Student-driven events
Shortly after her visit, Ganek endowed the Writers House with funds to support student-driven events. The Danielle DiGiacomo Ganek '85 Student Initiatives Fund is available to all Franklin & Marshall students who want to propose and plan a reading- or writing-related event through the Writers House.
In 2008-2009, students began the "For You, By You" series, featuring student-proposed programs each month.
How to Make a Proposal
Do you have a writer you'd like to bring to campus, a reading you'd like to host, a communal literary vision that money will help you turn into reality? Send your proposals for Student Initiative Funds to Writers House Director .
In your proposal, please include the following:
- Your name and class year
- A brief description of your proposed reading or project
- Your explanation for why this project, or event, or visiting writer would be a good thing for the Writers House community to support
- The audience or audiences at F&M whom you think would welcome this event or project
- Any possible co-sponsors
- A preliminary budget for your reading or project
Please note that Kerry and the initiatives committee help student initiators with the logistics of their projects. For example, if you have a writer you'd like to bring, but aren't sure how much she costs, they can help you find that information.
We have a rolling deadline, so we take proposals all year long—although the earlier you make a request, the more money we're likely to have to give you.
Examples of Past Student Initiatives
In 2007-2008, the student members of the Student Initiatives Fund had $3500 to disburse, and they approved requests by communers for money for the following programs:
1) Dead Writers Reading
2) Beat Night
3) A reading and class visit by fiction writer DAVID MEANS
4) "Speak Up" Poetry Slam
5) Oxfam Protest Poetry Open Mic
6) Costumes for the Writers House's student readers who performed during the F&M Children's Center's annual Read-a-Thon
7) Support for the Read-a-Thon
8) A road trip by communers to see the creators of Post Secret (this project was approved but didn't happen due to the vagaries of students' lives)
