Group photo at the Hatfield Futures 2025 Showcase at Hoffman Hall
From June 23 to June 27, 2025, Futures Camp came to Portland State University! Oregon’s Kitchen Table welcomed seven teams of youth from 12 communities across Oregon, including Estacada, Corvallis, Helix/Pendleton, Bend, Tigard, Paisley, Gresham, Ashland, Eugene and Portland. We had four school-based teams (Estacada, Corvallis, Bend, and Helix), two cross-regional teams, and one regional team of students from four different high schools in Portland.
In addition, we had a leadership team of four student alumni, the Helping Hands, who helped to design and lead camp - Jupiter, Grace, Gurnoor and Maty; and Alex, who joined us as a third camp counselor. Teams were also each paired with Team Guides, adult mentors working in the fields of planning, collaborative governance, and engagement.
Beginning on Monday, we had full days of workshops, team work time, field trips, games, and community-building. Some of the highlights included:
-
Listening to and re-telling each others’ stories;
-
Seeing the PSU campus through planners’ eyes on a campus tour;
-
Taking a field trip to the Oregon Historical Society to better understand how artifacts tell a story and to and check out materials from the reference library;
-
Connecting with experts and community leaders working in areas related to the proposals;
-
Attending art workshops and skill workshops to enrich the proposals;
-
Creating artifacts from the future!;
-
and enjoying bowling and popcorn at the Viking Room!
Over the week, campers learned about and researched the past to get a deeper understanding of their topic, generated a vision for the future and developed proposals for how we might get there. Each team worked on a proposal to address a pressing issue in Oregon with an eye towards shaping Oregon in 2050 through interconnected, strategic, equitable, and creative actions.
On Saturday, June 28, 2025, the campers dressed up and presented their proposals at the third Hatfield Futures Showcase. Over 120 elected leaders, principals, college students, community organizers, and friends and family from across the state joined us to listen to students’ ideas for shaping Oregon’s future.
We started the day with warm-ups and pep talks from the Helping Hands to the participants. We also collectively created a time capsule of objects as a gift to the future. The Helping Hands MC’ed the day and kicked off the Showcase by introducing the project and thanking our many collaborators, partners and sponsors. Then we heard opening remarks from Justice Rajee, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Know Agenda Foundation. Justice spoke eloquently, encouraging youth to believe in themselves and speak their visions with confidence.
Justice Rajee speaking to students and audience
Grace introduced our judges - Amanda Garcia-Snell from the City of Portland, Estefania Zavala from Gray Family Foundation, and Lauren Huber, a past student participant.
From left: Corban Stanton, Cristobal Mendoza-Gonzalez, and Callie Hardesty
The team from Estacada High School was first up! They focused on the issue of growing population, outdated infrastructure and community conflict about new development in Estacada. Their creative proposal to this complex set of issues was to focus on roads -"an issue we can all get behind that supports growth and improves the quality of life for current residents." Their proposal was to improve roads using concrete and installing street murals downtown to both beautify public space and slow traffic, ultimately bridging social divides in the process.
Nabila Khan and Jodell Musgrove
Next up, the first cross-regional team, composed of Jodell and Nabila, took on the housing crisis in Oregon. The number of children experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Oregon is 14 times the national average. They invited the audience to “imagine a future where a student doesn’t need to move five times before graduating.” Their proposal had three parts: replacing single-family homes with fourplexes; using mass timber from Oregon to reduce building costs; and creating a website for youth in Oregon to share stories about housing and homelessness to increase empathy.
From left: Dora Boucher, Emma Buzzard, Calla Shaff and Lucia Williams
The team from Corvallis started with a powerful moment of silence for athletes we have lost to suicide. They brought forward a topic that isn’t often talked about - mental health issues among athletes. Nearly 30 million children and teams participated in organized sports and more than 60% of those report feeling stress. Yet - because sports are assumed to help with stress, issues are often overlooked. Their multi-step proposal was to host educational summits on the topic of mental health in sports, advance a bill to require coaches to undergo mental health training, and ultimately ensure that every school in Oregon has a sports psychologist on staff.
Cristobal Mendoza-Gonzalez playing saxophone
We had a delicious taco lunch from Miss’ippi Catering–thanks, Melinda! After lunch, Cristobal brought us back with a stunning Bach solo on saxophone.
From left: Adam Malik, Viola DeVigal, Allison Hu and Anya Li
PDX Futures was up next. This was our first year with a regional team - students from different schools across the Metro area who met for the first time at Hatfield Futures Camp. These students focused on the topic of youth civic engagement: local politics is dominated by adults and many young people don’t know how to get involved or take action on issues that affect them. While schools are required to teach federal-level civics, this team’s compelling proposal was to bring education about local government into schools across Oregon.
From left: Ashlyn Grable, Cannon Gibson, Carlos Cruz, and Makayla Mitchell
The team from Bend Tech Academy focused on the issue of loneliness and social isolation among older generations. They pointed out that 1 in 3 older people experience loneliness, which has significant health impacts. Their powerful proposal, which they titled Generations of Strength, was to connect high schools and retirees and senior citizens through a co-mentorship program that helps bring social contact for seniors and wisdom and insight to younger generations.
From left: Savannah Walker, Paige Coiner and Hiram Coiner
The team from Griswold High School in Helix, Oregon focused on the complex landscape of small farmers and regulation in eastern Oregon. Using interviews with people in their community, they outlined the economic challenges that farmers face. They discussed how certain regulations like Right To Farm (RTF) laws and Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) policies protect industrial interests and large landowners, but not small farmers. Alongside insightful policy solutions–lowering tariffs, changing RTF laws, and lowering the acreage requirement for EFU–they emphasized that conversation and raising awareness has to be the first step.
From left: Destiny Nderitu, Estela Dominguez-Calderon, Eva Gomez, Cindy Chen, and Amara Lowe
Our final presentation of the day was from the Aqua Allies, a cross-regional team of students from Gresham to Eugene to Ashland. Aqua Allies’ topic was water accessibility: access to clean water for all. Oregon has more than 120,000 miles of “impaired” rivers and streams - the most nationwide - and 95% of Oregon lakes are too polluted to be used for drinking water. Their passionate and thorough proposal is to establish a legislative concept for a comprehensive state water quality initiative that protects water access for all; increase testing and research; and add an educational unit on water quality in schools statewide.
At the end of the day, the judges and Helping Hands presented awards to each team.
Most Collaborative - Aqua Allies
Most Concrete - Estacada
Most Intergenerational - Bend Tech Academy
Most Locally Responsive - Helix
Most 3 Dimensional - Cross-Regional
Most Vulnerable - Corvallis
Most Youth Centered - PDX Futures
Judges announce winners in each category! From left: Estefania Zavala, Amanda Garcia-Snell and Lauren Huber
We offered a special congratulations to the PDX Futures Team, who was awarded Best Overall Proposal. Everyone present was inspired by the teams' hard work, bold visions, and creative proposals!
We closed the day with gratitudes, which were flying in all directions. Shout-out to the Hatfield Futures team: so many PSU staff, guides, chaperones, parents, teachers, friends, caterers, alumni, and donors who helped to make this youth program possible.
Our goal continues to be to amplify youths' voices to shape the future of Oregon. We hope Hatfield Futures empowers youth to see themselves as change-makers now and for their future; we are excited to hear that many teams want to take the next step to implement their projects locally and we're excited to support them!
Thank you to the many partners, friends, funders, and sponsors who helped make Hatfield Futures Camp a reality!
Helping Hands: Grace Peterson, Gurnoor Kaur, Alex Chew, Maty Olson, Jupiter Nickles
Camp Counselors: Alex Chew, Grace Peterson, Gurnoor Kaur
Team Guides: Sofia Castellanos, Bobby Cochran, Sarah Giles, Robin Harkless, Alana Rader, Kristen Wright
Oregon’s Kitchen Table Team: Sofia Castellanos, Eliot Feenstra, Sarah Giles, Nina Pamintuan, Roz Owen, Wendy Willis, Grace Peterson
Judges: Estefania Zavala, Amanda Garcia-Snell, Lauren Huber
Project Partners: Portland State University, College of Urban and Public Affairs, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Know Agenda Foundation, Oregon Historical Society, Narrative 4, Campus Planning & Sustainability Office, PSU Summer Housing & Conferences, PSU Eats
Project Funders: Gray Family Foundation, The Roundhouse Foundation
Project Sponsors: Center for Public Service, Foundations for a Better Oregon, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Natarajan-Enand Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation, Thompson Advisory Services, Duncan Wyse, National Policy Consensus Center
Project Contributors: Kai Chen, Munira Doctor, Dick Eyde, David Ginsberg, Roslyn & Rich Owen, Laurel Singer, Wendy Willis & David Biespiel, Greg Wolf
Portland State University Friends: Becca Bornstein, Bryan Bruckman, Alan De La Torre, Josh Eastin, Cynthia Gomez, Anne Johnson, Sonrisa Kuriyama, Jessica Mole Heilman, Sarah Heinecke, Ellis Hews, National Policy Consensus Center, Masami Nishishiba, Caroline Phillips, Tony Salvador, Jeremy Youde, Tong Zhang, Gray Bouchat
Artists: Angela Nguyen, Marek Stanton, Grace Peterson, Cristobal Mendoza-Gonzalez, Sarah Giles
Project Friends: Civics Learning Project, Dio Dmitri Bloomingheart, Deenie Bulyalert, Samuel Carrasco, Abraham Cazares-Cervantes, Jacque Fitzgerald, Whitney Grubbs, Andrea Hussey, Oregon Association of Student Councils, Maria Isabel Zamora Re, Udayakumar Sekaron, Ethan Stuckmayer, Damon Isiah Turner, Aaron Wolf, Justice Rajee
Nourishing Friends: Melinda Sandifer, Miss’ipi Chef, Pizza Jerk