Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Week 2 has definitely been about collaboration. On Tuesday, the Columbus Speech and Hearing Center held its 4^th annual Great Communicators Golf Classic at the Kinsale Golf & Fitness Club in Powell. This fabulous fundraiser helped raise money for services and programs offered by the CSHC.

As a volunteer, I was placed at hole #8 which held the closest to the pin challenge. Coming from a person who didn’t know a thing about golf, I actually had a blast!! The golfers were full of energy and ready to have a good time. It was a great learning experience and with a little collaboration, we were all able to support a good cause while also having a little fun! Check out the pics and see for yourself!

Now, to the good stuff…for my project, I am focusing on recreating / updating the volunteer orientation process at the CSHC. The center offers many sessions for children and teens that are in need of speech and occupational therapy. The sessions can have anywhere between two to a dozen children in them at a time. Because of this, volunteers are much needed to assist clinicians in the sessions. So, we are working on a way to create the optimal experience for the volunteers, clinicians, and the children who are in the sessions. There are specific techniques the clinicians use to help the children learn and it is important that volunteers understand what role they play in that process.

I’ve been collecting great feedback from volunteers, clinicians, and parents. I will be sending out formal surveys to get more specific feedback and continue to tweak my ideas to create the optimal experience for all parties involved. But I can tell you now that it involves video, PowerPoint presentations, and lots of fun!!

I have an “ideal” timeline laid out for the progress of my project but I look forward to seeing how it actually pans out, lol…wish me luck and I’ll see you next week!

My days at Habitat are essentially filled with research. However, I’m spitting our reports on issues and institutions that I find fascinating, so it doesn’t feel much like work. My boss, Michelle, has been so wonderful to allow me to pursue my interests that lie within the scope of Habitat’s work but may not be aligned exactly with my tasks. For example, I’ve been researching Columbus’ rich history with urban renewal and gentrification. We have prime exhibits of neighborhood revitalization in Old Town East, Victorian Village, Italian Village, and most recently Weinland Park. I have had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Michael Wilkos of The Columbus Foundation about his work in Weinland Park and the history of the successful community development partnerships with various regional entities since the 1990s. He truly is a wealth of information.

Right now Michelle and I are forging relationships with community members in the Milo-Grogan neighborhood and orchestrating community meetings that are slated for July. These meetings are the vital preliminary stages of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) that will dictate the future of the program in Milo-Grogan. As stipulated by NRI, Habitat-Greater Columbus will take a minimal role in the decision-making process of the community. The initiative is to be community-driven, organically grown from residents and associations that live and operate within the neighborhood.

My co-workers are especially enchanting. It seems as though my questions never cease. For example, I spoke with Melissa for about 45 minutes about HUD policies and mortgage procedures while standing in her doorway. Everyone has been extremely inviting and engaging with me throughout these first two weeks. I only look ahead with motivation and anticipation as the task slowly comes together day by day. We have lots and lots of work to do, many surveys to complete, many conversations to have.

Milo Arts, a residential art studio space on E. 3rd Ave.

All cliches aside, so far in my fellowship I have learned that the most important thing about working as part of a team is communication.

Without communication, important tasks fall to the backburner, new ideas are lost, and creativity is stifled.  Although I have only been at Jazz Arts Group for a short time, I already know that something JAG does very well is communication.  I had the opportunity to sit in on a staff meeting, and something I found exciting and refreshing was the exchange of information and ideas between the staff.  Myself and the interns even had the opportunity to speak about the projects we had been working on, and we were able to get some additional direction and input from staff members. 

Since I blogged last, I have been busy making preparations for the upcoming JazZoo! season.  For those who don’t know what JazZoo! is, it is a series of four Columbus Jazz Orchestra concerts presented by Jazz Arts Group in collaboration with The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  The concerts take place at Water’s Edge Events Park at the Zoo.  This season, we have an exciting variety of concerts for our audience to enjoy! 

So far, I have spent a lot of time organizing the customer table reservation data.  I have also been sending out packets of wristbands to those who reserved tables, as well as comparing and contrasting audience member reservations from years past.  I even got to help draft a letter that has gone out to those who reserved tables for the shows last year. 

I have also been spending some time brainstorming and investigating experiential enhancements for our guests to paricipate in at the concerts.  The JAG staff and and I have been working very hard to create a memorable and fun concert experience for our patrons. 

To find out what’s in store for this sixth season of JazZoo! visit http://www.jazzartsgroup.org/columbus-jazz-orchestra/jazzoo/!

– Janelle Myers – Fellow, Jazz Arts Group

Greetings Fellows and Friends! My name is Bailey Cleary-Foeller and I will be spending my ten week Columbus Foundation Summer Fellowship working with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC). As a regional planning commission, MORPC focuses on a number of different issues such as providing housing rehabilitation programs, working towards cleaner and more energy efficient regional transportation systems and participating in plans which will help build and support a strong local-food system. Although MORPC focuses on a wide range of issues the overarching goal of the organization is to help build a more prosperous and sustainable environment across the region.

My fellowship project with MORPC is to assist in the planning of EcoSummit 2012. EcoSummit will bring together scientists, engineers, policy makers and environmental groups in a weeklong international conference focusing on the renewal of ecosystem services. Last held in Beijing, China in 2007, the upcoming Fall 2012 EcoSummit will be the first of the conferences to be held in the United States. As part of MORPC ‘s  2012 planning team I spent my first week here researching ecosystem services and potential exhibitors and meeting with MORPC’s partners in planning EcoSummit, particularly representatives from the OSU Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. As my fellowship progresses I will be recruiting exhibitors and sponsors from around the world and developing promotional materials.

My experience at MORPC thus far has been absolutely wonderful! The staff is comprised of passionate, dedicated (and as I was pleased to discover) extremely warm and welcoming people who made me feel right off the bat like valuable asset to their team. Although I’ll primarily be working on EcoSummit 2012, I’ve had several opportunities over the past week to sit in on and participate in meetings and committees which span MORPC’s many areas of concentration, so I’ve really been able to develop an understanding of MORPC’s work in the community and the region and what an important resource they are! I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to be working with them on EcoSummit 2012.  It is extremely exciting to be a part of this prestigious conference and I am so looking forward to being able to further collaborate with MORPC staff, OSU scientists and international companies and organizations in the creation of it. I truly believe that the bringing together of these great and powerful minds from across the globe, and the diffusion of ideas that will result from it will play a vital role in creating a more sustainable world.

Bailey-Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission

I had a great orientation yesterday with Sandi, Alicia, and Dan at the Carriage House at The Columbus Foundation.  The facility was truly beautiful and very unique!  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but getting to learn more about the other fellows was a fun experience!  I feel very privileged to be chosen to participate in this fellowship, and was so inspired and impressed by the professionalism of all of the fellows.

After we had discussed details of the fellowship, I headed over to the Short North office of my nonprofit placement, Jazz Arts Group.  I got to sit in on a staff meeting, and already began work on my project, the JazZoo! concert series.  I am looking forward to collaborating with The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and all of our great guest artists we have coming in for this year’s JazZoo! series.  I was also very excited to hear that the other fellows and staff from The Columbus Foundation will be attending one of the JazZoo! concerts.

I am very honored to be taking part in non-profit work, especially in the arts sector.  Ever since I was small, I have played an instrument and been involved with community and school educational groups.  I have seen firsthand the benefit of nonprofit organizations in the lives of myself, family, and friends.

During our orientation at The Columbus Foundation, President and CEO Doug Kridler talked about the misnomer that is “nonprofit”.   The “non” implies that there is no benefit, no outcome, no “profit” in this field of work.  Often, when I tell people that I want to go into nonprofit work when I graduate from college, they look at me like I’m crazy and ask me why I would want to work for free for the rest of my life, which is another common myth.  They are often shocked when I tell them that hospitals, schools, and even universities are nonprofit organizations, considering the amount of money that those organizations are worth.  These misconceptions about the nonprofit sector couldn’t be further from the truth.  The “profit” of these groups is seen in the lives of individuals and in the vibrancy of the community.  I look forward to my future in this sector and hope to change my community in a positive way through this fellowship.

– Janelle Myers

This Tuesday, I began a ten-week fellowship with The National Center for Adoption Law and Policy at Capital University Law School. A mere two days earlier, I graduated with a bachelor’s in strategic communication from The Ohio State University. In addition to the logistical changes that came along with this switch, there was a psychological shift taking place as well. In less than 48 hours, I went from being a student bogged down with homework and tests to an adult with my own office and no one looking over my shoulder. This newfound liberation spurred a mini-identity crisis and caused me to reevaluate who I really am.

One of the biggest things that has constructed my identity is my family and I have always known that they play a large role in my life. But the awareness of this fact within the context of NCALP, a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping children who don’t have families, really made me stop and think. What if I didn’t have a family? Who would I fall back on in times of crisis? Where would my identity come from?

These questions are more than just words on a screen. These questions are far too real for the more than 100,000 children in the United States who are without a permanent family. And although this is a heartbreaking realization, it reminded me that I am in the right place.

– Ann, NCALP