Portland State wins civic engagement award

This July, Portland State was among five victors awarded The Washington Center’s Higher Education Civic Engagement Award for 2013.

The Washington Center’s website describes the award as one that “recognizes institutions achieving breadth and depth of civic engagement through sustained and mutually transformational partnerships that define and address issues of public concern at any level from the local to the global.”

Winners received $20,000 in funding to help their students participate in The Washington Center’s academic internship program next year in Washington, D.C.

“It’s quite a bit of money for students in that interest,” said Mark Wubbold, senior policy analyst in the president’s office at PSU.

The Washington Center considers and reviews applicants based on leadership and innovation in addressing and defining public concern issues, vision for systemic and sustainable change and extensiveness of institutional commitment.

The university was chosen out of 126 other applicants, and it’s the first time the school has won this award. Past winners include Duke University and Bulova University.

“It’s a pretty highfalutin’ group,” Wubbold said.

PSU was recognized for achievements including community development—based on Senior Capstone courses that work on issues within the community—economic development partnerships, and campus planning and development partnerships.

The economic development partnerships center around PSU’s eight schools and colleges, 62 research centers and institutions and the Business Accelerator, which is home to more than 30 start-up companies.

One facet of these partnerships that stood out was the School of Business Administration, which started a new certificate program that gives students the opportunity to work in the athletic industry cluster.

The campus planning and development partnerships focused on financing new development within PSU.

Public investment will also focus on developing new education facilities and labs, as well as job growth and developing clusters. The developments were all discussed in the application for the Civic Engagement Award.

Wubbold feels honored that PSU has earned this recognition.

“It connects us to the community very closely…If PSU is going to be relevant, we have to do work that the community builds from,” Wubbold said. “Any time you get this recognition, it’s like getting the gold housekeeping stamp of approval.”