As Lewis & Clark students enter the workforce, their focus on seeking global understanding and creating new knowledge aligns them with industries’ needs, especially in this time of economic turmoil.

“This is not a time to be fearful,” said Minda Heyman, director of the Center for Career and Community Engagement. “You can’t do anything from a position of fear. Instead, our office is working to empower students by encouraging them to get involved in the job-search process early and helping them tell their own stories. When students know who they are and what they have to offer to a company or organization, they’re able to take charge of their job search.”

For Lewis & Clark students, telling one’s story means articulating the connections between myriad experiences that extend far beyond the classroom, including overseas trips, internships, volunteer experiences, leadership positions, and extracurricular activities.

“Our students are tremendously talented and they are taking part in all sorts of different experiences that can help set them apart from other applicants during their job search,” Heyman said. “We’re here to help students synthesize those experiences with what they’re learning in the classroom in order to determine their path and purpose.”

The advantage of a liberal arts education and cohesive, diverse alumni community

Throughout a student’s time at Lewis & Clark, the Center for Career and Community Engagement (referred to on campus as 3CE) encourages students to make a sustained investment to the job search process. 3CE also focuses on helping students to find engagement opportunities and prepare for transitions to graduate school and the professional world by offering resources such as one-on-one meetings, resume and cover letter assistance, mock interviews, and job fairs.

This spring, 3CE also hosted a special guest lecturer on campus to help students understand how the job market has shifted and what skills are most important to businesses in the current economy. Phil Gardner, an expert in college labor markets, spoke to students, faculty, and administrators about the harsh realities of the current market.

Despite the current economy, he said, companies are hiring liberal arts students because their skills and experiences uniquely qualify them to enter jobs and immediately make an impact on business. As Gardner’s research has shown, entry-level positions have evolved in the wake of a boom in internships and now require new employees to engage in continuous learning, integrate global perspectives, and create new solutions.

At Lewis & Clark, students are continually challenged both in and out of the classroom to develop such attributes and perspectives, which is particularly relevant given the present level of competition in the professional world.

Both Heyman and Gardner stress the importance of networking as students embark on their job search. The interpersonal connections students make through their workstudy jobs, internships, study abroad trips, and other experiences, form the basis of students’ professional networks.

“Building relationships is becoming increasingly significant,” Heyman said. “A job search is not simply submitting an application anymore. It’s a communication process.”

Careers for Pioneers, a biannual networking event collaboratively organized by 3CE, Alumni and Parent Programs, and the Board of Alumni, capitalizes on the natural affinity that exists between students and alumni. Heyman hopes to continue to increase collaboration with alumni, citing the significance of such opportunities for current students.

“The alumni’s willingness to help current students build the relationships and internship opportunities that will expedite their transition into careers is so important,” Heyman said.

The Lewis & Clark alumni network is a diverse community, representing many different sectors in the job market and geographic locations around the world.

Finding value in thinking of the path, not the destination

The paths Lewis & Clark students take after graduation are comprised of many different stepping stones, Heyman said, which underscores a central mission of liberal arts education: to create life-long learners whose insatiable curiosity and adaptability makes them invaluable to countless industries. Particularly this year, graduates likely will not go directly into their careers.

Examples abound of students tapping opportunities in both influential and diverse settings around the world. Isaac Holeman ’09, will spend the next year working for an organization he co-founded in Malawi, using technology to increase access to health care. Ben Brysacz ’09 will head to Washington D.C. after graduation for an internship with the Public Service Academy, on his way to law school. For Katie Walter ’09, the next step after graduation will be Northern India, where she will conduct research to assess the salience of religious and economic themes in advocating environmental stewardship. In each case, students’ liberal arts experience at Lewis & Clark has prepared them for serious, substantial work, paving the way for careers as innovative leaders and engaged citizens of the world.

“The question we pose to graduates shouldn’t be ‘What are you going to do for the rest of your life?’ but ‘What will you do for the next year or two?’ By shifting that question, it puts the emphasis on one’s ability to grow and learn and know oneself,” Heyman said.

The initial steps Lewis & Clark students take after graduation often include service work in organizations like AmeriCorps, Teach for America, and Peace Corps. Nationwide, applications to public service programs have ballooned in recent years, with a spike this year, due to both President Obama’s call to action and the recession. With an alumni participation rate among the top in the nation, Lewis & Clark consistently prepares individuals for positions in public service.

“It’s in the DNA here,” Heyman said. “Lewis & Clark students want to make a difference and want to help solve the problems they see in the world. For some, that means joining Teach for America, for others, it’s Peace Corps or another position in the public interest.

“No matter which route our students choose after graduation, our role is to prepare them to digest these diverse experiences and understand how the experiences and their outcomes shape who they are bring them closer to finding their calling.”

For the past year, he has worked as a student teacher at Arleta Elementary School, fusing his love of art and his desire to inspire and empower students.

With commencement just around the corner, Christy shares his thoughts about art and education and his hopes for the future.

How did you decide to pursue a master’s degree in education at Lewis & Clark?

I moved to Portland nearly 5 years ago after finishing my undergraduate degree in art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and then traversing the country for a year, seeking a new place to nest. After landing in Portland with a few folks from Pennsylvania, I looked to make money as an artist and found a job teaching art with an after-school art program. Working with kids was foreign to me, and I focused on the art that was being produced more than I focused on the actual children. As you can imagine, this became problematic.  One day it just clicked:  What we needed was community, respect, and communication. The kids needed to feel safe and supported.  It would be necessary to open myself to them and allow them to open up to me. This was teaching.

How do you think having a background in art will affect your teaching style?

Children have wonderful, glittery thoughts zooming around their brains. The space reserved for impossibility in the heads of most adults is uncluttered and airy in the brain of a child. It sparks and sparkles and waits. As an artist, I feel that I can capitalize on these wide-open spaces. I don’t want to fill them with useless trivia. I want to show them the wonder in reality without erasing the fantasy. I want them to learn how to use their brains. I want the students to know themselves as learners, activists, and artists. Because everyone’s brain works a bit differently, it is important to pave multiple roads to understanding. Visual art is just one of these roads. We learn through movement, sound, text, experience, and more.
Click to view Christy’s art

How do you feel about the art scene in Portland?

I feel most connected to art when I am creating in my studio, arched over a new drawing. Portland is full of artists, holed up in their studios, their rooms, their kitchens, creating for themselves or the people they care about. I don’t mind the commercial gallery scene, but I don’t go chasing it.

What messages do you try to convey through your work?

My work conveys multiple messages.  I draw pictures about connections:  connections between people, connections between humans and other animals, connections between the past and the future. I daydream about what’s next. There was never nothing…there will always be something.

What inspires you?

I find inspiration in supportive parents, the secret lives of animals, and light. I am drawn to hands and the things they create. Two colors, side by side and just so, can make my heart beat a little bit faster. I find great inspiration in the possibilities bundled within each of us…especially children. I am truly inspired by people helping people. Imagine that feeling that happens in your chest right be fore you smile…

Where else have you studied and traveled?

I have studied and worked in Rome, Italy. Living in a place where I knew only some of the language was intense, challenging, and at times, rewarding. I try to remember those feelings when I work with my students who are learning English. I also traveled to Monduli Juu in Tanzania, Africa a few years ago and gained a great deal of perspective on life on this planet: we are all the same, we are all different. This was a breakthrough.

My travels through the U.S. also taught me so much about myself and my relationship to the world around me. I felt a part of so many communities as I traveled, whether in a crowded room full of strangers, sleeping in a parking lot, or drawing alone beside a herd of buffalo, staring into giant, knowing eyes.

What are your thoughts on graduation and searching for a job in this economy?

This year has flown by and I’m saturated with new knowledge and experience. I can’t say exactly what the future holds, but I tend to take it all as it comes. I have not found a job yet, but I’m optimistic to the core. The light in the job market is dim, but it’s on nonetheless. With this degree and this experience I am not limited only to teaching. Whether I have my own classroom, write a book, or live in a cave, I am enriched and enlightened by the people, the information, and the experiences provided by my time at Lewis & Clark and Arleta Elementary School.

In this video, Marzulla and Depper talk about their summer research experience, working with Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology, to understand the evolutionary processes that have led to the widespread, diverse brown recluse spider population. Found in the Americas, Africa, and Mediterranean Europe, the brown recluse has been known to bite, causing lesions in human tissue. Marzulla and Depper are examining DNA sequences and analyzing the enzymatic activity of the spider’s venom to improve treatment and diagnosis of bites.

Rogers Program participants begin their summer research internships in May, working at least 40 hours per week, for 10 weeks. Each research group discusses their research with science faculty during a series of brown-bag lunch presentations on Wednesdays throughout June and July. At the end of the summer, each team writes a research paper discussing their findings and prepares a poster to present in the fall to local, regional, national and international scientific meetings.

The Rogers Summer Science Poster session happens on Tuesday, September 30, at 4:30 p.m. in Smith Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The program, which places eight students in Congressional internships, was created to provide an opportunity for students with disabilities to work on Capitol Hill and enrich their academic studies and professional experience. For Shectman, who is dyslexic, the highly competitive internship is just one more achievement in a series of academic and extra-curricular successes that include being named a Mary Stewart Rogers Scholar, making the Dean’s List, and volunteering in Portland public schools to help students with learning and behavioral difficulties.

Read about his internship and how he hopes to integrate the experience with his Lewis & Clark education to pursue policy changes in the future in the interview below:

Can you describe the internship program you were selected for and explain the type of work you’ll be doing?

I was selected to do a summer congressional internship as part of a program sponsored by the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation and the American Association of People with Disabilities. I’ll be working in Washington DC, in the office of Congressman Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.

My responsibilities will most likely include legislative research, constituent services, and giving tours of the Capitol to visitors.

What do you hope to take away from the program at the end of the summer?

I hope that by the end of the summer I’ll have a better sense of how legislation moves through Congress and what goes on in a congressman’s office. I’m thrilled to be doing this internship during an election year. I’ve been volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign, and it will be fascinating to watch the way the campaign develops from inside Congressman Hoyer’s office.

How do you think the internship will fit in with your academic work at Lewis & Clark?

I’ve been majoring in international affairs, with a minor in communication. I’m hoping the internship will help me understand better how our government works. I know a fair amount about international affairs, but I am really hoping to gain an understanding of how domestic legislation works and about Congress’s role in making foreign policy decisions. I hope the internship will help me integrate theoretical issues with how things actually happen in practice. One of the great things about going to a liberal arts college is being exposed to different disciplines and being able to make connections between those and the outside world.

What college-sponsored trips have you participated in, and how have those experiences affected you—either in your major or, more generally, in your outlook or perspective?

I traveled to Kenya for fall semester and participated in a spring break service trip to New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina.

I grew up in a safe and comfortable home. I never had any worries about food or healthcare. But I also learned from my parents that many people weren’t so fortunate. It’s one thing to hear this and another thing to observe it first hand. My experiences in New Orleans and in Kenya, taught me about the real hardships that many people face. When I was in Africa, I was moved by how much the students I met appreciated being able to go to school to get an education.

What projects or programs are you involved in outside of the classroom?

The most important volunteer work I’ve done at Lewis & Clark has been with Dale Holloway, the coordinator of Student Support Services. I’m part of a group of Lewis & Clark students that meets with students in the Portland public schools who have learning or behavioral issues. We try to be role models for them and let them know that it is possible to succeed in college.

Also, I’m a very outdoorsy person. Two summers ago, I passed an extensive series of exams to become an assistant scuba diving instructor. Next summer, I hope to become certified with the Handicapped Scuba Association, so that I can bring my love of scuba diving to people with physical disabilities.

What are you hoping to do after graduation?

I plan to spend some time traveling, possibly back to Kenya and Tanzania, and I’m thinking about doing some volunteer work there. Afterwards, I plan to go to graduate school to study International Affairs.

After that, I could see myself doing a number of things. A position of some kind on Capitol Hill is certainly a possibility, as is working for an NGO. My time in Africa was really a life-changing experience for me, and I could see myself working on issues related to Africa.

On October 3, the Lewis & Clark Graduate School for Education and Counseling will host a public address by Jonathan Kozol, an educator, activist and author of nonfiction works focusing on issues of race, poverty and education. In his most recent work, Letters to a Young Teacher, Kozol takes a thought-provoking look at the challenges facing one new teacher through a series of correspondences with an experienced mentor. His first book, Death at an Early Age, received the 1968 National Book Award and his 1991 bestseller Savage Inequalities was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.

Event location and ticket information is available online.

Image courtesy of Hobart and William Smith Colleges

This spring, the Oregon Legislature passed a new law that will provide funding in the Oregon Department of Education’s budget for mentoring programs designed to address poor retention rates and the mounting challenges teachers face.

The $5 million appropriation will ensure mentorship for approximately 1,000 new teachers or administrators. New Teacher Conversations, the mentorship program implemented by Lewis & Clark Graduate School for Education and Counseling, will be able to offer teachers greater access to support through the new legislation.

“This school year may be the make-or-break year for many new teachers who are feeling frustrated and unsupported,” said Sherri Carreker, director of the Center for Continuing Studies. “We are thrilled that we have the opportunity to get our mentoring program into more school districts. We know building these support networks makes the difference between whether a teacher stays in or leaves the profession.”

Now in its third year, the Conversations program works primarily as an adaptable model that builds critical support networks for new teachers by connecting them with seasoned teachers to share their anxieties and problem solve together. Thus far, Lewis & Clark has worked in 17 schools districts from urban, suburban and rural areas.

“We’ve developed a flexible model that addresses the critical needs teachers have expressed—building support, camaraderie, mentorship, guidance—but allows for different formats for each district,” Carreker said.

Two upcoming panel discussions will present information about the mentoring program, featuring insights and perspectives from seasoned and new teachers. One panel discussion will take on August 13 in Corvallis and a second panel will take place in Beaverton on August 21.

For more information about New Teacher Conversations and to watch an interview featuring Conversation participants, visit www.lclark.edu/dept/lcntc.