This content was published: November 19, 1998. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Latino Youth Leadership Opportunities at Rock Creek
Photos and Story by Mark Evertz
Oregon’s Latino high school students drop out of school at more than twice the rate of the overall student population, 15.7 percent each year, compared to the statewide rate of 6.7 percent, according to data from the state Department of Education.
The numbers swell to more than a 60 percent dropout rate when one adds up four years of high school: Less than four out of every 10 Latino youth entering Oregon’s high schools obtain their diploma.
PCC’s Rock Creek Campus has recently signed on to a program to help give Latino youth greater leadership skills and connections to continued education and fulfilling careers. It pairs PCC with the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement in a project called the Oregon Leadership Institute.
In the cooperative venture, up to 50 Latino youth from Washington County high schools will be targeted for leadership training sessions, set to begin in January and run one Saturday a month for six months at the Rock Creek Campus. The second part of the project identifies 20 Latino students from PCC to serve as mentors to the high school students. The college students also enroll in a class at Rock Creek designed to teach mentoring skills.
Paul Halloran, enrollment advocate at the Rock Creek Campus, says, "The curriculum is developed with the students in mind, and in fact the students help develop some of the activities, which deal with real issues they are working on in their day-to-day lives. The students are active players in their education."
Halloran is busy recruiting Latino high school students and PCC students. Applications are available through his office at 614-7438 and at Washington County high schools. PCC Latino college students are eligible for the class on mentoring. Class size is targeted for 20 students.
Ed Maldonado, principal at Woodburn High School, and a long-time participant in the Oregon Leadership Institute, sends 10 to 15 of his high school students to the Institute each year, which last year was hosted by Clackamas Community College.
"It gives them an opportunity to be in a comfortable setting with other Hispanic students," Maldonado said. "The neat part about it is they get together with other high school students and meet other motivated kids who want to go on to college. The goal is to build confidence and self esteem and to help them get where they want to go."