Looking for a paid fellowship for the Summer of 2022?

The Columbus Foundation is looking for awesome young people to learn more about the nonprofit sector by spending 10-weeks working with a local nonprofit. Visit the 2021 pages on this site and read the Fellows Blog for more information and insight on the types of projects, roles, and responsibilities of a typical Fellow. We also invite you to check out the Fellows page here to apply in November 2021.

Program Details:

The 10-week fellowship starts June 6, 2022 and ends August 12, 2022.

Fellows are matched with a nonprofit based on interests, skills, and the nonprofit’s specific needs or objectives, and are required to attend five professional development sessions culminating in a mandatory end-of-summer presentation on August 12.

Program Eligibility:

College junior, senior, May/June 2022 graduate, or a graduate student in the fall of 2022 and have graduated from a Franklin County high school.

OR College junior, senior, May/June 2022 graduate, or graduate student attending a Franklin County college or university.

You can also email Dr. Mark Lomax, II (mlomax@columbusfoundation.org) for more information.

Week 10: Final Week

Wow! The summer has gone so fast and we are all at the finish line! Yet, for many of us, this is only the beginning of our work in social profits and finding our careers paths. I will be a Fellow for the Cleveland Foundation starting in September and will be continuing my work in social profit!

I have learned so much valuable information this summer from my co-workers, campers, and others in leadership positions. This fellowship was the first time in 14 months that I spent 40 hours outside my home. It was refreshing and a taste of the world as we work towards a new future.

Camp ended last week, so the Center was once again quiet. I spent time finalizing data, clean up the Center after 8 weeks of camp, and concluding my short but happy time at the Center. I wrote a final email to the Director with all that I worked on and it was satisfying working on so much! A huge highlight of this week was sitting down with a Dominican Sisters of Peace Grant Writer (who knows Dr. Lomax) and talking about their journey. Grantmaking is something I am very much interested in pursuing a career. During our conversations, several opportunities were mentioned and ones that I will be following upon.

The week concluded with our Pecha Kucha presentations (still not sure how to pronounce it. My supervisor and I had a great time Friday laughing at the youtube pronunciation). I briefly came back to the Center after the presentations to wrap up. I received a thank you gift! I cut as many deadheads from the Center’s Garden as I could before it started raining (I hope someone notices on Monday).

Overall I am so happy I decided to submit my application despite the short turnaround time I had to complete the application. I am so thankful for the memories, friendships, and experience this Summer has brought me!

Farewell!

Week 10

This is it! Our final weeks in our internships. This week was a wind down from a very busy summer. I did not end up having much to do at all due to being proactive in previous weeks. It really gave me time to enjoy time with my coworkers before leaving. I would just like to give thanks to the Columbus Foundation for this opportunity! I have made amazing connections with many people and had an amazing time at the museum. It was incredible meeting my fellow, fellows and spending time with everyone. I hope to see you guys in the future!

Week 10: Summer Ends, But The Work Continues

I am sad to say that today is my final day as a Summer Fellow with the Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation. We joined together on zoom this afternoon to celebrate these past ten weeks and hear about the experience of each fellow. I was reminded just how varied and wide-reaching our work has been. Everyone presented a pucha kucha to share photos and projects. I spoke about all of the wonderful people I have met at the library, the impact report I have spent time writing and organizing, as well as the donor journey stewardship plan I developed. It was hard to sum up everything this fellowship has meant in the 400 second, 20 slide chit chat presentation of a pucha kucha. But it was fun to share my gratitude and enjoy one last learning session with my peers.

This fall, I will continue work with the library as a volunteer. I hope to finish the design and dissemination of the impact report and contribute to some other projects as needed. More than anything, I am thrilled to stay connected to CMLF and the team. I have felt incredibly supported by my supervisors, and I look forward to learning more from them as a volunteer. There is so much good happening at the library, and I am so thankful to be part of this community institution!

Lastly, I am thankful to all who have followed my journey this summer. It has been rewarding and insightful to reflect on my work each week. I hope you have learned a bit more about the incredible Columbus Metropolitan Library. Enjoy these final weeks of summer and visit your local branch soon!

Amy

Week 10: Thank you FLOW!

As I’m sure the other Fellows have said, 10 weeks have never flown by so fast! It seems like it wasn’t long ago that I was sitting in our Zoom orientation anticipating our first day at our host sites. With the changes our world has gone through lately, I am so grateful to have been able to complete the program and make the connections I did. As a 2021 college graduate, I was extremely nervous to enter the professional world during a time full of turmoil. While my job search still continues ahead, I can say for certain that my confidence and belief in myself as a professional has increased.

FLOW was the perfect entry into the real world. I’ve always said that my “dream job” may not exist because most of the things I love to do are just volunteering or a side hobby. However, working with FLOW helped me realize that a nonprofit may be the perfect answer to that problem! When I was out in nature picking up trash, pulling invasives, or just listening to a meeting about next steps to reach a goal, the job was so fulfilling. All jobs have purpose, but the mission-driven work I’ve experienced within the nonprofit sector is inspiring and makes me want to get up and work each day.

I was expecting to be a typical intern and be given small busy work jobs or the projects no one else wanted to do. In fact, I felt quite the opposite. I was honored to be given such important and interesting projects to work on. The responsibility FLOW gave me helped me feel welcomed and valued within the organization. If I were to give a future Fellow advice, I would tell them to be confident in their strengths and to not be afraid of working on their areas of growth. I’ve often felt like I’ve needed to “fake it until I make it” to get my foot in the door, but my questions and doubts were always met with genuine kindness and a desire to help me grow. Ask questions!

While I continue my job search, I’m excited to stay on-board with FLOW and help them with whatever I can. Their passion makes me passionate! The Columbus area is lucky to have an organization like FLOW looking out for us. I can’t wait to see what comes next. Thank you, The Columbus Foundation, for allowing me to have this opportunity. I can’t say enough great things about the program. I hope to read the blog with future fellows as well! Thanks for following along for the last 10 weeks. -Shelly

Week 10: The End of TCF and Many New Beginnings

To start off this last post for the Fellowship, I want to thank The Columbus Foundation, Dr. Mark Lomax II, and, of course, my cohort of Fellows. This was an incredible opportunity for me and I have grown and learned so much from and with all of you. I also appreciated the space that was created for us to learn from current leaders in this professional sphere and hear from their wise experiences.

This last week at CYCO was JAM PACKED. I had many trainings and the final presentation for this fellowship (which just happened a few hours ago!), along with other things for which I had to prepare. I am fortunate enough to stay on part-time with City Year Columbus, so the training process was to prepare me for my new role as a Development Operations Associate. Though much more data based, this new role will allow me to stay on with this amazing organization and continue learning about the Development world at social profit organizations in Columbus.

With a full house of AmeriCorps Members (ACM’s), the CYCO office was also full with new people with which to interact and learn from. Since the new ACM’s are also learning the ropes of City Year, it was fascinating to hear how they were introduced to the organization and the different CYCO culture norms that they are quickly embracing. I loved hearing them participate in circles and embrace the values right away, something that took me a bit to get adjusted to.

It was also very thrilling to hear their excitement as they officially got assigned their teams. This is such a momentous occasion that this was one of the posts with which most post people interacted in social media because Alumni and general community members recognize this as an important moment for the new corps.

Since I’ll be staying on, I’m excited to witness many more moments like this and get to experience a full school year of traditions with City Year Columbus. Thank you everyone and all the best to my Fellows cohort!

Week 10: Gratitude and Love for Zora’s House

When I first started this fellowship, ten weeks seemed like a really long time. Now we’re at the end of week ten, and I’m not really sure where all the time I thought I initially had went. My ten weeks at Zora’s House have truly been wonderful. I have been surrounded by super cool women who are on different personal and professional journeys, and have shown me what it means to find strength in vulnerability, care, and rest. Although I didn’t know about Zora’s House before the fellowship started and I didn’t really understand the depth of their work, working at Zora’s House exceeded my expectations for this fellowship regarding what I would gain and learn. Not only did I gain a new understanding of how a nonprofit works; I also learned more about what it means to be in community with other women of color from different walks of life and professions. At my university, I was mostly bonding with other women of color that were also students, or were spending a lot of time in a college setting. However, Zora’s House has exposed me to other women who are doing really cool things in my hometown. The organization has also exposed me to women who are learning more about themselves. Seeing these women “in process” and in different stages of life has shown me how important it is to take time to learn more about yourself and to give oneself grace in this process. This helps you better connect with others and serve your community, along with allowing you to become a better person. 

I’ve had a tough time trying to figure out my path and who I am, but Zora’s House has taught me that you always have room to learn more about yourself, and that there’s always room for growth and change. This is one of the most important takeaways that I will cherish from my time at Zora’s House. It is also great to be in community with other women during this process, which Zora’s House also provides. I’m excited to continue to be in this space and help in whatever way I can for the next month, since my supervisor offered to extend my time at Zora’s House for another month. 

Since this is my last blog post for the site, I want to say thank you to the Columbus Foundation for giving me the opportunity to work with such an awesome nonprofit for the past ten weeks (and be paid for doing so). I also want to thank my supervisor, Jami Jackson, and the CEO of Zora’s House, LC Johnson, for choosing me to be a part of the organization for the summer. I am so happy that I got the chance to help Zora’s House in whatever way I could for the past ten weeks, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Picture: Sweater that says “Zora’s Daughter, Sisters, Legacy” with the Zora’s House logo at the bottom.

Week 10– Equitas Health: We Made it!

We made it to the end of the summer everyone!! As I have been wrapping up all of the last details, I have been reflecting on the end of the summer. This last week, I have been working on tying up a lot of loose ends, such as making sure all of our submissions are cataloged, updating all our spreadsheets, and starting to get all the event details going.

This week, I got to work at BAM (Bar, Art, and Music) at the Columbus Museum of Art. Equitas Health sponsors the event in the month of August. Every Thursday, several of our artists that have donated to Art for Life come to the museum and set up live painting. It has a really nice turnout, as a lot of the community comes to support the museum. I really enjoyed getting to go down and work at the museum one more time as we start to wrap up the summer.

As I have been writing, we have gotten two more artists coming in to drop off their artwork, so we are up to 85% of the art in our space for the October event. It has been super exciting to see the actual event start to shape up, with art in person instead of just on my screen.

I want to end my last week blog post with a special thank you to everyone who made this internship successful. Thanks to Dr. Lomax, Becca Sigal, and everyone at the foundation. Additionally, thank you to everyone at Equitas Health, especially my team of Meghan and Heather. It has been a fantastic summer.

Week 10 – Central Community House

I have had so much fun over the past 10 weeks at Central. This would be much more bittersweet if I was not continuing to work with them after the conclusion of my fellowship, but I am!

I am proud of everything I was able to accomplish, and thankful for everything I have learned. 

Here are some highlights:

• I applied for $1,367,557 in grants this summer! Grant writing was priority #1 for me coming into the fellowship, and I feel extremely comfortable writing proposals at this point. I think this is a skill I will be able to utilize throughout my career in nonprofit work
• I helped hire someone! I really enjoyed getting to speak with many different applicants, and I am so excited about the person we were able to hire for a marketing and outreach coordinator role
• I got some marketing experience, including creating materials, updating social media, keeping the website calendar up to date, and sending marketing email blasts. I had a lot of fun with this, but I am excited to see someone more qualified take it over, and I hope to learn from them
• I got a tiny taste of what it takes to plan fundraising events, as well as soliciting donations from the community
• I got to embrace my inner history geek and compile a history of Central for the 85th year celebration. I am super excited to turn this into a display that will showcase the growth of Central over the years
• I learned about so many new programs, and I furthered my knowledge about social issues that really matter to me
• I met some amazing people, and I look forward to continuing to develop those relationships in the future

This experience was so important to me. Four years ago, I was directionless in my career, and so unhappy. After discovering my passion for nonprofit work, I made the decision to return to school, but the path isn’t exactly easy once you make that decision. The Columbus Foundation has created something so meaningful in this fellowship program. Not only was I able to add capacity to the work Central was doing this summer, but I was able to get the “boots on the ground” experience that I was craving (and I was able to do it while getting paid! – not the point, but so important for students). 

I am entering into my second year of grad school refreshed, and ready to take on the world, and I owe it all to Central Community House and The Columbus Foundation.

Week Ten: Super Thankful

• I finished the last of all my projects. I researched information about some of the congressional members the owner of ROX will be meeting with soon. 
• This weekend I finished sending the last of my emails to my list of congressional members. I sent emails to members in the House of Representatives Primary and Secondary Education Committee, Black Caucus, and Women’s Caucus. 
• I met with the other intern to discuss my curriculum project. We discussed areas we thought could have more content or revisions. Again, it was tough because the ROX team does such a great job creating their content. We discussed new issues teen girls are facing in the pandemic and possible ways they could be addressed. Afterwards, I met with the Director of Curriculum and Educational Programs to discuss my suggestions and observations. The discussion was super authentic and thorough. It was nice to have someone here and value my opinion. 
• I got to say goodbye to all the members on Monday. I learned so much from each of them.
• As I reflect on my key takeaways, I think networking and speaking up are my biggest takeaways.
• Networking, I have learned, is key for nonprofits to make relationships and connect with people who could potentially support the organization. Also making relationships brings people together to support a group who needs it. 
• Having confidence in my own voice is uber important. I did not realize the power a person has in their voice. I have gotten a plethora of opportunities to speak up in ROX and every time I do, I have been reminded of the importance of speaking up. Having confidence in my own voice will open new opportunities rather than if I was timid. 
• I am so thankful for my time at ROX and could not be happier with spending my team with them.