Write Around Portland

Fostering First Year Belonging

A Center for Community and Global Health Colloquium

 
In Fall 2022, the Center for Community and Global Health in collaboration with community partner Write Around Portland, is offering writing workshops to First Year students at Lewis & Clark.
This is a unique opportunity for new students in the LC community to experience the ways in which writing can help to heal. The optional colloquium is open to all First Year students through their Words + Numbers courses.

The writing workshop objectives are to:

  • Foster a sense of belonging in First Year students
  • Share Write Around Portland’s values of respect, writing, and community
  • Support Write Around Portland in expanding their institutional impact

Fall 2022 Colloquium Details

Format: Two hour small group, interactive workshop format.
Number of participants: 10-12 capped at 19.
When: Four writing workshops will be offered over two weeks in September. 
  • Tues, Sept. 20th 3:30-5:30

  • Fri, Sept. 23rd 3:00-5:00

  • Tues, Sept. 27th 3:30-5:30

  • Fri, Sept. 30th 3:00-5:00


Student Registration: will open at the start of the Fall semester. Please check back here for more information.
Faculty interest: If you are Words + Numbers faculty interested in reserving a workshop session for your entire class, please email Alexis Rehrmann to make the request by September 1. 

 


Program Development 

This colloquium developed out of a Fall 2021 pilot in Dr. Tamily Weissman-Unni’s Numbers are Human course. 48 First Year students participated, and 35 completed post-workshop evaluations, an additional 6 participated in a focus group.
  • 91%

    Workshop participants who shared that the experience improved their ability to listen to others.

  • It made me happy

    “It made me so happy to be able to do this.”
    –First Year LC student and Write Around Portland workshop participant, Fall 2021

  • 94%

    Workshop participants who reported feeling more connected to their classmates.

  • Feel less alone

    “The transition to college is really hard. A workshop in the first weeks of college could help kids feel less alone. They could see that other people in their classes are feeling the same way.”
    –First Year LC student and Write Around Portland workshop participant, Fall 2021

  • In my own words

    I learned that I don’t have to write like everyone else. My own writing and my own voice is good enough, I don’t have to compare myself to others or how they express themselves.”

    -–First Year LC student and Write Around Portland workshop participant, Fall 2021


VIDEO: How the Humanities Can Save Humanity

Panel Discussion Presented by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

In celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month (#NAHM), Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, moderated a wide-ranging discussion with artists Mel Chin and Allison Janae Hamilton and writer-photographer Emily Raboteau about how the humanities are tackling the interconnected challenges of climate change, public health, and racial injustice, among other pressing social justice issues.

The Lewis & Clark College Center for Community and Global Health is supported in part by a Mellon Foundation grant, Healing Social Suffering Through Narrative. 

VIDEO: A Community Partner in Write Around Portland

Write Around Portland has been bringing their values of respect, writing, and community to Portlanders for 20 years. Now, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, write around will be bringing workshops to the Lewis & Clark community, too.