Writing > newsletter article

Oregon Outlook is a newsletter for University of Oregon donors and friends. The publication highlights the impact of private gifts, such as scholarships and the students who receive them. I also produced and art directed the photo shoot for this story.

Getting his feet wet

Biology student gets hands-on learning opportunities, thanks to private gifts

Senior Cameron Bishop could have attended the UO without scholarships. But the biology major from Eugene says his learning experience wouldn’t have been the same.

For Bishop, scholarships funded by gifts from Oregon Community Credit Union and the Bernard Osher Foundation mean he can avoid debt and work at a job that prepares him for the future. And it means he can take advantage of learning opportunities such as the UO’s Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB).

After high school, Bishop joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and earned his associate’s degree in automotive technology at Lane Community College. He worked for five years as an auto technician. But he wanted something more.

“I didn’t really feel like I was effecting change,” says Bishop, who wants to teach and work in wildlife restoration. But he didn’t want to take on debt. If he hadn’t received the scholarships, he says, he would probably be working on cars part time and “stressing it” to stay in the black while staying in school.

Instead, he’s a wildlife biologist aide at Fern Ridge Reservoir, a job Bishop describes as “more like a paid internship.” He’s spending this spring at OIMB, something he says would be impossible without the scholarship support.

This kind of hands-on experience is invaluable, says Bishop. “If you sit in class all day, then you’re not experiencing it in the field. It doesn’t bring it home for me, especially for biology.”