Les Soltesz and his wife Martha have been with SVPP since December 2003. As he prepared to retire from senior management at Intel after 21 years, Les knew he wanted to donate to the community, learn about philanthropy, participate in hands-on projects and use his skills from his years at Intel in the non-profit setting. SVPP offered what he was looking for and he has been very active ever since.
He first served on the investment committee in 2004 that chose CASH Oregon and PEP (Parental Engagement Project), and he loved the process. His next highlight was at Kelly Elementary school, where Les helped lead the PEP charge, working with the school to create an Advisory Board with representation by parents, staff, businesses and community members. He was also involved in hiring Kelly’s parental engagement coordinator and remodeling their Parents Resource Center.
Les continues to serve on the Kelly Advisory board. He describes his work at Kelly as very gratifying – where “disparate people come together to make an impact for the school, parents and children.” He also really enjoyed being on the Marketing Committee where he worked on the SVPP Web site overhaul, our newsletter, messaging and branding.
His other SVPP roles include current Board member and Chair of the Recruitment Committee. On the Recruitment Committee he says the goal is to “create a high level of excitement about SVPP so the word gets out.” He looks at each Partner as an “ambassador for SVPP”, where everyone should assume the role as a recruiter for SVPP. When asked about his long term hopes for SVPP, Les says “I’d like to see a vibrant organization made up of people who really care about philanthropy, want to be involved in the Portland area community, who really enjoy themselves as part of a cohesive group.”
Les is originally from Hungary and moved to Venezuela when he was a baby. He attended college at the University of Southern California earning his Bachelor’s and Master’s in electrical engineering with a specialty in computers. He started with Intel in 1977 in Santa Clara before moving to Oregon in 1978. According to Les, “this is the best move I ever made.”
Les met and married Martha in 1969. Their son, Daniel, 29, works as Contracts and Compliance Manager at SEI here in Portland and married Jessica last August. Daughter Monica, 35, lives in Seattle working for Nordstrom as Credit Marketing Project Manager. Travel is huge for Les and Martha – they regularly seek the sunshine of central Oregon and Mexico with family and friends; past destinations include Ireland, Israel, Prague, Italy, Scotland and Hungary.
Northwest together created a parental engagement model to be leveraged at other schools in Portland and beyond. This model employs AmeriCorps volunteers and site coordinators of the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) programs and services. So far, PEP has been replicated at eleven other Portland schools where Impact Northwest administers SUN programs.
almost four years later, we are proud of what has been accomplished in terms of measurable change and impact in the two schools selected for PEP, Kelly and Clark Elementary Schools in southeast Portland. At Kelly, major improvements were made in volunteer recruitment, parent attendance to school conferences and events, Latino parents’ involvement and room parents for every grade. In addition, we tracked the progress of 25 children belonging to these engaged parents and there was dramatic progress in their reading scores. At Clark, parental involvement was significantly increased through a major event per trimester including Reading Night with well-known author Eric Kimmel, and Science Night with the OMSI travelling lab.