As part of its year-end coverage, Minnesota Public Radio published a compilation of 45 favorite photos of 2014 — three of which featured the Augsburg College community. The story offered a glimpse into the people, places, and events that helped shape life in Minnesota in 2014, such as the College’s annual Powwow and the Tibetan New Year celebration with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama held in Augsburg’s Si Melby gymnasium. A photo of alumna Rebecca Stewart ’10 MSW also was featured and came from听a story on the ways in which听yoga can help students control their emotions. To see the images, .
As of fall 2025, news and media updates have been integrated with the Augsburg Now alumni publication. This site archives news stories from before September 16, 2025. Please visit augsburg.edu/now or select "Augsburg Now" from the left navigation for current news.
“Companies need responsive, innovative thinkers and problem-solvers,” wrote听Dave Conrad, Augsburg College鈥檚 assistant director of the Rochester MBA program, in his latest column for the Rochester Post-Bulletin. A听problem exists, though, that companies often do not invest in the training and development of their employees, which leads听to an under-engaged workforce. Read Conrad’s column, “The best managers develop their employees” to learn why staff development is crucial听for business success. Members of the Augsburg College community were featured in more than 220听international, national, and statewide media stories in 2014. Faculty, students, alumni, friends, and staff shared expertise on scholarship and pedagogy, experience as Auggies, and insight on current and special events.听Here we take a look at a very small fraction of the many times Auggies made the news听during the year. Thanks to all those who shared their time and stories and helped put Augsburg at the table on so many topics. John Zobitz talks to听International Business Times:听Associate听Professor of Mathematics and environmental science researcher John Zobitz听helped to answer the question posed by many in the wake of a recent record-setting snowfall in the Buffalo, N.Y. area听鈥� Why is it so cold and snowy in November?听The reason is global warming, according to Zobitz and other scientists studying the Earth鈥檚 climate.听听about how changes in the Earth鈥檚 temperature influence weather patterns on the International Business Times website. Phil Adamo on KARE 11: Associate professor of history and director of Medieval Studies at Augsburg College, Phil Adamo,听was a guest on KARE 11 on Halloween to talk about the origins of the holiday. Adamo shared with Diana Pierce and viewers how Halloween started as a Celtic festival that celebrated the final harvest and eventually was incorporated into Christian traditions to lure non-Christians into the Church. He also discussed the origins of the bonfire, jack-o-lanterns, and Halloween candy. Watch the segment 鈥淗alloween History 101鈥澨齩n KARE. For more faculty听featured in the news, search the category on the News and Media blog. StepUP supporters speak with MinnPost: Kevin听and Polly Hart, mentors for Augsburg鈥檚 StepUP Program,听were honored听at the annual StepUP Gala for their avid support of the program. The Harts, who have volunteered with StepUP for several years and are in recovery from addiction, were presented the听Toby Piper LaBelle Award for their dedication to serving students in recovery. Kevin Hart spoke about the honor and his work with the recovery community in “.鈥� Amineh Safi听鈥�14 in Star Tribune:听Star Tribune columnist Gail Rosenblum featured Augsburg College student听Amineh Safi听鈥�14 in a recent story examining news coverage of Muslims. In the column, Safi described findings from her research on the portrayal of Muslims in the media and her experiences with diversity in college. Safi鈥檚 research opportunity was offered through the McNair Scholars program at Augsburg and conducted under the mentorship of Diane Pike, sociology professor, who also was quoted in the column. Read 鈥淭ime to look at news coverage of Muslims鈥� on the Star Tribune website. 鈥淲e are pleased that so many accomplished poets entrusted their manuscripts to us. It means that Howling Bird Press, one of the few graduate student-run publishing houses in the country, is recognized as a significant literary home for writers鈥� work,鈥� said Cass Dalglish, director of Augsburg鈥檚 MFA program. Dalglish described Vogel鈥檚 work as careful, confident and intriguing. 鈥淓verything counts in Marci Vogel鈥檚 poems 鈥� image, metaphor, silence, punctuation,鈥� Dalglish said. 鈥淢arci鈥檚 clear, poetic voice will resonate at the core of students鈥� work this year as we design, layout and publish her book.鈥� Vogel, a native of Los Angeles, will have her book 鈥淎t the Border of Wilshire & Nobody鈥� published next summer and will receive $1,000. The collection will be edited, designed and marketed by students in the MFA鈥檚 Career Concentration in Publishing. Vogel is a Provost鈥檚 Fellow in the Ph.D. program in creative writing and literature at the University of Southern California where she teaches in the honors writing program. She is a long-time writer of prose who began writing poetry in her forties. Vogel鈥檚 work has been published in many journals and her work has earned prestigious national nominations including for the Rona Jaffe Writers鈥� Award, the 鈥淏est New Poets鈥� anthology, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Intro Journals Project and the Pushcart Prize. Vogel’s translation from French into English of Andr茅e Chedid鈥檚 1956 poetry sequence, 鈥淚n the Noon of Contradictions,” was selected for the 2014 Willis Barnstone Translation Prize. Augsburg College鈥檚 MFA program, sponsor of the national literary award, is a two-year, low-residency program that offers tracks in creative nonfiction, fiction, playwriting, poetry and screenwriting. Concentrations are available in publishing, teaching and translation. Learn more about the program at . Augsburg College is set in a vibrant Minneapolis neighborhood in the heart of the Twin Cities and offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and nine graduate degrees to nearly 4,000 students of diverse backgrounds. The trademark of an Augsburg education is its emphasis on direct, personal experience. Guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, Augsburg educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. ### Augsburg was the only Minnesota college or university named a finalist on听the Corporation for National and Community Service’s 2014 Interfaith Community Service Honor Roll as well as on听the Corporation’s General Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction. Augsburg is one of only four colleges nationwide to be named听a finalist in the interfaith category, an honor that recognizes institutions of higher education that support exemplary community service programs and raise the visibility of effective practices in campus community partnerships. There are four categories for the honor roll: general community service, interfaith community service, economic opportunity, and education. Only four higher education institutions are named recipients of the general President鈥檚 Award — a distinction Augsburg听held in 2010 — and 16 other schools are named finalists, four in each category. The Honor Roll recognizes more听than 750 colleges and universities for exemplary, innovative, and effective community service programs. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses. The interfaith community service category recognized Augsburg for its institution-wide shift toward greater interfaith cooperation and interfaith service. Three project examples connected with this effort include the College’s collaboration听with the Interfaith Youth Corps, a group devoted to building the interfaith movement on college campuses; the work of the Augsburg College Interfaith Scholars, of group of Augsburg students who are interested in exploring the religious听diversity of the College’s听student body, the wider Twin Cities community, and the United States听through interreligious dialogue; and an Inclusiveness Reading Circle, a group that supported interfaith intergroup dialogue. Find additional information on eligibility and the full list of Honor Roll awardees at听nationalservice.gov/HonorRoll. Christine Dawson ’13 MSW听was featured on the cover of the Regions Hospital Foundation Newsletter for her outstanding work with the HeroCare Program for veterans at Regions Hospital. Dawson, who is herself a veteran, coordinates services and advocates for patients in Regions Hospital’s mental health programs. on the Regions Hospital website. Learn more about Dawson’s experiences as an Augsburg student by reading “,” an article from the fall 2013 Augsburg Now alumni magazine. Alex Friedrich, Minnesota Public Radio’s higher education reporter, visited Augsburg College’s campus to experience a day in the life of an Auggie. Friedrich听spent Dec. 5 blogging about his experiences and found that Augsburg College has a wide variety of traditions and experiences to offer听to its students, faculty, staff and alumni, and听also to its neighboring communities, as well. Read and watch his posts on the “On Campus” blog here: Michael Lansing, Augsburg College associate professor and History Department chair,听was featured in a video production听by Prairie Public Broadcasting titled, “A.C. Townley and the Rise of the Nonpartisan League.” In the video, Lansing discusses A.C. Townley, founder of the Nonpartisan League, and the inception of the organization. Prairie Public Broadcasting is a television station serving North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota that produces documentaries, web-series and other media,听centered on local life and culture. on Prairie Public’s YouTube channel. The store —听aptly named Sisterhood Boutique — is nestled in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis and features听donated fashions at affordable prices. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarf received funding for their startup venture from several Twin Cities organizations including听Fairview Health Services and the Women鈥檚 Foundation of Minnesota, as well as support from Augsburg. To , visit the MinnPost news site.
Dave Conrad: The best managers develop their employees
Auggies in 2014 nab international, national, state media spotlight
Top 21 news stories featuring Augsburg faculty, staff, students, alumni
International Stories
National Stories
State Stories
Stories Featuring Faculty
Stories Featuring Alumni and Friends
California poet wins national book award from Augsburg College
Howling Bird Press Literary Prize draws 60-plus manuscripts from across nation
(MINNEAPOLIS) 鈥� California poet Marci Vogel was selected as recipient of the inaugural national literary prize from Augsburg College鈥檚 Howling Bird Press, the publishing arm of the College鈥檚 Master of Fine Arts program. Vogel鈥檚 book-length collection of poetry 鈥� selected through blind reviews from a field of more than 60 manuscripts from across the nation 鈥� explores American life, art, history and culture through a range of eclectic voices, forms, images and styles.Augsburg earns dual national community service honors
Christine Dawson ’13 MSW shines as coordinator for HeroCare
Harry Boyte discusses public work on Huffington Post
In his recent article听for The Huffington Post, Harry Boyte — Augsburg’s Sabo Senior Fellow — discusses the role Augsburg College and other universities can play in helping students address problems, meet challenges, and build a more democratic society using the public work approach. Read the article,听,听to learn more about Augsburg’s “down-to-earth quality wedding liberal arts education to career training grounded in practical experience.”MPR offers readers a glimpse into Augsburg College life
Michael Lansing talks with Prairie Public Broadcasting
Augsburg-connected startup highlighted by MinnPost
MinnPost听news featured听students and staff from Augsburg College and other local universities who collaborated on听a startup organization, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarf, which opened a women’s clothing and accessory store.