Mini-Grants

Occupational & Life Skills students raise their hands in class.

What Are Mini-Grants?

BC Foundation Mini-Grants are open to faculty, staff, and administrators and are given to support ongoing projects, one-time projects, and new programs that may not be eligible for support through other college funding sources. Preference is given to projects that are consistent with the college’s strategic plan, as well as the President’s and Foundation’s priorities and goals. The program is funded by donors to the BC Foundation, including many BC faculty and staff.

The Foundation funds Mini-Grants in the following areas:

  • Instructional Enhancements: computers, software, website development, maps, research, books, guest speakers, etc.
  • Community Engagement: workshops, lectures, events that promote BC and its students within the community, etc.
  • Faculty/Staff Professional Development: workshops, conferences, etc.
  • Special Projects: priority projects that do not fit into the three previous categories.

Mini-Grants fund projects and programs across campus. They have proven to be an essential avenue of support for projects and programs that department budgets do not have the capacity to fund on their own. Staff and faculty apply for these grants using an annual application process.

The 2023-24 Mini-Grant Application is now closed.

The deadline to apply was 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, and all applicants were notified of the outcome of their application in December 2023.

The 2024-25 Mini-Grant Application will open in Fall 2024.

Additional Application Information

Awards range from $300 – $3,000, and applications are open to all College employees. If selected, funding is available from January 1st through December 31st of the following year.

Preview a PDF of the entire application here.

Have a question? Contact us at foundation@bellevuecollege.edu.

And the Mini-Grant Goes to…

Congratulations to our 2023-24 Mini-Grant recipients and thank you to all who applied! Mini-Grants are one of the Foundation’s signature programs and we are proud each year to read about our staff and faculty members’ inspiring projects.

With this Florestan Ensemble Mini-Residency Project, the Music Department will create a musical experience that will engage not only our BC music students, but the campus/Bellevue community at large. The planned activities will include a public score reading of original music composed BC student composers, a public panel discussion with the ensemble members focusing on education trajectories & careers in music with a Q & A, and end with an evening performance by the Florestan Ensemble.

Brian Cobb – Music

This project will purchase additional air quality monitors so that a new and innovative research-based CHEM& 161 laboratory curriculum can be implemented by other chemistry instructors. The students taking CHEM& 161, the instructors teaching it, and community members to whom students present their research results will benefit. If the curriculum can be scaled up, the number of students, instructors, and community members who will benefit each year will at least triple and multiply indefinitely. Students present their air pollution research project results to community members on and off campus who are interested in and concerned about local outdoor and indoor air quality. Data from a related National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM education grant shows that this curriculum increases the level of student interest in and motivation for pursuing or remaining in STEM disciplines, augments students’ confidence with scientific thinking and research, and engages students in contributing solutions to real-world problems through civic engagement and systems thinking to build 21st century skills.

Sonya Doucette – Chemistry and Environmental Science

In Spring 2024, BC’s Theatre Arts/Drama will present the musical “A Year with Frog and Toad” which is written for audiences 3-8 years old. The TYA Project will support and enhance the understanding and performance of this specific kind of theatre with Performance Experiences and Workshops/Training by experts in the field.

Tammi Doyle – Theatre Arts, Drama & Dance

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Annual Convention is devoted to examining contemporary issues facing today’s athletics administrator, from junior colleges to D1 schools. We have “at risk” students on our sports teams and the goal is to learn what other athletic departments across America are doing in all different situations to help their student athletes grow academically and athletically.

Jeremy Eggers – Athletics

This project would install an additional 18 bike capacity bike rack near the entrance to Student Housing. This would address the overcrowding occurring on the current bike rack, which often has so many bikes parked around it that there is no additional space to lock the bikes to the rack. Some of these bikes are part of the college’s own bike rental program. This project would serve students, staff, and faculty with additional space for parking and securing bikes. This encourages campus sustainability and increases community comfort with biking, knowing that there is ample space to park and lock their bikes.

Sara Holzknecht – Sustainability Office/Housing

This professional development would improve the knowledge base of the Sustainability Office, enabling energy conservation and efficiency, as well as compliance with the Washington State Clean Buildings Act. This recent legislation, passed in 2019, mandates all commercial buildings in the State meet a target Energy Use Intensity on a tiered schedule, according to square footage. With nearly 1 million square feet of space, and buildings ranging in age from 5 to over 60 years in service, the college faces a number of energy efficiency challenges to meet compliance by 2027. Therefore, strategic planning as this deadline is approached will be a crucial part of ensuring adherence to the new standards, and avoidance of potential fines. These results serve the entire campus community, offering a more sustainable built environment on campus, as well as potential learning opportunities that could be incorporated into many different aspects of the college’s curriculum. Reductions in methane gas (or natural gas) based HVAC will additionally result in lowered levels of ambient particulates in indoor spaces, and therefore lower health impacts to community members with asthma and other respiratory illness.

Sara Holzknecht – Sustainability Office

The research project will be about the Running Start graduate college students. Qualitative and quantitative data will be used to evaluate the project through student interviews. The methodology is a case study with 10-15 participants. The goal is to identify the specific challenges of these diverse students that, even with free tuition from the school district, prevent them from graduating from college or even high school. The intention is to publish the paper in an educational journal so the data will be available to anyone, especially in K12, so that they can know more about students’ college transitions. Knowledge gained will be shared on campus and in our K12 connection to make everyone aware of the challenges and success of this group of students. It is a very diverse group and it will be a great way to know the effectiveness of our program.

Maria Paula McPherson – Center for High School Programs

This funding will support our efforts to build the capacity to run the Bellevue College campus Food Pantry efficiently; this involves purchasing specialized software, Pantry Soft. Pantry Soft will enable our pantry to maintain a comprehensive inventory system, record and manage donations efficiently, monitor stock levels in real-time, alert us when certain food items are running low, and ensure equitable access by tracking student visits, plus increase our outreach strategies.

Ranulfo Molina – Benefits Hub

We last purchased mountain bikes for the Wellness Center in 2019.  We are in need of replacement tires as we have gotten so many groups outside on the trails, the tires are running bare. The BC Wellness Center works to enhance our campus climate and enrich the quality of life on campus by fostering growth within the seven dimensions of wellness through outdoor recreation: Social, emotional, mental, physical, environmental, spiritual and occupational.  We work to provide barrier free access and instruction in a wide variety of adventure options to any and all BC students. These new tires will help to protect the safety of our students and our local trails.

Peter Prescott – Wellness Center

This request is to fund the second level of “train the trainer” training from Prosci. The objective is to create unforgettable change management learning experiences inside our college using Prosci’s industry-leading programs, tools and methodologies. The Train-the-Trainer Program Level 2 immerses you in the change management teaching experience and transitions you to the role of facilitator for all roles within your organization. As a Train-the-Trainer Level 2 graduate, you’re qualified to train and develop your entire team in-house, improving the overall change-readiness of your organization while reducing the long-term costs of change management training. This training will be used to build bridges between departments, improve business processes, teach employees how to adopt and be leaders in changes on our campus.

Maria Rivas – Information Technology Services

The project aims to update the existing rubric that OLS uses to assess student mastery of a set of soft skills that students will need in the world of work and in their personal lives. To achieve that end, we require faculty input on the proposed changes to the rubric; faculty will also need to be trained on the new rubric to learn about its contents, how to teach the skills it measures, and how to grade students on the new rubric. OLS students present a variety of cognitive and physical disabilities and represent the intersectionality of disability and race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and social class. The updates to the social skills rubric will make it more accessible to students by putting into plain, quantifiable language the criteria that they need to meet to be considered “mastering” these skills.

Justin Sanders – Occupational & Life Skills

This funding will assist with the replacement of rotted wood bleachers surrounding the baseball field. Last replaced in 2013, the current bleachers represent a potential liability and are not all safe to use.

Mark Yoshino – Athletics

Strengths Finder assessment is an online assessment of personal talent that identifies areas in which an individual has the greatest potential for building strengths. It is based on more than 80 years of research into human behavior and development science. It will be available to any approved Bellevue College employee as a part of structured coaching sessions provided to them.

Warda Zaman – Human Resources

Last Updated December 5, 2023