By Katie Schleiss
Donna Beegle can still recall the first time she set foot on the University of Portland's campus.
When she first arrived on The Bluff in 1988, she was struggling to survive as a single mother living on welfare with her two young children.
Beegle graduated in 1990 with a bachelor's in communications, earned her master's in communication at UP and went to Portland State University for her doctorate some years later.
On Monday, March 1, she returned to UP to deliver a presentation entitled "Living in the Crisis of Poverty: An Insider's Perspective." Her book entitled "See Poverty" was also for sale during the presentation.
She recalled Bob Fuller, one of UP's former professors who helped develop the journalism and communications programs, as an integral part of her education experience.
Anybody who had the answers to Beegle's questions would always tell her to simply go and look them up in the dictionary, but Fuller took the time to explain concepts. She remembered how he told the class how his parents died and his marriage had ended. Beegle said that this made her less intimidated by his title and she felt less afraid to ask him for help.
"The professors here became my friends," Beegle said. "There was a flood of memories as I was pulling up. I'm just happy to my core."
Her personal story is one of both strife and redemption. Beegle comes from generations of families embroiled in the destructive cycle of poverty. She comes from a family of migrant seasonal farm laborers.
"I tell people all over the country that I know too much about poverty to be quiet," Beegle said.
The specific type of poverty that her family experienced was described as generational poverty, as opposed to situational poverty, because it persisted through the generations of her family as though it were passed down.
"You learn to be very deeply ashamed, and you try to hide it," Beegle said.
Beegle said that this discrimination against people living in poverty damages morale because most people treat people in poverty as if they are inferior or less deserving than other people.
This discourages them from attaining more education because they feel like they are undeserving.
"If you don't treat people with dignity, you teach them that there's something wrong with them," Beegle said.
She managed to survive on monthly welfare payments of $408 during that time. Her monthly rent costs, however, totaled $395. The remaining $13 was all she had to support both herself, as a single mother, and her two young children.
"We, as a society, don't know the facts and we rely on stereotypes and attribute them to people's character," Beegle said. "We make people share all of their scars to decide if they're worthy or not before we'll help human beings out."
Although she also received $150 dollars a month in food stamps, this averaged out to only $3 per day per person. When she began attending college classes, however, her welfare support was slashed in half. This is because welfare regulations reduce the amount of welfare available once the caretaker of the family pursues an education.
Eventually, after an eviction notice was posted on her door, she was forced to take a money management class, presumably teaching her how to better handle her monthly $13.
"We're losing in the war on poverty, we're losing human potential and human capacity and we can do better," Beegle said. She said that there is one major variable that can increase employment and success, which is education.
Beegle recalled the story of her son, who entered her room crying because the light bulb in his bedroom had gone out. Although the bulb had merely burnt out, her son was hysterical with the belief that the electric company had come and shut off his light.
She said that this was because this was the life that they had always known, where having the lights or heat or water shut off was just a fact of life.
"We are segregated, we are segregated by class," Beegle said.
Beegle, who formed her own consulting company, travels the country giving workshops on generational poverty.
