For years, Taunya Tinsley ’90 had used basic counseling skills in the field of higher education (admissions, career, academic, administrative, and athletic counseling), but it wasn’t till she lost her brother Ethan suddenly and traumatically that the “light came on.” She was struck by the new awareness that God was calling her to the field of professional counseling as part of her ministry, both inside and outside the four walls of her church.

Now, as professional counselor and owner of Transitions Counseling Services and Life Skills Program, in Pittsburgh, Penn., she derives deep satisfaction from enabling clients to recognize and/or develop their skills and strategies to successfully manage life transitions, and to become increasingly aware that their expertise in doing so in one area of life may well be transportable to another arena as well. Tinsley specializes in organizational development, multicultural training, spiritual and Christian counseling, sports counseling, and development through sports, and she is committed to the psychosocial development of the whole person.

One client describes a time when she was “fragile, scared…no, petrified” during the bleakest time in her life, then sought counseling help from Tinsley. Now, she sees each new day as a testimonial that counseling is a vital tool. Without Tinsley’s counseling, she says, she “would be dead—period.” Another client feels that Tinsley’s counseling helped her look deep inside herself and recognize issues she had suppressed, and then provided strategies to face them, “returning me back to myself.” Tinsley’s help gave her more confidence to handle what life sends her way.

In addition to workshops, presentations, and clinical counseling work with individuals and groups, Tinsley is a professor at California University, in California, Penn., where she is also program coordinator for Graduate Certification in Sports Counseling. She says there are numerous benefits to being both a counselor educator and a clinician, as each experience informs the other.

As an Augsburg student, Tinsley found a mentor and spiritual mother in M. Anita Gay Hawthorne, former director of Pan-Afrikan Student Services at Augsburg. Her guidance and encouragement were steadfast, even after Tinsley’s graduation, and Tinsley recalls accompanying the Iowa Swim Team to Minnesota (as their athletic academic advisor) in November 1997, primarily to seek Hawthorne’s advice on a job opening at the University of Pittsburgh. With strong encouragement from her mentor, Tinsley accepted the offer in December 1997—an excellent decision she sees as pivotal in her career. A month after their visit, Hawthorne passed away, and Tinsley was especially grateful she had made the trip.

In the early ‘90s, Tinsley was on staff at Augsburg, as women’s athletic recruiter and volleyball coach in ‘92, and as an admissions counselor and coordinator of multicultural recruitment for two years before that, where she worked with then-admissions director Sally Daniels Herron ’79, currently director of family and constituent relations. “I love her tremendously…and would not be where I am in my career had it not been for Sally in my life.” They worked together to support the integration of diverse cultures in the admissions process, a clear step in the pathway to her current work.

Currently, Tinsley is enrolled at United Theological Seminary in the Doctor of Ministry program, with a focus in sports chaplaincy. Find out more about her counseling business at www.transitionsaalp.com.

When Kasey Yoder ’06 took an interest in hockey at a young age, nobody was very surprised—certainly not his step-father, who has been a high-school hockey coach for nearly 20 years. And certainly not his neighbors in Duluth (Minn.), located in the heart of “hockey country”—where high-school hockey is as good as it gets. He played hockey in high school and early in college, then transferred to Augsburg, where he explored and found the marketing program he wanted. While at Augsburg, he also started coaching youth hockey, and that’s when it started—his passion for coaching.

One of the most exciting challenges in coaching high school hockey, says Yoder, is keeping the kids focused and “buying in,” especially with everything else they have going on in their lives. He works to help them find balance, while still being committed to success at the arena. He is getting to know the families in the Orono (Minn.) community while developing relationships to further improve Orono hockey.

Taking his Orono High School team to the state hockey tournaments a few weeks ago was surely a highlight in his career, especially given the fact that 2013-14 is his first year at the school. The frosting on the cake—being selected Section 2A Coach of the Year.

When he isn’t coaching, Yoder is tending to his 2^nd Life Sticks hockey stick repair company in St. Paul. His experience as a coach, not to mention the rising cost of hockey sticks (now $250 per stick), convinced him that the repair technology he learned while a junior hockey coach on a tight budget was something that needed to be done on a larger scale. His entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and the company has been operating for a year and a half. Yoder also runs Orono’s 18-day summer hockey camp for kids aged 12-18, careful to follow his own advice to students and carve out some valuable cabin time as well.

As a 15-year-old, and with only self-training, Dr. Merton Strommen ’42 was already directing the Lutheran church choir in Lamberton, Minn., where his father was serving as pastor. Before long, he also organized a 10-member male chorus, which, only a year later, would “serenade” the Augsburg College Choir with Negro Spirituals at a pre-concert luncheon. The Choir’s visit to the church—an exciting event for such a small community—fanned the flames of Strommen’s desire to pursue a career in music and one day direct a college choir. He eventually followed this dream at both Augsburg and the University of Minnesota.

Then life took a turn. He was personally confronted one day by a Presence he could only interpret as the Holy Spirit, and the “conversation” led to a change in life purpose. Further, he was unexpectedly rejected by the army for military service due to previous injuries. These factors, among others, pressed him to re-evaluate his life plan. He surprised even himself by enrolling at Augsburg Seminary, then an institution of the Lutheran Free Church (a predecessor body of the ELCA), where some of his closest friends were attending.

A year-and-a-half into his seminary training, he was summoned to the office of the church president, Dr. T. O. Burntvedt, and was urged to accept an appointment to serve as pastor of a congregation in Mora, Minn., starting on Christmas morning. Only part-way through seminary, and in the midst of preparing three choirs in a large congregation for Christmastime, he was stunned by this request. But it was obvious that “yes” was the answer Burntvedt required.

Strommen accepted the appointment, combining his work in Mora (on weekends) with completion of his seminary studies (during the week). In Mora, he was awed by his youth’s response to the ministry of his congregation, and his experience there created a passion for developing youth ministry, both in his congregation and beyond. His five years in Mora were transformative, both for him and for the confirmands, many of whom became leaders in their own right.

Youth ministry, a new idea then, would become the core of Strommen’s life’s work in ministry and research—as campus pastor at Augsburg, national youth director, and founder of the Youth and Family Institute at Augsburg. He also founded the renowned Search Institute, which, on the heels of the “turbulent 60s,” surveyed 4,745 randomly selected U.S. Lutherans (aged 15–65) on their beliefs, values, and lifestyles. The resulting report, A Study of Generations, yielded a remarkable set of data—scientifically collected, nicely collated (thanks to the advent of computers), and clearly interpreted. The comprehensive study was highly applauded by clergy and hailed by Time magazine in a full-page article as “an assured classic.”

Having led numerous efforts over the decades to help youth into “a conscious awareness of Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord,” Strommen has written extensively about youth ministry. This spring, he released his 17th book, The Amazing Hand of God: My Story of a Lifetime in Youth Ministry. The book provides a detailed look at how youth ministry can work well, as well as a rich description of his own journey in ministry and his professional research of attitudes regarding youth and faith issues. The book also includes several appendices with useful data on pastoral effectiveness and healthy youth ministries. The book is available through Lutheran University Press (www.lutheranUpress.org) and for Kindle at Amazon (www.amazon.com).

Strommen recalls his family’s praying for Augsburg regularly when he was a child, and his family tree is filled with Auggies—father, brothers, wife, children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. He has seen Augsburg evolve over the years from many vantage points—as college student, seminary student, teacher, campus pastor, founder and director of the Centennial Singers, Regent, and Regent Emeritus—and he applauds what he sees and is “very delighted.”

Now 95, Strommen lives with his wife of nearly 70 years, Irene (Huglen ’44), in a Minneapolis apartment, adorned with Scandinavian artifacts, family pictures, plenty of easy chairs, and a grand piano. Every week, the Strommens welcome about thirty neighbors into their living room for a musicale and stories about the composer. Though his ministry may have precluded his formally pursuing a musical career, he has found a variety of ways to share his love of music.