(MINNEAPOLIS)��– The Augsburg community on Saturday, April 29, will celebrate the last graduating class of Augsburg College when 503 day, undergraduate students are conferred their degrees. Earlier this spring, Augsburg’s Board of Regents and the Augsburg Corporation approved the institution’s name change to “Augsburg University” effective September 1.

“It’s a historic moment for Auggies and a time for our community to celebrate nearly 150 years of educating young people and adults for lives of service,” said Augsburg President Paul C. Pribbenow. “As we send off our last class of Augsburg College students, we do so on the eve of becoming Augsburg University and of our sesquicentennial, and we do so knowing that these Auggies are prepared to use their gifts and talents to serve our world’s greatest needs.”

In the afternoon, the school will recognize more than 469 adult undergraduates, graduate and doctoral students, 50 of whom studied at the College’s Rochester site.

DAY UNDERGRADUATE COMMENCEMENT

When: 9 a.m., Saturday, April 29

Where:�� Ceremonies in Si Melby Hall located on 23rd Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55454 http://www.augsburg.edu/about/directions-and-parking/ (Rain plan: Students will line up in Si Melby’s lower level and process up stairs, into gym.)

PROGRAM

9:30 a.m. – Student Processional, Christensen Center. Group proceeds, led by drummer, from Christensen Center down South 7-1/2 Street to Si Melby Hall. Faculty, in academic dress, line the streets and clap as students pass. Students carry flags representing home countries represented in student body.

10 a.m. – Invocation and Welcome

• • Commencement Speaker: Michele Norris, former host, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
  • Student Speaker: Eron “Winnie” Godi, of Rochester, Minnesota,��will graduate with majors in international relations and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, with a minor in peace and global studies. She maintained a 3.79 grade point average while juggling full-time work and full-time school, while also being integrally involved in the Augsburg community. At Augsburg, she was president of the Pan Afrikan Student Union and a past Peace Scholar. As an Augsburg LEAD Fellow, she has created an online magazine focused on celebrating the African diasporic arts and culture in Minnesota and the surrounding community. Off campus, Godi was a 2015-16 ��Museum Fellow at the Minnesota Historical Society and a finalist for the Princeton in Africa program, which matches recent college graduates with non-governmental organizations in Africa. She was also a finalist for the Humanity in Action Fellowship.
  • Honorary Degree Recipient: Beverly Daniel Tatum, President Emerita, Spelman College. Tatum is a nationally recognized authority on racial issues.
  • Conferring of Degrees
  • Recessional: Students exit Si Melby. Students, families gather in Murphy Square.

ABOUT �鶹ԭ�� COLLEGE

Augsburg College has been part of the rapidly growing and diversifying city of Rochester for nearly 20 years. The main campus is set in a vibrant Minneapolis neighborhood at the heart of the Twin Cities, and offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and nine graduate degrees to nearly 3,600 students of diverse backgrounds. Augsburg College educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. The Augsburg experience is supported by an engaged community committed to intentional diversity in its life and work. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings.

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Conrad noted that it can be detrimental for an employee to be overly negative, which potentially could signal that the employee isn’t right for the company.

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Dave Conrad

Conrad suggests��a checklist, of sorts, to weigh the options when deciding whether or not to dismiss an employee.

“Because terminating someone is such a big decision, it helps to have an unemotional and objective way to measure the impact of the decision,” Conrad said.

To read the article,

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At the suggestion of Augsburg regent, Ruth Johnson, Thoni started a satellite location��in 1998 in Rochester to offer a degree completion program to nurses at Mayo Hospital. Thoni said Rochester, the second largest urban area outside the Twin Cities and also one of the ELCA synod seats, had unmet educational needs that Augsburg was prepared to meet, particularly in the area of adult education. “Augsburg is an urban college with a model that was created for working adults,” Thoni said.

Karl Wolfe, who succeeded Thoni as the Rochester director in 2007, says the vision for the program has not changed since its founding. “That vision established by Rick Thoni–to deliver quality liberal arts degree programs to adult learners in the Rochester and the southeast Minnesota area–has served as a solid foundation for our work and will continue to guide us into the future,” Wolfe said.

The first classes for nursing students were offered at Zumbro Lutheran Church where then Augsburg Regent Gary Benson was the head pastor. In 1999 the program moved to Central Lutheran School in Rochester, added computer science as a major option, and began offering the first graduate nursing courses. In subsequent years, additional majors and graduate study options were added. In 2004, classes moved to their��current location at Bethel Lutheran Church near downtown Rochester.

“Augsburg in Rochester has been a wonderful success for both the college and the city because we have found meaningful connections between Augsburg’s strengths in educating diverse students and the Rochester area’s needs for an educated work force,” commented Pribbenow. “We look forward to our continuing relationships in Rochester and to strengthening our presence in response to community needs and priorities,” he added.

The site��started with 63 students in 1998 and has grown to 250 in the undergraduate program. More than 125 students are currently enrolled in graduate courses at the Rochester site. The program offers bachelor’s degrees in business and management information systems, communication studies, education, and nursing and master’s programs in education, nursing, and business.

The open house will be preceded by a book signing from 4:30-6 p.m. by professor of nursing, Susan Nash. Her book, “On the Edge: Nursing in the Age of Complexity” explores Complexity Science principles and the profound implications they hold for clinical practice, leadership, nursing theory development, research, policy making, and understanding human physiology.

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For free.

“We use a team approach, because in the real world, that’s how business works,” says Dave Conrad, assistant director of the MBA program in Rochester. The teams of students are selected by the faculty to provide a balanced mix of different skills and specialties that are best suited for each “real-world” partner.

The teams help businesses and non-profits by developing marketing plans, strategic plans, feasibility studies, new product launches, and business initiatives for them. This capstone project concludes with a formal presentation and detailed report to the partner organization.

The MBA students have worked with 18 organizations in Rochester and 60 in the Twin Cities over the last three years. They have included groups like Mayo Clinic, Rochester Public Utilities, the Rochester Post-Bulletin, and the Rochester Civic Theater. They even helped a group that is trying to start a children’s museum in Rochester.

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John M. Perkins is a sharecropper’s son who grew up in Mississippi amidst dire poverty. In 1960, after his conversion to Christianity, Perkins returned to his boyhood home to share the gospel of Christ and to work in the civil rights movement. Despite dropping out of school in the 3rd grade, Perkins received recognition for his work with seven honorary doctorates from Wheaton, Gordon, Huntington, Geneva, Spring Arbor, North Park and Belhaven colleges. He is an international speaker and teacher on racial reconciliation, leadership, and community development.

Perkins and his family have ministered to the poor in rural areas and inner cities for more than 40 years. Through the various organizations and schools they have started, Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, have worked to advance the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world.

At noon on May 20, Perkins will speak at a luncheon on “Leadership for the 21st Century.” Contact the Rochester site��at 507-288-2886 for more information.

Augsburg’s Rochester site��is located at Bethel Lutheran Church, 810 3rd Ave. SE.

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