Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Hello all! As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a beanbag chair on Day 5 of Leadership Columbus’ Central Ohio Leadership Academy (COLA). I’ll start by giving a little background on what COLA actually is. COLA is a tuition free, 6 day program in the summer for rising juniors and seniors in high school. The goal is to help them develop their own unique leadership along with strengthening their personal development. The way I’ll write this blog is by splitting my experience here into two blogs. The first, this week, will be about how I’ve witnessed the students in my cohort grow. Next week, I will share about how I’ve grown as a leader and person over this week so stayed tuned for that.

In my role at Leadership Columbus, I was fortunate enough that I was asked to help facilitate throughout COLA week. The way COLA is designed is that students are separated into small groups (cohorts). Within these cohorts, we strengthen collaboration, team building, communication, and the overall growth of each student. As a facilitator within my cohort, our job is to help guide these students’ conversations and really get them thinking about why they wanted to be here, what they’re passionate about, and what impact they want to make in the world.

Though it’s not quite over, I have still seen these students grow so much. On the first day, there was a surprising amount of energy with our students. Usually, it takes some getting used to and people are more shy to raise their hand or speak up. This year, that was not the case. I could tell from day 1 that this group of students were different and were going to have an amazing week. Within our group, there were some students where I could tell it might take them a little longer than most to open up to others. However, I could tell that each of them were extremely intelligent and just needed a little bit of guidance to get them to that point. The second day was very chaotic but I felt the students were able to gain a lot of skills from it. We spent the morning outside doing 3 hours of team building activities within our cohorts. Those 3 hours consisted of arguing, miscommunications, but growth as well. It’d be easier for me to explain what I saw in the form of Tuckman’s 5 stages of group development. Firstly, the group went through the forming stage on Monday when we just divided them up into groups of 4. Tuesday morning was definitely the storming stage. In these activities, the group argued, struggled organizing the team, and felt they weren’t getting anywhere with it. There was also confusion about what the end goal was and why they were doing the activities in the first place. However, watching these high schoolers go through the stages of group development during these exercises, I realized something. Their communication and way they persevered and succeeded by the end of the day, I realized how mature they really are. It was genuinely resemblant of any other storming stage of a work team in the real world.

By the end of the day Tuesday and into Wednesday, I noticed my group starting to go through the norming phase. They settled down and began explaining how the tough morning on Tuesday had made them stronger as a team along with being better communicators. They realized how important these new skills were to them now and in the future. Right now, my cohort can be seen in the performing stage. I’ve personally seen how each student in my cohort has grown and what impact they can bring to the table. I have also seen a few of my students stick out and have that leadership “X factor”. This was seen through activities and conversations we had on Thursday. This was the day where I could see how much this week had already impacted the students. We had lunch outside and even went on a nature walk, the whole group was getting along and building friendships which was very heartwarming to see how they’ve all grown together. Afterwards, we then came back on a serious note and began talking about their impact statements. Another goal of COLA is for each student to write an impact statement that they share on the final day with everyone about an impact they plan to make in their schools or communities following this program. The idea is to take what you’ve learned from COLA and put it into use by creating an impact in something they’re passionate about. After hearing my group’s rough drafts of what they wanted to do, I could tell that each of them would be so successful in the future. I was shocked how mature these students were with how they wanted to make an impact. If you had heard these impact statements, I promise you wouldn’t realize that they would’ve been made by 16 and 17 year olds.

I am extremely grateful to have been facilitating this week and have felt so inspired and excited for the future leaders in our country. These next 2 days, I will really witness the students shine and will see them at the highest. I want to give some personal shoutouts, starting with my co-facilitators for Cohort D also known as the “Dimensional Dominators”. I would like to thank Brayton Bollenbacher and Gigi Bix for being the best co-facilitators I could had ever imagined. They truly cared so deeply about each student and I believe that our students noticed that as well. They also guided me to my highest potential throughout this week. We all just really wanted the best from our cohort and wanted to guide them to become the best they could be. Finally a special and most important thanks to my colleague, Laddan Shoar – program manager of COLA, for letting me be a part of this wonderful week. At first it felt a little odd because I thought I was only a facilitator because of my role at Leadership Columbus this summer; but I’m so thankful I was given a shot to help facilitate and witness firsthand the growth of all the students who participated.

In my next blog, I will talk more about how COLA impacted me and how I saw myself grow. See you next time!

-Austin Gray

I took time this week to reflect on how civic engagement impacts the community. Although already involved in my community through student organizations and volunteer experiences, City Year Columbus made me dig a little deeper.

City Year’s values are characteristics that contribute to a thriving community and advocate civic engagement. One of the most meaningful is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a term from the South African Zulu tribe meaning “I am a person through other people; my humanity is tied to yours.” I like this concept because it means we are all connected to one another through interdependent relationships and our humanity is reflected in others. In the digital age where misinformation spreads like wildfire, people lack the ability to interact offline, and our world is becoming ever more polarized; It’s important to remember we all share the same fate.

I have previously learned about the relationship between civic engagement and self-efficacy in a psychology class. When people believe their actions have influence over outcomes, they are more likely to be involved in the community leading to increased self-efficacy and a self-perpetuating cycle. City Year’s value “belief in the power of young people” encourages believing in the potential of young people to transform the world. Young people are full of energy and idealism that fuels their self-efficacy which turns to civic engagement. It is then our duty to do the best we can for the future generation.

My marketing professor once gave me a piece of life advice that relates to City Year’s value “service to a cause greater than self.” He said that to feel happy in life you must discover your “why.” What drives you as a person? If you only seek superficial fulfillment, you will never be satisfied. Instead, your time, energy and effort should be dedicated to a greater purpose. We must put aside our ego and our differences to unite and achieve a common goal.

City Year’s values demonstrate the power of community, and my experience has taught me the importance of civic engagement. I hope in the future I will continue to expand on these ideas.

Last week was one of the most rewarding weeks of this program so far. The two focus groups I conducted with tenants in Community Housing Network were a resounding success. As part of CHN’s stakeholder engagement, we received direct feedback from those who occupy our properties. Since week two, I have been preparing for four focus groups, two of which I held last week. It was gratifying to see all the preparation I had done culminate in such successful sessions.   

The focus group consisted of a series of questions that I drafted. It allows tenants to discuss their goals, struggles, perceptions, and experiences. During the past academic year, I had to take a public management course for my major. My professor focused most of our time on facilitation tools and tactics. At first, I was unsure if I would enjoy the course, but it became my favorite that semester. Thankfully, my class was highly engaged because we had to do small group facilitations. The professor provided us with tools that helped me guide the focus group sessions. They got hectic at points because I was both the note-taker and facilitator. Still, holding small group discussions with the public was good practice.   

It was evident that tenants had a lot to discuss. I appreciate their honesty and bluntness because they provided great perspectives into the life of each property. I cannot say I have the whole story for the properties I visited, as the focus groups had limited participants. Those involved provided thoughtful and innovative suggestions for CHN’s challenges while delivering services.  

Prior to last week, I had been feeling very drained because most of my work involved sitting at my desk with limited interactions with others. It was refreshing to engage with the people I work to serve. The focus groups reminded me why I want to be in public service, and for that, I am grateful. 

This week was probably one of my favorites that I have had at my fellowship this summer. The highlight of my week was attending the Rural Housing Forum that MORPC hosted up in the Morrow County. At this event, I got to meet with numerous stakeholders about their work in rural housing and economic development initiatives. I was thoroughly impressed with some of the businesses and their methodology for addressing this concern.

At this meeting, I first was kindly introduced to the team at Small Nation, a private company addressing rural development and housing needs. Their mission and successes with the City of Bellefontaine was remarkable, and I enjoyed talking with them about the role of private companies in helping foster this change. Often, I think most individuals only look to government’s role in alleviating pressures such as housing, but companies also can have a massive impact, especially for lower-middle income individuals. This is one of the key areas that I will be studying this upcoming August, so I greatly appreciate MORPC for fostering this connection.

In addition to the event, I was able to attend the Ag and Rural Communications Outreach meeting. In this meeting, we discussed initiatives around MORPC’s rural stakeholders about various rural issues. Once again, this is right up my alley with what I plan on pursuing, so I felt like this was a tremendous opportunity to hear about their work and how MORPC helps these communities succeed.

Overall, I am getting towards the end of the fellowship, which is sad because of the great work and priorities that MORPC has for their rural communities. This week showed me that our advocacy goes far beyond just the cities in Franklin County. It is comprised of everyone and every city that spans from Delaware County to Hocking County.

This week, I started to work on Bridgeway’s annual report for the 2023-2024 year and I started to map out the content that I want to include in the report.

I decided to include a page for a staff profile to highlight our crisis stabilization program manager and a page that would highlight the program itself. I want these pages to also highlight a major success story that the program helped makes possible with a student that had experienced high levels of detrimental behavior that included self harm, but is now able to live more independently and attend classes at Bridgeway with a significant decline in those behaviors.

I also left room to include pages to highlight our Giving Tuesday campaign that raised over $16,000 for our Bridgeway Academy Market program. The market is located in the basement of our building and is a space where staff and students can come for food and snacks. The program is run by students and allows them to practice occupational skills by working at the cash register and preparing the food. Unfortunately our Food Service Manager had left so the Market has not been open for the summer but I have set up a meeting with Emily Walker who is a transition specialist at Bridgeway but who is looking over the Market in the meantime to ask for updates about the Market and its future plans.

Bridgeway’s segment on Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid was also another highlight from the previous year that I want to include into the report. The Viewpoint team reached out to Bridgeway to film a segment raising awareness for our organization. I thought this was amazing because it also raises awareness for students and adults living with developmental disabilities as well. I want to highlight this experience and include the finished segment in the report in a QR code.

Lastly, I wanted to highlight other unique programs at Bridgeway such as the Young Men’s Club lead by one of our speech therapists, Henry Newberg that I previously wrote about in a blog post. I also made room to showcase our Bridgeway theatre group that is lead by another speech therapist, Alexa Reck. Though I don’t know much about the program, I have reached out to her to hopefully get more insight into what it is and the positive impact it has on our students.

I am excited to be able to work on the annual report. I want the design to communicate Bridgeway’s brand and its values through the design and I want the stories to stand out to current and potential donors are confident about investing into the organisation.

I am also continuing to work on our charity regatta campaign. Unfortunately, we haven’t raised much money from the campaign but I spoke to our Director and she said that she was more focused on the content that we put out for it. I will continue to promote it as much as I can and think of ways that would encourage people to donate.

Can you believe it’s already week seven at Seeds of Caring? It’s unbelievable! I have mixed feelings as this incredible fellowship journey nears its end. Part of me is excited to see what’s next, but it also feels surreal. I’m thankful for the entire experience and the amazing people I’ve had the privilege to work with.

This week has been one of the busiest yet, and I hardly had a moment to catch my breath. I started the week by dropping off summer fun kits at Broad St. Food Pantry, then visited a new Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School called Livingston. There, I managed the kids in level 1 and taught them about how they can show gratitude to veterans for their service. It was my second time fully leading an event but the first time with these kids, so I was determined to instill the right and necessary information about veterans.

Monday’s session was quiet, as many of the kids were ESL students. As someone who was born in Nigeria and moved to the USA at a young age, I could relate to their experiences. Even though I always knew English, the accent and cultural differences were unique challenges. This connection made the session particularly meaningful for me.

Back at the office, the day slowed down after a few meetings and quality checks. Tuesday’s routine mirrored Monday’s, but the kids were much more active. They made a total of 50 veteran kits and their comments about the session were heartwarming. One kid said, “Wow, veterans are the kindest; they do so many dangerous things just to protect their country.” Hearing their understanding and appreciation melted my heart.

After returning to the office, I dropped off postcards to one of our non-profit partners for their back-to-school kits and continued preparations for future events. Wednesday was a chill day, focused on completing tasks and setting up for a board meeting in the evening. Despite struggling with my research project, I managed to identify 20 potential non-profit partners in a day, a significant improvement for me.

The rest of the week was a mix of activities. On Thursday and Friday, I visited various schools to drop off flyers for our upcoming events and entered data for all our summer activities. Additionally, I created content for the PLANT prep groups by compiling questions designed to encourage the kids to think outside the box, build their confidence, and understand that they can be leaders in unexpected ways. These questions also focus on teaching empathy, kindness, and other important values, ensuring the conversations are both suitable and age-appropriate.

As I reflect on these past seven weeks, I’m motivated to make the most of the remaining three weeks, seizing opportunities and pushing past limitations. This journey continues to teach me more about myself and the impact we can have on our community.

Until next week, have a great time! 🌱❤️

Kanyin

Another great week working at flow! This week began with a team meeting about an upcoming festival. ArborFest is in late August and is an opportunity for local community residents to be more interactive with environmental groups and learn more about safe practices. After this, we had a group lunch at Northstar! It was great to hear more about everyone’s thoughts and current projects as well as how they came to work at flow .

On Tuesday, I did my first News interview. Last week I contacted many local new sources in order to spread the word about flows tree giveaway. I got a couple emails back that asked me to meet with them in order to explain the opportunity more. I met Clintonville spotlight on Tuesday and had my first over the phone interview. I was pretty nervous, but I think it went relatively well for the first time doing this and definitely showed me how to be prepared for something like this. I had another one on Friday and I think this one went a little more smoothly, but I am looking forward to seeing what both sources write.

On Friday, I attended a local community event called the Go Green event hosted by Columbus parks and rec. My coworker Maggie and I set up an activity for all the kids in attendance, which was planting sunflower seeds. For a couple hours different groups of children from summer camps and activities came over and we were able to meet so many children and spread the word to them about what we do. This was a highlight of my week and I really enjoyed working with local kids and seeing them be so excited about the environment.

Sad to be leaving FLOW so soon, but I’m still looking forward to the next few weeks!

Happy Friday, everyone!! This past week at Children’s Hunger Alliance has been wonderful and packed with exciting new experiences! I still can’t believe how close we are to finishing the fellowship.

This week was different than usual, as I started the week working from home instead of being in the office. Although working from home had its beautiful moments and challenges, it taught me the importance of time management. Now I understand how challenging it can be to manage time, especially when working from home. There are so many unique distractions that can make it difficult to stay focused. A few tools that I used to help manage my time effectively that I hope will help others are making a schedule, setting boundaries, and creating a to-do list with realistic goals in mind.

On Monday, the team and I had a bi-weekly meeting with the CHA board members to review Taste To Remember updates, which are now six weeks away! This was just our first meeting, and there are many more to come. I had the opportunity to introduce myself to the board members, and we discussed the details of the ticket sales reports, auction items, and fundraising efforts for the upcoming event in August. Although the meeting was short and sweet, it was lovely finally being able to meet some of the hardworking board members and put names to faces of the people who have dedicated a lot of time and effort to helping Children’s Hunger Alliance with the behind the scenes fundraising events such as Taste To Remember and Menu of Hope. 

I can’t believe the fellowship program has only three weeks left! Once again, I’m genuinely excited for the upcoming weeks at CHA. Next week, I have a few fundraising webinars to attend and hope to explore more volunteer engagement at CHA. I’m committed to cherishing every moment and making the most of this incredible opportunity!

Another week down the hatch! This week was smooth sailing for the most part, but in doing my tasks and talking with everyone in the office I came to a few realizations. One is that the 9-5 format is not what bothers me, it’s being in the office all day. I love being outside, especially in the summer, and you get approximately 4 hours of being in the office. As I went through the week, I recalled our conversation at our last session on the pros and cons of remote work. I’ve concluded that I love remote work because it offers you true flexibility within your day. Most tasks might take you 3-4 hours max if you stay focused, then the rest of your day is practically yours. In saying that, I do see the value of being in the office as you can connect with your team members more easily. I have gotten to learn a lot about the team during our chats in the office and if I was primarily remote those connections may not be as strong as they are.

Last Friday, the Letter of Intent application closed with a total of 100 submissions! This week, the team and I were able to read the grant applications that various organizations had sent for approval to move to the second step of the process. It becomes very difficult when reviewing applications because you can identify the need, the significance, and the thought behind each of the programs that closely align with The Women’s Fund’s mission. There were some programs that the team and I loved but lacked a detailed application that outlined what participants in a program would be doing. It was an incredible amount of reading and your eyes started to get cross-eyed by looking at the computer screen filled with small text for hours. Reading the submissions gave me a new perspective on the grantmaking process and more knowledge of non-profits in Columbus.

Through this fellowship experience, I have realized quirks about myself, the pros and cons of workplace cultures, and gained some newfound skills. Each of these realizations is shaping the way I want to move forward in my career which I am extremely grateful for.

Hoping everyone had a great week!

See y’all in the next one!

Kennedy Smith

My time with City Year Columbus has been filled with tasks/projects ranging all over the place. I have been lucky enough to have experience in marketing, the technical side of development, fundraising, networking, graphic design, video editing, content management, etc. 

This past week, I worked on setting up the framework for our annual Red Jacket Bash an end-of-year celebration in honor of our AmeriCorps members finishing their year of service reflecting on the work done and the impact made in the community. I was also able to draft sponsorship documents for the Red Jacket Bash as well as our Advancing Racial Equity event held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Last year on that day there was a panel of students and AmeriCorps members who discussed the mental health of the youth. It is a great opportunity to connect more personally with the community and the issues they are facing.

One of our biggest projects for the year is the annual Impact Report where we as a site highlight all our important accomplishments for the year and report back end of the school year student successes. I have been tasked with creating a cover for the report which has hit a few bumps in the road but worked itself out. City Year handcrafted a gift book for Bill Clinton and used a collage of AmeriCorps pictures as the cover. I wanted to do something similar for my site, so I pulled our site-specific photos to use instead. I also created a graphic showing our partner schools as well as updated the picture out front in our office. 

Since the rest of my Devo team is out today I was responsible for posting to socials and crafting future posts for our social media. Additionally, I have been tasked with creating a new display for our national/local sponsors and our City Year values. Since I am getting used to creating monthly newsletters I was asked to start the one for August which included our Opening Day event, Kiwanis Regatta information, and catch-up with the returning Senior AmeriCorps members. My favorite task was creating a “Piece of Me” slide where I introduced an object of importance in my life to the AmeriCorps members. When getting tied down with technical tasks it’s nice to take a break and be creative!

The biggest event to occur this week was the departure of my supervisor Tiffany Priest who will be working with Lutheran Social Services. Tiffany has been a great mentor to me throughout my time at the fellowship and equipped me with all the skills/experience I need to succeed. She will be missed but I am thankful for all that she taught me and wish her luck in her future endeavor!