Person to Person in Hong Kong

While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, Dan Hellinger describes his observations during his study abroad program at Hong Kong Baptist University in Hong Kong, China

Civic Life in McMinnville - Wortman Family

Our project is centered on civic life in McMinnville, Oregon 100 years ago. Our focus was to uncover the media’s representation of this topic. We had the option to choose to cover the local McMinnville government, Linfield College itself, public schools, leading businesses, and/or important civic leaders. We decided to narrow our attention to a particularly prominent family in the McMinnville community at the time. The Wortman family is known for opening the first bank in McMinnville more than 100 years ago and was also influential in local politics and community development. After selling farm and boat interests in 1865, Mr. Wortman bought a small grocery and merchandise store in Oregon City that he ran for ten years. In 1875 he sold this interest and started a similar business in Benton County. With these years of practical experience and the knowledge of local demand, he came to McMinnville in 1883 and established the Bank of McMinnville. When it was incorporated in 1885 it became the first bank in Yamhill County. Today the Wortman’s bank is known as Key Bank and stands in the same location as it did 100 years ago. A large number of photographs and newspaper clippings exist that define the Wortman family and where they stood in the community then and now, which were used in this project