Grant Proposal Reflection

  On Monday, February 28th, 2022, after a long couple of months of planning and meeting with our nonprofit groups, it was finally time for our Grant Proposal presentations. I, along with my fellow Global Scholars of the 2022 Cohort, met up in the library, where our presentations would be held. In other words, today was the day that we would find out which projects would be funded and which ones wouldn't. All in all, it was a pretty nerve-racking day, but one I would never forget. 

Sydney and I prepared a presentation on Google Slides summarizing the information in our Grant Proposal, which the panelists already read prior to the presentations. We are working with the Manara Center Kids Program in order to implement summer workshops and more educational/social programs to prepare a group of 12-13-year-old refugees in Lebanon to enter school for the first time. Throughout the process, we were able to get to know our nonprofit and the amazing leaders who run the programs a lot better. We cooperated several times and met frequently to ensure that we had full transparency with them before presenting this project. Public speaking is always a nerve-racking experience, but what raised the stakes even further was that we were not only representing Poly as Global Scholars, but also the organizations that we have grown fond of. The outcome of the panelists' decisions would be extremely important to our organizations and the cause riding on it. 

We were scheduled to present third out of the six groups, therefore we were right in the middle. I highly enjoyed getting to hear all of my peers present the proposals that they have been working so hard on and I think everyone did a fantastic job. Everyone had such a genuine connection to the nonprofit they were working with and everyone passionately spoke about their projects. It made me feel proud and also collectively nervous for us and all of my peers included for the final decisions. 

As we watched the other groups tackle every question and deliver seamless answers, it made us a little anxious for our presentation. We were adequately prepared, but there was an element of uncertainty when we had no idea what questions they would ask us and this was our first time doing a serious presentation like this. When it was our turn to present, I felt most of my nervous jitters disappear as I was talking to the panelists. After presenting, I felt proud of how far our project has come along from the initial planning to this concrete setup with a full budget table. Although answering the panelists' questions was what I was most nervous about, it ended up being much better than I anticipated. I felt that we were able to answer the questions pretty well and left out no missing details. Overall, presenting and answering the questions took about 7-9 minutes, but the whole experience flew by so quickly. 

While we waited for the panelists to make their final decisions, we debriefed as a group and reflected on our experience. I felt this strong energy that everyone felt anxious about the decision and it almost resembled waiting for a college decision to a certain extent. Even though tensions were high, everyone looked proud and excited about the experience as a whole. After what felt like an hour, we were called back into the library. It was time. The panelists have made their decisions.

We were met with joy to hear that the panelists decided to fund all of our projects 100%. I cannot begin to describe the gratitude I felt at this moment. I was so excited to be able to deliver this spectacular and exciting news to our nonprofit groups and the organization leaders we have got to know during this process. With that being said, we all left the library with smiles on our faces knowing that our experience was worthwhile and that these projects could potentially have a real impact on the world.