Internships

The Sara Glasgow Cogan Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to full-time Judaic Studies majors or minors who undertake credit-bearing internships in local Jewish communal and cultural organizations such as the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. This scholarship will cover the cost of internship for up to six credits of tuition (three credits each over two terms of study) for 1-3 students.

Please note that the application process for this scholarship is different from the others offered by the Judaic Studies Program. Interested students should contact the Academic Director directly to start the application process, which is internal to the department (email Prof. Natan Meir: meir at pdx dot edu).

Cogan Scholarship recipient — Rachael Walkinshaw

Rachael Walkinshaw was awarded the Sara Glasgow Cogan Memorial Scholarship/Internship at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE). Among Rachael’s responsibilities at the museum, where she interned during the 2018-19 academic year, was primary curatorial responsibility -- including research and writing -- for the museum’s exhibit on the history of Congregation Neveh Shalom on the occasion of that synagogue’s sesquicentennial. Rachael also authored a digital version of the exhibit, published on the Neveh Shalom website.

As I reflect on the past 7 months and what the Sara Glasgow Cogan internship has meant for me, I can’t help but feel that it has been one of the most impactful experiences in my life. What the work has taught me, the connections I have made, and perhaps most significantly, what I have learned about myself, I will carry with me far into my future. - Rachael Walkinshaw

Rachael Walkinshaw speaks about her internship experience

The Cogan Scholarship-Internship was created by the Cogan family to honor the memory of Sara Glasgow Cogan and to perpetuate the values that she held dear. Sara graduated from Lincoln High School and went on to Mills College in Oakland California. She earned masters degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and PSU. During her time in the Bay Area, she published three historical bibliographies on California immigrant Jewish history. She was a community leader in Portland, doing important work in the non-profit sector, advocating for the needy and marginalized (including serving as Multnomah County Refugee Coordinator in the 1980s), and devoting particular energies to Cedar Sinai Park, Portland’s Jewish community elder care facility, where she served as board president from 2002 to the time of her death, and the Jewish Historical Society of Oregon (now the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education). The internship that bears her name enables Judaic Studies students to carry on her legacy as they contribute to the important work being done at Jewish community organizations such as OJMCHE.

Professor Nathan Cogan, a driving force behind the formation of the scholarship, taught in the English Department at Portland State University from 1976 to 2001 and developed a course on the literature of the Holocaust, which he taught until 2002. Professor Cogan, who also founded PSU's Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project, hopes to increase awareness about the Holocaust and other forms of genocide at the college and secondary school levels.

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