Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Hi, hello, welcome back to my weekly blog about all things LEADERSPARK! I have good news, and I have bad news.

The BAD news… This is the second to last blog I will be so privileged to write about my experience. 😦

The GOOD news… It’s going to be a good one.

This past week was a flurry of commotion, as we made the finishing touches to our weekend retreat: IGNITE. It was hours of making posters, creating programs, finalizing speakers… until it all finally culminated in our two day back-to-school extravaganza at the Rosedale International Center. We had about 20 students at the retreat between the two days, and it was so incredibly fulfilling to watch them each walk away with more knowledge and skills than they came to us with.

The retreat covered areas ranging anywhere from financial responsibility to creating a personal mission statement to the power of networking, and it was encouraging to see the ways that the students were truly engaged in the content. There are so many stereotypes that fly around when you work with the demographics of students that LeaderSpark engages with, and when you work with millennials in general: that they are entitled, they want to be given things for free, they don’t want to work. But working with these kids over the past weekend, I have seen nothing but the opposite. When you give youth the tools to build a successful future and show them that they CAN have it… They’re going to build themselves a dang mansion (or at least a nice apartment that they can afford with the salary of their first big job).

I even got the chance to facilitate one of the activity sessions that we did during the retreat– a group communication and teamwork exercise that required the students to all stand in a circle, hold hands, and work a hula hoop around the circle without breaking the link in between each person. It was a really neat experience to be able to use the leadership skills that I’ve acquired during my time in school at the retreat, so I’m definitely thankful for that.

Overall, I can walk away from this weekend knowing that we really did some good here. We made a difference in the lives of these students– and not only for a weekend, but for the entire school year. We have shown them a path that will lead them to a brighter future, and I’m so excited to see where these youth go as a result.

One heck of a last weekend, that’s for sure!

Until next time, my friends,

Sam

By Kelsie Fields

It is hard to believe that this summer is almost over! Final presentations are fast approaching and final wrap-up has begun at the Symphony. This past week, I worked on finishing up all the final details of the Beethoven 5k. This includes thanking our donors, following-up via email with our attendees, and more! It’s always important to remember that an event is never over on the day of. Event wrap-up lasts weeks and even months depending on the size of the event!

In addition to working on the Beethoven 5k, I also assisted with a large grant application last week. I haven’t had much experience with grants in the past, but I do know the importance of grants to most nonprofit organizations. Writing the grant was a learning experience, and I appreciated the opportunity to really be a part of the process. I enjoy development work because I find it rewarding to be a part of bringing the mission to life, whether that be through events or through fundraising (sometimes the same thing!).

My next mini-project for the rest of the summer is to create guidelines for how to successfully plan the Beethoven 5k in the future! My goal is to synthesize everything I learned about marketing the event, reaching out to donors, and organizing event logistics. I will also be creating a timeline for each of the steps that must be taken to plan the event with details about certain deadlines that must be met. Hopefully this outline will set up future Beethoven 5k organizers for success!

My last task this week is to keep up with our Symphony blog and write a press release for our Sounds of Summer concert happening later this month! Sounds of Summer, similar to our Fourth of July concert, Sounds of Freedom, is an amazing event that brings in many families and community members. Because our summer concerts are free and outside, they attract a larger and more diverse audience that makes for fun time. Even though I won’t be around to finish planning the concert, I’m excited to be a part of the audience!

Thanks for reading!

It was almost 4:45 pm. I began to feel my body get warm. I sprinted to the copy room to clip all of the grant application documents together. Then, I gathered my things and ran outside to my car. I thought to myself, “Wow Victoria. You did that! You’re really about to get this grant turned in on time.” But, when I pulled my car out of the parking lot, something felt odd. My car seemed to lean over onto the left side every time I hit the brakes. Only a few feet away from turning onto East Main Street, I got out of my car to inspect. I failed to see anything out of the ordinary, but did not feel safe driving my car. “What are the odds!?” I thought to myself. Risking my life, I parked my car on the street, ran back into the building, and kindly asked my co-worker to drive the grant application downtown with less than 15 minutes until its due time of 5:00pm. I was not sure if the grant would be turned in on time, but at that point I was over it. I knew that I put all the time and effort that I could into the grant, and for my first official grant application, that was an accomplishment.

Fast forward to the following week, my co-worker was unable to turn the grant application in on time. I called the grant funders and discovered that our grant application was not accepted. But, it was fine. My co-workers helped me laugh it off so that I did not feel defeated. They assured me that in the nonprofit world, things like this happen. I believed them and went on with my day when I discovered that I had received an email message and voice mail message from the grant funders! They called me to tell me (again) that my grant application was disqualified but that due to low applicants they were re-releasing the grant application in a few weeks! I laughed. All that running around and worry over my car troubles to find out that I could turn the application in at a later time. Rest assured, the grant application will be turned in on time this time around.

P.S. It turns out my car’s muffler was beginning to detach. A few days before I wrote this blog, I discovered my muffler hanging nearly to the ground. It is replaced now!

Ok so let us get all the sappy phrases out of the way: it’s the final stretch; we are nearing the end; it’s almost over; welcome to the beginning of the end; it’s the final countdown. Now I have “The Final Countdown” by Europe playing in my head. It’s true, one week left and so much left to accomplish.

This week was a big one. The marketing project team met with the final two firms being considered for DSC’s re-branding project. It felt odd to have these professional creatives trying to win my affection. Both firms were very impressive. I gained insight on what all goes into branding and marketing for a business. Turns out, a lot goes into every little detail. I heard once that the color red makes people hungry, which explains why every logo is red on food exit signs. The strategic evaluations of a market determine the best color pallets, fonts, spacing, sizing, etc. Basically everything.

Working on this project has taught me a lot about research, professional writing, and investment decisions. This project investment is a large one and I feel honored to have been the primary contact on this for DSC. It is a sad realization to consider I will not be at DSC to see this project thru, but I can only hope to assist DSC in making the best possible investment decision for their future.

Today, the project team met. After thirty minutes spent solving technology, due to a video phone acting up, poor reception, and small office space, we finally sat down together and made a decision on the firm DSC will work with. YAY!

I have one more week to make the best of this experience. I have been reviewing my do-to list and narrowing down the priorities of the priorities. Cheers to the cliche: let us make the most of the time we have.

Karlee H.

For many students, school is one of the few places they may depend upon for a reliable meal. But what happens when school is out for the summer for these students who receive free or reduced lunch? The City of Columbus Recreation and Parks Department sponsors a program called GoLunch! in the summer months and has been working to address this issue for 48 years. The Summer Lunch Service Program program is designed to provide safe spaces for kids to eat healthy food and play during the hottest time of the year. Many of the sites for the program are located in food deserts, where healthy and sustainable food is impossible to find. The Summer Lunch Program provided more than 500,000 healthy meals last summer. The GoLunch! Campaign was launched this year to encourage sponsors and partnerships as well as destigmatize free-lunch programs. The department utilizes 220 pop-up sites all over Columbus with most sites providing some type of enrichment as well such as crafts or games.

Ohio Wildlife Center has had the opportunity to be a part of this enrichment this summer. We offer our outreach and education programs for a reduced price and go to a different location throughout Columbus every Wednesday. I came along for the ride this week and it was one of my favorite experiences here this summer. These are kids who are facing real struggles but for an hour they were fascinated by an opossum, an owl, a turtle and a snake. Wildlife in urban circumstances is often seen as a nuisance or a threat and many of them had never seen an opossum or an owl before. The kids were initially terrified by the snake but by the end of the program most of them were willing to pet him, claiming he felt like a basketball. This program felt so different than other educational programs I’ve experienced throughout the summer because of the overwhelming spirit of genuine interest. They asked questions for the sake of learning. The little girl below even hugged Stormy, our education director, after she let her pet the snake while Stormy held back tears.

After the program was over, many of the kids ran up to us asking us if we needed help carrying the animal crates back out to the van and I was once again overwhelmed by their kindness and willingness to help others.

While at first, Ohio Wildlife Center may not seem directly connected to issues such as food insecurity, summer learning loss or lower-income communities, we are all socially responsible to do our part in our communities. Our mission spans the breadth of many issues, surpassing native wildlife health. We do not have to feel limited to our finite space in life. Doing good is doing good any where you can, any time you can, any way you can.

This week includes even more reflection on my time spent at CRIS.  Are you surprised? (Jokes)

Anyway, a few days ago I saw a fortune from a fortune cookie that said, “To teach is to learn twice.”  I looked up the quote just now and it appears the quote originated with the French writer Joseph Joubert.  Good looks, Monsieur Joubert.

This quote resonated with me and my fellowship in multiple ways, with my volunteering in the ESL/Employment classroom and the community guidelines I’ve been writing.

As I’ve been spending one afternoon a week with the students learning English, I’ve learned English truly is hard.  As a native resident, I definitely take for granted my ability to communicate clearly and completely with another person (in English).  As most of our students are refugees, I can only imagine the internal struggle they are going through because of the inability to speak in their new country.  Most of them don’t know any English because none of them chose to come to the United States – they were forced to leave their homes, belongings, friends, and even family.  As I teach them English, I learn twice over the difficulty and importance of learning to communicate.

The community guidelines I’ve been writing and compiling are meant to be sort of a quick general summary of the diverse refugee community in Columbus.  Of course, these guidelines can be neither all inclusive nor completely correct, but I think they will give people an idea of where the refugees are coming from (both physically and culturally).  I have learned a lot about the communities by talking to members of each refugee population in Columbus, but now I am creating the guidelines to teach others and I am looking at all of the information in a new light and therefore learning again.  I must take the information I’ve gathered and put it into digestible content for the general public.  This project resonates with me because I hope it will spark empathy for the new arrivals in our country.

I can’t believe I’m almost done at CRIS, but this summer has made me realize more about myself, my passions, and my future career.  I know I want to help people and at CRIS, I learned there are millions of refugee to help in various ways.  Whether it be at an NGO, nonprofit, or a government agency, I know I can find the job I’m meant to do.

Thank you to the Columbus Foundation for giving me such a great opportunity and to CRIS for hosting me this summer.

Sincerely,

Katy Nash

By Kelsie Fields, Westerville Symphony

As we close up the summer, many of us are finishing up our big projects. I am happy to be one of them! The Beethoven 5k, which was hosted this past Sunday, July 30th, was a success!

The days leading up to the 5k were busy–preparing last minute donations and swag bags for the runners and scheduling all of our marketing and social media ahead of time–not to mention the 5AM start-time on Sunday!

I was very excited to see all of the hard work I have put in this summer come to fruition, and I’m pleased to say that we reached out goal of 100 runners! This is an increase of over 15% from last year, so I’m very thrilled that we were able to cross the 100 threshold and reach more people with information about the symphony.

The race itself was wonderful–beautiful morning weather, classical music ringing throughout the park, and plenty of family and friends joining together to run the 5k. It seems as though many people were running the race for the first time, which is a success in more than one way. Not only did we attract new runners, but the chance that they will return next year is higher as well!

Even though I will not be with the Westerville Symphony next year, I hope that I have had some impact on the future success of the event, whether by creating community partnerships, designing marketing materials, or something else.

The next two weeks will involve a lot of wrap up, follow-up, and general reflection as my fellowship comes to an end. I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn from both The Columbus Foundation and the Westerville Symphony, and I hope that I will be able to take the lessons I have learned and apply them in my future career.

Thanks for reading, and make sure to join the Westerville Symphony next year at the Beethoven 5k!

The Columbus Foundation Fellows attended a learning session about Aunt Flow, a sustainable social enterprise whose mission is to ensure “all people have access to menstrual products.” The cool thing about Aunt Flow products is they are all 100% cotton without chemicals and additives that other companies use. They also utilize the buy one, give one model. If anyone isn’t familiar with the buy one give one model, you can think about Tom’s shoes. Every pair of Tom’s that is purchased, another pair is given to a child who is in need of shoes. For Aunt Flow, through subscriptions for every box that is purchased, another box is given to a beneficiary organization; for the business to business side, for every 100 count of essential products that are purchased, a package of 50 products is given to a beneficiary organization.

During the learning sessions, Claire Coder, the Founder, and Chief Estrogen Officer spoke to us about her business model and her journey over the past 18 months to arrive where they are today. It all started on a Friday night during a Startup Weekend in Columbus. She got her period and what is more inconvenient than being surrounded by men who don’t have tampons knowing you won’t have another opportunity until night time to run to the store? This was her predicament. Fortunately for Claire, that predicament has an easy solution, but as noted on auntflow.org, “this isn’t the case for 26.4 million menstruators in the United States who can’t afford essential menstrual products.” Claire really inspired me and am more encouraged to learn more about the various ways to run a business. I have plenty of business ideas, particularly a vegan bakery and a college prep and life skills program for high school students.

The Problem

From our discussion with Claire, I learned I have to find the key problem that my business would solve. She was inspired to learn about her problem after a personal experience. Claire learned tampons and pads are not covered by WIC or food stamps because they have an added luxury items tax in most of the United States. This poses a problem for many because means making a choice between buying food or menstruation products.  For me, I was inspired to bake vegan and vegetarian goodies after my parents went vegan during college. They basically stopped eating sweets because they couldn’t find vegan alternatives and that did not settle well with me. I am a firm believer in everyone being able to eat a delicious treat without feeling guilty or worrying about dietary restrictions. Unfortunately, this is a common issue as more and more Americans are becoming vegan and vegetarian!

I started thinking about a college prep and life skills program at the beginning of this summer after planning a summer accounting program for high school students. I also just graduated from college last summer and as I reflected on the past four years and my first year of grad school while “adulting”, I realized how much high school did not prepare me for college and adulthood. There have been so many reports from the media about students lacking basic financial literacy skills, surviving college, mental health in college, etc. I opened my first debit and credit card accounts independently from my parents this year and was at a loss for answers to some of the questions because I  didn’t have basic financial literacy skills. Since then I have been learning and attending workshops on budgeting, credit cards, debt, etc. More importantly, no high school graduate should lack money skills until they are 23 years old and independent for the first time in their life. Experiences and burdens like these are what drive me to create programs for students where they can better be prepared for adulthood and survival in college.

I hope to one day be as great of a business woman as Claire. She has done excellent work with Aunt Flow and continues to impact menstruators all over the country. She has gone through some tough times and learned some tough lessons, but she is doing really well. I encourage everyone to educate themselves on this pressing issue and support organizations who are working to improve whichever issues are close to your heart!

Flow Forward and have a great day!

Good Afternoon friends! I hope yall are having a great week and enjoyed some great food during Restaurant Week two weeks ago. This was my second restaurant week and once again, I was far from disappointed. You might be wondering what is restaurant week? This is a week when restaurants around Columbus pick two or three appetizers, entrees, and desserts from their regular menu and put them on a restaurant week menu. The menus are organized by courses so you can have a three course meal for $15 to $35 in increments of five dollars. Restaurants are organized by price on the eat614 website. For someone like me who loves trying new food ALL THE TIME, restaurant week is such a blessing!

Aab India – Grandview $15, 3 Courses

Aab is one of my all time favorite places in Columbus for a few reasons. There are endless options on the menu, so you can always try something new or stick with tradition. My traditional meal is Chicken Tikka Masala with Naan bread and Rice Pudding. If I really want to add a sweet drink I’ll get a Mango Lassi, but on that particular night I was not in the mood for that. During restaurant week I felt adventurous so I got Vegetable Pakora, Naan, Lamb Curry, and Rice Pudding. With a meal like that you need to have a great drink so wine it was.

El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant $15, 3-

Hello, authentic Mexican food! El Vaquero is my new favorite Mexican restaurant in Columbus. Being from Texas, I must have fantastic enchiladas, chips, and salsa mixtures every once in awhile. In particular, I don’t return if the chips and salsa are not up to par, but I have since gone back to El Vaquero two or three times so you can guess how delicious the chips and salsa are. I got Azteca soup, Marias enchiladas, and Flan. The Marias is an enchilada dish with three enchiladas covered in mole poblano sauce and cheese served with rice and beans. You can choose black or refried beans. They also have happy hour specials.

Mazah Mediterranean Eatery

Mazah is a small Mediterranean eatery in Grandview. It was just as delicious as other Mediterranean places I have tried back home. I think this is a great place if you want small meals and great conversation with friends. I generally get the same thing at Mediterranean restaurants. Hummus and Pita, Stuffed Cabbage with Lamb, and Almond Baklava; if you haven’t already, I highly suggest trying baklava and stuffed cabbage with lamb. Those are signature dishes.

Cooper’s Hawk – Easton $25, 3 Courses

This night was special because one of my aunts was in town for the weekend so we had to take her some place special. This was also my first time going to Cooper’s so I was excited. Honestly, I am always excited about food. Cooper’s Hawk is a winery and restaurant. They pair each signature dish with handcrafted Cooper’s Hawk wine. Their wine is excellent my friends! I got Crab and Lobster Bisque, Dana’s Parmesan Crusted Chicken, and Salted Caramel Creme Brulee. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture.

Happy Eating!

Most of my week was spent working on the Learning Garden fundraiser and trying to pull everything together. Definitely the biggest challenge I’ve encountered is making sure that the event is well attended, which involves finding creative ways to get the word out about the event and working with the YMCA marketing team. I actually walked through the neighborhood directly next to the park and personally invited those that live there to come to the event. Though canvassing can be a bit awkward, I enjoyed meeting our neighbors in person and, hopefully, contributing to the Y’s mission to foster community.

The YMCA of Central Ohio has been transitioning to a new system to manage their memberships for the past several weeks or so. Though I don’t use this particular software in my work at the Hoover Y Park, I still receive all of the emails regarding the transition and I’ve seen how hard everyone involved has been working to make things go smoothly. It’s been interesting to see how a huge organization like the YMCA handles something like this.

A particularly nice gesture was that Stephen Ives, the President and CEO of the YMCA of Central Ohio, along with help from his staff, put together a private concert that was held in the Optimist Lodge at the Hoover Y Park. The musical act was Ellis Paul, a pretty well-known singer songwriter/folk musician, who happens to be a close friend of Mr. Ives. He gave a really engaging performance and is a dynamic artist; he also writes children’s books that include songs written about some of America’s most influential people, has published a memoir, and does his own album artwork.

The event was meant to show appreciation to everyone involved with the system transition, since making such a big move can be incredibly frustrating. I was given the opportunity to attend to help out with logistical matters as well as to enjoy the catered food and concert. Those in attendance included YMCA staff, but also the neighbors of the park, which was another great way to build community with them and potentially get them more involved with Hoover.