MAPP Grants: Propelling Alumni Forward
/
MAPP Grant winner, Karen Warner, and photo of her late husband, Joel. Photo courtesy of the author.
One person, one proposal, one phone call, and 15 grant recipients later. It was a new proposal at a 2016 the MAPP Alumni Board meeting. Kathryn Britton gave her Treasurer’s report, the organization had a bit of money, some reserves. “The Board should consider doing something useful with this money as it is not the role of the association to build cash reserves. Perhaps the Board could fund some alumni projects. A way to help Alumni move forward after graduation.”
The Board rallied around the idea and I received a phone call in the summer of 2016 asking if I would chair a new committee to develop and launch the MAPP grant program. “Yes, of course!” My new passion had found me.
The Giving Keeps Us Going
The MAPP Grant Program launched in January 2017 after six months of hard work and preparation by the grant committee. In each round of funding, opening the grant applications is like Christmas morning for committee members. It is an opportunity to be a small part in making great ideas come to life in our alumni community.
In just three years, the program has funded 15 individual and team initiatives with $30,000 in grant monies. These grants provide seed money—or a hand up--to our alumni as they embark on non-profit and for-profit initiatives that they are passionate about.
The story could end here. Yes, a committee of MAPP Alumni put clear and robust criteria and a simple process in place for peers to review and select projects to fund. Sure, those are the facts.
But, the story doesn’t end simply with a check passing hands. By the end of the first year, we began to hear new stories: stories about the ripple effect of these grants. MAPP Grants were not just moving Alumni forward. They were also opening new doors for recipients and propelling them forward.
Opening Doors
“The MAPP Grant gave me confidence to think bigger about my project,” said Karen Warner (MAPP 2013) who received a grant to launch her online platform https://thesuddencaregiver.com/. “I was able to leverage the MAPP Grant into a matching grant that allowed me to launch my online community early and begin helping caregivers around the world before my book was published.” Karen continued to build momentum: “Being able to say I was awarded a grant from Penn Alumni transformed me from another widow writing about my loss alone at my kitchen table to someone a publisher was willing to listen to.” Stumbling Upon Grace: The Sudden Caregivers Roadmap, Navigating your Caregiving Journey with Grace and Grit is scheduled for release March 2020.
“The MAPP Grant gave the festival legitimacy,” said Simon Leow (MAPP 2015) who received a grant launch a Happiness Film Festival in Singapore: https://www.happinessinitiative.sg/
“People were willing to take us seriously when I told them I had received a grant from MAPP Alumni at Penn”. The festival has been part of a paradigm shift towards a greater emphasis on happiness and well-being in Singapore. Simon’s vision is to expand the Film Festival to a Happiness conference with an opportunity for MAPP Alumni to share their work with South East Asia. Simon and the Happiness Film Festival were featured in the last Volume of MAPP Magazine.
“The MAPP Grant had a priming effect in getting university funding for my first and second conference on Integrating Positive Psychology into Legal Education. It also allowed key public defenders without access to travel budgets to attend,” said Lisle Baker (MAPP 2016).
A third conference is planned for 2020. Outcomes from the first two conferences were captured by Lisle in a recent article in Southwestern Law Review.
Boosting Confidence to go BIG
Jennifer Cory (MAPP 2015) identified the gap between advances in modern medicine that have extended the lives of those facing terminal diseases, and the quality of life skills necessary for patients to successfully navigate those extended lives in her MAPP Capstone. She used her MAPP grant to create the HEART Initiative, an online support and learning community providing Hope, Educations, Action, Resources, and a pathway to Thriving for those living with chronic and progressive
diseases. “The biggest impact for me has been a boost in my confidence. I have felt like I have the backing of the entire MAPP alumni and that has been the fuel for everything I have done going forward.” Since receiving the grant, she has created a board of advisors, launched an online course, collected empirical data on two studies, and presented the HEART initiative on three continents. https://heartinitiative.lpages.co/ main-landing/.
“Having MAPP Alumni express its confidence in my project provided a tremendous boost to me and my team and enabled us to take a crucial step to make my class development REAL,” said Karen Deppa (MAPP 2015). Her course, Respond with Resilience, is intended to bring positive psychology and specifically resilience training to the underserved communities of fire fighters and emergency responders: www.pilotlightresilience.com
Building on Success
High School teacher Kathy Snyder (MAPP 2010) sought a MAPP grant to bring a new approach to closing the achievement gap at her school. Her MAPP Grant was used to host an Appreciate Inquiry summit at her school, H. H. Dow High in Midland, Michigan. Bringing the people system of students, parents, and faculty together to focus and build on the positives within the school today and what they want for the future, H. H. Dow’s inaugural AI summit was a resounding success. Ten project teams were formed that focused on belonging, collaboration, student mental health, as well as more traditional topics including parental engagement and the importance of physical space. “The success of this summit led directly to a second summit in Midland County to kick off their school year!”
MAPP Grants could not exist without the hard work of the MAPP Grant Committee. The committee is staffed by alumni who forego the opportunity to compete for their own grant to be in service to their peers. Some have been with the committee from the beginning, some for a shorter time. A special thanks to all! Kathryn Britton, Andrew Brady, Marita James, Rosie Hancock, Tricia Fox Ransom, Chris Major, Karen Warner, and Katie Snyder.
You can be a part of positive change in the world by contributing to the ongoing success of the MAPP Alumni Grant Program, at: https://mappalum.org/Donations
