Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

As we close out week 6 most of the work remains the same. I am continuing projects like the Annual Impact Report, 30^th Anniversary Alumni Videos, Opening Day graphic, Back to School Drive campaign, etc. I also began working on the July Board Newsletter and the Red Jacket Bash campaign. 

One of the biggest changes happening at my site is the departure of our Executive Director Adero Robinson at the end of the month. Adero previously served as an AmeriCorps member with City Year prior to his role as Executive Director. It will be interesting to see how new leadership will affect City Year’s trajectory, especially since change is also happening at headquarters.

However, I wanted to take a step back this week and focus on why I applied to The Columbus Foundation Summer Fellowship Program. Like most rising juniors I was looking for an internship that would give me real-world experience in preparation for a future career in business. While I was initially searching for solely a marketing role, I quickly broadened my horizons to include other areas of business. 

As I searched I remember coming across The Columbus Foundation’s description of the fellowship. What really caught my eye was the mention of working with nonprofits in Columbus. I already had some experience volunteering as I had volunteered at food pantries, the Ohio State Annual Thanksgiving Dinner, and school events. I had enjoyed my time at these events, liked the idea of making an impact in my local community, and wanted to contribute to something greater than myself so I was sold. 

As I was browsing through the list of non-profits that The Columbus Foundation was partnering with this summer, I noticed City Year Columbus’s role description matched exactly what I was going to school for. I was incredibly grateful that I had found an opportunity that fit my skills so well and quickly applied. 

As I continue to learn more every day about non-profits, philanthropy, business, and marketing, I look back and am thankful I was lucky enough to get selected for this opportunity. I will make sure to continue to make the most of this experience.

This week at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center was a bit slower than usual as we did not have many events going on.

Monday and Tuesday, I helped out with the kids camp for 2nd-4th graders. One of the highlights was introducing them to our turtle, Ziggy. They were thrilled to pet him and learn about his habitat. Each day, we engaged the kids with different crafts, with the standout being cyanotype prints. This fascinating process involves collecting flowers and leaves, arranging them on light-sensitive cloth, and exposing them to sunlight to create beautiful prints. I think I was more interested in this than any of the kids were.

Additionally, the center welcomed a new art exhibit called “Birds, Butterflies, and Botanicals.” This exhibit features art quilts and needle felting, which creates a unique 3D effect. Whenever there’s a new exhibit, we host a reception that is open to the public. I helped set up for the event, which included a trip to Kroger for drinks and preparing charcuterie boards, chips, cookies, and beverages. Although I didn’t stay for the reception, I heard it was a huge success, with six pieces of art sold! This exhibit was supported by a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. I made a social media post and wrote letters thanking them for their generous support, which allows us to bring such vibrant art to our center.

Wednesday was another highlight of the week, with a meeting at the Columbus Foundation. We met Elizabeth Martinez, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Nick Jones, VP of Community Wellness at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. It was inspiring to talk to such down-to-earth leaders. One key takeaway from the conversation was the difference between intent and impact, and how our generation feels immense pressure to “save the world.” They emphasized that we are young and don’t need to shoulder all the pressure at once. Instead, we should find pockets where we can make a difference because every small effort leads to change. It’s about community and starting conversations that can lead to bigger transformations.

Today, marked the last day of camp and because this group was older, we host a celebration lunch with their families. I was in charge of ordering the pizza and setting up for the event. It was a great turnout, with everyone enjoying the food and admiring the crafts the kids made throughout the week.

Hello! After another week, it’s great to write about my experiences here at Legal Aid. This week, work came back into its normal swing of things with the holiday week over and everyone back in office. I was able to get back into my normal routine in the office and work alongside my fellow clerks and staff, which I appreciate.

This week, we finally are starting to kickoff our “story bank” project, which will be a long-term (and hopefully useful) tool that has the potential to serve Legal Aid staff across its many teams for a number of different purposes. The basic idea is an easily accessible and navigable database of compelling and interesting stories from client experiences that might prove useful for some future need, whether that be for annual reports, social media, donor outreach, grant applications, community networking, or even the Ohio Poverty Law Center’s advocacy work. The point is to have all our usable stories with pictures, quotes, and written summaries in one place so that it could be easily pulled when needed.

However, before it could be used, a lot of work is to be done. Right now, in its earliest stages, I have been working through Legal Aid’s online records to compile resources located across many different places. Furthermore, building the actual structure of this bank needs to be done, along with making sure there is proper documentation for permission of use for every story listed, which is of top importance in this project.

Besides this, I had the opportunity to staff a table at one of Legal Aid’s outreach events. This time, it was another record sealing/expungement/reentry event held in Franklinton. It was a great experience to let possible clients know of our services and upcoming reentry clinics, which could be a life-changing opportunity for those who come. In the near future, I am excited to keep working on this story bank project, along with assisting in the early stages of promoting the Ohio Poverty Law Center’s 15^th Anniversary Event, held in September.

This week at Leadership Columbus consisted of doing many things so I thought I’d fill you guys in with what I did this week. I started the week working on a task that I was already familiar with. I went through a list of invitees for our 50th Anniversary Celebration and finding work addresses or confirming a home address to send a physical invite to them. This has been something I have been working on this summer before so it was nothing too hard.

However, the other task on my first day back gave me trouble. It was a graphic design project in Canva that urgently needed to be finished. Our COLA program is coming up in 2 weeks and we needed to change the color schemes and fonts of the student handbook to match our brand colors. I am like the last person to be doing this, I am so terrible with anything related to art or design. Though, I was able to figure out what I was doing and once I got the hang of it, I was cruising through. We had a few problems with how the colors turned out on a rough print so I had to go back and change some colors again but I’m blaming my colorblind boss on that one. I was just doing what I was instructed to do. I’m glad I got the opportunity to do this project. I’m not planning on going into any marketing or design specialty, but I’m thankful I got to at least learn a new skill and say I can somewhat use Canva now.

Tuesday was an extremely long day and was mainly centered on learning. I first got to participate in another NxGen program day. If you have been following the blog, the first NxGen was all focused on personal growth and the journey it takes. This second day was now all about how managers can help their employees go through their own personal growth journey and try to get better with their work. It was a really interesting experience to go through. I personally have never managed anyone, but I’m glad that I now understand how managers should support their staff and help them grow. Following the Nxgen program day, on Tuesday night, I participated in a training session at the Columbus Metropolitan Library for our upcoming COLA program. COLA is a week long leadership camp for high school students in Central Ohio. As a fellow for Leadership Columbus, this was one of my main roles for this summer. I will be helping facilitate and basically making sure the day runs smoothly. This is something I’m personally very excited for. I have been learning a lot about my own leadership this summer through my time with Leadership Columbus along with our training sessions at the Columbus Foundation. I am so ready to take what I’ve learned and inspire these high school students to build their own leadership strengths as well. Change starts with them and I, and I’ll stand by that statement.

The rest of the week wasn’t bad at all either. I spent most of the day yesterday doing some cleanup around our office as I waited for a flash drive to upload pictures from our 2 previous COLA programs. I can then go through the pictures and add them for my 50th Anniversary project that I’m working on. I didn’t realize how many pictures there were and it took the entire day so I tried to keep myself busy doing other things that weren’t virtual so I didn’t crash my computer. I ended up organizing closets and freeing up space in our tiny office because we have another intern starting next week. I cleaned them off a desk and got them set up with a space to work. I’m excited to for them to start so there can be another young student in the office with me.

That’s all I really have for you guys this week. Stay tuned for the next couple weeks as COLA is beginning and I will have a lot to share.

-Austin Gray

Hello! This week I completed my sixth week at FLOW. I really enjoyed this week because each day felt different. Monday was full with meetings about our staff goals, new watershed information, and community/ outreach. I learned a lot and enjoyed having a general meeting on Monday in order to feel prepared for the upcoming week. Tuesday I completed a lot for my project and am really happy with the progress I am making so far.

The highlight of my week was Thursday. In the morning, I spent my time at the Worthington Tree Nursery. Every Thursday my coworkers and I go here and work with the volunteers and those that manage the nursery. I always really enjoy this time and learn more every week. The trees are doing very well and hopefully the current inventory will live until the planting season. If so this means that we will have over 1300 trees in the Worthington Nursery alone! Looking forward to helping care for them in my final few weeks.

The second part of my day was spent at the monthly Columbus Tree Sub-commission Meeting. The Sub-commission is made up of a group of appointed professionals including the city forester, Ohio Department of Natural Resources managers, Columbus Parks and Rec, and more. The meeting began with a presentation on the current foresters progress and goals for 2024. One of the highlights of her presentation was the grant that Columbus was recently awarded from ODNR that gave them $500,000 to use for tree plantings in disadvantaged census blocks within the city. The city determined 12 blocks that they will be concentrating on for this grant. She also explained the process of choosing a contracted company for the plantings. I was unfamiliar with this process so it was interesting to hear the bidding and selection process. Then the members covered current issues including new invasive species, infrastructure projects, and the selection process for new members. After their agenda, I was able to speak and ask questions about a project I am working on. FLOW was awarded a grant to plant trees on 20 residential streets in the upcoming years. I was tasked with selecting these streets. After presenting my choices, the members gave me feedback which was crucial for me to select the correct spaces. I had not known of city requirements, right of way distances, and the refusal rates from residents. I am very grateful to have been able to speak to all the members and understand their insight.

Lastly, at the end of the meeting a local volunteers spoke about a recent issue in the Franklinton area. ODOT cut down a mile stretch of forested area that was in between the highway and residential streets. The goal of the cut was to remove honeysuckle, an invasive species, but rather than target the plant specifically, they removed the entire forested area. This has significantly decreased the tree canopy in an area with an already low amount and shifted a residential area that used to feel park-like to being overwhelmed by the highway sounds and view. Situations like these happen much too often and departments and companies remove trees when it is not necessary. This often happens in low-income areas that already have a lack of canopy and green space which reduces living conditions for residents. A group is soon meeting with ODOT to hopefully find a solution to this mistake and ensure that it does not happen again.

This week, reality hit hard as I realized there are only four more weeks left in my fellowship at Seeds of Caring. It feels like there’s so much more I want to accomplish, yet I also recognize how much I’ve already done. With this newfound sense of urgency, I’m determined to make the most of the remaining time, seizing every opportunity and overcoming what I initially considered limitations.

This week was a bit quieter at the office as the staff returned from their one-week annual break. Despite the subdued atmosphere, it was still great to see everyone’s faces again. Their presence always motivates me to work harder.

On Monday, I dove straight into prepping for our upcoming summer program, where I’ll be leading once more. The anticipation of applying all the knowledge I’ve gained so far to benefit the children at Livingston Park is exhilarating. With their enthusiastic mindset in mind, I joyfully packed kits for our visit.

Additionally, I was supposed to organize an event with Morgan, another intern, which involved assembling summer kits for families from Broad Street Presbyterian Church (downtown). Due to scheduling conflicts, I took on the task myself. Surprisingly, it turned out to be very enjoyable, and I managed to pack all the kits in a day, getting them ready for donation.

Tuesday was a productive day. I had a meeting with my supervisor to discuss my goals and achievements over the past six weeks. We talked about areas for improvement and how I can make the most of the next four weeks.

Wednesday brought an unexpected challenge. After our insightful meeting, I encountered car trouble on my way to my site. A flat tire forced me to work from home, which limited my efficiency. I focused on my online research project, gathering valuable information.

Thursday, I started early, dropping off the assembly kits I packed on Monday to the church. Then, I returned to the office to complete ongoing tasks. My day was filled with laminating and cutting materials for upcoming projects.

Friday, I continued my weekly tasks diligently, ensuring everything was on track. As I prepare to start the new week, I can’t wait to see everyone again and dive back into our work with renewed energy. Although I’m back to the 9-5 routine, I know I’ll stay grounded and be more productive in the office environment. This experience has shown me that while I’m not fully attuned to the constant waking up for a 9-5 schedule, working fully remote is not an option for me.

I can’t believe it’s already been six weeks—time surely waits for no one. This journey at Seeds of Caring continues to teach me more about myself and the kind of work environment where I thrive best.

Until next week, have a great time! 🌱❤️

Kanyin

#NonProfit #YouthEmpowerment #SeedsOfCaring #FellowshipExperience #TheColumbusFoundation

This week at MORPC, the soft-close finally came to an end which brought all staff back to the office. Personally, I have appreciated this week greatly since face-to-face connection is something that you cannot get across a computer screen. This remote break, while great because it gave me flexibility to spend time with friends and family, made me miss seeing the people who I enjoy being around in the office. It is nice to have the balance of seeing friendly faces a few days a week while also being able to do some of the work in the comfort of your home.

Work wise, we are in overdrive for our green infrastructure toolkit development. Throughout these past few days, I have worked with our GIS team on being able to collect data that we can use to map local green infrastructure projects. Nerding out a little here, they designed an app which allows me to go manually into the field and collect data using my iphone. I am extremely excited for this as many local organizations have graciously offered to take me on a tour around their facilities to highlight their projects. Notably, my alma matter, The Ohio State University, will be taking me around with some of their staff and faculty to highlight their innovative ways to address stormwater issues with green infrastructure solutions. In addition, I am currently working on doing this with the City of Bexley as well, which will make an exciting next few weeks as I gear up in the finale of my fellowship.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at MORPC because they have let me do opportunities like this. I have always been a boots-on-the-ground type of person so being able to release my extroversion and meet members of the community is an exciting opportunity. All in all, this week has been a grind, but it seems that the hard work will pay off when I get to see these sites.

This week was a nice reset from last week’s events. Last week we had our summer party which wrapped up our fiscal year. At the party, I met so many great people who shared their life experiences with me while offering some carer advice for the future. In making new connections I was able to create some contacts for our StoryCorps project with the hopes that we can get more stories on the board. We are aiming to get roughly 100+ stories on the board, so outreach has become extremely important. The hope is to get roughly 100+ stories on the board, so outreach has become extremely important. The summer party was my first time truly planning an event where you needed to coordinate with caterers, revamp a space, and make sure everything was accessible, and that the room flowed properly.

Now that we have closed our fiscal year, it feels like a reset in the office. The goals and projects in the works transition to a new tone the Women’s Fund wants for this next year. This overarching theme or reset is my main takeaway from this week. When you have such a set schedule, in this case, 9-5, it is easy to fall into a routine where you try to fit in other hobbies and friends or you just turn on a good Netflix show. We had the holiday off, which allowed me to fully reset and retake control of my day. That reset felt so refreshing and gave me a mindset that I should not view my 9-5 schedule to be so limiting.

Making sure I’m intentional about my evenings has been a priority this week as I am trying not to feel so boxed in with the 9-5 schedule. I am trying to incorporate this way of thinking into work as well by doing a little bit of everything throughout the day. In addition, I try to make sure I get outside, listen to music, and take small breaks to exercise mini resets throughout the day. Amid all the work needed to be done in the office, there was still space for a reset this week, and for that I am grateful. 

Hope everyone had a good week.

See y’all in the next one!

Kennedy Smith

This week, we entered our soft-close which is meant to help recharge employees with a virtual work environment for a few weeks. During this time, we did have one in-person meeting. CleanOhio was a meeting between numerous key stakeholders throughout Central Ohio that handle MORPC’s specific sustainability grant efforts. I had the honor of attending one of their meetings which was spent discussing various items such as permits and project status.

As someone who is a future economic development professional, I genuinely appreciated the nitty-gritty components of project permits and understanding the issues that some grantees are facing. Specifically, this was one gentleman who walked us through each property that he had specific questions about. I was fascinated with the different price valuations per acre that he was presenting. In some communities, an acre would be worth a fair amount that would be expected. However, sometimes, there would be large prices for projects which I found to be extremely interesting.

Beyond CleanOhio, I worked on updating our Public Policy Agenda. This is an item that is designed to help our partners and constituents know the priorities that the commission when it comes to legislation. My role in helping out with this initiative is that I was tasked with mapping all of our current language into a spreadsheet that is easily able to be changed when update it. Throughout this process, I learned a lot about the different priorities that the commission has and continues to operate with. I want to pursue a career in policymaking after this fellowship and graduate school, which means that this opportunity was a great chance to learn about legislative advocacy. I greatly appreciate the chance to work on a project like this, especially as I try to gain more experience for myself to shape my understanding of the field.

At MORPC, we celebrated the last week of our soft close. Designed to help give employees a mental reset, we were allowed to work-at-home for the past few weeks. Personally, this helped me refresh myself and come back energized.

When it comes to my work, I was able to develop our Green Infrastructure Toolkit further. This project is what I have been working on throughout my fellowship. Initially, it involved an 18-page report that detailed key funding sources, local case studies, and additions to our website on resources for Green Infrastructure. Now, with approval from my supervisors, I am in the second stage of this process which is reaching out to local governments to find out what projects they would like us to highlight on our GIS map. This involves a picture of the project and a description. At the time posting this, I’ve sent many emails to get as much information as possible to reflect all Central Ohioans initiatives to be environmentally friendly.

I am thankful for the knowledge I’ve gained working on this initiative. Coming into my fellowship, I was shocked to learn what green infrastructure was, let alone its various counterparts such as gray, brown, and blue infrastructure. My time at MORPC has given me significant experience in understand the relationship between sustainability initiatives and community development. It has made a great impact on my understanding of the field.

Beyond this, I am also assisting with a project that involves analyzing the Economic Development Reauthorization Act, a congressional bill that would have a large impact on MORPC’s partners’ economies. This involves me doing background research on both the bill and the region. Then, once I am finished, I will make a memo and a one-pager that we can use for future legislative activities. This is also a tremendous experience, especially when I gear up for congressional roles.