SJL Fund Project Application – Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership

Policy Changes as of 2019

Because of funding limitations, we are unable to fund entire trips for students when attending conferences. We will pay for registration and/or flights –depending on the availability of the funds.
Because of our values, conference approvals must be for a new conference to the attendee. We do not fund the same students going to reoccurring conferences.
Because of funding limitations, we cannot support the same or similar projects and trips each year.
Because of staffing challenges, we are unable to do group projects. Each student must fill out their own application and be responsible for walking through the entire process with the Student Leadership Coordinator.
Students who do not follow through with the requirements of the fund, such as turning in paper work in a timely fashion, will not, under normal circumstances, be eligible to apply for another fund grant.

Submission Guidelines & Instructions

The ACSJL will accept grant applications on a rolling basis. It is important for applicants to consider the timeliness of their request. The length of time for ACSJL staff to review applications and implement grant awards is approximately one month (30 days) from the date of your grant application submission.

It is highly recommended that applicants schedule a meeting with the appropriate ACSJL staff member prior to submitting an application. Contact Cat March at cat.march@kzoo.edu. After submission, applicants will most likely be asked to meet with the same staff member to discuss the application. If approved, you will be required to meet with the Student Leadership Coordinator before you receive any funds. It is not atypical for applicants to fill out multiple drafts of an application, in order to ensure that key social justice leadership concepts and practices are appropriately present in the project proposal.

The SJLF should help individuals, organizations, or departments achieve one or more of the following goals:

Build relationships (both within and outside of the college community) to support leadership on campus and beyond
Stimulate, guide, or promote social justice research or scholarship
Engage in social justice work or activity to promote personal leadership development and build capacity for campus leadership

Grant Distribution & Reporting

Grants range from $50 to $1,500 and are distributed primarily through reimbursement. ACSJL staff will work with successful grantees to distribute the grant funds in a way that meets the needs of the ACSJL and the grantee. Grant recipients must keep all documentation for purchases made with grant funds in order to be reimbursed. That documentation will need to be returned to the ACSJL in a manner agreed upon by the ACSJL and the grant recipient.

A final report on the grant funds must be submitted to the ACSJL by one month after the completion of the project. The ACSJL will provide grant recipients with a small set of questions to guide their reports. Failure to comply will result in the revocation of future support.

Application

SJLF Application

This Fund provides support to Kalamazoo College students who are interested in becoming more engaged in social justice leadership issues and practice, providing opportunities to learn about a variety of social justice and human rights issues, develop new skills in organizing and leadership, and take action on the issues that prospective applicants care most about. We will review applications in detail and make decisions with the utmost thoughtfulness. In the spirit of reciprocity, we encourage you to approach these questions in the same vein, so we can get to know each other, explore shared interests and hopefully support each other’s work.

Name(Required)

Email(Required)

Class Year(Required)

Major and Minor(Required)

Project Title(Required)

Anticipated Date of Project(Required)

Please provide a short description of the project(Required)

Will this project occur in multiple phases or is it a one-time event?(Required)

What social justice issue will your project address and how?(Required)

What social justice leadership skills do you hope to cultivate or enhance as a result of this project?(Required)

If your project was fully realized after support, what would be the outcome? (We encourage you to dream as big as you would like)(Required)

We understand this funding will only support a piece of your work. What is the outcome you are hoping to achieve with this particular support and how will it get you closer to achieving your fully realized outcome mentioned above?(Required)

An important aspect of Arcus support lies in the impact of how what we support grows social justice leaders and leadership on campus and beyond. With Arcus financial support, how will your project educate and create awareness around the social justice issues you listed above?(Required)

What impact will your project have on the broader social justice community?(Required)

How will you bring your work/project to the Arcus Center to showcase what you've learned so that you may share this important work with students on campus?(Required)

Please provide a list of planned expenses illustrating how you intend to use the funding received.(Required)