Saturday Academy Provides
Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering (ASE)
The Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering (ASE) program provides high school students with a meaningful, professional experience through summer internships in STEM careers. The Olseth Family Foundation is excited to support this particular program because it provides interns the opportunity to work alongside STEM mentors on real-world projects, while earning a stipend. Not only do students learn valuable vocational skills, but they have the opportunity to explore their interests, gain confidence and develop a professional network. The students come out of the ASE program with 8 weeks of full-time, professional experience in a real-world laboratory or office. College or trades-bound participants go on to their next course of study with a better understanding of potential career paths. The impact the program has on youth resonates beyond the summer, as many interns go on to pursue careers in the STEM disciplines.
The ASE program has supported STEM internships for over 30 years in Oregon and Southwest Washington and has built a robust network of mentor support from university researchers to industry product developers. Saturday Academy facilitates these internships by providing student application support, mentor/mentee matching, professional development opportunities for students, summer networking conferences (opening Orientation, Midsummer Conference, and end-of-summer Symposium), and logistical support like liability insurance. The impact of the ASE program is perhaps most evident at the ASE Symposium where interns present a summary of their work and findings. Through oral presentations and posters, it becomes clear that high school students are highly capable and creative individuals who bring as much to the mentor organization as they in turn gain. The ultimate goal is to support creative exploration and development in STEM fields by connecting today’s problem-solvers with the next generation.
Portland Homeless Family Solution
The Olseth Family Foundation (OFF) is honored to sponsor the spacious, light-filled Play Room in the Portland Homeless Family Solution (PHFS) Family Village Campus. This recently opened facility is Oregon’s only homeless shelter incorporating innovative trauma-informed design and architecture, which is proven to help people heal from the crisis and trauma of homelessness and lead to better outcomes, like shorter shelter stays and greater success moving into long-term stable housing.
The priority for OFF is to keep the playroom stocked with fun and educational toys, games, crafts and activities, as 59% of the PHFS residents are kids, with an average age of 9 years old.
To learn more about PHFS and what constitutes trauma-informed design and architecture, click on the link below: http://www.pdxhfs.org
OFF Supporting the Work of UW’s Carnivore Coexistence Lab
Counter-clockwise from top left: Grizzly and wolf images taken with a Reconyx trail camera. Alberta Range Riders are stockmen and women protecting herds through non-lethal methods. Photo Credits, Naomi Louchouarn, MESM. Deer sniffing at the ‘fladry’ fence, a visual deterrent to coyotes and wolves. Photo Credit, Abigail Fergus.
The University of Wisconsin Carnivore Coexistence Lab seeks to sustain long term healthy populations of large carnivores through peaceful coexistence between carnivores and the local people. We have found that success can be achieved when the following four objectives are scientifically understood and integrated into a wildlife plan.
- Prevention of predation on domestic animals.
- Mitigation of human-induced carnivore mortality.
- Dependence on research which tests whether maintaining carnivore populations can secure a healthy ecosystem.
- Incorporation of laws, ethics, and scientific integrity regarding how carnivores and people can coexist
The Olseth Family Foundation is proud to support several North American projects:
- Longview, Alberta, Canada: The coexistences of grizzly bears, grey wolves, cougars, black bears, and coyotes with cattle on public grazing lands owned by members of a Crown Lands Cooperative.
- Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin and surrounding private property: Coexistence of gray wolves, cougars, black bears, and coyotes with livestock owners who reside in close proximity to a tribal nation who reveres the wolf.
- The Feather River Watershed in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains: Integration of non-lethal prevention of livestock loss from cougars, gray wolves, black bears, and coyotes.
- Survival analyses of Mexican, red and gray wolves using radio collars and historical data. The objective of this study is to better understand the effects of policy changes that tighten or loosen protections for wolves.
Read a current article in the Star Tribune about declining wolf numbers in Wisconsin here >
Helping End Violence Against Women and Girls
The Olseth Family Foundation is proud to continue support for The Advocates for Human Rights, who work tirelessly to change systems and conditions that cause human rights abuses. The Advocates fight injustice and improve laws and lives throughout the world while representing individual victims of human rights violations.
Specifically, the foundation funds the Women’s Human Rights Program which focuses on ending violence and discrimination against women and girls by improving laws and policies, both in the United States and globally.
Locally, the Advocates work with women and girls who are victims of violence in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest through training, advocacy, and education. Through WATCH, a court observation project, which strives to expand impact through court monitoring and reporting on violence against women and girls in Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington Counties. Since the start of the pandemic, the Advocates have used the WATCH infrastructure to conduct real-time fact finding on the impact of COVID-19 on victims of violence in the courts in six counties. These findings were instrumental in leading to a clarification in the governor’s emergency executive order that the ban on evictions does not extend to orders for protection in domestic violence cases.
The Advocates is also a leader in Minnesota’s anti-trafficking efforts. Our 2008 Sex Trafficking Needs Assessment for the State of Minnesota spurred significant legislative changes including increases in penalties for people convicted of sex trafficking crimes. In 2010, The Advocates for Human Rights led the effort to enact Minnesota’s Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Youth Act and were co-authors of the Safe Harbor for All Strategic Planning Process Report. The Advocates provided key contributions to the statewide Criminal Sexual Conduct Statutory Reform Working Group. The group produced a report with recommended revisions to the sexual assault statutory framework for the legislature. Among many things, it recommended: clarifying the criminal statutes that address sexually victimizing intoxicated persons; a new statute criminalizing sexual extortion – blackmailing people into unwanted sexual encounters via threats to, for example, their housing, employment, immigration, or confidential sexual-orientation status, and; a precisely-targeted prohibition against sexual conduct by educators with students.
The Advocates also provide free legal assistance to human trafficking victims and immigrant victims of gender-based violence in the Upper Midwest, deliver training and resources for systems professionals involved in identifying and combating trafficking in persons, and continue our assessment of Minnesota’s response to sex trafficking in the state.
For more information: https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org
