Confluence’s 2024 Impact on Education

Our education team is constantly connecting with Native educators, youth, and community across the Columbia River region to connect youth and community with the history, living cultures, and ecology of the Columbia River system.
In 2024, we’ve connected with over 2,000 students through Confluence in the Classroom and Confluence Outdoors. The programs reached 750 rural Oregon students and 462 rural Washington students. The education team has also participated in 35 student field trips.

We hope you support our education programming in the year to come by giving HERE.

We’ve also worked to connect and grow our educators across the region, with 250 educators in Oregon and Washington participating in professional development opportunities with us. We hosted our first-ever Confluence Learning Community Conference this past spring, welcoming 25 educators from across the region to share, learn, and grow together. We are excited to build on this foundation and host the Confluence Learning Community Summit in Spring 2025. These opportunities, which support educators in aligning with Tribal education goals in the region, are generously funded by the Gray Family Foundation.

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Camp Confluence

This year, we hosted a spring break session of Camp Confluence, where campers engaged with Native educators and community leaders from Tribes across the region. Over the summer, we held our second annual summer camp, welcoming 40 campers for a two-week experience filled with cultural and educational activities.

Each camp included field trips to Confluence and community sites including the Confluence Land Bridge, Cathlapotle Plank House, Columbia Hills State Park, the Confluence Bird Blind, and Cape Disappointment, as well as a partnered field trip canoe experience with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership. The camp is funded through Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission’s No Child Left Inside (NCLI) grant program and a grant through the National Park Foundation.

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Emerging Artist Education

Confluences Emerging Indigenous Artist/Educator program supports an artist in working on their craft, as well as sharing cultural connections through art in classrooms across the state.

Kitana Connelly has been in the classroom connecting students with art, Native history and culture, and the land we all live on.

Connelly has visited multiple schools across Oregon and Washington during this year, and will continue through 2025 as she transitions to the position of Arts & Education Facilitator at Confluence. We’re thankful to the Roundhouse Foundation for supporting this work during the two-year program.

You can learn more about the Confluence Education Program on our website and through our education podcasts.

Confluence in the Classroom

Confluence Podcast: Seeds of Knowledge Through Confluence Education

Podcast: Reciprocity in Education

Podcast: Education and the Confluence Way

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Thank you to our many education sponsors and supporters for making this work possible!