How Students Can Find Extra Funding: Keeping Up With the Grants

Money isn't everything, but it can be useful... especially if you're a student who would like to try out a special project (in addition to your normal course load). So the Office of Sustainability has put together a short post to help you learn how you (yes, you!) can access extra funding for your next (or first) project!

Keeping Up With the Grants

Provided by the the Office of Sustainability's [suh-steyn] Blog
(Originally published on November 5, 2014)

Image courtesy of the Office of Sustainability

On Wednesday, October 22, 2014, Sustainability Awareness Week (SAW) hosted an informative event on campus funding opportunities. Have you ever wanted to make a sustainable effort? Pursue a social justice project locally or abroad? Start an awesome club on campus to bring people together?

Well, to help make these dreams possible, the University of Alberta has money to support your idea. In case you missed this opportunity during SAW to learn about these grants, there is still plenty of information online and throughout the year on different grants that may suit your needs.

Successful candidates

This presentation helped me understand the accessibility of grants on campus. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like you can actually earn a grant.  It is difficult to imagine yourself in a situation where you actually receive a gift like that. To help put these opportunities in perspective, a few students shared their personal experiences of receiving university grants and what they were able to accomplish as a result.

One group of students organized a public health trip to Tanzania. They focused on maternal care and sexual health education among other issues. Clearly, traveling around the world makes for an expensive trip. But thanks to Student Group Services’ generous Conference Grant, it was all made possible.

The Energy Club was successful in their application for a Green Grant from the Office of Sustainability, which allowed them to have important speakers on energy efficiency come to speak at the university.

Another student panelist described what he thought of as a crazy idea that occurred to him last year: a Hide and Seek club on campus. After one year, with the help of a $1,000 Alumni Student Council grant, this group is flourishing and bringing inclusive fun to the UAlberta. So if you see some people looking sneaky and busy in brightly coloured buffs, they might just be mid-game of hide and seek!

Opportunities

If you need support for your social, environmental or economic sustainability initiative, check out these organizations’ funding opportunities for yourself.

Office of Sustainability
CAPS: Your U of A Career Centre
Alumni Student Council
Campus Recreation Enhancement Fund
The Wellness Project
Student Group Services

International Student Services

----About the Author

Aphra Sutherland

Aphra Sutherland is a Campus Sustainability Volunteer with the Office of Sustainability. Aphra is studying English Literature with a minor in ecology.