Quest Summer Service Grants recognize outstanding summer project proposals by Quest Scholars with grants that financially support their work, volunteer activities, or research. Selection criteria for projects include: the presence of a public service element; its ability to live up to Quest ideas of scholarship, leadership, and service; originality of thought; a well-organized plan; and its relevance to the applicant's history of academic or service work.
Typically, we budget between $1,200 and $1,500 per grant. If there are many strong applications, we might make the decision to fund each one at the lower amount so we can give out one more grant than planned.
Below, we feature four of five grant recipients from 2011.
Khalil Fuller
Canoga Park, CA
Brown University, Class of 2014
In the summer of 2011, Khalil worked with Hasbro on the production side of NBA Math Hoops, a fast-paced, competitive board game that teaches and applies fundamental math skills to children.
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Khalil's job was to find the best way to get as many high quality Classroom Kits as possible for the $100,000 that Hasbro committed to the game's national launch. He participated in decision-making from the initial pricing mockup through finalizing suppliers of the components that Hasbro does not have the ability to produce itself. In the process, he learned what goes into evaluating different production options and how to strategically cut costs without sacrificing functional quality or customer experience.
Khalil also reached out to organizations like KIPP to support the launch of NBA Math Hoops. KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a network of nearly 100 free public charter schools that prepare children in underserved communities for success in college and life. Since KIPP’s mission so closely mirrors NBA Math Hoops’ and shares an identical target market, Khalil sees a successful partnership forming in the near future.
"The biggest lesson I learned this summer was the importance of patience," says Khalil. "When business affairs are slow, it affords time to recollect and prepare for the future. This summer I was able to use idle time to compile a realistic, although ambitious, set of goals and milestones for NBA Math Hoops."
Anh (Annie) Hoang
Bayonne, NJ
Yale University, Class of 2013
Annie spent nine weeks in Vietnam trying to comprehend the complex social network that affects young Vietnamese women's sexual perceptions and behaviors.
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To that end, Annie conducted over 60 interviews during her time in Vietnam. Thirty were in Ho Chi Minh City, a large international city, and thirty were in Rach Gia, a small, provincial town. "These interviews were surprisingly enjoyable," she says. Due to the strict Confucian culture that still holds strong in Vietnamese society, she believed that she would have trouble engaging in these women in conversations about sexuality. However, they seemed eager to open up and reveal private details about their lives. Many invited Annie to their homes, and some even took her shopping and showed her the best places to eat.
Annie's favorite part was when interviewees thanked her for allowing them to confidentially express themselves on sensitive topics. "These comments are what really made the experience worth it," she says. "I feel that I made some sort of lasting impact on my interviewees, and that, hopefully, I had a positive influence on them."
Christian McLaren
Sarasota, FL
Wesleyan University, Class of 2013
Over the summer Christian developed a bilingual guidebook for the Community Health Center (CHC) in Middletown, Connecticut.
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Christian's English/Spanish book, a step-by-step guide to interacting with the CHC, is designed to give people an idea of what to expect, what to bring, and how to be active participants in their health care. His target audience is immigrant families who are not accustomed to seeing a doctor on a regular basis.
Specifically, his guidebook encourages people to take notes of doctors' instructions and to ask questions if something is unclear. It urges them to monitor their progress and to continue taking their medication if no results are seen immediately. The book also includes a portable place to organize prescriptions and other medical documents, and it gives a brief overview of patients' rights and Spanish-to-English translations of useful phraseology.
"I plan to work with the CHC throughout the school year, and it is likely that I will be in charge of any future revisions to the guidebook," says Christian. "My summer work, made possible by a Summer Service Grant, transformed into a project that may continue for my next two years at Wesleyan!"
Kwan (Jenny) Tang
Brooklyn, NY
Williams College, Class of 2013
Jenny volunteered at the Mokhele Art Therapy and Education Project (MATEP) in Soweto, South Africa, this summer. Her work at MATEP combined her two passions: as an educational facilitator and as an art historian who hopes to shed light on masterpieces beyond the Eurocentric canon.
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At MATEP, art therapy is the beginning of a healing process for children who have been victims of violence. In a country where race and identity (and one's self-worth) are so intertwined, art enables these children to forge their own identities. As in a past internship at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Massachusetts, Jenny saw how art education is a way of strengthening--and sometimes building from scratch--a sense of community.
Soweto, where tourists come in search of the "real" South Africa, has undergone a dramatic renovation in recent years. Nelson Mandela's former house has been turned into a museum. A memorial has been built for twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson, shot and killed by police during an anti-Apartheid student protest in 1976.
"Yet the revision of history, if such a thing is possible," says Jenny, "doesn't require more memorials. The important work is being done at places like MATEP, where every day is, in some small sense, a confrontation with difficult history."
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