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Oregon State University's Outreach Program Benefits Portland Students

Posted on: Wednesday, 9 March 2005, 21:00 CST

An outreach program working with Portland Public Schools has been nationally recognized for its success in building bridges between natural resources issues, urban youth and the need to encourage more young students to pursue careers in the environmental sciences.

The program, organized by the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and supported by three other land management and research agencies, recently received the Annual Diversity Award for Partnership Achievement from Gale Norton, U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

This is a chance to spark an interest in natural resource issues among young Portland-area students, and help steer them toward some subjects they might otherwise not have considered, said David Stemper, manager of pre-college programs for the OSU College of Forestry. We also try to connect them to internships and job opportunities, even during high school, and ultimately take their interests to the next level at OSU or a community college.

Called the Inner City Youth Institute, the program since 1999 has been operating in Northeast Portland, mostly at Grant High School and three area middle schools. The program director works with teachers and students, providing natural resource exploration opportunities, unique projects, mentors, and funding for field expeditions, equipment and substitute teachers.

Topics of study for the students include exploration of salmon habitat and stream ecology, forestry and terrestrial ecology, and wildlife survey and management issues. All of the issues are explored at least in part with a forestry context, and the students often get a chance to work with natural resource professionals and sophisticated equipment.

Currently, both high-school and middle-school students are working in the Columbia Slough on a salmon restoration project. In this instance, the city of Portland is planning next summer to do some dredging of silt in various areas to improve what was historically a site for salmon maturation and migration.

Source: Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR)

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