bing pixel

Empowering the Future of Students through Unrestricted Giving

Patricia and Phil Hoversten
Patricia and Phil Hoversten ’71

The first family member of Phil Hoversten ’71 to graduate from Augsburg was his uncle Knut Holversten in 1930. Since then, four generations and 40+ Hoversten family members have attended Augsburg, including Phil who graduated in 1971 with a degree in biology. “I knew I wanted to go into pre-med and Augsburg gave me a generous financial aid package that first year,” Phil said.

However, Phil’s path to graduation was not without its challenges.  He experienced financial hardship after his first year, but with encouragement from his professor, John Holum, Phil decided to stay at Augsburg. “The caliber of instruction, the smaller class sizes, and the individual attention I received helped me do well,” he reflected. Phil’s experience at Augsburg prepared him for medical school at the University of Minnesota. He had a 24-year career at Allina Health as a Physician in Occupational Medicine until his retirement in 2020.

Throughout the years, Phil has kept in touch with a few fellow students from his time in the choral club, but, Phil’s primary connection to Augsburg is rooted in his family’s enduring legacy. In the 1980s several Hoversten family members contributed to the construction of the Hoversten Chapel. “I’m fortunate that my family listened to what the college needed at the time,” Phil shared as he reflected on the vision for a multi-purpose space. Today, the Hoversten Chapel is a central location for worship, music, and other community-building events. 

The belief in Augsburg as a unifying and dynamic community has been a cornerstone for Phil and his family for generations. Phil said he sees his unrestricted giving as his link to the Hoverstens’ commitment to supporting education centered on service and a connection to the gift his relatives established forty years ago

The concepts of experiential learning and meaningful engagement in local communities, introduced by Augsburg Department of Sociology founder Joel Torstenson have deeply resonated with Phil. “Schools have been faced with great difficulties recently. There was a [time I experienced ] tremendous need here and it motivated my  desire to give back to the place that gave me my education, This is my way of supporting local efforts.”

For Phil, unrestricted giving has the potential to lead to incredible change. “I look at the beautiful buildings like the Hagfors Center that accommodate a modern education and all the programs that support our diverse student body… I understand the difference it makes when universities have the means to be sure critical areas are funded,” he shared. “I encourage others to consider an unrestricted gift”

Through his commitment to giving back, Phil continues to strengthen the legacy of his family at Augsburg, ensuring generations of Auggies have opportunities to thrive in a community that helped shape his life and many others. 

Inspiring Others to Give

Hans and Kristin WiersmaOnce again, Kristin Dragseth Wiersma ’91 and her husband, Augsburg associate professor of religion Hans Wiersma, are leading the way with their three-year, $1,000 annual commitment to the Augsburg Fund. As participants in the Great Returns: We’re All In campaign, they are not only making their own commitment to Augsburg’s future, but also focusing on the “we” by inspiring others to do the same.

Kristin transferred to Augsburg in her sophomore year, after deciding that the party vibe at her first choice, the U. of Wisconsin, did not suit her. Augsburg was a much better fit. She thrived on the personal touch a small campus could provide and appreciated being able to integrate her campus ministry involvement with her studies. She also joined the volleyball team, and the senior year she spent living in a decrepit house with her eight teammates delivered indelible memories.

The house is gone now, but the friendship bonds remain. The teammates used to get together often, at least once a month, and still meet frequently, now with their families in tow. They share camping trips and enjoyed a vacation in Costa Rica last fall. With Kristin’s encouragement, they have also begun giving back, each in their own way.

“We’ve all had life-changing experiences, and we all love Augsburg. The way we met and grew—that’s been really fun. We’ve all known each other since we were 18, and now we’re in our 50s, but we really solidified our values and trajectory together at Augsburg,” explains Kristin, who earned her degree in social work, supplemented it with advanced leadership degrees, and now works with organizations to keep them healthy and on track with their goals.

With kids in college, she acknowledges, no one has a lot of cash to play around with. Her goal is to reacquaint her teammates with their alma mater and nurture their philanthropy in whatever form it takes. She has invited them back to campus on several occasions, often for homecoming, but also to tour the facilities, admire the new academic buildings, and recognize how education has changed. They even got to sit in the chairs like students and learn what today’s “upside-down” classroom is like.

“In the olden days, you’d go hear a lecture, then do the reading, then write the paper. Now the data dump is all on your own, with podcasts, books, media, etc. It’s quite diverse. Then you come to the classroom and apply the theory,” she explains.

Kristin and Hans are contributing to the Augsburg Fund, which provides academic scholarships for those in need. “You can do lots of cool things with endowments, but this one is the heavy lifter,” she says. Education today is expensive, and recognizing how hard students have to work to be in college at all, especially if they are first-generation, is important.

Some of her teammates are giving in new ways. Because women’s sports were so important to them in those early days of Title IX, together they supported a locker room rebuild. One, an avid golfer, made a major contribution to the golf locker room. “I want them to get closer to the University, whatever that means to them. I’m glad when they give—it’s just exciting,” Kristin says.

She notes that some potential donors may wrestle with what they perceive as a “crazy, liberal, progressive direction” that can feel alien to the traditional values they hold dear. But Augsburg, she argues, is “the ultimate place to learn about diversity.” It has amply demonstrated how it is possible to cling to core values while inviting others along on the journey, shifting just enough to support new populations. Hans, for example, still teaches religion—every kind of religion. He and Kristin want to ensure that others “appreciate the adaptation that Augsburg has made in response to a new day. It is working really hard to give everyone a solid education in a complex and ambiguous world. Providing the skills to navigate that ambiguity is the hardest part,” says Kristin. “Justice for me is creating access to education, giving students a chance to reach their potential and get a footing in this world. I want to be part of anything that helps people do that.”

 

Justin Grammens ’96 Helps STEM Students By Giving

Justin smalls for the photo in front of a blurred backgroundJustin Grammens ’96 is a mathematics major who grew up in Minneapolis. His mother was a teacher for Minneapolis public schools, and his father worked as a doctor at Fairview Riverside, located across the street from Augsburg.

Grammens said he was familiar with the area and Augsburg, and one aspect that drew him to the school were the small class sizes which gave him a better connection to his classmates and instructors.

“My original plan was to start at a liberal arts school [Augsburg], then transfer to an engineering school,” Grammens said. “But when I transferred from Augsburg, I was sitting in a classroom with hundreds of other students and being taught by a TA, and I felt like why am I here?”

He ended up transferring back to Augsburg and completing his degree. But Grammens said it wasn’t just the small class sizes that inspired him to return to Augsburg, it was also the urban environment and the abundance of diversity that Augsburg offers.

At Augsburg, Grammens was able to build relationships with many different people that he maintained after graduation. He has even come back to campus on multiple occasions and spoken with students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields about his career.

Grammens is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas, teaching a class for their masters of software engineering program. He said that he is proud to bring the skills that he learned at Augsburg and share them with his students.

“A lot of the classes at Augsburg were exploratory and non-traditional,” Grammens said. “It was really about thought process, application, collaboration, and problem solving.”

Around 2006, he started a company that was one of the first in the Twin Cities to develop mobile apps for major companies, and that’s when he said he felt like he had the income to give back.

“It breaks my heart if somebody is kicking butt in math, chemistry, or physics, and they know they want to be an engineer, but the barrier is just that they don’t have the money,” Grammens said. “I’m passionate about giving to STEM programs because those students are working with technologies that are changing our lives, and I want to support that.”

Grammens continues to make a positive impact on the lives of Augsburg students with annual donations to STEM programs, and you can too.

Donate to STEM programs and support Augsburg students as they conduct research with faculty, attend and present at national conferences, and hear from leading researchers.

Any gift made to any program will automatically count towards your class’ total for the Alumni Class Challenge!

Learn more ways to give.

Lewis Nelson ’00 Encourages You to Get Involved with Giving

Over one thousand miles away Lewis Nelson ’00, a history major, sat in front of a map in his office, which was posted behind him on the wall, meticulously pinned with various places he had visited.Lewis Nelson kneels on a football field with football and a helmet posing for the photo

Graduating high school from a small town in Wisconsin, Nelson reflected on why he initially chose Augsburg University–because of the urban environment, sense of community, and football.

But during his freshman year, Nelson, like many freshmen, felt the struggle of adapting to the new environment at first.

“And then, I started meeting more people,” Nelson said. “I began to participate in activities and student organizations, and I just got more involved on campus.”

His pitch rose with excitement, speaking about how he became an orientation leader and joined the Augsburg Student Activity Council.

Once he was fully immersed in the culture, Nelson said he was enamored by Augsburg’s diversity, and through it he learned that he could get along with anybody from anywhere.

Not long after graduation, Nelson joined the U.S. Army, where his experience at Augsburg gave him a leg up on his peers, he said.

“Augsburg helped me cultivate vital skills such as critical thinking and leadership,” said Nelson. “Skills that continue to serve me today, and that’s why I give.”

Lewis in a cap and gown holding his diploma poses for a photo under a tree with his mom.Nelson’s giving journey began when he received a call from a student about the Augsburg Fund. Since then, Nelson has made a habit of giving.

He said giving to Augsburg gives him a sense of pride and keeps the legacy alive, and upholds the value of a degree that has meant so much to all the students that attend Augsburg University.

“The feeling of giving back to the place that made me who I am today not only gives me personal pleasure, but it brings joy to other people’s lives’,” Nelson said. ”I encourage anyone to give what they can.”

You can donate to the Augsburg Fund and/or student organizations like the ones that made such an impact on Nelson’s life by visiting Augsburg’s giving page.

Any gift made to any program will automatically count towards your class’ total for the Alumni Class Challenge!

Experience a life of giving with Wayne Kendrick ’68

When Wayne Kendrick ’68, a religion and math major, enrolled at Augsburg as a junior, he was in the process of change. Wayne Kendrick smiles for a photo in front of a wooden backdrop

He spent years working towards becoming an actuary, but not long after his adult baptism, Kendrick would hear life calling him in a different direction. 

That’s when he started searching for Lutheran schools to attend. Kendrick said he wanted one with a different atmosphere than that which he had been accustomed to, mostly growing up in western South Dakota. 

Before even visiting Augsburg, Kendrick was drawn to the idea of a Lutheran college located in an area with vast cultural diversity and educational opportunities.

“I had a saying that I went by when I was in college,” Kendrick said. “Education shouldn’t get in the way of your life’s education.”

Kendrick recounted doing volunteer night patrols with the Way Center on the troubled streets of North Minneapolis and participating in a march for fair housing in Milwaukee with his college roommate and Father Groppi. He attributed these memories to an enriched college and life experience. 

“Although I only attended Augsburg for two years, it had a real profound impact on my life,” Kendrick said with a look of fondness and appreciation. 

After graduating, his giving journey began when he purchased a life insurance policy with Augsburg as the beneficiary. Kendrick would go on to enroll at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul and would later become a pastor. 

Kendrick continues to give back to the community that has influenced his life so immensely with multiple donations to the StepUp® program and an annual gift to the Augsburg Fund. 

“I know without our [donor’s] gifts, large or small, Augsburg simply wouldn’t exist,” Kendrick said. “It’s not just enough to be appreciative, one must also make sure that others can enjoy the benefits that we, ourselves, have enjoyed.”

Join Kendrick and ensure students have an opportunity to receive the educational and life experiences they deserve by making your donation today! 

Any gift made to any program will automatically count towards your class’ total for the Alumni Class Challenge!

Learn more ways to give.