2023 GPA GrantSummit – Scholarship Reflection, by Brody Terry

Throughout the Kansas City Grants Professional Conference, I had a wonderful experience! On top of the great location, variety in food/refreshments, and the large group events, the atmosphere and experience as a first-time attendee was very exciting. The event center was very tidy, easy to navigate, and the staff were always around to help with any technical difficulties making the conference run very smoothly. The conference had grant professionals from all walks of life and provided a lively and bustling environment. With booths and stands lining the hallways, everything felt very inviting and approachable. I especially appreciated the optional activities such as the puppy break and the spelling bee as they added additional fun without having to miss educational sessions. As a first-time attendee, sitting in the large group ballroom and participating in a group survey where you physically move around the room based on your response was a novel experience. This experience allowed me to really visualize myself in the context of the grant profession. I could see my years of experience, preferences in software, and my general personality with all the other attendees. In addition to the first large group session, I also appreciated that we covered topical subjects like AI in the grant world. The presenter for AI turned a subject that fills a lot of grants professionals with existential anxiety, into an interactive experience where an audience member was able to participate and add their own spin on the information given to the AI bot, creating a dynamic and impromptu presentation. In addition to the group sessions and amenities, I took away the greatest value from the networking and small group education sessions.

While attending the conference, I have been able to gain value through networking and education. On my first day of the conference, I accidentally sat down with all the grant writers in my geographical chapter. I work remotely so it was a pretty big coincidence that out of all the attendees, I sat at a table with four people who live within a half-an-hour drive from me. They mentioned that I should join their state chapter and we chatted over the course of breakfast. Aside from the attendees that were more local to me, I also learned a lot about what other grant professionals do in organizations of all shapes and sizes across the country. I met with a lady who writes grants for a very rural native tribe in Alaska, another who worked for a religious non-profit in Salt Lake City, and a group of professionals around Council Bluffs and Omaha. These connections do not even summarize my conversations with the presenters. These experiences provided by the conference were important to me as I can also put some names on the faces of people I have worked with over the years, but never had communication with aside from emails. Finally, I was particularly excited that I was able to meet one of the individuals responsible for the scholarship I was provided with in person. Typically, in the past, any scholarship or award I have received has been the name of someone I’ll never meet for various reasons, but it was impactful for me to be able to shake their hand and give my thanks for the opportunity.

Regarding the training sessions, I was able to learn new skills and gain new perspectives within the world of grants. Each training session varied widely in the scope of knowledge and expertise, but each session provided me with information that I value. The variety of presenters created an atmosphere of professionalism that spanned across the entire field of grants. Whether they were presenting or in the audience, I was able to see mentor and mentees relationships, a grant lawyer, previous program officers, board trustees, federal reviewers, and more. For the sake of brevity, I will highlight my two favorite sessions. Without ranking one over the other, I really gained from a session discussing federally funded grants presented by a lawyer of grants. His presentation skills were fast and upbeat for the morning and set a great tone for the rest of the day. He also provided extreme competence in the understanding of federal grant knowledge and broke down complex topics in an easy-to-understand way, all in the course of about an hour. He even tied specific cases of grant law decisions to contemporary issues to answer audience questions. I would listen to a whole credited course from him if he provided it! My other favorite session was run by a grant professional on the east coast. She presented on the topic of how to get into the funding list of foundations that typically fund similar people or are hard to solicit but are open to solicitation. On top of her fun to listen to presenting skills, this presentation was very valuable as she provided an actionable plan for each step of the process. Additionally, she was very realistic with the cost-benefit analysis and variability for a complex situation like this. I have been to previous training courses where I am told that something is possible, but very few courses bridge the gap from theory to application. This presentation excelled at being media to not only educate, but also to guide those who attended. I was very grateful to experience a session such as this, and one of the advantages to my in-person attendance was that I had the opportunity to approach her after the session and thank her for the experience. To reiterate, there were many helpful presentations provided throughout the conference, and I hope to use the knowledge I gained to better myself and my organization in the profession of grants.

I attended a session during the second full day talking about mentor and mentee relationships. Although the session was geared toward mentors and mentees in the GPA, I learned additional strategies that will greatly improve my approach to mentoring new hires at my organization. Seeing a presentation with a real mentor and mentee, how they work together, and what they have learned over the years provided me with new insight for coming back to my organization with a strong game plan. This is just one of the many examples of how I am going to take the information I learned and turn it into a benefit in my professional day-to-day life. Throughout the sessions, I was also impacted by learning what I do not know. Along with the session education, many attendees had questions to specific grant examples they have experienced. Whether or not the answer was provided on the spot, I have been able to reflect on what was asked and ponder what I would do if I was in that situation. This strategy has allowed me to generate ideas of where to focus some of my future investigations to strengthen my overall knowledge of the grant profession. On the other hand, this conference acted as a confidence booster as well. As someone who had very little knowledge and experience related to grants prior to my current position, it was very easy to fall into the trap of thinking I am not as knowledgeable as I am. Over the past few years in my position, I have learned many skills and have gained a decent understanding of the field. Attending certain sessions allowed me to realize that I am much more capable and knowledgeable than I thought (or at least how I viewed myself in a vacuum). This realization has served as a reminder to myself that despite the seemingly endless well of knowledge one can gain in the profession of grants, I am well on my way through the journey. Who knows? In just a little while longer, I may be giving my own presentations. Whether directly from creating actionable plans and learning about where to strengthen my knowledge, or indirectly from confidence boosts and skills generalizable to day-to-day life, the Kansas City Grants Professional Conference has been a wonderful experience. I fully intend to dig deeper into the information I have learned and bring this value back into my organization as well as my personal career. 

I am very excited to see what the future holds for these conferences as I intend to use the knowledge and skills I have learned as a springboard for my future career in the world of grants. For a first-time and in-person attendee, this conference consisted of everything needed to make a great conference. I made new connections with people I never knew I would meet. I learned about topics I did not know I wanted to learn about. I had plenty of accommodation and the location of downtown Kansas City provided plenty of fun after the conference hours passed. When I shook the hand of my scholarship donor, he told me that he hopes that this conference is not my last. With these positive experiences and valuable sessions, I definitely do not plan on this conference being my last and I am grateful for my opportunity to attend this year.