AUGUST 21, 2024
Portland and Seattle Volume XLVII No. 21
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
25
CENTS
News ................................... 3,6 Calendar .................................4
Opinion ...................................2 Bids/Classifieds .....................5
SEATTLE INKED
Camp ELSO
Gives BIPOC
Students
A Month
of Science
Learning in
Nature
The STEAMED approach
to environmental
education combines
sciences and art for
creative problem-
solving.
By Saundra Sorenson
Of The Skanner News
A
s the summer is winding down,
a new cohort of BIPOC students
will return to the classroom with
a greater understanding of the
natural world around them — and of
their own individual value to it.
Camp ELSO — Experience Life Sci-
ence Outdoors — started when two
college students found each other in a
biology class where only three Black
individuals were in attendance.
“I found one other girl that I was
comfortable studying with, and her
name was Sprinavasa Brown,” ELSO
cofounder Kelliane Richardson said.
“We created ELSO so that there would
not only be three Black students in a bi-
ology class in college.”
Noting that Black students are un-
der-represented in the fields of science,
technology, engineering and math —
or “STEM” — the two set out to apply
their own scientific backgrounds to
See CAMP on page 3
Crossword Puzzles
Made with BlackPeople
in Mind
page 6
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Sprinavasa Brown and Kelliane Richardson, co-
founders of Camp ELSO
Seattle Tattoo artist Mouse works on a customer during the annual Seattle Tattoo Expo on the weekend of August 16-18 at the Seattle Center Exhibition
Hall. This years event featured over 250 top-tier tattoo artists, captivating burlesque performances, tattoo contests, DJ sets, and the return of
BurlesKaraoke.
Tony Hopson Retires As CEO Of SEI
as Alum Trent Aldridge Steps Up
SEI hopes to soon
serve all Black
Oregonians,
even beyond the
Portland Metro
area.
By Saundra Sorenson
Of The Skanner News
T
rent Aldridge jokes
that Self Enhance-
ment, Inc. “started
with telling boys to
put on deodorant at basket-
ball practice.”
In the late eighties, Al-
dridge was one of those
boys at the week-long sum-
mer basketball camp SEI
president Tony Hopson
founded.
“I was just blown away
by the fact that it was just
all of these Black males
and it was not just about
the hoop,” Aldridge told
The Skanner, “it was about
what I can do with my life
moving forward, and then
I had examples of it: The
coaches were doing incred-
ible things, and it was just a
cool space to be in.”
Aldridge has just com-
pleted his first full month
as SEI’s new CEO, after
mentorship from found-
er Tony Hopson and after
a nationwide search. De-
spite having been along
for the ride as an employee
of SEI since 2000, Aldridge
says he still marvels at
what the organization is
able to accomplish.
“There’s just an awful lot
going on and a lot of folks
that are pushing the en-
velope on opportunities
for Black folks to come
back home and thrive, as
opposed to just existing,”
Hopson told The Skanner.
Playing To Strengths
Hopson is stepping aside
as CEO, but he’s not retir-
ing from the work.
“I’ve been trying to make
this move for several
years,” Hopson said of step-
ping down as CEO. “This
happened because I feel
like we have a very strong
executive team, members
who have been in the agen-
cy for a long time. Trent
has been a part of our SEI
world for twenty-some-
thing years, he knows the
history, and he’s young,
with energy, and ready to
move it to the next level.
After 40 years, a lot of the
people I dealt with have
come and gone, and I’m not
a technology kind of guy,
so the timing was good –
but having the right people
in place, I think, is the most
important thing for me to
be comfortable in making
that move.”
Hopson established SEI
in 1981, hoping to offer lo-
cal Black youths a positive
experience in a city he
felt was neglecting them.
Even with these storied,
relatively humble begin-
nings, Hopson’s talent for
coalition-building was ob-
vious from the beginning:
Nike signed on as SEI’s
first corporate sponsor
that first year, and Hopson
confirmed the company
has provided in-kind do-
nations of sportswear and
shoes, as well as cash do-
nations, to SEI every year
since. Hopson now sits on
the board of the 1803 Fund,
a $400 million pledge from
Phil and Penny Knight to
rebuild the Albina neigh-
borhood. The fund was
established last year, and
Hopson says he believes
it the largest private gift
to the African American
community in U.S. history.
In 1988, the same year
Aldridge participated in
SEI’s basketball camp, the
Tony Hopson
Trent Aldridge
city had its first gang-relat-
ed drive-by shooting. Both
the shooter and the victim
were teens involved with
SEI, and Hopson had par-
ticular insight into their
dynamics. It didn’t seem
to be a personal vendetta,
he said; Los Angeles-based
rival gangs the Bloods and
the Crips had just that year
established a presence in
Portland, and the shooting
seemed to be more about
affiliation.
The city saw the potential
of Hopson’s work and sup-
See SEI on page 3