A new documentary featuring a group of OSU engineering students in Kenya is now available on the web. (photo: Justin Smith)

Community members of Lela, Kenya, spent hours every day fetching water, which was so contaminated it often sickened young children. Now, thanks to a partnership with Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) and its Oregon State University chapter (EWB-OSU), the 2,000 residents of the remote, rural community can access safe water.

A team of five Oregon State students, plus a technical mentor, traveled in July 2012 to the Kenyan village near Lake Victoria. The team oversaw drilling of a well and construction of a rainwater catchment system, culminating three years of work and planning.

The mission of EWB-OSU is to work with developing communities around the world to provide basic human needs, said Nicholas Kusanto, a chemical engineering student and current president of the group.

“At the same time, ” Kusanto said, “we strive to promote an environment for our members to use the skills they learn in the classroom to gain experiences, build résumés, and feel as if they can make an impact on the world.”

The project was such a success that the team has been invited to return this June to drill a second well. The partnership is slated to continue through 2014.

In 2008, Lela submitted an application to EWB-USA for help developing a sustainable source of potable water. EWB-OSU adopted the project the following year. After two assessment trips to Lela to conduct a community health survey, technical water source assessment, and GPS mapping, the team determined that the best implementation options were to drill a community well fitted with an Afridev hand pump, which can pump water from 100 meters below the surface, and to construct a rainwater catchment system at the village’s primary school.

The OSU team spearheaded fundraisers and sought grants to realize its goals. Emirates Airline donated airplane tickets. The team’s mentor, Jeff Randall, a retired groundwater hydrologist at CH2M HILL, volunteered his experience and expertise.

“We owe a great deal to our donors, the Corvallis community, and OSU,” said Zachary Dunn, project coordinator and public policy graduate student. “We are thrilled with the way it turned out.”

Students from all engineering disciplines, as well as other departments, are encouraged to take part in the efforts of EWB-OSU. The Kenya Project team members agreed that a wide skill set came in handy, especially as the team encountered challenges.  For example, civil engineering student Jessy Cawly, was able to bring more to bear than just engineering know-how.   As a speaker of Swahili, she was able to speak to those in the community who did not speak English, typically older women.

“Trips like these require defined responsibilities yet flexible roles,” said Jordan Machtelinckx, a civil engineering student on the team. “Working in developing communities, and eastern Africa in particular, always has unexpected challenges. The main one was scheduling according to ‘Africa time’ because we were obviously on a time crunch. This created some unexpected and unfamiliar stress for our team to work through.”

Despite delays in the arrival of materials and equipment, including the drilling rig, the team was able to complete the project on time. “One of the bigger challenges the team faced was getting used to a pit latrine that was home to several bats, which the team eventually termed the ‘bat cave,’” said Dunn.

The team members found themselves comfortable yet cozy living in a small stick and mud hut, with mosquito nets to hang above their mattresses.  Despite having to adjust to conditions, students were embraced by the people, who reached out to invite them into their homes for lunch or dinner.

“We learned a new meaning of generosity and welcome,” said Machtelinckx. “Even though many of us may have joined EWB because we liked the idea of drilling a well or constructing a catchment, we stay involved because we know we now have family in Lela.”

“The best moments from the trip were when we hit water during drilling, and when the entire community threw us a going away party before we left,” Dunn added. “They are much better dancers than us, but we gave it our best.”

The university created a video documentary about the endeavor titled “Kel Wer,” which means “to bring song” in the local Dholuo language. The film has been screened in Portland and Corvallis.

“I saw the opportunity to tell a compelling story about our engineering students applying what they’ve learned toward the common good via the documentary film format,” said Thuy Tran, director of marketing communications for the College of Engineering.

Documentary film maker Justin Smith and two new friends. (contributed photo)

Justin Smith, Oregon State’s multimedia production manager, traveled with the team to document their efforts.

Smith encountered his own logistical challenges in Lela.  “Shooting in a remote location has endless challenges [such as heat, bugs, and limited power],” he said, “but ultimately it became very motivating to reflect on the fact that I had an opportunity to tell this story.”

Before traveling to Kenya, Smith envisioned shooting a climactic scene of a well gushing with water, similar to an oil well.  “It wasn’t exactly how I imagined it,” Smith said. “The water just kind of dribbled out. And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s it?’”

The documentary evolved over the time he spent in Kenya.   The story wasn’t just about drilling a well. “I realized,” Smith said, “that the story was primarily about the people—what they were about, and what this meant to them, and what it meant to the team.”

“Kel Wer” has been released online at http://poweredbyorange.com/kelwer/.

Nicole Phelps (head of table) gained confidence in her abilities after successfully pitching a startup idea and leading a group of 11 people to develop a proof of concept for DownTheLine at the Portland Startup Weekend. (Photo by WeThinkItMatters.)

In one crazy weekend — 54 hours to be exact — 11 new startup businesses were developed.

Three Oregon State computer science students sacrificed sleep to test their entrepreneurial skills at the Portland Startup Weekend on April 26-28. One student had her idea selected for further development, and two students were part of the overall winning team.

The weekend started with 47 ideas for a startup, pitched by participants. After the votes were in, the top 11 moved on to form teams composed of hackers (software developers), hustlers (business and marketing experts), and hipsters (user experience and graphic designers).

Just a week before the event, Nicole Phelps, a junior, decided to pitch a business idea at her first startup weekend. She proposed a mobile application that would help individuals plan their future. Users organize goals on a timeline and use crowd-sourced comments for gathering wisdom about how to reach their objectives.

“I thought I had a slim chance at getting my idea picked since most of the pitches were serious ideas that people had been working on for two months to two years before this event,” Phelps says.

To her surprise, she got the third highest votes. Then the race was on. Participants chose the projects they wanted to work on and Phelps ended up with a team of 11 people to develop a proof of concept and a final pitch for the team’s app, DownTheLine, by Sunday.

Meanwhile, seniors, Charles Catino and Quintin Cummins both chose to join the LivFly team. Catino said he liked the simple and solid idea of creating an app to match running partners based on where they live and how fast and far they run.

“This was my third startup weekend and each time I have learned something a little different,” Cummins says. “It is a lot of fun to see the project I worked on, LivFly, shape and transform throughout the weekend but also to see the development of all the other ideas that were pitched.”

Although it’s a lot of hard work, the effort paid off for the LivFlyteam who took top honors at the event as the overall winner.

But winning is clearly not why the students attend startup weekends.

“These events are fantastic for networking and exploring the creativity of the business world. Startup weekends are also an excellent opportunity to improve my team skills because you have no idea going into the weekend who or what kind of people you will be working with,” Catino says.

Phelps says although she was disappointed she did not win, the experience of learning and networking was more important and far exceeded what she expected.

“I have much more confidence in my abilities now because of what I accomplished. And I see now it does not matter how old you are or what gender you are, because I am 22 years old, female, still in school, and I led a team of 11 people (all male, except one) at least 10 years older than I am,” she says.

~ Rachel Robertson

OSU Engineers Without Borders traveled to Kenya last year to work on a water project which has just received a national award. (photo: Justin Smith)

The Engineers Without Borders-USA has announced that the OSU chapter has received a premier project award. Premier projects are chosen annually based on the community projects they have worked on over the past year. The award recognizes excellence in EWB-USA projects and highlights projects that deliver high quality, sustainable solutions to help meet the basic needs of partnering communities abroad. 

The EWB-USA Oregon State University chapter recently completed the successful implementation of a community well and rainwater catchment system in Lela, Kenya.

After three years of preparation which included a health survey, technical water source assessment, GPS mapping, and an alternatives analysis, EWB-USA OSU determined the best options for implementation were to drill a community water well and build a rainwater catchment system at the Lela Primary School. In July 2012, a team of students and one technical mentor traveled to Lela to oversee the construction of both systems. The trip was a success, and Lela now has improved access to potable water.

The team worked diligently to continually build the capacity of their team, think through all technical and non-technical aspects of the project, and establish a realistic schedule and scope that has led to significant progress over a relatively short period of time.

SMILE Spring teacher workshop is truly hands-on -- in the river near HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. (contributed photo)

Nyssa, Ore., is located on Oregon’s eastern border, much closer to Boise than Portland. The town’s only high school has about 300 students. Many of the students are Latino, most come from rural, lower income families, and few have parents who attended college (less than 7 percent of adults in Nyssa have a degree).

But in the last 25 years, the idea of attending college has become more of a reality for Nyssa High School students. In part, that’s because of a strong relationship they’ve formed with Oregon State University through an afterschool program called SMILE (Science & Math Investigative Learning Experiences Program).

SMILE provides educational programming through its afterschool science and math clubs for more than 650 underserved youth, and training and support to 55 teachers in 34 rural grade and high schools in Oregon. The teachers attend workshops held at OSU where they learn to serve as after-school club advisors, are provided curriculum and engaging activities to foster interest and engagement in to participating students which emphasizes math, science, engineering and health. A majority of those students are Latino and Native American, and the rest are low-income white students.

Ken Dickey has been the SMILE teacher at Nyssa High School for more than two decades. He’s seen students who previously hadn’t considered college now fully committed to attending a university.

“The emphasis SMILE places on college readiness has a contagious effect, I believe, on our entire student body,” Dickey said. “After many years of investment in SMILE, our students know that they really can go to college and succeed if they develop the right attitude and put in the effort – their older brothers and sisters, their cousins and friends have already proven it so.”

More than 7,000 students have participated in SMILE programs over the last 25 years. But the impact of SMILE is much greater, SMILE assistant director Ryan Collay says, because in addition to their role as club advisers, the teachers also bring their specialized training back to their classrooms, meaning that thousands of students have been exposed to high-level science and math curriculum.

SMILE conducts a year-long schedule of activities designed to provide hands-on science and math experience, strengthen student knowledge and raise student academic and career aspirations via after school clubs, college connection events and a summer bridge program for SMILE graduates attending OSU. There are also annual middle and high school challenge events that bring SMILE students from across Oregon together to compete in science events such as the high school Ocean Sciences Challenge.

2012 Summer Bridge students doing a team-building exercise. (contributed photo)

Dickey said these strong ties to the university have really propelled Nyssa students toward a college degree.

“Because of the OSU connections and its continuing commitment to the Nyssa community, so many students have enjoyed college success – students who I believe likely would never have undertaken college,” Dickey said.

On Oct. 15, SMILE was one of 24 organizations honored by the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for National and Community Service as Together for Tomorrow Challenge winners for the 2012-2013 school year. The award recognizes community-led partnerships whose goal is assisting struggling schools. SMILE was the only statewide rural program focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) honored at the event.

Collay says that SMILE is not a stand-alone program. Instead, “Our function is as the glue that binds people together.” Those people are teachers, school administrators, family OSU educators and many others that all lend their support, aid and time to making sure the SMILE program reaches its goal. Collay sees SMILE’s biggest success is in developing and facilitating mutually beneficial relationships between entities with similar goals, but perhaps less capacity to directly reach the K-12 students and teachers in these underserved communities.

“We serve the least-served schools because they are the least likely to gain any other services,” said Collay. It’s about more than directly providing programming. SMILE staff looks at the kind of partners they need to amplify their own offerings, with both funding and expertise that greatly expand what SMILE could do on its own.

Ted Strub, a professor with the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, said SMILE was an important outreach partner for the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Oceanographic Satellite Studies during its 10-year lifetime. SMILE’s existing structure allowed the group to provide public school teachers and students with examples of how a mission-based agency like NOAA uses science and technology to solve problems facing the nation, such as oil spills, management of fisheries and search and rescue operations by the Coast Guard.

“During our 5-year review, the External Review Board was so impressed with SMILE that they made the recommendation that NOAA consider it as a model for broader, national programs,” Strub said.

To create such an outreach program on its own would have taken a long time, Strub said.

“The SMILE program allowed us to use our limited resources efficiently in promoting science and its use to solve societal problems.”

Jo Oshiro, program coordinator for ETIC, said SMILE raises the bar for students and teachers in the communities it serves.

“SMILE has been a great partner for us in spreading the details of how to implement successful youth development programs in academics, sharing successes and challenges with other programs,” Oshiro said. “Their work on bringing engineering – the process, the discipline, the colleges, the career — to middle school students has been way ahead of the curve on the STEM education you hear so much about these days.”

Courtney Strohmeyer, an OSU senior with the Student Events and Activities Center, prepares a display in the MU Concourse for the Everyone Matters campaign. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Non-Judgment Day is upon us. Are you ready?

This term, a new student-led campaign at Oregon State University has been working to make everyone feel welcome and supported on campus. The “Everyone Matters @ OSU” campaign was inspired by a Global campaign called “Everyone Matters” which encourages people to use social media to tell their stories about non-judgment and inclusivity.

At Oregon State, students Neha Neelwarne, Jeffrey Tsang and Hannah Pynn, along with the support of the Dean of Student Life, created an OSU version of the campaign focused on inclusion and non-judgment at Oregon State. Since September, the students have been gathering pledges from students, staff and faculty across campus focused on positive aspects of interaction. People have pledged to “Say hi to new people so they can feel welcome at OSU,” and “See the best in others,” or “Be compassionate to everyone.” Lisa Hoogesteger, director of Healthy Campus Initiatives, even pledged to “Listen to Duck fans.”

“At OSU, we want to nurture an environment where everyone is treated with civility, dignity and respect,” said Neelwarne. “College is a place where we’re supposed to foster learning, and that includes learning about, and respecting the differences, between all of us.”

A series of videos has been produced by several groups of faculty and students, focused on different aspects of inclusivity. Student Maria Garcia thanked her parents for supporting her pursuit of higher education. Members of the Office of Equity and Inclusion talked about the importance of supporting working parents. Each video offered a different definition of what it means to matter at OSU.

Courtney Strohmeyer and Neha Neelwarne discuss strategy as they work on a display for the Everyone Matters campaign. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

The official “Day of Non-Judgment,” is a 24-hour challenge to not judge, in thought or action, and will take place on Nov. 14, at 11:14 a.m., in the Memorial Union Quad. Participants will read a pledge of equity and inclusion out loud, and students will repeat it. Because the event is happening during International Education Week, the pledge will also be read by students in their native Chinese, Arabic and Spanish. Afterward cocoa will be available for participants.

Additionally, a display of pledges made around campus is being shown in the MU Concourse. There is an interactive piece as well, allowing visitors to share how they have been judged, and why they matter at OSU.

For more information on the campaign, see https://www.facebook.com/EveryoneMattersAtOsu

~ Theresa Hogue

Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez, an OSU student cultural center, will be torn down and a new center built in its place. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

For 30 years, Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez has been a home base for Latino/a students. When it was established in 1972 as the Chicano Cultural Center, it was housed in the basement of Milam Hall. In 1977, the students moved into a rather run-down house on university property, which would become the permanent home of the Cultural Center.

Now, the Centro is about to be demolished, and a new structure will rise in its place. On Thursday, Nov. 1, students, faculty and administrators gathered to celebrate the rich history of the cultural center, and to symbolically welcome the new center, which should be completed by the end of 2013.

“At a time when so many campuses are questioning whether cultural centers are needed, we believe deeply that OSU is strengthened by our centers,” said Vice Provost for Student Affairs Larry Roper.

Roper said the construction of this new cultural center, along with three others scheduled for replacement with new buildings (including the Native American Longhouse, the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center and the Asian and Pacific Cultural Center), is a reinforcement of the university’s commitment to the support of cultural communities and the recognition that OSU is part of a global community.

Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez's internal coordinator Pedro Arenas speaks with OSU President Ed Ray before a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 1. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

He credited OSU President Ed Ray with doggedly pursuing the improvement of OSU’s cultural centers.

“Ed’s commitment to a rich and diverse cultural life and creating a campus culture that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion are a hallmark of his OSU Presidency,” Roper said.

Ray said that cultural centers are known to support student engagement, encourage retention and offer a number of specialized services to the students who regularly make them their home away from home.

“Cultural centers provide a touchstone, a safe place and a familiar environment for students of different backgrounds,” Ray said. “But they also reach out (to the broader community). They really do enrich everybody’s lives.”

Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez internal coordinator Pedro Arenas thanked everyone who had gathered to celebrate the center’s new future, and joked that the Centro provided an important purpose, even if it was just a place for tired students to take naps.

A number of students spoke about the importance the Centro has had in engaging with many student groups on campus.  Nicthe Verdugo of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Atzlan) said the Centro was essential to promoting the culture and history of Chicano students on campus, and provided many leadership opportunities as well.

Many students gathered to celebrate the symbolic groundbreaking for the new Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez building on campus. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

“By having the opportunity to work with El Centro,” she said, “It has given us the opportunity to be better leaders.”

Elizabeth Ramirez of Kalmekak Community Outreach said Centro staff has open arms for any students who come to visit.

“El Centro is always so welcoming,” she said. “We hope to foster a connected and better community for years to come.”

~ Theresa Hogue

Mindi Helmandollar, an OSU alum, teaches fourth grade in Utah, and has brought OSU to her class. (contributed photo)

OGDEN, Utah — When Mindi Helmandollar steps into her fourth-grade classroom on Friday mornings, she is greeted with a sea of orange and black. In Corvallis, that might not seem unusual, but Helmandollar is teaching at an elementary school in Ogden, Utah, where Weber State University’s purple and white are more likely to be seen.

Helmandollar’s fourth graders are infused with Beaver spirit, and not just because their teacher is a proud alum of Oregon State University, graduating in 2009 with a business management degree. Every classroom teacher in Lincoln Elementary School has been asked to adopt a different university in order to get their students excited about going to college. For Helmandollar, it was an easy choice.

“I attended two other colleges before I went to Oregon State,” she said. “Oregon State is where I felt my teachers actually knew my name and took the time to get to know me.”

Lincoln is a Title 1 school, which means it has a large low-income population. Inspiring these kids to consider a university degree is especially important, Helmandollar says.

Helmandollar increases her students' vocabulary with college terms.

“The biggest challenge working in a Title 1 school is that a lot of the students’ home lives are hard,” she said. “There are many students who haven’t eaten since lunch the day before. They are constantly moving schools, they can’t sleep because they are sharing rooms with brothers and sisters, and they are also usually splitting time between two homes or a parent is in prison.  All of those reasons make getting our students excited and aware about the possibilities of college a necessity so they can have a promising future.”

One of the ways that teachers at Lincoln get their kids excited is allowing them to visualize one particular university and become steeped in its traditions and stories. As a former OSU cheerleader, instilling school spirit comes easy. She’s found ways to weave it into almost every lesson and aspect of her classroom. Twice a day they sing the OSU Fight song. They pass by walls decorated with OSU posters. They learn vocabulary words like “transcripts” and “syllabus.” When they move up a level in math, they progress from a bachelor’s to a master’s, and finally to a Ph.D level.

“One of our writing activities was to write a letter to an Oregon State student asking them questions that they may want to know before they go there when they get older,” Helmandollar said. And every Friday, they all wear orange and black.

The approach seems to be working. One of Helmandollar’s students told her that his father had dreamed of becoming a doctor, but hadn’t gone to college, and was working as a painter. After learning that students of all ages attend college, he went home to tell his dad that he could still pursue a degree.

“I thought that was really neat to see how my students are even encouraging their parents to go to college so they can still achieve their dreams,” she said.

Helmandollar plans on visiting her alma mater for the Homecoming game, but for her, OSU is as close as stepping into her own classroom each morning. And she’s determined that the success she found at OSU is something that her own students will one day discover for themselves.

“All students have dreams of becoming something,” she said. “Letting them know and believe they can do it gives them the opportunity of becoming something great.  They must also understand that they need to work hard and that there are no excuses in order to get to college, so developing good work and study habits now will help them succeed throughout their schooling.”

~ Theresa Hogue

GTA Tim Pusack (center, standing) teaches students how to extract DNA from strawberries. Pusack said preparing GTAs before they step into the classroom is important. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Tim Pusack grew up surrounded by a family of teachers, so it’s perhaps not surprising that he has a passion for being in the classroom. The Connecticut native’s parents are high school teachers, and many other family members work in education, so he was on the receiving end of plenty of pedagogical conversations as a kid.

Now he’s putting all that to work as he teaches other Oregon State University graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) the ins and outs of being an instructor. He is one of a dozen GTAs nominated by their colleges to take part in this year’s GTA orientation, offered Sept. 13-14 through the Center for Teaching and Learning. The orientation will help new GTAs practice their techniques and learn how to deal with diverse and complex classrooms.

Pusack has a deep love of science, and received a bachelor’s in natural sciences at Colgate University before spending time in Boston doing genetics work on muscular dystrophy. When he decided to pursue a PhD, he chose to move to the West Coast to explore a new area of the country, and to live near enough to the Pacific to indulge his love of scuba diving.

That’s when he connected with OSU’s Professor Mark Hixon, who was looking for a graduate student interested in both genetics and ecology to conduct research on coral reefs.

“It seemed like the perfect opportunity to come out to Oregon,” Pusack said.

As a graduate student, Pusack has not only enjoyed working on important research projects, but has tested the waters as a GTA as well.

Pusack felt prepared before teaching his first lab course. GTA training is mandatory in his college, and he also sought out other learning opportunities, including teaching courses offered by Jessica White, assistant director for co-curricular learning with the Center for Teaching and Learning. But nothing could quite prepare him for the daunting feeling of a room’s attention fully focused on him.

The first time Pusack stepped into a classroom as a teacher, rather than a student, he was faced with a roomful of silent pupils, all staring at him. Suddenly, he realized that he was the one in control, and the feeling was a little intimidating.

“I paused for a second and realized that I was pretty nervous, having everyone rely on me to lead the class.”

But after a few minutes, Pusack began to enjoy the experience.

“As I get into teaching a class and get into the flow, I really enjoyed talking to students, probing them with questions and really trying to challenge them as much as I could.”

Now, Pusack’s focus is in bringing out the best in students and creating an atmosphere where learning is fun, even while it’s hard work.

“They trust me that they can make mistakes, that it’s okay to be a learner, and we’re going to work through this together,” Pusack said. “I’m going to set you up to succeed and not punish you for failure.”

When he completes his doctorate in zoology in the next year, Pusack hopes to find a position that allows him to continue his research work, while also putting him in the classroom as much as possible.

“My creativity, my inspiration lies in figuring different ways to teach, and getting students excited about learning. I really want to find a position that has an emphasis on that.”

Sara Schmitt is another GTA fellow gearing up for the GTA workshop this fall. Active learning is something that Schmitt holds up as the ideal way to teach. Her model was a GTA who led a discussion session for her African history course. He was from Kenya, and brought his lessons to life using demonstrations of food preparation, dance and dress, which led to dynamic group discussions.

Now a GTA herself, Schmitt often thinks back to that class, and to the way that her teacher’s approach made the classroom experience come to life.

“In my classes, I try to model this ‘active learning’ technique as much as possible, by engaging students in interesting independent and group activities (e.g., role playing, discussions) and applying course concepts to relevant real-life examples,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt is pursuing a doctorate in Human Development and Family Sciences under adviser Megan McClelland. She received her undergraduate degree from University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Teaching is part of her workload as a doctoral student, and although she was nervous, and even terrified, when she first stepped in front of a class, she said she got plenty of support from College of Public Health and Human Sciences faculty, and felt well prepared.

“I think the most valuable thing I’ve learned is to be true to my individual teaching style, and not try to be someone I’m not,” she said. “I’ve learned that it is okay to not know the answers to everything.  I feel comfortable now telling students that I don’t know the answer to his/her question, but I will find it and report back.”

Schmitt’s primary focus in class is the student-instructor interaction. She makes an effort to learn her students’ names and frequently checks in via email, or offers opportunities for meetings. She also demands class participation to make sure students feel engaged with the material they’re learning.

While balancing teaching and working on her own degree can be difficult, the experience of being in front of a class is definitely worth it to Schmitt.

“The best part about teaching for me is observing student growth in a particular topic or course,” she said. “I love observing and being a part of those ‘a-ha!’ moments that students experience.”

Kasra Asizian, right, Ralen Jones, center, and Sophie Wilson, left, help clear weeds in the SAGE community garden as part of a community service project. Photo: Theresa Hogue

Sweating in the warm July sun, a group of Oregon State University students laughed and joked as their garden hoes struck the soil in unison. Scattered around the SAGE Community Garden at Starker Arts Park in southeast Corvallis, they were focused on pulling weeds and planting potatoes, a task many of them had never before attempted.

But becoming comfortable with unfamiliar things is an important part of being a PROMISE intern. PROMISE stands for Professional and Managerial Internships in State Employment, and has been housed at OSU since 1992. It pairs OSU juniors and seniors with paid work experience at a variety of state and local government agencies, including within the university. The program, which is operated out of the OSU Office of Equity and Inclusion, lasts for 10 weeks each summer, and many of its participants are from historically underrepresented groups.

In addition to gaining professional work experience, the interns attend weekly professional development luncheons and workshops, and participate in a community service event. This year, the interns gathered to help out at Starker Arts Park and its neighboring community garden.

“The professional development portion is huge,” said Kasra Azizian, a senior at OSU. “We’re learning how to put a portfolio together, and it will be nice to come out of the program with a portfolio I can present for graduate school or for getting a job.”

Azizian formerly worked with OSU KidSpirit, and his adviser, Karen Swanger, suggested PROMISE might be a good fit for him. He was paired with Catherine Law of OSU’s Pre-College Programs, and has been spending the summer working on engineering education projects for youth.

Next to him in the garden was Ralen Jones, a business management and entrepreneurship student who had been looking for a good summer internship, and found PROMISE met the bill. He is working with Lissa Perrone in the Office of Business Affairs.

Sophie Wilson, left, and Ralen Jones help clear weeds in the SAGE community garden. Photo: Theresa Hogue

“PROMISE seemed like something that would get me involved with the community and keep me local,” Jones said. “I needed to build my business networking skills and I thought this would be a good place to do it.”

Jones intends to get into project management after graduation and the PROMISE program is giving him experience he’ll be able to take to future employers.

Sophie Wilson just graduated with a degree in human development and family sciences. She’s attending OSU in the fall as a graduate student, and wanted a good summer internship that would keep her in Corvallis.

She’s working with Dean of Student Life Mamta Accapadi, someone she’d had the chance to work with previously.

“This was a great way for me to continue my relationship with her,” Wilson said. She’s been tasked with creating video resources for incoming students that are available online.

“Coming from being an undergraduate to a graduate student, there are a lot of transitional pieces you can’t learn in the classroom,” Wilson said, and the PROMISE internship is helping her fill in some of those pieces.

“Plus it’s a chance to give back to Corvallis,” she said.

Diane Davis, director of the PROMISE program, said this year’s cohort of 27 interns is particularly motivated.

“They are the most engaged and energetic group I’ve had,” she said. She hopes that word continues to spread about the PROMISE program, and encourages OSU faculty and staff to consider sponsoring an intern next summer.

For more information on the program, contact Davis at diane.davis@oregonstate.edu. To read blog postings by this summer’s PROMISE interns, go to: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/promise/

The Phoenix, OSU's solar powered competition vehicle. (contributed photo)

Oregon State University’s Solar Vehicle Team was awarded the “Spirit of the Rayce” award during the American Solar Challenge, a race that took place last week. The OSU team’s vehicle, The Phoenix, finished sixth place in the challenge and fifth place in the Formula Sun Grand Prix. The vehicle traveled from Rochester, N.Y. to St. Paul, MN in an eight-day race.

The Phoenix crossed the finish line Saturday at the St. Paul, Minnesota capitol, finishing in 6th place in the American Solar Challenge and 5th place in the Formula Sun Grand Prix! The Phoenix traveled eight states in eight days, from Rochester, NY, to St. Paul, MN.

Oregon State was the first team to pass inspection during the race, and spent the remaining time assisting other teams. As a result, the OSU Solar Vehicle Team was awarded the “Spirit of the Rayce” award, which recognizes OSU as representing the spirit solar car racing: overcoming hardships, good sportsmanship, teamwork, cooperation, and making a well-engineered car.

The OSU Solar Vehicle Team (contributed photo)

Additionally, the award was given to OSU after they put out a battery fire for the Illinois State University team. Illinois State was able to save half of their battery pack and continue to race after repairs.

OSU co-captain Hai-Yue Han was given the “Individual Spirit of the Rayce” award in recognition of his assistance to other teams and officials.  He spent his time helping with engineering, welding, and construction

This summer marks the 14th year of the program, which is supported by funds provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Frances, Ray, and Dale Cripps Scholarship fund, OSU’s URISC and URISC-Start programs, the Research Office, the Graduate School, the University Honors College, the Johnson Scholarship, the Jaworski Scholarship, the Department of Biochemistry/Biophysics, and numerous research grants to OSU professors.  Student applications consisted of a letter of interest, biographical sketch, and a letter of support for a potential mentor. Participants were chosen for fellowships on the basis of their stated interests, future plans, academic record, and potential for success.

The program will hold its annual symposium Sept. 15-17. The event will be in ALS 4001 and is open to the public. Everyone is invited to attend.

Kevin Ahern, senior instructor in biochemistry/biophysics and director for Undergraduate Research at OSU leads the student program and Dan Arp, dean of the College of Agriculture is director of the overall HHMI Program.  With this year’s participants, 600 students will have participated in the program by summer’s end.

OSU has long recognized the unique educational value of an individual research experience. The Howard Hughes grant substantially increases the number of students who are able to participate in an intense, full-time research experience over a several-month period, engaging in frequent contact with other students and with a faculty mentor.

The High Desert Youth Range Camp offers students the chance to learn about management issues in the high desert. (contributed photo)

High school students from Oregon, Idaho and Washington attended the 2nd annual High Desert Youth Range Camp (HDYRC) June 17-21 at the Northern Great Basin Experimental Range 40 miles west of Burns, OR. The camp focuses on natural resources and rangelands through hands-on learning activities and has become an annual event offered to high-school age students from across the West. Campers traveled from eight counties including Payette, ID, Walla Walla, WA, and Wheeler, Jefferson, Baker, Harney, Malheur and Polk counties in Oregon. The event was sponsored by Oregon State University.

During the five-day camp, students learned about sagebrush habitat, soils, plant identification, juniper, wildlife, wolf research, rangeland monitoring, invasive species and the work of a local rancher who made a guest presentation about his efforts to develop collaborative groups working on challenging management issues from a ranch management perspective. The campers even used Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to locate items they needed to create their first meal.

At the conclusion of the HDYRC, multiple campers received awards based on their knowledge, leadership, participation, presentation skills and attitude during camp. The most prestigious award, the “Trail Boss”, is sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Section of the Society of Range Management (SRM) and provides an all-expense paid trip for one student to attend the SRM Annual Conference, this year in Oklahoma City, OK. The candidate will represent the state of Oregon in the High School Youth Forum. This is an incredible opportunity for this individual who will also have the opportunity to work closely with Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center scientists to prepare a presentation for the youth forum. The 2012 award recipients were:

Trail Boss: Andrew Zahl (Walla Walla Co.)
Top Hand: Andrea Herrera (Harney Co.)
Range Wrangler: (Top Plant ID Test) Tasha Rowley (Harney Co.)
Most Improved: John Smith (Jefferson Co.)
Oregon High School Youth Forum Candidate: Drew Dyer (Polk Co.)
Top Team Members: (selected by team mates) Austin Piper (Harney Co.), Drew Dyer (Polk Co.), Tasha Rowley (Harney Co.),  Andrew Zahl (Walla Walla Co.)

In addition, 27 experts from around Oregon volunteered their time coordinating the camp from initial planning and organizing to attending, supervising, counseling, cooking and instructing during the five days.

A Campus Recycling staff member sorts through items donated by OSU students as they moved off campus in June. Contributed photo.

Oregon State University students moving out of campus residence halls in June donated more than 20,122 pounds of housewares, food and other items that would otherwise have ended up in area landfills.

The amount beat last year’s record of 17.558 pounds and exceeded organizers’ goal to collect 20,000 pounds this year. The annual Residence Hall Move-Out Donation Drive collected, by category:
• 7,932 pounds of housewares
• 5,252 pounds of clothing, linens and shoes
• 4,421 pounds of reusable scrap wood
• 2,517 pounds of food, toiletries and school supplies
• 571 pounds of e-waste that was recycled (a new category of items that was accepted this year)

While a portion of the donations go to the OSUsed Store, the majority went to local nonprofits, including Linn Benton Food Share, The Cat’s Meow Thrift Shop, Love INC of Benton County and others.

The donation drive is coordinated by OSU Campus Recycling, Surplus Property, and University Housing and Dining. This year 27 volunteers put in 83 hours of work collecting and sorting the donations.
To help students contribute to the donation drive, every room was provided with a move-out kit – color-coded bags in which to sort and an instructional door hanger – and donation bins were placed in every hall’s lobby. Recycling bins were also placed in lobbies, and picked up more frequently to accommodate extra material.

“When all of these parties come together – students, OSU departments, volunteers and non-profits – it’s amazing how much we can capture that is no longer needed, and channel that to people who do need it,” said Andrea Norris, outreach coordinator for Campus Recycling and Surplus Property. “It benefits OSU and our entire community.”

For more information on the donation drive, visit http://recycle.oregonstate.edu.

They also will receive grants in aid of their research jointly via their Departments and the College of Science made possible by the generosity of donors, and in particular donations to the College of Science’s Women in Science Fund.

The Women in Science Fund was established with the goal of supporting and encouraging scientists as they progress toward the rank of Professor.  The generous support of donors has made this program possible.

Winners of the scholarships were Alejandra Marquez Loza, a junior majoring in bioresource research, and Annika Swanson, a sophomore majoring in biochemistry and biophysics.

An honorable mention went to Brynn Livesay, a junior majoring in bioengineering.

This scholarship program was authorized by Congress in 1986 to honor Sen. Barry Goldwater. It recognizes excellence in science and mathematics, and is also designed to encourage more students to pursue careers in science, math and engineering.

“Being recognized for the best paper in the region is a tremendous start, but it is the just the beginning.  My goal all along was to be the best college paper in the country. We’re one step closer to being just that,” Editor-In-Chief Brandon Southward said.

The Daily Barometer was awarded the following Mark of Excellence awards at the regional conference in Tacoma, Wash. on March 31:

First place, “Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper”

First place, “Sports Column Writing,”  Jesse Severson, writer

First place, “Breaking News Reporting,” Kristin Pugmire, writer

Second place, “General News Photography,” Vinay Bikkina, photographer

Second place, “Sports Column Writing,” Grady Garrett, writer

Second place, “Sports Writing,” Grady Garrett, writer

SPJ’s region 10 includes Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Alaska and Washington.  The first-place award winners will go on to compete at the national competition.

“These awards reflect the commitment to excellence of our student journalists. The Daily Barometer has a long history of greatness.  The students have honored the legacy with these awards,” said Julia Sandidge, director of Student Media.

Campus Recycling Outreach Coordinator Andrea Norris (right) presents a trophy made out of reused materials to McNary Hall Treasurer Jeff Robideau (left), the prize for the residence hall recycling competition during last year's competition. (Photo: Shelly Clark)

Oregon State University is in the midst of a RecycleMania Residence Hall competition, and a group of students who call themselves Eco Warriors is whipping up competitive spirit around campus.

Each residence hall has one student tasked with encouraging their fellow residents to participate in the competition. All 14 of OSU’s residence halls are participating.

“I signed up to be an Eco Warrior because I enjoy creating ways to make people aware of their impact on the environment and how we, as a whole, can improve our imprint,” said Taylor Shields, an OSU student in mathematics and the Eco Warrior for McNary residence hall.

The object of the competition, which takes place through Feb. 24, is to see which hall can recycle the most, based on the total per capita weight of paper, plastic, metal and glass. Results are updated online at http://tiny.cc/2012reshall. McNary is leading in the competition and trying to defend its 2011 RecycleMania Champion title.

“I think our hall will win RecycleMania because we are all committed,” Shields said. “People in our hall like to participate in activities and we have a nice community. The winning hall will get the trophy to display for the next year, and a pizza party on the date of their choice at the end of winter term.

Each Eco Warrior is charged with maintaining a display showing how their hall is stacking up throughout the competition, updating their hall council on progress and being the go-to person for questions about recycling.

Shields is going above and beyond her basic duties, hanging additional signage and hosting a make-your-own reusable bag event, in which McNary residents decorated their own cloth bags. The bags were handmade by Lindsay Pritchard, a student in apparel design and secretary of the Residence Hall Association.

“I also hope to put on an event that will inform residents on the proper ways to recycle in the resident halls,” Taylor said.

The residence hall recycling competition is part of RecycleMania, a 10-week national recycling competition between universities, taking place Jan. 22 through March 31. OSU is competing nationally and in a civil war competition with the University of Oregon, and hosting various events throughout the competition. More information is available at http://recycle.oregonstate.edu/opportunities/recyclemania

Sean Muir, a GTA in chemistry, will be teaching new GTAs during the fall orientation. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

When Ben Lansky first became a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) in the department of English, he found himself well supported by the faculty, and benefited from several days of orientation before his first teaching assignment. He graded sample essays, role-played possible confrontations with students, and talked about how to craft an authoritative-but-friendly teaching persona.

But when he first stepped in front of a classroom full of students, he realized that he still wasn’t truly prepared for what he was facing.

“I wish that I’d known from the start what to emphasize to the students–there’s so much information to convey to them that at first it’s hard to tell the essential from the inessential,” Lansky said. “I also wish I’d had more preparation with regard to lesson planning. Though I was given very thorough, ready-made lesson plans for every day of the entire course, I had to figure out what worked best by trial and error. I would have benefited from more discussion with experienced educators.”

Now, for the first time, new GTAs will have the opportunity to attend a teaching orientation that will help them practice their techniques and learn how to deal with diverse and complex classrooms full of students. The new orientation is being organized by the OSU Center for Teaching and Learning, and is meant to compliment the general orientation that all graduate students receive from the Graduate School.

The new orientation, offered only to GTAs, will be facilitated by Jessica White and Robin Pappas, assistant directors of the Center for Teaching and Learning, as well as a cohort of GTAs who were nominated by faculty members as being particularly outstanding teachers. The program is modeled on one that White launched in 2008, which was supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant. That training program was aimed at GTAs teaching introductory biology labs.

“The HHMI grant got me thinking about this,” White said, “and I think it created some momentum on campus. We’ve seen such great success with the biology training program, and there’s been a demand for more of this kind of training. That was always our hope, that we would develop smaller modules that could be expanded.”

The two-day orientation begins in mid September, following the Graduate School’s general orientation. The first day is specifically focused on international GTAs, through a partnership with International Programs and INTO.

“The focus will be cultural,” White said. “Many international graduate students come from educational systems that are very different. They might have a limited understanding of the bacc core, or what communication skills are necessary for a US classroom.”

Even assessing what behavior is appropriate or not can be tricky to navigate for GTAs coming from another country, and considering that these students have to also adjust to their own coursework and new living situation, it can be a lot to ask, White said.

The second day will be a training open to all GTAs, international and domestic. It will focus on instructional policies and procedures, effective instruction skills and teaching resources.

“We know we can’t give TAs everything they need in one session,” White said, “but what we can do is to prepare them for their first week of teaching, and then after that we hope they will attend workshops through the Center for Teaching and Learning.”

Lansky, who will be helping teach during the orientation, said the new orientation will greatly benefit incoming students.

“Too few GTAs receive the thorough preparation and generous support that I did,” he said. “I’ve talked to many GTAs from other departments who began teaching with no experience and no preparation. Not only is this unfair to GTAs (who may be nervous, harried, intimidated, etc), it’s also unfair to their students, who deserve confident and effective instruction.”

For some first-time GTAs, simply learning how to facilitate a class discussion or prepare a syllabus is a daunting task.

“It is anxiety provoking, to say the least,” White said.

Having well-trained, prepared GTAs doesn’t just benefit the graduate students.

“It improves the quality of the undergraduate experience,” White said. “As class sizes get bigger, GTAs are teaching more courses. These are important roles, and we need to have our GTAs prepared to be good instructors.”

Brenda McComb, dean of the Graduate School, said giving GTAs specialized training will add to their success as graduate students.

“If GTAs all enter the fall term with a common set of skills and a community of connections, then they will have a greater likelihood of being successful,” she said, “and if they are successful then the undergraduates with whom they’re working will also benefit.”

Departments have specialized orientation for their incoming GTAs in addition to the general Graduate School orientation. White said this voluntary instructional orientation is meant “not to supplant that but to unburden departments from having to deal with university-wide information,” so they can focus on topics specific to the discipline or department.

This year, there are spots for 350 GTAs in the training session. White would love to see all those spots will be taken, and hopes if demand increases, the Center for Teaching and Learning can find the funding to increase the scope of the training in coming years.

Kaitlin Bonner, another GTA helping with the orientation, said she hopes graduate students will come away with more confidence.

“It is really stressful being a TA for the first time, so I hope (the orientation) will help make the first TAing experience a little smoother and more fun,” she said. “I really like teaching and I just want others to have a good experience doing so.”

~ Theresa Hogue

Items were sorted by type before being distributed to local charities. (contributed photo)

When Oregon State University students moved out of their residence halls in June, they left behind them thousands of pounds of clothing, furniture and other no-longer-needed items. But instead of filling up dumpsters, the annual OSU residence hall donation drive successfully collected 17,558 pounds of material for people in need, beating the 2010 record.

Campus Recycling, Surplus Property and University Housing and Dining work together to collect the discarded material each year, depending on the initiative of students to sort and donate their unwanted items rather than tossing them in the garbage.

“This not only addresses the environmental impact of landfilling the material, but also provides an opportunity to give back to the community,” said Andrea Norris, outreach coordinator for Campus Recycling and Surplus Property.

This year, organizers hoped to beat their 2010 record of 11,651 pounds. They managed to collect 1.5 times as much.

Seventeen community members volunteered to help with collection, receiving, sorting and donating the material, helping make the donation drive a success. Volunteers contributed approximately 70 hours, critical in a time when the student work force is sparse during finals week.

While a small portion of the items were sold by OSU Surplus Property to recoup the costs of the donation drive, the majority of donations went to Benton Habitat for Humanity, Calvary Chapel of Corvallis, Corvallis School District, Goodwill, Linn Benton Food Share, Love INC, and the Vina Moses Center.

“The shoes were especially appreciated by our clients,” said Wilma Van Schelven, director of Love INC of Benton County, “They went to homeless citizens, pastors who live on low incomes and school coaches who need athletic shoes for students who are unable to afford them.”

In addition to shoes, other donated materials included clothing, bedding, unopened food and toiletries, school supplies, scrap wood and housewares. Students were provided with color-coded bags for sorting donations into bins in each residence hall’s lobby.

“We were so impressed and appreciative of our students, who took time out of their busy finals week schedules to sort and donate,” Norris said.

For more information on the donation drive, visit http://recycle.oregonstate.edu.

Mario Magana makes sure his 4-H Latino Camp counselors are well prepared to apply for college scholarships.

Samantha Martinez has become the fourth Oregon State University 4-H Latino summer camp counselor in five years to receive a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarship, a prestigious full-ride scholarship from undergraduate through Ph.D. study, given out to only 1,000 students a year.

Martinez, a senior at Douglas McKay High School in Salem, plans on attending this fall Sweet Briar College in Virginia, eventually hoping for a career with the FBI.

Her mentor, camp director Mario Magana of OSU, said he believes the role model philosophy of the 4-H program is a big motivator for high school students, and the fact that so many of his former students became Millennium Scholars is an added inspiration.

There’s also a practical aspect.

“We teach kids how to apply for scholarships,” he said. “There’s a big difference in telling students to apply for scholarships and teaching them how to do it. That’s what’s really making the difference. They have a clear understanding of what to do, and hands-on experience.”

“What is making the difference is that it is not a one-time contact or information received,” he said. “It is because our constant outreaching and engaging youth into a sequence of year-round events, leadership involvement, and educational activities. I firmly believe that the sequence of events and the amount of time spent in our program are the major factors that are preparing students for the best.”

Bill and Melinda Gates established the Millennium Scholarship program with a $1 billion gift in 1989 to help qualified minority students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in math, science, education and library science.

~ Theresa Hogue