Daniel Vollaro
Proposal Writing
I tell my technical writing and grant writing students that proposals are "power documents" because they make tangible things happen in the world. My proposals have given birth to new classrooms, courses, a digital humanities lab, and an after-school program, among other positive outcomes.
Successful Proposals
I wrote a proposal for a company called Liberty Title to become the preferred closer for HUD in Western Georgia. The project required me to quickly learn the client's business and get up to speed on the particulars of real estate closing procedures. Because this was a proposal to a federal agency, the level of detail and documentation required was significant. There were many pieces to the submission, so I created a master checklist and worked it methodically.
After-school Program
I wrote a grant proposal for the Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey that raised $90,000 in block grants to create a new after-school program in Camden. My first grant writing experience, this project taught me the value of exhaustive research and collaboration on proposal projects. My argument for the new program hinged on showing how high school students were at risk between the hours of 3-6 p.m.
Active Learning Classroom
Working wih a colleague, I designed a new active learning classroom at Georgia Gwinnett College. Displeased with the design of many of the classrooms we were assigned to, we decided to propose a classroom that would be specially designed for experiential and project-based learning. In order to write the proposal, I was required to learn about classroom design, furniture options, and screen technology, among other new topics.
I was recently invited to help turn a space in the library at Georgia Gwinnett College into a digital humanities lab. The proposal was challenging because the budget was small and I had to be creative about how it would be funded. After the lab space was approved, I wrote two successful seed grant proposals to raise start-up funds for the lab. This project taught me the value of creative problem solving when writing a proposal.
New Writing Courses
I have shaped the professional writing curriculum at Georgia Gwinnett College by successfully proposing three new courses---Applied Journalism, Grant Writing, and an internship course. Additionally, I successfully proposed a Nexus Degree in Professional Writing, but the degree was never created because of staffing shortages. These proposals required attention to detail and an understanding of institutional politics.