April 2007 Stories

Willamette University Students Fill a Mentoring Gap

Bush Elementary School and Willamette University are neighbors.

And like a good neighbor, Willamette University students have stepped up to help their little neighbors to the east.

Bush has been losing federal funding each year as enrollment has dropped.

When the lack of funding claimed the job of a respected community outreach service coordinator at the end of last school year, it looked like the end of a great volunteer partnership between Willamette and Bush stretching back at least 10 years.

With no one to coordinate them, after-school programs and mentorships were cut.

However, Willamette University students Steve Malick and Susanna Bee, longtime mentors and volunteers at Bush, decided that they couldn’t let that happen.

“We decided at Willamette that we could really step up and play a role to help out,” Malick said of the school’s Tiger Club, which makes up for budget shortfalls at Bush not with cash, but by providing student volunteers from Willamette.

Tiger Club is a structured after-school program designed to partner Willamette students with Bush students for mentoring, academic improvement and fun.

“When most people would hear, ‘Oh, they cut that program?’ They’d say, ‘That’s horrible,’” Bee said, “But Steve was like, ‘They cut that program; I’m going to bring it back.’”

Malick lined up a grant from the Lilly Foundation, a resource that funds a lot of research efforts by students.

Malick and Bee rounded up about 40 volunteers to help on a weekly basis, something they say is surprisingly easy at Willamette, a university that doesn’t have a volunteer hour requirement for graduation.

The grant also allowed for an Americorps Vista Volunteer, Jeff Meier, who relies heavily on his two years as an after-school program director at a YMCA in Wisconsin as he trains Willamette volunteers about ways to engage Bush students.

“Oftentimes, the campus is seen as an ivory tower where theories are conceived of and not implemented,” Meier said. “I’m here to bridge that gap between the community and the university.”

Bush serves a low-income neighborhood that is high in crime, so mentors for academics as well as lifestyles are at a premium.

“When students are lagging behind academically, they need extra time to catch up,” Bush Principal Dave Bertholf said. “That’s what Tiger Club presents. It’s not just about having fun in a safe place; those are byproducts.”

Bertholf said the most valuable thing that Willamette students provide is often the least tangible.

“They provide another adult who cares,” Bertholf said. “Some of our kids are from broken homes or even two-parent households where both parents work. What those Willamette students do is tell a kid, ‘Hey, I care.’”

This story was written by Timothy Alex Akimoff for the Statesman Journal and appeared on March 27, 2007. © 2007, the Statesman Journal. Reprinted with permission.

Willamette acknowledges the leadership and advocacy of history Professor Bill Smaldone, whose vision for this partnership between Willamette and Bush Elementary has been realized.

A Disaster of Global Proportions

They say it’s “the crisis of our generation.”

It’s a crisis focused on the devastation of one disease, but one that health experts and student activists say reflects a multitude of global problems — growing gaps between wealthy and poor nations, social and economic injustice within countries, unequal distribution of health resources, racial inequality, corporate irresponsibility. It’s the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which continues to kill 8,200 people every day. “The AIDS crisis brings out some of the most horrible issues of the world,” Will Nevius ’09 says. “People are dying in large numbers, even though it’s a completely preventable and now treatable disease.”

Nevius is one of the organizers of Willamette’s chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), a national grassroots movement that is the largest student network committed to ending the HIV and AIDS pandemic worldwide. These students have worked tirelessly for the past year to educate the campus, the Salem community and students across the Northwest about “the crisis of their generation.”

It started in fall 2005 when Carolyn Burns ’07 took a class from assistant anthropology professor Joyce Millen, a global AIDS expert who co-authored the critically acclaimed books “Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor” and “Global AIDS: Myths and Facts.” She is the former director of the Institute for Health and Social Justice at Harvard Medical School. The institute is the research and educational arm of Partners In Health, a global health organization with a proven track record of preventing the spread of HIV and delivering life-saving health care to those in need.

“I was shocked and horrified about how little I knew about this pandemic, and I knew that others at Willamette also were unaware of it,” Burns says.

With the help of Elliot Williams ’08, Burns organized a campus showing of the film “A Closer Walk,” a documentary about the AIDS crisis. Everyone who attended was stunned and left wondering how to help. They learned about SGAC and decided to start a campus chapter, with Millen as their faculty advisor.

Nevius, now a member of SGAC’s national steering committee, says that Americans don’t understand the implications of the pandemic because the disease is not as prevalent here, and different factors lead to its spread in other countries. Poor people in some countries don’t have access to the drugs that could easily treat the disease, or even to basic health care that could make their lives easier. Multitudes are dying of AIDS in some countries, leaving orphans behind. In some areas, such as southern Africa, up to 30 percent of the adult population is infected. And children are dying, too. “It’s killing the most productive people,” Burns says. “It’s killing farmers, it’s killing doctors. It’s not just affecting the people who are dying. It’s affecting the whole society.”

Willamette’s SGAC members made presentations in residence halls, held a campus rally and took part in an AIDS awareness walk in Portland. Last spring, Nevius and Mara Hansen ’07 traveled to SGAC’s national conference in Washington, D.C., and made another shocking discovery — Willamette had the organization’s only university chapter in the Pacific Northwest.

So in December, the students organized and hosted the Pacific Northwest World AIDS Day Summit, inviting students from throughout the region to a day of sessions led by AIDS and health care experts. They wanted to teach students about the issue, hoping to inspire them to start SGAC chapters on their own campuses. About 200 students attended from 10 schools across Oregon and Washington. A nighttime dance-a-thon benefiting Partners In Health raised more than $8,000.

The keynote speaker was Adam Taylor, a well-known social justice activist from Washington, D.C., who co-founded the national Student Global AIDS Campaign. Taylor reminded the students of the importance of activism. “We have the tools to fight the AIDS crisis,” he told them. “We have to have the courage to pick them up and use them.”

The summit seems to have had an effect. Lewis & Clark College held a similar AIDS conference this spring, and students at Reed College are interested in organizing a chapter there. The Willamette students also are working more closely with similar AIDS organizations in the Salem area. “We hope to establish a grassroots network in the Northwest so we can organize collaborative actions,” Nevius says.

On National Youth AIDS Day in February, the students dressed as health care workers and marched to the Salem offices of Oregon’s senators, asking them to support the African Health Capacity Investment Act, which would provide funding for a better health care structure in sub-Saharan Africa. They also have joined letter-writing campaigns to urge Abbott Laboratories, a company that produces AIDS-fighting drugs, to expand its product for children. “They have the drugs available to treat AIDS, but they haven’t formulated them for children,” Williams says. “They just need to take that extra step.”

The students plan to host another campus rally April 24 to mobilize more students to join them. “We get a lot of support. People are positive and they’ve learned a lot,” says Sarah Zerzan ’08, another SGAC organizer. “But I think we still have a long way to go, even within our group. We need to make this an integral part of the Willamette community, by raising awareness and then pushing people to action.”

That’s one of the toughest parts of any grassroots campaign — getting people to move from support to action. “Often it’s difficult to know the next step and how to be effective,” Hansen says. “Getting involved in the political process can be confusing and overwhelming. We’re trying to help people understand how they can make a difference.”

Willamette Student Named Kemper Scholar

Chris Platano ’10 knew before coming to Willamette that he was interested in world affairs, but an experience in one of his first-year courses cemented his idea to seek a career in international development or policy.

The class was “Global Health: Crises in Context,” a College Colloquium course taught by assistant anthropology professor Joyce Millen. The College Colloquium program allows first-year students to pick a class topic that mirrors their interests and pursue their intellectual passions as soon as they arrive on campus.

“We talked about AIDS and bird flu and other diseases that are prevalent in impoverished nations,” Platano says. “We discussed ways they could be relieved and prevented. I thought I knew about the world before taking this class, but it completely opened my eyes to what’s happening.”

Platano will have extra chances to gain the skills he needs for his future career thanks to a national scholarship. He is one of two Willamette students recently named a Kemper Scholar, a program from the James S. Kemper Foundation for first-year college students interested in business or management careers. The program’s mission is to prepare these students for leadership and service. Willamette is one of 15 small colleges that can nominate students to be Kemper Scholars.

Platano will receive an annual scholarship of $3,000–$8,000 during his sophomore, junior and senior years. He also will receive stipends for two summer internships — one at a nonprofit organization in Chicago after his sophomore year, the other in a location of his choice after his junior year.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to meet people who can give me the tools I need to go into the business field,” says Platano, who plans to major in economics with a possible double major in politics.

Platano was involved on several levels in high school — in track and cross country, as student body president and as a volunteer in his community — and he has continued to be active at Willamette. He is on the University’s cross country and track teams. In the fall, he will be treasurer of the Circle K Club, a community service student organization, and a group leader for the Opening Days new student orientation program. He is going to South Africa this May as part of a Willamette post-session course — again building his interest in world affairs.

He also hangs out with Tokyo International University of America students through Building Bridges, a program that helps the Japanese students make new friends at Willamette and learn about American culture. “We try to make them feel at home here at Willamette. It’s been a fun experience. You learn so much.”

Fulbright Returns Student to Her Birthplace

The next year of Maia Hoover’s life will be the completion of a circle, one of returning to a home country that she never knew.

Hoover ’07 was born in Korea, but she was adopted as a baby by a loving Japanese-American mom and Caucasian dad who lived in Corvallis, Ore. She grew up immersed in American culture and learned a bit about the Japanese through her mother. Korea is almost completely foreign to her.

So when she received a Fulbright grant this spring to spend a year in South Korea as an English teacher, she was thrilled — not just because of the honor of such a prestigious award, but also because of the chance to learn more about her country of birth.

“I decided a few years ago that I wanted to go to Korea because I didn’t know that much about my heritage. So when I heard about this program, I knew it was for me,” she says. “I want to be like a sponge and learn everything while I’m there. I’m going to be a teacher there, but I have personal goals as well as professional ones.”

The Fulbright Program for U.S. Students allows Americans to study, research, intern or serve in more than 150 countries. Hoover is one of two Willamette students who will go to Korea on a Fulbright this summer, and one of seven from the University to receive a Fulbright in the past five years.

Hoover, who is majoring in economics with a minor in Spanish, is eager to experience another culture, something her parents always have encouraged. “My parents taught me to take an interest in things other than myself, in other countries and cultures,” she says.

While on campus, she has volunteered at a local elementary school, served on three student boards, competed for two years on the crew team and acted as president of the Women in Economics Club. That’s in addition to working two jobs. “I’m a busy bee, but it doesn’t feel like work to me because I only do things that I’m passionate about.”

Hoover calls her achievements a “team effort” and continually emphasizes the influence others have had on her success — particularly her economics professors, her family and the Student Academic Grants and Awards office, which helps students identify and apply for grants like the Fulbright.

After all, it was her economics professors who changed her mind about a future career. She came to Willamette thinking of being an actuary until her professors showed her different ways to use economics to help others. She would like to work for awhile in the fashion industry — she always has been drawn to it as a form of artistic expression — but she also hopes to study business in graduate school after her Fulbright, and eventually work for a non-profit organization. “I want to do something where I can help people,” she says.

Chemist by Day, Rocker by Night

Punk rockers aren’t usually the type to be associated with science labs and intense research. Conversely, scientists typically aren’t known to be part of the cool crowd. But these stereotypes are lost on Karen McFarlane Holman, a Willamette University associate professor of chemistry. Living by the credo that “all chemists are pyromaniacs,” Holman sees blowing up things in a chemistry lab as one of the best ways to manifest her rock ’n’ roll tendencies.

There is a line between the two, though, Holman admits. “My punk rock side comes out in the way I have a little bit of rebelliousness and an attraction to chaos,” she says, “whereas chemistry is a pretty specific thing where I’m dealing with molecules.”

Holman first became a punk-rock musician in California in the early 1990s and has snarled her way through numerous bands since then as a self-taught guitar player. But she is also a serious scientist, studying inorganic chemistry and researching the use of metals as chemotherapeutic drugs.

Even her office is a lesson in opposites, with her past bands’ records displayed on one shelf, rubber snakes hanging from a floor lamp and molecular models resting nearby. She dons goggles in the lab, but outside she can be seen sporting a jacket adorned with music-related buttons, including one emblazoned with The Ramones’ anthem, “Hey ho, let’s go!”

Evolution of a Rocker
Holman’s interest in science started early. As a child, she asked her dad to map out the digestive system of the family dog instead of reading a bedtime story. She always has loved the mystery of science, seeing something happen in nature and wondering how it works.

She decided to study chemistry at Willamette, graduating in 1990, and then went on to get her PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was in Santa Barbara that she was first inspired to take her love for punk rock to the stage. After seeing all-female bands like L7 and The Lunachicks perform, she thought, “I can do that.”

After finishing her doctorate, Holman moved to San Francisco, where she took a postdoctoral research position with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley. Relocating to the Bay Area — known for its long, rich punk rock history — also led Holman to continue as a guitarist in multiple bands. She describes these years as her musical heyday. Holman returned to Willamette in 2001 to teach, and she now is a part of Salem’s rock scene. Her current band: The Funhouse Strippers.

Blinded by Science
When Holman enters the chemistry lab, her work takes on a much more serious tone — although that doesn’t mean she’s having any less fun than she does onstage. While in graduate school and in her postdoctoral position, her research focused on two areas: iron compounds that are potential catalysts for synthesizing man-made fuels, and the manganese catalytic site involved in how plants produce oxygen.

Once she became a professor, Holman wanted to have her own unique research program. She decided to study the fundamental chemistry of ruthenium molecules. Research has shown that ruthenium, a hard white metal located just below iron on the periodic table, is a promising treatment for metastatic cancer, which is disease that has spread beyond its original site and recurred in other parts of the body.

Holman has been using light-related techniques — X-ray absorption spectroscopy and infrared spectroelectrochemistry — to study ruthenium’s effects. She has taken some of her students to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to do research at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). Researchers from around the world use the ALS facility, which contains one of the brightest sources of ultraviolet and soft X-ray beams.

Holman was attracted to this research because she wanted to use instruments that no one else was using to study ruthenium. But the more she learned about the element’s effects, the more she fell in love with the project’s possibilities. “Deep down, I am a fundamental chemist. I just love understanding the basic way chemical bonds are formed and broken,” she says. “But the fact that my project has applications to society makes it even more exciting. The students really enjoy the medical applications, so that draws them in, too.”

Not Just Nerds
David Eaton ’06, one of Holman’s former students, says he appreciates her fun attitude as much as he respects her academic talents. Eaton, a chemistry major, worked with Holman on his thesis and did combustion demonstrations with her through the Chemistry Club. He also accompanied her and another student to a motorcycle gang’s clubhouse in Oakland for a punk show while they were in Berkeley using the ALS lab.

Eaton likes that Holman is easy to chat or joke with, but when it comes to serious chemistry questions, she has the answers. “She is kind of like a female version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Eaton says. “She’s this PhD chemist during the day, and at night she’s blowing up stuff with Chem Club or rocking out in the basement of a club.

“She likes to show that chemists can be cool people,” he adds. “They’re not just nerds in a lab.” That’s a sentiment scientists everywhere can appreciate.