Portland State University has been recognized nationally for implementing a campus-wide engagement strategy that involves students and faculty in service-learning activities throughout the Portland metropolitan community. Students and faculty are involved in community-based scholarship in curriculum and research programs. In Senior Capstone courses, interdisciplinary teams of students apply what they have learned in their previous courses to community-identified concerns.

A partnership with Portland public schools’ Migrant Education Program engages PSU students in teaching and tutoring migrant and Title 1 students. PSU also has partnerships that serve the Portland refugee community, such as SOAR (Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees) and IRCO (International Refugee Center of Oregon). Students assist refugees who have recently arrived in Portland with language acquisition and navigation of community resources.

A course in contemporary American Indian policy has students interview tribal government members, tribal resource managers, and health care providers to produce a “”Handbook of Indian Affairs in Northwest Oregon”". The handbook is distributed to public policy practitioners who may lack a deeper understanding of Indian Affairs.

Website: www.pdx.edu

Excerpted from Diversity Digest Summer 2001