Bernadette Clark, History, Class of 2014

Clark is the LASER Mentor Coordinator and a Youth & Education Odyssey trip leader for SEEDS. LASER is a SEEDS program that partners Reedies with students from Lane Middle School, which has an ethnically diverse population and many students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. The partnership hopes to provide Lane students with otherwise unavailable classroom assistance, regular after-school classes, and one-on-one mentor relationships. In this sense, Reed students are given the opportunity to gain valuable first-hand teaching experience while forging and sustaining important connections with the greater Portland community. Clark says she is now trying to fit a history major with her interest in pursuing macro-level education reform after graduating. She says, “My time with SEEDS led me to realize that I needed to see the big picture and decide how to use my experience at Reed in a responsible way. Planning this way has made my studies exciting again, and finding a new purpose for my time at Reed has galvanized me to work when it’s especially hard to keep up momentum.”