Hi everyone! My name is Jacqueline Figueroa (she/her pronouns) and I am a summer fellow for Zora’s House. My theme for the first week of my internship has been the importance of care. I have gotten to meet very dedicated and passionate people at Zora’s House, and I gained a small glimpse into what it means to build sisterhood and co-design with other women of color in our community. It was refreshing to see that the leaders at Zora’s House are so dedicated to their mission and goals of co-creation and uplifting women and femmes of color, and how they are not limiting themselves just to Columbus. I have heard a lot about how the nonprofit sector, although fulfilling, can drain the people working in that area. However, the people at Zora’s House emphasize the importance of taking care of one’s self and others in various ways, and that rest is integral in one’s life, including when it comes to work. 

The importance of care and rest came through in the organization’s physical space. When I first visited the space on Wednesday, I could see how, even though each part of the house had a designated work purpose, the importance of relaxation and comfort came through. I could feel it through the types of furniture and the layout of the spaces, and I could see it in the different quotes, books, and work that is showcased as well. They even have a basement that one can go relax in and be alone if work becomes overwhelming. As a member of the Operations, Infrastructure, and Culture board mentioned in the board’s meeting today, in a world where we are always told that we need to have everything together, we are rarely given the grace to be “in process.” By emphasizing the importance of care and rest throughout the space, there’s an opportunity for women of color to just “be” and to progress towards their goals. 

These first impressions and what I have gathered so far about the culture of Zora’s House from its various members are crucial in order to better fulfill my responsibilities regarding the organization’s employee and operations manuals. I’m so excited to continue learning more about Zora’s House (what it represents, and why it is important to women and femmes of color) and figuring out how to translate that into documents that convey the organization’s essence to its employees, ambassadors, and members.

*This title is based off of the slogans included in the employees’ email signatures, which I include because I believe it is a crucial aspect of the organization and its goals based on what I have seen during this past week. It also accurately summarizes what I have seen at Zora’s House based on the people I have met and what I have looked at during this week.

Welcome!

Hi there! I’m Shelly Douglas (she/her pronouns), and I am a newly-graduated Ohio State alumna with a B.S. in Environment and Natural resources. When I saw FLOW as a host site for the Summer Fellowship, I was ecstatic. With a major in Environmental Policy and Decision Making and a minor in Nonprofit Management, it was pretty much a perfect match. FLOW’s mission is to “keep the Olentangy River and its tributaries clean and safe for all to enjoy.” Amazing, right? Having attended a few FLOW events throughout my years at Ohio State, I was eager to see operations from the other side.

During our first learning session with The Columbus Foundation, fellows were asked to describe their expectations for the summer in one word. The word I chose was “growth.” While I do expect my professional skills to grow exponentially this summer, it’s also a bit of a play on words since FLOW hosts many tree planting events. Run by almost all volunteers, I was immediately inspired by the passion and determination within FLOW. Even with full-time jobs, families, and other responsibilities to tend to, each person at FLOW puts their whole heart into the organization. While the first week can be quite a bit of on-boarding and information, I am motivated to soak up as much knowledge as I can and be a part of the FLOW family.

I’ve always hoped my career wouldn’t require me to sit at a desk all day, and that dream is certainly possible at FLOW. While I am working on projects using Network for Good, ArcGIS, and Google Drive, I also get to head out into nature to work at various project sites. I haven’t had the chance to check out a site yet, but I have a tour of the watershed and an invasive species removal event to look forward to in the next week. I am extremely excited to learn about the different native and invasive species in Ohio and what effects they have on the river.

Reflecting on my first week, my biggest takeaway is how much work goes into keeping a river healthy. FLOW has so many resources and events that I never knew about! Litter clean-ups, tree plantings, sapling giveaways, invasive species removals, pollinator gardens, and so much more. I have enjoyed learning about the myriad of projects going on all throughout Columbus.

Going into Week 2, I have set a couple goals for myself to evaluate in the next blog post. First, I hope I can successfully identify the relevant invasive species in the watershed. Second, I want to learn how to mix and apply our aquatic- and terrestrial-safe herbicides to project sites. As you can see by these goals, I am eager to get outside and get to work next week! In conclusion, I feel confident that my summer with FLOW will be filled with growth and amazing opportunities.

Talk to you next week! -Shelly

Week 1: CityYear Columbus, Development, and Service

Hello everyone, my name is Irma Zamora (she/her/hers). I am this year’s The Columbus Foundation Fellow at CityYear Columbus, working with the Development team. I am originally from Santa Ana, California but have also lived in Western Massachusetts. Now I am a graduate student at The Ohio State University in the Department of English and call Columbus home.

This week entailed a lot of onboarding processes with CityYear: reading manuals, familiarizing myself with websites and social media accounts, meeting my team, and understanding the Mission and Vision of the organization. Though most of my meetings were virtual, I truly got a sense of community from my team (the “Mighty Devo Team”) and have already sensed the support I’ll receive this summer. Given my conversations with the team, my role this summer will center around social media and within the fundraising arm of the organization. However, there will also be time for me to lead a project of my own–something I am still working on but excited to develop with my supervisor, Ruth Lomax.

Along with the general administrative processes of the organization, this week I also got to experience a CityYear community event. On Tuesday, I was part of their community clean-up event near Linden-McKinley High School with the AmeriCorps members. This was my first in-person event for the position and it was exciting to witness first-hand how CityYear executes one of their values: “Service to a cause greater than self”.

Though all of CityYear’s Value Statements seem significant and relevant for me, experiencing this particular value in action really stood out this week. Given our conversations in our Learning Session this week about advocacy, the relationship between “service”, “self” and “cause” resonated with my own understanding of social justice, and the intertwined relationship that exists between it and the nonprofit sector.

I’m excited to start this Fellowship at CityYear and for all the growth to come!

Hi everyone! My name is Jared Hackworth (he/him), and I am one of the Columbus Foundations’ 2021 Summer Fellows. I am working with Equitas Health, specifically focusing on the 2021 Art for Life event. I am from Sunbury, OH, and during the school year, I attend Wheaton College in Illinois, where I am studying English and Urban Studies.

This week, I experienced both Equitas and Columbus Foundation orientations and onboarding. Equitas Health is a non-profit healthcare system that is one of the nation’s largest HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ healthcare organizations! In my role, I will aid development with the 2021 Art For Life event. Art for Life has been a biennial art auction that has raised around $6 Million in funding for HIV/AIDS care, prevention, education, testing, and advocacy services.

The introduction sessions with the Columbus foundation were also super interesting, as they helped me contextualize the summer. Our session on Advocacy stuck out to me and helped me frame what non-profit work should really be, with first a focus on listening to the community members instead of just beginning projects that I may think are best. We also received advice to write a letter to the editor at the Columbus Dispatch about something we are passionate about– a challenge I look forward to taking up.

At Equitas, this week has brought a lot of orientation and onboarding. Since Equitas is a medical organization, I have gone through a good amount of HIPPA training before I can fully start work. Already, I have learned a great deal through training on anything from how to use giving and auction software to attending an anti-racism series. While the onboarding process has taken a good portion of the week, I am grateful to have a strong footing as we go forward into the coming weeks.

My theme for this week was gratitude. I choose this because for the first time in a long time, life felt normal. Normal in the sense that though some of may still be wearing masks and following social distance guidelines, we were able to do it together. My first week at the GIAC has been a lot of things. Exciting, interesting, fulfilling, and hectic, to name a few.

This week was the first week of in-person camps and programs returning. So every morning at 9am, I walk to the front door, unlocked the doors, and stand to wait for the Pre-K campers to get dropped off by their parents. Wait as each one of them slowly and sometimes not so surely walk up to the center, wondering why their mom isn’t following them and if they really want to do this. But as soon as they walk in they smile and run to the learning suite, excited to see what list of activities are on the board for the day. It wasn’t until Friday that i was given my official camp nickname. I told the kids that they could come up with mine for me, they decided on “Mr Snazzy”. Why they chose that i am not sure, but Mr Snazzy it is.

Camp ends around 11:30 and once the kids are all gone, the center is pretty quiet. This is when i get to sit down and work on some promotional things for the center like posting events to the website. I take a lot of pride in making these posts because I see how hard everyone here works to make the events special and i want to make sure that people get the opportunity to come see all the amazing things the center and the park have to offer.

On Wednesday, I got the opportunity to work with an Aphasia group who came into the center to volunteer. Aphasia is a disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language, most commonly from a stroke. They came in to volunteer by doing things that were low difficulty on fine motor skills such as organizing the library books or basic gardening tasks. It was definitely a humbling experience working with them because despite their conditions they came in smiling, laughing and joking around with each other, and were so eager to volunteer.

All in all, I can confidently say that I was placed in the right place to spend my summer. I am extremely excited to learn more about the non-profit sector through the GIAC this summer, as well as growing my strategic communications skills through event coordinating as well. as programming.

Week 1 – Central Community House

The theme of the week for me is connection. From my first interactions with the people at Central, this is what I felt. It was almost emotional for me at first – because it seems as though everything I have experienced in my life has uniquely suited me to serve at Central. Not only do I feel personally connected to Central, but Central shows an authentic connection to the community and to the people that live there. Further, Central takes such a holistic approach to serving families, the connection between each of their programs to the others is palpable. There is also a strong connection between the initiatives at Central, and a data-driven approach that produces measurable outcomes, which is also a passion of mine. 

I have always had a heart for children – especially children with obstacles to overcome. Although I come from a rural community, many of the issues facing the children in the Near East and South Side neighborhoods of Columbus are similar, such as generational poverty and barriers to opportunity. Central empowers the children and teens in their community through after-school programming (transportation included!), Summer day camps (complete with weekend family adventures around Columbus), and the TRANSIT ARTS program, where amazing artists from the community help lead teens in art sessions, ranging from music and dance to visual art and poetry. As someone that was heavily involved in the arts growing up, I can understand firsthand the impact that this work has on the lives it touches. Walking into the TRANSIT ARTS space felt like coming home – there was so much movement and color, it just makes you want to create!

Central provides services for families as well – from parenting workshops to emergency funding for those experiencing a crisis, Central understands the importance of meeting families where they are and connecting them with vital resources. The Academy for Community Entrepreneurs (ACE) program is yet another program at Central that assists individuals with starting their own businesses, or providing support to those who already own their own small business. 

Before returning to school, I was the manager of an affordable housing community for seniors. In that role, I fell in love with serving seniors in the community, and helping them to combat the isolation that often comes with living alone as you age, while providing a safe and affordable place for them to live. Village Central is working hard to make sure the seniors in the area have access to activities, workshops, and valuable services that can help seniors remain independent and aging-in-place. Central also provides transportation services, and most recently, an awesome program to connect seniors with technology and training to help them remain engaged and safe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As I met with people throughout the week, I took time to pause and reflect on the connection this work has to my own life. I spent some time in the past few years spiraling and directionless, both in my life, and in my career. I feel I have landed smack dab in the middle of something wonderful, and something I am so thankful and proud to be a part of.

• After my first day, I am now more excited than ever. Orientation was super informative, and I was able to learn about the amazing stories of my peers. Before I got to ROX, I was quite nervous because I did not know what to expect. After meeting and speaking with Lauren (Head of Operations), I was thrilled to get to work with the amazing women at ROX. We went over all the logistics of my fellowship and talked about new possible projects I would engage in. As we continued to discuss my summer plan, I grew more excited and knew this internship would be life changing.
• I was able to go to a gathering with the board members of ROX and it was interesting to meet people in diverse groups of professions. I was able to discuss and learn more about the ROX organization. It was inspiring to see how people with different careers found a way to use their knowledge to advocate for girls. Additionally, speaking with all the members excited me to see what is to come this summer. I believe I will learn a great deal of information about nonprofits and the different components of what make a nonprofit successful.  
• I really enjoyed the learning session for this week. The focus was on activism, and it really inspired me to find more ways I could become an advocate in my own life. One main takeaway was learning about becoming a full-time advocate. It is important to learn how to be an advocate no matter what profession you are in. I am looking forward to finding new ways to advocate for girls at ROX and can’t wait to apply what I learned to my own life.
• One of the highlights for this week was sitting in on the yearly strategic planning meeting for ROX. It was super interesting to hear the new ideas and plans each person had for ROX. Furthermore, I thought it was neat to see how they turned their ideas into tangible plans. I was even able to share some of my own thoughts and ideas on their future plans. I think a big takeaway was learning how to incorporate everyone’s plan in a nonprofit and turn it into a real product, workshop, etc. 
• One person I was able to connect with was the Developer Manager. She explained to me everything her job incorporated. Additionally, she shared her journey with nonprofits and how she ended up at ROX. She was kind enough to answer my questions about nonprofits. If anything, I am now even more curious about nonprofits because there is so much to know. 
• Overall, the first week was extremely informative and hands-on. I am excited to see what is to come for the rest of the summer.

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