Have you ever had an idea that would help improve the school environment but didn’t have the funds? The Manheim Township Educational Program, or MTEF, has a new student grant program exclusive to MTHS students.

MTEF is a non-profit organization that helps support the entire district by providing grants for various education-related projects. Previously, teachers, administrators, and parents were the main applicants for these grants.

The new grant program, the Student Impact Grant, allows students to apply at any time during the year, while the General Grant application only allows two submissions; once in the fall and once again in the spring. Although anyone can continue to apply for the General Grant — which has no cap on the amount of money that can be requested — this new student grant can be used for smaller projects and has a maximum amount of one thousand dollars.

In the past, General Grant awards have funded projects like the construction of an art mural at LRIS and the new Skylab Observatory at the high school, and the grants have paid for the MTHS Quiz Bowl team to compete at the national level. The new Student Impact Grant allows dollars to be used for things such as transportation, admission fees, and for food.

Junior Micheal Vogt and senior Noel Shabu, the two student impact representatives of the program, wanted students to be more involved in the project.

“A lot of these grants are going to the student body, but from the ideas of teachers and administrators,” Shabu said. “We thought there’s no better group of people to make positive changes to the school than the students themselves.”

Jenny Germann, the executive director of MTEF, spoke of the challenges that prevented students from applying in the past. “The general grant application was very labor intensive, since we have no limit on the grant that you can request from the foundation, and therefore we would ask for a lot of details…we found that some of those questions were a deterrent for the student body, and we had very few requests from students,” Germann said.

With Vogt and Shabu, the program’s board worked to create a new application that would encourage more students to apply. The application can be found on the MTEF website.

Once the application is downloaded and completed, students need signatures from Principal David Rilatt and a teacher, who will be in charge of managing the grant awarded, before it can be reviewed by the board.

“The process is much less complicated than before, with hopes that more students will apply to receive a grant,” Germann explained.

Along with hoping for more student applied-grants, the committee’s student representatives help the board consider what grants will be pursued. With the current senior representative graduating, sophomores will have the opportunity to apply to be a Student Impact Representative. Due by March 23, 2022, these applications can be submitted to Mr. Marquis Jones.

The MTEF website describes the position as, “a big role in the Foundation as they offer the student voice to our strategic work, help decide which grants receive funding, and in the next year, will lead our new Student Impact Fund.”

“This is a great opportunity for current sophomores to get leadership skills…and how to communicate interests,” Shabu said.