This week at City Year, I had the opportunity to observe our mission in action. Between planning for City Year Columbus’ 25th Anniversary celebration and watching City Year Columbus Executive Director Tasha Booker speak about the impact of City Year on our city, I believe that this week truly reinforced the ways in which City Year Columbus continues to impact the greater Columbus community.

One thing that continues to strike me about City Year Columbus is its commitment to inclusivity: we embrace differences as strengths that magnify our capacity to achieve shared goals. I am continuing to learn how deeply this commitment runs, and am getting better at identifying the practice of inclusivity as my supervisors and coworkers demonstrate it. One particularly impactful moment for me came on Wednesday morning, when Tasha spoke to a small group of donors about City Year at the Columbus Foundation. While sharing how City Year collaborates with Columbus City Schools to identify students in need and work with them to keep them academically and behaviorally on-track, Tasha highlighted the ways in which City Year AmeriCorps members are expected to embrace student perspective and need in order to help them create their own opportunities for success. By setting goals, learning about the school/student culture in the school the AmeriCorps member is serving, and communicating about different ideas with students, City Year AmeriCorps members are capable of creating genuine opportunities for student success and growth. Valuing inclusivity means that City Year continues to question who is at the table to share opinions, and who is actually speaking and providing input.

Internally, I have found that the idea of inclusivity is practiced by staff as well as by AmeriCorps members. This week, we had a meeting with a consultant about marketing ideas for Columbus’ 25th Site Anniversary. Not only was I invited to ask questions and participate in the conversation about marketing strategies which would be implemented after the end of my fellowship, but my unique perspective and input was genuinely valued and challenged at the meeting. In my opinion, working in a space which values differing perspectives ultimately yields better results. Not only do all staff members engage with the collaborative process, but help in crafting a solution which the organization as a whole can support.

I am ready for another week of learning and putting principles into practice!