Saber es Poder: Latinx women in leadership

By SYDNI ZIDAREVICH Justice, Equity and Diversity Beat Reporter

Saber es Poder is an annual leadership program focusing on Latinx leadership, activism and self-exploration. This year, it will be celebrated through an overnight immersive experience that will take place April 15-16 in Woodburn.

Lodging, food and transportation for the overnight experience will be provided, and there is no application fee. Spots are limited and the final deadline is April 7, with the application available online.

Saber es Poder is a leadership program and collaborative series by Diversity & Cultural Engagement, presented through the Centro Cultural César Chávez and Community Engagement & Leadership.

Through the overnight program, participants will be able to connect with community leaders and learn from their stories and experiences. This is an opportunity for participants to dissect and reflect on their own personal experiences and leadership skills.

“It’s a program that exposes students to whatever the theme of the year is,” fourthyear Public Health major and student organizer, Rocelia Celedonio said. “This year, for example, we're doing Latinx women and leadership. We are just focusing on doing that by teaching feminist views from the Latinx perspective on leadership, exposing

Safety

ASOSU SafeRide introduces Beaver Buddies, new evening guided walking service

By HALEY STARK News Reporter

The SafeRide program by the Associated Students of Oregon State University provides students with free rides around the OSU campus and Corvallis at night. Their newest addition, Beaver Buddies, expands this service through guided walks around campus.

Like SafeRide as a whole, Beaver Buddies is based around making students feel more secure while traveling in the dark. The program allows students to request a pair on the ASOSU SafeRide app to walk with them across campus at night, operating from 7 p.m to 8:30 p.m. during spring term.

While Beaver Buddies was just launched this winter term, a service like it had drawn interest in the past.

According to ASOSU SafeRide Program Coordinator Jeff Baxter, ASOSU passed a resolution in 2018 to create “OSU With You.” Like Beaver Buddies, OSU With You was intended to be an evening escorted walking service for students. However, the pandemic halted the program before it was ever introduced and caused future delays.

“We were hoping to start the pilot for the program last spring, but I didn’t have enough staff because we were still recovering from COVID-19 levels of staffing,” Baxter said.

According to ASOSU SafeRide Graduate Teaching Assistant Rebekah Short, the absence of a walking service like OSU With You or Beaver Buddies was evident in past years.

“Unfortunately, there were a few incidents in the OSU and Corvallis area in 2021 and 2022 where individuals were assaulted and a program like Beaver Buddies could have helped prevent that,” Short said.

Beaver Buddies is the beginning of a series of improvements ASOSU hopes to implement in making their SafeRide program more sustainable. The new walking program eliminates the emissions created by driving, one of the biggest issues with SafeRide.

According to Baxter, SafeRide has a long-term goal to transition from gas to electric vehicles. Coordination with the University Motor Pool, installation of charging stations and upgrading the city’s power grid will all be required to make this change possible.

people to community leadership. We're also trying to do community partnerships around the area.”

Not only is the CCCC working in conjunction with the CEL, but they are also working with outside organizations such as CAPACES Leadership Institute, located in Woodburn, who aim to serve, organize and build the leadership of Oregon’s Latinxs, Indigenous and Afro-descendants to “improve the quality of life for all.”

CAPACES intends to do this through strengthening the wellness, capacity and political consciousness of individuals, organizations, movements and communities “to eliminate social disparities.”

CCCC is committed to creating an environment in which individuals feel safe and can learn from other Latinx women to join and deliver programs. Although the program is centered around Latinx women and leadership, this program is not exclusive to just the Latinx community.

“We're trying to invite people with different backgrounds and stories, because, I feel like that's one of the ways that we connect to (each other) is just storytelling,” Celedonio said. “We learn a lot about each other and a lot about…different ways of life that aren't memories. And I think that's very powerful, and very, very rewarding.”

Through the Saber es Poder Leadership Program’s overnight experience, the CCCC

Construction

OSU receives federal grant to reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions

The United States Department of Energy grants OSU $540,000 to research reducing the construction industry’s carbon footprint through sequestering carbon in cement. 4 and CEL hope to not only empower the Latinx community, but engage a larger part of the OSU community.

“The idea is to empower really anybody who attends a program, it doesn't matter if what you identify or anything,” Celedonio said. “It's a little bit different from what it's been presented in previous years… our central theme is to just empower our participants.”