Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Today was one of my favorite days of the fellowship so far because I got to hang with kids after serving lunch on a whim. I would be happy to spend time with the campers anywhere, anytime. BUT, field trips are even more fun because I get to watch them engaging in new experiences that they may have not otherwise been able to participate in without our camp. AND, the field trip was to one of my favorite places in Columbus: Cosi! If you’re thinking, it can’t get any better than that, you’re sorely mistaken.

Not only did we get to go to Cosi, but the special exhibit we had tickets to featured mythical creatures including, but not limited to, mermaids, unicorns, and dragons. This may not sound like a big deal until you understand that the kids live and breathe by the mermaid code. A majority of my conversations with the youngest class—dubbed “the pod”—have been regarding unicorns or mermaids. We initially bonded because a ring I have looks like a ring a character wears on the mermaid show they all enjoy and they are obsessed with touching it and asking to wear it. Not knowing any better, I told them that I was, in fact, a mermaid and the ring helped protect me from turning into one around other people. They still believe me and it’s too late to burst the bubble.

While the field trip was a surprise to me, the girls were actively anticipating it. They wore their unicorn shirts, brought their unicorn bags, and donned any unicorn hair accessories they may have. The bus ride there was spent chirping about how many creatures they’d see, and predictions as to whether or not they’d be “the real thing.” Even the most reserved students were giddy with anticipation and, wow, was it worth it.

Though they didn’t want to read about any of the creatures on the plaques or look at any historical artifacts referring to said mythical creatures, their eyes lit up when they saw the sculpted statues and figures depicting what mermaids and unicorns would look like in reality. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hang around the exhibit for too long, but they made sure to snag some coloring pages for the road.

I’m sure the girls will remember this day for a long time and so will I. It’s not every day you get to see someone’s dream come true! I’m grateful to Cosi and HFF for thoughtful and thorough children’s engagement.

Today was an absolutely amazing and life-changing day.

Today at my host site I was given the opportunity to experience an “Ambassador Training,” where we work with individuals with an Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) to help them develop their leadership and public speaking skills, as well as helping to empower them and build their confidence in their ability to advocate for themselves.

The Ohio Youth Leadership Forum is holding its annual conference this week, and today one of my supervisor’s and I were given the opportunity to lead a small group session at the conference where we conducted an “Ambassador Training,” which focuses on helping individuals with an IDD write a speech that tells their story and develop the skills and confidence to present it.

Going into today I was beyond nervous, mainly because it was going to be my first time directly interacting with individuals with an IDD. But, as soon as I entered the room and felt their excitement all of my nerves completely went away. Seeing their excitement about being given the opportunity to write and tell their story really put into perspective the importance of Best Buddies. These individuals not only talk about their story of living with a disability but also discuss the ways in which they want to change the world. Their ability and strength to overcome everyday stigmas, negatively and doubt is something that I will never be able to measure up too. And after hearing the stories of the individuals and their plans for the future, I firmly believe that one day they will change the world.

Today also gave me a deeper perspective of what my role will be at the upcoming Leadership Conference this weekend, and I can’t wait to hear more stories and the ways in which our world will be changed by such strong and impactful people.

Last week marked the end of summer school at Cristo Rey, and I was a little sad walking into the school this morning and not seeing students sitting outside the doors in their uniforms. I didn’t realize how much I would come to enjoy assisting with summer school and interacting with students on a daily basis. When I would talk to other staff members my first week and tell them one of my duties as a Summer Fellow is to provide summer school classroom assistance, they usually would give me a look of pity and wish me good luck. From their looks of concern, I was expecting a few hours of chaos each day. Instead, I found the absolute opposite in my 4 weeks as “Ms. Webb”. 

Throughout those 4 weeks in the classroom I would sit in the school’s computer lab to help answer individual questions on course recovery assignments as well as monitor school lunch. This provided for some interaction with students–especially the two students who would often ask me for help with their algebra–but I figured most of the students didn’t pay much attention to me. I was a new face in the classroom and I look pretty young, so I internally thought, “Why would these young people view me as their teacher?”

On the last day of classes I was proven entirely wrong when talking with a group of students and fellow teachers at lunch. The students started asking me if I was a new Cristo Rey teacher they would have next year. I explained to them I’m a college intern and only here for the summer, and I’m not even studying education at OSU. My comment was met with one student telling me, “Well you should come back and help anyways! You were a really good teacher.” 

Hearing these students affirm my work in the classroom completely surprised me, and it made the end of summer school even more bittersweet. I am so proud that the students completed their course recovery and can enjoy their summer, but I will truly miss all of the time working one-on-one with students in the classroom. Hopefully I will return as a volunteer this fall at Cristo Rey to continue watching our students shine in the classroom!

Hello Readers!

Another week has gone and sometimes it is easy to forget how I originally came to Lower Lights. From my fellowship description I expected to be a drug and alcohol prevention instructor and nothing more. Now, although I still instruct against drugs and alcohol I find myself putting more importance in being their summer camp counselor. As their instructor, I do all I can to teach them, but as their counselor I can implement my teachings within active context. My relationship to them as a counselor has allowed me to bond with the children. I take this responsibility of guiding and directing them seriously. I worry over them always asking what they need, if they’re okay, and if there’s anything they need to talk to me about. Being a camp counselor also entails that I carry extra items in case of an emergency. However, it feels like I am never carrying enough emergency items. Band aids, alcohol wipes, Neosporin, snacks, and sunscreen I have.. extra flip flops, socks, and towels were a hard miss, but I am considering adding them and investing in a bigger bag. I see myself with a rolling luggage in the future. 

At Blendon Woods Park, I remember an incident with one of my girls. One of my kids has pigeon toes and on our first field trip disclosed with me how walking long distances hurt her legs. During our next field trip, I asked her if her legs were okay. She said, “why are you asking me that?” I said, “Remember you told me your legs hurt after walking for a while..do you need a break?” She forgot she told me and was shocked that I remembered. I remember all of my kids unique circumstances, interests, and dislikes that are exposed to me. I found myself not only trying to prevent them from drugs and alcohol but from the minor mishaps that could happen to each of them throughout the day. Mary, our camp lead, said I was a “mother hen”. 

I am so happy that not only am I their instructor but most importantly I am their counselor. They have made such a positive impact on me. I believe I am honing in on my skills when it comes to health prevention in the context of working with kids. I also believe I am honing my skills on interacting and teaching children in general. They have given me an opportunity to practice my craft in a different context and I am forever thankful. More than this, I always hope maybe even one good thing I say will stay with them forever. If even one thing helps them through anything they go through I will be joyous. 

On a final note, last Friday, the kids asked a co-counselor, Alex, and I if we would still be there for them after summer camp. Alex said we would always be there for them even thirty years from now and I agreed. Seconds after that I looked to Alex and said, “Wait, Alex that means we will be 52 years old”…yikes!

See you soon!

Ladan

This week was our second (and final) week of Camp Creativity for the summer! Once again, I was the counselor for the oldest group (10-12 years old, and all girls this time), and I had a fantastic time bonding with my campers and helping them out with their art projects throughout the week. My campers and I had a blast together during ceramics, felting, drawing, painting, dancing, film-making, and acting!  

Trying new things is an essential part of living, learning, and growing, and it’s what I love most about summer camps, especially Camp Creativity. It warmed my heart to hear some campers say how excited they were to finish their projects when they got home and to start new ones. Even I got to try something new this week! Despite my history with arts & crafts and the dramatically large collection of spare yarn, I had never tried my hand at felting before this week. I loved it! Even as a counselor, I still got to learn a new skill with my campers and pick up another crafty hobby.  

Something I noticed, though, that I think is important when considering youth-focused arts advocacy, is the difference between individual projects and team-based activities. Our mornings were focused on the visual arts, which meant that the girls had a lot of chances to work with their own ideas and projects around each other, but never having to compromise their own vision. In the afternoon, after they were tired from swimming in the hot sun, the activities were more performance and teamwork-based, which became rather difficult. These brilliant and creative campers ran into some tension that I think a lot of adults have a hard time navigating, too. None of them wanted to give up on their own ideas to come up with something as a group. Eventually, with some deep breaths and a little bit of counselor intervention, my group came up with some great theatrical performances and two really awesome stop motion animation videos.  

Teamwork is a valuable skill, and I think it’s sometimes overlooked in the arts. With so much focus on “the artist” as an individual, we forget how much teamwork goes into any kind of performance. This goes for the visual arts world, too! Any performance or piece of artwork requires the hard work and collaboration of several people in order to see the light of day. Think about all the sound technicians, stage hands, business partners, and family members that contribute to a work of art you’ve seen recently. I’m so glad that we were teaching these young artists about the importance of teamwork at the same time that we were giving them an opportunity to try new things.

I hope everyone is enjoying today’s gorgeous weather!

This week has been a fun and challenging one at the GIAC! I spent most of my time on Monday and Tuesday preparing for my presentation at our board meeting. I’m not a super confident public speaker, so this was an opportunity for me to go out of my comfort zone while sharing something I’m passionate about. At Thursday’s board meeting, the board members were supportive and attentive to my goals towards environmental justice outreach, and I really felt like that the board saw this project to be compatible with the GIAC’s mission. I further enjoyed getting to sit in on the rest of the board meeting to learn more about the details and processes of nonprofit management. This was an important experience because, as a Nonprofit Studies minor, I was able to see some of what I’ve learned in my classes in action.

I feel confident about the direction this project can move towards during my last three weeks here, as I work towards contacting organizations and individuals to learn more about environmental justice and its presence in Columbus. Before I leave, my goal is to have a framework of next steps and people to continue reaching out to. Thanks to Ruth Lomax, who shared her insights and stories on fundraising and development with us at Wednesday’s Fellows Meeting, I have an extensive list of people and groups who I can connect with. It was so kind and helpful for her to share those contacts and connections with me, and after her presentation with Sonya from Huck House, I’m beginning to experience why it’s important to see every conversation as an opportunity to expand my network.

Other than that, I helped out with a few programs and led a bird migration activity for some awesome kids, got to feed the snapping turtles, and watched one of our monarch chrysalises hatch into a butterfly! She hatched yesterday, but she needed some time to stretch her wings and build her strength before flying off and being free. (Fun fact: you can tell whether a monarch butterfly is male or female by looking at their lower set of wings–males have one large dot on the orange part of each wing, while females do not). As cheesy as this sounds, this is how we grow from new experiences, too–things take time for before we’re fully ready to spread our wings and get out into the world.

And so after some rest yesterday, we released our beautiful butterfly out into the world, with kids from our program, staff, and other visitors all gathered to watch. (You can watch it too on the Grange Insurance Audubon Center’s Facebook page!) It was truly an incredible moment to see, and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the weekend!

So with that, I hope everyone can take a moment this weekend to go out and be free! (:

For this post, I would like to reflect on a couple of things that happened at camp this week. I’ll first start with my experience playing substitute teacher on Tuesday.

One of the 8-10yo classes needed a teacher for the day because the two they were assigned were not able to work that day. I did not know I was going to come to work and teach a class rather than work on paperwork, but I am flexible and always willing to help out so it was truly not a problem for me. However, when I went to the classroom and realized I was going to be working in someone else’s space, I needed to adjust myself quickly to how things were run in their class.

There was a problem with this: there wasn’t a clear lesson plan for the day and I wasn’t sure why. On top of that, the kids did not know me as well so they were reluctant to accept me as a new authority in their class. There were a couple of kids with very negative attitudes and behavior that I had to pull aside first thing in the morning because they thought they could get away with not listening to me. This made me realize something: some of these campers might not have someone at home that keeps them in line and teaches them that they can have fun without breaking the rules. Sometimes, all a kid needs is a small conversation or a firm voice to tell them that what they are doing is not okay. What is not okay is blaming the children for not knowing the difference between right and wrong when we don’t even know if they are ever taught the difference.

I had another important realization this morning when taking some campers from the East office to the school. I was riding passenger in another driver’s van and as I was getting in, I heard some children screaming and crying. Come to find out, it was two campers and they were siblings. The (much) younger sibling was crying while the older sibling was yelling really mean and offensive words at him. When I tried to stop the altercation, the other kids were telling me that it happens a lot and that if I say anything, it will only get worse. This concerned me deeply. They eventually calmed down and we left for camp. After arriving, I went to the younger child just to check in with him. He said he was okay and wanted to play with his classmates on the playground so I let him do that. It was fine.

Some time goes by (about 30-45 mins) and the same kid was being walked up to me and my supervisor by his teacher. She had said he was telling everyone that he couldn’t wait to go to heaven and that he wanted to hurt himself. My heart was broken instantly. How could a child like this (only 5-7 years old) think something so negative about himself? Especially one I just saw running around and having a good time on the playground.

After calling his parents, we got the other half of the story; the answer to my question. This child had already been through so so much and has been going to therapy for it. It goes to show that every child is going through something. A lot of the kids that we serve come from neighborhoods that are on the news everyday for drugs and homicide. We cannot assume that every child is going to walk through in the mornings starting off in a good mood because its simply unrealistic. We need to meet them where they are, whether they are happy, sad, angry, tired, etc. We are here to show them that it is okay to feel and to tell an adult when they are feeling bad. These children need to feel comfortable everyday knowing they are safe and around friends when they come to camp.

I am sitting here writing this post and watching Toy Story 3 with some kids, one of them being the younger sibling who had a rough time this morning. He is enjoying the movie and he is smiling with his friends. I am so glad that I understand him a little more and I hope that my helping him this morning showed him that I am someone he can trust with knowing his feelings.

I love the work I do.

As a first-generation college student, I knew that I needed to get an education in order to give myself a better chance at life, one better than my parents could ever offer. But I never dreamed of being rich, famous, or even important. I just wanted to be okay. I wanted a stable life after a childhood marked by chaos. Because of this, I spent the beginning of my college years in survival mode. It didn’t matter what I did as long as I got a degree; for me, it was my ticket out of a life of poverty.

When I discovered my passion for sociology and was further along in my college career, my mindset shifted. I didn’t just want this degree to help myself. I also wanted to be successful, so that one day I could be in a position to help others. I have been given the honor an privilege of being accepted into a top 20 sociology graduate program. Something someone with my background is statistically unlikely to ever achieve.

While I am proud of this accomplishment and all that I’ve learned so far, I still cannot shake the feeling that my desire to help others and my position as an academic are at odds with each other. The ivory tower allots one the power and skills necessary to create knowledge. There isn’t a doubt that the academy plays an important role in society.

However, the focus on the creation of knowledge and publishing in journals can suck the humanity out of the work I do. Currently, I don’t feel like either of my hands are being used to directly help those in need. As a Ph.D. student I am part of a system that does not necessarily reward work to help those in need on the ground. In fact, many academics are extremely far removed from the problems they study due their position of privilege.

This upsets me because I did not want to go to graduate school so I could look down from a tower writing about issues that need to be solved. I don’t want my work to only be absorbed by others just like me, inaccessible to the people that can use the knowledge to actually enact change. While I am not happy with my consistent personal conflict between wanting to be a researcher and wanting to help others, the discomfort is important. It is a constant reminder of what is important to me. It is a fire in my belly that I hold precious and refuse to lose.

This week was also a short week at Best Buddies given the Holiday and our Training at the Columbus Foundation this last Wednesday. However, the time I spent at Best Buddies was very productive, as I spent it preparing for our two major events that we having coming up next week: the Annual Leadership Conference and an Ambassador Training on Monday.

This will be my first time at an Ambassador Training and at the Best Buddies Annual Leadership Conference, so I have a mix of emotions regarding how prepared I feel for them. Nonetheless, I am extremely excited for both of them and see them as an opportunity to demonstrate what I have learned from my supervisors and to learn more about engaging with Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I have been able to engage with a multitude of Best Buddies staff members and have been gaining a lot of insight to both working with Individuals with an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and coordinating a large-scale event such as a weekend-long conference.

Furthermore, I see the Ambassador Training on Monday as a great opportunity to prepare myself for my role at Leadership Conference, since my main responsibility throughout the conference will be to work with Best Buddies Ambassadors. I will get an inside look as to what is expected of me and what skills I need to work on before the weekend.

This entire week has put into perspective the importance of preparing for your tasks-especially when others are depending on you. Taking the time to evaluate your progress and determining what still needs to be accomplished or changed allows for your best results. Self-reflection/awareness is another component of successful preparation and this was something I was able to do fairly frequently this last week.

Earlier this week I encountered a meme on my Facebook feed. It was a copy of a tweet which stated, “IDK who needs to hear this, but poverty-wage workers cannot budget their way to economic stability. Offering financial literacy workshops when what they need is a living wage is insulting and immoral.” After reading this statement, I felt extremely conflicted. As a sociologist in training, the core of the quote is true: people need a living wage – a systematic solution – to attain stability. However, based on what I’ve learned during my time with Siemer, the statement is wholly inaccurate. You see, the idea that financial literacy is used to help poor people who mismanage their money is not true.

I have experienced over 20 calls with direct service providers that explained to me why they include financial literacy in their programs for families at-risk for homelessness. To be clear, these caseworkers and coaches all share the assumption that families seeking assistance are the experts on their own lives and finances. Moreover, they emphasize the fact that these families are not frivolous spenders; basic necessities make up what might be consider as “spending beyond their means.” Given this, why do they still rely on financial coaching as a form of support? Below are a few of the main reasons:

1. In order for a caseworker or coach to have a true picture of a family’s expenses and crises, they need to know their budget.
2. This approach is used to help families navigate and enroll in public benefits. Some families are not aware of all the benefits they can apply for; others are daunted by the application process itself.
3. This approach is goal oriented and as such, can place families on a pathway toward home ownership.
4. Regardless of their poverty-level income, families are given tools to address future crises or unexpected expenses that come their way.

Now, none of the above reasons serve as a solution to the root cause of a family’s low-income or lack of economic mobility. But, after stepping back from my sociological, macro-lens, I can see that it is one of the best approaches social-profit warriors have in their toolbox. Permanent solutions that get at the root of the problem may be seen as the correct answer to these problems. But the thing is, macro solutions do nothing for the people in crisis today. What the meme did not capture is the necessity for supporting those in need in the present. In no way do I consider that work “insulting” or “immoral.” So, when dealing with these issues, one cannot favor the macro over the micro, but must look at them side by side before casting judgement.