The life of a graduate student can be described as follows: drink coffee, read absurdly long book, drink more coffee, attend class, sleep when possible; lather, rinse, repeat. Confined to quiet corners of the library and coffee houses for the past year I was in need of a change of pace to prevent inevitable burnout. The shift in seasons and the start of the summer fellowship has brought welcome opportunities to do precisely that.

Although grad school provides an ideal environment to learn and grow, it can easily result in what I like to call “bubble syndrome.” Put simply, academic tunnel vision takes over and it can be difficult to stay up to date with current news and events, locally and nationally. Although I make my best efforts to catch ten minutes of NPR on the radio while driving to class or browse CNN online over lunch I’ll admit I am rarely as “up to date” as I would like to be. As part of my fellowship this summer, I provide weekly media reports to my supervisor, meaning reading newspapers and online news sources is part of my job…I have no excuses now! Each week I track national, state and local news, paying keen attention to public policies that affect women. In fact, in a week I will be traveling to a Youth and Policy Organizing Summit in Washington D.C. to further expand my horizons. (Blog post to follow that trip for certain!) In general, I feel more connected to the people, places, and issues that impact both my personal and professional life. As a result of building my knowledge, I have developed an increased confidence in my ability to communicate and synthesize ideas. An added benefit of this assignment is that I often come across community events where outreach can be done.

Balancing research and office work with hands-on community work has proven invaluable to achieving many of our organization’s educational and support-generating goals as well as incredibly fun. In the past month I have marched in the Columbus Pride Parade, worked at a table at Comfest and just this past weekend participated in the fabulously frivolous Doo-Dah parade. Needless to say, these activities have hardly felt like work, although they undoubtedly help establish new and varied relationships and a strong presence in the community. In sum, I would describe the life of a Columbus Foundation Summer Fellow as such: embrace new opportunities, exit comfort zone, immerse self in community; lather, rinse, repeat. The occasional cup of coffee doesn’t hurt either…

Sara M.  -Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio