{"id":14729,"date":"2026-09-23T09:27:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=14729"},"modified":"2026-09-23T09:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:27:20","slug":"augsburg-university-announces-2026-alumni-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2026\/09\/23\/augsburg-university-announces-2026-alumni-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Augsburg University announces 2026 alumni awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Augsburg University is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award, First Decade Award, and Spirit of Augsburg Award. These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/homecoming\/alumni-award-recipients\/\">outstanding alumni<\/a> will be recognized at a public ceremony and reception on October 16 as part of Augsburg\u2019s 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/homecoming\/\"><span class=\"s2\">homecoming and reunion weekend<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Distinguished Alumni Award<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/homecoming\/alumni-award-recipients\/recipients-of-the-distinguished-alumni-award-1958-2014\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Distinguished Alumni Award<\/span><\/a> recognizes significant achievement in vocation, for outstanding contribution to church and community, and for a life that exemplifies the ideals and mission of Augsburg University. The 2026 honorees are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Rachel Engebretson \u201998, immigration attorney (Blaine, MN)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Jane Helmke \u201983, executive editor, MPR News (St. Paul, MN)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Christina Olstad \u201900, \u201905 MSW, dean of students, University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison (Monona, WI)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Mark Sedio \u201976, composer, conductor, and organist (St. Paul, MN)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">First Decade Award<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/homecoming\/alumni-award-recipients\/the-first-decade-award\/\"><span class=\"s2\">First Decade Award<\/span><\/a> is presented to Augsburg graduates of the past 10 years who have made significant progress in their professional achievements and contributions to the community, and in so doing exemplify the mission of the university. The 2026 honorees are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Robert Harper \u201916, senior community empowerment manager, Mortenson (Minneapolis)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Sunny Thao \u201919, theater artist, playwright, and storyteller (Minneapolis)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Spirit of Augsburg Award<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/homecoming\/alumni-award-recipients\/the-spirit-of-augsburg-award\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Spirit of Augsburg Award<\/span><\/a> honors alumni and friends of the university who have given exceptional service that contributes substantially to the well-being of Augsburg by furthering its purposes and programs. The 2026 honorees are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Brenda Hemmingsen, former admissions staff member and Augsburg parent (New Brighton, MN)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/homecoming\/alumni-award-recipients\/\">Learn more about the 2026 alumni award winners.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Augsburg University is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award, First Decade Award, and Spirit of Augsburg Award. These outstanding alumni will be recognized at a public ceremony and reception on October 16 as part of Augsburg\u2019s 2026 homecoming and reunion weekend.\u00a0 Distinguished Alumni Award The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes significant <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14734,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729\/revisions\/14734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}