UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

01-14-2013

Career Services Ready To Help Students

Orrico copyCareer services is ready to help students with career advice and resources for spring 2014, according to Amy Cavanaugh, career services. Students are welcome to take advantage of the following:

  • Daily drop-in hours for students: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 2-4 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. -12 noon, Orrico Hall lower level. Drop-in hours provide students an opportunity to receive resume/cover letter feedback or talk to a professional staff and get answers to career questions. Drop-in visits are done on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited to 15 minutes. No appointments are needed.
  • There are three internship and job fairs on campus. The Spring Internship Forum is Wednesday, January 29, 1-4 p.m. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Engineering & Science Fair is Friday, February 21, 1-4 p.m., and the First Avenue Career & Graduate School Expo is Friday, April 4, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. “How to Work a Job Fair” workshops and extended drop-in hours for resume review will be held several times prior to each fair. Check the career services website for more information.
  • Career Focus Thursdays: career services is hosting workshops every Thursday at 4:15 p.m. in Orrico Hall lower level, including Resume 101 – January 23; LinkedIn – January 30, Intro to Internships – February 6, and Network Your Way to an Internship or Job – February 13.
  • Alumni Career Panels: Monday, January 27, Careers in Social Media; Tuesday, February 11, Careers in Biotechnology; Wednesday, March 26, What Employers Want: How to Stand Out as an Applicant; and Tuesday, April 15, Careers in Sports.

For more information contact career services at 7201 or career@up.edu, or go to http://www.up.edu/career/.

Uncommon Heroes

heroes-upbeatAll employees are invited to learn more about the many academic, athletic, professional, and service heroes who surround us each day on campus and in the world community thanks to the University’s commitment to extraordinary Teaching and Learning, Faith and Formation, and Service and Leadership. Their stories can be found on the UP website at http://up.edu/heroes/. A small sampling:

  • Kurt Berning ’12, Global Supporter and Fulbright Scholar: as a UP student Kurt spent one summer in rural Kenya teaching high school students, where he raised $1,200 online in one week to provide the school with electricity. His non-profit Global ADE, raised $20,000 in its first year to foster educational opportunities in developing countries, especially Cambodia.
  • Matt Powell ’84, Educational Influencer and Community Booster: Matt saw potential where others did not. A decade ago, he helped found De La Salle North Catholic High School. His vision was for low income students in North Portland to receive an affordable, yet high quality, college preparatory education –tuition wouldn’t be the school’s main source of revenue. Instead, he modeled the financial system on that of Cristo Rey High School in Chicago where students work one day a week in the local community, gaining valuable work experience, and their earnings supplement tuition. At De La Salle North, this format helps fund 70 percent of the school’s budget. Tuition costs are $2,995 this year, but many families pay only $25 per month. The remaining balance is funded through donations. And the success of the school? Last fall, 95 percent of graduating seniors at De La Salle North were admitted to college.

Flex-Plan Grace Period

Employees who participated in Flex-Plan for the 2012 calendar year have a grace period of January 1, 2013 to March 15, 2013 that will allow employees to maximize their 2012 benefit. Employees have until March 31, 2013 to submit claims for expenses incurred on March 15, 2013 or before. Claims can be submitted online at www.flexplan.com or through a paper form available up.edu/hr, Employee Benefits, Flexible Spending Account Information (http://tinyurl.com/b7xha33). Contact hr@up.edu with questions.

WCC Home Opener

Korey ThielkeThe Pilots men’s basketball team hosts its West Coast Conference home-opener this Thursday against the Gonzaga University Bulldogs. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Chiles Center. The team is also in action on Saturday as they take the court to host defending WCC Champion Saint Mary’s at 7:30 p.m. Then next week the team host two more WCC games as San Francisco visits on Thursday, January 24th and BYU on Saturday, January 26th. For more information on Pilot athletics visit www.portlandpilots.com or to purchase tickets visit the Pilots box office or call athletics at 7525.

Gerhardt Award Nominations

The Office of Alumni Relations is accepting nominations for the 2013 Thomas A. Gerhardt Award for Student Leadership, according to Ken

Hallenius, alumni relations. Criteria for selection:

  • Student must be a graduating senior;
  • Student must have demonstrated leadership throughout his or her undergraduate career;
  • Student must demonstrate consistent dedication to the University and the community through service to God and neighbor.

Nominations are due to Bryant by Wednesday, January 25. Please attach a letter of recommendation, detailing reasons for nomination. For more information, contact Hallenius at Bryant at halleniu@up.edu or 8326.

From Our Past: Fr. Joseph L. Powers

Father Joseph L. Powers, C.S.C., died on January 17, 1980, at the age of 64 after battling ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). He served at the University from 1951 until 1978, first as a faculty member in the history department and then from 1962 until 1971 as executive vice president of the University.

During the next year he served as resident director of the University’s program in Salzburg, Austria, and upon his return to Portland he was appointed assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; he became dean of the college the following year. As executive vice president he oversaw the construction of Buckley Center and designed the peace garden in the plaza outside Buckley Center auditorium. Built in a space which originally contained a large fountain that for some reason never worked, the Peace Garden contains plants native to each of the continents living together in harmony as a symbol for a longed-for, if unachieved, political and human harmony. Fr. Powers also promoted the establishment of the Peace Studies Program.

For more information on University history from this week, see the University Almanac at www.up.edu/almanac.

Jeff Dietrich Lecture

The University will host activist, author, and cook Jeff Dietrich at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 24 when he presents “Broken and Shared: Tales from a Hippie Kitchen” in the Executive Boardroom of the Bauccio Commons. His presentation is free and open to faculty, staff, students, and the public. For over 40 years, Dietrich has lived in community at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker House. Through his efforts, three million meals have been provided to the homeless in Los Angeles. He is the author of Broken and Shared: Food, Dignity, and the Poor on LA’s Skid Row, a collection of thought-provoking essays. For more information, contact Jamie Powell, Garaventa Center, at powell@up.edu or 7702.

William Stafford Birthday Party

The English department’s annual William Stafford Birthday Poetry Celebration will take place on Thursday, January 24, at 7:30 p.m., in Buckley Center room 163. The celebration is free and open to faculty, staff, students, and the public. The party commemorates the 98th birthday of Oregon’s late Poet Laureate, who died in 1993. Guests and poets will include Friends of William Stafford representative William Howe, Oregonian poetry editor Kirsten Rian, Judith Arcana, Erin Ergenbright, Sara Guest, and UP’s Lars Erik Larson and Herman Asarnow. For more information contact Asarnow at asarnow@up.edu or 7244.

Faculty Update

Jacqueline Waggoner, education, and Suzanne Burke, a PACE M.A.T. student, presented their paper titled “Flipping the Chemistry Classroom and Its Effect on Student Achievement” at the Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii, January 5-9, 2013.

Carol J. Dempsey, OP, theology, has edited and published a new volume of essays with colleagues Mark J. Boda, Ph.D. of McMaster University, Canada, and LeAnn Snow Flesher, Ph.D. of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. The volume is entitled: Daughter Zion: Her Portrait, Her Response; Vol. 13 in the series Ancient Israel and Its Literature (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012). This new volume consists of 429 pages. In the volume, Dempsey wrote the essay: “Whose God Is This Anyway: A Response to Carleen Mandolfo,” pp. 343-354.

Julie Kalnin and Tisha Morrell, education, and Susan Sahnow (OSU/ONREP) presented a paper entitled “Reexamining the Role of Short-Term Workshops for Professional Development in Science” at the 20th Annual International Conference of the Association for Science Teacher Education in Charleston, SC. Morrell also presented a paper, coauthored by Kari O’Connell (OSU/ONREP) entitled “Results of Using a Teacher as Researcher PD Model for Climate Change Education.”

Jacqueline Van Hoomissen, biology, was invited to participate as a reviewer for grants submitted to the National Science Foundation’s Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program in the Division of Undergraduate Education. The review process will take place in Washington, D.C., in spring 2013.

Elinor Sullivan, biology, was invited and gave a talk on December 10, 2012, to the Integrative Physiology Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The talk was entitled “Developmental Programming of Behavior in Non-Human Primates.”

Matthew Warshawsky, international languages and cultures, has been invited to be scholar in residence at Weekend in Quest sponsored by the Institute for Judaic Studies of the Pacific Northwest, March 1-3, in Astoria, OR. He will give a series of presentations on the topic “Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in Iberia and the Americas.”

Faith To Film Series Returns

The Garaventa Center is pleased to announce the slate for this semester’s Bringing Eyes of Faith to Film Series, in which hosts Fr. Charlie Gordon, C.S.C., theology, and Karen Eifler, education, screen recent popular movies, preceded by some brief comments illuminating themes of grace, transcendence, and redemption found in these unexpected places. This spring, look for “Brave” on Wednesday, February 6, “Hunger Games” on Tuesday, March 5, and “The Avengers” on Wednesday, April 24. All films begin at 7:15 in Shiley 301. Thematic snacks are part of the experience. The series is free and open to faculty, staff, students, and the public.