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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1993)
Ju n e 2. 1993 “Serving the community through cultural diversity. Volumn XXIII. Number 22 r ... ■ f ÌElje Jlmrilanù ©bscriier Students Hired To Help Peers Find Jobs H u m b o l d t E l e m e n t a r y refers them to available jobs for w hich P ortland-arca high school stu dents are helping their peers find a f they may be qualified. “T he people are all different,’ ter-school and sum m er jobs. T he dow ntow n Portland office o f she says o f the young job applicants th e E m ploym ent Division recently “Some o f them come in really excited, began a pilot project in w hich students and some o f them ju st w ant the job for w ill operate m ini-em ploym ent offices the money.” R o b e rt B ro w n , o n e o f th e in th eir schools. division’s supervisors o f the youth T he project know n as Jobs and em ploym ent office downtow n, says M e ,o r JAM, is part o fasu m m er youth the division relays notices o f job o pen em ploym ent program . ings to the students. A m y Sutton, a ju n io r, is the “T his is a pilot project to get as d ivision's employ ee at Cleveland High m any Portland-area high school stu in southeast Portland. She found out dents as we can into jobs,” Brown about the program from a teacher in says. T he project began in A pril, and the school’ s business cooperative pro “it should really pick up after school is gram , interv iewed and was hired She has a desk in the student out in June,” he says. All the schools are involved in service center at Cleveland, w hich she staffs from 7:30 to 8 a m. and 2;3O to some way, he adds. Those that don t 4:30 p.m. In the first 10 days she kept have student em ployees have com put office hours, about 20 students cam e ers on w hich interested students can scan lists o f jo b openings. by looking for work. Sutton says she has publicized “T hey’re looking for jobs, part- h e r s e rv ic e th r o u g h r e g u la r tim e, after school or for the sum m er," school channels, putting a notice in she says. T he students fill out a form, the dailv bulletin and fliers on bulletin list their interests and skills, a n d Sutton boards The student em ployees all work M onday through Thursday afternoon at their schools, and on Friday after noons go to the dow ntew n office to help dev elop an hour-long jo b -fin d ing w orkshop for young people. The student will have their jobs w ith the Employm ent D ivision until June 30. W hile others may go on to other work, Sutton says she plans to travel. O th e r s tu d e n t e m p lo y e e s a re K eyunna B ak er at F ra n k lin , M oniquea M ajors at L incoln, and C arla H ardneftat Wilson. H yun Yu o f Cleveland works every afternoon at the program ’s downtow n office, along w ith Brown, Jerry K ing an d Jessica Cook Kathy Craft is program super visor. Caption Staff o f dow ntown P ortland em ploym ent office for students includes: F ro n t, Jessica Cook, left, R obert Brow n, Hyun Yu; back M oniquea M ajors, Keyunna Baker, Amy Sutton O n Friday m orning. May 28,1993 between the hours of 9am and 11:30am, Humboldt Elem entary School w as the host for over 24 com m unity and other career persons who volunteered their tim e and efforts to share w ith the sec ond graders a, Humboldt their chosen careers T he approach for Humboldt this year was to reach the second grade youngsters so they w ill begin at an early age to th in k about w hat they may w ant to for their careers in the future. In the previous years the program was w ith the fifth graders, but this y ear the fifth graders were assisting the presenters and students and teachers an d helping everyone to get w here they were sup posed to be and assisting in other areas as necessary'. T he second graders were supplied w ith plenty o f visual aides, especially from the north station o f our Fire Bu reau. T he students had a chance to talk to the team an d explore the fire engine that was brought along. Som e o f the o th er professions a n d tra d e s th a t w ere re p re se n te d included: Electrical E ngineer, Biolo g ist, P e rso n n e l S p e c ia lis t, S h o rt O rder Cook. L ibrarian, T ax Exam iner, Banker, N ew spaper, Lawyer, Artist, A rchitect. C om puter Specialist, M in ister, City Planner, Principal and C on struction C ontractor to m ention a few. T he students were very attentive and were asking some very interesting questions and were also sharing w hat their dream s and aspirations were, To Advertise in <Du' (iD h s c r u e r Special Career Edition For the next two weeks C all 2 8 8 -0 0 3 3 Montgomery Invests In Youth A ta recent session of Portland's Saturday Academy, Pat Montgomery, Investments, keeps an eye on Malik Bell's changing face , as it registers his feelings during a debate. Malik is a freshman at Benson High School Good Humor Y ou h av en ’t seen him foryears.. but the Good H um or Ice C ream M an is back! O nF riday, Junc4, he sgiving away free ice cream and nostalgic posters at the new Safeway store (72nd & NE Sandy B lvd.) in Rose City from 10:00-11:30am, then that evening at he will appear at T he Rose F estival’s O pening Firew orks at 9:45 pm (at New Park M em orial by the H aw thorne Bridge). O n Sunday, June 5, he will be at the Starlight P arade at 8:30 pm (on Taylor betw een Park and Broadway ). And on Sunday, June 6, he will com plete his route at the annual Rose Bud Picnic for handicapped children in O aks Park from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm. Good Humor. T he nam e w ill take you back... the taste will take you away... Ockley Green ‘Authors’ Create Books Some T igard kindergartners be cam e proud recipients o f beautifully illustrated books about themselv es on May 25th w hen eighth-graders from P o rtla n d 's O ckley G re en M iddle School delivered 45 hand-m ade books to the school in Tigard. O ckley G reen students in A nne L aufe’s language arts class w rote sto ries based on autobiographical infor m ation sent to them by the kin d erg art ners and their teacher, Sandy Bates. Some “authors used com putet s to write their stories, others added élabora .. illustrations and then the books w re bound. Laufe said. ■ • T he book project is not the first activity L aufe’s students have partici pated in w ith the kindergartners. Stu dents also responded as “elves” to letters the T igard youngster w rote to Santa last December. AiA»* t - • • * 5 * * 1 Pat Montgomery know s a lot about investments. After all, sh e 's a securi ties specialist for Standard But, she invests in more than securities Pat invests her Saturday m ornings in Portland’s inner-city youth through the Saturday Academy O utreach Pro gram. Saturday Academy offers highly motivated students, grades 6-12, in tensified studies in com puting, elec tronics, environm ental and medical sciences, com m unications technology and other fields Standard has sup ported the p ro g ram 's efforts through a D ollars for Doers grant and charitable contributions Pat started teaching by forming an alliance w ith a schoolmate who had a com puter-oriented background an d sim ilar business interests As- sisted by Portland Community Col- lege an d the U rban League, they of- fered introductory classes to local com- munity residents w ith overw helm ing response A visit to the Saturday Acad- emy as guest speakers won them an inv itation to join its teaching team. “Several instructors (profession als draw n from both business and education) work together to provide vary ing perspectives,” Pat explained. Pat finds the role of m entor in analyti- cal and philosophical thinking a re w arding one "Saturday Academy of- fers students an opportunity to de- velop their skills As long as there are students w illing to come out and put forth the effort. I’ll be there ” Portland ‘Dreamers’ To Attend Whitman College In July W ith help from the M eyer M e m orial T rust an d one o f the leading liberal arts colleges in the N orthw est, 50 m iddle school students from north Portland w ill get a head start this sum m er in fulfilling th eir dream s of someday going away to college T he M eyer M em orial T ru st of Portland recently aw arded a $ 120,000 grant to W hitm an C ollege for a two- year pilot project designed to provide and on-cam pus sum m er educational experience for students enrolled in the Portland “ I Have A D ream ” (IHAD) program R epresentatives o f W hitm an and the IHAD F oundation in P ortland a n n o u n c ed th e ir new p a rtn e rs h ip M onday, M ay 31, at the start o f an orientation m eeting for p articipating stu d e n ts a n d th e ir fam ilies. T h e evening m eeting took place in the cafeteria o f Jefferson H igh School, Portland Fifty students from six Portland schools will spend from one week to three weeks on the W hitm an cam pus in July Students w ill live in cam pus residence halls, take classes in lan guage arts, science, m athem atics and fine arts, and participate in variety of field trips and recreational experi ences W hitm an faculty m em bers and teach es from the P o rtlan d public schools will teach the classes, and W hitm an students will serv e asco u n - sclors in the residence halls. At least two IHAD classroom coordinators plan to accom pany their Portland students to W hitman. O fficials at both W hitm an and Portland's IHAD Foundation are hope ful the pilot project will develop into a ongoing, long-term approach to im pacting the lives o f children in posi tive ways, and because the partners are highly com m itted to the project and highly qualified to run it “I think w hat interests us about the program is that it is a collaborativ e effort between the IHAD program and sponsors, a public school system, and a v ery fin e p riv a te in s titu tio n ,” G osttnell said, “We are very happy to see the num ber o f private institutions that are developing a stake in and com m itm ent to the education o f low- incom e m inority students.” D avid M axwell, an active propo nent o f m ulticultural cam pus diver sity d u rin g his four years as president o f W hitm an, said the college com mu nity is enthused about its new partner ship with P o rtlan d 's IHAD Founda tion, an organization dedicated to en couraging and supportingyoung, eco nomically-disadvantaged minority stu dents in their pursuit o f higher cduca- tion “W hen I first cam e to W hitman, we looked at w ays o f im proving the college's position on issues of minor ity enrollm ent, and we recognized very early that it d id n ’t make much sense for us to com pete with every other college and university in the country that is trying to attract stu dents o f color,” M axwell said “W e looked at long-term needs of society' an d the long-term goals of the college, an d it was very clear the real issue w as dev eloping productive and creative approaches to enlarging the relatively sm all num ber o f minority students w ho continue on to higher education W ithin that context, we viewed the “I Have A Dream " pro gram in Portland as speaking directly to the issue as we phrased it, and we began to look for ways in w hich we could add dim ensions of experience and expertise to their efforts and in crease the chances for success am ong their students.” B rian Gabbard, associate direc tor o f adm ission at W hitm an and the project coordinator, describers th e su m m e r p ro g ra m as o n e o f em otional and academ ic enrichm ent for the students. “Many o f these young people w ill be first-generation college s tu d e n ts, a n d w e w an t th e m to becom e fam iliar an d com fortable w ith a college setting,” Gabbard said “W e w ant to bring down the psycho logical barriers, an d w hile that is very im portant, we also want this to be a rigorous academ ic program W e w a n t to h elp d ev elo p th e ir intellectual curiosity and aspirations 1 1 as _in th e ir c o n fid e n c e in a s w ell their ability to satisfy those asp ira tions.” Encouraged by several o f its Port- land-area alum ni. W hitm an began w orking with P o rtlan d 's IHAD Foun dation two years ago on possible p art nership program s. As the planning effort became more focused, 25 m iddle school students from Portland spent a weekend on the W hitm an cam pus last sum m er Some o f those students w ill return to W hitm an this sum m er “ A num ber o f the students w ho cam e last sum m er sent w onderful thank you notes,” Maxwell said “The most consistent them e was, ‘I ’ll be b ack .’ M any of them said, “We had a w o n d e rfu l tim e ...i t w as v e ry in te r e s tin g .we re a lly lik e d th e people, and we c a n 't w ait to com e b ack .’” “Phil Hopson, one o f the IHAD project co ordinators, told m e his students ask him every day about com ing back to W hitm an." Gabbard sa id T h e in te re st c re a te d fro m that one weekend was phenom enal T his summ er, approximately h alf o f the 50 students com ing to W hitm an a r e f in is h in g th e s ix th g r a d e They will spend one week. July 5-11, on cam pus T he other h alf is com plet ing the seventh grade and will stay o n c a m p u s fo r th r e e w e e k s, July 12 th ro u g h A ugust 1 M ost o f th e p a rtic ip a tin g stu d en ts are fro m H T T u b m a n M id d le S ch o o l. S tu d e n ts a lso are co m in g from W h ita k e r M id d le S ch o o l a n d Fem w ood M iddle School, am ong o th ers. E ugene M. Lang, founder and president o f the national IHAD Foun dation, v isited Portland’s program last year and then served recently as com m encem ent speaker at W hitm an’s May 23 graduation ceremonies. In that address, Lang said the new W hitm an-Portland partnership will be a “model for our national p ro g ram an d , 1 hope, serve as a b c a c o n - a lead ersh ip exam p le for h ig h e r e d u c a tio n g e n e r a lly to inv olv e itself constructively w ith the urgencies o f our country's sad educa tional condition For our sponsors in the N orthw est and for our 200-plus project sponsors in 53 cities across the country, I am privileged to acknow l edge W hitm an College as a valued m em ber o f the extended IHAD fam ily.” L ang received an honorary doc tor o f hum ane letters degree during W h itm an ’s com m encem ent cerem o nies. In addition, retired Portland sc h o o l s u p e rin te n d e n t M a tth e w Prophet, w ho serv es as honorary chai r- m an o f P o rtlan d 's IHAD foundation, received an honorary doctor o f educa tion degree, as did Janine Pease-Windy Boy. founding president o f Little Big H om college ■ a *-.-*■* *-»■.*- ? *.>■ A*« A * ' »