This week was the week of Communities and Schools annual Summit which was a three day workshop where different staff members presented on topics such as branding, data, and planning for the year. These topics were catered to Site Coordinators for them to prepare for the school year with their students so that they could have a successful school year that would not allow for them to fall behind on their schedule and to make sure students have a great support system. I learned a great deal about the work that CIS do and also the work that Site Coordinators and Program Managers do as well. It was an informative summit and everyone enjoyed my power point as well. It was a little intimidating at first because I was the only one who was in college presenting but it also was great to get feedback from those who were engaged. I was asked if I present a lot because I did such a great job and that made me feel like I did my best. I had the opportunity to network with many individuals who are in schools in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cleveland. People traveled from these areas to get training and information on how they can better tomorrow and student’s that they will serve.

Some of the highlights from the summit were the ice breaker and team building activities that we did as a group. One thing about working in nonprofits is that there will always be some sort of hands on activity to engage the audience because especially working in schools, you have to have some skill of being able to do program development. One of the activities that we did was having to build a figure out of spaghetti noodles, tape, small/medium marshmallows, and string. The objective was to make a sturdy and tall object that will be able to hold the bigger marshmallow.

I had a great time being able to participate in this summit. I plan on taking many of the things that I learned to further my experience and provide feedback in my last week of my internship.