M a r iin L uther K ing J r .
January 9, 2008
Page B 19
L U t - —>--------------------------- —
Gateway to College Follows King Dream
Providing opportunity to achieve
by C hari i y P rater
T iii P ortland O bserver
Port land Community College is fol
lowing in the footsteps of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. by providing all stu
dents regardless o f race and eco
nomic background an opportunity to
achieve success through education.
The PCC Gateway to College Pro
gram has been successful in offering
high-risk, high-school dropouts and
young adults an opportunity to earn
their high-school diploma through earn
ing college credits.
Students are required to take classes
at any o f P C C ’s college
campuses that satisfy their
missing high-school require
ments, and since the pro
gram is considered to be a
fix for missing high school,
students do not have to pay
for tuition or books.
On Jan. 7, 1968, Martin
Luther King Jr. mentioned
to the public what he had
toldhischildren:
“'I'm going to work and
do everything that I can do
to see that you get a good
education. I d o n 't ever want
you to forget that there are
millions o f G o d 's children
who will not and cannot get
a good education, and I d o n 't want you
feeling that you are better than they
are. For you will never be what you
ought to be until they are what they
ought to be.”
The PCC Gateway program gives
all students an opportunity to live pro
ductive lives.
“The program allows kids to get the
benefit of taking college classes at an
accredited college and the program
does not discriminate but benefits kids
o f m inority g ro u p s,” says Linda
Huddle, director o f alternative pro
grams at PCC.
Huddle says many o f the students
are kids in poverty. More than half of
the students live with single parents
and about 38-percent of them have
been on public assistance in the past.
About a quarter of the students are in
/ haven't fought
since high school.
You don't need to fight
in the program.
You appreciate the
importance of
education and your
classes.
- Raniece Hardy
high school but are about to drop out,
while another 38-percent no longer
attend high school. About 44-percent
are o f a race or ethnicity other than
Caucasian.
The gateway program was launched
photo by C harity
P ra ter /T he P ortland O bserver
Raniece Hardy is putting herself back on track to achieve a suc
cessful life by her enrollment in Portland Community College's
Gateway to College program.
Courage is the power of
the mind to overcome fear.
in 2(MX) as a model to serve out-of
school youth between the ages o f 16-
20. The program is funded by the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation and has
grown from its original site in Portland
to over 13 sites around the country.
“ I work with Gateway because I
wanted to help on a deeper level by
helping to build strategic programs
that help start and launch an acces
sible route to college,” says Huddle,
“Education really isacivil-rights issue.
All students should have structured,
supported access to college.”
The program helps kids like 18-
year-old Raniece Hardy who started
the program over a year ago when she
was kicked out o f her high school for
fighting, socializing and struggling with
her grades.
“1 haven't fought since high school,"
says Hardy, "You do n 't need to fight
in the program. You appreciate the
im portance o f education and your
classes.”
Dr. King has always fought for
equal rights in the opportunity for edu
cation saying, "It is precisely because
education is the road to equality and
citizenship, that it has been made more
elusive for Negroes than many other
rights. The walling o ff of Negroes
from equal education is part of the
historical design to subm erge him in
second-class status. T herefore, as
Negroes have struggles to be free
they have had to fight for the opportu
nity for a decent education."
Programs like P C C s Gateway to
College exceed the hopes of Dr. Mar-
continued
on page H21
B ig C ity
P roduce
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We salute Martin
Luther King Jr.
Mamie Glover peers with
granddaughter Jeannette from
the flap of their "tent city"
home, early in 1966.
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Seminary Student Jesse
Jackson leads marches against
segregated Chicago housing
and schools in the summer of
1966.
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