Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Monday, I started off the day buying and preparing supplies for our outreach visits for the last two weeks. It’s crazy to think about how quickly these eight weeks have flown by and I’m already on my ninth week! Laura and I set up the clinic for the large goodie bag stuffing event we are having on Tuesday. We’ve invited our outreach volunteers to come help stuff goodie bags we use in our outreach presentations. These bags are such a critical component of the outreach program because it provides information about our clinic services and oral health supplies, including toothbrush, toothpaste, 2 minute brushing timer, and floss. After we finished our set-up prep, I headed out to SON Ministries Summer Lunch Program located at Hilliard Church of Christ. We saw about 30 kids and I was able to give one of our large group presentations to the kids. After the presentation, we had our traditional games and activities stations set up for the kids. I finished up the day working on some projects back at the clinic.

Tuesday was the big day where we had our Good Bag Stuffing Event! We spent the morning with the final parts of setting up for the event and ordering lunch for our volunteers. The event went extremely well. We stuffed almost 1,000 bags in about an hour! We had a strong showing from our KidSMILES volunteers, including some volunteers that have not had the chance to help out before.

In the evening, I had an extremely productive, two hour meeting with Cynthia Hendricks, the President of the Central Ohio Association of School Nurses (COASN). We discussed promoting KidSMILES materials and services to members of the COASN and working with school nurses around central Ohio, especially school nurses at Columbus City Schools, to schedule our oral health education outreach visits. One of the most important takeaways from this meeting was I learned how frequently school nurses see the consequences of lack of access to oral health care in schools. I also learned about the licensure and training process to become a school nurse, as well as that school nurses are trained to perform basic oral health screenings and refer children to dentists.

COASN Logo from http://www.coasn.org/

On Wednesday, we had an informative Learning Session by Annie Gallagher, President/Owner at Gallaghar Consulting Group, Inc. which specializes in helping organizations with branding, strategic planning, executive coaching, market research, and more. Our session focused on personal branding and communicating our story. We had engaging and light-hearted discussions about ourselves, and I will definitely be applying much of the advice that we got. I headed back to the clinic and prepped for our two outreach visits on Thursday!

Thursday was my busiest outreach day with two outreach visits! Our first visit was in to WARM Summer Lunch Program at Abby Lane Apartments off of Morse Road. We saw over 120 kids at this event – it was great to see how much energy they had! We set up our games and activities stations and kids were at our table the whole time! Later in the evening, I visited Ohio State Star House  with one of our dental hygienist volunteers, Jenni Ernst, for our second outreach visit of the summer to this site. We visited OSU Star House back in Week 2 of my fellowship. As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, OSU Star House is an amazing organization that provides food, a place to drop-in, and other resources for homeless youth in central Ohio. For this visit, we got the chance to talk to all new youth. Just like my first visit, I was really impressed and happy of how such a great resource Star House is for these youth. However, it’s really sad that this center is one of the few resources these youth have.

I had already finished 40 hours for this week by the end of Thursday! It was a really busy and productive week. I did some extra work on Friday and bought some supplies for the clinic, organized our outreach materials, and worked on my other projects! I’m definitely going to remain involved with KidSMILES however I can after my fellowship ends. Based on my interests in dental public health, non-profits, access to health care, and dentistry, continuing to help is a perfect fit for me. I am planning on volunteering as much as I can with outreach visits. I also plan to continue some of the projects I started, such as working with expanding our outreach program to more schools and locations.

While I absolutely love the time I spend at ECDI, one of my favorite parts of the day is my afternoon commute home on the bus. At 4:24 every day I catch the #9 bus, a route that winds its way through the near-east side all the way to the center of downtown. Thanks to the 670 and 71 highways, many people drive past these areas of Columbus on their commute every day without ever realizing that they exist. If not for my utter lack of driving ability, I’d probably be one of those people. It may take me an extra 40 minutes to get home every day, but I’m grateful that my commute this summer has given me a chance to see parts of my hometown that are often only glimpsed from the freeway.

The #9 bus has a quiet dignity. Most passengers follow the unspoken rules of bus etiquette: Have exact change when you get on the bus. Don’t sit directly next to someone if another seat is available. Don’t stare. Don’t make small talk. Thank the bus driver when you exit. I don’t think these rules are meant to be unfriendly, but rather to respect each other’s rights to sit quietly after a long day’s work and not be bothered. Most of us look out the windows, watching the city skyline grow closer until we are eventually envelop by it. By this time the details of my route are familiar and comforting. There’s the men smoking outside of the Misty Blues Private Club. There’s the Milo-Grogan Community Center, where summer camp kids just as the day camp takes a recess on the playground. There’s the sprawling Fort Hayes education center with its eerily boarded up windows. Sometimes we pass other buses, their shadowy figures staring through tinted glass at shadowy figures of us. Finally, the bus joins the sea of traffic converging at High and Broad in the very heart of Columbus. I always feel a twinge of hesitation as I pull the yellow cord to signal the driver of my intended stop, knowing that when the doors open I will have to step out of my peaceful reflection and into bustling heat of downtown.

The work I have done this summer, and a good chunk of the overall work done by Clean Fuels Ohio, is geared towards our Midwest Green Fleets Forum & Expo which takes place annually here in Columbus. The two day conference hosted at the Columbus Convention Center in late September draws national attention from fleets, government officials, professionals, and businesses interested in transitioning to alternative fuel. Clean Fuels Ohio partners with the Municipal Equipment Maintenance Association and various organizations to present the event which features educational sessions, business tours, and ride and drive sessions with alternative fuel vehicles. The Midwest Green Fleets Forum & Expo also features the announcement of the 2015 certified Ohio Green Fleets — a project I have spent a great deal of time on this summer.

Businesses, individuals, and fleets who become members of Clean Fuels Ohio gain numerous benefits from policy advocacy to press releases but the Ohio Green Fleets certification enables non-members to promote their progressive use of alternative fuels, resulting in a tremendous impact for their fleets. A large portion of my work this summer has involved contacting current and potential certified fleets and analyzing specific information given to us to determine whether or not the fleet will qualify for the 2015 ceremony. This was a slow process to begin but now that the Midwest Green Fleets event is right around the corner, things are becoming hectic and the work feels validated.

This is one of the signature events Clean Fuels Ohio is associated with so having the opportunity to be invested in the process has been rewarding. Hopefully, I will still be apart of the CFO team come September so I can attend the conference and see the results of countless hours of work put in by everybody on staff. Seemingly there has been increased interest in this years’ event but only time will tell…

I cannot believe week 9 is over.  This summer has truly flown by.  I finished up my programs team presentation last week and will be presenting this Wednesday.  I’m really looking forward to presenting all I’ve learned this summer, but I’m also really nervous because I’ve never done a presentation for work before. This is one of those times where I feel like wait you’re letting me do a presentation?! But I’m not even a real adult yet.

I almost finished my presentation for the luncheon last week.  I’ll be fine tuning my script and synthesizing some things today.  Hopefully I can present my numbers in an interesting way and not bore everyone to death. This 20 second a slide thing is more difficult than I anticipated it being.

Today I’ll be going through training to be a wish granter, which I’m extremely excited about.  You have to be 21 to grant wishes and my birthday is in a week.  It was lucky for me our Volunteer Program Manager decided to do a staff express training right before my birthday. Wish granters are our volunteers who are the liaison between us and the wish families.  The volunteers get to meet with the families and help the child determine their one true wish.  It’s rewarding, not that time consuming, and we’re always looking for wish granting volunteers.

I’m still working on averages, but I’m not sure if I’ll get them done by the end of the week.  This last week is difficult for me because I feel as if I’ve done everything I wanted to accomplish and other useful projects will take time I don’t have.  Also, the fact that in a week I’ll be on my way to Vegas with my grandma is heavily on my mind at all times and I’m ready for this week to fly by.  Although, my boyfriend said not to wish this week away because 21 is the last exciting birthday I’ll have.

It is so hard to believe that this experience is almost over. It seems to have gone by so fast. I have learned so much, and can barely keep track of all of it… it is overwhelming in the greatest way! 

The revisiting of the 1997 Ask The Land survey has gone great this summer! We have had so many different people out to the land, graciously sharing with us their expertise and passion in their fields of biology. Now that we have a better idea of what is on the land, I have been able to put together different brochures and pamphlets for people who stop by to walk around Shepherd’s Corner. 

I just recently completed a brochure on wildflowers! There were actually so many wildflowers on the survey lists compiled from Dan Boone, Jenny Adkins, Mark Dilley, Jim Davidson, and Sr. Marguerite that I had to split the flowers up into two brochures; Spring Wildflowers (blooming March to May) and Summer Wildflowers (Blooming June to September). The spring wildflowers brochure emphasizes the web of life, and how the plants rely on the creatures of the Earth for seed dispersal, and those creatures rely on the plants for shelter and food.

The brochure is also fun to look at because there are some interesting random facts about some of the flowers! For example, the corm (bulb) of Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) was used by Native Americans to create salve for injuries and joint pain! How cool is that! This not only tells about the relationship between plants and humans, but also about how long that plant has been in existence! This fascinating bit of information also brings about some serious thinking about the continued existence of plants like these. These wildflowers have been around for hundreds of years; sheltering animals, supplying nutrients into the soil for other plants, providing food for animals, or even aiding humans medicinally. It is up to us to protect our environment and the others that use it as their home.

It is so easy to disregard a problem, and place it onto the next in line… in our case, the next generation. However, we need to act now, and protect our Earth. These plants have been here much longer than us, and we have no right to think that our existence as humans is more important than theirs.

So here is a question to think about… hundreds of years from now, will people be able to walk the fruits of the earth, come across Jack-in-the-pulpit and say ,”Hey, this plant existed back during the times of Native Americans, and it still exists today!”? And if not, how can we make it so that they can?

I remember being a kid I always loved summers! Like so many kids, we get so excited summer starts and a little sad when it ends.  It only seemed fit that for my last week of programming at the YMCAs of Central Ohio we celebrated summer.

On Tuesday at the Gahanna YMCA, we did  craft and had fun in the sun!  The rain held off for our two hours of fun, and it was great!  First, the kids started inside with a craft.  The craft was definitely experimental, so I was not sure if it was going to work.  Each kid was able to pick as many crayons as they wanted and whatever color they wanted.  All of the crayons had to be peeled.  The kids were given a blank piece of paper and tape.  Simply, kids were suppose to tape the peeled crayons in a shape or object on the white piece of paper.  The kids went outside and put their piece of paper on the black top.  The crayons melted on the piece of paper to make a fun design!  Unfortunately, the crayons did not melt well so the kids were able to take the papers home to finish the craft on their own!  The remainder of the time was spent outside with bubbles, side walk chalk, and gaga ball!  Gaga ball is a new, arising game in recreational activities.  It was great to watch the kids learn and play a new game together.

On Wednesday at the North YMCA, we went straight outside!  We played with water balloons for the first 15 minutes, but was rained out.  This was a great opportunity for me to go with the flow, and deal with unpredictability.  The kids and I played board games instead.  Although, it was hard to see my original plans not work out, it was great to see that we still had so much fun enjoying each other’s company!

Hey everyone!

First off, thank you to anyone and everyone who has been following my summer adventure of working for a nonprofit arts organization! It has been an absolutely phenomenal learning experience and…I get to continue working here in the fall! (guess they liked me!)

This fall, I will be continuing with my fellowship duties of coordinating the Junior Docents (who also get to continue working this fall), working with assisting training the adult docents, coordinating our educational outreach to Columbus area school districts, grant writing and grant research, as well as working on the internship program. And did I mention I’ll be doing this while finishing my Master’s degree full time and working as a TA? It is going to be a busy next year for sure, but I am IMMENSELY excited for the opportunity to continue working for this organization that is truly enhancing the cultural fabric of the Columbus arts and culture scene.

This week was no less hectic. We actually had a decent amount of tours that we gave this week. By we, I mean my Junior Docents and I, because they have been working so hard and are finally ready to assist on tours. They have been such a blessing on these tours as it gives me a chance to catch my breath! 

We had the pleasure of hosting the Pheasant Run Boys and Girls Club Summer Program this past Wednesday. It was a great group to take around the galleries. The kids were so engaged and extremely inquisitive and excited about the artwork. It reminded me again about how important the work is that we do here. We had the chance to give these kids an amazing (I hope) experience outside of what they do everyday. It is not uncommon for school-aged tours to sometimes get a little loud, but these guys were loudly discussing the artworks because they were so excited and engaged. It was so much fun!

Even more fun that I am looking forward to this weekend is our free Family Day event that we host once a month to bring in the community to the galleries free of charge. It is a fun day with a larger volume of guests, so there is much more interacting with the guests and larger tour groups. It is such a fun day and if you’re looking for something to do, stop on by and say hi! I would love to see you!

Til next time,

Jessie

Yet another great week coming to a close here at Per Scholas.

I’m finishing up my final report this week, now that we have the final piece of the puzzle, so to speak, with the conclusion of Wednesday’s IT Leader Summit. It is all coming together really quickly, and it’s great to see the energy I put in at the front end of this project is paying off now. We’re hoping to share the report with local training programs and community colleges, and it’s exciting to think that the work I’ve done this summer may impact the Columbus community in the coming months and years.

Wednesday I presented my research findings and survey results to members of our board at the summit. It went really well. It was encouraging to hear from board members that they had yet to see a study like this one, and that our response rate was actually not all that bad. Although we weren’t able to gather the entire board together for the summit, the members that were able to come were engaged and offered a lot of great insight. One particularly interesting question that came up was “How do we make Per Scholas candidates competitive with candidates with college degrees?” The survey indicated that the majority of employers hire candidates with a Bachelor’s degree for their middle skill IT positions, even if the position does not necessarily require a four-year degree. Our board members were able to shed some light on that. Many employers feel that a free 8-week training program does not require the same level of commitment that a college degree does, so college graduates are often seen as a safe bet. Based on that insight, I think we need to take another look at the way we market ourselves to potential employers. Per Scholas doesn’t just hand a certificate to anyone who walks through the door. Candidates are screened from the beginning and they follow a rigorous curriculum, learning more in eight weeks than some people do in two years. One of our board members made a really interesting comment. He said that perhaps with the downturn of the economy, college grads were more willing to do jobs they were over-qualified for (which might explain why so many middle-skill positions are filled by over-qualified people), but now that the Columbus economy is growing again, jobs are being created at a faster rate than students are completing degrees in computer science, creating a gap that Per Scholas can fill.

A snapshot from our surveys.

In addition to our summit on Wednesday, my supervisor has asked me to re-evaluate the way we screen candidates for the program, so I’ve been making some modifications to our interview process. When I saw the extensive list of questions that our office has been using, I wondered how they were able to keep the interview under 30 minutes.  It’s my goal to streamline the interview questions and make it easier for any team member to do the interviews.

Things are wrapping up quite nicely. Looking forward to a beautiful weekend and then the final official week of my fellowship here at Per Scholas!

Today at our bi-weekly Columbus Foundation Learning Session, I talked about the difficulty of writing quality blog posts when much of my work currently isn’t public information. But walking back to work in this “lovely” warm weather I thought to myself, “Hey wait a minute…. that sounds like it could be a good blog post.” So here it is — my Seinfeld-esque “blog about blogging”.

As I’ve touched on in previous blog entries, I am responsible for contacting local officials across the great State of Ohio to engage in conversation about Clean Fuels Ohio and the work we do partnering with other organizations and municipalities. This is exciting work for me. I love feeling involved in the political process, particularly at the local level where policy has a tremendous tangible impact on citizens. Setting up these meetings and calls and emailing back and forth with city officials and administrators is, as the kids say these days, “my scene”. But unfortunately, I cannot share this information with the internet. If City “A” happens to stumble on the Summer 2015 Fellows blog and reads an article about Clean Fuels Ohio attending a planning meeting at the City “B” Library, it puts me and more importantly our organization in a very bad situation.

*It would be like if Jerry asked a girl out but she declined because she claimed to be out of town, only for him to see her out the next night with Kramer. But I digress…

Additionally, my other large project entails communicating with public and private fleet operators regarding our Midwest Green Fleets Forum in September. I receive data from these fleets that will determine whether or not they are eligible to be certified — which again is exciting information that I just cannot share in this medium until the results are made public in September, long after the summer fellowship ends. All of this work is beginning to turn out tangible results and hopefully by next week I will have some solid numbers to share. Peace, love, and GO BUCKS.

*This Seinfeld reference was brought to you by countless hours spent inside watching TBS due to two months of nonstop rain

If I may speak frankly, the first three to five weeks at my fellowship were a bit chaotic. Including my position, there are a total of four administrative positions at the CELC. The Administrative Assistant began six weeks before I started, the Center Director began two weeks before me, and Gina, our new Executive Director, began two weeks after my start date. Considering this turnover it is probably easy to see how my first few weeks with the organization were a little crazy. However, this turnover extended beyond the administrative staff. Several teachers and a member of our support staff also left the organization during this period, I suspect worried about the abrupt departure of their supervisors. As a result, while those of us on the administrative team were trying to learn our roles within the organization and the directors were drowning in the work that was sitting on their desks when they arrived, we often found ourselves away from our desks filling in classrooms and in the kitchen.

Although incredibly stressed and working long hours, the new CELC administrative team was determined to set the organization back on the right track. However, things had to get worse before they could get better. Hiring new staff, which I discussed in a recent post, is a time consuming task. While I was screening candidates and scheduling interviews to fill the vacant positions and while our Center Director and Executive Director conducted interviews and made offers, we were taking time away from other work that our jobs demanded. However, we understood that to set the organization back on track, give ourselves and the teaching staff a break, and continue to provide high quality early childhood education and childcare, this additional work to hire new staff needed to be done.

Today, the state of the organization is strong. Under Gina’s leadership, the organization is operating under a higher level of efficiency and a very high level of transparency. Most importantly, as the morale of the teachers has increased, the quality of education that we are providing is increasing–and parents are noticing. Today, we have filled most of the open teaching positions and have filled the open support staff position. In addition, we have added an additional “floater” to give the teachers more time to plan and an additional member of the administrative team to help fill in as I go to part-time this autumn.

In addition, exciting things are beginning to happen at the Center. Every day we are getting closer to the opening of the first intergenerational center in Central Ohio, which the CELC is opening in partnership with The Ohio State University, National Church Residences and the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. We are also implementing Conscious Discipline in each of our classrooms, a project led by Stacy, our new Center Director. In addition, we have three volunteer days scheduled for this fall in which large groups are going to come in and have the opportunity to make a meaningful and visual impact on the organization.

Therefore, even though the first few weeks at my fellowship were a bit stressful, and not at all what I expected, it has given me the opportunity to witness an organization go through an dramatic transformation in a very short period of time. I am proud to have been a part of this transformation and am excited that I am going to have the opportunity to stay on as a part time Volunteer Coordinator through the school year.