For the past year, Augsburg University’s virtual tour has showcased the Minneapolis campus’ facilities and resources as it has been challenging to conduct in-person visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a multimedia interactive map with photos and videos, the virtual tour simulates an on-the-ground campus experience. The virtual tour offers a look at Augsburg’s residence halls and athletic facilities, details about academic buildings and green spaces, and a peek inside performance venues and practice rooms. The virtual tour launched in March 2020 to help out-of-state and international populations visualize the campus.

Check out the virtual tour at Augsburg Virtual Tour.

From its launch in March, 2020, through February 1, 2021, the virtual tour has had 32,421 visitors. The top states visitors are from are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, and California.

You are a part of a large community of Augsburg donors. We are so grateful for the generosity of this community of people who support our mission.

Augsburg Donors Ensure Opportunities

Parents:

Hazen and Kathy Graves

• Hazen: Retired partner at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm
• Kathy: Principal for communications and planning firm Parenteau Graves
• Priority: Support higher education institutions that serve students with physical disabilities

When Hazen and Kathy Graves toured Augsburg with their son, Sam Graves ’16, they found that it offered the unique assistance Sam needed as a young man with cerebral palsy who uses a power wheelchair. “As we learned more about the support Augsburg offers to students with various kinds of challenges, we came to understand that Augsburg had been doing this for a long time,” said Hazen.

Sam graduated with a degree in psychology.

The idea of supporting Augsburg financially occurred to both Hazen and Kathy independently, and they decided to donate $50,000 to endow a scholarship. “Access to higher education is a big issue,” Hazen said, “and we’re just doing our little part.”

Alumni:

Brian Anderson ’82 and Leeann Rock ’81

• Brian: PhD in physics at the University of Minnesota, taught at Augsburg, joined Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• Leeann: MD from the University of Minnesota, pathologist at Frederick Memorial Hospital
• Priority: Expand students’ academic opportunities and multidisciplinary efforts

Husband and wife Brian Anderson ’82 and Leeann Rock ’81 are donating $50,000 to endow the Raymond E. and Margaret J. Anderson Scholarship in honor of Brian’s parents’ legacy, as well as in honor of Brian’s brother, Augsburg Physics Professor Emeritus Stuart Anderson ’78.

Brian’s father, the late Raymond E. Anderson, joined Augsburg in 1949 as a speech and communications professor. Brian’s mother, the late Margaret J. Anderson, came to Augsburg in 1967 and became library director.

Endowing a scholarship is “a formal way of maintaining our relationship with Augsburg while ensuring more opportunities for students in the future,” Brian said.

Friend:

Linda Giacomo

• Retired clinical psychologist who studied at the State University of New York—Buffalo and Michigan State University
• Priority: Equitable representation of women in education and leadership, including in faculty roles, administration, and political offices

Linda Giacomo was the first in her family to attend college. She empathizes with immigrant struggles, recalling impoverished grandparents who left southern Italy to become naturalized U.S. citizens and parents who could not afford their children’s college tuition despite holding four jobs combined.

“Education is transformative in a way that gives you so much power and choice. People should not be denied that opportunity because they have no money,” she said.

Noting that women earn 26% less than men but carry two-thirds of the nation’s college debt, Giacomo designated a $30,000 outright gift to the Augsburg Women Engaged Scholarship as well as a generous estate gift.

“To not be generous, to not share what you have with those in need, is heartbreaking,” she said. “In making these gifts to Augsburg, my heart is full.”

Augsburg by the Numbers

Academics

16.2 average class size
13:1 student-to-faculty ratio
50+ undergraduate majors
10 graduate degrees

Students

2,005 traditional undergraduate students
76% of traditional undergraduate first-year students live on campus
27% of Augsburg undergraduates are first-generation college students
47% of traditional undergraduates are students of color
38 U.S. states represented by the undergraduate student body
44 countries represented by the undergraduate student body
97% of traditional undergraduates receive some form of financial aid

Data from 2018–19 academic year

Find more donor stories at augsburg.edu/giving.