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‘A Smoother Ramp and Transition to College’: Star Tribune Highlights Direct Admissions

Star Tribune logoAugsburg featured prominently in a recent article in the Star Tribune about direct admission in Minnesota. In addition to participating in the state of Minnesota’s direct admission pilot last fall, Augsburg became one of the first schools to move to direct admissions for all applicants (including through the Common App and Augsburg’s own application). Unlike many schools that still require traditional, multi-step applications, Augsburg’s application can be completed in under 10 minutes. 

Stephanie Ruckel, director of enrollment systems and analytics, spoke to reporter Liz Navratil about the impact of the direct admissions approach, which launched in Fall 2022 as part of the Augsburg Applies to You platform. 

“It’s not a mad dash to the finish line,” she said. “It’s just a smoother ramp and transition to college.”

According to the Star Tribune, “Ruckel estimated that the change freed up about 1,300 hours of admissions counselors’ time, making it easier for them to answer questions about financial aid, visit high schools or help students with disabilities develop plans for the new semester.”

Read more via the Star Tribune: Minnesota’s Direct Admissions program is changing how students apply to college

Augsburg Health Commons Bring Drop-In Care to New Locations

PA faculty member Vanessa Bester is seated on a stool providing foot care at a Health Commons location.The Augsburg Health Commons is expanding to bring its proven model of accompaniment-based care to more neighbors through new partnerships and locations.

Late last year, an agreement with M Health Fairview and Redeemer Center for Life formalized a partnership at the Living Room in the Harrison neighborhood of north Minneapolis, where a drop-in site based on the Health Commons model had operated since 2012. Following a disruption of in-person services during the COVID-19 pandemic, the site was re-opened in October 2022 under the leadership of Augsburg Physician Assistant Program Director Vanessa Bester.  

This summer, the first Health Commons in St. Paul opened in the Conway Community Center through a partnership with M Health Fairview, the Sanneh Foundation, and the East Side Health & Well-Being Collaborative. Health Commons Executive Director Katie Clark and Augsburg Board of Regents Chair Dennis Meyer will join St. Paul community leaders on August 16 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Health Commons East

These new locations join long-standing Health Commons sites at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis and in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood

“Our nursing and physician assistant faculty, along with our students, are committed to the vision of a drop-in center that focuses on the needs of the communities we serve to address health inequities and other deep-rooted issues faced when seeking care,” said Augsburg President Paul C. Pribbenow. “Augsburg is especially pleased to extend our efforts to the East Side St. Paul neighborhood.”

Augsburg’s Health Commons sites are health-focused drop-in centers led and organized by nursing and physician assistant faculty members, Augsburg students, volunteers, and community members. Developed by Augsburg nursing faculty in the early 1990s, the Health Commons model is founded on principles of hospitality and relationship development that leads to transcultural understanding and health benefits for all participants. 

The people who come to the Health Commons are from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and many are unhoused or marginally housed. Health concerns might include nutrition, medication, stress management, respiratory conditions, injuries, skin problems, and chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. Everyone is welcome, and all services are provided free of charge, without proof of need or time constraints. 

Augsburg’s PA program has taken on a growing role as new partnerships and locations have developed. The PA program has led the expansion of services at the Cedar-Riverside Health Commons, connecting with community members providing foot care, a need across many marginalized communities. 

“The PA program is humbled and honored to bring the model of accompaniment-based care into our curriculum and medical practice. Faculty, staff and students are able to build connections, meet people where they are at in their health journey, and learn how health inequities are impacting the people we care for every day. The Harrison neighborhood, Cedar-Riverside, Central Lutheran, and now East St. Paul are the paradigm of what providing health and care should look like in every community,” said Bester. 

To learn more, volunteer, or support the Health Commons, visit augsburg.edu/healthcommons.

MPR Highlights Growing StepUP Partnerships

MPR News logoA leader in the collegiate recovery movement for more than 25 years, StepUP® at Augsburg University is now poised to reach more students through new partnerships with Twin Cities-area colleges and universities. Minnesota Public Radio recently featured StepUP Director Ericka Otterson, Recruitment and Outreach Coordinator Nell Hurley, and Ethan Laugen ’24 in a story about the need for recovery support in higher education. 

StepUP provides an array of support services for students in recovery, including sober living college experience in Oren Gateway Center, weekly meetings with alcohol and drug counselors, and access to a strong alumni network. With new partnerships forming post-COVID-19, including a formal agreement with the University of St. Thomas, these resources will be available to more students from across the Twin Cities metro. 

“There’s no shortage of need, and students time and again will say the community has been the most valuable aspect of participating in this program,” Otterson told MPR. “So the larger the community is each year, the more opportunity there is for that.”

“This is my community,” said Laugen. “Instead of a student group or a frat, it’s StepUP. These are my people who get me, who understand me, who I get along with. And it has given me the college experience in the way that I needed a college experience.”

Listen or read more via MPR: “Amid addiction need, Augsburg’s student recovery program seeks more participants”

Making College Accessible to Foster Youth

Professor Tim Pippert talking with two students
From left to right: Madelyne Yang, Donovan Holmes, and Tim Pippert

Professor Tim Pippert and Madelyne Yang ’26 were recently interviewed by The Imprint about Augsburg Family Scholars, a program to narrow the opportunity gap for students with foster care backgrounds.

Augsburg Family Scholars builds on Minnesota’s Fostering Independence Higher Education Grant. This “last dollar” program provides state funding to cover tuition, fees, room and board and other expenses related to the cost of attending college. Pippert told The Imprint that the state grants are “a game changer,” but aren’t enough on their own. 

To bridge the gap, Augsburg Family Scholars supplements the state grant with comprehensive academic and community support. Last year, a dozen Augsburg students participated in the program, which provides help moving to campus, laptops, access to year-round housing, a dedicated lounge space on campus, community outings, and more. Pippert, the Joel Torstenson endowed professor of sociology, directs the program and serves as an advisor to the participants, helping them strategize how to navigate the demands of higher education. 

“If you’ve made it to college, you’ve overcome so many hurdles already,” he said. “If you’ve made it this far, it’s our responsibility to help students finish the job and get a degree.”

Read the full story from The Imprint or learn more about Augsburg Family Scholars

Senior Fellowships Anchor Collaboration Between Augsburg’s Interfaith Institute and the Oxford Interfaith Forum

El-Hibri Chair and Executive Director of Interfaith Institute Najeeba Syeed

Najeeba Syeed, El-Hibri chair and executive director of Interfaith at Augsburg, has been named a senior fellow of the Oxford Interfaith Forum. Reciprocally, Director of the Oxford Interfaith Forum Thea Gomelauri will join Augsburg’s Interfaith Institute as a senior fellow this fall. This mutual fellowship is a distinct characteristic of the institutions’ partnership, which will focus on issues of peace, justice, intercultural and interfaith education, and furthering interreligious learning across the globe.

Gomelauri is a faculty member of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford and has extensive experience in research, teaching, and consultancy in different international, and intercultural contexts. She is a member of the Jewish-Muslim Research Network, the Bible and Religions of the Ancient Near East Collective, and the British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies.

Director of the Oxford Interfaith Forum Thea Gomelauri

As Augsburg’s El-Hibri chair and executive director of Interfaith Institute, Syeed serves as a national ambassador for the interfaith movement and faculty advisor for Augsburg’s Interfaith Scholars. She is a professor, expert practitioner, and public speaker in the fields of interfaith studies, mediation, conflict resolution, deliberative democracy, and social, gender, and racial equity.

“This fellowship serves as an anchor for our collaborative work of Interfaith Institute at Augsburg University and the Oxford Interfaith Forum,” Syeed says. “We look forward to collaborating in the United States, United Kingdom, and across the globe.”

Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship Receives Local Public Health Hero Award

Last week, the City of Minneapolis honored the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship with a Local Public Health HeroAward in the category of Healthy Living and Healthy Food Systems. Project Manager Jenean Gilmer, Food Initiatives Program Manager Natalie Jacobson, and Director of Community Relations Steve Peacock were specifically recognized for their efforts. Paula Guinn and Sieglinde Thetard from The People’s Center nominated the Sabo Center for their food access work in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. They wrote:  

“Augsburg University’s Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship works to build community connections and engagement in pursuit of more equitable systems and resources in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. The Center plays a major role in food access and systems work through the Cedar-Riverside Food Initiative group, which draws representatives from healthcare organizations, community-service centers, higher education institutions, and local non-profits. They have shown great leadership in their dedication to continuing food access work as a collective, which is exemplified by their commitment to uplifting diverse community voices to shape and direct food initiatives. 

“The Center has been instrumental in connecting neighborhood organizations and community members with fresh produce and healthy shelf-stable items. For example, the team works with Health Commons, a healthcare collective, to distribute thousands of pounds of free fresh produce to community members in and around Riverside Plaza. The Center has also made a significant impact in building sustainable food-distribution models that incorporate grassroots organizations into existing food distribution frameworks and community programming. With so many long-term partnerships, The Sabo Center has a broad range of organizations and community members engaged in adapting existing and future programming to healthy living and healthy food system goals.”

Learn more about Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship and how you can get involved.

Augsburg Health Commons Receives $50,000 Award to Advance Health Equity Through Nursing

A volunteer wearing gray scrubs and a face mask provides a blood pressure check for a guest at the Augsburg Central Health Commons.For 30 years, the Augsburg Health Commons have advanced a model of nursing practice rooted in accompaniment, social justice, and transcultural nursing practice. In early January, the program received a $50,000 Health Equity Innovation Fund grant from AARP and the Center to Champion Nursing in America, a joint initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to deepen and expand this work.

“We are moved beyond words to be selected for this opportunity,” said Katie Clark, associate professor of nursing and executive director of the Health Commons. “These funds will not only help relieve some of the suffering people are forced to endure in the immediate term, but will also help cultivate ideas and solutions for the long term in caring for people who experience marginalization.” 

The first Augsburg Health Commons drop-in center opened at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis in 1992. Most people seeking care at the Central location live without a permanent residence or are marginally housed. In 2011, a second location in Cedar-Riverside opened in response to a need for accessible, no-cost health care services identified by members of the East African immigrant community located near Augsburg’s campus. Both locations center community voices and are led and organized by nursing faculty members, nursing and physician assistant volunteers, students, and community members.

The people who come to the Health Commons are from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Everyone is welcome, and all services are provided free of charge. Health concerns might include nutrition, medication, stress management, respiratory conditions, injuries, skin problems, and chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. Frequently, people experiencing these problems come to Health Commons locations for their easy access, supportive environment, and assistance with connecting to other health care resources.

Going forward, the Health Equity Innovation Fund grant project will focus on three interconnected goals.

  • Continuing and expanding care for marginalized communities.
  • Deepening the focus on health equity, systemic racism, and structural inequities in nursing education. 
  • Disseminating knowledge to influence the nursing profession towards greater inclusiveness.

The Health Commons will continue providing opportunities for the most marginalized communities of Minneapolis to live healthier lives as they are cared for in local context. In addition to existing sites at Central Lutheran Church and Cedar Riverside and work with local encampments, the grant will allow staff and volunteers to explore new partnerships at other locations, including in North Minneapolis in collaboration with Augsburg’s physician assistant program. 

By providing paid research and practice internships for graduate nursing students, the grant will also support the educational mission of the Health Commons. Students in Augsburg’s BSN, Master’s, and DNP programs will continue to learn to decode systems of oppression that are embedded within systems and social norms, and to promote health equity by connecting with others through shared humanity. The project will fund dissemination of research by Augsburg faculty and students through conferences and publishing. In so doing, it aims to create pathways for developing inclusiveness within the nursing profession, both in practice and in the academy. 

“Our Augsburg nursing faculty are excited to be able to dig deeper into naming systemic and structural racism in partnership with people with lived experience in an effort to begin creating needed change in healthcare and the discipline of nursing,” said Clark.

Augsburg Health Commons is one of 16 organizations nationally to receive a Health Equity Innovations Fund award for 2022. The awards through the AARP Center for Health Equity through NursingSM and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, are for projects offering promising solutions aimed at eliminating structural inequities, particularly structural racism, within the nursing profession, health systems, or community, and for projects that help improve access to care and services for those most disproportionately impacted by health disparities. Projects also support the advancement of one or more of the recommendations in the National Academy of Medicine report, “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.”

Find out more about the projects or visit the Augsburg Health Commons website.

Augsburg’s Collegiate Recovery Program Marks 25 Years

A group of 7 Augsburg StepUP participants stand smiling at the camera with arms linked around each other's shoulders.In 1997, Augsburg University was one of just four colleges and universities with a formal collegiate recovery program. Today, StepUP® at Augsburg University is one of the oldest and largest residential collegiate recovery programs in the United States accompanied with sober living. More than 700 students have graduated from the program, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022.

The Phoenix Spirit recently published a piece by Nell Hurley, recruitment and outreach coordinator for StepUP, tracing the program’s history and impact. 

“StepUP is so much more than a sober dorm,” Jon Stentz, one of StepUP’s Licensed Alcohol and Drug counselors, told Hurley. “It’s the connection and the community that students find here that makes all the difference. It’s been said that connection is the opposite of addiction. The StepUP connection is where the magic is. Our students support each other and hold each other accountable. They’re all in this together, both the college journey and the recovery journey.”

StepUP offers a robust program of support and accountability that includes clinical support, random drug testing, weekly meetings, recovery service opportunities, and optional but regular social outings like rock climbing, camping trips, and game nights.

To learn more, read the Phoenix Spirit article or visit the StepUP website.

43rd Annual Advent Vespers Returns In Person

Augsburg's Advent Vespers takes place in the sanctuary of Central Lutheran Church, with choir, orchestra, and packed pews.For more than four decades, Augsburg University has ushered in the Advent and Christmas seasons with Advent Vespers, a magnificent experience of music and liturgy, focusing on the theme of preparation and culminating in the joyful celebration of the Incarnation.

The 43rd Advent Vespers will be held in person at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis, with one livestream option available. 

  • Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 8 p.m. (open dress rehearsal)
  • Friday, December 2, 2022 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 2 p.m. (with livestream) and 5 p.m.

The event is free, with a suggested donation of $30 per person. Seating envelopes are required for entry and are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. They can be requested online, by mail, or in person at the Augsburg Music Office. Seats are going fast—reserve your spot today.

Shuttle service will be available from Augsburg’s Anderson Music Hall to Central Lutheran and back, with limited parking available in lot A on Augsburg’s campus. More information about directions, parking, and shuttle service is available online.

Podcast: Augsburg Enrollment Leaders Talk College Access

Headshots of Robert Gould and Stephanie Ruckel on a green and orange background with white text reading, "Enrollment Edge: the enrollmentFUEL podcast. Episode 45: Robert Gould & Stephanie Ruckel"Robert Gould, vice president for strategic enrollment management, and Stephanie Ruckel, director of admissions operations, joined host Jay Fedje as featured guests on a recent episode of the Enrollment Edge podcast by enrollmentFUEL. 

The episode focused on the power of direct admissions—a simplified approach in which students are admitted based on high school GPA, in some cases before they have even applied—to break down college access barriers. 

“Essentially, what we’re trying to do is remove as many barriers as we can for students, and give them the most options to enroll in whatever institution is a good place for them,” said Ruckel. “When you start thinking about the student’s perspective, you can start questioning the [admissions] process a little bit differently. Why are we requiring these things? How are we using this data? Are we using this information? 

“The challenge in doing this is really stripping down the application—making sure we are collecting what we need to collect, but keeping it as simple as possible.”

Augsburg’s participation in pilot programs with the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the Common App, as well as significant changes to the Augsburg application itself, puts the university at the leading edge of this new policy movement. 

“I want to credit the whole team,” said Gould. “We’ve literally taken the admissions process and the system and changed it in one cycle. We had some good thoughts about how it fulfilled our mission as an enrollment division, but I think more importantly, people had the appetite for it—wanting to build deeper relationships and wanting to eliminate barriers for all students.”

Listen to the episode here: Direct Admission: Unpacking College Access