{"id":188,"date":"2012-08-30T09:37:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T16:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.reed.edu\/seeds\/?p=188"},"modified":"2014-07-02T09:30:34","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T16:30:34","slug":"jan-liss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/2012\/08\/30\/jan-liss\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan Liss, Psychology, Class of 1974, Graduated in 1973, current member of Reed\u2019s Board of Trustees"},"content":{"rendered":"

After graduating from Reed, Jan Liss bounced around from the Portland Art Museum<\/strong> to the New York Public Library<\/strong> to the Athens Institute<\/strong>, and thus developed an extensive background in non-profit management. In 2005, Liss joined Project Pericles<\/strong>, an organization dedicated to incorporating civic engagement and social responsibility into undergraduate and higher education. Project Pericles was initially a vision articulated by Eugene Lang, who was concerned that college students were not concerned enough with being good citizens. Lang wanted to start an organization in affiliation with colleges and universities around the United States that would integrate social and civic responsibility into academia.<\/p>\n

Today, Project Pericles works with 29 colleges and universities to implement programs, curriculums, and resources that help students to become engaged citizens. Project Pericles believes that by creating and supporting more informed and responsible citizens, society will become more just and compassionate. Working within higher education, the organization blends academic knowledge with application. Liss explains that through merging activism with their studies, \u201cstudents are given the tools to solve hunger rather than just serving soup in a soup kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the programs instituted on campus, Project Pericles organizes programs that bring students from across the United States to conferences where they can share their work with one another and gather resources to put their goals into action. Through talking to organizations around the country, connecting with other educated individuals, finding and making connections with politicians, and creating reform movements, students learn how to successfully make an impact on their communities. Liss is inspired by these students who attempt to solve issues so much greater than themselves. She says, \u201cIntelligent and well-educated people owe it to the country, if not the world, to use their knowledge to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Liss has sought out experiences where she herself feels she is making a difference. She says, \u201cIt is not good enough to be able to say how much I\u2019m learning, or how much I\u2019m making, or how much I\u2019m building a future career, or how much I\u2019m networking; for me, I need to be able to say this is what I\u2019m doing to make a difference.\u201d Project Pericles provides an outlet for Liss to feel good about the work she is doing and to help students attain the same sense of fulfillment.<\/p>\n

Although Reed is not a member institution of Project Pericles, Liss continues her engagement with Reed as a member of the board. She believes that Reed provides a unique academic setting and community and hopes \u00a0to see more Reedies active in making a difference in their communities. She says, \u201cCollege is supposed to prepare you to be a good educated citizen. Taking classes and dealing with only the hypothetical is not nearly as powerful as actually experiencing these scenarios. You can learn the academic material better when you\u2019re learning it in a real world context.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After graduating from Reed, Jan Liss bounced around from the Portland Art Museum to the New York Public Library to the Athens Institute, and thus developed an extensive background in non-profit management. In 2005, Liss joined Project Pericles, an organization … finish reading Jan Liss, Psychology, Class of 1974, Graduated in 1973, current member of Reed\u2019s Board of Trustees<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wordpress-reed-edueducation","tag-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/seeds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}