Hello! My name is Ariana Adamson and I am a recent graduate from The Ohio State University. I have a Bachelors degree in Social Work, and the nonprofit sector is my passion! I was so excited to start the fellowship this week and get started with my host site – Speak! for the Unspoken. This is a nonprofit animal rescue that is focused on helping animals with disabilities live their best life! I love what Speak! for the Unspoken does for the animal community and I am excited to be placed with their organization.

My first week consisted of a LOT of meetings and overall research within the organization to get an idea of how Speak! works. I really wanted to utilize this first week of the fellowship to get familiarized with the organization and their process of doing things. Something I learned in school in regard to helping others is to first take time to understand the target community’s needs and desires from within, and to never assume you know what is best before you ask. This is the approach I am taking to helping Speak!, I want to know what they feel they need help with most, and to get a variety of inputs from the organization staff. I want to help Speak! achieve their goals by working together to bring the change and improvements THEY want to see!

I am looking forward to getting started working with their systems, as well as start reaching out to their volunteer base over the next week! I am extremely grateful for this overall experience, as well as the opportunity to learn new things all while using my current skills to help the rescue. It’s also a nice bonus that I get to work with dogs 🙂

Here’s a picture from my first day at the office when I received my official Speak! merch