This week, I polished up my archival work, put together a slideshow for the Summer Party showcasing said archival work (with the help of the other intern, Morgan, and final finishing touches from the marketing and communications manager, Jenna), attended the fellows learning session, prepped for the Summer Party, conducted interviews at the event, and began editing those interviews for social media circulation. One word very obviously sticks out for this week: people.

It felt like my week truly started on Wednesday. The day was jam packed, with the Columbus Foundation Fellowship learning session in the morning, the Women’s Fund’s Summer Party in the evening, and a whole lot of prep work in between.

In the morning learning session at The Columbus Foundation, Ruth-Marie Lomax spoke to us about her nonprofit experience and leadership as executive director at City Year Columbus. She told us about her career journey, stressing forward movement over linear steps. Ruth-Marie also explained her approach to fundraising: building genuine relationships, person-to-person. She talked about how relationship-building was equally essential inside a nonprofit team, emphasizing the importance of knowing each person’s strengths (along with your own) in order to work toward the bigger picture in a way that uplifts everyone while also working efficiently towards a collective goal.

Later in the session, we talked about finding your purpose and power within your community. Dr. Lomax likened it to playing in an orchestra, having your part to play and time to shine, but also letting others do the same, and having everyone work towards a piece that only sounds right when everyone is working together. After that three-hour meeting, with both of the Lomaxes’s advice, I felt ready to solidify my purpose, and take the steps to make it happen.

I had lunch with my fellow fellow Muji (as she would say) after the session. We talked about our work and discussed our thoughts on the morning. These lunchtime talks and the Columbus Foundation Fellowship learning sessions give me some much-needed perspective on what the other fellows are doing, and reminds me of that collective purpose we are all working towards.

Once I got to the Women’s Fund, everything was thrown into prepping for the party. From rearranging our rented out event space to magic eraser-ing scuffs off the wall to spot-sweeping the floor, Morgan and I were plugging in where we could amongst a very prepared team that had been planning this event for months.

At the beginning of the party, I helped check in the guests. Then, I conducted and filmed interviews where I asked people about their experiences with the Women’s Fund. At the learning session earlier that day, I told the other fellows that I was a little nervous for these interviews. That nervousness quickly morphed into excitement as I listened to each interviewee’s perspective. I interviewed people who were just starting to learn about the organization, and I also interviewed people who were very involved, like the board chair of the Women’s Fund.

Another thing about these interviews that inspired me was each participant’s willingness to invite more people into the room to share their perspectives. The supportive, passionate, and diverse community that the Women’s Fund fosters was so incredibly present at the Summer Party, and that euphoric feeling was palpable.

The day after the party, I dug into the interviews, editing them together while also doing some cleanup from the night before. I met with some of the team to talk about next steps for some of my projects, mainly The Columbus Foundation collaborative project.

The people I interacted with this week, from the fellows at the learning session to the team at the Women’s Fund to women I met and interviewed at the Summer Party, truly inspired me and pushed me toward my purpose. I am so excited to move forward!

~Eva