I was quite unaware of the OSU campus bubble I lived in until prior to this fellowship. Before last week, I gave myself a lot of credit for being the adventurous one out of my circle of friends. I was the one who stepped off campus and familiarized herself with Columbus but that basically meant anywhere I can go on the COTA bus lines #2, #7, and my lifesaver, #21. What that actually looks like is anywhere off of High Street from lower Clintonville down until the capitol building. You can only imagine the mind explosion that occurred first day on the job. I travelled to Parsons Avenue and Whittier to begin my appointment at Community Development for All People (CD4AP).

I found these in a bunch of shops along Parsons.

I’m a natural wanderer at heart, no joke I was a leash kid when we lived in LA, so every day at work I love to explore a different part of my new neighborhood. I walk around on my 30 minute lunch break and discover what makes up the Columbus’ south side. I find pure enjoyment in discovering murals, small parks, and make note of eateries for me to experiment in a lunch or two. Highlight of such adventures would have to be discovering the German Village Jeni’s, which is really nearby! Ask any of my friends, I am in love with this ice cream so finding this pop up shop was a REALLY big deal for me.

Since my transportation is limited to bus or walk, I use a handful of lines to carry out my various tasks and wind up sight-seeing Columbus to and from work every day. In my first week I did a practice run to Lincoln Park Elementary, site to CD4AP’s summer youth program which sent me even farther south. The more I travel in the area the more I understand the importance of my host nonprofit’s services however I am slightly confused about this area. I am really curious as to why Parsons Avenue has become a territorial line, dividing the well-manicured west Whittier from the area east of Parsons Avenue. There is a stark disparity in the area that is really disappointing because everything is just a few feet difference from everything. Take the elementary school CD4AP serves, the sidewalks have crushed bottle glass bedazzling the concrete and it’s down the block from an abandoned gentlemen’s club. How could an elementary school, a less than four minute drive from CD4AP’s center, be in a vastly different area than Siebert Elementary, a school less than four blocks away from CD4AP? Here’s a clue, Siebert Elementary is west of Parsons Avenue.

My office is located above from some of CD4AP’s staple services, such as the Free Store, worship, and their free produce distribution. I get to interact and immerse myself with our clients on a daily basis just from moving about in the center. I feel real fortunate for this relationship building aspect of my job, not all nonprofits are so directly available to those that they serve. Some of the bus regulars I recognize using our center or I see them around the neighborhood areas on my walks. As I look forward to wrapping my head around all that CD4AP does in order to best develop and implement media that communicates the organization, I hope to further understand the dynamics of the area as a source for perhaps future development projects I can be involved in after my fellowship.