Finding her voice

Brenda Maldonado, coordinator of the Multicultural Center at PCC Rock Creek, inspires and encourages students to find their own voices to make a difference.

By Meryl Lipman
The Portland Upside
April 2010

Brenda Maldonado

Depending on the day or event, the contents of Brenda Maldonado’s car say much about the work she does in her multiple roles at Portland Community College (PCC).

On January 22, her beleaguered Subaru carried 8,300 pounds of food to the Oregon Food Bank in Hillsboro. Brenda got the idea for an MLK food drive at the PCC Rock Creek Campus after reading a statistic on increasing hunger in Washington County. She challenged her students to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Day by doing service, “to see poverty as more than a conversation.”

As PCC Rock Creek’s Multicultural Center & Retention Coordinator, she convinced 105 students and 20 staffers to sacrifice their vacation day, January 18th, to stand outside supermarkets collecting food cans for Oregon Food Bank.

When Brenda arrived at PCC four years ago, she challenged herself to expand the campus’ multicultural center, which she says consisted of “students sitting all over my desk.” For the ambitious 30-year-old, advocacy meant pressing the college administration for money, an office, and a room for the students. The Rock Creek Multicultural Center is now a thriving hub of languages, music, food and conversation.

Brenda also introduced PCC to Semana de la Raza, a Latino culture and advocacy celebration that has grown over three years to become a district-wide community event at the Rock Creek campus. Every December Brenda rallies students, faculty, and staff, as well as speakers, artists and musicians for the April festival. She scrounges in her own and others’ budgets, negotiates with administrators, and cajoles sponsors and booking agents to secure Teatro Milagro, Michelle Serros, Juana Bordas and others to come to Rock Creek.

The growth of Semana has not been without trials. Rock Creek’s Associate Dean of Students, Heather Lang, recalls an incident two years ago when the festival banner was vandalized with hate slurs. Brenda gathered her student volunteers and asked what they wanted to do. With her help, they organized an impromptu speak-out on campus that empowered everyone.

“Brenda handled it with such patience and grace,” says Heather.

Patience and grace may have been survival tools for Brenda in her youth. Deaf for the first five years of her life after an ear infection, she was shuttled between her native Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania for surgeries. When her hearing was restored, she learned to speak Spanish and English at the same time.

The family moved often, as her father was, at different times, a minister and a soldier in the U.S. military. When Brenda was a teenager, her grandmother, the rock of the family, suffered a stroke, and her father came out as a gay man living with HIV. Her mother has spent a lifetime struggling with mental illness and she was often violent in those early years. Brenda also remembers sleeping on the floor most nights.

“The family was very poor,” she says.

Brenda admits that her job at PCC provides a unique vehicle for “inside work.” She has partnered with veterans’ groups, anti-poverty campaigns, and the campus’ Gay Straight Alliance, but she says she is not ready to take a platform on child abuse.

“It’s still too raw,” she says. “Someday…”

As a hearing-impaired, non-verbal child, Brenda concedes that her work helping students find their voices could be a grand metaphor.

“I see a lot of students who are voiceless. I see a lot of dim lights who’ve been told they won’t amount to anything. But I see amazing human beings so I push them. I’m a pusher,” she laughs.
Brenda embraces difficult discussions while helping students find their voices. She is involved with Rock Creek’s “Open Mind – Open Mic” and a more structured series of round tables called “Courageous Conversations.” She mentors several PCC programs including Oregon Leadership Institute, in which Latino first generation college students mentor high school students from similar backgrounds. She also mentors international students, as well as graduates of her programs. She even organizes a multicultural graduation ceremony for international students and others whose families might be overwhelmed by the large PCC graduation at the Rose Garden Arena.

Yet Brenda still finds time to take her activism off campus, improve herself and have a little fun.
Over spring break she plans to do first aid at the Arizona-Mexico border because she believes medical care is a right, even for desperate Mexicans crossing into the U.S. illegally.

And one Thursday a month Brenda packs her car full of books and an overnight case, and heads to Silver Falls where she’s finding her own voice by studying for a PhD in Education with an emphasis on community college leadership.

Brenda is not all business, however. Although she will gladly trade vacation days for service work, there are non-negotiable times when Brenda’s car is reserved for her snowboard and shredding the slopes on Mt. Hood with a posse of boarder friends.

In February she put together a ski trip and lessons for 20 of her students. Several had never before seen snow.

“Combining my two loves, my students and snowboarding, was pretty darn cool,” she says.

Indeed, dressed most days in jeans and a t-shirt, Brenda’s students see her as approachable and just plain cool. She is like them, only older and farther along on her path.

And although she works and studies full time, Heather Lang says she has never heard Brenda complain.

“Brenda just doesn’t put that energy out there,” says Heather.

Brenda’s strategy for success may well be that she takes great care with her voice, avoiding negativity. She sums it up best:

“I’m not interested in drama and I don’t want to fall into a victim mentality, so I don’t engage. I don’t care who’s talking about whom. I care if they’re hungry or safe at home.”

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Meryl Lipman has a masters in writing from PSU and has worked for Portland Community College since 2003. In her spare time she loves to travel and jump out of airplanes.

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Mentorship program gives migrant students brighter future

By Meryl Lipman
The Portland Upside
July 2009

Director Teresa Alonso (left) explains new Nike mentorship opportunities with two students in the CAMP program at Portland Community College. (Photo by James Hill)

Teresa Alonso, director of the College Assistance for Migrants Program (CAMP) at Portland Community College, believes anything is possible.

She also believes in hard work and follow-through.

So when she met Cynthia Escamilla, chair of Nike’s Latino and Friends Network (LAFN) at El Poder de la Mujer (The Power of the Woman) conference in February 2008, Teresa wasted no time following up.

That spring, Teresa and her students, all from migrant worker backgrounds, took a tour of the Nike campus, courtesy of Nike recruiter and LAFN member Jenny Salgado. At the end of their meeting Teresa pitched the idea of a mentorship program. Jenny asked her to submit a formal proposal and again, Teresa followed up. She later received a call from Alma Garza in the company’s retail marketing department. Alma liked the idea of the mentoring program and she sat down with Teresa and Jenny to develop a pilot project for the summer of 2009.

Teresa, no stranger to recognizing opportunity, began her life on an earthen floor in a house with no plumbing. She spent her first four years in San Jeronimo, a tiny Michoacán village in Mexico, before moving with her family to the U.S. In Oregon she and her parents shared a mobile home with another family and worked in the berry fields. By the age of 10, Teresa was juggling school, sports, field work, and the care of her younger siblings. As her parents’ financial situation remained dependent on the capricious conditions of agriculture, Teresa says she “saw education as the antidote to poverty.”

“Mentorship was key for me,” says Teresa, who was offered a mentor through a program at Oregon State University. Indeed, her mentor helped her mother understand the benefit of Teresa finishing high school.

“My mother was always very supportive,” she says, but she admits that her father was somewhat bewildered by his daughter’s ambitions. After completing the University of Oregon’s High School Equivalency Program (HEP), “I basically told them I was going to college,” Teresa chuckles. She transferred to Lane Community College and then Western Oregon University.

Teresa began working for PCC in January 2007 and in the space of two years she and her team created one of the most innovative and successful of the 35 CAMP programs in the nation. CAMP—a federal grant program located at the Rock Creek Campus in West Portland—sets up mentorship, academic support and community for the children of migrant workers during their first year in college. The program has enjoyed full attendance and Teresa beams when she mentions that most of her original group is still in college. They are beginning to transfer to four year universities, mentor new participants and nurture increased parental involvement.

“Many of our students are the first in their families to finish high school, let alone go to college” Teresa explains. “Parent say is so strong in the Latin community. If we can get parents on board with regard to education and help them understand the [long term] economic investment, it will be so much easier for young people,” she says.

Seven students were chosen to be mentored in the Nike summer program—Roy Gomez (Hermiston), Isidro Interian (Aloha), Sandra Soto (Cornelius), Maria Araceli Rebolledo Salgado (Cornelius), Jose Lopez (Forest Grove), Juan Ramirez Alonso (Hillsboro), and Izequiel Lopez Jr. (Cornelius).

Alma and Teresa paired them with Nike mentors based on their goals, and their mentors’ professional backgrounds, which included finance, retail, marketing and childcare.
CAMP student Isidro Interian comes from Yucatan, Mexico and arrived in Oregon at age four. His parents were originally agricultural workers, though his mother now works in production and his father works as a janitor. Isidro made both Dean’s List and Honor Roll. He wants to major in education and teach kindergarten someday.

“I’m interested in physical activity as part of education, particularly for young children,” he says. “And Nike’s creativity can help me later on in working with kids.”

As a next step, he would like to volunteer for Nike’s soccer camp. “This is networking for the future,” he says. Through the Nike program, Isidro hopes to learn time management, communication and leadership skills.

The mentors met their students at a kick-off ceremony on June 18 at the Nike campus in Beaverton. The pairs will attend monthly group meetings all summer to complete three professional development projects. The program finale will be a Latino Heritage Celebration with LAFN in September.

Teresa, recently selected as one of Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 business leaders, is thrilled that the relationship between CAMP and Nike has come to fruition.

“I am beside myself with gratitude,” she says.

Teresa hopes the program will expand next year and eventually involve student internships at Nike. Networking with companies like Nike plays a critical role in her investment strategy for her students and proves that with a little hard work and some mentoring, indeed, anything is possible for migrant students in Oregon.

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Meryl Lipman has a masters in writing from PSU and has worked for Portland Community College since 2003. In her spare time she loves to travel and jump out of airplanes.

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A partnership for dignity

ReFIT, PCC, and the Rebuilding Center help ALS man maintain independence

By Meryl Lipman
The Portland Upside
June 2009

Left to right: PCC student Kyle Knees, Rebuilding Center representative Gina Rodondi, and PCC student Raymond Chan assist with remodeling project. (Photo by Meryl Lipman)

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a cruel robber. Attacking the nerve cells in its victim’s brain stem and spinal cord, it takes one motor function at a time, sometimes over several years, until the person, though fully cognizant, cannot move, eat, speak or even breathe on his own.

As Milwaukie resident Wayne Lauman found out, however, ALS does not have to steal a person’s independence of spirit.

As Wayne’s illness progressed after his initial 2007 diagnosis, family and friends got together to build a disabled ramp to the entrance of his home. Later as he transitioned from a manual to a motorized wheelchair, he and his wife Kathy realized their home needed further accommodation. But an age-old question stumped them: where to find the money?

The same friends and family who had gathered to build the ramp discovered a Portland non-profit called ReFIT or Remodeling for Independence Together, a 12-year-old organization comprised of construction industry professionals and community members who have made it their mission to help lower-to-middle-income, aging, ill and disabled homeowners remake their homes to fit their changing needs.

A homeowner must apply to become a ReFIT client, a rigorous process that includes presenting income and financial statements. The home must be in Clackamas, Multnomah or Washington County, the homeowner or family member must have limited mobility, and the homeowner must have below 80 percent of the median income. Potential clients cannot be eligible for any other home repair programs, and the modification must produce an important outcome: the person can stay in his or her home.

ReFIT board member Bill Markt of Markt & Company Construction says the program is meant to target those who do not qualify for other social services. “Because they have a home, their net worth is too high, but in reality they would have to sell the home to raise money for the remodel.”

Once an application meets ReFIT criteria, a site visit is scheduled, after which the appraiser makes a recommendation to the Board of Directors. When the Board of Directors approves a project, a second site visit is made to develop a construction plan. Finally, a team of project managers and volunteer labor is formed to proceed with the work.

This year ReFIT corralled a whole new cadre of volunteers. Portland Community College, Rock Creek, boasts one of the states most advanced building construction technology (BCT) programs. In March, PCC’s BCT department chair Spencer Hinkle arranged for six students to help ReFIT build a disabled ramp for a family in Beaverton. And for the Laumans’ new bathroom, 14 students signed up, including three project managers and a floor installation specialist.

On the sunny morning of Friday, May 8, five students arrive at 8 a.m., having studied the plans for the two-week project to build the Laumans’ new bathroom. They expertly drape off the area and go to work taking out the existing bathroom under the watchful eye of the Rebuilding Center’s Gina Rodondi. The Rebuilding Center, located in North Portland, houses the region’s largest volume of used building and remodeling materials and its environmentally-conscious staff specializes in deconstruction services.

After explaining the difference between demolition and deconstruction to the PCC group (demolition destroys all the old building materials, where deconstruction aims to preserve as much as possible), Gina lists the recyclables on the project: fixtures, sinks, tubs, hardware, vanities, any piece of wood over four feet in length. As she works alongside the students she expresses her hope, “...that they go with the mentality that every little piece counts, that things can be saved.”

Indeed this philosophy dovetails nicely with a college construction program that teaches insulated foam core construction, eco-roofing, and construction techniques using structural insulated panels (SIPs) and straw-bales. Second year PCC student Raymond Chan, who pauses while ripping out the bathroom sink, says he appreciates the chance to learn deconstruction, “...procedure-wise and seeing what you can salvage.” For Raymond, the Lauman home is not only valuable career practice, he also hopes to be selected as one of 10 students who will travel with PCC to New Orleans this summer and rebuild a condemned Hurricane Katrina home.

Bill Markt notes that the work experience the students are getting makes this a win-win situation. “It’s a great networking environment,” he says of the remodel, in which students are supervised by industry professionals. “After the project is done, a dozen people will give these students a reference.”

Trudy Jacobs and Angela Christenson, two of the PCC student project managers, scurry around with notebooks, talking with vendors on cell phones, overseeing delivery of a roll-in shower. But they stop when Lauman’s friend and neighbor, another man with ALS, stops by on a walk with his dog. The man has a jaunty gait and speaks with some difficulty, but he praises the work being done and his friend, who is too sick to be interviewed.

“Wayne is such a positive presence,” says Lauman’s neighbor, who chose to remain anonymous. “But his disease is far along.” The neighbor is in his 40s, married with children. He describes his own experience with ALS. “I had always lived such an active life. First it was a foot, then a hand. And exercise doesn’t help because the muscles aren’t getting nourished.” He has read about the final stages of the disease, which he describes as “locking in,” and, while it terrifies him, he says that in these past couple years, “different things have become important.

“The key is to be independent for as long as possible and maintain your dignity,” he says, “which is why this project is so important.” As he walks away, slow but resolute, the PCC project managers watch him go. Then someone’s phone rings and they’re back to work building a bathroom that will help another man maintain his dignity for as long as humanly possible.

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For more information visit the following web sites: www.refitportland.org, www.rebuilding
center.org and www.pcc.edu

Meryl Lipman has a masters in writing from PSU and has worked for Portland Community College since 2003. In her spare time she loves to travel and jump out of airplanes.

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