Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This week, after having Monday off in observation of Juneteeth, I jumped in to the advancement strategy involving donor appreciation. I will be working on giving phone calls and sending emails and postcards to recent donors to express to them the ways that their donation has helped support Ohio storytellers and connect the Ohio community to our common history. The first few phone calls that I’ve already given have gone well – people are always very appreciative to receive a thank you call and it’s great to share upcoming projects with them.

Ohio Humanities moved into its current office space recently, and this week I had the opportunity to see the space transform into a decorated, organized, and energizing space. It was a bit noisy with new carpeting, shelves, and photos from around Ohio being put up, but it was well worth it because the result is exceptional. A large part of my day on Tuesday was spent organizing the vast book collection onto the new shelves with my coworker Kiley which has left a rewarding result (I wish I had taken a picture to share here!).

I’ve been put in charge of keeping track of and organizing the RSVPs that we receive for the upcoming Over-the-Rhine Film Festival, for which preparations are in full force. It’s going to be a wonderful event and I’m excited to meet Humanities fanatics and stakeholders in the Cincinnati area.

I’ve also dived straight into my personal touchpoint project, and have a couple of ideas that I’ll be sharing with the Ohio Humanities team in a couple of weeks. I’m still very excited about the liberty I’ve been given with this project and plan to work very hard on it to see results that ultimately have a great impact on the advancement of Ohio Humanities. I’m excited to give updates on this in the future but don’t want to spoil too much now!

This week was full of finalizing tasks and getting prepared for the first day of our summer school program. Creating directional signage, sorting through summer school t-shirt sizes, and talking with teachers and tutors, among other responsibilities comprised my week 3. 

This past week I also helped generate ideas for our parent information session that we will host in July. We are going to be changing things up so that it is more relaxed and fun to attend for busy parents/guardians. 

On a more personal note, I had the pleasure of meeting the summer school teachers and tutors. They have been completing Orton-Gillingham (OG) training for the past couple of weeks in order to be certified. The OG teaching approach is used to teach students who learn differently in an effective and positive way. 

One more project that I continually work on is digitizing printed photos that date back to 1981 when Marburn Academy was founded. It has been so cool to see how Marburn Academy grew from a living room operation created by loving parents to now being a wonderful school with two locations that reach students who learn differently.

This week, I was tasked with visiting two locations of ARC that I had not been to before. As I’ve stated in my recent blog, ARC has five different locations across Columbus where they serve people with disabilities. Each location is vastly different from the others. The structure can be different based on the participant’s needs or interests.

To start off, I spent the first day in Grove City at a small location with only five participants that day. To begin the morning, we did arts and crafts by painting ceramic mermaids. Afterwards, we all ate lunch together and took off to Dave and Busters for the afternoon. My roommate and friends were pretty jealous that I got to spend my day at the arcade and I was getting paid to do so. One of the participants is deaf, and relies on ASL to communicate. In college so far, I have taken three semesters of ASL. While I am no where near fluent, I can easily start and hold a conversation in ASL. I thought it was really cool to be able to use my skills from school in the real world. This participant signed really fast, and though I had to ask her to slow down a few times, we successfully communicated with each other throughout the day.

The next day, I went to Gahanna to a different location. This was probably my favorite building that I have visited so far. This building resembles a school. There are multiple classrooms inside, an art space, a gym, and there is even a space outside where participants garden and enjoy time outside during the day. This building was full of art from different participants throughout the years, and it was beautiful to walk through. I spent my day popping in and out of classrooms, observing different activities and routines. There were two particular things that stood out to me from this day. First of all, there was a room with a box full of baby chicks that participants had watched hatch. I spent a significant amount of time holding and gawking over these tiny little baby chicks– definitely a highlight of my day and I now want a baby chick to carry around in my pocket at all times. Secondly, I got to observe a participant led activity that occurs every single day at this location. One participant gets on stage to sing and play piano, and others from various rooms come in to play other instruments, sing along, request songs, or just enjoy the music. This entire experience was amazing to watch. The leading participant is blind, and watching him play beautiful songs on the piano was really incredible to see. I even got the song “Piano Man” dedicated to me that day, which made me feel pretty special.

Overall, the main trend that I have noticed as I’ve travelled in between these locations is how sweet and welcoming everyone is. The staff at ARC have been nothing but supportive. The participants have all been excited to meet me and talk with me about my life and theirs as well. I have truly had some of the most rewarding days in these last couple weeks.

I ended my week by engaging in trainings for the Next Chapter book club. This is a program to provide meaningful opportunities and social connections for individuals with developmental disabilities through community based book club meetings. ARC is going to start participating in this book club, and I have been put on this project so we can find ways to incorporate it into our day programs. While I have just done the trainings, I am excited to get started on launching the project!

This past week at Seeds of Caring has flown by, and it has already been filled with many different tasks!

We headed back to the camps we attended last week, this week to discuss senior empathy. We introduced what senior citizens were to the kids and went through some activities to practice our empathy. We read a picture book about an elderly woman and the kids in her neighborhood, as well as played an “I feel you” game where the kids got to see how many of their peers have had the same feelings that they have had about certain situations in their lives.

This was also the first week of the kids making a gift for someone else and donating that gift. They made cards or small pictures for seniors living in memory centers or in senior living communities. They loved that something they had made would be giving a bit of joy to someone who could be feeling a bit lonely right now. They also all wrote special messages on the back, personalizing the donation as well.

I also had a meeting/call with my roommate’s mom, who works for a nonprofit organization in Indianapolis. She gave me a ton of valuable information about the nonprofit world in Indy and about the organization, which has a great impact on the city.

I also met with another staff member to discuss a Civic Engagement Anywhere Project. An “Anywhere Project” is something Seeds of Caring created during the pandemic, and they are still successful today. These are projects families or classrooms can do in the convenience of their own home or space to donate themselves to different organizations. There is an educational and hands on portion of each project so that kids can know who their donations will be helping.

Since I have a background in advocacy work in D.C., I was able to offer some input on what this packet could include. The goal of the Civic Engagement Anywhere Project is to educate kids on how a bill becomes a law. There is also going to be a “letter to a member of Congress” or some type of communication factor to the project as well. I really enjoyed talking out that process and giving some feedback on how best we can teach these kids to create social change in this way!

To finish out the week, I have another meeting with my supervisor to discuss goals for this summer and we finish out this week of camp with our senior empathy lesson!

Camp Creativity is finally here! My third week at the McConnell Arts Center was spent helping direct the first session of our summer camp. Camp Creativity enrolls forty children between 7 and 12, and rotates them through writing, acting, dance, and various visual arts classes. As I was in charge of the counselors, I oversaw parts of the check-in and check-out process, and led a few counselor activities with the kids. I was also the MAC staff member who was in charge of overseeing daily pool time, so I led the campers and counselors to the pool each day. After the first day of camp, one of the high school counselors told us she was unable to complete camp, so I filled in for her on Tuesday and part of Wednesday, while we found a different counselor to fill her position. Once the new counselor was hired, I stayed with the group and ran the new counselor through procedures and the daily schedule. While Week 3 was slightly hectic due to staffing changes, I loved being able to spend time with the kids and watch their final performance!

My second week at the McConnell Arts Center primarily involved preparing for our summer camp, Camp Creativity, which took place the following week and preparing a submission list for an upcoming gallery exhibit, Worthington on the Walls.

Camp preparation began with finalizing instructor supply lists and placing the orders online. I organized the camper roster again, and began to collect and organize the required parent forms as parents completed them. Additionally, I created informational binders for the counselors and MAC staff to refer to throughout camp if they had any questions or needed anything. The binders included the camp schedule, instructions, sign in/out sheets, and extra copies of parent forms. Toward the end of the week, the instructor supplies came in. The MAC Education Coordinator and I began to go through the rooms in which camp would take place and gather supplies which we already had and combine them with the supplies we ordered. We staged most of the supplies in the MAC Painting and Drawing Room, then transferred them to the correct place.

Alongside preparing for Camp Creativity, I created a master submission list for an upcoming gallery exhibit, Worthington on the Walls. This exhibit is community-oriented, where Worthington artists submit one to three pieces of art to be displayed for a six-week period. Once we collected all of the submissions, I went through them and created one large document and scoring index, to send to the jurors who decide on the selection of art.

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with program managers and getting to know those who work in Communities in Schools. It was great being able to hear everyone’s story and how they worked their way to their position. I have been feeling a part of a team who have a drive to want to provide resources to students and their families. I had a lot of time to come up with activities for the summer camp that we are implementing and coming up with outlines on my company laptop. (I feel very professional with my own laptop and email). This week we focused a lot on what the rest of the day will look like for students after the Social and Emotional Learning aspect of the first part of their day.

I get the opportunity to run a Mindfulness/Wellness camp on one of the Fridays. I chose this because of of my hobbies includes mindfulness practices which is journaling, yoga, and meditation. I want to show students how they can begin their day , reset, or end their day with being in tune with their inner self and even as simple as breathe work and focusing on breathing. I met the Site coordinators in person and we were able to discuss our ideas and vision of how the camp will look on a daily basis and creating incentives and expectations as well. It was great to hear the different ideas that we all came up with and putting it all together ! i am looking forward to seeing how much fun the students will have.

I think one of the biggest things I toon away from this week was going after all opportunities and finding your passion and your ”why”. During our Learning Session at the Columbus Foundation, we watched a ted talk on finding your why and the importance of it by Simon Sinek. it made me just think about what I truly want to do in life and what I want to get out of it as well.

Although it has only been two weeks at the center, I have been exposed to so many different roles. I have helped facilitate transportation for the youth, worked in administration, and assisted around the center to make sure that the summer program ran smoothly. Unfortunately, this week has been hard on many employees at the center because of the violence in the surrounding areas. There has been violence committed against young adults over the past couple of weeks, that has affected everyone in the center. My Project USA is a pillar in the community that creates a safe haven for young people who are looking for a place to be kids. We see these students throughout the week hoping we can make a difference in their life.

As previously stated, this week was tension-filled due to gun violence in the West side community. Since this happened, I had the opportunity to see community leaders, such as Mrs. Zerqa, the founder of My Project USA, and her partners swiftly act, make statements, and demand change in their community. The leaders knew they had to make a call to action against the crimes committed on the west side of Columbus, Ohio. They also took the opportunity to share their resources, invite the community, and create more partnerships with individuals in the community. After the press conference, I had a wonderful discussion with a colleague, stating that you can move to a different area but still have the same disparities because of a system that is built against certain communities.  As someone who is deeply rooted in their community, I understand the importance of speaking up and reaching out to make a change.

This experience has also helped me understand that a community must work together to make a change. They have to make sacrifices and take action so the next generation sees that their community is worth fighting for. I am inspired by leaders like Zerqa who are willing to be at the forefront to speak on the needs of their community. I know it is a hard task, but I believe the center has the capacity to curate more leaders that will make a difference.

As week two comes to a close, I will share a little more about Cultivate. As I go over some of Cultivate’s history and its mission I will also share what I have done in the past two weeks and what is going on in my mind.

Cultivate originally began as an off-shoot of Veritas Community Church. With my history of trauma involving church menticide, I am always suspicious of churches and religions in general, but so far there have been no conflicts or boundary concerns for me – at least any that get in the way of my work. Cultivate so far seems very non-secular and the Veritas members working in the office don’t bother Cultivate. Interactions have been pleasant. To describe Veritas in a simple way – it is a white church and they’ve been engaged in outreach services in a predominantly black neighborhood. It honestly sounds sketchy to me, but church community services can make a positive impact. Cultivate’s board has also gone through changes to better reflect Milo. The current executive director is also a long-time resident as well. I am optimistic.

One of my projects at Cultivate is to further develop the youth programming and to facilitate it. Cultivate runs on three pillars: Know Neighbors, Foster Local Leadership, and Ensure a Vibrant Neighborhood For All. I can get behind all this. I want my community center to be based around these values! Authentic connections are important for people and communities to grow. We can learn so much from each other because of our unique identities. Leadership is important! Economic disparities need to end and that can’t happen if people don’t take a stand, unite, organize, and persist with their demands. It also looks like going out on your own to talk to or lend a hand to a neighbor. And to sustain all of this, people need to be healthy and thrive where they are living. One of the ways to do that is to offer green space! Parks, gardens, and nutritional food go a long way.      

As part of the leadership programming, I shared my input that although the kids have signed the agreements they were given after applying, to really be leaders, they should create their own agreements with each other and for the next co-hort. I do not like telling people what to do either. I will try my best to teach the kids about accessibility, inclusivity, keeping it real, and with their input, we will all get to make decisions. I think it’s important that the kids be more involved in creating the program they participate in.

A few other things I’ve done this week, which I hope to continue, is work with the new ‘empowerment coach’, attend a civic meeting, attend an area commission meeting, go on a few home visits to help folks living here, and I’ve been compiling and brokering resources. The later of which is a focus of mine as a social work professional and outside of my professional life. I have a history of using welfare programs and frankly, even though many of them are trash, they can sometimes make the difference between living and being dead. It isn’t right to hoard the resources. I am also trying to think of ways to stay engaged with community members and to persuade them to get more involved in Cultivate so Cultivate can be theirs. I am continually learning that getting others involved one of the hardest things about social service. People do not recognize their own power and there is such a fine line between empowering people and teaching them dependence or “learned helplessness.”