“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
Laura Keldorf
lkeldorf@riverdale.k12.or.us
Humanities and Portland State University Challenge Program Instructor
Portland State University's Challenge Program offers concurrent enrollment courses to high school students. Program instructors teach college credit courses on their respective high school campuses, and students pay a reduced tuition rate.
Senior Exhibition Coordinator
National Honor Society Faculty Advisor
Fall
Portland State University: The Global City (Honors 101):
The Global City experience is divided into three - 5 credit trimesters, fall (Honors 101), winter (Honors 102) and spring (Honors 103). By the end of the year, students earn 15 college credits through Portland State University’s Honors College.
The course series’ objective is to prepare students for academic research, discussion and writing. The articles, essays, short stories and documentaries we examine come from a variety of disciplines, calling primarily upon history, sociology, anthropology, urban studies and economics.
Rather than a survey course that examines a select group of cities from around the world, The Global City experience asks students to think about the social, political and economic systems that allow for the development of inclusive, equitable and sustainable cities.
American Literature: 1607-1914:
Over the course of the first of two trimesters of American Literature, students read, discuss and write about what the literature written from 1607-1914 reveals about who we are as Americans, and who we are to each other. Our journey begins with the colonial period of what eventually became the United States of America, and concludes with an analysis of Realism and Naturalism: the stories, speeches and letters written by authors during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The texts we read, and the discussions that follow, provide students with an opportunity to think, speak and write critically about how adversity and achievement have affected our individual and collective experiences as Americans over time. The course emphasizes the scaffolded writing process, calling upon students to welcome and integrate constructive feedback as they intentionally revise their work.
Winter
Portland State University: The Global City (Honors 102):
Over the course of the winter trimester, students examine and discuss the role governmental policy plays in the development and transformation of the urban physical landscape. Students examine and assess the extent to which legislation, at all levels, contributes to the segregation of designated populations within cities.
An analysis of maps, personal narratives, literature, and legislation that has developed over the course of the twentieth century offers students an opportunity to identify the panoply of factors that have contributed to the physical, social and economic divisions and possibilities inherent to the twenty-first century American city.
Economics:
Students examine and assess the systems and concepts that allow consumers and producers to navigate the marketplace in an efficient, rational manner. Understanding the economic decision making process is dependent upon an analysis of scarcity, utility and opportunity costs; it is this examination that ultimately frames the course’s primarily macroeconomic units of study.
The course content includes differentiating between types of economic systems, understanding the role of the US stock market and its volatility, clarifying the distinguishing functions associated with fiscal and monetary policy, developing an awareness of how the Federal Reserve oversees the US banking industry, evaluating the extent to which the national debt is problematic, and using indicators to determine the health of the economy.
In addition to the assigned readings, class projects and seminar based discussions, students also learn from and engage with guest speakers who offer their professional narratives, expertise and insight into the practical application of economics.
Spring
The Senior Exhibition
Senior Exhibition is a requirement for all students to graduate, and introduces the research writing process. Over the course of the term, students consult and use reference materials, access Portland State University’s databases and resources, interpret scholarship, critically evaluate evidence, establish a position based on their findings and apply the conventions for documenting academic papers.
In addition to the paper, students also develop a 50 minute public presentation during which they share their findings and conclusions.
Students have the option to take the course for Portland State University credit as WR 222 or Honors 103 (part of The Global City sequence).
Senior Exhibition Study Skills
The course is designed to provide students with additional, focused support as they complete each scaffolded assignment, and work towards the completion of the final presentation and paper.
Class size is limited to 15, which allows for one on one conferencing, workshopping and time to ask clarifying questions.
Senior Exhibition 2026