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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2000)
SMOKE Dorianne Laux spins her magic Monday night, in a reading from her new poetry collection Smoke.Come celebrate with us as Ms. Laux offers up the familiar universe, giving it to us afresh. Monday, Oct. 30th *7:30 P.M. Browsing Room, Knight Library FREE and open to the general public REELECT VICKI WALKER YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE Vicki Walker Supports: S Affordable Higher Education ✓ Oregon Need Grants & Student Child Care y Continued Funding of Oregon Health Plan y Consumer & Environmental Protections The ONLY pro-choice candidate in HD 41 Vicki Walker, Proud Parent of UO Students REELECT District 41 ■f' P.O. Box 10314 Eugene. OR 97440 465-9720 www.continet.com/walker walker STATE REPRESENTATIVE - DEMOCRAT vwalker@continet.com Authorized and paid for by Vicki Walker for State Representative interested gM IVl Internship? an Attend our CDIP Orientation Meeting: Thursday, November 2 EMU Alsea-Coquille-Metolious Rooms 3:30 ■ 5:00 p.m. Sign-ups for interviews will be available following the orientation on a first-come, first-served basis. Position description available starting October 30 in 244 Hendricks Hall. career development internship program. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON CAREER CENTER For questions call 346-6001 515 High St Eugene open daily485-4224 HATS WIGS*. MASKS ETHNIC CLOTHING BANGLES & NOISE MAKERS LOCAL SINCE 1991... SELLING COOPS .'OR A PLACSfUl & SUSTAINABLE fUTURL Come work, for us. The Oregon Daily Emerald is always looking for young writers who want to learn and grow at a real newspaper. For information on how to freelance for the Emerald call346-551/. Teaching America’s youth ■Teach for America places college graduates in under funded urban and rural schools across the country By Kristy Hessman Oregon Daily Emerald University senior and English major Tami Daley wants to make a positive difference in the lives of children, which is why she is eager to spend two years teaching in one of the nation’s low-income schools as part of the Teach For America program. “I am absolutely ecstatic about the opportunity to teach kids who need it,” she said. Teach For America is an Ameri corps program that recruits recent college graduates from all majors to commit to two years of teaching in urban and rural under-resourced public schools across the country. At least 25 other University stu dents attended an informational meeting about Teach For America last week in the EMU. Chosen applicants, known as “corps members,” are placed in one of the 15 rural and urban sites across the country, from New York to California, to teach in under staffed and impoverished commu nities. “The experience is an eye-opener to me,” said Brett Wilson, a Univer sity graduate and current corps member. “I came from a middle class white school that had lots of money and good teachers, but what you see is that education is not like that for the majority of students in this country.” Wilson chose to continue teach ing for an extra year after his two year commitment ended. He is not alone: According to TFA statistics, about half the corps members go on to teach a third year. Wilson is cur rently teaching languages and litera ture to third graders in an elemen tary school in Oakland, California. “When you first start, you are learning as you go,” he said. “It’s like learning how to fly a plane by taking off.” Applicants are not required to have any previous teaching experi ence, and according to recruitment operations manager Dennis Chiuten the majority of people who apply are not education majors and have never taught before. “We usually pick people who wouldn’t ordinarily decide to go into teaching,” he said. “This adds to the pool of outstanding individu als who want to make a difference.” Senior Lindsay Slechta attended the meeting and said she is plan ning to apply to this year’s program. Slechta is a psychology major and plans to become a school counselor. “I was so excited when I found out about the program,” she said. “I have a little brother who learns things slower, so I know what it is like for these kids to need these teachers.” Before corps members begin teaching at their sites, they are re quired to go through a five-week in tensive training course in Houston during the summer. During the first week, the teacher trainees learn different tools and class management techniques, and by the second week, members are in the classroom teaching in Houston summer high school and elemen tary school programs. In the evenings, they attend teaching sem inars. “It is intense, but it is good solid training,” Chiuten said. “Some peo ple have said that the TFA training is more effective than masters courses.” Corps members rank their prefer ences by city, and Chiuten said ap proximately 85 percent of members receive their first choice. Once placed at a school, members receive the same salary and benefits as the other teachers in their schools. Af ter completion of the two-year peri od, they receive a stipend of about $9,500, which can be applied to past loans or future graduate school tuition. Last year, the program received 24 applications from University graduates, ranking it third among the 60 West Coast schools that par ticipate in the program. And while many people apply, not everyone is accepted. According to Chiuten, only about 25 to 33 percent of the applicants are accepted, and many who apply are from prestigious colleges on the East Coast. “We look for people who display outstanding achievements academi cally and extracurricularly,” Chiuten said. While most members do not be come lifetime teachers, wherever they go after the program, they have the background and experience in education, Chiuten said. “They have seen the severe prob lems with education in this country and will be lifelong advocates of promoting education,” he said. Application deadlines are Oct. 30, Jan.16, and Feb. 26. Applica tions can be picked up at the Career Center or the Office of Multicultural Affairs, or can be downloaded from the Teach for America website at www.teachforamerica.org. More in formational meetings should be held on campus within the next year. ■ With the help of an interpreter, Ajiza Mango detailed the horrors of life under the Indonesian militia By Beata Mostafavi Oregon Daily Emerald Ajiza Mango was only a year old when her family fled from her hometown of Bahagia in East Tim or to live in the nearby mountains. After Indonesia invaded East Tim or in 1976 for economic and political rea sons, Mango’s family, along with many oth ers, went into hiding from the militia. Through in ter prefer Agatha Sc maedick, a re cent International Studies Univer sity graduate and tour coordinator for the East Timorese Action Net work (ETAN), Mango spoke to about 80 people Friday in Willamette Hall about her frighten ing experience of living in East Timor during the 24 years of inva sion. Mango, who has since earned an economics degree from the Univer sity of Sebelas Maret in Solo Java, an island in Indonesia, came to the U.S. to present her story to people in 32 different cities. ETAN, an or ganization that supports human rights issues for East Timor, organ ized her visits to help encourage people to write to Congress and in sist that military aid to the United Nations be halted until refugees can return home safely and reconstruc tion efforts increase. Her visit to Eu MANGO Economist speaks about East Timor gene was sponsored by the Women’s Center, Black Student Union, Sexual Assault Support Ser vices, ASUO, Survival Center, Al liance for Democracy, Student Life and the YMCA. Mango shared her memories of watching family members, includ ing one of her sisters, and other res idents die from illnesses resulting from difficult living situations or being killed by the Indonesian mili tia. Mango, a founder of the East Timorese Women’s Forum for Peace, also emphasized the vio lence and sexual assault many East Timorese women endured. She talked about women who were co erced into marrying Indonesian sol diers or becoming “comfort” wives and constantly being sexually vio lated. “Women were systematically raped and had to take care of chil dren when they didn’t know who the fathers were,” she said. When Mango was four years old and malnourished, her family left the mountains and moved to Dili, the capital of East Timor. During this time, a few guerilla groups formed to resist the invasion and two women’s organizations also joined in the struggle for independ ence. Last year, after 78 percent of the people in the country voted for a referendum to become completely independent from Indonesia, Man go’s family went to the East Timo rese House of Diocese, where the Bishop lives. It was attacked by the Indonesian militia. “I remember seeing soldiers en ter the house and hitting anyone in the way,” she said. “The militias were shooting their rifles over my head. I was traumatized but kept telling myself I had to be strong for my little sister and mother while hearing the sound of the shots go ing over my head ... I can never for get that sound.” Scmaedick said she admires Mango for sharing these experi ences and is happy to help her tell her story. “It’s amazing that someone who has faced such trauma can talk about it so calmly,” she said. “It just shows her courage and determina tion for the truth to be heard.” Mango said the country’s recon struction and attempts at seeking justice for crimes committed against the people has been a slow process, and the U.N. hasn’t made a great effort to speed it up. She mentioned that many schools and infrastructures haven’t been restored and the country has a 75 to 80 percent unemployment rate. She added that the U.N. has been setting up a new government without local people’s involve ment. Women who have been sex ually assaulted also don’t have any way to get legal assistance for crimes committed against them. Elisha Harig-Blaine, an OSPIRG campus organizer, said the speech was eye-opening in many ways. “Events like this help raise awareness of how fortunate we are to be in this country,” he said. “It also raises the feeling of responsi bility to help others and to act on behalf of people who can’t act as strongly themselves.” Calla Schmidt, a freshman geol ogy major, said Mango’s presenta tion shed light on issues that have been hidden in the media. “I can’t believe news coverage about this has been so little,” she said. “Listening to her speak made me aware of so many issues in East Timor I hadn’t heard much about before.”
