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Study shows income gap keeps widening
You and Your Money: Plan a dream vacation without ignoring financial
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Business, the schools could use help |
Organizers of new writing-mentor program make pitch
to bring business people into classrooms |
By Gunnar Olson, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Gunnar at golson@eaglenewspapers.com
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The string of speakers stayed on message
and minced no words making their pitch:
Students need to know how to write and how to write well. Companies
need people who can write well in order to do business. Therefore,
people of the business community, why not help students improve
their writing abilities before they enter the work force?
Such were the talking points the forum luncheon of the Chehalem
Valley Chamber of Commerce at 3Rooms meeting room in Newberg. The
organizers of a new program, Partnership for Student Success, used
the venue Monday to introduce the program, to explain its inception,
and to try to win support for its future.
“I’m very optimistic that the program is going to turn out some
exciting things,” said Kris Horn, one of the organizers. “Very
optimistic. But we need your help.”
The program aims to improve the writing skills of students at
Newberg High School by partnering them with mentors from the
business community. Program coordinator Terry Molander told the
approximately 50 people at the luncheon that the program needed
people to spend at least two hours per month — preferably one hour
per week — working one-on-one with a student selected by his or her
teacher.
Organizers are also arranging for people to speak at the school
about the importance of writing in the workplace. And they are
searching out venues to have students’ work displayed, such as in
company newsletters or on display at their places of operation. (The
Newberg Graphic will on occasion print students’ work within its
pages.)
The seed for the program was planted about a year ago, when the
Newberg School District was approached by Employers for Education
Excellence, otherwise known as E3, according to district spokeswoman
Claudia Stewart. After multiple surveys and committee meetings, she
said, the district decided on a program focusing on writing.
Twelve school districts in Oregon are participating in the
Partnership for Student Success program, said Kyle Ritchey-Noll, an
E3 project manager. She said, however, that Newberg was the only
district to focus on writing at the high school level.
No fewer than five people spoke at the luncheon Monday, each using
different words to stress the importance of writing, as well as the
teaching of it.
But the one to elicit the most response was Michelle Adlong, a
senior at Newberg High School. She spoke of a “disconnect” between
the students’ lives in and out of the classroom.
“I believe that students would be motivated to improve their
writing if they saw the relevance that it has on their ‘real’
lives,” she said. “And the way to make this connection is for people
from the community, people like you, to come into the classroom.” (Adlong’s
speech is printed in full on Viewpoint, page 4.)
For more information, call Molander at 503-554-4433. |
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From
Feb. 15, 2006, Newberg Graphic
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