Leilan i Larsen is joining the OregonASK team as our full time Quality Improvement Coordinator.  Leilani earned  her Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education with a Minor in Early Childhood Education and a Master's Degre e in Education from Oregon State University. She holds an Oregon Teaching License and Master Trainer certificate in the Oregon Registry.  Leilani is an advocate for building literacy with young children. She believes in building healthy and meaningful connections with children, parents, schools and community to build a bright future for children.

Leilani's 35 year career in the field of Education has journeyed through many paths. She has been a classroom teacher, school librarian, school coordinator for SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), owner of an afterschool program, afterschool teacher and program coordinator, school age specialist for OregonASK, and community volunteer. She has traveled to Australia for school and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan as a marketer for the Northwest Cherry Industry. Leilani is bicultural and a mother of three grown sons. These valuable experiences have helped her see learning and education from a spherical aspect. Leilani is the founder of the Cedar Mill Farmers' Market and enjoys reading to children in low income communities and giving away books.

Farmworkers Housing Development Corporation (FHDC) and OregonASK are partnering up for a unique opportunity to participate in a national pilot program called CerebroEDU. This national Spanish/English project connects local experts with informal educators to provide culturally competent programming and media resources about the brain's structure and function to Latinx middle school students and their families. These culturally responsive hands-on activities help youth build knowledge to demystify the brain's structure and destigmatize the importance of mental health. 

OregonASK staff will support FHDC Colonia Libertad in connecting with local STEM educators and public health professionals to bring to life the exciting opportunities connected with neuroscience and important information to engage families in positive mental health practices.  This two week program will be kicking off with a family event August 1st and celebrating its completion with a family fiesta  August 15th.  You can learn more about this culturally specific project at  www.cerebroedu.org .

Earlier this month, the Zero Robotics teams from across the state gathered at Oregon State University for a Field Day that included a campus tour and fun hands-on STEAM activities. Currently, students are hard at work with their respective teams solving the complex problem of using one satellite to rescue another satellite, all while navigating a field of space debris. On August 9th, teams will reconvene at OMSI to watch a live feed of astronauts on the international Space Station run the same computer codes their teams are working on today.

We have closed data collection for site staff and youth surveys and will spend the next months analyzing data from all our surveys and focus groups. Thank you to all programs who took time out of their busy schedules to participate in this project. We hope that by hearing directly from youth, families, and programs that we can make a stronger case for more resources and support in providing expanded learning opportunities in communities across Oregon. 

We'd also like to thank everyone who participated in our Data Design meeting in July. Your feedback has proved invaluable throughout this process and has helped shape this work we've undertaken. Data Design meetings this fall are scheduled on September 27th and October 24th, participants will be able to join online or at our office in Wilsonville. Both meetings will review updated data analysis and draft materials for implementation. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to be added to the invitation list. 

The final report will be released later this year, but in the meantime, make sure to check out our

Interim Report here!

Exciting work and exciting conversations are happening around STEM! There is a shared optimism within the industry, and Microscopy and Microanalysis (M&M) has created an opportunity for industry partners to share innovative opportunities to collectively inspire, connect, 

                          and propel their efforts.

M&M is hosting a networking roundtable event at the Oregon Convention Center (C-124)  on 

Tuesday, August 6th from 8:30 am - 10:00 am.

In this discussion, M&M and participants will explore how working together to integrate varied resources within education, government, the nonprofit and for-profit business sectors, academia, and industry will have have broader, sustainable impacts on bridging K-12 outreach with undergraduate and graduate education, and increase the talent pool. 

No registration is required for this event, however if you are interested please let us know  here.

 OregonASK is still looking for a  dedicated and driven professional interested in being part of our team to make an impact in Oregon communities.  It is a full time, one year position: