Written by: Zachery Simpkins (zas004@marietta.edu)
Each year Marietta College puts on an event that takes place all over campus called Experiential Education Day. On this day students present what experiences they have had that may be different from a normal college student. This includes internships, research projects, and study abroad programs. There were ExEd projects not seen by most students during this year’s ExEd day celebration. These were the NextGen grant proposal presentations.
NextGen is a two-semester class that puts students on the board of a non-profit within the local community. These students act as active board members while learning how non-profits work. This opportunity provided by Marietta College offers students real world business and leadership experience. They are then tasked with analyzing what can be improved in their non-profits using a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis to find what capacity needs can be improved upon. The next step of NextGen is to envision and write a grant application. This is where ExEd Day comes into play.
Each NextGen student makes a presentation based on a grant they themselves made and they pitch it to different board members and granters within the community. Each one of them pulled on the heart strings of the audience to push their need for their grant. Local organizations like the Washington County Humane Society, BB2C: Building Bridges to Careers, and the Washington County Harvest of Hope were some of the student’s non-profits. These students were passionate about their grants and their non-profits.
These presentations were a highlight of ExEd day. This type of passion in a class isn’t seen often in regular classes. This is what ExEd day is meant to highlight, and ExEd day highlighted these student’s passion for their work quite well.
Edited by: Zachary Worstell (zdw001@marietta.edu)
