Hollywood Popular Artists

Apr 4th 2013, 19:36

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is…well, you know. State Farm is bringing back its Neighborhood Assist program, which means 40 community Causes will receive $25,000 grants!

The micro-grant program is all about empowering individuals to "highlight needs in their community." Individuals submit Causes, ways to make their communities "safer, stronger or better educated," via a Facebook app. After the 3,000 or so submissions were accepted, the top 200 finalists were chosen by the 30-member Youth Advisory Board.

Now that the 200 finalists have been chosen, the public gets to decide which 40 Causes will receive $25,000. The voting period begins April 4 and ends April 21.  The 40 winning Causes will be announced on April 29.

Of last year's Causes, 66 were submitted by 13-year-olds, while 48 percent benefitted the 18-and-under crowd.

One of those Causes, Let's Get Ready, provided 318 under-served high school students in New York City with intensive SAT tutoring college admissions and application support, and mentoring. One of the LGR students, Mickyle Stanbury, is a senior at Brooklyn Tech High School; she is "getting college acceptances in the mail" and hopes to "study biomedical sciences and works to…help address things like Alzheimer's and ADHD." Stanbury knows the LGR's impact reaches more people than those 318 students, because she is going to bring back "what (she) learned over the summer to (her) classmates in school."

Mount Carmel High School wanted to "promote student interest in careers in the biomedical field, specifically biopharmaceutical research involving new generation biotechnology." Mike Glover, a Biomedical teacher, says the school is "currently expanding our classes to include more STEM classes through Project Lead the Way." He said the grant has "opened the doors for more students that are interested in the engineering or medical field."

To see how all of last year's winners positively affected their communities, check out State Farm's interactive map. Make sure you vote for your favorite Cause to win the $25,000!

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