The May commencement honors the 465 day semester students and 29 physician assistant graduate students who are eligible to graduate. The Marina Christensen Justice Award, recognizing a graduating student who has demonstrated a dedication to community service and has reached out to disadvantaged communities, will be presented. This year’s student speaker representing the Class of 2012 will be Kathy DeKrey.

The Commencement speaker on Saturday is Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. An international scholar, speaker, and human rights advocate, Ms. Tutu has served as a development consultant in West Africa and a program coordinator for programs on race and gender and gender-based violence in education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. She has also taught at the Universities of Hartford and Connecticut and Brevard College. In addition, she is a consultant to the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence, founded by renowned author Riane Eisler and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Betty Williams, and the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Both Tutu and Bishop Zephania Kameeta, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, will receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees at Saturday’s Commencement ceremony. Serving as a pastor and then as deputy speaker of the National Assembly before being ordained Bishop in 2002, Kameeta has been a prominent church leader in the African struggle for independence and an advocate for women and victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The Commencement on July 1 honors Weekend College, Rochester, and graduate students in six programs. Master’s degree graduates include those in education, leadership, nursing, business administration (MBA) and social work.

Friday, May 4, 8 p.m., Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center

The Augsburg Choir performs their Bon Voyage concert before departing for a tour of the West Coast, May 6-17. This concert is free and open to the public

May 5 Commencement schedule:

8:45 a.m., Baccalaureate in Hoversten Chapel

11 a.m., Commencement Ceremony in Si Melby Hall

12:30 p.m., Department receptions at various locations on campus

Go to the for complete information.

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Edelen was awarded both BA and BS degrees on Saturday with majors in environmental studies, chemistry, and biology. She was also called to the podium to accept the Marina Christensen Justice Award, presented to the graduating senior who best exemplifies Augsburg’s motto, “Education for Service,” and has demonstrated a dedication to community involvement. The award honors 1965 graduate Marina Christensen Justice, who lived in Chicago and reached out to serve disadvantaged people and communities.

An Honors Program graduate, Edelen was a Sabo Scholar in civic engagement and a Peace Prize Forum Peace Scholar. Throughout her four years, she challenged herself to find opportunities that would provide her knowledge across disciplines and hands-on learning. She seeks a career that combines application of science to public policy decisions that will improve the lives of people in countries lacking services, equal access to resources, and just policies.

Edelen decided against a medical career as she discovered how treating disease can ameliorate its symptoms but doesn’t remove the underlying structural causes. As an intern in both rural India and Uganda, she saw how lack of access to clean water extenuates the effects of disease and poverty. This led to internships with the White House Task Force on Climate Change and Energy Policy and with local environmental groups to learn how to translate and bring science to community issues, and how to build common interest to create change in public policy.

For almost three years as a Sundquist Scholar and with national grants, Edelen carried out research in atmospheric chemistry with Professor David Hanson, investigating the oxidation mechanism and atmospheric interactions of isoprene, a volatile, organic compound. She presented the research in the student session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting and is awaiting a decision on publication.

For the next year, Edelen’s Fulbright will take her to Oslo, Norway, continuing research that she began last summer as a Peace Prize Forum Peace Scholar at the Oslo Peace Research Institute. She’ll study the relationship between lack of access to water and armed conflict in the world.

Edelen received word last week that she has also been awarded a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship for the following year, 2012-13. The scholarship covers all expenses for one year of graduate study.

She does not yet know at which of the five institutions she selected—in England, New Zealand, South Africa, Denmark, and Egypt—she will be placed. All five programs study environmental management and policy, some focusing specifically on water resources. Her first choice is Oxford University’s Master of Science in Water Science, Policy, and Management.

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Commencement on Saturday honors the 431 day semester students and 29 physician assistant graduate students who are eligible to graduate. The Marina Christensen Justice Award, recognizing a graduating student who has demonstrated a dedication to community service and has reached out to disadvantaged communities, will be given out. This year’s student speaker representing the Class of 2011 will be Ali Rapp.

The Commencement speaker on Saturday, Kjell Magne Bondevik has long been regarded as a world leader in the promotion of democracy and human rights. He is an ordained Lutheran minister who chose instead a career in politics. His service in the Norwegian Parliament and government for more than 30 years includes two terms as prime minister. His policies were recognized for emphases on gender equality, diplomacy, and social welfare. In 2006, Bondevik founded the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, which aims to promote responsible leadership and to strengthen civil and democratic practice, religious freedom, and the rights of minorities and women globally.

Both Bondevik and The Reverend Ishmael Noko, Zimbabwean theologian and former general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, will receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees at Saturday’s Commencement ceremony.

Rev. Noko received his undergraduate education in theology in South Africa, and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Canada. He taught and was an administrator at the University of Botswana prior to his call to serve at the Lutheran World Federation. He is also the founder and president of Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa, which brings together religious communities across the African continent for interfaith dialogue and action.

The Commencement on June 26 honors Weekend College, Rochester, partner hospital, and graduate students in six programs. Master’s degree graduates include those in education, leadership, nursing, business administration (MBA) and social work. Also graduating this year are Augsburg’s first doctoral students, eight nurses earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.

The Commencement Day schedule is:

9 a.m., Baccalaureate, in Hoversten Chapel

11 a.m., Commencement Ceremony, in Si Melby Hall

12:30 p.m., Department Receptions, at various locations on campus

Go to the Commencement 2011 for complete information.

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During her years at Augsburg, Florence distinguished herself as an active citizen with a passion for service. Her long-term commitment to responding to the needs of people around her embodies Augsburg’s efforts to promote student involvement in urban communities.

After studying in Mexico during her junior year, Florence returned home with a determination to apply in her daily life what she had learned. She volunteered at La Conexión, first assisting with tax returns and offering translation support for Spanish-speaking, low-income families. With her Augsburg Lilly internship, she developed a role at La Conexión as a Referral Center intern, helping to update the resource manuals of services used by Latino immigrants. She also helped develop their Kitchen Connection program in which Latinos and non-Latinos cook and share a meal together.

Last summer, Florence interned with the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg, preparing and delivering meals, working with local food banks, and managing student workers, often engaging them in reflection about their work.

In their letter of nomination, Florence’s professors wrote that what truly distinguishes her, however, is how she “deliberately and thoughtfully used the classroom as a space in which to examine inequity. Her eager participation in service- and immersion-learning opportunities suggests the depth of her effort to gain a more thorough understanding of the circumstances others find themselves in, as well as her commitment to those less fortunate.”

In her classroom work, Florence completed a research project in Latin American history that traced the intellectual history of the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America. That project evolved into a thesis for departmental honors in Spanish.

For her keystone seminar, Florence organized an ELL tutoring project with Somali teenage girls and women, which continued well past the semester’s end and through the summer. Florence continues to include the girls in activities with her family.

The recipient of the Marina Christensen Justice Award must have demonstrated a dedication to community involvement as characterized by the personal and professional life of Marina Christensen Justice, who courageously and effectively reached out to disadvantaged people and communities.

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