Lyn Tan Oral History Interview

This interview begins with the personal information of Lyn Tan which includes her time spent at the University of Oregon, her long-distance relationship with her boyfriend, her time working at an international airline, and her motivations for returning to Portland, Oregon. She then discusses her time spent at graduate school at Portland State University while volunteering at IRCO and her initial gateway into working for this organization. As her first official position at IRCO; Tan describes the SUN school programs and what her job specifically entailed. She addresses the ways in which this program tailors to the needs of the community before explaining the transition she made between that job as a site manager to her current position as program manager and the break in-between when she worked for the public school district and as the coordinator for the SSSES program at IRCO. Moving along, she discusses her personal vision of what direction the SUN schools are moving toward, mixed with the vision of IRCO and Multnomah County. To close, Tan discusses some achievements that she deems important, while highlighting the significance of all of their accomplishments.

Lyn Tan was born in 1964 in Singapore, to Singaporean parents. She identifies herself as Singaporean nationality-wise, Peranakan in terms of ethnic culture, and, because of these identities, she is comfortable with Chinese-based cultures as well. Tan grew up in Singapore and left to attend the University of Oregon in 1983 at age 19 to study film theory and aesthetics and journalism in public relations and advertising. After college, she returned to Singapore and worked for an international airline until permanently moving to Oregon in 1991.Upon this return to Portland, she studied at Portland State University and eventually started as a SUN site manager for a middle school. After a lot of moving around within her job description and duties, Tan currently works as the program manager for Student and Support Services for Education Success where she works with coordinating the programs they oversee and writing grants.