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Star Tribune interviews Katie Lindenfelser ’02 about children’s hospice home project

Minneapolis Star Tribune - logoThe Star Tribune recently published an article about Crescent Cove, a St. Louis Park nonprofit founded by Katie Lindenfelser ’02 that next year seeks to begin construction on a hospice home, a care facility that specializes in lessening the suffering of dying patients. The article details the many challenges faced by the families of terminally ill children and the lack of resources available to them.

Currently, there are only two facilities in the U.S. that specialize in end-of-life care for children. In the article, Lindenfelser attributes this to the discomfort people feel toward the idea of terminally ill children. “In our culture there’s a lot more satisfaction in funding research for a cure,” she says.

In addition to caring for the patients, facilities such as the one Crescent Cove intends to build offer much-needed respite for the parents and families of the children. Caring for these children is often a taxing, 24/7 job that can take precedence over the parenting role. The article quotes one parent of an ill child as saying, “In those precious last moments, I’d like to stop being the lead nurse, doctor, therapist and just go back to being Mom.”

Read: St. Louis Park nonprofit wants to give terminally ill kids a hospice home on the Star Tribune site.

Zero-cost consulting creates valuable experience

roch_mba For many graduate programs, the last hurdle between students and their diplomas is a massive thesis paper that demonstrates all that they’ve learned. Augsburg’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program in Rochester has a different hurdle for its students: complete a management consulting project for a local business or non-profit organization.

For free.

“We use a team approach, because in the real world, that’s how business works,” says Dave Conrad, assistant director of the MBA program in Rochester. The teams of students are selected by the faculty to provide a balanced mix of different skills and specialties that are best suited for each “real-world” partner. Continue reading “Zero-cost consulting creates valuable experience”