For more than 20 years, Oregon Humanities has made a series of college classes available for free to people who either might not be able to afford higher education, or who never saw themselves as students. The classes are called “Humanity in Perspective,” and provide an interdisciplinary exploration of art, literature, culture and philosophy.
Students can earn up to nine college credits from Bard College, a program partner, along with the Clemente Course in the Humanities, and Portland State University. But Rozzell Medina, who directs the program, says the purpose is not to jump-start or further academic goals. The classes are also available for those who simply want to learn more about a topic and engage with other members of the community.
We talk with Medina and former student Luis Medina (no relation) about these free classes and what they offer.
The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. For more than 20 years now, Oregon Humanities has made a series of college classes available for free to people who either may not be able to afford higher education or who never saw themselves as students. The classes are called “Humanity in Perspective” and they provide an interdisciplinary approach to art, literature, culture and philosophy. Rozzell Medina directs the program. Luis Medina, (no relation) is a former student. They both join me now. It’s good to have both of you on the show.
Rozzell Medina: Good to be here, Dave. Thanks for having us.
Miller: Rozzell, first. How do you describe the “Humanity in Perspective” course?
R. Medina: “Humanity in Perspective” is a series of free, for credit college courses for people living on low incomes and facing barriers to continuing their education. That’s it. And there’s other things to say in terms of it being interdisciplinary, in terms of it being, everyone having their own reasons for doing it. But in a nutshell it’s really for people who you know who might not be in a position to take college courses otherwise.
Miller: Who actually is eligible to take the course? How do you determine eligibility?
R. Medina: So first of all, it’s for people who don’t already have a four year degree from an institution in the United States. There’s no GED required, no diploma required. We have some income guidelines. I think it’s less than two times the national so-called poverty guidelines. And then also there can be exceptions to certain guidelines in terms of people who view themselves as facing systemic barriers to continuing their education.
Miller: Luis, do you remember when you first heard about “Humanity in Perspective?”
Luis Medina: I do. I remember receiving an email from a family member, actually, and looking into it and I saw that, “oh, there’s this opportunity to get some free college credit.” I’d always been on the fence about it, about going back to school because of such a high price tag. So I gave Rozzell a call and he kind of gave me the rundown about the commitment and what I would be expecting. So that’s what I remember.
Miller: Clearly whatever he told you, it worked, because you did sign up for the class.
L. Medina: Oh, yeah. First of all, I remember just having this conversation with somebody who was very friendly and very warm and I was kind of just in a place where I was not really sure if it was something I wanted to do. I was working full time and, but he really made me feel like this is such a unique opportunity and I think something that I didn’t even know was something that was going on. And just the fact that it was an opportunity to get some college credit, possibly just have that in my resume, having some college experience, was definitely a very attractive selling point.
Miller: Rozzell, can you give us a sense for the variety of reasons that students might take this class?
R. Medina: Yeah, definitely. This is one of the things that I try to be clear with people when I’m talking about this program is that there’s no right or wrong reason to take the courses. While you do earn free college credit from Bard College, because this is a partnership with Bard College, this isn’t just us trying to get you to go to college. We make that very clear with people, there’s no right or wrong reason to take this course. I mean, I guess the right reason is just because it feels right, so people do sometimes take it because they’re wondering, like, “is college for me, maybe I can try this out?”
We do try to make this an environment where we are holding students accountable, in the ways that feel advantageous to them. If I know, for example, that a student’s taking the course because they want to go back to college, I’m gonna check in with them and I’m gonna say, “do you feel like you’re getting the skills that are gonna benefit you if you decide to go back to college?” If students are taking it just because they want to learn for the sake of learning, that’s great. I try to keep that in mind too as I’m working with a student through this journey. So those are common reasons.
Another common reason is that students just want to be in community, they want to be learning in community. I think that’s a really important function of learning, that it’s something we can do together socially, that’s beneficial to us and can be beneficial to our community. So that being part of a community is part of it.
And then another interesting reason that people often cite is that they want to set a good example for their kids and other people in their family, in terms of showing people in their family, look, “being a lifelong learner is something you can do and I’m living proof of that.”
Miller: Luis, what was the class actually like for you?
L. Medina: Well, it was in 2019 that I started and at this time it was before COVID. So we were actually showing up in person. It was actually quite a trip because I worked in the Hillsboro area and I didn’t have a car at the time. So I had to take a MAX all the way towards Gresham and it was quite a long trip there and then back. I was getting home very late, having to take the bus after getting back from the train to home, but that was just the commute. The actual experience being in the classroom, like Rozzell mentioned before, was something that I expected to be a traditional classroom setting and and once I started taking the class, I realized it was more of like a community discussion around common topics, like philosophy and how visual arts play a role in our culture and writing. So it definitely became more of almost like a community discussion, as opposed to a traditional classroom setting.
Miller: Has it made you interested in taking more classes of any kind? As you said before, you weren’t sure if you wanted to go to college and it seems like cost was a big part of that. Now that you did this, three years ago or so, are you interested in doing more?
L. Medina: Yeah, after that cohort, I ended up reapplying for the following cohort, which happened in the fall of 2020 and I earned an additional three credits. It was about the social justice movement through the humanities and that was a great experience as well. And though I’ve really thought about going back to focus on the humanities and arts, for me, philosophy and art has been such an important part of my life. I dance when I’m not working. And so to me, using dance as a way to communicate our history and traditional values and culture, is such an important part to me. So I think it’s something that is needed a lot more and we need more people to preserve that culture, whoever that culture is or wherever that culture is.
Miller: Rozzell, you’re the program manager at Oregon Humanities and lead instructor for this series of courses. My understanding, based on those titles, is that it’s your job really to set this up and to teach it, as opposed to learning from these classes, but I’m wondering what you get from these classes.
R. Medina: Oh, man, that’s a great question Dave. Well, it’s funny because I think that I get a sense of feeling like I’m making it possible for people to do something that they are excited about in life. I really try, like I said earlier, to not make this a prescriptive experience for people. I really try to facilitate an experience where I understand why a student is taking the class, I understand their situation and I’m doing what I can to support them, to live in alignment with that. So I think that’s a big thing. I mean, I think it can be pretty rare to have that sense.
I became passionate about teaching and learning in community about 12 or 13 years ago, and while I have done the traditional teaching route of teaching at a university and this and that, for me, I’m really excited about those experiences that are not commodified, those experiences where people are positioned to learn together in community and there’s no money exchanging hands. And that free aspect of it is very important to me.
Then, of course, I also get to build relationships with all these wonderful students and watch them go on this journey, and I get to stay in touch with them, like Luis, afterwards. But I think it’s just the sense that I’m helping, that I’m supporting people doing something that’s in alignment with their values.
Another thing is that a lot of students who take HIP courses, this is a really common theme. A lot of students who take HIP courses wanna be advocates. They want to be advocates for themselves, for their families, for their communities and they see HIP as a place where they can do that, where they can learn through the humanities in a way that’s helping them learn to advocate in those ways. And so I think, for me, in this sort of ripple effect kind of way, I feel like I get to be part of those efforts by supporting them in that way.
Miller: How does this class, “Humanity in Perspective”, fit into the broader goals of Oregon Humanities?
R. Medina: That’s a great question. I think that it is a way for us to bring people into our work, who might not otherwise access that work. I think that we do a lot of interesting things. We have the Conversation Project, Consider This, a lot of different programs, So Much Together, but I think people are going to come to things that they feel invited into and that they feel supported in.
One of the things about “Humanity in Perspective” is that we, in addition to inviting students to take these courses, also try to really offer support that will help students get through barriers that might stop them from completing, such as child care. We offer some reimbursement with child care. For our in person classes, we offer bus tickets. There are no books for students to buy. We supply the readings, we offer things like tech support for our online classes.
In terms of our mission at Oregon Humanities, to connect people in communities through conversation, storytelling, we feel like this is a way to invite people and engage with that mission in a way that they might not otherwise be able to access. So for us, part of it is that this is really walking the walk in terms of accessibility and equity, in terms of not just inviting people into the work, but really setting up the supports, so that they can come into that work and engage with it for a while because our classes are 10 weeks long. So it’s a prolonged engagement with our mission and our vision and values and the ways that we try to engage people in the humanities.
Miller: Rozzell and Luis, thanks very much.
R. Medina: Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it.
Miller: Rozzell Medina is program manager at Oregon Humanities. Luis Medina is a former student in their “Humanity in Perspective” course.
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