Across Oregon educational providers are working together to improve high school graduation rates, which are among the lowest in the country. Schools in rural Oregon communities struggle more than others, and Latino student gradation rates are significantly lower than rates of other student populations.

In 2010, Madras High School reported a 57% graduation rate for their Latino students, and of those who graduated, xx% went on to pursue post-secondary education.

Over the past four years, the school district has committed to improving those numbers by focusing on creating a college-going culture, and they have seen some significant progress.

One program that has been a key component of this success is JUNTOS, a college readiness program targeted at first-generation college students and their families. Originally developed by North Carolina State University, JUNTOS was launched in Madras in 2012 through a partnership between Jefferson County School District 509-J and Oregon State University.

The JUNTOS program, taught in English or Spanish, meets for 2 hours once a week for six weeks in the evenings. During this time success coaches and college age-mentors facilitate weekly afterschool clubs and activities with the participants.

After two years of running the program, MHS has seen the following improvements with the targeted population:

• Decreased dropout rates
• Increased postsecondary education access
• Increased understanding of high school graduation requirements
• Increased completion of college applications and FAFSA

JUNTOS is also offered in Culver, Tillamook and Sisters, with plans to expand to more locations in the next year.

By: Emily Henry, OSU Open Campus Coordinator in Tillamook

We had a great week at Oregon’s first Tech Trek camp here in Tillamook at Tillamook Bay Community College! Tech Trek is a nationwide science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) camp for 8th grade girls that we brought to Tillamook through a start-up grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

Tech Trek at TBCC is the only Tech Trek camp in Oregon and the only such camp in the country that is at a community college rather than on a university campus. We had 34 girls from rural, coastal Oregon communities who spent a week immersed in STEM activities—from using the Pythagorean Theorem to build kites to investigating the effects of ocean acidification on the shellfish industry to learning about women pilots and astronauts at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.

The girls left with new experiences, new knowledge about STEM subjects and STEM careers, and new friends and mentors. Eventually, we hope that we will see these girls go on to take more math and science courses in high school, be more likely than their peers to major in science and math subjects in college, and eventually increase the number of women in the STEM workforce here in Oregon. After just a week, I had a camper tell me ‘I want to learn to fly a plane now’ and another say ‘I think I want to be a computer scientist when I get older’ and I think, we are well on our way to this goal.

This camp would not have been possible without the support of the community; grants from AAUW, Ford Family Foundation, Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, OSU Precollege Programs, and Tillamook School District #9; individual donations; and the work of our camp planning committee, staff, and volunteers—thanks to everyone for this amazing week!