Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

The introductory periods have waned and the ‘meat’ of the program has begun—literally. A part of my day-to-day responsibilities involve preparing and serving meals to the children at camp!

I was hired by HFF to assist with operation, planning, and implementation of children’s programming for the summer food service program. I am responsible for supporting the kitchen staff in whatever capacity they may need. My parents refer to such a role as the “up” person: chop it up, sweep it up, run it up, you get the idea.

Initially, me and the AmeriCorps Vista for the summer, Elizabeth, intended to do just that. The week before camp started, we had made our first food run to Aldi for the upcoming week’s groceries, knew the ins and outs of the meal serving logistics, and were excited to meet all the kids after the meals were over and we were released to participate in activities outside of the kitchen. The good news is that we do, in fact, perform the aforementioned tasks. Though there is one stipulation.

The night before the first day of camp, Elizabeth and I learned that the chef for the summer—Lisa—had been diagnosed with tonsillitis and another secondary infection that prevented her from coming to work. Thankfully, the chef who cooks during the school year was around to help, heavily, with planning and food prep for the first two days. Miss Gayla, if you’re reading this, I appreciate you more than words can say! However, after Tuesday, Lisa reported that she was bed ridden for the rest of the week and Gayla had alternative responsibilities at HFF that she needed to fulfill. Thus, Elizabeth and I became the chefs until further notice.

As I sweat in the kitchen today, furiously buttering bread for 200 grilled cheese sandwiches (yes, 200!) and stirring tomato soup in an industrial sized pot, I am learning that the outline for this type of work is constantly subject to change. Further, everyone seems to help out with everything. In the words of my supervisor, “we do it all here.” Schedules get moved, activities don’t always happen, intentions sometimes aren’t realized, and that’s okay.

The shift from support person to primary provider was swift and welcomed because I care about the mission of the organization and the people that they serve. I am willing to do justabout anything to help the campers have the best possible experience this summer.

Please enjoy the attached photo of Elizabeth with our (absurdly tall) grocery cart filled with two days’ worth of groceries. Unfortunately, we only brought one quarter for the cart. Rookie move.

My third week at Ronald McDonald House Charities has been a mixed bag. I’ve balanced my time between traveling, seeking out constituents, and data entry. On Wednesday, I sat in at a presentation from Mid Ohio Food Bank, communicating changes in their strategic plan to the food pantries and nonprofits they partner with. The meeting illuminated what a complex policy issue food insecurity is. For example, the president told the story of a woman who couldn’t afford to go to the food pantry. Despite the food being free, going to the food pantry meant taking a day off work. Additionally, the meeting highlighted how many different players, each with their own values and skills, are trying to combat food insecurity. For example, of the three speakers, one of them, MOFB’s Director of Platforms, was a young data analyst and former employee at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He shared lofty goals of using drones inside the foodbank, and collecting more opt-in data from food pantry customers to be shared with organizations in other sectors of social services to more efficiently and collaboratively create models to combat the social determinants that lead to poor health. Many food pantry employees in attendance faced his speech with skepticism, highlighted by an initial question of “what is a ‘platform’”. There are so many linguistic, professional, cultural, generational, political, and socioeconomic boundaries that must be crossed even just to understand other people’s perspective, let alone create a solution. I’m sure the same is true for strategic decisions made in a hospital.

Tomorrow, I am visiting constituents (people and organizations who have or potentially will donate cash, product, or services to RMHC) on my own for the first time. I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited, as this is one of the primary skills I hope to cultivate over the course of this fellowship. I’m learning that donors and their donations come in all shapes and sizes. As the Senior Director of Development put it on the first week, “sometimes you’re writing a 2 page brief for a $1,000,000 ask”. Some groups want to donate their specialized services to create an app or repair equipment. Some want to bring ice cream to the house.

Additionally, this week has been filled with lots and lots of data entry, one of the drier parts of the position. As the Director of Platforms stated at the MOFB talk, “data, not oil, is now the most valuable resource on the planet”. This of course is scary, but rings true most afternoons during my time at the House. While I still try to create a standard process to link volunteer and donor data, I’m slowly entering all the constituents from one database into another. I’ve found moving between the rabbit-hole mentality of seeking out donors balances nicely with this repetitive and predictable task

Apologies for the belated post, but my work phone was blowing up last week! However, it was for good reason – we have been completing phone interviews at rapid speed! To give some insight into my project: Siemer wants to understand caseworkers’ best practices for the families in their cities and how their network can support them. Our findings will be shared across the network to breed ideas and collaboration across the Siemer network.

What about this is exciting, you ask? Any insight they gain is helping them to serve more families facing housing crises! Listening to both the staff and the caseworkers has been inspiring; they put their all into providing the best attention and resources to the families they serve. It still feels remarkable to be a part of their team.

In addition to the many calls, I have continued to dig into some exciting literature (my area of expertise). While I may not be in the field supporting the Siemer network, I am doing my do diligence to find research that highlights their accomplishments and the great work they do. In my mind this is a small way to bridge the work of the academy with the work done by social profit organizations.

When I first came to Siemer, one of the first things that struck me was that I have a lot of research-related resources as a student, compared to those working on the ground. I’m especially referring to the gazillion articles, books, and data I always have at my disposal. I am privileged to be at a university that provides funds to subscribe to reputable journals and publishing companies. A person without a student affiliation would have to pay out-of-pocket to access this knowledge.

As an individual who wants to use my education to help others, the lack of connection between research and practice was somewhat disappointing. However, it also presents an opportunity for others to work towards bridging this gap. The academy can empower those working for social change and vice versa. Maybe in the future, I will be one of many doing such work!

This week I wanted to share a story about the Vice President of Human Resources and Operations, and how tremendously this demonstrates the positive culture at my organization.

My first day at BBBS, I was introduced to Susan Murray. My supervisor told me that Susie would be my best friend for the day as I was working through paperwork, payroll, and policies. I could not have had a more welcoming first encounter with the organization, as Susie was bubbly and energetic and excited to get me started for the summer. This was really the only time I had spent with her to date until today.

Susie has been involved with BBBS for 48 years. She started as a camper at the BBBS owned and operated camp, Camp Oty’Okwa. She came to Central Ohio to be the office administrator before returning to camp to be a camp administrator. She has bounced around the organization, existing and enhancing the BBBS mission for nearly half a century. In fact, Susie loves BBBS so much that she actually got married at the BBBS camp. Her dedication to the mission of this organization is inspiring, and it was heartwarming to witness the staff surprise her today with an anniversary potluck lunch (her favorite!).

Two things became clear in light of the celebration held for Susie this afternoon. One was that this is the type of organization people WANT to be a part of for 10, 20, 30, or even 48 years. Much of the staff has worked with the organization in one capacity or another for an extended period of time, and people hardly ever leave. It’s clear to me they are doing something right here. The culture, the mission, the passion, everything BBBS is keeps the staff involved and committed. The second thing that became clear is the amount of care this staff has for one another. This is a busy time of year for the staff. Everyone came together, cleared their schedules for the afternoon, and each contributed a food or drink item, while also considering Susie’s preferences. You will not find this type of generosity at every organization, and I am grateful that I have found it here.

Something that has kind of been a challenge for me is balancing all of my commitments this summer. On top of my fellowship position with Best Buddies/The Columbus Foundation, I am enrolled in six online course for my two masters programs (and have a part time job) and it is taking some time to adjust to having such a heavy workload. However, as I am delving deeper into my coursework and am contributing more to the Best Buddies Ohio Team, I see that there are a lot of connections between all of my commitments and that if I focus on these overlaps I’m able to balance everything in a more efficient way. 

More specifically, I am enrolled in four different social work course for my Masters of Social Work program at OSU, each of these courses has an emphasis on empowering clients, developing appropriate leadership qualities, and finding the best intervention/treatment services for various populations. Through these courses I feel like I am finding new ways to expand on my skill set as a social worker and truly carry out the mission of Best Buddies to empower individuals with an IDD, help facilitate intentional and positive relationships among clients (one-to-one friendships), and ultimately helping individuals develop their own leadership abilities.

Taking this new mindset, that everything has a purpose and a connection, has helped me to feel more fulfilled as both an intern and a student. While I am definitely still stressed over meeting deadlines and creating quality work, I am a little more confident in myself, knowing that I am growing personally and professionally through this heavy course load and that at the end of the day my experience as a fellow and student this summer are amplified by being both. 

The second week of my fellowship has flown by, and with it have come new figures, opportunities, and challenges. For one, my supervisor, House Chef Blair Arms, is back in the office from vacation. Chef Blair is an incredible woman. A trained pastry chef and former employee of OSU dining services, she’s extremely talented, approachable, and passionate about providing the best experience possible for her families and volunteers. This passion was made evident on Tuesday, where she spoke as one of eight Nationwide Children’s Hospital employees in their DiscoveryX series, a TED Talk style event where NCH staff present projects they have been working on. Blair was speaking about the Team Cuisine program.

Now that I am working with her every day, the pace is starting to pick up. I continued to send out grant applications to grocers and food processors, learned about Chef Blair’s basic budgeting, purchasing, and accounting processes, and of course, continued to take pictures and brainstorm volunteer stewardship programs for meal teams. Learning more about Blair’s values and constraints, I have a better idea of what to look for when finding a donor to cultivate a relationship with.

Another task I have been working on is linking data from Volgistics, the software RMHC uses to manage volunteers, and Raiser’s Edge, the software RMHC uses to manage donors. The goal is to be able to create standard impact reports that can be sent to corporate donors, stating things like “in 2018, x staff members volunteered at the house, serving x amount of meals and making x amount of blankets, for a total of x hours. Additionally, your contribution of x$ provided x nights of rest for families”. It’s interesting to me that these two datasets weren’t linked before, given the size of RMHC’s volunteer program.

Finally, I’m beginning to ease into friendships with my colleagues. I’m learning more about each person’s personality, hobbies, life pursuits, strengths, and stressors. Having that familiarity and network will help me feel more comfortable pushing boundaries and thinking “outside the box”. I’m excited for what comes next!

Hello readers!

This week was filled with learning and expanding my knowledge on how to reach an audience in which I am not as familiar. The week screamed of cultural competency and cultural humility for me. In order to truly learn, I realized I had to leave some traditional concepts I had in order to positively impact the children I plan to teach. In making the curriculum for our Bright Lights Summer Camp, I immersed myself into researching how to adequately teach and communicate with at-risk children. This research included scholarly work, educational videos, and on-site interviews. Within each method I learned a lot, but a few things stood out to me.

As noted in the previous post, Lower Lights Ministries offers many programs. A part of the many programs is their recovery program that includes housing. Two women from this program agreed to meet with me to tell me their stories and offer advice. I asked them if they could tell me something they wished an adult in their lives had mentioned to them while they were young. Both spoke about the importance of feeling safe. Safe enough to reach out to someone and talk about their lives. They also talked about how there are individuals pulling kids into detrimental environments. One of the women witnessed a man wrapping up drugs in wrapping paper and calling a young kid to his door. He told the kid to deliver a birthday present to a house on the same block for $2. The kid not knowing what was in the birthday present delivered the drug dealers ‘gift’. I was told that these are real situations that these kids could be in within this area and teaching them boundaries was extremely important. This incident might shock many but this is a common and realistic event in some areas. Although, there is potential danger anywhere, many children attending Lower Lights live in an area where anything deemed safe is not isolated from the by-products of an impoverished area. I was told by the staff that an outside Mailbox created for the neighborhood kids to grab books from had to be removed. It was removed because it was quickly turned into a drug drop-off zone. When kid-friendly concepts and environments are manipulated in this way it would be wrong to educate my class in a way that does not speak to their realistic needs.

My goal for the summer is to help give them the best tools to protect themselves and expose them to the many avenues they can take in life. I want them to know that there is another world out there waiting for them and that they have the power to get there.

See you next week!

Prior to this week, I had a completely different understanding of the word empowerment and what it means for nonprofit organizations; furthermore, how this relates to being a “leader.”
This week I was able to learn more about the personal story behind the establishment of Best Buddies International and see how it relates to each individual who volunteers or works for the organization. What many people don’t know is that the founder of Best Buddies International, Anthony Kennedy Shriver, is the son of Eunice Kennedy, the founder of Special Olympics, and the nephew of Rosemary Kennedy, a member of the famous Kennedy Family who was unknown to many because of her Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD). Best Buddies International was started because Anthony Kennedy Shriver used his position to be a leader and saw the importance of empowering individuals with IDD and providing them with close friendships to help them uncover their talents, capabilities and own leadership qualities.
This took me back to a discussion I had with my fellow Summer Fellows and what it means to be a “leader,” and that what one perceives as a leader will vary depending on perspective and position. Within my role with Best Buddies International, my perspective of a leader has shifted and I now see it as both someone who uses their position and does what they can to empower others and guide them to overcome obstacles and also as someone who is able to empower others by being an example overcoming obstacles of their own.

The staff of the McConnell Arts Center has been running on all cylinders this week as we head into our annual Arts Festival. We have over 100 artists coming in from all over the country (as far as Colorado, Florida, and one from California!), and hundreds of patrons coming to our sit over the next two days to view the booths. It’s our job at the MAC to make sure that everyone involved has a fantastic weekend. It’s been quite the learning opportunity for me in the world of arts administration. I thought that I understood the importance of planning ahead before this week, but I had no idea the level of preparation that was required for hosting an event like the one we’ve put together.  

On Wednesday, every staff member we have went out into the field with this insane PVC pipe contraption and painted each of the spots for the artist, sponsor, and community partner tents. I’m not sure I can even count the number of cans of spray paint we went through. On Thursday, I spent a good portion of my day cutting and hole punching laminated signs, putting together twenty-something cardboard trashcans, and putting little numbered flags in the field to match the spray-painted numbers, not to mention helping to finish the leftover tasks from cleaning up last week’s camp! We started the hard work today, though. After arriving early enough for the summer air to still be chilly, I helped to set up our information tent and put together even more signs to be spread out across the field to direct people toward the restrooms. Then I manned our information booth for a considerable amount of time to check in our artists, direct them to the proper loading and parking spots, and take care of any other concerns they might have, on top of managing a handful of other tasks throughout the day, like ensuring that each artists had their booth sign in the top left corner of their booth. (Fun fact: many artists have their own specific vision of where they would like the sign to go. Shocking, right?) One of the highlights of my day was getting to drive the golf cart around to check on the artists.  

My supervisor and me at the information booth, getting ready to check all the artists in!

As well as getting each of the artists checked in and set up, we also had to set up the Preview Picnic for this evening! The Preview Picnic is a ticketed fundraising event where patrons can come have food and drinks with the artists and the MAC staff, and get a first look at several of the booths before they are opened to the public tomorrow morning. We had to handle seating and caterers and musicians (oh my!), and we had to ensure that the artists staying for the picnic were ready in time. The event in the evening was a success, though, thanks to the hard work and preparation of the people who have been working with the MAC for much longer than I have. I was just glad I got to enjoy it with them! 

The mountain of tasks that I’ve had over the last few days is almost nothing compared to the to-do list of the other staff members and the Event Coordinator (my supervisor). I learned a lot about the kinds of details that go into event planning, especially the aspect of coordinating people to get the jobs done– delegation and patience are the two most important parts of working with groups of people.  Another thing that I learned was that no matter how much you prepare and how well you know your schedule, there will always be something that goes wrong. For example, the printer in our offices jammed this morning before we could get complete copies of our check-in lists printed. We ended up using a spare program to check in artists as a quick solve until we could get the official list.  

I head in again tomorrow bright and early for the first public day of the festival (9am-6pm, in case anyone’s interested), and I look forward to checking out the artwork, the food, and all of the problem-solving that goes with it. I hope I get to drive the golf cart again! 

Week 2 was quieter than last week now that classes have ended, but this week has been no less impactful. As I sat at Cristo Rey graduation this Saturday and watched the class of 2019 proudly walk across the stage, I couldn’t help but think back to my high school graduation. I remember a common notion from both friends and family was “graduating high school isn’t that big of an accomplishment, college is really what is hard.” Growing up as a white woman with college-educated parents in a quality school district, graduating high school and moving onto college was the expectation for me and most of my peers. Yet, this is not the case for all students, including many here in Columbus. Not realizing the luxury of a quality K12 education creates a dangerous mindset for people from middle-class communities like mine, as you can choose to ignore the reality that some students might not even make it to high school graduation due to their zip code, socioeconomic class, and other factors.

The thoughts that surfaced during Cristo Rey graduation came up again Wednesday morning during our Fellows Learning Session. We spent some time discussing how bias and privilege might affect our work this summer. For me, one bias I possess relates to the ease of college access in my community; I grew up knowing that college was attainable and always part of my life plans. By recognizing this one area of bias, I hope I can work this summer with greater awareness of the current state of education for Columbus students. Entering the non-profit sector with the recognition of my biases can elevate the work I do to build the capacity of the students I serve to succeed in their education.

I’m grateful to be working at Cristo Rey and witnessing one approach the Columbus community is taking to transform educational outcomes for students. The experiences this week at Cristo Rey and during our Fellows Learning Session have broadened my ideas of how to approach leadership and bias in the non-profit sector while pushing for social profit within the Columbus community. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can build upon these ideas this summer, especially next week when I have the chance to meet more students and work directly in the classroom during Cristo Rey summer school. See you soon!