But the legacy of “Big Man,” who died in March of pancreatic cancer after serving Augsburg for 39 years and retiring in 1996, goes far beyond athletics. As a soft-spoken teacher, mentor, and source of courage and inspiration, he made a difference. If Corky Hall ’71 is any indication, he also instilled generosity and gratitude.

“He is the person who kindled the fire in me, and I think he did that for many, many people,” Hall said. He and his wife, Lori, led the charge to name Saugestad Hall in the Center for Science, Business, and Religion (CSBR) with their $25,000 pledge—a first step toward the $150,000 naming goal and a tribute to the CSBR as a visual symbol of strength and connection.

When we build the CSBR, “[���ܲ������ܰ���’s] facilities will grow to match the quality of our faculty,” said Hall. “Coach had a huge effect on all of us.”

A gifted athlete who became both hockey and football captain, Hall had few academic expectations when he entered Augsburg. His parents hadn’t finished high school, no one in his family had attended college, and homework was a foreign concept. Yet, one day, he managed to ace a test in Saugestad’s tough physiology class.

“Ed was the first person to tell me that I was smart,” he recalled. “He set me on a path I wouldn’t have found otherwise.” That path led him to a career that included starting, with classmate Bill Urseth ’71, one of the nation’s leading promotional marketing agencies, U.S. Communications, U.S. Restaurants, and U.S. Studios; launching a brand consultancy, Hall Batko; and founding Stellus Consulting, which helps
corporate leaders envision and brand their companies.

It also led him to realize that great mentoring builds strong bridges—between athletics and academics, between teachers and students, and between gratitude and giving back.

“Augsburg needs great facilities for athletes to develop their academic side,” he said. “Ed made the bridge for me between athletics and academics, and if I hadn’t gotten strong academics at Augsburg, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I want to give a gift that says ‘thank you’ to Ed for making such a difference in my life.”

Hall has found that his fellow Augsburg alumni have similar gratitude for Saugestad’s commitment and are willing to echo his “thank you.”

“Corky is so respected by the Augsburg community that, when he steps forward, he sets a tone with his leadership. That’s the momentum we need,” said Keith Stout, Augsburg College director of principal gifts. “He wants everyone involved, participating at any level. If they’re grateful for their time with Ed, it’s their chance to honor his legacy.”

By May, the initiative had raised $105,000.

“He deserves it,” Hall said. “Ed did so much to make our lives better. Now it’s our turn.”

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Augsburg College President Paul C. Pribbenow was one of several Auggies to take an inaugural ride on the Metro Transit Green Line during its grand opening June 14. The Green Line runs from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis and is the second Light Rail Transit (LRT) line to pass through Cedar-Riverside—the only neighborhood in the Twin Cities with access to both LRT lines. 

The addition of the Green Line expands student access to jobs, internships, and experiential education opportunities; enhances safety in the neighborhood; and contributes to a vital urban environment for all who live and work in the area.

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Barry Goldwater Scholarship
Eric Bowman ’15, a biology and chemistry major and McNair Scholar, received an honorable mention in the Barry Goldwater Scholarship competition. The Goldwater Foundation provides $7,500 undergraduate scholarships to students who plan to pursue a research career in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field, and the scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. Bowman was one of only eight Minnesotans to receive an honorable mention this year.

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Since 2008, 36 Auggies have been awarded a total of $150,000 from the Gilman International Scholarship.

This spring, sociology and psychology major Pa-Loo Lor ’14 studied at ���ܲ������ܰ���’s exchange partner, Hong Kong Baptist University. This summer, GaoSheng Yang ’14 studied and interned in Shanghai. She is an international relations major with a minor in management information systems. And this fall, biology major Fowsia Elmi ’15, international business and finance major Smeret Hailom ’15, and sociology major Ayan Khayro ’15 will study in Turkey; and music major Elizabeth Fontaine ’16 will study in Indonesia.

Kemper Scholars Program
Najma Warsame ’17, a communication studies student, was named the College’s fourth Kemper Scholar. Students in this prestigious program, which is funded by the James S. Kemper Foundation, receive academic scholarships and stipends to cover the costs of two summer internships in major nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Augsburg is one of only 16 U.S. liberal arts colleges with the Kemper Scholars Program distinction.

Newman Civic Fellows Award
Vincent Henry ’15 was named a Newman Civic Fellow for 2014. The Newman Civic Fellow Award is a Campus Compact distinction recognizing students who-—through service, research, and advocacy—work to identify the root causes of social issues and effective mechanisms for creating lasting change.

Phillips Scholarship
Each year, the Minnesota Private College Council awards six scholarships from the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota to students who attend its 17 member institutions. This year, two of the six were awarded to Augsburg students Sagal Ali ’16 and Muna Mohamed ’15. Ali will work on a project that addresses the high risk of obesity and the rise of diabetes among Somali women, while Mohamed’s project will focus on engaging Muslim women in sports while honoring their religious and cultural beliefs.

2014 Presidents’ Civic Engagement Steward Award
The Augsburg student group Students for Racial Justice won the Presidents’ Civic Engagement Steward Award at the Minnesota Campus Compact Summit that took place this spring. This award recognizes those who have advanced their campus’s distinctive civic mission by forming strong partnerships, supporting civic engagement, and working to institutionalize a culture and practice of engagement.

Rossing Physics Scholars
Two Augsburg College students have been named Rossing Physics Scholars for 2014-15. Juan Tigre ’16 and Fikre Beyene ’16 will receive $10,000 and $7,000, respectively. The Rossing Fund for Physics Education Endowment in the ELCA Foundation was established in 2005 for physics majors at the 27 ELCA colleges.

Travelers EDGE Scholars and Travelers Internships
Stella Richardson Hohn ’15 and Lee Thao ’15 are interning in St. Paul and Hartford, Conn., respectively, as part of the Travelers Insurance Empowering Dreams for Graduation and Employment (EDGE) program. This program focuses on college recruitment and retention of low-income and first-generation students, and enhances awareness of careers in the insurance and financial industries. In Minnesota, the focus specifically is on students graduating from both the St. Paul and Minneapolis public school districts.

Five additional Auggies—Lorreal Edwards ’16, Liban Elmi ’16, Lyton Guallpa-Naula ’16, Angela Hernandez ’16, and Seng Vue ’16—also will complete internships at Travelers Insurance in St. Paul. This group will participate in professional and leadership development workshops supported by the Kemper Foundation to prepare for their internship opportunity.

Vann Fellowship
Michelle Grafelman ’15, an Augsburg Presidential Scholar, was awarded the $5,000 Vann Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics at Mayo Clinic. As a summer fellow, she is working with physician and research mentors within Mayo’s Program in Professionalism and Ethics to examine issues such as end-of-life care, genetic therapies, and patient consent, among others.

Student research awards and achievements

Students participate in Zyzzogeton 2014
Zyzzogeton is an opportunity to hear about the exciting scholarship happening on campus. This year, more than 80 students presented their research and creative activity to the Augsburg community in the annual spring poster session, which is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO), the McNair Scholars program, and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program.

Summer 2014 Off-campus Research Appointments

This summer, several Auggie researchers will be building their skills to support graduate school admissions and careers in the sciences.

• Elly Bier ’14—physics; National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Weih Borh ’16—chemistry; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (LSAMP Summer Research Program)
• Chris DeVet ’15—chemistry; CIMA Labs pharmaceuticals
• Becca Freese ’16—biology and mathematics; University of Minnesota (Summer Institute in Biostatistics)
• Kirubel Frew ’14—chemistry; working with Armon Sharei and Katarina Blagovic at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively
• Cedith Giddings ’15—biology; University of Minnesota (CHE-CTSI Advanced Research Program and Undergraduate Research Program)
• Michelle Grafelman ’15—biology; Mayo Clinic (Vann Fellowship in Bioethics)
• Daniel Hildebrandt ’15—biology and chemistry; Mayo Clinic (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship)
• Taylor Kuramoto ’15—mathematics; University of Tennessee, Knoxville (National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis)

• 

  Oscar Martinez ’16—chemistry; Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Program)

• Bethany Marlette ’14—biology; Mayo Clinic
• Yemi Melka ’15—chemistry and international relations; Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C.
• Lily Moloney ’15—chemistry; Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Program)
• Promise Okeke ’15—biology; Harvard Stem Cell Institute of the Harvard Medical School
• Andrew Roehl ’15—chemistry; Colorado State University (Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates)
• Ben Swanson ’15—chemistry; Northwestern University (Materials Research Science & Engineering Center)
• Sadie Tetrick ’16—physics; Dartmouth College Physics Department

Posters on the Hill
Each spring, the Council on Undergraduate Research hosts its annual undergraduate poster session, Posters on the Hill, in Washington, D.C. At the event, students meet members of Congress, funding agencies, and foundations, and have the opportunity to advocate for undergraduate research programs.

Summa cum laude English graduate Margo Ensz ’13 was among the top 10 percent of applicants selected to present and received an honorable mention for her URGO summer research project, “Analyzing the Persistence of a Sense of Place Among Young Adults in the Technology-Rich, A-Contextual 21st Century,” advised by Colin Irvine, Augsburg College associate professor of English.

Scholars at the Capitol

During spring semester, Augsburg TRIO McNair Scholars Amineh Safi ’14 and David Fowler ’14 participated in the 11th annual Private College Scholars at the Capitol event. Each private college in Minnesota annually selects two students to attend the event and present their research. Safi’s research topic, “Racializing Islam: Newspaper Portrayal of Crime Involving Muslims and Islam,” is a descriptive content analysis examining how crimes involving Muslims are portrayed in the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Fowler’s research focused on methods for studying heart development and function in the model organism Daphnia magna.

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Students from all disciplines can participate in summer research. This year, their topics included designing a tool to sample motor vehicle pollution; examining immigrants’ influence in community organizations and politics; cloning and characterization of Daphnia magna, a water flea; and analyzing the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on Minneapolis youth, among many others.

During the research process, students often use specialized materials and technologies, investigate complex and specific concepts, and explore existing scholarship and literature.

Here are the answers to the question, “What is it?”

Q: What is it?

A: A column that contains a catalyst and through which a stream of reactants move. Reactants are substances that undergo change during a chemical reaction, and “flow chemistry” is a process that gets its name from the movement of these materials.

Alan Medina-Gonzalez ’16
Major: Chemistry, Minors: Biology and Mathematics
Research mentors: Z. Vivian Feng, associate professor of chemistry; and Michael Wentzel, assistant professor of chemistry

Alan Medina-Gonzalez ’16 chose to participate in summer research because it granted him the opportunity to spend more time in the lab optimizing a chemical reaction, which is a fun—albeit time-consuming—puzzle he enjoys solving. “I wanted to see what it was like to work on a project all day long versus only going into the lab four hours per week as part of a class,” he said.

Medina-Gonzalez’s research involved setting up chemical reactions using flow chemistry—a process that helps make reactions more “green” by allowing chemists to lessen waste generation and to improve energy efficiency and safety. His research goal included producing a variety of molecules, including acetaminophen—the primary active ingredient in Tylenol and other medicines—to demonstrate the uses of flow chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Q: What is it?

A: A foam roller, a tool that breaks up fibrous tissue in order to increase muscle elasticity and circulation flow.

Briana Felton ’14
Major: Exercise Science, Minor: Psychology
Research mentors: David Barrett, assistant professor of health, physical education, and exercise science; and Tony Clapp, associate professor of health, physical education, and exercise science

Briana Felton ’14 chose a summer research project that will help to prepare her for the dream of attending graduate school to study physical therapy. Felton is a member of the Augsburg women’s soccer team, and she loves sports and fitness. Athletes commonly use a foam roller on their muscles for self-myofascial release—a process that applies pressure to trigger points within muscle tissue and is thought to cause the tissue to relax and become more flexible. 

Although the use of foam rollers has become a common practice in therapy and fitness centers, few peer-reviewed studies have examined its effectiveness. For Felton’s research project, she conducted a study in which middle-aged adult males participated in an exercise program utilizing foam rollers. Felton then assessed the study participants’ balance and functional movement patterns using industry-standard tests to see whether their scores improved over the course of the study. Higher scores have been shown to correlate with a person’s decreased risk of injury. 

The results:

Felton’s study found that the Functional Movement Screen, the assessment used to gather comparison data for individuals’ fitness before and after the foam-rolling regimen, had a significant increase in its composite scores. On average, scores from pre- to post-test increased by 2.06 points out of 21. Although the composite scores illustrated a significant increase, not all of the individual tests showed such an increase. Study participants were also asked to self-evaluate perceived pain, and there was no significant increase for any of the 10 survey questions.

In the future, Felton is interested in replicating this study with females in the same age group as her summer 2014 study, which was limited to males. She also is considering whether selecting a population with more known deficits and, therefore, more room to improve could influence the research results.

Q: What is it?

A: An electroencephalogram (EEG) recording cap, which is used to capture the brain’s electrical activity while at rest or engaged in mental activity.

Brad Marcy ’15
Major: Biopsychology, Minor: Chemistry
Research mentor: Henry Yoon, assistant professor of psychology

Research conducted on substance use disorders often extends to either the biological or the behavioral aspects of addiction. This summer, Brad Marcy ’15 took on the challenge of combining both of these aspects into a single study incorporating behavioral information—in this case, a person’s age of first alcoholic drink (AFD)—and biological data, which was derived from brain patterns collected through EEG scans.

Marcy and other Augsburg psychology students gathered data by working with student volunteers, including those in the College’s StepUP^® program, which serves students who are in recovery from addiction. Marcy’s research project involved processing and analyzing participants’ EEG data in order to identify telltale signs of being at biological or genetic risk for dependence in these brainwave patterns. He then examined whether an association exists between this biological information and AFD. By evaluating these variables, Marcy can later assess their usefulness in refining the diagnosis of substance misuse.

Q: What is it?

A: The examination of journal articles, images, and academic texts—illustrated here—are key aspects of student researchers’ literature review process. A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area.

Awale Osman ’15
Major: Communication Studies, Minor: Women’s Studies
Research mentor: Adriane Brown, assistant professor of women’s studies

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” said Awale Osman ’15, a McNair research scholar whose project almost perfectly aligned with his desired career path. Osman began his undergraduate education at a community college before transferring to Augsburg, and his research project involved examining the establishment and evolution of women’s studies, the emergence of gender and masculinity studies, and current dialogue regarding the field. This work allowed him to combine his interests in communications and women’s studies into a project that enhanced his academic skills.

Osman would like to return to a community college one day—this time as a professor instead of as a student. Osman chose his research topic in order to establish a foundation in the research he hopes will be incorporated in a future doctoral program that will, eventually, lead to a teaching role in higher education. “I realize I have to be grounded to be successful in my track,” he said. “So, I’m going for it.”

Q: What is it?

A: The Bengali pronoun “Ē����,” which is similar to the English pronoun “it.”

Priti Bhowmik ’15 and Bram Oosterlee ’16
Majors: Computer Science
Research mentor: Shana Watters, associate professor of computer science

As international students, Priti Bhowmik ’15 and Bram Oosterlee ’16 were attracted to research linked with the official languages of their home countries. In 2011, Bhowmik left Bangladesh to attend Augsburg, and she seized the opportunity to use her background in the Bengali language in combination with her computer science major. Her research project fell in the field of computational linguistics—a branch of linguistics in which computer science techniques are applied to the analysis of language and speech. She explored whether the pronoun “Ē����” has the same cognitive status as the English pronoun “it.” That is, whether a Bengali speaker, in determining what Ē���� refers to in a sentence, uses his or her short-term memory in the same manner that an English speaker does when determining what the word “it” refers to.

Oosterlee, a student from the Netherlands, performed a similar study by examining the cognitive status of the Dutch pronoun “het.” Bhowmik and Oosterlee’s work ultimately will contribute to developing systems that enhance how computers extract information, summarize text, and translate language. One example of the usefulness of these processes is that they increase the likelihood of returning accurate content descriptions when doctors use digital medical reference materials to find information that pertains specifically to a disorder.

Q: What is it?

A: The parasitic plant dodder (Cuscuta pentagona) attached to a host plant from which it acquires all its water and nutrients.

Lucy Bukowski ’16
Major: Biology, Minor: Environmental Studies
Research mentor: Bill Capman, associate professor of biology

Augsburg College students have studied the interactions between dodder and its host plants since 2008, and this summer Lucy Bukowski ’16 worked on an experiment testing the hypothesis that a decline in the health of the host plant triggers the dodder to flower. Bukowski’s project benefitted from the help of a plant pathologist at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities who offered greenhouse space, thus providing a larger growing area and better growing conditions for Bukowski’s research.

Online-exclusive content: More about the dodder project

Bill Capman has mentored Augsburg College students conducting hands-on research using the dodder plant both to fulfill their undergraduate coursework and to gain experience through the College’s co-curricular programs. In Bukowski’s case, spending the summer working on an individually tailored project offered a structured yet challenging opportunity to gain exposure to the steps comprising sophisticated academic research, which include conducting a literature review, collecting and analyzing data, presenting key project takeaways to a live audience in a setting that simulates a research conference, and more.

Bukowski’s project built upon research by a series of previous Augsburg College students during the past 10 years whose work focused primarily on patterns of host plant resistance to dodder. Faculty members often lead subject-specific research that incorporates new students year after year, adding depth and longevity to the investigation while also allowing students to contribute to a body of research that is bigger than their individual project.

Anika Clark ’14 took part in research advised by Capman during the summer of 2013, and she said her experience was enhanced through the contributions made by preceding students.

“[By] looking at the methods of previous research done at Augsburg, I could optimize the methods for my specific question,” she said.

Clark’s research spurred a unique—and fortunate—opportunity for Bukowski. Through the research presentation at the conclusion of Clark’s 2013 project, a plant pathologist from the University of Minnesota became intrigued by the dodder research at Augsburg. He invited Capman to give a research seminar at the University of Minnesota on the dodder work and then offered the use of some of his greenhouse space as an improved setting in which to grow dodder and its host plant, velvetleaf, during the summer of 2014.

“Lucy got to work side-by-side with really big science,” said Capman, explaining that the greenhouse is also used for research on wheat rust, soybean aphids, and other projects linked to global food security.

Access to a bigger and more uniform growing space allowed Bukowski and Capman to implement a large-scale project for the first time, building on an already fascinating series of studies.

Bukowski and Clark said they plan to attend graduate school in the future and appreciate the ways in which on-campus summer research at Augsburg has helped to prepare them for the next phase in their education.

“Prior to [the dodder] project, I had no research experience,” said Clark. “I am so lucky that…I gained a sense of confidence regarding my abilities.”

Bukowski hopes her first research experience will lead to additional opportunities prior to her graduation while also enhancing her graduate school applications and preparedness for its rigorous workload.

“This project shows I can work semi-independently and successfully on research,” she said. “I know it will open up more doors for me in the future.”

Experiential education through undergraduate research

One key way Augsburg College delivers on its commitment to experiential education is through undergraduate research projects in which Auggies employ their talents and passions. On campus, these projects are funded through several sources, including ���ܲ������ܰ���’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO), National Science Foundation and corporate grants, private donations, and the McNair Scholars program—a federal TRIO program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and designed to increase graduate degree attainment by students who are first-generation, low-income, and/or members of groups underrepresented in graduate education.

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August 18 marks the 100th birthday of legendary Augsburg College coach Edor Nelson ’38. 

Nelson is one of the elite Augsburg coaches who profoundly impacted the College’s athletic programs and whose influence echoed in the lives of student-athletes beyond their competitions on athletic fields, rinks, and courts. 

At Augsburg, the legacies of renowned coaching staff and faculty live on in the facilities that carry their names, are exhibited in their own philanthropy, and can be seen in the generosity they inspire in others. 

Bruce Nelson ’71, son of Edor Nelson, said coaches such as his father grew up in an era in which sacrifice for the greater good was common, and coaches played larger roles in the lives of student-athletes than simply running drills. 

“These coaches taught student-athletes about commitment and that a team is bigger than the individuals,” said Bruce, who lives out what he learned—in part—by serving as president of the Augsburg A-Club, a service organization of former and current Auggie student-athletes and friends of the College.

Bruce knows from first-hand experience that student-athletes see, understand, and appreciate the ways their mentors continue to influence their lives as they move on to new opportunities.

“Very few athletes, when they’re older, talk about wins and losses. They talk about camaraderie, support, and struggles,” Bruce said. “They remember that my dad helped them get jobs out of college—that the support didn’t stop after graduation.”

Nelson is one of a group of long-tenured coaches who are pillars in the Auggie community. Others include:

Ernie Anderson ’37–Coach of ���ܲ������ܰ���’s men’s basketball team from 1947-1970, Anderson also was athletic director for 33 years from 1947-1980. His tenure inspired the Ernie Anderson Court in Si Melby Hall.

Marilyn Pearson Florian ’76–Coach of ���ܲ������ܰ���’s women’s volleyball team from 1981-1998, she also was the women’s athletic director from 1988-2007. She increased the number of women’s sports and of female student-athletes.

Edor Nelson ’38–An Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame member, Nelson coached football from 1947-1969 and baseball from 1946-1979. ���ܲ������ܰ���’s outdoor athletic field bears his name. 

Lavonne Johnson Peterson ’50–“Mrs. Pete” led the ‘Auggiettes’ basketball team in 13 unbeaten seasons from the 1950s to the 1970s and was an instructor until 1980. Augsburg named the health and physical education center in her honor.

Joyce Anderson Pfaff ’65–A pioneer in women’s athletics and in the establishment of varsity women’s sports, Pfaff was ���ܲ������ܰ���’s first women’s athletic director, serving from 1972-1998. She also taught for 43 years.

Ed Saugestad ’59–Coach of the men’s hockey team from 1958-1996, Saugestad’s championship teams claimed three NAIA national and six MIAC state titles. One of ���ܲ������ܰ���’s hockey rinks is named in honor of Saugestad, who passed away in March. 

Jeff Swenson ’79–Wrestling team coach for 25 years, Swenson has served the past 10 years as athletic director. Auggies brought home 10 national wrestling titles under his leadership, and the wrestling wall of fame bears his name.

Today the commitment of these coaches continues to be honored through philanthropic initiatives by alumni whom they inspired.

Corky Hall ’71, ���ܲ������ܰ���’s first men’s hockey All-American, is challenging fellow student-athletes-turned-Augsburg-alumni to raise funds for a named space in the Center for Science, Business, and Religion (CSBR) to honor Saugestad. 

Mark Rabbe ’53, one of Edor Nelson’s baseball players, is funding a faculty office in the CSBR to honor the coach. And additional challenges are underway to honor the centennial of Edor Nelson’s birth. 

These Augsburg alumni—and many others who have stepped up to join a philanthropic challenge—demonstrate that alumni athletes recognize the role coaches played in positively shaping their lives and are willing to seize the opportunity to make a positive impact on the Auggies of tomorrow.  

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Whether they are traveling five states by motorcycle from Minnesota to Tennessee, he’s teaching across two of Augsburg College’s academic departments, or she’s pursuing an undergraduate degree while raising toddlers, there’s one thing Larry and Cheryl ’89 Crockett know well: How to cross boundaries to arrive at a destination that expands their horizons and inspires others.

The Crocketts have a shared love for exploring the richness that exists at the intersections of seemingly different frontiers. For more than 30 years, Larry has served as an Augsburg professor of religion and computer science. During that time, Cheryl has experienced—both as a student and as an Augsburg volunteer—the rich conversations that cross disciplines at the College.

That’s why the Crocketts decided to make a $50,000 estate gift to the Augsburg College campaign for the Center for Science, Business, and Religion (CSBR).

Both Larry and Cheryl recognize that students in today’s world must engage in discussions and solve complex problems in a multinational world where science, business, and religion intersect. And, they’re helping to pollinate those conversations by supporting the CSBR: ���ܲ������ܰ���’s boundary-breaking academic building.

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Augsburg faculty and students are committed to asking difficult questions and seeking equally complex answers. Each year, the College’s faculty, staff, and students apply for—and receive—prestigious grant awards to fund research, continued scholarship, and academic travel opportunities. 

There’s tough competition among grant-seeking institutions, but Augsburg continues to gain ground and to obtain funding for new projects. That’s because when Auggies recognize an opportunity to improve teaching, advance scholarship, or enhance the student experience, they ask another great question:

Why not?

Here’s a brief overview of ���ܲ������ܰ���’s recent grant achievements:

Augsburg ranks as top-tier NSF grant recipient. Augsburg College was ranked the top private college in Minnesota for the total dollar amount awarded by the National Science Foundation in 2012. With three grants totaling just more than $1 million, the College ranked third among all Minnesota institutions—behind only the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. 

Participation grows across campus. More and more departments and groups are seeking grants as a way to enhance students’ educational experience, to build the hands-on problem-solving skills employers and graduate schools demand, and to propel ���ܲ������ܰ���’s research scholarship to the next level. This past year, 13 academic departments and groups—up from just seven departments the previous year—submitted grant proposals, including: 

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Education
• History
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration
• Mathematics
• Management Information Systems
• Nursing
• Physics
• Psychology
• Social Work
• Sociology
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Faculty steer student involvement. Tremendous faculty dedication is part of the mix, too. More than 50 faculty and staff members are the driving force behind the College’s 38 active grants. These teachers coach and guide 324 students in rigorous research related to climate change, human health, understanding addiction, and more.

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This summer, scenes of remembrance and honor unfolded on the beaches of Normandy as World War II veterans and their loved ones marked the 70th anniversary of D-Day—the battle recognized as the largest sea invasion in history. The occasion was reminiscent of commemorations attended years ago by John and Norma Paulson, caring parents of Augsburg alumni and generous benefactors of Augsburg College. John returned to France several times as a D-Day +1 survivor. Norma joined him as a passionate steward of history. And, together, they formed a couple who—when abroad—could unite people across countries and—when at home in Minnesota—could connect a congregation, campus, or community.

John, who passed away June 7, 2012—68 years to the day after D-Day +1—and Norma, who passed away March 5, are remembered for their committed involvement in Twin Cities organizations ranging from Rotary to Shriners, and from the Classic Car Club of America to the Purple Heart Association. The Paulsons were successful in their careers—John as a builder and Norma as a banker—and made deeply meaningful philanthropic gifts throughout their lives. 

While neither John nor Norma attended Augsburg, three of John’s children and a son-in-law are alumni of the College—Mary Jo (Paulson) Peterson ’80, Laurie (Paulson) Dahl ’76, David Dahl ’75, and Lisa Paulson ’80. The couple’s lifetime gifts to Augsburg exceed $2 million. In 2001, the Paulson family provided major funding to complete the Atrium-Link that connects Lindell Library via skyway to an atrium between Memorial and Sverdrup halls and, in 2006, they were early donors to the campaign for the Center for Science, Business, and Religion—a capital project John’s daughter Lisa said is fitting given her family’s numerous career ties to the health, science, and business fields. 

Augsburg College President Emeritus William Frame recalls that John and Norma were passionate about their family and friends, their hobbies and interests, and their call to better the world. “They were a sight from the 1930s—John driving Norma in a Packard touring car up to Augsburg House, stamping down to applause…more of his panache than of his great car,” Frame said. “That’s the way they ‘drove up’ to the dedication of the Link” and their gifts to the College. 

Throughout their lives, John and Norma connected the past to the present and future. Whether Norma was funding fieldtrips for grade school students from her hometown of Redwood Falls, Minn. to visit the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul or John was contributing to an organ fund that allowed young musicians to practice, the Paulsons ensured future generations could engage with varying aspects of history. 

Augsburg College Pastor Emeritus David Wold recalls the Paulsons as “people of tremendous faith and commitment.”

“I learned so much from John in my days at Calvary Lutheran Church and in my years at Augsburg College,” Wold said. “I learned about patriotism…about work ethic, about family, about resiliency through tragedy, about benevolence, and about Packards.” 

And, Wold says he learned about the Paulsons’ “commitment to the young and the old and to those in between.”

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Imagine it’s spring and you are at a site USA Today named as among the nation’s 10 greatest places in America to smell the flowers. You start to meander along a footpath that will lead you through a natural habitat of trees and ferns to rolling prairie and lowlands, all while birds sing after a long winter.

As you round the corner from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s visitor center, you come across a small homesteader’s cabin. It’s nestled among the trees. A group of people, dressed as peasants from the 1800s, bicker with one another. You’ve just walked smack into the middle of the set of Peer Gynt, a play by Henrik Ibsen, being performed by students from Augsburg College and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

The site-specific performance—a production shaped by the unique place in which it is performed and that relies upon existing landscapes and features to serve as the stage and sets—was the first time the two schools collaborated and probably the first site-specific production of this scale for Twin Cities’ theatergoers.

“This adaptation demanded new partnerships between schools and with many theater artists—puppeteers, movement specialists, musicians, [and] fight choreographers. We pummeled students with new experiences and gave the audience a spectacular performance,” said Darcey Engen ’88, associate professor and chair of ���ܲ������ܰ���’s Theater Arts program.

Collaborating with the University of Minnesota allowed Engen and her counterpart, Luverne Seifert ’83, to assemble the large cast required by the play: about 40 student actors in all. And the complexity of the script meant students would build new skills in collaboration, forge friendships, and nurture the beginnings of new professional networking relationships in the tightly connected world of Twin Cities theater.

“It seemed odd to Darcey and me that each night there were groups of students creating all of this amazing artistic energy, and they were only three blocks away from one another,” Seifert said. “We thought the universe might like them to meet. We wanted to see new alliances formed and to create more opportunities for artistic intersections because theater and artists are best served when more and more connections can be made.”

The staging of this classic Norwegian tale at a Minnesota landmark also was a testament to the academic excellence driven by Augsburg faculty and alumni who create multifaceted student-learning experiences.

“Faculty know that in order to develop students’ abilities to think critically and to solve problems—essential 21st-century skills—we need to expose them to hands-on opportunities to work together, to interact with people who think differently from themselves, and to provide time to reflect upon and voice what they learn,” Engen said.

Students co-create script

That multi-layered complexity drew students to the story. Boo Segersin ’15, an Augsburg theater major pursuing minors in musical theater and Norwegian, said she was drawn in by the density of Peer Gynt.

“I read the play over winter break and wondered how we could do it. It’s on mountains. It’s in mountains. There are trolls. Just the landscapes were a challenge in themselves,” Segersin said.

The students worked with Sarah Myers, Augsburg College assistant professor of theater arts, to adapt the script and halve the length of the play.

“I was nervous to work on the script, but one of the best parts was working—as a full cast—with Sarah to cut things down,” Segersin said. “We found the ‘red thread,’ the core storyline that runs through the script, and, with that, found our way.”

That thread allowed the students to take the play from the three-hour adaptation by famed Minnesota poet Robert Bly to a compact 90 minutes that was accessible to newcomers of all ages but that remained engaging and challenging for seasoned theatergoers. It’s quite a feat when one considers that Ibsen’s original was a hefty seven hours.

Navigating culture, cast, weather, and landscape

Wrestling with the script of the play—a story of loss due to procrastination and avoidance followed by redemption late in life—was just one of the challenges faced by students. They also had to identify features in the arboretum’s landscape that could serve as sets, deliver their lines in open-air scenes with acoustics affected by the landscape and ambient noises not usually present in a theater, and learn original music, all while getting to know the culture and student performers from another school.

Then there were the logistics for which no planning can be done.

“Because of the variables involved, site-specific theater provides attendees the chance to see what is a once-in-a-lifetime performance and to leave having been an active traveler in the play,” Engen said. “For performers, there’s a textured chaos that you can’t plan for and that forces you to think fast and improvise within boundaries. It leaves you exhausted and exhilarated at the end.”

Being faced with those challenges was just what Engen and Seifert wanted for students. The two worked closely to co-direct students in this first-ever collaboration between the schools.

“Students learned to perform to the moment at hand,” Engen said. “Sometimes that meant changing the energy and volume of lines to overcome wind or a noisy attendee. Other times it meant staying in character but improvising when a young child persisted in trying to break into the scene.”

Segersin said that it was a rewarding experience to work with peers from the University of Minnesota and to perform for the nearly 1,000 attendees who visited the arboretum for the production.

“This beautiful thing happened: We became a team,” Segersin said. “And now, sometimes, when I sleep, I dream about them.”

Building professional networks

The relationships and networks, though, extend beyond just the student peers at the two institutions. Engen used the production to help students connect with other theater professionals.

“Students built experience in creative problem-solving with some of the Twin Cities’ foremost theater professionals, including master puppeteers, musicians, and movement professionals,” Engen said. “It was a chance for students to explore the many ways to work in theater and to challenge themselves to meld these disciplines.”

Seifert added that making connections with artists across disciplines and fields is critical for the future of theater and the artists. 

“These students now can reach out to one another to collaborate on future projects,” he said. “This model allowed us to give students an understanding of how major companies in regional theater increasingly are combining resources to produce shows.”

That goal wasn’t lost on Segersin, who was invited to work as a summer intern with Sod House Theater, a production company founded by Engen and Seifert. 

“We’re still working out what it means. But I will have the chance to work with the performance of Peer Gynt at sites around the state, to meet professional Twin Cities’ actors and local actors, and to network,” Segersin said. 

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