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10 Years of Opportunity Grants
Program Celebrates a Decade of Making a Difference
It is because of alumni and friends like you that the UCM Alumni Foundation celebrated its 10th year of offering Opportunity Grants in 2023. Faculty and staff apply for these grants by outlining how they would implement an innovative idea or technology to enhance the student experience.
Over the past decade, generous gifts to the Central Annual Fund have resulted in:
• 131 Opportunity Grants awarded to UCM faculty and staff
• $374,571 used to implement student-focused initiatives
• Priceless experiences beyond what students imagined possible!
While some grants have been used for short-term research and projects, others have initiated programs that continue to directly impact the campus community. Here are just a few examples of how faculty and staff ingenuity, coupled with donor generosity, creates opportunity for UCM students.
Full Cupboard Helps Students Reach Their Full Potential
One of UCM’s first Opportunity Grants in 2013 helped fund a campus food pantry that has since served thousands.
With the $5,000 grant, UCM Director of Student Activities Beth Rutt, ’78, ’83, purchased a refrigerator, a chest freezer, shelving and a laptop. In partnership with the Department of Communication Disorders and Social Work and the Department of Nutrition and Kinesiology, Beth established the initial pantry in the lower level of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, an addition to the Morrow-Garrison complex that opened two years prior.
In its first three months, the Campus Cupboard served 257 individuals. Today, the pantry averages more than two times that number each month.
According to Feeding America’s 2021 “Map the Meal Gap” study, 11% of the population in Johnson County, Missouri, is food insecure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as “the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.”
When students face food insecurity, their health and academic performance can suffer. They may have to choose between eating a healthy meal and paying for utilities, medicine, rent or other necessities. Of the households in the Harvesters Community Food Network’s 26-county service area, which includes Johnson County, 63% reported coping with food insecurity by buying the cheapest food available, regardless of its nutritional value.*
As a volunteer-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Campus Cupboard gets donations of excess or soon-to-expire food from local grocery stores like Aldi and Walmart and farm-fresh eggs from Rose Acre Farms in Knob Noster, Missouri. UCM’s Department of Agriculture provides fresh produce, including lettuce, tomatoes and apples grown at the university research farm and orchard. When food items are needed to supplement the donations, the cupboard is able to purchase them for 43 cents on the dollar. For this reason, those interested in helping are encouraged to contribute monetary gifts rather than food items.
The cupboard is open three days a week during fall and spring semesters and one day a week in the summer. Students are allowed 10 items per week, which can provide a week’s worth of meals if they choose items like fruits, vegetables, bread and peanut butter or pasta and pasta sauce.
In fall 2022 the Campus Cupboard partnered with Sodexo, UCM’s dining services provider, and a national nonprofit called Swipe Out Hunger to also provide students facing food insecurity with 10 free meals per semester in the university’s dining halls. Volunteers and donations are crucial to sustaining the Campus Cupboard. Learn more and donate at ucmo.edu/cupboard
*According to “Food Assistance and Hunger in the Heartland,” a 2021 report published by Harvesters Community Food Network and the University of Missouri’s Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security.
Ceramics Collection Enables Tactile Experience
UCM Art and Design was awarded a 2023 Opportunity Grant to start a functional ceramic art collection in the Art Annex on campus. The grant funded the purchase of 24 works of art and a glass cabinet for safe display.
The ceramic pieces selected represent a variety of building techniques, such as handcrafting or throwing on a pottery wheel, and surface techniques, such as stamping, piercing or burnishing. The professional artists who created the ceramic ware come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. More than half are featured artists in Kansas City galleries.
Approximately 40 ceramics students per semester are able to interact with the collection to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of this art form. Students can examine the pieces to understand the techniques used in their creation and experience different textures and ergonomic features.
Each piece will be displayed with a description of how it was made and a QR code that links to the artist’s website. Students can conduct market research to price their own work and develop industry knowledge that will be useful in their future careers. Anthropology students pursuing careers in museum curation or archaeology also benefit from handling the collection.
Math Mentoring Program Impacts Countless Students
Proficiency in foundational mathematics is essential for success in the secondary grades, higher education and beyond. However, math is an academic subject area in which many teachers lack skills and confidence.
Funded by a 2023 Opportunity Grant, Mathematical Connections provided the opportunity for undergraduate students majoring in Elementary Education at UCM to improve their content understanding and pedagogical practices. At the same time, the program helped UCM’s Elementary Mathematics Specialist (EMS) graduate students develop the leadership skills needed to coach their colleagues and guide program-level implementation of new concepts and techniques in their schools and districts.
Five hands-on workshops – each focused on one specific math content area – were held on the Warrensburg campus during the 2022–23 academic year. UCM College of Education faculty, alumni volunteers and EMS graduate students mentored undergraduate students, demonstrating effective teaching techniques using math manipulatives like pattern blocks purchased through the Opportunity Grant. All undergraduate participants surveyed at the end of the program indicated that their level of confidence in teaching all five content areas had increased.
UCM has the state’s longest continuous accreditation by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. In 2022, College Factual ranked UCM the No. 1 Most Focused College for Mathematics Education in Missouri.
Students Learn Cooking Skills and Food Fundamentals
One of the Opportunity Grants awarded during fiscal year 2023 funded a full set of kitchen supplies for students in the THRIVE program. Established in 2009, the program helps students with learning or developmental disabilities build the skills they need for independent living. Students are able to have the college experience and earn a certificate, often while working toward a bachelor’s degree.
Initially a two-year program, THRIVE expanded to three years in the 2021–22 academic year and added a fourth-year option in 2022–23. Courses in the first two years develop skills in areas like computer applications, communication, personal finance and career readiness. Students now also take two foods and nutrition classes, where they learn basic food preparation, healthy habits and cooking skills.
THRIVE utilizes the culinary laboratory in the Grinstead Building for hands-on learning that is transferable to students’ own apartment or living situation. Supplies purchased through the Opportunity Grant include blenders, microwaves, hand mixers, air fryers, waffle makers, pots and pans, cutlery and cooking utensils. All students in the initial foods and nutrition classes earned their food handler’s cards and demonstrated self-supporting kitchen skills.
Starting in their second year, THRIVE students do an internship every semester. Those who choose to enroll in the full four years come away from the program with six semesters of job experience.
