Final Grant & Proposal (1)

Proposal & Grant Writing – WRTG 317
Natalya Cowilich
Gabby Gelbien
Erin Gunther
Emma Herschman
Project Look Sharp

1119 Williams Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850-7290- looksharp@ithaca.edu - 607- 274-3471 2

Ithaca College
953 Danby Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
December 11, 2016
Cydney Scheibe
Project Look Sharp
Ithaca College
1119 Williams Hall
Ithaca, NY 14850-7290
Dear Cydney,
We are pleased to present our final report on the Project Look Sharp Media Literacy
Health and Nutrition Curriculum for Proposal and Grant Writing, over the semester we
have learned much about your organizations mission and purpose. You tasked us to try to
find ways of launching your new health and nutrition curriculum. With guidance from
you and Professor Anthony DiRenzo, we having developed a collection of document
which explain our understanding of Project Look Sharp, it’s strengths and needs, and our
reasoning for recommending that Project Look Sharp take in order to develop this new
health and nutrition program.
While other groups in our class often struggled to communicate with their community
partners, we did not. From the beginning of our first meeting you were extremely
passionate about Project Look Sharp and identified exactly what you needed. We took
this direction, offered suggestions, and you were extremely welcoming and responsive to
these. Overall, it has been a great pleasure to have had the opportunity to work with you
throughout the semester. We thank you for your guidance throughout this process.
This report contains both internal and external documents for Project Look Sharp in order
to sufficiently get funding for your new health and nutrition curriculum. We have
included a table of contents if you wish to read a specific document. This report can be
read in chronological order, which follows a kind of narrative of our proposal and logical
process. Alternatively, each document can be read on its own and still make sense outside
of the greater context.
Sincerely,
Natalya Cowilich Gabby Gelbien Erin Gunther Emma Herschman
ncowili1@ithaca.edu ggelbie1@ithaca.edu egunthe1@ithaca.edu ehersch1@ithaca.edu


Internal Documents

Literature Review_____________________________________________________________________5-15
SWOT Analysis________________________________________________________________________16-19
Feasibility Report_____________________________________________________________________20-25
Project Funding Search_______________________________________________________________26-30
Funding Plan___________________________________________________________________________31-32
Funding Goals/Objectives____________________________________________________________33-34

External Documents

Letter of Inquiry______________________________________________________________________36-37
Cover Letter to Respondent______________________________________________________________38
Executive Summary_______________________________________________________________________39
Organizational Profile________________________________________________________________40-46
Key Personnel_____________________________________________________________________________47
Problem Statement___________________________________________________________________48-50
Impact Statement_____________________________________________________________________51-54
Goals, Outcomes, Measures__________________________________________________________55-58
Timeline_______________________________________________________________________________59-61
Conclusion_________________________________________________________________________________62
Budget Summary______________________________________________________________________63-67
Future Funding____________________________________________________________________________68
Budget Narrative__________________________________________________________________________69

Addendum Material
Press Release______________________________________________________________________________71
Solicitation Letter_____________________________________________________________________ 72-73
Brochure___________________________________________________________________________________74
Table of Contents


Internal Documents


Media Literacy as a Wellness Tool: Teaching Critical Media Analysis in Healthcare
Curriculum
What is Media Literacy?
According to the National Association for Media Literacy Education, media
literacy is:
“. . . The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of
communication. In its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the foundation of
traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. Media literacy
empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators and active
citizens.1
”
Project Look Sharp (PLS) , a nonprofit media literacy organization founded in
1996 at Ithaca College, honors this definition of media literacy. Project Look Sharp
teaches students from kindergarteners to college-aged young adults critical thinking skills
in conjunction with their common core curriculum. PLS Founder and Executive Director,
Cyndy Scheibe, calls the ability to analyze media messages “constructivist media
decoding.” Students learn to break down media messages and look at the credibility of
the message. Who is the target audience? Is there authorial bias? What are the sources
used in the creation of their message?

1 National Association for Media Literacy Education, https://namle.net/publications/media-literacy-
definitions/ (accessed October 5, 2016).
Literature Review

Constructivist media decoding also teaches students to contextualize the media
message’s relative production date and viewing audience within the appropriate social
milieu. What year was this message released? What are the cultural norms and social
movements of the people who observe the media? Students consider the time-and-place,
who-what-where-when-why tenets of the examined communiqué, and analyze how these
factors play a role in communicating a message.
Possible media messages for analysis include: political cartoons, election
magazine covers, paintings (historical and contemporary), television commercials,
musical lyrics (Project Look Sharp’s curriculum kit, Media Construction of Social
Justice, examines the lyrics of Rapper Nas in his track, “Last Words”), and posters.
Empowering Our Nation’s Most Vulnerable Consumers
As the National Association for Media Literacy Education explains, media
literacy is an “empowering skill.” Similarly, Project Look Sharp strives to empower
today’s youth by critically engaging students with the contemporary media-message
filled world. Its main objectives are to empower students to be better at communicating,
increase their engagement with the community, and nurture analytical skills. A series of
media literacy modules that Project Look Sharp has created for all ages is the catalyst of
melioration. Project Look Sharp is an organization that takes on the challenge of teaching
our nation’s youth to find their focal point in the sea of surrounding popular culture and
anchor themselves with the ability to interpret a map of information coming at them from
every direction, at all times of the day.
End Product: A Changed Human Being

Project Look Sharp tackles this challenge by providing free lesson kits to school
districts, both locally, nationally, and internationally. As a non-profit organization built
on the pillars of empowering students to learn and succeed, Project Look Sharp has
maintained its third sector status in the womb of Ithaca College and has relied on
donations, interns, students, volunteers, and grants to continue identifying educational
needs and implementing information into relevant lesson plans. Project Look Sharp
works at identifying common themes in media literacy and exposing these themes to
students. Look Sharp pledges to promote and support media literacy education at local
community, cross-county, state-to-state and nation-to-nation levels, and to accommodate
to the diverse needs of different communities and populations.
The organization also pledges to prepare teachers with training and guidance
before and during the implementation of a media literacy lesson plan. Acknowledging
that educators work first-hand with the population Look Sharp works to reach, Look
Sharp designs curriculum with the input of said educators and works with School District
professionals to revitalize class materials to include media literacy in classroom practice.
Core content (standards of math, English, history, and science) are infused with media
literacy with the implementation of Look Sharp’s free modules.
“The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages
develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression that they need to be critical thinkers,
effective communicators and active citizens in today’s world.2
”
Project look Sharp gives students around the world the opportunity to deconstruct
media messages. Thanks to the work of this organization, teachers and education

2 National Association for Media Literacy Education, https://namle.net/publications/core-principles/
(accessed October 5, 2016).

providers have a better understanding of how to implement media and discussion
surrounding media into the classroom. For example, Project Look Sharp implemented a
lesson kit on campaign messages from our nation’s presidential races, specifically the
most recent 2016 presidential race.
These lesson kits are designed to teach objectives from the Common Core ELA
Standards for secondary social studies and the new NCSS C3 Framework for the Social
Studies, making the lesson kits universally applicable across the United States. The new
NCSS C3 Framework for the Social Studies is “College, Career, and Civic Life” (C3
Framework) for state standards of social studies, and, as most people know, The
Common Core is a set of grade-level requirements and standards for each subject in
school, which forty-two states and the District of Columbia have implemented3
. Like all
of Project Look Sharp’s Lesson kits, this kit can be implemented symbiotically with
standard subject material.
In an article titled “Constructivist Media Decoding in the Social Studies:
Leveraging the New Standards for Educational Change,” Chris Sperry, Director of
Curriculum and Staff Development for Project Look Sharp, determines how the
pedagogy of traditional classroom education is shifting into an inviting new paradigm
that welcomes media literacy initiatives with open arms.
“The Common Core ELA standards for secondary social studies
and the new C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards present
unprecedented opportunities for promoting the integration of media
analysis through the social studies. Both documents aim to shift teaching
practice from lecture-based methodologies of instruction that aim to fill
students up with knowledge to more inquiry-based and constructivist

3
Common Core State Standards Initiative, http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/frequently-
asked-questions/ (accessed October 5, 2016).

approaches that emphasize the teaching of critical thinking. Both
documents encourage close reading of diverse media documents, careful
evaluation of sources, evidence-based analysis, and well-reasoned
thinking —core skills to media analysis. The introduction to Common
Core ELA makes clear that literacy must be expanded to include “reading”
and “writing” using the diverse media forms of the 21st century (although
this is not always reflected in the language of the specific standards).
Social studies has traditionally included the analysis of non-print media
such as political cartoons and “propaganda.” The explosion of new media
forms gives our field of media literacy the opportunity [to] build on this
foundation.”4
Project Look Sharp continues to operate in a time of need as curriculum
homogenizes across the states and media messages increase in frequency of exposure and
accessibility. More than twelve billion dollars—that’s how much advertisers flesh out to
target and communicate with child and youth consumers per year, making for over
400,00 viewed commercials for this underage population alone. 5
According to Scheibe,
“From a health standpoint, children’s exposure to television advertising for food and
beverages is especially problematic.” Concerned about students’ exposure to media
regarding food choices and nutrition, Project Look Sharp’s latest initiative involves
taking media literacy to health education, with projected future modules surrounding
critical thinking and nutrition.
Food For Thought
After twenty-two years of creating lesson plans and advocating for media literacy
as part of the regular curriculum in public education, Project Look Sharp is still working
towards a future where students will utilize critical thinking skills in regards to their

4 Constructivist Media Decoding in the Social Studies: Leveraging the New Standards for Educational
Change, http://www.projectlooksharp.org/Articles/LeveragingNewStandards.pdf (accessed October 19,
2016)
5
Report of the Task Force on Advertising and Children,
http://adage.com/images/random/childrenads022404.pdf (accessed October 5, 2016)

interpretation of media in order to better their own lives, now with a focus on healthcare
and self-care. Their current objective is “to develop [health] lessons on these topics for all
6 grade levels, but also design [curriculum kits] so that some concepts are introduced
earlier and then expanded in later lessons (so they could be used at other grade levels in
other districts and/or in cases where students are not likely to have had the lessons
specifically designed for earlier grades,” according to Scheibe’s explanation of future
aspirations. The new lesson kits are to be launched under the theme of “Critical Thinking
and Health: Healthy Living,” and this new line of curriculum will include eight strands of
concentrated material: Advertising, Nutrition, Fitness and Media Use, Drugs, Alcohol,
and Tobacco, Safety, Self-Respect and Body Image, Attitudes and Stereotyping, and
Violence, Put-Downs and Conflict Resolution.
Why Healthcare as the Next Topic in Media Literacy Education?
As with any cirruculum development, the first thing educators ask themselves is,
“what do our students need to know?” The question then for media literacy education is:
which media messages do we need to focus our critical thinking skills towards in order to
maximize happy, healthy, conscious decision-making people? Consider the youth
population. What appeals to most youngsters? Your second graders could care less about
auto insurance, makeup removal, legal services, and cellular data plans. Such topics are
above their heads, unrelated to their daily lives. Food, snacks, and treats, however, affect
them every day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why media literacy skills as they pertain to
nutrition and food advertising? They are of the highest marketed commodities and some
of the most obscure. Cyndy states,
“From a health standpoint, children’s exposure to television advertising for food
and beverages is especially problematic. Concerns center on the types of foods that are

shown (and not shown) in advertisements aimed at children, misleading nutritional
messages in food advertising aimed at children, and deceptive and distracting techniques
used in food advertising for children that mask the true purpose of the message (i.e., to
get children to like, request, and buy the food being marketed to them) (Powell, Szczpka,
Chaloupka & Braunschweig, 2007; FTC, 2008). The harmful effects of food advertising
on children’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, especially related to the growing obesity
epidemic among U.S. children, has been traced - at least in part - to the marketing of
high fat and high sugar products directly to them (Livingstone & Helsper, 2006;
McGinnis, Gootman & Kraak, 2006).”6
Most as-seen-on-TV foods are prepackaged, mass-produced, and full of
preservatives—most advertisements aren’t trying to sell children carrots and broccoli. For
one, it’s difficult to mass produce highly compostable, short shelf-life fruits and
vegetables. It’s also nearly impossible to have an entrepreneurial, vegetable-selling spirit.
There are no specially shaped vampire marshmallows to advertise when selling a bag of
carrots. There is not a lot of opportunity to diversify in splicing the vegetable market. A
carrot looks like a carrot, although it may be a genetically modified carrot . . . but the
genetics of carrots does not sell to second graders who see a magical leprechaun running
around with a bowl of his favorite cereal. Since food advertising is such a large
percentage of media volume, and, as Cyndy mentions above, there is an obesity epidemic
and most advertised foods are high in sugars and fats, it would only make sense to have
nutritional media literacy modules.
The Ancient Food Pyramid Casts its Shadow
Project Look Sharp is also in the middle of a large shift in focus with the
launching of health-conscious media literacy modules. Instead of analyzing traditional
textbook propaganda in regards to common core history lessons and classic school

6
Using Media Literacy to Teach Young Children about Advertising, Nutrition, and Persuasive Intent,
http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/3/5/4/p233540_index.html (accessed
October 19, 2016)

subjects, media literacy and health education spearhead the birth of a new attention. Most
lesson plans in regards to nutrition—if they exist, they aren’t required—touch upon a
balance of fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, and fats. But when a box of pop tarts state
that they have twelve key vitamins and minerals and are made with real fruit and whole
grains, does this highly advertised (and also highly fat-infused, sugar soaked) commodity
really substitute as portions on our balanced food plate? No longer supplementing
traditional lesson plans, nutrition modules raise key questions about healthcare and
nutrition as almost a separate subject in school. Most school districts touch food and diet
in health education—but health education is not regulated, moderated, or mandated
through common core standards, and varies greatly from state to state.
There is a difference therefore, between teaching children about having a
balanced diet and teaching children to dissect media messages that seemingly guarantee
the product in the commercial is some part of that balance. By introducing nutritional
media literacy, Project Look Sharp is taking the initiative to tackle what has only grown
to be important over the last decade—not what is nutritious and how to have a healthy
diet, but how to decipher faulty advertising and the dubious marketing sway of food
products that claim to be healthy.
Onward and Upward: Developing New Curriculum and Going From Here
In order to move forward with health care curriculum, Project Look Sharp must
find grants and donations that add up to a lump sum of $40,000. Included in this proposed
budget must be funds to take health lessons and turn them into the curriculum kits that
Project Look Sharp provides to school districts across the country for free. Their real
dream is a larger health curriculum in regards to media literacy and moving forward from

ideas to actual lesson plans available online and on usb drives to distribute to educators.
Project Look Sharp needs budgeted funding in order to format healthcare critical thinking
skills into a cohesive lesson plan; to create a template and a layout for each lesson plan;
to pay for editing the curriculum material; to pilot a newly created lesson plan, in order to
test how it works; to digitalize the lesson plan in an easily accessible format that would
be free and useful for different servers; to pay Sirus, their tech company, for their labor
and digital expertise; to key in the lesson plans and organize them into a database; to
make the lesson plans downloadable; to pay for flash drives, pay to have them uploaded
with lessons kits, and then dispense them to school districts who are interested in
applying the lesson kits to their curriculum.
Project Look Sharp also forecasts needing budgeted donations for PR, to buy
email list serves to expand their reach of this new curriculum, and to advocate for the
importance of health care media literacy. There will also be funding needed to evaluate
the new modules and conclusively decide how the new plans are working. Lesson plans
and curriculum kits sometimes build off from each other, so it is important to make sure a
lesson plan is working and complete before moving on to building the next.
Project Look Sharp, according to Scheibe, imagines eventually having lesson kits
divided by age group into early elementary lesson kits, middle school-aged lesson kits,
and upper ed lesson kits. After all, a four-year-old’s understanding of nutrition, television
commercials, and food advertising is much less developed then that of a fifteen-year-old;
Project Look Sharp acknowledges this and accommodates lesson plans to each age group
served. In the past, Project Look Sharp has been very excited about implementing media
literacy lessons into public health discourse, but until now has never had any funding to

move from drafts to lesson plans. Now they are actively engaged in writing grants and
asking for donations to jump start new curriculum and develop lesson plans. During their
development of this massive project, Project Look Sharp vows to uphold certain
curriculum standards, such as keeping with a curriculum driven approach and asking,
What do health educators want?
Conclusions, Goodbyes, and Reasons Why We’re Unique
Unlike other university-based learning initiatives, Project Look Sharp is unique in
that it started on the ground floor of Williams Hall on the Ithaca College campus, but has
been pushing to move out from under the administrative restrictions of being part of the
college system and towards its own, sustainable nonprofit organization. This will not be
possible without pursuing additional funding and maintaining a national and international
support system. Project look Sharp is also unique in that it gives out its education
materials for free. Other media literacy organizations price their lesson plans, curriculum,
education materials, and access to online information. Project Look Sharp depends on
community support and generosity in order to make sure that their education materials
remain free. Possible future funders could be organizations and associations interested in
nutrition, healthcare, and food choices for children. Consumers of Project Look Sharp are
both national and international. Examples of local Ithacan consumers include South Hill
Elementary School and Bell Sherman Elementary School. Project Look Sharp has relied
on grants from Ithaca College, The Park Foundation, Robert Schumann, and other
educational and media literacy geared associations.
The future of Project Look Sharp will depend largely on securing funding for
developing new curriculum. Once funding is secured, Project Look Sharp will continue to

educate, advocate for, and empower young students all over the world. Project Look
Sharp will continue to encourage students to think critically about media messages, and
with any luck, will one day, in the hopefully not-to-distant future, leave Ithaca College to
be an independent non-profit organization. May critical thinking skills and media literacy
continue to flourish in contention with billboards, cell phone screens, and Facebook ads
around the globe

SWOT Analysis
INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

Project Look Sharp has established itself as regional leader in the topic of media literacy.
Providing curriculum materials, strategies, and advice for media literacy instruction, the
organization is run by an expert team of individuals who are passionate about their work,
and make it their mission to educate children about this important topic. While Project
Look Sharp has found local success and a positive response to their efforts, there are
specific problems, both internal and external that needs to be addressed. In this analysis,
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Project Look Sharp will be
broken down.
What are the Strengths?
Subject Matter: Media literacy is truly a unique topic. This is a subject that is not
incorporated in most standard school curriculums, and as a result, is not something that
children are taught. This is astonishing, considering just how constant of a role media
plays in the daily lives of both children and parents alike. Wherever we turn, we are faced
with screens, whether it be billboards, television, ipads, or cell phones. Technology and
the messages that coincide with it are not going away, and Project Look Sharp recognizes
this. Since Project Look Sharp is dealing with such a unique topic, they will stand out as
an organization, and have the potential to be a leader in the field.
Free Service Costs: Each lesson plan that is available on the Project Look Sharp website
is free of cost, and available to download for anyone who is interested. Cyndy Scheibe,
along with her team, who are experts in the field, have developed ready-made kits that
teachers can simply be downloaded, and used to teach a whole lesson solely from the
materials that are provided.
To: Cyndy Schiebe
From: Gabby Gelbien & Emma Herschman
Subject: SWOT Analysis for Project Look Sharp
Date: 10/3/16

Alternative Learning: While many lesson plans consist of a teacher standing in the front
of the classroom, explaining what they think and everyone listening in, these lesson plans
are truly interactive. Students are encouraged to decode media messages on their own,
with the help of analytical questions that are included in the lesson kit. Many have found
that this type of learning leads to a deeper understanding since the children have to come
to conclusions on their own. As children come to these conclusions, they are learning
practical skills that they can use in their daily life. So often, core curriculums force
teachers to teach children about subject matters that could have very little significance to
their own life, but this is a topic that is every bit relevant and useful.
Outreach: Project Look Sharp should be very proud of the amount of reach that they have
made globally. Not only do many school districts in the central NY area use their
curriculums, but they have even been able to reach schools in the Middle East.
Encouraging Healthy Choices: Obesity is a huge problem in the United States, and their
new nutritional curriculum has the potential to instill healthy eating habits in children
early on. By letting children know that they have the ability to make healthy choices on
their own, there is empowerment involved, which is again, a strength.
What are the Weaknesses?
Lack of Awareness: Media literacy may not be something that many people are aware
about. When you hear the phrase, “media literacy” a lot of questions come to mind, and it
is possible that not everyone sees the importance of teaching children about it because of
a lack of awareness.
Implementation: Most teachers are required to have a certain amount of lesson plans that
they are required to fit in by the end of the year, therefore it might not be feasible to
squeeze in another one, especially if the topic steers off subject.
Training: The training needed for teachers to teach these lesson plans is unclear. While it
appears that anyone can download the lesson kits from the Project Look Sharp website,
the lesson may not go smoothly if the teacher is not trained on how to teach them
correctly. While there are decoding workshops for teachers that take them through how to
lead such a lesson, they are not required, and they cost money.
Controversy: These lesson plans have the potential to be controversial to conservative
parents. There are some parents that allow their children very limited access to television
and other forms of media and might believe that these lesson kits could be encouraging
children to use technology even more. They also might prefer their children to stick with
a traditional way of learning, not seeing the positives that alternative learning has to offer.
What are the Opportunities?
Community Outreach: Due to the areal location of Project Look Sharp being in the
surroundings of two big college campuses, this nonprofit has the potential to do a lot of
community outreach. This will not only help them to drift from their association with
Ithaca College, but also expand their overall reach as an organization, therefore gaining a
much bigger and diverse educational population.

Gain Donors: Establishing a strong proposal and grant plan would give Project Look
Sharp the opportunity to gain more donors for their organization. Gaining more money
would allow them to finalize the lesson plans that they have started, and open up many
other doors for them.
Educate more Children: Project Look Sharp has the opportunity to extend their reach
even further. With more money, means stronger lesson plans, and more teachers willing
to download them from the Project Look Sharp website. Overall, healthcare and
nutritional value in the realm of education has become extremely significant within the
past few years. This new approach to healthcare in media literacy is an extremely diverse
and innovative way to teach the younger generations about nutritional value, and it is
likely to be noticed.
What are the Threats?
Traditional Schooling: While media literacy is a new and advanced way to educate
students, there can be a negative connotation that comes along with alternative learning
styles. Traditional schooling is what has been working in the education system for the
past few years so some might ask, “Why change what already works”? When considering
the audience that Project Look Sharp is talking to--teachers, parents, and guardians--will
they be okay with moving away from the traditional learning approach? Will teachers be
okay with learning an entirely new lesson plan?
Parents and School Administrations: Some parents might not see the importance in their
children learning about nutrition and their daily consumptions, believing that it is their
job as parents to educate them about this. They might argue that teachers should stick
with the lesson plans that are already established by core curriculums. Also, school
administrators are hard to gain access and control through. They have a lot of power and
say in what they choose to incorporate into the curriculum each year.
Analysis
While it is apparent that Project Look Sharp is dealing with an important and unique
topic and this is something that they can use to their advantage, there is a lack of
awareness of what exactly media literacy is, and a struggle to extend the organization’s
mission beyond the Ithaca College umbrella. This struggle lies in a lack of marketing and
brand awareness in the local area. For these kits to be a success, there first needs to be a
need for them. This begins with educating school administrators and teachers about the
importance of teaching media literacy to children. While we have a small, but strong staff
who are dedicated to carrying out Project Look Sharp’s mission, they are in assistance
from external sources. The following are some recommendations we have proposed to
carry out in order to achieve our goals.
Recommendations
Based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that Project Look Sharp
faces, we recommend that Project Look Sharp establish a rigorous marketing campaign.
This would include brand strategies and tactics that will help increase awareness in the
community and beyond about what exactly media literacy is, and why it is needed in
school systems. Social media strategies across various platforms would also be an

opportunities to increase brand awareness and extend their reach to a larger demographic.
We would also recommend that Project Look Sharp establish partnerships with other
non-profits in the community which would help leverage their visibility.
Thank you in advance for reading this. Please do feel free to contact us with any further
comments/remarks.
Sincerely,
ncowili1@ithaca.edu ggelbie1@ithaca.edu egunthe1@ithaca.edu ehersch1@ithaca.edu

Feasibility Report
FEASIBILITY STUDY OF WEBSITES

Introduction:

This report will assess three different organizations who we believe are strong leaders in
the realm of child health and education and set them as benchmarks. Each organization
has many strengths that Project Look Sharp can look to as an example for their own
organization. These organizations are as followed:

● Kid’s Health
KidsHealth is more than just the facts about health. As part of The Nemours
Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, KidsHealth also provides
families with perspective, advice, and comfort about a wide range of physical,
emotional, and behavioral issues that affect children and teens. To do this, our
editorial staff communicates complex medical information in language that
readers can understand and use. And all KidsHealth articles, animations, games,
and other content go through a rigorous medical review by pediatricians and other
medical experts.

● Center on Media and Child Health
The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) at Boston Children’s Hospital
(BCH) is an academic research center whose mission is to educate and empower
children and those who care for them to create and consume media in ways that
optimize children’s health and development. Founded in 2003 by pediatrician,
father, and former Hollywood filmmaker Michael Rich, CMCH focuses on media
as a powerful environmental health influence, like the air we breathe and the
water we drink. We seek to understand the positive and negative health impacts
media can have and find ways of making media the most positive possible
influence in children’s lives.

● Media Education Lab
To: Cyndy Scheibe
From: Emma Herschman
Subject: Project Look Sharp Feasibility Study
Date: October 5, 2016
CC: Dr. Anthony DiRenzo

We develop multimedia educational resources and curriculum materials for
educators, parents and students. We are interested in the cognitive, social and
behavioral impact of media literacy education as it develops in the family and in
formal and informal educational settings. We address policy issues that affect the
quality of teaching and learning about media and popular culture.

Background:

Project Look Sharp has established itself as a strong contender for being a leader of
media literacy. Currently Project Look Sharp has the following curriculum kits and
lesson plans for current educators, U.S. History, Global Studies, Science and
Environment, Psychology and Aging Studies, General Media Literacy, and Health. They
have found success locally, with many teachers downloading their kits and implementing
them into their current curriculum, but they have yet to touch on the subject of children’s
health and nutrition. With their new health and nutrition sector they plan to expand their
ideologies of healthcare in the education realm. Though they have a set outlined
curriculum of what they want to educate students on, they are still missing few key
concepts needed in order to successfully pursue this new resource. Project Look Sharp is
unsure of who exactly they would be targeting with this new curriculum, and what is the
best means to obtain donors. In each of the following organizations, we will be assessing
their unique strengths which have helped them to be the strong non-profits that they are.

Benchmarks:

In evaluations of the three websites, it appears that they all feature admirable qualities
that are worth mentioning when considering the tactics, we will use to illuminate Project
Look Sharp’s newest health and nutrition plan.

Kids Health (http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/kidshealth20.html?WT.ac=streamers)

Target Audience identified immediately. As soon as you are on the Kids
Health website you are easily able to navigate yourself around knowing
exactly what direction you are going in. At the top right corner they
identify their three main target audiences as followed: For Parents, For
Kids, For Teens. Right away their target market is identified and
depending on which audience is surfing through the webpage they are able
to get further detailed information on the segment in which they are
looking into. After clicking on the three different segments, the webpage
automatically identifies with their targeted market. For example, on the
“For Parents” page the aesthetic is geared directly towards the parents,
where it shows more serious content and questions/concerns they may
have regarding their child's health along with their own. It suggests
various ways to reach out and talk to their kids about specific medical

concerns and gives an incredibly direct and hands on approach. Whereas if
you were to click on the “For Kids” section the layout automatically
appeals to kids. The visuals shown are in clipart format and there is
minimal text/information. Kids are easily able to navigate this website just
by simply looking and clicking on the visuals displayed on the front of the
page.

- Layout is a major identification to the branding strategies behind an
organization. This is something that shows your viewers what kind of
organizational skills your company holds. Project Look Sharp lacks an
overall visually appealing layout. When automatically accessing their
webpage one of the first things people feel is overwhelmed. There is way
too much going on with little to no direction as to where the user should
go. When representing a media literacy brand it is so vital to show a clear
range of navigation that will make it easy for consumers to know exactly
where to go to find the information that they need. Right away on Kids
Health you are able to easily find you way around the website. They do
not overload any information and the homepage has little text with mainly
headlines.

Center on Media and Child Health

- Reliability in the field of healthcare and media is incredibly important in
today's society. People want to know the truth about healthcare and it is
important to stay up to date with healthcare trends because every day there are
new reports about something striking in this field. People genuinely care about
their health and hold high expectations when looking for the resources and
guidance that they need, and the Center on Media and Child Health
understands this. Center on Media and Health automatically leads you with a
reliable source when you open their page: Mediatrican. The Mediatrican is the
“face” of the center on media and child health and is able to support any facts
stated on the webpage. He combines his knowledge with both
healthcare/medicine as well as media influence. He provides the page with
case studies that he has done involving his own research/practice. The fact
that they have an expert in the field of both healthcare and media gives them a
large advantage in this field. Because the Mediatrician is a certified doctor,
that parents and educators (the main focus points) are more likely to value his
opinion over a company like Project Look Sharp who’s primarily focus in the
past has not been on media literacy in health care. This is a new segment for
them, so they need to get reliable sources and statistics showing their audience
that they know what they are doing/talking about. Their target market is

already a tough crowd to please, so they need some type of marking that
identifies practical experience in this field.

- Impact is really important when you’re presenting an insightful
and genuine topic.The Center on Media and Child Health creates major
impact through the stories they share. People like stories because it is a
way to express emotion and relate to one another. This creates a personal
connection, and allows the reader to show further respect for the
organization. Because Center on Media and Child Health has numerous
stories and real life Q&A’s presented they are able to relate to a lot of their
viewers. They invite their readers/clients to share personal stories and
express their emotion upon a specific health related issue whether it be
mental or physical illness related in the light of media literacy. An
example of a post they presented was, “Media Moment: My
#HalfTheStory”. A student shared her mental illness of coping with
depression and social media misconception. This brought in the idea that
people may look happy when posing for a picture on Instagram when in
reality they are struggling the fake a smile everyday because of a mental
illness they may be dealing with. This is a serious issue that was brought
to light in a positive way to create more awareness. If Project Look Sharp
were to bring in more personable stories with their target market they
would probably create a much larger impact on their audience and create
more awareness in the realm of healthcare. Though they do not primarily
target the same health issues as Center on Media and Child Health, they
could still find a way to incorporate what they want in a Q&A session or a
personable article that expresses and evokes emotion. It’s important for
the viewers to get that connection with an organization much like Project
Look Sharp.

Media Education Lab

Interactivity is critical when getting your target market to pay attention to
your knowledge and get them further invested in what you have to say. In
terms of Project Look Sharp being primarily a media literacy organization,
this is something that they should most definitely incorporate into their
organization. Media Education Lab has an entire section dedicated to
interactive games involving their consumers. Most notably there is a game
called, “My Pop Studio” where the user must first create a pop star and
reflect on the values in music. After this they are led into editing a TV
show and seeing how juxtaposition reshapes meaning. This is then led to
the last step in the game called “Try” where players have to multitask and
see how their memory and/or attention is affected. This is a really

effective way to interact with the consumers who go onto their website
because essentially they are just “playing a game” but in the end are still
learning. Another thing beneficial about this is that it is a free online
game. They specifically have different online games set up for their
different target market segments. Some of these games include lesson
plans and activities in order to help enhance the digital learning experience
for the user. This would especially benefit an organization like Project
Look Sharp due to their large demographic.

Affiliation for an organization like Project Look Sharp is something to
deeply consider because they are so closely associated with Ithaca College
as a whole. While this isn't necessarily a negative connotation, the
organization is looking to expand so maybe taking a few steps back from
Ithaca College would not be a terrible idea. Media Education Lab is an
affiliate of the University of Rhode Island, however when looking at their
website your attention is not brought directly to their affiliation with the
school. When looking further up there is a small title that brings attention
to the University, and above that are four icons where if you click on them
will lead you to four different segments affiliated with the University of
Rhode Island. However, a majority of the web page is taken up with literal
facts and information in regards to news and events along with blogs,
healthcare articles, and educational articles. This is an ideal model of what
the Project Look Sharp website should look like if they plan to slightly
disaffiliate with Ithaca College and focus on the branding of Project Look
Sharp as an individualized organization. Having a subtle remark back to
Ithaca College is all they need to show their involvement with the Ithaca
College campus community.

Findings:

Media literacy is a vital part of today’s society. Without a doubt, sooner or
later our entire world will be digital, including educational systems and
programming. Nutrition is a huge asset in which most educational systems
are currently failing to bring attention to. In order to do this, we need to
expand Project Look Sharp's overall target market. We need to create
more awareness about why media literacy should be incorporated into
current school curriculums so that teachers and school administrators find
a stronger need for an organization like Project Look Sharp. This begins
with creating a strong mission statement that will resonate with their target
audience and creating a strong and easy to navigate web space for
consumers who are looking to educate themselves about this topic. A lot
of these websites’ strengths lies in the fact that they are able to resonate
with consumers on a deeper level whether it be through telling real life
health stories or through interactive games. Project Look Sharp should
look for a way to connect with its target audience in a way that is unique

to their specialties and will keep consumers intrigued and want to come
back to their website for more resources.

Project Funding Search
PROJECT FUNDING SEARCH
TO: CYDNEY SCHIEBE
FROM: EMMA HERSCHMAN
SUBJECT: PROJECT FUNDING SEARCH
DATE: NOVEMEBER 14, 2016
CC: ANTHONY DIRENZO
This donor search was done primarily by geographic and subject index. In terms of
geography, Project Look Sharp seeks to expand outwards, but still wants to target local
Ithaca educators. Due to it’s location Project Look Sharp should collaborate by utilizing
local and regional school districts.
This strategy also provides a new positive approach at getting more donations. It is likely
that individuals will feel much more inclined to give to their local district, therefore
supporting Project Look Sharp and their intents to change healthcare in education
systems. Knowing that the donations are going towards the growth of their children's
future they are more likely to feel obligated to give much more generously.
While researching donors, there appeared to be a fee for most of the online donors,
though not all have a fee Project Look Sharp could definitely find a way to fit this into
the budget. Though it was not an easy process to find the appropriate donors for Project
Look Sharp, the following are inclined to support both realms of the organization
regarding both healthcare and education, whether money prompted or food donors.
Community Foundation of Tompkins County
The Community Foundation of Tompkins allows for different communal organizations to
create funding pages and donation pages. The location of Tompkins county is perfect for
the Project Look Sharp community. This allows for them to get involved within their
community yet also reach out if necessary.
Community Foundation
of Tompkins County
200 E. Buffalo Street, Suite 202
Ithaca, NY 14850
info@cftompkins.org

Income: $50,000
EIN: 16-1587553
Friendship Donations Network
FDN focuses on rescuing foods that have limited shelf life and are not typically available
in traditional food bank model. These nutritious foods, such as fresh fruits, vegetables,
and breads are donated by local food outlets, including stores, restaurants, farms and
colleges. Every year, FDN rescues about 500,000 lbs. of fresh food. As part of their food
rescue program, FDN serves as a one-call center for individuals and business seven days
a week. This could be a great potential donor/sponsor for Project Look Sharp to look into
because although, they do not have a lot of money to spare, the amount of charitable
healthy goods they have to donate could be used to help implement their new healthcare
kick off. By potentially partnering with this organization, it would only benefit both
parties especially when considering the community relations, being located in Ithaca, NY.
Friendship Donations Network
1013 West Martin Luther King, Jr. / State Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
info@friendshipdonations.org
FDN facility is located in the Just Be Cause Not-for-Profit Development Center in Ithaca,
New York
Income: $15,000
FDN is a 501(c)3 EIN: 32-0318047
Ithaca Health Alliance
Along with the visually appealing and easily accessible website, the Ithaca Health
Alliance has, a health fund page and educational programs enlisted directly on their
webpage. On the left side of the page you can click to donate right away. Their goal is to
create a sustainable model of community- oriented, community- driven solutions to the
ongoing healthcare crisis in today’s society. Though they do not have money to donate to
Project Look Sharp, being that they are located locally in Ithaca, this would be a great
source for Project Look Sharp to work with in terms of potentially getting them to donate
half of proceeds to their new healthcare proposal.
PO Box 362
Ithaca, NY 14851
(607) 330-1253
Fax: (607) 330-1194
OFFICE@ITHACAHEALTH.ORG

Income: $21,350
EIN: 90-0192978
James B Russell Foundation Inc.
Great, transparent web presence. Information is easy to and, unlike most of the
organizations and trusts in this list. It is larger than the average Private Independent
foundation. In the United States the median income in $148,847. In 2013 almost all of
James B. Russell Foundation Inc.’s revenue came from donor contributions. There is an
active donor involved in sustaining the endowment with infusions of new capital which is
a positive reinforcement. This is atypical as the average foundation this size was funded
primarily by investments made in 2013. There is a low grant payout ratio, which is
apprehensive.
Private, Independent Foundation 212 Dubois Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850-9548
Income: $2,270,000 Assets: $2,270,000
NTEE: Private Independent Foundation (T22) EIN: 462416620
The Hermione Charitable Trust
Though our research shows that this non-profit does not give nearly as much in relation
to other organizations income in the Ithaca community, we think it could be a good fit for
Project Look Sharp. Being that Project Look Sharp is a financially stable non-profit
organization, they are just looking for potential donors that would be interested in their
organization. They believe that every little bit of support helps, which is why Hermione
Charitable Trust is the perfect fit.
Independent Trust
213 Bryant Ave
Ithaca, NY 14850
In Care of R: James Miller
NTEE Code: T20 Private Grant making Foundation
NTEE Common Code: Philanthropy, Voluntarism, Grant making Foundation Ruling
Date/Established: 2012
Assets: $25,000 to $99,999
Form 990 Revenue Amount: $131,622
Total in Gifts/Grants in 2013: $30,460
EIN: 367602986

The Morf Foundation, Inc.
Younger than most non-profits in New York state, the organization has larger than
average assets. The organization’s last reported to the IRS more income than average
compared to other nonprofits in New York. Contributions are tax deductible, they also
deal a lot with educational systems which is why it would be a potential great donor for
Project Look Sharp.
Private Independent Foundation Morf Foundation Incorporated 519 Highland Road
Ithaca, NY 14850 Incorporated/Established: 2002 2013 income: $84,213
Total Assets: $380,548
NTEE Category: T Philanthropy, Volunteerism, and Grant making (T22)
EIN: 01-0575002
Norathco Foundation
In 2013, the Norathco Foundation gave $47,500 for 34 grants, the highest grant being
$5,000. The Norathco foundation includes larger assets than most non-profits in the area.
It is a Fraternal Association. Research suggests apparent that these fraternal associated
organizations usually focus of scholarships within the organization itself. Though this is a
limitation, Norathco is still a prospect because of their reliability and experience with
non-profit organizations much like Project Look Sharp.
Privately held company
200 Oak Hill Rd.
Ithaca, NY United States 14850
Privately held company/ privately independent foundation Assets: $1,543,342
Total giving: $47,500
Incorporated/Established: 2010
In Care of/Contact: Frederick D. Cowett
EIN: 161731980
NTEE Category: T Philanthropy, Volunteerism, and Grant making (T22) Subjects:
Education, Human rights, religion
SIC Code: 8641 Civic, Social, and Fraternal Association
NAICS Code: 813410, Civic and Social Organizations
Employees: 3

References
Financials. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from
http://www.cftompkins.org/resources/financials/
Hermione Charitable Trust. (2016). Retrieved November/December, 2016, from
http://www.guidestar.org/profile/36-7602986
Ithaca Health Alliance - Educational Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2016,
from http://www.ithacahealth.org/education.html
James B Russell Foundation Inc. (2016) Retrieved November 11, 2016, from
http://nonprofits.findthecompany.com/l/2122051/James-B-Russell-Foundation-Inc
Morf Foundation (2016). Retrieved November 11, 2016, from
http://nonprofits.findthecompany.com/l/180695/Morf-Foundation-Inc
Network, F. D. (n.d.). Friendship Donations Network. Retrieved November 13, 2016,
from https://friendshipdonations.org/donate/
Norathco Foundation. (2016). Retrieved November 11, 2016, from
http://nonprofits.findthecompany.com/l/114253/Norathco-Foundation

Funding Plan
PROJECT FUNDING PLAN
Project Mission Statement
Goal: This proposal seeks funding to launch nutrition and health media literacy
curriculum in schools around the world.

Project Look Sharp, a media literacy advocacy organization, provides school districts
with supplemental lesson plans. These lesson plans are designed to incorporate critical
thinking and media literacy skills into their classroom curriculums. As a result of
receiving funding solicited through this proposal, Project Look Sharp will design,
implement, and popularize health and nutrition media literacy curriculum that ultimately
aims to beat obesity, diabetes, sugar addiction, and will create a generation of informed
consumers who can thinking critically when putting their money where their mouth is.
To implement and track the progress and success of these media literacy efforts, Project
Look Sharp will work side-by-side with healthcare educators to appropriately inform the
media literacy modules; once written, edited, designed, and digitalized, Project Look
Sharp will pilot curriculum, conduct several test-runs, and evaluate the strengths and
needed improvements of the new curriculum.
Once the progress and success of the design has been evaluated, Project Look Sharp will
spread a free accessible digital set of plans to school districts nationally and
internationally; in order to evaluate the effectiveness of newly implemented curriculum,
Project Look Sharp will ask for feedback from district professionals; and ultimately,
Project Look Sharp will hire renowned media literacy professionals to vouch for the
validity and success of new programs.
Project Look Sharp’s Assessment of Project Funding Need
Of the costs needed to launch new health and nutrition curriculum, $12,570 direct income
sources are currently provided by Ithaca College. In other words, 29.53% of our expenses
are covered internally by Ithaca College. The remaining $30,000 is needed to carry out
the new health and nutrition curriculum project.
Health and nutrition media literacy curriculum is needed in school districts across the
nation, and throughout the world. It is a necessity to provide free, easily accessible lesson
plans for teachers everywhere on a topic that directly affects the lives of students

everywhere. The efforts put forth by Project Look Sharp in regards to nutrition are
essential in raising the next generation of strong, healthy children, and these efforts are
our first line of defense against negative consequences due to hungry, uninformed
consumers.
Ithaca College provides Project Look Sharp with office space and modest personnel
stipends, and by allowing Project Look Sharp to operate on the college campus, Project
Look Sharp can take advantage of student interns, volunteers, professors across
disciplines with various degrees of knowledge, and a surplus of information available as
part of being with the campus community. However, in order to continue its legacy of
media literacy and make positive impacts on the educational world, Project Look Sharp
must continue to develop educational curriculum and update media images (and modes of
media, as technology advances). In order to keep developing educational material that is
free and accessible to educators, Project Look Sharp must secure funding from those
willing to support our mission outside of Ithaca College. PLS requires external funds.
These funds will primarily be used for contract services (hiring a new Curriculum Writer,
hiring a Production Coordinator for media literacy workshops, providing teacher stipends
and consultants, paying for a web development team and the products they develop
thereafter) and media production services (printing materials, duplicating lesson plans,
general services, office supplies).
The new positions resulting from these demands are subject to be filled internally by
permanent staff of Project Look Sharp. External new hires will be part-time and by
stipend. For example, health educators will be recruited from outside school districts and
paid stipends for their input. Health educators will be from a range of grade levels to suit
the needs of children all ages and to develop age-appropriate education materials. These
educators will be paid to help us develop appropriate health and nutrition curriculum, and
will meet with our curriculum writer to design lesson plans—these meetings will happen
with a variety of different educators for various different amounts of time. Our new
curriculum writer will be S. Sperry, and other duties and responsibilities will be
performed by internal staff, Ithaca College Interns (whom do not require payment
because they are performing work for college credit), part-time or meeting-by-meeting
staff, and a web development team. We also will hire consultants to evaluate the
educational strength of our newly created curriculum.

Project Funding Goals and Objectives
All project funding goals and objectives assume that Project Look Sharp will officially
begin operation on January 23, 2017 or if not on this approximate date, then sometime in
the beginning of Spring Semester 2017.
Goal 1: To secure $12,570 of funding as our regular Ithaca College Direct Income
Source by January 23, 2017.
Objective: All Ithaca College Direct Income Sources have been scheduled two years in
advance through the Park Foundation Donation and previous agreements under the code
and conduct of the Ithaca College Financial Office: no need to reallocate these funds,
professors on the PLS core-staff board will resume work with the beginning of the new
academic semester.
Goal 2: To secure $30,000 of funding from donors and sponsors for all new costs before
the beginning of the creation of new lesson plans.
Objective: By January 2017, existing IC faculty members who work as Project Look
Sharp Staff* will resume their responsibilities to the organization and adjust their
responsibilities as fit to adhere to the development of new curriculum. *Subtotal for
personnel: $11,200
Objective: During Spring Semester 2017, Project Look Sharp will hire contract services
such as a new Curriculum Writer ($15,000 of donor funding), Production Coordinator for
Workshops ($3,000 of donor funding), Health Educators ($4,200 for stipends; this money
will also come from the newly secured donation), Consultants (part of the $4,200), and
Web Development Professionals ($1,600 of the newly donated $30,000).
Objective: By the end of Spring Semester 2017, Project Look Sharp will have purchased
the required office supplies to print and duplicate media literacy materials.
Goal 3: To Review, Print, and Circulate Newly Designed Lesson Plans
Objective: During Fall Semester 2017, Project Look Sharp will have trial-tested,
perfected health and nutrition lesson plans to circulate and promote.
Objective: Project Look Sharp will use $800 of donated funds towards developing printed
lesson plans
Objective: Project Look Sharp will use $600 of donated funds to market and promote our
new health and nutrition modules.
Goal 4: To gather feedback, coordinate workshops and presentations, and broaden
consumer audience
Objective: Final stages of project, to be budgeted via the working hours of PLS Staff,
student workers, and interns

Plan of Action
The first priority of Project Look Sharp is to gather information about nutrition, health,
and media literacy, and then produce cohesive lesson plans based on this research. Once
this has been achieved, the second priority will be to popularize and circulate educational
materials to school districts at no cost to the educators who implement them in the
classroom. This second priority depends directly on the development and production of
the lesson plans, and the lesson plans are dependent upon potential donors and funders.
Therefore, Project Look Sharp must secure outside donations--$30,000--required to
authenticate these priorities. Beginning immediately, Project Look Sharp will apply for
funding from several foundations nationwide (see annotated list of potential sponsors,
attached in this document). Given that Ithaca College grants us about 29.53% of our
previous working budgets, Project Look Sharp estimates that roughly 70.47% of future
funding will be provided by foundation sponsors and various solicited donors.
Any written requests for funding, donations, and grants will be provided by Project Look
Sharp’s Grant Writing Team and their community partner, Executive Director of Project
Look Sharp Cyndy Schiebe. Writing Professor Antonio DiRenzo will supervise this
Grant Writing Team during his Proposal and Grant Writing Course—a class during
which all identification of funding and writing requests is to be completed and evaluated.
These grant materials are to go into circulation immediately with the approval of the PLS
Executive Director and the evaluation of Professor DiRenzo, and these materials are to be
used to strengthen and compliment Project Look Sharp in regards to developing nutrition
and health curriculum only.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Funding Objectives
Cyndy Scheibe will monitor the funding for Project Look Sharp’s new health and
nutrition modules. She will monitor the funding by partnering with grant and proposal
writing classes to develop proposals, she will send out proposals, and monitor responses.
She will add received funds to the budget and will monitor remaining funds to be
collected.
Cyndy will continue monitoring funding allocation until all necessary funding has been
received by the beginning of Spring Semester 2017. Funding will be evaluated
immediately: as soon as Project Look Sharp begins building curriculum and researching
nutrition education. The core PLS Staff will work to communicate how the funding is
working internally and will periodically release information to partnered school districts
and consumers of their health and nutrition lesson plans. School Districts who partake in
the new health and nutrition lesson plans will receive updated information about how we
determined what to put in our lesson plans, which staff completed which task in the
building of this project, where to find more information in regards to health and nutrition
media literacy, and upcoming workshops facilitated by PLS staff.

External Documents

Letter of Inquiry
11/28/16
PO Box 362
Ithaca, NY 14851
(607) 330-1253
Fax: (607) 330-1194
OFFICE@ITHACAHEALTH.ORG
Donor: Norbert McCloskey
Dear Mr. McCloskey,
Project Look Sharp, a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College, develops and provides
lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for the integration of media literacy
into classroom curriculums at all levels. Our nonprofit fills a niche in current school
curriculums. Many current school curriculums important subjects that are imperative if
we want our children to be critical thinkers in today’s modern world, such as media
literacy, and Project Look Sharp has taken notice.
What exactly is media literacy? Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, and
critically evaluate anything from newspapers, magazines, television, video games,
movies, and radio. Media is all around us and is sending children numerous messages that
can be confusing, hard to decipher, and downright manipulative, and Project Look Sharp
strives to help children of all ages develop the skills needed to be critical thinkers in
today’s world.
To make Project Look Sharp’s goals a reality, we have developed supplemental lesson
plans for K-12 educators that incorporate critical thinking and media literacy skills into
their classroom curriculums. These lesson plans have spanned a wide range of topics, and
most recently turned their efforts to develop curriculum kits concerning a very relevant
and important topic, health, nutrition, and safety.
The Health, Nutrition & Safety Curriculum Kit, which are in the works to launch, address
healthy eating and living for third grade students. It would consist of eight strands:
advertising; nutrition; fitness & media; drugs, alcohol & tobacco; self-respect & body
image; attitudes & stereotyping; safety; and conflict resolution. Public schools
administrators and teachers feel pressure to fulfill their common core state standards, and

as a result many school curriculums are lacking important subjects such as these. As of
right now, there are no common core requirements in physical and mental health subjects.
These are areas that need a great amount of attention, given the national obesity epidemic
happening in young children, the fact that mental health continues to have a large stigma
around it, and issues with bullying and body image are occurring at higher rates amongst
children.
While PLS has already produced a Health & Critical Thinking curriculum kit for
kindergarten and first grade students, they seek to expand even further to the area of
health and develop new kits that are relevant to third grade, and upper elementary
students. Unfortunately, this new curriculum kit that is in the process of development,
lacks the funding needed for it to be finalized and launched. We believe that we can
achieve our goal of further developing this health kit by initiating a multi-part campaign
that will entail four components: 1) Establishing another “arm” of Project Look Sharp
that is related to funding and hiring staff, interns, and volunteers, 2) Hiring a curriculum
writer and publicizing and marketing lesson plans, 3) Continue hiring new staff writers
and interns to work on lesson plan content, continue advertising efforts, and attendance
and evaluation, and 4) Ask teachers and district representatives for feedback.
The Ithaca Health Alliance’s priorities are an excellent match for this initiative because
our campaign strives to increase public understanding of the need for children to be
learning how to decipher media messages about food, and learn what is healthy and what
isn’t so healthy. The Ithaca Health Alliance also believes strongly in educating the local
community about health and wellness, and where to turn for health care. I am sure that
you can agree that starting health education as young as possible is ideal, and Project
Look Sharp believes in this wholeheartedly.
Project Look Sharp needs a grant of $30,00 in order to make their visions a reality. We
would like you to consider a proposal to fund the project. Any amount of generosity that
your organization feels able and comfortable to give is highly appreciated. With your aid,
we can ensure that public school curriculums are covering the vital information that
children need in order to be active and aware members of our community.
Please let us know if you would wish to seek more information, or to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
Project Look Sharp

Cover Letter to Respondent
Project Look Sharp
Ithaca College
1119 Williams Hall
Ithaca, NY 14850-7290
To PLS board,
Thank you for the opportunity to meet with one of your staff to discuss the new health
and nutrition curriculum plan for PLS. We are pleased to present this final report. The
collaborative efforts between us have been an enjoyable learning experience. Thank you
for providing us with the opportunity to analyze this fine organization and the
constructive criticism. Your corporation has been really appreciated.
The city of Ithaca’s mission to improve public education as well as their involvement
with “going green” and becoming a more healthier environment makes PLS a perfect
candidate to create an outlet to directly contact both new and old supporters of PLS.
Our solution is to get enough money ($30,000) to promote this new healthcare and
nutrition curriculum. Being that obesity within children has become a large epidemic in
todays society we believe that this is an extremely important topic to recognize.
Therefore PLS has the opportunity to continue supporting education whether it be
through their new media literacy curriculum or just raising awareness to this issue.
PLS has greatly begun to impact the public school systems of Ithaca, NY. They are
beginning to have both students and educators view media literacy in a brighter light in
the realm of education.
Thank you for your interest in our proposal. We look forward to continue working
together.
Sincerely,
Ithaca College
953 Danby Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Executive Summary
The noted Health and Nutrition Media Literacy packet for Cydney Schiebe and
her nonprofit organization, Project Look Sharp, seeks $30,000 in order to construct this
entirely new curriculum.
This new health and nutrition curriculum will help to benefit both educators and
their students. It will allow for the students to see how much the media impacts their
views on healthy food options as well as why obesity is rapidly forming.
As this new curriculum releases, it is our wish to open up the eyes of these young
individuals in the hopes that they will begin to pay closer attention to the media and the
messages that the advertising world seeks to share. As a result, these students will learn
to make better options when choosing foods.
The following pages describe the scope as well as importance of Project Look
Sharp and their new release of this nutritional curriculum. We hope to make a difference
in generations to come by starting with the Ithaca, NY educational sector. It will also help
to inspire further support from others in the healthcare industry.

Organizational Profile
Mission Statement
Project Look Sharp, a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College, advocates for the
assimilation of media literacy skills and critical thinking in classroom curricula.1
Project
Look Sharp develops lesson plans for educators to use, particularly for K-12 grade levels,
in an effort to raise media literacy awareness and provide the skills that students need to
successfully navigate various types of media. The educational tools, training and support
provided by Project Look Sharp can supplement lesson plans and integrate media critical
analysis into classroom agendas.
As an organization, Project Look Sharp aims to promote and support media literacy
education at local, state and national levels.2
It also seeks to provide educators with
adequate media education training, and to work with educators to develop pedagogical
methods that address and incorporate media literacy into classroom objectives. Project
Look Sharp develops educational materials containing media literacy content and works
to assess the effectiveness of a media literacy approach to education. The organization
also works with Ithaca College to promote media literacy at the college level as well.
Currently, Project Look Sharp is developing new educational materials with a focus on
media literacy and nutrition. For children, learning to read and interpret food labels and
ingredient lists are valuable critical skills that will impact the nutritional choices that they
make early on and in adulthood. By raising awareness about the ways that food

packaging and labels can mislead consumers and emphasizing early nutritional education
can help students make more educated nutritional decisions in adulthood.
Project Look Sharp has already developed kindergarten and first grade level lessons on
critical thinking and health. This lesson plan provides educational materials to help young
children better understand the purpose of TV commercials and the possible advertising
ploys that are used to market potentially unhealthy products to young consumers.3
High-
sugar pseudo fruit snacks and juices marketed to children are among some of the focus of
the lesson to prompt children to question the way that TV commercials and
advertisements market products and can provide misleading information. Children also
get the opportunity to discuss and reflect on what they learn as well as to then put it into
practice.
Presently, Project Look Sharp’s goal is to encourage educators to use a media literacy
pedagogy in their lessons rather than incorporating media literacy as an “add-on” topic.
By hybridizing traditional lessons with a media literacy approach, students are able to
learn essential skills and educators can adequately cover Common Core standards. Rather
than teaching media literacy as a separate subject, using it as a pedagogical approach
allows students to develop critical analytical skills that they need to understand media
that they come into contact with every day. Media is often is used to convey cultural
values, beliefs and standards, so teaching students how to interpret media will give them
a wider scope with which to understand their position within the larger society.

Description
As stated above, Project Look Sharp promotes media literacy in educational curricula and
provides educational materials for teachers to achieve this initiative. Media literacy is
essentially the “ability to access, analyze, critically evaluate, and produce communication
in a variety of forms.”4
The initiatives provide analytical skills for children to be able to
critically assess the mass media messages that they receive via visuals, language and
sounds. Media literacy produces a greater awareness of the way that the media influences
values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior in culture. Media literate students will come to a
greater understanding of the way that they are influenced by media messages, as well as
advertising and marketing tactics.
Project Look Sharp provides curriculum materials to offer solutions to existing problems
that educators have. The organization seeks to meet the goals of educators while
promoting media literacy in the classroom. A media literacy pedagogy provides a means
through which educators stimulate a more active, participatory class environment. This
pedagogy also encourages inclusivity and offers opportunity for students of all
socioeconomic backgrounds because a media literate approach to learning acknowledges
that not all students benefit from more traditional pedagogies.
Traditional pedagogies tend to alienate students of non-academic backgrounds and
reward students from more fortunate socioeconomic circumstances. This approach
reinforces inequality in the classroom and offers an unfair advantage to more privileged
students with highly academic backgrounds. A media literacy approach invites all
students to have the opportunity to speak and share their thoughts through a more holistic

learning experience. Educators incorporate media that all students see in their day-to-day
lives and prompt them with a series of questions to invoke and sharpen analytical skills
that students will need to navigate a heavily media-saturated society.
The new educational curricula that Project Look Sharp intends to launch explores health
issues pertaining to students in grades K-12. Other curriculum materials are typically
framed by Common Core standards, adapting a media literacy pedagogy to also include
the Common Core standards to meet educators’ needs in fulfilling these requirements.
However, there are not Common Core requirements in health topics for K-12, so this
broadens the possibilities for what the health curriculums can offer educators. Without
Common Core standards providing guiding principles, educators have the potential to
hybridize their lessons to combine, for example, health and math topics, and also include
pervasive issues to raise awareness about anti-bullying, racism, and sexism.
Project Look Sharp provides materials for educators that provide goals and guidelines to
make the lessons as effective as possible. For example, educators can access guides that
include key questions to ask when analyzing media messages.5
Students are prompted to
consider audience and authorship, messages and mediums, and representations and
reality. These lessons differ from traditional approaches to teaching not only with the
media literacy pedagogical approach, but also in the way that classrooms are run. In
media literacy guided lessons, which are taught through Project Look Sharp’s
professional development workshops, it is the educator’s responsibility to ask questions.
Educators encourage more engagement from their students so that students practice their
own analytical skills, which differs from traditional approaches in which educators

explain rather than ask. It is essential that students gain critical skills in order to develop
into active citizens and communicate effectively using various forms of media.
Essentially, this kind of media literacy approach provides students with skills and
knowledge that they will be able to apply throughout their lives in and outside of the
classroom.
Currently, Project Look Sharp is seeking funding for their nutrition curriculum kits. The
implementation of these kits will primarily address the issue of childhood obesity and its
relationship to media influences. These lesson plans will teach K-12 grade students how
to analyze and assess their eating habits through teaching them how to become more
media literate and how to avoid marketing ploys used to entice kids to consume
unhealthy foods. Whereas traditionally the emphasis has been on parents to make the
decisions for their children on what constitutes healthy eating habits, these new lesson
plans would empower and educate children so that they will be able to make healthy
choices on their own. In developing media literacy skills, students will be able to practice
essential analytical skills in and out of the classroom to be able to make healthier
decisions throughout the duration of their lives. The impact of these lesson kits goes far
beyond their school careers, but have the potential to change the choices that they make
and the way that they interact and engage with larger communities.
History
Project Look Sharp was founded in 1995 by Cyndy Scheibe, an associate professor of
psychology at Ithaca College. She launched the organization in an effort to provide K-12
educators with a classroom pedagogy that promotes the development of skills for all
students that will help them navigate the media-dense climate that they must survive in.

The organization offers a more critical approach to media literacy and education for
young students and the materials are aimed empowering children to make educated
decisions rather than instructing parents on how to make decisions for their children. In
the 1970s, US media literacy education was aimed at protecting children from “bad
media” by reaching out to parents with educational initiatives.6
Project Look Sharp,
however, produces materials for teachers and educators to integrate media literacy skills
into their educational curricula. Educators can use media literacy as a pedagogical
approach so that children will be able to develop critical skills in interpreting the media
that they encounter to gain a deeper understanding of advertising and marketing to make
more informed decisions.
Project Look Sharp has received a significant amount of funding from the Park School of
Communications Foundation, including a one hundred and fifty thousand dollar grant in
1998, and the NYS Department of Education. Project Look Sharp is presently seeking
new avenues for funding in order to support their new nutritional curriculum materials.
The new lesson plans will also move towards a more curriculum-driven approach rather
than the lesson plan packets. Also, the strong emphasis on professional development will
strengthen educator’s abilities to effectively implement a media literacy approach in the
classrooms. Chris Sperry, the Director of Curriculum and Staff Development at Project
Look Sharp, works with educators through professional workshops to train educators on
effective media literacy pedagogical implementation in practical classroom
environments.

References
1. Project Look Sharp (Apr 2014). Primary Goals. Retrieved from
http://www.projectlooksharp.org/
2. Project Look Sharp (Apr 2014). Primary Goals. Retrieved from
http://www.projectlooksharp.org/
3. Project Look Sharp (Apr 2014). Critical Thinking & Health: Kindergarten and
First Grade Lessons. Retrieved from
http://projectlooksharp.org/?action=healthkindergarten
4. Project Look Sharp (Apr 2014). What is Media Literacy? Retrieved from
http://www.projectlooksharp.org/?action=about
5. Project Look Sharp (Apr 2014). Media Literacy Handouts. Retrieved from
http://projectlooksharp.org/?action=medialithandouts
6. Scheibe, C., & Rogow, F. (2008). Basic Ways to Integrate Media Literacy and
Critical Thinking Into Any Curriculum. Retrieved from
http://www.projectlooksharp.org/Resources%202/12BasicWaysBooklet.pdf

Key Personnel
-Cyndy Scheibe: Executive Director
Cyndy Scheibe, executive director, is salaried by Ithaca College. A psychology professor
at Ithaca College, she holds workshops and the writes and edits various media literacy
curriculum kits.
-Chris Sperry: Director of Curriculum and Staff Development
Chris Sperry, Director of Curriculum and Staff Development, authors various curriculum
kits as well as professional and staff development.
-Roger Sevilla: Technology Coordinator/Develop
Roger has more than 15 years of experience working with teachers to effectively
integrate technology with teaching and learning.
- Armin Heurich: Teacher Librarian at Ithaca High School
Armin is a web designer, musician and an independent videomaker, and has been actively
involved with media arts since the early '80s, as both a producer and educator.
-Sherrie Szeto: Project Manager
Sherrie Szeto, PLS Project Manager, oversees all of the logistics related to editing and
publishing curricula, as well as staff development and webinars, internship coordination,
and finances.
-Ari Kissiloff: Marketing and Promotion Coordinator
Ari Kissiloff, PLS Marketing and Promotion Coordinator, manages the marketing
strategies of PLS curriculum materials and working directly with marketing interns.

Problem Statement
Statement of Need
The Health, Nutrition & Safety Curriculum Kit, is a new initiative that Project Look
Sharp plans to launch, addressing healthy eating and healthy living for third grade
students. Elementary educators’ curriculums currently are not guided by common core
requirements in physical and mental health subjects.
Project Look Sharp, is a media literacy advocacy organization, seeks to offer K-12
educators supplemental lesson plans to incorporate critical thinking and media literacy
skills into their classroom curriculums.1
PLS has already successfully developed
curriculum kits spanning across various subjects for K-12 education, which are
downloadable for free on the PLS webpage. In the past, PLS has produced a curriculum
kit available for kindergarten and first grade educators, concerning the issues of critical
thinking and health.2
This curriculum kit provides educational materials to help younger
children gain a greater understanding of the ways that TV commercials and misleading
marketing ploys can target young audiences and try to sell them potentially unhealthy
products. Through a media literacy approach, the curriculum kit encourages students to
criticize and analyze food labels and advertisements and to develop their critical thinking
skills in the classroom to make better informed decisions outside of the classroom.
While PLS has already produced this Health & Critical Thinking curriculum kit for
kindergarten and first grade education, they wish to expand further as an organization
into the area of health. The new curriculum kit that PLS has been in the process of
drafting and developing, but currently lacks the funding to produce and launch, is a
health, nutrition and safety kit for third grade and upper elementary educators. In order to
finalize and produce these curriculum materials into a functioning kit, PLS will need a
grant for $30,000 in order to make this vision a reality.
Evidence
Childhood obesity has steadily been on the rise in recent years. According to the Center
for Disease Control, the percentage of children aged 6-11 in the United States classified
as obese increased from 7% in 1980 to 18% in 2012.3
Health standards in the classroom
are less rigid than topics such as mathematics, science, English, and social studies
because there are no Common Core Standards for educators to meet in the topic of health.
The childhood obesity epidemic in the United States clearly justifies a call for action. The
classroom, the space in which children are educated and empowered through learning,
offers the greatest amount of potential for these changes to take place.
Educators must not only have more health curriculum materials available to them, but
they must also have greater access to professional development to be able to effectively
incorporate these materials into their lesson plans. Project Look Sharp is an organization
that advocates educational empowerment through a media literacy approach. The new
health, nutrition and safety curriculum kit that PLS is seeking funding for would be a

valuable resource for educators to use to meet these initiatives. If implemented
effectively, the curriculum materials would facilitate educators to empower and educate
young students to make more informed, critical decisions about their nutrition, health and
safety.
A media literacy approach to these educational topics provides students with critical
skills that they can apply not only in the classroom, but also outside of it in the real-life
decisions that they make. In educating students about the importance of food label
literacy and misleading marketing tactics that can present unhealthy foods as healthy,
they will be empowered to make healthier decisions that impact their immediate and
long-term health statuses. This curriculum, which will be explained in depth below,
includes topics in nutritional and mental health. Funding for initiatives such as this
curriculum kit are fundamental in approaching new ways to educate and empower in
classrooms and to provide students with the tools they will need in adulthood to manage
their nutritional and mental health. A media literacy approach to childhood health is not
only a present solution, but also a preventative solution to work towards a healthier future
of informed citizens.
Evidence
As stated above, childhood obesity has steadily been on the rise in recent years. Health
standards in the classroom are less rigid than topics such as mathematics, science,
English, and social studies because there are no Common Core Standards for educators to
meet in the topic of health. The childhood obesity epidemic in the United States clearly
justifies a call for action. The classroom, the space in which children are educated and
empowered through learning, offers the greatest amount of potential for these changes to
take place.
Educators must have more health curriculum materials available to them. In addition,
they must be provided substantive professional to effectively incorporate these materials
into their lesson plans with a media literacy pedagogy. Project Look Sharp is an
organization that advocates educational empowerment through a media literacy approach.
The new health, nutrition and safety curriculum kit that PLS is seeking funding for would
be a valuable resource for educators to use to meet these initiatives. If implemented
effectively, the curriculum materials would facilitate educators to empower and educate
young students to make more informed, critical decisions about their nutrition, health and
safety.
A media literacy approach to these educational topics provides students with critical
skills that they can apply to the health-related decisions they make inside and outside of
the classroom. In educating students about the importance of food label literacy and
misleading marketing tactics that can present unhealthy foods as healthy, they will be
empowered to make healthier decisions that impact their immediate and long-term health
statuses. This curriculum, which will be explained in depth below, includes topics in
nutritional and mental health. Funding for initiatives such as this curriculum kit are
fundamental in approaching new ways to educate and empower in classrooms and to
provide students with the tools they will need in adulthood to manage their nutritional

and mental health. A media literacy approach to childhood health is not only a present
solution, but also a preventative solution to work towards a healthier future of informed
citizens.

Impact Statement
How will health and nutrition media literacy curriculum make a difference in the lives of
students and teachers? How will health and nutrition media literacy curriculum make a
difference in school districts, communities, states, and nations? In regards to Project
Look Sharp, how will launching new curriculum impact the inner workings of the
harboring organization itself?
In order to answer these questions, we must first remember why we chose to launch
health and nutrition curriculum in the first place. The reason we chose to collaborate,
research, write, program, and make readily available free health and nutrition media
literacy curriculum is because we have reportable, verifiable findings that the media
influences consumer choice in regards to buying food. We chose to take action against
this persuasion by educating consumers on how to critically read marketing influence and
make independent, personal choices about their health and nutrition.
It is easier to market food that is less nutritionally valuable than it is to market foods that
provide for a balanced diet. If we provide the public with media literacy tools to interpret
said media messages, public health concerns such as obesity, diabetes, and health
complications in regards to diet will decrease; quality of life and public understanding of
marketing food for sales rather than food for health will increase. Therefore, the impact
of Project Look Sharp’s efforts will be healthier consumers who think critically about
what they choose to put on their grocery list in order to promote and maintain their own
health and wellness.
We want to encourage up-and-coming consumers to make healthy choices in regards to
their diets. As a result of health and nutrition media literacy curriculum, more teachers
will integrate nutrition and health into the classroom; more educators will have engaging
material to illustrate what they are trying to teach students (i.e. the media materials we
provide as part of our curriculum kit); more students will understand how to look beyond
advertisements and towards their own health and well-being; and, ultimately, more
people will feel confident in understanding how to take care of themselves.
As far as how the launching of health and nutrition media literacy kit will impact Project
Look Sharp, we estimate that this curriculum will help us spread our reach to other
communities and continue to grow and nurture our continuing relationships and new
relationships with school districts and community education programs. Project Look
Sharp does not profit from these curriculum kits—they are free to all and readily
available in digital form. Our product will bring no financial gain to us, but we will gain
respect, professional relationships, community connections, and future collaboration
prospects. We also simply value impacting students in a way that will aid them in living
healthy, meaningful lives.
Project Look Sharp has developed multiple curriculum kits across various subjects to
supplement K-12 educators’ lesson plans. The curriculum kits PLS has created include

Final Grant & Proposal (1)

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