It's easy to start a classroom teaching experience by looking around your room (or virtual "room" in an online class, as it might be) and asking what items would help people learn best in this environment. That is an excellent first thought because it means you don't want to approach teaching casually that doesn't put students on the track to success. However, in modern education, the goal is to go a step further, beyond what would work well for you to what would work well for as many students as possible.

Learning to create inclusive college classroom environments helps you see more students succeed, especially first-generation college students. Doing so also enables you to improve diversity and inclusion in the college classroom and empower everyone to share their experiences and viewpoints. To do so, however, there may be some needed mindset shifts that help you create an inclusive classroom.

When Kim Boyd recognized the impacts of isolation our community was facing due to the COVID pandemic, she decided to help reconnect individuals with themselves and their communities through Art, Wonder, Exploration and Story labs that provide inclusive, accessible spaces for artful play and story building. Kim came to the PCC Small Business Development Center for help turning her idea into a fully functioning business, and took advantage of structured businesses courses and no-cost, one-on-one business advising. Now, studioAWEsome has reached almost 200 Oregonians in just two months, with strategic plans for future growth. 

Dental offices may have a dentist's name on the door, but usually, it takes more than just the dentist to handle the tasks that keep the business afloat. Instead, various workers, such as dental assistants, handle tasks from the moment the patients walk through the door till the practice closes for the day and prepares for the next day.

Dental assistant work is in very high demand right now. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the field's growth rate at 11%, making it a high-demand career in Portland. Becoming a dental assistant is a rewarding and varied career, offering the chance to see the inner workings of a healthcare practice if you have a goal of continuing with your education to participate in some other aspect of the field.  If you speak to any dentist who's gone through a hiring shortage, they'll tell you exactly the value of dental assistants. Offices run on the labor of these workers!

So many important aspects of a doctor's visit begin to solidify when you first walk in the door. Think about the difference between being greeted politely and immediately connected to your provider versus not being noticed and then being haphazardly registered and checked in for your appointment. As a Patient Access Specialist, you get the opportunity to make people feel connected, cared for, and ready for their appointments, all while doing important behind-the-scenes data collection that helps you to continue serving them well during the payment or insurance process.

Maybe you're asking, "What is a patient access specialist, anyway?" Patient access specialists are the workers who first interact with a person coming into a medical clinic or doctor's practice. Their combination of greeting and entering information into the scheduling and documentation databases is one of the vital components of keeping the practice running smoothly. As a Patient Access Specialist, you need a combination of skills to find success in helping patients feel at ease.

When Michel Mouzong recognized a need for improved business infrastructure in the developing world, he reached out to the PCC Small Business Development Center for assistance in founding NEMILIS Global Strategy Group. Since then, Michel has completed several PCC SBDC courses, including Business Builders and Buying and Selling Outside the U.S., and has taken advantage of specialty, no-cost advising with PCC SBDC experts in areas of start-up strategy, international business best practices, and trade regulation. This is his story.

Headache. Nonstop sneezing. Stuffy nose. Fatigue. If you're an airborne allergy sufferer, these symptoms are your constant companions for several months every year.  For those with year-round allergies, each day brings a cycle of misery, often broken only temporarily by powerful drugs—antihistamines and decongestants—often with side effects more uncomfortable than the original symptoms. Airborne allergies usually affect the respiratory system. Some airborne allergies, like the one we call hay fever, are seasonal.

Dentistry has advanced in remarkable ways over the centuries. In just the past few decades alone, safe and frequent radiological scan technology has allowed dentists and orthodontists to understand the human mouth better. The information revealed in these scans helps dentists find potential problems before they are noticeable on the surface of the teeth and before they become a medical crisis or significant source of pain.

Dental assistant work exists in various dentistry contexts, including regular dental practices, emergency dentistry, orthodontics, and oral surgery. While the work varies from one practice to another, there is a need to take x-rays or other imaging scans accurately and safely in most of these contexts.

However, with this additional technology comes additional training for dental assistants who want to be versatile team members in dentistry practice. Understanding this additional training and how it benefits you shows how radiology for oral surgeons' certification can help you advance your career and keep strong job security as you consider future moves within the field.

Does your company invest in professional development for its employees? If not, now is a great time to reconsider. Investing in the professional growth of your employees has many benefits that more than justify any associated costs. In this post, we’ll look at five different reasons managers should make skill development a priority.

If you've ever left the Portland area to live where English wasn't the main spoken language—or even lived in a neighborhood of Portland where English was less common—you know the challenge non-native English speakers face daily. Even people with impeccable language skills must process many cultural, contextual, and idiomatic elements of the workplace while also doing whatever work you hired them to do.

The United States gains a lot of strength from being a place where people from anywhere can find their place and succeed. If your workplace has hired non-native English speakers, you must make an effort to promote strong communication between colleagues of different backgrounds. You may also need to account for more considerable language barriers, such as when coworkers or employees do their work well but with intermediate English language proficiency, resulting in misunderstandings.

By improving office communication and helping everyone get on the same page, you can make your workplace a safe and prosperous environment for native and non-native English speakers.

Catalyst Trade believes that "coffee is a sacrament," inviting us to grab a cup and join them as they revolutionize the way coffee is traded. Co-owner Emily McIntyre was looking for help growing her international business when she found the Oregon SBDC Network Global Trade Center and participated in the Global Trade Management program in the spring of 2020. Faced with the challenges of building a business across multiple continents and cultures, compounded by a global pandemic, Emily was inspired by the class sessions on cultural competency taught by David Kohl. After years of preparation, Catalyst Trade is excited to finally launch their vertical integration in Ethiopia, along with introducing Kenya and Peru as new coffee origins. As Catalyst Trade continues to lean on the PCC SBDC to help them grow, Emily and her team work hard to transform the future of coffee.

Learn more about Emily's story below!