PSU Magazine Spring 1995

chi ldren and fam ilies. Cornett ees Oregon families as stressed and embattled, particularly in the lower part of the economic spectrum. "I am concerned about what we can do to mitigate, if not eliminate, poverty in our country," she say . She bring to her current post a long history of service, having worked in community action program in Multnomah and C lackamas counties from the mid-'70s to 1981, when she became executive director of Oregon Food Share. In her six years there she saw clearly the pressures low-income families face a the middle class shrinks and the barriers to upward mobility harden. She's been with OCF ince 1987. She's been singled out for everal awards, including the Pre idential Volunteer Action Award, the Univers ity of Oregon Human Service Award, and the American Leader hip Forum award. Cornett's career niche comes naturally, as does her ability to grasp the whole state's sp irit. Born in Lakeview, she spent her ch ildhood in the small timber and agricu ltural towns of southern and eastern Oregon. The fam ily moved around the region becau e her father was an agricu ltural extension agent with Oregon tate University. Her mother taught junior high chool science. W hen Com<tt w" 14, 'he ----• family was living in Enterprise. As the youngest child, she was the last in the ne t, when her parents fe lt the itch for adventure. They signed up with a foundation send– ing agricu ltura l adv isers to Kenya. In her early teens Cornett was suddenly snatched from the familiar ranges of Eastern Oregon and planted in the exotic expanses of East Africa. "I thought my life had come to an end," she ays wryly. While her parent were stati n d about 100 miles away, Cornett enrolled in a Nairobi boarding school run on the English model. "We wore uniforms and went everywhere based on bells," she remember . She found the schoo l' emphasis on rote learn ing and fi Id hockey something of a shock, but "made wonderful friends" among her fellow students, who came 14 PSU Magazine from three ethnic groups-Africans, Asian-Africans, and Europeans. The six American gi rls formed their own distinct sub-cu lture. When Cornett reached high school age, her parents re-enrolled in the extens ion program and she took off for Beirut to attend the American Community School, where she earned her diploma among the ch ildren of oil company employee . Then, she says, "It seemed important to come home," so he enrolled at Lewis & C lark College. After two years there, however, she transferred to PSU. "I wanted more diver ity than I found at Lewis & C lark at the time," she says. "I really did want to go to where things were different. I was also getting into women's stud ies." After li ving in radically different culture , PSU's urban working student popula– tion base uited her much better than Lewi & Clark' more homogeneous tudent body. Getting an education at PSU in the 1970 was an adventure. The campus was experiencing the same sort of unrest sweeping many colleges in the nation. There was much academic ferment as well. Cornett took genera l studies emphas izing arts and letters, a deci ion she ha never regretted because it allowed her to widen her scope fa r beyond what a more traditional major would permit. he also plunged head long into the fight to get the Women' Studies Certificate Program established. A core group of faculty and students spent several years hammering out the philosophy and curriculum and convincing the University administra– tion to approve its plan. PSU English Professor Chris Thompson remembers Cornett a bringing great inspiration and momentum to the effort, which was organized through the Women's Union.