Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Busily sculpting her amazing dragon!

For Week 5 of this fellowship, the teenagers came back to the museum for one more session of in depth workshops, learning new art techniques, and lots of fun!   For this round of workshops, we hosted teachers who taught “The Art of Fashion,” “Sew Fun: Pajamas,” “Fantastic Figures,” and “Fantastic Places: Sculpted Spaces.”  Throughout the week, sewing machines were whirring, fabric was flying, polymer clay was sculpted, molded, pinched, and folded, paints of all colors were deployed, and foam was shaved and carved into mountains, caves, beaches, and fields.  The teens in the “Fantastic Figures” and “Fantastic Places: Sculpted Spaces” had AMAZING imaginations – they created unique and fanciful creatures and then made intricate worlds for them to live in.  Look at these creations!

An elegant elephant and its circus tent

This intricate habitat had all sorts of little accessories, like food dishes and toys, for the panda fairy creature who lives here

Showing off their handmade PJs and sewing projects

It was so great to see these campers really stretch themselves and see their imaginations in full swing.  It is such a great reminder of why I decided to make the arts my career-field, and reminds me why I went back to school.  Like any schooling, sometimes grad school is just killer, and I ask myself why I am putting myself through this torture. “Is it really going to make any difference?” I ask myself.  “Why did I give up a full-time job for this madness?” But watching these campers dive into their passions, try new things, and flex their creative muscles helps me remember my end goal of grad school: to have a meaningful career in a field and a place I that I truly feel strongly about, and to have my work make a difference in the lives of those with whom I interact. I’m so glad I am getting that reminder through this summer fellowship before I start my last year of school in the fall – it’s a big help and a great refresher to be around people, both at the Ohio Craft Museum and the Columbus Foundation, who love what they do and encourage others to live their passions as well.

My fellowship is a bit different than some of the others I’ve been reading about this summer. A lot of my work is administrative, and the people I work with day to day are the other people who work in administration rather than clients or members of the public. This is a bit different than most of the past work I’ve done too, and correspondingly I’m learning some new lessons.

I think one of the things I’m learning quite a bit about is the importance of compromise. I’ve spent a lot of time planning, and since I’ve put so much work into figuring out what the best options are for overhauling our loan closet, I’m now pretty invested in the results. That doesn’t mean that others will always like what I propose even if it’s what makes the most sense to me. People might resist because they perceive something to take extra work (and in the nonprofit world everyone already has plenty), or because they’re attached to the old way of doing things and not ready to give it up yet.

Some aspects of that, to be honest, have been very frustrating. But especially after talking it over with some of my other coworkers, I’ve accepted that some personalities will be more resistant to change and that compromising with them is still important. I think in some ways it jives with me because, as a Buddhist, I’ve thought a lot about letting go of all sorts of attachment. My ideas of the way a thing should work or should be or would be best are all part of that, and even if I’m convinced I’m right sometimes the best solution is to let it go and find something that works for everyone, even if it’s not the best possible scenario.

I’m lucky I have good support from the person I generally take direction from, who I see as something like my boss in the office. She’s been an excellent sounding board and has had a lot to teach me, not only in terms of the logistics of the nonprofit but also in terms of working with others. When I started, I would have said working with others was already a strength of mine, but one aspect of this work is that it always challenges us to be better.

The Columbus Museum of Art is just one of the many awesome partnerships Children’ Hunger Alliance has secured to appear at different sites throughout the summer. CMA’s first summer site visit was last Thursday, June 26, to Trevitt Elementary School. I went to check it out, and I was so impressed with the children’s good behavior and creativity!

I didn’t know what to expect from an art museum- were they going to be passing around copies of Monet’s Water Lilies to demonstrate impressionism to third graders? I should have given CMA more credit. I walked into a small cafeteria with 20 or so kids busy at work construction paper, beads, cupcake wrappers, toilet paper rolls all being cut, glued, stringed, and taped tastefully.

The museum had planned an activity around CHA’s specialty- food! Kids drew a slip of paper from a bingo wheel that held a “fantastical food” challenge for them to create, though they were given the freedom to create whatever they desired with the supplied materials. All of the children were engaged and enjoyed rising to their fantastical food challenge.

One girl had a tall construction with eyeballs she made from paper cups. She told me she created a “monster oven.” “But it’s not a bad monster,” she said, “It’s going to make my mom an apple pie.”

Kids! They’re too sweet. And I’m glad that all of the emails I read, receive, and send every day adds up to an enjoyable experience for them that allows them to grow a little more.

Desjeenic was challenged to make her dream meal. She made the tall structure on the left and titled it “Eye Food.”

My work at the Foodbank is really kicking into high gear and I am loving the quick pace. I just sent out the invitations to the workshop on food insecurity I am putting on at the end of my term here, August 6th to be exact and I am compiling articles and summarizing them for my co-workers to gain background information on the different topics that could be discussed during the workshop.

Our summer vistas from AmeriCorp just ended their terms last week so I am also taking over some of the responsibilities of our former vista in Agency Services. This involves visiting produce markets across Columbus and in the surrounding rural counties to conduct surveys and hand out information on SNAP benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, and recipes that include the produce they are picking up at the market that day.

I am also in the middle of doing small interviews with co-workers in other divisions to get a better sense for the Foodbank’s variety and dynamism. This is an on-going learning experience since the Foodbank is so huge. I recently took my parents to see my garden over the weekend and I also took them inside to see some of the warehouse. They were blown away at the depth and volume of what we store and distribute. I was so proud to show what I had done so far. I am feeling like I have real tangible agency in my work and it is really rewarding. The weed in the garden keeps growing too. I am not kidding I think it is 8 feet tall. I will have to attach a picture to one of these posts with someone standing next to it just to put it into perspective. I am almost certain it is not a sun flower. I will keep you all updated on my and the weed’s progress but for now, I am remaining extremely busy so I must sign off.

A recent college grad determining a career path is like a chicken with its head cut off, frantic and confused without the ability to see what comes next.  After graduating in May with two very broad majors in Philosophy and Spanish and an equally wide-open minor in Sociology, I have found myself in the position of wondering what comes next.  I have always had a drive to serve others and have spent a lot of time volunteering, but how do I turn that into a future, into a career?  Will I ever have a clear idea of what career path I am headed toward?  This week at one of our Fellow’s Learning Sessions we all received some great advice that really resonated with me as I embark on this path discerning process.  We heard from four young professionals in the non-profit sector who each found themselves exactly where they needed to be, not by sticking to a career path or making plans from a young age but by taking advantage of opportunities and being willing to take on new challenges.  None of them had everything figured out immediately upon graduation.  I’m sure many of them still don’t have everything figured out, but each step and experience led them to a new understanding of their passion and place.  One of the biggest decisions facing me and many other recent grads I know is whether to go to graduate school and if so what master’s degree to pursue.  I know that a graduate degree is important and would afford me opportunities that might not be available to me otherwise, but I don’t yet know what my passion is or what I might be willing to spend another two years studying.  This week’s learning session reminded me that not knowing is OK.  Each person on the panel echoed the same piece of advice: get work experience first.  Get to know what you are passionate about and what you really want to do, and then,if you are ready, go back to school.  I may be a chicken running around with my head cutoff not knowing what I want to do, but right now I’m where I need to be.  I’m getting great experience and learning more about what makes me excited, what my passion is.

Earlier this week our watershed coordinator and I went to check up on the Waterman farm ditch renovation on Ackerman run. This is located off of Kenny Rd on the OSU agricultural grounds west of the Olentangy. This area was previously just an open stream which allowed the grazing cattle complete access. The restoration of the waterway protected the length of the stream with a 70’ wide stream planting complete with a cattle fence to keep the grazing livestock away from the stream.

The restoration planted 2 zones, the outside meander, and the riparian buffer. The Meander was planted with mostly living willow stakes, which we saw had a very high success rate. The riparian buffer was planted with shrubs like nannyberry, elderberry, silky dogwood, and Washington Hawthorne as well as various varieties of oaks, maples, and other riparian trees.

While some invasive honeysuckle has been making its way into the restoration on one end, it for the most part has been a large success. More trees than were planted are visible in its second year and the stream was flowing and clear.

One of our campers concentrating on painting his Oaxacan animal

Whew!  Last week (Week 4) was the first week of Young Masters Camp, so it was time to see if all my prep work in the previous weeks was enough to keep us moving forward.  Well, I am happy to report that it was!  Bar a few minor issues, things ran smoothly and we met all of our goals.  Obviously we want the kids to learn something while they are at camp at the museum, but our bigger goals are safety, fun, and creativity.  As long as we accomplish those three things, we count it as a win!

Campers and teen volunteers making homemade dog treats

Because this week was called “Pet Projects,” all our lessons and projects this week were based on furry, fuzzy, finned, and feathered creatures, whether real or imaginary. Studentsmade projects like denim pouches painted with pet portraits, indigo-dyed banners and bandanas (I had Smurf-blue hands for about a day after helping with this!), “perfect” polymer clay pets, ceramic chia pets and grass planters, Mexican Oaxacananimals, homemade dog treats in polymer decorated jars, painted picture frames, shrinky-dink pet tags, woven mats for dog dishes, and drawings based on James Thurber’s dog doodles. If you are thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of projects for a one-week camp!”…You’re right!  Unlike some camps that only do one or two small projects a week, our campers complete complicated, multi-day projects with unique materials like fabric, metal, clay, and more with real artisans and craftspeople. We have four classes every day, so that means that our full-day campers could potentially take home forty projects at the end of the week!

Campers getting ready to display their work in the art show.

I taught a class that painted picture frames, and I decided to teach a “resist” technique to my students. A “resist” technique is where you put a paint-resistant material down (contact paper, in this case), paint over it, and remove the material, leaving a negative space with no paint. However, when I described this, I was met with twelve pairs of blank stares, so I had to quickly revise and change my terminology (like “blank” instead of “negative”) to make the lesson more clear.  Good practice for quick thinking!

To sum up, here’s a quick round-up of the most important things I learned from my 6-12 year-old campers:

• Hangman is even harder when your 6 year old opponent spells “orange” like “orengj” and “girl” like “geral.”
• Being out of white paint is possibly the worst thing to happen…ever.
• Tigers make the best pets because they can eat intruders.
• The most common form of death (according to a cootie-catcher/fortune teller) is falling in a volcano or having to eat 100 cakes.
• Bigfoot lives in Alaska and eats bears, but is scared of people.
• The best way to get your friend to give you a turn with the purple marker is to sigh dramatically, collapse onto the table, bang your head on the table, cry, get an ice-pack, and steal the marker while your friend goes to the bathroom

Until next time!