University of Portland is ranked 9th nationally among peer institutions as a top producer of Peace Corps volunteers, according to a study released by the agency on March 20, 2019. UP currently has 12 alumni serving around the world. Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, more than 220 University graduates have become Peace Corp volunteers.The Peace Corps annually ranks its top volunteer-producing colleges and universities based on the size of the school. UP’s size places it among the “small school” category and is one of four Oregon universities included in this year’s rankings. Nationally, the State of Oregon ranked 4th for having the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita in 2018.
The complete 2019 list of rankings of all 25 top schools in each in each category is available here, and an interactive map of where alumni from each college and university are serving can be seen here.
The College of Arts and Sciences Natural Sciences and Mathematics division is pleased to announce that four junior faculty in the departments of biology, chemistry, and environmental studies have each received external grants to support their research and K-12 outreach work in the local community. Collectively, these individual grants total almost $180,000, with an additional $50,000 in matching funds contributed by CAS. This success in funding is a demonstration of the commitment faculty have made to pushing the boundaries of science, while simultaneously engaging with undergraduate and local K-12 students in transformational educational endeavors. The first of these grants is funded by the Society for Developmental Biology and the latter three by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which has been a generous, key contributor to CAS for many years. All four projects will involve undergraduate students.
Mark Ruff, professor of history at Saint Louis University, will offer a lecture entitled “Turning a Pope’s Reputation Upside Down: Pope Pius XII and Nazi Germany” on Wednesday, March 27, at 7:15 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. The lecture is free and open to all.
The next Music at Midweek will feature a master class lecture on “Contemporary and Commercial Voice Technique” by Matthew Edwards on Wednesday, March 27, at 12:30 p.m., in Mago Hunt Center Recital Hall. Music at Midweek is free and open to all.
The Committee on Teaching and Scholarship is excited to announce this year’s Faculty Development Day theme, “Compassionate listening and responding: How to transform UP into a more diverse, supportive, and inclusive campus.” The morning keynote address and several late morning sessions will be centered around this theme. The remaining sessions, most of which will occur in the afternoon, are then open to a variety of topics, which may or may not relate to the overall theme.
Each summer, the School of Education sponsors a tutoring program for later elementary, middle, and high school students. The program is held on campus and, this year, it will run Monday-Thursday, July 1-August 1, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Students entering grades 4-11 in 2019-20 will work with tutors who are master of arts in teaching (MAT) program candidates. The MAT students/tutors work with students on their learning needs in math, reading, writing, speaking, and other subjects. If you would like to register your child online, you may do so 
All are invited to hear celebrated writers read from their works, followed by a moderated panel examining how their faith influences the inspiration, process, and products of their imaginations, on Thursday, March 28, at 7 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. Panelists include poet and scholar Sr. Eva Hooker, C.S.C.; novelist and essayist Allison Grace Myers; poet GC Waldrep; and poet and fiction writer Rachel Jamison Webster. The event, a collaboration by the Department of English, the Garaventa Center, and Portland Magazine, is free and open to the public.
The Teaching & Learning Collaborative will host one more peer-led workshop from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, in the Murphy Room of Franz Hall. Come hear Carolyn James, mathematics; Jeffrey White, Learning Commons; Rebecca Smith, education; and Lorretta Krautscheid, nursing, offer tips and pitfalls of the newly popular approach to teaching content-heavy courses, dubbed “untethered lecture capture.” Bring your lunch and find out why this strategy has captured so many teachers’ attention and what users wish they had known before they started with ULC.
Poet Laura Read will present her work in a reading on Tuesday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the Pilot House bookstore. The reading is free and open to all.
Kenneth Dye, director of bands and professor of music at the University of Notre Dame, will present this year’s Hesburgh Lecture, “Musical Leadership in the World of Business and Innovation,” on Tuesday, April 2, at 7:15 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. In his talk, Dye will examine the extraordinary correlation between music and leadership in a range of professions from business executives to military generals, conductors, and coaches. The lecture is free and open to all, and is a collaboration by the Garaventa Center and the Notre Dame Club of Portland.