10 Questions with the LBCC Foundation's Linnea Everts

It’s no secret that college can create many struggles for students. It is, of course, meant to challenge you academically. 

There are, however, other major challenges many students face that are less visible.

You may face challenges of maintaining good grades across the board or finding a balance with your time management. Perhaps you’re struggling to get a group project off the ground or finding just the right topic to write an essay on. 

The most challenging struggle facing many students today, though, is finding the funds to allow you to continue with school and cover your bills, without going so far into debt you feel like you’re drowning before you even get a degree.

Linnea Everts of the Linn-Benton Community College Foundation wants to assist with that. She’s dedicated her time at LBCC to helping students in financial need.

I spoke with Linnea Everts on a wide array of topics. She shed some light on issues that affect most college students, how she relates to the students she helps, how she got here, and what her life was like getting to this point.

What is your role with Linn-Benton Community College?

So that’s interesting because I think my title may potentially change, as of now I’m the foundation coordinator. Historically it was more of a support position of basically anything in the [Foundation] office that was required to be done. The important thing to remember about the Foundation is, of course, we do scholarships and we have emergency grants, we also are the entity that owns all the program equipment that gets donated. The school’s horses are owned by the Foundation, the cars go through the Foundation. Because the school is a state entity and can’t receive funds, we exist in that capacity. Because of that then, I have a pretty diverse job. Right now my role is basically managing the whole scholarship program, so from start to finish. I work a lot with donors, doing events, and contacting LBCC alumni about the potential to help out now or in the future.

You’re here helping students achieve their goals now but what was your school experience like? What was school like for little Linnea?

So I had an interesting start to school. I grew up in Sweden, Stockholm, and my mother is American and my dad is Swedish. So I was raised at home bilingual, Swedish and English. English was my second language. So I started school in an international school in Stockholm and that wasn’t really a good fit for me. It was a very small class but I just wasn’t really learning and not learning any Swedish, you know. Here I am living in Sweden, I mean I could speak Swedish but it’s like writing and stuff was tough. By third grade my mom was like “Nope, can’t do this anymore,” and also, I was commuting into Stockholm, 8 years old on the subway with my little lanyard and stuff. I didn’t think anything of it. It was a totally different world than we’re in now of course. But then I went to our local school and really got a rude awakening because I had to kind of start over from scratch. I kind of always struggled with school and always had issues with, you know, maintaining my English side or maintaining my Swedish side. My mom was always really focused on and concerned with maintaining my English, which now living here is kind of ironic. So I read a lot in English, read a lot of books in English. I never did that well, grade-wise, in school I don’t think. Later on, I found out I was dyslexic and was told that I shouldn’t have made it as far as I did but I just preserved through that. I use that a lot when helping students. When they say, “I can’t do this,” I say Yes You Can because if I can do it anybody can. 

When I graduated from high school in Sweden, I applied to go to Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. That was kind of a crazy move you, know. Two suitcases, 18 years old, never been to the school, had an aunt and uncle down the street in Lake Oswego, felt like I’ve just mastered Swedish, and now I’m moving all the way to the West Coast of the United States. I had a bit of a bumpy start but in retrospect, I think I lucked out. I think if I had gone to a large institution, I would have been swallowed up and spit out of it. My mom had actually gone to a four-year college in the U.S. and that was always the plan. She always told me, “You’re going to college and you’re going to school in the U.S.” For her, that was the natural move. My father was Swedish, and I could have gone to university in Sweden for free. Fast forward, I studied International Affairs, which was a very hard major. I ended up moving to Atlanta and working in International Immigration and loved it. Lots of workload and lots of learning about people’s story, learning about them, and helping them in a time of great need. I could always relate to that, moving from one culture to another.

With that expectation of going to college in America, set by your mom, was there any preparation for what life or school was like in America?

You know, I was fortunate that my parents put value in cultures and travel over material items. My parents scraped by, my dad owned a restaurant, so it wasn’t a lucrative career at all. My parents though saved up all their money so that my brother and I could come to the U.S. and spend time with our family. We’d come at the beginning of June and spend 10 weeks here, our whole break. We’d travel around to my grandparents in Minnesota. We’d see aunts and uncles in the Boston area. Ultimately my mom’s brother moved to Oregon, Lake Oswego, where they still live, and that’s the connection I had with Oregon. I was actually looking at colleges around the Boston area first. It was on the East Coast, was closer to home, but got some information from a friend whose best friend was at Lewis & Clark and that’s what really sold me on coming to Oregon.

So you talked a bit about working in international immigration, advocating for those in need, how did you transition from that to getting into the field you’re now in, working with students in need?

That’s a good question. So after living in Atlanta for two years I moved to the Bay Area. I got a job in the same field. I worked for a software company as their global mobility manager and I was the person that handled all their green cards and all their moving and transfers. I came in and was like cool, let’s do this by the books though since we were publicly traded and that is pretty important. And then actually, I think it's one of those, I've had a few barriers in my life. I also had a lot of luck too. I think this was a lucky move and I lucked out. The boom basically burst in 2001 when I started working in Silicon Valley. I then ended up working as a kind of dual role, supporting people with HR, and also being an HR business partner but also doing the global mobility stuff. I think that's where it just really, I mean it leant itself really well with being HR, being a sympathetic person, and being a problem solver, being creative with solutions and working with performance areas and lack thereof in performance, that sort of stuff. Then also simultaneously working with the immigration part. I've always thrived and done well where I can work with people and just help people. My last position I had in San Francisco was working as a director of HR for a digital advertising company. Really cool, really cutting-edge stuff. I worked really hard, started working on expanding the business, started working in London, traveling a lot. I basically burned out. Straight up. Straight up burned out. That was kind of my first big struggle. 

It was just around the same time I met my husband, who's from Albany, Oregon. But we stayed in San Francisco for two years. I did some consulting work. We got married. Then I had another situation where all of a sudden the house we were living in was going to be taken back by the owner so she could renovate it and live in it. So we kind of were like, what are we going to do now? My mom and dad had bought this house in Sweden and it was old. My husband, he's a restorator, we move back to Sweden for two months, with our dog, and lived with them. Two weeks before we're about to go home I found out I was pregnant. We were super excited. We had been trying to have a baby since basically when we met and we had been married for about a year, together for about two and a half years, so it's really exciting stuff. But here we are, going back to the Bay Area, which is in a severe recession in 2009, we didn't have jobs, the prospect of jobs was really iffy. So then we just made a decision, let's move to Oregon. It was something we always talked about. We had a really good time in San Francisco, career-wise I was so fortunate, so blessed. 

Then we actually hit probably the hardest time of my life, which was basically almost being financially ruined. You know, coming from a very stable family, having a stable economic situation, never really earned a lot of money but earned enough to always get by, and working very hard and making a very good wage. I think it was, I think if you look at it, some people would say I definitely hit rock bottom. But I feel like it was probably the most powerful experience of my life. To all the sudden be on the side of, you know, not even having enough to get a coffee, not knowing where we're going to live in two months, not knowing a lot. Then, actually having to ask for government assistance. That sort of thing, I think for me, I wouldn't wish it upon anybody, but I would think that I am a better person because of it, because I could really relate. I always felt like I was someone who could really relate to most people, but until you don't have any money, you don't know what you’re going to do, you're pregnant and you're basically homeless, you really can't understand it. Without family, without support from family and the government, things like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and the Oregon Health Plan, we wouldn't have made it.

How did you go from that point in your life to finding LBCC?

Well interesting enough, I came to this area and I was immediately intrigued by OSU, intrigued by the potential of working there. I started looking back and wondering what are the things that are important to me. Here I am, my husband got a job within about two months of living here, we moved out on our own. We slowly start pulling ourselves together again but still very much paycheck to paycheck, and you know, still not getting a cup of coffee or a latte or anything when we’re out. Never did I feel pity or sorry for myself or embarrassed. If anything, I actually got strength from this moment. But we slowly started working back and then I got an opportunity to work part-time to help a small business get organized. I'm talking they were very unorganized. I love organizing and fixing stuff. I kind of work my way out of a job because I got them situated and set them up with payroll service, accountant, this and that, got them all situated. It was actually weird going from director of HR to managing a small team and becoming a stay-at-home mom. I never spend too much time reflecting backwards of what I did, otherwise I'll just crack up laughing. I actually had two people tell me, “Are you in the witness protection program” because of how big of a shift it was. 

I think I got a lead working at LBCC.  I heard really good things and I was really intrigued because it was so different from my background. I love the fact that you could go there and take parenting classes, you could go there and get a degree, you could go there and take volleyball, and all the sudden, my focus was “OK OSU International students, that's what I want to do.” My goal was kind of to do the same with LBCC and it just never really aligned. The Foundation, you know, I actually spent five years in parenting education before I moved into the Foundation. I learned so much about our community. I worked with a lot of parents that were in similar situations with myself, parents that couldn’t afford a baby class. I actually got my grant to take my parenting class at LBCC from the Foundation. I didn't put one and one together back then, but I couldn't take that class without that grant from the Foundation. That grant was a lifeline between me and my son. I started going to this class, I started knowing people, fast forward six months later, I'm working in the parenting education department as a part-time secretary for maternity coverage and one thing led to another. I started attending community nonprofit meetings, so traveling around the area. I started to learn the different communities, such as Philomath and how it is different than south Corvallis, that’s different than north Corvallis, then Albany and Lebanon and Sweet Home. I was really intrigued by the differences of each community within our greater community. Then I got to apply for the foundation coordinator. I knew I was up against great candidates but I got it and it was kind of like, I think I found my niche. I love it. I really love it.

You touched on how the Foundation helped you in a time of need, can you talk about why the Foundation is important to LBCC?

Well, it's that experience I had getting that grant to take a class, I felt like, first off, I felt like humbled. I was humbled that there's someone donating money to help students, help somebody like me. As soon as I could help, I immediately started helping, even if we had $200 extra a month, as soon as it was fundraiser time, I gave back half of that if I could because it just meant so much to me. I think that it’s that spirit of the donors that give [that makes the Foundation so important]. To allow me to take that class with my baby and be around others and feel a sense of belonging, I mean, I'm still friends with the people I met in that class. We still go on camping trips each year. LBCC has been such a big part of our lives for so long. We did the cooperative program. I was able to take the classes and spend time with my child in the class, and my manager actually wanted to hear my feedback on how the class is going, because I was working in that department. 

I was so blessed to have that support and I kind of feel like the Foundation is such an important part because people give to the Foundation to help support students. They give for different reasons. They give for programs or department support. They can give for scholarships, you know there's just this general understanding from our donors that students need help. They know students are not going to be able to make it on their own. They can use FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) but that's not going to cover everything. 

More recently I think we're fortunate, we had a donor that had set up an emergency fund in 2018 in response to “Well what if the student can't pay for the car to get picked up from the shop? Is that student going to quit LBCC or are they going to quit their job? They are going to say I need more hours at my job, I'm going to quit LBCC.” So there was an understanding from our donor, who's actually one of our board members, Jo Ann McQueary, she actually said, “I want to give money and I want you to, if somebody comes and says I can't buy my glasses and without these glasses I can't see what's on the board, I want you to pay for those glasses.” That's a barrier I can relate to. Now I don't have to worry about $50 glasses because we've come a long way, my husband and I, in our careers, however, I never thought we'd be able to own a house after what happened. We were so destitute, to now five years later being able to own a house, you have no idea. I still pinch myself every day. I never thought I'd have this possibility again despite coming from a background where it was basically understood that it was going to happen, but I was so far removed from that. I was able to really appreciate it. With that said, people are giving to really help students. We want to keep them in school.

What has been the highlight, so far, in your career with the Foundation?

I think the highlight has been for me to just be able to work with students. Either working with students for a scholarship, informing them of the scholarship, seeing that light go on in somebody's eyes when you talk to them and tell them “You are worthy, you are eligible, and you do qualify for a scholarship.” I think the real wake-up moment was one of those straight out of a movie, where I'm coming out of a presentation on scholarships, which I could give in my sleep if you woke me up, and a student comes out and touches my arm and calls me over. She says, “Hey you know what you should feature when you talk about scholarships is that we all qualify, all of us at LBCC. We are different, we are not Harvard.” I was like, “Well tell me more” and this woman, she was like, “Look, I never thought I could qualify for scholarships cuz I'm not super savvy. I'm not doing awesome in school. I'm struggling, my GPA is sort of low, it's not extremely high. I'm not in honors or a whole bunch of activities and I applied and I got a scholarship.” She's like, “You need to tell people the scholarships are not only for those kids that have a 4.0, who are valedictorians, you know, that stigma.” 

That stigma is one that I didn't understand and I don't think many of us did. I come from that background where I never applied for scholarships because I didn't think I'd qualify because I wasn't doing great in school. One thing that I will appreciate from my mother was, she told me, “Go to school, take your classes and do your best.” I was like, “Mom, I'm only getting C's.” She was like, “Well are you learning?” I’d be like, “Yeah I'm learning so much!” She was like, “No one's going to care about your grades once you're done.” Sometimes it's really hard to balance; “You need to really do well and get good grades” with “You know what, don't worry so much about the grades, just get an education.” I think it's a good message at LBCC. Some of the most powerful students and stories that I've worked with have not been the straight-A students. They have not been the ones that are honors. They're the ones with a barrier. They have barrier after barrier and they just persevere and it just gives me such motivation to work. I work long hours, I always have too much work, but then I talk to someone like you, who I can help, and then it's all worth it.

You talked about perseverance. It’s an important aspect of education. How much does perseverance come into play when trying to mobilize donors and how hard is it to mobilize donors for a community college?

It's not hard at all. I think LBCC, it's running through the veins of everyone in our community. I think of this as who in our community has not been touched by LBCC? I think some people forget that when they take driver’s ed, it was at LBCC. When they took line dancing in Lebanon, it was LBCC. We are such a part of the fabric of our greater community that donors, it doesn't take much to get them involved. I think that we're getting better at getting them involved too. I think one thing I found at LBCC and working in Corporate America, coming from pretty high-powered, high-facing positions, where you’re constantly being evaluated and you know, if you're not good at it they’ll find someone who is. You put in 300% and well, that's expected. You're not going to get a prize. But coming from that environment and coming into LBCC, I always remind myself that it's just so incredible that we are doing the work of changing people's lives. Here, everybody has a place, everybody has a chance. 

When I worked in Corporate America, people were never afraid of bragging, selling their story, over talking their story, and pitching themselves. Now working here at LBCC, and we're making just amazing changes in a lot of people's lives, and we're just like, “Yeah I don't want to brag,” kind of timid about it. I think we're at a point now in the Foundation office where we’re really trying to tell that story, tell the story of the student, and communicate the need. Really trying to make sure people understand the struggles and barriers and get out the spirit our students have. When we tell those stories, it's not hard to get people to donate. I think our goal in the Foundation is to be to the point where everybody knows we need LBCC to help staff our jobs in the community and run our restaurants in the community and do all this different stuff in the community. Over the next few years, I know we're going to get more and try to reach out more to the community to get that buy-in. I think it's already there though. We're so lucky. Look at the work we had after the fires [last summer]. We had staff drop everything in the middle of the night and cook food, save horses, and do whatever else was needed.

What is LBCC Give Day and how did it go this year?

So Give Day, this year was our second Give Day. Last year was the first year and really, we did an incredible job with very little time and preparation last year, just going virtually. We launched Give Day last May and we decided to make it that all proceeds are going to help students who have been affected by COVID, but frankly, who had not been affected by COVID? The need was very great. The outpouring was amazing, $22,000 was raised in one day. The concept of Give Day is to have staff, families, friends, donors, anyone within 24 hours ask and give. Give back if you can at any level. 

This year our focus was a little bit different as we emphasized that you can give to the Foundation in whatever capacity you wanted to give. I think that was a message that was slightly confusing to people, even those who worked with the Foundation for many years. It was that you don't have to give to the general fund. You can give to the music fund, the culinary fund, automotive fund, any of them. This year we had 12 Champions who basically spoke about their area. The development team picked 12 champions, the champions did a short video and made an appeal of how to give. The success was great! In 24 hours we raised about $38,000. 

That’s a very successful one day of donations. On that note of the monetary side of the Foundation, how do you balance that desire to help everyone that comes to you for assistance with the monetary restrictions of not having infinite amounts of funds?

We've been somewhat fortunate that we've been partnered with the Student Services, who have the Roadrunner Resource Center. That's kind of a position where there's a bill on the docket now that would require every college to have a resource manager in place. The Roadrunner Resource Center is currently working as our resource manager in that capacity and it lives in Student Services. It started off with Single Stop and it's kind of morphed into much more. The thinking is that people come in through the Roadrunner Resource Center and are referred out to the needs that they need. If there are other community resources that can step in then they can get there. 

One thing that I want to mention also is that coming from larger settings, this is the smallest town I've ever lived in. I've lived in large populations my whole life, but the level of giving and support and just empathy that exists in this area is unprecedented. I get emotional thinking about it. My experience working with the nonprofits from parent ed, just show that we have an incredibly strong nonprofit community here. Those people have partnered with us even closer now during the pandemic. We're able to get our students help with rent and any other Roadrunner Resources that they need to get connected in the community, but if there's an expense or barrier that could not be removed, that's when we can step in as the Foundation and partner with the Roadrunner Resource Center. We don't only have a COVID emergency fund, we have other emergency funds that exist and we even have a faculty emergency fund that exists to help faculty who are in need, so we've pretty much been able to leverage most all student needs. 

There are some times where the needs are greater than just one thing, multiple things pile up and it's just “I can't get by” and that's where we can't help and those are the really hard times. I do think some of the funding that's been coming in through federal, state-level, things like CRRSAA, have really helped students at that level but I would love to never have to doubt or never have to say, “Well you know this student has $600, we can cover half.” My wish is to always be able to cover all of the needs.

What’s one thing you wish you could implement at the Foundation that you haven’t been able to yet or have you achieved all your goals for the Foundation?

No, God no. I have not done everything I wanted to do, I have so many plans. I would like to have more time to spend on scholarships, more time to spend on emergency funds, I want to increase what we're already doing and just continue to grow it. I really want to, I want the messaging to be clear. I want everyone on campus to know what we do and what we're doing to help students and what we can do to help students. That messaging still isn't out there and I would really love to be able to expand that. I want it to be able to be where if faculty is running into someone at the store, then they can just tell them, “Hey, you know what you need to do, you need to contact Linnea about scholarships or reach out to the Roadrunner Resource Center.” That's the goal that I have, to increase the awareness of the programs that we have currently. My goal and dream is to be able to help any student that wants to go to LBCC be able to do so.

Linnea Everts

Occupation: Foundation Coordinator

Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden

Education: BA in International Affairs, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon

Years at LBCC: 9

Before working at LBCC: Worked for more than 10 years in Human Resources and Immigration.

Fun Fact: Grew up across the pond in Sweden and learned English as a second language.

Other Interests: Loves family, fun, and helping people.