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Pribbenow discusses commitment to higher education achievement equity with U.S. Department of Education

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Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow is the tenth president of the college.WASHINGTON, D.C. — Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow participated in a high-level meeting with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., last week focused on highlighting successful strategies for increasing equity in college access and graduation rates for students eligible for the Federal Pell Grant Program.

One recent strategy deployed by Augsburg, in partnership with Minneapolis Community and Technical College and with Saint Paul College, is the Auggie Plan. The thoughtfully and carefully constructed Auggie Plan, which is customized to the student profile of each partner institution, creates a clear, attainable, predictable, and efficient path from an associate’s degree to a liberal arts degree. The Auggie Plan is slated to be in five community and technical colleges by 2017.

“As a college located in one of the most diverse ZIP codes in the region and with a traditional undergraduate population comprised of 40 percent Pell-eligible students, Augsburg is deeply familiar with the work that a commitment to inclusion entails,” Pribbenow said. “We also know how rewarding it is when we get it right — which, admittedly, is not every time and not as often as we’d like. But the fact that there is still work to be done in no way deters our commitment.

“At Augsburg, we do this work because it is both right and necessary. It’s right and necessary for students — enriching our learning community with questions and ideas from a vast array of bright minds. It is right and necessary for businesses and nonprofits — marshaling the talents and perspectives of all our people to address our region’s most pressing needs and opportunities. It is right and necessary for Minnesota as a state that offers a lifestyle we cherish and wish to sustain. “

U.S. President Barack Obama, since the beginning of his administration, has worked to ensure more U.S. residents have the opportunity to earn a quality, affordable higher education.

“For us to thrive as a diverse democracy and for individuals to achieve their dreams of success, higher education must fulfill its promise of providing opportunity to all students, regardless of their race, gender, or income level,” said U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell.

“That opportunity means access, but getting into college is not enough. It’s getting in and getting through that matters. There are remarkable institutions around the country succeeding at making access and success a reality for low income students. We need to learn from their leadership and spread the word about practices that work.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder interviews Jennifer Jacobs on diversity in athletic administration

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Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder - logoThe Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder recently interviewed Jennifer Jacobs, assistant athletic director at Augsburg College, for an article on the challenges present as colleges seek to increase the diversity of their coaching and administrative staff.

In the article, Jacobs discusses some of the steps higher education administration can take to create a pipeline for people of diverse backgrounds to enter leadership roles. She notes that it is important for institutions to encourage women to seize new opportunities and to promote candid conversations on difficult topics like race.

“[Schools] need to find and foster the female student athletes that would want to get into coaching, administration — you name it, all the way up to the presidential level,” Jacobs said.

Read Navigating through Minnesota Nice on the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder site.

Star Tribune features Fardosa Hassan in story on Muslim student advisers

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Minneapolis Star Tribune - logoThe Minneapolis Star Tribune recently reported on the growing number of Muslim college students and the ways that schools, including those with Christian affiliations, are adapting to the increasing religious diversity of their student bodies. One way that colleges are improving the experiences of their Muslim students is by hiring advisers like Fardosa Hassan ’12, Muslim student program associate at Augsburg College.

The article reports that since she accepted the position last summer, Hassan has organized weekly prayer meetings for Augsburg’s Muslim students, recruited the help of a therapist and imam to undercut the idea that seeking treatment for depression is un-Islamic, and has taken Religion 100 students to visit local mosques. “Islam has called me to serve my community,” Hassan said, and her work has not gone unnoticed.

When asked about Hassan, first-year student Mohamud Mohamed ’19 said that “Fardosa is our guide. She is our connection to the outside world.”

College pastor Sonja Hagander said that given the growing number of Muslim students, “it was really key to have a Muslim student adviser.”

The article notes that nationwide more than 50 colleges, including Ivy League schools such as Yale and Princeton, have hired advisers for their Muslim students.

Read More Minnesota colleges are hiring advisers to work with Muslim students on the Star Tribune site.

KARE 11 news airs segment on development project spearheaded by Devean George ’99

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Kare 11 - logoKARE 11 news staff recently interviewed former NBA player Devean George ’99 about The Commons at Penn Avenue, a mixed-use building development in north Minneapolis that George has been working on for four years. The building includes upscale low-income housing and will be the site of a co-op grocery store that will open this summer.

George compared the complexity of completing the project with the effort required to join the NBA.

“This has been really difficult. It was a little bit like pre-draft for me,” George said. “Coming from a small school I had to prove myself and play well all the time. It was similar to that.”

Watch and read Retired NBA players builds housing complex in north Minneapolis on the KARE 11 site.

Star Tribune highlights Augsburg College students’ participation in solidarity event

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Minneapolis Star Tribune - logoThe Minneapolis Star Tribune recently published an article covering World Hijab Day events at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The article featured photos of Augsburg College students who hosted the Hijab Fashion Show at Augsburg. Students at Normandale and Augsburg hosted events in support of Muslim students and were joined by non-Muslim students in a show of solidarity.

Photos of Augsburg College students featured in the paper included Aisha Barre, Anisa Ahmed, Nahili Abdulahi and Juweria Hassan, who participated in the fashion show. Similar events have been taking place across the country in reaction to divisive rhetoric and anti-Muslim sentiment, the article notes.

Read Non-Muslim Minnesotans are donning the hijab to show support on the Star Tribune site.

Jennifer Jacobs and Rob Harper ’16 interviewed on diversity in college athletics

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Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder - logoThe Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder recently included comments from Jennifer Jacobs, assistant athletic director at Augsburg College, and student athlete Rob Harper ’16 in an article on the struggle to increase the diversity of coaching and administrative staff at NCAA schools. The article is a response to pro-diversity resolutions passed at the league’s annual conference last month.

In the article, Jacobs acknowledged that the drive for inclusion and diversity must start at the top. “Athletic directors and assistant athletic directors can’t feel empowered unless it comes from the presidents,” she said.

Jacobs added that “…people in general will hire people that look like them. The only way to counteract that is [that] you have to be intentional in your hiring practice.”

Harper, a sociology major and member of the Student Athlete Advisory Council, discussed his experience attending the conference and interest in observing the league’s voting process.

Read Moving from talk to action on diversity and inclusion on the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder site.

Lilly grant expands vocational, theological reflection

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$447,000, three-year award supports Youth Theological Institute

2014 Youth Theology Institute Seniors
The Youth Theology Institute each year celebrates the accomplishments of its senior class. Here, YTI celebrates the 2014 senior cohort.

(MINNEAPOLIS) — A grant of more than $445,000 was awarded by Lilly Endowment Inc., in a highly competitive grant process, to Augsburg College’s Youth Theology Institute. The award means the Youth Theology Institute can, among other things, develop a fellowship program for youth ministers, including from multicultural and ethnic-specific congregations, and expand participation in the program among youths, congregations, and synods.

“This grant supports Augsburg’s continued commitment to intentional diversity and to modeling what it means to be a Lutheran college of the 21st century, located in the heart of one of the nation’s most diverse zip codes,” said Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow.

“It equips young people with theological and vocational skills and helps them learn what it means to practice their faith, with its commitments to education, radical hospitality and serving your neighbor.” Continue reading “Lilly grant expands vocational, theological reflection” →

ADVISORY: 250 children with disabilities play
November 18 at Augsburg Sports Extravaganza

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15th annual event welcomes students from more than 25 Minnesota schools

Sports Extravaganza(MINNEAPOLIS)— Augsburg College physical education and exercise science students will use knowledge gained in the classroom to deliver smiles to more than 250 grade-school and middle-school children who will be at the 15th Annual Sports Extravaganza, a one-day event through which children with physical, cognitive and learning disabilities play on campus.

The success of Sports Extravaganza, slated for November 18, hinges upon the participation of Augsburg students. Together, students and faculty members create activity stations in the Augsburg Athletics dome and then assist children with each activity.

“Augsburg students take what they’ve learned in the classroom and then go out and do this event,” said Carol Enke, Sports Extravaganza director and Augsburg College HPE instructor. “The young students come to campus, and they help [Augsburg] students grow.”

Continue reading “ADVISORY: 250 children with disabilities play
November 18 at Augsburg Sports Extravaganza” →

ELCA scholarship recipient Sarah Abendanon is interviewed by
The Lutheran

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The LutheranAugsburg College student and Suriname citizen Sarah Abendanon was interviewed for an article in The Lutheran, the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The story detailed a scholarship program for women leaders from the “global south,” which is comprised of Africa, Central and Latin America, and most of Asia.

Noticing a lack educational access for women in these areas, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted in 2013 to raise $4 million over a five-year period in order to provide scholarships for 200 women.

“My religion professor asks what we think about our readings and encourages different points of view. In Suriname schools, what the teacher says goes,” Abendanon explained.

As far as the outdoor climate, Abendanon has prepared for winter by purchasing a large winter coat. “Bring it on!” she said in the article.

Read: Women of purpose – ELCA scholarships prepare emerging leaders from the ‘global south’ on The Lutheran site.

Pioneer Press notes Augsburg’s diversity award

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logo-smallThe St. Paul Pioneer Press mentioned that Augsburg College was among 92 higher-education institutions nationally to be recognized for excellence in diversity by the magazine Insight Into Diversity.

Read, “Education notes: News from schools near you” on the Pioneer Press site.