The Clackamas print., March 10, 2004, Page 6, Image 6

F j EATTZRE
6 • T he C lackamas P rint
M arch 10, 2004
Instructor gets hands dirty teaching
Nelson discovers a
new life, a better
future in Portland
Shannon Armstead
T he C lackamas P rint
After years of experiencing life
through different avenues of
employment and schooling, Bruce
Nelson has found a home and hap­
piness in sharing with students what
has grown to fascinate him.
Nelson moved across the coun­
try to Portland in 1975 after having
received a Bachelor of African stud­
ies, a self-developed major.
“I bailed out of the East Coast
to live with friends,” he said. “It
was like I started a new life; I
wanted to get away from my par­
ents and three thousand miles was
far enough.”
Nelson was unable to do what
he had planned with his degree due
to diabetes and so he spent several
years doing minimum wage labor,
including dishwashing and land­
scaping, to pay the bills.
Nelson’s interest in plants was
generated in part by his new sur­
roundings, as well as his Portland
roommates who shared the hobby..
“That is kind of how I become
interested [in horticulture],” he said.
ISAIAH CREEL C lackamas P rint
Instructor Bruce Nelson developed an interest in horticulture while exploring Oregon forests.
“When I moved to Portland I was
also amazed by the forests and the
coast.”
Nelson
attended
Portland
Community College and Portland
State University part-time for three
years to fill his requirements in
classes such as physics, chemistry,
biology and botany. Nelson then
attended Washington State for four
years to receive his Master of
Entomology.
> Engineering instructor
returns from Persian Gulf
Instructor returns to
teach after 10 months
Bethany Monroe
T he C lackamas P rint
Military duties drew CCC engi- .
neering instructor Ed Landauer
away from his college courses for
nearly a year.
After spending more than 10
months in the Persian Gulf,
Landauer is finishing his first term
back at Clackamas since returning
from his station in the Middle
East.
“1 was in Bahrain,” said
Landauer, a captain in the U.S.
Navy. “It’s an island off the coast
of Saudi Arabia. It’s an independ­
ent country. The Naval Forces
Central Command is located
there-that’s who I work for.”
While in Bahrain, Landauer
taught engineering and leadership*
training at the Navy base. He trav­
eled .to Bahrain three times in
slightly under one year.
“I went over and .they sent me
home twice-and they sent me right
back,” said Landauer.
While he was serving in
Bahrain, one of Landauer’s former
students, David Willardson, taught
his classes at Clackamas.
“[Willardson] went through pur
LANDAUER
here about ten years ago and has a
Masters degree in engineering
now,” said Landauer. “So, we
hired him to take my place.”
Landauer was able to resume
his position as a full-time faculty
member for winter term. Besides
engineering courses, he also teach­
es math classes to round out his
schedule.
Overall, Landauer enjoyed his
experience in Bahrain.
“I’ve never been in a foreign
country like that, the culture is so
different
from
our
own,”
Landauer said. “It takes lots of
getting used to [and] a lot of learn­
ing. We [Arfnericans] take a lot of
things for granted.”
As an Islamic nation, Bahrain’s
culture is vastly different from the
United States. While in Bahrain,
Landauer witnessed Ramadan, a
month-long observance in which
devout Muslims fast every day.
“They don’t eat anything from
dawn to dusk,” said Landauer. “If
■goes
on
for thirty days.
Essentially, their rules are that
nothing can touch their lips from
daylight to dusk.”
While the immersion in a new
culture proved to be an interesting
and eye-opening experience for
Landauer, the time spent away
from his family was a tough chal­
lenge.
“1 didn’t get to see [my family]
for almost a year,” said Landauer,
who has two children. E-mail
helped him stay connected to
home while he was away.
Landauer’s first four years of
naval service were spent teaching
engineering at a military base in
Florida. Since then, he has been
in the Navy reserves.
Although his naval career
spans more than 25 years,
Landauer has been teaching
longer than that. Before coming
to Clackamas 16 years ago,
Landauer taught at Montana State
University (MSU) as well as a high
school. He holds master’s degrees
from MSU, Portland State
University and the University of
Central Florida.
Instructor Ed
Landauer, pass­
es out tests to
his Math 65
students, after
resuming his
position as full-
time faculty
member.
During his
naval service,
he spent four
years teaching
engineering at
the military
base in Florida.
program
ISAIAH CREEL C lackamas P rint
“It took me a little longer [to
complete my degree] because I
wanted to take extra horticulture
classes that I just enjoyed,” he said.
While
Nelson
was
in
Washington working on his degree,
his wife stayed in Portland and paid
the bills.
“We got married and the follow­
ing fall I Went to Washington, he
said. “For most people that
[arrangement] would not work. But
we had a great relationship and it
worked.”
After 14 years in the forestry care
industry, Nelson began teaching
part-time at Clackamas and later was
hired as a full-time faculty member.
“Throughout high school and
college I always thought I would be a
teacher' [and] I always enjoyed the
classroom setting, but during under­
graduate school there seemed to be
something floating in the air that said
■it wasn’t good to be a teacher,” he
said. “I finally just got over it and
said to hell with it I wish 1 had just
gone with my gut feeling [when I
was younger] but it worked out.”
Nelson teaches 14 classes at
Clackamas including plant and insect
identification, principles of horticul­
ture, organic gardening, disease .iden­
tification and a short course on fruit
trees. He also facilitates several horti­
culture workshops.
“If 1 can figure out a way to
make [learning] fun for the stu­
dents, it makes it more fun for me.
I don’t always succeed but that’s
my goal,” said Nelson. “Life is too
short to not have fun doing what
you are paid to do.”
Art and music inspires
student's mind, body, flow
Beam would like to attend
Pacific Northwest College of
Arts where he plans to work
toward his dream of becoming
an independent artist with his
own foundry so he can continue
Truman Anderson
working
on casting.
T he C lackamas P rint
■ “I don’t care how long I live,
Heavy metal meets Picasso as long as I create good art in my
describes the life and personality lifetime,” he said.
of student Josh Beam, an aspir­
Besides art, Beam is extreme­
ing artist at CCC.
ly in tune with the music scene.
Beam has been drawing since He attends local shows in
the age of 12 and has? been Portland and also plays in two of
sculpting for about three years his own bands-^-Overdriven is a
metal band and
on his own time as
Collective
well as here on cam­
pus. Of the many
Consciousness
don’t care
is an indie rock
styles of art that
Beam has tried his
how long I live, band.
In addition to
hand at, stone carv­
as long as I cre­ art
and music,
ing and bronze cast­
ate good art in
Beam uses his
ing are among his
body as a form
favorites.
my lifetime.”
of self-expres­
His inspirations
sion. His body is
for the pieces he
a walking work
creates would have
Josh Beam
of art with tat­
to be H.R. Giger for
Art Student
toos, a plug in
his
fascinating
each ear and a
forms, Constantin
pierced septum.
Brancusi
and
“I do it so 1 can feel as if I am
Zdislaw Beksinski.
“The
dream
worlds in a whole other world of being,”
Beam is a man
[Beksinski] creates inspire my said Beam.
mind toward greatness,” Beam of few words, but he fives by these
words: “Wherever you go—there
said.
After finishing his AART, you are?’
Campus artist
expresses creativity
through body art
"Z
BEAM