All About the Youth Grant Committee

So, you heard about this Non-profit organization called the Youth Grant Committee, and you’re curious to see what it is. That’s where I come in! Hi, my name is Sparsh Aiyar, and I am a proud member of the Youth Grant Committee, an organization made up of students from public, private, home, and high schools throughout greater Grand Rapids.

During the school year, members meet, assess issues affecting the youth of Grand Rapids, develop funding proposals to address those needs, follow up with previous grantees, conduct interviews and site visits, and present grant recommendations to the Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The YGC presents a great opportunity for High School students to gain leadership skills and work in diverse teams. We get to conduct write grants and ultimately end up giving 45,000 to a program that we deem important to Grand Rapids youth!

Now what’s equally important is the friends we make along the way. You are not only a member of the YGC but a part of the YGC family. In addition to grant meetings, we take part in team-building activities to strengthen teamwork and camaraderie. We do this because it is much easier to work with people you know than people you’ve never met in your life! Now, this is my first year with the YGC and at our first meeting, the first thing we did was team-building exercises. It is so crucial to actually get to know the people that you work with, especially in the field of grant requests, that it is one of the objectives of this organization for us to get to know each other.

Lastly, I’m sure all of you have seen the survey that was posted onto the School-wide google classroom where it mentioned my name and the organization. This is a survey that is for the students and the youth of Greater Grand Rapids to fill out and send to the YGC for data collection. Based on your answers, we can determine the schools and areas that need our help the most.. The survey is open from now through Friday, October 2nd and I would very much appreciate it if you could fill it out (If you haven’t already)! If you are interested in the YGC and want to join , or just have any questions, feel free to email me at aiyar-s@students.grps.org!

Take the Survey

SPARSH AIYAR

Editor in Chief at The City Voice | 1st Place Video Interview | MIPA 2021-22 Division 1 Digital Media Contest

Hey there! My name is Sparsh Aiyar and I'm the editor in chief of The City Voice. I also make videos on our YouTube channel, so please make sure to check that out! I'm a huge music nerd and I play a lot of guitar so if you also like guitar, feel free to reach out. If you have any questions about the City Voice, please feel free to contact me via gmail, I would be more than happy to help!