Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of week 5 already! I am continuing the growth of the Sustainable Business Directory with 425 businesses currently in the database. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I forgot to cross reference businesses that are members of the Columbus Greenspot Program. Through the good relationship between Simply Living and Greenspot, I have my hands on a spreadsheet that contains all the current Greenspot business members. What I decided to do to cross reference these businesses was give them a tag that says “Greenspot Business Member” which is essentially a key phrase that can be searched in the search bar. All of the businesses that have that tag are pulled up once searched. This hiccup was easily fixed thanks to the strong relationship between Simply Living and Greenspot. 

Earlier this week, I met with a few Simply Living board members and employees to discuss the Sustainable Business Directory. The board members wanted to learn more about the directory and asked questions. The goal of the meeting was to improve the functionality of the website. The meeting went incredibly well and I was encouraged to give my thoughts to ensure that the directory will be successful and pertinent. After discussing and hearing from everyone in the meeting, we ended with two takeaways. First, it is important that Greenspot business members get sufficient recognition in the directory. A tag is great for those that are aware of Greenspot and what they do. But there also needs to be some visual aid on the web page of members. Meaning, once someone clicks on Pistacia Vera’s page in the directory, for example, there must be a “Greenspot Business Member” badge displayed. Secondly, we should email every business in the directory once the website is launched to indicate their inclusion in the Sustainable Business Directory. Thanks to the website software, there is a tool which allows us to export all of the information of each business into a separate spreadsheet.

The Sustainable Business Directory is not only important for our local economy and environment, but also the future of Simply Living. This directory will help us build relationships with local businesses in the community and encourage them to become members of Simply Living.         

It’s crazy to think that this summer experience is already halfway done! Time flew by, but when I look back on everything that’s happened so far, it makes sense. It’s been a busy five weeks at ETSS filled with meetings, tons of emails and phone calls, donation requests, fundraisers, and lots of learning!

This week, I heavily focused on donation requests once again. Since the beginning of June, the Advancement team has reached out to over 150 business, with at least 15 in-kind donations already secured. With the list of businesses to contact continually growing, we hope to create our most expansive auction this year!

Focusing on the Evening of Promise, I have been researching kites from all around the world. The theme for this year’s EOP is “Fly Higher Against the Wind.” With that, we hope to decorate the event space with a variety of culturally diverse kites from around the world. It’s interesting to see all of the different shapes, patterns, and materials, while also learning about the various kite festivals in different countries.  

One of the most interesting and informative aspects of my week was attending a Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) meeting regarding resettlement and the adjustment of status for Afghan parolees. Through this meeting, I learned about a new placement restriction in Northern Virginia that was issued on June 23, 2022 and set to go through September 30, 2022. This placement restriction applies to all refugees, SIVs and Afghan parolees, making the Northern Virginia area temporarily restricted to spouses, parents, children, and grandparents.

Additionally, I learned about general considerations for Afghan parolees, one-year parole status options, asylum & TPS, SIV processing, TRIG exemptions, and the documentation process. In general, it is imperative to know when parole expires, whether it’s in one or two years. One-year parole status options include Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a request of re-parole, and AOS options, including SIV, asylum, and family-based immigration petitions. In regard to the documentation process, common problems often revolve around Employment Authorization Documents (EAD’s) with either inconsistent information across several documents or pending applications with no sign of progress for several months. There are various ways to go about fixing these problems, including filing an expedite request for a pending EAD, applying for a replacement card for lost or non-delivered EAD’s, and contacting United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) customer service.

We have reached the end of the 5th week in this 10-week internship and while I’m on track for some tasks, I have a long way to go for others. I have really immersed myself in my work for the best practices report. Interviewing partners and discussing these interviews with my supervisor afterward is always the highlight of my day. These interactions have taught me so much thus far. 

An interview I had last week, for example, consisted of 5 organizations located in the same city that all did very similar work. They were programs that received the majority of their referrals from schools. Caseworkers would then meet with the child and their family to see what support is needed. A question that came to mind after this interview was, “Is it better to have multiple organizations working on the same thing, or to combine them into one large organization?”. There is no yes or no answer to this question, nor did I expect one. To me, this question signifies a change in my mindset. Although there are still many terms and acronyms used during interviews that I do not completely understand, I finally have enough of a gauge on my work to think further than, “What is a Mckinney-Vento family? What does ERA mean?”. Each organization has its own strengths and while amalgamation may not be the answer, the goal of this best practices paper is to help programs learn from each other and expand their capacity to serve families. Some organizations work with a high undocumented population so the needs of that program are vastly different from an organization that operates with low-income families living in a high-income area. One focuses more on finding bilingual caseworkers and building trust, while the other is preoccupied with finding affordable housing in that area.

              This week our offices were closed so I spent most of my time working on individual projects. I spent more time Facebook stalking elected officials to determine their voting preferences and the general voting demographics of the town. It has been interesting to learn about some politicians, from those who are staring in their towns production of a musical to a city council member who goes all out for haunted houses, it has been nice to see the more human side of politicians.

              This week Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, the first openly gay prince in the world, was in Columbus and Equality Ohio along with Stonewall Columbus organized a couple events. First a Q+A was put on at the town hall, moderated by Siobhan Boyd-Nelson, our executive director, who is incredible and did a great job. The event was put together by my supervisor Joseph Soza, who did an amazing job.

              The panel was really interesting and was comprised of the Prince as well as his friend, and the found of Eyes Open International, an anti-human trafficking organization, Harold D’Souza. Hearing both their stories were incredibly powerful. The prince talked about the familial issues he faced when coming out and Mr. D’Souza discussed what it was like for him to be trafficked from India to the US. Something interesting I learned was that on the trans rights front, India is pretty progressive but is not progressive when, to quote the prince, “it comes to the lgb and q+.” Overall, the panel discussion was really enlightening and could’ve gone on for hours.

              After the panel we all went to Stonewall Columbus where the Prince and his husband were renewing their vows as it was their 9^th wedding anniversary. The ceremony was beautiful, and the vows were powerful. It was also interesting as there is a documentary being made about the Prince so there was a whole documentary crew at the ceremony. After the ceremony we all learned a Bollywood dance together and talked. This week has been so much fun.

This week’s focus was the preparation of upcoming volunteer opportunities. For July I am tasked with creating content to promote Third Party Fundraisers. We have a Back-to-school Wish List through Amazon due next Tuesday. The following week we have a backpack stuffing event. I have been researching boosting ads and chose to boost the Wishlist to finish my research for BGCCO. I get access to more data and more eyes will see opportunities to get involved in the organization. Lastly, we have an NFL Alumni Central Ohio golf outing to attend and support Monday since we are the benefactors of this year’s event.

The fellowship program has many goals and one of those goals is to provide fellows with real-world experience. I have been learning a lot about the nonprofit field through my fellowship. My coworkers are insightful and transparent about the aspects of their jobs. I will potentially be in similar roles one day, so it is refreshing to have guidance and support right now. Also, The advancement team recently informed me, I will speak about my fellowship experience to the board during my last week.

The Highlight of my week was the quality time I spent with the kids at the Champions Companies Milo Grogan Clubhouse. I only had one formal introduction with the children at their morning meeting, yet they all remember my name. I also remember a decent number of their names. They have begun asking me to come to their classrooms and participate in activities with them outside of my everyday content collection. I hung out with the third to fifth-grade students for an hour playing kickball and tossing the football around. It was a refreshing experience that reminded me of the importance of our work.

This week was full of planning, writing, and interviewing. On Monday I went into classrooms and got to know the students and take pictures. One of the classes was a 6th-grade math class where the kids played rocket math along with other math games. I was also able to sit in on a 4th-grade language lab class that had. They practiced their writing skills and after that, they had a “brain break” by going to play on the playground for a little bit. I learned that giving students multiple “brain breaks” throughout the day helps them focus on class time more. 

Aside from classes, I am working on a story for our school magazine that is going to showcase our Facilities and Maintenance Manager, Darrell. I interviewed him on Tuesday and learned what his responsibilities are and why he believes in Marburn Academy. His son is a Marburn alumnus so Darrell has a personal connection to Marburn and believes in its mission. One of Darrell’s special duties for our summer school program is to do morning drop-off intake. This means every morning he goes outside to help parents drop off their children and he walks them into the school. Another one of his favorite special duties is lunch duty during the regular school year. 

I will be shadowing him on Monday to get a better understanding of the work he does and I can even help him out if needed. The first draft of my story is due next Wednesday. A second event happening Wednesday is our parent walk-through day. Parents will come in and follow their child’s schedules throughout the day and get to “learn with them,” which is super cute. I am excited about next week.

It is unreal to me that I’m already halfway done with my time here at Seeds of Caring. I’ve enjoyed my experience here very much, and the entire staff has welcomed me in with open arms. It has been a great summer so far. This week technically marks my sixth week with the organization, since I started a week early due to a vacation I have coming up in about a week.

This week was similar the last few we have had. This was the last week of the first summer session of Kindness Corps, and today (Thursday) we finished with our last camp, minus one camp session that is being made up tomorrow afternoon. We taught the campers about hunger and the unhoused this week, and what we can do as a community for those who are unhoused and may be struggling with food.

We taught the kids about this subject, and then had them decorate small paper bags with inspirational phrases like “you matter” or “you shine bright”. With these bags, we placed 3 different kinds of snacks in each and created small snack packs for food pantries around Columbus and the areas surrounding. It was a little difficult for the kids to understand that these snacks were not for them, they were for people who need them more. They eventually understood the purpose of what we were doing. They were even excited to take their very own bags home to decorate and fill with snacks so they can donate the pack or keep it in their grown up’s car to hand out to people they see asking for help around their neighborhood.

Every week it has been so interesting and fun to see how kids react to these important, serious, and sometimes complicated issues going on in their own communities. I have loved seeing how responsive and communicative they are about their own experiences and comments about how they feel on the subject.

I also had a meeting with one of the programs coordinators to talk about the Civic Engagement Anywhere Project I have been working on with her. We discussed more ideas for the project, and we are planning on filming an introduction video for the project for people to see before they start.

We start another session of camp next week and we will teach all the Kindness Corps lessons to another group of kiddos!

At ARC, there are multiple different Adult Resource Centers where participants can go based on where they live. Sometimes, a participant can go to more than one center, and sometimes participants get shifted around when they move homes. This week, I got to see participants that I have met before, but in different locations.

I started my week off at the ASPIRE program as per usual. However, this day was a particularly exciting day because a new participant was joining the group from a different location. This participant was actually one of the first few people that I had met after starting this internship. She is typically quiet, but the first day we met we got to talking about our families and her upcoming vacation that she was excited for. Starting your first day somewhere new can be scary for anyone. Personally, I struggle with anxiety over finding my own groove in a new environment with new people. Yet, this participant was amazing! She settled in rather quickly, and even had a few recommendations about how we should spend our day. Throughout the day, I stuck with her as we went to Walmart, Target, and Ohio Thrift. While we were together, we caught up about her recent move, her family, and my family as well.

All of the participants I have had the pleasure to meet have been extremely nice to me, however there is one participant in the ASPIRE program in particular who has a heart of gold. While we were at Walmart, she bought some of her groceries for the week, and of course she stocked up on some sweets as well. When we got back to the site to eat lunch, she came up to me and handed me a prepackaged slice of cinnamon crunch coffee cake. At first, I tried to politely decline her offer. I didn’t want to take something that she had spent her own money on. She looked at me and said, “I got this for you!”, so I accepted her offer and thanked her. I realize this was a small gift of a $1 treat, but my heart was warmed by her thoughtfulness and generosity. Later in the day, I was informed that this type of act wasn’t out of the ordinary for this participant. She liked to give things like treats or mints or candy to people, but I was grateful that I was now part of the in-group that she trusted and liked enough to bring into this routine.

Later in the week, I went to ARC West, which is located right off of Ohio State campus. At ARC West, there are multiple different classrooms where participants are divided up into groups such that they are with generally the same people each day. This is one of my favorite buildings to be in, as it used to be known as the “artsy center”. There is participant-made art that lines the hallways and hangs from the ceilings. It is truly one of the prettiest buildings I have worked in. I had previously been to this center, but it had been a little while so I wasn’t sure how many people would remember me. As I went classroom to classroom, I was greeted with hugs, handshakes, and familiar faces who did. There was actually one participant who has an amazing memory that remembered pretty much everything about my life that I had told him!

Yet again, I had an amazing week at work. Typically, going to the ASPIRE program is one of my favorite days, since I get to see the same people each week and continue to develop the relationships that I have already established. As I continue to go back to the other sites I have visited, I am finding that the participants remember me, and furthermore, are excited to see me! This week was a good week. It makes me more excited to continue to travel to the other sites and build upon my relationships with other people.

Last week at Seeds of Caring we had more camp sessions Tuesday through Thursday. This is the third week out of 4 weeks in our first session. This past week we covered hospitalized children and made cheer banners and activity kits for kids at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

After talking with my advisor who is our Operations director, we decided that I would take a bit of charge with this lesson. Since my sister has spent a lot of time at Children’s, I was able to talk more about my experience being a sibling of someone who had spent time there as a kid. For a few of the camps I was talking about our topic, reading our book, and conducting the opening meeting.

I was nervous to be doing this part of the lessons since I am by no means a teacher, but there are many different roles within a nonprofit organization and getting experience taking on this one I felt was valuable. I had a good time talking with the kids about this subject, because many of them had similar experiences, and I could tell they were feeling empathetic towards these kids. This is one of the goals of our program. Towards the end of the week, I met with our Executive Director to talk about a meeting I had last week, as well as some career advice I received from that meeting. We discussed my notes as well.

On Friday, we went and donated the banners and activity kits to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. It was a good experience as we were able to speak more to the workers at the front desk about who these donations were going to, and they appreciated the donations the kids made as well.

What has been very cool during these donations drop offs has been that we have been asking the people who work there some questions and filming their answers. We do this so we can show the kids exactly who their donations are going to. Sometimes it is hard for the kids to let go off what they had just made so it can go to someone else, but these videos show them where and who their donation and hard work is going to which has helped them. They have enjoyed these videos very much, and it helps them to get excited about what we will be donating next!

I am appreciative of all the lessons that I have learned this week. The holiday weekend is arriving soon, and things are busy at my host site. This week was the concluded session one of the My Project USA summer camp; we had over thirty students come to the center for camp throughout these four weeks. Students presented the Project Based Learning activity to directors of the organization and their pitch was successful. The students’ models will represent how they want to use open space around the center. Our soccer team went to a tournament, and we are eager to hear about their experience while out of state.

As we concluded our first session, I reflected on the program and its efficiency. I am appreciative of the team’s ability to adapt quickly. We were able to work efficiently to create a wonderful experience for the students. Overall, the students enjoyed their time at the center, improved their education skills, and had a safe space to thrive in. I concluded that it is important to create relationships with the students so they can feel heard and recognized. Many of the students I have worked with need resources and guidance to help them thrive in their environment. I had the chance to see their growth through the program where friendships were made, goals were achieved, and a lifetime experience was cultivated.

Our keynote speaker this week was Mrs. Lomax, a phenomenal woman who is working in the fundraising sector. She made a key point that stuck out to me, “Don’t call them out, call them in.” This brought a new perspective of collaborating with people who others find themselves “calling out” for the things they say. My takeaway from this moment is that there is value in educating and communicating with people rather than degrading them due to their point of view. Everyone has their own point of view the action and reputation behind those words are what is essential. We also learned the importance of screening people to see if they are a good match for an organization. The views of the organization and a donor should align so that there are not many differences between the two parties. I recognized I can use this concept in my personal and professional life so that I can create successful relationships with many people.

I am ecstatic for next week to come. We will be working to finalize small details for the second session of camp, onboard new summer staff, and create a positive learning environment for the students. We hope to have more participants in camp during this session and enjoy their time here. I will be a full week of preparation at My Project USA to have an influence in the community.