06
Sep
Last week was a good one for the grants office, as we learned one of our projects was funded by the state. (Yay!) For the second year in a row, we helped secure a $40,000 grant to the college’s Educational Foundation to develop Virginia Western programming at RAMP, the new business accelerator in downtown Roanoke. I will elaborate more about in RAMP in future posts, but today I wanted to spotlight our latest $40,000 award from the state’s Building Entrepreneurial Economies (B.E.E.) grant program AND the woman representing Virginia Western at RAMP: Samantha Steidle. Samantha Steidle Before serving as Virginia Western’s Innovation Officer, Sam taught entrepreneurship, marketing and small business management courses for the college and through Workforce. As an entrepreneur, she founded Virtual Marketing and The Business Lounge, Roanoke’s first coworking space, which later led to CoLab in Grandin Village. Sam earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Radford University in 2004 and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2010. “One of my major goals is to elevate the awareness of an entrepreneurial path for students in all programs of study and throughout the community,” she told me by email. Sam was kind enough… Continue Reading Sam Steidle can talk entrepreneurship for hours (and other fun facts about Virginia Western’s Innovation Officer)Read More
28
Aug
As I’ve noted before, I do A LOT of reading in the grants office. Today, I wanted to call attention to a few enlightening reports that I spelunked while working on our latest grant proposal, a three-year plan for the Claude Moore Health Professions Academy, which has launched in Roanoke city and Roanoke County high schools this fall. The objective is to build nursing and EMS pathways stretching from the high schools through Virginia Western’s programs and beyond. Understanding our region’s healthcare needs is critical — both for our economy and Virginia Western’s role in that economy. Here are three resources that are rattling around in my brain: 1. You probably know that Carilion Clinic is the largest employer in the Roanoke Valley. But did you know the healthcare sector leads all other sectors with the most job growth in the next five years?: 11% by 2021. That 11% growth number comes from the 2017 Virginia’s Blue Ridge Works Local Workforce Plan, which is still in draft stage. The same report notes a 10% growth rate for jobs in the emerging Life Sciences sector (biosciences, biopharmaceutical, bio-related manufacturing), which was touted in a recent GO Virginia report (more on that in the… Continue Reading 3 reports that could change the way you think about Virginia Western and our healthcare economyRead More
I’ll never forget one of the lessons of “Working Girl.” Tess McGill, played by Melanie Griffith in this 1988 film, weaves a brilliant Wall Street deal because of her reading habits, and *spoiler alert*, she crafts a winning merger based on information she learned from a gossipy entertainment column. I spend most of my time reading in the grants office. Not so much People or Entertainment Weekly … but a wide variety of sources that span industries and disciplines with the hopes that I will make similar creative connections. I might not use all of these ideas immediately … but it plants seeds that could sprout into something later. To help with my daily reading habits, I’ve created a bookmark bar across the top of my Chrome browser. Along with my color-coded Google calendar, I open about 50 tabs all at once every morning, and I’m always adding/subtracting to this dashboard as necessary. So as we start a new academic year, here are at least five sources that you might add to your daily list: 1. Virginia Western’s websites Let’s start at the microscopic level. I want to know what’s happening on this campus — what the students are doing,… Continue Reading 5 reading habits of a creative grant championRead More
About Shelley
Shelley Lyons is glad to be back on campus as she is a Virginia Western alum, and has served as the Administrative Officer for Grants Administration at Virginia Western since early 2022. Prior to VWCC, her career focus was within the Human Services and Arts fields. She wrote her first grant in 1996 on a whim and has continued to plan and learn since that time. She most enjoys seeing a well-planned project come to fruition, where funder, project manager and beneficiaries can all feel success and see impact.
Recent Posts
- Have you heard? October 28, 2024
- The Game of Life – Innovation Edition! August 29, 2024
- Why Try An LOI? May 10, 2024
- Grant Nerds Unite! March 12, 2024
- The Power of Collaboration November 17, 2023