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Dylan Hankins BA ’20 didn’t realize an extracurricular acting class, combined with his study abroad trip, would change his life. But with Faena, his new Spanish-language play, Hankins proves himself one of Portland theater’s most eclectic young artists.

Lewis & Clark’s Animal Legal Defense Fund is hosting an evening event that celebrates the power of art to inspire a vision of a better world for all and challenges the mainstream paradigm of how we perceive and value animals. Attendees will connect with local artists and photojournalists, explore their impactful work, and enjoy a special presentation by award-winning photographer, author, and photo editor Jo-Anne McArthur, founder and president of We Animals.

During this virtual event, Professor Emeritus Kim Stafford will discuss his journey to publish A Proclamation for Peace: Translated for the World. There will be a reading of his poem in different languages by L&C alumni from around the world.

Students in the Portland Music Scenes course connect directly with the city’s varied music communities—from country to jazz, punk to R&B, taiko to Irish trad—while learning to use the tools of ethnomusicology.

Cara Tomlinson’s Art and Ecology class uses waste materials from around Portland to create beautiful and meaningful works of art. This course offers a fresh approach to creative practice, merging art and ecology to help students respond to the climate crisis, explore the agency of materials, and build connections to place.

A new course, Playing at the Border: Migration and Art, examines how migrant and refugee stories are told in film, theatre, and visual art, providing students with opportunities to engage directly with Portland’s immigrant communities.

Lewis & Clark enters the second year of its engagement with the Portland Art Museum’s paid college internship program, an opportunity for students to facilitate interactive K-12 group visits in the galleries.

Music, theatre, and dance might not be the first things you think of when you hear “library,” but Lewis & Clark’s Aubrey R. Watzek Library is much more than a place for quiet study. On the first Friday of every month, Arts@LC takes over the Watzek atrium to showcase student participation in the performing arts. The final events of the fall semester featured actors from the Main Stage theatre production Into the Woods and dancers from theatre’s contact improv class.

The Hoffman Gallery’s current exhibit features immersive paintings, bodily ceramic sculpture, and monumental paper sculpture by Catherine Fairbanks. This work is accompanied by intimate poetry by Catherine Barnett, which has been hand-drawn for the exhibition by Nuria Kiesebrink-Pareick.

The Lewis & Clark Art Therapy program has released a documentary film exploring its expansion into the Community Counseling Center and discussing the benefits that the new space has to offer to both graduate students and community members alike.

Lewis & Clark Graduate School’s newly expanded Community Counseling Center serves as a training ground for counseling students and a thriving mental health resource for Portland.

The nearly $2 million Oregon Health Authority grant will support graduate students pursuing degrees in counseling, therapy, and school psychology over the next two years.

In a Seattle Times opinion piece, Robin Holmes-Sullivan, president of Lewis & Clark and a clinical psychologist, addresses how parents and caregivers can prepare their students for the“monumental transition” to college while supporting their autonomy and growth.

L&C’s hybrid school psychology graduate program increases access to a fully accredited program, specifically in rural Oregon districts where the school psychologist shortage is felt most acutely.

Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling received a $1.1 million federal grant to train school psychologists to effectively support students in high-need rural and urban districts.

Lewis & Clark’s Mental Health Validation Program (MVP) brings counseling services, mental health workshops, student-athlete peer support groups, and more to the college’s student-athletes.

For first-year students interested in public interest law, 1LIFE is a valuable opportunity to gain hands-on legal experience, receive mentorship from experienced professionals, and establish a network of connections.

At a recent campus event, community members learned how to practice the 3-Minute Mental Makeover, a quick writing exercise designed to reduce stress and improve communication and connection with others.

Lewis & Clark’s Entrepreneur in Residence Mitch Daugherty has been tapped to lead Portland’s newly created Office of Small Business, helping to connect small business owners with the resources they need to thrive.

A group of L&C students got an exclusive tour of Nike headquarters in Portland, connecting with alumni and discovering what it’s like to work at one of the world’s leading sportswear brands.

Portland Music Scenes, a course taught by Associate Professor of Music Kaley Mason, allows our students to engage with the city and its residents while learning the tools of ethnomusicology. Students recently took a field trip to the Portland Japanese Garden, where students watched Yumi Torimaru, instructor in shamisen, perform as part of the duo Takohachi X.

On Being a Porous Boundary—a new art exhibit copresented by Lewis & Clark and Portland-based A-B Projects—features immersive paintings, bodily ceramic sculpture, and monumental paper sculpture by Catherine Fairbanks. This work is accompanied by intimate poetry by Catherine Barnett, which has been hand-drawn for the exhibition by Nuria Kiesebrink-Pareick.

WE ARE HERE, a new exhibit in the Art Therapy Gallery at L&C’s Community Counseling Center, features works by art therapy faculty, students, supervisors, and alumni as a way to educate the public about the art therapy program, to honor the unique people who are in our community, and to celebrate this important moment of growth and expansion to serve Portland.

Originally drawn to law school to seek justice for animals in captivity, Rianka Macwan JD ’24 maximized her student experience by fully exploring and participating in all of her interests. Through this personal and professional work, she decided to launch her career as the Lewis & Clark Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic’s ABA Tax Fellow.

Lewis & Clark enters the second year of its engagement with the Portland Art Museum’s paid college internship program, an opportunity for students to facilitate interactive K-12 group visits in the galleries.

Sports and entertainment attorney Nic Mayne teaches a new Sneaker Law course at Lewis & Clark Law School, providing hands-on contract drafting experience through the lens of the athletic footwear industry.

Clinical Assistant Professor Cari Zall explains Oregon’s new Social Studies Standards, which introduce fresh perspectives and a more inclusive curriculum, and how the graduate school is preparing future educators to work with these guidelines.

As a new member of College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, President Robin Holmes-Sullivan is joining 91 other college presidents from across the country to advance higher education’s pivotal role in preparing students to be engaged citizens and to uphold free expression on campus.

Todd Lochner and Ellen Seljan of the political science department served as consultants to the City of Gresham, sharing their expertise on electoral systems and local political institutions.

In a time of significant political polarization, how do the first amendment’s free speech protections inform civil discourse?

As a counterpoint to the rise in uncivil discourse, Lewis & Clark is taking a different approach. President Robin Holmes-Sullivan launched L&C’s Community Dialogues program, an ongoing multiyear initiative focused on building capacity to have constructive discussions.

L&C’s Center for Social Change and Community Involvement and the League of Women Voters are putting on an event for students to learn more about ranked choice voting and how to understand your ballot.

Lewis & Clark is taking part in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, working to improve civic engagement and achieve at least 80 percent voter turnout in the upcoming election.

“I chose L&C’s graduate school primarily because the student-teaching practicum was a full year in the same classroom. I was especially appreciative of the emphasis on interdisciplinary instruction and the focus on embedding teaching for social justice in content areas you wouldn’t immediately think of, like math and science.”

Feya Dawkins BA ’25 spent her summer as an intern at SCRAP, a local nonprofit that turns trash into treasure.

Skills Labs, offered through L&C’s Bates Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership, give students of any major a leg up on entry to the workplace.

This summer, Portland’s community gardens became a classroom for Assistant Professor of Biology Heidi Liere and two of her students. Together, they took a hands-on look at Portland’s lady beetle species to understand how these beneficial predators preserve biodiversity and respond to a changing climate.

“L&C gave me a rigorous education in the fundamentals of law, offered a variety of experiential learning opportunities, and empowered me to pursue a public interest law career!”

“I am an environmental health and safety intern for the Quaker Oats manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I gained tangible experience and industry knowledge that I can apply to future careers through this internship.”

Lewis & Clark Law School is partnering with Metropolitan Public Defenders to offer a year-long Public Defense Practicum, giving our students practical experience at a time when Oregon is facing a crisis-level shortage of public defenders.

OPB reporter Elizabeth Miller followed a class of future secondary teachers and their professors as they explored the implications of an I-5 expansion on a North Portland neighborhood and middle school. 

“During the [teaching] practicum, I was able to actively witness my students engaged in science content. Seeing my students excited about learning made me excited to teach! They recently completed a lab that modeled cell membrane functions through playing with bubbles, and just seeing how excited they were made me eager for new labs and lessons to come!”

L&C’s Small Business Legal Clinic offers students direct opportunities to provide legal support for small business owners and entrepreneurs throughout Oregon, including in rural areas where low-cost/no-cost legal services are unavailable.

Come along with Tara Elsa BA ’25 for a day in her life as an intern with Symbol Design in Portland!

Lewis & Clark is one of the first liberal arts colleges to offer an in-person, 4-credit Salesforce course leading to the company’s associate credential.

This summer, L&C students gained hands-on work experience through paid internships. These opportunities that give them the skills they need to be successful in a variety of careers.