Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This past week I had my last facilitation at the Ethiopian Tawahedo Social Services’ (ETSS) Youth Summit held at Ohio Dominican University. This was a bittersweet moment, as I’ve seen many of these kids at their host sites since the beginning of the summer. While I was slightly nervous to facilitate at such a big event, I believe they were a success. Since many of the kids saw my regular items with the Museums in a Box, I brought new (old) items for them to explore with. The Summit groups were the largest groups I’ve had the pleasure of talking with, with about 50 kids in the room at once it with me. With the group size so large, I aimed to make sure that every kid was engaged with some type of toy or conversation about the games or items they were surrounded with. I set up multiple stations filled with toys such as an Etch a Sketch, Jacob’s ladder, and dominoes. In addition, I also brought a mini wheelbarrow, butter churner, and wooden boats. The great part about seeing the students was the fact that most of them remembered me and some of the things we talked about! Even if some called me the “teacher who liked anime and showed old stuff”, the memories were very appreciated! All in all, I really enjoyed my time serving the students through the Ohio History Connection. At the end, I have successfully completed 50 facilitations at more than 15 nonprofit organizations in Columbus. With the end of the internship drawing near, I’m proud of this accomplishment for a multitude of reasons. Having this opportunity was a blessing that allowed me to grow in more ways than one, opening my eyes and mind to the communities all around me. Even though I’ve lived here for 10 years, I felt out of touch with Columbus and did not see how I “fit in”. Now, after integrating myself at sites all over the city, I realized so much more about the environments around me and how I can continue to plant seeds. I can’t wait to see what the next two weeks have in store!

This week at Equality has been more melancholy than most. Most of our legal aid interns, and Jaya, the intern from the Cleveland foundation I worked with had their last weeks. Most of the major meetings were saying goodbye to the interns which made me feel a little out of place. It was sad seeing some people go because I had grown to know them this summer. At the advocacy meeting this week I got to present my power maps of cities that I researched. It felt great showing all my heard work (despite my WIFI struggles that made it difficult to call). While this was not a total wrap up week it truly does feel like the beginning of the end of a wonderful experience. This next week I am continuing to dive into some cities for power mapping, just to brush it up, as well as wrapping up some other ongoing projects.

This last week was also fun as I got to bond more with the fellows. It was really nice getting to know them better and hear about their awesome summer experiences. Going to my first crew game was also a lot of fun (even though we left early due to weather). I can’t believe the summer is almost over, this has flown by. I know I have said that in previous blog posts and I will say it in next weeks but I really cannot emphasize how quickly this summer has gone by.

Lastly a random question from someone who isn’t from the area. Why do y’all drive so aggressive? What is the rush? I get we have places to be but the most stressful thing I have done this summer has been rush our driving into and out of the city. However,  have fallen in love with Columbus and can’t wait to explore it more.

This week was the week of Communities and Schools annual Summit which was a three day workshop where different staff members presented on topics such as branding, data, and planning for the year. These topics were catered to Site Coordinators for them to prepare for the school year with their students so that they could have a successful school year that would not allow for them to fall behind on their schedule and to make sure students have a great support system. I learned a great deal about the work that CIS do and also the work that Site Coordinators and Program Managers do as well. It was an informative summit and everyone enjoyed my power point as well. It was a little intimidating at first because I was the only one who was in college presenting but it also was great to get feedback from those who were engaged. I was asked if I present a lot because I did such a great job and that made me feel like I did my best. I had the opportunity to network with many individuals who are in schools in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cleveland. People traveled from these areas to get training and information on how they can better tomorrow and student’s that they will serve.

Some of the highlights from the summit were the ice breaker and team building activities that we did as a group. One thing about working in nonprofits is that there will always be some sort of hands on activity to engage the audience because especially working in schools, you have to have some skill of being able to do program development. One of the activities that we did was having to build a figure out of spaghetti noodles, tape, small/medium marshmallows, and string. The objective was to make a sturdy and tall object that will be able to hold the bigger marshmallow.

I had a great time being able to participate in this summit. I plan on taking many of the things that I learned to further my experience and provide feedback in my last week of my internship.

This week’s post is simply a brainstorming session on programming ideas and/or social media post ideas.

Cultivate member spotlights:

• Name and brief insight into why working at Cultivate or what Cultivate means to them
• How Cultivate has helped.
• A day in the life of…
• Staff
• Board Members
• Volunteers
• Community members served

Before and After photos/vids of garden

• Short video or boomerang of someone working the area in the before
• A before and after reel video or slideshow

Nutritional/wellness benefits and ways to use plants harvested from gardens.

Other facts about plants:

• Non-traditional uses
• Cultural uses
• Where the plant comes from vs. it is native to the area
• Recipes

Garden How-Tos:

• How to plant
• When to plant
• When to harvest
• Land prep
• Water needs
• Tools and how to use them
• Recipes
• Revive plants/ noticing deficiencies 

Milo history

• Historical facts
• “This day in Milo”
• Historical building photos and facts
• Achievements/successes and what’s happenings of residents
  • Student presentations/projects, graduation posts
  • Sports milestones
  • Local business highlights/spotlights, startups
  • Birthdays
  • Birth announcements
  • Overcoming barriers
  • Activists activating, advocates advocating
  • Job postings/hirings, congratulatory posts for getting hired
  • Fashion/style stunting posts
  • Neighborhood events

Resource sharing, self-advocacy, general wellness

• Resource of the month
• Job postings

• Advocacy & self-advocacy
  • How to say no
    • Why say no
  • Bystander Intervention
  • How to ask for help
    • Why ask for help
  • How to set boundaries
    • Why set boundaries
  • How to ask for a raise
  • How to use 311
    • What 311 does
  • How to contact your gov representatives
    • Why contact representatives
      • What reps do for us/are supposed to do for us
  • Emailing and letter writing campaigns to govt reps, local and national businesses and organizations that affect Milo and Columbus community
    • Partner with other instagram accounts to get the thing circling online
  • How to sign up for government resources you are entitled to
  • Mutual Aid

• Self-Care Tips
  • Events/businesses offering wellness classes/workshops
  • How-to/informational Reels and regular posts
    • Meditation/breathing exercises
    • Journaling
    • Exercise
    • Boundaries
      • Familial, work, religious, school, friends, partners
    • Sleep hygiene
    • Nutrition
    • Doctor appointments
    • Vaccines
    • Biking
    • Yoga
    • Therapy
    • Safe drug use (including alcohol)

During this week, I had been nearing the end of my internship and took on three projects this week. Upon completion of the camp, my focus had narrowed down to specific task in which I have been excited to do. The first project I have been working on is working with the Parent Engagement Coordinator to create a document with a list of low cost and free activities that families can do in the Columbus area. This was an eye opening experience because I got the opportunity to see some events and activities that I wanted to do on my own to further experience what Columbus have to offer. The second project I was working on was alongside the Chief of Programs and Partnerships in which I had to go through CIS inventory to gather some items for the Columbus City Schools back to school rally. Communities in schools will be having a booth that day and we wanted to showcase some items and have different templates out that will talk about the work that Site Coordinators do and the different schools that CIS was in. My role was to create a budget for different items that we will have for example some CIS sun glasses and sunscreen, a spinning wheel that will attract children and their families to the table for them to win prizes from the table. I plan on getting items for different age ranges so that there was a variety. Lastly, I worked on a power point that I needed to present to the CIS staff about Parent and Family Engagement activities during the school year for Site Coordinators. This was amazing to work on because I was able to be as creative as I wanted to give SC various ways on how they can engage with families and parents. Some of these included muffins and mittens where SC will give muffins to families and mittens during the winter to spark up conversation with parents about their child. Another one was FAFSA nights for those working with Highschool students because not every student’s parents graduated high school or went to college, so it gives them an opportunity for those who want to attend college to have someone go through the FAFSA process.

The stress is beginning to pile on as I work towards a finalized form of my draft, but for some reason, it feels as if it can never be completed. I know that in order for a draft to be “done” in the sense that I am envisioning, the document would have to be the final product. Therefore it is impossible for my draft to ever be done, which is both infuriating and freeing. My assignment was to create a draft. The end product will be sent out weeks after I have left, which saddens me because I have connected with this project in so many ways thus far. 

But as of right now I’m proud of how much I’ve grown. I am looking forward to reaching a conclusion and reflecting on everything that I’ve done so far. There have been many ups and downs for me in these past few weeks. An area of improvement I’ve recognized for myself includes my scheduling of assignments. I believed that after three years of college, I finally had it figured out. But for some reason, especially in the summer, important tasks that are a priority for me to complete are unintentionally abandoned on my to-do list. These blog posts are a great example. I have had a surprising amount of trouble keeping up with these weekly deadlines and I’ve recognized the problem as the way I schedule them. Instead of scheduling them on Fridays, days where I usually have to work my night shift position immediately after my internship is over, it would have been more beneficial if I made them a task for myself on Wednesday. This way I would have a two-day buffer to work on them. It’s unfortunate that I’ve noticed this during my last week of internship, but as they say, better late than never.

As I wrap up my time with Speak! for the Unspoken, I am working on getting their orientation and trainings in a presentable state. Last week we determined an outline for the orientation and this week I was focused on implementing the content into a presentation format. This is something that I particularly love doing! Creating presentations is such a fun activity for me, even when it can be tedious or time-consuming at times. It has been a lot of fun going through all of the event photos and connecting with some volunteers for aspects of the presentation. The orientation just has a couple things left and then it will be ready for our new volunteers!

Next week, I will be making some outlines for training presentations for the individual roles offered at Speak!. The goal is to get a training of some sort in place for each role, and something that will be easy to reference for volunteers, but also leads. There are documents in place for trainings currently, but we want the trainings to be more consistent, and formatted so that training new volunteers is an easy task for anyone, rather than needing a specific individual to train new volunteers.

Also this week, I attended a Columbus Crew game for the first time with some other fellows from the Columbus Foundation! It was really exciting to experience something new, as I had never been to a professional soccer game. We did end up leaving early because the game stopped for lightning and we all had work in the morning. Overall we all had a lot of fun and the excursion was a success. It was nice to be able to get to know some of the fellows better, and I had a great time! Crazy to think next week is the last week of the fellowship, and I am really looking forward to seeing everyone’s presentations!

Multiple times this week I had sobering moments of realization – I am drifting very closely to the end of this fellowship at Ohio Humanities with the Columbus Foundation. I’ll save most of the emotions I have experienced and the wisdom I have gained for next week’s final blog post, but it’s important to acknowledge how far I have come already in the invaluable connections I have made and the skills I have learned as a result of this incredible fellowship.

This week was significantly less productive for me since I have had a cold – I was only in the office on Tuesday. This is okay though since it is so late in the internship and I only have been focusing on finishing up my final project since it doesn’t make sense to begin another project now. I have been working on my postcard project that entails sending donors from the past two years a postcard celebrating the anniversary month of their first donation – I will be queuing them up to be sent out monthly through February, save for November and December so there is no communication interference or overload with Ohio Humanities’ year-end campaign. I have been receiving feedback from coworkers and professionals who have lots of experience in fundraising and philanthropy to make the resulting text and graphics as effective, succinct, and aesthetically pleasing as possible. It was interesting seeing a myriad of contradicting opinions on the matter (for example, there was debate on whether a QR code linking to the organization’s donation page should be included – it was decided there would be). Seeing different opinions about the same specific material and language was valuable for me because there is certainly going to be times in my upcoming career where similar situations occur and a combination of respect, digression, communication, and decision-making will be necessary to utilize effectively to come up with the seemingly best solution.

While I am not looking forward to the end of this fellowship and time with my coworkers at Ohio Humanities, I am very much looking forward to my future career. I already have one option lined up for immediately after my fellowship thanks to networking and am working on applications and interview practice for positions I am seeking in Chicago, where I plan on moving in January.

The week began with me moving into a friend’s apartment for the remainder of August. I am going to miss my old roommates and our cat, Earl Grey. They were supportive of my fellowship experience, ensuring I had transportation and holding me accountable for managing a healthy work-life balance. Also, Earl was a great stress reliever. One of my personal priorities was to prevent burnout due to work, school, and preparing to move.

With next week being the final week of my fellowship, I spent most of the week reflecting on my fellowship priorities and compiling a presentation for the advancement team. Additionally, we had team meetings in preparation for our board meeting next week. The advancement team will present donor data to the board, and I will share my fellowship experience.

Another one of my personal fellowship priorities was to support other fellows. I visited Gavin’s (Equality Ohio) table during Pride, two of Grace’s (ETSS) fundraisers, and went to a Crew game with seven fellows! At the Crew Game, I asked about their progress and wished everyone a great last week. I had the opportunity to hear from Stephanie Infante, President of the Lindy Infante Foundation. She is one of our board members, and it was worthwhile to see her thoughts on fundraising. She even took time to receive feedback from me at the end.

I was nervous about the priority presentation not because I thought I would look bad but because I care so deeply about the work. I want to take a moment to applaud the Advancement Team. Over the past nine weeks, I got time to engage them as professionals, people, and parents. They have been working hard for the organization and ensuring I have a memorable fellowship experience. The presentation went well as I am on pace with completing my fellowship priorities. The advancement team provided great feedback and encouragement. I am inspired and hopeful for the future. I will try not to be too emotional next week since work still needs to be done.

This was the ninth week of our fellowship, and it has certainly flown by, this week more than ever. Looking back, I have gotten to learn so many new things and get involved on various projects. One of those projects was Youth Summit, which took place yesterday, August 4^th at Ohio Dominican University.

Earlier this week, we had a walk-through tour of the space to finalize which rooms we would be using and for what purpose. Having to go to ODU earlier than the day of was really helpful, especially because there was a lot of construction happening around the campus. We also calculated the number of tables, chairs, computers, projectors, and easels that we would need. It was also nice to meet the team in-person, as I was finally meeting some co-workers face-to-face after interacting with them only online.

On Thursday, my team and I got to ODU around 8:00 to finish setting up before the kids arrived. We had to assign seats in the auditorium to each camp site, set up signs directing the kids where to go, and welcome in everyone who was presenting at our workshops. Once the kids arrived at 9:00, we clapped them in as they walked into the auditorium, congratulating them on completing their summer camp. It was so heartwarming to see the kids smile and wave. A few even gave me a hug!

Throughout the day, there were multiple cultural dances performed by the kids from each site, and it was amazing! I loved listening to the music and seeing the choreography, but most of all, I loved seeing the kids have fun up on stage. At the end of the day, there were soccer and lacrosse tournaments happening outside.

The only bump in the road was during lunchtime. We had three designated times, the first from 11:40-12:00, the second from 12:05-12:25, and the last from 12:30-12:50, so that some kids could be in their workshop session while others were eating. However, the food didn’t arrive until 12:10, which caused a bit of chaos. During that time, it was a bit crazier than normal, but ultimately, we got everyone fed and outside for our closing ceremonies.

Overall, the day was great! Staff said it went well, and the kids had fun! It was really nice to be involved with this process, and it gave me a better glance into the event planning process, which I really liked.