Excavation by SOULA at Britt Gardens site

SOU Laboratory of Anthropology receives grant to complete Britt project

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology has received a grant of about $15,000 from a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to analyze and report on artifacts unearthed during 2010-11 digs at Jacksonville’s Peter Britt Gardens.

Britt GardensThe excavations by SOULA were conducted as the city of Jacksonville prepared for a restoration project on the 4.5-acre Britt Gardens site. But funding dried up and the archeological findings were never fully studied to develop a detailed picture of life at the 1800s homestead.

“We are thrilled to receive the Preserving Oregon grant,” said Chelsea Rose, a research archeologist with SOULA. “The Britt Gardens Site is one of the most important archaeological resources in southern Oregon, and this funding will allow us to analyze and interpret the thousands of artifacts from the Britt homestead and share our findings about this fascinating family with the local community, tourists and interested scholars.”

The grant is one of 18 that were awarded this summer by the state parks’ Oregon Heritage division for historic and archeological projects throughout Oregon. Each was approved by the state Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation.

Peter Britt historical photo

Peter Britt

About 30,000 artifacts were recovered during the excavations nine years ago. Britt – an early Rogue Valley settler – was a painter, photographer and horticulturist whose photos of Crater Lake were instrumental in creation of the national park in 1902. The SOULA excavations included the site where Britt built a log cabin upon reaching Jacksonville in 1852.

“Everyone always asks archaeologists what our favorite find is,” Rose said. “Mine came from the Britt Gardens Site – two glass plate photograph negatives with images on them.

“This grant finally gives us the opportunity to tell the story of these artifacts, and hundreds of others, and what they can reveal about the lives of the Britt family and their experience in 19th century Jacksonville.”

The grant will pay for artifact analysis, site mapping, illustration and photography of the excavation project, and compilation of a detailed report on archeological findings. SOULA is also working with the university’s Hannon Library to create a digital artifact collection that will feature more than 100 artifacts from the Britt site.

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Students at SOU to benefit from new ScholarshipUniverse app

SOU simplifies and broadens student aid options with ScholarshipUniverse

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University has launched a new suite of software intended to keep students in school by helping them identify and apply for relevant scholarships – both internal and external.

The ScholarshipUniverse platform, from the higher education support vendor CampusLogic, automates much of the scholarship screening and application process for students. It matches scholarships to students based on their responses to a series of questions and guides them through the application process.

Students can login to the ScholarshipUniverse website or use a mobile app to check the status of their scholarship applications. It also helps to keep students on-task – those who have started scholarship applications will receive live alerts and text messages, reminding them to finish the process.

A majority of SOU students are eligible for financial aid in one form or another – scholarships, grants, institutional aid or work-study. But many students at SOU and elsewhere don’t make the most of their financial opportunities – CampusLogic estimates that almost three million students across the country leave college each year because of finances, while many scholarships go unfilled.

Almost 500 colleges and universities nationwide use products from CampusLogic to help their students navigate the financial aspects of higher education.

SOU’s recent strategic planning process identified student success through service excellence as a key component of the university’s mission. Its addition of the ScholarshipUniverse software is intended to help more students remain in school, complete their degree programs and go on to lead successful lives.

The ScholarshipUniverse platform helps students track and manage both internal scholarships available through the Southern Oregon Scholarship Application (SOSA) and external scholarships offered by a spectrum of organizations, foundations and private companies.

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Grandma Aggie receives President's Medal

Native elder “Grandma Aggie” recognized with SOU President’s Medal

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Agnes Baker “Grandma Aggie” Pilgrim, who has been recognized as a “living treasure” by the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz, received the Southern Oregon University  President’s Medal in a presentation at SOU’s Thalden Pavilion.

Grandma Aggie, who is 95, is the most senior elder of southern Oregon’s Takelma Tribe and has led a varied life. Her early careers included singer, nightclub bouncer, jail barber and logger, but she embraced a more spiritual path in the 1970s. She worked as a manager and social worker with the United Indian Lodge in Crescent City, California, and joined the Cultural Heritage and Sacred Lands Committee of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz.

She then enrolled at SOU – which was then Southern Oregon State College – and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in Native American studies in 1985, at age 61. She is a co-founder of SOU’s Konoway Nika Tillicum Native American Youth Academy – an eight-day residential program for Native American middle school and high school students – and received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2002.

Grandma Aggie has continued to be engaged with the university, returning last year to bless and help dedicate SOU’s new Student Recreation Center.

The SOU President’s Medal, established in 1984, is the university’s highest tribute and is awarded annually to a community member who is distinguished by her or his actions and contributions. The award was presented posthumously last year to Steve Nelson, who served almost 20 years as a volunteer leader of SOU’s Jefferson Public Radio and the JPR Foundation.

The presentation ceremony for Grandma Aggie was at SOU’s Thalden Pavilion, which features 28-foot-tall cedar “teaching poles” carved by Native American sculptor Russell Beebe. The pavilion is one of 13 homes around the globe of the World Peace Flame.

Grandma Aggie was a co-founder in 2004 of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, an alliance of female elders who promote protection of the earth and awareness of Native culture. She brought the Salmon Ceremony back to the Rogue Valley in 1994, after the Takelma tradition had been suppressed for more than 120 years.

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Participants welcomed to Creativity Conference at SOU

Second annual Creativity Conference at SOU sets new benchmark

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This summer’s second annual Creativity Conference at SOU attracted leaders of the academic field and working professionals looking for ways to bring creativity into their work, and set a high-water mark in the process.

Last month’s four-day conference got kudos from participants for the breadth, depth and structure of its presentations.

“The first conference at SOU (in 2018) was a huge success – and 2019 improved on it,” said Mark Runco, executive director of the SOU Creativity Conference and the university’s director of Creativity Research and Programming.

Dan DeNeui, a conference organizer and director of SOU’s Division of Social Sciences, said the annual conference is building a loyal following.

“Many of our attendees (at this year’s event) attended last year’s conference, and a large majority of this year’s attendees indicated that they will likely return again next year,” DeNeui said.

Overall, this year’s Creativity Conference drew more than 240 attendees and presenters from a total of 25countries. It featured more than 180 talks, panels and posters on topics such as learning through creative play, creativity and well-being, creative problem-solving and the importance of creative spaces.

“Great range of presentations, styles and approaches to applying creativity in various areas of work, government and education,” one participant wrote in an evaluation of the conference.

Creativity Conference at SOUThis year’s keynote speakers were Teresa Amabile, a Baker Foundation professor at Harvard Business School; Dean Simonton, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis; and Torrie Allen, who will become the president and CEO of Arts Midwest this month.

Amabile’s work focuses on individual creativity and productivity, and organizational creativity and innovation. Her keynote address was presented by LEGO – which served as a corporate sponsor of this year’s conference, along with Scienceworks, OSF, SOU’s Schneider Museum of Art and six other companies or organizations.Creativity Conference at SOU

Simonton’s studies focus on human intelligence, creativity, greatness and the psychology that drivesscience. Allen, who takes over the lead position at Arts Midwest this month, was previously the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s director of development and has been a national arts leader for 15 years.

Runco said this year’s panel discussions were also popular, and participants enjoyed the “boom talks” feature. “The presenter has 10 minutes to share their most important idea – boom!” he said.

“One attractive thing about the SOU conferences is that they bring together researchers and practitioners – academics producing cutting-edge research – as well as individuals who have quite successfully applied creativity to business, the arts, counseling and education,” Runco said. “The conferences cover a huge amount of ground, but the format allows the audience to stay energized.”

Creativity Conference at SOUOther featured speakers at this year’s conference included Min Tang, director of the Institute for Creativity and Innovation at Germany’s University of Applied Management; Ron Beghetto, professor and director of the University of Connecticut’s Innovation House; Yael Katz, vice provost for academics at Canada’s Sheridan College; Jonathan Feinstein, professor of creative development at Yale University; Adam Green of Georgetown University, the founder and current president of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity; and Roger Firestien, senior faculty member and president of Innovation Resources, Inc., at State University of New York, Buffalo State.

“This was an exciting conference for me,” another conference participant wrote in evaluating the event. “I’m not a creativity researcher, but use the field’s research in my work. I appreciated the mix of research and practical application, the quality of research and other work presented, the energy level of everyone involved and the care taken in planning the event. It was terrific.”

The annual event also provides an opportunity for creativity researchers to collaborate and broaden their network.

SOU has adopted the goal of serving as Oregon’s “university for the future.” Its strategic plan – the university’s roadmap into the future – places an emphasis on creativity, innovation and other human skills that augment technical skills and are particularly valued by employers.

(All images by Michael D. Davis)

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