Helping LBCC students at the Benton Center

Every day at 8 am, students gather outside the Benton Center’s Learning and Information center, waiting for the chance to print out their assignments, ask for directions or advice, or just find a quiet spot to study. The activity has a rhythm throughout the day, busier between classes and quieter during them, with the occasional phone call. During all this, the students receive help and guidance from the clerical workers running the learning center, whose organization and knowledge helps students get what they need every day.

Daniel Howard, 60, is a clerical specialist at the Benton Center, and has worked there for nearly a year and a half. At the learning and information center, he assists students with all sorts of things from placement testing and registration to helping students turn in homework or set up counseling appointments. He enjoys working with students, and helping them with whatever he can. “Going to school’s not easy, it’s harder than some jobs!”

Outside of the Benton Center, Howard is also the office manager at the Valley AIDS Information Network, a nonprofit volunteer outreach organization for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis-C, and Sexually Transmitted Infections, as well as providing community support to those affected by those diseases.

After growing up in the San Francisco bay area and serving in the army at 17, Daniel lived near Seattle for office work before moving down to Oregon and Corvallis, where he has lived for the last 20 years, and now considers himself “semi-retired.” LBCC interested him primarily as a flexible option that fits well with his work with VAIN.

At a glance

Who - Daniel Howard

Where - Benton Center, Corvallis

What - Clerical work, volunteer organizing

Valley AIDS Information Network (VAIN): http://www.valleyaidsinfo.org/index.html

LBCC Benton Center: https://www.linnbenton.edu/current-students/campus-locations-and-maps/benton-center/

Word Mob Takes Over the Benton Center -- Corvallis Poets Share Their Work at LBCC Event

LBCC poetry club, after the event

Long after many of the students and staff of the Benton Center had left, writers and admirers of local poetry gathered in the student common area. Rows of chairs and tables of refreshments had been arranged, and among the warm, low lights of the darkened building, friends and colleagues found relief from the cold February night.



A name was read, and a person stepped up to the open microphone. Often, they’re a student, sometimes staff, in a few cases even just a Corvallis local, and the crowd listened attentively as they recited a poem. They received this expression openly, like a gift, shared in confidence. The reader thanked them for their time, and took a seat as another name was read from the sign-up sheet.



On Feb. 15, the LBCC Poetry Club held the Word Mob at the Benton Center in Corvallis. All members of the community were invited to share poetry, either their own work or just a piece they appreciate.



Tristan Striker, the new adviser of the Poetry Club, spoke about the importance of the Word Mob. By holding the event as an open forum, the club promotes poetry not just at LBCC, but in the wider community as well, as a tool for expression and connection. “Poetry is one of those beautiful things that allows you to say something very very complicated in a way that everyone can relate to.”



Biology major Kel Callaghan has attended the past three word mobs, and is appreciative of the warm comfortable atmosphere, as well as to see the ways different people express themselves in poetry. For her, poetry is also about finding common ground in universal experiences. “It’s trying to give it form and focus, so someone can say ‘Ah! That’s the feeling, that I know, but never was able to put into words.’”



Jonathan Clough, a radiology major, talks about how he started writing poetry at the recommendation of a writing professor, and how his poetry is inspired by his experiences as well as by games that impacted him. “They were basically my childhood, they helped me, and they were a big part of how I grew up.”