For the first time the Awards and Grants subcommittee began accepting applications for mini-grants on a rolling basis in the Fall of 2022. Four grants were awarded for a total of $1826.

Immigration Pilgrimage through Georgia

Funded scholarships for Furman students to participate in a joint program between the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection and HOLA – Hispanic Outreach and LatinX Awareness visiting centers that work with recently arrived immigrants across Georgia.

Preserving Their Memory: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People

This panel presentation allowed Native leaders to speak directly to Furman students, faculty, other Indigenous peoples, and community members on topics including community and domestic violence, kidnapping, murder, and the systemic aggression towards Native people.

Opera on Screen: Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”

As part of Amplify@Furman series, the Furman Music Department presented a filmed recording of the Metropolitan Opera’s October 2021 performance of Terence Blanchard’s opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first opera written by a Black composer to be staged at the Met.

Furman University Staff Community Reads

The Staff Advisory Council’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee launched the inaugural Staff Community DEI Read! They read and discussed The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee.

In the 2021-22 academic year the Awards and Grants Subcommittee received 15 applications and awarded $5400 in funds across seven projects.

Latinx Languages and Identities Beyond Borders

Dr. Jonathan Rosa’s CLP “Latinx Languages and Identities Beyond Borders” allowed attendees to think critically on how languages and identities of marginalized communities are perceived, how these dominant ideologies can have serious negative consequences, and how Latinx community members in Chicago push these artificially imposed linguistic and cultural borders as a response to this type of linguistic oppression.

Library Digital Accessibility Student Workers Pilot

The scope of this project included providing two Library student workers with foundational knowledge of digital accessibility concepts and facilitating their development of skills in creating, remediating, and checking the accessibility of Word and PDF documents.

Periods2Progress

Providing free period products in single-occupancy and women’s bathrooms in academic buildings as a collaborative, intra-university endeavor. Here are links to the Furman News article  and Paladin News .

It’s Not Music: A Cross-Genre Collaboration for the 21st-Century Music Student

Over the course of the 2021-2022 academic year, the faculty and students of the Furman Percussion Ensemble participated in a collaborative project with electronic music duo Turning Jewels Into Water entitled “It’s Not Music: A Cross-Genre Collaboration for the 21^st-Century Music Student.”

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mini-grant program was not available for the 2020-2021 academic year. The Awards and Grants sub-committee was able to award one new mini-grant deferred from the 2019-2020 academic year for a virtual event entitled, “Policing Black Bodies: Meet the Authors.”

Received twenty-five applications for mini-grants and awarded $5,399.08. The mini-grant program is designed to promote and enhance one or more diversity themes, including climate, access, education, policy and assessment.This year, mini-grant funds supported:

• Supporting Neurodiversity
• Contributing a Community Reception for Joseph Vaughn Day
• Enhancing LGBTQ Support
• Pathways to Education Careers for a Diverse Nation
• Developing Culturally Unique Messaging for Students of Color Around the Concept of Failure & Resiliency
• Chinese New Year Festival
• Empowered Employment: Finding Your Voice
• Jewish Week
• Faculty Funding for Completion of Quality Matters Digital Accessibility Course: Addressing Accessibility and Usability

Received nine applications for mini-grants and awarded $5,400. The mini-grant program is designed to promote and enhance one or more diversity themes, including climate, access, education, policy, and assessment. This year, mini-grant funds supported:

• Building the clarinet studio music library by purchasing musical scores and relevant materials to study interpretation of contemporary world music.
• The Riley Institute’s Emerging Public Leaders program for high school students.
• Training for Bridges to a Brighter Future’s peer mentors.
• Filming the stories of Furman’s religious minority students and alumni by the Office of Spiritual Life.
• Initiating the Paladin Conversation Partners to promote language practice between non-English speaking and English speaking individuals.
• Photoshoot supplies for a new LGBTQ+ Furman website, “Out at Furman,” which launched here.
• Presenting the film, “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” which was a joint effort between the Jewish Student Association, Culinary Club, Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Office of Spiritual Life, and the Greenville Jewish Film Festival.
• The Riley Institute’s Advance Team hosting Ray Hinton who shared his experience in the criminal justice system and his efforts to bring about reform.

St. Anthony’s School Education and Mentoring Program
Thomas Gaudin
Expanded an existing service project with the Afterschool Program at St. Anthony of Padua School

“Diversity According to Family Guy and South Park” by Matt Glowacki
Melissa Nichols and Michael Jennings
A CLP on the diversity of ability

Fruitvale Station: Film Screening and Faculty Panel
Melissa Nichols and Michael Jennings
An evening program for the Furman community

The Abraham Project Internship
Brandon Inabinet
Support for initiatives of the Task Force on Slavery & Justice

Smart Pen Lending Program
Judy Bagley and Jessica Lane
Notetaking support for students with documented disabilities

Community Outreach: Using Children’s Literature as Windows, Mirrors, and Doors
Katie Kelly
Textbook support for local elementary teachers

Native American and and First national Cultures and World Views
Sofia Kearns and Helen Lee Turner
Support for a CLP lecture by Native Americans

Diversifying OLLI Membership: Supporting Furman University’s Outreach Initiatives
Nancy Kennedy and Michael Murphy
Broadening the appeal of OLLI membership in the Greenville community

Emerging Public Leaders
Riley Institute – Melanie Armstrong, Jacki Martin, and Don Gordon
Assist with funding of stipends for Emerging Public Leaders initiative, which has a curriculum focused on leadership and diversity for low-income students in South Carolina.

Holidays at Furman – Creating a More Religiously Inclusive Environment
History and Religion Departments – Hilary Kalisman, Alfons Teipen, and Lisa Knight
Purchase of items and materials needed for celebrating religious holidays.

Improving the Health of Racial & Ethnic Minority Populations CLP
Health Science Majors Club – Mikey Negrete, Emily Gale, and Haley Holan
Assist with funding a speaker who addresses health disparities and ways to work toward the elimination of those disparities.

Literacy Corner
Education Department – Katie Kelly and Erikah Haavie
Assist with funding a four-week program improving literacy among low-income, at-risk students ages 6-14 in the local community.

STEM Exposure Program
Dean Bailey & Casey Hawthorne
Purchase supplies and assist with transport costs to allow Bridges to a Brighter Future participants to work with math and science majors.

Understanding Multicultural Affinity Groups and Reunions
Office of Alumni & Parent Engagement – Leo Fackler and Mariel Calhoun
Assist with funding focus groups with multicultural alumni to better understand needs related to affinity and on-campus reunions.

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Retreat
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies – Tami Blumenfield and Sofia Kearns
Purchase of supplies needed for a retreat involving faculty and students in roundtable discussion.

Latino Newspaper
Principal Investigator: Beth Crews, Undergraduate Evening Studies
The mini-grant was used to improve access to the Furman education that meets the needs of working adults in the community, affordably and conveniently.

Crossing Cultures with Competence

Principal Investigator: Chrissy McCrary, Study Away and International Education
The mini-grant was used to help domestic students better understand the factors to consider when pairing with an international student such as cultural background, education abroad, policies and climate.

Lunch with Students part of Mosaic

Principal Investigator: Onyx Henry, Faculty Modern Languages and Literatures
The mini-grant was used to improve access to prospective students who are underrepresented at Furman and ask questions about Furman’s climate.

Training for Bridges to a Brighter Future Counselors and Staff

Principal Investigator: Pam Davis, Director of Bridges to a Brighter Future
The mini-grant was used to improve the climate at Furman University for low-income students in Greenville County who are first generation college students and improve access to opportunities.

Berea Soccer Media

Principal Investigator: Sergio Lopez Cuevas, Student in Communication Studies
The mini-grant was used to improve access to the Furman education among local high school students in the local Berea neighborhood.