The De Anza Associated Student Body Senate has proposed a plan to win the Pepsi Refresh Program’s $250,000 grant to fund services for students.               

When Senator Pamela Jara-Arancibia saw an online ad for the Pepsi Refresh Project, she envisioned it helping De Anza College. 

Throughout the course of this year, Pepsi will give away millions of dollars to the individuals, companies or organizations that have the best ideas in “refreshing” and improving the community around them in a positive and progressive way. There are grants ranging from $5,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $250,000, each subdivided into six different areas: health, education, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, and neighborhoods. The Senate is working on its proposal to submit in the education category under the $250,000 grant, Jara-Arancibia said. “We want to encompass a proposal that helps tutorial services, food vouchers and TA programs.” 

The money would be allocated respectively into the three categories.

The grant would subsidize tutor salaries to fulfill the high demand  needed to accommodate students requiring help, especially in the math, science and English departments. The funds would make food vouchers available to up to 100 low-income students, allowing them a full meal every day they are on campus. The TA program “will be geared in changing the concept of a teacher’s assistant more so to a student’s assistant,” Jara-Arancibia said. 

The money would go toward scholarships and salary compensation for students and instructors who would help sustain the peer mentor program, aimed toward a support system for those who are struggling in classes.

On its website, http://www.refresheverything.com/, students can browse through many of the other proposed ideas from all over the country and vote for up to 10 proposals everyday until the first day of every month when the cycle starts over again and a new competition is started. In intervals of one month, a maximum of 1,000 applications may be submitted. By the end of each month, the ideas with the most amount of votes will be granted money according to their respective categories.

Students can vote everyday by texting, through their Facebook accounts or by making an account on the Pepsi Refresh Project website. 

“A really cool thing about it is that it’s not only restricted to just the students. It’s open to anybody who wants to support us. We’re hoping to get a lot of clubs’ and programs’ help by spreading the word throughout the campus first. We also want to get community involvement,” Jara-Arancibia said. 

Anyone interested in voting on the De Anza proposals will be able to start voting this month.