Week 12: Reflections II

As I stated in my last post, the semester has quickly come to an end. These last two posts provide an opportunity for reflection on the internship, the semester, and grant writing. For one thing, it seems apparent to me now (even more so than at the beginning of the semester) how unique this opportunity was. Few interns get the opportunity to tackle an NEH grant, and this experience will hopefully serve me well in future endeavors.

One of the greatest challenges of the semester was understanding how to employ the right language at the right time. It is still something I do not completely grasp. What I mean, is that the NEH application asks for very specific content about our organization, our audience, our project, and our intended outcome. One of the challenges here was first understanding exactly how we defined all of these aspects. Many people had contributed to the PHC, and it was my job to familiarize myself with those contributions so that, in turn, I could articulate them to the NEH. The other challenge, though, is using the right language and lending the impression that you know something, even if you don’t. This is a candid confession, but the reality is that no organization or independent researcher has a 100% understanding of what their final product will be. It is not to say I, or anyone else who helped me, was being disingenuous about our project, but the ultimate goal, after all, is to receive funding. When selling your idea to the NEH (or, presumably, any other funding agency), you need to articulate it confidently, lending appearances that you have a complete mastery of the many moving parts related to any project. It is this language, inspiring confidence in the reviewers that you, more than your competitors, have a unique project and a competent strategy for its development, which takes practice.  It is striking a balance between your goals for your project and the funding agency’s intentions for their grant money. It is using a subtle language that appeals to the exact criteria the reviewers are searching for. If I am struggling to explain clearly this subtle balancing act, it is reflective of my novice experience with grant writing. In all, I have gained first hand exposure to skills and expectations unique to grant writing.

And that is what will serve me in the future. As I suggested, grant writing is a unique act: you need to communicate clearly, employ your greatest persuasive tact, and know your audience (and what they want to hear). I am still learning how to internalize all of these demands; during the semester is became easy for me to revert back to my original sensibilities and forget the intended audience and the priorities of the funding agency. The next time I approach grant writing, though, (and there will be a next time!), I will be that much better at tailoring my language to the needs of the funding agency. Thanks to this internship, I’ll be better for it.  

Week 11: Reflections I

It is with amazement, and some disbelief, that I am writing my final blogs for this internship. I truly cannot believe how quickly the semester went; twelve weeks of constant triumphs, struggles, revelations, and surprises. I can say without a doubt that I learned a lot, and on so many subjects! After this semester, I can now hold my own in conversations about public history, the NEH, grant writing, Sanford history, and the Public History Center. To be sure, I’m not an expert, but I now have a grasp of so many ideas and topics that I otherwise would not have considered.

To give a brief overview of my last ten days in the internship. The first order of business was to get a budget worked out. I met with Kristin Wetherbee of the UCF College of Arts and Humanities. She is a budgeting whiz and the college’s departments turn to her for the final submission of the grant applications. I met with her to describe our project and all of the components. Within a few quick minutes of explanation, she whipped up a shining and precise budget. Before meeting with her, I had read over the NEH’s budget instructions and tried to grasp the basic terms and categories. It was all for naught. To this day, I’m still as befuddled by the budgeting as I was (let’s not forget, my love of history is balanced by an equal disdain for mathematics). Fortunately, Kristin knew what she was doing. Factoring percentages of the contributing faculty’s salaries, allotting money for graduate student project team members, and figuring out a number for our consultant’s travel, housing, and meals, quickly enough Kristin came up with an amount that we should request from the NEH. Even more impressive, she came up with money from a number of sources on our end to demonstrate that the PHC was kicking in almost half to the total project cost. I was relived to get that part of the application out of the way. I was also glad to be able to leave it to the experts.

In the last week I also finalized the project team. As of this moment, three of our four humanities consultants have sent their letters of commitment. On Friday I spoke with the museum consulting firm Remer and Talbott about coordinating our NEH project and they too seemed receptive and interested in the project. After I submitted a completed first draft to Dr. Beiler and Bethany, an office assistant in the History Department, and they both made some revisions to the grant application. Now, through our joint efforts, the application is looking better than ever. I sent the draft to Barbara Bays at the NEH for additional review. Looking back with everything winding down, it is a satisfying feeling to see everything come together.