2026 State of Inclusive Excellence
The SMILE Program at Oregon State University improves lives and communities by creating sustained, high-quality STEM learning and college connection opportunities for students in rural Oregon. Today, SMILE serves 1,012 members in 51 clubs, working with 72 teachers across more than 15 school districts. In the 2024–2025 school year, SMILE generated 52,709 total contact hours, 15,264 teacher professional development contact hours, 980 afterschool club meetings, 22 community events, and 51 field trips. These numbers reflect not one-time outreach, but a long-term educational infrastructure that reaches students, teachers, and families year after year.
SMILE strengthens communities by helping rural students see themselves in STEM, in college, and at OSU. It supports teachers with meaningful professional learning, gives families more opportunities to engage in science and college-going experiences, and connects OSU faculty and students to communities across the state in ways that are practical and sustained. In doing so, SMILE strengthens both local educational ecosystems and OSU’s statewide impact.
SMILE expands access and opportunity by working with students from rural communities, first-generation college-bound students, students from low-income backgrounds, and students historically underrepresented in STEM and higher education. Rather than relying on one-time interventions, SMILE creates sustained pathways into STEM learning, college awareness, and connection with OSU through after-school clubs, teacher professional development, college connection events, family engagement, and research-connected curriculum.
A distinctive strength of SMILE is that it does not simply deliver programming to communities. It co-develops classroom-ready, applied STEM curriculum with teachers, grounded in OSU research. Teachers help shape lessons so they work in classroom settings, pilot them with students, and provide feedback that strengthens the final product for broader use. This model expands inclusion by valuing educator expertise, increasing access to current STEM content in rural schools, and creating learning environments where students can build confidence, curiosity, and belonging over time.
SMILE’s impact is built through long-term, reciprocal partnerships. The foundation of the program is its partnership with school districts and schools across Oregon. Through formal annual contracts, OSU and partner districts jointly support teachers, after-school STEM clubs, and student participation. Many of these partnerships have lasted for decades, reflecting deep trust and shared commitment.
SMILE also works closely with OSU faculty, especially through NSF, USDA, NOAA, and other state and federal grant-supported projects. These partnerships help faculty extend the broader impacts of their research while giving teachers, students, and families access to current, applied science connected to OSU. In addition, SMILE intentionally engages OSU students as near-peer mentors, event leaders, and grant-supported participants. This strengthens college awareness for K–12 students while creating meaningful experiential learning for OSU students. Together, these partnerships allow SMILE to connect community knowledge, school-based practice, and university resources in a way that provides valuable experiences for everyone involved.
SMILE reflects OSU’s Land Grant mission by bringing the university’s teaching, research, and public service commitments directly into communities across Oregon. The program translates OSU research into accessible, engaging learning experiences for K–12 students and teachers, especially in communities that have historically had less access to those opportunities. It also creates meaningful relationships between OSU and schools, families, and educators across the state.
Just as importantly, SMILE shows that Land Grant work is not only about extending university resources outward. It is also about listening to communities, building long-term partnerships, and creating programs that are responsive to local needs. Through teacher co-development, family engagement, near-peer mentoring, and place-responsive programming, SMILE helps OSU fulfill its public mission in a way that is collaborative, relevant, and sustained.
SMILE supports student success by creating repeated, meaningful opportunities for students to engage in STEM, connect with teachers, OSU faculty, and peers, seeing themselves in as the worlds future problem solvers. Students participate in hands-on learning experiences that build problem-solving, creativity, and confidence, while also helping them see science and math as relevant to their communities, interests, and goals. College connection experiences and interactions with OSU students help make higher education feel more visible and attainable.
The program also supports belonging by creating spaces where students can return week after week, build relationships, and explore their interests in a supportive environment. That continuity matters. In the 2024–2025 school year, 98% of SMILE members reported that they wanted to continue in their clubs the following year, a strong signal that students experience the program as valuable, welcoming, and worth returning to.
SMILE’s approach is grounded in partnership, listening, and adaptation. The program works closely with teachers, schools, and communities to ensure programming is relevant to the students being served and feasible in the settings where it is delivered. Teachers are active partners in curriculum development and refinement, which helps ensure lessons are accessible, engaging, and meaningful in real school contexts.
SMILE also uses place-responsive strategies that connect learning to community context, local industries, regional issues, and the lived experiences of students and families. Family and community engagement events create additional opportunities for participation and relationship-building. Across all of this work, the goal is not simply to invite students into existing programing, but to design pathways that reflect the strengths, needs, and realities of the communities SMILE serves.
Over time, SMILE has seen strong evidence of impact at multiple levels. For students, the program helps build confidence, STEM interest, college awareness, and a stronger sense of what is possible for their future. For teachers, SMILE provides sustained professional learning, access to current STEM content, and a trusted statewide network of peers. For families and communities, SMILE creates more opportunities to engage with science, math, higher education, and OSU in ways that feel accessible and relevant.
For OSU, SMILE serves as an important bridge between the university and rural communities across the state. It supports faculty broader impacts and outreach goals, strengthens OSU’s visibility and relevance in partner communities, and creates valuable experiential learning opportunities for OSU students. The long-term nature of SMILE’s partnerships is itself a major outcome: communities continue to participate, invest, and build with the program because they see the value of that relationship over time.
SMILE’s recognition reflects both external validation and long-standing community trust. In late 2024, SMILE received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, a major national honor that recognized the strength of the program’s mentoring and educational model. Being selected for that award signals that SMILE’s work is not only meaningful in Oregon, but nationally significant.
At the same time, one of the most important forms of recognition comes from the program’s partner communities themselves. School districts, teachers, students, and families continue to choose SMILE year after year, and district partners continue to invest resources to help sustain participation. That ongoing commitment says a great deal about the value of the program. It reflects trust, relevance, and the kind of long-term impact that communities want to continue building.
What gives us hope is the strength of the partnerships we have built and the continued demand for this work from students, teachers, families, school districts, faculty, and OSU students. After nearly four decades, SMILE continues to show that when universities invest in long-term, community-rooted partnerships, it is possible to expand access to STEM, strengthen college-going pathways, and create meaningful connections between OSU and rural Oregon.
Looking ahead, the greatest opportunities are to sustain and deepen those pathways through increased funding, staffing capacity, faculty partnerships, family and community engagement, and strong evaluation. SMILE is especially excited about continuing to build pathways into OSU through its place in the Department of Educational Pathways, and about expanding new forms of experiential learning for OSU students, including near-peer mentorship and media-based storytelling that helps K–12 students see themselves in college and STEM futures. Advancing inclusive excellence will require continued investment, but the need, the momentum, and the opportunity are all there.
