Education-Youth
The Educational Equity Capstone explores a variety of issues related to educational equity, including segregation, school funding, standardized testing, curriculum choices, and language and bilingual education, among others. The course is designed as a partnership with Portland Parks and Recreations University Park Community Center site, located in North Portland. Servi
Strengthening Early Childhood Education Within the Immigrant Population Participate in a public campaign with Adelante Mujeres, a Latina nonprofit, to educate civic and business leaders on the importance of early childhood education for immigrant communities. Oregon Governor Kitzhaber?s Early Learning Initiative priority is children of color and economically disadvantaged. Students will work with their staff and clients to document successes of Adelante Mujere's early childhood and parent education model.
Design/Edit 4 Organ Donor
Students will work with the nonprofit agency Donate Life Northwest (DLNW) while learning about their mission to save/enhance lives through the promotion of organ, eye, and tissue donation. Students will design/edit promotional documents (digital, video, electronic or for print), while integrating knowledge from their own field of study, familiarity with today's popular culture, and the community partner’s mission to increase registration of voluntary organ donors in the Pacific Northwest, and to honor the brave individuals and their families who make the decision to donate.
In this Capstone, we will work with several community partners, including collaborating with the “Let's Build It Cully Park!” initiative, Portland Parks & Rec, NAYA (Native American Youth & Family Assn.) and Latino organizations Hacienda and Verde. Class time will focus on issues of food security, significance of cultural/traditional foods, and community
Globally, freshwater ecosystems are at risk from a number of anthropogenic stressors. One of the foremost stressors is declines in water quality. We will partner with Sherwood Middle School to promote scientific inquiry into water quality issues in the Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). The Tualatin NWR is one of a handful of urban wildlife refuges in the nation, highlighting a unique region where urban areas intersect with natural spaces. Understanding the effects of environmental stressors on aquatic ecosystems in this unique area is of importance to citizens and managers.
Refugee Support and Education: Paving the way to Citizenship This course will delve into the modern refugee experience through direct contact with refugees served by two Portland nonprofits: Refugee and Immigrant Support and Education (RISE) and the Immigrant Refugee Community Organization (IRCO).
GirlPower!
In this course, we will be working with our community partner, the local non-profit organization; the IPRC, Independent Publishing Resource Center. Our project is to coordinate a series of *rap sessions* with local teen girls about current issues in their lives. We will use these group conversations to encourage the girls to become a part of our ZINE project - where they will write, edit, and publish a grassroots, mini-magazine with our class. In preparation for this project, we will read feminist scholarship about teenage girls as well as focus groups and zine publishing methodologies.
Course Description:
Middle School Equity & Inclusion is a hybridized capstone offered each Summer. Through text and community engagement PSU students will observe and reflect on race, language, and class privilege as they are encountered by immigrant children and their families.
Summer Youth Enrichment. This summer, we will be working as tutors/mentors with the 6-week summer program Upward Bound on the PSU campus. We will be part of the summer session of this college preparatory program offering assistance to approximately 90 low-income and first generation high school students. 98% of participants ultimately graduate from high school, 95% of participants enter college after high school graduation, and 80% of our high school graduates since 200 are still in college or have graduated.