Nearing completion of my third week at Legacy Foundation, it’s nice to pause and reflect on the first portion of my internship as a CAPS Fellow. Prior to starting, I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable of Legacy’s work; in fact, my understanding of community foundations was fairly nonexistent. Thankfully, I’ve learned quite a bit so far.
As my internship focuses on grant-making research and evaluation, my first project dealt with restructuring Legacy’s grant report form. I quickly discovered that grant reporting is a very critical component of the grant process, and must therefore be structured well in order to accurately measure outcomes. After researching several key questions that other foundations ask on their forms, I soon developed questions that Legacy could use. In addition to typical qualitative questions, Legacy seeks to evaluate specific data pertaining to grant effectiveness; in other words, quantitative questions must be incorporated in this process. Though the value of this grant reporting change has yet to be determined, it will hopefully prove more informative to both grantees and Legacy as the grant process will be better examined.
I’ve also enjoyed internally observing Legacy and noticing similarities to topics discussed in my courses at VU. As a Philanthropic Leadership and Service minor, I’ve taken fantastic courses that concentrated on past and present issues in philanthropy. While it’s great conversing in class about these subjects, my learning is heightened through taking part in these experiences. I truly realized the difference between outcomes and outputs, as this is an essential part of grant reporting. I also noticed that money is always a burden to nonprofits, reporting to the Board takes a great amount of effort, and there are dozens of fantastic organizations in this area doing awesome things.
Another neat component of Legacy is its location in Merrillville. By administering grants and scholarships to Lake County organizations and residents, Legacy pursues great opportunities to invest in this community. As a Valpo student, it’s nice to see more of Northwest Indiana and the neat collaborations that are taking place here. Not to mention that Chick-fil-A spontaneously dropped off free mini chicken sandwiches to our staff today for lunch (yes, I am smiling as I write this).
I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to be part of the 2015 CAPS cohort, as this internship has already proved insightful and thought-provoking. I look forward to continued learning at Legacy, as well as stories from other Fellows.

Throughout my first week working at the extremely friendly corporate office of National Lutheran Communities and Services, I have had the chance to get to know many of my coworkers. Of everyone I have established a relationship with, the person I have come to know most and the deepest relationship I have formed is with my supervisor Dan.

Dan has many phrases and acronyms that he uses consistently, both in meetings and in daily conversations. Everyone playfully calls them “Dan-isms.” One phrase that he has said multiple times since we have joined his team, whether to us interns, his coworkers, or in business meetings with other high level executives is that he has the greatest job description of anyone; he gets paid to dream.

As the Chief Strategist Officer of NLCS, a rapidly expanding nonprofit organization owning three nursing communities and building a fourth, Dan certainly has a lot to dream about. Yet, it is not only his huge dreams that make Dan such a compelling person, it is his willingness and enthusiasm to share his wisdom. Recently on a business trip to one of the aforementioned nursing communities, a two and a half hour drive, we were afforded the opportunity to learn more of his stories, share some laughs, and of course listen to the James Taylor Pandora station.

On our drive back to the corporate office after visiting the nursing community and attending various business meetings, I do not remember how, but our conversation shifted to the topic of faith. I was very surprised when Dan stated bluntly, “ I don’t go to church anymore. I don’t need someone telling me what my relationship with my God needs to look like, I don’t have time for that. Yet, my faith and relationship with my God has never been stronger.

Years ago, when Bishop Gene, a good friend of his, asked what he wanted to get out of his faith, Dan responded that he wanted faith like his daughter who would do a backwards trust fall into his arms. He would let her come inches from the floor, yet she would not flinch, knowing her father would catch her.

As we talked, Dan told us more about his faith. He recalled how when he was going through the necessary steps to become a member of the Roman Catholic Church, in order to have a Catholic wedding with his then fiancée, he attended a prayer retreat. While on the retreat, Bishop Gene instructed the group to close their eyes, as he would lead them through a type of meditation and prayer.

Bishop Gene told the group to visualize a room they would want to be in at that very moment. Dan, an avid sailor and lover of the water, visualized himself in a room on a beach, “It was bright and all the windows were open so you could feel the ocean breeze,” he recounted. The bishop then told the group to visualize God entering the room.

“Suddenly, the room got much brighter, but it wasn’t so bright that it hurt your eyes. I walked toward God, turned around, and fell. I hit the floor. I stood back up fell again, not afraid I would hit the floor again and God caught me. Suddenly I opened my eyes, Bishop Gene was looking at me dead in the eye and asked, ‘Did He catch you?’”

Dan was so struck that he left the group and went for a walk. The piece of advice that he gave us from that experience is what will stick with me for a long time. He said, “You have to really trust in someone to fall once, hit the floor, then fall again.”

What a beautiful way to express faith and how true this is in my life! I am reminded of moments in my life when I have felt like I have fallen, waiting for God to catch me, and have hit the floor. My first year in college, past leadership positions undertaken, and a disappointing result on a test, these are all moments in which I have hit the floor.

Dan’s story has given me the perspective that perhaps when I fall, I need to dust myself off, stand up, then courageously fall again. This internship is another great example of falling. I am certainly not an expert in business or in healthcare services and sometimes I feel like I am falling. Perhaps God will not catch me the first time, but perhaps that first fall is an invitation by Him to stand back up, fall again, trusting this time he will catch me.

Another Dan-ism rings true after his story, “You never know when something you say may connect with someone else.”

I’ve been an intern at EMPOWER Porter county for a little over two weeks now and I feel like I’ve already really gotten in the groove of things. My desk is equipped with everything I could possibly need (pens, sticky notes, stapler, paper clips, WhiteOut, and, of course, granola bars). While EMPOWER Porter County was my first pick for an internship this summer, I was slightly bummed that I’d be in Valpo all summer. I was born and raised, and am still being educated in this town. When I got to the office, however, all of my fears disappeared.

The EMPOWER Porter County office is tucked right downtown at the corner of Franklin and Jefferson in a office building. So I got to stay in my hometown and still get the slightly city vibe that I thought I’d be missing out on. Sure, downtown Valpo is no Chicago or DC, but it’s probably as close as I’d personally enjoy. I love being able to take the elevator down to the first floor and walk down the street to grab coffee or lunch. Sometimes, when my brain is mush halfway through the day, I’ll take a stroll around the block and feel completely recharged. Okay, so I’ve explained how wonderful the office and surroundings are, but what about the actual work? Is it possible that it’s just as good? Yes!

The first day at EMPOWER, my supervisors Heather and Kaye told my fellow intern, Mychal, and me a little more about the organization. Then, they said that we’d be working on the new youth initiative and to get researching! I’m pretty sure I spent the first two days looking up the entirely wrong things but after many questions and conversations with my supervisor, I started to understand what my task was. It took me a while to figure out how to organize all of the research and information I’d gathered into something that I could work with. For whatever reason, even though I’m glued to my phone like everyone else, I can’t work with electronic copies. When I write out lists or take notes, I have to use a pen and paper. That way I know where it is and can add notes wherever I want. Therefore, I decided to start printing out all of my research and bits and pieces of different curricula for programs similar to what we want ours to be. I went through the hundreds of papers and put them into folders (yes, real folders) organizing them into different elements of our curriculum. That is when I really started to feel like I knew what I was doing and how to do it. Since then, I have been writing a curriculum and developing a program. Meeting with my supervisors is extremely helpful because they can tell me when to scale back or put me in a different direction. I’m very grateful for their guidance and encouragement. Also, even though I was terrified the first two days, I think it was good that they just let me “dig in” at first and try to figure it out on my own (and realize that I need to just ask!).

I’m very excited to continue developing the program and working with community leaders to better our community and promote the positive development in youth

.  My desk and part of the office. Isn’t it adorable!?