At MORPC, we celebrated the last week of our soft close. Designed to help give employees a mental reset, we were allowed to work-at-home for the past few weeks. Personally, this helped me refresh myself and come back energized.

When it comes to my work, I was able to develop our Green Infrastructure Toolkit further. This project is what I have been working on throughout my fellowship. Initially, it involved an 18-page report that detailed key funding sources, local case studies, and additions to our website on resources for Green Infrastructure. Now, with approval from my supervisors, I am in the second stage of this process which is reaching out to local governments to find out what projects they would like us to highlight on our GIS map. This involves a picture of the project and a description. At the time posting this, I’ve sent many emails to get as much information as possible to reflect all Central Ohioans initiatives to be environmentally friendly.

I am thankful for the knowledge I’ve gained working on this initiative. Coming into my fellowship, I was shocked to learn what green infrastructure was, let alone its various counterparts such as gray, brown, and blue infrastructure. My time at MORPC has given me significant experience in understand the relationship between sustainability initiatives and community development. It has made a great impact on my understanding of the field.

Beyond this, I am also assisting with a project that involves analyzing the Economic Development Reauthorization Act, a congressional bill that would have a large impact on MORPC’s partners’ economies. This involves me doing background research on both the bill and the region. Then, once I am finished, I will make a memo and a one-pager that we can use for future legislative activities. This is also a tremendous experience, especially when I gear up for congressional roles.