Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Building connections: Amber Bliss Calderón helps Newberg adults find their voice

Photos and story by James Hill

When Portland Community College restarted English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes at its Newberg Center in fall 2023, instructor Amber Bliss Calderón was on a familiar mission: helping adults find their voice in a new language and community.

Bliss Calderón previously taught at PCC from 2004 to 2006 after a stretch overseas and graduate study. She has lived in Newberg for about 20 years and is now entering her third fall teaching ESOL at the center.

“It was really nice to come back to PCC, and especially in my hometown,” she said.

A graduate of George Fox University with a bachelor’s degree in Writing and Literature, Bliss Calderón spent two years teaching in South Korea before earning a master’s degree from Portland State University. That time abroad, she said, reshaped how she teaches.

“I wasn’t successful at learning the language when I lived overseas,” she said. “I know how isolating that can be and how you stay in pockets of comfort. It gives me a lot of compassion for my students.”

The Newberg Center currently offers four ESOL levels on site, with Levels 1–3 delivered as integrated-skills classes that fold reading, writing, listening, speaking and grammar into everyday scenarios. Level 4 is available locally as a bridge, and students who want to continue through the full eight-level ESOL sequence can transfer to PCC’s other campuses, such as Sylvania.

“We’re teaching students how to negotiate life here, how to talk to a cashier at the supermarket, ask their children’s teachers questions, or communicate with clients, bosses and co-workers,” Bliss Calderón said.

Most students at the Newberg Center are native Spanish speakers, she said, but the classrooms also include speakers of Chinese, Tagalog and Portuguese. Their goals tend to be practical and urgent.

“When I ask, ‘What’s your goal?’ most say, ‘I want a better job,’ or, ‘I want to help my kids with their homework,’” Bliss Calderón said. “We’re trying to provide a way they can do that.”

The center’s location is critical, Bliss Calderón added, because many ESOL learners work long hours and early shifts in industries that power the region’s economy. She sees students who start between 4 and 5 a.m., rush home for a nap, make dinner for their families and then come to class.

“They don’t have an hour to drive to Rock Creek or Sylvania or the Hillsboro Center,” she said. “They need something right here in their community.”

Students at the Newberg Center often hold essential, but less visible, jobs. Many work in farming, landscaping, nurseries, furniture building and construction. A large share of women in her classes clean homes or schools, including custodial positions in the local district. Some are even engineers with advanced degrees in their countries.

“They are highly skilled people,” she said. “It’s just the language piece that’s holding them back.”

The 13,000-square-foot Newberg Center opened its doors in 2011 and is one of the first projects stemming from passage of the college’s $374 million bond measure in 2008. The college bought the 16 acres from the Werth Family LLC to have a central location in the Newberg area to serve a growing community with classes, transfer credits and training. 

The collaborative effort with the local community earned PCC the Partner in Education Award from the Newberg School District and the facility was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum level for its energy efficiency.

This year, PCC has shifted into a new era and has been working with the community to align offerings at the center. The college hosted a community open house at the center in October that attracted more than a hundred from the community that connected them to services and classes like ESOL or healthcare. This fall, ESOL enrollment at the Newberg Center is up by nearly 10% and total enrollment at the center for all classes is at 133, edging back up toward pre-pandemic levels.

“Since we relaunched ESOL classes at Newberg, we’ve seen working adults choose PCC because they know these classes lead to real opportunity for their families and employer,” said Karen Sanders, assistant associate vice president of Academic & Career Pathways at PCC. “The impact is community-wide. Amber’s compassionate, experience-driven teaching has been central to this progress; she meets students where they are and turns language learning into access, dignity, and momentum for Newberg.”

Bliss Calderón believes the classes benefit more than individual learners. She points to parent-teacher conferences that run more smoothly when families can ask questions directly, and to workplaces that become safer and more efficient when instructions and concerns are understood the first time.

“You don’t have to have a translator every single time you meet with parents or need to discuss a child’s needs,” she said. “It helps the whole community.”

While other ESOL options exist in Newberg, Bliss Calderón said students choose PCC because it offers a pathway, whether to clearer communication, higher wages or future college coursework. Several of her Level 4 students, she noted, have a degree in mind.

“They’re not here because it’s fun, although we do make it fun,” she said. “They have an end goal, which is to communicate better or to get paid better and that benefits everyone. They need a bridge to a new world. Our job is to build it, one class at a time.”

For more information about what’s happening at the Newberg Center, visit www.pcc.edu/locations/newberg/