My name is Gavin Enseleit, I am a junior at Ohio State, majoring in Nonprofit Management and Political Science. This summer I am working with Equality Ohio, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. This first week has been great. While I have nonprofit experience, I have almost none with advocacy work, a thing I am excited to change this summer. I began my week getting to know the team. It is an incredibly busy time between all the different house bills being passed and pride, we are super busy trying to attend almost all the prides in Ohio. Getting to know my coworkers has been great they are all super motivated and driven.

I was given my first chance to write written testimony on a house bill of my choice. It was a great intro to advocacy work. I’m working along side a fellow from the Cleveland Foundation as well, it is nice to have someone to experience all these new experiences with.

 The structure of the week at Equality Ohio is something I am a huge fan of. They advocate for your personal wellbeing and to take time if you feel burnt out. In addition, there are a lot of different events to work at and go to, such as pride parades, city of Columbus events, and that of other nonprofits that share similar values to Equality Ohio.

 I feel as though this structure will allow me to reach my fullest potential as it is pulling me in all the right directions. Promoting personal accountability, finding what you love, and meeting lots of new people. Talking with my supervisor, who is great, this work will allow me to find what I really enjoy about it and do that, not be stuck doing menial tasks I don’t enjoy. A concern I had coming into this experience, simply just due to the nature of a lot of internships. I am happy to say that after the first week that worry is dispelled. I am so excited to spend my summer working with Equality and putting up the good fight.