Five student projects receive Dr. Bill grants

By Brooke Bullock     1/20/11 6:00pm

In late November, five student-led projects received funding from the Dr. Bill Wilson Student Initiative Grant. The fund backs student-initiated projects that work to improve the quality of student life as the grant's namesake, electrical and computer engineering professor Bill Wilson, suggested at the fund's creation.Wilson was a Wiess College resident associate for 28 years. The grant was established in 1999 by Wiess alumni to honor Wilson in his 20th year as an RA. The grant had its first recipients in 2000 and has continued supporting student- initiated projects ever since.

A committee consisting of the Wiess masters, RAs and a Wiess student from each year is in charge of electing groups who will be awarded the grant.

Wiess College Coordinator Nancy Letness said that the committee based its decision on three basic criteria: Is the project a student initiative? Who benefits from the project? Would the project appeal to Wilson?

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Based on these criteria, the committee members rank all applications individually and then convene to make a final decision. This year, three groups - Owl List, Rice University Bike Shop and Rice Emergency Medical Services - received full funding for their projects and two - RicEmpower and McMurtry - received partial funding to support their projects.

Owl List

Baker College junior Violetta Krol and Will Rice College senior Konrad Stoick applied to receive the Dr. Bill Grant after Krol received an e-mail via Baker's listserv about the grant.

She and Stoick were looking for ways to finance their idea for Owl List, a website where Rice students can buy, sell or advertise various items. Their idea came from a project to improve an on-campus group in an Entrepreneurial Leadership class they both took.

Krol and Stoick began working with the Student Association to find ways to handle the multitude of e-mails concerning couches or apartments that come through the college listservs.

"We talked about how we get spammed through the college listserv," Stoick said. "We thought there had to be an easier way to do it."

Krol said that they have been working with Web Services and the SA's Student Life Committee to get their site up and running. They received $2,500 from the grant to fund the project. Krol and Stoick said they expect it to be completed by March 22.

Rice University Bike Shop

Sid Richardson College sophomore Michael Fuad and his co-applicant Sid sophomore Ben Stark-Sachs proposed a student-run Rice University Bike Shop. Fuad said he got the idea from a large number of bikes around campus with rusty chains or other problems.

"The Rice University Bike Shop's mission is to provide quality repairs at low cost and in a convenient location," Fuad said.

The bike shop will be located in the Sid basement and offer basic repairs, as well as a few specialty ones, and sell bike accessories.

Fuad said that one of their ideas is to repair the bikes collected through RUPD and resell them through the shop.

Also, the bike shop is partnering with the bike sharing program to repair its bikes. The program, funded by RESET, provides Sid, Martel, Jones, McMurtry and Brown Colleges with five bikes each to check out to students.

Fuad received $680.28 to buy tools and supplies for the bike store. Fuad said that initially, only he and Sachs will be working the shop, and that any students who begin working there in the future will need to be proficient in bike repair. He said he hopes the bike shop will be up and running within a month, but definitely by Beer Bike time.

EMS Dummies

EMS Education Lieutenant Emily Larimer, a Martel senior, and EMS Captain Hashim Zaidi, a Will Rice senior, applied for the grant in order to purchase new airway dummies for Rice EMS's EMT-Basic class and REMS duty crew.

Airway dummies approximately simulate a human torso including face, airway and lungs. They feature landmarks such as the sternum and ribcage so that chest thrusts, back blows and CPR can be practiced using the dummy.

They received $2,689 to purchase the new airway dummies.

Student Leadership Development: Civic Scientists

Lovett College junior Kareem Ayoub and junior Andy Ho submitted a proposal for their already established RicEmpower service venture. Ayoub, RicEmpower's president and founder, and Ho, its Executive Committee chair, self-funded RicEmpower until now, with faculty advising from Bioengineering Professor Renata Ramos.

The organization reaches out to K-12 students to help improve science literacy and get students interested in math and science after grade school. Ayoub said they want to create more incentives for students to get interested in science and math.

In addition to the dialogues and activities RicEmpower already hosts, the group is organizing a scholarship for the students RicEmpower reaches out to. Ayoub said one goal of RicEmpower is to encourage grade-school students to pursue math- and science-related careers.

"We want to give them a realistic idea of careers in math and science," Ho said.

Ho said that he was not well-informed in high school about future careers in math and science. RicEmpower works to show students that these subjects are viable paths in college and future jobs.

"Less and less people are going into science, math and medicine now," Ayoub said.

RicEmpower received $1,231 from the grant. The money from the grant will go toward dialogues the organization hosts for students in the Houston area.

More information about individual projects or joining RicEmpower can be found at its website: http://ricempower.rice.edu

McMurtry Classroom

McMurtry sophomore Ashley Purdon and her McMurtry Amenities Committee Co-Chair senior Chris Kopczynski applied for the grant upon recommendation of the McMurtry president and masters.

Purdon said that McMurtry already has a TV lounge area but needs a room that will serve as a classroom for fellows or college courses as well as a study room.

"McMurtry needed more spaces where it could be functional," Purdon said. "The [Dr. Bill Grant] will be used solely for a classroom with whiteboards and desks."

Purdon said that the room, McMurtry 114, has already been painted, and some bookshelves have been bought.

Purdon and Kopczynski received $4,000 for their project. Their goal is to have the entire room complete by the end of the semester.

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