Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

At the end of Week 6, the Sustainable Business Directory holds 525 businesses. I am happy with the progress I have made this past week on the directory and am looking forward to the launch of the website. During our Summer Fellows learning session, Dani Robbins mentioned the difference between charity and social change. From my understanding, charity responds to immediate needs while social change sparks a shift in society. For an example with respect to Simply Living, consider the local economy. Once a year, there is a nationwide shopping holiday known as “Small Business Saturday” which is a response to the domination of big box retail and e-commerce stores during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is an example of charity because it is an immediate response to the rise of the global economy through raising awareness for the local economy. The Sustainable Business Directory on the other hand, is an example of social change. The directory encourages society to shop locally year round because it acts as a resource that offers an alternative to shopping at big box retail and e-commerce stores. I am not saying that the Sustainable Business Directory is better than Small Business Saturday. But I believe this directory is a more effective way to change societal behaviors. 

Taking an even closer look at charity versus social change, Simply Living itself is a non-profit that focuses on social change. As I have referenced before, Simply Living’s mission is to “connect people with learning opportunities that promote sustainability, environmental justice, and our local economy. We provide community education for a more sustainable and equitable world. We envision a compassionate and sustainable world through personal, community and cultural transformation.” Simply Living wants to educate our community through learning opportunities, such as the Sustainable Business Directory, which will trigger societal change.

My thoughts on self-care, fellowship accessibility. and inclusion.

We had a brief lecture on self-care during one of our learning sessions. I remember hearing that self-care is the sole responsibility of the individual. A bootstraps type mentality, in my opinion. But I challenge this argument. The health of an individual is not just the responsibility of the individual. Our actions and inactions sometimes harm other people. We must make effort to be aware of the consequences of our actions. Therefore, we, fellows, and the Columbus Foundation at large, must also practice community care or collective care. This is yet another piece of the equity and inclusion puzzle. What was missing in the lecture on self-care was this concept. A community cannot succeed when community members are not caring for each other. What was missing in this self-care address was the acknowledgement that individuals’ self care practices are hindered by external forces such as “bosses,” friends, family, race, gender, sexual orientation, chronic health issues/disabilities, neighbors, businesses, climate and weather, authorities (instructors, police, judges, etc), policies, or lack of policies that institutions and employers have. The conversation did not acknowledge the negative health affects these variables can have on fellows. What was missing was the conversation about organizations and employers cultivating a culture of self-care, which can often lead to higher satisfaction, productivity, and retention. What was missing was that self-care is not commonly taught to individuals. It is not always curriculum in schooling or taught in families. What was missing was the acknowledgement that someone’s physical and mental health is always affected by all of these external forces outside of our control. What was missing was the context of self-care costing money and that it is, debatably, a luxury to those with low incomes. It is not always accessible, especially for people who are disabled. For some personal context: I cannot cook food if I do certain work for a variable number of hours. A 3 hour day can take me out as much as an 8 hour day. A 10 hour day can go by fast and I feel my baseline normal. Disability is not a reliable thing. Perhaps I do cook, but this tipping point means the next day I can’t work at all. And possibly the day after that, because I go to my needed art therapy time for my mental health. But art therapy time requires physical effort. That increases my pain which results in fatigue. Now I need to recover from therapy. Perhaps I take a medication to aid me, but then the medication has its own side effects that affect my life in other ways. Now I need to recover or alter course based on medication.

I do value the autonomy and agency of others, I do value work ethic. I value working on expanding my discomfort zone and as a result, reducing my danger zone. I also value taking care of others and I value providing the education and tools for others to take care of themselves. We must recognize that in our society, it is too easy to abandon self-care when all your energy has been expensed on surviving.

Some ideas on how The Columbus Foundation can support their Summer Fellows and be more accessible in the future:

Allocate funds to pay an equitable wage. Context: Median rent is over $1000/month in Columbus. (July 2022 Columbus Rent Report, Apartment List). Context: White Castle pays $17/hour. Context: Gas is $5 a gallon. Self-Care massage is $60/hour.

Recruit more: students of different age groups, non-degree seeking students, non-credit students, students with children, etc.

Engage with and recruit more people who have disabilities. Ask them how to make the program more accessible before, during, and after the program. Perhaps emphasize providing feedback after program completion to fellows so that they do not think offering feedback could result in jeopardizing their position.

Provide clear rationale for certain fellowship requirements.

Offer a way to provide anonymized feedback to challenge requirement rationales, non-profit site issues, and concepts shared in learning sessions.

Recruit learning session presenters who have disabilities.

Recognize that fellows may be working multiple jobs outside of their fellowship to make ends meet and to secure employment when the fellowship ends.

Remove the hour requirement. Non-profit sites can track productivity based on fellows’ deliverables over the course of the ten week period. Hourly work is status-quo.

Offer the option to attend learning sessions virtually.

Recognize that fellows may not have reliable transportation, healthcare, food, shelter, or clothing. Find ways to ethically identify if people are struggling to meet these needs. Find ways to support people to meet these needs. People who go through these issues have insights into how non-profit services are failing and how to improve them.

This week was very interesting in the sense that there were many changes that took place at Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services. Internally, there was a change in management, which greatly affected the Advancement department. Because this change took us all relatively by surprise, we had to work together even more so than before to make sure everything stayed on track. We had many meetings, some with Dr. Seleshi and others with just the Advancement team. We created a central list of all of our current projects and activities, as well as our short term and long term focuses and goals. While many more meetings and lists are in the future, these tactics have allowed us to stay on track through these transitions.

I was informed this week that I will now be splitting the rest of my time between the Advancement department and our Youth department. As Youth Summit is quickly approaching on August 4^th, any help and focus on the day’s planning and coordination is welcomed. While I don’t have any specifics on what I will be focusing on with the Youth department, I have many meetings set up for next week to learn about the events’ progress and connect with the team.

With Advancement this week, I focused primarily on donation requests and coordinating the delivery/pickup of the packages. While most stores are located here in Columbus and allow for in-person pickup, there are many chain stores whose headquarters are located elsewhere in the United States.

We have been reaching out to many companies for donation requests, and it’s great to see how generous and kind our community is. However, not everyone is able to donate due to varying reasons. Nonetheless, one specific interaction this week left me in awe of how kind people can be. When inquiring about an in-kind donation to Shores and Islands Ohio, a center offering regional attractions in Sandusky (including Lake Erie, Kelleys Island, and Put-In-Bay), they informed us that they were unable to fulfill our request. However, they generously shared the names and contact information of companies who have helped them in the past. This unexpected list of contacts was very helpful, giving ETSS more ideas of who to contact and what to include in our EOP auction.

This week in our biweekly fellows meeting we spoke about power. Dr. Lomax defined power as the ability to control someone else’s or your own reality and to make people believe that they choose this reality for themselves. He also stated that while the wealthy have a lot of control in this society, that is not power. In other words, one cannot use their material wealth to control others’ perception of reality. I would like to challenge this statement a bit. 

Charles Taylor developed the theory of the social imaginary which states that the reality of society is shaped by the social elites. We as individuals come to accept the ideas and theories posed by those in power despite having never interacted with their work. It is not our conscious attempt at creating values but rather intuitions and practices that develop over time; it is our reality. While I do not completely agree with this theory, it helped me realize that there are many other ways the higher classes shape our reality. In our society, a lot of the world’s most wealthy control the media. For example, have you ever heard a mainstream news network say anything harsh about Bill Gates? It’s unlikely to find critical pieces on the billionaire and that is because he has donated over $166 million dollars to media outlets in the US and all over the world¹. Yet his ‘philanthropic’ projects in the developing world are quite troubling and harm many communities². Despite our lack of personal interaction with him, people generally hold Gates in high regard. Our societal values in the western world place wealthy philanthropists on a pedestal to the point where we give them a seat at a table they don’t belong. Power is a multifaceted concept that can be observed from multiple angles, and this is just one.

1. https://thegrayzone.com/2021/11/21/bill-gates-million-media-outlets-global-agenda/, https://www.mintpressnews.com/faux-generosity-how-bill-gates-bought-his-power-and-influence/263208/
2. https://www.mintpressnews.com/latin-american-scientists-say-bill-gates-gmo-golden-rice-total-failure/221007/, https://www.iatp.org/blog/202010/agricultural-revolution-gates-foundation-leading-africa-failure

My sixth week at the McConnell Arts Center involved more Arts Festival cleanup, organization, and preparation for upcoming events. As camps continued, I also worked the front desk while getting ready for our first Summer Outdoor Series and the next session of Camp Creativity. 

The week began with a Programming Meeting, where we touched base regarding Camp Creativity, the Summer Outdoor Series, and other performance rentals. I booked the last food truck we were waiting on, then began to draw up the contracts for the food trucks. In regards to Camp Creativity, I reached out to our counselor replacement and began to edit and distribute new contracts for instructors and counselors. Additionally, I created folders and got the camper roster organized. I created the camper groups, and assigned each group their counselors and home studio.  

As well as focusing on programming and events, I began the organization of our painting and drawing studio, which took almost a full day. I took all of our art supplies out of their respective cabinets, categorized and organized them. 

Lastly, during Week 6 I continued on with my assigned project of redesigning the MAC Survey and Evaluations, which we send out after events and classes. After researching how question style and content shapes consumer feedback, I constructed a short survey to send out after Camp Creativity, to test the new evaluation techniques.

It feels weird that this experience is already half over. These last 6 weeks have absolutely flown by. I have loved getting to experience the city as well as both opportunities offered by the Foundation and Equality. This week I distributed flyers for our legal clinic throughout parts of Columbus and am hoping to get more through the next couple weeks.

Some projects I have been working on include political mapping of cities, examining websites to see how we could improve ours, creating an educational slide show, and distributing information. All these projects are ongoing, so this week has just been working through those. Some staff will be going to Equality’s national conference, as well as some are balancing time, so this month there is a lot of people in and out at different times.

This week I also met with some prospective students for the John Glenn School at Ohio State to talk to them about my experience as an OSU student as well as someone involved with the political scene in Columbus. It was really cool to talk with excited and motivated kids. Some are interested in volunteering with my organization and it felt nice to introduce them to Equality.

At this point In my fellowship I feel as though I am in the grove of things and just working on projects with the goal of getting all of them done by the next week so I can take on more things. I hae really enjoyed all the different things I have worked on. I have done a lot of different things for Equality and really enjoyed all of them. I am excited to keep trying new things and continuing to learn about organizing, local politics, and education.

The week began with the 2022 NFL Caring for Kids Golf Outing hosted by the NFL Alumni Central Ohio Chapter. A portion of the donations will go to BGCCO. A group of Club Members and I met Archie Griffin, Mike Doss, Andy Katzenmoyer, and many others. Fun fact, I received an award in high school from an organization where Archie was a board member, and this was my first time meeting him. I spent most of my day driving around Fred Pagac Sr. His career highlights include coaching at OSU for 23 years and winning a Superbowl as an Outside Linebackers coach. He was Von Miller’s coach when the Broncos beat Cam Newton-led Carolina Panthers in Superbowl 50. The highlight of my week was being able to invite my childhood friend James as a volunteer for the event. It was our first time on a golf course!

During our fellowship learning session, we had guest speakers Elizabeth Martinez of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio and Dani Robbins of Nonprofit Evolution. Dani was a professor of mine and wrote my rec letter for the fellowship program. She reassured me that I’m on the right path to accomplish my long-term goals. Additionally, I met with the Advancement Team to discuss the progress of my fellowship goals and priorities. The team reassured me that they are here to help me be successful. I feel that I am on track to accomplish my short-term goals!

Today I am about to join Club Members as we take a field trip to Denison University located in Granville, Ohio. Denison is listed among the top 30 liberal arts colleges in America. Steve Carell from The Office is an alumnus and Woody Hayes started his football career here. This is one of the most exciting parts of my job. I hope the kids enjoy the trip. I will be sure to collect some great content for social media!

This week threw me back to a few weeks ago when I was just starting with Seeds of Caring, since this past week was week 1 for Session 2 of Kindness Corps this summer. We went all the way back to lesson 1, which is where we talk about who Seeds of Caring is, why we do what we do, and how kids are extremely powerful when it comes to helping our community.

Week 1 of the Kindness Corps is also our empathy lesson, which the kids learned about what empathy is and how to choose kindness every day. They made Kindness Bracelets as reminders to be kind and to do so in their everyday life, even if it is something small.

For this camp session, this week looked a bit different for me. This week was my first time teaching a Kindness Corps lesson completely by myself. I was nervous, and since I don’t have a teaching background, I wasn’t sure how I would do with this task. I feel lucky that my organization trusted me with this task, and I even studied my notes this week to make sure I was clear on all parts of the lesson.

On Tuesday morning, I taught by myself to a group of soon to be third graders and I am overall happy with how it went. I was nervous but I do feel like it was a success. During the rest of this week, myself and the other instructors worked together to teach the campers in larger groups, so we were all able to support each other during that. The kids at all the camps were very responsive to the lesson and I am looking forward to the next few weeks as we continue to go back.

On Thursday, I filmed a video with one of the programs coordinators for the Civic Engagement/Activism Anywhere Project, which will be shown to participants in the service project. In the video, I talk about my experience with government. I’m excited to be included in another area of the organization where I can expand my knowledge and help where I can.

I’ve also been helping the other Kindness Corps instructors with inputting data from Session 1. We gave the kids surveys at the end of the last lesson last week and they filled them out giving their opinions about what they have learned in the last few weeks. Overall, the results have been positive, and the kids have been able to articulate how much they have learned. I’m looking forward to teaching another great group of kids about Seeds of Caring and how they can help their community here in Columbus.

This week I was focused solely on organizing the survey feedback, and continuing to interview the volunteers for Speak! I was able to also schedule a shadowing opportunity at the start of the week. It was exciting to be able to shadow another individual who does the application processing, as this is one of the areas I was asked to explore. So far, I have shadowed two application processors, and even had the opportunity to explore the processing documents and guides. This is extremely helpful, because as I wrap up my time with Speak!, I will be reorganizing all of their training procedures. Speak! was in need of a general volunteer list, so this is something I have also been working on creating as I interview volunteers, and read their feedback on the survey.

For the next week my main focus will be on organizing all of the data collected, as well as creating a presentation for the board about said data. My goal with this presentation that I will be making is to give the board an idea of what the volunteers are needing and their suggestions to improve moving forward. This is definitely the most exciting, yet terrifying part of my fellowship experience. Afterall, this is exactly what Speak! brought me on for, so it is more exciting than anything that we are at this point in the process already! I feel that I have received a surplus of valuable feedback, and I am looking forward to being able to share the voices of our volunteers. I am so grateful for the time everyone has been taking to speak with me, but also that they feel comfortable sharing their concerns with me. It is a both a privilege and a responsibility to share their concerns, so that everyone involved feels heard.

To kick off my week, I headed to the ASPIRE program, where we went out for a day full of fun. To begin, we went to a nearby library so that we could discuss launching a section of the Next Chapter Book Club with ASPIRE and gauge interest from participants. However, once we got to the library, some of our participants preferred to walk around and see if there was anything they wanted to rent. One participant decided to get two movies that she could watch with her nieces at home. This experience was really fun for me to see in particular because I was with her when she got her first library card, and now I got to see her putting it to use! While we were there, one of our participants found an old friend who was working at the library, and they both convinced me to get a library card of my own. Personally, I haven’t been to a public library in a long time, as I usually just utilize the ones at my university. However, I can now say that I am a proud owner of a Columbus library card. If you have not been to any of the Columbus library locations, I highly recommend stopping by, as it is a wonderful place that I overlooked in my three years in Columbus so far.

After the library, we visited a small market that was set up like a grocery store, however all of the food inside was free! I had never seen a food pantry set up like this one, so it was a new opportunity for me as well as the participants. I walked through the store with a participant and helped him gather groceries such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, and even meat that he would be able to take home. After these activities, we didn’t have much time in the day left. Yet, we made time to stop by an Ohio Thrift store and walk around looking at clothes and trinkets.

Later in the week, I was in the main office where I was mainly focused on giving out information for Next Chapter Book Club to those interested. There is at least one staff member at each of ARC’s locations that expressed interest in launching a section. Therefore, I was in communication with them sending training and answering any questions. Now that this project is moving further along, I’m getting more and more excited to have our first session and see the feedback from participants and staff.

Finally, I finished up my second publication of “Through Our Lens”, which is a blog that ARC sends out biweekly to staff, participants, and families to showcase all of the activities happening at different sites. This was my first edition that I constructed from scratch. While I was a little nervous, I was met with lots of support from ARC employees that oversaw this project for me.

I really enjoyed watching this edition come together. First of all, the events that were showcased were amazing– from visiting an alpaca farm to a day trip at the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame! Secondly, it was interesting to see the entire process from selecting photos to adding design elements to make it fun to read. Additionally, it was great to receive such positive feedback over the final draft from my supervisors. Going forward, I am excited to continue with my projects and see them go from ideas to reality.