Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Saturday Excursions popular way acclimate international students

Photos and story by James Hill

An innovative program is helping international students adjust to Portland Community College and the city of Portland.

It’s called the Saturday Excursion program and it began last fall. Since then, students have joined staff at a Portland State University football game, shopping at Saturday Market, tours of the PCC Cascade Public Services Building, Annual Winter Powwow at the Sylvania Campus, and enjoyed films at the 16th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films.

“Students who speak English as a second language often don’t know the city or have ideas about what to do socially on the weekends,” said Penny Thompson, coordinator for the PCC Learning Center. “So we decided that for three Saturdays each term we would give them a cross cultural experience and introduce them to Portland.”

“The dad of one of the students followed us for a while just to make sure that we were legitimate,” she added. “That student proved his maturity to his more traditional father and is now skiing out of town on Spring break.”

It is that kind of socialization and confidence in getting around town that organizers were looking for. Thompson, Pat Semura (speech and ENNL instructor) and Marcio Lemos (international education program coordinator) made sure that the excursions are open to all PCC students, not just international ones. The club is sponsored by the Associated Students of Portland Community College at the Cascade Campus (ASPCC-Cascade). The activities consist of meeting students at different spots and showing that they have to do something to get involved in the city.

“It was that or they stayed at home, wondering about what else was going on,” Thompson said. “Many times their isolation was also based on cultural approvals. So we make it clear that PCC staff is involved and I sometimes have to provide written proof that this is a scheduled event for parents and guardians who are concerned.”

Thompson, who has been at PCC-Cascade for 28 years, has been the coordinator of the Learning Center since September when the different Learning Center sites were combined into one location at the new space in Terrell Hall. She has concentrated her academic support on international students and those who speak English as a non-native language.

“I’ve seen the number of students grow in numbers and diversity,” she said. “The goal is to get more faculty and students involved.”

For more information, contact Penny Thompson at 503-978-5455.

London artist comes to PCC for talk

London-based Mexican-American artist Edith Garcia, will give a slide talk on her ceramic and mixed media sculptures from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Thursday, March in TH 122 at the Cascade Campus.

Her most recent series of works explores new ways to extend the body in sculpture by breaking down the human form to its most basic elements with the introduction of new materials. This body of work will be finalized during her 2006 residency at Northern Clay Center. Born in Los Angeles, Garcia creates work that draws you into an alluring world of installation and sculpture.

She focuses on the daily onslaught of emotional extortion we endure and the minimal occurrences that transpire each day and grafts them into site-specific installations and objects that exhibit intensely unsettling qualities. Her body of work has been exhibited throughout North America, Mexico and Italy, in spaces such as the Northern Clay Center, Minnesota, Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas, Mexico City and is included in the permanent Sculpture Garden of the Archie Bray Foundation, Montana.