2 The Clackamas Print
neyvsed@clackamas. edu
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Mini grants
spark new class
innovations
By James Duncan
Associate News Editor
Brilliant innovation, a new way of
teaching, something that can change the
way students interact with their school.
These are a few of the things that the
Mini Grant for Innovation can help
Clackamas Community College achieve.
The Clackamas Foundation is working to
help change our school for the better by
letting creativity take the lead and giving
up to $3,000 to those who have the idea.
“This is a program that was started
in the late 80s by the CCC Foundation
Board, and their goal was to help depart
ments jumpstart cool program ideas,” said
Karen Martini, director of the Clackamas
Foundation. “A lot of times, there isn’t
money in the college budget to sort of
explore something interesting. Faculty
members have ideas about something that
might be an innovative teaching technique
or some kind of cool event to launch on
campus or some new way to out reach to
the community ... and there just isn’t any
money available to try that.”
The mini grants are one-time micro
loans of no more than $3,000 each. The
CCC Foundation started the project in
1988-1989 school year awarding only five
grants coming to a total of $4,007. Now
it has grown to serving out as much as
$30,000 a year in mini grants.
ii
Without the mini grants
there wouldn ’t have been
a project, period,99
Casey Sims
CCC Counselor
Erik Andersen Clackamas Print
Casey Sims, a counselor at Clackamas Community College, speaks on the
importance of sustainability education and the contribution of the mini grant.
“It’s basically seed money for new
projects, new ideas,” said Janet Meister,
the foundation’s department secretary.
“We look for things that are innovative;
we don’t like to fund requests that would
normally be funded through college bud
get... like desks, furniture and things like
that.”
One of the more recent success stories
of the Mini Grant for Innovation is the
Clackamas Repertory Theatre.
“I think the first one was to pay for
someone to do some grant writing to get
the thing going and then we supported
them I believe in the next season. Now
they’re completely self-supporting and
they do three big productions every year,”
said Martini. “Their ticket sales are going
great; they’re getting a lot of sponsor
ship.”
The seed money that the grant provided
gave the theater the kick start to become
self-sufficient. The list of successful pro
Clarification
The
Clackamas Print
19600 Molalla Ave.
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503-594-6266
Co-Editors-in-Chief;
Kayla Calloway
Erik Andersen
News Editor:
Brian Baldwin*
Associate News Editor:
James Duncan
Sports Editor:
Robert Morrison
Associate Sports Editor:
John Howard
grams started by the foundation islstì
gering. Another one of the programs i *
the foundation is supporting is a pro]
by David Arter in the Science Depart!
an online homework tutorial for che J È
students that gives immediate feedbfl I
you’re studying for tests. Arter has fl I
oped an entire module to help stfl I
stay up to date with the class.
fl
“Without the mini grant there wojlfl
have been a project, period,” said
Sims, a counselor at CCC.
fl
Sims and supporters from
departments on campus have staflfl
project for students and the coltegli
project is to convert a golf cart to l^H
gen and electric power.
I
“I’m really interested in em^K
technologies and how it applies to^fl
transportation,” said Sims. “My daflet
mentioned when he was visiting ini JI
that he had seen the idea of a compì L
air car where you compress air and ifl |ji
ers a vehicle. We looked online anfl ¡¡r
some examples of that, which I tfl I
was pretty neat. But then every engifl ||
spoke with said that it wasn’t really fl ol
so I changed the idea to say ‘Wellfl ;
other technologies are emerging?’” fl (e
“Electric cars certainly have fl
around, hydrogen as well. I talked | S
some of the different faculty members!
some of them got back to me aboi | Io
interested in doing a project and .1 os
of us, Bob Delgatto, Rick Lockwol p
Abe Fouhy and myself, we decided u] |
hydrogen to recharge the electric bfl ¡rf
in an electric golf cart would be fl s,
project to tackle that would comfl 11
couple different technologies and |
students a good experience working i )S
both.”
The golf cart is expected to ba
ished spring term of next year. A cm
working on converting the engine U
on hydrogen and a machining ida
building the mounting for the engifl |
Sims had some advice to give fl
person who would like to apply for|i
grant. “When you write a projefl T
this a student’s focus has to be tied to
economy in such a way that it will 1
students when they’re in a job intfl ITC
Give them an opportunity to talkfll
what they’ve accomplished and mafl
a leg up for the job,” he said.
fl
The power of the Mini Grfl it
Innovation lets anyone on campus! It!
to get help in exploring an innovati! in
of doing something. Whether it is ‘a
event on campus or the start-up to I 1
new class, your innovation can find! L
ing with the foundation.
I j,
“It’s one of the programs we real ||e
good about,” said Martini. “It’s sol i
our foundation board really loves fl -
process of awarding these grants fort
helps them understand better what fl ~
lege does and what our departments^ ■
to. It’s like an added bonus in the^flj
process, just the education that pec^K
about what’s going on here. So it’^fl
one; we love it.”
I
To contact the Clackamas Fou^fl
call 503-594-3132.
I
n
Scan this QR code with your Andi
phone app “Barcode Scanner” ani
will take you to our website: I
www.theclackamasprint.net I
In the April 27 issue of The Clackamas Print, information in the front page
graphic should have been attributed to Rosemary Teetor.
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