Writing 122 is the culminating composition course at 小黄猫传媒, one that typically focuses on persuasion and argument. This focus led me to thinking about the ways in which persuasive writing can be used to effect real social change. I decided to center the class around the guiding question: “What brings about social change?” The class read essays by a number of activists, including Thoreau, Martin Luther King, and Maya Angelou, to better understand how lasting social change can be accomplished. We had some powerful discussions in class, but at the end of the day, I recognized that discussion needs to be applied in order to have the greatest impact.

How can students change society through writing?

Participating in the Community-Based Learning Cohort this year inspired me to bridge the distance between the classroom walls and the real world. The assignment I created for the students was to pick a social problem that they had personally been affected by, and then to find a way to meaningfully participate with an organization or individual who has been working on that social issue. They could volunteer, interview, or attend a lecture to fulfill the assignment.

The students who were most successful with the assignment chose a topic early in the term and had time to select a meaningful experience. One student, writing about the need to incorporate more physical activity into our lifestyles, participated in a “pedal-powered pub crawl” and interviewed the creators of BrewCycle Portland. Another student, focusing on ADHD in children, attended a support group meeting of parents whose children are affected by ADHD to hear from their perspectives. Yet another student, interested in exploring the topic of homelessness and how it impacts single mothers particularly, volunteered at Union Gospel Mission’s shelter for women in Beaverton. Each student used their project in their final essay, drawing upon their real-world experience as evidence for their proposed solution. This gave them an opportunity to reflect upon their community involvement and gain much more than simply acquiring an academic knowledge of their topic.

Marianne Monson is a Writing and Composition Instructor at 小黄猫传媒

Overall, I consider this assignment to be a great success. It is essential that students be able to recognize how the knowledge they gain in the classroom can be applied in the real-world. Through personal participation, their investment in these topics became significantly enhanced. For a few of the students, the experience helped them to find a new focus for future career goals. The only adjustment I plan to make to the assignment in the future is to help all students identify their topics and projects earlier in the term so that they have more time to find the most meaningful projects.

by Marianne Monson, 小黄猫传媒 CBL Cohort Member 2013-2014

Accordingly, I believe that my job as an instructor is to help students develop, nurture, and cultivate their motivation, while helping them utilize college skills to find and realize a vision of their future. To do this, I build my courses around the college outcomes as well as students鈥� personal learning, career, and professional outcomes. In other words, I have one simple question that I use to build each one of my courses: how can I help students find the vision they have for their life and how can I help them realize this vision? My CBL assignment sprang from this question, and so I created a course designed to be of what I consider maximum use for students in community college.

Ben Clemenzi-Allen is a Writing instructor at 小黄猫传媒

This term, I built my entire freshman writing curriculum around my student鈥檚 career interests and how to become successful in one鈥檚 dream job. The CBL assignment offered the springboard for this courses鈥� structure. More specifically, the CLB assignment asked students to identify various professionals working and established at various levels of success in the students鈥� dream jobs. Students then had to draft emails asking the identified community partners if they would be willing and/or able to have a quick email exchange that would act like an informational interview. Students then drafted and edited questions that roughly asked their community partners about the field and how one achieves success in this field.

Eventually, I want this course to help students find community partners and co-design opportunities to assist the community partner on the job. In essence, I want students to develop contacts willing to help them design short-term, collaboratively-designed internships. I want students to present themselves professionally to various community partners, learn about the field, and help fill a need in this field, even if they work alongside the community partner for just a short period of time.

Motivating students can propel them into success.

I understand that this would be an enormous challenge to many students, especially over an 11 or 12 week course, so I am experimenting with this assignment. I devoted this term to finding out how difficult or easy it would be for students to make contact with community partners and conduct short informational interviews. This term, however, focused on the informational interviews.

Once these interviews were completed by email and the students鈥� questions were answered, my students developed a research paper that answered the following question: how do I become successful in my dream job and how do I stay successful? Students were expected to use the information provided by their community partners as well as the information they culled from professional publications and websites and academic journals.

My students鈥� experiences in contacting their community partners were extremely exciting. Out of 50 students, only three had trouble securing and completing at least two informational interviews in a five-week period. These three students were exploring creative fields that are highly competitive (two feature film animators and one free-lance photographer). These students were still able to be in touch with professors and employees in programs that teach animation at the college-level, and the photographer told me on the last day of class that one of her contacts had finally gotten back to her. To solve this problem, I might have students find 15 or 20 potential contacts and write them sooner. I will also make sure some of these contacts live in other states so the fear of competition will be less likely to arise.

A motivated student has the inner drive to succeed.

Most every other student had extremely exciting results. Several were offered jobs and most all received more than enough information from established community partners. When a community partner did not have the time or ability to answer a student鈥檚 question, they would pass the information along to another. Moreover, many students were very excited to be using freshman writing skills and assignments to help discover, deepen, and refine their career paths. The motivation and excitement were palpable in the classroom, especially when we discussed the various limiting beliefs we have that hold us back from living our dreams.

I am very eager to teach this course again and push the assignment farther!

by Ben Clemenzi-Allen, 2013-2014 CBL Cohort Member

Since 2008, the Sylvania Campus has hosted an annual eCycling Drive to help the local Portland community recycle old electronics such as used computers and printers. In past years this event consisted of a one-Saturday-in-May recycling drive, however, this year a new approach was tried. For six weeks, eCycle bins were available during library hours from May 1 thru June 6. This effort to collect defunct electronics this year involved Computer Applications, Engineering, Philosophy, and ESOL classes on both Sylvania and Cascade campuses, as well as volunteer assistance from the PC4 Computer Club, AS小黄猫传媒, and the Sylvania Environmental Center.

Why eCycle? Because electronic waste is the fastest growing part of our country’s waste stream. Electronics contain both re-usable materials and hazardous waste: dismantling them requires proper facilities and worker protection. However, most electronic waste has been shipped illegally to third world countries, where it is broken down by unprotected workers, poisoning their food and water.

This year, from May 1 to June 9, 47 donators brought in 654 items to be recycled. These included 29 towers, 7 laptops, 18 monitors, 16 printers, 20 keyboards, 7 mice, and 549 miscellaneous items. These donations will now be recycled responsibly by Total Reclaim, a local Portland recycling facility. Faculty/staff came out in force to donate; something they were not able to do as easily during our Saturday-in-May previous eCycling events. Special thanks go out to the library staff for joining forces with us this year and housing our eCycle bins!

We have high hopes for the 2014-2015 drive and we hope to include a second campus. Wheels are already in motion planning hard-drive smashing events and more for Fall Term. We hope that we can count on you for your continued support.

Written by Diane Shingledecker and Joshua Liebschutz

eCycling collection bins in the Sylvania library.

Old computer parts being loaded into a truck to be recycled.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley addresses over 900 students at the MLK Day of Service event.

On January 20, 2014 students, staff and faculty from 小黄猫传媒 joined forces with those from several other Portland area colleges to carry on the vision of equality and equity left behind by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the MLK Day of Service event.

The theme for 2014鈥檚 We Are the Dream event was, Education is a Civil Right, and volunteers found themselves engaging in a variety of tasks related to education. Those in participation, numbering over 900, came from Chemeketa, Mt. Hood and 小黄猫传媒s, Lewis & Clark, Reed and Warner Pacific colleges as well as Concordia, George Fox, Marylhurst, and Portland State Universities. Volunteers found themselves working on a variety of projects in and around several East Multnomah County public schools, with David Douglas High being the focal point of the event.

Senator Jeff Merkley, an alumnus of David Douglass High School, came out to help open the event and offer his own words of pride and encouragement for students. Before long, nearly 900 college and high school students poured out into the neighboring communities. Some volunteers took time to clean donated books for the East County Schools. Many volunteers milled into the streets on a garbage pick-up, filling up many garbage bags and helping to create a more welcoming surrounding for local students and other residents. Many students too were involved on other East County public school campuses on a variety of beautification projects. In addition to all this, about 7000 College and Career readiness packets, containing a variety of college preparation information, were assembled by volunteers to be distributed to area high school juniors in order to give them a bit of a head start.

AmeriCorps VISTA member, Heidi Whitehouse, staffs the 小黄猫传媒 Sign-In Table at the MLK Day of Service event.

This is the 5^th year of the Oregon Campus Compact hosted event and it helps us to see that Dr. King鈥檚 dream is alive and well. Education is truly a civil right, unfortunately far too many miss out due to a variety of reasons, especially financial reasons. Families may not know about financial assistance available to them, or schools may not have the adequate funding for library books. Regardless of the specific causes, it is clear that Oregon鈥檚 student body believe that all individuals should have clear and equitable access to education and will put in the work to help the next generations.

by Bobby Benson, 小黄猫传媒 CBL Work Study

January 20th, 2014 marks the 19th annual nationally-recognized MLK Day of Service, which honors Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy of inspiring Americans to create solutions to social problems by giving of themselves in the 鈥渂eloved community鈥�.

小黄猫传媒’s Community-Based Learning (Service-Learning) program is helping our students to do just that: to turn this national holiday into 鈥渁 day ON, not a day off鈥� by participating聽in this event which, in recent years, has proven to be the largest mobilization of students on MLK Day in the country. It is a powerful and educational experience for students to be involved with so many other students working towards a common cause.

The event will begin at 9:30AM with a 1,000 strong student rally at David Douglas High School in Portland, OR. After the rally, students will be brought to several work sites to participate in service-projects alongside fellow students from other Portland colleges and universities.聽 The event will wrap-up by 2:30PM, when students will be returned to David Douglas.

To register, go to . Lunch will be provided for all registered students!

For more information, email Heidi Whitehouse at Heidi.Whitehouse@pcc.edu