Promoting lifelong learning

Our mission is to enrich lives in the classroom and in communities. Our students will become the next generation of teachers, adult educators, informal educators, counselors and educational leaders. Our faculty’s research helps us understand how people learn and teach. Today's students will support tomorrow's learners.

Inspire. Empower. Use Your Voice.

So often a common thread emerges amongst teachers: I didn’t know I wanted to teach until it was right in front of me. Of course, this is not always the case. Others, like 2019 Oregon Teacher of the Year recipient Keri Pilgrim-Ricker, discover their profession through a passion and a need to inspire that passion in others.
 
Pilgrim-Ricker’s methods are unique and demanding, they make the student become an active partner in their education. They make teachers push themselves and challenges norms. As she says, “Curriculum is constant. Standards are constants. The only thing that is dynamic in education is you.”

    Speak Up, Speak Out, Be A Champion

    Brett Bigham was named Oregon State Teacher of the Year in 2014, National Education Association Foundation fellow in 2015 and 2018 and he even received White House Honors from President Obama. This was a huge and momentous time in Bigham’s life, a time to celebrate, a time to plan for the future. What Bigham didn’t expect was how this was also about to become a time of huge adversity.