A Rhode Islander In Ohio

Hello Everyone,

My name is Maria. I am a native Rhode Islander and with exception of brief forays into Vermont and New York for school, I have always lived in Rhode Island ... until now. I currently find myself in Columbus, Ohio (at least for the next five months).

Being in Columbus, I want to first thank East Greenwich Patch editor Elizabeth McNamara for making the exception to allow me to blog on here and write to you all from 15 hours away.

So how did I come to find myself all the way in Ohio? AmeriCorps. If you have never heard of AmeriCorps, I have two elevator speeches for you depending on how many floors we are together:

• Five-Floor Speech: A national community service program where members dedicate a year of their lives to bettering the area around them.
• One-Floor Speech: Think the domestic version of the Peace Corps.

I could go on, but you might just want to check out the AmeriCorps website for yourself. Maybe you'll even find an opportunity to join? You needn't go far to find a program, there are a bunch in Rhode Island. I highly considered applying for a program hosted by Roger Williams Park Zoo, Save the Bay, the Norman Bird Sanctuary, and the Audubon Society of RI. There is also a program sponsored by the Providence Children's Museum. Other programs are involved with education, health, and nonviolence initiatives. That's only just a few, the list is much longer than that.

I joined the Ohio History Service Corps where I serve as an Ohio Historic Inventory Site Surveyor. I am hosted by the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in Columbus. It's a great organization: part museum, part research library, part historical society, part state historic preservation office, part state archives. I don't do it the justice it deserves, so you might want to go to their website too.

I primarily conduct architectural surveys on properties owned or maintained by the OHS in the eastern half of the state, everything from the oldest building in Ohio to a bathroom built 11 years ago. It might not sound glamourous, but it's *wicked* awesome. It's right up my alley, I have a BA in Cultural and Historic Preservation from Salve Regina and an MA in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Plus, I get to travel all over the state and visit places that some native Ohioans haven't even been to. I also get to interact with wonderful people from OHS staff to site volunteers. I'm learning a bunch and having a fun while doing it.

Ohio is certainly no Rhode Island though, and Columbus is definitely not East Greenwich. So as Patch brings a bit of home to me, I hope that I can bring a little bit of Ohio to you.

-Maria

**Did you know you can fit almost 37 Rhode Islands into Ohio?**