Summer of Purpose: Turning Dreams of Home to Reality

By Doanise ThompsonNeighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland Maya Angelou, one of my idols, once said, “A person is the product of their dreams. So make sure to dream great dreams. And then try to live your dream.” “Achieving, Preserving and Sustaining the American Dream of Homeownership” is the mission of Neighborhood...

Summer of Purpose: Doing Something Valuable

By Mark NowakCity of South Euclid As I was growing up, many people told me to “follow my passion” when planning a career. I’ve come to believe this advice is at best misleading … but more on that later. Several years ago, I earned an engineering degree in a field directly related to my biggest passion of all: music. I spent a...

Summer of Purpose: Stephanie Poutz

I’m helping to make a Greener Greater Cleveland. On the back of West Creek Conservancy t-shirts is a statement that inspires me at my internship every day: “I’m helping to make a Greener Greater Cleveland.” To me, the best part about interning with a nonprofit organization is knowing that my daily responsibilities are working...

Could merging help your organization?

Earlier in my career, I was part of a rather large agency that merged with another to create a new entity.  The rationale for the merger was that:  both organizations had similar missions, i.e. programs serving children and families, one entity would be more effective; and being housed together would lead to more collaboration and...

Steve Minter’s four words

As part of my training as a new Cleveland Foundation employee I watched a video of former CEO Steve Minter sharing his perspectives and highlights of the history of the foundation. I knew that Cleveland had the oldest community foundation (95 years old this year), and one of the nation’s largest.  Aside from those foundation facts, I...

Summer of Purpose: Kevin Gebura

As I reflect on my experience with this program, it is hard to imagine succeeding my undergraduate education any other way. I feared that entering the workforce would completely strip me of my self-worth. On the contrary, this summer has taught me, if nothing else, the importance of staying true to myself. As an intern, the challenges I...

A Look At The 2011 Summer Internship Program

The Cleveland Foundation Summer Internship Program class of 2011 can expect to be immersed in dynamic projects touching almost every aspect of life in our community.The 16 projects are grouped into four clusters: strengthening nonprofit organizations (capacity building), testing new ideas and innovative solutions (game changers)...

Lessons Learned From Our 2010 Intern Class

Two of the Objectives of the Cleveland Foundation’s Summer Internship Program are: to provide a meaningful career-related work experience and to stimulate interest in the nonprofit sector. On August 19, we said our goodbyes to the intern class of 2010. The interns talked about how much they learned about the nonprofit sector...

How big is your network?

Did you ever see those Verizon commercials, the ones that boast about the size of their network?  The Verizon network is made of a spokesperson with an army of technicians and suits who are there to support you - the customer.    As I reflect on this year's Cleveland Foundation interns, I was impressed at how quickly they...

How I Spent My Summer: Modesto Acosta

Every day, people search for that one thing that inspires them. They look for that something that excites them every morning when they wake up or titillates their imagination as they push through another hard day's work. I too, have been looking for my inspiration, and this summer I have come one step closer to knowing what it...