Adam Elwell The Advocate MHCC showed up at their first track and field meet with the largest team they have had since 2020 last Saturday, March 7 at the perennial Erik Anderson Icebreaker in McMinnville.  While the season is still young, spirits are high. Both head coach Fernando Fantroy and teammates cited men’s hurdler River McClure and women’s field Ava Hanson as standout athletes to watch for the season. Fantroy nominated both for NWAC athlete of the week after last week’

Photo by Aung Pyae Lin Christian Ilechukwu The Advocate The potter’s wheel goes round with stillness, and a wet ball of clay slowly turns into the shape of a mug. It’s a lot of work, it takes time, and things may not always go as planned, but for Jamie Teigen, a student at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, that spinning wheel became something they love and can’t stop doing. During the pandemic, their ceramics classes were all online and all hand-building: rolling

Photo by Juan Marcel Francia Chiderah Edeh The Advocate When people hear “community college,” they often assume it’s a second choice, a backup plan or a temporary stop before something better. Some even think it’s only for those who couldn’t get into a university or can’t afford one. But that idea doesn’t reflect what I see every day at Mt. Hood Community College. What really defines MHCC isn’t prestige or comparison to four-year universities — it’s perseverance. Walk across

Photo By Jennifer Childers Jennifer Childers The Advocate The delicate balancing act of juggling classes and staying afloat financially is a struggle understood by most MHCC students. For many, the need to work while attending school not only impacts their ability to keep up with coursework but also prevents them from engaging in co‑curricular activities and other valuable student experiences.  But more than $1 million in scholarship funding is offered to students each year

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Photo by Aung Pyae Lin Cassidy Thao The Advocate ASMHCC 2026-27 presidential elections are being held from March 10 to March 12, and every student has a chance to make a difference. The current student body president, Jeffery Erickson, and vice president, Elaria Salib, have been working hard all year, and it’s nearly time to pass on the responsibility. There are three candidates running for student body president: Liana Navarro, Nick Stone and Emanuely Igwira; and two candida

Photos by Adam Elwell Esther Murphy’s Mixed Media Work IN VA GALLERY UNTIL March 19 Jennifer Childers and Adam Elwell The Advocate Photography is often thought of as a finished image captured in a single moment. But the work featured in the current MHCC gallery exhibit by artist Esther Murphy pushes that idea further, layering photography with collage, paint and sculptural elements to create pieces that exist somewhere between photograph and object.  Murphy’s work brings toge

Tim Grassley The Advocate Mt. Hood’s theater department isn’t just staging a play – A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a showcase of both talent and tenacity. How do they start with a fresh idea and end up rolling audiences in the aisles? Let’s take a look behind the closed curtains—and into the backstage shenanigans.  Jan. 15  We began our coverage on Jan. 15, when we were asked to interview three actors starring in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We had a blast meeting them. From disc

Photo from MHCC Softball Adam Elwell The Advocate MHCC’s longtime athletic dynasty is off to another hot start. The softball team is 13-1 so far this season, despite — or maybe because of — a majority-freshman roster. Only four players returned from last year’s team; the remaining 17 are freshmen.  Softball assistant coach Taylor Gould gave credit where it was due. “Historically at Mount Hood, I think softball has always been one of the more dominant sports… A lot of recruitm

Photo by Dmitriy Morgan McCarraher The Advocate When people think about a newspaper, they often think about the stories printed on the page: headlines, articles, opinions. But a local paper is more than a collection of stories. It is an institution — one that quietly helps hold a community together.  Institutions are the structures that give a community stability. Libraries preserve knowledge. Schools pass on learning. Town halls provide a place for civic decisions. In its ow

Chris Woods The Advocate MHCC hosted a screening of the documentary “Priced Out” in the Student Union, Feb. 18, 2026   “Priced Out” explores the intertwined histories of Vanport and Albina, highlighting how exclusion laws, wartime migration and redlining shaped the lives of Black Oregonians. The event will included a short discussion following the film, offering students and community members a chance to reflect on how this history connects to present-day Portland.       Albi

Chris Woods The Advocate Avel Gordly, 1947–2026  Avel Louise Gordly, born Feb. 13, 1947, was an activist, organizer and politician in Oregon, and the first Black woman elected to the Oregon State Senate. She served from 1997 to 2009.  She grew up on Williams Street in the predominantly African American neighborhood of Northeast Portland and later became one of only 20 Black students at Girls Polytechnic High School (later Washington-Monroe High School). The school tried to st

Chris Woods The Advocate Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist, politician and Baptist minister, died Feb. 17, 2026.  Born Jesse Louis Burns on Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, to single mother Helen Burns, he later had good relationships with both his biological father, Noah Louis Robinson, and his stepfather, Charles Henry Jackson. A high school honor student and class president at racially segregated Sterling High School, he attended the University of Illinois i

Photo by Aung Pyae Lin Jamie Teigen , a MHCC ceramics student, poses with some of her work. If you have a photo you would like to submit for our slice of life section, email us at advocate@mhcc.edu

The 24-25 MHCC softball team in the NWAC championship where they came up just short. The Saints have appeared in the past two championships Columbia Basin College Location: Pasco, WA Mar. 1st | 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM  Centralia College Location: Gresham, OR Mar. 14th | 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM  Umpqua Basin College Location: Gresham, OR Mar. 20th | 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM  Southwestern Oregon Community College Location: Gresham, OR Mar. 21st | 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM  Grays Harbor College Locatio

Civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Jesse Jackson Chiderah Edeh The Advocate Walking through Mt. Hood Community College during Black History Month feels different.  In the Student Union, posters of influential Black leaders sit on tables. In the library, quotes line the walls. Faces look back at you — activists, educators, organizers, artists, people who sacrificed, who led movements, who poured into their communities so others could live safer and fu

ChrisWoods The Advocate MHCC hosted a screening of the documentary “Priced Out” in the Student Union, Feb. 18, 2026.  Cornelius Swart’s 2017 documentary explores the history of housing and the African American presence in the Portland area. A sequel to 2001’s NorthEast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream, Priced Out follows up with Nikki Williams, the subject Swart has filmed since the late 1990s, as she searches for solutions to the dangers and lack of opportunity

Photo By Elijah Camacho Timothy Grassley The Advocate Imagine the thunder of applause echoing through a packed theater, the stage bathed in golden light and the pulse of live piano filling the air. That’s exactly what greeted me at Mt. Hood Community College’s new production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”—a performance so bold and ambitious I left the theater breathless.  A twist of fate landed me face-to-face with Mt. Hood Community College theater director Zach Hartley on W

Jennifer Childers The Advocate Students may have noticed individuals affiliated with Turning Point USA gathering in the Main Mall courtyard in recent days, speaking with students and collecting information. Turning Point USA is a national nonprofit student organization founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012. The group describes its mission as identifying, educating and organizing students to promote conservative principles of limited government, free markets and individual liberty.

In the age of clickbait and advertorials, community service still matters more than numbers and sales Morgan McCarraher The Advocate Writing—especially in the age of constant content—can begin to feel like output for the sake of output. Articles are produced, posted, shared, scrolled past, replaced. The speed creates an illusion of importance. Movement becomes mistaken for meaning. But journalism was never meant to be performance.  We don’t write to write. We write to inform