Mark McGuire
As a student at OSU, Mark McGuire was everything that would make Benny Beaver proud: helping the Oregon State Baseball Club earn a place in a national association, representing OSU at the Campus Movie Fest in Los Angeles, and again at the Clinton Global Initiative University. Mark went on to initiate an OSU Voluntary Student Organization, the Brain Collective (wow!), which has since evolved into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, now called the Bountiful Backyard. That caught the attention of the OSU Vice Provost Office of Student Affairs, who awarded the Brain Collective a grant last June.
But Mark didn’t stop with just getting the money; he helped allocate the grant funds into building raised beds for the Children’s Garden in the Starker Arts Garden for Education, and purchasing lumber and hardware for building a rooftop garden on our very own OSU Memorial Union. Students in the MU restaurants will soon be eating food grown fresh on the roof. Think of it: Mark helped engage students in innovative forms of agriculture through an avenue that they will really understand: their stomachs! Bountiful Backyard continued to make a difference, building a website for the Institute for Applied Ecology and rainwater collection systems for the SAGE Garden.
Today, Mark continues his personal mission of community service and university loyalty. He’s now the Public Information Coordinator for the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, where he explores wave and tidal energy. For Mark Mcguire’s very own tidal energy for good ---for OSU and for the community--we are honored to present him with this year’s Service Award.