Portland State Magazine Spring 2017

24 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2017 SOMEONE TO TALK TO Megan Thomer MS ’16 is one of three PSU Counselor Education alumni who make a difference for the students and their families at Faubion Elementary School. down or just take a break. And they check in at the beginning and end of each school day with students who need extra support. They all drop everything for a crisis call. “On any given day, anything could happen, so having a good team is really necessary,” says LaPoma. Oriard was the first of the three women to work at the school, then pushed to hire more PSU alumni, because they’re ready for this kind of work the day they graduate. Portland State’s three-year, 150-student Counselor Education program includes intense clinical training. Faubion will expand its health and social services next fall when it moves into a new building and launches the “3 to PhD” initiative with Portland Public Schools, Trillium Family Services and neighboring Concordia University. The new campus will house the Concordia college of education, an at-cost grocery store, a health and dental clinic and an early childhood program. The Concordia students will take classes, tutor and intern at Faubion, and the preschoolers will be able to peek through a window from their room into the college classes. Thomer likes that the grade school students will have this view. The idea is that all the Faubion children “can and will go to college,” she says.  Suzanne Pardington is a staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications.