During week 6, I worked steadily on reviewing letters of intent, re-editing the summer party interviews after receiving feedback from Jenna, revising interview questions for the Women and the Origin of the Social Sector project, and writing over 100 thank you cards (an exercise in handwriting endurance).

I also attended the Columbus Foundation fellows learning session, where we heard from members of the Foundation’s communications and marketing team about their work and career trajectories. We also talked about finding our passions, and what passion really means. This session was illuminating in multiple ways for me because I had the opportunity to learn from people in my dream career path and hone in on what my passion really is. Actually, ‘hone in’ might not be the right word. I found out that my passion doesn’t have to be completely narrowed down right now, it just has to be energy focused towards things I love doing. And for me, that is learning from other people, telling important stories, and engaging with art that makes me rethink my previous perspectives. I could list many other things I love doing; before, I thought that meant I was unfocused. Now, I know that it is an essential step in the process.

In terms of work, this week felt liminal because I spent most of it anticipating next week’s busy-ness.

Next week, I have two interviews for the Women and the Origin of Our Social Sector project. On Tuesday, I am interviewing Mary Lazarus, a founder of the Women’s Fund and an established philanthropist in Columbus, and on Thursday, I am interviewing Kelley Griesemer, The Women’s Fund’s CEO. I finished tailoring my interview questions to the interviewees, and am now waiting on final feedback. I practiced the filming set-up with Jenna and Morgan yesterday, and began to feel more secure in the preparation for the interview process.

Once the interviews are filmed, I will immediately start editing them. This process will be much longer than editing the summer party interviews, but I feel ready because I already learned so many lessons in my first editing adventure.

Until next week!

Eva