Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

As I’m sure the other Fellows have said, 10 weeks have never flown by so fast! It seems like it wasn’t long ago that I was sitting in our Zoom orientation anticipating our first day at our host sites. With the changes our world has gone through lately, I am so grateful to have been able to complete the program and make the connections I did. As a 2021 college graduate, I was extremely nervous to enter the professional world during a time full of turmoil. While my job search still continues ahead, I can say for certain that my confidence and belief in myself as a professional has increased.

FLOW was the perfect entry into the real world. I’ve always said that my “dream job” may not exist because most of the things I love to do are just volunteering or a side hobby. However, working with FLOW helped me realize that a nonprofit may be the perfect answer to that problem! When I was out in nature picking up trash, pulling invasives, or just listening to a meeting about next steps to reach a goal, the job was so fulfilling. All jobs have purpose, but the mission-driven work I’ve experienced within the nonprofit sector is inspiring and makes me want to get up and work each day.

I was expecting to be a typical intern and be given small busy work jobs or the projects no one else wanted to do. In fact, I felt quite the opposite. I was honored to be given such important and interesting projects to work on. The responsibility FLOW gave me helped me feel welcomed and valued within the organization. If I were to give a future Fellow advice, I would tell them to be confident in their strengths and to not be afraid of working on their areas of growth. I’ve often felt like I’ve needed to “fake it until I make it” to get my foot in the door, but my questions and doubts were always met with genuine kindness and a desire to help me grow. Ask questions!

While I continue my job search, I’m excited to stay on-board with FLOW and help them with whatever I can. Their passion makes me passionate! The Columbus area is lucky to have an organization like FLOW looking out for us. I can’t wait to see what comes next. Thank you, The Columbus Foundation, for allowing me to have this opportunity. I can’t say enough great things about the program. I hope to read the blog with future fellows as well! Thanks for following along for the last 10 weeks. -Shelly

To start off this last post for the Fellowship, I want to thank The Columbus Foundation, Dr. Mark Lomax II, and, of course, my cohort of Fellows. This was an incredible opportunity for me and I have grown and learned so much from and with all of you. I also appreciated the space that was created for us to learn from current leaders in this professional sphere and hear from their wise experiences.

This last week at CYCO was JAM PACKED. I had many trainings and the final presentation for this fellowship (which just happened a few hours ago!), along with other things for which I had to prepare. I am fortunate enough to stay on part-time with City Year Columbus, so the training process was to prepare me for my new role as a Development Operations Associate. Though much more data based, this new role will allow me to stay on with this amazing organization and continue learning about the Development world at social profit organizations in Columbus.

With a full house of AmeriCorps Members (ACM’s), the CYCO office was also full with new people with which to interact and learn from. Since the new ACM’s are also learning the ropes of City Year, it was fascinating to hear how they were introduced to the organization and the different CYCO culture norms that they are quickly embracing. I loved hearing them participate in circles and embrace the values right away, something that took me a bit to get adjusted to.

It was also very thrilling to hear their excitement as they officially got assigned their teams. This is such a momentous occasion that this was one of the posts with which most post people interacted in social media because Alumni and general community members recognize this as an important moment for the new corps.

Since I’ll be staying on, I’m excited to witness many more moments like this and get to experience a full school year of traditions with City Year Columbus. Thank you everyone and all the best to my Fellows cohort!

When I first started this fellowship, ten weeks seemed like a really long time. Now we’re at the end of week ten, and I’m not really sure where all the time I thought I initially had went. My ten weeks at Zora’s House have truly been wonderful. I have been surrounded by super cool women who are on different personal and professional journeys, and have shown me what it means to find strength in vulnerability, care, and rest. Although I didn’t know about Zora’s House before the fellowship started and I didn’t really understand the depth of their work, working at Zora’s House exceeded my expectations for this fellowship regarding what I would gain and learn. Not only did I gain a new understanding of how a nonprofit works; I also learned more about what it means to be in community with other women of color from different walks of life and professions. At my university, I was mostly bonding with other women of color that were also students, or were spending a lot of time in a college setting. However, Zora’s House has exposed me to other women who are doing really cool things in my hometown. The organization has also exposed me to women who are learning more about themselves. Seeing these women “in process” and in different stages of life has shown me how important it is to take time to learn more about yourself and to give oneself grace in this process. This helps you better connect with others and serve your community, along with allowing you to become a better person. 

I’ve had a tough time trying to figure out my path and who I am, but Zora’s House has taught me that you always have room to learn more about yourself, and that there’s always room for growth and change. This is one of the most important takeaways that I will cherish from my time at Zora’s House. It is also great to be in community with other women during this process, which Zora’s House also provides. I’m excited to continue to be in this space and help in whatever way I can for the next month, since my supervisor offered to extend my time at Zora’s House for another month. 

Since this is my last blog post for the site, I want to say thank you to the Columbus Foundation for giving me the opportunity to work with such an awesome nonprofit for the past ten weeks (and be paid for doing so). I also want to thank my supervisor, Jami Jackson, and the CEO of Zora’s House, LC Johnson, for choosing me to be a part of the organization for the summer. I am so happy that I got the chance to help Zora’s House in whatever way I could for the past ten weeks, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Picture: Sweater that says “Zora’s Daughter, Sisters, Legacy” with the Zora’s House logo at the bottom.

We made it to the end of the summer everyone!! As I have been wrapping up all of the last details, I have been reflecting on the end of the summer. This last week, I have been working on tying up a lot of loose ends, such as making sure all of our submissions are cataloged, updating all our spreadsheets, and starting to get all the event details going.

This week, I got to work at BAM (Bar, Art, and Music) at the Columbus Museum of Art. Equitas Health sponsors the event in the month of August. Every Thursday, several of our artists that have donated to Art for Life come to the museum and set up live painting. It has a really nice turnout, as a lot of the community comes to support the museum. I really enjoyed getting to go down and work at the museum one more time as we start to wrap up the summer.

As I have been writing, we have gotten two more artists coming in to drop off their artwork, so we are up to 85% of the art in our space for the October event. It has been super exciting to see the actual event start to shape up, with art in person instead of just on my screen.

I want to end my last week blog post with a special thank you to everyone who made this internship successful. Thanks to Dr. Lomax, Becca Sigal, and everyone at the foundation. Additionally, thank you to everyone at Equitas Health, especially my team of Meghan and Heather. It has been a fantastic summer.

I have had so much fun over the past 10 weeks at Central. This would be much more bittersweet if I was not continuing to work with them after the conclusion of my fellowship, but I am!

I am proud of everything I was able to accomplish, and thankful for everything I have learned. 

Here are some highlights:

• I applied for $1,367,557 in grants this summer! Grant writing was priority #1 for me coming into the fellowship, and I feel extremely comfortable writing proposals at this point. I think this is a skill I will be able to utilize throughout my career in nonprofit work
• I helped hire someone! I really enjoyed getting to speak with many different applicants, and I am so excited about the person we were able to hire for a marketing and outreach coordinator role
• I got some marketing experience, including creating materials, updating social media, keeping the website calendar up to date, and sending marketing email blasts. I had a lot of fun with this, but I am excited to see someone more qualified take it over, and I hope to learn from them
• I got a tiny taste of what it takes to plan fundraising events, as well as soliciting donations from the community
• I got to embrace my inner history geek and compile a history of Central for the 85th year celebration. I am super excited to turn this into a display that will showcase the growth of Central over the years
• I learned about so many new programs, and I furthered my knowledge about social issues that really matter to me
• I met some amazing people, and I look forward to continuing to develop those relationships in the future

This experience was so important to me. Four years ago, I was directionless in my career, and so unhappy. After discovering my passion for nonprofit work, I made the decision to return to school, but the path isn’t exactly easy once you make that decision. The Columbus Foundation has created something so meaningful in this fellowship program. Not only was I able to add capacity to the work Central was doing this summer, but I was able to get the “boots on the ground” experience that I was craving (and I was able to do it while getting paid! – not the point, but so important for students). 

I am entering into my second year of grad school refreshed, and ready to take on the world, and I owe it all to Central Community House and The Columbus Foundation.

• I finished the last of all my projects. I researched information about some of the congressional members the owner of ROX will be meeting with soon. 
• This weekend I finished sending the last of my emails to my list of congressional members. I sent emails to members in the House of Representatives Primary and Secondary Education Committee, Black Caucus, and Women’s Caucus. 
• I met with the other intern to discuss my curriculum project. We discussed areas we thought could have more content or revisions. Again, it was tough because the ROX team does such a great job creating their content. We discussed new issues teen girls are facing in the pandemic and possible ways they could be addressed. Afterwards, I met with the Director of Curriculum and Educational Programs to discuss my suggestions and observations. The discussion was super authentic and thorough. It was nice to have someone here and value my opinion. 
• I got to say goodbye to all the members on Monday. I learned so much from each of them.
• As I reflect on my key takeaways, I think networking and speaking up are my biggest takeaways.
• Networking, I have learned, is key for nonprofits to make relationships and connect with people who could potentially support the organization. Also making relationships brings people together to support a group who needs it. 
• Having confidence in my own voice is uber important. I did not realize the power a person has in their voice. I have gotten a plethora of opportunities to speak up in ROX and every time I do, I have been reminded of the importance of speaking up. Having confidence in my own voice will open new opportunities rather than if I was timid. 
• I am so thankful for my time at ROX and could not be happier with spending my team with them.

Today, my Columbus Foundation Fellowship with Hope Hollow comes to a close. But, in reality, my relationship with Hope Hollow is really just beginning. From the very first day of my fellowship, I knew that Hope Hollow was an unrepeatable organization that I will always stay connected to. 

Each and every day, Hope Hollow makes a lasting impact on cancer patients and their loved ones. Today, Kevin, Hope Hollow’s co-founder, told me about two referrals that he received that were difficult, due to the cancer patients’ medical status, and while the cancer journey for these patients and their loved ones is becoming increasingly difficult, Hope Hollow is making the practical aspects of life easier so that these individuals can be with their loved ones. 

While Hope Hollow may appear small, with two full-time unpaid workers, Jane and Kevin, and a handful of volunteers, the impact they are having on the cancer community is monumental. Thousands of individuals, coming to our community in Columbus, have a place to sleep, fuel to travel, and food to eat because of Hope Hollow and its donors. It is striking to say that I had no knowledge of Hope Hollow’s impact on my community until the Columbus Foundation Fellowship. 

Over the course of the summer, I have had the opportunity to speak with around 30 individuals who are connected to Hope Hollow in some capacity. While these conversations were primarily over the phone, I could tell by each individuals’ tone that they were excited and joyful when talking about Hope Hollow. It quickly became clear to me that Hope Hollow’s work is about so much more than the tangible services, rather it is truly about the relationships.

I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to be a tiny part of an organization that is a glimmer of hope in the midst of an extremely challenging journey.

And just like that ten weeks have flown by. My final week at Family Mentor Foundation was spent tying up loose ends, and submitting my deliverables. With working everyday, it is easy to forget how much you actually accomplished. In just ten short weeks, I helped run packing events, designed a ton of social media posts, and templates for our annual impact report. I also helped organize and clean up our donor information, and attended a lot of meetings. 

On Monday my entire day was spent in meetings, taking notes and absorbing new information and upcoming events. It is always exciting to hear non-staff members’ excitement over the work we’re doing. It is always mind blowing that Summer is ending, which has provided me with the task of creating Summer wrap up posts and totals. 

On Tuesday I wrapped on my Summer Fellowship presentation, and made a quick trip to Sam’s club for more office supplies. Tuesday was quiet, which I appreciated after three meetings on Monday. Along with finishing my presentation I perfected and organized my research for the program meeting on Wednesday. 

Wednesday and Thursday were a bit chaotic, with just two final office days to complete everything. Wednesday was spent learning more about a new app, Point, for nonprofits and troubleshooting. Later in the day we had our monthly program meeting, which consisted of presenting my research and discussing different methods of break feeding. Lastly on Friday I presented my work with the Family Mentor Foundation at our zoom meeting. I was proud to spread the word of the Family Mentor Foundation, and inform the Columbus Foundation of my time there.

Words can not describe how much I’ve learned from this fellowship. It was a truly eye opening experience, and I am so grateful for the opportunity. Nonprofit is not for the faint of heart, but I do know it is the right path for me after completing this fellowship.

I definitely forgot to post my update last week, so let us recap.

For starters we (as in the fellows) went to a Columbus Crew game together and it was so much fun! The other fellows are so genuine, and kind and I really appreciated getting to have that experience with them.

As we are literally days away from being done with this summer experience, I am filled with sadness and gratitude. This summer has been full of learning and cultivating relationships that I know will continue to impact me in my everyday life and my professional career.

I am so grateful to have worked under two bosses who lead with kindness, and who from the beginning believed in me and my abilities as an intern. Aminata and John are literally the coolest individuals I have had the pleasure to meet. Watching them handle situations and adapt while remaining kind and caring has taught me a great deal about leadership.

I am grateful to have worked for an organization that is working tirelessly to help individuals come back from the pandemic, build their businesses, and gain financial security. As well as one that is working to serve the neighborhood their organization rests in.

Gratitude aside for a second, last week involved saying goodbye to two employees of ECDI, Jesse and Edgar, which was very sad, but I am excited for them and their new opportunities! Last week was also full of housekeeping things, like talking to IT and making word docs with important links. Additionally, we had a Farm Stand on Friday. We had more ECDI volunteers than before, but we didn’t get as many community members stopping by as the last time. We changed the times we were out there this time around to an earlier time and I think that might have been a factor.

This week I have more wrapping up projects planned, as well as many workshops I plan to attend, and some closing meetings.

I am preparing to be sad on Friday, to finish out my time with ECDI wishing I had more opportunities to work with all of the wonderful people here. But after our goodbyes I expect to be filled with joy and pride, joy because I learned and proud because I made it through and gave it my all.

While this is the ninth week of the Fellowship for me, this is the 8th and final week of camp for the Martin de Porres Center! While the camp has been exhausting and to some degree, I am happy for it to be over, I enjoyed this part of my summer. I got to interact with so many different people, especially those outside of the community I grew up in. I learned so much a lot about running a summer camp, youth development/ programming, and ways that just having a space for people reduce violence.

For the final week, we got to go biking/kayaking, to the zoo and Ninja Citi. This week the Fellows got to see each other at a Crew Game in their new stadium. I can agree it was an upgraded experience compared to their historical stadium.

Outside of the stipend, through the Center, I was compensated with several gift cards, ice cream, free lunch, and travel around Columbus. One of the highlights was the weekly finance sessions/workshops. We learned about stocks and participated in a stock simulator. At the end of two weeks, the two highest “investors” would win a cash price. I happened to be one of those people! As camp wrapped up some of the other camp leads and I got to decorate the Center for the closing ceremony. It was fun hanging out with the campers and decorating a room we saw daily.