Excellence in teaching and learning are at the center of EOU’s identity, and you’ll find these themes woven throughout this issue of The Mountaineer. Our shared legacy includes nearly a century of preparing teachers to serve schools throughout our region. These last several years have only highlighted the all-important role classrooms of all shapes and sizes play in their communities. 

Through a screen, in a gym or on the job, EOU alumni continue teaching and learning in a range of fields. Our distinctly rural context deepens opportunities for partnership and innovation, bringing cutting-edge solutions to today’s educators. Creative writers and poets reach the next generation of readers with inspiration, while new data sets reveal striking insights about local populations. Co-curriculars like internships, clubs and athletics strengthen the student experience and guide Mountaineers toward connection with peers and mentors. Community organizations work with the Rural Engagement and Vitality Center to tap into faculty expertise and student energy. 

All the while, I have the privilege of sharing these stories with colleagues and friends across the state. Telling our stories often compels others to get involved, and this winter the Oregon legislature invested $4 million in our story regarding the Grand Staircase. The restoration of this historical access point marks a concrete step in EOU’s ascent. 

I’m grateful to be among you, also teaching and learning, as we move forward together. 

Sincerely,

Thomas A. Insko, ’94 | President

Caring professors and coaches made a lasting impact on Wilda Stratton, ’72, and now she’s determined to pay it forward. 

Stratton and her husband Marcus Watt have set up a $2 million estate gift to the EOU Foundation that will benefit women in STEM fields and student-athletes. Adding this legacy to their will ensures a legacy of education and opportunity for rural students.

As a biology student and multi-sport athlete at EOU, Stratton built connections with peers and mentors across campus. These relationships kept her on track during a difficult time in her young adulthood

“I was very adrift because both my parents had passed away and I had to leave our home, but I kept coming back to EOU because I knew the professors,” Stratton said. 

State scholarships and a consistent flow of weekend and evening jobs allowed Stratton to stay in school and enter the medical field. She built a career overseeing blood banks and transfusion services for major hospitals. Traveling to inspect facilities, Stratton used her experience at EOU to make friends everywhere. 

“The big thing that stuck with me was the ability to get along with all kinds of people and appreciate their strengths,” she said. “In a team sport each person brings something different and you have to respect each other.”

Stratton and Watt are both volleyball players, and 15% of their gift will benefit EOU’s women’s volleyball team. The other 85% will provide scholarships for women in science, technology, engineering and math, fields like Stratton’s that have historically been dominated by men. 

The process of establishing an endowed estate gift was new to Watt and Stratton, and they found expert help in EOU Foundation staff.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a couple of phone calls really solidified those particular desires I had in mind,” Stratton said. “Once we started the process, you could focus on it and keep making progress to get it right.” 

“If people are unsure, they should really just call and ask!,” Watt said. “Staff do this every day, and so often people don’t realize those resources are there. It can be intimidating to know who to call, but once you start there are resources to guide you. Hesitancy shouldn’t be a barrier.”

By Katy Nesbitt

Growing partnerships with the Liberty Theatre and EOU are giving the Eastern Oregon Film Festival (EOFF) room to spread its wings, providing more creative experiences for filmmakers and movie enthusiasts alike.

Coming into its 13th year, EOFF Director Christopher Jennings said when renovation is complete at the historic Liberty Theatre in La Grande there will be regular screenings of independent movies.

“We want to build out a program and not be only a festival,” Jenning said.

Over the years the festival has proven that films bring tourism, bringing business to restaurants and hotels. Jennings said he hopes to double or triple that impact over the next few years.

Jennings said the festival has also created a cultural buzz in the community and he hopes to strengthen the relationships the film festival has developed with the university, students, businesses, and film fans.

Beyond expanding independent movie viewing in La Grande, EOFF wants to make Northeastern Oregon a destination for writing and filming movies. Through its emerging residency program, Jennings said he hopes EOFF can encourage the film industry to consider using the backdrop of the region’s majestic scenery to write, collaborate and shoot movies, bringing economic impact as well as artistic talent to the region.

“If a film shoots for three months, that’s good for the economy,” Jennings said.

In spring 2021 six filmmakers, chosen from 80 applicants, spent a month at The Lodge at Hot Lake Springs working on screenplays. Jennings said the goal was to create a group of filmmakers who represented different experiences and levels of engagement in the industry.  The cohort included a seasoned, award-winning producer; younger filmmakers of shorts and documentaries who wanted to develop feature films; even a budding artist right out of film school.

Screenplays came to Hot Lake in what Jennings called, “A nice variety of levels of writing at different points in the creative process.”

During their month at the resort the residents wrote screenplays that could be produced locally. 

“Each of them wrote their own screenplay and used the region to season their work,” Jennings said.

During the four weeks, time was made to scout potential filming locations. In order to get a big picture of the surrounding landscape, Jennings said a flight was arranged over the Wallowas.

There was no structured routine, Jennings said, besides check-in meals each week and opportunities to workshop their storylines with each other.

Jennings said the residents watched movies together two or three times a week at the resort’s screening room and critiqued the films afterward.

And if hosting a retreat for filmmakers in a valley between two spectacular mountain ranges at a hot springs resort wasn’t enough of an amenity, Jennings said the residents had access to ��ݮ��Ƶ professors.

“A couple of the filmmakers went to EOU and worked with faculty who helped them do research, connect with students and clubs, and build networks here locally,” Jennings said.

During last spring’s inaugural residency program Jennings said the public was invited to hq, an event venue in downtown La Grande, to hear script writing samples and story pitches. 

Jennings said, “We also talked about how to enrich the community, how to make it more enchanting for filmmakers to want to make movies here, and that EOU is a real asset, connectings students with film production and writing.”

Jennings said most of the funding for the residency came from EOFF’s general fund, along with a $1,000 sponsorship from EOU and other grant funding. He also credited Hot Lake for offering discounts on the room rates. 

Following a couple tough years for events, a residency wasn’t offered this spring, but Jennings anticipates an increase in festival revenue this fall and expects to offer the residency program again in 2023. 

In times of uncertainty, the simple act of being listened to goes a long way. This fall, Assistant Professor of Public Administration Daniel Costie and the Rural Engagement and Vitality Center (REV Center) helped bring a voice to several rural Oregon communities. 

REV partnered with Euvalcree, a nonprofit community support organization based out of Malheur County, to complete the group’s Needs Assessment Project. Euvalcree engages with and mobilizes underrepresented populations, such as the LatinX community, to develop social capital and leadership capacity in community members. The work included two surveys gauging the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on communities in Malheur, Morrow and Umatilla counties. 

“One of the main reasons we have institutions [of higher education] in our communities is to solve local problems. I would argue that a university that does not partner and collaborate with organizations, public, private or nonprofit, is not really doing a service to their own communities,” Costie said. 

Community Needs Assessment in Eastern Oregon Counties

EOU’s Rural Engagement & Vitality Center facilitates connections with students and community partners in many areas, including research and economic development.

Costie worked as the primary investigator, helping connect EOU student Vitor Pedrosa with Euvalcree to work as a research assistant and intern. He further watched and advised Pedrosa’s progress and ensured both the quality of the work and that Pedrosa was developing skills as part of the internship. 

“Really what I try to do is, the student does as much work as I find them capable of doing, the work gets moved on to Euvalcree, and I am there for quality control to make sure it is up to a standard that EOU has to hold itself to,” Costie said.  

Befitting of his role, Costie is a proponent of students building work and contact portfolios outside the classroom whenever possible. 

“It’s a different type of learning that people get an opportunity to do. Through that fieldwork you get to see the real relevance of the work itself,” he said.  

Pedrosa’s internship in particular fits this idea of fieldwork learning.  

“With Euvlacree, the research assistant is going into the data, familiarizing themself with the data, amassing and interpreting the data and asking, ‘What are the big takeaways?’” Costie said. “They’re able to apply the context and say, for example, ‘What I’m reading is, the people of Ontario want a recreational site.’ Great, let’s put that in the report because that is you offering a suggestion based on the analysis of the data. They are getting real-world experience on giving real people real recommendations.”  

The first surveys began in June 2021 and included 1,000 Euvalcree clients selected at random. A smaller batch of 300 clients responded to a second, more detailed survey. The majority of respondents were 25 to 45 years old and had lived in their current area for 10 to 20 years.  

Each survey was split into two subtypes, a close-ended type with yes and no style questions, and an open-ended type where respondents could answer freely. Answers were categorized depending on the question type, “quality of life inquiries” and “crisis inquiries,” and the response type.  

“We analyzed all the close-ended questions and open-ended questions and picked different themes for them. Then we summarized our findings to make sure that correlation implies causation, or it wasn’t just chance that happened. I worked on a little dashboard to visualize all the data,” Pedrosa said.  

In addition to his work with Evalcree, Costie is an advocate for the participatory research model, with an emphasis on working with and directly involving clients and other stakeholders. 

“Additional meaning is made by going to the people you’re trying to help and see if the results you got in your office resonate with the people you got those results from. If there’s a huge disconnect then you’ve got a problem. There are a variety of different stakeholders that would benefit from learning about these needs assessments,” he said.

The survey projects have concluded, but Costie is still working with the REV Center to coordinate new internship opportunities in Union and Morrow counties.  

“The more opportunity there is to link our students with organizations, the more valuable the product we have here at the university. And REV acting as that intermediary is quite valuable,” Costie said.  

Garrett Christensen 

Accessibility to education encompasses teachers as much as students. Years of rigorous schooling and graduate study can create a qualification bottleneck. At ��ݮ��Ƶ, however, the field of special education is opening to a new generation of educators at the undergraduate level.  

The College of Education’s new Special Education Initial Teacher Licensure undergraduate program trains special education teachers at the undergraduate level, helping to meet a dire need for qualified special educators across the state.  

“There’s a shortage of SpEd teachers in the U.S., and especially in rural Oregon,” said EOU Education Professor Dr. Jerred Jolin, who designed the new program and curriculum. “I’m enthusiastic about this project. I’ve been trained in this field and have first-hand experiences with the positives of helping students with learning differences be successful in the classroom.” 

According to Jolin, students who major in Special Education graduate with a state-approved teaching license that includes a special educator endorsement, which qualifies them to go directly into classrooms where their expertise is in high demand. The on-campus program entails two years of core coursework.  

Students participate in practicums during their junior and senior years, and then a 15-week student teaching field placement in the final two terms of the program. Students explore a wide range of special education settings, such as resource rooms, life skills classrooms, classrooms for students with behavior challenges, or academic interventions with math or reading.  

“Since this is a generalist program, students need experiences working in K through 12 settings, supporting students with a variety of disabilities,” Jolin said. 

Notably, the program provides an alternative to graduate level licensure options, bypassing an additional eighteen months of schooling for students interested in special education at the start of their careers. 

“It’s efficient. There are certainly strengths to going through the undergraduate elementary program and being a teacher in gen-ed and then transitioning, but there are also people who just want to be special education teachers. We’re hoping to attract those students to this new program,” Jolin said.   

While it spans the breadth of ages and needs, EOU’s program prioritizes special education in a rural environment. Practicums and student-teaching placements are located in Eastern Oregon. Jolin said schools in less populated areas and small communities tend to have even higher demand for special education teachers.

“We plan to focus on the unique challenges of being a SpEd teacher in rural settings,” Jolin said. 

The program officially opened in fall 2021. A single student joined the initial cohort, but that didn’t curb Jolin’s enthusiasm, who noted that even a small run provides many learning opportunities.

“We have a student and are in full implementation. That’s the most significant milestone we  have achieved at this point,” Jolin said.

The program is still expanding, too. Professor Hyun Uk Kim was recently brought on to teach courses and contribute to program development and expansion. 

“You want a mix of perspectives, so you want multiple faculty teaching various courses,” Jolin explained. 

The program is also reaching out to school districts for further collaboration, and Jolin has plans for a hybrid remote/in-person course offering down the road. 

“Currently our main focus is just to get another, larger group of students on campus in La Grande so they can fully take advantage of the various special education classrooms and service providers that are available here in Union County,” Jolin noted.

The program welcomes a new cohort in fall 2023.

“We have qualified faculty providing the instruction that our teacher candidates need to be successful. We have qualified teachers out in the field who are ready to serve as mentors for those teacher candidates. We are ready; bring them on,” Jolin said.

By the end of third grade, about half of Oregon students have fallen behind in reading comprehension. Difficulty reading at this early stage often leads to lower achievement in school, as well as in adult life. 

A new program developed by ��ݮ��Ƶ’s College of Education aims to equip teachers with tools and strategies to ensure more kids stay on track. 

Education Professor Ronda Fritz founded the EOU Reading Clinic because her undergraduates needed opportunities to practice the structured literacy methods taught in her classes. She discovered that some in-service teachers hadn’t incorporated these researched-based practices into their classroom curriculum. 

“If we could train teachers, then our students would be able to practice in their classrooms. It’s a dual model so pre-service teachers and in-service teachers receive training at different times of the year,” Fritz said.

She partnered with the Oregon Trail Regional Education Network (REN) to incorporate the EOU Reading Clinic into teacher training schedules. The network, which covers Morrow, Union, Baker, Umatilla counties, also agreed to provide a $2,000 stipend to teachers who attend the clinic. Online instruction allows Fritz to reach rural Oregon’s far-flung teachers, many of whom cope with even lower levels of reading proficiency in their schools. 

“There’s this inequity in reading instruction that leaves chunks of students unable to read,” Fritz said. “In the U.S. 60% of kids are not at grade level by the end of third grade, and 50% in OR—but it jumps to 70 or 80% when you just look at children of color.”

Addressing this systemic problem earned Fritz and the EOU Reading Clinic an $80,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust over the next two years. Fritz’s peers in higher education are also taking notice. 

EOU, originally a teachers’ college, has a long history of graduating top-notch teachers, and the College of Education is already working to incorporate Fritz’s findings into its wider curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students.

“It became a larger conversation about how we’re training teachers at EOU,” Fritz said. “We need to shift to include scientific evidence about how children learn to read and the best methods for teaching literacy.” 

Fritz explained that structured literacy intervention involves explicitly teaching children the code of language, rather than passively exposing students to literature and hoping they pick it up on their own.

“In the last couple of decades evidence has started to converge from neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology all coming to the same conclusions,” she said. “Modern brain research is confirming what educators had found effective for a while. We’re finding that brain structure and transformation requires explicit teaching of that code, not leaving it to chance.”

Teacher prep programs had taught that reading was as natural as speaking, but Fritz said modern data doesn’t support that approach. She pointed to a growing pile of evidence that universities should adjust the methods pre-service teachers learn for teaching reading.

“It’s a call to action for higher education to acknowledge that, and EOU is answering the call and leading the way in the state of Oregon,” Fritz said.

Structured literacy intervention has already shown positive results in states like Mississippi, where literacy rates shot from the bottom to among the best in the country after just six years. 

“Other states have made incredible gains by ensuring teachers are trained in the science of reading,” Fritz said. “Science tells us that using the right instruction, 95% of students should be at grade level by the end of third grade.”

That increase has a lasting impact because third grade reading scores can predict high school dropout rates, college attendance and even incarceration. Fritz said those foundational years ensure students can access curriculum later on because they’ve mastered reading.

“Teachers are hungry for these methods to make a difference for kids that are struggling in their classrooms,” Fritz said. 

Four teachers in the Oregon Trail REN are enrolled in the 10-week Reading Clinic this term. Fritz said 11 more are already signed up for spring and eight for summer sessions. Six local teachers completed the course last summer and serve as mentors, receiving a stipend to coach their colleagues and implement new methods in their schools.

The program reaches beyond Eastern Oregon and into the heart of metropolitan school districts, where a new partnership with Portland Public Schools enables in-service teachers to earn college credit for completing a reading intervention course. The course, called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS), is used nationwide to improve literacy teaching practices. Nearly 150 in-service teachers have enrolled, bringing additional revenue to EOU while empowering teachers to expand their skills. Schools and districts cover the cost, and teachers can apply the credits toward a reading endorsement from EOU. 

“It’s so exciting because the potential to exponentially impact kids in our region is very real,” Fritz said. “Portland Public Schools sought us out because other universities haven’t been willing to engage in the science of reading, but EOU’s small size allows us to be more nimble and adapt to needs as they arise.”

The EOU Reading Clinic accepts donations through the EOU Foundation to support its ongoing work. Include “EOU Reading Clinic” as a memo with your gift. 

Established as a teacher’s college and long esteemed as a source of teacher instruction, EOU recently partnered with the Rural Schools Collaborative to bolster rural teacher preparation and community engagement. 

The Rural Schools Collaborative is a national nonprofit based in Illinois with 12 regional hubs that facilitate shared work. As the Pacific Northwest Hub, EOU will serve Oregon and Washington. 

Dave Dallas, an instructor in the College of Education and the new contact for the Pacific Northwest Hub, said EOU’s status as Oregon’s Rural University pairs well with ongoing efforts to work with local schools. The hub at EOU will serve as a repository of resources and expertise to share with disparate rural communities.

“This partnership is such a natural fit for both organizations,” Rural Schools Collaborative Executive Director Taylor McCabe-Juhnke said. “After meeting Dave, it was clear that EOU’s commitment to their rural districts and rural students permeates everything they do. Collaboration is what we’re all about, and we are thrilled to support and strengthen the existing good work in this region.”

A grant from the Oregon Department of Education allowed Dallas and his colleagues to establish Teach Rural Oregon (TRO). The multifaceted project focuses on recruiting, training, and supporting educators in rural and isolated districts. The program emphasizes the recruitment of diverse student teachers, including first-generation college students, to complete their student teaching in far-flung districts across Oregon.

In practice, TRO engages each step of the teacher pipeline, beginning with the Eastern Oregon Teacher Academy. This early outreach program invites high school students and paraprofessionals to “a four-day exposure to all the possibilities of teaching rural, to attend keynote addresses by teachers of the year, and to meet EOU faculty.” 

Pre-service teachers from EOU’s community college partners also have an opportunity to participate in the Junior Field Study Program at a rural school with housing, food, and a stipend all provided by the university.

“Part of the impetus for the field program was to help students consider the possibilities of teaching in a rural district,” Dallas said. 

While the College of Education is committed to providing quality teacher instruction through TRO, Dallas also recognizes that new and existing teachers in the region need tools for managing community and personal isolation. Community integration of new teachers is a challenge anywhere, and this is acutely felt by historically underrepresented people seeking education careers. 

“How do we help people get into and join very small rural communities that are isolated and may not provide the support networks they need?” Dallas asks. “Particularly if they don’t equate themselves with the things that traditionally keep those communities together, like faith groups, social groups, and sports.”

Dallas and EOU are hopeful that the new relationship with Rural Schools Collaborative will spark ideas and provide tools to address this question and more. 

“I find that because of the distance and isolation it’s sometimes difficult for people to realize what others are doing—that is something we can adopt and adapt from efforts in other states,” Dallas said.  

As the hub grows, Dallas looks forward to elevating more stories about the work of rural teachers and schools across the Pacific Northwest.

Ryan Looney’s, ’98, skill at building teams has proven successful—and those successes culminated into an opportunity to be the head coach of an NCAA Division 1 basketball team. There were a lot of stops along the road to the Division 1 job, but that was never the plan.

“Each time we moved, there was an opportunity that presented itself,” he said.

The first opportunity was a graduate assistant coaching position at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, where he earned a master’s degree in athletic administration. When he graduated, he was asked to follow his boss to Minnesota State, Morehead, to be the full-time assistant coach. It wasn’t long before he was back in La Grade as head coach at his alma mater.

At 27, Looney wasn’t far removed from being a player on EOU’s basketball team.

“Being a head coach and running my own program where I played was a dream come true,” Looney said.

He said he learned quickly that hard work and passion pay off. His first year with the team, 2004, the Mountaineers didn’t have a lot of wins, but the team’s breakout season of 2005-06, produced the best record since 1969. 

During the 2006-07 season the Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 23-8, advanced to the finals of the 2007 Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament, and were ranked as high as No. 17 in the NAIA national poll. 

In 2007-08 the Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 26-6, won the school’s first conference championship in 38 years, advanced to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in school history, and were ranked as high as third in the NAIA national poll. That year, Looney was recognized as the Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year. 

During the 2008-09 season, the team finished with an overall record of 25-8, won the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship, advanced to the Elite Eight of the NAIA National Basketball Tournament, and were ranked as high as No. 6 in the NAIA national poll.

He then spent seven years at Seattle Pacific, an NCAA Division II school. Looney led the Falcons to a 22-6 record in 2009-10 and became the school’s first coach to earn a conference championship spot in their inaugural season. The Falcons compiled a 20-10 record in 2010-11 en route to an NCAA Division II Tournament. In 2011-12 the team reached the Sweet 16 of the Division II Tournament. During the 2012-13 season the Falcons finished with the best overall record in program history at 27-4, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, reached as high as second in the NABC national poll, and advanced to the NCAA II West Region Final. 

During the 2013-14 season the Falcons finished with an overall record of 26-6, won the Championship, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, reached as high as second in the NABC national poll, and advanced to the NCAA II Tournament. Looney was recognized as the 2014 GNAC Coach of the Year and the 2014 NABC West Region Coach of the Year.

Looney and his family then headed south to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego where the wins kept coming. Looney spent three seasons at Point Loma, leading the team to its first Division II National Championship game. The Sea Lions won their first regular season conference title in 2019. In three years, Looney finished with a 69-28 record.

His continued success caught the attention of Idaho State University, a Division I program and a job Looney said he couldn’t turn down. Unfortunately, his first few seasons have been constantly interrupted by the COVID-19 virus.

“My first season COVID hit,” Looney said. “It’s been an interesting time. Everything about coaching basketball is totally different.”

For 15 months he wasn’t allowed to leave campus to recruit or to bring students to Idaho State for a visit.

“It can be difficult to build a program until we start to resume some sort of normalcy,” Looney said.

The success has been up and down, Looney said. The 2020-21 was the best season the school had in 30 years, but this year they are struggling with injuries, COVID infections and quarantines.

Luckily, things are loosening up. Looney said this past fall his staff was allowed to start in-person visits with potential recruits, most he brings in from the Pacific Northwest, but he’s had experience with players from Spain, Denmark and countries in Africa.

“The foreign students add a different dynamic,” Looney said. “It’s fun for those guys to come to college in America and learn a different culture, as it is for the Americans to learn about where those guys come from as well.”

Coaching college ball requires early mornings, late nights and a lot of time on the road, but Looney said there are plenty of rewards and benefits—like when a former player yells his name from the stands at a game.

“It’s about the relationships built that go well beyond playing the game,” Looney said. “The most 

satisfying things are when a former player sends a wedding invitation or an email about a promotion, or a note that a baby is coming—those things bring a smile to my face.”

Room 214 in Inlow Hall is not a classroom, but it’s where two recent graduates learned critical skills, discovered mentors and applied theoretical knowledge. 

Briana Rosenkranz, ’20, and Samantha Wegermann, ’20 and ’21, earned degrees in business from EOU, while gaining real-world experience through on-campus jobs and internships with the university’s marketing team. 

After graduation, they both entered Boise’s rapidly growing start-up market and quickly climbed the ranks. Rosenkranz started as a junior content marketer at Verified First, a human resources technology company. When she was promoted, Wegermann happily filled the vacancy and later became a full-fledged content marketer.  

Rosenkranz, now a Partner Marketing Manager, said her year-long role as EOU’s Public Relations Intern filled her portfolio with published press releases and gave her a big-picture perspective on strategic marketing. 

“I had collaborated with multiple stakeholders and worked directly with administrators, plus mentorship to learn about analytical tools,” she said. “I was already familiar with using strategic language to align every topic with company goals and presenting progress reports.”

Wegermann, who also served as ASEOU President, was a leader in Residence Life and held a student job as a graphic designer for EOU. She credits all three extracurriculars with landing her the job. 

“I came into the interview with real projects I had done,” she said. “When I came into this position, they expected me to do graphic design, as well as copywriting. Even though I hadn’t done that directly, I had been observing marketing team members.”

Marketing courses provided a solid foundation and faculty ensured they had an understanding of the basics, but adapting to the demands of an actual workplace set both alumnae up for early success. 

“In a small community there are so many chances for hands-on experience,” Rosenkranz said. “We had those transferable skills and real-world projects coming into the workforce.” 

Wegermann discovered flexibility and opportunity from a rural education.

“EOU works really hard to ensure there’s a wide range of opportunities. I was hired straight out of my MBA and my supervisor has said I’m way ahead of where she’d expect a recent graduate to be,” Wegermann said.

Verified First helps organizations attract and hire high-quality employees more effectively. Rosenkranz hosts an industry podcast and works directly with HR professionals, connecting them with technology and colleagues to improve hiring, workplace environments and employee engagement, while Wegermann creates a range of materials and imagery to support them. 

From classrooms, to campus offices, to corporate success, Mountaineers are avid learners in every environment. 

Jose de Jesus Melendez went to college at the age of 27 in order to expand his career opportunities. By the time he graduated, education was both the journey and the destination.

Born and raised in a remote village in Mexico with no electricity or services of any kind, Melendez said he  was barely literate in his own language when he came to the U.S. He attended first through fourth grade, but those years were constantly interrupted.

“The teachers assigned to our village were not willing to teach school there,” Melendez said. “We would get a young teacher who would stay a couple months and then leave. Then there would be several months before we would get another teacher.”

When he was 15 Melendez came to the U.S. The oldest child in his family, it was his responsibility to join his uncles in California and make money to help support the family in Mexico. He said he worked in the Greater Salinas Valley for many years in the produce industry. By the time he was 24, he was still struggling to master the English language.

“I started to feel a strong desire to access systems that were obviously English-only systems of employment,” Melendez said.

Melendez said he started focusing on learning English, bought books and was Sesame Street’s No. 1 fan.

“I was glued to the TV to learn from that little program,” Melenedz said.

Eventually, learning English wasn’t enough and Melendez wanted an education. At 27, while living in Southern Oregon, he hurt his back while doing migrant labor work. He wanted to improve his situation and while reflecting on what to do next, he was encouraged to enter a 12-week, on-campus, GED program at the University of Oregon. But there were obstacles.

“When I showed up they said the program was for recent high school dropouts who were no older than 20, but I convinced them to let me stay,” Melendez said.

One of his teachers, Donna Wong, had also come to the U.S. as a child and understood the language and culture barriers. She helped him navigate the system and was integral in his success not only earning a GED, he said, but getting him to apply to college. He received a full scholarship to what was then called Southern Oregon State College in Ashland.

Lack of education and cultural differences continued to present challenges for Melendez.

“I was struggling so much I almost dropped out,” Melendez said. “I didn’t have the background to carry the class load.”

While at Southern Oregon, his counselor helped him get into appropriate academic classes and steered him toward EOU and its bilingual education minor. Melendez jumped at the suggestion, but what he expected to be a program taught in two languages turned out to be an English for Speakers of Other Languages minor. He felt isolated and again considered dropping out of school.

“The EOU Ambassadors Coordinator, Mindy Morrison, told me, ‘No, you are not leaving, end of story.’ She convinced me that going to college was the greatest missed opportunity I would ever have.”

Morrison helped Melendez navigate a system that confused him and pointed him to the Learning Center and tutoring programs.

“I was their best customer, getting help with science, math, and geography,” Melendez said.

With the transfer and the extra year of classes necessary to teach school, Melendez finished his degree in five years. During his student teaching stint in Ontario, he kept an eye out for a job working with second language learning students. He was hired to teach dual language split kindergarten and first grade classes.

“They had a contract for me to sign before I finished student teaching,” Melendez said. 

There was a lot of regional interest in my teaching career. Local newspapers covered his first day in the classroom.

Education was no longer the path to a lifelong career for Melendez—it was the career and a calling as a student and a teacher. He taught elementary school for several years and earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with emphasis on English Language Learner education. 

Wanting to move into administration, Melendez earned another master’s degree in educational leadership. He became an elementary principal. Still hungry for learning, he went on to earn an Educational Specialist Degree, culminating with his superintendent credentials.

He helped open a new school in Mesa County in Colorado, then returned to the Northwest to serve the Meridian School District outside of Boise. His next stop was Washington state before coming to La Grande last year to head up the school district as its Director of Student Success.

He said the position is to assist families, connect them with community resources and help students be successful in La Grande’s K12 system.

“Our initiative is to create a culture of care,” Melendez said. “We make sure children are socially and emotionally healthy. We watch carefully and monitor when we include or exclude students and why.”

The other part of his job is coaching the district’s elementary school principals.

“I really love that part,” Melendez said. “When I was a school principal I needed coaches, too.”

The successful lifelong learner and educator, Melendez said he had some discouragement along the way, but chose to focus on the positive reinforcement he received.

Melendez said , “People would ask, ‘Why are you struggling here? You could go back to where you came from and you would be way better off.’ But I relied on the folks who gave me life and hope because they wanted what was best for me.”

Katy Nesbitt

Somewhere between a miscommunication and the eagerness to start a new career, Lynette Longchamps found herself teaching kindergarten, a job she vowed to never have.

After graduating from EOU with a bachelor;s degree in education Longchamps interviewed for a third grade position in Shoshone, Idaho.

“After the interview I was told the job announcement was listed wrong, it was actually for kindergarten,” Longchamps said. “I needed to pay off student loans, so I took the job.”

While she said she had the utmost respect for kindergarten teachers, Longchamps didn’t think she had the patience for the job. 

“That first day—staring at 22 faces—I thought, what did I get myself into? I have to get them ready for first grade in nine months!”

Now in her sixth year, Longchamps wouldn’t change her position for the world.

“I love the growth I get to see them go from babies to independence. It’s fantastic to watch the confidence that grows in them,” Longchamps said.

From her earliest memories, Longchamps knew she wanted to teach. She grew up in the northern Nevada town of Battle Mountain and attended Boise State University before transferring to EOU to study English for Speakers of Other Languages and complete the teaching program.

Longchamps said she teaches in a Title 1 school, meaning 40 percent of enrollment or more are from low-income families. Many of the children have no preschool education, so to prepare 20 or more children for first grade with no para-professional help is a tall order, but she has some tried and true methods to keep order and deliver the children’s lessons.

To get their attention, Longchamps rings a doorbell she wears around her neck.

“As soon as they hear it, they put their hands on their heads and eyes on me to listen for directions,” Longchamps said.

It takes training to have 20 kids with different rhythms at home work as a cohesive unit. 

Longchamps keeps a stack of M&Ms on her desk and feeds her students large doses of compliments and positive feedback.

“Praise is huge for my little people, but treats don’t hurt!” Longchamps said.

She said teaching young children is all about the little processes.

Longchamps said, “Just to teach kids to raise their hands before they talk takes six or seven steps!”

Once her students get into the rhythm of Ms. Longchamps’ kindergarten class, they readily adapt.

“They love their routine,” Longchamps said. “If I miss something, they ask for it.”

Favorite class time activities, Longchamps said, include timed math tests, being the line leader or even better, the line caboose who gets to hold the door as the students walk out to the buses.

The rudimentary lessons of kindergarten are so integral in the preparation for the entire K-12 existence, and Longchamps said she wants to give her students a solid foundation for entering school.

“Everyone remembers their kindergarten teacher,” Longchamps said. “Every person I ever talked to since I took this job said they remember her name and they always have fond memories. I would like to give that to my kids.”

Her commitment, dedication and passion for her work has not gone unnoticed. In May of 2021, the students, parents and staff at her school recognized her as Teacher of the Year. 

Longchamps said her reward as a kindergarten teacher goes beyond the accolades and the progress her students make during their first year in a formal education environment. 

“They teach me acceptance,” Longchamps said. “I’ve had some tough students—like a table flipper—and the other kids take them in with their whole heart and love them with genuine joy.”

Longchamps may not have felt prepared for the busyness of five year-olds, but she said she did feel prepared to face a career as a teacher after graduating from EOU.

When she started in Shoshone she was one of four brand new teachers.

“I knew what the programs in the schools were and that first year I never felt uneasy or had a lot of questions,” Longchamps said.

She even had colleagues tell her she was well-prepared for her first year and said she’s happy with her decision to go to EOU.

“My professors had a love for education, for kids and for making us the best educators we could be,” Longchamps said.

Garrett Christensen 

Home means something different to everyone. Amelia Ettinger, a 2021 MFA graduate, expresses home, or rather how to find home, through poetry in her 2020 collection “Learning to Love a Western Sky.”  

“It really is looking for home in many ways,” she said. “I think that a lot of the collection is a narrator’s voice of looking how to find home when you have been displaced from your original place of birth. It’s about maturing in a foreign land and how nature becomes a place of solace and renewal for the speaker.” 

Ettinger has a master’s degree in biology and taught Spanish and science at La Grande High School for 26 years. She worked on the collection, 50 poems in total, through 2019, and it was quickly picked up by Arlie Press. 

“Learning to Love a Western Sky” tackles themes of belonging and identity in an unfamiliar land along with human relationship to nature. Ettinger explained that the book carries on themes from her first collection, “Speaking Out of Time,” with a more mature voice and view of the world. 

“I wanted to start with Puerto Rico and then from there move into the internal angst that the displacement makes and into the mature woman,” she said. “There are a lot of poems that have to do with life in Eastern Oregon, but throughout all the themes, one thread that you can find is nature. Nature is where the voice in the poems finds redemption from whatever, whether it’s stress, melancholia, whatever it might be. Nature is the bond that brings the beauty into the voice,” she said.

A notable piece from the collection is “Vulgarization,” a commentary on the general harshness and divisiveness of modern political discourse. The idea struck while she was mountain biking. 

“I really like what it says. Even though it’s talking about something so negative, the narrator has hope,” she said.

Arlie Press sent the collection to the 2021 Portland Book Festival, and Ettinger was invited to speak about her work.

“They treat you like a celebrity,” she said. 

She was interviewed by Erika Stevens alongside another author, Teresa K. Miller, in a block called “Homelands and Inheritance.” 

“[Erika] noticed some particular vocabulary where my science background shows through the poems. She asked me about the diaspora in Puerto Rico, so we discussed that and how does that feel to be gone from the island, particularly now that the island has been going through difficult times. So, that was the thread of home,” Ettinger said.  

The festival includes readings and books from other authors, including Louise Erdrich and Rita Dove and concluded with book signings at Powell’s Books, which was completely packed.

“It was just very heartwarming to do a book signing with that many people, because the Portland Book Festival brings a lot of readers, not only writers,” she said.

Even as a seasoned author, hearing the experiences and works of other professional writers left an impact on Ettinger.  

“You get so inspired by the amazing work that so many people are doing. You just don’t want it to end. You just want to sit there like, ‘Keep reading! Keep enlightening me,’” she said. 

The festival is not just for published authors, though. Ettinger believes that event could be both a learning experience and career opportunity for upcoming student authors. 

“Eastern Oregon students not only should participate in it hopefully one day, but they should start going and see what it is about and get to hear some amazing presentations,” she said. 

Currently, Ettinger has a new poetry collection, “Between the eyes of the lizard and the moon,” releasing in fall 2022 along with a new chapter book, “These Hollowed Bones,” though she is still searching for a publisher.

Q&A with Alexander Ortega

Second-year MFA student Alexander Ortega, who attends EOU while based in Salt Lake City, recently had his short story “A Real Man” published in the collection “Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest.” 

Q: What is your piece in the “Evergreen” anthology about?

A: The folkloric Coco Man (his anglicized New Mexican name; El Coco/El Cucuy in Mexico) has kidnapped the narrator, a 10-year-old boy. Yet this is the child abduction that has finally broken the Coco Man, and a boy makes him a deal to get back home. Shifting power dynamics complicate the matter more than either expect.

Q: What inspired you to write the piece?

A: I grew up with my gramita and great-uncles warning me, my brothers, mom, and aunts about the Coco Man. He’s a rhetorical tool to get children to behave or to play/prolong pranks on the entire family when you drive up in the middle of the night, in the tiny, rural town of El Rito! But once, according to my gramita, my great-grandparents got someone—maybe a neighbor or one of her uncles or something—to come to their house on or around Christmas, make her and her siblings say Catholic prayers, and insinuate that he’d take them away in a sack if they misbehaved. 

Q: How does it feel to submit your work for publication?

A: As far as the emotional end of the process, it’s really intimidating at first. You need a cover letter, often a bio, and to follow all the directions of submitting. But I promise, once you do your first one, it gets easier. There’s a lot of research involved, too. It behooves us to research the publication and the kind of work it publishes, its editorial staff, and the other aesthetic elements that may make work a good match for any given publication. Then, once you submit, you start again.

Q: What was significant about the first work you ever published?

A: The first work I published may best be described as a flash fiction triptych, called “Nubes,” that was published in “Moss,” a literary journal of the Pacific Northwest. For me, what’s significant about this triptych’s publication is the amalgamation of absurdist fabulism and my Chicano, Hispanic, and Mexican-American roots. Since my maternal grandparents are from Northern New Mexico and my paternal grandparents are from Northern Mexico, my cultural position as, functionally, a third-generation Chicano and third-generation Salt Laker infuses my harebrained premises, but allows me also to navigate what I hope is original imaginary territory.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on the short story/flash collection that will be my thesis! Herein, I’ll continue with my affinity for fabulism. One of the stories that will appear in this collection will be “Gramita’s House,” which “Quarterly West” published last year. You can read it at .

Following Oregon’s 2022 legislative session, EOU will see several important investments in student support services, scholarships and its iconic Grand Staircase. 

“We are happy to announce that ��ݮ��Ƶ had a very successful February session with several significant investments from the state,” EOU President Tom Insko said. “I greatly appreciate the hard work and advocacy of our regional legislators, trustees, students, and partners who pressed for support of our mission as Oregon’s Rural University.”

Restoration of the Grand Staircase

EOU will receive $4 million to restore the historic Grand Staircase on the north side of the La Grande campus as both a practical access point and distinctive architectural feature of the community and region.

“This investment in restoration of the Grand Staircase will enable us to take care of a historic community icon and leverage a significant connection between the university and community,” Vice President for University Advancement Tim Seydel said. “It means a great deal to many of our alumni, community members and friends of the university. Credit for keeping this project moving forward goes to our Staircase workgroup, which spent many years advocating for this historically significant stairway that has been a part of EOU since our founding.”

Visual and Performing Arts Endowment

Additional scholarships in music, theatre, art and similar programs will be available to EOU students, thanks to a $1 million investment in arts and culture. The university plans to begin awarding scholarships from the fund starting in 2023. 

“As an educational and cultural engine for rural places, these scholarships will help us capitalize on recent reconnovations to EOU’s performing arts venues: McKenzie Theatre and Schwarz Theatre in Loso Hall,” Seydel said. “These scholarships will add fuel to our already excellent visual and performing art programs and attract student artists to EOU.”

Strong Start student support programs

Student support services funded by pandemic relief initiatives have had a significant impact on retention and student success efforts at EOU and across the state. These services can be extended and expanded with this additional infusion of state support expected to be $900,000. 

The short session also saw students from all Oregon public universities meet with legislators for University Lobby Day in February. 

“The role of students in sharing their stories with legislators cannot be overlooked,” Seydel said. “Working together, we have an amazing impact.”