Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This past week was the last week of summer reading for the kids, and it was so bittersweet. Actually, it was mostly sweet and sticky – we had an ice cream to celebrate and it was so fun and chaotic! It was a great to get all of the kids and many of their parents together in one place to celebrate their participation in and, in some cases, dedication to the reading program. The kids were so excited for the ice cream and we got to give out some gift cards and prizes to some of the most dedicated kids. While I will miss seeing the kids everyday, I am glad to have a break from being the line monitor, check-in master, and behavior supervisor! Being in charge of a bunch of kids everyday can be incredibly challenging to your sanity and patience, but it is also so rewarding to see all the smiles and to know you were a part of making that happen. I look forward to planning a couple of fun nights for the kids to come hang out and make crafts or play soccer!

Last week, I also had a preliminary meeting to discuss a grant we are moving forward with. It is cool to see the work and thought process that goes into even the first steps of applying for a grant. I enjoyed the process of talking through how we fit into the mission of the grant, brainstorming ways to apply the funding, and troubleshooting the roadblocks that are certain to come up. I look forward to learning more about this process as we move forward with the application process.

Tonight is our volunteer appreciation dinner, and I already know its going to be a big, fun party. Our incredible volunteers contribute so much to helping the organization out in various ways and we truly could not do it without them. There are so many selfless, fun, compassionate individuals that help us out and I am looking forward to celebrating them and showing our appreciation at tonight’s dinner. They deserve a huge round of applause!

Last week was a blur. I spent days at home in Zoom meetings and I spent days at COHatch in meetings. I spent hours at Columbus Foundation attending a lesson and I’ve spent hours in our tree nursery tending to our trees.

One of our meetings was with two police officers. They taught us about an act called Community Emerging that each police officer partakes in. They have to pick a community and find some way that they can add value to that community. These two officers chose Fairlane mobile park. Behind the mobile homes is a homeless camp that holds anywhere between a100-200 people. The officers at first were trying to help the homeless camp when they realized the people in the mobile homes were neglected because everyone focuses on the problem behind them. Their goal is to create more separation between the homes and the people in the camp, reduce foot traffic, and keep the mobile park clean. They asked us to help. The idea is to have more trees to separate the two or help start a community garden for the mobile park. The officers are putting together an event on August 12 called Focus On Fairlane as a start of their project and to meet some of their short term goals.

A meeting I was in the day before was with a lady who puts together pop-up thrift stores or clothing exchanging events to reduce waste. We are trying to put together a Green Drinks event with her. Both of these meetings were very informative and very different from each other, yet they each wanted Green Columbus’s help. Green Columbus is more than just trees, it’s more than just plants. Green Columbus is a community builder, it brings people together. It improves the tree canopy and gives people free trees as a bonus. Each week I realize more and more how lucky I am to be a part of this organization. Not everything is what it appears to be at first glance.

This week I have been working a lot on our Life Stories event at the Gateway Film Center, and I want to use this blog post to talk about the details of the project. The Life Stories project features two groups of women serving life or long sentences at the Ohio Reformatory for Women: the storytellers who speak on their journeys and the media crew who capture the intimate stories of their incarcerated sisters. The purpose of this showing is to help promote understanding and connection between the general population and the often misunderstood world incarcerated people live in. 

The actual content of the project took place before I arrived at WAV, so my role has been working on a marketing and communications plan for this premiere event, where we are collaborating with an arts administration group from Otterbein University. One of the best parts about this project for me has been all the people involved that I get to work with. The Otterbein group and WAV staff meet weekly to plan the event itself, and this week I also got to meet with a former WAV staff member to talk about our communication plan. At this meeting, we began discussing how this event ties into WAVs goals as a whole, and it really got me thinking more about the big picture.

On the call, we found one common thread between all WAVs workshops and programs, which was that they are a way to create safe spaces for people, no matter the population. I saw this firsthand with the kids at the summer program, and it was also incredibly relevant for the incarcerated women involved in the Life Stories documentary. Beyond thinking about the big picture of WAV, I was also inspired to think about the big picture of what I want to do in my career, and it came back to those safe spaces. Every organization I have been a part of, whether it has been my scholars group at Ohio State, my job at the information desk, or the positions at nonprofit internships I have held, I have always wanted to contribute to creating a positive space for the people around me. At WAV this is a key part of their mission, but no matter where I go next I want to make that a priority for me.

It was another week filled with preparations for upcoming camps at the Ohio Craft Museum. While it makes for a busy week, it does not create the most engaging content for a blog post!

With this in mind, I decided to try a new approach to my weekly blog post.  I sat down with Judi Young, the new Education Coordinator for the Ohio Craft Museum, and asked her a few questions about herself and her hopes and goals for the museum. 

ART BACKGROUND

Judi is an artist who creates whimsical collages which have been featured in stores and exhibits around Columbus. She was first inspired to create her collages when she saw a piece of art in a store that captured her eye. It was a print of a torn paper collage that looked like a rooster. Enthralled by the work, Judi began collecting materials such as scrapbook paper and wrapping paper to make her own collages. Judi has completed multiple artist-in-residency programs and has been making her own animal-focused art since 2004. She has been an educator since 2006. 

ART EDUCATION: WHY & WHAT’S NEXT

When asked why she thinks art instruction and/or experiences are important for children, Judi expressed her belief that it is important for children to have artistic experiences because it facilitates the development of a well-rounded person by reinforcing individual creativity as well as divergent thinking skills. 

As the new education coordinator, Judi hopes to integrate lessons about influential Ohio artists, such as Aminah Robinson, into future camp sessions. As a history major and an enthusiastic art hobbyist, I appreciate this approach as it will allow the campers to learn more about art, art history, and the specific history of Ohio artisans, which remains true to the central theme of the museum itself.

I am very thankful for Judi’s willingness and eagerness to sit down with me and talk about her plans for the educational aspects of the museum, as well as her background and inspiration. Judi’s kind guidance and encouragement has been a welcomed addition to the camp, and I look forward to the return of the young camper’s energy next week! 

This week was filled with lots of meetings and lots of planning. As PrimaryOne Health is gearing up for National Healthcare Center Week, ribbon cuttings, and lots of things in between. It has been really exciting to be apart of the planning of the different events that are coming up, and it has been a great insight into how hard the people around me work. There are so many things that need to be done and so much coordination it is really insightful to see how this all flows together. Although, it seems like everything is going against the goals that P1H is trying to achieve, the team comes together to pivot, and get things done. This is a testament to the hard work of those in the non profit sphere. Speaking of the word non profit, in our Fellows Leadership course Dr. Lomax talked about how the shifting of the language around the word non profit can shift the way that people view non profit work. Non profit is a deficit based language, and the history of non profits is based in this deficit language, and the way that society has institutionalized non profits is in a lesser than way. Thats why so much money has been put into non profits but there are no big changes because society is what needs to change and the way that we talk about, and view things needs to be changed as well. Dr. Lomax mentioned that a colleague of his has created the idea of shifting language to social profit which is an asset based vernacular which can illuminate how helping others and coming together can create positive social change. I also had the opportunity to attend the South Side Thrive Collaborative All Network Forum where the topic was affordable housing. I am not particularly versed in affordable housing, and felt like I learned so much. It is an ever growing issue in Columbus and I am not ignited to advocate and educate myself on affordable housing. There were a bunch of great community members and leaders speaking, which was very cool to be able to represent P1H. I left the forum with a page full of notes, and my mind spinning with so many thoughts. It was a great experience and I was so grateful to be able to attend. As always I am pondering my why, and I am critically thinking about the power and power structures within our world. These thoughts can be so big and overwhelming, but if I keep thinking and talking about it, and believe in my ability to make change, change will be made. My desire is to make things better each day and to help those around me. I hope that this will lead me to where I am meant to land.

Ah, the Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis. Merry Dancers. Whatever you want to call them, you’ve probably heard of this beautiful natural phenomenon, or if you’re lucky, you may have even seen them. And, if you’ve been following the news lately, you’d know that they were supposed to have been visible on July 12th and 13th in places that they’re not normally, like North Dakota, Indiana, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and even our own Ohio. And I was not going to miss this. I’m originally from Westfield, Indiana, a fairly large suburb just north of Indianapolis, and I had already been planning to travel there Thursday evening on my way to visit some friends in Michigan over the weekend. So, I made plans with my cousins and high school friends on Wednesday, I arrived in Westfield on Thursday evening, and around 10 p.m., we ventured out in a small, blue, four door sedan to find a place with no light pollution and a quality view of the big, bad Northern Lights. 

Turns out, they weren’t big or bad. Or visible. We actually didn’t see them at all, much to our disappointment. The forecast had changed, and only small parts of the Northernmost states, including Alaska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine, were able to see anything at all. I was frustrated, yes, but you should know me by now. My parents once asked me how I come up with my ideas for the blog, and my answer was actually pretty simple. I sit in front of my computer with my eyes closed, replaying the events of the week in my head until I come across something worth writing about. This week, I had no trouble. I mean, I was practically drooling over the topic: a failed expedition to see one of the oldest and most researched astronomical phenomena in history in a state that’s mostly known for corn and car racing? Yeah, that’s going in the blog. 

If you’ve been following along the past 5 weeks, you’d also know that I like science, specifically flatworms and skunk stink. (This might sound weird, but I promise, it’s applicable. Clink the links to read the previous blogs). But today, we’re moving onto, you guessed it, the Northern Lights. And, unless you’re an astrology fanatic, you probably don’t know much about how the Northern Lights emit their, well, lights. According to the Library of Congress, the first thing you should know about the Northern Lights is that they don’t just happen in the north, and they actually have a different name depending on where on Earth, literally, you’re located. In the northern hemisphere, they’re called aurora borealis, but in the southern hemisphere, they’re called aurora australis. Enough of the boring stuff though—let’s get to the meat and potatoes. How are aurora borealis and aurora australis formed? I have to admit, I had to read up on this, and after a 10 minute Google Search, I’m an expert. (Just kidding, but I do know more than I did 10 minutes ago). In brief, the sun emits billions of charged particles called ions toward the Earth, and as a whole, they’re called solar wind. Most solar wind is blocked from hitting the Earth’s surface by the magnetic field surrounding it, but sometimes, a few ions sneak through, inevitably colliding with the oxygen and nitrogen particles from the atmosphere. And, the energy of this collision brings about what we know to be the Northern Lights. 

And, to no one’s surprise, this got me thinking. Auroras are beautiful. They’re a bucket list item. People are attracted to them, and they’re often a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But I’d bet you money that people don’t know, or don’t care to know, how they’re created. And the kids I work with? Most people probably wouldn’t look at them and think they’ll turn into the next president, or the future director of the CDC, or the next Bill Gates, and they’ve experienced tragedy beyond most peoples’ wildest imaginations. But then again, most people probably don’t think the auroras are made from the profoundly intense and violent bursts of energy that they are. Here’s the catch though: with the right support systems, those kids can turn into great leaders, and that’s why what we’re doing at SVFS is so important. So if you never get to see the Northern Lights, that’s okay. Just remember how they came to be.

This week I’ve continued to work on data entry for media contacts and comic vendors statewide. However, I was also able to pivot towards a new task by helping my supervisor with grant writing. I did this primarily by finding academic research concerning comics, their use as educational tools across age ranges, and their value as literature. This was something which I had been working on periodically throughout my time at CXC, when I was able, but it became my main focus as I was informed of an upcoming grant deadline. Beforehand I had found relatively little academic literature concerning comic books, and nothing which I had considered to be useful, so I was essentially starting fresh with a looming deadline I was previously entirely unaware of.

However, I seem to do some of my best work under the pressure of a set deadline, and it was certainly refreshing to once again work in a way which I so strongly enjoy and am passionate about (albeit, about a topic which I have never worked with before). After searching without success for some time, I found an article which was seemingly perfect for our uses. From there, I was able to comb through references and CV’s, reading many articles, to find sources which I thought would be best used to support arguments about CXC’s value. From there, I organized these sources based on how I thought they should be used, providing summaries and my own notes, creating citations ready for use, and pulling many quotes to be integrated into the grant itself. While I won’t be involved in the actual writing of the grant, my work has certainly provided CXC with the tools to elevate their own grant-writing.

This weekend I will be participating in the Columbus Book Festival, manning the CXC table. I’ll be there both Saturday and Sunday. I hope we’ll have a great weekend!

This week at the Central Community House, I am excited to share the journey of connecting with individuals as part of our outreach team for Village Makers. It has been an eventful and rewarding experience as we work towards spreading awareness and engagement for this incredible initiative. 

To kick things off, I was given the opportunity to conduct interviews with four remarkable individuals who expressed interest in joining our outreach team. Each conversation was an enriching experience, allowing me to learn about their unique perspectives, skills, and passion for community development. The diverse backgrounds and expertise they bring to the table are bound to strengthen our outreach efforts. 

Building upon the interviews, I took on the task of drafting a training program. It was important to provide our team members with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively promote the Village Makers initiative. The training covers key aspects such as understanding our mission, target audience, effective communication strategies, and the importance of fostering strong relationships within the community. 

Collaborating closely with one of my supervisors, Allie, we developed a contract that outlines the roles, responsibilities, and expectations for our outreach team. This contract not only ensures clarity and accountability but also serves as a foundation for establishing a strong working relationship. By fostering an environment of trust and professionalism, we aim to empower our team members to make a significant impact on the success of Village Makers. 

Recently, we conducted our first training session, where we talked about effective outreach and engagement. It was a collaborative and interactive session, providing an opportunity for team members to share their perspectives and exchange ideas. By fostering a supportive and inclusive environment, we are cultivating a team that is passionate, knowledgeable, and ready to make a difference. 

As we move forward, I am confident that our outreach team, armed with their dedication and the training provided, will be instrumental in spreading the word about Village Makers. Together, we are committed to creating positive change, empowering individuals, and building a strong sense of community. 

This week has been all about me owning more projects. Last week I mentioned that I had learned about Google Ad Grants. I had hoped that sometime later this summer I would be able to try my hand at them. Well, as it turns out, later is now. This week I set out to learn more about the software and what it takes to run a campaign. I found myself on Google’s Applied Digital Skills site, going through their lessons about Google Ad Grants. I learned how to create a platform to utilize Google Ad Grants, plan a marketing campaign with specific and strategic goals, design the campaign based on those goals, implement the campaign, and then utilize Google Analytics to track the campaign’s progress. After I went through all this content, to my surprise, I’d earned a certificate. The next time I met with my supervisor I told her, and we agreed that I’m now ready and able to implement a Google Ad Grant campaign for Jewish Family Services. I’m very excited – I am always interested in learning new skills, especially ones that will help me at work and develop as a professional.

I also got to assist more with the Business Services Membership Program. This is a program run by JFS that offers companies in the Columbus area services to attract and retain employees. The program had gone through a hiatus, but now JFS is getting it off the ground again. Originally, my role was just to help chart main touch points businesses should go through after purchasing a service package. However, I met with the Business Services Coordinator and she let me know that she was trying to get some marketing materials together. I let her know that was something I’d be happy to work on and she gratefully passed along the tasks to me. I finished everything she needed this week and have received glowing feedback so far.

This week, I’ve also been working on putting myself out there. Networking is a large part of breaking into a career, and it is a goal of mine to improve at it. I’ve now had coffee with two people at JFS with two more scheduled for the next two weeks. Everyone has been very kind and happy to share their stories with me. I’m interested in learning about people’s journeys to the nonprofit sector and any insights they can share with me.

The rest of the week has been me working on my project. I’ve completed my marketing plan and am in the polishing stage now. The second part of my project, the engagement plan for various stakeholders, is coming along. I got to meet with the Business Services Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinators, and next week I’m meeting with the Program Directors. After talking with them, I’ll be able to put the final touches on the engagement plans.

Week five has been challenging to say the least. Being the oldest fellow for this summer fellowship program and only the second one selected from Columbus State, the pressure is on. In my stage of life, I take whatever I am doing seriously, but unfortunately, life often gets in the way. Being towards the end of my academic program, there is always something to throw me off track despite my best effort. I am so grateful for the opportunity for the summer fellowship, but it greatly changed my life. I was leaving a job that I had been at six years, financial stability, now uncertainty after summer. That job allowed me to do other daily things, including homework and house management. Like many of the members of At Home By High, their lives are full and complex. Many of them are intergenerational caretakers, despite chronic health issues or financial strain expected to be available and ready to assume responsibility for someone else’s child, their stuff, or the stability of someone. For two regularly active members, this is the case. They both have chronic health problems, but their homes are where their families often leave their stuff and responsibilities of children for someone else to assume. The first one takes care of her mentally disabled grandchildren, keeps them active, participates in Special Olympics, and connected to the community. With one of them having limited verbalization, they look to her to make decisions, speak for them, and provide guidance and protection. She exhibits grace, presence, and patience, especially regarding her family. The other member has an infectious smile and a joyous spirit she is raising her young grandchildren, great-grandchildren, grandnieces, and nephews along with foster children. Assisting her clear out her storage unit, it was a time capsule of all the people she helped. She had not been in that storage unit for twenty years. It had personal items from family members for her to hold onto for them, now probably forgotten about, records, documents, and manuals for training when she was a foster parent, and lastly, toys, gifts, and personal mementos of her and her family’s lives. To their community and their families, they are pillars of stability despite aging and health issues often still putting other’s needs before theirs. They are the type of women if you have a problem or need help they are there with their arms open welcoming and sharing anything they have. They embody being everything, everywhere, and all the time. As I go through my second act in life, I am older, wiser, and have more experience but life’s responsibilities and obstacles are real, especially when you are older. The quote “youth is wasted on the young” is beyond real to me, I wish I had the energy and naivety of my youth right now. Now I do not have the luxury of making careless mistakes, wasting time, or not caring for myself. This week I felt like I was failing to do it all and falling further behind, but I know this is a chance of a lifetime which I am learning so much from. The rigors of the non-profit organizations and service work are real but so rewarding. It is always harder at the end of the journey. Pursuing your true path will always have obstacles to have you fail. My perseverance will prevail, and I learn so much from my obstacles, trials, delays, and difficulties. Being everything, everywhere and all the time is exhausting and mentally draining, so keep moving, rest when you are tired, and give yourself grace and understanding.