Award-winning author, columnist, and professor Samuel Freedman featured five Augsburg College community members in a commentary for The New York Times’ On Religion section. The piece, “,” highlighted the work of Muslim Student Program Associate and Chaplain Fardosa Hassan ’12. 

As Freedman reported, Hassan is among dozens of chaplains on college and university campuses across the U.S. to “play a vital dual role: helping Muslim students feel welcome, and introducing Islam to non-Muslims.”

This work, according to Hassan, has the potential to assist students during their college days and positively influence individuals’ lives long after graduation.

“My role is to help students negotiate this multifaith, diverse environment,” Hassan explained to Freedman. “I’m going to give them a tool for when they go out of this institution, so they know how to be respectful of others. A lot of times, people are afraid even to ask the questions of people who are different. So I say, begin with friendship. Start by saying hello.”

In his column, Freedman acknowledges that interfaith conversations are meaningful and necessary not only on Augsburg’s campus but also just beyond its borders in Minneapolis.

Augsburg “is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and has traditionally attracted the vast majority of its students from white Protestant denominations,” he writes. “Yet its campus directly abuts the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood that is the epicenter of Minnesota’s population of 31,500 Somali Muslims. Perhaps nowhere else in the United States does a hockey rink sit so close to a halal meat market.”

While Augsburg has been a collaborative neighborhood partner for many years, President Paul Pribbenow has deepened that commitment in an effort to help the College fulfill its calling to foster conversations between the diverse residents of its vibrant community.

The story touches on interactions between Hassan and Augsburg College students whom Hassan has helped reflect on their spirituality to consider how it shapes their interpretations of the world. In this role, Hassan partners with College Pastor and Director of Ministries Sonja Hagander in individually supporting students as they navigate highs and lows, challenges and opportunities, faith and even their final exams.

Person-to-person efforts, according to Hassan, are at the heart of her work.

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The program was founded by Augsburg College alumna Jennifer Weber ’11, who recognized a need for such programs. “The kids here in the neighborhood need more quality programming,” she said. “The kids want it. They go to open gym all the time.”

Another need Weber recognized dealt with a lack of functional athletic attire that was culturally acceptable for the many Muslim girls in the program.

Luckily, design students from the University of Minnesota had already been working to solve that problem. Working with the players and other partners, the students designed uniforms with adjustable hijabs, knee-length skirts and breathable leggings. A grant from the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station provided funding to donate the completed uniforms to the program.

The article concludes with a statement from coach and co-founder Muna Mohamed ’16, an exercise science senior at Augsburg who grew up in the neighborhood.

“These girls are getting an opportunity to have culturally appropriate clothing, at the same time … [as] enjoying sports,” she said. “They don’t have to worry about fixing their scarves. They don’t have to worry about ‘How can I play basketball and also respect my culture?'”

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Included in the article was an interview with Yasameen Sajady ’11, an Augsburg College alumna who was hired as the social enterprise manager at Pillsbury United Communities, which owns the store and oversees the internship program as the business grows. The internships begin in the classroom, but quickly shift to the storefront. “In the first two weeks, we really hit hard on the skills that you would need to be successful,” Sajady said. “And then they’re put on the job.”

Read A ‘multilayered’ enterprise on the Minnesota Daily site.

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The Star Tribune recently featured the work of Mohamed and Weber in a story on how the GIRLS program worked with community members and University of Minnesota employees to design and sew culturally sensitive activewear for Muslim girls to use during their practices and games.

Read “” on the Star Tribune website.

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Augsburg College JIVE will perform January 24 at the Cedar Cultural Center to benefit victims and families of the New Year’s Day fire on Cedar Avenue. The fire, which claimed the lives of three residents who lived in the apartments above 516 Cedar Ave. S., destroyed the Otanga Grocery Store and displaced tenants of 10 residential units.

“Augsburg has a very long history of working with our neighborhood. We are honored to partner with our neighbors and to support our friends who have been  impacted by this tragedy,” said Mary Laurel True, director of community engagement for the College’s .

The benefit, a collaboration between Augsburg College, The Cedar, and KFAI radio, will feature musicians who represent the cultural past and present of the West Bank neighborhood. Entertainers include: Spider John Koerner, The Brass Messengers, Martin Devaney, Phil Heywood, Jon Rodine, Southside Desire, DJ Go Getta with SYAV (Somali Youth Against Violence).

A special fund is being set up by Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow to offset the ticket cost for students who wish to attend the benefit. Details on how to attend the benefit and access the special tickets will be shared by True via A-mail as soon as the details are worked out.

Doors open for the show at 6 p.m. and the show begins at 7 p.m.  Tickets will go on sale Friday, and can be purchased through the .

Members of the Augsburg College community also can contribute to the needs of our Somali neighbors by making a designated donation to the Brian Coyle Community Center. More information is in January 3 .

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The idea of a campus garden started with a conversation between Abigail Crampton Pribbenow and Mary Laurel True, associate director of community service-learning, when the Pribbenows were on campus during the presidential interview process. Both women shared enthusiasm for a community garden based on the “Edible Schoolyard,” a project started at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California.

Tim Dougherty, community and civic engagement student coordinator, sees the project as both a way to promote civic engagement through a welcoming gathering space and a commitment to provide healthy food for the Campus Kitchen and neighborhood gardeners. Forty 9′ x 9′ plots are contained in the garden, 33 of which are currently spoken for by students, faculty, staff, community neighbors, and groups like the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota and the Brian Coyle Center.

Augsburg junior Ruth Senum is the garden intern. She will teach neighborhood youth groups about types of plants and the different ways they grow. For one of her activities, Senum hopes to use a Three Sisters-style garden — a Native American trio of corn, beans, and squash — to teach students about native plants and indigenous culture.

The garden encourages staff members to work together. Judy Johnson and Emily Nugent of the Office of Adult Admissions will tend a salad garden. Johnson, who says she has been an amateur gardener for decades, is looking forward to working with Nugent, who has no gardening experience. “Judy knows all about gardening, so I expect to learn a lot from her,” said Nugent. “I am excited to get outdoors and do something with the earth and to have a virtual salad right behind my office that I can work on over lunch.”

In addition to providing healthy, organic food and an opportunity to get out of the office, Johnson sees the garden as a spot to interact with others. “Gardeners tend to exchange tips and gab,” she said.

On the north side of the plots, history professor Phil Adamo’s summer class will design and construct a labyrinth with the help of Bruce Rowe, Augsburg’s head groundskeeper. Unlike the mystifying corn mazes we might find in the Minnesota countryside, this unicursal labyrinth will provide a “single path” for meditative meandering. Students interested in this course can find information at .

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