Grant Proposal:

Vanderbilt Blockchain is proposing hosting an L2 speaker series on campus in order to promote community engagement and education about the Ethereum L2 ecosystem. The overarching objective with this series is to increase the amount of involvement other professional on-campus organizations have with blockchain technology, as well as educating students on the scalability of Ethereum and its potential.

This will be done through:

1. a speaker from a specific L2

2. a joint event involving Vanderbilt Blockchain and another organization that relates to the role the L2 speaker occupies.

Ex:

1. Developer at Offchain Labs

2. Vanderbilt Blockchain <> Change++ (Computer Science Org)

3. Product Lead at Polygon

4. Vanderbilt Blockchain <> Product Space

Vanderbilt Blockchain is no stranger to speaker events—we make it a monthly commitment to bring entrepreneurs and innovators into our lecture halls to connect with our students. Through our experience, we have found that providing free food and involving another on-campus organizations nearly doubles event attendance and engagement. Vanderbilt Blockchain has been developing relations with other on-campus clubs with hopes to provide mutual value, and the speaker series is our idea to make that a reality.

The club executive team will handle T-shirt design, distribution, catering, event planning, anything else that comes up. 

We seek to:

• Bring in 10-20 new members from the other clubs to these events

• Give away all L2 merch provided at these events

In general, awareness and education about Web3 is not where it should be in order to bring about a blockchain-enhanced world. By doing this speaker series as joint events, we are bridging interest in traditional career paths such as product management, SWE, and finance into their applicable roles in Web3. 

Spreading awareness about the Ethereum ecosystem is essential for the continued growth and success of the platform. Universities are the future of blockchain, and facilitating student engagement is a worthwhile investment.

Budget and Timeframe

For a series of 4 events, we are seeking 950$ - 1400$.

This grant would go towards:

1. Catered food ($850)

2. Costs related to logistics, such as creating posters, etc. ($100-$250)

3. Web3-related swag for the attendees (The rest)

*We hope to have all of our speakers come in-person, and any additional funding to help pay for travel would be greatly appreciated

The proposed dates would be the Thursdays throughout the month of February 2023. Depending on the event, it should last 1-2 hours.

We are a non-profit student club dedicated to helping students immerse themselves with blockchain technology and the opportunities in Web3. We feel that this proposal aligns with our objectives and greatly supports the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem. Thanks for the read!

-Abhay Khanna