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Fahlberg Scholarship will encourage and support students to have a holistic Augsburg experience

John FahlbergA serial entrepreneur who relishes new challenges and opportunities to share his leadership expertise, John Fahlberg ’68 has not forgotten what it is like to work hard, play hard, and struggle to afford a college education. He and his wife have designated $375,000 as a planned gift to establish the John A. and Martha C. Fahlberg Scholarship, which will support students who have financial need and enjoy participating in extracurricular activities.

Extracurricular activities marked Fahlberg’s early life, but they were not always the fun kind. Yes, he played sports as far back as he can remember, and he was happy to serve as student council president and captain of the football team. But he also started pumping gas at his father’s filling station at age 13, shoveled snow, and did whatever odd jobs needed doing in the small town of Alexandria, where his family moved when he was in the third grade. He also spent a college summer as a spot welder on the assembly line at the Ford plant in St. Paul.

“I learned about the world of hard work at a very young age, and it stuck with me my whole life. I was very lucky. I chose the right parents,” says Fahlberg, who is now a business consultant and executive coach in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “My dad was a stoic Swede and my mom an outgoing Norwegian. They married in the early ‘30s, during the Depression, and they had a rough life. They never got a chance to finish college, but they taught me great values.”

One of those values was education, of course. Sportsmanship was another. Both Fahlberg and his brother, ten years his senior, were very competitive and became outstanding athletes, following in their father’s footsteps. Fahlberg’s prowess in football and baseball attracted offers from several good liberal arts colleges. He chose Augsburg because he wanted to live in the “big city” and “hit it off immediately” with the late, legendary coach Edor Nelson ’38. A scholarship paid his tuition.

Fahlberg pitched baseball for the Auggies throughout his college years and earned several division honors as football quarterback. He was inducted into the Auggie Hall of Fame—a surprise he was not expecting—in 2001. “In retrospect, it was a great four years, and the late ‘60s was an interesting time, to say the least,” he says, recalling Seven Corners and the funky Cedar-Riverside neighborhood during that turbulent time. “I got a good education on all fronts.”

A business administration major, he grew fond of assistant professor Bruce Budge, who “really looked after us, really cared about us,” and treasured his connection with the late Jeroy Carlson ’48, “one of those genuinely great, warm human beings who supported any and all of us. He made the Augsburg experience a real plus.” These and other faculty members became a community of friends who shared the value system his parents had instilled in him: treating people fairly and well, respecting honesty and diligence, admitting mistakes, trying again after failing, doing the right thing no matter what.

Those values would also serve Fahlberg well in the business world. Getting a job was difficult in the late ‘60s, but a chance opening in the University of Minnesota’s MBA program gave him a degree and 15 job offers from around the country two years later. His financial planning and analytic skills took him to Exxon in Houston before friends eventually convinced him to move back to snow country. He joined Target, where he met his wife, Marty, and became director of accounting by the time he was 31. Preferring scrappy start-ups to large corporations, however, he quit to embark on an eclectic entrepreneurial journey that took him from freight services (Murphy Transportation) to supercomputers (Zycad, where he became CEO), retail signage (Insignia Systems), and golf courses (LinksCorp).

Tired of long winters at last, Fahlberg and his wife decamped to Chapel Hill 19 years ago, although they return to Alexandria every summer. He stays busy as an angel investor, a member of several boards, and a coach who helps young executives plumb their strengths and weaknesses.

“We all have our ups and downs, but I have always felt that if I do it right, even if I fail, then I will be all right. My Augsburg experience really helped me solidify my values and live my life. I have never wavered from that,” says Fahlberg. “I can’t think of anything better than to help students get into and get through Augsburg University.”

Two Students Find Support and Mentorship from Augsburg Women Engaged

Checking your email can get tedious, right? But for two Augsburg students, the digital chore yielded unexpected benefits. Informed that they had been selected as recipients of this year’s Augsburg Women Engaged (AWE) scholarships, they registered both shock and delight.

“I was very, very surprised. It was not something I had applied for, so I was very excited to hear I got it,” says Nayra Rios ’20. After earning an associate degree at Century College in White Bear Lake, she decided to transfer to Augsburg to major in biopsychology, the next step on her way to becoming a physician’s assistant. Unfortunately, the deadline for obtaining a transfer scholarship had passed.

“I was disappointed, but I figured I would just have to find other ways to pay for school. Then a month later, this email arrived,” Rios says. She was familiar with financial challenges. Her parents are laborers who grew up in Mexico but immigrated to California, where they met, married, and had three children. They moved to Minnesota when Rios was seven years old. She attended a charter school for Hispanic students before transferring to Tartan High school in Oakdale, a transition that carried its own culture shock. But Rios found friends and pursued academic success.

Although her older brother is now pursuing a degree in law enforcement, she was the first in her family to attend college. As a child, she had encountered health issues that scared her, but compassionate treatment relieved that fear; she has wanted to pursue a career in health care ever since.

“My parents always supported my dreams,” she says. They had their own dreams—her mother wanted to be a nurse and her father a lawyer—but lacked resources. In Mexico, she points out, families had to pay for everything related to school: books, uniforms, etc. These days, Rios helps support herself through her off-campus work with STAR Services, which supports young people with disabilities.

She has enjoyed meeting the women involved with AWE, which was formed in 2009 to unite women with shared interests and passions through events, mentorship, and philanthropy. “They are very kind, and they made me feel important,” says Rios.

Her sentiments are echoed by Sydney Fields ’22, who describes her benefactors as “really cool.” She, too, was surprised by the scholarship award, although she recalls meeting the person who recommended her through a multicultural diversity engagement group. A graduate of Champlin High School in Brooklyn Park, she chose Augsburg for its diversity, its proximity to home, and a chance to play on the basketball team. She is #10, a guard.

“I love playing at Augsburg. It’s such a welcome and supportive program,” she says. And although she got good grades in high school and was expecting to work hard at college, she was not quite prepared for the amount of schoolwork she would encounter. Studying, on top of basketball practice and her work as a housing specialist, “gets really exhausting!”

With four older and two younger siblings, all of whom have or are pursuing some sort of college degree, Fields did come to Augsburg prepared with goals. Currently a finance major and management minor, she wants to launch two businesses. One would be a college prep class for teens, to help them prepare for the onslaught of responsibility she is discovering. The other would be a nonprofit 24-hour childcare center, designed for low-income families who need extra help because they work nights or have other scheduling challenges.

As she navigates her college years, Fields is grateful not only for the financial support AWE has provided, but also for the connection to people who understand the various situations she will experience at Augsburg. “We participants know we have a resource in this group of women. They will help us with anything we need.”

link to AWE video

Accessibility to Education and an Open Community Inspires Graves Family Endowed Scholarship

Sam '16, Hazen and Kathy Graves with President Pribbenow at their scholarship signing.
Sam ’16, Hazen and Kathy Graves with President Pribbenow at their scholarship signing.

When Hazen and Kathy Graves toured Augsburg with their son, Sam Graves ’16, they immediately felt they had found the right place. “We were totally impressed,” says Hazen, a retired partner at the Faegre Baker Daniels law firm, where he advised nonprofit organizations and handled legal matters related to charities and charitable giving. “Just walking through the campus, we found students very respectful, friendly, and eager to engage.”

They also found that Augsburg offered the unique assistance Sam needed as a young man with cerebral palsy who uses a power wheelchair. “As we learned more about the support Augsburg offers to students with various kinds of challenges, we came to understand that Augsburg had been doing this for a long time, long before ADA,” says Hazen. “The University’s attitude—that’s the way the world is, here we all are, let’s get on with it—came through loud and clear, and it was reinforced as Sam went through four years there,” he adds.

Education is a high priority for the Graves family. Sam had a very good experience at Minneapolis South High School, where he excelled in academics and played in South’s robust adapted athletics program. After graduation, however, the choices were more difficult.

“Sam is very bright and has always done well in school. One of our goals was to make sure he could really capitalize on that,” says Hazen. He and his wife, Kathy, a principal in the communications and planning firm of Parenteau Graves, quickly learned that not every higher education institution was able to—or even seemingly wanted to–serve students with physical disabilities.

A tour of Augsburg was all it took. Sam agreed with his parents’ assessment and enrolled in 2012. He graduated with a degree in psychology in 2016. Now 26, Sam manages social media and creates digital content for the Minneapolis-based technology company Accessible360. He fondly recalls Augsburg’s CLASS program as well as his favorite teachers, Michael Lansing, Bill Green and especially his advisor, psychology professor Bridget Robinson-Riegler. “She was really fun and really, really smart. Plus she talked about the Twins a lot,” Sam says. An ardent sports fan, he is the co-author of the baseball blog “Two Men On.”

Sam’s parents applaud Augsburg’s “great services, great students, great faculty, and great accommodations made for those with disabilities. And they appeared happy to provide them,” Hazen says. “We had the overarching feeling that Augsburg embraced differences and made sure everyone has an opportunity to get a good education.”

The idea of supporting Augsburg financially occurred to both Hazen and Kathy independently, and they decided to donate $50,000 to endow a scholarship. “This is the most open community that I’ve experienced anywhere, with the possible exception of South High, and it’s pretty clear that this attitude permeates the place,” adds Hazen. “Access to higher education is a big issue, and we’re just doing our little part.”

Belief in Young Debaters Inspires Grant Dasher to Endow Augsburg’s MNUDL

grant dasher
Grant Dasher

Genocide in Darfur. United Nations peacekeeping missions in Syria. Those were only two of the relevant issues Grant Dasher tackled while on the debate team at Edina High School. But they made a lasting impression.

“Those issues are still relevant today, unfortunately,” says Dasher, whose positive experience in the debate world has prompted him to donate $10,000 to endow Augsburg University’s Minnesota Urban Debate League. About half of his donation will be matched by his employer.

The opportunity to learn about topics that are both interesting and important to society is just one of the many benefits debate offers, Dasher explains. It also develops critical thinking skills, expands global knowledge, and provides a chance to become active in the school community. As with sports, debating in a league that also promises tournaments, awards, and trophies simply makes it more fun.

“Research suggests that students who debate often pursue higher education and have better outcomes. There’s even evidence that debate may foster higher learning potential,” adds Dasher, who earned a math degree at Harvard, consulted with the U.S. Digital Service at the White House, and is now a senior staff software engineer at Google. He also notes the positive effects debate has had on his career, as it has helped him work through issues, manage people, and articulate ideas clearly.

After graduating from college, Dasher became involved in Boston’s Urban Debate League, where he enjoyed meeting with and coaching the students as well as judging the debates. Now a resident of the Bay Area, he wanted to extend the same opportunities to students in his home state.

Dasher has fond memories of his debate coach, Joe Schmitt, a labor and employment attorney at Nilan Johnson Lewis, Minneapolis. “He was a great coach. Although we had good relationships with our parents, he was a second father figure to all of us on the team. And we were pretty successful,” says Dasher, who won the state tournament with his partner. “He taught us learning skills and how to be effective. He also taught us how to use debate to become a better person. It was not just a competitive thing.”

Both Dasher and Schmitt are strong supporters of Augsburg’s MN UDL program, which debuted in 2004 and now supports more than 900 students at 39 partner schools across the Twin Cities. Led by executive director Amy Cram Helwich and faculty advisor Robert Groven, an Augsburg communication studies professor, the MN UDL boasts a 100 percent on-time high school graduation rate and 99 percent college acceptance rate among its debaters. The Augsburg Promise Scholarship also offers incoming first-year students full tuition if they have debated for three or more years, have a GPA of at least 3.25 and an ACT score of 20 or more, and are eligible for a Pell Grant.

“Debate is really valuable to people. I have seen firsthand the impact it can have on kids,” Dasher says. “I wanted to help the kids in Minnesota, both in rural areas and in the Cities, have that same experience I have had and seen.”

Rachel and Bruce A. Julian Share Their Generosity with Augsburg Chemistry Students

Julian FamilyEndowed by two doctors who met in medical school and want to include Augsburg University in their estate plan, the Rachel and Bruce A. Julian Scholarship will help yet another generation of chemistry majors follow their dreams.

Rachel Hendrickson Julian ’71 grew up in Clarkfield, a small southwestern Minnesota farming town where her father was the Lutheran minister and her mother an elementary school teacher. Both had attended Gustavus Adolphus College and valued education highly, although their finances could not cover college expenses for five children. Their oldest followed their footsteps, but the other four, including middle child Rachel, chose Augsburg for its more traditional values and culture.

Scholarship support was essential. A chemistry major, Rachel admired the school’s top ranking in that field as well as its excellent teachers. One of her favorite professors was Dr. John Holum, who taught chemistry from 1957 until his 1993 retirement and was known for his kindness and generosity as well as teaching excellence and commitment to service. He inspired many, including Rachel’s classmate, Peter Agre ’70, who later won a Nobel Prize in the field.

But Rachel soon found that one major was not enough. She added music.

“I wanted to go to medical school, but I also starting taking organ lessons. I had played piano since I was 6, and I fell in love with the organ. It was practical, too, since I could earn extra money playing on weekends,” she says. “I was very, very busy.”

Armed with her double major and again aided by scholarships, Rachel earned her M.D. at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “My med school preparation at Augsburg was very good. It not only helped me get in, but also prepared me to thrive in that environment,” she says. It was there that she met her husband, Bruce, an Indiana native with similar values and background.

“We have always been interested in education,” says Bruce, the grandson of a Methodist minister. “My father was an adjunct college professor, and although my mother did not complete college, she was a stickler for grammar and word choice. She used to cringe at newscasters.” He notes that Rachel’s siblings also “speak fondly and highly of Augsburg, which is literally in the shadow of the University of Minnesota. But any school with a Nobel winner must have something going for it.” In addition to Augsburg, the couple will donate to their medical school alma mater as well as Berea College, which serves Appalachia area students and is located near Lexington, Kentucky, where the Julians completed their medical training and practiced for several years.

Affiliated with the University of Alabama Birmingham since 1984, Bruce is a professor emeritus of medicine in nephrology and Rachel an assistant professor of psychiatry. They have four children and four grandchildren. Rachel is also an ordained Methodist minister who serves in the church-sponsored counseling center and still plays the organ, too, monthly at the local Lutheran church and yearly in a family recital that includes her older son on piano, her older daughter on organ, and one of their twins on French horn.

Rachel returns occasionally to Augsburg, such as in 2013, when she served on a science symposium panel. “The campus has changed a lot. Some of my old haunts, like the organ studio, are gone now. But I am amazed at the serious research the students are doing now, and doing very well,” she says, recalling her participation in summer research programs. “It goes way beyond anything we could have imagined. It really matters for something.”

And for a future chemistry student who needs financial help, the Rachel and Bruce A. Julian Scholarship will really matter, too.

Augsburg Roots Spring A Generous Heart in Arlan Oftedahl ’64

Arlan OftedalAfter a lengthy career as an educator, Arlan Oftedahl ’64 has settled in Inman Park on Atlanta’s east side, where he lives comfortably in a century-old, Craftsman-style house. He recently planted 500 tulips in preparation for a springtime show of color in the historic district that he calls home. In another era, he might have become a landscape architect, but in this one, he is content to value beautiful surroundings, which is just one of the reasons he has chosen to donate to Augsburg University.

Oftedahl, who shares a common heritage with Augsburg’s third president, Sven Oftedal, has given serious thought to why he will include Augsburg in his estate plan. In addition to campus beautification, he cites his support for quality education and small liberal arts colleges as well as paying tribute to his Norwegian heritage.

“I grew up in northern Minnesota on land that my grandfather homesteaded in 1901. He emigrated from Norway in 1881, when he was 23 years old, and he lived right next to Augsburg,” says Oftedahl, who gleaned the street address from letters his grandfather mailed to relatives in Norway. Those letters were saved, and Oftedahl, having absorbed Norwegian while growing up on the family farm in Bagley, translated them. He is also a frequent visitor to his ancestral digs; he was there 2017 to celebrate Syttende Mai, Norway’s independence day.

“I have feelings for my Norwegian heritage,” he says, and his genealogical research shows that he indeed shares roots with Sven Oftedal, although his grandfather added an “h” to the spelling of their surname when he homesteaded in Clearwater County. Arlan Oftedahl was the second in his immediate family to attend Augsburg, accepting the encouragement and help of his cousin, Harlan Christianson ’57. Because his family lacked financial means, Oftedahl combined a part-time job with scholarship assistance to pay his own way through college, including rent in an older house he shared with fellow students. Thriftiness and hard work sufficed, and the experience was a fulfilling one.

“I got a very good education. Because it was a small campus, I got to know my professors. They invited me to their homes and encouraged me to make the most of my education and abilities,” he recalls. An English major, he earned a Master’s degree and taught at the University of New Orleans (then part of Louisiana State University) before shifting to special education and teaching in Fulton County, Georgia, for more than 20 years.

He enjoyed the sense of educational community that Augsburg provided and that he worries may vanish as small liberal arts colleges disappear.

“A small liberal arts college may not be for everyone, but for me, and for a lot of other people, it was a wonderful way to get an education,” he explains. “I experienced much personal growth because of that environment, and the teachers made a real effort to open my mind and make me think. I felt supported.”

As a donor, Oftedahl has designated a scholarship for an English major with a Norwegian background as well as a gift to endow Augsburg’s Urban Arboretum. A beautiful natural environment is part of the small liberal arts college experience, he contends. “Most of these colleges are in smaller towns, in an almost idyllic kind of setting. They are not just a collection of buildings,” he says. “Large trees and walkways between buildings are particularly important in a city. The real advantage of Augsburg’s location is that it owns land that could become a park-like setting, instead of just a campus crammed between high-rise buildings.”

While some students in Oftedahl’s time found the extremely conservative religious culture alienating, Augsburg has progressed in many ways since then, he adds. “It’s more in tune with the rest of society, even as its identity remains tied to the Lutheran church and Christianity, which will be around for a long time in one form or another,” he says. “My reasons for donating may be more rational than emotional, but I feel good about making a financial contribution to Augsburg’s future.”

Torstenson Scholars Program and Donor Mark Johnson ’75 Make Research in the South Pacific Possible

Briana Mitchell ‘19, Britta Andress ‘19, and Sociology Professor Tim Pippert in Vanuatu
Briana Mitchell ‘19, Britta Andress ‘19, and Sociology Professor Tim Pippert in Vanuatu

When Augsburg sociology professor Tim Pippert circulated an email last spring inviting his students to apply for a research opportunity in the South Pacific, at least two of them thought of the trip as little more than a fantasy. Yet Briana Mitchell ’19 and Britta Andress ’19 applied anyway.

“It was very random for me,” Andress says about receiving that unsolicited email. But she was intrigued by the fact that whoever was chosen to go to Vanuatu, a nation comprised of about 80 islands that stretch 1,300 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean, could research whatever they wanted. She also knew she would have the whole summer to prepare.

“I was super pessimistic,” says Mitchell, who doubted she would be chosen because she was a “city girl, always doing city things. I’m not very outdoorsy. I’m a scaredy cat, and I’d heard there were spiders the size of dish plates. But when I got chosen and knew I was going with Britta, I figured she would take care of those spiders.”

Thanks to the Torstenson Scholars Program and the ongoing generosity of Mark Johnson ’75, a retired city planner and former president of Sonju Motors in Two Harbors, Minnesota, the two were about to embark on a life-changing, career-molding adventure. Since a chance encounter with the King of Tanna several years ago, Johnson has actively supported various initiatives on the island of Tanna, which was damaged by a cyclone in 2016. A solar project to supply electricity to the island’s 20,000 residents is currently underway.

Last September Mitchell and Andress, accompanied by Pippert and Johnson, flew nearly 30 hours to reach the island some call the “happiest place on earth.” For Mitchell, it conjured images of Jamaica, where her mother grew up. “When we got there, it had this paradise feel. Everything looked very good. The people were extremely happy, personable, and introduced themselves immediately.” As a black woman traveling abroad, she also noted, it was nice to be the one who fit in.

The Augsburg group including Mark Johnson '75 and two locals who helped translate.
The Augsburg group including Mark Johnson ’75 and two locals who helped translate.

It wasn’t long, however, before the budding sociologists realized that solar lighting and happiness were not the topics that most interested them or their hosts. “Gender dynamics was a big issue. Behind this happiness were a lot of problems, so we decided to focus on the smaller ones and how they contributed to the larger ones,” Mitchell says. A female translator was secured so the island women could speak freely about their lifestyle and culture.

Life in Tanna is “drastically different. There is no agenda, and the pace is very laid back—they call it Tanna time. They don’t have an official economy and everything is free,” says Andress, describing a system known as cargo cult, where islanders depend on donations they believe will show up as needed.

The researchers conducted 26 interviews, exploring everything from medical care to food preparation to the ritual daily consumption of kava, a hallucinogenic beverage for men only. They questioned how solar lighting might impact women whose workdays were already long, and whether harsh, unsanitary childbirth conditions could be improved. They identified 13 themes in the study they will present at the Midwest Sociological Society conference in Chicago in April.

Briana and Britta doing research with the help Of local Peace Corps volunteer Christy Kosak.
Briana and Britta doing research with the help of local Peace Corps volunteer Christy Kosak.

“Because of how fast it went and the amount of information we absorbed in those days, I now see everything through a more critical lens,” says Andress. Her experience has impacted how she interviews people, how she frames questions, and how she evaluates the research itself. “I see how vital it is, and I developed skills I knew I needed.”

Johnson understands completely. “I had the good fortune to participate in Joel Torstenson’s first Scandinavian Urban Studies term when I was a student at Augsburg. That experience was transformational, opening my eyes to a global context that has shaped my life,” says Johnson, who was named to Augsburg’s Board of Regents in 2018. “I’m interested in making sure that today’s Auggies have the same opportunities.”

“It was an amazing opportunity, and so kind of alumni to use their own time, effort, and funds to support students like me, who hadn’t done research or traveled abroad,” says Mitchell. Even simple things—like the gift of a six-foot-tall stick of sugar cane, which she hadn’t sampled since visiting Jamaica as a young teen—made the visit “a wonderful experience” that also prompted a closer connection with her mom. She hopes to return one day.

“It’s surreal that it even happened, and it’s something I will always reflect on,” she adds. “I was living my best life there. It feels like a dream, still.”

The Nathan R. Schott Scholarship Fund Surpasses $100,000

The Schott family
Nathan Schott in his senior year at Maple Grove High School (left). (L to R): Teri Schott, Alexandra Stoiaken ’13, and Chuck Schott at the 2011 brunch for Augsburg scholarship donors and recipients.

Nathan Schott ’13 spent only a short time on campus at Augsburg, but it was both active and memorable. The Maple Grove Senior High School graduate was an avid sports fan and Twins season ticket holder who wanted to major in English and become a sports writer. Because he also had muscular dystrophy and was confined to a wheelchair, one of his counselors recommended Augsburg for its ease and accessibility.

“We hadn’t heard too much about Augsburg, so we set up a tour. It was one of the first places we visited, and when we saw what sort of help Nathan would get, we thought this must be the place,” his mother, Teri, recalls. Augsburg’s CLASS (Center for Learning and Accessible Student Services) program is designed to help those students who need extra help, whether they are coping with autism, ADHD, mental illness, learning disabilities, or a chronic health condition like Nathan’s. The services are broad, ranging from securing appropriate accommodations to helping with time management, course selection, and any other challenges that might be better met with individual support.

“On a typical day, I drove him to school and dropped him off, then stayed on campus while he went to classes on his own,” Teri says. Nathan made friends. He used underground tunnels to get around. Helpers took notes in his classes and filed them where he could pick them up. The late “Pastor Dave” Wold took Nathan under his wing and made sure there was a parking space behind the church for the family car.

“It seemed like everyone wanted to assist him, and he felt like it was a good place to be,” says Nathan’s father, Chuck. “It wasn’t easy to go into that type of environment with that many students and be accepted for his disability, but he was very comfortable there. He was always eager to get to class in the morning, and he often went back at night for lectures and other functions. He enjoyed it.”

During spring break of his first year, however, Nathan, the oldest of the Schotts’ three children, contracted pneumonia, from which he never recovered. He died on April 1, 2010. His family received many sympathy notes from Nathan’s Augsburg friends and their parents. They grieved, but in their grief, they wanted to do more.

“We wanted to do something to honor Nathan and keep his memory alive,” says Teri. “My older sister, Mary Rose, actually got the ball rolling. We had planned a tour of Augsburg, and she set up a meeting with Doug Scott, Augsburg’s director of leadership gifts, without telling us.” After conferring with Scott, the Schotts decided to establish the Nathan R. Schott Scholarship Fund and donated the initial $25,000 to set it up. Since both Teri and Chuck are the youngest of seven siblings, reaching out to extended family for support made perfect sense.

“We are so pleased that the endowment has now gone over $100,000 and will continue to grow,” says Chuck. Designated for CLASS program participants, the scholarship fund has already helped eight students.

The couple, who moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee, two years ago, are grateful for the close connections they maintain with Augsburg. They named their new miniature dachshund puppy Auggie Doggie. They welcomed Scott for a visit to their new city. They have also attended past scholarship luncheons and met with some of the students they have helped.

“Hearing about past scholarship recipients and what they have achieved must give those students such a great feeling and sense of accomplishment,” Chuck notes. “For us as donors, it is so rewarding to learn of their successes. To be able to lessen their cost burden by providing financial aid means so much. We are very proud to be able to provide this scholarship to the students.”

 

Funding Research and Accelerating Creative Learning with URGO

research symposiumThe Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) connects students with new and existing summer-long research and scholarship on campus, across the U.S., and internationally. URGO also assists students applying for graduate school, professional school, and national fellowships and scholarships. In 2017–18, 88 students conducted research with a faculty member, 23 of which were sponsored by donors.

Through the URGO office, Augsburg’s annual Zyzzogeton Research Symposium on April 15 will showcase the work of over 80 undergraduate researchers in all academic disciplines.

Recent Research from URGO students:

OLIVIA HOUSE ’20
Major: Graphic Design Marketing
Research: Exploring design aesthetic of Civil Rights Movement and its influence on current activism design

ZACH JUAIRE ’18
Major: Exercise Science
Research: Investigating the relationship between hip mobility and body mechanics of running strike to develop an injury prevention strategy

HOLLY KUNDEL ’18
Major: Biology
Research: Studying dragonflies as markers of health of Minnesota lakes, with implications for climate change

LEAH PATRICK ’18
Major: Biology
Research: Seeking drought- and insect-resistant genes in wild relatives of barley, with implications for food security and climate change

SKYE RYGH ’20
Major: Communication Studies
Research: Analyzing scientific, environmental, and crisis communication used to target Native American residents regarding Line 3 pipeline proposal in Minnesota’s Iron Range

Opportunities for URGO research are made possible by the generosity of our donors. Thank you:

Thomas ’78 and Julie Bramwell
Linda (Lundeen) ’74 and Douglas Dunn
Robert and Jenny Florence
Drs. Karthik and Amit ’12 MBA Ghosh
Sharon (Dittbenner) ’65 and Richard Klabunde
Bruce ’64 and Connie Langager
Steve ’72 and Catherine Larson
Terry ’73 and Janet Lindstrom
Jean Lingen
Carl Obert ’85
SarTec Corporation
D and J Stottrup Education Fund
Leland and Louise Sundet
Dean ’81 and Amy Sundquist
Noreen (Walen) ’78 and Stephen ’78 Thompson