by Judy

“What do you do with a B.A. in English?” —Avenue Q

Good question. Good, good question. So far I have been a photographer, a quality control assistant, and a hospital unit coordinator. Meanwhile, I have been trying to write stories and get them published, but … that’s easier said than done.

So for the last couple of months I have been tooling around on job-listing sites like Career Builder, trying to get up the nerve to apply for … something. But what? I know that I can write. Hopefully soon you will know that I can write, too. So there is always copywriting. Or technical writing. But then I discovered something I had never thought of: grant writing. I have experience working in a hospital, through which I have dealt with many non-profit organizations. Plus at the end of the day, I think I can feel pretty good about being a grant writer.

Except…

I don’t know the first thing about grant writing. I mean, give me a template and I can do it, right? But there is more to it than that: there are many grant sources out there, but when you write a grant application, you have to speak specifically and convincingly to just one source; grant writing is its own private language. That is what I need to learn.

So…

I’ve been looking for a class on grant writing. The local universities don’t seem to have one. The community college has one but only as a three-course program for another certificate. So, as is becoming more and more appropriate for the 21st century student, I turned to the internet, and online classes. I filled out a form to receive information on the Human Services classes offered by the University of Phoenix. 2009 is here—it’s high time I did something to get myself back on the career track!