Page A2
JULY 22,1998
(Che P o rtb m ò dìlbsntwr
O'H
“I Have A Dream” Program Empowers Portland
Area Youth To Build Own Community
PCC Cascade Welcomes
New Dean of Instruction
“Don't you want to drive a Lexus someday?”
"O f course, we all do,” Earl Ford told the group o f 13-14
year olds sitting in front o f him. "So how can we get to be one
o f the haves, instead of the have-nots?”
The 14 participants ofthe Whitman College-based "I Have
a Dream" (IHAD) program, all local Portland area youth,
shouted their answers: “Education." “By getting involved.
“Vote!" Earl Ford, an eco-systems planner with the U.S.
Forest Service at Gifford Pinchot National Forest Headquar
ters in Vancouver, Wash., smiled. As a guest lecturer return
ing for the second year to teach the IHAD students a lesson in
environmental racism, he had achieved his goal—to instill the
importance o f dreaming, while also becoming actively in
volved in their futures to empower themselves.
Charles Sieracki
Portland Comm unity College re
cently hired Virginia higher educa
tion leader Charles Sieracki to take
the dean o f instruction position at
the Cascade Campus.
Highlighting his experience in
community outreach and previous
dean o f instruction positions, PCC
Cascade Executive Dean Mildred
Ollee said Sieracki is a per
fect fit for the C ascade C am -
pus.
“Charlie has an internal
drive for excellence and the
enthusiasm to get the job
done," she said. “His previ
ous experience in similar po
sitions in Virginia and com
munity team building skills
made Charlie the right per
son for this position."
Prior to accepting the po
sition at PCC, Sieracki served as the
dean o f Workforce and Community
Development at Germanna Com
munity College in Fredricksburg,
VA., where he also held the posi
tion o f dean o f instruction from
1989-1997. Sieracki also held ad
ministrative and teaching positions
at Thomas Nelson Community Col
lege in Virginia.
He received his doctoral degree
from the University o f Illinois, a
master's degree from MarquctteUni-
versity and a bachelor's degree from
St. Mary’s University o f Minnesota.
Sieracki, who started in the posi
tion at PCC June 23, is eager to
make a difference at Cascade. He
praised the work o f his predeces
sor, Don Johnson—w ho retired in
June after nearly 30 years at PCC—
and others at Cascade for their tire
less efforts to benefit the commu
nity and the college. Sieracki said
that will continue under his leader
ship with the help o f current staff
and faculty, as well as new addi
tions at the campus.
“I hope to keep our en
thusiasm and focus while
working with the creativ
ity ofthe new members of
the crew to renew our
commitment to the com
munity," he said.
On the job itself and
relocating from the North
east to the Northwest,
Sieracki is equally ex
cited.
“This is a wonderful opportunity
in a great city, with a great commu
nity college serving a great city,"
enthused Sieracki. "I'm honoredto
be a part of that."
Sieracki will be responsible for
providing primary leadership for
planning, implementing, evaluating
and coordinating the educational
programs o f Cascade Campus and
other administrative duties as as
signed by Executive Dean Ollee.
The Cascade Campus, which is
located at 705 N. Killingsworth St.
in Portland, served 8,700 students
each year in the areas o f job train
ing, college transfer courses and
self improvement classes.
In a lesson on environmental racism, IHAD participants and counselors look
on as Earl Ford points out the quality of facilities at Walla Walla's Washington
Park. Photo by Jennifer Kimura.
During their field trip on environmental
racism, IHAD students observed the
conditions around Mill Creek in an industrial
area of Walla Walla. Photo by Jennifer
Kimura.
IHAD, now in its seventh year, is a collaborative effort
between the Portland Public Schools and the Oregon IHAD
Foundation a national organization founded in the early
1980's by businessman Eugene M. Lang. Program sponsors
include Whitman College, as well as individuals in Portland
and other cities. This summer’s program budget came to
$54,000, provided by grants of $10.000 each from the J.F.R.
Foundation in Portland. OR., the Texaco Foundation in New
York, and Whitman College. The Oregon IHAD Foundation
contributed $ 14,000.
Students participating in Whitman’s summer IHAD pro
gram have become known as the Dreamers. The group of 8th
and I Oth graders recently completed the summer’s third and
final six-day IHAD session, held on the Whitman campus in
Walla Walla, Washington. The students hail from Jefferson,
Benson, Grant, Roosevelt High Schools, and Whitaker and
Harriet Tubman middle schools in Portland.
After a classroom lesson, Ford led a field trip around four
visible economic divisions o f Walla Walla, allowing the
students to observe the differences in use o f natural resources. What the students noticed was
ample evidence o f environmental racism— picket fences in developed areas versus barbed
wire or no fences near creeks in poor and industrial areas, and sheltered restrooms versus
outhouses.
Perhaps the most visible difference was the abundance of lush shade providing trees in the
better parks, versus hot basketball courts and dried grass at parks in the poorer parts o f town.
“What does this mean?” Ford asked the group in his booming voice.
It is discrimination— ’’not necessarily on color," he said, but environmental racism is a
matter o f availability o f funds and the political decisions which guide them . "Poor people pay
taxes too,” he said. "Black people pay taxes too. Do we deserve to have rundow n parks?" he
asked the students, as they shook their heads. He stressed that environmental racism is not
intended, but exists in every community, whether it be Walla Walla or Portland.
Ford does not want his students nor anyone else to point fingers at racism, but rather to stand
up and do something about it. “You have to be politically involved to get justice," he said. His
overall message was clear: that the power o f educating oneself and becoming involved by
voting is the key to success, as he has learned from personal experience. Ford, 45, was bom
and raised on a small farm in Louisiana with 14 siblings, he left home at 18 to pursue his
education. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Southern University, and later
his master’s in public administration from the University o f San Franscico.
The field trip led by Ford was only one o f many activities that provided focus into this year's
IHADprogram theme, "EmpoweringOurselvestoBuildOurOwnCommunity." Recent Whitman
graduates and counselors Jason Smith and Ryan Hagemann taught a component on public
speaking, having the students to choose a topic of importance to their community and prepare and
deliver a persuasive speech as in a city council meeting. Smith and Hagemann believe that this is
skill is "indispensable to empowerment and the ability to contribute to a vibrant eommunity.
Led by Whitman graduate Greer Bevel and Walla Walla College student Dawn Goldson,
the Dreamers also completed a project in community planning and building. They worked on
their writing skills as they composed descriptions of the parks, schools and homes and people
in their neighborhoods, in addition to developing mock funding proposals tor improvements
in their community.
“Many young people today do not fully understand what it means to have a sense of their
community,” said Whitman IH AD director Evan Jones, a 1997 graduateof Whitman College.
“We want to help them understand the importance ofthe concept, and that they have a certain
power within themselves to change and affect their community in a positive way."
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