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With Irvine serving in this role, Shafer will be able to concentrate on assisting students with applications for fellowships and pre-health science positions. She will also be able to attend more national and international fellowship conferences to stay abreast of current issues and trends in the area. She will also continue to coordinate Zyzzogeton, Augsburg’s annual celebration of student research and creativity and work with graduate and off-campus summer research applicants. In collaboration with the URGO Advisory Council, she will continue to manage academic-year research and student travel opportunities.

Shafer said, “Colin is a logical and inspired choice on many levels. By building capacity for him to coordinate summer research, the College will ensure that I reserve enough energy for the full range of URGO offerings.”

Irvine boasts an active scholarly record, including publication of a book, several book chapters and numerous journal articles, along with too-many-to-list conference and invited presentations, many with intriguing titles, such as “Teaching like a Mountain:  The Aldo Leopold Papers Project” or “Hollywood’s Response to Climate Change: Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Al Gore,” and more with conventional titles, such as “Wallace Stegner’s Novelization of the American West and Western” or “Problems with Peer Review and What These Indicate About the Status of the Workshop and How Well These Work in College Composition Courses.”

Irvine has a distinguished record of successfully mentoring groups of students in the classroom through the research process, via his Aldo Leopold project, and with “The Honors Review.”

He has successfully shepherded several URGO summer researchers who have gone on to top-tier graduate programs and won Fulbright awards. Through scholarship and practice, he has exhibited a zest, verging on zaniness, for building strong learning communities, an important goal for the URGO summer research program.

In 2010, he was awarded a Fulbright Roving Scholar award and spent the 2010-11 academic year in Norway, making him a role model for students considering national fellowship competitions.

And perhaps most notably, he won the MN Father of the Year Award, suggesting that he has solid (or at least unique) parenting skills which he can employ as needed when mentoring a summer research cohort.

Congratulations to Professor Irvine.

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It turned out to be a good decision.

That’s because Irvine was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship award and will spend the 2010-2011 academic year in Norway as a Roving Scholar in American Studies.

In the role, Irvine will prepare presentations on American studies topics and travel to schools across Norway to provide opportunities for Norwegian teenagers to learn about the United States. The schools will request the presentation that Irvine will give. Irvine, who will be based in Oslo with his wife and two children, will likely give between 250 and 300 presentations.

“I’ve talked with four or five roving scholars and they all said that it is the most exhausting year of your life and the best year of your life,” Irvine said.

Irvine, who earned his master’s degree in American Studies and was previously a high school teacher before coming to Augsburg, has begun sketching out abstracts for his presentations. One topic he is working on is the cultural and political divide in the United States as it comes through the media. Another is humor in contemporary American society that looks at programs such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

“I’ve always been interested in the possibility in working or teaching overseas,” Irvine said. “This roving scholar program was perfect.”

Irvine was already planning on taking a sabbatical next spring semester, so the timing works well.

“Augsburg’s been incredibly gracious,” Irvine said.

While he hoped he would be selected, Irvine didn’t really know what his chances were. He found out at the end of November that he made the first cut and had an interview via Skype with a committee in Norway in early January.

In recent weeks, Irvine has called his wife almost daily to ask if the mail arrived. A little more than a week ago, Irvine himself pulled the envelope out of the mailbox on a Saturday afternoon.

“It was thin and my heart sunk,” said Irvine, who thought a thin envelope meant rejection. “The envelope was shaking so much. When we got it open, at the end of the first line it said, ‘Congratulations.’ I was shaking.”

And now, Irvine is preparing to leave the country at the end of July for what will be an exciting adventure.

“I’m thrilled and anxious, it’s exciting and terrifying,” he said. “The more it sinks in, th

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What happens when you combine 50 first-year students, five professors, a gigantic problem, and no traditional grades? In the case of Augsburg’s Integrated Term, you get a pretty interesting story.

Here’s a quick primer on the iTerm.

For the students in the iTerm and the five faculty members teaching it—Phil Adamo, Lars Christiansen, Robert Cowgill, Lori Brandt Hale and Colin Irvine—this is their entire load of courses for the semester. The focus of the iTerm is on the Fate of the Earth: Food, Fuel and Consumption.

Students who complete the term will receive credit for either English 101 or English 111 (writing), Religion 100 (Christian Vocation and the Search for Meaning I), History 101 (Western Civilization), Sociology 121 (Intro to Human Society) and AugSem. They will also complete their Engaging Minneapolis requirement.

What the students won’t receive, however, is a traditional letter grade for the term. Instead, they will receive written evaluations from each of the faculty members teaching the class.

One of the goals is to get students out of the routine of simply working for a grade. Many students learn how to get a good grade rather than learning how to learn. The hope is that this term changes some of that.

“The hope is that students will develop a different attitude toward learning, and even some ability to evaluate their own work,” Adamo said. “Hopefully they get to a point where they say, ‘Wow, I get it.’ And then going into the second semester, they don’t retract back like a big rubber band. When you say no grades, students’ eyes light up. But no grades does not mean no evaluation.”

Because of the unique nature of the program, a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune visited the Augsburg campus and the class several times this month. On Saturday, the story, entitled, “Learning for the sake of learning,” was published.

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Irvine’s son Caleb, a second grader at St. Dominic School in Northfield, submitted an essay titled “What My Father Means to Me” this past spring. Out of 23,000 essays submitted, Caleb’s was chosen and his dad was eventually named Father of the Year in Minnesota. Colin and Caleb were invited to the Twins game and received a trophy and a $1,200 grand prize.

The National Center for Fathering provides practical, research-based training and resources for fathers, grandfathers, and father figures.

Read the by Erika Greiner for Northfield News.

Taken from an essay by Caleb Irvine

When I was a baby he stayed home with me every day. Now I go to school and he goes to work, but we do things like this year we made a great igloo. I like it when he takes me to do crazy stuff like going on rides that spin up and down and every direction. I love playing football, skiing, and playing baseball with my dad. I like it because he never gets mad at me, he always helps me out and teaches me how to do it the right way. I think my dad should win Father of the Year because I think he’s the best dad in the world. When I’m older I want to be a dad like him.

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In the company of current and emeriti faculty, members of the Board of Regents, and guests, members of the faculty were recognized for 35, 25, 20, 15, and 10 years of service at Augsburg. Faculty who received tenure and promotion were also mentioned, including Kristin Anderson, Robert Cowgill, Colin Irvine, M. Elise Marubbio, Michael Schock, and Jody Sorensen.

The faculty who received awards for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning by the Center for Teaching and Learning were introduced. Tracy Bibelnieks, associate professor of mathematics, received an award for excellence in teaching. Bibelnieks thanked her colleagues, saying “It is truly awesome to be surrounded by experience, innovation, and excellence in teaching.” She also expressed gratitude to the students she has worked with over the years who she said have fueled her passion for teaching. “…you are amazing individuals, you are amazing leaders,” she said.

Susan Nash, who has taught in the Rochester nursing program for 11 years, was awarded for mentoring and advising. Her colleagues noted that Nash advises more than 80 students and has been responsible for bringing back students who had at one time dropped out of the Rochester program. Nash thanked the Augsburg community, noting, “You don’t become a mentor by yourself.”

Dale Pederson, associate professor of biology, also received an award for mentoring and advising. After asking the Dean if this was a good time to ask for a raise, Pederson said, “The work I do is very much part of a team.” He thanked each member of the Academic Advising staff by name, as well as Dixie Shafer of the URGO program, for their support of his work with students.

Joyce Pfaff ’65, retiring associate professor of health and physical education, was acknowledged for her 43 years of teaching, coaching, and leadership with Augsburg. Dean Farley said Pfaff has always inspired her students and colleagues to “get up and move.” She has displayed a dedication beyond teaching, helping to establish a women’s athletics program at Augsburg and serving as the director of that program.

Pfaff talked about the history of women’s athletics at Augsburg, noting that women had to work hard to change attitudes and policies related to female participation in sports. She recalled the determination of athletes and coahces like Marilyn Florian (current assistant athletic director) who personally sewed uniforms for the women’s volleyball team when funding was not available to purchase them.

Pfaff spent one of her last semesters at Augsburg in China. Last fall, she and her husband taught physical education courses at the United International College in Zhuhai, China and helped UIC develop a fitness center and program for faculty and students.

To celebrate her retirement, the Augsburg community is invited to “get up and move,” joining Pfaff for a 43-mile bike ride beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 13. In the afternoon, a reception will be held in Christensen Center at 3:30 p.m., with a program beginning at 4:30 p.m.

The luncheon ended with special recognition of Vicki Olson, who has completed her term as faculty senate president, and Diane Pike, who leaves her position as director of the Center for Teaching and Learning after this semester.

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