Something new has taken over the second floors of both the Smith Memorial Student Union and the Academic and Student Rec Center that shows how Portland State students take their education out into the community.
More than 100 photographs of students will be displayed in these two buildings through the end of spring term to continue PSU’s second phase of the “Oregon is Our Classroom” campaign. The photos are the winners of a contest held earlier this year.
“This campaign was launched about two years ago, and previously we held story contests, in which students submitted written work of what their classroom was,” said Christian Aniciete, communications and events lead. “The difference between this and that one is that we asked students, faculty, staff and alumni to share stories of their classroom outside of their actual classroom.”
Contestants were asked to answer the prompt “My classroom is…” in both a description and a photo of their work outside of the regular lecture-setting classroom.
Three grand-prize packages filled with tickets to Trail Blazer games, beach getaways and restaurant reservations were given. Everyone who submitted work also received a free T-shirt.
To ensure the winners were chosen with unbiased precision, Aniciete drew their names out a hat.
“Part of our social media effort is to be very transparent and authentic. It’s important for our social media fans to know this is something we take very seriously and there was a lot of interest in this contest,” he said. “We want everybody to know we were very fair in selecting the winners. I videotaped myself, and…drew them one by one. I uploaded that onto YouTube, and that was the way students knew they had won.”
The photo contest was primarily meant to be displayed on the University’s Flickr page. However, PSU marketing decided to display them at the university itself.
“I chose Smith mostly because it has high traffic, and it’s right by the student lounge, [so there’s] more opportunity to people see them,” said Julie Smith, director of marketing for PSU.
Angela Nguyen, a community health, health science and general science major, was one of the students who submitted a photo. Hers depicted the work she did in an internship in Santiago, Guatemala, last summer. Taken on National Health Week in the South American country, her team wore shirts given to them by the center they were working at.
“We have a lot of students who are doing different things, and I feel like people don’t hear about it enough,” she said. “I was looking at some of the contestants’ photos, and they were doing some things I could never imagine myself doing.”
The “Oregon is Our Classroom” campaign is part of the university’s brand in helping depict the diversity and opportunities PSU has to offer, Smith said.
“One of the things that makes PSU distinct is the way we integrate community engagement into our curriculum; we are the leaders in our nation regarding that,” she said. “The campaign shows our students taking their classroom out into the community, and the fun part of this photo contest was that this time it was the students actually showing us their experience, which was way more powerful than anything we could do as an institution.”
As a senior ready to graduate, Nguyen believes it is important to integrate classroom learning with actual experience.
“There’s only so much you can learn in the classroom. I’m a big advocate when it comes to putting knowledge into action,” she said. “I feel like going to a new place and learning new stuff and bringing it back to the classroom environment is such an enriching learning experience.”
Aniciete’s favorite part of the experience was the sense of inspiring school pride and representing what he believes the university is all about.
“The photos truly represent PSU’s mission and celebrate the work our students, faculty, staff and alumni are doing around the world,” he said. “It was a great opportunity for us to integrate digital/social media with print…We’ve turned the empty, boring walls in Smith Union and Rec Center into a piece of art.”
On view through the end of spring term
Smith Memorial Student Union, second floor
Academic and Student Rec Center, second floor