![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/river\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2025\/09\/Summer-Day1-225x300.jpeg\")
Summer May<\/strong>: Boozhoo injiiwaama. Summer May nindizhinakaaz, Migizi indoodem, Miskwaagamiwi-Zaaga\u2019iganing indoonjibaa, miinawaa Gakaabikaang indaa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHello my friends. My name is Summer May, I am Eagle clan, I am from Red Lake, and I live in Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/span>As you may have gathered from these first sentences, I am Indigenous. More specifically, I am an Ojibwe from the Red Lake Nation. I\u2019ve spent half of my life on the reservation and the other half in cities. My upbringing has resulted in a blend of cultures within me. However, throughout my journeys, my heart remains shaped by the hands of my people. This has led me to my pursuit of academia, where both my personal and professional passions have flourished. In 2024, I graduated from the Red Lake Nation College (RLNC) with my associate’s degree. During my time at RLNC, I was hired on as a teaching facilitator to assist elders in co-creating online curricula based on Anishinaabe teachings and values. Currently, I am enrolled at Augsburg University, where I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies with a minor in History. I aim to continue my education in Germany, where I\u2019ll study for my master\u2019s degree in Sustainability Management. Each of my academic pursuits is aimed at cultivating a sustainable and just future for maamaa akii, or Mother Earth, and all of her relations. I hope to bring the knowledge I gain back to my people as a professor at the Red Lake Nation College. Additionally, I aim to develop outreach programs that make eco-centric knowledge available beyond academic spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n The River Semester was an opportunity that I didn\u2019t give much thought to when applying for. Initially, it sounded like an exciting experience. However, as I began to plan and eventually leave for the trip, I began to realize the importance of this journey. As someone whose pursuits are grounded in academia, I spend a great deal of my time pondering pedagogies with a farther reach than traditional teaching methods. I often ask myself, \u201cHow can we extend knowledge to students in an impactful way? How can we make the content of our curricula relevant and applicable?\u201d Education is a powerful source of expansion. It reveals aspects of experience to its receiver, offering autonomy in exchange for open-mindedness and diligence. The River Semester is a fantastic example of the power of education. Through experiential learning, we students are able to apply and ground the knowledge accumulated in our studies. We experience the stories we learn, talk to stakeholders involved, and build lifelong connections with the places that have historically impacted our entire lives. The program\u2019s approach to academic application is something I admire greatly and hope to learn from so that my students may one day experience such an exceptional education. I aim to put this into practice through developing a comprehensive lecture on the history of the Mississippi\u2019s political economy and its relevance to modern experience. As stated previously, the Mississippi\u2019s past has had a great role in shaping the reality we experience today. Through individual research, I hope to translate the academic jargon of the Mississippi\u2019s past into something that can be readily heard in all spaces. Overall, through participating in the River Semester, I plan to replicate the bridge between knowledge and application, or the bridge between mind and place. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Erin Grube:<\/strong>\u00a0I am 20 years old and a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. I have lived in South Minneapolis my whole life. I am the youngest of four kids in my family, and I am very close with every member of my family. I value family above everything else in my life. They push me the most, listen and give the best advice, make me laugh the hardest, and I enjoy myself most when I am around my family. Besides my family, I value my faith and the people who encourage me to have a relationship with Christ. I see Christ at work most in creation and through the works of others. My faith is the main reason that I enjoy being outside so much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I have many goals and intentions for this River Semester. My main intention is to learn to live as simply as I can and to simply live. In addition to simply living, I intend to engage with all of my peers and everyone I meet this semester with love and respect as the foundation. My goal in regards to my research project is to create something that I can return to for my senior capstone project or use to fight for change in how people interact with the Mississippi River. I strive to create a healthy balance between the homework\/research and taking this time to truly enjoy the space of the Mississippi River.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rio Starr:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m from South Minneapolis and I\u2019m in my last semester of undergrad at Augsburg University. I grew up in a very strong community that revolves around the West Bank and bicycles. Walking and biking the river throughout my life I have always regarded it as a symbol of connection to my home, family, and community. I have not regarded it however as a body of water I would put myself in. I am looking forward to challenging that and to have a more well rounded understanding and appreciation for the Mississippi.<\/p>\n The river semester is a beautiful way, I think, to culminate the topics I have studied and the experiences I’ve had while in college. I am a student by majors in Biology and Environmental Studies. I spend most of my time away from school traveling somewhere seeking adventure, a lot of the time by canoe. I love the freedom of adventures and the headspace that allows for genuine unfiltered connections and learning. I am very excited to blend that feeling with a more structured learning system where I can digest complex topics and put together my water quality project. My project aims to observe benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators along with chemical water quality tests throughout the River to understand the health of the water and the land use effects on it.<\/p>\n Hello! My name is Zuko Buechler<\/strong>, and I am an Augsburg student participating in the 2025 iteration of the River Semester. I am in my final year of my undergrad pursuing an Urban Studies degree with minors in Music and Statistics. I learned about the River Semester when I was briefly at Macalester College in 2021 and again in 2023 when I transferred to Augsburg, hearing about the journey each year\u2019s group was embarking on. I became interested in the program because I have lived my entire life along the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, specifically next to Minnehaha Falls and Bdote, the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. Although I had learned some about the Mississippi in school and its significance to Twin Cities and United States history, I found myself craving a deeper understanding of and relationship with the River that moved beyond its role in human industry. I wanted to dedicate time to building stronger connections with my non-human neighbors and investigating the environmental and (sub)cultural history of the Mississippi. The River Semester seemed like a perfect opportunity to pursue this desire.<\/p>\n As we make our way down the Mississippi, I am interested in learning about how cities relate to the river through their institutions and infrastructure. I am also curious about how different groups of people living along the river conceptualize their identities in relation to the River. As a percussionist and drummer studying music, I am very interested in the Mississippi River\u2019s rich musical history and the variety of styles that originate from the watershed. I particularly love jazz and the Blues, and I hope to explore and play these styles with my peers and other musicians along the River. The River Semester also offers me an opportunity to be outside and learn from place in a way that I have never experienced before. I have only camped a few times in my life, and I have spent the majority of my young adulthood living in the city, so I will be learning a wide range of skills in outdoor survival in situations I have never encountered before. This experience will likely be one of the most challenging things I have ever done, but I am excited to be in such a supportive learning environment where I get to enact my values of collective living and community care. I cannot wait to see where the River takes me, in every possible sense.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As for questions and concerns that I would have in regards to the adventure ahead of us along the Mississippi River, well I ask to be put me in my place when I lose sight of gratitude and to be held accountable by my loved ones in the forces of nature. I am thankful for being put in a situations that remind me that we are as fragile as soaked paper. I’m hoping to achieve a sense of mental clarity and new clarity about my distorted and mangled concerns and adapt new coping mechanisms I’m unaware of ATM. Eventually I want to learn how to detach and say my goodbyes to the some of parts of my life that aren’t working so well. One is developing a penmanshio that is fucking legible. My independent study project revolves around art and local graffiti. Oh and I also want to learn to have less could\/should\/would haves in my everyday life. I’d like to find a way to enjoy learning a bit more over the course of the next three jam-packed months. So far I need toothpaste, shampoo, spray paint, water bottles, mothers kisses, oh and also need to draw my project.<\/p>\n \n My goal for River Semester is to become a more confident person that is brave despite being scared. I want to be uncomfortable and grow from it- push myself and have a good story to tell regardless of whether it works out. Another part of being a more confident version of myself is to be more open with the people around me, which should be easy because I am with some great people.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My goals for the trip are to take part in the process of creating meaningful experiences and refining my own perspectives and the way I relate to nature. Connect to the world and to my peers in a new way, building on my understanding of the environment, and new ways to be grateful.\u00a0 Overall I am most excited to have so many opportunities to try some new things that I haven\u2019t tried before.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Haley New<\/strong>: I’m a botanist studying Human Ecology at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. I’m sailing the Big Muddy with this incredible crew to nourish my cravings for learning and exploration. Students are often limited in academia to a particular style of teaching that removes us from our subject of study in a way that alienates it from our personal lives; We study plants, but we do not visit them in their natural environment. We talk about social justice, but we do not protest. I want my education to create a ripple effect for the benefit of the wider world, not just for my own. This is what drew me to the River Semester – the chance to engage with people and plants in an intimate and personal way. I’m hoping to create meaningful connections on this journey, both personal and professional, and to strengthen my awareness of how environmental justice issues affect the lives of underrepresented communities.<\/span><\/p>\n Since attending school in Maine, I\u2019ve missed the Mississippi River. So, when an email from a former student of the River Semester landed in my inbox, I was immediately drawn to the prospect of a unique education and the adventure of a lifetime. I\u2019m particularly excited to deepen my connection to downstream communities and to learn about the many ways life is tied to the flow of the Mississippi.<\/p>\n I hope to document my learning and experiences through a mix of film and digital photography, ultimately creating a portfolio. I\u2019m also interested in building hard skills such as broadening my knot knowledge, plant identification, reading the water, and, of course, sailing. Even though I grew up near large bodies of water, I never learned how to sail, and I\u2019m excited for the opportunities of exploration that acquiring this skill would open up.<\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/river\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2025\/09\/Erin-Day1-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/h3>\nSchae St. Germaine<\/strong>: A reason that I’m here to begin with is the energy and enthusiasm I feel like I bring to the table in a camping setting that surrounds the physical exertion of packing, cooking, getting dirty and cold while being immersed in the exciting experience.\u00a0 It also has to do with regularly testing my limits and comfort levels.\u00a0 Another thing I enjoy doing is drawing, started out as a caricature but now trying to apply as many of the perspective elements together based on where we stand and look. I roller skate when I remember to and don’t like academia but love people (especially when it’s one on ones). Here and there, especially when I’m not anxious. I struggle with what I believe to be the biggest problems in my life so I tend to dramatize it way out of its real severity.\u00a0 But I think a lot of other thinks\u2014I ponder over I can’t be right all the time and I’m beginning to realize that the world goes beyond my skull’s walls.<\/p>\nLulu Newhart-Roarick<\/strong>: I am from the Eastside of Iowa City, Iowa, specifically the Northside Neighborhood. The Eastside and west side of Iowa City are divided by the Iowa River that cuts through the center of town. The Iowa River is a minor tributary of the Mississippi River, which defines my larger home, the Midwest. I feel most at home with those that grew up in the Midwest, though I have an east coast edge because of my mother. I embody the midwest nice, particularly when I moved to Minnesota for college. However, I am not afraid to speak my mind, which I get from my New Jersey family.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMaddy Meuli<\/strong>:\u00a0 Hi my name is Maddy I am a fourth year student at Augsburg. I am majoring in sociology. I am 21 years old and I am participating in the river semester this fall. I enjoy spending time outside, and so that led me to participate in this a completely new experience. I haven\u2019t spent much time camping or canoeing prior to this experience so a lot of what I have been learning is completely new to me.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMia Raich:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m a senior at College of the Atlantic studying outdoor education. I have been drawn to outdoor experiences that bring people together through adventure and collaboration, such as leading canoe trips in the Quetico and trail building with the Minnesota Conservation Corps. Through these experiences, I\u2019ve developed a strong relationship with the waterways in Minnesota and often find myself returning to them time and time again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFaculty and Staff<\/h3>\n