Hello! My name is Rachael McCague, I study English at William & Mary and the Univeristy of St. Andrews, and I will be working with the Center for Disability Empowerment this summer! In my first week as a Summer Fellow, I have started to familiarize and immerse myself in the work of the Center for Disability Empowerment. Going into this program, I had never heard of the CDE before and was not familiar with most of their work. In my first couple of days, I have learned a lot about what the CDE does as an organization and its importance to the central Ohio disability community. 

I have been brought on to the CDE team this summer to assist in planning and implementing the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The event is on July 11, so the planning has really started picking up this week. At first, I felt quite overwhelmed with the amount of information I was receiving about the event, and I didn’t feel like there was much that I could contribute with my limited knowledge. However, Jackie Martin, the CDE’s grants, contracts and donor relations administrator, has done a wonderful job getting me up to speed and making me feel welcome as a member of the planning committee. Jackie has started delegating tasks to me, including consolidating and organizing documents, drafting social media posts and emails, and creating a deadline calendar for the event, which has allowed me to become much more acquainted with the project. I was able to sit in on a meeting with the sponsorship committee as well as take notes for a meeting with the planning committee. Observing the collaborative effort of event planning has made me appreciate how both individual as well as combined efforts are necessary for bringing an event like this together. 

In the coming weeks, I am excited to continue working on the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the ADA. I anticipate taking on more responsibility in the planning process as I become more familiar with the project and the CDE.  

Until next week,

Rachael McCague