My time with City Year Columbus has been filled with tasks/projects ranging all over the place. I have been lucky enough to have experience in marketing, the technical side of development, fundraising, networking, graphic design, video editing, content management, etc. 

This past week, I worked on setting up the framework for our annual Red Jacket Bash an end-of-year celebration in honor of our AmeriCorps members finishing their year of service reflecting on the work done and the impact made in the community. I was also able to draft sponsorship documents for the Red Jacket Bash as well as our Advancing Racial Equity event held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Last year on that day there was a panel of students and AmeriCorps members who discussed the mental health of the youth. It is a great opportunity to connect more personally with the community and the issues they are facing.

One of our biggest projects for the year is the annual Impact Report where we as a site highlight all our important accomplishments for the year and report back end of the school year student successes. I have been tasked with creating a cover for the report which has hit a few bumps in the road but worked itself out. City Year handcrafted a gift book for Bill Clinton and used a collage of AmeriCorps pictures as the cover. I wanted to do something similar for my site, so I pulled our site-specific photos to use instead. I also created a graphic showing our partner schools as well as updated the picture out front in our office. 

Since the rest of my Devo team is out today I was responsible for posting to socials and crafting future posts for our social media. Additionally, I have been tasked with creating a new display for our national/local sponsors and our City Year values. Since I am getting used to creating monthly newsletters I was asked to start the one for August which included our Opening Day event, Kiwanis Regatta information, and catch-up with the returning Senior AmeriCorps members. My favorite task was creating a “Piece of Me” slide where I introduced an object of importance in my life to the AmeriCorps members. When getting tied down with technical tasks it’s nice to take a break and be creative!

The biggest event to occur this week was the departure of my supervisor Tiffany Priest who will be working with Lutheran Social Services. Tiffany has been a great mentor to me throughout my time at the fellowship and equipped me with all the skills/experience I need to succeed. She will be missed but I am thankful for all that she taught me and wish her luck in her future endeavor!