Just as summer began blossoming in southern Norway, 28 Augsburg faculty members, students, alumni, and friends of the College immersed themselves for 10 days of study and cultural touring in this country so closely tied to Augsburg’s historic identity. The customized program was developed by the Augsburg Center for Leadership Studies in partnership with Diakonhjemmet University College (DUC) in Oslo. Organizers set out to meet two goals: introduce more people in the Augsburg community to modern Norway and build stronger academic and interpersonal relationships with DUC.

This presentation as an Augsburg Now Web Extra offers images and interpretations of the June 5-10 study and cultural tour, as seen through the camera lens and in personal reflections of some travelers. The presentation covers three themes that emerged in our observations: Norwegian identity; war, remembrance, and peace; and cultural comity and consensus.

Professor Doug Green and Glenda Holste, MAL ’05 wrote and edited this Web Extra. Photos are by Lucinda Hruska-Claeys, MAL ’10, Warren Park, and Pete Holste.

Norwegian identity

By Doug Green, chair, Augsburg English Department

You can’t reduce Norway to mere facts. It’s not enough to say that it has 4.8 million people—relatively close to the 5.2 million in Minnesota, its historical American counterpart, though Norway’s population is scattered across a much larger area. It’s not enough to say that it’s one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, when for centuries it had been one of the poorest. It is still one of the least diverse, despite new immigration and its worldwide reputation as a vocal advocate for human rights. Neither is it sufficient to laud its anti-Nazi resistance without remembering the quislings who welcomed the invaders.

The Norwegians we met at seminars and on the street are, by their own admission, both fiercely independent (and hence suspicious of greater Europe) and slothful—waiting to see what their country can do for them and expecting it to deliver. With its small population and high standard of living, it is a virtual oil oligarchy, in love with the luxuries its newfound wealth can buy, but also a society that is squirreling away its revenue for a rainy day. Norwegians are romantics, deeply in love with the varied, jagged contours of their rugged land. But Norway is also a nation of rationalists, who debate what the good society is and then develop policies to produce it, and a community of doubters, who question their own intentions. They are self-interested and selfless, true believers and apostates, romantics and dour stoics.

This June’s Educational and Cultural Tour of Norway, sponsored by the Augsburg College Center for Leadership Studies, afforded two main routes into the paradoxes of modern Norwegian identity: the background we received through our colleagues at Diakonhjemmet University College and our travels, guided by Lisbeth Lindback, through Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, and the countryside along the way. Sometimes we found it difficult to separate the two: What we heard about Norway’s communitarian policies, as we might call them, seemed realized in some public spaces, like the magnificent opera house on Oslo’s harbor, which serves simultaneously as a home to high art and as a public gathering place, or like the breathtaking design and sculptures of Vigeland Park.

In fact, Vigeland Park may be the perfect emblem for Norway: it was the life’s work of Gustav Vigeland, one of the great sculptors of the 20th century, and a mammoth public project—a synthesis of individual and governmental efforts. Vigeland’s sculptures of children, men, women, couples, and families are at once warm and monumental and moving in both senses of that word—as if Gaston Lachaise’s heroic figures had been reinterpreted and humanized by Bernini. Vigeland’s design for the park is classical with neat symmetries converging on a central obelisk, yet the lush setting and animated figures have been touched by the baroque spirit, if not the outright romantic.

The balance of antitheses in Vigeland’s art has been harder to accomplish in Norwegian society. Diakonhjemmet Professor Einar Vetvik addressed the country’s gradual shift from an official state religion to diverse state-supported church institutions in a country that, like much of Europe, has seen a great decline in religious belief and practice. Diakonhjemmet Rector Harald Askeland and Professors Sidsel Sverdrup (yes, related to those Augsburg Sverdrups) and Beate Jelstad discussed “Gender and Leadership” in Norway, which “has policies to actively promote equity at the top levels of government and business.” But our visit to , the Federation of Norwegian Commercial and Service Enterprises, suggested that, despite policies like generously subsidized maternity and parental leaves and other significant advances, Norway—like the U.S.—still has a long way to go. For instance, “in the public sector 55 percent of leaders are women, while [only] 24 percent of the leaders in the private sector are women.”

Professor Hans Morten Haugen raised ethical and political questions about the tensions in “Norway’s Leadership in International Peacemaking and Development Work,” particularly the shift from aiding the poorest countries to aiding the most strategic countries in need of help. As we learned at the Nobel Peace Center and later at the Directorate for Development Aid, many Peace Prize recipients and even the best intended aid policies have proved controversial. While such controversies are not unique to Norway, the rational analyses and intelligent public discussion of such issues are refreshingly different from the sound bites that increasingly characterize political discourse in much of the West, especially in the U.S.

About one aspect of Norway, however, everyone agrees: It is a stunningly beautiful country. On our journey from Oslo in the east to Bergen on the western coast, we passed through Geilo’s stark hills and lush valleys to Myrdal; took the steeply graded rail line from Myrdal down to FlÃ¥m, gasping every time we emerged from a tunnel to visions of emerald vales and rock-strewn waterfalls; and cruised the placid, brackish waters of an inland fjord surrounded by glacial falls and rugged cliffs. We entered the remarkably well-preserved Uvdal stave church from 1167, still used for weddings. We were introduced to its long history by a young man who still marveled that he had been baptized in its aged wooden baptismal font. We visited a wildlife park with endangered wolves, polar foxes, reindeer, and wildcats. But the old seaports of Bergen—with its Hanseatic Museum and U.N. World Heritage wooden waterfront buildings—and Stavanger, with its lovely old cathedral, equally impressed us.

One ancient artifact perhaps best embodies our foray into Norwegian identity: an excavated Viking ship. The ship reminds us not only of the notorious violence, range, and daring of Viking raids and exploration, but of the culture’s accomplishments in arts and crafts, so evident in the ship’s design and the elaborate scrollwork ornamenting the prow. Norway is still like that—a land and a culture of striking contrasts and enduring beauty.

War, remembrance, and peace

By Glenda Holste, MAL ’05

The last words in Norway’s Resistance Museum exhibit explain the small country’s huge commitment to peace and targeted international development: Aldri mer. Never again.

“I learned about what a deep effect World War II had on Norway. I saw evidence of great pride in the efforts of the resistance movement, mixed with complicated emotions toward both the Norwegians who collaborated with Germany and Norway’s subsequent punishment of the collaborators. There seems to be such an awareness of the dark and complex nature of the whole episode. This introspection about the effect of war struck me as being particularly pronounced in Norway. Norway’s painful experiences during World War II may in part nurture the country’s commitment to finding peaceful solutions to conflict. Our group’s visits to the Resistance Museum at Akershus and the Nobel Peace Center illustrated these two aspects and their role in shaping modern Norway,” said Patty Park, an MAL alumna and MAL co-coordinator.

The Norwegian equivalent of the U.S. Pentagon, the around Akershus Castle by the Oslo Fjord, holds the modest museum in the heart of today’s bustling defense establishment. The museum building is tucked into a battlement next to where the Nazi occupiers executed Norwegian resistance fighters.

Professor Barbara West of Augsburg’s education faculty took in the remembrance born of historic adversity as an occupied nation. “I was most impressed by the sense and honor of history that is communicated by most Norwegians,” she said. “This was most poignantly evidenced as we toured the Resistance Museum in Oslo, where I saw first-hand many replicas and exhibits that captured the events leading to Nazi occupation of Norway during WWII. Such careful attention to detail vaulted each visitor directly into Norway’s incredible transition from a peace-loving, neutral state to a forced posture of determined defiance to preserve that identity.”

 

A short bus ride away, Oslo City Hall and the define Norway’s unique role in a global quest for peace and humanitarian vision. The grand ceremonial room where President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize last December keeps history alive with murals of heroic scope, all by Norwegian artists of the 20th century. Outside on the day we visited City Hall, modern Norway was showing its stuff, too, in a display of cars that use little or no fossil fuel. Then. Now. Going forward but never forgetting Norway’s strategic interest in peace-making.

Professor Haugen explained the strategy for choosing where and how Norway invests about 30 billion kroner a year in development. That’s 3% of gross domestic product. All of U.S. foreign assistance outside of military objectives amounts to less than 0.05% of GDP. Norway sees the outreach as an investment, part of its national “branding” as well as the right thing to do. Norway is a rich country, doing good for others but with its self-interest in mind.

Comity and consensus

Then there’s domestic self-interest, or the Norwegian Model. On the day we visited the Opera House in Olso, workers were striking the place—just before opening night of a big production. The object of their negotiation with management—the government—was to equalize pay between men and women workers. A strike represents a failure of negotiations in the U.S., which has a relatively small number of workers represented by unions and the bargaining process can be contentious. In Norway, a strike is more theatrical than substantial, just part of the conversation over how to distribute agreed-upon resources. Yes, Norway does things differently, we learned at HSH. The national government agency adds up to a sort of combination commerce and human resources department. Business, government, and workers are viewed as three equal entities in making the economy hum along. Gry Myklebust, a chief adviser at HSH and an attorney, put it this way: “We think it is quite important [for business] to collaborate with government and unions. Besides the cultural cohesion involved, union density in the workforce is 53% while 70% of Norwegians are covered by some kind of collective bargaining agreement. In the U.S., union density was 12.3% last year.

Call Norway’s economic cooperation part of the culture that values comity above contention. Or call it the easy way to consensus.

Encore, encore!

Back in Minnesota, the buzz has begun about Norway II while in Olso, our host Professor Vetvik of DUC, reported that he’s writing a book about the experience from his perspective on the partnership. Meanwhile, its pictures, e-mails between new friends and dreaming about next time.

BY WENDI WHEELER ’06

In theatre, as in life, finding success is often about who you know. But knowing the right people isn’t enough. In order to build the foundation for a thriving career in theatre, students need to form and maintain connections with the people and the places that make up the “theatre scene.”

Perhaps this is one of the most important lessons that Augsburg theatre students learn. Through participation in AugSem, the Artist Series, internships, and by attending some of the hundreds of productions staged throughout the Twin Cities every year, students are challenged to go away from Augsburg, and sometimes outside of their comfort zones, in order to make connections in the theatre community.

Connecting to the city

From the beginning of her Augsburg education, Tessa Flynn ’05 says she was encouraged to get involved in the city. A theatre arts and mass communication major, she was particularly interested in the role of theatre in the public school system. She was fortunate to land an internship with the Children’s Theatre Company following her sophomore year, an opportunity that served as her introduction to critical literacy in the classroom.

The Children’s Theatre’s Neighborhood Bridges program was started in 1997 by Jack Zipes, fairy tale scholar, and the Children’s Theatre Company artistic director, Peter Brosius. Using a variety of mediums such as theatre arts, storytelling, and creative writing, students work through issues in their lives and develop critical thinking and communication skills. “It’s like a little poison, this whole critical literacy thing,” Flynn says. “It gets in your system, and your teaching is forever changed.”

Before Flynn’s last year of school, sociology professor Garry Hesser encouraged her to get involved with the Project for Pride in Living college house in the Phillips neighborhood. She lived there with other college students and tutored middle school students from the community. “I saw that my students needed to break a cycle of violence and poverty, and I became even more convinced that theatre could be an important part of that process,” Flynn says.

Now Flynn is the community engagement manager and a teaching artist with the Bridges program at Children’s Theatre. She works with students in grades 3–8 and has 22 classrooms where she spends two hours a week. Flynn says the Bridges program engages multiple learning styles and allows students to recognize their individual skills. “When I see students shine in Bridges, who in other areas of the school day are thought of as low-achieving or who hide in the shadows, I am convinced that this is important work.”

Flynn says she is grateful for the opportunities she had at Augsburg. “I don’t know if I would be where I am now if not for the encouragement of faculty to get involved in the city.”

Katie Koch ’01/’05 also made many connections in the city that led her on a circuitous path—from campus to downtown Minneapolis to New York and back to Augsburg with a few more stops in between.

Koch started out as a music major, but when her high school drama teacher took a position as stage manager at Hey City Theatre, longtime home of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, Koch was given an opportunity to assist him.

She worked as the assistant stage manager and as an actor in Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding at Hey City for three years while she was in school. “I would be in Augsburg Choir with my hair in pin curls,” Koch said, “because I literally had to go straight from rehearsal to the theater.”

She says it was the advice of Sonja Thompson, a piano instructor and vocal coach at Augsburg, that finally convinced her she could leave the music department. “She said, ‘You’re doing all this work in theatre … you don’t have to be a music major,'” Koch says.

Instead of declaring a new major, Koch left school to stage manage the next show at Hey City, Smokey Joe’s Cafe. She then became an assistant stage manager for the Minnesota Opera, went on to work with Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., and freelanced as a stage manager from Milwaukee to Miami. Eventually she came back to Augsburg and completed a degree in theatre.

Koch, who was by then a theatre veteran, found herself in the classroom with younger students. “It was interesting to be tossed in with a group of young, eager students,” she says. But she formed relationships with students and even became a mentor to some. “It was exciting to watch such a talented group of artists learn and get ready to begin their careers.”

After school, Koch worked at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts until a friend encouraged her to respond to a posting for the assistant to the director of the Guthrie. She went through several interviews including a very brief interview with Joe Dowling who, she says, asked her mostly about the professionals she’d worked with in her career. “I guess he’d already made the decision to hire me,” she says. She’s worked with Dowling now for three years.

Koch maintains connections to Augsburg, sometimes serving as a guest lecturer and hosting Augsburg student groups who visit the Guthrie.

“A huge advantage for Augsburg and the theatre department is the city,” Koch says. “Being in the city, you get to have the Guthrie and so many other theaters as an extension of the classroom.” She adds that anytime she gets a chance to talk to Augsburg students, she tells them to take advantage of the opportunities to see high-quality performances in the city. “I say you need to sit in the seats and watch … this is your practicum.”

Going behind the scenes

Each year many aspiring actors come to Augsburg hoping to make a name for themselves onstage. And while many do just that, they also sometimes discover and develop their calling to work behind the scenes by getting involved backstage.

This was the case for Lee Fisher ’06, Michael Kelley ’05, and Justin Hooper ’07. All three were very talented actors who performed in a variety of roles while at Augsburg, but each one also learned a lot about his craft while working on the technical side of shows.

Fisher, who has taught English and directed the theatre program for five years at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in Plymouth, says that being a stage manager was an important part of his education. “When I was behind the scenes, it wasn’t about me. As an educator that has been very helpful,” he says. “Success happens when the focus is on what the students need and how I can help them.”

Today he directs two major productions a year and frequently draws on his connections with Augsburg theatre faculty for advice about organizing shows. He’s sought out professors Michael Burden ’85, Martha Johnson, and Darcey Engen ’88 for help on developing a curriculum and organizing a show, and he says he wouldn’t be able to do what he’s done without their help.

Fisher also stays in touch with education and English faculty who were instrumental in his education because he values the professional connections. “I knew my experience at Augsburg wouldn’t end after graduation,” Fisher says. He adds that his Augsburg professors continue to be sources of guidance and friendship.

Kelley and Hooper also had eye-opening experiences working backstage at Augsburg. Kelley says he came to college wanting to be a professional actor but became interested in other career possibilities after working in Augsburg’s scene shop for four years. And Hooper says his experience was all-encompassing because he worked on- and offstage. “There was always a lot of good discussion,” he adds, noting that theatre majors tended to spend a lot of time together and to continue their classroom discussions outside of class. “You see that everything in theatre is so connected.”

Hooper is grateful for the opportunities he had to work with and get to know guest artists while he was a student. “In theatre, it’s all about who you know,” Hooper says. In addition to meeting professionals through faculty connections, he and all theatre students work with actors, directors, and designers from the community on Augsburg productions. “That commitment to bringing in outside artists puts Augsburg one step higher than other college programs.”

The connections they made while studying theatre at Augsburg have contributed to their busy and sometimes complicated professional careers. Since graduation, they have acted in and directed shows, painted and designed sets, and written original and adapted works. They’ve been from Winona, Minn., to Acadia, Maine, and back. And now, in addition to maintaining their day jobs, the two are putting their blood, sweat, and tears into managing 3AM Productions, a small local theatre company.

At 3AM, Kelley says they draw on their connections with other artists in the community to create unique and multidimensional productions. “We want every show to be something people aren’t used to seeing,” he says. He adds that they strive to provide a well-rounded “big theatre” experience to the patrons who are supporting their small theatre. “I think it’s what we do well.”

Finding your stage

It takes more than theatre majors and faculty and staff to stage a production. Often many non-majors get involved in theatre in college but don’t end up in “the business” until later in life.

Carla Steen ’91 is one student whose path to professional theatre went through the English and history departments at Augsburg.

As a first-year student, she ran the light board for Julie Bolton’s production of Macbeth—with a set designed by Burden (then a graduate student at the University of Minnesota) and starring Engen as Lady Macbeth. But that was the end of her participation in theatre at Augsburg as a student.

Instead, Steen, who has worked at the Guthrie for 12 years as a dramaturg and publications manager, studied literary criticism with English professor Doug Green and worked on a senior honors project under his direction. She also researched Shakespearean history and sources for her history senior seminar taught by Richard Nelson, now professor emeritus.

“In many ways, that was the beginning of me thinking that research for theatre was an interesting thing I could do,” Steen says.

During and after college, Steen worked in the box office at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. An actor friend there suggested she become a dramaturg, and eventually she went to Columbia to pursue an MFA.

Because she had very little experience in the “creative side” of theatre, Steen says her MFA was an immersion experience. “I said, ‘Oh, so this is how all this works.'”

Today Steen says it is interesting to come back to Augsburg because as a student she wasn’t really involved with the theatre department. She has taught and been a guest lecturer at the College, and she tries to see at least one production a year.

Steen says theatre students in the Twin Cities are fortunate because of the opportunities to meet and see high-quality actors, directors, and artists. “When students see other actors on the great stages of this city, they can read their bios and see their training, and that helps them see how to get from Augsburg’s stage to another.”

Another student who played a minor role at Augsburg and went on to a thriving career in theatre is Jenni Lilledahl ’87. As a student, Lilledahl took courses with Ailene Cole, now professor emerita. “She seemed like she lived and breathed theatre and was completely consumed with passion for the forum,” Lilledahl says. “She influenced me as an artist, and I always admired her from a distance.”

Though Lilledahl took courses to obtain a minor in theatre, she felt the need to study in a more lucrative field. “I remember hearing voices saying, ‘You have to pay the bills and have a reliable income.'” Lilledahl majored in communication and public relations.

After graduating and working in corporate public relations, she decided to try the “comedy thing,” so she started taking improvisation classes and met her future husband, John Sweeney. Eventually she jumped off the corporate ladder so that she and Sweeney could pursue their dreams, and the couple moved to Chicago and worked at The Second City.

Then in 1997, along with Mark Bergren, the couple bought the Brave New Workshop from its founder, Dudley Riggs. “John and I had three or so years of experience in theatre but had a lot more business experience,” Lilledahl says. “I guess we were sort of the oddballs of the theatre community, but Dudley appreciated that we could manage the business as well as the artistic side.”

As the current co-owner of Brave New Workshop and executive director of the Brave New Institute, Lilledahl oversees the theatre’s school, which reaches more than 150 students a week, and she conducts improvisation workshops around the country. She is also on the board for Gilda’s Club Twin Cities, an organization that provides emotional and social support for families impacted by cancer.

Lilledahl returns to Augsburg at least once a year to speak in chapel. Often her advice to students, which she says is based on years of seeing who gets work and who doesn’t, is to get as much stage time as they can—wherever, whenever, and however—and to have a life outside of the theatre.

“We hire people because they are active and are creating their own work, not waiting for someone,” she says. “And they also have some other passions that aren’t about theatre.” Lilledahl adds that an actor’s experiences outside of theatre help them bring life to a script and creativity to the stage.

And perhaps that is what makes all these alumni successful.

At Augsburg students are trained as actors, directors, and technicians, but they also learn how to become involved in their community as artists and as informed citizens. They understand that making connections is important to their careers and to their personal lives as well. They’re encouraged to explore many aspects of theatre, to develop their craft, and to work and learn at Augsburg and in the city. More than blocking and movement or scene study and character analysis, these are the lessons that will stick with them as they make their mark on the world’s stage.

By Jeff Shelman

It was spring 2007 and Mark Matzek ’05 couldn’t sleep. He was 25 years old, had just finished his first full year of teaching mathematics at Apple Valley High School, and suddenly was faced with a significant life decision.

Ever since deciding to become a high school teacher, Matzek’s goal was to return to his hometown of Ellsworth, Wis., coach his nephews on the wrestling mat, and teach math to his nieces. With only two coaches over the past 60 years, Ellsworth had become a wrestling power in Wisconsin, and continuing that interested Matzek. But Matzek was also an Auggie. The three-time All-American and two-time national champion had spent two years as a part-time assistant coach at his alma mater.

So, three years ago Matzek had to make a choice. A math position opened in Ellsworth and plans would be made to make him the coach-in-waiting. At the same time, Jeff Swenson retired as Augsburg’s wrestling coach, the assistant coach was promoted, and Matzek was offered the full-time assistant coach position.

“I kept waking up thinking Augsburg was the right choice,” Matzek says.

Turns out it was.

Back on top at No. 1

Fast forward three years and Matzek doesn’t have some of the worries that many 28-year-olds have. He doesn’t worry about whether that promotion is really going to happen. He doesn’t fret about that next job. And he isn’t in that wondering-what-is-next mode that seems to go along with that time of one’s life.

Fresh off a Colorado vacation filled with mountain climbing, Matzek couldn’t be more comfortable with where he is. And for good reason. Sitting in his Kennedy Center office, Matzek has two pieces of serious hardware within arm’s reach. The first is for the NCAA Division III wrestling national championship that Augsburg won in March. The second is for Matzek being named Division III Coach of the Year.

“There is no ‘what’s next’,” says Matzek, the youngest coach to ever win a Division III title. “This is where I want to be. It’s Augsburg. This is the premier small wrestling school in America. This is a dream job.”

And this winter, the Augsburg wrestling program truly became Matzek’s program. With former coach/program architect/athletic director Jeff Swenson ’79 simply a spectator, Matzek led the Auggies to one of its most successful seasons in school history.

The Auggies simply didn’t lose. A team with great balance, Augsburg was perfect in dual meets; it won every tournament it entered and the Auggies closed the season by winning their 11th national championship in the past 20 years. It was a season that included dual meet victories over the teams that finished both first and second in the Division II championship and a drama-free Division III national championship in which Augsburg clinched the title before the championship matches began.

While there were certainly questions about whether Matzek would be able to keep the Augsburg wrestling program at the same level—the fact that he looks both younger than his age and younger than some of his wrestlers didn’t help—there is little question now.

“I couldn’t be happier for Mark; they got the monkey off their back,” Swenson says. “You win one and then you don’t have to answer the question any longer. And I couldn’t be happier that I had nothing to do with it.”

Matzek says he didn’t feel pressure to win that first title, but he also knows that there were people nationally who expected a misstep. “If Augsburg was ever going to falter, it was going to be the last two years,” he says. “And we finished second and first.”

Bumps along the way

It was a little more than two years ago when Swenson walked into Matzek’s office and asked him to serve as the program’s interim coach. It was the end of July, the school year was less than six weeks from starting and Matzek was handed the keys.

“Was I prepared as well as others in the nation? No,” Matzek says. “But I didn’t want it to go outside the Augsburg family. I didn’t really know what I had agreed to until I went home and told my wife.”

The next eight months were a blur for Matzek, who at times was just trying to stay a step ahead of his wrestlers and make it to the next day.

Because in addition to leading the Auggies, he was also part of the way through a graduate program at Concordia-St. Paul, a program that was much more manageable when he was an assistant coach.

“I had three full-time jobs,” he joked. “I had Augsburg, I had my master’s program, and I had my wife. Our guys would study and I’d be there working on my homework at the same time.”

While athletics may not be as cutthroat at the Division III level as it is, say, in the Big Ten, contests are still scored and it isn’t intramurals.

“I didn’t want to just hold on and be a bridge from one coach to another,” Matzek says. “I wanted to win the title for those guys. It was a year of extreme highs and extreme lows for me. I was learning to manage all of the different guys, manage personalities and figure out that not all athletes were like me when I was in college.”

Matzek was certainly more than just the guy to get Augsburg by. The Auggies defeated rival Wartburg, won the Division III National Duals, and entered the NCAA Championships ranked No. 1 in the country.

“I knew we didn’t have as good of a tournament team as we did a dual meet team,” Matzek says. “We had a couple of injuries, and we had a couple of matches that didn’t go our way. After the first day I knew it was going to be tough.”

The Auggies finished second, but Matzek did enough to ensure his future as Augsburg’s head coach. While the search committee did bring in two outside candidates to interview for the position, Matzek was hired.

“Given the circumstances, he did a great job,” Swenson says. “We were a lowly-ranked team and he took us to the No. 1 ranking and a second-place finish. There was a real strong assumption with the committee that he had done a good enough job.”

In the right place now

While Matzek has been a head coach for only two seasons—and only one season in which he knew the job was really his—he has impressed the guy who is both his boss and the architect of the Augsburg program.

“I think Mark has become a quick expert at preparing his teams for competition,” Swenson says. “I think he gets it. I believe he has taken the Augsburg system and tweaked it to have Mark Matzek’s name on it. He’s done it by having a keen sense of what athletes need.

“He’s a lot closer in age to his wrestlers. He knows how it feels to go through this. He’s really in tune to when the guys need to be pushed, need a day off, need rest.”

Like anyone in a new job, the second year was easier for Matzek than the first. He had a better understanding of what the job entailed, there were fewer surprises, and he could learn from both high points and challenges of his first year. And when the Auggies reached the NCAA Championships, Matzek knew the work had been done.

“I don’t want to sound cocky or arrogant, but we expected [the national championship], we expected to win it,” he says. “It wasn’t a real surprise.”

While Swenson was happy for Matzek, Matzek was happy for his boss. “It was big for Augsburg wrestling to win it without Jeff in the wrestling room, it was a big relief for him and the search committee,” Matzek says. “They took a chance and it worked out.”

And, as a result, Matzek is exactly where he wants to be.

Mark Matzek at Augsburg

2001-05: Student-athlete

Two individual national championships

Three-time All-American

The team won two national titles and had two runner-up finishes.

2005-2008: Assistant coach

Augsburg won the 2007 national championship and finished third in both 2006 and 2008.

2008-09: Interim head coach

Team rose to No. 1 in the national rankings and won the National Duals.

The Auggies finished second at the NCAA championships.

2009-10: Permanent head coach

The Auggies completed a perfect season, winning every dual meet and tournament.

Augsburg won its 11th Division III national championship in the past 20 years.

Matzek was named Division III Coach of the Year.

By Wendi Wheeler ’06

Note—In order to be respectful of the students in the StepUP program, their last names are not used.

Going to college was never a part of Emily A.’s future plans. She dropped out of high school and eventually got her GED. When she first heard about StepUP®, she was in her late twenties and living in a sober house in St. Paul. “I thought my time had passed,” Emily said. “College was one of the mountains I just wasn’t going to climb.”

But she called Augsburg and made an appointment with Patrice Salmeri, StepUP program director. “All the time she was talking to me, I was saying, ‘Yeah, yeah. Sounds great,’ but I had no intention of applying.”

Then she met Chris Belbeck ’06, an admissions counselor and a StepUP alumnus. “He asked me, ‘What are you waiting for?’ and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.” So before she left campus that day, she had started filling out an application.

Four years later, Emily graduated with honors from Augsburg this spring. “I didn’t have any goals when I was using,” she says. “But StepUP has taught me that I have amazing drive and potential.” Without StepUP, Emily says she doubts she would have even tried going to college.

Since 1997, the StepUP program has helped students in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs learn similar lessons about themselves. To date, more than 400 students from across the nation have participated and have maintained an 85% abstinence rate while in the program. They are successful in sobriety and in the classroom, earning a collective 3.2 GPA at Augsburg.

For many StepUP graduates, the thought of going to college was at one time unimaginable— never mind staying sober in school and getting good grades. But the StepUP community has given many students in recovery the opportunity to contribute to society in ways they never thought they would.

The community is the program

Several colleges and universities sponsor 12-step meetings and provide academic support or counseling services for students in recovery. But StepUP goes further by offering chemical-free housing for students in what they refer to as a collegiate recovery community.

“The community is a safe place where you feel supported,” says Scott Washburn, the program’s assistant director. The students guard and protect the safety of the community by holding each other accountable.

While they are involved in StepUP, students meet individually with a StepUP counselor each week. They are required to attend two 12-step meetings per week and to maintain an active working relationship with a sponsor. Students also attend a weekly StepUP community meeting where they hear from outside speakers, discuss program business, share service opportunities, and celebrate even the smallest of victories.

“Getting an A on a math test or just making it to the first day of class, those are chances for us to celebrate,” says Salmeri. “The little things really make a difference.”

Achieving success—in sobriety, academically, and in the community— is part of the StepUP culture. “We build positive community norms that are geared toward succeeding, growing, and doing well,” Washburn says. “That’s why it’s different. That’s why it works.”

The other component of StepUP that makes it stand out from traditional recovery programs is that the program is constantly shaped by student input. In particular, students serve on the leadership team, which meets regularly with staff to share what is happening in the community and to keep the program moving in the right direction.

“The students really take initiative to make changes for the better in the community,” Salmeri says. This mature partnership, where staff and students work together, gives students the confidence to develop into leaders. Salmeri adds, “I can see the potential in them, and it is our role to help them realize it within themselves.”

A perfect fit

The idea for StepUP began when two students at Augsburg approached Don Warren, the former director of Augsburg’s Center for Learning and Adaptive Student Services (CLASS), to ask for his help. The students shared with Warren how being in college was difficult for them. They struggled not only with the usual day-to-day challenges of college life but also with staying clean and sober.

Warren turned to Dave Hadden, then the educational and vocational liaison at Hazelden, for his help. Washburn, who worked with Hadden at that time, said Hadden had developed an educational and vocational packet for patients coming out of treatment “to get them thinking about their direction in life,” Washburn says, but they didn’t have a college to recommend.

In fact, Washburn says, “We would discourage young people from going to college straight out of treatment. We told them they needed a year of sobriety first and a really solid foundation.”

Warren and Hadden’s idea for a residential program that would offer counseling and support proved to be just the foundation students needed to transition from treatment to college. In the fall of 1997, 23 students moved into Anderson Hall to begin college and the StepUP program. Thirteen years later, the program serves 72 students who live in Oren Gateway Center, a chemical-free facility that is also home to the StepUP staff offices.

Washburn believes the StepUP program and its students have flourished at Augsburg due in part to the values shared by the program and the College. “Augsburg’s culture is about providing access and helping all kinds of students get the support they need to be successful,” he says. “That’s perfect for students like ours.”

Also, as a private liberal arts college of the ELCA, Washburn says the Augsburg community is open to conversations about spirituality. In 12-step programs, students learn to rely on a higher power or a God of their understanding. “We work really hard with students to help them define their meaning and purpose …” Washburn adds.

Part of that purpose is being of service to others, another value in line with Augsburg’s mission. “We help students find a vision and see that no matter what they do, they can make a difference in the world,” Washburn says. Making a difference means being of service to the community— not just the StepUP community or the recovery community but at Augsburg, in the city, and throughout the world.

Success through service

Being a part of the StepUP community helps students maintain sobriety because it gives them a chance to help others. Being “of service” is an essential component of any 12-step recovery program, whether it is by sponsoring others, sharing in meetings, or even making coffee.

Tyler P. has learned that success in college can come through helping others, not just from studying. After he faced serious consequences from his drug use, Tyler entered treatment at Hazelden. One of his friends from treatment, the only one he knew who had stayed sober, was in StepUP. Tyler saw that the young man was a good student and that he wasn’t getting high or drunk. For Tyler, that kind of life was hard to imagine.

He enrolled at Augsburg in 2008 and now participates in the StepUP community, sharing his experience with other men as a sponsor. “I’ve earned more As through being of service to others than when I white-knuckled it for eight hours cramming for a test,” he says.

In recovery, Tyler has seen students transform their lives. “I’ve seen guys go from not being able to sweep the floor when they first get sober to being able to run meetings, get on the dean’s list, and participate in life.”

And Tyler’s life has also been transformed. “I was not an all-star student in high school, but I’ve found a lot of success here.” He’s been on the dean’s list for three semesters and has developed a network of sober friends. Most importantly, Tyler says being a part of the community has given him the chance to practice the principles he’s learned in his recovery program.

A new way of living

Salmeri says StepUP also helps students learn that they are leaders and role models, not only for other students in recovery but for all members of the Augsburg community. Students can serve in formal leadership positions in StepUP, in student government, as a member of residence life, or by participating in athletics. But many also become role models to their peers simply by becoming the people they were meant to be.

When Julia G. first learned about the StepUP program, she had only been sober for a few weeks. As time passed and she neared the six-month mark of her sobriety, the minimum requirement for acceptance into StepUP, Julia realized that going back to college was possible for her.

While in the program, students in StepUP are required to live on campus. This meant that Julia, who had been living in a sober house where she was the youngest resident, would now be the oldest woman in her residence hall.

For the first month, Julia says she felt out of place because of the age difference. “I thought I was unique because I had more life experience,” she says. “I judged the other girls.”

Eventually Julia began to realize she was more like the other students than she had thought. “We all had different experiences, but we also had something very important in common.” That sense of belonging helped Julia form “intense, involved relationships” with the other students. “For the first time in my life, I was a trustworthy person. It meant a lot to me that the other women looked up to me.”

Today Julia has a degree, a career she calls “fantastic,” and a relationship with her nine-year-old son. And she’s stayed sober for seven years. “I really turned into myself at Augsburg,” Julia says. “StepUP showed me that anything is possible.”

Moving in the right direction

Over the years, StepUP has provided a safe, supportive community for hundreds of students. The program has allowed them to achieve the goal of college graduation while also staying clean and sober—a goal that was at one time overshadowed by their addiction. And the confidence students gain in StepUP keeps them going in the right direction after they move on from Augsburg.

Witnessing this achievement is a great joy for Salmeri and the other StepUP staff. “The privilege of my position as director is to witness the growth of each student as they experience the transition into mature adults,” she says.

For 10 years, Salmeri says her dream job was to work for Augsburg in the StepUP program. “After eight years of working here, I can still say it is my dream job. I feel honored and humbled to work with the students and their families.”

“I am your biggest fan”

Every year the StepUP program celebrates the accomplishments of its graduates— those who have completed their studies at Augsburg as well as those who have completed their residency with StepUP and will move off campus. The StepUP graduation ceremony is a special time set aside to recognize the outstanding achievements of the StepUP students and for the Augsburg community to hear their inspirational stories.

The theme, chosen by the students on the StepUP leadership council, was “I am your biggest fan.”

These are sentiments shared by Patrice Salmeri, StepUP program director, at this year’s ceremony:

“… let this statement sink deep into your soul. Write it on a rock. Etch it on a tree. I am your biggest fan. I am rooting for you all the way. And it has been this way since your first contact with the StepUP program. Through the ups and downs, the difficulties and celebrations, life’s twists and turns—I am your biggest fan!

Your legacy here at Augsburg and the StepUP program has already been left, and it is more than enough! Whether it was a kind word you said or being a consistent friend in another’s life, you may never know. But each of you has left their mark on this place and it is forever changed because of your presence.”

A tradition at the StepUP graduation is for a student to read from “The Awakening,” an anonymous poem about recovery. This is an excerpt from the poem:

You learn that, for the most part, in life you get what you believe you deserve … and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it happen. More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline, and perseverance. You also learn that no one can do it all alone and that it’s OK to risk asking for help.