Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

High-tech pros promote student success

Photos and story by James Hill

by Susan HerefordLisa "L.J."Johnson, global information technology security manager for Nike, Inc., is helping PCC students who want to gain a foothold in high-technology but need a leg up to get there. With 15 years in the industry, she realizes women and certain minority groups need encouragement and wants to help change that. "Women and minorities are definitely underrepresented,"said Johnson. "We still have a long ways to go. I needed someone to mentor me and now I need to mentor others."PCC, with help from industry professionals like Johnson and a grant from the National Science Foundation, hopes to help increase the numbers and create a sturdier path to success in advanced technologies. Johnson makes herself available to interested students, helps them with resumes, makes presentations at career exploration classes, and serves on job fair panels, touting the opportunities for women and minorities in high technology.Along with Johnson, other high-tech professionals in the metro area are also helping the Creating Avenues of Success and Equity (CASE) Project at PCC. They include people from Intel, Hewlett Packard, Standard Insurance, Providence Health Systems and Freightliner.The CASE Project is the result of a three-year $556,000 grant funded by the National Science Foundation to help boost the numbers and success of underrepresented groups in technology programs and in the workforce. The project is creating access for women, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. During the 2002-03 school year, 44 students earned scholarships to study at the Sylvania and Cascade campuses. The project will award a second set of scholarships again this fall. Ken Dodge, CASE manager, said, "We’re well on the way to building capacity."The program works with several academic technology programs at the college, including computer information systems, computer science, microelectronics and computer software engineering. Shauna Urbaniak, a recent PCC graduate who earned a CASE scholarship and now lives and works in Phoenix, Ariz., said the program provided the support she needed to land her dream job as a webmaster. "The CASE program is such a benefit for students who want guidance in mapping out how to get the career of their dreams. The scholarship was extremely helpful ? but it also allowed me to engage in discussion with professional women and get help on how to obtain employment,"she said.Another CASE scholar, Rebecca Jesse, said the staff have given her confidence. "They had enough confidence in me to give me the extra help and financial aid and I couldn’t let them down. It gave me the impetus to spend that extra hour or two doing homework after my daughter was in bed. In the end I got A’s and now I know I can do this,"she said. It is comments like this that keep L.J. Johnson volunteering for CASE. "I’m excited when I see the light go on,"she said, "that they know it is possible to train or re-train for high technology. I am committed to exposing women and minorities to information technology and bringing inspiration to them, helping them to see that they can reach their goal."I didn’t touch a computer until college,"she said, "and so I say, it is never too late to get into this area."For more information about the CASE project, please call 503-977-8210 or 503-978-5145.