Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, June 02, 1993, Image 13

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    Ju n e 2. 1993
“Serving the community through cultural diversity.
Volumn XXIII. Number 22
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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
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