Happy AmeriCorps week from CUB

Yesterday, Caitlin and I got to celebrate AmeriCorps week talking to students at Alpha High School in Gresham about our work at CUB. We were at Alpha High School for a career fair organized by my AmeriCorps colleague Melina Maltese, who serves as the Conservation Projects Coordinator at the high school. Coincidentally, Caitlin is an AmeriCorps alum—in 2005 she worked for Public Allies LA, where she served as the Regional Policy Coordinator for affordable housing. We were both excited to get to share our AmeriCorps experience with the students and Alpha community.

My position is organized through Confluence Environmental Center. Confluence organizes twenty AmeriCorps positions in the Portland area, providing critical environmental services to low income communities and communities of color. Confluence was well represented at the career fair. Current AmeriCorps members had booths, taught classes and the Confluence staff was there to talk about the program at large. Over at our table, we talked to students and faculty about CUB’s regulatory work, and also what we do at the CUB Policy Center. Students were interested to learn that CUB represents their families in front of statewide bodies, and some specifically expressed how they were happy to hear that CUB makes low-income communities a priority in our advocacy.

I’m not sure I’ve been inside of a high school since my own graduation five years ago. I have to say that it felt good to be there as a representative of AmeriCorps and CUB, rather than, say, a 16 year-old again. Going out into the community like this is definitely my favorite part of doing outreach at CUB. Although CUB represents thousands of Oregonians, very few actually know about us and the work that we do. It’s fun to get to share our work with the ratepayers that we represent and talk about the important victories we’ve had, as well as our vision for a clean energy future in Oregon. As we head into the springtime, I’ve been busy filling our summer calendar with street fairs, neighborhood parties, and other community events.

To keep up with CUB, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

• Share this post on Facebook.
• Share this post on LinkedIn.
• Share this post with email.

« Back