People talk about the "New Normal" and how the past won’t return. I see that in many of my travels and conversations. To thrive in today’s environment, one must take advantage of current circumstances. The University’s outreach and engagement role is designed to react to contemporary issues and to form the necessary partnerships to address them, not to try to recapture what once was. So what’s new? We have done that well for more than 100 years. Going forward depends upon how we build upon our historic strengths—community based, objective, and centered on knowledge.
After many conversations with members of Congress and Oregon State legislators, I’m convinced that opportunities to rebuild the OSU Extension Service are entirely possible. Our comparative advantage will be most convincing if we focus on the return on investment to Extension. What are the returns? Knowledge gained, behaviors changed, more healthy and prosperous lives, vital communities, and sustained landscape productivity and profitability are among the meaningful measures.
Going forward, we have developed three priority investment packages. Each builds upon our statewide foundation and addresses critical issues. The first seeks to support jobs and the economy through expanded work with natural resources and the workforce—important parts of a post-recession economy. The second addresses food systems and many dimensions of food safety and security. The third expands our path breaking work dubbed Oregon Open Campus that knits together educational systems to support local and state goals.
Of course, the challenge is to earn the necessary resources to implement our priorities. In times of federal budget sequestration and limited state revenues, all of our voices are needed to illustrate Extension’s possibilities. Please take the opportunities to learn about and advance our collective future.
Check out the investment packages at the following links:
Scott Reed
Vice Provost, University Outreach and Engagement
Director, OSU Extension Service
April 8-10, CH2M Hill Alumni Center, OSU Campus, Corvallis
Highlights of this year's Spring Training will include:
View the schedule of events (PDF) for detailed information.
Contact Drea Zigler with questions and suggestions.
To celebrate Arbor Day 2013, the OSU Extension publication Trees to Know in Oregon is on sale through April 26th!
The book is 50% off cover price for retailers and OSU affiliates (purchasing on an index). The public, non-affiliate sale price is 33% off, only $12!
Trees to Know in Oregon is a 156 page full-color field guide to tree identification in Oregon. It contains keys to identifying common conifer and broadleaf trees and discusses ornamental, shade, and fruit trees. For each species, the guide provides identifying characteristics, range, and distinctive features. It includes hundreds of photos and drawings and a list of Oregon's champion trees, indexed by common and scientific tree name. This 60th anniversary edition has over 70 new color photos!
To order Trees to Know in Oregon, email, fax, or call the Extension & Experiment Station Communications office at Oregon State University.
We continue to develop stories and provide timely access to resources and opportunities on the OSU Extension website.
Current homepage items include:
Our goal is to increase Oregonians' awareness of the OSU Extension Service and to provide them with practical, easy-to-understand, research-based information that helps them solve problems and improve their lives.
See these items and more on the OSU Extension website.
Sandy Macnab of the Wasco County Extension Office received the Agricultural Achievement Award presented by The Dalles Chamber of Commerce. The award committee highlighted Sandy's contributions to agriculture in the Mid-Columbia area.
Congratulations to our OSU Extension colleagues who have articles published in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of Extension (JOE):
The February 2013 issue also includes submission and readership statistics, and several articles about the always-important topic of evaluation.
To learn more about publishing in JOE, see the JOE Submission Guidelines and Help for JOE Authors.
In February, Mary Corp's watercolor painting Dynamic Duo was featured as part of the 2013 OSU Staff Art Exhibit.
Brittany Williams, student worker in Extension Administration, Collegiate 4-H National Action Board Chairman, and former 4-H State Ambassador for Klamath County, was awarded a summer internship with the Citizen Washington Focus (CWF) program.
CWF is a week-long 4-H citizenship program for youth that takes place at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center, just one mile from the Washington, DC border. Brittany will spend the summer as a program facilitator and tour guide for the 4-H youth groups that come to Washington, DC.
Congratulations, Brittany!
The Division of International Programs is pleased to announce the launch of the Faculty Internationalization Grants, a re-designed and expanded version of the IP Faculty Grants. This initiative is part of our ongoing efforts to support OSU’s internationalization agenda, which includes recruitment and retention of diverse international students, developing and supporting education abroad opportunities for OSU’s domestic students, promoting global learning through curricular and co-curricular means, and fostering strategic international partnerships to promote faculty research and outreach activities.
Faculty Internationalization Grants are designed to encourage and support OSU faculty who are working to further OSU’s internationalization efforts as well their own professional involvement in activities that enhance our teaching, research and engagement with topics and colleagues beyond the U.S.
Grants of up to $2,500 are available to OSU faculty to help promote international research, partnership, and collaboration. The applicant’s unit is expected to share the cost of this investment to promote internationalization across the University. Awards will be made on an on-going basis and there is no deadline.
Please see the links below to learn more about Faculty Internationalization Grants and to submit an online application:
If you have questions about this program, please contact Charlotte Moats-Gallagher.
Oregon State University's second annual Natural Resources Leadership Academy will be held June 17-21 and June 24-28 in Corvallis, Oregon. Hosted by one of the nation's leading natural resources universities, this academy is a unique opportunity for professionals and graduate students to enhance leadership skills, gain knowledge and connect with others in natural resources fields.
Pre-register today to save your spot!
The first step to enroll in the academy is pre-registration. All participants are required to submit a pre-registration request and $50 fee (nonrefundable), which includes selection of your course(s). There are limited seats in each course and permission to fully register in a course(s) is contingent on successfully completing the pre-registration process.
Courses include:
This intensive professional development program provides advanced doctoral students and early career faculty with:
All designed to increase knowledge and enhance the practice of community engaged scholarship.
Participation is limited and interested applicants must apply to be part of this workshop (Applications due April 30, 2013).
The workshop is held annually as a preconference to the Annual Meeting of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, hosted by Texas Tech University this year. For more information about the conference, visit the Engagement Scholarship Consortium website.
The Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop (EESW) will take place October 6-9, 2013, and includes full participation in the greater conference.
In partnership with Oregon State University Rural Studies Program and Extension Service, the Regards to Rural 2013 Conference, Innovations and Inspiration, is a gathering to inform and inspire...all that is rural!
Join us at the Regards to Rural Conference and renew your energy, share practices, and spark innovative ideas for strengthening the economic vitality and social vibrancy of rural communities.
Listen to insightful keynote presentations and effective skill-building sessions. Access rural resources and network with others who are passionate about making sustainable changes.
Mark your calendar and plan to be inspired!
Friday and Saturday, June 21-22, 2013, with a pre-session on Thursday, June 20.
Attend Michael Shuman's conference pre-session, Local Investment 101, on Thursday, June 20, from 9am - 5pm to learn about the basic tools for starting a local-investment movement in your own backyard. Pre-session registration rate: $39. Meals for the pre-session are on your own.
Regards to Rural 2013 keynotes include Michael Shuman, economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, who has authored, coauthored, or edited seven books, including "The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition," "Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age," and "Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity," and Chuck Fluharty, Founding Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), the only national policy institute in the U.S. solely dedicated to assessing the rural impacts of public policies.
Early Bird Registration Rates (Ends May 5, 2013)
Regular Registration Rates (Beginning May 6, 2013)
Navigating Difference: Community Building, Cultural Competency, and Social Justice, a three-part workshop series specifically designed to promote community building within and across organizations. New friendships and new partnerships are formed around this shared experience. With a new and deeper understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion and with increased cultural competency, participants are motivated to work together to become more welcoming and inclusive across all dimensions of difference. We are motivated to work together to help children and families to escape the crisis of poverty.
Each workshop runs from 8:30am-4:30pm with a light breakfast served at 8:00am.
Workshop fees include all materials, a light breakfast, and lunch for each session.
Scholarships are available. Contact Dan McGrath for scholarship information.
You may register for the workshops online or by mail. Visit the registration website for more information.
Linn-Benton Community College, Calapooia Center 2nd floor; Vineyard Mt. Room CC-213
Navigating Difference training is appropriate for management and staff, educators, health professionals, customer service, agency personnel, mediators, lawyers, social workers, board members, young adults, etc.
Navigating Difference will provide you with a solid foundation in intercultural communication.
Navigating Difference will help you to work with equity and inclusion across all dimensions of diversity.
Navigating Difference training is learner-centered and fun.
"It was an amazing experience. One of the best training classes I have attended."
"Thank you for opening doors that I have only been looking through."
For more detailed information, please view the Navigating Difference Workshop Curriculum document linked below.
Navigating Difference: Community Building, Cultural Competency, and Social Justice is presented with permission from the Board of Regents, Washington State University. The curriculum is adapted from the work of Mary Katherine Deen, Melynda Huskey, and Louise Parker of WSU Extension, Stella Ting-Toomey of California State University, Fullerton, Barbara Schaetti, Sheila Ramsey, and Gordon Watanabe of Personal Leadership, A methodology of Two Principles and Six Practices, and Donna Beegle of Communicating Across Barriers, Inc.
Provided by: UABC-HR