Author: Shawn Smith

For many, becoming a first-generation high school graduate is a big achievement. For others, it is being the first in the family to earn a degree at a community college. But for Ni’Cole Sims, it is all that and more.

As a child, Oregon State Sen. Rod Monroe showed a deep interest in politics, and by his teens, was so well read on the subject that he would tell his parents how to vote, until eventually his parents, and even his community, began to listen.

This summer nearly 300 Portland State students will spend two weeks in the great outdoors working as counselors at Kiwanis Camp on Mt. Hood, where they will help youth and adults with disabilities experience camping to its fullest extent.

After a grueling year as chair of the Student Fee Committee, Aimeera Flint says she now recognizes just how much she has learned about the ups and downs of leadership and the workings of student government.

Immediately after realizing that the swine flu virus would inevitably enter Oregon late last month, Portland State began preparing for the worst.

The polls for the ASPSU election opened this week. But if history repeats itself, it will be more of a sprinkling than a flood of students running to the polls to vote for their favorite candidates this year.

Lower tuition. Transparency in student government. More sustainability on campus. Have you heard these campaign issues buzzing around from more than one candidate this year, or previous years for that matter?

Most people in the United States drink from the water fountain without too much to worry about its safety, but for others in poorer parts of the world, contaminants such as arsenic in drinking water are a real concern.

As a political science major, Sean Staub’s involvement in government may come as no surprise. Staub began an internship with the Teacher’s Union in Salem in January and has been involved with the Labor Party of Ireland, but his latest venture is running this year for ASPSU president with friend and coworker, Kyle Juedes.

It has not been long since the United States witnessed blacks getting the right to vote, desegregation of public schools and, most recently, the election of the first black president, Barrack Obama.
 
Race relations have come a long way, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, has been behind much of that progress. And the Portland State chapter of the NAACP is passionate about seeing that progress continue.

“The resilience is phenomenal. With everything that we’ve been through, we continue to grow. We continue to move,” said chapter President Erica Lee-Johnson, who was vice president of the group during the 2007–08 academic year.