Although I find education and art opportunities for people of color vastly important, it doesn’t align with my passions. As a sustainability and business major, I am passionate about social change in relation to the environment and how that impacts businesses and the economy. I am flexible on what topic group I end up being a part of, but my interests lie within the environmental field. For example, I am very interested in researching non-profits that focus on social injustices caused by climate change. This study is a make keystone not only addressing climate change but social injustices that people face today. Oftentimes communities that are not responsible for the climate crisis are most impacted and facing the worst repercussions of the global north’s actions. I find this topic deeply interesting and also very relevant and important during these times. Another topic of interest that I had was looking into non-profits that provide natural disaster relief. As the climate continues to change and become more extreme these organizations that provide relief are going to become higher in demand and will require more funding for grants. I feel as though an organization like this is also a very current and relevant subject to research and work on for the semester. A final topic I would be interested in is non-profits that work towards addressing food security. Climate change is greatly disrupting natural food systems and commercial farming which is leading to food insecurity on a global scale. Furthermore, commercial farming is a leading carbon emitter, so agricultural non-profits and other similar organizations are being faced with coming up with more sustainable and secure food resources. 

Within this class, I am hoping to gain a strong foundation for professional writing. I am majoring in Sustainability and Business, so I am hoping to pursue a career in Sustainability or Environmental Business. Within either of these fields, a large portion of their funding comes from grants or donations. Going into the workforce having prior knowledge on how to write a grant proposal will put me far beyond any other applicants I am competing against for a job. Furthermore, professional writing and collegiate writing have many contrasts, as well as similarities. I am hoping to take my prior writing experience and build upon it through growing my vocabulary, maturing my tone, and narrowing in on the overall practices of proposal writing. Having this skill will greatly add to my professional “toolbox” to help better prepare me for the workforce after college, as well as mature and better my writing skills as a whole.

After reading the chapter a number of aspects of the grant writing process stood out to me. Prior to reading, I had very little knowledge of how the grant proposal writing process went, so this chapter shed some light on the basic process. One big thing I learned was about the team structure and dynamic a proposal writing group has. I knew that there are typically many different people working on the grants, but I did not realize that they all had specialties and specific roles within writing the proposal. Furthermore, I learned that a grant-writing consultant oftentimes is a key role within these writing teams. These consultants act as an external set of eyes and ideas when writing. Another aspect of the grant writing process that was new information to me, was the diversification of the types of grants a company can apply for. There are five categories that usually encompass the different general categories of grants, which include, Operating, Program, Capacity Building, Capitol or Equipment, and Research. It is important when applying for a grant to be well versed in the type of grant that will best fit your needs and what applies to your company.