This week has been the final stretch in preparing for our Gateway event tomorrow! I am very excited for all of our hard work to come to fruition, and next week’s blog will be sure to recap how it went.

This week I was also able to attend the WAVs program retreat with the WAV staff. One activity we did was pass around papers with all of our names on them and write one positive message about that person. Then we read aloud whoever’s paper we had at the end, and it was really moving to hear all of the words spoken about us. My paper included comments on my kind energy, my approachability, and my curiousness. It was really nice to see how I come off here at WAV to those around me, and it made me feel very seen.

We also got the chance to participate in the portrait project that our youth have participated in throughout different summer and after-school programs. I actually missed the day the kids did it this summer because I was at a Columbus Foundation Fellows Learning Session, so I was really excited to do it this week. We all spent about an hour on our portraits and then took the time to share them with each other. It was really cool to work on a project that WAV students do all the time, and actually see how it feels to go through part of the program. Overall the program retreat made me feel personally very connected to WAVs mission, and I loved being a part of it. 

Today also marked my last day of class as an Ohio State Student, and even though submitting my last assignment online was a little anticlimactic, I am so excited to graduate next weekend. I feel very ready for the next steps in my career, and this summer has really prepared me for that.