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Honors students consider evolution and religion

honors_playEven if you are a theatre major, there aren’t many college courses where the semester ends with a theatrical performance. One exception is The Scholar Citizen, the introductory Honors program class at Augsburg. In this course, students read and discuss a text and then create a play, or in this year’s case four plays, as part of a theatre lab attached to the class.

Larry Crockett, a professor of computer science who teaches this course, says this class serves as students’ “…initiation to life as a scholar lived in an intentional community.” He adds that in addition to introducing students to the rigor of the Honors program, the course also teaches them to see that they are not here to ‘worship what is known,’ as the late J. Bronowski once wrote, but to ‘question what is claimed,’ with a certain ‘barefoot, ragamuffiin’ irreverence.” Continue reading “Honors students consider evolution and religion”

Students receive grant for campus greening project

pedalpowerRecently students from the Spring 2010 Environmental Connections class, which was taught by Michael Lansing and Joe Underhill, received $500 from the Nash Foundation to fund a student-designed campus greening project. Their project deserves an A+ for creativity and could result not only in energy savings but also in improved student fitness.

The class focused on energy and featured a final project in which teams of students wrote real grant proposals for campus-greening initiatives. One student group—made up of Angela Bonfiglio, Alexander Ebert, Emily Nichols, Edmond Smith, and Tsering Dechen—proposed an “Augsburg Pedal Power Program.” Here’s how they described their project in their application to the Nash Foundation: Continue reading “Students receive grant for campus greening project”

Students illustrate values in "I Believe"

honors200How would you express your core beliefs in a creative way? Students in Mary Lowe’s Honors section of Christian Vocation and the Search for Meaning recently showed the campus community how they responded to this challenge.

The class presented their “I Believe” projects this week, using art, poetry, and nature to demonstrate one of their core beliefs in a creative way. Some made videos, others created art pieces, and some students even cooked to show their core belief.

Megan Holm, a junior education major, made a book with quotes from elementary students about how they served others. “What if everyone answered ‘yes’ when asked to help another? What would the world look like?” Holm wondered in her belief statement. The book shows how Holm serves the world through teaching. Continue reading “Students illustrate values in "I Believe"”

Augsburg hosts Minnesota OUT Campus Conference

MOCCLast weekend the Augsburg campus was host to students, staff, and faculty from area colleges and universities attending the Minnesota OUT! Campus Conference (MOCC). The conference, “A deeper look at race, economics, and immigration in GLBTQ communities,” is a project of the Minnesota Campus Alliance, a statewide coalition of students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members uniting for change on college and university campuses. Continue reading “Augsburg hosts Minnesota OUT Campus Conference”

Explore meaningful work with the Strommen Center

strommen_weekJust what does “meaningful work” mean to you? During the week of Nov. 15-19, Augsburg students are invited to explore this idea through a series of events. Strommen Meaningful Work Week will include the annual etiquette dinner and daily open-house opportunities for students to talk with employers from a variety of disciplines.

The Clair and Gladys Strommen Center for Meaningful Work promotes the exploration of vocation, purposeful living and meaningful work by connecting liberal and professional knowledge and skills with talent, faith and core values. Through the Center, students explore career opportunities, get assistance with job searches, and find internships. Continue reading “Explore meaningful work with the Strommen Center”

Auggie PA students share time and knowledge with seniors

augustana_paThey checked blood pressures. They talked nutrition and shared recipes. They even played Wii bowling.

No, these Augsburg physician assistant students were not messing around with the equipment or just taking a break from studying in the halls of Anderson. They were completing a unit on working with older adults by hosting a community health fair for residents of Augustana Apartments in downtown Minneapolis.

On this afternoon, second-year students in the last semester of the academic phase of their program worked in groups sharing information with residents about wellness, specific health problems of older adults, exercise, nutrition, socialization, and community resources. Continue reading “Auggie PA students share time and knowledge with seniors”

These guys want to teach you about your money

financial_literacyDo you know how to find your credit report? How about what affects your report positively or negatively? Which lender did you choose for your Stafford loan? Do you know how to contact them if you have a question about repayment?

These are a few of the important money matters that Tom Rixen ’12 [left] and Kris Ozga ’11 want you to know about. And as a reward just for learning, they might give you a fabulous prize!

Rixen and Ozga are the students behind College Money Matters, a series of events designed to help students learn about the financial issues that are important to them now and in the future. Both marketing majors, they were recruited to join a personal finance pilot project aimed at college students directed by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Continue reading “These guys want to teach you about your money”

Pilgrims share their experience for Founders Day

pilgrims
Andrew and Sarah Wilson in front of the St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The Wilsons visited the site at the end of their pilgrim walk which began in Erfurt, Germany, 1000 miles north of Rome. Courtesy Andrew Wilson

Interested in pilgrimage? Interested in meeting some modern pilgrims? Then the upcoming “Here I Walk” presentations are for you.

Andrew and Sarah Wilson will present “Here I Walk: With Luther from Erfurt to Rome” at the Augsburg College Founders Day Reformation Lectures, November 10 and 11 in the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center.

The Wilsons’ route to Augsburg College has been anything but easy or ordinary. On the morning of August 22, 2010, the couple left the Augustinian priory in Erfurt, Germany, taking the first steps of a thousand-mile pilgrimage to Rome. The Wilsons followed roughly the same path that a 27-year old friar named Martin Luther trod 500 years earlier. Continue reading “Pilgrims share their experience for Founders Day”

Koryne Horbal lecture features The Guerrilla Girls

guerrillagirlsThe Many Voices, Bold Visions convocation series continues this week with the Anne Pederson Women’s Resource Center Koryne Horbal lecture.This year’s lecture will feature a performance by The Guerrilla Girls on Friday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. in the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center. This event is free and open to the public.

In the mid-eighties, a group of women artists took to the streets (with clever and politically devastating posters) to protest the lack of work by women artists and artists of color in museums. Working anonymously to expose sexism and racism in the art world, these women adopted the names of famous female artists and wore gorilla masks to protect themselves from the angry art world elite. Calling themselves The Guerrilla Girls, they have taken their activism from the U.S. to Canada, Japan, Ireland, Germany, and elsewhere—and have expanded their repertoire to include an attack on sexism and racism in Hollywood as well as in global politics. Continue reading “Koryne Horbal lecture features The Guerrilla Girls”

A Preamble Movement

boyte_preambleHarry C. Boyte is the co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on organizing theory and practice at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and is in demand as a keynote speaker with faculty, students, and professionals.

Americans this election season are in an angry, anxious mood that defies easy labels. As Joel Klein describes in a Time cover story based on conversations across the country, “People told personal stories and made complicated arguments that didn’t fit neatly into their assigned political categories.”  Continue reading “A Preamble Movement”