Thirty-two students from eight Oregon colleges and universities spent a week learning and developing their leadership skills and capacity to be “leaders with integrity” through Oregon Campus Compact’s LeaderShape Institute.

The nationally acclaimed event was Oregon’s first statewide LeaderShape and an opportunity that convened Oregon student leaders to do something extraordinary.

The first LeaderShape cohort explored their values and developed an action plan to create positive change in their communities. Throughout the week, students shared their visions for the future and their motivations to make a lasting impact on campus and in their community.  One participant said, 

ORCC’s LeaderShape Institute was a dynamic, challenging, and exciting weeklong event that produced a breakthrough in the leadership capacity of students. The August event marked the beginning of many great things students will this year.

ORCC is committed to foster the next generation of thoughtful, educated, committed leaders, and to prepare them to solve Oregon’s most complex problems. ORCC supports this vision by connecting students to their communities and by deepening their understanding of social justice issues. The LeaderShape Institute is a program of ORCC that drives smart, young people with fresh ideas to lead with integrity and find a healthy disregard for the impossible. 

Oregon Campus Compact (ORCC) welcomes back the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) as a campus member. Previously a member in 2002, NCNM has renewed its membership to join ORCC’s shared commitment to strengthening higher impact education and community-engaged learning. 

NCNM educates and trains physicians, practitioners, and pre-professionals in the art, science, and research of natural medicine. NCNM’s two mottoes, “We are community” and “We are what’s next,” are embraced by students, faculty, and staff alike. The informal slogans reflect both NCNM’s dedication to inclusion and belief in the future of natural medicine. They also demonstrate the school’s commitment to educating students who are intelligent, motivated, and skilled to make the world a better place. By developing caring and knowledgeable practitioners, NCNM students are contributing to the health and well-being of patients, and improving the primary care landscape in America.

To strengthen this work, NCNM is taking advantage of the ORCC membership benefit to host an ORCC AmeriCorps VISTA member. In September, NCNM will welcome ORCC AmeriCorps VISTA, Hannah Foreman, who will work to develop a sustainable volunteer internship program for NCNM’s community clinics, which will provide health care at affordable rates to some of the region’s most vulnerable populations. 

Through the volunteer internship program, interns will be recruited and trained to welcome clients to the clinics, as well as to provide front line resources and referrals to local health programs to help patients who suffer from poverty and poor health. Hannah will create partnerships with allied health programs and implement a training and assessment agenda for student interns.

ORCC is excited to start the school year with NCNM, along with ORCC’s membership of 18 colleges and universities that are committed to deepening the public purpose of higher education. Research has shown  students who volunteer have higher GPAs, are more likely to graduate, and are more likely to stay engaged in their community after graduation. In partnership with NCNM, ORCC is building community-engaged learning and service to help bring coursework to life and engage students with the needs of their communities.