Page 6
August 21, 2019
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
Middle school students from the Portland area tour a research lab at Oregon State University in Corvallis as part of a black student access and success initiative that aims
to create pathways to higher education and increase the retention and academic success of black students.
Building Blocks to Success
Middle school
kids get a
true college
experience
This summer, a group of middle
school students from the Portland
area got a true college experience
at Oregon State University in Cor-
vallis as part of a black student
access and success Initiative to
create pathways to higher educa-
tion, and to increase the retention
and academic success of black
students.
The OSU Educational Oppor-
tunities Program, in partnership
with the College of Engineering
and STEM Academy, partnered
with Building Blocks 2 Success to
bring the students to the campus
for an overnight camp.
The “Beaver Achievers” met
with Dr. Charlene Alexander, a
university vice president of color
to hear about the importance of di-
versity in STEM (Science, Tech-
nology, Engineering and Math).
Current OSU students discussed
the different paths they took to
higher education and the differ-
ent majors available in STEM at
OSU. One OSU student of color
shared stories about the challeng-
es and triumphs as a woman of
color in the engineering filed.
The younger students also got
hands on experience. They were
guided through STEM prob-
lem-solving tasks to design ma-
chines to solve some of today’s
real-world problems; got the op-
portunity to tour some engineering
research labs; and used “Activity-
Bot 360” robot kits to build and
code a robot that is smart enough
to make its way around a room on
its own.
The ultimate aim of the OSU
outreach was to build the next
generation of black engineers at
OSU.
Antonio Jackson, the director
of Building Blocks 2 Success,
said he plans to mentor and keep
track of his students through high
school graduation.