Students Help Nonprofit Groups Find Funding By Sue Kropp
	Nicole Davis was one of the participants in the grantwriting workshop sponsored by the Center for Service and Learning.		MARCH 20,2000--During Winter Term, seven Oberlin students participated in a service and learning project that incorporated leadership training and grant-writing techniques. The students--Nicole Davis, a junior from the Bronx; Ireta Kraal, a sophomore from Lexington; Graeme McHenry, a sophomore from Philadelphia; Kazi Myers, a sophomore from Santa Monica; Johanna Parker, a junior from Detriot; Eva Owens, a junior from LaConner, Washington; and Benjamin Nielsen, a senior from Pittsford, Oregon--teamed up to research and write grants for local organizations. Peter Ogbuji, assistant director of the Center for Service and Learning (CSL), oversaw the project. "We paired the students with representatives from nonprofit organizations in Lorain County," Ogbuji says. "The students met with the agencies and learned how they worked, then produced a grant based on the agencies' needs." Davis and Nielsen worked with Mazzie Garrett, a representative for the Lorain organization Messengers of God. The Messengers, a youth group that performs dance and mime routines, tours the county and surrounding areas. "I had never done anything like this," Davis says. "I learned to work with a partner, to cooperate and communicate during the writing process. I also got to meet the kids in the group and see them perform. The whole experience was fun." The CSL sponsored the grant-writing workshop for the fifth consecutive year. Pamela Snyder, Oberlin College's director of coporate and foundation support, supervised the students during the writing process. Ogbuji, Snyder, and the students also participated in meetings with representatives from the nonprofit organizations to evaluate the content of the proposals before the agencies submitted the grants to various funding organizations.
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