Portland State Magazine Fall 2014

22 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE FALL 2014 Scholarships are helping caver and student Lisa Bauman achieve her goals. LOOKING AT Lisa Bauman over a cup of coffee, it’s hard to imagine this impeccably dressed woman as she’ll be 24 hours from now: dirty-faced, caked in mud, and crawling around in a cave. For Bauman, the lessons in self-reliance and problem- solving that she finds underground translate directly to her academic career and her energetic approach to life. “There’s a whole world down there. It makes my own problems seem so small,” says this single mother of two young children. Bauman is a PSU marketing major and multiple scholarship winner. She moved to Portland determined to expand her educational and career opportunities and to create a better life for her son and daughter. She quickly decided that PSU was the best place to accomplish those goals. “I am one of Portland’s biggest fans, so it made sense to me to learn from the best marketing professionals in the city. I found them at Portland State.” Thanks to her pursuit of multiple scholarships, Bauman will graduate in 2015 from the School of Business Administra- tion Honors Track Program with a marketing major, a graphic design minor, and very little debt. Funding for scholarships at Portland State has increased 53 percent since 2010, with more than $2 million available for students this year, and Bauman has applied for every scholarship appropriate for her. In fact, she calls researching and applying for funds her second full-time job. “I’ve been fully funded so far, and my goal is to graduate as debt-free as possible.” Bauman currently supports her family with a job as a science educator at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)—a job she pursued because the field was totally new to her and it sounded like fun. One of her major scholarships this year is from the Columbia Pacific Foundation, funded by Robert and Gay MacLellan, which awards scholarships to working single parents. Other funding has come from the Herbert Retzlaff Endowed Scholarship, McAllister Memorial/NW Sales and Marketing Group Scholarship, and the Nancy Ryles Endowed Scholarship. BAUMAN GREW UP poor in the Willamette Valley—that’s part of what drives her to succeed. “I don’t want my kids to grow up like I did,” she says with a half smile. “A little hard- ship is good, but not a lot.” Her parents ran a transmission parts warehouse. From an early age she watched them negoti- ate with suppliers and work with customers. “I learned to be resourceful. I was fascinated even then with building business relationships, and with the psychology behind advertising, like how a logo can make people interested in buying things.” Her stand-out high school grades earned her a full-ride scholarship to community college. After earning her associate’s degree, she married and put plans for further education on hold. When her marriage broke up, she found herself and her children briefly homeless. Determined to raise competent, confident children, no matter what financial and emotional challenges they faced, she quickly decided that the best thing Exploring life’s possibilities Lisa Bauman is working towards a career in marketing. Photos by Kelly James. Giving