receive up to five hundred dollars for their project. Some uses of this money include, but are not limited to, purchasing materials, paying fees for a non-ICSD educator, or paying for an experience.
Through this grant, IPEI hopes to bring students not only the funding for them to carry out projects that they are passionate about, but also the opportunity to experience the grant-writing process. Clubs at IHS with a specific project that they hope to accomplish could request funds, as could other student organizations or individual students who hope to bring a greater change to the community and act as leaders to shepherd that change.
