For the past few years, a creative team at VWCC has pulled together proposals for a competitive federal grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities. This program encourages the blending of humanities with other disciplines at community colleges ( details here ).
So far, we have been unsuccessful … but I thought I would share some “idea seeds” from other schools that might inspire some innovation right here at Virginia Western.
Oakton Community College in Illinois was awarded one of these Humanities grants to develop an eight-week summer field study called “Plants, Society and Human Nature: Scientific and Ecocritical Perspectives.”
The six-credit honors class combines biology with the humanities and is team taught by professors of biology and English. Also: The class featured a 17-day camping trip that included stops at Yellowstone and Badlands national parks.
Read more about the class at the Community College Daily …. and Oakton’s interdisciplinary Environmental Studies concentration here.
What interdisciplinary projects might enhance Virginia Western’s strengths? If we’re not doing it already, how might we take advantage of the abundant natural resources in our backyard — and integrate them into curriculum? Would we even need a grant to make that happen?
Shelley Lyons is glad to be back on campus as she is a Virginia Western alum, and has served as the Administrative Officer for Grants Administration at Virginia Western since early 2022. Prior to VWCC, her career focus was within the Human Services and Arts fields. She wrote her first grant in 1996 on a whim and has continued to plan and learn since that time. She most enjoys seeing a well-planned project come to fruition, where funder, project manager and beneficiaries can all feel success and see impact.