{"id":47690,"date":"2018-12-18T19:12:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/?p=47690"},"modified":"2023-01-24T18:32:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:32:37","slug":"donors-seek-to-remove-cost-as-a-barrier-to-education-with-the-paul-84-and-nancy-mackey-85-mueller-presidential-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/2018\/12\/18\/donors-seek-to-remove-cost-as-a-barrier-to-education-with-the-paul-84-and-nancy-mackey-85-mueller-presidential-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"Donors Seek to Remove Cost as a Barrier to Education with the Paul ’84 and Nancy Mackey ’85 Mueller Presidential Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nancy<\/a>
Nancy Mueller, President Paul Pribbenow, and Paul Mueller. Photo courtesy of Coppersmith Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ask Nancy Mackey Mueller \u201985 about her family\u2019s planned giving history and philosophy, and her answer will be succinct: \u201cWe\u2019re all in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed they are, for reasons that both she and her husband, Paul Mueller \u201984 articulate clearly. Their commitment goes deep. Paul served on the Augsburg Board of Regents for 12 years and currently chairs Great Returns: Augsburg\u2019s Sesquicentennial Campaign. Nancy was named to the Board in 2018. They have donated often over many years, including a previous bequest to support the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, and most recently designated a planned gift to create the Paul ’84 and Nancy Mackey ’85 Mueller Presidential Scholarship, valued at $1,000,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both felt that our experience at Augsburg gave us the keys to success for our future,\u201d explains Nancy. Their college experience was not only positive but also rigorous, preparing them for challenging graduate work and distinguished careers. \u201cWe were both encouraged in different ways. As the only woman in the physics department at the time, I was always very much supported. I never felt I had to prove myself any more than the guys in my major, and that gave me the confidence to stretch myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming to Augsburg<\/h2>\n

Nancy became a structural engineer, earning a master\u2019s degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland and helping the U.S. Navy design submarines before eventually becoming a physics and chemistry teacher at Mayo High School in Rochester. She had followed her father and her aunts to Augsburg, where she first met her future husband when she was a nervous sophomore tutoring juniors and seniors in physics. He remembers being smitten; she remembers just trying to get through the intimidating hour. Dating came later, but the scene had been set.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a deep affection for Augsburg. It\u2019s where we met,\u201d Paul says. \u201cWe also appreciate the values of the institution\u2014its academic rigor, its vision, its commitment to the Cedar-Riverside community. Augsburg transforms lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul had already won a scholarship to the University of Minnesota when a visit to Augsburg\u2019s campus altered his trajectory. Impressed by the warmth, welcome, and undivided attention he received that day, especially from chemistry professors, he chose Augsburg. Now-retired chemistry professor John Holum became his mentor and inspiration. Paul went on to earn his MD and MPH at Johns Hopkins University and is now an internist and professor of medicine and biomedical ethics at Mayo Clinic and the regional vice president of the Mayo Clinic Health System\u2014Southwest Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

What Sets Augsburg Apart<\/h2>\n

Both Muellers have fond recollections of Augsburg support and inclusion. \u201cIt felt like family. Somebody was always looking out for you. If you missed class, the professor would see you later and ask where you were. That was one of the things that set Augsburg apart, then and now. No matter who you were, or what interests or inclinations you had, you felt very welcomed,\u201d Nancy says.<\/p>\n

That Augsburg \u201cvigorously retained its Lutheran heritage while at the same time welcoming everyone is very important and appealing to us. It\u2019s the idea that we are called to love and serve each other, without regard to personal characteristics such as race, religion, or sexual orientation,\u201d adds Paul. \u201cIn today\u2019s world, it seems like the focus is more on what separates us than what brings us together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also notes that these days, more than half of the student population are people of color. \u201cIt didn\u2019t look that way when we were there, and I love that about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Nancy points to the unusual number of programs designed to help students with special needs and talents, from StepUP to URGO. \u201cAs parents, we\u2019ve been on many college campus tours, and nowhere else offers the programs that Augsburg does,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a unique place, and we so believe in their mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their oldest son, Luke, majored in math and history at Augsburg before pursuing a graduate degree in statistics from Harvard. His mother notes that his presidential scholarship made a big difference to him, both financially and by providing opportunities he may not otherwise have had. Endowing such a scholarship for future generations made perfect sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving cost as a barrier to education\u2014that was our intent,\u201d Paul says. \u201cWe very much wanted Augsburg to be able to attract top-notch students without regard to expense. To have brilliant, talented, gifted students be able to come to Augsburg without having to worry about how to pay for their college education? Now that is changing lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask Nancy Mackey Mueller \u201985 about her family\u2019s planned giving history and philosophy, and her answer will be succinct: \u201cWe\u2019re all in.\u201d Indeed they are, for reasons that both she and her husband, Paul Mueller \u201984 articulate clearly. Their commitment goes deep. Paul served on the Augsburg Board of Regents for 12 years and currently …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,7,3],"tags":[20,141,139,19],"class_list":["post-47690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-augsburg-fund","category-donor-recognition","category-gift-announcements","category-giving-to-augsburg","tag-alumni","tag-augsburg","tag-donor","tag-scholarship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47690","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\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47690"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48942,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47690\/revisions\/48942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}