Mary Laurel True conducts business wherever she goes—whether she’s headed to lunch at the Afro Deli on Riverside and 20th avenues, walking across campus for a meeting with a faculty member, or on the way home in her bumper-sticker-clad car. That’s because True’s “business” is connecting with the community, and as a 20-year resident of the Seward neighborhood, she has a lot of contacts.

True’s relationship with the neighborhood and Augsburg began when she was still a college student at St. Catherine University. In 1979, she traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico through the Center for Global Education. She later moved to the West Bank and became involved in local politics, and then she returned to Seward in 1989 after graduate school.

True was hired by Augsburg in 1990 as the coordinator of com- munity service learning. “At the time,” she said, “nobody really knew what that meant for a college.” Her job began by finding ways to add service-learning experiences to the curriculum, but she said it has morphed into much more. “I see myself, and I think the College does too, as someone who sees what’s going on in the community and brings that to campus but also sees what the College has and brings it to the community.”

Today, True calls herself a “resource broker” between Augsburg and the community. Her role as director of community service-learning involves connecting faculty to people and organizations where students can not only be involved in service but also meet their professors’ learning objectives.

To that end, True partners with faculty in departments including athletics, biology, education, English, environmental studies, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, social work, and studio art. She connects them to organizations such as Bethany Lutheran Church, Brian Coyle Community Center, Mixed Blood Theatre, Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Our Saviour’s Housing, and the Seward Montessori School.

True said she sees her role as a partner to the faculty, helping them become engaged with the community. “They use the community as a text,” she said. She noted that the faculty’s commitment to engaging with the world makes her work easy and enjoyable. “Our faculty come here because they want to be in the city. They believe we have a lot to learn from the community,” she said.

As a Seward resident, True has become deeply involved with neighborhood organizations and causes. Because she is a neighbor to the organizations with which Augsburg partners, she feels it is important that she be trustworthy and committed. “If you spend most of your time in the community that you are going to be engaged with, then not only do you understand it deeply but you’re also much more accountable.”

True demonstrates her commitment through volunteer work with local organizations, including Bedlam Theatre, the People’s Center, the East African Women’s Center, and the Somali American Education Center. As an artist, she is also interested in the local music and arts scene, and she and her husband are involved with the Seward Co-Op.

“I really love this institution,” True said. “I believe in the work that I do because I think Augsburg really walks its talk. I feel so proud of this place and of how the community values who we are and what we do here.”

So if you see Mary Laurel True out talking to Somali women from the neighborhood resource center or stopping into the Afro Deli for lunch, she isn’t out of the office avoiding work. She is simply doing her job.

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It is hard to imagine a career more dedicated to public service and civic engagement than that of Martin Sabo ’59. One year after graduating from Augsburg College, Sabo was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. More than 45 years later, he retired from a distinguished 28-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives. During that time, Sabo also served for 12 years as a regent for the College, was named an Augsburg Distinguished Alumnus, and received the first honorary degree, a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa), conferred by the College.

2011-12 SABO SCHOLARS

Front Row [L to R]: Rachael Okerlund ’12, Angela Bonfiglio ’13, Katherine DeKrey ’12, Sylvia Sabo, Martin Sabo ’59, Katie Radford ’12; Back Row [L to R]: Adam Spanier ’12, Rachel Svanoe ’13, Eli Grobel ’12, Claire Bergren ’12, Sabo Professor Garry Hesser, Arianna Genis ’13, Andrew Rodriguez ’13.

Today, Martin and his wife, Sylvia Sabo—parents of Auggies Karin Mantor ’86 and Julie Sabo ’90—continue their public service work by supporting the Augsburg College Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning, the Sabo Scholars program, and the annual Sabo Symposium.

As the stories on the previous pages show, the Sabo Center encompasses a wide-ranging set of programs that include the College’s civic engagement, community-based involvement, and service-learning programs. Through the work of the center, Augsburg has earned national recognition as a college with a strong commitment to education for service.

In addition, each year the Sabos, along with Sabo Professor Garry Hesser, work directly with 10 Augsburg juniors and seniors chosen as Sabo Scholars for their interest in and commitment to engagement in the political process, public policy, or careers in public service. By engaging these students in conversation about public service, the Sabo Scholars program carries forward the Sabos’ abiding faith in the role that government can play in improving the lives of citizens.

The Sabo Center also annually convenes the Sabo Public Policy Symposium. Last year’s event was “2010 Healthcare Reform: What Will It Mean for You (and The Nation)?” This year, in place of the public policy symposium, the Sabo Center hosted the Festival of the Commons, featuring 2009 Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, discussing how society creates, uses, and manages “the commons”—things we all share (see story, page 5).

Through these programs, supported by the generous gifts and engagement of the Sabos and others, Augsburg creates opportunities for civic experiences and skill-building—inside and outside the classroom—for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members—and carries on the Sabos’ and the College’s important commitment to public service.

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At first glance, it might seem surprising that an accomplished physician and educator, one whose office walls are lined with plaques highlighting his achievements, would count an MBA program as one of the most valuable experiences of his career. But give him a few minutes, and Dr. Amit Ghosh will offer many reasons why the Augsburg MBA has been a highlight for him.

As the director of the Mayo Clinic international program, a full professor in the Mayo College of Medicine, and the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Mayo Educator award, Ghosh had established a successful career as a physician and a diagnostician. “But what I could never do was see what was going on around me in the business world,” he said.

So in 2009, Ghosh’s colleague, Augsburg College regent Dr. Paul Mueller ’84, suggested the MBA program. Now Ghosh is learning, through connections with both the faculty and the students in his Rochester MBA cohort, to become what he calls an “organizational diagnostician.”

“At every point in our lives we define ourselves,” Ghosh said. “I thought in my journey with my career I needed to redefine myself, and my Augsburg education has helped me do that.”

An esteemed educator in his own field, Ghosh holds the Augsburg faculty in high regard and appreciates the rigor of the curriculum. “I work in a world-class institution, and I can assess quality,” Ghosh said. “The professors at Augsburg are amazing.”

Ghosh said his Augsburg MBA professors bring real world experience to the classroom, which is helpful because their experiences add depth to classroom discussions. “We ask all kinds of questions from all angles, and without any trouble the professor answers them.” After class, Ghosh said his professors often send additional articles and materials to continue the discussions.

Ghosh also likes the team-based cohort model and the opportunity to learn from classmates who he said bring valuable and diverse points of view to the program. “I have learned so many things about business from the students in my cohort,” he said. Ghosh appreciates how his classmates challenge him. “They have forgotten I am a physician, and they really give me a run for my money.”

In addition to the faculty and his fellow students, Ghosh said Augsburg staff members have enhanced his experience. He related a story about Ron Kurpiers, a librarian at the Minneapolis campus, who helped Ghosh with a paper.

Kurpiers took time on a Sunday, while he was caring for a sick family member, to lead Ghosh step-by-step through the process of finding articles to write a paper. “He thinks like a student, but he works like a librarian,” Ghosh said. “It was as if he were sitting with me.”

Perhaps Kurpiers’ extraordinary dedication is one reason why Ghosh now says looking at the library website to find articles is one of his favorite pastimes.

His Augsburg education has helped Ghosh grow professionally toward his goal of becoming an organizational diagnostician. He said the program has changed not only how he approaches his work as a physician but also how he teaches at Mayo.

“I teach a whole spectrum of learners from students to faculty and use the things I have learned in business school to highlight relevant areas related to service-delivery that I think are not stressed or are missing from medical education,” he said.

Ghosh will complete the Augsburg MBA in March 2012, and though he said he looks forward to finishing, it is clear that he does not want his Augsburg experience to end. Maybe, he said, as he matures as a manager, he could consider becoming a part of the Augsburg MBA faculty.

Whatever the future holds for Dr. Ghosh, it is clear that he is proud to call himself an Auggie. “My life journey would not be what it is without the Augsburg MBA program. It is one of the highlights of my career.”

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Shelby Vogel stands out in the classroom and on the volleyball court. The Auggie—a pre-med honors student double majoring in chemistry and physics—chalks it up to elbow grease. “I get good grades because I work hard,” Vogel said. “And I don’t feel good unless I work hard. I think that same mindset transferred to sports.”

Although she’s a first-year student, she earned enough college credits during high school to enter Augsburg as a sophomore. Vogel was in the National Honor Society during high school and received two of Augsburg’s highest merit-based scholarships—the Regents’ Scholarship and the Courtland Agre Scholarship, which is awarded to incoming first-year students with exceptional academic achievements in science and who meet standards for national test scores and grade point average.

Professor Larry Crockett, Vogel’s honors adviser, said that Vogel is setting some of the agenda for discussions in the Honors Scholar Citizen class. “She engages well and raises good questions, which is the heart of the honors academic enterprise,” Crockett said. “It’s what I like to call ‘academic jazz.'”

Outside the classroom, Vogel excels on the court. She is a high school all-conference and Junior Olympic volleyball player and was team captain. One of Vogel’s favorite high school memories was going to the state championship during her senior year where she and her teammates beat their rival in the semifinal round. “It was happy and sad,” Vogel said. “We all had played together since sixth grade, and we beat our rivals in the semifinals. But we lost the championship to a big school, and it was our last game as a team.”

Augsburg’s head volleyball coach, Jane Becker, said she’s had her eye on Vogel since Vogel was a high school sophomore. “Shelby brings a maturity to the court that is rare in any athlete, let alone a first-year athlete,” Becker said. “Her priority on the court is that the team succeed. Her work ethic and team attitude have already earned her the respect of her teammates and will serve her as she enters the medical profession. We’re grateful Shelby is an Auggie on the court and in the classroom.”

On the court as an Auggie, Vogel hopes to play at the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Vogel visited a number of private colleges—most of them in rural settings like her home city of Sheldon, Iowa—before selecting Augsburg. “I wanted to be in the city. I graduated with 89 people in a town of about 5,000,” Vogel said. “I like it here because I’m in a big city on a small campus.”

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The creation of the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning a few years ago allowed us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the life and work of our distinguished alumnus, Martin Olav Sabo ’59, whose life-long commitment to public service is an inspiration to all of us. As we live out our mission and vision here at Augsburg, we, of course, are deeply engaged in helping our students to understand the electoral political process, which Congressman Sabo so ably served. In addition, our students are closely involved in local political and advocacy efforts, in public service internships, in get-out-the-vote campaigns, and in helping our many new U.S. neighbors to participate in U.S. electoral politics.

At the same time, we also are deeply committed to the ideas and practices of a broader public claim—a claim that calls on all citizens to “get political”— to follow the call of our Augsburg colleague, Harry Boyte, director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, who suggests that “Despite its bad reputation, politics is the way people in any setting deal with differences to get something done. Politics means creating alliances, negotiating, engaging people around self interests, using levers of change in a strategic way. Politics is how diverse groups of people build a future together … Politics is from the Greek root, politikos, ‘of the citizen.'” As Boyte reminds us, “For over two thousand years politics meant not parties or vertical relations with the state but rather horizontal engagement among citizens.” In other words, politics and getting political is the authentic and important work of citizenship, claimed by all of us as our birthright and moral obligation.

One of my heroines in U.S. history is the great social reformer, Jane Addams, who lived and worked at Hull-House in Chicago for almost 50 years, helping her immigrant neighbors to practice citizenship—not because of a political system but because democracy is a social ethic, a way of living together in community, neighborhood, country, some of us think even, the world. She described democracy as a “mixed and thronged road” on which we all are travelers together, navigating our lives together. Surely, Miss Addams illustrated in her own life and work the ways in which mature citizenship—genuine politics—is meeting the needs of our neighbors, building stronger and healthier neighborhoods, finding common purpose and then the will to make it real, and learning to be what political philosopher and ethicist Jean Bethke Elshtain has called “chastened patriots,” those who love a cause or community or country but love it in ways that make it stronger, more responsible, and more faithful to common purpose. This is politics as common, public work.

The great Illinois senator, Adlai Stevenson, who ran for president against Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, was once said to have responded at a whistle stop to a supporter who shouted out, “All thoughtful Americans are with you, Adlai,” with this great line, “That won’t be enough.” For those of us committed to the public and civic roles of higher education, we know that one of our great challenges is to educate more informed and thoughtful citizens—work that is a central claim of Augsburg’s mission—and to challenge our students to help others become the same as they reclaim a sense that politics is not simply about who is in power and who is not, not simply about ideology and partisanship, not simply about winners and losers, but instead that politics is the work we all are called to do to ensure that our common purposes will be realized.

Please enjoy the many stories in this issue of Augsburg Now that illustrate Augsburg’s commitment to educating informed citizens—a commitment that has implications for our work on campus, in our neighborhood, and around the world.

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AND WHY DOES IT MATTER TO US RIGHT NOW?

Editor’s Note: On October 7 and 8, the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning hosted a “Festival of the Commons” in partnership with On the Commons, a commons movement strategy center. This article, written by Jay Walljasper, editor of OnTheCommons.org and senior fellow of the Sabo Center, provides an explanation and examples of the concept of the commons in our world today.

It’s an old idea—the chief organizing principle for human society for most of history—that’s now being rediscovered and reinvigorated all around the world.

The commons means what belongs to all of us—and the many diverse ways we share it equitably and sustainably among each other and coming generations. It describes a sweeping set of practices that range from the intricate social structures of indigenous people to the ever-evolving networks of connection fostered by the Internet. And everything in between—natural and human-made.

The commons is essential to our survival and happiness, touching our lives all day long—from the water with which we brush our teeth in the morning to the fairy tales we tell children at bedtime.

The natural commons makes life itself possible thanks to air, water, biodiversity, and DNA. The cultural commons makes human civilization possible through the sharing of knowledge, language, inventions, stories, and art. The social commons makes our modern way of life possible through educational institutions, medical expertise, engineering know-how, and communication tools. Even the market economy depends on the commons for the natural resources and human capital that drive its profits, as well as the legal and regulatory systems without which it would fall apart.

Unfortunately, the commons today is under assault. The natural environment continues to suffer devastation, including the specter of global climate disruption.

Privatization policies fence us out of resources that once could be used by everyone, and budget-squeezed governments and civic institutions scale back on services upon which we depend. Meanwhile, many people are convinced their security and well being depend entirely on what they can possess individually, to the detriment of the common good.

But the good news is that people everywhere are standing up to protect and pro- mote what we all share. Some, inspired by the work of Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom (who visited Augsburg this fall), are launching a movement to draw attention to all the ways that the spirit and practice of the commons can help solve the pressing problems of our time, including economic inequity, environmental decline, social isolation, and political alienation.

Many others are not familiar with the term at all but continue to roll up their sleeves to do crucial work in their communities, guided by their instincts for the common good. They are commoners, too.

At this tumultuous moment in history, the commons provides us with a compelling vision of a society where “we” matters as much as “me.”

THE WEALTH ALL AROUND US

Examples of the commons in our daily lives

• Air and water

• Parks, libraries, streets, and sidewalks

• Social Security, the National Weather Service, police protection, and other public services

• Wilderness preserves and national forests

• Wikipedia and open source initiatives

• Musical styles, dance steps, and fashion trends

• Biodiversity

• The Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Koran, Zen Koans, Hindu Upanishads, Norse sagas, and indigenous tales of creation

• Blood banks, soup kitchens, 12-step groups, museums, and other civic efforts

• Oceans, Antarctica, and outer space

GOOD NEWS ABOUT YOUR NET WORTH

We are all co-owners of some very valuable assets

Let me offer some good news about the state of your wealth. Sure, real estate values and the stock market look shaky these days, and no one’s job appears safe anymore. But what you possess individually accounts for only part of your true net worth. Each of us also owns a stake in some extremely valuable assets: clean air, fresh water, national parks, the internet, civic institutions, cultural traditions, and more.

Just like personal property, these things enhance our lives in countless ways—roads we travel, public spaces where we gather, medical and scientific breakthroughs we take advantage of, and accumulated human knowledge we use for free many times each day. In fact, without these commonly held resources, our modern society and market economy would never have gotten off the ground.

When the economy appeared to be booming, many of us didn’t care about the commons; it hardly seemed to matter that the local recreation center was in disrepair and Social Security in trouble. Private health clubs and IRAs would meet those needs. But today, Americans are increasingly grateful for services and opportunities provided for us beyond profit-making ventures.

But the news about our common wealth is not all good. It faces major threats. The financial crisis has created new pressures for federal, state, and local governments to slash critical services and programs that we depend on. Transit, public schools, libraries, medical assistance, social services, and parks have been on the chopping block in many communities.

Fortunately, there’s a new movement of “commoners” from all walks of life who are standing up to protect things that we all share. More than just an activist cause, the commons is becoming a model for thinking differently about how we make decisions, manage resources, and think about responsibilities.

BUSINESS BASED ON WHAT WE SHARE

Latino entrepreneur—and Augsburg grad— returns to his roots with a local food project

“Common sense” is a term entrepreneur Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin ’03, uses with ever increasing enthusiasm to describe the local food initiative he is creating with immigrant Latino farmers in Minnesota. “I come from the commons,” said Haslett-Marroquin, who grew up in Guatemala, where his family still farms communal lands. “And I am going back to the commons.”

Haslett-Marroquin, who graduated from Augsburg with a degree in business administration, is the co-founder of the fair trade Peace Coffee Company. In 2006, he founded the Rural Enterprise Center in Northfield, Minn., which, like many Mid- western communities, has attracted growing numbers of Latin American immigrants.

In times of economic stagnation, many people worry that immigrants are taking jobs needed by native-born Americans. These fears are especially keen in small towns, where the impact of the continuing economic crisis hits hard. Haslett- Marroquin, however, sees an opportunity that can benefit both immigrants and the community as a whole.

He noticed that many people around Northfield were eager to eat more locally raised, healthy food but were unable to afford it or sometimes even find it. At the same time, he saw that Latino immigrants had lifelong experience as sustainable farmers but lacked the financial means to take up farming. The solution was obvious. Find a way to get Latino farmers back on the land and connect them with consumers seeking wholesome food. This is exactly what Haslett-Marroquin did in launching a free-range poultry cooperative, market garden, and family farmer training program, all designed to put good food on local dinner tables and income into the pockets of family farmers.

“Agripreneurship” is how Haslett-Marroquin described this effort to revive family farming for local markets by taking advantage of immigrants’ first hand knowledge of small-scale sustainable agriculture practices. “Commons sense,” he said, is another word for what he and his colleagues are doing.

This small-farmer training center and coop is a shining example of an emerging co-op idea known as commons-based development—a strategy that strengthens the commons by making sure that economic expansion projects help the community as a whole.

While commons work is often seen as an activist or community cause more than a business model, Hasslett-Marroquin’s projects embody fundamental commons principles: a commitment to future generations, a focus on sustaining the earth, and a means of providing a benefit to everyone.

As Haslett-Marroquin said, “The commons is a very straightforward common sense approach to creating systems that sustain society and sustain life on the planet.”

COOPERATION IS NO TRAGEDY

First woman to win Nobel Prize in Economics proves that common ownership does not inevitably lead to ruin

Many people view the commons as a tragedy rather than a fresh new worldview to help us move toward greater economic fairness, environmental harmony, and democratic participation.

This notion was popularized by wildlife biologist Garrett Hardin in a 1968 essay in Science magazine, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” in which he described how people who share common resources will inevitably degrade them. Although Hardin later qualified his theory as applying only in specific situations, the phrase is still widely invoked to argue that privatized property is the only practical method for managing land, resources, or other valuable assets. The message is clear: Any kind of cooperative ownership will lead to ruin.

But that blanket assertion was debunked two years ago when Indiana University political scientist Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Through the decades, Ostrom (who spoke at Augsburg in October as part of a Festival of the Com- mons, organized by the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning) has documented how communities around the world equitably and sustainably manage common resources such as grazing lands, forests, irrigation waters, and fisheries over the long term.

A classic example is her field research in a Swiss village where farmers tend private plots for crops but share a communal meadow to graze their cows. While this would appear a perfect model to prove the tragedy-of-the-commons theory, Ostrom discovered that in reality there were no problems with overgrazing. That is because of a common agreement among villagers that no one is allowed to graze more cows on the meadow than they can care for over the winter—a rule that dates back to 1517. Ostrom has documented similar effective examples of “governing the commons” in her research in Kenya, Guatemala, Nepal, Turkey, and Los Angeles.

YOU MAY ALREADY BE A COMMONER

Ten ways to find out

You may be a commoner if you:

1. Question the prevailing myth that all problems have private, individualized solutions.

2. Notice how many of life’s pleasures exist outside the money economy—gardening, fishing, conversing, playing music, playing ball, praying, watching sunsets.

3. Take time to appreciate and enjoy what the commons offers. (As the visionary Brazilian educator Paulo Freire once declared during an Augsburg College visit, “We are bigger than our schedules.”)

4. Keep in mind that security and satisfaction are more easily acquired from family and friends than from money.

5. Offer a warm smile or greeting to people you pass. The commons begins with connecting, even in brief, spontaneous ways.

6. Treat common spaces in your community

as if you own them (which, actually, you do). Tidy things up. Report problems, or repair things yourself. Initiate improve- ment campaigns.

7. Are interested in exploring ways that things you now pay for could be acquired in more cooperative ways—checking out DVDs at the library, perhaps, or quitting the health club and forming a morning jogging club.

8. Watch where your money goes. How do the stores, companies, and financial institutions you use help or harm the commons? This includes their impact on the environment and on poor communities around the world.

9. Share your knowledge ideas with online commons such as Wikipedia, online communities open-education projects, and open-access journals. Or you could form your own online community around what matters to you.

10. Think of yourself as a commoner and share your enthusiasm. Raise the subject in conversation, around the neighbor- hood and at work. Stand up against threats to the commons in your community and around the world. Speak out in favor of opportunities to expand the commons.

These articles are updated from All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons (The New Press, 2011) and a flyer handed out at the Festival of the Commons on the Augsburg College campus October 7 and 8.

Jay Walljasper, former editor of Utne Reader, is author/editor of All That We Share and editor of www.OnThe Commons.org. On The Commons, a commons movement strategy center, co-sponsored the Festival of the Commons at Augsburg. Walljasper was recently named a Senior Fellow of Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning.

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THE COLLEGE AS AN ANCHOR

Augsburg’s engagement in the community is deepened by its commitment to becoming an “anchor institution”—an organization that thinks and behaves as a citizen and contributes to community wealth building and local economies.

The College serves as an anchor institution not only through service-learning and outreach programs but also through Steve Peacock, director of community relations. He sees his work as a complement to other Sabo Center programs, playing the behind-the-scenes role of representing Augsburg and developing relationships with community organizations.

For more than three years, Augsburg has been a member of the Cedar-Riverside Partnership, which is currently chaired by Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow. The partnership, which includes the City of Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, and Pillsbury United Communities, provides a venue for neighborhood issues to be addressed in creative ways.

One example is the road construction on Riverside Avenue, which began this summer. The members of the partnership saw this as an opportunity to change the character of the area and provide a welcoming, safe gateway to the neighborhood. Working with the City of Minneapolis, the partnership advocated for lighting, new green spaces, and other improvements to the Riverside corridor that would enhance the vitality of the neighborhood.

“As an anchor institution, we have a responsibility to ‘place.’ It is in our self interest to ensure that the neighborhood is healthy, vibrant, and safe,” Peacock said. “But we also have a responsibility to strengthen our shared values.”

Part of an anchor institution’s role is to support workforce development within a community. Augsburg has been involved in one such initiative as a host for the Urban Scrubs Camp, which is presented by HealthForce Minnesota with support from Boston Scientific.

This one-week camp gives more than 70 inner city high school students a hands-on opportunity to learn about healthcare careers. It also helps to educate area youth, addresses the need for workforce development for local hospitals, and strengthens relationships with community partners. In 2011, nearly all of the students attending received a scholarship to the camp through the Cedar- Riverside Partnership.

Augsburg also works closely with the Seward and Cedar-Riverside business associations to promote local businesses to the College community. “As a consumer and investor in the community, we are sensitive to neighborhood businesses and are helping to strengthen them as much as possible,” Peacock said.

In the past, Augsburg marketing courses have developed promotional campaigns for local businesses aimed at students, staff, and faculty. Last spring, a group of marketing students promoted the local restaurant, the Wienery, with a “wiener walk.”

This year Cedar-Riverside restaurants, including the recently opened Afro Deli, participated in the Taste of Augsburg event during Homecoming, and Augsburg will be involved in the “Franklin Frolic” to support Franklin Avenue businesses in early December.

Because the College has a strong commitment to and sees itself as part of the community, Peacock finds his work very gratifying. “Augsburg is a really exciting place to do this kind of work. Building upon strong relationships and taking them to another level improves not only our opportunities but our neighbors’ as well.”

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DEVELOPING FUTURE LEADERS

The College’s commitment to the community has been extended through the Bonner Leader program. Now in its fourth year at Augsburg, the Bonner program connects 40 students to local partners including schools, community centers, churches, and other nonprofit organizations. Bonner students commit 10 to 12 hours per week working with the organizations as well as three to five volunteer hours per month.

Kristin Farrell, director of the Bonner Leader program, said she believes the program affects students in multiple ways. “It changes the way they see themselves and their communities, and it changes the way they do academics. They see their education as a way to make change in the world,” she said.

Bonner students meet as a group with Farrell three times monthly for training and enrichment, giving them a chance to reflect with their peers and to make connections to their classes. Through these experiences, Farrell said students uncover their gifts, and this discovery can lead to new direction in their education or career paths.

Because Bonner students often make a long-term commitment to an organization, Farrell said the partners tend to expect more from the students than they would from a short-term intern or a volunteer. This provides opportunities for students to become deeply engaged in the work of the organization.

Farrell added that the program shapes community leaders who are sought after by employers. “I think being in the Bonner Leader program gives students a leg up as they leave Augsburg,” she said. “Organizations want people who are knowledgeable about communities.”

“The Bonner program provides a deep level of relationships to community partners and a very purposeful way of getting students immersed in the community,” Farrell said. It also connects Augsburg students to a network of more than 10,000 Bonner alumni—students focused on social justice issues who help connect Augsburg grads to opportunities beyond college and in communities outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

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LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

The community service-learning component of the Augsburg curriculum provides significant opportunities for Augsburg students and faculty to interact with the community and develop mutually beneficial relationships.

Mary Laurel True, director of service-learning, emphasized that service-learning is more than community service; it is part of the College’s commitment to the community. “This is about sharing our resources in all areas, asking what the community needs that we can provide,” she said. “It’s not just the courses, it’s the institution as a citizen.”

The curricular aspect of service-learning begins at the summer orientation program for undergraduate students in the day program. Throughout their orientation experience, groups explore the neighborhoods and begin to learn about opportunities to engage with and learn from Augsburg’s neighbors.

An Augsburg tradition for more than 15 years, City Service Day gives first-year day students an opportunity to serve in and learn about the community through service projects on the day before fall semester classes begin. This September, more than 400 students and their faculty leaders contributed 1,200 hours of service at local schools, community service centers, churches, and theaters.

Students continue building neighbor- hood relationships in their first-year seminar called “AugSem.” AugSem groups are determined by a student’s anticipated major area of study, so AugSem courses and service-learning opportunities engage students in ways that often continue after their first semester at Augsburg.

Every year, more than 35 service-learning courses include an experiential education component, which involves an average of 25 hours of off-campus service-learning in a semester. More importantly, True noted, students must reflect on their experiences. “They get credit for their reflection, not the time they spend in the community,” she said.

One example of how service-learning enhances the educational experience is found in the Education Department, where a field service experience is included in all major methods courses. In fact, education majors at Augsburg will complete at least 120 hours of service-learning in different elementary or secondary classrooms before student teaching, according to Jeanine Gregoire, associate professor of education.

Augsburg teacher candidates have opportunities to work with schools such as Seward Montessori and the Cedar-Riverside Community School. In cooperation with the classroom teachers, candidates learn how to build a curriculum to address the needs of all learners, including many who are English language learners from the Somali, Hmong, and Korean communities. “It’s a great experiential program for them to see how teaching and learning play out in the classroom,” Gregoire said.

Gregoire added that some teacher candidates come to Augsburg with little experience in diverse schools, so service-learning provides a broader perspective on the classroom. “It takes them out of their comfort zone and forces them to think critically about the issues affecting the curriculum,” Gregoire said, “and they get an understanding about the complexities of teaching to eager, bright students who have a huge range of abilities.”

Service-learning is an integral part of soci- ology professor James Vela-McConnell’s upper-division course on social problem analysis. Vela-McConnell chooses a social problem for the class to focus on, and students learn about the issue through traditional research, service in organizations, and intensive interviews with lay people and those who work in social service organizations. The goal, Vela-McConnell said, is to combine all the students’ work into a complete examination of a social problem.

“By doing this as a class project and not an individual project,” Vela-McConnell said, “I emphasize that I am not the expert and I become part of the collective learning experience.” He sees this role as valuable for the students because it allows professor and students to connect as equals and to work together.

These examples highlight how the learning experience can be enriched for students through service and show how Augsburg can benefit the community by sharing resources. True noted that many of the organizations involved in service-learning relationships with Augsburg have a small group of staff, so Augsburg students provide dedicated volunteer support that helps these organizations succeed and grow.

“I think what we have going here is thick and deep and grassroots,” True said. “It’s a reciprocal relationship with the community. It’s a long-term commitment.”

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EDUCATING CITIZENS AND LEADERS

Perhaps one of Augsburg’s most important contributors to educating informed citizens is the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning. Established officially in 2009 and named for Martin Olav Sabo ’59, Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District representative in the U.S. House for 28 years, the Sabo Center serves to connect the College to the greater community.

The Sabo Center is the College’s hub for public outreach with Campus Kitchen and Augsburg Reads as well as with the Minnesota Urban Debate League, the Minnesota High School Mathematics League, and Minnesota Campus Compact.

Also, through community service-learning classes and projects, and programs like Bonner Leader, Sabo Scholars, and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship (CDC), the Sabo Center gives voice to the College’s mission of educating students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.

And finally, with the support of the Sabo Center staff and College leadership, the director of community relations fulfills the center’s third purpose: to ensure Augsburg’s position in the community.

The fact that Augsburg received the 2010 Presidential Award for Community Service is due in great part to the programs and partnerships of the Sabo Center. This is the highest honor in the annual President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, and Augsburg was one of only six colleges and universities to receive this distinction.

Harry Boyte, director of the CDC, articulates the role of the Sabo Center as a platform for interaction and relationships between the campus and the community. He said, “It’s a way to develop working relationships and engagement and a thematic and philosophical way to address the mission of the College. The public work at the Sabo Center allows serious conceptual thinking about citizenship—being a citizen is about more than being a ‘good person,’ and this provides the public frame to break it open and talk about it.”

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship initiated two major projects this fall to help reinforce the role of higher education in promoting active citizenship.

THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH PROJECT fosters civic learn- ing, public engagement, and stewardship in higher education. The project is a partnership among the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College, the U.S. Department of Education, and the White House Office of Public Engagement. It will deepen connections and relationships and create policies, initiatives, and practices in public engagement efforts across higher education.

THE FESTIVAL OF THE COMMONS, co-hosted October 7 and 8 by Augsburg College and On The Commons, focused on how society creates, uses, and manages the commons—things we all share and own together. The event featured keynote speaker Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.

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