{"id":46806,"date":"2016-09-01T18:41:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T18:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/?p=46806"},"modified":"2016-11-10T22:36:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T22:36:26","slug":"46806","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/2016\/09\/01\/46806\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift of Insurance Will Support Future Auggies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Purcell\"<\/a>
Chris Purcell ’10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether in the world of commerce or philanthropy, Chris Purcell \u201910 is not one to waste time. Since graduating, he has already tackled three big jobs, enough to preoccupy any young mover and shaker. Yet giving back has also been front and center, and he has had the foresight to designate life insurance policy proceeds to fund a full-ride scholarship for a future Auggie.<\/p>\n

\u201cAugsburg has done a lot for me, and I want to give back, especially financially since I was a beneficiary of financial aid,\u201d he says. \u201cAnother way is to go back and network, and I encourage my classmates to do so, too. One of the most valuable things we can offer is our networks, to bring more Auggies into good companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purcell works for Amazon, most recently in Seattle as a buyer on the men\u2019s fashion team, but soon in New York City as an advertising strategist. Amazon recruited him from Target, where he worked after a stint handling mergers and acquisitions for a now-defunct Minneapolis investment bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw myself going out to Wall Street, so I started out as a finance major and then added economics,\u201d says Purcell, who grew up in Northfield, the son of a carpenter and a middle school math teacher who strongly encouraged his educational aspirations. Recruited as a baseball player and the recipient of a Regents\u2019 Scholarship, he loved moving to the big city and finding such a diverse, inclusive community within it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAugsburg feels much bigger than what it really is. You have a very small community right there on that three-square-block campus, but so much is going on all around you,\u201d he says. He also discovered \u201cphenomenal professors\u201d such as Keith Gilsdorf <\/a>and Stella Hofrenning<\/a>, found a \u201cvery inspirational mentor\u201d in Marc McIntosh, and treasures the formative advice he received from baseball coach Keith Bateman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to say, \u2018Life\u2019s not fair, I\u2019m not fair, deal with it.\u2019 Those words have helped immensely in getting me through tough situations,\u201d says Purcell. \u201cAugsburg helped me build my social abilities, which is extremely important in any corporate environment, and gave me critical reasoning ability. That\u2019s the huge benefit of a liberal arts background. You learn things outside your main focus, and you learn to understand broad concepts as well as the specific issues you\u2019re taught to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

His insurance gift will help a future student, preferably a baseball player with an interest in business, learn to navigate obstacles like the ones Purcell encountered when trying to break into the post-recession job market. Despite the bleak prospects, professors, mentor and coach urged him to keep fighting until he found something. That is exactly what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cAugsburg set me up really well,\u201d he adds. \u201cGo Auggies!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether in the world of commerce or philanthropy, Chris Purcell \u201910 is not one to waste time. Since graduating, he has already tackled three big jobs, enough to preoccupy any young mover and shaker. Yet giving back has also been front and center, and he has had the foresight to designate life insurance policy proceeds …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[36,45,43,46,9,44,47,31,42,19],"class_list":["post-46806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gift-announcements","tag-a","tag-baseball","tag-chris-purcell","tag-economics","tag-gift-announcements","tag-giving-back","tag-mentors","tag-philanthropy","tag-planned-giving","tag-scholarship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46810,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46806\/revisions\/46810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}