A digital rendering of the second floor of the Vernier Science Center, where the Center for Internships, Mentoring and Research will be housed. The renovated science building opens in Fall 2024. (Bora Architecture & Interiors)
Portland State will leverage a $224,000 state grant to create a career center aimed at diversifying the workforce by providing STEM and health students with internships, mentoring and research opportunities to boost their chances of quickly entering fulfilling well-paying careers. The goal is to expand opportunities for students from historically excluded backgrounds, with a focus on growing a diverse and Indigenized climate-focused workforce in Oregon.
The grant is funded through the Higher Education Coordinating Commission's Future Ready Oregon Workforce Ready Grant program, which awarded $10 million in the first round to 42 projects focused on encouraging innovation and removing barriers to job training and education for historically underserved and marginalized populations across the state.
PSU will use the money to develop and implement a shared programming and leadership model for what will become the Center for Internships, Mentoring and Research. It will be housed on the second floor of the Vernier Science Center when the renovated building opens in Fall 2024.
The center is part of a larger suite that will co-locate existing student support programs on campus that are focused on closing equity gaps and providing valuable work and research experience to students. Programs include BUILD EXITO and U-RISE, Ignite pre-health scholarship and mentorship program, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), McNair Scholars, S-STEM and TRIO STEM. The suite will also have dedicated space to support the expansion of Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK)-centered curriculum, practices and partnerships, including a kitchen classroom, community gathering classroom and library for First Foods and other Indigenous science courses, ceremony and scholarship.
"This new center not only provides opportunities for career and professional development, but also a sense of collective knowledge sharing and mentorship across multiple programs, celebrating our cultures and the creativity and endless possibilities that form when we come together in a shared space," said Shandee Dixon, faculty lead for BUILD EXITO and U-RISE and the center's future co-director.
She said that as a first-generation college student, she greatly benefited from undergraduate research programs and mentorship support and is excited to provide PSU students with the resources and leadership opportunities necessary to shape their future careers.
The project team says it's important that the center maintains a climate focus — and in particular, one that centers Indigenous peoples as the climate leaders they are and the critical importance of Indigenous knowledge and lifeways to climate futures and efforts to achieve environmental and health equity and justice. Community-centered programming will support the state's progress on climate mitigation and adaptation, while also closing racial inequities within the regional workforce and across the communities that are disproportionately impacted by a changing climate.
"By recognizing and valuing Indigenous knowledge, we can create a more inclusive and equitable STEM community and contribute to the preservation and revitalization of Indigenous cultures," Dixon said.
Over the coming months, the team plans to:
- Make new connections and build a common agenda with community organizations and workforce partners in the health, manufacturing and technology sectors, culminating in a gathering to share ideas and learn from one another;
- Convene workforce advisory groups and student advisory groups to inform a strategy and operations plan for launching and expanding climate-focused programming that results in dramatically improved employment outcomes for students;
- Establish a shared leadership model for the center; and
- Enhance and expand the Climate & Community Resilience Internship Program, which for the last two years has successfully placed cohorts of LSAMP students into paid, 9-month internships with agency, industry and community partner organizations focused on sustainability, climate and resilience.
The group says that by the end of the year, it will have the relationships, programming, resources and strategy in place to serve as a significant and long-term partner in the state for expanding the workforce and closing equity gaps in climate-focused jobs.