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.

As many corporate leaders seek to maintain a healthy STEM workforce, Brynn (Mundahl) Watson ’89 is “laser-sharp focused” on promoting STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) careers for middle school students (especially girls) and has been known to “take her show on the road.” As director of software engineering at Lockheed Martin, where she has served since 1996 and currently leads over 1,200 software engineers in the Space Systems Company (SSC), Watson has concluded that diversity drives performance and innovation, and she is determined to “pay it forward.”

She continues to speak at various local and regional STEM events, and was recently at the Houston Space Center as the keynote welcome speaker for the Spirit of Innovation Challenge finals sponsored by the Conrad Foundation, which gathers high school STEM students and their coaches for a session in developing innovative products to help solve global and local problems in a sustainable way.

Recently honored by Lockheed Martin with a 2013 Full Spectrum Leadership NOVA Award, Watson was recognized for her commitment to creating and fostering an inclusive environment to complete performance evaluations across the entire SSC Software organization with a newly adopted enterprise-focused process. The annual NOVA award is granted by the company to a select few employees who have made outstanding contributions to customers, business, and strategic goals. In a workforce of over 115,000, only 58 of the awards were granted in 2013.  The black-tie award ceremony, held at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C., was an incredibly exciting event and venue for Watson, especially since the museum showcases the very industry that the company serves.

Just a year earlier, Watson had been overwhelmed by the recognition she received from the Silicon Valley YWCA with their Tribute to Women (TWIN) award. She has since joined that organization’s board and is excited about its commitment to empower women, children, and families, and to eliminate racism, hatred, and prejudice. She is helping to grow their TechGYRLS program, an after-school empowerment program that provides girls aged 5-14 with opportunities to increase their skills and confidence in the use of technology and engineering.

Watson remembers asking many “how questions” as a youngster, and was always intrigued by how things work. It was in the tenth grade that she decided she wanted to become a computer programmer, perhaps inspired by her frustration with games like Pong. The encouragement of family and friends and the mentorship of her professors at Augsburg played a big role in shaping her future, especially with regard to “thinking big” and becoming a creative problem solver. She feels very fortunate to be in a position now to support such fascinating programs as Orion (the next generation of human space flight), the MAVEN and JUNO spacecraft that will explore the atmosphere on Mars and Jupiter, and other space and missile defense systems that protect our freedom every day.

After corporate relocations from Riverside, Calif. (where she earned her M.S. and met her husband of nearly 22 years), to Colorado Springs, Denver, and McLean, Virg., Watson and her husband Tim have happily settled in Silicon Valley (Los Altos, Calif.), where they live with their 10-year-old daughter, Claire, and a golden retriever named Liberty.