AUGSBURG NOW
Augsburg Associates’ roots and
decades of service
A smartphone app aims to
de-escalate traffic stops
INSIDE
Photos: Augsburg then and now
SPRING–SUMMER 2021 | VOL. 83, NO. 2
Student-athletes advocate for
causes beyond the sports arena
Vice President, Operations
Rebecca Jo... Show more
AUGSBURG NOW
Augsburg Associates’ roots and
decades of service
A smartphone app aims to
de-escalate traffic stops
INSIDE
Photos: Augsburg then and now
SPRING–SUMMER 2021 | VOL. 83, NO. 2
Student-athletes advocate for
causes beyond the sports arena
Vice President, Operations
Rebecca John ’13 MBA
AUGSBURG NOW
Associate Vice President,
Marketing and Communication
Stephen Jendraszak
Spring–Summer 2021
Director of Marketing
Laura Swanson Lindahl ’15 MBA
NOTES FROM PRESIDENT PRIBBENOW
On the “new normal”
Director of Public Relations
and Internal Communications
Gita Sitaramiah
Assistant Director of
Marketing Creative
Denielle Stepka ’11
Creative Associate
Hayley Selinski
As we enter a new phase of the COVID-19
pandemic and plan for our return to campus
for our 152nd academic year at Augsburg, I
am often asked what we have learned during
the past 16 months that will be part of a
“new normal” for our community.
Certainly there is much that we have
learned about the use of technology for
teaching and learning, and for doing our
administrative work—technology that will be
an abiding and effective tool for the ways we
work into the future. We also have learned
important lessons about public health and not
taking for granted our individual and common
well-being. And then there are lessons about
the fragility of our economic lives and the
need to be laser-focused on our mission as we
make decisions about revenue and expenses.
But perhaps the most important and
striking lesson we learned during the
pandemic is that all of the work we have done
the past few years to chart a strategic path
for Augsburg—work that culminated in the
creation in Fall 2019 of Augsburg150: The
Sesquicentennial Plan—provided us with a
framework for both navigating through these
unprecedented times and for pursuing a
sustainable future for our university. In other
words, our planning deliberations, grounded
in Augsburg’s mission to educate students to
be “informed citizens, thoughtful stewards,
critical thinkers, and responsible leaders,” got
it right as we named our highest aspirations
and our strategic priorities.
In particular, I am proud of the vision we
cast for our future, which says that “As a new
kind of urban, student-centered university,
we are educating Auggies as stewards of
an inclusive democracy, engaged in their
communities and uniquely equipped to
navigate the complex issues of our time.”
Consider the claims we make in this vision
statement: to embrace our urban setting, to
keep students at the center of our lives, to
pursue democratic engagement, and to equip
our students to take on the most complex
problems we all face. And we honored those
claims as we lived through the pandemic:
responding to the many needs of our students
and neighbors as we kept each other safe
and healthy; focusing on the flexibility our
students required as they pursued their
education primarily online; working together as
a community of faculty, staff, and students to
navigate an uncharted path; and leaning into
the incredibly complex issues raised by the
pandemic so that we might all learn from them.
As I begin my 16th year as Augsburg’s 10th
president, I am so proud of our community
and excited about the future we will create
together. It may not be normal, but it will
be grounded as always in our mission and
vision. Enjoy this issue of Augsburg Now with
its engaging stories that make my case for
Augsburg’s future.
Senior Marketing Copywriter
and Editorial Coordinator
John Weirick
Communication and
Social Media Specialist
Briana Alamilla ’17
Communications and
Social Media Consultant
Kate Norlander
Project Manager
Juli Kramer
Web Manager
Nick Huseby
Web and Email Coordinator
Jennifer Thiel
Advancement Communications
Specialist
Cara Johnson
Contributors
Kate H. Elliott
Lisa Renze-Rhodes
Stewart Van Cleve
PAUL C. PRIBBENOW, PRESIDENT
Augsburg Now is published by
Augsburg University
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Opinions expressed in Augsburg Now
do not necessarily reflect official
university policy.
augsburg.edu/now
Around the quad
The Auggies who refuse to
‘keep politics off the field’
How Augsburg’s student-athletes use their training and
platform to advocate for causes beyond the sports arena
12
Senior Communications
Specialist for Principal Gifts
Amanda Symes ’09, ’15 MFA
ISSN 1058-1545
Faithfully yours,
02
06
The Scandinavian work ethic that inspired
the Augsburg Associates’ decades of service
Though the Augsburg Associates group has ended, the impact of
volunteer work over 37 years resonates
16
Can a smartphone app de-escalate traffic
stop encounters between drivers and police?
Auggie-created TurnSignl app provides an attorney on demand
so everyone gets home safely
20
Augsburg then and now
26
28
31
Auggies connect
A photo essay
Alumni class notes
In memoriam
Augsburg MBA alumni created an app to make
traffic stops safer. See the story on page 16.
On the cover: Augsburg University
celebrated graduates with an in-person
commencement ceremony Tuesday, June 8,
at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Read
more on page 2.
All photos are by Courtney Perry unless
otherwise indicated.
Send address corrections to
alumniupdate@augsburg.edu.
Send comments to
now@augsburg.edu.
URBAN
ARBORETUM
VISIT AUGSBURG’S
GRANT-FUNDED
PROJECTS
BENEFIT AUGSBURG AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
Grants help shape Augsburg’s
teaching and learning community
In late 2020, the Council of Independent
Colleges’ NetVUE program awarded a two-year,
$40,000 grant to Augsburg President Paul
Pribbenow. The grant will help the university
explore whether and how the academic, faith,
and moral commitments that have shaped
its identity inform and reflect its aspiration
to be anti-racist and inclusive. The project
will engage 12 members of the community—
students, faculty, and staff—who will write a
collection of essays that will be a blueprint for
AUGSBURG CELEBRATES GRADUATES
with virtual and in-person commencement ceremonies
On Monday, May 3, Augsburg University celebrated
commencement virtually with the release of a prerecorded
video ceremony. The event included remarks from several
presenters and personalized slides for graduates displaying
photos and messages that the students submitted. The
viewers posted comments to the videostream as they watched
the event, and students took to social media to share their
graduation posts using the hashtag #AuggieGrad.
On Tuesday, June 8, Augsburg held an in-person
commencement for the classes of 2020 and 2021 at
U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Because the 2020
commencement ceremony was virtual in alignment with
public health guidelines designed to prevent the spread of
COVID-19, many graduates from the Class of 2020 opted to
participate in the 2021 in-person ceremony, where attendees
were asked to wear face masks and stay physically distanced
from guests of different households.
Visit YouTube.com/AugsburgU to find video recordings of Augsburg’s virtual
and in-person events.
2
AUGSBURG NOW
DID YOU KNOW?
The traditional undergraduate Class of 2021 is Augsburg’s most
diverse graduating class with 45.6% Indigenous students and students
of color, an increase of more than 20% over the past three years.
moving forward in these efforts.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s
Toxicity Reduction program awarded Michael
Wentzel, associate professor of chemistry, a
grant of nearly $15,000. The grant will be used
in a two-year project to develop green chemistry
as a unifying theme throughout Augsburg’s
chemistry curriculum. While a number of
green chemistry principles are woven into
the curriculum, this work will coalesce these
principles into a clear message across
multiple courses, including courses taken
by non-majors. Chemistry majors will end
their studies with a new capstone course on
green chemistry and toxicology.
In addition, David Hanson, assistant professor
of chemistry, is now in his third year of a
four-year project funded by a $384,080 grant
from the National Science Foundation (Award
Number 1761638). Hanson is studying the
formation and growth of new particles in the
atmosphere. The results of his experiments
are expected to lead to improved accuracy
in predicting the influence of new particle
formation on climate, health, and visibility.
A GREEN OASIS
IN THE CITY
See the Augsburg University campus transition
from summer to fall
With the widespread availability of vaccines and effective public health
measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, many students, faculty members,
and staff are returning to on-campus activities with modified operations.
Augsburg invites you to visit our beautiful Minneapolis campus to experience
the diverse array of trees on a self-guided tour, complete with a map and
descriptive signs, or a guided tour.
The urban arboretum was made possible by generous donors and continues to
provide environmental benefits, educational opportunities, and aesthetic appeal
for Augsburg and the surrounding community.
• Find a list of trees and a self-guided walking tour map, covering
Augsburg’s campus and Murphy Square, at
augsburg.edu/arboretum.
• Want an in-person walking or golf cart tour of the
urban arboretum, Hagfors Center, or other campus
features? Contact Interim Vice President for
Advancement Amy Alkire at alkirea@augsburg.edu.
Board of Regents approves
PRESIDENT PRIBBENOW’S
CONTRACT through 2027
In its March meeting, the Augsburg University Board of Regents’
executive committee unanimously approved a multiyear contract
renewal for President Paul Pribbenow, who joined the university in
2006 as its 10th president.
“In an era when five- or six-year presidencies are common in
higher education, President Pribbenow’s long-term leadership of the
university has enabled Augsburg to achieve remarkable things,” said
Matt Entenza, chair of Augsburg’s Board of Regents. “The university
has become one of the most diverse private institutions in the Midwest
during his tenure and has welcomed record-breaking first-year classes in
the past two years. The university is fortunate to continue to have Paul’s
transformational leadership through 2027.”
Pribbenow is recognized as a leading
Learn more about Pribbenow’s
figure among the nation’s higher education
work and presidency at
augsburg.edu/president.
private institutions and is an engaging
teacher on ethics, philanthropy, and
American public life.
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
3
$
BUY
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Q:
SELL
Meme stocks, Robinhood, and what to know about the stock market today
In early 2021, stocks of the companies AMC, BlackBerry, and GameStop made
headlines—but not just for performing well. In a matter of days, some of these stock
values increased by up to 30 times their previous price before a smartphone app
called Robinhood restricted trading, angering some investors and propelling the
situation into greater media attention. What happened, and what could that mean for
people interested or invested in the stock market?
Augsburg University’s Associate Professor of Business Marc McIntosh brings his
financial expertise to help us understand some of these rapid changes and see the
big picture of today’s stock market.
COURTESY PHOTO
funds. There has been a democratization in stock
market investing. The bad news is that there
are now lots of ways to lose money in the stock
market if you or your financial advisor don’t have
a fundamental knowledge of accounting and
finance. Finally, the ugly part is that not only
are gains magnified in a short period of time but
losses are as well. If used wisely, Robinhood can
be a tremendous way to build wealth through
stock market investing.
What are reliable principles or tactics for
people just beginning to get involved in the
stock market?
A:
Many famous investors such as Warren
Buffett and John Bogle have argued
convincingly that it’s very difficult to pick
stocks that will outperform the overall market.
In fact, there are several academic studies
that prove that it’s almost impossible for the
average mutual fund manager to “beat” the
overall market. So, the sensible strategy is
to put long-term savings into a broad-based
market index fund. Many retirement plans have
fund options indexed to the S&P 500 or the
total stock market.
Q:
Q:
A:
What are “meme stocks,” and why have
they become notable lately?
A meme stock is any stock that’s seen
its price skyrocket due to excessive
trading volume from retail investors, mostly
fueled by people on social media (primarily
Reddit, TikTok, and Twitter). There are
a lot of reasons why meme stocks have
been so popular. It’s partly pandemicrelated, since some people had more time
to gamble and speculate and may have
extra money on hand due to government
stimulus payments. Also, social media
forums have made it a lot easier to follow
trends. In the case of GameStop, the price
had a tremendous run almost solely due to
Reddit posts.
4
AUGSBURG NOW
Q:
What can we learn from what happened
with AMC, BlackBerry, and GameStop
stocks? What does that tell us about the
stock market and how people are interacting
with it?
A:
It’s important to distinguish between
gambling and investing. The vast
majority of people buying these stocks
are gambling that their price will go up
based on rumors and social media posts,
which can be very dangerous. It’s really the
equivalent of going to the racetrack and
betting on horses or going to Las Vegas to
play the slot machines. Investors, however,
do much more research based on the
fundamental financials of the company
and assess the potential of the company
based on either their analysis or input from
What should Augsburg Now readers keep in
mind about the stock market today and in the
near future?
a trusted, professional financial advisor. In
other words, it’s OK to invest in a meme
stock, but make sure you’ve done your
due diligence on the company’s growth
prospects. For example, does GameStop
really have cutting edge technology, or is
its business model antiquated?
Q:
Are tools like the investing app
Robinhood (which offers no-fee stock
trading) just a trend or an indication of a
new direction for the world of investing?
A:
Robinhood is here to stay. The good
news is that the app is extremely userfriendly, and the average investor can now
make money in the stock market in ways
that, until recently, were only available to
institutions like pension funds and mutual
A:
First: On average, investing in the S&P
has delivered returns higher than 10%
since 1929. This dwarfs the returns you get
by putting money in a savings account or
investing in high-quality bonds. For the long
haul, it’s important to have this return to retire
comfortably. Second: The time people spend in
retirement is getting longer as life spans have
expanded due to health care improvements,
so people need a huge nest egg to live
comfortably—possibly into their 90s. Third:
Due to the magic of compounding and starting
earlier in one’s life, achieving this nest egg can
be relatively simple. If average 25-year-olds
invest $2,000 in the stock market a year (such
as in an index fund that achieves 10% average
returns), they could have more than $1 million
when they retire at age 65. Wow!
AROUND THE QUAD
AUGSBURG STUDENTS EARN
FULBRIGHT AWARDS
This year, three Augsburg students earned Fulbright awards, and
one has been named a Fulbright alternate candidate.
Citlaly Escobar ’21 and Ciashia Shiongyaj ’21 both won Fulbright
English Teaching Assistantships to Taiwan. Shamsa Ahmed ’21
won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to South Korea.
Terrence Shambley ’21, an alternate Fulbright English Teaching
Assistant candidate, will teach English in Laos if additional funding
becomes available.
The Fulbright Program was created to increase mutual understanding
between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the program.
Augsburg to launch
CRITICAL RACE AND
ETHNICITY STUDIES
department, major
Augsburg University is developing a new Critical Race and Ethnicity
Studies Department.
The new department aligns with Augsburg’s mission and responds to
a proposal developed by a group of students, faculty, and staff that was
presented to the administration and approved by the faculty this year. A
group of students, led by Black women, made similar (as-yet unrealized)
demands after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
The department aims to meet the needs of today’s students with
culturally relevant courses and pedagogy that both centers and equips
them to think critically about their experience in the world. It will advance
the university’s public mission through connections with the community.
This year, the plan is to hire three new faculty in Pan-African, Latinx,
and Asian American studies. Once they’re hired, Augsburg will review next
steps, as well as how other departments can connect their own courses
and faculty to the new department.
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
5
PHOTO BY WARREN RYAN
THE AUGGIES WHO REFUSE TO
‘KEEP POLITICS OFF THE FIELD’
How Augsburg’s student-athletes use their platform
to advocate for causes beyond the sports arena
BY KATE H. ELLIOTT
6
AUGSBURG NOW
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
7
PHOTO BY WARREN RYAN
Forward/midfielder
Olivia House ’20
IN 2016, FIRST-YEAR STUDENT
Olivia House ’20 kneeled during the national anthem before
one of her first Auggie soccer matches. She was alone—the
only Black person on the team, and the only person kneeling
on either side of the field. For four years, House continued
to kneel as a respectful gesture to highlight pervasive racial
injustice. Fans and opposing players ridiculed her, she
was the first on the bus after away games, and teammates
unintentionally bruised her with microaggressions: “You’d look
so pretty if you straightened your hair.” “So-and-so acts way
Blacker than you.” “I always forget you’re Black.”
“Even though I was vocal and open about what I stood for,
my teammates didn’t see even half of who I was. I left so
much of my identity at the door because there would be too
many questions, too many things I’d have to explain about
my identity and community,” said House, a designer and art
director for a creative agency in Chicago. “Having to code
switch from diverse classrooms and social advocacy groups to
being the lone Black person on the team was exhausting.”
Augsburg is among the most diverse private colleges in the
Midwest—with students of color making up the majority of
the last four incoming undergraduate first-year classes. On
campus, House said she found her vocation: “to demonstrate
the power of design to communicate stories and create a
platform for voices who haven’t been heard.” And yet, her
experience demonstrated more work is needed, even at
the most equity-minded of institutions, and particularly in
athletics, where 71% of student-athletes are white, according
to a 2020 Augsburg internal survey.
“Me simply stepping onto a soccer field as the only Black
player is political in and of itself, without me saying a single
word,” she said. “Had I ‘just played the game’ and ‘kept
politics off the field,’ I would have perpetuated the myth
that athletes’ sole purpose is to entertain. You can’t ask us
to put all of our lives on display except for our thoughts and
opinions. It doesn’t work like that.”
Since House’s first year, the women’s soccer team has
welcomed other student-athletes of color, and multiple soccer
players and coaches have begun kneeling during the national
anthem as matters of diversity and justice have remained
prominent in conversations both on campus and across the
United States.
Augsburg Women’s Soccer Head Coach Michael Navarre
watched House address a crowd on the quad in September
2020 as a speaker at Augsburg Bold, a series of presentations
for students to hear about important topics for the broader
community. After House detailed a summer of racial justice
protests and rubber bullets, of murals and oral history
projects, Navarre commended House as the spark that ignited
the team and inspired other student-athletes to take a stand.
“At the time, we felt as though we were supporting Olivia
and our other players of color, but it wasn’t until the killing
of George Floyd—just a few miles from Augsburg—that
we truly began the difficult work that needed to be done,”
said Navarre, who has led the women’s soccer team for 23
seasons. “That self-reflection and education illuminated how
much more we could have been for Olivia and others, and how
much more we are now because of her. Our team is driven to
be leaders for social justice advocacy and action.”
‘An age of athletic activism’
Days after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police,
Navarre asked the women’s soccer players to connect virtually
each week to discuss topics and resources shared on what
has become an 11-page document of articles, podcasts,
self-assessments, and videos to spur awareness, community
engagement, and education.
Midfielder Jenn Bobaric ’22 designed a Black Lives Matter
patch, and the team collaborated to design a warm-up shirt
that read “Auggies against injustice.” The team supported
several fundraisers and donation drives in honor of Floyd and
Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old biracial Black man who was
fatally shot by police during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center,
Minnesota. Molly Conners ’22 led a collection of personal
items and clothing for neighbors who frequent Augsburg’s
Health Commons locations, which are nursing-led drop-in
centers that offer resources and support.
Taylor Greathouse, women’s soccer volunteer assistant
coach and human resources assistant, said the team took to
social media as a way to educate and advocate for others.
“Instagram, in particular, was a way for our players and our
program to demonstrate our alliance to diversity, equity, and
inclusion,” Greathouse said. “For example, we have studentathletes personally impacted by the unrest in Myanmar
and Colombia, and we wanted our shirts, statements, and
discussions to address issues of injustice around the globe.
“I have learned more in the last two years about my own
privilege than I have in my lifetime. It’s not enough for
individuals to view diversity merely as racial diversity. We are
doing ourselves and our students a disservice if we do not first
educate ourselves about intersectionality,” Greathouse said,
referring to the study of intersecting identities and dimensions
of social relationships.
Across the Athletics Department, teams created T-shirts,
facilitated discussions, visited memorials, and engaged in
community activism. Augsburg Athletics partnered with
Augsburg Day Student Government to hold a town hall
featuring the voices of student-athletes of color and other
members of the Augsburg community. Chris Dixon, the
university’s first director of athletic diversity and inclusion,
facilitated this and other discussions and opportunities for
community engagement.
“When I arrived in 2019, I knew my position was an
important one, but little did I know just how vital it would
be to help our student-athletes, coaches, and staff process,
learn, grow, and begin to heal—together,” said Dixon, who
also serves as assistant coach for the men’s and women’s
track and field teams. “We are in an age of athletic activism,
and Augsburg is invested in this work to bring awareness and
take a stand. We empower our students, coaches, and staff to
have difficult conversations and use their status as leaders to
advance causes that matter.”
‘We can’t wait for the tide to shift’
To focus the department’s efforts and conversations, Augsburg
Athletics formed a Diversity and Inclusion Task Force in Fall
2020. The group of coaches and staff works closely with
university administration and student-athlete advisory groups.
Major initiatives include rewording of the national anthem
introduction, offering training sessions, and developing a
self-reported race survey of Augsburg student-athletes that
revealed 71% of student-athletes are white, 12% are Black,
8% are Latinx, 5% are multiracial, and 4% are Asian. Results
from a similar survey of coaches and staff are pending.
“We didn’t need surveys to point out that we lack diversity
in athletics, but we wanted to get a self-reported baseline
to assess how our students perceive themselves and the
department,” Dixon said. “This work is personal to me
as a Black father the same age as George Floyd when he
died. Athletics has always been a battleground for people
to advance causes. We reach audiences who might not be
exposed to these issues otherwise, both in the locker room
and in the stands.”
Dixon said that, although it’s difficult to turn inward
and recognize gaps, Auggies are eager to learn and adopt
best practices in recruiting and building inclusive team
cultures. “We celebrate diversity efforts at the national and
international levels of these sports, but we can’t wait for the
tide to shift. We are striving to be more present in diverse
neighborhoods and partner with programs that introduce
these sports to people with a range of backgrounds.”
In Fall 2020, the women’s hockey team gathered at
George Floyd Square, where 38th Street and Chicago
Avenue intersect in Minneapolis. The 24 student-athletes,
coaches, and staff walked around in silence as they took
in the flowers, pictures, and artwork that Michelle McAteer,
women’s hockey head coach, described as “a mix of pain,
sorrow, and inspiration.”
“Our players were shocked at the long lists of African
Americans killed by police, going back 20 years. We huddled
and listened to each other, and the athletes’ perspectives
were so powerful,” McAteer said.
The team also gathered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in
January. Alongside McAteer, Assistant Coach Ashley Holmes
shared information she learned during a diversity, equity, and
inclusion training.
“We recognized we are two white women, and it
was not easy or comfortable, but that is the
reason why we should be doing this,”
McAteer said. “We need to make
these types of discussions more
natural and ongoing. Avoiding
talk and action because it’s not
natural or easy is a big part of
the problem. We’re not trying
to lecture or convince but share
information we’ve learned in a
meaningful way.”
McAteer said players have begun
kneeling for the national anthem, sharing
information on social media, and educating
family members and friends. The team routinely partners with
the DinoMights, an organization that mentors Minneapolis
youth through hockey.
Women’s hockey forward Lilia Scheid ’22 said this year
changed her. “I’ve learned that I need to make my voice
heard in the community because making change takes
every single one of us,” she added. “I’ve learned what it
means to be ‘not racist’ versus ‘anti-racist.’ Staying silent
only hurts marginalized groups even more, so it’s important
to have these tough conversations and speak out against
10
AUGSBURG NOW
racial injustice.”
Women’s lacrosse has been equally engaged. Teammates
wore rainbow jerseys in support of a transgender player, who
helped lead a discussion about transgender issues and terms.
Augsburg Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach Kathryn Knippenberg
said the team is working to be more than performative allies.
“If one of my athletes feels called to protest but doesn’t
have a ride, I will pick them up or find them a ride. If they
want to kneel or don’t want to kneel, they know they have my
support,” she said.
“Yes, we are here to win, but we are also here to equip
student-athletes with valuable life skills, to prepare them
for conversations and experiences they are facing and will
continue to face,” she said. “We want them to live out
Augsburg’s mission to be informed citizens, thoughtful
stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders who are
engaged in meaningful, transformative work.”
Allowing vs. actively supporting
All Augsburg teams agreed to adopt new wording to introduce
the national anthem before each contest: “Augsburg
University Athletics would like to recognize that the American
experience has not been the same for everyone under the
flag. As we continue the fight for equality and justice for all,
we now invite you to respectfully
express yourself for the playing of
our national anthem.”
“It’s not easy getting an
entire department and body of
student-athletes to agree on
wording, but it was an important
initiative of our Diversity and
Inclusion Task Force,” Dixon
said. “By having these words in
front of the national anthem, we
are acknowledging that we—as
a university—actively support
people in how they want to express themselves. There’s a
difference between this statement and simply ‘allowing’
people to kneel or whatever.”
Coaches and staff are expected to complete the Augsburg
Diversity and Inclusion certificate program, which requires 18
credits of specified training and encourages additional training
for advanced standing each year. In 2020, coaches and staff
completed the NCAA Division III’s LGBTQ OneTeam Program,
which stresses the importance of LGBTQ inclusion in college
athletics and provides an overview of common LGBTQ terms,
definitions, and concepts. The peer-driven educational
program, which Dixon facilitated, also shares best practices to
ensure all individuals may participate in an athletics climate
of respect and inclusion, regardless of gender expression,
gender identity, or sexual orientation.
“Social justice issues are incredibly important to us in
the Athletics Department, and when our student-athletes
are actively engaged in educating themselves about the
current and historical context of what is happening and they
are attempting to use their platform as student-athletes
to create awareness and positive change, I feel incredibly
proud of them,” said Kelly Anderson Diercks, who served as
associate athletic director and director of compliance until
July 2021. “Our student-athletes bring many identities and
intersectionalities to Augsburg and their respective teams. To
be the best we can be, we need to be able to show up fully
as our true selves. This means we need to have spaces to talk
about all those identities and intersectionalities and how the
events facing our world play out differently for us all.”
Recognition of these different identities and experiences
led to Dixon’s position; Augsburg hired him as part of a 2019
NCAA Ethnic Minorities and Women’s Internship Grant, which
the university also received in 2012. In 2014 and 2021, the
department received the NCAA Strategic Alliance Matching
Grant, which also supports the
hiring and mentorship of ethnic
minorities and women in athletic
leadership positions.
Alicia Schuelke ’20 MAE, former
assistant coach for men’s track
and field, said students are thrilled
with Dixon’s enthusiasm and vision
for the role.
“In a world where, many times,
the odds are stacked against us,
leaders of color provide hope
and strength,” said Schuelke,
a physical education teacher at Columbia Academy Middle
School in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. “I came to Augsburg
for the MAE program, but I was pleasantly surprised to find
how diverse the campus is, and it is my absolute favorite part
of my learning experience.
“If we can move the needle toward a more diverse group of
leaders that better represent our country’s demographics, then
students of color will begin to understand that the sky’s the
limit in terms of their own hopes, dreams, and aspirations.”
House said she is encouraged by the department’s work to
advance equity and inclusion. She appreciates the university’s
willingness to be vulnerable and invite her and other people
of color to share their experiences during this raw, unsettling
time. But, as any athlete knows, one must dedicate lots of
hours and effort to see results.
Augsburg Athletics is putting in the work.
“Yes, we are here to win, but we are
also here to equip student-athletes with
valuable life skills, to prepare them for
conversations and experiences they are
facing and will continue to face.”
—Kathryn Knippenberg
Kathryn Knippenberg (right) has served as head coach
of Augsburg University Women’s Lacrosse since 2014.
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
11
ARCHIVE PHOTOS
PROJECTS FUNDED OR SUPPORTED BY
AUGSBURG ASSOCIATES
•
Trash and Treasure Sales
•
Welcome party for the 2011 visit of Their Majesties
King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway
•
Velkommen Jul buffets and boutique sales
•
Norwegian coffee at Taste of Augsburg
Homecoming events
•
Christensen Center’s welcome desk construction
•
Foss Center’s Green Room renovation
•
Christensen Center’s Augsburg Room and Marshall
Room renovations
•
Lindell Library’s special collections room creation
•
Hoversten Chapel’s Dobson pipe organ purchase
•
Christensen Scholars program funding
•
Various scholarships
Augsburg Associates fostered community connections and raised
funds to support the university’s work.
THESCANDINAVIAN WORK ETHIC
that inspired the Augsburg Associates’ decades of service
Though the Augsburg Associates group has ended,
the impact of volunteer work over 37 years resonates
Community volunteerism is so much a part of the fabric
of Norwegian life that they have a special name for it: dugnad.
Pronounced doog-nahd, it’s the tradition of neighbors
gathering for all kinds of communal pursuits—planting and
tending to a community garden, spending time chatting
with elders at a senior center, or painting a school building.
Dugnads are something everyone not only plans for, but looks
forward to.
12
AUGSBURG NOW
By Lisa Renze-Rhodes
Since the mid-1980s, Augsburg University has been home
to a team of women who drew on their Norwegian or broader
Scandinavian heritage to create their own dugnad. The group
became known as the Augsburg Associates and helped to raise
significant funds for their community.
Now, after 37 productive years of service, the Augsburg
Associates are disbanding. But their legacy will live on for
decades to come.
THE SOUNDS OF SERVICE
“The intent, when it started, was to help out on campus
where they needed help,” said Eunice Dietrich ’65. “The
original Associates were spouses of faculty members and
other women who had an ear to what was going on.”
Dietrich, a former Associates board chair who earned a
degree in home economics at Augsburg, said assistance
was needed across all facets of campus life. From stuffing
envelopes for alumni and donor mailings to setting up a
“nice meeting space” for the university’s Board of Regents
when they gathered, the Associates saw needs and then
filled those voids.
But it didn’t take long for the work to morph from
occasional events to addressing a situation requiring a
sound solution.
“The Associates came out of the Lutheran tradition
of ‘We’ll do anything for service,’” said Jerelyn Cobb ’63.
So in the 1980s, when an idea began to circulate about
bringing an organ to campus, the Associates orchestrated
a plan.
“In those days, people still didn’t have a lot of money,
but they could give us donations of goods,” Cobb said.
That’s how Trash and Treasure Sales began. Dishes,
linens, and other household items were packed into boxes
and readied for sale. Sporting goods and games were
brought in. And furs, jewelry, and even gowns from the
Dayton’s department store’s prestigious Oval Room were
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
13
President Paul Pribbenow (center) talks with King Harald V and Queen
Sonja of Norway during their visit to campus in 2011.
But before Their Majesties graced the campus, the
Associates had already begun making sure the heritage of the
school’s founders was celebrated and remembered.
Velkommen Jul, an annual celebration welcoming the
seasons of Advent and Christmas, took hold with attendees
donning thick, gorgeous Norwegian sweaters and sampling
delicious traditional foods including krumkake cookies. The
celebration has become a loved tradition in the Augsburg
community, even among students who don’t necessarily have
Scandinavian heritage.
Money raised at Velkommen Jul and through estate sales
and other efforts ultimately went to fund scholarships as well
as the Christensen Scholars, a cohort of students who explore
theology, faith, and vocation while engaging in communitybased learning experiences.
That, said Augsburg University President Paul Pribbenow,
is a lasting legacy for the organization: “Over many years,
the Augsburg Associates have been faithful and generous
supporters of Augsburg. Through their tireless efforts, the
Associates have raised scholarship funds and have helped
countless students pursue an Augsburg education.
“The annual Velkommen Jul celebrations, graciously
hosted by the Associates, highlighted our Norwegian roots,
cleaned, pressed, and readied for a chance at a new life.
The items were enough to fill a semitrailer, then
eventually two.
“Every Wednesday night, I’d have people come over,
and we’d sort everything,” Cobb said. “All the dishes in
one box, all the clothes in another, the sporting goods in
another corner.”
Then when the date of the sale neared, items were
transferred from the trucks to the site of the sale.
“The football team would come, and for two blocks we
would line up next to each other and pass boxes into the
gymnasium.”
The first sale raised $600, Cobb recalled. The next year:
$4,000. Then $10,000, $15,000, and $28,000.
When everything was done and counted, the Trash and
Treasure Sales netted a quarter of a million dollars. And
Augsburg got its organ.
WELCOME KING, QUEEN,
AND CHRISTMAS
Norwegian words echoed off the walls of classrooms and
hallways when Augsburg was founded, so there was little
surprise, though great delight, when King Harald V and
Queen Sonja of Norway visited campus in 2011. The
Associates were there to mark the day with special care—
while wearing traditional Norwegian bunads, the proud
folk outfits worn by men, women, and children on such
occasions of cultural significance.
ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Augsburg Associates oversee food and drinks at Velkommen Jul in 1992.
DID YOU KNOW?
•
The Augsburg Associates have raised about
$400,000 through their group initiatives.
•
Members of the Augsburg Associates
and their spouses have given more than
$50 million to the university as a whole.
•
Within their 600-person membership, there
were 38 households that were members of
the Sven Oftedal Society, a group of some
of Augsburg’s most generous donors.
even as they welcomed new generations of diverse students,
faculty, and staff. Personally, I am deeply grateful for the
members of the Associates who have supported me and
my family over the past 15 years as we worked together to
advance Augsburg’s mission,” Pribbenow said.
Though the time of the Associates’ dugnad has come
to a close, some of the group’s members are continuing
their volunteerism with another group: Augsburg Women
Engaged. Since it was formed by a group of Auggie women
in 2009, AWE has strengthened connections in the Augsburg
community and encouraged philanthropy to keep the
university’s hands-on education accessible to a broad range
of students. These overlapping commitments shared by AWE
and the Augsburg Associates demonstrate the deep-seated
commitment to service that is so emblematic of Auggies of
all stripes.
For the women doing the work, the Associates were more
than a service organization—they were family.
“You give and you get, you feel good about what you’ve
done. You don’t start out for that reason, but oftentimes when
you’re volunteering, you get more out of it than what you
give,” Dietrich said. “These women were so dedicated and
did this work with such joy.”
Anne Frame (left), the late spouse of Augsburg’s ninth president, Bill Frame,
was also a member of the Augsburg Associates. Read more about Anne’s life
and work on page 32.
Augsburg Associates roll lefse, a traditional Norwegian potato flatbread, for Velkommen Jul in 2011.
14
AUGSBURG NOW
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
15
Can a smartphone app
DE-ESCALATE TRAFFIC
STOP ENCOUNTERS
between drivers and police?
BY GITA SITARAMIAH
Auggie-created TurnSignl app
provides an attorney on demand
so everyone gets home safely
Childhood friends and Augsburg University Master of Business Administration
alumni Andre Creighton ’19 MBA and Mychal Frelix ’19 MBA understand the
fear of driving while Black and being stopped by police.
They both grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and knew the family of Philando
Castile, a Black man who was fatally shot by an officer during a 2016 traffic
stop in nearby Falcon Heights.
“The interest in creating change started with Philando Castile. That was
the initial gut punch,” Creighton said. “Flash forward to George Floyd in
2020, and it was like ripping off a Band-Aid to a wound that hasn’t healed.
We decided we had to do something.”
Creighton, an accountant, and Frelix, who was in sales for Sony
Electronics, left their stable day jobs in 2020. They teamed up with attorney
Jazz Hampton, who is also an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School
of Law, and the three Black men launched a new company providing a
technology-based solution to de-escalate traffic stops by police.
Andre Creighton ’19 MBA (left) and Mychal Frelix ’19 MBA
to leave
18were motivated
AUGSBURG
NOWtheir stable jobs in 2020 to focus on
launching the TurnSignl app.
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
17
Timely launch
The motto says it all: “Drive with an
attorney by your side.”
TurnSignl provides real-time,
on-demand legal guidance from
attorneys to drivers, all while drivers’
smartphone cameras record the
interaction. The mission is to protect
drivers’ civil rights, de-escalate roadside
interactions with police, and ensure
both civilians and officers return home
safely at the end of the day.
As is true of many startups, the
three co-founders wear multiple hats.
Hampton serves as CEO and general
counsel. Creighton is the chief financial
officer and chief operating officer while
Frelix is the chief revenue officer and
chief technology officer.
When Daunte Wright was shot and
killed by a police officer during a traffic
stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota,
in April, that only accelerated their
pace to bring the app to market. “This
has been an issue plaguing Black and
brown communities,” Frelix said. “We’re
thankful to have the ability and skill sets
to get this off the ground.”
They introduced the TurnSignl app in
May after they were able to leverage the
public awareness of police stops ending
tragically to raise more than $1 million
to bring the app to market.
How TurnSignl works
Users open the app and immediately
get connected to an attorney vetted
by TurnSignl to guide them in order
to de-escalate the encounter. Service
launched in Minnesota and will be
expanding to 10 states by the end of
2021. The founders also have created a
foundation to provide service for those
unable to pay for the app, which is
available on the Apple and Google app
stores. They expect the foundation to
support 25% of the app’s user base.
While the app is intended for anyone,
there is increasing attention to how
Black drivers are treated by police.
Twin Cities NBC affiliate KARE 11
reported in May that new data shows
that the majority of drivers pulled over
this year by Minneapolis police for
minor equipment violations are Black:
Black drivers accounted for more than
half of those stops despite making up
only about 20% of the city’s residents,
according to city data.
In St. Paul, Black drivers were almost
four times more likely to be pulled over
by police than white drivers, according
to a Pioneer Press analysis of data
from 2016 to 2020. Asian, Latino, and
Native American drivers were stopped at
roughly the same rate as white drivers,
the Pioneer Press reported.
The TurnSignl founders say their
product is more than just an app. It’s
a signal for change. “There’s no better
opportunity to impact change than this
moment, now,” Creighton said.
Defense attorney Taylor J. Rahm
is one of the lawyers who has joined
TurnSignl to be on call for motorists.
“Anything we can do to make sure
these situations are safe and that no
one gets harmed is something I hope
any lawyer would want to get involved
with,” he said.
Sometimes, a motorist making sudden
movements is interpreted as cause
for alarm and can be construed by an
officer as the driver going for a weapon
or drugs, leading to potential conflict.
“With TurnSignl, you have a lawyer on
the phone to help individuals know their
rights but also importantly know how
to handle the situation so nothing goes
wrong,” Rahm said. “The benefit is that
the officer knows that there’s an attorney
on the phone telling the person, ‘This is
what you should do during the stop.’”
The TurnSignl app has the potential
to make traffic stops safer for police as
well as motorists, said Mylan Masson,
retired director of the Hennepin
Technical College law enforcement
program and a former Minneapolis Park
Police officer. “Every traffic stop can be
dangerous for police officers,” said the
police training expert. The TurnSignal
app “could give someone a calming
sense that, ‘I’m not here alone.’”
Business owner Phil Steger offers
the app as an employee benefit for
TurnSignl co-founders [L to R] Mychal Frelix ’19 MBA,
attorney Jazz Hampton, and Andre Creighton ’19 MBA
plan to expand the app’s services from Minnesota to
10 more states by the end of 2021.
his 14-person Brother Justus Whiskey
Company in Minneapolis, believing
TurnSignl’s attorneys can act as
mediators to keep a traffic stop from
escalating into danger.
“If you think you’ve been stopped
unlawfully, most people don’t know
that they still have to cooperate,” said
Steger, who was previously an attorney
for law firm Dorsey & Whitney. “You can
still be taken to jail.”
A TurnSignl attorney can advise in real
time: “Every defendant has the right,
if they think they have been stopped
unlawfully, to challenge the case in
court later,” he said.
Business project for
‘the times we’re in’
As the TurnSignl founders prepared to
launch the company, they turned to
Augsburg’s MBA program to assist them
in developing the business plan.
“A key part of the Augsburg MBA
experience is that we want students
to have practical experience and
apply critical thinking,” said George
Dierberger, associate business professor
and director of the MBA program.
Students in the MBA program grapple
with real-world challenges faced by local
businesses via a management consulting
project, which supported TurnSignl’s
launch. This is just one of the many
MBA program experiences in which
students collaborate on projects, case
studies, presentations, and simulations.
The TurnSignl project represents
Augsburg’s goals to be socially
conscious, said Mike Heifner ’21 MBA,
who worked on the pricing strategy of
the TurnSignl business plan. “This was
a good example of how capitalism could
bring social value to society,” he said.
Augsburg graduate student Stephanie
Oliver ’21 MBA hopes the TurnSignl app
will open new conversations and foster
a different way of thinking about how
police and civilians interact during
traffic stops.
“This project was my first choice
because of the times we’re in,” she said.
Oliver’s role in the MBA group was
to analyze the research and data
about traffic stops nationally by race.
What she found was a system with
inconsistent reporting about race and
traffic stops across states. What was
clear was that even after accounting for
those inconsistencies, the disparities
were apparent in stops involving people
of color.
One of the studies she reviewed was
the Stanford Open Policing Project,
which analyzed data from nearly
100 million traffic stops and found
significant racial disparities in policing
and, in some cases, evidence that bias
also played a role.
This didn’t surprise Oliver. Her
husband is Black and was frequently
pulled over when they first moved to
their Twin Cities suburb years ago. Once,
the police even questioned her then
5-year-old daughter about whether he
was actually her father.
“I ask why I’m being pulled over
when officers approach my vehicle,
and they get angry at me,” Oliver said.
“But I have a right to know why I’m
pulled over.”
She worries about her two young
Black sons but is optimistic that the
TurnSignl app can start to change the
dynamics during a police stop. “I know
when my daughter goes to Augsburg this
fall, I’m going to get this app for her.”
The TurnSignl app is available on
the Apple and Google app stores.
Data on drivers and
police traffic stops
Key findings from the national data research
Stephanie Oliver ’21 MBA gathered for the
TurnSignl business plan:
• On average, legal intervention death rates
for Black men were 4.7 times higher than
those of white men from 1979 to 1988, and
3.2 times higher from 1988 to 1997. (2002
American Journal of Public Health study)
• Black men are 3 times more likely than
other races to die from the use of police
force. Oliver said this was particularly
alarming as Black males make up only
about 6% of the total U.S. population.
(2016 Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Data
2010–14)
• When driver race/ethnicity was visible,
Black drivers were nearly 20% more
likely to be the subject of a discretionary
traffic stop than were white drivers. (2014
San Diego State University research)
• Among males aged 10 years or older who
were killed by police use of force, the
mortality rate among non-Hispanic Black
and Hispanic individuals was 2.8 and
1.7 times higher, respectively, than that
among white individuals. (Racial/Ethnic
Disparities in the Use of Lethal Force by
U.S. Police 2010–14)
• Search rates for whites are significantly
lower, at around 18% of the traffic
stops, while search rates for Blacks and
Hispanics total about 82%. (Compiled from
Stanford Open Policing Project data for
Connecticut; Illinois; North Carolina; Rhode
Island; South Carolina; Texas; Washington;
and Wisconsin; and municipal police
departments in Nashville, Tennessee; New
Orleans; Philadelphia; Plano, Texas; San
Diego; and San Francisco)
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
19
ARCHIVE PHOTO
ThenNOW
&
AUGSBURG
A photo
essay
ARCHIVE PHOTO
BY JOHN WEIRICK AND
STEWART VAN CLEVE, DIGITAL ARCHIVES AND
RESEARCH SERVICES LIBRARIAN
Augsburg women’s basketball plays against the College of
Saint Benedict in Si Melby Hall, 2018.
or 152 years, Augsburg has both
changed and remained the same. Though
the Augsburg community looks much
different outwardly—campus layout and
buildings, student body demographics and
style of clothing, technology and teaching
methods—the Auggie spirit continues to
inspire faculty and staff to cultivate a vibrant
learning environment in which students can
engage in meaningful hands-on experiences.
Enjoy these glimpses into the Augsburg
of the past and the university of today.
An image of Augsburg’s campus and the Minneapolis skyline in 1967, stitched together
from three frames of an aerial camera shot in a promotional film.
Part of Augsburg’s campus—including Old Main, two residence halls, and the Norman
and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion—in 2018.
ARCHIVE PHOTO
PHOTO BY TOM ROSTER
Auggies shoot hoops in Old Main gymnasium,
circa 1945.
F
The Augsburg community poses in front of Old Main in 1931.
20
AUGSBURG NOW
The Class of 2023 gathers in front of Old Main in 2019. This fall, group photos are
planned for the Class of 2024 and the Class of 2025.
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
21
COURTESY PHOTO
ARCHIVE PHOTO
COURTESY PHOTO
ARCHIVE PHOTO
The camera club in 1957 included [L to R] Jerry Matison ’59,
Stan Quanbeck ’59, and James Nichols ’58.
ARCHIVE PHOTO
An Auggie wears virtual reality goggles in a new media class
in 2019.
ARCHIVE PHOTO
Students work in a television studio, possibly in the
basement of Memorial Hall (above, 1976), and at a
video shoot in Foss Center (right, 2019).
Georg Sverdrup and Sven Oftedal, who each served as
Augsburg’s president, speak at a gathering of students in the
first Old Main building (which was demolished to build Science
Hall and Sverdrup Hall), 1897.
ARCHIVE PHOTO
PHOTO BY DON STONER
A procession in a chapel service January 24, 2020.
Students attend a Pan-Afrikan Student Union cookout in Murphy Square (left, 1998) and an event in the park to
welcome students back to campus (below, 2019).
Augsburg women’s track and field student-athletes prepare for a race (left, 1985) and hit the track (right, 2021).
22
AUGSBURG NOW
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
23
AUGGIES CONNECT
AUGGIES CONNECT
ALUMNI BOARD
FRENCH HOUSE
The Augsburg University Alumni Board
is an opportunity for alumni from all
programs and class years to build
relationships with each other and the
university today. Members connect with
institutional leaders, faculty, students,
and staff to better understand and
support Augsburg’s mission. We are
excited to welcome the newest members
to the board!
Dave Stevens ’90
Navid Amini ’19 MBA
Willie Giller ’19
Arianna Antone-Ramirez ’20
Berlynn Bitengo ’21
Learn more about the alumni board.
augsburg.edu/alumni
In 1966, seven women moved into French
House, a Minneapolis building adjacent
to Augsburg’s campus that housed the
remaining incoming first-year women who
could not be accommodated in the residential
housing on campus. They called themselves
“the leftovers” and became fast friends who
still get together at least once a year.
The French House Friends traveled twice to
Washington, where Linda Larson ’70 lives, and
Larson has traveled annually to Minnesota,
where the other six women live. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, the group has gathered
monthly via Zoom videoconferencing, and
they are eager to gather in Minnesota this fall.
“Augsburg fostered quality friendships that
have remained with me today,” said Mary
(Loken) Veiseth ’70.
$
WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY
$
In 2020, Augsburg University’s Institutional Advancement
staff sponsored a series of virtual financial conversations
hosted by Augsburg alumni with expertise in constructing
a will and financial planning. The virtual events—called
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way—had such positive
engagement from alumni that the events were hosted again
this summer.
ON THE HORIZON VIRTUAL EVENTS
STRENGTHEN AUGSBURG COMMUNITY
Last year, On the Horizon virtual events with President Paul Pribbenow
engaged more than 500 Auggies and raised generous support for the
Student Emergency Fund, the President’s Strategic Fund, student
scholarships, and other key university efforts. This virtual event series
was created to keep the Augsburg community up to date with the
university’s ongoing work and adjustments during the pandemic. Five
more On the Horizon events in the series were hosted during Spring
2021 with specific groups, such as retired faculty, former regents and
regents emeriti, and current and former alumni board members.
Find video recordings of the events
at YouTube.com/AugsburgU.
COURTESY PHOTO
100
Pictured in 2018 [front, L to R]: Diane Lempke ’69, Mary
(Loken) Veiseth ’70, Linda (Radtke) Karkhoff ’70, Paulette
(Olson) Odegaard ’70. [Back, L to R]: Susan (Olson)
Williams ’70, Mary Ellen Buss ’70, Linda Larson ’70.
Want to learn more about making a will and financial plans?
Visit augsburg.edu/alumni/blog and search for “Where There’s a Will.”
24
AUGSBURG NOW
NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS
FOR AUGSBURG STUDENTS
As part of Augsburg’s ongoing Great Returns fundraising campaign,
the university set an ambitious goal of establishing 150 new endowed
scholarships. As of Spring 2021, the university had received 100 new
endowed scholarships! Augsburg is presenting water droplet sculptures
to the first 150 donors who establish new endowed scholarships. These
handmade sculptures represent the impact that donors make in the
Augsburg community. When a water droplet hits the surface of a pond,
the droplet causes a ripple that continues to expand.
COURTESY PHOTO
$
COURTESY PHOTOS
Pictured top to bottom:
•
•
•
•
•
A private Facebook group
FRIENDS
WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS
JUST FOR
AUGGIES
Be a part of live virtual events, and interact
with alumni, faculty, staff, students, and
university leaders.
1.
Log on to Facebook.
2. Search for
“Auggie Connections.”
3.
Select “Join group.”
4. Answer membership
questions so we
know it’s you.
5. Create a post to
introduce yourself.
Join the Auggie Connections
private Facebook group.
facebook.com/groups/auggieconnections
To learn more about establishing
a scholarship, contact:
Amy Alkire
Interim Vice President for Advancement
612-330-1188 | alkirea@augsburg.edu
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
25
ALUMNI CLASS NOTES
ANNA COX ’22
Augsburg Now staff asked the university’s Instagram followers for the resource they most
appreciated as a student. Here are a few of their responses, edited for length and clarity.
Student government! I
learned how to advocate
for myself and others.
TRIO/SSS and Multicultural
Student Services.
BRITTANY KIMBALL ’13
The CLASS office helped me
to be successful while [I was]
undergoing cancer treatment.
DESTYN LAND ’19
MARGARET ALBERS ’21
The openness and willingness
of professors to help students
along the way.
Residence Life. Shoutout to
the best supervisors ever,
Eric, Ryan, and Seth.
EVE TAFT ’18
Center for Wellness and
Counseling. I’d probably never
have gotten mental health
treatment otherwise.
Follow @augsburguniversity on Instagram.
ARCHIVE PHOTO
ARIANNA ANTONE-RAMIREZ ’20
NIKKI DARST ’15
The wonderful librarians!
The 1947 and 1948 MIAC championship
baseball teams were recognized at a Hall of
Fame banquet in 1985. Pictured are [front,
L to R]: Charles “Chuck” Bard ’50, Ken
Walsh ’48, Art Marben ’47, Roger Leak ’50,
Marvin Johnson ’49, Jennings Thompson ’51,
Jeroy Carlson ’48. [Back, L to R]: Edor
Nelson ’38 (coach), Ralph Pearson ’49,
Duane Lindgren ’48, Arnold Henjum ’49,
Robert Howells ’50, Bobb Miller ’48.
1974
SAVE THE DATE:
ALL-SCHOOL REUNION
Mark your calendar to join us for the All-School Reunion in Fall 2022.
Read more Class Notes online
and submit your alumni news.
26
AUGSBURG NOW
augsburg.edu/alumni
Charles “Chuck” Bard ’50 has always been a sports enthusiast. At
Augsburg, Bard played football and baseball, notably serving as
the second baseman on Augsburg’s 1947 and 1948 MIAC
championship teams. However, the sport that Bard loved
most—and the sport that brought him the most notoriety—
was one he never played: hockey.
Hockey wasn’t played widely when Bard was in school. By
the time he started college, Augsburg had a hockey team. However, Bard already played
football and baseball, and student-athletes were limited to participating in only two sports.
Bard attended as many Auggie hockey games as he could and enjoyed watching the
players out on the ice.
After graduating in 1950 with a degree in physical education and a minor in journalism,
Bard continued his passion for sports by co-founding the Decathlon Athletic Club in the
late 1960s. Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, it was the first private athletic club in
Minnesota outside of downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul.
By 1978, Bard was still an avid hockey fan and a proud owner of Minnesota North Stars
hockey season tickets. But he noticed that hockey didn’t have an award to honor the best
collegiate players in the nation like other sports, so he decided his athletic club would
start a nationally recognized hockey award. After consulting with the Los Angeles athletic
club that started the John Wooden Award for outstanding collegiate basketball players,
Bard established the Hobey Baker Award, named after a hockey legend. In 1981, the first
Hobey Baker Award was given to Neal Broten. Broten played center for the University of
Minnesota and the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic hockey team, which took gold at Lake
Placid, New York, in 1980.
Since that first award, the Hobey has honored 40 hockey players from around the
United States. The award is given to a player who best demonstrates “teamwork,
dedication, integrity, exceptional play, humility, and above all, character.”
In 2007, Bard visited Augsburg’s campus to recognize longtime men’s hockey coach,
Ed Saugestad ’59, who was a Hobey Baker Legends of Hockey honoree.
COURTESY PHOTO
1950
You chimed in:
Auggie launches national hockey award
Augsburg alumna and former regent joins University of
Minnesota’s Board of Regents
COURTESY PHOTO
AUGGIES CONNECT
Ruth Johnson ’74, MD, was elected to the University of Minnesota’s
Board of Regents 1st Congressional District seat. Johnson studied
chemistry and biology at Augsburg, where she earned a bachelor’s
degree with summa cum laude honors; graduated from what is now
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine; and completed her residency at Mayo Graduate
School of Medicine. She served 16 years on Augsburg’s Board of Regents, was the chair of
academic and student affairs, co-chair of the campaign cabinet, co-founder of the science
advisory board, and vice chair of the regent’s committee. In 1996, Johnson was named a
distinguished alumna of Augsburg.
Read the full story on the aumni news blog: augsburg.edu/alumni/blog.
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
27
ALUMNI CLASS NOTES
COURTESY PHOTO
1986
Tamra (Pederson) Pyrtle ’86
and her horse, Bravo.
28
AUGSBURG NOW
ALUMNI CLASS NOTES
‘Underestimate me; that will be fun’
Tammera Diehm ’93 ranked as a leading attorney
Tamra (Pederson) Pyrtle ’86 excelled in school and in her career, yet she always made
time for the playfulness of science and math.
At Augsburg, Tamra pursued a chemistry degree. This was a significant challenge,
particularly for a student with a double minor in mathematics and German. But Tamra’s
persistent nature helped her earn a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, graduating with
honors in 1986.
“Obviously she was not afraid of a challenge. There is a saying of which she was
particularly fond: ‘Go ahead, underestimate me; that will be fun,’” said Brett Pyrtle,
Tamra’s husband.
Tamra’s exceptional knowledge wasn’t always reserved for schoolwork. One
night in 1983, she and her friends convinced members of the Augsburg football
team to carry a Volkswagen Beetle into the student center. Tamra was able to
direct the crew so they could do this without taking the doors off the entry. The
geometry of this feat was lost on the maintenance staff, who had to remove the
entrance doors to get the vehicle back out.
In her first professional job, Tamra was hired as a lab supervisor for BuckbeeMears St. Paul. She was the first college graduate to hold the position, and she
learned quickly how to balance her academic knowledge with practical skills
required to meet the fast-paced demands of metal-etching production. She also
learned how to stand up for herself in a plant where she was the only woman in
technical management.
After a few other positions handling instrumentation in a consulting lab, supervising
etched metal operations, providing quality assurance analysis, and teaching advanced
placement chemistry, Tamra joined Medtronic’s neuromodulation division as a senior
quality engineer. She was quickly promoted to principal quality engineer and developed a
reputation as the go-to resource for tough quality engineering and analytical challenges.
Despite her technical jobs, Tamra continued to pursue fun applications of science,
and she particularly loved how science and nature intersected. It was no surprise to her
family when she sold her collector car to buy a thoroughbred horse named Bravo. Tamra
learned as much as she could about veterinary care and medicine so that she could
regularly administer Bravo’s shots herself.
The communication between Bravo and Tamra was something special, said her
parents, Wayne and Lynette Pederson. Bravo perked up when he saw Tamra coming
and even recognized her vehicle. They had conversations and seemed to know what the
other was saying.
On December 13, 2018, Tamra passed away at the age of 55 after battling cancer for
more than two years. She left behind her husband of 24 years, Brett; her parents, Wayne
and Lynette; her brother, Carey Pederson ’88; and her sister, Kristin (Pederson) Merkel ’91.
“All three of our children are Augsburg graduates, and our family ties to Augsburg run
deep,” said Wayne. “Augsburg was a significant contributor to Tami’s success. We wish
for other students to have the opportunities Tami had, and what better place to provide
some assistance than at Tami’s alma mater.”
Wayne and Lynette, along with Brett, established the Tamra Lynn Pederson Pyrtle
Endowed Scholarship at Augsburg. This scholarship will be used to support students
interested in pursuing a major in chemistry and who maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0.
Tammera Diehm ’93 was recognized as a distinguished leader in her field by
Chambers USA, one of the world’s leading guides to the legal profession. Diehm’s
work encompasses numerous aspects of real estate transactions, including buying,
selling, leasing, development, and financing. She helps local and national clients of
varying sizes navigate the complexities that come with owning and occupying real
estate, such as zoning, land use, government approvals, and regulatory compliance.
Like a true Auggie, Diehm aims to unlock the full potential of her team through
motivational coaching and support.
“I want to give our firm members the ability to build their own careers, offering
flexibility and support while maintaining our firm’s core values and commitment to
client service,” Diehm said.
Accounting roles add up for Paula Diaz ’03, Northview Bank CEO
Paula Diaz ’03 has been named president and CEO of Northview Bank, which
has branches across Minnesota. After graduating from Augsburg with a degree in
accounting, Diaz has enjoyed a robust career in finance. Starting out as a public
accountant, she went on to become the finance director of Cummins NPower. She
has been at Northview Bank since 2014, where she was the CFO prior to stepping
into her new role.
“Paula is prepared to be the new leader for Northview Bank. Her experience,
knowledge, and people skills make her the logical choice,” said Ron Carlson, former
president of Northview Bank.
Trailblazing Auggie Abdulkadir Sharif ’20 continues geopolitical studies
at Georgetown
Abdulkadir Sharif ’20 studied political science and international relations at
Augsburg and became Augsburg’s first student to win the Pickering Foreign Affairs
Fellowship. He also received a Fulbright Scholarship, a Boren Scholarship to study
Swahili in Tanzania (which he accepted instead of a Critical Language Scholarship,
which he also won), and a Gilman Scholarship from the U.S. Department of
State to study in Namibia and South Africa. Sharif also participated in Princeton
University’s Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship. He planned to teach
English in Malaysia through the Fulbright program before travel plans were affected
by the COVID-19 pandemic, and he was reassigned to the Netherlands. He is
pursuing a master’s degree in global politics and security with a full scholarship to
Georgetown University.
1993
2003
2020
Read more Class Notes online
and submit your alumni news.
augsburg.edu/alumni
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
29
ALUMNI CLASS NOTES
IN MEMORIAM
Recently published Auggies
Augsburg alumni, faculty, and students have published
literature and earned the public’s attention during the past year.
•
Lowell “A.L. Shane” Ziemann ’60—“Alex, Hank & Hawk:
Cowboys, Gunmen & Road Agents: A Novel of the
American West”
•
David Nash ’06—“The Man in the Pines,” a novel
and soundtrack
•
Joshua Phillip Johnson ’17 MFA—“The Forever Sea,” a novel
•
Robby Steltz ’18 MFA—“Nellie,” a short play that earned
second place in the Virginia State One Acts competition
•
Khadijo “JoJo” Abdi ’19 MFA—One of the main authors that
participated in the first Somali Community Book Fair in
Burnsville, Minnesota
Remembering and
honoring Auggies
1950s
Below we recognize the
individuals whose notifications of
death Augsburg received between
January 1 and July 14, 2021.
Alfred M. Sannerud ’50, Ham
Lake, Minnesota, age 97, on
June 28.
1940s
•
Tracy Ross ’19 MFA—“James Dean and the Beautiful
Machine,” a book of poetry
Hazel (Soiseth) Durfee ’41, Tampa,
Florida, age 102, on March 10.
•
Kristine Joseph ’20 MFA—“Simply Because We Are Human,”
a memoir
Ebba A. (Johnson) Brooks ’42,
Duluth, Minnesota, age 101,
on January 12.
•
•
Cole W. Williams ’22 MFA—Poems published in “Intima: A
Journal of Narrative Medicine” and “Sh!t Men Say to Me: A
Poetry Anthology in Response to Toxic Masculinity”
Faculty member Anika Fajardo—“What if a Fish,” a novel that
won the Minnesota Book Award for Middle Grade Literature
• “Murphy Square 1975–2020: A Sesquicentennial Sampler
of Literature by Augsburg Students”—Professor Emeritus
Doug Green said, “More than 40 recent students from 2016
through 2019 served as co-editors, haggling over selections
drawn from the entire digital archive of Murphy Square
[Augsburg’s student-created literary and visual arts journal].
Megan Johnson ’19 designed the volume.”
Evelyn H. (Sonnack) Halverson ’43,
Edina, Minnesota, age 100, on
February 14.
Helen D. (Arnseth) Torvik ’44,
Moorhead, Minnesota, age 98,
on April 29.
Marilyn L. (Rykken) Michaelson ’47,
Coralville, Iowa, age 94, on
June 10.
Mildred A. (Thorsgard) Strand ’47,
Remer, Minnesota, age 95, on
March 28.
Marian J. (Halverson) Tilleson ’48,
Orfordville, Wisconsin, age 94,
on March 6.
Gloria V. (Swanson) Duoos ’49,
Cambridge, Minnesota, age 94,
on January 19.
Read more Class Notes online
and submit your alumni news.
Robert S. Duoos ’49, Cambridge,
Minnesota, age 97, on January 11.
Emmet T. Oein ’50, Alexandria,
Minnesota, age 93, on May 14.
Dorothy E. Twiton ’50, Sturgeon Bay,
Wisconsin, age 92, on April 27.
Robert L. Boxrud ’51, Hettinger,
North Dakota, age 92, on
March 18.
Valborg Huglen ’53, Newfolden,
Minnesota, age 96, on January 15.
Harland P. Danielson ’58, Cadott,
Wisconsin, age 89, on June 6.
John R. Lingen ’53, Brooklyn Park,
Minnesota, age 90, on April 28.
Richard L. Feig ’58, Minneapolis,
age 84, on February 1.
Vernon S. Stenoien ’53,
Woodstock, Illinois, age 89,
on March 4.
Bonita M. (Griep) Ram ’58,
Timberon, New Mexico, age 84,
on February 20.
Maryan A. (Knutson) Froland ’54,
Granite Falls, Minnesota, age 88,
on April 26.
Curtis M. Lake ’59, Waldport,
Oregon, age 90, on March 10.
Edward O. Nyhus ’54, Minneapolis,
age 88, on April 30.
Allard J. Christenson ’51,
Mahnomen, Minnesota, age 92,
on February 25.
Merton C. Phillips ’54, Salem,
Oregon, age 88, on January 28.
Merlin A. Johnson ’51, Grantsburg,
Wisconsin, age 90, on February 2.
Louis P. Rolf ’54, Faribault,
Minnesota, age 91, on March 22.
LaWayne N. Morseth ’51,
Minneapolis, age 93, on
January 10.
Jerome C. Trelstad ’54, Santa
Maria, California, age 89, on
April 24.
Donald C. Thorson ’51, Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin, age 92, on
January 9.
Norma J. (Sorenson) Fretheim ’55,
Federal Way, Washington, age 87,
on April 30.
Marjorie A. (Haley) Eliason ’52,
St. Paul, Minnesota, age 90, on
January 29.
James A. Johnson ’55, Sun City,
Arizona, age 88, on June 21.
Astrid (Braaten) Ongstad ’52,
Devils Lake, North Dakota,
age 91, on April 10.
James S. Hamre ’53, South
Pasadena, Florida, age 89,
on January 3.
Harriet R. (Bruder) Holtmeier ’53,
Waconia, Minnesota, age 91, on
May 29.
Rodney O.J. Erickson ’56,
Moorhead, Minnesota, age 86,
on March 16.
James W. Wennerlind ’59,
Minneapolis, age 89, on March 12.
1960s
Marlene L. Studlien ’60, New
Hope, Minnesota, age 82, on
June 17.
Darrell G. Wiese ’60, Northfield,
Minnesota, age 84, on January 9.
Dennis J. Johnson ’61, Minneapolis,
age 81, on March 26.
Bruce W. Abrahamson ’62, St. Paul,
Minnesota, age 80, on April 28.
Donald E. Brynildson ’62, Garrison,
Missouri, age 85, on May 6.
Ingolf B. Kronstad ’62, Kirkland,
Washington, age 80, on
February 10.
Lucile M. (Kunkel) Matison ’56,
Glenwood, Minnesota, age 88,
on April 1.
Bonnie E. (Lassila) Curtin ’63,
Minneapolis, age 79, on January 3.
Thomas M. Warme ’57, Moneta,
Virginia, age 85, on March 17.
Gloria J. (Odegaard) Schlechter ’63,
Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
age 79, on January 13.
Elyce E. (Lundquist) Arvidson ’58,
Minneapolis, age 84, on April 1.
Robert F. Soli ’63, Coon Rapids,
Minnesota, age 83, on January 10.
augsburg.edu/alumni
30
AUGSBURG NOW
SPRING–SUMMER 2021
31
IN MEMORIAM
Charles M. Piper ’64, Northfield,
Minnesota, age 85, on March 27.
Charlotte M. (Nordmark) Sween ’71,
Plymouth, Minnesota, age 81, on
May 2.
Carolyn I. (Raymond) Vickers ’85,
St. Paul, Minnesota, age 79, on
January 21.
William K. Ogren ’73, Minneapolis,
age 70, on March 10.
Stanley L. Hjermstad ’88, Sanford,
Florida, age 88, on January 23.
Dennis B. Reiman ’66, Farmington,
Minnesota, age 78, on April 19.
Derrell C. Wistrom ’74, Austin,
Texas, age 74, on February 22.
1990s
Steven L. Erickson ’67, Stanchfield,
Minnesota, age 76, on June 28.
Kathlyn H. (Faber) Norum ’75,
Alexandria, Minnesota, age 80,
on June 26.
Tamera K. (Fillips) Shreve ’90,
Chanhassen, Minnesota, age 54,
on June 21.
Richard G. Johnson ’76,
Minneapolis, age 72, on April 23.
Brenda K. Quade ’91, Rockford,
Illinois, age 53, on February 4.
1980s
Dawn C. Van Tassel ’95,
Minneapolis, age 46, on April 7.
Carol R. (Strand) Pattee ’66,
Silverton, Oregon, age 78, on
February 8.
Duane M. Ilstrup ’68, Rochester,
Minnesota, age 74, on February 9.
Suzann B. (Johnson) Nelson ’68,
Grand Rapids, Minnesota, age 74,
on March 14.
Judi E. (Romerein) Tsudo ’68,
Minneapolis, age 74, on March 18.
Erland J. Nord ’69, Elbow, Canada,
age 91, on January 5.
1970s
Ross L. Jacobson ’70, Janesville,
Wisconsin, age 72, on June 7.
Bonnie K. (Rosvold) Risius ’70,
Bricelyn, Minnesota, age 72, on
March 3.
Vivian M. (Shannon) Holman ’80,
Minneapolis, age 78, on
February 15.
Maureen T. (Conroy) Kurtz ’80,
Shell Lake, Wisconsin, age 63,
on July 6.
James M. Ruud ’80, Minneapolis,
age 78, on June 26.
Lorraine G. (Herman) Bergquist ’82,
Minneapolis, age 87, on March 4.
Darrell C. Wistrom ’99, Austin,
Texas, age 74, on February 22.
2000s
Christian H. Anderson ’01,
Shakopee, Minnesota, age 47,
on April 11.
Whitney J. Anderson ’09,
Minneapolis, age 34, on June 17.
2010s
Kevin P. Ehrman-Solberg ’15,
Minneapolis, age 33, on June 12.
Elizabeth (Quackenbush) Harper ’15,
New Orleans, age 39, on March 3.
Cole A. Linnell ’15, Rogers,
Minnesota, age 29, on March 14.
Faculty, staff, and friends
Department of Languages and
Cross-Cultural Studies Adjunct
Instructor James Frankki,
Minneapolis, age 59, on March 21.
Professor Emerita of Nursing
Beverly J. (Swenson) Nilsson,
Minnetonka, Minnesota, age 89,
on November 10.
Center for Global Education
and Experience Mexico Site
Staff Member Moisés Rios Bello,
Cuernavaca, Mexico, age 50, on
February 23.
Center for Global Education and
Experience Mexico Site Staff
Member Maria “Isabel” Sanchez
Hernandez, Cuernavaca, Mexico,
age 48, on February 21.
LONG-TERM STABILITY FOR
LIFE-CHANGING EDUCATION
SUSTAIN AUGSBURG’S MISSION THROUGH A CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY
What is a charitable gift annuity?
A charitable gift annuity is a “split gift.” Part of your gift is used by Augsburg immediately to support our mission of
educating students, and part of the gift is set aside to be invested to support future fixed payments to you.
ARCHIVE PHOTO
Benefits of a charitable gift annuity:
Anne Frame, 84, passed away July 13, in Red Wing, Minnesota. She was the spouse
of Bill Frame, Augsburg’s ninth president who served from 1997 to 2006. They were
a part of Augsburg’s Sven Oftedal Society, a group of generous donors who have
arranged a deferred gift to the university to provide student scholarships.
Anne was involved in many parts of the Augsburg community, including as a
member of the Augsburg Associates (see story on page 12). She welcomed students,
faculty, staff, alumni, and friends to Augsburg House. She sang a folk song with
Bill during a 2004 Auggie Variety Show, engaged with students at Augsburg’s Late
Night Breakfast during finals week, and participated in a trip to China with Bill and
other Minnesota private college presidents to increase the number of undergraduate
student exchanges between the United States and China. Anne will be remembered
for her Auggie spirit of dedication, generosity, and service.
Submit address changes and nominations for
remembrances to alumniupdate@augsburg.edu.
•
•
Added source of income—You will receive fixed annual
payments for your lifetime.
Long-term support to Augsburg—Unlike an immediate
income annuity, the remaining value of your annuity will
go to Augsburg instead of an insurance company after
you pass away.
“
•
•
Highly appreciated asset value—By donating assets
in-kind, you preserve the full fair market value of the
assets, rather than reduce it by selling it and paying
capital gains taxes.
Tax deductions—If you itemize deductions on your tax
return, savings from the federal income tax charitable
deduction of the gift portion reduce your gift’s net cost.
Ron and Linda Ott ’85 chose to give a charitable gift annuity to Augsburg.
I was always grateful for my time at Augsburg. A charitable gift annuity is a way for us to do something now that
ensures Augsburg has funding. It also provides tax advantages and a little income back to us each year. Augsburg
made the whole process very easy, even splitting our gift between a few different programs we want to support.
We want to work with you to create a gift that best fits your circumstances.
Contact us to learn more about supporting Augsburg students through a charitable gift annuity.
32
AUGSBURG NOW
”
—Linda Ott ’85
Amy Alkire, Interim Vice President for Advancement | 612-330-1188 | alkirea@augsburg.edu
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
New mural welcomes Auggies back to campus
A group of students from an Augsburg graphic systems class created a mural, “Divine Unity,”
in the tunnel between Old Main and Science Hall. The mural represents unity existing
among differences and unique individuals creating a space of community and happiness.
Twin Cities, MN
Permit No. 2031
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What it takes to fight a pandemic
Confronting the Minnesota paradox
Student-athletes’ off-and-on sports seasons
Augsburg’s in-house epidemiologist
WINTER 2020–21 | VOL. 83, NO. 1
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WHAT IT TAKES TO FIGHT A PANDEMIC:
COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND
MUTUAL AID (PART 1)
From parking lots and phone calls to hospitals and research labs, Auggies
use a multifaceted approach to confront the global crisis of a lifetime
by Kate H. Elliott
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February 22, 2021
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One November afternoon, Natalie Jacobson,
coordinator of Augsburg’s Campus Kitchen, opened an
email from someone she didn’t recognize. It was short
and to the point: First-year Auggie Sam Kristensen ’24
explained that he had collected 17 bags of canned and
nonperishable food items from those who dared to enter
Sign up for Email Newsletter
his Halloween yard maze through a fog-lit skeleton shack
and animatronic troll swamp. The business major said he
was glad his ghoulish creativity could feed dozens of
Submit Your Alumni News
Augsburg students and residents in surrounding
Minneapolis neighborhoods.
“The email made my week,” Jacobson said. “We’ve been
CONNECT WITH US
consumed with coordinated relief e orts; Sam’s email
was a great reminder that everyone and anyone can
Natalie Jacobson joins Nick Keener ’20, Campus
Kitchen student leadership team member. (Courtesy
photo)
make a di erence.”
Kristensen is one of hundreds in the Augsburg
community who have come together in both planned and unplanned ways to support those in need during
the COVID-19 pandemic, which to date has infected an estimated 28 million and killed more than 500,000
Americans. From sta and students sewing and donating face masks to medical personnel advancing
policies and caring for patients, members of the Augsburg community are making a lasting impact on the
front lines of disease prevention and support. These are a few of the many stories of Auggies combating the
virus and its e ects with compassion, faith, and ingenuity.
Serving up hope
Jacobson manages donations like Kristensen’s o ering while working with a team of students and
volunteers to facilitate integrated food access programs to address hunger on and near campus. According
to the National Association of Student A airs Administrators in Higher Education, more than 38% of
students at four-year institutions are food insecure, and 15% are homeless.
Before the pandemic, Augsburg students accessed free food at the Campus Cupboard in the basement of
Science Hall. Students could stop in ve days a week to select a bag of fresh and non-perishable items, no
questions asked. The Campus Kitchen also made outreach e orts to support community gardens and
meals, rescue unsold produce at farmers markets, and educate the public about food as wellness.
Yamile Hernandez ’22 works in the Campus Cupboard. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
When the pandemic hit, Campus Kitchen turned up the heat. The team moved its refrigerators, freezers,
and shelves of food to a large conference room in Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship.
Campus Cupboard transitioned to an online order form, with student workers, like nance major Yamile
Hernandez ’22, delivering orders on campus or making contactless deliveries to students living in the Twin
Cities. The cupboard serves between 25 and 75 students each week.
“It’s rewarding to know we’re helping others, especially in such hard times, and we’re using up food that
would have gone to waste.”—Yamile Hernandez ’22
“Many people have found themselves without a job or having less work, which makes it di cult to keep up
with expenses,” said Hernandez. “Having access to healthy, free food helps alleviate a bit of that stress.”
Campus Kitchen intensi ed e orts to address health and
wellness disparities in neighborhoods surrounding
Augsburg. Because so many organizations and
community centers were already in partnership with
Augsburg, Jacobson said, they were quick to respond to
increased needs during the pandemic.
“We heard about an opportunity to apply for CARES Act
grant funding on a Tuesday, and the application was due
that Thursday. Campus Kitchen rallied together with the
Health Commons, West Bank Community Development
Corporation, and the People’s Center to pull an
application together, and we received $22,000, which we
spent in a week on nonperishable food items, personal
and household cleaning products, as well as food storage
equipment, including refrigerators and freezers. The
Campus Kitchen volunteers [L to R]: Hank Hietala,
Ellen Finn, and LaToya Taris-James (Courtesy photo)
grant will enable us to provide students and neighbors
with access to healthy foods on a regular basis and at an increased capacity.”
In March, the Sabo Center launched the Neighborhood Food Initiative in partnership with M Health
Fairview. The initiative brings together a variety of community partners to support collaborative
approaches that increase access to healthy food in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
“Since the summer, we have distributed food weekly to the West Bank CDC and People’s Center,” Jacobson
said. “Many households in Cedar-Riverside now see this service as a key piece of meeting their basic food
needs.”
Drives of support
Augsburg parking lots have been preferred drop-o locations for food and supply drives. In June and again
in late September, Augsburg Women Engaged supported weeklong drives to support the Campus
Cupboard and ShareShop, which provides students with free or for-rent bedding, games, clothing,
kitchenware, appliances, and other home goods. The group collected 400 pounds of food and household
supplies, plus $5,405 for the Campus Kitchen.
On June 1, Steve Peacock, community relations director at the Sabo Center, and a cadre of masked
volunteers lined up in a parking lot near the edge of campus. The group collected donations from an
estimated 550 cars that drove through during a two-hour drive to collect a number of items, mostly
personal hygiene products and diapers, for the Brian Coyle Neighborhood Center nearby.
“We were absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of
support and donations,” Peacock said. “While we were
out there, collecting items, we saw athletic teams lined
up to collect supplies on the other side of the athletics
complex. It’s a testament to the innovative, communityfocused, and generous spirit of Augsburg.”
“Our mission to support students and be an anchor for
the community seems relevant and central to our lives
now more than ever.”—Steve Peacock
Augsburg has also encouraged donations to the Student
Emergency Fund, which was established last March to
support students with nancial hardships and provide
relief for basic needs, including food, rent, transportation,
and medication.
Auggies gather donations for the Twin Cities
community outside Augsburg’s Kennedy Center.
(Courtesy photo)
In the wake of George Floyd’s death in May, Holy Trinity
Lutheran Church in the Longfellow neighborhood of
Minneapolis has distributed food to hundreds of
neighbors each week. This summer, Augsburg Pastor
Justin Lind-Ayres showed up with more than 25 Auggie students, sta , and faculty, most of whom didn’t
know each other, to serve food. “This was just one microcosm of the work Auggies have and continue to do
across the Twin Cities,” Lind-Ayres said. “The student body inspires and teaches me what it means to be
‘informed citizens.’”
‘Auggies are resilient’
Lind-Ayres and the Campus Ministry team have worked to provide moments of hope and belonging
throughout the year. They shared prayers on their blog once a day from March to May and now post
prayers weekly as a way for Auggies to lift up concerns and hopes for people and situations. On Fridays, the
team has hosted 8 minutes and 46 seconds in chapel and on Zoom for “Silence, Prayer, and Pastoral
Presence” to remember George Floyd and others and to focus on the call for racial justice. The Muslim
Student Association, under the direction of Fardosa Hassan ’12, has provided opportunities for safe,
socially distanced Friday prayer.
In addition to leading reduced-capacity in-person worship in Hoversten Chapel, recorded worship, and
virtual discussions, Lind-Ayres and University Pastor Babette Chatman ’06 serve on the COVID-19
Response Team. This diverse group of sta members gathers up to ve times each week to review COVID19 cases on campus, engage in contact tracing, provide support for students in quarantine or isolation, and
gure out ways to keep the community safe.
“We spend a lot of time on the phone or texting with students o ering words of encouragement, answering
questions, and troubleshooting issues together as we manage the realities of COVID-19 on campus,” said
Lind-Ayres.
Assistant Athletic Director Melissa Lee ’04 serves on the COVID-19 Task Force. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
Melissa Lee ’04, assistant athletic director and softball head coach, serves on the COVID-19 Task Force. Lee
is one of several sta members responding to the helpline set up for Auggies to access the latest
information and resources. In the spring, she and others were answering helpline phone calls and emails in
shifts seven days a week. As tra c has decreased, phone calls go directly to voicemail. Team members
respond to messages and emails as soon as possible.
To parents, students, faculty, and sta , Lee said, “Continue to be gritty. Continue to be safe. We can and will
all get through this together. Auggies are resilient.”
Augsburg stories on COVID-19:
What it takes to ght a pandemic, part 2: Research and health care
Augsburg’s in-house epidemiologist guides Auggies through the COVID-19 pandemic
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Campus Cupboard. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
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WHAT IT TAKES TO FIGHT A PANDEMIC:
RESEARCH AND HEALTH CARE (PART 2)
From parking lots and phone calls to hospitals and research labs, Auggies
use a multifaceted approach to confront the global crisis of a lifetime
by Kate H. Elliott
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Katie Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP sees resilience every day as executive
director of Augsburg’s Health Commons, which are drop-in health
centers led by the nursing program with a model focused on caring
for those in the community who are marginalized. Guests are not
required to show identi cation, and medical professionals don’t wear
scrubs or stethoscopes in order to increase relatability and public
trust in health care workers.
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Her focus at the Augsburg Central Health Commons is with
individuals who are experiencing homelessness or who are
marginally housed in Minneapolis, and the Health Commons in the
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Cedar-Riverside neighborhood provides care for residents, many of
whom are East African immigrants. As an assistant professor of
nursing, Clark teaches primarily in the graduate nursing program
Katie Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP
(Courtesy photo)
through courses that emphasize social justice, health disparities, and
civic engagement.
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The Augsburg nursing program, Clark said, is unique because faculty and students are embedded in
the community. Other schools often see that work as “extra service” and send students to nonpro ts,
but Augsburg considers place-based work as central to the educational experience.
Hospitality and healing
“We help students serve and explore the world we live in,
and we’re with them when they do it,” Clark said. “They get
uncomfortable and lean into the biases they may have and
really get involved in a community to understand the
issues from the people who experience them.”
“You can’t come up with answers if you don’t know the
problems.”—Katie Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP
When COVID-19 hit, the Health Commons at Central
Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis was one of the
Augsburg’s Health Commons received
donations from the community, including
27,200 bottles of water from UP Co ee
Roasters and a grassroots fundraising
campaign organized by Bethany Johnson ’19,
’23 DNP, whose family owns the business.
Johnson (left) delivered water to the Health
Commons with husband, David Chall
(middle), and daughter, Olivia Chall, in April
2020. (Courtesy photo)
only drop-in health centers that continued to stay open. At
the height of the pandemic, Clark said staying open meant
standing outside, passing out hygiene kits, and bringing
meals and supplies to encampments of unhoused people.
“Many of our students are adult learners seeking
bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees. Some of them
have dealt with furloughs or are at the bedsides of
patients, holding up the [touchscreen] tablet for family members to say goodbye, and adapting to
constant changes in health care environments. Then they have school in addition to their own
stressors at home, like juggling kids or responding to family members who say, ‘COVID isn’t real.’ These
students want to get involved and tackle the issues in their communities, and they are doing it! I get
chills talking about it.”
Ellen Kearney ’23 DNP is one of Clark’s students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice: Family Nurse
Practitioner program and also a registered nurse at a Twin Cities intensive care unit. Kearney admitted
that despite extensive safety measures, it was scary to be indoors at the Health Commons with
patients early in the pandemic. But the work—her passion—is critical, she added.
Katie Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP (left) and President Paul Pribbenow at an Augsburg Bold event in the fall.
(Courtesy photo)
“Before COVID-19 we were able to serve between 50 and 100 people each Monday and Thursday,” said
Kearney. “Now we can only see 12 people each day we are open. But because our hours have not
changed, it has been nice to have a longer period alone with each guest if they chose to stay and talk.
I’ve been able to learn about one guest’s upcoming trip to her home country in Africa and her worries
about traveling, and I have been able to follow up with one older man while I do his foot care. It has
been hard to not open the doors fully, especially now that the weather is colder and knowing there are
so few public spaces open, though it is clear that we need to stay capped for everyone’s safety. While
the scale of the Commons is small, the impact is large.”
When Augsburg temporarily restricted students from working at the Commons, volunteers and
Augsburg alumni, like Emily Pierskalla ’20 DNP, stepped in to keep doors open. The most challenging
aspect of working as a registered nurse is ricocheting through stages of grief, which Pierskalla said is
emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting. She avoids news about COVID-19 and social media
because it can trigger haunting memories.
“I have ashbacks of the faces of patients I’ve seen die while their loved ones cry watching through an
iPad or seeing my own co-workers struggling to breathe after getting sick,” said Pierskalla, who has
worked for eight years at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. “It has taken a lot of
therapy, self-care, and e ort to keep the burnout from causing me to become bitter and angry, or
worse, apathetic to the world and society.”
She has also worked as a nurse practitioner at CVS MinuteClinics, administering COVID-19 tests and
helping people understand their test results and quarantine recommendations—e orts that have
immediate practical e ects.
“When I’m at the Commons or out in the camps, I actually feel like I’m helping to create the world I
want to live in.”—Emily Pierskalla ’20 DNP
Ray Yip ’72 has extensive global health experience, including work in Qinghai, a sparsely populated Chinese
province. (Courtesy photo)
Advocates for change
Auggies are working across the globe to create policies and medical
solutions to realize that better world. Dr. Ray Yip ’72 is a global
health specialist serving as special advisor to the Gates Venture on
China Partnership Development. For the past 22 years, he has
assisted the Chinese government in improving its public health
system, with a focus on disease control and response capacity. When
COVID-19 began spreading in January, Yip was in Beijing.
“I was impressed with how aggressive the outbreak was in Wuhan,
and I predicted that China would be able to get it under control by
April. To my pleasant surprise, China achieved that seemingly
impossible task by mid-March.”
In February, he returned to his home in upstate New York, from
Ray Yip ’72 (Courtesy photo)
which he has advised several organizations about COVID-19-related
issues and provided a range of companies with updates about the
progress of vaccine development worldwide.
“This pandemic, which we knew would happen sooner or later, requires strong government
leadership as well as commitment and partnership with the private sectors for the solutions.”—Ray
Yip ’72
“More than 23 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told me the United States
had the know-how and capacity to contain this epidemic. After all, I was sent to China to help them to
build such capacity. My prediction was so o , I hate to admit it. We all su er dearly from the dire
consequence of horrible mismanagement, which largely has to do with leadership failure. It was
particularly painful to watch the CDC get sidelined, and public health measures became politicized.”
The heroes of the pandemic, Yip said: health care workers.
“Most people do not realize the risk and danger of those health care workers taking care of the COVID
patients, especially in the early phase when protective gear was in short supply. A disproportionate
number of them got infected and died. If I were my younger version, I would not hesitate to join them
in on the front lines. I am grateful for their service and sacri ce.”
Interview with Dr. Ray Yip '72
·
Augsburg University Alumni Association was Live Follow
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Dr. Paul Mueller ’84, regional vice president for Mayo Clinic Health
System’s Southwest Wisconsin region, oversees thousands of such
workers attending to patients in two hospitals and eight clinics. He
manages COVID-19 response through policy decisions and exploring
new treatments while treating the disease in his own patient panel.
“It is weighty from a psychological standpoint, as you try to be a
leader in such an ever-changing, high-stakes environment, knowing
the lives you impact,” said Mueller, who has served as an Augsburg
regent and as the campaign chair of Great Returns: Augsburg’s
Sesquicentennial Campaign. “But every day I walk the halls of our
hospitals and clinics and see the resilience and ingenuity of our sta
who have delivered on the promise of medicine. Nurses greet me
with a smile behind personal protective equipment. They are busy
Paul Mueller ’84 (Courtesy photo)
but feel called and up to this work. With a can-do attitude, we are
caring for patients in the darkest of times, administering novel
treatments, and preparing to safely roll out vaccines.
“We’re still in the thick of it. If you think of it like a marathon, we are at mile marker 19. But if we can
maintain resilience and hope, we will nish the race and be better for it.”—Paul Mueller ’84
“This pandemic has shown us that we all breathe the same air, and it is the one thing that is unifying
our entire planet. While the virus rages on killing people, we continue to see the brilliance of the human
spirit—beacons of hope and optimism, compassion and resilience, integrity and ingenuity.”
Caring for patients, fueling research
Brittany Kimball ’13 is a third-year resident at the
University of Minnesota in internal medicine and
pediatrics. The pandemic has taken its toll on her and
other residents, as expectations are in ux and
workloads are stressful and exhausting. Virtual visits are
di cult because of a lack of internet and personal
connectivity, Kimball said. Loneliness has infected the
hospitals. Last week, Kimball watched a nurse gently care
for a patient isolated from visitors, playing his favorite
music as he died.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly compounded
patients’ conditions. Children are missing well visits and
Brittany Kimball ’13: “Getting my rst COVID-19
vaccine at Masonic Children’s Hospital—which I
encourage everyone to do as soon as it
becomes available to them!” (Courtesy photo)
immunizations. Cancer patients require COVID-19 tests
prior to chemotherapy, sometimes missing a treatment
because they have the virus. Many of my primary care
patients with diabetes are wary of clinic visits, thus
making it harder to [measure doses of] their medications,” said Kimball, who earned a bachelor’s
degree in biology from Augsburg.
“Most troublesome, the pandemic has compounded inequities for already marginalized people. Some
of my patients don’t have internet, while others don’t have access to a regular phone. For some
patients, limited English pro ciency can make getting set up on a virtual platform more di cult.
Brittany Kimball ’13 (left) and her co-resident work at the Minneapolis Veterans A airs Health Care System.
(Courtesy photo)
“Patients dealing with addiction and trying to maintain sobriety have told me that their usual coping
mechanisms—like getting together with other people who are sober or participating in a faith
community—have become inaccessible. For patients living in poverty, balancing virtual school and
frontline jobs has been incredibly stressful and sometimes impossible. It’s often people living in
poverty that are doing frontline work that makes them more likely to be exposed to the virus, like
working in a restaurant, public transit, or in a store.”
“We need to gure out how to make telemedicine more equitable.”—Brittany Kimball ’13
Her dream has long been to be a doctor, so despite the challenges, she pushes on—driven to pursue a
fellowship in hematology-oncology. As a Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor, Kimball is particularly
interested in caring for adolescents and young adults with cancer and blood diseases. “As an 18-yearold in my rst semester at Augsburg, I was guring out dating while bald, chemo after classes, and
trying to study when my brain felt foggy and my body felt sick,” she added. “Sometimes I needed a bit
more guidance and support than a typical adult patient, but not in the same way that a much younger
child might. Teens and young adults don’t t neatly in the pediatric or adult-centered models of care,
and I hope I can make that better.”
Hamdi Adam ’18 is similarly driven to make a di erence. As a
doctoral student of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota,
Adam followed his bachelor’s in biology from Augsburg with a
master’s degree in public health at the University of Minnesota.
Adam studies cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurocognitive
disorders. He is focused on investigating the impact of COVID-19 on
chronic conditions, which can lead to higher risk of mortality,
especially among people with existing risk factors, like high blood
pressure and diabetes.
“At some point down the road, I’ll probably get the chance to utilize
COVID-19 data to assess the relationship between COVID status and
various chronic disease conditions in population-based research
studies and hopefully add valuable and timely information to the
Hamdi Adam ’18 (Courtesy photo)
base of existing literature,” said Adam, who—as a rst-generation
Oromo American—is interested in applying his research to address
health disparities a ecting people of color. “It feels good to know that your studies and work are for
the betterment of people. With research, sometimes you feel like your work is so detached from the
true health problems you are attempting to address, but I like to think that epidemiologic research
provides the basis for informing more direct actions, such as health policy development and e ective
community-based interventions.”
Another researcher, Will Matchett ’13, earned a
doctorate in virology and gene therapy from the Mayo
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He works as a
postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota, where
he will spend up to ve years acquiring training that will
allow him to run his own lab. Between April and August, his
research focused exclusively on developing a SARS-CoV-2
test to measure the speci c antibodies that block the virus
from entering cells. Since September, his focus has shifted
to testing a COVID-19 vaccine being developed at the
University of Minnesota.
Will Matchett ’13 used a plaque assay to
quantify the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus in a
sample at the University of Minnesota
biosafety lab in August 2020. (Courtesy photo)
Increasing and diversifying COVID-19 testing
Does all the medical terminology sound like a foreign language?
That’s how Elaine Eschenbacher ’18 MAL described her rst few
weeks as the higher education operations lead for Minnesota’s
COVID-19 Testing Work Group. Since 2009, she has worked at
Augsburg, the last six of those years as director for the Sabo Center
for Democracy and Citizenship. But since June, the Sabo Center has
put her “on loan” to Minnesota’s State Emergency Operations Center
to work with a team of experts to launch Minnesota’s testing plan in
collaboration with colleges and universities. Subgroups are assigned
to areas such as long-term care, child care and schools, community
testing, hotspots, case investigation and contact tracing, research,
data, purchasing, and contracts.
Elaine Eschenbacher ’18 MAL
(Photo by Courtney Perry)
“My work at Augsburg prepared me for this role in a variety of ways.
The role is necessarily collaborative and involves recognizing that
di erent people have di erent roles to play and respecting those
di erent perspectives and sets of expertise.”—Elaine Eschenbacher ’18 MAL
“Civic engagement work is like that, too. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the Master of Arts in
Leadership program, which I completed in 2018. This work is like having a master class in leadership
and public health every day.”
In April, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced a “moonshot goal” of 20,000 tests per day in the state, at
a time when only about 2,000 tests were being performed daily, Eschenbacher said. The testing work
group increased capacity and made that moonshot goal by the end of June.
“Since then, we’ve been continuing to increase and diversify COVID testing, and make sure that the
people who most need it have access to it. During the week of Thanksgiving, our daily average for
testing across the state was more than 57,000,” she added. “Testing is an important tool in controlling
the spread of COVID-19, and making testing accessible regardless of income or location is an important
equity issue.”
Eschenbacher has spent her days planning and data-modeling as it relates to higher education,
consulting with speci c institutions in the wake of outbreaks, guiding higher education testing, and
organizing partnerships for case investigation and contact-tracing. She facilitates webinars and other
information pieces about saliva testing, serves as state incident commander for community testing
events, and helped coordinate mass testing of 18- to 35-year-olds prior to Thanksgiving. More recently,
she has served as incident commander for a community vaccination site.
“It feels like a cliché to say this, but it is an absolute honor to do this work. We talk a lot about vocation
at Augsburg, and I guess I would say that vocation can sneak up on you. I never would have dreamed
of doing the work I’ve done since June, but it feels like purpose.”
These are only a handful of the Auggies who are living out their passionate purpose to bring an end to
this crushing pandemic and, in the meantime, to soften the blow.
Augsburg stories on COVID-19:
What it takes to ght a pandemic, part 1: Community collaboration and mutual aid
Augsburg’s in-house epidemiologist guides Auggies through the COVID-19 pandemic
Top Image: Augsburg’s coronavirus guidelines, including face coverings and physical distancing in
classrooms and public places, helped protect Auggies from COVID-19. Professor and Chemistry
Department Chair Joan Kunz instructs in the Hagfors Center. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
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CONFRONTING THE MINNESOTA PARADOX
Signi cant racial disparities exist in a state with a liberal reputation, but
some are seeking ways to close the gaps
by Gita Sitaramiah
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Robert Harper ’16 remembers the rst time he was called the nword.
His family had moved to Minnesota from the South Side of Chicago,
seeking a better life. Since then, he’s achieved that better life, earning
an undergraduate degree from Augsburg University and a master’s
degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of
Public A airs. He is now a supplier diversity director for the
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
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“I think I’ve had a unique experience escaping poverty on the South
Side of Chicago and North Minneapolis, only to be confronted with
the daily decisions made by white people that only re-create those
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circumstances of oppression,” Harper said.
Robert Harper ’16 (Courtesy photo)
While he’s now a working professional in a state that prides itself on
being “Minnesota nice,” Harper never gets too comfortable, recalling that painful moment when he
was walking to middle school and a passing driver shouted the racial epithet at him. More recently, on
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a trip to northern Minnesota, Harper was told while visiting Gull Lake, ‘You don’t belong here,’ by a
white man.
“It’s moments like that when you’re trying to do better, ‘pull yourselves up by your bootstraps,’ that
society reminds you that there’s a glass ceiling for some,” Harper said.
“Some people constantly remind you that they decide how far you go, what rooms you enter, and in
the case of George Floyd, whether or not you live.”—Robert Harper ’16
Exposing the paradox
George Floyd’s murder three miles from Augsburg University put an international spotlight on not only
the experiences of Black people at the hands of the criminal justice system but also the reality of the
disturbing “Minnesota paradox.”
That’s how University of Minnesota Professor Samuel Myers
describes how Minnesota has such a high quality of life and a history
of progressive politicians but is one of the worst places to live for
Black people.
“Measured by racial gaps in unemployment rates, wage and salary
incomes, incarceration rates, arrest rates, home ownership rates,
mortgage lending rates, test scores, reported child maltreatment
rates, school disciplinary and suspension rates, and even drowning
rates, African Americans are worse o in Minnesota than they are in
virtually every other state in the nation,” Myers said.
The numbers illustrate the bleak story:
Samuel Myers (Courtesy photo)
Only 25.3% of Black households in Minnesota own homes
versus 76.9% of white households, according to census data, a
stark divide given that home ownership is considered the leading contributor to household wealth.
The median household income for Black households in the state is the lowest of any group at
$41,570, about half of what Asian and white households earn.
In the Twin Cities, African Americans represent 9% of the overall population, but are incarcerated
at 11 times the rate of whites who represent 76% of the population, the NAACP reported last year.
Only 21.7% of Black people hold bachelor’s degrees or higher versus nearly 40% overall.
Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2018, the fastest growing racial group in Minnesota was the Black
population, which grew by 36%, adding more than 96,500 people.
Many are immigrants but face the same backdrop of a state that hasn’t historically acknowledged that
discrimination plays a role in the Black story here, Myers said.
“When it comes to race in the Twin Cities, in Minnesota, there was this instinctive belief that we already
know what the problem is, that it’s not really a problem, and since it’s not a problem, we don’t need to
nd answers,” Myers said.
The COVID-19 pandemic compounded the inequities. The unemployment rate for Black Minnesotans
in the aftermath of pandemic shutdowns rose to 15.3% last July, up 9 percentage points from a year
earlier, versus 6.3% for white workers, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic
Development reported. According to a Pew Research report published in December: “Among Black
Americans, 71% know someone who has been hospitalized or died because of COVID-19.”
Kevin Ehrman-Solberg ’15 (center right) and the Mapping Prejudice Project team found inequities in housing
documents throughout Minneapolis’ history. (Courtesy photo, 2017)
The path to today’s Minneapolis
High pro le police killings of Black men in this region—including George Floyd, Philando Castile, and
Jamar Clark—have heightened the protests and urgency for change. The viral video of Floyd’s murder
with his neck under the knee of a Minneapolis police o cer seemed to dawn a new era in the ght for
justice.
Protesters took to the streets for weeks around the globe. Gra ti images of Floyd sprang up
worldwide, even on a West Bank barrier in the Middle East. CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations in
Minnesota wrote an open letter of outrage. Athletes of all races took the knee before matches to show
their support for racial equity.
In the city of Minneapolis, at the center of the controversy, there was swift action against the o cers,
something unprecedented.
“Despite decades of police incidents that resulted in the deaths of
people of color, today’s actions by the mayor represent the rst time
in modern history that Minneapolis police o cers were red within
24 hours for unjustly murdering a citizen,” said Michael Lansing,
associate professor and chair of Augsburg’s history department, in a
May 26 series of tweets about the Minneapolis Police Department.
(Lansing’s comments on the history of uprisings and Minneapolis
police were also carried by The Washington Post and Mother Jones.)
Now, many are acknowledging the systems that are behind today’s
Minneapolis. Even the South Minneapolis street where George Floyd
was killed is in a historically Black working-class and middle-class
neighborhood created by housing segregation, Lansing said in his
tweet series.
Indeed, Mapping Prejudice Project, a team of community members,
Associate Professor Michael
Lansing (Photo by Stephen Ge re)
geographers, and historians based at the University of Minnesota,
have unearthed thousands of racial covenants in Minneapolis that reserved land for the exclusive use
of white people.
Those restrictions served as powerful obstacles for people of color seeking safe and a ordable
housing. Racial covenants, dovetailed with redlining and predatory lending practices, depressed
homeownership rates for Black residents. They also limited access to community resources like schools
and parks.
While contemporary white residents of Minneapolis like to think their city never had formal
segregation, those racial covenants did the work of Jim Crow in the Twin Cities, said Kevin EhrmanSolberg ’15, a co-founder of Mapping Prejudice.
“The reputation of Minneapolis is that it’s a liberal bastion, yet there’s a racist reality that people live
in.”—Kevin Ehrman-Solberg ’15
Professor William Green (Photo by Courtney Perry)
Looking forward with a pragmatic lens
While the period following George Floyd’s murder looked like a change moment, Augsburg University’s
M. Anita Gay Hawthorne Professor of Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies William Green worries that
the momentum started to diminish as the summer progressed. “The challenge that we face is to do the
hard work to de ne what change means, and second, how to get at the root of the problems that lead
to disparities in society.”
Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce President Jonathan Weinhagen
looks ahead to the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder
and to the question of how much progress has been made in raising
awareness about and working to eliminate the disparities
experienced by people of color.
“[Closing the racial divide] is not going to be resolved in a year. It’s
going to take more time, but it’s going to have to be far more rapid
than anything we’ve done to date.”—Jonathan Weinhagen
The implications of these disparities are wide-reaching, with
government o cials and the business community concerned that a
growing population that isn’t able to fully participate in or bene t
from the economy will threaten the vitality of the state as a whole.
Jonathan Weinhagen (Courtesy
photo)
“To have a large and growing part of our economy be marginalized is a huge disadvantage to all of us
because it takes a huge part of the population out,” said Susan Brower, Minnesota’s demographer.
The NAACP’s 48-page Twin Cities Economic Inclusion Plan issued in 2019 calls for a comprehensive,
multi-pronged policy agenda anchored by ve basic principles: economic sustainability, education,
health, public safety and criminal justice, and voter rights and political representation.
The role of education
Many are looking to young people to be the lasting change.
The nonpro t Generation Next in Minneapolis has emerged to support children from “cradle to
career,” envisioning a future in which “every child has the academic, social, and emotional skills to
thrive in a globally uent world.”
Alan Page, retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice, and Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, proposed in 2020 amending Minnesota’s constitution to give every child
a civil right to a quality public education. They de ne the current approach as a system that works well
for children from well-to-do families but fails children from low-income families.
“A quality education is without question the most powerful tool we have to break the cycle of poverty
and create a society in which everyone can fully participate,” Kashkari and Page wrote in the Star
Tribune. “It doesn’t just change one child’s life. It has the potential to improve the future for
generations to come and lead to a more productive, vibrant society for all of us.”
Meanwhile, Augsburg University is positioned to be a statewide leader in the turnaround, with years of
intentional work on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “I certainly feel that higher education is the clearest
path to a middle-class life or better,” Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow said.
Augsburg University's Hagfors Center. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
Augsburg’s e orts to address disparities and work
toward equity
After the murder of George Floyd only a few miles from campus, Augsburg University introduced in
June the Justice for George Floyd Initiatives to focus on working to heal the community, creating
leadership and structures that make tangible change, and ensuring accountability for the work of
undoing racist systems.
New e orts were introduced to combat systemic racism, including a critical race and ethnicity studies
department; diversity, equity, and inclusion training; and a requirement that all faculty and sta
complete antiracism training. Augsburg also canceled classes and suspended operations June 4 and 5
so students, faculty, and sta could have an opportunity to grieve.
“We acknowledge the pain, fear, and trauma faced by the Augsburg community—especially our
students, faculty, and sta of color—remain a lived reality every day,” Pribbenow said. “This work by
Augsburg will be persistent, resolute, courageous, and integrated into everything the university does.”
This ongoing work includes several components:
Augsburg named William Green, professor of history, the inaugural holder of the M. Anita Gay
Hawthorne professorship of critical race and ethnic studies.
The university is employing new accountability for inclusive, antiracist leadership across the
institution and reviewing Augsburg’s major academic and administrative policies and practices with
a special focus on undoing bias and discrimination and enhancing student success.
Augsburg created a scholarship in memory of George Floyd and established a fund that matched
donations from students, faculty, and sta for organizations doing important work, especially for
Black-owned businesses and nonpro t organizations.
Augsburg appointed the rst Chief Diversity O cer, Joanne K. Reeck, in 2016 and became home
in 2019 to The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, the nation’s largest workplace diversity, equity, and
inclusion conference.
These moves are an important continuation of Augsburg’s e orts to build and maintain an equitable
and inclusive campus that became a strategic focus in 2006, resulting in Augsburg welcoming its most
diverse incoming rst-year class ever in 2017. Students of color are now in the majority of traditional
undergraduates, making Augsburg one of the most diverse private colleges in the Midwest.
As Augsburg is learning in its own community, Minnesota’s multifaceted disparities require a
multifaceted approach that summons individual and collective willpower to align impact with intent.
Despite Harper’s success after graduating from Augsburg, he views the disparate outcomes as a call to
action, even forming his own economic development consulting rm, R.D.T.H Consulting, focused on
social impact in addition to his day job. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Top Image: Minneapolis is a city with a liberal reputation, but racial disparities persist. (Photo by
Courtney Perry)
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STAY THE COURSE: OFF-AND-ON SPORTS
SEASONS PROVE AUGGIE STUDENTATHLETES’ RESILIENCE
After a pause on competitions due to COVID-19, Auggies are ready to get
back in the game
by Kate Norlander
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The COVID-19 pandemic put a major pause on 2020’s athletic competitions. The Minnesota
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postponed the fall sports season. In January the league announced
plans for a modi ed winter season for basketball, hockey, indoor track and eld, and swimming and
diving (though it’s not o cially part of the MIAC, wrestling will follow the same guidelines). Auggies
can’t wait to get back in the game.
Many student-athletes have been practicing their sports since elementary school. During the past year,
the pandemic disrupted participation in activities that have been important to their lives. But
Augsburg’s Athletics sta and student-athletes have met this challenge with a commitment to the
health and safety of the community. This willingness to put safety rst means that student-athletes
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are now able to compete.
In order for student-athletes to participate in sports this year, the NCAA created rules designed to
promote safety. Augsburg Athletics also made sure that strong safety measures were in place, which
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has helped students feel a bit more at ease during an anxious time.
Devon Hannah ’21, a guard on the men’s basketball team, said,
“We have the freedom to decide whether or not we feel comfortable
with an activity. The Athletics Department is handling this well,
keeping us safe physically and mentally, too.”
Coaches play an important role in student-athletes’ lives, which
means they are often among the rst people to learn when a
student receives a positive COVID-19 test result. This means that
they are not only helping students develop skills in their sport; they
are also watching out for the safety of their team.
Devon Hannah ’21 (Courtesy
photo)
Corrina Evans ’21, a middle blocker on the women’s volleyball team,
said, “The coaches and trainers are sharing campus resources like
the Center for Wellness and Counseling. They have check-in times
when we can talk about anything, and they will call or text us: doing
contact tracing, helping us understand how to quarantine correctly
if we have to do that, and making sure we have everything we need.”
Changes to practice and
competition
Corrina Evans ’21 (Courtesy
photo)
Even with precautionary measures in place, there are times when
teams have to pause their practice, whether a teammate tested
positive for COVID-19 or a rising number of cases in Minnesota required universities to temporarily
close workout and sports facilities, which occurred in the fall and early winter.
Read more about Auggies ghting the pandemic.
When they’re able to practice, Augsburg’s student-athletes gather in pods that have gradually
increased in size as they were safely able to do so. While the smallest pods have allowed students to
practice their sports safely and to control the spread of the virus, they’ve also presented a challenge.
“It’s di cult to get to know each other and to gel as a team,” Hannah said.
“Practices are very di erent,” said Evans. “You can’t see people’s faces because of the masks. But we’ve
been able to move up into bigger pods, which gives us a more normal team chemistry and allows us to
have a full team practice and do some scrimmaging. The challenges are more mental than physical.”
In early January, the MIAC gave teams the go-ahead to compete again, although competitions are
limited and spectators are not allowed. (Augsburg has o ered free livestream viewing for all home
events and some road events.) Students in sports that present a higher risk for COVID-19 transmission
must get tested three times each week in order to practice and compete—measures well worth it for
eager players and coaches. “It’s exciting to be able to get back to playing and feel in the groove again,”
said Colleen Enrico ’14, assistant athletic director, volleyball assistant coach, and Student-Athlete
Advisory Committee advisor.
Melissa Lee ’04 (left), assistant athletic director and softball head coach, leads softball practice in Augsburg’s
dome in February 2021. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
Prioritizing mental health
Augsburg Athletics had already begun addressing the mental health of student-athletes before the
pandemic. In the summer of 2019, all coaches and sta took an eight-hour course in mental health rst
aid, which can provide support for student-athletes and coaches until they can speak with mental
health professionals.
Mark Wick, men’s hockey assistant coach, has recently taken on new, temporary duties at Augsburg
as he sets up a mental health advocacy program for Augsburg Athletics. “We need to know how to deal
with what is happening now, but in ve to 10 years, people still will be dealing with losing jobs or loved
ones,” Wick said. “Hopefully it won’t be as bad as it is now, but how we use this time can help prepare
us for growth.”
Augsburg University
@AugsburgU
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and
@AugsburgU Assistant Hockey Coach @coachwick23 will
hold a golf tournament to raise awareness, as this
subject is very personal to him. “It’s OK to reach out and
ask for help,” Wick told @WCCO.
Augsburg Assistant Hockey Coach Mark Wick's Push For Suicide Awa…
September is Suicide Awareness Month. And on Tuesday, Augsburg
University assistant hockey coach Mark Wick will hold a golf …
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Fostering the Auggie Experience
Enrico reported that in past years, student-athletes met with the entire team sta on a weekly basis,
but this year they are meeting with a di erent coach each week. This allows them to be more open and
build better relationships with their coaches. As in past years, coaches touch base with students about
their lives outside of their sport so that, for instance, if they are struggling with classes, the coach can
suggest resources for help. This year coaches are also making a point of paying attention to upcoming
events so that they can suggest activities that might help student-athletes better connect with their
fellow students.
It’s been a tough year for everyone, and that has been particularly true for rst-year students who
were unable to participate in many traditional activities at the end of their senior year in high school
and now have begun their college experience under di cult conditions. For that reason, Enrico said,
coaches have made a point of connecting third- and fourth-year students with rst-year and other
new students.
Augsburg Athletics
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Check out some photos from a recent Augsburg women's
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Di erent teams have di erent approaches to these connections. In volleyball, coaches have suggested
podcasts that each student can discuss with a di erent teammate each week. “We want them to get
outside of volleyball, so the podcasts might be on topics such as banking or racial diversity,” Enrico
said.
Fostering these connections—between teammates, between each student-athlete and coach, and
between student-athletes and the wider Augsburg community—is, perhaps, one of the most
important things coaches can do for their student-athletes this year. All of them help these students
feel a sense of community. In Enrico’s words, “the Auggie experience is community.”
Top image: The COVID-19 pandemic has required temporary closures and reopenings of workout
spaces, including Augsburg’s weight room, with students’ health in mind. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
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AUGSBURG’S IN-HOUSE EPIDEMIOLOGIST
GUIDES AUGGIES THROUGH THE COVID-19
PANDEMIC
On the Spot Q&A with Associate Professor Alicia Quella
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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Remember those days of uncertainty in March 2020, when we had
more questions than answers, and before most of us used terms like
“coronavirus” and “social distancing”?
The United States saw an increase in COVID-19 infections, and some
states—including Minnesota—applied stay-at-home orders to mitigate
the spread. Weeks before that in ection point, Augsburg University
administrators, faculty, and sta convened a COVID-19 task force.
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Not all educational institutions have an epidemiologist on sta , but
Augsburg is fortunate. One of the task force’s principal leaders is Alicia
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Quella, associate professor and director of Augsburg’s physician
assistant program. As an educator with a PhD in epidemiology and
experience in public health settings around the world, her expertise
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has proved invaluable for the university’s grasp of the evolving global
crisis and Augsburg’s response to maintain the health and safety of
community members.
Associate Professor Alicia Quella
(Photo by Courtney Perry)
Between elding student questions about the coronavirus, volunteering at COVID-19 testing sites, and
ensuring the Augsburg community can trace contacts and reduce transmission on campus, Quella shared
some perspectives on her work and where we go from here.
Q: How have you been involved in Augsburg’s outbreak planning
and COVID-19 response?
A: I serve on the pandemic task force, a university-wide team of people that assembled after it was
apparent that COVID-19 would signi cantly a ect institutions of higher education across the United States.
We collaborate regularly with epidemiologists from the Minnesota Department of Health to implement
public health guidelines for campuses. We started to meet daily to coordinate issues involving classrooms
and labs, athletics, residence halls, dining services, facilities, and global education. We started a COVID-19
Response Team, which comprises sta and faculty across campus who implement health protocols and
support students and personnel who have illness, have COVID-19, or have been exposed to it.
R.John
@raccajohn
Neither rain nor SNOW can keep @AugsburgU's Dr. Alicia
Quella from working the walk-up/drive-up COVID-19
testing location @PeoplesCenter Cedar Riverside Clinic
1:50 AM · Oct 21, 2020
3
See the latest COVID-19 information on Twitter
Q: What were your rst thoughts when you heard about COVID19 and considered its implications for the Augsburg community?
A: When news of a novel coronavirus was circulating in China, I was immediately concerned because I had
studied the epidemiology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-1) during my doctoral work
through the University of Iowa Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. In 2003, SARS quickly spread to 29
countries, so I knew that this would be a major issue in the United States.
Q: At this stage in the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the most
important things for the public to understand and do?
A: To reach herd immunity [when a signi cant portion of a community is immune to a disease and thereby
makes spread unlikely] we all need to continue to ‘bubble’ and limit the number of close contacts, wear face
masks, socially distance, and get vaccinated.
I also encourage the students and my patients to be creative and nd ways to keep active and engaged—
start a new hobby, do something outdoors, and reach out to relatives and friends who may be isolated
right now.
Q: What do you see in the post-COVID-19 world?
A: Colleges and universities have seen a rapid di usion of innovation in how they are using technology to
deliver curriculum, participate in athletics, and maintain operations. This energy and innovation will have to
continue to promote widespread vaccine uptake. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue, especially in communities of
color that have been disproportionately a ected by COVID-19 because of structural racism. Augsburg will
need to make this a top priority moving forward.
Q: What’s a memorable moment of the past year that made an
impact on you?
A: As an epidemiologist and a physician assistant, I’ve had the opportunity to continue to see patients and
work with Augsburg students, sta , and faculty. I recently received the COVID-19 vaccine and have felt
humbled and honored to now be able to continue to work more safely in the community.
Top image: Associate Professor Alicia Quella’s experience as an epidemiologist has helped maintain the health and
safety of the Augsburg community. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
Read more Augsburg stories on COVID-19.
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NOTES FROM PRESIDENT PRIBBENOW:
COME AND SEE!
by Paul C. Pribbenow
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February 22, 2021
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In the Christian church, the liturgical season before Lent is called
Epiphany, a time when we re ect on the good news that God has
broken into human history and that we are called to share that good
news with all of creation. There is a wonderful invitational character to
Epiphany, in which we ask each other and our neighbors to “Come and
see” all that God is doing in our midst.
In that spirit, this issue of Augsburg Now invites all of us to come
and see what the Augsburg community is doing in its 151st academic
year, in the midst of a global pandemic, to live out our mission. In
these pandemic times, Augsburg students, faculty, and sta have
brought great imagination, resilience, and courage to our work
together. I am so proud of what they have accomplished, and I invite
you to come and see …
Come and see the gift of the surprises we found in how we teach and
learn, how we keep our community and neighborhood safe and
President Paul Pribbenow (Photo by
Courtney Perry)
healthy, how we live out our most deeply held commitments and
values, and how we are open to new and innovative ways of living and working.
Paul Pribbenow
@paulpribbenow
I’m out and about, delivering yard signs to the
@AugsburgU Class of 2024! Here’s Vanessa - a proud
new Auggie. #augsburgbold #auggiepride
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4:13 PM · Jun 30, 2020
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Come and see how we answered the call to serve our neighbors even when we must navigate the
challenges of a virus, economic disruption, and racial reckoning. Our focus on supporting local businesses,
meeting the needs of those experiencing homelessness, ensuring that all of our students have the
resources they need to be successful, and nding ways to feed the hungry—all these illustrate how our
community embraces its commitments to our neighbors.
Come and see the promise of abundance in a time and world too often characterized by scarcity. We believe
deeply in what the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone proclaimed: “We all do better when we all do better.”
Our abiding commitments to equity and inclusion—and our aspiration to be an anti-racist university—lead
us to robust engagement with each other and with the wider community so that all will do better.
Augsburg University is a distinctive community, de ning in its life and work a vision for higher education in
the 21st century. I am deeply grateful for the support of alumni and friends, whose generosity and
engagement help us live into our vision to educate Auggies as stewards of an inclusive democracy. Come
and see.
Faithfully yours,
Paul C. Pribbenow, President
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AUGSBURG BOARD OF REGENTS WELCOMES
NEW AND REELECTED MEMBERS
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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The Augsburg University Board of Regents meeting in October 2020 included celebration of the
election of new and continuing regents.
James Hereford and Veena Iyer were elected to their rst four-year terms.
Nick Gangestad ’86, Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, Jill Nelson Thomas, and Noya
Woodrich ’92, ’94 MSW were elected to second four-year terms.
Pam Moksnes ’79 was elected to a third four-year term.
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Finally, Bishop Laurie Skow-Anderson and Bishop Ann Svennungsen were appointed to serve
three-year terms as ex o cio members of the board.
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Nick Gangestad ’86
James Hereford
Veena Iyer
Pam Moksnes ’79
Jill Nelson Thomas
Laurie Skow-Anderson
Ann Svennungsen
Marlene Whiterabbit
Helgemo
Noya Woodrich ’92, ’94
MSW
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AUGSBURG’S RECENT AWARDS, RANKINGS,
AND RECOGNITION
by Briana Alamilla '17
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February 22, 2021
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Each year, Augsburg University is recognized for its academic excellence, student-centered community, and
commitment to educating students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and
responsible leaders.
Augsburg’s recent awards and rankings include:
2020 Best Colleges by Money
Most Transformative Colleges
2020–21 Military Friendly® School by Military Friendly®
2020 Best of the Best LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges and Universities, Midwest region by Campus Pride
Top 30 in the Country
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2020 Best Colleges For Financial Aid by LendEDU
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79th in the United States
2nd in Minnesota
2020 Best Value Colleges and Universities in Minnesota by BestValueSchools.com
2021 Best Universities, Midwest region by U.S. News & World Report
3rd in Most Innovative Schools
4th in Campus Ethnic Diversity
7th in Undergraduate Teaching
14th in Best Colleges for Veterans
15th in Best Value
Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs
Augsburg University’s Department of Business Administration was recently accredited for the
undergraduate and Master of Business Administration programs.
View more of Augsburg’s awards and rankings.
Top image: Augsburg’s Hagfors Center. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
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PLAYWRIGHTS’ CENTER PARTNERS WITH
AUGSBURG TO OFFER COURSES WITH
LEADING PLAYWRIGHTS
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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The Playwrights’ Center and Augsburg University announced a new partnership to o er accredited courses
taught by the nation’s leading playwrights. Through online courses, students connect with peers and faculty
members from across the United States. The courses, o ered through Augsburg’s Center for Global
Education and Experience, are guided by Augsburg’s Theater Department in conjunction with the
Playwrights’ Center.
“With these courses, students will learn with and from writers at the top of their eld, seeing what it takes to
have pieces published and performed,” said Patrick Mulvihill, Augsburg’s assistant provost for global
education and experience, in an interview with Broadway World.
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Top image: An Augsburg student tours the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. (Photo by Stephen Ge re)
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30th NSF grant, continues space weather study
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PROFESSOR EMERITUS MARK
ENGEBRETSON RECEIVES 30TH NSF GRANT,
CONTINUES SPACE WEATHER STUDY
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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Mark Engebretson, Augsburg University professor emeritus of
physics, received a ve-year grant totaling $805,744 from the National
Science Foundation (Award Number 2013648).
This grant supports the continued operation and data analysis of the
Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies, which is used to study
near-Earth space weather, such as solar winds that may disrupt
communication and navigation systems. It represents the 30th
research study on which Engebretson has served as the principal
investigator through NSF funding.
Engebretson has led several research projects—including some with
Augsburg student-researchers—studying ionospheric and space
physics in collaboration with European and NASA satellite programs.
Nearly 100 Augsburg students have gained paid research experience
working on these research projects.
Professor Emeritus Mark
Engebretson (Photo by Stephen Ge re)
Engebretson has authored or coauthored more than 300 scholarly
research articles on topics related to space weather.
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Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Star
Tribune, and Minnesota Urban Debate League
cosponsor justice reform essay contest
Playwrights’ Center partners with Augsburg to
o er courses with leading playwrights
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MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES AND LYNX,
STAR TRIBUNE, AND MINNESOTA URBAN
DEBATE LEAGUE COSPONSOR JUSTICE
REFORM ESSAY CONTEST
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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In Fall 2020, Augsburg University’s Minnesota Urban Debate League joined the Star Tribune news company
and the Minnesota Lynx and Minnesota Timberwolves professional basketball teams in cosponsoring a
youth essay contest focused on criminal justice reform.
Minnesota students ages 10 to 18 were invited to submit a written essay, video, or audio recording that
described local or national changes that could reduce racial injustice and inequities in the criminal justice
system. MNUDL determined the top 10 entries, which were judged by a panel of coaches from the
Timberwolves and Lynx and representatives from local organizations, including MN Rise and The
Minneapolis Foundation.
Editor’s note: Winning submissions were announced February 27 in the Star Tribune.
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Augsburg awarded $10,000 Minneapolis
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30th NSF grant, continues space weather study
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AUGSBURG AWARDED $10,000
MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION GRANT
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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In September 2020, the Minneapolis Foundation announced that it would award more than $500,000 in
grants to 40 organizations in the Twin Cities. Following the increased public dialogue about public safety
after the killing of George Floyd, the grants aim to reduce violence, address systemic inequities, and provide
community support.
The Minneapolis Foundation’s Fund for Safe Communities awarded $10,000 to Augsburg University to
elevate the voices of middle- and high-school students through debate on the topic of criminal justice
reform. Other grant recipients are organizations working to support art projects, mediation, mental health
services, civil rights education, and community healing while addressing police violence and public safety.
Top image: Demonstrators in Summer 2020 marched with a banner that was created as a part of Augsburg’s
One Day in May art campaign. (Photo by Leon Wang)
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Faculty members William Green and Timothy
Pippert assume new professorships
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AUGSBURG LAUNCHES THE CENTER FOR
INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
by Kate Norlander
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This fall, Augsburg University launched the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which advances
education and support for Augsburg students and alumni in the disciplines of innovation,
entrepreneurship, and leadership.
The center’s focus is on the practice and psychology of innovation and entrepreneurship. Cory Erickson, an
instructor in Augsburg’s Master of Business Administration program, leads the center.
The center provides practical educational material for Augsburg students and alumni through a variety of
events and activities. These opportunities include:
a speaker series
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cooperative projects between student teams and local companies
support for students who are building organizations that impact social causes through innovation
and entrepreneurship
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support for student entrepreneurs
the creation of student teams drawn from the science and business departments to solve problems
for new startups
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student contests o ering awards and potential funding for new ventures
research and scholarship through a think tank
the promotion of internships for students in the for-pro t, nonpro t, and government sectors.
Top image: Instructor Cory Erickson leads the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. (Photo by Courtney
Perry)
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FACULTY MEMBERS WILLIAM GREEN AND
TIMOTHY PIPPERT ASSUME NEW
PROFESSORSHIPS
by John Weirick
February 22, 2021
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Professor of History William Green was named the inaugural M. Anita
Gay Hawthorne Professor of Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies, e ective
September 1, 2020. The position was created on the recommendation of a
working group of students, faculty, and sta who developed a vision for a
new academic department in critical race and ethnicity studies at
Augsburg University.
Related: Professor William Green comments on “Confronting the Minnesota
paradox”
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Professor of Sociology Timothy Pippert was named the inaugural holder
of the Joel Torstenson Endowed Professorship, e ective September 1,
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2020. This professorship is made possible through the generosity of Mark
Johnson ’75, who also supports the university’s Torstenson Scholars
program.
Top image: Professor Timothy Pippert teaches a sociology class in
Hagfors Center. (Photos by Courtney Perry)
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NSF GRANTS AUGSBURG $3 MILLION FOR
STEM STUDENTS
by Kate Norlander
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Augsburg University will receive $3,075,000 of a $5 million grant award from the National Science
Foundation to support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students who are
pursuing bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (often referred to as
STEM).
The project will provide scholarships, internships, and research experiences for nearly 200 students over a
ve-year period beginning in the 2020–21 academic year at Augsburg, Century College, Minneapolis College,
and Normandale Community College. These institutions will work together to provide seamless pathways
for students to transfer from two-year to four-year STEM programs.
Scholarships of $7,500 to $10,000 will be awarded to students pursuing majors in biology, chemistry,
computer science, engineering, food science, mathematics, and physics. These students will be connected to
internships and research experiences through partner organizations SciTech, UpTurnships, and MnDRIVE,
as well as through Augsburg’s undergraduate research programs.
This is the third phase of a program initiated by Augsburg and funded by the NSF. Grants in the prior phases
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funded scholarships for 111 STEM students, 100% of whom graduated and went on to pursue careers or
continue their education in STEM elds.
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The project will be led by Rebekah Dupont, Augsburg’s director of STEM programs and associate professor
of mathematics, working in collaboration with principal investigators from the other participating
institutions.
Top image: Associate Professor Rebekah Dupont is director of STEM programs at Augsburg. (Courtesy
photo)
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AUGSBURG HOSTS BOLD NEW SPEAKER
SERIES
by Stephen Jendraszak
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Augsburg Bold is a series of initiatives designed to help Augsburg University students continue to
thrive during the pandemic and to enjoy the distinctive experience o ered at Augsburg.
As part of that work, during Fall 2020, the university quad was set up as a physically distanced outdoor
seminar room, enabling up to 60 attendees to take part in a series of remarkable presentations. All
presentations were also livestreamed via Zoom.
R.John
@raccajohn
Thank you, @GovTimWalz and @GwenWalz for
sharing your thoughts on servant leadership with
@AugsburgU today. #AugsburgBold
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5:15 PM · Oct 5, 2020
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Students had the opportunity to hear from several speakers:
Katie Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP spoke about her work building relationships with those in our
community who are experiencing homelessness and helping to ensure that their basic needs for
food, shelter, and health care are met.
Olivia House ’20 discussed the summer of resistance by Black youth.
Jodi Harpstead, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, spoke about
what she’s learned through her work during the pandemic.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Gwen Walz discussed their experience in education and
leadership.
Watch recordings of selected speakers at augsburg.edu/bold.
‹
›
Augsburg Bold speakers included Katie Clark ’10 MAN, ’14 DNP, and Gov. Tim Walz and Gwen Walz.
Students, sta , and faculty attended the socially distanced events on Augsburg’s campus or watched
the livestream online. (Photos by Rebecca Slater)
Top image: Augsburg’s quad was decorated for the Augsburg Bold speaker series. (Photo by Courtney
Perry)
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Doctor of Nursing Practice
Master of Arts in Nursing
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FORUM ON WORKPLACE INCLUSION TO
HOST FIRST VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
by Stephen Jendraszak
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The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, based at Augsburg University, will host its 33rd annual conference as a
virtual event March 8–12, 2021.
Workplaces have struggled during the past year to navigate a digital, distanced work environment brought
on by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, social protests centered around racism and the unjust
deaths of Black people at the hands of police have also brought greater attention to overwhelming
disparities in economics, education, health care, housing, and public safety.
This year, the forum asks: What will it take to start a workplace revolution that moves us from talk to
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Learn more and register to attend at forumworkplaceinclusion.org.
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AUGSBURG HOMECOMING (AT A DISTANCE)
by Briana Alamilla '17
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Homecoming 2020 celebrations looked a little di erent than previous years. Though social gatherings were
restricted, the Augsburg Student Activities Council found creative ways to celebrate with a series of events
during the week of September 21—some virtual and some physically distanced:
Cider and canvas: Spread out in the quad, students created paintings in the style of artist Bob Ross.
Create your own PopSocket: Participants made their own Augsburg-branded phone grip accessories.
Drag and lip sync battle: Students competed by submitting videos of themselves lip-syncing to a song.
Movie night: The lm “Queen & Slim” was screened in the quad.
Homecoming royalty coronation ceremony: Homecoming court members were announced and
royalty were crowned.
Top image: Students participate in an outdoor event sponsored by the Augsburg Student Activities Council.
(Photo by Courtney Perry)
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Cedar-Riverside supply drives support
neighborhood
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CEDAR-RIVERSIDE SUPPLY DRIVES SUPPORT
NEIGHBORHOOD
by Briana Alamilla '17
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The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the damage some businesses experienced following the murder of
George Floyd, put a strain on Augsburg’s Twin Cities community as many local stores temporarily closed
and access to public transportation was reduced. In June and August, Augsburg University organized supply
drives in partnership with the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
Drivers in more than 550 cars participated in the supply drives, and their donations were delivered to the
Brian Coyle Center through several dozen trips.
“This is our community; this is our neighborhood,” one volunteer said. “So when our neighbors are hurting,
we step forward and do what we can to help.”
Read more about Auggies’ e orts to support the community: “What it takes to ght a pandemic.”
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Augsburg’s supply drive was a success! Thank you to all
who donated and volunteered to help out our so loved
Cedar-Riverside community. It is in times like these
where we must all come together as the thoughtful
stewards that we are. #AuggiePride
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9:51 PM · Jun 1, 2020
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Top image: Auggies collected donations for the Twin Cities community in Summer 2020. (Photo by Joe Mann)
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Scholarship recipients
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AUGSBURG NAMES GEORGE FLOYD
MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
by Briana Alamilla '17
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Augsburg University created the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship, which is designed to support
outstanding third- and fourth-year students who have a strong understanding of Black experiences
and U.S. history while showing leadership in advancing racial justice e orts. Each selected student
received a $5,000 scholarship.
Augsburg named the ve inaugural scholarship recipients:
Aisha Abdi ’21 is majoring in management information systems and marketing.
Quran Al-Hameed ’21 is majoring in psychology.
Mallory Ferguson ’21 is majoring in communication studies.
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Kaltun Hassan ’22 is majoring in computer science.
Nadirah McGill ’21 is majoring in music business.
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Aisha Abdi ’21, management
information systems and marketing
Quran Al-Hameed ’21, psychology
Kaltun Hassan ’22, computer science
Nadirah McGill ’21, music business
(Courtesy photo)
Mallory Ferguson ’21, communication
studies
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PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS AND THEIR
FAMILIES ENGAGE WITH VIRTUAL CAMPUS
TOUR
Multimedia platform o ers a glimpse of Augsburg from afar
by Laura Swanson Lindahl '15 MBA
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For the past year, Augsburg University’s virtual tour has
showcased the Minneapolis campus’ facilities and resources as it
has been challenging to conduct in-person visits due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. As a multimedia interactive map with
photos and videos, the virtual tour simulates an on-the-ground
campus experience. The virtual tour o ers a look at Augsburg’s
residence halls and athletic facilities, details about academic
buildings and green spaces, and a peek inside performance
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venues and practice rooms. The virtual tour launched in March
2020 to help out-of-state and international populations visualize
the campus.
From its launch in March,
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2020, through February 1,
Check out the virtual tour at augsburg.university-tour.com.
2021, the virtual tour has
had 32,421 visitors. The top
states visitors are from are
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Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Iowa, Texas, and
California.
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AUGSBURG TRIO/STUDENT SUPPORT
SERVICES EARNS FIFTH CONSECUTIVE U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION GRANT
by Laura Swanson Lindahl '15 MBA
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The U.S. Department of Education announced that Augsburg University was awarded a federal Student
Support Services ve-year grant of nearly $300,000 annually to help more students succeed in and graduate
from college. This is the fth TRIO/SSS grant awarded to Augsburg, which has hosted the project since 2001.
Each year, Augsburg TRIO/SSS serves about 160 undergraduate students.
The TRIO/SSS program is designed for students who are the rst in their families to attend post-secondary
education, students who are low income, or students with disabilities. The grant funds an array of services
including academic skill development, academic advising, tutoring, nancial aid advice, and nancial literacy.
“Augsburg TRIO/SSS has established a reputation for helping students navigate
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higher education to achieve their academic goals,” said Aly Olson, director of
Augsburg TRIO/SSS.
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“Students know their TRIO advisor is looking out for their best interests and
helps them through the tough decisions of college life. We are thrilled to be able
to continue this important work at Augsburg.” —Aly Olson
Aly Olson (Photo by Courtney
Perry)
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The federal government contributes about 70% of the funds needed to
support Augsburg’s TRIO/SSS project. The university contributes the remaining program funds.
Top image: Brooklyn Jones ’22, clinical psychology major and sociology minor, attends a Summer Bridge
class in 2019. (Photo by Bob Stack ’71)
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AUGSBURG RECEIVES GRANTS FOR EQUITY
IN EDUCATION AND REMOTE LEARNING
by Laura Swanson Lindahl '15 MBA
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This fall, Augsburg University received $250,000 in grant funding from the State of Minnesota to address
equity in education and remote learning needs among students of color, Indigenous students, and those
who are disabled or low-income.
The funds came through two awards under the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief grant. One award
provided direct aid to teacher candidates who needed to pay unexpected costs posed by the pandemic
during their student teaching semester and coursework.
The second award was geared toward making hardware and software available to more students to
support them in their switch to online learning. This support included additional laptops for checkout,
noise-cancelling headphones, digital tablets for art and math courses, training resources for successful
online learning, new digital video resources in the library, and captioning of instructional videos to increase
accessibility. The GEER grant program was a redistribution of federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act funds.
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Top image: A redistribution of federal CARES Act funds provided support for Augsburg students’ online
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learning. (Photo by Courtney Perry)
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IN MEMORIAM, WINTER 2020–21
Remembering and honoring Auggies
by Amanda Symes '09, '15 MFA
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Below we recognize the alumni and friends whose noti cations of death were received between March 1,
2020, and January 1, 2021.
1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970| 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | Faculty
1940s
Fern L. (Hanson) Gudmestad ’41, Minneapolis, age 101, on June 3.
Wayne E. Peterson ’43, Palm City, Florida, age 99, on November 14.
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Thelma I. (Erickson) Mckenzie ’44, Hollandale, Wisconsin, age 96, on July 1.
Helen V. (Odden) Pederson ’45, Spooner, Wisconsin, age 96, on May 5.
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Doris K. (Larson) Walen ’45, Alamo, North Dakota, age 97, on October 3.
Martha E. Fosse Palmquist ’46, Lakeville, Minnesota, age 96, on November 22.
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Lowell O. Larson ’47, Claremont, California, age 95, on May 10.
Arnold J. Oie ’47, Glencoe, Minnesota, age 96, on August 1.
Margery A. (Manger) Torgerson ’47, Circle Pines, Minnesota, age 94, on March 30.
Esther P. (Bakken) Crosby ’48, Moorhead, Minnesota, age 95, on June 19.
John E. Hanson ’48, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 93, on October 1.
Jean A. (Tibke) Vane ’48, Visalia, California, age 93, on October 20.
John F. Anderson ’49, Minneapolis, age 96, on December 22.
June (Carlson) Gustafson ’49, Lincoln, Nebraska, age 92, on September 28.
1950s
Louis L. Ennen ’50, Dublin, Ohio, age 94, on July 7.
Lilian J. (Johnson) Ingersoll ’50, Lexington, South Carolina, age 96, on June 5.
Phillip A. Quanbeck ’50, Maple Grove, Minnesota, age 93, on December 1.
Mary L. (Johnson) Froiland ’50, Iron River, Wisconsin, age 91, on October 22.
Orville E. Meland ’51, River Falls, Wisconsin, age 93, on October 27.
Caroline J. (Borsheim) Melhus’ 51, Minneapolis, age 90, on May 31.
Arvid D. Dixen ’52, Minneapolis, age 89, on May 20.
Harold J. Hansen ’52, Normandy Park, Washington, age 90, on April 17.
Luther J. Larson ’52, Sparta, Wisconsin, age 89, on July 6.
Mildred A. Nelson ’52, Minneapolis, age 91, December 5.
Alvin H. Nygard ’52, Fargo, North Dakota, age 96, on July 31.
Yvonne M. (Bagley) Olson ’52, Burnsville, Minnesota, age 88, on March 16.
Orville L. Olson ’52, Burnsville, Minnesota, age 89, on June 6.
Ronald A. Berge ’53, West Fargo, North Dakota, age 88, on March 15.
Robert O. Bruder ’53, Minneapolis, age 91, on August 9.
Donald V. Dillon ’53, Minneapolis, age 89, on July 17.
Kent B. Quanbeck ’53, McVille, North Dakota, age 90, on April 6.
Gloria M. (Halverson) Boyum ’54, Kenyon, Minnesota, age 88, on December 19.
George W. Fisher ’54, Lexington, South Carolina, age 88, on May 11.
Wallace L. Hafstad ’54, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 88, on March 30.
Janis R. (Larson) Hanson ’54, Canby, Minnesota, age 92, on October 2.
Vivian (Waisanen) Ryden ’54, Northglenn, Colorado, age 87, on May 4.
Richard M. Hagestuen ’55, Bismarck, North Dakota, age 87, on October 28.
Robert M. Herman ’55, Minneapolis, age 86, on June 8.
Vicent Peterson ’55, Hutchinson, Minnesota, age 87, on November 11.
Richard H. Stensrud ’55, Mesa, Arizona, age 87, on August 25.
LeRoy E. Nevin ’56, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, age 86, on June 7.
R. Luther Olson ’56, Tucson, Arizona, age 84, on August 27.
Bruce W. Rorvig ’56, Kalispell, Montana, age 85, on August 18.
Duane J. Solem ’56, Edina, Minnesota, age 91, on May 2.
Elizabeth A. (Mortensen) Swanson ’56, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 86, on November 6.
Robert Jeska ’57, East Grand Forks, Minnesota, age 85, May 21.
Erwin J. Moe ’57, Plymouth, Minnesota, age 88, on April 28.
Robert C. Oslund ’57, Silver Bay, Minnesota, age 89, on December 4.
Ronald B. Welde ’57, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, age 86, on September 4.
Ardis H. (Lee) Zunich ’57, Miles City, Montana, age 82, on July 18.
Robert L. Bagley ’58, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, age 84, on November 23.
Bonnie (Sandvig) Erickson ’58, Canton, South Dakota, age 83, on May 9.
Alice M. (Lindell) Lindgren ’58, Bemidji, Minnesota, age 83, on September 11.
Marlene (Hegg) Ridens ’58, Montevideo, Minnesota, age 85, August 19.
Donald J. Hagestuen ’59, Aitkin, Minnesota, age 83, on October 29.
Arlene B. (Selander) Hill ’59, Allegan, Michigan, age 82, on September 11.
Rhoda M. (Monseth) Huglen ’59, Roseau, Minnesota, age 83, on August 19.
Heinrich Kopka ’59, Staples, Minnesota, age 85, on November 28.
Walter W. Lundeen ’59, Minneapolis, age 89, on December 20.
Richard G. Sletten ’59, North Oaks, Minnesota, age 82, on August 13.
Peggy K. (O’Neil) Swensen ’59, Fargo, North Dakota, age 82, on April 11.
Sharon K. (Grodt) West ’59, Chisago City, Minnesota, age 83, on March 16.
1960s
Gordon Grinely ’60, Eau Galle Township, Wisconsin, age 82, on June 25.
Marcia S. (Refsal) Sanders ’60, Chandler, Arizona, age 81, on October 13.
Kermit L. Valleen ’60, Cambridge, Minnesota, age 83, November 16.
Paula J. Bjorkley Carlson ’62, Madras, Oregon, age 80, on December 5.
Allan P. Tveite ’62, Lakeville, Minnesota, age 80, on November 18.
E. Nelvin Botten ’63, Stanwood, Washington, age 91, on September 16.
Bernard E. Debar ’63, Minneapolis, age 89, on May 11.
Helen A. (Anderson) Gildseth ’63, Duluth, Minnesota, age 78, on March 17.
Lois J. (Bailey) Parson ’63, Braham, Minnesota, age 80, August 19.
Clarice A. Sta
’63, Minneapolis, age 84, on April 9.
Patrick J. Sullivan ’63, Miltona, Minnesota, age 79, on June 26.
Lannette Y. (Haire) Reshetar ’64, Andover, Minnesota, age 77, on April 8.
Lesley K. (Schwarten) Schmid ’64, Blaine, Minnesota, age 78, on June 12.
Joyce M. (Nelson) Schrader ’64, Friendswood, Texas, age 77, on June 28.
Susan L. Kyllo ’65, Spring Park, Minnesota, age 78, on December 16.
Sharon (Tofte) Taeger ’65, Camrose, Canada, age 77, on April 4.
Sharon L. (Wagner) Johnson ’66, Atikokan, Canada, age 76, on November 29.
Sandra (Johnson) Kotval ’66, Spring Valley, Wisconsin, age 76, on October 15.
Irene (Seltvedt) Yost ’66, Dickinson, North Dakota, age 77, on July 21.
David E. Sylvester ’67, Cloquet, Minnesota, age 81, on October 29.
Ruthe M. (Tollefson) Enstad ’68, Prior Lake, Minnesota, age 75, on October 15.
Marvin J. Haara ’68, Hutchinson, Minnesota, age 76, on August 26.
Ellen M. (Larson) Johnston ’68, Mankato, Minnesota, age 73, on August 16.
Merrill D. Ronning ’68, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 75, on August 18.
John P. Weinard ’68, Bloomington, Minnesota, age 81, on December 12.
Douglas S. Anderson ’69, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 72, on April 10.
Mervin F. Larson ’69, Excelsior, Minnesota, age 73, on August 30.
1970s
Gloria J. (Wohlers Livingston) Hutchinson ’70, Falcon Heights, Minnesota, age 71, on July 1.
Kathy J. (Kropelin) Cracraft ’71, Minneapolis, age 70, on July 13.
Michael J. Hostetler ’71, Andover, Minnesota, age 71, on August 7.
Joann S. Bell ’72, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 70, on August 9.
Vicki C. (Linder) Lind ’72, Rosemount, Minnesota, age 70, on November 4.
Je rey P. Ross ’72, Sheburn, Minnesota, age 64, on April 26.
Jean L. (Bridges) Wachs ’73, Minneapolis, age 68, on June 4.
David W. Finson ’75, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 67, on June 17.
Douglas A. Fish ’75, Hastings, Minnesota, age 68, on November 24.
Lois B. Wattman ’76, St. Paul, Minnesota, age 66, on September 28.
Gregory J. Bannon ’77, Albertville, Minnesota, age 66, on August 15.
1980s
Sandra J. Holm-Cyr ’82, Rich eld, Minnesota, age 72, on April 15.
Arlene D. Hiles ’86, Stillwater, Minnesota, age 87, on September 11.
1990s
Richard A. Gillitzer ’91, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, age 53, on May 24.
Judith A. Francis ’92, Mound, Minnesota, age 80, on October 12.
John S. Austin ’93, Minneapolis, age 70, on December 1.
Debra J. Clark-Corley ’93, Gary, Indiana, age 65, on April 6.
Nancy C. Sallman ’93, Minneapolis, age 65, on September 14.
Violet E. (Schmitz) Rocek ’94, Minneapolis, age 85, on December 6.
Eileen J. (Bridgeman) Biernat ’98, New Brighton, Minnesota, age 74, on September 4.
2000s
Dylan E. Cook ’00, Christchurch, New Zealand, age 44, on September 7.
Kelly A. (Duncan) Norden ’00, Minneapolis, age 42, on October 3.
Philip R. Johnson ’04, Nisswa, Minnesota, age 56, on April 11.
Michael R. Kuhlmann ’04, Minneapolis, age 39, on August 11.
Christopher R. Hunnicutt ’08, Green Bay, Wisconsin, age 35, on March 27.
Barton M. Lund ’08, Stuart, Florida, age 56, on December 12.
2010s
Quinten P. Bissonette ’12, Spring Valley, Minnesota, age 43, on May 5.
Shane M. Potter ’15, Garrison, Minnesota, age 31, on December 13.
J. Parker Foley ’16, Duxbury, Massachusetts, age 27, on October 21.
Maricio M. Mata-Thelen ’17, Minneapolis, age 26, on October 31.
Kevin J. Baxter ’19, Burnsville, Minnesota, age 29, on November 2.
2020s
Abdirizak A. Abdullahi ’21, Minneapolis, age 21, on April 26.
Faculty
Augsburg University’s Center for Global Education and Experience Guatemala Site Director Fidel Xinico
Tum, San Lucas Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, age 60, on September 12.
Submit address changes and nominations for remembrances to alumniupdate@augsburg.edu.
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Augsburg receives $50,000 grant for Travelers
EDGE®
Augsburg receives grants for equity in education
and remote learning
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AUGSBURG RECEIVES $50,000 GRANT FOR
TRAVELERS EDGE®
by John Weirick
February 18, 2021
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The Travelers Companies, Inc. gave a $50,000 grant to Augsburg University in September 2020 to
support Travelers EDGE. The program—which stands for Empowering Dreams for Graduation and
Employment—provides scholarships, internships, job shadowing, professional development
opportunities, and career advice. More than 100 Augsburg students have participated in the program
since 2007.
“There is much more to be gained from Travelers EDGE than solely professional development,” said
Ann A. Ulring, program manager at Augsburg’s Strommen Center for Meaningful Work. “By the time
scholars graduate, they are con dent, career-focused, and empowered to share who they are and
what they have to o er.”
EDGE scholar Samantha Lopez ’22, who completed a summer internship at Travelers, said, “Travelers
has opened so many doors for me. It was amazing to learn rsthand what goes on inside a corporation
and nd out I can do the work. Travelers provided me with the support, skills, and con dence I need to
pursue a business career.”
2020–21 Recipients
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Aaron Davis ’24, Business Management
Yer Her ’23, Marketing
Pa Houa Lee ’23, Marketing
Hamza Jamari ’22, Marketing
Duaa Katabay ’23, Business
Management
Curtis Love ’23, Marketing
Samantha Lopez ’22, Communication
Studies
PangDao Xiong ’24, Marketing
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Top image: Samantha Lopez ’22 is one of several Travelers EDGE scholars at Augsburg. (Photos by
Courtney Perry)
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In memoriam, Winter 2020–21
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GIVE TO THE MAX DAY RECAP AND
SUSTAINING AUGSBURG’S FUTURE
Thank you for supporting Augsburg during Give to the Max Day!
by Amanda Symes '09, '15 MFA
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January 26, 2021
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This November, Augsburg had a record-breaking Give to the Max
Day in terms of donor participation and dollars raised. Here are the
highlights:
• $531,704 was raised across 41 projects, setting a new record.
• 1,898 total donors gave, the most we’ve ever seen.
• Gifts came from 41 states.
• 56% of our 41 projects (23 projects) were fully funded, and many others were very close to fully
funded.
• One couple gave to 17 projects.
This day continues to energize our students, faculty, and sta every
year, and we can’t wait to see what we can accomplish next year.
Watch this video from our students who would like to say a quick
thank you.
Make a di erence all year round
Each year, 20% of the annual gifts to the Augsburg Fund come during Give to the Max Day. But giving
to the Augsburg Fund matters all year round: We use these dollars to make a di erence for Auggies
right away through scholarships, instruction and academic support, student programs, and other
areas of the largest funding needs at Augsburg.
Gifts to the Augsburg Fund touch the life of every student, faculty member, and sta member. More
than 1,000 donors contribute to the fund each year, and you can join them.
Make a di erence today. Give to the Augsburg Fund.
Giving creates a ripple e ect for the future of
Augsburg
When a water droplet hits the surface of a pond, it causes a ripple much larger than the original drop.
This is how your gift a ects Augsburg.
Glass water droplet sculptures, created by Rhode Island artists, represent the expanding e ect that
donors provide for the Augsburg community. Learn more about these water droplets and how
endowed scholarships propel Augsburg’s work into the future.
Lisa Smith and Dave Smith
Sharon Mortrud ’64 (Courtesy
Dennis Meyer ’78 and Bev ’78
(Courtesy photo)
photo)
Meyer (Courtesy photo)
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21
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NOTES
FROM
PRESIDENT
PRIBBENOW
As we concludeour
yearlongcelebration
of Augsburg's150th
anniversary,
in the midst
of thesehistorictimes, I havebeenreflectingon someof
the mottosand slogansAugsburghasusedthroughoutits
history.Fromour foundingscripturalmotto-"And the Word
becamefleshand live... Show more
NOTES
FROM
PRESIDENT
PRIBBENOW
As we concludeour
yearlongcelebration
of Augsburg's150th
anniversary,
in the midst
of thesehistorictimes, I havebeenreflectingon someof
the mottosand slogansAugsburghasusedthroughoutits
history.Fromour foundingscripturalmotto-"And the Word
becamefleshand livedamongus" (John1: 14)-to the
familiar "Educationfor service,"to the morerecent"We
believewe arecalledto serveour neighbor,"to the iconic
phrasefirst usedas part of Augsburg's100th anniversary
and nowfeaturedon our universityseal,"Throughtruth to
freedom,"eachphrasepointsto abidingvaluesthat are at
the heartof the educationAugsburgoffersto its students.
I am particularlystruck by the claim madein that
centennialmotto,and I wonderwhat it might mean
to explorehow"Throughtruth to freedom"shapesour
teachingand learningcommunityin the midst of these
pandemictimes.
In a recentpresentation,Professorof ReligionMary
Lowe
offereda provocativechallengewhensheaskedus
what it might meanto educateour studentsfor freedom.
Whata counterculturalnotion! Educatedfor freedomfrom
ignorance,from oppression,from divisionand hatredand
violence.Educatedfor freedomto makethe worldmorefair
and just and healthy,to be goodneighbors,to take careof
creation.Educatedfor freedomfor the sakeof the world,for
the goodof others,for the promiseof wonderand creativity.
At Augsburg,the possibilityof this educationfor freedom
is groundedin claimsof truth. Aboveall, a theological
claim of the truth of the gospelof JesusChrist-stated so
powerfullyin that foundingscripturalmottofrom the first
chapterof John'sgospel-a truth that makesall things
possiblein our livesandwork in the world.At the same
time, it's the truth wefind in our commitmentto a liberal
arts education-to the belief in scientificknowledge,in
socialanalysis,in artistic expression,in culturalwisdom.
Andfinally, it's the truth we find in the livedexperiences
of
our studentsand the communitiesfrom whichthey come,
truths that residein rituals andtraditionsand practicesthat
invite us into worldsrich in knowledgeand wonder.
"Throughtruth to freedom"strikesme as a compelling
responseto this momentwhenwe find ourselvesliving
at the intersectionof three pandemics.TheCOVID-19
pandemichasdisruptedall aspectsof howwe live and
work,and it haspointedlyi11ustratedthe tensionbetween
public healthand economicwell-being.Followingin the
wakeof that pandemic,an economicpandemicthreatens
our socialfabric with massiveunemployment
and business
closuresworldwide.And, mostrecently,the racial inequities
exacerbated
by the senselessmurderof GeorgeFloydby
Minneapolispoliceofficers-along with countlessBlack,
Indigenous,and otherpeopleof colorwho'veexperienced
similar racismandviolence-havecreateda third pandemic
that threatensto tear our countryapart.Surelythis
unchartedintersectionof crisespresentsuniquechallenges
for all of us as citizens,tryingto imaginehowwe will
navigateto someas yet unknownfuture.
The questionwe will ask at Augsburg-a questionat
the heartof our academicmissionand our commitment
to socialjustice-is, "Whereis the truth in the midst of
thesepandemics?"
Whatis the truth aboutkeepingeachotherhealthy
in the face of a novelcoronavirus?
Whatis the truth in
an economythat, moreand more,deepensremarkable
inequities?Whatis the truth in centuriesof systemic
racismand oppression?
Andthe truths we will find, always
evolvingand emergingand transforming,will free us for the
workwe are calledto do as "informedcitizens,thoughtful
stewards,critical thinkers,and responsibleleaders"Augsburg'smission!
Let us go forwardtogetherinto the next 150 yearsof
Augsburg'slife recommittedto educationguidedby the
beliefthat throughtruth there is indeedfreedom.I can only
wonderwhatsucha counterculturalbeliefwill meanfor
storiesyet to be told.
Staystrong,safe,andwelI.
Faithfullyyours,
PAUL
C.PRIBBENOW,
PRESIDENT
AUGSBURG
NOW
Spring-Summer
2020
VicePresident
and
Chief
Operating
Officer
Rebecca
John'13MBA
Associate
VicePresident
and
Chief
Marketing
Officer
Stephen
Jendraszak
Director
ofMarketing
Laura
Swanson
Lindahl
'15MBA
Director
ofPublic
Relations
andInternal
Communications
GitaSitaramiah
Assistant
Director
of
Marketing,
Creative
Denielle
Stepka
'11
Marketing
Copywriter
John
Weirick
Communication
and
Social
Media
Specialist
Briana
Alamilla
'17
EDITOR'S
NOTE
Whenwe beganmakingthis magazinein early2020, the worldwas markedlydifferent
than the onewe inhabit today.AugsburgNowstaff delayedthe magazine'stimeline due
to the impactof the COVID-19 pandemicon the university'soperations.
Mostof the storiesand eventsdescribedhereinoccurredbeforeit becamenecessary
to shift to manyworkingfrom home,online gatherings,and other modifiedoperations
to slowthe spreadof the virus.
Becausewe wantedto sharetheseremarkablestoriesand Auggieaccomplishments
as soonas possible,our team decidedto releasethis issuein digital-onlyformat, a first
in the magazine'shistory.
-John Weirick,editor
Project
Manager
JuliKramer
Communications
and
Social
Media
Consultant
KateNorlander
Advancement
Communications
Specialist
KaiaChambers
Senior
Communications
Specialist
forPrincipal
Gifts
Amanda
Symes
'09,'15MFA
WebManager
JoeMann
Contributing
Writer
KateH.Elliott
Augsburg
Nowis published
by
Augsburg
University
2211Riverside
Avenue
Minneapolis,
MN55454
Opinions
expressed
inAugsburg
Now
donotnecessarily
reflect
official
university
policy.
ISSN
1058-1545
02 AROUND
THE
QUAD
AWOMEN'S
WRESTLING
10 HOWTOBUILD
PROGRAM
FROM
SCRATCH
18 MISTAKEN
IDENTITY
24 HONORING
AUGGIES
25 AUGGIES
CONNECT
28 CLASS
NOTES
32 INMEMORIAM
Onthecover:
Augsburg
commemorates
aneventin
itshistory
andreflects
onits
significance
fortoday.
See
page2 andpage8.
Allphotos
byCourtney
Perry
unless
otherwise
indicated
Send
address
corrections
to
alumniupdate@augsburg.edu.
Send
comments
to
now@augsburg.edu.
COMMENCEMENT
2020
On Friday, May 29, and Sunday, May 31, Augsburg University celebrated commencement virtually.
Taking precautions to slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, Augsburg was among
numerous institutions nationally that hosted virtual celebrations to recognize graduating students. The
streamed online event opened with speeches from Provost KarenKaivolaand President PaulPribbenow.
Personalized slides for graduates included photos and messages that the students submitted.
Friends and family posted comments to the video stream as they watched the event. Students took
to social media to share their
graduation posts using the hashtag
#AuggieGrad.
Once it's again safe to host
large gatherings, Augsburg wi 11
plan an in-person ceremony
for the Class of 2020 that will
include many more familiar
commencement traditions.
ONE
DAY
INMAY
This year's commencement celebration featured a central theme, chosen in April, that connected
defining moments in Augsburg's history with its contemporary reality. Uplifting the university's
longstanding commitments to equity and inclusion, the theme "68/20: One Day in May" called
the university community to explore the actions and outcomes of events in 1968 to consider their
relevance for 2020.
Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Augsburg canceled classes on May 15,
1968, and hosted a series of workshops and lectures. Augsburg faculty and local Black community
members led conversations focused on racism, politics, power, education, and violence-significant
tensions in American life in 1968. This year, Augsburg presented honorary degrees during the virtual
commencement, recognizing two leaders of the historic One Day in May in 1968: the Hon. LaJune
ThomasLange'75 and MahmoudEl-Kati.
Augsburg owes a debt of gratitude to the leaders of One Day in May, an event that continues
to inform and inspire the university community to engage in efforts for equity and justice. Their
contributions to our society and to Augsburg resonated strongly in the virtual commencement
ceremonies, which took place just days after George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police.
Blackartists,alongwith Indigenous
andotherstudentsandcommunity
members
of color,ledanart campaign
to upliftOneDayin Mayduring
Augsburg
's sesquicentennial
celebration.
e
Hearaudiorecordings
fromtheeventin 1968,andseemoreOne
I Dayin Mayart, includinga bannerthat appeared
in TheNew
Yorker,
at augsburg.edu/now.
rt at
u s ur
Fac
ulty,
vvorkS
1
prese
nt
g.StgJl
SERIES
SPEAKERS
THE
ART
OFAUGSBURGCONVOCATION
The Augsburg University Convocation Series is an annual
As part of the university's yearlong celebration of its 150th
speaker series that includes long-standing endowed and
anniversary, KristinAnderson,
professor of art history and
special programs. Recent presenters included:
archivist, curated an exhibition of works by Augsburg art faculty
dating back to the origin of the department in the 1950s. The
exhibit included works by early department members, such as
HansBergand IvanDoseff,former longtime faculty members,
including NormHolenand PhilThompson,
and current faculty
members Stephen
Geffre,ChrisHoultberg,
DanIbarra,roberttom,
LyzWendland,and others.
1. DeAnna Cummings, chief executive officer of
Juxtaposition Arts, who shared a presentation at
the Horbal Lecture in November called "Putting
Creativity to Work 2025: Stronger Communities
Through Local Art and Design"
2. John S. Wright, professor emeritus of English
and African American and African Studies at the
University of Minnesota, who delivered "Where Do
,,1.··.f
,.
..
>
•
"
-~
We Go From Here: Chaos or Community" at the 32nd
annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation in January
3. Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and
law at New York University, who presented "Ethics,
Identity, and Cosmopolitanism"
at the Batalden
Seminar in Applied Ethics in March
Thefacultyartexhibitwasdisplayed
intheChristensen
Center
ArtGallery.
4
AUGSBURG
NOW
AROUND
THEQUAD
Hearst
Foundation
awards
Augsburg
I
Lto R:President
PaulPribbenow,
PeterHeegaard,
andMikeChristensen
$75,000
FOR
LEAD
FELLOWS
PROGRAM
URBAN
INVESTORS
FINDSNEWHOME
ATAUGSBURG
Last November,Augsburg University's Sabo Center for Democracyand
Citizenship and the Strommen Center for Meaningful Work welcomed
a new campus partner: Urban Investors. Formerly known as Urban
Adventure, this program helps bankers understand the challenges and
opportunities within cities through experiential learning opportunities.
The program also facilitates partnerships between public, private, and
LEAD Fellows, a program of Augsburg
University's Sabo Center for Democracyand
Citizenship, this winter received $75,000
from the Hearst Foundation, Inc. to support
students as they pursue in-depth, long-term,
community-based work at paid internships.
The program name stands for Leaders for
Equity, Action,
and Democracy.
nonprofit groups and promotes investment and community development
Students spend
that move families out of poverty, revitalize neighborhoods, improve
two to four
years engaged
schools, and build economic opportunity.
in public work
projects that
address social
/i: THE AUGSBURG
~iPODCAST:SEASON3
issues such
Augsburg
's LEAD
Fellows
program
is affiliatedwiththe
far-reaching
Bonner
Program
that aimsto transform
students,
communities,
andcampuses
throughservice.
as education,
homelessness,
racial justice,
and poverty
while also
The first two seasonsof the
participating in a peer learning cohort.
The LEAD Fellows program is unique in
Augsburg Podcastfeatured
that it offers students a pathway to generate
faculty and staff sharing stories
income while also making a difference and
growing as leaders. The program is cohort-
of their work with students. The
third season, launched in March,
based with a strong support framework that
takes a new approach and invites
helps students to develop connections with
students and a recent graduate
peers and mentors, build their sense of
MIDCO
to discuss their experiences
with internships and the ways
belonging, and hone their leadership skills.
The Hearst Foundation award will fund
in which Augsburg has helped
the pay students receive for their internships
support their personal and
educational goals.
and will enhance cohort activities, including
semiannual retreats and biweekly gatherings.
Listentothenewseason
at
•
I augsburg.edu/podcast
or
inyourpodcast
app.
Barclay
Bates'18
SPRING
SUMMfR
?020
5
AROUND
THEQUAD
HONORING
RetiringFaculty
Several faculty members are entering
retirement following years of dedicated
service to Augsburg University. Augsburg is
grateful for their commitment to advancing
the university's mission and supporting
TheDoctor
ofPsychology
inClinical
Psychology
degree
launches
to meetgrowing
demand
This past November, the university introduced its second doctoral
program: a Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology. Augsburg's first,
the Doctor of Nursing Practice, began in 2010.
Augsburg worked with former Minnesota School of Professional
Psychology faculty and staff to provide continuity for students who were
student learning within and beyond the
classroom.
JOHN
CERRITO
AssistantProfessor
, Department
of Business-joined
Augsburgin 1983
MARGARET
FINDERS
Professor
, Department
of Education-joinedAugsburg
previously enrol led in the program housed at Argosy University. After
in 2014
the closure of Argosy in March 2019, Augsburg
earned accreditation to become Minnesota's only
MARK
FUEHRER
university offering an in-person PsyD program in
A
9'
clinical psychology.
Augsburg
is now
accepting
applications.
augsbu
rg.edu/psyd
Professor
, Department
of Philosophy-joined
Augsburgin 1971
Employment of Iicensed psychologists and
related occupations is projected to grow 13. 7% from 2016 to 2026 in
DAWN
KADERABEK
'18 DNP
the United States.
"We are pleased to offer this PsyD program as a way to meet the
in 2015
growing demand for mental health services statewide," said Monica
VIRGINIA
MCCARTHY
Devers,Augsburg University dean of professional studies.
Associate
Professor
, Department
of Nursing-joined
Augsburgin 2011
Instructor
, Department
of Nursing-joinedAugsburg
NANCY
RODENBORG
Augsburg
winsCampus
Compact
ImpactAward
Professor
, Department
of SocialWork-joined
Augsburgin 2000
Campus Compact, a network of universities across the United States
MICHAEL
SCHOCK
that are committed to public engagement in higher education, honored
Associate
Professor
, Department
of SocialWork-
Augsburg University as an inaugural
joinedAugsburgin 1993
recipient of the Richard Guarasci
Award for Institutional Transformation.
NANCY
STEBLAY
Augsburg was selected for its work
Professor
, Department
of Psychology-joined
Augsburg
in developing partnerships with
the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood
on page18.)
in 1988(Readaboutherresearch
MARTHA
STORTZ
and advancing environmental
BernhardM. Christensen
Professor
of Vocation
and
Religion-joinedAugsburgin 2010
sustainability, interfaith leadership,
and equity and racial justice .
6
AUGSBURG
NOW
•
Watchthevideousedto introduce
Augsburg
at
theawardceremony
at augsburg.edu/now.
MARK
TRANVIK
Professor
, Department
of Religion-joinedAugsburg
in 1995
At a specialchapelservice
duringtheJanuary2020
AugsburgUniversity
Board
of Regentsmeeting,Bishop
AnnSvennungsen
of the
Minneapolis
AreaSynodof the
Evangelical
LutheranChurch
in Americaofficiallyinstalled
BabetteChatman
'06, left,
as
andJustinLind-Ayres
Augsburg's
universitypastors.
Augsburg
community
launches
on-campus
lending
shop
to reduce
wasteandpromote
reuse
Augsburg's Environmental Stewardship
Committee and Campus Cupboard food
pantry collaborated in Fall 2019 to pilot a
President
PaulPribbenow
shares
Augsburg's
storyat ~ the
~r~~~::~i•i:~:::~~:
~~~:i~~~®
the
O
new resource: the Share Shop, which offers
a wide variety of items for free, short-
Augsburg story during a session
called, "Hospitality is Not
term checkout. The Share Shop currently
Enough: An Institutional Journey From Diversity to Inclusion and
Equity" at The Forum on Workplace Inclusion conference.
features board games, small appliances,
office supplies, sewing kits, sports
equipment, tools, and much more.
Augsburg, home of The Forum on Workplace Inclusion since
last summer, is "proud to partner with the forum to help expand
The Share Shop follows the same hours
of operation as Augsburg's Campus
diversity, equity, and inclusion skills, so our students can fully
participate and succeed in the workforce," Pribbenow said.
Cupboard and is located in the lowest
level of Science Hal I, adjacent to the
university's longstanding "free table,"
where Auggies place items they no longer
need and wish to offer to new owners.
For Fall 2020, the Campus Cupboard will
relocate to the Sabo Center for Democracy
and Citizenship in the lower level of
Anderson Residence Hall to accommodate
new operations during the COVID-19
pandemic. The Share Shop will remain
in Science Hall, and the two student-run
The 32nd annual, three-day conference attracted more than
1,500 people from around the world and across sectors.
TheStarTribunerecentlypublishedan
article featuringSteveHumerickhouse
,
executivedirectorof the forum, in which
he explainedthe importanceof creating
safe placesfor diffic uIt conversations
.
A
VI
Visit augsburg.edu/now
to
readthe article: "Howthe
TwinCities becameoneof the
largesthubsfor workplacediversityand
inclusion."
initiatives wi 11 continue to work together.
•
Visit augsburg.edu/green/shareshop
and
inside.augsburg.edu/foodshelf
to learnmore.
SPRINGSUMMrn
20?0
7
ONTHESPOT
How One Day in May in 1968 forced Augsburg to reevaluate
its posture and practices regarding racism and education
HanaDinkuserved as director of Augsburg University's Pan-Afri kan Center
from March 2019 to July 2020. Her most recent project at Augsburg, "One
Day in May," was featured on WCCO-TV this spring, prior to Augsburg's
virtual commencement
(see page 2). Between her work leading programs and
supporting students, she out Ii ned the importance of Augsburg's history and
present moment.
Q.
Whywas OneDayin May sucha pivotalmoment
• for the Augsburg
community
in 1968?
the story and understood the significance of One
Day in May, it took on a life of its own. Directors
A.
of International Student Services, LGBTQIA+
mission and values. In the wake of Dr. Martin
and the administration to build and promote a
Luther King Jr.'s assassination, higher education
sesquicentennial campaign about One Day in May.
One Day in May forced Augsburg to recognize
• all the ways it had failed to live up to its
Student Services, and Multicultural
Student
Services worked with faculty member LeonWang
institutions across the country saw a wave of
protests and a demand for structural change. One
Day in May was Augsburg's response to the moment.
The community speakers, Augsburg students, staff,
and faculty who participated shed light on systemic
white supremacy in the Augsburg community and
the nation. This public acknowledgment created a
What is onecomponent
of OneDayin Maythat
; is especiallyrelevantfor ourcurrentsocialand
politicalenvironment?
Q
A.
All aspects are relevant, but if I had to identify
• one particular component, it would be the
level of transparency and accountability that helped
demand to decolonize the curriculum at Augsburg.
move Augsburg in the right direction.
The Eurocentric core of the education system is
Q.
the clearest example of how our institutions are
Howdidthe reintroduction
of OneDayin May
• ariseand becomethe themeof this year's
commencement
ceremony?
A
When I started my job at Augsburg, one of my
; mentors, community elder MahmoudEl-Kati,
embedded in white supremacist ideology. This is
why we gathered this year to begin the creation of a
Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies department.
Q.
Whatdo youhopeis accomplished
throughthe
• reintroduction
of OneDayin May?
told me the real history of Black folks at Augsburg.
Elder Mahmoud was one of the community speakers
at One Day in May and spent years working closely
with the Pan-Afrikan Center. Very few people on
A
My goal for this campaign was to help Black
; students understand and appreciate the battles
fought by those who came before them. I want Black
campus knew about One Day in May and the
students and other marginalized students to know
contributions of Black students, staff, and faculty.
that we are a part of Augsburg history; we are not
After learning that Augsburg's sesquicentennial
guests at this institution. When the whole Augsburg
book, "Hold Fast to What is Good," didn't mention
community understands this, we will see the kind
it, I worked with other Augsburg leaders to make
of institutional changes that marginalized students,
One Day in May the theme for the university's
staff, and faculty have demanded for years.
2020 M LK Day celebration. As more people heard
AROUND
THEQUAD
newest
trip:
RickStevespartners
withAugsburg'sParticipateinCGEE's
Centerfor GlobalEducation
andExperience
Hunger
andHopeinGuatemala
non-essential
travelresumes,
travelers
Planaheadfortravelto Guatemala When
will getan insideglimpseof Guatemala
and
When well-known travel author, activist, and media personality Rick Steves went
to Central America to film segments for his new public television special, "Hunger
and Hope: Lessons from Ethiopia and Guatemala," he called on Augsburg staff
to provide expert guidance and introductions to community leaders and regional
organizations committed to ending hunger and extreme poverty. That's because
Augsburg's Center for Global Education and Experience has a vast network in
Guatemala and has offered educational programming in the country since 1985.
visit manyof the sameplacesdepictedon
"RickStevesHungerandHope:Lessons
from
EthiopiaandGuatemala."
Fromthe charmingcolonialcityof Antigua,
to LakeAtitlanandits surrounding
volcanoes,
to the colorfultapestryof Mayanhistory,there
is an abundance
of thingsto do,see,andlearn.
One of the key people Steves spoke with during the production of his television
special was FidelXinico,director of Augsburg's CGEE Guatemala programming.
Xinico set up Steves' trip logistics from Guatemala and served as a cultural guide
and language translator. He is a trilingual Guatemalan citizen of the Kaqchikel
Maya ethnic group. SusanPeacock,a CGEE program coordinator based out of
Registration
openfor:
Tripl: April 11-18,2021
Trip2: June13-20,2021
Trip3: August8-15, 2021
Minneapolis, connected Steves and Xinico and helped shape the direction of the
television show. Augsburg is now planning a travel program for the general public
that will take participants to inspiring destinations in Guatemala.
Augsburgsenior
scholar published in
A
V
1
Visitgo.augsburg.edu/hope
to learnmoreandregister.
HarryBoyte,senior scholar of public work philosophy at Augsburg's Sabo
Center for Democracy and Citizenship, co-wrote an article that was
published in Time magazine. Boyte's piece offered an analysis of the 2020
United States presidential race and suggested that a compelling campaign
TIME
MAGAZINE
would appeal to Americans as engaged citizens rather than disgruntled
consumers: "Emphasize a citizenship
A
W
Finda link to the article
at augsburg.edu/now.
message for government to be a
partner, not a savior."
SPRING-SUMMER
2020
9
A WOMEN'S
WRESTLING
PROGRAM
FROM
SCRATCH
BYKATE
H.ELLIOTT
Augsburg
Athletics
continues
trailblazing
trendwithMinnesota's
onlycollegiate
women's
wrestling
team
"I already feel bad for my future children," joked Bel
Snyder'23. "They are going to have to hear the story of
Minnesota's only collegiate women's wrestling team over
and over again."
Snyder is one of 10 women wrestlers who made
history at Augsburg during the 2019-20
year-a
academic
quarter century after the university founded
the NCAA's first women's hockey team in the Midwest,
followed by Minnesota's first varsity women's lacrosse
team in 2014 . That pioneering spirit drew Snyder to
Augsburg, which received a Breaking Barriers Award in
February at Minnesota's National Girls and Women in
Sports Day event at the Minnesota History Center.
"I have never felt such close bonds or such support,"
added Snyder, who's an elementary education transfer
student. "I am going to bleed maroon and gray for the
rest of my Iife."
SPRING-SUMMER
2020 11
GREEN
BUT
GREAT
It's a youngteamwith sevenfirst-yearand three
transferstudentswho had neverwrestledfor an alIwomanteam until now.Therosterincludessomeof the
nation'stop competitors,includingEmilyShilson
'23,
who'sconsideredthe top womanrecruit in the country
by somewrestIing newsoutlets.The 19-year-oldfinance
studentqualifiedto wrestlefor a spot in the 2020
TokyoOlympicGames(whichhavebeenrescheduledfor
2021 becauseof the COVID-19 pandemic).
Howdid a buddingteamrecruitsuchchampions?
MeetWomen'sWrestlingHeadCoachMaxMejia,a
formerHarvardwrestlerwhobecamea women'sand
skills coachfor Arizona'sSunkistKidsWrestlingClub,
whichproduced55 Olympicmedalistsin both men'sand
women'swrestling.
"In wrestling,youcancontrolyourdestinymorethan
othersports.It's not aboutheightor speed.Champions
havementaltoughness,diIigencefor detaiI, anda
hungerto win," he said. "My goalis to producethe best
womenleadersin the world.Whentheygraduate,I want
themto understandhowthesetraits convertto success
in the realworld.And I wantthe employersto gobble
them up becausethey recognizewhatcomesfrom that
levelof leadership,dedication,andgrit," he said.
Mejiafocuseson process,knowingresultswill follow.
Heseeksto understandeachathletes'hopesand
motivationsso he can helpthem playto their strengths
for bothathleticsand careersuccess.
Mejiaempowers
eachwrestlerto set herowngoals:"I
knowI havethe disciplineto do anythingI put my mind
to, and I'll havea greatmindsetwhiledoingit," said
kinesiology
majorSavannah
Vold'22.
"He doesn'tseeus as weare but as we couldbe,"
saidVayle-rae
Baker'23, whoranksat the top of her
weightclass."Thenhe pushesus throughself-doubtor
whateveris holdingus back.I take morerisks,and I'm
seeingthe rewards."
Thosestrengthsareshowing.Withan overallrecordof
4-2, AuggieWomen's
Wrestlingrankedamongthe top
10 programs
in the NCAAasthe teamheadedintothe
inauguralCliff KeenNationalCollegiate
Women's
Wrestling
Championships
in earlyMarch.Augsburg
finishedin ninth
placeasa team,whileShiIsonclaimedthe nationaltitle to
closeout herinauguralcollegiateseason.
"My
goalistoproduce
t ebest
women
leaders
inthewofd."
12
AUGSBURG
NOW
NCAA
NAMES
WOMEN'S
WRESTLING
AN'EMERGING'
SPORT
In January,NCAADivision11 and
Division111 votedto addwomen's
wrestlingto its list of Emerging
Sports
for Women;in June,DivisionI voted
in agreement.
Thenextmilestone
for the wrestlingcommunitywill be
to reachat least40 NCAA-affiliated
varsitywomen'swrestIingteams, which
is requiredto achieveofficial NCAA
Championship
status.At present
, about
35 NCAAschoolssupportwomen's
wrestlingteams.
Augsburg
AthleticDirectorJeff
Swenson
'79 is optimistic."Wehaveno
doubtwomen
's wrestlingwill buildon
our reputationas a 'wrestlingschool,'
with our men'steamhavingsecuredits
13th nationaltitle in 2019.
"In 1995, Augsburgmadehistory
with the region'sfirst women'sice
hockeyteam,and nowyou're uniqueif
youdon't offerwomen'shockey.Then
in 2014, Augsburg
startedthe NCAA's
first varsitywomen'slacrosseteamin
Minnesota,
and now,herewearewith
women'swrestling,"hesaid."Augsburg
continuesto be a pioneerfor women's
athletics,andwe'reinvestedin the
successof women'swrestling."
Men'sWrestlingCo-Head
CoachJim
Moulsoff
is thriIledthat Augsburgis
creatingopportunities
for womento
wrestleat the collegiatelevel.Girls'
wrestlingis the fastestgrowinghigh
schoolsport,accordingto the U.S.
WrestlingFoundation,
yet Minnesota
andWisconsin
areamongthe 30 states
that haven'tmadegirls' wrestlingan
officialsport."
"Forthe past18 years,I havehelped
out at juniorfreestylesummertrainings,
and it's beenamazingto seethe growth
of women'swrestlingfromnogirls in
attendance
to hundredseachyear,"said
Moulsoff,the 2015 and2019 National
Wrestling
Coaches
Association
Division111
NationalCoachof the Year.
TEAM
OF'FIRSTS'
MENTORS
YOUNG
GIRLS
Members
of the women'swrestling
teamalsoaredrivento sharetheir
knowledge
andpavethe wayfor the
nextgenerationof womenwrestlers.
Everyoneof the student-athletes
has
liveda first-the first girl on a high
school'swrestlingteam,the first match
a competitorforfeitedbecausehe
"didn't wantto wrestlea girl," the first
time shesawwomen'swrestlingat the
Olympics(in 2004). Theyembracethe
strengthgainedfromthosemoments,
but it is ti mefor morewomento have
opportunities
to wrestle.
Nineyearsago,MinnesotaUSA
WrestIing beganhostingopengymsat
AugsburgeverySunday,andfourgirls
attendedthe first session.Earlierthis
year,about60 girls showedup every
week,evenwith weekendtournaments
pullingsomeaway.Bakersaidsheand
herteammates
consistentlyvolunteered
to coachand mentorthe girls,who
rangedfrom6 to 18 yearsold.
"I startedwrestlingwhenI was9,
and I wasthe onlygirl on that team
andthe onlygirl on my middleand
highschoolteams,"Bakersaid. "I
SPRING
SUMVER
7020 13
look forward to coaching and connecting with the girls each
week. My teammates and I want to show them they can do
this, and show them there will be teams for them when they
go to college."
ChadShilson'93, women's wrestling director and coach
for Minnesota USA Wrestling, said lifelong friendships seem
to emerge at every practice, as girls experience wrestling
with those who are similar in strength, weight, flexibility,
size, and goals. "They get to be the iron that sharpens other
iron," he said.
The result: some of the top women wrestlers in the country,
if not the world, have come out of the open gyms-"hungry
for the sport and everything it has to offer," added Shi Ison,
the father of top-ranked Augsburg wrestler, Emily Shi Ison.
Coach Mejia hopes to collaborate with USA Wrestling and
other organizations to offer even more camps and open gyms
(when it's safe and appropriate for public health regarding
the coronavirus) for the estimated 300 girls who are wrestling
at some level in the state. When they graduate from high
school, Mejia said, "I want them to have no doubt that
Augsburg is the place to be."
~i
ti,\
'WEKEEP
PLAYING.
WEPERSIST'
Word has gotten out. Alumni and friends of the university
AR "'1S
fjJ DEFENSE
SOAP
Augsburgplacedseventhin the NCAA
women'sdivisionat the Multi-Division
NationalDualMe
are tweeting their praises and sharing news coverage of the
historic team. Children's book author and public speaker,
ShellyBoyum-Breen
'97, said the university's investment in
women's wrestling is also an investment in girls and women
in general.
"I was fortunate to be at Augsburg when women's hockey
started, and I saw lives
changing before my eyes. I
know firsthand the impact that
continues to make on those
women's lives," said BoyumBreen, who taught physical
education and coached
women's basketball at Augsburg. "When we invest in women
and our diverse communities, we invest in what's possible.
We have to show it in action through media coverage. Kids
need to hear these stories-boys
and girls.
"Look at the decision-makers, the percentages of coaches,
the funding gaps, and the near media blackout of women's
professional and collegiate sports. And yet, we keep playing.
And people keep watching. Because of the support that
exists, we persist," said Boyum-Breen,
also established grants to pay sports
"When
weinvestin females who
fees and equipment costs that functioned
andourdiverse
communities,as barriers to participation for some
Minnesota girls.
weinvestin what's
possible." Augsburg women's hockey coaches
14
AUGSBURG
NOW
know better than most the kind of
investment and persistent leadership required to create and
sustain a vibrant women's athletics program.
"To be a leader-it's
scary," said founding Women's
2020
USMARINE
CORPS/NWCA
MUL Tl DIVISION
IATIONAL DUAL MEET
7'ff PLlfC=.
WOMENNCAA
et in Louisville,Kentucky,in January.
Hockey Head Coach Jill Pohtilla. "I've seen Augsburg, time and
time again, make bold moves based on what makes sense and
what is right," said Pohtilla, who was inducted into the Women's
Hockey Association of Minnesota Hall of Fame in 2006.
The women's wrestling program has made an immediate
impact in the Athletics Department and has increased
expectations for success, said Michelle McAteer,Augsburg's
women's hockey head coach.
"Coach Mejia was able to bring in a large and talented class
for the inaugural season, and it's clear how skilled, determined,
and committed these women are," she said. "They are
representing Augsburg and our Athletics Department with great
pride, and growing the profile of their sport at the same time.
"They are making history, living history," McAteer added. "It's
a special team doing very special
things." ■
Seepage16 for a brief historyof
women'sathleticsat Augsburg.
ABRIEF
HISTORY
OF
WOMEN'S
ATHL
16
AUGSBURG
NOW
TICS
ATAIJGSBIJRG
SPRINGSUMMER
2020 17
REAL PEOPLE IN
REAL CASES
computers with a software program
Eyewitness identification of criminal
perpetrators is a staple form of evidence
San Diego; and Tucson, Arizona.
in courts of law.
developed specifically for the field
"Think of eyewitness memory like
audio transcripts to examine the
855 I ineups in four cities: Austin, Texas;
association between witness comments
Charlotte-Mecklenburg,
and lineup selection, finding that an
North Carolina;
cities provided lineup photos and
eyewitness identification decisions,
instant identification
by an eyewitness
was less likely to produce an error than
when the witness was deliberative.
NatalieJohnson
'18, who's pursuing a
residue, or other physical evidence,"
investigator reports, and audiotapes of
master's degree in counseling psychology
Steblay said. "You don't want to
the verbal exchange between the I ineup
at the University of St. Thomas in St.
contaminate it."
administrator and eyewitness during
Paul, Minnesota, was one of the students
each lineup procedure. A startling
who listened to police audiotapes and
the top national experts in eyewitness
discovery emerged from a pattern of
coded them based on whether the
identification.
cases when lineup administrators, who
decision-making process was immediate
social psychologist who has conducted
were also the case detectives, knew who
or deliberative.
research on eyewitness memory, pol ice
the suspects were and behaved in a
procedures, and eyewitness evidence
leading fashion with the eyewitnesses.
Steblay, along with Wells, is among
As an experimental
for 30 years, she is often cal led upon
by defense attorneys to testify when
they believe a suspect is being wrongly
accused based on faulty identification.
Her abi I ity to speak with authority
on the subject has been reinforced
She and other students were startled
to realize that the police push for a
conviction could, in some cases, influence
LEARNING E'ROM
LINEUPS
Augsburg student researchers
by her research findings. Assisted by
collected data and assessed 190
Augsburg student researchers, Steblay
real lineups for fairness or bias. "It's
and Wells led studies that, for the first
powerfu I to bring students into research
how criminal cases are pursued.
"Doing the work on police lineups
made me realize how flawed our
system can be," she said. "It made me
realize our criminal justice has a long
way to go."
SeanAdams'17, who is currently a
legal assistant, said he was shocked by
time, sought to understand and predict
by saying, 'Here's the problem of
how poorly some of the lineups were
eyewitness identification errors using
wrongfu I convictions, and let's figure out
constructed.
actual I ineups.
how to solve them,"' Steblay said.
Before these studies, scientific
Psychology majors made up the
The tests were designed to include
fake witnesses, and these mock
psychology's understanding of
research team at Augsburg, adding
witnesses in Augsburg's laboratory
eyewitness identification accuracy was
laboratory skills to what they learned in
studies represented the worst possible
based almost exclusively on controlled
the classroom. Steblay and 27 student
scenario: a witness with no memory of
the offender. Mock witnesses shou Id
laboratory
researchers
studies that
conducted
not be able to pick the pol ice suspect
the first and
from a lineup at a rate higher than
second studies
chance. "The worst lineup I saw had
across multiple
such a leading description that the
simulate
eyewitness
experiences.
Steblay and
Wells were
awarded a
"It's powerful to bring students
into research by saying, 'Here's
the problem of wrongful
convictions, and let's figure out
how to solve them."'
National Science
20
The Augsburg students coded 102
experiment. Data was collected from
The field data collected in these
trace evidence, such as blood, gunshot
existed unti I th is study.
semesters.
[laboratory] witnesses picked the pol ice
Verbal
suspect 80% of the time," Adams said.
exchanges
"That shou Id have statistically
less than 20% of the time."
been
Lineups
Foundation grant to pursue a four-phase
between pol ice
lineup administrators and eyewitnesses
should be constructed so that the
study from 2014 to 2018. The research
to crimes were audio-recorded. There
suspect and the fillers (innocent people
followed up on their prior work, in which
police lineups were presented to real
had never been an analysis of recorded
added to the lineup) match the suspect
verbal comments from actual witnesses
description.
eyewitnesses by detectives using laptop
because such recordings had never
AUGSBURG
NOW
RELEVANT
RESEARCH
Along with stunning insights into eyewitness
identification,
these studies brought to light
more questions worth exploring. The research
resulted in 12 conference poster presentations
involving 23 students, and it fostered two
student honors projects and spinoff projects
that are ongoing.
"It was time-consuming,
important.
but it was
I think the student researchers
had a sense of the importance,"
Steblay said.
"It was really fun to work with them. Their
work enabled me to complete the project."
Augsburg student researchers saw the
subject material's importance for effective law
enforcement practices as well as its resonance
with people beyond their research group.
When AustinConery'17 began researching
how to predict eyewitness identification errors,
he discovered that his Augsburg University
research project was a hot topic with friends
and family.
"Every party or every family event, someone
would ask what was going on at school, and
I could talk about the research for hours
because it was so relevant," Conery said.
Besides a view into a major criminal justice
system issue, students said the research
opportunity gave them practical experience.
Conery said the research gave him the
confidence to read, understand, and apply
studies in his current job as a site director at a
children's mental health provider, PrairieCare.
"It was a great way to implement the
things I was learning in class," he said. "It
gave me the place to think critically
in a
control led environment."
As Adams considers his future work, he's
looking back to his time at Augsburg. "I've
been thinking of what I enjoyed in college,
and a lot of it was the work I did with Nancy,"
he said.
TURNING RESEARCHrlNDINGS
INTO PRACTICALPOLICIES
Steblay'sinfluencemaynot makeher a householdname,but her researchfindings
are beingput to practicaluse in a varietyof ways.
Minnesotajudgesviewa webinarmoduleshecreated,"EyewitnessScience:
Protectionand Evaluationof EyewitnessIdentificationEvidence,"as part of their
judicial e-learning program.Steblayalso pubIisheda chapterin the 2019 book,
"PsychologicalScienceand the Law."
Thefindingsof the researchby Steblay,Wells,and Augsburgstudent
researchers
are leadingto majorreformsnationally.The best practices
includecritical stipulations:that lineupsmust be double-blind,meaning
the administratingofficerdoesn'tknowwhothe suspectis, and that the
non-suspectfillers in the lineup must resemblethe suspectand match
the descriptionof the offenderthat wasprovidedby the eyewitness.
"Thereare hundredsof thousandsof policeofficerswho are using
theseeyewitnessidentificationprotocolsthat we didn't use20 years
ago,and they don't knowNancySteblay'sname,"said William Brooks,
a policechief in Norwood,Massachusetts.
Brookstravelsthe countrytraining policeon what he regardsas
groundbreaking
science-backed
best practicesfor lineups."I don't
think there'sbeenas wide of an impact in otherareasof investigation
as in howwe dealwith eyewitnessmemory,"he said.
In mid-May,MinnesotaGov.Tim Walzsignedbipartisanlegislation
that requiresuniformscience-backed
eyewitnessidentificationpractices
for all law enforcement,which goesinto effect in early2021.
Sti11, the eyewitnessidentificationbest practicesface resistance."Some
of it is individualpolicejurisdictionsjust not wantingto be told howto do
things," Steblaysaid in an interviewwith YahooNews."Sometimespolice
or prosecutorssaythey don't want rulesto be so rigid, becausethen if we just
violateoneof the rules,then that ruins our prosecutionor we can't catch the bad
guysor whatever.Sothey feel like it's underminingtheir ability to do the goodjob
that they shoulddo.
"I don't seeit that way," Steblaysaid. "I just think theseare not difficult
changes."Steblayviewsthe recommendedlineup reformsas a meansto strengthen
eyewitnessevidenceand reducethe likelihoodof a mistakenidentification.
The InnocenceProject,a nonprofitfoundedin 1992 to exoneratethe wrongly
convictedthroughDNAtesting, hasworkedto passlawsthroughoutthe countrythat
embracethe scientificallysupportedbest practicesadvancedby Steblayand Wells.
"Whenwe beganour work,a handfulof stateshadembracedbest practices.
Todaymorethan half of the statesin the countryhaveadoptedkeyeyewitness
identificationreforms,"said RebeccaBrown,the nonprofit's policydirector.
Steblayhopesmorepolice departmentswi11 enactthesereforms."Wehave
at leastpart of the answerto howpolicecan reducemistakenidentificationand
wrongfulconvictions."■
22
AUGSBURG
NOW
States where c:ore eyewitness reforms have been
implemented through legislation, c:ourt action, or
substantial voluntary c:omplianc:e:
California,
Colorado,
Connecticut,
Georgia,
Louisiana,
Maryland,
Massachusetts,
Michigan,
Minnesota,
Montana,
Nebraska,
Nevada,
New
Hampshire,
NewJersey,
NewMexico,
North
Carolina,
Ohio,
Oklahoma,
Oregon,
Rhode
Island,
Texas,
Utah,Vermont,
West
Virginia
andWisconsin
viaInnocence
Project
SPRING-SUMMER
2020 23
The Gage tam i ly is part of a legacy
Skip and Barbara have supported many campus projects
that has supported valuable
throughout the years, including Anderson Plaza, the Gage Center
student services that are crucial to
for Student Success, the Gage Family Art Gallery, the James G.
Augsburg University's
identity and
community.
Lindell Library, and the Scandinavian Center, which cultivated
knowledge and interest in Scandinavian culture on campus for
Edwin"Skip"Gagepassed away
Wednesday, February 26, 2020. Skip and his wife, Barbara
CarlsonGage,have been integral to the Augsburg community
Piper LaBelle Award for their consistent support of young people
for many years. Al I four of their children attended Augsburg,
In his professional life, Skip built what came to be known as
15 years. In 2016, the Gage family was honored with the Toby
in recovery.
including alumni GeoffGage'89 and Rick Gage'96. Barbara
the Carlson Marketing Group. He served as chair and then chair
served on the Board of Regents, including four years as
emeritus of the lnnerCity Tennis Foundation and worked with
chair of the board and as co-chair of Augsburg's Access to
Barbara in many community efforts with the Banyan Community,
Excellence campaign.
Northside Achievement Zone, and Urban Ventures.
Skip and Barbara initiated the Center for Learning and
Skip's vision aligned with Augsburg's institutional
calling and
Accessible Student Services and contributed substantial time
reinforced the university's commitments to global perspectives,
and gifts to the StepUP ® Program. Skip believed the values
living faith, active citizenship, and meaningful work. Skip and
taught as part of the fabric of Augsburg's community have been
Barbara's gifts and leadership over the years have sustained
as important as the educational experience and the culture of
Augsburg's commitment to serve its students and neighbors.
family and service that is imparted to all of Augsburg's students.
Through the Gage family's leadership, CLASS was established.
"The Gage family has and continues to have a significant
impact on the Augsburg community," said DonnaMclean, former
In 1989, Skip and Barbara commissioned the first study that
Augsburg director of leadership gifts. "Thanks to the generosity
evaluated learning disability programs at the college level. They
of the Gage family, the lives of so many students have been
partnered with Augsburg faculty to build a learning disability
meaningfully enhanced through CLASS and other campus
endowment program, and Skip led the drive to raise $500,000
programs that provide impactful learning experiences." ■
in addition to $500,000
24
AUGSBURG
NOW
his family pledged.
THE
STAGE
Sesquicentennial
project
shares
story
through
song
The Augsburg University Department of Music had a unique opportunity to produce
Other
sesquicentennial
projects
and perform "Tienda," a new chamber opera by Augsburg Assistant Professor of Music
To commemorate Augsburg's 150th
ReinaldoMoyaand opera lyricist Caitlin Vincent, which premiered February 21 and 22.
anniversary, the university invited faculty
This production, presented as a part of Augsburg's sesquicentennial celebration, was
performed in Foss Center's Hoversten Chapel and included a cast of student singers,
and staff to apply for funding to support
unique projects that aligned with their
the Augsburg Choir, and the Augsburg Orchestra. The opera tells the story of Luis
interests and expertise while uplifting
Garzon, a Mexican musician who immigrated to Minneapolis in 1886 and opened a
Augsburg's mission, academic excellence,
small Mexican grocery store, or tienda, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the 1920s. Garz6n's
and traditions. These projects showcased
store served as a community hub for new arrivals from Mexico, many of whom had
the university's history, its distinction in
fled the Mexican Revolution and found work toiling on the sugar beet farms of rural
the arts, and its high-quality scholarship.
Minnesota. "Tienda" explored the immigrant experience: what must be left behind-
Learn more about sesquicentennial
and what cannot be forgotten-on
.
projects at augsburg.edu/150
the journey to a new home.
STUDENT
EMERGENCY
FUND
A Student Emergency Fund was established in March to support Augsburg students
with financial relief as we al I grapple with the challenges of COVID-19. In these
disruptive times, many students are experiencing the loss of income and jobs
as segments of the economy shut down, struggles to provide for their families,
obstacles in returning home to out-of-state residences, and uncertainty about their
ability to finance their Augsburg education.
With this fund, students are able to request emergency funding for basic needs,
including food, rent, transportation,
funding for academic materials-such
Giveto the StudentEmergency
Fundat
augsburg.edu/giving
.
and wireless internet-to
and medication. They may also request
as books, supplies, laptop computer rentals,
ensure their education is not impacted by a lack of
attainable resources.
SPRINGSUMMfR
2020 25
AUGGIES
CONNECT
AUGGIES
IN
NATION'S
CAPITAL
BEGIN
SERIES
OFALUMNI
GATHERINGS
Last October, a group of Augsburg alumni gathered in Arlington, Virginia, for a
dinner and reception hosted by JeffPeterson'63. At the end of the gathering,
JessicaSpanswick'10 suggested the group should spend more time together.
AUGGIES
whatprogram
doyouwanttolift
upforGiveto theMaxDay2020?
Spanswick coordinated the group's next gathering for a social hour and trivia
in Washington, D.C., the following month. That's how the informal OMV-area (the
district,
Maryland, and Virginia) Augsburg alumni group was born. With help from
Augsburg's Institutional
Advancement team, they were able to invite even more
Auggies in the area to attend social hours, networking events, and dinners.
In February, Augsburg staff met with
Give to the Max Day 2019 was a huge
success for programs across campus!
$421,000 RAISED
1,656 DONORS
the group to discuss how to increase
alumni involvement across the country
Auggie passion is the fuel that drives
and support the university through Give
strong donations on Give to the Max
to the Max Day 2020.
Day, and that's why it's Augsburg's
Want to plan an alumni gathering in your
biggest fundraising
area when pandemic health precautions
allow? Email alumni@augsburg.edu
to
receive help reaching out to fellow Auggies.
day of the year.
It's exciting and inspiring to hear your
personal stories about Augsburg and
Auggiesmeetin the Washington,D.C.,area.
why you're passionate about supporting
a particular
project.
What do you want to I ift up at
Augsburg? Send in a 45- to 90-second
video of yourself sharing what you were
most passionate about at Augsburg,
and you might be featured in the next
Give to the Max Day campaign.
0
Sendin a video,volunteer,or hel~ lead
a projectin Novemberby contacting
ChrisBogen'09,campaigncoordinator,at
bogen@augsburg.edu
by September1, 2020.
Lto R: ChrisBogen'09, RobynHiestand
'98, KariArfstrom
'89,Jonathan
Chrastek
'10,Jessica
Spanswick
'10,KatiePendo'10, KaiaChambers
26
AUGSBURG
NOW
AUGGIES
CONNEC
LIFELONGAUGGIE
FRIENDSHIPS
Connections
that flourishedat
Augsburgspanacrossyearsand miles
[L to R]: DerekFrancis'08, BryanLudwig
'08, Greg
Hildebrandt
'08,andSamaSandy'08 broughttheir families
togetherfor an eveningof fun earlierthis year.Thegroup
members
tout themselvesas the "1107Family,"namedfor the
numberof the roomtheysharedin Mortensen
Residence
Hall.
TheFacebook
postfromtheir meetupshowshowa friendship
betweenfourAuggiesbecamea close-knitgroupof 17.
A groupof Auggieswhocelebratelife milestones
togethergatheredfor the
70th birthdayof SueGibbons
Casey'71 [front,center].She'ssurrounded
by[clockwise]Pam(Hermstad)
Santerre(attendedAugsburg1968-69),
Ginny(Dahlen)Baali'72, Kris(Parbst)Rohde'72, KathyQuick'72, Nancy
'72.
(Olson)Hrdlicka'72,and Linda(Engstrom)
Akenson
TheseAugsburgalumniand "5th FloorGirls"of UrnessTowerinitially reunitedafter
their graduationat mini-reunionsand holidays.In recentyears,theytooktrips to
destinationslike Boston;MyrtleBeach,SouthCarolina;andStillwater,Minnesota.
Picturedare[front, L to R]:Stacy(Waterman)
Newton'01, SaraThedinga
'01,
Merry-Ellen
(Krcil)Bryers'01, andAnn(Peterson)
Fisher'01. [Back,L to R]:Amy
Carlson'01, LauraWaldon'01, Emily(Brinkman)
Waldon'01,JaimeKingsley
Loso'01,and EricaHuls'01. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SPRING-SUMMER
2020 27
ALUMNI
CLASS
NOTES
The MinnesotaIntercollegiate
AthleticConferencefeatured
EdorNelson'38 in the LegendaryLeaders
seriesreleasedon its websiteand social
media. Nelson, who passedawayin 2014,
wasan instructorfor the healthand physical
educationdepartmentfor 32 years, coached
Augsburg'sbaseballteam from 1946 to 1979,
and led the programto sevenMIACtitles. He
alsowasAugsburgfootball'sheadcoach, and
he helpedstartthe men'swrestlingprogram
and relaunchmen's hockey.
1938
LelandFairbanks
'53, MD, was
selectedas the Commissioned
OfficersAssociationRetireeof the Yearby
the United StatesPublic HealthService.
The award, which recognizesexcellence
in serviceand volunteeractivities, was
presentedduring a virtual meetingin June.
Fairbanks'career has includedwork focused
on family health, holisticcare, smoke-free
communities, and training other health
professiona
Is.
1953
of Fame in 1988 and created an athletic
lettering programfor female student-athletes
in 1989.
&
Augsburg
AthleticDirector
JeffSwenson
'79
,;;, shares
hisoptimism
aboutAugsburg's
new
women's
wrestling
program.
Seestoryonpage10.
& ChadShilson
'93comments
onAugsburg's
,;;, women's
wrestling
program,
inwhichhis
Emily
ShiIson'23,competes.
Seestoryon
daughter,
page10.
& ShellyBoyum-Breen
'97connects
thelaunch
,;;, ofAugsburg's
women's
wrestling
withtheneed
totell moresportsstories
thatinclude
females
and
diverse
communities.
Seestoryonpage10.
CanisiusCollegein Buffalo, New
York, hired MartinHlinka'99
as an assistantcoachfor its men's hockey
program. After his work as an assistant
coach with the SalzburgRed Bulls junior
program, Hlinka servedas a lead on-ice skills
instructorwith SynergyHockeyin St. Louis.
The MinnesotaIntercollegiate
Hlinka scored 125 points in 85 gamesfrom
Athletic Conferencefeatured
MarilynPearsonFlorian'76 in the Legendary 1995 to 1999 while on Augsburg'shockey
team, and he also playedfootball, earning
Leadersseries. PearsonFloriancoached
All-Americanstatusas a kicker. Hlinka
women's basketballand volleyballat
playedprofessionalhockeyfor 15 years in
Augsburgand also was the women'sathletic
director. During her tenure, Augsburgadded the American HockeyLeague, United Hockey
League, and Germany.
four MIACwomen'ssports, including cross
country, golf, ice hockey, and swimming
and diving. She also initiated the induction
NickRathmann
'03 completed
of women into Augsburg'sAthletic Hall
his final term on the Augsburg
1999
1976
2003
Alumni Boardof Directors. He has been on
the boardfor the past sevenyears, serving
in executiveleadershiprolesfor four years,
including a two-yearterm as board president.
Rathmannnow continuesvolunteeringhis
time by servingon the A-Club board.
JasonEdwards
'04 has been
teaching sixth grade science
and readingat DiscoveryMiddleSchoolin
Fargo, North Dakota, for 11 years. He also
coachesgirls crosscountryand track and
field at FargoDaviesHigh School.The USA
Trackand FieldAssociationchose him as
the Coachof the Yearfor Girls CrossCountry,
and he is the North Dakotarepresentative
for the "40 under 40" coachingawardfrom
Coachand Athletic Directormagazine. While
at Augsburg, he competedin crosscountry
and track and field, earningschool recordsin
the indoor600 meterdash and indoor4x400
meter relayteam.
2004
Andr~a(Ladda)Brown'05
receivedan awardfor
her accomplishmentswith the City of
Minneapolis'PoliceConductOversight
Commissionregardingthe body-worncamera
policy, which led to the discoveryof ketamine
abuse by paramedicsand policeofficers.
Her work also led to the creationof the MPD
dashboard, where race disparitiesstatistics
and officer misconducthave been made
public and searchable, and the co-responder
model-mental health professionals
accompanyingpolice officersrespondingto
2005
AUGGIE
SNAPSHOTS
28
AUGSBURG
NOW
ALUMNI
CLASS
NOTES
calls-which startedas a pilot programin
Minneapolisand is now used in NewYork,
Texas, and Utah. [Editor'snote:Theseevents
occurred prior to the murder of GeorgeFloyd
by Minneapolispolice.]
Artist AlisonPrice'08 was
featured in the Minnesota
Women'sPressregardingher new series
of art, "WitnessingWaves." Price, a child
of two immigrantparents, talked about
a stump alongthe MississippiRiverand
howthe river'swatersaided migrationto
the region.This pieceof nature influenced
Price'scollection, which startedduring her
time at Augsburg. "The seriesis imbuedwith
symbolism. DNAstrandsweavealongthe
riverbanksand through the rootsand ground,
reminding us of our interconnectedness
with all, reinforcingthe ideathat we are
fundamentallytied to each other and the
planet," Pricesaid.
2008
TannerWiseman
'15 and friends
from Lakeville, Minnesota, filmed
the series"DestinationFear," which aired on
the TravelChannellast fall. The showfollows
the group'scross-countryroad trip where
they stayedovernightin 10 haunted places.
The group beganmakingvideostogetherfor
YouTubein middle schooland high school,
and this show indulgestheir passionfor
exploringabandonedplaces.
2015
~
Legalassistant
SeanAdams
'17researched
~ eyewitness
identification
procedures
withan
Augsburg
facultymember.
Seestoryonpage18.
McCleave
, who outlinedthe organization's
effortsto highlightthe historyof Native
boardingschoolsand the impact they had on
Nativecommunities.
~
Austin
Conery
'17researched
thereliability
~ ofeyewitness
testimonies
andnowuseshis
experience
to understand
andapplystudiesin hisrole
at a mentalhealthprovider.
Seestoryonpage18.
2018
ChungEangLip'18 wrote
about his career path in the
public healthfield for ColumbiaUniversity's
MailmanSchoolof Public Healthstudent
voiceswebpage.He focused on the
importanceof kindnessand storytellingon
his journeyto becominga public health
professiona
I.
DianaPierce'16 MALnarratedand produced
a documentary, "CountryMusic: Made in
Minnesota," which aired on PioneerPBS
last September. The half-hourdocumentary
toucheson storiesabout artistsfrom the
Minnesotacommunitiesof Alexandriaand
Dovray; as well as the WE Festin Detroit
Lakes, Minnesota, and the FlameBar in
Minneapolis.The programfeaturesinterviews
with artistsfrom DetroitLakes, Minneapolis,
and Pipestone, Minnesota, plus otherfigures
who contributedto the developmentand
popularityof country music in the state.
~
Natalie
Johnson
'18contributed
to National
~ Science
Foundation-funded
research
that
evaluated
thereliability
of eyewitness
identification.
Seestoryonpage18.
GRADUATE
PROGRAMS
Christine
DiindiisiMcCleave
'13 MALis the
executivedirector of the NationalNative
American BoardingSchool HealingCoalition,
formed in 2012 , which seeksjustice and
healingfor NativeAmericanchildren and
their descendants. The organizationrecently
receiveda $10 million grant from the
KendedaFundthat will support a new 10year plan focused on education, advocacy,
and healing.MPR NewsinterviewedDiindiisi
~ SUBMIT
A
~ CLASS
NOTE
Tellusaboutthenewsinyourlifeyournewjob,move,
marriage,
and
milestones.
Visitaugsburg.edu/now
to submityourannouncements.
&
W
EricArlein'12 and Theresa(Bulger)
Arlien'14 welcomeda daughter,
Cora, last July.
Jenessa
(Payano)
Stark'07 graduated
from YaleUniversitywith her Masterof
•
Sciencein Nursingwith specialtiesas a
certified nurse midwifeand women'shealth
nurse practitioner. Tofulfill the health
professionalshortagearea serviceobligation
of her NationalHealthServiceCorps
scholarship, she is movingto NavajoNation
to work as a full-scope midwifeat a tribally
run Indian HealthServicehospitalin
Arizona.She will be accompaniedby her
husbandand children, includinga son,
Zaiel, whom the family welcomedin January.
Kristin(Daniels)
Overton
'09 and
husband, Jesse, welcomedthe birth of
•
twin boys, Mattisand Henry, lastSeptember.
Reginaldo
Haslett-Marroquin
'03
•
delivereda convocationaddressat
CarletonCollegein Northfield, Minnesota,
last October. He is a founding memberof the
NationalFairTradeFederation, startedthe
fair-tradePeaceCoffeeCompany, and is
presidentand CEOof Regenerative
AgricultureAlliance, a Minnesota-based
nonprofitorganizationthat worksto develop
regenerativefood supply chains and to
advocateagainstextractiveagriculture.
Haslett-Marroquinis alsothe author of "In
the Shadowof GreenMan," in which he tells
storiesfrom his upbringingin Guatemala
and shareshis visionfor regenerative
farming practices.
A
SylviaBull'10 (pictured on the right)
•
was ordainedas an Evangelical
LutheranChurch in America pastor in 2017
and has servedas associatepastor of Faith
LutheranChurch in Bismarck, North
Dakota, for three years.
SPRING
SUMMER
2020 29
ALUMNI
CLASS
NOTES
Augsburg University Men's Wrestling hosted an
alumni night in February, celebrating the national
championship anniversariesof the teams from 1970,
1980, 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2010 before a wrestling
match against Concordia College-Moorhead . Photo
by Caleb Williams.
ChrisStedman'08 wrote
a new book that will be
published in October.
The book, "IRL: Finding
Realness, Meaning, and
Belongingin Our Digital
Lives," explores being
human in our increasingly
digital world and is
availablefor pre-order.
AugsburgUniversityMen's
Basketballhostedan alumni
reunion in Januarythat included
a pick-up game, lunch, watching
the men'steam take on Concordia
College-Moorhead, and a
social hour. Auggiesfrom several
generationsjoined in the festivities.
Auggiealumni leadthe men's
basketballprogramsat both
Augsburgand Concordia. Assistant
CoachCharlieScott'07, '15 MAL
and the Auggiesdefeatedthe
Cobbers, who were led by Head
CoachGrantHemmingsen
'07.
Adrienne
KucklerEldridge
'02
joined the staff of Augsburg's
ChristensenCenterfor Vocation.
She coordinatesthe theologyand
public leadershipundergraduate
program, is the program director
for the AugsburgYouth Theology
Institute, and is the director of the
Public Church Scholars program,
an accelerateddegree pathway
that allows students to complete
a Bachelor of Arts degree in
theologyand public leadership
and a Master of Divinity in
five years.The program is a
partnership betweenAugsburg
and LutheranSchool of Theology
at Chicagofor students who are
called to ministry and public
leadershipas an ordained pastor.
AUGGIE
SNAPSHOTS
JoeSeehusen
'00 married
Kathryn Tighe on a ranch
in Grand Lake, Colorado,
in September. The couple
resides in the Denverarea,
where they work in real
estate. Seehusenencourages
his Auggie friends to reach
out the next time they're in
Colorado.
30
AUGSBURG
NOW
ToriBahr'09, a medical doctor at
the complex care clinic of Gillette
Children's Hospital in St. Paul,
Minnesota, was presentedwith
Augsburg University's2019 First
DecadeAlumni Award in January.
Bahr previouslyworked at the
Universityof MinnesotaMedical
Center's InternaI Medicine-Pediatrics
Program, where she becamechief
resident. Bahr's new position at
Gillette Children's Hospital includes
treating patientswith medically
complex diseases, using advanced
technology, and championing
transition care.
BrentStolle'03 and Bethany
(Schneck)Stolle'05 welcomed
their second son, Isaac, in
February 2019. Isaacjoined his
three-year-old brother, Weston.
Bethany is the design research
lead for Blackboard, an education
technology company. Brent
works for Nvidia as a software
engineering manager. The family
lives in Kirkland, Washington.
DerrinLamker'97 was named Augsburg Universit
Footballhead coach in December. Lamker played
baseball, basketball, and football as an Auggie
student-athlete. During his football career, he wa<
the MinnesotaIntercollegiateAthletic Conference
MVPand led the Auggiesto a MIACtitle in 1997,
the same year he received KodakAll-American
Honors. Lamkerwas named the Northwest
Suburban ConferenceCoach of the Year in 2007,
2013, and 2014 during his tenure as head coach
of OsseoHigh School, where he coached for 11
years and won a class 6A state championship.
Beforetaking the head coach position at
Augsburg, Lamkeralso servedas offensive
coordinatorand head coach at Edina High
School. Augsburg University Footballhosted an
alumni gathering in Januaryto hear from Lamker
and to meet the incoming coaching staff, which
includes GregClough'86, defensivecoordinator,
and JackOsberg'62, volunteer coach. Alumni
who graduated between 1971 and 2019 attended
y
I
The City Pagespublication
featured the work of Jose
LuisVillasenor'99 and the
nonprofit organizationhe
founded, Tamalesy Bicicletas,
which existsto empower
youth, develop healthy Latinx
and immigrant communities,
promote sustainable
transportation, increase
accessto healthyfoods, and
improvethe environment.
The organization'scommunity
garden in south Minneapolis
providesspace to teach urban
farming and lay the groundwork
for sustainablelocal food.
/
In September, City Pages
featured DuaSaleh'18
for their work in poetry,
rapping, and singing.
Saleh released"N0r" in
2019, and "ROSETTA"
in 2020, EPsproduced
by Psymun, the St. Paul,
Minnesota, producer
whose connectionswith
mainstreamhip-hop
provide broader exposure
for Twin Cities performers.
As the recipient of the
Cedar Commissions
emerging musicians
program, Saleh performed
"Strings and Heart Beats,"
a project described as "an
immersiveAfrodiasporic
experience."
AlissaNollan'09 marriedJames Nystromin
St. Anthony, Minnesota, lastJuly.The wedding
party includedJennifer
Nollan'89, Whitney
(Holman)
Mead'10, and KatiePendo'10.
MarkMuhich'89 was
hired as managing
attorneyto supervise
public defender services
in Minnesota'sCarlton
and St. Louis counties.
Muhich is a Hibbing,
Minnesota, nativewho
has been a part-time
public defender at the
St. LouisCounty
Courthousein Virginia,
Minnesota. Muhich
previouslytaught politicaI
science and criminal
justice at Mesabi Range
Collegeand taught in the
law enforcement program
at VermilionCommunity
College.
MikePolis'10 welcomed
a second child, Sophia
June, in January.His
first child, LydiaMae,
lovesbeing an older
sibling. Polis is in his
secondyear of real
estateand is excitedfor
anotheryear of selling
and buying homes.
KelseyCrockett'06 and
wife, Stacey, welcomed
a child, MasonAvery
Crockett, into their family in
January. Kelseycontinued
his software management
work when the family moved
from Nashvilleto Dallasfor
Staceyto begin a doctoral
programat the Universityof
Texas-Southwestern.
In December, Michelle
Basham
'00 was elected
as the new presidentand
CEOof YWCAMinneapolis.
Bashampreviouslywas the
executivedirector at The
Bridgefor Youth, servedas
CEOof YWCADelaware, and
held leadershippositionsat
CommonBondCommunities,
FamilyWise
, and the
MinnesotaDepartmentof
Human Services.She also
co-foundedthe Nonprofit
EmergingLeadersAcademy.
P.C. Hillstrom'07, director of
educationaI equity at OsseoArea
Schools, received two statewide
honors this year: the Outstanding
Administrator of the Year award
from the Minnesota Indian
Education Association and the
Ron McKinley "All My Relations"
award from the Minnesota
Education Equity Partnership.
Hillstrom has worked for Osseo
Area Schools since 2015.
BrothersDaveKerkvliet'95 and TimKerkvliet
'01
were featured on the EducationMinnesotawebsite
when they introducedfour band studentsof Sebeka,
Minnesota-where Daveteaches-to the rock band
311 at a performanceat The Armory in Minneapolis.
Davehastaught band for 24 yearsand is a lifelong
musicianand fan of rock bands. He connected
those passionsand organizedthis meetingbetween
his studentsand lead singerand guitarist Nick
Hexumand drummer ChadSextonprior to 31 l's
performance.
SPRING
SUMMER
2020 31
ClarenceT. Hoversten
'41 ,
HerbertW. Chilstrom
'54, Green
Valley, Arizona, age 88, on
January 19.
M. KennethGjerde'61 ,
MarilynJ. Gisselquist
'73,
Fairfield, Montana, age 83,
on December 22.
Minneapolis, age 90, on
February 21.
DonaldJ. Dill '54, Eau Claire,
Wisconsin, age 86, on
December 15.
Ruth(Stenson)Kalpin'61,
Falls, South Dakota, age 95, on
January 27.
Alexandria, Minnesota, age 80,
on November 10.
Zee AnneA. (Zimmerman)
Reishus'73, Wood Lake,
DorothyC. (Quanbeck)
Johnson
'48,
BeverlyM. (Jorgensen)
Olander'55,
DonaldN. Myhres'61, Lee,
North Branch, Minnesota, age 92,
on February 18.
Rochester, Minnesota, age 86, on
November 18.
Illinois, age 95, on November 13.
HenryW. Roufs'49, San Diego,
WandaE. (Warnes)Olson'56,
RobertJ. llstrup'62, Minneapolis,
age 82, on September 25.
age 97, on October 10.
Lewiston, Minnesota, age 84, on
November 14.
EllenA. (Paulson)Keiter'64,
Minnesota, age 91, on January 29.
GlennC. Thorpe'56, Mendota
Charleston, Illinois, age 77, on
December 10.
RusselM. Smith'50,
Heights, Minnesota, age 85, on
February 8.
JeanneS. (Wanner)Morreim'66,
Lakeville, Minnesota, age 91,
on November 21.
RobertG.Jamieson
'57, Edina,
Cloquet, Minnesota, age 76, on
January 26.
Hendricks, Minnesota, age 101,
on November 6.
EileenM. Quanbeck
'46, Sioux
KermitF.Hoversten
'50, Austin,
PhyllisG. (Knudson)
Seim'58,
MarjorieK. (Danielson)
Johnson
'53,
Stillwater, Minnesota, age 83, on
January 24.
St. Paul, Minnesota, age 88, on
December 4.
JosephP. Nystuen'59, Cold
WilmerJ. Oudal'53, Eagle River,
Spring, Minnesota, age 82, on
November 10.
Alaska, age 88, on February 2.
MargaretA. (Lundahl)Ruesch'59,
32
AUGSBURG
NOW
WalterJ. Bradley'78, Davenport,
KatharineE. Skibbe'79,
Minneapolis, age 62, on
October 7.
IreneW. (Waslien)Stemmer'88,
Wayzata, Minnesota, age 93, on
November 8.
JaniceK. (Thompson)
Crockett'68,
age 91, on December 29.
Rochester, Minnesota, age 88,
on December 17.
DianeL.Loeffler'75, Minneapolis,
age 66, on November 16.
Iowa, age 63, on February 9.
Minnesota, age 86, on January 16.
Raymond
P.Strot'51, Minneapolis,
LeroyM. Petterson'53,
Minnesota, age 68, on
January 24.
Worthington, Minnesota, age 83,
on December 30.
Shakopee, Minnesota, age 73, on
January 15.
BruceA. Vassar'93, Edina,
age 57, on December 6.
ThomasL. Docken'69, Stacy,
LouJean
J. (Gulbransen)
Reid'94,
Minnesota, age 73, on
December 9.
Austin, Minnesota, age 73, on
January 20.
VirginiaK. (Golberg)Baynes'70,
Lee(Gilbert)Schotzko'04, Afton,
Portland, Oregon, age 71, on
September 14.
Minnesota, age 49, on October 1.
BenjaminM. Blair'14, Decorah,
Iowa, age 31, on January 26.
The "In memoriam" listings in this publication
include notifications received before March 1.
AuGSBURG
UNIVERSITY
®
DIGITAL-ONL
ISSUE
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Pieces
ofhistory
After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and protests calling for justice in Minneapolis and around the nation,
MollyMontana'23 went to Lake Street to capture the work of local artists that emerged on walls and plywood boards covering the
windows of numerous businesses. "I wanted to tell the story of the pain and rage that people of color have felt," she said about
the images she captured for a photography class project. "I wanted to capture something meaningful, and these displays were
just that. They are a piece of history."
augsburg.edu/now
Show less
T V
.a
The Magazine of Augsburg College
English 111 Bishop Marl< Hanson
Annual report Velkommen Jul sweets
Homecoming 2009 Professor Lisa Jacl<
'J
!.,
þ
Ir
possrible
Editor
Betsey Norgard
norga rd@a ugsbu rg.ed
u
Creative Director
Kathy Rumpza '05 MAL
ru mpza@augsburg.edu
fro... Show more
T V
.a
The Magazine of Augsburg College
English 111 Bishop Marl< Hanson
Annual report Velkommen Jul sweets
Homecoming 2009 Professor Lisa Jacl<
'J
!.,
þ
Ir
possrible
Editor
Betsey Norgard
norga rd@a ugsbu rg.ed
u
Creative Director
Kathy Rumpza '05 MAL
ru mpza@augsburg.edu
from President Pribbenow
Creative Associate-Editorial
Wendi Wheeler'06
wheelerw@a ugsbu rg.ed u
Creative Associate-Design
Jen Nagorski'08
nagorski@augsburg.edu
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geff re@a ugsburg.edu
.
few years ago my good friend and predecessor as Augsburg's president, Bill Frame,
introduced me to Burton Clark's work on the
concept of saga as it relates to the distinctive character and identity of colleges and universities. A saga, according to Clark, is more than
story-all of us
a
have stories. A saga is more of a
mythology-a sense of history and purpose and
direction that is told in vocabulary and narrative that
accounts for a college's DNA, its essence even-and
it abides in the people, programs, and values that
define an institution.
Clark contends that not every institution has a
saga. Sometimes this is a function of not being true
to founding values. At other times it can be occasioned by a change of location or core mission. Still
other institutions have not found a way to link theìr
pasts, presents, and futures in a coherent narrative.
I believe firmly that Augsburg does have a saga,
and it runs deep in the culture and meaning of our
work here together. My exploration of Augsburg's rich
history has surfaced several themes that are central
to our saga. I think you will recognize them:
founders who believed that education should be for
all, no matter their circumstances, and that the
quality of that education should be of the highest
order because that is what God expects of those
faithful servants who have been given the gift to
teach. This is our distinctive gift for the world, an
educational experience like no other available to
those who might otherwise not have the opportunity.
This is our distinctive gift for students from many
different backgrounds and experiences. This is our
distinctive gift to have a community in which access
to education is celebrated and encouraged and, yes,
even demanded. We dare not keep back any of the
educational opportunity with which we have been
entrusted because it is our distinctive gift from our
You
will read in the following
rent students and alumni who have been welcomed
at Augsburg and offered a demanding and relevant
education that serves them for a lifetime. ln these
stories I trust that you will find-as I have come to
know in my experience here-that our saga, our
DNA, our values, and character lead us to pursue
the pursuit of freedom through a liberal arts
approach to learning, by serving our neighbor and
the world, and by the centrality of faith to our vision
Augsburg experience available to all who will be
formed by our college's rare and distinctive vision of
education for lives of meaningful work and faithful
of education.
service. lt's a saga worth retelling and celebrating!
Another central theme in our saga is powerfully
illustrated in the articles in this issue of the
Augsburg's high-quality education accessible to all
learning, and service. Our commitment to an accessible education is a remarkable legacy from our
Jeff Shelman
shelman@a ugsbu rg.edu
Sports lnformation Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.ed
u
l)irector of Alumni and
Constituent Relations
Kim Stone
stonek@a ugsbu rg.ed
u
wwwaugsburg.edu
I
I
Augsburg Nowis published by
Augsburg College
f
I
PAUL C. PRIBBENOW, PRESIDENT
I
i
221 1 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
0pinions expressed in Augsburg Now
do not necessarily reflect official
College policy.
lr
I
l
ll
I
tssN 1058-1545
Send address corrections to
Advancement Services
cB t42
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
hea lyk@a ugsb
We believe deeply in making
those who seek to learn at the intersections of faith,
Director of l{ews and
Media Services
pages about cur-
ever more avidly a commitment to making an
/Vor.,r¡.
barnesb@a ugsburg.ed u
ancestors and our gracious and loving God.
Augsburg is shaped by an immigrant sensibility, by
Augsburg
Webmaster//far 0nline
Bryan Barnes
u
rg.ed u
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1 181
Fax:612-330-1780
fall 2009
Features
English 111
compiled by Wendi Wheeler '06
Velkommen Jul's sweet traditions
compiled by Betsey Norgard
Finding perspective
by
Jeff Shel
man
Iliscovering joy in the challenges of leadership
by
Jeff Shelman
Making Augsburg possible
by Wendi Wheeler '06
Annual report to donors, 2008-09
ct)
+,
É
-(¡)
+)
-O
(J
Depa rtments
4
Around the Ouad
6
Spotlight-Trip to Egypt
I
Auggies on the field
g
It takes an Auggie
12
Auggie voices
't3
Homecoming 2009
47
Alumni news
52
Class notes
56
My Auggie experience
0n the cover
Juventino Meza Rodriguez arrived in St. Paul from Mexico at age 15
Through determination, hard work, and a lot of support, he's one of
the many students helped into college by Admission Possible.
6 ffi
¡iFiw
All photos by Stephen Geffre unless otherwise indicated.
6
(*,
fi
Wg
First-year day students began their semester with
City Service Day, spending an afternoon working on
I
prolects in the neighborhoods around Augsburg.
ffiH
ì
llFrtar*-.-
.l.<^?*
oY
4
't
&^t
around the
Augsburg keeps going green
Sustainability Awareness Month
September on campus not only included the beginning of fall
classes, but a month-long series of events and activities
designed to raise awareness and change habits related to
sustai nabi I ity.
Sustainability Awareness Month (SAM) was the brainchild of
Augsburg students, several of whom participated in faculty-led
study abroad programs, including Sustainable Cities in North
America with Professors Lars Christiansen and Nancy Fischer in
the summer of 2008.
After students in the course worked with A'viands to create a
composting program in Augsburg's dining facilities last year,
their next step toward a more environmentally friendly and sus-
r
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Augsburg was the afternoon location of the West Bank Farmers Market each week, bringing
fresh, locally-grown vegetables to the Augsburg community.
tainable campus was a month of events.
"We want this to bring the campus together," said senior
Kjerstin Hagen, a leader on the project. "lt takes all of us to
e
make this happen."
Each week was centered around a different theme, with
tabling, information, activities, and speakers, including nationally known author and activist, Bill McKibben. The themes for
SAM were waste reduction and management, alternative trans-
portation, alternative energy and consumption, and connecting
communitìes through food.
Community Garden and Farmers Market
Augsburg's community garden increased this summer as an additional area was turned into garden plots. A total of 40 plots grew
produce and flowers for the Augsburg community and neighborhood residents and organizations.
didn't grow their own vegetables in the commugarden,
nity
fresh produce was available each week on campus
at the West Bank Farmers Market, a project of the Brian Coyle
Augsburg students joined 5,000 groups around the world that marked the lnternati0nal
Day of Climate Action sponsored by 350.0rg. The number signifies the highest safe level of
carbon emissions in parts per million.
For those who
Center and Augsburg Campus Kitchen. Three farm families sold
their locally-grown and eco-friendly vegetables and herbs during
the summer and into the early cold fall at Brian Coyle Center in
bring about action to reduce atmospheric carbon emissions to 350
ppm, deemed the highest safe level by NASA scientists.
Auggie students led bikers to the State Capitol for a rally on the
Capitol lawn, sponsored by the Will Steger Foundation, Oxfam, 1Sky,
and Augsburg in support of global climate change action. Rep. Betty
the morning and at Augsburg by Foss Center in the afternoon.
McOollum and Rep. Keith Ellison, among other legislators, told
those gathered to "keep your voices loud."
350 lnternational l)ay of Climate Action
Augsburg students planned a full day on October 24 as part of
the lnternational Day of Climate Action, the project of Bill
The bikers arrived back on campus in time to join a crowd at halftime on the footballfield for a photo that was posted online at
McKibben and 350.0rg. Activities around the world aimed to
and Day Student Body Government.
4
www.350.org. The halftime event was sponsored by Campus Ministry
Augsburg Now
I
7-
Mayor meets with students
After returning from New Zealand last summer,
Richmond Appleton '09 was so enthusiastic that he
wrote a letter t0 Minneapolis mayor
R.T. Rybak.
Applelon was in l{ew Zealand lor five weeks
with 25 students led by biology professor Brian
Corner and political science professor loe
Underhill to study Biodiversity and Environmental
Politics. "tveryone is aware of the environment,
of sustainability, of food production, and energy
use. From the north island to the south island,
everything is consistent."
Appleton, a senior environmental studies maior,
Ever Cat Fuels in lsanti, Minn., opened its plant t0 produce biodiesel from the Mcgyan process, which has
student, faculty, and alumni r00ts at Augsburg.
Ever Cat Fuels opens in lsanti
Minneapolis. He contacted Rybak, a strong sup-
What began as a student research project in a Science Hall laboratory made
another step toward changing how fuel will be produced in the future when Ever
porter of sustainability efforts, who welcomed
Cat Fuels held a grand opening for its biodiesel plant in late September.
wanted to bring ideas from l{ew Zealand back to
such a meeting.
Kjerstin Hagen'10, an American lndian studies
major who studied urban sustainability last summer in Portland, 0re., and Vancouver, 8.C., joined
The plant, located about 40 miles north of campus in lsanti, Minn., is expected to
produce about 3 million gallons of biodiesel per year when fully operational. lt represents the first large-scale application of the Mcgyan process of making biodiesel.
The Mcgyan process came out of research by Augsburg undergraduate and
Appleton at the meeting. She was one of the stu-
Rhodes scholar Brian Krohn'08 and creates biodiesel from waste oils. The process
dents involved in implementing Augsburg's com-
doesn't require food stock to work and doesn't create any waste products.
The Mcgyan process-named for Ever Cat Fuels founder and Augsburg alumnus
posting program and planning Sustainability
Awareness Month.
Ihe students shared their travel experiences
with Rybak and told him about ongoing sustainability efforts at Augsburg, many of which were initiated by students. "Augsburg is doing exactly what
I believe in," Rybak said.
The three agreed that informing and educating
the community is an important factor in promoting
urban sustainability. Rybak encouraged Appleton
Clayton McNeff '91, Augsburg chemistry professor Arlin Gyberg, and Ever Cat scientist Ben Yan-has certainly attracted a lot of attention.
"When I see something like this, it's everythingthat we talk about in
Washington," said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who spoke at the grand opening.
McNeff said Ever Cat Fuels is already planning to expand its facility in lsanti. ln
addition, the company is licensing the Mcgyan process, and it is expected that
other biodiesel facilities will be built across the country and the world.
McNeff also said that a donation to Augsburg's planned Center for Science,
Business, and Religion will be made for each gallon of biodiesel sold.
and Hagen to sign up for one of the city's committees so that they could continue lheir work outside
of Augsburg.
22nd Annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum
Striving for Peace: A Question 0f Will
March 5-6, 2010 at Augsburg College
Honoring 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Martti Ahtisaari
lnternational peace negotialor
and former president of Finland
www.peaceprizeforum.org
Sponsored by Augsburg College, Augustana College (Sioux Falls), Concordia College
(Moorhead), luther College, and St. 0laf College
Fall
2009
5
around the
Augsburg's first travel to Egypt
As a child, I spent most of my summers in Egypt. When I became
language and culture. After learning about the history of Nubia and
director of the Pan-Afrikan Center, I proposed taking students to
Egypt so they could study in a country with both a rich history and
current events of interest. After a year-and-a-half of planning and
its relationship to Egypt, the students spent the day with a Nubian
community located in Aswan.
We later ventured to Hurghada, a city on the Red Sea located in
the Eastern Desert. We drove over an hour to visit a Bedouin community with only 30 members. Due to the harsh nature of the
desert, all of their water comes from a local well, and they raise
the animals needed to survive. We shared a meal with this community, which allowed the students to experience the vast expanse
and isolation of the desert. lt was eye-opening to see what it takes
to survive there.
0ur trip to Egypt evoked a lot of thoughts and feelings within
our students. They had to interact with people who speak different
languages, practice different religions, and come from a very differ-
collaborating with Professor Phil Adamo, who teaches ancient history at Augsburg, we arrived last May in Cairo wilh 22 students. We
began our journey in Africa's largest city, a 1,OOO-year-old metropolis that is home to more than 20 million people. Beyond Cairo,
our three-week excursion took us through Alexandria, Luxor,
Aswan, and Hurghada.
0ur two courses covered Ethnicity and ldentity in Ancient and
Modern Egypt, focusing on Egypt's ancient past and exploring its
modern identity, including a discussion of religion. Although Egypt
has an overwhelming Muslim majority there is also a significant
Orthodox Christian community. As such, students visited some of
the oldest lslamic mosques and Christian churches and monasteries in the world. 0ne stop was Al-Azhar University and mosque,
which is one of the oldest higher education institutions in the
world. We later went to the Hanging Church, one of the sites said
to have been visited by Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Outside of Cairo,
we visited St. Makarios Monastery, another monastery on the Holy
Family's travels through Egypt.
ln discussing Egypt's place in the ancient world, we acknowledged that ancìent Egyptian
society is often over-romanti-
cized, Ieading to a diff iculty in
reconciling the past with the
current state of affairs. To give
context and help students
understand the many changes
Egypt has undergone, we
explored Egypt's relations with
its neighbors, both past and
present. Our f irst stop, Abu
Simbel, is an ancient temple
built by the Egyptians, in an
area then known as Nubia, to
show Egypt's dominance in the
region. Although Nubia is no
longer a separate kingdom, the
Nubian people have a distinct
6
Augsburg Now
È
ent worldview. We challenged stereotypes, explored history, and
dug deep into what it means to be an American traveling overseas.
cities, resorts, mountains, and deserts on our
quest to learn more about Egypt. lt was a wonderful experience to
take students to the place where my family originated, and I look
forward to possibly going back.
We traveled through
MOHAMED SALLAM
Director of the Pan-Afrikan Center and instructor in the Departments of Sociology and History
a7-
Two new regents elected to board
The Augsburg Corporation,
at its annual meeting in
September, elected two new
members to the Board of
NEW
Bt00MlNGIf)l{ CEI{TER-Augsburg students
can now study toward an MBA or a Master of Arts in
Leadership degree in Bloomingon at St. Stephen
Regents and re-elected six
lutheran Church, conveniently located near l-494
others.
and France Ave. For graduates of nearby
Elected to a four-year
term on the Augsburg Board
of Regents:
Ann Ashton-Piper (above
left)
Ann Ashton-Piper is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and has worked
extensively in the information technology field and is president of The Bridgie
Group, a small lT consulting firm. She is active in her church, Peace Lutheran
Church in Bloomington, where she recently chaired the Call Committee. She
and her husband, Ken, who is an architect, are also active in theìr community,
supporting local nonprofit and charitable organizations such as Lake Country
School, Groves Academy, and the Children's Theater Company. They have five
children and live in Bloomington.
Normandale Community Gollege, a bachelor's
degree completion program (AA to BA)
i¡
communi-
cation studies or business administration is
planned at the new Bloomington Center.
NEW S()ClAl- W0R|íMBA DUAL DEGREE-A new
MSWMBA dual degree is specifically designed
for
MSW alumni who completed the Program I)evelop-
ment, Policy, and Administration (PDPA) c0ncentra-
tion; it will offer the knowledge, experience, and
values necessary for success in both business and
human services systems.
Lisa Novotny'80 (above right)
URBAII DEBATE IEAûUE AT AUûSBURG-llow part
Lisa Novotny'80 is vice president, Human Resources at General Mills, and
Augsburg's Sabo Genter for Citizenship and Learn-
has responsibility for human resource strategy and leadership across the sup-
ing, the Minnesota Urban Debate league (MNUI)L)
ply chain and iechnology organization. Prior to General Mills, she held similar
positions for Dain Bosworth and First Bank System. Novotny received her
sponsors six high school programs and three junior
Bachelor of Science degree in social work and Spanish from Augsburg College
St. Paul, serving several hundred students, teach-
ol
high school debate programs in Minneapolis and
in 1980 and a Master of Arts in industrial relations from the University of Min-
ers, and coaches. lt is one ol the college-readiness
nesota. She and her husband, Rev. lVìark Flaten, are members of Edina Community Lutheran Church. They have two daughters; one of them is a current
partnerships Augsburg supp0rts t0 provide access
to underserved and low-income high school stu-
Augsburg sophomore.
dents in the Twin Cities.
Elected to a second, six-year term was:
'65, chairman, Swenson Anderson Financial Group
"LlVE l-lFE
. Dan Anderson
AT THE STRETï
LEVEI"-Day student
body president Sam Smith welcomed first-year
Elected to second, four-year terms were:
Hagfors, founder and president (retired), Norsen, lnc.
. Jodi Harpstead, chief operating officer, Lutheran Social Service of lVìinnesota
. Dean Kennedy'75, president, TFI Securities
. Marie McNeff, academic dean (retired) and professor emerita of education,
. Norman
.
Augsburg College
Paul Mueller'84, physician and chair of internal medìcine, Mayo Clinic
students at the opening convocation with a mes-
sa!e: "At Augsburg my life and my learning have
been enriched by the constant reminder thal the
city and the community are the largest classrooms
you can find.
... Where I currently live,
on the
l3th floor of Mortensen Hall, the view of downtown
Minneapolis is both beautiful and intimidating. Up
that high, it's impossible to make out faces or
street signs. At street level, though, life in the
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Cedar-Riverside and Seward neighborhoods
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doesn'l seem as complicated, foreign, or hectic
as it appears from the bedroom. My hope [is that
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2009
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Campus Kitchen wins youth philanthropy award
{ugsburg's Campus Kitchen program was honored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals with the Outstanding Youth Award
for 2009 at National Philanthropy Day in Minneapolis in November. Augsburg students were recognized for the program they
largely plan and run that serves more than 1,700 meals each
month to low-income and homeless persons, and communities in
need in the Cedar-Riverside and Phillips neighborhoods.
The student leadership team of 8-12 Augsburg student volunteers provides the essential component for the program-people
power. Under direction of the staff coordinator and two student
interns, the team coordinates other volunteers for three cooking
shifts and six food deliveries each week. Meals are prepared, stored
overnight, and delivered the following day. The students also gìve
of their heart, providing conversation and offering companionship
to the individuals they serve.
The Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College was established in
October 2003 and is one of only 15 Campus Kitchen organizations
around the country. The program brings together the college dining
service, local community groups, and individuals to plan, prepare,
The Campus K¡tchen at Augsburg received the y0uth philanthr0py award, recognizing
lhe work ol the students and volunteers who serve 1,700 meals per month in the
neighborhoods around Augsburg.
deliver, and serve meals.
ln the past two years, Campus Kitchen has expanded its activities:
.
A'viands food service-From their arrival at Augsburg ìn June
2008, A'viands, a local food service provider, has embraced
Campus Kitchen and provides access to food that would otherwise be thrown away. Donations also come from community food-
.
. Summer Garden
and Nutrition Education Project-Augsburg students teach neighborhood youth from the Brian Coyle Community
Center and Somali Confederation about health, nutrition, garden-
banks and other institutions.
.
Communìty Supported Agriculture (CSA)-Campus Kitchen is the
site coordinator for all Augsburg CSA shares and receìves six
shares through Ploughshare Farm's Food for Folk Project.
Community garden-Over three years, Augsburg's community garden has provided space for neighborhood residents, Augsburg
employees, and community organizations to grow their own food.
ing skills, and cooking nutritious meals.
.
West Bank Farmers Market-ln partnership with the Coyle
Center, local farmers selltheir produce once a week during the
summer in the morning at Coyle Center and in the afternoon at
Augsburg-and often donate unsold food to Campus Kitchen.
. Service-learning-Augsburg
history students get hands-on learning about how resources are collected, distrìbuted, and controlled
in the "living text" of Augsburg's Campus Kitchen.
ln its six years, Campus Kitchen has been the recipient of three
awards recognizing the program's outstanding service and
achievements: Student Organization of the Year, given by
Augsburg College; Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award, given by
World Hunger Year in 2OO4; and the Great ldea Award, given by
America's Promise. Read more about Campus Kitchen at
www.
a
ugsbu rg. ed u/cam puskitchen.
BTTSEY NORGARD
flr
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View more photos and learn more about why Campus Kitchen was nominated
for the youth philanthropy award at www.augsburg.edu/now
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age 77, Herb Chilstrom '54 got an offer he couldn't refuse. The retired ELCA
presiding bishop was invited to serve as interim director of the Linnaeus Arboretum
at Gustavus Adolphus College while its director is overseas for ayear. The transition
from Chilstrom's 50-plus years as pastor and bishop to administrative gardener, he
AI
tells his friends, was easy: "l'm going from tending flocks to tending phlox."
Chilstrom gained an appreciation and love for gardening from his mother, a gardener ahead of her time who, along with her husband, pul organically grown food
on their table. He pursued that interest in retirement when he studied to become a
.fu1
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master gardener.
"lt turned out to
be one of the most enjoyable educational experiences l've ever
had," he says.
When the Chilstroms moved to a townhome in St. Peter, Minn., Herb volunteered
his services to the arboretum. For seven years he nurtured flowerbeds back to
blooming beauty and created a vegetable garden behind the restored settlers'
cabin-which was a necessity for every settler, as well as his own family, During this
time the arboretum began to restore more than 80 acres back to its native prairie.
Now as interim director, he has enjoyed launching "The Linnaeus Order of
Nasturtiums," a cadre of volunteers who tend the arboretum's flora. lVlostly retirees,
the order has "taken off like gangbusters," Chilstrom says. Despite the initiation,
that is, which requires each volunteer to eat a nasturtium blossom laced with
cream cheese.
"People are almost begging to get into the order," says Chilstrom. He has
recruited 20 volunteers in two months, and all have passed the initiation.
For Chilstrom, this second "calling" also has theological roots. He says that
while Lutherans consider Christ's life, death, and resurrection in the Second Article
of the Creed as the heart of Christian faith, "we may have emphasized it to the
point where we don't appreciate as much as we should the First Article, about creation as the gift of God."
"Being involved in a place like the arboretum," Chilstrom continues, "gives me a
chance to create some balance, to be committed to making this place as beautiful
as it can be in a world that is quite broken, where we don't appreciate the gifts of
nature, and where there's so much desecration of the environment."
It's also a chance for some historical reflection. Chilstrom recounts how so many
settlers, including his great-grandparents, arrived in lVìinnesota penniless and
began breaking up the prairie, with disregard for Native peoples and their land.
"Now when we recapture part of that into native prairie, we are helping people
step back and think about what it was like for Native Americans to live here, how
they survived in that setting, and the beauty of the prairie," he says.
ln sum, Chilstrom says, "lfeel that in my retirement I've been uniquely blessed
to be located in a place like this where I can think about some of these good ihings
that are important to us."
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HfIMECOMING 2OO9
September 28-0ctober 4
Despite the rains and chilly weather, spirits were high at the 2009
Auggie Adventure, as hundreds of alumni, students, faculty/staff,
and friends celebrated Homecoming. 0ueen Jamie Krumenauer
and King Kevin Khottavongsa presided at the football game halftime festivities and cheered the Auggies despite their loss to
Hamline, 38-28. Alums sampled classes from Augsburg professors, met fellow alumni authors, enjoyed their reunions, and
ended the weekend with a bang at the fireworks display.
Fall
2009
13
'Ëff'{
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1
2009
Augg¡e Adventure
14
Augsburg Now
DISTINGUISHEIl ALUMNI
FIRST ]lECA]lE AWARIl
Tove Dahl'84 and Curt Rice'84
Tove Dah
l-Associate
Professor,
Psychology, University of Tromsø, Norway
Curt Rice-Director, Center for Advanced
Study in Theoretical Linguistics, University
Brenda Talarico, '99 PA
Assistant Professor, Physician
Assistant Program, Augsburg Col lege
of TromsØ, Norway
SPIRIT fIF AUGSBURG
AWARD
Phebe Hanson '50
Poet, teacher, founding member of
The Loft Literary Center
James E. Haglund, Augsburg Regent
Emeritus and Parent
President and Owner, Central
Contai ner Corporation ; Co-owner of
Spectrum Screen Printing
Joyce (Anderson) Pfaff '65
Professor Emerita of Health and
Physical Education, Augsburg College
2flO9 ATHLETIC HALL flF FAME
Bob Arvold '82, Wrestlìng
Joel Engel '87, lvlen's Basketball
Matt Farley'88, Baseball
Dallas Miller'88, lvìen's Hockey
Ruth 0lson '60, Women's Basketball
Sonja Slack Payne '91, Softbatt, Tennis
Drew Privette '89, Football, Men's Hockey
Richard Thorud '56
Daniel Roff '82, Football
Retired engineer, Toro Company
Stefanie Lodermeier Strusz '98, women's Basketball
@
For more aboul Homecoming and the alumni award winners, go to
www.augsburg.edu/now
Fall
2009
15
THE DESTINATION IS THE SAME: EARNING A COLLEGE DEGREE. BUT THE PATHS
TO THAT CAN BE AS DIFFERENT AS DAY AND WEEKEND/EVENING.
For many, Augsburg College is a traditional liberal arts college with 18- to 22-year-olds
ENGLISH
living on or near campus. lt's the place where they went just a few months after graduating from high school and spent the next four years.
There is another side to Augsburg as well. lt's one where classes are held on Fridays,
Saturdays, Sundays, and some evenings. ln this evening and weekend program, students
are older, they are more likely to have a full-time job, and they often juggle more family
responsibilities than traditional day students. They study in both Rochester and
lVinneapolis, at four locations.
While the two groups are demographically different, the education they receive is as
close to the same as possible. For example, business majors in the day program take the
same courses as business majors in the evening and weekend program at all locations.
Where the education differs has more to do with the life experiences students bring to
the classroom.
As one way to see this, we talked to students and faculty members in a day and
weekend section of English 111. This class, Effective Writing, is one that nearly every
Augsburg student takes. As seen in their favorite books and authors, the younger day
students tend toward escape fantasy and horror fiction, exploring the dark and the
macabre. The older weekend/evening students show more interest in philosophy, psychology, and spìrituality-perhaps seekìng more understanding, meaning, and comfort
their lives. Enjoy "meeting" these Augsburg students.
COMPILED BY WENDI WHEELER
16
Augsburg Now
in
by the numbers
EVENINû/WËEKENI)
UNI|ERGRADUATE
PR0GRAM (Minneapolis Campus)
DAY UNDERGRAI)UATE PR()GRAM
Total students enrolled: 809
Total students enrolled: 2,01 3
Average age: 35
Average age:
Male/female rat¡o: 37/63
21
Male/female ratio: 50/50
Students of color: l5%
Students of color (total): 25%
Students of color (first-year class): 42%
Fall
2009
17
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sweet trad¡t¡ons
Velkommen Jul is one of Augsburg's most popular traditions, a Scandinavìan
welcome to the holiday season. Augsburg alumni and friends look forward each
year to the splendid banquet of sweets and treats provided by the Augsburg
Associates.
Enjoy these cookie recipes that come from the hands and hearts of the
Associates. Some recipes date back generations to family members who
attended Augsburg Seminary in the late 1800s.
JOIN US AT VELKOMIVìEN JUL ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4,
BEGINNING WITH CHAPEL AT 10:15 A.M.
COMPILED BY BETSEY NORGARD
Fall
2009
19
{
{
Grandma Rand's Krumkake
1 pt. whipping cream
1 c. sugar
l tsp. vanilla
2 c. f|our
Pinch of salt
1 c. milk
Whip cream until stiff . Add sugar gradually. Mix vanilla and
add flour and salt, which have been sifted together. Add milk
slowly, beating constantly. Bake in krumkake iron, a teaspoon-
ful at a time (no more). Remove from iron and roll immediately.
Makes about 10 dozen.
Fattigmann
Berliner Kranser
Þ
6
6
6
2
6
egg yolks, 3 egg whites
Tbl. sugar
Tbl. cream
Tbl. melted butter
2 hard cooked egg yolks
Il2 c. sugar
2 raw egg yolks
1 c. butter
f
2-712 c. flour (use less)
fat for frying
cardamom seeds
lour
salt
van
Beat egg yolks and whites together until
illa
thick and lemon colored. Add sugar and
Mash cooked egg yolks with fork. Add sugar and
continue beating; add cream and beat
again; blend in butter. Crush cardamom
seeds to powder and add with enough
flour to make a dough f irm enough to roll
work into a wet and pasty mixture. Add raw egg
yolks and mix well. Add butter and mix. Add flour,
salt, and vanilla. Take dough about the size of a
walnut and roll into pencil shape about seven
inches long. Form a ring, overlap ends (like a pret-
Roll thin as paper, cut into diamond
shapes about 5 x
sprinkle with powdered sugar.
*
Augsburg Now
inches. Deep-fry
brown. Drain on absorbent paper and
e,
20
2-Il2
in hot fat 2-3 minutes or until golden
zel). Dip in raw egg white, then into crushed loaf
sugar. Bake a|325 degrees until light brown.
Mom's Rosettes
4,t
I
1
1
I
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. sugar
3/4 c. milk (can use whole or skim)
.#
dü
Il4 c. waler
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. f lour
canola or vegetable oil for deep frying
Heat oil in a deepfryer to 375 degrees. (Be sure to
have a thermometer in the oil as you fry the
rosettes and maintain an average of 375.) Put the
rosette iron in the oil as it heats-a hot iron and
oil temperature are most important for crisp
rosettes.
Jule Spritz
{
1 c. butter
1 tsp. almond extract
2-tl2 c. flour
Batter: ln a deep bowl, lightly whip the eggs, salt,
and sugar with a fork, just to mix. Don't overbeat
it. Combine the milk, water, and vanilla. Alternately add 1/3 of the liquid and 1/3 of the flour to
the egg mixture and repeat until all are mixed. lf
the batter isn't smooth, put through a sieve to
remove the lumps.
4 small egg yolks (or 3 large)
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Cream sugar and butter, add almond extract
and egg yolks and beat well. Add flour and
salt. Put cookie dough in cookie press and
press out cookies on cookie sheet. Decorate
Lay out paper toweling on cookie sheets to cool the
rosettes after frying. Have a bowl of sugar for dipping the hot rosette into after it comes off the iron.
with red and green sugar. Bake about 12
minutes at 400 degrees.
A couple of forks will be useful to remove the
rosette from the iron.
With hot oil and hot iron a|375 degrees, and
absorbent cloth or several paper towels ready,
quickly remove the rosette iron from the oil,
quickly shake off any excess oil over the deepfryer,
dab the iron on the paper towel, and quickly
immerse the iron into the rosette batter-not going
over the top edge of the rosette iron-and quickly
return the iron to the deepfryer. After about 15-20
seconds in the oil for a light brown color, gently
remove the rosette from the iron using a fork. Be
sure to keep the iron in the oil heating as the
rosette continues to brown; turn it with the forks to
get uniform browning; and remove from the oil
with the forks and place on paper toweling with
the hollow side down to drain off any excess oil
While warm, dip in sugar. Cool completely and
store in large cookie tin in a cool place. Makes
approximately 36 rosettes.
Fall
2009
21
Ð
perspective
BY JEFF SHTLMAN
I
22
Augsb
s'
Lisa Jack
It was a summer of mood swings
and wide-ranging emotions.
ln May, Lisa Jack found herself on the
cover of the los Angeles Times'Calendar
section. The Augsburg psychology professor had a camera around her neck as
is talk of a Paris showing of the photos
"The majority of students, they enjoy
being engaged and challenged," Jack
said. "l love challenging them and to be
that until two years ago were housed in a
chal lenged. "
basement box, Jack is far less interested
than she was even this summer.
That's because real life suddenly
While Jack's photos have been seen
across the globe and she has been inter-
While the 36 photos of 0bama are
now on display at Occidental, and there
reappeared.
0n July 25, doctors told Jack's
viewed by outlets ranging from The New
York Times to the television show Exfra,
Jack has never heard a word from
mother that she has ovarian cancer. ln
examining her family history, Jack and
Obama or anyone at the White House.
her sister were then told that they are
ings with Obama in recent years, is all
right with that. She understands the job
he has to do and that the photos are
from a long time ago. And she also has
display at a hip West Hollywood art
genetically predisposed for the disease.
And because there isn't a way to screen
for ovarian cancer, the only way for Jack
to protect herself would be to have sur-
gallery.
gery herself.
she sat cross-legged and dressed in
black in the California sun. Her 1980
photographs of now-President Barack
Obama-which were originally published
in
Time magazine-were about to go on
She had become the photographer
she wanted to be at the time she took
those photos when they were both under-
graduates at Occidental College. There
was now enough buzz about her work for
singer-songwriter Seal to check out the
photos. Her photographs captured what
she has described as Obama's youth and
playfulness. And she knew she wanted
some sort of platform."
With Jack needing to help provide
care for her mother in New York and
planning for a significant medical
procedure of her own, Jack was
pictures.
forced to adjust her teaching load
at the last minute. Jack was not
years.
New camera in tow, she spent part of
her summer in North Dakota shooting
photos of professional rodeo cowboys
and the livestock they ride. She began
conversations about some photography
projects. She was excited about rediscovering what she had once thought
would be a career.
"Once I purchased the camera, I went
to practice at the IUniversity of
able to teach an AugSem first-year
seminar and is llmited to one psychology internship course for
upperclass students.
"l was adamant that I teach
this semester," she said. "l have
to have a life. I can't be all cancer all the time. And I love to
teach. I have a class of seniors
and I know them all. lt'll be
fun."
Because while Jack's love
of photography was rekindled
Minnesota'sl Raptor Center," Jack said.
"When I put everything in my computer,
I said, '0h my God.' I didn't lose any
when she unearthed the
nearly 3O-year-old photos of
vision. "
Obama, she still wants to
All was great, right?
Not so fast. Because that part of the
summer seems so long ago.
some new-fou nd perspective.
"lt's an ugly, horrible, heinous disease," Jack said. "They call it the
silent killer. I've done a U-turn into a
cancer activist. But maybe it was the
point in finding those photos, to have
to continue telling stories through
That's why Jack began taking photographs again for the first time in many
Jack, who has had two chance meet-
teach. With an extremely outgoing personality and non-stop
professor
energy, Jack loves the classroom setting.
Fall
2009
23
Mafk
HanSOn calls it a "kicking and
screaming" calling. The son of a parìsh
pastor, Hanson had no interest in follow-
difficult times, ELCA presiding bishop Mark Hanson '68 finds
great joy in his calling and seeks to stay focused 0n Ggd's w3rk in the world.
Even through
ing his father into mìnistrY.
Sure, Hanson went to Union Theologi-
cal Seminary after graduating in 1968
from Augsburg with his wife, lone
(Agrimson) '68, but ihat was onlY
because he received a scholarship to try
it for a year. Even when he f inished up
at Union, Hanson went as far as to stand
in line to regìster to begin graduate
school classes in psychology before he
realized that wasn't what he wanted to
do with his life.
"l ended up going to therapy for six
months to f igure out what was going on
ìn my lìfe," Hanson says. "And it was
only after sìx months of therapy that
realized I was f ighting, for all the wrong
I
reasons, the call to ministrY."
Now, nearly 40 years later, Hanson
f
inds himself as the presìding bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America at one of the most challenging
times since the Lutheran Church in
America, the American Lutheran Church,
and the Association of Evangelical
Lutheran Churches merged to form the
ELCA in the late 1980s.
The nation's financial instability has
led to a downturn in contributions to the
church. The nation's changing demographics have left the ELCA as a graying
organization with ìts strength in parts of
the natìon that aren't growing. And, in
the wake of votes taken at August's
Churchwide Assembly on topics of
human sexuality and homosexual clergy
in committed relationships, there are
many individuals and congregations
pondering whether the ELCA is the place
for them.
And despite the current challenges
"I think that ìn anxious times that
have dimensions of conf lict in them, the
temptation ìs to go into enclaves of likeminded people to both reinforce the convictions one holds with those likeminded people, and often to articulate
that those whom you are not in agreement with are so wrong," Hanson says.
"l have worked to be very connected
relationally.
"ln a culture that is so polarized,
facing the ELCA, Hanson loves his job.
"l f ind great joy in what I do,"
especially around issues of personal
Hanson says, while sitting in his 11th-
morality, and tends to be increasingly
f
loor off ice that overlooks Chicago's
0'Hare lnternational Airport. "I use joy
very intentionally. Joy, for me, has its
source in my faith. I literally f ind great
joy in this call. I told a group of pastors
that I have the best call in the church
and what was fun was that a bunch of
them lìned up to argue with me about
why theirs is better. I liked that."
But Hanson acknowledges that these
times are challenging. And that's why
Hanson has spent-and will be spend-
ing-a
signif icant amount of time engag-
fractious, contentìous, and too often
mean-spirited, can we exemplify in our
witness another way to live-together
and honoring our dìfferences, but in the
context of our unity?"
J
im Arends, a I97 4 Augsburg gradu-
ate and current bishop of the LaCrosse
lWisc.l Area Synod,
saYS one
of Han-
son's biggest strengths as presiding
bishop is his ability to communicate in
general and to listen in particular.
"lt
is going to help, it can't but help,"
Arends says. "He respects you. I don't
ing in conversation, even if the actions
think I've ever seen anything even close
at the Minneapolis Convention Center
to disrespectful. With his authority and
height, he's still able to make people be
make things a little awkward and
u
ncomf ortable.
comfortable and relax around hìm.
That's tough with the height of his collar
and the big cross he needs to wear."
How does he do it? Hanson saYS some
of it is because of what he learned at
Augsburg. Because while there are challenges within the church, there are far
Discovering
in the
Challenges
of leadership
BY JEFF SHELMAN
Fall
't
2009
25
1l
more sign
if
icant issues-poverty, dis-
ease in third-world countries, and health
concerns among them-that the ELCA is
trying to tackle.
"The call for us as Christians is not to
be turned inward in conf lict with each
schools of higher education. We have
great colleges and universities in the
church, but I think Augsburg has really
positioned itself where I would want to
see a college of this church to be."
for work about 80% of the time.
"There are some days when I've gone to
the airport where I've given the United
desk my driver's license and said,
'l forgot
to look, where am I going again?"' Hanson
other and miss this moment to be
engaged in God's work in the world;
And as Hanson progressed from
parish pastor to bishop of the Saint Paul
Area Synod to, now, presiding bishop,
Augsburg gave me that perspective," he
Hanson sees a thread that goes back to
says. "Augsburg always reminded me
that whatever is going on with you,
Augsburg.
will have a lot to do with continuing com-
"My whole life has been shaped by
the intersection of intellectual curiosity,
faith, and how faith and intellect shape
one for a life in leadership," Hanson
says. "The phrase I use for what I got
from Augsburg and Union is an
unquenchable curiosity of faith and life.
I've never stopped being curious. I think
Augsburg fostered that. I'm going to be
free to ask questions and to serve my
neighbor, particularly the one who is
struggling with issues of justice and
munications, building relationships, and
leading a church that has members asking
serious questions about the future. While
the conversations and e-mails aren't
always positive from individuals concerned
about the ELCA's actions, Hanson remains
within your family, within the church,
there is a world that calls you."
That was true in the mid-to-late
1960s when Hanson studied sociology,
and it is true now as Hanson also
watches Augsburg as a parent. Four of
his six children have or currently are
attending Augsburg. His daughter
Alyssa, an alumna of the College, is also
teaching math in the Weekend College
program.
"When lone and I were at Augsburg,
we were invited, encouraged, challenged
to immerse ourselves in the city, CedarRiverside, North Minneapolis, and that
has not stopped," he says. "0ur daughter who is a senior there now has been to
Central America twice. The immersion
and context have grown from the immediate Cedar-Riverside neighborhood to
now the world.
"l'm all
26
over the world looking at
Augsburg Now
says with a laugh. "That's pretty bad. I'm
prepared for where I'm going, but there's a
lot of travel."
That travel, in the upcoming months,
upbeat.
"l
am proud to serve in leadership right
"l lead 70 million Luther-
now," he says.
ans in the world and lead the largest
Lutheran Church in the United States;
around Lake Harriet for Chicago's Edge-
that's just an amazing thing that I am
called into that sort of leadership. lf the
criticism begins to take a personal toll,
then I can no longer be an effective leader.
I think that the gospel is too good news for
me to get so discouraged that I can't, with
brook neighborhood, he's rarely there.
It's tough to be at home when you travel
great passion, proclaim the good news of
Jesus. "
poverty."
And Hanson has plenty of opportunities to be curious as presiding bishop.
While he and lone have traded the area
"We have great colleges and universities in the church, but I think Augsburg has
really pos¡t¡gned itself where I would want t0 see a college of this church t0 be."
rl
I
ï
H
ffi
\t'/ith more than 4,000 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs,
Augsburg College strives to create an intentionally diverse and vibrant community by welcoming students of varied backgrounds and experiences.
For many of the students who come to Augsburg, being an Auggie is a
dream come true because at one time in their lives, the idea of going to college was nearly impossible to imagine.
That's where Admission Possible comes in. This program, which was
founded in Minnesota in 1999 to help low-income high school students get
into college, has brought more than 100 students to Augsburg since its found-
H
ing. Ihis fall, 63 Admission Possible alumni joined the Augsburg community as
first-year students-more than any other private college in the country.
E
tr
Admission Possible made Augsburg possible for these students. Not only
has this program enriched the lives of students and their families,
it has also
benefited the Augsburg community.
Finding Admission Possible
Juventino "Juve" Meza Rodriguez'11 came to the U.S. from
Mexico when he was 15 years old. Unlike his parents or siblings,
Meza Rodriguez had been fortunate to attend school beyond the
sixth grade and, though he did not speak English, he was excited
m
H
m
about continuing his education in a Minnesota high school.
"l come from a low-income working family; my parents and
their parents didn't go to school. My mom made a big push for
education for her children because she wanted us to do something she wasn't able to do," he says.
Meza Rodriguez tested into the ninth grade and began classes
at Arlington High School in St. Paul. ln his neighborhood and in
his family, no one had gone to college. "As kids we always said
we want to be this or that," he says, "but realistically I wasn't
thinking that college would be a possibility for me. And my parents of course didn't think it was an option either."
ln his sophomore year, he dropped out of school, following his
friends who had started working and were making money. "l was
out of school for one week, and I did not enjoy life," he says. He
asked his parents to help him get back into school, and after
that week he appreciated his education more than he had before
"l knew I wanted something more, but I wasn't sure what that
was and I didn't have people around me who had done it either."
With a renewed enthusiasm for high school, Meza Rodriguez
asked a guidance counselor about college. "She told me
I
couldn't go," he says, but she eventually found a program for him
and suggested he apply. That program was Admission Possible.
From the moment he was accepted into the program, Meza
Rodriguez was on his way to college, but he was in unfamiliar
28
Augsburg Now
q F
n
Ð
territory. "When I told my parents that I wanted to go to college,
theyasked how I wasgoingtodo it. I said,'l have no idea."'
Because his parents were unable to support him f inancially
and because they had no experience with higher education, lVleza
Rodriguez says they left many of the decisions about school up to
him. "They would always say, 'Tu sabes lo que haces,'(You know
what you're doing). But I didn't know what I was doing."
Getting to Augsburg
l-lis Admission Possible coach did know what to do to navigate
the complicated and sometimes intimidating landscape of college application. Twice weekly in his junìor and senior years,
lVIeza Rodriguez met with his coach and other students. He prepared for the ACT and learned how to select a college that
matched his interests, complete the admissions applications,
and apply for financìal aid including scholarships.
Admission Possible also encouraged lVeza Rodriguez to make
connections at schools by going on campus visits and attending
education fairs. At one such fair for Latino students, he met Carrìe Carroll, Augsburg's assistant vice president of admissions.
"When I got to Carrie's booth, I told her I had heard about
Augsburg and she started asking me questions. We talked for two
hours," he recalls. "She was very welcoming and showed an
interest in me that other schools didn't bother to show." After
their meeting, Carroll e-mailed lVleza Rodriguez and encouraged
him to apply to Augsburg.
"I applied, and Carrie called my AP coach within six days and
said I had been admitted. I was the flrst student in my AP class
to apply and the first to get accepted."
il
I
I
Carroll says Admission Possible students are attracted to
Augsburg because of the f inancial aid that helps make college
possible for more than 90% of traditional day college students.
Two programs-Augsburg College Access Program (ACAP) and
the Augsburg Promise are aimed at assisting f irst-generation
and low-income students.
ACAP provides a four-year grant for students who have participaled in a college readiness program. The grant covers the cost of
luition not met with federal or state grants for students who are
Minnesota residents, have an ACT score of 20 or belter, and have
cunrulative grade point average of at least 3.25.
lVlore
a
importantly, Carroll says studenls come because ALrgsburg
has made an institutional commitrnent
to providing access for nrany
different types of studenls, to creating an intenlionally diverse cam
pus, and to engaging students in service to the conrmunity. All of
these commitments connect closely to Admission Possible values.
"At Augsburg, we are aware of the obstacles some students
have faced and will continue to face. We value our students." As
Fall
2009
in
29
Meza Rodriguez's case, Carroll says often a student will make
the choice to come to Augsburg, even though they have been
accepted elsewhere, simply because the Augsburg staff takes the
time to get to know them personally.
accessible to anyone, regardless of his or her background or
circumstances.
Beyond admission
onto their campuses." lt has also helped colleges and universities
address much of the stigma that is attached to low-income stu_
Meza Rodriguez says that Admission possible has also changed
campus atmospheres by introducing students who might not have
considered college in the past. ',Ap helps colleges get out of their
comfort zone," he says, "by welcoming more and more diversity
Once students are accepted and begin their college studies, they
still encounter
d
many challenges that can make staying jn school
iffic u lt.
dents, challenging the notion that they are low-achieving or unpre_
pared. ln fact, while the fall 2009 first-year class includes 40%
ln the past, a team of Admission posstble staffers did some
tracking and outreach to their alumni after they had started
college. Most of their assistance had been reactionary, however,
and they were often brought in when a student was in the midst
students of color, the average ACT score and class rank have
of a crisis.
pared for success and dedicated to making the most of their college
This year, Admission Possible has developed a structured col_
remained consistent among Augsburg's incoming classes over the
past four years.
Carroll agrees, adding that Admission possible students are pre_
on their individual campuses.
experience. "These are smart, capable students who work very hard
to succeed. They just need to be taught how to do this.',
Meza Rodriguez is just one example of the motivated and tal_
Ben Pierson is the college coach at Augsburg this year. Having
an office on campus is important because for Admissjon possible
ented students who find a fit at Augsburg through coilege readiness
programs. He received a president,s Scholarship, which recognizes
alumni, "AP" means "help." Students know they will find a caring adult in Pierson as well as a reliable source of information
academic achievement and leadership potential, and he is an
Honors program student. ln his three years at the College, he has
and support.
also been a senator in student government, helped found a Latino
lege program with coaches who work one-on-one with students
Pierson works with Augsburg's director of retention, the
Enrollment and Financial Services staff, admission counselors,
and with the other student support programs. His objective is to
maintain contact with students and help them find the resources
they need before they want or need to drop out.
student organization, and conducted summer research with
President Pribbenow as his mentor and adviser.
This fall Meza Rodriguez is studying poverty, inequality, and
social change in the Metro Urban Studies Term (MUST) through
HECUA, the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs, and
is doing an internship with the Citizens League in St. paul. He
Making dreams poss¡ble
has also organized a group at Augsburgto help connect the more
than 100 Admission Possible alumni who are now enrolled at the
College readiness programs like Admission possible are just one of
College.
When he participates in Commencement, Meza Rodriguez knows
the many ways students find Augsburg and realize their dreams.
But this program benefits more than the students who enroll and
graduate.
Meza Rodriguez and the other Admission possible alumni fea_
tured here set examples for their peers, siblings, and their commu_
nities. Their experiences demonstrate that a college education is
@
30
will be an inspiration not only to members of his community but
to his younger siblings, ages 4 and g, whom he hopes will one
day follow in his footsteps. "My siblings can see that college is pos_
sible. So many people around me can now see that it is possible.,,
he
also
Learn about Adm ission possi ble at www.adm ission possi ble.org.
Read more about the other
Augsburg Admission possible
students pictured here at
wwuaugsburg.edu/now
Augsburg Now
lucky Dirie'13
Houa
lor '13
Farrington Starnes'12
È!
b¡
Fall
2009
31
DEAR FRIEI{tlS,
As I write to report to you on the successful completion to a most extraordinary year of economic challenges, I remain filled
with gratitude for your steadfast support to Augsburg College.
While each week last fall brought more bitter news than the previous regarding our financial institutions, we maintained a
watchful and cautious eye over our students, our revenues, and our gifts. I was so pleased and humbled that through these
difficult months our enrollments remained high, our programs strong, and your giving constant.
During this difficult year, your gifts made an Augsburg education possible for many students who would not have otherwise been able to continue theìr studies. At Augsburg, we are committed to providing the access for these students of differing faiths, cultures, and ethnicities to thrive and to become the
next leaders in creating safe and sustainable communities.
Together, we continue to learn how "We are called to serve our
neìghbor. "
Durìng this past year, as a teaching and learning community,
WE ARE CALLEI}
TO SERVE (lUR NEIGHB(lR
we also explored in many ways what it means to live more sustainably in the city. I was so proud of our students, who pushed the College for changes that made us better stewards of our
gifts and of God's creation. Augsburg is now a leader among educational institutions in the use of renewable energy, in support of alternative transportation practices, and in the adoption of a food composting program.
As we move forward, I ask for your abiding and increased participation and support in the next years as we continue to
work together for a stronger and more vibrant future for our college, and for our students.
S
incere ly,
*
L-
?
PAUL C. PRIBBENOW
PRTSIDENT
32
Augsburg Now
\
Your annual fund gift helps to
1
.., retain talented faculty, like chemistry professor
maintain Augsburg's low
2
...
l4:l
Vivien Feng, and
4
...
keep Augsburg affordable by providing a portion of the academic
scholarships and financial aid received by 90% of day students.
studenUfaculty rati0.
make it possible for curious and talented students to stay on campus
5
during the summer to engage in full{ime research with a faculty mentor.
3
...
provide up{o-date computers and technology services critical to
...
fund student programs and co-curricular activities, like campus
ministry, athletics, internships, and ethnic student services.
6
...
provide the special equipment, safety equipment, and supplies for
our science laboratories.
teaching and learning.
È1.
r,' ,ç $¡
"$,ft..,
t{Ol\¡b^
GIVING IN ACTI(¡NWhat Students and Alumni Say
Nate Johnson '11
Rossing Physics Scholar, StepUP program
Ali Rapp '11
Honors student, "Homemade" blogger
ln Augsburg's unique Honors program, Ali and her fellow students participate in deep discussions about controversial questions. "There's a degree of openness in Honors that you don't
find in other classes," she says. Another way Ali expresses
her-
self is through her blog on Homemade, the site that gives current and future Auggies a sense of what life is really like for
students at Augsburg. "We really get to the heart of issues, and
I'm glad we have that kind of freedom to be ourselves and to be
Junior Nate Johnson has an interest in how things work and
was drawn to the problem-solving part of physics. This year he
was named one of four Rossing Physics Scholars in the nation
by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Johnson grew
up in St. Croix Falls before entering substance abuse treatment
in high school. At Augsburg, Johnson is in the StepUp pro,
gram, a program that is much of the reason why he chose the
College and where he f inds community, support, faith, and discipline. "When I was looking at colleges, every time I went to
genuine."
Augsburg, I felt excited about it," Johnson says, "... other college settings felt daunting."
Your giving supp0rts personal growth in Augsburg's
Your giving supp0rts paths to healthy lives in Augsburg's
Honors program
StepUP program
re
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iffi
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u
EÐ
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ll
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I
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il
I I¡l il fIrlI¡Eñ]
Shonna Fulford'09
Myles Stenshoel Scholarship
The Augsburg faculty did more
than just teach Shonna Fulford,
a 2OO9 graduate from Perham,
Minn. "They are truly there to
teach you what they know, to let
you discover things you may never
Annika Gunderson '11
have otherwise, and to help you
President's Scholar, world traveler
ln her three years as an Auggie, Annika Gunderson '1 t
succeed in everything you want to do," she says. As the recipient of the endowed scholarship for students pursuing careers in
political science, she also had the opportunity to get to know
has
almost spent more time away from Augsburg than on campus.
This international relations and Spanish major from Winona,
Minn., has studied abroad three times, spending five weeks in
is named. This student orientation leader and Homecoming
queen hopes to return to Augsburg some day, perhaps as a
Cuernavaca, Mexico; a semester in Central America; and
member of the administration.
another semester in Brazil. Gunderson suggests that all students take advantage of the many study abroad opportunities
Your giving supp0rts scholarships endowed to honor
Professor Emeritus Myles Stenshoel, for whom the scholarship
available to Augsburg students. "lt's important to be able to
challenge yourself to go beyond, to experience something unfa-
faculty careers and commitment
miliar."
Your giving supports life-changing experiences thr0ugh
Augsburg's Genter for Global Education
Michele Roulet '10
WEC Student Senate
Michele Roulet found Augsburg at the State Fair. Returning to college
after a two-year degree and full-time work, she enjoys working at her own
pace for "a chance to figure out who I am." The studio art major has
studied abroad in Central America and Europe. She has also found a
niche in the Weekend Student Senate and has served as its president,
making sure that Augsburg's weekend and graduate student voices are
represented on campus.
Your giving supports leadership in Student Government
Fall
2009
35
GIVING IN ACTIflNSupporting Augsburg Chemistry Students:
John and Marvel Yager
John Yager '7 4 was not a typical Augsburg f reshman. Although
born in Minnesota, he grew up traveling in a military family. He
picked Augsburg because his parents were expected to retire in the
Twin Cities; his uncle, Dr. 0. Lewis Zahrendt, was an Augsburg
graduate; and Augsburg's admissions materials were the most
appeal i ng.
It was a good choice. Yager says he considers Augsburg "one of
the most fortunate events of my life as far as my education was
concerned." His goal was medical school and he majored in chemistry and biology.
Yager credits his academic success to what he believes are still
the hallmarks of Augsburg's chemistry department-high levels of
integrity, dedication, and a commitment to achievement-as well
as the dedication of the chemistry faculty-Courtland Agre, John
Holum, Earl Alton, and Arlin Gyberg. Yager also credits his classmates, the "phenomenal group of very bright and hard-working students, who helped me work all the harder."
But even more crucial to his college success was the support
Yager received when his older brother, with whom he was living,
was tragically killed in an accident. ln coping with grief and trying
to decide whether to stay at Augsburg, Yager contacted Rick Thoni,
the director of student advisers, who arranged for housing options
that Yager needed to stay in school and supported him through the
While his first job involved hands-on chemistry, his subsequent
work has taken him into related fields and aspects of immuno-
chemìstry-q ual ity assurance, regu latory affairs, cl in ical trials, and
literature research and publications. He is a patent-holder on a
medical device used in endoscopy.
"l've had great opportunity to really apply chemistry," Yager
says, "to apply the discipline of what I've learned over the years to
a career that has been extremely rewarding personally." He notes
that while he didn't pursue a medical career, his work has contìnually helped people through development of better medical
products.
Yager currently'works for a new company,
Acist Medical
Systems, which manufactures products that help physicians
ing them reach out to me was something l've never forgotten,"
administer the contrast agent used in angiography.
Yager has continually remained connected to the Chemistry
Department and Augsburg. He has lectured in senior seminars,
Yager says.
served as a mentor to chemistry students, and coached students
After graduation Yager took additional chemistry courses and
worked as a pathology assistant at St. Mary's Hospital. While medical school did not become part of his future, in the pathology lab
through the hurdles of f inding their first jobs. He enjoys maintain-
crisis.
"Feeling that connection and that bond to the College, and feel-
he met Marvel, who also worked in the lab and later became his
wife.
Yager turned
to industry and took a position with an immunodi-
agnostics company, researching and manufacturing products that
improve medical diagnostic testing. Thirty-f ive years later he has
worked at all of the major immunochemistry companies in the Twin
Cities and has been on the cutting edge of medical research in
number of start-up companies.
36
Augsburg Now
a
ing this connection and being on campus once in a while.
"l just
feel at home," he says.
John and Marvel Yager value education and have supported
Augsburg chemistry students through the Augsburg College Chemistry Alumni Scholarship. At times, Yager has also been able to
provide an employer match to their funds.
"As my career has advanced and we've looked at our values as a
family," Yager says, "the idea of giving back has been fundamental."
Yager says that for them Augsburg is the natural place to give,
and with the scholarship endowment, the gift keeps giving.
T
2OO8.2OO9 FINAI{CIAt H¡ûHLIGHTS
Where the Money Comes From
Where the Money Goes
7o/o
3o/"
Government grants
3o/o
Equipment
and capital
improvement
2o/"
Other sources
Student salary
5%
\
3o/o
Debt service
\
Private gifts and grants
.3o/o
/utititi"t
t2/"
Room and board
ffi
m
ffi
$34.5
$33.7
$30.5
$26.6
$26.2
$24.8
2009 Endowment Market Value
$23.2
Ï22.7
$23.3
May 31, 2009
$20.0
$26,211,136
As
$r 6.4
of May 31, 2009, we have
annual realized and unrealized
losses of 2I.7% on our endowment.
$r 4.2
$11.5
Our five-year average annual return
on the endowment is .18%, and the
lO-year average annual return is
I.42%.
We are committed to maintaining the value of the principal
gifts and to provide support to the
College in perpetuity.
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
2ît7
2008
2009
Endowment Assets
(in millions)
June
l,
1
995
-
May 31, 2009
Fall
2009
31
llEAR FRIEI{llS,
It is my distinct pleasure to share with you news about the many gifts and contributions made to Augsburg College between June 1, 2008, and May 31,
2009. I am filled with gratitude at the generosity of our thousands of alumni,
parents, and friends who wholeheariedly supported the College during this past
year
of unprecedented economic challenges and uncertainty.
Together, for the benefit of our students and community, we were able to witness many successes and end our year with an operating surplus.
I'd like to
highlight just a few examples.
.
We increased the number of donors who made gifts during the year to a total
4,75L This support went to The Augsburg Fund, student scholarships,
capital projects, and fine arts, athletics, signature programs, and other
important i n itiatives.
of
¡
Perhaps most exciting, especially in a challenging economy, was the success of The Augsburg Fund, our fund for unrestricted gifts for
the College. For the second year in a row, it reached its $1 million goal, surpassing last year's mark for a total of $1,003,210 from
3,400 donors.
¡
Also for the second year in a row, I am proud to tell you
that we received 100% participation in The Augsburg
Fund from the Augsburg Board of Regents, the Alumni
Board of Directors, the President's Cabinet, and-for the
first time-the staff of the lnstitutional Advancement
Division. This was a gratifying sign of commitment from
WE Lfl(lK BACK WITH GRATITUDE
ANIl F(lRWARD WITH EXPECTATION
F()R A YEAR OF CflNTINUED
SUPPflRT FflR flUR STUDENTS
these key groups of leaders.
.
Augsburg also received 619 gifts totaling $387,000 to new or existing scholarship funds. Scholarships are a primary source of financial aid for many students at Augsburg, and we are again grateful for the 334 generous individuals who chose to establish or con-
tribute to these funds,
this new academic year with the largest enrollment and greatest diversity of any incoming first-year class, we look back with
gratitude and forward with expectation for a year of continued support for our students. I thank you for your continued, unfailing support.
As we enter
Sincerely,
JIRTMY R. WELLS
VICT PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT
38
Augsburg Now
t¡FEÏIME ûIVI}IG
The following
list recognizes alumni and friends of Augsburg College who have generously given a minimum 0f $100,000, including
planned gifts, over a lifetime. We are immensely grateful for their examples of loyalty and commitment to the College.
'68 and Tamra Nelson
Ernest+ and Helen Alne
Phillip+'55 and Lynne Gronseth
George
Donald '60 and Violet Anderson
Carolyn and Franklin Groves
Barbara Tjornhom
Daniel '65 and Alice Anderson
Norman and Evangeline Hagfors
Robert'51+ and Carolyn Odegard
R. Luther Olson '56
'54 Nelson and Richard
Nelson
Brian Anderson '82 and Leeann Rock'81
James and Kathleen Haglund
Charles and Catherine Anderson
Hearst Foundation
Beverly Halling '55 0ren and Donald '53 Oren
Earl and Doris Bakken
Loren Henderson
John and Norma Paulson
Loren and Mary Quanbeck'77 Barber
Elizabeth '82 and Warren Bartz
Donald Hennings
Grace Forss
Robert '50 and Ruth Paulson
Glen Person '47
Paul '63 and LaVonne Olson
'63 Batalden
'57 Herr and Douglas Herr
Donald '39 and Phyllis Holm
Harvey
Sidney '57 and Lola Lidstrom '50 Berg
Allen and Jean Housh
Addison and Cynthia Piper
Barbara and Tane Birky
Garfield Hoversten '50
David Piper
Roy'50 and Ardis Bogen
Huss Foundation
Harry and lVlary Piper
John+ and Joyce Boss
Sandra and Richard Jacobson
Philip '50 and Dora Frojen'49 Quanbeck
Donald Bottemiller and Shellie Reed
Kinney Johnson '65
Mark'53 and Jean Raabe
Rodney and Barbara Burwell
James Johnson and Maxine lsaacs
Alan
Bush Foundation
Dean '75 and Terry Kennedy
Curtis and lVlarian Sampson
Carlson Companies
Bruce and Maren Kleven
Ward C. Schendel
The Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation
David and Barbara Kleven
Ruth Schmidt '52
Richard '74 and Nancy Colvin
E. Milton Kleven '46
James and Eva Seed
David and lVìary Brandt '79 Croft
Dean and Susan Kopperud
Rodney
Theodore and Pamala Deikel
Kraus-Anderson Construction Company
John and Martha Singleton
Corporation Foundation
Darrell '55 and Helga Egertson
Rhonda
Tracy L. Elftmann '81
Diane and Philip Larson
Fuad and Nancy El-Hibri
George
Leland and Louise Sundet
Philip and Laverne Fandrei
Winifred Helland '37 Formo+ and Jerome
Formo'37+
James Lindell '46
Dean '81 and Amy Sundquist
Gary'80 and Deanna Tangwall
Jeny and Jean Foss
Jennifer and Richard Martin
P. Dawn Heil
William and Anne Frame
Barbara and Edwin Gage
General Mills Foundatìon
Marie and Larry McNeff
Teagle Foundation
Gerard and Anne lVeistrell
Hoyt '39+ and Lucille lVlesserer
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Robert '63 and Marie Tufford
Michael '71 and Ann Good
Robert '70 and Sue lVidness
Emily Anne and Gedney Tuttle
'84 and Jean Taylor '85
H. Theodore '76 and lVlichele Grindal
Raymond '57 and Janice Grinde
Paul '84 and Nancy Mackey '85 Mueller
Robert Wagner '02
William and Stephanie Naegele
Ronald '68 and lvlary Kay Nelson
Scott Weber '79
Del uxe
Roger Griffith
Spitzer'85 Kwiecien and Paul Kwiecien '86
ice
'74
and Catherine L. B. Schendel
Sill '82
Glen and Anna Skovholt
Gladys Boxrud Strommen '46 and Clair
David Lankinen'88
Strommen'46+
'61 and lVary Larson
Harris '57 and Maryon Lee
Arne '49 and Jean Swanson
R
'52 and Joanne Varner '52 Peterson
'52
lVarkland
Glen A. Taylor Foundation
laylor'78
Robert Wick '81
Every effort has been made t0 ensure that all nanes are included and spelled correctly.
lfyou notice an error, please contact Kevin Healy at 1-800-273-0617 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
*
Deceased
Fall
2009
39
PRESItlENT'S CIRCTE
GIFTS RECEIVTD JUNE 1, 2OO8 TO MAY 31, 2OO9
The following
list recognizes alumni and friends of Augsburg College who have generously made leadership gifts to the College 0f $1,000 or more in
the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Ruth Aaskov'53
Margaret Clyde
Andra Adolfson
Joseph Cook'89
William '51 and Marolyn Sortland '51 Halverson
Elling and Barbara Halvorson
Peter '70 and lVìary Agre
Walter and Janet Cooper
Jill Hanau
Lois Richter '60 Agrimson and Russell Agrimson
Brent Crego '84
Clarence Hansen'53
Edward '50 and Margaret Alberg
George
Craig Alexander and Roberta Kagin
Sally Hough Daniels '79
'72 and Janet Dahlman
Mark '68 and lone Agrimson
'68
Hanson
Jodi and Stanley Harpstead
Bartley Davidson '76
Hunt and Diane Harris
Julie Edstrom'90
Richard and Dail Hartnack
Leif Anderson
Judy Thompson Eiler '65
Christopher Haug'79 and Karl Starr
Deloris Anderson '56
Dantel'77 and Patricia Eitrheim
David '67 and Karen Jacobson
Daniel '65 and Alice Anderson
Richard '72 and Tamara Ekstrand
Helen Haukeness'49 and James Ranck
Robert'77 and Katherine Anderson
Brian Anderson '82 and Leeann Rock '81
Fuad and Nancy EI-Hibri
Lisa Svac Hawks '85
Avis Ellingrod
Mark Hebert '74
Catherine and Charles Anderson
Rona Quanbeck'48 Emerson and Victor Emerson
Philip'42 and Ruth Helland
Scott'76 and Lisa Anderson
Ronald Engebretsen
Leo Henkemeyer
Steven and Stephanie Anderson
Susan Engeleiter
Garry Hesser and Nancy Homans
Frank'50 and Georgette Lanes'50 Ario
Christine Pieri '88 Arnold and James Arnold '88
Stephen '68 and lVìarilyn lVcKnight '67 Erickson
Donald '39 and Phyllis Holm
Dean '68 and Diana Olson '69 Ersfeld
L. Craig'79 and Theresa Serbus '79 Estrem
Linda Baìley '74 Holmen and Kenneth Holmen '74
Paul Holmquist '79
Richard '87 and Carla Bahr
lVlark and Margie Eustis
Joeì and Alice Houlton
Dorothy Bailey
John '82 and Joan Moline'83 Evans
Kermit '50 and Ruth Hoversten
Robert Barber'56
Allison Everett'78 and Kenneth Svendsen '78
Clarence '41 and lVarguerite Hoversten
Elizabeth '82 and Warren Bartz
Paul '63 and LaVonne Olson '63 Batalden
Barbara Farley
Jane and Patrick Fischer
Allen '64 and Lenice Hoversten
Philip '71 and Patricia Hoversten
Duncan Flann '55
Jerelyn Hovland '63 and Clyde Cobb
Paul '59 and Pearl Almquist
.James
'58 and Beverly Almquist
Jean Hemstreet'68 Bachman and Harold Bachman
Vera Thorson Benzel
'45
'67
Haugen
Dawn Formo
fom'72
Jerome Formo'37+
Joseph Hsieh'61 and E. Mei Shen Hsieh
Birgit Birkeland '58
William and Anne Frame
Andrew Fried '93
Glenda and Richard Huston
Nancy Paulson '70 Bjornson and
JoAnne Digree '68 Fritz and Barry Fritz
Brandon Hutchinson'99
J. Ragnar Bjornson
Buffie Blesi '90 and John Burns
David '68 and Lynn Boe
Leola Dyrud Furman '61
Barbara and Richard Hutson
Karon Garen
Duane'68 and Diane llstrup
John '47 and lrene Jensen
Sidney'57 and Lola Lidstrom '50 Berg
Norman '59 and Delores Berg
John Berg'59
Ann Garvey
and Karen Howe
lVlichael and Barbara Hubbard
Anthony'85 and Traci Genia
Glen'52 and lrvyn Gilbertson
Carol Oversvee Johnson '61
Bruce Brekke
Orval and Cleta Gingerich
Michael Brock
Andrew and Carolyn Goddard
Ruth E. Johnson '74 and Philip Quanbeck ll
lVerton '59 and Jo An Bjornson '58 Johnson
Adam Buhr'98 and Laura Pejsa '98
Alexander '90 and Simone Gonzalez
Danìel Johnson'75
Robert and Brenda Bukowski
lVichael '71 and Ann Good
Gary'74 and lVelody Johnson
Carolyn Burfield '60
Shirley Larson '51 Goplerud and Dean Goplerud
Thomas Gormley and Mary Lesch-Gormìey
Craig Jones
Marilyn Saure '61 Breckenridge and
Tom Breckenridge
Charles Bush
Bruce '68 and Lois Hallcock '68 Johnson
Eric Jolly
Paul and Judy Grauer
Cynthia Landowski '81 Jones and Rick Jones
Carrìe and Peter Carroll
Charles and Barbara Green
H. Theodore '76 and lVichele Grindal
Jennifer Abeln
John and Peggy Cenito
lVabeth Saure '58 Gyllstrom and Richard Gyllstrom
Janet L. Karvonen-Montgomery and Alan
Keith '65 and Lynn Chilgren
Herbert'54 and E Corrine Chilstrom
David and Kathy Haaland
Norman and Evangeline Hagfors
Patricia and Paul Kaufman
C. Lee Clarke
James and Kathleen Haglund
Dean '75 and Terry Kennedy
Marion Buska '46
Christine Coury '91 Campbell and Craig Campbell
40
Augsburg Now
Carol Jones
'78 Kahlow and Larry Kahlow
lVontgomery
lVichael Kivley '89
Jellrey'77 and Becky Bjella '79 Nodland
Charles and Ritchie Markoe Scribner
Linda Klas '92
Norma Noonan
James and Eva Seed
E. lVlilton Kleven '46
Roselyn Nordaune'77
Adam '01 and Allison Seed
Elsie Ronholm Koivula '49
Lisa Novotny '80 and lVark Flaten
Phyllis '58 and Harold Seim
Joanne Stiles '58 Laird and David Laird
Richard '70 and Linda Seime
Kalhryn'72 Lange and Dennis Sonifer
Teny'7O and Vicki Nygaard
Leroy Nyhus '52
Ruth Ringstad '53 Larson and lVarvin Larson
Robert Odegard '51+
Frankie and Jole Shackelford
Earl '68 and Lisbeth Jorgensen '70 Sethre
Norman '85 and Kim Asleson '84 Okerstrom
Stephen and Kay Sheppard
Harris '57 and Maryon Lee
Sandra Larson '69 Olmsted and Richard Olmsted '69
Chad '93 and lVìargaret Shilson
Thomas and Gratra Lee
R, Luther 0lson '56
David Soli '81
Andre Lewis '73 and Kathleen McCartin
Orville '52 and Yvonne Bagley '52 0lson
Earle '69 and Kathleen Kupka '69 Solomonson
Debora and John Liddell
William and Mary 0'lVìeara
Donald '53 and Beverly Halling '55 Oren
Allan '53 and Eunice Nystuen '50 Sortland
Alice Lindell '58 and Gordon '59 Lindgren
Mary Sue Zelle Lindsay and Hugh Lindsay
Beverly Ottum
Arne and Ellen Sovik
Patricia and John Parker
Carolyn Johnson
Dana Lonn
John and Norma Paulson
Robert and Joyce Engstrom '70 Spector
Kathy Lowrie
Robert'50 and Ruth Paulson
Richard '74 and Karen Pearson
Alan Petersen '58+
Harvey '52 and Joanne Varner '52 Peterson
Todd '89 and Amy Steenson
Karin Peterson
Gladys Boxrud Strommen '46
Eugene'59 and Paula Peterson
Corwin and Doris Peterson
Philip '79 and Julia Davis '79 Styrlund
Arne'49 and Jean Swanson '52 Markland
Ron '69 and Jane Petrich
Terry Marquardt'98 and Gary Donahue
Carol Pfleiderer
Jennifer and Richard lVartin
Sandra Phaup'64
Dean '81 and Amy Sundquist
Jeffrey'79 and Melissa Swenson
Nicole Swords '01 and April Leger '02
Jo Anne Sylvester '68 and Larry Dieckman
Gary '80 and Deanna Tangwall
Jean Taylor '85 and Roger Griff ith '84
Paul '60 and Nancy Thompsen
Dick '61 and Jane Thompson
lVlartin Larson
'80
James Lindell '46
Wenona '55 and Norman Lund
Thomas'68 and Carol Batalden '68 Luukkonen
Pamela and Robert lVlacDonald
Philip '79 and Diane Madsen
Kay Malchow'82 and Stephen Cook
Lyle '68 and Susanne Starn
'68
Robert '71 and Cheryl Lindroos
lVìalotky
'72 Marlin
Paul C. Pribbenow and Abigail Crampton Pribbenow
Donald '66 and Margaret fVattison
Karl D. Puterbaugh'52
Donna McLean
Philip '50 and Dora Frojen '49 Quanbeck
lVlark'53 and Jean Raabe
Tara Cesaretti
'97 lVcleod
and
Chrìstopher McLeod '00
Lori Lassi '80 Rathje and Tim Rathje'86
IVarie and Larry lVìcNeff
Clayton '91 and Denise Sideen
Beverly Ranum
'78
'94 McNeff
Meyer and Dennis Meyer'78
John
'62 and Ruth Sather '63 Sorenson
'80 Spargo and Lawrence Spargo
Donald and Annelies Steinmetz
lVìyles
and Eunice Stenshoel
Beverly and Thomas Stratton
Ralph and Grace Kemmer '58 Sulerud
Bruce and Sharon Reichenbach
Harold and Maureen Thompson
Eunìce Kyllo '62 Roberts and Warren Roberts
Gordon '52 and Gloria Parizek'53 Thorpe
E. Palmer Rockswold
David and Martha Tiede
Deidre Durand 'BB and Bruce lViddleton
John '68 and Linda Roebke
Frances Torstenson
Robert '70 and Sue Midness
Laura and Martin Roller
Lawrence '69 and Susan Turner
Frances Roller
Peter Turner
Timothy '74 and Deborah Anderson '73 Miller
John'77 and Gail Ronning
Emily Anne and Gedney Tuttle
Joyce Schroepfer lVliller '02
Philip Rowberg'41
Gerald '48 and Judith
Betty and Paul Tveite
Julie Lien '82 and Steve Vanderboom
Paul '70 and Barbara Durkee
Gay Johnson
'71
lVikelson
'66 Minear and Spencer
lVlinear '66
Ryan
'59 and Sylvia Sabo
Robert Minicucci
Thomas'59 and Ruth Carlsen '60 Moen
Mark'79 and Pamela Hanson '79 Moksnes
Curtis and lVìarian Sampson
'70 and Dennis Veiseth
Norman '76 and Kathryn Anderson '76 Wahl
Judith and William Scheide
David and Sarah Warch
Thelma lVlonson '41
Carolyn Hanson '68 Schildgen and
Loìs
Thomas and Lorraine Morgan
William Schildgen
Ruth Schmidt '52
Jeremy and Tracy Wells
LaWayne
'51 and D. LaRhea Johnson '51
IVlorseth
lVlartin
Alne'65 Schroeder and William Schroeder
lVìary
'76 Wattman and Douglas Shaw
John '49 and Arnhild Werket
Wheelock Whitney and Kathleen Blatz
James lVloulsoff
lVlarilee
Paul '84 and Nancy Mackey '85 Mueller
Suzanne Ziemann Schulz '87
Robert Wick '81
Donald Murphy '43+ Ruth lVurphy
John Schwartz'67
Diane Pike and Stephen Willett
Ronald '68 and lvlary Kay Nelson
lnez'59 and Lyall Schwarzkopf
David and Catherine Woìd
Mildred Nelson '52
Erik and Leigh Schwarzkopf
Todd Yeiter
Beverly Omdahl Nelson '55
Douglas Scott and Grace Schroeder Scott
Estate of E. lrene Lasseson Neseth '38+
Michael
'08
'71and Bonnie Scott
Every effort has been made to ensure that all names are included and spelled correctly.
lf you notice an errot please clntact Kev¡n Healy at l-800-273-0617 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
*
Deceased
Fall
2009
41
flRGANIZATIflNS
GIFTS RECTIVED JUNE 1, 2OOB TO MAY 31, 2OO9
The following
list recognizes organizations that provided generous gifts to Augsburg College 0f $1000 0r more in the 2008-2009 fiscal year
Peace Lutheran Church of Plymouth
Carl & Eloise Pohlad Family Foundatjon
3M Foundation
Halleland Lewis Nilan Sipkins & Johnson PA.
Accenture Foundation
Hazelden Foundation
Al Franken for Senate
Charles and Ellora Alliss Educational Foundation
Hennepin County
Charles N. and Florence S. Hensel Education Fund
American Lutheran Church
Huss Foundation
Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi L.L.P Foundation
Ameriprise Financial
IBM Corporation
The Summit Group
Ameriprise Financial Employee Gift Matching
lnstitute of American Physics
TCF Foundation
Kresge Foundation
A'viands
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Thrivent Financial For Lutherans
Thrivent Financial For Lutherans Foundatìon
Bassford Remele
lVìacalester College
UBS Foundation
Beckman Coulter, Inc.
lVarble Lutheran Church
Bonner Foundation
lVat Bandits Wrestling Club
US Bancorp Foundation
Vista De La Montaña United Methodist Church
Campus Kitchens Project, lnc.
The McGee Group
Wabash College
Collegiate lVìarketing
IVlDTA
Data Recogn ition Corporation
Merck Partnership For Giving
Wells Fargo Educational Matching Gift Program
Wells Fargo Foundation Community Support
Deloitte Foundatron
Minneapol is Public Schools
Winthrop & Weinstine, PA.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
M
Program
FPL Group Foundation, Inc.
nnesota Legislative Society
Minnesota Private College Foundation
i
The New York Academy
Gethsemane Professional & Benevolent Fund
Edwin and Edith Norberg Charitable Trust
GI\4AC.RFC
Normandale Lutheran Church Foundation
E
N 0 FTE D At
The following
Research Corporation
National Trust For Historical Preservation
0f Medicine
Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation
General Mills Foundation
SV
Presser Foundation
S0G
IETY,
SupportingAugsburg's mission intothefuture
list recognizes those members wh0 have documented planned gifts to Augsburg College during 2008-09, becoming charter members of
the Sven Oftedal Society.
Daniel '65 and Alice Anderson
Anna J. Hanson
L. Beth Buesing Opgrand '45
E. William Anderson'56
Rodney E. and Arlene B. (Selander) Hill
John Peterson+
Keith and Beverly Anderson
Lorna Hoversten
Elìzabeth Anne and Warren Bartz
Sherry Jennings-King
Quentin '50 and E. Lucille Quanbeck
Nancy M. (Joubert) Raymond
Oliver Dahl '45
Clair Johannsen '62
Dean and Susan Kopperud
Gladys Boxrud Strommen
Sally Hough Danìels '79
Laura Kompelien Delavie '92
Paul Kwiecien and Rhonda Kwiecien
Robert '65 and Kay Tyson
Avis Ellìngrod
David W. Lankinen '88
fVìary Loken Veiseth
Duane M. Esterly
Luther and Janice Larson
Beverly Gryth
Al
lVlarvin and Ruth Larson
ice Evenson
Allison M. Everett and Kenneth
Svendsen
H
I
'52 Villwock+ and H.
Robert Villwock
Julie (Gudmestad) and Joe Laudicina
Robert Wagner '02
Rev. John and Grace (Nydahl) Luoma
Dr. Scott J.M. Weber '79
Rev. Terry Frovik
Lyle and Susanne lVìalotky
Ann Garvey
Orval and Bernell Moren
James and Corrìne Hamre
Roger lVì. Nelson
42
Gary Tangwal
Augsburg Now
,-t
c0r{sEcuTtvE ûtvtNG
The following
list recognizes alumni and friends of Augsburg College who have generously given for 10 or more consecutive fiscal years.
lVlarcellus '54 and Thelma Johnson
Rachel Hendrickson '71 Julian and Bruce Julian
George'46 and Jean Christenson '49 Sverdrup
Jennings '51 and lVìary Schindler '48 Thompson
Roberta Kagin and Craig Alexander
Allan Tonn '75
Sharon Dittbenner'65 Klabunde and
Sheldon '49 and Margery Manger'47 Torgerson
Consecutive Giving, 25 !€âts 0r nì0t0:
Ruth Aaskov'53
Harold'47 and Lors Black '47 Ahlbom
Kenneth '61 and lVìarilyn Ellingson '62 Akerman
Charles and Ellora Alliss Educational Foundation
Raymond and lVlargaret Anderson
Jerome Kleven '58
Frances Torstenson
Catherine and Charles Anderson
Lowell '54 and Janice Kleven
Daniel '65 and Alice Anderson
Elsre Ronholm Koivula '49
Margaret Sateren Trautwein '37
Rebecca Helgesen '67 Von Fischer and
Kristin Anderson
Joan Johnson
l. Shelby Gimse Andress '56
Frank'50 and Georgette Lanes'50 Ario
Stanley'57 and Mary Esther Baker
Archie Lalim '5O
George '61 and lVary Larson
Linda Larson '70 and C. jerry Sells
Harris '57 and lVìaryon Lee
lrene Ppedahl Lovaas'45
Roger'57 and Fern lVlackey
lVlarie and Larry McNeff
Paul'70 and Barbara Durkee '71 Mikelson
Spencer'66 and Gay Johnson '66 Minear
Andrew'50 and Barbara Kolden '50 Balerud
Paul '63 and LaVonne Olson '63 Batalden
John Benson'55
Vera Thorson Benzei '45
Jack'49 and LeVerne Berry
Doris Frojen Bretheim '51
Beth Torstenson '66
Richard Klabunde
'53 Kuder and Calvin Kuder
'60
Thomas Von Fischer
Thomas '63 and Gloria Joyce Wadsworth
David and Catherine Wold
20 -24 year s consecutive
Lois Richter '60 Agrimson and Russell Agrimson
Charles'63 and Lois Luthard '65 Anderson
Julie Teigland '69 Anderson and Gary Anderson
Ray Anderson '49
Hamar'34 and Wanda Severson '40 Benson
Theodore '51+ and Carolyn Berkland
James'49 and Barbara Ekse'48 Carlson
Jeroy'48 and Lorraine Carlson
Thomas '59 and Ruth Carlsen
Thomas and Lonaine Morgan
Birgit Birkeland '58
Linda Carlstedt '63
Mildred Nelson '52
Mary Twiton
Gloria Burntvedt Nelson '43
John and Carolyn Cain
Carl '59 and Kathleen Aaker'62 Casperson
Paige Nelson '74
David '72 and lVlichelle Karkhoff '72 Christianson
Roselyn Nordaune'77
Wayne '69 and Pamela Bjorklund '69 Carlson
Addell Halverson Dahlen '43
Richard '74 and Nancy Colvin
Laverne lVoe '48 Olson and Paul 0lson
Orville '52 and Yvonne Bagley '52 Olson
Joyce Catlin
'73 Casey and Paul Casey
Lester Dahlen '39
Moen
'59 Bosben and Robert
LeVon Paulson
Bosben
Dinter'52
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
lVlarsha
Fred '60 and Janet Engelmann
Roger
Reynold '41 and lVarian Erickson
Ruth Ann Gjerde Fitzke '67
'68 and Dean 0lson-Strommen
'56 and Janet Ose
Patricia Strecker'64 Pederson and Dean Pederson
John '82 and Joan Moline'83 Evans
Marilyn Pearson '76 Florian and Kenneth Florian
Glen Person '47
Edward Evenson'41
Jerome Formo '37+
Robert'68 and Alice Draheim '68 Peters
Harvey '52 and Joanne Varner '52 Peterson
Rachel Rohde '76 Gilchrist and Chris Gilchrist
Leonard '52 and Anabelle Hanson '51 Dalberg
James Ericksen '69
Alan'67 and lVarilyn Albaugh '67 Gierke
Shirley Larson '51 Goplerud and Dean Goplerud
Janet Evenson
Paul and Judy Grauer
David Proctor'63
Raymond '57 and Janice Grinde
Philip '50 and Dora Frojen '49 Quanbeck
James'61 and BettyAnn Redeske
James '68 and Linda Gilbertson '71 Romslo
Olive Ronholm '47
'63 Potratz and Edward
Potratz
Leland '53 and Eunice Fairbanks
Paul '62 and Susan Grover
Sonia Overmoen'62 Gullicks and lVlilton Gullicks
Kenneth '58 and Aldemar Johnson
'57
Hagen
Evelyn Amundson Sonnack '43
Arvin '55 and Twila Halvorson
Herbert '51 and M. Joyce Tallman '52 Hanson
Philip '42 and Ruth Helland
Thomas'57 and Arlene Hofflander
Norman and llene Holen
Allen '64 and Lenice Hoversten
Florence Retrum Hovland'40
Ruth E. Johnson'74 and Philip Quanbeck ll
Donald and Annelies Steinmetz
Wayne Johnson
Garry Hesser and Nancy Homans
lVyles and Eunice Stenshoel
Duane and Ruth Johnson
Howard'51 and Nouaneta Hjelm
Gladys Boxrud Strommen '46
James '61 and Caroline Holden
Merton '42 and lrene Huglen '42 Strommen
Marvin'49 and Dorothy Quanbeck '48 Johnson
Daniel '70 and lngrid Kloster þ9 Koch
Bradley '63 and Linda Holt
Luther'39 and Helen Strommen
James Kottom '52
Gloria Johnson'51
Grace Kemmer '58 Sulerud and Ralph Sulerud
Joanne
lVìarlys Ringdahl
'53 Gunderson and
Charles Gunderson
Arlin Gyberg
lVabeth Saure '58 Gyllstrom and Richard Gyllstrom
Edward+ and Shirley Hansen
Sylvia Kleven Hanson '50
Betty Johnson '58 Haas and Charles Hass
Marjorie Wilberg Hauge '50
Marilyn Peterson
'63
Haus and George Haus
lVartín '59 and Sylvia Sabo
Ruth Schmidt '52
James'54 and Ethel Nordstrom '55 Shiell
Arnold '48 and Carol Skaar
'58
Stiles'58 Laird and David Laird
Every effort has been made to ensure that all names are included and spelled correcily.
lf you notice an enot please clntact Kevin Healy at 1-800-2/3-06J7 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
*
Deceased
Fall
2009
43
l\4artin Larson '80
Robert '56 and lVary Erickson
'58
Lockwood
David '53 and Janice Anderson '54 Rykken
Scott Daniels '82 and lVlarcia Pape-Daniels
Ann Erkkila Dudero '86
Audrey Nagel '51 Sander
'68 and Janice Bell '70 Schmidt
Brent Lofgren'88
Dann Forsberg'80
Gary
Susan Lageson '77 Lundholm and lVlark Lundholm
Joann Koelln Frankena'72
Kevin '78 and Catherine Rosik '00 Shea
Lynn '50 and lVliriam Hoplín
'50 Lundin
'66 Luoma
Ronald '56 and Christine Munson '56 IVlain
Kristin Settergren '86 l\4cGinness and
Gary and Barbara Glasscock
Glen and Anna Skovholt
John '65 and Gracia Nydahl
Alexander'90 and Simone Gonzalez
Allan '53 and Eunice Nystuen '50 Sortland
Robert and Nancy Granrud
Paulette Nelson '67 Speed and John Speed
Lloyd Grinde'56
David '63 and Karen Henry'64 Steenson
Tito Guerrero
Steve McGinness
Donna lVlcLean
Bonnie Johnson
'67 Nelson and Bryce
Nelson
lll
Beverly and Thomas Stratton
Suzanne Overholt'67 Hampe and John Hampe
Dorothy Joy Swanson '51
Jacquelyn Bagley'51 Hanson and Kenneth Hanson
Jelfrey'79 and Melissa Swenson
Karla lVorken '81 Thompson and
Shirley Christensen '75 Nickel and Daniel Nickel
Christopher Haug'79 and Karl Starr
lVìargaret Nelson Foss Nokleberg '48
Carolyn Hawkins
Edwin and Edith Norberg Charitable Trust
Rodney'62 and Jane Helgeson
Robert '55 and Karin Herman
Rodney'59 and Arlene Selander'59 Hill
Robert Nordin '64
Jonathan Nye
Thomas Thompson
Kenneth
'83 Ogdie and Al Ogdie
Norman '85 and Kim Asleson '84 Okerstrom
W. Donald '34 and Glenda Olsen
Edith Hovey
Glenda and Richard Huston
Rosemary Jacobson '69
IVìary
0lson
Lawrence'69 and Susan Turner
Jeanne lvl Kyllo '69 Wendschuh and
'74 and Linda Bailey '74 Holmen
Leroy Nyhus'52
lVìaren Lecy
Mark'79 and Janelle Tonsager
Ronald Wendschuh
Donald '89 and Melinda Mattox '91 Wichmann
Janet Cooke '59 Tilzewilz and Donald Zilzewilz
Robyn Arnold Zollner
'80
Kinney Johnson '65
James'64 and Rose Parks
Janet Batalden'61 Johnson and
10-14 years consecutive
Eugene'59 and Paula Peterson
Eileen Quanbeck '46
Dennìs'61 Johnson
Morris '52 and Marjorie Danielson '52 Johnson
Ordelle Aaker '46
Norman '59 and Ardelle Skovholt '54 Quanbeck
Luther'68 and Joanne Kendrick
The American Foundation
Paul '59 and Pearl Almquist
Bruce and Sharon Reichenbach
E. fVilton Kleven '46
Scott'76 and Lisa Anderson
Stephen '76 and Karen Reinarz
Carrie Kosek'85 Knott and Gerald Knott
Dean'74 and Janet Nelson '76 Anderson
Judith Sandeen'72
Janet Griffith '83 Sandford and David Sandford
Joyce Opseth Schwartz'45
Ronnie'62 and Karen Scott
Kari Beckman '81 Sorenson and Neil Sorensen
La Vone Studlien '58
lVlillard '52 and Dorothy Knudson
Leif Anderson
Duane and lVìary Alyce Krohnke
Scott Anderson '96
Lois Knutson '62 Larsen and Paul Larsen
lVargaret Anderson
Elizabeth Mortensen '56 Swanson and
Annette and Col. Henry C. Lucksinger, Jr.
LeRoy'52 and Carole Anenson
Bill and Anne McSweeney
Daniel '65 and Mary Tildahl '65 Meyers
Charles '63 and IVlary Jo Arndt
Robert '70 and Sue Midness
Mary Arneson and Dale Hammerschmidt
James '88 and Christine Pieri '88 Arnold
Viclor'42 and Rhoda Miller
Susan Hanson '82 Asmus and Kevin Asmus
Ruth Weltzin '45 Swanson and Edwin Swanson
Andrew Moen '87
Dorothy Bai ley
Norman H. Tallakson Charitable Trust
Alan Montgomery and
Lawrence'52 and Jayne Balzer
James Swanson
Jacqueline'80 and John Teísberg
Janis Thoreson '78
Dennis'58 and Doris Barnaal
Janet Karvonen-lVontgomery
Lawayne
'5i
and D. LaRhea .Johnson
'51
lvìorseth
Arlin Becker '88
'73 Becker and Charles Becker
'50 Berg
Adrian Tinderholt '38
Karl Nestvold'54
Catherine Berglund
Wells Fargo Educational IVatching Gift Program
Norma Noonan
Sidney '57 and Lola Lidstrom
Gunnar+ and Mary Wick
Betsey and Alan Norgard
Robert Wick '81
Robert Odegard '51+
Gertrude Ness Berg'51
Andrew '64 and Jean Amland
Pamela Zagaria
Ruth Pousi Ollila'54
Carolyn Berkland
Gary
'65 and Jean Pfeifer '64 0lson
'65
Berg
Anthony and Kathy Bibus
'65 and Jean Blosberg
15-19 years consecut¡ve
Brian Anderson '82 and Leeann Rock'81
Robert'77 and Katherine Anderson
R. Luther 0lson '56
Jack'62 and Nìna Osberg
John '79 and Rebecca Lundeen '79 Aune
-iohn and Norma Paulson
Dennes'57 and Florence Helland '54 Borman
Richard and Nancy Borstad
Willard Botko
Rosemarie Pace
Gary
Ronald and Anna Marie Austin
Daniel '51 and Lois Pearson
Bruce '64 and Nancy Braaten
The Batalden Advised Fund
Donald Peterson'49
Daniel and lrene Brink
Christine Wacker'87 Bjork and Steven Bjork
Rebecca
'63 and lVavis Bjurlin
Davìd '68 and Lynn Boe
Elizabeth Pushing'93
Quentin '50 and E. Lucille Quanbeck
l\4ichael Burden '85
Barbara Hanson
David Christensen'52
Joyce and Walker Romano
lVlorris
44
Augsburg Now
'88 Pfabe and lVìaurice Higgins
'68 Raymond and David Raymond
Roxanne Raunschnot'82 Buchanan and
Jim Buchanan
Eìnar Cannelin
'38
William Capman
Gregory Carlson '74
'65 MacNally and Thomas MacNally
John and Peggy Cerrito
lrene Shelstad Henjum '52
Marie Haf ie
Herbert'54 and E Corrine Chilstrom
Gregory'61 and Kay Hanenburg'62 Madson
Judith Christensen
Jeff Christenson '82
Rand'82 and Kay Kennedy'82 Henjum
Peter'92 and Becky Hespen
Kristen Hirsch '91 Montag and Paul Montag
Janet Niederloh '58 Christeson and
Sylvia Hjelmeland
Carlos Mariani Rosa
John '70 and Lynn Benson '69 Hjelmeland
Julie Magnuson '61 Marineau and Richard
John Christeson
Raymond lVlakeever
Patrick'72 and Nancy lvlarcy
C. Lee Clarke
iohn'81 and Karen Hofflander
Joseph '53 and Connre Cleary
Dean '57 and Jane Holmes
Donald '60 and Ruth Thorsgard '59 Homme
John '59 and De Anne lVartinsen
James'59 and Joanne Horn
Jon '58 and Judith lVlatala
Elizabeth Horton
Phillip '62 and Karen Tangen '63 lVattison
Lillian and Vernon Maunu
Dana Holmes '81 lVclntyre and Vernon Mclntyre '79
Tara Cesaretti '97 lVlcLeod and Christopher'00
Judith Norman '66 Coppersmith and
Norman Coppersmith
Cheryl Solomonson '89 Crockett and
Marineau
Donald '65 and Delores Hoseth
Larry Crockett
0liver Dahl '45
Kermit '50 and Ruth Hoversten
Tom'72 and Karen Howe
Sally Hough Daniels '79
Rhoda lVonseth
Lois Mackey Davis '58
Mark '88 and lVìarya lVlattson
Laura Bower '91 Cunliffe and Wayne Cunliffe
'59 Huglen and Erling Huglen
'83 Hultgren
Suzanne Doree
Bruce and Jean lnglis
Julie Edstrom '90
Darrell '55 and Helga Egertson
Judy Thompson Eiler '65
Carolyn Ross
Robert '71 and Cheryl Lindroos
'72 Mar|in
lVlcLeod
Meca Sportswear lnc.
Robert '59 and Mary Lundquist '60 Meffert
'89 lsaak and James
lsaak
Joan and Richard lVleierotto
Jeffrey '80 and Jacqui Jarnes
David '68 and Elaine Melby
Thomas '86 and Susan Miller
David '79 and Amy Eitrheim
'63 Johnson and Charles Johnson
Laurel Jones '69 Johnson and Larry Johnson
Bruce '68 and Lois Hallcock '68 Johnson
Daniel'77 and Patricia Eitrheim
Carolyn Johnson '63
Mark 'BB and Tamie lVlorken
Avis Ellingrod
Douglas'66 and Kathryn Wall '66 Johnson
Kari Elsila and lVlichael Buescher
Glen and Marlys Johnson
Rona Quanbeck'48 Emerson and Victor Emerson
Margaret Johnson
Paul '84 and Nancy Mackey '85 lVìueller
Scott '81 and Debra Musselman
Michael Navane
and Lynette Engebretson
Ellen Stenberg Erickson '51
Joan '94 and Mark Johnson
Doris Wilkins
Curtis '84 and Jody Eischens
Dean '68 and Diana Olson
'69 Ersfeld
Martha Johnson
Theodore '68 and lVlichelle Johnson
Duane Esterly'75
L. Cratg'79 and Theresa Serbus
'79
Estrem
'78 Kahlow and Larry Kahlow
Jennifer Abeln
'78
Moren
Edor'38 and Dorathy Nelson
Lany '65 and lVarilyn Nelson
Ronald '68 and Mary Kay Nelson
David '64+ and Johnson
lVlark
Ronald '59 and Elizabeth Miskowiec
Jonathan '78 and Bonnie Lamon
E. lrene Lasseson Neseth '38+
Steven '64 and Rebecca '64 Nielsen
John '68 and Martha Fahlberg
Suzanne Kelley'69
Robert '73 and Linda Nilsen
Karen Faulkner
Benjamin and Christine Kent
James '57 and Shirley Norman
William and Anne Frame
James Kerr
Donald '65 and Carolyn Francis
Richard '69 and Cheryl Nelson
lerry'67 and Pauline
North Dakota Community Foundation
'70 King
Linda King '78
Terry'7O and Vicki Nygaard
Edward '54 and Winifred Nystuen '54 Nyhus
Ann Garvey
Marie Gjenvick Knaphus '45+
Richard '69 and Sandra Larson '69 Olmsted
Barbara Gilbert'81
LaRhae Grindal Knatterud '70
Howard and Bettye Olson
Lorraine Vash '67 Gosewisch and David Gosewisch
Dean and Susan Kopperud
Cedric '61 and Marlys Olson
John '66 and Mary Jo Greenfield
Carmela Brown
Cindy Greenwood '05
Joan Kunz
Beverly Halling '55 Oren and Donald '53 Oren
ith '84 and Jean Taylor '85
H. Theodore '76 and Michele Grindal
Steven '81 and Kathy Grinde
Julia Ose'62 Grose and Christopher Grose
Jean Venske '87 Guenther and Stephen Guenther
Richard '72 and Carol Habstritt
Robert'80 and Lori LaFleur
George '50 and Vivian Lanes
Steven 0'Tool '74
Andrea Langeland
Ervin '56 and Sylvia Moe '59 Overlund
Marvin and Ruth Ringstad'53 Larson
Patricia Solum Park'02
Julie Gudmestad '65 and Joseph Laudicina
John '52 and lvlary Peterson '54 Leak
Roger'50 and Donna Wang'52 Leak
Jacqueline Kniefel Lind'69
Patricia and John Parker
James'67 and Laurie Lindell
Dwight '60 and Marion Pederson
Rosemary and Andrew Link
Dale Pederson'70
Arlene and Gene Lopas
Linda Christensen'68 Phillips and Gerald Phillips
Frovik
Roger Griff
Lucille and Roger Hackbart
Shirley and Hansen
John '69 and Barbara Harden
Robert'83 and Lynne Harris
Burton '72 and Rollie Haugen
Lisa Svac Hawks '85
Dawn Hendricks '80
Gerald '59 and lVaxine Hendricks
Olivia Gordon
'84 Kranz and David
Kranz
'62 Lorents and Alden Lorents
Vicki and Daniel 0lson
Russell '63 and Ruth Osterberg
Robert'50 and Ruth Paulson
Peace Lutheran Church of Plymouth
Howard '53 and Vicki Skor'59 Pearson
Leanne Phinney'71 and Mark Schultz
Jack'53 and Darlene Lundberg
James Plumedahl '57
lVlarissa Hutterer Machado '99
Jill Pohtilla
Every effort has been made to ensure that all nanes are included and spelled correctly.
lfyou notice an error, please contact Kevin Healy at 1-800-273-0617 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
*
Deceased
Fall
2009
45
lnez Olson '59 Schwarzkopf and Lyall Schwarzkopf
Richard '70 and Linda Seime
Drew'87 and lVìolly Privette
Jerry '83 and Susan Warnes 'BB Quam
lVlark '53 and Jean Raabe
Dick '61 and Jane Thompson
Sue Thompson
'85
Nicolyn Rajala '70 and Bill Vossler
John Rask '71
Frankie and Jole Shackelford
Gordon '52 and Gloria Parizek '53 Thorpe
lVarlys Holm '57 Thorsgaard and Arlen Thorsgaard
Charles Sheaffer
Richard '56 and Darlene Thorud
Paul Rensted'87
John '50 and Norma Shelstad
lVlìchael
James'75 and Jude Ring
David '59 and Arline Ringstad
James'63 and Patricia Steenson '65 Roback
Donavon '52 and Ardis Roberts
Stella Kyllo Rosenquist '64
Chad '93 and lVargaret Shilson
l\4ark and Ann Tranvik
Eugene and Margaret Skibbe
Gordon '57 and Karen Egesdal '61 Trelstad
'72 and Nancy Becker '72 Soli
Joyce Engstrom '70 and Robert Spector
Heidi Wisner '93 Staloch and l\4ark Staloch
Ronald '58 and Naomi Stave
lVìerry Tucker
Earl '68 and Lisbeth Jorgensen '70 Sethre
Alan
Philip Rowberg'41
'85 and Rhonda Riesberg '84 Tjaden
Betty and Paul Tveite
Robert'50 and Dee Ulsaker
Joan Swenson Van Wirt '78
Joan Volz
Richard Sandeen '69
Roger'54 and Bonnie Stockmo
Calvìn '51+ and Bonnie lVlartinson '59 Storley
Mary Mether'69 Sabatke and Bruce Sabatke
'68
Sharon and Stephen Wade
Pauline Sateren
Steven '65 and Chynne Strommen
Rebecca and Michael Waggoner
Carol Watson Saunders'68
Philip '79 and Julia Davis '79 Styrlund
Norman '76 and Kathryn Anderson '76 Wahl
Jan Pedersen '68 Schiff and Tom Schiff
John '69 and Stephanie Johnson '71 Sulzbach
Michael '64 and Carla Quanbeck '64 Walgren
Rodney and Elizabeth Schmidt
Kenneth Svendsen '78 and Allison Everett'78
l\4ichael and Leslie Schock
Stephen '76 and Antoinette Laux'77 Sveom
Lois '76 Wattman and Douglas Shaw
John '49 and Arnhild Werket
Larry '65 and Muriel Berg '67 Scholla
Brian Swedeen '92 and Teni Burnor'92
Heidi Norman '88 Wise and John Wise
Arvid '63 and Lillian Schroeder
Diana Talcott
Edmund '53 and Rose Youngquist
Roger'62 and Jean Schwartz
Barbara and Eugene Thompson
ALUMNI GIVING BY CTASS YEAR
The following
list indicates the percentage of alumni from the traditional day program in each class year who made a gift during 2008-09
Total participation for all class years, 21%.
7934
1935
1936
r937
1938
1939
1940
T94T
40.007"
50.00%
50.00%
62.50y"
64.7'I"/"
25.00%
52.94%
L949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
37.36"/.
1970
24.37"/.
45.83"/"
24.307"
7994
t7.49y"
1981
7982
L8.97"/.
17.44%
1995
1996
7997
1998
1999
70.73%
13.92%
4.23%
9.72%
10a?
18.4I"/"
17.73"/.
17.42y"
13.46"/.
14.34%
15.69%
2004
2005
5.247"
9.45"/.
Lr.48%
7.58%
43.657"
47.75%
46.O9"/"
I97 4
26.42%
38.31%
36.88%
37.97%
40.76%
7975
24.68%
I976
23.5a%
1991
8.70%
2006
4.78%
I977
24.65%
23.92%
t992
70.o7%
993
ro.7t%
2007
2008
5.56y"
3.05%
48.t5%
1961
45.83%
L962
42.86%
1963
Augsburg Now
29.90ï.
46.4O"/o
19.09%
1958
1959
1960
1947
1948
46
37.447"
30.70y.
4L85"/.
34.357"
1979
1980
I957
t946
1944
34.75%
r
r972
r973
1945
1943
35.
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1984
1985
1986
7987
1988
1989
1990
40.63%
48.44%
38.10%
45.65%
48.72%
L942
i0%
L964
47.27%
33.52%
44.53%
50.86%
197
1978
26.IO"/.
25.,ry"
1
1132%
19.I2"/.
t2.20%
2000
2007
8.37%
2002
2003
8.74%
5A3%
alumni news
,fi,
,ì.
Dear valued alumni ancl friends,
s I write this article, we are passing
;! into autumn, and every year this
', brings a palpable sense of nostalgia and ref lection. This year I have been
considering some of the principles and
ideals I learned while a student and at
Augsburg.
As alumni we are all aware of the
another in our closely def ined lives. We belong to chatting commu_
nities, Facebook, MySpace, and thousands of other digital groups,
which could be argued constitute a community.
We cannot deny that technology has grven us the ability to stay
in contact and have more access to informatlon than ever before,
but the question we need to consider is, are we truly following our
duty and responsibllities of our fellowship in humankind?
Each of us will have a different answer to this question, but none
of us can deny that we are living in a time that needs all of us to
themes of vocation, caritas flove), and the duty to be an active part
of our community. These themes were the foundation of the educa_
actively be involved in the world we live. My call to dutyto each of
you, as alumni, is to take some time to rediscover the communities
tion we received from Augsburg and are stillthe foundation for stu-
in which you belong and consider how you can participate and
make a difference. A great place to start is by examining one
community in which you belong: Augsburg College. As a member of
the Augsburg community, a great first step would be to visit the
dents today.
However, my question is, what does each of these tenets mean
to us today, as alumni? Vocation and caritas are def ined without
much difficulty in our lives. We know that through our education
we are able to work in our various fields and through love have last_
ing and def inable relationships with our fellow human beings. But
in our hectic lives, how do we def ine our community?
The notion of community has gone through some interesting
changes over the years. We used to define community by main fac_
tors of geography and/or common goals and ideals. However, this
has evolved over the years with the advancement of digital capabil_
ities and how we communicate. Today we use Twitter, write brief emails, and compose quick text messages to communicate with one
Augsburg Col lege al umn i relations page, www.augsburg.edu/alum
and go to Get lnvolved. There are many opportunities to get
n i,
involved and volunteers are always needed.
I wish you all happy ref lections in this autumn season.
ù'* &*uDANITL HICKLE '95
ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT
Alumni Board
Augsburg Associates
Campus lfitchen at Augsburg
Alumni mentors
Advent Vespers volunteers
GET INVÍ}NE.D
There's a place for youl
Learn more at www.augsburg.edu/alumni
Fall
2009
4l
.:
alumnl news
0ur 'Uniquely Augsburg' faculty add a special touch to alumni events
Have you ever wondered if those
Þ
costumes at the Renaissance Festival are really accurate? Did you
have any idea how the government's
€
stimulus billwould affect you? Ever
considered what it would be like to
see the ltalian countryside through
the eyes of an art historian?
These and many more are the
opportunities you have when
Augsburg faculty join you in the
Uniquely Augsburg alumni events
and programs. While not everyone is able to come to Augsburg's
campus, a number of professors are bringing the Augsburg experience to areas around the Twin Cities, sharing their expertise and
passions, answering questions, and helping interpret policies and
issues into news you can use.
Michael Lansing, assistant professor of history and director of
environmental studies, talked about the value of hands-on learning
in Augsburg's new environmental studies program. He led the Lake
Minnetonka eco-tour cruise in June, describing environmental
issues of the large lake and answering questions about its ecology.
Phillip Adamo (pictured left), associate professor and chair of
the History Department and director of medieval studies, hosted
lunch in Augsburg's tent at the Renaissance Festival and answered
questions about what's real and what's not. He also led a tour
around the grounds, stopping at a 16th-century lrish cottage
replica to give a glimpse of what life was like then.
When Auggies gathered in August for "Auggie Night at the
Races" in Shakopee, accounting professor Stu Stoller kicked off
the night with a presentation on "The Odds of Winning."
The quarterly Eye-Opener Breakfast Series provides alumni professionals an opportunity to start the day with networking and a
talk by an Augsburg academic. ln April, Economics Department
chair Jeanne Boeh spoke about the stimulus package, how it
affected the economy, and what it meant for most people.
The Uniquely Augsburg concept also extends to travel opportunities. The November tour to ltaly was led by art professor Kristin
Anderson, whose passions include the art, archìtecture, history,
and culture of this region.
Uniquely Augsburg alumni events have succeeded in engaging
alumni in great ways to experience an Augsburg education without
coming to campus. Watch for upcoming events in your area; the
next one may be just around the corner.
Keep up on all alúmnì events at www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Journey to the Emerald lsle of lreland
à
Join friends from lhe Augsburg College community for an in-depth journey through lreland. Explore centuries of heroic history, visiting
archaeological sites dating lo S,000 BC. Experience the intense rugged
beauty of land carved from the sea, contrasling with the meticulous
gardens of stately castles. D¡scover the spirit of Celtic Christianity at
ancient monaslic communities where Christianity flourished during the
Dark Ages. Celebrate contemp0rary lrish culture with passion-filled
music and food at local pubs.
The tour departs in early 0ctober 2010 and will be hosted by
Augsburg faculty. A detailed tour brochure will be available in December. To receive the brochure, contact Alumni Relations, 6l 2-330-1
1
73
or alumni@augsburg.edu.
Kylemore Abbey, in County ûalway, the oldest ol the lrish Benedictine abbeys,
is one of the sites on the alumni itinerary in 0ctober 2010.
48
Augsburg Now
The Augsburg Choir Legacy Recordings
Continuing the Augsburg Choir's
75th anniversary celebration,
Augsburg is proud to announce that
the Augsburg Choir
recordings from 1949-1979 will
CD versions of
Box 3: Sateren Finale
I972-73: An Ascription of Praise; includes Sateren's composition
by the same name
I974-7ú
Day of Pentecosf; includes Sateren's composition by the
same name
soon be available. These re-mastered historical treasures will be
I975-76: And Death Shall Have No Dominion; visiting director
released as The Augsburg Choir
1977-78: Here Comes Our Kingi includes Sateren's composition
legacy Recordings.
by the same name
ldar Karevold
I978-79: Gloria; includes the title piece by
leland
Lars Edlund
B. Sateren '35
Three boxed sets, each containing five CDs, will be produced:
Box 1: From Opseth to Sateren
1949-50: Augsburg Choir, with Henry P. Opseth conducting.
lncludes Jeg er saa glad, Praise to the Lord, and Song of Mary
I95I-52: includes Sateren's Cycle for Christmas and his arrange-
The Augsburg Cho¡r Legacy Recordings
will add to the richness of
the choral tradition of the past, present, and future. Dr. Bill
Halverson '51 has written a monograph about Leland B. Sateren's
life and career that will be included with the recordings. These
ment of The Sun Has Gone Down
1954-55: includes Sateren's Christmas Canticle
1956-57: includes Knut Nystedt's Cry Out and Shout
recordings will also confirm the historical and continued significance of Augsburg College as a place of preparation for service in
community and church.
The Augsburg Choir Legacy Recordings will be available early
next year through the Augsburg College Bookstore. For information
196I-62: includes Sateren's His Compassions Fail
on ordering the CDs, go to the Music Department website,
Not
www.augsbu rg.ed u/m usic.
Box 2: Sateren lntermezzo
1964-65: includes music from the European tour, spanning 400
years of music from Corsi and Bach to Jean Berger
1967-68: Praise to God; includes Sateren's Seek
Not
Cost: $49 per boxed set; $135 for all three boxed sets, plus shipping and handling.
Afar for
Beauty
1969-7O: Thy Truth Within; includes Sateren's composition by the
same name
I970-7I: Make a Joyful Noise; includes Sateren's The Poor
and Needy
I97I-72:
The Redeemef includes Sateren's A Choral Cycle
The Redeemer
co8
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Fall
úrr
2009
49
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alumni news
Experience the beauty and culture of Norway
e
JC
\
Join Augsburg's Center
for Leadership Studies
e
for an educatìonal and
cultural tour to Norway,
The tour includes:
r
Five days in Oslo-located on a fjord, surrounded by hills, and
full of the excitement of a large, cosmopolitan city
.
A journey westward by motor coach through Kongsberg, the his-
June 5-15,2010. This
toric Numedal Valley, and Hardangervidda (the mountain
special ly-designed tour
plateau home of large reindeer herds) to stay in a charming traditional hotel in Geilo
includes visits to Oslo,
Kongsberg, Geilo,
o
A famously scenic train ride to the fjord village of Flåm and a
.
Two nights in picturesque and historic Bergen on Norway's
.
west coast
A journey south by motor coach and ferry to Stavanger, designated "European Capital of Culture" for 2008. Stavanger was the
Bergen, and Stavanger.
While in Oslo, the group
will be hosted
Diakon
cruise on the Aurlands and Naeroy Fjords
by
hjemmet
U n
iver-'
sity College, an Augsburg partner school that
maìn departure point for Norwegian immigrants to Amerìca. After
offers a master's degree
ExperiencethespectacularbeautyofNorway's invalue-based leaderfiordswiththeCenterforLeadershipStudies ship.Accommodations
nextlune'
wiil be on or near campus. Faculty from Diakonhjemmet will lead three morning sessions
to complement the travel, providing an inside perspective and an
opportunity to reflect on what is seen and learned.
an overnight stay, the tour departs for home from Stavanger.
Cost: $3799 (includes airfare, accommodations, in-country travel,
entrance fees during group excursions, tour guides, workshops at
Diakonhjemmet, and 15 meals). Space is limited to 26.
For information about the tour and a PowerPoint preview, con-
tact Patty Park at 612-330-1150 or parkp@augsburg.edu.
Welcome home, 0ld Main bell
augsburg
Augsburg's first 0ld Main building opened in 1 8i4, and until it was razed to build
Sverdrup Hall, its bell called the campus communityto meals and events.
This bell has recently come back to Augsburg, and will find a new place and pur-
pose 0n campus. We're planning a story about the bell in the spring issue of Augsburg
I'low,about its history, its travels, and its return home. Scouring our archives, we haven't
been able to learn much about it, or find it pictured in archive photos.
I)o you rememberthis ()ld Main bell? Please help us learn more about
how and when did
it-where
was it located,
it ring? What do you remember about it?
After the bell served its duty in ()ld Main,
il became part of Augsburg student traditions-participating
in sports and other student activities. What do you
remember-tell
us, even anonymously, if you wish!
E-mail information and stories to now@augsburg.edu or call 612-330-1 181. We invite you to become
part of the "rest of the story" about the 0ld Main bell.
50
Augsburg Now
)
-r-
5g-Y[:Aft: ftliüNîoil|-$LAlifi
0r
ß59,
lyngdal, Walter Lundeen
HflMECOMING 2OOg
{g-YF,Aftj ftlîUNï01,f-$LA$$ ûF 1gõg
Front row (L t0 R): Arlene Uejima, Karl Sneider; Row 2 ([ to R): l{ancy (Rolfe) Rolfe-Bailey, Lynn
(Benson) Hlelmeland, Janice (Hawkins) Halvorson, Kristi Holden; Rows 3,4 combined (L to R):
Roberta (Halseth) clausen, J0an (Halverson) Holt, Diana (0lson) Ersfeld, Ardell (Th0rpe) Bengtson,
Ron Holden; Row 5 (L to R): Greg Clausen, Eunice Helgeson, Judy (Johnson Kangas) Lies, pam
(Fredrickson) Gunderson; Row ô ([ to R): Diane (Helgeson) carter, lois (peterson) Bollman, Julie
(Kreie) Eidsvoog, sue (Halvorson) Bjerkestrand; Row 7 (L to R): sharon (Mielke) Eian, shirley (Swee)
Seutter, Alvina (Strand) Skogen, Linda (Stewart) Miller, larry Turner; Rows B, I combined (l to R):
Jacqueline (Kniefel) [ind, Joel Branes, Daryl Miller, wayne carlson, pamela (Bjorklund) carlson,
25- I FA ft, ftElf$l,i0l,f
gLAf,-: 0f rue+
-
laurie (Ofstedal) Frattallone, [aurie ([indell) Miles, Sonja Thompson,
Carmela (Brown) Kranz, Kim (0lsen) Melotte, lisa (Rykken) Kasfler
(L to R)
Richard Fenton; Rows 1 0, 1 1 combined ([ to R): ûlen Peterson, larry Matthews, Bruce Mestemacheç
Mike Essen, Bob Bliss, Gary Boen
Fall
2009
51
ass nOtes
c
FlSheldon
Johnson beean in Sepas interim sJperintend
ent at lVleadow Creek (Minn.)
Christian School. He retired in 2000
after 33 years as superintendent of
the lVlonticello School District, and
has since served four prior stints as
an interim superintendent.
Ult.ro.r.
Richard E. Lund, MD, is a retired
radiologist, living in Edmonds, Wash
He and his wife, Ann, have been
married for 43 years and have five
grandchildren. rlxrad@aol.com
tltSusan
Nelson has been teachlne elementary special education for 23 years in ihe Davenport
(lowa) Community Schools. She
coached lhe 1995 and 1999 World
Games Special Olympics lowa tennis
teams and the 2006 National
Games lowa tennis team.
Uf
l!fllon
Uü.r
Hageseth retired in Sepo.itro m his 27 -year
tenure as co-founder and director of
the Counseling and Testing Center at
the University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse. He plans to pursue photography and woodworking, as well as
play tennis and golf, and volunteer
in the community.
Kathy 0lson entered the contest in
September for an at-large seat on
the Waverly (lowa) City Council. She
retired last year as CUNA Mutual
human resources director and
serves on two non-profit boards in
her community.
FSii;:
i'iåi,' H tilì:t
åi^
David Ctoss works at U N IVAC/
UNISYS Cadence Design Systems.
Robert Strandquist has taught high
school English around the world. He
has been a twolime Fulbright
exchange teacher, a scholar at
Oxford and in lreland, and has run
15 marathons. Now he's "tiredno, re-tired."
[arry Turner has raised a family,
retired from the Burlington Northern
Santa l-e Railway, served22 years in
the Naval Reserve, and now enjoys
opportunities to travel and expand
his photography hobby.
]
!
(Johnson) Sullivan
llSharon Ann
lJreceived the "Excellence in
Jacqueline (Kniefel) l¡nd'94 MAt
works at the Airport Foundation
MSP to recruit, train, and recognize
300 volunteers for Travelers Assistance. She completed her Master of
Arts in Leadership degree at Augsburg and has served as Augsburg's
Alumni Board president.
52
Jill (Beck) Burch works at Accenture
Kay (Peterson) Sauck is president
and CEO of Sauck Media Group, a
publishing company that she
founded in 2009 in Fairmont, lVlinn
She launched Womeninc magaÀne
in 2004. ln 2008, after a series of
personal tragedies, she started
Midwest Caregìver, which has now
become Caregiving in Ameñca.
Coming in spring 2010 is a third
publication called MN Rivers.
Bank.
at Best Buy.
Shari Kay (Hackbarth) Hunter completed an MBA at the Unìversity of
St. Thomas and works at Provincial
Karen Jensen works for the State of
Minnesota. After graduation she
look an Oulward Bound course,
found a passion for outdoor adventure, and has paddled around the
world. Five years ago, she lost her
husband, Jim Rada, when he died
while paddling a whitewater river.
Teaching Award" from the California
Council for Adult Education. She is a
kay@sauckmed ia.com
metropolitan ad ult education
¡nstructor at Hope Services, San
Jose, Calif., where she teaches life
skills to over 150 adults who are
developmentally disabled.
O,4ì Mary
Saturday evening lazz
show, Corner Jazz, on KBEM Radio,
after working for 12 years at Minnesota Public Radio.
't
f
(}rjworkshop in music therapy,
lJane (Catlin) Bracken, a firstlgraOe teacher at Cannon Falls
(Minn.) Elementary School, was
selected by her peers as the elementary Teacher of the Year in
Ann Sullivan began host-
Ctl,tnea
Q 2Xt]l
luedtke-Smith organized
a
"lVlusical Play: Learning through
Music," at the Fraser School last
February.
T flJanice Nelson is a new memt l,nu, of the board of directors ot
Southwest lnitiative Foundation in
Hutchinson, Minn. She is an attorney with the law firm of Nelson Oyen
Torvik in lVlontevideo, IVlinn., and
works with real estate, estate planning, elder law, and probate.
Lisa (Rykken) Kastler is program
executive at Youth Encounter and
oversees national and international
traveling ministry teams and weekend events. She has enjoyed opportunities to use her theatre studies in
youth minislry.
Kim Marie 0lsen taught elementary
and middle school and served as
a youth minister. Her husband
retired from active duty in the U.S.
Navy, and they are now settled in
Wisconsin.
Ja nuary.
@'/f-Wanda (Hemphill) Borman has
O¡Þworked, traveled to Europe
and Asia, and ¡s an instructor in the
Eagan Art House and manager of
the Eagan Ad Festival.
Liz (Peterson) Sheahan has worked
at Ministry Home Care, Inc., where
she has created Telly-award-winning
videos on home healLh and hospice
care used in fundraising.
(Strommen) Johnson is
J9'ùco-chairing
f,Andrea
Paul
St.
Children's
Hospital Association's CHAnging
Lives 60th Annual Ball. Proceeds
from the November 21 benefit go to
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of
M in
Kristi (Sanford) Goetsch enjoyed a
wonderful 30-year career in the
Seattle Public Schools from 19691999. Since then she has been
doing volunteer work with the elcierly
and teaching Sunday School.
management consulting firm,
Drakulic & Associates, which currently contracts in the operations
and development areas w¡th Hope
Chest for Breast Cancer.
t
f
nesota.
ÊRev. David Halaas was called
Uìo ,.ru.
as senior pastor at
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Williston, N.D.
Church of Christ and Nerstrand
(Minn.) United lVlethodist Church
A group of Auggies from the late 1970s found an occasion to get
together for dinner in Minneapolis last April.
Front row, L to R: Laura (Berg) Nelson '79, Steve Nelson'78, Steve
Wehrenberg'78, Sue (Johnson) Wehrenberg'79, Pam (Hanson) Moksnes
last summer.
'79, Lynn Schmidtke'79; Back row, Llo R: Steve Pheneger, LuAnn
(Johnson) Drakulic spent
$Sue
{22years working at Honeywell, and then left to run her own
Pheneger, Mark Moksnes'79, Tim Gordon'80, Ga¡l (Wagner) Gordon'80,
Karin (Larson) Monson, Greg Monson'79 (in back), Susan Streed
McNaughton, Bill Voedisch. Laurie (Carlson) Voedisch, Chris Geason '78,
Julie (Edson) Geason'79
7 8::'3f,:iii:i:l j;i1Ï,ïñ:;
J
I
Augsburg Now
)
rr
.þ
è
þ
q
Adrienne (Kuchler) Eldridge
Jason, welcomed a son, Hudson lsaiah, on
June 12. She is the program and
lff,¡
V-3.and her husband,
ø
organizational manager at the First
Lutheran Church and Bay Lake
q
Camp. aeke@hotmail.com
Q.flSven
9l.his
OEllir¡am Zien Edgar and Scott Edgar were married on July 5 in St. Louis
U UPark, Minn. Auggies in the wedding party included Molly Rivets'06,
Erlandson has published
fourlh book, Badass
Alia Sheirman'08, Laya Theberge'06, Dayle Vanderleest'04, Peter lindemann
'04, and Karley Kielty'07. Music professors Robert Stacke'71 and Ned Kantor played in the klezmer/jazz band. Miriam is orchestra director at J.F.
Kennedy High School in Bloomrngton, and Scott is completing his master's
degree in counseling and psychological services at St. Mary's University of
Jesus: The Serious Athlete and a
Life of Noble Purpose. Written for
"the most ¡ntense, focused, and
fiercest athletes," the book is rooted
in "Jesus' First and Greatest Commandment and his personal ethos
of radical other-centered love."
Minnesota.
Natasha Hamann is a family medicine physician at Allina Medical
Clinic in Buffalo, lVinn.
flfi.Sarah Huerta'06 MBA and
her
U Uhusband, C¡aig'09, wel-
comed theìr second child, Connor
Brian, on April 24. He joins big
brofher Brady,2-112.
(l
ÇAllison
(Cornell) and Matt
llUBroughton'06 were married
in
a small ceremony on June 27 . f he
couple lives in Hanover, N.H.,
where Malt is a graduate student in
physics at Dartmouth College and
Allison works for the Dartmouth
Medical School Development Offìce.
The photo was taken by Ryan
Bethke'09,
fì
Roper-Batker is the presiÚÚoent uÅo cro of the women's
Foundation of lVinnesota, which she
has served since 2001. She received
a diploma from the Higher Trade
Union College in lVloscow, where she
studied trade union movements.
flLee
Bethany Buchanan married
Micheal Scott, a high
school special education teacher, in
June 2008. A year later they started
Grace Homes-Williston House, a
residential care home for seniors in
lVlinnetonka. After working as a
O.tì
rll.Charles
social worker, Bethany graduated
from nursing school in 2001, and
worked at Fairview University Medical Center and Methodist Hospital
as a medical-surgical nurse prior to
opening the care home. ln 2003,
2004, and 2005 she did month-long
medical mission tours in Nigeria.
Tracy (Glumich) Hovland and her
husband, Erik, have a six-month-old
daughter, Ava.
June (Kirk) Nelson returned to West
Africa 15 months ago, where she
works at the Hopital Protestante in
Ngaoundere, Cameroon, a mission
hospital that trains Christian African
physicians to become surgeons.
Megan Renze has been in Florida for
10 years. She completed her Juris
Doctor degree at the University of
Miami Law School.
O OAaron
Shatol Tyra received a Star Award
2008 from the lVlinnesota Organization of Leaders in Nursing (N/l0LN)
in recognition of her commitment to
volunteering and dedication to influencing health care by advancing
professional nursrng leadership, particularly with the Metro Alliance Education and Service Collaborative for
Expanded Enrollment of Baccalaureate Nurses.
Petrasek married David
Alan Hurley on Oct. 28, 2008,
in Van Nuys, Calif. Paul works at
FedEx and David Alan works at the
VA Medical Center. They traveled to
Disneyland for a honeymoon and
Gabriel directed the
lJ
lJregional premiere of How Can
You Run with a Shell on Your Back
at the Stages Theatre in Hopkins,
lVlinn., in lVlarch. The musical won a
regional Tony award following its premiere in Chicago last year.
Chiho Okuizumi is program coordina-
tor at VH1 Save the lVlusic Foundation in New York City, which provides
access to instrumental music education to children in more than 1,600
public schools across the U.S.
OTPaul
r'l I
live in Avon, Calif.
Q$toucin da
(0lson) Bjorklund
rJ.rJ-works at Vascular Solutions,
I
nc.
employed at the time of her wedding
at Appleton Cardiology Associates in
Appleton, Wis., as a physician assistant. Kevin is a high school math
teacher and head track coach at
Clintonville High School.
Marcy received his MBA
the Carlson School of
Management, University of Minnesota, in 2008 and accepted a promotion to senior internal auditor at
Valspar in Minneapolis. He travels
fl
2Max
U úfrom
widely doing internal audits, including the U.S., Europe, and China. ln
2OO4 he married his wife, Jessica, in
a Celtic mass held in Syracuse, N.Y.
They live in lVinneapolis with their
Persian cat, Eleanor Rigby.
fddam Nugent and Carolina
U T(Chiesa) are living in College
fi
Station, Texas. Adam is studying for
a lVlaster of Landscape Architecture
degree at Texas A&M, and Carolina
is teaching at South Knoll Elementary School.
Bourn works as a promanager with youth
service agencies and the Minneapolis Public Schools on the North Side.
He has run for the Minneapolis Park
and Recreation Board to keep parks
on the North Side safe and pro-
O FBrad
tlilgram
and has moved to Los Angeles.
grammed. He has received the Presidential Service Award for his work
with youth.
(l{¡
(l'fleremy
fl lEm¡ly Nugent'07 MA[, '09 MBA
lJ lis engaged to Nick Loiacano
Jennifer Langman married
Reese in Cameron, Wis.,
on August 9, 2008. Jennifer earned
a master's degree in health science
from Duke University and was
U-LKevin
Anderson adapted one
of his poems into a l0-minute
play, "Jones'n," which was produced
as part of the Bedlam Theatre's TenMinute Play Festival in May.
Uf
Fall
2009
53
prof ile
A Colombian Auggie in
Europe-
Paola Murcia '99
s
,1
È
How did a Latin American Auggie from Colombia end up in
Belgium via Minneapolis and Costa Rica?
Paola lVurcìa has lived in Antwerp, Belgium, for three years
now, working for Dole Fresh Fruit as the banana allocation
assistant for Europe. ln this role, she is the contact person
between the European market for Dole bananas and the production in Latin America.
This journey began in the mid-1990s when another Auggie
from Colombia introduced Paola to Eloisa Echavez, then the
director of Augsburg's Hispanic/Latino Student Services.
Echavez met with Paola's parents when she traveled in
Colombia, and they agreed to Paola's going to Augsburg.
She studied international relations, political science, and
Apart from her work, Paola Murcia '99 enjoys traveling in Europe and had a great view
ol the Thames in London from the london Eye ferris wheel.
French, and graduated in 1999. A year later, she took a posi-
tion in San José, Costa Rica, with Dole, and over the next six
years she was continually promoted and grew in the company
about those subjects," Paola says, "and it's important when
you live abroad that you try to blend in as much as possible.
toward the appointment in Dole's European division.
Also, to be open-minded!"
Shortly after arriving in Belgium, Paola ref lected on how she
felt Augsburg had provided a foundation for this new
When Paola arrived in Europe, for the first time she found
herself in a place where she didn't understand anything at all.
experience.
ln Antwerp, although most people speak English, the language
is Dutch (Flemish). But, since Belgium's off icial languages are
Dutch, German, and French, she could use her French from
Augsburg and fully appreciated the efforts of professor Pary
Pezechkian, who pushed her to master it.
As of now, Paola plans to stay in Europe, working in the
international f ield. She has studied Dutch and is striving to
"l have used what was learned in political
science and international relations to be the professional and the person I have
become," Paola wrote. "As Professor Norma Noonan puts it
better than I could, [she wrote to me,] 'You are living international relations, which is even better than merely studying ìt!
You are living the multicultural experiences that you have had
in all the countries through which you have passed."'
Paola would encourage current students to pay a lot of
attention to history and geography, as well as language.
"There is still an ìmage that Americans don't know much
perfect her French and German. She is also now accustomed to
the continental European winter, and she credits her years in
Minnesota for preparing her for this, as well.
BEÏSTY NORGARD
Shannon Olson works as a marketing
associate within a new type of teaming structure at Thrivent Financial
for Lutherans, called Professional
Office Practìces (POP).
0uincy Osborn joined the athletic
staf f at Ohio University as an assislanI coach in wrestling, after serving
in the same position for Augsburg's
wrestling team.
at an outdoor ceremony along the
Mississìppi River and drove to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon.
Daniel Manley is a police officer in
Glen Ridge, N.J. and saved the life
of a choking baby on the second day
on his job after having recently completed police academy training.
Alia Scheirman began her service in
the Peace Corps in Ukraine al the
fl QTasha Christensen married
l, [tNikolaus Browne on June l3
54
Augsburg Now
end of September.
fi
$Abigail Ferjak, with a major in
U üyoulh and
family ministry, is
beglnning study at Yale Divinity
Graduate College and wants to
explore the possibility of teaching in
a college setting.
Matthew Tonsager has joined the
Elm Creek Associates of Thrivent
Financial for Lutherans as a financial
associate with the organization's
Central l\4innesola Regional [inancial Office.
Of;ATUATI PfiO$f;AMIì
Jeff Falkingham '95 MAL received
favorable reviews from the Sherlock
Holmes Society of London for his
second novel, Sherlock Holmes: In
Search of the Source, released on
January 6, the 155th birthday of
Holmes, The historical f¡ction ¡s set
in l896 in Sl. P¿ul. Read Lhe review
at www.sherlockhol mes.org. u k/pdf/
DM290.pdf.
Send us your news and photos
Please
tell
us about the news in your life, your new job, move, marriage, and
births. Don't forget to send photosl
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an obituary, funeral notice,
0f program from a memorral service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail to: Augsburg
llow
Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 14È,2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN
55454, or e-mail alumni@augsburg.edu. You can also submit news at
www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Full name
Maiden name
Class year or last year attended
ln Memoriam
[arson, Gertrude (Amundson)'35,
Denver, Colo., age 100, on Aug. 3.
Dahl, Jeffrey'74, Cottonwood,
Minn., age 56, on Sept.30.
Street address
Pautz, Richard'37, Minneapolis,
age 96, on July 4. Former athletic
director, director of public rela-
Treichel, Scott G.'76, Webster, Wis.,
age 55, on July 31.
City, State, Zip
tions, Augsburg regent emeritus,
and 7972 Distinguished Alumnus.
Ahlberg, Ruth C. '¿14, Chesterton,
Ind., age BB, on Aug. 25.
Johnson, Edwin 0. '44, Minneapolis,
age BB, on Aug. 16.
larsen, Marguerite (Greguson)'45,
Carlton, Minn., age 86, on July 4.
Strand, Carl '46, Owatonna, Minn.,
age 87 , on Aug. 12.
Wessman, Rev. Willis'48, Topeka,
Kan., age BB, on July 26.
ls this a new address?
O Yes D
No
Olsen, Daniel ,1. '78, Apple Valley,
IVinn., age 53, on May 4.
Mason, WilmaÆom-Ba-Equay (Windy
Woman) '81, Bemidji, Minn., age
61, on Sept.10.
Home telephone
E-mail
Ballot, Sarah (Carlson) '98, Minneapolis, age 33, in early July, in
an auto acc¡dent.
Okayto publishyoure-mail address?
Allegrezza, Genevieve'04, Anchorage, Alaska, age28, on Aug.3.
Employer
Johnston, Hannah (Bratzel)'07, St.
Paul Park, lVinn., age 27, on June
25, of cancer.
Position
OYes trNo
Work telephone
Garstenbrock, Walter '49, Austin,
Minn., age 86, on July 7.
Brown, Orpha (Grimsrud) '50,
Wick, Cheryl '11 PA, Rochester,
IVìinn., age 25, on July 25, of cardiac arrhythmia.
Phoenix, Ariz., and Portland, Ore.,
Druck, Rachel
age 80, on July 27.
Oct.17.
'12, age 23,
[alim, Archie'50, lVladison, Conn.,
age 80, on Aug. 9. 1990 Distin-
Sulzen, Zoya'12, Minneapolis, at
the end of July.
ls spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College? O Yes
tr
No
lf yes, class year
on
Spouse's name
guished Alumnus.
Berkland, Rev. Theodore'51,'54
Sem, Grantsburg, Wis., age 80, on
June 20 of multiple myeloma.
Sortland, Rev. Howard'51, Plymouth, Minn., age 86, on Aug. 3.
Balerud, Paul'54, North Platte,
Neb., age 79, on Aug. 5.
Nelson, Judith (0lson) '65, Shell
Knob, lVlo., age 66, on Aug. 29.
Jones-Hermerding, Ertwin'69, Otter
Anderson, Margaret (Klinner), Edina,
Minn., age 86, on June 19, She
lVlaiden name
Your news:
taught home economics at Augsburg and was the widow of Ernie
Anderson'37.
Pedersen, Myrtle Edith, Hudson,
Wis., age 100, on Aug. 12.
Wrightsman, Rev. Bruce, Garnavillo,
lowa, age 75, on Oct. 4, of heart
failure and amyloidosis. He taught
in the Department of Religion and
Philosophy,1960-63.
O
I know a student who is interested in attending Augsburg.
Tail, Minn., age62, on Aug. 11, in
a motorcycle accident. 2003 Distinguished Alumnus.
Fall
2009
55
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221 1 R iverside Aven ue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
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To see
other photos of Auggie Eagle around
campus during the week of Homecoming,
go to www.augsburg.edu/now
What will Auggie do next?
As part of the Homecoming celebration, Auggie (or a paper
cutout of Auggie from the Homecoming brochure) wandered
around campus and had his photo taken for the online photo
of the week. Here Auggie is studying sociology in the library.
Show less
AUGSBURG NOW
SPRING 2009
VOL. 71, NO. 2
inside
auggies
Augsburg Now
The Magazine of Augsburg College
25Photo
Years
of Life-Changing
contest winners Augsburg Choir, 75 years
Twin sisters, twin dreams Core to compost
Travel
How green is Augsburg? Studying sustainability
page
20 the neig... Show more
AUGSBURG NOW
SPRING 2009
VOL. 71, NO. 2
inside
auggies
Augsburg Now
The Magazine of Augsburg College
25Photo
Years
of Life-Changing
contest winners Augsburg Choir, 75 years
Twin sisters, twin dreams Core to compost
Travel
How green is Augsburg? Studying sustainability
page
20 the neighborhood youth Green planning
Feeding
go
green
Editor
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
notes
from President Pribbenow
Generosity and Sustainability
t
his issue of the Augsburg Now offers many
inspiring stories of ways in which our community is learning about and practicing what
it means to live sustainable lives in the city.
I’ve been thinking a good bit lately about why the
Augsburg community has made such great progress
in living out its commitment to urban sustainability,
and I’ve found myself exploring the meaning of the
original motto for Augsburg Theological Seminary
and College, the bold claim found in John 1:14:
“And the Word became flesh.” I’m struck by how
this scriptural promise is both a statement of generosity and of sustainability. Augsburg College practices generosity most authentically when it lives as
the Word made flesh—sustainable, present, rooted,
of service, and faithful.
My teacher, Martin Marty, taught me that colleges
are indigenous communities—that is, they are native
to a particular place, a particular environment, a particular set of values, and practices that define the
institution—and that means something for the way
they live their lives.
What does it mean to think about Augsburg
College as an indigenous community? What does it
mean that the Word has become flesh and lived
among us here?
I lift up for our attention three simple aspects of
Augsburg’s identity—ways in which the Word becomes flesh here and the values we seek to sustain:
• The central focus of our identity is that wherever
Augsburg College is found—here in this neighborhood, in the city, in Rochester, or around the
world—our most authentic work is learning and
teaching. And the wonder of learning is that it involves acts of generosity and sustainability in its
every detail—from teachers who teach what they
love; to students who seek to learn out of curiosity
and passion; to texts that bear the wisdom of the
ages for our reflection; to conversations that help
us pay attention to the Word, to each other, and to
the world; to practices and commitments that help
sustain our environment.
Creative Director
Kathy Rumpza ’05 MAL
rumpza@augsburg.edu
Creative Associate-Editorial
Wendi Wheeler ’06
wheelerw@augsburg.edu
Creative Associate-Design
Jen Nagorski ’08
nagorski@augsburg.edu
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
Webmaster/Now Online
Bryan Barnes
barnesb@augsburg.edu
Director of News and
Media Services
• A second aspect of our identity is the way in
which this city, a particular place—much different
now than in 1869—is still a place that demands our
attention and respect and concern. Democracy still
is practiced in this place with our neighbors. Education still happens in this place with learners and
teachers all around us. Engagement and service still
are at the center of our lives with each other in this
place. Sustaining this urban place, this urban environment, is an act of generosity—for our diverse
neighbors, for our diverse selves, for the whole of
creation, now and into the future.
Jeff Shelman
shelman@augsburg.edu
• The final aspect of our identity is our firm grounding in the Christian faith—a confident faith that
frees us to learn, to live, to practice hospitality with
all of our neighbors, to be a force for good in the
world, to affirm our calling as people of faith and a
college of the church, to be God’s people in this
place, and to know that grace and truth abound
where the Word becomes flesh.
www.augsburg.edu
I celebrate the generosity that is Augsburg’s faithful
work in the world—the Word made flesh here, each
and every day. I celebrate the sustainability of our indigenous character, our indigenous work, and our indigenous place. And I recall the concluding words of
John 1:14 that remind us that the Word made flesh
is “full of grace and truth.” Oh, how the world needs
a Word of grace and truth. And here it is!
PAUL C. PRIBBENOW, PRESIDENT
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Assistant Vice President of
Marketing and Communication
David Warch
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spring 2009
Features
6
10
12
Augsburg Choir - celebrating 75 years
by Betsey Norgard
16
30
Twin sisters, twin dreams
by Jean Spielman Housh
International Programs Photo Contest
14
20
23
auggies
go green
16 Toward a more sustainable Augsburg
by Betsey Norgard
contents
19 How green is Augsburg?
26
augsburg now
20 Environmental connections: Green starts here
by Jeff Shelman
23 Studying sustainability
by Wendi Wheeler ’06
26 Green Planning
28 Core to compost
Photos and text by Stephen Geffre
30 Feeding the neighborhood youth
by Wendi Wheeler ’06
32 How green is our magazine?
Departments
2
4
5
8
33
36
40
Around the Quad
Auggies on the ice
Auggie voices
It takes an Auggie
Alumni news
Class notes
My Auggie experience
On the cover
We celebrate in this issue all the commitments, changes, and
progress that Augsburg has embraced in learning how to be a
more sustainable college in the city.
All photos by Stephen Geffre unless otherwise indicated.
around the
quad
Augsburg receives Carnegie classification
Augsburg was recently selected by the Carnegie Foundation as
one of 119 colleges and universities in the nation to receive the
classification for Community Engagement. This affirms that the
school has institutionalized community engagement in its identity, culture, and commitments. It also affirms that the practices
of community engagement are aligned with the institution’s identity and form an integral component of the institutional culture.
The classification has three categories—curricular engagement, outreach and partnerships, and a category for both engagement and outreach—and Augsburg received the latter,
comprehensive classification.
In a letter to Augsburg President Paul C. Pribbenow, Jim
Scheibel, executive director of the Minnesota Campus Compact,
congratulated the College on this recognition. Scheibel wrote, “As
a country that faces an economic crisis, and as a community that
witnesses division and strife across the globe, we need students,
faculty, and campuses that are fully engaged. This recognition
says you are doing your part and acknowledges that you are serious about fulfilling the mission of the College.”
Augsburg has included “student engagement” as one of nine
specific academic goals for the institution. The Augsburg Experience signature curriculum requirement encourages direct involvement with people and organizations external to the College,
All first-year students spend an afternoon during September Auggie Days working on
community projects—painting, gardening, cleaning up, or whatever needs doing in the
neighborhood with Augsburg’s community partners.
first-hand discovery and application of knowledge, self-awareness
through reflective and critical thinking, and exploration of what
one is called to do in the world.
Augsburg is a committed partner to particular nonprofit and
educational groups within the nearby urban neighborhoods, including Cedar-Riverside, Seward, and Phillips.
In addition, the College has instituted programs and policies
that support community engagement for the campus community.
All staff members receive two days of paid leave time for community service.
A note to the editor
“I found the ‘Lights, camera, and action’ feature in the fall 2008 Augsburg
Now very interesting. This photograph was taken in the Augsburg Art Studio in the early 1970s during a session of a hands-on class teaching 16mm
filmmaking with synchronized sound. As a student from 1965-1970, I had a
work-study job showing films and doing photography working for Robert
Zeller, who at that time was director of instructional services. He is the
first person whom I recall to have taught a course in film studies at
Augsburg. Warren Hanson, John Mitchell, and Larry Glenn (left to right in
the photo) were all students in the course taught by local filmmaker Paul
Rusten. Warren was a registered student. As John was a faculty member
and I was director of the audio-visual center, we were invited to participate in the class without receiving credit.”
LARRY GLENN ’70
2
Augsburg Now
Brian Krohn—Augsburg’s first Rhodes Scholar
Brian Krohn ’08 arrived at Augsburg with plans of being a film major and eventually became a chemistry
student. In November he was selected as a Rhodes Scholar—Augsburg’s first.
Krohn, a native of Cloquet, Minn., was one of 769 initial U.S. applicants from 207 colleges and universities for this year’s Rhodes Scholars. After making it through an interview process and being selected,
Krohn became one of 32 Americans who will study at Oxford University beginning in fall 2009. There, Krohn
will focus on environmental change and management in order to combine public policy expertise with the
scientific knowledge he has gained at Augsburg.
In the summer of 2006, Krohn began research into new ways to produce biodiesel fuel. He acknowledges that he didn’t really expect to break any new ground, but he wanted to give it a shot.
The combination of Krohn’s research, the teaching of chemistry professor Arlin Gyberg, and
Augsburg alum Clayton McNeff led to the discovery of the Mcgyan Process to produce
biodiesel in a cleaner and more environmentally friendly way.
“For me, Brian’s work on the biodiesel project is a great liberal arts story,”
President Paul C. Pribbenow said. “There’s a connection between a student with a
question, a faculty member, and an alum. They work on a problem and come out with
a response that, in this case, is pretty groundbreaking.
“Brian stands for the well-rounded education that we provide for all of our
students. We’re proud of him and proud that his Augsburg education prepared
him,” Pribbenow continued.
In addition to his work with biodiesel, Krohn is a Goldwater Scholar who was
a founder of the Honors Review, a new journal for student scholarship at
Augsburg. He organized the inaugural Agre Challenge, an event in which teams
were challenged to build a catapult to fling a 20-pound sandbag various distances.
Diane Pike receives the Stewart Bellman Award
Diane Pike, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and professor of
sociology, is the 2008 recipient of the Stewart Bellman Award for Exemplary Leadership from The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning.
She was honored in November at The Collaboration’s annual conference.
For more than 25 years at Augsburg, Pike has been recognized for her excellence
as a classroom teacher and as a role model for other faculty members, in large part
due to her ongoing leadership in faculty development workshops, consulting, and summer institutes, and her avid attention to the research literature on the scholarship of
teaching and learning.
Pike’s accomplishments at Augsburg have included re-envisioning the work of the
Committee on Faculty Development, integrating activities for faculty and professional
staff members, and creating dedicated space for student learning and CTL in Lindell
Library. Most notably, however, has been her leadership in the creation of the new
AugCore general education program—guiding the design team work and faculty collaboratives on specific issues, as well as securing a Bush Foundation grant for implementation and work on the course evaluation project. She is the incoming president of the
Midwest Sociological Society.
Spring 2009
3
Auggies on the ice
Tiffany Magnuson—
a star on ice and on the field
If it weren’t for finding cheap hockey skates at a tent sale,
Tiffany Magnuson’s athletic career might have been quite
different than it is today.
“My dad didn’t want me playing hockey. They bought me
figure skates, because my dad didn’t want me messed up
with the hockey guys,” said Magnuson, whose father is a
hockey coach in their hometown of Green Bay, Wis. “They
bought the figure skates for me, and I couldn’t skate in them
because of the toe pick. But my dad always said that I had a
natural hockey stride, and I kept telling him that I wanted
black skates.”
So Magnuson’s mom found her a pair of black skates—
hockey skates.
“My mom always said, ‘Wal-Mart started your career,’
because they had a tent sale at Wal-Mart on hockey skates,”
Magnuson said.
A senior, Magnuson has excelled at two sports during her
Auggie career—hockey and softball—and will leave Augsburg
as one of the top all-around female athletes in school history.
Magnuson finished her hockey career as the school’s second
leading goal-scorer and No. 3 point-producer. She was a
four-time All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
selection.
In softball, Magnuson played three positions—second
base, first base, and pitcher—during last season’s run to the
MIAC playoffs for the first time in program history. A threetime All-MIAC selection, she enters this season with a .379
career batting average as the Auggies leadoff hitter.
Magnuson, a finance major and accounting minor, was recruited to play hockey at Augsburg and she said she chose
Augsburg because it was a small school in a large city. Being
active in back-to-back sports has helped her learn to manage
her time.
“Sports have taught me about leadership, being committed and competitive, about interacting with others, and having to all come together for a goal,” said Magnuson, who
wants to work on the business side of a sports team. “It’s a
family [atmosphere], and for me being away from my family,
it helps me with my life. That’s what I like about Augsburg,
the close-knit atmosphere.”
DON STONER
4
Augsburg Now
auggie voices
Engaging in the big questions
The Lilly Scholars seminar is a place where students can feel
comfortable talking about the big questions in life. Questions
like, Is Christianity the only true religion? What does it mean to
forgive someone? What is God calling me to do?
For Mark Tranvik, associate professor of religion and director of
the Lilly grant program, the seminar is the heart of the year-long
program designed for juniors and seniors who are considering
seminary or graduate study in theology or sacred arts. Once a
month they meet to discuss assigned texts, engage with guest
speakers, and reflect on biblical passages or issues in the
Christian tradition.
Each year, 10 or 11 Lilly Scholars, who receive a $2,100
scholarship, are selected from more than twice that number.
Among the current scholars, the average GPA is 3.75. In addition
to the seminar, Lilly Scholars visit Luther Seminary and can take
courses there.
“There is an ongoing hunger in the intellectual community for
genuine theological conversation among students that the Lilly
Scholar program honors,” says Tranvik, who is also an ordained
minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Creating
a comfortable place for these critical conversations is his goal.
And, he adds, “doubters are welcomed.”
Jenni Pickford, a philosophy and religion major, finds the seminar most valuable for “the openmindedness I’ve gained from
hearing about views that differ from my own.” What she appreciates is that “there are other students out there who are interested
in more than just a grade and do this for the love of learning.”
“The greatest impact for me is the group friendship and discussions that carry throughout other classes,” says religion major
Denise Shuck, a Weekend College senior who is planning to enter
Luther Seminary. “I have a great appreciation for the diversity of
opinions about the topics we’ve discussed.”
Abby Ferjak, a senior, finds it easy to integrate what she does
in the Lilly Scholars program to her youth and family ministry
classes. “It’s important for youth to understand that vocation is
not simply what one might do as a career; but rather, that everyone has many vocations, and [that] they don’t have to wait to fulfill their vocation.”
And that’s exactly what the Lilly Endowment hopes to hear.
Their goal for funding programs in church-related, liberal arts colleges that explore vocation is to nurture a new generation of voca-
In their monthly seminar, Professor Mark Tranvik (above, in blue shirt) seeks to
create a comfortable atmosphere for the Lilly Scholars to discuss and explore
vocation. (L to R) Denise Shuck, Leah Jarvi, Tranvik, Cody Oaks, Allison Streed,
Alexander Garver, Abigail Ferjak, Natalie Sasseville, and Ashley Weston.
tionally-guided leaders—both pastoral and lay—for church congregations. Lilly Scholars are one part of Augsburg’s $2 million
grant program, Exploring Our Gifts, that began in 2002 and is
directed by Tranvik.
Over its six years, Lilly Scholars have included a mix of
younger and older students and have cut across disciplines, for
example, among science and social work majors seeking ways to
combine faith life with their fields.
Last year four Lilly Scholars continued to Luther Seminary (all
with full scholarships), two chose law school, one entered the
Lutheran Volunteer Corps, one is in congregational youth ministry,
and one began graduate study in social work. About half of all
Lilly Scholars have entered seminary.
During their year as Lilly Scholars, the students serve as role
models within the larger community. They develop a portfolio, reflecting on vocation and what they carry with them from the year.
Cody Oaks, a current Lilly Scholar, finds inspiration in
Tranvik’s ability to merge the pastoral with the academic. “He
provides the model of a pastor-scholar I would like to embody in
my own work and call to teach,” Oaks says. He will enter
Princeton Theological Seminary this summer and begin to seek
ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Kyle Zvejnicks, a 2006-07 Lilly Scholar, reflected on community. “The seminar has reminded me of the importance of community in vocation, namely that we need each other. … Just as
much, we don’t come with the same vocation for everyone, but
each with their own, and not for themselves but for others.”
To learn more about Exploring Our Gifts, go to
www.augsburg.edu/lilly.
BETSEY NORGARD
Spring
Fall 2008
2009
5
The Augsburg Choir—
celebrating 75 years
This academic year, the Augsburg Choir celebrates 75 years—a
choral tradition of distinction and excellence.
The Augsburg Choir was founded in 1933, when the Men’s
Glee Club and the Ladies’ Choral Society, who had sung together
on various occasions, voted to unite, under the direction of music
department chair Henry P. Opseth. The first student president of
the choir was a third-year music major and future choir conductor
Leland B. Sateren.
The new choir lost no time in preparing for tours and performances. In 1935, their tour through the Midwest took them more
than 2,000 miles for 20 concerts, including a coast-to-coast broadcast in Chicago with the National Broadcasting System. On their return, they sang a home concert at Central Lutheran Church.
Choir business manager Orville C. Hognander ’36 planned the
tour, plus arranged for a series of 18 Sunday evening radio broadcasts on WCCO radio, the “Hour Melodious.” This program also
was accessible over open channel across the country and brought
visibility to Augsburg, reconnecting many alumni to the College.
In 1946, Leland B. Sateren ’35 returned to Augsburg to join
the music faculty. Following Opseth’s death in 1950, Sateren
was named conductor of the Augsburg Choir.
For the next 29 years, the Augsburg Choir developed its own
distinctive tone quality, musicality, and professionalism under
Sateren. While the choir continued to share the Gospel through
church music, Sateren evolved a more contemporary classical
sound, especially in his own compositions. His passion for
1933
Scandinavian music brought attention to music and composers
relatively unknown in the U.S.
In 1975, the Augsburg Choir’s 40th anniversary tour took
them to Scandinavia. They traveled by boat down the Norwegian
coast, from above the Arctic Circle to Oslo, and sang in the
Trondheim Cathedral.
Leland Sateren retired in 1979, and the direction of the choir
passed to Larry L. Fleming, a noted choral conductor and composer. In his first year, the choir was chosen as the official representative from the U.S. to sing in Augsburg, Germany, at the
450th commemoration of the Augsburg Confession.
Fleming also established Advent Vespers, the College’s annual
1975
Augsburg Choir
is founded
40th anniversary
choir tour
Leland B. Sateren ’35—choir director
Peter Hendrickson ’76—student choir president
and future choir director
Henry P. Opseth—choir director
Leland B. Sateren ’35—student choir
president and future choir director
6
Augsburg Now
The majestic Advent Vespers service each year at
Central Lutheran Church presents Augsburg’s four
choirs, with part of the service sung as a massed choir
of over 200 voices.
holiday program, as a service of music and liturgy, which now attracts up to 8,000 people at its four services and will celebrate
its 30th anniversary in 2009.
Fleming left Augsburg in 1986, and for the next several years
the Augsburg Choir was under the direction of Thomas Rossin.
In 1994, after serving a short time as interim director, Peter
Hendrickson ’76 was appointed the choir’s new conductor. Over
the past decade and a half, he has realized his vision for
Augsburg’s choral program—one that offers distinct choral experiences for all students, including the extended Augsburg family,
with different repertoires:
• Augsburg Choir—a cappella touring choir
• Riverside Singers—women’s chorus
• Cedar Singers—men’s chorus
• Masterworks Chorale—symphonic chorus
All four choirs, as well as an orchestra and liturgical party, participate annually in Advent Vespers. In 2004, for the 25th anniversary,
Twin Cities Public Television recorded the service and won a
Regional Emmy award for the production. The program has been
shown on public television during the holiday season since then.
One of Hendrickson’s passions is language, and to date, his
choirs have sung in more than 15 languages. “We owe it to our
students in the choral program to educate them not only in
Augsburg’s commitment to the Lutheran choral tradition, but also
in creating, through music and language, a better understanding
of other cultures and our responsibility to be world citizens,”
Hendrickson says.
The Augsburg Choir’s March tour this year took them south,
traveling from Nebraska to Texas, and locations in between. Currently the choir is planning next year’s tour, a trip that will take
them to China in 2010.
2009
The Masterworks Chorale marks 15 years
Hendrickson founded the Masterworks Chorale in 1994 as a symphonic chorus of approximately 100 voices, made up of students,
faculty and staff, alumni, and others connected to the Augsburg
community. Unique to a college campus, Masterworks Chorale
presents programs of great choral works and explores new
masterworks.
In 1996, the chorale performed for the first time the entire
Visions from Hildegaard by Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus.
In 1997, it presented the English-language premiere of
Norwegian composer Egil Hovland’s opera, Captive and Free, and
in 2001, the English-language version of Finnish composer and
conductor Kari Tikka’s opera, Luther.
The Masterworks Chorale performs three times per year—at
fall and spring concerts, and for Advent Vespers. A number of
chorale members are Augsburg alumni who sang as students in
Leland Sateren’s choirs.
“The Sateren choir alumni in Masterworks keep the legacy and
spirit of the Sateren era alive,” Hendrickson says. “It’s a wonderful connection for our current students, a passing of the torch, so
to speak, from then to now.”
BETSEY NORGARD
75th anniversary year
For a longer story about choir history with
additional photos, go to www.augsburg.edu/now.
Peter Hendrickson ’76—choir director
7
it takes an
Auggie
A legacy for promising students
President’s Scholarships recognize students with exceptional academic ability and leadership potential and can provide financial
support up to full tuition for four years. Donors who choose to
endow a President’s Scholarship make special connections with
these students, and those that follow them, one after another, as
they see an Augsburg education made possible.
E. Milton Kleven ’46 taught school in Minneapolis for 33 years
and knows what this means to students from low-income families. He and his family have endowed three President’s Scholarships and enjoy being part of the lives of the students who
receive them, helping them begin their work and careers free
from college debt.
Milt Kleven’s Augsburg story began in a home two blocks from
the College, where his Norwegian immigrant mother and father
raised nine children. Since Augsburg was the college in the
neighborhood, six of the Kleven children attended, with three
completing their degrees.
In 1940, Milt followed his sister Agathe, who had just graduated from Augsburg. Like most students then, Milt’s studies were
interrupted by World
War II, and in 1946
he returned and
finished. Their
brother Luther
graduated in
1950.
Milt graduated with a
major in
mathematics
and a minor in physical education. His strongest
and longest friendships he formed in the Augsburg
A-Club, even though his student job downtown at
the Minneapolis Club kept him too busy to participate in most sports, except for lettering in golf.
Kleven’s Augsburg story has a romantic twist on
a broken leg. In late 1943 he left Augsburg to
enter Navy pilot training. When he suffered a broken leg, he decided to spend the eight-week recovery period back at Augsburg, completing his
math major with Professor George Soberg.
8
One evening in Augsburg’s library, in the basement of Old
Main, he met Dorothy Lijsing, the daughter of a Swedish immigrant father and mother, and she became his wife and partner for
53 years. Dorothy transferred to Gustavus Adolphus College and
graduated there. They were married in 1947.
Soon after graduating, Kleven began teaching mathematics in
the Minneapolis Public Schools. In addition to teaching, he also
served as the teacher representative with Great West Financial on
a voluntary investment fund created following a strike in 1970.
From that experience, he learned a great deal about investments
and wise financial planning that has served him well.
In the 1950s, the Klevens were approached by Sig Hjelmeland
’41, Augsburg’s development director, and asked for the first
time to consider giving back to Augsburg.
“My parents always set aside their tithe,” Kleven says, “and
taught us that giving is a part of our responsibility.”
In 1958, he and Dorothy established a scholarship in honor of
his parents, Magnus and Kristofa Kleven. In its 50 years, more
than 200 Augsburg students have benefited from the financial
support of this scholarship.
During the 1960s, the Klevens continued their philanthropic
support to Augsburg, and for many years worked closely with development officer Jeroy Carlson ’48.
In 2001, when Dorothy passed away, Kleven established a
scholarship in her name. With college costs skyrocketing, he
knew from his large family what a difference a full tuition scholarship could make for students from low-income families, like
those he had taught in Minneapolis.
“That’s the main thing,” Kleven says. “I want to help kids who
have a need, and I want it to be a full scholarship.”
So, the Dorothy Lijsing Kleven Scholarship became the first
endowed President’s Scholarship, and provides a full scholarship
to a student interested in choral music, as Dorothy had been
throughout her life. This endowment was created by Milt and
their four children and families—Bruce and Maren Kleven, David
and Barbara Kleven, Barbara and Zane Birky, and Diane and
Philip Larson.
In 2007, the family created two additional endowed
President’s Scholarships. They added Dorothy’s parents, David
and Florence Lijsing, to the original scholarship for Milt’s parents
and raised it to the level of a full President’s Scholarship.
The third was created in Milt’s name—the E. Milton Kleven
Scholarship for public service, so he can enjoy supporting students with a real financial need who plan to enter public service.
Kleven helped to facilitate two other scholarships. The
Margaret Andrews Scholarship was established by Kleven and his
fellow Trade and Industry coordinators in the Minneapolis public
school system to honor their supervisor, Margaret Andrews. The
Donald C. Carlson Scholarship, through the Normandale Lutheran
Church Foundation, is named for founding pastor Donald Carlson
’42 to support a Normandale member attending Augsburg.
The Kleven legacy also includes major support to capital projects. In 1995-96, the family worked with President Charles
Anderson and gave $1 million toward the construction of
Lindell Library.
Milt founded Kleven Flooring Service, which installed hardwood flooring in houses in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Over
the years, he provided hardwood floors throughout the Augsburg
campus, including the Augsburg Room in
Christensen Center and Augsburg House.
His most recent gift celebrates his over
60-year tie to Augsburg A-Club and close
friendships with Glen Person ’47 and Dick
“Pork Chop” Thompson ’61. Together, as part
of the construction of the new press box on
Edor Nelson Field, the three provided the
funding to name the Jeroy C. Carlson
Hospitality Room in Kennedy Center in honor
of their longtime friend and colleague.
For more information about endowing a
President’s Scholarship honoring Augsburg’s
most promising students, contact Doug Scott,
assistant vice president for development, at
612-330-1575 or 1-800-273-0617.
BETSEY NORGARD
Becky Shaheen ’11
Becky Shaheen is a sophomore from Elk River, Minn., majoring in
vocal music performance and composition, with a pre-engineering
minor. She sings in the Augsburg Choir, Gospel Praise Jazz Ensemble,
and other ensembles. This is her second year as the recipient of the
Dorothy Lijsing Kleven President’s Scholarship in choral music, and
she keeps in touch with the Kleven family.
“Music is my life, and this semester I’ve been able to dedicate
more time than ever before to music. I am finally realizing that being
a musician is possible …
“This scholarship has opened so many doors for me. I don’t have
to worry so much about the financial issues, and it has provided me
with confidence and such an ‘I can do anything!’ attitude.
“When I first met the family, it was like meeting a huge part of my
extended family that I didn’t know about. … A picture of the family
and me taken at the scholarship brunch hangs by my desk, a reminder of the people who are making this journey possible. “
twin sisters
Twin sisters
Twin dreams
“Our Augsburg professors were supportive
and encouraged us to pursue our dream ...”
BETTY BOWERS, MD
Barbara and Betty Bowers knew they wanted to grow up to be
doctors when they were six years old. The twin sisters were born
in Mora, Minn., and graduated from Augsburg in 1972. They attended medical school at the University of Minnesota and graduated in 1976.
“Our family doctor, Dr. Harry Berge, encouraged and supported us in our dream,” says Barbara Bowers, MD, “although
we’d never even seen a woman doctor.”
The Bowers twins were two of George and Opal Bowers’ four
daughters. The family lived in Brook Park, Minn., when the twins
were young. “Our parents raised us to believe that if we worked
hard we could achieve anything.”
Betty and Barbara studied diligently through grade school and
graduated from Forest Lake High School.
“We never took a test without thinking about our goal,”
Barbara explains. “We would not be dissuaded by naysayers.”
Today, Barbara Bowers is medical director of Fairview Southdale Breast Center and Fairview Southdale Hospital Medical
Oncology Clinic.
Betty Bowers, MD, is medical director and an anesthesiologist
with the McGee Eye Surgery Center in Oklahoma City, Okla.
10
Augsburg Now
How did two young women from small-town Minnesota make it
through college in the big city?
“We received incredible personal attention and felt cared for
at Augsburg,” Barbara says. The twin sisters found the small
class sizes and nurturing environment a perfect place to study
the sciences.
“Our Augsburg professors were supportive and encouraged us
to pursue our dream,” Betty explains. Although, there was one
science professor who did not give them full credit for their class
work. “He had a special curve for us,” Barbara says. “His attitude
really was indicative of society at the time. It was the late 1960s,
and few women were pursuing careers in science, let alone medicine. But we didn’t lose heart.”
At Augsburg, the Bowers sisters were exposed to different cultures and religions. “Our professors knew us as people, not just
students in the classroom,” Barbara explains. “Rabbi Schwartz
took us to his synagogue and invited us to his home for Seder.”
While it took a lot of hard work to get through medical school,
“We were encouraged by those who meant the most to us,” Betty
says. “Sometimes naive belief serves you well.”
Claus Pierach, MD, a professor at the University of Minnesota
twin dreams
Medical School, recognized right away that the Bowers sisters
were unique. “Not only were they identical twins—they were
equally enterprising.”
Pierach serves on the admission committee for the University of
Minnesota Medical School. “I see and study many applicants, but
I see few students as determined as Betty and Barbara Bowers.”
After completing medical school, Barbara Bowers did her residency at what was then Northwestern Hospital. Pierach worked
closely with Barbara in her internal medicine rotation. “It was no
surprise that she earned the title of chief resident.” It was during
her internal medicine residency at Northwestern Hospital that
Barbara became intrigued by the cancer patients she treated.
“They were strong people, and it really sparked my interest in
medical oncology,” she explains.
Barbara decided to specialize in medical oncology. “At that
time, I thought I’d work in cancer treatment and work myself out
of a job in about 10 years.”
While cancer has not been cured, Barbara has seen significant
advances in cancer treatment and prevention. “We are seeing
more cancer patients live longer. There has been progress in preventing certain cancers through increased patient understanding
of the role diet and exercise play in our lives.”
“As a physician, my role is to partner with patients. To do that,
we need to educate patients, give them the information they need
to make decisions regarding their care, and communicate on the
same wave length—making sure that they know they are the most
important person on our care team.”
For Barbara, caring for cancer patients is where medical science and compassion meet. “I’m a scientist,” she explains. “I
love studying the periodic table. Everything in the universe is up
there except one thing—the heart, the human element.”
Barbara is married to a physician and has two daughters and
a son.
While in medical school, Betty thought she’d become a surgeon. She was the first female surgery resident at Hennepin
County Medical Center. In the fourth year of her general surgery
rotation, Claude Hitchcock, MD, approached her about taking a
six-month anesthesia rotation at the Mayo Clinic. “It’s been a
good fit for me. I’ve been practicing anesthesiology since 1981.”
She’s been with the McGee Eye Surgery Center since 2005.
Betty is married to a physician and has two daughters.
Looking back, Barbara and Betty remember many good times
amid the grueling schedule of medical school. “But we got through
it all by tucking our chins in and working hard,” Betty says.
Both physicians say they have enjoyed tremendous job satisfaction from their careers in medicine. “I would encourage anyone
dedicated to helping people to choose a career in medicine,”
Barbara says. “The medical field is constantly changing and offers
academic challenges, but most of all it is personally rewarding.”
JEAN SPIELMAN HOUSH
Housh is married to Allen Housh, a former Augsburg regent. She came to know
Dr. Barbara Bowers when she was treated for breast cancer in 2004.
Photos submitted by the families and Fairview Southdale Hospital.
“As a physician, my role is to partner with
patients. To do that, we need to ... make
sure that they know they are the most
important person on our care team.”
BARBARA BOWERS, MD
Betty Bowers, MD
Barbara Bowers, MD
Spring 2009
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International Programs
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Photo
Contest
Portraits
1st place: Bethany Thompson
“Doi Suthep Girls”
Chiang Mai, Thailand
2nd place: Katie MacAulay
“Llamas and the Lost City of
the Incas”
Peru
3rd place: Sara Black
“Another Walk of Life”
Ibarra, Ecuador
Landscape/cityscape
1st place and Best of Show:
Emily Hanson
“Holocaust Memorial”
Berlin, Germany
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2nd place: Katie Woolever
“Looking Through Mada’s
Dwelling”
Northern Namibia
3rd place: Kayla Skarbakka
“Boireann”
County Clare, Ireland
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Photojournalism
1st place: Emily Hanson
“GDR Shopkeep”
Wittenburg, Germany
2nd place: Tyla Pream
“Festival of San Giovanni–Boy
with Flag”
Florence, Italy
Augsburg Now
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3rd place: Christine Tresselt
“Coffee in the Cloud Forest”
Miraflor, Nicaragua
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sustain. respond. recycle.
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“The Augsburg College community is deeply committed to
what it means to build a sustainable urban environment.”
—President Paul C. Pribbenow
clean. reduce. build. Save.
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BY BETSEY NORGARD
Living sustainably is no longer merely an
option. As a vast majority of the world’s
people struggle for resources to sustain
even simple lives, a small minority consume at rates that will quickly deplete
Earth’s resources and imperil future
generations.
Environmental concerns are now front
and center on our national agenda. But
beyond these, the broader considerations
of sustainable living—economic and social policies that determine how resources
are shared—remain difficult to tackle.
Augsburg’s history, mission, and vision
call for the College to engage in these
broad discussions of sustainability. The
two vision documents of 1997 and 2005
spell out an institutional vocation for the
College rooted in a blending of Lutheran
heritage, immigrant history, and urban location that demands a caring stewardship
of God’s creation.
As the College explores how it lives out
its institutional vision—We are called to
serve our neighbor—it must look beyond
the changes brought about by green practices and invite the deeper conversations
in community that probe the meaning of
living sustainably in the city.
The greening of Augsburg
The Environmental Stewardship Committee (ESC), made up of faculty, staff, and
students, leads the environmental initiatives of the College. Created in 1990 as a
task force, it was revitalized by President
William Frame in 1999 and given both
purpose and strength.
Tom Ruffaner, longtime committee
chair and custodial supervisor, believes
that the comprehensive “Waste Wise”
audit carried out in 1999 became the
“driving force behind ‘greening’ at
Augsburg.” The audit “not only identified
areas of waste and inefficiencies across
campus but also offered resources to
make improvements.”
The ESC Vision Statement in 2004
summarized its goals: “The stewardship of
the urban and global environment can only
be pursued if we take these steps toward
using less, living more simply, and acting
with the care and awareness of the impact
of actions on the people and ecosystem
within which we live and on which we all
depend.”
In 2006, Augsburg’s new president,
Paul C. Pribbenow, quickly embraced the
growing urgency to address issues of sustainability and gave voice to a deeper understanding of sustainability within
Augsburg’s mission and vision.
The changes across campus in the past
three years have been significant. Sustainability is infused through Augsburg’s curriculum and grounded in its daily
practices—on campus, in the community,
and around the world.
Augsburg participates in two important institutional collaborations:
• Presidents Climate Commitment—President Pribbenow joined more than 600
American college and university presidents to sign an agreement to “neutralize greenhouse gas emissions and to
accelerate the research and educational
efforts of higher education to equip
society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate.”
One person’s difference
if
mr. green
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Augsburg Now
Augsburg had a “Mr. Green” contest,
TOM RUFFANER ’98 might well be the best
candidate. Over the past decade, he has
led Augsburg toward greater commitments in
sustainable living.
Ruffaner has pushed Augsburg to bring about environmental improvements in energy use, safer
cleaning products, and recycling and waste reduction
(starting with a comprehensive Waste Wise audit). He
also helped the College study its transportation
habits and commuting alternatives. And, he has
chaired the Environmental Stewardship Committee
and supported community efforts.
In fall 2007, Ruffaner received an Individual
Achievement Commuter Choice Award, given by Metro
Transit, that recognizes organizations and individuals
for their creative solutions in promoting alternatives
to driving alone. He also served on the advisory committee that helped design the light rail station nearest
Augsburg.
A 1998 graduate in metro-urban studies, Ruffaner
is the custodial supervisor at Augsburg.
A report has just been completed that
measures the College’s carbon footprint.
• Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities
(ACTC)—Five colleges (Augsburg,
Hamline, St. Thomas, St. Catherine,
Macalester) are exploring ways to create
a stronger academic identity that clearly
expresses their shared identity as an
urban institution and centers on the
theme of sustainable urban development. Ideas may include curricular development, community outreach,
research, service-learning, internships,
study abroad, and faculty development.
Students step forward
green vehicles, and become engaged in the political
process.
Augsburg’s chapter of the Minnesota Public Interest
Research Group (MPIRG) began the initial efforts to recycle in the 1970s. Recently, its Environmental Task
Force, along with student groups, has led projects on
campus, including:
• Focus the Nation teach-in—Augsburg joined organizations across the country in setting aside a day to engage the entire campus in conversations on
sustainability.
“MY DAD TELLS ME, ‘DREAMS ARE FREE.
DREAM BIG, IT WON’T COST MONEY.’”
Some of the most exciting projects for sustainability have come from student-led initiatives. Students have researched
alternative fuels, organized teach-ins,
gained student backing to support wind
energy, pushed the College to purchase
—Alex Hoselton ’08
Focus leads to wind energy
My dad tells me, “Dreams are free. Dream big, it won’t
cost money.” I listened and dreamt and acted big by forming an ad hoc organization and, with other students,
started organizing for the Focus the Nation teach-in in
January 2008. The teach-in provided rich liberal arts perspectives to more than 500 attendees and launched momentum towards switching Augsburg’s energy
consumption from fossil fuel to wind energy.
The organizing students petitioned Day Student
Government for a referendum to impose a fee of $14.75
per semester to purchase wind energy. The referendum
passed, with 68% of the vote, and day students now contribute more than $54,000 annually. Contributions from
Weekend College Government and the administration enable us to purchase enough wind power to make
Augsburg’s Minneapolis campus 100% free of fossil fuel
electricity. We have reduced the equivalent in carbon
emissions of taking 26,000 cars off the road or planting
69 square miles of trees each year.
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The case for a green vehicle
• Wind energy purchase—Both day and
weekend student governments held referendums in which students voted to add a
new student fee to contribute to wind energy purchase. It enables Augsburg to
offset 100% of its fossil-fuel electricity
costs on the Minneapolis campus, making the College one of the largest purchasers of wind power in the state.
• Hybrid security vehicle—When a security
vehicle was due for replacement, a student group pushed for the College to buy
a hybrid fuel vehicle.
• Food services changes—Students initiated the practice of composting food,
saving three-quarters of a ton of trash.
• Environmental history of Augsburg—
The 2007 Environmental Connections
class researched and wrote “From Rural
to Urban: The Environmental History of
Augsburg College 1872-2005,” studying
its relationship to nature, technology,
and humans.
• Trash audit—In order to call attention to
lackadaisical attitudes toward recycling,
a group of students went through twodays’ worth of garbage and showed how
nearly 70% of it was either compostable
or recyclable.
Much work remains before Augsburg can
be satisfied it is consuming only what
Earth can renew. But now, that work is increasingly carried out with greater consciousness of the impact made by personal
choices and practices, both on the self and
on an interconnected and interdependent
global community.
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The green vehicle initiative developed from
the inspiration of Brian Krohn’s biofuel discoveries and my resources as a member of
Augsburg Day Student Government in fall
2008. Almost immediately Reid Larson and
Steve Eichten also committed themselves
fully to the project. Collectively, the four of
us found that our goal was to ensure that our
next Department of Public Safety vehicle was
both a fiscally and environmentally sound investment. After hearing estimates that the
department puts nearly 150 miles daily on
their vehicle, we realized that having either a
biodiesel or hybrid would surely be cost effective. It turned out that a Ford Escape
Hybrid would save the college $30,000 annually by our low-end estimates.
Initially finding little support in the
purchase of a hybrid, the group prepared for
a meeting with President Paul Pribbenow. We
presented him with graphs on two- and fouryear savings, a list of ways that he would be
supporting the Presidents Climate Commitment he had signed earlier in the year, and a
list of colleges, universities, and police departments that all had successfully integrated
hybrid vehicles into their programs. By meeting’s end the president had given us an oral
commitment to the Ford Escape, and said that
John Pack, director of public safety, had also
expressed his support earlier in the day. By
September 2008 the College’s new hybrid vehicle was in use on campus. The Green Vehicle Coalition, as it has developed into, sees
this particular project only as a first step toward many long-term goals.
“THE GREEN VEHICLE INITIATIVE DEVELOPED FROM THE
INSPIRATION OF BRIAN KROHN’S BIOFUEL DISCOVERIES.”
—Jake Quarstad ’10
How GREEN is Augsburg?
how
College initiatives
• American College and University Presidents
Climate Commitment—completed the Greenhouse
Gas Emissions Inventory for 2001-08
• Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities will
collaborate on studying urban sustainability
• HourCar hub on campus
• Discounted transit passes
• Reserved carpool parking
• Fair trade items sold in bookstore
• Purchasing enough wind energy to offset electricity
Student-led initiatives
• Led Focus the Nation teach-in—Jan. 2008
• Proposed and passed extra student fees for
purchase of wind energy
• Friends of the Mississippi River stewardship
• Pushed for green vehicle initiative to
purchase hybrid security vehicle
• Environmental studies major and minor
• Presented at Campus Compact conference
• Fall 2009—Fate of the World i-term class
• Created bike-share program
• Campus Kitchen program and community garden
• Launched composting in dining area
green is
Food service
• Composting program
?
• Gradual move toward trayless dining, starting with Trayless Tuesdays
• Take-out materials—all corn-based and compostable
• Purchase all produce from a five-state region
• Fair trade coffee available in campus eateries
Internal practices
• Double-sided printing on all campus copiers
• All copy paper on campus—30% post-consumer waste
• Ongoing re-use center
• Recycling of cans, glass bottles, plastic, paper, cardboard, and yard waste
• Recycling for appliances, carpets, furniture, batteries, electronics, ink
• Compostable paper towels in all public restrooms
• Changed all faucets and showers on campus to water-saving fixtures
• Energy-efficient fluorescent lamps in public areas, increasing use of CFL bulbs
augsburg
• Moving toward 100% “Green Seal” cleaning chemicals
• Display board and fairs to facilitate public transportation
Environmental studies program
• Paddled the Mississippi River to study environmental and river politics
• Built rain gardens to capture runoff
• Researched and wrote an environmental history of
Augsburg College
• Studied, prepared, and served a healthy, local,
sustainable lunch
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GREEN STARTS HERE
The topic of conversation on this early December afternoon was pumpkin ice
cream, a dessert that summed up many of the conflicts that go along with making environmental change.
In Environmental Connections, the gateway course for Augsburg’s new environmental studies major, history professor Michael Lansing and political science
professor Joe Underhill take an issue and break it down over a semester. In fall
2007, the topic was water. This past fall, a dozen Augsburg students looked at
food and just how it ends up on our plates.
At the end of the semester, the Environmental Connections students had to take
what they learned and plan a menu for a lunch that was served in the
Christensen Center Commons. Nutrition and taste were important to the students.
But so were environmentally friendly practices, the use of vegetables grown in the
Augsburg greenhouse, and supporting local farmers and companies.
And that led to the lengthy discussion about whether they should serve
pumpkin ice cream from Kemps or buy it from Izzy’s, a St. Paul ice cream
shop. The students knew they wanted the Izzy’s because the
ice cream is made with organic products and the
shop uses solar power. But there was the issue with
price. Kemps wasn’t as environmentally friendly,
but the students could get more ice cream at a
lower price.
Because while it’s easy for people to say that they
want to take environmental concerns into consideration when making decisions, the tone sometimes changes when being green is more expensive. In the
end, the class reached a compromise and would get ice cream from both.
“That discussion was everything the class was about,” says Kathy DeKrey, a
first-year student from Bemidji, Minn. “I thought we should have put up the cost
and got just the Izzy’s ice cream.
“A lot of people aren’t willing to put forth the initial costs to make good decisions and that is too bad.”
It was the kind of broad, big-picture thinking that the professors hope comes
out of this interdisciplinary class. Because things like food, water, and energy—
a potential topic for next year—impact so many parts of society, Underhill and
Lansing bring in guest lecturers from departments across campus.
“WHATEVER YOU DO, IT IMPACTS SOMETHING.”
—Peter Klink ’12
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BY JEFF SHELMAN
Studying the urban
environment
Here’s what you won’t find in Augsburg’s
new environmental studies major: a windmill suddenly being constructed in the
middle of Cedar-Riverside, repeated trips
to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and
anything that could be considered rural.
“That’s not what we want,” Lansing
says. “That’s not who we are.”
The term “environmental” is often
equated with rural, with wetlands, and
with ecosystems. But Lansing and Underhill are much more interested in making
an impact on and around campus. After
all, the Mississippi River is only a few
blocks away. There is a Superfund site in
Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood because of high amounts of pesticides and
herbicides previously produced there. The
local Sierra Club office is just across
Interstate 94 in the Seward neighborhood.
Students in both the water and the food
classes took the light rail to downtown
Minneapolis to learn about the impact of
St. Anthony Falls. For the initial class, the
falls demonstrated the importance of water
in relation to the creation of energy. Last
semester, the falls taught about the milling
process and the history of Minneapolis.
In addition to being a vehicle for teaching, studying environmental issues in an
urban environment creates opportunity.
“If you’re interested in the wilderness
and studying ecosystem dynamics, this
probably isn’t the right program,”
Underhill says. “But if you want to do
something on human impact, you have to
be where the people are. Humans are having a huge impact so we have to spend
time where the most people are.”
In the water class, the students constructed rain gardens on the Augsburg
campus. The gardens are positioned to
collect water runoff from campus buildings. In addition to adding plant life to
campus, the rain gardens keep runoff
water from eventually reaching the
Mississippi River.
“We are uniquely situated in a city neighborhood and are privileged to have
a variety of opportunities to explore the interconnectedness of urban life
with both human and natural forces.”
—President Paul C. Pribbenow
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Getting students out of the classroom and getting their hands,
quite literally, dirty very much fits into the experiential teaching
Augsburg is known for.
“We want students to be aware of their immediate surroundings,”
Lansing says. “We don’t want to put them in a sealed classroom and
learn about grand theories while ignoring what’s going on around them.”
Changing attitudes
Peter Klink is in his first year at Augsburg after taking classes a year
ago at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He always had
an interest in the outdoors, but he didn’t really know just how complex food is.
“Most cows are fed corn hay because it gets them fat quicker, but
it’s not as good for people,” Klink says. “But if you stop feeding them
corn hay and feed them grass, the corn industry is hurt. Whatever you
do, it impacts something.”
Klink, who grew up in Stillwater, Minn., found his habits as a consumer changing as the semester progressed. His biggest change—the
result of learning about the environmental cost of transporting food
across country—has been to make a greater effort to buy locallygrown food.
“I want to know where it comes from,” Klink says. “Also, it’s a way
to support local businesses. The way the economy is, I’m all about
supporting local businesses rather than some big corporation.”
Because the Environmental Connections class is a gateway course
and largely for first-year students and sophomores, the students enter
at different points.
“Clearly the most satisfying thing is when they start with no clue
and as the semester goes on, the light bulb starts to come on,” Underhill says.
The environmental studies major—which will feature classes from
a variety of departments on campus—is very much in its infancy at
Augsburg. While the curriculum has been approved and the requirements laid out, simply offering a major doesn’t guarantee student interest.
In addition to providing a base of knowledge, the gateway course
also shows students with interest in the environment some of the
possibilities that are out there, that an environmental studies major
isn’t limited to a job in nature or working as some sort of scientist.
“There’s a lot of green stuff that’s going to be used in the future,”
says Klink, who is going to major in business and at least minor in
environmental studies. “I think there is going to be a lot of opportunities for jobs in that area. There’s wind energy, solar energy, green architecture. To have a background where you
understand that is a key thing.”
And getting students on the path toward
understanding is what the Environmental
Connections class is all about.
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BY WENDI WHEELER ’06
If you want to study sustainability, you need to go where it’s done best.
Students in the Sustainable Cities in North America summer course spent
three weeks in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C., learning about the successes and challenges of two of North America’s most sustainable cities.
What they discovered, amidst green buildings and miles of bike trails, is
that being sustainable requires attention to many interconnected aspects of
life. This interconnectedness, they learned, means that what is beneficial
for some may be detrimental to others, so working together to build strong
communities is crucial to the success of sustainability measures.
In the end, the students not only learned more about their world; they
were also empowered to bring their creativity and enthusiasm back to
Minneapolis to implement a plan that would help Augsburg become a
greener, more sustainable campus.
“EDUCATION IS KEY. IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHY
YOU ARE DOING IT OR WHY IT’S IMPORTANT,
YOU WON’T CONTINUE.”
—Kjerstin Hagen ’10
Studying sustainability
Sustainability is a measure of the quality of life for citizens in an area. It involves water and air quality, access to transportation, ability to find work and
make a living, local food systems, energy use, the creation and maintenance
of green buildings, housing availability and affordability, land use, and waste
management—for starters.
To be ranked high on the sustainability scale, a city
must do more than pave bike trails and purchase hybrid buses. Citizens must be educated about greenhouse gas emissions produced by their cars and
about the effect of those emissions on the environment. The city must provide resources that
citizens and businesses need to start and continue environmentally friendly efforts, such as
incentives to use public transportation, access
to buses or light rail, and routes that bring
people easily from their homes to the places of
work and back again.
To be truly sustainable, these efforts must
be culturally appropriate and make the best use
of the resources available in the area. And finally, the practices of sustainability must not only
continue over time, they must improve as the city
changes and grows.
The Sustainable Cities course was a short-term
Augsburg Abroad program led by sociology and metro-urban
studies professors Lars Christiansen and Nancy Fischer. The professors wanted not only to study sustainability in an urban context
23
While in Portland and Vancouver,
the students and instructors:
but also to travel sustainably and to minimize the impact of their program on the
cities they visited. Rather than rent a van
or bus, Christiansen and half of the class
traveled by bicycle while Fischer and the
remaining students used train, street car,
and their own two feet to get around in
each city.
“You really get to learn a city when you’re
‘behind bars,’” says Jon Peterson ’10, a sociology major from Excelsior, Minn. “When I
went to Portland with my family, we rented
a car. I didn’t learn nearly as much about
the city and didn’t have the appreciation.”
Traveling by bicycle helped the class reduce
its greenhouse gas emissions and also gave
the students an opportunity to experience
the cities more fully.
• Stayed in Epler Hall at Portland State University, a green
dormitory and Portland’s first LEED-certified building
• Explored neighborhoods using the five-minute walk exercise
• Met with city government officials and policymakers to
learn about urban planning, waste management and recycling, and transportation
• Met with community organizers to learn about grassroots movements and civic engagement
• Visited several professors to learn about sustainable development research and sustainability
efforts on university campuses
• Toured farmers markets and community gardens and talked with the people who sell and grow
in these spaces
• Participated in Portland’s Night Ride and a Critical Mass bike ride in downtown Vancouver
For a video interview with Christiansen and Fischer to learn
more about what they and their students did, saw, and
learned in the Sustainable Cities in North America class
go to www.augsburg.edu/now.
Sustainability is complicated
As they studied and explored Portland and
Vancouver, the students began to gain an
appreciation for the complexity of creating
and maintaining a sustainable city. “A lot
of our experiences brought up the idea of
equity,” says Ricky Oudekerk ’09, an international relations and peace and global
studies major from St. Paul. “What might
be a sustainable idea for the wealthy or
for the government might not work for
everyone.”
The class went to Vancouver’s East
Hastings neighborhood—a site of controversy centered on an effort to clean up an
The students cool off in Jamison Square.
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Augsburg Now
area nestled between popular tourist destinations as the city prepares to host the
2010 Winter Olympics. There, many students said they witnessed poverty and desperation unlike anything they had ever
seen.
“Basically they’ve quarantined the
homeless and addicts into a four-block
area,” explains Oudekerk. “While it’s sad,
the support resources for those people
could be centralized. And they have activists from their community. That was the
first time I’ve ever seen homeless and addict activists.”
Though both cities offer a robust transit
system, the students learned that if citizens don’t have access or aren’t able to afford the fares, the system is not truly
sustainable. “The transit system in
Vancouver severely marginalizes lower income people,” Peterson says.
Bus fare in Vancouver ranges from
$2.50 to $5, and the fare covers only 90
minutes. In a city with a median income of
$62,600 (CDN) where the average home
price is more than $410,000, many
people have been pushed out of the city
and away from their places of work. “We
discovered that fare didn’t last very long
once you are trying to get out to the suburbs, where many people have moved
who are seeking cheaper residences,”
Fischer says.
“Before this course, I thought sustainable cities would be utopias where nothing bad ever happens,” says Meagen
Swartzer ’08, a media writing major and
urban studies minor. “With every good
comes something bad. Once you reach
perfection, not everybody can afford it.”
Sustainability at Augsburg
Once students learned about the many
dimensions of urban sustainability and
began to understand its intricacy,
Christiansen and Fischer challenged
them to turn their knowledge into action.
The professors knew that in order for the
class’ project to succeed, it had to be
driven by the students so that they
would educate and motivate each other.
The class visited City Farmer, an organization that promotes sustainable urban farming in Vancouver.
Through their site visits and conversations,
the students had learned that their project
had to be right for Augsburg. “The recipe for
sustainability is different and unique in every
place,” says Oudekerk. “The mix of what
you’ve got to work with, including the people
and the culture, needs to be taken into account in order to build a sustainable city.”
In Portland, the class saw many of the
one-block parks for which the city is known.
As he explored the city, Peterson thought
about the park in the center of Augsburg’s
campus. “We saw a lot of urban spaces the
size of Murphy Park where they had done
great things,” Peterson says. “I thought we
could really pay tribute to our heritage by rethinking and reforming that park and creating
a more usable public space.”
Several members of the class also discussed creating a mural with other community groups on the wall bordering I-94 at the
southern edge of campus. “We wanted to
transform that space and bring people together,” says Kjerstin Hagen ’10, an
American Indian studies major.
One idea that has been successfully implemented is a composting program in campus dining facilities.
Working with Augsburg’s foodservice
provider, a group of students formulated a
plan to collect organics and compostable
paper products and to reduce the amount of
waste in the Commons cafeteria. Composting
bins and signage were added to the cafeteria
in the fall. Students from the class helped
diners place their compostable items and
trash into the appropriate containers and an-
Leann Vice-Reshel ’10 (and Jon Peterson ’10 background)
navigated the cities on bicycles.
swered questions about the program. “Education is key,” says Hagen. “If you don’t
know why you are doing it or why it’s important, you won’t continue.”
According to Jay Cross, Augsburg Dining
Services manager, the effort has resulted in
a significant reduction of waste. “Now we
have only one bag of garbage per day,” compared to 12 to 15 six-gallon bags that were
collected daily prior to the implementation
of the program. Currently, Swartzer and
Hagen are working on a grant to purchase
more composting bins for the campus’ retail
foodservice operations and for offices and
residence halls.
Sustainable lessons
For many of the students in Sustainable
Cities in North America, studying in Portland
and Vancouver gave them much more than a
comfortable acquaintance with the two
cities. They learned lessons that changed
their habits, their choices, and their lives.
Michael Wethington, with other Augsburg
students, is organizing a bicycling tour back
to Portland from Minneapolis. The group
plans to contact policymakers and examine
current legislative standing on alternative
transportation with a focus on cycling in
both Minneapolis/St. Paul and Portland.
They’ll perform a cross analysis of the cities:
future directions and applications from one
city, that may work effectively in the other.
Others who already had an interest in sustainability developed a deeper understanding of the issue. “This class trip really
helped to broaden my view of the multi-
Street musicians played at a Portland farmers market.
faceted nature of sustainability,” Peterson
says, “and helped to strengthen my personal values for all the dimensions of sustainability.”
The experiential nature of the program
helped Oudekerk make connections to past
classes and his personal interests. “This
class made it easy for me to connect the
dots between what I have read and what I
was doing in the cities.”
Oudekerk, who plans to work in the area
of sustainable urban development in the future, came to understand that change happens when people work together. “This
class influenced my understanding of the
importance of community. Things that bring
people together create sustainable relationships and healthy community. There are
profound and significant benefits when this
happens.”
Fischer and Christiansen have received a
grant from the Canadian Studies Faculty
Enrichment Program and plan to return to
Portland and Vancouver with another
group of students in 2010.
The photos from Portland and Vancouver were
taken by students in the Sustainable Cities in
North America class.
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planning
The Center for Science, Business, and Religion (CSBR) is Augsburg’s first new academic
building in 60 years and will replace the 60-year-old, inefficient Science Hall. CSBR will
have a story to tell—of excellence in the sciences, of intersections and connections among
disciplines, of transforming city hardscape to more welcoming green space, of sustainability on display. Students like Andrew Nguyen and Reid Larson will benefit from the learning
opportunities this state-of-the-art building will offer.
The CSBR will be a LEED-certified building, created in collaboration with a prestigious,
experienced, innovative team of consultants:
Holabird & Root Architects have won awards for sustainability
and design for college science centers they’ve created. Their
design is based on Augsburg’s concept of intersections, offering a physical and intellectual framework for bringing disciplines into dialogue with each other.
McGough Construction’s “Bright Green” pre-construction and
planning consultation helps CSBR to take advantage of the
most innovative green building techniques and goals.
oslund.and.associates approaches landscape design
as art, as simplicity, and, at Augsburg, as a laboratory
for sustainable environmental practices in dialogue
with themes of intersections.
Key concepts of the CSBR
The building—organized around a “necklace” of public spaces that encourages the community at large to
cross paths
Linking circle—serving as a gateway to the neighborhood and
city, with connections to Lindell Library and Sverdrup Hall
Expanded quadrangle—a landscape laboratory, creating green
commons on campus from west to east, articulating with
Murphy Square, the city’s first public park
“THE NEW BUILDING WILL BE A FRAMEWORK
FOR HIGH EXPECTATIONS, AND WILL EXEMPLIFY
THE EXCELLENCE AND HIGH ACHIEVEMENTS AT
AUGSBURG COLLEGE.”
—Andrew Nguyen ’10
26
Augsburg Now
Environmental task force
What’s green about CSBR
Specific planning for LEED certification carried out at the
preplanning stage among architects, contractors, and landscape designers
Sharing of interdepartmental resources in efficient academic
“neighborhoods” throughout the building
Building siting and design encouraging pedestrian traffic,
moving auto traffic away from commons area, plus welcoming green space replacing city hardscape
Rainwater cisterns collecting water to irrigate greenhouses
and flush toilets
Landscape laboratory—on-site stormwater containment, integrating native species, and interpreting features of urban
sustainability
Highly efficient HVAC and heat recovery systems, with optimal siting for solar exposure and for harvesting daylight deep
into the building
Air quality systems recycling gases and fumes
Innovative, sustainable materials, preferably locally-sourced
and expressing themes of intersections in panels, forms,
surfaces
Transportation hub—center for bicycle storage
and conveniences; site for shuttle
transfer to light rail
MPIRG (the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group) is a student group at
Augsburg that has been hard at work on environmental sustainability issues
on campus. I’m the leader of the Environmental Task Force within MPIRG …
[that] has been involved in many environmental sustainability projects over
the past few semesters, including working with the current and past food
services companies on introducing compostable cups to the dining locations, composting food wastes, and introducing another day of trayless dining in the cafeteria. We have also been an integral part of converting the
College to buying 100% wind energy, made possible largely by the Focus the
Nation event last year. In addition, the task force works on environmental
education and awareness, one example being the Detox Forum.
Most of our work last semester was centered around putting together a
survey on the commuting habits of Augsburg’s students, faculty, and staff. This
survey looked at the distance people commute from their homes to Augsburg
and how they get here, the results of which were put into the larger Greenhouse Gas Inventory of the entire College for the Presidents Climate Commitment. As a student, I have been central in the discussions around the science
building, especially around the “green” or sustainable features of the new
building. I have done a lot of work, some of it through MPIRG, ensuring that the
science building has a green roof.
I hope to continue my work in environmental sustainability as I graduate
from Augsburg and go on to graduate school in mechanical engineering, and
then ultimately find a career in the renewable energy field.
“AS A STUDENT, I HAVE BEEN
CENTRAL IN THE DISCUSSIONS
AROUND THE SCIENCE BUILDING,
ESPECIALLY AROUND THE ‘GREEN’
OR SUSTAINABLE FEATURES.”
—Reid Larson ’09
CSBR by the numbers
134,000 square feet, LEED certified, an addition to Sverdrup Hall, 75,000 square
feet for eight academic departments (biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics,
computer science, psychology, business, and religion)
•
•
•
•
•
•
8 classrooms
21 teaching labs
6,000 square feet of student-faculty research space
2,000 square feet of greenhouse space on the roof of the building
Informal gathering spaces for learning and conversation
Skyway linking circle to Lindell Library
core TO
t
s
o
p
m
co
BY STEPHEN GEFFRE
THE JOURNEY OF AN APPLE
A year ago, all food waste from Augsburg’s dining center was hauled away and dumped
in a landfill with the trash of thousands of other Twin Cities businesses, homes, and
schools.
Last fall, however, the fate of Augsburg’s garbage changed when students from the
Sustainable Cities in North America course (see story on p. 23) worked with A’viands,
the College’s food services provider, to launch a campus composting program.
Photojournalist and staff photographer Stephen Geffre followed an apple as it traveled more than 60 miles—from a Wisconsin nursery through Augsburg’s kitchen and
dining center to a composting facility in Chaska, Minn., where it once again will travel
to nurture spring plantings.
In the autumn, workers at Nesbitt’s Nursery, near Prescott, Wis., harvested the
apple and shipped it more than 60 miles to the Augsburg kitchen where it was served
to diners. The remains of the apple were tossed into the composting bin with napkins,
chicken bones, jello, pizza crusts, etc.
The apple remnants and its compostable companions were transported to Chaska, in
the regular twice-a-week pick-ups. There, the apple core was mixed with other
biodegradable materials like tree clippings and yard waste. Over the course of 90 days
the mixture was turned, separated, mixed again, and heated until it’s ready to emerge
as compost.
This nutrient-rich material will be sold this spring to landscapers, community gardeners, and to the nearby Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to provide nourishment,
perhaps, to an apple seedling there.
“We strive to use up no more clean air, water,
energy, and raw materials in a year than the
earth can provide for it.”
—President Paul C. Pribbenow
28
Augsburg Now
“ALL YOU NEED IS A BUCKET,
AND EVERY LITTLE THING HELPS.”
—Meagen Swartzer ’09
29
Feeding
The Campus Kitchen program at Augsburg College not only
feeds people’s bodies—it also feeds the minds of students.
Last spring, the program moved a part of its operation from
the kitchen to the garden, opening an outdoor classroom to
children from the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
The idea for Augsburg’s community garden blossomed last
spring when students and staff prepared 40 plots on the west
side of campus. The plots are available to Augsburg faculty,
staff, and students as well as neighbors from Cedar-Riverside
and Seward. Brian Noy, coordinator of the Campus Kitchen
program, says, “The garden provides a beautiful entrance to
our campus and a way to welcome the community. It’s a
common space for people to work together to do something
meaningful.”
Through an internship program developed with the Center
for Service, Work, and Learning, the garden has also become
an extension of Campus Kitchen. Last summer, two Augsburg
30
Augsburg Now
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
youth
BY WENDI WHEELER ’06
students worked with youth from day programs at the Brian Coyle
Center and the Confederation of Somali Community. The interns
worked in the garden and in the kitchen, teaching students how food
is grown and how to prepare healthy meals. “This is a whole new program that feeds youth in a fuller way,” Noy says.
Augsburg junior Ruth Senum was the “garden intern” last summer.
She and approximately 50 elementary school children planted seeds,
“I THOUGHT OF THE WATERING, WEEDING, AND
HARVESTING AS OUR CLASSROOM CHORES.”
—Ruth Senum ’10
tended plants, and harvested much of the produce from four
garden plots.
Senum says the children were surprised to learn where food
comes from and that it can look different in the garden than in the
grocery store or on their plates.
“When I showed them the broccoli plant, they thought it was
huge,” she says. “They only see it all chopped up.” She says students also were interested in the fact that some plants have flowers before they produce fruit or vegetables. “Just seeing the whole
process from seed to produce was a very new experience for
them,” she says.
The children were disappointed about the limitations of a
Minnesota growing season. “They asked where the banana tree
was, and it was interesting for them to understand why we can’t
grow a lot of fruit here.”
The internship taught Senum, an education major, techniques
for her future classroom. “I thought of the watering, weeding, and
harvesting as our classroom chores,” she says, but she discovered
the students liked being in the garden more than they liked doing
garden chores. “You need to find a good system to keep them
working,” she says.
Senum also learned that students liked interactive learning activities much more than sit-down learning. “They wanted to talk to
each other, run around, do arts and crafts,” she says. “Getting
them out of their desks and walking around is important.”
The garden also serves as a learning environment for Augsburg
students, but Noy says opportunities were limited because the
bulk of the work is needed when most students are away from
campus. As a solution, a simple greenhouse was added to the garden area, extending the growing season by one month in the
spring and in the fall. “It makes a huge impact because we can
engage actual students and classes outside the garden and allow
them to get involved with the growing space,” Noy says.
The students in Environmental Connections, the introductory
course in Augsburg’s environmental studies major, used the greenhouse in the fall to grow vegetables and herbs for their final project. The class studied how food fits into socio-economic and
ecological systems and prepared and
served a meal in the campus dining
center (see story on page 20).
31
?
HOW GREEN IS
our magazine
How green is our printing?
The paper used in the printing of this magazine is certified to the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody standard and contains 10 percent
post-consumer waste.
What does this mean?
In the process of writing and designing a
“green” issue of the Augsburg Now, we asked
ourselves what we could do to make the magazine itself more environmentally friendly. Using recycled paper and safe inks is an easy way to accomplish
this, but we wanted to do more.
So, instead of adding more pages we’re utilizing one
of the most valuable resources available to communicators and marketers—the World Wide Web.
This issue of the Augsburg Now is the second in
which we’ve added “Web Extras” at www.augsburg.
edu/now. These online features allow us to add material to tell richer, more creative stories than we can
using print alone.
In this issue, we have added a story on sustainable
study abroad, a growing trend in education. The story
connects our readers to tools they can use to minimize
their impact on the environment while traveling.
We also have a video interview with the professors
and some of the students involved in the Sustainable
Cities in North America course (see page 23). On camera, they share their enthusiasm about the work they
are doing to create a more sustainable Augsburg.
In the future, we will continue to use the Internet to
improve our communication with alumni and friends of
Augsburg College. As we continue to expand Now online, we invite our readers to share ideas and feedback
with us at now@augsburg.edu.
32
Augsburg Now
FSC is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. Through its certification
program, foresters, paper manufacturers and distributors, and printers all agree to
abide by strict standards. These standards are designed to ensure social, economic,
and ecological needs are met for current and future generations. This Chain of Custody ensures responsible handling of the paper product from forest to printed piece.
The percentage of post-consumer content indicates that at least 10 percent of the
paper in the magazine has been reclaimed from what would have otherwise ended up
in a land fill.
FSC Chain of Custody can trace a printed piece back through the production process to
identify where the wood pulp came from. Find out where this magazine had its roots and
how our corporate partners are committed to being green at www.augsburg.edu/now.
Please recycle this magazine after you’re done reading.
10%
PLEASE RECYCLE
E
R
A
s
e
i
augMgENTALLY FRIENDLY
ENVIRON
We know many readers love to open their mailboxes to a new magazine, but we also
know many are concerned about the use of our natural resources. Please let us know
if you wish to read Augsburg Now online instead of receiving a copy by mail. E-mail
now@augsburg.edu with the subject line “Read Now online.” Include your full name
and current mailing address so we can identify and adjust your record. You’ll receive
an e-mail message when the Now is posted online.
auggie
alumni news
From the Alumni Board president …
February 2009
Greetings, alumni and friends,
d
uring these interesting and turbulent
times, I am certain that most of you are
feeling the effects of this economic climate in your personal lives. As members of the
Augsburg community, we are called to be fundamentally concerned about our neighbor, which means to be concerned and care about the household of all people. We are to work
toward full inclusion of all of our neighbors assuring that everyone
has access to the resources necessary for life, and that everyone is
allowed to fully participate in the life of the community.
This emphasis on community may come in direct conflict with
our modern lives. We often live for ourselves and focus on our own
family needs. But as members of a community, we are called to invest time and effort in responding to the needs of others. As a
member of the Augsburg alumni community, we are reminded that
we no longer live in a world of fixed boundaries. We need to maintain a sense of commitment to our neighbors around the globe.
Keeping alumni who live in the city, state, and around the world
engaged with the Augsburg community is important to the life of
the College. The Office of Alumni and Constituent Relations has developed the following activities encouraging alumni engagement:
• Project IGNITE (Involving Graduates Now In Thoughtful Engagement) is a new program to build stronger relationships with
College alumni, many of whom are not currently connected to
Augsburg. Read more about Project IGNITE on p. 34.
• A corporate alumni plan will engage young professionals, midcareer professionals, and sole practitioners through networking
events, continued education opportunities, and an alumni benefit that will help promote their businesses to other Augsburg
graduates. Alumni will host receptions at their places of business for President Pribbenow to connect with alumni and update them about the College.
• A program for recent graduates will focus on engaging alumni
who have graduated within the past 10 years. An advisory
board of recent grads will assist in planning events for their fellow alumni.
• Outreach events will engage alumni who reside in the outer
metro area and in Rochester; Duluth; Washington, D.C.; and
Norway. Interesting events that infuse an Augsburg connection
include a Lake Minnetonka eco-cruise tour led by an Augsburg
faculty member, an alumni-directed theatre production in
Anoka, and a “Down by the Riverside” event in Rochester.
Being an Auggie is a gift and staying engaged is priceless.
NOW@augsburg, a new monthly e-newsletter, has been initiated to
update you on current happenings and events, continuing education
opportunities, and Augsburg news. So, do your part by keeping connected and staying engaged with the Augsburg community.
Sincerely,
JOYCE P. MILLER ’02 (BSN-ROCHESTER), ’05 MAN
ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT
Spring 2009
33
auggie
alumni news
Project IGNITE set to launch
Many Augsburg graduates stay connected with the College through
the years. They come to events or games on campus, they volunteer, and they donate to The Augsburg Fund. But there are others
who just don’t stay connected.
That's something the College—thanks to a nearly $230,000
grant from the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation—
hopes to change over the next three years.
Project IGNITE (which stands for Involving Graduates Now In
Thoughtful Engagement) will work very directly and personally with
alumni. Over the next year, Augsburg students will conduct face-toface visits with more than 500 alumni to ask them about their
views on Augsburg and their interest in volunteer opportunities with
the College. The hope is that more than 1,600 alumni will receive
visits in the next three years, mostly those alumni living in and
around the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
“For a college, our alumni are a strategic advantage and if you
don’t use that, you’re missing an opportunity,” President Paul C.
Pribbenow said. “This gives us an opportunity to link current students and recent grads with alumni of all ages. Your current students and recent graduates are often your best spokespeople for
what’s really happening.”
Student representatives have been hired and trained by the
Office of Alumni and Constituent Relations, and visits to alumni
are already underway.
Alex Gonzalez ’90, a senior financial adviser for Thrivent Finan-
(L to R) Denise Aasen, Manager of Lutheran Relationships for Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans; Alex Gonzales ’90, Senior Financial Advisor, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans,
and Augsburg regent; President Pribbenow; Megan Benrud ’10, Student Body President;
and Kim Stone, Director of Alumni and Constituent Relations.
cial for Lutherans and an Augsburg regent, said the grant is part of
the mission for the not-for-profit organization.
“Our goal is to help grow Lutheran communities and Lutheran
institutions,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not just the money, these dollars
will help grow engagement. It will help get alumni engaged into
giving to the school.”
The grant is part of the foundation’s Lutheran Grant Program,
designed to help Lutheran institutions and organizations take advantage of unique growth and service opportunities. It also supports the interests and needs of the Lutheran community. In
2007, the program distributed approximately $5 million through
100 separate grants.
Project IGNITE is designed to become a model program for
alumni programs in other ELCA colleges. For additional information, contact Kim Stone in the Office of Alumni and Constituent
Relations at 612-330-1173 or stonek@augsburg.edu.
Discover Italy with fellow Auggies
“WAS IT IN SHORT, EVER TO BE ELSEWHERE WHEN ONE COULD BE IN ITALY” —EDITH WHARTON
You are invited to join the fellowship of other Augsburg alumni and friends on a journey of discovery to Italy in early November.
Travel among the medieval hill towns of Tuscany, discovering history along with the beauty of the surrounding vineyards and olive
groves. In Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, learn and understand how art pulled Europe out of the Dark Ages. In
Umbria, where art is prayer, visit the town of Assisi that stands out for its inspiration and reflection. Find an education in history and a tapestry of art, architecture, and culture woven over thousands of years in the Eternal City of Rome, one of the
founding cities of Western civilization and a significant place in the story of Christianity. All along the way enjoy the delights of the Italian people and cuisine.
The details of this custom-created travel experience are being finalized. Contact the Office of Alumni and
Constituent Relations at 612-330-1085 or alumni@augsburg.edu to learn more about this unique travel opportunity.
34
Augsburg Now
Called to Lead
Professionals Moving from Success to Significance
Augsburg College admits a diverse group of established alumni and friends each
year for the Called to Lead program. Six weekly seminars give you an opportunity
to examine your life and work. The seminar is co-sponsored by the Center for
Faith and Learning, and the Center for Leadership Studies at Augsburg.
Called to Lead is designed to expand the skills and knowledge of individuals who have demonstrated leadership within their profession and the community. Through collaborative and interactive experiences, participants engage
with each other and their facilitators as they explore their own call to lead.
Augsburg College accepts applications and nominations for the Called to
Lead program from a diverse group of alumni and friends, including business
leaders, professionals and academics, directors and staff of community service organizations and civic associations, managers from government agencies
and community activists. For more information contact Norma Noonan in the
Center for Leadership Studies, at 612-330-1198 or noonan@augsburg.edu.
@
w
o
n AUGSBURG
More ways to keep in touch
Do you receive NOW@augsburg? It’s the new Alumni
and Constituent Relations e-newsletter that goes
out the first week of each month to alumni and parents. Get quick updates on College and alumni
news, and check the calendar for alumni events
during the month. To receive NOW@augsburg,
e-mail alumni@augsburg.edu.
Thrivent rewards your volunteer time
Your volunteer hours for Augsburg can count even more through the GivingPlus program at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Thrivent will give Augsburg
$25 for your volunteered hours for Augsburg (25 or more per year) working on
projects or activities, or participating on committees, boards, and task groups.
Report your volunteer hours on the Thrivent matching form and make your
time even more valuable. To find out about volunteer opportunities, e-mail
volunteer@augsburg.edu.
Have you “friended” Auggie Eagle on Facebook?
Go to his profile and check out what Auggie is up to.
Join your classmates
to celebrate!
50th Reunion —1959
40th Reunion—1968, 1969, 1970
25th Reunion—1983, 1984, 1985
10th Reunion—1998, 1999, 2000
Recent Grad Reunion —2004-2009
Homecoming football game
vs. Hamline University
’09
E
T
A
D
E
H
4
SAVE T
October 1-
lege
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s
Aug
9
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Spring 2009
35
alumni class notes
52Pines, Minn., was selected for
Rev. Arvid “Bud” Dixon, Circle
a 2008 Honorary Award of the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for
Peace and Justice, given for long
and significant contribution to the
causes of peace and social justice.
68professor of biology and direc-
Ted Johnson, Northfield, Minn.,
tor of biomedical studies at St. Olaf
College, gave an address, “Students,
New Science Building, and the Liberal Arts,” at St. Olaf’s Opening Convocation, on Sept. 4.
69
Rev. Peter Strommen,
Shakopee, Minn., accepted a
call to Shepherd of the Lake
Lutheran Church in Prior Lake,
Minn., that began on Sept. 1. He
has just completed a long tenure as
the bishop of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod of the ELCA.
tary children and conversational
English with adults at the Bible
School.
Larry Turner and Robert Storeygard
’76, along with David Tiede, Bernhard Christensen Professor of Religion and Vocation, attended the
10th anniversary of the Bible School
(Center for Christian Education) in
Martin, Slovakia, a Lutheran school
that educates adult students for
serving in congregations and communities. The “Decade of Miracles”
celebration, July 4-6, included performances from the St. Andrew’s
Lutheran Church choir, Mahtomedi,
Minn., who also performed elsewhere in Slovakia. Participants from
18 U.S. congregations taught Vacation Bible School with 330 elemen-
Peter Agre, Baltimore, Md.,
was awarded the Annual Prize
for Outstanding Contribution to Lung
Research on Dec. 11 at the annual
meeting for the Will Rogers Motion
Picture Pioneers Foundation
(WRMPPF), for his groundbreaking
work in aquaporins and potential
benefits to lung research. He is director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria
Research Institute in the Bloomberg
School of Public Health.
70
77Wash., began as director of
Rev. Arne Bergland, Puyallup,
church relations for California
Lutheran University in September,
acting as a liaison between the university and the church community.
Rod Skoe, Clearbrook, Minn., was
honored in November as a recipient
of a 2008 Torch and Shield, the
highest award presented by the University of Minnesota-Crookston. He
represents District 2, northwestern
Minnesota, in the Minnesota Senate
and has been involved in farming in
Clearbrook, Minn., since 1985.
78Lake, Minn., has been named
Steven Hoffmeyer, White Bear
commissioner of the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. He
served as deputy commissioner and
has been with the bureau since
2002.
In October, Augsburg religion professor Phil Quanbeck II and his wife, Augsburg regent Ruth Johnson ’74, led “An Aegean Odyssey to Turkey and Greece,”
with a group of 23, including seven other Auggies. For 10 days, they traveled and studied the world of the Apostle Paul, Byzantium, and modern-day Greece
and Turkey.
(Back row, men, L to R): Jerry Kleven ’57, Art Rimmereid ’53, Paul Anderson, Jim Weninger ’92 MAL, Phil Quanbeck, Mike Bailey, Tom Stertz, Kirk Gill,
Jim Martenson, David Larson, Larry Turner. (Middle row, women, L to R): Sylvia Hanson ’50, Char Rimmereid ’52, Karen Freeman, Liz Weninger ’92, Julie
Larson, Carmen Clementson, Cindy Martenson, Nancy Anderson, Sally Tonsager. (Front row, women, L to R): Jennie Wilson, Ruth Johnson ’74, Kathy Bailey,
Lynn Stertz, Sue Turner, Alice Peterson, Denise Shuck ’09.
To read about their tour and see photos from
their travels, go to www.augsburg.edu/now.
36
Augsburg Now
79Ill., serves as the practice
Brian Carlsen, Buffalo Grove,
87
77
Neil Paulson ran in the Orlando
(Fla.) Utilities Commission race
in December. His photo appeared on
the cover of Runner magazine because he runs without a shirt in all
weather there, which is always tropical compared to Minnesota.
Scott L. Anderson and his
wife, Susan, Minneapolis,
welcomed the birth of John Scott on
Jan. 30, 2007. Scott is an insurance and financial service agent for
Farmers Financial Solutions LLC.
ScottLAnderson38@msn.com
leader of organizational learning at
St. Aubin, Haggerty & Associates, a
strategic HR consulting firm. He recently co-authored a book on business and workforce leadership,
Attract, Engage & Retain Top Talent,
from Author House books.
Leslie (Morland) and Jonathan Carlson moved from Bozeman, Mont.,
back to St. Paul where Leslie has
taken a nurse practitioner job at
HealthEast Clinics.
80St. Paul, Minn., has been apJulie (Petterson) Leslie, West
pointed by Governor Tim Pawlenty
as a parent member to a three-year
term on the State Advisory Council
on Early Childhood Education and
Care. She is a licensed educator
and the director of Augustana Preschool.
82began teaching 11th- and
Karl Spring joined Fox 21 in Duluth,
Minn., in September as chief meteorologist and travels to schools
throughout northern Minnesota to
teach students about meteorology.
Previously, he was chief meteorologist at KBJR-TV in Duluth.
94Sarya, Charlevoix, Mich., reGwendolyn (Christiansen)
ceived her Master of Arts degree in
music education in December from
the University of St. Thomas, with a
concentration in Orff-Schulwerk. She
and her husband, Dave, have a fiveyear-old son, Luke. She teaches K-4
music and movement and fifth-grade
band at Concord Academy in Boyne,
Mich. gwensarya@yahoo.com
Sara Trumm, Chicago, began in October as program coordinator for the
Center for Christian-Muslim Relations for Peace and Justice at the
Lutheran School of Theology. She
had just spent two years in India.
Rick Bennett, Morgan, Minn.,
91tag were married in Hoversten
Kristen (Hirsch) and Paul Mon-
89
Sue Hakes began a two-year
term as mayor of Grand
Marais, Minn., to which she was
elected in November.
Chapel on Oct. 18, with Auggies in
attendance: Velda (Stohr) Gabrielson
’90, Betty Christiansen ’91, Laura
(Ferry) Lee ’92, Brenda Lunde Gilsrud
’91, Liz Pushing ’93, Jennifer Tome
’99, and Aaron Pelaccia ’07. Kristen
is a marketing communication manager at Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota, and Paul is in sales and
marketing. They live in St. Paul.
92
Sharol (Dascher) Tyra, received a Star Award 2008
from the Minnesota Organization of
Leaders in Nursing (MOLN) in
recognition of her commitment to
volunteering and dedication to influencing health care by advancing
professional nursing leadership,
particularly with the Metro Alliance
Education and Service Collaborative
for Expanded Enrollment of Baccalaureate Nurses.
12th-grade students in chemistry
and human anatomy in Cannon
Falls, Minn.
Wendy (Shields) and Bradley
Falls, Minn., with big brother, Jackson, announce the birth of Lachlan
Bradley, on March 9, 2008. Brad is
a physician assistant at SMDC
Health System-International Falls,
and Wendy is a stay-at-home mom.
wreiners@frontiernet.net
Rachel Brist is a physician as-
of Bigfork Valley Hospital clinics in
Coleraine and Marcell, Minn.
84in Tromsø, Norway. Tove was
02artistic director for SOS Play-
named a Knight of the First Class of
the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit,
by King Harald V, for the advancement of Norwegian language and
culture in the United States. She is a
peace studies educator at the University of Tromsø and has served for
26 years as dean of Skogfjorden,
Concordia College Norwegian Language Village. Curt began on Jan. 1
as vice president for research and
development at the University of
Tromsø—the world’s northernmost
university vice president. This is a
new position resulting from the
merger of the University of Tromsø
and Tromsø College.
ers, two troupes of pre-teen actors
who perform for elementary and
middle-school audiences, helping
them cope with life. He often writes
scripts based on requests from educators to deal with particular topics.
86Minn., joined UCare health
Heather Schwartz joined the consumer marketing practice of Weber
Shandwick in Minneapolis-St. Paul
as an account supervisor. Previously
she had been a brand public relations director.
Tove Dahl and Curtis Rice live
Frank Gilbertson, Maplewood,
98Reiners ’99, International
01sistant and has joined the staff
plan in November as provider network management director. Previously, he spent 11 years at Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota,
most recently as senior director,
provider relations planning.
Andrew Bernstrom, St. Paul, is
Katie Lindelfelser’s research as a
master’s degree student at the University of Melbourne (Australia) was
published in a co-authored article,
“Bereaved Parents' Experiences of
Music Therapy with Their Terminally
Ill Child,” in the Journal of Music
Therapy, fall 2008. She is teaching
a music therapy course at Augsburg
this spring semester.
Spring 2009
37
alumni class notes
Rev. Rachel (Oldfather) Stout,
Wadena, Minn., was installed as associate pastor of Immanuel Lutheran
Church in September in Wadena.
Her husband, Ryan, is the new pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in
New York Mills. They have a son,
Soren.
04
Amanda Engesether is working
with the current city planning
director in Kinston, N.C., and will
take over that position in July when
he retires. Previous to this, she
worked as a planner in Johnston and
Onslow Counties in North Carolina
and completed an internship at the
Urban Design Center in Raleigh, N.C.
Chris Stewart, Lakeville, Minn., became vice president of operations
for BOR-SON Construction in Minneapolis. He will manage all general
construction operations for the company. Previously he was head of Target’s national field operations team.
05
Andrea (Carlson) and Riley
Conway are living in Hershey,
Pa. Andrea is a third-year medical
student at Penn State, and Riley
works at Border Books and is a student in the distance master’s degree
program at Hamline University. They
were married in 2005.
06Marrandino were married on
Maureen Parker and Martin
Oct. 25. Maureen is a board certified music therapist at KSB Hospital
in Dixon, Ill., where Martin is also
employed. He also is a student at
Sauk Valley Community College.
Kasey Yoder, Duluth, Minn., is coowner of Two Guys Pizza in Duluth,
and working 80-hour weeks, doing
everything from menu planning to
becoming a master of the pizza oven.
00Burnsville, Minn., and her
Missy (Carlson) Bakeberg,
husband, Randy, welcomed the
birth of their twins, Cooper Joshua
and Ava Morgan on Oct. 11. Cooper
weighed 7 lbs., 5 oz., and Ava
weighed 5 lbs., 13 oz.
00
Denitza (Batanova) Stevens,
Chandler, Ariz., and her husband, Joel, welcomed their son,
Roman David, on April 26 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
08Sept. 2008-Feb. 2009 in
Jenni Olson volunteered from
Iringa, Tanzania, teaching communications at Iringa College/Tumaini
University.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
Anita Raymond ’94 MSW is a 2008
recipient of the fourth annual Shelley Joseph-Kordell Award from Volunteers of America-Minnesota for
service to older adults. She is a social worker for Volunteers of America-Minnesota’s Protective Services
and Geriatric Care Management and
Consultation Services.
05Robertson were married on
Britni Morgan and Jeremy
05Stephen Belde were married
Melynda Kleewein and
on Aug. 1 in Anchorage, Alaska.
Melynda works at New York Life in
Anchorage and coaches hockey for
the Alaska Firebirds. Stephen is a
teacher with the Anchorage school
district and also coaches hockey for
the Alaska Firebirds and the South
High School boys’ hockey team.
Oct. 4 in Crystal, Minn. Auggies in
the wedding party included Kyle
Howard ’04, Jillian Janicki ’04, Jim
Lindell ’04, Nick Collins ’04, and
Tom Delisle ’06. In March they are
moving to Brainerd, Minn., to start a
lawn/cabin care company, Bear
Paw Cabin Care.
95his second book published,
Jeff Falkingham MAL, has had
Sherlock Holmes: in Search of the
Source, a work of historical fiction set
in St. Paul in December 1896. A sequel to an earlier work, Sherlock
Holmes and the County Courthouse
Caper, it’s set in Jeff's hometown of
Browns Valley, Minn., in November
1886. Originally released in June
2007 as a fundraiser for victims of the
March 2007 flood in Browns Valley, it
has raised over $6,500 for flood relief.
Excerpts from both books can be
found at www.cccaper.com. Falkingham now lives in Eden Prairie, Minn.,
and works in advertising for Northern
Tool + Equipment of Burnsville.
38
Augsburg Now
08UST Tommie, Tony Nagorski,
Jen Janda married her favorite
07Henning on Oct. 4 in Red-
Megan Schiller married Brent
wood Falls, Minn. Auggies in the
wedding party included Marrissa
Henry-Mashuga, Maria Belen Power
’07, and Miesha Martin-Freeman
’08. Megan is an administrative assistant in the Automated Clearing
House (ACH) Operations at Wells
Fargo in Minneapolis, and Brent is
an inside sales representative for
Braas Company in Eden Prairie.
They live in Waverly, Minn.
on Aug. 2 in Eagan, Minn. An Auggie, Megan Carlson ’08, was in the
wedding party. Jen works in the
Marketing and Communication Office at Augsburg and Tony attends
the St. Thomas School of Law. They
live in downtown Minneapolis.
augsburg
then
Send us your news and photos
Please tell us about the news in your life, your new job, move, marriage, and
births. Don’t forget to send photos!
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an obituary, funeral notice,
or program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail to: Augsburg Now
Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 146, 2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN
55454, or e-mail to alumni@augsburg.edu. You can also submit news to the
Augsburg Online Community at www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
____________________________________________________________
Full name
____________________________________________________________
Maiden name
____________________________________________________________
Class year or last year attended
____________________________________________________________
Street address
____________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip
When today’s Old Main was conceived late in the 1870s, the College
planned for many of the new utilities and comforts of the day—plumbing
with running water and restrooms, steam heat, and built-in electric fixtures. This marked a shift from a campus that was ecologically independent (with a barn housing a horse, cow, and pig) to one that linked itself to
the growing urban infrastructure for water, waste, and energy.
Taken from “From Rural to Urban: The Environmental History of
Augsburg College, 1872–2005,” written by the students in Environmental
Connections and revised by Alex Hoselton ’08 and Alex Ubbelohde ’08.
Is this a new address? q Yes q No
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____________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________
Work telephone
In Memoriam
Donald Murphy ’43, Mounds View,
Minn., age 87, on Nov. 24.
Dr. Nancy English ’73, Duluth,
Minn., age 57, on Aug. 8.
Robert W. Johnson ’49, Burnsville,
Minn., age 82, on Aug. 17.
Stacy Sellers ’01, Inman, Neb.,
age 31, on Jan. 2.
Pearson, Wayne ’49, Wildomar,
Calif., age 83, on Dec. 27.
Kerry Affeldt ’05, Wykoff, Minn.,
age 45, on Sept. 21, of injuries
from a motorcycle/auto accident.
Rev. James E. Peterson ’50,
Bloomington, Minn., age 79, on
Sept. 26.
Ronald Lund ’50, Wanamingo,
Minn., age 82, on Aug. 21.
Mary Ann Olsen ’53, Minneapolis,
age 78, on Sept. 18.
Beverly An (Gryth) Villwock ’52,
Charlottesville, Va., age 78, on
Nov. 29.
Mavis (Strand) Hafstad ’54, Eagan,
Minn., age 75, on Aug. 11.
Ahmednur Ali ’10, Minneapolis,
Minn., age 20, on Sept. 22.
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College? q Yes q No
If yes, class year ________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Spouse’s name
____________________________________________________________
Maiden name
Your news:
____________________________________________________________
Kathleen (“Katie”) Wiltgen ’10,
Winona, Minn., age 21, on Nov.
29, in an auto accident.
____________________________________________________________
Mathew Ackerman ’10, Dallas,
Texas, age 23, on Dec. 7.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
q I know a high school student who is interested in attending Augsburg.
Spring 2009
39
my
Auggie experience
Richmond Appleton ’09
Environmental Studies
Richmond Appleton is passionate about giving back to his
communities—the Twin Cities and his birthplace of Liberia.
Early in his Augsburg career, he was a biology major and
planned to attend medical school. However, when the environmental studies program began, Appleton knew this was
the path he should take. He became the first student to formally declare the major.
Appleton has overcome a great deal in his life. As a young
boy, he contracted polio and was paralyzed on his left side.
He often had no access to medical care, but his parents took
him to native healers. “There were no social services or hospitals,” he says. “There was nothing to count on in emergencies.” Over time, he recovered the use of his arm and leg.
When civil war broke out in Liberia in the early ’90s, his
family fled to the Ivory Coast. Appleton’s mother was separated from them, and he also lost his father, brother, and sisters for four weeks because he couldn’t run fast enough to
keep up with them. Eventually the family was forced to Ghana
where they stayed in a refugee camp until they immigrated to
the U.S. in 2004.
A desire to make a difference influenced Appleton’s decision to join the environmental studies program where classes
in ecology and biodiversity fuel his interests in social work
and public service. Although he wants to help his country, he
likely won’t return to live permanently. He says Liberia is rebuilding after years of violence and destruction, but that
much remains to be done. “People are sick from the effects
of a polluted environment.”
While at Augsburg, Appleton has been active in the
neighborhood. He chairs the Augsburg Student Activities Council diversity committee and serves as a residence life community adviser. In January, he traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico,
with students from the Scholastic Connections program to learn
about sustainable agriculture practices in Mexico.
Appleton plans to graduate in December and is researching
graduate programs in environmental studies. “I am interested
in public policy in urban areas, conflict management in war
torn countries, community development, agriculture, sustainability, and bio-agriculture.” Appleton plans to study sustainable food production and how it can minimize the human
impact on the environment.
JENNIFER L. HIPPLE, WEEKEND COLLEGE STUDENT
40
Augsburg Now
an
augsburg legacy
Mr. Augsburg still supporting students
Jeroy and Ainy Carlson
Kirsten Bar ’10
In 1958, when Minnesota celebrated its centennial, Jeroy
Carlson ’48 was one of 1,958 state champions honored by the
state. “Jack Dempsey was at the ceremony,” Carlson said,
“and he told us, ‘The greatest asset America has is its youth.’
That’s still true.”
Carlson and his wife Lorraine “Ainy” support Augsburg students through planned gifts because they believe what
Dempsey said. Carlson, known to many as “Mr. Augsburg,”
spent 44 years as a student-athlete, teacher, coach, and staff
member with the College. “I tried to be of help to anyone I
could,” he said.
With a charitable gift annuity, the Carlsons fund a scholarship that supports students who are studying music or physical
education and who demonstrate a commitment of service
to others.
This year’s recipient of Jeroy and Ainy Carlson’s scholarship is
Kirsten Bar ’10, a music therapy major who has worked
throughout her education with people with Hungtington’s disease, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
“The students and faculty in the music department have a
special place in our hearts for those who have contributed to
scholarships,” said Bar. “For some students, these scholarships make a huge difference from year to year. We appreciate
the financial support and very much enjoy seeing the donors at
our performances.”
After completing her studies, Bar hopes to return to her
hometown of Billings, Mont., to start the city’s first music therapy practice.
“Investing” with an Augsburg charitable gift annuity rather than with a bank gives the Carlsons a locked rate of
return for their lifetimes, and they will be sure that the remainder will go to the scholarship after their death.
1-800-273-0617
www.augsburg.edu/giving
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Minneapolis, MN
Permit No. 2031
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
River Politics
Students in Professor Joe Underhill’s Environmental and
River Politics class travel through Lock 1 on the Mississippi
River. During the class, students study current debates
about the extent of environmental problems, and examine
how those problems are manifested on campus and in our
immediate surroundings. Exploring the issues from a canoe
gives them different perspectives.
Show less
AUGSBURG NOW
FALL 2008
VOL. 71, NO. 1
inside
auggies
1
Augsburg Now
The Magazine of Augsburg College
25Nursing
Years
of Life-Changing
at the grassroots level Travel that
transforms Clever student + wise professor +
Travel
expert alum = awesome discovery Ready, action,
page
film20
suc... Show more
AUGSBURG NOW
FALL 2008
VOL. 71, NO. 1
inside
auggies
1
Augsburg Now
The Magazine of Augsburg College
25Nursing
Years
of Life-Changing
at the grassroots level Travel that
transforms Clever student + wise professor +
Travel
expert alum = awesome discovery Ready, action,
page
film20
success! Street pastoring in Wales
get
political
Editor
notes
from President Pribbenow
Our neighbors
o
ne of the most compelling moments in the
Christian scriptures is the question asked
of Jesus by one of his disciples: “And who
is my neighbor?” His answer, of course, is
the parable of the Good Samaritan.
For me, the disciple’s question is at the
heart of the mission and vision of Augsburg College—a question that is at once theological, reflecting our understanding of what God intends
for us to be and do, and also educational and
practical, helping us to link our learning with
service.
So, let’s do some theology! Ask yourself—
who is my neighbor? Is it the Somali woman I
met this morning on Riverside Avenue struggling to carry her groceries home from the bus
stop? Or is it the family in the ravines of Cuernavaca, Mexico, who will offer me both refreshments and life lessons when I meet them on a
Center for Global Education trip? Or is it my
classmate, who is struggling with balancing
school with life at work and home, and who
needs my time and comfort? Once the question
is asked, we are compelled, as was Jesus himself,
to answer with stories and parables—stories of
how being educated at Augsburg prepares us to
serve our neighbors no matter when or where
we encounter them. In that way, the question
leads us to think about the links between learning and service.
A central aspect of an Augsburg education is
to nurture and sustain the work of civic engagement—the practices of citizenship, negotiating
our lives together, navigating what political
philosopher and Roman Catholic theologian John
Courtney Murray once called the “intersection of
conspiracies,” his definition of democracy.
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
Creative Director
Kathy Rumpza
rumpza@augsburg.edu
Creative Associate-Editorial
Wendi Wheeler
wheelerw@augsburg.edu
Creative Associate-Design
Jen Nagorski
nagorski@augsburg.edu
Here at Augsburg, we believe we are called
to serve our neighbor. I am so proud of our
Augsburg community for its abiding commitment to civic engagement, to meeting the needs
of our neighbors—there are abundant examples
of ways in which students, staff, faculty, regents,
parents, and alumni are modeling for all of us
and the rest of the community what it means to
be reflective, productive, and responsible citizens of our campus, our neighborhood, and our
world.
At the same time, I want to challenge all of
us to think at an even deeper level about the
work of civic engagement, to see it not simply as
acts of service and compassion, but also as the
abiding and messy business—the lifelong business—of being educated, of building communities of trust and accountability, and of helping to
create a more just and humane world.
The stories in this issue of Augsburg Now
about the Center for Global Education (CGE)
offer fine examples of how the Augsburg community has answered the question of “Who is
my neighbor?” time and again in parts of the
world where our neighbors are partners in the
work of teaching and learning. We celebrate
CGE’s remarkable legacy and promise in Augsburg’s continuing and common work to serve
our neighbors.
Yours,
PAUL C. PRIBBENOW, PRESIDENT
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Assistant Vice President of
Marketing and Communication
David Warch
warch@augsburg.edu
Director of Alumni and
Constituent Relations
Kim Stone
stonek@augsburg.edu
www.augsburg.edu
Augsburg Now is published by
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, Minn., 55454
Opinions expressed in Augsburg Now
do not necessarily reflect official
College policy.
ISSN 1058-1545
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services
CB 142
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
a
fall 2008
Features
14
Lights, camera, and action
by Bethany Bierman
A new film major has come of age and now attracts
students from around the world.
augsburg now
19
Get Political!
by Wendi Wheeler ’06
Augsburg students got up front and backstage as interns for The
Washington Center at the Republican National Convention.
24
Travel that transforms
by Betsey Norgard
contents
Augsburg’s Center for Global Education reached the quarter
decade mark last year and continues to transform the way
students and participants view global issues and challenges.
29
Annual report to donors, 2007-08
Departments
2
4
6
13
45
56
Around the Quad
It takes an Auggie
Auggies on the Field
Augsburg Voices
Alumni News and Class Notes
My Auggie Experience
On the cover
(L to R) Erik Franzen, Mai Lee, and Ben Krouse-Gagne—three of Augsburg’s interns for The Washington Center at the Republican National Convention—each found unexpected discoveries in the experience.
Editor’s note:
Welcome to Augsburg Now’s new look! If you visited us at the State Fair last
summer or at our Web site lately, you’ve noticed more vibrancy and energy—
with just a touch of edginess. We’re in the city and we’re all about learning
by doing—whether it’s in the classroom, on the playing field, around the
world, or on the floor of the Republican National Convention. Please let us
know what you think, or what you’d like to see in the Now. Auggies are everywhere, and we want to connect with you. E-mail us at now@augsburg.edu or
call 612-330-1181. — Betsey Norgard, editor
All photos by Stephen Geffre unless otherwise indicated.
around the
quad
Regents elected and honored
Five new members were elected to four-year terms on the
Augsburg Board of Regents at the annual meeting of the Augsburg Corporation Governing Board in September. In addition,
Anthony L. Genia Jr., MD ’85, was re-elected to a second fouryear term.
Mark A. Eustis, president and CEO of Fairview
Health Services.
At the board’s fall meeting, outgoing regents were honored for
their commitment, loyalty, and service. Those leaving the board
after serving several years are Michael Freeman and Beverly
(Halling) Oren ’55. Regents who retired after two six-year terms
are Rev. Gary Benson ’70, Ron Nelson ’68, and former board chair
Ted Grindal ’76. In addition, two ELCA bishops completed ex officio terms: Rev. Harold Usgaard, Southeastern Minnesota Synod,
and Rev. Peter Rogness, Saint Paul Area Synod.
Three retirees worked closely with students
Darrell Wiese ’59 has always had a knack
Alexander J. Gonzalez ’90, senior financial advisor
at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Eric J. Jolly, president of the Science
Museum of Minnesota
Gloria C. Lewis, president and CEO of Big Brothers
Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities
Marshall S. Stanton, MD, vice president
for clinical research and general manager
of the cardiac rhythm disease
management business of Medtronic, Inc.
Appointed to three-year terms on the
board, ex officio, are Bishop Craig E.
Johnson, Minneapolis Area Synod of the
ELCA, and Bishop Duane C. Pederson,
Northwest Synod of Wisconsin, ELCA.
To read more, go to
www.augsburg.edu/regents
for finding “diamonds in the rough,” baseball and football players who may not have
put up the big numbers in high school, but
had the potential to shine.
It’s estimated that Wiese, a 1959 Augsburg alumnus, helped to bring literally
hundreds of students to Augsburg over the last several decades
as a recruiter and assistant coach. For his lifetime of service to
Auggie athletics, Wiese was honored with the Distinguished
Athletic Service Award this fall.
“I always had a genuine concern for youth and athletics,
and something always kept drawing me back to Augsburg over
the years,” Wiese said. “I would talk about Augsburg and say it
was a great school with friendly people; they’ll give you a
chance to succeed and get your degree.”
After Wiese had been scouting for talent as a volunteer for
more than 20 years while still owning and operating his family
farm in rural Northfield, Minn., he spent more than a decade as
an assistant coach for both the football and baseball teams.
Several of his football recruits provided the backbone of
the Auggies’ 1997 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title team, the school’s first since 1928. Many of his players were key members of the 2005 MIAC baseball playoff team.
“One of the things that strikes me so much about Darrell is
his ability to identify potential talent,” said former football
coach Jack Osberg, now a football coach and A-Club advancement manager. … “When he recruits, he doesn’t just recruit the
athlete, he recruits the family and gets great connections with
the families and siblings of the athletes he recruits.”
Wiese officially retired from coaching after the 2008 baseball season. A baseball team trophy has been named in his
honor—the Darrell Wiese Most Respected Player Award.
DON STONER
2
Augsburg Now
Retiring faculty and staff, continued
Karen Sutherland, professor of computer science, came to Augsburg in
1999 and retired at the end of the
academic year in May. Often her students would find her in the small lab
in Sverdrup surrounded by computer robots roaming the floor—
AIBO dog robots used for their ease
in teaching basic programming, and
search and rescue robots designed to
stay in communication with each other during emergency situations. They were all part of National Science Foundation
grant research in which Sutherland collaborated.
These projects were at the core of Sutherland’s passion for
improving how computer science is taught to non-traditional
students, including weekend students, immigrants, women,
and first-generation college students. “These students didn’t
relate well to computer science and how we were teaching it,”
Sutherland said. With the grant funding she could do a better
job of both attracting and retaining non-traditional students.
The National Science Foundation CSEMS (Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship) program
enabled her to offer scholarships to non-traditional students.
She had upper-class students serve as peer mentors to CSEMS
students, encouraging them toward career possibilities in
computer science.
“A number of our young people want to do something to
make this world better,” Sutherland says. “They don’t see how
computer science is going to help that. You have to show
them ways it can, and they have to see how they could make a
difference, a mark.”
Via e-mail, she keeps in touch with many former students, some who have accepted jobs in industry directly after
graduation and others going on to graduate programs.
There is no shortage of plans for her retirement, which
center around gardening and travel. Even her gardening will
keep her near a computer, as she serves as the webmaster for
the Garden Club of Ramsey County. At her lake home, she
serves as a board member of the lake association, working to
promote shoreline conservation and sustainability.
Kenneth N. Erickson ’62, in his
nearly 40-year tenure teaching
physics, allowed students to see just
how vast the world is and just what
is possible.
After one year at Augsburg in
the 1960s, Erickson returned in
1970 and never left. For much of
that time, he held a shared professorship between Augsburg and the
University of Minnesota, cooperating with the University’s
physics and astronomy faculty in grant-funded research.
“As part of the shared appointment at the “U,” I was able
to do a lot of research,” he said. In 1970, Erickson started an
active undergrad research program at Augsburg. In 1991, he
started the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium, part of a
NASA-funded program that provides research and program
development grants to students and faculty.
“His satellite studies and rocket experiments in Alaska,
often involving other scientists from around the globe, gave
his students a window to a much wider and very exciting
world,” said Mark Engebretsen, an Augsburg colleague. “He
helped many of his students catch the excitement of trying to
find out new things about our world.”
The soft-spoken Erickson is reluctant to discuss his
achievements, but colleagues and many former students appreciated Erickson’s teaching and mentoring. Stu Anderson
’78, a current member of Augsburg’s physics faculty and a former student, said, “He displayed the art of an excellent
teacher—to invite students into the voyage of discovery, to
develop an appetite and tolerance for mathematical complexity, and to give students like me the courage to be persistent.”
Matt Broughton ’06, a physics and English major who
was awarded a Fullbright grant called Erickson—who has a
scholarship established in his name—“the best instructor he
had in college.”
Now Erickson is staying busy by growing corn and soybeans and raising cattle on his farm near Cambridge, Minn.
“I haven’t done much physics lately,” he joked.
WENDI WHEELER
BETSEY NORGARD
Fall 2008
3
it takes an
Auggie
New President’s Circle recognizes annual giving
During Homecoming Week, President Pribbenow announced
the creation of the President’s Circle, a new giving society that
recognizes annual gifts of $1,000 or more, at several levels of
support. By recognizing all current gifts, the President’s Circle
shares the Augsburg story among greater numbers of alumni
and donors and builds stronger connections with the College
today.
Within the President’s Circle, one of the top funding priorities of the College is the Augsburg Fund, which provides
support across a range of critical needs of the College. Most
important is the financial support made possible through the
Augsburg Fund that helps the College fulfill its promise to a
richly diverse student body. Financial support makes an Augsburg education possible for more than 85% of its students.
The Augsburg Fund also provides needed support for
current technology to improve teaching and learning, faculty
recruitment and retention, facilities maintenance and renovation, and opportunities for community events and services.
“There’s no other way to give to so many priorities—to
touch the lives of so many students in so many different
ways—than through the Augsburg Fund,” says Jeremy Wells,
vice president for institutional advancement. “It’s giving that
moves Augsburg forward just as it also honors its past.”
The President’s Circle Challenge, through the generosity
of an anonymous donor, will match all increases in gifts to the
Augsburg Fund up to $1,000 for those who become charter
members of the President’s Circle.
President’s Circle members will receive a special pin and a
new, members’ e-newsletter plus invitations to special events
and other benefits offered for support at higher levels.
Sven Oftedal Society honors Augsburg’s legacy
Augsburg’s Heritage Society, which
recognizes donors who have made
a future gift commitment to the
College, has a new name and identity—the Sven Oftedal Society,
named for the second person appointed to Augsburg’s faculty, who
became the College’s third president and chaired the Board of Regents for over three decades.
During the 1870s, vast numThe recognition of donors who
make future gifts to the College
bers of immigrants flocked to
has been named the Sven Oftedal
western and northwestern MinSociety, in honor of Augsburg’s
third president, who saved the Col- nesota. Augsburg’s move to Minlege from bankruptcy, ensuring an neapolis in 1872 placed it closer to
Augsburg education for
the center of Norwegian-American
future generations.
settlement, but by 1877, the College faced a financial crisis that threatened its very existence.
Augsburg was heavily in debt; the region was in an economic
depression.
Sven Oftedal stepped forward to lead a heroic fundraising
effort that saved Augsburg. Oftedal rallied and inspired farmers, merchants, businesses, and churches throughout the
4
Augsburg Now
region to support Augsburg’s mission, an effort securing gifts
from over 30,000 individuals. Augsburg was no longer a
school of a select few—Augsburg truly became a school of the
people.
Exemplifying Augsburg’s commitment to civic involvement, Oftedal established a community newspaper, was
elected to the Minneapolis Board of Education, appointed to
the Minneapolis Library Board, and served as the president of
Augsburg’s board for 36 years. His legacy of service is honored
by Augsburg through the founding of the Oftedal Society to
recognize the loyalty and vision of those who make a commitment of future support to the College.
“By renaming the planned giving recognition society in
honor of Sven Oftedal, we have a wonderful opportunity to
reflect upon the nature of Augsburg’s foundation—its roots,”
noted Jeremy Wells, vice president for institutional advancement, “and to reaffirm that those ideals continue to be the
core of the College and its mission.
To learn more about the Sven Oftedal Society or making a
gift of future support, contact the Office of Planned Giving at
1-800-273-0617 or via e-mail to development@augsburg.edu.
Another million-dollar year!
• The Augsburg Fund, the College’s annual fund, reached its
goal of $1 million—for the third time and the first time
outside of a campaign year—ending the fiscal year at
$1,001,979.
• Important to achieving this goal was the President’s Challenge of $100,000, which resulted in additional giving of
nearly $69,000 in new or increased gifts, triggering a total
of $158,000 in challenge gifts. This was made possible by
Don ’53 and Bev (Halling) Oren ’55 and anonymous
donors.
• During this last fiscal year, a 100% participation rate was
reached with gifts to the annual fund from all members of
the Augsburg Board of Regents, the Alumni Board of
Directors, and the President’s Cabinet.
It’s Augsburg Calling … Mai Yer Vang ’11
Mai Yer Vang was born in Thailand and moved with her family to the U.S. in 1994. When she was in high school, Vang
was introduced to Augsburg on a tour with the Upward
Bound program. “We had a really good tour guide who
showed us everything on campus,” she said.
Vang liked Augsburg’s small campus atmosphere and was
intrigued by a presentation given by Richard Webb, a counselor for Augsburg’s TRiO program, a U.S. Department of Education program that helps first-generation college students
overcome class, social, and cultural barriers to completing
their education.
“My family is on welfare,” Vang said, “but Richard talked
about financial aid and told us that we could go to Augsburg
if we wanted to. He helped us understand that a college education was possible.” In fact, Vang became the first in her
family of eight children to attend college.
She came to Augsburg in the summer, before many of her
classmates, for TRiO’s Summer Bridge program, a five-week
residential program that introduces students to the college experience with classes, academic support seminars, workshops,
and social activities.
As a TRiO scholar, Vang must not only maintain a 3.0
GPA each term, she also meets regularly with her TRiO counselor to discuss her academic progress and financial issues.
TRiO students complete all of their financial aid application
paperwork on their own, an often-daunting procedure many
of her peers delegate to parents. Vang is grateful for this experience because she is now helping one of her older sisters
complete college and financial aid applications.
For two years, Vang has worked as a caller for the Augsburg Fund in Augsburg’s Office of Institutional Advancement.
Through her conversations with alumni, Vang has received
career advice and has learned more about Augsburg traditions
and history. “I learned that Homecoming used to be huge
here,” she said, “and there were a lot more dances and royalty
and parades during the year than we have now.”
To date, Vang and the student caller team have helped
raise more than $114,000 for the Augsburg Fund. To learn
more about the Augsburg Fund and other ways to support
students like Mai Yer Vang, go to www.augsburg.edu/giving.
WENDI WHEELER ‘06
Mai Yer Vang ’11 is one of the
student callers of Phonathon
and enjoys learning about
Augsburg in past years from
the alumni she calls.
Fall 2008
5
Auggies on the field
Jordan Berg: Football, physics, and far more
Division III athletics is more than simply the games. It’s just as much about academics, family friends, and hobbies. Augsburg senior quarterback Jordan Berg understands the importance of balancing.
On the field, the Gaylord, Minn., native is already the most accomplished passer in
Augsburg history, owning single-season and career records for passing touchdowns,
completions, and yardage. Despite starting his college career at Division II MinnesotaDuluth, Berg is on pace to break the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference career passing record of 7,290 yards.
But Berg is more than just a quarterback. He’s also a physics major
with a 3.8 GPA. In his time at Augsburg, Berg has taken classes ranging from chemistry to American Sign Language, and Christian Vocation and the Search for Meaning.
“One of the reasons that Jordan is so successful is his preparedness,” says offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Drew
Privette. “He is prepared on the field, in the classroom, and in his
social life. If we have a quarterback’s meeting and Jordan also has a
big test in one of his classes, he’ll find a way to reschedule the
meeting, so he can take care of his first priority, his academics.”
Berg, a self-described “motor head,” has a variety of other
interests. He restored his own Harley-Davidson motorcycle,
complete with a custom paint job. He designed t-shirts for the
football team. And Berg designed two tattoos for himself and a
few others for his teammates.
“Jordan is a unique blend of character, artist, and student-athlete. He is gifted in each of those areas and it is a joy to work with
such a colorful and outstanding individual,” said football head coach
Frank Haege.
KELLY ANDERSON DIERCKS
6
Augsburg Now
For the full story, go to
www.augsburg.edu/now
homecoming
’08
2008 Alumni Awards
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
LaRhae (Grindal) Knatterud
’70, specialist on aging,
Minnesota Department
of Human Resources
Dennis Kalpin ’61, retired
mathematics teacher and
coach, Alexandria, Minn.
FIRST DECADE AWARDS
Zach Curtis ’98, actor,
artistic director, and
theatre manager
Jeffery Cameron ’96,
intellectual property
attorney, E.J. Brooks
and Associates, PLLC
Save the date for Homecoming 2009—September 28-October 3
For more about Homecoming
and the alumni awards, go to
www.augsburg.edu/now
Fall 2008
7
Grassroots health care
the CENTER CLINIC
Augsburg nursing student Eileen Johnson
confronts poverty and patient needs at the
small, volunteer-run Center Clinic in
Dodge Center, Minnesota.
arty Alemán has a
passion for public
health. She is one
of Augsburg’s Rochester
Campus nursing faculty,
and she believes that
“greater community and social awareness make a better
citizen and a better nurse,
no matter where they
work.”
Thus, it seemed fitting
that she, along with the
Augsburg nursing program,
was chosen by the Center Clinic in Dodge Center, Minnesota, a
small, rural, volunteer-staffed clinic, to receive their Social
Awareness award at their annual appreciation event.
From her office at Olmsted County Public Health, Alemán
coordinates a number of the county’s public health nursing positions. As the Community Health II nursing instructor at the
Augsburg Rochester Campus, she integrates her knowledge of
public health and connections to community health agencies
with the course content to be a catalyst for transformation in the
lives of most of the Rochester Bachelor of Science in nursing
M
8
Augsburg Now
(BSN) students. She loves it. She loves introducing her students
to a side of health care that few of them have ever seen.
Community Health II is Augsburg’s only BSN course with
significant clinical hours outside of the classroom; all 48 hours
must be spent in community health settings. Alemán notes that
about 90% of Rochester BSN students are hospital nurses. “Some
students have only worked in surgery where they see a very limited view of patient care. Community health nursing is not such
a controlled environment,” she says. It stretches and challenges
the students.
Alemán helps students to navigate the challenges of a different healthcare culture and to connect the dots of relevance between their work in a large hospital to social justice in the
community. To that end, she raises questions within the context
of diversity about the uninsured, about poverty and patient
needs upon dismissal from the hospital, and about the community resources to meet those needs. She also encourages students
to consider health issues in public schools such as drug and alcohol abuse, sexual activity, bullying, and obesity.
Clinical hours bring the questions of the classroom into the
realm of experiential knowledge. Students integrate these experiences, comparing them to their currently held beliefs, and seeing things first hand rather than in text. They return to class and
talk about the experiences and how their current belief systems
are being challenged.
For their clinical hours, students may choose from a number
of cultural immersion options or community health settings in
Olmsted County or in the county where they reside. Alemán is
fluent in Spanish, having spent four years early in her nursing
career living and working in Ecuador, and has coordinated and
led immersion trips and home stays for students in Nicaragua
and Guatemala.
It’s obvious that Alemán has a special place in her heart for
arranging student placements in county community health settings. She encourages them to divide their time among a variety
of agencies and clinics. Her students can be found at the Good
Samaritan Medical Clinic, Migrant Health Clinic, Christ United
Methodist Church Health Fair, the county jail, and working with
church parish nurses.
The Center Clinic, directed by Jan Lueth, who is also a public health colleague of Alemán, is a favorite placement for
Alemán and her students. Lueth welcomes the students and describes the clinic as “a small non-profit agency staffed by volunteer nurses, nurse practitioners, and Mayo doctors and residents
that provides family planning and limited healthcare services to
the uninsured and underinsured, many of whom are Latino.”
Some of the BSN students have chosen to continue volunteering at the clinic. One student returned for six months as a
paid staff member. Since the clinic relies heavily on volunteer
hours to stretch their limited revenue, Lueth says their services
are invaluable.
“Social awareness is an important part of our mission at the
Center Clinic,” says Lueth. “We believe that awareness is the
first step toward social change.” Part of the clinic’s motivation
for giving Alemán and the nursing program the Social Awareness
award was that “always their questions and comments challenge
us to clarify what we believe and strengthen our determination
to continue our mission,” Lueth says.
When asked about Alemán’s passion for social awareness,
Lueth says, “only a professional like Marty, who truly empathizes and appreciates the complicated world in which our
clients reside, and the positive effect that nursing students could
experience by exposure to this, would have considered the Center Clinic as a possible clinical site for her students.”
She continues, saying the clinic is “a world where, like a
messy closet, you can make the conscious choice to close the
door, so you don’t have to look at it. But, you still know the mess
is there. … Marty puts her foot in the door, so you have to look,
have to experience the ‘mess’ at least for a moment.”
LIBBY HENSLIN ’06
OPERATIONS AND ADMISSIONS COORDINATOR, ROCHESTER CAMPUS
“Social awareness is an
important part of our
mission at the Center Clinic.
Pictured, right: In her community health
nursing course, Augsburg student Eileen
Johnson (left) is learning from Center
Clinic staff person Ramona González
(center) about difficulties faced by clinic
patients, many of whom are Latinos.
We believe that awareness
is the first step toward
social change.”
Fall 2008
9
awesome
DISCOVERY
clever student + wise professor+ experienced alum =
BY WENDI WHEELER AND BETSEY NORGARD
Brian Krohn (second from right) poses
with the scientists who named the
process (“Mcgyan”—from their own
names) that they hope will revolutionize
the biofuel industry: (L to R) Chemistry
professor Arlin Gyberg, SarTec vice
president Clayton McNeff ’91, Krohn, and
SarTec chief scientist Ben Yan.
A student’s passion for research
Brian Krohn originally came to Augsburg to study film, but
after only one semester without any science classes, this lifelong scientist felt “so deprived” that he officially changed his
major to chemistry.
Even so, he was unsure where the degree would lead
him. “I thought with a degree in chemistry, I
could only be a teacher or a pharmacist,” he said.
Then in the summer of 2006, Krohn received
a grant from Augsburg’s Undergraduate Research
and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) program. It
was support to conduct research, one of his passions. He and his adviser, chemistry professor
Arlin Gyberg, were both interested in biodiesel, so
Krohn set out to find a more efficient way to produce the fuel.
Krohn describes the research process as difficult but exciting. “You have to really dig into the
whole process and read all the literature to join
into the conversation about your topic before you
can figure out what you can contribute,” he said. Whereas
most undergraduate researchers “do what they are told, like
calibrate a machine all day,” according to Krohn, he had more
freedom to explore and experiment.
Eventually his work led to the discovery of a process that
converts animal feedstock to biodiesel. Gyberg advised Krohn
to contact alumnus Clayton McNeff ’91, a chemist and vice
president of SarTec, a company specializing in yucca-based
products and CEO of ZirChrom Separations, a chromatography company. McNeff, his chief scientist at
SarTec Ben Yan, and Gyberg took Krohn’s idea and
created the “Mcgyan” Process (from their three
names), an efficient and environmentally friendly
method that will allow McNeff’s new start-up company, Ever Cat Fuels, to produce more than three
million gallons of fuel per year at a first-of-its-kind
biodiesel plant in Isanti, Minn.
Krohn says it was his research and connections
through Augsburg, not the discovery itself, that
opened doors for him. In fact, he said this opportunity might never have been available if not for
McNeff’s ties to the College.
“It’s almost unheard of that the vice president of research
would sit down with an undergraduate student and his old professor,” he said.
clever student
10
Augsburg Now
wise professor
A professor’s connections to industry
It’s an event, says chemistry professor Arlin Gyberg, that
probably wouldn’t have happened anywhere else in the
world.
He’s referring to senior Brian Krohn’s research, his
relationship with Clayton McNeff ’91, and the partnership
that ultimately yielded the invention of the Mcgyan
Process. Gyberg, who is beginning his 42nd year teaching
at Augsburg, has supervised many student research projects over the years beginning with Richard Olmsted ’69,
the husband of current Augsburg chemistry professor Sandra Olmsted ’69, in the summer following their junior
year.
Krohn began his research by poring over hundreds of
abstracts of research on biodiesel. Eventually he found two
examples of projects that had been somewhat successful,
which had suggested that solid-state strong acids might be
effective catalysts for conversion of plant oils to biodiesel.
Gyberg knew that this material was used as a bonded solid
stationary phase in chromatography, so they attempted a
conversion using a batch process that had been used since
World War II. Gyberg summed up the results: “It didn’t
work.”
Then Gyberg recalled a seminar given four years earlier by McNeff on zirconia-based stationary phases used
for liquid chromatography and the ease with which it
could be bonded with various substances. Gyberg contacted McNeff, and Krohn and Gyberg went to present
their research to McNeff at SarTec Corporation. They
asked for some bonded strong acid zirconia and again
tried a batch process experiment with no success.
“Here is where the confluence of events occurred that
would not likely have happened anywhere else,” said Gyberg. McNeff’s ZirChrom Corporation is a world leader on
zirconia and its properties. McNeff and fellow scientist Ben Yan had
been working on oven-heated zirconia-based high temperature liquid
chromatography. It occurred to McNeff that pressurized, heated, continuous column catalysis using solid-state acidified zirconia might
work—and it did, the very first time. The Mcgyan Process was born.
“It would appear that this is only the beginning,” Gyberg said.
Research continues, with SarTec and Augsburg investigating algae
growth as a feedstock source for biodiesel as well as other reactions
that are possible for new types of biofuels that have not been possible
to synthesize before.
Gyberg is also working on a project with a University of St.
Thomas engineering professor who believes that in three years all
biodiesel will be made using the Mcgyan Process. They are developing a “pickup bed biodiesel plant” that the individual farmer could
use to make his own biodiesel fuel. This would also benefit Third
World countries where jatropha, a weedy bush that grows on noncropland and needs only about eight inches of rain or so a year, is
readily available. Jatropha can produce about five times more plant
oil a year for biodiesel than soybeans, and the Mcgyan reactor is the
only one that can completely convert the oil efficiently and cleanly to
biodiesel with virtually no waste and no pollutants.
Rather than spend his summers on the golf course or on the
lake, Gyberg supervises research because, he says, “It keeps things
interesting and exciting, keeps one up with current science, and
keeps the mind sharp.” He adds, “One of the great pleasures over the
years is using my background and experience to work with students,
some of whom are smarter than I am.” Gyberg says students are fortunate to be able to do research at Augsburg, since faculty there can
spend more time working with students than at large research
institutions.
Above, left: Senior Brian Krohn and chemistry professor Arlin Gyberg explain the Mcgyan
Process, a new, improved method of making biodiesel, at a press conference in March.
Fall 2008
11
awe
som
e
SarTec vice president Clayton McNeff ’91, whose team discovered
the Mcgyan Process, shares the discovery with alumni and friends
during Homecoming in September.
“It can be cost effective and
environmentally friendly—
experienced alum
and it’s portable.”
A chemist on the cutting edge
In March 2008 at a press conference at Augsburg College,
Clayton McNeff became somewhat of a media sensation in
the biodiesel world. He is vice president of SarTec Corporation, and together with his chief scientist Ben Yan, his former
professor Arlin Gyberg, and Augsburg student Brian Krohn,
McNeff announced a discovery they said would revolutionize
biodiesel production and lessen or eliminate the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
This was the first public announcement of the Mcgyan
Process and the biodiesel fuel it can produce more efficiently,
less costly, and without harmful byproducts than existing
processes. He went on to announce that the group was already successfully producing 50,000 gallons per year at a
pilot plant, and even powering the plant with it. Through a
new company, Ever Cat Fuels, a new large-scale production
plant is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2009 that
will yield three million gallons per year, using non-food
grade corn oil from ethanol plants and free fatty acid waste
products from the current conventional biodiesel industry.
In July the Star Tribune described the Mcgyan production
process as immensely appealing to countries and companies
around the world because “it can be cost effective and environmentally friendly—and it’s portable.” The goal is for farmers to be able to produce the biodiesel they need to run their
farms completely on site. More than 35 countries have contacted SarTec inquiring about the technology.
Algae is a large part of McNeff’s vision. He refers to it as
the “holy grail” of biodiesel production because it can be
grown utilizing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from
12
Augsburg Now
bioethanol and coal-burning power plants, and it can potentially yield enough oil for biodiesel to replace all U.S. petroleum
needs without competing for food crops or cropland. SarTec, in
partnership with Augsburg and Triangle Energy, is pursuing this
research with grants from Great River Energy and Xcel Energy.
McNeff is a 1991 Augsburg chemistry graduate, who pursued his PhD in analytical chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He joined SarTec, the company founded by his parents
where he first worked as a high school student, fostering his
love for science.
In 1995, as he became known for his expertise with zirconia, McNeff co-founded ZirChrom Separations, Inc., along with
Steven Rupp and University of Minnesota professor Peter W.
Carr. Carr has won numerous awards in the field of analytical
chemistry and has been announced as the recipient of the 2009
American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry.
In 2002 McNeff was awarded the Tibbetts Award from the
Small Business Adminstration’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. This award was given in recognition of
McNeff’s achievement in innovation, research, and business
that contributed to the commercial success of ZirChrom Separations.
McNeff considers the success of the experimentation leading to the Mcgyan Process as “serendipity,” but it’s a success
that can extend far beyond their projected goal of three million
gallons per year and be licensed worldwide to companies seeking more efficient and sustainable fuels.
For more information, go to
www.augsburg.edu/chemistry
DIS
COV
ERY
V
Courtesy Glendine Soiseth
auggie voices
Street pastors bring care and
hope to the streets
Glendine Soiseth graduated from Augsburg and Luther Seminary in 2004 with a dual degree—Master of Social Work and
Master of Arts in Theology. She was ready for the challenge of
an international experience and is the supervisor of therapy
services for a fostering agency in Flintshire, Wales. She lives
in nearby Chester, England.
In 2006 Soiseth heard about the three-year-old Street Pastors program and trained as a street pastor leader in Wrexham, Wales. She led her team on patrol once or twice a
month, from around 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Recently, with her
move to Chester, she also serves as a Chester lead street pastor and will alternate patrols and voluntary time between the
two locations.
In September she wrote about street pastor work for a
community ministry blog in Chester. With permission, we’ve
reprinted excerpts from it.
Call
Historically, I have consistently been involved in faith, community, and political organizations, either working with
people, programmes, or the community in developing a
voice and making a difference.
When the St. Margaret’s vicar in Wrexham started talking about Street Pastors during a service, I immediately experienced a ‘call.’ Not a lightning bolt, but it was made very
clear that this (street pastoring) was something I needed to
do. I realized I was being asked to take a leap of faith despite not knowing how the new initiative would take me.
After training and graduation, I was out on the streets
in my street pastor uniform talking and explaining to people, door staff, vendors, police, and emergency personnel
what a street pastor is and does.
Community
When I mentioned to people at the time that I lived in
Wrexham, the response was universal, ‘nothing good comes
out of Wrexham … .’ I knew it would take more than a marketer or one person to make a difference. It would take the
‘Urban Trinity’—police, civic partners, and church—coming
together in agreement on community initiatives and protocols, as a means for it to work.
Glendine Soiseth ’04 MSW/MA Theology dual degree graduate (left), is a social
worker in North Wales and volunteers as a street pastor in an interdenominational church/community initiative with Rev. Trevor Beckett (right).
Street pastors are now recognized, respected, and welcomed in the community by pub/club goers, police, emergency personnel, door staff, street vendors, CCTV, and
visitors. They have witnessed and experienced our commitment, tenacity, unconditional positive regard, and passion
for what we do.
We’ve been accepted as part of their community for not
only sticking it out when it is raining, cold, and miserable,
but, more importantly, for listening, being authentic, and
providing practical assistance—not preaching ‘heaven and
hell,’ but getting back to basics of what it means to be a ‘caring’ community and how diversity can bring together unity.
Hope
I can’t begin to tell you all the stories I have heard on the
street in my role as street pastor. … about the drug dealer,
or the rugby player, or the person we picked up off the road
just before a car came round the corner, or the person who
had been involved in a cult, or the alcoholic, or the soldier.
But they are just stories about people you don’t know. What
I do know is that Street Pastors makes a difference in our
community. I make a difference. We make a difference.
From a human perspective, getting back to basics with
the above is a step in not only providing a community with
hope, but also it can be a difference between life and death
for that person we talk to on the street. … A good deal of
our work is ‘working in the moment where that person
seems to be at that time.’ Street pastoring works. I truly feel
blessed and privileged every time I go out into the street.”
Street Pastors is an inter-denominational church response to urban problems, engaging with people on the
streets to care, listen, and dialogue. For information, go to
www.streetpastors.org.uk.
BETSEY NORGARD
Fall 2008
13
LIGHTS,
CAMERA,
AND
ACTION
BY BETHANY BIERMAN
Augsburg’s film program, based in liberal arts and
giving students knowledge in production, performance,
and theory, attracts students from around the world.
14
Augsburg Now
ugsburg film comes of age
The coffee shop in Christensen is nearly
full, so we grab two empty stools by the
computers in the back. Wes Ellenwood
sits poised on the stool, looking relaxed
in his blue jeans and vintage New York
baseball cap, balancing his coffee between his hands.
“What makes our department
unique is its three tracks,” he explains.
The former NYU professor specializes
in documentary and 16mm film and
was just last year given full-time status,
making him the only full-time film faculty member.
He breezes through the description
as if he’s told it many times before.
There’s the production track (creating
films and videos), the performance
track (acting for the camera), and the
theory and culture track (the analytical
track). “And our faculty are not just faculty—they are professionals and experts
in film.”
Picture, bottom left: For more than a decade, communication
studies professor Deb Redmond has worked with alumni to nurture
the film courses that have grown Augsburg’s film program.
Pictured, below: Auggie Mike Bodnarczuk ’85 built a career in music
video production and has helped other Auggies get a start in LA.
Just then communication professor
and director of the program Deb Redmond approaches with a young man.
“I’m sorry, but may I interrupt?” she
asks. “Matt, this is Wes Ellenwood, who
teaches our production courses. Wes,
Matt is looking at transferring to Augsburg to study film.”
The professors exchange knowing
glances. This is not the first time such
an introduction has been made. In fact,
the film department averages two visitors per week. For a program that officially finished its fourth year, numbers
are exploding. While Augsburg has a
strong history of graduating students
who have excelled in film, it was only
in 2004 that the major was added. It
jumped from one graduate in 2006 to
now nearly 40 students. Five new film
majors transferred in this past semester.
“We’re different from most of the
metro college campuses,” Ellenwood
tells Matt and me, “because there is actual film being shot on this campus.”
He goes on to explain that because
Augsburg students develop an understanding of film, video, television, and
digital media, in addition to being
grounded in the liberal arts, these graduates are better prepared than most to
truly succeed in the industry.
A seed is planted
It was the early ’80s, and every Friday
English professor John Mitchell showed
movies in his class. One student recalls
nearly leaping out of his seat with excitement.
“He really opened up the gateway
for me,” says Michael Bodnarczuk, the
son of Ukrainian immigrants and a St.
Paul Johnson High School graduate. He
Nick Vlchek
A
LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION
had come to Augsburg to study prelaw and to play
soccer. “I got very
involved with politics with my lifelong friend John
Evans … and
Franklin Tawha,
but then started
spending a lot of time with film.”
Bodnarczuk took a 16mm film
course taught by a friend of Mitchell’s
during January term. “After that, I was
completely hooked, and then it became
an addiction.” He took Julie Bolton’s television class and Stan Turner’s class in
newswriting at St. Thomas. Jeroy Carlson found him an internship at KARE11, which turned into a job editing
stories for the sunrise show.
But Bodnarczuk’s passion was
music videos, and how they told a story
in four minutes. Augsburg didn’t have
cable at the time, however, so with the
rise of the MTV boom, he persuaded the
College to invest in a satellite dish for
the top of Christensen Center. He’d
record videos and host a showing on
Sunday nights during dinner, until they
got too risqué and the administration
shut him down.
Beyond the classroom, he made
connections with several people, including Jimmy Jam, Steve Rifkin (editor of
the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy) and
Darrell Brand (cameraman). During college, he directed videos for Twin Cities
music sensation The Jets and spent a
couple days as a production assistant on
Purple Rain.
Following graduation, he worked at
a law firm for a while but just wasn’t
satisfied. He drove to Hollywood in a
Fall 2008
15
Augsburg’s first “official” film grad, Trevor
Tweeten ’06 has won awards for his films
and is now living and working in New York.
yellow Dodge Charger, with about a
thousand dollars in his pocket, moved
in with a friend, and volunteered on an
American Film Institute film. Through
persistence and personal connections,
he eventually started to get work. His
first breakthroughs were as a production assistant on Lionel Ritchie’s “Say
You, Say Me” video and the film La
Bamba, which led to work on Stand and
Deliver.
“It snowballed from there.” Within
two years he was producing his own
videos and commercials such as
Michael Jordan’s Gatorade ads, and
within a decade was running the commercial/music video department of A
Band Apart with co-founders Quentin
Tarantino and Lawrence Bender. While
his Hollywood connections blossomed
and his résumé grew, his Augsburg connections never died.
16
Augsburg Now
Breaking new ground
“Michael [Bodnarczuk] wanted the film
major here desperately,” recalls Redmond. “He contacted us.” Redmond and
theatre professor Martha Johnson traveled to LA to spend time meeting with
him about the idea. This became the impetus for the program.
Courses in film continued to find
their way into the catalog, and when confirmation came from the dean’s office, a
film minor was established.
As more and more Augsburg graduates entered the world of film, momentum for the program continued to grow.
President William Frame visited Hollywood to raise money for the film program, and Bodnarczuk donated
equipment and money for it.
Students like Adam Schindler ’00
and Hanne Anderson ’99 came to Augsburg before the major was established,
but knowing that film was their passion.
Schindler took creative writing
classes, looking to hone his storytelling
ability, and ended up with a communication major and minors in English and
film. “As I continued churning out
scripts, taking broadcast production
courses, film-related J-term courses, I was
approached by a few students about the
possibility of forming a film group.” They
applied for a grant through Student Senate, and, with the help of Redmond, put
together the Augsburg Association of Student Filmmakers (AASF).
“We were pleasantly surprised when
we had 30 or so students show up for our
inaugural meeting,” Schindler remembers.
“It was a very collaborative effort
with all the members chipping in film
ideas, cameras, and loads of time,” says
Anderson.
While he was still a student,
Schindler had a chance to meet Bodnarczuk through a contact in Augsburg’s
Alumni Office. Bodnarczuk extended
Schindler an invitation to intern if he ever
decided to move to LA. Needless to say,
Bodnarczuk was the first person Schindler
called when he made the decision to go
west.
“I hired a lot of Auggies,” Bodnarczuk recalls. “I helped open doors for
them because I knew how hard it was for
me. I think every single one of them has
gone on to greatness. I am very happy for
and very proud of them.”
A distinctive major emerges
“It took years to put [the major] together
because we really wanted it to be interdisciplinary, and truly based in the liberal
arts,” says Redmond.
The application for approval of the
major was submitted during the 2002-03
school year and was approved for fall of
2004. In the past year, Ellenwood has
begun teaching full time, and additional
courses have been added.
Today, first-year film students are not
allowed to take production courses, but
instead start with still photography and
core academic courses. From there, they
take courses in the history of cinema, criticism, and issues in contemporary cinema, which lead into documentary and
acting courses. Students have the opportunity to take electives in areas such as
graphic design, journalism, and art, and
for their lab science requirement they may
take Physics for the Fine Arts.
Robert Cowgill, who spent years as a
dramaturg at the Guthrie and is past performer, owner, and manager of the Oak
Street Cinema, teaches courses in analysis.
Elise Marubbio, an award-winning author
on the representation of Native Americans
in film, teaches courses that cross-list between the American Indian studies and
film programs.
“Our focus is on training students to
recognize within a system like Hollywood
that there are very particular narratives
around groups of people,” Marubbio says.
“Our hope is that film students begin to
realize that when they create a film and an
image of someone, they need to be aware
of the cultural implications.”
Marubbio coordinates Augsburg’s Native American Film Festival. “The combination of things that we’re doing is unique
to Augsburg.”
The program’s first student to officially major in film was Trevor Tweeten
’06. “The whole theory side at Augsburg
was fantastic, between [John] Mitchell
and [Robert] Cowgill,” he says. “There’s a
practical side of it with Deb [Redmond]
and Wes [Ellenwood], but also the heavy
side of theory and history. I think there’s a
good balance … I feel really lucky to have
gone to a liberal arts school and have a
broader understanding of politics and life
and literature and all that stuff.”
Augsburg also brings in adjunct faculty who are experts in their field, such as
Christina Lazaridi, a New York-based
screenwriter whose first screenplay was
nominated for an Emmy. She teaches
screenwriting in the summer.
Beyond the classroom, the program
encourages study abroad and internships.
It is often past graduates who provide the
internships for current students.
“We are growing our own,” says Redmond. “When people come to Augsburg
to study film, they are not committing
themselves to four years, but for life …
We’re growing our own faculty, in
essence.”
“The thing that fits with the mission
of the College is we’re looking for people
with a commitment to a message, particularly using the language of film to tell
their stories,” Redmond states.
One such example is a film by senior film major David Siegfried, who
used still photographs with voiceover to
tell the story of the teaching career of
his grandfather, Augsburg anatomy and
biology professor Erwin Mickelberg. In
his film are photos of Siegfried’s mother
riding her bicycle in Murphy Park as a
young child. (http://davidsiegfried.com/
mycampusfinal.html)
The current crop
“We’re grounded now,” says Ellenwood,
pointing to the fact that there is now a
common place for film students to hang
out, a space shared by communication,
film, and theatre students. Just through
the hallway of faculty offices are the editing suites, then the film studio, and
the “closet” they hope will soon become
the screening room. “Loitering is happening on a regular basis. That’s a good
thing.”
Ellenwood attributes the increased
interest in Augsburg’s film program to
the fact that it is deeper and broader
than most programs. “Without any marketing, students are finding us. Word is
getting out,” he says. Students have
come from as far as Argentina, and now
India. “We need more faculty, space,
and equipment to allow for the increasing number of students.”
“Our hope is to grow donors,” Redmond says. “It can start with supply
items, like an extension cord, then volunteering to take interns, then, if
they’re in the position to hire, to look at
our graduates. Eventually, they can donate larger sums of money.”
At the end of each semester, there is
a screening of student work. The event
is not broadcast across campus, and yet
last semester’s screening filled the TV
studio, with over 100 in attendance.
“That’s an astounding number for us,”
says Ellenwood.
Starting in fall 2007, film students
Film professor Wes Ellenwood, who specializes in documentary and 16mm film,
connects students with film pros in the
Twin Cities for hands-on experience.
Fall 2008
17
were included in the Fine Arts Scholarship program, which awards $3,000 per
year to selected students who have
demonstrated excellence in film. Four
students were awarded the scholarship
in its inaugural year.
This fall Augsburg is launching a
partnership with the highly-regarded
film studies program at Minneapolis
Community and Technical College.
MCTC students will be able to complete
a four-year degree in film studies at
Augsburg, and Augsburg film students
will be able to take courses in the film
program there.
A rich harvest
Students who recently graduated have
enjoyed rubbing shoulders with professionals in the business, just as those in
the early days.
w
Ben Katz ’08, Steven Jacobson ’08,
Trevor Tweeten ’06, and Joe Lueben ’07
all worked on a film accepted into the
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film
Festival last year. Matt Goldman, who
has written for Disney and for Seinfeld,
directed the film. “Working with Matt
opened up a lot of doors,” says Lueben.
“It was the first time we’ve taken somebody else’s story, and not our own.”
The four also created a feature film
called “Bits” with a group of Augsburg
alumni, which has been featured on
www.mnfilmtv.org and was screened at
the Uptown Theater in August.
He has freelanced for such organizations as 3M and the University of Minnesota, and worked on a Kid Dakota
music video, on a short film with the lead
singer of Motion City Soundtrack, and
made a 50-minute compilation of clips of
Minnesota-made films.
For his senior project, Katz worked
ho’s who in film alums
with Ellenwood to research the documentation needed for an independent
film. With a 90-page script, he created a
production book with scene breakdown,
shooting schedule, budget, and business
plan, which he then presented to the
writer in LA.
“I love that the program’s grown
with me,” says Katz. “When I started out
[at Augsburg], everyone was excited
about the film program, but the department was not very structured. It’s gotten
better. Once Wes was hired full time, it
changed. It’s a real program now.”
“It’s this current wave of graduates
who will probably be the best ones,” Wes
says of the dozen or so who graduated
this last spring. “They are positioning
themselves to be out in the industry, in
the field; not pumping gas.”
Bethany Bierman formerly worked in the
Office of Marketing and Communication
and lives in Minneapolis.
To learn more about Augsburg’s film program,
go to www.augsburg.edu/film
Michael Bodnarczuk ’85
Owner of Battle Creek Productions. Past president and co-founder (along
with Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender) of A Band Apart, which produced videos for such megastars as U2, Metallica, and Bon Jovi (and in
1999 alone was up for 21 of the MTV Awards).
Adam Schindler ’00
Past assistant to producer Lawrence Bender. Assistant to the executive
producer of Desperate Housewives; current assistant for director Marty
Calner. Semi-finalist in the Academy of Motion Picture’s Nicholl Screenwriting Contest; horror script, “Sundown.”
Garret Williams ’89
Attended graduate school at the American Film Institute; directed Spark,
which received a Best Director Award; selected as one of nine filmmakers for
Fast Track in 2005 on his work on Lost Dog. IFP Blockbuster/McKnight Film
Fund winner.
JoLynn Garnes ’02
Editor of The Fearless Freaks, featuring the Flaming Lips documentary,
winner of the Mojo Vision Award. Has edited videos for artists such as Liz
Phair, Hilary Duff, and Prince, as well as Target commercials, the feature
documentary Summercamp!, and video visuals for Beyoncé’s 2007 world
tour.
Bryce Fridrik Olson ’97
Director of feature films The Caretaker (2008) with Jennifer Tilly and Judd
Nelson, and Be My Baby . Co-produced instructional DVD “OT for Children
with Autism, Special Needs & Typical.”
Hanne Anderson ’99
Emmy nominee for camera editing for her work on Guiding Light; editor for
digital group at Spike TV, and, as a sideline business, co-owns Riveting Productions, a DVD authoring company that works primarily with Comedy Central Records.
Jenny Hanson ’05
Completing graduate work in Austria in a trans-arts program; owns
Sprouted Wolf Productions; teaches film at North Hennepin Community
College and Normandale Community College.
Trevor Tweeten ’06
The first official film major. Won first place at the Oak Street Cinema’s 24hour film festival; recently moved to New York City to freelance; currently
shooting for TLC’s What Not to Wear.
THE PIONEERS
18
Augsburg Now
auggies
In the first days of September, while Gulf Coast residents battled
Hurricane Gustav, more than 45,000 Republican delegates, party
officials, volunteers, and members of the media converged on the
Xcel Center in downtown St. Paul for the 2008 Republican National Convention.
An event as significant as the RNC was not contained, however, to a single site. Across the Mississippi on Augsburg’s campus, students and faculty from 48 colleges and universities met
for a two-week program of the The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. Because of its commitment to civic
engagement and service-learning, Augsburg was chosen to host
the seminar in conjunction with the convention.
Twenty-three Augsburg students participated in internships
through the program, each working in the preparation and planning stages to learn about the behind-the-scenes efforts involved
with a national convention. Augsburg communication studies professors Robert Groven and Kristen Chamberlain served on the faculty of The Washington Center Seminar.
Three Augsburg students shared their convention experiences—a young Hmong woman who changed her major from premed to political science, a graduate student who entered a state
legislative race, and a politically liberal political science major
who learned that Republicans and Democrats are more similar
than he thought.
l
a
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t
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nter
G
ngton Ce
ashi
W
e
h
T
h
wit
BY WENDI WHEELER ’06
The Washington Center at the RNC
Fall 2008
19
’11
Ben Krouse-Gagne
Getting active in politics
The Washington Center at the RNC
20
Augsburg Now
Though he says he has been involved in politics for a short time—just
two-and-a-half years—Ben Krouse-Gagne has done more than some of
us will do in our lifetimes. He worked on Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer’s Senate campaign, did a summer internship with the Anti-War Committee,
served as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic state convention in
Rochester, Minn., and spends weekends door-knocking for state congressional candidates.
Krouse-Gagne, a second-year political science major who grew up
in Minneapolis’ progressive Seward neighborhood, said he was really always involved in politics because his family, neighbors, and church
community were politically active. Then in high school, he traveled to
the School of the Americas in Georgia, a military combat training school
and the site of frequent anti-war protests. “It really hit me when they
read the names of those killed in the war,” he said, “and one of the names
was ‘one-month-old baby.’”
That experience fueled Krouse-Gagne’s desire to become active and led
him eventually to a summer job at TakeAction Minnesota, where he worked
to educate voters about political issues. “People don’t understand how state
politics affects them,” he said. “A lot of people don’t even know who their state
representatives are.”
His RNC field placement was with the Bloomberg News Service. On the
first day of the convention, he covered the protests outside Xcel Center. “I
knew a lot of the people and organizations protesting,” he said, which gave
him an opportunity to get close to the action. Protestors told him their goal
was to slow down the convention. “Inside, they didn’t even know what was
happening out there,” he said. “It didn’t slow down the convention at all.”
Through conversations with delegates, Krouse-Gagne learned that he had
more in common with Republicans than he thought. “Republicans are just
the same as us,” he said. “They want what we want, just in a different way.”
Krouse-Gagne also became friends with Eric Franzen, another intern
who is currently the president of the Augsburg College Republicans. The
two are working with the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning, with
the help of Augsburg Sabo Professor Garry Hesser, to bring speakers to
campus to further the “Get Political” civic engagement events.
Their goal is to ensure that the Augsburg community is exposed
to multiple perspectives on political issues.
Being at the RNC made Krouse-Gagne want to be a delegate
to the 2012 Democratic National Convention and to become
even more involved in politics. A lot can happen in four years.
’11
Mai Lee
Changing courses
In the Hmong culture, young people often follow the path chosen
for them by their parents. For Mai Lee, a second-year student from
Minneapolis, this meant a career in medicine. Though she had always wanted to study political science, she pushed the idea away
and filled her fall semester schedule with science courses. “I was all
set to take biology and chemistry and 99% sure about majoring in
pre-med,” Lee said. Then she attended the 2008 Republican National
Convention, and that experience changed her course.
Days before the fall semester began, Lee changed her major from premed to political science. “At the convention, I met many people who
gave me good advice about a career in politics,” she said. Lee thought
her family would disapprove of her decision, but she knew she needed
to trust her instincts. “My dad wasn’t too happy,” she added, “but I said
I just knew pre-med wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
Lee said she had always considered herself politically conservative,
but the convention gave her an “up-close look at the Republican Party”
and persuaded her to consider a career in public or government administration. She wants to change the immigrant mindset that government
is “bad” or against them. “I want to help people,” she said, “and show
people that government can be good.”
As a Hmong American woman, Lee acknowledges that she would be
a minority in the public administration world. “There are not many
Hmong women in politics,” she said. “I could change that and make a
little difference if I get involved.”
During the convention, Lee was placed with Fox News as a “runner.”
She ran errands, picked up politicians or celebrities, brought coffee to producers, and did whatever else was needed. “At one point, I had to pass out these
ridiculous Fox News hats to convention delegates,” she said. “If they didn’t
want it, I was told just to put it in their faces.”
Her convention experience not only influenced Lee’s future, it also encouraged her to become a more active citizen. She’s joined the Augsburg College Republicans and says she is watching the news and reading the paper more. “I’m
doing what voters should do,” she said.
While she plans to support John McCain, Lee says she will still not be discouraged from pursuing a career in public service if the presidency goes to the Democrats. “If McCain doesn’t win the election, it won’t be over for me.”
The Washington Center at the RNC
Fall 2008
21
’10
MAE
Eric Franzen
Because I can
Even at the RNC, Eric Franzen felt like he was in the minority. He was
certain that he and another intern from St. Louis, Mo., were the only
Republicans placed with Talk Radio News Service.
As a student in Augsburg’s Master of Arts in Education program,
Franzen is not required to complete an internship. He applied to The
Washington Center program because he said he recently became intrigued by the “reality” of politics. “Politics is real people doing real
things with real consequences,” he said. “It’s democracy in action.” He
felt the convention would provide an opportunity to become part of the
political reality.
For his internship, Franzen covered convention events with a video
camera and then posted interviews and stories on the Talk Radio News website. His most rewarding experience, however, happened after the convention
because he said he finally felt free to have open conversations about politics
with other students at Augsburg. “This campus is very politically liberal,”
Franzen said. “Some of us get a little nervous.”
Franzen is grateful to Augsburg for hosting The Washington Center program because he said it created opportunities for dialogue and has allowed
him to engage with others, including his politically liberal friend and fellow intern, Ben Krouse-Gagne. “I want to push for political diversity and inclusivity
at Augsburg,” he said, “but certain opinions aren’t always included in the discussion.”
In the future, Franzen aspires to hold a public office. He even added his
name to the ballot in the Republican slot for the District 60A state representative
seat. His opponent? Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the 10-year incumbent and current speaker of the House.
Why would a young graduate student put his name on the ballot against an
incumbent in an overwhelmingly liberal district? Franzen answered. “Because I can.”
“No one was running, and I didn’t want to see the office go unopposed,” he
said. “My goal was for voters to have a choice, so I’m doing what I can to give them
that choice.” Though he’s not likely to unseat Kelliher, he’s has been campaigning,
calling voters, and attending events to promote his candidacy. “It’s a lot of work.”
22
Augsburg Now
Paul Nixdorf
In the production of Fiddler on the Roof, Janet
Paone ’83 met John Vaughn, who became her
kidney donor. Here, as Golde and Tevye, they
once again ask, “Do You Love Me?”
The Kidney Kabaret for Janet Paone
BY BETSEY NORGARD
In a summer 2007 community theatre
production of Fiddler on the Roof, Janet
Paone ’83 played Golde. Golde’s husband, Tevye, was played by John
Vaughn, a Northwest Airlines pilot.
Four months later, she underwent
transplant surgery and received a kidney
that was given to her by Vaughn. Paone
remains amazed at how this whole series of events evolved.
Since September 2005, Paone had
appeared in the cast of Church Basement
Ladies, playing Mrs. Vivian Snustad, in
the comedy based on the book Growing
Up Lutheran, by Janet Letnes Martin ’68
and Suzann (Johnson) Nelson ’68.
While Paone had lived with reduced
kidney functioning since birth, it worsened into renal failure, and her doctors
put her on the transplant list.
Paone turned down out-of-town
gigs, and a friend told her about the Fiddler production, a show she had done as
an Augsburg student and loved. When
she got to know Vaughn, he asked about
her illness.
“Oh, I need a kidney,” Paone said
offhandedly.
“Well, you can have mine,” Vaughn
replied.
Paone took this as purely a casual
remark, but Vaughn persisted. He told
her he would contact the clinic. Prelimi-
nary tests showed him to be a potential
match, to be confirmed with a battery of
testing. They became close friends.
Four months later, Paone’s regular
check-up indicated she had reached a
crisis point and would have to start dialysis until a transplant became available.
After Fiddler, she and Vaughn had gone
their own ways, and she thought he
might have reconsidered. She set a date
for dialysis.
But the very next day, Vaughn contacted her with news that he had finally
been able to schedule the battery of
tests. He asked how she’d been. She told
him honestly, and added, “Is that kidney
still available?
“I just started crying,” Paone says.
“The timing was crazy.”
Vaughn was a good match, and on
November 27, after several heart-toheart talks with him, Paone received the
kidney he donated. She says he told her
that the true gift she could give him in
return was her good health.
Paone’s recovery went remarkably
well, and she was back on stage in the
winter, continuing her role as Mrs.
Snustad in Church Basement Ladies 2: A
Second Helping. She and Vaughn have
remained in close touch since.
What Paone now faces are thousands of dollars in medical bills, with
few resources to cover them. A month
after surgery, several friends in the theatre
community began talking about a
fundraiser, and a planning “posse”
formed, including several Augsburg classmates. Katie Koch ’06, assistant to the director at the Guthrie Theater, knows
Paone well and served as coordinator.
The “Kidney Kabaret” played at
Augsburg on April 21, with many actors
and musicians stepping forward to donate
services, time, and talents, which also included technical support for sound and
lighting, and event decorations.
A silent auction offered more than
125 items from theaters, restaurants,
churches, sports teams, and radio stations.
The program acts were all friends,
co-actors, and colleagues of Paone from
past theater productions. WCCO’s
Frank Vascellaro and Dale Connelly,
from Minnesota Public Radio, co-hosted
the evening.
Special guest Dr. Mark Odland,
Paone’s transplant surgeon, was introduced, along with staff from HCMC’s
kidney transplant program. Vaughn was
recognized and lauded for his gift of life
to Paone.
More than $15,000 was donated,
and the Janet Paone Transplant Fund
was set up at U.S. Bank with the help of
Auggie classmate David Young ’82.
Sponsors for the event were Curt Wollan and TroupeAmerica, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, and Augsburg.
For more information, go to
www.augsburg.edu/now
Fall 2008
23
Travel
that
transforms
BY BETSEY NORGARD
The Center for Global Education
Amazing. Life-changing. Transforming. Participants are not shy about describing their experiences on trips organized by the Center for Global Education. They seek out opportunities to talk about what they learned, and they want to return. The difference is that they
have not been on casual, sightseeing trips, but reflective travel; and CGE has built a reputation as a national leader in international experiential education.
24
Augsburg Now
Courtesy CGE-Namibia
Courtsey CGE
Social work students from eight colleges spend a
semester learning about social work issues and meeting
social work students in Mexico City and Cuernavaca—
and here, posing next to papayas in rural Morelos.
While the first student seminar in Mexico
took place in 1979, it wasn’t until 1982
when Joel Mugge led a group that officially established the Center for Global
Service and Education. He did this in response to a request from the Lutheran
Church for programs to raise awareness
of international issues.
Mugge developed a new form of international education, basing the curriculum on the educational principles of
Brazilian educator and theologian Paulo
Freire. In this, students learn in a cycle of
three phases. Initially they have direct experience in the local community, listening
to the voices of people not usually heard
in mainstream media, telling their own
stories and stories of their communities.
Then, informed by readings, students reflect on what they saw and heard. Lastly,
as a group, students share their reactions,
discuss issues, and formulate actions to
carry with them. It becomes a continual
process of “learning how to learn.”
CGE’s programs include study and
travel abroad for students, faculty development in global education, and customized
group travel around specific issues or targeted for specific groups. As a result of
these programs, CGE has served as a catalyst in the Lutheran Church for a new understanding of global mission, putting
people from the U.S. face-to-face with
people in local communities around the
world to learn from each other and build
partnerships across faiths. CGE programs
tailored for small businesses have helped
their employees understand complexities
in social, economic, and political issues,
and the development of more responsible
global citizenship.
“The goal is not to simply educate
persons, but to encourage them to pursue
a life of involvement that will ultimately
lead to wisdom,” says Larry Hufford, a political science professor at St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, who has led
numerous study seminars with CGE’s as-
sistance and who finds them spiritually renewing.
During the 1980s and 1990s, CGE
planned travel seminars literally around
the world. Study centers with resident
Augsburg faculty and staff were then established in three locations—Cuernavaca,
Mexico; Managua, Nicaragua; and Windhoek, Namibia. Offices and staff are also
located in El Salvador and Guatemala.
CGE became known for the quality
of learning their travel provided; in 1988
they were hired by the American Society
of Newspaper Editors to organize a seminar for journalists to Central America and
Mexico. CGE has also received Fulbright
grants to organize several group projects.
In 2003, the program was named the National Society for Experiential Education’s
Program of the Year.
In 2001, the position of CGE director
was expanded to include the associate
dean of international programs. The Office of International Programs (OIP) was
created, which, in addition to CGE, includes Augsburg Abroad, the study
abroad office; International Partners, including European institutions in Germany,
Norway, and Finland that have reciprocal
agreements for study with Augsburg; and
International Student Advising, providing
advising and advocacy for international
students at Augsburg.
Students say…
Comments from the “Religion and
Christian Faith” travel seminar to
El Salvador, January 2007
NATALIE SASSEVILLE ’09
“Going on the trip to El Salvador was like getting
stuck in an earthquake—it shook me and all of
my values to the core…Never before have I felt
so inspired or impassioned…”
JOE SKOGMO ’08
“This trip gave me knowledge that cannot be
learned in any textbook, but it is knowledge that
one cannot do without in order to understand the
magnitude of human responsibility, vocation, and
global citizenship. Studying in El Salvador is
simply the greatest practical application for understanding why our vocations matter.”
MICHELE ROULET ’09
“The people of [El Salvador] are our textbook,
and their stories are frightening and funny and
inspiring. To say that everyone comes back
changed is to make light of the experience. People come back enriched, enlightened, and energized.”
OLEE AMATA ’11
“The concept of affecting another human being
by decisions I make made me see the world differently. … As a business major, I want to learn
how I can help be a global citizen when globalization is the enemy to developing countries.”
Fall 2008
25
Courtsey Donna DeGracia
Students training to become physician assistants visited
clinics in Guatemala, learning about healthcare practices
there and presenting health clinics—such as teaching
children about oral hygiene.
INTERNATIONALIZING AUGSBURG
EDUCATION
Shortly after the arrival of new Augsburg
president Paul Pribbenow in 2006, the
College began to focus on internationalizing Augsburg education. OIP launched efforts to integrate study abroad experiences
into the curriculum of all majors on campus, seeking to create a culture shift toward
a more internationalized campus and college experience for students. The goal is a
more seamless relationship between campus curriculum and study abroad. Students
may choose from the semesters abroad offered by CGE or participate in other study
abroad programs approved by the Augsburg Abroad office.
In addition to infusing study abroad
into all majors, CGE has made it possible
for all students—undergraduate and graduate—to have a cross-cultural experience.
For weekend students it means only a oneor two-week course, a shorter time away
from family and work than the semester
program. For graduate students, it means a
short-term seminar that directly links to
their program work or research. For all students, the direct, personal experience in
another culture is carried back into their
lives and work at home.
A VARIETY OF PROGRAMS
Following are examples of programs that
have been designed for specific disciplines or target audiences:
26
Augsburg Now
Social work in a Latin American
context
This semester-long program in Mexico for
social work undergraduate students was
developed within a unique consortium of
eight colleges and universities in South
Dakota and Minnesota—both public and
private. It provides a common experience
for students at schools lacking the resources to create a program of their own.
This experience gives future social work
professionals better preparation to serve
the needs of Spanish-speaking clients in
their home areas.
The social work students live at
Augsburg’s center in Cuernavaca. They
take classes in culture with Augsburg’s
adjunct faculty there, and classes in social
work theory and practice with a visiting
professor from one of the consortium institutions.
In 2006, the consortium was
awarded the Council on Social Work Education’s Partners in Education award for
“advancing education for international
social work.”
Exploring health care in Guatemala
In July the physician assistant studies master’s program became the third graduate
program to offer a study abroad course tailored for its students. Twelve students traveled to Guatemala for two weeks to learn
about indigenous culture, and specifically
to explore health practices and spirituality
in Mayan cultures.
While there, the students visited clinics, learned about deep social and cultural
disparities, and presented programs on
healthcare topics, such as hypertension and
diabetes. They learned and saw how
healthcare practices can be developed with
vastly fewer resources—something which
may serve them well as they seek physician
assistant positions in areas with underserved populations.
Before traveling, the PA students raised
money to buy supplies and materials to
give to the clinics, such as over-the-counter
vitamins and pain relievers, stethoscopes,
blood pressure cuffs, etc.
Lilly vocation seminars
As part of “Exploring Our Gifts,” Augsburg’s grant from the Lilly Endowment for
exploration of vocation, a total of nine
travel seminars have been designed with a
focus on vocation.
Religion professor Bev Stratton has
twice led a vocation-themed seminar—Religion and the Christian Faith (REL 480)—
to El Salvador, where students have studied
how powerfully the faith of the Salvadoran
people has impacted their struggles for social justice. These courses fulfill the students’ keystone requirement—a seminar
generally taken in their last year that pulls
together their total Augsburg experience,
combining the liberal arts foundation with
their in-depth major, while revisiting the
Courtsey Jennifer Hipple
As part of the Hoversten Peace Seminar, an Augsburg faculty, staff, and student group stopped for a photo while
touring the fields of a coffee cooperative in Guatemala.
critical conversations about vocation.
The El Salvador group visited massacre sites, met with survivors, and heard
from leaders such as Bishop Medardo
Gomez of the Salvadoran Lutheran
Church, who spoke about how he sees his
vocation at work in El Salvador. The group
also became immersed in the work and
legacy of Archbishop Óscar Romero, killed
in the civil war in 1980.
The Lilly seminars have given students
both a cross-cultural experience and a
framework to understand how Christian
vocation is part of daily life. Other Lilly
seminars have taken students to Namibia,
Mexico, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
Hoversten Peace Seminar
Supported by the Hoversten Peace Endowment, this biennial travel seminar for
Augsburg faculty, staff, and students aims
to develop a strong learning community
among participants. Pre-departure orientation introduces the group to each other,
and living and learning together abroad
strengthens their bonds. Upon return, the
group continues to build community
around their common experience by
sharing it with the larger Augsburg community.
In August, 10 faculty, staff, and students—coincidentally, all women—par-
Courtsey Rachel Olson
“I learned how to learn”
Hannah Glusenkamp ’09
Students in the 2005 study seminar to El Salvador studied
the legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed
while championing the struggle of the Salvadoran people
during their long civil war.
ticipated in the 10-day “Peace and Reconciliation after Conflict: A Guatemalan Perspective.” The women learned about the
history of civil war and the peace accords, heard from leaders with differing
perspectives, and confronted the realities
of the local communities.
The efforts to internationalize the
Augsburg campus are showing results. In
2007-08, a record number of 221 Augsburg students studied abroad.
As their first quarter-century came to
a close, CGE director and associate dean
Orval Gingerich noted in their anniversary publication that “the work of CGE is
unfinished, and is perhaps more important than ever in bringing tools for critical analysis and action and ultimately
hope to a new generation of students,
professors, and global citizens.”
Stay tuned for the next 25 years.
Hannah Glusenkamp is a senior majoring in
women’s studies, with minors in Spanish and religion. At the 2008 Peace Prize Forum at Concordia College in Moorhead, she was selected as
one of Augsburg’s two Peace Scholars, a new
program that strives to develop students leaders
aspiring to careers in world peace issues.
Glusenkamp studied on two CGE programs—“Sustainable Development and Social
Change” in Central America, and “Gender, Sexuality, Politics, and the Arts” in Mexico.
“Both of these experiences challenged,
shook up, and reshaped my values, beliefs, and
world view,” she wrote. “From the first day of
the trip we, the students, were encouraged to reflect on our multi-dimensional selves and to approach education from a holistic standpoint, a
standpoint that incorporates all aspects of our
lives into the learning process.”
At the Council on International Educational
Exchange conference last fall, Glusenkamp and
nine other student panelists were asked to share
the most important thing they learned while
studying abroad. “I thought about the question
for a moment and then realized that my answer
had to be, ‘I learned how to learn,’” she said.
“I learned to become an active participant
in my education. … I learned to be curious and
to ask questions. I can no longer travel to a city
or country without wondering what the healthcare system is and if it benefits the people in
that community, or how the public transportation runs, or how subsidies in the United States
might affect the agricultural practices of the indigenous peoples in that community. … I
learned to question whose voice I am hearing
and whose voice is being left out.
“My experiences and time with the Center
for Global Education … showed me that I am
not just a student of Augsburg College for four
years, but rather that we are all students of life,
with the rights and responsibilities to engage in
the dynamic, liberating, and transformative ongoing process of experiential education.”
Fall 2008
27
TRAVEL SEMINARS
850
sponsored groups CGE has
worked with
25
Celebrating
years of
educating for transformation
by Kathleen McBride, regional co-director for Central America
and adjunct professor, Center for Global Education
Crossing borders and challenging boundaries is a
powerful metaphor for our journey of the last 25
years. It is the title of the first Center for Global
Education publication that documented the collective memory of our first years of work. The
Center’s initial experiences in 1979 included
crossing the Mexican border with students for
short-term educational experiences. Since that
time, thousands of participants have joined the
Center’s travel seminars to Mexico, Central America, the Philippines, the Middle East, Southern
Africa, and [locations in the U.S.].
As educators, we see our role as one that
engages students and participants in the world,
facilitating critical analysis and reflection that
leads to action. We believe that intercultural dialogue and collaboration with decision makers
and historically disadvantaged urban and rural
communities are a way of developing greater
understanding of the power relations in the
world and planting seeds towards more just relations and fair practices. These assumptions
are at the root our pedagogical model.
An expanded pedagogical framework
While the pedagogy of Paulo Freire continues to
be the foundation of our educational process (experience—reflection—action), in recent years
other kindred approaches, including feminist and
indigenous pedagogies, have influenced our
practice and strengthened our analysis. All of
28
Augsburg Now
the numbers
12,000+ travel seminar participants
Center for
Global
Education
SEMESTERS ABROAD
300
colleges, whose study semesters are arranged by CGE,
including institutions in the U.S., Germany,
Canada, and Norway
1,900
semester program participants
COUNTRIES VISITED
40+
in Mexico, Central America, South
America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the Middle
East, India, Southeast Asia, China, and Hong Kong,
and the U.S.
CGE FACULTY AND STAFF LOCATIONS
9
Minneapolis
16
Mexico
9
Nicaragua
1
El Salvador
2
Guatemala
8
Namibia
And, millions of stories shared, hearts touched, and
perceptions changed over 25 years across the globe.
these pedagogies place significant emphasis on
learning in community. For Freire, learning in
community is one of the foundations of liberating
education. Historically, learning in community has
been a fundamental characteristic of indigenous
teaching and learning, though underrepresented
in traditional educational systems. Similarly, feminist pedagogy upholds learning in community as
central to educational processes that gives voice
to all people, particularly women, whose experience and voice have oftentimes been silenced.
Concepts of autonomy and empowerment that are
key to feminist and indigenous scholarship have
informed our methodologies and expanded our understanding of the world and of the educational
process. Our efforts to foster ongoing critical
analysis of power relations in the world are
grounded in a practice of intercultural dialogue
and experiences that continue to break open new
understandings of the world, leading us to a
deeper analysis that continually informs our
teaching.
Ongoing challenges
While our role has become clearer with regard to
our niche in the field of transformative education,
we still face significant challenges. As we facilitate
participants’ reflections on educational experi-
ences and encourage the exploration and implementation of action steps, we are confronted with an institutional challenge if we are in fact going to
continue to practice what we teach. To fully engage
the circle of praxis with the goal of transforming society, follow-up to participants’ experience as they
return to their home communities is essential. How
do we, as an institution, provide a space for participants and students to fully engage the circle of
praxis upon their return? How can we facilitate the
exploration of actions steps in participants’ home
communities? …
The Center for Global Education’s work today
continues to be the fruit of dialogue and reflections
with staff and resource people from over a dozen
countries and hundreds of students and participants
from the United States who have inspired our work,
shaped our analysis, challenged our language, and
informed our worldview. We are excited to be engaged in an educational process that will continue
to be refined and changed in the coming years by
new generations of staff and participants engaged in
transformative education.
Excerpted from Global News & Notes, Summer
2007; 25th Anniversary Issue: “Building a Just
and Sustainable World: Educating for
Transformation”
AUGSBURG COLLEGE
ANNUAL REPORT TO DONORS
2007-2008
Fall 2008
29
DEAR FRIENDS,
I write with a deep sense of humility and gratitude for your remarkable support of Augsburg College.
When I received the call to serve as the 10th president of Augsburg College, I enthusiastically accepted,
filled with a sense that God intended my life’s work to intersect with Augsburg’s mission and vision. I give
thanks every day for the opportunity to serve this special college. I am impressed by the deep commitment so
many individuals show toward Augsburg and its important work in the world. This annual report is a reminder to all of us of the importance philanthropy plays in the life of our college, and in the lives of our students. On their behalf, thank you for your generosity.
Our common work here at Augsburg calls us to be good stewards of the many gifts and resources we’ve
been given. Each year, thousands of alumni, parents, and friends make gifts not to the College, but through
the College, directly benefiting the many students we
serve. These students either embark on, or continue,
their vocational journeys here at Augsburg, and the
WE BELIEVE WE ARE CALL
many gifts we receive on an annual basis directly imTO SERVE OUR NEIGHBOR
pact their experience—in the classroom, on campus,
and in our neighborhood.
We have a new and bold way of stating the vision
of Augsburg College. It is this: We believe we are called to serve our neighbor. It is a vision statement that resonates deeply with the legacy and promise, the commitments and values, and the aspirations and reality of
our college. It is a statement that confirms our strong conviction that faith, learning, and service are at the
very heart of our identity as a college. I am especially grateful for the faculty and staff of the College who live
out this vision in educating our students.
To continue to live out this vision in a very real and meaningful way, Augsburg College needs your abiding and increased participation and support. I ask each of you to join me as we work together to secure a
strong and vibrant future for our college, and for our students.
Sincerely,
PAUL C. PRIBBENOW
PRESIDENT
30
Augsburg Now
ED
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2007-08
Six new regents
elected to board
Six new members were elected to fouryear terms on the Augsburg College
Board of Regents at the annual meeting
of the Augsburg Corporation in October
2007. In addition, Michael Good and
Jennifer Martin were re-elected to second
six-year terms. New members: Andra
Adolfson, business development director
of Adolfson & Peterson Construction,
Inc; Rolf Jacobson, writer, educator, and
associate professor of Old Testament at
Luther Seminary; Ruth E. Johnson, MD ’74,
consultant in the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic and assistant professor of medicine at Mayo
Medical School. She was recognized as a
Distinguished Alumna of Augsburg in
1996; Stephen Sheppard, former CEO of
Foldcraft Co; Joan Volz ’68, private practice attorney specializing in mediation;
Bonnie Wallace, scholarship director,
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa.
Garry Hesser appointed new
Sabo Professor
President Pribbenow announced the appointment of Garry Hesser, professor of
sociology and director of the MetroUrban Studies program, as the College’s
first Sabo Professor of Citizenship and
Learning. His work in this new role lays
the groundwork for the establishment of
an endowed Martin Olav Sabo Center
and chair.
As the Sabo Professor, Hesser’s activities include collaboration with the
Center for Service, Work, and Learning
concerning student engagement and
leadership, and development of events,
Students from the organic chemistry and analytical chemistry class labs paused to thank Augsburg donors John ’74
(chemistry) and Marvel Yager for their gifts that support scholarships for chemistry majors. Their $10,000 annual gift is
fully matched by John’s employer, Beckman Coulter, and has provided $80,000 over the past four years to support chemistry students.
programs, and lecture series that promote civic engagement and build community outreach.
Hesser has taught at Augsburg since
1977 and is recognized as a pioneer in
experiential education. In 1997 he received the Thomas Ehrlich Award for
leadership in service-learning, and in
2004 was named the Minnesota Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education.
The Sabo Center in Citizenship and
Learning is the culmination of nearly 20
years of fundraising and advocacy by the
friends and colleagues of Martin Sabo ’59
that celebrates the College’s commitment
to education for democracy.
Metro-urban studies director and professor Garry Hesser
(right) was appointed Sabo Professor of Citizenship and
Learning, honoring the legacy of retired Congressman
Martin Sabo ’59 (left).
Fall 2008
31
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2007-08
Two Augsburg giants
are mourned
Within one month of each other last
year, Augsburg lost two of its most wellknown and longstanding faculty.
Joel Torstenson ’38,
professor emeritus of sociology,
died on October
18, 2007, at the
age of 94.
So much of
Augsburg’s identity today as a college of the city stems from Torstenson’s
work at Augsburg. He founded the sociology and social work departments, and
the metro-urban studies program. He
developed urban programs in Minneapolis that launched HECUA (the
Higher Education Consortium for
Urban Affairs) and that led to the work
of our Center for Service, Work, and
Learning, including Engaging Minneapolis, which requires all students to
connect with the city in their studies.
Torstenson graduated from Augsburg in 1938. He went on for his master’s and doctoral degrees at the
University of Minnesota in history and
sociology. In 1947, Augsburg president
Bernhard Christensen invited him back
to Augsburg, even while still completing
his PhD, to develop programs in sociology and social work.
Torstenson’s deep commitment to
social issues led him to explore and
work in farmers’ cooperative movements, rural community life, churchlabor relations, racial justice and human
rights, and urban studies, especially
studying the question of the role of a
32
Augsburg Now
liberal arts college in a metropolis.
Torstenson’s memoir, Takk for Alt: A Life
Story, opens a window into his life’s
work and thought.
Leland Sateren ’35,
professor emeritus of music, died
on Nov. 10, 2007,
at the age of 94.
Sateren graduated from Augsburg in 1935, and
for the next 10
years attended graduate school at the
University of Minnesota, where he was
music director at the KUOM radio station. After public service during World
War II he returned to Augsburg, and
four years later he became chair of the
Music Department and director of the
Augsburg Choir. He retired in 1979.
His work includes more than 400
choral pieces he composed, and he was
passionate about Scandinavian choral
music. Sateren introduced the work of
many Scandinavian composers to American choral directors.
Among Sateren’s many notable accomplishments are premieres of works
with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and a commissioned piece at the
United Nations to commemorate the
20th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sateren was the first recipient of the
F. Melius Christiansen Memorial Award
for choral directors. In 2002 he was
awarded the Weston Noble Choral Directors Award. He was also honored
Home economics graduates from 1950 to 1970 honored the memory of their mentor, teacher, and friend Ruth Segolson,
who served as chair of the Home Economics Department. Following her death in 1980, a fund was established to provide a
special gift in her memory. In November, on behalf of all former home economics majors, Jerilyn Hovland Cobb ’63 presented a tea service to the College, pictured here as it was first used at the Augsburg House reception honoring convocation speaker Jane Fonda. (L to R) President Pribbenow, Abigail Pribbenow, Dora (Frojen) Quanbeck ’49, and Philip
Quanbeck Sr. ’50.
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2007-08
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a campaign rally at Augsburg on
February 3, just prior to the “Super Tuesday” primaries. With one day’s notice, Augsburg
staff, along with her campaign team, readied Melby Hall for the lively Sunday afternoon
event that drew nearly 5,000 people, plus local and national media.
with the St. Olaf Medal, presented by
King Olav V of Norway, and received
two honorary doctorates.
Sateren’s impact on the many hundreds of Augsburg students who sang in
his choir was remarkable. Peter Hendrickson ’76, director of choral activities
and current conductor of the Augsburg
Choir, studied with Sateren. A number
of other Sateren choir alumni currently
sing in the Masterworks Chorale at
Augsburg, directed by Hendrickson.
$100,000 Class of 1957
Endowment Fund
Congratulations to the Class of 1957
alumni and their spouses for establishing the Class of 1957 Endowment Fund
in celebration of their 50th class reunion. Their commitment and loyalty
help ensure that Augsburg can meet the
needs of its future students, especially
Jane Fonda presented the 2007 Koryne Horbal Lecture in November, sharing her
thoughts on the importance of beginning the “third act” of her life as she celebrated
her 60th birthday.
in areas of financial aid, program support, enhanced technology, and student
support services.
The endowment was jumpstarted
through the generosity of a class member who provided matches for all gifts
up to $50,000, challenging fellow classmates to participate at all levels.
Augsburg is grateful to the Class of
1957 for creating this important legacy
during their milestone year to honor
their Augsburg education. The foundation provides for today’s and tomorrow’s
students. It keeps them connected to
the traditions and heritage of the College as they craft their own legacies and
ties with students who come after them.
Spirit of Augsburg Award
Beverly Nilsson, professor emerita of nursing, taught at Augsburg from 1977 to
2001, serving as department chair from
1978 until her retirement.
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Dr. Bruce Amundson ’60, a leader in the
Peace Corps, Job Corps, and in rural
community health programs; presently
works to advance the integration of
medical care and mental health care in
Washington State.
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Jim Pederson ’56 former legislator in the
Minnesota House of Representatives
and Dept. of Public Safety.
2007 Homecoming Awards
The First Decade Award
Jasmina Besirevic-Regan ’97 dean of Trumbull College, one of Yale’s undergraduate residential colleges.
To read more about the 2007 Alumni
Awards, go to www.augsburg.edu/now
Fall 2008
33
2007-2008 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Where the Money Comes From
Where the Money Goes
3%
5%
3%
Government grants
Other sources
3%
Debt service
Equipment
and capital
improvement
2%
Student salary
6%
4%
Private gifts and grants
Utilities
12%
Room and board
20%
47%
Salary and benefits
Financial aid
74%
Tuition
21%
Other
$34.5
$33.7
$30.5
2008 Endowment Market Value
May 31, 2008
$33,692,461
As of May 31, 2008, we have annual realized and unrealized losses
of 3.4% on our endowment. However, last year’s annualized return
was over 16%. Our five-year average annual return on the endowment is 6.21%, and the ten-year
average annual return is 5.39%. We
are committed to maintaining the
value of the principal gifts and to
provide support to the college in
perpetuity.
$26.6
$24.8
$23.2
$25.4
$22.7 $23.3
$20.0
$16.4
$14.2
$11.5
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Endowment Assets
(in millions)
June 1, 1995 – May 31, 2008
34
Augsburg Now
$26.7
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
DEAR FRIENDS,
As we begin our 140th academic year, it is truly my pleasure to share with you the many gifts and contributions made to Augsburg College between June 1, 2007, and May 31, 2008. Even more important than the thousands of gifts received, however, are
the thousands of generous alumni, parents, and friends who made these gifts.
This past year, my first at Augsburg, was an exciting one. Following on the heels of the successful Access to Excellence campaign, a great deal was accomplished for the benefit of our many students. With deep gratitude, I would like to highlight much of
the success we accomplished together.
• We were blessed to receive over 9,000 gifts last year from more than 4,600
donors. The support and generosity of these individuals make a direct and
positive impact on the lives of our students in many ways. These gifts went to
support the Augsburg Fund, student scholarships, capital projects, the fine
arts, athletics, signature programs, and many other important initiatives.
• One exciting highlight from this past fiscal year was that the Augsburg
Fund, our fund for unrestricted gifts to the College, topped the $1 million
mark for only the third time ever and the first time outside of a campaign
year. Our result of $1,001,978.91 was a 10% increase over the prior fiscal year.
We received 5,143 gifts from 2,763 donors to reach this goal.
• Several key groups also came together last year in support of Augsburg College through their philanthropy. I am so proud to inform you that we received
100% participation to the Augsburg Fund from the Board of Regents, the
Alumni Board of Directors, and the President’s Cabinet. This type of support
from these three groups of individuals demonstrates the type of commitment
to this institution by its various groups of leaders.
• Augsburg also received 853 gifts totaling $756,094 to new or existing
scholarship funds, including the establishment of 12 new endowed
scholarships. Two additional scholarships were also funded at the
presidential level, bringing our total of President’s Scholarships to
three. Scholarships are a primary source of financial aid for many deserving students at Augsburg, and we are again grateful that hundreds
of generous individuals have chosen to establish or contribute to these
funds, directly benefiting our student learners.
YOUR SUPPORT AND
GENEROSITY MAKE A
DIFFERENCE IN THE
LIVES OF OUR STUDENTS
• The College also completed its first year of residency in the new Oren Gateway Center and its first fully-operational year in the
new Kennedy Center. These two new facilities, direct results of the generosity shown in the last capital campaign, have made a
positive permanent impact on the life of this institution. Students now directly benefit from new residence halls, state-of-theart classrooms, athletic and wellness facilities, and important gathering and meeting spaces.
As we enter yet another year with great anticipation of what the future will hold for our college, and our students, we look back
with tremendous gratitude for the many blessings we have been given. We are most grateful for each and every gift we receive
and I thank you most sincerely.
Sincerely,
JEREMY R. WELLS
VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT
Fall 2008
35
LIFETIME GIVING
The following list recognizes alumni and friends of Augsburg College who have generously given a minimum of $100,000 (since 1980),
including planned gifts, over a lifetime. We are immensely grateful for their examples of loyalty and commitment to the College.
Ernest+ and Helen Alne
Charles and Ellora Alliss Education Foundation
Oscar+ ’38 and Leola+ Anderson
Brian Anderson ’82 and Leeann Rock ’81
Charles and Catherine Anderson
Daniel ’65 and Alice Anderson
Donald ’60 and Violet Anderson
Earl and Doris Bakken
Loren and Mary Quanbeck ’77 Barber
Elizabeth ’82 and Warren Bartz
Paul ’63 and LaVonne Olson ’63 Batalden
Sidney ’57 and Lola Lidstrom ’50 Berg
Barbara and Zane Birky
Roy ’50 and Ardis Bogen
John+ and Joyce Boss
Donald Bottemiller
Rodney and Barbara Burwell
Bush Foundation
Carlson Companies
The Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation
Shirley Cherkasky
Richard ’74 and Nancy Colvin
David and Mary Brandt ’79 Croft
Theodore and Pamala Deikel
Deluxe Corporation Foundation
Darrell ’55 and Helga Egertson
Tracy L. Elftmann ’81
Philip and Laverne Fandrei
Jerry and Jean Foss
William and Anne Frame
Barbara and Edwin Gage
General Mills Foundation
Michael ’71 and Ann Good
Roger Griffith ’84 and Jean Taylor ’85
H. Theodore ’76 and Michele Grindal
Raymond ’57 and Janice Grinde
Phillip+ ’55 and Lynne Gronseth
Carolyn and Franklin Groves
Stephen ’70 and Margaret Gundale
James and Kathleen Haglund
Hearst Foundation
Loren Henderson
Donald Hennings
Grace Forss ’57 Herr and Douglas Herr
Donald ’39 and Phyllis Holm
Allen and Jean Housh
Garfield Hoversten ’50
Robert Hoversten
Huss Foundation
Sandra and Richard Jacobson
James Johnson and Maxine Isaacs
Kinney Johnson ’65
Dean ’75 and Terry Kennedy
Bruce and Maren Kleven
David and Barbara Kleven
E. Milton Kleven ’46
Dean and Susan Kopperud
Kraus-Anderson Construction Company
David Lankinen ’88
Diane and Philip Larson
George ’61 and Mary Larson
Harris ’57 and Maryon Lee
James Lindell ’46
Arne ’49 and Jean Swanson ’52 Markland
Marie and Larry McNeff
Gerard and Anne Meistrell
Hoyt+ ’39 and Lucille Messerer
Robert ’70 and Sue Midness
Every effort has been made to ensure that all names are included and spelled correctly.
If you notice an error, please contact Kevin Healy at 1-800-273-0617 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
+ Deceased
36
Augsburg Now
Paul ’84 and Nancy Mackey ’85 Mueller
William and Stephanie Naegele
Barbara Tjornhom ’54 Nelson and Richard Nelson
George ’68 and Tamra Nelson
Ronald ’68 and Mary Kay Nelson
Robert Odegard ’51+
R. Luther Olson ’56
Beverly Halling ’55 Oren and Donald ’53 Oren
John and Norma Paulson
Robert ’50 and Ruth Paulson
Glen Person ’47
Harvey ’52 and Joanne Varner ’52 Peterson
Addison and Cynthia Piper
David Piper
Harry and Mary Piper
Mark ’53 and Jean Raabe
Alan Rice
Curtis and Marian Sampson
Ward ’74 and Catherine Schendel
Ruth Schmidt ’52
James and Eva Seed
Rodney Sill ’82
John and Martha Singleton
Glen and Anna Skovholt
Gladys Boxrud Strommen ’46
Leland and Louise Sundet
Dean ’81 and Amy Sundquist
Glen A. Taylor Foundation
P. Dawn Heil Taylor ’78
Teagle Foundation
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Robert ’63 and Marie Tufford
Emily Anne and Gedney Tuttle
Scott Weber ’79
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
ANNUAL GIVING
GIFTS RECEIVED JUNE 1, 2007 TO MAY 31, 2008
The following list recognizes alumni and friends of Augsburg College who generously gave a minimum of $1,000 in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
3M Foundation
Ruth Aaskov ’53
Accenture
Kate Addo
Andra Adolfson
Adolfson & Peterson Construction
Aegon Transamerica Foundation
Peter ’70 and Mary Agre
Lois Richter ’60 Agrimson and Russell Agrimson
Edward ’50 and Margaret Alberg
Charles and Ellora Alliss Education Foundation
Paul ’59 and Pearl Almquist
The American Foundation
Ameriprise Financial
Brian Anderson ’82 and Leeann Rock ’81
Charles and Catherine Anderson
Daniel ’65 and Alice Anderson
Deloris Anderson ’56
Donald ’60 and Violet Anderson
Kim ’73 and Nancy Kerber ’74 Anderson
Leif Anderson
Robert ’77 and Katherine Anderson
Scott ’76 and Lisa Anderson
Steven and Stephanie Anderson
William ’86 and Kelly Anderson
I. Shelby Gimse Andress ’56
James ’88 and Christine Pieri ’88 Arnold
Carla Asleson ’91
Al Assad
The Aston Group, Inc.
Avaya Communication
B R Direct Marketing, Inc.
Dorothy Bailey
Stanley ’57 and Mary Esther Baker
Paul ’63 and LaVonne Olson ’63 Batalden
Stephen ’67 and Sandra Batalden
Estate of Abner B Batalden
Tracy and Janel Beckman
Vera Thorson Benzel ’45
Norman ’59 and Delores Berg
Sidney ’57 and Lola Lidstrom ’50 Berg
Samuel ’97 and Melissa Wieland ’97 Bergstrom
Daryl and Marylee Bible
Birgit Birkeland ’58
Robert and Lynda Bisanz
Nancy Paulson ’70 Bjornson and J. Ragnar
Bjornson
Stephen ’74 and Janet Blake
Buffie Blesi ’90 and John Burns
David ’68 and Lynn Boe
Boeing Company
Kevin Bonderud ’79
Amy Bowar ’97
Thomas ’78 and Julie Bramwell
Marilyn Saure ’61 Breckenridge and Tom
Breckenridge
Heidi Breen
Bruce Brekke
Kyle Brown ’88
Adam Buhr ’98 and Laura Pejsa ’98
Carolyn Burfield ’60
Marion Buska ’46
BWBR Architects
Cargill Foundation
Laurie Carlson ’79 and William Voedisch
Wayne ’69 and Pamela Bjorklund ’69 Carlson
Carolyn Foundation
James and Kimberly Cassens
John and Peggy Cerrito
Shirley Cherkasky
Keith ’65 and Lynn Chilgren
Rev. Dr. Herbert ’54 and Rev. E Corrine Chilstrom
David ’72 and Michelle Karkhoff ’72 Christianson
Harlan ’57 Christianson
C. Lee Clarke
Jerelyn Hovland ’63 and Clyde Cobb
Richard ’74 and Nancy Colvin
Joseph Cook ’89
Walter and Janet Cooper
The Cotswold Foundation Trust
Brent Crego ’84
George ’72 and Janet Dahlman
Sally Hough Daniels ’79
Bartley Davidson ’76
Dow Corning Corporation Matching Gifts
Downey McGrath Group, Inc.
Karen ’81 and Charles Durant
Beverly Durkee
E.A. Sween Company
Julie Edstrom ’90
Darrell ’55 and Helga Egertson
Judy Thompson Eiler ’65
Daniel ’77 and Patricia Eitrheim
ELCA
Tracy L. Elftmann ’81
Elftmann Family Foundation
Fuad and Nancy El-Hibri
Avis Ellingrod
Rona Quanbeck ’48 Emerson and Victor Emerson
The Eppley Foundation For Research, Inc.
Edna Kastner ’42 Ericksen
Dennis ’64 and Mary Lou Ervin ’64 Erickson
L. Craig ’79 and Theresa Serbus ’79 Estrem
Alice C. Evans
Barbara A. Farley
Jane and Patrick Fischer
Dawn Formo
Jerome Formo ’37
Jamie Fragola
William and Anne Frame
Andrew Fried ’93
Laurie ’80 Fyksen-Beise and William Beise
Estate of Charles T. Gabrielson
Barbara and Edwin Gage
General Mills Foundation
Anthony ’85 and Traci Genia
Glen ’52 and Irvyn Gilbertson
Hugh ’58 and Kay Lemmerman ’60 Gilmore
Orval and Cleta Gingerich
Estate of Richard Irving Gisselquist
Gerald and Susan ’76 Glaser
Global Impact
GMAC-RFC
Andrew and Carolyn Goddard
Goldman, Sachs & Co
Michael ’71 and Ann Good
Gopher Wrestling Club
Shirley Larson ’51 Goplerud and Dean Goplerud
Roger ’61 and Barbara Milne ’60 Gordon
Thomas Gormley and Mary Lesch-Gormley
Paul and Margot Grangaard
Robert and Nancy Granrud
Fall 2008
37
Paul and Judy Grauer
Greater Twin Cities United Way
Charles and Barbara Green
William and Judith Green
Roger Griffith ’84 and Jean Taylor ’85
H. Theodore ’76 and Michele Grindal
Raymond ’57 and Janice Grinde
Stephen ’70 and Margaret Gundale
Margaret and Gunderson
Mabeth Saure ’58 Gyllstrom and Richard Gyllstrom
Patrick ’78 and Debra Haar
Mark ’77 and Naomi Hall
Halleland Lewis Nilan Sipkins & Johnson P.A.
William ’51 and Marolyn Sortland ’51 Halverson
Clarence Hansen ’53
Anna Hovland ’58 Hanson
Skylar ’01 and Jennifer Hanson
Estate of Russell I. Hanson and Viola M. Hanson
Jodi and Stanley Harpstead
Robert ’83 and Lynne Harris
John H. Harris III Memorial Foundation
Richard and Dail Hartnack
Christopher Haug ’79 and Karl Starr
David ’67 and Karen Jacobson ’67 Haugen
Dorothy Haugen
Helen ’49 and James Haukeness
Lee Hawks ’84
Lisa Svac Hawks ’85
Philip ’42 and Ruth Helland
Raymond Henjum ’55
Leo Henkemeyer
Hennepin County
Grace Forss ’57 Herr and Douglas Herr
Garry Hesser and Nancy Homans
Bruce ’90 Holcomb and Caroline Vernon
Kenneth ’74 and Linda Bailey ’74 Holmen
Dean ’57 and Jane Holmes
Homeland Foundation
Elizabeth Horton
Joel and Alice Houlton
Allen ’64 and Lenice Hoversten
Clarence ’41 and Marguerite Hoversten
Kermit ’50 and Ruth Hoversten
Philip ’71 and Patricia Hoversten
Joseph ’61 and Mei Shen Hsieh
Michael and Barbara Hubbard
Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation
Joseph and Linnea Daigle Hudson
Alvin John and Ruth Huss
Huss Foundation
Mohamed Hussein ’03
Glenda and Richard Huston
38
Augsburg Now
Brandon Hutchinson ’99
Barbara and Richard Hutson
IBM Corporation
Duane ’68 and Diane Ilstrup
Imation Corporation
Mary and Tony Jacobson
Sandra and Richard Jacobson
Bruce ’68 and Lois Hallcock ’68 Johnson
Carol Oversvee Johnson ’61
Ruth E. Johnson ’74 and Philip Quanbeck II
Estate of Louisa Johnson
Kinney Johnson ’65
Merton ’59 and Jo An D. Bjornson ’58 Johnson
Craig Jones
Roberta Kagin and Craig Alexander
Jennifer Abeln ’78 Kahlow and Larry Kahlow
Cheri Hofstad ’85 Kamp and Thomas Kamp
Dean ’75 and Terry Kennedy
Mary Ann Kinney ’04
Cody Kirkham
Michael Kivley ’89
Linda Klas ’92
E. Milton Kleven ’46
Jason Koch ’93 and Heather Johnston ’92
Elsie Ronholm Koivula ’49
Dean and Susan Kopperud
Kopp Family Foundation
Joanne Stiles ’58 Laird and David Laird
Martin Larson ’80
Marvin and Ruth Ringstad ’53 Larson
Julie Gudmestad ’65 and Joseph Laudicina
Bernadine and Sidney Lee
Harris ’57 and Maryon Lee
Andre Lewis ’73 and Kathleen McCartin
James Lindell ’46
Gaye and Stephen Lindfors
Mary Sue and Hugh Lindsay
Dana Lonn
Stanley ’56 and Gailya Ludviksen
Wenona ’55 and Norman Lund
John ’65 and Gracia Nydahl ’66 Luoma
Pamela and Robert MacDonald
Janet Mackenzie ’90
Roger ’57 and Fern Mackey
Philip ’79 and Diane Madsen
Kay Malchow ’82 and Stephen Cook
Lyle ’68 and Susanne Starn ’68 Malotky
Terry Marquardt ’98 and Gary Donahue
Jennifer and Richard Martin
Norman ’57 and Gayle Engedal ’57 Matson
Donald ’66 and Margaret Mattison
Donna Demler McLean
Christopher ’00 and Tara Cesaretti ’97 McLeod
Marie and Larry McNeff
Merck Partnership For Giving
Merrill Lynch
Daniel ’65 and Mary Tildahl ’65 Meyers
Deidre Durand ’88 and Bruce Middleton
Robert ’70 and Sue Midness
Paul ’70 and Barbara Durkee ’71 Mikelson
Dennis ’67 and Christine Miller
Gerald ’57 and Frida Mindrum
Spencer ’66 and Gay Johnson ’66 Minear
Minnesota Hockey Coaches Assoc.
Minnesota Private College Foundation
Jeanette Mitchell
Thomas ’59 and Ruth Carlsen ’60 Moen
Thelma Monson ’41
Alan Montgomery and Janet KarvonenMontgomery
Thomas and Lorraine Morgan
LaWayne ’51 and D. LaRhea Johnson ’51 Morseth
Sharon Mortrud
Paul ’84 and Nancy Mackey ’85 Mueller
Dylan ’97 and Wendy ’96 Nau
Gordon Nelson
Mildred Nelson ’52
Robert ’44 Nelson and Helen Johnson-Nelson
Ronald ’68 and Mary Kay Nelson
Steven ’64 and Rebecca ’64 Nielsen
Norma Noonan
Edwin and Edith Norberg Charitable Trust
Roselyn Nordaune ’77
Jane Huseby ’65 Norman
Shirley and James ’57 Norman
Normandale Lutheran Church Foundation
Terry ’70 and Vicki Nygaard
Leroy ’52 and Betty Munson ’53+ Nyhus
Oak Grove Lutheran Church
Robert Odegard ’51+
Richard ’69 and Sandra Larson ’69 Olmsted
Donald Olsen ’60
Bruce L. Olson ’71
Dean Olson ’00
R. Luther Olson ’56
Beverly Halling ’55 Oren and Donald ’53 Oren
Beverly Ottum
Patricia and John Parker
Subhashchandra ’75 and Annette Hanson ’74 Patel
John and Norma Paulson
Robert ’50 and Ruth Paulson
Peace Lutheran Church of Plymouth
Richard ’74 and Karen Pearson
Glen Person ’47
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
Corwin and Doris Peterson
Eugene ’59 and Paula Peterson
Harvey ’52 and Joanne Varner ’52 Peterson
Karin Peterson
Ron ’69 and Jane Petrich
Sandra Phaup ’64
Jay Phinney ’79
Presser Foundation
President Paul C. Pribbenow and Abigail
Crampton Pribbenow
Project Consulting Group
Karl D. Puterbaugh ’52
Linda Hanwick ’64 and John Putnam
Lois Quam and Matthew Entenza
Philip ’50 and Dora Frojen ’49 Quanbeck
Mark ’53 and Jean Raabe
Lloyd ’63 and Linnea Raymond
RBC Dain Rauscher Foundation
Donald F. and Mary Sue Zelle Reed Fund
Bruce and Sharon Reichenbach
Stephen Rivard and Christine Jett-Rivard
Eunice Kyllo ’62 Roberts and Warren Roberts
Frances Roller
Olive Ronholm ’47
Philip Jr. and Margaret Rowberg
Philip Rowberg ’41
Gerald ’48 and Judith Ryan
Martin ’59 and Sylvia Sabo
Curtis and Marian Sampson
Audrey Nagel ’51 Sander
Judith and William Scheide
Ruth Schmidt ’52
Inez Olson ’59 Schwarzkopf and Lyall Schwarzkopf
Douglas Scott and Grace Schroeder Scott
Michael ’71 and Bonnie Scott
Charles and Ritchie Markoe Scribner
Milan ’48 and Marian Sedio
James and Eva Seed
Phyllis ’58 and Harold Seim
Richard ’70 and Linda Seime
Frankie and Jole Shackelford
Shepherd of the Glades Lutheran Church
Stephen and Kay Sheppard
Chad ’93 and Margaret Shilson
Michael and Pamela Sime
Russel ’50 and Virginia Thompson ’50 Smith
Neal ’57 and Judy Fosse ’61 Snider
Steven and Pamela Snyder
David Soli ’81
Earle ’69 and Kathleen Kupka ’69 Solomonson
John ’62 and Ruth Sather ’63 Sorenson
Allan ’53 and Eunice Nystuen ’50 Sortland
Arne and Ellen Sovik
Joyce Engstrom ’70 Spector and Robert Spector
Gary ’68 and Jeanette Stangland
David ’63 and Karen Henry ’64 Steenson
Todd ’89 and Amy Steenson
Donald and Annelies Steinmetz
Myles and Eunice Stenshoel
Jeffrey ’82 and Peggy Stoks
Beverly and Thomas Stratton
Gladys Boxrud Strommen ’46
Philip ’79 and Julia Davis ’79 Styrlund
Grace Kemmer ’58 Sulerud and Ralph Sulerud
Kenneth Svendsen ’78 and Allison Everett ’78
Brian Swedeen ’92 and Terri Burnor ’92
M. Douglas + and Solveig Swendseid
Jeffrey ’79 and Melissa Swenson
Gary ’80 and Deanna Tangwall
Elizabeth and Kenneth Tankel
P. Dawn Heil Taylor ’78
Glen A. Taylor Foundation
TCF Foundation
Jacqueline ’80 and John Teisberg
Paul ’60 and Nancy Thompsen
Harold and Maureen Thompson
Jennings ’51 and Mary Schindler ’48 Thompson
Richard ’61 and Jane Thompson
Gordon ’52 and Gloria Parizek ’53 Thorpe
Marlys Holm ’57 Thorsgaard and Arlen Thorsgaard
Thrivent Financial For Lutherans
David and Martha Tiede
Christine Toretti
The Toro Company
Allan ’75 Torstenson and Frances Homans
Frances and Joel ’38+ Torstenson
Todd Tourand ’99
Gordon ’57 and Karen Egesdal ’61 Trelstad
Lawrence ’69 and Susan Turner
Peter Turner
Emily Anne and Gedney Tuttle
Betty and Paul Tveite
F. Clayton ’72 Tyler and Jackie Parker ’76
Cherryhomes
UBS Foundation
Morris ’42 and Grace Ulring
US Bancorp Foundation
Ruth Usem
Catherine Van Der Schans
Julie Lien ’82 and Steve Vanderboom
Mary ’70 and Dennis Veiseth
Peter and Linda Vogt
Frank ’69 and Wendy Wagner
Robert Wagner ’02
Norman ’76 and Kathryn Anderson ’76 Wahl
Martha and Steven Ward
Colleen Watson ’91 and Mary McDougal
Lois ’76 Wattman and Douglas Shaw
Wells Fargo Educational Matching Gift Program
Wells Fargo Foundation Community Support
John ’49 and Arnhild Werket
Wheelock Whitney and Kathleen Blatz
The Whitney Foundation
Mary and Gunnar Wick
Robert Wick ’81
David and Catherine Wold
John ’74 and Marvel Yager
Ziemann Insurance Services, Inc.
Every effort has been made to ensure that all names are included and spelled correctly.
If you notice an error, please contact Kevin Healy at 1-800-273-0617 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
Fall 2008
39
CONSECUTIVE GIVING
The following list recognizes alumni and friends of Augsburg College who have generously given for 10 or more consecutive fiscal years,
as indicated by the number in parentheses. (Gifts received since 1980)
3M Foundation (25)
Ordelle Aaker ’46 (11)
Ruth Aaskov ’53 (29)
Lois Richter ’60 Agrimson and Russell
Agrimson (16)
Harold ’47 and Lois Black ’47 Ahlbom (29)
Edward ’50 and Margaret Alberg (11)
Paul ’59 and Pearl Almquist (10)
Charles and Catherine Anderson (28)
Daniel ’65 and Alice Anderson (29)
Deloris Anderson ’56 (17)
Elizabeth Manger ’53 Anderson and Delbert
Anderson (10)
Kristin Anderson (10)
Leif Anderson (10)
Margaret and Raymond Anderson (11)
Margaret Anderson (10)
Ray Anderson ’49 (21)
Robert ’77 and Katherine Anderson (16)
Scott ’76 and Lisa Anderson (10)
Theodore ’48 Anderson and Eliazbeth
Hibbeler-Anderson (10)
William ’86 and Kelly Anderson (12)
LeRoy ’52 and Carole Anenson (11)
Frank ’50 and Georgette Lanes ’50 Ario (28)
Elyce Lundquist ’58 Arvidson and Marvin
Arvidson (22)
John ’79 and Rebecca Lundeen ’79 Aune (17)
Dorothy Bailey (14)
Stanley ’57 and Mary Esther Baker (29)
Elizabeth ’82 and Warren Bartz (10)
Paul ’63 and LaVonne Olson ’63 Batalden (15)
Gerald ’56 and Nancy Baxter (10)
Hamar ’34 and Wanda Severson ’40 Benson (12)
John Benson ’55 (29)
Vera Thorson Benzel ’45 (25)
Gertrude Ness Berg ’51 (15)
John Berg ’59 (17)
Sidney ’57 and Lola Lidstrom ’50 Berg (10)
Jack ’49 and LeVerne Berry (27)
Anthony and Kathy Bibus (10)
Birgit Birkeland ’58 (22)
Gary ’65 and Jean Blosberg (11)
David ’79 and Peggy Boots (12)
Bruce ’64 and Nancy Braaten (12)
40
Augsburg Now
Heidi Breen (15)
Daniel and Irene Brink (13)
Michael Burden ’85 (14)
Carolyn Burfield ’60 (10)
Marion Buska ’46 (19)
Daniel ’61 and Faith Carlson (11)
Jeroy ’48 and Lorraine Carlson (29)
Laurie Carlson ’79 and William Voedisch (11)
Roger ’54 and Dorothy Carlson (10)
Wayne ’69 and Pamela Bjorklund ’69 Carlson (19)
Wendell ’63 and Grace Carlson (10)
Linda Carlstedt ’63 (29)
Joyce Catlin ’73 Casey and Paul Casey (27)
Carl ’59 and Kathleen Aaker ’62 Casperson (11)
Peggy and John Cerrito (10)
Rev. Dr. Herbert ’54 and Rev. E
Corrine Chilstrom (12)
Judith Christensen (10)
Paul ’59 and Gloria Christensen (11)
Jeff Christenson ’82 (10)
Janet Niederloh ’58 Christeson and John
Christeson (11)
David ’72 and Michelle Karkhoff ’72
Christianson (20)
Joseph ’53 and Connie Cleary (11)
Richard ’74 and Nancy Colvin (28)
Donald and Janice Conrad (18)
Laura Bower ’91 Cunliffe and Wayne Cunliffe (10)
Oliver Dahl ’45 (11)
Addell Halverson Dahlen ’43 (18)
Lester Dahlen ’39 (29)
Leonard ’52 and Anabelle Hanson ’51 Dalberg (28)
Sally Hough Daniels ’79 (10)
Lois Mackey Davis ’58 (10)
LeVon Paulson Dinter ’52 (22)
Hans ’56 and Donna Dumpys (21)
Linda Lundeen ’74 Dunn and Douglas Dunn (14)
Julie Edstrom ’90 (12)
Ruben ’45 and Thelma Egeberg (10)
Judy Thompson Eiler ’65 (10)
Curtis ’84 and Jody Eischens (10)
Daniel ’77 and Patricia Eitrheim (10)
ELCA (21)
Elftmann Family Foundation (14)
Avis Ellingrod (13)
Valborg Kyllo ’54 Ellingson and Phillip
Ellingson (15)
Rona Quanbeck ’48 Emerson and Victor
Emerson (15)
Mark and Lynette Engebretson (10)
Fred ’60 and Janet Engelmann (20)
James Ericksen ’69 (27)
Reynold ’41 and Marian Erickson (19)
Dean ’68 and Diana Olson ’69 Ersfeld (15)
Alice C. Evans (10)
John ’82 and Joan Moline ’83 Evans (22)
Leland ’53 and Eunice Fairbanks (22)
Marilyn Pearson ’76 Florian and Kenneth
Florian (26)
Jerome Formo ’37 (27)
William and Anne Frame (12)
Esther Oleson ’54 Freund and Norman
Freund (11)
R. Mark Frey (10)
Andrew Fried ’93 (11)
Marilyn Elness ’53 Froiland and Philip
Froiland (17)
Terry ’67 and Pauline Frovik (10)
Ann Garvey (10)
Alan ’67 and Marilyn Albaugh ’67 Gierke (29)
Donald ’60 and Nancy Gilberg (14)
Rachel Rohde ’76 Gilchrist and Chris Gilchrist (19)
Borghild Gisselquist (10)
Gary and Barbara Glasscock (11)
Alexander ’90 and Simone Gonzalez (18)
Shirley Larson ’51 Goplerud and Dean
Goplerud (28)
Lorraine Vash ’67 Gosewisch and David
Gosewisch (10)
Paul and Judy Grauer (27)
Douglas Green and Becky Boling (10)
Cindy Greenwood 2005 (10)
H. Theodore ’76 and Michele Grindal (22)
Raymond ’57 and Janice Grinde (29)
Steven ’81 and Kathy Grinde (11)
Paul ’62 and Susan Grover (27)
John and Laurie Grygelko (12)
Fern Hanson Gudmestad ’41 (26)
Sonia Overmoen ’62 Gullicks and Milton
Gullicks (22)
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
Marlys Ringdahl ’53 Gunderson and Charles
Gunderson (21)
Arlin Gyberg (29)
Mabeth Saure ’58 Gyllstrom and Richard
Gyllstrom (27)
Mark ’77 and Naomi Hall (20)
William ’51 and Marolyn Sortland ’51
Halverson (10)
Arvin ’55 and Twila Halvorson (28)
Edward and Shirley Hansen (24)
Sylvia Kleven Hanson ’50 (12)
John ’69 and Barbara Harden (11)
Evelyn Green ’49 Harris and Edward Harris (12)
Betty Johnson ’58 Haas and Charles Hass (28)
Christopher Haug ’79 and Karl Starr (13)
Marjorie Wilberg Hauge ’50 (25)
Burton ’72 and Rollie Haugen (14)
Marilyn Peterson1963 Haus and George Haus (27)
Philip ’42 and Ruth Helland (21)
Gerald ’59 and Maxine Hendricks (10)
Robert ’55 and Karin Herman (10)
Garry Hesser and Nancy Homans (29)
Jean Magnuson ’57 Hicks and David Hicks (10)
Rodney ’59 and Arlene Selander ’59 Hill (12)
Helen Sigvald Hjelmeland ’41 (12)
Sylvia Hjelmeland (11)
Thomas ’57 and Arlene Hofflander (20)
James ’61 and Caroline Holden (21)
Norman and Ilene Holen (20)
Dean ’57 and Jane Holmes (10)
Bradley ’63 and Linda Holt (28)
James ’59 and Joanne Horn (10)
Donald ’65 and Delores Hoseth (10)
Robert ’67 and Jane Hosman (23)
Allen ’64 and Lenice Hoversten (29)
Kermit ’50 and Ruth Hoversten (11)
Edith Hovey (15)
Florence Retrum Hovland ’40 (21)
Joseph ’61 and Mei Shen Hsieh (19)
Glenda and Richard Huston (17)
Bruce and Jean Inglis (12)
Rosemary Jacobson ’69 (14)
Jeffrey ’80 and Jacqui Jarnes (11)
Bruce ’68 and Lois Hallcock ’68 Johnson (11)
David ’64 and Karen Johnson (10)
Doris Wilkins ’63 Johnson and Charles
Johnson (12)
Duane and Ruth Johnson (21)
Glen and Marlys Johnson (10)
Gloria Johnson ’51 (20)
Janet Batalden ’61 Johnson and Dennis ’61
Johnson (13)
Joan ’94 and Mark Johnson (14)
Kinney Johnson ’65 (18)
Laurel Jones ’69 Johnson and Larry Johnson (13)
Marcellus ’54 and Thelma Johnson (10)
Martha Johnson (10)
Ruth E. Johnson ’74 and Philip Quanbeck II (21)
Kenneth & Lillian Ysteboe ’51 Ose
Ervin ’56 & Sylvia Overlund
Theodore ’68 and Michelle Johnson (12)
Wayne Johnson ’58 (26)
Helen Johnson-Nelson and Robert ’44 Nelson (13)
Roberta Kagin and Craig Alexander (28)
Jennifer Abeln ’78 Kahlow and Larry Kahlow (11)
Cheri Hofstad ’85 Kamp and Thomas Kamp (11)
Richard ’69 and Cheryl Nelson ’70 King (11)
Cody Kirkham (11)
Sharon Dittbenner ’65 Klabunde and Richard
Klabunde (22)
E. Milton Kleven ’46 (11)
Jerome Kleven ’58 (12)
Lowell ’54 and Janice Kleven (24)
Leo Klohr and Judy Occhetti-Klohr (12)
LaRhae Grindal Knatterud ’70 (12)
Millard ’52 and Dorothy Knudson (13)
Daniel ’70 and Ingrid Kloster ’69 Koch (11)
Elsie Ronholm Koivula ’49 (28)
James Kottom ’52 (23)
Joan Johnson1953 Kuder and Calvin Kuder (26)
Joan Kunz (10)
William ’52 and Edith Kuross (11)
Sigrunn Kvamme ’53 (18)
Robert ’80 and Lori LaFleur (16)
Joanne Stiles ’58 Laird and David Laird (26)
Archie Lalim ’50 (28)
George ’50 and Vivian Lanes (14)
Linda Larson ’70 and C. Jerry Sells (23)
John ’52 and Mary Peterson ’54 Leak (13)
Roger ’50 and Donna Wang ’52 Leak (12)
Harris ’57 and Maryon Lee (25)
James ’67 and Laurie Lindell (10)
James Lindell ’46 (27)
Rosemary and Andrew Link (10)
Robert ’56 and Mary Erickson ’58 Lockwood (16)
Brent Lofgren ’88 (17)
Irene Ppedahl Lovaas ’45 (15)
Jack ’53 and Darlene Lundberg (11)
Susan Lageson ’77 Lundholm and Mark
Lundholm (19)
Roger ’57 and Fern Mackey (24)
Marie Hafie ’65 MacNally and Thomas
MacNally (12)
Margreta Magelssen ’72 and David Hallan (23)
Richard ’55 and Mary Mahre (10)
Ronald ’56 and Christine Munson ’56 Main (10)
Raymond Makeever (10)
Michael ’65 and Lynne Marcy (10)
Carlos Mariani Rosa (10)
Julie Magnuson ’61 Marineau and Richard
Marineau (10)
John ’59 and De Anne Martinsen (12)
Michael McCully (12)
Kristin Settergren ’86 McGinness and Steve
McGinness (19)
Donna McLean (22)
Tara Cesaretti ’97 McLeod and Christopher
2000 McLeod (10)
Marie and Larry McNeff (28)
Meca Sportswear Inc (11)
Joan and Richard Meierotto (11)
Daniel ’65 and Mary Tildahl ’65 Meyers (17)
Erwin ’54 and Carolyn Ryan ’56 Mickelberg (10)
Robert ’70 and Sue Midness (19)
Paul ’70 and Barbara Durkee ’71 Mikelson (28)
Victor ’42 and Rhoda Miller (12)
Thomas ’59 and Ruth Carlsen ’60 Moen (10)
James Mondo (10)
Alan Montgomery and Janet
Karvonen-Montgomery (10)
Thomas and Lorraine Morgan (26)
LaWayne ’51 and D. LaRhea Johnson ’51
Morseth (20)
Mildred and Van Mueller (24)
Paul ’84 and Nancy Mackey ’85 Mueller (12)
David Narr ’94 (11)
Bonnie Johnson ’67 Nelson and Bryce Nelson (25)
Edor ’38 and Dorathy Nelson (12)
Gloria Burntvedt Nelson ’43 (26)
Larry ’65 and Marilyn Nelson (13)
Mildred Nelson ’52 (29)
Ronald ’68 and Mary Kay Nelson (12)
Steven ’64 and Rebecca ’64 Nielsen (10)
Erika Staub ’51 Niemi and Wayne Niemi (17)
Timothy ’82 and Jane Nohr (10)
Margaret Nelson Foss Nokleberg ’48 (21)
Norma Noonan (14)
Edwin and Edith Norberg Charitable Trust (20)
Roselyn Nordaune ’77 (28)
Betsey and Alan Norgard (14)
James ’57 and Shirley Norman (11)
Normandale Lutheran Church Foundation (19)
Jonathan Nye ’72 and Wendy Worner (17)
Terry ’70 and Vicki Nygaard (10)
Leroy ’52 and Betty Munson ’53 Nyhus (16)
Steven O’Tool ’74 (10)
Fall 2008
41
Maren Lecy ’83 Ogdie and Al Ogdie (19)
Norman ’85 and Kim Asleson ’84 Okerstrom (18)
Sandra Larson ’69 Olmsted and Richard ’69
Olmsted (12)
W. Donald ’34 and Glenda Olsen (20)
Bettye and Howard Olson (16)
Laverne Moe ’48 Olson and Paul Olson (22)
Orville ’52 and Yvonne Bagley ’52 Olson (28)
R. Luther Olson ’56 (11)
Vicki and Daniel Olson (10)
Kristen Olsrud ’80 (11)
Laurie Nelson ’79 Orlow and Steven Orlow (19)
Jack ’62 and Nina Osberg (18)
Jim ’64 and Rose Parks (20)
Arnold ’52 and Betty Paulson (12)
John and Norma Paulson (11)
Daniel ’51 and Lois Pearson (22)
Dale Pederson (10)
Glen Person ’47 (23)
Eugene ’59 and Paula Peterson (21)
Harvey ’52 and Joanne Varner ’52 Peterson (29)
Rebecca Arvold ’88 Pfabe and Maurice Higgins (14)
Jay Phinney ’79 (29)
Leanne Phinney ’71 and Mark Schultz (11)
Jill Pohtilla (10)
Presser Foundation (12)
David Proctor ’63 (22)
Elizabeth Pushing ’93 (14)
Jerry ’83 and Susan Warnes ’88 Quam (10)
Dagmar Dahl Quanbeck ’36 (29)
Eileen Quanbeck ’46 (15)
Philip ’50 and Dora Frojen ’49 Quanbeck (12)
Quentin ’50 and E. Lucille Quanbeck (15)
Mark ’53 and Jean Raabe (12)
Larry and Beverly Ragland (16)
James ’61 and BettyAnn Redeske (12)
Donald ’53 and Donna Erickson ’54 Reimer (10)
Robert and Gail Rice (17)
Pamela Birdsall ’75 Richard and Jerry Richard (10)
Donavon ’52 and Ardis Roberts (12)
Eunice Kyllo ’62 Roberts and Warren Roberts (17)
Leeann Rock ’81 and Brian Anderson ’82 (10)
Marion Roe ’50 (12)
Frances Roller (11)
Joyce and Walker Romano (11)
Olive Ronholm ’47 (29)
Stella Kyllo Rosenquist ’64 (10)
Philip Rowberg ’41 (10)
Martin ’59 and Sylvia Sabo (29)
Audrey Nagel ’51 Sander (16)
Pauline and Leland ’35+ Sateren (11)
Maryls Harkman ’54 Schmidt and Leonard
Schmidt (11)
Ruth Schmidt ’52 (29)
Michael and Leslie Schock (10)
Joyce Opseth Schwartz ’45 (26)
Roger ’62 and Jean Schwartz (13)
Inez ’59 and Lyall Schwarzkopf (29)
Ronnie ’62 and Karen Scott (20)
Richard ’70 and Linda Seime (12)
Charles Sheaffer (10)
John ’50 and Norma Shelstad (17)
James ’54 and Ethel Nordstrom ’55 Shiell (28)
Chad ’93 and Margaret Shilson (11)
Nora Anderson ’83 Sillerud and Jon Sillerud (16)
Patricia ’67 and Elmer Sitkin (10)
Arnold ’48 and Carol Skaar (29)
Glen and Anna Skovholt (14)
Evelyn Amundson Sonnack ’43 (27)
Angeline Rolland Sorenson ’50 (25)
Susan Lindberg ’70 Sorenson and Earl
Sorenson (11)
Allan ’53 and Eunice Nystuen ’50 Sortland (16)
Naomi Christensen ’81 Staruch and Steven
Staruch (26)
Ronald ’58 and Naomi Stave (12)
Ruth Framstad Steen ’43 (10)
Donald and Annelies Steinmetz (29)
Myles and Eunice Stenshoel (10)
Hannah Mehus Stensvaag ’38 (29)
Roger ’54 and Bonnie Stockmo (11)
Calvin ’51 and Bonnie Martinson ’59 Storley (10)
Beverly and Thomas Stratton (14)
Gladys Boxrud Strommen ’46 (13)
John ’81 and Heidi Strommen (13)
Luther ’39 and Helen Strommen (26)
Merton ’42 and Irene Huglen ’42 Strommen (29)
Steven ’65 and Chynne Strommen (10)
La Vone Studlien ’58 (20)
Grace Kemmer ’58 Sulerud and Ralph Sulerud (29)
George ’46 and Jean Christenson ’49 Sverdrup (27)
Dorothy Joy Swanson ’51 (18)
Elizabeth Mortensen ’56 Swanson and
James Swanson (19)
Brian Swedeen ’92 and Terri Burnor ’92 (13)
Jeffrey ’79 and Melissa Swenson (16)
Every effort has been made to ensure that all names are included and spelled correctly.
If you notice an error, please contact Kevin Healy at 1-800-273-0617 or healyk@augsburg.edu.
42
Augsburg Now
Jennings ’51 and Mary Schindler ’48
Thompson (29)
Karla Morken ’81 Thompson and Thomas
Thompson (13)
Richard ’61 and Jane Thompson (10)
Sue Thompson ’85 (10)
Gordon ’52 and Gloria Parizek ’53 Thorpe (13)
Marlys Holm ’57 Thorsgaard and Arlen
Thorsgaard (11)
Richard ’56 and Darlene Thorud (10)
Adrian Tinderholt ’38 (28)
Michael ’85 and Rhonda Riesberg ’84 Tjaden (10)
Allan Tonn ’75 (28)
Mark ’79 and Janelle Tonsager (19)
Sheldon ’49 and Margery Manger ’47
Torgerson (23)
Beth Torstenson ’66 (28)
Frances and Joel ’38+ Torstenson (15)
Mark and Ann Tranvik (11)
Margaret Sateren Trautwein ’37 (23)
Gordon ’57 and Karen Egesdal ’61 Trelstad (16)
Trinity Lutheran Congregation (10)
Lawrence ’69 and Susan Turner (10)
Betty and Paul Tveite (12)
Beverly Gryth ’52 Villwock and H. Robert
Villwock (21)
Rebecca Helgesen ’67 Von Fischer and Thomas
Von Fischer (12)
Norman ’76 and Kathryn Anderson ’76 Wahl (10)
Michael ’64 and Carla Quanbeck ’64 Walgren (14)
Lois ’76 Wattman and Douglas Shaw (11)
Scott Weber ’79 (12)
Charleen and Donald Weidenbach (27)
Donald ’89 and Melinda Mattox ’91
Wichmann (16)
Mary and Gunnar Wick (16)
Robert Wick ’81 (22)
David and Catherine Wold (12)
E. Lorraine Yokie (22)
Edmund ’53 and Rose Youngquist (10)
Janet Cooke ’59 Zitzewitz and Donald
Zitzewitz (11)
ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08
ALUMNI GIVING BY CLASS YEAR
The following list indicates the percentage of alumni in each class year who made a gift to Augsburg College in 2007-2008
(day program, undergraduate alumni).
Total particiaption for all class years, 22%
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
40.00%
50.00%
50.00%
62.50%
64.71%
25.00%
52.94%
40.63%
48.84%
38.10%
45.65%
48.72%
48.15%
45.83%
42.86%
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
47.27%
33.52%
44.53%
50.86%
46.40%
37.88%
37.36%
45.83%
43.65%
47.75%
46.09%
38.31%
36.88%
37.97%
40.76%
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
35.10%
34.75%
30.70%
41.85%
34.35%
29.90%
24.37%
24.30%
26.10%
25.51%
26.42%
24.68%
23.58%
24.65%
23.92%
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
19.09%
17.89%
18.97%
17.44%
18.41%
17.73%
17.82%
13.46%
11.32%
19.12%
14.34%
15.69%
8.70%
10.07%
10.71%
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
10.73%
13.92%
4.23%
9.72%
11.48%
7.58%
12.20%
8.37%
5.43%
8.14%
5.28%
9.45%
4.78%
5.56%
Fall 2008
43
THE 2007-2008 AUGSBURG COLLEGE
ANNUAL REPORT
AUGSBURG COLLEGE
BOARD OF REGENTS
2007-2008
Andra Adolfson
Dan W. Anderson, Class of 1965
Rev. Gary E. Benson, Class of 1970
Jackie Cherryhomes, Class of 1976
AUGSBURG ALUMNI
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
2007-2008
Michael O. Freeman
Dr. Anthony Genia, Class of 1985
Michael R. Good, Class of 1971
H. Theodore Grindal, Class of 1976
Norman R. Hagfors
Lew Beccone, Class of ’98 MAL
Jodi Harpstead
Buffie Blesi, Class of ’90, ’97 MAL, president
Richard C. Hartnack
Chad Darr, Class of ’04
Rolf Jacobson
Dale Hanka, Class of ’60
Dr. Ruth E. Johnson, Class of 1974
Calvin Hanson, Class of ’98
Dean Kennedy
Daniel Hickle, Class of ’95
Dean C. Kopperud
James Kline, Class of ’01
André J. Lewis, Class of 1973
Lee Anne Lack, Class of ’67
Jennifer H. Martin
Julia Mensing, Class of ’00
Marie O. McNeff
Joyce Miller, Class of ’02, ’05 MAN
Dr. Paul S. Mueller, Class of 1984
Jamie E. Smith, Class of ’04 WEC
Ronald G. Nelson, Class of 1968
Carolyn Spargo, Class of ’80
Beverly Oren, Class of 1955
Jacqueline Teisberg, Class of ’80
Paul C. Pribbenow
Jennifer Tome, Class of ’99
Rev. Peter Rogness, ex-officio
Barry M. Vornbrock, Class of ’96 MAL
Stephen Sheppard
Philip Styrlund, Class of 1979
Emily Anne Tuttle
Rev. Harold Usgaard, ex-officio
Joan Volz, Class of 1968
Rev. Norman W. Wahl, Class of 1976
Bonnie Wallace
FEW COLLEGES ARE AS WELL POSITIONED
A S A U G S B U R G T O S AY, T H I S I S O U R W O R K —
WE ARE CALLED TO SERVE OUR NEIGHBORS.
—DAVID TIEDE, BERNHARD CHRISTENSEN PROFESSOR OF RELIGION
AND VOCATION, AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF LUTHER SEMINARY
www.augsburg.edu/giving
1-800-273-0617
44
Augsburg Now
auggie
alumni news
From the Alumni Board president …
June 2008
Alumni and friends,
am writing this article on the same day
as commencement for hundreds of graduates of the Augsburg for Adults undergraduate and graduate programs. When I
was an undergraduate, Weekend College
was still in its infancy and the College did not yet offer master’s degrees in any subject area. Look how far we have come
over the last 20 years—Augsburg is now a force in education
for adults in undergraduate programs in Minneapolis and
Rochester and six programs for graduates.
Wow! Who would have thought?
Well, thankfully for all of us, so many brilliant people had
the foresight and perseverance to make it a reality. As alumni,
we benefit from all that the College is and will become. Why?
Because regardless of when we graduated, our degrees gain
value as the College increases its visibility through the accomplishments and success of its programs, professors, and students. If you are like me, you place a great deal of value on
your degree from Augsburg. Take care of it, nurture it, and invest in it through participation and giving. The students of
today will one day bring greater value to it.
With the close of the school year in June, my tenure as
your president also came to an end. I am grateful for the opportunity to represent the alumni and have had a tremendous
amount of fun. I turn this column over to a wonderful new
leader, Joyce Miller, who will represent you with vigor and
passion.
i
Good luck to you all and take care,
October 2008
Alumni and friends,
utumn is a season of great beauty. During this time, the Midwest becomes
transformed into a menagerie of colors. This transformation within nature is a
metaphor for the educational experience of
an Augsburg alumnus/a and current student. Liberal arts
courses nurture the growth of human talent and promote a
sense of metanoia, defined as embracing thoughts beyond one’s
present limitations. The menagerie of fall colors can represent
the uniqueness of individuals and the intentionality of embracing diversity within our daily lives.
Augsburg College promises an education like no other.
This promise addresses the following three areas:
a
• To have a special regard for each other—This statement entails having respect for everyone’s unique talents, core values, and cultural traditions.
• To provide an educational experience like no other—Education involves exploring a deeper understanding of faith
and the search for meaning, developing a global perspective, engaging work within the community, and finding
new ways of knowing to promote purposeful living.
• To seek opportunities to develop—This promise promotes
an expanded view of the world, stresses appreciating differences in others, seeks connections, sustains open dialogue,
and prepares to lead in this complex environment.
We can certainly look at these statements and realize how our
education at Augsburg has played a role in the discovery of our
meaningful career paths in the world.
As I begin my presidency of the Alumni Association, I
promise to use my leadership gifts to align the work of the
Alumni Board with the mission, vision, and promise of the College. The Alumni Board members are committed to support the
College’s vision—We believe we are called to serve our neighbor—through involvement in service activities, action projects,
and campus events to enhance the work of the College.
As alumni, stay connected by attending upcoming events
such as Advent Vespers, athletic activities, theatre productions,
or other alumni events. Or just simply keep in communication
with us. Stay connected wherever you are! Looking forward to
a great year.
Sincerely,
BUFFIE BLESI ’90, ’97 MAL
OUTGOING ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT
JOYCE P. MILLER ’02 (BSN-ROCHESTER), ’05 MAN
ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT
Fall 2008
45
auggie reunion
Alumni from more than six decades gathered with their classmates.
Class of 1958
Reunion Attendees:
James Almquist, Elyce (Lundquist) Arvidson, Robert
Bagley, Dennis Barnaal, Vernon Berkness, Elaine
(Nelson) Bernards, Birgit Birkeland, Doris (Johnson)
Deml, Dale Evavold, Hugh Gilmore, Byron Golie, Mabeth (Saure) Gyllstrom, Aldemar (Johnson) Hagen,
Kenneth Hagen, Anna (Hovland) Hanson, Betty
(Johnson) Hass, Philip Heide, Carl Hellzen, Ruth
(Thorsgard) Homme, Jerome Kleven, Gwen (Johnson)
Krapf, Joanne (Stiles) Laird, Gary Lange, Gordon Lindgren, Alice (Lindell) Lindgren, Marilyn (Troy) Manley,
Lydia (Dyrlid) Moe, Faye (Brenni) Moen, Wallace
Oien, Roger Olson, Magne Olson, Alfred Reesnes,
Ronald Stave, La Vone Studlien, Grace (Kemmer)
Sulerud
Class of 1968
Reunion Attendees:
Ruth Aaskov, Ann (Larson) Anthonisen, W. Bruce
Benson, Priscilla (Platt) Berg, Joel Bjerkestrand,
David Boe, Donald Britt, Margaret (Engel) Catlett,
Janet (Braaten) DeGaetano, John Eckberg, John
Fahlberg, Douglas Frisk, JoAnne (Digree) Fritz, Mary
(Michaelsen) Garmer, Jane (Eidsvoog) Gisselquist,
James Gisselquist, Kim Gudmestad, Lynn Gunderson,
Pamela (Fredrickson) Gunderson, Ione (Agrimson)
Hanson, Theamarie (Loberg) Harriday, Leif Hartmark,
Claudia (Melvie) Hartmark, David Heidtke, Donald
Horner, James Hoseth, Gerald Jensen, Carole (Braud)
Jensen, Theodore Johnson, Bruce Johnson, Herald
Johnson, Frank Lawatsch, Pamela (Pilcher) Lawatsch,
Janet (Letnes) Martin, Suzann (Johnson) Nelson,
Charles Niles, Perilyn (Brown) Olsen, Kathryn Olson,
Miriam (Cox) Peterson, Richard Quenemoen, John
Roebke, James Romslo, Judith (Anderson)
Schaubach, Jan (Pedersen) Schiff, Carolyn (Hanson)
Schildgen, Gary Schmidt, Kathleen (Nyquist) Schornstein, Clair Severson, Myrna (Jorgenson) Sheie, Jo
Anne Sylvester, Constance (Ackerson) Wanner, Patricia (Korogi) Wehr, Mary (Timm) Zimmerman
46
Augsburg Now
homecoming
AN EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER
SEPTEMBER 22-27
Class of 1983
’08
Reunion Attendees:
Amanda Barrick, Mary (Thureson) Belden, Mary
(Yurick) Bennett, William Bullock, Kevin Erickson,
Mark Hassenstab, James Haugen, Les Heen, Scott
Henderson, Annette (Walen) Hokanson, Miriam (Gisselquist) Jensen, Karina Karlen, Paul Kuehn, Pamela
(Brakke) Lanning, Susan (Hackbarth) Lundquist,
Daniel Nayman, Stephen Nayman, Karsten Nelson,
Allison (Larges) O’Day, Timothy Olson, Mary (McNevin) Saari, Janet (Griffith) Sandford, Nora (Andersen) Sillerud, John Singh, Diane (Wood) Sponheim,
Christine (Nelson) Swanson
Class of 1998
(Left to right)
August Negele, Erick Agrimson, Adam Buhr, Laura
Pejsa, Angela (Loew) Reichart, Wade Johnson, Andry
Andriambololona-Jercich, Phil Berglin
Fall 2008
47
auggie
alumni news
Meet Kim Stone …
DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AND CONSTITUENT RELATIONS
At the end of August, Kim
Stone joined the Division of Institutional Advancement as director of alumni and
constituent relations.
Stone came to Augsburg
from the University of Miami,
Coral Gables, Fla., where she
was executive director of
alumni programs and was responsible for the overall management and implementation of
a comprehensive alumni relations program. She served as a liaison to various university offices and departments to further the
mission of the University Alumni Association and to enhance
the relationship between the alumni and their alma mater.
Her experience there includes recruiting and engaging
alumni volunteers to participate in alumni programs and
events, preparing and administering annual budgets for the
alumni programs office, and supervising a team of nine alumni
professionals.
Previously, Stone was at Nova Southeastern University in
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., as director of alumni relations and coordinator of alumni programs. In these roles she managed the strategy of the Alumni Annual Fund and other university
fundraising efforts. Stone organized and coordinated alumni
Homecoming activities, was responsible for all alumni (90,000
worldwide) communications, and oversaw and supported the
Alumni Council Board to enhance growth of the NSU Alumni
Association.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication,
with an emphasis in public relations, at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She also has a master’s degree in international
business administration from Nova Southeastern University.
Stone grew up in St. Paul and is excited to be back in the
Twin Cities serving the members of the Augsburg community.
She looks forward to engaging Augsburg alumni and constituents through strategic programming, effective communication, and volunteer development.
To contact Kim Stone, call 612-330-1173 or
1-800-260-6590, or e-mail stonek@augsburg.edu.
48
Augsburg Now
Augsburg license plates
Display your Augsburg connection! Augsburg license plates
are available through the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
www.dps.state.mn.us/dvs/PlBrochure/CollegiatePlates.htm
Alumni e-mail for life
Sign up for Auggie alumni e-mail for life. Contact Alumni
Relations at alumni@augsburg.edu to request an account.
The service is provided by Google Apps.
Augsburg offers test prep courses
Studying for the LSAT, GRE, or GMAT? Check with Augsburg’s Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity
Office (URGO) for courses offered throughout the year at a
very reasonable cost. Courses are open to current students,
alumni, and others in the Augsburg community.
Go to www.augsburg.edu/urgo and select Test Prep for
the ongoing schedules of classes.
Get Involved. Volunteer!
Would you like to be part of an exciting group of people who
love Augsburg as much as you do? Volunteering is a great
way to stay connected to the College and other alumni, and
there are many ways to get involved.
Join with fellow Auggies and help engage others to be part of
the Augsburg experience. Augsburg Associates, Alumni
Board, Advent Vespers, reunion committees, mentors, and
Campus Kitchen are just some of the available opportunities.
Let us know where your interest lies—call Pat Grans at
612-330-1329 or e-mail gransp@augsburg.edu.
augsburg
then
Trinity Lutheran celebrates 140 years
Augsburg College owes much of the reason for its presence
in Minneapolis to Trinity Lutheran Congregation. In 1871,
when the fledgling Augsburg Seminary was near bankruptcy
in Marshall, Wisconsin, Trinity pastor Ole Paulson led a
committee to secure the land, materials, and funding to establish Augsburg in Minneapolis, as the city was envisioned
as a future center for Scandinavian-American culture.
In 1896 Trinity Lutheran Congregation built a new
church on the edge of Augsburg’s campus, which served as
the venue for many Augsburg events over the years. This
building fell victim to the construction in 1966 for the I-94
freeway.
The altar painting that hung in that church, painted by
Norwegian artist Markus Grønvold, was copied from his
painting in St. John’s Church in Bergen, Norway, and
shipped to Minneapolis. When Trinity’s church was razed,
the painting was placed in storage. It now hangs in Hoversten Chapel, which has been Trinity Lutheran Congregation’s worship home for a number of years.
1963 Augsburgian
In Memoriam
Sateren, Leland B. ’35, Edina,
Minn., age 94, on Nov. 10, 2007.
Samuelson, Mary ’49, Brighton,
Minn., age 81, on July 12.
Aamodt, Bradford O. ’65, Plymouth,
Minn., age 75, on Feb. 13.
Schmidt, David Hans ’85, Phoenix,
Ariz., age 47, in October 2007.
Kruse, Una (Lee) ’38, Sunnyside,
Wash., age 91, on Sept. 25, 2007.
Calderwood, David ’50, Birchwood,
Minn., age 81, on Sept. 18, 2007.
Gruidl, Daniel J. ’93, Trophy Club,
Texas, age 45, on Aug. 3, 2007.
Torstenson, Joel ’38, Minneapolis,
age 94, on Oct. 18, 2007.
Howells, Richard ’52, Bloomington,
Minn., age 78, on April 10.
Longmire, Linda (Nelson) ’67, Kronenwetter, Wis., age 63, on July 29,
of cancer.
Quanbeck, Vardon M. ’40, McVille,
N. Dak., age 86, on Dec. 24.
Lundeen, Donovan T. ’53, Northfield, Minn., age 77, on June 7.
Brooks, Chester L. ’42, Duluth,
Minn., age 89, on March 5.
Skogsbergh, Samuel P. ’53, Hayden,
Idaho, age 77, on Aug. 25, 2007.
Smith, Rev. Louis C. ’42, Riverside,
Calif., age 86, on Sept. 5, 2007.
Rykken, Franklyn “Lindy” ’56,
Roseau, Minn., age 78, on May 2.
Jensen, Rev. Louis F. ’48, Dubuque,
Iowa, age 87, on June 24.
Oliver, Rev. George “Jim” ’60, Baraboo, Wis., age 76, on Feb. 15, following complications from surgery.
Henjum, Arnold E. ’49, Morris,
Minn., age 82, on March 5.
Hoffman, H. Wayne, Bloomington,
Minn., age 82, on July 3.
DeVrieze, Jerry D. ’64, Midland,
Mich., age 66, on June 30, of multiple myeloma.
Baumbach, Cynthia ‘70, Lake City,
Minn., age 60, on July 1.
Orpen, Julie Ann (Hoel) ’76, St.
Peter, Minn., age 53, on June 15, of
breast cancer.
Quanbeck, Beth Marie ’76, West
Des Moines, Iowa, age 53, on Nov.
12, 2007.
Lumbar, Dean ’81, Edina, Minn.,
age 46, on Jan. 7, at home of complications from colon cancer.
Brusletten, Nancy (Raaum) ’84,
Shakopee, Minn., age 45, on Dec.
28, of cancer.
Bedard, Mark T. ’95, Hudson, Wis.,
age 34, on Nov. 9, 2007, of injuries
incurred on police duty.
Feuer, Aaron ’07, unexpectedly in
April.
Eriksen, Rolf, Minneapolis, age 84,
on Nov. 7, 2007, Augsburg’s first
varsity soccer coach in 1970.
Eklof, Edgar, Golden Valley, Minn.,
age 80, on Dec. 1, Music Department faculty during the 1960s.
Hoel, Mathilda, St. Paul, age 95, on
July 13, former registrar’s office and
food service employee.
Fall 2008
49
alumni class notes
50
Phebe Hanson was lauded at
an event in March commemorating International Women’s Day
and her 80th birthday. Readings by
female poets and screenings of a
short documentary about Phebe
were featured, honoring her many
years as a mentor to other writers.
56
Rev. James Parks is serving
until June 30 as an English
teacher in the ELCA’s Global Mission
Department in a Lutheran High
school in Kocise, Slovakia. His wife,
Rose Ann, and their three children
are planning trips to visit him and
travel in Eastern Europe during the
year. Previously he served an interim
ministry in Outing, Minn., for several
months, and traveled, including a
van trip to Alaska.
Lute Olson, head coach of the
University of Arizona basketball team, announced his retirement
after 24 years. His career there includes 23 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, 11 Pac-10 titles,
four Final Four appearances, and the
1997 national championship.
Judith Reynolds has recently
retired from the Kenosha (Wisconsin) Public Library after 37 years
of employment as a librarian.
57
67
Robert Goodrich has joined
Timber Creek Golf Course in
Watertown, Minn., as a golf pro, with
43 years of teaching experience.
59
Darrell Wiese retired from
Augsburg after a longtime career as assistant coach in baseball
and football.
60
Margaret (Homme) Hiner is retired in Phoenix, Ariz., where
she has been since 1961 working as
a recreation leader, substitute
teacher, 4-H leader, and mother. At
Augsburg, she played on the 195657 Auggiettes basketball team and
has fond memories about how
Coach LaVonne Peterson “let a kid
who loved sports and basketball be
on the team.”
Lowell “Zeke” Ziemann is still working and loves his job as an agency
compliance officer with Park Avenue
Securities in Scottsdale, Ariz.
61nis in the Northland
James Holden has written Ten, a history
of boys’ high school tennis in Minnesota, covering its 75-year history
with chapters about champions,
prominent coaches and families, dynasty teams, and more. To learn
about the book, go to www.jimholden.com.
Dennis Kalpin has stepped down as
head football coach at Alexandria
(Minn.) High School after 17 years
there. His total coaching career, all
at the secondary school level, is 47
years.
50
64
Augsburg Now
65
66
Larry Hoff completed his third long-distance journey across the USA
using no motorized vehicles. Over the summers of 2006 and 2007,
Larry canoed and bike-portaged from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In
2002-2003 he hiked the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, a “life-changing”
event. In 2004 he bicycled approximately 10,000 miles around the
perimeter of the USA. Before retirement in 2000, Hoff was teacher and assistant principal at Superior High School in Wisconsin.
Carleen (Nordin) Tjader recently retired after teaching
third grade for 23 years in the New
Richmond (Wis.) school district (before and after a “15-year maternity
leave” to raise her children). Each
year her classes have adopted a
manatee in Florida, plus made a
quilt containing squares made by
each student. She looks forward to
traveling with her husband, Mike;
spending time with her grandsons;
volunteering at church; and trying
her hand at writing.
69
Diane (Helgeson) Carter completed a 21-year career teaching seventh-grade English in the
Hudson (Wis.) Middle School and in
retirement plans to use her time for
gardening and travel. She and her
husband, Jim, have two children—
daughter Kirsten, who also is a
teacher, and son, Matthew.
72
Tom Haas continues to work at
Park Nicollet Clinic in Minneapolis, where he recently stepped
down after a decade in department
chair leadership roles. He has now
had more time to spend at the family lake home, continue collecting
jazz and classical LPs, and more seriously resume playing his trumpet.
Jacqueline (Wolhart) Harvestine
completed her first year as a fulltime Master of Divinity student at
Luther Seminary.
Kathy (Seim) Tilderquist, a business
teacher, was selected in January by
her co-workers as “Teacher of the
70
Earlier this year, along with their spouses, five Auggies in the Class of
1970 who lived together in a house on campus celebrated the 40th
anniversary of their becoming roommates. They continue to meet once a
month for lunch as well. (L to R, back row: Lynn [Benson] Hjelmeland ’69,
Terry Nygaard ’70, Phil Walen ’70, John Hjelmeland ’70, Paul Mikelson ’70,
Barbara Harden, and John Harden ’70. Front row: Vicki Nygaard, Teri Walen,
and Barbara [Durkee] Mikelson ’71.
Year” at Cannon Falls (Minn.) High
School. She began as a math
teacher, but has taught in the business department since 1987. She
wrote the curriculum for many
courses and has taught students on
equipment ranging from manual
typewriters to modern computers.
has earned 10 medals and was the
first to earn medals in four different
sports. He is a professor of professional and physical education at Bemidji State University and was the
first person in the U.S. with a visual
impairment to earn a doctoral degree
in physical education.
73
74
Jim Mastro, a pioneer in athletics for the blind, was honored
with the 2008 Medal of Courage
award from the National Wrestling
Hall of Fame and Museum in Stillwater, Okla. As a Paralympic athlete, he
Rev. James Arends, pastor at
Prince of Peace Lutheran
Church in LaCrescent, Minn., was
elected June 7 to a six-year term as
bishop of the La Crosse (Wis.) Area
Synod in the Evangelical Lutheran
72
Ronald Johnson, principal at
Hutchinson (Minn.) High
School, was named in February as
the 2008 Minnesota High School
Principal of the Year. He is also a
candidate for the National High
School Principal of the Year, to be
announced at the 2009 National
Association of Secondary School
Principals (NASSP) convention in
February. He will join other state
honorees at the Principals Institute
in Washington D.C. this fall.
74
Scot Davis was honored as
Wrestling USA magazine’s
2007 Coach of the Year. This year
he won his 800th varsity career
coaching victory, the most career
wins of any wrestling coach in U.S.
history. He has been at Owatonna
High School for 21 years, leading
10 “Top 25” nationally-ranked
Owatonna teams.
ber of the Minnesota Baseball Association.
high school principal at Rugby High
School for the past 11 years.
77
81
Rev. Mark Braaten recently
published his second book,
Prayer as Joy, Prayer as Struggle, by
Liturgical Press. It studies prayer
through biblical and personal stories, and explores prayer as both a
gift and struggle. His first book, in
2006, is Come Lord Jesus: A Study
of Revelation. He is senior pastor at
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in
Tyler, Texas, a bilingual congregation
worshiping in English and Spanish.
Kurts Strelnieks recently joined Associated Commercial Finance, Inc.,
in Eagan, Minn., as their Minnesota
market manager.
78
Dennis J. Meyer was named
the first chief marketing officer at Ellerbe Becket, a global design firm. He will be based in their
Minneapolis office and serve on the
firm’s leadership team to develop
and execute its global marketing
strategy and implement the firm’s
vision.
Naomi Williamson opened a new
restaurant, Sanctuary, on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis.
79
77
Heidi (Leaf) Haagenson has
published a book, The Tenney Quilt, which tells the story of a
quilt with 700 signatures created
in 1928 in Tenney—Minnesota’s
smallest city of six people—as a
fundraiser for the local dance hall.
She is the special projects coordinator at Ridgewater College in
Willmar, and is married to David
Haagenson ’76.
79
Phil Madsen and his wife,
Diane, own and operate a
truck used to transport expedited
freight, traveling the 48 states and
Canada. Read their stories from
the road at www.successfulexpediters.com
Church in America (ELCA). He will
be installed on October 18.
gion Coach of the Year, and the Big
Ten Coach of the Year.
Phil Lundin was named the men’s
cross country and track and field
coach at St. Olaf College. Since
1986 he has coached at the University of Minnesota, including the last
13 years as head men’s track and
field coach. In 2003 Phil was named
U.S. Track Coaches Association
Coach of the Year, the Midwest Re-
Bill Nelson, manager of the Dundas
(Minn.) Dukes amateur baseball
team and part of that team for over
30 years, was inducted into the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Hall of
Fame in September 2007. He has
also served as head baseball coach
at Carleton College and has been executive director and a board mem-
Linda Sue Anderson played the
part of Miss Prism in Pendulum Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest earlier
this year at the Loading Dock Theatre in downtown St. Paul.
David Cherwien directs the National
Lutheran Choir, which dedicated its
May 3 concert to the memory of Leland Sateren ’35 and performed five
of his works.
Debra (Mercier) Peters earned a Certified Management Accountant designation in April 2007. She is a
finance manager/controller for Pella
Windows and Doors and lives in
Bloomington, Minn.
David Zwingel has been named the
2007 North Dakota Secondary Principal of the Year by the North
Dakota Association of Secondary
School Principals, with sponsorship
also from Met Life. He has been the
Rev. Richard Buller was elected
chaplain of the Minnesota
House of Representatives by its
members on March 10. He is pastor
at Valley Community Presbyterian
Church in Golden Valley and a
member of the board of the Greater
Minneapolis Council of Churches.
His son, Peter, is a sophomore at
Augsburg.
Pamela Crowell began on July 1 as
the new vice president for research
at Idaho State University in
Pocatello. Previously she was the associate dean for research and graduate education at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Science.
Janna (Wallin) Haug and her husband, Rev. Arden Haug, have accepted an assignment to Bratislava,
Slovakia, where he was called as regional representative to Europe for
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America’s Division for Global Mission. Janna accompanies him as the
associate in that position, along with
their two sons, Vitali and Alexei.
Dr. Erik Kanten was named the 2008
Family Physician of the Year by the
Minnesota Academy of Family
Physicians (MAFP). He practices at
the RiverView Clinic in Crookston,
Minn., and at clinics in Fertile and
Red Lake Falls. He also sees students at the University of Minnesota,
Crookston, on campus.
Dana (Holmes) McIntyre traveled to
China in fall 2007 as head coach of
one of two female Special Olympics
basketball teams from the U.S. for
the 2007 World Games in Shanghai.
She has been a recreation therapist
at Minnesota Extended Treatment
Options.
82
Jane Maland Cady joined the
McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis in April as international program director and will oversee
McKnight’s grantmaking in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America.
Fall 2008
51
alumni class notes
87
Deanna Germain published a
memoir, Reaching Past the
Wire, about her 18 months serving
as a nurse in Kuwait and Iraq, which
included time as chief nurse in the
Abu Ghraib prison following the revelations of abuse and violence.
Tammy Johndro-Pressley was named
director of external communications
at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill. Previously, she was manager of business development at
Provena Mercy Medical Center in
Aurora, Ill.
Karen Reed received an Award for
Superior Accomplishment in December from the Department of
Mental Health of California. She is a
music therapist at Atascadero State
Hospital and was commended for
her plan to lower restraints, seclusion, and lengths of stay in restraints
for people in the Mentally Disordered Offender program by over 50
percent.
Devoney Looser’s book, Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain,
1750-1850, was published by Johns
Hopkins University Press in August.
Go to www.press.jhu.edu/books/
title_pages/9473.html. Devoney currently serves as president of the
Midwest Modern Language Association, a non-profit organization of
teachers and scholars of literature,
language, and culture, and will preside at its meeting in Minneapolis,
Nov. 13-16.
Bruce Smith began teaching physical
education to sixth through twelfth
grades and high school Spanish, in
addition to coaching B-squad football, at LeRoy-Ostrander (Minn.)
School in September.
88
Melanie Herrera opened a
franchise in Apple Valley,
Minn., of Butterfly Life Fitness,
which focuses around solutions for
fitness, weight loss, and healthy living for women. Melanie was Augsburg’s first female All-American
athlete.
Anne Panning’s collection of short
stories, Super America, was published in October. The New York
Times Book Review said, “[It] radiates infectious optimism … Her enchanting Norahs and Alices, Tobys
and Theos drag you effortlessly into
their very American lives … ."
89
Rev. La Andriamihaja, pastor
of Jordan New Life Church in
North Minneapolis, helped launch
the “Jordan New Life Hub” to help
residents identify social services.
The project is a partnership sponsored by the ELCA between suburban and urban congregations to
bring volunteers together.
Geoffrey Gage was named in September 2007 to the University of St.
Thomas Board of Trustees. He is
founder and president of the Geoffrey Carlson Gage marketing and advertising firm.
52
Augsburg Now
94
Brad Klein and his wife, Lanica (Lynch) ’95 proudly announce the birth of their identical
twin boys, Noah Addison and
Micah Andrew. They were born on
July 1, 2007, shortly after Brad
and Lanica celebrated their 10th
anniversary on June 21. Brad is a
senior systems analyst at the ELCA
Board of Pension, and Lanica is
public school librarian turned stayat-home mom for the near future.
lanicak@att.net.
94
95
Dan Werner and his wife,
Shayne Hamann, welcomed
the birth of their twin sons, Drake
and Dylan, born on May 10, 2007,
who are on their way to becoming
future Auggie football players, like
their dad.
97
Tracy (Holloway) Drier and
her husband, Thane ’99, announced the birth of their son,
Caden August, on March 15, 2007.
He joins big brother Tristan, 3.
Michelle (Strauss) Ohnstad returned
to work after being a stay-at-home
mom and has two positions—head
librarian at La Jolla Country Day
School and library media specialist
at Pacific Ridge School. She is also
co-editor of the AIM Library & Information Staffing Bulletin Blog.
Rachel (Roth) Erkkila is the registrar
for the Des Moines (Iowa) Area Community College. Previously she was
registrar at Dakota County Technical
College in Rosemount, Minn., and
Walden University in Minneapolis.
Mark Lorenzen and Dawn Van
Tassel ’95, St. Louis Park,
Minn., welcomed their first child,
daughter Julia Grace Lorenzen, on
Aug. 2, 2007.
91
Carla Beaurline, founder, cohost, co-producer, and account
executive of “Around Town” Media,
won the Twin Cities Media Network
Diamond Award for TV Personality of
the Year. In addition, she won TV
Sales Person of the Year. “Around
Town” airs on Metro Cable Network
Channel 6 in Minneapolis.
Tom Ross is the new associate head
coach-defense at Hanover College in
Hanover, Ind.
92
Larry Anderson published a
book, Raptured Alive: Return
of a Prodigal Son, in September
2007 and writes music for his
gospel band.
Gregory Stohr was named vice president of sales at Transtar Autobody
Technologies in Brighton, Mich., a
manufacturer of automotive refinish
and bodyshop repair products.
Sharol Tyra, of Life Illumination presentation and coaching, was elected
to serve a two-year term on the Minnesota Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association.
94
Jennifer (Feine) Hellie ’04 MAL
accepted a position as development coordinator at Lake Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp in
Amery, Wis. Previously she worked
as an admissions counselor and academic adviser at Augsburg.
95
Noelle (Hallblade) Epp was
named as marketing communications specialist in October at
Professional Services Marketing,
Inc. in New Brighton, Minn., and will
focus on copywriting services.
Dave Manka was named assistant
volleyball coach at North Dakota
State University in February.
96
Scott Magelssen and his wife,
Theresa (Hoar) ’95, live in
Bowling Green, Ohio, with their son,
Trygg Magelssen, born in 2005.
Scott teaches in the graduate theatre program at Bowling Green State
University and published a book in
spring 2007 about living history museums. Theresa teaches first grade
at Powell Elementary School in
North Baltimore, Ohio.
98
Aaron Cross and Katrina
Grimsey were married, after
15 years of friendship, first in the
United Kingdom and then in the
U.S. on July 6, 2007. Aaron is a
motivational speaker and received
Augsburg’s First Decade Award in
2005. They live south of London.
aaron.cross@motivationonwheels.com
99
Lisa Nos-Tollefson married
Mark Tollefson in December
2006. Lisa and Mark welcomed
the birth of Taylor Elizabeth on
Nov. 20, 2007.
Dr. Martin Richards was featured in
the Hudson Star Observer in July
about the geothermal heat pump
system he had installed at his home.
He expects to use only one-tenth of
the liquid propane gas that he used
last year without the pump. He is an
emergency room physician at
United Hospital in St. Paul, at the
Baldwin (Wis.) hospital and emergency rooms in Regina and Hastings, Minn.
98
99
Chris and Jaime (Kyle) ’01
Rothe moved last fall to
Rochester, Minn., with Kennedy,
2, and AJ, three months old.
00
Kathleen (Lindquist) Blilie and
her husband, Eric, welcomed the birth of Erin Catherine,
three months early on June 15,
2007, weighing 2 lb., 9 oz. She
joins big brothers Andrew and
Alexander and is loved by her
uncle, Orville Lindquist ’96.
Philip Berglin was named the
2006 Minnesota Businessman of the Year as a top U.S. business leader successfully integrating
business and financial success. In
March 2006 he traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the award, attend a breakfast with President
Bush, and begin to meet over a
three-month period with Minnesota
legislators. He works at the Rum
River Lumber Company in Coon
Rapids.
Stacie (Ferrazzo) Chiodi and her
husband, Ron, welcomed the birth
of Cyrus Samuel, on February 5,
born in Bennington, Vt.
Tom Ruffaner was presented the Individual Achievement Commuter
Choice Award by MetroTransit
Rideshare in November for promoting commuter benefits and alternate
modes of transportation.
99
00
Jennifer (Crego) and Chad
Carls welcomed their fourth
son on July 10, 2007. Nicholas
Isaac joins brothers Tommy, 5,
A.J., 3, and Brock, 2. Chad is getting his administrative license (in
education) and Jen is home with
the boys.
00
Trena Bolden Fields and
Jerome Fields ’01 announced
the birth of their daughter, Kayla
Lee, born Aug. 18, 2007.
Jill Ruprecht was married to
Joseph Camp on Sept. 2,
2007 in Macomb, Ill. They currently
live in Chicago.
00
MacAdam Gordon and Nicole
Robertson were married on
November 10 in Minneapolis. He
works as an insurance agent at Ray
Smith Insurance in Plymouth, Minn.
01
Hilary English Crook married
Jacob Seljan in Duluth, Minn.,
on September 29, 2007. The wed-
ding party included Emily Crook ’07
as maid of honor, Eilidh Reyelts ’06
as personal attendant, and DJ
Hamm ’08 as usher. Also in attendance were Auggies Nancy English
’73, Ann Bostelmann Webster ’96,
Karin (Sabo) Mantor ’86, Julie Sabo
’90, and Martin Sabo ’59. Norwegian professor Frankie Shackelford
also attended. Hilary is an attorney
working at Thomson West in Legal
Sales, and Jacob is vice president of
the Risk Analytics Department of US
Bancorp. They live in Minnetonka.
Jessica (Norman) Hafemeyer opened
a law firm in Faribault, Minn., on
August 1, 2007, Ibeling Hafemeyer,
Ltd. The practice includes family
law, bankruptcy, and estate/probate
law. www.ibelinghaemeyer.com.
Angie Rieger was named an assistant hockey coach at Hamline University. She has also been chosen to
join the Whitecaps, Minnesota’s first
professional women’s hockey team.
Nicole (Warner) Simml, currently living in Frankfurt, Germany, performed a recital of 20th-century
American music last November at
the American Consul General’s residence in Markkleeberg.
02
Amy Carlson has completed
the surgical technology program at Saint Mary’s University of
Minnesota and has accepted a surgical technician position at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics in
Minneapolis.
Lindsay (Bonner) Pavelka directed
the Galveston Island Children’s Chorus last year from September
through December. In summer
2007, she developed and directed
Summer on Stage, a children’s performing arts camp with the east-end
theatre company in Galveston. She
is an arts educator, voice instructor,
and actress in the Galveston area,
where she lives with her husband,
Matthew.
Zac Schnedler began last fall
03as a school/guidance coun-
selor for grades 7-12 in the Braham
(Minn.) school district.
Fall 2008
53
alumni class notes
Sara Willcut is in her first season on
the Minnesota Swarm Performance
Dance Team as well as teaching
dance, coaching dance teams, and
taking classes. She recently
launched Ascending Star Dance, an
online dance magazine, and helped
form the Ascending Star Dance
team, which performs at semi-professional football games in the MidAmerican Football League. She also
volunteers with her teams for Feed
My Starving Children.
04
Kelly Chapman graduated
magna cum laude from the
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, Calif.
She is the winner of a full scholarship to attend the International Koefia Academy of Haute Couture and
Art of Costume in Italy. She is currently studying Italian in preparation
for her study.
Abbey Payeur is a sixth-grade integrated language arts and social
studies teacher at Oak View Middle
School in Andover, Minn. In May she
was honored as one of the 20 recipients of the Teacher Outstanding Performance (TOP) awards, presented
by the Anoka-Hennepin School District. She was also one of four winners of a $1,000 grant for a project
at her school, plus a cash award.
Laura Simones completed the Ford
Ironman Florida 2007 triathlon last
fall, placing 872 out of the nearly
2600 participants and 18 of 68 in
her division. In addition she completed the Triple By-Pass in Colorado (100+ miles with three climbs
over 10,000 ft.) and then biked
back to Minnesota.
05
Michael Howard is a communications specialist at the Minnesota House of Representatives.
michaelhoward10@gmail.com
Jeremiah Knabe received a Master of
Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary on June 16.
Rebecca Welle ran the New York
Marathon last fall, finishing 4422 in
the field of 40,000 runners. She cut
about six minutes off her previous
personal best, finishing in 3:31:56.
54
Augsburg Now
07
Aaron Dowzak and Emily Hull
were married on Sept. 1,
2007, and moved to Port St. Lucie,
Fla., where Aaron is director of
youth and family junior and senior
high at Immanuel Lutheran Church,
and where they will love happily ever
after.
Christianna Schmit is interning in
music therapy at University Hospitals, Case Medical Campus, in
Cleveland, Ohio. Her supervisor and
their music therapy program were
recently featured in the “Making a
Difference” segment on NBC Nightly
News.
01
Marie and Brent Odenbrett ’02
welcomed the birth of Emma
Louise Marie on Oct. 19, 2007.
02
02
John Goodale married Crystal
Thompson at St. Peter’s
Lutheran Church in Swanville,
Minn., on July 28, 2007. Crystal is
a 2004 graduate of the University
of Minnesota’s Carlson School of
Management and is employed at
Graco, Inc. in NE Mpls as a channel marketing specialist. John is
employed as an account executive
at Novus Print Media in Plymouth.
They live in Maple Grove, Minn.
03
Nicolas Thomley ’06 MBA was featured last fall in Twin Cities Business
and honored in January in their
2007 Small Business Success Stories as the co-founder (at age 19) of
Pinnacle Services, Inc. This company, which has grown rapidly, provides services to people with
disabilities, including help in finding
housing and employment, in-home
care, etc.
She works during the day at the
Center for International Health at
Regions Hospital. Her husband,
Rev. Tchanong Hurh, is pastor at
House of God Trinity Christian
Church in St. Paul.
Frank Huebner and his wife,
Elizabeth, announced the
birth of their son, Andrew, on July
13, 2007. They live in New
Prague, Minn.
Tim Wahl and Lisa Uehling were married on Aug. 18, 2007, in Rochester,
Minn. They live in Minneapolis
where Tim teaches math at Rosemount High School and Lisa works
in the Technology Leadership Program at Target headquarters in Minneapolis.
Katie Winter began in Sept. 2007 as
a reporter for the Pipestone County
Star in Pipestone, Minn.
Graduate Programs
Jeff Falkingham ’95 MAL was a finalist in the Young Adult Fiction category of the Independent Book
Publishing Professionals Group
2008 Next Generation Indie Book
Awards for his book, Sherlock
Holmes and the County Courthouse
Caper. The book was originally published by Beavers Pond Press of
Edina, Minn., in September 2001
and re-released in June 2007, with
all proceeds going to flood victims in
Jeff’s hometown of Browns Valley,
Minn. www.cccaper.com
Jim Addington ’93 MAL was named a
“Facing Race Ambassador” by the
St. Paul Foundation for the work he
has done over many years and
through the Minnesota Collaborative
Anti-Racism Initiative that he and
his late wife, Imani-Nadine Addington, founded in 1995. Jim has
helped more than 20,000 people at
churches, colleges, and public institutions to understand and dismantle
racism.
Heather Reeve ’00 PA has been a
physician assistant at the ELEAH
Medical Center in Elbow Lake, Minn
.
May Mua ’01 PA has partnered with
Dr. Phua Xiong to establish Quik Urgent Care Clinic, the first Asian
American privately-owned and operated urgent care facility in St. Paul.
Danny Storm and Sarah
Schultz ’04 were married in
Hoversten Chapel on Aug. 2.
Danny is an audit/tax accountant
with Denny Hecker Automotive
Group and Sarah is a child protection social worker with Hennepin
county in Minneapolis. They live in
Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Alissa Abelson ’06 MSW welcomed a
baby girl, Madilyn Gwen, on July 21,
2007. She lives in New York and is a
social worker at FEGS in downtown
Manhattan.
Gwen Nordahl ’07 PA joined the Battle Lake Clinic in Battle Lake, Minn.,
as a physician assistant in October.
Send us your news and photos
03
Emily Gerard and her husband, Craig Maus, welcomed
their daughter, Caroline Mae, on
Feb. 8.
04
Julie Andert and Jeremy Nelson ’05 were married on Oct.
20 in Pax Christi Catholic Community Church in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Wedding party Auggies included
Kiera Peterson ’04, Rebeca Welle
’05, Joshua Remme ’06, Tyler
Kraft ’06, and Joseph Wessbecker
’04. Julie works in human resources at West Side Community
Health Services, and Jeremy works
for Comcast in Sales and Marketing. They built a home together in
Blaine.
Please tell us about the news in your life, your new job, move,
marriage, and births. Don’t forget to send photos!
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an
obituary, funeral notice, or program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail
to: Augsburg Now Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55454, or e-mail to
alumni@augsburg.edu. You can also submit news to the
Augsburg Online Community at www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Full name
Maiden name
Class year or last year attended
Street address
05
Jamie Ann Johnson married
Christopher Kerestes in
Grand Teton National Park in
Wyoming. They live in Newark,
Del., where Jamie is pursuing a
Master of Public Administration
degree at the University of
Delaware and an associate degree
in nursing through Delaware Technical and Community College.
Chris is a research assistant and
PhD candidate in electrical engineering working to improve solar
cells for solar energy.
City, State, Zip
Is this a new address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Home telephone
05
Paul Raukar and Chelsea
Haxton welcomed the birth
of their son, Evan Tyler, on May
30, 2007, born in Virginia, Minn.
Paul is a self-employed business
owner. praukar77@hotmail.com
E-mail
Okay to publish your e-mail address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Employer
Position
Work telephone
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College? ❑ Yes ❑ No
If yes, class year
Spouse’s name
Maiden name
06
Ryan Adrian-Hendrick Rivard
and Kristin Gulbrandson announce the birth of their daughter
Nora Lucille Rivard, born Dec. 31,
2006. They live in Evanston, Ill.,
where Ryan is a student at
Chicago-Kent College of Law.
riss23@gmail.com
Sara Holman married David
06Nash on July 26 in Wisconsin
Your news:
Dells, Wis. They currently live in
Omaha, Neb., where Sara is a
copywriter for THT Designs and
David is a medical student at
Creighton University.
Fall 2008
55
my
Auggie experience
Patrick Flood ’08
B.S., social work, with a minor in religion
Patrick Flood, a 2008 graduate, reflected on his four years at
Augsburg…
“During opening convocation in 2004, the freshmen marched to
the chapel as professors lined the path, clapping and welcoming
us. They didn’t know us yet but they were there to support us.
After four long years, many of those same professors once again
lined up on Commencement day, clapping and congratulating us
on a job well done. I couldn’t have imagined on that first day
what the impact of this would be.
How I became an Auggie: It was important for me to stay in the
ELCA family, since my mother is a Lutheran pastor. Attending a
small private liberal arts college in an urban setting also appealed to me. (What really sold me, however, were Augsburg’s
skyways and tunnels that make life much more comfortable in
the dead of winter!)
Augsburg highlight: During my junior year I had an opportunity to
study abroad by taking a spring semester course—Social Work in
a Latin American Context—through the Center for Global Education (CGE). The program was centered in Cuernavaca, Mexico
and focused on experiential learning, global perspectives, and
social and economic justice. During the semester I took a Spanish language class, three classes in social work, and completed
an internship at Las Palomas, a local nursing home. … I learned
a lot about the differences between our cultures. In Mexico it’s
much more traditional for the elderly to be cared for by their children; they become part of the nuclear family structure. The number of elderly in nursing homes is much lower than in the U.S.
The Augsburg impact: Conversations with professors and students had a very positive influence on me. My religion class with
Professor Mary Lowe challenged my thoughts and beliefs. Her
enthusiasm rubs off on students and pushes them to think critically and analytically about the Bible and how that can translate
into bigger issues.
Next steps: Although I am a social work major, I was a student
worker in Augsburg’s Institutional Advancement office for four
years. I learned about the importance of giving back to the community through philanthropy and stewardship. Because of those
experiences and one-on-one mentoring, I’m interested in pursuing an entry-level job in development. Wherever life takes me, I
feel well prepared for the journey, thanks to Augsburg.
INTERVIEWED BY JENNIFER L. HIPPLE, WEEKEND COLLEGE STUDENT
56
Augsburg Now
CAROLYN AND DALE ’60 HANKA are firm believers in free enterprise
and entrepreneurship, a fact that’s reflected in their successful careers. Carolyn was a university marketing instructor; Dale was a financial planner and bank president. Together they owned and managed a
title company.
Now retired, the couple is acknowledging the importance of
Augsburg College to their success by establishing an endowed scholarship.
“We thoroughly appreciated our time as students at Augsburg
College. The College gave us so much—small classes, individual attention from professors, and the opportunity to learn teamwork and
leadership.
Today the College is still a very special place. Faculty and staff
challenge students to grow in academic achievement as well as in
personal relationships. The College’s vision that “we are called to
serve our neighbor” is vital to the college community, the community
“The College gave us so much—
small classes, individual attention
from professors, and the opportunity
to learn teamwork and leadership.”
around Augsburg, and the world we live in.
When we decided to acknowledge the importance of Augsburg in
our lives by establishing the Dale and Carolyn Hanka Business Scholarship, Augsburg provided us with the ideas and counsel that made it
easy through a charitable gift annuity. Not only does it establish a
scholarship, but we receive income and tax benefits.
The best benefit? Knowing that scholarships make an Augsburg
education possible for so many students.”
YOU HAVE A VISION FOR AUGSBURG.
P L A N N E D G I V I N G C A N M A K E I T A R E A L I T Y.
Become a member of the Sven Oftedal Society at Augsburg by making a gift through your will, trust, life insurance, or other
planned gift. There are many ways to give a gift that will last a lifetime and make a difference for Augsburg students.
1-800-273-0617
www.augsburg.edu/giving
Watercolor
Taking advantage of the beautiful fall colors along
the Mississippi River, art professor Tara Sweeney
took her beginning watercolor class down along the
St. Paul shoreline.
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Minneapolis, MN
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Now
COMMENCEMENT 2007
INTERNATIONAL PHOTO
CONTEST
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AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
SUMMER 2007
VOL. 69, NO. 4
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in Murphy Square
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COMMENCEMENT 2007
INTERNATIONAL PHOTO
CONTEST
A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R
AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
SUMMER 2007
VOL. 69, NO. 4
Diggin’ Dinos
in Murphy Square
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Editor
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
Notes
from President Pribbenow on…
Staff Writer
Bethany Bierman
bierman@augsburg.edu
Design Manager
Kathy Rumpza
rumpza@augsburg.edu
Class Notes Designer
Students at the center of our lives
I
t is the end of July as I pen these Notes for the
summer 2007 issue of Augsburg Now, and we
have just concluded our summer orientation
for more than 400 incoming first-year
students, the Class of 2011. I am as energized
as always by the sense of wonder and hope that
comes with an incoming class of college students!
At the other end of the continuum, you will
find in the following pages the stories and images
of our two 2007 Commencement ceremonies—the
first early in May for our day undergraduates and
our physician assistant graduate students; the
second late in June for our weekend
undergraduates and the other five graduate
programs (nursing, social work, education,
leadership, and business administration). All
combined, we graduated more than 900 new
Auggie alums this spring—what grand
celebrations we enjoyed!
I have been thinking a lot about this
continuum of student experiences—and have
enjoyed some rich and important conversations
the past several months with the Augsburg
community about how we might better honor the
centrality of students to our life as a college.
It is, above all, about the promise we make to
our students. Let’s call it the Augsburg Promise. As
students come to us, no matter their prior
experience or background, we regard them as:
Photographer
As they enter the College—as undergraduates or
graduate students—we engage them in missionbased academic and social experiences that
prepare them for meaningful work and service in
the world. In the classroom, on the playing fields,
in the residence halls, on stage, and in the
neighborhood, students enter a teaching and
learning community that prepares them to make a
living and to make a life in the world.
And as they leave us, our students remain at
the center of our lives as graduates whose lives
and work are emblems of this college’s aspirations
and commitments. We expect them to have gained
an informed vision of the world, focused on
discovery and appreciating difference. We prepare
them for intelligent understanding, full of curiosity
and a commitment to dialogue. And we offer them
remarkable opportunities for relevant experience,
learning to apply what they have learned and lead
others.
Students are at the center of our lives. There is
no more energizing and engaging work. And there
are few places that do it as well as Augsburg
College. It is the Augsburg Promise, a promise we
strive to keep each and every day.
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
Faithfully yours,
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services,
CB 142,
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
• Gifted—a gift to us and the world, to be cared
for, educated, and nurtured,
• Called—on a vocational path that we will help
them discern and navigate,
• Accountable—persons of responsibility
and integrity.
Signe Peterson
petersos@augsburg.edu
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
petree@augsburg.edu
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Assistant Vice President
of Marketing and
Communication
David Warch
warch@augsburg.edu
Director of Alumni Relations
Heidi Breen
breen@augsburg.edu
www.augsburg.edu
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave.,
Minneapolis, Minn., 55454.
Opinions expressed in Augsburg
Now do not necessarily reflect
official College policy.
ISSN 1058-1545
Paul C. Pribbenow, president
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
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Summer 2007
4
Contents
Features
4
2007 International Programs Photo Contest
Selected winners of the seventh annual student photo contest for
international study programs showcase the experiences of students abroad.
6
An “Auggieasaurus” in Murphy Square
by Betsey Norgard
7
Senior Jen Janda created the “Auggieasaurus” as Augsburg’s entry in the
Science Museum of Minnesota’s Diggin’ Dinos project.
7
Commencement 2007—May
Nearly 400 students in undergraduate semester programs
and the Physician Assistant program received their diplomas in May.
10
Commencement 2007—June
In the College’s first Commencement focused on programs in the
trimester schedule, undergraduate and graduate students who studied on
weekends and evenings received their degrees.
Departments
10
On the Cover: “Auggieasaurus” is one of
about 50 dinosaur statues decorated and
displayed by local businesses and organizations
as part of the Science Museum’s 100th-year
anniversary project, Diggin’ Dinos. Studio art
major Jen Janda created Augsburg’s entry.
2
3
13
inside
back
cover
Around the Quad
Supporting Augsburg
Alumni News
Calendar
All photos by Stephen Geffre unless otherwise indicated.
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AROUND THE QUAD
NOTEWORTHY
Social Work Student
of the Year
Lisa Luinenburg ’07 was named
Social Work Student of the Year
by the Minnesota Chapter of the
National Association of Social
Workers (NASW) for her
“outstanding scholarship and
service to the community.” She
graduated in May with double
majors in social work and
international relations.
Physician Assistant
program earns
national award
Augsburg’s Physician Assistant
program was recently awarded the
2007 American Academy of
Physician Assistants’ Constituent
Organization Award of
Achievement for a high school
curriculum project developed in
2005. With the help of the
Minnesota Academy of Physician
Assistants (MAPA), the PA faculty
developed a program to educate
high school students about the
role of a PA, increase the diversity
among PA providers, and provide
health education and hands-on
learning.
In May 2006 and 2007,
Augsburg hosted high school
groups on campus who
participated in interactive
educational activities on how
diseases, specifically HIV and
other sexually transmitted
infections, can spread, as well as
how to administer a neurological
exam and take blood pressures.
Current PA students and recent
graduates helped with the
teaching.
2 AUGSBURG NOW
Nou Chang ’09 joins
Minnesota’s Future
Doctors
Junior Nou Chang participated
this summer in Minnesota’s Future
Doctors, a program to explore the
medical profession that is
sponsored by the University of
Minnesota and Mayo Medical
School. Over three summers, it
aims to increase the number of
Minnesota minority, immigrant,
and rural physicians by helping
these students develop academic
skills, an understanding of
medicine, and an appreciation for
serving in an underserved
community.
Chang, a biology and English
major with a religion minor,
immigrated with her family to
Rochester, Minn., from Thailand
in 1988. She also is the recipient
of a Jay and Rose Phillips Family
Foundation Scholarship that
awards potential student leaders
who intend to dedicate a portion
of their lives to community
service. She works with homeless
Hmong refugee children, ages 612, in partnership with the
Southeast Asian Community
Council, and hopes to create a
center where the homeless
children can participate in
culturally-based programs.
Rick Thoni retires as
WEC celebrates
25 years
As Weekend College celebrated 25
years in May, the program’s
founder, Rick Thoni, prepared to
retire from the College in June,
after 35 years of service.
Mia Bothun, WEC student body
president, spoke at the 25th anniversary
celebration on behalf of WEC students,
urging them to become more involved
in building greater community.
Rick Thoni, with his wife, Linda, listened
as President Pribbenow announced the
creation of the Richard J. Thoni Award
for a graduating WEC student that
Thoni joined Augsburg in
1972 as a part-time psychology
professor and counselor in the
Student Affairs Office and went on
to fill such roles as associate dean
of students, acting vice president
of student affairs, vice president
for research and development,
director of Weekend College, and
vice president for enrollment
management.
On May 17, students, faculty,
staff, and alumni of Weekend
College gathered to look back on
a quarter century. President
Pribbenow commented that the
number of stories from faculty and
staff of being asked to help
students get an education clearly
demonstrates the organic nature of
how WEC grew, beginning with
the student at the center.
He also commented on the
commitment of Rick Thoni and
others in WEC who didn’t merely
launch the program, but threw
themselves into the work of
meeting students’ needs.
would honor him “in an abiding way.”
Don Gustafson, professor of
history, applauded WEC students
and described the rewards of
teaching in WEC—meeting
students who bring different
experiences, perspectives, and
commitment to class.
In Thoni’s honor, President
Pribbenow announced the
creation of the Richard J. Thoni
Award, which will be given
annually to a graduating WEC
student whose actions,
commitments, and future
aspirations most profoundly
demonstrate a commitment to
Augsburg’s motto, “Education for
Service.”
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SUPPORTING AUGSBURG
The Kennedy Center—
filled with Auggie spirit
On May 4, the dedication of the Kennedy Center, the three-story
addition to Melby Hall, brought together Augsburg alumni, donors,
regents, faculty, staff, and students in celebration of Augsburg
athletics, fitness, and health and physical education.
Greco-wrestling champion Alan Rice
President Pribbenow expressed gratitude to
was greeted by President Pribbenow
the family of former regent James Haglund
in front of the Alan and Gloria Rice
and his wife, Kathleen, whose gifts provided
Wrestling Center, a state-of-the-art
the spacious, new fitness center bearing their
training facility for Augsburg’s
family name.
championship team and GrecoRoman wrestling.
President Pribbenow (second from left), together with President Emeritus William
Frame (left) and lead donors Dean ‘75 and Terry Kennedy, cut the ribbon to showcase
the new training, fitness, locker, classroom, and hospitality facilities.
The Lute Olson Hall of Champions highlights and celebrates the accomplishments of
The open entryway provided a great gathering place for
the many Auggie student-athletes across 18 men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports.
the Augsburg community to celebrate the dedication.
SUMMER 2007 3
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2007 International Programs Photo Contest
FIRST PLACE
“Mysterious Ireland”
Anthony Porter ‘07, Wicklow, Ireland
SECOND PLACE
“Cliffside: Bonsai Overlooking Tea Hills”
Ryan Treptow ‘07, Munnar, Kerala, India
THIRD PLACE
“Beneath African Skies”
Krista Costin ‘08, Ada-Foah, Ghana
LANDSCAPE
4 AUGSBURG NOW
HONORABLE
MENTION
“Eiffel Tower“
Laura Henry ‘07,
Paris, France
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PHOTOJOURNALISM
SECOND PLACE
“Untitled”
Jennifer Oliver ‘07, Chiang Mai, Thailand
FIRST PLACE AND BEST IN SHOW
“Pilgrims and Three Oceans Converge at Sunrise”
Ryan Treptow ‘07, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India
THIRD PLACE
PORTRAITS
“The Boat Keeper”
Allison Hutterer ‘07, Rabat, Morocco
SECOND PLACE
“Lumbini Woman”
Ryan Treptow ‘07, Bijapur,
Northern Karnataka, India
FIRST PLACE
“Las Hermanitas” (“The Little Sisters”)
Megan Schiller ‘07,
San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala
SUMMER 2007 5
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ugsburg senior Jen Janda has
been “Diggin’ Dinos” this
summer—not on an
archeological dig in Egypt, but
in downtown St. Paul. It’s part
of the “Diggin’ Dinos” summer celebration
honoring the 100th anniversary of the
Science Museum of Minnesota. Beginning
Memorial Day weekend, 53 dinosaurs were
placed around the streets of St. Paul, mostly
downtown, and seven in the parks of
Minneapolis as part of their 150th
anniversary celebration.
Much like the Snoopy statues a few years
ago, these dinosaurs have been painted by
local artists. Until Labor Day, Janda’s 4.5 feet
tall by 8 feet long, 80 lb. dinosaur will live in
Murphy Square, Minneapolis’s oldest park,
located in the heart of Augsburg’s campus.
When the College joined the project,
Janda was selected as Augsburg’s designer by
the art faculty. In keeping with the overall
theme, she named the dinosaur
“Auggieasaurus.” All the statues were painted
during the Diggin’ Dinos Paint-Off at
RiverCentre in St. Paul, just before Memorial
Day weekend.
“My idea for the Auggieasaurus was to
incorporate Murphy Square’s history
into a ‘map’ of the various
activities that go on in the
Page 8
park each spring and fall because of its
location in Augsburg College’s campus,”
Janda says. Around the base of the statue,
she inscribed:
Murphy Square Celebrating 150 Years,
1857-2007 “From cow pasture to
community center” The Dinosaur
of Minneapolis Parks
The activities she depicts on the
Auggieasaurus are:
• Runners—The Auggie cross-country team
runs around Murphy Square every fall.
• A biker—Minneapolis has many biking
commuters who travel through the park
area every day.
• A picnic scene
• A student reading Murphy Square, the
College’s literary and arts journal
• Kayaks, representing Minnesotans’ love of
the outdoors
The four legs of the Auggieasaurus are
designed to represent the Minneapolis
skyline, Augsburg campus, Seward
neighborhood, and the University of
Minnesota.
On Sept. 9, all the statues will be
auctioned off to benefit the work of the
Science Museum of Minnesota in its next
century.
Janda is a senior in the Honors Program,
with an art studio major. During the summer
she is working on a project to illustrate a
book for children in hospitals to help them
understand medical treatments
and surgery. She also works as
a graphic designer in the
Marketing and
Communication Office.
• A Somali family, representing the rich
cultural diversity of our neighborhood
• Frisbee players
• The Campus Kitchen van that delivers
meals in the neighborhood
A
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lives in murphy square
by Betsey Norgard
and Judy Petree
page design by Jen Janda ’08
A Paint-Off took place in downtown St. Paul
as local artists created dinosaurs to be placed
around the city, all in honor of the Science
6 AUGSBURG NOW
Museum of Minnesota.
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Page 9
traditional day undergraduates and master’s program in physician assistant studies
commencement
Jeanette Clark receives Marina Christensen
Justice Award
Jeanette Clark, a senior graduating with a double major in metrourban studies and youth and family ministry, was selected as the 2007
recipient of the Marina Christensen Justice Award. Each year, this
honor is presented to the graduating senior who best exemplifies
Augsburg’s motto, “Education for Service.”
Clark, a President’s Scholar, participated in the Honors Program as
well as Concert Band. At Augsburg, she held numerous leadership
roles, including serving as a campus ministry commissioner, resident
adviser, and leadership team member for the Campus Kitchen at
Augsburg College.
As a Spanish minor, Clark spent a semester in Cuernavaca,
Mexico, through Augsburg’s Center for Global Education, where she
worked for a pre-school and after-school program.
This past year, Clark created a spring break opportunity for
students staying in Minneapolis, called “Go Away Here.” In order to
show students opportunities in the city, it included service projects,
visits to neighborhood organizations such as the Sierra Club and East
African Women’s Center, and social outings.
The award recipient must have demonstrated a dedication to
community involvement as characterized by the personal and
professional life of Marina Christensen Justice, who reached out to
disadvantaged people and communities.
— Jen Winter ’07
Senior Jeanette Clark was honored with the Marina Christensen Justice award from
President Pribbenow for her work in the community and on campus.
May
2007
SUMMER 2007 7
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Eboo Patel, founder of the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth
Core, in his Commencement speech, described the “faith line”
that separates religious pluralists, who seek tolerance and
cooperation, from the religious totalitarians.
excerpts
from the
commencement address
“The Faith Line: On Building the Cathedrals of Pluralism”
Eboo Patel
… In his new book, Peace Be upon You,
Zachary Karabell writes: “If we
emphasize hate, scorn, war, and
conquest, we are unlikely to perceive
that any other path is viable … ”.
Hate, scorn, war, and conquest
sounds like a pretty good summary of
our newscasts; it certainly seems like
the dominant narrative of our times.
And the soundtrack of violence these
days appears to be prayer—in Arabic,
in Hebrew, in Hindi, in various
inflections of English.
There are many who are eager to
divide humanity along a faith line:
Sunnis vs. Shias, Catholics vs.
Protestants, Hindus vs. Buddhists.
I believe there is something else
going on. I believe that the faith line is
indeed the challenge of our century,
but it does not divide people of
different religious backgrounds. The
faith line does not separate Muslims
and Christians or Hindus and Jews.
The faith line separates religious
totalitarians and religious pluralists.
A religious totalitarian is someone
who seeks to suffocate those who are
different. Their weapons range from
suicide bombs to media empires. There
are Christian totalitarians and Hindu
totalitarians and Jewish totalitarians
and Muslim totalitarians. They are on
the same side of the faith line: arm in
arm against the dream of a common
life together.
A pluralist is someone who seeks to
live with people who are different, be
enriched by them, help them thrive.
Pluralists resonate with the Qur’annic
line, “God made us different nations
and tribes that we may come to know
one another.” Pluralists are moved by
the image of the Reverend Martin
Luther King Jr. marching together with
the Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in
Selma. Pluralists love the words of the
poet Gwendolyn Brooks:
We are each other’s business
We are each other’s harvest
We are each other’s magnitude
and bond…
We pluralists far outnumber the
totalitarians. What if we let ourselves
imagine? What if we began building?
What if every city block were a
cathedral of pluralism; every university
campus; every summer camp and day
care. There would not be enough
bombs in the world to destroy all of
our cathedrals.
Read the full Commencement Address at
www.augsburg.edu/commencement/
patel.pdf
President Emeritus Charles S. Anderson (right), who led the
College from 1980-1997 during a period of significant growth,
received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Maria Belen Power is the third in her family to
graduate from Augsburg. She poses here with
sister and brother Ana Gabriela ’05 and Camilo
Jose ’02, and their uncle, Dennis Power, from
White Plains, N.Y. The three grads are from
Managua, Nicaragua, where their mother,
Kathleen McBride, is the Center for Global
Education regional co-director for Central
America and adjunct professor.
8 AUGSBURG NOW
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As the graduates process down the street lined with faculty, hands are shaken, hugs exchanged, and high-fives given.
m”
Theatre arts professors Darcey Engen ’88
Physician Assistant program director Dawn
(second from left) and Martha Johnson (second
Ludwig places the master’s hood on Huong
from right) pose with grads James Lekatz (left)
Timp, one of the 31 newly-graduated PA
and Justin Hooper (right).
students.
President Emeritus William V. Frame, who retired last year from
Augsburg, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
degree, and was lauded for his work in sharpening the mission
of the College.
SUMMER 2007 9
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The flags of the Commencement procession represent the countries of Augsburg’s graduating students.
A
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2007
weekend, evening, and graduate programs
commencement
Faculty line both sides of the street as
graduates march through them on their
way to the ceremony.
June
Nursing Department chair Cheryl Leuning takes a photo of instructor
Pauline Utesch ’05 MAN (right) with graduates in the Bachelor of
Science nursing completion degree program.
Roberta Kagin, associate professor and director of the
music therapy program, shares a graduation moment
with her daughter, Julia (Metzler) Mensing ‘00, who
serves on Augsburg’s Alumni Board and received her
10 AUGSBURG NOW
MBA degree.
a
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Page 13
Angela Brand receives first
Richard J. Thoni Award
In honor of his retirement from Augsburg,
the Richard J. Thoni Award was established
earlier this year. It was awarded for the first
time on June 24 to Angela Brand, a social
work major.
Beyond the required 240 hours of public
service volunteer work Brand completed for
her major, she also provided parenting
instruction and visitation supervision to a
working mother in Chisago County. She
facilitated and organized meetings to ensure
that the transportation needs of clients at
the Chisago County Social Services office
were met.
Additionally, Brand developed an
evaluation of the youth-oriented services
provided by Chisago County Social Services.
The county is currently following up on her
recommendations to ensure that youth are
better prepared for their transition into
adulthood.
During his or her time at Augsburg, the
award recipient must have demonstrated a
dedication to the kind of community
involvement characterized by the personal
and professional life of Richard J. Thoni,
who until his retirement in June 2007,
served as a tireless advocate for higher
education at Augsburg.
— Jen Winter ’07
Social work major Angela Brand is the first recipient of the Richard J. Thoni Award, established in honor of the
retiring Weekend College founder and given to a weekend student committed to service in the community.
Dean Barbara Edwards Farley places a doctoral hood on
Srividya Raman, who received her master’s
Martin Marty, retired University of Chicago professor and
degree in social work, spoke on behalf of the
historian of religion, who was awarded an honorary Doctor
Class of 2007 and told how, after receiving a
of Humane Letters degree. In his Commencement speech,
business degree in India, she realized her
he gave suggestions about learning to live life as a process,
passion was in “doing something different that
not a product, continually questioning and testing.
was closer to [her] heart.”
A future college coed straightens the tassel of her mom’s
mortar board following Commencement.
More than 50 graduating students and their families from Rochester were able to leave the driving to
Augsburg and relax on their way to and from the Commencement ceremony.
SUMMER 2007 11
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Going to college with your mom
With more classes than ever offered in Weekend College, more
students are finding out what it’s like to attend college with their
parents. The Clark and the Spargo families are two who have had
more than one generation attend Augsburg simultaneously. Jeanette
Clark and her mother, Mary Simonson Clark, both graduated in the
spring. The Spargos have three family members graduating from
Augsburg this year and next. According to Clark, “Augsburg’s
graduate programs and Weekend College facilitate adult learning and,
therefore, increase the prevalence of multi-generational students in
families.”
The Clark family went through four commencements this past
spring. There were so many that Mary referred to their graduation
schedule as: “It’s a weekend, who needs a robe?” Jeanette graduated
from Augsburg with a Bachelor of Arts degree in youth and family
ministry and metro-urban studies on May 5. Mary graduated from
Luther Seminary with a Master of Arts in theology on May 27. Mary’s
other daughter, Marie, graduated from the New School of
Architecture and Design in San Diego, Calif., with a Master of
Architecture on June 16, and Mary received the other half of her dual
degree, a Master of Social Work, from Augsburg, on June 24.
Concerning being coeds together, Mary said, “I needed to learn
how to be on the same campus with my daughter without either of
us interfering with each other’s schedules.” Jeanette added, “To be
honest, I had some small anxieties when my mother started college at
Augsburg. It just doesn’t fit the norm to go to college with your
mother.” But both assert that not only did it work, but that the family
grew closer because of it. Jeanette claimed, “I think it was really good
for both of us to have others in our family who were going through
the stress of homework, tests, etc. at the same time. I think this really
promoted understanding.”
Jeanette Clark (left) who graduated in May, shares graduation joy with her mother,
Mary Simonson Clark, who completed dual master’s degrees at Luther Seminary and
Augsburg College. For more on Jeanette, see page 7.
The Spargos had three members attending Augsburg last year, and
all three participated in Advent Vespers. Antonio graduated in May
with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and secondary education.
Carolyn, mother to Annika and Antonio, graduated from Augsburg in
1980 and will complete the Master of Arts in Leadership program
next year. She says, “It’s been fun to have some of the same professors
my kids have.” Annika, who will graduate next year also, with a
Bachelor of Arts in music and education, adds, “Although there are
several of us on campus, we all have our separate programs which
allow us to maintain some individuality.” Continuing, she says, “I
think the neatest thing about being a family of Auggies is that I have
seen and met so many different people from different departments at
the school whom I normally would not know.”
— Jen Winter ’07
the class of 2007—956 graduates
May 5, 2007—semester programs
31 Master of Science, Physician Assistant Studies students
409 Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science
440 Total graduating
June 24, 2007—trimester programs
234 Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science
172 Weekend College
52 Rochester
10 United/Unity/Mercy Hospitals
20 Master of Arts, Education
26 Master of Arts, Leadership
15 Master of Arts, Nursing
178 Master of Business Administration
43 Master of Social Work
516 Total graduating
An MBA degree was also awarded posthumously to Shika Addo,
a student in the program, who died in April 2006.
12 AUGSBURG NOW
ALUMNI NEWS
From the
Alumni Board
president …
Greetings fellow
Auggies,
Well, a year has come and gone.
My time as president of the
Alumni Association is at an end.
My hat is off to all the wonderful
folks on the Alumni Board and
to the faculty and staff at
Augsburg. They’re a great group
dedicated to Augsburg and her mission.
As I handed off the president’s role to Buffie Blesi, we had a great
strategic planning retreat in June to define our new objectives.
I’m excited to report to you that our focus areas for 2007 include:
• Augsburg Stewards—Connect with the Augsburg Stewards and
build our Auggie Pride!
• Career Development Program—support Augsburg’s efforts
around Career Development for (soon to be) alumni;
• Gateway—participate in the opening of the Oren Gateway
Center and ongoing activities there
• Vespers—support the annual Advent Vespers programming
• Awards Committee—honor Auggies each year who have done
amazing things in service to the world and Augsburg’s mission
• Augsburg Now Advisory Committee—provide input and advice
to the great group of folks producing the Augsburg Now
• Affinity Groups—build connections with other groups at
Augsburg
• Fundraising—help build Augsburg’s strength through support
of the Annual Fund
Centennial
Singers perform in
the Twin Cities
The Centennial Singers, a male
chorus of Augsburg alumni and
friends, will present a series of
concerts this fall in the greater
Twin Cities area.
The chorus was formed in the
early 1990s of former Augsburg
Quartet members to revive and
continue singing the gospel
quartet tradition. Since then,
they have toured both to Norway
and the Southwest U.S. twice.
Fall Concerts/Appearances:
Fri., Sept. 28, 7 p.m.
Faith Lutheran Church,
Staples, Minn.
Sat., Sept. 29, 7 p.m.
Salem Lutheran Church,
Deerwood, Minn.
Sun., Sept. 30, 4 p.m.
Cambridge Lutheran Church,
Cambridge, Minn.
Sat., Oct. 6, 7 p.m.
Christ the King Lutheran Church,
1900 7th St., New Brighton, Minn.
Sat., Oct. 20, 7 p.m.
Calvary Lutheran Church of
Golden Valley,\
7520 Golden Valley Rd.,
Golden Valley, Minn.
Benefit—Wilderness Canoe Base
Sun., Oct. 21, 4 p.m.
Colonial Church of Edina,
6200 Colonial Way, Edina, Minn.
Sat., Oct. 27, 7 p.m.
Community of the Cross
Lutheran Church,
10701 Bloomington Ferry Rd.,
Bloomington, Minn.
Sun., Oct. 28, 4 p.m.
King of Kings Lutheran Church,
1583 Radio Dr.,
Woodbury, Minn.
Sat., Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
Minnetonka Lutheran Church,
16023 Minnetonka Blvd.,
Minnetonka, Minn.
Sun, Nov. 4, 4 p.m.
St. Michael’s Lutheran Church,
9201 Normandale Blvd.,
Bloomington, Minn.
You are invited and encouraged to participate. Please contact the
Alumni Relations office.
All my best to you and your family as the cycle turns and we
start another year.
Barry M. Vornbrock ’96 MAL
President, Alumni Board, 2006-07
SUMMER 2007 13
CLASS NOTES
1950
1969
Frank Ario, Minneapolis, was
featured on the Minnesota Public
Radio show, Midday on May 18,
in a program, “Two Minnesotans
Touched by WWII; Two
Strikingly Different Stories.”
Royce Helmbrecht, Austin,
Minn., is principal at Lyle
Community School in Lyle,
Minn., a small school of 240
students recently named by
Newsweek in the top five percent
of high schools in the nation.
1952
Robert R. Hage Sr., Hector,
Minn., was entered into the
Minnesota High School Football
Coaches Hall of Fame on April
21. He is the former football
coach at Hector High School.
Rev. Orville Olson and his wife,
Yvonne (Bagley), Excelsior,
Minn., celebrated the 50th
anniversary of his ordination. He
is currently a pastor at Mount
Calvary Lutheran Church in
Excelsior. Gifts will be given to
the Timothy Olson Memorial
Scholarship, honoring their son.
John R. Hubbling, St. Paul,
Minn., received the Max Hecht
Award from ASTM International
Committee D19 on Water. The
committee cited Hubbling for his
outstanding service and
advancing the study of water. He
is laboratory manager for
Metropolitan Council/
Environmental Services in St.
Paul, and also serves on ASTM
International’s international
committees on waste
management, and quality and
standards.
1970
1967
Gerrie Wall (Neff), Rapid City,
S. Dak., retired in May, after a
five-decade teaching career, from
Western Dakota Technical
Institute (WDTI) in Rapid City,
where she has taught in the
general education department for
the last 18 years. At this year’s
commencement ceremony, she
received the Distinguished
Service Award from the school,
and is the first faculty member to
be honored with its highest
award.
Mary (Tweeten) Gladwin,
Pocatello, Idaho, has retired after
21 years in education. She taught
in Cottage Grove, Minn., and
was the media specialist at Grace
Lutheran and Hawthorne Middle
School in Pocatello, Idaho.
physical education and aquatics
in the Glynn County (Ga.)
schools. She was also principal
horn with the Coastal Symphony
of Georgia and played in other
bands and small brass groups. At
Augsburg, she played in a brass
group named Neophonic Brass
with Mike Savold, Bob Stacke,
Johnny English, and others, and
would love to continue playing
brass music.
1982
Les Heen, Maynard, Minn., was
recently appointed president and
general manager of Pioneer
Public Television in Appleton.
He and his wife, Barbara
(Westerlund) ’89, have two
children, Chris, 9, and Erik, 6.
Barbara (Mattison) Lagrue,
Lamberton, Minn., has recently
moved back to the Midwest,
with her husband, Paul. For
many years, she taught adaptive
14 AUGSBURG NOW
John Sheehan, Lakeville, Minn.,
has been named boys varsity
basketball head coach in
Lakeville South High School. For
seven years he was an assistant
coach with the Lakeville North
girls team.
1997
Jasmina Besirevic-Regan,
Hamden, Conn., and her
husband, Matt, welcomed their
second daughter, Lejla, on June
14, 2006.
Rev. Scott M. Ludford, Hayward,
Wis., was installed as senior
pastor of First Lutheran Church
on January 21, after serving at
Concordia Lutheran Church in
Superior, Wis., for eight-and-ahalf years.
1987
Jody Abbott was recently named
senior vice president and chief
operating officer at North Kansas
City (Mo.) Hospital to provide
direction for upper management
in the areas of nursing services,
support services, and facilities.
Previously, she worked at
Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa,
Okla., in a similar position.
1992
1975
1993
Rev. Judith Bangsund, San Jose,
Calif., is pastor, along with her
husband, Rev. James Bangsund,
at Timothy’s Lutheran Church.
She graduated in nursing, served
with her husband in Tanzania for
several years, and became
ordained.
Join the Augsburg
Online Community
• Keep in touch with
classmates
• Find out what’s happening
on campus
• Change/update your address
and e-mail
www.augsburg.edu/alumni
CLASS NOTES
1999
Cheri Johnson, Minneapolis,
received a $25,000 McKnight
Artist Fellowship for Writers,
through the Loft Literary Center,
in creative prose. She has
graduate degrees in English from
Hollins College and the
University of Minnesota and is a
regular participant in the English
Department Homecoming
Reading and Career Night.
2000
Sara M. Quigley, St. Paul, Minn.,
graduated on May 27 from
Luther Seminary with a Master
of Divinity degree. She is the
youth director at St. Stephen
Lutheran Church in White Bear
Lake, Minn., and hopes to
become ordained in the ELCA.
Jennifer Rensenbrink, and her
husband, Adam Miller,
Minneapolis, welcomed twins, a
boy and a girl, at Fairview
Riverside Hospital on June 9.
Rowan Charles weighed 5 lbs., 2
oz.; and Anneke Rensenbrink
weighed 4 lbs., 14 oz.
certified nursing assistant/
environmental aide at Fairview
Southdale Hospital in Edina,
Minn.
2003
Natalia Pretelt, Roseville, Minn.,
was mentioned in the Money
and Business section of the Star
Tribune on April 15 for her role
as a loan specialist with the
Minneapolis Consortium of
Community Developers. She is
involved in microlending and
small loans to help immigrants
and others start businesses.
Jonathan Fahler, has studied
since 2004 in the Master of Arts
in Medical Sciences program at
Loyola University Chicago and
was recently admitted to medical
school at Des Moines University
College of Osteopathic Medicine.
John Tieben, St. Louis Park,
Minn., received his medical
degree from the University of
Minnesota on May 4. Tieben and
his wife, Danielle (Slack) ’04,
will live in Duluth, where he will
serve a three-year family practice
residency in the St. Mary’s/Duluth
Clinic Health System, St. Luke’s
Hospital, and the Duluth Family
Practice Center.
Options, a volunteer mentoring
program that connects with atrisk kids, ages 10-14, in the
Twin Cities through biking and
running. See blog photos at
bolderoptions.org.
2005
Brooke Dornbusch received a
Master of Arts in counseling
degree in May from the
Assemblies of God Theological
Seminary in Springfield, Mo.
Mark Simmonds, placed fourth
in the 120-kilogram GrecoRoman class at the 2007 USA
Wrestling Senior World Team
Trials. He is a damage
controlman third class (DC3) in
the U.S. Navy, operating out of
the Mayport, Fla., Naval Station
and is a member of the Navy’s
wrestling team.
2006
Lauren Falk, Eden Prairie,
Minn., has started her own
portrait/wedding photography
business, Lauren B. Photography,
with on-location photography of
weddings, portraits, and events
in the Twin Cities metro area.
Graduate Programs
Jeff Falkingham ’95 MAL, Eden
Prairie, Minn., donated his
services to author a 2007
commemorative edition of his
earlier book, The County
Courthouse Caper, recounting the
history of his native Browns
Valley, Minn. The publisher,
Beaver’s Pond Press, has donated
1000 copies for the city to sell as
a fundraiser for its Long-Term
Flood Recovery Fund.
Dietrich-Swanson Wedding
2004
2001
Emily Waldon, Salem, Mass.,
recently joined the Harvard
Vanguard Medical Associates at
its Cambridge internal medicine
practice as a physician assistant.
She received a master’s degree
from Northeastern University in
Boston. Formerly she was a
Max Langaard, Oakland, Calif.,
was recently featured in an
article titled, “Teaching
Leadership through Coaching.”
The article is focused on the
Sports-4-Kids program centered
in the Bay area inner city
schools. The program attempts
to help children become not only
healthier but also to learn what it
takes to lead.
Laura Simones, St. Paul, has
biked from Boulder, Colo., to
Minneapolis with Bolder
Hannah Dietrich and Nathan Swanson ’05,, Lincoln, Neb., were
married on June 8, in Luverne, Minn. The wedding included several
Auggie students and staff, including Sadie Dietrich ’09, Lynde
Kuipers ’08, cross-country and track coach Dennis Barker, Marcia
Gunz ’05, Anna (Ferguson) Rendell ’05, Kyla Rice ’05, Tim
Stowe, and Janeece (Adams) Oatmann ’05. Jeremiah Knabe ’05
also served as an officiant at the wedding. Hannah is a doctoral
student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and Nathan is
pursuing a job with Lincoln Public Schools.
SUMMER 2007 15
CLASS NOTES
SEND US YOUR NEWS AND PHOTOS
Please tell us about the news in your life, your new job, move,
marriage, and births. Don’t forget to send photos!
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an obituary,
funeral notice, or program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail to:
Augsburg Now Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55454, or e-mail to
alumni@augsburg.edu. You can also submit news to the Augsburg
Online Community at www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Full name
Maiden name
Class year or last year attended
Street address
City, State, Zip
In Memoriam
Larsen, Norman ’34,
Morristown, Minn., age 97, on
June 12. He was a member of the
Athletic Hall of Fame.
Woolson, Gladys (Oudal) ’34,
Minneapolis, age 92, on May 9.
Knudsen, Rev. Richard I. ’37
Sem, Minneapolis, age 95, on
July 10.
Gilseth, Margaret (Chrislock)
’40, St. Charles, Minn., age 88,
on June 10. She was a
Distinguished Alumna.
Framstad, Rev. Waldemar ’41,
Marinette, Wis., age 87, on June
14, after a lengthy illness.
Ahlberg, Rev. G. Harold ’42,
Valparaiso, Ind., age 86, on June 4.
Is this a new address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Home telephone
Stolee, Magdalene (Gronseth)
’42, Kenyon, Minn., age 87, on
June 11.
E-mail
Okay to publish your e-mail address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Employer
Position
Work telephone
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College? ❑ Yes ❑ No
If yes, class year
Spouse’s name
Maiden name
Your news:
16 AUGSBURG NOW
Estness, Borghild ’43,
Minneapolis, age 92, on July 8.
She served as a recorder in
Augsburg’s Office of the Registrar.
Gronseth, Luther C., Sr., ’43,
Apple Valley, Minn., age 86, on
June 23.
Lindahl, Burton J. ’50, Wayzata,
Minn., age 82, on May 22.
Bakken, Rev. Hardis C. ’52, San
Pablo, Calif., age 97, on May 5.
Thompson, Robert D. ’52,
Bloomington, Minn., age 81, on
June 29.
Pundy, Eileen “Dolly” ’59,
Minneapolis, age 69, on May 4.
Peterson, Rolf ’61, University
Place, Wash., on April 24.
Heimbigner, Marlene (Hanggi)
’65, Olympia, Wash., on Jan. 15.
Timmons, Peter ’74, St. Paul,
age 63, on June 16, from
pancreatic cancer.
Ness, Sheela Jo ’86, Plymouth,
Minn., on July 4, of injuries from
an auto accident.
Galland, John H. ’93, Durango,
Colo., age 56, on May 18, in an
auto accident.
Hope, Jared ’00, West Concord,
Minn., age 28, on May 8 of
injuries from an auto accident.
Neitzel, Daniel Kurt ’06, Eden
Prairie, Minn., age 27, on
June 11.
Ward, Sister Agnes, CSJ, on
April 10. She taught classical
languages at Augsburg in the
1960s.
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CALENDAR
For music information, call 612-330-1265
For theatre ticket information, call 612-330-1257
For art gallery information, call 612-330-1524
SEPTEMBER
September 10
Seventh Annual Scholastic
Connections Gala and Dinner
Celebrating the scholarship/
mentorship program and the four
ethnic services programs
Free and open to the public
6:30–8:30 p.m.—East Commons,
Christensen Center
Info and reservations: 612-359-6480
or scholar@augsburg.edu
September 24-25
2007 Christensen Symposium
Everyday Life in the Light of the
Gospel
Rolf A. Jacobson, associate professor of
Old Testament, Luther Seminary.
Free and open to the public.
September 24, “Why Do You Weep?
Sadness, Grief, and the Gospel”
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
September 25, “How Can I Keep
from Singing? Laughter, Joy, and the
Gospel”
11 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
September 27
Theatre Artist Series
From Augsburg to the Guthrie
Theater
Katie Koch ’06, stage manager and
executive assistant to Joe Dowling,
Guthrie Theater
9:40–11:10 a.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
September 14–October 26
Glass from the American-Swedish
Institute and Its Local Influence
Gage Family Art Gallery, Oren
Gateway Center
Opening reception: Friday, Sept. 14,
5:30–7:30 p.m.
Artist Presentation: To be announced
September 14–October 26
Reweaving a Life
Prints by Alejandro González Aranda
and baskets by women weavers of
Tlamacazapa, Guerrero, Mexico
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Artist Printmaking Demonstration:
Friday, Oct. 12, 8:30–10:10 a.m.
Artist Presentation and Reception:
Friday, Oct. 12, 3:30–5:30 p.m.
September 18
Theatre Artist Series
Technical Direction at the
Guthrie Theater
Craig Pettigrew, assistant
technical director
9:40–11:10 a.m.—
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
September 20
Featured Artist Presentation
A Life in the Theatre
Peter C. Brocius, artistic director,
Children’s Theatre Company
7 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
October 17
Many Voices: Bold Visions
Convocation Series
Peter Bisanz, film director,
documentary One
10 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
NOVEMBER
November 2–11
Life is a Dream (La vida es sueño)
by Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Directed by Martha Johnson
Nov. 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10 at 7 p.m.
Nov. 4 and 11 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
OCTOBER
October 8
Theatre Artist Series
Working in the Theatre
Buffy Sedlacheck, literary manager,
Jungle Theatre
12:10–1:10 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
October 8–13
Homecoming 2007
See www.augsburg.edu/alumni for
information
October 11
Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet
November 14
2007 Koryne Horbal Lecture
Anne Pedersen Women’s
Resource Center
Jane Fonda
“My Life’s Lessons about Sex and
Gender”
10 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
November 30
Velkommen Jul Celebration
10:15 a.m.—Chapel Service,
Hoversten Chapel
11 a.m.—Scandinavian treats and
gifts, Christensen Center
October 12
1957 50th Anniversary
Celebration
Homecoming Convocation
Homecoming Luncheon
Campaign Completion
Celebration and Oren Gateway
Center Dedication
Dept. of Sociology 60th
Anniversary Celebration
November 30–December 1
That All May Have Light
28th Annual Advent Vespers:
A service of music and liturgy
5 and 8 p.m. each night
Central Lutheran Church,
Minneapolis
For seating envelopes,
612-330-1265
English Alumni/ae Reunion
and Reading
October 13
1967 40-Year Reunion
Picnic in the Park
Football game vs.
University of St. Thomas
Auggie Block Party
SUMMER 2007
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Page 16
An Augsburg Mural
Augsburg’s history is celebrated in the mural across
the Barnes and Noble Augsburg Bookstore windows
at the new Oren Gateway Center. Artwork by
photographer Stephen Geffre.
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Minneapolis, MN
Permit No. 2031
Show less
Augsburg
Now
KEYSTONE CONNECTIONS
URBAN LEGENDS
AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
SPRING 2007
VOL. 69, NO. 3
Martin Sabo retires
The ending of an era
page 16
P. 21
A PLACE OF THEIR OWN
A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R
P. 12
P. 26
Editor
Notes
from President Pribbenow on…
Being a ... Show more
Augsburg
Now
KEYSTONE CONNECTIONS
URBAN LEGENDS
AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
SPRING 2007
VOL. 69, NO. 3
Martin Sabo retires
The ending of an era
page 16
P. 21
A PLACE OF THEIR OWN
A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R
P. 12
P. 26
Editor
Notes
from President Pribbenow on…
Being a college in the city
B
ut seek the welfare of the city where I have
sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on
its behalf, for in its welfare will you find
your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:7, RSV)
One particular afternoon last fall, I was shepherded
through the nearby Cedar-Riverside neighborhood
by our legendary community ambassador Mary
Laurel True. She introduced me to good people
whose lives and work intersect with the College. We
sat in one of the four mosques in the neighborhood
and spoke with the elders about peace and the God
of Abraham, about our lives here together, about our
children, and about the world and how frightening
it can be to live with strangers. In other words, we
spoke as fellow humans living together in the city.
I love the city (despite my rural upbringing) and
my recent experiences in our neighborhood lead me
to revisit some of the historical themes that fascinate
me about city life.
My first thoughts go to the role that neighborhoods play in a strong urban life. Though we are a
city, we live our lives in neighborhoods. It is in the
neighborhood where I come face to face with the
challenges and joys of negotiating my life with others. I think of Jane Addams, who made the west side
Chicago neighborhood near Hull-House the sphere
of action for her efforts in the late 19th and early
20th centuries to build a stronger democracy. There
are many of us who still believe her settlement
house idea has relevance for the 21st century. It is
not a philosophical exercise—it is the daily living
with, abiding with, meeting the needs and sharing
the aspirations of neighbors that defined the work of
Miss Addams and her colleagues, and that needs to
define our lives in cities as well.
A second theme about cities is the ways in
which they reflect our abiding pursuit of civilization.
Sir Peter Hall in Cities in Civilization suggests that
great cities have been at the center of artistic growth,
technological progress, the marriage of culture and
technology, and solutions to evolving social problems. Cities are places “for people who can stand the
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
Staff Writer
Bethany Bierman
bierman@augsburg.edu
Design Manager
Kathy Rumpza
rumpza@augsburg.edu
Class Notes Designer
heat of the kitchen: places where the adrenaline
pumps through the bodies of the people and
through the streets on which they walk; messy
places, sordid places sometimes, but places nevertheless superbly worth living in, long to be remembered and long to be celebrated.”
Finally, I think of the late Jane Jacobs, the legendary urban theorist, whose The Death and Life of
Great American Cities was a clarion call to arms for
all those who loved the diversity and energy of cities
that was being ravaged by trends in architecture and
city planning. One of Jacobs’ main points was that
the well-being of cities is defined primarily by common, ordinary things, like sidewalks, parks, defined
neighborhoods, and a diversity of architecture styles
and buildings of different ages. These common,
ordinary things, when thought about with the needs
and aspirations of citizens in mind, will create
healthy, sustainable, and vital urban centers. It is not
about spending a huge amount of money, but rather
about a reflective practice of city life—the genuine
work of urban planning.
During my short time here at Augsburg, I have
been challenged to think again about the role of colleges and universities in an urban setting. I am committed to the mutual dependency of colleges and the
city. The paradigm for the relationships between
cities and higher education must be less about
extracting benefits from each other, less dependent
on incidental impact, and more focused on the various resources that can be shared in the pursuit of a
more robust, healthy, and meaningful urban life. I
look forward to our efforts at Augsburg to give substance to this new (but not really so new!) paradigm
of urban citizenship.
Yours,
Signe Peterson
petersos@augsburg.edu
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
petree@augsburg.edu
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Interim Assistant
Vice President of Marketing
and Communications
David Warch
warch@augsburg.edu
Director of Alumni Relations
Heidi Breen
breen@augsburg.edu
www.augsburg.edu
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave.,
Minneapolis, Minn., 55454.
Opinions expressed in Augsburg
Now do not necessarily reflect
official College policy.
ISSN 1058-1545
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services,
CB 142,
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
Paul C. Pribbenow, president
Spring 2007
21
Contents
Features
11
The Kitchen Connection
by Betsey Norgard
Weekend College student Tom Gouras uses his food service experience to feel
more connected on campus and provide service in the community.
12
Fitting the Pieces Together
by Betsey Norgard
In their keystone courses seniors synthesize all their Augsburg experiences in
preparing for the next step.
16
The Ending of an Era
Photos and text by Stephen Geffre
The boxes are packed and farewells said as Martin Olav Sabo retires from a
28-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives.
21
Urban Legends
by Bethany Bierman
Augsburg’s metro-urban studies alumni are making their marks as leaders
in public service and city planning.
16
26
A Place of Their Own
by Betsey Norgard
The East African Women’s Center bustles with activity as mothers, children,
grandmothers, and girls learn skills for living in a new community.
On the Cover: Congressman Martin Olav
Sabo, Class of 1959, retires from a lifelong
career serving his constituents in Minneapolis
and earning high respect from colleagues on
both sides of the aisle.
Departments
2 Around the Quad
6 Supporting Augsburg
8 Sports
29 Alumni News
36 Views
All photos by Stephen Geffre unless otherwise indicated.
AROUND THE QUAD
Brian Krohn awarded
a Goldwater
Scholarship
NOTEWORTHY
A team of Augsburg and University of St. Thomas students received honorable men-
Junior Brian
Krohn, who is
majoring in
chemistry
with a biology
minor, was
awarded a
Barry M.
Goldwater
Scholarship for the 2007-08 academic year. A total of 317 schol-
arships were awarded from the
more than 1,000 nominations
made by college faculty in the
fields of natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.
Krohn will join a research
group this summer at the Graz
Technical Institute in Austria,
funded by the National Science
Foundation.
Two other Augsburg students
received honorable mentions—
Kent Bodurtha and Reid Larson,
both in physics.
tion at the National Model United Nations Conference in New York in March.
Model UN team
wins award
A team of Augsburg and
University of St. Thomas students
received honorable mention at the
National Model United Nations
Conference in New York in
March—Augsburg’s first award in
nine years of competition.
More than 4,000 students
from the U.S. and 31 countries
participated, with opening and
closing ceremonies held in the
UN General Assembly Great Hall.
The student team represented
the interests of India in the conference and met with the Indian
Mission to the UN during the
week in New York.
Matt Broughton
named a Fulbright
Scholar
Matt
Broughton’06,
who graduated summa
cum laude
with dual
degrees in
English and
2 AUGSBURG NOW
physics, has been named a
Fulbright Scholar to Germany
during 2007-08. He will spend
the year at the Technical
University of Braunschweig,
working in space physics
research.
It was during an internship
with the National Academies’
Space Studies Board that
Broughton began to see how
research he had been doing fits
into the larger context of national and international physics
research, studying the relationship between the sun and earth.
At the Technical University,
he will study ultra-low frequency
(ULF) waves in the magnetosphere, using data gathered from
four satellites in the Cluster mission. He will be able to analyze
the data with use of a wave telescope, a multi-spacecraft analysis
tool, using techniques that scientists there developed. He already
has a working relationship with
the scientists and has received
some training on the wave
telescope.
This summer Broughton will
spend 10 weeks in Washington,
D.C., in an intensive German
language program.
Coach and athletic director
Ernie Anderson dies
Ernie Anderson ’37, who served Augsburg College
as its men’s basketball coach for 23 seasons and as
its athletic director for 34 years, died on March 18
at the age of 90.
Anderson was a part of the Augsburg community for more than 40 years. He attended the
Augsburg Academy as a prep student in the early
1930s. He played basketball and baseball at
Augsburg, graduating from the College with a hisErnie Anderson ’37
tory degree in 1937.
Anderson served as men’s
basketball coach for the
Auggies from 1947-70, and as
the school’s athletic director
from 1947-80. He was inducted into the College’s Athletic
Hall of Fame in 1975.
In 1984, Augsburg named
its outdoor athletic field
Anderson-Nelson Field, in
honor of Anderson and fellow
longtime coach Edor Nelson
’38. In 2001, the center competition court at Melby Hall was
named Ernie Anderson Court
in his honor, while the outdoor
athletic field was rechristened
as Edor Nelson Field.
Men’s basketball coach Ernie Anderson is
lifted in the air as the team celebrates its
conference championship in 1963.
PA students excel on
certifying exam
Physics students
receive award
All 28 of Augsburg physician
assistant 2006 graduates passed
the National Commission on
Certification of Physician
Assistants (NCCPA) exam,
required for physician assistants
to practice in most states.
While the mean score for all
new grads nationally was 506,
Augsburg’s mean score was 581,
which put the program in the
91st percentile in comparison to
other programs.
Augsburg’s chapter of the Society
of Physics Students (SPS) was
selected as an Outstanding
Chapter for 2005-06. This is the
fourth time in the last five years
the chapter has been recognized
among the top 10 percent of
chapters nationally.
Recognition is given for the
breadth of SPS activities in
research, public science outreach, physics tutoring programs, and interaction among its
members. Brian Wood ’08 serves
Students and money—dollar/sense
Sophomore Cody Warren (left) and financial aid counselor Carly Eichhorst (right)
teamed to teach students about financial literacy.
Studies show that more than half
of all college students acquire
their first credit card during
their first year in college. Nearly
half of all college students have
credit card debt, with the average debt over $3,000.
Combine that with the fact
that most parents feel they are
neither prepared to talk to their
kids about personal finances, nor
do they feel they are good role
models concerning financial
planning and decisions. And few
high schools offer courses on
financial matters.
Last year, Augsburg’s
Financial Aid Office decided to
do something about this and
provide resources for students to
as chapter president and
Professor Mark Engebretson is
faculty adviser.
Best Workplace for
Commuters
The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the U.S.
Department of Transportation
become more fiscally literate and
learn to make responsible money
choices. “Does Your Money
Matter?” was offered as a series
of formal presentations.
This year, financial aid counselor Carly Eichhorst and sophomore student worker Cody
Warren teamed up to revamp the
program and ratchet up the level
of conversation and participation.
“I knew my peers didn’t have
the [financial] information,”
Warren said, as they planned a
new program they called “dollar/sense.”
Five sessions (three of which
were repeated) were offered on
weekday evenings:
• Embark: Begin the Financial
Journey
• Build: Establish Credit.
Maintain Credit
• Plan: Chart Your Course
• Renew: Financial Aid Springs
Anew
• Share: Time. Talent. Gifts
included Augsburg among the
Best Workplaces for Commuters
in Minneapolis. It was recognized as an employer offering
good benefits to employees for
alternatives to driving alone to
work every day. Augsburg faculty, staff, and students can buy
discounted travel on buses and
light rail, can make teleworking
arrangements, and use carpools.
Augsburg also hosts an
HOURCAR hub in the CedarRiverside community, making a
hybrid-fuel vehicle available for
hourly rent by qualified drivers on
campus and in the community.
Lots of audience response and
visuals in a relaxed atmosphere,
plus some food, brought home
the message to 20 to 40 students
who came to each session of
“dollar/sense.”
Eichhorst was delighted at
the response. “[A student who]
attended last night’s event on
credit scores … came to me this
morning and told me he pulled
his credit report right away last
night and wanted to talk about a
discrepancy,” she said. “[Another
attendee] was a student who
experienced financial problems
last year … and he attended
every single session of
‘dollar/sense’.”
The word reached parents as
well. One mother e-mailed, “It is
really a shame that you don’t get
more students attending those
sessions since they are truly REAL
LIFE and kids so often complain
about learning things they think
they will never use. Thanks to
everyone in the Enrollment
Center who put them on.”
—Betsey Norgard
SPRING 2007 3
AROUND THE QUAD
Japanese artists visit
Augsburg
For two days in late February,
Ayomi Yoshida and Bidou
Yamaguchi engaged the
Augsburg community with their
talents and art.
Yoshida is a printmaker,
installation artist, and designer,
whose work ranges from a colorful gift wrap line designed for
Target to multi-story installation
art. She is a fourth generation
member of the illustrious Yoshida
family of printmakers, which also
included Toshi Yoshida, who
taught at Augsburg during two
summers in the early 1970s.
For an exhibit at the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
(MIA) in 2002 featuring her family, she created a large installation
of wood grain panels. The installation was purchased by Target
Corporation and re-installed in
their corporate executive suites
in downtown Minneapolis.
“Reverberation Ad Infinitum”
is made up of four columns and
a wall, each running three stories
high, flanking a stairway. Out of
each red column, Yoshida carved
repeated lines of oval chips with
a scoop chisel. The red chips
were then glued to the white
wall, creating positive and negative polka dots. Over 60,000
chips were carved, with three
people working on it for three
months.
MIA curator Matthew Welch
led a group of Augsburg students
to Target Corporation to view
Yoshida’s installation—an opportunity for the students to see the
artwork in this restricted, nonpublic area. They appreciated the
centuries-old, handcrafted nature
of the installation, says Kerry
Morgan, Augsburg’s coordinator
of galleries, and were captured
by “the physical process, the
amount of work, and the time
and dedication needed for it.”
Morgan recounts that as people walk through the installation,
“fascinating things happen to the
eye, the grid becomes diagonal
and casts shadows.”
Bidou Yamaguchi demonstrates his master skills in carving masks from cypress wood
for Japanese Noh drama.
4 AUGSBURG NOW
Students explore the panels of a multi-story art installation created by Ayomi Yoshida
at Target Corporation headquarters.
Bob Ulrich, chairman and
CEO of Target Corporation,
greeted the group and told them
that Target employees prefer
walking the stairs through the
installation to taking the elevator.
Yoshida also is a designer for
Target. Her gift wrap line, with
polka-dot-and-lined patterns,
has been described as making
packages “too pretty to open.”
Yoshida’s husband, Bidou
Yamaguchi, is a master carver of
masks for Noh drama. He is
trained as a graphic designer, but
became enchanted with the
ancient craft of carving masks
and their long history as part of
an ancient art form.
Carved and smoothed from a
block of cypress wood by knives
and chisels with three layers of
steel, the masks are lacquer coated many times and then stressed
to show age and wear.
Yamaguchi tried his own
hand at carving, and sought out
a master carver with whom he
could apprentice. After five years
of study—only half the normal
time—he was awarded the master carver status. He was also
given his artist’s name, Bidou, a
combination of words meaning
the “god of war” and “a stack of
wood.”
Yamaguchi has lectured and
demonstrated his craft at numerous institutions in Japan and
other countries. His masks are
part of the permanent collections
of Target Corporation (which the
students also were able to view
on the tour) and the MIA.
Bringing Yoshida and
Yamaguchi to campus was a collaborative effort among the art
galleries, Art Department,
Theatre Arts Department, Art
Club, Pan-Asian Student
Services, and professor emeritus
Eugene Skibbe, a friend of the
Yoshida family. The presentations
made by the artists were open to
the public, and scheduled to
involve classes in AsianAmerican theatre, sculpture, art
history, and design.
— Betsey Norgard
Augsburg Stewards:
Preserving history,
keeping traditions
alive
The Augsburg Stewards have
been involved in nearly every
recent Augsburg event, and they
are not much more than a year
old. The 14-member group has
already participated in
Homecoming, orientation, an
event honoring the Augsburg
Associates, the annual
Scholarship Brunch, and other
events with alumni.
Augsburg students can’t help
but notice the Stewards, but
many wonder, “Who are they?”
If you refer to the group’s
official statement, the Augsburg
Stewards’ mission is “to engage
students in the mission of
Augsburg College in order to
cultivate pride in place and
purpose.”
Lead Steward Solveig Mebust
says, “We combine three important aspects of the College: we
look at the history, the present
traditions, and the future of the
College and then try to make it
all something to which students
can relate. We basically provide
the link between the students
and the alumni.
“We make connections with
people whom you might not otherwise have met, and these are
powerful people,” she says. “They
make the difference between having an Oren Gateway Center or
not, having a scholarship to go to
college or not.”
The Stewards don’t just make
connections with alumni, but
also focus on students. In an
interview in spring 2006,
Augsburg Stewards’ founder,
Paul Cumings ’06, said,
“Students are trying to find ways
to connect with Augsburg, to
The Augsburg Stewards seek ways to engage students in the history and traditions of the College and create links with alumni.
(L to R) Rikki Starich ’07, Marie Sager ’09, lead Steward Solveig Mebust ’08, Sarah Valasek ’09, Cody Warren ’09.
create meaning behind the
school.”
“That’s exactly what we try to
do,” Mebust confirms. “We want
students to be invested in this
school, to take pride in our rich
history, be involved in present
traditions, and to help sculpt the
future of the College.”
The Stewards have already
started working toward that goal.
Each Steward receives a copy of
the late professor emeritus Carl
Chrislock’s Fjord to Freeway, a
centennial history of Augsburg
College. They then share the
College’s history with the student
body.
For example, during Auggie
Days, an orientation program for
first-year Augsburg students,
Steward Chris Kuhn presented a
brief history from Chrislock’s
book.
The Stewards began in
December 2005 when Cumings,
the student body president, came
up with the idea. “It’s important
to learn the history of the
College, to open up our past.
That helps us learn why deci-
sions have been made,” he said.
Cumings asked a few students to join, wrote a constitution, and submitted the constitution to student government. In
January 2006 the Augsburg
Stewards became an official student organization.
Currently the organization is
structured into three main committees: the History Committee,
the Present Committee, and the
Future Committee, each led by a
Steward member and focusing
on one of the three main components. However, Mebust plans
changes to the structure to make
it easier for students to participate more fully. Formal recruiting for new Stewards has taken
place during spring semester.
In December the Stewards
hosted an event called “What is
an Auggie, anyway?” With information tables in Christensen
Center, the group focused on
what it means to identify as an
Auggie and provided students
with information, food, presentations, and a documentary about
the College’s history.
“There’s something unique
about Augsburg. It’s always been
the odd child out of the
Lutheran colleges because we’ve
never felt the need to compete,”
says Mebust. “We produce amazing alumni who are leaders of
both the political and religious
realms, and their children are
now attending Augsburg.”
Mebust hopes to learn more
about why Augsburg is so
unique. She assigned the
Stewards a long-term goal of discovering the personal history of
the College. “Fjord [to Freeway] is
a great history based on institutional life, but not [its] personal
life.”
Even while still evolving, the
Augsburg Stewards are working
hard to reach their goals. Mebust
says, “We do our best to be
involved … and to be the best
representation of the College.”
—Kari Aanestad ’08
Kari Aanestad is a junior, with double majors in English/writing and
political science.
SPRING 2007 5
AROUND THE QUAD
SUPPORTING
AUGSBURG
Sabo Scholars …
‘Walking the talk’
One year after he graduated from
Augsburg, 22-year-old Martin
Olav Sabo was elected to the
Minnesota House of
Representatives in 1960 as its
youngest member. In 1978 he
was elected to the first of 14
terms in the U.S. House of
Representatives and served as one
of its most liberal members.
Throughout his entire career, he
has exemplified Augsburg’s motto,
“Education for Service,” and he
leaves a legacy as one of the most
fair-minded and principled legislators.
In 1990, his friends, family,
and alumni established the Martin
Olav and Sylvia A. Sabo
Scholarship in recognition of
Sabo’s distinguished record. The
scholarship is awarded to students who study political science
and/or have engaged in public
service, and aspire to careers in
public policy.
In 1994, fundraising began to
build the Sabo Endowment for
Leadership in Public and
Community Service. In addition
to the Sabo Scholarships, a summer leadership program for high
school students, a lecture series,
and academic support to public
service are envisioned.
Since 1995, nearly 50 students have been named Sabo
Scholars, and some served internships in Sabo’s Washington office.
A number have since chosen
careers in public service.
Garry Hesser, professor of
sociology and director of the
metro-urban studies program,
says, “What we’re trying to lift up
with the Sabo initiative is that
graduates in urban studies walk
the talk … . They stand for elected office and grapple with the
complexities of public issues and
The Sabo Scholarship
The Martin Olav and Sylvia A. Sabo Scholarship, established in 1990
by friends, alumni, and family is awarded to students with demonstrated financial need and academic achievement who study political
science and/or have engaged in public service or have interest in
public policy.
“I hope your college experience has taught you to listen, and that you
will continue to listen. … I hope you will develop your convictions
and your beliefs. I hope that you will pursue your passions. And I
hope you do get involved and choose your causes. But always remember to listen. And remember—you may not be absolutely right.”
— Martin Olav Sabo ’59
Augsburg Commencement address, 1983
6 AUGSBURG NOW
public policies.”
Here are four Sabo Scholars
whose lives are centered around
walking the talk of public service.
For Minneapolis native
Breanne Dalnes ’03, it took a
year at another Lutheran college
to realize she was an urbanite at
heart.
Once at Augsburg, a metrourban studies major became an
instant fit. “I knew as soon as I
discovered there was such a thing
as neighborhood organizations
that I wanted to get involved on
such a grassroots level,” she says.
While at Augsburg, Dalnes
spent one semester with HECUA’s
Metro-Urban Studies Term
(MUST), which she says opened
her eyes to a new way of thinking. She also served as a planning
Junior Kari Aanestad’s internship teaching
a recent immigrant to write has brought
to life issues around community needs
that her classes in political science have
introduced.
intern for the City of St. Paul.
Her last semester, she spent a
week in Washington D.C., where
her group visited various nonprofits and Sabo’s office. “It was
the perfect send-off to graduate
school.”
She received a Master of
Urban/Regional Planning degree
at the University of Minnesota’s
Humphrey Institute in 2005 and
currently serves as an associate
planner for the City of Ramsey.
“I’m putting my passions to
good work and watching out for
people who are too busy making
ends meet to get involved in their
communities or politics.”
Erica Champer ‘04 chose
Augsburg “for its integration into
a world-class city.” She also chose
metro-urban studies because, in
Making a gift to Augsburg
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her words, “it intertwined all of
the areas I was interested in—
history, economics, sociology, and
politics, all with a focus on making the city a better place.”
She now serves as an associate
director of quality and compliance at Heartland Alliance for
Human Needs and Human Rights
in Chicago. Champer climbed the
ladder in a short period of time,
becoming the youngest director
in a company of 800.
“At Augsburg I learned about
public housing in Chicago and
what a disaster it was, and now
I’m here two years later working
on a real solution!” says Champer.
“I am working on issues that are
meaningful to me—affordable
housing, human rights, and
more.”
Kari Aanestad graduates next
year with double majors in political science and English with a
writing concentration. During her
time at Augsburg, she has taken
advantage of many opportunities
to reflect on vocation, community
service, and building democracy.
“I love helping people and
being a servant of the people,”
Aanestad says. Her Honors Junior
Colloquium, taught by President
Pribbenow, focused on humanitarian Jane Addams, and what
Aanestad took away was a deep
appreciation of Addams’ belief
that in serving people she did not
expect to teach them, but to learn
from them.
Aanestad says her four classes
during spring semester all seemed
to synthesize around public serv-
Ana Chilingarishvili’s international
interest in children’s rights stem
from her own experience growing
up in the post-Soviet Union
Republic of Georgia.
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donation. You can use the form to make a one-time donation or
to set up recurring gifts.
Gifts by phone
To make a donation by phone, call Kevin Healy, director of
advancement services, at 612-338-6537 or 800-273-0617.
Gifts by mail
You can mail your gift to:
Development Office, CB 142
Augsburg College, 2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55454
For complete information about making a gift,
including the types of giving and giving programs,
go to www.augsburg.edu/giving.
ice. In political science theory, she
studied what it means to be a
civil leader and servant of the
people. A statistics course taught
her how knowledge is used and
how public policy is translated for
the general public. An internship
gave her the chance to work oneon-one with a 46-year-old East
African man, teaching him to
write. She learned how education
is empowerment, and how leaders have a responsibility to
empower their people. Lastly, in
American literature, she studied
what it means to have a voice,
and how in poverty people do
not have any voice.
Her thoughts after graduation
include work with the Lutheran
Volunteer Corps or AmeriCorps,
giving her chances to offer community service and better understand the role of civic associations
in a democracy.
Ana Chilingarishvili graduates this year with a major in
international relations and will
begin law school in the fall. Her
sights are set worldwide, beyond
local and national boundaries. A
native of the Republic of Georgia,
she was 6 years old when the
Soviet Union came to an end and
independence was declared. Her
family endured the civil war that
followed and were fortunate to
receive help from a number of
international organizations.
Chilingarishvili’s interest is in
human rights law, especially children’s rights, so that she can help
others in the same way. She
doesn’t yet know exactly what
that will be, but feels that
Augsburg’s focus on vocation has
helped her prepare for whatever
may develop.
When the Sabo Scholars had
the opportunity to meet Martin
Sabo on campus this spring,
Chilingarishvili was amazed to
hear about the roots of this legislator who has traveled the
world—a tiny North Dakota community and a high school graduating class of three.
— Bethany Bierman and
Betsey Norgard
SPRING 2007 7
AROUND THE QUAD
SPORTS
Auggies win 10th
national title, claim
nine All-Americans
Claiming three individual national
titles and making collegiate
wrestling history for one of its
wrestlers in the process, the
Augsburg wrestling team won its
record-10th NCAA Division III
national championship in the last
17 seasons with a dominating
performance in the tournament,
held in March in Dubuque, Iowa.
With nine All-Americans,
including three titlists and two
runners-up, Augsburg finished
with 135.5 points, 36 points
ahead of second-place Wartburg
(Iowa), the defending national
champion, with 99.5 points.
Wisconsin-La Crosse finished in
third with 92.5 points, Luther
(Iowa) finished fourth with 86.0
points and the College of New
Jersey finished fifth with 46.5
points.
Augsburg head coach Jeff
Swenson ’79 was named National
Coach of the Year by the National
Wrestling Coaches Association,
the sixth time he has earned the
honor in his 25-season career.
After the championships,
Swenson announced his resignation from his coaching position,
in order to focus on his responsibilities as the school’s assistant
dean for athletics and recreation.
Sam Barber, who has served as an
assistant on the Auggie staff for
six seasons, was named the team’s
new head coach.
“We had a lot of ups, mostly,
and a few downs,” said Swenson.
“It’s hard for me when the year
comes to an end because of the
great seniors, but the bottom line
is I’m proud of them as a group.
They really came together in the
last month of the season.”
Augsburg has finished among
the top two teams in national
competition 19 times since 1975,
has finished among the top four
Wrestling head coach Jeff Swenson steps
down after 25 seasons.
Auggie coaches Jeff Swenson (lower) and Sam Barber (upper) watch their team
With a commanding win, Auggie wrestlers captured their 10th national championship in March, with nine All-Americans.
nationally the last 19 seasons in a
row (the only NCAA school in
any division that can make that
claim), and has finished in the
top 20 nationally every season
since 1971 (NCAA from 1983 to
present, NAIA pre-1983).
Augsburg’s Marcus LeVesseur,
a senior from Minneapolis,
became the first Division III
wrestler ever to win four national
titles, and the second college
wrestler ever to finish his career
unbeaten and untied. LeVesseur,
who won Division III national
titles at 157 pounds three times
(2003, 2004, 2005), finished his
senior season at 31-0, and his collegiate career at 155-0, the second-longest winning streak in
college wrestling history. Cael
Sanderson went 159-0 during his
career at Iowa State from 19982002, winning four Division I
national titles.
“It’s unbelievable,” Swenson
said of LeVesseur’s accomplishment, “… no one had ever won
four titles (at the Division III
level), and only two guys have
ever gone through their careers
undefeated. He’s in great company with Cael [Sanderson].”
Junior Quincy Osborn
claimed his first national championship at 141 pounds. Osborn
finished his first season as an
Auggie with a 44-3 record, completing his third national tournament appearance. As a Division I
wrestler at the University of
Minnesota, he competed in
national tournaments in both
2004 and 2005. Osborn is now
104-35 in his college career.
Junior Jeremy Anderson also
earned his first national championship, completing his second
All-American season with a win in
the 157-pound class. Anderson,
who was a national runner-up last
season, finished his junior campaign at 39-2 overall and his 83-5
in his two seasons as an Auggie.
At 133, junior Jafari Vanier
repeated his second-place finish
from a year ago, and sophomore
Seth Flodeen claimed national
runner-up honors in his first
national finals appearance at 125
pounds.
Senior Jared Evans, a threetime All-American, closed out his
career with his second straight
fourth-place finish, and junior
Robbie Gotreau finished his campaign at 41-6 overall. Heavyweight senior Andrew Neumann,
in his second national tournament, finished fifth overall. At
197, junior Wally O’Connor finished eighth.
Augsburg finished with an
11-1 dual-meet record this season. For the third time in the sixyear history of the event,
Augsburg claimed the championship at the National Wrestling
Coaches Association/Cliff Keen
Division III National Duals in
January.
Academically, Augsburg finished 11th among Division III
programs in the NWCA’s academic national rankings, with a 3.283
team gradepoint average. Five
Auggies earned NWCA Scholar
All-American honors—Evans,
Neumann, Paul Bjorkstrand, Josh
Hansen, and Brandon Klukow.
wrestle to a national title.
8 AUGSBURG NOW
—Don Stoner
Jeff Swenson resigns
as wrestling coach
Augsburg wrestling head coach
Jeff Swenson announced in March
that he is resigning his coaching
post in order to focus on his
responsibilities as the school’s
assistant dean for athletics and
recreation.
Swenson, a 1979 Augsburg
graduate, served as head coach of
the Auggies for 25 seasons (198084, 1986-2007), building the
squad into a national small-college
wrestling powerhouse. Under
Swenson’s leadership, Augsburg
won a record-10 NCAA Division
III national championships and
produced a career dual-meet
record of 321-44.
Associate head coach Sam Barber takes
over as head coach.
Sam Barber, who served as an
assistant coach on Swenson’s staff
for six seasons, is taking over head
coaching duties for the Auggies.
Barber has served as associate
head coach for the last two seasons. A 1995 Upper Iowa
University graduate, he served as
head coach for the Peacocks in the
1999-2000 season.
During his Augsburg tenure,
Barber has been a part of three
national championship squads
and two national runner-up
squads, and has coached 46 AllAmericans and 13 individual
Jeff Swenson ’79 retires after 25 seasons, with a national title and Division III Coach
of the Year honors. He shares the moment with his nearly-two-year-old son, Brady.
national champions. He was
named Division III Co-National
Assistant Coach of the Year by the
National Wrestling Coaches
Association in 2006.
In his role as assistant dean for
athletics and recreation as a member of President Pribbenow’s staff,
Swenson supervises the 18-sport
intercollegiate athletics program,
the athletic facilities department,
and the College’s intramural athletic program. Swenson was
named to the position on an interim basis in 2001, and his posting
was made permanent in 2004.
“I look forward to working
with Coach Swenson in the years
ahead,” Pribbenow said, as “we
partner to make Augsburg one of
the finest examples of NCAA
Division III athletics in the country—a college that honors the
connections between academics
and athletics, that celebrates both
sportsmanship and competition,
and that helps our students to
grow as individuals and teammates … I can think of no one
better than Jeff Swenson to lead us
in this vision for intercollegiate
athletics at Augsburg College. His
track record speaks for itself. His
love for the College is unparalleled. And he has the passion,
commitment, and skills to guide
our athletics programs into a
bright future.”
Swenson has been a member
of the Augsburg community for
more than 30 years—as a student,
coach, and administrator. A
national champion wrestler at
Augsburg in his senior year of
1979 with a career record of 10217, Swenson began his coaching
career in his first year out of college, as an assistant coach on John
Grygelko’s Auggie staff. Grygelko
retired in 1980, and Swenson was
named head coach.
Swenson said that two years
ago, he made the decision that he
would step down from his coaching post this year. He said that
focusing on his role in athletic
administration will help him in
his goals to improve every aspect
of Augsburg’s athletic program
among schools in the Minnesota
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
and NCAA Division III.
“For me, this is a cause for celebration. It’s not a sad day. It’s a
great day. I’m able to listen to my
vocational calling and lead the
entire athletic department without
having the coaching demands,”
Swenson said.
As an administrator, Swenson
has led the Augsburg program
through a period of unprecedented growth and improvement. This
year, construction was completed
on the new Kennedy Center addition to Melby Hall, which
includes expanded classroom,
meeting, and locker room space,
along with a new fitness facility
and a new wrestling training facility. Two years ago, a new
SprinTurf surface was installed at
Edor Nelson Field, and a new
seasonal air-supported dome was
installed for the first time this
year over the field.
“I’ve been around Augsburg
since the fall of 1975, over 30
years,” Swenson said. “Augsburg
has shaped me. Augsburg has
made me who I am, and it’s
allowed me to pursue my passion
to be a coach. Now, I have a
greater passion to lead the entire
athletic department as a full-time
administrator. I’ve learned a lot
about leading and coaching by
being the head wrestling coach
here for 25 years. That’s going to
help me as I lead Augsburg athletics into the future.”
“I am proud to know Jeff
Swenson and to be able to honor
his remarkable career as our head
wrestling coach at Augsburg,”
Pribbenow said. “He has accomplished great things with his
wrestling teams—10 national
championships, countless individual titles, team academic achievements, and so on. But perhaps
more than anything, I am proud
of Jeff’s commitment and passion
for that individual student who
needs the guidance, support, and
challenge to be the best he or she
can be—as an athlete, as a student, as a person. Jeff exemplifies
what makes Augsburg the special
and rare place that it is—putting
students first and helping them to
grow to be successful, responsible,
and good people.
“Jeff Swenson leaves a remarkable legacy as the Augsburg
wrestling coach. He has built a
program that will endure as a
shining example of quality and
achievement. Now he has made
the remarkable decision to bring
his skills and passion to bear on
moving Augsburg’s intercollegiate
athletics programs to the next
level of excellence. Surely there is
no one better than Jeff to lead our
athletics programs—both to the
benefit of our student-athletes and
the reputation of the College.”
—Don Stoner
SPRING 2007 9
Augsburg
men’s hockey
head coach
Chris Brown
was named
Minnesota
Intercollegiate
Athletic
Conference
Chris Brown
Coach of the
Year. In his first year as the
Auggies head coach, Brown led
the Auggies to a 12-10-4 record
and third-place conference finish
(9-3-4), as the Auggies clinched
a berth in the MIAC playoffs for
the first time since the 2002-03
season.
Brown returned to Augsburg
last season as an assistant coach
under Mike Schwartz, a position
in which he also served during
the 1996-97 season. After leaving Augsburg in 1997, he was an
assistant coach at Division I
Alaska-Anchorage for three
years, then served as head coach
at Marian (Wis.) for four seasons
(2000-04) and at Hamline for
one season (2004-05).
Brown was also named as
one of 12 finalists for the
Edward Jeremiah Award as the
NCAA Division III National
Coach of the Year by the
American Hockey Coaches
Association.
Aaron Johnson
named MIAC Player
of the Year
Senior forward Aaron Johnson
was selected by MIAC as the
conference Player of the Year in
men’s hockey. A three-time AllMIAC honoree, he also was
10 AUGSBURG NOW
named for the
second year in
a row as a
first-team
selection on
the AHCA/
RBK Hockey
Division III
All-American
Aaron Johnson ’07
squad.
In April, he was selected as
one of two Division III players to
compete in the NCAA Pontiac
Frozen Four Skills Challenge
during Division I men’s hockey
Frozen Four in St. Louis, Mo. He
was also one of eight finalists for
the Sid Watson Award, given by
the AHCA to the Division III
National Player of the Year.
Ed Saugestad
receives Hobey Baker
Legends of Hockey
Award
Former
Augsburg
men’s hockey
coach Ed
Saugestad ’59
was recognized for his
lengthy and
outstanding
service to college hockey with
the 2007 Hobey Baker Legends
of Hockey Award. The award
was presented by the Hobey
Baker Memorial Award
Foundation on May 3 in St. Paul.
Saugestad coached Augsburg
to a 503-354-21 record in a
career that spanned 37 seasons.
Only two other Division III
coaches have amassed more than
500 career victories.
In his 37 years of coaching,
Saugestad took teams to national
postseason play on 10 occasions
(nine NAIA and one NCAA),
winning NAIA national championships in 1978, 1981, and
1982. He was named NAIA
National Coach of the Year after
each of the national championships. He coached 22 AllAmericans at Augsburg.
Saugestad and his Auggies
won Minnesota Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference (MIAC) regular-season titles six years in a
row (1976-77 to 1981-82), and
Saugestad was MlAC Coach of
the Year six times. In 1998, the
MIAC’s playoff championship
trophy was christened as the Ed
Saugestad Trophy.
Saugestad began his Auggie
coaching career while still a student at Augsburg, in 1958. He
graduated with a double major
in physical education and biology in 1959 and went on to earn
his master’s degree from the
University of Minnesota in 1964.
In addition to coaching hockey
for parts of five decades, he also
served on the Augsburg football
coaching staff from 1959-84
(head coach in the 1970-71 seasons); men’s athletic director
from 1981-87; and during his
entire Augsburg career served as
an instructor in the Health and
Physical Education Department.
Saugestad was named the
2002 recipient of the John
MacInnes Award from the
American Hockey Coaches
Association for his contributions
to the growth of amateur hockey
in the United States. In 1996,
the state of Minnesota declared
Feb. 17 as Ed Saugestad Day, in
recognition of his career accomplishments.
Archive photo
Chris Brown named
MIAC Men’s Hockey
Coach of the Year
Sophomore Ed Saugestad (back row, second from left) played on the 1956-57 Auggie
hockey team.
Coach Saugestad studies a hockey pro-
Saugestad’s hockey team captured a
gram during the 1961-62 season.
national championship in 1981.
Weekend College student Tom Gouras uses his food service background as a volunteer in Augsburg’s
Campus Kitchen, a great way for him to meet other students and feel more connected to Augsburg.
The kitchen connection
by Betsey Norgard
“I can begin to see
it take shape.”
Tom Gouras, the Monday
night shift leader at Augsburg’s
Campus Kitchen, is looking at
several pans of fried rice and vegetables, surplus food donated by a
local restaurant through the
Emergency Foodshelf Network.
Alongside them sit other pans of
pork riblets, wax beans and carrots, potatoes, and some melons.
From the donations they
receive, the Campus Kitchen volunteer crew transforms the various components into healthy
meals to be heated, delivered, and
served the next day—to the Brian
Coyle Community Center and
Trinity Lutheran’s Safe Place tutoring program in the CedarRiverside neighborhood, and at
the Minnesota Indian Women’s
Resource Center.
“I call this Chinese medley,”
Gouras says, as he combines several pans of rice and vegetables.
It can be a challenge, as the crew
never knows exactly what foods
they’ll find when they arrive for
the cooking shift. Sometimes, he
says, “what goes into the soup is
interesting.”
Since Augsburg students are
on break, Gouras’ crew tonight is
a group of four students from
Fridley High School with their
teacher, a father with his middle
school son who is doing community service, and Augsburg alum
Bill Ogren ’73. All of them have
become regular Monday night volunteers. Tonight, they cook the
potatoes, chop the melons, and
check out all the boxes of food to
make sure everything is still fresh.
Finally, pans are labeled—protein,
starch, vegetable, and fruit—and
everything is cleaned up to finish
the evening shift.
Gouras is a Weekend College
student who has been volunteering at the Campus Kitchen at
Augsburg since January. His 15
years of experience as a cook and
chef are valuable in the kitchen to
lead the crews of students and
community volunteers.
He entered Weekend College
last spring after two years at
Rasmussen College studying criminal justice. A native of St. Paul’s
East Side, Gouras recites a litany
of blue-collar jobs he’s held—furniture delivery, food service
cook/chef, garbage truck driver,
loading dock worker, chemical
dependency technician, greenhouse hand, and, currently, delivery truck driver for the New
French Bakery.
While at Rasmussen, Gouras
realized that in order to advance
much higher than where he is and
has been, he needs a four-year
degree. He hopes his courses in
psychology and sociology will prepare him for probation work with
the county or state. He’s also open
to possibilities that may develop
during his studies. “I’ve been
asked if I know my calling,” he
says, “and I hope I find it. I’m
open to it.”
After two trimesters in WEC,
Gouras began to understand how
much of the college experience
involves social interaction, and he
wasn’t feeling very connected to
Augsburg. Campus Kitchen
appealed to him because he could
use his food service experience,
and he liked the program’s mission of reaching out to others less
fortunate, making sure they have
hot meals.
Gouras is old enough to be
father to most of the student volunteers, but he enjoys their
enthusiasm, as well as sharing
with them some of his “street
smart” wisdom and common
sense.
Rachel Vallens, Campus
Kitchen coordinator, recognizes
what this does for the program.
“Tom’s cooking experience and
maturity really bring an added
dimension to his cooking shifts,”
she says. “The students look up
to him as someone who knows
what he’s doing and has done a
lot in life.”
Recently, Gouras took on an
additional task. Three days a
week, sandwiches and deli items
are donated from the University of
Minnesota, and when no one else
could pick them up on
Thursdays, he volunteered. It’s all
part of giving back, which is why
Gouras says he’s in the kitchen
every week. Ⅵ
For more information about
Augsburg’s Campus Kitchen, go to
www.campuskitchens.org.
SPRING 2007 11
keystone
courses
Fitting the pieces together
by Betsey Norgard
In architecture, a keystone sits at the top
of the arch and provides the shape and
support to the curved pieces rising to it.
In the Augsburg Core
Curriculum, the keystone is the
final piece that integrates what
students have learned in their
required general education
courses and their chosen major
with everything else they have
done at Augsburg—co-curricular experiences, leadership
development, service-learning,
study abroad, and other areas
of their Augsburg experience.
12 AUGSBURG NOW
First-year day students begin
their Augsburg education with
Augsburg Seminar, a semester
that includes orientation to residence life; development of skills
and strategies they need for success in college; introduction to
the themes of an Augsburg education, including vocation, service, community; and learning
about Augsburg’s neighborhood
and the city. It’s all about transition to college, integration into
Augsburg’s learning community,
and reflection on how they
become responsible learners.
Students learn that a hallmark of an Augsburg education
is intentional reflection on vocation, or what they call the “v”
word. All students study two
semesters of “Search for
Meaning,” which includes critical
conversations on understanding
and discovering one’s own gifts.
The senior-year keystone
course becomes the other bookend. Students synthesize all their
in-classroom and out-of-classroom experiences as they focus
on transition from college to the
community, integration of what
they’ve learned, and reflection on
how they will use their gifts and
knowledge—again, transition,
integration, reflection.
What does it mean to be a
professional in their major? What
does it mean to be a biologist,
accountant, social worker, English
teacher, actor, or whatever?
Because conversations about
vocation are revisited during the
keystone, faculty need to feel
comfortable and confident in
discussing issues of faith and
vocation in this context. A grant
from the Wabash Center for
Teaching and Learning in
Theology and Religion,
“Common Vocation, Distinctive
Callings,” provides funding for
keystone faculty to partner with
religion faculty members.
Together they strategize on content and methods for these crucial conversations.
The vocation focus and other
signature elements of the Core
Curriculum—diversity, the city,
service and service-learning—
distinguish Augsburg’s keystone
from other senior “capstone”
courses. Russell Kleckley, associate professor of religion and
coordinator of keystone seminars, explains that Augsburg’s
keystones are “more intentional
about the educational experience
as a whole, to see how the general education experience has
informed the [major] discipline
and vice versa.”
Diane Pike, sociology professor and director of the Center for
Teaching and Learning, says that
keystones “take the time, with
guidance, to help students figure
out how the pieces fit together
for them.” She says, “We’re
equally serious about the transition from college outward as we
are about the transition to college from high school.”
From the College’s point of
view, the keystones measure how
well Augsburg fulfills its promise
to students. Are they satisfied
with their experience, and do
they feel well prepared and confident in what they know and
will take away with them?
keystone
Psychology majors (clockwise from bottom) Rebecca Lewis, Tiah Colacci, Nghi Ngan, and Peter Chea played a version of the Game
of Life in which the cards required players to discuss some of the bigger questions in life.
the keystone
variations
Most students take the keystone
in their senior year, and most
often in connection with their
major. This past academic year
was the first time all students
have had access to a keystone
course. With a fair amount of
flexibility, departments have created or modified existing courses, or collaborated across departments or divisions to create
classes.
psychology:
the game of life
The psychology keystone is a
good example of a department
capstone course that evolved into
a keystone. All psychology
majors have completed capstone
internship semesters that includ-
ed time on the internship site,
plus time in class, plus papers,
portfolios, etc.
This year, the course changed
to be one-half internship and
one-half keystone, with about
one-third of the total time devoted to issues around vocation. As
part of the Wabash grant, Bridget
Robinson-Reigler, associate professor of psychology, was paired
with Mary Lowe, assistant professor of religion. RobinsonReigler says that she and Lowe
had five or six conversations
about vocation, and that Lowe
helped her plan new activities to
engage her students.
“I was pleasantly surprised
how unbelievably well the students have gotten into [the discussion of vocation],” says
Robinson-Reigler. Early in the
seminar, she offered her own
model of vocation, and by opening herself to them, she set a
comfortable tone for class
discussion.
In what became a popular
activity, Robinson-Reigler introduced an adapted version of the
Game of Life, in which a number
of the play cards were rewritten
with questions relating to vocation. Given this context, students
felt comfortable first answering
the questions themselves, then
opening the conversation to
everyone.
In another session, students
were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of their required liberal
arts courses. Did they work?
Why did Augsburg want them to
study those courses? Some students responded by saying that
without the keystone they never
would have thought about these
SPRING 2007 13
business and
vocation
John Knight, Center for Faith and Learning, encourages business majors to consider how their skills, beliefs, and values will
influence decisions they make every day in the business world.
questions, and this assignment
helped them figure out what
they had learned.
Robinson-Reigler’s psychology keystone is a mix of day and
weekend students, giving the
class a combination of ages and
experiences. While all students
were in the same situation of finishing college and figuring out
what was next to come, some
interesting conversations were
launched in the multigenerational class. One WEC student
said that these discussions
helped her understand her own
daughter better. Some said it
helped them understand and
appreciate the younger day
school population.
Robinson-Reigler confirms
that students are not getting any
less psychology in the new capstone-keystone with the addition
of the vocation conversation;
14 AUGSBURG NOW
they’re just getting it differently.
“I’ve taught this class before,
but I love teaching it now,” she
says. “I enjoy grading the papers!”
keystone-capable
english courses
In their new curriculum, the
English Department doesn’t have
a separate keystone course, but
rather several advanced courses
designed as “keystone-capable.”
Students are required to take one
of these courses as a keystone, for
which extra work is indicated.
Much of that work is selfreflection, and requires students
to consider, for example, their
function as readers and to think
about what is happening when
they read. The nature and depth
of their commitment to reading,
and what, if any, responsibilities
their reading entails.
This reflection is more seamless in some courses than others.
When Professor Doug Green
teaches Advanced Studies in
Language, Theory, and Method,
he integrates reflection and vocation throughout the course, even
for the non-keystone students.
Last year he taught Criticism
and Theory as a pilot keystone
course. Students read Azar
Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran
and wrote about how they
viewed the place of literature in
their own lives and cultures.
They had to respond to questions like, “How has my understanding of ‘self’ (who I am as a
reader, writer, student, English
major, woman or man, and
human being) evolved as a result
of my experiences at Augsburg?”
John Knight, associate director of
the Center for Faith and Learning,
has taught several sections of the
keystone course for the Business
Administration Department, the
College’s largest department. The
course is a collaboration between
the business and religion departments, and he co-taught the day
section with religion professor
Hans Wiersma.
Titled Vocation and the
Meaning of Success, the keystone
objectives include reflecting upon
the ways students have been
transformed by their college experiences, especially in their business major; reflecting critically on
beliefs and values they use in a
diverse world; and reflecting on
Augsburg’s understanding of vocation and a comparison to their
own vocation.
Knight finds that the feel of
the class depends significantly on
the class makeup—the day or
weekend student mix, the mix of
males and females, etc. Weekend
College students, he says, who
bring wider job skills and life
experience to class, showed a
“deep willingness to engage in the
material … and really wrapped
themselves around the [vocation]
issues by the second class.”
Some students are suspicious of
the keystone as being a religion
class and question its relevance to
their future. Knight asks them to
consider the bigger picture of
meaning and purpose in their lives.
What does it mean to be a business
professional? How does he or she
behave? He believes that somewhere down the road students will
understand why they had to take
this course and see the benefits
from it.
creating a life in
the fine arts
Students in music, visual art, and
theatre share a cross-disciplinary
keystone course, Creating a Life
in the Fine Arts.
The syllabus states that the
course will “synthesize recurring
powerful concepts of vocation
with practical tools and realities.”
Students will balance the “development of entrepreneurial skills
with ‘intrapreneurial’ knowledge
and awareness” while preparing
for professional life in the community.
The idea of shared courses
across the arts is not new—several short-term courses have
taken place over the past few
years. What’s new is the infusion
of the larger issues integrating
liberal arts and vocation.
Merilee Klemp ’75, associate
professor of music, led the conversations among arts faculty
around the new Core
Curriculum.
Anticipating the need to create a keystone course, she sought
a Lilly Endowment grant for the
music faculty to explore topics in
music and vocation with a consultant, Janis Weller.
Extending this conversation
to art and theatre faculty formed
the nucleus for the new keystone. It also promoted the
building of a fine arts community among both faculty and students on campus. Weller taught
the course, along with Klemp
(music), Darcey Engen (theatre),
and Tara Sweeney (art).
Critical conversations about
vocation began and ended the
course. These included visiting
guest artists, who spoke about
their roles in the community and
world.
In conjunction with the
Wabash grant, Sweeney was
paired with Lori Brandt Hale,
assistant professor of religion.
They met frequently, and Sweeney
describes the experience, “What I
am discussing in the service of
teaching the keystone is inseparable from what I am learning about
my own vocation and practice as
an artist at the same time.”
Their discussions included
how their religious upbringing or
belief systems affected what and
how they teach, and how they
could challenge and support students to discover their own
authentic voices.
The keystone seniors across
art, music, and theatre were
encouraged to find common
ground. In one exercise, teams of
students were given ordinary
objects, like a chair, and together
asked to consider it from a number of perspectives—how the
object could move or be used
with their bodies, what the visual
elements of the object were, what
kinds of sounds the object could
make.
Practical sessions about being
an artist were also included.
Students practiced networking
with introductions and business
cards, and they had to prepare
artist’s statements and professional
résumés.
Several break-out sessions separated the students into their
respective departments for discussions specific to their fields.
For the most, students resonated with the cross-disciplinary
focus of the keystone. “I think
working alongside artists in
another genre is a rare gift in the
college setting,” said music performance major Nikki Lemire.
Still, she enjoyed working with
her music classmates, however,
and would have enjoyed more
break-out time within her own
department and less full-group
time.
Theatre major James Lekatz
appreciated the practical elements
of the course. Hearing from guest
speakers—practicing artists,
teachers, grants administrators—
made him aware of their involvement in the community and the
different styles they use. He said
the course helped students deal
with removal of the “safety net of
Augsburg,” and taught them how
to use specific skills, e.g., to get
gallery space, to plan a show, etc.
Over the next couple of
years, the keystone courses will
all be evaluated and revisions
made where needed. But no matter what the form or content the
senior keystone courses take,
they will all continue to help students complete an Augsburg
education as effective, informed,
and ethical citizens. And to
become adaptable and resilient—
elements needed for success on
whatever path they choose.
Studio art major Rachel Nelson (top), theatre arts major James Lekatz (middle), and
music performance major Catherine DeVoe (right) explore the properties and possibilities of a stool.
SPRING 2007 15
Above: Martin Sabo smiles to greet a judge as he stands in the
imposing Capitol Rotunda, 96 feet in diameter.
Left (top): In their suburban Virginia home, Sylvia Sabo, Martin’s wife
and college sweetheart, works on a crossword puzzle; her husband
usually tackles Sudoku. According to Sylvia, playing the puzzles is
part of their morning ritual.
Left (below): Leaving Congress means many farewells, in this case to
Pennsylvania’s 12th District congressman John Murtha, as the doors
close in the Rayburn Building elevator.
Right: The transition in leadership begins to seem more real as Sabo
sits in a nearly barren office watching Rep. Nancy Pelosi read the
results for the new Democratic leadership in the House.
16 AUGSBURG NOW
The
ending of an
era
CONGRESSMAN MARTIN OLAV SABO,
Augsburg College Class of 1959, represented
Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District in the
U.S. House of Representatives for 28 years and
became a fixture in the Democratic party. In
2006 he made the decision to retire from
Congress and return to life as a private citizen.
Augsburg staff photographer Stephen Geffre
tagged along on the day Sabo and his staff
vacated the corner office in the Rayburn
House Office Building he had earned through
seniority. Sabo actually spent the last month
of his term in a basement cubicle in Rayburn
HOB, with room enough for him and only one
staff member.
SPRING 2007 17
18 AUGSBURG NOW
Olav
Martin
Sabo
THE ENDING OF AN ERA
Above: Martin Sabo takes a moment to read through the
mail delivered to his desk.
Left (top): After a rainy day, the sun finally breaks
through to illuminate the dome of the United States
Capitol, a stately presence in the nation’s capital city.
Far left: Bonnie Gottwald, Sabo’s scheduler, packs up her
small portion of the D.C. office. She is one of only two
schedulers Sabo has had throughout his 28-year tenure in
Washington, and she echoes the entire staff in saying that
Sabo was always a joy to have as a boss.
Middle left: Each departing representative receives a
lengthy final checklist, to ensure as smooth a transition
as possible.
Left: Martin Sabo’s staff poses on the Capitol steps for
their last official photo.
SPRING 2007 19
THE ENDING OF AN ERA
Above (top): Sabo chats with Kevin Bonderud, who served as his first communications
director, during the office-closing party. Scattered across Sabo’s desk are mementos of
more than two decades in the House of Representatives, including mock baseball cards
with Sabo’s stats on them, photos, ashtrays, and T-shirts.
Above: Back in his Minneapolis office, Sabo takes a few minutes to go through the mail.
The plaques, hanging outside the door, are just a small sample of the honors and awards
that mark the achievements of a long legislative career.
Right: Each successive file drawer marked “empty” means that staffers are getting closer
to having all files reviewed and sorted.
20 AUGSBURG NOW
Auggies at the forefront
General civil unrest swelled across the nation. Detroit was
rioting, and downtown Minneapolis was starting to empty.
College students demanded social change, and colleges
responded with programs centering on the urban crisis.
And, Augsburg College was at the forefront.
Thirty-five years later, thanks to a visionary professor, an
enterprising faculty, and a supportive administration,
Augsburg’s metro-urban studies program graduates leaders
who are making decisions about current issues and future
needs, and planning for livable and sustainable neighborhoods and cities.
Urban legends
by Bethany Bierman
in city planning
It was the late sixties, and American cities were in crisis.
Joel Torstenson’s vision laid the foundation for an urban studies program. His wife,
Garry Hesser is professor of sociology and chairs the metro-urban studies program.
Fran, joins him here.
A program is born
Joel Torstenson came to Augsburg as a history major from west central Minnesota. After graduating in 1938, he worked in education for
Farmer’s Co-ops, earned a master’s degree in history and sociology,
and began teaching part time at Augsburg.
During the war years he joined the peace movement and community organizing. In 1947, he returned to Augsburg to develop its
social work and sociology programs while completing his PhD in
sociology. These programs provided a natural foundation for urban
studies 20 years later.
Torstenson writes in his memoirs, “The more [Augsburg] became
involved in urban affairs, the more we began to ask the question—
what is the appropriate role of a liberal arts college located at the center of an exploding metropolis?”
In 1966, Torstenson used his sabbatical to explore this question.
He visited urban studies programs at East Coast schools. Upon
returning, he wrote a position paper with the rationale and proposal
for a metro-urban studies program at Augsburg.
In order to set this in motion, courses centering on the city were
needed. Torstenson, Miles Stenshoel of the political science department, Orloue Gisselquist in history, Ed Sabella in economics, Ron
Palosaari in English, and other faculty embraced this concept.
In 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, the director of
youth programs for the American Lutheran Church, Rev Ewald Bash,
wanted to address the cultural challenges head on. Colleagues
encouraged him to contact Torstenson, who had a reputation for his
pursuit of racial justice and human rights.
“The Crisis Colony” was born from their conversation. Students
lived on the north side of Minneapolis, first in public housing and
later in an abandoned synagogue, while learning from people who
lived and worked in the community. Led by Torstenson, Bash, and
Stenshoel, it grew from an intense summer program, to a semester
program, to the Metro Urban Studies Term, or “MUST,” the first academic program of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban
Affairs (HECUA). Today, MUST is a key element for all urban studies
majors and is one of the premier interdisciplinary experiential education programs in the nation.
Torstenson took his second sabbatical in Scandinavia in order to
explore how to build cities without crisis. Out of this came the
Scandinavian Urban Studies Term, or “SUST,” the second program of
22 AUGSBURG NOW
HECUA. Based at the University of Oslo, students attend seminars,
go on field excursions, and volunteer with various community and
governmental organizations.
“Two unique ingredients contributed to the success of the [metrourban studies] program: commitments from faculty … and the programs offered through HECUA, which became catalysts and capstones for the major,” says Garry Hesser, professor of sociology and
chair of the metro-urban studies program, who was hired in 1977 to
succeed Torstenson.
While the University of Minnesota and other private colleges
established urban studies programs in response to the mid-’60s urban
crisis, most have not survived.
“Augsburg’s is one of the few that has retained faculty and administrative commitment,” Hesser says. “Over the past 35 years there has
been a steady stream of graduates who have become professional
planners, city administrators, elected officials, and citizens serving on
planning commissions, hearkening to the call to public service.”
With monies from the Lilly [Endowment] grant, a spring break
trip to Washington, D.C., has run the past five years, exposing students to vocations in community development and public service. Up
until this year, the group visited Martin Sabo at his office. This year
they met with newly-elected congressman Keith Ellison and his staff.
Many students decide on metro-urban studies majors after the trip.
Here are several stories of careers that have been shaped by the
metro-urban studies program.
Allan Torstenson ’75
Transforming neighborhoods
One of the first graduates of the metro-urban studies program was
Allan Torstenson.
In his first semester at Augsburg, the Dawson, Minn., native took
his Uncle Joel Torstenson’s “Man in Modern Metropolis” course (now
called “Community and the Modern Metropolis”) because it fulfilled a
graduation requirement. “I tried my best not to disappoint him, and
found it to be a fascinating subject,” says Allan.
As a sophomore, he took an Interim course on new towns, which
included meeting with architects and city planners and visiting HUD
officials in Washington, D.C., and Columbia, Maryland. He loved the
trip, but was still unsure of a major. He considered taking a break
Allan Torstenson ’75 speaks to a metro-urban studies class about community
Paula Pentel’s life experiences have informed her work in urban studies at the
development.
University of Minnesota and with her City Council seat.
from school, but when he shared this with his uncle, Joel suggested
the new SUST program, which was being offered for the first time in
1973. That cross-cultural experience was the eye opener he needed
to decide on metro-urban studies.
Today, Allan is a senior planner for the City of St. Paul, where he
has worked since 1980. One of his most challenging and gratifying
projects has been the Phalen Village Plan and redevelopment project.
Through strategic vision, neighborhood involvement, and hard work,
a run-down, auto-oriented area surrounding a failed shopping center
was transformed into a more pedestrian- and neighborhood-oriented
“urban village” with new housing, new jobs, a restructured neighborhood commercial area, a restored wetland, and a new sense of community.
More than just “the guy who wrote the plan,” Allan researched solutions and wrote grants addressing the larger issues. In 1993 he authored
the Phalen Corridor Redevelopment Proposal, leading to the Phalen
Corridor Initiative and affecting much of St. Paul’s East Side.
“The transformation in only a few years has been amazing,”
Torstenson shared with one of Hesser’s classes recently. “A lot of what
I did in this effort was influenced by the urban studies program at
Augsburg. It’s not just about design, but addresses the real problems
neighborhoods deal with to build and sustain socially and economically viable communities.” He also credits the SUST program as a
foundation for many of the project concepts he considered.
Washington Avenue down through the scrap yards … up through
Cedar-Riverside, which in the early ’70s was very vibrant—it was a
fascinating trip through time that I took every day.”
A course she took from Joel Torstensen really resonated with her,
and she abandoned the biology major.
While at Augsburg, Pentel got involved in collective decisionmaking as one of the volunteer coordinators of North Country
Co-op. Pentel also participated in SUST the fall of her junior year.
“What I took back was planning for versus planning with the public.”
Between Augsburg and graduate school in geography at the
University of Minnesota, Pentel interned for the City of Richfield and
became involved in her neighborhood organization. In 1985 she and
her husband moved to Golden Valley, where she continued volunteering in the community, serving 12 years on the Planning
Commission, seven years as chair.
In 2004 there was a vacant seat on the Golden Valley City
Council. Pentel was appointed to fill out the term and was reelected
in 2005. During her tenure, she’s seen considerable improvements in
regard to environmental stewardship, construction of the Luce Line
bike trail, and creation of a vibrant downtown area.
Pentel stays connected to her North Minneapolis roots by serving
as a board member on the West Broadway Area Coalition and being
active at the Hollywood Studio of Dance, a non-profit, parent-managed endeavor.
“To be effective in what I do in my public life, I have to be articulate, informed, accepting, and open. A lot of that I developed at
Augsburg,” she says.
In her professional work, Pentel serves as undergraduate advisor
for the urban studies program at the university. “I help students find
their calling and what interests them.” She is particularly proud of
mentoring Patricia Torres Rey, who became the first Latina woman
elected to the Senate in the State of Minnesota.
Pentel developed and now teaches a course on the urban environment, which examines the urban effects on air, water, and soil. “All
environmental issues have a local component,” Pentel says. “I tell my
students to look at Augsburg’s new low-impact parking lot [on the
east edge of campus]. It’s a great example of a very innovative way to
mitigate pollution from storm water runoff.”
Pentel also continues the Torstenson legacy of hosting an annual
open house for her advisees—about 80 of them. “I tell them, ‘This is
your private college experience.’”
Paula (Brookins) Pentel ’78
Teaching the next generation
It was at Minneapolis North High School that Paula (Brookins) Pentel
’78 began her life-long interest in civic engagement. She witnessed
the unequal distribution of resources while visiting various
Minneapolis high schools with the debate and cheerleading teams,
and also watched “white flight” from her north-side neighborhood. “I
became interested in social justice and wanted to understand and
affect change in how the city works.”
Pentel chose Augsburg because it offered a biology major and
allowed her to commute.
“I rode the bus to and from campus for four years,” she recalls.
“That’s how I really became interested in urban studies—riding down
SPRING 2007 23
Tammera (Ericson) Diehm ’93
Giving citizens a voice
Growing up in Coon Rapids, Minn., Tami Diehm was fascinated by the
“inner city.” Her plan to be a social studies teacher changed when she
took a metro-urban studies class from Andy Aoki her freshman year.
“For me, the program was the perfect way to combine my interests in
people, government, and the urban environment.”
In the spring of her junior and senior years, Diehm interned with
Anoka County, and during her senior year, she examined multicultural
education in Minneapolis public schools for her senior honors project.
Following graduation from Augsburg in 1993, Diehm spent several
years raising three children but kept in touch with her interests through
her appointments to the Columbia Heights Charter and Planning
Commissions. She also kept in touch with Aoki, her adviser.
While discussing her graduate school plans with him over lunch
one day, he asked her if she could do anything, what it would be. Her
answer? Law school, although she thought her three young children
prevented her from pursuing it. Aoki said she owed it to herself to
check it out.
Three years later, in 2003, Diehm graduated summa cum laude
from William Mitchell College of Law, which she attended on full scholarship. She clerked for Justice Russell Anderson of the Minnesota
Supreme Court for one year and currently is an attorney at Winthrop &
Weinstine, P.A. Her practice focuses primarily on land use and real
estate, assisting clients as they seek development approvals from local
government. She also serves as the city attorney for Mendota Heights.
In addition to her legal work, Diehm is serving her second term on
the Columbia Heights City Council, and was elected as council president in 2006. She is also a member of the Economic Development
Authority and the chair of the city’s Housing Redevelopment Authority.
“There was a strong sense that Augsburg students should not only
be an active part of the College community, but also an active part of
the larger community in which the College is located,” says Diehm.
“This desire to ‘give back’ has stayed with me and directly impacted my
decision to run for my position on the City Council. I saw a need in our
community—the need for young families to have a voice in the decision-making process of the city.”
The desire to give back that Tami Diehm ’93 learned at Augsburg has influenced her
decisions to serve in public office.
24 AUGSBURG NOW
“Through my experiences at Augsburg, I realized that I could use
my gifts to serve a need in the world, and thus follow the Christian concept of vocation,” says Diehm. “I have incorporated my ‘call to serve’
into my work—not only by adhering to the highest ethical standard in
the way in which I practice law—but also through a commitment to
providing pro bono legal services to those who would otherwise have
only limited access to legal representation, and by serving my community on the city council.”
These pro bono projects include representing women and children
in domestic abuse cases, volunteering at a legal clinic where she advises
people who are starting new businesses, and assisting with the formation of new non-profit organizations as they work to obtain tax exempt
status from the IRS.
“In both my legal work and my public service I feel I am using my
gifts to serve a need in the world.”
Diehm was named a “Rising Star” by Minnesota Law and Politics in
2007 and one of 15 “Up and Coming Attorneys” in 2006 by Minnesota
Lawyer.
Susan (Horning) Arntz ’94
Managing suburban growth
Susan (Horning) Arntz decided in ninth grade civics that she would run
for president in 2020, with her slogan being “A Clearer Vision.” Her
love of government grew, and she came to Augsburg to major in political science. She learned of the metro-urban studies program in her second year and focused her electives around metro-urban studies courses.
At a rally on campus her sophomore year, Arntz introduced herself
to Hennepin County commissioner Peter McLaughlin, hoping to secure
a summer job. His aide, fellow Auggie Mike Matson ’79, insisted she
begin earlier, and she spent one-and-a-half years working for him.
After graduation, she interned for the City of Shoreview and then
began her professional career in assistant city administrator positions in
Chaska and New Brighton, before becoming the youngest person ever
hired as city administrator in the City of Waconia, where she has
worked since 2001.
“It’s a growing community, so much of what we do requires look-
Susan Arntz ’94 leads the City of Waconia through its growth spurt.
Today’s Students
ing to the future on a daily basis,” says Arntz. “The people having
these conversations may never be here to see these things happen, just
as those before us made decisions that affect us today.”
Arntz says the biggest challenge she deals with is how to manage
the growth of the city, which has increased 25% in six years and
shows no sign of slowing. This requires communication and cooperation with developers, the school board, property owners, and elected
officials.
“I think one of the best things that Augsburg taught me, both from
a faith perspective and also from an educational perspective, was how
to be receptive to all of those ideas and to have a guide for what I
believe to be right.”
As far as running for president, Arntz says, “The longer I serve in
the capacity I am in, the less I’m intrigued by elected office. I can
make an immediate impact on 10,000 people. We can make huge,
positive improvements or small incremental improvements that will
have a greater outcome down the road.”
Arntz earned a master’s degree in public administration from
Hamline University in 1999. In 2004, Augsburg awarded her the First
Decade Award, and she has served on the Alumni Board.
Rebecca Brown ’00
Promoting community development
While her mother, Barbara (Anderson) ’66, is an alumna, it was the
call of the city that lured Rebecca Brown of Appleton, Minn., to
Augsburg.
While at Augsburg, Brown completed five different internships
and off-campus work-study opportunities, from working with a summer youth peace garden for the Seward Neighborhood Group, to
teaching English for the South American arm of the YMCA in Quito,
Ecuador.
After her sophomore year, Brown took a year off to serve with
AmeriCorps in order to truly live in the city. She took the bus every
day from South Minneapolis to her work at an alternative high school
in North Minneapolis.
Brown also participated in HECUA her senior year, teaching
Tomorrow’s Leaders
Sarah Pesola ’07 of Wadena, Minn., chose metro-urban studies because,
“It meant that I could study history, sociology, economics, political science,
and other disciplines as well.”
Pesola participated in SUST and recalls, “My semester in Norway was
amazing. It had a huge impact on me, ultimately changing the way I view
the world.” Pesola will begin to volunteer at a youth homeless shelter in
Berkeley, Calif., through Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
Since a mission trip to Detroit in junior high, Greg Hildebrandt ’08
has felt the pull to work with people living in the inner city. He went on
the D.C. trip with Hesser last year and will participate in the MUST
semester in the fall.
“Students who are in [metro-urban studies] are very passionate about
what they are doing,” Hildebrandt says. “They’ll carry this passion with
them the rest of their lives, whether professionally or through volunteering.”
Plans for the future include using his second major in mathematics to help
with statistics and budgeting within a non-profit as well as tutoring students.
Jeanette Clark ’07 felt a calling into urban ministry even as a student
at Hopkins High School. She chose Augsburg for its metro-urban studies
and youth and family ministry programs.
At Augsburg, Clark served as a campus ministry commissioner and
leadership team member for the Campus Kitchen. In March Clark created a spring-break opportunity, “Go Away Here,” which included service
projects in the local community, visits to neighborhood organizations,
and social outings.
She will begin work at City South Cluster Ministries in South
Minneapolis through Lutheran Volunteer Corps, then plans to begin
Seminary with the hope of serving in an urban congregation.
English and learning about community organizing, agriculture, and
the economy in Ecuador and South America. She spent an additional
seven months in Ecuador on her own, working with rural youth in
agriculture.
“Traveling abroad definitely makes me a better city planner,”
Brown says. “It has opened my mind to varied ways of thinking and
behaving in community. As a city planner, understanding and validating different points of view, opinions, and experiences is critical.”
After graduating from Augsburg, Brown served over three years as
code enforcement and neighborhood coordinator for the City of
Crystal. She earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning
with a specialization in economic development from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2006.
She now serves as project coordinator for the City of Minneapolis’
Department of Community Planning and Economic Development.
She works in neighborhoods to coordinate commercial redevelopment projects that incorporate public assistance.
As for her future, Brown says, “I see myself in a life of public
service, involved in state-level economic and tax policy in 15-20
years and perhaps an elected office.” Ⅵ
For more information about programs mentioned, go to:
www.augsburg.edu/sociology and www.hecua.org
Travel abroad and internships prepared Rebecca Brown ’00 for city planning.
SPRING 2007 25
T
place
A
of
their
own
Doroth Mayer
by Betsey Norgard
East African women spend time at the East African Women’s Center, established two
he East African Women’s Center in Riverside Plaza near
Augsburg’s campus is a busy place on a weekday morning.
In this two-year-old program of the Confederation of
Somali Community in Minnesota (CSCM), several East
African women sit at sewing machines, practicing sewing
seams in bright fabrics. Others are pressing their fabrics or talking with
a center volunteer. In the next room, behind a glass window, six or
seven small children play actively under the watchful eyes of mothers
and the center’s caregiver in the family childcare room.
In the middle of the activity is center coordinator Doroth Mayer,
often juggling a baby on her hip as she goes about her work. Rarely are
there quiet moments for her in this center she co-created with CSCM’s
executive director, Saeed Fahia.
Since 1994 CSCM has served more than 18,000 Somali immigrants who have settled in Minnesota—the largest concentration in the
country. CSCM provides resources and services to assist Somalis in
navigating American systems and making the transition to living life in
a new culture, while still preserving their traditions. CSCM is funded
by county, state, and federal agencies, as well as a number of
Minnesota foundations. The Women’s Center’s funding has come from
the Office of Refugee Resettlement and local foundations including the
Bush Foundation, the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation,
Sheltering Arms Foundation, and Wells Fargo.
Within the East African refugee community, young mothers with
children and elderly women who have arrived in the last few years
remain especially isolated, some rarely leaving their apartments to take
English classes, to meet American women, or to learn how to cook and
prepare American food. When CSCM was offered a 2,000-square-foot
location right in the middle of the Riverside Plaza housing complex, it
secured grant money and opened the Women’s Center in February
2005. From the beginning, a family childcare center was an integral
part of CSCM’s plan so mothers would have a safe place to leave their
children and take English language classes, learn to sew, or simply to
do their laundry and daily tasks.
The Women’s Center currently serves 85-100 women and children
every week. Different levels of sewing classes meet three days, morning
and afternoon, with two teachers and six or seven women in each
class. Fabric is provided, and the women learn the basics of how to
sew and how to use sewing machines to make simple items, like
aprons and bags. Some women’s skills are now advanced enough to
make clothing for themselves and their children.
years ago in Cedar-Riverside, for sewing classes, the family childcare center, and other
activities.
A partnership
grows
Augsburg’s partnership with the East African Women’s Center is relatively new. During President Pribbenow’s inauguration week last fall, a
service group from Augsburg spent a morning painting at the center.
One person in the group that day was Augsburg junior Kristen Hoyles,
a youth and family ministry major. After hearing Mayer talk about renovation of the center and how much painting was still needed, Hoyles
made a commitment not only to paint, but to teach two or three of the
26 AUGSBURG NOW
Doroth Mayer
adolescent girls in Girls’ Group
how to paint, so together they
could get the job done. She’s
there on Friday afternoons and
feels she is living out her theology by using her painting experience to help where it’s needed.
“I’m in awe of how grateful
the center has been for something I feel is no big deal,”
Hoyles says.
Mayer adds, “Kristen has no
clue how much she means to us.
She has finished the painting,
and we’ve negotiated a new job
for her—she is becoming our
‘handy person.’ She is starting by
taking on the task of repairing
the center’s tricycles so the little
kids have trikes to use.”
The group that visited the
center also took great interest in
the textile weavings hanging on
the walls, made by Somali
women from yarn donated to the
center.
The weavings represent the
thousand-year-old tradition of
East African “twine weaving,”
originally using grasses and vines
to make wall coverings, horse
blankets, and bags used in their
nomadic cultures. When
President Pribbenow furnished
his new office at Augsburg, he
sought out Somali art, and now
has samples of these weavings
hanging both in his office and in
his home.
The Somali weavings will
Kristen Hoyles, an Augsburg junior majoring in youth and family ministry, volunteers at the Women’s Center, teaching adolescent Somali girls to paint with her.
also be featured on campus as
the inaugural exhibit in the new
Gage Family Gallery, scheduled
to open in August in the Oren
Gateway Center.
A kitchen shower
Mayer, who has worked for
many years in community-based
activities, would love to see more
opportunities for the East African
women to spend time with
American women—she knows
how much the women want to
develop friendships with
American women, learn from
them how to live within
American culture, and share East
African culture with their new
friends.
Mayer sometimes takes
women from the center with her
when she buys groceries for center activities. The women ask
about things they don’t know or
understand and foods they’ve
never seen before.
“Last week at the supermarket, we saw some asparagus,”
Mayer says. “We brought back
several bunches and steamed it.
It was a big hit. Even some of
the little kids in the family child-
care center tried it—cautiously,
but they tried it!”
When the Women’s Center
space was renovated (with the
support of the Bush and Phillips
Foundations and the apartment
complex managers, Sherman and
Associates) a full kitchen was
added at Mayer’s suggestion—
and it has proven to be popular
and very well used. She learned
that giving the women recipes to
try at home was not useful, since
many of them don’t read or
know how to follow recipes. But
learning by observing and then
trying it themselves was the way
to go.
“Once in a while we make
quick bread to give the kids for
snacks,” Mayer says. “We learned
that women wanted to watch us
make it. Then, after we make it
together they tell us they feel
comfortable trying it themselves
at home.”
The popularity of cooking
led to another project initiated
by Augsburg community services
director Mary Laurel True. For
Professor Bev Stratton’s religion
class, in which students carry
out projects that benefit the
community, True suggested the
idea of a kitchen shower for the
Women’s Center.
With a wish list provided by
the Women’s Center to adequately equip their kitchen, the class
sought donations from faculty,
SPRING 2007 27
Doroth Mayer
The Somali yarn weaving hanging in President Pribbenow’s office
East African women enjoyed opening gifts for their kitchen from Augsburg faculty, students,
symbolizes the partnership between Augsburg and the East African
and staff at a “kitchen shower” initiated by Professor Bev Stratton’s religion class.
staff, students, and friends.
Fifteen women from Augsburg
met nearly 20 East African
women at the center, shared
desserts and Somali tea, and gave
them “presents” to open. In addition, cash gifts and Target and
IKEA gift cards were given, to
involve the East African women
in shopping for their kitchen.
Mayer was delighted and
called it a great event. “Mary
Laurel came up with the most
creative way to bring women
together that I’ve seen yet. She is
giving women an opportunity to
share their cultures in a respectful and joyous way.”
Learning to lead
Mayer recognizes that new leadership must grow from the
women at the center. She is
encouraging them to actively
engage in whatever learning
28 AUGSBURG NOW
opportunities are appropriate to
their personal situations and to
develop their leadership skills so
that some day they have the
capacity to run the center that
they call their “home away from
home. “In addition,” she says,
“we need partners in the community who try to understand
what we’re doing … partners
who really get to know the
women and plan together with
them.”
For Augsburg’s part, this
kind of partnership wouldn’t be
possible without its Center for
Service, Work, and Learning,
which establishes and nurtures a
myriad of connections between
the College and its surrounding
neighbors—for tutoring, health
education and fitness, sports
clinics, music lessons, science
teaching in the school, meals
programs, use of campus facili-
Doroth Mayer
Women’s Center.
ties, college preparation sessions,
and so on.
Augsburg partners with
CSCM for two tutoring programs, one of which brings
Somali high school students
directly to campus twice a week
for homework help from students in Augsburg’s Honors
Program. The other program targets elementary and middle
school students for tutoring and
receives snacks from the Campus
Kitchen at Augsburg College
Monday through Thursday.
Already True has ideas for
new projects, especially between
the Women’s Center and
Augsburg’s Women’s Resource
Center.
“We are so fortunate to have
this new center in our neighborhood,” True says. “There is so
much we can learn from each
other, and so many ways we can
work together to enhance the lives
of women in this community.”
Hoyles confirms this, saying
that during her time at the center
she is gaining a stronger sense of
community, and “understanding
that our world isn’t so big.
“I think students who do not
learn about our community are
really missing out,” she says. Ⅵ
ALUMNI NEWS
From the Alumni Board president …
Greetings fellow Auggies,
As I’m sure you’re experiencing, the circle and cycle of life continues unabated this year. It is
particularly noticeable to me this year because of the differences which reinforce the sameness
(apologies and thanks to Dr. Palosaari—you helped me improve my writing skills tremendously and
ensured that the poet in me remains untrammeled, too!). Let me explain …
I’m both a student of and practitioner in the field of human systems dynamics. One way we model the
world is through containers, differences, and exchanges. A container, like Augsburg College, is
described by its differences which make a difference in the world. Then, as critical friends, we can
exchange thoughts about those differences in our mutual container.
One difference at Augsburg I want to bring to your attention relates to Commencement:
• The school year is ending with graduation again—a common experience we alumni share and a tremendously important difference,
that makes a difference in the lives of our alumni-to-be. Please join me in welcoming them into new stages of life as Auggie alumni by
taking a moment to think warm, welcoming thoughts or remember them in your prayers.
• Augsburg has two Commencement ceremonies for the first time in its history—one on May 5 aligns the cycle of life of
traditional day students and physician assistant students on semesters, and one on June 24 aligns with WEC and graduate program
students on trimesters. Please join me in saluting Augsburg’s leadership for recognizing the differences in the cycle of life for different
parts of the student body and responding to provide a better graduation experience.
Another difference I want to encourage you to check out is our Online Community. Go to www.augsburg.edu and click on the Alumni
and Friends link:
• To see up-to-date information on Alumni Relations
• To check out the benefits available to you as alumni (did you know that as alumni you can use Lindell Library? Check out the Alumni
Benefits link!). Read about it on the next page.
• Log in to the Augsburg Online Community where you can search for fellow Auggies, keep the College up to date on contacting you,
make a donation to support Augsburg, or read about fellow alumni. You can even read the minutes of the Alumni Association and its
committees (log in to the Online Community, then select the Alumni Leadership>Alumni Board path).
And finally, as you make a difference in the world, remember to stay in touch. We want to hear from you and we want to be able to
contact you.
• Let us know how you are and what you are doing through the Alumni Relations Office (alumni@augsburg.edu or 612-330-1181).
• Register and visit our Online Community (www.augsburg.edu, click on Alumni and Friends, then Augsburg Online Community). Then
update your profile and search for your fellow classmates.
Go Auggies!
Barry Vornbrock, ’96 MAL
President, Augsburg Alumni Association
We’re off to the races!
Auggie Night at the Races
Canterbury Park, Shakopee
Thursday, August 2
5:30 p.m., picnic • 7 p.m., first race
Complimentary entrance fee; fun for all ages. Space is limited.
RSVP to rsvp@augsburg.edu by July 26.
Alumni Board meetings
Aug. 21, 5:30 p.m.—location to be confirmed
SPRING 2007 29
ALUMNI NEWS
Take advantage of Auggie alumni benefits
Augsburg Legacy
Award
The Augsburg Legacy Award is
available to full-time day
students working toward their
first bachelor’s degree, who are
children or spouses of Augsburg
graduates; siblings of current
Augsburg students; or children
or spouses of current ELCA
pastors. No scholarship
application is required. Students
who qualify for both the Legacy
Award and Regents’ Scholarship
or Transfer Regents’ Scholarship
will receive only one award,
whichever is higher. Renewal is
based on maintaining a
minimum cumulative grade
point average of 2.0, measured at
the end of spring term.
Amount: Minimum $4,000
per year
Deadline: Accepted for
admission by May 1 for fall
enrollment; or Dec. 1 for spring
enrollment
www.augsburg.edu/day/finaid/
scholarships.html
Discount on tuition
for classes
Alumni are offered up to four
courses—one course per
term—at 50% off the current
part-time tuition rate (day or
weekend programs). This benefit
does not apply to alumni whose
enrollment qualifies them for
full-time comprehensive tuition.
Tuition discount must be applied
for in the same academic year as
the course is taken.
The following courses do not
count for the benefits noted:
directed study, independent
study, internships, Summer
School, graduate programs,
study abroad, continuing
education. The following do
meet the requirements for the
benefits noted: fall, winter, or
spring term courses; student
teaching; and partial courses (.50
and .25 education courses use
one of the four benefits). NOTE:
The tuition discount cannot be
applied until after the 10th day
of classes in the specified term.
Book privileges in
Lindell Library
Free Augsburg library cards with
limited services are available to
alumni. Check with the
circulation or reference desks for
further information on how to
obtain a library card.
Augsburg License
Plate
Join the Augsburg Online Community
It’s designed just for you—
• Keep in touch with classmates
• Find out what’s happening on campus
• Send class notes about what you’re doing
• Change/update your address and e-mail
• Update your profile so others can find you
• Make an online gift to Augsburg
It’s fast and easy. Already, more than 500 alumni have registered.
Simply go to www.augsburg.edu/alumni—have you signed up?
If you have questions, e-mail healyk@augsburg.edu.
30 AUGSBURG NOW
Display your Augsburg
connection! Available through
the Minnesota Department of
Transportation
www.dps.state.mn.us/dvs/
PlBrochure/CollegiatePlates.htm
Athletic facilities
Augsburg’s athletic facilities are
available to alumni when they
are not in use for special events,
classes, or other activities. If you
plan to come, it’s best to check
first with the athletic facilities
office at 612-330-1504,
especially during the summer.
Schedules are posted outside
of ice rinks A and B (neither rink
is available during the summer),
the gym, and the fitness centers.
Note: Use of the fitness centers is
available only to graduates of the
College. Alumni may use the
racquetball court by signing up
on the posted sheets at the court.
Reservations must be made in
person—no phone reservations
are accepted.
Alumni will be asked for
identification when using the
facilities. An Augsburg ID card
(available in the Enrollment
Center) or an A-Club pass will
expedite your admission.
Alumni using the facilities are
allowed one guest each.
CLASS NOTES
1950
1968
Roger “Bud” Leak, Excelsior,
Minn., was named the 2007
recipient of the Cliff Thompson
Award by the Minnesota Hockey
Coaches Association, at its
banquet in March. The award is
given annually for “long-term
outstanding contributions to the
sport of hockey in Minnesota.”
He helped start the Minnetonka
boys’ hockey program in 1952.
Lois (Hallcock) and Bruce
Johnson, Plymouth, Minn., were
featured in a Minneapolis Star
Tribune article in March about
how families finance education.
All three of their children—Leah,
Thomas, and current senior
Aaron—have attended Augsburg.
1964
Dennis J. Erickson, Los Alamos,
N.M., was awarded the
Distinguished Service to Safety
Award, the highest honor
bestowed by the National Safety
Council, in recognition of
outstanding service in the field
of safety. He has worked for 35
years at Los Alamos National
Laboratory and is scientific
advisor in the New Mexico
governor’s office.
1967
Loren Dunham, Fairmont,
Minn., is retiring from public
school teaching in Fairmont after
39 years in the classroom. He
taught economics, psychology,
American history, and
International Baccalaureate
courses, as well as coaching
tennis and Economics Challenge
and Knowledge Bowl. A former
editor of Augsburg Echo, he says
he feels he was “well-prepared
academically for the many and
various teaching assignments” he
received. dunfritz@charter.net
1969
Matty (Janis) Mathison,
Shawano, Wis., was honored
with the Women’s Sports
Advocates of Wisconsin Lifetime
Achievement Award for 2007. In
1998 she retired from 35 years
of teaching and 25 years of
coaching volleyball at Shawano
High School.
1970
Susan Pursch, Philadelphia, Pa.,
received the 2007 Tom Hunstad
Award (known as the “Tommy”)
at the ELCA Youth Ministry
Network Extravaganza. She has
served as a youth minister and
has coordinated and run
programs for at-risk youth.
Currently she is vice president
for church and community
partnerships at Liberty Lutheran
Services in Philadelphia.
Donald Q. Smith, Portland,
Ore., retired as the publisher and
editor of the weekly Monticello
Times. In October he was
honored with the James O. Amos
Award by the National
Newspaper Association, one of
the highest tributes in
community journalism.
1976
James Moen, Carrollton, Texas,
retired last year from 27 years of
serving as band director in the
Carrollton-Farmers Branch
school district. To honor his
legacy the district named the
new fine arts wing at R.L. Turner
High School after him.
In addition to spending
retirement time with his family,
he works with computers, is a
substitute teacher, and
accompanies students in music
competitions. JLJAMS@msn.com
1977
Rev. Dr. Mark Braaten, Bullard,
Texas, is senior pastor of Our
Saviour’s Lutheran Church in
Tyler, Texas. His first book Come,
Lord Jesus: A Study of Revelation,
was published by Liturgical Press
in January. His second book, on
prayer, is scheduled for
publication in fall 2008.
James M. Strommen,
Minnetonka, Minn., was recently
re-elected president of the
Minneapolis law firm of Kennedy
& Graven, a firm of 36 lawyers
located in downtown
Minneapolis and St. Cloud. He
practices in the area of municipal
franchise, construction, and
utility law.
1978
Rev. Guy Redfield was installed
in November as senior pastor at
Chetek Lutheran Church in
Chetek, Wis.
1980
Carol (Kenyon) Dekker,
Sheboygan, Wis., began as an
administrative and operations
assistant in marketing and public
relations roles at BurkartHeisdorf Insurance in
Sheboygan.
Gary Tangwall, Lake Elmo,
Minn., a senior financial
consultant for the Landmark
Group of Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans in Lake Elmo, has
been honored as the second
highest performer in 2006
among the organization’s 2,500
financial representatives. He is
one of 25 Thrivent representatives
invited to attend the Pinnacle
Leadership Retreat in September
in New York.
1985
Jean Taylor, Eagan, Minn., is
president of Taylor Corporation
in North Mankato, Minn., and
has recently assumed additional
responsibilities as chief executive
officer.
Denise (Rolloff) Tewes,
Lincoln, Neb., announces the
release of her first original CD,
Apple of Your Eye, contemporary
Christian music drawing from
the psalms and reflecting on
some of life’s experiences. She is
choral director at Messiah
Lutheran Church.
denise@denisetewes.com
James Rongstad, Pine Island,
Minn., was appointed in January
to a three-year term on the Van
Horn Library Board. This is the
public library serving Pine
Island. In February he was
appointed treasurer of the Board
of Directors of the Girl Scout
Council of River Trails, serving
southeast Minnesota.
SPRING 2007 31
CLASS NOTES
Responsibility as an adjunct
professor at William Mitchell
College of Law.
1987
Scott L. Anderson married
Susie Wilkey of Coon Rapids on
April 8, 2006. He joined Farmers
Insurance Group and Farmers
Financial Solutions in March.
They live in Minneapolis.
ScottLAnderson38@msn.com.
1998
Brandon Reichel and Shannon
Geiger were married Aug. 28,
2004. They welcomed a baby
girl, Finley Vada, on Jan. 17,
who was 8 lbs., 5 oz., and 21.5
inches long.
1992
Stacy (Shiltz) Abraham and her
husband, Chris, in Milwaukee,
Wis., announce the birth of
Elijah James, on Jan. 26. Stacy
is a teacher in the Milwaukee
Public Schools.
mrs.abraham@earthlink.net
1989
Thomas Stutsman, St. Louis
Park, Minn., founded Stutsman
Realty, Inc. in 1992 and is
celebrating 15 years of business
this year.
1991
Mark Keating and his wife,
Amy, of Edina, Minn., announce
the birth of their third son,
Aidan Howard, on March 14,
2006. He joins brothers Owen,
5, and Carson, 3. Mark is an
account executive at Symantec.
Sharol Tyra, of Life
Illuminations Presentations &
Coaching has qualified for
professional membership and
joined the National Speakers
Association.
1993
Kim (Swanson) Meslow and her
husband, Jeff ’92, in White Bear
Township, Minn., announce the
birth of their third daughter, Hanna
Rose, born on July 7. She joins
big sisters Ally (5) and Kayla (3).
kmeslow@swansonyoungdale.com
Michelle Kay (Wincell) Nielsen
and her husband, William,
welcome the arrival of a
daughter, Lena Kay, on Dec. 10.
They were married in September
2005 and live in St. Paul.
32 AUGSBURG NOW
1996
Scott Magelssen, Rock Island,
Ill., saw publication of his book
Living History Museums: Undoing
History through Performance, by
Scarecrow Press in February. It
treats performance practices and
historiography at living museums
in the U.S. and Europe. He and
his wife, Theresa (Hoar) ’95,
and two-year-old son, Trygg, will
move to Ohio where Scott will
teach theatre history at Bowling
Green State University, starting
in August.
Heidi (Geyer) Ostrander is a
physical education teacher at
Valley View Elementary School
in Columbia Heights, Minn.,
where she teaches the Dance,
Dance, Revolution curriculum.
She was featured on the Fox
Morning Show in February.
Brooke (Manisto) and her
husband, Erik Reseland ’98, in
St. Anthony, Minn., welcomed a
daughter, Adeline, born on Feb. 3.
She joins big sister Elsa, 3.
1994
1997
Will Stute has joined the
Minneapolis law firm office of
Faegre & Benson as a partner in
the Business Litigation Group,
focusing on litigation matters,
particularly commercial fraud.
He also teaches Professional
Astrid Larssen, of Oslo,
Norway, is currently living in
Sydney, Australia, where she is in
the process of finishing up a PhD
in computer science. She has
also lived and worked in Norway
and Ghana since leaving the U.S.
Wendy (Shields) and her
husband, Bradley Reiners ’99
PA, in Prairie Farm, Wis.,
welcomed a son, Jackson
Patrick, their first child, on Aug. 10.
Brad works as a physician
assistant at Luther MidelfortPrairie Farm Clinic.
1999
Aaron Smith and Jill (Pintens)
are proud to announce the birth
of Wyatt Douglas, born May 20,
2006. They currently live in
Tucson, Ariz., where Aaron is a
surgery resident and Jill is a
physician assistant.
With an internship at the White
House, Emily Soeder carried out a
dream and has stayed in
Washington to gain the experince
it has to offer for her future
career choices.
Inside the White House
Emily Soeder didn’t realize how
many statements she would be
researching and fact checking, or
how many definitions of
ordinary words she would be
looking up. But she did know
that she had always wanted to
work at the White House, and
that is exactly where she landed
during her last semester, before
graduating summa cum laude
from Augsburg in December.
She had known for some
time about internships available
at the White House, and during
her senior year worked with Lois
Olson in the Center for Service,
Work, and Learning to complete
and submit the online
application. Several months later,
she was living what was for her
an “amazing experience” as one
of about 70 interns selected for
fall 2006, and one of three in the
Office of Presidential Speechwriting.
“One of the most memorable
projects I worked on was
annotating a version of the
speech the president was going
to deliver to the UN,” Soeder
says. It meant going through it
line by line, ensuring the
factuality of every word and
statement.
When asked how the real
West Wing compared to that of
the TV show of the same name,
Soeder notes that in reality the
West Wing is very small—not
the huge area it seems to be on
TV. In fact, nearly all of the
administration’s staff offices are
not located there, but next door
in the Eisenhower Executive
Office Building.
Beyond her specific duties,
Soeder has learned a great deal
from the contacts with executive
branch staff, as the interns
listened to speakers such as Karl
Rove, assistant to the president,
deputy chief of staff and senior
adviser, and Harriet Miers,
counsel to the president. Her
most exciting “Washington
moment,” she says, came in
November when she met
President Bush the day after
election results came in.
Once her internship ended
in December, Soeder was
fortunate to be appointed as a
confidential assistant to the
assistant secretary in the Office
of Legislation and Congressional
Affairs at the U.S. Department of
Education. Here, she works on
projects, scheduling, and briefing
materials.
Outside of work, Soeder
volunteers as a tutor with
Horton’s Kids, a non-profit
agency that provides services to
children from nearby, lowincome Ward 8 in D.C. The kids
are bused to the Department of
Education once a week for oneon-one tutoring by the
employees.
While at Augsburg, Soeder
was involved with College
Republicans, and has now
become active with Young
Republicans in D.C. To be hired
for political or legislative jobs,
she says, candidates generally
need to show loyalty to a party
or candidate. Campaigning at the
grass roots is a great way to start
building that experience, and she
got a taste of it last fall by
traveling to Ohio and Tennessee
to work on local campaigns.
At this point, Soeder doesn’t
see herself staying in
Washington, D.C., for a long
time. She believes her career
decisions will keep coming back
to a basic question students at
Augsburg are asked to
consider—how am I going to
impact the world in what I do?
She appreciates the grounding
she received in her communications
courses, such as Persuasion, and
the analytical skills and
experience from participating on
the Forensics Team.
For now, she’s enjoying all
Washington has to offer—
politics, history, culture, and the
excitement of being at the center
of it all.
SPRING 2007 33
CLASS NOTES
Wendy (Hoekstra) Vogelgesang
and her husband, David, in
Litchfield, Minn., welcomed twin
boys, August and Ewan, born
three months early on Aug. 1.
They spent three months
growing at St. Cloud Hospital
and Fairview Riverside Hospital
neo-natal intensive care units.
Read their journey at
www.caringbridge.com/visit/wen
dyandboys. They are doing well
now, but everyone has gone
through a lot. Wendy went back
to work as a kindergarten
teacher at Litchfield Public
Schools in January, while David
is a stay-at-home dad.
and 21 inches long. Holly
graduates in June with an MBA
from Augsburg.
hknutson04@yahoo.com
2003
2000
Julia Mensing works at Event
Lab, an event-planning company,
which was recognized for the
second year in a row by the
International Special Events
Society (ISES) with a 2007
Minnesota Star Award in the
“Best Event Design and Décor”
category.
2006
2002
Brendan Anderson, Phoenix,
Ariz., was commissioned by the
Concordia Wind Orchestra in
Irvine, Calif., to write a large
concert piece, The Gift and the
Wise Men, around the theme of
Epiphany, for their orchestra and
guest organist. It premiered in
Phoenix while the orchestra was
on tour in January.
Matthew Chappuis and
Jennifer (Lemke), Apple Valley,
Minn., welcomed their first
child, a daughter, Hattie Romae,
on Aug. 18, weighing 8 lbs., 3
oz., and 21 inches long. He is a
middle school physical education
and health teacher in the
Burnsville School District, and
she is an eighth-grade science
teacher in the Inver Grove
Heights School District.
2004
Rick Dzurik was featured in
March on KARE-11 TV news as a
music therapist working with
hospice patients. With his guitar,
he makes house calls or visits
hospice units to sing music
requested by the patients and
families—one of only a few
certified music therapists in the
Twin Cities who do this.
Anna Warnes and Nathan
Erickson ’03 were married in
August and live in Eugene, Ore.
Both are students at the
University of Oregon; Nathan is
pursuing a doctorate in
sociology, and Anna is studying
for a post-baccalaureate degree
in nursing.
2001
Amy (Stier) Eppen and her
husband, Jeff, in Belle Plaine,
Minn., are proud to announce
the birth of their son, Caleb
Todd, born on Nov. 28. He was
welcomed home by big sister
Courtney, 22 mos. Amy is a
therapeutic recreation
coordinator at The Lutheran
Home: Hope Residence.
34 AUGSBURG NOW
Holly (Ebnet) Knutson and her
husband, Jeremy, in Hugo,
Minn., are the proud parents of a
baby girl, Adelei Marie, born
Nov. 28, weighing 8 lbs., 0 oz.,
India, beginning in the fall. She
is currently employed at
Admission Possible, through
AmeriCorps, where she works
with 34 low-income, first
generation students, encouraging
them to stay in school and
helping them apply to college.
Her work with Admission
Possible was featured in a Star
Tribune article.
2005
Carolyn Herman is a Rotary
Ambassador Scholar and will
continue study of literature at
the University of Hyderabad,
Katie Koch began a new
position in April as the executive
assistant to Joe Dowling, artistic
director of the Guthrie Theater
in Minneapolis.
Graduate Programs
Doris Rubenstein ’93 MAL is
the new director for membership
and development at the Resource
Center of the Americas and
draws on her background in
Spanish, Peace Corps experience,
and living in Puerto Rico and
Ecuador. Her thesis focused on
nonprofit organizations serving
Minnesota’s Latin population.
Jill Boike ’03 MSW joined
Family Innovations in 2005. She
has developed a new
employee/intern training
program and is also working as
an outpatient therapist and
clinical supervisor.
jsalome@comcast.net
Nick Thomley ’06 MBA was
featured in the business section
of the Minneapolis Star Tribune
with a profile of the company,
Pinnacle Services, that he
founded while a sophomore in
college. His high school job of
working with disabled residents
in assisted living led him to start
a company that provides
vocational, residential, and
financial management services to
the elderly and people with
disabilities. In seven years, the
company has reached $7.2
million in revenue.
In Memoriam
Ernest (“Ernie”) W. Anderson
’37, Edina, Minn., age 90, on
March 18, unexpectedly. See
story on page 2.
Henry Erickson Chapman ’40,
Coon Rapids, Minn., age 91, in
Dec. 2006. He was a retired
coach and athletic director from
Proctor (Minn.) Public Schools
and a member of Augsburg’s
Athletic Hall of Fame.
Delbert Rhodes ’41, Renville,
Minn., age 89, in Nov. 2006.
Chester L. Brooks ’42, Duluth,
Minn., age 89, on March 5. He
was a Distinguished Alumnus and
husband of Ebba (Johnson)
Brooks ’42.
The Rev. Robert Erickson
Warren ’46, Edina, Minn., age
82, on Feb. 27.
Fabian C. Carlson ’49, Detroit
Lakes, Minn., age 82, on July 21,
2006.
SEND US YOUR NEWS AND PHOTOS
The Rev. Oliver S. Solberg ’49,
Appleton, Wis., age 87, on Jan.
10. Husband of Viola (Nelson)
Solberg ’50.
Please tell us about the news in your life, your new job, move,
marriage, and births. Don’t forget to send photos!
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an obituary,
funeral notice, or program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail to:
Augsburg Now Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55454, or e-mail to
alumni@augsburg.edu. You can also submit news to the Augsburg
Online Community at www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Rachel M. Stennes ’49,
Minneapolis, age 86, on Feb. 10.
Full name
Arlene Larsen ’49, Tacoma,
Wash., age 75, on Dec. 13. Wife
of Harold Larsen.
Robert Hofflander ’51,
Clitherall, Minn., age 79, on Jan.
29, of myelodysplastic
syndrome. Husband of Dorothy
(Gramling) Hofflander ’50.
Maiden name
John E. Seaver, Sr. ’54,
Edgerton, Wis., age 74, on
Feb. 2, after a long illness.
City, State, Zip
The Rev. James Glasoe Sr. ’57,
Statesboro, Ga., on March 17, of
lung cancer. Husband of Nicole
(Jacobson) Glasoe ’62.
Home telephone
Class year or last year attended
Street address
Is this a new address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
E-mail
Okay to publish your e-mail address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Regie S. Huber ’74, Maple
Grove, Minn., on Nov. 1.
Employer
Marlin (“Mike”) Kloster ’53, of
Willmar, Minn., age 77, on
Jan. 20.
Position
Timothy W. Hanson ’88,
Ogilvie, Minn., age 40, on March
18, of injuries from a car
accident.
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Work telephone
If yes, class year
Spouse’s name
Maiden name
Your news:
SPRING 2007 35
VIEWS
Celebrating 20 years of leadership
by Kathy Rumpza, ’05 MAL
On the evening of Sat., January 27, approximately
110 alumni, students, and guests gathered to
celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Master of Arts
in Leadership program at Augsburg College. The
keynote address was given by Ryan LaHurd,
president and executive director of the James S.
Kemper Foundation, and former vice president of
academic affairs at Augsburg. His presence was
appropriate because of the significant role he played
in the MAL Program’s inception.
More than 20 years ago, LaHurd was key in
launching a task force to explore graduate options
at the College. After much research and discussion
with business leaders it became apparent that there
was a need in the market for a different type of
program than was currently being offered—the kind
of program that would provide students with the
crucial broad-based knowledge and skills needed
for success.
Enter the era of an exciting program,
differentiated from others by a liberal arts focus
specifically on leadership. It offers solid content with
academic rigor as opposed to a workshop format. The
Master of Arts in Leadership program, started in
January 1987, marked an important turning point for
Augsburg and its entrance into the graduate market.
During its 20-year history, the program has
gone through transformation. While content,
schedules, and support staff have changed, the
signature “leadership model” that forms the basis for
the program remains steadfast. Feedback from
students and faculty has helped to hone and refine
course offerings, and relevant courses such as
Women and Leadership have been introduced.
Another constant is the faculty. Norma Noonan,
professor and director of the MAL program since
1993, notes that although the program has grown,
she and instructors Diane Pike, Tom Morgan, and
Garry Hesser have been teaching in the program
since its inception. She says such loyalty comes
from a simple idea—“faculty just love teaching in
the program.”
Noonan credits much of the recent program
growth to the addition of professional graduate
recruiters, and the fact that the program caters to
“students who seek personal development and
challenge.” The classes are “exiting and very
stimulating,” she says. “We’ve had pinnacle
36 AUGSBURG NOW
Norma Noonan is professor of political science and
director of the MAL program.
experiences in class … students are almost
electrified by some of the discussions.”
As far as alumni and students go, many have
had life-changing experiences. Students often say
that the program has changed their career paths,
and many experience a personal metamorphosis as
well. “People use it to define a turning point in
their lives,” says Noonan. Individuals have been
inspired to start their own businesses, and have
been promoted to vice president or CEO positions.
While it is true that completing the program
has changed personal and professional lives,
Noonan says that “completion is not the greatest
indicator of success.” She quickly adds, “it
emboldens you to take more risks, and brings a
maturity in judgment.” And that seems to be the
more important point.
Although some aspects of the program have
changed over time, it will remain a quality program
that “tries to live the leadership model,” under the
passionate direction of Norma Noonan. Her only
regret: “That I didn’t have the knowledge—what we
read, what we study—earlier in life.”
For information on the MAL Program,
go to www.augsburg.edu/mal
MAL… by the numbers
203
21
22
56
MAL degrees conferred since 1989
MAL graduating class in 2006—the largest yet!
Current MAL faculty and adjuncts
Number of new MAL students in 2006-07
The Oren Gateway Center is coming
Construction on the Oren Gateway Center is
proceeding extremely well. The building should be
ready for occupancy in the beginning of August,
with departments and programs starting to move
in during the middle of August.
Watch for more updates—and mark your calendars
for a grand celebration on October 12!
SPRING 2007
John 14: 1-3
A group of Augsburg students
traveled by train to New
Orleans to spend their spring
break working for Lutheran
Disaster Relief. Students spent
five days gutting and rebuilding
houses affected by Hurricane
Katrina. Here, workers find a
plaque from the Gospel of John
that fell from the attic of the
house in which they were
working. The verse offered a
great source for reflection by
the students.
— Photo by Rachel Olson ’08
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Minneapolis, MN
Permit No. 2031
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AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
WINTER 2006-07
VOL. 69, NO. 2
A president is inaugurated
page 12
Editor
Notes
from President Pribbenow on…
The richness and wond... Show more
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Now
MAKING CONNECTIONS
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A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R
AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
WINTER 2006-07
VOL. 69, NO. 2
A president is inaugurated
page 12
Editor
Notes
from President Pribbenow on…
The richness and wonder of human diversity
S
o God created humankind in God’s image, in
the image of God he created them; male and
female he created them … God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was
very good. (Genesis 1: 27, 31a, NRSV)
I once heard a presentation from a nursing student
who was part of a community health practicum
course in a homeless shelter, who commented that
before she went to her assignment at the shelter, her
general feeling was that homeless people had done
something to “deserve” their fate—she had no sense
of how she could interact with these “people.” She
was frightened. Once she had begun her assignment, however, she recounted how the residents of
the shelter became her fellow citizens, her friends
even. She learned their stories, grieved with them
about bad decisions, unfair circumstances, sad and
distressing experiences. She stood side by side with
them in their struggles to find a home and set a new
course for their lives. And she rejoiced in the role
she could play in listening, empathizing, offering a
word or hand or whatever might help. In her experience in that service-learning course, she learned
about otherness and difference in ways that would
make her a better nurse, a better citizen and neighbor, a better friend.
This story is why I will never give up in our
efforts to make diversity a core value of our academic and common work and why I am so pleased that
this issue of Augsburg Now illustrates some of our
efforts to promote diversity on campus and beyond.
Creating, sustaining, celebrating, and supporting
diversity is an abiding challenge for our college.
Whether it is diversity of perspective, religion, ethnicity, race, social class, and so forth, there are critical voices from all sides pressing us to make the case
for our philosophy, commitment, experience, policies, and practices related to diversity on campus
and beyond. Here at Augsburg, we have the distinct
gift of at least three compelling mission-based
reasons for intentionally engaging the diversity of
our world.
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
Staff Writer
Bethany Bierman
bierman@augsburg.edu
Design Manager
Kathy Rumpza
rumpza@augsburg.edu
Class Notes Designer
Signe Peterson
petersos@augsburg.edu
• Theologically, we believe that God has created
humankind in all its diversity in God’s own image.
• Educationally, we believe that a liberal arts
approach to learning and teaching is fundamentally committed to engaging otherness and difference
so that we might genuinely understand and
embrace the richness of human experience and
creativity throughout the ages.
• Civically, we are persuaded that educating for
democracy is at least in part about preparing our
students for lives in society that will require them
to have the knowledge, skills, and values needed
to negotiate their ways with people of diverse
backgrounds and experiences.
This past summer, I had the privilege of visiting
Augsburg’s study site in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where
I, too, learned to face my fears and stereotypes of
other cultures and life experiences. We all are still
learning to admit our privilege, to embrace the wonder of difference and other experiences, to live as
neighbors here on campus and in our community,
where the world is becoming our neighbor in very
concrete and real ways.
Our work to educate students for democracy
cannot be uncoupled from this commitment to
diversity. This is why diversity on campus, in the
neighborhood and city, in the church, and in the
world is important—it is the heart of a healthy
democracy.
Yours,
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
Augsburg Now Intern
Erin Kennedy
kennedy1@augsburg.edu
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
petree@augsburg.edu
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Director of Alumni Relations
Heidi Breen
breen@augsburg.edu
www.augsburg.edu
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave.,
Minneapolis, Minn., 55454.
Opinions expressed in Augsburg
Now do not necessarily reflect
official College policy.
ISSN 1058-1545
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services,
CB 142,
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
Paul C. Pribbenow, president
22
Winter 2006-07
Contents
Features
11
A Change in Reference—Librarian to Volunteer
by Betsey Norgard
For nearly 15 years in retirement, Margaret Anderson has continued to volunteer
in the library she once headed.
12
Ages of Imagination: The Inauguration of Paul C. Pribbenow
Around themes of abundance, generosity, engagement, and service,
Augsburg inaugurates its 11th president.
18
Making Connections
by Betsey Norgard
After five years, the Scholastic Connections program has proven a winner for
both mentors and mentees.
22
See AIBO Walk … and Sit … and Wiggle Its Ears
by Betsey Norgard
Sophomore Jesse Docken finds both fun and challenge in “training” dog robots.
24
12
On the Cover: At his investiture as
Augsburg’s 11th president, the seal of the
College is placed around the neck of
Paul C. Pribbenow by Board of Regents
chair Ted Grindal ’76.
Global Business
by Bethany Bierman
Augsburg business classes have built-in global experience from a very
international faculty.
Departments
2 Around the Quad
5 2006 Alumni Awards
6 Supporting Augsburg
8 Sports
28 Alumni News
40 Views
Inside back cover Calendar
All photos by Stephen Geffre unless otherwise indicated.
AROUND THE QUAD
NOTEWORTHY
Three new regents elected to board
Three new members were elected to four-year terms on the
Augsburg College Board of Regents at the annual meeting of the
Augsburg Corporation in October.
In addition, Michael O. Freeman and Philip Styrland ’79 were
re-elected to second six-year terms. Freeman is a partner at
Lindquist & Vennum, P.L.L.P., and Styrlund is president of The
Summit Group, an international education and development firm.
Richard C. Hartnack
Since the beginning of his banking career in
1971, Hartnack has held positions in corporate
banking at First Interstate Bank of Oregon, and
in community banking at First Chicago and
Union Bank of California. He currently is vice
chairman and head of consumer banking at
U.S. Bancorp.
Hartnack has a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA and a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University. He is a graduate of the Strategic
Marketing Management program at the Harvard Business School.
Congratulations to
Jacki Brickman ’97
Augsburg alumna Jacki Brickman
’97 was one of two teachers in
the Minneapolis and St. Paul
school districts who were awarded a Milken National Educator
Award in October.
This award, from the Milken
Family Foundation, recognizes
teachers and principals across
the country for their effectiveness
in the classroom, accomplishments outside the classroom,
leadership, and ability to inspire
students, teachers, and the community. It carries a cash award of
$25,000.
Brickman, a 10-year teacher,
is a teacher mentor at Hall
International Elementary School
in Minneapolis, working with
other teachers at the school to
test new techniques.
Brickman, who also is an
adjunct instructor in Weekend
College, is the second Augsburg
graduate to receive a Milken
Educator Award. Margaret
Knutson ’91, fifth-grade teacher
at Orono Intermediate School,
received the same award in
2004. Read about both teachers
in the Augsburg Now spring 2006
article, “Teachers who Lead,
Leaders who Teach,” at
www.augsburg.edu/now.
André Lewis ‘73
Since 2002, Lewis has served as director of
marketing and community affairs and president of the RBC Dain Rauscher Foundation.
Previously he held a similar position at
Honeywell. His background in education
includes serving as principal at both Washburn
and South high schools.
Lewis graduated from Augsburg and earned
a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He has been active in
Augsburg’s Corporate Connections program.
Rev. Norman Wahl ‘75
Since 1996, Wahl has been executive pastor of
Bethel Lutheran Church, the site of Augsburg’s
programs in Rochester, Minn., and served on
the task force that led to the formation of the
Rochester campus. He has also been part of the
alumni board, campaign cabinet, and on staff
at the College.
After Augsburg, Wahl graduated from
Luther Seminary and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from the
seminary in 1997.
2 AUGSBURG NOW
MBA consulting firm to start
Small businesses and non-profits in Rochester can qualify for probono consulting services from Augsburg’s Rochester MBA students
and graduates.
This new service, Augsburg Alumni Consulting Team (AACT),
extends the MBA field service program, in which all students work
with a client in the community on business issues and applications.
A “full-team” consultation by AACT on critical strategic or management issues will be staffed by four to eight volunteers. A “fast track”
for focused issues will involve one to three volunteers in two or
three client meetings. And, a “board match” program will help nonprofits build their board leadership.
Additional support services—database design, Web design,
research, etc.—may be added by Augsburg undergraduate business
and computer science students.
This College-sponsored consulting service will offer both experience and exposure to the students and alumni, and include a
review process to build case studies.
While beginning in Rochester, AACT hopes to also expand the
program to the Twin Cities.
For information, contact William Aguero at
aguero@augsburg.edu.
The “greening” of
Augsburg
Augsburg imagines environmental stewardship as central to its
mission as a Lutheran college in
the city.
President Paul Pribbenow
says, “The Augsburg College
community is deeply committed
to what it means to build a sustainable urban environment. …
Our relationships with our
diverse neighbors, with the
Mississippi River, and with other
neighborhoods in our vibrant
city are opportunities for learning, for civic engagement, and
for faithful service.”
The institutional committee
that grew out of a learning community seven years ago is now
named the Environmental
Stewardship Committee and provides leadership for the College
in areas addressing sustainability.
The committee’s growing website
offers information and resources
in the following initiatives:
• Recycling/waste
reduction—Recycling bins
have risen to nearly 75% capacity in the last year and new
equipment across campus
reduces water consumption
and energy usage. The College
recycles household items to
community organizations and
established a re-use table. A
number of measures adopted
reduce storm water run-off
from campus, which, perhaps
more than anything else, has
had an impact on water quality
in the Mississippi River.
• Transportation—Two light rail
stations within walking distance and reduced fare bus-rail
passes help the Augsburg com-
munity increase its use of public transit, freeing up parking
spaces. Accessible bike trails
provide alternatives to driving.
• HOURCAR—Augsburg is the
newest neighborhood hub for
HOURCAR—a hybrid vehicle
that can be rented.
• Curriculum—Across the curriculum, courses address sustainability issues, and study
abroad is available in metrourban studies. A new environmental studies program is
scheduled to launch in fall
2007.
• River stewardship—Augsburg
is an official “steward” of a
portion of the Mississippi
River near campus and regularly hosts “clean-ups” to prevent pollution. The
Environmental and River
Politics course explores issues
related to restoration of the
river ecosystem and ways in
which our relationship to the
river reflects the health of our
community.
• Campus Kitchen at Augsburg
College—In its three years,
Campus Kitchen has kept
more than 35,000 pounds of
food out of landfill and turned
it into over 37,000 meals for
the community. In the next
year, Augsburg plans to launch
a community garden to bring
neighbors together and provide food for community
organizations.
• Building a green
campus—The Environmental
Stewardship Committee has a
voice in the ongoing planning
for the new Science Center,
which includes a “green” roof
and maximal use of sustainable architecture and products.
Michael Lansing, assistant professor of history, wrote in the
Augsburg Echo about Christensen
Symposium speaker Douglas
John Hall’s comments on “stewardly vocations.” Hall argued that
everyone must make stewardship
of the environment both a personal and collective priority.
Lansing wrote that stewardly
vocations “push us all toward
recognizing and caring for the
many other forms of life that we
depend on for sustenance and
comfort.”
To learn more about sustainability at Augsburg, go to www.augsburg.edu/green or contact Tom
Ruffaner, chair of the
Environmental Stewardship
Committee, at ruffaner@augsburg.edu.
—Betsey Norgard
Fond farewell to ‘Mr. Augsburg’
On Sept. 30 Jeroy Carlson ’48 officially retired from the
campus and community he first came to more than 60
years ago. During that time, he served Augsburg as a student, volunteer, alumni director, and development officer.
At a packed reception in his honor, Carlson was presented with a baseball jersey bearing his No. 10 and a
“Jeroy Carlson” baseball card. He was also presented
with framed photos of the Augsburg campus, as he knew
it and as it is today.
Known as “Mr. Augsburg” by his classmates and colleagues, Carlson excelled as a student-athlete in baseball,
basketball, and football, and was part of four MIAC
championship teams. He continued to work with the
A-Club and helped establish the Augsburg Athletic Hall
of Fame.
In 1991, after serving on the alumni board and as
director of alumni relations, the alumni office was dedicated as the Jeroy C. Carlson Alumni Center.
See the winter 2005-06 Augsburg Now for a feature
story on “Mr. Augsburg.”
Vice President Tracy Elftmann ‘81 presents Jeroy
Carlson with a baseball jersey bearing his no. 10.
WINTER 2006-07 3
AROUND THE QUAD
COMMENCEMENT
Two commencements at Augsburg
Beginning this year, Augsburg will offer two commencement ceremonies, in order to recognize the different academic calendars followed. A May 5 ceremony will be held for day students and physician assistant students who are on semesters; a June 24 ceremony
will honor Weekend College, Rochester, United Hospital, and the
other five graduate program students who follow trimesters.
This year’s Commencement speakers are Eboo Patel on May 5, and
Rev. Martin E. Marty on June 24.
With a national fellowship in microbiology and an interest in infectious diseases, senior Richard Birkett is studying the genes encoding streptococcal bacteria.
Senior Richard
Birkett wins research
fellowship
Biology senior Richard Birkett is
one of 43 students across the
country to receive a 2006
Undergraduate Research
Fellowship from the American
Society for Microbiology. Its
stipend funded his summer
research with biology professor
Beverly Smith-Keiling.
The project, applied for jointly by Birkett and Smith-Keiling,
looks at the characteristics of
streptococcal bacteria and the
genes that encode them. They
study a particular streptococcal
protein, discovered by SmithKeiling, that binds a human
immune system protein, and its
role in causing infections, especially in immuno-weak people
4 AUGSBURG NOW
(neo-natal babies, elderly, and
others who are immuno-compromised). The research involves
manipulating the protein’s DNA
in the laboratory to create
mutants for further study.
“We were thrilled to receive
this ASM Fellowship,” says
Smith-Keiling. “It is a prestigious
award and played a significant
role as a feather in our cap as
one of several steps that
Augsburg is taking to secure
external funding, build our
undergraduate research program,
and move toward more scientific
research at our institution.”
Birkett’s interest in infectious
diseases began in summer 2005
when he traveled to Tanzania
with a microbiology study
abroad course through Hamline
University. He visited labs and
small villages, and found the
experience “eye-opening” in
terms of lifestyle and conditions
he encountered.
To gain background in
research, Birkett took a pilot
course at Augsburg, Introduction
to Research, designed to prepare
second-year students for facultyled research. He credits that
course for teaching him the discipline, motivation, and critical
thinking needed for scientific
study. The course was repeated
this past fall, and Birkett served
as a peer mentor.
Birkett has thrived in the
microbiology laboratory, and is
interested in pursuing work in
the health field with infectious
disease, possibly attending medical school. He, along with
Smith-Keiling and other students, will present their research
at the American Society for
Microbiology general meeting in
the spring.
“Richard has been the model
for what we hope to continue, as
students progress from their
early years without research
skills to excelling as independent
researchers, and the fellowship
played a key role,” says SmithKeiling. “It has been a privilege
and joy to work with him.”
Birkett came to Augsburg
from Boston as a student in the
StepUP Program, which supports
students in chemical recovery.
He says that Augsburg has been
great for him. “I came to
Augsburg for StepUP; I’m staying
for science and the people.”
—Betsey Norgard
HOMECOMING 2006
Two honored as
Distinguished Alumni
Augsburg’s Distinguished Alumni
are recognized for their significant achievement in vocation, for
outstanding contribution to
church and community, and for
lives that exemplify the ideals and
mission of Augsburg College.
Glen Person ’47
A native of
Minneapolis,
Glen Person
grew up in
Augsburg’s
neighborhood.
He graduated
with degrees
in mathematics and business, and was one of
the first students in Augsburg’s
new business administration
department. His college studies
were interrupted by World War
II, where he served in the U.S.
Navy.
Person’s vocational career
involved two 20-year employments in the insurance industry.
In 1948 he started as a bookkeeper at Fidelity and Casualty
Co., and left in 1968 as its bond
manager. From 1969 until his
retirement in 1989, he was an
accounting manager and bond
vice president at W.A. Lang
Company.
From 1993 to 2005, Person
served on Augsburg’s Board of
Regents, as a member of the
Finance Committee and as board
treasurer. Over the years, he has
been one of the most active
members of Augsburg’s A-Club,
and a frequent spectator and
loyal Auggie athletic booster. He
serves on the Claire Strommen
Golf Tournament Committee.
Person has also contributed
financial expertise to numerous
boards of directors, and as treasurer of Prairie Lutheran Church
in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Lois (Peterson) Bollman ’69
Lois Bollman
graduated in
1969 with a
bachelor’s
degree in
English education from
Augsburg, and
went on to
earn a master’s degree in reading.
In 2001 she earned a doctorate
in educational policy and administration of higher education.
For the past 30 years, she has
worked in a number of areas
within the Minnesota community
college system and is a recognized leader and administrator in
areas of student assessment, college readiness, and developmental education. Her strengths lie in
strategic planning, institutional
research, and evaluation of academic programs. Currently she is
vice president of strategy, planning, and accountability at
Minneapolis Community and
Technical College.
Here, she developed the
Urban Teacher Education
Program, in collaboration with
secondary and postsecondary
institutions, that aims to inspire
and educate students from urban
schools to become teachers in
their own communities. In 2003,
Bollman led the faculty development work that received one of
five national Theodore Hesburgh
Awards from TIAA-CREF.
Bollman has served as a class
agent and is active at Edina
Community Lutheran Church.
First Decade Award
The First Decade Award is presented to Augsburg graduates of
the past 10 years who have made
significant progress in their professional achievements and contributions to the community, and
in so doing, exemplify the mission
of the College.
Spirit of Augsburg
Award
The Spirit of Augsburg Award honors alumni or friends of the College
who have given exceptional service
that contributes substantially to the
well being of Augsburg by furthering its purposes and programs.
Herald Johnson ‘68
Milana (Gorshkova)
Pirogova ’96
Milana
Pirogova graduated magna
cum laude
from Augsburg
with a bachelor’s degree in
economics and
international
relations, and went on to earn a
master’s degree in international
economics from George
Washington University.
In 1998 she began working
for the International Finance
Corporation, a member of the
World Bank Group, in
Washington, D.C. She is now an
investment officer in the Global
Financial Markets Department
and posted in Russia, her homeland.
Two of her significant projects have included working with
privatization projects in Bosnia
and drafting the Mortgage
Securities Law with the Russian
national parliament. In her current work she is able to promote
awareness and resources for the
much-needed economic and
educational development in
Russia. She also has been an
eager promoter of Augsburg
College to prospective students
in Murmansk, St. Petersburg,
and Moscow.
After graduating, Herald
Johnson first
became an
admissions
officer, then
Augsburg’s
first financial
aid officer
when new federal programs
required administrative oversight. Over the nearly 40 years
since, he became a pioneer,
leader, and mentor among all of
Minnesota’s financial aid officers.
He is respected both for
helping students understand and
access financial resources to
make college possible and for
mentoring young professionals in
the field. He is the only person
to have been twice elected president of the Minnesota
Association of Financial Aid
Administrators (MAFAA).
Johnson collaborated with
Julie Olson ’90, ’04 MAL, now
vice president of enrollment
management, to create and
implement the Enrollment
Center, which brings together
several student service offices
into a one-stop shop for students.
Johnson retired last summer,
but continues to serve as a consultant on scholarship programs
and with Augsburg’s government
relations office concerning financial aid issues.
—Betsey Norgard
WINTER 2006-07 5
Photo courtesy of Martha Gisselquist
AROUND THE QUAD
SUPPORTING
AUGSBURG
The Clement A.
Gisselquist Endowed
Scholarship—
an Augsburg family’s
music legacy
6 AUGSBURG NOW
All six of Clement and Borghild Gisselquist’s children graduated from Augsburg, and most of them were choir and band members
during their college years. (L to R): James ’68, Joel ’77, Rebecca ’67, Borghild, Martha ’87, John ’72, and Miriam ’83.
Gisselquist extended family
includes 17 relatives with
Augsburg connections. Clement’s
brother, professor emeritus Orloue
Gisselquist, attended Augsburg, as
well as two sons, Richard and
David. His wife, Marilyn, came to
Augsburg and completed her
bachelor’s degree in 1973.
Clement and Orloue’s sister
Grace E. Gisselquist ’49 married
the Rev. Oliver Johnson ’50.
Another sister, Marilyn, attended
science classes at Augsburg as
part of her nurses’ training and
married Vardon Quanbeck ’44.
While at Augsburg, Orloue,
like Clement, sang in the choir
and Grace belonged to the Music
Club, both sharing their brother’s
love for music.
Another brother, John Irving,
did not attend Augsburg, but his
son, John E. Gisselquist, graduated in 1984.
Even more telling is the musical legacy Clement left his six
children, all of whom graduated
from Augsburg. The youngest,
Miriam (Gisselquist) Jensen ’83
was a music major and is now an
organist and piano teacher—
something her mother knows
would have pleased her father.
John, Class of 1972, sang in
the Augsburg Choir and for
many years has been a member
of the National Lutheran Choir,
performing in concerts throughout the U.S.
Judy Petree
The Rev. Clement A. Gisselquist
enjoyed a lifelong love of music.
He graduated from Augsburg
College in 1941, and during his
college years he sang both in the
Augsburg Choir under Henry P.
Opseth and in the Augsburg
Quartet as its second bass when
they toured in 1940.
Following Augsburg,
Gisselquist graduated from
Luther Seminary, and he and his
wife, Borghild, served churches
in North Dakota, Minnesota, and
Iowa. Throughout his life, he
always actively promoted his
churches’ music programs.
Borghild recounts how especially
pleased he was when his church
in Sioux City, Iowa, purchased a
new organ.
After Clement died in 1979,
the family decided to establish a
scholarship endowment in his
memory and designed it to benefit students “of organ and/or
choral music who desire to serve,
professionally or otherwise, in
the ministry of music of the
Lutheran Church.”
“Augsburg was close to his
heart and we knew that music
was something he was always
interested in,” comments
Borghild, recalling the family discussions. The scholarship just
seemed a fitting way in which
they could honor their brother,
husband, father, and uncle.
The remarkable fact is that the
Nicole (Warner) Simml ’01 (left), who performs and teaches music in Germany, joined
Krista Costin ’07 (right) as soloist with the Augsburg Choir’s concert in Leipzig,
Germany last May. Both Simml and Costin are recipients of the Clement A. Gisselquist
Church Music Scholarship.
Rachel Olson ’08
Photo courtesy of Orloue Gisselquist
The Rev. Clement A. Gisselquist (far right) sang second bass in the 1940 Augsburg
Quartet. His love of music is passed on to students through an endowed scholarship
Five of the Gisselquist women enjoyed meeting the current student scholars at the
in his name. Photo taken from The Augsburg Quartets: A Mission-Driven Tradition, by
annual Scholarship Brunch in November. (L to R): Martha Gisselquist, Becky Lien,
Merton P. Strommen and David M. Larson.
Borghild Gisselquist, Marilyn Gisselquist, and Miriam Jensen.
Joel, Class of 1977, played
tuba in the Concert Band for two
years and sang in the Augsburg
Choir during his senior year. The
two oldest children, Rebecca
(Gisselquist) Lien ’67 and James
’68, also sang in the choir. James
is married to fellow Auggie Jane
(Eidsvoog) ’73. Martha, a nurse,
came to Augsburg to complete
her bachelor’s degree in 1987.
The Clement Gisselquist
Scholarship keeps the extended
family connected to Augsburg. A
number of the relatives continue
to grow the endowment by making gifts to the scholarship a part
of their regular giving—in lieu of
exchanging gifts within the family on special occasions.
In the fall, Borghild said of
her immediate family, “We’ve
already talked about this
Christmas, that we’ll make gifts
to the scholarship instead of to
each other.”
The Gisselquists enjoy meeting the Augsburg students who
receive the scholarship each year.
The 2006-07 recipient, junior
music major Krista Costin was
studying abroad in Ghana during
the fall and regrets missing the
Scholarship Brunch. She fondly
remembers meeting members of
the Gisselquist family at last
spring’s Music Scholarship High
Tea. Costin sings in the
Augsburg Choir and toured with
the choir last May to the Czech
Republic and Germany.
Last year’s scholarship recipient, senior Nikki Lemire, is a
harpist and a section leader in
the choir at Central Lutheran
Church. The 1998-99 scholarship holder, Nicole (Warner)
Simml ’01, now lives in Germany
and is enjoying a career performing and teaching voice. Last May
she joined the Augsburg Choir in
Leipzig on their tour in
Germany, and joined Costin as a
soloist.
An earlier Gisselquist recipient, Melissa (Wieland) Bergstrom
’97 has been organist and choir
director at Edina Community
Lutheran Church, in addition to
teaching and serving as director
of choral activities at AnokaRamsey Community College.
Several of the Gisselquist
scholarship recipients have sub-
sequently been chosen as Orville
and Gertrude Hognander Music
Scholars.
With many of the Gisselquist
Auggies making regular gifts to
grow the scholarship endowment, future students—and per-
haps additional Gisselquists—
join Rev. Clement A. Gisselquist’s
legacy to Augsburg’s music program—something that surely
would please him.
—Betsey Norgard
Making a gift to Augsburg
It’s easy to make a donation to Augsburg College.
All donations are tax-deductible.
Gifts online
Go to www.augsburg.edu/giving to make a secure credit card
donation. You can use the form to make a one-time donation or
to set up recurring gifts.
Gifts by phone
To make a donation by phone, call Kevin Healy, director of
advancement services, at 612-338-6537 or 800-273-0617.
Gifts by mail
You can mail your gift to:
Developement Office, Campus Box 142
Augsburg College, 2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55454
For complete information about making a gift,
including the types of giving and giving programs,
go to www.augsburg.edu/giving.
WINTER 2006-07 7
AROUND THE QUAD
SPORTS
Brothers in soccer
Vinnie Brooks and Ryan Kitzman
are like brothers. Brothers united
by soccer.
For all but one year of the last
dozen, the two have played on
the same soccer teams—the same
club teams, elementary school
team, junior high team, high
school team, and the same college team.
Ever since they were each
eight years old, growing up in
Maple Grove, Minn., and attending schools in Osseo, the duo
could be found on the same
fields—Brooks on defense,
Kitzman in the midfield.
Best friends and players with
similar competitive personalities,
the two split for just one year—
their freshman years in college,
when Kitzman attended Bethany
Lutheran College in Mankato,
Minn., and Brooks enrolled at
Augsburg.
But the pair reunited their
sophomore years, became roommates, and helped to lead a renaissance in the Augsburg men’s
soccer program.
“I wanted to be back in the
city,” Kitzman said. “I talked to
Vinnie pretty much all my freshman year. I came to visit
Augsburg a couple of times, and
he said they were getting a new
coach and a new field, so I came
for another visit. Once I met
[coach] Greg [Holker], it was a
done deal.”
So Kitzman transferred, and
the pair was reunited.
“We have the same style of
play. We practice against each
other and just go at it. It’s like we
8 AUGSBURG NOW
hate each other when we’re practicing. It gets pretty intense,”
Brooks said. “He’s pretty much
like my replica on the field. We
have some minor differences, but
overall, the competitiveness and
our work ethic, we just relate to
each other. It just clicks. We both
respect each other.”
Both were starters throughout
their Auggie careers and were key
elements of the dramatic growth
of the men’s soccer program. In
Brooks’ freshman year, 2003, the
Auggies finished 5-11-2 overall, 09-1 in league play. In the 2006
season under third-year head
coach Greg Holker, the Auggies
finished 13-3-3 overall and 5-2-3
in conference play, winning a
place in the conference’s postseason playoffs.
In four seasons at Augsburg,
Brooks played in 67 games, starting 57, with eight assists from his
defensive position. As a midfielder
during his three years at
Augsburg, Kitzman started 49 of
54 contests, with five goals and
six assists for 16 career points.
As two of only three seniors
on this year’s Auggie squad, the
pair acknowledges that they have
been a part of a new beginning for
the men’s soccer program, which
they hope continues to succeed.
“It’s just awesome to have this
kind of success in our last year
playing here,” Brooks says. “It’s
like leaving a legacy behind. It’s
one of the things we wanted to
do. We had the first winning season here in 20 years and made
the [conference] playoffs.”
But the end of their senior
seasons will not mean the end of
soccer, or friendship, for Brooks
and Kitzman. The two play on
the same adult-league team and
coach a youth team together in
Plymouth, Minn. Brooks, a health
and physical education major
Auggie teammates Vinnie Brooks (left) and Ryan Kitzman (right) have played soccer
together since elementary school.
and business management minor,
and Kitzman, a marketing major,
have talked about starting a business together.
“It’s almost natural for us,”
Brooks said. “Some people hear
about it and think it’s pretty
weird. But we had the same
group of friends growing up,
from elementary school to junior
high and high school. We were
always in the same group.”
“We don’t think of it as being
weird,” Kitzman added. “It’s just
normal for us.”
—Don Stoner
An amazing soccer year
For the Augsburg College men’s and
women’s soccer teams, the 2006 season was
a history-making one.
The Auggie women captured a third
straight berth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference playoffs and finished 106-2 overall, 7-3-1 in league play—the team’s
fourth double-digit victory season in the past
five years. Augsburg’s 15 points in conference
Greg Holker, named MIAC
play this season were the most for an Auggie
Coach of the Year
squad in the 21-season history of the program.
Meanwhile, the Auggie men reached the league’s four-team postseason playoffs for the first time, finishing the season 13-3-3 overall,
5-2-3 in conference play. Augsburg finished with its most victories
(13) since its MIAC championship season of 1975 (15-2-1), and
claimed its most points in league play (13) since its last MIAC title
season of 1980 (11-1-3 overall, 9-0-3 MIAC, 21 points). Head coach
Greg Holker was named MIAC Coach of the Year this season.
Augsburg was the lone school to have both its men’s and women’s
soccer teams qualified for the MIAC postseason playoffs this year.
Both teams set school records along the way. Both teams were
unbeaten and did not give up a goal until the women were scored
upon on Sept. 20—Augsburg went the farthest among all NCAA
Division III soccer teams in having both its men’s and women’s teams
unbeaten and unscored upon.
For both the Auggie men’s and women’s teams, the future looks
bright. The men lose just three senior regulars to graduation, while
the women lose only five.
—Don Stoner
Marathoner
extraordinaire
Mary Croft ’79 didn’t catch the
running “bug” until she was in
her late thirties, a relatively late
start for a serious athletic career.
But that bug has taken the
Augsburg alumna around the
world and earned her numerous
unique distinctions in the world
of distance running.
Croft is one of only 67 people—including just eight
women—to have run in every
Twin Cities Marathon over the
25 years of its existence. She has
run a marathon in each of the 50
states—a feat that only 285 individuals have accomplished.
And over the past quartercentury, she has run in about
140 marathons and 30 ultramarathons—races ranging from 30
to more than 100 miles in
length.
She credits her running
career to her return to Augsburg
as an adult learner to complete
her bachelor’s degree in the late
1970s. She was an Augsburg student in the mid-’60s before starting her career in nursing.
“One of my friends was a
runner, and she was running five
miles a day for her mental health.
I was impressed with that, but I
didn’t start running until I graduated in 1979,” Croft said.
That year, she went to
Duluth to watch a friend compete in Grandma’s Marathon, and
was encouraged by her husband,
David, to try a marathon herself.
Later that year, the first Twin
Cities Marathon appeared on the
running calendar, and her running career kicked into high
gear.
“I trained for my first
marathon in just 12 weeks,” said
Croft, who noted that she had
As a Charter Club member, Mary Croft ran her 25th Twin Cities Marathon in October,
with a track record of 170 marathons in 50 states and several countries.
only run a 10-kilometer race
competitively before trying a 26mile, 385-yard marathon.
Since then, she has run in
each Twin Cities Marathon over
the past 25 years, a race considered the most scenic urban
marathon in the country.
According to Twin Cities
Marathon officials, Croft, at age
60, is the third-oldest woman of
the eight to have run in each of
the 25 races. She has also completed Grandma’s Marathon, a
race along the Lake Superior
shoreline from Two Harbors to
Duluth, eight times.
She has also run in two of
the most famous marathons
in the country, the Boston and
New York races. She has competed in the Boston Marathon—
a race in which runners have
to achieve a qualifying time
in another marathon to compete—three times, including
the 100th running of the race
in 1996.
“It was just such a historic
event,” Croft said. “Boston is the
epitome of marathoning in the
country.”
In 2004, she accomplished
the feat of running a marathon in
each of the 50 states (and the
District of Columbia)—becoming
the 162nd person at the time to
be able to make that claim. Since
then, the list has grown to nearly
300 members nationwide. She
has also run in marathons in
Russia and Spain.
In addition to her marathoning, she has also competed in
long-distance ultramarathons,
which brought her the most
meaningful moment in her sport.
In 2000, she ran in the 75th
Comrades Marathon, a 56-mile
race in South Africa, considered
one of the top ultra-distance
events in the world.
“It’s the biggest sporting
event in South Africa. It was the
most amazing thing,” she said.
“They were so wonderful. They
greeted us and welcomed us to
their country.”
She even incorporated running into her work. As a nurse at
the Minnesota state prison in
Stillwater, she organized inmates
and members of a local running
club to run a marathon inside
the prison walls each year for a
decade.
“We ran 112 laps around the
prison yard, about 15 to 20 runners,” she said. “It was pretty
well received by the prison
administration.”
Her best time ever was a 3hour, 18-minute effort in 1985 at
the Grandma’s Marathon. Now,
she runs in the 4:20 to 4:30
range; her time in the 2006 Twin
Cities Marathon was 4:28.34,
good enough for third place in
her age group.
“I just run for the health benefits and I enjoy it. If I place in
my age group, it’s an added benefit,” she said. “It’s the adventure,
the travel, seeing other parts of
the country, which is fun.”
She noted that she has been
fortunate not to have suffered
significant injuries during her
career, which she credits to leading a lifestyle of fitness and training in moderation.
She now runs about seven or
eight marathons a year—“I’m
always in training,” she notes—
and has been involved in organizing volunteers for the
marathon in Tucson, Ariz., where
she and David spend their winters. The Crofts live in Bayport,
Minn., during the summers.
—Don Stoner
WINTER 2006-07 9
AROUND THE QUAD
MOVING FORWARD
Kennedy Center now open
The Kennedy Center for Sports and Recreation has opened for classes,
with health and physical education staff and coaches moving into their
new offices. It will be formally dedicated on May 4.
The three-story addition to Melby Hall features a new wrestling
training facility, increased classroom space, expanded locker-room
facilities and expanded fitness facilities, as well as hospitality, meetingroom, and office space.
The new Alan and Gloria Rice Wrestling Room provides a spacious training area for
the champion Auggie wrestlers. It also provides a training facility for Greco-Roman
wrestling.
The Kennedy Center, the new three-story south wing added to Melby Hall, is open
for classes, athletic teams, intramural teams, and fitness.
In the left back corner of the photo, the roof of Lindell Library provides context to
the construction of the Oren Gateway Center, scheduled for completion in the fall.
Oren Gateway Center
Scheduled to open in fall 2007, the four-story Oren Gateway Center
will be the home of the StepUP program and other residential students in substance-free housing. The administrative section of the center will house the Institutional Advancement staff and an alumni relations conference center.
On the street level, a Barnes & Noble bookstore will serve as a
welcoming place in the neighborhood for books, readings, and coffee.
The Gateway Center will anchor a new circular entrance to the
College, flanked by Lindell Library and Foss Center.
The illustration on the sign in the photo shows the orientation of
the new center, facing the circular entrance to the College.
10 AUGSBURG NOW
After 23 years at Augsburg,
Margaret Anderson retired as
head librarian in 1990. She had
just spent several years studying
and documenting the need for a
new library building, and then
convincing the College to build
it. Now, 16 years later, she continues to work in Lindell Library
one day a week as a volunteer—
in the new building she labored
to justify.
In the first two years following her retirement, she took time
off. But then, she couldn’t turn
down a phone call asking her to
help troubleshoot problems the
librarians were facing in creating
barcodes for all materials.
There were lots of problems—“books without barcodes,
and barcodes not connected to
books,” Anderson says. Once
that process was straightened
out, she began working on a
series of long-term special projects that, without additional staff
and a meticulous eye, probably
never would have seen the light
of day.
For one project, Anderson
classified videotapes from many
years of College events that had
been turned over to the library—
which meant that she first had to
view each tape for content and
date, and then write a short
description.
Another similar project
involved classifying a collection
of sound recordings, for which
her music minor in college
proved extremely helpful.
With history and knowledge
of the Dewey Decimal System,
Anderson has also aided in classifying and cataloging fiction, the
only books in the library to use
the Dewey system.
Her current project tops all
others. In 1994, writer and
activist Meridel LeSueur donated
her personal library of more than
4,500 items to Augsburg College.
A change in
REFERENCE—
from LIBRARIAN
to volunteer
BY BETSEY NORGARD
It’s housed in the library’s Special
Collections Room, but has not
been easily searchable. After
working for more than two
years, literally from book to
book, Anderson hopes next year
to complete an extensive spreadsheet index that will enable the
collection to be searched by title,
author, and subject.
In reflecting on her 40 years
of library work, Anderson says
that the heart of the work has
not changed. “It still means connecting readers and scholars with
sources,” she says, “but now,
both in print and online.” What
has changed dramatically is the
way librarians fulfill that role,
and the different tools they use.
One of the tools that made a
huge difference in students’ (and
librarians’) lives was the development of the CLIC (Cooperating
Libraries in Consortium) system,
making materials from more
than a dozen college libraries
available on loan.
In the 1960s, Anderson was a
cataloguer, and she tells of how
librarians phoned each other to
check on availability by looking
at catalog cards for all the books.
She recalls that Karlis Ozolins,
her predecessor as head librarian, often would track down students with cars to pick up the
materials from other locations.
Two decades later, catalog
cards became relics and library
collections became housed on a
database, introducing new physical requirements for technology
in libraries. Already Anderson
had fought for improvements to
the aging Sverdrup Library,
including carpeting to replace
the loose asbestos tiles she continually removed. Upstairs, it
was so cold that the case for a
new building became obvious
when students were seen studying in mittens.
In 1982 the new Weekend
College increased the College’s
enrollment and brought new
demands on the librarians. At
the time, Anderson recalls, the
library staff was 4.75 full-time
equivalents.
Over the next few years,
Anderson detailed and documented what would be required
to meet College needs and help
it remain competitive. In the
process, she studied and visited
many libraries. She made her
case before retiring, and then—
as a volunteer—helped supervise
the move into the new building.
While it’s rewarding to work
in the new library, it’s really the
people, she says, who keep her
coming back each week. “The
people I worked with have been
among my best friends and they
were a big reason why I wanted
to stay in touch.”
Since her retirement 16 years ago, Margaret
Anderson has continued to volunteer in the
library to stay connected with the staff she
enjoyed during her career.
“We just think of her as one
of us,” current library director
Jane Ann Nelson says about
Anderson. Current cataloging
coordinator Betty Joyce talks
about what a wonderful mentor
Anderson has been to her.
Anderson’s career at
Augsburg has been part of an
Augsburg family affair, dating
back to 1949, when her husband, Ray, was appointed to
teach speech and theatre. He
retired in 1990, the same year as
his wife.
All three of the Andersons’
sons graduated from Augsburg—
Dean ’77, Stuart ’78, and Brian
’82. Stuart teaches in the
Department of Physics, but also
worked in the new library for
several years in information technology. He still spends some time
there as assistant director for
instructional course design in the
Center for Teaching and
Learning. Ⅵ
WINTER 2006-07 11
The Inauguration of Paul C. Pribbenow
October 18-21, 2006
Ages
of
Imagination
Over four days in October, Augsburg College inaugurated its 11th
president, Paul C. Pribbenow.
The days were filled with activities connecting its own community
of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and parents with city neighbors,
church leaders, and colleagues from across higher education.
Events included discussions on civic engagement, roundtables on
public education, service projects, and celebrations filled with music,
art, and good conversation. Each day at the “Abundance” lunches,
those who attended donated food and money to fill the food shelves
at the nearby Brian Coyle Community Center.
Inauguration Day, October 20, began with a Festival Service and
Holy Communion, officiated by Mark Hanson ’68, ELCA presiding
bishop, with the sermon presented by Rev. Dr. Robin W. Lovin,
Southern Methodist University. The investiture ceremony was held in
the afternoon.
Completing the inauguration was a morning of service in the community, preceding outdoor family activities and an Auggie football
game against Carleton College.
For additional information and photos from the inauguration, go to
www.augsburg.edu/inauguration.
In a lighter moment, Paul and Abigail Pribbenow,
with daughter Maya, enjoy festivities in the tent
during inauguration week.
Ages of Imagination
The theme of the inauguration, “Ages of Imagination,” was drawn
from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, one of the most influential
works of British poet and artist William Blake (1757–1827).
From The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:
The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they
dared so roundly to assert, that God spoke to them; and whether they did
not think at the time, that they would be misunderstood, and so be the cause
of imposition.
Isaiah answer’d, “I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical
perception; but my senses discover’d the infinite in every thing, and as I was
then perswaded, & remain confirm’d; that the voice of honest indignation is
the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote.”
Then I asked: “does a firm perswasion that a thing is so, make it so?”
He replied, “All poets say that it does, and in ages of imagination this
firm perswasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm
perswasion of any thing.”
(Top) The newly-invested President Paul C. Pribbenow greets his colleagues in higher
education following the ceremony. From right to left, he greets Kathryn Jeffrey, president of Hennepin Technical College; Linda N. Hanson, president of Hamline
University; Lois (Peterson) Bollman ’69, vice president of strategy, planning, and
accountability at Minneapolis Community and Technical College; James L. Peterson,
As Augsburg College celebrated the inauguration of its 11th president,
it also celebrated its calling as a college, and imagined itself in future
ages, using “AGES” to remind it of the four themes of this new era:
Abundance, Generosity, Engagement, and Service.
In moving these four “mountains,” Augsburg College, under the
leadership of Paul Pribbenow, will continue to demonstrate how the
power of imagination can transform the lives of its students and its
community.
14 AUGSBURG NOW
president of Gustavus Adolphus College; and (tallest, with mortar board) the president’s brother, Dean Pribbenow, dean of the School of Integrative Studies at
Edgewood College. (Above) Student Government president Maria Mitchell led the
responsive prayer during the Inauguration Ceremony.
Excerpts from the sermon
for the inauguration of
Paul C. Pribbenow
The Rev. Dr. Robin W. Lovin
Cary Maguire University Professor of Ethics
Southern Methodist University
(Left) Rev. Robin Lovin, from Southern Methodist University, preached about moving
mountains at the Festival Service on Inauguration Day. (Right) ELCA presiding bishop
… I greet you on behalf of all of us who have known and
worked with Paul Pribbenow over the years and benefited
from his leadership in many different places. …
I am also welcoming you to your own future, because
those of us who have worked with Paul Pribbenow in the
past know what you can expect in this new phase of the history of Augsburg College that we inaugurate today. … as I
looked at the [Inauguration] program with its multiple
events and its common themes, I spotted the Pribbenow
imprint of energy and organization. …
And I suppose that what you want to know about the
future from my knowledge of the past is whether it is really
true that this guy can move mountains. I’m here to tell you
that he can, and I’m also going to tell you how he does it. …
The way [he] moves mountains is to figure out what
everybody else is already doing and tie those activities
together into a single mission with a unified message, so that
when the mountain moves, it’s because you moved it. …
Education is supposed to be about expanding our vision
of the world and changing the way we see our own place in it.
It is about asking new questions, and questioning familiar
answers. It should change us in fundamental ways, not just fill
our heads with facts. Education is inseparable from change,
personal and social, change in ideas, goals, and priorities. …
and Augsburg parent Mark Hanson ’68 presided at the service.
The word of greeting I bring you from the past is that
great things are possible for Augsburg College, beginning
today, because you have a leader who will listen to you, who
can see the possibilities that you see, and who can bring
them together in new ways that will empower you and energize all these people who want a future of abundance, generosity, engagement, and service for this institution.
But the word I bring from the Lord, the word that cuts
across past, present, and future, comes to you today in the
form of a question. It is addressed equally to students, faculty, and staff, addressed to alumni, supporters, and to the
church. And it is addressed to the president. The question is,
“Do you really want to move the mountains?”
I think you recognize the opportunity, and I pray that
you will enjoy the blessings that come with accepting the
vocation: That through humility and even sorrow, your
hunger for truth and justice will be satisfied; that through
integrity and generosity in judgment, you will see God; and
that through the knowledge you create and share, the world
will find peace, and you will be called the children of God.
(Left) President Pribbenow gets a hug from his father, Rev. Jerome Pribbenow, who read from the gospel during the service. (Right) Associate Dean Frankie Shackelford stands
amid a sea of academic vestments as the faculty line up for the inauguration processional.
WINTER 2006-07 15
Excerpts from “Thanksgiving”
Inaugural address by
Paul C. Pribbenow
October 20, 2006
Thank you for being here today for this celebration of Augsburg
College. I am inspired by your faithful lives, and I accept the call to
be your partner in service to Augsburg with gratitude, resolve, and
humility. …
Authentic life—especially a life of faith—begins and ends in gratitude and in thanksgiving. We come together with the humility of
thanksgiving, the recognition that life is a gift and a privilege not to be
misused or misled, and, I might add, not to be missed. The late Henri
Nouwen once wrote that “Gratitude … goes beyond the ‘mine’ and
‘thine’ and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift.”
All of life is a pure gift.
Let these words of mine, then, become my thanksgiving to God
and to all of you, my psalm of gratitude for this college, for its mission
and values, and for the cloud of witnesses gathered here today and
scattered across time and space that hold Augsburg College in their
hearts and minds. …
“In ages of imagination,” [the poet William] Blake tells us, the
power of the imagination, the power of belief, the power of a ‘firm
persuasion’ can move mountains. We must decide, today, to live in
one of those ages of imagination, in fact, to use our imaginations to
create a new era for the College. …
(Above) Augsburg Board of Regents chair Ted Grindal ’76 places the seal of the
College around the neck of Paul C. Pribbenow, who is invested as the 11th president
of Augsburg College. (Below) To conclude inauguration week, the College gathers in
community service to clean up along the Mississippi riverbank. (Right) Paul and Abigail
Pribbenow lead the recessional out of Hoversten Chapel after the Festival Service.
16 AUGSBURG NOW
For the complete texts of Rev. Robin Lovin’s sermon and President
Pribbenow’s inaugural address, go to www.augsburg.edu/president
(Left) Sounds of the big band organized and led by music professor
Robert Stacke ’71 fill the tent during inaugural week festivities.
(Below) Student Government public relations officers Rachel
Forsberg (left) and Kati Welt (right) present a giant card with inauguration congratulations from students to President Pribbenow.
There are four themes to my presidency. … These four
themes are Abundance, Generosity, Engagement, and
Service. Think of them as the “AGES” in Ages of
Imagination. … Augsburg is already blessed to have all of
these things, though we sometimes don’t recognize these
great gifts—gifts that God has given us, and gifts that we
were meant to care for and pass on. …
During my short time here at Augsburg, I have been
challenged to think again about the role of colleges and universities in an urban setting. I am committed to the mutual
dependency of colleges and the city. The paradigm for the
relationships between cities and higher education must be
less about extracting benefits from each other, less dependent on incidental impact, and more focused on the various
resources that can be shared in the pursuit of a more robust,
healthy, and meaningful urban life. …
I know that you share with me this deep sense of
thanksgiving for this college and its remarkable commitments. What we do here matters—to our students, our
neighborhood, our city, the church, and the world.
What we do here is significant—because our work is
grounded in a deep and confident faith, because it enjoys a
history of love in a community of memory and tradition,
because it believes deeply in intellectual curiosity and personal courage, and because it is full of hope.
What we need now is imagination—and faith, and fearlessness—to hear and follow the call to be a college committed to the liberal arts in all that we learn and teach; a college
grounded in faith and values that are the source of our firm
persuasion; a college located in a place full of life and
urgency that draws us out of our insular selves; a college
engaged with a creation rich in difference that constantly
surprises us.
What fun we’re going to have! Ⅵ
WINTER 2006-07 17
Many of the mentors and mentees in Scholastic Connections, including both
day and weekend students, gathered in November to celebrate the
program’s five-year anniversary. (L to R) Jim Genia ’87, Chris Adams ’07,
Natalia Pretelt ’03, Nhia Lee ’02, Luis Lopez Monterrubio ’09, Purity Ouma
’08, Mary Murzyn ’08, Killa Martinez-Aleman ’08, Eloisa Echavez ’94, ’96 MEL,
Georgette Christensen ’96 MSW, Bernice Arias-Sather ’97, Julianne Lynum
Leerssen ’00, Ami Nafzger ’94, Sama Sandy ’08, Ashley Stoffers ’08, Miguel
Sotamba ’08, Derek Francis ’08, Alex Gonzalez ’90.
MAKING
connections
BY BETSEY NORGARD
SCHOLASTIC CONNECTIONS—THE NAME SAYS IT ALL.
It’s about making connections.
In November, this scholarship-mentorship program marked the beginning of its sixth
year. At the annual dinner, senior Chris Adams spoke on behalf of the students.
“Through this program, I’ve learned to connect with many different kinds of people,”
said Adams. “This program has helped me understand the fundamentals. And these
fundamentals have helped me understand the connections between hard work, talent,
commitment, and their relationship to good grades, lifelong friends, engaging teachers,
and a lot about life in general.”
Each year, five Day College students of color—African-American, American Indian,
Asian, and Hispanic/Latino—are selected by Augsburg’s four ethnic services directors for
a $5,000 scholarship. They are also paired with a mentor who is an Augsburg alumnus/a
of color, with the idea being to connect leaders of today with leaders of tomorrow. Most
students are paired with mentors of their own ethnic group.
The scholarships are renewable annually, so students can remain connected with
their mentors as long as they are at Augsburg. Thirty students have participated in the
program since its inception in fall 2001.
18 AUGSBURG NOW
Having a mentor like Noro Andriamanalina (right), who is also an African
woman and has achieved a successful career, inspired Melat Woldegebriel
(left) to set higher goals for herself.
Scholastic Connections was the creation of columnist, playwright, and consultant Syl Jones ’73 and was designed to assist students of color to succeed at Augsburg, while engaging our alumni of
color in the College’s commitment to an intentionally diverse community. This concept of combining financial aid and mentoring garnered national notice for the program when it began.
Vivian Jenkins Nelsen, president and CEO of the INTER-RACE
Institute, a diversity think tank based at Augsburg, has been instrumental in implementing and sustaining Scholastic Connections. She
says that while mentoring is common within community organizations and in the corporate world, she is convinced that it is vastly
underrated at the college level.
With Scholastic Connections, students can pursue their careers
already connected with mentors, who are able to network within
their own communities on behalf of their mentees.
The pairs of alumni and students create their own styles of relationships. Some are largely career-driven with specific goals planned
out, while others focus around personal issues, self-confidence, and
life decisions.
Mathew Shannon says about his mentor, Chad Jackson, “I was
looking for a friend who could be supportive enough to keep me
encouraged and real enough to hold me accountable to the high
expectations I set for myself and the company I keep.”
Attorney Jim Genia’s career has been a big factor in his mentorship with Chris Adams. Adams says that in addition to learning
how Genia has been a successful lawyer, Genia has been helping
him network to find an internship in a local law firm before entering law school.
Xia Xiong also worked on career planning. “I definitely feel that
my mentor had an impact on what I am doing with my life today,”
says Xiong. “She guided me in figuring out what I wanted to do
upon graduation and helped me find resources in order to get
where I wanted to go. I think having someone who has gone
through the same path makes it so much easier.”
In some cases, cross-mentoring occurs to also connect mentees
with other mentors who match their interests.
Culture was an important factor in the partnership of Melat
Woldegebriel, from Ethiopia, and Noro Andriamanalina, from
Madagascar. Woldegebriel says, “Knowing that my mentor is from
Africa and seeing her as a successful person makes me realize that I
can be like her if I work hard like her. On top of her responsibility
at her work, [she] takes part in church and community activities. I
learned a lot from that and increased my extracurricular activities.”
Andriamanalina adds, “You don’t have to be in the same discipline or line of work to have a positive and rewarding mentoring
relationship. Melat and I were able to connect on many levels. We
are both African women balancing different roles and expectations
within and outside of our communities.”
“It’s clear that although the match did not seem perfect at first,
as I am in education and she is in accounting,” Andriamanalina
continues, “we had so much more in common than we ever imagined and learned from one another in the process.”
The value of the program to students is obvious: needed financial assistance, plus the experience of having role models who have
already been through the challenges and pitfalls of college and
career who can serve as guides.
For the mentors, their learning often includes the satisfaction of
helping others maneuver these challenges.
For mentor Eloisa Echavez it is “to be energized and contribute
to the development of a young professional who has many dreams
and plans for the future.”
Mentor Chad Jackson says, “For me it was a way to connect
with an African-American student … who had gone through the
same things I did. It showed me the importance of investing in
youth.”
The four ethnic services directors recommend alumni of
Augsburg to be invited as mentors, and Jenkins Nelsen serves as the
guiding force in making the mentorship connections. She provides
training to both mentors and mentees on how to work together to
get the most from their relationships.
WINTER 2006-07 19
In addition to the individual mentoring activities,
Jenkins Nelsen brings the entire group of mentors and
mentees together at various times during the year for cultural celebrations and other social and community activities. Both Genia and Adams have found these gatherings to
be times when the group can learn about each others’ cultures and appreciate the differences and similarities.
The creation of Scholastic Connections came about in
response to a difficult situation in Augsburg’s history. In
1986, alumnus Elroy Stock ’49 gave a $500,000 campaign
naming gift to Augsburg. When it was discovered that he
was the author of thousands of letters sent to interracial
couples and adoptive parents urging “racial purity,” the
College decided it would not put Stock’s name on the
building. Charitable gift regulations prevented the return of
the money, which led to a lawsuit by Stock that was later
dismissed.
In 2001, Syl Jones (himself a victim of Stock’s mail
campaign) proposed an endowment in the same amount of
Stock’s gift to offer scholarships for students of color and
mixed race. The program supports them in achieving academic success and developing leadership skills.
President Paul Pribbenow, in remarks at the annual
dinner, commented that Scholastic Connections is “an
example of the College at its best,” supporting its mission
and commitment to provide access to college for all students.
Overall, there is little doubt that the program is successful. So far, more
than half of the former students have gone on to complete higher degrees.
Echavez says the program enables Augsburg “to make a greater impact on the
lives of the students of color going beyond the academics, extracurricular
activities, and financial aid.”
Woldegebriel believes that more international students of color will be
attracted to Augsburg, knowing that through Scholastic Connections they can
be paired with a mentor of similar cultural background.
At the annual dinner, Genia, an attorney and lobbyist, spoke of the fact
that among Minnesota’s 201 state legislators, there are only five or six senators
Although Xia Xiong (left) comes from a different cultural background than her mentor, she appreciates the guidance that Eloisa
Echavez (above) was able to give her to plan for the next steps in
her studies and career. Since Echavez had never mentored anyone
outside of Latino culture, she enjoys learning from Xiong and
helping her pursue her dreams.
20 AUGSBURG NOW
and representatives of color, with no American
Indians.
“The legislature is making decisions every day
that affect all Minnesotans’ lives,” Genia said. “If some
groups are under-represented, … then life-changing
decisions are potentially being made without taking
into account the unique perspectives and cultural
beliefs of these groups.
“Until all races are represented in the halls of
government, in the business world, or in the academic world at the same rate at which they’re represented
in the general population,” he concluded, “we’ll need
programs like Scholastic Connections.” Ⅵ
(Left) Through Scholastic Connections,
Chris Adams learned to connect with different kinds of people—something that
helps him in his current real estate work,
and as he prepares for a law career. Jim
Genia’s (far left) work as an attorney and
lobbyist provides the networking to assist
Adams with internships and law school in
planning for that career.
SCHOLASTIC CONNECTIONS
Mentees and Mentors interviewed for this story:
CHRIS ADAMS ‘07 (sociology)
Real estate broker
Vilana Realty
MELATEWORK WOLDEGEBRIEL ’05
(accounting)
Moving back to Addis Ababa
JIM GENIA ’87 (sociology)
Lobbyist/Attorney
Animiki LLC
NORO ANDRIAMANALINA ’91
(English, religion)
Program Adminstrator in The
Graduate School and Faculty
Fellow at the Center for Teaching
and Learning, both at University of
Minnesota
XIA XIONG ’05 (sociology)
Graduate program:
Counseling and Student Personnel
Psychology, University of
Minnesota
Intern—Multicultural Center for
Academic Excellence, University of
Minnesota
ELOISA ECHAVEZ ’94
(computer science), ’98 M.A.
Educational Leadership
Executive Director
La Oportunidad, Inc.
MATHEW SHANNON ’04
(business, communication arts)
Administrative Assistant
Soft Computer Consultants
CHAD JACKSON ’97
(elementary education)
Account Executive
Bluewater Direct
WINTER 2006-07 21
Jesse Docken has enjoyed the companionship of four AIBO dog robots that he
has used to help beginning students learn basic programming as well as to
provide him challenges for more complex programming.
F
See AIBO walk …
and sit …
and wigg le its ears
BY BETSEY NORGARD
22 AUGSBURG NOW
our black-and-white dogs have taken up residence in
Augsburg’s computer science lab, and sophomore Jesse
Docken has become their keeper, trainer, and researcher.
The dogs are called AIBO, for Artifical Intelligence roBOt,
and were created by Sony Corporation in 1999. Designed as
futuristic pet robots, thousands of them with price tags of
$1,500-2,000 have been purchased and taught to play games,
shake their legs, wiggle their ears, say their names, and let their
owners know when they’re happy, angry, and bored.
There is even a “four-legged league” of AIBOs that compete
around the world in RoboCup, an international robotics competition.
Last fall, computer science professor Karen Sutherland took
the AIBOs to her Introduction to Computer Science, a course
required for all computer science, mathematics, and management information systems (MIS) students.
As far as robots go, the AIBOs are quite complicated crea-
tures, capable of highly-advanced programming. Their best
feature, however, is that their basic programming is relatively easy—much of it is self-contained and doesn’t
require proficiency in a programming language.
The task in the AIBO lab is for student teams of mostly
freshmen and sophomores to write an easy program, transfer it to a memory card, plug it into the AIBO dog robot,
and see if it goes through its routine correctly.
“The code is easy to read because it uses commands
that you would use for a real dog,” says sophomore Brietta
Schluender. “When working with the code you are able to
change the commands and numbers to see how the dog
reacts; then you can easily conclude how the changes in
the code make the dog’s actions differ.”
The students turn on the switch and watch cautiously
as their dog slowly comes to life. First a stretch, and then
one, two, three, and four shakes of a paw—so far so good!
After making several turns, AIBO ends with “an amazing
amount of ear wiggles,” as one student describes it.
Sutherland introduced the AIBOs into her class as part
of a collaborative grant—with Berea College and the
University of Minnesota—from the National Science
Foundation. Her goal is to engage and attract more students, especially women and minority students, to computer science study. The AIBOs offer an easy way to teach
the basics of programming and robotics while having fun.
“It’s easy for the students to see how the AIBO reacts to
their program, and it does cute things,” Sutherland says. “If
they can see the program physically happen, they understand it better.”
Docken, a computer science major, works with
Sutherland in the class, lending a hand when students run
into programming glitches or when the AIBO’s routine
doesn’t work. In his own research, in addition to making
the AIBOs perform various tasks, he has studied different
means of programming to ascertain which methods are
easier and harder. These results will inform how robots
might be used in future class projects.
He has enjoyed working with his new robotic pets.
“I’ve been fascinated with learning how to make them do
certain things, for instance, how to change which lights
come on [to show emotional responses], how to make
them walk, or how to make them play sounds to music.”
Working with the AIBOs will help him move into more
complex robotics.
Docken’s primary interest is artificial intelligence (AI).
“I’ve had a few ideas I’ve played around with,” he says,
“and I hope to begin AI research to make algorithms that
Sophomore Jesse Docken (second from left) helps junior David Yanagisawa and sophomore Alex
Garver with their programming to make the AIBO dog robot perform its routine, while computer
science professor Karen Sutherland looks on.
Freshman Melissa Moberg (left) and sophomore Brietta Schluender joke with Docken about the
tricks they can make the AIBO dogs perform.
could provide a more sophisticated means of handling emotions and simulate
primitive emotional responses to external stimuli.”
This could be applied, he says, in many ways—to robotics for entertainment, e.g. AIBOs that can react in more real ways, to games where characters
can respond to events, and to simulation.
Docken has written a paper on his research that he will present at a regional conference in the spring. Sutherland is using his work plus student feedback
from class labs at all three institutions involved in the NSF grant to develop a
course curriculum that will appeal to a broad spectrum of students with varied
career goals.
And, yes, Docken says their AIBOs have been given names—Sirius,
Snoopy, Scooby-Doo, and Spike. Ⅵ
WINTER 2006-07 23
Polish-born Magdalena Paleczny-Zapp, associate professor
in marketing, brings her experience as an international
business consultant to her students in class.
global
MEET THE INTERNATIONAL FACULTY
Associate professor Magdalena Paleczny-Zapp
(management coordinator) was born and
raised in Krakow, Poland, and taught in several
European institutions before coming to
Augsburg.
Associate professor Amin Kader (international business coordinator) is from Egypt. A
past president of the Islamic Center of
Minnesota, he teaches Islamic Studies in addition to business.
Before coming to the United States in
1970, associate professor and finance coordinator Ashok Kapoor worked at the American
Embassy in his home country of India. He has
brought this international experience into his
Augsburg classroom since 1998.
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
director Bob Kramarczuk was born in western
Ukraine. At the age of five, his family escaped
and hid in the forest for five months keeping
ahead of the front during World War II. His
business
Experience is a powerful teacher. In addition to study abroad programs,
Augsburg’s business students have opportunities to experience global
perspectives in their classrooms every day.
BY BETHANY BIERMAN
family was later shipped to a work camp in
Bavaria before immigrating to the U.S.
Associate professor Fekri Meziou, Tunisian
by birth, has taught at Augsburg since 1987.
“Having faculty of diverse backgrounds is
important to the richness of the academic programming offered in our department,” says
Meziou. “For instance, I am teaching an international marketing course that is approached
from a globally diverse background. We analyze the challenges of marketing products and
services in different regions around the world.
This course can only be taught by someone
who has traveled extensively and has
immersed himself/herself during an extended
stay in the life of the foreign countries.”
“I grew up on a farm outside a small
town,” says Jamie Schiller ’05, who currently
serves as MBA program coordinator. “Most of
my experience with diversity was through the
business department.” Reflecting back on her
undergraduate experience, Schiller remembers,
“[Zapp] helped us understand global differences as well as learn to make culturally sensitive business decisions. … [Meziou] changed
my life and drove me to seek out opportunities
to broaden my perspective of marketing and
business on a global level. He continuously
brought cases to his courses that had global
business challenges. … With the help of the
business faculty, I was able to customize a
study abroad program in England. … I have
Associate professor Fekri Meziou brings case studies from his own cultural experience
From his years of working at the American Embassy in India, associate professor
to his international marketing course.
Ashok Kapoor can teach finance, drawing on extensive knowledge of both
cultural contexts.
24 AUGSBURG NOW
Trading Places
grown to appreciate international differences in
other country’s beliefs, norms, and value sets.”
“Students leave the place more openminded than the day they came,” Zapp asserts.
John Cerrito, assistant professor and
department chair, says, “The course descriptions are broad enough so faculty members can
bring in their own flavor and expertise.”
“In the current context of globalization,”
says Kapoor, “my international experience
comes in handy in all my classes, but especially in the international finance classes. My work
experience overseas provides many examples
to my students and helps them keep an open
perspective leading to better decisions both
professionally and in their personal lives.”
Senior Dulce Monterrubio is a perfect
example of this. She came to Augsburg from
her hometown of Mexico City. She says, “It was
Magda’s own experience as an international
business consultant that made me understand
that being an international student here at
Augsburg was just the first step, but that successfully adapting to a second, third, or
fourth culture would be what truly would
make me the international educator/professional I wanted to become.” Monterrubio is
using her cultural experiences, which include
studying abroad in Spain, in her current role
as a program assistant in Augsburg’s Center
for Global Education.
Along with representing differences in
ethnic backgrounds, there is significant religious diversity represented in the department.
“The department really does have an
interesting diversity of faith expressions,”
comments assistant professor Lee Clarke,
who also happens to be a former ELCA minister. “For some, it’s very clear to students
because of culture and nationalities. Ashok
[Kapoor] is very upfront talking about his
Hindu faith, and Amin [Kader] and others
are Islamic. For others, it’s not as intentional… Because religion is so close to culture, it
gives students a taste of some of the challenges in global business.”
Cerrito agrees. “The College goes out of
its way to be diverse. In 1983 when I came, I
did not represent the faith, culture, or ethnic
background the culture [of Augsburg] represents, and I’ve never been anywhere where
I’ve felt more accepted.” (Cerrito is Roman
Catholic and of Italian descent.)
Kapoor says, “Both my cultural and religious background allows me to bring a very
different perspective to issues of the day that
we discuss both among colleagues and with
our students.”
Consider two college students in
1980—one, a student at the University
of Minnesota; the other, studying at the
University of Tunis. Both had the desire
to see the world through a new culture.
The two are allowed to exchange
places through the International
Reciprocal Exchange Program.
After her time in Tunisia, the
American returns to Minnesota; the
Tunisian young man decides to stay in
America to pursue his academic objectives. The two meet while serving as cochairs for a selection committee to
choose and orient another student
exchange.
Years later, the two cross paths
again, this time at Augsburg College,
where they both now work. Their
names? Regina McGoff, associate director of the Center for Global Education,
and Fekri Meziou, associate professor of
business.
Meziou says the exchange “was a
wonderful opportunity to share experiences and academic ideas with international students from a number of countries around the world… International
exchanges enable students to immerse
LAYER IN CORPORATE EXPERIENCE
A different kind of culture—corporate culture—is also something faculty add to the
international mix.
Prior to coming to Augsburg in 1995,
David Schwain, assistant professor, served on
Assistant professor Lee Clarke combines both his cor-
themselves in the cultural, social, political, and economic life of another country. The learning outcomes are tremendous and the personal growth opportunities are immeasurable.”
It’s a small world, after all.
porate perspectives from software design and programming with his background as a Lutheran minister
in Augsburg’s MIS classes.
WINTER 2006-07 25
ALUMNI NEWS
From the Alumni
Board president …
Greetings fellow
Auggies,
As I write this, fall is settling
in and the transition to winter
is in the air. Homecoming
week was a great set of
events—I hope you could
attend some of them. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity
to learn more about our
Distinguished Alumni and
Spirit of Augsburg and First
Decade awardees. Their recollections of what life was like
at Augsburg 30-40-50 years ago reminded me of how much
has changed and is changing around us all the time.
Homecoming also set a great stage for President Pribbenow’s
inauguration. I was honored to represent the alumni in the
Inauguration Ceremony and the four days of events surrounding it. The theme of AGES—Abundance, Generosity,
Engagement, and Service—is one we can all be proud of and
take part in as we live our lives in service to the broader
world. If you want to learn a little more about Augsburg’s year
of transition I highly recommend the inauguration webpage,
www.augsburg.edu/inauguration, and the President’s office
page, www.augsburg.edu/president.
By the time you read this, Advent Vespers, Christmas, and the
new year have come and gone, and before too long, Easter
will arrive. Then, in May, another commencement arrives. I’m
starting to deeply appreciate my grandmother’s insight when,
at 90, she told me that the years never seem to go by more
slowly. It’s always faster and faster.
As your new year unfolds, I wish you all the best in your
transitions.
Barry M. Vornbrock ’96 MAL
Alumni Board President
28 AUGSBURG NOW
Auggies at the
State Capitol
Alumni calendar
Congratulations to the following
Auggies who were elected to the
Minnesota Legislature in
November:
February 20
Alumni Board meeting—
5:30 p.m., Minneapolis Room,
Christensen Center
Sandy Wollschlager ’94 (DFL),
elected to her first term in House
District 28A, representing
Cannon Falls and Red Wing
March 14
Join members of the Alumni
Board Events Committee to volunteer at Augsburg’s Campus
Kitchen from 7-9 p.m. For more
information or to sign up as a
volunteer, contact Liz Pushing at
lpushing@provplace.com. Learn
more about Campus Kitchen in
the GET INVOLVED section at
www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Diane Loeffler ’75 (DFL), elected to her second term in House
District 59A, representing
Northeast Minneapolis
Rod Skoe ’77 (DFL), elected to
his second term in Senate
District 2, representing
Northwest Minnesota. He had
previously served two terms in
the Minnesota House of
Representatives.
Sport an Auggie
license plate
Auggie license plates are available from the Minnesota
Department of Transportation
for a $10 plate fee and a minimum annual contribution of
$25 when renewing registration. The plates can go on passenger class vehicles carrying
not more than 15 persons; this
includes pickup trucks and
vans with a three-quarter-ton or
less gross weight and one-ton
passenger vans. For information, go to www.dps.state.mn.
us/dvs/PlBrochure/CollegiatePla
tes.htm.
April 17
Alumni Board meeting—
5:30 p.m., Minneapolis Room,
Christensen Center
Check the online calendar at
www.augsburg.edu for a complete schedule of campus
events.
Send in your
nominations
Is there someone you
believe is deserving of a
Distinguished Alumnus/a,
Spirit of Augsburg, or First
Decade award?
Nominations are being
received by the Alumni
Relations Office from now
until March 1.
For instructions about nominating and the nomination
form, contact Becky Taute
at 612-330-1085 or
tauter@augsburg.edu. The
forms are also available on
the alumni webpage at
www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Please consider making a
nomination!
Centennial Singers head to the Southwest
Following a successful series of concerts in Florida in 2006 and
their annual fall concert season in Minnesota, the Augsburg
Centennial Singers will reprise their 2005 tour in Arizona in
February 2007, with additional concerts in Nevada and Utah.
Directed by Alfred (Al) Reesnes ’58, the Singers reflect the gospel
quartet tradition at Augsburg. Formed in 1993 to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the first Augsburg gospel quartet that
traveled to Norway, the Singers have toured Norway twice, most
recently in 2001.
“Seeing alumni and other friends of Augsburg is a wonderful part
of the touring,” says Reesnes. “Our guys love to sing songs of
praise and we are looking forward to returning to the Southwest.”
Also featured in the concert are songs by a quartet, led by Paul
Christensen ’59, and including Norm Anderson ’60, Paul Mikelson
’70, and Jon Lueth, husband of alumna Marilyn (Buschbom) ’71.
This group recalls Augsburg’s strong gospel quartet tradition over
many years. In addition, a second quartet now presents songs from
a more Southern gospel tradition.
February concerts/appearances
February 6, 7 p.m.
Eccles Concert Hall, Dixie College, St. George, Utah
February 7, 7 p.m.
Community Lutheran Church, 3720 Tropicana Ave., Las Vegas, Nev.
February 8, 7 p.m.
Spirit of Grace Lutheran Church, 15820 Clearview Blvd., Surprise, Ariz.
February 9, 7 p.m.
Vista de la Montana United Methodist Church, 3001 E. Miravista
Lane, Tucson, Ariz.
Alumni reception, 6–6:45 p.m.
February 10, 4 p.m.
Chaparral Christian Church, 6451 Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, Ariz.
February 11, 8:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Worship Services at American Lutheran Church, 172 Del Webb
Blvd., Sun City, Ariz.
Alumni reception between services.
February 13, 7 p.m.
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, El Lago Blvd. and
Fountain Hills Blvd, Fountain Hills, Ariz.
Alumni reception, 6–6:45 p.m.
February 14, 7 p.m.
King of Glory Lutheran Church, 2085 E. Southern Ave., Tempe, Ariz.
Alumni reception, 6–6:45 p.m.
A special highlight in the concerts of the Centennial Singers, who number more than
50, is a smaller group of four who keep alive Augsburg’s longstanding gospel quartet
tradition. (L to R): Jon Lueth, Paul Christensen ’59, Paul MIkelson ’70, and Norm
Anderson ’60.
February 15, 7 p.m.
Pinnacle Presbyterian Church, 25150 N. Pima Rd., Scottsdale, Ariz.
NOTE: Augsburg President Paul C. Pribbenow will be the guest
preacher at services on Feb. 17 and 18 at the American Lutheran
Church in Sun City, Ariz. (see address above):
Sat., Feb. 17—4 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 18—8:30 and 10:30 a.m., with a coffee reception
between services.
For information, contact the alumni relations office at 612-330-1085.
Join the Augsburg Online Community
It’s designed just for you—
• Keep in touch with classmates
• Find out what’s happening on campus
• Send class notes about what you’re doing
• Change/update your address and e-mail
• Update your profile so others can find you
• Make an online gift to Augsburg
It’s fast and easy. Already, more than 500 alumni have registered.
Simply go to www.augsburg.edu/alumni—have you signed up?
If you have questions, e-mail healyk@augsburg.edu.
WINTER 2006-07 29
HOMECOMING 2006
Homecoming 2006 brought students and alumni together in record numbers. Fireworks at the pep rally pumped up the crowd, and seniors
Grant Hemmingsen and Sari Gallagher were crowned Homecoming King and Queen. While the football game against Concordia-Moorhead went into
overtime, the Cobbers edged out the Auggies, 34-28, for the win.
30 AUGSBURG NOW
WINTER 2006-07 31
HOMECOMING REUNIONS
Class of 1956
(L to R) ROW 1 (front): Dorothy
(Floistad) Benson, Carolyn (Lower)
Bliss, Elizabeth (Mortensen) Swanson,
Chris (Munson) Main, Ron Main.
ROW 2: Augsburg president Paul
Pribbenow, Louise Jones, Laurayne
(Helgerson) Solberg, James Nordling,
Bonnie (Bieri) Vaagenes, Marilyne
Dahl, Wanda (Warnes) Olson, Farolyn
(Johnson) Gehring, Ruth (Borchardt)
Ysteboe Engelstad, Hans Dumpys,
John Haynes. ROW 3: Ted Berkas,
Harvey Lundin, Roger Ose, Chuck
Evavold, Glen Thorpe, Jim Pederson,
Harold Stoa, Rodney Erickson, Tom
Hofflander, Tom Benson, Chuck
Howard, Tom Hoversten. ROW 4: Bob
D. Larson, Bob Gjengdahl, John
Thompson, Bill Anderson, Ardell
Moen, Richard Thorud, Gary Fitch
Class of 1966
(L to R) ROW 1 (front): Sylvia
(Steinbeck) Torstenson, Lila (Lee)
Salls, Mary Lynn (Larson) Leff, Rhoda
(Lindekugel) Vandervoort, Grace
(Estenson) Fladeboe, Judith (Erickson)
Coppersmith, Jeanne (Wanner)
Morreim. ROW 2: Karen (Torkelson)
Leverentz, Douglas Johnson, John
Andreasen, Beth Torstenson, Karen
Johnson, Kathleen (Davis) Jacobsen,
Kay (Swensson) Cerkvenik. ROW 3:
Kathryn (Wall) Johnson, Sharen
(Muehlenthaler) Schornstein, Vernice
(Ring) Bishop, Karen (Langseth)
Oelschlager, Marcia (Thimsen) Noble,
Susan (Joesting) Propst, Joan (Alden)
Blomlie. ROW 4: Jerry Maas, Maggi
(Ahlson) Tjaden, Judith (Erickson)
Pittelkow, Kathleen (Kalpin) Franson,
Heidi (Degen) Shurtleff, Ed Huseby,
Richard Mork, Allan Kristenson. ROW
5: Kathleen (Popp) Boggess, Joy
Klemp, Smokey (Wyckoff) Nielsen,
Gracia (Nydahl) Luoma.
32 AUGSBURG NOW
Class of 1981
(L to R) ROW 1 (front): Ruth Muschinski, Karla (Morken) Thompson, Janna (Wallin) Haug, Mary Beamish, Molly Olson-Blomgren. ROW 2: Susan
(Dahlgren) Sackrison, Kirsten Schwappach, Maureen Webster, Kristine Johnson, Gaynelle (Webb) Buckland, Leann Rock, Barbara Gilbert, Janis (Blomgren)
Aune, Naomi (Christensen) Staruch.
35th Anniversary of
Metro-Urban Studies
Alumni enjoyed reuniting with former faculty and classmates at the
35th anniversary of Augsburg’s
Metro-Urban Studies program. Paula
(Brookins) Pentel ’78, warmly greets
Fran Torstenson, with professor
emeritus Joel Torstenson ’38 looking
on. In the background, professor
emeritus Myles Stenshoel talks with
Bruce Shoemaker ’81.
WINTER 2006-07 33
CLASS NOTES
1942
Chester and Ebba (Johnson)
Brooks, Duluth, Minn., celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in June at Gloria Dei
Church in Duluth, surrounded
by family and friends. After more
than 32 years with the National
Park Service, they moved to
Duluth in 1983.
campuses, when the church grew
from 525 to 7300 members. He
and his wife, Bonnie (Bieri) ’67,
have four children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
1957
Jeanette (Olson) Locke, Inver
Grove Heights, Minn., has been
awarded a grandfather clock after
35 years of service as an H&R
Block employee. She and her
husband, Peter ’60, have lived in
both St. Paul and Scottsdale, Ariz.
children, reading, and golfing.
Lois is director of nursing at the
Burnett Medical Center.
Lowell “Zeke” Ziemann,
Phoenix, Ariz., met up with fellow Auggie Hall-of-Famer Lute
Olson ’56 at the booksigning for
Olson’s new autobiography, Lute!
The Seasons of My Life. Olson is
head basketball coach at the
University of Arizona.
1968
Janet Letnes Martin and
Suzanne (Johnson) Nelson
were awarded the Gold Pen
Award by Metro Lutheran newspaper at their annual dinner in
October, recognizing distinguished
service to Christ and the church
through significant contribution to
public communication. Their
book, Growing Up Lutheran, is the
basis for the currently-running play
Church Basement Ladies. In August,
Janet suffered the loss of her husband, Neil, who died following a
four-year battle with cancer.
1959
1943
The Rev. LuVerne “Red”
Nelson, ’46 Sem, New Hope,
Minn., celebrated the 60th
anniversary of his ordination as a
Lutheran pastor on August 4. He
served parishes in North Dakota,
Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Red
was married to Grace (Carlsen)
’45 and established a scholarship
for voice students in her memory.
He also set up a scholarship for
tuba players.
Gail Castor, Redwood Falls,
Minn., played one season of
Auggie football while a student.
In the Homecoming alumni football game this year, as the oldest
player on the field at age 75, he
made two plays towards the end
of the game, one of which ended
in a touchdown. His efforts were
showcased on several local television stations as well as in
ESPN’s Top Ten Plays of the Day.
He has every intention to play
again next year.
1948
Jeroy Carlson, Burnsville,
Minn., celebrated his retirement
on September 30 after 44 years
of service and was honored at a
reception in October. (See page 3.)
1951
1960
The Rev. Morris Vaagenes,
Shoreview, Minn., recently published Baptism: God’s Activity of
Grace at Kirk House Publishers.
For 38 years, he served as the
senior pastor at North Heights
Lutheran Church and played an
active role in the development of
the Roseville and Arden Hills
The Rev. Myron Carlson,
Grantsburg, Wis., celebrated his
retirement after 37 years as the
pastor of Grantsburg Faith
Lutheran Church. He also served
congregations in Clayton, Wis.,
and rural Clear Lake. Myron is
looking forward to traveling with
his wife, Lois, visiting their three
34 AUGSBURG NOW
1976
Jane Stritesky, Georgetown, Ky.,
has taken a new position at
Northern Elementary School as
elementary music specialist for
grades K through 5. She also
coordinates after school courses
in choir, piano, and guitar.
1963
Carol Ann (Erickson) Zwernik,
Minnetonka, Minn., was named
the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America’s 2006-07 Director of
the Year, an award based on professional achievements and work
in implementing programs for
students, their families, the congregation, and community. She is
the pre-kindergarten director at
Calvary Lutheran Church.
1979
Linda Sue Anderson,
Minneapolis, received rave
reviews in the Star Tribune for
her performance as Big Mama in
Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof at the Minneapolis
Theatre Garage. The show sold
out in July and was extended
into September.
1982
Diane (Peterson) Kachel,
Woodbury, Minn., has become
assistant director for the newlyestablished Center for Lung
Science and Health at the
University of Minnesota. For
nearly 25 years she has been
actively engaged in lung-related
research and administration
across the academic industry and
government sectors. In her new
role she will focus on lung
research, education, and public
service for the prevention and
treatment of lung cancer.
1985
1991
Tom Terpening, Minneapolis,
appeared on TV’s Deal or No
Deal. Unfortunatly, he didn’t win
the big money, but says he and
his family enjoyed a wonderful
four days in Hollywood for the
taping.
Betty Christiansen, La Crosse,
Wis., became a published author
this fall. Her book, Knitting for
Peace, contains stories about
charity knitting organizations
around the United States, selfhelp knitting groups in countries
recovering from war, and other
folks who are using knitting to
help others around the world.
She hopes the book will inspire
others to pick up their needles
and knit one of the 15 projects
in the book for someone in need.
1986
Debra Balzer-Plagemann,
Roanoke, Va., and her husband,
Rob, welcomed a new daughter,
Sophia, in August.
Lisa Baumgartner, Sycamore,
Ill., recently received tenure and
promotion at Northern Illinois
University to associate professor
in the counseling, adult, and
higher education department.
1987
Barbara Blomberg, Princeton,
Minn., is one of four people
inducted into the Princeton High
School Activities Hall of Fame this
year. She teaches in the Princeton
district and served several years as
the head volleyball coach.
Patricia (Noren) Enderson, Elk
River, Minn., recently joined
Deloitte Services LP, a division of
the Deloitte & Touche LLP firms,
as a marketing manager. She can
be reached at pjend@aol.com.
1994
Michelle (Eaker) Steever,
Cranston, R.I., and her husband,
Frank, welcomed a son, Gavin,
on July 27. He joins big sister
Genevieve, 2.
“PSI House Girls,” graduates of 1982 and 1983,
celebrate a girls’ getaway weekend in June at
Izatys Resort.
(L to R) Lisa (Salmonson) Weatherhead, Marlene (Sorensen) Carr, Cindy
(Winberg) Sisson, Janice (Haselhorst) Hostager, Linda (Dibos) Graslewicz,
Terry Swanson (U of M graduate), Kris (Alexander) Korby, Jean (Lucas)
Horton, Terese (Borgstrom) Almquist.
Auggies at Jellystone
1989
Mark Limburg, St. Paul, has
been published by Concordia
Publishing House of St. Louis,
Mo., for his piano arrangements,
which have appeared in many
collections. Carols for Piano is his
12th published piece. Mark has
been named of one “Today’s Top
Writers” and “Today’s Top
Arrangers.” In 1999, he toured
England with David Soul and
Hugh Burns, the guitarist for
Paul McCartney and George
Michael. Mark is currently completing a CD of original contemporary compositions. You can email Mark at rachoven63@aol.com.
This group of Auggies (Classes of 1995, ’96, and ’97) and their families
celebrated their ninth annual summer outing at Jellystone Park in
Warrens, Wis. All living in the Twin Cites, they are able to get together
often and continue to add “future Auggies” to the clan. Their shirts
read, “First Annual Auggie 5K Walk, Run, & Crawl.” (L to R) Jodi Monson
’96, Gene Louie ’95, Dave and Natasha (Solberg) ’96 Sheeley and daughter Kaia, Brian ’95 and Jennifer (Cummings) ’96 Ackland and children
Ellie and Lucas, Brittany (Lynch) ’96 and Mike Jakubiec, Brooke (Manisto)
’96 and Erik ‘97 Reseland and daughter Elsa, Tom Shaw ’95 and
Stephanie Harms ’96 and daughter Madeline, Nate Markell (fiancé of
Jodi Monson), Dylan Nau ’97 and Wendy Laine ’96 and daughter Lydia,
Andy and Connie (Arndt) ’96 Clausen and children Adam and Aaron.
WINTER 2006-07 35
CLASS NOTES
Kari (Schroeder) Prescott,
Minneapolis, and her husband,
Scott, welcomed their second
child—a son, Soren Theophilus.
He was born on June 28 and
joins big brother Simon, 6. Kari is
a physician with a private practice
downtown and Scott is a middle
school music teacher in Chaska,
Minn.
1995
Tiffany Lynn (Peterson) Garzone,
Rocky Mount, N.C., and her
husband, Steven, have adopted
their first daughter, Natalie,
from China in May 2005. Tiffany
and Steven are both chiropractors and business partners at
Rocky Mount Chiropractic.
1999
Devean George, Dallas, Tex.,
signed a two-year contract worth
$4.2 million with the Dallas
Mavericks. In his first three years
in the league, he became the seventh player in the NBA to win
three championships. He leaves
the Los Angeles Lakers to join
the Mavericks.
Victoria Sadek, New Brighton,
Minn., teaches Honors
Humanities, 20th-Century
American Literature, and
Creative Writing in the English
Department at Mounds View
High School. She also directs the
fall and spring plays and just finished a production of It’s a
Wonderful Life, presented as a
radio broadcast, complete with
sound effects. For it, marketing
students created real “commercials” for local businesses that
benefited the theatre program.
Torma-Agrimson Wedding
Jenell Torma ’00 married Erick Agrimson ’98, on May 20 at Hoversten
Chapel. Jenell is currently a training facilitator at East Suburban
Resources in Stillwater and Erick is an assistant professor in the
Department of Physics and Sonography at the College of St. Catherine
in St. Paul. The couple lives in Roseville, Minn. (Front row, L to R) Prof.
Mark Engebretson, Prof. Ken Erickson ’62, Drew Monteith ’99, Kevin
Wipf ’98, and Larye Pohlman ’98. (Middle row, L to R) Matt Klatt ’01,
Justin Walker ’98, Jenell Torma ’00, Erick Agrimson ’98, and Eric Klatt
’98. (Back row, L to R) Kaydee Kirk ’98, Jessica Rivera ’01, Rachel
Oldfather ’02, Conie Borchardt ’98, Jennifer Warner ’98, Katie Bodurtha
’99, Lois Bordurtha ’73, Lois Agrimson ’60, and Melissa Pohlman ’00.
2001
Leah Carlson, Minneapolis, has
recently moved to Chicago, Ill.,
to become operations specialist
for Dominium Inc. Because the
company has properties in 14
different states, she will be traveling most of the time.
Bonner-Pavelka Wedding
Jessica (Norman) Hafemyer,
Northfield, Minn, and her husband, Eric, welcomed a daughter, Lauren Ann, on October 15.
Lauren weighed in at 9 lb., 4 oz.
and is 22 in. long.
1996
Anna (Lalla) Johnson,
Shoreview, Minn., and her husband, Todd, welcomed a daughter, Kate Morgan, on July 28.
She joins big brother Evan, 4.
36 AUGSBURG NOW
Rachel L. Oldfather, Fargo,
N. Dak., graduated from Luther
Seminary in May with a Master
of Divinity degree and was
ordained June 10. She is now
serving at Trinity Lutheran
Church in Moorhead, Minn., as
part of the Transition into
Ministry Program. She can be
reached at: Rachel@trinitymhd.org.
Lindsay Bonner ’02 married Matthew Pavelka ’02 on August 27, 2005, at
First United Methodist Church in Dallas, Tex. Matron of honor was
Solveig (Grafstrom) Harren ’02, and best man was Jacob Pavelka. Beth
Scott and Sara Seekins ’02 were bridesmaids, and groomsmen were
Jason Pavelka and Devin Fitzsimons. Flower girl was Madison Pavelka.
Ushers were Ryan Bonner ’08, Matthew Brutsche ’00, and Andrew
Gordon ’02. Matthew is a first-year medical student at the University of
Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Tex., and Lindsay is a voice teacher
on faculty with the Galveston Island Arts Academy, and is currently performing in the East-End Theatre Company’s production of The Full
Monty.
Emily Maeder
(left) Beatrice and Benedick Deanne
McDonald ’04 played the feuding
Beatrice to Andrew Kraft’s Benedick in
Much Ado about Nothing, a production of the Traveling Players, a troupe
formed by McDonald.
(far left) Monster of Phantom Lake (L
to R) Josh Craig (as Professor Jackson)
and Deanne McDonald (as Elizabeth),
in a scene from The Monster of
Phantom Lake (2005).
Actor, director, costume designer
Deanne McDonald graduated in
2004 with a degree in theatre
arts. In the not-quite-three years
since then, she has appeared in a
surprise hit indie b-movie; started
her own acting company, starring
in its premiere production; and
directed her high school alma
mater’s theatre productions—in
between other theatre projects
and working a full-time job.
A year ago, after enjoying several
summer stints with Shakespeare
& Company, an outdoor repertory theatre in White Bear Lake,
McDonald decided to form her
own theatre company. She loved
doing Shakespeare outdoors,
where she says if feels “larger
than life,” and, along with her
sister and a group of fellow
Shakespearean actors, she put
together a company. Its name, the
Traveling Players, comes from the
description for Shakespeare’s own
actors who took their productions on the road when the theater closed to stop the spread of
the London plague.
For their premiere production
McDonald and the Traveling
Players chose Much Ado about
Nothing, which translates well for
a small cast and is quite portable.
McDonald served as producer
and costumer, and acted the role
of Beatrice. The play was performed last August and
September in Como Park, Eagan,
and Burnsville, with some of
their rehearsing done at
Augsburg in Murphy Square.
The Traveling Players’ interpretation of Much Ado about Nothing
included pop music and contemporary costumes, like camouflage
fatigues for Benedick, returning
from war. The production was
limited to an hour, with minimal
sets and an informal, intimate
outdoor setting—all trying to
more closely approximate the
experiences of Shakespeare’s own
audiences.
The turnouts were big, and even
without charging admission, the
costs for the production were
covered through donations.
McDonald’s most unexpected
recent acting success, however,
has come in a low-budget, ’50sstyle fake horror movie, The
Monster of Phantom Lake, created
by writer/director/producer
Christopher Mihm in homage to
his father’s love for the genre.
McDonald plays one of five high
school seniors enjoying a camping trip together in celebration of
their graduation. They fall victim
to a horrific, slimy monster—in
reality, a deranged war veteran
hermit who mutated into a monster from the nuclear waste that
had been dumped into the lake.
The movie was the realization of
Mihm and co-producer and star
Josh Craig’s lifelong dream to
produce a movie. With a digital
camera, at a cost of $1,500, they
brought back the experience—in
black-and-white—of movie-goers
during the 1950s who watched
an array of cheesy horror b-movies.
McDonald joined the cast after
responding to Mihm’s online
notice seeking actors for the fake
horror movie, and filming began
in the woods around the Twin
Cities. The film debuted in
March 2006.
Since then, The Monster at
Phantom Lake has been accepted
to numerous film festivals across
the country, won a number of
independent film awards, and
continues to grow a cult status
and play to sold-out audiences.
Last fall the film traveled with
care packages to Iraq and was
shown on Halloween to soldiers
at the air base.
Already Mihm has a sequel in
production, in which McDonald
has a cameo role.
McDonald’s most recent project,
as a part-time gig, was direction
of Look Homeward, Angel at
Henry Sibley High School, her
alma mater, in Mendota Heights,
Minn. On the production team
also was a fellow Auggie, set
designer Justin Johnson ’06. In
the spring, McDonald returns to
Sibley to direct The Boyfriend.
Last year McDonald’s work also
included another stage appearance in Wind in the Willows, with
New Breath Productions, a musical theatre learning collaborative.
Even with a busy theatre schedule, McDonald works full time at
TMP Directional Marketing, an
ad agency. She says the acting
experience enhances her work
there, especially in role-playing
techniques she uses for sales
training.
For information on upcoming
screenings of The Monster of
Phantom Lake featuring Deanne
McDonald, go to www.monsterofphantomlake.com.
—Betsey Norgard
WINTER 2006-07 37
CLASS NOTES
Laura Waldon and Emily
Brinkman were married on
Sept. 2 at the Inn at Castle Hill
in Ipswich, Mass. Emily graduated from Northeastern University
in Boston in August with a
Master of Science degree in
Physician Assistant Studies.
Laura is currently obtaining her
Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction writing from the
University of New Hampshire,
where she teaches First-Year
Writing and is the director of the
Online Writing Lab. The couple
lives in Salem, Mass.
Linnea Mohn, Minneapolis, and
her team, including David
Gillette and Rich Kronfeld from
the Comedy Central TV show,
Let’s Bowl, won this year’s 48Hour Film Festival. Their seven
minute short film Dangerous
Proximity was completed from
inception to delivery in 48
hours. The film can be viewed at
www.youtube.com.
Fellow Auggies in the wedding
party included Andi Slack ’07,
Becky Welle ’05, Amy Mackner
’04, Sarah Schultz ’04, Angela
Van Binsbergen ’05, Jon Fahler
’03, T.J. Bramwell ’03, Sam Gross
’03, Paul Amundson, Nick Slack
’02, and Joe Holman ’04.
2004
2003
Cherie Christ, Minneapolis, has
been promoted to director of
electronic communications at
Augsburg and is working over
the next six months on a major
study and redesign of the
Augsburg website.
Danielle Slack ’04 married John
Tieben ’03 on July 9, 2005, at
St. John Lutheran Church in
Belle Plaine, Minn., and spent
their honeymoon in Kauai,
Hawaii. Pastors Dave Wold and
Mark Johnson officiated at the
wedding.
Danielle is a third-grade teacher
in the Edina Public School
District, and John will graduate
in May from the University of
Minnesota School of Medicine.
They live in St. Louis Park, Minn.
38 AUGSBURG NOW
Kelly Chapman, Willernie,
Minn., received the Fashion
Design Award for Outstanding
Fashion Design Student. As one
of only 10 designers to participate in the Advanced Fashion
Design Program for the 2006-07
school year, her first collection
will debut at “FIDM’s Fashion
Gala” in February 2007.
Chad Darr, and his wife, Krista,
welcomed their first child, a
daughter, Addison Lynn, on
Sept. 8. Addison weighed in at 6
lb., 6 oz. and was 19 3/4 in. long.
Sara Kamholz, Maple Grove,
Minn., and her husband, Chad,
welcomed their first child,
Sophia Lyn, on Oct. 19, weighing in at 8 lb., 7 oz. and 20 1/2 in.
Katie Scheevel, Las Vegas, Nev.,
recently began teaching third
grade at Stanford Elementary
School. She can be contacted at
spicerisnicer24@yahoo.com.
2006
Justin Johnson, was set designer
for the fall play, Look Homeward
Angel, at Henry Sibley High
School in Mendota Heights,
sponsored by the Henry Sibley
Drama Club. He has recently
completed other sets, including
productions for Irondale High
School and In the Basement
Productions. He’s pictured here
with fellow Auggie Deanne
McDonald, who directed the
play. See page 37 for more on
Deanne.
2005
Katarzyna (Pruchnik) Niles,
Isanti, Minn., and her husband,
Joe, welcomed their first child,
daughter Helena Violet on July
14. She weighed in at 7 lb., 12
oz. and is 22 in. long.
Graduate Programs
Barry Vornbrock ’96 MAL, and
his husband, Ernest Lewis,
recently relocated to Palo Alto,
Calif. Barry accepted a position
with Stanford Univeristy Medical
Center as the director of IT
Systems Planning-Ambulatory
Care. Besides leading the technology efforts to implement a
new electronic health record, he
will also help Stanford Hospital
and Clinics develop a future
vision of their technology needs
as they grow their ambulatory
(walk in and walk out the same
day) services.
In Memoriam
Stella (Pederson) Eiermann
’30, Pacific Palisades, Calif., age
98, on May 31.
The Rev. Clifford M. Johnson
’34 (’30 Acad, ’39 Sem),
Bloomington, Minn., age 95, on
Oct. 12. He was a Distinguished
Alumnus and served Augsburg as
a fundraising leader, regent and
board chair, and director of
development.
Abner B. Batalden ’35,
Hanover, N.H., age 98, on Jan.
18. He traveled and worked
many years for the Lutheran
Church and Lutheran World
Relief, in social service agencies
and with refugee affairs. At
Augsburg he served as director
of alumni relations and as a
fundraiser; he was a
Distinguished Alumnus.
Wilhelm (“Bill”) Helland ’35,
Spicer, Minn., age 91, on Feb.
16.
Harold E. Mork ’38, Whittier,
Calif., on Nov. 24, 2005.
The Rev. Ormande Gordon
Tang ’41, Arden Hills, Minn.,
age 86, on July 14.
The Rev. Carl J. Carlsen ’43
(’46 Sem), Gig Harbor, Wash.,
age 85, on Sept. 3.
The Rev. Gerhard (“Giggs”)
Bretheim ’46 (’51 Sem), Edina,
Minn., age 78, on July 21 from
cancer.
Roald Nokleberg ’47, Duluth,
Minn., age 84, unexpectedly on
Oct. 12.
Mae Luhn ’50, Crossville, Tenn.,
age 82, on July 22 after a long
illness.
Aileen Okerstrom ’50,
Shoreview, Minn., age 78, on
Sept. 16.
Morris G. Jespersen ’57, Little
Canada, Minn., age 76, on Feb.
8 after a long battle with cancer.
Jack R. Norman ’59, Pennock,
Minn., ate 73, unexpectedly on
Aug. 6.
Gerald L. Peterson ’61,
Owatonna, Minn., age 66, on
Sept. 1.
SEND US YOUR NEWS AND PHOTOS
Please tell us about the news in your life, your new job, move,
marriage, and births. Don’t forget to send photos!
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an obituary,
funeral notice, or program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail to:
Augsburg Now Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55454, or e-mail to
alumni@augsburg.edu. You can also submit news to the Augsburg
Online Community at www.augsburg.edu/alumni.
Full name
Philip M. Dyrud ’64,
Newfolden, Minn., age 67, on
Sept. 18.
Maiden name
Carolyn (Hove) Dyrud ’65,
Maple Grove, Minn., age 62, on
Sept. 24, 2005, from cancer.
Street address
John A. Bruntjen ’68, Wayzata,
Minn., age 63, on Nov. 3 from
cancer.
Is this a new address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Michael Manz ’70, Spokane,
Wash., age 58, on Nov. 1 of a
heart attack.
E-mail
Mark J. Zachary ’83, Savage,
Minn., age 45, unexpectedly on
July 22.
Employer
Kathrynn Mae Powell ’01, student in the Master of Arts in
Nursing program, Rochester,
Minn., age 47, on Oct. 22 following an accident.
Work telephone
Jason B. Mulligan ’02, St. Paul,
age 28, on Aug. 18 of ALS.
Spouse’s name
Class year or last year attended
City, State, Zip
Home telephone
Okay to publish your e-mail address? ❑ Yes ❑ No
Position
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College? ❑ Yes ❑ No
If yes, class year
Maiden name
Luverne (“Vern”) Carlson,
Edina, Minn., age 86, in July.
Your news:
Robert Clyde, Crystal, Minn.,
age 79, on Jan. 9. He was associate professor and institutional
research analyst at Augsburg for
31 years until he retired in 1998.
WINTER 2006-07 39
Stu Stoller, professor of accounting, maintains active
ties with universities in Poland and the Czech
Republic, where has collaborated to develop curriculum, teach seminars, and establish a small-business
incubation center.
a national promotion board that oversaw the
“Got Milk” advertising and promotion program. His industry experience amplifies business theory in the classroom.
Professor Stu Stoller owned his own CPA
practice before going through what he calls
“a mid-life change in careers.”
Prior to joining Augsburg, Assistant
Professor Marc Isaacson worked at Innovex
Inc. in Maple Plain in various quality/engineering roles, including the launch of Flex
Suspension Assemblies into high volume
manufacturing. This took him to Asia frequently as he dealt with issues in global engineering, development, and customer service.
Nora Braun joined the department in
1997 with 20 years of information technology industry experience, most recently with
Electronic Data Systems and National Car
Rental.
Clarke was introduced to Augsburg
when Braun, a colleague, informed him of an
opening in Management Information Systems
(MIS). Clarke had worked for the EDS
26 AUGSBURG NOW
Corporation and National Car Rental System,
Inc., where he served as a software development manager, senior programmer/analyst,
and project leader. “I brought with me a corporate culture, but it was not long before it
became obvious that it was very different
here.”
All of this gives students a better idea of
what to expect in the “real” world. Ana
Chilingarishvili, a senior international relations major from the country of Georgia,
says, “Professor Zapp shared with us all kinds
of experiences she has had in her professional career which enhanced my understanding
of the concepts covered in the textbook and
showed how they can be applied to real-life
situations.”
“It’s paramount that you do what you
teach,” says Stoller. “It’s one thing to be an
academic and understand the philosophy
and the theory, but people become practitioners when they graduate from here, so
they need to understand the rules of practice.
One of the things that experience does is to
give you that practical experience… [What] I
think I give to students that they enjoy are
my stories of what is out there in the trenches of the world.”
GIVE CREDIT WHERE DUE
Cerrito credits the character of the business
department to Amin Kader, who founded it
(formerly it was combined with economics)
and served as department chair for 16 years.
“Faculty are here because of Amin’s leadership and drive. He was very successful at
establishing a culture where all members of
the department are treated with dignity and
respect.”
“When I interviewed here, Amin Kader
was the chair at the time,” recalls Stoller, who
grew up in a Jewish New York City family.
He remembers his family telling him, “‘You
mean you’re teaching in a Lutheran school,
and your boss is Egyptian?’ They said, ‘Boy,
you’re in trouble.’”
“When I got here [in 1990] and saw the
amount of diversity in the department, I
wondered if we would all work well together,” remembers associate professor Lori
Lohman, who is a self-described Midwestern
Protestant. “In a short period of time it
became apparent to me that this would be
the best place I would ever work. My coworkers are exceptional. We support each
other. We respect and value our differences.”
“For me, it would be hard to work in a
department where only one culture was represented,” says Zapp.
CREATE INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES
The business faculty have actively crossed
borders for their teaching and research—
especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
In 1991, following a trade exhibition in
Pozan, Poland, Cerrito went to Warsaw and
met the vice-mayor of the city of Lublin, who
was also a professor at Catholic University.
“He invited me to visit the campus and meet
with professors. That really started
[Augsburg’s] relationship with Catholic
University and working with Solidarity, the
free trade movement, and privatization
issues. I then brought in Amin [Kader] and
Stu [Stoller].”
Cerrito and Kader were invited by
Catholic University’s dean to develop management degree programs and work with the
university’s faculty to assist them in privatizing state industries. Cerrito and Kader were
also asked to serve as guest lecturers.
In 1996, Stoller was invited to Catholic
University to set up curriculum and to teach
a seminar for financial auditing. “My grandfather came from Poland, from Krakow, and so I
figured I could visit on the way… I knew
nothing about Poland. The only thing I knew
were the black and white newsreels from
World War II… I thought Poland was black
and white.”
Stoller later returned to Catholic
University to set up curriculum and teach sem-
inars in Audit, and Mergers and Acquisitions.
“I learned a lot about different perspectives,
different point of view. It took me out of my
comfort zone and really gave me an education,” Stoller recalls. “But I figured, this cannot
end here, so I asked my colleagues here [at
Augsburg], if they had any connections in central Eastern Europe.”
It turned out that business/MIS professor
Milo Schield’s son was teaching in the Czech
Republic. He connected Stoller with the associate director of intercultural studies at Palacky
University in Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Stoller’s offer to help resulted in his
“thumbprint” on the Czech professor’s financial project over the Internet. This led to a sabbatical, during which time Stoller created an
incubation center for small business in the
community.
Stoller then created a course for Augsburg
students, “The Czech Republic: Social and
Cultural Impact of the Emerging Free Market
Economy,” which integrated history, culture,
and economics. In January 2001, he took 17
students to the Czech Republic for the first
time.
Students met with business leaders, workers, and citizens to discuss the impact of the
privatization process and the development of
capitalist enterprises in the ex-communist
country. The course has evolved since 2001,
but Stoller continues to lead student groups
to the Czech Republic.
Stoller was later invited to set up a similar program in Prague. Stoller has taken students there in 2003 and 2005 and will return
this year.
“Nothing can change you in three weeks
as fast as an experiential education,” Stoller
asserts. “Four years of college don’t change
you as much as three weeks in Prague.”
MAKE WIDER CONNECTIONS
In the mid-’90s, a connection with Russia
was established when Cerrito joined with
political science professor Norma Noonan to
present lectures at and facilitate an exchange
of professors with the State Academy of
Management in Moscow.
In May 2004, President William Frame
and Zapp visited the University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia, to rekindle an exchange program
with Augsburg. Several other business faculty,
including Clarke and Kader, have also visited
Slovenia. The department has hosted four
professors and the country’s prime minister,
Dr. Janez Drnovsek.
On that same trip, Frame and Zapp also
visited Krakow University of Economics,
Zapp’s alma mater. A year later, an exchange
agreement was signed between Augsburg and
Krakow University.
Last summer, through another faculty
connection, Stoller and associate professor
Kathy Schwalbe taught a course in Karlsruhe,
Germany, including four Augsburg students
and 14 students from the Berufsakademie.
More recently, Stoller has developed curriculum, discussed business cooperations, and
has given lectures in Shanghai, China. An
exchange of business programs is being considered as part of ongoing College discussions.
IN SUM
Stoller says his colleagues “tell about their
lives, they bring in their food—it’s wonderful. They talk about their experiences … you
can call up somebody like my friend Ashok
and talk about Indian culture, or Muslim culture, or whatever. It just adds a breath and
depth and experience to the department. We
all work with each other on a professional
basis and rejoice in each other’s differences.”
“It’s outstanding that we have this diversity,” says Kramarczuk. “We’re all God’s children. I’ve seen people die because of their
nationality. When I came into New Orleans
in the early ’50s, I couldn’t understand when
I would get on a bus, why an older black
woman would have to get up and give me
her seat.”
In the words of Lohman, “My colleagues
have expanded my world. It’s been fabulous.”
“We bring to the class very different
worlds,” says Zapp of her colleagues. “We
represent different cultures, different countries, different religious beliefs… The benefits
are immeasurable.” Ⅵ
The Department of Business Administration has
24 full-time faculty, more than 35 part-time faculty, teaching over 700 undergraduate and 300
graduate students.
MBA director Bob Kramarczuk, whose family immigrated to the U.S. after fleeing Ukraine, has enjoyed a career as
an international consultant and is an academician in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
WINTER 2006-07 27
VIEWS
Icons of an Inauguration
THE SCHOLARLY SYMBOLS
College seals are common inauguration
icons and appear on the many official
congratulations and certificates
President Pribbenow received from his
colleagues across the country. Nearly
50 of these colleagues attended the
inauguration.
THE BOW TIE STYLE
Paul Pribbenow adopted the bow tie on a daily
A giant red bow tie anchored the “President Bush”
Bow ties, again, on the buttons that Student Senate
basis after learning to tie many of them for black
outside of Christensen Center, designed by a team of
distributed across campus during inauguration week.
tie events in his work at the Art Institute of
students led by junior Ben Katz.
Chicago. He believes he currently has more than 50
bow ties in his wardrobe.
THE STUFF
From printed programs to food and coffee, lots of visuals recall this festive
week. The Event Services Office reports that approximately 800 Augsburg
“A” cookies were served at the inauguration reception.
40 AUGSBURG NOW
CALENDAR
For music information, call 612-330-1265
For theatre ticket information, call 612-330-1257
For art gallery information, call 612-330-1524
Note: The Gage Family Art Gallery will close in Lindell Library on Feb. 16. A new
Gage Family Art Gallery will open in the Oren Gateway Center in August.
March 7
faith@work! breakfast series
FEBRUARY
Tim Geoffrion, executive director,
Family Hope/TreeHouse
7 a.m.—St. Philip the Deacon
Lutheran Church, Plymouth, Minn.
www. spdlc.org
Through February 16
“In the Secret Place,”
by Arlene Burke-Morgan
Gage Family Art Gallery,
Lindell Library
Artist talk, Feb. 8, noon,
Minneapolis Room, Christensen
Center
Through February 16
Photographs by Aviel Goodman
Christensen Center Art Gallery
February 2–11
Twelfth Night, by William
Shakespeare
Guest directed by Barbra Berlovitz
Feb. 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10 at 7 p.m.
Feb. 4 and 11 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
February 8
Theatre Artist Series
March 13–16
Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls, by
Naomi Iizuka
February 26-27
Visiting Artists from Japan
Guest directed by Steve Bussa
7 p.m.—Foss Studio Theater
Bidou Yamaguchi (Master Noh Mask
Carver) and Ayomi Yoshida
(Designer, Printmaker, Installation
Artist)
March 25
Augsburg Choir home concert
Feb. 26, Bidou Yamaguchi carving
demonstration
9:10–10:10 a.m., with guest
Matthew Welch, curator of Asian art,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
11 a.m.–noon, with Martha Johnson,
professor of theatre arts
Marshall Room, Christensen Center
“Technical Direction at the Guthrie
Theater,” Craig Pettigrew, technical
director, Guthrie Theater
1:30–3 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
Feb. 27, Ayomi Yoshida presentation
9:40-10:40 a.m.
Marshall Room, Christensen Center
February 9
Theatre Artist Series
MARCH
“South Indian Dance:
Bharatanatyam,” Ranee Ramaswamy,
artistic director, Ragamala Music
and Dance Theater
11 a.m.–noon—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
February 21
Reading by ACTC visiting writers
Ingrid Wendt and Ralph Salisbury
7:30 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
March 2
2007 Batalden
Seminar in Applied
Ethics and 25th
anniversary of the
Center for Global
Education
Jorge Bustamante,
president and
founder of El Colegio de la
Frontera Norte
10 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
612-330-1180
March 6
Theatre Artist Series
“Stage Movement Using Viewpoints
as Developed by Anne Dogart,”
Randy Reyes, actor/director
9:40–11:10 a.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
February 23–March 30
“Listen: A Pilgrimage in Watercolor
and Ink,” by Tara Sweeney
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Opening reception, Feb. 23,
5:30–7:30 p.m.
Artist talk, March 9, 4 p.m.
March 6
Theatre Artist Series
“The Scenic Artist,” Mary
Novodvorsky, scenic artist
1:30–3 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
March 28
Theatre Artist Series
“Issues of Race and Ethnicity in
Asian American Theatre,” Josephine
Lee, director, Asian American
Studies Program, University of
Minnesota
11 a.m.–noon—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
April 9-May 6
All-Student Juried Art Exhibition
All-Student Juried Art Exhibition
Award Winners
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Opening reception, April 13, 5-7 p.m.
Awards presentation, April 13,
5:30 p.m.
April 11
Theatre Artist Series
“A History of Mu Performing Arts in
Regard to Contemporary American
Theatre,” Rick Shiomi, artistic director, Mu Performing Arts
11 a.m.–noon—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
March 29
Theatre Artist Series
April 12
Theatre Artist Series
Bain Boelke, Jungle Theatre
11:50 a.m.–1:20 p.m.—TjornhomNelson Theater
“Creating Original Work,” Shawn
McConnologue, artistic director of
Shawn McConnologue and her
Orchestra
11:50 a.m.–1:20 p.m.—TjornhomNelson Theater
APRIL
April 1
Masterworks Chorale concert
4 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
April 3
Theatre Artist Series
“The Production Notebook:
Directing Pericles from Start to
Finish,” Joel Sass, freelance director/designer
9:40–11:10 a.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson
Theater
April 13-22
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt
Brecht; music by Kurt Weill
Faculty directed by Darcey Engen
Music direction by Sonja Thompson
April 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21 at
7 p.m.
April 15 and 22 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
April 15
Augsburg Orchestra concert
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
April 4
faith@work breakfast series
April 16
Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Lecture
“Grace at Work” panel
7 a.m.—St. Philip the Deacon
Lutheran Church
www.spdlc.org
“The Exploration of Planetary
Systems,” Fran Bagenal, professor of
astrophysical and planetary sciences,
Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics, University of
Colorado
8 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
612-330-1180
WINTER 2006-07
Advent Vespers 2006
The 27th Advent Vespers filled
the majestic Central Lutheran
Church for four services of
music and liturgy to begin the
Advent season. For the first
time this year, Central
Lutheran’s new carillon bells
were an added dimension to
the music of the three
Augsburg choirs and Vespers
Orchestra.
— Stephen Geffre, photographer
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Minneapolis, MN
Permit No. 2031
Show less
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Augsburg
Now
FRESH FOOD FOR CITY FOLKS
A BETTER POLICE LINEUP
HANDS-ON HEALING
A PUBLICATION FOR
AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
FALL 2006
VOL. 69, NO. 1
Welcome to
the Pribbenows
page 12
P. 30
P. 18
P. 24
6121_Augs... Show more
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
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Page 1
Augsburg
Now
FRESH FOOD FOR CITY FOLKS
A BETTER POLICE LINEUP
HANDS-ON HEALING
A PUBLICATION FOR
AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
FALL 2006
VOL. 69, NO. 1
Welcome to
the Pribbenows
page 12
P. 30
P. 18
P. 24
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Editor
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
Staff Writer
Bethany Bierman
bierman@augsburg.edu
Letter
from the President
W
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
hat we have loved,
others will love, and we will
teach them how.”
William Wordsworth’s remarkable words from “The Prelude” offer me
the simplest way to introduce myself to the Augsburg community. I am
an educator and college president because I have been blessed in my
life with passionate teachers who have taught me to love great ideas,
imaginative skills, faithful acts, and vibrant communities. I teach and
lead so that others also might love what I have learned to love.
A wise alumna of Rockford College—from which I have arrived to
take up my new post here at Augsburg—asked me during the interview process there in 2001 what I was reading and why. What a great
question and what an intriguing way to know someone.
Allow me therefore to offer a few texts that are always near at hand
for me, and that offer you a glimpse into the issues and ideas that
inspire my work.
The Bible is the source of my worldview. It teaches me of faithful
and abundant lives, of generous love surpassing all understanding,
and of a gracious story that still unfolds around all of us in our lives
in this world and beyond.
The Constitution of the United States sits on my desk as a reminder
of the truths and aspirations of our democracy. In those truths is the
stuff of patriotism, properly understood.
Michael Ignatieff’s The Needs of Strangers is an elegant essay that
draws together some of the best of human thought to help all of us
better understand what it means to care for each other.
Jane Addams’ Twenty Years at Hull-House is the story of a life led
in a neighborhood, serving others and strengthening democracy.
Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak is my roadmap to vocational
journeys.
And Wendell Berry’s What Are People For? challenges us to remember the proper scale of human work and life—and to fight for sustainability in the world bent on destroying itself.
Shall we read together? Shall we find the time to talk together
about great ideas and actions? Shall we work together to make the
world a more faithful, just, and humane place for all God’s people?
I believe that is what Augsburg stands for and I could not be more
pleased—or have a deeper sense of gratitude—for the privilege to
lead this remarkable college.
I look forward to our work together on behalf of Augsburg College.
Yours,
Paul C. Pribbenow, president
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
petree@augsburg.edu
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Director of Marketing and
Communications
Christopher Moquist
moquist@augsburg.edu
Director of Alumni Relations
Heidi Breen
breen@augsburg.edu
www.augsburg.edu
On the cover:
On July 1, the Augsburg community welcomed Augsburg’s
11th first family—Paul and
Abigail Pribbenow, and their
children, Thomas and Maya.
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave.,
Minneapolis, Minn., 55454.
Opinions expressed in Augsburg
Now do not necessarily reflect
official College policy.
ISSN 1058-1545
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services
Augsburg College, CB 142
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
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18
Fall 2006
Contents
Features
Departments
12 Experience grounded in
2
Around the Quad
mission and vision: Paul
4 Sports
Pribbenow’s call to Augsburg
10 Supporting Augsburg—
by Bethany Bierman
Access to Excellence:
The Campaign for
18 Country Fresh Urban
Augsburg College
Renewal by Tim Dougherty
32 Alumni News
22 Making art and history in
France by Tara Sweeney
34 Class Notes
24 Making their mark in the
40 Views
lineup by Betsey Norgard
and
Calendar
28 Photographer’s pick—
some of the year’s favorites
by Stephen Geffre
22
30 A hands-on approach to
better health by Betsey Norgard
28
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AROUND THE QUAD
NEWSNOTES
Also elected as board officers
are: Dean Kopperud, vice chair;
Dan Anderson ’65, treasurer; and
Jackie Cherryhomes ’76, secretary.
In addition, Pribbenow has
announced the formation of a
Branding Committee, which will
work with materials as they are
developed to strengthen the
College’s position and image.
Promotion to professor
Andrew Aoki,
political
science
Vicki Olson,
education
The president’s
leadership teams
Congratulations, faculty!
Ted Grindal is elected
board chair
At its spring meeting on May 5,
the Augsburg Board of Regents
elected H. Theodore Grindal ’76
the new chair for a six-year term.
“My goal is to help the board
keep true to our vision and mission,” said Grindal, which
includes supporting the president and serving as ambassadors
to the community on behalf of
Augsburg. “If we do these things,
the College will continue to
move forward positively.”
President Paul Pribbenow has
formed two teams to help him
lead the College:
The President’s Cabinet will
be the primary administrative
decision-making body for the
College and includes the two special assistants, five vice presidents,
and chief information officer. (see
photo on p. 14)
The President’s Advisory
Group comprises a representative
group of Augsburg College faculty, staff, and students whose primary role is to convene regularly
on a one-year appointment to
advise the president on key institutional issues, to receive reports
on institution-wide projects and
initiatives, and to engage in an
ongoing conversation about
future opportunities and challenges related to institutional
planning and activity.
Editor’s note
After its first six years, Augsburg Now has received a makeover—
not extreme, but aiming to read more easily, look fresher, and
appear more contemporary with Augsburg’s other communications.
We’ve listened to your comments and hope that you enjoy the
new format for Around the Quad campus news and the Alumni
News/Class Notes. Our features aim to engage you in their remarkable stories and vibrant photography.
Please … write to us with your thoughts. Does Augsburg Now
read well? What changes or improvement should we still consider?
We’d love to hear from you.
2 AUGSBURG NOW
Tenure granted
Matthew
Haines,
mathematics
Augsburg advances in
college ranking
Mark Strefeler,
biology
Tenure granted and promotion
to associate professor
Beth
Alexander,
physician
assistant
studies
Eric
Buffalohead,
sociology and
American
Indian studies
Lars
Christiansen,
sociology
Nancy
Rodenborg,
social work
In U.S.News & World Report’s
2007 listings of America’s Best
Colleges, Augsburg is ranked
23rd in the category of “Master’s
Universities—Top Midwestern,”
an improvement of three places
from last year. For the full listings, go to www.usnews.com.
Augsburg is also named an
“Academic Program to Watch
For” in two categories—ServiceLearning and First-Year
Experience—and is the only
Minnesota private college in
either group.
Hoping for “I do” on
the Today show
WEC student Josh Linde and his
fiancé, Carrie Hortsch, are
among the seven finalists for a
wedding with all the trimmings,
courtesy of NBC’s Today. As they
tackle weekly competitions, their
fate is determined by viewer
votes, with one couple eliminated each week up to Sept. 20,
when the winner is announced.
Go to
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/130830
94/.
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Three learn
foodservice skills
In its third summer Culinary Job
Training program for the unemployed or underemployed, the
Campus Kitchen at Augsburg
College graduated three people
with newly-earned skills for the
foodservice industry. This year’s
eight-week program focused on
local food production in partnership with Ploughshare Farm (see
the story on p. 18).
Jessica Gaulke is
Aquatennial queen
On July 21, sociology major Jessica
Gaulke was crowned the 2007
Aquatennial Queen of the Lakes.
As ambassador, she will travel
throughout the region representing
the City of Minneapolis and receive
an educational scholarship.
RECENT GRANTS
$9,000 from the C. Charles
Jackson Foundation for a oneyear project to analyze and
develop leadership activities in
the co-curricular program.
$2,000 matching grant from the
Consulate General of Canada in
Minneapolis to purchase library
materials to support Canadian
Studies on campus.
$238,080 renewal of two-year
grant for Academic Fellows from
the U.S. Department of
Education to support summer
research of students who are
first-generation or low-income
college students working with
faculty mentors in preparation
for post-baccalaureate education.
10:57 AM
Page 5
$538,300 in grants from
National Science Foundation to
the Department of Physics to
support the collection of data
and study of Earth’s magnetosphere, or “space weather.”
$26,514 from the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) to support the research of two physics
students who will carry out data
validation and scientific analysis
of magnetometer data from
NASA’s recently launched ST5
satellites.
$198,000 federal appropriation to
the StepUP Program to refine academic support services, to hire a
chemical dependency counselor
for student caseload relief, to
complete an outside program
evaluation, to develop standards
of practice, and a mentorship
program, and to write a history of
the program in book form.
Kids creating art on Riverside Avenue
Augsburg art faculty member Robert K. Tom, students from the Cedar Riverside Community School,
and volunteers from the Augsburg community have begun work on a project that will turn dour concrete walls at Augsburg’s 21st Avenue entrance into a ceramic bas-relief mural.
The mural is an outgrowth of the Cedar Riverside–Augsburg Pottery Cooperative, an ongoing partnership that Tom began with the Cedar Riverside Community School. Each week fifth- through
eighth-grade students from the largely Somali, Asian, and Hispanic neighborhood participate in
hands-on pottery and art workshops.
Starting in the fall, Augsburg volunteers and the students will create clay press moulds to be replicated over and over—moulds of icons and symbols that Tom says “represent their thoughts, values,
concerns, and/or inner beliefs.” They will be fired and placed in a radiant mandala pattern along the
220 square foot walls. In July, students in the CREATION summer arts program, sponsored by Trinity
Lutheran Congregation, enjoyed a four-day head start on the project.
This project recently won Tom a seed grant from Forecast Public Art, a Twin Cities-based organization
nationally recognized as a public
art resource, to carry out the
project through November. Tom
is currently seeking additional
funds for further continuation.
Tom said that he found regular
walks in the Cedar-Riverside
neighborhood to be the impetus
for a project to chisel away at the
“invisible barrier between the
Augsburg campus and the community of Cedar Avenue.” To
him it seemed that despite the
lively energy of the dense multiethnic neighborhood, “there
were two worlds existing sideby-side with little interaction.”
— Darcy Trunzo ’06
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AROUND THE QUAD
SPORTS
Campus mourns
longtime English
professor
Seven students receive
athletic honors
John Mitchell, who taught English
at Augsburg for 36 years, died on
Aug. 17 at the age of 66. A memorial service was held for him on
Sept. 8 in Hoversten Chapel.
Mitchell taught courses in
poetry, writing, and film.
Repeatedly, former students
remark that John Mitchell’s classes were among the most difficult
and the most memorable they
took. They describe his teaching
as challenging, engaging, enraging, inspiring, and influential. He
always found time for students
and took great effort to correct
and edit their papers.
His passion for film led to a
two-year sabbatical to study film
at San Francisco State University.
English department colleague
Robert Cowgill remembers that
when the Oak Street Cinema
opened, Mitchell often attracted
groups of people around him
after the shows who stood and
listened to hear his thoughts
about the films. On campus,
Mitchell was often seen with
clusters of students and colleagues, enjoying a conversation.
In 1996, Mitchell was devastated by the death of John
Engman, an Augsburg student
whom Mitchell had met in 1968,
during his first year of teaching
at the College. Following
Engman’s premature death,
Mitchell became the executor of
his literary estate and worked to
find a publisher for a manuscript
Engman left. This poetry collection, Temporary Help, was published by Holy Cow! Press and
was nominated for a Minnesota
Book Award in 1998.
4 AUGSBURG NOW
Augsburg College has awarded
seven seniors with its athletic
awards for accomplishment,
leadership, and character on the
playing field and in the classroom. Athletic awards are voted
on by coaches in Augsburg’s
men’s and women’s athletic
departments.
Augsburg mourns the death of English professor John Mitchell, who died in August.
Mitchell was born in Decatur,
Ala., and earned degrees from
Maryville College and the
University of Tennessee. He
met his wife, Jean, while they
both served in the Peace Corps
in Liberia.
For a number of years,
Mitchell was faculty adviser to
Murphy Square, Augsburg’s literary arts journal. Last year, in the
foreword to its 30th anniversary
edition, he wrote, “I get more
pleasure from being published in
Murphy Square than from a
nationally distributed magazine.
Why? Well, more people are
likely to read my work, people I
know and care about, and readers who will be more able to
construe it in terms of my
known local identity. To put it in
literary jargon, I have the chance
to be a public poet rather than
merely a private one.”
— Betsey Norgard
2005–06 Augsburg Honor
Athletes
Mitchell was also a frequent
contributor to Murphy Square.
This poem appears in the 1998
edition:
The Sound of Two Pie Pans
The brief little period when you
Are alive is more than enough
To make up for all the years
When you were giving yourself
Advice. How wonderful to
perspire,
To examine the back side of a
leaf,
To admire the angel worms
Gorged on their silk. You could
Walk for days sucking an orange.
You could write letters home
Without stopping to compose
Your face. Living is like banging
Two pie pans together at midnight
For the brief silence that precedes
The noise. No, living is not
anything
You can say. It’s an attitude
Of swanky delight, and the
absence
Of attitude, simple sleep at night.
Darren Ginther—Ginther, a
baseball third baseman and pitcher became one of the top hitters
in the region, earning All-MIAC
and All-Midwest Region honors
as well as ESPN The Magazine
academic honors. He was an economics and education studies
major and Dean’s List honoree.
Millie Suk—Suk was the only
women’s soccer player in MIAC
to earn All-MIAC first-team honors in all four years, and she set
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Augsburg career records for total
points and goals. A political science major, she graduated magna
cum laude.
tournament, earning his second
straight fourth-place national finish to earn All-American honors
for the second time.
Seven named to Athletic
Hall of Fame
Ryan Valek—A three-time AllAmerican wrestler, Valek was an
individual national runner-up
twice at 165 pounds. He earned
ESPN The Magazine academic
honors and National Wrestling
Coaches Association Division III
Scholar All-America honors.
Troy Deden—Deden transferred
to Augsburg from St. Mary’s and,
as a catcher, helped lead the
Auggie baseball team to the
MIAC playoffs in 2005. He also
played two years of football as a
quarterback and defensive back,
and was a special education
major at Augsburg.
Named to the 2006 class of the
Athletic Hall of Fame:
2005–06 Augsburg Athletes of
the Year
Tonnisha Bell—Bell became one
of the most decorated track and
field athletes in school history. A
sprinter, she finished her career
with five All-American honors
and qualified for every indoor
and outdoor NCAA championship meet during her Auggie
career—eight in total. Bell won
11 conference championships
and earned numerous conference
honors while setting six individual and two relay school records.
Seven alumni will be inducted
into the Augsburg Athletic Hall
of Fame during Homecoming
week at a dinner on Thurs.,
Sept. 28, in Christensen Center.
For information, contact the athletic office at 612-330-1249 or
bjorklus@augsburg.edu.
Chike Ochiagha—Ochiagha was
a defensive tackle on Augsburg’s
football team, earning conference
and Football Gazette honors. A
business and marketing major,
he earned Academic All-MIAC
honors, as well as football academic club honors twice.
Brad Tupa—An upper-weight
wrestler, Tupa battled injuries
during his career. He recovered
in his senior season to qualify for
the NCAA Division III national
Tom Hall ’85—Hall earned AllAmerica honors in wrestling four
times, including twice in the
1983 season in two different
national meets. In NCAA competition, he placed seventh in
1983, sixth in 1984, and fifth in
1985 at 142 pounds.
Steve Nelson ’78—Nelson
earned All-MIAC and NCAA AllAmerican honors as a leader and
center of the 1977-78 Augsburg
men’s hockey squad that captured
the NAIA national title—the
school’s first team national title.
John Nelson ’86—A two-time AllMIAC pitcher in baseball, Nelson
set an NCAA Division III singleseason record, which still stands,
with 15 complete games in 1986,
as the Auggies reached the NCAA
Division III Midwest Regional.
Wayne “Mick” Scholl ’86—
Scholl earned All-MIAC honors
in baseball in 1984 and 1986.
Peggy Meissner ’80—An
Augsburg Honor Athlete in
1980, Meissner competed in
both volleyball and softball, and
was part of an Auggie volleyball
squad that finished second at the
MAIAW state tournament in
1979, finishing 27-15-3.
— Don Stoner
Julie Stepan Flaskamp ’92—A
track and field athlete, Stepan
Flaskamp qualified for the NCAA
Division III national championships twice in the heptathlon,
earning All-American honors in
1992 with an eighth-place finish.
She earned Academic All-MIAC
honors and was named an
Augsburg Honor Athlete in 1992.
Kristi Ockuly ’95—Ockuly, an
outfielder and pitcher, earned
All-MIAC and All-Region honors
three times each in softball and
was named a Division III AllAmerican in 1995. She was an
Augsburg Honor Athlete in 1995.
For complete schedules, scores,
and information about Augsburg
athletics, go to
www.augsburg.edu/athletics.
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AROUND THE QUAD
Ages of Imagination
Augsburg College celebrates a new season
of leadership
October 18–21, 2006
Over four days in October, Augsburg College will celebrate the new leadership of President Paul
Pribbenow, as he is inaugurated into office around the themes of AGES—abundance, generosity,
engagement, and service.
Each day will focus on one of these themes in a variety of activities and events that involve the entire
Augsburg community on campus, in our neighborhood and city, and around the world.
The Inauguration Ceremony, open to the public, will take place on Fri., Oct. 20, at 2 p.m. in Melby
Hall, followed by a community celebration.
For major events, see the calendar on the inside back cover. For further information and the complete
calendar of events, go to www.augsburg.edu/inauguration.
Lutheran college choirs
celebrate F. Melius
Christiansen
The Augsburg Choir and four
other Minnesota Lutheran college
choirs will perform together in
two concerts on Sunday, Nov. 19,
to celebrate the living legacy of F.
Melius Christiansen, the “father”
of American a cappella singing.
Christiansen’s birth 135 years
ago will be commemorated by
Augsburg, Concordia-Moorhead,
Concordia University-St. Paul,
Gustavus Adolphus, and St. Olaf
in the first joint appearance by
these five ensembles representing
the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) and the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
(LCMS). Each choir will perform
individually with their own conductor and as a combined choir
under the direction of guest conductor Kenneth Jennings, professor emeritus and former director
of the St. Olaf Choir.
Two identical anniversary concerts will be performed at
Slovakian baseball, Auggie style
For the seventh year, StepUP program director Patrice Salmeri coached in a baseball camp for youth in
Slovakia. Here, Jano and Lucia sport Auggie baseball t-shirts sent from the baseball team.
6 AUGSBURG NOW
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F. Melius Christiansen
Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on
Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The concerts are sponsored by
the F. Melius Christiansen Star of
the North Festival Concert Series
affiliated with the American
Choral Directors Association
(ACDA) of Minnesota, and will
highlight the organization’s twoday annual fall convention program and benefit the F. Melius
Christiansen Endowed
Scholarship Fund that supports
continuing education and graduate studies of young and aspiring
choral directors in Minnesota.
Music to be performed at the
concerts will feature works of
F. Melius Christiansen, including
choral favorites of thousands of
choral concertgoers, such as
Beautiful Savior, Wake Awake,
O Day Full of Grace, Psalm 50,
Praise to the Lord The Almighty,
and Lost In The Night,
among others.
Born in Norway in 1871,
Christiansen came to the United
States at age 17. In 1892, he
attended a concert by the
Augsburg Quartet in Wisconsin
and was attracted to Augsburg
College, where he became a
quartet member.
In 1903 he accepted an appointment as director of the St. Olaf
College music program. He founded the St. Olaf Choir in 1911 and
directed it until 1941, becoming
internationally known for his
Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006
2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, Minn.
Featuring the choirs of
Augsburg College
Concordia College–Moorhead
Concordia University–St. Paul
Gustavus Adolphus College
St. Olaf College
Ticket sales available May 1, 2006
Orchestra Hall Ticket Office: 612-371-5656
1871–1955
Proudly sponsored by the F. Melius Christiansen Endowment Committee
and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) of Minnesota
135th Anniversary Festival Concerts
development of perfect intonation,
blend, diction, and phrasing. He
was succeeded by his son Olaf;
another son, Paul, taught for nearly 50 years at Concordia CollegeMoorhead. F. Melius Christiansen
died in 1955.
Welcome, GEMS and GISE
About 100 girls and—for the first time—35 boys from Minneapolis Public Schools in grades 4–12 spent
several weeks on campus studying monarch butterflies, building the Mars terrain, programming robots,
and learning the chemistry of cosmetics. The GEMS (Girls in Engineering, Mathematics, and Science) and
new GISE (Guys in Science and Engineering) programs involve Augsburg students and former GEMS students as mentors.
For additional concert information go to www.fmcendowment.org. All seats are reserved;
tickets are available through the
Orchestra Hall box office (1-800292-4141 or 612-371-5656).
The Frame years in print
Published by Lutheran
University Press, with a preface
by ELCA presiding bishop
Mark Hanson ’68
$24.95
Available at the Augsburg
College Bookstore
612-330-1521
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AROUND THE QUAD
Dan Jorgensen retires to teaching—for now
Retirement for Dan Jorgensen, Augsburg’s public relations director
since 2000 and special assistant to President Frame for the past year,
is all relative. During this fall semester, he’ll still be commuting from
Northfield, but to a classroom instead of an office.
He has taught a journalism course in Weekend College for the past
five years, and in September he’ll teach it both in the day and weekend
programs—plus, teach a public relations course in both programs.
Much of Jorgensen’s tenure as public relations director focused on
raising the visibility of Augsburg in both the local and national media.
“I feel like we became more of a ‘player’ in terms of which institutions should be contacted when media sources were searching for
across-the-board responses to different educational questions,”
Jorgensen says. He recalls an editor of the Chronicle of Higher
Education telling him that Augsburg and President Frame were the
first who came to mind from small liberal arts colleges when planning a national forum on college presidencies.
Jorgensen also enjoyed seeing more faculty included as key
resources in the media—faculty who “took on a willingness to be
called upon,” he says. “That sort of cooperative spirit exemplifies the
overall ‘can do’ spirit of the institution. I loved that.”
For his retirement outside of teaching, he has several writing projects waiting, especially a novel about the Black Hills of South Dakota.
He and his wife, Susan, have first-hand experience living there and
have been collecting information for many years. He has also been
asked by his publisher for additional youth sports novels.
8 AUGSBURG NOW
Herald Johnson—Augsburg’s first financial
aid officer—retires after 37 years
When he came as a freshman in 1961, Herald Johnson ’68 probably
had no clue he would still be at Augsburg in 2006.
He stayed on to become an admissions counselor, but moved into
financial aid when new federal programs required administrative
oversight. In the 37 years since, he has served as a pioneer, leader,
and mentor among Minnesota financial aid officers.
One of Johnson’s legacies at Augsburg is the Enrollment Center. He
and Julie Olson, vice president for enrollment management, played
important roles in the concept development and implementation of
bringing several financial aid and enrollment offices together in a
one-stop shop for students.
He is the only person to have been twice elected president of the
Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrators (MAFAA). He
is proud of the Futures Task Force he created with his charge to past
presidents: “I want you to look at our association with critical eyes
and see if we’re poised for what you see coming down the road.”
His retirement plans include a fair amount of work, but his four
children and seven grandchildren are top priority. “The kids are my
friends,” Johnson says—“it’s really cool.” Their gift to him is a trip to
Norway to meet relatives and explore his heritage—a longtime dream.
He’ll continue as a consultant at Augsburg with the Scholastic
Connections program, the Scholarship Brunch, and with government
relations concerning financial aid issues in 2007.
He mentions that among his pleasures at Augsburg was hiring student workers and following their careers as they assume leadership
positions both at Augsburg and around the state.
At the end of his notice of thanks following a retirement celebration, Johnson wrote, “As we Norwegians say, ‘Mange tusen tak.’”
— Betsey Norgard
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American Indian Studies—
a cultural commitment
Augsburg’s newest department
makes a bold statement for the
College—about commitment,
about culture, and about heritage.
After being offered as a minor and
major for a number of years, the
faculty approved the creation of
an American Indian Studies
Department, headed by Associate
Professor Eric Buffalohead.
The new department models
Augsburg’s mission to serve diverse
populations, says Buffalohead, and
it signals to students, parents, and
the community that it’s permanent
and a great choice for a major—
and not just a selection of courses
that may change.
The number of students in the
program has been growing, and
they are beginning to shift from
Native to non-Native students.
American Indian Studies is a valuable major, second major, or minor
for students who are preparing for
work with human services—in
business, health care, education,
youth and family ministry, etc.
“AIS courses and skills are
transferable,” Buffalohead says,
“to law, politics, service—it’s
about cultural understanding.”
Since the program is small,
students often take several courses
with the same professor. For
native students, the program also
serves as a safety net where they
can relate to faculty and staff.
The department works closely
with Augsburg’s American Indian
Student Services program.
This multidisciplinary department includes courses in history,
literature, religion, film, women’s
studies, and special topics. The
faculty seek opportunities to
build in experiential opportunities, such as learning in the community, internships, and study
abroad. Next winter, Assistant
Professor Elise Marubbio will
M. Elise Marubbio and Eric Buffalohead are
two of the faculty in Augsburg’s new
American Indian Studies Department.
lead a travel program to
Guatemala, focusing on indigenous issues of the Mayan people.
Film has become a focus in the
AIS program. For three years, the
College has sponsored the
Augsburg Native American Film
Series, which screens documentary films, often with the filmmaker present to lead discussion.
It also provides a venue for selections from other film festivals,
and links to Augsburg’s
Indigenous Filmmakers course.
Buffalohead says that
Augsburg’s American Indian
Studies Department seeks to
excel as a regional center for the
study of Indians in the Upper
Midwest. Students can study one
year of Ojibwe language on campus, with the possibility of a second year of study.
Buffalohead’s experience in
American Indian Studies dates
back to age five, when his father
became the first chair of the
American Indian Studies
Department at the University of
Minnesota, and Eric would visit
his office. After earning academic
degrees in anthropology, he also
taught at the university, which he
considers to have been good
training for Augsburg’s new
department.
For information on American
Indian Studies, contact Eric
Buffalohead at
buffaloe@augsburg.edu or go to
www.augsburg.edu/ais.
— Betsey Norgard
Killing the Indian Maiden:
Images of Native American Women in Film
by M. Elise Marubbio
Native American women have been
characterized as various figures in
film for over 100 years. None,
however, has intrigued Elise
Marubbio more than the young
Native woman who falls in love or
is connected with a white hero and
dies for this choice.
Marubbio’s book, Killing the
Indian Maiden: Images of Native
American Women in Film, will be
published in December by the
University Press of Kentucky. The
book analyzes 34 A-list Hollywood
films, from the silent era to the present, to analyze the depictions of
women and the themes and myths that are played out.
The book stems from her dissertation and unites her various areas
of interest—she has degrees in fine arts/photography, American
Indian Studies, and cultural studies. It is the first in-depth study in
this area and is important for film studies, women’s studies, cultural
studies, and American Indian studies.
Marubbio researched film archives at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the
Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, and
the Cecil B. DeMille Archives at Brigham Young University. A dissertation fellowship from the American Association of University
Women gave her time to write.
What she found, she says, is that “over a 90-year period this figure
emerged in premier films in various forms as either the Princess or
Sexualized Maiden, figures through whose body national themes of
colonialism, violence toward women of color, and feats of interracial
mixing are played out.
“All the films reinforce American myths of the frontier, Manifest
Destiny, and the ideal of Anglo-European America’s pre-modernization innocence through this image,” Marubbio says.
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AROUND THE QUAD
Renewing Old Main—
heritage of place,
spirit of space
SUPPORTING
AUGSBURG
Over the top at
$55 million
A 500-ton crane has begun to set the precast concrete walls on the poured footings for
On June 27, a celebration was
held in Christensen Center as
the star was moved across the
$55 million figure and the goal
was reached in Access to
Excellence: The Campaign for
Augsburg College.
“We are here to celebrate
achievements in the capital campaign that started six years ago
with a $55 million goal,” said
Tracy Elftmann, vice president
for institutional advancement.
She reported an exact total of
$55,009,761 received to date.
Retiring president William
Frame commented that this
could not have been achieved
without everyone’s participation.
He described vocation as “living
so that you create community,”
and this accomplishment could
not have happened unless
Augsburg is becoming “something called ‘community.’”
President Paul Pribbenow
wrote in a memo to the
Augsburg community in July, “As
called for in our original campaign plan, we are continuing to
raise funds for all Access to
Excellence campaign projects
(Kennedy, Gateway, and science
facilities, along with our endowment) through the end of the
2006 calendar year. And we are
preparing to celebrate this
10 AUGSBURG NOW
the new Oren Gateway Center. The completion date is set for fall 2007. Watch the
progress on the webcam at www.augsburg.edu/campaign/gateway/construction.html.
Construction is moving quickly on the Kennedy Sports and Recreation Complex in Melby
Hall. The structure is up, new bleachers have been installed, and anticipated completion is
January 2007.
remarkable achievement during
the upcoming academic year.”
He further explained that
although the total goal was reached,
funding for the science building
was not completed, in part due to
dramatically higher construction
and transportation costs.
Pribbenow has identified the
science building as one of his top
priorities, and says that “with
anticipation and momentum we
will now redouble and refocus our
efforts to raise funds to see the
completion of the science project.”
Construction began on the
Kennedy Sports and Recreation
Complex in Melby Hall in May,
and on the Oren Gateway Center
in July.
— Betsey Norgard
A gift of $1 million has been given
by Norman and Evangeline
(Vangie) Hagfors for the renovation
of Old Main and a potential home
for the Center for Faith and
Learning. Both Norman and Vangie
enjoy longtime connections to
Augsburg through the Lutheran
Free Church. With this gift they
honor both the physical and theological heart of the Lutheran Free
Church as well as the renewed
spiritual vitality of the College,
guided by its Center for Faith and
Learning.
The renovated chapel in Old
Main will be named for Vangie’s
father, Rev. Elnar Gundale, who
graduated from Augsburg College
in 1933 and Augsburg Seminary in
1937. For more than 50 years,
across four states, he served LFC
churches and was the oldest living
LFC pastor at the time of his death.
From her childhood memories, Vangie recalls visits to their
homes during the summers from
the Augsburg Men’s Quartets.
“Their proclamation of the
Gospel as Augsburg ambassadors,” says Vangie, “made a very
positive impression on the youth
of the churches they visited, as
well as their parents, who supported the school.”
Three of Vangie’s siblings followed their father’s footsteps to
Augsburg. Vangie also attended the
College as part of her nurse’s training at Lutheran Deaconess
Hospital. She remembers her class
of 32 nurses walking across
Franklin Avenue to Augsburg
where they studied mostly science.
Among other activities on campus,
she attended chapel in Old Main.
Norman Hagfors has been a
member of Augsburg’s Board of
Regents for more than twelve years,
including serving as vice chairman
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Above: The chapel in Old Mail will be restored and named for alumnus Rev. Elnar
Gundale, ’33, ’37 Sem.
Left: Vangie and Norman Hagfors
and chairing committees. “I have
enjoyed watching the College grow
in stature both as an educational
institution and in spiritual vitality,”
he says. He gives much credit to
President Emeritus William Frame
who, he says, “really pushed the
spiritual aspects of developing one’s
life—not only at Augsburg, but as
a spokesman to other colleges.”
Norman graduated from the
University of Minnesota in electrical engineering when biomedical
engineering was in its infancy,
and worked in medical research,
authored many papers, and
received a number of patents for
his inventions. He also played a
part in several “start up” medical
device companies that brought
implantable cardiac pacemakers
and neurological devices for the
treatment of chronic pain to the
medical community.
Norman and Vangie Hagfors
have chosen to support the renovation of Old Main not only
because of its physical significance in the history of the school,
but because it embodies the spiri-
tual foundation and concepts on
which Augsburg was founded.
Their hope is that the renovation
will give support, emphasis, and
inspiration to the spiritual life of
the school and its students.
Norman and Vangie have two
married children and seven
grandchildren.
— Betsey Norgard
The Center for Faith and Learning
As the Old Main Chapel stands in the center of the campus,
Augsburg’s new Center for Faith and Learning lies at the heart of
Augsburg’s educational mission. Four years ago, Augsburg received
its first grant from the Lilly Endowment for “Exploring Our Gifts,”
helping students, faculty, and staff attend to their called lives of
service. When the Lilly grants conclude in 2010, Augsburg’s Center
for Faith and Learning will continue to embed and extend
Augsburg’s leadership in vocation.
A focal point in the Center for Faith and Learning is Augsburg’s
first endowed chair, named for former Augsburg president and
scholar Bernhard M. Christensen. In September 2005, retired Luther
Seminary president and theologian David Tiede was inaugurated as
the Bernhard M. Christensen Professor in Religion and Vocation.
In his inauguration speech, Tiede explained the Center for Faith
and Learning: “The purpose of the center is to guide the College in
the theological exploration of vocation as understood within the
Lutheran tradition. It will provide resources to faculty, staff, and students that enable them to organize faith and learning within a vocational framework.”
The center is also building external partnerships to study faith
and learning in the community. One example is faith@work!, a
partnership with St. Philip the Deacon Church in Plymouth, Minn.
This speaker series presents community leaders who provide examples and tools for living faith-based lives. (See information on the
speakers and dates in the calendar on the inside back cover.)
A $1 million gift from Norman and Vangie Hagfors will help renovate Augsburg’s
oldest building.
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Experience grounded in mission and vision:
Paul Pribbenow’s call
to Augsburg
BY BETHANY BIERMAN
12 AUGSBURG NOW
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“Hip, hip, hooray!” Thomas exclaimed, his right arm pumping in triumph. He had just been told his family’s picture would be on the cover
of a magazine.
“Wow, how about that!” replied his mother, as she brushed sand off his
little sister Maya’s knees.
I
ndeed, it is a time for celebrating at Augsburg, as the
Pribbenow family settles into Minneapolis and the Augsburg
House. Not since Bernhard Christensen’s presidency, which
began in 1938, has Augsburg’s first family included young children. Paul Pribbenow and his wife, Abigail, and their children,
Thomas (5) and Maya (2), quickly have acclimated to the Augsburg
community.
On July 1, 2006, Pribbenow became the 11th president of
Augsburg College, a position that colleagues close to him have
known was his dream—to become the president of a Lutheran college. To that dream he brought a proven track record of success—
from fundraising to developing mission and vision and from teaching
to handling senior management issues.
In announcing his Augsburg appointment to the Rockford College
community, which he had served as president since 2002, Pribbenow
stated, “The leadership opportunity at Augsburg College is a once-ina-lifetime chance to take the best of what I have learned at Rockford
College, with its commitments to liberal arts and civic engagement in
the city, and link that experience with a connection to the Lutheran
Church, which is my personal faith tradition.”
Over the months since his appointment, Pribbenow’s entry into the
Augsburg community, through an unusual shared transition with
retiring president William Frame, has seemed quite natural—as if it
had been in the making for a long time.
Son of a pastor
Paul Pribbenow was born in Decorah, Iowa, during his father’s senior
year at Luther College. The young family moved to St. Paul where his
father attended seminary, then moved to a small town near Tomah,
Wis., where his father’s ministry began.
The eldest of six children, Pribbenow spent most of his youth in
small towns around Madison. His family moved to Iowa during his
ninth-grade year, and he graduated from high school in Denver, Iowa,
near Waverly. Pribbenow graduated magna cum laude from Luther
College in three years, with a B.A. in sociology and political science.
“My first couple of years at Luther, I thought I would go to seminary,” Pribbenow recalls. Halfway through his third year, however, he
admitted to one of his religion professors, “I love the study of religion, but I don’t feel called to be a minister.” The professor suggested
looking into the Divinity School at the University of Chicago where
he could engage the questions that interested him without specifically
preparing for the ministry. Pribbenow entered the Divinity School in
1978 and spent the next 18 years in the Chicago area.
“I went from never living in a big city to living on the south side of
Chicago. If I have a place that I call home, it’s probably Chicago.”
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The call begins
Starting graduate school, Pribbenow felt his primary interest would be in
teaching religion and ethics. Along the way, however, he began to focus
his interests on the ethics and management of not-for-profit organizations.
“I learned that in American society, non-profits are one of the
important ways we live out our social ethic,” Pribbenow says. “I
became intrigued by how organizations are managed and what link
that has to how effective they are in helping society live out its social
ethic. If there’s a problem in the way a college or museum is run,
that’s going to have an impact on how well the institution will live
out its mission and values.” Pribbenow began to understand these
issues as examples of the need for reflective practice—linking learning with action.
In order to practice what he preached, he took a job in fundraising
at the university after receiving his M.A. in divinity. “I started up the
administrative ladder, along the way I taught and had chances to
write, but I never left the practice of administration. I started practicing what I studied and what I cared about. That was my calling.”
The lines connect
The President’s Cabinet (L to R) Leif Anderson, chief information officer; Barbara
Edwards Farley, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the College; Ann
Garvey, vice president of student affairs and dean of students; Tom Morgan, senior
vice president and special assistant; President Pribbenow; Tracy Elftmann, vice president for institutional advancement; Julie Olson, vice president of enrollment management; Dick Adamson, vice president for finance and adminstration; and Gaye Lindfors,
senior vice president and special assistant.
14 AUGSBURG NOW
It was in these early years working at the University of Chicago that
Pribbenow started to realize even more clearly the connection
between his various interests—higher education, management, and
ethics—and that he might have both the skills and commitment to be
a college president.
In 1993, Pribbenow was named vice president for institutional
advancement at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—an
assignment that helped him gain valuable experience in leading a
complex (and sometimes unpredictable!) organization.
At the Art Institute he also met his future wife, Abigail, then a
graduate student in the school’s arts administration program, when
she interviewed with him for a job in event planning for the school.
Paul and Abigail were on their honeymoon when the call from
Wabash College came. After many years of living in the Windy City,
the two packed up and headed to Crawfordsville, Ind., for a six-year
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Abigail at a
glance
adventure where Paul served as dean for college advancement, secretary of the Board of Trustees, and research fellow in the liberal arts.
A taste of the ministry
While working at Wabash, Pribbenow got a call from the ELCA
Indiana-Kentucky Synod bishop, saying, “‘There is a little SwedishLutheran church down the road from you in Attica, Ind., that has lost
its pastor and can’t afford a full-time pastor. I was wondering if you’d
take an interim assignment to serve them for six months, just to help?’”
“I actually think he mistook me for my father,” Pribbenow chuckles. When he told the bishop he wasn’t ordained, the bishop
responded that he would license him for the roles that would require
ordination. “What was originally a short-term assignment turned into
a three-year stint as interim pastor,” says Pribbenow.
The Pribbenows moved to Rockford, Ill., on Easter Weekend 2002
for the start of Pribbenow’s presidency at Rockford College. After the
couple and their son, Thomas, whom they adopted in Vietnam in
2001, made the Saturday trip from Central Indiana to Illinois with
two heavily packed vehicles, Pribbenow turned around to make the
five-hour trip back to Indiana so that he could preside at his last
service the next morning—on Easter Sunday.
“My work as interim pastor in Attica was a valuable experience for
a new college president. It taught me some very important lessons
about loving a congregation, preaching the lectionary, and presiding
over congregational meetings—all activities that closely parallel the
work of leading a college.”
The Rockford years
Pribbenow became the 16th president of Rockford College at an
extremely important point. Critics at the time of his arrival described
the four-year, independent college founded in 1847 as lacking in focus,
and there were financial challenges that required immediate attention.
In his four years at Rockford, Pribbenow led the campus community in a strategic long-range planning process that refocused on the
liberal arts, launched new degree programs, renewed its commitment
Abigail Crampton Pribbenow
grew up in Flossmoor, Ill., outside of Chicago. She spent her
junior year of high school as an
exchange student in France and
two subsequent years at the
United World College–USA in
New Mexico. She went on to
earn a bachelor’s degree in
anthropology from the
University of Chicago and a
Master of Arts in arts administration from the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago.
Dance has always been a keen interest for Abigail. While growing
up, she studied classical ballet and in college learned modern dance
and choreography. Combining her experience as a dancer and her
administrative skills, Abigail’s professional work includes working in
not-for-profit management at the Chicago Dance Coalition, the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Wabash College, and the
International School of Indiana. While preparing to adopt Thomas,
she returned to teaching dance to children in Crawfordsville, Ind.
Abigail has fully immersed herself in the life of each college and
community in which she and Paul have lived, including serving as
president of the Rockford Area Arts Council, church council member,
board member for the Easter Seals Children’s Development Center,
and host of the biannual women in the arts festival at Rockford
College. Among her many accomplishments, she co-founded the Jelly
Bean Ball, a family-friendly fundraiser for Easter Seals. She looks forward to finding her niche in the Augsburg community.
Abigail anticipates much entertaining and relationship building in
the next several months and expects her largest challenge to be figuring out when to integrate the children into these activities. For
now, she’s glad to have figured out routes to the farmer’s markets
and local parks. Thomas and Maya seem glad about this, too.
to civic engagement, and engineered a provocative and attentiongrabbing branding campaign that played off of the image of the institution’s most famous alumna, Jane Addams, social reformer and the
1931 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
The Pribbenow family also received the blessing of a daughter while
in Rockford when they adopted Maya in Chongqing, China, in 2004.
The call to Augsburg
When approached by the search consultant in 2005 about applying
for the vacancy at Augsburg, Pribbenow was intrigued. He and
Abigail knew Bill and Anne Frame through their work on a vocation
project with the Council of Independent Colleges.
“It was a call to a place that clearly is working to be faithful to its
church tradition while also seeking to be faithful to its educational
and civic engagement traditions,” says Pribbenow. “I’ve spent my
entire career in non-sectarian places. … I’ve learned some valuable
lessons about what it means to be faithful in the world, and I know
those are lessons that will inform my work at Augsburg.”
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Augsburg College—
the first-year initiatives
One College
Based on the College’s mission that embraces the liberal arts, faith
and values, life in the city, and diversity, the Augsburg community
will engage in conversations that explore how all the curricular,
co-curricular, administrative, and public work at Augsburg is
grounded in the College’s singular mission and vision. Wherever it
is found—in Minneapolis, Rochester, or around the world at its
Center for Global Education sites—and whomever it teaches—traditional undergraduates or adult learners—and whatever it teaches—the traditional liberal arts or professional studies—how is
Augsburg known as one college, dedicated to the same abiding
values and aspirations?
The Augsburg Promise—Experience and Image
Based on the one college conversations, the Augsburg community
will examine the promises it makes to students, faculty, staff,
alumni, its neighborhood, and the wider world. We will consider
how well we keep our promises in the daily work of the College.
We then will explore how the Augsburg community can do an
even better job of keeping its promises, talking to each other
about those promises, and then illustrating to the world what the
Augsburg brand is all about.
Common Work at Augsburg
The Augsburg community also will examine its organizational
life—how it’s governed, who’s involved in leadership and decisionmaking, and what voices are heard (or not) in its daily life. Based
on this examination, the College will develop an organizational
structure that deploys resources responsibly and is accountable.
Based on our common work of educating students, we also will
seek to offer all members of the Augsburg community the opportunities to nurture and sustain their callings.
Science at Augsburg
As a college community, we will explore what it means to educate
students in the sciences at Augsburg, within the context of the
College’s mission—dedicated to our rich tradition of excellence in
teaching and research, as well as to our commitments to scientific
literacy and responsibility. Based on our findings, we will plan curricular and co-curricular programs, public outreach, and facilities
appropriate to our highest aspirations for science education at
Augsburg. A central feature of this project will be the re-launching
of fundraising efforts for new science facilities at Augsburg.
— Paul Pribbenow
16 AUGSBURG NOW
Pribbenow did have hesitations about leaving Rockford. “I didn’t
feel as though I’d been there long enough, and there were many
issues still to be addressed.”
He was encouraged to speak with Jean Taylor, chair of the
Augsburg Board of Regents. “She listened carefully, and at the end of
our conversation she said, ‘I think you’ve got to do what Augsburg
has taught me—you’ve just got to listen.’ That was very insightful
and critical to my decision to seek the Augsburg presidency.”
It was a call to which he and Abigail couldn’t say “no.”
A remarkable fit
In his letter to the Augsburg search committee, Pribbenow spelled
out why this opportunity seemed such a remarkable fit for his leadership and experience.
To him leadership must also be understood as stewardship. He is
committed to the role of a collaborative leader who has a “responsibility to help the college community ‘pay attention’ to its most deeply
held values and priorities so that all gifts are well used.” This
includes a uniting of the campus community in shared vision, as well
as in varying forms of hospitality that engage the campus with its
urban neighbors.
Pribbenow wrote that his own deeply held sense of personal vocation builds on Martin Luther’s view of education that creates people of
“wondrous ability, subsequently fit for everything.” A college that helps
students discover this ability must in itself be a mission-driven and
integrated institution, so that all students in all programs “are chal-
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lenged and shaped by [a] vision to link education with engagement.”
Pribbenow went on to write that he is “committed to the idea that
colleges—and especially church-related colleges—are uniquely situated to help students of all ages to listen for and hear their own calls,
to find their vocations for life and service in the world.” As an ethicist
he has examined professional work in society and understands how
significantly reflective thinking (linking learning and experience) and
personal faith affect public well-being.
As he begins his Augsburg presidency, Pribbenow finds Augsburg
and Rockford colleges very similar in their commitments to civic
engagement. “I am here because of that commitment to educating students for democracy, and I intend to make it an even more important
focal point. Augsburg should be known for what it does in civic
engagement. … We need to say to the world, ‘Look at what we’re
doing and why we’re doing it. There are important lessons about faithful life in the world that are being taught and practiced at Augsburg.’”
The key difference between the colleges, he says, is of course the
connection to the church. “The role at Augsburg of Lutheran faith
and human religious experience shapes the education of students and
defines a central aspect of our identity as a college,” Pribbenow states.
“I need to have a different lens to the way I look at issues that I didn’t
in a non-sectarian institution. That’s an energizing and meaningful
aspect of the work ahead of us.”
The plan
Pribbenow’s initiatives for his first year at Augsburg all point to action
(see the sidebar on the opposite page). “We need to take the good
vision work that’s been done during the Frame presidency and translate it into organizational activity and image so that people will look
at Augsburg and say, ‘I see what this college cares about.’”
When asked what he hopes the headlines will read when he retires,
Pribbenow answers, “I do hope we’ll be here until I retire, and when
I’m ready to step down that the community will have the same affection and love that people had for Bill and Anne, because we were
faithful to what this college is called to do. … I hope the headlines
will read that I helped Augsburg to be even more faithful to its calling, and that as a result, this little college stands as a 21st-century
model for faithful and responsible liberal arts education in a city.”
As far as Thomas and Maya’s plans, they seem content to be getting
to know their new hometown. When asked his favorite thing about
Minneapolis, Thomas answered, “The Mall of America! On the log
ride, there’s this big guy with an axe. He’s GI-NORMOUS!”
Without a doubt, Augsburg seems to be on the cusp of some pretty
“gi-normous” opportunities as well. Ⅵ
5
things you may
not know about
Paul Pribbenow:
1.
He writes his own version of
a “blog,” known as Notes for
the Reflective Practitioner.
2.
He sang professionally for 13
years in Chicago. (His father
and he both sang for Weston
Noble at Luther.)
3.
He doesn’t eat red meat or
lutefisk. (Perhaps the latter
has to do with his first job
cleaning out the lutefisk tub
in the Stoughton, Wis.,
grocery store cooler.)
4.
While it’s true that his mentor
and dissertation adviser Martin
Marty wears a bow tie, it wasn’t
until years after learning to tie
them for the many black tie
affairs he attended at the Art
Institute of Chicago that he
decided to adopt the look on a
daily basis.
5.
In his car stereo you’ll find
National Public Radio, the
Mars Hill tapes (conversations on Christianity and
modern culture), choral
music, or Raffi (children’s
musician and entertainer).
To learn more about Augsburg’s mission and vision and to read
President Pribbenow’s speeches, go to www.augsburg.edu/president.
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Country
Fresh U
BY TIM DOUGHERTY
very Thursday during the growing season, Campus Kitchen
student intern Melanie Opay returns to campus around 5:30
p.m., her head barely visible above the white produce boxes
stuffing her car. Teeming with delicacies from rutabagas to
radishes and kale to kohlrabi, these bountiful boxes are
courtesy of Gary Brever’s Ploughshare Farm, a family-owned organic
farm in Parker’s Prairie, Minn. Brever’s parents, Jeanie and DeWayne,
deliver the veggies each week to drop-off sites in Alexandria, St.
Cloud, and the Twin Cities, delighting urban dwellers who have
increasingly searched for more freshness in their summer diets.
Brever is a small-business owner and entrepreneur just as much as
an organic farmer, and has carved a niche for his farm in the growing
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement. In the CSA
model, individuals and families purchase a “share” of the harvest at
the beginning of the growing season in exchange for a weekly box of
vegetables from mid-June to early October. Typically, paying customers receive the produce themselves, but Brever has augmented his
market by allowing people or congregations to purchase shares and
donate them to hunger organizations like the Campus Kitchen at
Augsburg College (CKAC).
For the past three summers, these white produce boxes have
formed the food foundation for Augsburg’s Campus Kitchen—a student-driven food recycling organization. Volunteers use this produce
along with surplus food from Sodexho’s campus dining services and
local food banks to prepare nutritious, free meals for residents in
neighboring community programs. The premise has always been simple: there is far too much good food going to landfills and far too
many agencies that can’t afford to buy food for their hungry clients.
By recycling food and empowering students to prepare meals and share
them with immigrant youth, the homeless, and homebound elders,
CKAC uses food as a tool to engage students in the community, to reduce
the amount of discarded campus food, and to forge bonds in Augsburg’s
neighborhood through the universal language of a shared meal.
E
Ploughshare Farm’s Gary Brever spreads
hay to mulch the tomato beds for weed
control and moisture.
18 AUGSBURG NOW
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Urban Renewal
With the addition of Brever’s organic, locally-grown produce,
CKAC has begun to build programs that can better nourish clients
with an array of ingredients infinitely fresher than grocery store fare.
At the same time, the programs redefine stewardship by supporting
local farmers and they educate youth about dietary choices that can
simultaneously heal both the earth and their bodies.
Above: Campus Kitchen culinary job
Taste the difference
trainee Kenny Peterson chops lettuce fresh
For the Campus Kitchen, the quality of freshness is staggering. Each
week, the menu for clients is set according to the contents in those
boxes, an adventurous undertaking in and of itself. “Working with
local produce has been an exciting challenge,” says Opay. “I get to
work with food I’ve never used before, which has been a great learn-
from Ploughshare Farm.
Below: Campus Kitchen volunteer Trish
Hannah leads the youth in the Jump Start
program through cooking techniques.
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ing experience and a lot of fun. Plus, our clients love the results!”
That’s because the results are often worthy of an epicurean’s table:
dishes such as arugula salad with shaved fennel and marinated chioggia beets or southern-style collards and cabbage. These meals are
then delivered, served, and shared with the community by Augsburg
students, staff, and alumni.
In addition, each week’s harvest is so bountiful that CKAC can
share full boxes of fresh produce with the Brian Coyle Center food
shelf. In the heart of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, this community food shelf primarily serves East-African immigrants, a population
that prefers to prepare meals from scratch and spurns the canned
goods and highly processed foods that usually fill food shelves.
Brever, like the Campus Kitchen, believes that true community
health can begin with what people have on their dinner plates.
Having spent a few years on a Catholic Worker farm in Washington
state, he was well accustomed to the corn-syrup-laden, preservativerich foods typical of food shelves. While these foods may fill bellies,
they do little to build health.
Brever also saw the preponderance of these products as a good
indicator of the shortcomings embodied by our industrial food system, where—according to Francis Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé in
their book Hope’s Edge—about half of a typical grocery store’s more
than 30,000 items are produced by 10 multinational food and beverage companies.
A rural Minnesotan by birth, Brever knew the effect this homogenized system has on the fabric of rural farming communities and the
20 AUGSBURG NOW
relative lack of nutritive value provided by these preserved foods.
Longing for an alternative, he envisioned a system where small, family
farmers could thrive while even the urban poor could gain access to
fresh, responsibly grown produce. In short, everyone deserves food
grown with care, harvested at peak ripeness, and made into meals
that nourish the body and sustain the mind.
Redefining stewardship
Brever saw the CSA model as the answer. By offering people the
opportunity to donate locally-grown produce, he felt he could help
farms like his to earn a living wage while getting more healthy food
options to urban populations who lack access to such luxury. “At its
core, it’s about relationship,” says Brever. “How are we supporting the
farmers and the communities that grow our food?” In an increasingly
complicated world, it’s no longer enough to merely feed people. We
must also take into account how that food is grown and prepared
while weighing the environmental and economic realities we’re supporting with our food decisions.
The model has been hugely successful, as church congregations
and individual donors love the idea of enriching the urban community
while helping small farms succeed. In Brever’s words, feeding the
hungry is “no longer just about charity. Now, it’s also about change.”
At Augsburg, the Campus Kitchen has been helping to usher in
those changes. Thanks to a generous donation from St. Martin’s
Table, the local restaurant and social-justice bookstore, CKAC is
embarking on its third summer of vegetables from Ploughshare Farm.
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In addition to preparing meals for clients, the produce is now being
leveraged to educate youth about the health benefits of a diverse diet,
and the power we have to effect change with something as simple as
our eating habits.
Project C.H.O.I.C.E.S
Few tactics succeed when it comes to getting kids to taste new vegetables. Unless, of course, you involve them in the cooking process.
Each week, CKAC volunteer Trish Hannah leads a cooking class with
11- to 14-year-old participants in the Brian Coyle Center’s Jump Start
program. Seasonal dishes such as a strawberry, spinach, and grilled
asparagus salad that would have originally garnered a cacophonous
chorus of “eew” and “boo” are suddenly finding a receptive audience
in these young culinarians.
Project C.H.O.I.C.E.S (Community Health Originates in Creating
Environmental Sustainability) is a curriculum devised by Hannah in
conjunction with CKAC and Jennifer Tacheny, coordinator of
Celeste’s Dream Community Garden Project. Its goal is to awaken the
power in students to choose health for their bodies and the earth.
Through cooking classes using local produce, it seeks to teach youth
the full cycle of food—from the field to the table to the compost
bin—while empowering them to choose respect. It means the choice
to respect their bodies with healthy, tasty food that was grown in a
responsible manner and as close to home as possible. And the choice
to respect their neighborhoods and backyards by picking up litter
and composting food waste. Using the common denominator of food,
the curriculum hopes to teach self-sufficiency and empower these
youth to cultivate healthy, responsible lifestyles.
Honoring the full cycle
Brever can’t think of a better outlet for his produce. “So many nonprofits are forced to measure their impact in pounds of food. Just as
it’s hard to measure the intangible nutritional and environmental values of buying local and organic produce, you can’t measure the intangible value of sharing a meal with someone,” he says. “Not only does
the Campus Kitchen share my food with people in Minneapolis, it
also uses it as a teaching tool for empowerment.”
And the Campus Kitchen can’t think of a better direction to be heading, helping to better their urban backyard while supporting the work
of organic farmers in Minnesota. With the success of the Ploughshare
Farm partnership and the positive impact of programs like Project
C.H.O.I.C.E.S., the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College hopes to
expand its programs to involve more local growers and to take clients
on field trips to the farms that make the meals possible. It could also
lead to the creation of a local community garden where clients get their
own chance to participate first-hand in the full cycle of food.
Through the Campus Kitchen, Augsburg is redefining what it
means to be a good urban neighbor and, simultaneously, support
rural communities. With such tasty food arriving by the boxful, it’s
becoming easy to build bridges to the heart through the belly. Ⅵ
Former Campus Kitchen coordinator Tim
Dougherty pounds in the staking lines for
organic heirloom tomatoes.
Tim Dougherty is the community and civic engagement student coordinator in the Center for Service, Work, and Learning. He formerly was
the coordinator of the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College.
Augsburg Campus Kitchen volunteer
Melanie Opay heaves boxes of produce
from Ploughshare Farm into her car.
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S
Making art
and history
in
France
BY TARA SWEENEY
Above: From left, Augburg students John
Leibfried, Patrick Wendel, and Joe Trenary
greet the locals in Espeyrac, France.
Right: Augsburg pilgrims cross the old
bridge into Estaing, France.
22 AUGSBURG NOW
o, how was France?” is the usual question. “Good. Great,” is
the typical answer that satisfies a polite inquiry. The real
answer takes a little longer.
“What’s the first word of the rule?” my colleague, [Professor]
Phil Adamo, asks, and not for the first time. “Listen,” the students chime in unison, just as the old man in the beret hobbles up the
tiny cobblestone passageway that Espeyrac, this hamlet in southern
France, calls a street. It’s not easy to upstage Phil Adamo, but this
Frenchman’s hound dog doesn’t know any better. The students have forgotten about The Rule of St. Benedict. The traditional French greeting—
kiss-kiss-kiss—seems more the order of the day as they hand out eager
caresses to this tail-wagging, sweet-talking, show stealer of a dog.
They have come here with us to learn plein air drawing and to
study the religious experience of medieval France as a paired shortterm study abroad experience, May 14–June 4. Before they return to
Minnesota they will make a four-day pilgrimage, visit monasteries,
cathedrals, walled towns, museums, and a papal palace to earn two
credits and satisfy the critical thinking (CT) and liberal arts foundation (LAF) graduation requirements.
Class begins wherever 15 students can listen to the history professor
read a passage from a 1500-year-old text on monastic practice, and
the art professor read from John Ruskin’s Elements of Drawing in
Three Letters to Beginners. Yesterday it was below Le Pont Vieux in
Espalion, one of three communities on this pilgrimage with the muchdeserved designation of “les plus beaux villages de France.” The day
before it was beside the River Lot in equally picturesque Estaing.
My colleague reminds me daily that this collaboration in experiential
teaching and learning is work. Each day’s sweat, constant thirst, and
aching body parts are real enough. So are the pain of blisters, the weight
of packs, and our labored breath as we follow our capable local guide,
Laurent Riou, up another steep ascent of mud and rock. Each night we
sleep in a new family-run hotel after dining on traditional local fare at
long communal tables. We hear little English other than our own as we
walk village to village on the centuries-old pilgrimage road, le Chemin de
St. Jacques de Compostelle, with pilgrims from around the world. Some
will continue the entire summer, across the Pyrenees into northern Spain,
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Class in France begins wherever history
professor Phil Adamo finds enough
room to gather students and read the
day’s passage from The Rule of St.
Benedict.
and all the way to Santiago in the
west, to receive the official pilgrim’s
passport and a chance to have their
sins forgiven. Some, like us, are walking just a few days.
We have many things to teach;
what students learn depends on the
site visit and their willingness to try.
Each keeps a daily sketchbook/journal that integrates personal reflection with history and art assignments.
Reading from The Rule of St. Benedict is Phil’s structure for teaching
the principles of monastic community, an important aspect of medieval
religious practice. Students don’t simply hear about how silence helped
monks to listen deeply. They are expected to practice it. They do so,
awkwardly at first, for a short time as they enter Église de Perse, the
Romanesque chapel of Saint Hilarian, built on the site where the
Muslims supposedly beheaded him in the eighth century. Eventually,
they practice silence for what seems like an eternity, from sundown to
sunup, in preparation for a visit to the monastery, St. Martin du
Canigou, perched a half-day’s hike up the foothills of the snow-capped
Pyrenees. In the end, they are willingly silent beside the rushing alpine
waters of Vernet-les-Bains, embracing experiential learning at its best.
My structure for teaching plein air drawing is demonstration and practice, and practice, and practice—the medieval master/apprentice model.
Students are expected to draw at least two hours per day. For some this
is daunting at first. We stop and draw together wherever the inspiration
and pauses of travel make it possible. They learn that this kind of drawing can happen all day, any day. This means that a rest from the midday
hiking heat finds these vibrant young people sketching in the shade
along the trail. Curious fellow pilgrims pause to enjoy the view and cheer
them on. Augsburg’s students are natural goodwill ambassadors.
Our pilgrimage ends in Conques, where we receive the pilgrim’s
blessing at Abbaye de St. Foye, the patron saint of the blind and the
imprisoned, and hear Phil read the gospel of John. We pick up our
pace and continue to the restored, walled city of Carcassonne and
hear about heretics; take a dip in the Mediterranean Sea at Collioure;
and visit the papal palace at Avignon. The last full week of the course
is spent in the “city of lights” where we are surprised and thrilled to
Art professor Tara Sweeney sketches plein
air with student Cassandra Roschen on the
outskirts of Sénergues, France.
hear students wishing for more pilgrimage and less Paris.
So what was France really like? The syllabi promised we’d unravel
the mysteries of critical thinking and blind contours, learn how to
read history, and make plein air drawings. We walked a very long
way together to do all that. But if we can’t tell you the best thing that
happened in France it’s probably because it’s still happening. In
studying to understand the past, in sketching what remains of it, we
have learned to listen, to see deeply, and most importantly, to be fully
present. Transformation is like that. Go ahead, ask. Ⅵ
Tara Sweeney is assistant professor of art. Phil Adamo is assistant professor of history.
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MAKING THEIR MARK
BY BETSEY NORGARD
Nancy Steblay and her student researchers
in the lineup
have partnered with
Hennepin County police
officers to research, apply, and test
changes in police lineups to reduce the
chances of convicting innocent people.
24 AUGSBURG NOW
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n the past 14 years, 183
people have been exonerated from crimes they
did not commit, but for
which they were convicted and for which they may have
spent a decade or more in prison.
In 75% of these DNA-exoneration cases, the primary evidence
leading to their conviction was a
witness who identified them as
the perpetrator of a crime.
Only after development of DNA
technology that could positively
match evidence to a person—or
exonerate that person—did the
law enforcement community realize the depth of the eyewitness
problem in the legal system.
The social impact of a witness
identifying the wrong person in a
lineup is significant. Not only can
it send an innocent person to
prison, but it also allows the real
criminal to remain uncaught.
In the late 1980s, when psychology professor Nancy Steblay
began reading the early research
describing simple changes in lineup procedures that could reduce
the rate of false identifications,
she became intrigued. Trained as
a behavioral scientist, she saw in
this an ideal application of laboratory research and theory. “There’s
so much we could add, we could
say, about how to understand
human memory in the legal
process,” says Steblay.
What the early psychology
research offered, she says, is only
probabilistic—laboratory research
I
Psychology students have created research
projects to examine procedures used by law
officers in police lineups and to test them in
field projects. Student researchers include
Psychology professor Nancy Steblay has studied police lineups for more than 15 years and
helps students develop research that addresses problems with eyewitness identifications.
helps to estimate the likelihood
that certain events, like eyewitness fallibility, will occur. What
the legal system needs at trial,
however, is certainty about a specific case. Did something affect
this particular witness’ memory
in this particular case?
The goal of recent lineup
research, says Steblay, is to fix
the eyewitness problem before it
reaches the courts. “We need to
develop the procedures that
make certain that memory, like
all trace evidence, is not contaminated,” she says. In other words,
when a person is on trial for a
crime for which he/she has been
identified by a witness, the legal
system needs to know that this
identification is accurate, that the
eyewitness evidence is sound.
(L to R) Brenna Johnson ’07, Amanda Brey
’08, and Robert Tix ’07.
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6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
Tackling the problem
By the late 1990s, the Department
of Justice could no longer ignore
the fact that increasing numbers of
people were being proven innocent after wrongful convictions,
even by well-meaning law
enforcement officials and eyewitnesses who thought they were
doing everything by the book.
In 1999, Attorney General
Janet Reno brought together
early researchers who had been
focusing on lineup procedures
and produced an in-depth study
of their research with recommendations for improving the system. It gave visibility and awareness to the problem and options
for improving the protocol.
Augsburg’s psychology department did not have a laboratory
at that time, so Steblay was
unable to carry out any lab
research. However, what she
9/12/06
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could do was to produce metaanalyses, or comprehensive
reviews and syntheses of all
existing research around a particular issue or question that provide a “grand picture.” These
studies prove extremely useful
for researchers and policy makers studying the questions.
In 2001, Steblay’s meta-analysis on sequential vs. simultaneous lineups caught the attention
of Gary Wells, an Iowa State psychology professor and pioneer in
lineup research, who was trying
to encourage lineup reform
across the country.
What Wells advocated, and
Steblay’s meta-analysis confirmed,
is that the rate of false identification is lowered when the lineup
subjects, usually shown in photos,
are presented to the witness one
at a time, rather than all at once.
There is less tendency for wit-
nesses to compare one to the
other instead of to their memory
of the perpetrator.
A further procedural change
that Wells recommended was a
“double-blind” lineup, where the
law officer or person administering the lineup does not know
which person, if any, in the lineup is the suspect.
When the psychology department gained a small lab, Steblay
was able to involve students in
her research. As part of the
advanced research seminar she
taught, students could create
spin-offs of her research and
could run subjects in the lab.
To develop better research
capabilities, Steblay needed some
tools—a laptop simulation of a
crime and a lineup to show lab
subjects. The technical concept
came from IT staff person Bill
Jones, and the material came
from film professor Deb
Redmond’s video production
class. “It became the students’
assignment—to shoot a crime,
and then to help me construct
the lineup,” says Steblay. “And
they did a beautiful job.”
Hennepin County attorney Amy Klobuchar
(left) and psychology professor Nancy
Steblay (right) recently co-authored an
article that reports on the success of the
Hennepin County lineup project.
26 AUGSBURG NOW
Joining with law
officers
In 2003 Hennepin County in
Minnesota initiated a year-long
pilot project to test new sequential, double-blind lineup procedures. County attorney Amy
Klobuchar spearheaded the
study, involving four police jurisdictions—two urban
(Minneapolis and Bloomington)
and two suburban (Minnetonka
and New Hope)—after hearing
Wells speak about the need for
lineup reform.
Steblay joined the pilot project
as the data analyst, supported by
a two-year grant from the
National Institute of Justice
(NIJ). The grant paid for her
time to pull and run data from
the 280 lineups in the pilot project, and to run several analog
laboratory projects testing questions that arose. One such question was “Does it make a difference if a witness goes through
the sequential lineup photos
more than once?”
“Questions came up in the
field and we tested them in the
laboratory,” Steblay says. “Now I
can bring the two together and
say, ‘This is how we should run
lineups in the field based on
what we know now.’”
NIJ found Steblay’s project compelling because it united police
practice and laboratory research,
Steblay says. It was a field study
on the cutting edge of national
discussions, and no field data had
been collected previously.
Steblay and Klobuchar were
two of the three co-authors for a
recent article in the Cardozo
Public Law, Policy and Ethics
Journal that reported on the success of the Hennepin County
project. The authors wrote that
“analysis of the data and anecdotal responses from the participating police agencies led to the
conclusion that the new protocol
is both efficient to implement
and effective in reducing the
potential for misidentifications.”
In a press release issued by the
Innocence Project, co-director
Barry Scheck called the study
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
“the first to use scientifically
valid research techniques to evaluate the eyewitness identification
reform in the field—in a ‘real
world’ application, rather than
an academic setting.”
Getting students
involved
The lineup research has been a
great opportunity for students to
learn about the research process.
Even before a psychology lab
existed, students co-authored the
meta-analyses with Steblay. With
the lab, dozens of students over
the years have developed their
own research questions as well
as aided Steblay with her studies.
The NIJ grant added more
opportunity. Students helped to
produce a more professional laptop video “crime scene,” to run
pilots to clarify the instructions,
and to make sure the procedures
ran accurately.
“The benefit of this kind of
research is that students can
grasp it readily and contribute
enormously. Even though the
eyewitness research is complex
and sometimes confusing in its
entirety, at its surface it’s easy to
understand what we’re trying to
do,” says Steblay.
“Students seem to enjoy the
connection to the national lineup
reform effort, as when I say,
‘Well, we’re doing this in
Hennepin County,’ or ‘I went to
Chicago and talked about that,’
or ‘the Los Angeles Police
Department called me yesterday
with this question,’” she says.
“They realize this is not just
some practice exercise—this
really counts.”
With the current popularity of
television crime shows attracting
more students to forensics,
Augsburg launched a concentration in psychology and law.
Steblay’s psychology and law class
has always been popular, and she
says that while students start out
with forensic clinical interests from
TV, the class helps them see the
broader range of opportunities.
Augsburg is one of the few
schools that offers psychology
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Page 29
and law at the undergraduate
level. Steblay feels that the
research helps prepare students
who may be intimidated by the
prospects of graduate school
research.
“I think they get a sense of,
‘Yes, I can do this,” says Steblay.
“Once you get on top of the
research, there’s no end to the
number of research questions
and directions to go.”
A good example is 2005 psychology graduate Hannah
Dietrich. She was awarded the
2006 Best Undergraduate Paper
award from the Psychology-Law
Society for her senior honors
research project on sex offenders,
which began with an internship
at the Minnesota Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension. She’s
currently studying for a master’s
degree at the University of
Colorado-Colorado Springs.
Senior psychology major Shannon Ryan, one of 60 students selected to present their
Presenting the
findings
Since the completion of Hennepin
County’s pilot project, Steblay has
presented the findings at a number of conferences across the
country. Her phone has also been
ringing more with questions and
contacts about the research since
publication of the study.
She is now completing the final
data analysis and report for the
NIJ grant, and preparing to train
in a new batch of students to start
the next generation of research in
Augsburg’s “crime” lab.
“The people I work with—the
homicide investigators, the attorneys—help keep me in touch
with how this plays out in the
real world, and the kinds of
adjustments I need to make in
the lab to try to capture that in a
better and more authentic way,”
Steblay says. “And the students
help keep me very much in
touch with what a real witness
would experience.” Ⅵ
research on Capitol Hill, has been part of Nancy Steblay’s research that is supported
by a National Institute of Justice grant.
Shannon Ryan takes lineups
to Washington
Shannon Ryan ’07 was among 60 students selected nationally to
present their research at the Council on Undergraduate Research’s
Posters on the Hill session in Washington, D.C.
in April.
Ryan’s research examines procedural guidelines for gathering
eyewitness evidence in police lineups and how witness memory is
affected by lineup structure and format. Her poster, “BlindSequential Police Lineups: A Test of Revised Procedure” compared
the number of eyewitness false identifications in two different formats, and was the only poster representing the social sciences.
While in Washington, Ryan and Professor Nancy Steblay, her
research adviser, visited with U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo and Rep. Betty
McCollum to explain the research.
Ryan will carry on the lineup research for her senior honors
project, and then continue in either a psychology and law or criminal justice graduate program.
During the summer, she worked in the McNair program at the
University of Minnesota on a project about the over-reporting of
voting behavior, with Christopher Uggen, Distinguished McKnight
Professor and chair of the sociology department.
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Left: Very Special Arts (VSA) day brings
children with mental and physical disabilities to the Augsburg campus where they
are treated to dancing, music-making,
music performances, and more by the
Music Therapy department.
Right: Members of The Remnant Gospel
Choir sing at the annual Martin Luther King
Jr. convocation, sponsored by the PanAfrikan Center. The 2006 speaker was
Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr., SNCC co-founder
and director of nonviolent and peace studies at the University of Rhode Island.
Below: The tables on the balcony of
Christensen Center are distorted by raindrops clinging to the windows during a
Photographer’s pick—
September rain storm.
some of the year’s favorites
PHOTOS AND TEXT BY STEPHEN GEFFRE
From the thousands of photos
staff photographer Stephen Geffre took during 2005–06, he selected these photos
that give beauty and meaning to life at Augsburg.
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Left: Trevor Tweeten ’06 sits in front of a
video installation piece that was part of his
senior filmmaking show. Tweeten is the
first graduate of Augsburg’s new film major.
Above: Helping to clean up the Soap
Factory art gallery was one of the many
AugSem projects first-year students undertook on the first day of class in September.
The gallery is housed in a former soapmaking factory in the St. Anthony Main area
of Minneapolis, and “is dedicated to the
production, presentation, and promotion of
emerging contemporary practice across the
visual arts.” (Soap Factory website)
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A hands-on
approach to
better health
BY BETSEY NORGARD
r. Bruce
Cunningham ’77
talks about having
one additional trick
in the bag of medical
tricks he offers patients in his
practice.
Cunningham is a doctor of
osteopathic medicine, or DO,
and has been practicing in
Woodbury, Minn., for 21 years.
For the last 12 years he has been
a family practice physician at the
MinnHealth Clinic.
The “trick” he calls on is
manipulation, the core of osteopathic medicine. Osteopaths
examine the interrelationship
and functioning of the body’s
musculoskeletal system—nerves,
muscles, and bones—to understand disease and its causes. It’s
literally a hands-on approach
with patients as he physically
manipulates or adjusts their
D
With his left hand, Dr. Bruce Cunningham
searches for a lesion in the patient’s back
where manipulation will help his condition.
30 AUGSBURG NOW
joints, muscles, tendons, etc. that
may be injured or impaired.
“It’s not for everybody or every
problem,” Cunningham says, “but
it can be effective in a number of
common disorders—backaches,
headaches, sleep disorder. It’s a
nice tool to be able to pull out.”
In his practice, he shares some
of his patients with his MD partners—the patients come to him
specifically for certain things
because he’s an osteopath. “It’s a
very good holistic approach to
care; many MDs have a similar
approach, but very few have the
training where they can actually
do the manipulations that help
people immediately.”
“So there are reasons why we’re
a bit different,” Cunningham
says. “But if someone comes in
with appendicitis, I’m going to
treat it in exactly the same way as
my very capable MD partners.”
He says that 80–90% of what he
does is “very mainline.”
The medical training is essentially the same for both the “allopathic,” or traditional physicians,
and osteopathic physicians—four
years of medical school, at least
three years of residency, and certifying exams administered by
different bodies.
Osteopathic students have extra
study in the musculoskeletal system, including two years of lab
work. “You’re learning on other
students, and then you’re picking
on your family and friends to do
some of the manipulation,” he
says. “So there’s a better understanding of how the body works
and how to interact with it.”
Cunningham is a faculty member at the University of Minnesota
and two osteopathic colleges—
Des Moines University College of
Osteopathic Medicine and
LECOM-Bradenton College—and
enjoys working with third-year
osteopathic students, who must
spend eight weeks in rotation to
learn primary care.
“I teach both allopathic and
osteopathic students, and there’s
a big difference. … The osteopathic student is always more
comfortable touching the patient
and getting close, and doing a
number of the musculoskeletal
exams we have to do.”
Cunningham explains that
osteopathic physicians are different
than chiropractors, who also treat
patients with physical manipulation, but are not medical doctors.
Chiropractic focus is on the nervous system, while osteopathy
trains doctors to look at the body’s
functioning in more depth.
Osteopathic physicians have
not always been accepted as
equals in the medical profession.
Minnesota did not offer full practice rights to DOs until 1963; the
last state to do so was Louisiana,
just two years ago.
Currently there are about
56,000 osteopaths in the U.S.
who make up about six percent
of all physicians. In Minnesota
that figure is about 300, and
they practice across the state, traditionally serving in smaller
communities, but now increasingly in large healthcare systems
and at Mayo Clinic.
Cunningham says that osteopathic medicine is “growing by
leaps and bounds,” and that
within two or three years,
approximately 20% of all medical students will be pursuing
osteopathy. Currently they study
at 23 osteopathic medical
schools, most of which are private institutions. Because they’re
not affiliated with large hospitals,
osteopathic students tend to
travel and spread out more for
their rotations.
Four additional colleges of
osteopathic medicine are actively
on the drawing board, says
Cunningham, who has served on
the national committee that
approves new training schools.
In Minnesota Cunningham has
enjoyed being part of a team of
DOs who visit every college in
the state once a year to talk to
students about osteopathic medicine. “It’s really fun,” he says,
because “the idea that you can
learn to touch your patients and
to take a more natural approach
to some of their ailments is very
exciting to pre-med students.”
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
Osteopaths can pursue any
specialty, although most are in
family practice. Cunningham
says that research is becoming an
important new endeavor in
osteopathy. “I’ve just had a student who finished his PhD while
he was on rotation with me and
he’s doing oncology research,
some really exciting work in it.”
The choice between traditional
medical programs and osteopathy must be a personal one for
the student, Cunningham says.
First they have to know they
have a choice, and then some
will go the osteopathic route as
they become excited by the
approach osteopathy offers to
concentrate on treating the person and not just the disease.
Cunningham’s own vocational
route was not so direct. When he
was not accepted at first into
medical school, he took graduate
9/12/06
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Page 33
courses at the University of
Minnesota and worked in a hospital. After trying a year at law
school, it was a fellow classmate,
John Ronning ’77, now a physician in St. Cloud, who suggested
osteopathy. When Cunningham
learned more about it, he
applied, and went on to Des
Moines University College of
Osteopathic Medicine.
He says he owes a lot to the
profession, since it was while on
his internship in Grand Rapids,
Mich., where he met his wife.
He has served twice as president of the Minnesota Osteopathic
Medical Society, and has been
active on committees within the
profession, including the
National Board of Osteopathic
Medical Examiners.
Cunningham credits Augsburg
with a good preparation for leadership and service. He attended col-
lege as a commuter student to save
money, but was welcomed by the
residents and even kept a sleeping
bag in the corner. He served as
student body vice president, and
remains best friends with Ron
Robinson, who was president.
“The student leadership and
the opportunities Augsburg gave
me to be in that role were really
great testing grounds for what
I’ve gone on to accomplish in
medicine,” Cunningham says. He
encourages all students to take
advantage of leadership opportunities during their college years.
Cunningham says he loves
being involved in the politics of
medicine. This should keep him
active as osteopathic medicine
keeps growing and offers additional tricks in the doctor’s bag
for health and wellness. Ⅵ
For over 20 years Dr. Bruce Cunningham
’77 has brought the additional perspectives
from osteopathic medicine to his clinical
practice.
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ALUMNI NEWS
From the Alumni
Board president …
When I attended Augsburg in the
MAL program from 1993-1996, I
often thought of Augsburg as a diamond—many facets, one beautiful
gem of a college. Serving on the
board of directors of the Augsburg
Alumni Association over the last
few years has offered me many different and wonder-filled views of
Augsburg, yet I come back to the
same thought—many facets, one
beautiful gem of a college.
As another school year begins,
the cycle it brings is also the same
and different. Augsburg is about its
same calling—offering a transformative education rooted in vocation and service—while embracing
new presidential leadership.
Healthy expressions of excitement,
concern, joy, and challenge are evident every day I visit or speak
with someone on campus.
Augsburg is very alive! And well!
I encourage you to participate
in this cycle of life at Augsburg
through your Alumni Association.
The association remains committed to its purpose: “…to support
and serve Augsburg College in its
stated mission and to promote
interest and involvement of the
membership in Augsburg College
and in the association.” And there
is something new, too: the
Alumni Association has restruc-
32 AUGSBURG NOW
tured itself and its activities, and
has prepared itself to be a
stronger partner with the College.
I invite you to (re)connect
with Augsburg and your Alumni
Association:
• Attend events. Take advantage
of the many interesting and
meaningful activities available to
alumni. These include the inauguration of our new president,
music and theatre, athletics,
Velkommen Jul and Advent
Vespers, Homecoming, alumni
gatherings, and conferences.
This year’s alumni events also
will include volunteering with
Habitat for Humanity and the
Campus Kitchen, as well as the
Master of Arts in Leadership’s
20th anniversary celebration.
• Visit the campuses. Yes, that’s
plural! Augsburg now has at
least five campuses: ‘traditional’
day school, weekend, graduate,
Rochester, and overseas. Look
up former professors and mentors, shop at the bookstore,
and see the dramatic changes
that are occurring at Si Melby
and Gateway and planned for
the Science building. You
could even come back to
Augsburg for another degree!
• Stay in touch. We want to hear
from you and we want to be able
to contact you! Register for the
Augsburg Online Community
(www.augsburg.edu/alumni,
then click on Augsburg Online
Community) and let us know
what you are doing. Remember
to update your profile, and
look for your friends and
classmates. You can also use
the form on page 39 to submit
information, or e-mail it to
alumni@augsburg.edu.
• Contact us. Let us know how
you would like to be involved
with the College and fellow
alumni. You can reach me by
e-mail at bvornbrock@gmail.com
or through the Online
Community. You can also contact us through Alumni
Relations by phone at 612330-1085 or 1-800-260-6590,
by e-mail at alumni@augsburg.edu or in writing
(Campus Box 146, 2211
Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
MN 55454).
I look forward to seeing you at
Homecoming.
Barry Vornbrock, ’96 MAL
President, Augsburg Alumni
Association
Homecoming 2006—September 25–30
“Watch Us Soar”
Highlights of Homecoming Week
Please note that not all activities are on campus. For a complete listing and information, go to www.augsburg.edu or call 612-330-1085.
September 25
4:30-6 p.m.
Intl. Student Organization reception
September 26
11 a.m.–2 p.m.
6:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
Counseling and Health Promotion Annual Fair
Alumni Baseball Game
Powder Puff Football
September 27
10:30 a.m.
Augsburg Associates Annual Fall Luncheon—
speaker, Abigail Pribbenow
September 28
5:30–8:30 p.m.
5:30–8:30 p.m.
Education Dept. Open House
Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet
September 29
9 a.m.
10–11 a.m.
12:30–2 p.m.
2:15 p.m.
4–5:30 p.m.
5–7 p.m.
5:30–7:30 p.m.
7 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
1956 Reunion Celebration
Homecoming Chapel
Homecoming Luncheon
Campus Tour
English Alumni/ae Reunion and Reading
Pan-Afrikan Alumni Reception
Metro-Urban Studies 35th Anniversary
Homecoming Variety Show
Men’s soccer game vs. Macalester College
September 30
10 a.m.
10–11:30 a.m.
11 a.m.
11 a.m.
11 a.m.–noon
11 a.m.–1 p.m.
1–3 p.m.
3–7 p.m.
1966 Class Reunion
Political Science Dept. 40th Anniversary
1981 Class Reunion
Young Alumni Reunion (1990–2006)
Campus Tour
Picnic in the Park
Football Game vs. Concordia College-Moorhead
Auggie Block Party
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(Front row, L to R) Karen Oelschlager ’66, Donna Amidon, Linda Holt, Karen Johnson ’66,
Cathy Holmberg ’64, Joyce Pfaff ’65, Nancy Roemer, Janet Roemer ’79, Andy Song.
(Row two, L to R) Larry Turner ’69, Lynn Kielas, Colleen Johnson ’60, Margaret Fogelberg,
Doug Pfaff, Connie Bagenstos, Marie Sandbo ’65. (Row three, L to R) Florence Borman
’54, Joyce Young ’64, Donna Pederson, Sue McQuire ’70, Sue Turner, Lana Donald,
Mike Holmberg ’64, Lee Johnson, Donna Torgeson, Joan Dehn, Matt Young.
(Back row, L to R) Dennes Borman ’57, Louis Dehn, David Pederson ’70, Tom McQuire,
Jim Donald ’63, Brad Holt ’63, Hans Sandbo ’63
Centennial Singers perform in the Twin Cities
The Centennial Singers, a male chorus of Augsburg alumni and
friends, will present a series of concerts this fall in the greater
Twin Cities area.
The chorus was formed in the early 1990s of former Augsburg
Quartet members to revive and continue singing the gospel quartet
tradition. Since then, they have toured to Norway twice and to the
Southwest U.S.
Fall Concerts/Appearances:
Sat., Sep. 30, 7 p.m.
Vinji Lutheran Church, Willmar
China: A visit to the Great Hall
Thirty alumni and friends of the College, hosted by assistant alumni
director Donna Torgeson and faculty members Brad (’63) and Linda
Holt, toured China for two weeks in May. The tour featured the history, culture, and scenic beauty of China, and included a visit to the
Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City; a boat cruise
down the Yangtze River past the Three Rivers Dam project; an
evening at the opera; and many other historical stops. The experience
took travelers from Beijing to the international city of Shanghai. In
addition to visiting the famous sites of China, the group enjoyed an
educational opportunity to explore the religions of China with visits
to several temples and churches.
Sun., Oct. 1, 4 p.m.
Central Lutheran Church, Elk River
Sat., Oct. 7, 7 p.m.
Oak Grove Presbyterian Church, Bloomington
Sun., Oct. 8, 4 p.m.
Crystal Free Church, New Hope
Sat., Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m.
Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Hopkins
Sun., Oct. 15, 4 p.m.
Faith Lutheran Church, Coon Rapids
Sat., Oct. 28, 7 p.m.
Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, Prior Lake
Join the Augsburg Online Community
It’s designed just for you—
• Keep in touch with classmates
• Find out what’s happening on campus
• Send class notes about what you’re doing
• Change/update your address and e-mail
• Update your profile so others can find you
• Make an online gift to Augsburg
It’s fast and easy. Already, more than 500 alumni have registered.
Simply go to www.augsburg.edu/alumni—have you signed up?
If you have questions, e-mail healyk@augsburg.edu.
Sun., Oct. 29, 2 p.m.
House of Prayer Lutheran Church, Richfield
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CLASS NOTES
1950
1951
1957
Rev. Raynard Huglen ’53 Sem,
Rev. Herbert C. Hanson, Forest
Stan Baker, Raleigh, N.C., pro-
Newfolden, Minn., has published
a book, The Race Before Us, a
collection of writings from his
27-year tenure as editor of The
Lutheran Ambassador, the publication of the Association of Free
Lutheran Congregations. His
book is available through
Ambassador Publications of the
AFLC, in Minneapolis.
City, Iowa, was presented the
Golden Hammer award by
Habitat for Humanity in North
Iowa and the Volunteer of the
Year award for 2005 by the Forest
City Chamber of Commerce for
his volunteer work for Habitat for
Humanity. In April, he celebrated
his 80th birthday.
fessor of counselor education at
North Carolina State University
in Raleigh, was recognized as one
of the 100 Distinguished Alumni
during the centennial celebration
in May of the University of
Minnesota’s College of Education
and Human Development. He
received a Master of Arts degree
in personnel and guidance work
from there in 1963.
Auggie Reunion
Marshall Johnson, Brooklyn
Center, Minn., has completed 60
articles for The New Interpreter’s
Dictionary of the Bible, forthcoming from Abingdon Press.
Virgil Vagle, Paynesville, Minn.,
was inducted into the Minnesota
State High School League Hall of
Fame in May. He has coached football and wrestling at Paynesville
Area High School for 70 seasons
combined and held the state record
for most career coaching victories
in wrestling from 1997–2004.
1963
1970
Carolyn E. Johnson, Placentia,
Bonnie (Christopherson) Feig,
Starkville, Miss., has been teaching social studies at Starkville
High School for 16 years. During
that time, she has been named
the state’s outstanding social
studies teacher by the Mississippi
Historical Society, the district’s
Star Teacher (chosen by the high
school’s Star Student), the
Starkville Teacher of the Year for
2005–06, and the American
History Teacher of the Year by
the Mississippi Chapter of the
Daughters of the American
Revolution. Her husband,
Douglas ’68, teaches political
science at Mississippi State
University in Starkville.
Calif., received a grant from
Rotary International to teach for
one semester at the University of
Belize in Belize City, starting in
February 2007. She will also
work with the Women’s Issues
Network in Belize. Contact her at
cjohnson@fullerton.edu.
1965
Peter Jacobson, Paynesville,
Six roommates/housemates who graduated in 1967 celebrated their 25th consecutive annual
reunion in August 2005. They all have been teachers at some point in their careers. (Back
row, L to R) Gloria Lamprecht, Sue (Overholt) Hampe, Pat (Rupp) Rossing, Phyllis
(Stradtman) Krieg; (Front row, L to R) Ruth Ann (Gjerde) Fitzke, Ardell (Arends) Lommen.
34 AUGSBURG NOW
John K. Luoma, Stow, Ohio,
recently saw the re-publication
of his case study on the Anglican
divine Richard Hooker in the
Journal for Case Teaching
(2004–05). It was recognized as
one of the outstanding cases in
the Association for Case
Teaching archives.
Minn., and his wife, Lynne, were
honored as Distinguished
Alumni of the Paynesville Area
High School. They have been the
publishers of the Paynesville
Press since 1973, when they
took it over from her father, who
had succeeded his father as well.
In June they became semi-retired
when their son, Michael, took
over as publisher/editor.
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Rev. Kathryn Schreitmueller,
Green Bay, Wis., has been named
pastor of Resurrection Lutheran
Church, after serving for 20
months as interim pastor of Peace
Lutheran Church in Oshkosh.
She teaches liturgy and worship
at the Eastern Lay School of
Ministry and has led students to
work for Habitat for Humanity.
1991
Jennie (Clark) Anderson, Park
Lisa Dietz, Golden Valley, Minn.,
was selected as one of the artists
for the Minnesota State Arts
Board’s second annual Art of
Recovery exhibit, April through
June. Her work included a
poem, an essay, and textile art.
Rapids, Minn., is the new owner
and innkeeper of the Red Bridge
Inn in Park Rapids.
www.redbridgeinn.com
Christine Halvorson, Hancock,
1977
Sharon (Johnson) Sullivan, San
Ron Housley, Santa Maria,
Jose, Calif., was honored by the
Junior League of San Jose as one
of the City of San Jose’s
Outstanding Volunteers for 2006.
She received her honor at the
37th Volunteer Recognition
Luncheon on April 28. She was
nominated by The Tech Museum
of Innovation for her dedication,
compassion, and action.
Calif., is in rehearsal with The
Kingsmen Alumni Corps, a
group of musicians who formerly
were members of The Anaheim
Kingsmen Jr. Drum and Bugle
Corps, for the 2007 Summer
Music Games. Recently, his
arrangement of “Eternal Father,
Strong to Save,” was chosen for
inclusion in the book of The
Kingsmen Alumni Corps.
1975
Craig Olsen (deceased) was
inducted posthumously in April
into the Oregon Chapter of the
National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
During his career he coached high
school teams in Minnesota and
Oregon, and at Pacific University
and University of MinnesotaMorris. He died of cancer in 2004.
1981
N.H., has entered the business of
corporate blogging as a consultant to companies wishing to join
the blogosphere.
www.halvorsonnewmedia.com
1989
Carolyn (Ross) Isaak,
Rochester, Minn., was named to
the U.S. Track and Field Cross
Country Coaches Association’s
Silver Anniversary Team, as one
of the outstanding performers in
women’s outdoor track and field
of the last 25 years. She was
named for her performance in
the 400-meter hurdles, for which
she still holds the NCAA
Division III national meet record.
1990
1978
Debra Axness, Charleston, S.C.,
has been living with her
boyfriend, Larry Struck, aboard
Debonair, their cutter-rigged sailboat, for four years after sailing
from Duluth, through the Great
Lakes, down the Erie Canal and
Hudson River, and down the
East Coast. They are ready to set
sail again towards Bermuda and
south to the Caribbean Basin.
Ora Hokes, Minneapolis, was
one of two winners of the 2006
University of Minnesota Josie
Johnson Human Rights and
Social Justice awards, named for
the first African American to
serve on the university’s Board of
Regents. The award recognizes
individuals who have devoted
their time and talents to making
substantial and enduring contributions to the University of
Minnesota community.
1992
Steven Benson, Owatonna,
Minn., was one of 100 teachers
nationwide to be awarded a 2005
Presidential Award for Excellence
in Mathematics and Science
Teaching. He and his wife, Nancy,
spent a week in Washington, D.C.,
sponsored by the National Science
Foundation, in a combination of
professional development activities
and festivities, which included a
White House breakfast meeting.
He is an advanced mathematics
teacher at Owatonna High School.
Sven
Erlandson,
Minneapolis,
published his
third book,
The 7
Evangelical
Myths:
Untwisting the
Theology behind the Politics, that
addresses the intersection of religion and politics in America,
specifically the role of evangelical
Christianity in the current political culture. During the spring he
served as Augsburg’s strength and
conditioning coach for all sports.
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CLASS NOTES
1993
1999
Anne JulianVan Abel,
Minnetonka,
Minn., started
a new business,
The A-List, a
human resource firm that provides
sourcing and staffing services for
local and national firms in all
industries. She had been an independent consultant for 12 years.
1996
Ryan Carlson, St. Paul, was
appointed an alternate member
by the Highland District
Council’s board of directors. The
council is an organization that
provides a neighborhood voice
to decisions made by the city
and the state.
1997
Sarah (Gilbert) Holtan,
Milwaukee, Wis., was promoted
to assistant professor of communications at Concordia University
Wisconsin. She can be reached at
sarah.holtan@cuw.edu.
1998
Angie Ahlgren, Minneapolis,
will begin a doctoral program
this fall in theatre history/criticism/theory/text with an emphasis in performance as public
practice at the University of
Texas at Austin. She holds an
MA in English literature from the
University of Minnesota.
36 AUGSBURG NOW
Erik C.B.
Johnson,
Chicago, Ill.,
received a
PhD in biochemistry
and molecular biology
from the University of Chicago
on June 9. He is currently a third
year medical student at the
University of Chicago, Pritzker
School of Medicine.
2003
Kristen Opalinski, White Bear
Lake, Minn., was named Coach
of the Year by the Northcentral
Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association
(NSLA) after coaching the North
Suburban Lady Spartans lacrosse
team to an undefeated record
and state championship. She was
also head coach for the
Minnesota All-Stars team, made
up of the state’s best girls in
lacrosse, who achieved a 2-1-2
record at the US Lacrosse
Women’s Division National High
School Tournament at Lehigh
University in Pennsylvania, after
six years of winless appearances.
Kristen works as a graphic artist.
Lindsay Plocher, Megan Feider, and Miya Kunin—the Des Cordes String Trio
2004
2006
Kelly Chapman, Willernie,
Lindsay Plocher, Megan Feider,
and Miya Kunin ’04 have joined
Minn., graduated magna cum
laude from the Fashion Institute
of Design and Merchandising in
Los Angeles. She was one of 10
students accepted into the third
year design program and awarded a full Nolan Miller Scholarship
for the 2006–07 school year.
2005
Yi Chen, New Brighton, Minn.,
works with her husband, Chen
‘04, at Akingco, Inc., a company
that sells gift pens.
together as the Des Cordes String
Trio, playing for weddings, parties, and corporate events. The
trio has performed prior to Saint
Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts as part of their community
series, and in the Linden Hills
Live Music Festival. They are
currently on the preferred musicians list of the Twin City Bridal
Association. www.descordes.com
Graduate programs
Doris Rubenstein ’93 MAL,
Richfield, Minn., has been
named a contributing editor to
CPA Wealth Provider magazine.
She is the principal of PDP
Services, a philanthropy management and planning consulting
firm in Minneapolis.
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
9/12/06
10:25 AM
Page 39
Sports and Scores in Saginaw
Darryl Sellers, a Weekend
College grad of 2002, is the most
recent addition to the WNEMTV5 news team in Saginaw,
Mich. The station’s no. 65 ranking is an impressive advance for
Sellers, coming from no. 153,
KAAL-TV, in Austin, Minn. It’s
one more stepping stone on the
journey that began at Augsburg.
While earning a major in mass
communications and a minor in
English through the weekend
program from 1997 to 2002,
Sellers spent three years as a
McNair Scholar, which helped
him to prepare for graduate
school through workshops,
weekly meetings, conferences,
and outside assignments involving cultural awareness.
Sellers credits Augsburg for
“[laying] the groundwork for my
path… The school helped me
open many doors that were
closed to me before.”
For his McNair mini-thesis,
which he presented at the State
Capitol, Sellers chose to research
the Western Appeal, a St. Paul
African-American newspaper
published from the late 1800s to
the 1920s. He was able to see
how the newspaper began and
how it handled issues facing
blacks of that era such as racism,
discrimination, disenfranchisement, voting rights, and equal
education. Sellers concluded that
the black community was divided
in a number of issues. “Although
the people had many of the same
goals in mind,” he said, “the pathways to get there varied.”
The project helped Sellers
learn crucial lessons in balanced
reporting. “It helped me explore
both sides of issues. I learned
that objectivity itself can be subjective. Balance can’t always be
achieved, and this was something very valuable for an aspiring broadcast journalist.”
After Augsburg, Sellers and his
wife moved to Los Angeles where
he entered the Annenberg School
for Communication at the
University of Southern California.
Although he chose the school
because of its excellent program,
staff, and campus, he also admits,
“I fell in love with Los Angeles
during my honeymoon; I had
fantasized about living in
California. I also wanted to see
what it was like to escape the
tundra country and cold temperatures for two years.”
Part of his study there included
a six-week internship in 2003 in
Cape Town, South Africa, working
for SABC-TV, which he found to
be a great, eye-opening experience.
He received a Master of Arts in
broadcast journalism in May 2004,
and by August, KAAL-TV in
Austin, Minn. offered him a weekend sports anchor position. “I
started working there in
September 2004. It was a whirlwind summer—our son was born
August 13, so we drove more than
2,000 miles to Minnesota with a
three-week-old baby.”
In addition to the weekend
anchor spot, Sellers did sports
reporting and put together feature stories. He was in charge of
all his own camera work, producing, writing, and editing.
After a year and eight months
at KAAL-TV, Sellers stumbled into
a great opportunity through the
persistence of his father-in-law—
whom he calls his “unofficial
agent”—to connect with a
Phoenix TV-station president so
he could tell him about Sellers.
The president sent notification to
sister stations with a wonderful
recommendation. A week or so
later Sellers received e-mail from
the news director of WNEM-TV,
requesting a tape and an interview
in Saginaw. Sellers was then hired
as an 11 p.m. Fox sports anchor.
This new position offers both a
wider geographical area and a bigger budget. It also offers greater
challenge and opportunity to
report on events such as the PGA
Buick Open and to cover college
sports teams, like Michigan State,
and professional teams.
Darryl Sellers ’02
Sellers does miss Minnesota
and the people back home, and
he hopes to eventually make it
back to Minneapolis. “I would
like to work for WCCO-TV—
save a place for me, Mark Rosen,
as a sport anchor,” he says, and
adds with a smile, “Of course, I
wouldn’t say no to KARE, KSTP,
or KMSP.”
His goals also include starting
his own production company
and mentoring aspiring, young
journalists and other youth. “I
want to give back and help pave
the pathway for their future.”
Right now, though, Sellers is
staying very active with his new
job and helping to raise a very
energetic little boy.
— Sara Holman ’06
FA L L 2 0 0 6 3 7
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
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CLASS NOTES
WEDDINGS
BIRTHS/ADOPTIONS
Dale Martin Christopherson ’85,
Grand Forks, N.Dak., and his
wife, Debra, announce the birth
of Alyssa Mae, in March. Dale is
a chemist at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Human Nutrition
Research Center.
Mark Keating ’91 and his wife,
Amy, of Edina, Minn., announce
the birth of their third son,
Aidan Howard on March 14. He
joins brothers Owen, 4, and
Carson, 2. Mark is an account
executive at Symantec.
Nicole (Smith) Sendar ’93,
Edina, Minn., and her husband,
Jordan, announce the birth of
twin boys, Cameron and Gavin,
in September 2005. Nicole is a
teacher in the Minneapolis
Public Schools and can be
reached at nsendar@mn.rr.com.
Sarah (Ginkel) Spilman ’99,
Ames, Iowa, and her husband,
Damion, announce the birth of
their son, Alexander (Zane)
Nicholas, on Jan. 3. Sarah
earned her Master of Arts degree
in sociology at the University of
Iowa in 2004. She is a research
scientist for the Institute for
Social and Behavioral Research at
Iowa State University.
Jennifer Johs-Artisensi ’94, Eau
Ami Nafzger ’94 married Aron Spiess in July. They wed in a tradition-
al Korean wedding that took place as part of the 10th annual Dragon
Festival, an event in St. Paul at Lake Phalen, where they were introduced to each other three years ago. Both Ami and Aron are adoptees
from South Korea. Ami says, “The chair of Dragon Festival asked if
Aron and I would be willing to share our culture with the public at
the festival. We agreed and thought it made sense. Since we met at the
Dragon Festival, we should wed at the festival.” She serves on the festival board as treasurer, as well as on Augsburg’s Alumni Board.
Ami is the founder in 1998 of GOAL, the Global Overseas
Adoptees Link in Korea, that helps to inform Koreans about the existence of adoptees and helps adoptees to connect with their Korean
families and culture. She is beginning a three-year project to start a
GOAL in Minnesota for Asian adoptees and others. Ami and Aron
live in Minneapolis.
38 AUGSBURG NOW
Claire, Wis., and John Artisensi
became the parents of Alexis
Polina in May 2005. She was
born in Novosibirsk, Russia, and
is now two-and-a half years old.
Jennifer is an assistant professor
in the University of WisconsinEau Claire healthcare administration program and John is an elementary music teacher. She can
be reached at johsarjl@uwec.edu
Erica (Johnson) and Jared Trost
’00, East Bethel, Minn., welcome
to the world Josiah Jeffrey, their
first child, on March 19. Coming
in at 8 lbs., 13 oz. and 21 1/2
inches, Josiah is definitely a keeper. Erica is a science teacher at St.
Francis High School, and Jared is
employed by Cedar Creek
Natural History Area.
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
IN MEMORIAM
The Rev. Robert D. Weeden
’51, Newington, Conn., age 82,
on June 22. He served churches
in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
Connecticut, as well as serving in
the chaplaincy during WWII and
at hospitals until his retirement
in 1990.
Phillip Gronseth ’55, Bella Vista,
Ark., age 72, on April 7. He was
an entrepreneur who retired to
Arkansas, where he enjoyed
being an avid golfer. While at
Augsburg he sang in the
Augsburg Quartet and continued
singing throughout his life. He
remained close to Augsburg,
with a special fondness for the
baseball program, and has supported athletics and the sciences.
9/12/06
12:47 PM
Page 41
Betty (Hanson) Rossing ’64,
Grand Rapids, Minn., on July 3.
With a special love for children, she
mentored teenagers, taught Sunday
School and Vacation Church
School, taught elementary grades in
public schools, and encouraged
young people to become involved
in ELCA missions.
Bessie Mae Hughes ’71,
Minneapolis, age 94, on June 8. A
native of Alabama, she came to
Augsburg to complete her college
degree at age 59, after raising four
children, and then taught in
Minneapolis Public Schools. In
1992 she was named an Augsburg
Distinguished Alumna for her contributions to community and her
church, St. Peter’s A.M.E. Church.
SEND US YOUR NEWS AND PHOTOS
Please tell us about the news in your life, your new job, move,
marriage, and births. Don’t forget to send photos!
For news of a death, printed notice is required, e.g. an obituary,
funeral notice, or program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or change of address by mail to:
Augsburg Now Class Notes, Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55454, or e-mail to
alumni@augsburg.edu.
Full name
Maiden name
Class year or last year attended
Street address
City, State, Zip
Joseph Boyer ’90, Greenwood,
Minn., age 38, died unexpectedly
at home on June 11.
The Rev. Harry H. Fullilove ’59,
Coral Gables, Fla., age 81, on Dec.
25, 2004, after a lifetime of service
as Lutheran pastor and missionary
in Pakistan, Ghana, and India.
Is this a new address? □ Yes
□ No
Home telephone
E-mail
Okay to publish your e-mail address? □ Yes
□ No
Employer
Position
Work telephone
Go, Auggies! Lots of spirit at Homecoming ’55
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College?
□ Yes
□ No
If yes, class year
Spouse name
Maiden name
Your news:
Auggie spirit resounded around the Quad as the cheerleaders led the
Pepfest for this year’s 50-year anniversary class at Homecoming 1955.
FA L L 2 0 0 6 3 9
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
9/12/06
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VIEWS
Reflections on
Red Lake
by Janna Caywood ’04
Janna Caywood, former program
coordinator for the Master of
Social Work program, interviewed
Matthew Thornhill ’04, ’06 MSW
about his reflections, as a social
worker, following the Red Lake
school shootings. Following is a
summary of her longer article.
40 AUGSBURG NOW
n March 21, 2005,
16-year-old Jeffrey
Weise shot and
killed three adults
and five classmates,
wounded seven other students,
and then killed himself. It’s a day
in history that the Red Lake Band
of Chippewa will never forget.
This one-hour violent act tore a
gaping hole in the collective spirit
of the entire Red Lake Nation. The
shock and pain were unimaginable. People simply could not
believe something so heinous
could happen in their community.
Worst of all, it was children who
were most deeply affected.
Social work graduate Matthew
Thornhill, a foster care social
worker for American Indian
Family and Children Services in
St. Paul, is an enrolled member
of the Red Lake reservation and
a relative of one of the kids who
died. When he heard the news
that day, his first instinct was to
go to the reservation to be with
his family and friends. “To be
present is very important in
Native culture,” he explains.
He immediately coordinated a
fund drive with his social service
colleagues to help many other Red
Lake members in the Twin Cities
also make the trip back home.
When Matt reached Red Lake,
what he found was both rewarding and disheartening.
It was rewarding to see the
close-knit Red Lake community
pull together and support one
another. Rewarding also was the
support that came from outside
the reservation—from Native
peoples across the U.S. and
Canada, in particular, who called
and e-mailed to express sorrow
and to offer help. “It’s a cultural
value,” says Matt. “We look out
for each other.”
O
Matthew Thornhill ’04, ’06 MSW was named
the “2006 Social Work Student of the Year”
by the National Association of Social
Workers–Minnesota Chapter. His wife,
Angelina, accepted the award with him.
Non-native responses, too,
came from around the globe,
including from some who had
suffered their own school shootings. Many non-Native emergency
responders in Red Lake learned
how to be culturally sensitive
while helping in the community.
The collaboration between
emergency responders and tribal
elders was quite remarkable.
Medicine men, spiritual leaders
and other Band members acted
much like social workers to help
individual families cope and pull
the community together toward
stability and healing. They organized healing ceremonies and
prayer circles for spiritual strength,
both on and off the reservation.
The collaboration between
emergency responders and tribal
leadership was also impressive.
Each morning tribal leaders met
at the local hospital to brief one
another on recent arrivals, so the
newcomers could be dispatched
where need was greatest. Given
the sovereign status of the Red
Lake Nation, there was no ambi-
guity as to who was in charge
and responsible for emergency
efforts—unlike the post-Katrina
confusion.
What Matt found disheartening was the media frenzy around
the shootings and the allegations
about the involvement of the
tribal chairman’s son. Insensitive
behavior by a number of journalists made many in Red Lake feel
exploited. Matt and his family
were most disturbed by news
stories that focused on Red
Lake’s social and economic struggles, implying that they were the
result of failed Native values and
an indifferent, incompetent
community.
The truth is, Matt says, Red
Lake does have its difficulties.
But the root causes are complex
and can only properly be understood through the lens of history
and an understanding of the
long-term effects of colonialism.
What didn’t always come
through were the embedded cultural values in the Red Lake
community and Native way of
life that give strength and
endurance in times of crisis.
In the end, Matt says, Red Lake
did not succumb to the media
barrage, because people drew on
their cultural traditions to rally
each other. “We are a proud,
strong Nation” he says. “We hold
onto our traditional values, yet
we adapt with the times. Red
Lake is gonna make it.”
6121_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
9/14/06
11:09 AM
Page 43
For music information, call 612-330-1265
CALENDAR
For theatre ticket information, call 612-330-1257
For art gallery information, call 612-330-1524
SEPTEMBER
October 18
Concert by the Habbestad Trio, tone
poem and chamber ensemble
September 15–October 27
Reliquiae
Sculpture by Sam Spiczka
“Terje Vigen” song cycle,
by Kjell Habbestad
7 p.m.—Sateren Auditorium
Free and open to the public.
Gage Family Art Gallery, Lindell Library
Artist reception, Oct. 7, 4–8 p.m.
Artist gallery talk, Oct. 25, 12:30 p.m.
Egg Basket
Full of
Hollyhock
Dolls
Paintings by
Amy Rice
’93
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Artist reception, Oct. 7, 4–8 p.m.
Artist slide presentation, Sept. 29, 3:30
p.m., Marshall Room, Christensen Center
September 21
Many Voices: Bold Visions
Convocation Series
The Rose Ensemble
“Common Threads: Exloring Shared
Texts among Early Christians and Jews”
11 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
Free and open to the public.
September 25–30
“Watch Us Soar”—Homecoming 2006
October 18–21
Ages of Imagination: A New Season
of Leadership
The inauguration of Paul Pribbenow
Free and open to the public.
October 20
Festival Service
Bishop Mark Hanson ’68, presiding
Rev. Dr. Robin Lovin, preaching
10:30 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
Inauguration Ceremony
2 p.m.—Melby Hall
Community Celebration
3:30 p.m.—Murphy Square
October 21
Auggie Spirit Zone
11:00 a.m.—Murphy Square
Football game vs. Carleton College
1 p.m.—Anderson-Nelson Field
For information:
www.augsburg.edu/inauguration
See page 32 for schedule.
NOVEMBER
OCTOBER
November 1
faith@work! breakfast speaker series
October 2–3
2006 Christensen
Symposium
Douglas John Hall,
professor emeritus
of Christian theology, McGill
University
Free and open to
the public.
October 2, “Where in the World Are We?
Being Christians after Christendom”
7:30 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
October 3, “What Are People For? Caring
for Life in a Violent World”
11 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
October 4
faith@work! breakfast speaker series
Paul Pribbenow, Augsburg president
7:30 a.m.—St. Philip the Deacon
Lutheran Church, Plymouth, Minn.
Free and open to the public.
Contact: John Knight, 330-1351 or
faith@augsburg.edu. Go to www.spdlc.org.
Barbara Helmsley, founder, Hope
Chest for Breast Cancer
7:30 a.m.—St. Philip the Deacon
Lutheran Church, Plymouth, Minn.
Free and open to the public.
Contact: John Knight, 330-1351 or
faith@augsburg.edu. Go to www.spdlc.org.
November 3–11
Hedda Gabler
By Henrik Ibsen
Faculty directed by Martha Johnson
November 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11
at 7 p.m.
November 5 and 12 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
November 3–December 17
Signs of Life
Sculpture by
Kim Matthews
Gage Family Art
Gallery
Artist reception,
Nov. 3, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Artist gallery talk, TBA
November 5
November Nativity
Concert by Masterworks Chorale of
Augsburg
4 p.m.—TBA
November 17–19
Exceptionally Ordinary
Guest directed by David DeBlieck ’88
November 17, 18, and 19 at 8 p.m.
performed together with
No Exit
November 5–19
Henrik Ibsen Film Festival
Lindell Library 301
Free and open to the public.
November 5, 4:30 p.m.
Immortal Ibsen!—a documentary by
Erling Borgen (Norway, 1999)
Terje Vigen–Victor Sjöström (Sweden, 1917)
November 10, 7 p.m.
The Wild Duck (Vildanden)—
Tancred Ibsen (Norway, 1963)
November 12, 4:30 pm.
A Doll’s House—Patrick Garland
(England, 1973)
By Jean Sartre
Student directed by
Justin Hooper ’07
November 17, 18, and 19 at 9 p.m.
Foss Studio Theater
November 18
Augsburg Concert Band concert
4 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
November 19
F. Melius Christiansen Festival concert
2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.—Orchestra Hall
See page 6–7.
November 17, 7 p.m.
Lady Inger (Fru Inger til Østråt)—
Sverre Undnæs (Norway, 1975)
November 19, 4:30 p.m.
An Enemy of the People (En
folkefiende)—Erik Skjoldbjærg
(Norway, 2004)
November 5–30
Exhibit–“To Be a Poet Is to See:
Ibsen in Our Time”
Lindell Library, third floor
November 6
Scholastic Connections Gala
Reception and Dinner
Celebrating the scholarship/mentorship program and the four ethnic services programs
Free and open to the public.
6 p.m.—Christensen Center
Info and reservations:
612-330-1104
November 10
Anita Gay Hawthorne Jazz &
Poetry Bash
6:30 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel and
Arnold Atrium
November 12
Augsburg Symphony Orchestra Concert
4:30 p.m.—Sateren Auditorium
Augsburg Jazz Ensemble concert
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
Subjective Mapping: An Exploration
of Spirit and Place
Paintings by Teresa Cox
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Artist reception, Nov. 3, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Artist gallery talk, TBA
DECEMBER
December 1
Velkommen Jul Celebration
10:15 a.m.–Chapel service,
Hoversten Chapel
11 a.m.–2 p.m.–Scandinavian treats and
gifts, Christensen Center
December 1–2
27th Annual Advent Vespers
A service of music and liturgy
5 and 8 p.m. each night
Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis
For seating envelopes,
612-330-1265
December 6
faith@work! breakfast speaker series
Norah Long, Canto, St. Philip the
Deacon Lutheran Church
7:30 a.m.–St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran
Church, Plymouth, Minn.
Free and open to the public.
Contact: John Knight, 330-1351 or
faith@augsburg.edu. Go to www.spdlc.org.
FA L L 2 0 0 6
6121_Augsburg_AugsburgNow-Fall 06
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“Hostas and Water Drops” was
the first photo in a series called
“Photo of the Week” on the
AugNet page of the Augsburg
College website. This feature
was created to keep AugNet
readers up to date on College
happenings, to help them
notice beauty they may have
overlooked, and to add variety
to the page.
— Stephen Geffre, photographer
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Minneapolis, MN
Permit No. 2031
Show less
A
P U B L I C AT I O N
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
Summer 2006
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 68, No. 4
A SMOOTH TRANSITION
page 2
FEATURES
17
The Frame years—
a journey toward vision
by Betsey Norgard
22
Augsburg’s original MBAs:
The Class of 2006
by Bethany Bierma... Show more
A
P U B L I C AT I O N
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
Summer 2006
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 68, No. 4
A SMOOTH TRANSITION
page 2
FEATURES
17
The Frame years—
a journey toward vision
by Betsey Norgard
22
Augsburg’s original MBAs:
The Class of 2006
by Bethany Bierman
27
On tour with the Augsburg Choir
by Judy Petree
30
Those Lutheran Ladies
by Betsey Norgard
DEPARTMENTS
2 Around the Quad
7 Sports
8 Commencement 2006
12 Sixth Annual International
Programs Photo Contest
14 Supporting Augsburg
Access to Excellence:
The Campaign for Augsburg College
35 Alumni news
37 Class notes
TABLE OF CONTENTS
40 Auggie Thoughts
Summer 2006
Vol 68, No. 4
A college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Augsburg College is an equal education/employment institution.
Editor
Betsey Norgard
norgard@augsburg.edu
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
rumpza@augsburg edu
Staff Writer
Bethany Bierman
bierman@augsburg.edu
Staff Photographer
Stephen Geffre
geffre@augsburg.edu
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
petree@augsburg.edu
Sports Information Director
Don Stoner
stoner@augsburg.edu
Director of Marketing and
Communications
Christopher Moquist
moquist@augsburg.edu
Director of Alumni Relations
Heidi Breen
breen@augsburg.edu
www.augsburg.edu
On the cover:
Augsburg Now is published quarterly by Augsburg
Augsburg President William Frame (right)
and President-elect Paul Pribbenow (left)
have enthusiastically worked together for a
smooth administrative transition.
College, 2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota
55454. Opinions expressed in Augsburg Now do not
necessarily reflect official College policy. ISSN 1058–1545
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services
Augsburg College, CB 142
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
50 percent recycled paper (10 percent post-consumer waste)
AROUND
QUAD
Around THE
the Quad
From one president to the next—
in smooth transition
I
n what President William Frame calls a
rather remarkable and unusual
occurrence in higher education, both he
and President-elect Paul Pribbenow
jointly spoke to the spring gathering of
faculty and staff in March.
Frame explained what he understands
as a complex relationship between
continuity and change, as both he and
the incoming president individually and
jointly continue to increase the “clarity of
the College’s self-definition” as well as
“the speed at which it is being realized”
during the transition period.
(In a gesture to ease at least the visual
transition, Frame turned just before
introducing Pribbenow and donned a
bow tie, calling reference to the incoming
president’s signature accessory.)
Pribbenow lauded and affirmed the
defining work that has been carried out
by the Augsburg community in
articulating its vision. “I would not be
here,” he commented, “if I did not find
your aspirations inspiring and
compelling.”
Pribbenow takes office on July 1, and
his inauguration has been set for Oct. 20.
The next issue of Augsburg Now will
outline his administration’s priorities and
introduce his leadership team.
William Frame donned a bow tie to signal his
“profound regard” for his successor.
Both retiring president William Frame (left)
and incoming president Paul Pribbenow
(right) spoke to faculty and staff in March.
Chris Kimball will be chief academic
officer at California Lutheran University
C
hristopher Kimball, provost and vice
president for academic affairs, left
Augsburg May 31 to assume the same
position at California Lutheran
University in Thousand Oaks, Calif.,
beginning in July.
Kimball, a member of the history
faculty since 1991, was appointed dean
in 2000 and provost in 2004 when that
position was created. His impact at
Augsburg is seen in the areas of
curricular reform, calendar changes,
teaching loads, several new programs,
and the “internationalization” of the
campus.
“I have been blessed to work at
Augsburg during a time of great change,
2
especially in the articulation of our
mission and vision,” said Kimball.
“California Lutheran University, located
in an economically vibrant and culturally
diverse region, offers a wonderful
opportunity to continue that work.”
President William Frame stated,
“… Chris’ gifts, some of which were
shaped in the process of giving our
College new vitality and sharp direction,
have been acknowledged by a fine
institution in current need of them.”
In May, the Department of Business
Administration presented Kimball with a
plaque recognizing his support of business
studies and his “entrepreneurial spirit.”
Summer 2006
Farewell to the Frames—a ‘gentle roast’ and
a proper tribute
1
2
3
O
n April 21, more than 300 faculty and
staff gathered to honor and show
appreciation to Bill and Anne Frame, and
to entertain them with some ‘gentle’
roasting. Augsburg’s Gospel Praise
provided music, with returning special
guest artist Jennifer Grimm ’99.
Gift presentations were made and the
Frames offered an Augsburg rendition of
Woody Guthrie’s song, “So Long, It’s Been
Good to Know You.”
Frame reflected on his time at
Augsburg. “These years have been a great
gift to us … because they’ve given us the
possibility for growth … And new
understanding about this great business of
education—where it comes from, what it
changes, why it’s crucial for the salvation
of humankind. …
“This place gave us a chance to think
through [a great calling] more deeply and
better than ever we would have had a
chance to do otherwise. So, we’re grateful.
We’re grateful to you and we’re grateful to
Summer 2006
this place and its great lineage in history.”
When asked by Augsburg Echo about
his plans for retirement, he mentioned one
specific project—an old boat with “at least
a year’s worth of work before it’s ready for
the water.”
On April 30, a more proper
“Celebration of Music and Worship for the
Presidency of Bill and Anne Frame at
Augsburg College” was held at Central
Lutheran Church.
ELCA presiding bishop Mark Hanson
’68 presented the keynote address. Three
music groups—Augsburg’s Gospel Praise,
Masterworks Chorale, and the Augsburg
Centennial Singers—each sang several
pieces.
Campus pastor David Wold read a
series of tributes received honoring the
Frames, including an ode written by
Wartburg College president Jack Ohle and
his wife, Kristy, and a proclamation from
the City of Minneapolis declaring this day
to be “Bill and Anne Frame Day.”
4
1 Bill and Anne Frame enjoy some of the
lighter minutes of the “roast” in their
honor.
2 Campus pastor David Wold reads the
proclamation from Mayor R.T. Rybak
declaring April 30 “Bill and Anne Frame
Day” in the City of Minneapolis.
3 President Frame picked up his guitar to
join Gospel Praise in “I Saw the Light” at
Central Lutheran Church.
4 Assistant director of alumni relations and
former football coach Jack Osberg ’62
leans in close to extend his greetings
above the jazz and gospel music.
3
Campus News
Honors for distinguished
teaching and learning
Association, and the American
Association of School Administrators.
Selection to the network, part of ECS’
National Center for Learning and
Citizenship (NCLC), commits its
members to further service to promote
civic engagement for all students.
Erickson serves as chair of the
Minneapolis School Board.
Hannah Dietrich’s research
paper wins national award
Dietrich visited the sex offender
treatment program at the Lino Lakes
Correctional Facility and learned about
the pre-release transition program. She
became interested in finding out if
offenders really understood the
registration process and if they became
more compliant and submitted better
verification after completing the
program.
Together with Steblay, she crafted a
research plan that became her senior
honors project.
Dietrich is now in the master’s program
in experimental psychology at the
University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
Orientation leaders
receive awards
Congratulations to the faculty and staff
who received awards for Distinguished
Contributions to Teaching and Learning
from the Center for Teaching and
Learning and the Office of the Provost
and Dean of the College:
Teaching—Phil Adamo (standing, left),
history
Mentoring—Dixie Shafer (seated,
center), Undergraduate Research and
Graduate Opportunity (URGO)
Service to Students—Heather Feehan
(standing, right), Chris Pegg (seated,
right), Scott Krajewski (seated, left),
Robert Bill (standing, center)—all from
Information Technology.
Joe Erickson selected for
national network
Joseph Erickson, education, has been
named to the “100 District Leaders for
Citizenship and Service-Learning
Network.” The network includes school
board members and district
superintendents across the country
selected by a panel representing the
Education Commission of the States
(ECS), the National School Boards
4
Hannah Dietrich’s honor project research
with Professor Nancy Steblay was named
Best Undergraduate Paper.
Hannah Dietrich, a 2005 psychology
graduate, has received the American
Psychology-Law Society’s 2006 Award for
Best Undergraduate Paper. She presented
her research and received the award at
the AP-LS meeting in March in St.
Petersburg, Fla.
Her paper, “Predatory Sexual
Offenders: Post-Treatment Registration
Compliance and Recidivism” is the result
of research she did in collaboration with
psychology professor Nancy Steblay.
Dietrich became interested in
studying disorders after taking an
abnormal psychology class. She landed
an internship at the Minnesota Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension, working in the
Predatory Offender Registration Unit,
and connected with a supervisor who
included her in many areas of the work.
Augsburg’s student orientation leaders
participated in the National Orientation
Directors Association Regional
Conference in Minneapolis.
In the Undergraduate Case Study
competition, Greg Hildebrandt ’08 won
the Best Problem Solving Award, and
Sarah Black ’09 received the Best
Communication Award. Student
Activities director Marc Skjervem
presented on the changing culture of
college students using online
communities and the consequences
students face with the misuse of
websites.
Wrestlers are second in nation
in academics
For the ninth year in a row, Augsburg
finished in the top 10 in the National
Wrestling Coaches Association’s Scholar
All-America team program, finishing
second among more than 100 NCAA
Division III wrestling institutions, with a
3.42 team grade point average. The top
team, Messiah College (Pa.), had a team
GPA of 3.47.
Augsburg is the only school in NCAA
Division III wrestling to finish in the top
10 both in competition on the mat and
in the academic team competition in
each of the nine years that the NWCA
has awarded an academic team national
championship. ■
Summer 2006
‘Zyzzogeton’—
the last word
A
ugsburg launched a new tradition this year with
“Zyzzogeton,” a four-day celebration of student
and faculty work—from artistic performances to
student research posters.
Taking its name from the last entry in Webster’s
Third New International dictionary, the celebration is
meant to wrap up and highlight the breadth and depth
of scholarship at Augsburg. Art exhibits, faculty and
student recitals, faculty research roundtables, student
research posters, film projects, theatre productions,
museum installations, and more filled the calendar
of events.
(In the dictionary, “zyzzogeton” is defined as a
genus of South American leaf hoppers.)
Visitors to campus during this time included high
school students who came on Drama Day to learn
more about the theatre arts program, and middle
school students with developmental disabilities and
peers taking part in the annual Metro Arts Festival
with Augsburg’s music therapy students.
A lighter highlight of the celebration was a
vigorous debate, Lefse vs. Lutefisk, in which four
scholars—President Frame (political science), Lori
Brandt Hale (religion), Joan Griffin (English), and Ken
Kaminsky (mathematics)—took sides to argue and
defend the Norwegian delicacies from the viewpoints
of their academic disciplines. The judges were
Norwegian bunad-clad members of the Augsburg
Associates, and guests were treated to the delicacies of
each, including their aromas. (And, yes, the lutefisk
side was declared the winner.)
Top left: The spring theatre production, Metamorphoses,
by Mary Zimmerman, uses contemporary language and
imagery to explore ancient myths.
Center: Biology major Ben Sonquist explains his research
to physics professor Ben Stottrup.
Bottom left: Physics professor Mark Engebretson shared
his research on geomagnetic pulsations in Earth’s space
environment.
Summer 2006
5
Larry Ragland retires after
21 years
P
rofessor Larry Ragland was
one of the founding
members of the Computer
Science Department and retired
in May after 21 years teaching
in both that department and
mathematics.
He has stayed at Augsburg,
he says, for the same reason he
tells prospective students they
should come—to be in a
supportive environment where
students and faculty work
closely together.
While computing has
changed greatly over two
Professor Larry Ragland served as one of the founding
decades, he says, the discipline
faculty of the computer science department and retired
of computer science has not.
after 21 years at Augsburg.
“When I started, we showed
students the ‘on’ switch and
unmanned flights.
how to use a mouse … We operated in
Ragland recalls his first assignment at
an entirely different way then,” Ragland
Augsburg
as chair of the Academic
says. Now, with a comprehensive campus
Computing
Committee, with a goal to
network and the global Internet, “we
hire
a
full-time
academic computing
have changed how we relate to the
director.
That
finally
happened in 1990.
world.”
At
Ragland’
s
retirement
celebration,
Ragland reflects on the fact that he
Professor
Karen
Sutherland
said the
has spent his entire career working in a
department
will
miss
his
“advice,
cool
discipline that didn’t exist when he went
ideas,
ability
to
keep
them
calm,
and
to college. His first degrees were in
sense of humor.” Junior Cory Nathan
mathematics, and he started out teaching
spoke
for students, thanking Ragland for
in public schools.
“putting
up with us and teaching us a
His interest in computer science
thing
or
two
along the way.”
developed while he worked in the Apollo
Ragland
has
no definite plans yet for
Space Program in Houston. During the
retirement.
He
says
he has room for one
period in which the manned program
big
“yes”
for
a
project,
but has no idea
recovered from its tragic fire, Ragland
yet
of
what
that
project
will be.
worked on computer displays for
Joy Bartlett leaves Education Department
E
ducation professor Joy Bartlett retired
from Augsburg in December 2005
and moved to Las Vegas. Since 2001 she
has taught orientation to education,
reading methods, and technology in the
classroom.
6
She fondly recalls the warmth of the
Augsburg community and the
enthusiasm of her students. Also, she
enjoyed helping students in the McNair
program and the Undergraduate Research
and Graduate Opportunity office with
their research.
Sandi Lallak
leaves Augsburg
for Arizona
A
fter 23 years at
Augsburg
working with
students in the
CLASS program,
Sandi Lallak retired
in May and moved
with her husband to
Mesa, Ariz.
When Lallak began working in the
Center for Learning and Adaptive Student
Services (CLASS), she recalls, CLASS had
one computer, little technology, and
mostly provided advocacy for students
with disabilities—about 10 of them.
An endowment from the Groves
Family in 1988 enabled the program to
grow and make the commitment to
become a premier program. Lallak
researched the field to learn about
available adaptive technology, traveled to
visit programs, and helped create a small
lab on campus. She and colleague Sadie
Curtis began to tape textbooks.
Within three years, the program grew
to provide services and accommodations
to over 100 students. Lallak and Curtis
spent nearly a decade developing the
systems, databases, and procedures for
CLASS as it is today, including its student
workers. “I’m so honored to have been
able to make this happen,” she says.
With new technology, Lallak says,
“students are reading better, retaining, and
comprehending better.”
Lallak became the first
accommodations specialist she knows
about; Curtis is now a physical disabilities
specialist in the ACCESS program.
While CLASS currently serves about
190 students, past students remain an
important part of Lallak’s life. A double
bulletin board jammed with photos of past
students—weddings, babies, vacations—
covered a corner of her office.
Lallak has no definite plans in
retirement, but many ideas for volunteer
opportunities in Arizona.
Summer 2006
Sports
For current sports information, scores, and schedules go to <www.augsburg.edu/athletics>.
Carol Enke retires from coaching
by Don Stoner
I
“ ’ve never looked at any part of my job as
a ‘job’,” said Carol Enke, who has
coached Augsburg’s softball team for 21
seasons and taught in the Health and
Physical Education Department for 19
years. “I always say that I’m going to
‘school.’ I never say that I’m going to
‘work.’
“I’ve looked at this as fun. I get paid to
come in here and do this—interact with
students and interact with studentathletes.”
Enke left her coaching position at the
end of the 2006 season, while continuing
to work in the HPE department. In 21
seasons at Augsburg, Enke has compiled
302 career victories, while coaching six
players who have earned National
Fastpitch Coaches Association Division III
All-American honors and 28 players who
have earned all-region honors (entering
the 2006 season).
Along the way, Enke has touched the
lives of hundreds of softball players, along
with hundreds of HPE majors who are
continuing her legacy in classrooms all
over the region. In 2001, the senior class
selected her as one of three Honored
Faculty.
“I’ve enjoyed watching the students
grow,” Enke said. “I have them in a 200level class in their first or second years,
and I ask myself, ‘Are they really going to
make it in the teaching profession?’ Then
when they are in the 300-level classes their
junior and senior years, you see that these
kids have made a lot of progress and
they’ll be OK.”
Enke was a standout athlete in
multiple sports in her hometown of
Janesville, Wis.—she was inducted into
her hometown’s Athletic Hall of Fame in
1995—and played collegiate softball at the
University of Minnesota. She coached for
three seasons, two as head coach, at
Minneapolis Roosevelt High School before
coaching her first season at Augsburg
in 1986.
Enke initially worked part time at
Augsburg, while completing her master’s
degree at Minnesota. And in her early
Summer 2006
Softball coach Carol Enke, flanked by players (left to right) Sarah Mueller ’09, Sarah Green ’09,
and Katie Johnson ’08, cheers on the team in her last game as coach after 21 seasons. Enke will
continue teaching in the health and physical education department.
years, she felt that Division III Augsburg
would be just a step in her career to bigger
goals.
“Way back when, I thought that
someday I’d move up to coach Division II
or Division I softball. Then, it happened
that I started to teach more courses in the
[HPE] major and I really enjoyed that
along with coaching. After that, I never
thought about moving up to Division II or
Division I.”
Do I remember very many
games? Heck, no. Do I remember
the fun we had? Absolutely.
—Carol Enke, softball coach
Enke has developed a close-knit, family
atmosphere with her softball teams,
encouraging the players’ families to be
active in the program during the short
spring season. In the past, she has taken
the players on off-season adventures and
team-building activities, such as crosscountry skiing, winter camping, snow
tubing, and rock climbing.
She has also encouraged her studentathletes to be active in multiple activities
on campus. Several of her players compete
in multiple sports at Augsburg, while also
serving as members of clubs and
organizations on campus.
“With the softball teams, our athletes
aren’t one-dimensional,” Enke said. “We’ve
got them going in all directions, more than
ever before. That’s just how well-rounded
they are, and we encourage that. We tell
them that they have four years here, and
they should ‘bite off as much as they can
chew.’ If you want to play two or three
sports, do it. If you want to be active in
campus activities, do it. Take advantage of
what you’re getting for your tuition.”
There have been many changes in
college softball during the 21 years of
Enke’s tenure, including in bat technology.
“When I started here, a bat was $29.95.
Now bats can cost over $200,” she said.
But what hasn’t changed with Enke’s
Auggie teams is the fun atmosphere she
encourages, along with the life skills she
teaches, both in the classroom and on the
softball diamond.
“It keeps me young,” she said. “Just
the relationships with the students and
student-athletes, getting involved in their
lives. Letting them know that you are
someone they can come to. I really like
that, and I like to watch them grow in all
areas of their lives—not just as student,
not just as an athlete, but as the person as
a whole.
“I’ve loved the people, the teammates
and the coaches, all the relationships
we’ve had. Do I remember very many
games? Heck, no. Do I remember the fun
we had? Absolutely.” ■
7
COMMENCEMENT
2006
The 137TH YEAR of Augsburg College
PAUL CUMINGS RECEIVES
MARINA CHRISTENSEN
JUSTICE AWARD
Faculty and students grab one more farewell in Augsburg’s longtime tradition
of faculty cheering on their students as they process to the ceremony.
Libby Henslin, admissions and operations
coordinator for Augsburg’s Rochester
program, graduated with a major in
religion and shared the day’s excitement
with her daughter, Rebecca, who earned
a degree in social work.
Paul Cumings, an international relations
major and student body president, was
selected as the 2006 recipient of the Marina
Christensen Justice Award.
Each year, this honor is presented to the
graduating senior who best exemplifies
Augsburg’s motto, “Education for Service.”
Cumings came to Augsburg from
AmeriCorps, serving at the Brian Coyle
Center on the West Bank in Minneapolis.
He worked two years in the college readiness
program, helping junior high and high
school students first consider going to
college and then helping them prepare the
skills to gain acceptance.
On campus he served in numerous
service and leadership roles—as resident
adviser, as director of food and clothing
drives, as a co-sponsor of the “get out the
vote” efforts, and as a leader in neighborhood Somali programs.
As a Sabo Scholar, Cumings helped
Augsburg make connections between public
policy and service, laying groundwork for
future Sabo Scholars.
The award recipient must have
demonstrated a dedication to community
involvement as characterized by the personal
and professional life of Marina Christensen
Justice, who reached out to disadvantaged
people and communities.
President William Frame congratulates
student body president and Sabo Scholar Paul
Cumings, who was awarded the 2006
Marina Christensen Justice Award.
8
Summer 2006
EXCERPTS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
“An Augsburg Education: Vocation and the Social Good”
—Peter Agre ’70, M.D.
I would like to use this occasion to reflect on my life and share some of the lessons I have
learned. While an Augsburg student I became a die-hard advocate for the liberal arts
tradition …
Proud chemistry professor Arlin Gyberg (left)
straightens the hood of his former student,
Dr. Peter Agre ’70, who was the Commencement
speaker and received an honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters degree. The accolade was read by
Dr. Paul Mueller ’84, a student of Agre’s at
the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
The Honorable Walter F. Mondale reads the
accolade for the honorary Doctor of Humane
Letters degree awarded to James A. Johnson,
former executive assistant to Mondale and
CEO of Fannie Mae.
Lisa Prytula ’04, ’06 MAN, who completed
a bachelor’s degree in nursing and
finished a master’s degree, spoke on
behalf of the graduate students.
I was a student here in the 1960s—an era notable for extreme turmoil in our country.
During my years in high school and as an undergraduate, I lived through the assassinations
of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy. My years here
coincided with unprecedented social disturbances resulting from conflicts between white
supremacists and civil rights workers, between supporters of the war in Vietnam and antiwar protesters. Despite the consternation experienced elsewhere, those of us at Augsburg
enjoyed an island of tranquility where issues and events such as these could be discussed
with respect and civility.
Augsburg College has never been a school for privileged members of the establishment.
Augsburg recognized the importance of inclusion at a very early time and has long been a
leader in providing educational opportunities for the Native Americans and other ethnic
minorities. Augsburg’s commitment to students with physical disabilities had just begun in
the 1960s. Similar to previous generations of Augsburg students, many of my classmates
were from the working class, often the first members of their families to attend college. …
But this is not the tradition prevailing at the so-called “prestige” colleges and
universities in the United States where it is rare to have first generation students or
students with parents holding blue-collar jobs. Clearly the working class of America is
being excluded from many institutions of higher education. This makes me even prouder
of the modest roots of Augsburg students, for as the late Kirby Puckett reflected, “It doesn’t
matter where you come from. It only matters how you play the game.”
And I always felt that my classmates at Augsburg learned to play the game extremely
well. This was due in part to the splendid Augsburg faculty—perhaps most outspoken
among them was my father, Courtland Agre, whose unbridled enthusiasm and exuberant
encouragement directed many of us into professional and graduate schools. …
While my generation, the “Baby Boomers,” has achieved unprecedented prosperity, I
sincerely feel that we have failed to improve the world to a state better than it was when
we received it from our parents. In fact, I fear that the world is in worse shape now. If
this continues, we will be the first generation in memory to fail in such an important
endeavor. We all know what the problems are: damage to the environment, continued
war, prevalence of famine and untreated disease in the developing world, violent crime
and poverty in our inner cities, the epidemic of drug abuse, failure to provide adequate
health care to all Americans, and the staggering $9 trillion national debt which will fall
on your generation.
Education has never been more important than in the current time of growing antiintellectualism in America. It is really shocking when you think that less than half of all
Americans read a single book last year.
As Mark Twain informed us, “The man who doesn’t read good books has no
advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
I fear the emphasis in our country has now become one of fixing the blame rather
than fixing the problem. The polarized special interests have caused gridlock in our
national government where the two major parties can seemingly agree on nothing. Let
me suggest that the hour is late and we must stop the face-slapping and join hands and
concentrate all of our attention on fixing the problems. It is often said that “the genius
of this immigrant nation is that we have always found our center,” and I believe that we
need to do so urgently. …
Thank you and congratulations.
The full Commencement Address is at <www.augsburg.edu/president/commencement06.html>.
Summer 2006
9
COMMENCEMENT
2006
BACCALAUREATE HOMILY (EXCERPTS)
WILLIAM V. FRAME, PRESIDENT
Physician assistant graduate Tara Rick is the center of attention as she receives her
master's hood from PA director Dawn Ludwig.
“Separating Together”
[I]n John’s Gospel and the Book of Acts, Jesus is preparing the disciples for
their new assignment—dispersal, one by one, each on his own, into the
world for the sake of the great commission. He suggests that they can
sustain themselves in the midst of their independence only if they remember
before leaving that they were transformed from a motley crew of fishermen,
tax collectors, and other workaday professionals into a “community.” But
this recollection will strengthen them for the independent journeys just
ahead only if they repair the terrible rip in the fabric of their collegium
caused by Judas’ betrayal. Hence, before the reprise of community can be
undertaken, Judas’ empty position must be filled. And it is, by one Mattias,
who is called up from the apostolic bench (which appears to have been
deeper than that of the Timberwolves) by a drawing of lots. …
You and I are separating—together—and the good news is that we’re
separating from a place that gave each of us something to be separated from. …
[from] a community of learning, in which ideas of the transforming kind,
experiences (sometimes of the embarrassing kind—some, entailing success,
and some, failure and frustration), gave us new life and, therefore, identity. …
Like us, in the hands of the College, the disciples had been molded into
something new by their particular course of study, faculty, and classmates.
Their capstone course culminated in the resurrection. Yours came to a more
conventional conclusion a week ago. But neither we now, nor the disciples
then, are yet prepared for separation.
Until we recognize that we were transformed by our time together; until
we confess that each of us is now becoming someone—not the realization of
some persona prescribed at or even before birth—but a self created by a
million incidents of concourse, a thousand recollections of experience,
a hundred moments of revelation. Until we begin becoming ourselves, we
shall lack the independence of the world that vocation requires. To stand in
the midst of the life each of us is about to undertake—either of a job search,
employment, or retirement—and to render service to our neighbor, we must
know who we are and how we got that way. That knowledge is of identity; it
constitutes the protective suit, even though not fully woven, that allows us
to live in and serve the world without being wholly fused with it. …
But what we have learned here—about ourselves, the world, and God;
what the disciples learned about themselves—remains beyond our grasp and
theirs without the great final examination known as saying goodbye!
Until we address our separation—seriously; until we face the fact that we
are leaving people who have meant the world to us—teachers, friends,
10
Sunny Olise receives his master’s hood from director Robert
Kramarczuk in Augsburg’s first MBA class.
parents (that you now realize you didn’t leave four years
ago but are now, finally going to leave—today!)—we are
not tempered for the new immersion in the world. Until
we know who and what we have become, we cannot
maintain our independence in the world when we are out
there in it, on our own.
Goodbyes force us each to meet ourselves face to face,
as Achilles did in The Iliad. That means that we have put
our affairs in order—so that they may be abandoned; we
have to repair the rents in the fabric we knit in the
College cocoon in order that we might be released from
it—a beautiful butterfly capable of flying into the
maelstrom of life without danger to bring a glimpse of
beauty to a dour and broken world. …
And so—let us, to each other, both now and this
afternoon, say, “Goodbye!” And in so doing, we shall
each bear the College with us, out into the world—a
shield and a buckler of the vocational life that fulfills the
requirements of the great commission in the kingdom on
the left.
That last great goodbye gives us the capacity and even
the need for reunion. If done right, it allows us to soon
again say—here, at the intersection of Riverside and
22nd—“Hello! It’s good to see you. I’ve missed you!”
To read the full Baccalaureate Homily, go to
<www.augsburg.edu/president/baccalaureate06.html>.
Summer 2006
THE AUGSBURG COLLEGE CLASS
OF 2006
3,420
Attended the ceremony
3,600
Cookies and petit fours served at the reception
752
Class of 2006—346 traditional day students, 162 weekend
students, 39 students in the Rochester program, 13
from United Hospital, 1 from 3M; and 191 graduate students
in six programs
580
Graduates marching
490
Enjoyed Commencement Brunch
350
Attended Commencement Dinner
125
Faculty marching in the procession
58
Age of the oldest graduate
20
Age of the youngest graduates
14
Flags representing countries of international graduates
2
Honorary degrees conferred
1
Retiring presidential couple—many thanks to Bill and Anne!
countless Smiles and tears of happiness, gratitude, and appreciation
Audra Johnson, a studio art graduate, has a
jubilant smile on graduation day.
The sociology department faculty take a moment to get photos of their graduates.
Summer 2006
11
SIXTH ANNUAL International Programs Photo Contest
1
2
3
7
1
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT
AUGSBURG, second place.
“Melting Pot.” Kamilla T. Fossem,
Norway.
2
PEOPLE PORTRAITS, first place. “Yo
confío.” Kathryn Jones ’08. San
Salvador, El Salvador.
3
PEOPLE PORTRAITS, third place.
“Begging Musicians.” Richard
Garnett ’08. Cuernavaca, Mexico.
4
5
LOCAL PEOPLE, second place.
“Video Games vs. the Acropolis.”
Katharine Mahon ’06. Athens,
Greece.
LOCAL PEOPLE, third place. “A
Journey through an African Desert.”
Therese DeMay ’06. Swakopmund,
Namibia.
12
8
6
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT AUGSBURG,
first place. “The Old and the New
Minneapolis.” Martin Garnes, Norway.
7
CITYSCAPES, third place. “Untitled.” Britta
Boyum ’06. Lofoten Islands, Norway.
9
8
LOCAL PEOPLE, first place. “Bearing the Load.”
Kelsey Nolan ’06. Sontule, Nicaragua.
9
PEOPLE PORTRAITS, second place. “Familia.”
Megan L. Schiller ’06. Nicaragua.
10 CITYSCAPES, second place. “Cusco by Night.”
Joelle Bickel ’07. Cusco, Peru.
11 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT
AUGSBURG, third place. “A Frozen
Falls.” Martin Garnes, Norway.
12 CITYSCAPES, first place. “Fishing
Industry.” Britta Boyum ’06.
Harstad, Norway.
13 BEST OF SHOW. “Waca Wasi
Wardrobe.” Joelle Bickel ’07.
Waca Wasi, Peru.
Summer 2006
4
5
6
10
11
12
Summer 2006
13
13
Supporting Augsburg
Gift of $4 million gives green light
to Gateway
by Betsey Norgard
A
$4 million naming gift from Donald
’53 and Beverly (Halling) Oren ’55
has provided the funding needed for
Augsburg to proceed with the $18.5
million Gateway Building.
On May 5 the Augsburg Board of
Regents granted approval for the College
to pursue the financing needed to begin
construction this summer. A ceremonial
groundbreaking is scheduled for Sept. 8,
with building completion in fall 2007.
Donald Oren ’53, an Augsburg regent
emeritus, is chairman of the board of Dart
Transit Company, founded by his father in
1934. The trucking and logistics company
ranks 53rd of the Top 100 Carriers
nationwide.
Beverly (Halling) Oren ’55 has taught
school and worked as vice president of
human resources at Dart Transit. She
remains a principal and adviser to the
company, and currently serves on
Augsburg’s Board of Regents.
Three of their children are involved
with Dart Transit—David, president;
Daniel, vice president; and Bradley, general
manager. Daughter Angela Anderson is
mother to one-year-old Samuel.
“We are pleased and honored to
participate in Augsburg’s growth by being
part of the Gateway project,” says Beverly
Oren. “The business school is of special
interest as it offers an opportunity for
students to experience the entrepreneurial
Donald ’53 and Beverly (Halling) Oren ’55
spirit. Also, Augsburg’s commitment to
promoting vocation provides a very
worthy goal.”
The Gateway Building will be
Augsburg’s link to its surrounding
community and city, and a distinctive
“front door” on Riverside Ave. It will easily
connect the College with the CedarRiverside area, the University of
Minnesota’s West Bank, and the FairviewUniversity Medical Center across the
street.
The building is a four-story combined
administrative, commercial, and residential
center. It will provide new homes for the
Alumni Conference Center, the StepUP
Program, the Master of Business
Administration program, the Gage Family
Art Gallery, and offices for Institutional
Advancement. Community residents and
organizations will be encouraged to use
meeting space in the new Gateway.
On the first floor, retail stores such as
Barnes and Noble will serve not only the
campus community, but staff and patients
of the hospital across the street and the
West Bank and Cedar-Riverside
communities as well.
The top three floors will provide
student housing—upperclass students on
the second floor and StepUP students on
floors three and four.
From Riverside Ave., a central Gateway
plaza welcomes visitors to campus.
Circling the plaza are Hoversten Chapel,
Lindell Library, and the Gateway Building,
representing the College's commitments to
faith, reason, and service.
For Augsburg’s StepUP program, which
provides students in addiction recovery the
support and skills they need to succeed in
college, the Gateway Building will
centralize their office, counseling, and
residential space.
It’s about “having a home where we’re
all together,” says StepUP director Patrice
Salmeri, and will give students who
complete the program the “ability to stay
longer and mentor younger students.”
In eight years, StepUP has grown to
over 50 students, and they have
maintained an 83% abstinence rate while
in the program and a grade point average
of 3.0. Augsburg is a national leader in the
recovery school movement; Salmeri
currently serves as president of the
national organization.
The Augsburg MBA program, which
after only two years is now the state’s
third largest, will gain much needed and
more suitable classroom, technology, and
study space in Gateway for its small-class
learning.
Save the date!
GATEWAY BUILDING
CEREMONIAL GROUNDBREAKING
Friday, September 8
Noon
14
Summer 2006
Gateway’s ground floor will welcome
alumni and visitors, and provide a
gathering space to meet over coffee and
enjoy exhibits in the Gage Family Art
Gallery, which will move from Lindell
Library to a more accessible location in the
new building.
“[T]he connection to the wider
community will be greater than ever
before,” says Kerry Morgan,
coordinator of galleries and exhibits.
“The easy access from Riverside will be
welcoming to off-campus visitors; and
Augsburg students, staff, and faculty
will continue to find inspiring and
thought-provoking art where they
work, live, and study.”
Planning for the Gateway Building
has been carried out in conjunction
with the Riverside Corridor Project
development, funded partially with an
early campaign gift from James A.
Johnson, former banking administrator
and public servant. The project brings
together West Bank partners—the
Cedar-Riverside Business Association,
the West Bank Community
Development Corporation, the
University of Minnesota, Augsburg,
Fairview-University Medical Center, and
others—to envision a thriving urban
village that links to the light rail system.
The City of Minneapolis has begun to
develop a small area plan for the entire
Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
“One issue the plan will consider is
how to make Riverside more comfortable
for pedestrians and bicyclists,” says Beth
Elliott, principal city planner. “More retail
stores and outdoor seating opportunities
will also help in adding vibrancy to that
section of the corridor.” She says the
Gateway Building can be “an example that
others can follow if they are thinking
about redevelopment.”
Honoring a graduate by honoring the College
A
s a nontraditional
student past the
usual graduation
age, Matt Van Zant
seemed just a bit
too old for the
traditional card
with a money
pocket. So Frank
McKinney, a close
family friend,
Matt Van Zant ’06
called Augsburg
and asked how he could make a gift to the
College instead, in honor of Van Zant.
Van Zant came to know McKinney, a
corporate lawyer, in Ohio where Van
Zant grew up. “He encouraged me and
stressed the importance of ethics,”
Summer 2006
Van Zant says. “[He] is a believer in
education and encouraged me to remain
in school and do well.”
McKinney said he was proud of Van
Zant, that after many years he would
return to school for his degree.
Van Zant works as an operations
analyst in the healthcare field. He
enrolled in Weekend College in fall 2001
to begin a major in management
information systems (MIS).
One of the common themes he found
in his classes fits right in with what he
remembers learning from McKinney.
“People who work with data, who
manage sensitive and confidential
information,” says Van Zant, “are and
should be held to higher standards of
performance and integrity.”
Juggling full-time employment with
full-time study was difficult, and Van
Zant says he tried to take it just one term
at a time. “It helped to work on
coursework almost every day and try to
remain current with the material.”
His strategy worked, so much so that
he will begin an MBA degree in the fall,
looking forward to “the opportunity to
develop strategic decision-making skills.”
McKinney says he enjoyed making the
gift to Augsburg in Van Zant’s name and
that Van Zant also enjoyed it. To
McKinney, “it just seemed the appropriate
thing to do.”
He says now he’ll just wait for Van
Zant’s master’s degree.
15
Construction begins on Melby Hall addition
by Betsey Norgard
n a chilly, cloudy May 5, a crowd
gathered on the south side of Melby
O
Hall to ceremonially mark the
groundbreaking for the $6.1 million new
south wing, named the Kennedy Sports
and Recreation Complex.
Augsburg regent and emcee Mike
Freeman, in describing the expansion,
called it “lots of much-needed space to
show our Auggie pride.” He drew
attention to the efforts that had made the
project possible, especially noting that
every coach had put together a plan to
reach former students and athletes.
He read a statement from lead naming
donors Dean ’75 and Terry Kennedy, who
Kennedys. “Your gift is exciting, and we
so appreciate it.”
The Kennedy Sports and Recreation
Complex includes the Alan and Gloria
Rice Wrestling Center and the James and
Katherine Haglund Fitness and
Recreation Center, as well as other named
spaces: the Lavonne (Johnson) Peterson
’50 Conference Suite; Lute Olson ’56 Hall
of Champions; “Doc” Johnson ’52 A-Club
Office; and the Gamma House
Hospitality/Classroom.
Work has already begun on the new
south wing; construction is expected to
be completed in spring 2007, with the
official opening in fall 2007.
weren’t able to be in attendance, saying
that their “family is proud and excited to
be part of this [project].” Kennedy was an
All-American wrestler and, as co-captain
of the team, led Augsburg to a runner-up
spot at the NAIA national finals, marking
the beginning of Augsburg’s longtime
dominance in small-college wrestling.
President William Frame drew
attention to Augsburg student-athletes
and the leadership they bring to the life
of the campus.
Football linebacker Michael Matson
’06, speaking on behalf of studentathletes, directed his remarks to lead
donors Alan Rice, Jim Haglund, and the
Front row (L to R): Major gifts director Donna McLean; regent and lead donor Jim Haglund; Board of Regents chair Jean Taylor '85; assistant dean
and head wrestling coach Jeff Swenson ’79; lead donor Alan Rice; regent Mike Freeman; and President William Frame.
Melby groundbreaking—twice!
When Rev. Clifford M. Johnson, ’34 (’30
Acad, ’39 Sem) received his invitation to
attend the May 5 ceremonial
groundbreaking for the expansion of
Melby Hall, he remembered that he still
16
had a 46-year-old photo from the day he
held a shovel to break ground for the new
Melby Hall.
Johnson, age 95, has been part of the
Augsburg community since 1926 when he
entered the Augsburg Academy. He has
been a fundraising leader, a regent and
board chair, and a director of development
over the years. In 1993 he was honored as
a Distinguished Alumnus.
He recalls the excitement in 1960 of
constructing the first athletic facility for
Augsburg. Until then, he says, the
basketball team played on the court in the
basement of Old Main. He also remembers
that the invocation that day was given by
Lutheran Free Church president Rev. T. O.
Burntvedt ’12.
Johnson was thrilled to be part of this
new excitement this year and to see that
earlier photo at the ceremony, enlarged to
poster size and sitting on an easel.
Just announced …
$1 million gift has been received
A
from Norman and Vangie Hagfors for
the renovation of the chapel in Old Main
and the creation of a home for Augsburg’s
Center for Faith and Learning. Read more
in the next issue.
Summer 2006
The
FRAME
years
a journey toward vision
BY BETSEY NORGARD
W
William Frame, the 10th president of Augsburg, is not typical of his nine
predecessors. He is not a Midwesterner, nor is he of Norwegian background or an
ordained Lutheran minister.
From his nine-year tenure, he leaves a long litany of new programs, partnerships,
and much-needed capital improvements. But, much more significant is that he leaves
an Augsburg that has renewed its self-identity, and that has crafted and refined a
vision representing the deepest thinking any college could undertake about its own
mission or “institutional vocation.”
In the foreword to Augsburg’s revised vision document, The Augsburg Vocation:
Access and Excellence, Frame describes this vision not as his, but as “drawn from the
soul of the College.” It is an idea—vocation—that “has been calling Augsburg to its
work since the founding.”
Frame points to his time at Augsburg as the continuation of a vocational journey
that began as a young instructor at Kenyon College, that immersed him in the urban
life of corporate banking and finance, and then took him back into academia. All
along, the work he did served to shape, nurture, and refine a strong, personal sense
of vocation. At Pacific Lutheran University, he came to understand Martin Luther’s
two-dimensional world of faith and reason, one in which students explored vocation
as both learning through faith to understand themselves and learning through reason
to prepare for careers and service in the world.
Top, left: President Frame (right) and ELCA presiding bishop Mark
Hanson ’68 (left) find a moment for conversation at
Commencement. Staff photo
Middle, left: Bill and Anne Frame enjoy talking with passersby at
Augsburg’s State Fair booth. Staff photo
Bottom, left: President Frame occasionally joins the Augsburg Jazz
Ensemble with his guitar.
Summer 2006
17
At Augsburg Frame discovered the
theology of Luther’s close colleague,
Philip Melancthon, who authored the
Augsburg Confession and advocated the
participation of Christians in civic
affairs. This German theological duo
became the basis for Frame’s model of
education and the hallmarks of
Augsburg’s vision: vocation, service,
civility, diversity, and community.
Remarkably, in retrospect, the agenda
for the Frame years seemed set even
before he became president. In summer
1997, shortly before taking office, he was
interviewed for Augsburg Now, and was
asked to identify the three most important
agenda items for Augsburg College as it
prepared for the 21st century.
Nine years later, his responses at that
time seemed predestined:
1. finding “communal clarity about our
purpose”—who we are and what
we do;
2. determining “how we adapt what
we’re up to, to what properly serves
the world” … i.e., what we must do
to carry out our mission;
3. figuring out “how we do all that” …
finding “a form of life on campus that
allows us to do all this thinking in a
fully civil, candid, ingenious,
participative way.”
Clarifying the vision
In the first two years of Frame’s
presidency the entire campus engaged
itself in a highly collaborative process,
which included commissions charged
with producing working papers around
issues that would form the groundwork
for a vision document.
English professor Joan Griffin,
describes that period:
“When Bill Frame became president
of Augsburg, the College suddenly
became Lutheran. I’m exaggerating, of
course, but despite the required religion
courses and daily chapel, our Lutheran
identity was something that we took for
granted: we did not always connect it
with how we go about doing our work.
18
“But then Bill arrived, and even the
least theologically sophisticated among
us became familiar with the kingdom on
the right and the kingdom on the left,
freedom, paradox, and of course, most of
all, vocation. Bill changed the Augsburg
lexicon.”
Griffin and physics professor Mark
Engebretson were charged with shaping
the 250 pages of discussion into the
College’s first vision document, Augsburg
2004: Extending the Vision, approved by
the Board of Regents in 1999.
Five years later, as 2004 approached,
Frame again called the campus
community into discussion about
updates to the vision. Again, Griffin and
Engebretson compiled a revised vision
document, The Augsburg Vocation: Access
and Excellence, that succeeds in bringing
vision and practice closer together.
Tracy Elftmann ’81, vice president for
institutional advancement and former
regent, commented, “The leadership Bill
brought to our visioning work is nothing
short of extraordinary. The clarity of
purpose in Augsburg’s vision provides
balance, meaning, and motivation to our
daily work. We know who we are and
what we are here to do.
“Let’s be clear,” she continued, “this
is not Bill’s vision for Augsburg—it’s our
vision. We wrote it, we work it, we live
it. The collaborative effort to bring this
work to full fruition was laborious but
well worth the effort.”
Tom Morgan, vice president for
planning and market development,
added additional context. “Through Bill’s
leadership we have rediscovered who we
are and clarified where we need to go.
More than simply words on a page, we
have been inspired to rededicate
ourselves to a course that was charted at
the time of the College’s founding.”
Carrying out the vision
The most significant result of the
revisioning process was the launching of
a new general education curriculum to
imprint the core values of the vision.
Griffin led a faculty team that crafted a
new Core Curriculum. Combined with
the depth of study in a major, this would
prepare students for careers and service
in the world.
Ideas of vocation, citizenship, and
engagement are reflected in the signature
elements of the Core Curriculum—
Search for Meaning courses to explore
vocation; the first-year program that
Summer 2006
Staff photo
The LEGACY of WILLIAM FRAME’S
YEARS at AUGSBURG (1997-2006)
New programs
• New general education—Core Curriculum
• Scholastic/Corporate Connections
• New master’s degrees—education, nursing, physician
assistant, and business administration
• Youth and family ministry major
• Finalizing and naming first endowed chair—Christensen
Chair in Religion
• Growth of StepUP program
• Degree programs in Rochester
Community partnerships/collaborations:
• Nursing degree programs at United Hospital and Rochester
• Augsburg-Capella innovative“brick-click” courses
• Faith in the City—plus the spin-off Augsburg Academy for
Health Careers
• Clinical Lab Science program with Fairview
Capital buildings/improvements:
• New Hall—apartment-style residence hall
• Groundbreaking for Melby Hall expansion
includes learning about and connecting with the city; experience
gained through internships, research, community service, and
global study; and a keystone summative seminar. Combined with a
liberal arts foundation and skills development, students prepare to
become effective, informed, and ethical citizens.
Important to Augsburg’s vision are a number of new programs that
provide access to education for students who lack it for various
reasons: Scholastic Connections, a scholarship program that matches
students of color with alumni of color in mentoring relationships;
StepUP, a nationally-recognized program that provides support to
students in addiction recovery to help them succeed academically; and
graduate programs to help students understand the world through a
lens of vocation.
Augsburg’s vision has taken the College into many new and
innovative partnerships. A program in Rochester now serves 300
students, mostly from Mayo Clinic and IBM, who wish to complete
baccalaureate and some graduate degrees. An unusual partnership
with Capella University involves Augsburg faculty developing and
teaching online courses.
One of Frame’s key leadership roles was helping to found Faith in
the City, a collaboration of seven urban Lutheran institutions in
Minneapolis that together seek to improve the quality of life in the
community. Included is the year-old Augsburg Academy for Health
• Link between Library and Sverdrup/Memorial— Sverdrup
renovation, new atrium
• Christensen Center renovation—welcome and gathering
area, coffee shop, gallery space
• Purchase and renovation of Augsburg House
• New signage on Mortensen Hall and on I-94
• Upgrading of residence halls
• Replacement of Edor Nelson Field turf
• Overall beautification of grounds
• Sale of Ice Arena to gain lease-back arrangement
and capital
• Added two new parking lots and upgraded security
• Purchased additional perimeter properties
around campus
Administrative
• Creation of Enrollment Center as one-stop shop
• Creation/consolidation of Center for Service, Work,
and Learning
• Creation of Undergraduate Research and Graduate
Opportunity (URGO) from McNair program
Awards/Recognition
• 2006—Augsburg Medal
Left: President Frame poses for a moment with the directors of the ethnic
programs at the annual Scholastic Connections dinner in October 2005.
(L to R) Bao Thao, Cindy Peterson, Frame, Emiliano Chagil, and Trena
Bolden Fields.
• 2006—award from Lutheran Educational Council of North
America
Top: First-year students hear from the president on City Service Projects
day during their Augsburg Seminar.
• 2004-05 chair of Minnesota Private College Council
Summer 2006
• Project director for Council of Independent Colleges’
19
Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission seminars
• 2006—Toby LaBelle award from StepUP to Anne
and Bill Frame
• 2003-04 president of the ELCA Council of College
Presidents
Careers, a joint charter school with
Fairview Health Services that prepares
high school students for careers and
vocations in health care.
Augsburg, under Frame’s leadership,
has gained considerable recognition for its
visioning work. Elftmann stated, “College
presidents across the country consistently
ask Bill how Augsburg was able to capture
its essence, its purpose, its wholeness so
well. Bill’s contributions have established
Augsburg as a national leader in terms of
strategic direction and future focus. “
The College was recognized by The
Princeton Review and Campus Compact as
a “college with a conscience.” It
consistently ranks high for service-learning
programs and is one of 12 colleges selected
for excellence in first-year programs.
Frame has served as president of the
ELCA Council of College Presidents, as
chair of the Minnesota Private College
Council (MPCC), and as project director
for the Council on Independent Colleges
(CIC) seminars reflecting on vocation
and institutional mission. He also has
received awards from the Lutheran
Educational Conference of North
America (LECNA) and Augsburg’s
StepUP program, who selected Anne and
Bill Frame for the 2006 Toby LaBelle
Award for support of its ideals.
Changing the culture
Frame’s third agenda item from his 1997
interview was the creation of a campus
culture that would support and model the
mission and vision. His first task was
confronting what he called “militant
modesty,” the difficulty of the College to
“toot its own horn.” He immediately put a
great deal of attention on both tangible
improvements—fixing up and painting
residence halls, landscaping, new
facilities—and more deep-seated changes,
such as making Augsburg salaries more
competitive.
Griffin says that Frame has been able
to get Augsburg to “think big about
ourselves”—in both small ways, like the
campus improvements, as well as bigger
ways, with new programs and initiatives.
“I think we’re becoming more willing to
20
embrace our complexity—and also our
promise,” she said.
The Frame presidency has been one
very much shared by both Bill and Anne
Frame. Anne has been active in a number
of Augsburg programs, contributing her
business expertise, hospitality, and much
volunteer time.
She told faculty and staff that after long
consideration of how to describe her role
at Augsburg, she had recently been
introduced in a way that seemed very
comfortable to her—“this is Anne Frame,
she’s a member of the Augsburg
community and happens to be married to
our president.”
Hospitality, from the theological sense
to a simple friendly welcome, has become
a hallmark of the vision—and one in
which Anne has played a significant role.
Their sharing of Augsburg House as a
center for college hospitality has opened
new dimensions in how community
members relate to each other.
In March Bill Frame articulated
Augsburg’s vision of hospitality: “[Our
college] welcomes the stranger as a gift to
a learning community composed of
students, many in the guise of faculty and
staff colleagues, who cannot proceed in
their own quests for vitality and hope
without constant contact with a diverse
array of learning styles and even learning
capacities, each one at least beginning to
feel that deep and absorbing hunger
to know.”
In an interview with Augsburg Echo,
Frame recently reflected on what he
considers his proudest moment—“having
our envisioning work recognized as
distinctive by candidates and their
sponsors for the 11th presidency of the
College.”
And, indeed, President-elect Paul
Pribbenow told faculty and staff in March,
“I would not be here if I did not find your
aspirations inspiring and compelling.”
Griffin offered an Augsburg
community perspective: “I think at least
part of the excitement of the approaching
Pribbenow era is that Bill brought us to a
point where we can imagine how much
farther we can go.”
Since February, when Pribbenow was
chosen by Augsburg regents, an unusual
The Frame years in print
William Frame has published a collection
of writings and speeches from his years
as president at Augsburg College. He says
it intends to both “provide a record of
the principal stops on the faith and
reason journey on which I was sent when
elected as Augsburg’s 10th president,”
and to share his connection with Martin
Luther and Philip Melanchthon.
The book’s preface was written by the
Rev. Mark Hanson ’68, presiding bishop
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America.
Published by Lutheran University Press in
Minneapolis, the book is available in
bookstores, online, and at <www.
lutheranUpress.org>. Proceeds from sales
of the book will be donated to
Augsburg’s annual fund.
collaboration has developed. Frame invited
Pribbenow to share the podium with him
in March at the College’s all-faculty and
all-staff meeting.
Mark Hanson ’68, presiding bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), summarizes the impact
of the Frame years, “… Bill draws upon
the great themes of the Lutheran
Reformation and weaves them into the
mission of a Lutheran urban college in the
21st century. When Bill Frame speaks, I
want to ask him to stop after each
sentence so that we can ponder the depth
of his wisdom.”
In every way, the Frame presidency has
been one of introspection and distinction,
even to his legendary eloquence and
penchant to speak long. Quipped student
body president Paul Cumings, “He will be
missed. Even his dry humor and lengthy
lectures.” ■
Summer 2006
At Augsburg House—since 1998
Frequency of events: about twice a week
Events held: 430
In 1998, the Augsburg Board of Regents authorized the purchase of a house for
the home of the president and a gathering place for campus events. In January
2006 Anne Frame talked to the Board of Regents about hospitality at Augsburg
House. Following are excerpts of her talk.
People who have attended: 8,600
Catering by Augsburg-Sodexho staff
(as of January 2006)
Staff photo
HOSPITALITY
and the House
BY ANNE FRAME
I
I’ve been asked to think about some of
the ways my work with Augsburg is
applied to implementing the idea of
hospitality. The Augsburg Vocation, our
vision document, talks about
community and intentional diversity–
language that conceived of this College
as a welcoming place, where persons are
accepted, perhaps because of their
differences, and where a community is
developed that contributes to the
learning for all of us.
Much of my work takes place away
from this Riverside campus. From the
beginning, Bill and I—ironically, as the
newcomers—took as our job helping the
various constituents of the campus feel at
home here. We have visited alumni and
friends of the College in many locations
to let them know what is going on now
at Augsburg, and specifically to
emphasize that they are welcome here.
That they, as a part of Augsburg’s history,
therefore have a place in its present. And,
as we have learned much from their
stories and memories, we hope they have
strengthened or rekindled their bonds to
this place.
We have been privileged both to live
at Augsburg House and to use it
frequently for College events. A plaque
in the entry hall—carved by a Norwegian
in Iowa—states our purpose:
In this place we extend to our guests
the friendship and hospitality of the
Augsburg Community in loving
memory of Adeline Marie Rasmussen
Johnson ’31 and through the
Summer 2006
generosity of James and Kathleen
Haglund and Milton and Dorothy
Kleven.
So we are acting for the community and
have practiced that hospitality to student
groups, to faculty and staff, to the
regents, the parents and alumni and
friends of the College, to neighborhood
and community groups who may not
know Augsburg well. We have done this
in as many different forms as we can
think of: with receptions, breakfasts,
lunches, dinners, conversations. We
bring these groups together for food and
fellowship, for study and discussions. We
feel that getting to know each other
better, spending time together, and
talking about the College together helps
us to be a stronger community.
Frequent remarks I hear as people
learn how many groups and events are at
Augsburg House each year come in one
of two forms, the first being, “You must
get really tired of having so many people
at your house.” (The answer is a very
clear “no.”) The other comment is, “You
must really be a party person!” I don't
think that’s quite the case, either.
But these two questions have caused
me to try to express what it is that I do
like about using Augsburg House in this
way. What do I get out of it?
The answer is … getting to know the
wide and diverse constituency that is
Augsburg—learning histories and
connections, hearing staff and faculty
speak across their areas of expertise, and
listening and discussing ideas with
each other.
Bill and Anne Frame welcome the community
to Augsburg House.
What a rare privilege this is. It has
given me an appreciation of this place
that is deeper than I could have
discovered elsewhere. It has widened my
horizons, expanded my understandings,
and has made this College house truly
“home” to me.
What we do at the house is
intentional, and I believe it’s consistent
with trying to build our community, as
stated in The Augsburg Vocation, “the
development of a sense of connectedness
that leads to lasting relationships.”
The author of the Book of Hebrews
exhorts his readers: “Do not neglect to
show hospitality to strangers, for by
doing that some have entertained angels
without knowing it.” And I’m convinced
there are at least a few angels hanging
around Augsburg.
21
Augsburg’s original
MBAs
The Class of 2006
BY BETHANY BIERMAN
22
Summer 2006
The
AUGSBURG
MBA
Nathan Appel joined the army right out of high school in Colorado and spent several years in the
service. He eventually came to Minnesota to attend the university but “became tired of rollerblading
from Timbuktu to a class where another student taught us.” So he transferred to another college,
taking evening classes to finish his undergraduate degree in management. His campus? A hotel
conference room in the suburbs. His cohort? Number 327.
Later, with his career at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage well underway, Appel decided to return to school
for his Master of Business Administration degree. He was about to choose another program when he
received an MBA postcard from Augsburg. He came to an information session and was sold. His new
campus? A small, fully functioning campus in the heart of Minneapolis. His cohort? Number 1.
“It’s kind of cool … We are the original,” Appel says.
A JUMP-START LAUNCH
This May, Augsburg graduated the first four sections, or cohorts, of
its new Master of Business Administration program—a total of 84
students.
The 20-month program evolved from eight years of discussion,
research, and planning by members of the business department, with
Professor David Schwain serving as the chief designer.
“In the feasibility study, our researcher found that our business
program ranked third best business program in the state by those
students taking the GMAT,” says John Cerrito, chair of the
Department of Business Administration. “Of course, we did not have
a grad program at that time, which the two programs that ranked
higher did, so we felt we’d have good acceptance in the market.
When we introduced the MBA, we met with instant success.”
In fact, recruiting one group to start the program doubled into
two, as 44 students responded by the time the MBA began in fall
2004. The initial goal of four cohorts by the end of three years was
met within four months of launching the program. It was these
students who became Augsburg’s first MBAs in May.
THE CAPTAIN
Since its launch 20 months ago, under the direction of Robert
Kramarczuk, the MBA program has grown to over 300 students.
Kramarczuk’s international career had included teaching at the
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in
Switzerland, running several successful businesses, and starting up
six other graduate educational programs. He was already enjoying
retirement, but the Augsburg call was too good to pass up.
He was attracted to Augsburg’s commitment to service-learning,
Top: MBA director Robert Kramarczuk places a hood on Kristen Schell, one of
84 in the first class of MBA graduates.
Bottom: Sarah Anton offers a comment to her classmates in Cohort 3.
Summer 2006
23
“In the real world, you don’t function on
your own. You rely upon other people.”
—CHRISTINE WAGGONER ’97, ’06 MBA
which became an integral component in
the MBA. “The program reflects very well
Augsburg’s mission—service to others,”
Kramarczuk says. “It’s a hallmark of our
program.”
One group of MBA students spends
time in the Somali community. All are
involved in field projects where, as a
team, students work with an organization
for 10 to 11 months. Kramarczuk says
that these sorts of experiences put
Augsburg’s MBA students “ten levels
above” those in other programs.
“The other key factor is that we
consider really good leaders to differ
from others by being able to think
critically … That’s woven into the entire
program.”
Even with six other successful
program starts, Kramarczuk considers
Augsburg’s unique. “We look at it from a
different perspective. We look at it as
your life’s purpose or vocation, with the
MBA being a critical leg in this life’s
journey… We tell our students, ‘After
you get this MBA, you’ll say this
is probably one of the most
important decisions you’ve made
in your life.’”
Jamie Schiller, MBA coordinator, and graduate
As a requirement for
Christine Waggoner pause from the action of an MBA
admission to the program, each
softball game.
applicant must personally
interview with Kramarczuk. “It’s
humbling to hear them share and discuss
THE CURRICULUM
their goals and aspirations and how the
The intense curriculum includes finance
MBA fits into this process. … I consider
and economics, local and global issues,
myself almost like a peer. I love my
organizational management, and
students, and I think they kind of like
leadership ethics. Through application
me.”
and research, students learn to
Like him they do, and at a recent
implement ideas and communicate vital
event they presented Kramarczuk with an
statistical, financial, and other critical
award. Accolades include these words
business-related data in an evolving work
from Babette Blumenauer of Cohort 4:
environment.
“He has started this program that will
The required field project, which
change my life course. … I am not just a
serves as the thesis for the MBA, often
number or an obscure student here. Dr.
responds to real-world requests that
Kramarczuk … gives me time, shows he
come to the program from business and
cares, and he knows my name. And that
industry.
has meant a lot to me.”
“Book learning is very different from
Announcing
•
•
•
•
•
•
NEW MBA
GRADUATE
CERTIFICATES
Finance
Financial planning
Human resource management
International business
Marketing management
Music business management
Graduate certificates provide applied, practical, graduate-level
training to enhance skills and advance careers. In addition, they
can later be applied toward a master’s degree. Certificates can be
earned in as few as six months with courses meeting one evening
per week for seven weeks. Cohorts will form beginning this fall.
For information, call 612-330-1390.
24
real-life experience,” says Christine
Waggoner of Cohort 2. “It’s that real-life
experience that is discussed and studied
in this program.”
Waggoner earned her bachelor’s
degree from Augsburg in 1997. “Given
my positive experience as an
undergraduate, I cannot tell you how
excited I was when I received the
postcard announcing that Augsburg was
starting an MBA program,” she says. “At
Augsburg, the professors know you.
They tailor their teaching methods to the
students in their class. They share their
personal stories … [and] successes and
failures they’ve gone through.”
“When you finish, you will be at a
higher level of leadership and decisionmaking,” Kramarczuk says. Additionally,
because of the liberal arts background, an
Summer 2006
Augsburg MBA graduate will be more of
a “cosmopolitan” thinker.
Waggoner confirms this. “I have a
new outlook on the way I view myself
and my career. I have a lot more
confidence in my ability to lead, manage,
and make strategic business decisions.”
A significant number of students have
been offered new jobs and promotions as
a result of what they have taken away
from the MBA program.
LIFE IN THE COHORT
The cohort model has been critical to the
success of the program. It allows
students to build relationships and
become almost like family to each other
as they travel together through the
sequence of courses.
“Taking classes as a member of a
cohort has really enriched my learning
experience,” says Waggoner. “Classes are
sequentially ordered so that students
build upon learned skills, and those
skills are continually reinforced
throughout the program. The program is
organized so students can focus on
learning.”
This even includes providing a warm
meal before each evening class.
“[Students] have an opportunity to sit
together,” says Kramarczuk. “They are
from different professions, different parts
of the Twin Cities. They sit down to
really communicate about class work,
personal life, professional life.”
“In the real world, you don’t function
on your own,” Waggoner says. “You rely
upon other people.”
“You learn a lot from the students,
too,” adds Appel. “There are people of
diverse backgrounds—professional
backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, age
groups…”
This group atmosphere extends
beyond the classroom to social events
and celebrations. Appel formed and
managed a softball team with players
representing multiple cohorts. They
ordered Augsburg caps and jerseys and
even won a game. “We were beyond
awful, but we had a lot of spirit!”
Waggoner says.
“When Cohorts 3 and 4 came on
board, we had a little party at
Kramarczuk’s Deli,” reminisces Appel.
“Bob [Kramarczuk] wrote a ‘Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer’ song and made
them sing it.” The parody was titled
“Auggie, the Adult Professional.” These
kick-off dinners have become a tradition,
with older cohorts welcoming new ones.
Other social events have included the
students’ families, giving them a chance
to meet classmates and professors.
Already, a graduation celebration is in
the planning, where awards will be
handed out and, in line with tradition,
Kramarczuk’s musical parodies will
probably be sung.
THE CAMPUS
MBA director Bob Kramarczuk (left) and Auggie Eagle (right) lead Cohorts 3 and 4 in their
“initiation” song.
The opportunity to study on a “real”
campus also attracts students to the
program.
“Here, you come to school,” Appel
says. “There’s people with laptops, people
studying, there’s the bookstore… When I
meet my cohort outside of class to study,
we meet at the library. You feel like you
“[My classmates are]
people I respect…
very smart people.
Just like family.”
—SUNNY OLISE ’06 MBA
MBA graduate Nathan Appel, originator of the
MBA softball team, strikes a pose.
Summer 2006
Nigerian-born Sunny Olise came to the U.S. to
study business and appreciates the small-group
atmosphere in Augsburg's MBA program.
25
are in school… Now, actually coming to
campus just feels more like I’m at an
institution of higher learning and all that
goes along with that.”
Nigerian-born Sunny Olise began
studying in Lindell Library while he was
an undergraduate business student at
another school because he found it to be
a more calming and productive place for
him to work.
So when he heard the ad for
Augsburg’s new MBA program on the
radio, he said to himself, “Yeah, it’s a
good school.” Olise called Kramarczuk
and told him the story of how he woke
up one day after working for the
Nigerian government for 21 years
wanting to “try something new.”
The two later met in the coffee center of
Christensen Center. At the end of their
visit, Kramarczuk said, “Congratulations,
Sunny. You’re in!”
“I didn’t even know he was
interviewing me,” Olise says, laughing.
From there, Kramarczuk took Olise to
the bookstore to purchase his books.
Less than two years later, Olise is one of
the Cohort 4 graduates. He describes his
group as “people I respect… very smart
people. Just like family.”
“In addition to the knowledge you get
from the MBA program, there’s a lot of
prestige attached to it,” says Olise. “I work
full time, I have a full-time family, I
attended school, and I’m a chess addict…
I have no regrets whatsoever. None.”
COMING OF AGE
Kramarczuk considers the number of
students pretty close to the maximum
the College can currently support,
although he sees a huge potential for
growth. In response to a particular need,
Augsburg now offers the full MBA
program at Thrivent Financial’s corporate
center in downtown Minneapolis. Several
students have transferred in from nearby
programs, and Kramarczuk anticipates an
eventual 100 students at the Thrivent
location alone.
Augsburg also launched its first MBA
cohort in Rochester in fall 2005, its second
last winter, and will add its third this fall.
26
“Augsburg is a very traditional
institution, while the MBA is a very
entrepreneurial effort. There’s continual
adjustment that’s had to happen on both
ends,” Kramarczuk says. “It’s seems to be
progressing well.”
“We want to continue to develop
graduate business programs geared
toward executives. We are also
developing MBA programs in specific
concentration areas such as international
business,” says Cerrito.
Putting their MBA
“It’s kind of scary being the first class
of MBAs, but Augsburg’s reputation in
the metro and in the region is solid,”
Appel says. “The undergraduate business
program has a really good reputation.
Hopefully we’ll piggyback off of that. …
I’m banking on Augsburg’s reputation
carrying weight. I think it will.” ■
For more information about the MBA
program, go to <www.augsburg.edu/mba>.
(L to R): Derek Zielin, Max Boller, David
Sandvig, Matthew Barrett, Sarah Anton,
Scott Kretzschmar
TO WORK
Many MBA students seek out the
program to help them advance in their
current positions. For some students in
Cohort 3, however, the program
provided the foundation for a new
business venture.
One particular group of students
began talking during breaks, after
class, and, of course, over the pre-class
dinners. At these dinners, student
Sarah Anton says, “We learn about our
families, our goals, our plans for the
future.”
These discussions led to the creation
of Minnesota Business Consultants, LLP
(MBC), a group of five men and Anton.
“Each member brings a different
expertise to the group that comes out
of our diverse career paths,” she says.
MBC specializes in strategic
planning and profit maximization for
small- to medium-size businesses.
“Guiding businesses that might wish to
re-evaluate their current financial
picture” is the mission, according to
Anton. “We see using the contacts
we’ve gained from Augsburg to
develop a client base and to develop a
niche in an industry where small
businesses are struggling. We believe
small businesses are an important part
of our Minnesota culture.”
MBC is starting out in rental office
space, and each consultant will
maintain his or her current job until
MBC is able to support them fully.
“It’s a natural progression of the
excellent talent pool that Kramarczuk
puts together,” says Anton. “It would
surprise me if there aren’t more
businesses formed out of the MBA
cohorts.”
Summer 2006
on tour with the
AUGSBURG
Choir
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JUDY PETREE
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW WROTE, “Music is the universal language of
mankind.” As the Augsburg Choir set out on its European concert tour they would come to
understand the meaning of Longfellow’s words.
From May 8-21, under the direction of Peter Hendrickson ’76, the choir toured Budapest,
Hungary; Prague and Kutna Hora, Czech Republic; and Dresden and Leipzig, Germany,
where the tour ended at the American Choral Festival.
The 66-voice choir sang in basilicas that took their breaths away, in churches that dated
back to the 1300s, and in one of the finest concert halls in Europe. Their audiences included
U. S. citizens living in Europe as well as people who could speak little or no English.
The choir learned that it wasn’t the words they sang, but rather the music they made that
touched hearts and brought smiles—and sometimes even tears—to the people who came to
hear them. They also learned how music is indeed a universal language, and that experiences
like these also create bonds among themselves that last across continents and time.
On the return trip home, tenor Hayes Kaufman ’09 said when he joined the choir his dad
expressed his hope that someday he, Hayes, would come to appreciate the opportunity he
was being given.
“I think I already have,” Kaufman told his fellow choir members. “Thanks to everyone
for this great trip, the memories, and opportunity.”
H U N G A R Y,
Summer 2006
C Z E C H
R E P U B L I C ,
A N D
G E R M A N Y
27
B U D A P E S T ,
K U T N A
H O R A ,
P R A G U E ,
D R E S D E N ,
L E I P Z I G
(1) The concert tour began at St. Stephen’s Basilica
in Budapest, Hungary, the city’s largest church. Not
only its beauty and magnificence awed the choir,
but also the sound of their voices. Tenor Tony
Wallin ’08 said he couldn’t believe that “we, the
Augsburg Choir, would ever have the opportunity
to sing in such a place.”
(2) In the small Czech town of Kutna Hora, once
famous for its silver mines, the choir sang at St.
Barbara’s Cathedral. Here, a few choir members
take a break at intermission to catch a view of the
town at night.
(Front row, L to R) Aleah Tebben, Mike
Schmit, Colin Callander, Kathryn Goerges (Back
row, L to R) Stacey Zeutenhorst, Miranda Nelson,
Eric Anderson, Adam Krumwiede, Tom Robinson
and Kent Bodurtha.
1
In Prague, the choir sang at St. Ignatius, an active
church run by Jesuit monks that was begun in
1665 and completed in 1671.
2
3
4
28
(3) At a stop in Krabcice, another small Czech
town, the choir performed for an audience of
senior citizens, most of whom knew no English. A
highlight of the tour for many of the students was
a song they sang in the Czech language, for which
they received a standing ovation and compliments
on their pronunciation.
“This by far has been the best part of the tour
for me,” said soprano Molly Shortall ’07, who
enjoyed talking with one of the senior citizens
after the concert.
“It was better than the larger concerts because
you could just feel that it meant so much to these
people. These are people who had their culture
taken away from them for so many years, and now
you can see how much it must mean to them to
get it back.”
(4) The audience was sparse but very appreciative
at Annen Kirche in Dresden, Germany, one of the
only churches there to escape bombing during
World War II. A woman in the front row was so
clearly moved by the choir’s singing, she would
direct along with Peter and, at times, smile broadly
and cry quietly.
Summer 2006
B U D A P E S T ,
K U T N A
H O R A ,
K R A B C I C E ,
D R E S D E N ,
L E I P Z I G
“It doesn’t always matter how many people are
in the audience, said bass Dave Czepa ’06. He
spoke for many of the choir members as he said,
“that one lady and what this obviously meant to
her made the whole concert worth it.”
(5) In Leipzig, Germany—home to such famous
composers as Bach and Handel—the choir visited
St. Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach
was a cantor and where he is buried. They also
toured St. Nicholaskirche, founded in 1165.
6
(6) The choir teamed up with the Northwestern
College Choir of St. Paul to perform at the
Gewandhaus in Leipzig for the American Choral
Festival. They sang several songs as a massed
choir, plus each choir performed on its own.
Joining the choir was Augsburg alumna Nicole
(Warner) Simml ’01. Simml now lives in Germany
teaching voice and performing frequently.
Performing solos are (L to R) Nicole (Warner)
Simml; Krista Costin, Augsburg; Nathan Bird,
Northwestern; and Dave Czepa, Augsburg.
Directing is Northwestern choir director Timothy
Sawyer, with Augsburg director Peter
Hendrickson on piano.
What was the most memorable part of the trip—
the beautiful churches; the scenery; experiencing
different cultures, food, and languages? Not
according to many of the students. What they will
remember most are the bonds and friendships
they made with each other. Although the choir
has been singing together all year, they found that
sometimes it takes an experience such as this to
get to know each other really well. Alto Kellin
Pray ’08 said she really enjoyed being with others
who enjoy the same thing. The sad part, she
added, is now saying goodbye to the seniors
whom they were just starting to really know.
7
5
8
(7) (L to R) Kellin Pray, Bri’Ann Wright, and
Micah Erickson.
(8) (L to R) Emily Denstad, Emma Stensvaag, and
Adena Berg.
(9) Mother’s Day greetings from Prague were sent
home by Brian Halaas and Kari Aanestad.
9
Summer 2006
29
E
very week more than 2,000
people fill the Plymouth
Playhouse in the Twin Cities’
suburb for an afternoon or
evening of laughter, sharing
the lives of four women and their pastor
in the church basement of the East
Cornucopia Lutheran Church.
The play, Church Basement Ladies,
pays homage to the stalwart women who
cooked for and served every church
congregation. And it strikes a chord with
anyone who grew up in the 1950s and
’60s across the Midwest, whether they be
Lutheran, Methodist, or Presbyterian—it
was all part of their own experience.
Church Basement Ladies is based on
the Scandinavian humor books of Janet
Letnes Martin and Suzann (Johnson)
Nelson, both 1968 Augsburg graduates.
On stage the role of the church’s
matriarch, Mrs. Lars Snustad, is played
by Janet Paone ’83. For all three of them,
their Augsburg experiences play big.
Martin and Nelson came to Augsburg
in 1964 as freshmen, each attracted to
the big city and driven by the desire to
escape a future as a farm wife. When they
arrived, Augsburg was in the midst of
great change, reflecting new college
direction and leadership—the College
had just merged into the American
Lutheran Church after the demise of the
Lutheran Free Church, and Oscar
Anderson had just become president.
Students were pushed to explore and
understand the social and racial issues of
the city around them, forever changing
their worldviews.
Nelson aspired to be a home
economics teacher, but by the end of her
“God knew that if there were going
to be growing, self-sustaining, active
Lutheran Churches in America, he
would have to create a special
species of people, so He created the
Lutheran Church Basement Women.”
—Growing Up Lutheran,
Janet Letnes Martin and
Suzann (Johnson) Nelson, 1997
first semester had switched to political
science, and then in her sophomore year
to Scandinavian studies when the new
major was announced. She studied
Norwegian and was active in the
Norwegian Club, which led to many
opportunities, such as meeting the
visiting King Olav V of Norway.
Both Martin and Nelson felt
comfortable at Augsburg. They loved the
big city around them, but appreciated the
small-town comfort of the campus.
What they discovered was that smalltown Scandinavian Lutheran life was the
same everywhere. Nelson recalls the
many nights she and classmates from
small towns across the Upper Midwest
sat around in Gerda Mortensen Hall and
talked about their common backgrounds.
“We all grew up the same way,” Martin
confirms.
Students not from rural small towns
were commuter students, and Nelson
remembers stunning her city roommates
by talking about eating cream on bread.
So much so that she and others went
shopping and demonstrated how it was
made and eaten.
Paone arrived at Augsburg 15 years
later. By then Augsburg was less
THOSE
Lutheran
ladies
BY BETSEY NORGARD
30
Summer 2006
Top: Janet Letnes Martin ’68 began writing
down her experiences growing up in rural
North Dakota and calls herself a “NorwegianLutheran farm girl humorist.”
Suzann (Johnson) Nelson ’68 used her
Scandinavian studies to inspire the
characters of rural Norwegian
Minnesota in her books.
Janet Paone ’83 has made a career in
acting and voiceover work, and
brings her Augsburg experience to
the stage in Church Basement Ladies
Bottom: From The Augsburgian, 1968.
Bottom: From The Augsburgian, 1968.
Bottom: From The Augsburgian, 1981.
obviously Norwegian Lutheran and far
more diverse, but it was because of the
Lutheran church that Paone chose it. Her
mother was Lutheran and her father was
Catholic. She was raised in Abiding
Savior Lutheran Church, but within her
family she felt the stigma of being the
child of a parent who “turned,” i.e.,
married outside the Lutheran faith. She
feels her father’s family never really
accepted her Lutheran mother.
After applying to music schools in New
York, she decided to stay home for college
and chose Augsburg because she had
always respected and enjoyed the
Augsburg students who were counselors at
Lake Wapogassett Lutheran Bible Camp.
She had also considered the ministry, but
she ended up in the theatre program.
“There was definitely a Norwegian
Lutheran influence at Augsburg,” Paone
says. “There was a Scandinavian studies
major, and most people’s names ended in
–son, -sen, -gard, or –dal.” She also
remembers the aesthetic influence of the
“good” dinnerware with Scandinavian
design used for special dinners.
Martin and Nelson graduated in
1968, but neither returned to her small
town. On a Norwegian Club trip to
Decorah, Iowa, Nelson had met Ronald
E. Nelson ’67; in March 1967 they were
married in Mindekirken, the Norwegian
Lutheran Memorial Church in
Minneapolis. She studied Scandinavian
literature in graduate school and for 10
summers directed Skogfjorden, the
Norwegian Language Village.
Martin married shortly after college
and began raising a family. More than a
decade later, in 1983, while helping her
mother-in-law research family history,
she became frustrated at not finding
much information about life in rural
communities and decided to begin
writing down what it was like growing
up. Together with Allen Todnem ’64, also
an Augsburg graduate, she co-authored
Cream and Bread, and then Second
Helpings of Cream and Bread.
Martin and Nelson remained close
friends. In 1994, on a whim, Martin
suggested that Nelson should write a
book with her, and Nelson quit her job
the same day.
Sitting around the kitchen table in
their flannel nightgowns enjoying
Summer 2006
31
REMEMBERING
those
Lutheran
ladies
BY DAVE WOOD
IT WAS THE MID-1980S. I had recently been appointed
book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune after a lengthy
stint as English teacher at Augsburg and feature writer for the old
Tribune.
“Dave,” said the receptionist, “There’s an author out here in
the lobby who wants to see you.”
Wow. My first author. Who would it be? I trotted down to the
lobby to discover a woman who looked like a pert middle-aged
housewife from Hastings, Minn., which, in fact, she was.
“Hi,” she said, thrusting an enormous layer cake into my paws.
“I’m Janet Martin. I went to Augsburg back in the ’60s. I’ve
written a book and if you’ll review it the cake is yours.”
Looking back, I sincerely hope I wasn’t too condescending
when I explained to Janet Letnes Martin that Star Tribune policy
prohibited my taking gifts, blah blah blah.
“OK,” she said, unflappable. “I’ll take back the cake. You take
the book.”
So there I was with Janet Letnes Martin’s first literary effort,
Cream on Bread. I gave it a whirl. It was wonderful. As a minor
ethnician of the times, I had read lots of this stuff, like Howard
Mohr’s work, and I think I knew what was good. Janet Martin’s
was excellent. No cheap shots. There were no big yuks in Cream
on Bread, just lots of little ones. That’s because Janet Martin was
smart enough to know that there aren’t a lot of big yuks in
Lutherandom, but lots and lots of little ones. That’s why she
became one of Lutheran humor’s most honest purveyors.
Was I surprised? Yes. But I shouldn’t have been. I had taught
for 10 years at Augsburg, not too many years after she had
graduated. I had taught at four other schools before my arrival
there and was continually surprised at the little college’s vitality
and intellectuality. Sure, there was a streak of inferiority feeling
running through the student body. The University of Minnesota
students across Riverside Ave. called Augsburg “God’s Little Acre.”
We had great music, science, art, and poetry, but the steam heat
system in Old Main on a cold day sounded like the last 15 minutes
before the H.M.S. Titanic went down. Nevertheless we had great
32
Dave Wood is a past vice-president of the
National Book Critics Circle and former
book review editor of the Minneapolis Star
Tribune. He taught English and journalism
at Augsburg from 1969 to 1981.
poetry readings, students went off to good
graduate schools.
Best, we all had lots of fun, parked
right in the middle of a seedy old section
of Minneapolis.
But back to Janet Letnes Martin. Her
first book was a success followed by many
more, including one of my favorites, which
involved Hastings housewife/detective
Shirley Holmquist, a direct steal from Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1994,
her Auggie classmate, Suzann Nelson of Grand Rapids, Minn.,
joined her and their books tumbled out, books like their
monumental theological tract about Lutherans and Roman
Catholics entitled They Glorified Mary … We Glorified Rice. They
also performed two-woman shows, filling church basements across
the Midwest.
Ever since the Martin/Nelson success, I’ve been a bit jealous.
I’ve tried my hand with ethnic humor. Like Martin and Nelson I
grew up in a little Norwegian Lutheran town. But my stuff never
lit any fires. Why did theirs?
I’ve come to think that Augsburg College had a lot to do with
it. Augsburg was traditionally on the outer fringe of the Lutheran
establishment. Its supporting synod, the Lutheran Free Church,
was always suspicious of clericalism, authority, big shots. An
immigrant church, it had to survive by its wits. (Janet Letnes
Martin, you see, didn’t actually think her layer cake would
persuade me to review her book. It was just a way of tweaking my
self-satisfaction, cutting me and the Star Tribune down to size.)
And so the two pious girls from small farm towns came to God’s
Little Acre in the heart of the Sinful City and found out one could
love one’s church and have some fun with it, too.
I look back more than a quarter century at the students like
Martin and Nelson and wonder at their successes, many of which
have just a bit of orneriness in common. It’s a wonderful tradition
and the women who made church basements famous are
definitely part of it.
And so now the girls are moving out onto the national scene.
Martin and Nelson are no longer girls, but I can’t help thinking of
them in that way, for their girlish glee and for poking a little fun
at the basements where they both spent hundreds of hours
learning that certain concepts were “most certainly true.”
I have only one bit of advice and that’s for Janet Letnes
Martin. If and when you get to New York City, don’t bring a layer
cake to the offices of the New York Times Book Review.
The editor won’t get it.
Summer 2006
copious amounts of both coffee and
laughter, the two women began to
capture recollections and memories as
they spilled out. Nelson has said that it’s
her job to jog people’s memories and
their job to laugh. Their intention is
never to make fun of anyone or anything.
“There’s a fine line between making fun
of something and having fun with it,”
Martin told an interviewer. “Hopefully
we’ll never cross it.”
Three books came within the first six
months. So far, they’ve written nine
books together, the most popular being
Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This
Mean?, which won a Minnesota Book
Award for humor.
Requests for speaking engagements
also started coming, and for several years
Martin and Nelson crisscrossed each
others’ paths as they spoke to church
groups, women’s groups, and local
organizations. Then they devised a
comedy routine and began appearing
together as “Those Lutheran Ladies”—
nothing more than sharing their own
backgrounds.
An idea for a play came about when
TroupeAmerica’s president and executive
producer-director, Curt Wollan, hired
Those Lutheran Ladies to perform for
three weeks at the Medora Musical in
North Dakota. Wollan invited a
playwright-couple, Jim Stowell and
Jessica Zuehlke, to pen the script.
Wollan, who had grown up as
“Lutherans attending a Lutheran
college in the ’50s and ’60s did not
have to prepare themselves for any
big culture shock. Some of them
even shared the same last name—
but were not related.”
—Growing Up Lutheran,
Janet Letnes Martin and
Suzann (Johnson) Nelson, 1997
president of his Luther League and the
son of a dedicated church basement lady,
encouraged Paone to take the part of
matronly Vivian Snustad, the
unequivocal and uncompromising queen
of the church basement ladies in his
fictional East Cornucopia Lutheran
Church.
Paone, a veteran character actress seen
in Tony ’n Tina’s Wedding, pushed for
revisions to the script through a workshop
process in order to engage Mrs. Snustad
more with the audience. This character is a
curmudgeon, but works through her
issues and begins to understand why
things must eventually change—beginning
with her consternation over the hymnals
changing from black to red.
Church Basement Ladies previewed at
several locations before settling into its
long run at the Plymouth Playhouse.
Paone recalls opening in Fargo, where
the cast was extremely nervous about
how it would go over. Once the audience
started laughing and didn’t stop, Paone
remembers the “neat moment” between
acts when the cast suddenly realized that
“this thing is going to be huge.”
Audiences react differently to the
play, Paone says, and she can tell by what
they laugh at whether the crowd (often
comprised of large church groups) is
Lutheran or Catholic. And, if they react
most vividly to the physical comedy
aspect, they probably aren’t churchconnected at all.
Even if someone is not well versed in
the ways of Martin Luther, she says, the
play is still very accessible. “It’s about a
[small] country church … it’s the social
center, with many different layers.”
Paone would love to pull more
material from Martin and Nelson’s books
for the stage, and Martin and Nelson
would love to have the current actors
stay involved with the East Cornucopia
Lutheran Church.
What’s next for Those Lutheran
Ladies? When asked about it, Martin
quickly replies, “Oh, ya, there’s lots more
in it.” When they get together and start
laughing, she says, “We just run with it
… and sometimes we just blurt out the
same thing.”
And, to quote Martin Luther and the
church basement ladies, “This is most
certainly true.” ■
“If Scandinavian Lutherans could add one more feast day to the church
calendar, it would be the feast of fish and flatbread … Unlike the Catholics
who had to eat fish every Friday, Scandinavian Lutherans were only morally
obligated to eat it once a year, and that was at the annual Lutefisk supper.”
—Growing Up Lutheran,
Janet Letnes Martin and
Suzann (Johnson) Nelson, 1997
Summer 2006
33
CHURCH
Basement
Troupe America, Inc.
Ladies
—you bet it’s a big hit!
The cast of Church Basement Ladies (L to R): Janet Paone ’83 (Mrs. Lars Snustad—Vivian), Greta
Grosch (Mrs. Gilmer Gilmerson—Mavis), Tim Drake (Pastor E. L. Gunderson), Dorian Chalmers
(Mrs. Elroy Engelson-Karin) and Ruthie Baker (Signe Engelson—Karin’s daughter).
BY ANY MEASURE, Church Basement Ladies is a monster
hit. It has been running for more than 35 weeks at Plymouth
Playhouse (scheduled through the end of 2006) at 101%
occupancy. It now has a double cast and offers 10 or 11 shows per
week.
Curt Wollan, producer and director, found inspiration for the
play in his own mother. After she died, Wollan was asked if the
gift she left the church could be used for their greatest need, a
new stove for the kitchen. He agreed, and it was named Lorraine
in her honor, a seemingly fitting legacy.
“We’re honoring people who are never honored … and who
are under-appreciated,” says Wollan. “The play has been hugely
popular with women who have worked in church basements, and
with their daughters and granddaughters, who are remembering
mom and grandmother.”
He remembers being a Luther Leaguer in his own church when
they’d sing, “Come out, dear ladies, come out, come out” so the
women could be recognized, and they were always bashful about
it. “They were the unsung heroes of the church—they kept it
clean and fed, and the coffee going.”
He says the play is universal—it doesn’t matter where or what
church you’re in—every church has its basement ladies. The show
just happens to be Norwegian Lutheran because it’s based on
Nelson and Martin’s book, Growing Up Lutheran.
The play is important, he says, because this part of church life
is dying. “As women have started to work, there are fewer
basement ladies and there is more catering,” says Wollan. “This
34
celebrates the past and its heritage.”
Church Basement Ladies is preparing to embark on a ninestate, 50-city tour from January-March 2007, in mostly small towns
throughout the Upper Midwest, but reaching as far as New
Mexico, Colorado, and Montana. Then, they’ll wait a year and
tour bigger cities.
Already underway are plans for a second cast to begin
production in Chicago. New York is pending, and there has been
interest in an off-Broadway venue where it would play in a real
Lutheran church basement.
Norwegian Lutheran food is central to the play. One of
Wollan’s favorite lines is “Lutefisk and lefse are directly descended
from the five loaves and two fishes at the Sea of Galilee, and have
since lost their color.”
The music and lyrics were written by Drew Jansen; here are
two samples:
From “Closer to Heaven”—“You’re closer to heaven in the
church basement, Where we do the Good Lord’s work. Everywhere
you look you see spectacular sights; 40 kinds of food to feed some
fierce appetites; Nearly new linoleum and fluorescent lights,
managed by a stalwart squad. Here below the house of God.”
From “Dead Spread”[term for the spreads served on
sandwiches following a funeral]—“Dead spread, a splendid affair,
to celebrate someone who’s no longer there; dead spread, a
wonderful thing, what sweet consolation a hotdish can bring.”
For more information, go to <www.plymouthplayhouse.com>.
Summer 2006
AAlumni
LUMNINews
NEWS
From the Alumni Board president’s desk…
S
erving as
president of the
Augsburg Alumni
Board the past year
has in many ways
been one of the most
rewarding and
enriching things I
have done. I am
continually inspired
by the many outstanding and diverse
accomplishments of our alumni, and I
am honored and humbled by the
opportunity to serve the Augsburg
Alumni Association and Augsburg
Alumni Board over the past seven years.
My goal this year was to continue the
transformation and forward momentum
of the Alumni Board in its journey from
the role of an advisory board to a
working board. Under discussion has
been our advisory member initiative, in
which we invite representatives of
various campus constituencies to attend
our committee meetings in order to
foster greater dialogue, e.g. parents,
international students, A-Club, the
Augsburg Associates, Faculty and Staff
Senates. Our Connections Committee,
led by Buffie Blesi, undertook an effort to
explore possibilities for offering alumni
benefits. Stay tuned to hear more about
this effort in the coming months.
I’m proud to report that Alumni
Board members are well on the way to a
fourth consecutive year of 100%
contribution to the annual fund. Our
intention is to continue to build on this
tradition of giving, and I am pleased to
say that the Alumni Board has also
committed to a 100% contribution rate
among board members to the Access to
Excellence campaign. We are certainly
blessed by these commitments and by
these gifts.
President Frame’s leadership of
Augsburg is finishing with tremendous
energy, solid growth for the College, and
renewal of its vision for the future. The
strength and constancy of his leadership
has helped draw Augsburg to new levels
of recognition. In his own words,
“Augsburg plays a unique role in the
world of Lutheran education. Its service
to the city, to the provision of
accessibility to first-class educational
opportunities, and its regard for faith and
reason as interactive and mutually
reinforcing modes of understanding …
gives us a special mission.” Augsburg has
been truly blessed by President Frame’s
incredible leadership the past nine years.
I had the privilege of speaking at
Augsburg’s 137th Commencement on
May 6 and welcoming 752 graduates as
the newest members of the Augsburg
Alumni Association. Our Alumni
Association has grown considerably since
my Commencement ceremony a little
over 20 years ago, when the Weekend
College had just been launched and
when graduate programs, the Rochester
program, and many others did not yet
exist. The Alumni Association in those
days numbered around 10-11,000
members and now includes around
18,000. Congratulations and welcome to
the Class of 2006!
I am excited about Augsburg’s future,
the future of the Alumni Association,
and the Alumni Board. I hope you will
join me in welcoming President-elect
Paul Pribbenow and incoming Alumni
Board president Barry Vornbrock—the
next chapter in our history!
Stay close and stay connected.
Karina Karlén ’83
President, Alumni Board
LSAT prep for a bargain
Don’t take out a loan to pay those expensive test prep companies.
Augsburg’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate
Opportunity (URGO) is hosting LSAT Prep on campus this fall.
The instructor is Brian Farrell ’95, an attorney and Augsburg
alumnus, who scored in the 99th percentile on the exam and taught
LSAT prep for Princeton Review. Four sessions are offered:
TUES., OCT. 10, 6 TO 9 P.M.-—Homework review, reading
comprehension strategy and practice
TUES., OCT. 17, 6 TO 9 P.M.—Homework review, continued practice in
all sections, overall test-taking strategies, test-day preparation, class
questions
TUES., SEPT. 26, 6 TO 9 P.M.—General introduction to the LSAT,
analytical reasoning strategy and practice
The cost for the four sessions is $150 for Augsburg alumni,
compared to $580 at the University of Minnesota and over $1300 at
Kaplan or Princeton Review.
TUES., OCT. 3, 6 TO 9 P.M.—Homework review, logical reasoning
strategy and practice
To register (limited spaces are available), contact Dixie Shafer,
<shafer@augsburg.edu>.
Summer 2006
35
Alumni Events
Please join us for these upcoming alumni events; unless otherwise noted, call 612-330-1085 or 1-800-260-6590 or e-mail
<alumni@augburg.edu> for more information.
June
August
20
8
Auggie Hours, 5:30-7 p.m.
Campiello, 1320 West Lake St.,
Uptown Minneapolis,
612-825-2222
15
Alumni Board Meeting,
5:30 p.m.
Minneapolis Room,
Christensen Center
10
Auggie Evening at the Races
Canterbury Park, Shakopee, MN
Gather your friends and family and
join us for free admission and
complimentary hors d’oeuvres.
RSVP is required and space
is limited.
16
Auggies attend Lutheran
Night at the Dome
Minnesota Twins v. Cleveland
Indians, with first pitch at 7:10.
Lower level seating—$18 per
ticket(group rate).
Tickets are limited-contact the
Alumni Relations Office,
612-330-1613 or send check to:
Alumni Relations Office,
2211 Riverside Ave S., CB 146,
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Once your payment has been
received, the tickets will be mailed
to you in August.
Alumni Board Meeting,
5:30 p.m.
Minneapolis Room,
Christensen Center
July
11
Auggie Hours, 5:30-7 p.m.
Maynard’s Restaurant,
685 Excelsior Blvd., Excelsior, MN
(located in the southeast corner of
Excelsior Bay on Lake
Minnetonka), 952-470-1800
Please e-mail the following
information to <ecs@augsburg.edu>
or call 612-330-1104: Total number
in your group, names of you and
your guests, your graduation
year(s), and your contact number.
The deadline to register is Friday,
August 4.
Homecoming 2006—Watch us Soar
September 25-30
Mon., Sept. 25
Wed., Sept. 27
4:30-6 p.m.
10:30 a.m.
7:30-9 p.m.
International Student
Organization reception
Student Kick-Off Event,
Coronation and Pep Rally
Augsburg Associates annual
fall luncheon (off campus)
Noon-1 p.m.
Auggie Cup Knowledge
Bowl (East Commons)
9:30-10:30 p.m. Homecoming communion
Tues., Sept. 26
11 a.m.- 2 p.m. Counseling and Health
Promotion Annual Fair
6:30 p.m.
Alumni Baseball game,
Parade Stadium
7 p.m.
Powder puff football
9 p.m.
FCA campfire, Murphy Park
Thurs., Sept. 28
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Student activity—Old Auggie
photos
5:30-8:30 p.m. Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet
Fri., Sept. 29
9-10 a.m.
10-11 a.m.
11 a.m.-2 p.m.
12:30-2 p.m.
36
2:15- 3:15 p.m. Campus tour
3:30-6 p.m.
Hall Crawl
3 p.m.
Artist Amy Rice ’93, slide
presentation, Marshall
Room, Christensen Center
7 p.m.
ASAC Variety Show
7:30 p.m.
Men’s soccer game v.
Macalester
Reunion breakfast
Homecoming chapel
Student activity
Alumni luncheon
Sat., Sept. 30
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Picnic in the Park
noon
Auggie Cup Desk
Hurling
1-3 p.m.
Football Game v. ConcordiaMoorhead
3:30-7 p.m.
Auggie Block Party
Summer 2006
CLASS
NOTES
Class Notes
1956
Evelyn (Chanco) Steenberg,
Missoula, Mont., and her
husband, Tom ’58, ’61 Sem,
celebrated their golden wedding
anniversary on June 2, and hope
to be at their 50-year reunion at
Homecoming. They’ve spent 45
years in the ministry, including
35 years as missionaries in Japan.
The Steenbergs can be reached at
<tasteenberg@aol.com>.
1957
Gloria (Grant) Knoblauch,
Lake Elmo, Minn., was recently
recognized for her service and
leadership in forming the Friends
of Lake Elmo Library, which
succeeded in bringing a branch
of the Washington County
Library back to their city.
1958
Rev. Gary Turner, San Jacinto,
Calif., is an Anglican priest and
V.A. Hospital chaplain. Last
summer, while at the Hollywood
Bowl to see Garrison Keillor, he
ending up sitting two rows
ahead of Philip Knox ’57.
1965
Dwight Olson, San Diego,
Calif., was elected president of
the Licensing Executives Society
(LES) of USA & Canada, a
professional society of over 6,000
members engaged in the use,
development, manufacture, and
marketing of intellectual
property. LES is part of an
international organization, with
30 national societies representing
12,000 members in 80 countries.
He can be reached at
<dwight.olson@ironmountain.com>.
1969
James Roste, Roseville, Minn.,
retired on Dec. 31 after 36 years
in corrections work. He has
joined his wife, Lorene
(Peterson) ’70, in her business,
“Senior Moves,” helping seniors
Summer 2006
sort, pack, move, unpack, and
settle in at new locations.
1971
Thomas Haas, West St. Paul,
Minn., retired last August after
working 32 years at the State of
Minnesota Department of
Employment and Economic
Development, helping people find
employment by providing basic
skills and resources. He says that
retirement is “almost all I have
heard it can be—WONDERFUL.”
He also wonders how he had time
to work and get other things
done before. His wife is a genetics
researcher at the University of
Minnesota.
Jean Holbrook, San Mateo,
Calif., has been named San Mateo
County superintendent of schools
through January 2007, to
complete a vacated term. She
brings 30 years of experience
with the San Mateo County Office
of Education to the position.
Charles Maland, Knoxville,
Tenn., was awarded the
Alexander Prize for his superior
classroom teaching and
distinguished scholarship at the
University of Tennessee. His
teaching and research focuses on
American literature and cinema,
and he has been named editor of
a volume of James Agee’s film
criticism.
NewsCenter in Duluth, Minn.,
which provides weather news to
several TV channels and
newspapers in northern
Minnesota and northwestern
Wisconsin.
1988
Kiel Christianson, Champaign,
Ill., writes a golf equipment
column for travelgolf.com as a
hobby, and was recently quoted
in an article in CNNMoney.com
about a new Nike golf club.
1989
Nnamdi A.
Okoronkwo and
his wife, Sabrina
K., Minneapolis,
announce the
birth of their son,
Grayson
Nnamdi, very unexpectedly and
quickly, with the help of the
Minneapolis Fire Department. He
was born on his parents’ fifth
wedding anniversary and joins
older brother, Spencer, 18
months. Nnamdi and Sabrina
work for Best Buy and Target.
Steven Torgerud and his wife,
in St. Paul, welcomed a
daughter, Abigail Mae, on
March 1.
1992
Susan E. (Gehrke) Erdman
and her husband, Shane,
Marinette, Wis., announce the
birth of their daughter, Wynn
Leslie, on Sept. 9. She joins her
brother, Carson.
1993
Dana (Ryding)
Martin, and her
husband, Jeff,
Andover, Minn.,
welcomed a son,
Caden Joshua,
on Dec. 2. He
joins brother Noah, age 2. She
can be reached at<dana.martin@
moundsviewschools.org>.
1975
Daniel Swalm, Minneapolis, is
an adjunct professor at the
University of Wisconsin-River
Falls in the Graduate College of
Education and Professional
Studies and teaches career
counseling through the
Department of Counseling and
School of Psychology. He is the
executive director of Career
Solutions Inc., a nonprofit career
development agency in St. Paul.
1986
Karl Spring was named chief
meteorologist at the Northland’s
Joyce (Nelson) Schrader ’64, Friendswood, Texas, is a retired
elementary school teacher who taught second, third, fourth, and
fifth grades. Her husband is a retired human resources manager.
In the photo are Joyce and her husband, Steve (middle and top
rows, right); their daughter Mandy and her husband, Scott (top
row, left and middle), with their children, Haley (3) and Cason (1);
and their daughter Julie (bottom row, left) with her dog, Elvis.
37
Class Notes
Courtesy photo
ALUMNI PROFILE
Targeting cancer as both
physician and scientist
by Sara Holman ’06
Nine years have past since Arlo Miller roamed Augsburg’s campus as
a biology and chemistry student. However, this recent M.D./Ph.D.
Harvard graduate has not forgotten his Minneapolis alma mater.
“One of the biggest challenges in medical school is just trying to
figure out what is important and what actually matters. It’s
essentially very easy to lose the forest for the trees. I think Augsburg
science did very well to emphasize the forest, which provided a good
starting point,” Miller comments. He also credits the Honors
Program for its emphasis on critical thinking and communication
skills. After his junior year, Miller worked for the summer with a
leading cancer researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, who
helped convince him to seek the dual medical/research degrees.
Entering Harvard after his 1997 graduation was the first step in
Miller’s pursuit to study oncology, and his lab work in graduate
school led him to study melanoma. “I’d always been thinking I
would do hematology-oncology,” says Miller, “but I found that
dermatology is a better fit for me. Dermatologists actually deal with
the most prevalent forms of cancer, but the work primarily occurs in
the clinic rather than in the hospital. This will better enable me to
spend a fraction of my time doing research.”
Arlo Miller '97 received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2004 on
the same day as his fiancée, Ileana Howard, graduated from Harvard
Medical School. In June, he completed the M.D./Ph.D. program and
also received his medical degree.
Whether to become a regular doctor or a regular researcher or to split his time doing both has been something Miller has grappled with since
becoming part of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).
MSTP was founded to bridge the gap between physicians and scientists. “Sometime in the 1970s,” Miller says, “there was a concern that the
divide was widening to the point that effective translation of basic science research to the realm of medicine was in jeopardy. The MSTP
program sends people to medical school and graduate school with the hope of creating a pool of people who could serve as bridges between
these two communities.”
Miller entered the MSTP program with a National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grant, given to about 300 students across the country.
The grant pays all medical school costs and provides an annual stipend to compensate for the economic consequences of choosing the
lengthy M.D./Ph.D. path.
In this joint medical-research program, Miller’s first two years included the medical school core scientific curriculum—anatomy,
biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, pathophysiology, etc. Then he shifted to graduate work and did research for five years in three
different laboratories, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Finally he returned to the last two years of medical school and
worked in hospital and clinic settings.
In early June, Miller graduated from the M.D./Ph.D. program and will marry Ileana Howard, also a physcian. For the next year, he has a
transition-year internship in Seattle, where Howard is currently a resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
In July 2007, Miller will begin a three-year residency in dermatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., a department known for its
excellence in the research and treatment of unusual problems. He imagines himself ending up at a research university and says he feels
drawn to the area of cancer biology.
When dealing with the very sensitive subject of cancer, Miller says his Augsburg experience continues to impact his role as a doctor. “You
often find yourself taking care of people that the rest of society has pretty much given up on and for whom all social support systems have
failed,” he says. “This is a community service aspect of medicine that I hadn’t anticipated or appreciated when I started, but I feel that
Augsburg helped prepare me through informal means, including the Link program and its urban setting.”
Sara Holman graduated in 2006 with majors in communication studies and English.
38
Summer 2006
operas in repertory during its
eight-week season, attracting
40,000 people from around
the world.
Courtesy photo
TOASTMASTERS AWARD
Graduate
programs
Doris Rubenstein ’93 MAL
was elected to the Board of
Directors of Affinity Plus
Federal Credit Union. She is
principal of PDP Services, a
consulting firm specializing in
corporate and personal
philanthropy.
In Memoriam
The Honorable Pamela Alexander ’74, Minneapolis, received the
Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership award
for 2006. She was lauded for her community service as a youth
motivational speaker, basketball coach, and teacher, and for the
more than 50 community service awards she has received. She is
a judge of the Fourth Judicial District Court, Juvenile Division, of
Hennepin County.
Jessica (Ferrell)
and Brad
Zenner ’92,
Minneapolis,
adopted a
daughter,
Jasmine Shan,
in November. Jasmine was born
in Hunan, China, in February
2005. She joins a happy sister,
Lily Jinxiong, 3. Jessica can be
reached at <jessicazenner@
hotmail.com>.
1994
Carrie Kennedy
and her husband,
Eric Peterson,
Hopkins, Minn.,
announce the
birth of a son,
Kieran Philip, in
January. Carrie is an adjunct
professor of English at Concordia
University in St. Paul and
teaches fiction writing at the Loft
Literary Center.
1996
Anne Lalla married Todd
Johnson in March; they live in
Summer 2006
Shoreview, Minn. They have one
son, Evan, born in September
2002.
Leslie Lucas ’00 married
Matthew Weide in July 2005.
She is currently a student in
the Master of Social Work
program, and he is an account
executive for Donaldson in
Bloomington. They live in
Minneapolis.
1998
Brittani (Gross) Filek ’00 PA,
Corona, Calif., and her husband,
Matt, welcomed their first child,
Van Owen, in June 2005. They
were married in July 2004;
Brittani is a surgical physician
assistant at Kaiser Permanente
General and Plastic Surgery
Department.
1999
Bobby Scala, Eden Prarie,
Minn., along with his brother-inlaw, has opened Scala’s Beef
Stands in Maple Grove, a
restaurant selling products from
his family’s Chicago-based
wholesale meat company.
Sarah (Ginkel) Spilman, Iowa
City, Iowa, and her husband,
Matt, announce the birth of their
son, Alexander Nicholas, on
Jan. 3. Sarah earned a Master of
Arts degree in sociology at the
University of Iowa in 2004.
2000
Kai Gudmestad ’06 MBA,
Minneapolis, Minn., and his
wife, Amy, welcomed their son,
Elijah Douglas, on Jan. 29. Kai
graduated in the first Augsburg
MBA class.
2001
Kathryn Koch has been named
production stage manager for the
Glimmerglass Opera 2006 festival
season in Cooperstown, N.Y. She
will lead the stage management
staff and be part of a world
premiere opera, The Greater Good.
The company produces four
Irvin Nerdahl ’40, age 87, Jan.
27 in Crystal, Minn. He is
survived by his children,
Marsha, Laura, John, and David.
Kelly Roth ’47, age 85, in
Wheaton, Minn. He is survived
by his wife, Beverly, and three
children, John “Champ”,
Richard, and Janice, who also
attended Augsburg. Kelly,
nicknamed “Smiley,” was a
manager at the Smiley’s Point
confectionary. He retired from
Lutheran Brotherhood and
Central Life Insurance. He was
inducted into the Augsburg
Athletic Hall of Fame in 1978.
Rev. Philip A. Nelson ’55, ’58
Sem, age 72, Dec. 1 in New
London, Minn. He is survived
by his wife, Beverly (Omdahl)
’55, and three sons, Bruce, Peter,
and Blair. Phil had callings to
Colombia Heights, Morris, New
London, and Osakis before
retiring in 1994 due to health
concerns.
Edward M. Sabella, professor
emeritus of economics, May 5 in
Minneapolis. He taught at
Augsburg from 1967 until his
retirement in August 2000 and
was chair of the Departments of
Business Administration and
Economics from 1968-81.
39
AUGGIE
THOUGHTS
Auggie Thoughts
Over spring break, 35 Augsburg students joined with students from Grand
View College in Des Moines, Iowa, for a trip to Biloxi, Miss., to help with
hurricane relief sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA). Students posted daily journal entries on Augsburg’s website; the
following is a portion of Jeanette Clark’s journal from the last day of the trip.
Guarding people’s stories
by Jeanette Clark ’07
Some look at the journey home as a necessary part of a trip—something
logically following going away somewhere. On some level, this is true. On
the other hand, the opportunity to travel home is one that should not be
ignored. One does not have an experience, really, until he/she reflects on
it, and this is part of going home. So rather than being a burden, this 30hour bus ride has been a blessing—a chance to continue to get to know
people and to process, or try to process, all we have seen and heard.
It seems that more than the work we did during our time in Biloxi, our
greater service was guarding people’s stories. We heard the great trials and
agony of those who worked in the morgue after Katrina. By going home,
caring for those around us, and sharing these stories, we will guard the
stories of those who suffered through this disaster. More than clearing
brush, painting, or scrubbing, it was crucial that we took the time to value
the experiences of those who suffered so much. It was a service to hear AJ
talk about the importance of his camp. It was a service to hear Jack tell of
the struggles of those living in FEMA trailers. We heard the stories of
spelling tests and possible “reward movies” by the elementary students we
visited. There is no way we can begin to understand their pain or their
experiences, but we can listen, and in doing so, we show them they matter
just as they showed us that we mattered by cooking and caring for us with
the utmost hospitality.
On some level, our trip home is when the journey starts. Who around
us is also suffering, and how do we get to the root of this pain? Who
around us has a story to tell that no one has listened to? How can we be in
solidarity with those on the coast who are trying to rebuild their lives?
There is still work to do. We’ve only just begun.
Jeanette Clark ’07 is pursuing a degree in metro-urban studies, and youth and
family ministry. She is a student leader in Campus Ministry and the Campus
Kitchen at Augsburg.
40
Summer 2006
The Golden
Fisherman
According to the volunteer coordinators at Lutheran Episcopal
Disaster Relief in Biloxi, Miss., Mondays start slow. So, to quell their
nervous energy, some students got on the bus for a quick tour of the
damage that Hurricane Katrina caused. Even after nine months the
destruction is awe-inspiring. The U.S. Highway 90 bridge, which once
spanned the 1.5 miles between Biloxi and Ocean Springs, looks like a
set of dominos. “The Golden Fisherman,” a sculpture by Harry Reeks,
has only its feet connected to the cement base, with the rest of the
eight-foot brass-and-copper figure thrown 20 feet from its home.
—Stephen Geffre, Staff Photographer
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P U B L I C AT I O N
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
Spring 2006
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 68, No. 3
OUR CITY …
OUR CLASSROOM
page 10
T A B L E
O F
C O N T E N T S
Spring 2006
Vol 68, No. 3
FEATURES
10
17
DEPARTMENTS
Our city ... our classroom
2
Around the... Show more
A
P U B L I C AT I O N
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
Spring 2006
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 68, No. 3
OUR CITY …
OUR CLASSROOM
page 10
T A B L E
O F
C O N T E N T S
Spring 2006
Vol 68, No. 3
FEATURES
10
17
DEPARTMENTS
Our city ... our classroom
2
Around the Quad
by Betsey Norgard
5
Sports
Teachers who lead,
leaders who teach
6
Faculty-Staff notes
22
compiled by Betsey Norgard
Supporting Augsburg—
Access to Excellence:
(The Campaign for Augsburg College)
25
32
inside
back
cover
Alumni News
Auggie Thoughts
Calendar
A college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Augsburg College is an equal education/employment institution.
Editor
Betsey Norgard
Assistant Editor
Lynn Mena
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
Sports Information Coordinator
Don Stoner
www.augsburg.edu
On the cover:
Augsburg Now is published quarterly by Augsburg College,
From the beginning of her
classes, first-year student Beckie
Jackson begins to explore the
opportunities around campus as
an extended classroom.
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454.
Opinions expressed in Augsburg Now do not necessarily
reflect official College policy. ISSN 1058–1545
On this page:
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the one-stop shop for all the
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registration, financial aid,
transcripts, accounts, and more.
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AROUND
QUAD
Around THE
the Quad
Paul Pribbenow is chosen as
Augsburg’s next president
Augsburg News Service
P
aul C. Pribbenow, president of
Rockford College in Rockford, Ill.,
has been elected as the 11th president of
Augsburg College by its board of regents.
“We are confident that Dr. Pribbenow
has all the qualities of leadership and
passion needed to continue Dr.
[William] Frame’s work at Augsburg
College,” said Jean Taylor ’85, chair of
the Board of Regents. “He has already
demonstrated that he is an accomplished
communicator, a person who can
demonstrate his own sense of Christian
vocation, a skilled administrator, and a
visible leader, actively participating in
the life of the campus and surrounding
community.”
Presidential search committee chair
and regent Ted Grindal ’76 expressed his
thanks and gratitude to the entire
Augsburg community for their participation in the search process. “After a very
thorough and successful search, we are
pleased to welcome Dr. Pribbenow as
Augsburg’s next president,” Grindal said.
“In Paul Pribbenow, we feel we have found
a successor who will not only carry on
Augsburg’s commitment to being a college
committed to a Christian understanding
of vocation, but will maximize its
exciting potential for the future.”
“This is the work I believe I was
called to do, and I look forward to
serving as Augsburg’s next president,”
Pribbenow said. “I firmly believe that my
experiences and commitments are a
remarkable fit for the mission and needs
of the College.”
Paul C. Pribbenow was born in
Decorah, Iowa, in 1957. He received his
bachelor’s degree in sociology/political
science from Luther College, and his
master’s degree in divinity and his
doctorate in social ethics from the
University of Chicago.
He has served as president of
Rockford College since 2002. Since his
arrival there, Pribbenow has launched
several new educational initiatives,
including working with faculty and staff
to develop the Jane Addams Center for
Civic Engagement. This program’s
primary responsibility, according to
Pribbenow, “is to find ways to work with
students to integrate their education,
co-curricular activities, spiritual
experiences, and service to the
community as part of an intentional
vocational formation initiative.” He has
also been an integral part of expanding
Paul C. Pribbenow
opportunities for the campus and its
community to join together in a variety
of collaborative efforts.
He and his wife, Abigail, an arts
administrator, have two young children.
Pribbenow succeeds retiring president
William V. Frame, and will take office on
July 1.
To read more, go to
<www.augsburg.edu/news>.
NEWSNOTES
Agre to speak at commencement—two honorary
degrees to be awarded
Peter Agre ’70, Nobel Prize laureate for chemistry in 2003, will
speak at the College’s 137th commencement on May 6.
Agre is vice chancellor of science and technology at the Duke
University School of Medicine. He will receive one of two
honorary degrees approved by the Board of Regents to be
conferred on that date.
James A. Johnson will receive the second honorary degree. He
has enjoyed a distinguished career in finance and lending, formerly
with Fannie Mae and now as vice chairman of Perseus L.L.C.
Johnson has been active in supporting the Gateway Building and
development of the urban village concept along Riverside Ave.
Johnson was Augsburg’s commencement speaker in 2002.
2
Outstanding physics students
For the third time in six years, the Society of Physics Students (SPS)
has named Augsburg’s chapter as an Outstanding SPS Chapter, this
time for 2004-05. Fewer than 10% of the chapters nationwide
receive this honor; Augsburg’s chapter was also named in 19992000 and 2002-03. Professor Mark Engebretson is chapter adviser.
Jim Haglund honored
Regent Jim Haglund was honored with the Hall of Fame award by
the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC), a
1,000-member international organization. Minnesota Gov. Tim
Pawlenty lauded Haglund as characterizing the “best of
Minnesota.” Pawlenty also drew attention to Haglund’s leadership
on the Augsburg Board of Regents.
Spring 2006
Mexico social work consortium receives
award
Courtesy photo
by Betsey Norgard
A
Spring 2006
Students in the 2004 spring semester program in Mexico visited the pyramids of Xochicalco to
learn how pre-Hispanic cultures regulated the solar calendar.
is noteworthy in several regards beyond
the challenges of satisfying the needs and
criteria of nine different institutions.
Foremost, it makes possible a study
abroad experience for social work
students at colleges that can’t sustain
their own individual programs.
Also, because the program is ongoing,
issues of social work in developing
countries are constantly part of
department discussions and curriculum.
Returning students readily talk about the
program as life transforming.
“Students who return from Mexico
have a window into the lives of Hispanic
and Latino communities impossible to
gain domestically,” commented social
work professor Nancy Rodenborg. She
said the department hopes to take
advantage of this experience in working
with Twin Cities’ Spanish-speaking
populations.
Also cited in the award is the program’s
shared ownership and governance among
the partner institutions in Minnesota and
South Dakota—both public and private—
allowing social work students equal access
to study abroad.
Rodenborg stated that a large part of
the success of the program is due to the
Center for Global Education’s expertise in
offering international education and the
resources available at its Mexico center.
Courtesy photo
ugsburg is part of a social work
consortium that has been honored
for its semester study program in Mexico.
The consortium was awarded the 2006
Global Commission Partners in
Education Award by the Council on
Social Work Education (CSWE) in
recognition of “the contributions of
individuals, organizations, and others as
partners in advancing education for
international social work.”
The development of the BSW Mexico
Consortium of the Minnesota/South
Dakota Area, which includes both private
and public institutions, was more than
two years in the making and is
remarkable for the complexity of issues it
negotiates. The study courses meet all
the schools’ curricular needs and allow
social work students to participate
without delaying their graduation date.
Financial costs were worked out so that
students pay only their home-school
tuition (plus airfare), regardless of which
partner institution they attend.
The program, “Social Work in a Latin
American Context,” is based at the
Center for Global Education (CGE)
study center in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and
includes study of Mexican culture,
intensive Spanish language instruction, a
social work course, and either a field
practicum or comparative social policy
course. A several-week homestay gives
students a chance to experience living
with a Mexican family. There is also a
two-week exchange with students in the
School of Social Work at the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
in Mexico City.
Cultural content courses are taught
by CGE staff, and the social work
content is taught by a rotating visiting
faculty member from one of the partner
schools. Augsburg social work professor
Barbara Lehmann is currently in
Cuernavaca, teaching for the second year.
The BSW Mexico Consortium model
Social work students visited Tlamacazapa, a
rural village where Claudia (in red, above)
helped them learn to weave.
Schools belonging to the BSW Mexico
Consortium are Augsburg College,
Bemidji State University, Bethel
University, College of St.
Catherine/University of St. Thomas,
Metropolitan State University, St. Cloud
State University, St. Olaf College,
University of Sioux Falls, and Winona
State University.
For more information on the Mexico
study semester, go to <www.augsburg.
edu/global/swksem.html>.
3
Business students seek stronger connections
through ABO
by Betsey Norgard
international presence and do a thorough
analysis of its marketing department. It
meant making the contacts, meeting with
corporate officials, and following up on
the research. Sometimes it’s even possible
to tie ABO activities into coursework for
some extra credit.
A
ugsburg business students realize
the importance of stepping out of
the classroom to gain “real-world”
experience, and the Twin Cities offers
them plenty of opportunities. The
Augsburg Business Organization (ABO)
aims to provide them a platform to do this.
Students join ABO to learn more
about the business world, to meet
corporate leaders, and to network in
search of opportunities for projects,
internships, and future employment.
Since ABO is student-run, they gain
leadership and professional skills as they
brainstorm, contact, and arrange for
speakers and trips.
Founded five years ago by business
major Rod Gonzalez ’04, ABO currently
has about 15 active students, with a
number of others who participate in
various events.
In January, 12 ABO students traveled
to Chicago for an activities-packed three
days of visits to CEOs and businesses,
following up on contacts from Augsburg’s
Development Office. While there they
visited three businesses—Chase Bank,
Hydrotech Manufacturing Co., and the
H&K law firm; plus, they met with
executives and toured the Mercantile
Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank.
“The Chicago trip was a unique
opportunity,” said senior business major
and ABO member Nii Mensah, “in that it
gave us an opportunity to see many
different aspects of the city in both a
business and urban sense.”
Building a portfolio of experience
Anthony Haupt, a senior from Red Wing,
Minn., and the current president of ABO,
has taken good advantage of
opportunities in ABO for his own
leadership growth. Last year after
arranging for Greg Smith ’72 to be a
guest speaker at ABO, he kept in contact
with Smith, who is chief operating officer
of Walden Automotive. It led to a summer
internship at the Denny Hecker
4
Anthony Haupt, senior international business
management major and president of the
Augsburg Business Organization, hopes to
involve more business professionals and
Augsburg business alumni in the student
organization.
Automotive Group where Haupt did
financial analysis and project management
work. He and Smith still keep in touch,
and Smith continues to suggest other
contacts from whom Haupt can learn.
“ABO has opened many doors for me,
like the summer internship,” Haupt says,
“and has put me in leadership roles with
responsibility.”
Haupt also strengthened his major in
international business management with
a semester study program in Barcelona,
Spain, that included courses in
international business and Spanish. He
hopes his minor in Spanish will support
future work with a company that has an
international presence. He also
completed an internship in a healthcare
organization, and will seek opportunities
to gain training in project management
and/or account management after he
graduates in May.
Even as a part of their coursework, the
business administration faculty push
students to connect with the business
community. Haupt cites his international
marketing class in which students had to
choose a Minnesota company with
ABO seeks business contacts
Haupt’s vision for ABO is for the
organization to build a network of Twin
Cities business professionals, especially
Augsburg business alumni. What
students hope to gain, he says, are
relationships with the business
community and access to business
expertise, experience, and information.
Business professionals should be
assured, Haupt says, that Augsburg
students are well-educated and eager to
get their feet wet in the business world.
He cites several examples of past student
leaders, like the ABO presidents, who
have transformed internships into job
opportunities, and used their experiences
as springboards into a career.
How to connect with ABO
ABO offers these ideas for connecting
Augsburg business alumni and other
business professionals with students:
• Volunteer as a guest speaker at an
ABO event
• Participate in a resource network for
business students
• Host Augsburg business students at
your company or workplace
• Join the Take an Auggie to Lunch
program
• Help ABO with fundraising to support
trips and other activities
To learn more or participate in ABO
activities, contact Anthony Haupt at
<abo@augsburg.edu> with your name,
class year (if you are an alumnus/a), title
and place of work, and e-mail and/or
telephone number.
Spring 2006
Sports
For current sports information, scores, and schedules go to <www.augsburg.edu/athletics>.
Auggies inspire hoop dreams in
neighborhood kids
by Don Stoner
H
elping young members of the CedarRiverside neighborhood learn about
the game of basketball was a “slamdunk” proposition for the Augsburg
College men’s basketball team.
In January, the Auggies invited 50
boys and girls from the Cedar-Riverside
Community School, which primarily
teaches immigrant children, to attend a
morning basketball clinic at Si Melby
Hall. Head coach Aaron Griess and
members of the Augsburg squad showed
children the basics of the game, then
broke up into smaller groups to work
individually with them. Each group took
part in fun games with the Auggie
players, where they were able to put
their newly-learned skills into practice.
The clinic ended with an impromptu
dunking exhibition from members of the
Augsburg squad, to the cheers of the
youngsters watching.
“We’re proud to be able to make a
difference in the lives of young people
who haven’t had the same opportunities
that other children have, and we’re
committed to helping build the
community we live in,” said Griess, in
his first season as Augsburg’s head coach.
The clinic was organized by Griess
and Mary Laurel True, associate
director of Augsburg’s Center for
Service, Work, and Learning.
“Spending time with the kids,
watching them laugh, and teaching them
some basketball skills was a tremendous
joy,” Griess said. “Each and every one of
our students put their hearts into the
short period of time they spent with the
kids, and we’re all looking forward to the
next opportunity.”
ade
h gr
a, 4t
Laur
Fadum
o, 4th
grade
Thank you, Auggies!
“I had fun learning with you guys. It was
important to me because when I grow up
I will be a good basketball player.”
—Abdullahi, 3rd grade
“I learned basketball is not easy; it's hard,
but it just looks easy.” —Sagal, 6th grade
“Thank you for giving me inspiration to
play basketball.” —Karina, 6th grade
“In the summer I will love to show all of
my friends what you have taught me. It
really meant a lot to me when you taught
me a lot of tricks.” —Muna, 4th grade
The Cedar-Riverside kids yell “41, 41, 41…”
to pull no. 41 Auggie junior Tait Thomsen to
the floor.
“I’ve learned new tricks and so much
more. I felt like a professional basketball
player. This is one of the best days of my
life.” —Nasra, 4th grade
Fifty-plus students from the Cedar-Riverside Community School watch in awe as Auggie senior Aaron Benesh dunks the ball.
Spring 2006
5
Faculty and Staff
PRESENTATIONS
Tony Bibus, social work, presented a
poster, “Working with Involuntary Clients
in Slovenia,” about a study with Ljubljana
University, at the Council on Social Work
Education meeting in February.
Bill Capman, biology, co-presented “Reef
Aquaria in the Classroom and Teaching
Laboratory: Learning Activities, Organisms,
and Logistics” at the Marine Aquarium
Conference of North America (MACNA) in
Washington, D.C.
Emiliano Chagil, Hispanic/Latino Student
Services, presented “Higher Education and
Acculturation: The Contradictions Involved
in Improving Your Life through Education
while Sustaining Your Cultural Self,” at the
annual Breaking Barriers Conference at the
University of St. Thomas.
Su Dorée, mathematics, led a paper
session, “Countering ‘I Can’t Do Math’:
Strategies for Teaching Underprepared,
Math-Anxious Students,” at the annual
joint meetings of the American
Mathematical Society and the
Mathematical Association of America.
At the same conference, Rebekah
Dupont, mathematics, co-organized a
panel discussion, “Firefighting, Paper
Trailing, and Cat Herding: Everything You
Wanted to Know to Be an Administrator
but Were Afraid to Ask.”
Teachers meeting teachers
in Namibia
by Gretchen Kranz Irvine
F
or over five years, my life has been
exponentially enriched, professionally
and personally, from my experiences in
Namibia, Africa. I have been the trip
leader for three summer study trips in
2000, 2003, and most recently last
summer, July 1-22, 2005. I gathered a
group of educators—classroom teachers,
a preservice teacher, and teacher
educators—to travel to Namibia to learn
about the country and her people,
focusing on the education system. In
collaboration with the Center for Global
Education, my goals for the trip were to
introduce Namibia by visiting various
locations; by hearing from Namibians
working in a variety of sectors,
especially teachers, principals, and
faculty from the University of Namibia
and teachers’ colleges; by accessing local
media; and by being immersed in a
culture so different from ours, and yet
the same.
I was pleased that our group bonded
easily as a community and blended like a
fine-tuned melody. We benefited from
the two University of Namibia students
preparing to be teachers who joined us
and added depth to our understanding
of schools and the influence of culture.
A highlight for this trip was a oneday conference for teachers in the
Windhoek area hosted by our group,
with the help and facilitation of many
others. We gathered at the Rossing
Conference Center in Khomasdal, a
suburb of the capital city, Windhoek—
50 people interested in schools, teachers,
learners, and all areas related to
education—for sessions titled “The
Important Role of Teachers in NationBuilding.” The speakers, facilitators, and
organizers were both Namibians and the
members of our group.
The results far exceeded what could
be stated here. We explored large issues
impacting all teachers. We built
professional links—both individual and
group—that would sustain relationships
after we returned to the U.S. And we
Courtesy photo
Garry Hesser, sociology and metrourban studies, co-presented “Toward the
Public Good: Maps, Lenses, and Models
of Civic Engagement,” at the Association
of American Colleges and Universities
conference in November.
Hesser also presented, with Ann
Lutterman-Aguilar and Merrie
Benasutti, “Crossing Borders: Exploring
Vocation in a Multicultural/Global
Context,” at the Nov. meeting of the
National Society for Experiential Education.
Marc Isaacson, MIS, presented
“Statistical Literacy—Online at Capella
University” at the American Statistical
Association meeting.
Cheryl Leuning, nursing, and Pandu
Hailonga, CGE Namibia, co-authored and
presented, “Transforming What is Known
about HIV, AIDS, and Tuberculosis into
Culturally Appropriate Protective
Practices in Namibia and Tanzania,” at
the July Tumaini conference in Tanzania.
6
A group of educators from Minnesota spent three weeks with teachers and educators in
Namibia, based at Augsburg’s Center for Global Education. Augsburg participants are: Melinda
Stockmann (front row, left), CGE-Namibia intern; Pandu Hailonga (back row, fourth from left),
CGE-Namibia trip leader; Carol Knicker (back row, fifth from left), assistant professor of
education; and Gretchen Irvine (back row, second from right), assistant professor of education
and Augsburg trip leader.
Spring 2006
Courtesy photo
On a visit to the Haganeni Primary School in Walvis Bay, Namibia, the educators enjoyed meeting
the students, or “learners.”
Courtesy photo
helped to respond to the need of all
teachers to discuss important issues,
realizing how vital it is for people
involved in the process of educating our
children and youth to have opportunities
for dialogue and reflection. Because of
the cultural differences unfamiliar to me,
I appreciated working with the
Namibians who helped to make the
conference relevant and meaningful for
everyone.
It will be months and years before we
can realize what this trip has meant to us
as individuals. We have tried to spread
the word about Namibia, a very silent
country on the world stage. Our
worldviews have been forever changed
by images of Namibian teachers, of the
children and youth, and of the life we
witnessed in the coastal cities as different
from the villages in the north. We heard
the voices of Namibians telling of their
past, and we learned about the current
struggles toward the constitutional goals
of their 16-year-old nation. We witnessed
the joy of people together, and enjoyed
being in the company of a youth group
building their lives. And we read about
the hopes and dreams of people looking
toward the future. Our global vision has
expanded as a result of this experience.
I am grateful to the Center for Global
Education staff—both here and in
Namibia—whose expertise helped us
create the best learning environment for
our experience. In our own group,
individuals acted beyond any expectations
in caring for each other, challenging
thinking, and with kindness to all.
I have been a teacher for 38 years.
The experiences I’ve enjoyed are true
gifts to me as a teacher, and, also, to my
students at Augsburg.
Gretchen Irvine is assistant professor of
education.
Professor Gretchen Kranz Irvine presents an
Augsburg folder to Augsburg alumna
Fredericka Uahengo ’90, rector of the
Ongwediva Teachers College in northern
Namibia.
Spring 2006
Read more about this travel seminar and
conference on the participants’ blog at
<web.augsburg.edu/~irvine/Namibia>.
PRESENTATIONS
Dallas Liddle, English, presented
“Bakhtinian ‘Journalization’ and the MidVictorian Literary Marketplace,” at Oxford
University’s First Annual Conference on
the History of the Book, sponsored by
their English faculty, in Nov.
Ann Lutterman-Aguilar, Center for
Global Education-Mexico, presented a
theological perspective on the rights of
women at the International Women’s Day
conference in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in
March 2005.
She and Judy Shevelev, also with
CGE-Mexico, along with five former
students, co-presented two papers at the
National Women’s Association conference
in June.
Diane Pike, sociology, presented the
keynote, “Not Rocket Science: Teaching,
Learning, and Engagement,” at the Oct.
joint meeting of the Wisconsin and
Illinois Sociological Associations and the
Wisconsin Political Science Association.
Marc Skjervem, student affairs, and
Keith McCoy, residence life, presented a
session, “Developing a Seamless FirstYear Experience on a Small Campus,” at
the National Orientation Directors
Association regional conference in April.
NOTEWORTHY
Markus Fuehrer, philosophy, is
preparing a translation and commentary
of Albertus Magnus’ Liber de homine
(Treatise on Man). He is currently
preparing an entry on Albertus Magnus
at the invitation of the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Brad Holt, religion, was elected to the
national board of the Society for the Study
of Christian Spirituality (SSCS), an
international organization of people who
teach Christian spirituality in colleges,
universities, and seminaries.
Patrice Salmeri, StepUP® program, was
elected chairperson of the executive
board of the Association of Recovery
Schools (ARS).
Milo Schield, business administration
and the W.M. Keck Statistical Literacy
Project, completed a textbook on
statistical literacy, which is being used in
Augsburg classes this spring.
7
Lynn Bollman, art, participated in the
Third Biennial Printmaking Exhibition,
in November, showcasing the work of 40
professors of printmaking at 22
Minnesota colleges and universities.
History professor Jacqui DeVries’
article, “Rediscovering Religion after the
Postmodern Turn,” was published in the
spring 2005 issue of Feminist Studies and
will also appear in the fall 2005 issue of
the online History Compass.
Pandu Hailonga, Center for Global
Education-Namibia, published an article,
“Violence, Rape, and Murder: Symptoms
of Societal Disease,” in The Namibian in
March 2005.
Garry Hesser, sociology and metrourban studies, co-authored a chapter,
“Liberal Learning and Internships in
Sociology, in The Internship Handbook,
edited by Richard Salem and published
in 2005.
Ann Lutterman-Aguilar, Center for
Global Education-Mexico, published a
chapter, “La reconstrucción de la iglesia,”
in Los derechos humanos al interior de
nuestra iglesia, edited by Guadalupe Cruz
Cárdenas, published by Católicas por el
Derecho a Decidir (CDD) in 2005.
Phil Quanbeck II, religion, contributed
to a collection, Teaching the Bible,
published in October by the Society of
Biblical Literature. An article by
Quanbeck “Preaching Apocalyptic Texts”
was published in the summer issue of
Word and World.
Department of Public Safety—
Augsburg’s 411
by Betsey Norgard
L
ocked out? … Too hot in your room?
… Need a jump for a dead battery?
… Want to know when the hockey game
starts? … Need a ride from the lightrail
station?
These are just samples of the
questions fielded by the Department of
Public Safety. Headed by John Pack, who
came to Augsburg nearly three years ago
after 13 years at the University of
Minnesota, this office operates 24/7 and
oversees the College’s switchboard
communications, facilities management
requests, campus security, and
communications and emergency
management.
Pack tries to get the word out about
their services, especially about campus
safety. Each summer at orientation, he
enjoys talking with new students and
their parents.
“The message is that Augsburg is in
the heart of the city,” Pack says, “which
brings tremendous opportunities, but
also some challenges, mostly parking
and security.”
Public Safety strives to ensure that
everyone in the Augsburg community
feels safe. Escort services are available to
any of the parking lots and for students
who go back and forth from internships
or service projects in the neighborhood.
Security officers also provide rides to and
from the nearby lightrail stops. A phone
call from two stops away gets students a
quick ride back to campus.
Pack has initiated regular meetings of
security personnel from Augsburg, the
University of Minnesota, FairviewRiverside, College of St. Catherine, and
the Minneapolis police to share
information and coordinate prevention
efforts in order to decrease incidents
overall.
A recent incident illustrates this
cooperative relationship. At a building
near the edge of campus, an intoxicated
person, not part of the Augsburg
community, slipped, fell, wedged his
head between two pipes, and went into
respiratory distress. Augsburg security
officers on routine patrol noticed him
and called 911. Officer Annie DeYoung
stayed with the injured man, monitoring
his medical condition, until rescue
personnel arrived. Firefighters needed
the Jaws of Life to free the man and rush
him to the emergency room.
The firefighters credited DeYoung
with saving the man’s life—for assessing
the situation quickly and applying the
medical treatment that kept his airway
and breathing clear until they arrived.
Staff photo
PUBLICATIONS/EXHIBITIONS/
PERFORMANCES
HONORS/AWARDS/GRANTS
Mark Strefeler, biology, received a
$57,500 grant from Beckman Coulter’s
matching grant program for a genetic
analysis system to aid research in plant
genetics and microbiology. It allows for
gene sequencing, DNA fingerprinting,
and molecular genetics. In his research
with students, he carries out DNA
barcoding for species identification and
identification and isolation of genes for
disease resistance in plants.
John Pack, director of public safety, accepts a Certificate of Appreciation
from Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak (left) and police chief William
McManus for the College’s cooperation and for support to the
Minneapolis Police Department.
8
Spring 2006
Photo illustration by Stephen Geffre
Office space: or how I spent 18 years
in the closet at Augsburg
by Doug Green
W
hy I didn’t move out of
my little hole in the wall
of an office when I had the
chance, I’ll never know. It’s
one of the smallest spaces in
the maze that is Memorial
Hall, a former dormitory and
the second oldest surviving building on
campus. The room can’t be more than
6 x 6 and would be more suitable as a
walk-in closet—or perhaps a very large
coffin.
My office desk, an old metal one of
modest size and a rosy beige hue, faces
the wall beneath an enormous Saul
Steinberg print of America as viewed
from Manhattan. Before I got my laptop,
Manhattan was unfortunately hidden
behind my computer, just as Minnesota
has blotted out most of my New York
past over the last 20 years.
On the wall behind me as I sit at my
desk, the floor-to-ceiling shelves are
overflowing with books, papers,
knickknacks (mostly mementoes from
past students and pictures of my wife
and son), and last year’s posters for
campus events. The filing cabinet next to
Spring 2006
the door obscures some of the shelves
and is buried under debris. Confidential
student records are now filed on top of
the cabinet for easy access—even to
passers-by in the hallway: It’s my version
of the Freedom of Information Act.
Behind the door and next to the desk
is another freestanding bookcase, also
overflowing and surmounted by stacks of
texts and paper—for creative writing, I
think. The walls and the hallway side of
the door are plastered with notices,
reminders, pictures drawn by my son,
and posters of events I had a hand in—
like the first GLBT alumni reunion and
art show: “Out and About.”
The window, however, I love best.
When I sit at my desk and look out, it’s
like Rear Window; I can spy on a whole
set of neighboring offices. But if I push
back just a little and face the outside, I
see Augsburg’s little quad, an Edenic
version of my little closet.
Maybe that’s why I can’t leave:
because this little cubby across the floor
from an old dormitory bathroom that
sports mold from the era of Warren G.
Harding and College President George
Sverdrup is the quintessential
professorial space. Like the brain in
Dickinson’s poem, my office “is wider
than the sky.” My little cabinet contains a
world of thoughts—from the books
behind and beside me to the computer
on my desk to the many visiting
colleagues and students who come to
share their inner lives with me. I need
their stifling and stimulating proximity.
My office is certainly no “proud,
ambitious heap” nor “built to envious
show,” but a place in which, like the
Sidneys at Penshurst in Jonson’s famous
poem, I can “dwell.”
Doug Green is professor of English. This
story first appeared in Augsburg Echo in
September.
9
10
1 THE NEW GUTHRIE
Only a mile away, the Guthrie Theater’s new
home makes it even easier for actors and
technicians to visit Augsburg seminars and
teach as adjunct faculty.
1
3
2
Downtown
Minneapolis
4
8
5
9
Augsburg
College
6
7
2 CORPORATE DOWNTOWN
Internships downtown with non-profits,
Fortune 500, and other companies are but a
quick lightrail or bus ride away for students
and often lead to future career opportunities.
Saint Paul
3 MEETING HIS CONSTITUENTS
City Hall is his home base, but Minneapolis
mayor R.T. Rybak enjoys getting out to meet
the new students on campus.
4 PLAY BALL!
The Twins, Vikings, Gophers—and the
Auggies, for one game per season—compete
several blocks away at the Metrodome.
OUR CITY …
OUR CLASSROOM
10
BY BETSEY NORGARD
➶
WHAT EXACTLY DOES BEING A COLLEGE OF THE CITY MEAN FOR
AUGSBURG? WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DOES IT BRING TO THE AUGSBURG
LEARNING COMMUNITY—TO STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF?
If one were to look at just a TWO-MILE RADIUS AROUND AUGSBURG,
what would be found?
5 HIGH-RISE MELTING POT
Riverside Plaza is the hub of the most diverse
neighborhood in Minneapolis—and a partner
with Augsburg in its community programs
and school.
The answer is A LOT …
the most diverse neighborhood in Minneapolis …
the downtown business district …
a Super Bowl pro-sports dome …
a brand-new home for a world-class theater …
a Big 10 university and teaching/research medical center…
a quick train ride to the largest shopping mall in the country…
miles of running, walking, and biking trails along the Mississippi River.
Staff photo
6 A JUMP ON THE LIGHTRAIL
Just a few blocks away, the lightrail train is a
quick ride to downtown, the airport, and the
Mall of America.
7 LEARNING FROM LIVE CORALS
Biology professor Bill Capman lends expertise
and some live corals to help teachers at
Seward Montessori School set up and maintain
a coral reef aquarium for their science classes.
8 WORSHIP IN THE CITY
Central Lutheran Church is the majestic
setting for Augsburg’s Advent Vespers, an
annual celebration of word and music that
begins the holiday season.
Spring 2006
Here, we highlight some of the myriad opportunities our location offers
to learn, serve, volunteer, intern, experience, shop, compete, perform,
keep fit, have fun, and so much more!
Teach. Reach. Feed. Lead.
That’s the motto of the Campus
Kitchens Project, based in Washington,
D.C., that combines preparing and
delivering meals, partnering in the
community, training for employment
opportunities, and providing service
learning for students. Since opening on
campus in 2003, the Campus Kitchen
at Augsburg has served more than
25,000 meals to community
organizations. The program, which is
student organized and run, is based in
the College’s food service facilities, and
works with surplus food from the food
service and local food banks.
Two shifts of student volunteers
each week prepare meals and deliver
them to six locations the next day. The
students spend time in each location, getting to know and talking with
the people being served.
Above, at Peace House in the Phillips neighborhood, junior Jeanette
Clark talks with a visitor. She and other students deliver meals on
Thursdays to the 30-50 people who drop in to Peace House for
conversation, fellowship, and nourishment.
During the summers, Augsburg’s Campus Kitchen operates a job
training program to train and certify unemployed people in food
management culinary skills to help them find jobs.
11
Trick or treat—dorm style
Targeting a career
Each Halloween, ghosts, goblins, and other costumed
characters wander the halls of Urness and Mortensen Halls,
going from door to door trick-or-treating.
They’re neighborhood children invited to campus by
LINK, the student service organization, for fun, games,
treats, and, sometimes, a haunted house. LINK provides
the candy, and students provide the fun for the kids.
Tim Benson ’00, graduated
with a business administration/marketing major
and a minor in management
information systems.
Benson picked up his first
downtown corporate
experience at a summer
internship with Accenture
(then Andersen Consulting).
He found it to be great
preparation for the business
world that he couldn’t have
learned in a classroom—
“protocols, unwritten rules,
and business speak”—that
helped him get a foot in the door at Target Corporation.
He started as a business analyst and was eventually
promoted to a supply chain expert. Now he is manager of
an eight-person team in the kitchenware department,
which is responsible for about 1,000 items and hundreds of
millions of dollars in sales annually in all 1400+
Target stores.
A day at the Soap Factory
(map #10)
As part of AugSem,
their first-year seminar,
students in ART 102
Design spent an
afternoon at the Soap
Factory. This turn-ofthe-century wood and
brick warehouse, which
formerly housed the
National Purity Soap
Factory, has been turned into an art gallery featuring work
by emerging artists, and offering available studio space.
The afternoon was part of City Service Projects Day,
which started with a 20-minute walk to the gallery
through the historic flour mill district. At the gallery, the
students helped take down one show and prepare to
install another. They cleaned floors, scrubbed and
squeegeed walls, and moved furniture.
The students got first-hand experience in what a
gallery is—or not, i.e. it’s not just clean floors and bright
lighting. Since a number of these students intend to major
in art-related fields, this gave them an opportunity for a
service project in something that really interested them.
Plus, the gallery director told them that what they
were able to do for the gallery in three hours would have
taken the staff all week to complete.
12
(map #2)
Staying connected with kids
(map #9)
Kristy Bleichner graduated from Augsburg in 2002 with a
major in social work. While a student, she began to
volunteer for Wednesday Night Out, a program sponsored
by Trinity Lutheran Church. For this, Trinity partners with
community organizations, including Augsburg, to provide
suppers for neighborhood families, giving them a place to
gather and talk. After supper, Bleichner and other student
volunteers take the children to a nearby gym for games,
making it more convenient for their parents to talk with
each other about family and community issues.
Even after graduating nearly four years ago, Bleichner
has wanted to stay connected with these families and
continues to devote time to the Wednesday Night Out
program.
Spring 2006
A school of many cultures
(map #5)
Around-the-world food
Five blocks from Augsburg lies the only school in the country
located in a high-rise apartment building. The Cedar-Riverside
Community School, a K-8 charter school sponsored by
Minneapolis Public Schools, is in the midst of Minneapolis’
most diverse neighborhood, largely Somali and East African.
The school serves mostly immigrant children, from nearly
a dozen different countries, some of whom never had any
formal education before arriving in the U.S. Each week nearly
30-40 Augsburg students tutor and mentor at the school, and
provide instruction or support during the year in music, art,
piano lessons, physical education, science, and health.
Augsburg elementary education students in Professor
Jeanine Gregoire’s science methods class teach hand-on
science units at the school. In the photo, Pa Kou Yang ’05 is
working with two second-graders.
When Augsburg moved to the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood
in 1872, it was home to a thriving community of
Scandinavian immigrants. Again, it is a center for many
people recently arriving in the U.S., primarily from Somalia
and East Africa.
The neighborhood has more than 20 restaurants, most of
which serve ethnic foods; as well as ethnic clothing stores,
grocers, and art galleries; and a Lutheran church and a
mosque. As part of the first-year AugSem group, students
visited area businesses and tried out some of the nearby
restaurants. In this photo, a group sits around the table at
Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian restaurant down the block from
campus.
Helping women stay fit at FOLC
Caring for the mighty Mississippi
(map #5)
Eilidh Reyelts ’06 (facing
front at right in photo), a
senior biology and premedical major, began
volunteering last year with
Rachel Domier ’05 (left) at
Family Opportunities for
Living Collaboration
(FOLC) at Riverside Plaza.
This center encourages
community members to
work together at meeting
the needs of neighborhood residents, many of whom are
immigrants or refugees with little understanding of English
or of American customs and health practices.
Reyelts and Domier were both Lilly Interns and designed
internships to explore areas within their vocational interests.
Twice a week at FOLC they taught exercise to immigrant
and refugee women, and helped them monitor their weight
and blood pressure.
Reyelts also is a Citizen Scholar through the Campus
Compact program. As an AugSem leader, she took new
students on a tour of the neighborhood and to FOLC. Reyelts’
vocational goals include a career in medicine or public health.
Spring 2006
With the Mississippi River
within a stone’s throw,
Augsburg has joined the
network of “river stewards”
and has “adopted” a section of
the river just downstream
from campus. Planned
activities involve students in
litter clean-up, trail
monitoring, placing stenciled
warnings on storm drains to
prevent pollution into the
river, monitoring invasive
species, and trail monitoring.
In the summer, political
science professor Joe
Underhill-Cady teaches
Environmental and River
Politics, a course that looks at
the challenges of balancing
economic development, social justice, and environmental
stewardship. Students spend time on the river and meet
with people involved in river-related issues.
13
Courtesy photo
H U R R I C A N E K AT R I N A :
R E S P O N D I N G F R O M T H E H E A RT
Medicine for both patient and doctor
The days were long, the work was
physically exhausting. What Augsburg
alumni Paul Mueller ’84, M.D., and Rick
Seime ’70, Ph.D., encountered in the
hurricane-devastated areas of southern
Louisiana was far worse than news
reports could show. But, Mueller describes
returning to Minnesota rejuvenated and
thankful for the opportunity to help.
Seime says he would do it again in
a heartbeat.
Mueller, an internist with a public
health background, and Seime, a
psychologist, both at Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn., served on different
medical relief teams. They were a part of
Operation Minnesota Lifeline, a
collaboration of healthcare volunteers
from Mayo Clinic, University of
Minnesota, College of St. Catherine, and
the American Refugee Committee.
Sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Health, their work helped to
14
by Betsey Norgard
bridge the crisis period by treating
immediate medical needs and connecting
people to resources until more permanent
public health clinics were set up.
For two weeks each, Mueller’s and
Seime’s teams operated from a base in
Lafayette, La., and were housed at a
Baptist church. Each day they set out in
vans supplied with medicines, supplies,
and vaccines, to treat people in the field,
most of whom were either Hurricane
Katrina evacuees from New Orleans or
residents of the areas ravaged by
Hurricane Rita.
The medical teams were
multidisciplinary, including physicians,
nurses, social workers, and others. But,
everyone served as a mental health
counselor because the need was so great.
Many people had lost everything they
owned, had lost contact with family
members, and had lost their medications
and medical providers. Many simply just
needed to talk.
Despite their adversities, Seime was
“impressed with their resiliency, in the
faith they had, and in the way they came
together to help each other out.” Both
Mueller and Seime remark about the
gratitude expressed by hurricane victims
for the care they received from the
medical teams.
In Johnson’s Bayou, La., a coastal
town almost totally destroyed by
Hurricane Rita, Mueller met Rhonda, “a
salt-of-the-earth person” and one of a
very few who had returned to her home.
Above: Mayo Clinic internist Dr. Paul Mueller
’84 (left) and Sr. Romana Klaubaus (right), a
nurse from the College of St. Catherine,
posed with residents of Johnson’s Bayou
(La.). There they met Rhonda (second from
right), a local emergency medical technician,
who helped them find and treat the
residents who had moved back.
Spring 2006
Courtesy photo
left Lafayette at 4:45 a.m. and worked
until 10 p.m. that night. The team
consulted all day, but still could not meet
with everyone seeking help.
His most vivid memory is of Miss
Cindy, who came to be vaccinated in
Eunice, La. He listened to her story of
riding out the storm in her apartment
building in New Orleans. When the
levees broke, she told of trying to get
help to rescue the other tenants in her
building, and of wading in the water to
get to boats. Not all survived, and she
told of an elderly man who had to turn
back. They saw him drown without
being able to offer assistance.
Miss Cindy was so grateful for the
medical team’s help that she baked a
Cajun meal to thank them and drove it
35 miles to the church where Seime and
his colleagues were staying.
Drawing on his background in both
internal medicine and public health,
Mueller felt “called” to respond to the
medical needs in Louisiana. Seime
considered it a privilege to serve and was
glad for the opportunity, even taking into
account the 21 hours each way on the bus.
Paul Mueller ’84, M.D., is a member of the
Augsburg Board of Regents and serves on the
Science Center Task Force. Rick Seime ’70 is
a Distinguished Alumnus and member of
Augsburg’s Science Advisory Board.
Mueller’s medical team set up shop in a FEMA
trailer park, where many evacuees were living
in tents.
Courtesy photo
Donald Mattison ’66, M.D., a senior adviser at the National Institutes of Health and a U.S.
Public Health Service (USPHS) medical officer, led a team to Louisiana on Aug. 31, just
after Hurricane Katrina struck, for a two-week deployment.
Emergency medicine in a field hospital
by Donald Mattison ’66, M.D.
Mayo psychologist Rick Seime ’70 (right) and
internist Dr. Daniel Hartigan (left) from the
Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., pack the van
with medical supplies and vaccines for the
day’s assignment in the field.
Even though the local gas station her
husband owned had been destroyed,
Mueller says she was “amazingly happy
and optimistic, and determined to
re-build.”
He tells of how Rhonda knew
everybody—those who had returned to
town, their ages, what medicines they
took, etc. She was a volunteer emergency
medical technician and rode with the
team in their van, taking them to each of
the homes where returning residents
could be vaccinated and treated.
Seime spent one day on a team sent
to New Orleans, where they treated
people in a FEMA resource center. They
Spring 2006
I was part of the second team of Public
Health Service (PHS) officers deployed
into Baton Rouge, La. Our initial
assignment was staffing and coordination
of a temporary hospital established in
two buildings on the Louisiana State
University campus—an acute care
“emergency room” with intensive care
unit (ICU) containing about 150 beds,
and a lower acuity hospital containing
200-500 beds (depending on need).
While both were operating as
hospitals over about a 15-day period,
approximately 15,000 individuals were
“triaged” and about 3,000 admitted,
cared for, and discharged. When the
demand for acute care diminished, the
smaller facility was closed and the lower
acuity facility converted to a special
needs shelter. At that point additional
PHS officers were available to participate
in needs assessment and establishment of
surveillance systems with the state health
department.
Teams were also assigned to manage
medical and mental health needs of first
responders from New Orleans. Missions
Donald Mattison ’66, M.D., was honored on
campus last fall as a Distinguished Alumnus.
during the “public health” period of the
deployment included assessment and
surveillance of hospitals, clinics, schools,
public wells, food processing facilities,
and shelters.
The PHS officers I worked with
during the deployment were dedicated,
highly professional, and went far beyond
what would be expected to meet the
needs of Louisiana. I was honored to lead
these officers and extremely proud of all
of them.
15
Hurricane Katrina,
a personal perspective
by Shira Hussain
I was recruiting in Wisconsin when
Hurricane Katrina was set to hit the Gulf
Coast. My dad was determined not to
leave and actually held my family back
from evacuating as soon as they wanted
to. I even called home and was crying
because I just didn’t have a good gut
I just didn’t have a good gut feeling
about this hurricane.
feeling about this hurricane. Frequently
people in New Orleans do not evacuate
for hurricanes because they are so
common, and people fear their houses
will be looted if they leave.
My parents, sister, and brother
evacuated to Lake Charles, La., the day
before the storm hit. I watched the news
and was happy to see that the storm
came and went.
Then disaster struck on a whole new
level. The minute the levees were
declared breached, I knew things were
going to get a lot worse. I saw the city
under water and couldn’t stop crying. I
didn’t hear from my family and friends
and cried even more. I was finally able
to reach my mom two days after the
ordeal and cried for more positive
reasons. Eventually, I got in touch with
the rest of my family and also my
hometown friends.
Although I couldn’t explain why all of
this happened, I did have the choice to
find something positive out of all of it.
Although I couldn’t explain why all
of this happened, I did have the choice
to find something positive out of all of
it. The fact that my family and friends
were alive is what kept me going. A few
weeks later, my parents returned to the
16
Shira Hussain was on the road attending college fairs when she heard the news that her New
Orleans neighborhood was under water.
house, which was completely destroyed.
Fortunately, my mom was able to get our
family Bible and photos. They plan to
rebuild in the same area.
I, too, took a hard hit with all of this.
I lost the house I grew up in and the
schools I went to. Most of my hang-out
of things as we think we are. (My
parents, like so many others, are still
waiting for their insurance checks and
their trailer from FEMA). This whole
experience gives us all so many reasons
to be thankful. And it emphasizes that
minor problems, petty grudges, and bad
Helping my fellow “N’awlins” neighbors in any way I could
was in turn helping me deal with everything.
spots were gone, and the worst part was
being so far away from my family during
all of this.
So I did what I could. I got advances
on my checks and sent money home.
I headed up fundraising efforts at
Augsburg for hurricane evacuees. I even
passed out my number as a resource to
Minnesota locals who were hosting,
donating to, and/or aiding evacuees.
Helping my fellow “N’awlins”
neighbors in any way I could was in turn
helping me deal with everything.
From all of this, I’ve truly accepted
that nothing material lasts forever. I’ve
also learned that we are not as in control
intentions are really things we shouldn’t
hold on to, because major things beyond
our control will happen—both good and
bad, easy and challenging.
A family friend of ours did drown in
her house while waiting for her nephew,
who never came to get her. My mom
took it particularly hard because she had
wanted Miss Gerdy to evacuate with
them. I just trust that she died peacefully
in the house as I believe many people did
who were stuck behind.
Shira Hussain is senior admissions
counselor in the Office of Undergraduate
Admissions.
Spring 2006
Teachers who lead,
leaders who teach
EDITED BY BETSEY NORGARD
Vicki Olson describes how teachers as
leaders must be willing to take risks and
to become positive influences in schools.
O
OVER THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS
I’ve been reading about a topic dear to
my heart—teacher leadership. At
Augsburg, this concept undergirds our
teacher licensure programs at both the
undergraduate and graduate levels.
What teacher leadership means to
Augsburg’s Education Department is that
the teachers we prepare have both the
right and the responsibility to exercise
leadership within their classrooms,
schools, districts, and communities.
Recognizing that teachers lead within
the classroom is not difficult; it is
accepted enough to seem like common
sense. But once you get beyond the
classroom walls, the concept of teacher
leadership is less well established.
Some would say “teacher leadership”
is an oxymoron. Principals lead, not
teachers. They would go on to say that
teachers carry out the will of the school
district by teaching the designated
curriculum, following the standards
determined by the state, and upholding
the expectations of the community.
Teachers, in other words, follow the
Spring 2006
direction of others who make the
decisions, creating classrooms, in turn,
where students learn what they are
required to learn.
This philosophy exists, but it isn’t the
one we believe in or work from.
Certainly our vision incorporates the
idea that teachers have a responsibility to
the school district, the state, and the
community to educate students in the
best ways possible. That’s a given.
But rather than simply doing what
they are told, we believe teachers must—
truly must—see themselves as active
participants in deciding what should be
taught and how to teach it.
In our vision, teachers come to the
table with administrators, parents, other
community members, and sometimes
students to define what it means to be an
educated person and then to map out
how that education will happen within a
given setting.
Teachers count themselves among the
grown-ups and accept the responsibility
and risks from making the decisions
they make.
This conceptualization of “teacher”
that includes an element of leadership
frightens some. Responsibility and risk
bring with them accountability, but along
with that they also can bring a fine sense
of exhilaration, energy, and eminent
satisfaction in a job well done.
Roland Barth, in Learning by Heart,
says, “I think of a teacher leader as one
who has a positive influence on the
school as well as in the classroom … all
teachers have the capacity to lead the
enterprise down a more positive path, to
bring their abundant experience and
wisdom to schools.”
Like Barth, at Augsburg we believe all
teachers can be teacher leaders and share
in leading the collective “enterprise” of
making schools positive places with
learning at the heart. Teachers who
understand their role in this way—risks
and all—are more likely to define
teaching as their vocation rather than
simply their job.
Vicki Olson is associate professor
of education.
17
Teachers who lead,
leaders who teach
M
MARGARET KNUTSON ’91
Fifth-grade teacher at Orono (Minn.) Intermediate School
Education is the second largest major at Augsburg,
with approximately 500 students across undergraduate and graduate programs.
How do Augsburg students carry the qualities of
teacher leadership into their classrooms? Augsburg
Now invited a number of alumni and faculty who
have been recognized as leaders to reflect about their
careers and how they have seen themselves both as
teachers who lead and as leaders who teach.
Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 2004
My goal is to inspire students to find the learner in themselves,
to challenge themselves and to find meaning in their education.
To that end I have always yearned to try new things in order to
find ways to more effectively connect students to learning on a
real and personal level. When I discover or create methods I find
successful, I share these with colleagues at my school as well as
lead workshops for schools around the state.
So, being a teacher leader involves keeping your mind and eyes
open for new methods, being a risk taker and pioneer in
applying new methods, and then not being shy about sharing
your successes with others ... and to humbly educate other
teachers.
Above: Maggie Knutson tries to keep her students engaged in ways that
challenge and inspire them to find learning meaningful.
18
Spring 2006
J
JOSEPH ERICKSON
Professor in Augsburg’s Education Department, and chair of the
Minneapolis Board of Education
My personal philosophy of teaching is based on the assumption that
my primary role is to motivate learners to gather information and
develop themselves—I don’t make them learn. I think that’s a kind
of leadership; sparking curiosity and motivating learners. I think that
is central to good teaching.
In my role on the school board, I’m constantly meeting people who
have opinions about what should and should not be done in
Minneapolis Public Schools. It’s hard to underestimate how much
rumor and gossip is out there. My role is to help educate the public
when I meet people who hold information that is wrong or misleading.
More importantly, I try to make sure that I take every opportunity I can
to inspire optimism and confidence in MPS’s future. Sometimes inspiring
confidence is even more important than competent administration.
Joe Erickson brings his school board leadership experience into
his classrooms at Augsburg to help future teachers understand
the issues affecting school districts.
J
JACKI BRICKMAN ’97
Mentor at Elizabeth Hall International
Elementary School, Minneapolis
From my second year of teaching, my
classroom has been a public place—
to current and new teachers, to district
officials, politicians, and parents.
Teachers are at their best in their
classrooms facilitating learning, and when
teachers open their doors to one another
and make their classrooms a public place,
we are able lead and teach at the same
Teachers in Jacki Brickman’s school meet regularly in study
groups to share their practices and strategies in order to help
each other grow.
J
time. Both the teacher observing and the
teacher being observed can grow in their
practices if they engage in reflective
conversation after this shared experience.
JUDY SCHAUBACH ’68
President of Education Minnesota
Being a teacher and a leader are for me inseparable.
In my early years as a teacher I was a strong voice
for ensuring a positive work environment that
included advocating for professional development
opportunities, insisting on compliance with state
and federal laws, and working together with the
administration to insure a safe and respectful learning
environment. The more I took responsibility for these
issues the more I grew as a professional.
Being involved at the local level and gaining a sense
of empowerment was what prompted me to get
Spring 2006
involved at the state and national level. As a union
leader I rely on my teaching experience to help
policy-makers understand what needs to be done …
I believe that teachers should not be passive
bystanders to what is occurring in their classrooms,
schools, or communities, nor should they be silent
about policies and laws that have a direct impact
on their profession and the students they teach.
This philosophy has been the impetus for my
leadership, even when it is sometimes difficult and
may be controversial.
19
Teachers who lead, leaders who teach
A
ADAM THRONSON ’99
Social studies teacher at Coon Rapids (Minn.) High School
2005 Anoka-Hennepin School District Teacher Outstanding
Performance (TOP) award
Teachers are leaders by researching and implementing new
strategies into their classroom. It means you take a risk.
Teachers usually try methods that other teachers have found
success with, but leadership comes when you blaze a new
trail by trying something new.
B
BRUCE PALMQUIST ’84
Professor of physics and science education at Central
Washington University, Ellensburg, Wash.
Washington State Professor of the Year, named by the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
and the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE).
I started teaching while I was a student at Augsburg. I
tutored first-year physics students. This taught me that it
takes more than good grades in a subject to be a good
teacher. I learned that I needed to understand what the
students knew and didn’t know before I could help them. …
In general, a good teacher is one who leads by example. I try
to make my science teaching methods courses relevant by
developing interesting opportunities for my students to
interact with children. My teaching methods students have
been among the first at my university to teach science lessons
in the local schools, to develop after-school science clubs, and
to provide children with practice items for the Washington
state science assessment.
(To become better acquainted with Bruce Palmquist, see Auggie
Thoughts on p. 32)
20
I have been a leader who teaches when I’ve accepted and
encouraged the work of other teachers. This could be new
programs like Link Crew or just cooperation dealing with the
same student. I have been a teacher who leads by staying positive,
supporting administration, and trying new things in my
classroom.
A
ALLEN TRIPP ’69
English teacher at Rush City (Minn.)
High School
2005 Leadership in Educational
Excellence Award,
selected by peers
After 35 years of teaching English, I can look back and see many
times where I have been both a teacher and a leader. The teacher
role is six classes a day September through May. However, the
leader role has grown on me over the years as I became more
experienced in my profession and familiar with the people in the
community. …
Teaching ability and leadership skills are a necessary
combination for any successful teacher. When I look back at
my first year of teaching, I see I had the knowledge to teach
effectively, but at times lacked the confidence to lead. By
talking to experienced teachers and gaining experience
in the classroom, the leadership skills evolved. When you
demonstrate confidence in yourself as a teacher, you will
clearly communicate goals to the students; and they gain
confidence in themselves as learners. It’s a win/win situation.
Spring 2006
A
ALYSSA SNYDER ’98
President, Bethany Lutheran
College, Mankato, Minn.
It is in the classroom where we have the
most direct impact on our students;
however, it cannot end there.
As educators we must challenge one another’s ideas and philosophies
through professional dialogue in order to gain insight into how to
better meet the needs of our learners.
My top priority is having high standards for all my students. This
is why I feel fortunate to be an instructor in the Weekend College
program. I want to influence potential educators to advocate for
all of their students, not just the smart and well behaved. A true
teacher leader is willing to do this by going against the status
quo knowing the student must come first. When I can influence
future teachers, I can impact more students positively.
D
DAN BRUSS ’75
Adjunct instructor in Augsburg’s
Education Department
J
I have been connected to the
teaching enterprise of higher
education nearly 25 years.
As a professor I saw myself not just as a champion of
my area of expertise, but primarily as a role model, an
individual concerned with the wide variety of struggles
students have during their college experience. For me
life in the classroom was seamlessly interwoven to the
life outside of it.
As a college president I still see my chief function as a role
model, although now my teaching crosses constituency
boundaries. As an administrator I look for the professor
who can have the biggest impact on students’ lives. They
generally have more lasting influence than programs or
buildings.
JOHN-MARK STENSVAAG ’69
Charlotte and Frederick Hubbell Professor of Environmental and
Natural Resources Law at the University of Iowa College of Law
University of Iowa 2005 President and Provost Award for Teaching
Excellence
All of my great teachers led by example. Every day, I try imperfectly
to emulate what my greatest teachers showed me; every day, I
expect my students to outshine me in their future endeavors. The
enterprise is driven by love: love of learning, love of the subject
matter, and love of the students. My greatest teachers led by
illustrating such love. For me, “leading” is nothing more than
striving to reflect their love to a new generation of students.
A POSTSCRIPT: After this story was completed,
announcement came of the appointment of
Augsburg history professor Bill Green as interim
superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools.
As he steps from the classroom into a leadership
role in a difficult situation, Green has been quoted
as saying that he is “first and foremost a teacher.”
Spring 2006
21
Paulson family makes major gift to the Science Center
Courtesy photo
In December, John Paulson, together with
Norma Paulson, pledged a $1 million gift
on behalf of his family to name the front
entrance and atrium of the new Science
Center.
This is the Paulson family’s second
major capital gift to Augsburg. In 2001,
the family provided major funding to
complete the enclosed skyway link from
Lindell Library to the two-story atrium
between Memorial and Sverdrup Halls.
“One does not have to be on campus
long to see what an important need was
met by the Paulson Link,” said Stephen
Preus, director of development. “This new,
special gift by the Paulsons will provide
for an equally important and highly
attractive space.”
While Paulson is not an Augsburg
alumnus, three of his children and a sonin-law graduated from the College—Mary
Jo (Paulson) Peterson ’80, Laurie
(Paulson) Dahl ’76 and David Dahl ’75,
and Lisa Paulson ’80.
The motivation behind the Science
Center gift, however, may date back much
farther than his family’s education.
Paulson served in the Second Infantry
Division during World War II and was part
of the Allied invasion landing on D+1 at
Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, in June
by Betsey Norgard
Cory Ryan
$1 million gift will name the new atrium
John and Norma Paulson pledge $1 million for the Science Center atrium. (L to R) Dick Adamson,
vice president for finance and administration; Jeroy Carlson, senior development officer; and
Norma and John Paulson.
1944. He was a frontline soldier until July
28, 1944, when he was wounded during
the St.-Lo breakthrough. Among the
awards Paulson received were the Combat
Infantry Badge, Bronze Star, and the
Purple Heart.
In June 2004, Paulson and his wife,
Norma, traveled to France to take part in
the 60th anniversary commemoration of
the event that proved to be the turning
point of the war.
The festivities brought together
thousands of people—war
veterans, military officials,
local people and tourists, as
well as Hollywood
celebrities whose acting
roles had recreated the
battles on movie screens.
Standing in his Army
uniform, wearing medals
depicting D-Day service,
Paulson enjoyed the
commemoration.
Following the ceremony,
however, he noticed lines of
French citizens forming to
At the 60th anniversary commemoration of D-Day, Norma and
shake hands and request
John Paulson met and talked with actor Tom Hanks.
22
autographs from the U.S. veterans.
Puzzled, Paulson finally asked someone
why he wanted a soldier’s autograph.
“Don’t you understand,” the
Frenchman told him, “you saved our
country.”
Paulson recounted how vivid an
impression these words made. When he
thought about the statistics—the
staggering numbers of soldiers who were
killed or wounded during the invasion—
he realized that he was, in fact, a
survivor. And with that realization also
came the insight that he had been
blessed with many gifts in his life that
should be shared with others.
“I believe it is important to leave this
world in better condition than it was when
we arrived,” Paulson said, “so contributing
to Augsburg and other worthwhile
organizations is part of this process.”
The Science Center atrium girft is
provided in memory of Lois V. Paulson,
Rose E. Paulson, and Johnny E. Paulson,
by the Paulson family—John R., Sr., and
Norma Paulson, John Reid Paulson, Mary
Jo Peterson ’80, Deborah Stansbury, Laurie
Dahl ’76, and Lisa Paulson ’80.
Spring 2006
Naming the ‘Doc’ Johnson A-Club Office
Office in Doc’s memory. Their gifts, with
additional gifts from Louie Morseth ’51,
Roger Stockmo ’54, Leroy Nyhus ’52, and
Virg Gehring ’57 have made it possible.
In his senior year at Augsburg, Doc
Johnson was elected president of AClub. Now, it is the A-Club vice
president from that year, Ron Main,
helping to perpetuate Johnson’s legacy
as an Auggie.
Archive photo
Donnis “Doc” Johnson ’52, an Auggie who
died at the age of 23, well before his time,
will not be forgotten by his friends. Five of
his classmates and friends have joined
together to name the A-Club office in the
new Si Melby South Wing in his memory.
Raised in the small town of Newman
Grove, Nebraska—the only Lutheran Free
Church congregation in that state—
Johnson followed his sister, LaRhea, and
several relatives to Augsburg College, 400
miles away. He enrolled in 1948, majored
in physical education, and became center
on the football team.
After graduation in 1952 and two years
in the U.S. Army at Fort Leonard Wood,
Mo., Johnson returned home to a teaching
and football coaching position at the Elgin
(Neb.) High School. This was to be his
only year of teaching, as he died of bulbar
polio in November 1954. Members of his
high school football team served as
pallbearers.
Early last year, Doc’s cousin, Mark
Johnson ’54, together with Augsburg
development officer Ron Main ’56,
proposed a plan to name the new A-Club
by Betsey Norgard
“Doc” Johnson (top row, no. 28) played on the 1951 football team, along with teammate, and
now development officer and donor, Ron Main ’56 (middle row, no. 38).
Connections
Augsburg meets
Thrivent challenge
Augsburg received bonus funding of
$5,415 from Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans for successfully meeting the
GivingPlus program challenge.
About 450 Lutheran schools and
social service agencies were awarded
portions of an $800,000 grant from
Thrivent for significantly improving
participation in Thrivent’s GivingPlus
program, which matches contributions
to Lutheran institutions by its members.
In order to qualify, Augsburg needed
to increase GivingPlus by 588 member
donors before December. It exceeded
that with a total of 693, thereby also
earning $78,805 in matching funds from
Thrivent under the program.
The bonus funds will be used for
student scholarships, curriculum
development, student-oriented
activities, and campus improvements.
Spring 2006
Barbara Gage, president of the Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation, was honored with the
2006 Leading Leaders award for lifelong commitment to family, career, and service to
community. (L to R) Emily Anne Tuttle, Augsburg Board of Regents; Barbara Carlson Gage;
and Tracy Elftmann, Augsburg vice president for institutional advancement.
The Connections event, co-sponsored by Augsburg and Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans, also included speakers Janice Aune ’88, chairman/CEO of Onvoy, Inc.; Augsburg
regent Gloria C. Lewis, president/CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin
Cities; and Shira Hussain, Augsburg senior admissions counselor.
23
Sig Hjelmeland led fundraising efforts for 30 years
Sigvald Hjelmeland ’41 was the second of
four generations of Augsburg graduates
and spent three decades at Augsburg
leading fundraising efforts that made
possible a number of major capital
projects. He died on Dec. 25 at age 90.
Hjelmeland returned to Augsburg in
1952 to serve as the College’s first
director of development. Major
campaigns he headed led to the
completion of the George Sverdrup
Library, Christensen Center, Urness Hall,
and Foss Center.
He is best remembered by colleague
Jeroy Carlson ’48 as “meticulous.” In the
late 1950s, as donor and giving programs
were being created, Hjelmeland drew on
his expertise and passion for detail to
create a manual accounting system and
bookkeeping procedures for donor gifts.
This included the use of a bank book to
help donors track their monthly pledge
payments.
In 1963, as the College moved
through the transition from the Lutheran
Free Church (LFC) into the American
Lutheran Church, Hjelmeland, with his
Norwegian LFC background, served a
valuable role in helping many of
Augsburg’s longtime LFC families stay
part of and feel connected to Augsburg.
“He spoke Norwegian and had a great
sense of humor,” Carlson says, “not just
American humor, but Scandinavian
humor as well.” Hjelmeland’s
relationships helped to foster a culture of
philanthropy that has nurtured many of
Augsburg’s current donors.
In 1986, Hjelmeland, with his wife,
by Betsey Norgard
Three generations of Hjelmeland Auggies: Sigvald Hjelmeland ’41, who is survived by his wife,
Helen; (back row, L to R) James Clarke and daughter Laurene (Hjelmeland) Clarke ’64; son John
’70 and Lynn (Benson) ’69 Hjelmeland; and granddaughter Jennifer (Hjelmeland) Stewart ’00.
Helen, and son and daughter-in law John
’70 and Lynn (Benson) ’69, established a
scholarship in the name of his father,
John Hjelmeland, who graduated from
Augsburg Academy, College, and
Seminary.
In 2003, Sig Hjelmeland received the
Spirit of Augsburg award for his
dedication and long service to the
College.
Hjelmeland is survived by his wife,
Helen; two children, Laurene and John;
seven grandchildren; and five greatgrandchildren. The family has directed
memorial gifts to the Rev. John
Hjelmeland Scholarship Fund.
Faculty-staff giving boosts campaign
From September through December, guided by a faculty-staff
campaign committee, employees of Augsburg raised the bar on
giving and encouraged awareness of a philanthropic culture.
A generous matching fund, matches from Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans for its members, and contacts from committee members
helped to significantly increase both the dollar amount and the
rate of giving within the Augsburg community.
24
Through December 31, an additional total of $133,000 was
given or pledged by employees of the College, beyond the
$635,000 since the campaign’s launch.
Even more important, however, was the increased rate of
participation in the campaign—to more than doubling the overall
rate of 17% in 2004-05. By the end of the year, the giving rate for
full-time faculty and staff exceeded 50%.
Spring 2006
AAlumni
LUMNINews
NEWS
From the director of Alumni Relations…
A
ugsburg College
is in the midst
of many exciting
changes this spring.
Our first group of
MBA students will
graduate in May,
along with
candidates from our
other master’s
programs in leadership, education,
nursing, physician assistant studies, and
social work—plus our undergraduates
from the day, weekend, and Rochester
programs. Congratulations to you all!
The campus face is changing, too. I
hope that you have had an opportunity
to view the artist renderings of the
planned Science, Gateway, and Si Melby
additions. We welcome you back to
campus to tour the grounds this spring
and summer—our grounds crew does an
amazing job beautifying the campus!
In Alumni Board news, three members
will end their terms this spring. We would
like to thank Beth Torstenson ’66, Andy
Morrison ’73, and Paul Mueller ’84 for
their dedication and hard work during
their tenures. We hope to see them at
many events in the future. Thank you!
Alumni Relations, along with
Advancement Services and Information
Technology, are pleased to announce the
newly launched Augsburg Online
Community, which will help you stay
informed and involved with Augsburg
via the Internet. See the information
below for details.
Planning for Homecoming 2006 is
well underway. This year’s theme is
“Watch Us Soar,” and events are
scheduled this September 25-30. Watch
your mailbox for your Homecoming
brochure in August. We have made
changes to the usual Saturday activities,
and we encourage all alumni, family, and
friends to join us.
We look forward to hosting you at an
Augsburg event in the near future. Please
let the Office of Alumni Relations know
if you will be in the metro area this
summer—we would love to show you
the campus!
Heidi Breen
Director, Office of Alumni Relations
Introducing Augsburg’s new online community
A
ugsburg’s online community has
been developed just for you—
alumni, friends, parents, and donors of
the College. The new online community
will help you stay informed and involved
with Augsburg via the Internet. This is a
great way to stay connected!
Visit the site and register today so that
you can take advantage of the great new
features to keep you connected to your
Augsburg friends and classmates.
You’ll find:
Alumni Directory
• Learn where your classmates and
friends are, and what they’ve been
doing since graduation
• Connect with other alumni in your
area of the country
• Update your personal profile so your
classmates can get in touch with you
Spring 2006
Class Notes
Tell us what you’ve been up to! As part
of your personal profile you can now
submit class notes online for possible
publication in Augsburg Now.
programs, and of course, Access to
Excellence: The Campaign for Augsburg
College. Giving online is easy and
secure—and there’s no need to be a
registered user to donate.
Events
Wondering what events are taking place
for Augsburg alumni? The online
community is the place to search and
register for events specifically for alumni
and friends of the College. Check back
often to learn about upcoming Auggie
Hours, parent events, or just to find out
the most up-to-date news around the
Augsburg campus.
It’s EASY
Simply go to www.augsburg.edu/alumni
Online Giving
You asked, and we listened! Making a
contribution to Augsburg has never been
easier. Simply visit Augsburg’s online
community and click on the “Give Now”
link to donate online. Otherwise, click
on “Giving at Augsburg” to learn about
planned giving, our various giving
It’s FAST
Moving? Changing your e-mail address?
New addition to your family? Let us
know instantly by logging in and
updating your information.
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions, first read
through the information on the
Augsburg online community website. If
you still have questions, send an e-mail
to <healyk@augsburg.edu>.
25
Alumni Events
SUMMER AUGGIE HOURS
Please join us for these upcoming alumni events (see also the college-wide calendar on the
inside back cover for additional Augsburg events); unless otherwise noted, call 612-330-1178
or 1-800-260-6590 or e-mail <alumni@augburg.edu> for more information.
March
May
16
5
Graduation reception for all
undergraduate and graduate
business students, Marshall Room,
Christensen Center, 4-6 p.m.
April
9
Alumni tour to China departs
18
Alumni Board meeting,
Christensen Center, 5:30 p.m.
18
27
Senior reception hosted by the
Alumni Board in honor of the
Class of 2006, East Commons,
Christensen Center, 4:30-6 p.m.
WECAN meeting (Weekend
College Alumni Network), 6-8
p.m., Riverside Room, Christensen
Center
WECAN meeting (Weekend
College Alumni Network), 6-8
p.m., Riverside Room, Christensen
Center
April
Join a variety of alumni who are
actively involved in the Twin Cities
theatre community; location TBA.
May
W.A. Frost & Company, Historic
Cathedral Hill—Dacotah Building,
374 Selby Ave., St. Paul,
651-224-5715
June
Maynard’s Restaurant,
685 Excelsior Blvd, Excelsior, Minn.
(located in the southeast corner of
Excelsior Bay on Lake Minnetonka),
952-470-1800
August
Campiello, 1320 West Lake St.,
Uptown Minneapolis, 612-825-2222
June
20
Alumni Board meeting,
Christensen Center, 5:30 p.m.
25
Rochester Weekend College
graduation banquet, Rochester
Country Club, 5-8 p.m.
Commencement 2006
Augsburg
Associates Spring
Seminar
Softball and
baseball alumni
receptions
The Augsburg Associates invite you to
their 20th Annual Spring Seminar,
Saturday, April 1, 8:30-11:30 a.m. at
Foss Center. This year’s guest speakers
include Augsburg professor of religion
Brad Holt ’63, Tsehai Wodajo, and Ann
(Tjaden) Jensen. Wodajo emigrated from
Ethiopia 15 years ago and received her
MSW from Augsburg in 1997. Jensen
served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia
after graduating from Augsburg in 1964.
They are founders of REAL (Resources
for the Enrichment of African Lives).
Registration is $15 per person, payable in
advance (this includes refreshments and
materials).
Call your old teammates and join us at
these upcoming receptions! Softball
alumni are invited to gather at 5 p.m.,
Thursday, April 20, prior to the game
against Carleton College; for more
information, contact Carol Enke at
612-330-1250 or <enke@augsburg.edu>.
Baseball alumni are invited to gather at
1 p.m., Saturday, April 29, prior to the
game against Macalester College; contact
Keith Bateman at 612-330-1395 or
<bateman@augsburg.edu>.
26
Auggie Hours are held the second Tuesday of
each month from 5:30-7 p.m. Please join us!
Reunion
celebrations
Attention Auggies from the classes of
1956, 1966, 1981, and Young Alumni
1990-2006: this is your reunion year!
Plan now to join your classmates this
September 25-30 for the annual
Homecoming festivities and your
reunion reception. Watch your mail and
upcoming issues of Augsburg Now for
complete details; please let us know your
current e-mail address at
<alumni@augsburg.edu>. You can also
stay up-to-date by visiting the alumni
website at <www.augsburg.edu/alumni>.
Spring 2006
CLASS
NOTES
Class Notes
1956
Richard Thorud, Bloomington,
Minn., has pursued a hobby of
writing, illustrating, publishing,
and marketing books since his
retirement as a research and
development engineer. His
seventh book, Mette Marie’s
Homestead Journal, is based on
his mother’s childhood memories
of living in a sod hut in North
Dakota; for more information, go
online to <www.amazon.com>.
1967
Rev. Harley J.
Refsal, Decorah,
Iowa, is a
professor of
Scandinavian folk
art and
Norwegian at
Luther College. He has earned
national and international acclaim
for his figure woodcarving—
including a St. Olav Medal in
1996 from the king of Norway.
Besides teaching at Luther, he has
written four books and numerous
magazine articles. He’s also the star
of an instructional video,
Scandinavian Style Figure Carving
with Harley Refsal, which earned a
prestigious 2005 Telly Award.
John N. Schwartz is serving as
interim president and chief
executive officer of St. Patrick
Hospital and Health Sciences
Center in Missoula, Mont. He
previously served as interim
president of Providence Medford
Medical Center in Medford, Ore.,
and has 30 years of experience in
the healthcare field and a long
history in management.
1969
Allen C. Tripp was one of four
Rush City, Minn., teachers selected
by their peers for the Leadership in
Excellence Award, which honors
their teaching quality and
commitment. The awards were
presented in October at a banquet
in St. Cloud. Tripp has been an
English teacher at Rush City High
School since 1970. In addition to
teaching English, he has directed
class plays and all school plays for
14 years and has been a junior
high speech coach for 15 years.
He has also served as an assistant
track coach for 20 years. His wife,
Linda, teaches first grade at
Jacobson Elementary School.
They have two sons, Ryen, 29,
and Justin, 23. See more about
Allen on p. 20.
AUGGIES AT
CARNEGIE HALL
1977
Timothy Strand was elected
mayor of the City of St. Peter
(Minn.) in November in a
landslide victory. Strand, who by
election time had served two
years of a four-year term as a
Ward II council member, was
anxious to start his new role.
“I’m very excited, and the first
thing that comes to my mind is
that I’m proud to have been
elected,” he said in a postelection article in the St. Peter
Herald.
Patricia Clausen Wojtowicz,
Largo, Fla., is manager of
Jan (Pedersen) Schiff ’68 of
Mill Valley, Calif., will be a
guest conductor at Carnegie
Hall on April 24, performing
two works for women’s
chorus and orchestra. The
concert is part of
MidAmerica Productions’
2005-2006 concert series.
Courtesy photo
AUGGIE HONORS
Ora Hokes ’90 of Minneapolis was one of 10 recipients of the 2005 Virginia
McKnight Binger Award in Human Service. The awards are an annual tradition of
The McKnight Foundation, and each recipient exemplifies the life-changing
difference one person can make through service. The following is reprinted from
the award program:
Ora Hokes is transforming the health of her community Sunday by Sunday. A
member of the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church for 25 years, Hokes
saw the alarming health-related risk factors affecting the African American
community, and took action.
In 2003, after years of service with the Sabathani Community Center and its Way
to Grow program, she began volunteering with the American Red Cross and the
American Heart Association. Working with her pastor, she created the Health
Sundays program to provide monthly health information to her congregation.
Partnering with nurses and others from the congregation, and using additional
resources from the American Cancer Society and the Stairstep Foundation’s Health
Initiative, she implemented monthly blood pressure checks, distributed health
information on sexually transmitted diseases, instituted a “Stomp Out Stroke”
awareness program, and started the Promised Land Fellowship walking program
which focuses on weight loss, nutrition, and exercise. “My mother was my
inspiration,” Hokes says. “She had the gift of healing.”
Hokes is a lifelong advocate for continuing education. She returned to school
after her two children were grown, and has since received an Associate of Arts
degree from Minneapolis Community College, a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Augsburg’s Weekend College, a Master of Arts degree from the University of St.
Thomas, and a parent educator license from the University of Minnesota. It seems
no challenge is too big for Ora Hokes.
Spring 2006
27
Class Notes
Courtesy photo
ALUMNI PROFILE
Mike and Gail Koski: Traveling the
missionary road
by Sara Holman ’06
Working in the mailroom, falling in love with a fellow coworker, graduating
in four years, and preparing for a bright future were just a few of the things
that Mike and Gail (Niederloh) Koski accomplished while attending
Augsburg. However, finding their joint calling to become missionaries
happened just months after their marriage. Married in October 1972, the
following July carried the Koskis across the ocean to Africa.
Mike, a 1971 graduate, came to Augsburg and studied history and secondary
education. Gail graduated one year later with a B.A. in French secondary
education. Both came from congregations that were involved in missionary
work, yet each confesses that overseas missionary work had not been a part
of their plan. When the inspiration came, Mike recalls, “It was an answer to
prayer.”
“We just understood that this was the way God would want us to use our
gifts and abilities,” Gail said.
Mike ’71 and Gail ’72 (Niederloh) Koski have traveled the
world as missionaries since meeting and graduating from
Augsburg more than 30 years ago.
After 32 years of missionary work in Kenya and Zaire (now the Democratic
Republic of Congo), the Koskis are currently awaiting their next assignment. The couple works with the Minneapolis-based mission
organization World Mission Prayer League (WMPL). When choosing a mission group, “WMPL resonated well. Its principles, policies, and
practices fit the best,” Mike said.
Every four years, the couple comes back to the United States on furlough. During this one-year break, the missionaries continue their work
and await news about their future destination. The Koskis were called back in September 2005.
The couple’s mission experience started in Zaire where they worked in a rural setting, often connecting with nomadic tribes. It was the
couple’s responsibility to learn the language and culture and then present the gospel in a way that would be understood. Their time in Zaire
was limited to only four months, and then their assignment changed.
Kenya has been a very permanent place for the Koskis’ mission work. They spent many years in the agricultural parts of northern and
western Kenya but have been stationed in the city of Nairobi for the past 10 years. Mike became assistant director of the Urban Ministries
Support Group (UMSG) in 1995 and then moved up to the director position in 1999. Gail’s work has consisted of many facets: UMSG
resource center librarian, ESL teacher, Sunday school supervisor, and mission hostess. She was also in charge of home-schooling their three
children. Now fully grown, their children have all graduated college and live and work at various places within North America.
The Koskis’ main goal in Nairobi was to help develop leadership within the Lutheran church. With strong leadership skills instilled, the
church was able to discuss and respond to societal ailments such as poverty and HIV. To reach more people within the city, one church
decided to split the congregation into five groups and build five new churches. Everything was planned and prepared ahead of time: pastors
were found, worship teams were formed, and everything transitioned very smoothly. The five new congregations each held a special
characteristic that made it fit perfectly into its new part of the city. For example, in the area where many university students lived, the
church emphasized youth activities and provided a contemporary worship service.
The couple’s greatest excitement is to see their fellow church members’ faith development. “We’ve been doing this for so long that we get to
see young people grow into adults. We are able to see how their faith keeps growing and then how it impacts their families, vocations, and
communities.”
Kenya holds a special place in both the Koskis’ hearts. They enjoyed the vibrant colors and temperate climate, but it was the people-oriented
culture and relaxed pace of living that really appealed to the couple. Being concerned about people and taking time to establish relationships
is a big part of missionary work, and the Koski family praises God for the rich experiences that were shared in Kenya.
Sara Holman is a senior English/communication studies major.
28
Spring 2006
accreditations at Forensic
Quality Services, Inc., in Largo.
Courtesy photo
STENSVAAG-DARDA WEDDING (CORRECTION)
1979
1980
Nancy (Weatherston) Black,
Cornelius, Ore., is a serial
cataloger for Millar Library at
Portland State University.
Rev. David L. Norgard, West
Hollywood, Calif., has
established a consulting practice
for churches and other nonprofits in the area of
organizational development. He
can be contacted at
<davidnorgard@yahoo.com>.
1982
Kevin Gordon, International
Falls, Minn., was quoted in an
article in the St. Paul Pioneer
Press newspaper about his son,
Ben Gordon, who is a
sophomore forward on the
University of Minnesota Gopher
hockey team. Ben acquired his
hockey skills growing up playing
on outdoor rinks and from his
father, a former International
Falls High School coach and an
Augsburg All-American.
Spring 2006
The above photo from the July 2004 wedding of Rebecca Stensvaag ’01 and Paul Darda ’01, which
features more than 40 Augsburg alumni, contained unintentional inaccuracies in the winter issue of
the Augsburg Now. The correct information is as follows: ROW 1 (L to R): Cindy Huber Blummer ’01,
Emma Stensvaag ’08, Ruth Casperson ’67, Hannah Mehus Stensvaag ’38, Rebecca Stensvaag Darda ’01,
Paul Darda ’01, Nancy Strommen Stensvaag ’71, John-Mark Stensvaag ’69, Stephanie Johnson Sulzbach
’71, John Sulzbach ’69, Jean Boxrud Steen. ROW 2: Roland Blummer ’00, Mary Kay Johnson Stensvaag
’72, Ken Casperson ’70, Peggy Nelson Hintzman, Gladys Boxrud Strommen ’46, Hans Strommen ’04,
Andrea Johnson Strommen ’75, Bob Strommen ’74, Roy Steen. ROW 3: Normajean Johnson Strommen
’69, Saul Stensvaag ’72, Ann Peterson ’01, Tony Quance ’03, Tjersti Strommen ’07, Adam Thronson ’99,
Marsha Strommen Olson ’68, Dawn Hofstad Strommen ’70. ROW 4: Peter Strommen ’69, Mary Nelson
Eckberg ’70, Brad Fischer ’03, Heidi Peterson ’03, Mark Peterson ’01, Mary Ellen Strommen Lieber ’67,
Tim Strommen ’70. ROW 5: John Eckberg ‘68, Ben Paul ’03, Ainy Carlson, Jeroy Carlson ’46, Phil
Edstrom ’69, Luther Strommen ’40, Steve Strommen ’65.
1984
Bruce Palmquist, Ellensburg,
Wash., was honored as the 2005
Washington State Professor of the
Year by the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching
and the Council for
Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE). Palmquist is a
physics and science education
professor at Central Washington
University, and is highly regarded
for his commitment to improving
public understanding of basic
scientific principles and working
to develop skills in the next
generation of science teachers
needed to successfully bring
about a scientifically literate
society. In his dual role as a
physicist and a teacher educator,
Palmquist has taken on many
AUGGIES ON THE ROAD
Courtesy photo
Paul Daniels, archivist for
ELCA Region 3 and
archivist/curator at Luther
Seminary, traveled to Chennai
(Madras), India, to assist the
Lutheran Heritage Centre at
Gurukul Theological College on
several projects. Daniels had
served there 12 years ago when
the archives center was just
beginning its work of collecting
and making available records of
the 12 Indian Lutheran church
bodies. Over the years he has
maintained contact with the
staff, working on issues of
collection development,
preservation, and program
expansion. Daniels and his wife,
Sally (Hough) ’79, director of
parent and family relations at
Augsburg, live in Golden Valley,
Minn., and have two daughters,
Kristin ’09 and Maren.
Jennifer Tome ’99 (left) of Minneapolis visited Mary Olson ’74
(right) in October at Airlie Winery, Olson’s winery in Monmouth,
Ore. Tome is a wine representative for Grape Beginnings.
29
Class Notes
initiatives, including developing a
new CWU program at Green
River Community College in
Auburn, called Project TEACH
(Teacher Education Alliance for
Colleges and High Schools). In
2004, Palmquist was also named
the CWU Distinguished Public
Service Professor.
1988
Brad Anderson, Plymouth,
Minn., teaches biology and
human genetics at Wayzata High
School. He also serves as head
football coach, and this past
season led the Trojans to capture
the 2005 state championship. He
and his wife, Maari Anderson
’87, have two daughters, Barrett
and Isabelle.
1990
Kay E. Baker, Savage, Minn., is
an account director hired to set
up the new Minneapolis office of
the Jerome Group, a direct
marketing support firm based in
St. Louis, Mo. She was recently
featured as a “Mover” in the
business section of the St. Paul
Pioneer Press newspaper.
1992
West Central Initiative in Fergus
Falls, Minn., as a Connectinc
Replication Project executive.
She has several years of
experience in the service
industry, including serving as a
board member for Restart Inc.
1996
Julie (Lindusky) Corcoran,
Forest Lake, Minn., was elected
in November to a four-year term
on the ISD 831 School Board.
She and her husband, Mike,
have three children.
Paul Wahmanholm, St. Paul,
is an administrative intern for
Dayton’s Bluff Elementary
School in the St. Paul Public
Schools district.
Debra Carpenter has joined
Courtsey photo
HINTON-HANSEN WEDDING
1997
Lars P. Dyrud, Amesbury,
Mass., was one of approximately
70 selected worldwide by the
Young Scientists Award Panel to
attend the Union RadioScientifique Internationale
(URSI) General Assembly at the
Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi,
India, last October. Participants
were also given the opportunity
to meet with the president of
India at the Rashtrapati, the
official presidential residence.
1998
Melanie Hinton ’04 married Mark Hansen in October; the
couple resides in Kasson, Minn. Melanie is a registered nurse
and assistant nursing supervisor at the Mayo Medical Center.
Ann Rohrig, Lima, Ohio,
married Stephen Jenkins in
June, becoming a stepmother to
two children. She is a social
worker for a therapeutic foster
care agency in Lima.
AUGGIES IN THE MILITARY
Lewis Nelson ’00, pictured here with his wife, Holly, is currently
deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is in
the U.S. Army serving with the 506th Infantry Regiment of the
101st Airborne Division (AASLT), and is in charge of the signals
intelligence analysis section for the brigade. Lewis’ wife and two
children, Benjamin, 2, and Arianna, 9 months, reside in Clarksville,
Tenn. The family maintains a website at <www.nelson
downs.com> and welcomes any e-mail messages for Lewis at
<lewis@nelsondowns.com>.
30
2000
Mauris De Silva, Miami, received
a Ph.D. in materials science and
engineering from the Department
of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science at the University
of Minnesota in May. He now
works in the Department of
Ophthalmology at the University
of Miami’s Miller Medical School
of Medicine.
2001
Greg Barrett, St. Paul, graduated
from the University of St. Thomas
with a master’s degree in gifted
and talented education.
Becki Frestedt, Seattle, received a
Master of Public Administration
from the Evans School of Public
Affairs at the University of
Washington in June. She works for
a community development
organization, where she
coordinates outreach for a land
use study in the city.
Beth Nordin, Minnetonka, Minn.,
was named vice president of
information technology by CHS
Inc., an energy and grain-based
foods company. She previously
served as vice president of
operations for Capella Education.
Prior to Capella, she held several
positions with Pearson Education,
including senior vice president of
information technology and chief
information officer.
2003
Shawn Smith was acquired by
the Quad City Mallards from the
Port Huron Flags. Smith is a
rookie-defenseman who has
appeared in 14 United Hockey
League games this season split
between the Fort Wayne Komets
and the Port Huron Flags.
Births/Adoptions
Lisa (Svac) ’85
and Lee Hawks
’85 in New
Brighton, Minn.,
adopted a son,
Andrew John, in
December.
Spring 2006
Carley (Miller)
’94 and William
Stuber in
Shakopee,
Minn.—a
daughter,
Kirsten Rae, in
May. Carley is executive director
of the St. Francis Regional
Medical Center Foundation in
Shakopee.
Jay Lepper ’95 and his wife,
Bronwyn, in Savage, Minn.—a
daughter, Rowan Jane, in May.
Jennifer (Polis) ’97 and Dan
Debe in Minneapolis—a son,
George William, in September.
He joins older sisters Allison, 5,
and Emily, 3. Jennifer can be
reached at <jendebe@
yahoo.com>.
Summer Joy (Sorenson) ’99
and Jeffrey Brackhan in
Mondovi, Wis.—twin boys, Cole
and Dakota, in February 2005.
Heidi
(Erickson) ’01
and Matt Segedy
in Minneapolis—
a daughter,
Eleanor
Catherine, in
November. Matt is a pediatrician
at South Lake Pediatrics, and
Heidi is currently home with
Nora.
in November.
Lisa (Ashbaugh) ’04 and
Darrel Stange in Bertha, Minn.—
a son, Nathan, in September.
Lisa and Darrel married in
October.
In Memoriam
Bertha D. Lillehei ’34,
Minneapolis, died in January; she
was 92. Following the example of
her father, Lars Lillehei, who
taught Greek at Augsburg, Bertha
taught English at Augsburg in the
1930s and ’40s.
Sigvald Hjelmeland ’41,
Edina, Minn., died in December;
he was 90 (see p. 24 for further
details).
Rev. Earl E. Dreyer ’56, Detroit
Lakes, Minn., died in December
of heart-related problems; he
was 75. Ordained in 1959, he
served parishes in Alexandria,
Rochester, Canby, and Detroit
Lakes.
Holly Ebnet ’03 married Jeremy Knutson in August 2004; the
couple resides in Hugo, Minn. Holly is pursuing an MBA at
Augsburg, and Jeremy is a pipefitter for Yale Mechanical in
Bloomington. The couple can be reached at
<hknutson04@yahoo.com>.
NEVE-KNUTSON WEDDING
Paul A. Benson ’85, Willmar,
Minn., died unexpectedly in
December; he was 42. He was a
financial controller for West
Central, Inc., and previously
worked for R.J. Ahmann
Company and Twin City Group.
Rev. Louisa (Goplen) Fure
’95, Albert Lea, Minn., died in
December after an automobile
accident; she was 53. Ordained
in 1999, she served as an
associate pastor at Trinity
Lutheran Church in Owatonna.
She was also active in
community theatre, with roles in
Sommerset Theatre of Austin,
Little Theatre of Owatonna, and
Footlights Dinner Theatre in
Rochester.
Jason Jenness ’01 died in July
2001 of Non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma; he was 31.
Spring 2006
EBNET-KNUTSON WEDDING
Courtsey photo
Marissa
(Skowronek)
’02 and Michael
Partridge in St.
Michael, Minn.—
a son, Logan
Michael,
Courtsey photo
C.J. Beaurline ’94 and his wife,
Christin, in Ham Lake, Minn.—a
son, Basil, in December. He
joins older siblings Savanna, 7,
Simeon, 4, and Sophia, 2. C.J. is
a sales engineer at Vector Design
Technology, and has also served
as an NCAA hockey referee in
the WCHA for eight years. He
can be reached at <cbeaurline@
vectordesigntech.com>.
Niels Neve ’97 married Darlene Knutson in September; the couple
resides in Pine Island, Minn. Niels is an account representative at
UnitedHealth Group, and Darlene works for the Mayo Clinic in
cytogenetics.
31
AUGGIE
THOUGHTS
Auggie Thoughts
Editor’s note: Bruce Palmquist ’84 was honored as the 2005 Washington State
Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement in Teaching
and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Eschewing the normal media interviews that accompany such honors,
Palmquist decided to introduce himself to readers through the eyes of his best
canine friend, Jack.
Bruce DOES know Jack, or
Jack, Bruce’s Jack Russell Terrier,
interviews Bruce about teaching
Bruce: I like answering students’
questions and helping them make sense of
concepts they are having problems with.
Some professors go into the classroom
with an elaborate presentation all planned
out. But, that’s not me. I know where the
class should end up by the end of the
week. And, I have planned, in general,
how we will get there. But, the students
help create the path with their specific
needs and questions.
J: You often teach late night astronomy
labs or organize public observing
sessions that go late. How can you
stay up so late and still get up at
5 a.m. to take me outside?
B: Well, it isn’t easy. The Central
Washington University Astronomy Club
helps out a lot. In fact, they plan most of
the late observing sessions you
mentioned. But, I think it is important
that introductory astronomy students get
familiar with the nighttime sky. The best
way to learn about the night sky is to
observe it with some expert help. By the
way, taking you out at 5 a.m. is better
than cleaning up after you in the house.
J: Speaking of expert help, you write a
weekly astronomy column …
B: I hope Augsburg Now doesn’t misspell
that as “weakly column.”
32
J: It would be a Freudian
slip if they do. Anyway,
why do you volunteer
your time to write a
newspaper column in the
Ellensburg Daily Record?
B: Science is such an
important topic. And, it is
woefully under covered in
the popular press.
Astronomy is a very
attainable topic. The stars
and planets are always up
there for people to see.
And, I have selfish reasons
for writing the column, as Bruce Palmquist ’84 and his “interviewer,” Jack
well. If my column helps
the general public have a
requires students to write about science
more positive outlook toward science,
and to design scientific experiments.
they are more likely to support science
Simply memorizing facts will not result
teaching in the schools and universities.
in a good WASL score. And, the WASL’s
emphasis on designing experiments
J: Talk a little bit more about science
means that teachers will need to include
in the schools, especially the state’s
more experiments and the analysis of
standardized test called the
experiments in their classroom. This is a
Washington Assessment of Student
good thing.
Learning, or WASL.
J: What is your favorite constellation?
B: Even dogs know that the WASL is a
sensitive subject. In general, children are
B: Canis Major, the great dog. During the
over-tested. I think no child gets left
winter, it is low in the southern sky.
behind, because they leave such a long
paper trail of standardized test sheets.
J: Good answer.
But, the science WASL is much better
than the typical multiple choice
For more about Bruce Palmquist’s thoughts
standardized test. The science WASL
on teaching and leadership, see p. 20.
Spring 2006
Courtsey photo
Jack: What is your favorite aspect of
teaching?
CCalendar
ALENDAR
Music
April 29
March 27
For music information, call 612-330-1265
Augsburg Concert Band
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
Sverdrup Visiting
Scientist Lecture:
“Civilization as a
Geosystem: A Scientific
Perspective on Global
Change”
Dr. Thomas H. Jordan, university
professor, Department of Earth Sciences,
University of Southern California
8 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
612-330-1551 or gregoire@augsburg.edu
March 28
Augsburg Jazz Ensemble
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
March 29
Augsburg Choir
5:30 & 7 p.m.— Mt. Olivet Lutheran
Church; Minneapolis
April 1
Augsburg Choir
7 p.m.—St. John Lutheran Church
Owatonna, Minn.
April 30
Musical celebration honoring the
service of President William V. and
Anne Frame
2 p.m.—Central Lutheran Church
Minneapolis
May 8–21
Augsburg Choir
Tour to Hungary, Czech Republic, &
Germany
April 2
Theatre
Augsburg Choir
8:45, 10, & 11:15 a.m.—Calvary
Lutheran Church; Golden Valley, Minn.
For ticket information, call 612-330-1257
Riverside Singers
9:30 & 11 a.m.—Mt. Calvary Lutheran
Church; Excelsior, Minn.
Metamorphoses
By Mary Zimmerman
Directed by Darcey Engen
April 7, 8, 20, 21, & 22 at 7 p.m.;
April 9 & 23 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
Augsburg Choir
4 p.m.—Cambridge Lutheran Church
Cambridge, Minn.
Brass in the Chapel
Joint concert of the Augsburg & St.
Thomas brass ensembles
7:30 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
April 9
Masterworks Chorale
4 p.m.—Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church
Minneapolis
April 22
Augsburg Symphony Orchestra
4 p.m.—Sateren Auditorium
April 23
Riverside Singers
8:30 & 11 a.m.—Mayflower
Congregational Church; Minneapolis
April 26
Chamber Music Recital & High Tea
4 p.m.—Sateren Auditorium & Arnold
Atrium
April 7–23
Exhibits
For gallery information, call 612-330-1524
April 7–May 7
All-Student Juried Art Exhibition
Opening reception: April 7, 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Gage Family Art Gallery
April 7–May 14
Senior Art Exhibition
Opening reception: April 7, 5–7 p.m.
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Seminars, Lectures,
and Films
January 25–May 20
Augsburg Native American Film Series
www.augsburg.edu/home/ais/filmseries/
April 12
Speech and booksigning by Norwegian
Crown Princess Martha Louise
4 p.m.–6 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
612-330-1176 or jorgensd@augsburg.edu
Other Events
April 18
Pan-Afrikan Year-End Celebration
6–9 p.m.—Christensen Center
612-330-1022 or bolden@augsburg.edu
April 27
Senior Athletes Award Banquet
6–9 p.m.—Christensen Center
612-330-1243 or grauerp@augsburg.edu
May 5–6
Commencement 2006
Featured speaker: Dr. Peter Agre ’70
Recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry
www.augsburg.edu/commencement/
May 22
Third Annual
Healthcare Conference:
“Building Minnesota’s
Healthcare Workforce
Through Diversity”
8 a.m.–5 p.m.—Melby Hall
www.augsburg.edu/healthcare
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Winter 2005-06
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 68, No. 2
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S Winter 2005-06
FEATURES
10
Putting a fresh ‘face’ on Augsburg
by Lynn Mena
12
Jeroy Carlson ’48—’Mr. Augsburg’
by Sara Holman ’06
... Show more
A
P U B L I C AT I O N
Winter 2005-06
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 68, No. 2
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S Winter 2005-06
FEATURES
10
Putting a fresh ‘face’ on Augsburg
by Lynn Mena
12
Jeroy Carlson ’48—’Mr. Augsburg’
by Sara Holman ’06
14
Physician Assistants—increasing healthcare access
by Cynthia Hill
18
A chance to skate
by Don Stoner
20
Faith in the City
by Betsey Norgard
DEPARTMENTS
2
Around the Quad
6
Sports
23
Vision,
news of Access to Excellence:
The Campaign for Augsburg College
26
Alumni News
28
Homecoming 2005
32
Class Notes
40
Auggie Thoughts
inside
back
cover
Calendar
A college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Augsburg College is an equal education/employment institution.
Editor
Betsey Norgard
Assistant Editor
Lynn Mena
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
Media Relations Manager
Judy Petree
Sports Information
Coordinator
Don Stoner
www.augsburg.edu
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
Minnesota 55454. Opinions
expressed in Augsburg Now do
not necessarily reflect official
College policy. ISSN 1058–1545
Send address corrections to:
Advancement Services
Augsburg College, CB 142
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
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On the cover:
On this page:
Samuel Gross ’03 shows off a
sampling of merchandise that
carries the Auggie Eagle athletic
logo he created for the College, a
project that began in a graphic
design class.
Photo by Stephen Geffre.
The maroon banners on the Link
between Sverdrup and Memorial
Halls, and Lindell Library pale in
comparison to the blazing fall
colors of the maple trees
alongside the library.
Photo by Stephen Geffre.
AROUND
QUAD
Around THE
the Quad
New regents are elected to the board
S
even new members were elected to
four-year terms on the Augsburg
College Board of Regents at the annual
meeting of the Augsburg Corporation in
October.
In addition, Gloria C. Lewis was reelected to a second six-year term. She is
the executive director and CEO of Big
Brothers Big Sisters of the Twin Cities and
serves on the Marketing and Executive
Committees of the board.
Esperanza
Guerrero-Anderson
A native of
Nicaragua, Esperanza
Guerrero-Anderson is
founder, president,
and CEO of
Milestone Growth
Fund, Inc., a nonprofit venture capital
fund providing capital to minority
entrepreneurs. She also serves on the
boards of the Bush Foundation, Walker
Art Center, Center for Ethical Business
Cultures, and Chicanos-Latinos Unidos
en Servicio (CLUES).
Norman R. Hagfors
Recently retired from
Norsen, Inc., the
management and
engineering
consulting firm he
founded, Norman
Hagfors is returning
to the Board of
Regents, where he
served from 1989-2001. He is active in
the community and his church.
Jodi Harpstead
Jodi Harpstead is vice
president and chief
advancement officer
at Lutheran Social
Service of Minnesota,
where she leads
marketing,
fundraising, public
2
relations, and public policy. She has
served on several boards, including
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and the
Girl Scout Council of St. Croix Valley, as
well as in numerous volunteer leadership
positions.
Dean Kennedy ’75
Fridley native Dean
Kennedy graduated
from Augsburg in
1975, where he was a
four-year wrestler
with conference and
All-American honors.
In 1996, he was
inducted into the
Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame. He is
president of Texakoma Oil & Gas
Corporation and lives in Plano, Texas.
Dean C. Kopperud
Returning to the
Augsburg Board of
Regents where he
served from 19982004, Dean C.
Kopperud brings 20
years of experience in
the financial services
industry. Most
recently he was national sales director
for Oppenheimerfunds, Inc., in
New York.
Marie O. McNeff
In 2000 Marie
McNeff retired from
Augsburg, where she
served as professor of
education and dean
for over 30 years. As
academic master
planner during her
last year before
retirement, she led efforts to bring
together faculty and staff in a
campuswide learning community and
created the blueprint to implement
academic provisions of Augsburg 2004,
the College’s first vision document.
Paul S. Mueller,
M.D. ’84
Dr. Mueller is an
internal medicine
consultant at the
Mayo Clinic in
Rochester. He has
served as Augsburg
Alumni Board
president and was an
instrumental force in launching
Augsburg’s Rochester program.
The Augsburg Corporation is comprised
of representatives elected by the
assemblies of the Minneapolis, Saint
Paul, Southeastern Minnesota, and
Northwest Wisconsin Synods of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The bishops from these four synods
serve as rotating ex officio members on
the board. Bishops Peter Rogness of the
Saint Paul Area Synod and Harold
Usgaard of the Southeastern Minnesota
Synod will begin their service in January.
Advent Vespers
video wins Emmy
Last year’s video recording of Advent
Vespers won an Upper Midwest
regional Emmy for director Jeffrey
Weihe at Twin Cities Public
Television for best direction of a live
recording.
The 2004 recording will be
shown again this year in the Twin
Cities: TPT-2 on Dec. 25, 10:30 a.m.
and TPT-17 on Dec. 24 at 6 p.m. and
Dec. 25 at 12 a.m., 6 a.m., and noon.
Contact public television stations
elsewhere for broadcast times.
Winter 2005-06
Welcome to the Class of 2009
American Indian
honors given
While attending new student orientation with his daughter, Christina, Rory Waller decided it
was time for him to pursue his own dream to teach.
W
hen President Frame welcomed
incoming first-year students and
their parents at orientation last summer,
he didn’t realize he was recruiting one
more student.
Rory Waller, father of first-year
student Christina, wrote, “During
Christina’s new student orientation in
August, President Frame addressed the
new students and spoke about vocation.
His words rekindled an old desire from
my youth, in that I have always wanted
to teach. Later that day during the Expo,
I happened across the information table
for the WEC program, and discovered
that Augsburg offered a degree in
education through the weekend program.
Sometimes the signposts in life are subtle,
and other times they just hit you right
between the eyes. … [My family] backs
me wholeheartedly in obtaining the goal I
have set, and for this I am grateful.
“Because of the weekend program at
Augsburg I feel I have the opportunity to
find my true vocation in life.”
Christina is one of 320 new first-year
day students. Of them, 41% are Lutheran.
They represent 15 states, with 83% from
Minnesota. Eleven percent of them are
students of color. During their first week,
on City Service Project day, first-year
students volunteered 1,000 hours of
service at 18 community sites.
Recent grants received
• $301,000 over three years from National
Science Foundation (NSF) to physics
professor Mark Engebretson for
collaboration with the University of New
Hampshire and University of Oslo to study
northern lights in the Svalbard archipelago
of northern Norway.
• $500,000 from Lilly Endowment to sustain
the work of “Exploring Our Gifts” through
2010.
• A National Science Foundation grant to
computer science professor Karen
Sutherland for undergraduate research on
questions involving the design of robot
rescue teams, in collaboration with the
University of Minnesota. Part of the NSF-
Winter 2005-06
supported Industry/University Cooperative
Research Center on Safety, Security, and
Rescue at the University of Minnesota and
University of South Florida.
• Five-year grant from U.S. Department of
Education for TRIO/Student Support
Services to continue providing academic
and personal support to help low-income,
first-generation college students and
students with disabilities.
• $10,000 from National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) for one year to provide
health education programming primarily to
student-athletes in areas of sexual assault,
eating disorders, and nutrition.
At their 20th annual conference in
October, the Minnesota Indian
Education Association (MIEA) named
American Indian studies professor
Sophia Jacobson (left) as the
Outstanding Postsecondary Teacher, and
sophomore Chris Adams (center) as the
Outstanding Postsecondary Student.
Cindy Peterson (right), director of
American Indian Student Services,
serves as secretary of the MIEA board.
Augsburg again top-ranked
In U.S.News & World Report’s 2006
listings of America’s Best Colleges,
Augsburg was ranked 26th in the
category “Master’s Universities-Top
Midwestern.”
Augsburg was included in the
“Academic Programs to Watch For”
listings of the 40 or so top programs in
the country for both First-Year Programs
and Service-Learning, and was the only
Minnesota private college listed. For
information go to <www.usnews.com>.
Augsburg is also included in Colleges
of Distinction, an online guide listing
colleges that excel in providing the best
places to learn, to grow, and to succeed.
For information go to <www.collegesof
distinction.com>.
3
Around the Quad
President emeritus Oscar Anderson dies at 89
Augsburg News Service
scar Anderson, Augsburg’s president
from 1963-80, died Aug. 25 in
Minneapolis following injuries suffered
from a fall. He was 89 years old.
While president, Anderson was
credited with defining Augsburg’s role as
an urban college, while not losing its
roots as both a liberal arts institution and
a College of the church.
“My goal for Augsburg College was to
make it an urban college, not only one
recognized within the urban setting, but
one utilizing the resources of a
metropolitan setting,” he said in 1993
when the College dedicated Oscar
Anderson residence hall in his name. “I
think we got into the bloodstream of
the city.”
President emeritus Charles Anderson,
who succeeded Oscar, said Oscar was
instrumental, in terms of attitude, in
bringing the College together with the city.
“We always were here geographically,”
Charles Anderson said, “but our
institution moved considerably closer
with the city in Oscar’s tenure. It was true
then, and it remains so today.”
Born in 1916 in Minneapolis, Oscar
Anderson was educated at Minnehaha
Academy and Augsburg before eventually
receiving his bachelor’s degree from
St. Olaf College in 1938. He graduated
from Luther Theological Seminary in
1942; his first pastorate was at Lake
Harriet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis,
from 1942 to 1948. For the next six
years he was the executive director of the
International Young People’s Luther
League of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church. He went on to complete
graduate study at Union Theological
Seminary in New York, an experience
that heightened his awareness of
contemporary trends in theological
scholarship.
From the mid-1950s until his
appointment as president at Augsburg,
he served as senior pastor at Trinity
Lutheran Church in Moorhead, Minn.,
where he established close ties with the
4
Rob Levine
O
President emeritus Oscar Anderson returned to campus at Homecoming 1990 to speak about
Augsburg heritage.
On one of his last visits to campus Oscar Anderson posed with his two successors, Charles
Anderson (left) and William Frame (right).
academic community—both at
Concordia College and Moorhead State
University.
After coming to Augsburg, Anderson
presided over a tremendous period of
growth and evolution at the College. Six
new buildings—Urness and Mortensen
residence halls, Christensen Center,
Music Hall, Murphy Place, and the Ice
Arena—were built during his presidency.
At his retirement, Board of Regents chair
Clayton LeFevere noted that Anderson
had signed more diplomas than all of his
predecessors—approximately 4,600.
Winter 2005-06
Archive photo
A nationally known preacher,
Anderson received many honors,
including the Knight’s Cross First Class
of the Order of St. Olav from the
Government of Norway; the Paul Harris
Fellow from Rotary International; the
Distinguished Alumni Citation from both
Augsburg and St. Olaf College; and the
Distinguished Service Award from the
City of Minneapolis.
“Oscar Anderson was president of the
College during two crucial decades and
supervised our transition from a college
in the city that wished it were in the
country to a college fully engaged with
the city that had grown up around it,”
noted President William Frame.
“As perhaps the best pulpit preacher
of his time, Oscar employed a razor
sharp and telling wit to guide the College
and its alumni through this crucial
transition. He had returned to the
College frequently since his retirement
and invariably brought that wit and
powerful rhetoric with him.”
Anderson’s wife, Leola, died in
December 2004. In 1993, at the
dedication of Anderson Hall, Anderson
had paid special tribute to Leola and the
Winter 2005-06
At the memorial service in Hoversten Chapel on Sept. 1, a photo display
captured the life and service of Oscar Anderson.
Archive photo
Oscar and Lee Anderson greeted the Homecoming crowd at
Parade Stadium in the 1960s.
President Anderson led an estimated crowd of 800 faculty, staff, and students from campus to
the Minneapolis Courthouse in 1965 in support of the Montgomery (Ala.) march.
17 years she presided as Augsburg’s first
lady. “I call the two of us ‘Osceola,’ he
said. “In my secret heart this will be
‘Osceola Hall.’” They are survived by
their children, Donna Anderson Hoekstra
’68; Randall; Sheldon ’73; and Gracia
Anderson Lindberg ’80.
A memorial service was held in
Hoversten Chapel on Sept. 1. The family
has requested memorial gifts to the
Access to Excellence campaign or the
Leola G. Anderson Scholarship. ■
5
Sports
O
by Don Stoner
White House photo by Paul Morse
Auggie wrestlers visit the White House
n Oct. 12 the Auggies,
winners of a record nine
NCAA Division III national
titles in the last 15 years,
became the first Division III
wrestling title team—and just
the second college wrestling
national title squad ever—to
meet with the president at the
White House. The University
of Minnesota’s 2001 Division I
national title team was the first
to achieve this honor.
The White House meeting
was arranged between
Augsburg coaches and U.S.
Rep. Dennis Hastert (RIllinois), the speaker of the
House of Representatives and a
former wrestler and wrestling
coach. Other key people
assisting in arranging the
Fourteen Augsburg wrestlers and coaches, along with College officials and friends, accepted an invitation to
meeting included Manchester
the White House in honor of Augsburg’s longtime domination of small-college wrestling with nine national
(Ind.) coach Tom Jarman and
titles in 15 years. (L to R) President Frame, Joe Moon ’05, Dean Kennedy ’75, Justin Sorensen ’06, Alan Rice,
Mike and Bev Chapman,
assistant coach Sam Barber, President Bush, Jared Evans ’07, Marcus LeVesseur ’07, Ryan Valek ’06, Brad Tupa
founders of the International
’06, Jamell Tidwell ’05, head coach Jeff Swenson ’79, and Mark Matzek ’05.
Wrestling Institute and
Museum, said Augsburg head
importance of that achievement and
coach Jeff Swenson ’79.
because they were student-athletes at
thanked me for mentioning it to him.”
Instead of meeting in the Rose
Augsburg College, they had this
“I was motivated when [Bush] talked
Garden, the normal site for team
opportunity. They’ll never forget that as
about the word ‘leadership’ and the
receptions with the president, the
long as they live.”
qualities he said are necessary to have in
meeting was held inside the Oval Office,
Team members said the trip was also
order to be an effective leader,” junior
a rare occurrence. The Auggies met with
a special honor for the hundreds of
Jared Evans said. “This motivated me,
the president for about a half hour,
individuals in the past who have helped
because as I looked around at my
much longer than he normally spends
establish Augsburg as a national power in
teammates, coaches, President Frame,
with teams in these kinds of meetings,
small-college wrestling.
Dean Kennedy, and thought about
White House staff told Swenson.
President Bush gave the Augsburg
Augsburg wrestling and the Augsburg
A total of 14 Augsburg individuals
group a tour of the Oval Office and
community, I realized I am surrounded
made the trip, including head coach
discussed a variety of subjects with the
by a great number of leaders.”
Swenson, assistant coaches Sam Barber
team, Swenson said, including history
“This experience obviously means a
and Scott Whirley, and eight of the 10
and patriotic subjects and sports topics.
lot to the whole team, but particularly
All-Americans from the 2004-05 national
The team presented Bush with an
Jeff [Swenson] and the rest of the
championship team. President William
Augsburg wrestling singlet with “Bush”
coaching staff that have been together for
Frame also met with President Bush,
printed on the back.
so long and working for so long to
along with team leaders Dean
“He admitted that he was not a
achieve what they have,” senior Ryan
Kennedy ’75 and Alan Rice.
wrestler, that his athletic passion is
Valek said. “It meant a lot to me to have
“To spend time with an active
cycling,” Frame said. “[I] told him that
that team together one last time. It was
president is really an incredible feeling,”
the wrestling team was consistently
really an incredible experience to be part
Swenson said. “For the rest of their lives,
[among] the highest-performing
of a group like that.”
our wrestlers are going to remember that
academically. … He acknowledged the
6
Winter 2005-06
Around the Quad
Sally Daniels ’79 heads new parent and
family relations office
by Sara Holman ’06
A
ugsburg has created a new office
specifically aimed to provide service
to the people behind the student—the
parents. Most comparable Lutheran
colleges, such as Luther or Concordia,
have an alumni and parent relations office;
however, Augsburg has gone beyond the
common model. Augsburg’s Office of
Parent and Family Relations is completely
devoted to the family.
Sally Daniels ’79, the new director of
parent and family relations, said, “This
position is not a fundraising component,
so I can focus on service to the parents.
That’s completely in keeping with
Augsburg’s mission.”
Daniels was asked to inaugurate this
position not only because she has 26 years
of experience in Augsburg’s undergraduate
admissions office, but because she is also
an Augsburg alumna and parent.
Daniels’ Augsburg experience began in
1975 when she was a first-year student
living on the fourth floor in Urness. She
graduated in 1979 and eventually married
her college sweetheart, Paul Daniels, also a
1979 Augsburg graduate. “Because I am an
alum, it comes naturally to say what a cool
place this is. I’ve told my Augsburg story
many, many times,” Sally Daniels said.
Both parents were very excited when their
daughter, Kristin, also chose to come to
Augsburg.
Daniels will draw on this experience,
as well as how she is handling being a
Sally Daniels ’79 (right) takes her experience
as an Augsburg student, former director of
admissions, and, now as parent of first-year
student Kristin (left) to a new role as director
of parent and family relations.
first-year college student’s mom, in her
new position.
This will help her build relationships
with three different types of parents—the
prospective parent, the current parent, and
the parents of alumni. All of these parents
have different questions, concerns, and
needs as their children work through
Augsburg. Daniels said, “I make sure
parents and family members have someone
to connect with about life at Augsburg,
and specifically the life of their kids.”
Parents who send their kids off to
college for the first time have many
questions, like how to deal with “letting
go,” or how to handle the new adult who
comes home in the summer. Daniels will
have personal experience to share.
By better caring for Augsburg parents,
the College can improve the student’s
experience. “Kids born after 1985, the
millennium generation, have a close
relationship with their parents,”
Daniels says.
She and her daughter, Kristin, have
this type of relationship. “We’ve always
been very close. We try to connect
somehow each day,” Daniels said.
Since Kristin studies at the place
where her mother works, it’s easy for
them to stay in contact. But, Sally says,
“This is her college experience; the fact
that she likes me is an extra bonus.”
Right now, Daniels is hand-writing
letters to all of the first-year parents. Since
she worked in the admissions office last
year, Daniels says, “I know the students;
I’ve read their essays. I admitted them all.
I’m hand-writing these notes because I
think it’s important.”
Daniels works with a parent council;
and so far 119 parents have contacted her.
Parents who do not live near the Twin
Cities are sent minutes from the council
meetings. It doesn’t matter where parents
live; they can stay connected to Augsburg.
Even though Parent and Family
Relations has split from the Alumni
Relations office, the two directors work
closely together. Heidi Breen, the alumni
relations director formerly headed both
Alumni and Parent Relations, but now is
solely in charge of alumni and has an
assistant director, Donna Torgeson.
“Donna, Heidi, and I have a very open
door,” Daniels said. “We all want this
new position to be successful.”
Sara Holman is a senior English/
communication studies major and an
intern in the Public Relations and
Communication office.
Alumni Relations
Heidi Breen, new director of alumni
relations, poses at Homecoming with
Auggie Eagle.
Winter 2005-06
Heidi Breen, who has worked at Augsburg
for 19 years in the admissions and alumni
relations offices, became director of alumni
relations in August. Donna Torgeson, who
was administrative assistant in the office,
is now assistant director. Amy Sutton,
formerly alumni director, is now director of
corporate and foundation relations in the
Development Office.
7
HOMECOMING 2005
Donald A. Anderson ’60
Janice L. Aune ’88
Donald Mattison ’66
Three honored as Distinguished Alumni
by Lynn Mena
Three alumni join 166 others as Distinguished Alumni of Augsburg
College. Recipients are recognized for significant achievement in
vocation, for outstanding contribution to church and community, and
for a life that exemplifies the ideals and mission of Augsburg College.
Donald A. Anderson ’60 is a retired two-term Minnesota
senator and business owner. He served in the Minnesota State
Senate from 1982 to 1990; between 1991 and his retirement in
1995 he also served as assistant to the commissioner of
transportation, as deputy chief of staff to Governor Arne
Carlson, and in the Department of Transportation-Aeronautics
Department. For nearly 20 years, Anderson owned a Red Owl
grocery store in Wadena, Minn., before selling to one of his
sons in 1984. He graduated from Augsburg with a B.A. in
business and history.
Janice L. Aune ’88 is chairman and CEO of Onvoy, Inc., a
Minneapolis-based telecommunications services provider. Since
her appointment in 2000, she has led Onvoy to a position of
financial growth and has exceeded all financial performance
expectations for the privately-held company. Prior to joining
Onvoy, Aune served in various executive leadership positions at
US West (now Qwest) and ended her 30-year career there as
8
president of the !NTERPRISE division and a senior officer. She
graduated from Augsburg with a B.A. in business management
and finance.
Donald Mattison ’66, M.D., is senior adviser to the directors
of the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development and the Center for Research for Mothers and
Children. He also serves as an adjunct professor at both the
Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh
and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia
University. He has served as medical director of the March of
Dimes Defects Foundation, and prior to that as dean of the
Graduate School of Public Health at the University of
Pittsburgh, where he was also professor of environmental and
occupational health, as well as of obstetrics, gynecology, and
reproductive services in the university’s School of Medicine. He
graduated from Augsburg in 1966 with a B.A. in chemistry and
mathematics.
Winter 2005-06
First Decade and Spirit of Augsburg award recipients named
by Lynn Mena
Augsburg is pleased to announce the 2005 recipients of the First Decade and Spirit of Augsburg awards.
The First Decade Award is presented to Augsburg graduates of the past 10 years who have made
significant progress in their professional achievements and contributions to the community, and, in so
doing, exemplify the mission of the College: to prepare future leaders in service to the world. Graduates
from the day, weekend, and graduate programs are eligible.
The Spirit of Augsburg Award honors alumni or friends of the College who have given exceptional service
that contributes substantially to the well being of Augsburg by furthering its purposes and programs.
First Decade Award
Spirit of Augsburg Award
Aaron Cross ’97 formed his own
business, Motivation on Wheels, in
which he travels the United States
delivering motivational speeches
that stress the importance of seeing
beyond daily obstacles in order to
accomplish goals. Despite his
physical challenges (Cross become a
paraplegic as a result of a bicycle
race crash in high school), he has
kept his eye on a variety of targets—
both literally and figuratively. He
holds 15 national titles in archery, five world titles, and a
bronze team medal from the 2004 Greece Para-Olympic games.
In addition to archery, Cross is also a skydiver. He graduated
from Augsburg in 1997 with a B.A. in communication.
Richard J. Thoni is director of
Augsburg’s Rochester Program. His
exceptional and dedicated service to
the College began in 1972 as a parttime instructor in the Department of
Psychology and as a counselor in the
Center for Student Development.
Starting in 1975, he served as
associate dean of students, and over
the proceeding years he also served
as acting vice president of student
affairs; director of an extensive, yearlong community outreach project; director of Weekend College;
vice president for enrollment management; and vice president for
research and development. Thoni is most widely recognized for
his leadership and achievement in the establishment of both the
Weekend College and Rochester programs. He received his B.A.
in English from St. Olaf College, and his Ph.D. in educational
psychology from the University of Minnesota.
Andry Andriambololona-Jurcich
’98 graduated from Augsburg with a
B.A. in political science,
international relations, and religion.
She received her M.A. in intercultural communications from
Luther Seminary in 2001. Jurcich is
vice-president of Marketing and
Company Relations for Invisik
Corporation, a Twin Cities-based
computer consulting company she
co-manages with her husband, Matt
Jurcich. Concurrently, she works as a professional non-profit
development consultant with various Twin Cities non-profits,
and is currently the acting executive director of Jordan New
Life Community Development Corporation—a non-profit
organization improving the lives of families in North
Minneapolis. Jurcich also continues to stay involved with
Augsburg as a member of the Pan-Afrikan Center’s Alumni
Council, as a mentor with the Scholastic Connections Program,
and as the alumni representative on the committee to select the
new Augsburg president.
Winter 2005-06
The Augsburg Centennial Singers were formed in 1993 to
honor the 100th anniversary of the Augsburg Gospel Quartets.
Since its formation, the Augsburg Centennial Singers have
furthered the quartet’s mission to spread the Lutheran faith and
the name and mission of Augsburg. Under the current direction
of Al Reesnes ’58 (who took over after the original director, Dr.
Merton Strommen ’42, retired) and assistant director Paul
Christensen ’59, the group—which consists mainly of Augsburg
alumni—are true ambassadors of Augsburg, performing across
the United States and around the world.
9
PUTTING
a
FRESH
‘FACE’
on A U G S B U R G
B Y
10
L Y N N
M E N A
P H O T O S
B Y
S T E P H E N
G E F F R E
Winter 2005-06
W hat began
as a class project
three years ago came full circle at this
year’s Homecoming, where visitors were
introduced to Augsburg’s newest
“member.”
The newly unveiled Auggie Eagle logo
could be spotted all over campus—on
team helmets and cheerleader uniforms;
on sweatshirts, T-shirts, and baseball caps;
on the balloons and decorations that
dressed up various events; on students’
faces as temporary tattoos; and even on
the gymnasium floor as an illuminated
hologram.
“The College is pleased to present its
new athletics logo, and even more pleased
to announce that its creator is one of our
own—Class of 2003 alumnus Samuel J.
Gross,” says Ann Garvey, dean of
students. “The logo further establishes
Augsburg’s identity and serves as a
graphic component to the Auggie Eagle
mascot that was introduced at
Homecoming in 2002.”
The logo first took shape a few years
ago when the Office of Public Relations
and Communication partnered with John
McCaffrey, assistant professor of art.
McCaffrey’s graphic design students were
challenged to design an athletics logo for
their final project.
While the entire class created a wide
range of exceptional designs, Gross’ logo
was a strong favorite, and this year the
College officially signed contracts to
acquire it from Gross as its new athletics
and merchandising logo.
“Sam demonstrated that he was
creative, dedicated, and driven by a
purpose from his very first assignments in
my Graphic Design class,” says McCaffrey,
reflecting upon Gross. “Sam delivered
excellent work that was always in excess
of any project requirements. It
immediately became apparent that he
would succeed in the design field. He
Winter 2005-06
dedicated himself to learning all that he
could ensuring his future career direction.”
Staff members in the public relations
department were also impressed with
Gross’ work, and quickly recruited him to
work as a student graphic designer during
his senior year. There he created designs
for letterhead, flyers, greeting cards,
brochures, and magazines.
After he received his B.A. in studio art,
he stayed on in the public relations
department for the summer, and shortly
thereafter landed his first full-time job as
the graphic design and production
coordinator at Sons of Norway in
Minneapolis.
Today, Gross serves as a graphic
designer and production coordinator for
TQ3Navigant Performance Group in
Minneapolis, a division of Denver-based
Navigant International, where he produces
original marketing graphics, designing
creative pre-trip travel packages for large
corporate industries such as Best Buy, ING,
T-Mobile, and Qwest.
In addition, Gross is building a
successful freelance business, 144design,
creating works in traditional studio pieces
as well as digital media, including digital
retouching of photographs, custom logo
design, illustration, and various print
related materials.
“The birth of 144design was inspired
by a mentor and lifelong friend, my
father,” writes Gross on his Web site,
<www.invisik.com/144design/artist2.html>.
“Born in rural Minnesota in 1980, the
influence of art began in the earliest stages
of my life,” continues Gross. “Impacted by
those around me, I began my own pursuit
of knowledge in the continually changing
art and design world.
“Two and a half decades into my life I
am still chasing this aspiration of
achieving artistic prominence in this
transforming world.”
This year, Gross designed logo and
stationery pieces for expansion NAHL
hockey team the North Iowa Outlaws, and
is currently working on other expansion
team logos. In July he designed the book
cover for Daniel Boone and the Defeat at
Blue Licks, written by Neal O. Hammon.
Gross is also an accomplished painter,
whose work was recently purchased by the
Springfield Public Library in Minnesota for
their permanent collection. His oils and
photography have twice placed third in
the annual Five County Juried Art Show in
Minnesota.
Gross, a former Auggie football and
baseball player, has particularly enjoyed
athletic logo design, and is pleased that his
alma mater has chosen to use his work.
“It’s really exciting and interesting to
see my design carried out in so many
different ways—on the uniforms, on the
line of sweatshirts,” says Gross. “Plus, it’s
great to give back as an alum.” ■
11
Jeroy Carlson ’48
‘MR. AUGSBURG’
by Sara Holman ’06
Jeroy Carlson ’48 has spent over 60
years on the Augsburg campus as a
student, volunteer, alumni director, and
development officer. Here, he sits in Old
Main 17, which was Augsburg’s chapel
and is now the art studio.
AUGSBURG COLLEGE pastor Dave
Wold paused, “Mr. Augsburg … well, I
don’t know where the name got started.
Everyone just refers to him as that.
Anyone who mentions Jeroy always says
‘Jeroy from Augsburg.’”
Why is Jeroy Carlson Mr. Augsburg?
Really, the question doesn’t need to be
asked. He just is. Carlson embodies
everything that is Augsburg—from
knowing its history to sharing its faith.
“Jeroy’s commitment and love for
Augsburg is pretty clear,” Wold said. “No
one can be identified with Augsburg as
much as Jeroy can. He has a network of
friends I’ve never seen before.”
Carlson has spent the last 42 years
serving Augsburg, first as Augsburg’s
alumni director and then as senior
development officer.
He has connected with hundreds of
people through Augsburg and has been
able to raise millions of dollars to help
build the chapel, library, fitness center,
football field, and theater (to name just a
few). Carlson’s efforts can be seen all
over campus, though he is quick to
12
protest, “I just ask for support. It’s really
about what the donors have done for this
college.”
Being 82 years old, Carlson has spent
the better part of his life on campus, not
to mention the years he spent as a
student. What would inspire someone to
become so dedicated to a place?
“I’m not here because of myself. I’m
here because of the people who have
given their lives to this place. I don’t
want them to be forgotten. I’ve developed
a purpose for living from their caring
about me. Charles Anderson, Gerda
Mortensen, Bernhard Christensen, Phil
Quanbeck Sr., Joel Torstenson, Paul
Sonnack, Dave Wold—these people have
been my friends,” Carlson said.
Carlson took his first step onto
Augsburg soil in 1940. His high school
basketball team had come to challenge
Augsburg’s junior varsity team.
Fortunately, Augsburg’s embarrassing loss
didn’t keep him from applying to the
College two years later. After spending
one year on campus, Carlson enlisted in
the Navy. On Monday, Dec. 10, 1945,
Carlson was released, and the following
Thursday he registered for classes. That
Saturday he played for Augsburg’s
basketball team. Carlson laughs as he
recalls this memory. “I hadn’t even taken
a class, but the coach needed me.”
Sports have always been a passion for
Carlson. He played baseball, basketball,
and football while he attended Augsburg
and was part of four MIAC championship
teams. After graduating, Carlson spent 15
years teaching and coaching. During this
time, he became part of the Augsburg
Alumni Board and wrote an article titled
“Why is Being a Christian Important?”
for a Christian magazine that most
alumni received. When the alumni
director position became open, Carlson
didn’t even have to apply. “Two people
just asked me if I wanted to do it. It was
the best move I’ve ever made.” In honor
of his service, the alumni office was
dedicated in 1991 as the Jeroy C.
Carlson Alumni Center.
While working at Augsburg, Carlson
was able to stay active in the Athletic
Alumni Association (the A-Club) and
Winter 2005-06
also helped establish the Athletic Hall of
Fame. He can still remember when the
A-Club started. It was 1937, and the
athletes wanted an honor banquet. Four
people took it upon themselves to raise
the money—a difficult task during the
Depression years. They put on skits like
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and charged 10
cents a person.
Times were very different during
Carlson’s student years. His tuition was
$50 a semester, so he worked in the
dining room, which was on the lower
level of Memorial Hall. He worked with
18 other people, 16 of whom were in the
choir. A lot of singing was done in the
kitchen, and this was a treat for Carlson,
since he wasn’t able to participate in
both music and sports. By working five
hours, Carlson was able to pay for his
Winter 2005-06
Archive photo
Archive photo
In the 1948 Augsburgian, Jeroy Carlson ’48 was called a “standout
player” on the 1947 basketball team, and he was selected for an all-state
second team.
Carlson (left), along with teammates Kenneth Walsh
(center) and Al Mateyko (right), celebrate the Auggies’
1947 baseball conference championship.
room for one week—55 cents an hour
went a long way back then. One not so
pleasant memory Carlson recalls from
the dining hall was dropping a tray on
[dean of women] Gerda Mortensen. “I
was lucky I didn’t get expelled,” he said.
“Gerda knew it was an accident. Mortensen
was a woman you never forget.”
Carlson also went to school with Jim
Lindell, for whose family Lindell Library
was named in 1997. Lindell and Carlson
both completed their first year at
Augsburg together, and then each joined
the Navy. However, upon returning to
the Twin Cities, Lindell found he needed
to transfer colleges because Augsburg
didn’t offer a business degree. He
enrolled across the river at the university
but never forgot the best friends he
made at Augsburg.
Carlson has been fortunate in his
long tenure at Augsburg to get to know
the people behind the great names on
campus. While it’s easy for students to
grumble about tuition costs and for
alumni to feel continually asked for
donations, it’s the dedication of the
people for whom Augsburg means so
much—the people who work here and
the people who learn here—that makes
the difference. Carlson understands all
of this. It’s why he has stayed so long.
“After all these years, the attitude here is
still the same. What I believe is here,
and what’s happening at Augsburg is
important.” ■
Sara Holman is a senior English/
communication studies major and an
intern in the Public Relations and
Communication office.
13
PHYSICIAN
ASSISTANTS
i n c r e a s i n g
h e a l t h c a r e
a c c e s s
by Cynthia Hill
photos by Stephen Geffre
When Rob Carlson turned 40, he turned
a career corner as well. He left the
propane gas business to enroll in
Augsburg’s very first class in the
Physician Assistant (PA) program.
Today, Carlson maintains a busy
schedule treating recent immigrants and
refugees at the Regions Center for
International Health in St. Paul. He also
sees patients at the Regions HIV Clinic
and St. Paul Ramsey Public Health
tuberculosis clinic.
Jackie Osterhaus was also in
Augsburg’s first class of PA students. She
had worked as a laboratory technician
and a clinical assistant, but wanted more
out of a healthcare career. Yet with two
small children, becoming a PA made
Winter 2005-06
more sense than medical school.
Osterhaus now handles a full
caseload of patients in Belgrade, a tiny
Minnesota town some 100 miles west of
the Twin Cities. The Belgrade clinic is a
satellite of the Paynesville Area Health
Care System, which employs five PAs, a
nurse practitioner, and seven physicians.
Carlson and Osterhaus are among
more than 170 graduates of Augsburg’s
PA program since it was launched as
Minnesota’s only PA preparation
program in 1995.
From rural towns to urban centers,
these well-trained healthcare practitioners are living out the program’s
mission of increasing healthcare access to
underserved communities in Minnesota.
What is a
physician
assistant?
Physician assistants are not doctors, but
they can do many things a doctor does,
including seeing their own patients,
making diagnoses, doing minor surgery,
writing prescriptions, and ordering tests.
“But here’s the caveat: we can’t do it
on our own,” said Dawn Ludwig,
director of Augsburg’s program who is a
PA herself. “PAs are team providers who
work under the supervision of a licensed
physician. We can’t open our own
practice.”
That doesn’t mean the supervising
physician is always in the next room.
For example, Jackie Osterhaus staffs
the Belgrade clinic four days a week,
along with a nurse and laboratory
technician, but without a physician on
site. A physician from the Paynesville
clinic 10 miles away provides regular
telephone supervision and chart review
to Osterhaus’s cases.
“It’s definitely a team effort with
ongoing communication and interaction
with the supervising physician, but as a
PA, I am ultimately responsible for my
patients,” said Ludwig, who was named
Minnesota Physician Assistant of the
Year in 2002 by the Minnesota Academy
of Physician Assistants.
Because of the similar roles, it’s not
uncommon for patients to be confused,
said May Mua, an Augsburg graduate
who also practices at the Regions Center
for International Health.
“My patients—primarily Hmong,
Somalis, and recent immigrants from
other countries who may never have had
access to health care before—often call
me ‘Dr. Mua,’” she said. “I’m always
correcting them but it’s hard to get
across the idea of the difference because
they see me regularly for their care.”
15
A response
to the
healthcare
shortage
The physician assistant career is a
relatively recent addition to the
healthcare team, growing out of the
Vietnam era when highly skilled
medics returned from military service,
Ludwig said.
“At the time, we were seeing a
shortage of physicians around the
country and needed a new source of
caregivers,” she said. To help fill the need,
Duke University created the first formal
physician assistant program in 1965.
In the early ’90s, Augsburg was
approached by the Minnesota Academy
of Physician Assistants and asked to
consider starting a physician assistant
training program for the state.
“People were going to other states for
training and not returning to practice in
Minnesota,” she said. “Augsburg’s
mission of community and world service
was right in line with the concept of
physician assistants providing health
care to underserved areas.”
Initially offered as a two-year, postbachelor’s certificate, Augsburg’s program
drew immediate interest, especially
among people seeking a career change.
“That first informational meeting at
Augsburg was standing room only. There
must have been 600 people there,”
recalls Rob Carlson.
Over 10 years, admission to the
program, now offered as a three-year
master’s degree, has remained highly
competitive, reflecting Augsburg’s
reputation and strong track record. This
year’s class of 28 was culled from more
than 140 applications.
One thing that has changed is
average age of applicants—from 34 at
the outset to 27 currently, Ludwig said.
“At first, the appeal was mainly to
16
folks already in some aspect of health
care—nurses, laboratory assistants,
emergency medical technicians, etc. But
it is definitely becoming a first-career
option for those looking for a career in
medicine.”
Cases in point: second-year PA
students Kari Badali and Jodi Winters,
both 2004 Augsburg bachelor’s degree
graduates.
“Before coming to Augsburg as an
undergraduate, I read a magazine that
listed a physician assistant as one of the
top ten careers for women. I was
interested in the medical field but not
sure which direction to go. I researched
schools offering a PA program and
Augsburg was the only one in
Minnesota,” said Badali ’04, a biology
major.
Winters, a biology and chemistry
double major, added, “The reputation of
the Augsburg program is what finally
helped me make my decision.”
High
expectations,
high
performance
Augsburg’s program is known for its
academic rigor, in-depth clinical training,
and track record of well-prepared
graduates. Consider these indicators:
• 100% pass rate on national
certification examinations since the
program’s inception.
• Scores on the national certification
examinations have never been below
the 90th percentile (the Classes of
2001 and 2004 both ranked in the
99th percentile).
• In recent years, every PA graduate has
been employed within six months of
graduation, 85% of them in Minnesota.
Winter 2005-06
These successes grow out of high
expectations and a demanding
educational program that moves from a
foundation of classroom study into
direct clinical experience.
In the first phase, students are on
campus in courses in human gross
anatomy, pathophysiology, clinical
medicine, pharmacotherapy, history and
physical exam skills, research, and ethics
and legal medicine. An orientation to the
program’s mission of reaching the
underserved is woven throughout this
phase in courses on special populations
and in annual service-learning projects.
The clinical phase is next, structured
much like a physician’s internship.
Taught by physicians and supplemented
by physician assistants and other
healthcare providers, students progress
through seven required rotations and
one elective, each six weeks long, in
healthcare facilities across the state.
At least one rotation is required to be
outside of the metropolitan area, in
keeping with the program’s mission of
addressing healthcare gaps across
the state.
Twin Cities native Debbie Maas did
rotations in Deer River, Minn., a small
community west of Grand Rapids. After
graduation last year, she accepted a job
at the Deer River clinic. About 25% of
Augsburg graduates practice in rural
communities and greater Minnesota.
“I found I really liked the variety in
a smaller clinic. There was great
camaraderie with the physicians, and I
learned so much,” she said. “This is
truly family practice medicine. We see
everything from OB-GYN to geriatrics.”
The final component is a 12-week
preceptorship—an intensive clinical
experience required by only a few other
PA programs. “This is the last piece of
their education that ties everything
together and solidifies all they’ve
learned,” said Ludwig. “It gets them
ready to go out and practice.”
The personal
touch
Core to the Augsburg PA training is an
emphasis on treating patients as
individuals, not diseases.
“We look for students who are able to
handle a tough and rigorous program but
who are also able to connect with patients
on a personal level,” Ludwig said.
“Physician assistants should be good at
JACKIE OSTERHAUS (p. 14) graduated in Augsburg’s first class of physician assistants
and enjoys the variety of patient care she gives in her work at the Paynesville Area
Health Care System clinic in Belgrade, Minn.
ROB CARLSON (left) and MAY MUA (p.16) are two of the three Augsburg graduates
who are physician assistants at Regions Hospital’s Center for International Health.
Second-year PA student CHENTEL DANGERUD (above) discusses health issues with a
resident at the Danebo Home in Minneapolis during a health and wellness fair
specifically for seniors.
Winter 2005-06
listening and building trust with their
patients.”
Patricia Walker, M.D., director of the
Regions Hospital Center for International
Health, considers the clinic’s three
physician assistants, all Augsburg
graduates, “an absolutely vital part of our
provider team.”
“They are so talented that they are
working at the level of other providers in
our group on a daily basis, and rarely ask
questions of the physicians. That being
said, they also know when to consult us
on difficult cases,” Walker said. “They
provide outstanding clinical care and are
very kind and compassionate.”
In the future, demand for physician
assistants is likely to continue to grow,
according to Rodney McFadden, M.D., a
physician with Internal Medicine and
Geriatric Associates in Minneapolis and a
preceptor of Augsburg PA students on
rotation at the University of Minnesota
Medical Center, Fairview.
“Medical schools are producing about
the same number of doctors each year, so
as the population gets older, we will need
more healthcare providers,” said
McFadden. “Physician assistants play an
important role and I see them becoming
even more common to meet growing
healthcare needs in our society.” ■
Cynthia Hill is a freelance writer in
St. Paul who frequently writes about
Augsburg College.
17
A C H A N C E T O S K AT E
BY DON STONER
The scene is like any other in hockeycrazed Minnesota on a weekday evening.
A cacophony of noise inside a cold indoor
ice arena. Young kids, some maybe just a
few months from putting skates on for the
first time in their lives, are learning the
fundamentals of hockey. Coaches strain to
be heard above the din.
On one half of the rink, an older
group has the ice. On the other, Janet
Marvin and a couple of assistant coaches
are working with girls ages 10 and under.
Marvin yells encouragement to her
young charges. “I want two hands on your
stick all the time.” “When you find it,
look up for your teammate and pass it to
her stick.” “Good job, excellent! Nice
job!”
You look at the faces inside the masks,
and that’s where you notice the difference.
Most of the girls aren’t typical Minnesota
hockey players. Most are Hmong, some
are African-American, some are white.
But if it weren’t for Marvin, it’s likely
that none of them would be on the ice
this night—or any night, for that matter.
For the past seven years, Marvin, a
1986 Augsburg graduate, has been
volunteering with young girls on the
north and northeast neighborhoods of
Minneapolis with the Edison youth
hockey program. Along with her sister
and a devoted group of volunteer women
coaches, they have provided opportunities
for young girls who wouldn’t otherwise
have discovered the sport.
For Marvin, it’s an extension of a family
tradition to provide hockey opportunities
to others. Her father, Cal, was a legend in
hockey in the Upper Midwest. A U.S.
Hockey Hall of Famer, he helped to start
the men’s hockey program at the University
of North Dakota, coached the U.S. national
team in 1958, and founded and coached
one of the most successful amateur hockey
teams in American history, the Warroad
Lakers. He helped to establish Warroad, a
small town near the Canadian border in
northwestern Minnesota, as a place
synonymous with hockey.
18
“My dad did it for young men. He let young men play
for over 50 years, and he had over 900 young guys that
got to skate for him,” Marvin said. “What he did for the
guys is what my sister and I are trying to do for young
girls who want to play hockey. It doesn’t matter where
they’re from, or what color they are, or what background
they come from. If they want to play, we’ll get them
equipment, we’ll find them a place to play, we’ll
make sure they have transportation and make
sure their fees are paid.”
One of 12 children in the Marvin family,
Janet Marvin grew up around hockey. “We
grew up at the rink,” she said. “We folded
programs, we cleaned the rink, we worked in
the concession stands, we sold tickets. We
did whatever we could do, because we wanted
to be up there at the rink with Dad and the rest
of the community. That’s what you did in
Warroad. You were at the hockey rink.”
She and her sister played hockey in
their early years, but as they grew older,
there were fewer opportunities for young
women to play hockey in northern
Minnesota. So she played basketball
instead, eventually playing two seasons of
junior college basketball and a season at
the University of St. Thomas, before
transferring to Augsburg for her senior
season, 1985-86. She earned a degree
in education from Augsburg and
eventually worked for the
Minneapolis public schools for
15 years.
But hockey remained a major part
of her life. She played competitively
on adult teams for more than a
decade, and also worked as a
volunteer assistant coach on
teams with her friend, Sue
Ring-Jarvi. Marvin also
served as an adult mentor
for young kids in northeast
Minneapolis, including
youngsters who wanted to
play hockey for Edison’s
youth program. She
eventually got involved with
coaching at Edison, and
helped to start the Edison
girls’ youth program. Along
the way, Marvin and her sister began
bring out the best of their potential. …
But her work with the hockey
incorporating more young Hmong girls
You can see how these coaches put their
program doesn’t end there. The coaches
from the neighborhood into the program.
whole lives into coaching these kids. It
organize year-round experiences for the
“Because there weren’t enough kids
makes all the work worth it.”
girls, in order to keep them active and
coming out, I started recruiting Hmong
Since many family incomes may not
together as a group. They’ve had camping
girls. My sister and I are involved in the
be able to support the expenses for their
trips, barbeques, and trips to team
Hmong community in mentoring kids and
children to play, Marvin often dips into
coaches’ cabins in northern Minnesota to
getting kids involved,” she said. “It’s been
her own pocket to pay for equipment,
go skiing.
a focus point for us to bring them into the
uniforms, and supplies.
“My parents gave us all the
program and give them an opportunity to
A shed in Marvin’s yard is full of
opportunities. If you wanted to play, play.
skate. But when we coach at Edison, we
hockey equipment that she has either
They wanted you to be involved,” Marvin
coach anyone who wants to play
said. “There’s so many kids who
and who lives on the north side
don’t have that opportunity, and I
or northeast.”
think that’s what my sister and I
The program started from
are trying to provide. We give
one small team seven years ago
them an opportunity.”
to nearly 50 girls on teams for
Last summer, Marvin and
ages 10-under, 12-under, and
fellow Augsburg alumnus John
14-under. This year, Edison has
Evans ’82 received grant money
two teams, with Janet Marvin
from City Kids Inc., a north
coaching the 10-under team and
Minneapolis program, to provide
Robin Marvin coaching the 12hockey instruction for north-side
under team, along with a faithful
children. About 30 kids took part
group of volunteer assistants.
in the summer-long program,
“It’s an all-female staff, and
portions of which were held at
not one coach has anybody
the Augsburg Ice Arena. Several
involved with the program,
Augsburg student-athletes
which is very unique,” Marvin
assisted Marvin in coaching
said. “When you go to other
during the summer program.
associations, it’s always a dad or
“The kids love the attention,
a brother or an uncle who is
and when the college kids came
coaching the kids because there’s Janet Marvin ’86 plays less hockey these days so she can concentrate on the ice, I think it was a match
on coaching. She makes it possible for girls like these at the Edison
a connection. … We just have
right away,” Marvin said. “The
Youth Hockey Civic Arena in Northeast Minneapolis to learn hockey.
females who want to come in
kids know that when they come
and coach. We’ve skated with
to the rink, there’s going to be
them in the women’s hockey associations,
purchased or had donated to her by
someone there that’s going to say ‘Hi’ to
and they want to come in and give back.
friends. It’s available for her players to
them, ‘How are you doing,’ ‘You’re doing
They see this program and they see that
pick from. She often provides
a good job,’ and giving them positive
these kids need it, these kids want it, and
transportation for team members to and
feedback. That’s what these kids need.”
these kids absorb it.”
from practices and games in her van.
Coaching has become a major part of
The devotion that Marvin and the
“Last year, my mom bought the whole
Marvin’s life, so much so that she now
other coaches have makes them positive
12-under team a brand new stick for
plays less hockey herself in order to
role models for the children they are
Christmas. That was the first time our
concentrate on coaching.
coaching, said Marta Kurak ’98, a parent
kids that we register had a brand new
“The kids like it. They want to go to
of two girls who have played hockey on
stick,” she said.
the rink. They want to play,” she said.
Marvin’s Edison teams. Kurak now serves
Marvin figures that she puts in 25 or
“You see them skating around the rink
as a manager for the 12-under team.
more hours per week into the Edison
and they have smiles on their faces. They
“[The coaches] bring an energy to the
hockey program, on a strictly volunteer
might fall down or get a little hurt, but
program. They are always positive and
basis. She now also works for Ring-Jarvi’s
they get up and they’re like, ‘OK, let’s go
never say anything negative. They always
sportswear business, in addition to
again.’ They just want to be at the rink. …
look for the positives in the girls,” Kurak
working for a local flower shop.
My heart’s really into coaching and
said. “[Marvin] works with every kid to
working with the kids.” ■
Winter 2005-06
19
Faith
City
in the
Faith
BY BETSEY NORGARD
PHOTOS BY STEPHEN GEFFRE
Envisioning a renewed public calling for the well-being of the city and its people
In a twist on the realtor’s three magic
words, the Faith in the City initiative
might be described as “location, location,
vocation.”
This distinctive collaboration brings
together seven urban-focused Lutheran
institutions in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
All of them are committed to improving
the quality of life in their community and
they all center their work around Lutheran
ideas of vocation. They share a belief that
more can be accomplished when people
and organizations work together and when
they share their particular expertise toward
common goals.
It’s a diverse group—Augsburg
College, Augsburg Fortress Publishers,
Central Lutheran Church, Fairview
Health Services, Luther Seminary,
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota,
and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans—
20
whose members contribute their
expertise across the areas of health,
education, social services, finance,
publishing, and service in faith. The two
synods of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) in
Minneapolis and St. Paul are partners in
the collaboration.
After several years of informal
discussions among the CEOs, a formal
collective was launched in 2002 that
draws its calling from a passage in the
book of Jeremiah, “Seek the welfare of
the city … for in its welfare you will find
your welfare.” The collaborative seeks to
renew that same concern to care for each
other in the community that motivated
the founding of their institutions a
century or more ago. And, today, they are
again finding some of the greatest
community needs among recent
immigrants.
“[Faith in the City] has set before
Lutheran institutions across the land a
model which illustrates service
leadership,” says President William
Frame. “The CEOs became interested in
Luther’s idea of vocation as a vehicle to
draw their constituents out into the
world in service and in collaboration.”
They were encouraged by the extent of
common purpose and overlap in their
missions.
Tom Morgan, Augsburg’s vice
president for planning and market
development, speaks of Augsburg’s
perspective: “It’s a way for us to more
deeply express and live out our
commitment to the city, to service, and
to strengthen and demonstrate our
connection to the church.”
Ci
Winter 2005-06
Community initiatives
Faith in the City serves as a catalyst for collaboration among people,
neighborhoods, congregations, and others, primarily in the areas of
health, education, and neighborhood. Each initiative has two or
three member organization sponsors and appropriate strategic
partners.
Initiatives specific to Augsburg are:
Augsburg Academy for Health Careers—Augsburg, together
with Fairview Health Services, developed the first proposal to
Faith in the City. Responding to the shortage of healthcare
professionals, especially within increasingly diverse communities,
a charter school was proposed, with funding from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, to prepare students for careers and
vocations in health care.
The Augsburg Academy for Health Careers opened this fall
with 61 students, a majority from diverse backgrounds, in grades
9, 10 and 11, with grade 12 to begin next year.
Lutheran College House—A second initiative spearheaded by
Augsburg, together with Luther Seminary, is the Lutheran College
House, proposed for summer 2006. Students from six partner
Lutheran colleges will live for a semester in the Phillips
neighborhood to explore vocation, service opportunities, and
leadership development.
Augsburg/Central Nursing Center—Augsburg’s 10-year-old
free nursing center at Central Lutheran Church that serves
neighborhood residents at no cost was incorporated into the
Faith in the City initiatives.
Hands-on learning
for health careers
by Judy Petree
Jasmine Smith, a junior, and one of 61 students at the new
Augsburg Academy for Health Careers, travels from Maple
Grove across the city everyday. She enrolled at the academy to
pursue a career in the health field, particularly forensic science
or neurology.
In addition to her interest in the CSI television shows, she
said she chose the academy for its small class sizes and the
ability to work one-on-one with instructors. She recently
interviewed for an internship at Fairview in the nursing
department.
Students at the academy are paired with Fairview health
professionals as mentors. Together they explore the student’s
talents and interests as related to vocations in the health field.
Students use Fairview as a hands-on learning laboratory; they
also take field trips to Mayo Clinic, and visit emergency care
centers, hospitals, clinics, and science-related businesses and
industries.
All students receive training to become certified as
emergency medical technicians, first responders, and/or
certified nursing assistants. This will help them find
employment during summers and after graduation.
Mark Youngstrom, director of Augsburg Academy, is a
former state education department specialist in English
education and co-founder of the Perpich Center for the Arts in
Golden Valley.
“The primary purpose [of the academy] is to provide
immigrant students and students of color with a solid
academic education that enables them to advance in the
educational system,” he said. “In addition, hospitals and
healthcare facilities of all kinds are treating increasing
numbers of patients from immigrant communities and
communities of color, and they need employees who speak
their languages and understand their cultures.”
Youngstrom concludes, “Our ultimate hope is to raise the
sights of our students so they can plan a future for themselves
that includes higher education and a professional career.”
Other initiatives include:
The Wellness Connection—With the help of several
neighborhood organizations and congregations, this center
responds to Somali immigrants’ health needs, promotes healthy
lifestyles, and connects them with appropriate medical providers.
ty
Personal Finance Center—Begun as a tax service for lowincome residents, this center has grown to offer a wide range of
financial literacy tools for banking, home ownership, borrowing
money, etc.
Phillips Neighborhood Park, Library, and School—Faith in
the City provides financial resources and volunteer service to
help sustain these sites as vibrant neighborhood centers.
Above left: Tom Morgan (left), Augsburg’s representative on the steering committee,
and Jeri Nelsen (right), executive director, are finding that the Faith in the City
Lutheran collaborative is an effective model for responding to community needs.
Winter 2005-06
Jasmine Smith (right) and Ophelia Mensah (left) enjoy the small
classes and one-on-one mentoring at the Augsburg Academy for
Health Careers.
21
Leadership conference—Two annual
conferences have brought together
downtown faith and business leaders for
discussion and mutual collaboration
around faith and work.
Leadership initiative—-For the second
year, a program nurtures emerging leaders
at member organizations through ongoing
discussions of vocation and faith.
The next steps
Faith in the City is proving that greater
good can come about through working
together in collaboration than by
individual organizations working in
isolation. In a commentary written for
the Star Tribune last year, Thrivent
president and CEO Bruce Nicholson
described Faith in the City’s process as
“mission-based collaboration, an ideal
model for holistically addressing pressing
community needs.”
Moving forward, the collaborative
continues to seek strategic partners for
specific initiatives as well as to engage
Lutheran congregations in outreach to
urban needs.
Perhaps nowhere else in the nation
could such an integrated community
collaboration take place, and Faith in the
City is beginning to garner attention.
Tapped for leadership
by Betsey Norgard
22
Executive director Jeri Nelsen, Morgan,
and Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
CEO Mark Peterson presented Faith in the
City at the national meeting of Lutheran
Services in America (LSA) in April.
The collaborative has also garnered
significant attention from Minneapolis
mayor R.T. Rybak. Nelsen says that Rybak
sees Faith in the City as a model for
collaboration with great potential for
improving community well-being.
Frame believes that Faith in the City
has proven that, even within a highly
competitive arena, nonprofits can
combine resources to carry out their
work more effectively. ■
Last fall Julie Olson ’90, ’04 MAL, dean of enrollment management, was
part of the first “class” of Faith in the City’s Leadership Development
Institute. Over several day-long sessions, the group participated in
presentations and discussions on leadership, read books, and listened to
the CEOs of Faith in the City member organizations talk about their own
vocational paths—all woven around the concept of servant leadership.
This first group bonded with each other to the extent that they
couldn’t let go when the formal series ended. They continue to gather
periodically for conversation, even as the second “class” of the institute
has begun.
The leadership initiative came about as member organizations felt a
need to be better prepared for their next phase of growth. Olson says the
program is about identifying emerging leaders within the organizations,
and helping them discern their vocation—i.e., helping them feel
“tapped,” or hear the call of an inner voice.
In addition to getting to know their Faith in the City colleagues,
participants gain valuable insight into their organizations—how they’re
structured, issues they face, what’s ahead for them, and how they
respond to their constituencies.
The member organizations share a common Lutheran background, but
some—Fairview, for example-—are less overt in their Lutheran heritage
than others. Olson says that if you look at how they treat their
employees, their staff and leadership development programs, and their
missions, it’s all there. It may not be called Lutheran, or even Christian,
but the organization effectively puts action behind their values in the
model of servant leadership.
“By the end, everyone was more comfortable with identifying
themselves from a Lutheran organization and recognizing what’s special
about that,” Olson said. “This is something that’s essential to our identity,
and we mutually reinforced that with each other.”
While this is the only “inward” initiative of Faith in the City, Olson
says the leadership institute is about “building the strengths of the
individual organizations to enable them to better serve their larger
communities.”
In this second year, a coaching component was added to the
initiative, and Olson is one of two from the first group who will be
coaching members of the second group.
“It’s an honor to be asked and identified as an emerging leader,” she
said. “Now I have the responsibility to carry out that gift.”
Winter 2005-06
Scholarship brunch honors donors and students
On Nov. 20, the Scholarship and Donor
Brunch was the place where more than
170 Augsburg donors were honored for
their generosity and commitment to
Augsburg College. Scholarship donors,
Heritage Society donors who have estate
plans that include Augsburg, and
Maroon & Silver Society donors, who
give annual support at the leadership
level for Augsburg scholarships, were all
thanked.
It was also the place where 100
students had the opportunity to meet
the families behind the scholarships
they've received. Student body president
Paul Cumings, speaking on behalf of
students, told the donors, “You give; it’s
not required, but I’m here to tell you it’s
appreciated.”
Philip Rowberg Sr. ’41 had not been
on campus since 1948. He recently
endowed a scholarship in memory of his
wife, Betty, who died last year. “I decided
to fund a scholarship in appreciation of
Philip Rowberg Sr. ’41 (left) recently endowed
a scholarship in memory of his wife, Betty. At
the brunch he met the scholarship’s first
recipient, Evan Holmes ’06 (right).
Winter 2005-06
the education I received here,” Rowberg
said. “Nothing is more important than
investing in the education of our young
people.”
The Philip and Helen Taylor Rowberg
Scholarship gives preference to a student
from rural Minnesota. Rowberg and his
son, Philip Jr., were able to meet its first
recipient, Evan Holmes ’06, from
Janesville, Minn.
Among other donors at the reception
were the Rev. Orville ’52 and Yvonne
(Bagley) ’52 Olson, and their son
Jonathan. In 1993, the Olsons
established a scholarship in memory of
another son, Timothy, and in recognition
of his devotion to Jonathan.
“The scholarship is in honor of son
Timothy. Our other son, Jonathan, has a
disability, so we made our scholarship
available to students in college who have
special needs or are going into the field
of special education.
Nicky Cronin ’08, the recipient of the
Olson scholarship, is a special education
major in emotional/behavioral and
learning disabilities.
“Our giving has been out of profound
gratitude to Augsburg for the many
blessings we received as college students
and over the years,” said Yvonne Olson.
“I personally am one of 11 siblings, and
eight of us have attended Augsburg. My
husband and I graduated in the same
class, and our daughter, Beth (Olson),
and her husband, Scott Bouman, both
graduated in the Class of 1977. That’s
our connection to Augsburg.”
“‘Tak for alt’—we noticed this saying
on a lot of gravestones around
Scandinavia,” Olson continued. “This
saying is important to our family. It’s a
symbol of gratitude and means ‘thanks
for everything.’ ”
The Rev. Orville Olson ’52 and his wife, Yvonne (Bagley) ’52 Olson created a scholarship in
memory of their son Timothy and his devotion to brother Jonathan (center). They enjoyed
meeting this year’s recipient, Nicole Cronin ’08 (back center).
23
Roarin’ and soarin’ to the finish at Si Melby
At Homecoming 2005, hundreds of
alumni, students, fans, friends, and even
prospective students celebrated and
cheered for the campaign to expand
Si Melby Hall with a new south wing
addition.
It was a celebration of Auggie
athletics past, present, and future.
Emcee Tim McNiff, from KARE-11 TV,
introduced coaches and athletic teams,
fired up the crowd with achievements
and successes of Augsburg’s athletic
program, and extolled the benefits of the
new south wing.
A virtual video tour took the crowd
through the proposed 27,000 new square
feet that includes expanded classroom
space, a fitness center, training areas, and
more. The project was explained in depth
by Jeff Swenson ’79, head wrestling coach
and assistant dean for athletics, and regent
and campaign co-chair Mike Freeman.
The video also featured testimonials from
current and former student-athletes and
administrators.
The Si Melby completion team, led by
Freeman, has rallied volunteers to work
with them to make sure that all Augsburg
athletes and friends have opportunities to
help Augsburg reach the goal. The team
includes Dan Anderson ’65, Rich Colvin
’74, Mike Good ’71, Jane Helmke ’83, and
Glen Person ’47. Staff support to the team
includes Swenson and Development
Office staff: Jeroy Carlson ’48, Jack Osberg
’62, Ron Main ’56, and Donna McLean.
Momentum continues to grow as the
team pushes toward the final goal,
enjoying additional volunteer support
from Bob Strommen ’74, “Butch”
Raymond ’63, Rick Ekstrand ’72, Dave
Andell ’71, Bob Martin ’71, Bruce Brekke
’70, and Erv Inniger. Each sport is also
gathering alumni support to help
complete the project so that
Student-athletes cheered as coaches, teams, and alumni spoke at the athletic celebration.
24
Winter 2005-06
groundbreaking can occur as soon as
possible.
Augsburg is especially grateful to Alan
Rice for making the first lead gift in the
amount of $1 million and to Dean ’75
and Terry Kennedy for the largest lead
gift of $2 million, in addition to several
others whose gifts helped kick off the
campaign for the new south wing.
For additional information on the
Si Melby south wing addition, or to
make a gift, go to <www.augsburg.edu/
campaign/athletic>, or call the
Development Office at 612-338-0002 or
1-800-273-0617.
The new South Wing will
include spaces already named
in honor of the following:
Doc Johnson A-Club office
Lavonne (Johnson) Peterson ’50
Hospitality and Conference Room and
patio
Luther (Lute) Olson ’56 Hall of
Champions
Jack ’62 and Nina Osberg Student
Study and Computer Room
“Gamma House” Hospitality
Lounge and Classroom overlooking
Nelson Field
Rolf Erickson Hospitality Lounge and
Classroom overlooking Nelson Field
Many exciting opportunities remain to
create a legacy in someone’s name for
the new south wing. Contact Donna
McLean at 612-338-4826 or
<mclean@augsburg.edu> for further
information.
Winter 2005-06
Jeff Swenson ’79 (left), head wrestling coach and assistant dean, and Mike Freeman, Augsburg regent
and campaign co-chair, kept the crowd fired up about Auggie athletic successes and the progress
toward the new south wing of Si Melby Hall.
Faculty and Staff Make It Happen
Faculty and staff launched a campaign in
September to increase giving to the
Access to Excellence campaign among
Augsburg employees.
The goal of the faculty-staff campaign
was to significantly increase the
participation rate of giving from within
the Augsburg community—a critical
factor to funding agencies when
reviewing grant proposals from the
College.
At the end of last fiscal year in May,
the overall participation rate among the
more than 800 faculty and staff
employed by the College was 22%. As of
Nov. 10, with more than half the current
fiscal year remaining, that figure has
risen to 29%.
An even greater indicator of
commitment to the campaign goals from
within the College is the giving rate
among full-time faculty and staff, and
staff who work more than 50% of the
time. As of Nov. 10, full-time faculty
giving rose to 54%, while the rate among
full- and nearly-full-time staff was at 41%.
First-time givers and those who
increased their current gifts were eligible
for a full match from a special fund
established by a group of faculty emeriti,
faculty, and staff whose generosity
enabled even small gifts to grow in size.
In addition, new and increased gifts
from members of Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans were also eligible for a 50%
match from that organization.
25
AAlumni
LUMNINews
NEWS
From the director of Alumni Relations…
G
reetings! As the
new director of
Alumni Relations, it
is a great pleasure for
me to have the
continued
opportunity to work
with Augsburg’s
alumni and our many
Augsburg friends.
In addition to myself, Donna
Torgeson currently serves as assistant
director of our newly re-structured Office
of Alumni Relations. Donna finds herself
busy working with the Class Agents, the
Augsburg Associates, and also
coordinating with the alumni group
traveling to China this spring. You may
have also worked with her on your
reunion group this past year.
I have been at Augsburg since 1986,
when I began working in the
undergraduate admissions office. In
2002, I joined the Alumni/Parent
Relations office working with the Parent
Council, Homecoming and Reunions,
plus many events on and off campus. I
am very fortunate to now be working
closely with the Alumni Board—please
take a look at the calendar on the next
page and join us for one of many
upcoming events.
If you are interested in more
information regarding opportunities to
join the Alumni Board, or if you believe
that you know an alum who should be
nominated for our Distinguished
Alumni, First Decade, or Spirit of
Jon Thorson ’86 leads groundbreaking
research with anti-cancer potential
E
mploying a simple new technique to
manipulate the sugars that power many
front-line drugs, a team of Wisconsin
scientists, led by Augsburg alumnus Jon S.
Thorson, professor of pharmaceutical
sciences at the University of WisconsinMadison, has enhanced the anti-cancer
properties of a digitalis, a drug commonly
used to treat heart disease.
Reported in the August 8 edition of the
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, Thorson and the team describe a
series of experiments that boosted the cellkilling potency and tumor specificity of the
drug, derived from the foxglove plant and
used to stimulate the heart. The drug is
suspected to have anti-cancer properties,
but its use to treat cancer has been little
explored.
The new work is important because it
provides scientists and drug companies
with a quick and easy way to manipulate
the sugars found in chemicals produced in
nature.
According to Thorson, the technology
26
can be widely applied: “We’ve already
taken this chemistry and applied it to
many different drug classes. It’s possible to
extend it to antibiotics and antivirals.”
The new technique, according to
Thorson, will play a prominent role in the
new UW National Cooperative Drug
Discovery Group, a consortium of UW
scientists seeking to develop new anticancer drugs from natural products.
Thorson joined the UW School of
Pharmacy in the summer of 2001, and
since moving to UW has been designated
an American Society of Pharmacognosy
Matt Suffness Awardee (2004) and a UW
H.I. Romnes Fellow (2004). From 19962001, Thorson held appointments as an
assistant member of the Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center and assistant
professor of Sloan-Kettering Division, Joan
and Sanford I. Weill Graduate School of
Medical Sciences, Cornell University,
during which he was named a Rita Allen
Foundation Scholar (1998-2002) and
Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (2000-2002).
Augsburg awards, please go to
<www.augsburg.edu/alumni> or call
612-330-1173.
We are in the midst of an exciting
year, and we hope that you’ll join us on
campus for an athletic event, theatre
production, musical performance, or one
of several convocations scheduled this
year. Please save the date for
Homecoming 2006, and bring your
classmates, family, and friends to our
next ever-growing family picnic event on
Saturday, September 30, 2006.
Heidi Breen
Director, Office of Alumni Relations
Two alumni
appointed to
Alumni Board
The Augsburg Alumni Board of
Directors appointed two new members
and elected Karina Karlén ’83 as
president and Barry Vornbrock ’96 MAL
as president-elect. To view the complete
list and photos of board members, visit
<www.augsburg.edu/alumni/board.html>.
The new members are as follows:
Dale E. Hanka ’60
Dale E. Hanka graduated from Augsburg
with a B.S. in Scandinavian studies. He
is a retired teacher, business owner, and
financial planner.
Jamie E. Smith ’04
Jamie E. Smith graduated from Augsburg
with a B.S. in history. He is a real estate
professional at Keller Williams Premier
Realty in Woodbury, Minn.
Winter 2005-06
Alumni Events
Please join us for these upcoming alumni events (see also the college-wide calendar on the
inside back cover for additional Augsburg events); unless otherwise noted, call 612-330-1178
or 1-800-260-6590 or e-mail <alumni@augsburg.edu> for more information.
December
February
10
15
11
Washington, D.C.: Alumni
gathering honoring 2005
Distinguished Alumnus Donald
Mattison ’66, M.D., Watergate
Hotel, Executive Boardroom
(Ballroom Level), 8 p.m.
immediately following the Peace
Prize Forum reception; registration
is limited, please RSVP no later than
Dec. 2 to 612-330-1598 or
<rsvp@augsburg.edu>
McLean, Virginia: President
Frame will speak at Lutheran
Church of the Redeemer,
703-356-3346, 9:45 a.m.
16
19
Auggie Hour at Beaujo’s Wine Bar
& Bistro, 4950 France Ave. S,
Edina, 952-922-8974, 5:30 p.m.,
featuring a wine tasting with Jenn
Tome ’99
Honors Program alumni
gathering, Christensen Center,
5:30-7 p.m.; please RSVP no later
than Jan. 13 to 612-330-1598 or
<rsvp@augsburg.edu>
Scottsdale, Arizona: Alumni
gathering at Winn and Maxine
Wallin’s home, 4-7 p.m.
18
Tucson, Arizona: Gospel Praise at
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church,
520-327-6521, time TBA
19
Tucson, Arizona: President Frame
and Gospel Praise* at Our Savior’s
Lutheran Church, 7:45 a.m.,
*8:45 a.m., and *11:15 a.m.,
520-327-6521
January
10
Sun City, Arizona: President
Frame will speak at American
Lutheran Church, 623-974-2512;
5:15 p.m. gathering and light
supper; 6-6:30 p.m., “Christian
Civility: Is it a Sellout?”
March
26
Annie at the Orpheum: Gather
for brunch on campus prior to a
performance of Annie at the
Orpheum Theater; transportation
provided
FOURTH ANNUAL CONNECTIONS EVENT
Augsburg alumnae are invited to attend Connections—A Women’s Leadership Event, cosponsored by Augsburg and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, on Feb. 11 from 8 a.m.-12:30
p.m. at Thrivent Financial Corporate Offices in downtown Minneapolis.
Presenters at this fourth annual event include Gloria C. Lewis, president/CEO of Big Brothers
Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities and member of the Augsburg Board of Regents; Janice
L. Aune ’88, chairman/CEO of Onvoy, Inc.; and Shira Hussain, senior admissions counselor at
Augsburg College.
This unique event brings together students, alumnae, and women throughout the
community for a morning of networking, mentoring, and leadership development. Please
join us for this incredible morning of empowerment and
encouragement through the experiences and stories of the
amazing women who attend!
For more information and to register online, please visit
<www.augsburg.edu/womenconnect>.
Winter 2005-06
A-Club invites
alumni on Baltic
cruise
The Augsburg A-Club invites alumni and
friends of the College on an exciting and
relaxing 12-day Baltic cruise with hosts
Dick (Porkchops) and Jane Thompson
on the Holland America Rotterdam
Cruise Ship. The adventure begins July
28 in London, England, with stops in
Norway, Denmark, Germany, Estonia,
Russia, Finland, and Sweden. Group
rates range from $2,548 to $4,300 per
person; airfare depends on your city of
origin. If you are interested, call the
alumni office at 612-330-1178. You are
encouraged to book early if you are using
frequent flyer miles for your own air
transportation. Most of the commissions
for this cruise will be donated to the
Augsburg A-Club Building Fund. So
gather a group of Auggies—or honorary
Auggies—and experience a true northern
European adventure!
Business alumni
events
All business alumni are invited to attend
the Department of Business
Administration’s Executive Management
Lecture on March 4 from noon-1 p.m.,
in Christensen Center (speaker TBA).
Alumni are also encouraged to attend the
annual Spring Business Forum (speaker
and date TBA). Please call 612-330-1191
or e-mail <heckers@augsburg.edu> for
more information.
27
Homecoming 2005—Roarin’ & Soarin’ Auggie Style
Augsburg alumni and
friends gathered during
Homecoming week for
the annual Augsburg
Associates Fall
Luncheon at the
Women’s Club in
Minneapolis.
The Auggies’ new head coach, Frank Haege,
walked the sidelines during the Auggies’ nailbiting loss to Carleton College.
Festive Auggie beads in maroon and silver decorated every tree,
building, and statue during Homecoming weekend.
28
Above: The new Auggie Eagle
logo, designed by Augsburg
alumnus Samuel Gross ’03
(see p. 10) was illuminated on
the floor of the gymnasium in
Si Melby Hall during the
athletics celebration.
Left: The Augsburg community
cheered on students who dared
to compete in the comical,
oversized boxing arena at
Homecoming picnic.
President William V. and Anne Frame performed at the student talent show in
true 1920s style.
Winter 2005-06
Photo by Charles Walbridge
The Auggie cheerleaders kept spirits high at the
Homecoming football game despite a disappointing 21-19
loss to Carleton College.
Many students and alumni received Auggie Eagle temporary
tattoos at the Homecoming picnic.
Above: Linnea Evans and Andy
Nelson were crowned as
Homecoming Queen and King.
Left: Simona “Fiery” Williams
wowed everyone at the student
talent show, taking top honors
for her rap performance.
Donald Mattison ’66, one of three alumni honored this
year as Distinguished Alumni (see p. 8), spoke during
the Homecoming chapel service
Winter 2005-06
Photos by
Stephen Geffre
(unless otherwise noted)
29
Homecoming 2005—Roarin’ & Soarin’ Auggie Style
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY CLASS OF 1955
(L to R) ROW 1 (front): Beverly (Omdahl) Nelson, Agnes (Tweet) Schaper, Beverly (Williams) Lundeen, Miriam (Greguson) Travis, Mary Jean (Danger)
Holmquist, Wenona (Strandlie) Lund, Beverly (Jorgensen) Olander. ROW 2: John Mulliken, Richard Dronen, Delores (Eide) Berkas, Clinton Peterson, Maxine
(Dahlin) Christ, Kenneth West, I. Shelby (Gimse) Andress, Beverly (Halling) Oren. ROW 3: Darrell Egertson, Arthur Lunow, Elmer Karstad, Duane Westfield,
David Skaar, Robert Herman, James Anderson. ROW 4: Robert Sneitzer, Richard Mahre, Wesley Bodin, Wayne Thoreson, John Benson
CLASS OF 1965
(L to R) ROW 1 (floor): Lyndon West. Lyle Olson, Marie (Bergh) Sandbo, Julie (Gudmestad) Laudicina, Joyce (Anderson) Pfaff, Judy (Thompson) Eiler, Gary
Thyren. ROW 2 (chairs): Darryl Carter, Dorothy (Rasmussen) Nelson, Anita (Christopherson) Gransee, Eunice (Bergman) Dietrich, Sharon (Dittbenner)
Klabunde, Adrienne (Strand) Buboltz, Larry Buboltz. ROW 3: Carolyn (Fernstrom) Anderson, Sharon (Kunze) Erickson, Jane (Huseby) Norman, Judith
Reynolds, Wayne Fehlandt, Phyllis Borri, Mary (Tildahl) Meyers, Mary Ann Cogelow. ROW 4: Gerald Dahl, Dale Slone, Gracia Grindal, Bette (Bodin) Leeney,
Karen (Lund) Orrill, Priscilla (Strecker) Feildhammer, Paul Fieldhammer, David Berg, Larry Nelson, Keith Dyrud, Dwight Olson, James Daugherty. ROW 5:
Donald Anderson, Robert Klemenhagen, Robert Lee, Mary Ann Miller, Daniel Meyers, Ronald Blake, David Dyrud. ROW 6: Donald Hoseth, Gerald Hamlin,
Gary Blosberg, Daniel Anderson.
30
Winter 2005-06
CLASS OF 1980
(L to R) ROW 1 (front): Lori (Elmgren) Binder, Kristin (Johnson) Hella, Laurie Fyksen-Beise, Christine (Edlund) Luk, Mary Carlson.
ROW 2: Jeffrey Jarnes, Brett Batterson, Carolyn (Johnson) Spargo, Jacqueline (Brookshire) Teisberg, Claudia (Walters) Forsberg,
John Carlson. ROW 3: Paul Sannerud, Jon Burnison, Gary Tangwall.
CLASS OF 1995
(L to R) ROW 1 (front): Jonathan Arntz, Lisa (Carlson) Sackreiter, Soven Sackreiter (baby), Andy Sackreiter, Dan
Deitrich, Theresa (Hoar) Magelssen, Trygg Magelssen (baby), Scott Magelssen. ROW 2: Erica Bentley, Amy (Torgelson)
Forsberg, Aubrey Forsberg (little girl), Cory Forsberg, Olin Forsberg (baby), Andrea (Mathieu) Bedard. ROW 3 (back):
Kirk Litynski, Mark Bedard, Nick Bedard (baby).
Winter 2005-06
31
CLASS
NOTES
Class Notes
1951
John Garland, St. Paul, was
recognized by the American
Institute for CPCU and the
Insurance Institute of America as
an outstanding course leader. He
has served as an institute course
leader for 33 years, and currently
teaches insurance for Hughes
Group, LLC.
Minn., is director of social services
at Rose of Sharon Manor.
1968
1957
Marshall D.
Johnson,
Minneapolis,
published a new
book, The
Evolution of
Christianity:
Twelve Crises that Shaped the
Church, in May (Continuum).
1960
Lois (Richter) Agrimson, Eagan,
Janet Letnes Martin, Hastings,
Minn., and Suzann (Johnson)
Nelson ’68, Grand Rapids,
Minn., were featured in the Star
Tribune for their musical, Church
Basement Ladies, based on their
books celebrating the foods and
traditions of Lutherans. After
successful trial runs in Grand
Rapids, Fargo, St. Cloud, and
Bismarck, the musical is settling
in for a 14-month run at the
Plymouth Playhouse.
1969
Barbara Hagel Stevens, Inver
Grove Heights, Minn., retired in
June; she taught second grade at
Pilot Knob Elementary School in
Eagan for more than 30 years.
childhood experiences of her
grandfather, King Olav V, the
princess has written a tale about
a little boy who becomes a
prince in her first children’s
book, Why Kings and Queens
Don’t Wear Crowns.
1971
1973
Mike Sevig,
Bloomington,
Minn., and his
wife, Else
(Tallaksen) ’71,
operate Skandisk,
Inc., a company
that distributes books and CDs
(especially those related to
Scandinavia) to specialty shops
around the country. Last winter
Skandisk secured the English
language rights to publish a new
fairy tale written by Norway’s
Princess Märtha Louise and
illustrated by one of Norway’s
most celebrated artists, Svein
Nyhus. Drawing from the
Corrine (Froelich) Frank,
Detroit Lakes, Minn., proudly
reports that her son, Corporal
Will A. Frank, is currently
serving in the United States
Marine Corps in San Diego
(Miramar). He has served in
Iraq and will be deployed again
in December. He also plays tuba
in the USMC Band.
Courtsey photo
AUGGIE REUNION
1974
Marlene (Chan) Hui,
Bloomington, Minn., sadly notes
the passing of her mother, Choi
Wan Chan, in September.
1976
Rev. Gary Andersen,
Bloomington, Minn., was
installed as senior pastor of
Community of the Cross
Lutheran Church in June. He
previously served Bethany
Lutheran in Rice Lake, Wis. His
wife, Diane (Forsberg) ’76,
teaches English as a second
language.
1977
These Auggies and their spouses gathered at Chautauqua, N.Y., and stayed at the Anthenaeum Hotel to
share special memories of their 1953-1957 college years. Pictured on the hotel’s porch are: ROW 1 (L to R,
seated): Gayle Engedahl Matson, Doug Herr, Verna Skovholt Barrett, Grace Forss Herr, and Marlys Holm
Thorsgaard. ROW 2 (standing): Norman Matson and Arlen Thorsgaard (not pictured is Roger Barrett).
32
Lise LungeLarsen, Duluth,
Minn., published
her third
children’s book
in August 2004,
Hidden Folk:
Stories of Fairies, Dwarves,
Selkies, and Other Secret Beings
(Houghton Mifflin). LungeLarsen grew up in Norway, and
her parents and grandparents
filled her life with stories of
elves, dwarves, and fairies. Now
she shares those stories with
children and the adults who
read to them.
Winter 2005-06
ALUMNI PROFILE
Stan Waldhauser
100 years young: Community celebrates
Knut Hoversten’s 100th birthday
by Bill Vander Weele
Reprinted by permission of the Sidney Herald in Sidney, Montana
When Knut Hoversten [Class of 1930] was nine months old, he suffered from
whooping cough. In May, he officially celebrated his 100th birthday. In between, there
have been very few illnesses or other physical problems for the longtime Sidney
resident. Because of rheumatism in his knees and hips, Hoversten uses a wheelchair,
but appears to be in excellent health for someone who is a century old. He credits his
long life to a harmonious family and living in Big Sky Country. “I watched my appetite
very closely,” Hoversten said. “I don’t do any drinking or smoking.”
He remembers being an 8-year-old boy and reading about proper diet during his
mother’s trip to the doctor’s office. “I always had food that was tested by proper
nutrition. I kind of studied a balanced diet all through my life. I studied the kind of
vitamins food contained, especially food with good vitamins.”
His daughters say Hoversten’s wife of 65 years, Hazel, also played an important role in
his health. Hazel died in November 2004 at the age of 93. “She took awfully good care
of him,” said daughter Julianne Mell ’64. “She was a nurse and made sure he ate
right.”
During the past year, Hoversten received the shocking news from his dentist that he
had two cavities—the first in his life. Hoversten remembers, “I had to have all of my
baby teeth pulled by a dentist because of the strength of my teeth.”
Hoversten currently lives with his daughter, Carol Anderson, in Spokane, Wash. He
remains busy during the day by reading, visiting friends, and seeing his greatgrandchildren. “My mom and dad used to come out and visit, so it’s been a second
home for him,” Anderson said.
Knut Hoversten celebrated his 100th birthday in
May. Since his graduation from Augsburg in 1930,
more than 40 members of the extended Hoversten
family have also attended, including the family’s
most recent Augsburg graduate, Kari Lucin ’03.
The pair, along with the entire Hoversten clan,
was honored in 2003 with the Distinguished
Service Award.
The oldest of 14 children (eight are still living), Hoversten
attended Augsburg College in Minneapolis. He then went to the
University of Minnesota, where he majored in chemistry, physics, and aeronautics. Years later, he finished his master’s
degree at Montana State University. “He still reads and has been a student all his life,” said his daugher, Mell.
Hoversten can speak several languages, including Norwegian, German, Greek, Latin, and French. “The best resources
of medical sources are in German and Russian,” Hoversten said.
He feels the greatest advances during his life came in the physics and medicine fields. “It started out pulling slivers
out of your hand with a tweezers, and turned into working with DNA,” Hoversten said.
Knut Hoversten ’30
He experienced many highlights during his 40 years of teaching. One memory he shared was building a rocket with a
student in the 1950s and setting the rocket off from the baseball field. “It went pretty high,” he said. That student
was Kendall Habedank, who is now a retired major general from the Air Force.
Many students are thankful that Hoversten went into the teaching field. He was hoping to become a doctor, but because of the Depression,
he couldn’t continue his education. “I ran out of money,” he said.
“But I think his teaching was rewarding,” Mell said. “He was meant to be a teacher. I think he influenced more people than he would had he
been a doctor.”
Hoversten’s non-teaching activities included being a member of the Sidney Kiwanis Club for 58 years, a member of Pella Lutheran Church
for 59 years, and director of the Methodist Church choir for 30 years. His many years of retirement featured teaching Norwegian at the Sons
of Norway and working as a piano tuner. “I’ve got a good reputation in all of the area for being a good piano tuner.”
When asked if he ever thought he would celebrate his 100th birthday, Hoversten said, “No. But I didn’t object to it.”
Winter 2005-06
33
Class Notes
Courtsey photo
AUGGIES ABROAD
AUGSBURG CENTENNIAL SINGERS
2006 FLORIDA APPEARANCES
Concert Performances
FEBRUARY 1
Trinity Lutheran Church and School
3016 S. Vine St., Kissimmee, Fla., 407-847-4204; 7 p.m.
FEBRUARY 2
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
800 Tamiami Trail S, Venice, Fla., 941-488-4942; 7 p.m.
FEBRUARY 4
Peace Lutheran Church
15840 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers, Fla.; 6:30 p.m. (time tentative)
FEBRUARY 5
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
777 Mooring Lane Dr., Naples, Fla., 239-597-1043; 3 p.m.
FEBRUARY 6
First Presbyterian Church
9751 Bonita Beach Rd., Bonita Springs, Fla., 239-992-3233;
3 and 7 p.m.
FEBRUARY 7
Grace Lutheran Church
327 C Ave. SE, Winter Haven, Fla., 863-293-8447; 7 p.m.
Church Appearances
FEBRUARY 5
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
777 Mooring Lane Dr., Naples, Fla., 239-597-1043; 8, 9:30,
and 11 a.m.
Hisham Al-Fergiani, an Augsburg alumnus from the 1970s,
stands in the bookshop and press that he owns in Tripoli, Libya,
called Dar Al-Fergiani Publishers.
FEBRUARY 5
First Presbyterian Church
9751 Bonita Beach Rd., Bonita Springs, Fla., 239-992-3233;
8:30 and 10:30 a.m.
1979
1983
1984
1985
Judy Berkeland, Fairmont,
Minn., recently became the
Fairmont Area Schools’ new
orchestra director. Her husband,
Steve ’79, is senior pastor of
Grace Lutheran Church.
Les Heen and Barbara
(Westerlund) ’89, Maynard,
Minn., are enjoying life in the
country, “with nothing but room
to run, hills to roll down, and
stars in the sky to find through
the telescope,” says Barbara. Les
is director of communications
for Minnesota Farmer’s Union,
located in St. Paul, and Barbara
is an estate and businessplanning attorney, operating her
own law practice in Maynard.
They have two children,
Christopher, 7, and Erik, 4.
Laurie (Lindell) Miles, Apple
Valley, Minn., recently moved
back to Minnesota from
California. She is a sales
representative at Northwest
Airlines.
Norm Okerstrom and John
Wahlberg ’86, owners of Excel
Promotions, LLC, have entered
into an agreement with Prime
Advertising & Design, Inc., of
Maple Grove, Minn., as an
exclusive provider of promotional
products, apparel, and corporate
recognition items. Okerstrom and
Wahlberg can be reached at
<norm@excelpromo.com>.
1980
Bradley J. Imsdahl left his
position as lead publisher of
Quickfinder Handbooks,
published by Practitioner’s
Publishing Company of Fort
Worth, Texas, to start a new
publishing company called Tax
Materials, Inc. His new company
publishes quick reference tax
guides to sell to CPAs and other
tax professionals nationwide. He
can be reached at
<brad@thetaxbook.com>.
34
Franklin Tawah was featured
as a “mover” in the business
section of the St. Paul Pioneer
Press. He is assistant vice
president of University Bank in
St. Paul.
Elizabeth (Ingersoll)
Swanson, Minneapolis, received
the Master of Sacred Music
degree with an emphasis on
conducting from Luther
Seminary in May. She currently
serves as the choir director for
Glen Cary Lutheran Church in
Ham Lake, Minn.; she plans to
become ordained as an associate
in ministry and seek a call as a
full-time cantor/music director in
the Twin Cities.
Jean Taylor, Eagan, Minn., was
elected to serve on the board of
directors for Piper Jaffray
Companies. Taylor is president
of Taylor Corporation and serves
as chair of the Augsburg College
Board of Regents. She also serves
on the board of directors for the
Minnesota Private College
Council and is a trustee of the
Glen A. Taylor Foundation.
Winter 2005-06
AUGSBURG ARTISTS
Amy Rice ’93 is known in the Twin Cities’ art community for her bold
stencil creations, inspired as much by pop art and Japanese printmaking as
the graffiti art movement. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak has cited Rice’s
mural work as an example of how art has participated in the rebirth of
Franklin Avenue. Rice is also known locally for her advocacy role on the
behalf of artists with mental illness and recently received a national award
for her efforts.
Rice is a member of the Rosalux Collective, a vibrant and growing community
of Twin Cities’ artists. Her work will be on display at the Rosalux Gallery’s
upcoming Holiday Hoopla exhibit, Dec. 3-30 (opening reception Dec. 10, 7-11
p.m.). For more information and to view more of Rice’s work, visit the
Rosalux Gallery online at <www.rosaluxgallery.com>.
Mural on 11th and Franklin, Minneapolis, fall 2003
1986
Michael Berry was named
executive vice president and
chief financial officer of Dallasbased i2 Technologies, Inc. He
previously served as senior vice
president of Solutions
Management at The Reynolds
and Reynolds Company, Inc.
1987
Andrew Altenburg, New
York, produces and hosts
fundraising events through his
company, Will Clark USA,
which raises money for and
awareness of AIDS causes under
the umbrella name Bad Boys
Events. He produced the Fifth
Annual Bad Boys Pool Party in
Palm Springs, Calif., in May,
Winter 2005-06
Fisher Price Angel
Spray paint and acrylic on canvas, 6” x 6”
which raised $64,000 for L.A.
Shanti, a nonprofit HIV/AID
support organization in Los
Angeles. He also executive
produced a series of weekend
events that brought another
$13,000 to various Californiabased nonprofits. In the past
eight years, Altenburg has been
directly responsible for nearly a
million dollars raised for gay
men’s health organizations such
as Magnet and the AIDS
Emergency Fund in San
Francisco and the Gay/Lesbian
Anti Violence Project and Visual
AIDS in New York. He currently
hosts a weekly bingo game at the
9th Ave. Bistro in New York,
which raises money for AIDS
organizations, gay sports groups,
and community organizations
such as the Gay Men’s Chorus.
Lisa Martin-Crawford,
Minneapolis, received a 2005
Association of Schools of Public
Health Minority Fellowship to
support her study of the
experience of Ojibway
adolescents with Type II diabetes
who live on reservations. The
goal of the two-year study is to
improve preventive health care.
The fellowship is one of only
four public health fellowships
made annually by the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention. Martin-Crawford is a
doctoral student at the
University of Minnesota School
of Nursing, and is an enrolled
member of the Lac du Flambeau
Tribe, an Ojibway tribe in
Northern Wisconsin.
Meghan with Olivia
Mixed media, 24” x 48”
1988
Jim Damiani, Plymouth, Minn.,
was featured in the Twin Cities
Business Journal as a recipient of
its “Forty under 40” honor.
Damiani, who serves as vice
president of Bloomington-based
Welsh Cos., has secured more
than 1,500 real estate
transactions in the past two
decades. He got his start in real
estate rehabbing old apartment
buildings while still a student at
Augsburg.
1989
Dawn Givans-Lander, Los
Angeles, is a busy stay-at-home
mom with 2-year-old twin boys.
She is launching a hair salon/spa
next spring.
35
Class Notes
1990
Courtsey photo
KOLANDER-MCCUNE WEDDING
Dave Frisell, Bloomington,
Minn., is Kennedy High School’s
new head football coach. He also
teaches physical education at
Kennedy and at Oak Grove
Middle School.
Alex Gonzalez,
Bloomington,
Minn., earned the
title of financial
consultant for
Thrivent
Financial for
Lutherans after successfully
completing extensive training. He
is one of 450 financial
consultants nationwide qualifying
for membership in the group.
Judith A. Lemke was named
executive vice president and chief
information officer at Schneider
National, Inc., in Green Bay, Wis.
She previously served as CIO of
Capella University in
Minneapolis and as vice president
of the Midwest region for
Minneapolis-based BORN
Information Services, Inc.
Holly Kolander ’96 married Chris McCune in March 2004 at
Orange Tree Golf Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. Holly taught 4th
grade, but now stays home to care for their four-month-old twin
daughters (see their birth announcement on p. 38).
Courtsey photo
BOLDEN-FIELDS WEDDING
1991
Penny R. Olson, Richfield,
Minn., received the Master of
Divinity degree from Luther
Seminary in May. Before entering
the seminary, she worked as a
registrar, data processor, health
consultant, and health unit
coordinator at hospitals and
medical centers in Minneapolis
and St. Louis Park. She plans to
serve as an ELCA parish pastor.
Carolyn Pool, Minneapolis,
originated the lead in the world
premiere of Paula Cizmar’s play,
Bone Dry, aka the Copy Editor
Murders, at the Jungle Theater. A
writer in the Star Tribune recently
described her as a “dynamo of
the stage.”
1992
Trena Bolden ’00 married Jerome Fields ’00 in August. Trena
serves as director of Augsburg’s Pan-Afrikan Center.
36
Walt Filson, Brooklyn Center,
Minn., teaches law enforcement
for Anoka-Hennepin ISD #11; he
is pursuing a master’s degree in
criminal justice.
Ladd Ojala, Minneapolis,
competed in an Ironman
competition this summer in
British Columbia, Canada.
1994
Susan (Horning) Arntz,
Waconia, Minn., recently
received the International
City/County Management
Association (ICMA)’s
Credentialed Manager
designation. Arntz, a member of
Augsburg’s Alumni Board of
Director’s, is city administrator
of the City of Waconia. She also
serves as chair of the
Leadership ICMA Committee,
and previously served as
assistant city manager for the
City of New Brighton and as
assistant to the
administrator/economic
development coordinator for
the City of Chaska.
1995
Jason Shaver was appointed as
director of broadcasting and
corporate sales by the Iowa Stars
hockey team. Shaver, who was
the vice president of
communications and the playby-play voice of the Texas
Wildcatters the past two seasons,
will be the play-by-play voice of
the Dallas Stars American
Hockey League affiliate.
1998
Camille Carnes, San Rafael,
Calif., received a Master of
Education with a concentration
in equity and social justice in
May from San Francisco State
University. She is currently
working with high-risk youth
in a young women’s
empowerment program. She
can be reached at
<camillecarnes@sbcglobal.net>.
Stephanie Simones, New
Berlin, Wis., married Jeff
Wehrman in May 2004. She
teaches at St. Mathias Catholic
School, and enjoys running and
biking in road races, marathons,
and triathlons.
Winter 2005-06
Courtsey photo
STENSVAAG-DARDA WEDDING
Brenda Selander, Champlin,
Minn., married Ted Mitshulis in
June. They met at Anoka High
School, where they teach and
coach.
2003
Eric Bretheim, Edina, Minn.,
married Kelly Anne Lewis in July.
Eric is a transportation logistics
coordinator for Cargill.
Ken McCann, Eden Prairie,
Minn., works for Target Financial
Services.
Shawn Smith was added to the
2005-06 pre-season roster of the
Fort Wayne Komets—five-time
United Hockey League
champions.
2004
Rebecca Stensvaag ’01 married Paul Darda ’01 in July 2004. Paul is a history teacher and assistant
wrestling coach at Champlin Park High School, and Rebecca teaches 3rd grade at Johnsville Elementary
School. Their wedding photo features more than 30 Augsburg alumni. Pictured here are: ROW 1 (L to
R, front): Cindy Blummer ’01, Emma Stansvaag ’08, Ruth Casperson ’67, Hannah Mehus Stensvaag ’38,
Rebecca Stensvaag Darda ’01, Paul Darda ’01, Nancy Strommen Stensvaag ’71, John-Mark Stensvaag
’69, Stephanie Johnson Sulzbach ’71, John Sulzbach ’69, Jean Boxrud Steen. ROW 2: Roland ’03, Tjersti
Strommen ’07, Adam Thronson ’00, Marsha Strommen Olson ’68, Dawn Hofstad Strommen ’70. ROW 4:
Peter Strommen ’69, Mary Nelson Eckberg ’70, Brad Fischer ’03, Heidi Peterson ’03, Mark Peterson ’01,
Mary Ellen Strommen Lieber ’67, Tim Strommen ’70. ROW 5: John Eckberg ’68, Ainy Carlson, Jeroy
Carlson ’48, Phil Edstrom ’69, Luther Strommen ’40, Steve Strommen ’65.
1999
Tony Hudson, Minneapolis, is
the diversity achievement
coordinator at Sandburg Middle
School in Golden Valley, Minn.
He recently received a master’s
degree in education
administration from St. Mary’s.
Rachel
(Westhed)
Stenback
resides in
Sweden with her
husband, Tomas.
She received a
master’s degree in enthnology
from Uppsala University in
Uppsala, Sweden. She recently
co-wrote the resources section of
a new book, On My Swedish
Island: Discovering the Secrets of
Scandinavian Well-being, by Julie
Catterson Lindahl (Teacher
Winter 2005-06
Penguin), and she has worked
on marketing the book—both in
Scandinavia and the United
States. She and her husband,
who is a math and science
teacher, have been offered
English teaching positions in
China starting next August
through the Lutheran Church in
Sweden (Svenska kyrkan).
Stenbak can be reached at
<rachel.stenbak@home.se>.
2000
Larissa (Westfield) Larson
along with her sister, Rebecca
Westfield ’03, launched
Ensemble, a women’s clothing
and accessories boutique in the
Linden Hills neighborhood of
Minneapolis. The sisters and the
boutique were featured in the
September issue of Women’s
Business Minnesota magazine.
Marcia Volk, Rosemount,
Minn., married Brian Marrison
last December.
2001
Conor E. Tobin, St. Paul,
received a juris doctor degree
from William Mitchell College of
Law in June. While attending
William Mitchell, Tobin served
as president of the Student Bar
Association and was a recipient
of the CALI Award of Excellence
for his work in the Immigration
Law Clinic.
2002
Chris Kambeitz recently moved
from Fargo, N.Dak., to Carver,
Minn. He works in sales with
Summit Products North, and can
be reached at <cgkambeitz@
yahoo.com>.
Erica Champer, Chicago, works
at Heartland Housing.
Kelly L. Chapman is a student
at Fashion Institute Design &
Merchandising in Los Angeles.
She is working and interning for
Ali Rahinii, owner and designer
of Mon Atelier. After graduation
in December, she hopes to enroll
in the institute’s third-year
program.
Rick Dzurik is a music therapist,
working with patients at the
North Memorial Residential
Hospice in Brooklyn Center,
Minn., on the North Memorial
Inpatient Hospice and Palliative
Care Unit and with Hospice
Homecare patients.
Brian Eayrs is pursuing a
master’s degree in sports
administration at the University
of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where
he serves as graduate assistant to
the defensive coordinator of the
UW-L Eagles’ football team. His
father, Mike Eayrs ’72, once
served as the Eagles’ offensive
coordinator; he now serves as
director of research and
development for the Green Bay
Packers (he also served 16 years
in the same capacity for the
Minnesota Vikings).
37
Class Notes
Dayle VanderLeest,
Minneapolis, is serving as a
long-term substitute secondgrade teacher at Cedar Riverside
Community School in
Minneapolis.
2005
Brad Schwartzbauer is the
new Mounds View, Minn., boys’
hockey coach. He was an allconference player and captain at
Augsburg, and played in the
Colorado Rockies’ minor league
system.
Births/Adoptions
Mark Muhich ’89 and Allison,
Eveleth, Minn.—a son,
Brennan, on St. Patrick’s Day.
He joins older brother Quinn, 4.
Mark owns Muhich Law Firm in
Virginia, Minn., and teaches
legal-related courses at Mesabi
Range Community and
Technical College in Virginia. He
can be reached at <mamuhich@
rangenet.com>.
Rich Blumer ’95
and his wife,
Heather, Maple
Grove, Minn.—
a daughter,
Amanda Jane,
in February. She
joins older brother Carson, 2.
Rich is an applications
consultant for US Bank.
Ryan Carlson
’96 and his wife,
Lauren, St.
Paul—a son,
Quintus (Quin)
Joseph, in
September. Ryan
is a senior manufacturing
manager for Seagate in
Bloomington and Lauren is a
scientist for Ecolab in Eagan.
They can be reached at
<rc_and_lauren@yahoo.com>.
Holly
(Kolander)
’96 and Chris
McCune,
Scottsdale,
Ariz.—twin daughters, Sierra
and Malayna, in June (see
Holly and Chris’ wedding photo
on p. 36).
Ann
(Gallagher) ’96
and Lee
Stephenson
’06, Sturgeon
Lake, Minn.—
a daughter,
Laura Ann, in May. She joins
older sister, Grace. Ann and Lee
received master’s degrees from
St. Mary’s University.
Amy
(Gustafson) ’97
and Ross
Albertson, South
St. Paul—a son,
Max Andrew,
in June. Amy
teaches 6th grade for South
Washington County Schools.
Leah (Holloway) ’99 and Kevin
Rudeen, Vadnais Heights,
Minn.—a son, Zachary John, in
June. Leah is a research
consultant with John H. Harland
Company in Roseville.
Jennifer (Crego) ’00 and Chad
Carls ’00, Oak Grove, Minn.—a
son, Brock David, in April. He
joins older brothers Tommy, 3,
and Andrew, 1. In addition to
teaching chemistry and physics
at Champlin Park High School,
Chad also sells real estate.
Jennifer and Chad can be
reached at
<chadcarls@yahoo.com>.
Amy (Stier)
’01 and Jeff
Eppen, Belle
Plaine,
Minn.—
a daughter, Courtney Breanne,
in February.
Stefanie (Lindell) ’98 and
Bruce Lender ’98, St. Paul—
a son, Samuel, this year.
Courtesy photo
ALUMNI PROFILE
Laura McGowan ’03: Study-abroad seminar
inspires future service
Written by Lynn Mena; interviewed by Betsey Norgard
After participating in an Augsburg Center for Global Education seminar to Namibia during her
senior year, Laura McGowan ’03 was so inspired by her experience that she pledged to one day
return to Africa. This summer, she landed upon an opportunity to spend six weeks volunteering
at Beautiful Gate Namibia, an international, interdenominational Christian organization providing
daycare and support to children and families in need. Located in Katutura, Windhoek, Namibia,
the center provides emotional, spiritual, and physical care to these children, and supports their
families and communities by giving practical assistance.
“I just started doing whatever they needed—sharpening pencils, cleaning, making food,” said
McGowan. “It took a bit of time for me to put into perspective what I was doing, and I started to
realize that what I might ordinarily consider menial tasks were genuinely helping to make the
staff’s lives easier as well as to serve these kids. I may not be up there in front of the class
teaching, but what I’m doing is needed just as much.”
Laura McGowan ’03 posed with one of
the children at Beautiful Gate, a
daycare center in Namibia where
McGowan volunteered for six weeks
this past summer.
McGowan, who teaches 9th-grade history at Northview Junior High in Brooklyn Park, Minn.,
formed a special bond with a young girl named Queen whom she provided one-on-one tutoring.
She also traveled with staff to various homes to perform needs assessments as well as to provide support.
Upon returning to Minnesota, McGowan was immediately struck by the multitude of opportunities available to children and students in the
United States as compared to those at Beautiful Gate. “Even though many of my students are at or below the poverty level, I started to realize
that even for them, in comparison, there is tremendous opportunity here,” said McGowan. “And so now I really have a drive to make sure
the kids I teach realize and have access to those opportunities.”
38
Winter 2005-06
In Memoriam
M. Glendora Dueland ’29,
Slater, Iowa, died in April; she
was 98. She taught in public
schools in Minnesota and
eventually entered public service
in Washington, D.C., working
for various government
departments. She retired back to
Slater, where she was active in
the historical society. Dueland
was a longtime supporter of the
College and generously included
Augsburg in her estate plans.
Joseph E. Erickson ’37,
Mukilteo, Wash., died in
February; he was 91. He was a
retired farmer and missionary,
known to many as the “singing
farmer” for his singing ministry,
which he shared during his
mission trips to more than 50
countries.
Norman Myrvik ’38, Brooklyn,
N.Y., died in August 2004; he
was 91. He was an opera singer,
composer, choral conductor,
opera impresario, radio host,
record producer, and teacher.
His Town Hall debut was
followed by many engagements
with opera companies and
symphony orchestras, as well as
leading roles on NBC’s Opera of
the Air and recitals in major U.S.
cities. In 1967 he founded the
Brooklyn Lyric Opera Company
at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music, which received glowing
reviews from The New York
Times. In 1962 his recording of
Charles Griffes and Edvard
Grieg songs won praise from The
New York Times, The Atlantic,
and High Fidelity. Myrvik hosted
Opera Stars of Tomorrow for
many years on WNYC Radio,
and held teaching positions at
Lehman and Kingsborough
colleges.
Rev. Grant H. Olson ’40,
Seminole, Fla. (formerly of
Minneapolis), died in August; he
was 90. He formed two churches
in Washington and served
Minneapolis at Lebanon
Lutheran Church for 26 years.
In 1984 he joined the Lutheran
Winter 2005-06
Synod staff in Tampa and later
became chaplain at Palms of
Pasadena Hospital and Bay Pines
VA Medical Center, retiring in
1999.
Agnes (Landsverk)
Torbenson ’41, Detroit Lakes,
Minn., died in July. She was a
retired English teacher.
Sylvia (Brandt) Sateren ’47,
Indio, Calif., died in May. She
was a retired choral music
teacher and a 1996 inductee into
the Augsburg Athletic Hall of
Fame.
Marvin Larson ’50, Carrollton,
Texas, died in September 2004.
He and his wife, Elaine, built
three Home Mission churches in
Circle Pines, French River, and
Keewatin (all Minn.) and spent
six years in Guadalajara,
Mexico, serving as missionaries
before moving to the
Texas/Mexico border town of
McAllen to open an
English/Spanish Bible bookstore.
Prior to his retirement, Larson
also taught high school building
trades and did cabinetry work.
Arthur J. Cote, Jr., ’54,
Columbia Heights, Minn., died
in September; he was 82.
Dale Erdahl ’54, Sioux Falls,
S.Dak., died in May; he was 73.
In addition to farming for more
than 20 years, he was a two-time
Minnesota legislator and an
employment counselor for the
State of Minnesota.
Rev. Glen C. Eveland ’56,
Backus, Minn., died in July
2004; he was 71. In his 38-year
ministry, he served churches in
Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota.
Paul L. Nyhus ’57, Brunswick,
Maine, died in August of brain
cancer; he was 70. He was
former Bowdoin College dean of
students, dean of the college,
and Frank Andrew Munsey
Professor of History emeritus. As
dean of students from 1969 to
1974, he encouraged and
protected diversity among
students and faculty, participated
in the founding of the Afro-
American Society and the
establishment of co-education,
and dealt with such crises as the
student strike of 1970 to protest
the bombing of Cambodia. As
dean of the college from 1975 to
1980 and again in the fall of
1987, he continued to work on
the goals established earlier, and
participated in the debates that
lead to Bowdoin’s divestment of
investments in companies
operating in apartheid South
Africa in 1985. Nyhus retired
last year after 38 years of
service. Prior to Bowdoin as a
graduate student at Harvard, he
participated in the second march
to Montgomery, Alabama,
organized by Martin Luther
King, Jr., an experience that
forever shaped and strengthened
Nyhus’ commitment to civil
liberties and racial equality.
Nyhus was a named an
Augsburg Distinguished
Alumnus in 1978.
Rev. Glenn O. Davidson ’58,
Pine Island, Minn., died in
December 2004; he was 73. He
was ordained at Central
Lutheran Church in Minneapolis
and later served 10 years in
parish ministry in Wisconsin
and as a pastoral counselor
throughout Wisconsin for 20
years, retiring in 1995.
Marilyn Rogers ’61,
Minneapolis, died in March of
complications from post-polio
syndrome; she was 64. Despite
spending much of the past 55
years in an iron lung, she lived
an active and inspired life. In the
1970s, she helped start the
United Handicapped Federation,
which worked with the
Minnesota Legislature to
improve access for people with
disabilities.
James R. Quick ’71,
Bloomington, Minn., died in
September; he was 72. A retired
social worker, he also served in
the Air Force during the Korean
War and was a singer and
former Golden Gloves boxer.
Rev. Daniel D. Rudquist ’71,
Arden Hills, Minn., died in
August; he was 55. He was
ordained in 1976, and served the
parishes of Sillerud and Trinity in
Balaton, Minn., and Redeemer
Lutheran in Fridley, Minn.
Charlotte M. Granite ’97,
Freeport, Minn., died in July of
cancer; she was 42. She worked
as a physician assistant for the
Paynesville Area Health System
and the St. Cloud Medical Group
(Cold Spring office), and served
in the 134th Forward Support
Battalion of the Army National
Guard.
Rev. Dr. Karl H. Brevik, Indian
Wells, Calif., died in October
2003; he was 75. He taught
religion courses at Augsburg in
the 1950s, during which time he
served as a parish minister at
Central Lutheran Church.
Katherine A. Hennig,
Minneapolis, died in October; she
was 94. An Augsburg professor of
emerita of music, she also taught
voice at the College of St.
Catherine and Hamline
University. She was a soloist with
the Minnesota Orchestra and also
performed with the Minnesota
Opera Company. In New York,
she obtained the lead on the
Broadway stage in Allegro and a
role on Broadway’s 46th Street
Theater in the musical Arms and
the Girl. She also appeared in a
14-week engagement at Radio
City Music Hall.
Elvira Carlson Springer,
Golden Valley, Minn., died in
July; she was 93. She was a
dietician and teacher at Augsburg
during WWII.
Nels Stanley “Stan” Stake,
Wayzata, Minn., died in January;
he was 87. A former regent of
Augsburg, he was a longtime
employee of Honeywell. His
career took him from his
hometown of Chicago to
Pittsburgh and finally to
Minneapolis, retiring as senior
vice president of the Commercial
Buildings Group.
39
AUGGIE
THOUGHTS
Auggie Thoughts
Making cultural choices
by Dulmaa Enkhchuluun ’04
Courtesy photo
Dulmaa Enkhchuluun, or “Enkee,” as he explains below, is a 2004 Augsburg graduate who majored
in international relations. He now works for the Mongolian Parliament, handling international
communications, especially from international organizations. The following is excerpted, with his
permission, from a piece he wrote for a Star Tribune blog.
I
over. He had more electronic
am a 26-year-old Mongolian male,
equipment than my whole school
and everyone calls me Enkee. My
had in Mongolia.
full name is Dulmaa Enkhchuluun.
I learned about the value of
Under the Mongolian system, we
choice and the abuse of choice. I
only have one name, but my
had to select those things that
mother’s name is Dulmaa and out of
could help my family and country,
honor to her, I use her name as my
and I had to avoid the excess.
first name or what you would call
Having choice was worthless unless
my family name. She gave me the
I could use the choices wisely. I
personal name Enkhchuluun,
learned that I would never have
which comes from two Mongolian
more food than I could eat, that I
words, enkh meaning peace and
could never have more equipment
chuluun meaning stone. She hoped
than I could use, and that I would
that in a world of great uncertainty
buy only what I needed. I also
I would be as strong as stone but
Dulmaa Enkhchuluun ’04, or “Enkee,” walks through fields in
made a promise to myself to remain
also as peaceful as a stone.
his native Mongolia, with the sacred mountain Burkhan
as strong as a rock and as peaceful
I came to Minnesota to pursue
Khaldun in the distance behind him.
as a rock in America. In order to
my B.A. degree. It was my first trip
remain strong, I would walk or ride
abroad, and I had no idea how the
to have as much pop, milk, or tea as I
the bike that my host family gave me,
American academic system functioned or
wanted. Just walking into the cafeteria
even in the coldest weather.
even how Americans lived. I knew that
gave me more choices in food than I was
In five years I learned to be an
the images I saw on television and in
accustomed to making in a whole year
American in some parts of my life and
films did not represent real life in
back in Mongolia.
even in some parts of my heart, and yet I
America, but I had no idea what to
I came to America with one small
strove to remain a Mongol and to be my
expect aside from those images.
suitcase. I kept everything that I had in
mother’s son. I wanted to return home to
I thought of America as a large, powerful
it. Each piece of clothing was folded
Mongolia with the best education and
country associated with democracy and,
exactly as my mother taught me. My pen,
training that America had to offer, but I
of course, Hollywood.
pencil, and notebook were each carefully
wanted to be the strong and peaceful
My introduction to American life
wrapped, and I treasured them. By
man that mother intended me to be.
came through the college experience. I
contrast, my roommate had a roomful of
After all, in giving me the name
was delighted by the great choice of food.
stuff. He owned more books than a
Enkhchuluun, she gave me my destiny
On campus and within a few blocks, I
library, yet he never seemed to read. He
and my character, I wanted to live up to
could find pizzas, hamburgers, French
had enough music CDs for a music store,
her hopes for me.
fries, and the drink machines allowed me
but he played the same one over and
40
Winter 2005-06
CCalendar
ALENDAR
Music
February 16
For music information, call 612-330-1265
The Guthrie Theater: An Organization in
Transition
December 2-3
26th Annual Advent Vespers
5 and 8 p.m. service each night
Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis
A conversation with Tom Proehl, managing
director, Guthrie Theater
7 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
January 27-29
Exhibits
Gospel Praise Tour
For gallery information, call 612-330-1524
Performances in southern Minnesota
November 4-December 18
February 5
Recent Works
Gregory Fitz and Jake Keeler
Gospel Praise Concert
Gage Family Art Gallery, Lindell Library
Artist gallery talk: Dec. 8, noon
10 a.m.—Woodlake Lutheran Church
Richfield, Minn.
February 17
Gospel Praise Concert
4 p.m.—MMEA Conference
Convention Center, Minneapolis
Fragments: Glimpses of History
and Place
Thomas Westbrook
February 28
Trio Concert
Featuring Mary Horozaniecki, violin;
Jim Jacobsen, cello; Jill Dawe, piano
7 p.m.—Sateren Auditorium
Theatre
For ticket information, call 612-330-1257
February 4-12
The Illusion
By Tony Kushner
Directed by Martha Johnson
Feb. 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, and 11 at 7 p.m.;
Feb. 5 and 12 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
January 25-May 20
January 13-February 17
Gage Family Art Gallery, Lindell Library
Opening reception: Jan. 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Featuring five collegiate women’s choruses
including Augsburg’s Riverside Singers
4 p.m.—St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church
Mahtomedi, Minn.
“Being Global
Citizens; Living a
Legacy”
1 p.m.—Hoversten
Chapel, Foss Center
For information, call 612-330-1022
For more information, visit
<www.augsburg.edu/ais/filmseries> or
call 612-330-1523
Gospel Praise Concert
WomanVoice Concert
Martin Luther King
Jr. Convocation
Augsburg Native American Film Series
Sculptural installations by Barbara
Claussen
February 26
January 16
Christensen Center Art Gallery
February 18-19
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church
Tucson, Ariz.
you work and live. A continental breakfast
is served, no reservations are needed.
7 a.m., first Wednesday each month, St.
Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church,
Plymouth, Minn. For speaker
information, contact Pastor John
Hogenson at <jhogenson@spdlc.org> or
John Knight at <faith@augsburg.edu>.
Photography by Terry Gydesen
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Opening reception: Jan. 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
February 24-March 31
Sculpture by Jane Frees-Kluth
Gage Family Art Gallery, Lindell Library
Opening reception: Feb. 24
February 14
Dana Gioia
Poet, critic, and
bestselling author.
Part of the Augsburg
Convocation Series:
Global Citizens/Local
Citizens.
11 a.m.—“American Poetry in a
Violent War”
Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center
For information, call 612-330-1180
Mixed media by Mary Bergs
Christensen Center Art Gallery
Opening reception: Feb. 24
Other Events
December 2
Seminars,
Lectures,
and Films
December 7-May 3
FAITH@WORK Monthly Series
FAITH@WORK is a monthly meeting of
business professionals featuring speakers to
help you grow as a leader so that you can
more effectively live out your faith where
Annual Velkommen Jul Celebration
10:15 a.m.—Chapel Service, Hoversten
Chapel, Foss Center
11 a.m.-2 p.m.—Scandinavian treats and
gifts, Christensen Center
February 11
Connections—A Women’s Leadership
Event
See p. 27 for more details
Send us your news
and photos!
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marriage, and births. Don’t forget
to send photos!
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program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or
change of address by mail to:
Augsburg Now Class Notes,
Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
MN, 55454, or e-mail to
<alumni@augsburg.edu>.
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A
P U B L I C AT I O N
Summer 2005
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 67, No. 4
EEditor’s
DITOR’Snote
NOTE
Staying connected
I
t seems the talk everywhere is about
being “connected.” There’s the daily
media buzz about camera phones, text
messagi... Show more
A
P U B L I C AT I O N
Summer 2005
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 67, No. 4
EEditor’s
DITOR’Snote
NOTE
Staying connected
I
t seems the talk everywhere is about
being “connected.” There’s the daily
media buzz about camera phones, text
messaging, chat rooms, etc., but here on
campus the conversations focus more on
meaningful ways to help our alumni stay
connected to the College.
While I was thinking about all of this,
we received the sad news of the death of
Augsburg’s President Emeritus Oscar
Anderson. It was a quote included in a
newspaper article that sparked more
thinking about connections. In 1983, while
speaking about liberal arts education,
Anderson said that students needed to be
as familiar with Captain Ahab in Moby
Dick as with the computer HAL in 2001: A
Space Odyssey. “The computer is an
extension of the brain, not a substitute for
the mind.”
To me, this really tells us that as we
become more proficient in maintaining the
technological connections, we should
remember that it’s the fostering of deeper
relationships that make people want to
stay involved in the life and future of
Augsburg. It’s the difference between being
brain-connected and being heartconnected. Like family members who grow
up and move away, we hope our students
will leave us wanting to stay involved in
what goes on at this place.
We hope this relationship begins with
the very first impression a high school
junior gets as he or she is led around
campus, and with each stop increasingly
thinks, “This is the place I really want to
be.” Or, when a full-time nurse or a stayat-home mom hangs up the phone, excited
about the prospect of finishing college
after receiving lots of encouragement from
an admissions counselor.
Once students are on campus, they
discover many opportunities to forge this
kind of relationship—with classmates,
with athletic teammates, with professors in
classrooms and labs, with academic
advisers, and with people they meet as
they explore the world off campus.
Each year at Commencement, we send
off our graduates confident that they’ll take
their learning in directions that bring
meaning to their lives. We fervently hope
they stay in touch.
After that the connections become
more tenuous. Work and family life take
over, and again we hope that somehow
Augsburg fits into their careers and
activities.
This summer issue of the Now speaks
to this whole process of building Augsburg
relationships and keeping the “family”
connected. You’ll share the excitement of
the 600 graduates we sent off in May with
Augsburg diplomas. You’ll be encouraged
to return to campus for Homecoming
festivities to catch up with old friends and
connect with our current students.
In the feature stories, you’ll meet
bright, young music scholars who have
graduated and followed their hearts and
talents to places far and near. You’ll also
meet students and faculty in our
Mathematics Department, and learn how
math studies and career exploration go
hand-in-hand in a very personal process.
And, you’ll read about some very
remarkable donors to our Access to
Excellence campaign—both Augsburg
alumni and others—who are committed to
building exceptional opportunities for
future students.
Alumni president Bill Vanderwall sums
it up at the end of his column, “Be
connected—stay connected!” And I’ll add,
“Stay heart-connected!”
Betsey Norgard
Editor
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
Minnesota 55454.
Editor
Betsey Norgard
Assistant Editor
Lynn Mena
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
Class Notes Coordinator
Sara Kamholz ’04
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
President
William V. Frame
Director of Alumni and
Parent Relations
Amy Sutton
Director of Public Relations
and Communication
Dan Jorgensen
Opinions expressed in
Augsburg Now do not necessarily
reflect official College policy.
ISSN 1058–1545
Postmaster: Send address
corrections to:
Advancement Services
Augsburg College, CB 142
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
Augsburg College, as affirmed in its
mission, does not discriminate on
the basis of race, color, creed,
religion, national or ethnic origin,
age, gender, sexual orientation,
marital status, status with regard to
public assistance, or disability in its
education policies, admissions
policies, scholarship and loan
programs, athletic and/or school
administered programs, except in
those instances where religion is a
bona fide occupational qualification.
Augsburg College is committed to
providing reasonable
accommodations to its employees
and its students.
www.augsburg.edu
12
A PUBLICATION FOR AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
Summer 2005
Vol. 67, No. 4
FEATURES
21
Finding the right career formula
by Betsey Norgard
25
Following the Hognander Scholars
by Jessica Brown
10
12
16
2005 Fifth Annual International Photo Contest
Commencement 2005
Vision, news from Access to Excellence:
The Campaign for Augsburg College
DEPARTMENTS
21
2
Around the Quad
8
Sports
28
Alumni News
30
Class Notes
35
In Memoriam
36
Auggie Thoughts
inside
back
cover
Homecoming 2005 Preview
On the cover:
Three education students enjoy the
serenity of the Quad to study after
their summer school class.
25
Photo by Stephen Geffre.
50 percent recycled paper (10 percent post—consumer waste)
AROUND
QUAD
Around THE
the Quad
President Frame announces
retirement in 2006
Augsburg News Service
W
illiam V. Frame, who has served as
president of Augsburg College
since the summer of 1997, has
announced plans to retire in the summer
of 2006 following completion of his
current term.
In letters to regents and colleagues
and in a talk before a gathering of staff
and faculty on the campus, Frame said
that he and his wife, Anne, have found
the work both rewarding and
demanding, with the principal rewards
being a deeper understanding of the
Lutheran idea of vocation and of the
educational regimen that it requires. He
saluted faculty, staff, regents, and other
supporters of the College as “true
partners” in his presidency.
“Our work together has helped us
draw Augsburg to new levels of
recognition for advancing the cause of
Lutheran higher education in the city
and in the global society of the 21st
century,” he said. “Together, we have
brought new life and utility to Luther’s
idea of vocation, and have organized our
general education curriculum and now
our graduate programs around this grand
idea of the ‘called life of service.’
“Augsburg plays a unique role in the
world of Lutheran education. Its service
to the city, to the provision of accessibility to first-class educational
opportunities for both traditionally-aged
students and working adults, and its
regard for faith and reason as interactive
and mutually reinforcing modes of
understanding gives us a special mission
which you have helped us to see and
pursue. No doubt my successor will rely
as heavily upon your counsel and
support as have I.”
Jean Taylor ’85, president of Taylor
Corporation and chair of the Augsburg
Board of Regents, said she expects the
search for the new president to occupy
most of the next year. She has appointed
H. Theodore Grindal ’76, partner in the
law firm of Lockridge Grindal Nauen
P.L.L.P. and vice-chair of the Augsburg
board, to lead the search.
Frame, who is the 10th president in
Augsburg’s 136-year history, said that
while much has been accomplished, he
expects his final year to be filled with
projects and opportunities. Among those
is his continuing work on the College’s
$55 million Access to Excellence: The
Campaign for Augsburg College, kicked off
in April 2004. Some $41 million has
been raised toward that goal, the largest
in the College’s history.
Prior to joining Augsburg, Frame was
vice president for finance and operations
at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma,
Wash. He has been a strong proponent of
William V. Frame
the tradition of Lutheran higher
education, which he believes is based on
the ideas of vocation and service and
requires ongoing dialogue between faith
and reason.
His advocacy for vocation also has led
to his national leadership among college
presidents, currently serving as project
director for the Council of Independent
Colleges’ program designed to guide both
current and prospective presidents in
reflection about each leader’s sense of
calling and its intersection with
institutional mission. He also has taken
leadership roles with the Minnesota
Private College Council—as chair during
the 2004-05 academic year—and the
Minnesota Campus Compact.
A L U M N I A S K E D T O S U B M I T N A M E S O F P R E S I D E N T I A L C A N D I D AT E S
The Augsburg College Presidential Search Committee is continuing to seek names of potential candidates
for the presidency and especially wants to hear from Augsburg alumni, parents, and close friends of the
College during this process.
Names of suggested candidates should be sent to Dr. Thomas B. Courtice of the Academic Search
Consultation Service, Washington, D.C., who is assisting with the search. Nominators or prospective
candidates may contact Courtice at <tom.courtice@academic-search.org> or at 614-405-9209.
2
Summer 2005
David Tiede named to first endowed chair
D
avid Tiede, president of Luther
Seminary for 18 years, has been
named to the Bernhard M. Christensen
Chair in Religion—the first endowed
chair in Augsburg’s history.
Known as one of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America’s preeminent theologians and educators, Tiede
was selected following a nationwide
search by the College. He earlier had
announced his intention to retire from
the Luther presidency in May 2005. His
appointment to Augsburg begins in the
2005-06 academic year.
The chair honors Bernhard M.
Christensen ’22, the seventh president of
Augsburg College and Seminary from
1938-62 and a central figure in drawing
Augsburg fully into the study of liberal
arts. Augsburg Seminary was later merged
with Luther Seminary.
In announcing the selection, Augsburg
President William V. Frame noted, “David
Tiede is a champion of the Augsburg ideals
of vocation and service to the city. These
ideals, along with Augsburg’s increasing
attention to its role as a college of the
church and in a global society—including
the formation of a new Center for Faith
and Learning under the auspices of our
Lilly Endowment grant—were keys in
attracting him to this new position.”
As the Christensen professor, Tiede
will carry out research and writing,
including focus on Christensen’s legacy
and work. He also will lecture and conduct
on-campus workshops, represent the
College at various events sponsored by the
Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment
Fund, work with Augsburg students who
have been designated as “Lilly Scholars”
and who have demonstrated an interest
in studying for ministry, and will seek
ways to strengthen the College’s ties to
key Christian leaders and communities.
In accepting the position, Tiede
noted, “Since the days of President
Bernhard Christensen, Augsburg College
has had a vision of academic excellence
for the sake of vocation in the world.
Summer 2005
Now faculty, graduates, and administrative leaders are bringing renewed
focus, discipline, and strength to this
vision. I am grateful the Christensen
Chair will allow me to join them in
helping make it happen.”
Inez Schwarzkopf, former Augsburg
regent and chair of the College’s
Christensen Endowment Fund
Committee, said Tiede graces the
Christensen chair with a wide reputation
as a scholar, a leader, and a churchman.
“We are delighted that he has accepted
this new challenge,” she said. “At the
same time, the appointment honors Dr.
Tiede by association with Augsburg’s
solid legacy of scholarship, Christian
spirituality, service, diversity, and
ecumenism as embodied in the life and
work of Bernhard M. Christensen.”
Christopher Kimball, provost and
dean of the College, who co-chaired the
search committee with Schwarzkopf,
said, “Tiede provides the College with a
voice in the national conversation about
the importance of church-related—in
particular Lutheran—higher education.
So, we are fortunate to have someone of
that stature join the faculty.”
Tiede’s teaching career began in 1967
as a summer instructor in Greek at
Harvard Divinity School, where he
became a teaching fellow in New
Testament in 1969.
Ordained in 1971, he served as
associate pastor of Trinity Lutheran
Church, Minneapolis, from 1972-75. In
June 2000 he was elected vice president
of the Association of Theological Schools
(ATS) in the U.S. and Canada. Two years
later, he was elected president of ATS. He
serves on the board of directors for In
Trust magazine.
Courtesy of Luther Seminary
Augsburg News Service
David Tiede, retiring president of Luther
Seminary, is Augsburg’s first Bernhard M.
Christensen Professor of Religion.
Tiede earned the B.A. degree from
St. Olaf College, attended Princeton
Theological Seminary, and received the
B.D. degree from Luther Seminary in
1966. He earned the Ph.D. degree from
Harvard in 1971 and began his career at
Luther that same year, teaching New
Testament, his specialty.
In addition to ten books and textual
notes, he has written dozens of scholarly
articles and book chapters, done a
number of audio and video productions,
and served on numerous boards and
committees for the church, in national
and international religious organizations,
and throughout the Greater Twin Cities.
For the past three years he has been the
initial chair of the new consortium, Faith
in the City, composed of seven Lutheranbased organizations working collectively
and with others to contribute to the wellbeing of the community.
Oscar Anderson dies at 89
As Augsburg Now goes to press, we sadly report the death of President Emeritus Oscar A.
Anderson, Augsburg’s eighth president, from 1963-80. Read the news release at
<www.augsburg.edu/news/news-archives/2005/oscaranderson.html> and see the
complete story in the next issue.
3
Around the Quad
Larry Crockett recognized for
Honors Program leadership
omputer science professor Larry
Crockett, who directed the Honors
Program from 1988 through this past
academic year, was honored by the
College for his service and vision for the
program over 16 years. Crockett will be
on sabbatical leave during spring 2006
and return in the fall to teach in the
Honors Program and computer science
department.
“His vision for the Honors Program
has shaped its curriculum and the
intellectual lives of its students,” said
academic dean Barbara Edwards Farley at
the April recognition gathering.
“Establishment of the Honors Suite gave
students a place to call their own; and
Larry’s work on the Honors Web page and
contributions to the National Collegiate
Honors Council have brought the College
national recognition,” she continued.
For several years, Augsburg’s Honors
Program Web site was the top-ranked
honors page at both Google and Yahoo.
Christopher Kimball, provost and dean
of the College, said that Crockett “cares
deeply about ideas, particularly those that
should shape and be shaped by a liberal
arts education.” Kimball recalled a
conversation in which Crockett lamented
that faculty only gather to take care of
questions of governance and legislation,
and no longer to converse about ideas.
“We never talk about the important stuff,”
Kimball recalled Crockett saying. “Those
are the things that got all of us into
academia.”
Crockett’s teaching crosses disciplinary
boundaries—computer science,
philosophy, history of science, theology,
and history. He has served in the clergy of
the Lutheran church, and is currently a
priest in the Episcopal church.
Both former and current students
testified to the impact that Crockett’s
sometimes unorthodox, but always
challenging, teaching made in their
education.
Erica Huls ’01 recalled the first day of
Honors 101 when students were asked to
4
Staff photo
C
Larry Crockett catches up with former
Honors Program students Erica Huls ’01 (left)
and Stephanie Lein Walseth ’00 (right) at the
reception honoring his leadership and service
to the program.
count the ceiling tiles in the classroom,
before pondering why it was that people
don’t sit around all day doing that. She
said that Crockett’s goal was to teach them
how to think, to make and defend
arguments, and to find fallacies in others.
“The program wanted us to look at
subjects like religion, science, and
technology, and see how they could live
and work together, just as they live and
work together in Dr. Crockett’s person,”
she said.
Senior Eric Dunens spoke about
community. “[Crockett] created a program
that surrounds its participants with the
best Augsburg has to offer. He’s created an
honors community that challenges its
participants to reach their potential. He’s
also created an honors community that
encourages students to interact with other
students and create a real community on
campus.”
Crockett participated on the Honors
Program Design Team to develop a new
proposal for the Honors Program. The
proposal was approved by the faculty,
and Crockett has worked with the team
implementing the program, along with
Robert Groven, the new Honors
Program director.
Bob Groven
named Honors
Program director
Augsburg News Service
R
obert Groven,
associate
professor of
communication
studies, has been
named to a threeyear term as
director of the
Honors Program.
Groven holds a Juris Doctorate from
the University of Minnesota Law School
and a Master of Arts in speech
communication from the University of
Minnesota. He is a 1989 graduate of
Concordia College-Moorhead, where he
participated in the honors program in
humanities. Groven, who has been a
member of the faculty since 1997, also is
director of Augsburg’s award-winning
forensics program and has led it to
national prominence in recent years.
In announcing the appointment,
Christopher Kimball, provost and dean
of the College, said, “Dr. Groven’s
philosophy of education, his vision for
an honors program education at
Augsburg, and his commitment to
student development and community
building make him an excellent choice
to assume leadership of the program.”
Kimball noted that an Honors Program
Council will be established this year to
work with the new director to guide the
development of the recently revised
program.
Kimball said that the Honors
Program—as noted in its operational
statements—both celebrates and
enhances the signature elements of
Augsburg’s Core Curriculum: Christian
vocation, global citizenship, the
importance of service, the value of
diversity, and the role of the city in
framing the College’s beliefs and values.
About 115 students participate in the
program each year.
Summer 2005
Making room for mental illness
P
rofessor Dan Hanson’s family has
struggled for a decade to understand
and care for their mentally ill son and
brother, Joel. The road has been difficult
and, at times, seemingly hopeless. Hanson
has transformed that journey into a book
that aims to give hope and support to
countless other families who also never
expected to find themselves in this
situation.
At age 20, Joel Hanson was diagnosed
with severe schizophrenia, and believes
that he is God. He lacks the insight to
understand why others can’t share his
delusion and why he must inhabit his
different reality alone. If he discontinues
his court-ordered medication, he stops
eating and drinking, and becomes severely
ill and dehydrated.
Dan Hanson explains that his book,
Room for J: A Family Struggles with
Schizophrenia, evolved in several ways. The
simplest is that it started out as a personal
journal. “Writing is often my way of
dealing with difficult situations,” he says.
“[My books] always emerge out of my
own struggle.”
As Hanson and his wife, Sue, sought
care and support for Joel, they also began
to consider a book that would help other
families navigate the social services system,
as well as deal with the sense of loss for a
loved one who has become a totally
different person.
And, thirdly, Hanson wanted to include
Joel’s own voice, his own writing about his
self-identity, to demonstrate how he, too,
Professor Dan Hanson
struggles with family and others who don’t
acknowledge or understand him for the
person he believes he is.
The book presents journal entries of
the Hanson family members. They talk
about good times, even during Joel’s
illness, when the Joel they know shines
through while out fishing or playing with
a nephew. But there are also the most
difficult times, when they fear for Joel,
when he becomes psychotic, when they
must confront him to force commitment,
or when they discover he’s gone off
medication and disappeared.
What the Hansons and other families
learn and face is that society does not deal
adequately with mental illness. Many
institutions and asylums were closed in
order to mainstream the mentally ill into
society, but the reality is that the programs
by Betsey Norgard
and support to
accomplish this are
severely underfunded and
understaffed. Some
end up reinstitutionalized in nursing
homes, prisons, or
state hospitals not
designed to treat
them—or they end
up on the street and helpless.
Ultimately, Hanson says, Room for J is
about making room for Joel in the family,
as well as challenging society to make
room “for all our Js, and to find ways to do
a better job of providing community-based
programs that integrate people who cope
with severe mental illness back into the
community so they feel respected, yet are
given the right kinds of program to survive
and even thrive in the social structure.”
Room for J has been welcomed and
critically acclaimed. It was recognized as a
“highlighted title” on an independent
publisher’s Web site. Hanson appreciates
hearing from others who find comfort in
understanding that they need not face
their challenges alone.
Dan and Sue Hanson spoke about the
book and insights the family has gained on
Minnesota Public Radio’s “Speaking of
Faith” program on July 17. That program
can be heard at <speakingoffaith.
publicradio.org>. Room for J: A Family
Struggles with Schizophrenia was published
last year by Beaver’s Pond Press.
Augsburg gains a provost and three new deans
Christopher
Kimball
Summer 2005
Barbara
Edwards Farley
Ann Garvey
Julie Olson
Last September, as part of a restructuring of the College
administration, Christopher Kimball became Augsburg’s first
provost, as well as continuing as dean of the College.
In further changes to the Academic and Student Affairs
division, three positions of dean were created. Barbara Edwards
Farley became academic dean, while Ann Garvey is now dean of
students. Formerly, both positions were associate deans.
Julie Olson ’98, ’05 MAL , formerly director of the Enrollment
Center, is the new dean of enrollment management, with
responsibility for the Enrollment Center; day, weekend, and
graduate admissions; and public relations and communication.
5
Around the Quad
Music therapy celebrates
past, present, and future
by Jessica Brown
F
aculty, alumni, and friends of
Augsburg’s music therapy program
gathered in April to celebrate its 30th
anniversary. They reflected on the growth
of the program, affirmed a leading role
for music therapy across many careers
and vocations, and proposed a vision for
its continued growth.
The original vision for music therapy
at Augsburg was that of longtime music
department chair Leland Sateren ’38, who
asked Prof. Robert Karlén to attend a
national conference in this emerging field.
Karlén was impressed, and invited
Roberta Kagin to teach the first music
therapy courses. She was eager. “As a
college student,” she said, “I saw a
demonstration by a talented composer
and pianist who asked handicapped
children to walk across the room to the
beat of her piano music. If music had the
power to influence the way these children
could move, what else might lie in its
power?”
Today, Augsburg’s more than 100
music therapy graduates live around the
world and work in a wide variety of
careers and fields that serve people of all
ages and needs—working with disabled
children to maximize their learning
potential, helping elderly people remain
active and engaged, and combining music
with many forms of treatment and
therapy to promote healing and wellness.
Keynote speaker Cheryl Dileo, from
Temple University, recounted personal
experiences from her career in which
music therapy is introduced in situations
of death and dying, i.e., of aiding people
in the transition from life to death. Where
communication can be difficult among
family members, Dileo says, “songs help
families express all the love they hold in
their hearts to the dying patient,” as well
as provide spiritual affirmation, healing,
and a musical legacy.
Speaker Bill Bowen spoke personally
about the value of music therapy to
6
people with physical and cognitive
challenges. He told of the instrumental
role that music therapy and Professor
Roberta Kagin played in the remarkable
progress of his son, Edward “Major”
Bowen, following surgery to remove a
brain tumor.
Kagin, honored as one of the original
architects of the program and its current
director, presented a slide presentation
and oral history of Augsburg’s music
therapy program and affirmed its place in
Augsburg’s curriculum. “The music
therapy major is firmly and without
apology steeped in a liberal arts
education,” she said. Students study a
four-year liberal arts course, followed by
an intense six-month internship with a
music therapist. Above all, music therapy
touches a very basic human need for
creative expression.
Kagin also spoke about music therapy
within a Center for Creativity and
Transformational Learning envisioned at
Augsburg. In addition, a master’s degree
in music and medicine is under
consideration. Augsburg remains the
Each year Augsburg music therapy students
join with VSA Arts of Minnesota in a music
festival for developmentally disabled children.
only music therapy program among
Minnesota’s private colleges.
For information about music therapy
at Augsburg, contact the Music
Department at 612-330-1265.
Jessica Brown is a communication specialist
in the Office of Public Relations and
Communication.
2005 teaching and learning distinctions
The 2005 awards for
Distinguished Contributions to
Teaching and Learning have
been announced by the Center
for Teaching and Learning and
the Office of the Provost.
TEACHING—
Kristin Anderson (standing),
associate professor, art
ADVISING/MENTORING—
David Wold (seated, left),
College pastor and director of
ministries, and Sonja Hagander
(seated, right), associate
College pastor
SERVICE TO STUDENTS—
Wendi Wheeler (seated,
center), Weekend College
academic coordinator
Summer 2005
Terry Lewis retires from PA program
T
erry Lewis, clinical site director and
faculty member of Augsburg’s
physician assistant program, retired from
Augsburg at the close of the 2004-05
academic year. He joined the PA program
in 1995 as clinical coordinator, having
spent several years prior as a physician
assistant in the military.
Lewis received his initial PA training in
1977 from the U.S. Army/Baylor University
PA Program in Texas. He went on to
receive his bachelor’s degree in 1983 from
Siena Heights University in Adrian, Mich.,
and his Master of Physician Assistant
Studies in 2002 from the University of
Nebraska.
“Terry and I [joined Augsburg] when
this program was new,” says Dawn
Ludwig, PA program director. “Terry’s
wisdom has been invaluable to me as this
program was molded into the premier
program it is today. … He is a kind and
patient person and I will miss him greatly.”
Over the course of his career in the
physician studies field, Lewis has received
numerous honors and awards, including
the U.S. Army PA of the Year in 1990,
presented by the surgeon general, as well
as 40 additional military honors. He has
presented numerous presentations around
the world, and his work has been
published in several PA reference works.
Not one to stand still—even in
retirement—Lewis has signed a one-year
Getting the project done right
P
roject management is carried out in
all kinds of organizations; and across
the board, advances in computer
technology and globalization of the
workforce have required everyone to
become smarter about managing work
and resources. Within information
technology, it has become a highly
specialized field that others are
beginning to notice.
Business Administration professor
Kathy Schwalbe has published a
textbook, Information Technology Project
Management, now in its fourth edition,
that incorporates the guidelines of the
Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK), information that the Project
Management Institute (PMI) uses as the
basis for its certification. Even while the
book is aimed at IT students, it is not so
advanced to preclude others who could
benefit from principles of good planning
and management.
After teaching a project management
course for several years, Schwalbe
decided to tackle the project of writing a
book the way she would like it, using
the PMBOK Guide as a basis and
Summer 2005
by Lynn Mena
Professor Terry Lewis
contract with a small rural health clinic in
Melba, Idaho (population 497).
by Betsey Norgard
advances in the field and
updating Microsoft Project
software. At her
publisher’s request
(Course Technology, a
branch of Thomson
Learning), she is also
working on a new project
management textbook,
not geared toward
Professor Kathy Schwalbe
information technology
projects, to be published
including many examples
in late 2005.
and exercises to help
Within the past two
students understand and
years, the second edition
apply project management. Information Technology
of Schwalbe’s book has
Project Management,
In every chapter, case
been
translated into
translated into Japanese
studies—both successes
Chinese and the third
and failure—feature actual
edition into Japanese,
applications of the project management
reflecting the growth and interest
framework. A companion Web site
worldwide in the project management
includes template files for creating
profession.
various project management documents,
A senior project manager for IBM
notes, quizzes, case studies, and links. In
Germany commented that global IT
five years sales of the book have
companies—especially in Japan, China,
exceeded 120,000 copies.
and India—are creating career models
On her Web site, Schwalbe explains
for project managers based on PMI
her intent to release a new edition of the
certification credentials.
book every spring, continually adding
7
Sports
Augsburg nets record number of academic
All-Americans
by Don Stoner
A
Charles Walbridge
ugsburg student-athletes set a new
milestone for academic performance
this season, as a record four athletes
earned ESPN The Magazine Academic AllAmerica honors from the College Sports
Information Directors of America
(CoSIDA).
Senior wrestler Mark Matzek and
junior Ryan Valek earned Academic AllAmerica men’s at-large honors, while
junior baseball player Darren Ginther
and track and field/cross country senior
Riley Conway earned Academic AllAmerica honors in their respective sports.
Four Auggie All-Americans represents
the most ever in a single year. Since 1981,
Augsburg student-athletes have earned 17
Academic All-America honors from
CoSIDA.
Matzek, a first-team men’s at-large
Academic All-America honoree, is profiled
in the story about honor athletes on page
nine.
Ginther, a first-team Academic AllAmerica selection in baseball, is a
secondary education/social studies major
with a 3.81 grade point average (GPA). He
also earned All-Minnesota Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference honors as well as
American Baseball Coaches
Association/Rawlings AllMidwest Region second-team
honors in 2005.
As the Auggies’ No. 2
starting pitcher, he finished as
one of the top hitters in the
MIAC this year, and was
Darren Ginther
Ryan Valek
Riley Conway
Augsburg’s fourth .400 hitter
since 1988.
Conway, a second-team Academic
Cross Country Coaches Association
All-America honoree, was the Auggies’ top
Scholar All-America honors his senior year.
runner in all seven cross country
Valek was a third-team men’s at-large
competitions in 2004, earning all-region
Academic All-America honoree. He earned
honors at the 2004 NCAA Division III
wrestling All-American honors for the
Central Regional in November. At the
second time in 2004-05, finishing second
MIAC championships in October, he
nationally at 165 pounds.
earned all-conference honorable-mention
Valek is an accounting major with a
honors.
3.789 GPA. He has earned National
In track and field, Conway earned
Wrestling Coaches Association Division III
All-MIAC honors at the outdoor
Scholar All-America honors in both 2004
conference championships in May. In the
and 2005.
indoor season, Conway set a school
Top student-athletes from non-Division
record as part of the distance-medley
I programs, who have already earned
relay squad.
Academic All-District first-team honors,
Conway had a perfect 4.000 GPA and
are eligible for inclusion in the ESPN The
graduated in May summa cum laude with
Magazine Academic All-America program.
an English major. He was an Academic
They must have a GPA above 3.20 (4.0
All-MIAC selection his junior and senior
scale) and have outstanding athletic
years in both track and field and cross
credentials. The Academic All-America
country, and earned NCAA Division III
ballot is voted on by a committee of
CoSIDA members.
In addition to the four Academic AllAmericans, Augsburg had three other
student-athletes earn ESPN The Magazine
Academic All-District V honors, saluting
the top student-athletes in a four-state area
of the Midwest. Senior women’s hockey
players Lauren Chezick and Laura Prasek
were named to the Academic All-District V
women’s at-large second team, and junior
Millie Suk earned Academic All-District V
first-team honors in women’s soccer.
For a full list of Augsburg 2004-05
athletic award-winners, go to
<www.augsburg.edu/athletics/sportsnews/
0405athleticawards.html>.
Augsburg wrestler Mark Matzek controls Wartburg’s Tyler Hubbard en route to a 4-2 win in a
dual meet in February at Si Melby Hall. Matzek repeated as NCAA Division III national champion
at 133 pounds in 2004-05.
8
Don Stoner is sports information
coordinator.
Summer 2005
Eight senior athletes are honored
A
ugsburg College honored eight
senior student-athletes for 2004-05.
Athletic awards are voted on by coaches
in Augsburg’s men’s and women’s athletic
departments.
Five Auggies were named Honor
Athletes, the highest honor the College
gives its senior student-athletes for
accomplishment, leadership, and
character on the playing field and in the
classroom. Three Auggie student-athletes
were named Men’s Athletes of the Year.
2004-05 AUGSBURG HONOR
ATHLETES
Lauren Chezick rewrote
the record book in
women’s hockey at
Augsburg. A three-year
captain on teams that
qualified for conference
playoffs in three seasons,
Chezick earned MIAC Player of the Year
and American Hockey Coaches Association
Division III All-American honors.
Chezick was named to the Dean’s List
five semesters and graduated with a 3.562
grade point-average (GPA) and a prelaw/communications major. She
volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and
served as a student-athlete mentor.
Joe Cullen earned
honors in both football
and wrestling. In football,
Cullen earned All-MIAC
first-team honors in 2004
after honorable-mention
honors in 2002 and 2003.
In wrestling, Cullen earned NCAA
Division III All-American honors in the
2003-04 season. He earned the wrestling
team’s Auggie Award his senior season.
Cullen was a mathematics major with a
3.500 grade-point-average.
He has also earned numerous national
and conference academic honors in both
football and wrestling.
Hannah Dietrich was a four-year member
of both Augsburg’s cross country and track
Summer 2005
and field teams and
played women’s hockey
two years.
In cross country,
Dietrich was a team
captain and No. 3 runner
her senior season.
In track and field, Dietrich was a top
middle-distance runner, earning three
MIAC championships. In 2005, she
qualified and competed at the national
outdoor meet in the 1,500-meter run.
A psychology major with a 3.672 GPA,
she graduated with departmental honors
in psychology, national honor and
leadership society recognition, and
numerous academic athletic and
leadership awards. In 2004, she was voted
Homecoming Queen.
Adam Hoffmann, a
three-year offensive line
starter in football, was
named to the Division
III Preseason AllAmerica team by the
D3football.com Web site
in 2004, and was named to the Football
Gazette Division III All-West Region third
team at the conclusion of his senior
campaign. A two-year captain, Hoffmann
was voted the team’s top lineman by his
teammates for three years, and earned the
team’s highest honor, the Edor Nelson
Auggie Award, in 2004.
Hoffmann graduated with a 3.770
GPA as a finance major. He was an
Augsburg Presidential Scholar and a
student-athlete mentor.
Mark Matzek, one of
the top lightweight
wrestlers in school
history, won national
titles at 133 pounds his
junior and senior
campaigns, while earning
NCAA Division III All-American honors
three times.
Finishing his collegiate career with a
42-match winning streak, Matzek
dominated his weight class in the 2004-05
by Don Stoner
campaign. He earned the team’s Coaches
Award his senior season, was the team’s
Auggie Award winner his junior season,
and earned the team’s Most Improved
Wrestler award his sophomore season
Matzek graduated as a mathematics
and secondary education major with a
3.408 grade-point-average.
2004-05 AUGSBURG ATHLETES OF
THE YEAR
Mike Elcano has been a
team leader throughout
his career for Augsburg’s
men’s soccer team. In
2004 he led the
conference in overall
scoring. He finished his
career with Augsburg’s all-time record for
goals with 35, and earned MIAC honors in
two years. He graduated with a major in
finance.
Jeremy Nelson emerged
as one of the top pitchers
in recent years for
Augsburg’s baseball team.
He was Augsburg’s No. 1
starter throughout his
four seasons, and earned
MIAC and regional honors over two years.
He graduated with a marketing major, was
on the Dean’s List, and served as a studentathlete mentor.
Jamell Tidwell was a
four-year starter on the
varsity squad and a fourtime qualifier for the
NCAA Division III
national championships.
He earned All-American
honors three times and finished his career
with a 155-17 record, second best in wins
in school history. A health and physical
education major, he was one of 10
members of an Augsburg academic
national team that finished sixth nationally
in team GPA this year.
Don Stoner is sports information
coordinator.
9
Augsburg’s fifth INTERNATIONAL
OFF-CAMPUS STUDIES PHOTO CONTEST
1 Scenic landscapes, first place.
“MY CHAIR,” Jamie Schiller ’05.
Venice, Italy.
2 Scenic landscapes, second place.
“STRENGTH, SWEAT, AND
SOUL,” Lindsay Plocher ’06.
Cuernavaca, Mexico.
3 Scenic landscapes, third place.
“BUILDING BRIDGES,” Lindsay
Plocher ’06. Cuernavaca, Mexico.
4 Local culture, second place.
“SAWADEE CROP,” Rachel
Schuette ’03. Bangkok, Thailand.
5 Local culture, first place. “LUK
LUK,” Rachel Schuette ’03.
Chiang Mai, Thailand.
6 Augsburg students in a host
setting, second place. “ON
WATCH,” Sari Gallagher ’08. U.S.
Virgin Islands.
1
3
2
10
4
Summer 2005
7
5
8
6
7 Augsburg students in a host setting, first place.
“A TROPICAL MINNESOTA NIGHT,” Maria Roots
Morland ’05. Minneapolis, Minn.
8 Augsburg students in a host setting, third place.
“LAST DAY,” David Nash ’04. Edinburgh, Scotland.
9 Local culture, third place. “GAMBLING DURING
RAMADAN,” Jake Renze ’05. Morocco.
Summer 2005
9
11
COMMENCEMENT
2005
The 136TH YEAR of Augsburg College
photos by Stephen Geffre (except as noted)
TONY SCHADEN RECEIVES
MARINA CHRISTENSEN
JUSTICE AWARD
The Augsburg campus provided
fresh spring blooms as a backdrop
for family photos.
REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE
CLASS OF
2005
❚ Glenda C. Holste,
representing graduate students
❚ Gretchen M. Hemmingsen,
representing day students
❚ Nicholas J. Schumm,
representing weekend students
12
Tony Schaden, a history major from
Minneapolis, was selected as the 2005
recipient of the Marina Christensen
Justice Award.
Each year, this honor is presented
to the graduating senior who best
exemplifies Augsburg’s motto
“Education for Service.” The student
must have demonstrated a dedication
Tony Schaden, a history major from to community involvement as
Minneapolis, was honored with the 2005 characterized by the personal and
Marina Christensen Justice Award during the
Commencement ceremony. professional life of Marina Christensen
Justice, who courageously and
effectively reached out to disadvantaged people and communities.
Schaden grew up in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood and was a member of
Trinity Congregation, where he has been a longtime volunteer with the Safe Place
Tutoring Program.
At Augsburg he has held numerous leadership roles, including serving as
chaplain for the Pan-Afrikan Student Association for the past two years, as organizer
of Peace Day in the Park, and as a member of the Outreach Ministry Team through
Campus Ministry. He has done service-learning at Women against Military Madness,
as well as volunteered with Campus Kitchens and mentored youth at the Wednesday
Night Out program in the neighborhood.
Among his numerous awards and honors are the Dean’s Award for student
leadership, the Pan-Afrikan Ambassador of the Year Award for commitment to
campus and community, the Win Wallin Scholarship, and the Bilkie Scholarship.
Paul Cummings, president-elect of
Augsburg’s student body, wrote this
about Schaden: “Giving back to the
community is part of Tony’s very nature.
The courageous example he is setting
within his community and family has
given many people hope that they too
may succeed in college. Tony is a role
model in the Cedar-Riverside
neighborhood. His actions in service to
his family and community speak
volumes about his true character.”
In the coming year he will expand
his work with youth mentoring and
counseling, serving in Brazil and Africa
under the auspices of the Wapagasset
Luther Bible Camp.
Students processed from Foss Center to Melby
Hall for the Commencement ceremony.
Summer 2005
“ON OUR OWN—AGAIN”
Excerpts from the Baccalaureate Address
William V. Frame, President, Augsburg College
May 7, 2005—Ascension Sunday
… The thing that Graduation has in common with the Ascension is separation. You
are leaving us today and are henceforth and in a new way “on your own;” Jesus leaves
the Disciples at Ascension. They are “on their own.” And so—What is the good news
in this Separation—either yours from the College or the Disciples from Christ?
Staff photo
The Commencement concert featured
performances by the Augsburg Choir and
Augsburg Chamber Orchestra.
If we stick with the relationship between you and us, a preliminary and happy
interpretation is quite possible. Not that we’re glad to be rid of you … but your
separation from the College is a necessary condition of your full engagement with the
world. However successfully we have introduced you to the city and to the global
society of which it is so much and evidently a part, Augsburg College remains a refuge
and a training ground, a harbor ringed round by our core general education
curriculum; an open cloister in which we can talk “… of many things: Of shoes—and
ships—and sealing wax—of cabbages—and kings … .” All that talking, and especially
about such things as these, yields self-knowledge at exactly the rate at which it yields
knowledge of the world. …
But when we turn to the Easter Story itself, the good news lies deeper and is harder to
detect. According to the lectionary passage from Acts, the first consequence for the
disciples of their separation from Jesus is the loss of their special access to the Divine
Plan.
They ask: “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus
responds: “It is not for you to know the time or period that the Father has set by his
own authority.”
Kathy Rumpza, advertising and graphic
design manager for Augsburg’s public
relations department, posed with her
husband, Matt Rumpza, manager of
Augsburg’s Central Support Services, prior to
receiving her Master of Arts in Leadership.
You can sense their stunned reaction. “After giving up everything of our own to follow
you; after all that we've been through together-you leave! And at the same time cut us
off from the very knowledge you’ve been so anxious to reveal to us. You've left us on
our own in this world after pointing us time and again, especially recently, at the other
world.”
Before they have time to register this complaint with their ascending Lord, he
imposes upon them a task—to be performed in his absence. For the sake of this
task, he expects them “to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.” …
Both the good news and the good sense in this is camouflaged by
the pathos of the separation. Just behind the fact that the disciplesand, through them, we—have been left on our own by the
ascension, lies the fact that we were prepared for this independence
by the whole of the Easter story—including the part of it here at
issue. Christ’s refusal to answer the disciples’ request for knowledge
of the Divine Plan—indeed, his general refusal to give us any
detailed portrait of heaven-keeps our attention where the Gospel
focuses it-not on the next world but this. The Easter story—all of it,
including the ascension-gives us the tools (including a carefully
confined ignorance) to take up, for the first time, life on our own.
To read the complete address, go to
<www.augsburg.edu/president/bacc05.pdf>.
Christopher Kimball, provost and dean of the College, handed out
honors cords during the Honors Convocation.
Summer 2005
13
COMMENCEMENT 2005
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS:
“IF YOU CAN'T GET OUT OF IT…”
Dawn Ludwig, director of the Physician
Assistant Program, placed a master’s
hood on Patricia Rodriguez.
Nicholas Schumm, Weekend College Class of 2005
representative, addressed the crowd at the
Commencement ceremony.
Following are excerpts from Parker J. Palmer’s Commencement address; download
the complete address at <www.augsburg.edu/president/palmer05.pdf>
… I was raised by a father who gave my two sisters and me the perfect
graduation speech at breakfast every school day. Dad had a thousand aphorisms,
brief and pithy sayings designed to point us kids in the right direction. Well, it
seemed like he had a thousand, but he probably only had 50, which he recycled
constantly.
We’d be almost finished with breakfast, my sisters and I, when Dad would
look at us and say, “Just remember kids, add a little ‘oomph’ to ‘try’ and you get
‘triumph.’ Now off you go!”
Or on another day he’d look at us and say, “Just remember kids, there’s only
one-letter’s difference between hero and zero. Now off you go!”
… Now, if I had any sense I’d say “Off you go!” and sit down, having
delivered succinct advice from a highly reliable source, my father. But there are a
few more things I’d like to say …
First, we never outgrow our need for teachers … as you go down the road
called life after college, stay alert for your next teacher, and the next, and the
next. It may be a family member, a friend, a child, a stranger, it may even be a socalled enemy. If the teacher does not appear, reach out for him or her. Your need
for a teacher will draw that person to you if you make your need known. …
A second lesson is this: whatever good and true thing you want to do, go
ahead and take the first step … of course the big enemy of trust and risk-taking
is fear. But here we can take good counsel from the religious tradition in which
this college is rooted: “Be not afraid.” Those words do not say that you should
not have fear, which we all do (at least I do); instead they say you need not be
your fear. Right alongside our fear we have other places within us, places with
names like hope, and faith, and trust. We can look at the world from those
places instead of from our fears. …
Here’s the third lesson: when you face into that fear as you step off the cliff
… seek out people with whom you can tell it like it is. …
A fourth lesson is this: know that you have an inner guide, an inner teacher,
a true self who will be there for you when all
else fails. …
And finally, a fifth lesson … “If you can’t
get out of it, get into it.” Of course there are
some things that you can get out of, and you
should: a relationship that kills your spirit, a
job that contradicts your most basic values
… but there are other things that we can’t
get out of, so we had better get into them.
And one of them is to fully inhabit
ourselves, which means making the most of
our gifts and being honest about our
shadows. …
So congratulations to all of you, and
many blessings for your journey. And, as my
father would surely say, “Now off you go!”
Parker Palmer (center), Commencement ceremony keynote speaker, was presented the Augsburg
Medal by President Frame and Jean Taylor ’85, chair of the Board of Regents.
14
Summer 2005
Staff photo
THE AUGSBURG COLLEGE
Twin brothers Robert Amaya (left) and Renzo
Amaya Torres (right) celebrated the day with their
mother, who flew to Minnesota from Colombia to
watch her sons graduate.
630
Candidates for graduation
355
Day program candidates
144
Weekend College candidates
85
Graduate program candidates (20 Master of Arts in Leadership,
35 Master of Social Work, 6 Master of Arts in Nursing, 16 Master
of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, 8 Master of Arts in
Education)
33
Rochester program candidates
9
United Hospital candidates
4
3M candidates
20-65
10
Jubilant students celebrated after the
Commencement ceremony.
Summer 2005
CLASS OF 2005
Age range of graduates in the Class of 2005
Countries other than the United States represented (Belarus,
Bolivia, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Mexico, Norway,
Philippines, Sweden, and Vietnam)
After the Commencement ceremony ended, students exited Melby Hall to join their
families at the reception in Murphy Square.
15
Dean ’75 and Terry Kennedy donate $2 million to
Melby Hall expansion
by Dan Jorgensen
The proposed addition to Si Melby Hall, as shown from the southwest corner, is adjacent to
Edor Nelson Field, facing 23rd Avenue South.
All-American his senior year. He also
was a two-time Minnesota Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference champion, and twotime MIAC Tournament Most Valuable
Player. In dual-meet competition, he lost
only one match during his career and
had 53 victories his junior and senior
seasons. In 1996, he was inducted into
the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame.
He credits the discipline instilled in
him by his coaches and mentors,
particularly Mike Good ’71 (a current
Augsburg regent) and John Grygelko
(Augsburg’s head coach from 1973-80),
as keys to his success.
Good preceded Kennedy at both
Fridley High School and Augsburg where
he, too, was a champion wrestler. He
went on to a successful business career
in New York and has served on
Continued on page 19
16
Dean Kennedy ’75 shared a moment of
honor with his wife, Terry, when he was
inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in
1996 for his career as an Auggie AllAmerican wrestler.
Thanks to the generous gifts from
Augsburg alumni and friends, the
ceremonial groundbreaking for the
south wing addition is scheduled
for Oct. 29. Ground cannot be
broken, however, until the
remaining $1.5 million in gifts and
pledges is secured. Contact the
Development Office at
612-338-0002 or 1-800-273-0617.
Summer 2005
David Santos/H. Larson Photography
A former All-American wrestler and his
wife have contributed $2 million to
Access to Excellence: The Campaign for
Augsburg College in support of a major
addition to the College’s athletic center,
Si Melby Hall.
The gift, made by Fridley natives
Dean Kennedy ’75, and his wife, Terry,
was announced recently by Augsburg
President William V. Frame, who said
the gift not only is “a magnificent
gesture of support for the campaign, but
also significant recognition for the work
of coaches and others who shape the
lives of those of our students and
colleagues who are engaged in athletics.”
Kennedy, an independent businessman, was the first four-time AllLutheran Tournament champion in the
tournament’s history. And he was at the
front end of what has been built into the
most successful small-college wrestling
program in the nation. In his senior year
as co-captain, Kennedy led Augsburg to
a runner-up spot in the NAIA national
finals with a third-place finish at 142
pounds. In the ensuing 30 years,
Augsburg has consistently finished
among the top 10 in the nation, winning
a record nine NCAA Division III
national titles and taking second place
seven more times.
A four-year varsity wrestler for
Augsburg, Kennedy was a 142-pound
The Augsburg Fund annual goal of $1 million reached again
Significant growth in alumni giving to
The Augsburg Fund made an aggressive
goal of $1 million reachable for the fiscal
year ending May 31. The annual fund
primarily supports student financial aid
through scholarships and grants. Since
this is unrestricted annual giving, gifts
also may be used to provide for the
critical needs of the College such as
technology advancement and other
strategic operations.
“This is the second time in
Augsburg’s history that $1million has
been raised in one year for The
Augsburg Fund,” said Stephanie Malone,
director of the fund. “The standard has
been set, so it should be an achievable
goal in the future.”
Significant giving this year came
from the Alumni Board with 100 percent
participation, the Board of Regents, and
two class challenges generated by
Alumni Board members and volunteer
leaders, including the “Decade of the
’70s Challenge.”
Ken ’74 and Linda (Bailey) ’74
Holmen provided the lead gift to the
challenge, followed by more than 200
fellow alumni from the decade of the ’70s.
Five alumni families from the
1970s—Rick Colvin ’74, Mark ’79 and
Pamela (Hanson) ’79 Moksnes, Robert
’74 and Andrea (Johnson) ’75 Strommen,
Philip ’79 and Julia (Davis) ’79 Styrlund,
and Thomas Peterson ’70—issued a
$50,000 challenge and 1:1 dollar match
to ensure new levels of support and gifts
of $100,000 to the College.
“The Decade of the ’70s Challenge
was a dollar-focused challenge that
matched new and increased gifts to The
Augsburg Fund,” said Malone. “We are
pleased with the results and hope that
next year other individuals will come
forward and think of creative ways to
sustain the College.
“It was a highly successful year in
terms of participation levels. First time
donor giving rose 100 percent, and
alumni giving increased from 20 percent
to a participation rate of 25 percent.”
Repeat and increased giving also were
noticeable. All donors at the $10,000
level renewed their gifts, and new donors
were added to the $25,000+ level,
currently the top tier for gifts to The
Augsburg Fund.
Reunion year activities and volunteer
involvement this year also sparked the
growth of annual giving, led by Alumni
Board initiatives. Class agents, who
engaged their classmates through letters
and contacts, were also extremely
beneficial in helping to meet annual fund
needs. “We will especially miss the efforts
of class agent Wes Sideen ’58 who passed
away earlier this year,” said Malone. He
affected many Augsburg families by his
vigor for life and commitment to his
alma mater.”
Giving to The Augsburg Fund is an
important component of the $55 million
capital campaign, Access to Excellence:
The Campaign for Augsburg College. “We
hope alumni and friends of the College
will continue to make The Augsburg
Fund a priority,” Malone said.
“We hope they continue to offer
prayers and gifts of support and that the
first gift they make every year is a gift to
The Augsburg Fund as a way to ‘check in’
annually with their alma mater,” she
continued. “After that we hope they will
consider special opportunities based on
the College’s priorities, like building and
endowment initiatives. Gifts to Augsburg
offer a future of access and excellence to
our students.”
For information on how to contribute
to The Augsburg Fund, contact Stephanie
Malone at <malone@augsburg.edu> or
612-338-4825. ■
Campaign progress
$41.1M of $55M goal
as of 7-31-05
Summer 2005
17
What is your dream job? For many of us,
travel would play a part in our dream. The
Reverend Dr. Arne Markland ’49, and his
wife, Jean (Swanson) ’52 Markland, have
lived their dream of seeing the world.
Their gift for storytelling has landed
them on the lecture circuit for a number of
cruises—162 and counting. Arne first
starting working on cruise ships as a
chaplain and history lecturer and has
amassed a repertoire of 156 lectures on
countries and islands around the world.
Jean shares her knowledge and
expertise of how nutrition affects the
brain. They have acted as destination art
lecturers and have been fortunate to
collect art on their travels. Their cruise
travel has taken them mainly overseas.
“We’re waiting to cruise to Sri Lanka,
India, Havana, New Orleans, and Lake
Wobegon,” said Arne.
The Marklands have spent their lives
encouraging people to enthusiastically
embrace learning. Since graduating from
Augsburg, Arne became a campus and
parish pastor in Georgia, South Dakota,
and Utah. He also served as a military
chaplain for four years. Jean used her
skills as a teacher and taught many
different subjects in the public school
system as a secondary school educator for
30 years.
Recently the Marklands established an
endowed scholarship to help support
students who want to attend Augsburg
from two high schools: Hillcrest Lutheran
Academy in Fergus Falls, Minn., and Oak
Grove Lutheran School in Fargo, N.Dak.
Arne grew up in the Norwegian section
of Brooklyn, N.Y., but his parents sent him
to Hillcrest Lutheran Academy in Fergus
Falls for high school. Jean is from Bemidji,
Minn., and has had an interest in Oak
Grove Lutheran School.
The scholarship is structured so if
there are no students accepted to
Augsburg from these high schools in a
given year, the scholarship will be given to
a current Augsburg student who will
attend Luther Seminary or one who has an
interest in secondary education.
“We have always been interested in
Christian education,” said Jean. “I liked
the spiritual values of Augsburg when I
was attending college. Augsburg has
Courtesy photo
Marklands endow a scholarship as they cruise into retirement
Rev. Dr. Arne ’49 and Jean (Swanson) ’52
Markland are enjoying second careers as
cruise ship lecturers while staying connected
with Augsburg through an endowed
scholarship.
always stressed the values of serving and
giving to others.”
Perhaps like the Marklands you want to
make student dreams a reality. After all,
85 percent of Augsburg’s students receive
financial aid and scholarship support.
Contact the Development Office at
612-338-0002 or 1-800-273-0617 to offer
encouragement and significant financial
assistance for students. ■
Ellingers support Science Center through student-faculty research
Albert Einstein’s words, “It is high time
that the ideal of success should be
replaced by the ideal of service,” reflect the
giving spirits of Patricia (Olson) ’71 and
Mark ’71 Ellinger. The Ellingers, both
biology majors at Augsburg, have enjoyed
success in their careers and are now giving
back in ways that will serve others.
18
Last year, they established an
endowment, the Ellinger Faculty Scholar,
to provide support for faculty research to
include student collaboration. “We really
appreciated how the research program was
developed,” said Pat. “It is our way to
support the new Science Center and
faculty research because of the positive
experiences we had at Augsburg.”
“We were both drawn to Augsburg
because of the strong science and
biomedical programs and its Lutheran
heritage,” continued Pat. Mark, who
transferred to Augsburg during his junior
year, echoed that: “I had a deep and
continuing interest in the relationship of
Summer 2005
Dean and Terry Kennedy, continued
Augsburg’s board for the past three years.
Just out of college in 1971, Good
convinced Kennedy to come to Augsburg
and then coached him his freshman year.
Grygelko was Kennedy’s coach for his
final three years.
“I was fortunate to be on the varsity
for four years and take my lead from
good leaders who remain my lifelong
friends,” Kennedy said. “It was such an
important part of my life at the time, and
it molded me and shaped my values as a
person.
“Terry and I have been blessed to be
in the position to do this. We’re doing it
for Jeff Swenson ’79, Mike Good, John
Grygelko, and all the outstanding young
men for whom the Augsburg wrestling
program has meant so much. And now
that we’ve thought it through and made
the commitment, we’re feeling very good
about it, both of us.”
Swenson is current wrestling coach
and assistant dean for athletics and
recreation. Kennedy said he is a great
admirer of Swenson’s coaching, but more
importantly how he has shaped his team
members into outstanding men who
excel in the classroom and in society.
“Augsburg has done a very good job
in working with its student-athletes. I
took great pride in the program when I
was there, and 30 years later I’m still able
to take pride. When I was at this year’s
national tournament (in Northfield,
Minn.) I was very impressed by Jeff’s
work with these young men. They were
articulate and, even with all their
success, very humble. I attribute that to
Jeff and his coaches.
“You see a lot of successful ‘sports’
programs, but you don’t hear them talk
about their graduation rates or inclassroom successes. But you do hear
that at Augsburg. This is a college that
teaches its students how to think
critically and care about the world. I
wanted to be supportive of that.”
Kennedy said he also was spurred
into making his gift by an earlier gift
science and religion, which continues to
captivate me.” Both of them enjoyed
learning in smaller classes and taking a
wide array of liberal arts in addition to
the required biology courses for their
majors.
Taking Professor Robert Herforth’s
Developmental Biology course
influenced Mark significantly: it’s where
he and Pat met, and it convinced Mark
to pursue a Ph.D.
Pat has never regretted following a
career in medical technology suggested
by her chemistry professor Courtland
Agre. She went on to specialize in blood
banking and obtained a master’s degree in
health education.
For many years both Mark and Pat
Ellinger have mentored students about
the importance of science careers and
research. The Ellinger scholarship will
further those efforts; and for its first
recipient, biology professor Mark
Strefeler, it will provide enhanced
resources for his research and support
for a student assistant.
Summer 2005
made by Twin Cities wrestling legend
Alan Rice—a non-Augsburg alum who
donated $1 million to the campaign just
a year ago. Kennedy said he had long
known and admired Rice, and when he
saw that kind of commitment from him,
he knew that he, too, needed to step
forward to insure that good facilities
were available for future generations.
The goal for the new facility is about
$5 million, and nearly $4 million has
now been raised. The College hopes to
bring in the last of the money by fall and
have a ceremonial groundbreaking soon
thereafter.
“I hope that Terry’s and my gift will
not only spark interest in other
generations of Augsburg athletes whose
lives have been shaped by the College,
but also by Augsburg alumni in general
in support of the many other important
projects, such as the new Science Center,
that will serve so many students in so
many different ways,” Kennedy said. ■
The Ellinger Faculty Scholarship has
supported the collaborative research of
biology professor Mark Strefeler and student
assistant Andrea Carlson ’05.
19
Seed family endows StepUP to affirm others
SM
Adam Seed’s life changed when he
attended Augsburg. “It took Hazelden
and Don Warren, former StepUP SM
director, to jumpstart me,” said Seed.
“Don Warren saw my potential and
made me believe in myself. He was
always available to me and the other
students.”
Seed was one of the first students in
Augsburg’s StepUP program, which
supports students in recovery to achieve
academic success.
Now it’s Seed’s turn to share his
passion for the program and offer his
unique insight as co-chair of the StepUP
Alumni Board. “His leadership, wisdom,
and strong recovery are necessary assets
for the Alumni Board,” said Patrice
Salmeri, StepUP director.
“I want to make a connection with
others and come up with unique
solutions to common problems,” Seed
said. “I’d also like to help re-establish
alumni connections and contribute to
the decisions concerning StepUP’s
present and future. StepUP is a major
part of who I am today and its health
and possibility for the future are very
important to me. Augsburg’s part in my
Vision is published by
Augsburg College, 2211 Riverside Ave.,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454.
Editor and Writer
Lynn James
Contributing Writer
Dan Jorgensen
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
www.augsburg.edu/campaign
20
Jim and Adam Seed
development was crucial. It’s my hope
that students take the opportunity to get
uncomfortable and grow in areas that
typically don’t occur naturally.”
Seed’s family also continues to be
involved with StepUP because of the
impact it had on his life. In 2003 the
Seed family received the Toby LaBelle
Award as the StepUP Family of the Year.
Recently, they showed support for the
program by answering the Parent/Family
and Friend Challenge.
“By endowing the StepUP program—
both as a physical and financial
resource—we hope to create more
certainty for its future,” said Jim Seed,
Adam’s father. “We appreciate what was
available to Adam and to others. I’d also
like to commend [President] Bill Frame
on his dedication to this program and to
Augsburg,” said Jim.
“I appreciate the commitment and
loyalty to the program shown by the
Seeds,” said Salmeri. “Since its inception
in 1997, when Adam was in the class of
founding students, the program has
grown from 23 students to 53 students.
Our new home, [the] Gateway
[Building], will house 84 students.”
“The original model for the StepUP
program evolved over the last eight
years,” Jim Seed said. “Young people are
living in a small community and
supporting each other. Prior to StepUP it
was something that was impossible for
them to do on their own. It’s a
transformational environment where
students break through the memories of
failure and then come back into that
environment.
“It’s a wonderful program. It will be
affirming and visionary if this program is
constructed and transported to other
colleges and universities. StepUP is a
paradigm for life. As a collective group
we have to help each other.” ■
GATEWAY CONSTRUCTION
FURTHERED BY CHALLENGE GIFTS
Thanks to the generous support by the
Seed family and others, StepUP’s
Parent/Family and Friend Challenge met
its goal. The challenge, set by Jim Johnson
in the spring of 2004, raised $425,000
toward construction of the Gateway
Building that will house the StepUP
program.
Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae,
likes the urban village concept of the
planned mixed-use office/retail/residential
Gateway Building. He also appreciates
the collaboration between the University
of Minnesota and Augsburg, with both
institutions serving the neighborhood and
addressing needs for retail and housing.
Johnson has been supportive of education
and a strong proponent of higher
education. At Augsburg, Johnson honored
his mother, Adeline (Rasmussen) ’31
Johnson, by establishing a scholarship in
her name.
Summer 2005
FINDING THE RIGHT CAREER
F
O
R
M
U
L
A
by Betsey Norgard
TRYING OUT THE OPTIONS
Senior Jennifer Geis has shaped her own career goals in just this
way. She came to Augsburg having been turned on to math in the
eighth grade and having studied two years of college math as a
postsecondary student. But, she really didn’t have a career focus,
and hadn’t even settled on a math major. After two years of
Summer 2005
Staff photo
S
On one of the first nice days in spring, students in Professor
Rebekah Dupont’s (second from left) class enjoyed solving their
math problems outside on the Quad.
Stephen Geffre
tudying mathematics can open doors to increasing numbers
of varied careers and jobs for students. Often called the
“language of science,” mathematics provides a structure and
the tools to solve many kinds of problems, especially within the
increasing complexity of today’s sciences and technology.
In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2002 Jobs Rated Almanac,
eight of the 10 “best jobs”—biologist, actuary, financial planner,
computer-systems analyst, software engineer, meteorologist,
statistician, and astronomer—all require complex understanding
and interpretation of numbers.
Even more telling of how mathematics is becoming “cool” is
the popularity of the new CBS-TV show, Numb3rs, in which a
mathematician helps the FBI solve crimes through mathematical
modeling—constructing formulas to reveal patterns and predict
behavior.
Using mathematics as a complementary skill to a variety of
disciplines makes it a valuable second major or minor. Augsburg
students combine math with physics, computer science, biology,
psychology, economics, as well as music, English, Spanish, and
religion.
While some students know they want to pursue a degree in
mathematics, many students generally don’t enter Augsburg
intending to major in math, or even to study it. So, how does the
mathematics faculty help students sort out the possibilities for
math in liberal arts, for teaching, for research, for graduate
school, and for using math in both theory and application?
“We encourage them to pursue opportunities for out-of-class
experiences such as community service, undergraduate research,
paper presentations, and internships,” said department chair
Rebekah Dupont. “Then, as part of our advising, we talk about
what they liked best, and what perhaps they didn’t.
“Our focus is really on helping students to activate their
potential by connecting them to opportunities they might not
have known about.”
Senior Jennifer Geis has taken advantage of internships, tutoring, and
research to help her pursue a career in statistics.
mathematics courses at Augsburg, she knew she was hooked.
“When my professors realized I was spending more time
in the math department than anywhere else, they encouraged
me to improve my teaching and tutoring skills,” said Geis.
She began assisting with grading and tutoring in calculus,
linear algebra, statistics, and courses for non-majors.
It was a course in actuarial science that really sparked her
interest and led to her work with Professor Ken Kaminsky on
the textbook he had just completed. While giving the
textbook a trial run in one of his classes, Kaminsky asked
Geis to help him proofread, review the ease of layout, and
21
Stephen Geffre
Stephen Geffre
Professor Ken Kaminsky tried out his new textbook with classes over several semesters, and
tests his math cartoons with the readers of Augarithms, the bi-weekly department newsletter.
Rhythm and ‘Rithmetic—Music professor Bob
Stacke ’71 (left) and math professor Matt
Haines (right) presented an interactive
seminar for Augsburg faculty, staff, and
students to demonstrate how counting beats
in a measure is really mathematics.
verify the accuracy of the answers—
while also gaining a bird’s-eye view into
how a professor engages in academic
scholarship.
Kaminsky encouraged Geis to pursue
a double major in mathematics and
actuarial science, which she is able to do
through the Associated Colleges of the
Twin Cities (ACTC) consortium,
allowing students to take courses at four
other private colleges when they’re not
learned how to communicate clearly and
how to explain myself carefully.”
This summer, she left the business
world to accept a research internship in
statistics at North Carolina State
University, funded through the National
Science Foundation. This gives her an
introduction to the wider application of
statistics than actuarial science offers.
Mathematics major Tim Bancroft,
who is now at Iowa State University
T E A C H I N G
Mathematics professors Tracy Bibelnieks
and Matthew Haines usually focus on
helping college math majors head to
graduate school or other careers. Recently,
though, they have spent considerable time
together with education specialists across
the country studying the mathematical
knowledge needed by college students
who are preparing to become teachers.
This is important because everyone is
learning mathematics differently now than
how it was taught years ago—even only
five years ago. Starting in early grades,
children begin playing games with
numbers—tossing pennies and making
charts to learn about probability, for
instance. In each succeeding year, their
classroom learning builds on and expands
the knowledge and skills they
already have.
It means that elementary teachers need
to develop a deeper understanding of
numbers than just how to add two
22
available on the home campus.
Geis put her skills into practice for a
year as an intern at Allianz Life
Insurance. She became part of a team
implementing a major, new actuarial
reserving system and feels fortunate to
have been given a role and responsibility.
Plus, she learned more.
“Some of the most important things
I’ve learned working at Allianz have
nothing to do with math,” she said. “I’ve
M A T H E M A T I C S
T O
numbers, or divide, or multiply. High school
calculus teachers must understand how
their students learned mathematics as they
progressed through the grades—how their
thinking developed and how they
communicate mathematical concepts.
Bibelnieks and Haines focused their
research on mathematics content for
students preparing to be elementary
teachers who have neither a strong
background in math nor an interest in
teaching it. Already, together with
Augsburg’s K-6 mathematics education
specialist Linda Stevens, they’ve made
content revisions in two mathematics
courses.
It has been a more difficult assignment
than they imagined.
“How you teach pre-service teachers
[education majors] is different from how
you teach somebody who’s going on to
graduate school in math, says Bibelnieks.
“You have to go out of your comfort zone
T E A C H E R S
and learn what it means to be an
elementary teacher in some sense.”
Bibelnieks, Haines, and Stevens received
Minnesota State Education Department
funding to work with current teachers on
acquisition of content knowledge in
mathematics and its application to
classroom learning. An in-service workshop
first focused on mathematics content;
Bibelnieks, Haines, and Stevens then
advised the teachers during the school year
in class activities. The project goal was to
develop a “professional continuum,” in
which knowledge gained from current
teachers informs how future teachers learn,
who then go into the field, etc.
This summer Bibelnieks and Haines
presented papers at an international
conference in Brazil outlining Augsburg’s
new curriculum as well as Haines’
participation in a wider longitudinal study
looking at where education students learn
their mathematics.
Summer 2005
Staff photo
working on a master’s degree in statistics,
was able to enter graduate school with
solid research experience. He took a
project from his Discrete Mathematics
Structures class with Professor Su Dorée
and developed a research project in
combinatorics, which studies the
arrangement of objects. For the cointrading game called Bulgarian Exchange,
Bancroft took results from the solitaire
version of this game and generalized the
patterns and repetitive cycle of twoperson play. Together with Dorée,
Bancroft presented his research at a
national mathematics conference.
Stephen Geffre
Tim Bancroft began grad school with solid
research and presentation skills from a
project he carried out with Professor Su
Dorée involving prediction of patterns in a
coin-trading game.
S T U D E N T S AT T H E
CUTTING EDGE
Professor Tracy Bibelnieks considers
herself an applied mathematician, which
in her words involves “using theoretical
mathematics in innovative ways to solve
rich business problems.”
She previously worked as a consultant,
applying mathematics to the analysis of
huge customer databases to help
companies address problems or
maximize revenue in their marketing and
promotional strategies.
Bibelnieks is seeking to develop
partnerships with local firms that would
provide benefit to both the business
world and to her Augsburg students. She
is looking for rich business problems and
projects that will engage students in
research beyond the standard classroom
theory and models. The mathematical
theory involved has to be exacting and
validated—risky for a company to
undertake—but invaluable for students
wanting to get their feet wet in the field.
The research generated by such a
business/academic partnership gives
students an edge as they look for career
opportunities in the marketplace.
Moreover, it may give the business an
edge in the marketplace through the
development of new tools, techniques,
and solutions for a wide range of
business problems.
In September, Jennifer Geis begins to
work with Bibelnieks on a business
partnership research project. Geis is
excited because it will require her to
learn more about applied mathematics in
the business sector, including the use of
programming and software, that will
hopefully give her that extra edge as she
pursues an advanced career in statistics.
ENGAGED STUDENTS
Professor Tracy Bibelnieks is developing
business partnerships to provide problems
and projects for students to research and
gain experience in applied mathematics.
Summer 2005
The mathematics department makes it
easy for students to feel connected to
R E A D
P I —
T H R O W
P I E !
On 3-14 (March 14, that is), students
in Unbounded, Augsburg’s math
club, hosted a pi(e) fest, in honor of
Pi Day. The event benefited
Augsburg's “Ride the Wave”
tsunami relief project. From noon
until 3:14:15 p.m., students took
turns reading the digits of pi—
24,401 at final count. Also, faculty
and staff signed up to be “pied,”
i.e., to have a whipped-cream minipie tossed at them for a donation—
the larger the donation, the closer
the pie subject would stand.
faculty. Several years ago, a study room
was set up in the department to
encourage students and faculty to get to
know each other. Students spend time
there using the telephone or computers,
or researching something in the small
library.
“I practically live in the math suite
with the workroom and the study areas,”
said Geis. “It’s great just having the
professors there. They come in to eat
lunch and help you through your
homework right then and there.”
Dupont adds that it also encourages a
supportive environment in which
upperclass students can help newer
students.
The department also brings students
together in bi-monthly colloquia where
they meet professionals in various fields
of mathematics, learn about applications,
and hear research presentations. Often
the presenters are Augsburg alumni who
enjoy keeping in contact with their
former professors and getting to know
current students.
Augarithms, the department’s
biweekly newsletter, complete with
department news, colloquia information,
puzzles, and even math cartoons
provided by editor Kaminsky, keeps the
department in touch.
All of this is to encourage students to
connect what they learn in classrooms
23
K E E P I N G
A
L E G A C Y
A L I V E
T H E
G E O R G E
S O B E R G
S C H O L A R S H I P
Professor George Soberg graduated from
communicate to our students that we
Augsburg in 1926, and then spent the
think they show real potential in
next four decades of his life teaching
mathematics. As a department, we
mathematics at his alma mater. For 32
believe in honoring the level of
years he served as chair of the
accomplishment seen in junior or senior
Mathematics Department.
mathematics majors, and also celebrating
The 1965 Augsburgian dedication
the strong performance and enthusiasm
calls out his “constant concern for
of a freshman in calculus. In addition,
students and his ever-ready willingness
since they are named scholarships, they
to help them individually.”
connect our current students with alumni
Donald G. Murphy ’43 and Kenneth
A. Gilles ’44 were two of Soberg’s
and faculty emeriti.
“A named scholarship is one of the
students who wanted to keep his legacy
many ways alumni give back to our
alive and inspire future students to
department. Mathematics alumni also
achieve their educational dreams. In
speak in our colloquia, connect students
2004, Murphy and Gilles endowed a
with internship opportunities, serve on
scholarship in Soberg’s name to be
Augsburg’s alumni board, and participate
awarded to a math major or minor.
in programs such as the alumni
“The value of such gifts to the
mentoring program (funded by the Lilly
department is immeasurable,”
Endowment), which brings together
commented Rebekah Dupont,
alumni, current students,
Mathematics Department chair. “The
and faculty.”
scholarships funded by these gifts
Archive photo
Professor George Soberg, who graduated from Augsburg and stayed to teach and chair the
Mathematics Department for over 30 years, now has an endowed scholarship in
his honor.
24
with real-world mathematics. Last year,
Dupont and other faculty and staff from
Augsburg attended the Engaged
Department Institute in Engineering,
Mathematics, Computer Science, and
Related Fields. Co-sponsored by Campus
Compact and 3M Corporation, the
institute aimed to help departments
develop strategies to include communitybased work in both their teaching and
scholarship and to seek ways to integrate
service-learning, community-based
research, and civic engagement into the
curricula.
For example, one of the first-year
mathematics courses last fall that was part
of the Augsburg Seminar student
orientation included service-learning at
the Cedar-Riverside Community School.
Augsburg students worked with the
elementary children to create a store,
helping them understand what kinds of
data they needed to make decisions about
stocking the store, setting prices, etc.
All in all, the department seeks to
encourage students to explore the
possibilities and to help them
understand what it means to be
successful in the sciences. It’s part of
introducing them to the notion of
vocation—helping them discover the
opportunities within their own interests
and abilities. Bibelnieks talks about
helping them open doors, which they
can leave behind if they wish, but
supporting them toward success, not
failure.
For Geis, it’s made the difference. “All
my professors have encouraged me to try
things I didn’t think I could do,” she
says. “I didn’t think I could get my
internship this summer, but I was
accepted. I didn’t think about pursuing a
master’s or Ph.D. in statistics, but here I
am prepping for my GREs. It’s been a
lack of self-confidence, and they’ve
always encouraged me to push myself
from the limit to the next level, and I
think that’s the most important thing.” ■
For information about Augsburg
mathematics, go to <www.augsburg.edu/
mathematics>.
Summer 2005
Music after Augsburg
R
FOLLOWING THE HOGNANDER SCHOLARS
by Jessica Brown
adio variety shows … opera … film scores … high school teaching … music
education outreach … electronic music … jazz composition … Augsburg’s Hognander
Scholars are out making their marks in music around the world.
In 1998, the Orville ’36 and Gertrude (Lund) ’36 Hognander Family Fund was
established to support Augsburg’s music department. Principally, it establishes the
Hognander Scholars, juniors and seniors who receive merit awards for exceptional
music performance and academic achievement. The award is based on a résumé, essay,
and audition.
Here is an update on the Hognander Scholars, now Augsburg alumni, from the past
seven years.
Stephen Geffre
Aaron Gabriel ’00 (below), tenor,
graduated with majors in both English
and music performance. He is now
director of cultural arts at the Sabes
Jewish Community Center in
Minneapolis, where he supervises the
music, theatre, dance, art, literary, and
cinematic arts programs. Center
Playhouse, the youth theatre program
he created does six productions a year
and includes a Holocaust outreach
program, touching 3,000 middle school
age students; a classics series for teens
interested in classic playwrights; and
two summer musical theatre institutes
based on the Wesley Balk training he
received at Augsburg.
In addition, Gabriel performs
regularly with a number of local Twin
Cities theatre companies, including the
Minneapolis Musical Theatre, which
won the Star Tribune Best Small Theatre
Award in 2004 for Bat Boy, a musical in
which Gabriel played five characters.
Qiuxia (Hu) Welch ’99, French horn,
was “recruited” to Augsburg by
Professor Emeritus Robert Karlén, who
met her while teaching at the Sichuan
Summer 2005
Conservatory in China. After Augsburg,
she studied in the graduate program of
the University of Minnesota School of
Music and has spent three summers
teaching high school horn and
performing at the Kendell Betts Horn
Camp in New Hampshire. She and her
husband, Kevin, are moving to China
for several years to continue their
teaching and performing careers.
Chiho Okuizumi ’00 (above),
euphonium, earned an Augsburg degree
in music therapy, but also pursued an
instrumental career. At Montclair State
University she completed a master’s
25
FOLLOWING THE HOGNANDER SCHOLARS
degree in euphonium performance, and
she continues to play in the New York
metropolitan area. She is currently
pursuing a second degree at Montclair
State University in music therapy.
Okuizumi directs the REACH
(Resources for Education And Community
Harmony) program for the New Jersey
Symphony Orchestra and produces
orchestra concerts throughout the state. As
a one-person production unit for the
NJSO, she manages 120-150 concerts each
year, serving 20,000 people.
Jaime Kirchofner ’00, oboe, has carved
out a busy performance and teaching
career since graduating from Augsburg.
She plays second oboe in the St. Cloud
(Minn.) Symphony and regularly appears
with the Duluth-Superior Symphony
Orchestra, Amadeus Symphony, Great
River Chorale, Minnesota Center
Chorale, and chamber groups throughout
central Minnesota. She currently has 40
piano and oboe students.
Nicole (Warner)
Simml ’01 (left),
mezzo-soprano, has
performed for
audiences in the
U.S. and abroad. In
her junior year at
Augsburg, she
brought home top
division honors in a
regional voice competition. After
graduating, she completed a master’s
degree in classical voice from the
Manhattan School of Music and moved
to Germany.
In December, she sang Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio. “Without overflowing emotion, [Simml] convincingly uses
the opportunity to sing unpretentiously
and stylefully,” read a German newspaper
in translation.
26
She is also an active member of the
Gächinger Kantorei under the direction
of Helmuth Rilling. She teaches voice
and piano, and conducts a small
community choir.
Anna Brandsoy ’01, soprano, studied
in Germany at the Mozarteum and the
Münchner Singschule with Edda Moser
on a scholarship from the Voices of
Vienna. She is currently a doctoral
candidate at the University of Minnesota
where she has performed in numerous
operas. Last December, she won the
Metropolitan Opera National Council
Auditions, South Dakota Region.
Joe Tucker ’01, piano, is director of
instrumental music at Como Park High
School in St. Paul, where he has
established an orchestra program which
now boasts 40 members, has expanded
the band program to two ensembles with
a total of 85 students, and has led
ensembles to top honors at state contests
for four consecutive years.
From Augsburg, he earned a master’s
degree in music education from the
University of Minnesota. He was recently
recognized as an “outstanding teacher”
in the 2005 edition of “Who’s Who in
American Teaching.”
Brendan Anderson ’02 (top right),
saxophone and composition, made a
name for himself as a composer even
before leaving Augsburg. In his senior
year, he led the Augsburg Choir and
Concert Band in the premiere “I Believe,”
his interpretation of the Apostles’ Creed
in word and music. The work was later
performed at the Crystal Cathedral in
California during the Concert Band’s
spring tour in 2003.
In the past two years he has
completed coursework in the UCLA film
scoring program, and been commis-
sioned to compose an arrangement of
part of the Lutheran liturgy, as well as a
piece for the Lutheran High School of
Orange County (Calif.) Handbell
Ensemble and Hollywood Brass
Ensemble.
This spring Anderson was nominated
for Best Original Score at the 168 Hour
Film Festival in Pasadena, Calif., for his
score to the short film, Picket Guy. He
lives in Arizona and works in the
administrative offices of the Phoenix
Symphony while continuing to compose
both concert and film music.
Lindsay Bonner ’02, soprano, sang in
the Augsburg Choir, performed with the
Gospel Praise ensemble, and appeared on
the theatre stage. In 2002, she studied on
scholarship at the Wesley Balk MusicTheater Institute and performed with
Nautilus Music-Theater. For two years
she has been in Austin, Texas, where she
is a featured performer with the Lillian
Kaufman Radio Drama and teaches voice
lessons at Westlake High School. Bonner
has also performed on Eklektikos, an
Austin Public Radio variety program.
Daniel Luedtke ’02, piano, is exploring
the potential for creative expression
Summer 2005
Stephen Geffre
found in the experimental and electronic
genre. He currently works on electronic
music and sound design projects, as well
as the post-production video editing for
the Pilot Chicago Queermedia
Conference 2004. In July he began work
with the Video Data Bank in Chicago,
Ill., a resource for videotapes by and
about contemporary artists.
Visitors and is
performing the part
of La Ciesca this
summer in Puccini’s
Gianni Schicchi.
FritzHuspen is a
teaching assistant
and will begin to
coach private vocal
lessons in the fall.
Mark Abelsen (’04), piano, has plans for
graduate school in the near future,
majoring in either piano or musicology. He
currently works for the Schubert Club in
St. Paul as a museum docent in the
organization’s keyboard and manuscript
museums, as well as assists with various
recital series, scholarship competitions,
and office duties.
In addition, he serves as director of
music ministries for Epiphany Lutheran
Church in Minneapolis and has a piano
studio of 12 students.
Gertrude Hognander with the 19992000 Hognander Scholars Jaime
Kirchofner ’00 (left) and Chiho
Okuizumi ’00 (right).
THE HOGNANDERS:
SUPPORTING MUSIC
EXCELLENCE
Orville ’36 and Gertrude (Lund) ’36
Hognander created a legacy in
Augsburg’s music department that will
encourage and support students for
years to come.
Emily Gerard ’03 (above), harp, studied
harp at Augsburg with Kathy Kienzle,
principal harpist with the Minnesota
Orchestra. She went on to Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where
she studied with Gretchen Van Hoesen,
principal harpist with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra. During her time
there, she was able to participate in
numerous master classes and perform
repertoire with the Carnegie Mellon
Philharmonic, and play second harp with
the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In
May she earned her Master of Music
degree in harp recital.
Upon completing this degree, she
returned to Minneapolis to join the
faculty of the MacPhail School of Music.
Maja Lisa FritzHuspen ’04 (top
center), soprano, currently studies at the
University of Iowa with Rachel Joselson
and opera director Gary Race. Last fall
she performed the lead role as the
mother of Amahl in Amahl and the Night
Summer 2005
While a student at Augsburg in the
1930s, Orville Hognander sang in the
male quartet and the Augsburg Choir.
He created and produced “The Hour
Melodious,” a weekly radio program
that brought the choir to a national
audience.
Gertrude (Lund) ’36 Hognander,
studied music at Augsburg and went
on to a career as a church organist and
choir director.
Andy Peterson ’05 (above with Professor
Angela Wyatt), piano and saxophone,
will complete his bachelor’s degree in
music education following student
teaching at Henry Sibley High School
this fall. He is currently working on his
composition Sound Carei's, a piece for
saxophone and piano which was inspired
by the music of Minneapolis jazz
musician Carei Thomas. ■
Jessica Brown is a communication
specialist in the Office of Public Relations
and Communication.
Together, they provided leadership
support to Augsburg music. In 1994,
they matched a $25,000 challenge to
refurbish pianos and purchase
equipment for the music department.
The Hognander Scholar awards,
aim to attract gifted students and to
encourage current students.
Orville Hognander died in 1997,
and Gertrude Hognander in January
2005. They are survived by their son,
O.C. Hognander, Jr.
27
AAlumni
LUMNINews
NEWS
From the Alumni Board president’s desk…
I
n May I had the
opportunity to
attend Augsburg’s
Commencement
ceremony in Si
Melby Hall. I also
had the privilege to
welcome new
graduates into the
ranks of over
19,000 alumni. Surveying the crowd, I
was reminded that Augsburg graduates
are prepared to lead and make a
difference—wherever their community is
and however defined. Augsburg
graduates understand that the phrase
“values proposition” goes beyond the
business marketing context to include
living out one’s life in service to
community and others.
Representatives from each graduating
class spoke of their experiences and
perspectives as learners. Glenda Holste,
representing graduate-level students,
shared a story that revealed the
important value she places on her
education. However, she didn’t mention
her career as a member of the Pioneer
Press Editorial Board. Her role at the
Pioneer Press newspaper exemplifies the
Augsburg spirit of leadership and service
to others. Holste’s editorial responsibilities
and op-ed writing reach many thousands
of people each day—and her work
ensures that readers have the
opportunity to be informed on many
viewpoints of important issues of the day.
Another example of exemplary
service is Dr. Jeanette Vought ’77,
profiled on page 31 of this issue. Vought
founded the Christian Recovery Center
in Brooklyn Center, Minn., which helps
many people get the mental health care
they need. In today’s world of
A-Club making connections with new
look and Web site
A
n old Augsburg tradition has a fresh
new face! Earlier this year, the
A-Club Executive Committee approved a
new logo for the organization that
supports Augsburg athletics and
physical education.
“We hope the bold, clean look
will increase awareness of A-Club
events as well as our mission of
helping today’s student athletes,” said
John Harden, A-Club president.
The block “A” is just the first step
aimed at improving A-Club’s brand.
Visitors will see the logo on the debut
Web site (www.aclub.org). For the first
time, A-Club members and friends can
get the latest information on events,
activities, fundraising efforts, and
newsletters online.
“It is critical to stay connected with
all our members, and this Web site will
help us take giant steps toward improved
28
communication,” Harden said. By
browsing the site, visitors will also
discover an exciting line of A-Club
apparel featuring the block “A.” Hats,
shirts, windbreakers, and even stadium
blankets are now available online with
proceeds benefiting Augsburg athletics
and physical education.
diminishing access for mental health
services, particularly for lower income
people, Vought’s service approach is
particularly needed and inspiring.
Each of us as alumni have the spirit of
vocation and leadership potential of
Vought and Holste. We are all at a starting
point of some kind or another. If you
haven’t already, I invite each one of you to
connect or re-connect with Augsburg
College. Along the way your life
experience will grow and be enhanced,
your community will benefit, and
Augsburg will be enriched many times
over. Be connected—stay connected!
Bill Vanderwall ’93 WEC
President, Alumni Board
A-Club 5K Run/Walk
The Augsburg College Athletic Alumni
Club (A-Club) requests your
participation in the Second Annual
A-Club 5K Run/Walk. Join us for a fun
morning of fellowship and running or
walking in the crisp autumn air while
helping to support student athletes at
Augsburg.
The event will take place Sunday,
September 18. Check-in begins at 9 a.m.
at Melby Hall; race begins at 10 a.m.
For more information or to register,
please contact A-Club President John
Harden at <jharden@hardeninc.com>.
Second
Annual
A-Club
5K
Summer 2005
Attention Auggies: Do you have the time and desire to help
today’s student-athletes become tomorrow’s leaders?
The Augsburg A-Club is looking for
women and men who are willing to be
active participants on the A-Club
Executive Committee. The A-Club is a
volunteer organization of former men and
women athletes that depends on members
to do what they can to help provide
today’s student-athletes with opportunities
for a quality athletic experience.
We are looking for individuals who are
dedicated to supporting the College,
Augsburg athletics, and physical
education. Most important, they must be
willing to put in time as a volunteer. The
time does not have to be significant, but
they do need to be able to follow through
on their commitment (we’re big on people
doing what they say they will). Members
must be able to attend brief quarterly
Executive Committee meetings at the
College and be willing to work on at least
one A-Club committee: Golf, Hall of
Alumni tour to China
Centennial Singers Fall Schedule
Enjoy fellowship, comfort, and enriching
educational opportunities on the May
2006 Augsburg Alumni Association
China tour: Sights and Spirits. Hosted by
Brad Holt, professor of religion, this 15day tour scheduled for May 11–25,
2006, begins in Beijing and includes
Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City,
the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors,
and a boat cruise down the Yangtze
River past the Three Gorges, which will
be flooded by a dam project at the end
of this decade. The international city of
Shanghai concludes this travel
experience. In addition to visiting
famous sites in China, the tour will
include an investigation of the religions
of China, including Confucianism,
Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, and
Islam, with special attention to the
churches of China. Spaces are filling
quickly; to add your name to the waiting
list, call or e-mail the alumni office at
612-330-1178 or <alumni@augsburg.edu>.
Summer 2005
Fame, Membership, Fundraising,
Communications, Special Events, 5K
Run/Walk, etc.
Are you interested in joining our
team? Do you know of someone who
would be a good fit on a winning team?
If you would like to know more, e-mail
A-Club President John Harden
(jharden@hardeninc.com), or Jane
Helmke (jhelmke@kare.gannett.com).
Thanks for your interest!
September 25, 4 p.m.
Hope Lutheran Church
Moose Lake, Minn.
October 22, 7 p.m.
Salem Covenant Church
New Brighton, Minn.
October 1, 6 p.m.
Augsburg Awards Banquet
Christensen Center
October 23, 7 p.m.
Christ the King Lutheran Church
Bloomington, Minn.
October 2, 7 p.m.
Golden Valley Lutheran Church
Golden Valley, Minn.
October 29, 7 p.m.
Lakeville Arts Center
Lakeville, Minn.
October 9, 9 and 10:45 a.m.
House of Prayer worship services
Richfield, Minn.
October 30, 7 p.m.
Community of the Cross Lutheran
Church
Bloomington, Minn.
October 9, 4 p.m.
Westwood Lutheran Church
St. Louis Park, Minn.
October 17, 7:30 p.m.
Wayzata Community Church
Wayzata, Minn.
November 6, 4 p.m.
Our Savior's Lutheran Church
Hastings, Minn.
November 13, 11 a.m.
Fort Snelling Chapel morning worship
Minneapolis
29
CLASS
NOTES
Class Notes
1948
1958
Robert Tharp, Lexington, Va.,
works as a commercial artist
who does illustration, murals,
stone carving, and portraits. In
addition, Robert works in art
conservation, engineer drawing,
and ceramics.
Doris (Johnson) Deml, St.
Cloud, Minn., won the Ray
Johnson Distinguished Service in
Senior Housing Award, given
annually to one winner in
Minnesota through the Minnesota
Health and Housing Alliance.
Doris is director of operations at
Clearwater Suites, an assistedliving facility in Alexandria,
Minn.
1956
Rev. Arlen Stensland and his
wife, Lois, were featured in the
Minneapolis Star Tribune in a
story about how they collect and
send portable manual
typewriters to the pastors and
congregation of the Malagasy
Lutheran Church in Madagascar,
where the couple were
missionaries for 22 years. The
manual typewriters are
immensely useful in this
electricity-starved nation. Arlen
and Lois live in Laporte, Minn.,
on Lake Kabekona; they can be
reached at <kabegasy@
paulbunyan.net>.
1957
Rev. Orval
Moren, Coon
Rapids, Minn.,
wrote a book,
Gospel Stories for
Pastors, Teachers,
and Parents
(American Christian Writer’s
Press), filled with 115 children’s
lessons he told during his 14
years of ministry at Faith
Lutheran Church in
Albuquerque, N.Mex.
Rev. Neal
Snider,
Steilacoom,
Wash., published
two books in
2004: Letter to
Jabez: Response
to a Prayer, and Spring Training
for Christians: Getting Your Faith
in Shape (both by Augsburg
Fortress). He is pastor emeritus
of Bethlehem Lutheran Church
in Marysville, Wash.
30
1961
Keith Leiseth, Golden Valley,
Minn., is an ecology instructor at
Benilde-St. Margaret’s; he was
featured in a story in the Edina
Sun Current for the unique
teaching techniques he uses in
his honors ecology class. Last
year, Keith volunteered his
students to partner with the
Department of Natural Resources
to track white-tailed deer and
wolves near Camp Ripley in
northern Minnesota. This year,
his class partnered with the
Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency to monitor water quality.
1962
David Moe,
Juneau, Alaska,
published My
Spirit Sings (Moe
Publishing), a
collection of
poems written
over the past 40 years on a
variety of subjects.
1968
Duane M. Ilstrup, Kailua-Kona,
Hawaii, is a retired associate
professor of biostatistics at the
Mayo Clinic. He was recently
appointed by the governor of
Hawaii to a four-year term on the
Hawaii Subarea Health Planning
Council.
Bruce Johnson, Plymouth,
Minn., received the Minnesota
High School Hockey Coaches
Association’s 2005 Dave Peterson
Award. The award is given
annually to a high school coach
who has shown great leadership
in developing youth hockey
either locally or statewide.
Bruce, currently the boys’
hockey assistant coach at
Bloomington Jefferson High
School, previously served for
several years as head coach at
Robbinsdale Armstrong High
School.
1969
John-Mark Stensvaag, Iowa
City, Iowa, received the 2005
President and Provost Award for
Teaching Excellence from the
University of Iowa in recognition
for his years of outstanding
teaching. John-Mark is the
Charlotte and Frederick Hubbell
Professor of Environmental and
Natural Resources Law in the UI
College of Law, where he has
taught since 1988. He was
awarded the university’s
Collegiate Teaching Award in
both 1989 and 2002, and also
received the 1996 UI
Instructional Improvement
Award, which supports faculty in
bringing innovative teaching
methods and technologies to the
classroom.
1970
Sonya (Hagen) Zieske, Albert
Lea, Minn., was one of five
finalists for Teacher of the Year in
the Albert Lea school district.
Sonya is a fifth-grade teacher at
Lakeview Elementary School; it is
her second year in the district.
Her husband, Rev. Curtis Zieske
’69, is pastor at Trinity Lutheran
Church, where Sonya serves as
director of the children’s choir.
She and her husband have two
children, Sarah and Aaron.
Twin Cities. Previously, she was
a vocalist with the ensemble
Moore By Four, and has been a
solo artist for the past decade,
producing six albums on her
own label, Minnehaha Music.
Ronald Mielke was inducted
into the Bloomington Sports
Hall of Fame. He is director of
sales at Trintel Communications,
Inc. Ronald and his wife, Linda,
live in Bloomington, Minn.
1977
Rev. Jim
Purdham is the
minister at
Sargeant,
Brownsdale, and
Lansing United
Methodist
churches in southeastern
Minnesota, leading services at
all three each Sunday. He and
his wife, Cindy, have two
daughters: Katie, 14, and
Laura, 12.
1979
David Eitrheim, Menomonie,
Wis., was named Family
Physician of the Year for 2004
by the Wisconsin Academy of
Family Physicians. The award
recognizes a physician who
exemplifies the tradition of the
“family doctor.” David has been
a family doctor in Menomonie
for 17 years.
1980
1974
Dan Carlson, Excelsior, Minn.,
is chief of police for Eden
Prairie, Minn. This past winter,
he and his son, Peter, traveled to
Alaska for a month to compete
in the international Iditarod dog
sled competition, where Peter
came in 11th.
Connie
Evingson was
featured in a
story in the St.
Paul Pioneer
Press. Since the
1970s, Connie
has been singing jazz in the
Lisa Novotny, Minneapolis,
was awarded the Woman of
Achievement Award from the
Minnesota Chapter of the
National Association of Women
Business Owners at its awards
gala in April. The award honors
women who have made
Summer 2005
ALUMNI PROFILE
Dr. Jeanette Vought ’77: Restoring Broken Lives
by Kathy (Kuchera) Gruber ’84
Courtesy photo
Dr. Jeanette Vought ’77 has compassion for people of all ages who have experienced traumatic or abusive events
in their lives. As a licensed psychologist, she saw many people unable to afford mental health care slipping
through the system. So in 1993, she founded the Christian Recovery Center (CRC): a nonprofit,
nondenominational charitable organization, located in Brooklyn Center, Minn., to help more people get the
mental health care they need.
Vought’s career journey began at Augsburg, when she became interested in the social work degree offered.
Transferring from Golden Valley Lutheran, known today as Lutheran Bible Institute, was easy.
“The degree laid the foundation in the helping field,” Vought said in her calm soft voice.
One memory she won’t forget occurred during her first day interning at South High as a high school social
worker. “They were a tough group of kids with difficult problems,” Vought said, “and they stole my car.”
Dr. Jeanette Vought ’77 began
her career working with
abuse and trauma victims
while working toward a
social work degree from
Augsburg College.
Vought called the police, and they offered to drive her to work. On the way, they heard a call over the police
radio about an abandoned car. “It had been left in the middle of an intersection, running, and all the doors
open,” Vought said. Today she can chuckle over the event.
It was during college that Vought landed her first job at Friendship House I (FHI), a residential treatment center
for unwed pregnant teens run by Lutheran Social Services. Once she graduated, there were staffing changes at
FHI and Vought was asked to develop programs, write policies, and eventually supervise staff. The focus of care transitioned from unwed pregnant
teens to treating emotionally disturbed girls ages 12 to 18 years old.
“It was hard to write policies because not everyone on staff had a Christian background,” Vought said.
In 1981, she found a job with New Life Family Services, working with families, individuals, and marriage counseling. With her previous
leadership and program development skills, Vought eventually became executive director. During her years there, she completed her Ph.D. at
Union Institute, co-authored a book with Lynn Heitritter, Helping Victims of Sexual Abuse, and authored another book, Post-Abortion Trauma: Nine
Steps to Recovery.
“I really loved that ministry,” said Vought, “but I saw [in the helping fields] that people who were being abused sexually, emotionally, and
domestically were falling between the cracks—especially the poorer people.”
Motivated to action, Vought founded CRC in a small office space with a receptionist, a board of directors, and, initially, no pay. Today, CRC sees
over 250 clients a week ranging in age from 3 to 80 years old. A Rule 29 clinic, this state-licensed mental health facility has many programs to
help facilitate emotional healing. No one is turned away.
Vought has another connection with Augsburg, working with interns from the Master of Social Work program. Vought said she gets together with
professors Laura Boisen and Maryann Syers-McNairy to work on intern evaluations. Not only does Vought have a heart for the victims of abuse,
but also for giving interns the opportunity to develop their skills in helping to restore broken lives.
Kathy (Kuchera) Gruber is a 1984 Augsburg graduate and freelance writer in Brooklyn Park, Minn.
outstanding contributions to their
company. Lisa is vice president of
diversity and staffing at General
Mills.
Lisa Mae
Rusinko married
Anthony Michael
Vannelli in
October. Lisa is
an executive
liaison at
Navitaire, Inc., in Minneapolis;
Tony is a fire fighter/paramedic
Summer 2005
with the St. Paul Fire
Department. The couple lives in
Shoreview with their children:
Tovah (19) and Christian (16)
Rykken and Stephen (21),
Brianna (18), and Andrew (17)
Vannelli.
1981
Suzanne (Sienkiewicz)
Peterson, Burnsville, Minn.,
directs the Master of Education
in Teaching and Learning
Program at Saint Mary’s
University in Winona, Minn.,
where she also received her
Master of Education degree.
1982
Sandy (Walter) Holten,
Plymouth, Minn., wrote an
article, “Music Therapy for
People with Parkinson’s,” that
was included in a Parkinson’s
disease reference book published
by CRC Press (2005).
Debra Krueger Knight,
Bloomington, Minn., was
awarded the Wise Woman Award
from the Minnesota Chapter of
the National Association of
Women Business Owners at its
awards gala in April. Debra is
co-founder of Career
Professionals, Inc. The award
honors female business owners
who have operated a steady
business for more than 10 years
and who have sustained their
31
Class Notes
company through day-to-day
obstacles while continuing to
build a healthy, profitable
business.
1984
Lori Gustafson, Helsinki,
Finland, teaches English to
children of diplomats.
Paul Mueller, Rochester, Minn.,
received the Outstanding Faculty
Award for 2004 from the Mayo
School of Continuing Medical
Education.
Mike Riley, Brainerd, Minn., is
president of Bremer Bank in
charge of overall operations in
Brainerd and the surrounding
communities. Previously, Mike
was senior vice president at
Bremer.
Judy (White) Rixe, Corcoran,
Minn., was a member of the
Buffalo Thunderbirds women’s
hockey team that won the
Minnesota state tournament, C-3
division, in March. The team is
part of the Women’s Hockey
Association of Minnesota, which
has been around for 25 years and
has grown to nearly 900 players
in seven levels of competition.
The Thunderbirds were
unscored-upon at the
tournament; Judy scored two
goals and two assists. Her three
sons also play for Buffalo teams,
and her husband, Steven ’84,
coaches youth bantams at
Buffalo.
1985
Daniel Cress,
Gunnison, Colo.,
was promoted to
professor of
sociology at
Western State
College in
Gunnison. His co-edited book
on social movements, Authority
in Contention, was published this
spring. Daniel and his wife,
Cindy McKee, have two
daughters: Maggie, 11, and
Myles, 2.
32
Thomas “Tommy” Terpening,
Key West, Fla., works for Cooke
Communications as the printing,
composition, and graphic
services manager for Cooke’s
newspaper, The Key West Citizen.
1986
Mike Berry, Dayton, Ohio, is
senior vice president of solutions
management, development, and
operations for The Reynolds and
Reynolds Company. Previously,
Mike was senior vice president
of services at Reynolds. Before
joining Reynolds, he was
executive vice president of
customer support and general
manager for Stored Value
Systems at Comdata, a division
of Ceridian.
Jon Thorson, Middleton, Wis.,
was inducted into the Brainerd
High School Distinguished Hall
of Fame. He is an associate
professor of pharmacy in the
graduate school of the University
of Wisconsin.
1987
Jacquie Berglund,
Minneapolis, was featured in the
March 2005 issue of Minnesota
Monthly magazine for her
Finnegan’s Irish Amber beer and
the Spud Society nonprofit
organization it funds. Jacquie is
co-founder, director of sales, and
the sole employee of the
company, which uses money
generated from its beer sales to
help at-risk youth and the
working poor. Finnegan’s is
available at more than 140
restaurants and 200 liquor
stores.
1990
Alisa Holen, Iowa City, Iowa,
teaches ceramics and sculpture
as an adjunct faculty member at
Kirkwood Community College
and Mt. Mercy College, both in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Alisa
received her MFA from the
University of Iowa in May 2004
and has a home ceramics studio.
Karen (Neitge) Holt, Winters,
Calif., is teaching grade school at
the Davis Waldorf School.
1992
Robera Battal received a
Master of Art in African Studies
degree at Yale University in
2004.
Bethany Buchanan,
Minneapolis, is a medicalsurgical RN at Methodist
Hospital. She is also a bareboat
charter captain and races
sailboats competitively on Lake
Minnetonka and Lake Superior.
Bethany can be reached at
<gracesaddress@aol.com>.
theatre companies: Jungle
Theatre, Park Square, Theatre
Mu, Outward Spiral, the
Playwrights’ Center, Mystery
Cafe, Shakespeare on the Park,
and many others. She also does
commercial work and can be
seen in the short film, PALS,
written and directed by Neil
Orman. By day Heather is a
billing specialist with the law
firm Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Heather can be reached at
<porkchop@aboutthisplay.com>.
Greg McAllister, Shoreview,
Minn., was featured in the
St. Paul Pioneer Press as a
“business mover.” He is
president and chief technologist
at Anesis Information Services
LLC in Shoreview.
Amber (Meier) Tarnowski,
Peabody, Mass., is a Kress Fellow
at “Historic New England”
(formerly SPNEA) in
conservation of historic objects.
Amber received her Master in
Art Conservation degree from
Queen’s University (Ontario,
Canada) in 2003 and did
research as a Kress Fellow
(2003–2004) at Harvard
University.
1993
1995
Ted Reiff, St. Paul, Minn., is
head volleyball coach at The
Academy of Holy Angels. Ted
has taught science at Holy
Angels since 1996 and
previously served as the school’s
head varsity volleyball coach
from 1998–2000 and as assistant
varsity coach from 1996–98. He
was also head coach for Club
Adidas Select Volleyball in
St. Paul.
Gena (du Bois) Hepworth,
MSW, Madera, Calif., is a
therapist at DCFS in Fresno
County, Calif., doing sandplay
therapy. Gena and her husband,
Todd, have one child, Gillian.
1994
Heather Stone, Minneapolis,
started a theatre company,
Sandbox Theatre
(www.aboutthisplay). The
company’s first production was
an original work titled Victoria
in Red, which premiered in June
at the Bryant Lake Bowl theater
in Minneapolis. Sandbox is
currently creating a piece about
Zelda Fitzgerald to be performed
next May at the Loring
Playhouse in Minneapolis.
Heather has been working
professionally in the Twin Cities
since 1994 with numerous
Dee Ann L. Sibley, Cambridge,
Minn., is a high school guidance
counselor for Centennial
Schools in Circle Pines, Minn.
Dee Ann received a master’s
degree in art therapy and school
guidance and worked as an art
therapist in a clinical setting
before going into counseling. In
2004 she also taught oil painting
for Anoka-Ramsey Community
College.
1996
Emily D. Haraldson,
Northridge, Calif., is the
registrar at the Carnegie Art
Museum in Oxnard, Calif., and
teaches art history at Mt. San
Antonio College in Walnut,
Calif. Emily received her M.A. in
Art History degree in June 2004
from California State University
in Northridge. Her thesis
Summer 2005
explored the importance of
posters to international
environmental movements.
online Bathtub Art Museum
(www.bathtubmuseum.com) that
opened in August 2003.
Erika Scheider received the
Excellence in Performance
Award from the Minnesota
Association of Women Police at
its annual conference in April.
Erika is a police investigator in
Roseville, Minn., where she has
worked since 1997. Last year,
she also received the 2004
Minnesota Chiefs of Police
Association Award for
meritorious service.
Jason
Canfield is
the band
director at
Prescott High
School. He
has a drumming ministry, “Drumming to
Spiritual Enlightenment,” and
performs at church services and
youth events. He recently
released a CD of drumming,
Drumming from Within, The Inner
Drum. Jason lives with his wife,
Christy, in River Falls, Wis., and
can be reached at
<canfield@pressenter.com>.
Scott Scholl,
Eden Prairie,
Minn., married
Heather Lucken
in June 2004.
Scott works in
lifestyle
management at the Minneapolis
Club.
Jane Jeong Trenka,
Minneapolis, won a $25,000
Loft Award in Creative Prose,
part of the 2005 McKnight
Artist Fellowship for Writers.
She has previously received
fellowships from the Jerome
Foundation, the Blacklock
Nature Sanctuary, the Minnesota
State Arts Board, the Loft
Literary Center, and S.A.S.E.:
The Write Place. Her book, The
Language of Blood, received the
2002 Minnesota Book Award for
Autobiography/Memoir and was
a Barnes and Noble Discover
Great New Writers selection.
The book was also cited by City
Pages as “Best Book by a Local
Author” and received a
commendation from the
Minnesota Humanities
Commission.
1997
Carye (Johnson) Bye,
Portland, Ore., is running a
small arts press called Red Bat
Press (www.redbatpress.com),
that specializes in old-time
printing methods such as
woodcut prints, letterpress type,
and hand coloring. Carye is also
director and curator of the
Summer 2005
Pamela J. Glander,
Minneapolis, is the associate art
director for Social Expressions
Company. Pamela is also starting
a home-based design/art studio,
Outsideline Studio, with her
business partner.
Derrin Lamker, Minneapolis,
was named the new football
coach at Osseo High School.
Derrin previously served as the
offensive coordinator at
Armstrong.
Jackie
Osterhaus is a
primary care
provider for the
Paynesville Area
Health Care
System (PAHCS)
at the Eastside Clinic in
Belgrade. Prior to joining
PAHCS, Jackie was in the Army
Reserves and spent 10 months in
Kuwait and Iraq as a physician
assistant, processing troops who
were being sent home for
medical reasons. She is now the
acting commander of the 367th
Engineering Battalion.
1998
David Peters, Dovre, Wis., was
elected to the Chetek Board of
Education in Wisconsin. David
is chief financial officer for a
community development
corporation in Almena.
Joan Game, Iron Mountain,
Minn., works in watercolor and
teaches children’s after-school art
classes at Hana Mele, her
studio/gallery. More than 20
regional artists display and sell
their work at her gallery.
1999
Kyran (Christianson) Cadmus
is a PACFA (Pet Animal Care
Facilities Act) inspector for the
State of Colorado Department of
Agriculture. She lives with her
husband, Pete, in Fort Collins,
Colo.
Brenda Talarico is a faculty
member in the physician assistant
program at Augsburg.
Adam Thronson,
Coon Rapids,
Minn., won a
Teacher
Outstanding
Performance
(TOP) award from
the Anoka-Hennepin School
District. The TOP program is
designed to involve parents,
students, and community
members in recognizing
exemplary teachers and rewarding
them for their efforts.
Wendy Vogelgesang, Litchfield,
Minn., teaches second grade for
Litchfield Public Schools. In
addition, Wendy and her husband,
David, are busy working on their
home, a 1912 Arts and Crafts
bungalow.
Laura Welke completed and
defended her doctoral thesis,
“Prefrontal Cortex and Medial
Temporal Lobe Interactions in
Cognition,” earning a Ph.D. in
Anatomy and Neurobiology
degree at Boston University
School of Medicine.
2000
Stephanie Lein Walseth, St.
Paul, Minn., was pictured on the
cover of May 25 issue of The
Chronicle of Philanthropy, and
interviewed for the accompanying
article, “Small Theater Puts
Training to Use.” Stephanie is
managing director of Mu
Performing Arts, a Pan-Asian
performing arts organization
based in Minneapolis.
Jennifer Rensenbrink,
Minneapolis, is a Web designer
for the Star Tribune. Jennifer
also does freelance Web design
and continues to work on
photography and bookmaking.
She and her husband, Adam,
live in south Minneapolis with
their dog and are “slowly”
fixing up their old house.
2001
Anne (McCaul) Bailey,
Shorewood, Minn., is the
gallery manager for Circa
Gallery and Dolly Fiterman
Fine Arts. In addition, Anne is a
certified fine art appraiser and
runs Bailey Fine Art Appraisals.
Adina (Levine) Bergstrom,
New Ulm, Minn., is a lawyer at
Gislason and Hunter LLP. Adina
also works with her husband’s
business on housing restoration
and interior design while
continuing to pursue
photography in her free time.
Amy Vatne Bintliff received a
Teacher Outstanding
Performance (TOP) award from
the Anoka-Hennepin School
District. The TOP program is
designed to involve parents,
students, and community
members in recognizing
exemplary teachers and
rewarding them for their efforts.
Amy teaches English at
Crossroads Alternative High
School, where she also leads the
Drop-Out Prevention
Committee, and is a member of
the Department of Reading
Specialists, which facilitates a
program to meet the needs of
struggling readers.
Carrie McCarville, St. Louis
Park, Minn., owns Mac’s Liquor
in Hopkins, Minn. She also
plays hockey in a women’s
league with other Augsburg
women’s hockey alumnae.
33
Class Notes
Joyce Nyhus,
Buffalo Lake,
Minn., was
elected the first
female mayor of
Buffalo Lake,
earning 70
percent of the votes. She also
teaches written communication
at Ridgewater College, and
serves as a member of the
Renville County HRA Advisory
Board and as American Legion
Auxiliary president.
2002
Maria Sieve, Leicester, Mass.,
received a Master of Education
degree in May from Providence
College. Maria, a math teacher at
Holy Name High School, can be
contacted at <sievem@
yahoo.com>.
Mark O. Rogge, Santa Monica,
Calif., graduated in April with
an MBA from Pepperdine
University’s Graziadio School of
Business and Management, and
was recently asked to serve as a
mentor for the program. He has
worked as an executive in the
high tech/software industry for
the last eight years with both
Fortune 100 companies and
start-up software companies.
Mark lives by the beach, and has
appeared on a couple TV shows,
a TV show pilot, and in a few
commercials since moving to
California. He spends most of
his free time surfing in Malibu
and snowboarding at Mammoth
Mountain, and is also training
for the Rock-n-Roll Marathon in
San Diego.
Brooke Stoeckel, Elk River,
Minn., is sales manager of
meetings and conventions for
the Minneapolis Metro North
Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In 2004 she won both the EMPI
Rookie of the Year Award from
Meeting Professional International (MPI) and the Best of
2004 Hall of Fame Up-andComing Meeting Professional
Award through Minnesota
Meetings and Events. She is an
34
active member of the
Foundation Committee of the
local chapter of the Society of
Government Meeting Professionals, and also serves as cochair of the Education
Committee for MPI.
2003
Melissa Bawek, Minneapolis,
is assistant director of The
Augsburg Fund in the Office of
Institutional Advancement at
Augsburg. Melissa is also
pursuing a master’s degree.
Erika Hammerschmidt was
featured in a
story in the St.
Paul Pioneer
Press for her
book, Born on
the Wrong Planet, recently
published by Tyborne Hill
Publishers LLC. Her book
describes her quest to understand
and be understood as she moves
through life diagnosed with
Asperger’s syndrome, Tourette’s
syndrome, and obsessivecompulsive disorder.
Jon Liesmaki, Newport Beach,
Calif., completed a Master of
Environmental Health and Safety
degree from the University of
Minnesota-Duluth. He is an
environmental health specialist
for a consulting firm in southern
California called Environmental
and Occupations Risk
Management. Jon lives with his
wife, Natalie.
David Mataya, Hudson, Wis.,
manages creative services at
Anderson Windows, Inc., which
includes managing creative
direction and personnel. In
addition, David serves on the
Visual Arts Council of the
Phipps Center for the Arts in
Hudson.
Natasha Thoreson, Shoreview,
Minn., is a communications
coordinator at Family Pathways
in Wyoming, Minn. Natasha
does some desktop publishing
for Family Pathways while
keeping up with her
photography, drawing, and
painting. In her free time she is
a volunteer tour guide at the
Walker Art Center.
2004
Laura Simones, Minneapolis, is
in the process of finding an
internship with a child life
program in a Twin Cities hospital.
She hopes to take photography
classes in the area and start her
own photography business.
2005
Mark Langseth, MAL, was
appointed vice president for
university advancement and
executive director of the
Metropolitan State University
Foundation. Mark will serve as
the university’s chief development
officer. Since 1994, he has been
the executive director of
Minnesota Campus Compact, and
previously served for seven years
as chief operating officer of the
National Youth Leadership
Council. Mark and his wife, Kate
DePaolis, have two daughters,
Tess, 10, and Teagan, 6.
Births/Adoptions
Tina (Kubes)
’92 and Lance
Peterson,
Willmar, Minn.—
a daughter,
Ellary Brooke,
in October. She
joins brother Blake, 5, and sister
Ari, 2. Tina is a middle school
physical education teacher with
NL-S Schools and can be
reached at <wildmom@
charter.net>.
Julie
(Severson) ’94
and Dermott
Norman,
Minnetonka,
Minn.—
a daughter,
Elizabeth Claire, in August
2004. She joins sister Sophie, 2,
and half-sisters Emily and
Miranda, both 12. Proud
grandparents are Audrey
(Neiderhauser) ’68 and Clair
Severson ’68.
Tara (Butler)
’96 and Robb
Kruger,
Burnsville,
Minn.—a son,
Calvin Rock, in
November. He
joins older siblings Chloe and
Charlie. Tara can be reached at
<taranbkruger@yahoo.com>.
Ann
Stratton
’96 and her
partner,
Dawn
Madland ’93, Luxemburg, Wis.—
two sons, Levi and Luca. Dawn
directs an alternative high school
in Green Bay, Wis.; Ann
previously worked at the
University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay and now stays home with the
boys at the couple’s hobby farm.
Ann can be reached at
<stratton224@aol.com>.
Kathleen
(Lindquist) ’00
and Eric Blilie,
Blaine, Minn.—a
son, Alexander
Patrick, in
November. He
joins older brother Andrew, 2. Also
welcoming Alexander is proud
uncle Orville Lindquist ’96.
Frank Huebner
’02 and his wife,
Elizabeth, South
St. Paul, Minn.—
a daughter,
Sophia, in
January. The
couple was also married in
January. Frank is a lab technician
at Alternative Technologies, Inc.
Karen (Tweeten) ’02 and
Russell Larson, Mabel, Minn.—a
son, Jordan Ricky, in January.
Chad Prigge
’05 and his wife,
Laura, Edina,
Minn.—a son,
Aven Michael,
in April.
Summer 2005
In Memoriam
Richard E.
Jacobson ’41,
Plymouth, Minn.,
died in April on
his 61st wedding
anniversary; he
was 86. He was a
chemical engineer for Honeywell
for 34 years, retiring in 1980 as
manager of the Cost EstimationOrdinance Division. He then
served as a consultant until
1991. He was honored in 1994
as a WCCO Good Neighbor for
his dedication to church and
community. He is survived by his
wife, Ilamae; sons Richard,
Terrance, and Jay; daughter
Dawn; and eight grandchildren.
Earl V. Lanes ’40, Spokane,
Wash., died in April; he was 86.
He served in the Navy during
WWII and the Korean War. He
retired from the Navy in 1962 as
a commander in supply at
Moffett Field, Calif. He then
worked in electronics in Silicon
Valley, retiring from Western
Microwave as vice president in
1986. He was honored as an
Augsburg Distinguished
Alumnus in 1975. He was loved
and respected for his charity and
service, much of which was
associated with Immanuel
Lutheran Church of Los Altos,
Calif., where he was a member
for 45 years before moving to
Spokane. In the last days of his
life he greatly enjoyed watching
the recording of the 25th
Anniversary Advent Vespers
service. He is survived by his
wife, Dorothy (Herman) '43;
daughter Gretchen; sons Scott,
Thomas, and Timothy; seven
grandchildren; and five greatgrandchildren.
Shirley (Formo) Haven ’46,
McHenry, N.Dak., died in
February in Mesa, Ariz., of
cancer; she was 77. In addition
to Augsburg, she also attended
the MacPhail School of Music
and later taught in Enderlin,
N.Dak., before moving north of
McHenry to farm with her
husband. She served as church
organist, choir director, and
Summer 2005
Sunday school teacher at
Gethsemane Lutheran Church.
In spite of arthritis that
challenged her physically, she
continued to teach piano lessons.
She is survived by her husband,
Melvin ’38; sons Donald and
David; daughter Linda; seven
grandchildren; and one greatgrandson.
Leroy “Buzz” Northfelt ’52,
Minneapolis, died in April; he
was 80. He worked for CocaCola Bottling Co. for 36 years.
He is survived by his wife of 51
years, Geri.
James “Huck”
S. Haugen ’56,
Minneapolis,
died in April
from complications of
Parkinson’s
disease; he was 71. He spent 43
years as a math teacher and
coach at Minneapolis South and
Washburn high schools, as well
as at Augsburg and Bethel
colleges. He received his master’s
degree in math from Western
Michigan University and pursued
graduate work at the universities
of Maine and Minnesota. A
standout football and baseball
athlete while attending
Augsburg, he was inducted into
the Athletic Hall of Fame in
1992. He is survived by his wife
of 41 years, Dottie; sons Tom
and Peter; and four
grandchildren.
Kenneth Manske ’61,
Asheville, N.C., died in
November from a brain tumor.
He was a retired professor of
chemistry. He is survived by his
wife, Janet (Hermstad) ’60;
daughter Sheryl; and son
Timothy.
University of St. Thomas, and
previously taught at Winona
State University, where she
directed the social work
program. She was a strong
supporter of social work
education at Augsburg, serving
as an active member of the
College’s alumni advisory
committee for many years. She
was a caring friend and
consultant to several faculty
colleagues, a valued guest
speaker in Augsburg classes, past
president of the MN Chapter of
the National Association of
Social Work (NASW), past chair
of the MN Conference of Social
Work Education, and current
vice-president of the
International Association for the
Advancement of Social Work
with Groups. She was co-author
of the book The Road Not Taken:
A History of Radical Social Work
in the United States (used by
Augsburg as a supplemental text)
and author of the recently
published biography of Gisela
Knopka. Augsburg honored her
as a Distinguished Alumna in
1999; she also received the 2005
Lifetime Achievement Award
from the MN Chapter of the
NASW. She is survived by her
husband, Carl Schenk; son
Jonathan Andrews; step-sons
Peter and Tim Schenk; and three
step-grandchildren.
Leslie (Samuelson) Larsen
’76, Wayzata, Minn., died in May
of ovarian cancer; she was 50.
She was an interior decorator
who completed major projects
for Augsburg including the
president’s office, the Augsburg
Room, and Augsburg House. She
also served as an admissions
counselor following her
graduation from Augsburg. She
was the daughter of Pat
Samuelson, an active member of
the Augsburg Associates. She is
also survived by her husband,
Kenneth P. ’76; their son, Sam;
and her sisters, Barbara and
Lynne.
Dustin P. Hoff ’04,
Minneapolis, died in April; he
was 23. He was pursuing his
master’s degree in psychology at
Bethel College. He is survived by
his family and his fiancée,
Amanda.
Marvin E. Trautwein, Brooklyn
Center, Minn., died in March; he
was 91. He was an Augsburg
professor of education and
psychology from 1950-59. He
was a Minnesota Teacher of the
Year, DFL advocate, master
gardener, and activist for the
elderly. In addition to teaching at
Augsburg, he taught in
Nebraska, the Robbinsdale
School District, the University of
Minnesota, and at several
community colleges in
Minnesota and Wisconsin. He
also wrote teaching materials for
McGraw-Hill and was active in
national and international
psychology organizations until
retirement. He is survived by his
wife, Margaret (Sateren) ’37, who
taught English at Augsburg in
the 1950s and ’60s, and by his
son, Thomas ’79, and daughterin-law, Margaret (Oven) ’87.
Janice Peterson
AndrewsSchenk ’66,
Minneapolis,
died in May of
pancreatic
cancer; she was
61. She was a dedicated
professor of social work at the
35
AUGGIE
THOUGHTS
Auggie Thoughts
EDITOR’S NOTE: This year Murphy Square, Augsburg’s literary
arts journal, celebrates 30 years. Following are excerpts from the
foreword to this year’s edition, written by English professor John
Mitchell, who recollects the journal’s early years.
Foreword
John Mitchell
As a title, Murphy Square came into being in the spring of
1975. … At first I thought the name odd, and still have no idea
who thought of it or how it actually came about. … In the
immediately preceding years, the literary magazine had been
called Arkai, Loose Change, and Burnt Sugar, stilted, jazzy, and
enigmatic names that changed almost yearly. In previous
decades, coldly allusive literary names like The Dial (Margaret
Fuller’s famous transcendentalist magazine in the 1840s) had
beggared identity and status.
The more I thought about it, the better I liked the new
name. I marveled that no one had thought of it previously, this
coming down and back to our very place on earth. It was our
own, not a classical or alien allusion. Murphy Square is the
oldest park in Minneapolis, the oldest free and public space in
the city. The title, I reckoned, signified the playful license poets
and creative people need to feel and speak truthfully and
amusingly—a freely creative zone now identified with the
magazine itself.
Although the square is enclosed by Augsburg College and
the freeway, it is not owned nor regulated by the college.
Although writers and artists are associated with the college,
they are not controlled by it. Like the circle, the square may
also be seen as a symbol of perfection or, short of that lofty
aspiration, a symbol of wholeness and centered or squaredaway integrity. Because of this line of reasoning, I am grateful
for the continuity of the name for the past 30 years, as opposed
to a string of idiosyncratic appellations not many alumni
would likely remember and be able to refer to.
More personally, I get more pleasure from being published
in Murphy Square than from a nationally distributed magazine.
Why? Well, more people are likely to read my work, people I
know and care about, and readers who will be more able to
construe it in terms of my known local identity. To put it in
literary jargon, I have the chance to be a public poet rather
than merely a private one. Murphy Square gives me a sense of a
reading public, a community to write to and for and about, the
dream of most artists, including minor ones.
Finally, I like the title and purpose of Murphy Square
because it is neither pretentious nor timid. It is just what it is,
take it or leave it. Certainly there is pride in competitive
publication, but, I trust, not a false pride nor an overweening
one. And the truth is, the literary magazine is an institution in
and of itself. Check the archive in the library. It was here
36
Title page design by Aaron Koehn ’06
before we arrived (going back to the Roaring ’20s and The Jazz
Age) and will be here long after we have passed. And there our
poems and stories and photographs and art works and
recognitions of editorial contributions will be manifested,
speaking of our living and feeling presence to the future from
the past. There’s not much in our studious lives that performs
such a cherished role and acquires such a persistent value.
John Mitchell is an associate professor of English and faculty
adviser emeritus to Murphy Square.
Leaf Meditation
Sarah Aune ’06
She takes shrooms on occasion,
For clarity.
And I play my red guitar.
She has always wanted to date a girl.
And I want to be an artist.
But some leaves are blown away,
Browning and taking seed in other dimensions.
Only in the spring of dreams we see them—
Sprouting.
Finally at home in the soil.
Summer 2005
Roarin’ and Soarin’ Auggie Style
September 26-October 2
Monday, September 26
Friday, September 30
• Roarin’ and Soarin’ Student Activities
• Class of 1955 Reunion Breakfast
• International Student Homecoming
Reception
• Homecoming Chapel
• Christensen Symposium (Part 1)
• Roarin’ and Soarin’ Student Activity
• Roarin’ and Soarin’ Student Kick-off
Event, “A Roarin’ Good Time”
• Variety Show and Coronation
• Pep Rally
Saturday, October 1
Tuesday, September 27
• Augsburg College Nurses Alumni
Association Brunch
• Christensen Symposium (Part 2)
• Annual Social Work Alumni Network
(SWAN) Homecoming Brunch
• Counseling and Health Promotion
Annual Fair
• Fourth Annual Powder Puff
Football Game
Wednesday,
September 28
• Class of 1955 Reunion Luncheon
• Alumni Chamber Music Recital
• 2006 Alumni Tour to China
Information Session
• Soarin’ to the Finish Line: A Roarin’
Celebration of Augsburg Athletics
• Class of 1995 Tailgating Reunion
• Augsburg Associates Annual Fall
Luncheon
• WEC Alumni Network Lunch Reunion
& Gathering
• Roarin’ and Soarin’ Student Activity
• Homecoming Picnic
• Baseball Alumni Game
• Augsburg Wrestling Alumni, Family,
and Friends Barbeque
• Augsburg Ethnic Programs Celebration
• Scholastic Connections Dinner
• Augsburg Football Alumni, Family, and
Friends Barbeque
Thursday, September 29
• Homecoming Football Game vs.
Carleton College
• Los Gauchos de Roldan (live
Paraguayan music group)
• Post-Game Gathering for First Decade,
WEC, Football, and Wrestling Groups
• Leadership Workshop: The Art of
Presentation
• English Alumni/ae Reunion and
Reading
• 2005 Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet
• Volleyball Game vs. St. Olaf College
• Homecoming Dinner & Reunion
Parties
• Women’s Soccer Game vs. Macalester
College
• Men’s Soccer Pre-Game Alumni
Gathering
• Men’s Soccer Game vs. the College of
St. Scholastica
Sunday, October 2
• Men’s Soccer Alumni Game
2005 Award Recipients
Distinguished Alumni Award
Donald A. Anderson ’60
Donald Mattison ’66
Janice Aune ’88
Spirit of Augsburg Award
Richard J. Thoni
The Augsburg Centennial Singers
First Decade Award
Aaron Cross ’97
Andry Andriambololona Jurcich ’98
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Send your news items, photos, or
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2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
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A
P U B L I C AT I O N
Winter/Spring 2005
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 67, No. 2-3
EEditor’s
DITOR’Snote
NOTE
Learning by seeing and doing
I
usually write this piece at the very last
moment, after all the page layout is
complete and after ... Show more
A
P U B L I C AT I O N
Winter/Spring 2005
F O R
A U G S B U R G
C O L L E G E
A L U M N I
&
F R I E N D S
Vol. 67, No. 2-3
EEditor’s
DITOR’Snote
NOTE
Learning by seeing and doing
I
usually write this piece at the very last
moment, after all the page layout is
complete and after we’ve proofed
everything. At this point, the magazine is
finally in order, and, freed of the editorial
minutiae, I can more easily take in the
content as a reader.
I always seem to discover unexpected
themes and threads among the stories.
Sometimes they’re serendipitous, and
sometimes it’s as if the stories fall together
to create something greater than the sum
of their individual parts.
When I “read” through this issue, I was
struck by how much of the content deals
with learning outside the classroom.
Moreover, the one story that is about
classroom learning lauds the new ways
that technology links us with classrooms,
students, and teachers around the world.
Experiential learning, the learning that
takes students outside of books, and
mostly outside of classrooms, is powerful.
It’s an Augsburg hallmark, enhanced by the
vast resources of the neighborhoods, city,
and world around us.
I felt the power of experience when
student Anna Warnes talked about how
the tsunami didn’t kill faceless people on
the other side of the world, but people she
knew and had learned from in Thailand. I
also felt it in hearing from our nursing
students who learned about Lakota culture
and the inequalities of health care from the
nurses and residents they met on the Pine
Ridge Reservation.
Names also became real faces and
people for the school children participating
in the Peace Prize Festival who had
“adopted” Nobel Peace Prize laureates and
spent months developing creative projects
around their lives.
And, after hearing Dr. Sima Samar
speak at the Peace Prize Forum, it will be
difficult to read about Afghanistan without
thinking about the persecution and
hardships she has endured in her life.
The timing of the article in this issue
about Professor Garry Hesser—honored as
Minnesota Professor of the Year—was
serendipity, but couldn’t have fit better
with themes about experience in an
Augsburg education. His vision, wisdom,
and leadership at Augsburg and across the
nation have enabled students to learn more
fully through internships, service-learning,
cooperative education, and by getting out
of the classroom and into the community.
So, read on and experience an
education exemplified, I believe, by the
phrase on many of the publications from
our Center for Global Education—“See the
world through their eyes, and your world
will never be the same.”
Augsburg Now is published
quarterly by Augsburg College,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
Minnesota 55454.
Editor
Betsey Norgard
Assistant Editor
Lynn Mena
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
Class Notes Coordinator
Sara Kamholz ’04
Photographer
Stephen Geffre
President
William V. Frame
Director of Alumni and
Parent Relations
Amy Sutton
Director of Public Relations
and Communication
Dan Jorgensen
Opinions expressed in
Augsburg Now do not necessarily
reflect official College policy.
ISSN 1058–1545
Postmaster: Send address
corrections to:
Advancement Services
Augsburg College, CB 142
2211 Riverside Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55454
healyk@augsburg.edu
E-mail: now@augsburg.edu
Telephone: 612-330-1181
Fax: 612-330-1780
Betsey Norgard
Editor
Augsburg College, as affirmed in its
mission, does not discriminate on
the basis of race, color, creed,
religion, national or ethnic origin,
age, gender, sexual orientation,
marital status, status with regard to
public assistance, or disability in its
education policies, admissions
policies, scholarship and loan
programs, athletic and/or school
administered programs, except in
those instances where religion is a
bona fide occupational qualification.
Augsburg College is committed to
providing reasonable
accommodations to its employees
and its students.
www.augsburg.edu
10
A PUBLICATION FOR AUGSBURG COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS
Winter/Spring 2005
Vol. 67, No. 2-3
FEATURES
22
22
Through the eyes of teachers,
the eyes of students
by Kathy Swanson, Anna Warnes ’05, Jeff Moores ’05,
Sue Kneen ’04, and Rachel Schuette ’03
28
Learning with your heart
by Judy Petree
8
10
13
2005 Nobel Peace Prize Forum
Garry Hesser: Minnesota Professor of the Year
Vision, news from Access to Excellence:
The Campaign for Augsburg College
DEPARTMENTS
2
Around the Quad
6
Sports
17
Faculty/Staff Notes
34
Alumni News
37
Class Notes
43
In Memoriam
44
Auggie Thoughts
inside
back
cover
28
Calendar
50 percent recycled paper (10 percent post-consumer waste)
On the cover:
The 2005 Nobel Peace Prize Forum
brought together nearly 1,000 people
to hear, consider, and discuss issues
of women’s rights, honoring 2003
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin
Ebadi. Photo by Stephen Geffre.
AROUND
QUAD
Around THE
the Quad
NEWS NOTES
Campus Kitchen receives honors
The Campus Kitchen at Augsburg received
one of nine Harry Chapin Self-Reliance
awards given by World Hunger Year
(WHY) to “outstanding grassroots
organizations in the U.S. that have moved
beyond charity to creating change in their
communities.” WHY is devoted to finding
grassroots solutions to hunger and poverty.
Campus Kitchen at Augsburg is a
partnership with The Campus Kitchens
Project and local community agencies to
use food donations from campus dining
operations, student organizations, and
Second Harvest Heartland in preparation
of meals delivered to community service
agencies. Since Augsburg’s program began
in October 2003, over 10,000 meals have
been served and 300 volunteers involved
in Augsburg’s program.
Thrivent grant will help strengthen
planned giving program
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has
awarded Augsburg $99,935 over two years
to support the College’s plan to strengthen
its planned giving program.
The grant will expand Augsburg’s
congregational outreach to inform,
motivate, and engage Lutherans through
seminars, individual visits, direct mail, and
Web site content in the charitable giving
options available to them.
Rochester Program relocates
After five years at the Rochester Central
Lutheran School, Augsburg’s Rochester
campus program moved closer to
downtown with its new location at Bethel
Lutheran Church.
In January, the College officially
celebrated the move and dedicated the new
location. Speakers included Rochester
mayor Ardelle Brede; Rev. Gary Benson ’70,
Augsburg regent and minister of Zumbro
Lutheran Church in Rochester; Rev.
Norman Wahl ’75, executive pastor of
Bethel Lutheran; and Pat Engstrom, a
current graduate nursing student in
Rochester who spoke on behalf of the
Rochester students.
Augsburg’s Gospel Praise, a student
music ensemble that performs across the
nation, also took part in the celebration.
Robert Stacke ’71, the group’s director and
chair of the Music Department, used the
occasion to note that Augsburg would
continued on page 3
2
A college with a conscience
A
ugsburg College is one of the nation’s
best colleges fostering social
responsibility and public service,
according to The Princeton Review and
Campus Compact. It is one of 81
institutions in the nation featured by The
Princeton Review in its book, Colleges
with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with
Outstanding Community Involvement, to be
released in June.
“A college with a conscience,” said
Robert Franek, vice president for
admission services at The Princeton
Review, “has both an administration
committed to social responsibility and a
student body actively engaged in serving
society. Education at these schools isn’t
only about private gain: it’s about the
public good.”
The Princeton Review, an organization
that prepares online test-prep courses,
books, and other education services,
partnered with Campus Compact, a
national organization committed to the
civic purposes of higher education, to
choose the schools and develop the book.
Colleges were also nominated by
organizations with expertise in campus
community service and engagement.
Criteria included the college’s
admission practices and scholarships
rewarding community service, support for
service-learning programs, student
activism, student voice in school
governance, and level of social
engagement of its student body.
From over 900 nominations, the list
was shortened as editors collected data
about the nominees’ programs and
policies, and surveyed their students,
faculty, and staff.
Parker Palmer is the 2005
Commencement speaker
P
arker J. Palmer will present the
Commencement remarks, “Living the
Questions,” at the 2005 Commencement
ceremony on Saturday, May 7.
Palmer, a respected writer, lecturer,
teacher, and activist, focuses on issues in
education, community, leadership,
spirituality, and social change. His work
speaks deeply to people in many walks
of life.
He serves as senior associate of the
American Association of Higher
Education, and senior adviser to the Fetzer
Institute. He is the founder of the Center
for Teacher Formation, which oversees the
“Courage to Teach” program for K-12
educators across the country and a parallel
program for people in other professions.
Palmer’s work has been recognized
with eight honorary doctorates, two
Distinguished Achievement Awards from
the National
Educational Press
Association, an Award
of Excellence from the
Associated Church
Press, and major
grants from the
Danforth Foundation,
the Lilly Endowment, and the Fetzer
Institute.
He has published a dozen poems, more
than 100 essays, and seven best-selling
and award-winning books, including A
Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, and
The Courage to Teach.
In 1998, The Leadership Project, a
national survey of 10,000 administrators
and faculty, named Palmer one of the 30
“most influential senior leaders” in higher
education and one of the 10 key “agendasetters” of the past decade.
Winter/Spring 2005
New regents elected to board
Frank Cerra, M.D.
Anthony (Tony) L. Genia, Jr.
’85, M.D.
T
hree new members and one re-elected
member were welcomed to the
Augsburg College Board of Regents at
their meeting in January.
Re-elected to a second term is former
Minneapolis city councilmember Jackie
Cherryhomes ’76, a government relations
consultant and current chair of
Augsburg’s Government and Community
Relations Committee.
Frank Cerra, M.D.
Dr. Frank Cerra is senior vice president
for health sciences at the University of
Minnesota, one of the most
comprehensive academic health centers
in the U.S.
He graduated from the State
University of New York at Binghamton
and received his medical degree from
Northwestern University School of
Medicine. In 1991, he came to the
University of Minnesota as director of
surgical critical care, and in 1995 was
appointed dean of the Medical School.
He is co-developer of the bioartificial
liver, a device similar to a kidney dialysis
machine.
Anthony (Tony) L. Genia, Jr. ’85, M.D.
Dr. Tony Genia graduated from Augsburg
in 1985 with a major in biology. While a
student, he served as president of the
Intertribal Student Union. He earned a
medical degree from the University of
Minnesota Medical School, and
Winter/Spring 2005
Beverly (Halling) Oren ’55
completed a residency in emergency
medicine at the University of New
Mexico Hospital in 1993.
He is a diplomate of the American
Board of Emergency Medicine and a
fellow of the American College of
Emergency Medicine. His principal
practice is at Fairview-University Medical
Center in Minneapolis.
Beverly (Halling) Oren ’55
Bev Oren graduated from Augsburg in
1955 with a major in history and a minor
in English. She taught school for several
years and then served as vice president of
human resources during the 1980s and
1990s at Dart Transit Company, a
nationwide trucking and logistics
company of which her husband, Donald
Oren ’53, is president. She remains a
principal and adviser in the company.
She currently serves on the boards of
Minnehaha Academy and Dart Transit
Company, as well as having formerly
served on the boards of the Boys and
Girls Club, YWCA, and the Covenant
Pines Bible Camp.
The new board members were elected
to four-year terms by the Augsburg
Corporation at its meeting in October.
The Augsburg Corporation is comprised
of representatives elected by the
assemblies of the Minneapolis, St. Paul,
Southeastern Minnesota, and Northwest
Wisconsin Synods of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.
NEWS NOTES
begin offering music courses in Rochester
next year.
The Rochester Program began in fall
1998 with 65 nurses, mostly employees
of Mayo Clinic, studying toward a
bachelor’s degree completion. Now, at
nearly four times that size, 230 students
are currently enrolled in bachelor degree
programs in business, management
information systems (MIS), education,
and nursing (BSN completion), as well as
in the Master of Arts degree in nursing.
Augsburg Academy needs high
school students
The Augsburg Academy for Health
Careers is recruiting 9th-, 10th-, and
11th-grade students interested in math
and science for its first class beginning
this fall when doors open in St. Paul.
The academy is a new charter school,
sponsored by Augsburg, Fairview Health
Services, and Faith in the City, a
collaborative of seven Lutheran-based
Twin Cities institutions. Centered on
health as a vocation and a way of life, the
free school receives grant funding from
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Focusing on math and science within
a regular curriculum, students will gain
immediate skills, graduating with
certification in CPR and first aid, and
either as a nurse assistant or first
responder. Mentoring and job-shadowing
will begin in grades 9 and 10.
For information, contact Linda
Packard, Fairview Community Health
Outreach, at 612-672-6322.
Augsburg gains European partners
Augsburg has established academic
partnerships with universities in Poland,
Slovenia, and Finland.
Business professor Magda PalecznyZapp is co-coordinator of two
partnerships—one with the Krakow
University of Economics in Krakow, Poland,
and the other with University of Ljubljana
in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Opportunities will
include faculty exchanges, research
collaboration, curriculum development and
teaching, and study abroad for students.
Augsburg’s International Partners
program has established a partnership
with Arcada College in Helsinki, Finland,
for students in business, economics, and
MIS. All course credits taken there will
apply to Augsburg majors.
3
Around the Quad
A
ugsburg’s Speech Team placed
among the top teams in the state
with a second place sweepstakes award
in their division at the Minnesota College
Forensic Association’s annual
tournament in February.
Since Minnesota teams routinely
place in the top 20 nationally, the state
tournament serves up some tough
competition. “Our students have won
awards at almost every tournament they
attended this year,” said coach and
communication studies professor Bob
Groven, “and routinely beat some of the
best competitors in the country. After
placing second at nationals last year in
our division, it’s nice to continue
building our success.” According to
assistant coach Brad Christ, Augsburg’s
Speech Team has already this year
amassed 22 finalist trophies, with several
tournaments still left in the season.
Senior Ryan Sobolik took top honors
with a second place in Impromptu
Speaking and fifth place in
Communication
Analysis. His success
comes after three years
of hard work. “It took
me a while to get the
hang of impromptu,”
said Sobolik. “It’s tough
because you don’t know
the topic beforehand,
and you only have two
minutes to prepare your
speech.”
Erik Helgeson placed
sixth in After Dinner
Speaking, which
requires presenting a
funny speech about a
serious topic. His
The Augsburg speech team’s success grows with a second-place
finish in the state tournament. (L to R) Francis Rojas ’05, Brian
speech highlights the
Mumford ’08, Ryan Sobolik ’05, and Erik Helgeson ’05
ways that “free speech
zones” have been
should be allowed to voice their opinion,
abused to limit a protestor’s free speech
even if those in power don’t always want
rights. After working extensively in
to hear the message. It’s important that
radio, he feels a special connection to
we preserve everyone’s right to protest.”
this topic. “I really believe that everyone
Augsburg presents Native American voices in
film series
F
or the second year, the Augsburg
Native American Film Series (ANAFS)
has collaborated with local and regional
film organizations to offer regional
venues for Native American filmmakers.
This year, ANAFS has partnered with a
new film organization, Independent
Indigenous Film Minneapolis (IIFM);
continued to work with the Fargo
International Film Festival; and is
planning programs for fall 2005 with the
University of Minnesota’s American
Indian Student Association and IIFM.
The series of films being shown on
campus and in community locations
aims to engage viewers in dialogue about
indigenous film and forge collaborative
relationships with the local Native
American community.
4
The spring schedule of screenings has
included a five-film documentary series
at Augsburg with special hosts and panel
discussions, and continued with a threeday series at the Center for Independent
Artists that showcased local new media
artists and the best of the Native American
Voices selection from the Fifth Annual
Fargo International Film Festival with a
special panel of filmmakers. The fall
schedule, still in the planning stage, would
show a number of feature films at the
University of Minnesota.
The series is also linked to the
American Indian Studies program’s
Indigenous Filmmakers course, offering
students an interactive environment in
which to discuss issues of America’s
history, contemporary culture, and social
justice raised by Native filmmakers with
community members.
For a schedule of the remaining
screenings or for more information, go to
<www.augsburg.edu/ais/filmseries> or
contact M. Elise Marubbio at 612-330-1523
or <marubbio@augsburg.edu>.
Winter/Spring 2005
Staff photo
Speech team wins sweepstakes award
Auggies win national title while records fall
Stephen Geffre
by Don Stoner
T
ying national records with 10 AllAmericans, six wrestlers in national
championship finals, and four wrestlers
repeating as individual national
champions, the Augsburg College
wrestling team claimed its ninth NCAA
Division III national championship in the
last 15 seasons with a dominating
performance in the national tournament,
March 4-5, at St. Olaf College in
Northfield.
Augsburg put together the secondhighest point total for any championship
team in Division III history, and the most
ever for an Augsburg team at the national
championship tournament.
Augsburg claimed 10 All-Americans, a
first in program history and the second
such occurrence in Division III history.
Augsburg head coach Jeff Swenson has
guided 143 All-Americans in his 23 years
of coaching (1980-84, 1986-present).
Junior Marcus LeVesseur became just
the eighth wrestler in Division III history,
and the first in Augsburg history, to win
three consecutive national titles, as he
claimed the 157-pound crown.
His 124-match collegiate unbeaten
streak is now the second-longest winning
Augsburg’s wrestling team claimed the NCAA Division III national championship on March 5 at
St. Olaf College—its ninth wrestling national title in the last 15 seasons.
streak in college wrestling history behind
the 159 of Cael Sanderson at Iowa State
(1998-2002). LeVesseur has yet to lose a
collegiate wrestling match.
Augsburg’s four repeat national
champions all finished their seasons
unbeaten, bringing the Auggies’ all-time
national championship total to 39 in
school history— and a record 35 in
Division III competition.
“Not only did they repeat, but they
were undefeated champions—it’s almost
unheard of at any level for a guy to do
something like that—and to have a team
that had four guys repeat and go
undefeated in that year, it’s just mindboggling,” Swenson said. “This will be in
the storybooks long after I’m done
coaching.”
Augsburg finished 14-1 on the season
in dual meets, earning Swenson his
300th career coaching victory along the
way. He is now 302-40 (.883 winning
percentage) in his career.
Don Stoner is sports information coordinator.
A
ugsburg has joined the Lutheran
World Relief’s Wave of Giving
campaign to rebuild resources in South
Asia devastated by the December
tsunami.
Augsburg’s goal is to raise $35,000;
while it will contribute to LWR’s overall
rebuilding plan in the area, the focus will
be on the rebuilding of a cyclone
shelter/school in India.
Student organizations have jumped
on to “ride the wave” with creative
fundraising events. For Valentine’s Day,
the LINK, a student service organization,
collected money for their singing
telegrams and a raffle.
Winter/Spring 2005
On March 13, Pi Day,
the student math club,
Unbounded, charged
students money for the
opportunity to “pi” their
favorite professor—by
tossing a whipped cream
mini-pie at them. Students
also took turns reading the
digits of pi, reaching a
grand total of 24,401.
Augsburg’s Center for Global
Education (CGE) and LWR have shared
their common strong commitments to
experiential education as a learning tool
with trips over the past two years to
Courtesy photo
Ride the ‘Wave of Giving’ for tsunami relief
Nicaragua to educate about the LWR
coffee project and fair trade.
Contact David Fenrick, Center for
Global Education, for further information
or to donate, at <fenrick@augsburg.edu>
or 612-330-1669.
5
Sports
Gridiron guru
by Erin Peterson
hen Jack Osberg ’62 walked off
the football field for the final time
as head coach of the Augsburg team
following the Auggies’ game against
St. Olaf at the Metrodome on Nov. 12,
he departed as the winningest football
coach in the school’s history.
But for him, that legacy isn’t nearly
as important as the one he’s had on a
generation of players.
Take Craig Peroutka ’99. Long before
Peroutka ever donned an Augsburg
uniform, he knew that Jack Osberg
would be his college coach. As a senior
at Faribault High School, the offensive
lineman hadn’t attracted notice from any
Division I or Division II schools, but he
had caught the eye of Osberg.
“Jack was the only one who took the
time to visit me at my house after a high
school football game,” he says. “He
really took time to get to know me.”
Peroutka would go on to be a part of
the 1997 Augsburg squad that finished
10-2 and earned a Minnesota
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
(MIAC) crown for the first time since
1928, while advancing to the NCAA
Division III national quarterfinals.
Now a financial analyst, Peroutka
says Osberg wasn’t just a football coach
for him; he was a life coach. “He
focused on values,” Peroutka says. “He
didn’t want us to succeed just on the
field, he wanted us to succeed in the
classroom and in everything we did.”
This is the kind of praise on which
Osberg thrives. During his 14-year
tenure as head coach at Augsburg, he’s
garnered his share of accolades, from
winning the MIAC championship to
surpassing his former coach and mentor,
Edor Nelson ’38, as the winningest
football coach in Auggie history.
But he’s much quicker to recount the
weddings of former players he’s attended
recently, and the friendships he’s formed
with many of his players. He’s happy to
talk about the successes of his players
6
not just on the gridiron, but in the
business world.
“I want my players to understand
that there’s a bigger world than football,
but that there are many things we can
learn on the football field that will help
us, whether it’s our careers, our
relationships, our spirituality, or
anything else,” says Osberg.
It’s the wisdom of a coach who’s
played the game for his entire life, and
coached for nearly three-quarters of it.
An Auggie himself, the offensive and
defensive lineman played under the
legendary Edor Nelson ’38, and he knew
by the middle of his freshman year that
he would coach.
He spent 30 years teaching biology
and coaching at Minneapolis Roosevelt,
Bloomington Kennedy, and Wayzata high
schools, where he says he quickly
learned that good coaches aren’t
necessarily the best athletes, they’re the
best teachers.
“You need to know how to motivate
and work with young people,” he says.
“I’ve always said that if I’m teaching a
class of 30 students and I get 28 positive
evaluations, I’ll wonder what I could
Head football coach Jack Osberg ‘62 retires
with the most wins in Augsburg coaching
history.
Charles Walbridge
W
Charles Walbridge
Augsburg coach Jack Osberg shares his philosophy on football and life
Coach Osberg celebrates with Auggie players in 2003 after a win over Hamline.
Winter/Spring 2005
Archive photo
begin to turn the
have done for those
program around, even if
other two. Coaching
they would not be the
is the same way. I
ones to finish first in
want to be able to
the MIAC.
relate to all of the
These days, says
players.”
Osberg, it’s tougher to
While he’s had
succeed than it used to
plenty of role models
be. Many players, even
on and off the field,
at the Division III level,
his goal was never to
are pressured to
emulate the style of
specialize in a single
any of them. “As a
Jack Osberg began his football
sport, and with everyoung coach, I went
career as an Auggie offensive and
defensive lineman.
improving technology,
to a clinic and I heard
play is far more
[former Vikings
sophisticated than it was when he was a
coach] Bud Grant speak,” he says. “I
player.
came back with all these great Bud Grant
“We have video tapes now that we
ideas, but I wasn’t Bud Grant.”
can just copy and give out,” he says.
As he looked to many people for
“We used to have just one 16-millimeter
ideas, he ended up building his own
film, and we couldn’t copy that. It was
coaching philosophy and style. For better
difficult to run, and it broke all the
or worse, the young men who played for
time.”
him would look up to him, and he
Even as players feel that they must
stresses that he tries to be a role model
do more work in the weight room and
for them. He is demanding but respectful
spend more time in the offseason
of his players; he focuses on the
preparing for the following fall, Osberg
fundamentals of the game while
tells them to find balance. College is a
acknowledging that his players and his
crucible, but it is only through the
coaches have much to teach him.
balance of sports and academics, work,
“If you think you have all the answers
and friendships that they will be
to everything, you’re not going to make
prepared to enter the world and the rest
it,” he says.
of their lives.
As a Division III coach, Osberg hasn’t
In retirement, he says he is looking
had access to the kind of talent available
forward to spending more time with his
to large programs, but he’s a proponent
wife, Nina, and six children and
of making everyone—even those who
grandchildren. He may also spend more
will never be stars—feel valued.
time on the golf course. But retirement
“Jack made me think I could
will be bittersweet because of the joy
accomplish anything,” says Mike
that his tenure at Augsburg has brought.
Weidner ’83, a defensive end who played
“I was here 40 years ago, and in that
while Osberg was a defensive coordinator
time buildings have changed, technology
under Al Kloppen. “I was 6-feet-1 and
has changed, and administrations have
177 pounds, and he convinced me I
changed,” he says. “But the thing that’s
could do the job. I don’t think we had
stayed constant is the [encouragement]
one guy who was over 200 pounds, but
for individuals to be who they are. That
he always got the most out of
is something that persists.”
everybody.”
Osberg will remain on the Augsburg
Indeed, he says one of the squads he
staff, assisting in the school’s Alumni and
was most proud of during his tenure at
Parent Relations and Development areas,
Augsburg was the group of players he
to develop connections with athletic
started with during his first year as a
alumni and parents.
head coach, in 1991. Augsburg had
compiled an abysmal 7-61-2 record in
Erin Peterson is a freelance writer based in
the previous seven seasons, and he
Minneapolis.
marveled at the 1991 group’s ability to
Winter/Spring 2005
Frank Haege to
replace Osberg
by Don Stoner
F
ormer Augsburg assistant coach
Frank Haege has been named to
replace retiring coach Jack Osberg. He will
be the 14th head coach in the 74-season
history of the school’s football program.
Haege brings a 64-24 record as a
professional football head coach to his
new post at Augsburg. Most recently,
Haege spent three seasons as head coach
of the Arena Football League’s Las Vegas
Gladiators, posting a 25-23 record
(including playoffs).
“I’m very excited about this position,”
said Haege, 36. “Working at Augsburg,
and at the small-college level, has always
been a long-term goal for me. I’ve really
enjoyed the 10 years that I coached in
Arena Football, and I’ve had a lot of
success at that level. But there is a lot
more stability at the small-college level,
and that is important to me and my
family.”
Haege served on the Augsburg staff
under Jack Osberg as offensive
coordinator from 1996-98.
“Ever since I started coaching with
Jack in 1996, I fell in love with
Augsburg,” Haege said. “It is a great
atmosphere in which to coach and teach.
People work hard, have fun, and always
look out for the student-athletes.”
Don Stoner is sports information
coordinator.
7
The 17th Nobel Peace Prize Forum and Peace Prize Festival
Left: Dr. Sima Samar,
chair of the Afghanistan
Human Rights
Commission, spoke
about her struggle as an
Afghan woman to
become a medical
doctor, establish the first
hospital for women in
Afghanistan, and
continue her pioneering
work on behalf of
women in her country.
Right: Augsburg student Sam
Kanenwisher ’06 (left) presents a
gift of the waters brought to this
year’s forum to a representative of
Luther College, which will host
the Peace Prize Forum in 2006.
Left: Students from CitySongs
children’s choir performed at the
forum prior to the Friday
evening plenary session.
Above: Augsburg was host in February to
nearly 1,000 college, university, and
community participants in the 17th annual
Nobel Peace Prize Forum honoring Nobel
Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi of Iran.
Above: National Public Radio producer Davar Ardalan
spoke in a plenary session about rediscovering her
native country of Iran and learning about the legacy
her family left in the national struggle for reform.
8
Above: Augsburg student Katie Bickel ’05 participated on a student seminar panel examining
human rights issues in China, Iran, and East Africa.
Winter/Spring 2005
Above: Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a
Small Planet, spoke about the politics of food and
consideration of food as the central issue through
which to understand world politics.
Above: Augsburg sociology professor Garry Hesser, with
students Krista Dahlke and Riley Conway, presented to a
standing-room seminar audience their research on
demographics, resources, and revitalization in lowincome neighborhoods.
Above: Students from the
Prairie School of Dance in Eden
Prairie performed a modern
dance, “The Wall.”
Above: Mary Robinson, former president of
Ireland and U.N. high commissioner for human
rights, talked about her global experience as an
advocate for human rights and the use of law to
bring about social change.
Above: A participant from one of the five
sponsoring colleges brought water to the Peace
Prize Forum cauldron.
Winter/Spring 2005
Above: Ole Mjøs, chair of the Nobel
Peace Prize Committee in Oslo, Norway,
gestured in his greetings from Norway
and spoke about the significance of the
forum, sponsored by the five
Norwegian Lutheran colleges.
9
Stephen Geffre
G A R RY H E S S E R
M I N N E S O TA P R O F E S S O R O F T H E Y E A R
Augsburg News Service and Betsey Norgard
10
interdisciplinary metro-urban studies
program. He was instrumental in the
creation of Augsburg’s Center for
Service, Work, and Learning—a center
marking the marriage of the classroom
and the city that has not only emerged
as a hallmark of an Augsburg education,
but also has served as a service-learning
model across the nation.
For 28 years Hesser has been a
national leader in assisting students in
taking fuller advantage of Augsburg’s
urban location through wide-ranging
internships, community servicelearning, and cooperative education.
Education Award (National Society
for Experiential Education)
• 1998, Thomas Ehrlich Award for
national leadership and scholarship in
advancing the field of service-learning
(Campus Compact)
Stephen Geffre
A
ugsburg sociology and urban
studies professor Garry Hesser
was named 2004 Minnesota
Professor of the Year by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching and the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education
(CASE).
The day of the announcement,
November 18, was proclaimed as “Dr.
Garry Hesser Day” in Minnesota by Gov.
Tim Pawlenty. A special chapel service
and luncheon marked the day on the
Augsburg campus.
In reflecting on his time at Augsburg,
Hesser said, “This has been an
extraordinary place to be all these 28
years. The gift of community is about the
greatest gift to be given to anybody in
one’s life.”
Hesser joined Augsburg’s Sociology
Department in 1977. Since that time he
has served as chair of the Natural and
Social Sciences Division and chair of the
His awards include:
• 2004, Distinguished Contributions to
Teaching and Learning (Augsburg)
• 2002, Distinguished Sociologist of
Minnesota (Sociologists of Minnesota)
• 2001, Pioneer in Experiential
Professor of the Year Garry Hesser is
introduced at a special chapel service by
Frankie Shackelford, associate dean for
teaching and learning enhancement.
Winter/Spring 2005
Stephen Geffre
Hesser represents the
very best teacher any of
us ever have had.
He’s that teacher we think
about with gratitude
decades later.
—Doug Grow
Star Tribune columnist
Hesser is Augsburg’s first recipient of the
professor-of-the-year honor, which is
given annually by the Carnegie
Foundation and CASE, two Washington,
D.C.-based organizations. It is the only
national award that recognizes
excellence in undergraduate teaching
and mentoring. More than 500
nominations were submitted.
The nominees were evaluated on
criteria including the impact on and
involvement with undergraduate
students, scholarly approach to teaching
and learning, contributions to
undergraduate education within the
institution and community, and support
from colleagues and students
“In my view, Garry Hesser represents
the best Augsburg College has to offer in
respect to innovative teaching, engaged
scholarship, and service to the
institution and the community,” noted
President William Frame.
Augsburg provost and dean
Christopher Kimball wrote, “His unique
preparation as a theologian and
sociologist has proven fertile soil in
which to cultivate a teaching life. He
does so with energy and care and
thereby provides a compelling example
of Christian vocation for his colleagues
Winter/Spring 2005
and students.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist
Doug Grow led his column about
Hesser’s honor by fantasizing about a
time when media would get as excited
about people who matter as they do
about celebrities and sports stars. He
wrote, “Hesser represents the very best
teacher any of us ever have had. He’s that
teacher we think about with gratitude
decades later.”
Hesser is past president of the
National Society for Experiential
Education (NSEE) and the Higher
Education Consortium for Urban Affairs
(HECUA). As a consultant, he has led
workshops on service-learning and
experiential education on over 50
campuses and at professional meetings.
Hesser holds degrees from Phillips
University in Oklahoma, Union
Theological Seminary in New York, and
the University of Notre Dame. He makes
his home in the Seward neighborhood
where he and his wife, Nancy Homans,
have raised their five children, two of
whom are Augsburg graduates. He is the
author or editor of numerous
publications and articles in the areas of
experiential education, service-learning,
and neighborhood revitalization.
Courtesy photo
At a luncheon in his honor, Garry Hesser acknowledged and greeted his friend and mentor Professor
Emeritus Joel Torstenson ’38, founder of Augsburg’s Sociology Department, as Fran Torstenson looked on.
In 2000, Prof. Garry Hesser and then-PanAfrikan Center director Joe Young taught
an Interim course on civil rights history that
included a 10-day bus tour to spots where
historic civil rights events occurred—Selma
and Birmingham, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.;
Memphis, Tenn.; and Atlanta, Ga. For most
students, it was their first trip in the south,
and left a strong impact as they immersed
themselves in the history. Here, the group
posed on the steps of the 16th Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
11
Robert Frost poignantly reminds us of
roads not taken, as well as those that are
taken. In 1984, I was engaged in a
faculty development internship related to
affordable housing policy and programs.
I was preparing for a sabbatical leave to
write a book with an economics colleague
focusing on neighborhood revitalization
using data that my students and I had
collected from a sample of 500
Minneapolis residents. Then the dean
called and invited me to accept an
appointment as founding director of the
newly funded Cooperative Education
program, stressing the importance of
faculty leadership in this new undertaking.
My colleague wrote the book that we
had planned together, but the alternate
“road taken” enabled me to become one
of the early faculty members who led in
the “rediscovery” and validation of
experiential education and servicelearning. Because there were so few
faculty members whose colleges
supported their involvement in servicelearning, I stood out and became
president of the National Society for
Experiential Education (NSEE), which
collaborated with Susan Stroud and Tim
Stanton as they worked with the
university presidents who founded
Campus Compact. These were heady
times for all of us in experiential
education. I found myself at Wingspread
on a task force which was deliberating on
whether to call it “service-learning” and
played a leadership role in NSEE when
we convened Wingspread gatherings that
produced the “Principles of Good
Practice in Service-Learning,” designed a
research agenda under the leadership of
Dwight Giles, and commissioned the
now classic NSEE three-volume
Combining Service and Learning, edited
by Jane Kendall.
All this also opened the door to
my becoming a FIPSE-NSEE consultant
(which has evolved into the Campus
Compact-AAHE Consulting Corps). This
20-year interchange and dialogue has
enhanced our programs at Augsburg and
12
by Garry Hesser
Stephen Geffre
T H E R O A D TA K E N
An unexpected career path and serendipity led Professor Garry Hesser to the forefront of leadership,
as experiential education, and especially service-learning, was embraced and developed in higher
education.
the over 50 campuses where I have been
privileged to conduct faculty and staff
development workshops on experiential
education and service-learning.
Serendipity played a key role in recentering my teaching and scholarship in
the very values that had led me into the
academy in the first place, namely a
desire to combine knowledge with civic
engagement that could lead to thriving
and integrated communities open to all.
These opportunities have been gifts
in a 20-year “faculty development
process” and dialogue with colleagues
from across the globe, enabling me to be
a bridge between Augsburg, HECUA, and
others on the cutting edge of experiential
education. My teaching has certainly
benefited from an expanded utilization of
community-based pedagogy. And it
would appear that Augsburg has also
benefited from this disciplinary and
interdisciplinary exchange. This summer
two of my students will collaborate with
me as we expand upon and synthesize
the community-based research of other
students over the past five years as we
deepen our understanding of five
Minneapolis neighborhoods and compare
their community-building endeavors
with five neighborhoods involved in
Annie E. Casey’s “Rebuilding
Communities Initiative.”
I do not know the roads that I
might have traveled by pursuing more
traditional forms of scholarship. But the
decision to focus my teaching and
sociological journey on experiential
education and community-based servicelearning has provided countless
opportunities in higher education and
the discipline of sociology. …
My colleagues and students, both
within the academy and the community,
young and old, have shared their gifts
and accepted mine. We have challenged
and changed one another as a
community of learners and engaged
scholars. How could any professor ask
for more opportunities than I have had
or more reasons to celebrate the joy of
being a teacher, a student, a sociologist,
an urbanist, and a citizen? ■
Excerpted from the personal statement by
Garry Hesser that accompanied his
nomination as Professor of the Year.
Winter/Spring 2005
‘Many Houses’ author found Augsburg home
With many men serving in the Armed
Forces during World War II, most
Augsburg students were women. It was
here that writer Marie (Gjenvick)
Knaphus ’45 found a home. “The entire
school was like a family,” said Knaphus.
“Augsburg means a lot to me. I received
a good education and made many
lifelong friends.”
In addition to studying, Knaphus
kept involved with oratory and debate,
singing in the Mendelssohn Chorus, and
participating in the International
Relations Club and the Writers’ Club. At
the same time, she was engaged in
community and faith-based activities
through Girl Scouts and the church.
Making Iowa her home for many
years, Knaphus last visited the campus
in 1996 for the 50th anniversary of
campus ministry among students
attending state-supported colleges and
universities. Shortly after leaving
Augsburg, Knaphus served as counselor
to Lutheran students attending the Iowa
State Teachers College in Cedar Falls,
Iowa. It was there that she met and
married her husband, George, and
together they became the ministry’s first
counselors.
During her visit, Knaphus was
amazed at the growth of Augsburg’s
Weekend College (WEC) and feels a
connection with WEC students because,
she, too, lived off campus. However, she
took a streetcar to attend Augsburg.
Winter/Spring 2005
A great-grandmother at 81, Knaphus
continues to use her education and serve
others. Currently she is working on her
third book, this one about her father, a
Norwegian immigrant. ■
Marie (Gjenvick) Knaphus ’45, then and now.
“I am impressed with what’s
happening to Augsburg today,” she said.
“Students should work hard and take
advantage of every opportunity to grow
and develop their abilities. I feel
Augsburg did this for me.”
Knaphus also thinks “it’s important
for alumni to help support the College.
It takes so much money to run a
college, and people who have benefited
from it need to help.”
She recently made a significant gift
of stock to the Bernhard M. Christensen
Endowed Fund “out of gratitude for a
good education. It [Augsburg] offered
me the incentive to go out and offer
myself in service to others. I believe
there is a place for the small college that
has a mission like Augsburg.”
Knaphus was fortunate to have
Bernhard Christensen as a professor and
keeps in contact with his widow, (Lilly)
Gracia. “I have fond memories of Dr.
Christensen’s religion class that pulled
everything together for me. Attending
Augsburg helped me crystallize my faith,”
she said.
Marie Knaphus’ story may be similar to
yours. She held stock for many years and
wanted to give to Augsburg instead of taking
the capital gain from the sale of stock. Her
gift helps build Augsburg’s endowment, and
Knaphus benefits as well.
Augsburg is focusing its endowment growth
in three ways:
• NEW FACULTY CHAIRS AND
PROFESSORSHIPS
Endowed chairs and professorships allow
the College to attract and retain the most
qualified and talented faculty.
• NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS
By expanding the current level of endowed
scholarships the College is able to attract
talented students from all backgrounds.
• PROGRAM SUPPORT AND FACULTY
DEVELOPMENT
A strong endowment is essential to
sustaining distinctive programs, supporting
innovative faculty-student research projects,
and enhancing professional development
programs for all faculty and staff.
You may designate endowment gifts to areas
of your specific interest.Your appreciated
securities of stock, bonds, or mutual funds
may be exempt from capital gains taxes
when you transfer them to the College, and
you may receive a tax deduction equal to the
market value of the securities at the time
they are transferred. Contact the
Development Office at 612-338-0002 to
discuss how your gift can best help others.
13
Goal reached through the 3M Foundation challenge grant
The challenge went out this past fall to
Augburg alumni and friends who are 3M
employees to give back to their alma
mater through the 3M Foundation
Challenge Grant.
“I think the
3M Foundation
structured the
grant appropriately,” said Ron
Nelson ’68. “I am
pleased to see we
achieved the
match.” Augsburg
College and 3M
partnered to
Ron Nelson ’68
successfully raise
$100,000 from 69 3M employees in
support of the new Science Center. The
special challenge match opportunity
offered by the 3M Foundation ran for
eight weeks. Under the 3:1 challenge, the
foundation matched the $100,000 in
contributions from employees, retirees,
and friends with a $300,000 gift. Additionally, the foundation contributed a
$200,000 grant to the new Science Center.
“There is a long-standing relationship
between Augsburg and 3M,” said Nelson.
“This challenge grant gave many 3M
employees and retirees an opportunity to
reconnect with the College and play an
important part in the capital campaign.”
Sandra Wollschlager ’94 was compelled
to contribute because “my education made
a challenging 3M career possible. Many
3M employees completed degrees in a
nontraditional fashion when taking
Augsburg coursework. We obtained an
14
Augsburg degree
while working full
time and raising a
family.
“My daughter
was one-year-old
when I took my
first Augsburg
class. I commuted
Sandra Wollschlager ’94 a long distance.
Because Augsburg
chemistry professors came to the 3M
campus, it enabled me to juggle my work
schedule so I could take classes. If it wasn’t
for 3M and Augsburg making it easier for
me, I wouldn’t have gone to college.”
Nelson came from the small Minnesota
town of Dawson, and life at Augsburg
was his first introduction to the city. “It
became my window,” said Nelson. “All is
available within the city, and students
should plug in culturally, through sports,
and experience activities relative to
societal diversity.”
Students should “participate in the
hands-on experiences made available in
the classroom and the laboratories, and
take advantage of the research work,” he
said. “These are extremely important
building blocks for the future.”
“The connection with Augsburg to the
scientific community is imperative,” said
Wollschlager. “Students need to see and
understand the big connections. 3M is a
global company so it is involved in global
issues. So what can we do to lessen global
warming, for example? Students need to
learn air and water transport modeling so
they can see how the world is connected.
“Our generation needs to make
improvements in the environment
(sustainable chemistry, technological
advances) and we need to figure out how
to educate the public about our
improvements and, in general, the value
of a science education/background.”
“The contributions made in sciences
are important to everyone,” continued
Nelson. “We want the science programs to
continue to be competitive and turn out
leaders like Dr. Peter Agre ’70, recipient of
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.” ■
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Many people made a difference through the
3M Foundation Grant Challenge—please
consider how you can make a difference, too.
Does your company offer a matching gift
program? If so, please let us know.
Remember, all gifts are tax deductible.
Contact Sherry Jennings-King at
612-338-4823 or jenningk@augsburg.edu
to discuss giving options.
Vision is published by
Augsburg College, 2211 Riverside Ave.,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454.
Editor and Writer
Lynn James
Graphic Designer
Kathy Rumpza
www.augsburg.edu/campaign
Winter/Spring 2005
A FINE FIRST LADY
Leola (Lee) Anderson served as the first
lady of Augsburg College during her
husband’s presidency from 1963 to 1980.
President Emeritus Oscar Anderson
focused on three main areas during his
term in office: to meld Augsburg into its
new family of colleges in the American
Lutheran Church (it had been the
college of the Lutheran Free Church); to
experiment with programs that involved
the city as a learning laboratory; and to
strengthen the College academically,
which resulted in an invitation to join
the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities
(ACTC).
As the president’s wife, Lee was active
in the Augsburg College Women’s Club,
now called the Augsburg College
Associates, and hosted College functions.
She raised four children during her
husband’s tenure, served on the first task
force of the American Lutheran College,
and was involved in the church.
She is remembered as a warm,
friendly person who cared deeply about
social issues, was a strong advocate for
women, and was close to her children.
Family was very important to her, and,
at age 86, she experienced the joy of
seeing her first great-grandchild.
TIME OF REMEMBRANCE
Donna (Anderson) Hoekstra ’68 spoke at
the memorial service about her mother,
Lee Anderson. Excerpts are reprinted
here with permission.
“She was a lovely lady with a unique,
one-of-a-kind personality and a name to
Winter/Spring 2005
Archive photo
In Memoriam
Leola G. Anderson, April 17, 1916–December 4, 2004
Leola (Lee) Anderson
match. Mom was generous with her
myriad talents. She could sing
beautifully, strum a guitar (though
upside down and backwards), sew
professionally, entertain with class,
sashay with flair on the dance floor,
draw and paint, and write with depth
and feeling.
Mom was generous with her
treasures, too. She gave, with no strings
attached, to her family, but she also gave
to the far ends of God’s world to
suffering people in places like Rwanda.
Mom embodied for me Christian
discipleship. She tried to live the godly
life—her life bore the fruits of the Spirit:
patience, kindness, goodness,
compassion, and self-control. She exemplified how I wanted to live my life.
Mom gave of herself in service to
others. She was all too often selfless to a
fault. In her early years she served as
choir director, youth leader, Sunday
school teacher, newsletter editor, and
worked in various jobs to support the
family during difficult times in Chicago.
In her years as wife of a traveling
Luther League director (that would be
my dad), Mom formed the Traveler’s
Aid group to provide mutual support
for other staff wives.
In her role as pastor’s wife, she served
gracefully. I can remember food-laden
tables at open houses and family
gatherings at holiday times, Bible
studies she led, sharing fresh insights,
overflowing Christmas baskets for the
poor, and quiet living room conversations with hurting parishioners.
continued on page 16
LEOLA G. ANDERSON
SCHOLARSHIP
Appreciating the legacy a scholarship offers,
in 2002 President Emeritus Oscar Anderson
established the Leola G. Anderson
Scholarship in Mathematics to honor
his wife.
“My wife had a love of math, but was a very
modest person,” said Anderson.“I wanted to
do something to honor her, so with
agreement from my family, the Leola G.
Anderson Scholarship in Mathematics was
established.” It is designated that one or more
students who have demonstrated academic
achievement and financial need be awarded
the scholarship. Special consideration is given
to assisting women in mathematics.
If you are interested in contributing to this
scholarship, contact Jennifer Kahlow at
612-338-6540 or <kahlow@augsburg.edu>.
15
F
In Memoriam, continued
Mom was an open person. She
opened her mind—especially during the
17 years at Augsburg. I found speeches
she had given in front of learned college
groups. And I remember a particular
Mother/Daughter Banquet. Her talk was
brilliant. How I admired her and was so
proud to be her daughter.
She opened her home—to the
freshmen for Welcome to College Week,
to friends we brought home, and to faculty
for college functions. She opened her heart
to students she tutored and to the needs of
patients at Fairview Hospital.
Books were her love from when she
was young to just three months before she
died. They informed her thoughts and
shaped her opinions.
I had a mom who was on the cutting
edge, though often herself teetering
precariously. With heartfelt empathy
from her own personal loss, she
championed the poor, the oppressed, and
the disenfranchised. She fought for peace
and justice through written word and
voice forming the MS (Miscellaneous)
group of gals to hone shared thoughts
and strategies for change. She took on
Enhancements made to Thrivent’s GivingPlus Program
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans offers a charitable/match gift program to alumni,
faculty, staff, and friends of the College. Changes to the program for 2005 include:
•
•
•
•
•
no minimum gift required,
increased member giving range,
multiple gifts option by members to same organization,
equal membership status for gifts, and
additional Lutheran organizations eligible.
Contact Stephanie Malone, director of The Augsburg Fund, at 612-338-4825 or
<malone@augsburg.edu> for details on how your participation benefits Augsburg.
the “isms” of race, gender, and culture.
My mom was a flaming liberal and an
authentic feminist. She could talk your
arm off sharing her causes. After her
death, we discovered volumes of prose
and poetry on all kinds of subjects. She
will live on in her written words.
Mom gave her love unconditionally.
She saw God as unconditional lover and
tried to model that love. She was
generous, open, and loving even during
her darkest times. Mom modeled for me
how to give, how to really see the other
person, how to serve, and how to love.” ■
SUPPORT STUDENTS
Hurry! Your annual fund donation to
The Augsburg Fund for this fiscal year must
be received by May 31.
Your tax-deductible gift will accomplish many
things: help students by supplementing their
tuition, provide enriching campus experiences,
enhance technology and curriculum, and
prepare future leaders for service in the world.
Contact Stephanie R. Malone, director,The
Augsburg Fund and Maroon & Silver Society,
at 612-338-4825 or <malone@augsburg.edu>.
Campaign Progress
$37.5M of $55M goal
as of 3-10-2005
16
Winter/Spring 2005
FACULTY
/STAFFNotes
NOTES
Faculty/Staff
Connecting with classmates around the world
by Judy Petree
new program at Augsburg connects
students and faculties around the
world via Web cam and e-mail, offering
one way for students to gain global
perspectives without leaving campus.
Augsburg social work professor
Rosemary Link, along with Robert Bill
from Information Technology, received a
State Department grant to develop the
“Exploring World Cultures” project as a
module in a social work class. Augsburg
is the only Minnesota institution among
the 10 funded grants.
The goals of the project are to
increase understanding of world cultures
and systems of human service; to
increase students’ abilities to explain
their own culture and respect others; to
identify the variety of cultures worldwide
and to recognize their interdependence;
and to develop crosscultural
communication skills, including conflict
management.
Link said they began with schools
where Augsburg already had
connections. At the University of
Ljubljana in Slovenia, where student
summer exchanges have become a
tradition, Professors Gabi Cacinovic
Vogrincic and Lea Sugman Bohinc were
“delighted to participate in this venture.”
A second project site is the National
University of Singapore. The third
partner, Tata Institute in Mumbai, India,
has been delayed by technical and
structural difficulties.
To prepare for the project, Link and
Bill visited the three overseas schools and
researched their political, economic,
historical, and social characteristics, plus
technology resources. They received
training at East Carolina University, where
this technology concept initiated, to
develop curriculum using video
technology and to review steps to establish
crosscultural relationships. They also
prepared for the reality of different
approaches to technology, firewall status,
bandwidth issues, and availability of an
academic technology team.
Winter/Spring 2005
Stephen Geffre
A
Students in an Augsburg social work class “study” with classmates in Slovenia, pictured on the screen.
Back row (L to R) Professor Rosemary Link, Kelly Sve, Cody Swanson, Stacy Anderson, Amanda Dowdy,
Emily Lunemann, Dan Quance, Carolyn Herman, IT coordinator Robert Bill. Front row (L to R) Erin Olsen,
Walter Gies, Shannon Rynders, Amanda Bockmann and Joelle Bickel.
“One of the unique elements of the
project is the opportunity to share
innovations in teaching and local
challenges with colleagues across the
globe,” Link said, “and to understand
different perspectives on issues which
affect us all, such as health, migration,
international adoptions, and conflict
management.”
The Augsburg students participating
in the project are taking Social Work
257, Exploring Human Services in
Global Context. They were matched with
students in either Slovenia or Singapore
and are exploring each other’s culture,
social well-being, and current issues
such as homelessness, SARS, and
migration.
Two logistical challenges, Link said,
have been the different semester
schedules and the time differences.
The joys, however, far outweigh the
challenges, and students even come in
on Sunday evenings to ‘meet’ their
Singapore classmates.
“I didn’t know much about the rest of
the world before this class,” fall semester
class student Samantha Privratsky said.
Another student, Brooke Vasseur,
commented that this is “way cool to be
making friends on the other side of the
globe.”
“Our colleague in Singapore, Dr.
Ngoh Tiong Tan, is an expert in cultural
conflict and mediation,” says Link. “His
class was well underway when we joined
in. His students gave excellent
presentations and our students joined
enthusiastically, although initially they
were somewhat alarmed at the view of
American culture from Asia.” She added
that this was mitigated as students emailed each other and explored concepts
of individualism and collectivism, as well
as distinct characteristics of culture
alongside common human needs.
According to Link, the project director,
and Bill, project technology director, “the
project has been quite a roller coaster, but
also enthralling, and students have said
they will never forget it.”
Judy Petree is media relations manager in
the Office of Public Relations and
Communication.
17
Faculty/Staff Notes
Toward spiritually-sensitive social work
A
calling to social work came to Leola
(Dyrud) Furman at age 12 during a
career session at a summer Luther League
convention. She followed family members
to Augsburg College and graduated with a
major in sociology and minors in social
work and religion. She then pursued
graduate degrees in social work and
human development.
She taught social work for 25 years at
the University of North Dakota. During
that time it was a personal and spiritual
crisis—the death of her husband from
cancer—that called her to the forefront of
a new movement in her field. While in the
role of a client needing support during her
husband’s illness, she realized that not
only could spiritual support help people
cope in a crisis, it could help them grow
personally and spiritually.
She understood the importance of
spirituality and religion as necessary
aspects of human identity. Her research
connected her to Edward Canda, at the
University of Kansas, who had recently
founded the Society for Spirituality in
Social Work. Together, they co-authored a
textbook, Spiritual Diversity in Social Work
Practice, The Heart of Helping that was
hailed as “a ‘state of the art’ expression of a
newly re-emerging theme, spirituality.”
This refers to the fact that social work’s
roots came from the work of 19th-century
religious charity organizations. Their book
defines the values and issues inherent in
spiritually-sensitive social work practice
and offers practical guidelines and
strategies.
In 1997 Furman and Canda developed
a national survey of social workers, asking
their views on the appropriateness of
religion and spirituality in social work
practice—the first of its kind. The survey
defined spirituality as search for meaning
and purpose in either religious or nonreligious forms, and religion as “an
organized set of beliefs and practices
shared by a community related to
spirituality.”
The survey results showed that not
only did social workers affirm a role for
18
the discussion of these topics (82%), but
that many of them had already been doing
it in various ways (75%).
An important finding, however, was
that 73% of respondents expressed a lack
of any spiritual training. That began to
change as social work schools developed
curricula and new courses. Today, most
textbooks integrate spirituality within
discussion of treating the client as a
whole person.
Spiritually-sensitive social work
practice is becoming especially relevant in
diverse communities where an important
way to reach ethnic minorities is through
their faith and spirituality.
Three years later, Furman repeated her
survey in the U.K., with similar results.
Then, building on connections she
made while a visiting professor in Norway,
Furman collaborated with Mari-Anne
Zahl, a professor in social work at the
Norwegian University of Science and
Technology (formerly University of
Trondheim) who has a graduate degree
from the University of Minnesota. Zahl
translated the survey instrument into
Norwegian, and surveyed Norwegian
social workers.
The results, while similar to the U.S.
and U.K., demonstrated cultural
differences in religious institutions. The
Norwegian Lutheran Church, until
recently, did not have the same kind of
social network and function as American
church congregations, and social workers
were not accustomed to considering
religious referrals. Also, church attendance
is less frequent there.
Zahl sees the survey results as valuable.
Social workers can understand better how
discussion of religion can be appropriate
and they gain insight into working with
increasing numbers of immigrants arriving
in Norway.
“Since social work deals with everyday
social functioning,” Zahl said, “[a client’s
religion] is part of what social workers
deal have to deal with. Are they open to,
are they sensitive to, do they listen to, and
are they comfortable enough to deal with
that aspect of life?”
by Betsey Norgard
Adjunct social work professor Leola (Dyrud)
Furman ’61 (left) and Norwegian social work
professor Mari-Anne Zahl are collaborating to
study social workers’ perspectives towards
inclusion of religion and spirituality in social
work practice, as thoroughly presented in the
book Furman co-authored.
This means that social workers need to
have understanding of their clients’
culture, religion, and the place that
religion plays in their culture. She said that
while fewer than half of the survey
respondents had any training in dealing
with religious and spiritual issues,
70-80% of them said they desire it.
With her husband, Hans Eriksson,
who returned this year as visiting
professor in Augsburg’s social work
department, Zahl is in Minneapolis on
sabbatical, continuing her collaboration
with Furman. Zahl is compiling the
Norwegian information and, along with
Furman, is writing comparative studies of
the three countries surveyed. Together,
they are presenting at national social work
meetings, and jointly teaching some of
Furman’s classes.
Leola (Dyrud) Furman ’61 is an adjunct
professor at Augsburg and the University of
Minnesota. She is a Distinguished Alumna
of Augsburg College and associate professor
emerita of the University of North Dakota.
Mari-Anne Zahl is an associate professor in
the Department of Social Work and Health
Sciences at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology in Trondheim.
Winter/Spring 2005
Presentations
Laura Boisen and Maryann Syers, social
work, have published articles and presented
nationally on their integrative case analysis
model, including at the annual program
meeting of the Council on Social Work
Education in February.
Blake Boursaw, Tracy Bibelnieks, Nick
Coult, Matthew Haines, and
Su Dorée, mathematics, presented at the
annual meeting of the Mathematical
Association of America-American
Mathematical Society (MAA-AMS) annual
meeting in January. Mathematics/
computer science major Dan Wolf ’05
presented a poster about his NSF-funded
research last summer.
Lars Christiansen and Diane Pike,
sociology, led a teaching workshop, “Teaching
Organizational Theory,” at the American
Sociological Association in August. At that
meeting, Pike became chair of the
Undergraduate Teaching Section and the
Ethics Committee.
Jacqueline deVries, history, presented “New
Women, New Religion: Feminism and the
Victorian Crisis of Faith” at the American
Historical Association meeting in January.
David Fenrick, Center for Global Education,
was an editorial team member in an issue
group, “Effective Theological Education for
World Mission,” at the Forum 2004 on World
Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand.
He also presented “Transforming ShortTerm Mission through Service-Learning” at
the Annual World Mission Conference of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) in St. Paul in March 2004. In
November he co-presented a workshop,
“Reciprocity Leads to Culture Learning,” at a
workshop of NAFSA: Association of
International Educators.
Annette Gerten and Lois Bosch, social
work, presented a workshop on using
creativity to enhance learning relevance for
policy students at the annual meeting of the
Minnesota Conference on Social Work
Education in September.
Winter/Spring 2005
Orv Gingerich, international programs and
Center for Global Education, participated on
a panel, “Why Do They Hate Us So Much?
Encouraging Student Geopolitical Awareness
in a Post-9/11 World,” at the Council on
International Educational Exchange in
November.
He also participated in a panel,
“Interdisciplinary Learning, Internationalization, and Study Abroad,” at the Study
Abroad Curriculum Integration Conference at
the University of Minnesota last April.
Doug Green, English, read a poem “A
Topography of Love,” now published online,
at the Northfield Arts Guild Writers’ Night in
November.
He also presented a paper, “Estranging
Bedfellows: Early Modern Cinema Today,” for
the seminar on Shakespeare, Gender, and
Sexual Orientation at the Shakespeare
Association of America’s annual meeting.
Garry Hesser, sociology, presented a paper
co-authored with Augsburg students Riley
Conway ’05 and Krista Dahlke ’06,
“Rebuilding Communities: Comparing a
National Model (Casey) and Minneapolis
Neighborhood Revitalization Program,” at the
annual meeting of the American Sociological
Association in August.
Norm Holen, art,
emeritus, was present
for the dedication of the
F. Scott Fitzgerald
alcove in the St. Paul
Central Library, where
his terra cotta bust of
Fitzgerald was unveiled.
Holen’s works have
been included in two
recent books, The
Sculpture Reference
Illustrated, by Arthur
Williams (2005) and
500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate
the Human Form (Lark Books, Sterling
Publishing, 2004).
Gretchen Irvine, education, was a panel
member on “Service-Learning: Connecting
Schools to the Community,” at the Minnesota
Alliance of Black School Educators (MABSE)
Education Summit in October. She also
presented, “Learning Outcomes One Year
Later” at the Hawaii International Conference
on Education in January.
Mary Jacobson and Vicki Olson,
education, and Robert Bill, information
technology, presented at the National Reading
Conference on the study they have carried
out focusing on teacher preparation in the
state of Minnesota as it relates to reading.
Mark Lester, Center for Global EducationNicaragua, spoke at Seattle University in the
Salon Series, on “U.S. Consumption and the
Needs of Developing Nations: A View from
Nicaragua.”
He also presented there on the U.S.Central America Free Trade Agreement
(CAFTA), and spoke to theology, business,
and social work classes.
David Matz, psychology, was a co-presenter
of “The Social and Evolutionary Psychology of
Hair Color Preferences on the Northern and
Southern Prairie,” at the January meeting of
the Society of Personality and Social
Psychology.
Curt Paulsen, social work, with Cathy
Paulsen, graduate programs, presented “From
Spirituality to Empathy: Application to
Dialectics in Marital Relationships,” at the
National Council on Family Relations in
November.
He also presented “From Chaos to Order
by Way of a Seven-Step Process from
Freedom to Love” at the Lilly Conference
West on College and University Teaching.
Tim Pippert, sociology, presented “I Ain’t
Seen Them in Awhile: Created Familites of
Homeless Men” at the American Sociological
Association annual meeting in August.
Nancy Rodenborg and Lois Bosch, social
work, presented a paper on using dialogue
groups in teaching Master of Social Work
students at the annual program meeting of the
Council on Social Work Education in February.
19
Faculty/Staff Notes
Presentations (continued)
Patrice Salmeri, StepUP, and Ann Garvey,
student affairs, presented about Augsburg’s
StepUP program to the American Association
of University Women (AAUW), Minneapolis
branch, in September.
Nancy Steblay, psychology, presented
“Reforming Eyewitness Identification:
Convicting the Guilty, Protecting the
Innocent,” at a conference at the Cardozo
Law School in New York.
She also presented
on lineup identification
issues with real officers
and real cases at the
American PsychologyLaw Society conference
in California, and on
blind sequential lineup
identifications in the
field at a Hennepin County conference of law
enforcement officers.
Kathryn Swanson, English, served
as a panelist for Theatre Unbound’s
production of “Girls Got Pluck” and
presented a paper titled “Ten Thousand Cups
of Tea: American-born Chinese Women
Sleuths” at the Popular Culture Conference in
San Diego in March.
reflection in a curvilinear magnetic field and
formation of Alfvenic resonators on open
field lines,” in the Journal of Geophysical
Research, in 2005.
In the same journal, Engebretson is lead
author, along with co-authors Jennifer
Posch ’94 and Brian Anderson ’82, at
Johns Hopkins University; and acknowledged
student contributors Geoff Shelburne ’05,
Heather Greene ’05, Jon-Erik Hokanson
’05, and Ryan Nevin ’04, for “Ground and
satellite observations of Pc 1-2 waves on
open field lines poleward of the dayside
cusp.”
Engebretson is also a co-author of a
study, “Density enhancement in
plasmasphere-ionosphere plasma during the
2003 Halloween Superstorm: Observations
along the 330th magnetic meridian in North
America,” which recently appeared in
Geophysical Research Letters.
syllabi in international social work being
published by the Council on Social Work
Education.
James Vela-McConnell, sociology,
participated in a department chairs workshop
at the annual meeting of the American
Sociological Association.
Publications
Beth Alexander,
physician assistant
studies, was lead
author of “Methods of
Pain Assessment in
Residents of Long-term
Care Facilities: A Pilot
Study” which appeared
in the March/April
issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Directors Association.
Tony Bibus and Rosemary Link, social
work, published a chapter, “The Impact of
U.S. Welfare Reform on Children’s Well
Being: Minnesota Focus,” in Promoting the
Well Being of Children, Families, and
Communities, edited by Harriet Ward and
Jane Scott and published in 2005.
Jacqueline deVries, history, published an
essay, “Rediscovering Christianity after the
Postmodern Turn,” in the winter issue of
Feminist Studies and two essays, “Women’s
Religious Organisations” and “Women’s
Charity Organisations,” in A Change in
Attitude: Women, War, and Society, 19141918, edited by Susan Grayzel.
Mark Engebretson, physics, and David
Murr ’92, at Dartmouth College, are coauthors of an article with lead author Slava
Pilipenko, Institute of the Physics of the
Earth in Russia, and frequent visiting
scientist at Augsburg for “Alfven wave
20
Bill Green, history,
published an article,
“Brown, Adequacy, and
Young Men Getting
Real about One Big
State,” in the
December/January issue
of Minnesota Law and
Politics, about the
desegregation of Minnesota schools and the
legal doctrine of “adequacy.”
Rosemary Link, social work, is co-author
with Lynn Healy of a collection of model
David Matz, psychology, co-authored
“Cognitive Dissonance in Groups: The
Consequences of Disagreement,” in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 88. He
also co-authored “Social Norms and Identity
Relevance: A Motivational Approach to
Normative Behavior,” in the Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 30.
Bruce Reichenbach, philosophy, published
“Miracle Cure or Moral Quagmire?” about
the ethics of stem cell research in the October
issue of Covenant Companion.
He also published “Dances of Death: SelfSacrifice and Atonement,” in Mel Gibson’s
Passion and Philosophy, edited by Jorge J.E.
Gracia and published by Open Court in
2004. He also authored “The Cosmological
Argument,” for the online Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy in 2004.
Nancy Rodenborg, social work, published
an article, “Service to African American
Children in Poverty: Institutional
Discrimination in Child Welfare?” in the fall
issue of Journal of Poverty: Innovations on
Social, Political, & Economic Inequalities.
Glenda Rooney, social work, is co-editor of
the seventh edition of Direct Social Work
Practice, published this year by Brooks/Cole.
Winter/Spring 2005
An April 1999 article in Law and Human
Behavior, by Nancy Steblay, psychology;
Solomon M. Fulero; and students Jasmina
Besirevic ’97 and Belia Jimenez-Lorente ’97—
“The Effects of Pretrial Publicity on Juror
Verdicts: A Meta-Analytic Review”—was one
of the magazine’s top 10 downloaded articles
in 2004.
Francine Chakolis, social work, president of
the Minnesota Alliance of Black Educators,
coordinated a three-day summit on the
Augsburg campus in October, “Yesterday,
Today, Tomorrow,” addressing disparities in
educational achievement.
Kathryn Swanson, English, has been a team
member for several accreditation site visits
under the auspices of the Higher Learning
Commission (North Central Association) and
has served on readers’ panels and as part of the
accreditation process. She is also an elected
ARC (Accreditation Review Council) member.
Honors/Awards
Retiring football coach Jack Osberg ’62 was
honored by Minnesota collegiate football
coaches as the 2005 Man of the Year for his
valuable contribution to football.
Tony Bibus, social work, was elected chair of
the Minnesota Board of Social Work, a board
appointed by the governor that regulates social
work practice in the state.
Five Augsburg staff members won top honors
at the annual awards banquet for the
Minnesota Chapter of International Special
Event Services (ISES) in March. Jodi Collen,
event services, won the top prize for Best Event
Logistics for her planning work on
Homecoming 2004. She, Heidi Breen,
alumni/parent affairs, and Marc Skjervem,
student activities, won first place for Best
Corporate or Non-Profit Event Planning—also
for the weeklong Homecoming 2004. Kathy
Rumpza and Sara Kamholz, public relations
and communication, won top prize for Best
Use of Graphic Design for the range of
publications and promotional materials used
for the 25th anniversary of Advent Vespers.
Winter/Spring 2005
‘Thirsty for God’
R
eligion professor Brad Holt’s recent
book seeks to help readers
understand the thirst they experience
in their relationship with God, but
may not realize or understand.
Thirsty for God is an updated and
expanded edition of Holt’s work by the
same name from 1993 that now
broadens the survey of persons and
institutions included under Christian
“spirituality.” It expands the body of
non-Western Christian materials and
includes maps identifying locations of
people and movements
described.
“This is a needed text
for students and for the lay
person,” says Holt, “to help
them understand the global
perspectives of Christian
spirituality. It is not just
about Europe and the U.S.”
Holt makes the
distinction between
“spirituality” and “religion”
within the context of 20thcentury scholar Baron von
Hügel’s tripartite nature of religion as
intellectual, institutional, and mystical.
Holt equates spirituality with this
mystical dimension, and thus a
necessary component for well-rounded
Christians.
The book is accessible and free of
the jargon that writer Kathleen Norris,
by Betsey Norgard
who is included in the book, refers to as
“scary words” in the theological lexicon.
Holt intends for this book to be as much
about “formation”—what he calls
“discovery of new being, new
relationships, and new practices”—as it
is about “information.” Each chapter
contains spiritual practice exercises.
Organized chronologically, the survey
of Christian spirituality begins with early
Christian times and carries forth into the
21st century to include such disparate
Western contemporaries as Jean Vanier,
Jim Wallis, Cesar Chavez,
and Robert Schuller. From
the Third World, Holt
discusses, for example,
the Virgin of Guadelupe,
liberation spirituality,
Pentecostalism, and
African indigenous
churches.
Holt will travel to Italy
for six weeks this
summer, as one of 15
scholars in various
disciplines selected by the
National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH), to study one of the subjects in
his book, St. Francis of Assisi. The
scholars will examine source texts and
visual representations of the saint within
his 13th-century world to better
understand his meaning for today,
beyond the popular images.
Stephen Geffre
Noteworthy
Professor Brad Holt’s recent book expands the survey of Christian spirituality.
21
4
THROUGH THE EYES OF TEACHERS,
THE EYES OF STUDENTS
English professor Kathy Swanson and her husband, Jack, both former Peace Corps volunteers, led a group
of nine Augsburg students to their Thai village home of 35 years ago for an internship in teaching English.
The students lived Thai culture through the eyes of teachers Kathy and Jack; through the Thai teachers,
some of whom are former students of the Swansons; and through the schoolchildren. Excerpts from the
Augsburg students’ final papers describe their experience.
4
SEEING THE ‘REAL’ THAILAND
I’ve never even seen the ocean!” …“I can’t wait to see
Bangkok.”… “Do you think it’s safe?”… “Does the flight really
take 26 hours?”… “I already miss my mom!” These were some
of the comments we heard as nine Augsburg students, my
husband, and I waited to board the first leg of the flight that
would take us back to the place we had called home 35 years
ago. Jack and I served as Peace Corps volunteers, teaching
English in a small rural village, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand,
during the height of the war in Viet Nam. Now we were
returning, for the second time, but with the responsibility of
nine students, some of whom had not traveled beyond the
Midwest.
“We want to see everything through your eyes,” Jack had
told the students. We all expected adventure, some chaos, and
wonderful experiences. We knew these three weeks would
open our students’ eyes and hearts; we didn’t know how
significantly it would change their lives.
Our family had returned to Thailand several years before
the Augsburg trip and had found that Bangkok had become a
huge, modern city, but that our village had remained essentially
unchanged. Yes, there were now a 7-Eleven store that offered
ice cream and pizza, an ATM machine, and Internet cafes, but
the essence of Thailand was there. Prachuab had remained a
sleepy, beautiful, fishing village. Walking through the market in
the center of the village, we found piles of fish and shrimp
22
by Kathy Swanson
from the morning’s catch, baskets of chilies ready for curries,
mounds of chicken feet, stands with mangoes and sticky rice,
and hills of pineapple, durian, and mangosteen fruit.
Most importantly, we found that time had not erased
memories we had for our former students and they for us.
Returning to the schools where we had taught English, we
found that several of our former students were now teachers.
They welcomed us with gifts, hugs, and tears and we began
thinking about sharing this magnificent place with Augsburg.
“You can bring students to teach us,” we were told—and the
seed was planted!
After my course in Teaching English in Thailand was
approved as an English elective, Jack and I began making plans
for the trip. We knew that the heart of the experience was to be
living and teaching in our village. We also wanted students to
see parts of Thailand that tourists likely would miss. Arranging
to be present in the village school when classes began after the
rainy season, we planned to begin the adventure in Bangkok,
then travel to Chiangmai, and then south to Prachuab Kirikhan.
Most important to us was that our Augsburg students
experience the real Thailand as we had so many years before.
And so, after crossing many time zones, watching many inflight movies, and trying to sleep in cramped airline seats, 11
Auggies arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. Even though it was
Winter/Spring 2005
2
midnight, traffic was heavy and the heat was oppressive. Too
excited to sleep, we checked into the hotel and all set off down
Sukhimvit Road. Smells of unrecognizable things, sights of
unfamiliar occurrences, and sounds very non-Minnesotan
overwhelmed us until we had to give in to sleep.
We spent the next several days seeing Bangkok’s magnificent
temples and palaces, sampling foods students had never
imagined existed, holding giant snakes at the Pasteur Institute,
winding through old Chinatown, riding in both tuk-tuks and
the new skyway train, and trying to survive humid, 100+ degree
temperatures.
Ready for a respite, we flew north to Chiangmai. Here we
were met by representatives from Payap University who made
sure Midwest students understood proper and polite Thai
behavior.
“Don’t cross your legs so that your toe is pointing at
anyone;”… “Never touch anyone on the head;”… “Wear skirts
and long pants in the temples;” … “Acknowledge one’s social
status by the appropriate wai (bow).”
In Chiangmai, we learned about Thai history and culture,
spent time at the night markets (after practicing bargaining in
Thai!), visited a mountaintop temple, rode elephants through the
jungle, trekked on a visit to hill tribes, and rode bamboo rafts
down a jungle river.
Despite these exciting events, I believe all the students would
agree that the highlight of the trip occurred during a stop on our
way to the airport as we were leaving Chiangmai. The grandma of
one of our students, Rachel Schuette, and her church friends had
sent handmade quilts with each of us. We had carried these 15
quilts until we stopped at an orphanage to deliver them to the
children. Seeing excitement and joy on the faces of these children
as they sang for us and finding tears on our own faces as we left
them is a memory none of us will forget.
After Chiangmai, we took a long, hot, Thai travelers’ trip by
train south to Prachuab. Located on the Gulf of Siam, with the
mountains of Myanmar to the west, Prachuab is unspoiled
paradise. Here students marched to the secondary school,
notebooks and lesson plans in hand, to join Thai students on that
first day of the term. We were introduced and welcomed at the
opening assembly and then began teaching.
Moving from class to class, level to level, each class period,
Winter/Spring 2005
Left: Kathy Swanson (back row,
sixth from left) poses with students she and Jack
taught in their Peace Corps days in Prachuab Kirikhan. Many are now
teachers in the school where the Augsburg students practice-taught.
Right: Nine students traveled to Thailand to practice-teach English
with Professor Kathy Swanson and her husband, Jack, in the village
where they had served as Peace Corps volunteers 35 years ago. (back
row L to R) Jack Swanson, Carl Butler, Jeff Moores, (third row L to R)
Kathy Swanson, Stephanie Nichols, Rachel Schuette, (second row L to
R) Sue Kneen, Sabrina Jurey, Bekah Chell, (front row L to R) Annie
Reierson, Anna Warnes.
Augsburg students learned quickly how to gesture and
communicate with just a few Thai words. Jack and I moved
around with them, helping occasionally, but mostly sharing in
this wonderful experience. After a few days, students felt at home.
Every morning as we participated in the school’s opening
ceremony, Thai students waved and welcomed us. One of our
students received a Thai name, many received gifts, and all
realized we were receiving much more than we were able to give.
Teachers hosted a party for us toward the end of our time in
Prachuab and we reciprocated the next evening. Some of our
former students from our Peace Corps days joined us and led
rounds of the Peter, Paul, and Mary songs we had taught them 35
years ago. There were no dry eyes in the room after we all joined
Ratchana, one of my former students and now a teacher in the
secondary school where Augsburg students had spent their time,
in “To Sir, with Love,” the song she chose to honor us as teachers.
Carrying gifts and e-mail addresses from their Thai students
and unconsciously humming “500 Miles,” Augsburg students left
Prachuab for Bangkok and Minneapolis. “Saying farewells amid
smiles, hugs, and many tears, we promised to return someday
soon—and I’m sure we will. For, as one student said, “There’s so
much about the world I didn’t know. I thought this trip would
change me; I just had no idea how much!”
Kathy Swanson is professor of English and chair of the English
Department. She directs the English as a Second Language program.
23
j
TOUCHING
MY HEART
by Anna Warnes ’05
Above: For Anna Warnes, traveling in
Thailand was an experience for all five
senses; but most important were the
friendships she made that touched her heart.
Thailand is an experience, not just of the
mind or for the eyes, but a complete
immersion into the culture. Unless you
stay at a pristine, exclusive hotel in Hua
Hin, it is hard not to touch all five of
your senses in Thailand. For me,
Thailand was an adventure of smell,
sound, taste, sight, and touch, and most
importantly, an experience of the heart.
The sounds of Thailand are like
nothing else. After spending 26 hours on
a plane listening to movies, people
snoring, and babies crying, the drone of
traffic is a welcomed sound in Thailand.
Bangkok always had the sound of
buzzing tuk-tuks in traffic and trains
overhead, but it also had more profound
sounds. The sound of complete silence
in the wat (temple) with the many
pagodas and the loud, but quite musical,
sound of blind musicians singing into
microphones as they wandered the
streets come to mind.
Chiangmai had the sound of rushing
water over rocks as we slipped by in our
open raft and the constant sound of
bartering hill tribe women with their
silver jewelry and colorful hats.
Chiangmai also had the sounds of Doi
Suthep with its deep bells booming over
the hill and children playing amongst
the tourists and monks.
Prachuab had the sound of rain,
whether misting or pouring, washing the
market streets. Prachuab also had the
24
sound of
monks blessing
people in the
early morning
hours, speaking and singing prayers
over women bowed before them.
Amusingly, the national anthem was
played at school every morning by the
marching band and on the loud
speakers, and it also played in my head
for the remaining 23 hours of the day
until my roommate would throw a
pillow at me!
My favorite sound of Thailand was
the sound of singing. Several times the
former students, Kathy, and Jack sang
“500 Miles” by Peter, Paul, and Mary. It
certainly wasn’t the beauty of the
singing that struck me, but the fact that
the students remembered all the words
and sang them so faithfully. It was
obvious that the students had been
significantly moved by their teachers.
As the students sang, you could see the
love and appreciation exuding from
them; so much so that it made my eyes
water every time they would sing. When
I heard the students sing, I could only
hope that I too would have such an
influence on a group of people. …
Forming relationships with my
students was an aspect of teaching that
really touched my heart. I was able to
get especially close to two of my
students, Maew and Por. These students
were extremely helpful to me in the
classroom and they both wanted to learn
English so badly. On the Friday evening
of the teachers’ dinner, Maew and Por
were able to eat dinner with me. I loved
talking to them about anything from
music to Por’s schooling abroad to my
family and America. Maew and Por have
e-mailed me several times since our
group returned to the United States.
They like to ask me questions about my
jobs or different musical acts in the U.S.
I think it is great that I was able to
connect with these students in such a
way that they feel comfortable e-mailing
me and talking to me about their lives as
well as mine. …
Thailand is not a place that can be
seen on a National Geographic episode
and be fully comprehended. I had to
smell the markets, hear the temple bells,
taste the pineapple, see the countryside,
touch the silk, and feel my gia (heart)
warmed by the people in order to know
Thailand. The exciting part of my
experience in Thailand is knowing that
there is so much more waiting for me to
encounter when I go back.
Anna Warnes completed her studies in
December 2004 with a major in English.
She plans to attend law school.
Winter/Spring 2005
BECOMING A TEACHER
1
In his first teaching experience, Jeff Moores ’05 just barely got
his feet wet in the classroom and left Thailand wishing he had
more teaching opportunities, as well as anticipating his next
return trip.
“Tomorrow,” I wrote in my journal on Sunday, May 16, “I
become a teacher.” Unofficially, of course, and I’m
technically still very much a student; but, I’ll be stepping
into a role, a job, that rivals that of prostitution for the
title of the world’s oldest occupation. I’m feeling what
every teacher—from Kathy in her initial teaching years,
to Aristotle—must feel when faced with the daunting
task of instilling knowledge upon youthful minds:
nervousness, anxiety, fears of inadequacy. But mostly, I’m
excited. Excited for something new, something
frightening, an experience that might open my mind
along with those of Thai students. …
My most challenging teaching experience in Prachuab
happened at the end of Thursday. … At 3 p.m. I returned
to the English office to track down a teacher-less class to
take over or an occupied class to observe. I was quickly
told that Stephanie was teaching level 6/9. I hadn’t taught
or observed a high grade level yet, so I thought it would
be worthwhile to attend. … Outside the classroom, the
slightly older students relaxed on the benches, some
slumped over with the end of the day, others energetically
giggled with friends. One thing was certain: Stephanie
had not yet arrived.
I looked at the students in a way that hopefully said,
“I’m the teacher; time to start. Get in. Sit down.”
Friendly, of course, but I wasn’t about to let the older
students walk all over me. Meanwhile my head was
reeling: Stephanie’s not here; my lesson plans are for
younger students; are they expecting Stephanie? What if
they already know everything I’m teaching them?
A deep breath later, I calmly flipped through my
Winter/Spring 2005
by Jeff Moores ’05
notebook as they settled down.
Dictation. That was it, an exercise I
had not yet utilized. I slowly read four
sentences about a man going to a
market and then returning home to eat
dinner and watch TV. Their attentive
gazes and lack of utterly confused
looks encouraged me, but it was
difficult to discern whether they were
genuinely interested or if they were
simply patronizing the new foreign
teacher. A few of the boys, including
one who sat in the middle of the front
row, were energetic and active,
sometimes scratching their heads and
employing grimaces of misunderstanding
or raised eyebrows of clarity.
Stephanie showed up about halfway
through the class, hopefully adding to
any authority I had over the classroom.
In the end we walked away not
knowing what to conclude. I had felt a
lack of influence with level 3/9, and
now I felt a lack of respect from level
6/9. On top of it, inadequacy stemmed
from having viewed [regular teachers]
Charles and David wielding their
experienced skills.
The mere 10 pages of this essay
cannot begin to explore the intense
realizations I began uncovering about
my future as a mentor, a teacher, a
parent—an adult. Luckily, as I
suspected it would, my thirst for
Thailand continues. A week in
Prachuab was not enough time
teaching English. I wanted two, three
weeks to practice my skills. I wanted to
tutor university students and come
into contact with all age levels. After
my first trip, I predicted that I would
definitely return to Thailand someday. I
found myself in Bangkok’s busy streets
sooner than I thought.
Jeff Moores is in the Honors Program and
is a senior majoring in English with a
concentration in writing. He is news
editor of the Echo. This was his second
trip to Thailand.
c
25
ef
MY GOD AND
YOUR BUDDHA—
THE SAME, ONLY DIFFERENT
by Sue Kneen ’04
As a religion major and a prospective
seminary student, I was most anxious to
see and experience Buddhism first hand.
… As I really thought about it, there is
much that our faiths have in common:
God or Buddha, do good works, eternity
or Nirvana, God is omnipresent or
eternal nothingness, prayer, denying
self, look to pastors/monks, churches
and temples, worship, help the poor and
taking care of your neighbor. There
really isn’t anything so unusual—only
different.
I thought [our Bangkok tour guide]
Panya’s comment summed it all up well
as he said with great feeling, “My
Buddha and your God, they are the
same. When we are sad, we talk to
Buddha. Sometimes we talk to a monk,
and he makes us do better with what he
says, but sometimes we don’t want to
tell anyone, so we talk to Buddha. And
we feel better; we feel lighter and
THE
REAL
happier.” Now that sounds just like me
and my God.
I’d like to quote what I wrote in my
journal as I stood on top of “Monkey
Mountain,” listening to the hauntingly
beautiful Buddhist music and the
chanting of the monks, and the pungent
aroma of their incense lifted to my ears
and nose, and the cool breeze smoothed
against my face: “It was a beautiful view
from on top of the hill over the ocean,
Prachuab Kirikhan, and a big sprawling
temple to the west. What was especially
significant to me was seeing the building
where the monks had their evening
meditation and hearing them chant and
hearing their music. I will never forget
that feeling. I imagined and hear them
praising their God as I do mine (for lack
of better words). It was a feeling and
very real sense of oneness while very
different. It was surreal and profound. I
am thankful for this experience.”
FACES
IN
THE
Prachuab Kirikhan is located on the east coast of Thailand,
on the Gulf of Thailand. It escaped the massive destruction
of the tsunami that devastated areas farther south on the
west coast. Of course, when the tsunami hit, everyone from
the trip feared for his or her old and new friends.
Anna Warnes was the first to hear news from Prachuab.
“The day before the tsunami struck I received an
e-mail from one of my Thai students. Maew, a sweet 12-yearold, wrote me one of her typical e-mails: ‘Hello Miss Anna,
how are you? How are your studies? I am fine. My family
went on holiday. It was fun,’ etc.
“The next day I heard about the tsunami on the news. I
immediately thought of Maew. I wrote her an e-mail: 'Maew,
26
Sue Kneen ’04 gained a rich introduction
to Buddhism as she prepared for her
own seminary studies.
It seems I am very fortunate
indeed to have been introduced to a
culture such as this through the lens
of respect and deep affection. … I
will never be the same, and my
daughters and those with whom I
have the privilege to share about my
trip will be able to see some of
Thailand and foreign travel for
themselves.
Sue Kneen graduated from Weekend
College in 2004 with majors in English
and religion and is now studying at
Luther Seminary.
TSUNAMI
are you safe? Were you hit
by the wave?' I received a
response within a day.
Maew was in fact safe,
although her father had
been working near
Phuket, and he was
injured but alive.
“By expanding the world
classroom and making
connections with people in
Thailand, the tsunami affected real people, people I knew.
The tsunami did not kill thousands of faceless people on the
other side of the world; the tsunami killed people I may have
met and learned from.”
Winter/Spring 2005
C
ONE STUDENT I MAY
HAVE TOUCHED
by Rachel E. Schuette ’03
SEEING THAILAND
THROUGH KATHY AND
JACK’S EYES
“Kathy and Jack also had endless tidbits about Thai
culture to share with us throughout the three weeks.
Whether we received lessons about teaching English, how
to eat at a Thai restaurant, or when to take our shoes off
at a Buddhist temple, Kathy and Jack’s previous
knowledge of Thailand was a critical part of the
wonderful experience we shared.”
—Jeff Moores
“The entire trip was affected because Jack and Kathy led
Rachel Schuette ’03 compiled a lesson plan book, in
collaboration with Professor Swanson, with materials from the
Augsburg students’ lessons “to show appreciation for the
gracious welcome they received from everyone in Prachuab
Kirikhan.”
It has been three weeks since we returned home and I am
still on “Thai time,” meaning I feel much more laid back
and not really pushed to do anything in a hurry. …
I learned so much from this experience; it is difficult
to pinpoint the important issues. Being a teacher is not
always about teaching test-ready material. It was not until
about the third day of teaching in Prachuab that I
realized this. I wasn’t there to teach them how to
conjugate verbs perfectly, or to show them how to use
articles all the time. I was there to learn from them and to
hopefully share my culture with them. There was no test
on Friday or review of information; the visit was much
more than that. It was an experience that I will keep with
me for the rest of my life. It will serve as a reminder
every time I walk into a new classroom or job. It made
me appreciate what I have here in America, but still
understand that just because some people do not have
these luxuries, they may be just as happy as I. It was
apparent through the interactions among Professor
Swanson, her husband, and the former Thai students that
a lifetime connection can be made. Truly, for me, it was
finding that one student whom I feel I may have touched,
but who really touched me, that makes me say, “YES!
That is why I went to Thailand.” ■
Rachel Schuette graduated in 2003 with a double major in
English and secondary education/communication arts
licensure.
All photos were taken by participants on the trip.
Winter/Spring 2005
the way, I suspect. On just a superficial level, the heat, the
smells of the streets, some of the foods, and the different
standard of living we enjoy could have easily been turned
into disgust by travelers not accustomed to such extremes
and who were not constantly challenged to look deeper
for beauty and meaning and perhaps a different way of
living life.”
—Sue Kneen
I
27
28
Winter/Spring 2005
Learning with
your heart
by Judy Petree
photos by Stephen Geffre
A
Long distances and remote locations
make healthcare delivery difficult
on the reservation.
Winter/Spring 2005
visit to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation helps nursing students bridge cultural
differences to experience health care from the perspectives of a community long
underserved by mainstream healthcare systems.
Last November, three Augsburg nursing students—Sharon Gentile, Susan Loushin,
and Cathy Miller—spent several days on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
southwestern South Dakota. Led by Cheryl Leuning, professor and chair of the
Nursing Deptartment, and Susan Nash, nursing professor in Augsburg’s Rochester
program, the experience is one of several nursing practicums offered in the Master of
Arts in Nursing program.
Augsburg’s graduate nursing program prepares nurses for transformational
leadership and transcultural practice across care settings, especially as they address
health inequities. At Pine Ridge, they became immersed in a community with different
cultural values and traditions that has long remained outside the mainstream of the
health care system.
The Pine Ridge Reservation encompasses about two million acres and is home to
approximately 40,000 Lakota people. Pine Ridge is also home to two of the poorest
counties in the nation.
According to the “Village Earth” online newsletter and “Pine Ridge Reservation”
(pineridgerez.net), the unemployment rate is 86 percent, versus a 5.5 percent national
average; and 63 percent of the people live below the federal poverty level. Alcoholism
affects 8 out of 10 families, and half of the people over the age of 40 have diabetes. The
infant mortality rate is the highest in this continent, and the school dropout rate is
more than 70 percent. The Indian Health Service is understaffed and ill-equipped to
29
Pastor Larry Peterson, director of the Pine Ridge Retreat Center
introduces the students to Lakota culture before they begin their home
visits. (L to R): Cheryl Leuning, Nursing Department chair; Susan
Loushin; Sharon Gentile; Cathy Miller; Sue Nash, Rochester program
nursing professor; and retreat center director Larry Peterson.
fully address the health needs of the
community. Consequently, health
inequities continue to increase.
The students spent two days
shadowing the Indian Health Service
(IHS) nurses from the reservation who
served as cultural guides. However,
before the students became immersed in
the program, they gained a brief insight
into the Lakota culture and history
through visits to Prairie’s Edge Native
American Cultural Art Center in Rapid
City, and short stops at Mount Rushmore
and the Crazy Horse Memorial.
At Pine Ridge the students stayed in
30
the Pine Ridge Retreat Center, run by
Pastor Larry Peterson. Peterson sat down
with the group the first night to give
them a brief lesson on the Lakota people,
some dos and don’ts, and what they
should expect when going on home
visits. “Knowing the culture of the
Lakota people is really important when
interacting with them,” Peterson said.
Another history lesson came from
Leonard Littlefinger, Lakota cultural
teacher at the Loneman School in Oglala.
Littlefinger has been the IHS hospital
administrator at Pine Ridge for a number
of years, and is also the great, great
grandson of Lakota Chief Big Foot, who
was slain in the Wounded Knee Massacre
of 1890. Littlefinger shared with the
students the key values integral to the
culture of his people, their past and
future.
“The Lakota people are the fastest
growing people, yet have the greatest
health issues,” he said. “It’s not just
about a healthy body, but about a healthy
spirit and soul as well.”
Karen Red Star, health educator with
the Indian Health Service, also shared
her experiences as a healthcare provider
on the reservation. She advised the
Winter/Spring 2005
For Leonard Littlefinger, Lakota cultural
teacher and great, great grandson of Chief
Big Foot, a healthy spirit and soul are as
important to his people as a healthy body.
Augsburg student Sharon Gentile (background) shadowed
Indian Health Service nurse Sally Mercier (left) in home
visits on the reservation.
students to be “culturally sensitive,” as
there is a high turnover of healthcare
providers on the reservation and the
clients see different people all the time.
“This makes it more difficult to establish
any sense of trust and familiarity.”
Equipped now with some background
information, the students were ready to
pair up with the public health nurses at
the Indian Health Service and begin their
home visits. For the next two days, the
students set out with registered public
health nurses Rod Sahr, Sally Mercier,
Kendra Lone Elk, Mary Moussear, and
Andrea Pond, visiting homes in town and
out in the countryside.
The nurses clued the students in on
what to expect in the coming days. Sahr
said that much of his time is spent
simply tracking down clients, as families
on the reservation move frequently. And,
as frustrating as that can be, he said, you
learn when to keep searching for them
and when to move on.
“There are hundreds of people we
have to see, but just don’t have the time,”
Sahr said. “Actually, there is probably
someone we’re supposed to see in every
single house.”
Not only is relocation a factor, but
Winter/Spring 2005
also many of the homes in the country
are miles apart. Some people live on
long, rut-filled, one-lane dirt roads, miles
off of the main highway. Obviously this
causes problems in the wintertime, Sahr
commented.
One of his clients is an elderly
woman struggling with diabetes. She and
her husband are also raising their two
grandsons, not uncommon on the
reservation, said Sahr. Family connections
are a strong part of Lakota culture and
tradition.
One of the keys, he told the students,
is to listen and treat the clients with
respect. He demonstrated this by just
visiting with the client at first, asking her
about their grandsons and family, and
only after this initial conversation
moving on to the health issues.
Lone Elk, another public health
nurse, also modeled how relationships
were built during each home visit. “You
need to build up a rapport with the
people. You need to get them to trust
you, or they will agree with whatever
you say just to get rid of you.”
Many of the visits throughout the two
days included varied services—vaccinations, monitoring of blood sugar levels
and blood pressure, new mother and
baby checkups, and post-surgical visits.
Throughout, however, was what one
student described as the “wonderful way
the nurses have of working with the
clients.”
“There’s more to health care than just
the medical side of it,” nursing student
Sharon Gentile said. “I feel there is a
need to find a better way, a better
approach to health care.”
Cathy Miller, a public health nurse in
the Rochester, Minn., area, shadowed
Lone Elk one of the days, and told Lone
Elk that much of what she does is not
that different from what she was seeing
on the reservation.
“The first time you visit you see so
much, you just want to jump in and fix
everything,” Miller said, “but you have to
take it slow and gain their trust first.”
Miller came to Augsburg because she
was looking for a program that would
enhance her own work as a public health
nurse. “Some of the art of nursing has
gone by the wayside,” Miller said. “It’s
not enough to know what the diagnosis
is, but what the barriers are that may be
preventing treatment. Many times it’s just
a cultural misunderstanding.”
31
Miller added that she sees transcultural nursing as giving nurses the
tools to practice both the “art of nursing
and the science of nursing,” and a way to
bridge barriers through understanding
culture and cultural differences.
“It has opened my eyes to see that
there are other ways to look at problems.
Ten years ago I never would have done
that.”
At the end of the day, all of the
students remarked on the value of the
experience. “The nurses all showed
empathy, respect, persistence, and true
interest in their clients,” Miller said.
“The healthcare provider needs to truly
listen, be present, and value what the
Lakota person shares as being important
to them. Only then can they (the
provider) move on to an effective
partnership.”
Listening in an intentional way,
Leuning said, is a skill that needs focused
practice. It is an integral part of
Augsburg’s nursing program, built into
classes from the very beginning of the
students’ educational journey.
“I think the uniqueness of these
practicums is that we can more easily
identify preconceived ideas that block
true listening and hearing of the other
person’s voice,” Leuning said.
“Experiences like this uncover our own
biases and values. Once we experience
that ‘aha’ kind of moment, it provides a
prototype for applying skills to our own
daily life and interactions.”
Nash added that this practicum opens
the world to the students. “Having this
opportunity to closely experience other
cultures first hand will give the graduate
nursing students an incredible
opportunity that expands their world
view.”
These aren’t sightseeing trips, Nash
continued, but rather opportunities to
walk side by side with other people and
to view the horizon from the other
person’s perspective. “That kind of
experience is truly life changing and
transforming,” she said. “It is more than
head learning. It is heart learning.” ■
Small medicine bags hang on the chainlink fence
surrounding the mass grave at the site of the Wounded
Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge reservation.
Judy Petree is media relations manager.
32
Winter/Spring 2005
Learning nursing care
across cultures
H
ealth is influenced by culture, belief, and values, and
it often suffers when the culture is not understood.
Today, the influx of immigrants to the United States,
particularly to Minnesota, is severely challenging social
service programs. A disproportionate burden of disease and
suffering experienced by minority and foreign-born
populations in the United States is but one indication that the
healthcare system is ineffective.
Given the current shortage of nurses, it is not surprising
that there is an increasing demand for professional nursing
leadership to provide culturally-congruent health care to
people of diverse cultures with emphasis on holistic care,
cultural diversity, and community-focused practice. Augsburg’s
graduate nursing program prepares nurses for advanced
transformational leadership and transcultural practice across
care settings.
Through nursing practicums, Augsburg students form
relationships with persons representing diverse cultures both
locally and globally in order for the students to understand
the health inequities that people experience. Learning how to
do this while preserving the cultural dignity of others goes
Winter/Spring 2005
beyond basic nursing skills.
The aim of the program is not for every student to become
an “expert” in every culture, but rather that every student will
learn skills that are necessary to become a culturally competent
nurse, such as basic knowledge of cultural differences and the
awareness of differences in delivery of patient care; recognition
of the nurse’s own bias and influence of personal culture views
and practices; and an awareness and respect for cultural
communication issues, etiquette, and problem solving.
The practicums are a vital part of Augsburg’s nursing
program, says Cheryl Leuning, nursing professor and
department chair. The focus is on reaching populations
underserved by traditional healthcare systems. “If a student can
see the world through another’s eyes, it changes how they see
their own world. It is the unique balance of in-class and incommunity opportunities that attracts students to the nursing
programs.”
Augsburg offers nursing practicums for both graduate and
undergraduate students in several cultural contexts: Namibia,
Mexico, Guatemala, the inner cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and
Rochester, and at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. ■
33
AAlumni
LUMNINews
NEWS
From the Alumni Board president’s desk…
A
ugsburg
College alumni
are a pretty amazing
bunch. Consider
Carol (Johnson)
Casperson ’60
(profiled in this
issue on p. 38),
who is working to
create affordable
housing nationwide with Habitat for
Humanity. I’m thinking also of 2004
Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Brian
Anderson ’82, who is working on
pioneering physics research, as well as
Alumni Board past president Dr. Paul
Mueller ’84 from the Mayo Clinic and
First Decade awardee Susan (Horning)
Arntz ’94, city manager for the City of
Waconia.
These folks and many others have
passed through Augsburg on the front
end of their life journey, and all have
significant, everyday impact on the lives
of other people. They all have very
different vocations, but share one
similarity—they all received an
undergraduate degree at Augsburg
College.
Which other group of amazing people
is forming new ideas, creating new
journeys, and setting new standards?
Why, that group is attending Augsburg
right now! They are participating in one
of many world-class Augsburg programs
that deliver transforming education:
• The Center for Global Education
connects students with learning
opportunities around the world, while
the Center for Service, Work, and
Learning finds opportunities for
experiential education locally.
• Augsburg offers great athletics
including a nine-time national
championship wrestling team along
with superb women’s hockey.
• The nationally recognized StepUP
program offers a supportive
educational environment for students
in recovery.
• Augsburg is one of 12 colleges
nationally chosen for excellence in its
first-year program.
• The Weekend College program offers
the most comprehensive and quality
adult learning program in the region.
• New graduate programs like the
Master of Business Administration are
providing expanded and growing
learning opportunities for adult
learners.
There is a renewing group of leaders
attending Augsburg right now. They are
future alumni who will go out into the
world and impact our lives and
communities. I am so proud to be part of
this transforming educational
community, and all that we do!
Bill Vanderwall ’93 WEC
President, Alumni Board
Alumnae present gift to the Women’s Resource Center
I
n December, five Augsburg alumnae
presented a special gift to the Anne
Pederson Women’s Resource Center in
honor of former Augsburg professor Dr.
Gerald Thorsen and in commemoration
of the 40th anniversary of their
graduation from the College.
The five women, who refer to
themselves as the “619 Club” (so named
for the house they resided in as students
on 22nd Avenue—the site now occupied
by Foss Center), are Class of 1964
alumnae Betty (Hanson) Rossing, Karen
Kohout, Ellen (Paulson) Keiter, Sandra
(Simpson) Phaup, and Deanne (Star)
Greco.
The women met during their
freshman year in the advanced freshman
English/Western literature course taught
34
by Thorsen.
“Dr. Thorsen, never one to
slight the intellectual talents
of women, encouraged us to
stretch our critical abilities
and tackle literary analysis,”
says Greco. “Two of us
became English majors, in
part inspired by our
experience in his class.
“Thank you, Dr. Thorsen,
for the part you played in
forming our lives and
careers,” continues Greco.
“We are pleased to honor you,
a ‘feminist’ before it was
fashionable, by making a gift to
the Women’s Resource Center
in your name.”
Five alumnae presented a special gift to the Anne Pederson
Women’s Resource Center in honor of former Augsburg
professor Gerald Thorsen and in commemoration of the 40th
anniversary of their graduation from the College. Pictured, L to
R, are Deanne (Star) Greco, Sandra (Simpson) Phaup, Ellen
(Paulson) Keiter, Karen Kohout, and Betty (Hanson) Rossing.
Winter/Spring 2005
Third annual Connections event honors
Jane Freeman
J
ane Freeman, former first lady of
Minnesota, was presented the
“Leading Leaders” award at the third
annual Connections—A Women’s
Leadership Event in January.
The award, which recognizes those
who have inspired others to high levels
of achievement through vocational,
community, and civic leadership, honors
Freeman, who has led by example as the
first lady of Minnesota from 1954–60,
and as president of Girl Scouts of the
USA from 1978–84, building the
organization and shaping the futures of
many young women through her vision
and dedicated service.
Frances Hesselbein, current chair of
Jane Freeman (front row, right), former first lady of Minnesota, was presented the “Leading Leaders”
the Board of Governors of the Leader to
award at the third annual Connections—A Women’s Leadership Event in January. She is pictured here
along with fellow event presenters: (front row, L to R) Ami Nafzger ’94, Frances Hesselbein, and Jane
Leader Institute and former CEO of the
Freeman; (back row, L to R) Jennifer Martin, Gloria Lewis, Jean Taylor ’85, Kathryn Tunheim, and Phebe
Girl Scouts, made a special trip to take
Hanson ’50.
part in this year’s event to
help present the award to her
friend and former Girl Scouts
colleague. Hesselbein defined
leadership as “a state of
being” and not something
that you “do,” and offered
her friend, Jane Freeman, as
the perfect example of grace
and leadership.
Co-sponsored by
Augsburg and Thrivent
Financial for Lutherans, this
year’s gathering joined more
than 100 women from
Numerous Augsburg students participated in the event’s
throughout the community
these two students gained valuable insights from
for a morning of inspiration, activities;
Koryne Horbal during a roundtable networking discussion.
encouragement, networking,
and empowerment.
Board of Regents, who inspired the group
Several Augsburg alumnae provided
with her own discovery of how she is able
Frances Hesselbein (left), former CEO of Girl
an excellent program with Augsburg
to share her unique gifts and talents with
Scouts of the USA, presented the “Leading
Leaders” award to her friend and former Girl
regents Gloria Lewis and Jennifer Martin
others more effectively after learning how
Scouts colleague, Jane Freeman (right).
providing the welcome and the closing.
to also receive gifts from others. Ami
Author Phebe Hanson ’50 set the tone
Nafzger ’94 shared her journey as a
Link (G.O.A.L) to provide services and
with a poem from her new book Why
Korean adoptee of finding her place in
support for other adoptees on their path
Still Dance—75 Years: 75 Poems.
the world. She spent several years in
of self-discovery.
Featured speakers included Jean
Korea after graduating from Augsburg
Mark your calendars for the fourth
Taylor ’85, president of Taylor
exploring her heritage, and ultimately
Connections event next January 28.
annual
Corporation and chair of the Augsburg
founded the Global Overseas Adoptees
Winter/Spring 2005
35
Alumni News
Alumni events calendar
Please join us for these upcoming alumni and parent events (see also the college-wide
calendar on the inside back cover for additional events):
April
June
28 Senior Reception hosted by the
Alumni Board, East Commons,
Christensen Center, 4:30–6 p.m.
14 Auggie Hour at Three Fish, 3070
Excelsior Blvd., Minneapolis (near
Lake Calhoun and Whole Foods),
612-920-2800, 5:30 p.m. Meet the
new Auggie coaches!
May
6 Special reception for business
graduates (all Augsburg faculty,
alumni, and 2005 business graduates
are invited), Christensen Center,
4–6 p.m.
10 Auggie Hour on-campus reception
for all current and former Alumni
Board members, 5:30 p.m.
24 Class Agent Year-in-Review,
Minneapolis Room, Christensen
Center, 5:30 p.m.
23 Alumni Board meeting at
Canterbury Park, 5:30 p.m.
July
12 Auggie Hour at Trattoria Da Vinci,
400 Sibley St., St. Paul,
651-222-4050, 5:30 p.m.
August
9 Auggie Hour at Dock Café,
425 Nelson St. E, Stillwater,
651-430-3770, 5:30 p.m.
18 Canterbury Park Alumni Event
(Watch for details this summer!)
ALUMNI TOUR TO CHINA
Join alumni and friends of the College on a
discovery tour of China hosted by Brad Holt,
professor of religion. Plans are in progress
for a May 2006 two-week tour featuring the
history, culture, and scenic beauty of China.
Discover treasures of this ancient land and
witness China’s rapid growth in the 21st
century. The tour begins in Beijing with visits
to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the
Ming Tombs, and the Summer Palace. Marvel
at the thousands of terra cotta warriors
uncovered in Xian in 1974 and dated to 221
BC. Experience China’s historic and majestic
Yangtze River on a four-night cruise. Few
places on earth match the splendor of the
Yangtze River’s Three Gorges, which will be
flooded by the dam project at the end of this
decade. The international city of Shanghai
concludes this travel experience. More details
available later this spring; call or e-mail the
alumni office at 612-330-1178 or
<alumni@augsburg.edu> to get on a special
mailing list for further information.
36
Parent Council
is invited…
Parent Council members are invited to
attend the annual New Student
Orientation, June 17–18. Contact
Alumni/Parent Relations at
<alumni@augsburg.edu> for more
information.
Auggie Day at
Como Park
Bring your family to Como Park in
St. Paul on June 4, 11a . m. –1p. m. , for this
fun annual event. Bring a picnic lunch
(BBQ grills are available) and Augsburg
will provide beverages and goodies,
giveaways, and fun for the kids. For more
information, contact Alumni/Parent
Relations at <alumni@augsburg.edu>.
Annual golf
tournaments
Alumni are invited to participate in
Augsburg’s Annual Men’s Hockey Golf
Tournament on June 10 at Manitou
Ridge Golf Course in White Bear Lake,
Minn; cost is $90 per person (contact
Mike Schwartz ’83 at 612-330-1163 for
more information). Alumni are also
invited to the 42nd Annual Clair
Strommen A-Club Golf Tournament on
June 27 at Pebble Creek Golf Course in
Becker, Minn. (contact Ron Main ’56 at
612-338-4824 for more information).
Homecoming 2005
Attention Auggies from the classes of
1955, 1965, 1980, and First Decade,
1995–2005: This is your reunion year!
Plan now to join your classmates this
September 26–October 1 for the annual
Homecoming festivities and your
reunion reception! Watch your mail and
upcoming editions of the Augsburg Now
for complete details; please let us know
your current e-mail address at
<alumni@augsburg.edu>. You can also
stay up-to-date by visiting the alumni Web
site at <www.augsburg.edu/alumni>.
Winter/Spring 2005
CLASS
NOTES
Class Notes
Rev. Jim
Glasoe recently
published The
Immigrant’s
Treasure
(Publish
America), a factbased, fictional biography of his
late grandfather, Michael Glasoe,
an ambitious young Norwegian
who emigrated to America in
1886, settling first in Minnesota
and eventually homesteading in
North Dakota. Jim and his wife,
Nicole, are retired and live on a
lake in the north woods of
Minnesota, where he does his
writing. From 1972–97, he
served as executive director of
several non-profit corporations
that provide residential and
developmental program services
for children and adults with
developmental disabilities. He
also served as a Lutheran parish
pastor for 10 years.
1964
Deanne (Star) Greco,
Bloomington, Minn., was elected
president of the Ordway Circle
of Stars.
1966
Alan Stensrud, Plymouth,
Minn., recently retired as
president of the Animal Humane
Society, a position he had held
since 1975. He was also awarded
the Glen Summerlin Service
Award, presented by the Society
of Animal Welfare Administrators
at a conference in San Diego,
Calif. He looks forward to
spending more time with his
wife, Shirley, his son and two
daughters, and his four
grandchildren.
1969
Mark Lund, professor of
economics and director of
international education at
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa,
was appointed as the college’s
Dahl Professor of Economics for
Winter/Spring 2005
the 2004–05
academic year. As
the Dahl
Professor of
Economics, Mark
devotes part of
his professional
time to teaching activities that
encourage students to develop
sound analytical and critical
thinking skills, become active
participants in community and
civic activities, and understand
the importance of incorporating
personal responsibility and
accountability into their work
and lives. Mark has served on
Luther’s faculty since 1978.
1971
David Siedlar,
previously of
Concord, Mass.,
emigrated to
Netanya, Israel, a
port on the
Mediterranean
between Haifa and Tel Aviv, by
virtue of the Law of Return, an
Israelian policy that grants
automatic citizenship to any Jew
of the diaspora. David is retired
from the U.S. Navy.
Lieutenant Colonel Jerry
Steinke, began service at Camp
Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, about
two weeks before she left
Kuwait. Prior to Kuwait, she
owned a dental practice in
Maplewood, Minn.; Kristin and
her husband reside in North
Oaks, Minn.
1975
Brad Forsythe,
Cincinnati,
Ohio, published
his debut book,
Bulletproof Your
Business—
Cutting Risk for
Small Business Owners and
Managers. The book has been
featured in several media outlets
and reviews from across the
country, and serves as a “plainEnglish guide that shows
companies how to simply and
cost-effectively conduct risk
management on a do-it-yourself
basis.” Brad is founder and
president of Best Practice
Advisors.
Patricia (Reuter) Georg,
Hopkins, Minn., was selected as
the Minnesota State Teacher of
the Year in 2003 by the United
States Air Force Association/
Aerospace Education Foundation;
she was honored in November
2003 at the Rawlings Chapter
Fall Awards Banquet. Patricia
teaches at Franklin Elementary
School in Anoka.
AUGGIES ON TV
Courtesy photo
1957
1972
Kristin
Rajala, an
Army major,
returned
home in
April 2004
from Camp
Udairi in Kuwait, where she
served as a dentist for three
months to incoming U.S. troops
and nationals. She also donated a
keyboard and served as organist
at the camp’s chapel, where she
also conducted the service when
the chaplain was unavailable. In
addition, Kristin created three
banners for the soldiers who
attend camp Udairi chapel, as
well as for both her family home
church and for her husband’s
home church (she is pictured
here with her husband and one of
her banners). Her husband,
Augsburg alumna Linnea Mohn, Class of 2003, recently
completed work on the first season of the Channel 45 (KSTC-TV)
show, Nate on Drums. Hosted by local musician Nate Perbix, the
half-hour program stars Mohn along with fellow actors David
Harris and Motion Price, and showcases comedy segments
coupled with local music and original animation. During its
premiere season, the show won the 2004 Minnesota Music
Academy Award for Best Audio-Visual Production. Pictured from
the show, clockwise from left, are David Harris, Nate Perbix,
Motion Price, and Linnea Mohn ’03.
37
Class Notes
ALUMNI PROFILE
Carol (Johnson) Casperson ’60: Building hope one home at a time
by Bobbie Chong
A physical education and biology major, Carol (Johnson) Casperson fondly recalls hanging out at “the grill” and
wild ping-pong tournaments at Augsburg. Originally from St. Paul, she chose Augsburg because some of her
cousins were current students. After graduating in 1960, she taught at Shakopee Public Schools and served as its
only P.E. teacher. She went on to teach at a school in the New Hope district that she describes as having been the
epitome of “brand-new.”
Casperson later married, had two children, and moved to California where her (now former) husband attended
medical school and completed his internship and residency. During this time, Casperson says “Vietnam happened,”
and her family received military orders to relocate to 29 Palms Marine Base or “MCB.” In the 1960s, 29 Palms was
literally in the middle of nowhere, and Casperson describes the desert location of what was to be her family’s new
home as “465 square miles of kitty litter.”
Flash-forward to the present day and 29 Palms isn’t the “middle of nowhere” anymore. Reflecting on her former city of residence and the dramatic
change it’s undergone, Casperson says, “Now when you fly into Orange County Airport you can’t believe the new houses. There are massive
developments, roofs touching, [many cost] $500,000.” As executive director of D.C. Habitat for Humanity, Casperson is familiar with the national
housing crisis and the realities and hardships of the real estate market.
She made the leap from California to Washington, D.C., after she helped a former neighbor campaign for Congress. He won and asked if she’d be
interested in working at the home office. She needed to send a copy of her résumé but didn’t have one because at the time, “as a teacher in
Minnesota, when I graduated, they came looking for you.” She quickly threw one together and was hired on the spot.
A few years later she got bored and asked if she could come out to D.C. and work on the select committee her boss served. While newly
transplanted in the D.C. area, an Iowan friend of Casperson’s stayed with her for three years. This friend was registered in the volunteer
clearinghouse and asked if anyone in the area inquired about Habitat for Humanity because, at the time, there wasn’t an affiliate in that area. “I
didn’t know anything about it [Habitat] at the time.”
Recalling the beginning of the D.C. Habitat, “Three people came to town to start one,” Casperson said. She was invited to go with her friend into a
questionable part of the D.C. area for one of the very first meetings. “I drove down there and went to the meeting with her and I thought, ‘What a
great idea. I wonder if this really works?’” So the two friends both began volunteering. Casperson was still working full time then.
“We had such a terrible time in the beginning,” laments Casperson, “First of all, we’d never done anything like this so who’s going to believe you,
that you can actually do this? I mean, it sounds good, [but] people have pulled so many schemes on people in D.C. that no one trusts anybody.”
Despite obstacles, the group persisted and “we got the first two houses done, then we started on the next two. Then our ‘blueprintist’ got this
brilliant idea to apply to be the site of the Jimmy Carter Work Project (1992).” Casperson then became director for what she says “should’ve been
a one-year assignment, but I’m still here.”
In 1988 when she first began volunteering with Habitat, there were about 200 chapters across the United States. Today, there are over 1,700
worldwide. Casperson pointed out that a common misconception about Habitat for Humanity is that it’s only about construction. “We have 12
committees, including the Family Selection Committee, which tends to [include] people such as loan officers or mortgage bankers—people who
know about the mortgage business because that’s really what you’re doing. Based on Habitat’s criteria, you’re picking people for a mortgage
because there aren’t too many banks that want to carry a no-profit, no interest mortgage.”
Another opportunity for volunteerism is the Family Partnership Committee. This committee helps provide moral support to families because
many are first-time homeowners and the process can be scary and can literally throw a person into a panic.
Much of D.C. Habitat’s fundraising comes from direct mail, donations, and their once-a-year, one-hour breakfast that generated $150,000 last year.
And though it is rare, occasionally a developer or landowner will donate plots of land. The D.C. Habitat has built two homes on Capitol Hill that
turned out to be model green homes. Currently, the group is working on a 53-house project on 4.3 acres of land.
When asked what job advice she would impart on current Auggies or recent alumni, Casperson said, “I would say the same thing I said to my
daughter when she was in school forever. She said, ‘Mom, I don’t know what I want to do when I graduate.’ You know, what you want to do is not
necessarily what your major subject was. But it’s whatever makes you happy. And that’s what you have to follow. If things aren’t making you happy
in your job, you need to pick out the things that you do like and then follow that path.”
For more information about the D.C. Habitat for Humanity, go to <www.dchabitat.org/>.
Bobbie Chong is an administrative assistant in the Office of Public Relations and Communication.
38
Winter/Spring 2005
1978
P. Dawn (Heil)
Taylor, Des
Moines, Iowa,
was honored as
one of 10
“Women of
Influence” in
August for her volunteer work
and activism. She has been an
advocate for Iowa’s Latino
communities, serving on the
Iowa Commission of Latino
Affairs and as vice president of
the Hispanic Educational
Resource Center, which operates
a bilingual preschool and
provides outreach assistance to
families. She currently serves on
the boards of the Greater Des
Moines Community Foundation
and the Red Cross of Central
Iowa Foundation, and is an
Augsburg regent. In addition,
she is an adviser to the Center
for New Communities and the
Iowa Project, an immigrant
rights organization geared
toward Latinos. She has served
as an advocate for Latinos who
were in the process of being
deported, and has assisted them
in finding resources and
guidance.
1979
Barb Ahl, Evansville, Minn.,
received the Evansville Public
School Teacher of the Year
Award for 2004–05. Barb is a
music teacher for Evansville
Public Schools.
Kathy (Gray) Dohner,
Fairbanks, Alaska, is a sign
language interpreter.
AUGGIE AUTHORS
Courtesy photo
LaJune Thomas Lange,
Minneapolis, was featured in The
Minnesota Women’s Press’ annual
“changemakers” issue, which
salutes 25 individuals and
organizations whose actions in
the public arena over the past
two decades have promoted
greater self-determination,
equality, and justice for women
and girls. LaJune is a judge on
the Hennepin County 4th
Judicial District Court; she has
held this seat since 1986.
1980
Robert Stanley
Peter Gardner,
Rochester,
Minn.,
composed
original music
for the Saint
Paul City Ballet’s production of
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas
Carol. A blend of ballet and
theatre, the production was
presented in December at both
the O’Shaughnessy in St. Paul
and the Paramount Theatre in
St. Cloud.
1981
Walt Johnson, Minneapolis,
completed a two-year fellowship
at the Patent and Trademark
Depository Library (PTDL)
Program in Arlington, Va.
During that time, he researched
patent and trademark questions
from PTDLs throughout the
country and spent many days on
the road conducting public and
PTDL-staff training sessions. He
returned to his former position
as a reference librarian at the
downtown Minneapolis Public
Library.
1982
Rev. Rebecca Sogge received a
doctor of ministry degree in
single parent ministry from
Luther Seminary last May. Before
entering Luther, Rebecca served
for five years as co-pastor of
Christ, Marble, and Singsaas
Lutheran churches in Hendricks,
Minn. She then spent another
five years as pastor of Trinity
and West Lake Johanna
Lutheran churches and Union
Presbyterian Church in Brooten,
Minn. She is currently an
associate pastor at Zion
Lutheran Church in Buffalo,
Minn.
Three alumnae authors were featured as special guests at a
recent Auggie Hour celebrating Augsburg authors. Pictured, L to
R, are: Erika Hammerschmidt ’04 (Born on the Wrong Planet,
Tyborne Hill Publishers LLC); Doris Rubenstein ’93 MAL (The
Good Corporate Citizen: A Practical Guide, John Wiley & Sons);
and Phebe Hanson ’50 (Why Still Dance: 75 Years: 75 Poems,
Nodin Press).
1983
Gordon Sandquist, Ballwin,
Mo., began a new call at Trinity
Lutheran Church in Chesterfield,
Mo. in September. He and his
wife, Sonja, recently adopted two
girls, ages 6 and 7.
1985
Ron Munkittrick, Westfield,
N.J., was appointed chief
financial officer of Ramp
Corporation in October; he had
been working with Ramp since
June as a consultant on
operational and financial
initiatives. Ron has 20 years of
experience in corporate financial
management with companies
such as Fingerhut Corporation,
Hanover Direct, Genesis Direct,
Site59.com, and Decima
Ventures. Most recently he was
CFO of CapeSuccess LLC, a
staffing and information
technology consulting company.
Ron has an M.B.A. from the
University of St. Thomas.
1986
Michael A. Johnson accepted
the position of director of
Winter/Spring 2005
dramatics at Trinity High School
in Trinity, N.C. His wife, Ann
Marie (Glover) ’84, has
contributed to the field of early
childhood education as a Head
Start administrator and teacher
for more than 20 years.
1987
Rev. Tammy J. Rider,
Claremont, Minn., was a finalist
in a national sermon contest
sponsored by the FaithTrust
Institute (formerly known as the
Center for the Prevention of
Sexual and Domestic Violence)
with her sermon, “Sleeping
Women.” As such, her sermon
was published in The Journal of
Religion and Abuse (Haworth
Pastoral Press, Vol. 6, No. 1,
2004).
1988
Carl R. Holm (formerly
Holmes), Albertville, Minn., was
recently promoted to northern
regional sales manager at F.A.
Davis Co. Publishers. His wife,
Chrisanne D. (Rebertus) ’89,
began her fifth year of
homeschooling their three
children: Emilyanne, Mark, and
39
Class Notes
James. They can be contacted at
<arenzano1@earthlink.net>.
1990
Vicki (Janssen) McDougall,
North Branch, Minn., is the new
dean of students at Forest Lake
Senior High School.
1991
Rev. Judith A. (Benson)
Bangsund received a master of
divinity degree from Luther
Seminary last May. She is a
missionary at the Division of
Global Mission for the ELCA in
Chicago, and following
graduation, Judith returned to
Makumira-Tumaini University
in Usa River, Tanzania (where
she served as an intern as part of
her degree requirements), to
serve in an ordained role in
missions.
written exams. Sharol specializes
in coaching nurses and “peak
performers” from all walks of life
through her company, Life
Illumination Keynotes, Seminars,
& Coaching; Sharol can be
reached via her Web site at
<www.lifeillumination.com>.
law degree at William Mitchell
College of Law.
Cindy (Kostusak) Waldron,
Fairfax, Va., graduated from
George Washington University,
Washington D.C., in 2004 with
an M.B.A. specializing in finance
and entrepreneurship. She works
for Freddie Mac in the Financial
Research Department.
Julie (Holmquist) Sellers,
Duluth, Minn., is a media
planner for Out There
Advertising, a Duluth advertising
firm. She was previously a media
director for von Goertz &
VanHove (also in Duluth), and a
senior media planner and
account executive at Haworth
Marketing and Media Co. in
Minneapolis. She was also a
media analyst at the
Minneapolis-based Campbell
Mithun Esty agency.
1993
1994
Michael H. Haukaas, Brooklyn
Center, Minn., is a clerk at the
law firm of Schwegman,
Lundberg, Woessner & Kluth for
a second year. He is pursuing a
Bill Gabler, Prior Lake, Minn.,
married Corinne Lindborg, a
1998 Gustavus Adolphus
alumna, last May. In addition,
Bill was inducted into the 2003
Prior Lake High School Hall of
Fame for his achievements in
athletics in both high school and
college—he was a standout
three-sport athlete (football,
wrestling, and baseball). He is
the youngest male to be
inducted.
Dan Sweeney, Minneapolis,
recently opened his own
business, Keep In Touch
Massage, in Uptown
Minneapolis. The company
offers a wide range of massagespecific services and natural skin
care products. Dan can be
reached via his Web site at
<www.keepintouchmassage.net>.
1995
Deb (Bellin) Smith, Neenah,
Wis., is a recruiter for
TEKsystems, an IT services
THE AUGSBURG CENTENNIAL SINGERS
Courtesy photo
1992
David Murr, Orford, N.H., was
presented the F.L. Scarf Award in
December during the 2004 AGU
Fall Meeting in San Francisco
for his thesis, “Magnetosphereionosphere coupling on mesoand macro-scales.” The award is
given annually to a recent Ph.D.
recipient for outstanding
dissertation research that
contributes directly to solarplanetary sciences (David
earned his Ph.D. at Boston
University in 2003). David also
received the National Science
Foundation Geospace
Environment Modeling (GEM)
postdoctoral researcher award in
2003. He currently works with
William Lotko at Dartmouth
College.
Sharol Tyra,
Hanover, Minn.,
recently
completed the
Coaches
Training
Institute’s
Certified Professional Co-Active
Coaching Certification Program
and passed both the oral and
40
The Augsburg Centennial Singers recently completed a tour of Arizona, sharing their passion and
enjoyment of singing with congregations from Green Valley to Scottsdale. They are pictured here in Sun
City West, where they performed at Lord of Life Lutheran Church.
The Centennial Singers will perform in the Twin Cities:
THURSDAY, MAY 12, 7 P.M.
Calvary Church of Roseville, Lexington and County Road B
Free will offering
Winter/Spring 2005
recruiting firm in Appleton, Wis.
She has been married for four
years to her husband, Scott, and
she enjoys spending time with
her son Noah, 3, and her
stepdaughter Andrea, 9.
Rev. Kari L. Burke-Romarheim
is pursuing a master of divinity at
Luther Seminary. She previously
worked for three years as a youth
and family minister in Bergen,
Norway.
1997
Arlo Miller, Brookline, Mass.,
successfully defended his thesis,
“The Regulation of Melanoma
Antigens by the Microphthalmia
Transcription Factor,” and
received a Ph.D. in biochemistry
and molecular pharmacology
from Harvard University Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences.
1999
Rev. Deborah
Hutterer
recently relocated
to Pontiac, Ill.,
where she is
serving as pastor
of St. Paul
Lutheran Church. She received
her Master of Divinity degree
from Luther Seminary last May;
she also received the A.E.
Hanson homiletic award in
preaching, which recognizes the
importance of preaching as
seminary graduates move into
the next chapter of their
ministries. The award was
established by the family of the
late Rev. Arthur E. Hanson
(1894–1966), former president
of the ELCA’s Northern
Minnesota District.
Megan Renze, Miami, recently
graduated cum laude from the
University of Miami School of
Law. She passed the bar
examination in Florida and is
now working as associate general
counsel for Banco Santander
International in Miami.
2000
Rev. Melissa G. (Moyle)
Pohlman, St. Paul, received a
master of divinity degree from
Luther Seminary last May.
2001
Jessica Norman married Eric
Hafemeyer in February 2004. Eric
is a carpenter and Jessica recently
ALUMNI PROFILE
Courtesy photo
Alumnus wins state technology award
by Beverly Deming
Mark Deming, a 1993 graduate of Augsburg, was honored in November as the inaugural recipient of
the statewide Minnesota TEKNE Award for Innovation in Teaching. Deming is the media specialist at
Orchard Lake Elementary School in Lakeville, Minn.
Each year the Minnesota High Tech Association, Minnesota Technology, Inc., Medical Alley, and
Minnesota Project Innovation recognize start-up and giant corporations in Minnesota for their
achievements in technology. This year a new category was added to recognize and honor educators for
their contributions and innovations in teaching. Its purpose is to recognize an educator who
demonstrates leadership in creating learning opportunities for students using innovative technology in
Minnesota’s classrooms.
The TEKNE Award has been described as the “Academy Award” of the technology industry in
Minnesota. Deming was one of three finalists from an overwhelming number of nominees for the new
category of Innovation in Teaching.
Deming has been a media specialist for nine years, the last four being at Orchard Lake Elementary. He
was nominated for his work in bringing the oldest elementary school in Lakeville up to the same level
of technology as Lakeville’s new schools. When faced with a space problem, Deming designed a
mobile computer lab to take to the classroom. He has taken time to help fellow educators make
adjustments in their classrooms using the technology available to them. Physical education teachers
are using Palm hand-helds instead of paper-laden clipboards to keep their records at hand. One fifthgrade teacher who was avoiding technology entirely credits Deming with bringing him around to
using the latest in technology.
WCCO News anchor Don Shelby
(right) presented Mark Deming ’93
(left) with the TEKNE Award for
Innovation in Teaching at the
Minnesota TEKNE Award ceremony
at the Minneapolis Convention
Center in November. Deming also
received a monetary award and
multimedia projection system for
Orchard Lake Elementary School,
where he is the media specialist.
Deming was also recognized for turning the school’s morning announcements into a student-run
multimedia show. Students now eagerly apply each spring for a position the following year on
The Morning Crew. A group of 10 fifth- and sixth-grade students meet Deming an hour before school starts most days to prepare the school’s
daily announcements, which include reviews of popular books and videos, music and graphics for the opening and closing credits, lunch
menus, and a Friday bloopers show. This by-kids-for-kids morning news show is considered a daily “must see.”
When asked by the awards committee why he gives his personal time to promoting technology, Deming stated that “It’s not just a job, this is
a lot of fun—I really enjoy it.”
Deming and his wife, Jean, reside in Farmington, Minn., with their 5-year-old son, Randall, and 1-year-old daughter, Jaela. A former
basketball player with the Auggies, Deming is also a ninth-grade basketball coach for the Farmington School District.
Beverly Deming, a student in Augsburg’s Rochester program, is also Mark Deming’s mother.
Winter/Spring 2005
41
Class Notes
received her J.D. degree from
William Mitchell College of Law.
The couple resides in Northfield,
Minn.
Stacy Waterman, Pinehurst,
N.C., graduated from West
Virginia University with a
master’s degree in counseling.
She is in her second year as a
middle school counselor in
Pinehurst. Stacy can be reached
at <stacywaterman@hotmail.
com>.
2003
Kristopher Freeman,
Minneapolis, was hired as an
account executive at City Pages,
a Twin Cities weekly newspaper,
after completing an internship in
its promotions department.
Christina Markwood-Rod,
Wayzata, Minn., created an
exhibit in the St. Cloud State
University’s Archives and Special
Collections that uncovers the
intriguing tale of world traveler
and late SCSU adjunct professor
William Lindgren. The William
Marcellous Lindgren Interpretive
Exhibit, located in the Kalm
Family University Archives and
Special Collections on Miller
Center third floor, opened in
October 2004 and will remain
open through the 2004–05
academic year. Christina is a
graduate student in SCSU’s public
history program, and spent a year
processing Lindgren’s collection.
Orion Wisness married Erin
Dablow in August in Butte, Mont.
The couple resides in
Hackensack, Minn.
Heather Wessling married
Andrew Maki in October.
Heather is a Northwest Airlines
biller for Carlson Marketing
Group, a subsidiary of Carlson
Companies, Inc.
2004
Christina M. Boe married
Michael T. Anderson II in
October. The couple resides in
Roseville, Minn.
Rev. Linda (Brandvold)
McPeak is pursuing a master of
divinity at Luther Seminary in St.
Paul. She previously worked in a
variety of positions in Minnesota:
as a youth and family minister at
Cross of Peace Lutheran Church
in Shakopee, as church secretary
at Discovery United Methodist
Church in Chaska, as a benefits
specialist/administrator at
Andersen Consulting in
Minneapolis, and as a benefits
administrator for OTC/Power
Team SPX Corporation in
Owatonna.
Courtesy photo
GARRY HESSER HONORED IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Augsburg professor Garry Hesser gathered with Augsburg alumni
and friends in December in Washington, D.C., for a special
celebration honoring his selection as 2004 Minnesota Professor of
the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education (see p. 10 for more information). Pictured, L to R, are:
Sylvia and Martin Sabo ’59, Garry Hesser, William V. and Anne
Frame, Mark ’53 and Jean Raabe.
42
Glendine M. Soiseth (’04
MSW) received an M.A. in
pastoral care from Luther
Seminary last May. She plans to
pursue work at either a
Christian counseling agency or a
social service agency that will
provide the necessary
supervisory requirements to
allow her to become licensed for
independent counseling practice.
Births/Adoptions
Norm ’57 and Gayle
(Engedad) Matson ’57,
Chicago, Ill., are the proud
grandparents of grandson Lars
Engedad Matson, born in July
to Hans Engedad and Holly
Matson.
Jeannie (Shaughnessy) ’88
and Joseph Hodges, Alexandria,
Minn.—a daughter, Celia
Marie, in May. She joins older
sister Campbell. Jeannie is the
owner/president of Pathwise
Partners.
Nnamdi
Okoronkwo
’89 and his wife
in Minneapolis—
a son, Spencer
Ajah, in March
2004. Nnamdi is
associate corporate council to
Best Buy Company and practices
in the area of retail litigation.
Kelly (Moore)
’92 and David
Lozinski ’91,
Bloomington,
Minn.—a
daughter,
Elizabeth
“Libby” Grace, in January 2004.
Brent Anderson ’93 and his
wife, Marilyn, Burnsville,
Minn.—a daughter, Maizie
Margaret, in January 2004.
Michelle (Eaker) ’94 and Frank
Steever, Cranston, R.I.—a
daughter, Genevieve, in July.
Susan Irene
Forsmark ’95
and her
husband, Bill,
Minnetonka,
Minn.—a
daughter,
Abigail Rose, in January 2004.
She joins older brothers Reilly, 7,
and Cole, 3, and big sister Libby, 3.
Melanie
(Main)
Johnson ’95,
Fayetteville,
Ark.—a son,
Calvin
Jeramiya
Johnson III, in September.
Melanie is the office manager for
Sonstegard Foods of Arkansas
and can be contacted at
<melanie@sonstegard.com>.
Connie (Arndt)
’96 and Andy
Clausen, Blaine,
Minn.—a son,
Aaron Andrew,
in April 2004. He
joins older
brother Adam, 2. Connie is a
business analyst with the ELCA
Board of Pensions in Minneapolis.
Aaron was baptized by his
grandfather, the Rev. Charles
Arndt ’63, pastor of First
Lutheran Church in Cushing, Wis.
Tracy (Holloway) ’97 and
Thane Drier ’99, Eau Claire,
Wis.—a son, Tristan Thane, in
September. Tracy is a CPA for
Chippewa Valley Technical
College and Thane is a
pharmacist for the Marshfield
Clinic Regional Cancer Center.
Matt Topp ’03
and his wife,
Trisha, South St.
Paul—a daughter,
Emma Marie, in
January 2004.
Also welcoming
Emma are proud grandparents
Gary and Carol (Watson) Topp
’76; Carole can be contacted at
<carolet4@excite.com>.
Winter/Spring 2005
In Memoriam
Gertrude Hognander ’36, longtime activist, dies
ertrude (Lund)
Hognander ’36, a
longtime activist for world
peace and higher education,
died January 13 in her Edina
home after suffering a stroke.
She was 89.
“She had this way about
her that allowed her to gain
the confidence of those around
her, without ever aspiring to
lead them,” her son, O.C.
“Joe” Hognander, Jr., told Sun
Current newspapers. “That’s
why I believe she was so
successful at a time when
women were not always
embraced in leadership roles.”
Born in Marinette, Wis.,
Gertrude was raised in a
church background that
included music and
educational instruction. In the
late 1930s, she honed her
musical talents (which
included the gift of perfect
pitch, an inheritance from her
father, Augsburg alumnus Rev.
L.R. Lund) at Augsburg and
later at Rockford College in
Illinois, where she received a
bachelor’s degree in music. She
directed several church choirs
in Michigan and then in
Minnesota, often adding her
talents as pianist and organist.
During the late 1940s and
early 1950s she was the
accompanist to citywide
ecumenical events at the
Minneapolis Armory.
Outside of church,
Gertrude also actively applied
her leadership skills to
community and state
organizations, serving as
president of the St. Louis Park
Woman’s Club, the
Minneapolis branch of the
American Association of
University Women, and the
United Nations Association of
Minnesota. She was also one of
three members of the St. Louis
Park Charter Commission, and
served on many boards
including the Minnesota
International Center,
Hennepin County American
Cancer Society, Minnesota
Board of Correctional Services,
Abbott Hospital Auxiliary, and
Hennepin County Mental
Health Association.
Augsburg recognized
Gertrude’s commitment to
church and community with
the Distinguished Alumni
Award in 1973. She was also
honored with the Minnesota
Distinguished Service Award
and the WCCO “Good
Neighbor” Award.
Gertrude and her family
generously established the
Anna Manger, Augsburg’s
first female instructor, dies
Anna (Gjesdahl)
Manger, who
died in January
just days shy of
her 104th
birthday, was
hired by
Augsburg as its first female
instructor, teaching higher
algebra and geometry. Even after
marrying and leaving the College
in 1925, Manger continued to be
involved with Augsburg,
volunteering her time in the
Augsburg Associates and other
groups to help raise money. Both
of her daughters, Elizabeth
Anderson ’53 and Margery
Torgerson ’47, are Augsburg
alumnae who enjoyed becoming
part of the community where
their mother had taught.
Lutheran missionary Malvin
Rossing ’30 dies
The Rev. Malvin Rossing ’30 died
of natural causes in January in
Viroqua, Wis.; he was 96.
Rossing spent three decades as a
Lutheran missionary in
Madagascar, starting in 1937,
when he, his wife Anna, and
toddler daughter Gertrude
boarded a freighter in France and
headed to the island in the
Indian Ocean. He believed that
education would eliminate
poverty, and his main job was as
director of a teacher-training
school. He retired from
missionary service in 1967 and
served as a minister in Viroqua
and in Houston, Minn., and
retired from pastoral service in
the mid-1980s. His wife, Anna,
preceded him in death in 2003.
He is survived by four children:
Elizabeth, Gertrude, Martha, and
Melvin ’66; nine grandchildren,
and five great-grandchildren.
Wesley Sideen, Class of 1958
‘class agent,’ dies
Wesley Sideen,
dedicated class
agent for
Augsburg’s Class
of 1958, died in
January; he was
69. A lifelong St.
Paul resident, Sideen was a retired
English and social studies
teacher—he spent all but one of
his 38 years in teaching at Hazel
Park Middle School. Following
retirement, he worked at Byerly’s
grocery store. He was an active
member of East Park Lions Club
and current Lion’s district
governor. He is survived by his
wife, Carol Ann; four children:
David, Diane, Daniel, and Denise
’94; and four grandchildren.
G
Winter/Spring 2005
Orville C. and Gertrude O.
Hognander Family Fund at
Augsburg in the 1990s to
recognize exceptional music
performance and achievement.
The scholarship is based on
merit, specifically to provide
encouragement to outstanding
music students.
Gertrude was preceded in
death by her husband, Orville
Hognander, Sr., in 1997. She is
survived by her son, Joe.
Matthew Woodford, PA
student, dies in car accident
Matthew
Woodford, a
student in
Augsburg’s
Physician
Assistant
Program, and his
unborn son, Logan, died in
December 2004 as the result of a
car accident in Baldwin, Wis. His
wife, Lora, and daughter,
Madalyn, were also injured in the
accident. Woodford, 27, worked at
Methodist Hospital as a
phlebotomist, and entered the
Augsburg PA Program in 2002.
The PA Program is pleased to
announce the creation of the
Matthew Woodford Memorial
Scholarship in honor and in
memory of Woodford, to be
awarded annually to a third-year
Augsburg PA student.
43
AUGGIE
THOUGHTS
Auggie Thoughts
Ted and Fern Hanwick, 1909-2005
‘A perfect ending’ to a shared life
I
n what was described by their pastor as
“a script that only God could write,”
Professor Emeritus and a pioneer of
Augsburg’s physics department Theodore
“Ted” Hanwick and his wife of 64 years,
Fern, died within 19 hours of each other
on March 2 and 3, each at age 95.
The story of their life together was
recounted at their memorial service and
also in a Star Tribune front-page column
by Nick Coleman, titled “Lifetime of
Love Endures to a Couple’s Dying Day.”
Hanwick was chair of the physics
department at Rutgers University when
he was recruited in 1956 by thenpresident Bernhard Christensen to start a
physics major at Augsburg. Hanwick has
said that he heard the voice of God tell
him that the small liberal arts college in
the Midwest was the place where he
should be, despite the prestige and salary
he would leave behind.
“He firmly, honestly believed that
God called him here,” said Rev. Howard
“Skip” Reeves, a close family friend and
pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church,
where the Hanwicks had been active
members.
by Betsey Norgard
Hanwick developed a major in
physics and launched a number of
new courses, including astronomy.
His daughter, Linda (Hanwick)
Putnam ’64, tells of his love for
astronomy and how he made
telescopes at home, grinding the
lenses himself. When an Augsburg
graduate offered to provide a
telescope for an astronomy course
at Augsburg, Putnam says that her
father—who was “always looking
for a good deal”—needed housing
for the telescope and found a
place in Minnesota that sold silo
domes. The “silo” was donated to
Augsburg and became an unlikely
addition to a city campus.
Hanwick retired in 1978, but has
remained connected to the Augsburg
community. Ted and Fern were last on
campus at Homecoming 2003 for a
science alumni gathering.
Both of their children are Augsburg
alumni—Linda (Hanwick) Putnam ’64
and Theodore Hanwick, Jr. ’66.
Physics professors Ken Erickson ’62
and Stu Anderson ’78, were both
Physics professor emeritus Ted Hanwick and his wife, Fern, last visited campus for a science
alumni gathering in 2003.
44
Hanwick’s students in the department—
Erickson studied during Hanwick’s early
years at Augsburg, while Anderson was
one of his last students. In 1976, the
Physics Department established a
scholarship in Hanwick’s name to honor
his 20th anniversary at Augsburg.
“He had such a passion for this
place,” says Reeves. “When you mention
Augsburg, even in his later years, his face
would brighten up, and he’d smile. … He
wore Augsburg—he was Augsburg to a
lot of people.”
Reeves describes Ted Hanwick as “a
blend of intelligence and humility.” Fern
Hanwick, Reeves says, was “pure grace.”
For a number of years, until she was 90,
she directed Calvary Lutheran’s program
for women prisoners in the Hennepin
County workhouse.
Their life together was a storybook
romance. They met in New York City,
were attracted from the first moment,
and became engaged in three weeks.
Since then, they’ve been inseparable.
The circumstance of their death just
19 hours apart—Ted died in his sleep on
March 2 and Fern died peacefully while
visiting with friends the next afternoon—
was described by Coleman in his column
as “a love story with a perfect ending.”
Granddaughter Christine Hanwick, in
speaking at the memorial service, said
that she thought her grandfather must
have wanted to go on ahead and “check
things out to make sure it was OK.”
Winter/Spring 2005
CCalendar
ALENDAR
Music
Exhibits
For music information, call 612-330-1265
For gallery information, call 612-330-1524
April 27
Chamber Music Recital & High Tea
4 p.m.—Sateren Auditorium
April 30
Augsburg Jazz Ensemble Concert
7 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
May 1
Augsburg Concert Band Concert
April 8–May 8
3 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
Juried All-Student Art Exhibition
May 8–18
Augsburg Concert Band Norway Tour
• Baccalaureate Service
10 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
• Commencement Brunch
11 a.m.—Christensen Center
• Commencement Ceremony
Featured speaker: Parker Palmer,
bestselling author, lecturer, teacher,
and activist
1:30 p.m.—Melby Hall
Seating begins at 12:30 p.m.; tickets
required
• Commencement Reception
3 p.m.—Murphy Park
Gage Family Art Gallery, Lindell Library
April 8–May 20
Senior Art Exhibition
Theatre
Christensen Center Art Gallery
For ticket information, call 612-330-1257
Seminars,
Lectures, and
Films
February 23–May 19
Augsburg Native American Film
Series 2005
April 15–24
Our Country’s Good
By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Darcey Engen
April 15, 16, 21, 22, and 23 at 7 p.m.;
April 17 and 24 at 2 p.m.
Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
April 29
Senior Acting Recitals
7 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
May 4
Stage Direction Class Recital
6:30 p.m.—Tjornhom-Nelson Theater
In collaboration with Independent
Indigenous Film Minneapolis; various
dates and times. For schedule
information, call 612-330-1523, e-mail
<marubbio@augsburg.edu>, or visit
<www.augsburg.edu/ais/filmseries>
Other Events
May 6–7
Commencement Weekend
May 6
• Honors Convocation
4:30 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
• Commencement Dinner
6 p.m.—Christensen Center
• Commencement Concert
7:30 p.m.—Hoversten Chapel
May 7
• Eucharist Service
8:30 a.m.—Hoversten Chapel
May 16
Second Annual Healthcare Conference:
“Building Minnesota’s Healthcare
Workforce Through Diversity”
A collaborative conference sponsored by
Augsburg, Minnesota Hospital
Association, Fairview Health Services,
and United Health Foundation
8 a.m.–5 p.m.—Melby Hall
For information, call 612-330-1171,
e-mail <croyle@augsburg.edu>, or visit
<www.augsburg.edu/healthcare>
June 16
Graduate Programs Discovery Evening
Gathering for prospective graduate
programs students; includes dinner
buffet and break-out sessions
5:30–8:30 p.m.—Christensen Center
For information, call 612-330-1150 or
e-mail <parkp@augsburg.edu>
June 27
42nd Annual Clair Strommen A-Club
Golf Tournament
See p. 36 for more information
See the alumni calendar on p. 36 for additional events
Send us your news
and photos!
Please tell us about the news in
your life, your new job, move,
marriage, and births. Don’t forget
to send photos!
For news of a death, printed
notice is required, e.g. an
obituary, funeral notice, or
program from a memorial service.
Send your news items, photos, or
change of address by mail to:
Augsburg Now Class Notes,
Augsburg College, CB 146,
2211 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis,
MN, 55454, or e-mail to
<alumni@augsburg.edu>.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maiden name
Class year or last year attended
Full name
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Street address
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
City
State
Zip
Is this a new address? ■ Yes ■ No ________________________________________________________________________________
■ Okay to publish your e-mail address?
E-mail
Home telephone
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Position
Work telephone
Employer
Is spouse also a graduate of Augsburg College?
■ Yes
■ No
If yes, class year_______________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maiden name
Spouse name
Your news: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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