Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

I am not sure who said the quote that I decided to title my blog this week (I tried to look it up and could not find anything), but whoever you are, you are really on to something.  Change is all around us, especially in nature as seasons change the color, size, and function of plants and animals. In my opinion, butterflies exhibit change the most gracefully of all the tiny creatures. The Audubon staff and I spent a lot of time this week marveling at the transformation that was taking place right before our eyes from caterpillar to chrysalis to beautiful butterfly.  Katie, Victoria (the MetroParks interns) felt like proud moms as the damp and frazzled butterflies emerged from their safe chrysalises into the world.

We went through some heartache when a few of the caterpillars came down with the “black death” and did not survive to the chrysalis stage, but that made it all the more sweet when we got to release these survivors into the wild. These butterflies inspired me to believe that beauty can come out of change. Transitioning from college to a 9-5 job has been a challenge, even though I am working at a wonderful place with amazing people. I am moving out of my apartment I have lived in for 2 years next week and I have barely started packing up because I really do not want to leave my cozy home. So thanks, caterpillars-turned-butterflies, for reassuring me that sometimes its okay to change environments in order to get some pretty neat wings.

In other news, I got to build my garden this week and plant a whole bunch of herbs in it! It was a blast that should have been awful considering the heat, but I absolutely loved every second of it. Shout out to Anne, I could not have done it without her!

Pictured above is a tasty mix of basil, sage, parsley, lavender, mint, rosemary, tarragon, curry, and stevia. The gardens have to lay horizontal on the ground for the next 2(ish) weeks so the herbs can take root then we will display them outside the center.

Mark August 9th on your calendars and you too can learn how to grow your own herbs at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center. Until next time!

Peace and trees,

Tori

Week seven has been awesome, inspiring, and best of all filled to the brim with girl power! I have bragged plenty about my coworkers but this week our executive director, Jennifer, and our Development Director, Kelly, killed it every day and they have left me fired up to make some serious change in our community.

Our week started with a meeting at CoHatch (seriously love this place in downtown Worthington) with Tania from Porttion. We were able to sit down with her for about an hour listening to her organization’s purpose and how it intersects with ours, and her organization offered to donate their leftover (super healthy, might I add) food to the pantry every week! And as if that wasn’t enough, we are partnering with Porttion to plan a donor appreciation event. This meeting was my absolute favorite part of the week because it was jam-packed with ideas, saying “yes” to ideas that haven’t been done before, and community partners coming together to support each other, not compete with each other. And best of all, all of the movers and shakers involved were women! If nothing else, this fellowship has inspired me everyday to keep pursuing my passions and  to not underestimate my abilities.

Kelly (left) and Jennifer (right) sitting outside after our meeting at CoHatch, soaking up our successful meeting!

This week we also had a Steering Committee meeting for our annual fundraiser which focused mostly on continued gathering of sponsorships. Other than meetings, my week consisted a lot of integrating our organizations data into SalesForce from Sumac, a big change that is very time-consuming but is also very necessary… Another task that seems mundane but is crucial to the operations of a non-profit.

My last thought for this week is another ode to the women I work with, surprise, surprise. On Thursday morning I walked into the office to find Kelly, Jennifer, and Janet (our part-time communications staff member, who is also incredible) brainstorming ideas for our 10th Anniversary Celebration! This is not until 2018, mind you, but they already have so many good ideas that I was delegated to start taking notes of them on our chalkboard. These women think way out of the box and do not set any limitations on their ideas.

This is the sign that lives on the door of mine and Kelly’s office, featuring an actual quote from Jennifer, our executive director.

With them, the answer is ALWAYS yes, and the follow-up includes “Ok, so how are we going to do this?”. That has got to be my favorite part of this team- they haven’t made it this far, and this fast, by saying no. Every single person here is willing to work outside of their comfort zone for the improvement of his or her community, and that’s this week’s reason why I love the Worthington Resource Pantry.

Hello again! Just to refresh everyone’s memory, my name is Jake and I am working with Green Columbus throughout the duration of the summer. This week I was struggling to think of a topic to talk about, but then I remembered an event that I went to last week, leading me to write about real world community engagement efforts in the non-profit sector.

I’m sure as all of you know, community engagement is tough. Nothing is worse than the feeling that comes after planning an event and wondering if anyone will actually participate. As a college student, I have been lucky enough to be a part of multiple organizations at Ohio State, but I thought that my engagement in organizations would end after I graduate; and I assumed that ‘s what a lot of people experienced. This past week I have come to realize that I was completely wrong in my assumption: people love to be a part of a community and aid in any that they can.

Last week, I sat in on a Greater Columbus Growing Coalition meeting. The purpose of the meeting was just to inform the general assembly of upcoming events and meetings. I was there to speak with a City of Columbus Land Bank employee about their framework for creating green spaces in Columbus. When I heard of the meeting, I thought that there would only be a handful of people there, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. There were probably around 50 people that attended, and all of them wanted to help their community.

By attending that meeting, I realized that community engagement does in fact extend past our college years, but also I learned that people like a sense of community. Members of a community want nothing more than to make their community feel like a home.

So, my advice for you next time that you are worrying whether people will come to your event or not is to take a deep breath and understand that there is a community out there that cares about your cause as much as you do.

Until next time,

Jake

Last week, during a meeting with my supervisor, my supervisor asked “Well. Four weeks left. Is there anything you would like to do in your last time here?” My stomach sank and my heart immediately felt heavy. To make things worse, the office had experienced a constant presence of darkness as nature decided to storm and rain for days without any let up.

The idea of my time ending at Central Community House felt strange. I knew the fellowship was finite when I applied for it. However, I have grown to become so used to Central these past few weeks and develop such a strong attachment to the place, its mission, and more than anything its people.

That same week, I had been heating up my lunch in the cafeteria when the cutest toddler from Central’s daycare program had “escaped” and ran to me with her arms up. I am not sure if I was supposed to do so, but I picked her up and held her for a moment. I returned her to her teacher, but precious moments like that remind me of how special the community at Central is. I do not know where I will find another workplace in which I can engage to the extent that I do with a neighborhood that is so personal to me. I also do not know where I will find another workplace in which I have the luxury of being surrounded by and learning from beautiful Black children and youth while not having the responsibility of actually taking care of them (ha!).

After retrieving myself from my melancholy, I eventually answered my supervisor’s question. I let her know that I would like to continue sharpening my skills of writing grants and planning major events. Boring, right? I know. But, one thing I have learning since working with Central is that what you learn transcends your job description. You learn every day the meaning of advocacy, care, community, (and the art of finesse while under financial constraints) through your interactions with the people around you. As I continue to learn formally through writing grants and helping plan events, I will continue to learn informally through my community.

By Kelsie Fields, Westerville Symphony

This past week at the Westerville Symphony was busy! We are right in the middle of preparations for the Beethoven 5k which is coming up in just a few weeks! I have been working on our email campaigns, designing social media posts, and reaching out to local businesses for donations.

I have also been writing our weekly blog, and last week I had the interesting task of writing a column about how to enjoy symphony music! This was a fun challenge for me, as I am someone who has never had musical training and someone who wouldn’t typically attend a symphony performance. It really pushed me to dig deep into some great classical works and to bring together advice from others who were in the same boat.

Connecting to symphony music or classical music is important for me not only because I want to have an appreciation for all kinds of art, but also because classical music is the heart and soul of my summer fellowship placement! I feel as though I have gained a greater appreciation for classical music and the way it can be used to convey a range of deep emotions.

On another note, the Beethoven 5k is right around the corner, so we have been working on everything from social media to designing t-shirts to coordinating swag bags for the runners. I enjoy very much being behind the scenes of the 5k instead of running it! Seeing it come together in just 2 weeks will be very rewarding and a fun event for a summer morning.

Aside from the Beethoven 5k, I have been completing professional development projects related to nonprofit administration and creative marketing. I have enjoyed this part of the job because prioritizing professional development is very important to me. Through working with nonprofits throughout college, I learned very quickly that the more skills I had, the better. Taking advantage of these webinars and other tutorials in addition to my fellowship projects has been very helpful in giving me a wholistic experience this summer!

Thanks for reading!

Kelsie

Hi, hello, welcome! Here we are at the beginning of Week 7, and I suppose that means it’s time for me to tell you all about the ups, downs, joys and adventures of Week 6 at LeaderSpark!

Right now, the main focus of our organization is the IGNITE: Back to School Retreat. I’ve talked a bit about it in my last few blog posts, but that’s because we’ve been working to get ready for it pretty much nonstop (at least I have, anyway). When I’m not making memes (see last week’s post), creating graphics, or scheduling social media posts, I’m helping Kay and Solomon revise some curriculum for the retreat itself. I think getting to experience the path to developing leadership curriculum has been my favorite part of the internship so far. Leadership Training is my biggest passion, so I am incredibly thankful that I’ve been able to at least dabble in the process during my time with LeaderSpark this summer.

One of the bigger projects that I have been tasked to work on this summer is creating marketing videos to fundraise and promote the organization. Learning more about video editing software is a skill that I’ve really looked forward to acquiring this summer, and I got my first shot at it last week! I helped film a couple short, easy clips to promote the IGNITE Retreat, and I didn’t particularly edit the footage itself too much, but I did add some titles and screens to it… Slow but steady, right? 🙂 And when I get some good footage from the IGNITE Retreat, I’ll be able to make a more general video for the organization as a whole that (hopefully!) they will be able to use to promote the organization even after I’m gone.

For now, though, the IGNITE Retreat is our priority. As amazing as LeaderSpark is, it’s a bit discouraging to see the organization struggle to get the students it needs to fill up the retreat. This organization helps community youth SO MUCH; it’s hard for me to understand how they don’t have a greater reach to the community. It’s also a bit frustrating that despite the outreach that myself, Solomon, and Kay are doing, other community organizations aren’t as dedicated to helping develop today’s youth into tomorrow’s leaders as much as we are. The kids we work with are so wonderful, and I just wish everyone encouraged them as much as LeaderSpark tries to.

Anywho, this is getting lengthy now– so I think we will call it a day here! Remember, the IGNITE: Back to School Retreat registration closes FRIDAY, so be sure to spread the word to any youth you know that might be interested! 🙂

Until next time, friends!

Sam

This week I am highlighting the New World Singers since they are traveling to Austria and Hungary on Monday. They have been going through an intense boot camp learning and perfecting new songs. They are directed by Jeanne Wohlgamuth who has been pushing them all week and they sound excellent. I am amazed every day at how angelic they sound. The choir members range from 6th to 12th grade. What was I doing summer time when I was in middle school? Not choir boot-camps! These kids are COMMITTED! They have been here from 8am-3pm every day this week. Another great thing about this group is their variety of talents. Most students sing and play one or more instruments. I think this is common among choral singers. For example, when I was in choir I also became interested in the orchestra, so in middle school, I started playing the cello. To this day I still enjoy listening to classical music.

During their trip, they will sing with the Vienna Boys Choir and visit different attractions, sites, and locations in Austria and Hungary. I think it is pretty awesome that these students get global experiences through their participation. Watching their practices and listening to them interact just reiterates the skills learned while in organizations like Columbus Children’s Choir. As I talk to alumni and choir parents, the fondest memories always come from their European tour and the relationships they created within the choir. Some singers have remained friends and continue to perform together.

I know I talk about all the benefits of joining groups like this choir, but I really cannot say enough. Choir members learn how to work in teams, gain global experiences, learn about different cultures, sing with European choirs, learn new languages, and musical stylings. How great is that? I highly suggest involving kids in the choir, there are so many benefits.

With the registration now live for the Learning Garden fundraiser, I’ve been focusing on getting the word out about the event. I’ve spent some time driving around to Columbus businesses to drop off flyers or hang them up on community boards in hopes of attracting people who have never been out to the Hoover Y Park to buy tickets. I also plan to canvas the couple dozen houses right around the grounds of the park to personally invite our neighbors.

Making sure that we have high participation in the Asempe Kitchen fundraiser is even more imperative now after a major setback in the Learning Garden this week. The heavy rain caused the river on the back part of the park grounds to overflow, completely flooding the garden and washing away months of hard work by our gardener and volunteers. It’s likely that all of the greens and the green bean plants won’t make it. Hopefully, since the tomato plants hadn’t started flowering, they’ll still be able to produce edible fruit. We won’t know exactly what needs to be done to restore the garden until it drains and dries, but we’ll certainly need all hands on deck from community volunteers to get the Learning Garden back on its feet.

To survey the damage more closely, our garden manager and another garden staff member borrowed some kayaks from a neighbor and actually kayaked through the garden. I was a little disappointed that I had worn nice clothes to work because I definitely would have asked for a chance to go check it out as well.

If you’re interested in attending the Learning Garden fundraiser you can register by following this link: http://www.ymcacolumbus.org/hoover/pages/learning_garden_fundraiser. I’m really excited for it and hope that we can get enough people to come out and help support the Learning Garden, especially now!

Hello! I am finishing up Week 6 at Ronald McDonald House Charities in Columbus and this week has been full of excitement-including the release of the first visual pieces for the communications campaign that I have been working on from our wonderful graphic designer, Lynne!! (Now that I can show you the look of the campaign, I can explain the idea behind it too).

I gathered from my initial research that a lot of the existing online pages for the Vehicle Donation Program were kind of a basic shell of information-they explained what the program was and the necessary steps to donate, but they didn’t explain the impact behind those donations. RMHC is a very mission focused organization that likes to keep its purpose clear in all of its communications efforts, so I saw this as a potential area for growth, which is what sparked the idea for the design of this campaign.

The campaign is called “What Drives RMHC” and we’re using it as an opportunity to showcase the heart of the RMHC mission and the many things that drive us as an organization while keeping consistent with the vehicle-specific theme of the program (what DRIVES rmhc-get it?! I thought it was pretty clever). The goal of the campaign is to show the direct impact that donated vehicles (and all kinds of donations) have on children and families served by RMHC, with the hope that people will desire to participate in the program and become a part of that impact themselves. I am currently in the process of gathering pictures, quotes, stats, and additional graphics that will allow us to tell the RMHC story from a variety of perspectives-including those of children and families, staff, volunteers, and RMHC supporters. It feels good to start seeing some of the finished products of the work I’ve done so far, and we got to use the flyers for the first time publicly today at our Food Truck Friday event, which was really exciting!!

Here is a small version of one of the flyers that Lynne and I collaborated on with a matchbox car at Food Truck Friday today! 

I also had the opportunity to learn a little bit about video production this week!! We filmed a general “thank you” video that includes all of the staff members saying “Thank You” in many creative ways that can be used at special events and sent out to donors and volunteers. It was a lot of fun to be a part of the video and to see all of the different “Thank You” segments. Henry the house dog even waved to show his thanks right on cue! After the thank you video, we filmed an additional video while we still had access to the film crew and equipment. This video was a family testimonial video featuring two parents and their daughter, who was born with a congenital heart defect. It was inspiring to sit in on the interview and listen to this family tell their story about the trials they went through as well as how thankful they were for RMHC in the midst of those trials. It was an awesome reminder about why we do what we do, and how important it is that organizations like this exist. I even got to help hold the microphones in place for the shoot “backstage”! The filming process was a really unique experience for me because video is one aspect of communications that I have not had any experience with before, and it was fun to learn something new. Things are going great here and I’m so excited to continue to move forward with my projects in the weeks ahead!

Ryan (Sr. Director of Communications and Facilities, also my supervisor) and Dee (CEO and Executive Director of RMHC of Central Ohio) were featured in the intro to the House “Thank You” video this week.

“Behind the scenes” filming of a family testimonial video in the RMHC library 

-Courtney

This week’s Summer Art Workshop was “Icky, Sticky, and Just Plain Gross”. We made art that you probably are imaging – slime, textile bugs, and intestines. Wednesday’s theme was the five senses and we explored a few interesting sensory activities with the children. One game we played involved “feel boxes”. These boxes contained different textures made by objects such as feathers, fake hair, and stuffing. Then, the boxes were covered in fabric and the children could stick their hands inside without seeing the objects. We created a group story using our sense of touch as inspiration for the tale. I was impressed to hear our 3-6-year-old children were able to feel something like feathers and interpret that into a bird-like character for our story.

Anther sensory activity to explored Wednesday, took place in the second floor galleries of the museum. We used one gallery that held mostly impressionist paintings. We provided groups of two students with “smell boxes”. These were small containers with a piece of cloth inside that had been soaked in an essential oil such as lavender, sweet orange, or lemon grass. Each group smelled their boxes and then found a painting in the gallery that they felt the smell would live inside. One group of girls were given the lavender smell box and matched it with a work that depicted a forest and colorful flowers. This activity allowed the students to experience art in a multisensory way – using both their eyes and noses.

Dance programming – more info to come!

I feel that I can put my specific background in dance, education, and facilitating community classes to use at CMA! After talked with my supervisor, we agreed that there may be a place at CMA to insert dance into some of the existing programming or creating new programming that incorporates dance. I am very excited to share more about this in the future.

Chloe Napoletano