As some milled around, checking out all the bells and whistles inside Portland Community College’s new state-of-the art barn at the Rock Creek campus on Friday, May 10, a bunch of sheep ignored the festivities, happily munching on fresh hay.
But for the non-animal portion gathered, it was a day to celebrate the dedication of the new $4 million digs, which will provide a 10,000-square-foot space to house various cattle, horses, pigs, dogs, cats and more.
The new facility, located on the majority of the footprint on a now-demolished aging wooden barn, will not only provide safe haven for a variety of critters, but will enhance the college’s veterinary technology program the campus offers.
PCC President Adrien Bennings praised the new structure for creating a “beautiful picture of community and how we come together to celebrate and honor but also to advance learning and education and technology in all of our spaces.”
The veterinary technology program is one of only two programs of its kind in the state and only one of five in the Pacific Northwest, said Bennings, who said in another life, she wanted to be a vet.
“It's one of those programs that we can all say that it truly makes a community college environment special and unique at the same time,” said Bennings.
The new barn was funded by a 2017 PCC bond measure.
Bennings said that 90% of PCC vet tech graduates go on to take and pass the veterinary technician national exam. That’s a rate that is 21% above the national average. Students who graduate from the two-year program go on to work not only in veterinary clinics but also in wildlife preserves, zoos, animal shelters, diagnostic labs and research facilities.
Also on hand during the May 10 ribbon cutting ceremony was Washington County Commissioner Pam Treece. She praised the facility, located at 17705 N.W. Springville Road in a semi-rural portion of Washington County, for creating jobs, saying that was something vital for the county’s economic health.
“We have to be working hand in hand with PCC and others that provide us the opportunity to educate our workforce,” said Treece, whose District 2 includes PCC Rock Creek. “The beauty of PCC is that you stand at the nexus between what the students need and want and what the business community needs and wants. To accomplish those things is remarkable, and we're standing right in an example of that.”
Ragan Borzcik, chair of the college’s veterinary technology program, praised the new facility as well.
“This new barn facility is going to really change the way that our program is able to deliver — especially the large animal education — to our students,” she said.
The new barn not only includes providing hands-on experiences for students, giving them access to a variety of different species in order to provide a well-rounded education — It also has a dog and cat kennel, allowing local shelters to provide animals for students to receive hands-on experiences.
Borzcik added: “This facility itself is amazing. I think No. 1 is because it doesn't actually rain on us when we're inside the barn, which our old barn used to do. So, it's very special.”
In addition, Borzcik said lighting in the new barn will be much better, pointing out students won’t have to use cell phone lighting for such things as finding blood vessels on animals as was common with the former facility.
Also installed in the new barn is a permanent W-Fi system that will allow vet techs to share medical information, such as ultrasound exams.
“So that sort of broadens our ability to be able to provide that that experiential learning for the student who's holding the probe. But then, the students who are not right there next to the animal can still see what’s on the screen,” said Borzcik, adding they can all watch via portable computer tablets.
She’s also pleased the new barn has a working classroom. In the past, students had to meet in a more formal on-campus classrooms and then walk across a parking lot to access the barn. Now, the classroom is on site, allowing students to immediately move from classroom to barn to study the animals they have been learning about.
Borzcik said the barn can benefit the local community as well, providing classes on weekends or allowing Future Farmers of America high school students come out and do outreach activities.
“I think there's just lots of different ways that this could sort of start to be more of a community and agricultural/educational hub, and I'm really excited for what that might look like,” said Borzcik.
Members of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce aided in ribbon-cutting ceremonies after officials finished speaking.
One fan of the new barn is Ann Petroliunas, a Wilsonville High School creative engagement teacher who was on hand during the May 10 unveiling.
“I think it's beautiful,” said Petroliunas. What makes it so special for her is that her late friend, April Carter-Schiavo, graduated from the vet tech program in 2013.
“She just loved animals, and I have many fond pictures of her in the old barn,” said Petroliunas.
Carter-Schiavo died of cancer in 2017, and Petroliunas helped establish the April Carter-Schiavo Memorial Vet Tech Scholarship in honor of her late friend.
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