Schuler is pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing and is focusing on caring science, transcultural nursing and holistic approaches to nursing. She also is studying to become a master in reiki and a graduate from the Professional Yoga Therapy Institute in how to apply yoga philosophies and practices in the professional medical environment.

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Lansing describes the League as a grassroots organization started by farmers who were discontent with large grain milling and transportation corporations in the region. He told MPR News host Tom Weber that The Nonpartisan League is the reason for the large number of co-operatives in North Dakota today, and the party was comprised of farmers who sought candidates that supported their platforms, regardless of party.

Listen to:  (14 minutes) on the MPR site.

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The AugSTEM scholarships will be funded by a nearly $600,000 grant recently received from the National Science Foundation. The grant means that as many as 30 students in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics will receive important financial support as they pursue their academic careers.

“In today’s world, many students balance educational goals, the demands of family responsibilities, and the pressure to support themselves financially,” said Amy Gort, Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Arts and Sciences. “These AugSTEM scholarships will help students maintain focus on their studies and have more time to explore career paths.”

Development of the grant proposal and the AugSTEM program was possible through a collaboration among faculty and staff.

“Science faculty recognized the high talent of our STEM students, and the tensions they balance between school and the rest of their lives,” said Benjamin Stottrup, Associate Professor of Physics. “We worked as a team to seek NSF funding. Our goal is to continue providing a rigorous academic experience that develops critical thinkers while providing additional programmatic support for these scientists as they transition to the workplace.”

About 50 percent of the scholarship recipients will be transfer students, and will further strengthen Augsburg’s partnerships with community colleges.

“We know from investigating the degree process of transfer students at Augsburg that we receive a significant number of transfer students in STEM,” said Rebekah Dupont, coordinator of the College’s Lois Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP). “Through the AugSTEM program, we hope to collaborate with STEM faculty at community colleges to support more seamless transitions for these students and to connect them more quickly with our continuing students.”

Next steps for the AugSTEM program include recruiting students to apply for the scholarships and making final programming decisions for fall. AugSTEM programming will include workshops and seminars, focus on professional development, and support Augsburg students in their transition to the scientific workplace.

The AugSTEM collaboration was led by Stottrup and Dupont, and the joint effort among faculty and staff will continue through the life of the grant.

To learn more about the grant, visit the .

Augsburg College currently has more than $3 million of active NSF funding. The largest individual active award, for more than $1 million, is for the ongoing work of Physics Professor Mark Engebretson for studies of magnetospheric physics.

Partial support for the AugSTEM program is provided by the National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program under Award Number DUE-1154096.

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Mary Lowe, associate professor of religion, for Excellence in Teaching

Of his colleague, associate religion professor Jeremy Myers wrote, “Mary clearly deserves this award. I consistently hear students rave about her as an instructor. She has very high expectations of her students and she is exceptional at communicating these expectations, establishing a strategy for moving the students towards those expectations, and working extremely hard with her classes and individual students to help them meet those expectations. …Mary loves to teach and she works very hard to be an effective teacher.”

James Vela-McConnell, professor of sociology, for Excellence in Mentoring and Scholarship

Diane Pike, chair of the Sociology department, writes about Vela-McConnell: “For the past decade, Professor Vela-McConnell has worked closely and diligently with dozens students in URGO projects, McNair projects, social psychology independent studies, the service learning research in Soc 390, and as partners in the research in his most recent book. This particular area of strength in developing student learning through intense partnerships is exemplary both in the quantity of students served and the quality of the work produced.  As a department and an institution, we benefit significantly from the effort and skill James shares with our students.”

The CTL awardees will be recognized at the Faculty Luncheon on May 3. Congratulations!

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At the ceremony, Darden was able to network with representatives of many of Minnesota’s leading technology companies and make connections for future internship and career opportunities. “It was like the Academy Awards of the technology industry in Minnesota,” she said. “Everyone was there.”

Darden said she was especially interested in meeting the women working in the industry. “You hear that the science fields are looking for minorities and females,” she said. “I don’t see that issue much here because Augsburg is very diverse, but at the awards, I didn’t see anyone who looks like me. That was my first time seeing how it really is, and that’s motivating me.”

Darden, a McNair, Phillips, and North Star STEM scholar, plans to attend graduate school in mechanical engineering. She said her dream job would be to build a roller coaster.

Watch a about Jazmine Darden and the other scholarship recipients.

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“The thing I appreciate about Jenny is that we can relate to each other. Our families are similar and she understands me. I don’t think another mentor would fully comprehend my life like Jenny does,” Thao said. Both are Hmong women who come from large families, and both have experienced the challenges of living in a bi-cultural world.

Thao said she feels as though Yang is her “devil’s advocate,” challenging her to define her goals. “We talk about what I want in my life and my plans for graduate school,” Thao said, “and she asks me what I really want in life.” Thao also said that she knows she can reach Yang at any time and she always feels welcome to talk with her mentor.

Scholastic Connections is a scholarship and mentorship program for high-achieving undergraduate students of color. The program is designed to assist students succeed in completing their undergraduate degree and prepare them to be engaged, successful citizens of the world on graduation by facilitating career development and planning.

The following is Yang’s reflection on her relationship with Thao and her experience as a Scholastic Connections mentor. Yang and Thao joined the other Scholastic Connections scholars and mentors for the 2011 gala on Friday, Sept. 16 at Augsburg.

Scholastic Connections to me is the ideal program to help retain and engage students of color because it has two components that are important to help a student succeed and graduate: scholarship money and self-discovery and identity formation to find their life passion.

When Cindy Peterson, the director of Scholastic Connections, approached me to serve as mentor, I felt honored, but I hesitated. The intention of the program is to connect current students with an Augsburg alum, and I told Cindy that I did not feel right accepting to serve as a mentor, because I did not graduate from Augsburg. Eventually Cindy convinced to serve a mentor, and I am so happy that I accepted the invitation.

When I found out that I would serve as a mentor to Mai Choua Thao or MC, I knew that we would be a good fit. I wanted to get to know MC, not just as student but also as a person. I felt honored to mentor a young talented Hmong woman, and help her navigate a bi-cultural world. We are both Hmong women, and I was in the same shoes as MC 10 years ago as I explored who I was, who I wanted to be, how to hold on to my cultural roots as a Hmong person, and how to learn the skills I needed to function in the mainstream world. I knew that through this mentoring relationship, I would learn from MC as much as she could gain knowledge from me.

Through this relationship, MC and I talk a lot about our cultural identity as Hmong women and family expectations, and the balance of a career versus our vocation and purpose in life. I am reminded through our conversations that the challenges, struggles, and expectations for children with parents who are former refugees and immigrants have not changed much from the time that I went to college. Often we are the caretakers, and we help our parents financially. It is not easy to be a student, and to have so many responsibilities at home, but MC has learned the art of balancing the best of both worlds.

As a mentor, I do not claim to know everything nor do I have the answers to everything, but I told MC that I will challenge her, provide resources, and be there for her if she wants to vent, celebrate good news, or share disappointments. I am proud of all her accomplishments here at Augsburg, and outside of Augsburg. I believe MC will achieve her dreams and goals, and my role as a mentor is only a piece of the puzzle to what she will do next after Augsburg. I am so grateful to be part of Scholastic Connections as a staff member, and I’m proud of being MC’s mentor.

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For Excellence in Teaching—Timothy Pippert [left], associate professor of sociology (who will deliver the address at opening convocation in September 2011)

For Excellence in Mentoring and Advising—Cass Dalglish [middle left], professor of English, and Cheryl Leuning [right], professor of nursing

For Excellence in Scholarship—Nancy Steblay [middle right], professor of psychology

Garry Hesser, profesor of sociology, nominated his colleague, Tim Pippert, for the Excellence in Teaching award. In part, Garry wrote, “In addition to his consistent excellence in teaching a wide range of courses…my additional reason for nominating [Tim] is his continual effort to bring his students into ‘high impact’ experiences, most notably this past semester when he created a special topics course on social inequality, creating ways that our students can explore both ‘ends’ and the continuum of wealth and privilege/poverty in our community… This course was simply illustrative of the consistent and exceptional quality of teaching that Tim brings to his work that merits this recognition.”

Student Kaaren Warnes notes, “Tim’s passion for the subject, as well as its implications for the world outside of the classroom, ignited our passions for the subject as well. Tim’s teaching methods, his passion, his accessibility, and his concern for his students make him a deserving recipient for the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching award. I am truly honored to have had Tim Pippert as a teacher, mentor, and adviser.”

In speaking of Cass Dalglish, recipient of an Award for Excellence in Advising and Mentoring, colleague Doug Green states, “Cass has been a model and a mentor to creative writers through the example of her own life as an active writer and artist….Over the past 10 years, I’ve been witness to Cass’s one-on-one mentoring and advising of novice journalists and creative writers. She has helped many seniors and graduates apply to and enter MFA programs.” Doug adds, “I can’t imagine our department and programs without Cass’s thoughtful presence and fierce advocacy on behalf of our literary artists and journalists…. And regardless of whom she is working with and mentoring, Cass evinces an infectious love of literature and the craft of the writer.”

An Augsburg alum, Andrea Sanow was mentored by Cass in the writing of a novel. Andrea notes, “Cass was my cheerleader, my coach, my therapist, my friend, my dictionary, my enemy and most importantly, my antagonist.”

Of Cheryl Leuning, recipient of an Award for Excellence in Advising and Mentoring, DNP student Deb Schumacher states, “Cheryl is an exceptional woman and leader. She is uniquely able to be gentle and caring, yet with her astute analytical perspective she is simultaneously able to be clear in her vision of excellence for herself and those around her. She is also extremely fair, open-minded, and inclusive…pursing diversity of ideas and perspectives. Cheryl opens up students’ worlds and encourages us all to be our best, to bring out our greatness to share with the world – either in our own backyard (locally) or in the grandness of the world (globally).”

Cheryl’s colleague, Sue Nash agrees, “Cheryl helps students understand the unique role that the Augsburg graduate can play in offering care to diverse populations. I think Cheryl’s greatest contribution to Augsburg has been the design and implementation of our unique Masters of Nursing and now the doctoral program that truly embodies the core Augsburg values of critical thinking, justice, and community involvement in a diverse global society. In this way, she has advised and mentored us all.”

Nominated by colleagues David Matz and Bridget Robinson-Riegler, Nancy Steblay is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Scholarship. Of Nancy’s work, David and Bridget write, “Nancy possesses an impressive publication record by any standard. Since arriving at Augsburg, she has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles – most as lead author…. In recognition of her scholarship record, Nancy has been invited to serve on journal editorial boards and is sought after as an expert in her field.” Further, they note, “Nancy has been a tireless promoter of scholarship among students and faculty at Augsburg.”

Former student Robert Tix agrees, “Dr. Steblay created so many different opportunities for me at Augsburg. She gave me an outlet for my scientific curiosity, whether that was helping with her research or conducting my own. She gave me an opportunity for critical thought and actual application on a continual, everyday basis. More important…was the opportunity she gave me to understand my own immense potential.”

This year’s recipients will be recognized at Honors Convocation on April 15 and at the Faculty Recognition Luncheon on May 5. We also will celebrate the accomplishments of both the recipients of Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning and Staff Recognition Awards at Community Time on April 26 at 3:45 p.m. in the East Commons.

Please join us in congratulating the recipients of this year’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning awards!

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