Since I got back I've been hard at work preparing for spring semester, which starts on Tuesday the 16th. Right now I'm doing some contract work for Portland Community College. Every year the Sylvania campus puts on a winter powwow. This year I'm doing the promotion/marketing, community outreach and engagement. So essentially I've been running around town putting up posters, meeting with community members and organizations and working on logistical pieces leading up to next Saturday.
In addition to that I've got some other back to school projects up at the law school. NALSA is the Native American Law Student Association, and I will be hosting an event today with them. We're bringing 14 students from NAYA's Early College Program. NAYA is the Native American Youth Association, a wonderful non-profit that does so much good work for the First Nations community. So the kids are going to come out, we'll talk to them about navigating higher ed, how to do a research project, use the library and answer other questions. Also one of my favorite local storytellers, an elder in the community, Esther Stutzman will be coming to tell traditional stories before lunch.
I am part of the Northwest Indian Storytellers Association (NISA), so I get to see and perform along side of grandma Esther throughout the year. She's been a great teacher and example of how I hope to tell stories some day!
Monday is MLK Day of Service, so there is going to be a lot of different events happening, and then Tuesday is back to school!
My class schedule this semester is as follows:
Tues/Thur -- 8-9:30am
Numbers as Social Facts
Tues/Thur -- 9:40 - 11:10am
Education & Social Inequality
Tues/Thur -- 1:50 - 3:20pm
Gender/Sexuality in Latin America
Tuesday -- 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Ghanian Music/Dance Ensemble
Wednesday -- 6:00 - 9:00pm
Anthropology of the Body
It should be a good semester, and I look forward to the content of the courses. As you can see I was able to get pretty much everything down to Tues/Thurs, with the exception of my Wed. evening class. This will make it much easier to work, unlike last semester where I had all my classes spread out throughout the week, I am not making that mistake again.
Anyways, enough for now.. I will update in a couple days about some of the events I had done at the end of the semester like OSCC... Glad to be back and looking forward to the spring. I have a bunch of scholarship deadlines coming up so I'll be busy plugging away at those through the weekend, more later.
Cheers,
Lukas
lukasmsoto@lclark.edu