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Fulbright Scholar will teach in Indonesia

fulbright_suttonEmma Sutton ’09 always wanted to know more about people who were different from her neighbors. Growing up in a Caucasian, Irish Catholic neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, Sutton said she never had contact with people from other races. But her mother, a Chicago police officer, did.

“My mother is very opinionated,” she said. “so I was automatically driven to investigate for myself if the things she said were true.”

And investigate she did. Sutton’s quest to learn about others eventually brought her to Greece, Turkey, the British Virgin Islands, and to Tanzania. This August, she will begin a nine-month assistantship in Indonesia teaching English as a Fulbright Scholar. Continue reading “Fulbright Scholar will teach in Indonesia”

Helping a house feel like "home"

Photo courtesy Ahsle Neunsing. Pictured (L to R) Charlie Hugo, Ashle Neunsinger, Ryan Tapio, Mara Laub (front), Amanda Symes
Photo courtesy Ahsle Neunsing. Pictured (L to R) Charlie Hugo, Ashle Neunsinger, Ryan Tapio, Mara Laub (front), Amanda Symes

Five Augsburg students are helping turn a house into “home” for women and children at a shelter in Eagan, Minn. Through the month of March, the students are collecting clothing, bedding, personal care items, and toys and games for residents of Lewis House.

For their “Engaging Minneapolis” project in small group communication, the students chose to learn about resources available to abused women in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro. They found Lewis House, a shelter run by the Community Action Council of Scott and Dakota counties, and went there to meet Doreen Ulrich, the program director. Continue reading “Helping a house feel like "home"”

Meet the 2009 Peace Scholars

peace_scholarsAugsburg is proud to announce that Jessica Spanswick and Katia Iverson have been chosen as the 2009 Peace Scholars representing Augsburg College.

Spanswick [pictured left], a sophomore from Perham, Minn., is majoring in international relations with a minor in peace and global studies. Spanswick enjoys playing the alto saxophone in the Augsburg Concert Band and the Gospel Praise Jazz Ensemble, but her favorite activity is tutoring East African adults and children in the Cedar Riverside community. She is also actively involved in the Seward Montessori School, helping with a 4th and 5th grade class. The most meaningful college experience for Spanswick was studying abroad in Namibia and South Africa in the fall semester of 2008. Studying “Nation Building, Globalization, and Decolonizing the Mind” in Namibia inspired a passion in her for cross-cultural communication. She is planning to work abroad after graduating in Spring 2010, and hopes to return to Africa. Her goal is to one day work for the United Nations in a peacekeeping mission. Continue reading “Meet the 2009 Peace Scholars”

Food drive news

food_driveFood drives generally mean the return of big, bulky barrels to Christensen Center. Donors pull some canned goods out of the back of their pantry. Or they pick up a few things on their next trip to the grocery store.

But is that really the best way to help restock a food shelf?

Maybe not. After all, the barrels are heavy and occasionally contain garbage or other items not meant for the food shelves. That can of pork and beans might not be something that people from other cultures are interested in. And paying retail at the grocery story, while appreciated, isn’t perhaps the best use of your money.

Because of that, Augsburg College is conducting a food-less food drive to support the Brian Coyle Community Center food shelf as part of Minnesota FoodShare’s March campaign. Continue reading “Food drive news”

Make peace with your body

body_peaceDo you constantly worry about the weight, shape, and size of your body? Do you weigh yourself often and feel obsessed with the number on the scale? Do you ever feel out of control when you are eating? Do you feel like your identity and value is based on how you look or how much you weigh?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you could be dealing with “disordered eating,” attitudes and behaviors that can make food, dieting, and exercise not just unhealthy but dangerous.

Augsburg’s Center for Counseling and Health Promotion and the Student Feminist Collective are sponsoring “Body Peace,” a series of events to raise awareness of “disordered eating” as well as issues of body image and food struggles. Continue reading “Make peace with your body”

Connecting the college with the community

steve_peacockSteve Peacock’s education about the connections between colleges and communities started early. When he was a young man, Peacock’s father, who was a campus minister at the University of Illinois, would talk with his family around the dinner table about what the church and the university could do to improve lives of people in the Champaign-Urbana community.

These conversations influenced Peacock’s decision to pursue urban studies in college and ultimately steered him toward a career in community development. Last fall, he joined the Augsburg institutional development staff as the director of community relations. Continue reading “Connecting the college with the community”

Batalden lectures explore who we are and how we live

bataldenMassive changes to the planet at human hands require that we think anew about who we are and how we are to live. Cosmological, psychological, political-economic, and spiritual elements will all come into play. How might Christianity, in its newfound ecological phase, help us rethink who we are (talking the walk) and how we are to live (walking the talk)?

The 2009 Batalden Seminar in Applied Ethics will be feature Professor Larry Rasmussen, former Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary.

Rasmussen was at Union Theological Seminary from 1986 to 2004. Prior to that he was professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary and assistant professor of religion at St. Olaf College. He has served as a visiting professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and at St. Olaf College. Continue reading “Batalden lectures explore who we are and how we live”

Thrivent CEO to speak at chapel

thriventBruce J. Nicholson, president and CEO of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, comes to Augsburg to speak about what it means to be an authentic person in today’s vulnerable financial world. Nicholson will speak at 10:20 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 16 in the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has more than 2.5 million members nationwide and $71.5 billion in assets under management (March 31, 2008). In 1990, Nicholson was appointed executive vice president and CFO of Lutheran Brotherhood (now Thrivent Financial) and, in 1997, he was named chief operating officer. Prior to joining Thrivent Financial, Nicholson was a principal with Tillinghast-Towers Perrin and was senior vice president for Ministers Life and Casualty Company. Continue reading “Thrivent CEO to speak at chapel”

Veterans exhibit in Christensen Center

vet_exhibit The multimedia exhibit, “Warrior To Citizen: Stories of Minnesota’s Most Recent Veterans,” will be on Augsburg’s campus through Friday, Feb. 13. The exhibit is on display in the glass room next to the Student Art Gallery in the Christensen Center. This exhibit was designed by Kristin Farrell of the Center for Service, Work, and Learning at Augsburg.

The “Warrior To Citizen” exhibit features personal stories and artifacts gathered from 30 service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The exhibit captures an important piece of Minnesota history and offers a public space for thinking and talking about the ways military service impacts individuals and communities, and what veterans have to contribute. Continue reading “Veterans exhibit in Christensen Center”

First Navajo female surgeon speaks at Augsburg

alvord_convoDr. Lori Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo female surgeon, returns to Augsburg College Feb. 13 and 14 to share the story of her journey from the reservation to become a surgeon and her work to combine Navajo philosophies of healing with western medicine, to create models of healing environments. This convocation is sponsored by the Center for Counseling and Health Promotion, American Indian Student Support Services, and Augsburg for Adults.

In order to encourage attendance at the Saturday convocation, WEC Saturday classes will be dismissed at 11:45 a.m. and will resume at 1:15 p.m.

Lori Arviso Alvord, MD is currently Associate Dean of Student and Multicultural Affairs at Dartmouth Medical School and a member of the Navajo Tribe, of the Tsinnajinne’ clan (Ponderosa Pine) and Ashihii’ Dine’ (Salt People) clan. Continue reading “First Navajo female surgeon speaks at Augsburg”