{"id":47763,"date":"2019-04-29T17:39:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T17:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/?p=47763"},"modified":"2019-04-30T18:15:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T18:15:21","slug":"torstenson-scholars-program-and-donor-mark-johnson-75-make-research-in-the-south-pacific-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/2019\/04\/29\/torstenson-scholars-program-and-donor-mark-johnson-75-make-research-in-the-south-pacific-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Torstenson Scholars Program and Donor Mark Johnson \u201975 Make Research in the South Pacific Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Briana<\/a>
Briana Mitchell \u201819, Britta Andress \u201819, and Sociology Professor Tim Pippert in Vanuatu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Augsburg sociology professor Tim Pippert circulated an email last spring inviting his students to apply for a research opportunity in the South Pacific, at least two of them thought of the trip as little more than a fantasy. Yet Briana Mitchell \u201919 and Britta Andress \u201919 applied anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very random for me,\u201d Andress says about receiving that unsolicited email. But she was intrigued by the fact that whoever was chosen to go to Vanuatu, a nation comprised of about 80 islands that stretch 1,300 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean, could research whatever they wanted. She also knew she would have the whole summer to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was super pessimistic,\u201d says Mitchell, who doubted she would be chosen because she was a \u201ccity girl, always doing city things. I\u2019m not very outdoorsy. I\u2019m a scaredy cat, and I\u2019d heard there were spiders the size of dish plates. But when I got chosen and knew I was going with Britta, I figured she would take care of those spiders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Torstenson Scholars Program and the ongoing generosity of Mark Johnson \u201975, a retired city planner and former president of Sonju Motors in Two Harbors, Minnesota, the two were about to embark on a life-changing, career-molding adventure. Since a chance encounter with the King of Tanna several years ago, Johnson has actively supported various initiatives on the island of Tanna, which was damaged by a cyclone in 2016. A solar project to supply electricity to the island\u2019s 20,000 residents is currently underway.<\/p>\n

Last September Mitchell and Andress, accompanied by Pippert and Johnson, flew nearly 30 hours to reach the island some call the \u201chappiest place on earth.\u201d For Mitchell, it conjured images of Jamaica, where her mother grew up. \u201cWhen we got there, it had this paradise feel. Everything looked very good. The people were extremely happy, personable, and introduced themselves immediately.\u201d As a black woman traveling abroad, she also noted, it was nice to be the one who fit in.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Augsburg group including Mark Johnson ’75 and two locals who helped translate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t long, however, before the budding sociologists realized that solar lighting and happiness were not the topics that most interested them or their hosts. \u201cGender dynamics was a big issue. Behind this happiness were a lot of problems, so we decided to focus on the smaller ones and how they contributed to the larger ones,\u201d Mitchell says. A female translator was secured so the island women could speak freely about their lifestyle and culture.<\/p>\n

Life in Tanna is \u201cdrastically different. There is no agenda, and the pace is very laid back\u2014they call it Tanna time. They don\u2019t have an official economy and everything is free,\u201d says Andress, describing a system known as cargo cult, where islanders depend on donations they believe will show up as needed.<\/p>\n

The researchers conducted 26 interviews, exploring everything from medical care to food preparation to the ritual daily consumption of kava, a hallucinogenic beverage for men only. They questioned how solar lighting might impact women whose workdays were already long, and whether harsh, unsanitary childbirth conditions could be improved. They identified 13 themes in the study they will present at the Midwest Sociological Society conference in Chicago in April.<\/p>\n

\"Briana<\/a>
Briana and Britta doing research with the help of local Peace Corps volunteer Christy Kosak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBecause of how fast it went and the amount of information we absorbed in those days, I now see everything through a more critical lens,\u201d says Andress. Her experience has impacted how she interviews people, how she frames questions, and how she evaluates the research itself. \u201cI see how vital it is, and I developed skills I knew I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson understands completely. “I had the good fortune to participate in Joel Torstenson’s first\u00a0Scandinavian Urban Studies term\u00a0when I was a student at Augsburg. That experience was transformational, opening my eyes to a global context that has shaped my life,\u201d says Johnson, who was named to Augsburg\u2019s Board of Regents in 2018. \u201cI’m interested in making sure that today’s Auggies have the same opportunities.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing opportunity, and so kind of alumni to use their own time, effort, and funds to support students like me, who hadn\u2019t done research or traveled abroad,\u201d says Mitchell. Even simple things\u2014like the gift of a six-foot-tall stick of sugar cane, which she hadn\u2019t sampled since visiting Jamaica as a young teen\u2014made the visit \u201ca wonderful experience\u201d that also prompted a closer connection with her mom. She hopes to return one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s surreal that it even happened, and it\u2019s something I will always reflect on,\u201d she adds. \u201cI was living my best life there. It feels like a dream, still.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Augsburg sociology professor Tim Pippert circulated an email last spring inviting his students to apply for a research opportunity in the South Pacific, at least two of them thought of the trip as little more than a fantasy. Yet Briana Mitchell \u201919 and Britta Andress \u201919 applied anyway. \u201cIt was very random for me,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-recognition","category-giving","category-giving-to-augsburg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47763","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=47763"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47769,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47763\/revisions\/47769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}