Wright State senior Katherine Dillard tunes up local church’s audio

Katherine Dillard, a senior anthropology major at Wright State, helped a local church secure funding to purchase hearing assistance technology as part of a Fundraising and Grant Writing course taught by Melissa Spirek, professor of communications. (Photo by Erin Pence)

It’s standard in academia that students learn theory in class and apply what they learned once they graduate.

In a fundraising and grant-writing course last semester, Wright State University senior Katherine Dillard had the good fortune to do both at once. The result: Her classwork led to a $5,000 grant that will help people in a new, small church in her hometown.

It started when Dillard, who is expected to graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, decided to take a grant-writing course by Melissa Spirek, Ph.D., a professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts.

“Grant writing is something that could benefit me,” Dillard said, adding she is interested in working with government or with nonprofits, all of which could benefit from fundraising help.

“I have long-standing involvement with church communities,” she added.

The church connection came into play when it was time in class to develop a grant-writing project. Seeking inspiration, Dillard asked her mother for a suggestion. That led her to contact the pastor of her mother’s place of worship, Beloved United Methodist Church, a relatively new church meeting in the Union County Family YMCA gymnasium in Marysville, Ohio.

“There were members who said they couldn’t hear the service,” Dillard said, citing the gym’s poor acoustics.

The pastor wanted modern audio technology that individual churchgoers could use with their hearing aids, church-provided headphones or other listening devices to better hear the service.

Dillard then learned from the pastor that the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church had opened the window for grant applications to fund church needs. Dillard’s project was born, and she dived into research to write and submit the grant to pay for audio equipment.

The application had to be in the form of a one-minute video, which is where Wright State and Spirek in particular helped.

“I could write the script,” Dillard said, “but I needed help to make it look good.”

After conferring with Spirek, Dillard enlisted the help of the Dunbar Library’s Student Technology Assistance Center, which provides students with tools to create multimedia projects.

Dillard said Spirek’s motto in grant writing is “Who am I serving and how do I serve them.” She was serving churchgoers who couldn’t hear the service, so a portion of the audio was purposefully muted or altered in sections to give the listener a sense of what the church members experienced.

“Dr. Spirek said when writing a grant, tell the story of the person you’re trying to serve,” Dillard said.

Dillard submitted the grant in October and learned in December it was accepted for $5,000, the full amount requested.

That means, she said, “we can cover the entire purchase and installation cost and maintenance for the first year and hopefully the next couple of years.”

Dillard said she was thrilled with the success of her class project.

“It’s nice to say I’ve had success in college outside of coursework,” she said. “Dr. Spirek wants us to apply what we learn for the good of the community, and I was able to help.”

Spirek said she was not surprised when Dillard’s project was fully funded.

“She invests the time necessary to complete deep interviews and this makes her work stand out,” Spirek said. “Her research skills, care and attention to details are why this future grant writer will be in high demand as an employee.”

Dillard has two other takeaways from her experience. One is the importance of mentorship, not only from Spirek but others.

“Mentorship is super important to a student’s success,” she said.

The second is as an inspiration to her classmates, that a fellow student such as her with a full course load was able to make a positive difference in her community outside of class.

Dillard reflected on what led her to Wright State. After earning an associate degree at a regional community college, she looked into where she could pursue a bachelor’s degree. Some schools said matter-of-factly that they would not accept her, she said, but Wright State “wanted a transfer student who wanted to do their best and learn. Every person said yes, come here, we want you. That was really exciting to me.”