When Joshua Torres BA’27 William LaDuca BA’26, and Anastasiia Lemesh BA’26 hosted their walking tour of Portland’s Old Town this spring, their guide wasn’t a professional docent; it was someone who had experienced homelessness firsthand.
The tour was a culmination of seven months of work as part of Willamette’s Renjen Fellowship program, which challenged ten students to develop real solutions to Portland’s most pressing urban challenges.
Established through a generous gift from former Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen MM'87 and his wife Heather, the Renjen Fellowship brought together students from across Willamette’s schools to work in partnership with community leaders, businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits on issues ranging from food insecurity to housing.
“Some of the important tools that students took away from the fellowship are the ability and courage to tackle ambiguous problems and collaborate confidently with community stakeholders, and the use of practical frameworks such as design thinking for generating creative solutions,” said Assistant Professor of Computer Science Fred Agbo, who co-led the fellowship.
The students’ academic interests were as varied as their proposed solutions — representing majors in animated arts, business, computer science, data science, economics, environmental science, illustration, and more. Faculty from three of Willamette’s schools brought their own expertise in marketing, design, computer science, and community engagement to guide the students from idea to implementation.
“It was like running a live innovation lab,” said Assistant Professor of Marketing Jane Machin, one of the faculty co-leaders. “Each discipline brought a different lens, and the friction between perspectives sparked real creativity.”
Addressing challenges through community collaboration
The Fellows organized around three initiatives. One team tackled waste and food insecurity by designing a prototype of a digital platform to coordinate the distribution of surplus food to the areas of greatest need. Working with Agbo, they developed both the technical architecture and user interface elements to connect restaurants and grocers with community organizations in real time.
A second group partnered with Portland Public Schools and p:ear, a creative program for homeless youth, to create a pilot arts curriculum for youth summer programs. Intermedia student Ozias Lapsys BFA’26 continues to work with Portland Public Schools, pursuing an internship creating arts opportunities for youth.
Torres, LaDuca, and Lemesh focused on Portland’s Old Town neighborhood — an area with a rich history and deep roots, but with some of the city’s most visible challenges around housing and public safety. After hosting a community ideation session and meeting with over 30 local organizations, they created Old Town Tours, a walking tour led by guides with lived experience of homelessness modeled on alternative city walking tours hosted in several European cities.
“Over two months, we met with community stakeholders and created Old Town Tours to rebuild dialogue between visitors and residents,” Torres said. “This project taught me the value of teamwork, creative problem-solving, and embracing uncertainty.”
For Lemesh, the Renjen Fellowship changed how she thinks about creating change. “The Renjen Fellowship taught me that meaningful change begins with listening,” Lemesh said. “Creating Old Town tours showed me how even small interventions, grounded in empathy and collaboration, can ripple across a community. Along the way, I built lasting friendships and strong relationships with my team partners and community members, learning that connection is as powerful as action in creating positive, lasting impact.”
The fellowship embodies Willamette’s mission and approach to education: turning knowledge into action through interdisciplinary collaboration. By bringing students together from across different disciplines, the program demonstrates how complex social challenges demand diverse perspectives working in concert.
“Seeing the students engage directly with Portland’s most pressing social challenges to present bold, actionable solutions showed what’s possible when business, education, and community meet,” said Machin.
The 2025 Renjen Fellows
- Kyra Adamson MBA’26, Masters of Business Administration
- Samuel Holmes BS’27, Computer Science and Data Science
- William LaDuca BA’26, Politics, Policy, Law, and Ethics
- Ozias Lapsys BFA’26, Intermedia
- Anastasiia Lemesh BA’26, International Studies and Economics
- Nathaniel Moore BFA’27, Illustration
- Brooke Proctor BS/MS’26, Environmental Science and Data Science
- Aphena Sov BFA’27, Animated Arts
- Keegan Stershic BA’26, Psychology
- Joshua Torres BA’27, Psychology and Business
