{"id":2460,"date":"2013-04-09T15:15:52","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T15:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=2460"},"modified":"2016-07-28T16:02:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T16:02:27","slug":"doing-the-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2013\/04\/09\/doing-the-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing the work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"picture<\/a>Campus is still buzzing with excitement about the generous $10 million donation that will support the Center for Science, Business, and Religion. This unprecedented gift profoundly honors the important work we do at Augsburg College, and it builds on a growing trend of external recognition for the role Augsburg plays in our community.<\/p>\n

Another testament to Augsburg\u2019s value was earning the National Society for Experiential Education\u2019s 2012 William M. Burke Presidential Award for Excellence in Experiential Education this past fall (see \u201cAround the Quad\u201d<\/a> in the fall 2012 Augsburg Now). The award honors the College\u2019s long-standing commitment to experiential learning\u2014reaching across decades from the legends of our faculty, including Joel Torstenson, Vern Bloom, Garry Hesser, Mary Kingsley, Frankie Shackelford, and countless others, to a newer generation of teachers and scholars who come to Augsburg intent on ensuring that this distinctive educational experience will continue for future generations. I am proud to be their partner in this important work and to\u00a0tell their stories far and wide.<\/p>\n

Augsburg\u2019s commitment to engaging in and learning from the world is one that the College has sustained even through very difficult times. Four years ago, when Augsburg student Ahmednur Ali was fatally shot as he left the Brian Coyle Community Center where he was tutoring Somali junior high students, was one of those times\u2014a time of immense sadness that challenged our mission and character as a College dedicated to serving our neighbors. It is fair to say that fear and anxiety could have led us to pull back from our community, but that is not what Augsburg did. Certainly we took the time we needed to heal, but then we stood together and recognized that our work in the neighborhood\u2014work that is at the heart of our academic mission\u2014was more important than ever, and that it was critical for us to return to our work so that our entire neighborhood might be safe, healthy, and prosperous.<\/p>\n

And that\u2014I am proud to say\u2014is what we did. We formed a neighborhood partnership to address security and economic development and infrastructure needs. We forged additional partnerships with neighborhood groups and community agencies. And we spent time together, doing the work of improving our community.<\/p>\n

Today, I can firmly attest that our neighborhood is safer, stronger, more vibrant, and more united than ever before. That, to me, is what our commitment to experiential learning is meant to achieve: education for our students, of course, and also a safer and more just community for all of us who live and work here.<\/p>\n

Each fall, I offer our incoming students a simple message about \u201cwhat is required of them\u201d as they join our community. One of those requirements, I tell them, is to \u201cdo the work.\u201d Yes, the work assigned to them, but even more so, the work that they discern and pursue as important and meaningful. Our mission at Augsburg\u2014\u201cto educate students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and\u00a0responsible leaders\u201d\u2014is not just a set of nice aspirations, but a challenge to all of us to do the work that the world so needs done.<\/p>\n

This issue of Augsburg Now includes many examples of the work our students and alumni do\u2014on campus and in the world. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of our commitment to real-world experiences\u2014a commitment at the heart of our mission.<\/p>\n

Auggies take their studies out into the world and enrich both their learning and the world around us. Our location, our active and highly connected faculty, our dedicated and generous donors, our commitment to linking the liberal arts and professional studies, and the important role Augsburg plays in the Twin Cities and around the world\u2014all of these provide our students with experiences that deepen their learning and their preparedness for life beyond college. That\u2019s good for our students, and it\u2019s good for the communities where Auggies live and work.<\/p>\n

PAUL C. PRIBBENOW, PRESIDENT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Campus is still buzzing with excitement about the generous $10 million donation that will support the Center for Science, Business, and Religion. This unprecedented gift profoundly honors the important work we do at Augsburg College, and it builds on a growing trend of external recognition for the role Augsburg plays in our community. Another testament <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":5953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-2460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-presidents-letter","tag-spring-2013"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2460"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6361,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions\/6361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}