April 17, 2019
Page 9
CAREERS Special Edition
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
photo Courtesy o regon C onneCtions a CaDemy
Oregon Connections Academy seniors Fatimah Us’Sutteri (from left) and Madi Beck and sophomore Camille Fox pause spend a rewarding day of volunteering at the
Habitat for Humanity Cully Place Build site in northeast Portland.
Cully Place Build
Students give
back for Habitat
for Humanity
Rainy weather didn’t douse the spirits of
a hardy group of student volunteers from
Oregon Connections Academy who put in
several hours of hard work at Habitat for
Humanity’s build site in the Cully Neigh-
borhood.
Fifteen new affordable homes are cur-
rently under construction at the site located
at Northeast 57th and Killingsworth. Or-
egon Connections Academy is a full-time
tuition-free virtual public charter school
enrolling thousands of students in grades
K-12 across the state.
“It was very interesting to learn about
the building process of one of these homes,
I feel very privileged to be involved in
helping one of these families, whose lives
are changing as we speak,” said Oregon
Connections Academy sophomore Camille
Fox from north Portland. Camille brought
several construction skills with her to the
Habitat for Humanity Build Day earlier
this month, having learned them from her
carpenter/remodeler father.
According to Melinda Musser, com-
munications director for Habitat for Hu-
manity Portland/Metro East, one duplex is
almost finished and two more units are get-
ting prepped for insulation and sheetrock.
Volunteers, such as those from Oregon
Connections Academy, AmeriCorps, and
Habitat construction crews are working on
internal finishes including flooring.
Madi Beck, a senior at Oregon Connec-
tions Academy from north Portland, hopes
to join AmeriCorps after graduation and
she’s refurbishing her own vintage trailer.
“I had so much fun at the build!” Madi
explained, “Camille and I were working on
putting down snap-together floating floor-
ing in one of the houses. It was a really
good skill to learn, and I’m going to use the
same type of flooring in my trailer when I
redo the floor! So not only was it a good
time, but it taught me great skills as well.”
Fatimah Us’Sutteri, an Oregon Connec-
tions Academy senior from the Beaverton
area jumped right in on interior painting.
“I ruined my clothes and shoes but I
didn’t care because at the end of the day
I was doing something helpful to the fu-
ture homeowners,” said Fatimah. “I was
painting so much to the point my arm was
aching, but I still kept going because hon-
estly, I was so motivated working along-
side one of the future homeowners who
also came to do some work. The day was
overall great and having a team and lead-
ers who were positive and enthusiastic
was amazing.”
According to Musser, volunteers have
put in a total of more than 2,300 hours so
far while building homes at Cully Place.
She noted Habitat homebuyers put in
300 hours of sweat equity building their
home and completing homeowner educa-
tion classes. Musser reports seven homes
will be completed this summer and the
first home dedication is schedule for
mid-June.