Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Hi! I’m Kenzie and my fellowship this summer is with the Grange Insurance Audubon Center! I’ll be a senior at Ohio State this fall, studying Geography (specializing in Environment and Society) with minors in Nonprofit Management and History!

So this week has truly been a blur before my fellowship even got started. I moved into a new apartment all by myself, learned how to drive around Columbus for the first time, and spent two hours at Target (clearly I should not go there unsupervised). Besides spending my first summer away from home and navigating a full-time position for the first time, there were so many changes I was nervous about leading into this week.

But from my first steps into the GIAC, I have felt incredibly welcomed and valued by everyone. When I arrived, they took me to my very own desk with the most gorgeous view of the Scioto Metro Audubon Park and downtown Columbus. Also awaiting me were pollinator-themed cupcakes and most importantly, a set of binoculars and a bird guide for the many species of birds that come by to say hi. Besides getting to set up my cool new desk and learning to identify my first couple of birds, I’ve gotten to work with each of the staff members on a one-on-one basis–from filling the bird feeders with the Conservation manager and setting up brand-new phones with the Office and Finance manager, to helping with education programs and summer camp planning with our educators and meeting with the Executive Director. Through these projects, meetings, and conversations, I could tell that each staff member felt a deep commitment to the organization’s mission to inspire a passion and stewardship for the nature around us.

As the closest of 41 Audubon Centers across the nation to a downtown metropolitan area, the GIAC has a critical role to play in recognizing and engaging people with birds and nature in an urban setting. When we think of diverse species and wilderness, we often think of faraway places or national parks, but in doing so we fail to connect to the nature that is right in our backyards. Located along the Scioto River, the grounds that the GIAC currently occupies used to be a site for impound lots, factories, and all kinds of activities that created pollution and harmed local waterways and wildlife. But now, for ten years, the GIAC has protected birds and other wildlife, inspired many Central Ohioans to learn about and advocate for nature, and so much more.

However, this complete reversal of a place from a site of pollution to a site of protection would not have happened without individuals who embraced change. It is this nature of change that the GIAC is founded upon. For example, the building itself reflects the area’s industrial past within its architecture while including green technology such as permeable concrete or water-saving measures to show the organization’s dedication to conservation.

The nature of change is also about understanding the resilience and adaptability in our environments and ecosystems, which experience change every single day. There’s new weather, new seasons, new resources, new life, and new challenges. These changes are necessary for an ecosystem to sustain itself, but change is also necessary for organizations and individuals to keep moving forward, too. Embracing the nature of change means realizing that plants, birds, and people won’t grow and thrive if everything stayed the same.

There’s so many more new things waiting for me as I work towards my own goals as well as the GIAC’s mission this summer. I don’t know everything that’s ahead just yet, but by seeing change as both a good and necessary experience, I’m excited for whatever comes my way!

The first week of my fellowship at Ronald McDonald House Charities – Central Ohio is coming to a close tomorrow, and I can tell it is going to be a packed summer, full of diverse experiences, opportunities, failures, and friendships.

Working with House Chef Blair Arms, and Major Gifts Officer Andrea Biada, my role as a fellow is primarily to help improve RMHC’s meal programs. This includes applying for grants for monetary support and in-kind donations of ingredients, cultivating relationships with distributors (especially protein distributors), regularly surveying families to learn more about what they want out of RMHC’s cafeteria, and creating stewardship plans and materials for kitchen volunteers.

During my first few days, I’ve been able to experience many angles of RMHC’s operations. I’ve met with Family Services staff, who’ve described RMHC’s admission process and common experiences from families staying at the house. I’ve shadowed volunteer staff as we clean dishes or clean and prepare rooms for incoming families. I’ve joined tours of the house given to donors. I’ve sat in a development team meeting, as officers cooridinate what seems to be a never-ending calendar of special events, fundraisers, and auctions. I’ve been introduced to Raiser’s Edge, a donor management software, and learned just how difficult (yet important) it is to keep track of not just fiscal donors, but volunteers. I’ve played with the CEO Dee Ander’s immaculate house labradoodle, Henri :

Coincidentally, Blair, the House Chef, is on vacation this week, so we haven’t sat down and discussed a plan for the summer. I’ve been spending my personal work hours indexing grants, farmers, distributors, and grocers that we could pursue partnerships with, drafting charitable giving requests for major grocers (Kroger, Aldi, Walmart, Save A Lot), and creating stewardship materials for kitchen volunteers.

The staff have been immensely kind, supportive, funny, and involved. I am inspired by the ease in which they multitask and collaborate to support each other’s projects. I’ve seen staff move from studiously churning out proposals and sponsorship materials to snapping into giving last-minute tours of the house to corporate volunteers. I look forward to meeting with Blair next week, and to all the experiences I will have the pleasure of partaking in these next 9 weeks.

Hi everyone, my name is Emily Callahan and I am one of the Summer Fellows for the 2019 Columbus Foundation Summer Fellowship Program! This upcoming summer I will be working with Best Buddies International, helping them to prepare for their annual leadership conference and also in helping them in various ways to better engage the community and increase volunteer initiatives.

I received my undergraduate degree in Social Work, where I spent a lot of time focusing on “macro-level social work,” which included event and program planning, management and evaluation, volunteer coordination, and small policy-related projects. This background in macro-level social work is what made me interested in Best Buddies International, I saw this as being an organization that could not only follow in line with my passion for the nonprofit sector, but also as an organization that would allow me to grow stronger in the skills that will make me a successful actor in a nonprofit organization.

Needless to say, I have been extremely excited to start the Fellowship Program and the various projects that will come with Best Buddies International. This excitement was somewhat stalled, as I spent a majority of my first week completing necessary orientations and trainings for Best Buddies, and sitting in on meetings to get a deeper understanding of how the organization functions.

While the slow start to my fellowship seemed like a bit of a bummer, I started to think about what my expectations were compared to that of my supervisors expectations, and that the trainings were necessary to my success in future projects. Without developing a stronger base of knowledge about the organization, how was I supposed to successfully complete all of what is required of me and meet the standards of my organization? I realized that this fellowship program is fairly short in time, and the week-long trainings were needed in order to make the most out our 9 week long program. I am excited to see how I grow in my role and see the impact that Best Buddies will have on me.

With only four days under my belt submerged in the nonprofit world, I feel completely different. I feel constantly energized to learn more about the tremendous impact Big Brothers Big Sisters is having on the community, and seeing the behind the scenes of exactly how they’re doing it. In meeting each member of the team, I can feel their pride for the work that they do and their passion for the kids that they help.

One of the most personally impactful moments I have experienced in these four, full days at Big Brothers Big Sisters is getting the full, half-day training that goes into the making of a mentor. This is not your typical first-day training for a new job where you view a video and fill out a form. This is Amber, a veteran Trainer at Mentor Ohio (an arm of BBBS), getting into the nitty gritty of mentoring children. In her time in the field as both a trainer and a therapist, she has witnessed an extensive range of children in dangerous situations that has negatively impacted their development, and ultimately their lives. The trauma many of these kids experience is real, ranging from abuse to incarcerated parents. Coming from an affluent community, fortunately with no life-altering traumas in my past, it can be hard to understand and to relate to kids experiencing just that. Similarly, many of the mentors have trouble getting the perspective that is absolutely necessary for building a relationship with these kids. The graphic (see attached) made me stop and reflect on myself, the people in my life, and the people I want to serve. How are we different? What do we value? How can I bridge the gap between my upbringing and theirs to mutually benefit from our vastly different life experiences? The training tugs at your heart strings, but also makes you think deeply about how you view other people. The mindset needed to be in the field of social service focuses on openness and perspective to understand the community you’re serving. I hope to continue to feel my mindset change and grow as my time as a fellow continues.

I’ve come to realize being a public servant is just that: perspective. Viewing groups and communities through a nonjudgmental lens, with an open-mind, and a desire to listen and understand. If more humans in our communities recognized the importance of understanding those in different life situations from our own, communication would flow beautifully and controversy could be mitigated. I hope to continue to develop this truly life-changing perspective as the weeks progress.

My name is Mary Imre and I am one of the Summer Fellows with The Columbus Foundation this summer. I am placed with Serving Our Neighbors (SON) Ministries – an organization dedicated to combating poverty in the Hilliard area through various programs. SON Ministries provides a free summer lunch camp to children in the Hilliard area every summer where they can come to receive a healthy meal and build positive relationships. Though this is my first summer as a Fellow, this is not my first summer with SON. After working though my first week, I realized that my previous work with the organization lead me to create ideas and comparisons that I would need closure from if I want to have a successful and fruitful summer experience.

As a masters candidate in social work at The Ohio State University, I was required to do a “field placement” during my first year of graduate school. With no direction or idea of what I wanted to do in life, I was placed with SON Ministries for my field placement. Though I did not know what to expect, I can say that my placement was life altering. After my term was completed, SON Ministries hired me in the summer of 2018 as a “green shirt,” meaning I would be a seasonal staff member who served as a camp counselor. Though I could write pages upon pages about how impactful, fun, and memorable my experience was, I will simply summarize it as the best summer of my life.

I knew my time with SON Ministries wasn’t over when I left on that last day of camp. I maintained volunteer hours throughout the year and stumbled upon an application for the Columbus Foundation’s Summer Fellowship Program; SON Ministries was one of the sites selected to receive a fellow. Fast forward to today, after I was selected as SON Ministries’ fellow and have started my first week. Now that it’s the end of the first week, I realized that I subconsciously built biases of how my experience should happen this summer.

After last summer, I came into my fellowship excited to reunite with my favorite campers. I also built the idea in my mind that there is no way any other group of campers could be as amazing as the children I worked with last summer. It only took minutes on the first day this week to realize that these ideas were harmful to both myself and the new campers I will meet this summer. Since I will be in more of a marketing position as a fellow rather than a camp counselor, I won’t have the same responsibilities that allowed me to build such amazing relationships. This doesn’t mean in any way that I won’t build incredible relationships, but it means that I won’t be with the same group of children every day for seven weeks. This week has forced me out of my comfort zone and into deep self-reflection. I realized that if I want to have a successful and enriching summer, the only obstacle was my likelihood to compare my time to last summer. This obstacle would also hinder my ability to fully engage with new children the way I should. Comparisons in this setting are useless – each child is unique and cannot be compared to the children I came to love last summer. Comparisons would only prevent me from seeing each child’s talents and gifts.

The obstacle of comparison will likely be something I have to reflect on and check myself weekly, if not daily. However, the acceptance and devotion to working through internal biases about experiences will only help me grow and thrive in my new position. I am so excited to give my time to an organization that I love for another summer and experience it from a new perspective. Finally, I am so excited to share it with my friends, family, and colleagues that follow my story.

Greetings! My name is Hannah Graber and this summer I will be serving as a Nonprofit Fellow with the Columbus Foundation, spending most of my time at my host site, the Homeless Families Foundation (hereafter, HFF). During the academic year, I live in Athens, Ohio where I go to school at Ohio University, pursuing undergraduate degrees in Communication Studies and Political Science.

My project at the HFF entails helping with the children’s food programming within the summer program; I have been describing the initiative to laypeople as an “academic camp” for kids in Columbus who could benefit from additional, concentrated stimulation during the summer months as well as guaranteed and consistent meals. As I anticipate a summer with kids in the community, I can’t help but reflect on my recollections of summer break during grade school in Columbus.

First of all, it’s important to note that I adored school, but still, I was happy to have a chunk of ‘freedom.’ My mom is a teacher in the Hilliard School district and, thus, had the summers free to tote my brother and I around to a plethora of activities in our area. On a given day, we would splash in the public fountains, spend an afternoon roaming a special exhibit at COSI, or go to the movies. The highlight of my summer as an avid bibliophile was the Summer Reading Program available at the Columbus Library. I felt so satisfied and smart when filling in yet another bubble on the chart. The more time I spend in the city as an ~adult~ the more I have come to realize just how much the intentional community-based efforts have affected me in my upbringing.

I now have the education—and vernacular to explain the concepts—to understand that as a child, I was being encouraged to engage academically within a community of other kids and families who prompted growth and support. One huge caveat to note, however, is that I was (am, and always will be) a white person with privileged access to entry fees and activities that cost money, parents who can support me, and a car to take me places. More than that, people saw me as a kid with potential, inseparable from my visible demographics.

Jermaine, my advisor at the HFF, explained to me that one of the functions of the summer program is to provide that same academic stimulation for kids in the community whose parents can’t take off work to entertain their children (i.e., aren’t as privileged as I was growing up). We, as staff, serve as their support system.

Ever since I read about the opportunity with the Columbus Foundation, it was at the forefront of my thoughts amongst the multitude of additional internship applications and interviews. In my opinion, this fellowship is challenging me to take part in something bigger than myself—to use my education and enthusiasm for a community cause that has change-making abilities. I am eager to immerse myself in the project and learn as much as I can from the influential nonprofits leaders and fellow Fellows who are participating in the program.

Bring on the summer!

I know the 10-week Fellowship Program ended just a little over a week ago, but to me it feels so long ago. I left the closing luncheon early to immediately drive to State College, PA in order to start graduate school. This past week has been a whirlwind of orientation and adjusting to new people and new environments, and I feel like I have not yet had a chance to reflect on the ending of my time at Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS).

My last day at ETSS was the Wednesday of week 10 of the Fellowship, and they surprised me with a going away reception. I was given a framed picture of all the kids at the Youth Summit, and the matting was signed with sweet messages from many people from the office. It is now hanging in my apartment at Penn State. Additionally, I was given a scarf woven in Ethiopia that has the Pan-African colors of red, gold, black, and green. The reception was so sweet, and I am truly grateful to have worked at such a welcoming, inclusive organization this summer.

At Penn State, advisors are helping me figure out how to take courses and conduct research that marry my personal, scholastic interests with that of potentially finding a job in the non-profit sector post-graduation. It was suggested to me to take cartography/GIS classes in order to gain knowledge in visually portraying data and to take courses on different kinds of research methods — survey design, quantitative methods, demography. I have very basic, limited knowledge of these topics, and while I am afraid to take classes that fall outside of my comfort zone, I know that to be competitive and acquire skills that set me apart from other job applicants, I must be willing to take risks and learn new things.

Thank you to the Columbus Foundation and Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services for making this summer possible. I have learned so much in 10 short weeks, and it has helped guide my choices in my lifetime of learning.

Transitions are gonna get easier… right?

That is the question I kept asking myself (to the tune of The Five Stairsteps “Ooh Child”) this week as I pondered why the last week of any involvement for me always seems to be the most hectic. Even so, I think I have an answer for myself. Yes, transitions are gonna get easier if you continue to improve the way you prepare for and handle them. And preparing for transitions is best done long before they will occur. Strategically-minded organizations use succession planning for that very reason.

While I saw some personal progress this past week with managing the end of a commitment, I started the week with a sizeable to-do list and only four full days to complete it. I worked hard reviewing my supervisor’s feedback on my edits of the last sections of legal statute descriptions that apply to Ohio’s crime victims. I also decided to combine all the notes I had made on Toolkit sections throughout the summer into one, more organized report. That way all of my work would be documented in one place and easy to refer to when considering future updates to the toolkit. At the least, others would be able to see my methods and why certain changes were made.

In some ways, the week was a bit anticlimactic. The attorney with whom I shared an office was out the first two days, and I did not see my supervisor until Thursday, so I kept to myself even more at work to start the week. I also did not know when any of my recommendations would ultimately be implemented for the toolkit. Then our closing Fellowship luncheon on Friday at The Columbus Foundation ended without the feeling of a formal goodbye. However, the week had its share of satisfying and triumphant moments as well.

At the luncheon, I gave my first PechaKucha presentation to recap the summer. The format involves talking for twenty seconds each about twenty different slides, which typically contain a photo and little to no text. Since I can be wordy, the presentation style challenged me to pick the most important points to make about the summer and to convey them concisely. Photo selection was also difficult. For one, I had deemed few moments of my toolkit review throughout the summer as photo worthy. (The main changes in the image of me sitting at my computer were the color and pattern of my shirts.) Jokes aside, a PechaKucha requires careful thought about what picture best displays each twenty second segment of the presentation’s message. As I planned what to say, I realized that writing a PechaKucha script ultimately involves crafting a coherent story, subdivided into twenty parts that each include a visual element. That line of thinking, though perhaps often overlooked without the constraints of a format like PechaKucha, will help me in preparing for all types of presentations going forward.

The convening of Fellows and their organization hosts for the luncheon was also special. I felt well supported and thankful to have my supervisor and the Volunteer Coordinator for Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center join me, and it was neat to learn more about the programs and missions of the participating nonprofits, as told by the other Fellows. All summer, we had shared bits of information with each other, but the PechaKucha presentations connected a lot of dots and made me smile to hear the way the Fellowship experience had impacted my peers. I even got to reconnect with a high school classmate who was there as staff for one of the other nonprofits that hosted a Fellow.

At Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center, I got to talk more extensively than I ever have with the Founder and Executive Director, Cathy Harper Lee. She was pleased to see some of my report on Toolkit recommendations, and I learned more about her passion and ideas for the organization. By now I know first-hand that the Toolkit is a great resource within Ohio, but Cathy said it even could become a model for other states interested to have a toolkit for crime victims’ rights. The possibility that my work could be part of something to that scale was humbling, but an even bigger surprise was coming.

Talking to Cathy about the Toolkit

Before leaving for the week, I had agreed to continue with the organization in a consulting role through the end of September. As part of another grant, I will now work to promote the Toolkit and increase its use around the state. The work had seemed a natural next step from my summer project.

The Fellowship is over, but my time at Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center is not. That means I have another transition coming in several weeks’ time, and I’m going to start getting ready for that new ending right away. I’ll also keep in mind two of my biggest takeaways from the ten weeks with OCVJC and the Columbus Foundation:

• The need for clear and effective communication for sharing information, including across languages and other barriers, and
• The importance of capacity building for both individuals and groups.

Communication and capacity building will be two of my priorities over the coming month and beyond.

Week 9 was my second to last week of the Fellowship, and it felt fitting in a number of ways. While I again spent most of my time working independently and quietly on my review of the Crime Victims Rights Toolkit, the week was bookended by out-of-the-ordinary afternoons on Monday and Friday. On Monday, our Fellows group had our longest and in my mind, most rewarding, professional development session yet – this time a consideration of leadership that included intriguing Ted Talks, insights from Dr. Lomax, II, and our most extensive full-group discussion to date. While Dr. Lomax intentionally ended the session without a firm conclusion, a few themes have remained in mind.

Building Capacity

We spent a good deal of time discussing power, starting with the premise that we, as humans, are innately powerful but need to understand and own that, especially to lead others. Dr. Lomax shared the Four Agreements from Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. The first few agreements (“Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions.”) resonated with the individual growth I have sought this summer. I came to see that preparing oneself to best use one’s own power is another way to view the concept of personal development.

Trust

Among the components of leadership Dr. Lomax mentioned, he also emphasized trust in three forms: Internal (trusting oneself), External (trusting others), and Active (using “the power of trust in community to create change”).

The discussion made me think of an example from Dayton Civic Scholars, a program I was involved in at the University of Dayton, in which a group of other students and I were working on a capstone project in a local neighborhood and had partnered with an established church in the area. Both the neighborhood and church leaders were greatly enthused to have our help, especially because we could potentially bring newer, innovative ideas to share. Ultimately, though, we committed to helping the church start a community garden, something that had previously existed but did not last. My student cohort knew almost nothing about agriculture, yet we talked to area experts, pulled together the resources we needed to (including with the help of other community organizations) and got a garden going again. The biggest challenge came when we were about to graduate and had not been able to find another group to sustain the project. However, at that point, the church community assured us they were ready to keep the garden going and even expand it. I, for one, had felt pressure for my cohort to find a solution for the church, but after all the trust they had placed in us, it made sense that the only way for the garden to have longevity was to return that trust. I had just overlooked that. The experience showed me both the challenge and the necessity of utilizing each type of trust Dr. Lomax described.

Then, at the end of week 9, I was summoned at work to provide my thoughts on a difficult press release a couple of the attorneys were writing. Everyone in the office at that point had been asked to help, but I was initially surprised they wanted a Fellow, still a bit unfamiliar with the legal workings and programs of the organization to give input on such an important matter. I was forced to remember that my perspective would be like others outside the organization who would see the statement, and for that, it was valuable. The collaborative nature of the press release-writing effort felt like a minor demonstration of Active Trust and solidified that lesson from Monday’s Fellows session.

Looking Back Ahead

Another theme from the conversation about leadership was the approach of simultaneously learning from the past and keeping the future in mind. Fields Wicker-Miurin presents in her Ted Talk about Benki, the leader of an Amazon nation who stewards the knowledge of previous generations for his people and ponders how coming generations will answer the question he asks himself – essentially, what is he doing to protect the livelihood of his people? Later another Fellow shared the advice she had heard to think back to three generations in the past and think ahead to three generations in the future when acting in the present. Dr. Lomax said the notion of sankofa, a Ghanian word, is similar. He summarized the ideas through the idea of “looking back ahead,” or gaining insight from the past to apply in preparing for a better future.

On a smaller scale, the Fellows session had helped me to look back ahead on the summer itself, with one personal insight standing out. My Fellowship project has made me more confident in my ability to thrive in an individual, self-directed environment. At the same time, the leadership session was the first one of our professional development meetings that allowed significant time for us to exchange ideas with each other about concepts, rather than our personal experiences of the Fellowship alone, and that was a refreshing change. It reminded me how much I appreciate spaces and conversations for learning within a group. In fact, a number of Dr. Lomax’s points about leadership echoed the importance of the combination of personal capability and working as a community.

As Part of a Community

Indeed, Dr. Lomax’s definition of leadership includes the idea of community multiple times. To him, a leader must “see themselves as part of a community whether they are from it or not.” From my reflection on my Dayton Civic Scholars capstone to the joint effort on the press release at work and the group discussion on leadership, in which each person provided wisdom, the week rejuvenated me to build capacity and seek change in community.