Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This has been one of my most productive weeks yet in terms of my primary project. Since the start of my fellowship, I have been working on finding homes for 1800 trees and have finally started receiving responses! In previous weeks, I spent a lot of time participating in volunteer events and outdoor work, which I have really enjoyed. However, this week I was able to spend most of my time in the office and made significant progress. I spent my time sending interest emails, making cold calls, compiling resources, creating advertising materials, and doing whatever else was necessary to continue spreading the word about the Tree Giveaway. As much as I love spending time outside, I surprised myself by also enjoying the behind-the-scenes work.This morning, I realized I have received 5 responses to my Interest Form. I know it isn’t a lot, but it feels very rewarding to see that I am making tangible progress!

On Thursday morning, I had my first workday at the Weinland Park Tree Nursery. This nursery is located right off 4th Street in the middle of the community, which is quite different from the other nursery I typically visit. I spent the morning planting and weeding with my coworkers and some of the most involved volunteers. We have three key volunteers who help manage the two nurseries, and I really enjoy seeing them each week and working together to find homes for the trees they have dedicated so much time to.

In addition to spreading the word online, I scheduled a few tabling events at upcoming festivals and farmers markets. I am looking forward to attending these events across the city and interacting more with citizens. Also, this week we welcomed a new full-time employee! They are the new watershed coordinator and will help manage all the upcoming events and plans. This has been great so far, and I am excited to have someone new in the office.

If you are interested in learning more about the Tree Giveaway or even better considering planting one, here is the link to the info page! https://www.olentangywatershed.org/?page_id=11385

Hello friends! Last week, I titled my blog Calm Before the Storm because I was anticipating a storm of changes or running around this week. However, just like the Ohio weather, that did not happen. On Monday, our new executive director Kate Bauer began her work here at Leadership Columbus. I wasn’t really sure what would happen regarding my role here, but so far I have continued on with my projects. Side note for all the readers, there’s only 5 of us including myself here at Leadership Columbus so there could’ve been anything on the agenda this week. I’m in more of an all-hands on deck role here, which I’m thankful for because it keeps me working on various tasks.

This week, I spent a large amount of my time working with photos and videos we have in our Onedrive. I came to realize that there were hundreds of pictures taking up storage that had nothing to do with Leadership Columbus; so I’m happy to have freed up some storage there. One of my projects this summer is to gather pictures for our 50th Anniversary Celebration to have hung around the venue. These pictures are supposed to represent Leadership Columbus and the work that we’ve done throughout the years. I am enjoying this project because it gives me to opportunity to see so many happy and fulfilled faces over the years. It also proves to me that this organization is truly having an impact on the community it serves. However, this project also poses a slight challenge to me because I have only been here 4 weeks. That being said, I am doing my best to find photos that I think represent the beauty of Leadership Columbus. Luckily, I can put as many pictures as I see fit into a folder, then go back through and narrow it down with people who have definitely been here longer than me. Honestly though, it does warm my heart to see all the pictures throughout the 50 years and to see the smiling faces of a community I care so deeply about.

This week was chalk full of events that I was grateful to attend. First, on Kate’s first day, we just so happened to have an alumni happy hour that we merged into a first day welcome event after work. I was able to meet and talk with more great people who came to celebrate with us. I was also grateful to sit in on our Executive Edge Program day at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. The topics for that day were all about psychological safety and the importance of power-with vs power-over. I had learned general knowledge about the need for psychological safety along with different types of power while taking classes at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business. However, I was able to get a more in depth explanation of the two topics which paired very nicely into our talks Wednesday morning at the Columbus Foundation.

I also met for coffee with one of our board members, Ralph Smithers, Jr. It was very beneficial to hear from someone who represents this organization well, but in a different way than my coworkers. It was very interesting to hear his story and why he wanted to get involved with Leadership Columbus. I’m trying to make it a personal goal to meet with as many people affiliated with Leadership Columbus during my time here. There are boatloads of people in the community who have completed our programs or have worked with us in some way. For me, my problem was always that I was never good reaching out to strangers and trying to expand my network. My time here at Leadership Columbus has opened me up and gotten me out of my comfort zone a little bit by going to all these events and meeting all these great people. I’m able to learn all about the nonprofit world, and at the same time expand my network which is an important piece of being a young businessman.

Until next week,

Austin

                Hello! After another week at Legal Aid, I am excited to share what I have been up to and what I am looking forward to here at LASCO. My third week here has been another great one, and I really feel that I am settling into the work here. To begin, we wrapped up the first big project that I’ve been here for: mailing out the 2023 Annual Report! This was a huge project that required a lot of organization and logistics that has been worked on for the past couple weeks, along with several hours of executing the plans. In the end, after a few hitches along the way, we were able to send out hundreds of annual reports with handwritten notes to supporters, donors, and friends of Legal Aid. This process really helped me realize how much things like this matter in the fundraising world. Donors and supporters are the lifeblood of a nonprofit organization, so doing the little things to show appreciation and keep those relationships strong is of tantamount importance.

                Besides this, I also had the opportunity to help out at a tabling event aimed at those seeking help with reentry and second chance opportunities. I was beyond grateful for my manager for telling me about this opportunity and letting me jump on it, as I am very interested in this area of work. At the event, a staff member and I handed out resources and discussed with prospective clients about how Legal Aid might be helpful to them in navigating the reentry process. As some know, leaving incarcerated life and once again participating in the outside life is a difficult process, with obstacles and prejudice everywhere for someone with a criminal record. This is why the work of Legal Aid is so important, as it can help someone reentering society be able to work past what their record says, possibly sealing or expunging it entirely. Poverty should not be a barrier to someone reentering society after serving the time handed onto them, so the work of Legal Aid in this field is vital. These kinds of tabling events, I have learned, are a great demonstration of what Legal Aid is capable of for the communities it serves.

                Finally, my work with communications here has been more settled. We’ve launched the new merged Facebook, along with some other social medias, and I have been able to help the organization in transitioning to a new era in its communications work. I love the work and mission of Legal Aid, so I believe it is very important that we demonstrate that to the public by reaching out online. This also allows us to reach out to prospective clients and anyone who needs legal information! All in all, this has been a great week, and I am excited for the work to come.

This week, the usual work at MORPC was slightly different than usual. On a normal week, I am in the office from Tuesday to Thursday, but due to holidays and flex time usage, I was in person on Tuesday only. Thus, a lot of my work was concentrated was more condensed than usual, but still impactful.

Workforce development was the core of my research this week. On Monday, I was tasked with attending a webinar in which Ohio regional planning entities all met to discuss their initiatives and successes. One of these respondents was a group who received a wastewater workforce development program to help solve the lack of talent for these kinds of jobs. Since this program was widely effective, I took the initiative to see what this would look like in the Central Ohio region. This involved finding funding opportunities online, exploring different career technical programs and schools, and gauging stakeholder interests.

Beyond this, we also had the Ohio Representative for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) come to MORPC to meet with different local municipalities to hear their needs for grant-funding opportunities and assistance. This was a tremendous event to participate in since I got to see how federal agencies interact with local efforts. Economic Development is also the field that I see myself pursuing for a large chunk of my career so being able to meet with all the different communities was ana amazing opportunity.

Beyond these items, I used my flextime for the latter half of the week to visit my friends in Washington, DC. Usually, vacation days aren’t given to interns, but since I worked for MORPC over the week at the Columbus Arts Festival, I had time built up to take off Thursday and Friday. This allowed me to be able to drive to DC and spend that time with networking around the capital as well as sightseeing. Overall, this week has been tremendous with lots of adventure and opportunities.

Hello Everyone!

I completed my third week at Flow and am continuing to enjoy it so much! Last week, I spent much of my time outside with volunteers from STANTEC, an engineering firm. It was their week in the community so they scheduled multiple events with us around our different sites. Even with the extreme heat, the volunteers did an incredible job and made lots of progress at our sites. The heat has shown to be a problem for many of our plants especially our newly planted trees. Volunteers dedicated so much time to helping us out all across the city to ensure the plants were safe from the weather. It has been wonderful to meet so many passionate individuals all from different areas coming together to help. In addition to meeting so many great people at these events, I have learned a lot of volunteer management and organization. It is difficult to plan out which locations need to most help and when this is best. With the assistance of the FLOW Ameri Corps member, Maggie, I have learned the best way to do so and how to do it in an effective way.

In addition to the community events, I spent much of my week working on my main project, The 2024 Tree Giveaway. This week I began contacting local schools, churches, business, etc. in order to begin finding permanent locations for our 1800 trees. I have not done cold calls before this and was nervous to start this process, however it has gone very well so far! I am looking forward to continuing to make connections and begin making significant progress on the project.

Also this morning, we have a new member of the FLOW team starting! We are mostly volunteer based so it is very exciting to have a new permanent person to work with. I am looking forward to the upcoming week and continuing to learn about the Columbus environment and community.

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone had a great and productive week!

As stated in my prior blogs, one of my most significant responsibilities this summer is helping with CSB’s big, annual Founder’s Awards Celebration this upcoming September. This week, I have been working with the logistics surrounding the event and have been in contact with important people who all contribute to making events like this successful. I have been given tasks such as booking our photographer, catering, venue, parking arrangements, etc. I am grateful to have such a supportive team at CSB. My coworker, Chad, arranged a meeting with me and helped me work through all the essential things that go into venue planning, such as audio and visual, table arrangements, parking costs, etc. 

I am also excited to announce that all of our chosen honorees for the event have responded to their offer and are willing to accept their reward and be recognized at our event. It is a great honor to earn these awards, and I am excited to meet our partners who have done such impactful work toward ending homelessness. 

We are working with NBC4 to arrange interviews with each of our honorees to capture their work and highlight their individual passion and contribution to our mission of ending homelessness. Right now, and for the upcoming weeks, a part of my job is to help document our honorees’ availability, including their preference of location and other details for their interview. I am currently coming up with thought-provoking and unique interview questions for each of our honorees that will help capture their impactful role in the community. For the upcoming week, I am excited to meet with Amber from our r+r team to brainstorm designs for the new landing page we are working on for our website to highlight our 2024 honorees!

This week began on Sunday with setting up for the Juneteenth event featuring Dudley Edmondson. Dudley’s profound connection with nature and his mission to inspire people of color to embrace the outdoors was truly inspiring. His speech resonated with me on a personal level, coming from an Indian family that encouraged me to explore the outdoors. I felt a deep gratitude for having had that opportunity and the lasting impact it has had on my life and career. Someday I hope to inspire other people of color to connect with mother nature as much as Dudley does.

After helping with the setup, I joined the guided bird walk with Dudley Edmondson and Nicole Jackson. It was fascinating to learn about bird species I had never heard of before and to see Dudley effortlessly identify birds by their songs. This experience deepened my appreciation for birdwatching, as I had never tried birding before I worked here. Later in the week, I wrote a blog recapping the event, which will be published on Monday, and created a social media post featuring some of the photos I took during the event.

Most of the week was dedicated to working on my sponsorship project, and I am pleased to say I am almost finished with the first draft. Additionally, I had the opportunity to attend a board meeting with various members who support the Grange Insurance Audubon Center. I learned that the City of Columbus isn’t as involved in supporting the center as they should be. I also shadowed my boss during a meeting with County Administrator Kenneth Wilson at the Franklin County Government Center. This experience taught me how challenging it can be to convey the importance of a mission you deeply believe in, especially when working with government entities that have numerous priorities. However, Kenneth seemed receptive to our message and provided us with some helpful contacts.

On Juneteenth, the center remained open, and I learned how to set up the activity cart, which we take outside the center to engage visitors with fun activities. This time, we focused on birdwatching, but the heat kept many people from stopping by. An exciting moment came when we received a call from a visitor about an American White Pelican sighting. Initially skeptical, we went down to the boat ramp to check it out, and sure enough, it was indeed a White Pelican! This was a rare sighting, as these birds are typically found near the ocean and are not common in Ohio. I captured some videos and made an informative social media post about this unique occurrence.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=7512745862170599

Another interesting event happened that same day. A visitor used the microwave in the staff break room without anyone noticing, and unfortunately, she heated something up incorrectly, causing a lot of smoke. The fire department was called, but she left before we could find out what happened. The building smelled like burnt popcorn for the rest of the day, and we are now waiting for the microwave to be fixed. This incident made meal prepping my lunches for the week a bit challenging.

Today, I had the amazing opportunity to facilitate the “Let’s Go Birding” guided bird walk event for Pride Month. While I didn’t lead the walk, I helped set up the coffee cart, greeted and signed in participants, and handed out free merchandise at the end. I had written a media advisory about the event earlier in the week and sent it out to many LGBTQ organizations in Columbus. We had 21 people signed up, the largest number for a bird walk in a long time, and about ten attendees showed up. It was a large and enthusiastic group, and we all had a great time. I took some pictures during the walk and connected with fellow birders who had more knowledge than I did, which was a fantastic learning experience. We tried to spot the pelican again, but it was gone, likely back on its regular migration route.

This week was packed with enriching experiences, from engaging with community members at the Juneteenth event to learning more about bird species and improving my skills in communication and event facilitation.

This week, I’m starting to brainstorm for our Kiwanis Charity Regatta social campaign. The Kiwanis Charity Regatta is an online fundraiser where people can donate to non-profits through votes. Each vote costs a dollar, and that dollar pushes the organization’s boat closer to their fundraising goal. Bridgeway’s goal this year is $1,000, and I want to use our social media campaign to help us hit that target.

I’m also starting to create some video content to highlight the different programs at Bridgeway beyond just our summer activities.

One program at Bridgeway is the Family Partnership program. It integrates typically developing kindergarteners and preschoolers to model social and behavioral skills for kids with developmental delays. I’ve set up a meeting with the team to get their insights on what parts of the program we should highlight.

Another I want to showcase is the Young Men’s Club led by Henry Newberg. This club gives students a space to discuss their personal growth. I’ve reached out to Henry and am thinking of asking every student in the video the same question like, “How has this club helped you gain confidence within yourself?”

I’m also working on planning a field day for the students in the second week of July. The event will take place at locations at Bridgeway. Rachel mentioned that the staff at Bridgeway have been wanting to organize a field day for a while, and that would be a great chance to test things out before planning a bigger event.

Currently, I’m starting to order materials this week and had a scheduling meeting with Rachel to iron out the details. Although I’m nervous about everything coming together smoothly, I’m really excited for the kids to have this experience.