Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

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.

I have finally been getting into the routine of working at Green Columbus. At the start, each day was very different, and I was constantly learning something new; now I am in a good routine. Each day is still different, but I know what to expect when I go into every day.

I attended my first Green Columbus Board Member meeting this past Wednesday. My first and last one, since they meet once every other month. I presented to the board the membership model I have been creating and my newsletter. The board was very encouraging and had feedback on my work. I appreciated the way they delivered the things they thought I should change. There was a good build-up of what I did well and what could be improved on. I spent the rest of the week improving the notes they gave me and doing extra tasks they assigned at the meeting. Some things were small like adding more photos to our website. Some of the large tasks they gave me include how to sustain a newsletter once I am done with my internship. That entails creating a schedule for our newsletter, suggested topics and even some prewritten pieces.

In of my previous posts, I talked about how I never had a passion for trees before this internship and commented on how that passion is growing. I was telling our executive director, Shelly, this past Monday that I keep finding myself talking about trees in social settings. I keep finding myself informing my friends about how trees can decrease crime. Or I find myself telling my roommates about the decreased tree canopy in the area of our future house. Every time someone mentions a tree, I harp in and tell them about how they could get a free tree from my nonprofit in October. Who knew trees would provide so much to talk about?

Check our website for the changes and updates: https://www.greencbus.org/

My fifth week at the RIC was both fairly uneventful and full of ups and downs. I have a good routine down now where I get to work from home for the first few hours, come into the office midday to help my coworkers with anything they need or work on various projects, and then set up for summer reading. This means that most days and tasks go very smoothly! However, this week I had one project I was working on that did not pan out the way I had hoped.

I was looking for local places where we could purchase marketing materials and thought I had found one that would work. I was working with the sales representative there to design and purchase vinyl stickers for our volunteer appreciation party next week and was about to send a deposit payment when they accidentally sent the samples for the sticker designs. They were rather disappointing and not at all worth what we would have been charged for the designs. I could have made better designs for free in Canva! While it was a bit of a bummer to realize that we would not have the stickers ready in time for our party, I am so glad we didn’t put down any money before seeing the designs. I am not sure exactly what important lesson this teaches me except for reinforcing the importance of carefully reading reviews! Not everything works out perfectly and that is okay.

On the other hand, there were little successes this week that made it great. I was able to help a coworker set up an extension for Google Voice that allows her to send messages to large numbers of people without starting overwhelming group chats while still avoiding the time consuming process of texting people individually. I was happy to see her excited about saving hours of work on this and future projects. It was good to feel a part of something that helps the organization gather important data for grants and reporting.

I also got to help this same coworker conduct mock interviews for the neighbors in her job readiness class. This was great because I got to know a few of the neighbors more personally and help them get over the jitters of interviewing for a job. It is amazing to hear these individuals’ life stories. Many of them have bachelors or masters degrees and are working towards having their degrees and years of hard work recognized in the states. This is called equivalency and is a very involved process that many New Americans go through. One of the women I “interviewed” worked as a civil engineer in her country for 32 years before coming to the states. While candidates like her with years of experience are common, it is very difficult for them to obtain jobs that are similar to what they did in their countries. Many of them find work in hospitality or food service even though they were doctors or teachers or engineers in their countries. I admire the hard work and patience they possess. I think this is an important reminder that this country consistently treats immigrants and refugees horribly. No matter where they are from, or what they did before arriving in the United States, they are deserving of opportunity and dignity the same as those of us who were born here. Immigrants and refugees contribute so much to this country and make it exponentially better in so many ways. Love on your neighbors, y’all!

This past week was a great experience fulled of lots of creativity. I was able to work on marketing projects that allowed me to take some creative control. It was really fun to be able to work through and try different styles that work the best. I enjoyed getting to work with my colleagues on different projects. I have really found such a great interest in community health and could really see myself finding a career in this field. I have always had a passion for nutrition and the intersection between nutrition and healthcare. I think that getting to learn and see the ins and outs of this organization has been a very beneficial for me as I start to narrow down where I want to land professionally. Even when things seem like they may not be able to get done, somehow it all gets pulled together when everyone works together. I have enjoyed getting to see this intricate dance at my time at PrimaryOne Health. There are many thing on the horizon, such as the ribbon cutting for the second SBHC and the other healthcare center, National Health Center Week, and other projects. As I prepare to step into new roles to aid during this busy time, I am excited for all I will learn. I will continue to absorb all the knowledge and experiences that I can.

They always say that honesty is the best policy, right? I’m not really even sure who “they” is, but at least that’s what I had always heard growing up. Prepare yourself, because I’m about to hurl an honesty bomb at you. First, the activities I led on Monday probably could not have gone worse. And second, I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. 

Let’s start with the first one, and let me also set the scene—you’ll need to have the full experience. Just sit back, relax, close your eyes, and picture this. (Except don’t close your eyes, you still need to read this). Imagine you have twenty friends. You’re standing in the middle of your friends, and they’re all running in different directions; think gazelles after a lion runs into the herd. Except they’re not gazelles, because they can talk. And man oh man, do they (and loudly I might add). So, on review, we have twenty loud, fast, energetic friends, and you’re standing in the middle of them. Now, you try to get their attention, but no one seems to be listening to you. You try telling them one at a time, “Hey! Can you listen to me for a second?” But that doesn’t work, because after you’re done talking to them, they just go back to being loud and fast. It looks like it’s time for a new tactic—maybe you should try to get their attention all at once. You say, “Hey! Can everyone catch a bubble in their mouth and look at me for a second?” Except there’s one more challenge. Your friends tend to have some pretty strong emotions, and all of a sudden, one of your friends is crying, which makes another friend cry, and another, and another, until half of your friends are crying, half of your friends go back to being loud and fast, and one friend is picking at the paint on the wall. So this isn’t going well for you. Oh yeah, one more thing: your friends are four. Like, four years old. 

That was me, Monday afternoon, from about 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., and whichever very intelligent individual said that experience was the greatest teacher was absolutely correct. I would classify myself as someone who is fairly confident in her ability to accomplish a goal or be successful at something I’ve never tried before, but my four year old friends proved me wrong that fateful Monday afternoon. (Fateful is probably a little dramatic, but I did feel slightly defeated). 

We’ll come back to my little friends in a minute, but for now, let’s move on to some Fun Friday analysis on that second statement: I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. I guess I technically am a grownup, and the kids at SVFS certainly classify me as one, but there are lots of things that could put a person in the grownup category. Legally speaking, if you’re eighteen, you’re a grownup. And life speaking, maybe being a grownup just means that you have real responsibility. But if knowing what you want your career to be is the official seal of being a real grownup, I’m starting to think I’ll never be one. 

Ask anyone that knows me well, and they’ll tell you my choice of career changes, quite literally, every couple days. Let me take you through a brief journey of Sarah’s Career Crisis. First and second grade Sarah wanted to be a teacher—just ask my parents. Half of our basement was my classroom, and I have to admit that my mom was the librarian or gym teacher on quite a few occasions. As school continued though, I uncovered a real passion for science. So, third through eighth grade animal-loving Sarah wanted to be a veterinarian. Then high school rolled around, and this is when things really started to get complicated. I began taking classes through a biomedical science program called Project Lead the Way, and I fell in love with the incredible complexity and ability of the human body: disease, pathology, anatomy, physiology, and even public health and epidemiology. I began to think that maybe, just maybe, I’d want to explore human medicine a little further. But, before I got the chance, my life was completely altered in a way I’d never imagine would happen: my mom was diagnosed with Lupus, and a few short months later, my younger sister died of an unknown virus. Yikes. The more I’ve talked with young professionals, the more I’ve learned that career choices often come to be because of a passion for a subject and a personal experience, and this rings true for me, too. I knew the heartbreak and tragedy of dealing with death and illness, and I wanted to prevent other families from feeling it. And, the human body is just plain fascinating. How much better could it get? Just you wait: here comes college. 

I decided to major in public health sociology, but still stay on the pre-medicine track. I loved my public health classes, but I also loved biology, so I decided I needed to do a little more digging to figure out what I really wanted to do. I worked at the hospital, I took this internship, I got involved with clubs, and even founded my own. All this, for nothing. Or so I thought, because much to my dismay (sometimes), I still don’t know what I want to do. I tell my friends that I could see myself being happy and fulfilled doing almost anything. I come home from working in the ICU in the hospital and think to myself, “I would love to be an intensivist.” I come home from this internship and think to myself, “I think I would find clinical psychology very fulfilling.” I come home from shadowing a pediatric general surgeon and think to myself, “This is, hands down, the coolest job you could ever have.” I have even listened to an investigative journalism podcast and thought to myself, “I love writing and talking to people, so why not do this for a living?” 

I recently told a friend that, while this is not inherently a bad problem to have, it does make it very difficult to narrow the options down. Lately though, I’ve begun to realize something. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know what I want to do, and it doesn’t matter that I can’t decide between a PhD or an MD or a Master’s in public health. I am making an impact on people right where I’m at, and I’m learning skills I’ll need to be successful in any career along the way. I’m learning how to work quickly, yet skillfully, at my job as a PCA at the hospital, and I’m learning how to teach effectively and communicate well with children at this internship. I’m learning how to be a good leader in my role as co-president in the student organization I co-founded, and I’m learning how to study productively in my classes at Ohio State. And as for my four year old friends, well, they’ve been teaching me things too: patience, and that not everything will always go according to plan, and that’s a perfectly fine way to go about life. Careers included. 

It’s strange to think that my time at Equitas Health, my fellowship with the Columbus Foundation, and my summer are all just about halfway finished. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time thus far, and I am hopeful that the remaining half of my summer will be equally if not more, fulfilling than the first half.

So far I’ve gained insight into how non-profits operate and how they achieve their missions, but more importantly, I’ve been learning how to be aware of my intentions and desires as they relate to my career and what I’d like to get out of life. It’s daunting and certainly something I’ve been putting off for as long as possible, but through this program and my time at Equitas, I have been able to get the ball rolling on that process. Somehow it’s scarier and far less scary than I originally anticipated. Either way, it’s exciting for me.

From a weekly point of view, the assignment that I have been working on has proven to be more approachable than I originally believed it to be, while also being more challenging. If I didn’t say in my previous blog post, I have been tasked with creating a (large) PowerPoint presentation that recaps all of Equitas’s involvements at pride events around the state. Once I got started I quickly realized that it would be quite time-consuming, which was shocking to me. I mean, why should a multi-week project require more than two afternoon’s worth of work?

Jokes aside I do struggle with time management, especially when a deadline isn’t for some time. Setting time aside to do work and feeling absolutely zero sense of urgency isn’t a rare event for me. I have ADHD and I’m curious to see how my neurodivergencies will interact with my future work. I’m confident that it won’t be a huge career roadblock, but I am anticipating some struggles and potential incompatibilities.

This week I exclusively did work from home as I haven’t had any reasons to be in the office, which has been nice. It’s allowed me to remedy my preferences and needs when it comes to getting work done. Doing things on my own time in my own comfortable environment has been huge! I’ve also enjoyed the flexibility that WFH offers.

Next week I’ll be meeting with my supervisors and going over the presentation, and I’m sure it will be fine and largely uneventful, but I’m excited!

My role this week at We Amplify Voices has been a change in direction and change of pace. Summer programming ended on the last day of June, so the hours I spent painting and creating musical instruments with the kids have been redirected. Now some of my responsibilities include helping with an upcoming event, compiling resources for a database WAV is creating, and organizing the technology inventory. 

I am very excited about the event we are working on because I get to collaborate with the other WAV staff and a group from Otterbein University. I am more on the marketing side of things, and I am learning a lot in this role. I love being able to see how WAV’s network can reach so many people, and I am inspired by how connected they are to the community.

I also am happy to be working on my more administrative projects and organizing things for WAV. The staff at WAV work so hard and produce amazing results, but they all have a lot on their plate. I am able to use my time to help them complete projects they have been hoping to accomplish but may not have had the resources to give to them, but will be greatly beneficial to the organization and its long-term sustainability.

My days are much less structured now without the camp, so I have had to make sure I am prioritizing and managing my own time to be as productive as possible while I work remotely. This has been a shift but I am glad I am getting the time management practice. My first four weeks were about seeing the direct impact WAV makes in their programming, and now I am getting to see the behind-the-scenes work the staff does every day to make that possible.

This week I’ve continued to complete my assigned tasks on my own, as my supervisor is still on vacation. I’m continuing to comb through long lists of comic shops, bookstores, small press outlets, and blogs. My goal in all of this is to turn all this disorganized information into a clean, workable dataset for outreach for CXC 2023 and in the future. My work now will let CXC better sort through and organize their contacts, and as we reach out to them and establish long term relationships prioritize those which best match CXC’s mission. 

Earlier in the week I completed the monthly social media count which CXC conducts. These are completed within the first week of each month in order to track our online presence. Here I went through our social media presence and recorded views, followers, subscribers, and other relevant statistics. I focused particularly on our YouTube channel, and the views of particular recordings of past CXC events. All of this information is entered into a spreadsheet containing all past monthly counts, so we can better understand our digital presence and growth. I also looked into the growth of our following on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These stats will help us better understand our social media presence, the impact our posts and messaging has, and how best to utilize these platforms to spread the word about CXC.

Another exciting, and intimidating, task I’ve been working on is updating the script for our 2023 radio ads. I was given copies from last year’s ads, and asked to update them with current information and perhaps provide my own take on them. While updating them with dates for CXC 2023 and cross referencing sponsors wasn’t too difficult, I’ve certainly never written a script for a radio ad before. I still have time to try and draft my own versions of the ads, and would love to try and improve upon them, so over the next few days I’ll be doing my best to create something that will be heard all across Columbus!