September 10, 2024
On Saturday, March 23rd, 2024, Oregon's Kitchen Table held the second Hatfield Futures Showcase and it was amazing! We gathered at the Native American Student and Community Center at Portland State University. We filled the space with crepe paper flowers, covered all the tables with paper! Our Helping Hands student alumni team gave pep talks and we did warm-ups to calm our nerves.
Over 120 elected leaders, principals, college students, community organizers, and friends and family from across the state who joined us to listen to students’ ideas for shaping Oregon’s future! We started the day by grounding ourselves in place, introducing the project and our many collaborators, sponsors, and supporters. Hatfield Futures participant and poet KB Licitra shared a poem about their origins that helped us arrive.
Each team had worked over the past two months on a proposal to address a pressing issue in Oregon with an eye to shaping Oregon in 2050 through actions that center interconnectedness, are strategic, equitable, and creative. The team from Griswold High School in Helix, Oregon took on the intersection of homelessness and public water access in their community. Their presentation focused on various ways to encourage water recycling and installing Benson bubblers.
Students from Kalmiopsis High School in Cave Junction presented their creative proposal to reduce the buildup of trash on public lands by launching a trash art campaign and storefront.
Bend Tech Academy students looked at how to prevent fentanyl overdose by creating a peer-to-peer education program to connect middle and high schoolers and build community. Student artist Sage Rae Hulse shared her poetic reflections on the future.
We had an awesome lunch catered by Melinda at Miss’ipi Chefs. After lunch, alum and Helping Hand Grace Peterson brought us back with a poem exploring despair, anger and hope in. Then, the Mapleton High School team presented their ideas for intervening in the addiction and housing crisis by employing people to build tiny home villages and remodel old buildings into community centers in Mapleton.
Students from St. Helens High School shared their ideas for fostering positive, engaged school environments by creating a virtual network for schools to track and share learning about how to support student engagement and wellbeing.
Finally, the 2024 cross-regional team, which features students from West Linn High School, Astoria High School, Liberty High School, and a student who is homeschooled, presented their proposal for reducing plastic waste statewide through policies that support alternatives to plastic use, inflating the costs of production to discourage further production, cultural work that shifts the norms, and innovative strategies like mealworm facilities to dispose of plastic that is already in circulation.
After each team presented, our three judges, Jacque Fitzgerald (Resonance Coaching & Project Advisor/2023 Hatfield Futures Project Lead), Zavi Borja (Central Oregon Staff for Governor Kotek), and Miles Palacios (Oregon Association of Student Councils) asked them questions about their presentations and reflected the strengths of the proposals.
At the end of the day, State Treasurer Tobias Reed congratulated all the students and encouraged them to continue to “take the experiences and the opportunities that have been put in front of you here and find ways to continue serving your community, wherever that is, whatever that is.” The judges and Helping Hands presented awards to each team, and we offered a special congratulations to the Bend Technical Academy team, which took home the $1000 prize this year for their proposal. Everyone present was inspired by the teams' hard work, bold visions, and creative proposals!
We closed the day with gratitudes, which were flying in all directions. Shout-out to the Hatfield Futures team: so many PSU staff, guides, chaperones, parents, teachers, friends, caterers, alumni, and donors who helped to make this youth program possible.
Our goal continues to be to amplify youths' voices to shape the future of Oregon. We hope Hatfield Futures empowers youth to see themselves as change-makers now and for their future; we are excited to hear that many teams want to take the next step to implement their projects locally and we're excited to support them!
