On Alberta Street in North Portland the door to Carpe Diem Education is a gateway to experiences around the world. Ethan Knight and his team lead older high school and college students on trips to countries across the globe where they learn through cross-cultural exchange and expand the boundaries of their known world. Carpe Diem also works with schools to provide credit for their programs, offering a rich semester abroad opportunity to those looking for experiential, and not just theoretical, education. Students learn and serve: as in the Southeast Asia trip, where over 12 weeks they study local languages and volunteer at social and environmental nonprofits in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

If you or anyone you know has an 17 - 22 year old that you feel could benefit from this amazing experiential semester abroad, check out their website and call the office to learn more. There are still plenty of spots left on the trips departing this February.

Pride Professional Alliance offers an environment where seasoned professionals dedicated to diversity and authenticity come together to exchange ideas and serve their communities. They are a trusted source to their community in the complex worlds of finance, law, real estate, and creative services. They're carving out a new space for an organization that both aides professionals in networking, engenders close knit community through volunteerism, but also provides the business support and knowledge necessary for non-profits in our community to succeed.

The members of Pride Professional Alliance are a select group of business leaders who can truly speak to each person’s skills and professionalism. This process also allows them to utilize each other’s skills as resources and teammates. It's this ability to work together both in their occupational and charitable lives that gives Pride Professional Alliance the power to affect change. Visit their website here and contact them to learn more.

The name, Red (her favorite color) Magnolia (her mother's nickname for her), is a hint of how personality is really at the center of Maggie and her team's work. Whatever you need for your hair, whether just a cut, a restyling, color, or more, Maggie's team will help you reach your goal while adding a helpful perspective of their own. You can learn more about the stylists at Red Magnolia on their website. Red Magnolia also makes sure that what goes into your hair is good for it, and for the earth it comes from.

Right now, getting read for Fall, you can find all sort of vintage clothing for Halloween (or maybe just for Portland-style hipsters!). There's also a few artists that will be visiting the shop in the next few months, including Shawn Limerick, creator of amazing photo-collages, and Nancy Goldman, organizer of Portland's Annual Bizarre Bazaar. Come down to Patti Smith West on Second Friday, Fremont Street's monthly festival, to meet with these artists and members of Patti's community. You can keep up with the exact dates and find some of what Patti has in stock now on her Facebook page!

Hamilton (left) is sourcing and roasting custom beans and blends, and creating micro-wholesale orders of "private label" beans. Want a brand of coffee all to your self, for sale or for gifts? Hamilton finds the green beans that fit your palette, roasts them to perfection, and then puts any label you want on the package! Have an event coming up that you want a special blend for? Let him know at roaster@cadinalcoffee.com.

Meanwhile Bethany is running a concept coffee catering service. Perhaps your partners at that networking meeting you run at 7am twice a month keep lamenting, "Why is there no Starbucks in your office?" Well, Bethany can give you one better with an on-site coffee bar for their pleasure. You can contact her at barista@espressogiuseppe.com.

Also, congratulations to them both, for in February 2012, they're expecting a new grandchild!