Update:  There will officially be an Oregon SPROG in 2009 from August 16-23!  Tthis is sure to be a momentous trip.  Oregon and Washington are the first states to hold their own SPROGs in the country.  This shows that our Northwest youth are engaged and moving forward with leadership development and sustainability at an exponential rate!

We hope you will join us as we prepare student leaders for the 2009-10 school year and beyond. Many thanks to the following sponsors for putting together $4,000 in funding for this year's event: ASPSU Senate, Campus Sustainability Office, Environmental Club, Campus Recreation, PSU Cycling, and Bike Advocacy Committee.  You made the Oregon SPROG possible!  ~ Heather

The Sierra Student Coalition's Summer Program (SPROG) is a week-long training camp for community organizers and was a ton of fun, in addition to being a great learning experience. We learned about event planning, running campaigns, organizational and leadership development, media outreach, lobbying, and more. You are invited to attend!  Please contact Heather Spalding at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 503-725-8951 to register anytime!

With support from the PSU Environmental Club and the PSU Campus Recreation program, about a dozen student leaders from PSU were sent, including current and future leaders of student organizations and ASPSU.

Kyle, the ASPSU student body VP, even got a chance to show off his kitchen skills.
 

Everything about that week of training was amazing to me. It was located at the beautiful Camp Cooper, a boy scout camp in the Coast Range north of Willamina, OR. We had a week of great weather - high 70's - when Portland was roasting in 100 degree heat.  We had inspiring trainers with experience from their organizing all over the country, two wonderful cooks who prepared great food all week for over 60 people, and we got to meet the up and coming leaders from across the country. David Karpf, a member of the Sierra Club Board of Directors, gave a rousing introduction speech - calling us the elite organizing force of the environmental movement, and at the end of the week we had a surprise visit by Noelle Studer-Spevak, PSU Sustainability Director, who brought brownies which were very much appreciated!

It was very inspiring to have spent a week with some of the best organizers in the country and very exciting to learn about all the projects my new friends are working on. From rooftop solar panels on highschools to institutes for community energy to national events like the Trek To Re-Energize America, these people are getting good things done.

The crew from PSU learned a lot about campaigning and I hope we will be putting that to good use this year in ASPSU and through other student organizations. I know the commitment to the environment is definitely there... 8 of us from PSU rode our bicycles nearly 60 miles, with 5311ft of climbing, to get to the camp. A week later we got to ride back too (the trip back was a couple hours faster, since the 10 mile climb on the way there turned into a 10 mile descent on the way back!). For anyone who's curious, the route is now online.

So what's next for us from ASPSU? If we have time when we're not campaigning, hopefully we can share some of those top secret details with you... but for now I'll say we've got exciting stuff coming down the pipe. We're working on voter registration (so we can lobby more effectively in Salem), a new FlexPass deal, organizing a bunch of fun events for New Student Week, campaigning for improvements to the new rec center, working on educational projects to reduce paper use, and pushing for an expansion of the bike co-op (and those are just some things that I'm involved with; there are a couple dozen other senators working on even more projects).

As always, we'd love to hear what projects students would like help on. Got ideas? Share 'em! Want to get involved? Stop by the ASPSU office (1st floor of SMSU, across from the SALP office) or come to an ASPSU event during New Student Week (details coming soon).