And when it comes to coffee, he does it all.

McGinn roasts his own beans. He uses them to cold brew coffee. He bottles it. Distributes it. And, he co-owns and runs a coffee shop where he serves his cold brewed coffee on tap—an innovation that very few shops offer, especially in the Twin Cities.

A transfer student from the University of Massachusetts, McGinn applied to Augsburg and StepUP early on in his sobriety. He went from drinking hard liquor every day for six years, to a student in recovery working to earn his bachelor’s degree in social work.

“Augsburg helped me to become a leader,” —Matt McGinn ’13

“Augsburg helped me to become a leader,” McGinn said. “I showed people you can go from not being capable of holding a job and passing out in class, to working two internships, being a resident assistant, and succeeding in five classes.”

Though he later decided not to pursue a career in social work, he practices skills gained while at Augsburg to help himself succeed every day—including business savvy, budgeting, dedication, confidence, detail orientation, leadership, and follow-through.

Tapping an underserved market

McGinn has been working in the coffee industry since he was a barista in high school. Once he got to Augsburg, he climbed his way up to manager at a struggling coffee shop and was able to revive it by crafting new drink recipes, learning a range of brewing techniques, improving food and drink menus, training staff, and creating more efficient labor schedules.

“People were complimenting my work, and the owner gave me free reign to do what I wanted,” McGinn said. “I thought—I’m really good at this. What are my ideas? What do I want to do? Well, I make really good cold brew. People love my cold brew. And I was like, ‘Why am I not doing this for myself?’”

So he did.

McGinn now co-owns and runs artisan coffee shop Quixotic Coffee in St. Paul. His branded coffee, Blackeye Roasting Co., comes in three varieties on tap—a signature blend called “Blackeye Brew;” a nitro blend called “Left Hook;” and currently under production, a nitro Guinness, which is similar in texture and flavor to a creamy stout.

Currently, you can find Blackeye Brew bottled and sold at select local retailers, but soon it’ll be distributed nationally. Blackeye Brew coffee is also kegged and served in many area restaurants, on college campuses, and even in Twin Cities workplaces.

Wake up and smell the coffee

Q: You serve a nitro blend at Quixotic. What is that?
A: Nitro cold brew is coffee infused with pure nitrogen. It’s stored in a keg and served on draft for a cascading, foamy, and velvety ice-cold drink.

Q: What’s the difference between iced coffee and cold brewed?
A: Iced coffee is just hot coffee that’s been brewed with twice as much ground coffee, then poured over ice. Cold brewed coffee is ground coffee that’s been steeped in cold water overnight.

Q: So does cold brew have a different taste?
A: Yes. When you brew coffee hot you get a lot of acidity due to the chemical reaction. When you brew it cold, you don’t get the acidity. In fact, there’s 67-93 percent less acidity in cold brewed coffee—and two times the caffeine.

Q: So you roast your own beans. Is the origin of coffee beans important?
A: Absolutely. Most of our coffee beans are from Africa and Central America. The coffees we select from Africa are bright and floral and have more character. The coffees we get from Central America have chocolaty notes. We blend the two for a perfect balance, so they’re not too tangy or fruity.

StepUP® at a glance

StepUP at Augsburg College is a residential collegiate recovery program focusing on helping students sustain their recovery, achieve academic success, and thrive in a community of accountability and support.

• More than 700 students served since 1997
• 93 percent average abstinence rate
• 100 students served annually
• 3.2 average GPA

Learn more at .

The post Auggie Matt McGinn ’13 finds innovative ways to serve an old favorite appeared first on Augsburg Now.

#MLKConvocation @AugsburgCollege. Lovely! Thank you @JamarEsaw for fillin’ my spirit. And … wow, #AmaniWard is only 15! Lordy.

-Tweeted by community member Noreen Bulmann after the Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation

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Music moves us. It makes us smile, dance, cry, remember. Like Augsburg alumnus Jamar Esaw ’05, whose choral ensemble, Triad:4Christ, performed at the College this past Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Auggies are sharing their musical gifts with their communities and the world.

Using music’s power to soother and inspire

In addition to regularly composing music for Twin Cities companies including Theater Latté Da, Stages Theater Company, and Wonderlust, Aaron Gabriel ’99 serves as resident composer for Interact Theater. Interact is a radically inclusive theater company that creates new musical theater for performers with and without disabilities, and Gabriel is committed to ensuring that each production is shaped by and for the performers. This winter, he took his expertise on the road—spending a month in Chiang Mai collaborating with Interact Thailand and the children it serves.

“We’ve created many new scenes and many new songs for The Love Show—a show about all the different ways we find love in life … We decided to write The Love Show because one of our performances falls on Valentine’s Day (a very popular holiday in Thailand). The songs and stories will all deal with different kinds of love: romantic love, love of friends and family, love of singing, love of disabilities, love of food.”

Thematically, the show resonates with nearly all audiences, but the cast and crew greatly anticipate one special attendee.

In July, the children will perform an excerpt of the show for Her Majesty the Princess of Thailand, who will be visiting the hospital that houses Interact Thailand for its grand opening, “so it’s important,” Gabriel said, “that the songs and scenes really showcase the stories and talents of these unique performers.”

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Conie Borchardt ’98 founded Grace Notes hospice choir, a group that sings to people in hospice care at Twin Cities nursing homes, and co-created the Arts Responding to Foreclosure (ARF) project, which, she says, creates a community for people experiencing foreclosure—turning an isolating experience into a supportive one.

Music, Borchardt says, transforms us and changes us from the inside out. She has witnessed music’s power to unite and soothe—both performers and audiences—during times of financial challenge and even in a person’s final hours.

“We have been blessed with so many meaningful moments … We sang for a gentleman who seemed at peace, though his breathing was labored. We sang to him about journeys. Later we would find out that he completed his earthly journey about 24-hours later.

“And then there are the stories we could tell you about other second-hand listeners! … Some non-hospice residents spontaneously decide to join our band of singers on rounds to the amusement of the nursing staff. Oh, and the staff smiles we see. Some are coy and some are gratefully enlightened for the service we provide. It is like watching the sunrise change your mood!”

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“There are times in life when I am absolutely certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that music, singing, movement, and dancing are how we heal ourselves,” said Nicole Warner ’01, an Augsburg College alumna whose major in music performance prepared her for life as an independent artist and professional ensemble singer.

In 2011, Warner had the opportunity to sing the Mozart Requiem in a United We Stand concert marking the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Opportunities like this one remind Warner why the joy she feels while singing is only a small part of the performance’s real impact. It’s the audience, she says, who are truly benefiting.

“Most of the time, I think of the beauty of the people sitting in front of me, and I wonder at their ability to take in the music, to restore their souls, to be filled by and to fill up with the music,” she explained. “Time gets lost, and we all get lost in the music together.”

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Online exclusive:

Music and performance have played ever-present—yet evolving—roles in the life of Clarke Athman ’05, founder of Piano Music for Patriarchs and Matriarchs, since his childhood.

Athman, who studied political science and music at Augsburg College, established the Twin Cities-based nonprofit organization in 2013.

Although Piano Music for Patriarchs and Matriarchs, known as PM4PM, is a relatively new venture for Athman, the notion to start the company, he said, is something that he has been passionate about for much longer.

“Music had played second fiddle throughout my adolescence,” Athman said. “I was more interested in sports and athletics than anything else.” But, since then, priorities shifted for Athman. As the years after high school and college passed, Athman said he acquired a new appreciation for music, and—surprisingly—a calling.

“… recalling my younger days as an elementary music student, [I] found myself talking about the music my school would perform for rest homes in the local area,” Athman said. “I remembered the sheer joy and jubilation of the residents and thought to myself, ‘Why not bring the gift of music to folks right here in the Twin Cities?’”

As for the future of PM4PM, Athman is hopeful that his objective will catch on. He has been collaborating with Sarah Martin McConnell, director and founder of the Music for Seniors nonprofit based out of Nashville, Tennessee, in hopes to broaden the scope of his business from a few participating nursing homes to as many in the Twin Cities as possible.

“The opportunity [to work with McConnell] presented itself and gave me the chance to give something back to my community—something that I hadn’t realized I could enjoy so much,” Athman said.

While maintaining PM4PM, Athman also is a senior lead specialist for Web.com, a Florida-based Internet and website services company that caters to small businesses.

Quotation from Athman’s Music for Patriarchs and Matriarchs website, pm4pm.org.

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On any given day, Josh Linde ’07 knows he was born to create love, joy, and opportunities for others. He’s doing exactly that today. As a dedicated family man. As a successful social entrepreneur. And as a cofounder of Ethnotek Bags, a socially responsible company that builds high-quality laptop and travel bags that feature ethically sourced handmade textiles.

Linde will tell you that although the process of uncovering his vocation took twists and turns, it’s Augsburg College that deserves the credit for giving him the skills and practice to unearth where his gifts and talents meet the world’s needs.

“My whole education at Augsburg could be subtitled, ‘Vocation.’ I learned to be meditative. Directional. I learned to write and reflect and repeat that practice many times,” Linde said. “This reflection and practice has informed every decision I’ve made since being at the College.”

And he isn’t kidding.

Linde feels tremendous pressure to make Ethnotek Bags a stable venture. Families and villages across the globe—in Ghana, Guam, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam—depend upon the company for a living and to help maintain their cultures.

His ability to question deeply and reflect laid the foundation for what has become the nontraditional business practices that put the company’s global partners in the driver’s seat and that give Linde the assurance he’s living out his vocation to create opportunities for others.

“We ask our partners what their time is worth and then we pay that price. We don’t negotiate lower prices, and we aren’t looking to reduce those costs,” Linde said.

The company offers its partners a generous delivery time of 90 days, a bonus for on-time delivery, and a premium for early delivery. The extended delivery window is important for the company’s partners, many of whom work out-of-doors and can encounter significant weather-related work delays.

But for Linde, it makes Ethnotek Bags’ approach all the more rewarding. In the end, each bag made and sold by the company is an individual and complex story with the power to maintain cultures and change lives for the company’s suppliers and customers.

“Our bags have three layers of existence—utility, beauty, and as a living story,” Linde said. “When you own one of our bags, people ask about and reach out to touch the bag. Each bag creates a connection to and meaningful conversation about the people who made it.”

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She’s a lawyer, a seasoned business operations executive, a mother of two, a biotech entrepreneur, and a restaurant owner. She’s also a philosophy and political science double major, and an Auggie. 

In the years since she graduated from Augsburg College, Naomi Williamson ’78 has charted a career path that has taken her into multiple, disparate industries and types of organizations. 

“I like the challenge,” Williamson said. Each new opportunity introduces “a new orbit of people and a different knowledge area.”  

Indeed: After completing her bachelor’s degree, Williamson went on to earn a law degree at the University of Minnesota Law School and worked as a litigator at Larkin Hoffman, one of Minnesota’s largest full-service law firms. From there, she joined Honeywell, where she spent 15 years in contracts, marketing, sales, process quality, and supply chain management. After that, she helped a medical pathologist with a successful biotech start-up, and, then, in 2007, she started a restaurant with her husband, Roger Kubicki, and veteran restaurant owner Michael Kutscheid—while also working on the side as an aircraft manufacturing contracts and negotiations consultant.

Williamson’s appetite for digging into a challenge and seeking new knowledge was evident even before she launched her professional career, however. She fell in love with philosophy, she said, after trying to make sense of the writings of Immanuel Kant.  

“It took me four hours to read 40 pages” she said. “I didn’t fully understand it, but I thought that if I did, I might be able to find the answers I was looking for.”

This willingness to do the hard work to make sense of things is so consistently woven into Williamson’s educational and career choices that it appears to be more of an internal drive, a calling, than a choice.

“I just can’t get myself on easy street,” she joked. “I’m always doing something to make sure that my next step is just as hard as the last one.” 

The post The philosophy behind a career appeared first on Augsburg Now.

TRENT ANDERSON ’12

Studied: accounting, business administration, and economics
Current role: Certified Public Accountant and Assurance Associate, CliftonLarsonAllen

People have the wrong idea about accountants, according to Trent Anderson ’12. “It’s not really as math-intensive as you’d think,” he said. Sure, Anderson admits that part of his job entails adding or multiplying large groups of numbers, but he also stresses that teamwork and client relations are equally important— and, for him, energizing—aspects of his career. Anderson chose to attend Augsburg because the College offered him the opportunity to exercise his passion for teamwork as a student athlete. During his undergraduate experience, Anderson found that he and his baseball teammates developed friendships with bonds as strong as family and a network with the potential to influence their careers. It was an Augsburg alumnus and former baseball player employed by CliftonLarsonAllen who introduced Anderson to what turned out to be his fi rst employer—and one of the top 10 accountancy firms in the United States. Both Auggies benefited from the College’s small-school experience, Anderson explained, where it is possible to develop meaningful relationships with professors, fellow students, and Twin Cities professionals. “It’s an interesting mix,” he said. “Augsburg is about more than mastering one subject. It’s about being a well-rounded student, a well-rounded individual. Now that is something I value to this day.”

Watch Trent Anderson discuss his start at CliftonLarsonAllen.

ANGELA BONFIGLIO ’13

Studied: sociology, youth and family ministry
Current role: Director of Youth Programs, Redeemer Center for Life and Redeemer Lutheran Church

During her second year at Augsburg, Angela Bonfiglio ’13 sought the opportunity to become involved in Minneapolis’ community partnership work, and the College’s Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning was able to connect her with an organization matching her interests and her studies. By the next fall, Bonfiglio was an afterschool program coordinator at Redeemer Center for Life, a nonprofit seeking to meet the housing, employment, and youth development needs of Harrison and North Minneapolis neighborhood residents. Her work—funded through a Batalden Scholarship at Augsburg—turned out to be a near-perfect fit, and she continued to lead the program during her senior year. A few months prior to completing her degree, Redeemer’s executive director offered Bonfiglio a full-time position following graduation. She accepted the offer, recognizing that she could use the knowledge and skills she’d gained during college in her future position. “I loved youth ministry classes, and sociology challenged me in a new way,” she said. Today she couples her sociological research experience with her background in youth programming to guide the “big picture” for the nonprofit’s youth activities. “The work is completely interdisciplinary,” she said. “I can ‘plug into’ contexts for both sociology and youth ministry, and that’s because of Augsburg.”

ALEX SORUM ’13

Studied: biology, chemistry
Current role: Postbaccalaureate Cancer Research Training Award Fellow, National Cancer Institute

Daily tasks vary widely for Alex Sorum ’13, a research fellow in one of the National Cancer Institute’s chemical biology laboratories. Some days he tests enzyme activity, and other days he synthesizes compounds. Synthesis, it seems, is a common theme between his college experiences and his life since graduation. As a double major, Sorum was quick to take part in every opportunity available to him, oftentimes combining his interests. “I always knew I wanted to go into research,” he said. “The biggest benefit for me was that Augsburg professors use a hands-on approach in their teaching.” Sorum satisfied his appetite for research through on- and off-campus opportunities that allowed him to gain valuable experience and strengthen his relationships with faculty mentors. It was Michael Wentzel, assistant professor of chemistry, who helped introduce Sorum to the National Cancer Institute, and other faculty members’ thoughtful letters of recommendation that allowed him to secure the prestigious position. The National Cancer Institute was “looking for someone with the ability to perform in this research position,” he recalls. “With my past experience, I had the ability to both think critically and to problem-solve. Now that’s key.”

The post On the job appeared first on Augsburg Now.

Augsburg College celebrated 56 Master of Social Work graduation candidates at the June 2013 Commencement, and it’s quite possible that Christine Dawson ’13 MSW was the only graduate who began her professional career as a mechanic.

Shortly after high school, Dawson joined the United States Marine Corps where she spent three decades and worked in two distinct military occupations.

While Dawson met her goals of traveling the world and doing something “most women didn’t do” at the time, she felt called to serve the Marine Corps troops—rather than Marine Corps vehicles—and began a new assignment as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor. This role turned out to be a perfect fit because of her ability to help “people go on to live their best life and achieve their goals,” she said.

Dawson completed a 17-year tenure with the Marine Corps and served an additional 13 years in the Army National Guard where she continued work as a mental health specialist. When she approached military retirement, she returned to school to earn a graduate degree at Augsburg College, which offered her the opportunity to advance in her civilian career and integrate her military experience into a challenging professional role. Augsburg, she found, was a place that understood her desire to live a purpose-driven lifestyle and to embed meaningful service within her career.

Military and veterans support

Many of Augsburg’s students with military experience enroll in an undergraduate or graduate degree program to build upon the education and training that were part of their military service. For other students, Augsburg is a way to prepare for a civilian career that’s unlike any past duties.

Some students who have served in the armed forces are eligible for state and federal financial aid assistance to help pay for college. At Augsburg, more than 100 students with military experience are working one-on-one with the College’s Student Financial Services and Registrar’s offices to successfully claim their education benefits and get individualized help navigating complex eligibility rules.

Augsburg College also directly supports these students by hosting an on-campus space for them to meet and by employing a Student Veteran Liaison who mentors peers and works to connect students with College resources.

“We’re seeing more nontraditional-age students in our undergrad population and some of those people have been around the world and have served our country,” said Lori York, assistant registrar and Veterans Affairs certifying official. “A veteran’s sense of ‘a call to serve’ totally meshes with Augsburg, and we want to make sure they can make the most of their education here.”

From call to campus

During four years of Marine Corps service, A.J. Anderson ’15, Augsburg’s student veteran liaison, led an amphibious assault team as the crew chief for vehicles that he likens to those that carried troops onto Normandy beaches during World War II. At age 25, Anderson had reconsidered his decision to attend a large public university and left school to become a Marine.

“I felt that joining the military was my calling for a little bit,” he said. “Other people backpack in Europe or just take a break. I went to war.”

Anderson served around the globe and later joined the Marine Corps Reserve military police unit at Fort Snelling in St. Paul before he began thinking about his long-term career.

He said his military experiences didn’t translate into a civilian profession, but—through his service—solidified his aspirations. He resumed his education and in 2012 transferred to Augsburg with a plan to serve his country in a new way.

“I’m devoting my life to helping veterans,” he said. “I didn’t know I wanted to do social work until I got out of the military, so coming to Augsburg and working toward that goal is a big part of my life.”

And, Anderson is getting a jump-start on this career through his student involvement.

“We know that peer mentors and peer leaders play an important role in students’ achievement,” said Ann Garvey, vice president of Student Affairs. “For example, student athletes serve on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and Orientation Leaders welcome our new Auggies to campus. Our Student Veteran Liaison does outreach with a different group, but the premise is the same.”

For Anderson, helping other veterans succeed at Augsburg College couldn’t be a better fit.

“I want to give other students the tools I’ve been working with,” he said, “and make sure they have the support I’ve experienced.”

From assisting veterans on campus to one day serving them as a clinical social worker, Anderson’s Augsburg education has prepared him for a meaningful career that aligns with his passions. And Dawson, who has been working with veterans for decades, shows that this path is clearly a worthwhile one.

The post Launching a new mission appeared first on Augsburg Now.

During the 2011 Agre Symposium at Augsburg College, Kirubel Frew ’14 was apprehensive in introducing himself to Peter Agre ’70—the 2003 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. But the conversation between the Auggie and one of the College’s most notable alumni proved to be the first discussion of many.

“I happened to mention that I was from Zimbabwe,” Frew recalled. “[Agre] said, ‘Zim? Zim? I love Zim. It’s a beautiful country. I believe Zimbabwe will have a scientific boom within the next decade.’”

As an international student, Frew selected Augsburg because of its well-respected science programs and its welcoming staff, which he identified during his college application process. Today he recognizes that the warmth of the Augsburg community extends beyond campus to its alumni network.

That’s because what began as a simple chat between Agre and Frew regarding their ties to Zimbabwe matured into a bond through which the Nobel laureate has shaped the career aspirations of one of the College’s standout third-year chemists.

Frew views Agre’s ability to operate a research lab, speak to audiences around the globe, and inspire young scientists as ‘a dream job’ and a goal he could not have identified without studying at Augsburg.

“Years ago, I wouldn’t have believed all this was possible,” Frew said. “Meeting a Nobel laureate in chemistry is awesome, and being mentored by him is even more awesome.”

This mentorship began when Agre invited Frew to conduct research at the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute during summer 2012 and to attend the Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, an exclusive annual event that brings together several dozen chemistry and physics laureates and an equal number of student guests.

Frew was a fitting choice for these life-changing opportunities because he developed the critical thinking skills that high-level research requires during the summer after his first year at Augsburg. He participated in a 10-week faculty-led research program through the College’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO).

“Research is so unscripted and there are so many turns,” said assistant professor of chemistry Z. Vivian Feng, one of Frew’s faculty advisers.

Feng presented Frew with the opportunity to conduct a complex proof-of-concept project in which he could demonstrate the feasibility of making a bench-top reactor, a small instrument tied to revolutionary biodiesel experimentation conducted by Augsburg alumnus and businessman Clayton McNeff ’91, chemistry professor emeritus Arlin Gyberg, and Augsburg’s first Rhodes Scholar Brian Krohn ’08.

Feng said she knew the research project would be challenging for Frew given his limited experience in the chemistry lab, but she also believed it suited his background in physics and interest in engineering. Frew was determined to independently achieve his goal of modifying the reactor design using his creativity, ingenuity, and knack for problem solving.

Frew said his experiences on the Augsburg campus and around the globe have proven so inspiring that he now is determined to continue his science education and align his career path to his vocation.

Dixie Shafer, URGO director, sees this objective as a near-perfect fit. She said that from Frew’s first days of research at Augsburg, he has demonstrated a gift for explaining complex scientific processes in terms that an interdisciplinary audience can understand.

“He sees communication as one of his life-long missions,” Shafer explained. “He may become a serious scientist and work on issues that are related to policy—realizing that too many people in policy don’t know the science and too many scientists have difficulty communicating with the non-science community … he’d love to be doing what Peter Agre does.”

Frew cites Agre’s hard work and intellect as key components in the Nobel laureate’s career success, and the young Auggie is on track to take his Augsburg education to the next level with his own tenacity. Students and alumni from Augsburg’s science and mathematics departments commonly go on to conduct research, attend graduate school, and accept employment at some of the nation’s leading research institutions including Cornell University, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins University, and Yale University, among others.

Augsburg is a place for young scientists like Frew to set dreams for the future and lay the educational foundation on which to achieve them.

Student research

As spring turns to summer, life on a college campus typically quiets. But for a select group of undergraduate researchers, the summer months are anything but slow. From May to August, Augsburg students perform faculty-led research in the sciences, humanities, and fine arts. Their work is supported by funding from Augsburg’s Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) program, the McNair Scholars program, the Sundquist Scholars program, the Northstar STEM Alliance, a NASA Space Physics grant, and the National Science Foundation.

Go to Augsburg’s YouTube channel to

The post From Z to A: Zimbabwean student discovers his dream at Augsburg appeared first on Augsburg Now.

In 2008, the multi-instrumentalist joined Minneapolis-based band Cloud Cult—a nationally acclaimed group recognized by Rolling Stone magazine for its commitment to the environment

Elhardt said her music education at Augsburg prepared her for performing on three instruments and singing during Cloud Cult shows, but she laughed when she acknowledged that during her time at the College she was more accustomed to “playing gospel praise” than rock music.

Preparation for meaningful work

Elhardt enrolled at Augsburg because she wanted to continue her family’s tradition of attending a private Lutheran college. Originally from a northern suburb of the Twin Cities metro area, Elhardt sought to establish roots in the art and music scenes of Minnesota’s most urban city.

She declared majors in music and marketing communication—degree programs that allowed her to develop skills required in a variety of careers. “I was always trying to figure out how music performance, teaching, and arts administration could be a part of my life,” she said.

After graduation, Elhardt worked in arts administration at the Minnesota Orchestra and the Dakota Jazz Club. In 2007, she founded her own piano studio through which she instructs more than 40 students. Teaching allows Elhardt to positively impact her community while sharing her passion for music with a younger generation.

Yet, Elhardt said she also felt called to use her musical talents for performance. The opportunity to join Cloud Cult aligned with her vocational goal and her desire to be a thoughtful steward of the Earth’s environment.

Cloud Cult: Music and mission

Cloud Cult, formed in 1995, was described in a 2008 Rolling Stone article as “extremely environmentally conscious: They tour in a biodiesel van, record in a geothermal-powered studio, and even printed their liner notes on recycled paper with nontoxic vegetable oils.”

The band’s green focus resounded with Elhardt. “I had found a way to play music and love playing music,” she said. “I’m sharing a positive message around the world.”

Cloud Cult performs in venues across the U.S., and many of the shows occur in environmentally friendly cities such as Boston, New York, Portland, and Seattle. Elhardt joined Cloud Cult on stage in Chicago’s famed Millennium Park this past summer, and few venues seem a more perfect fit for a performance by the band. Millennium Park’s creation transformed more than two dozen acres of

industrial wasteland into a world-class center for art and music. Cloud Cult crafts multimedia art during each of its performances, and the eight-person group includes two trained artists who start with a blank canvas at the beginning of each show, which adds a visual aspect to the concert experience.

Cloud Cult performances are opportunities to mix art forms, indie-rock, and environmental activism. Band members like Elhardt see their openhearted songs as a call to action toward a greener world.

“It’s music with a purpose, not just another rock band,” she said.

The post Music with a mission appeared first on Augsburg Now.

In A Room of One’s Own, writer Virginia Woolf asserts that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” This critical feminist essay, first published in 1929, examines the obstacles that women writers faced in a literary tradition that was, at the time, dominated by men.

It was in a room of her own, a quiet space where she could remove herself from the distractions of college social life, that Erika Hammerschmidt ’04 began to write her first book while she was a student at Augsburg.

A private room is beneficial for students with Asperger’s syndrome (AS), an autism spectrum disorder that affects a person’s ability to socialize and communicate with others. Students with AS are characterized by poor social skills and restricted interests, but they typically possess great knowledge in specific areas and have extensive vocabularies.

Hammerschmidt was diagnosed with AS at the age of 11. “In some ways, having Asperger’s is a gift,” she said. “I have a good memory and a gift for logical thought. And I can get very focused.” As a student, however, Hammerschmidt said she was easily distracted and had trouble concentrating on schoolwork because of anxiety she felt about her social life.

Augsburg’s Center for Learning and Adaptive Student Services (CLASS) program, one of the student support resources available in the Gage Center for Student Success, helped Hammerschmidt deal with the social aspects of college. “They helped me get a single room, a ‘room of my own’ as Virginia Woolf wrote. It helped me get started on a lot of projects and stay focused on them.”

The ability to focus helped Hammerschmidt complete her book, Born on the Wrong Planet. First published in 2003, it is a collection of poems, short stories, and essays using alternating voices to illustrate the complexities of Hammerschmidt’s life with Asperger’s. A revised edition was published in 2008 by the Autism Asperger Publishing Company.

Since graduating from Augsburg, Hammerschmidt has continued writing in the Minneapolis apartment she shares with her husband, John Ricker, whom she met at Augsburg. In 2011, the couple co-authored Kea’s Flight, a science fiction novel that Hammerschmidt said is “like [George Orwell’s] 1984 for autistic people.”

The couple also speaks about living with autism spectrum diagnoses to special education students, teachers, and parents of children with autism. In 2005, they were featured speakers at the Annual Autism Society of Minnesota Conference.

Learn more about .

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Higher education is often viewed as separate from the public arena, something accessible to a few and beneficial to only the individual. However, higher education greatly impacts the public good, and that impact is the true mission of higher education. In transforming individuals, we transform our communities and our world.

In this era of globalization, individualism seems to serve little purpose. Preparing children to live in a global society is essential and should begin in the K-12 years. Higher education then is a continuation of that learning and a time to step out into the world. With this in mind, while higher education does serve the individual, the larger goal is the influence each individual will have on the greater public good.

The impact of higher education is increasingly more visible and far reaching. More frequently, civic engagement has become part of higher education curriculum. The need for students to see and experience a more seamless connection to their acquisition and application of knowledge is essential. Knowledge is not only something centered in higher education institutions; it is also something constructed and exercised within the community. Knowledge then becomes transformative not only to the individual but to the broader community, society, and world. This is increasingly being seen through civic engagement projects such as Public Achievement, service learning, and travel abroad experiences where students and faculty “develop agency” through active rather than passive means that, in turn, inform theory and future practice.

SUSAN O’CONNOR is an associate professor of education at Augsburg College.

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