Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Betsy Warriner Hired as Learn & Serve Coordinator

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Community College announced the hiring of Betsy Warriner as the college’s learn and serve project coordinator, effective Dec. 27. Warriner will oversee PCC’s Learn & Serve America grant, which allows it to partner with the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) initiative in local schools."I came to PCC because this is an opportunity to build a partnership between the college’s students and faculty, and SUN schools and other community organizations,"Warriner said. "These partnerships can transform our community."Warriner, a resident of northeast Portland, was previously a consultant for the organization Partners in Learning in Portland. She provided workshops and training in volunteer program management, consulted with Oregon Campus Compact on community partnership projects, assisted with the Oregon Mentoring Initiative and served on the Northwest Oregon Volunteer Administrators Association board, and PCC’s service-learning advisory group. Previously, she was a referral and education coordinator for the Volunteer Center and VolunteerWorks in Portland. Before that, she coordinated the service-and-learn program at Seattle University.In 1981, Warriner received a doctoral degree in guidance and counseling from the University of North Carolina and earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Radcliffe College in 1961. She received a master’s degree in teaching from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., in 1962 and later earned a master’s degree in geography from the University of Washington. Warriner has also spent time as a teacher at a junior high school in Dedham, Mass., and at a high school in Addis Abab, Ethiopia, before becoming a consultant and counselor. "She comes to PCC with strong experience in the areas of service learning, non-profit organizations and higher education,"said Porter Raper, PCC English instructor and the college’s service learning program coordinator.The SUN schools help students and communities succeed by expanding the use of neighborhood schools with programs for students and families before or after regular school hours that focus on academics, recreation and enrichment. Many SUN activities are open to the entire community. PCC works with SUN schools in two ways. First, students serve in the SUN schools as tutors, classroom assistants and recreation activities as part of their service-learning courses. And second, students and faculty build on-going relationships with these programs so that they can become community leaders.