The UNH Parents Association has a long history of awarding grants for innovative student projects. For more than 16 years, a Parents Association endowment has funded this Grant Program for projects which benefit students at UNH. The creation of this endowment was made possible by contributions from UNH Parents. Because of their generosity, the UNH community has had the opportunity to submit proposals which require matching or seed money to come to fruition. Members of the UNH Parents Council, made up of current UNH parents, evaluate the submissions within the program criteria and recommend funding. Of the 18 student proposals submitted this fall, the committee selected 11 for full or partial funding, totaling $27,955.00
Congratulations to the following groups which were awarded funding for their projects:
Engineers Without Borders
Men’s Club Lacrosse Team
UNH LunaCats
UNH Sailing Team
UNH Formula 1 Society of Auto Engineers
Campus Recreation Sport Clubs
Horticulture Club & Culinary Arts and Nutrition Programs
Synchronized Skating Team and Club Hockey Teams
Students Without Borders
Freestyle Figure Skating Club
Men’s Club Volleyball Team
Below is information on the individual student projects:
$3,500.00 Awarded to the UNH Students/Engineers Without Borders to assist the group traveling to Lukodi, Uganda in May of 2013 to implement a clean water initiative. The UNH group will repair wells that are not functioning, disinfect the area wells and teach the community to perform well maintenance and disinfecting tasks on their own. When the group returns to UNH, they will do presentations for the university community and for local schools. The group also found a generous donor who offered to contribute 50% of what they were awarded by the Parents Association if they were successful. The group has also received other generous gifts for the funding of this initiative.
$4,000.00 Awarded to the UNH Men’s Club Lacrosse Team to purchase a new scoreboard for the UNH Student Recreation Field. The award will not only benefit the Men’s Club Lacrosse Team but all teams using this field; Men’s Baseball, Women’s Softball, Men’s & Women’s Ultimate Frisbee, Men’s and Women’s Rugby, all Intramural groups! The award complements funds already raised by this group for this project and for other expenses. Advertising space on the scoreboard will generate future revenue for the group.
$2,000.00 Awarded to the UNH LunaCats to help fund the building of a robotic excavator for the 2013 4th Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition, an international NASA-sponsored competition. To compete, NASA requires each team to create an active Outreach Program for their local communities. The LunaCats are planning on a series of demonstrations at local schools, presenting at NH Space Grant Consortium events and hosting a Robotics Day at UNH for local high school students. The group has already secured additional funding from area engineering companies.
$4,000.00 Awarded to the UNH Club Sailing Team for assistance in purchasing 18 new sets of racing sails for the team’s fleet of boats. The Club Sailing Team continues to work to bring the club back from the near total destruction of their fleet of boats in the boathouse fire of 2010. The funding represents only one third the cost of the sails, the team will provide the balance of the necessary funds.
$3,000.00 Awarded to the UNH Formula One Society of Automotive Engineers to assist in building a scaled race car which will be entered in the global engineering competition in the spring of 2013. The group requested funding for a new engine which allows them to switch from a 4 cylinder engine to a lighter weight one cylinder engine while maintaining performance standards. This student group is made up of mechanical engineers, computer engineers, and aerodynamics team and artists. In addition to the race competition, this car is utilized to showcase the work of these students at University events. Parents Association funding for this project is less than 10% of the cost of the entire project.
$4,000.00 Awarded to the Sport Clubs of Campus Recreation to assist with the purchase of a new Campus Recreation Van for student-athlete/club use. The group requested assistance in funding the new van based on the increased usage of the Campus Recreation vans and on the age of vans currently in operation. This funding is only a small portion of funding needed for this purchase, Campus Recreation will supply the bulk of the funds needed for this purchase.
$1,860.00 Awarded to the Thompson School’s Horticulture Club and Culinary Arts and Nutrition groups to purchase an interior vertical planting unit for growing fresh herbs. The vertical planting unit will allow the groups to grow fresh herbs for cooking classes. The students from the Culinary Arts program and the Horticulture club will work together in growing and harvesting the plants. To start this vertical garden, the groups have secured plant donations from previous graduates of the horticulture program.
$1,200.00 Awarded to the UNH Synchronized Skating Team and Club Hockey Teams for their innovative collaboration which requested seed money to start a Learn to Skate Program for area youngsters. The funding provided will pay for ice time for the startup of this program. The Learn to Skate program will also become a yearly fundraising program for these UNH groups which will help to support their travel budgets.
$2,500.00 Awarded to the Students Without Borders group to upgrade projects at the UNH Organic Garden. Funding will provide for maintenance to the existing solar panel set up, an outdoor water pump, water meters, gutters and PVC pipe for a rainwater harvesting system. The Students Without Borders group will provide the manpower for this work. The work will improve the sustainability and productivity of the organic garden and the completion of the rainwater harvesting system will allow the Organic Garden to be a test site for home garden irrigation systems.
$750.00 Awarded to the new Freestyle Figure Skating Club to fund ice time rental and coaching support. Since this is a brand new club at UNH, they do not receive any UNH funds for their program at this time, all funding currently comes from the team members themselves and from fundraising activities.
$1,145.00 Awarded to the UNH Men’s Club Volleyball Team to purchase a referee stand required for their current net system. The new referee stand will enable the group to host tournaments which will help to support their future fundraising efforts. In addition, the referee stand will help the newly formed Women’s Club Volleyball Team. This funding complements the team’s efforts to raise funds to grow their program and sent a team to the national competition.
Originally published by:
UNH Today
