Reflection on Global Scholars Grant Proposal Event

This past Monday, I had the amazing opportunity to present a grant proposal on behalf of Reading Partners, a national literacy nonprofit with which I have worked throughout high school, to a panel of judges connected to the Poly and Pasadena community. My grant proposal, which I described in a recent blog post, sought to expand the selection of books in Los Angeles Reading Partners libraries that center on global narratives or stories with a diverse cast of characters. Mine was one of two fully funded projects for groups from Poly; alongside those two projects were also two groups from Partnership for Success! that received a grant that fulfilled their request completely. One other Poly group was partially funded, and the remaining groups’ organizations received donations.


I received $1900, the lion’s share of which will go to purchasing collections of books from Lee and Low Publishing, a company with values congruous to the ones associated with my grant proposal: pushing for representation, providing a platform for narratives, authors and illustrators of color, and striving for equity in education. In the coming weeks, I will make that purchase in conjunction with Reading Partners Los Angeles and assist in the organization and distribution of the books to the fourteen Reading Centers in the area. I want to thank the panelists for their commitment to providing support for the visions of the students that presented and their willingness to share their time with us. I am looking forward to actualizing the plan I drafted months ago, and I am humbled by my ability to give back, to whatever degree, to the city, community and organization from which I have benefitted so greatly.

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