Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, August 14, 2019, Page 3, Image 3

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    August 14, 2019
The
CAREERS Special Edition
Page 3
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
Week in Review
M ETRO
page 2
page 9
Photo by e rin h oover b arnett /ohSu
Oregon Health and Sciences University welcomes incoming students to campus, the school’s most
racially diverse group ever of future doctors. The class of 2023 includes Native Americans and Native
Alaskans recruited as part of a special outreach, pictured here with faculty and program staff.
Diversity in Medicine
OHSU welcomes most diverse class ever
Oregon Health and Sciences
University is celebrating an in-
coming class of future medical
doctors that is the most racially
diverse group in school history.
The class of 2023 stood shoul-
der-to-shoulder on Friday donning
their white medical coats for the
first time and reciting the medical
Oath of Geneva as an audience
of physicians, family members,
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
page 11
pages 12-13
pages 14
friends and mentors gave their
smiles and tears.
The ceremony marked the be-
ginning of the 160 students’ for-
mal training. Over 60 percent of
the class is female, and over 30
percent are from racial or ethnic
backgrounds other than white
and from a disadvantaged back-
ground, OHSU said. Fourteen
percent also came from a racial
or ethnic group underrepresented
in medicine.
For the first time, the incoming
group also include recruits from
a new OHSU program specifi-
cally aimed at preparing Alaska
Native and Native Americans to
excel in medical school, called
the Wy’East Post-Baccalaureate
C ontinued on P age 5
Child, Family Services Jobs Posted
The Oregon Department of Hu-
man Services this month is post-
ing more than 300 jobs related
to helping children and families
in Oregon. The hiring initiative
is driven by an executive order
from Gov. Kate Brown aimed at
improving safety and building ca-
pacity in Oregon’s child welfare
system.
“In order to ensure our children
are safe, we need more caring and
dedicated people on the ground
working with families,” Brown
said. “Hiring more child welfare
workers is one important step to
right-sizing the system so that it
better serves our most vulnerable
children and families. Oregonians
with a passion for helping chil-
dren and families thrive can make
an enormous impact through state
service at the Department of Hu-
man Services.”
Gov. Kate Brown
Some of the jobs available in-
clude hotline screeners who serve
as first responders to child safety
concerns; child protective service
caseworkers to investigate safety
concern reports; certifiers to iden-
tify and certify relative caregivers,
foster parents and adoptive par-
ents across all ethnic and cultural
groups; and permanency case-
workers who specialize in work-
ing with children, families, foster
parents and caregivers to ensure
children are safe in their homes.
“These new hires will reduce
caseloads, which will help us
better address safety issues and
provide more support to foster
families,” Department of Human
Services Director Fariborz Pak-
seresht said “An influx of new
staff also will provide much-need-
ed relief to our current child wel-
fare caseworkers and help reduce
turnover.”
The Oregon Legislature ap-
proved funding for these new po-
sitions during the 2019 legislative
session. For more information on
available jobs and to apply, visit
oregon.gov/dhs/children.