What is your name? Austin Cummings
Alias? Some call me Chicken-Wing, some call me Auggie, while others call me C-Murder or the Untamed Orangoutang . All have a story behind them, none of which I have the space to tell you about.
Where were you born and where do you call home? My home is Oregon, but my heart is in Mississippi.
What are your big summer plans? I am the sort of person who always sets ambitious goals during the summer. I hope to read several books, play a lot of basketball, learn a bunch of Junior Kimbrough songs on guitar, and explore Portland. Other than that, I am caring for my son during the day and tackling Community Service Center stuff at night. Being at home with my son is the definitely the highlight of my summer.
In which graduate program are you enrolled? I graduated from the Master of Public Administration – MPA program this June, concentrating in urban planning. In the Fall I will be attending Portland State University pursuing a PhD in Urban Studies. I am interested in community development, the geography of opportunity, equity planning, the intersection of education policy and urban planning, and planning/social theory.
What was your favorite University of Oregon class? Any class with Professor Sandoval. His classes pushed me to think in new ways and the readings were always relevant. He does a great job showing how theory is tied to on the ground phenomena and how that influences planning.
What is the most critical skills you learned from being engaged in Community Planning Workshop? 1. Know your purpose, scope, and role. Understanding those things in the deepest and furthest breadth possible is the first step a person or team needs to take before acting. 2. You have to be able to concisely articulate and summarize that to the client and community you are working with. 3. As the project unfolds, more information is gathered, and you have a better understanding of the dynamics of the client and community you are working with, it is crucial to go back to those two things.
What about CPW made you smile? The camaraderie within my group made CPW an incredible and delightful experience. I also thoroughly enjoyed my project manager, Erik Forsell’s constant use of analogy, metaphor, and colloquialisms because they succinctly explained whatever concept we were trying to understand or task we were trying to tackle.
What is your dream job? I hope to be a college professor one day. But if I wasn’t pursuing that route I would like to be a college basketball coach. I use to coach high school varsity men’s and women’s basketball, and throughly enjoy every aspect of coaching- from the teaching, to the strategizing, to developing players and teams to be successful on and off the court.