Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Week 5

This week was a very short week! I started the week off with taking care of my own oral health with a check-up visit to my dentist. When I got to the clinic, I started with making edits to the brochure in the morning. I caught up on a lot of emails I had to send and finished up the day with researching other clinics!

I learned a ton on Tuesday! I spent the whole day shadowing one of our KidSMILES board members, Dr. Jeff Milton, at his private practice in Powell, Olentangy Pediatric Dentistry. I started the day by observing a few basic procedures and a surgery that required oral sedation. It was really cool to see how Dr. Milton utilized different techniques to make each patient comfortable and how well he communicated with parents and patients. The office itself had a fantastic, kid-friendly feel to it, and kids could really have fun and feel comfortable with the atmosphere of Dr. Milton’s practice. I was very surprised at the volume of patients Dr. Milton saw in the morning, while balancing a surgery, check-ups, and different types of procedures. After we got the chance for a break during lunch, I got to talk to Dr. Milton about his path through dentistry, some of the ideas I have for my future goals in dentistry, and some specific questions that came up in the morning. After lunch, I continued my shadowing where I observed Dr. Milton work with a few patients with special needs. I was again, even more surprised and impressed at how Dr. Milton handled his patients and worked with his patient’s parents so well.

I noticed many of his patients were referred to him by general dentists and other patients because Dr. Milton was so experienced and had much more training from his pediatric dentistry residency and CE courses. After Dr. Milton saw all his patients for the day, we talked for a good twenty minutes about what I saw and some questions I had about the dental school admissions process. I got some really good insights about my dental school training, and also some insights about my interests in specializing in pediatric dentistry.

On Wednesday, I spent the morning finalizing the patient brochure and organizing all of our outreach photographs we have had since the inception of the outreach program. In the afternoon, I had a meeting with Laura and our VISTAs working at the clinic talking about our outreach program and our history. It was great that Eric and Tionne got a chance to come to an outreach visit last Friday to experience what we do firsthand. At this meeting, we talked more about the history, broader impact, and the goal behind the outreach program.

I finished up the week on Thursday by going to an outreach visit with Eric with the WARM Summer Lunch Program (pictures to come). We went to Walnut Ridge Park near uptown Westerville and saw about 20 kids. It was really interesting because this site usually has a lot of activities for the kids. This week, a youth pastor from a local Westerville Church brought tons of drums and drum sticks and his own drum set for a drum circle with the kids!

I gave a large group presentation to all of the kids about oral health in general and played the nutrition game with different healthy and unhealthy food choices with the group. After our presentation, we brought out the chocolate frosting activity and poster games for the kids to play with. We also handed out goodie bags to all of the kids. Overall, it was a fantastic visit!

When I got back to the clinic, we had a mini-informal-team meeting where we discussed all of our accomplishments the past two weeks. We talked about some of our next steps and had a great conversation. After, the VISTAs and I got a comprehensive overview of fundraising and development from Norma. It was so cool to learn about fundraising and development – a field I know very little about, but I really should know a lot about! In any path I want to take through dentistry, I think it’s important to know basic principles, and if I ever need to, get a good picture of what happens in a fundraising and development team. Norma’s perspective and experience was really cool to hear because she has led departments and initiatives at universities, Columbus Museum of Art, Girl Scouts, and more.

I had such a fantastic week and I learned about different topics I would never have been exposed to. This fellowship has been fantastic not only in helping me learn more about dentistry, but broaden my perspective and knowledge of different fields that are so relevant to my future goals!

Five weeks in. The fellowship has reached its midway point. Wow. Didn’t we just get started? There is still so much I would like to learn and do with my host site, and it is a painful realization that my work will inevitably be cut short in just five more short weeks. I suppose this is par the course for life; one moment you are starting something–high school, college, an internship, or in this case, a fellowship–and the next thing you know it’s all over. We’re left scraping the annals of our subconscious, attempting to recollect and hold on to all of the memories and lessons from that experience before it all becomes a mere blip in our memory, remembered only as a blur of various events. I am determined to make the most of these final five weeks here. I will continue building relationships with all of the wonderful individuals I have had the good fortune of working with this summer. I will continue to produce increasingly efficient and high quality work. And I will continue soak up as much information as I possibly can throughout the remaining duration of my time here.

 

This past week I met with my mentor, and boss, and discussed my future career. We discussed the prospect of interning in a corporate law firm, a career objective of mine in the next year or two, and an area of expertise for my mentor who worked in the corporate law realm for a multitude of years. She has graciously furnished me with advice from her previous experiences, including the ostensibly minute details that would be lost on other law students, which will provide me with a slight advantage over my peers and a head start in my future workplace. This has proven to be one of the most remunerative aspects of the fellowship this summer: working directly with an attorney that has had a career arch that I aspire to emulate one day. Virtually no other experience I could have had this summer would have been as pertinent or impactful than what I am currently engaged in.

Aren’t the point of blogs to be transparent? If so, I definitely believe what I will be writing about will hit the nail on the head. The past week or so at my fellowship was tough. I felt like I was spinning my wheels with solutions to our little numbers in our kids’ time programming. I had done a lot of advertising (it worked a little), but I knew that we were not at a satisfactory point. As I wrote about last week, week one we had zero kids and week two we had five. That’s pretty discouraging. On Tuesday, my supervisor and the branch executive sat down and talked about solutions. We brought up good questions, brain stormed a lot of ideas, and talked about moving forward. That next day, I went into the program with the best attitude I could. We had a fourth of July party with worksheets, snacks, and kickball. Needless to say, it was awesome! We had a total of sixteen kids total! Kids who attended were between the ages of 6 and 12. When I was recording the attendance at the end of the day, I knew the break through had finally happened. It felt so good to go from discouragement to complete encouragement! I am very excited to see what the next few weeks have in store at the YMCA.

It was as delicious as it looks.

The theme of this week was: Struggles and Payoffs. As I said last week, Per Scholas students graduated this week. As they reflected on the challenges they have had to overcome, I was met with a challenge or two myself. Yet at the end of the week I think we were all reminded that a lot can be accomplished with perseverance and confidence.

I’ve identified my nemesis this week and its name is “Survey Response Rate.” As part of my responsibilities at Per Scholas, I’ve been tasked with surveying area IT leaders to learn more about what training and experience employers are looking for. Everything up until this point had been going very well. Creating the survey? No prob. Assembling a contact list? Got it covered. Getting people to actually take the survey? Oh boy. I did some research about online surveys and response rates and found some solace. Turns out the average response rate for e-mail surveys is 24.8%. Phew! I think we’ll come in above that. But at any (response) rate, our ultimate goal is to assemble enough data to inform smart and responsible decisions. The survey closes next week, so send some good vibes my way that we’ll get an overwhelming response in the next few days. 😉

This is Dennis Adamets, the class valedictorian. An awesome guy!

Yesterday was a wonderful celebration of folks who have achieved a lot and who refused to give up on themselves. For many students, eight weeks ago the odds seemed insurmountable. Now, these students are trained professionals and many of them already have new careers waiting for them. Awesome, right?! I was moved by the words of Robin Green, former Director of Business Solutions at Per Scholas. Her advice to the graduates was this: “Get all you can. Can all you get. But whatever you do, don’t sit on the can.” Her call to share gifts and talents rather than “sit on them” was compelling.

Every name on this program represents an inspiring and capable individual.

The best part of the ceremony, as it is with any graduation, was to watch the degrees conferred unto the graduates. Honestly, this entire group of students has welcomed me in so completely and treated me with such love and goodness that it’s hard to imagine another class could ever compare. I will miss them dearly, but I wish them every happiness and it is my hope and prayer that no good thing would be withheld from them.

GroundWork group’s new blog!

Yesterday, GroundWork group launched a new blog in celebration of their 10th anniversary. Go check it out here! Though I haven’t really had that much to do with the blog, they were inspired my the blogging that the fellows are doing when considering starting their own. They will mostly be posting technology and nonprofit advice, but will also be hosting some guest bloggers on occasion. It’s always an exciting thing to witness an organization trying something new – I’m looking forward to seeing the response they receive.

I was at Prevent Blindness Ohio again this week in order to get some of the last key pieces of information for my research project. I feel like I have compiled most of the information I need for my report on how their information management system can be more efficiently used, now comes the task of combining everything into a complete document.

One of the things I’ve had the most fun with this week was working on redesigning GroundWork group’s flyers and brochures. It’s nice to take a break from the research and embrace my creative side. I’ve recently discovered this awesome (and free) website called Canva.com where you can create different photos and documents using their stock layouts, shapes, text designs, and more. I’ve been using it in my personal life, so I decided I’d give it a shot for professional use. I don’t necessarily think I would use Canva to create a finished look (for the types of things I’m working on at least), but it’s a good way to sketch out ideas before drafting final layouts in InDesign.

Working on the brochure

I’m looking forward to the upcoming long weekend to take a bit of a break. The summer is rushing by and I have so much work to do before it’s over! Have a good 4th of July everyone! (I created the image below on Canva – I’m seriously addicted haha)

Greetings! Sorry about the absence this past week! I was out of town and visiting family in North Carolina this past week. It was a great time of sun, boating, tubing, and living the White Lake Life as we like to call it. However, I am now back in Columbus and back in action at the Pizzuti Collection.

While I was gone, we had our first week with our new junior docents. I am immensely grateful for the help and support of my coworkers and interns, who really stepped up to the plate this past week, filling in for me and getting the JD’s oriented here at the museum.

I came back to work Tuesday to a lot of changes! We have our freshly hung This Just In: New Acquisitions exhibition (it is AMAZING, I highly recommend coming to the Collection and giving it a look!). With a members opening that evening, and the Collection is now open to the public 5 days a week! Tuesday- Saturday 11-5. This has changed traffic through the Collection, but it is exciting to see visitors in everyday that I work now! We have also started giving tours to the Boys and Girls Club Summer groups twice a week, so the daily routine has definitely been lightly shaken up a bit.

Back to the Junior Docents, now. I have the pleasure of working with 6 teens from the Boys and Girls Club of Columbus(Pictures and more info to come in these next few weeks). They will be learning the ins and outs to museum nonprofit work and training to become docents for our Fall Exhibition, Us Is Them. They were placed at the Collection through the BGCC summer SOARhire program and we are delighted to have them. They are at the Collection Tuesday-Saturday learning and working alongside our staff here. We do a number of activities that provide job training for the teens. We work on skills such as customer service skills, cashiering skills, public speaking, researching, presenting, the list goes on an on. We do, however, have the privilege to take kind of a unique focus with our program by focusing on art and art related concepts such as creativity in this job training. I think the Junior Docents will (hopefully!) leave this summer with a new appreciation for art and a unique and creative, outside-the-box, perspective on the kinds of skills it takes to be successful in today’s working world.

The first week (though shortened by the holiday) has been excellent here. The JDs are really starting to take ownership and a sense of pride in the Collection as their place of employment and a part of their city’s cultural landscape. Hopefully this will follow them at the end of the summer.

Well that’s about all for now! I will check back in with you all next week and let you know how everything is going!

Stay Classy, Columbus.

Jessie

A couple nights ago, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed into law the two-year state budget passed by the Ohio State Legislature. This budget — House Bill 64 — calls for a $71.2 billion spending plan over the next two years. This lengthy process involves immense debate in both houses of the Ohio Legislature with policymakers attempting to determine what direction our state will take in the next several years. Members sponsor and cosponsor bills and amendments ad nauseam, trying to promote or de-fund programs and initiatives. To oversimplify things and quote everybody’s favorite lovable loser cinematic congressional candidate, Marty Huggins, “it’s a mess…”

Here at Clean Fuels Ohio, we aim to encourage the use of cleaner domestic fuels and alternative energy sources for local governments, businesses, and consumers. In order to accomplish and fulfill our organizational missions, we must be actively involved in governmental policy particularly at the state level here in Columbus. Our most recent efforts have led to the introduction of House Bill 176 (HB 176) — a bipartisan effort to create financial incentives for the purchase or conversion of alternative fueled vehicles, among other beneficial policy measures ensuring Ohio keeps pace with our neighboring states when it comes to promoting clean domestic fuels. We have fallen behind in investment specifically because of a lack of financial incentives and this legislation addresses that concern.

Timing is everything in politics, and for Clean Fuels Ohio, the timing just wasn’t quite right for HB 176 this summer. With the legislature focusing nearly all of their efforts on passing a balanced budget before adjourning for the summer, our legislation was not passed through the House or Senate. There seems to be wide-ranging support from both sides of the aisle on this legislation, and members have expressed to us that they expect the bill to pass committee unanimously — which rarely happens. The new session begins in the fall, and all signs point to HB 176 being passed by the Ohio House and moving right on thru the legislative process (cc: Schoolhouse Rock “I’m Just a Bill”). For now, we wait and see, but Clean Fuels Ohio is optimistic that this legislation will move quickly and eventually provide Ohio with the right tools for promoting the use of cleaner alternative energy sources.

So this blog post may be a bit late. On top of work and the learning session last week, I finally got the keys to my first apartment on Thursday. It was a moment I have been looking forward to all summer, but anyone who was in Columbus this weekend could probably have told you that it was not the best weather for moving. Between the torrential downpour on Friday and the rental truck with only one working turn signal, our move was anything but smooth sailing. To top it all off, our apartment has what I would lovingly refer to as “quirks.” The toilet stopped flushing on Saturday morning, there’s white carpeting in the dining area, our front door jams and our spacious backyard is currently looks like an uncharted wilderness. What I thought would be a fun weekend of unpacking and putting the final touches on our apartment has become a logistical puzzle and daunting fix-it project with no end in the foreseeable future.
Walking into work on Monday after a stressful and exhausting three days, I was immediately thankful for the kindness of my coworkers. Each one of them asked how my move had gone and listened earnestly while I vented about the trials and tribulations of getting renters insurance and collectively agreeing on a floor plan. When I started to space out in a Development meeting halfway through the day, my boss, Tammy, reacted with genuine concern rather than disapproval. The group nodded understandingly when I explained that I had been up past 3 a.m. scrapping mold and mildew from the bathtub so that I could take a shower in the morning. Tammy even suggested I work from home a bit this week so that I can keep my hours more flexible while we’re still settling in. I’m beyond grateful that I have amazing coworkers who care not only about the well-being of the public but about the health and happiness of those directly surrounding them as well.

Even though Columbus is the fifteenth largest city in America, it often seems to be looked over as a major player in this country since it lacks some key features of major cities that tend to gain them attention. Without a major league team from one of the three major sports or a large tourism industry, Columbus is often looked over as a destination city for young professionals.  However, after growing up in a suburb of Youngstown, Ohio, I feel like a kid in a candy store spending the summer in Columbus.

Up to this point, I have primarily used this forum to discuss my professional experiences at the Columbus Early Learning Centers.  However, this week I will break from this habit to give you a day-by-day of my life in Columbus, Ohio after 5:00 P.M.  Based on my week, its clear that there is plenty going on in Columbus to provide the big city feel that could be an easy draw for other young professionals. 

Monday- A City with a Hometown Feel

When I came to Columbus three years ago, I joined Club Swimming at Ohio State and have since served in several leadership roles for the club.  After I left work on Monday, I joined our club’s advisor and two other members of the team for a swim at Northwest Swim Club located off of Bethel Road.  Although this was not my first visit to this pool, it never fails to bring back memories of swimming at my summer swim club back home in Youngstown.  It is amazing how living in a city as large as Columbus can still have the small, hometown feel at times.  After swimming about 3,000 yards, which we joke is the new 4,000 for those of us who seem to be getting less in shape with time, we all grabbed dinner at Bare Burger, a relatively new restaurant downtown, and caught up as we watched the US women’s soccer team defeat China in the World Cup.

Tuesday- A Day That Could Please Any Sports Fan

On Tuesday, after getting in a quick workout, I joined the other fellows for our first excursion at Huntington Park to watch the Columbus Clippers take on Norfolk.  Though not the biggest baseball fan, this was a great opportunity to hear about the experiences of other fellows at their nonprofits.  It was also great to be able to catch a great game just walking (okay…I drove) distance from my apartment on campus. In addition to this team, Columbus is the home a major league soccer team, a hockey team, and of course Buckeye football. How could a sports fan not be in heaven here?

Wednesday- For the Food Lovers Among Us

On Wednesday, after our second fellows development session, during which a panel of young professionals in Columbus came in to speak, I joined the other fellows for lunch at North Market.  For those of you who don’t know, North Market is located in the middle of downtown and has over thirty food vendors.  It is a great pick for those looking for an affordable and quick lunch or an early dinner.   Once again, this was a great opportunity to get to know some of the fellows and share early successes, funny stories, opportunities as well as challenges from the first few weeks on the job.

After the workday, I was put back to work as I helped my cousin move from her old house to a new one in Grandview.  I will save you the exciting details from this evening.  However, afterwards, I was treated to Loops, a great Gyro restaurant located on King Avenue and Northwest Boulevard.  At first I was hesitant to break away from my regular Chipotle, Bibibop, and Fusian rotation when eating fast casual. However, I think it managed to nudge its way into my new top three.

Thursday- You Can Still Watch Netflix in a Big City, Too

I wish I had something exciting and adventurous to report from Thursday, but the evening was spent playing Euchre with some friends from Youngstown and finishing up the third season of House of Cards on Netflix.

Friday- Columbus’s Arts Scene

On Friday, I spent the evening drowning in the pouring rain and jumping in the mud with some friends at a Walk the Moon Concert at the LC Pavilion.  Originally a small band from Kenyon College, Walk the Moon has gone on to achieve recent success with their song, Shut Up and Dance.  (Fun Fact: Their first major single, Anna Sun, was named after a Kenyon Professor.  However, the song was not about her; they just liked her name and received her permission to use it). Despite the cold, rain, and mud, the band still managed to put on one of their best shows that I have seen, and this was my fifth.  In addition to this concert venue, there are multiple others in Columbus including the Newport Music Hall, The A&R Music Bar, occasionally Nationwide Arena, and the Schottenstein Center, and recently Ohio Stadium.  For the arts lover, Columbus also has a wonderful arts district that hosts a monthly gallery hop on the first weekend of the month as well as numerous summer arts festivals.

Some friends and I at the LC Pavilion downtown

In the end, even though Columbus is often disregarded as a major city, there was clearly plenty of excitement to keep me entertained for the week.  On one hand, Columbus provided me the opportunity to see a minor league baseball game and my favorite band within walking distance of my house in just one week.  On the other, it provides the opportunity to go for a swim a few minutes from my apartment and just hang out with friends from back home.