Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

The week began with three back-to-back events dubbed Pique Week, led by Nakai, Career & Workforce Readiness Director. The three events were part of our CareerLaunch program. CareerLaunch prepares our teens to assess their skills and interests, make sound educational decisions, and join our nation’s workforce. The events included a resume workshop, dress 2 impress show, and mock interviews. I assisted each program with operation and content collection.

On Tuesday, we had our 2022 Back to School Volunteer Event. Over 300 backpacks were stuffed for our Club members! Earlier in the summer, we budgeted funding for professional photography. We proceeded to have photo shoots and content collections at the Louella Hodges Reese (Newark) and Oak Street (Marion) Clubhouses. Later Wednesday, I visited our South Side Club. That was the last site visit on my list!

I spent Thursday at the Columbus Zoo with our Club Members. While at the Zoo, they learned about job opportunities such as Sales & Retail, Guest Relations, Food & Beverages, and Audio & Visual (AV). They heard from the directors of each respective area. Afterward, I spent the rest of the day collecting content. Later that same day, an additional 300 backpacks were stuffed. We are thankful to have devoted board members, staff, and volunteers.

By the end of the week, I have reached a milestone. For the first time during my fellowship, I have made a social media post every day, with all our four platforms receiving content. I feel like a well-oiled machine!

It’s been a very exciting week here at the Siemer institute. We have a new employee! Her role is the Director of Impact & Partnerships. It’s nice to hear a different voice during meetings and have a new perspective at the table. Although I will only be working with her for a short time, I’m looking forward to all of the insights she has to offer.

Looking back at the goals my supervisor and I set for my time here, I finally feel as if I am on track to complete them all. One of my goals is to create a database of Siemer Institute partners. This is so partners can find and contact each other and build more of a community. I thought this was an impossible task when it was first assigned, but after becoming comfortable with using Zoho, it did not take me long to create a program that did just this. Even my supervisor was impressed with how close I had come to her vision. 

As for my best practices report, I am nearly complete with my draft. We are approaching our last few interviews and I want to start working on creating infographics based on what we’ve learned. A theme I have found from my interviews with Siemer Institute partners is the idea of meeting families where they are. Our partners believe that the families they serve are extremely resilient and resourceful. Many of these families have the motivation and desire to be in a better place in life but do not know how to get there. Our partners see their role as guiding the families towards success. Because of this, we see programs that offer childcare and scholarships for parents who want to go back to school, we see programs offering financial literacy classes at 11:00 p.m. so that night shift service workers can attend during their lunch breaks, and programs that were having trouble locating mental health services creating their own.  It is very inspiring to see the excitement our partners have over their work and the innovation they show when faced with challenges.

This week I have been working on ongoing projects. With people out at our national conference this week I have been wrapping up some projects. The main one that I have been working on this week has been distributing pamphlets for our LGBTQ legal clinic. This has taken me all over Columbus which has been a lot of fun.

              As a non-Columbus native, it was nice to get my own personal walking tour of the city. This has let me scout out restaurants I want to go to, places I want to shop at and areas I want to spend more time in exploring. This has been nice as during the school year I tend to just be in the Ohio State bubble. Getting to explore the Old North, downtown, Short North, Arena District, the German village and so on has allowed me to talk to a lot of people and see a lot of things I probably would have not seen otherwise.

              This task was also a great opportunity to work on my social anxiety. This task has forced me out of my comfort zone and in effect kind of cold calling people but in person. While at prides I had no issue with talking to people as it was an incredibly friendly crowd, however out and about it was a bit more intimidating. As I did it more and more, I got more comfortable and so many people were incredibly friendly.

              I got all my steps in this week and learned a lot about how to best approach people at a workplace. This week I have also worked on ideas to get more people involved in the 2022 midterms, both in voting and volunteering. I hope to get turned out as it is determining a senator and the governor of Ohio while also deciding the make up of the Ohio Supreme Court. So, please go vote!

This week we finalized all of the projects and deliverables for the Information Session on Thursday. Families came to the session and walked around the school scanning QR codes that linked to the videos we made about the different programs, academics, opportunities, clubs, and financial aid Marburn offers. Our leadership team came up with the idea to switch up our approach to these information sessions to make them more flexible and accessible. Parents and caregivers were able to take as much time as they wanted to watch the videos and chat with Marburn faculty and staff. It was also a kid-friendly session to allow parents the opportunity to come even if they didn’t have childcare set up. 

Today is Friday and it was the last day of our 2022 summer school program. We celebrated the students with recognition ceremonies and field day activities. Each student was recognized during their ceremony for the hard work and perseverance they showed these past four weeks. Parents and caregivers came to the ceremonies to see their students receive a certificate and encouraging words from their teachers. Celebrating students is a value Marburn Academy participates in regularly. 

After the ceremonies, each division played outside to celebrate the end of summer school. We had a bounce house, an inflatable obstacle course, chalk, frisbee, basketball, bowling pins, etc. To top it off the students enjoyed popsicles after running around in the heat. Today and this week have been eventful and so much fun. I loved seeing all the students smile and play.

This week was my first week back in the office after the conclusion of the Summer Camp. I have had a very eye opening week. I got the opportunity to meet with a few important people in the Community in Schools office and one of the highlights was meeting with the Parent and Engagement Coordinator. When we first was introduced to each other, it was a brief time, but my focus on my internship is to do planning around Family and Engagement activities for Site Coordinators to be able to have documents and resources for when the school year begin. I finally had a meeting with the Specialist and the meeting went from being only 30 minutes to a little over two hours. This was by far the most informational and life changing meeting I have had in the past few months. We spoke a lot about the work that is done as a Parent Engagement Coordinator and the conversation sparked up topics around nonprofits, family history, the importance of education in young children and went on mini trails of real estate, healthcare, poetry, and much more. I learned a great deal from this conversation that I will be able to use in my last year of college as well as my future decisions that I make as it pertains to my career field. I want to thank Ms. Vernell for allowing the conversation to extend with no limitations.

For the past week and a half, I have been working on a mini project that I decided to start on my own. This entailed me to create a two page evaluation of the Summer Camp that we planned and implemented for the middle school students at CCA. The reason for this upbringing was because in the nonprofit spectrum, evaluation is a key component of the success of programming and the impact it has on the community. I believed that my input on some of the improvements of the summer camp would be helpful for future interns of CIS. I decided to to section the evaluation up three segments which were Planning, Program Quality, and Student to Adult Engagement. I learned a lot by just recounting the four weeks of the program and being able to list pros and cons and anything I feel may have been beneficial or will be beneficial to implement for next summer.

As I have stated, this fellowship has placed me outside of my comfort zone. My prior work experiences have been externally oriented. I interacted directly with customers or constituents, and examined public policy issues while identifying possible solutions. My current role at Local Matters has pushed me to look internally at the issues within an organization and work with those around me to address them. As my final product nears completion, I am satisfied with the progress I have made and excited to see how this experience has shaped my personal and professional development. 

This week, I began wrapping up my first draft of the operations manual. I have had to come to terms with the fact that sometimes a first draft is called a rough draft for a reason. There are still holes in the manual and areas that need a great deal of expansion, but sharing my current progress with my team will allow them to provide new input and feedback on what additions are necessary. On Wednesday, I provided updates to the organization during our all-staff meeting. The CEO of Local Matters then spoke with me and gave me great pointers on how to reorient my current work to better suit what is needed. She also asked me to give a presentation at the staff meeting next Wednesday, which is my last week in-person. While getting feedback on the general direction of the project is nerve wracking when a deadline is rapidly approaching, the CEO’s help definitely gave me the assurance I need to create a strong manual. 

After the staff meeting, I implored a new tactics to get feedback from my team members. Rather than soliciting input from them in a formal capacity (through surveys or interviews), I simply sat in the kitchen space with them and conversed with them on a casual level. I eventually asked what they think I should add to the manual, which helped me add a few more points to the processes and procedures section. I also connected with them all personally by discussing our personal lives and interests, which was great. Though I am still working laboriously to complete a presentable draft of the manual I enjoyed taking a step back to learn about all of my team members.

This past week was enjoyable and very busy. On Monday I shadowed Darrell and got to tag along on the projects he worked on that day. In the morning we helped guide our summer school students during morning drop-off into the school. The next event was running the fire drill we had that day. I am sure everyone remembers when we had fire drills as kids in school. It was cool to be on the other side of the drill with the teachers and staff members. The next project was going out to inspect our soccer field to make sure it was not flooded. Marburn rents out the field to teams who need it during the summer. We were in charge of making sure it was in good shape and safe for teams to play on. To end the day, I helped him paint a classroom that was in need of touching up. It was pretty fun to hang out and participate in projects around the school. 

This week I also helped create videos and deliverables for our information session that will happen next Thursday. This info session is for interested families who want to learn more about Marburn Academy and the educational opportunities. Many of the families are coming from different areas of Ohio that are more than an hour away from Marburn. It is very important that they have a good experience and that we take good care of them. Next week we will be working on finalizing the materials for the info session and also getting ready for the last day of summer school which is next Friday. It has been so nice to have students in the building for the past month and see them learn and grow each day.

To kick off this week, I started at the ASPIRE program once again. My days with ASPIRE are becoming my favorite of the week, and the day I look forward to most. Seeing the same group of people each week gives me the opportunity to develop my relationships and genuinely get to know the participants. For the ASPIRE program, the ARC staff get to work, and then head off on their driving routes to pick up participants from home and bring them back to ARC. Usually, I stay back in the office to catch up on work and await their arrival. This week, one of the participants walked into ARC, saw me, and said, “I knew you were here! I saw your blue car!”. This was such a small comment, but it made me feel really good to know that she noticed the car I drove, and got excited when she realized that I was going to be spending the day with them.

With ASPIRE, we decided to go to the free market, and go back to the library to return some things from the previous week and scour the music section for a new CD to listen to in the van. While we were at the library, one of the participants walked around the books with me and helped me select my very first Columbus library book– which I think I was a lot more excited about than the average person. My favorite part of being with ASPIRE isn’t necessarily the activities we do, though I do enjoy spending the work day at places like the conservatory or the mall. My favorite part of ASPIRE is the people. I enjoy talking to them and learning about their interests, hearing their stories, or joking around with them. I have never had a job where I spend the majority of my day smiling.

Later in the week, I went to an ARC Adult Resource Center that I had never been to before. Participants in the resource centers are divided into “pods” in different rooms due to COVID. In one of the pods, participants were making turkey pinwheels that they were going to snack on later in the day. After the cooking took place, they put the recipe into a little booklet, as they do with all of their food creations. They have made three full cookbooks and are working on their fourth edition. Flipping through these definitely made me a little hungry, especially the dessert recipes.

Finally, at the resource center I had the ability to sit in with a couple program coordinators in a meeting where they discussed the logistics of ARC. The point of this meeting was to discuss where to place people and which staff would be with certain participants. It was interesting for me to see how much planning it takes to make this company work. Just when you think you’ve fond the solution, something else comes up. Or, something may look like a perfect plan on paper, but it cannot work in reality.

It was a very productive week for me at Ohio Humanities, as I finally got to finish the donor stewardship project that I’ve been working on for weeks! After I finished the phone calls to donors last week, I drafted and sent out thank you notes to donors that called for them to reach out to us for conversations about our work. I sent these notes through emails and through written notes that were mailed, and I’m excited to see the response that comes from them. From one response we already got, I had the opportunity to have a phone call with a donor and with the Senior Development Officer, Scarlett, to hear about what the donor thinks Ohio Humanities is doing effectively in sharing our work with our donors, what changes or advice they had, and why they love the humanities like us. It was a very valuable experience hearing directly from a supporter, and I’m anticipating more phone calls in the coming weeks with Scarlett, as well as in person conversations with donors to gauge what actions we should take to gain more donor support.

At this week’s Learning Session, we got to hear from Elizabeth Martinez, the president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio, in person about her professional experience and the mindsets she adopted in her struggles and journey to have a prestigious leadership position in the nonprofit sector. Her advice resonated with me substantially, particularly when she expressed the significance of mentorship and having guides who can act as accountability partners as well as facilitators to connections. I also appreciated when Elizabeth highlighted the significance of being the best version of yourself – we need to consider everything with our name attached to it, be thoughtful about the way we are presenting ourselves in all our interactions, and refining ourselves in spaces where our point of view and opinions are expected. This perspective helped begin to erase some of the reservations that I feel as a young professional in whom I feel I am “permitted” to interact with, and I think that adopting Elizabeth’s advice is going to have a valuable impact on my journey to create new opportunities for myself and in becoming a leader in the nonprofit industry.

Week 6 was the last week of camp. It was an amazing four weeks of the camp and seeing the transition from the first week to the last week was wonderful. As I reflect on my time being a Summer Camp Counselor, I was able to impact the students by encouraging them to gain trust in the counselors, building their confidence throughout various activities, and giving a safe space for students to feel comfortable opening up and being themselves. From the beginning of the Camp, the students and counselors were getting equipped with understanding each other and the expectations both on our end and on their end. After getting in the groove of how the summer camp would be ran, we began to get more organized and was able to see an increase in student participation and excitement to want to be there. We did a great job keeping focus on the three core competencies for the Social & Emotional learning aspect of the Camp.

I also seen an improvement in myself throughout this experience as this was the first time I was able to work closely with Middle School Students. The atmosphere was great to be in, many of the students enjoyed how authentic and engaged I was. I enjoyed many of the activities and field trips we had with them. This allowed for me to be active in the outside setting of the camp and see students in their natural element. Being a part of a group of people who want to ensure that students are still learning in an informal school setting while also enjoying their summer with new students and adults was rewarding to see.

Looking back at the speaker Dr. Lewis who truly made a mark on the student’s lives, it made me reflect upon my college career/path as well. Understanding, the roles and leadership positions that I am in and what it would lead me to my future is what I enjoy to do and take in. This summer camp has contributed to what I see myself doing in the near future and that is putting together quality programs, creating a nonprofit for students, and advocating for the next generation by being an asset and providing countless resources for them to succeed and be in the position to go after their dreams and goals. I want to thank Communities and Schools for giving me this opportunity to be a part of one of the first interns to help with Summer Camp and hope to have it continue after this year to continue impacting students.