I would categorize this week as mostly uneventful. In fact, the most eventful thing of this past week actually centers around something that didn’t happen. My bi-weekly paycheck came late! As a result of miscommunications and general misunderstandings, my check wasn’t cut on the day it was supposed to be. Let me be clear in stating that this did not matter at all to me. I knew I would get paid!

This post isn’t going to be a complaint about how my check came a few days late, rather it will be an exploration of how my non-profit operates. Similar to every other semi-large or large company or organization, there are a lot of moving parts that are required to make Equitas run. Being a non-profit, I imagine that the multitude of independently moving and working teams and departments is larger than a for-profit industry as their operations are two-fold: streams of traditional revenue and outputs of social profit. This dichotomy was first emphasized when I traveled to Dayton to visit Equitas’s office there. The main Dayton location is split into two camps. The operational and social coordination side that I was best acquainted with shared a location with the medicinal and pharmaceutical side of Equitas that I was not as familiar with. Nurses, doctors, patients, and family members filled the spaces as they engaged with Equitas as plenty of people do – as a form of primary care. I was previously impressed with the scope and lengths to which the work I was associated with went to impacting people, but I was doubly impressed upon seeing firsthand the medical work that Equitas engages in.

From a macroscopic point of view, I as a summer fellow employee am not critical to the daily operations of Equitas. There are bigger fish to fry and more pressing matters to attend to every day. I didn’t feel ignored or overlooked – mistakes happen. In this case, it becomes especially understandable and forgivable upon considering the scale that Equitas operates at.

Looking forward, I’m hopeful that the rest of my time at Equitas and with the Columbus Foundation will prove to be as productive and enjoyable as it has been to this point. I’m eager to share and present my summer and make connections between my goals and the experiences of my time.