Friday @ the Center
February 26, 2010
Grant Writing at SPU: Finding Grants
Grants offered through SPU to support research, scholarship, creative activity, and curricular/programmatic development are listed at Internal SPU Grants on the Center’s webpage. Most, although not all, SPU grant applications are due on February 1, for funding work to be done during the following academic year. Other internal opportunities are announced on FacNet, in F@C, or by school deans.
Grants are also available from government programs, private foundations, professional organizations, and corporations. Many opportunities can be identified through announcements, advertisements, professional journals, personal contacts, etc. However, the best way to locate external grant opportunities is through COS, a web-based database that covers all the disciplines (arts, sciences, humanities, languages, theology, business, etc.). As a faculty member, you may set up a personal profile and run searches for grants based on key words, geographic focus, areas of interest, etc. In response to each search, the COS system provides a detailed lists of available grants. When you save a particular search to your profile, COS will send you a weekly email with any newly announced grant opportunities. Visit the COS website from any SPU campus computer to create your own COS account.
Developing Independent Learning: Managing Time
The fifth skill in our series of skills for independent learning, based on Terry Doyle’s Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Center Environment is managing time. I never thought when I began teaching 29 years ago that I would end up teaching time management to my students. I thought that everyone who came to college would know how to do this! But the dual realization that very few of my students knew how to manage their time and that my own management of time has grown increasingly more difficult over the years has prompted me to help my students learn how to use time. Teaching this skill is especially crucial for first-year students—whether undergraduate or graduate students. Doyle advises a three-pronged process helping students: 1) to develop a philosophy about using their time, 2) to create a system for setting goals and identifying priorities, and 3) to learn how to use the tools of time management (I Phones, planners, lists, etc.) efficiently. He notes, “Sharing this process with your students will sharpen their time management skills, which becomes increasingly important as we ask them to do more learning on their own.”
SPU 2010 Meyer Prize Nominee
Gerry Jon Marsh, Instructor of Music, has been selected as the SPU nominee for the 2010 Arlin G. Meyer Prize for composing and conducting Reconciled: A Gospel Oratorio, for the SPU Wind Symphony and Gospel Choir. This prize is awarded biennially to a full time faculty member from a school in the national Lilly Fellows Network (LFN) for a work that highly exemplifies the practice of the Christian academic vocation. This year’s prize is in music performance. Each LFP institution can submit one nomination for the final award of $3000 that will be announced at the Lilly Fellows Program National Conference at Valparaiso University, Oct. 15-17, 2010. Congratulations, Gerry!
My Favorite Vergil Quote:
"Age carries all things away, even the mind."
Happy Teaching,
Susan Susan VanZanten |
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