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Resiliency in Recovery

A headshot of Shelby Waldon.Shelby Waldon ’25 decided to attend Augsburg, in large part, due to the StepUP® Program. “I was deciding between Augsburg and St. Cloud, but I liked that Augsburg was closer to home and it’s a smaller school,” she said. Having grown up just outside of the cities, Shelby was excited to spend more time in the Twin Cities. 

The StepUP Program supports students in recovery who are pursuing their undergraduate and graduate degrees. This hallmark program began 25 years ago at Augsburg and is one of the nation’s first and premiere collegiate recovery-based programs in the United States. This year, there are 42 students who are currently enrolled in the program with 29 living on campus in a substance-free residence hall.

Shelby is a sophomore pursuing a degree in social work. “I’m also looking into psychology,” she shared. “I’d like to work with younger kids who are struggling with substance abuse issues, so getting my LADC [Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor] is a goal of mine and I can really do that with either major.”

When it comes to staying focused on schoolwork and sobriety, StepUP has been a big help to Shelby. “Being in StepUP has made it easier to focus on school because I don’t have to worry about coming home and dealing with being around substances. I know that if I have a hard day in class, I can come back and be surrounded by other sober people,” Shelby said, who has developed close friendships with other StepUP students. “We like to just hang out in our communal living room and talk or go out to eat together, we also have a game night each week which is fun!”

In addition to the academic and community support, Shelby shared other helpful resources she has received and service opportunities she has had. “I remember going around to different high schools and talking to students about what it’s like being a young person in recovery,” she recalled. “These opportunities have been really helpful for me and pushed me outside of my comfort zone.” 

This year, Shelby is one of four recipients of the Doran Family Scholarship. “I’m so grateful for this scholarship,” Shelby said. “I was worried about how I was going to pay for last semester and this scholarship made my education possible. Not having to stress about tuition has been so helpful.”

Philanthropic efforts are critical to the success of StepUP. In fact, during Augsburg’s historical Great Returns: We’re All In campaign, more than $10 million has been raised toward StepUP’s endowment. In May, StepUP will be celebrating the program’s 25-year anniversary during its gala on May 13 at the Radisson Blu-Mall of America. This event aims to recognize the accomplishments of the students, staff, and alumni of the program and secure support for the future. “I went to the 2022 StepUP Gala for the first time last year, and it was a really beautiful experience,” Shelby reflected. “It’s really nice that donors are able to see what comes out of their donations. They are supporting us in more ways than they know.”

Purchase tickets for the StepUP Gala by April 14. To learn more about the StepUP program, visit our website.

Bruce ’71 and Pam Santerre Believe in Second Chances

Bruce and Pam smile at the camera in formal wear.Bruce ’71 and Pam Santerre believe in second chances, leading them to help others who want to evolve, and that’s why they give to the StepUP Program at Augsburg University.

Bruce, a biology and education major, said growing up in northern Minnesota he felt like there were few career paths if he stayed, but he had other plans.  

Upon visiting Augsburg, Bruce like many “Auggies” fell in love with the campus and city life. He would go on to enroll at the university and join the football team, playing for four years while finishing his studies.

Unlike Bruce, Pam, an English major, was native to the cities. She lived in South Minneapolis, knew people who attended Augsburg, and her church had an affiliation with the school.

Pam said she knew she wanted to go to college, but at the time there weren’t many career opportunities for women. However, Pam would find her opportunity at Augsburg and work for a number of organizations while putting herself through school.

“We [Bruce and her] formed many lifelong friendships at Augsburg,” Pam said. “That’s just one of the reasons why Augsburg is at the forefront of our minds’ when it comes to giving back.”

The Santerres met at Augsburg and were married shortly after Bruce graduated. Six weeks later, he was sent to Fort Leonard Wood, MO, for National Guard training. 

When he arrived back in Minnesota, Bruce began teaching as a substitute teacher for the Minneapolis school system. And Pam was working at the Lutheran Brotherhood, now Thrivent, which started her longtime career in information technology.

Pam received her master’s degree in theology and a certificate in spiritual direction, while working at Andersen Windows, where she later retired from. She continued her spiritual direction practice, companioning people who are exploring a deeper experience of the divine presence.  

“A lot of what we do is at a spiritual level and basis,” Bruce said. “This aligns with a core value in the StepUP program.”

While completing his doctorate degree, Bruce, now a retired high school principal, wrote his dissertation on spirituality and leadership. He said part of that experience helped him understand the impact of spirituality in our [people’s] lives’.

“There’s a soft spot in our hearts for the work that the StepUP program is doing,” they said. “So many of those kids are overcoming some of the most incredible odds, and what we’ve seen from Augsburg, in helping their students, we want to be a part of.”

You too can play an integral part in helping Augsburg University students on their growth and evolution toward a brighter future. Learn more and get involved.

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.

Investing in Family

Sexton Family

Lou Anne and Tim Sexton believe philanthropy is based on a personal experience with an organization. They experienced this connection with Augsburg after their son, Shea ‘19, joined the StepUP Program.

“Shea’s experience with StepUP and Augsburg was transformational,” says Lou Anne.

Shea learned about StepUP while at a Hazelden Fellowship in St. Paul. A group of clients from fellowship were going to tour the StepUP dorms and Shea went along.

“He had kind of given up on the notion of pursuing a four-year degree while staying on a college campus.”

Shea attended Luther College and Inver Hills Community College where he struggled to stay sober. But after learning about StepUP, he realized there was a way he could get a degree and stay sober.

“He was mainly concerned about finding a place to live that would allow him to continue his recovery.”

Tim and Lou Anne appreciated the community aspect of StepUP for their son. They also liked the mission of StepUP: being able to live in recovery and pursue a higher education in a university, a university that also focused on diversity and non-traditional students.

So when Lou Anne and Tim learned of students who loved Augsburg and StepUP but had to leave because they couldn’t afford it, they knew they could help.

“We want to be part of the solution, to help students realize their potential. StepUP parents have already spent a lot of money on treatment and often can’t afford to send their kids to Augsburg also.”

The Sexton’s set up a StepUP Endowment Fund in 2020. It is a blended gift which includes a cash gift, a future IRA distribution, and a bequest in their estate. They hope their gift will help future StepUP students who can’t afford to go to or stay in StepUP.

“StepUP actually helped our entire family. It’s a great investment.”

StepUP Gala Raises More Than $425,000

StepUP Students and Alumni

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius

 

Toby Labelle Award WinnersThe StepUP Gala was a night to celebrate how the StepUP Program at Augsburg University has helped students champion lives of recovery, achieve academic success, and thrive in a community of accountability and support.

With the strength and support of the StepUP community, we rose to meet this goal. This year’s Gala generated over $425,000 for the program in one evening. The event was thoughtfully planned by the StepUP Board and the Gala committee including co-chairs Cindy Piper and Douglass Sill.

Highlights of the Gala included:

  • Nearly 350 guests in attendance
  • Emcee Leah McLean, from KSTP 5 Eyewitness News
  • Neil King ’18, Alumni Speaker
  • Alexa Anderson ’19, Student Speaker
  • Toby Piper LaBelle Award recipients Jon and Julz Schwingler
  • Klobuchar and PribbenowA special appearance by Senator Amy Klobuchar

We hope to continue to build on this generous momentum from the Gala. If you wish to make a gift to support the StepUP program, visit StepUP Giving and indicate Gala gift in the comments field.

Thank you to all who joined us for the “We Rise” StepUP Gala. We firmly believe that a student should not have to choose between recovery and a college education. Your support will help make that possible today, and for years to come.

Golf as a Guide to StepUP

 

Jon Schwingler
Jon Schwingler

For many, golf is more than a game. It can be a metaphor for life, a way to connect, or an ongoing reminder of challenges faced and rewards hard won. Jon Schwingler remembers being on a golf course when he first became aware of the strength and reach of the StepUP program, which he has recently chosen to endow with an estate gift.

In 2010, Schwingler was invited to play in the StepUP fundraiser golf tournament with his friend, Toby LaBelle ’96, and Toby’s father, Tad Piper. Toby is a Board of Regents member and former StepUP advisory board chair, and his mother, Cindy Piper is the current vice chair, so it took far fewer than eighteen holes for Schwingler to grasp one essential fact. “This program is a huge game-changer for families who struggle with addiction,” he says.

A Saint John’s University graduate and wealth management consultant, Schwingler has faced similar issues. “Recovery has been a big part of my life, and that is part of what opened my eyes,” says Schwingler, who has celebrated more than seven years of sobriety. Within a year after that golf tournament, Schwingler learned of two friends whose children were floundering college drop-outs. He accompanied the families on a visit to Augsburg, where the young people eventually found a safe home, sober dorm, and college degree. So when Schwingler was invited to join the advisory board, the answer was a resounding yes.

“Just knowing that there is an option for students to leave other environments and come to Augsburg is so important. Some graduates I know personally might not have earned a college degree if they had not had the opportunity to be in a safe environment,” he says. “It is a place of hope for parents. It is life-changing.”

Though his StepUP connection, Schwingler also came to love the college itself. “I had a pre-conceived notion of what Augsburg is and was—a little Lutheran school next to the University of Minnesota, a place I’ve often driven past. But now that I’m involved and see more of it, I have a much greater awareness of its urban location and real urban feel, and of many peers I never knew were alumni. I’ve found that people always loved their time at Augsburg.”

Jon Schwingler (center) and family hunched in football formation
Jon (center) and wife Julz (left) with their three kids

Schwingler finds much to applaud: student diversity, progressive buildings such as the new Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, specialties such as engineering, and graduate programs such as education. As a father to three not-yet-teenagers who struggle with ADHD, he particularly appreciates Augsburg’s acceptance of and support for students with disabilities of all kinds.

He uses golf to explain. “Most colleges want students who shoot straight down the middle of the fairway. Others aren’t going to do well in those places. For those who have to play in the first or second cut of rough, it’s challenging,” he says. “Augsburg has embraced them and even built programs around them. The Gage Center for Student Success, for example, is amazing. I like to think of Augsburg as the little engine that could.”

In addition to planned giving, Schwingler remains active on the StepUP advisory board and invested in its future. He envisions a transition home for new graduates, for example, as well as more room for StepUP on campus. Another goal is creating more awareness among other universities as well as getting the word out to family members and communities. “We’ve built good relationships with different treatment centers, such as Hazelden Betty Ford, and sober high schools in town, but we need to reach people in other geographic areas who feel they’re in hopeless situations with their kids. How about Chicago? All those things come down to funding,” he says.

“One of the great things about this program is that any college in the country can look at our model and adopt it. We give it away,” he adds. Contributing to such a profound mission feels like making a hole-in-one—or maybe even better.

Stepping Up for the StepUP Fund

Cindy and Tad Piper
Cindy and Tad Piper

About 25 years ago, young Toby Piper LaBelle ’96 had already learned a few things. He’d taken a year off after graduating from Breck School and gone west to teach skiing, which convinced him that he aspired to more than a minimum-wage job.  And he’d spent time in treatment for addiction, which taught him that staying sober was the only way to ensure success in college.

“Toby wanted a local school and chose Augsburg. It was the right place for him. He felt comfortable there,” says his mother, Cindy Piper. But he wasn’t comfortable sharing a dorm with students who drank alcohol, so he moved into an apartment off campus. Eventually he approached Don Warren, then director of the Academic Skills Center at Augsburg, about the need for a safe, sober place where students in recovery could live and support each other. In 1997, under Warren’s direction, the StepUP program was born.

The Piper family have been staunch supporters ever since. Cindy and her husband, Tad Piper, retired CEO and chairman of Piper Jaffray, recently pledged $500,000 to establish the Piper Family Executive Director of Recovery Advancement as well as to inspire others to contribute to the StepUP Program Endowed Fund. “We wanted to give a significant gift to get this program off the ground,” Cindy says. They have currently raised $5.2 million toward their $10 million endowment goal.

Thanks in part to Toby’s advocacy, StepUP became one of the first residential recovery programs in the nation and continues to be viewed as the gold standard for residential collegiate communities. Six months of recovery is required before students are admitted, and infractions are not tolerated. Today about 90 students are enrolled, and they maintain high abstinence rates and an average GPA of 3.2.

A smiling Cindy Piper at the podium at the 2016 StepUP Gala.
Cindy Piper at the 2016 StepUP Gala.

“Addiction is an ugly, cunning, baffling disease. Young people have to make up their minds they don’t want to be in it,” says Cindy. “I just feel so strongly about recovery for all people, especially young people who want to go to college. Toby’s business degree from Augsburg has served him well.” Now senior vice president at Northland Securities and a father of three, Toby is former chair of the StepUP Advisory Board and a member of the Augsburg College Board of Regents.

Cindy, who spent nine years as a trustee on the Hazelden Foundation, is now vice-chair of the StepUP board, where she organizes galas that gross half a million dollars a year. “That’s an unusual amount of money in recovery organizations. We’ve been able to add to the endowment through our proceeds,” she says. “As my son reminds me, we must keep in mind that we are changing lives. That’s the magic of the recovery community.”

— Cathy Madison

A Year at Augsburg, and an Impact for Life

 

marlysmorlandIt took just one year for Augsburg to make its indelible mark on Marlys Morland ‘54, who has pledged a sizeable increase to the Marlys B. and Robert Backlund Morland Scholarship, established in 2011 as part of the couple’s estate plan.

“I really did like Augsburg. The Christian influence was so sincere, and faith entered into everything,” says Marlys. “I was there when Bernhard Chistensen was president. His wife used to come over to the dorm for an evening talk with us. They were just good, kind people.”

One thing she remembers about her year at Augsburg was a dentist’s visit to her health class, where he had to listen to student complaints about rising dental care costs. Coincidentally, she had to have three wisdom teeth removed that summer. The $150 bill meant that she had to drop out of school, even though she was working 20 hours a week at Swedish Hospital, making 93 cents an hour.

“I found out partway through the year that other college students only got 76 cents an hour, so I was lucky. But I never got a penny from my parents—they couldn’t afford it—and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to school,” she says. Instead, she took a national Lutheran youth leader’s advice to move to Helena, Montana, where she discovered her love for working with young people and also taught adult Bible classes. She went on to become a parish worker in Portland, Oregon, where she met her husband. The couple settled in Newberg, Oregon, in 1971.

When the youngest of their three children entered school, Marlys finished her degree at Portland State University and taught elementary and junior high school for 25 years. She retired early to travel with her husband, Robert, until he died in 2008.

Thanks to her career and extended family experience, she understands the special challenges and struggles that even the most academically gifted students face. “We designed our Augsburg scholarship to support the StepUP program. We also support students who are majoring in Bible and planning to go on to seminary,” she says. “There is such a need these days. I don’t want them to have a lot of debt when they are ready to start their work.”

Marlys notes how much Augsburg and its student population have changed. She grew up near Alexandria in Holmes City, population 65, where “we went to the Swedish Lutheran Church. We knew people who went to the Norwegian Lutheran Church, and some who went to the Finnish Lutheran Church, but we thought the Germans were really different,” she recalls.

She embraces the Augsburg of today. “We meant well, but we didn’t think about helping the community. We were struggling just to take care of ourselves, and everyone was just like us,” she says. “Today students are reaching out and helping others in the community who aren’t just like them. That is so important.”

— Cathy Madison