Letter from the editor

Learning and the educational journey

The main feature in this issue is a package of three stories about learning as adults. This "package" seemed to suggest itself as we took note of the concurrent 15-, 20-, and 25-year anniversaries this year of programs at Augsburg focused on adult learning—that is, providing education for people outside of the traditional college ages of 18-22.

These anniversaries occur just at the time when Augsburg is beginning to fully understand and refine the nature of the Lutheran urban education to which the College is called. In describing the lifelong learning demanded in today's world, President Frame has emphasized and illustrated how Augsburg's "transformative" education responds to society's needs and is as appropriate for working-adult students as it is for students of traditional college age.

Students are changed in different ways during an educational journey. For some it may be the experience with a particular professor and the enthusiasm and spark with which he or she teaches the course material—perhaps not fully appreciated until years later. Or, it may be the broader exposure to thoughts, values, visions, and perspectives not part of the student's prior worldview.

The stories in this issue reflect on the growth that comes from this kind of educational journey, both through the formal classes as described in the three anniversary programs, or, as in the story of Professor Eugene Skibbe's art collection, through a passion that grows with learning about other cultures and aesthetics.

—Betsey Norgard
Editor