{"id":5388,"date":"2015-12-03T21:35:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T21:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=5388"},"modified":"2016-02-16T20:06:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T20:06:42","slug":"riverside-to-riverside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2015\/12\/03\/riverside-to-riverside\/","title":{"rendered":"From Riverside Ave. to Riverside, CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"riverside\"
[Top to bottom]: Augsburg College Regent Steve Larson \u201972 supports students like Gottlieb Uahengo \u201913 and Oscar Martinez \u201916\u2014two of the Auggies whose academic pursuits have led to the University of California-Riverside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Augsburg is closing the distance between Riverside Avenue in Minneapolis and Riverside, California through the successful partnership of Augsburg faculty, alumni, college programs\u2014and, of course\u2014talented students.<\/p>\n

The collaboration is proving so effective that faculty mentors at the University of California-Riverside are calling for more Auggies. When Dixie Shafer<\/strong>, director of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO), visited doctoral candidate Tom Lopez \u201911<\/strong>, she heard in no uncertain terms from Lopez\u2019s mentor and department of mechanical engineering faculty member Lorenzo Mangolini:<\/p>\n

\u201cI want more of your students. I want more Augsburg students. Your students know what they\u2019re doing in the lab from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past six years, several Augsburg graduates have landed at UC-Riverside with full funding to attend doctoral programs. The students have a team of Auggie advocates supporting them all the way. The team includes staff from TRIO\/McNair Scholars; URGO; STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Programs; and alumni who have walked a similar path.<\/p>\n

The Riverside pipeline<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Augsburg sociology alumni Matthew Dunn ’08<\/strong>,\u00a0Jenna Mead \u201909,<\/strong> and Zach Sommer \u201910 <\/strong>were among the\u00a0first Auggies to blaze a trail to UC-Riverside. They were later joined by Lopez and doctoral candidate Justin Gyllen \u201911<\/strong>, a computer scientist and physicist working on an educational technology project to help first-year engineering students improve their note-taking.<\/p>\n

Now those Auggies have been joined by two more alumni from the physics and math departments: Gottlieb Uahengo \u201913<\/strong> and Amir Rose \u201914<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Rose, one of five Augsburg McNair Scholars to attend UC-Riverside, credits that program\u2019s role in his success. The McNair program is a two-year opportunity that helps prepare low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students for graduate school. Rose, whose current research is focused on breeding sterile mosquitoes to eradicate populations of disease-spreading mosquitoes, also credits Augsburg physics professor David Murr \u201992<\/strong> for teaching him research skills and independent thinking.<\/p>\n

Even current Augsburg students gain research experience at UC-Riverside. Last summer, chemistry student Oscar Martinez \u201916 <\/strong>worked with Lopez and also traveled to Scripps Research Institute in Florida.<\/p>\n

Circle of Support<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Now that these Auggies are studying and researching in Riverside, Dr. Steve Larson \u201972<\/strong> says it\u2019s his turn to help. Larson, a member of the Augsburg Board of Regents, has been in California since 1980.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Larson, chief executive officer and board chair for Riverside Medical Clinic and a generous supporter of the Norman and Evangeline Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, found out that there was not just one, but a group of Auggies in Riverside, and he invited them to dinner at his home. He has had them back every year, and has been joined by Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow<\/strong> and Shafer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have something in common,\u201d Larson said of his dinners with the Augsburg alumni and students. \u201cEveryone appreciates what happens at Augsburg College.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a circle of involvement with the College, Larson explained, that begins as a student, continues as alumni go out into the world, and finally turns back to support student success and the future of the College. \u201cThis is my turn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He is excited for how the Hagfors Center will continue to inspire high-caliber students and faculty to take their work to the next level.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep those Auggies coming,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Augsburg is closing the distance between Riverside Avenue in Minneapolis and Riverside, California through the successful partnership of Augsburg faculty, alumni, college programs\u2014and, of course\u2014talented students. The collaboration is proving so effective that faculty mentors at the University of California-Riverside are calling for more Auggies. When Dixie Shafer, director of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":5954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[31,75],"class_list":["post-5388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","tag-fall-2015","tag-norman-and-evangeline-hagfors-center-for-science-business-and-religion"],"wps_subtitle":"A demand for Auggies","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5388","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\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5388"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6425,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5388\/revisions\/6425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}