Chris Killmer

Chris Killmer, Senior

Born: St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

High School: International School of Beijing

Has lived in: Japan, China, USA.

Majors: East Asian Studies and International Affairs

Chris applied to seven different colleges but finally settled on coming to Lewis & Clark College because of their “Third Culture Kid program and amazing student support services.” Chris wanted a college that knew what TCKs were and offered a number of different resources (including a joint orientation with International students, a TCK intern, an informational website and brochures on the matter.) as well as “a beautiful campus great professors and kind nurturing educational environment” In the end Lewis & Clark College was the only one that “combined them all into an environment which I wanted for my college education.”

Chris immediately got involved with the TCK Board, Chinese Club and International Students of Lewis & Clark (ISLC). In all three clubs he served as an active member, setting up events to celebrate Chinese New Year and participating in a TCK workshop for faculty and staff. In ISLC Chris served as the Activities Chair and helped coordinate the annual International Fair. He began an active pursuit in “furthering diversity and cultural understanding at the college.” For Chris “the fair brought together every aspect of diversity which Lewis & Clark has to offer. In this way, I got to meet new people, learn about their cultures and help them do the same thing to the greater campus community” His most memorable moment was watching a mass of excited people gather around the Marimba players all dancing and singing along.

Chris overloads every semester! “There are just so many classes to choose from, everything seems interesting and they’re not normally classes you expect to see offered.” Among his favorite classes, since there are too many to name, he listed Early East Asian History and Latin America through Film. Both classes offered great background information on different cultures and were such small classes conducive to interesting discussions. Furthermore, “the Professors are fantastic, passionate and want you to understand and will do anything for you to meet these goals.”

When Chris isn’t in class he takes time to pursue his photography hobby, or hang out with friends in the downtown Portland area or in the Multi-cultural dorm, where he has resided for the past years. “There is always something to do in Akin at all hours of the day or night. It’s such a great community and at times like one big family.” Chris speaks fondly of late night get togethers where, he explains, “you walk into someone’s room and start talking and suddenly there are ten people at two in the morning having a huge political debate!”

Chris now works at Catholic Charities Oregon as their Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition Coordinator. He is working on building a coalition of service providers, health care professionals, law enforcement, and government agencies around human trafficking in Oregon. A lot of training, education, outreach and generally acting as a place where people and organizations can go to get information on the subject is done through the Charity. The organization also provides direct services to trafficking victims though that is under a different grant and will expire in Jan 2008.