GROVE CITY, Pa. – Students in the Grove City College Trends and Issues in Education class, taught by Constance Nichols, recently saw success in a grant writing project. One of the assignments for the course is for students, either individually or as a team, to work with a practicing teacher to write a grant proposal. Usually the grants are small (under $1,000) and the students create the grant concept and overall project idea.

“Basically,” said Nichols, “they serve as ‘ghost writers’ for the grant projects.”

One team, made up of students Ashley Nielsen, a senior from Orland, Calif.; Ashlyn Shivers, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio; and Katherine Stenner, a senior from Mars, Pa.; saw their project for the Mon Valley Education Consortium realized. Their grant was awarded to a first-grade teacher in the McKeesport Area School District. The grant they drafted focused on acquiring literacy and phonics materials that the teacher could integrate into a learning center in her classroom.

The Mon Valley Education Consortium is led by executive director Linda Croushore, a Grove City College graduate from the Class of ’68, and works with 25 school districts, career and technology centers, and area vocational-technical schools in Allegheny, Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Greene Counties.

“I always tell my students the real value in this assignment is what they learn about the grant writing process,” Nichols said, “but it sure is nice to hear that their creativity and hard work are resulting in some great materials for a practicing educator!”

Grove City College is listed as one of the Most Competitive colleges in the nation by Barron’s. In its category, Grove City College is also ranked by U.S. News & World Report as No. 1 Best Value and No. 3 overall in the 2006 guide to America’s Best Colleges. Grove City College has also been called a “best value” and a “hidden treasure” by guidance counselors in the Kaplan National High School Guidance Counselor Survey, and is also the No. 16 Best Bargain school according to the Princeton Review. Founded in 1876, it is located 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pa. With an enrollment of 2,300 students, it is a private Christian college teaching the liberal arts, sciences and engineering. It is an advocate of the free market economic system and accepts no federal funding. Tuition is about half of the national average for private colleges.