When she visited missionary friends in Kenya in 2013, Megan Elmore ’09 felt called. She was working at a mortgage bankruptcy law firm at the time. “The day I returned to America,” she says, “we were having a huge meeting about getting so many proofs of claim done. And in my head I’m going, I need to make sure I’m getting 15 claims done to kick people out of their houses when I just got back from Africa where people don’t even have houses. That was a turning point for me. I submitted my two-week notice a week later.”

With a business management major, Elmore turned to Google and searched: “African mission opportunities microloan.” Through Bright Hope International out of Chicago, she secured a yearlong internship in Zambia, helping give microloans to churches. On her days off, she helped distribute cans of baby formula to mothers with HIV. She had not been particularly interested in children, but it wasn’t long before she was playing with the babies. Then, when she began checking up on churches in rural villages, she began playing with those kids. Before long, whenever someone asked, “Where’s Megan?” the answer was “Just find the kids, and she’ll be in the middle of them.”

When her year of service was up, she started looking for opportunities to stay in Zambia. By then she knew she wanted to work with vulnerable children, and so when Christian Missions in Many Lands (CMML) asked her to partner with them to found an orphan care center, she jumped at the chance.

Elmore is now stationed in Mansa, just an hour away from where she had been serving in Samfya, but the difference is night and day. Elmore had been a microloan intern with minimal responsibilities. She’d lived on a safe college campus where everyone spoke English. She’d had running water and a flush toilet and reliable electricity.

In her new position, Elmore directs Mansa Fountain of Blessings orphan care center, which opened in September 2015. She runs board meetings with CMML leadership. She’s responsible for seven staff members and the feeding, clothing, and education of 47 orphans. She lives in a higher-crime area (her pet German shepherd patrols outside at night) in a house without running water and with daily electricity outages that last eight to 12 hours. And fewer people in her new life speak English, so she’s started learning Bemba, the local language.

But it’s clear she finds the tradeoff well worth it. Children served by Mansa Fountain of Blessings live with guardians, usually aunts or grandparents who’ve taken them in after their parents have died, often of AIDS or malaria. They visit the organization three days per week for a Zambian meal and Bible studies. The center also pays for their public school tuition and uniforms and provides two sets of new clothes and shoes twice a year. In addition to her director responsibilities, Elmore, like most missionaries, fund-raises to support her own presence in the country. Unlike most missionaries, she (with help from her dad, mom, and sister in Texas) also fund-raises to support the entire operation of the center.

Mansa Fountain of Blessings is in its infancy, with no kitchen, no stove, no fridge, no running water, no bathroom, and only one classroom in which to teach children, who range from grades one through seven. But in spite of the growing pains ahead, Elmore says, “What keeps me going is that kids here don’t take education for granted. We recently got some books donated to us, and the kids were just ecstatic.”

Mansa Fountain of Blessings offers an opportunity to sponsor one of the children at the center in Mansa, Zambia. To learn more about Elmore serving in Zambia, Mansa Fountain of Blessings, or sponsoring a child, visitfortheloveoforphans.org. 

In 1996 John Hanewall Jr. ’78 and his wife, Luan, were looking for something to do as a couple. Instead of turning to traditional partner hobbies like cooking or ballroom dance, they donned colored wigs and red noses and started clowning.

While it might sound like they chose clowning on a whim, Hanewall’s parents were also clowns. “That was the impetus,” John Jr. says. “We saw them as mentors and saw how fun it was. As we say, it’s a lot more fun being in the parade than watching it.”

In addition to parades, Hanewall and his wife perform as Luther (yes, Luther!) and Lu-Cee at a range of community events and programs, from YWCA Family Fun Nights to corporate picnics to nursing homes.

Hanewall has delighted thousands of spectators through his clowning and has racked up scores of awards, including the 2015 Midwest Clown Association award for All Around Clown (he also won the title in 2008 and 2011). According to Hanewall, judging for the top honor includes three categories: makeup; single skit, in which a clown performs a solo prepared bit; and paradeability, in which clowns take turns traveling down a 200-yard “parade route” lined with people.

In addition to his funny business, Hanewall is director of the Rock County (Wis.) Development Disabilities Board, where he oversees contracted services with 50 agencies and a $32 million budget. “It certainly is a different frame of mind when you’re clowning versus sitting as an administrator,” he says. But sometimes the two worlds collide, for example when Hanewall trots Luther out for a day-services program.

Hanewall also teaches psychology courses at Upper Iowa University, where Luther occasionally guest lectures. “When I’m teaching counseling techniques, an eight-week course, Luther goes in for a night as Professor Luther Von Fritzeneric and teaches about dealing with stress management,” he explains.

Stress management indeed—just try saying “Professor Luther Von Fritzeneric” with a straight face.

A message from the president

I’d like to extend my deeply felt thanks to all of the leadership donors in this President’s Council roster, who contribute in so many ways to Luther College. Through their generosity Luther is able to provide not only a stellar education for our students, but a foundation on which they can plan lives of consequence and meaning.

One way to understand the importance of the college’s role in a student’s life is to look at it through the eyes of a parent. At the Parents Council meeting last fall, I asked council members to share thoughts with me on this question: What is your hope for your child’s experience at Luther College? The 40 or so parents gathered on campus for the council meeting each wrote for some minutes about the hopes they have for their son or daughter during their college years at Luther. The parents wrote moving statements about the learning and maturing they wish for their children.

Parents hope Luther will “cultivate both wisdom and savvy . . . a rolled-up-sleeve practicality, a wise-as-a-serpent savvy about the workings of the world: how to survive, thrive, and help others to do the same.” They wish for their children “lifelong friendships,” “to grow in faith,” “faculty who model opportunities,” “mentors,” and “fun.”

For 155 years, students have come to Luther College with their dreams and their families’ hopes. Together with their fellow students, they form a living and learning community that engages, challenges, and supports them in their studies, their friendships, and their aspirations. In classrooms, labs, worship spaces, rehearsal rooms, gyms, offices, studios, and residence halls, Luther faculty and staff serve as teachers, coaches, mentors, and guides for Luther students as they learn, grow, and make decisions about their futures.

The President’s Council helps make all of this possible. I extend my heartfelt thanks to these generous donors and the many alumni, parents, and friends for all you do to support and advance the college. You are key members of the Luther community, and we recognize here—and every day—the value of all you do for the college and its students. Thank you all.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Paula J. Carlson
President

The following pages list individuals and organizations that have provided financial support to Luther College of $1,500 or more—or $750 or more for alumni in their first decade after graduation—in the past calendar year, January 1–December 31, 2015, and those who have provided $100,000 or more to the college cumulatively through December 31, 2015. In recognition of their leadership in giving, these donors qualify as members of the LutherCollege President’s Council.

Gifts at all levels are vital in providing scholarship assistance for students, ensuring the success of academic and cocurricular programs, and meeting needs for technology, equipment, and facility maintenance and replacement.

President’s Council Life Members

This is a permanent record of recognition of those whose cumulative outright gifts total $100,000 or more, those who have established irrevocable planned gifts with remainder interest present values of $100,000 or more, those who have made irrevocable gifts of life insurance policies with cash values of $100,000 or more, or those who have contributed combinations thereof, as of December 31, 2015.

The President’s Circle commemorates these pioneer presidents of Luther College: Peter Laurentius (Laur.) Larsen, served 1861–1902; Christian Keyser Preus, 1902–21; Oscar Ludvig Olson, 1921–32; Ove J. H. Preus, 1932–48; and J.Wilhelm Ylvisaker, 1948–62.

* Attained Life Membership and President’s Circle membership during the 2015 calendar year
◊ President’s Council Life member(s) whose cumulative giving increase from last year resulted in a move to a new President’s Circle level
† Deceased 

THE LARSEN CIRCLE

Recognizes those who cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $1,000,000 or more.

INDIVIDUALS
Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70
†E.E. “Ray” ’59 and Shirley (Klingsheim) Bentdahl ’59
◊Dennis ’64 and Suzanne Birkestrand
David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73
David Carlson ’85
R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63
†Bert and †Bernice Cross
†Bert and †Mildred Dahl
†Edward Dahly
Shelby and Gale Davis
†Ervin and †Phyllis Johnson
Orville and Kathleen Johnson
Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger
†John Kintzinger
Jewel Kintzinger Day and †Burtwin Day
†Leon and †Helen Koebrick
David ’64 and Camille Kundert
Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86
◊Weston Noble ’43
Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59
Curtis Reiso ’54
†Milton and †Dorothy Roelfs
Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre
†Edgar ’38 and †Gerda Sersland
Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw
Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson
O. Jay and Patricia Tomson

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Nena Amundson ’56
Estate of Malcolm ’30 and Maybelle Estrem

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
American Lutheran Church
◊The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation
Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust
Gardner & Florence Call Cowles Foundation
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Iowa College Foundation
The Kresge Foundation
Lilly Endowment Inc.
Microsoft Corporation
F.W. Olin Foundation Inc.
Qwest Communications International Inc.
Thrivent Financial

THE PREUS CIRCLE

Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $500,000 to $999,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous (2)
†E.J. and †Betty Altorfer
Rich ’74 and Candace (Grimm) Altorfer ’73
†Arthur and †Helen Austin
†Arthur ’30 and †Mary Louise Bergee
†John ’33 and †Mildred Breiland
Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58
†Roy ’26 and †Helen Carlson
†Lillian Ellerman
Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61
John and Marilyn Gilbert
Richard ’64 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65
†Thomas and †Frances James
†Herbert ’32 and Kay Johnson
Sandy and Mick Lee ’57
Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46
David ’64 and Pat Miller
†Tilmar Moilien ’34
Donald Nelson
Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker
†Sterling ’50 and †Vila (Kiel) Thompson ’51
†C. Harvey ’49 and Charleen Wilkins

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Patricia Gunderson ’70
Estate of Leo Schafee

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Bank of the West (formerly Community First National Bank)
◊Bruening Rock Products Inc.
Decorah Bank and Trust
IBM Corporation
Fred Carlson Company Inc.
R.J. McElroy Trust
Teagle Foundation Incorporated

THE OLSON CIRCLE

Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $250,000 to $499,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous (3)
◊Richard ’64 and Barbara (Moen) Amundson ’65
Jutta F. Anderson
†Glenn ’39 and †Delia Bergland
†Harald ’25 and †Helen Bestul
Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos
Russell Bruemmer ’74
Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51
John and Carole Lea Cotton
†Kathryn Engebretson ’77
E.D. and Helen Farwell
◊Helene (Rowe) ’48 and †Edward Furst
†Kermit ’38 and †Jane (Haugen) Hanson ’39
†Lucille Heintz
Betty Hoff ’60
Helen (Peterson) ’52 and Jack Hustad
Dennis and Carole Johnson
†Darlene (Peterson) ’55 and Robert Jones
Douglas ’73 and Sandra Kratz
David ’69 and Julie Larson
†Paul ’49 and Justine (Holum) Lionberger ’50
David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam
Paula (Hermeier) ’76 and Kurtis Meyer ’76
Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73
Glenn Nelson and Mary Jane Borelli
†Walter ’50 and Virginia Nelson
Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem
†Carleton ’49 and Barbara (Orwoll) Nordschow ’49
Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson
†Jeanne (Preus) Rost ’41
Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66
Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland
†Vernon Serfling
John ’58 and Donna (Ferden) Suby ’59
Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73
Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten
†Ollie ’49 and Pipka Ulvilden
Michael Voltmer ’74
◊Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters
†Russell and †Margaret Wicks
Michael and Barbara Wigley
†Robert and †Jean Wigley
Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Robert Amunrud
Estate of Wilbur Dosland
Estate of Evelyn Evenson
Estate of David Knudson ’61
Estate of Gordon Luce ’49
Estate of Duane Monette ’69
Estate of Ronald Olson ’65
Estate of William Seabold
Estate of Halberta Steensland
Estate of Ruth Steinmetz
Estate of Laura Stoin

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
Bush Foundation
Carlson Materials Company Inc.
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Davis United World College Scholars
ExxonMobil Foundation
The Jessie F. Hallett Charitable Trust
Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc.
Luther College Woman’s Club
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Foundation
Norswing Foundation
Northwest Area Foundation
The Presser Foundation
Thanks to Scandinavia, an Institute of the American Jewish Committee
Voltmer Electric

THE YLVISAKER CIRCLE

Recognizes those whose cumulative gifts given as of December 31, 2015, total $100,000 to $249,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous
†Maynard ’39 and †Minerva Aaker
H. George and Christine Anderson
Jeffrey ’84 and MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84
Lloyd and Kathy Anderson
M.C. Anderson ’54
John and †Mabel Bale
Steven ’74 and Paulette (Engel) Barnes ’74
†Sissel Berdal
Alvin ’55 and †Marilynn Berg
Roger and Carol Berg
Jon and Stephanie Bergquist
Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman
Donald ’51 and †Wanda Blockhus
Marilyn Bohl ’56
Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken
Gregory ’78 and Karen Bruening
†Harley and Joyce Carlson
†Alan ’62 and Rebecca Carpenter
Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn Deines-Christensen ’82
*Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering
†Lois (Brandt) Drews ’49
Dennis and Jolene Elmore
James Field ’54
Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness
Timothy ’67 and †Janet (Strube) Fleming ’67
Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46
Callista (Bisek) ’88 and Newt Gingrich
Ingeborg (Bader) Goessl ’60
J Bruce ’62 and Cosette (Cross) Goetsch ’63
Jan (Engle) ’62 and John Gray
Leon and Linda Gregg
George and Joann Hagen
William ’61 and Dianne Halling
†Henry and †Janet Halvorson
Gene ’63 and Suzanne Haugland
Ronald and †Lisa Have
Adrian ’41 and †Evelyne Helgeson
Sheldon ’52 and Renee (Aust) Hermanson ’54
†James ’49 and †Elizabeth Holey
Robert and Arlene Houlihan
David ’66 and Carole Hoyem
†Reuben ’28 and †May Jacobson
†Erling ’31 and †Geneva Johnson
Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71
Timothy Jones and Annie Cardelus
Marvin and Mary Klocke
Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel
*George Kuh ’68
Wendell ’58 and Judith (Davidson) Larsen ’60
O. Dale ’61 and †Patricia Larson
†Percy ’45 and Constance (Dahl) Larson ’45
David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Westlyn Derrevere
†Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold
†Walter Magnuson
Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57
Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81
*Dick Meade
David and Patricia Meyer
†Frank ’37 and †Esther (Stephens) Miller ’37
Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr
Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson
†David Nelson ’49 and †Betty Rikansrud Nelson ’57
Corinne and Harland Nelson
Millard and LaVonne Nelson
Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson
Joan (Gunther) ’64 and Dick Niemiec
Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner
Franklin Norman and Lynn Winger
†Hildred (Kronlokken) Norman ’54
Timothy ’87 and Molly Oitzman
Marsha (Weckwerth) ’82 and Lee Olch
†F. Milo ’58 and Carole Olson
†Edwin and Thelma Overholt
Steven ’68 and Connie (Marlow) Overholt ’71
J. Robert ’78 and Barbara Paulson
*Cheryl and Drew Pellett
Steven ’78 and Solveig (Storvick) Pollei ’79
†Esther Porter
†Herman ’16 and †Florence Preus
†Lucile Brickner Brown Price
*Brett Reese ’81
*Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81
†Mary Margaret Roberts ’44
Janet Robertson ’60
†Esther Rodda
Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt
†Dale ’62 and Catherine Ruosch
J. Stephen ’68 and Lin (Mathieu) Schmidt ’70
†Mary Lou (Schmitt) ’68 and †Floyd Sollien
*Susan Sorlien ’73 and Thomas Jones
Jon and Rebecca Stellmacher
Steven ’81 and Carmen (Hansen) Stenhaug ’82
Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart
Richard ’72 and Jane Theiler
Brad ’81 and Meg Thompson
James ’86 and Kathy (Winter) Thomsen ’85
†Henry Tollefson
Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73
Richard and Judith Torgerson
Terry Trimpe ’70 and Nancy Hill Cobb
Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt
Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler
John ’57 and Carol Witt
†Margaret (Barth) Wold ’41
†Arlo ’43 and Agnes (Kvaase) Woolery ’43
†Paul ’39 and Mary Anne Wulfsberg
†James Ylvisaker ’60
*James ’81 and Jodi (Palma) Young ’81

ESTATE GIFTS
Anonymous
Estate of Margaret Baker
Estate of Ruth Benson
Estate of Karen Berg ’65
Estate of Clara Bonthron
Estate of David Borders ’73
Estate of Michael ’38 and Betty Borge
Estate of Edwin Bottolfson ’22
Estate of O.L. Enstad
Estate of Harlan Flatjord
Estate of Marie Gunther
Estate of O.M. Haaland
Estate of Alvida Hale
Estate of Lucille Hamilton
Estate of Carole Hanson ’60
Estate of Dorothy Haugen
Estate of Harry and Selma Hougan
Estate of Herbert Jacobson ’33
Estate of Martin ’19 and Avis Jenson
Estate of Betty Juhasz
Estate of Linka Kempf
Estate of Delores Kudej
Estate of Affry Lerol
Estate of Elizabeth Nasvik
Estate of Leo Naughton
Estate of Inga Nelson
Estate of Justin ’41 and Milly (Meyer) Nelson ’44
*Estate of Klareen Nottestad ’56
Estate of Alice Paulson
Estate of Melvin Rasmussen
Estate of Walter ’29 and Nora Rugland
Estate of Maynord Steensgard ’52
Estate of Genevieve Stelberg
Estate of Josephine Thostenson
Estate of Gertrude Tingelstad ’41
Estate of Henrietta Torgerson ’39
Estate of Theodore Vagts
Estate of G. Norman Wigeland

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
The American Scandinavian Foundation
Col. L.C. Christensen Charitable and Religious Foundation
Deco Products Company
John Deere Foundation
First Lutheran Church, Decorah
Homer and Martha Gudelsky Family Foundation
Ernest W. Hallett Charitable Trust
Hawkeye Stages Inc.
The Hearst Foundation Inc.
Hormel Foods Corporation
Interstate Power Company
S.C. Johnson Wax Fund Inc.
The Joyce Foundation
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
The William Penn Foundation
Research Corporation
Dr. J.E. Salsbury Foundation
Spahn & Rose Lumber Company
Wells Fargo

PRESIDENT’S EXECUTIVE CABINET

Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $50,000 or more.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous
Richard ’64 and Barbara (Moen) Amundson ’65
Dennis ’64 and Suzanne Birkestrand
Russell Bruemmer ’74
Helene (Rowe) Furst ’48
Robert Jones
David ’64 and Camille Kundert
Dick Meade
Weston Noble ’43
Neal ’59 and Gerry (Mosby) Nottleson ’59
Arne ’80 and Ruth Sorenson
†Lynn ’61 and Mary (Frost) Steen ’62
Joseph ’80 and Greer Whitters

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Klareen Nottestad ’56
Estate of Sterling Thompson ’50

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation
Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc.
Decorah Bank and Trust
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Iowa College Foundation
Sodexo Inc.
Telligen Community Initiative
Thrivent Financial

PRESIDENT’S ASSOCIATES

Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $25,000 to $49,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous
Alvin Berg ’55
William ’95 and Kirsten (Stumme) Bohmer ’94
Wilfred ’53 and Ruth (Jensen) Bunge ’51
R. Eric ’61 and Cynthia (Aal) Carlson ’63
John and Carole Lea Cotton
Ingeborg (Bader) Goessl ’60
James ’66 and Nancy (Lofthus) Hill ’68
Ardith Hubbard
Michael ’78 and Amy (Kiesler) Kust ’78
Anne (Mattson) ’84 and Mitch McAnallen
Erik and Lori Paulsen
Lynn ’76 and Ruth (Hanna) Paulson ’78
Marilyn (Haugen) ’66 and Jeff Roverud ’66
James ’86 and Kathy (Winter) Thomsen ’85
Joan (Catlin) ’63 and David Totten

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of T. Louise Ambuel ’43
Estate of Carl Nelson
Estate of Dolores Sande ’65

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
ASIANetwork
Wells Fargo

PRESIDENT’S ACADEMY

Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $10,000 to $24,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous
Jutta F. Anderson
Marion ’75 and Peggy (Hall) Beatty ’74
Ann Bentdahl ’85 and Roger Smith
Carol Birkland ’67 and Thomas Woxland
Susan (Maclay) ’64 and Paul Blackman
Ronald ’59 and Gene (Flom) Calgaard ’58
Paula Carlson and Thomas Schattauer
Evelyn (Henderson) Costley ’41
Shelby and Gale Davis
Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering
Randa Duvick ’78 and Dave Grosnick
Sara Ericksen
James Field ’54
Dennis ’68 and Jean Flatness
Richard ’64 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65
†Kermit ’48 and Nora (Forde) ’49 Hendrickson
David ’66 and Carole Hoyem
Helen (Peterson) ’52 and Jack Hustad
Jewel Kintzinger Day and †Burtwin Day
Timothy and Sarah Krumm
David ’69 and Julie Larson
Sandy and Mick Lee ’57
James ’79 and Janis (Miller) Lovell ’80
David Lubben ’74 and Nancy Kwam
Paul ’81 and Miri (Peterson) Mattson ’81
Bradley ’86 and Jane (Dalen) Miller ’86
Victoria (Dahly) ’73 and Randal Miller ’73
Bjorn ’64 and Margot Monson
Steven ’68 and Connie (Marlow) Overholt ’71
Barbara Palombi ’71 and Jonathan Vawter
J. Robert ’78 and Barbara Paulson
Cheryl and Drew Pellett
Connie Plaehn ’75
John Quello
Brett Reese ’81
Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81
Marti (Tomson) ’84 and William Rodamaker
Walter ’59 and Amelia Rugland
Rebecca (Linnevold) ’71 and Robert Shaw
Andor Skotnes and Teresa Meade
Susan Sorlien ’73 and Thomas Jones
Steven ’81 and Carmen (Hansen) Stenhaug ’82
Phillip and Jessica Stoltenberg
Karen (Mathews) ’65 and Mark Stuart
Richard ’72 and Jane Theiler
Diane (Baum) ’72 and Gaylord Thormodsgard
Lance ’79 and Shari Vander Linden
Cassandra Warner ’85
Melissa Willenborg ’02

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Lorraine Roberg

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
Bruening Rock Products Inc.
Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust
Council of Independent Colleges
Davis United World College Scholars
Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
Google Matching Gifts Program
IBM Corporation
Violet and Harold Jaeke Foundation Inc.
Luther College Woman’s Club
The Medtronic Foundation

PRESIDENT’S AFFILIATES

Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $5,000 to $9,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Rich ’74 and Candace (Grimm) Altorfer ’73
Michael ’99 and Carryn (Ensrude) Anderson ’99
Barbara (Kleene) ’72 and Daniel Babine
Charles Banta ’13
Charles ’73 and Ann (Christensen) Beatty ’75
Matthew Birkenholz ’03 and Kelly Woods Birkenholz ’03
†Ronald and Ann Bolinger
Quentin and Inez Boyken
Karen (Wilken) Braun ’85
Alvin ’54 and Marion Brekken
Alan ’55 and Sally Brudos
John ’53 and †M. Jean Bruemmer
John ’59 and Dorothy Brugge
Brenda Case ’94 and Richard Vonder Embse
Rocklon ’73 and Barb (Donaldson) Chapin ’73
Keith Christensen ’80 and Dawn
Deines-Christensen ’82
Holger Christiansen ’50
Craig Cornelius ’74 and Ann Hadden-Cornelius
Donald ’68 and Joanne Davidson
J. Kent ’62 and Carol Dougherty
Charles Enge ’58
Charles ’73 and Janice (Knutson) Engebretson ’74
Peter Espinosa ’81 and Kari Tollefson Espinosa ’84
James ’64 and Judith (Larson) Fogdall ’65
Luther ’49 and Ilene (Knutson) Forde ’46
Craig Fox ’83
J Bruce ’62 and Cosette (Cross) Goetsch ’63
Leon and Linda Gregg
Richard ’50 and Eileen Grindeland
Ben and Megan Grommes
Gretta (Bjerke) ’55 and †Donald Hahn
Korey and Sam Hake
Suzanne (Knoll) ’65 and John Hales
Richard Simon Hanson ’53
Ronald and †Lisa Have
Fay Henning-Bryant ’64
Barry ’83 and Lisa (Schulz-Fincke) Hoff ’83
Robert ’65 and Siv Hovey
Katherine Johnson-Becklin
Sandra (Neitzel) ’87 and Jonathan Joppa ’85
Stephen ’63 and Susan Kraabel
George Kuh ’68
Mary Kust
O. Dale Larson ’61
Ronald ’61 and Jean Lee
David Lietz ’88 and Suzette Westlyn Derrevere
Ellen (Hanson) Lindop ’46
Lorri Jo Lobeck ’80 and David Shelstad
James ’85 and Martha (Anderson) Looft ’83
Joel ’88 and Laurence Ludvigsen
David and Patricia Meyer
David ’64 and Pat Miller
Pauline (Amundson) ’72 and Les Miller
Suzanne (Roverud) ’96 and Corey Mineck
Paula (Bedford) ’68 and Paul Moucka
Jan Nelson ’70
Roald ’54 and Ruth Nelson
Luther ’64 and Marilyn Nervig
Stephen ’81 and Kari Noltner
Franklin Norman and Lynn Winger
Michael Osterholm ’75
Norman Overland
June Paar
Jeffrey ’81 and Nancy Paulson
Martha (Hovde) Paulson Bergsrud ’64 and Fred Bergsrud
Bradley Paulsrud ’05 and Kirsten (Sparks) Paulsrud ’04
Hamlet ’54 and Suzanne Peterson
Lowell ’58 and Mary Peterson
Terry (Thiele) Rasmussen ’67
Sara (Wooster) Richardson ’69
Janet Robertson ’60
Louise Rolfs ’52
Curtis ’60 and Ann (Knutson) Rotto ’61
Robert ’68 and Dell Ann (Kappus) Sathe ’68
Britt Sather ’78
Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre
Corey ’98 and Tonya (Schwers) Schmidt ’97
Paul ’98 and Jody (Daubendiek) Schulte ’98
Gerald and Sue Schwalbach
Joel Spoonheim ’92 and Lani Willis ’94
Scott ’89 and Laura (Anderson) Stevens ’92
Eric ’85 and Diane (Reque) Storvick ’85
Susan Tjornehoj ’76 and David Wangaard
Paul ’73 and Rebecca (Larson) Torgerson ’73
Grant ’67 and Lila Trask
Terry Trimpe ’70 and Nancy Hill Cobb
Todd ’97 and Emily (Foster) Velnosky ’98
Jody Wettach ’86
Enwei Xie ’94 and Lynn Tonglao
James ’81 and Jodi (Palma) Young ’81

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Gene Groth ’55
Estate of Grace Olson

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
Col. L.C. Christensen Charitable and Religious Foundation
Deco Products Company
Eaton Corporation
EY Foundation
Fjelstul Funeral Home
Gundersen Health System Inc.
Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest
Microsoft Corporation
Winneshiek Medical Center

PRESIDENT’S SOCIETY

Recognizes those whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $1,500 to $4,999.

INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous (8)
Scott Addington ’69
Darrin ’90 and Amy Ahrens
Sherry (Braun) Alcock ’82
Bruce ’68 and Janis (Zube) Altorfer ’70
Terry Anderson ’62
Calvin and Betty Anderson
Dennis and Corinne Anderson
Jeffrey ’84 and MaryEllen (Palmquist) Anderson ’84
M.C. Anderson ’54
Karen Angell ’80
Jack Anundsen
Jeffrey ’89 and Angela (Carlson) Arndt ’88
Sharon (Zumdahl) ’70 and Stanley Asp
Roger ’63 and Eleanor (Roe) Ault ’64
Glenn ’62 and Karen (Swain) Austad ’62
Michael ’65 and Karen (Wardell) Austad ’64
Sally Swab Austin ’70 and Bradford Austin
Russell ’63 and Sandra (Edgren) Ayers ’64
Kelly and Allison Bachelder
Ruth Bachman ’75 and Thomas Gallagher
Vernon ’50 and Donna (Haugen) Bahr ’53
Shirley Baker
John Bale
John ’83 and Karla (Nelson) Balk ’83
Roger ’71 and Peggy Bang
Nancy K. Barry
Steven ’74 and Nancy Barry
Eugene and Aneila Barth
Ann (Birdsall) ’71 and Byron Beasley
Matthew ’92 and Kristine Beatty
Lori Beckman ’83
Loren ’59 and Betty (Eide) Behm ’57
Kristyn (Edwards) ’96 and David Benson
Donald ’56 and Barbara Berg
Ann (Gulsvig) ’67 and John Bergstad
Steven ’74 and Linda (Kennedy) Berry ’74
Steven ’84 and Marsha Birchard
Richard ’71 and Louann (Peterson) Bjorlo ’67
Stephen ’69 and Gracia (Kraabel) Blanchard ’69
Donald Blockhus ’51
Warren ’60 and Maryellen (Amundson) Boe ’61
Trisha (Hanson) ’94 and Kyle Boese
Larry Bonney ’85
Eric Bookmeyer ’96 and Erin Peterson ’97
Glenn ’66 and Mary (Jorgenson) Borreson ’66
Jake ’61 and Shirley Bostrom
Casey ’07 and Laura (Fritz) Bouska ’08
Jeff ’81 and Shawn Bouslog
James ’64 and Sharon Boyce
David ’80 and Kathy (Haugland) Brandt ’82
Rolf ’91 and Deirdre Brekken
Renee (Anderson) ’72 and Charles Brown
Duane and Eileen Bruening
Keith ’80 and Amy (Carlson) Bruening ’92
Brian ’80 and Judy (Farwell) Bumpus ’80
Marilyn (Myrah) Bunge ’51
Mary Bunge Docken ’79 and Don Lucas
Don ’53 and Joan Bungum
†David Bunt ’78
John ’87 and Susan Bunz
Adam ’06 and Molly (Sheppard) Burk ’07
Jonathan ’04 and Miranda Butler
Lori Koch Cannestra ’82 and Paul Cannestra
David ’63 and Brenda (Landsgard) Carlson ’73
Jean (Flom) Carlson ’58
Joyce Carlson
Michael ’85 and Susanne Carney
Larry ’65 and Karen (Aaker) Chellevold ’65
Walter ’68 and Aleta (Reckling) Chossek ’69
Dennis ’63 and Ann (Henningsgaard) Christ ’66
Rodney ’79 and Deborah Christensen
Ronald ’61 and Judith Christian
Birgitte (Povelsen) ’73 and John Christianson
Anne (Marking) ’62 and Myrvin Christopherson
Jon ’84 and Janeen (Fowler) Christy ’93
Kristine Cleary ’78 and Peter Coffey
Heather Clefisch ’94 and Nate Zolik
David ’80 and Wendy (Hillesland) Coe ’80
Martin ’91 and Michele Cole
Richard and JoAnn Cole
Phyllis (Zylstra) ’79 and Paul Comstock
Christopher ’96 and Susan (Cihak) Considine ’96
Michele Cooley ’92 and John Gluesing
John ’60 and Diane Crawford
Becky (Wieck) ’75 and Gary Curtis
Erno ’52 and Suzanne (Preus) Dahl ’53
James ’72 and Jeanne (Tormoen) Daubendiek ’72
William ’62 and Judith (Ream) Davis ’62
David ’71 and Jenee (Nelson) Dettmann ’72
Jean Dickson ’89
Rodney ’80 and Lisa Dir
Mark ’70 and Vicki (Mohlis) Donhowe ’70
Michael Dorner ’86
Edward Dosh ’70
Gregory ’61 and Carol Dotseth
Laura Dotseth ’86 and David Larsen
Louise Dovre Bjorkman ’82 and John Bjorkman
Alice (Ranum) ’49 and Leonard Drake
Ruth Drews ’76 and Dean Peckham
Sue (Franzen) ’78 and Jack Drilling
Douglas Duin ’77 and Ann Hill Duin ’77
Shannon (Miller) ’95 and DeLane Duval
Richard ’64 and Patricia (McCullough) Edwards ’63
Tami Ehlers ’01
Peter ’68 and Terryl (Bruins) Eikren ’70
Ruth (Huebner) ’84 and Michael Eisler
Gary ’59 and Janell Embretson
Henrik ’57 and Marcia (Borreson) Engebretson ’58
Edgar and Joyce Epperly
Daryl ’61 and Audrey (Pederson) Erdman ’61
Karla (Luzum) ’89 and Lindsay Erdman
Nathan ’98 and Anne Ersig
Peggy and Bryan Ettestad
Joann (Halvorson) Evans ’52
Jodene Evans ’84
David ’79 and Rachel (Andersen) Faldet ’78
Patrick ’00 and Katrin (Aarestad) Fergus ’00
Kenton ’54 and Lois Finanger
Nancy Fincham ’85
Elizabeth Fiskerbeck Bruening ’58
Ardis Fiskerbeck Christen ’59
Bob ’66 and Lynne Fjelstul
Timothy Fleming ’67
Larry ’62 and Marilyn Fogdall
Gene Frank ’69
Kevin ’00 and Kimberly (Turner) Frantz ’00
Laura (Charlson) ’89 and David Frazier
Ronald ’61 and Karen (Paulson) Fretheim ’63
Terence ’56 and Faith (Luzum) Fretheim ’56
Ann Highum and Jerry Freund
James and Elizabeth Fritz
Marilyn Fritz Shardlow ’72 and John Shardlow
DeLyle ’61 and Carolyn Fure
Wilmer ’48 and Margaret (Nelson) Fure ’48
Gary ’74 and Sandra Gilderhus
Callista (Bisek) ’88 and Newt Gingrich
Kenneth and Sheila Goins
Nancy Gossell ’74
Steven ’76 and Julie (Huntting) Grandgeorge ’77
Jan (Engle) ’62 and John Gray
Kristopher ’82 and Kathryn (Willi) Gregersen ’81
Maryln (Johnson) Grimm ’50
Ben and Padrin Grimstad
Joseph ’98 and Ann Grimstad
Larry and Diane Grimstad
David ’85 and Janet Gross
C. Carlyle ’55 and Mary (Kittelsland) Haaland ’56
James ’72 and Susan (Hammond) Haemker ’74
Wayne ’62 and Barbara Halverson
James and Anne Hancock
Douglas and Bonnie Hanggi
Ryan Hanke ’06 and Heidi Christian ’99
Larry ’68 and Jane (Hoplin) Hansen ’68
Thomas ’77 and Joyce Hansen
Bradley and Marion Hanson
Eugene ’59 and Naomi (Borreson) Hanson ’61
Lori Happel-Jarratt ’89 and Al Jarratt
Ronald ’65 and Carol Harder
Steven ’84 and Denae (Erdman) Harder ’87
Brian and Julie Hart
Jon and Mary Hart
Lee ’84 and Linda (Rosholt) Hash ’85
Brian ’96 and Amy (Vollmer) Hatlevig ’96
John ’00 and Jennifer (Cords) Hatlevig ’00
Corey ’94 and Carla (Paulsen) Haugen ’93
Dean ’91 and Pamela (Brown) Haugen ’89
Gerald ’62 and Sally Haugen
Irene (Schulz) ’53 and Chester Hausken
Alan Hecht ’80 and Kristin Swanson ’80
Adrian Helgeson ’41
Mark ’71 and Lois (Lebakken) Helland ’71
Thomas Hellie ’75 and Julie Olds
David ’76 and Sue Henderson
Dayton ’79 and Amy Henderson
Kristine (Hahn) ’85 and David Henderson
Steven ’73 and Virginia (Fixsen) Hendrickson ’72
Darrell Henning ’62 and Terry Sparkes
Sheldon ’52 and Renee (Aust) Hermanson ’54
Gene ’53 and Ruby (Totman) Hermeier ’53
Norma Hervey
Michael ’81 and Rhonda Hicks
Edward ’63 and Sharon (Madson) Hill ’63
Elaine Ottmers Hill ’77 and Paul Hill
Lavern ’49 and Jean Hillesland
Betty Hoff ’60
David and Linda Hoffman
Donald and Mavis Hoffman
Timothy and Amy Hohulin
Pat Holman ’72 and Philip Wangberg ’70
Corey ’99 and Sarah Hoodjer
Janice (Anderson) ’57 and Roger Horn
Marguerite (Agena) ’64 and Max Horn
Robert and Arlene Houlihan
Louise (Naeseth) Hubbard ’39
Christopher ’89 and Jennifer (Jenkins) Hubbs ’95
Philip ’87 and Sarah (Henning) Iversen ’87
Lawrence and Mildred Jensen
Arthur ’67 and Jacqueline Johnson
Charles and Doris Johnson
Glen ’70 and Kathy (Selzer) Johnson ’71
Kent ’83 and Lee (Knoernschild) Johnson ’85
Kirk ’82 and Kerry (Kramer) Johnson ’83
Orville and Kathleen Johnson
Scott Johnson ’80 and Naomi Nowland ’80
Terry ’81 and Jone (McDonald) Johnson ’82
David ’92 and Holly Jorde
Shirley (Stark) ’61 and Travis Jorde
Daniel Jordet ’78
Brian Jorgensen ’80 and Richard Pietz
Karen Julesberg ’60
Curtis and Edith Julson
Michael ’98 and Heidi (Hingeveld) Jung ’00
David ’68 and Rayna Kaasa
Ruth Kath
Scott ’87 and Ruth (Berschet) Kauls ’88
Eric ’87 and Laura (Doorenbos) Kehrberg ’91
Mark ’01 and Kate (Brothen) Keiper ’00
Jane Kemp
Alice (Hogenson) Kienberger-Iverson ’54
Michael ’89 and Julie Kinsel
Douglas ’82 and Shelly Kintzinger
Lawrence ’54 and Mary (Buchholz) Kipfer ’55
Helen (Erickson) Kissel ’56
Joy Hovick Kissel ’93 and Kevin Kissel
Wayne ’61 and Alyce Kivell
Helen (Legler) ’59 and Hans Kneubuhler
Harriet Knudson
Norlie Knudson ’64
William ’70 and Carolyn (Peterson) Kobler ’70
Lesley (Dressen) ’00 and Jonathan Kochel
Jessica (Wrobel) ’03 and Preston Koenig
Joanne (Gray) Kolstad ’53
Walter ’49 and Helen Korsrud
Roger ’68 and Laurie Krahn
Douglas ’73 and Sandra Kratz
Bethany (Bierman) ’95 and James Krepela
Mark and Sara Kronholm
Lyle Kruegel ’63
Dennis and Holly Kruger
Michael ’87 and Amy (Larsen) Krull ’89
Jon Kucera ’74 and Susan Graham
Sarah Kuehl ’02
Lynn Kvalness ’64
Meredith Kvalness ’69
Donna Lager ’79 and Steven Jacobsen
Eric ’00 and Jennifer (Filteau) Lahaie ’99
Charles ’70 and Christine (Lindgren) Lane ’70
Walter ’52 and Adeline (Lovstuen) Langland ’50
April Ulring Larson ’72 and Judd Larson ’74
Brian ’00 and Rachel (Forde) Larson ’99
Marcy (Petersen) ’96 and Eric Larson
Robert and Marilynn Larson
Rob and Sandra Larson
John Laughlin ’89 and Julie Suhr ’88
Reginald and Jerilyn Laursen
Dale ’95 and Amanda (Neal) Lawrence ’95
Lisa Laxson ’91 and Curt Clifton
James and Catherine Lee
Jon ’62 and Stefani (Monson) Lee ’62
Ronald Lee ’62 and Marie Bender-Lee
Chris ’75 and Sylvia Lee-Thompson
Ann Leon ’75
Truman ’56 and Delores Lewis
Dennis ’71 and Barbara Linderbaum
†Willard ’37 and Yvonne Linnevold
Justine (Holum) Lionberger ’50
Douglas Lohafer ’77
Jerrold ’62 and Elizabeth Lokensgard
William ’67 and Karen (Porter) Long ’67
Elaine (Wischhoff) Looft ’57 and Bill Schulz
William ’56 and Maxine Losen
Russell ’58 and Juanita (Zeman) Loven ’56
Warren Luckner ’68 and Mary Carr Luckner
Jon Lund
Richard ’72 and Marcia Lund
Ross Lund ’97
Gregg ’90 and Jennifer Luther
LaRoy ’60 and Lila Luther
Thomas ’00 and Michelle (Feldmann) Lutz ’00
Debora Madsen ’73 and John Cznadel
Christine Magnuson ’74
Cecelia (Nybro) ’78 and Brian Manlove
Lisa Manzey Adelmann ’87 and Steve Adelmann
James and Karen Martin-Schramm
†Ronald ’57 and Marilyn (Lokensgard) Martinson ’57
John and Rebecca Mason
Stephen ’68 and Margeen (Bolson) Mau ’69
James ’91 and Wendy McCreight
James and Helen Meehan
Bruce ’52 and Rosella (Gjere) Melaas ’52
John and Marcia Metzger
Sonja (Smith) ’85 and Joe Meyer
Todd ’93 and Nicole Michaels
David and Bridgette Mitchell
Kathryn Ulvilden Moen ’41
Martin Mohr and Mary Lou Hull Mohr
IvaNell (Mundt) Monson ’51
Katherine Moody ’01
Michael ’74 and Janice (Gjesvold) Mostrom ’74
Carolyn Mottley
Kimberly (Gass) ’92 and John Mueller
Mark Muggli and Carol Gilbertson
Paul ’79 and Catherine Elise (Barton) Mullen ’80
Eric ’91 and Kimberly (Latzke) Muller ’93
Dale ’64 and Helen Mundahl
Michael Musgrave ’86
Richard and Charlene Myklebust
James and Ramona Myott
Robert ’65 and Ann (Aaker) Naslund ’66
A.P. ’43 and Borghild (Teigland) Nassen ’43
Carolyn (Nuttall) ’62 and James Nelson
Connie (Jolstad) Nelson ’60
Cy ’76 and Ramona (Feller) Nelson ’75
Dean ’69 and Barbara Nelson
Doug Nelson ’82
Gerald ’62 and Andrea (Cowles) Nelson ’63
Glenn Nelson and Mary Jane Borelli
Corinne and Harland Nelson
Lloyd Nelson ’51
Millard and LaVonne Nelson
Peter ’97 and Jennifer (Larsen) Newburg ’99
David ’77 and Mary Kay Nichols
Jared Nichols ’02
Robert ’64 and Ann Niedringhaus
Bradley and Laura Nielsen
Dale and Sunny Nimrod
Riddell Noble ’57
Alan ’61 and Linda Nordhem
Deborah Norland ’75 and James Bovee
Sylvia (Schey) Norland ’47
Chip ’82 and Jari Norris
Andrew Nottleson ’90 and Lizabeth Diekema ’90
Jonathan Nowland ’83 and Christi Munson Nowland ’80
Ronald ’54 and Frieda (Mindrum) Nowland ’54
Nancy Nygaard Johnson ’85 and James Johnson
Susan Oberman Smith ’83 and Douglas Smith
Eileen O’Brien Denner ’84 and Keith Denner
Francis ’59 and Miriam (Strum) Odden ’62
Paul ’97 and Melissa Odenbach
Ordean and Carol Oen
Angela (Spartz) ’00 and Patrick O’Keefe
Marsha (Weckwerth) ’82 and Lee Olch
Patrick O’Leary and Amaria Najem O’Leary
Kristen (Kollmorgen) ’88 and Lon Olejniczak
Jeffrey Olinger ’85 and Heidi Miller-Olinger
Christine Olsen ’78 and Tom Rothengass
Jeremy Olsen ’02 and Katie Murphy-Olsen
Paul ’65 and Jeanne Olsen
A. Richard ’59 and Martha (Smith) Olson ’59
Dale ’74 and Anne (Kruse) Olson ’74
David ’79 and Siobhan Olson
Donald ’48 and Dorie Olson
Eric ’85 and Virginie Olson
Helen (Stuepfert) ’69 and John Olson
Karen Olson ’88 and Darlene Petit
Marney Olson ’99
O. Rolf ’53 and Gertrude (Kolstad) Olson ’54
Richard ’59 and Vicki Olson
James ’77 and Mary (Stoneman) Oppermann ’77
Kevin ’06 and Keely Oppermann
George ’67 and Carole (Rust) Orness ’69
Thelma Overholt
Dan ’89 and Theresa (Anderson) Owens ’89
John ’88 and Sherry (Schmidt) Paulson ’88
Allen ’69 and Karen (Anderson) Peckham ’69
Mark ’82 and Catherine (Eichmann) Penning ’83
Dale and Judy Peter
Roger Petersen and Susan Sandholm-Petersen
Gregory Peterson ’83 and Ann Sponberg Peterson
Karen (Nilsestuen) Peterson ’65
Steven ’77 and Marcia (Hoff) Pitzenberger ’78
Alexander Platt
Virginia (Heitbrink) ’83 and Kent Porter
James ’78 and Sandra Potter
Penelope (Smith) ’77 and David Pratt
Jonathan ’61 and Mary Preus ’63
Mark ’81 and Mary Pribbenow
Paul Pribbenow ’78 and Abigail Crampton Pribbenow
Vance Prigge ’93
Marit (Running) ’58 and M. Franklin Pudas
Scott ’97 and Jennifer (Ponik) Purpus ’96
David ’83 and Karen Quinby
Craig ’92 and Renee (Lysne) Rabe ’95
Brian ’64 and Gloria (Evans) Rainer ’65
Janice Rambow Beatty ’77
Judith (Miller) ’62 and David Ranheim
Ann Rathe ’87
Richard and Jill Reed
J.W. ’48 and †Beverly Reinertson
Scot Reisinger ’96 and Heather Schacht Reisinger ’96
Curtis Reiso ’54
Phillip and Ruth Reitan
Brian ’98 and April (Johnson) Remfrey ’98
Sharon (Rose) ’71 and †James Rendack
Mary Lynn (Swenson) ’79 and David Rettig
Curtis ’67 and Linda (Aaker) Ritland ’68
Gladys (Fenner) ’65 and David Roberts
Mike ’82 and Sue (Moyna) Robinson ’82
Waldron ’58 and Arlene (Riegel) Rosheim ’59
L. Darlene Rosholt
Robert ’51 and Lucille Rosholt
Bernie and Kim Rost
Linus Rothmeyer
Sue Rothmeyer ’81
Kathryn (Hermanson) Rotto ’57
Richard ’61 and Julaine Rud
Uwe Rudolf and Ruth Caldwell
Steven Runde ’97
Harlan ’82 and Sonja Satrom
Paul ’73 and Nancy (Fredrickson) Savre ’73
Russell Savre ’68
Marlin ’58 and Ann Scheib
Lauri (Schmidt) ’85 and Jeffrey Schloz
Sylvia (Nervig) ’66 and Donald Schmid
Darrell Schmidt ’80 and Julie Mall
Brad Schmugge ’93
Mark Schneider ’90
Susan (Riley) Schneider ’90
Peter and Diane Scholl
Paul ’43 and Camille Schroeder
Jill (Monis) ’97 and Thomas Schwanz
David ’77 and Dawn (Hovden) Schweizer ’78
Helen Schweizer
Scott Searl ’94
Robert Seaver ’57
Newton and Ann Seitzinger
Julie Serra Lund ’80 and Philip Lund
Thomas ’67 and Mary Severson
Stephen ’71 and Katie (Kvale) Sheppard ’71
Anjela Shutts ’93 and Peter Kitundu
Mark Smeby ’70 and Joanie Sheahan
Steven ’95 and Maria (Bringer) Smith ’95
Eugene ’58 and Wanda Soland
Arlen ’58 and Carole Solie
Allan ’60 and LaVonne (Leng) Solomonson ’61
Larry ’63 and Aniko Solomonson
Allen ’63 and Judith Soltow
Ryan Sommers ’04
Steve ’72 and Susan Sorenson
Nyle Spalding
C. Robert ’66 and Sondra Sperati
Richard Staff ’69
John Stalbaum ’67
David ’77 and Lori (Van Gerpen) Stanley ’80
Richard ’74 and Mary (Edwards) Steinberg ’76
Jon and Rebecca Stellmacher
Carter ’83 and Michele (Mertens) Stevens ’83
Wendy (Tessman) ’69 and James Stevens
Carol (Barth) ’75 and Timothy Stoddard
John ’83 and Jane Stoneman
Olin Storvick ’49
Paul ’66 and Linda (Knutson) Strand ’66
Jonathan ’74 and Jeanette (Bialas) Strandjord ’74
Clarie (Renslo) Streng ’55 and Dennis Broste
Ryan Stroschein ’99
Adam Syverson ’02
Eugene ’66 and Miriam (Nelson) Takle ’66
Aaron ’00 and Heidi Thiese
Robert Thomson
Ronald ’73 and Chris Throndsen
Daniel ’66 and Mary Ann (Skifton) Thurmer ’68
Charles ’72 and Noreen Thurston
David and Martha Tiede
Daniel ’79 and Kristin (Skoglund) Tjornehoj ’80
John and Karen Tjostem
Paul ’69 and Elizabeth (Tenold) Tokheim ’70
Dean ’57 and Jo Marie Tollefson
Robert ’58 and Janet (Purmort) Tollund ’73
Richard and Judith Torgerson
Peter ’80 and Linda Traeger
Daniel ’97 and Stephanie Tresemer
Geoffrey ’94 and Dalia Trullinger
Anita (Buss) Turck ’61
Jerry ’57 and Barbara Twedt
Ted ’55 and Janet (Campbell) Tweed ’55
Chinyere and Onyebuchi Ukabiala
Harold ’69 and Lynette (Ellingson) Usgaard ’70
Sara Uthe Holm ’99 and Eric Holm
Thomas ’62 and Juanita Vaaler
Lee ’78 and Maggie Valenta
Rachel (Schutte) ’09 and Rod Vsetecka
Norris Waalen ’72 and Hollis Krug Waalen
Jill (Voss) Wachholz ’89
Marilyn Wahlberg
Harold ’62 and Jane (Baker) Wallestad ’61
Solveig (Johnson) Walstrom ’70
Ruth Ward Schraeder ’88 and Neil Schraeder
Mark Wardell ’68
Donna (Wangsness) ’64 and James Weigle
Caroline (Hjerleid) ’62 and James Weis
Pamela (Hansen) Wenndt ’75
Lucas ’07 and Sarah (Nesheim) Westby ’07
Roger ’79 and Mary (Devoe) Wetlaufer ’79
Jeffrey ’79 and Barb Wettach
John Wetzel
Marjorie (Running) ’66 and George Wharton
James ’70 and Irene Whittington
Kyle ’92 and Kristine (Hukey) Wiese ’91
Genevieve (Fosdahl) Wilberg ’56
Debra Wilson ’71 and Peggy Brenden ’76
Robert Wilson ’75
Rolland ’60 and Sharon (Jacobson) Wilson ’60
Warren Wind ’58
Larry ’83 and Jane Winter
Paula Wisness ’78 and Mark Cochran
Vincent ’66 and Patty Wixon
James ’80 and Karen Wold
Kristi Wold ’81 and Jean DeRidder
Amy (Mueller) Wrightsman ’01
Phyllis (Dankers) Yes ’63
Richard ’50 and Joanne Ylvisaker
Jamison Young ’99
Robert ’67 and Jeanne (Engler) Zaske ’67
Judy (Henriksen) Zetterberg ’72

ESTATE GIFTS
Estate of Irma (Orth) Hopkins ’59
Estate of Bernice Rise

CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
A&J Petersburg Agency
American Legion of Iowa Foundation
Ameriprise Financial Gift Matching Program
Association of Community Health Nursing Educators Inc.
Bank of America
Bank of the West
Bean Masters Inc.
Best Buy Co. Inc.
Cargill Inc.
Deere & Company
Deloitte & Touche Foundation
Arlin C. Falck Foundation
First Lutheran Church, Decorah
General Mills Foundation
Hacker Nelson & Company P.C.
Hormel Foods Corporation
Hotel Winneshiek
Kimberly Clark Foundation
Kissel Family Optometry
KPMG
Madison Community Foundation
The Merck Company Foundation
Meredith Corporation
Midwest Group Benefits
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Foundation
The Presser Foundation
Principal Financial Group Foundation Inc.
Rockwell Collins
Schneider Electric North America Foundation
Subway
Thomson West
Winneshiek County Community Foundation

FIRST DECADE SOCIETY

Recognizes alumni in their first decade after graduation whose gifts given from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, total $750 or more.

Anonymous
Charles Banta ’13
Casey ’07 and Laura (Fritz) Bouska ’08
Alison Buck ’05
Adam ’06 and Molly (Sheppard) Burk ’07
Addison Choi ’11
Brian ’05 and Sarah (Rouse) Clark ’05
Joshua ’10 and Kathryn (Dolan) Gerber ’10
Douglas Hamilton ’11
Ryan Hanke ’06 and Heidi Christian ’99
Emily (Walk) ’09 and Brett Harris
Daniel ’06 and Allison (Kruger) Herman ’07
Aaron Hoffland ’12
Kirsten Hoyme ’09
Matthew ’05 and Ashley (Wirtz) Johnson ’07
Matthew Kinney ’05 and Marit Pollei ’06
Benjamin ’07 and Rebecca (Ballandby) Knutson ’07
Carl Lottman ’11
Kelsey (Hake) ’10 and Jacob Miksell
Michelle Monson Klisanich ’06 and Michael Klisanich
Chantel Olufsen-Lepa ’07 and Jesse Lepa
Kevin ’06 and Keely Oppermann
Thomas Orser ’09
Bradley Paulsrud ’05 and Kirsten (Sparks) Paulsrud ’04
Katherine Schaefer ’11
Robert ’07 and Keshar (Nadkarni) Sheridan ’07
Karl ’06 and Sarah (Murrell) Swenson ’07
Nathan ’09 and Brittany (Buczek) Todd ’10
Rachel (Schutte) ’09 and Rod Vsetecka
Lucas ’07 and Sarah (Nesheim) Westby ’07
Maria Woo Ching ’10

PRESIDENT’S VISIONARIES

Recognizes those who have established planned gifts from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015.

Anonymous (3)
Michael ’65 and Karen (Wardell) Austad ’64
Kristyn (Edwards) ’96 and David Benson
Russell Bruemmer ’74
Jason Burgart ’03 and Melissa Stull ’03
Jonathan ’90 and Dawn Doering
Stuart ’65 and Diana Eickelberg
Joann (Halvorson) Evans ’52
Daniel Gjelten ’74 and Lisa Burke ’85
Phyllis Gray ’73
Rosalie (Grangaard) ’59 and Kenneth Grosch
Becky (Essmann) ’78 and David Hamilos
Amy (Michaelson) ’91 and Patrick Igou
Scott Johnson ’80 and Naomi Nowland ’80
Sandra (Neitzel) ’87 and Jonathan Joppa ’85
Haldis (Solem) Kaasa ’81
Rachel (Kibler-Melby) ’06 and Carl Kibler
Kerry Knodle ’72
Jill Kuennen ’90 and Chris Schwarz
George Kuh ’68
Ann Leon ’75
Richard ’60 and Dorothea (Nybroten) Lind ’62
Lorri Jo Lobeck ’80 and David Shelstad
Carl Lottman ’11
Robert ’65 and Julie Masche
Dick Meade
Carolyn Mottley
Weston Noble ’43
Jonathan Nowland ’83 and Christi Munson Nowland ’80
Chantel Olufsen-Lepa ’07 and Jesse Lepa
Thomas Orser ’09
David ’75 and Kristin (Silseth)
Peterson ’75
Connie Plaehn ’75
David ’43 and Ann Preus
Craig ’92 and Renee (Lysne) Rabe ’95
Hillary (Foster) ’05 and Doug Ramaker
Curtis Reiso ’54
John Runningen ’75 and Jane
Calvert-Runningen
Steven Schaver ’76 and Asunta Eizaguirre
Robert ’70 and Mary Schneider
Margaret Sherve ’73
Wendy (Tessman) ’69 and James Stevens
Carol (Barth) ’75 and Timothy Stoddard
Patrick ’92 and Karen (Titus) Trewin ’92
Christopher ’92 and Charity Tyler
Konrad Urberg ’94
Lisa (Newcomer) ’81 and Mark Vail
George ’63 and Joyce (Behrens) Wallman ’65
Cheryl Westrum Bressler ’79 and Richard Bressler
James ’66 and Laurel (Luzum) Womeldorf ’66

Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If an error has been made, please accept our apology and contact the Luther Development Office at 800-2 ALUMNI or email giving@luther.edu so we may correct our records.

While vacationing in England last fall, my wife, Donna, and I returned to 
Hothorpe Hall, where I was honored to have spent a year (1966–67) as a Luther
 volunteer. Hothorpe is an English manor house in central England first built in 960. During the Second World War, the hall was used as a children’s home
 for youngsters evacuated from London.
Ten years later, when Central European refugees—some of whom had been persecuted for their faith—fled to England, the Lutheran Council of Great Britain was formed to give some unity to this influx of Lutherans. The council purchased Hothorpe, which by this time was in considerable disrepair, to be used as a retreat and conference center for spiritual growth and renewal, particularly among young people.


Rev. Jerry Moe ’49, who died in October 2015, was the first Hothorpe director. He arranged for Luther to send two volunteers to work at the hall for a year, cementing a close relationship between Luther and Hothorpe that spanned a quarter century. Hothorpe’s special relationship with Luther was further strengthened in 1966 when Rev. Marlyn Sundheim ’60, himself a Luther volunteer, returned to Hothorpe as director. 
It is said that one cannot go back because the past is in the past. So it was
 not surprising that so much has changed at Hothorpe over these 50 years, and yet, at its core Hothorpe remains very much intact. The gate houses that flanked the entrance to Hothorpe for centuries are still there and occupied, but the entrance has been moved a quarter mile down the road from the hall’s home village of Theddingworth. As you drive up, the hall looks exactly the same on the exterior, as does the adjacent chapel. Inside the hall, the green, blue, and round rooms are still known as such and continue to be
used for meetings, special gatherings, and afternoon tea.


The view from the green and blue rooms of green, rolling English countryside
is still so peaceful. The kitchen, with its large wood-burning stove and ovens where many volunteers toiled daily, is gone. It has been replaced 
by a modern, much larger facility in an annex. The large, walled-in garden and greenhouse that fed Hothorpe’s visitors and where I spent much of my time is gone, built over with a new complex of suites and bedrooms.
 The stables are no longer recognizable, as they have been extended to provide a spacious dining room. The sauna, our favorite gathering place on Saturday evening, is gone too. Rose gardens grown by the gardener, Oscar, in the
front and side of the hall, which were special, are also gone.


Perhaps the biggest change is Hothorpe’s staffing. When I was there, five permanent staff ran Hothorpe—a director, a housekeeper, a secretary, John (the Polish cook), and Oscar (the Latvian gardener)—supported by two 
Luther volunteers and up to 15 or 20 university volunteers from the continent during the summer. Today Hothorpe, which hosts retreats for church groups and others, has up to 40 full-time staff and 60-plus part-time staff. 
Of course, Hothorpe now has about 23,000 guests each year. While it is truly a business now, at its core Hothorpe is still a Christian conference center, where visitors come to experience spiritual refreshment and fellowship.
 Reflecting back on Hothorpe’s purpose and the opportunity it provided Luther volunteers to learn through service to understand and value diverse cultures, customs, and beliefs, I can’t help wondering if Luther will find new opportunities for its present generation of students to serve and support our 21st-century refugees.

At 10 years old, Amir became the resident bee expert in his low-income neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa. The fifth-grader could tell his friends and neighbors what bees do and how they pollinate and relate to sources of food. He worked alongside beekeepers and explained to people in the community why local hives should be left alone.

Amir was able to do all this because someone made a connection with him on his terms. Someone thought to ask him what his interests were and helped him develop them. Being an ambassador for bees contributed to his sense of self-worth, the feeling that he could make a difference. Creating connections like this is at the heart of what three Luther alumni are doing in the Des Moines area: helping wounded children get on their feet, learn to trust, and find a successful path in life.

Amy (Ostrander) Croll ’97 is cofounder and executive director of Community Youth Concepts, which brings service learning and career-based mentoring to kids in grades 4–12 across 19 schools. Gladys Noll Alvarez ’80 is the trauma informed care project coordinator at  Child Guidance Center, the children’s mental health center branch of Orchard Place, which provides inpatient, outpatient, and community programs for more than 10,000 children. Alvarez specializes in trauma and works with children from newborn to age eight. Toby O’Berry ’97 is the director of Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, giving homeless youth ages 16 to 22 a safe and free place to live for up to two years while they pursue education and jobs. The centers work with about 500 youths a year.

Suzanne (Roverud) Mineck ’96, president and CEO of the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, brought the group together for a Luther-sponsored Lunch Connection last February called “Giving Hope and Fostering Resilience.” Many of us are lucky to live in cities, like Des Moines, that rate highly as places to live and raise families, but Mineck says there are still thousands of children in Iowa alone who live in poverty and have no idea where they are going to get their next meal. Mid-Iowa Health helps support organizations like the ones at which Croll, Alvarez, and O’Berry work, and Mineck gets a firsthand look at how they build supportive connections to counter the adversity in children’s lives.

Lunch Connections happen several times a year in the Des Moines, Iowa, area and in Minneapolis. Join with other Luther alumni for a catered lunch and intriguing speakers. Visit the Alumni Office events calendar for upcoming events in the series.

Alvarez is a trauma informed care coordinator at Orchard Place. Knowing that a child has been through some kind of trauma, whether physical or mental, helps caregivers provide better care. And having a connection with someone who really cares about them is crucial for all children, Alvarez says: “We all need at least one person who cares whether we show up or not. Ideally that’s our family, but for some kids it’s not. It could be a neighbor, a Sunday school teacher, a coach, or just a kind person. If you are kind to someone, that releases the endorphins in their brain and helps them be more positive.”

Toby O’Berry, at Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, says he sees homeless teens and young adults whose experiences have caused them to lose trust in adults. They can’t make the connections they need to build stable lives. “It used to be that when those kids came in it was, Okay, we have to get you a job, how do we figure that out? But you can’t do that successfully until you treat the underlying issues,” O’Berry says. “You can’t even talk to them until they have the basics they need to survive. . . . When they have that food-and-shelter thing solved, then they really open up and start thinking about how to better themselves and start to trust.” The renewed ability to trust makes these teens more receptive to connections that can set them on paths to education, jobs, and continued stability.

Croll made a connection with bee expert Amir through Community Youth Concepts. She saw it as a way to help him develop confidence in himself. When he felt like he mattered, he developed responsibility. “We find when we engage youth and we come alongside them, we don’t experience the major behavioral issues,” she says. Rather than simply insisting a child do something or act a certain way, Croll and her staff seek out the child’s interests. “Let’s tap into what you’re interested in first, then it’s our job as facilitators and adults to build lessons around what the kids are interested in,” Croll says.

She attended a beekeeping class with Amir and brought beehives to the CYC offices—“not something I ever anticipated we would have,” she says. But because she paid attention to a little boy who had no one else to listen to him, he is now a valued expert in his neighborhood. He knows he matters, and that helps the whole community.

Ben Harney ’15, Jon Williams ’15, and Kai Ashland ’14 became violently ill in Mexico, biked in seemingly endless triple-digit heat in Guatemala, and battled freezing temperatures in the mountains of Peru.

But, Ashland says, overcoming those challenges was all part of the experience of spending six months (to the day!) cycling 5,000 miles through nine countries, from the northern border of Mexico to the “end of the earth” in Ushuaia, Argentina.

“Sometimes home sounded really good, but instead of making excuses, we continued on,” he says. “I think Jon and Ben would agree that completing this trip is among the greatest accomplishments of our lives.”

Williams, an experienced white-water rafting guide, and Harney, an avid backpacker, had tossed around the idea of doing an adventure trip together as early as their first year at Luther. But it wasn’t until September 2014—the start of their senior year—that the two settled on cycling together through Central America and South America. “Jon was the instigator,” Harney says. “But it didn’t take much to convince me.” Ashland, a salmon fisherman and Boundary Waters enthusiast, soon signed on as well.

All three quickly agreed to use the trip to raise funds for a cause in which they believed. Winneshiek County Habitat for Humanity fit the bill. “We raised about $9,600 total, including just shy of $6,000 for the local Habitat chapter,” says Ashland, an active member of Luther Habitat for Humanity while on campus. “The Luther and Decorah communities were both very generous.”

The remaining donations helped defray the cost of the trio’s adventure, including the purchase of an MSR international stove, an extensive first aid kit, and rugged Surly Troll mountain bikes able to carry up to 50 pounds of gear. “Those bikes are like the Land Rover of bicycles,” Williams says, noting they averaged between four and six hours a day in the saddle. “They were able to get us anywhere we wanted to go.”

Read more about the trio’s cycling adventures on their blog. 

Their route took them along muddy gravel river beds, desolate backcountry roads, high mountain passes, and busy city thoroughfares, while at the same time showing them some of the most stunning scenery in the world—from the coasts of Mexico and the rain forests of southern Ecuador to the glaciers of Patagonia. “No matter where we were, the scenery was engaging,” Harney says. “And because terrain changed so often, it was also very challenging.”

The English-Spanish language barrier also posed challenges. “Every country speaks a different dialect of Spanish, so it was always changing,” Williams says. “Still, our Spanish skills were good enough that we were able to get to where we wanted to go.”

They made connections they will never forget. In northern Mexico a family saw that the men were struggling and offered them food and a place to sleep for the night. In southern Mexico a man gave them keys to his apartment so they could rest up while coming and going as they pleased. And in Guatemala a boy and his mother spotted the three exhausted cyclists resting under a tree and brought out bananas, oranges, and loaves of fresh-baked cornbread. “The food just kept coming and coming,” Harney recalls. “They shared what little they had with us, three American strangers, because they thought we needed it.”

Appreciation of such sincere hospitality, Williams says, was just one of many life lessons the trio took from spending half a year so far away from the comforts of home. He is thankful for the opportunity to have seen so much of the world with two of his closest friends, as well as for the role their Luther education played in shaping the experience. “Luther was at the very root of this trip,” he says. “It was our Luther experience that challenged us to not only act upon this dream but also learn as much as we could while staying true to our core values along the way.”  

There is laughter, and there are tears. But mostly there is gratitude as Karen Martin-Schramm reflects on two decades of service as executive assistant to three Luther presidents: Jeffrey Baker, Richard Torgerson, and Paula Carlson.

“I really feel like it has been a  calling—that all my gifts have been used in this job,” says Martin-Schramm, who stepped down in March. “I am so thankful to have had this opportunity, to have been able to contribute to the college in so many different ways.”

Martin-Schramm joined Luther’s staff in 1996, three years after her husband, Jim Martin-Schramm, joined the college’s religion faculty. She had just wrapped up a yearlong stint organizing the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, hosted by Luther, when the college’s newly elected president, Jeffrey Baker, hired her as his assistant. Though she already had a decade of administrative experience—including two “fascinating” years with the National Council of Churches in New York City, during which she met Billy Graham, Desmond Tutu, and many other prominent faith leaders— Martin-Schramm says she still had much to learn as she settled into the college’s executive suite.

“The suite in the Union was new, I was new, and Jeff was new,” she says. “It was the two of us, armed with some boxes of materials, and together we had to figure out how to run the President’s Office.”

Figure it out they did, but their productive partnership came to an abrupt and painful end when Baker was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1998. “Jeff made such an impact here in such a short time,” she says. “The outpouring of support was incredible, as was his strength, once he became ill.”

Richard Torgerson, Baker’s successor, was quick to spot—and employ—Martin-Schramm’s project-management and organizational  talents when he arrived in 1999. Over the next 15 years, she helped coordinate two multiple-year strategic planning processes, orchestrated numerous special events (including a visit by the king and queen of Norway in 2011 and the years-in-the-works  sesquicentennial celebration that same year), helped develop the college’s first integrated communications and marketing plan, oversaw numerous executive searches, directed a campus signage redesign, planned three more Nobel Peace Prize Forums (NPPF), and worked  directly with the Luther Board of Regents.

Closest to her heart, Martin-Schramm says, was her work with the NPPFs and the Luther regents, whom she describes as “down-to-earth, dedicated, and exceptionally giving.” For 20 years, she prepared meeting agendas and background materials, attended those meetings, and served as campus liaison with the college’s governing board. “The best boards are the ones that reflect the character of  the institution, and our regents really do reflect Luther’s student-centered spirit of community,” she says. “Working with the board has  been one of the most fun, inspiring, and rewarding parts of my job.”

Equally rewarding was her work with the four Nobel Peace Prize Forums hosted by Luther. As forum organizer, Martin-Schramm was instrumental in bringing Nobel Peace Prize laureates such as Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai (2006) and Iranian attorney and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi (2011) to campus. “I firmly believe that the forum changed students’ lives,” she says. “It’s a big, big deal just to be in a room in Decorah, Iowa, with a Nobel laureate.”

While she says an administrative career in Lutheran higher education has felt like destiny—“One of my grandfathers served as president of Texas Lutheran College, the other received an honorary doctorate from Luther, so it’s in my DNA”—it’s time, Martin-Schramm says, to take on new challenges. This summer she and her husband will accompany a dozen Luther students to England, where the couple will serve as codirectors of the college’s Nottingham program for the coming year.

“I didn’t have a lot of interaction with students on campus, so I’m really looking forward to getting to know several of them during our time in England,” says Martin-Schramm, flashing her trademark smile. “And when we return to Decorah, who knows what’s next?”

English professor Lise Kildegaard has fostered a celebration of great art in small packages through her Dennis M. Jones Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities. Two of the projects engaged students in creating their own works of art in partnership with poet and video artist Todd Boss and with printmaker and book artist David Esslemont.

Boss grew up on a cattle farm in Wisconsin and now lives in Minneapolis. He has been publishing poetry since 2008, and he also expresses his poems through films called Motionpoems. Kildegaard says Boss writes beautiful, interesting, rich poems that are short lyrics. “Then he wears a different hat as the executive artistic director of what he calls the world’s only film poetry company. He is part of an artistic endeavor that is making films that are connected to contemporary poems,” she told Chips, the Luther student newspaper.

The films—each two or three minutes long—have been screened at festivals, cinemas, libraries, museums, bookstores, and schools worldwide. How they turn out is influenced not only by the poet, but by animators, filmmakers, and composers. Motionpoems.org, which Boss cofounded with filmmaker Angella Kassube, regularly releases new videos.

Kildegaard arranged for Boss to teach a 2016 January Term class about Motionpoems, the poet’s first collaboration with college students, she says. “They’re recording the videos, they’re developing original scores, they’re putting that all together in a month’s time,” Boss says in a video about the class created by Luther’s Video Bureau. The students learned firsthand from poets in addition to Boss, and he brought in professionals working in music composition and production, voice over, sound design, filming, editing, and more.

A Motionpoem by sophomore Isaiah Cammon, junior Elizabeth Daly, and senior Nick Arnold, based on the poem “The Plastic Saint” by Athena Kildegaard, was shown at the March 4 launch party for Athena’s book of poems and prose poems, Ventriloquy. Students from the J-term class drove up to St. Paul for the event.

Another visiting artist, British printmaker, designer, bookbinder, and publisher David Esslemont, spent several days in residence during spring semester. Esslemont, who lives north of Decorah, worked with six students to create a chapbook based on six of the Square Stories of Danish author Louis Jensen.

Five students created linoleum-cut prints to illustrate the Square Stories: seniors Tessa Kraus and Lars Johnson, and juniors Maxwell Green, Savannah Horn, and Jake Porter. Riley Samuelson, a senior, assisted Esslemont in binding the book.

The pages were printed on a cylinder press designed by Orville Running, who headed Luther’s Art Department for 30 years, beginning in 1946. Not all of the student illustrators had made a print before, and Esslemont taught each step along the way. He demonstrated how to roll the ink—listening to the roller’s sh-sh-sh to determine when the ink was spread thinly enough. Then he showed how to apply just the right amount of pressure through the press—not so much that the print block dented the paper.

Esslemont and his team of students aimed to create 30 copies of the approximately 8½-by-5½-inch books. One copy may find a home in the Rare Book Room of Preus Library.

Every two years, the Jones Professorship is awarded to a Luther faculty member who honors the values and traditions of the humanities, enriches the intellectual life of students, and provides academic leadership in the humanities. The Jones Professor devotes time to a project that will enhance humanities education.

Slagel credits balance, team support for success in the pool

Clare Slagel ’16, a biology major and champion swimmer from Hempstead High School in Dubuque, Iowa, is a 10-time All-American with two national championships. She has also collected a long list of additional honors over her four years at Luther that reflects her ability to balance hard work in both academics and athletics. 

“I think a big part of being able to manage your time is communication,” Slagel says. “But I also think that it’s coming into the season knowing that you have to sacrifice certain things to be able to have your main focuses be on swimming and academics.”

As much at home in the water as she is studying in Valders or Sampson-Hoffland, Slagel has dedicated herself to swimming five to six months of the year, including two-a-day practices four times per week for most of the swim season. That dedication has paid off. In March, she qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships for the fourth year in a row.

Slagel qualified in the 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and 200 backstroke events. She finished the championship meet as national runner-up in the 100 backstroke, becoming a four-time All-American in that event. She finished fourth in 2013, third in 2014, and was the national champion in 2015.

Slagel finished ninth in the 200 backstroke and won the consolation final. She was the national champion in 2014 and finished third in 2013 and 2015. This year, her 500 freestyle preliminary time put her in 12th position, and she chose not to swim the consolation final. Slagel also earned All-America honors as a member of the 200 medley relay team with Erin Connolly ’14, Lexi Scharmer ’16, and Emily Anderson ’17 that placed seventh in 2014.

In February 2016, Slagel was named the Liberal Arts Championships Swimmer of the Year, becoming the first athlete in the history of the championships to earn the title four times.

She says her teammates and coaches contributed in a big way to her individual success. “I’ve had this experience at Luther that I’ve never had with any other team before,” Slagel says. “And I think it’s because of the environment [of the team]. I feel like this year we’re closer as a team than we have ever been.”

She continues, “It’s hard sometimes because you get so tired. And that’s the culture of swimming: you’re always going to be swimming exhausted. But it’s hard not to be motivated and it’s hard not to be dedicated when you have such a strong team behind you.”

With a strong academic record as well, Slagel is also a three-time Iowa Conference Winter Sports All-Academic Team honoree, a three-time CSCAA (College Coaches Swimming Association of America) Scholar All-American, and has twice been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team.

Reflecting on her collegiate career, Slagel says, “It is difficult to be done with college swimming,” Slagel says. “But I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that I have had. I loved competing at [nationals], and having the chance to race so many remarkable athletes will always be a highlight.”

She says she’ll continue swimming, but mostly for pure enjoyment. “I love the sport of swimming, and I love the culture of swimming, but I also love the idea of swimming,” Slagel says. “I think I’ll always continue swimming—more for the enjoyment of the sport.”

Slagel’s next step will be to attend graduate school for veterinary medicine at Iowa State University.

For Serres, every meet celebrates recovery from injury

Tricia Serres ’16 is always on the run. The biology major and star cross country and track runner packs classes, work study, and a rigorous training plan into each day—a routine that has brought her major success. Between cross country and track, the Platteville, Wis., native has a national title and 10 All-American honors to her name. Most recently, Serres placed fourth in the mile at the NCAA Division III National Championships, her third All-American honor in that event.   “[Being an All-American] is definitely really special,” Serres says. “It’s a work in progress, and I’ve just tried to enjoy the process of it all. I feel very blessed.” Despite her dedication, Serres’s passion for running and her blooming career saw a major slowdown in the late winter/early spring of 2015, when a serious iliotibial band injury sidelined her for several months, threatening to jeopardize her entire track season. “It was definitely challenging, not only physically, but emotionally,” Serres says. “When your teammates are training and you’re not, that’s tough.” She says it took a lot of patience and persistence, but the experience helped her be a stronger runner and athlete overall. Serres eventually overcame the injury and captured the national title in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA III National Championships in May 2015. Coming back from the injury, every meet was a celebration of being able to run, Serres says. “Going into the national meet, I just looked at it as, Wow, this is crazy that I’m here. Whatever happens, happens—I’m just going to be a tough competitor. It was very special.” Serres says she was drawn to Luther by its welcoming community and also because of some incentive from her father, Rob Serres ’82. “I always felt very welcomed,” Serres says. “[There’s] a great community here, and that was something that I really wanted to be a part of. . . . I knew there would be lots of opportunities to pursue other passions and interests, and I think it’s been a great fit for me.” Postgraduation, Serres will pursue physical therapy by enrolling in graduate school at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. “I’ve always loved how the body moves, and physical activity, and helping people,” she says. “And I feel like [physical therapy] is a great career avenue for that.” As for running, Serres plans to continue the competitive training and running that have become essential to who she is.

Transfer to Luther brings the fun back to wrestling

Drew Van Anrooy ’16 needed a change in his life. The star wrestler transferred to Luther from Division I Oregon State University after his redshirt sophomore year, looking to revamp both his academics and his athletics. It paid off.

After finishing runner-up in the 141-pound weight class at the 2015 NCAA Division III National Championships, Van Anrooy captured the national title in the same weight class in 2016. He is now a two-time All-American in addition to his national title, with a career record at Luther of 50-3.

“I couldn’t have ended my competitive collegiate career in a better fashion,” Van Anrooy says. “I feel incredibly blessed to call myself a national champion for the rest of my life.”

Drew and his brother Reed Van Anrooy ’17 accompanied one another in their move to Luther, where they were joined this year by younger brother Cole Van Anrooy ’19. Three years of Division I wrestling had left Drew feeling unbalanced and single-minded.

“I wanted to have a little bit better balance [in my life],” Drew says. “I felt like wrestling was my whole life—[it was] everything I focused on. I wasn’t able to get involved in anything else, really. I wanted a better education as well as a social life, and I thought that I could achieve that at the Division III level.”

Drew explained that his father, Mike, was a wrestler at a Division III liberal arts college, which helped sway Drew to pursue a similar path. Drew was drawn to Luther, specifically, by its combination of excellence in academics and in wrestling.

Drew says that he, his father, and Reed looked at where teams had finished at the national tournament the previous year as well as how the school rated academically. “Luther was up there,” Drew says. “We went on some visits and liked Luther the best.”

Transferring to Luther, Drew says, has made wrestling fun again. “We have a lot of fun as a team,” he says. “I just felt like I could trust the whole coaching staff, and that was a big part to letting me just focus on my wrestling.”

As he closes out his time at Luther, the biology major, who hails from Roseburg, Ore., plans to take a year off from schooling before attending medical school. He would also like to coach wrestling at some level. “I’d like to stay involved with the sport,” Drew says.

In his deep radio voice, Bruce Larson recites the once-standard station break of KWLC: “You’re in tune to the radio voice of Luther College, KWLC, Decorah.” Larson, who is on staff as the station engineer but was a KWLC DJ in the late 1960s, recalls: “The very first time I was on the air, they put me in a studio, and the only thing I did was give a station break. I was armed with this phrase—it was written down on a piece of paper—and Dan Olson ’67, the DJ, gave his back-announce to whatever record he was playing. Then he pointed at me, the light came on, and I had a lump in my throat while I delivered that line. That was the beginning. And by the end of my freshman year, I was combo-ing” (engineering and broadcasting at the same time).

Larson describes a scene straight from radio’s golden days. But while the technology, programming, and promotional aspects of the station have evolved in the past few decades, the effect of KWLC on the students who work for and listen to it remains just as powerful.

Radio reach

On good days, KWLC general manager David Grouws says, the station’s signal reaches almost to La Crosse, Wis. KWLC operates on the AM band but also streams its programming, which means that people can listen worldwide. In addition to its original shows, KWLC streams chapel and Sunday morning services and select live campus sporting events, which are board-operated by work-study students hired for the task.

Grouws became KWLC station manager in November 2014, and his goal is to teach students—14 of whom work in paid roles and 50–60 of whom are volunteer DJs—to become not only creators but also promoters. “The station is an outlet for creativity—the students produce a beautiful thing, so they learn to be craftsmen and journalists,” he says. “But I really want to move to a model of teaching them to be independent producers, where they create a beautiful show and promote and sell it as you would in any media or entertainment industry. I want them to make a product that they can take with them and market.”

Music curators

According to Grouws, the traditional college station tries to bring in genres of music that aren’t amenable to commercial radio. “We try to capture a diversity of tastes,” he says, citing a show on Scandinavian rock, another on video-game music, and a third astonishingly specific show featuring German rap.

Grouws recognizes that in a digital age, when people can stream music for free and queue up podcasts on demand, radio is becoming a rarefied medium, but he thinks KWLC offers something valuable: “We bring an editorial intelligence. We’re curators. We can help find music our audience doesn’t even know they like. Students spend a lot of time selecting music, but their shows are only an hour each week, so what they choose to play matters to them.”

What’s more, Grouws says, KWLC students “coach listeners. They’ll say, ‘Listen to this part’ or they’ll point out connections between songs. So you have a knowledgeable companion.” In an age when listening options—good and bad—are near limitless, it saves a lot of time and money to have a curator willing to sift through the chaff to find the wheat. Having one that can educate you into the bargain? Priceless.

Talk radio

Sophomores Colin Landsteiner and Daniel Melaas-Swanson have one of KWLC’s few talk sports shows. And although their show is strictly volunteer, they do a lot of footwork for it. They cover Luther, collegiate, and national sports, and they court expert opinion. On their program, they’ve hosted columnists from USA Today, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Denver Post, and the Charleston Post and Courier. For their pre–Super Bowl coverage between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, they even pulled off a phone interview with Denver Bronco safety David Bruton. Of course, they also interview hometown athletes, like Luther basketball player Anna Madrigal ’17 and soccer player Melisse Chasse ’17.

Although Landsteiner’s love of sports knows no bounds, he appreciates the eclectic KWLC lineup. “When I first got here, there were shows in four or five music genres, but the station seems more diverse now in terms of programming.”

In fact, one initiative on Grouws’s agenda is to increase the amount of news and talk programming at the station. “We’re trying to create a public affairs presence with more news journalism, more sports journalism, and more talk radio. And we’re starting to experiment with new narrative forms of journalism.”

KWLC’s spring on-air schedule features several news shows, including This Week at KWLC, a music-discussion show that explores the music industry, from trends, tours, and new videos to more philosophic discussions, like musicians’ rights, for example in the Spotify–Taylor Swift dustup, in which the singer pulled her music from the low-royalty music-streaming site. 

Grouws is also initiating a top-of-the-hour news segment that recaps both local and international news. The goal is to expand it into an hour-long current events program.

In what promises to be a win-win situation, Luther added a journalism minor last fall, and one requirement of the minor is to work on news at either KWLC or Chips for two semesters. The station has amped up its technical resources in anticipation of the journalism students, upgrading to the newest Adobe Audition software and adding a sound station where students can mix in sounds from field recordings.

Radio teaches

Sylvester Mhlanga ’16 might have the most diverse musical tastes of anyone on campus. A management major from Swaziland, his favorite musician is country singer Don Williams. Other list-toppers include new age Enya, Irish rockers U2, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, and reggae. Mhlanga hosts both a reggae show and a world music show, and he’s also the station’s music journalism editor. He puts out a print and digital monthly newsletter, which means overseeing a stable of writers and learning a thing or two about email marketing.

Mhlanga, who volunteered as a DJ until last summer, when he became a paid student-worker, says, “In Swaziland, where I grew up, radio DJs are like celebrities. So when I got a chance to work in radio, it was a big deal to me.”

He continues, “It was a challenge when I started. I was never someone who looks for the opportunity to speak in public. When you broadcast at the station, there are only one or two people, but it feels like a lot of people are watching you.”

Mhlanga used to work for Luther’s custodial department, and after he delivered this spring’s Convocation address as president of the International Student Union, his former supervisor shared how surprised and impressed she was to see him at the podium, given how quiet he’d been before. “I’ve come a long way from being someone who minds their own business to public speaking,” he admits.

Many of the KWLC students have a similar ease about them. They’re comfortable in their skin. They’re confident. They don’t say “um” or “like.” They don’t hem or haw or use other stalling techniques when asked a question.

“Working at KWLC has honed my skills of how to think on the fly or play off mistakes,” says Marlene Jones, rock music director.

“I’ve always been a good extemporaneous speaker, but now I think on my feet very quickly,” agrees Emma Cassabaum ’16, KWLC’s co-station manager and news director.

Both Jones and Cassabaum manage and train other students—as station director, Cassabaum manages and trains upward of 60 of them—and their positions obviously engage their managerial, leadership, scheduling, and organizational skill sets.

But with great responsibility comes great perks, and, owing to a combination of canny timing and media savvy, Cassabaum has gotten to interview such greats as famed Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi and South African musical icon and freedom fighter Hugh Masekela.

Another perk? “I get to watch our DJs evolve from their audition to the end of year,” she says. “They completely blossom.”

On the sound side, Erin Bradley works as KWLC’s recording technician, recording Luther ensembles and visiting musicians who come to the studio. As part of its promotional efforts, the station has started putting out an annual CD featuring these recordings. Bradley recruits the bands, sets up a time to record, records, edits the recordings, sends out the tracks for burning to CD, and designs the CD. “Organization is key,” she says. “I was not an organized person coming into this job, and you’d be surprised how quickly that turned around.”

The position has also taught Bradley some people skills. “There is a stereotype about musicians being moody, and that doesn’t change even in the recording studio of a college campus,” she says dryly. “So I’ve been learning to work with different personality types and different expectations—and also a wide variety of sounds.”

Bradley plans to work as a technician in the D.C. area next year while she considers entering an audio technician master’s program. “Radio is a dying art, and it shouldn’t be,” she says. “There’s so much you can get out of it, from learning to manage your time and organize your thoughts quickly to diving into new music, especially, when it comes to Luther, into music you may not get in the major.”

Radio surfaces

KWLC occupies the sub-basement level of Dahl Centennial Union, and most KWLC students agree that a top priority is making the station more visible on campus—“bringing it out of the basement” is a phrase they regularly deploy. To that end, they’ve increased promotion both on campus and social media, and they’ve started staging wildly popular outdoor music events each semester.

Jones explains, “We’ve put on more events over the past couple of years, and we’re tying to come to the surface with more promotional things. A lot of people at Luther don’t know about KWLC, but there are so many doors it can open. It’s different from any other club because there is no strict formula—you can do what you want with it. That creative freedom has been so rewarding.”

Some of the most powerful recent changes at KWLC have nothing to do with its content, but rather with its appearance, from a new digital billboard that hangs outside the station offices to a new coat of paint on the office walls. Bradley says, “It’s not only a physical renewing—it’s also renewing the spirit of the radio station. It’s not just forgotten in the basement. From the events we throw outside, to the promotions, to the digital billboard with the face of the DJ who’s currently hosting on it—it’s a cool opportunity that was hidden before, and we’re turning it into something inviting.”

If you had $5,000 to design a learning experience for yourself anywhere in the world, what would you do?

This is the question posed to the 10 students that Luther selects as Imagine Fellows each year. The Imagine Fellowship comes with few restrictions, giving students great latitude to envision what kind of experience will have the most impact for them, the biggest caveat being that the experience has to happen off-campus. Terry Sparkes, associate dean, says, “It offers the opportunity to explore beyond the confines of courses or campus, to engage in something meaningful that helps them just a little further—or a lot further!—down the road of discovering how to match their gifts and skills with a sense of direction.”

While the fellowships are merit-based, they offer an opportunity to students who might not otherwise be able to study abroad. JD Davis ’15, who used his fellowship to study Norway’s prisons, says, “At all the college fairs, they talked about the great study-abroad opportunities that Luther has, but I knew that financially that was something I would never be able to do, so when I learned about the Imagine Fellowship, I knew it could be my one opportunity to get out of the country and discover a new culture and a new place.”

In some cases, the fellowship is a factor in college selection. Karin Hecht ’16 says, “I don’t want to overemphasize it, but the Imagine Fellowship was one of the big reasons I decided to come to Luther. Nowhere else would have given me an opportunity to design my own experience, especially one that would take me abroad.”

"Imagine Fellowships are unique to Luther College in the creativity, freedom, and entrepreneurialism they encourage in students' pursuit of learning. Fellowships are funded by donors who are enthused by the vibrant vision of the fellows."

—Ann Sponberg Peterson, director of development, principal gifts

The fellows profiled here used their funds to volunteer, test career goals, grow their craft, explore their spirituality, and deepen their sense of social justice. They had to learn to navigate and make decisions. They had to be flexible and open-minded to adapt to new situations. They had to think creatively when things didn’t always go according to plan. But that’s what the fellows valued most about their experiences. Cole Puffer ’15 says, “I grew in some intangible and inexplicable ways, and that was a very important part of this fellowship for me.”

Davis says, “My Imagine Fellowship really challenged the way I thought about the world. I like to think in black and white—that there’s the right and the wrong and the good and the bad—but this was a great opportunity for me to realize that there’s a lot of gray out there.”

Shayla De Jong ’16, who explored the pipe organ tradition in Europe and plans to study the instrument in graduate school next fall, says, “I like to think of my Imagine Fellowship as an experience that stems off in many directions in my life. It connects my past to my present to my future, to where I’m going next.”

To explore giving opportunities at Luther, visitluther.edu/giving.

Discovering the cradle of organ music

Shayla De Jong ’16, a music major and German minor, spent her fellowship in Germany and The Netherlands researching the North German organ tradition, which holds tremendous influence over organ culture. She focused on the instruments of Arp Schnitger, a prolific craftsman who built more than 160 organs. She met with a number of professional organists, saw dozens of organ performances, took an organ master class, and was even able to play a few European organs. De Jong has been accepted into three pipe organ master’s programs; she will start one next fall.

A hotbed of organists in Iowa

De Jong grew up outside of New Sharon, Iowa, a town of about 1,300 that remarkably boasted several pipe organists. She started learning the instrument in high school, and by the time she got to college, she was interested in connecting with the wider world of organ music. “I knew my own story, but it was very serendipitous,” she says. “But Europe is where it all began, and so many students in the educational system there are flourishing under famous organists.”

So De Jong planned an Imagine Fellowship that would take her to the cradle of organ culture in North Germany and The Netherlands. She leveraged her time abroad to study for a month at the Goethe Institute in Dresden and fulfill the language requirement for a German minor. “It goes hand in hand with everything you should know as an organist,” she says. “German and French are the languages we’re supposed to study.”

The organ as teacher

One of the pinnacles of De Jong’s trip was the time she spent at the St. Jacobi church in the heart of Hamburg, home to Schnitger’s most famous organ. Not only did she get to help tune the instrument, but she was also able to play it.

Of the experience, she says: “It was a little daunting, but it was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And it was absolutely sublime. Something I’ve learned at Luther in my lessons with Dr. Gregory Peterson ’83 is that the organ teaches you just as much as a teacher will. You can sit down and feel what sounds good and what doesn’t based on the acoustical space and the keyboard and pedalboard. European instruments are different from American instruments, and because they’re older, there are certain things you can’t play
on them.”

Class with a master

De Jong also took a master class in Amsterdam with renowned organist Jacques van Oortmerssen, from whom she learned more about the symbolism in Bach’s music and how an instrument’s touch can inform a player’s expressiveness, as well as how to be expressive without injuring yourself (there are many competing tensions in the body while a person plays). As De Jong says, “The organ is an intense instrument!”

Researching the intersection of technology and humanness

Growing up the son of two physicians near Rochester, Minn., Cole Puffer ’15 developed an early interest in science and medicine. He spent his Imagine Fellowship engaged in a comparative-data study conducted between clinicians at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Akershus University Hospital in Norway. The study investigated the effectiveness of a filter that fits into the interior vena cava, which carries blood to the heart, and reportedly helps prevent pulmonary embolisms in trauma patients.

What it means to be human

Puffer started at Luther with a strong affinity for neuroscience but quickly gained an appreciation for the study of the mind through less scientific means. “I have a deep interest in what it means to be human,” he says. “My first year of classes at Luther ignited that sense of wonder, in particular Paideia and my first-year J-term, Big Questions.”

By the time he had to plan his Imagine Fellowship, Puffer was more interested in the philosophical, rather than medical, side of neuroscience and humanness. “I was attacking that interest from a different angle,” he says. “What I wanted to learn more about through my fellowship was the research process and how it was done in a hospital setting.”

What it means to be a doctor

Through his fellowship, Cole worked with physicians at Mayo Clinic to design the study and its databases, as well as an unbiased method of collecting data at the participating institutions. Then he went to the Akershus University Hospital for two months, where he spent two or three days a week doing data collection and the other days shadowing Norwegian doctors in different parts of the hospital. “I had no clue I’d be able to do that,” he says, “but it ended up being an incredible experience.”

One day, Puffer was shadowing a cardiologist while he monitored a patient who’d undergone minor surgery. The doctor was using an ultrasound machine on the patient’s lower leg but then set it down abruptly, frustration clouding his face. After the consultation, Puffer says, “He looked at me and said something profound: ‘We started using these machines, and we forgot how to be doctors.’”

What it means to be both

“That moment really influenced me,” Puffer says, noting that it sparked a new interest in combating the negative role that technology sometimes plays in doctors’ offices. “For example, because of the requirement of electronic medical records, doctors are spending more time typing and less time talking to patients, which has resulted in less satisfaction in both doctors and patients, and I think it’s responsible for higher rates of physician burnout.” But he recognizes that electronic health records will play an increasingly important role in the years to come, and he’s been helping an oral surgery office convert its records from paper to electronic while he waits to start medical school at the University of Minnesota–Duluth in August.

“In my future career,” he says, “I really want to strive—partially as a direct result of going on this fellowship experience—to have a human touch in my practice and my relationship with my patients. They’re coming in in a vulnerable state—they’re going to the doctor because something is wrong—and the more you can greet that with both techonology and a sense of humanity, the more it helps them feel confident in themselves and their treatment, which leaves both parties better off.”

Solving for y with the help of a pilgrimage

Erika Storvick’s fellowship was an exploration of spirituality. Now a senior, she entered Luther as a math major, but “took a couple of religion classes and fell in love,” she says. For the first portion of her fellowship, she walked the French part of El Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage. She followed this experience with two weeks at Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery near Bordeaux. She ended her fellowship with a week at Taizé, a Christian monastery in Burgundy.

From solving for y to engaging her faith

Storvick loved math in high school and considered majoring in it at college, but religion classes at Luther taught her to look deeper, which encouraged her to double major in religion. “There’s something different between attending church services and engaging your faith in an academic setting. Luther’s Religion Department taught me to question and look deeper and challenge assumptions people make about religion,” she says.

Storvick’s fellowship proposal combined a lot of the interests she’d developed through Luther’s religion program. “I wanted to learn what a pilgrimage was and how a spiritual journey can bring people together,” she says. “At Plum Village, I got the chance to engage with what I’d learned in my classes on Buddhism.” She was able to test what she’d learned in her classes on interfaith dialogue there and at Taizé, which, the week Storvick was there, hosted a gathering in honor of one of its founders that included world leaders from the European Union, the United Nations, and other organizations.

You can’t walk a pilgrimage backward

“My original plan was to walk El Camino backward, but that kind of goes against the spirit of the pilgrimage,” Storvick says, “because part of its purpose is to meet people and travel together. To be a part of the community, you have to do it forward.”

Storvick learned a lot about the power of community during her pilgrimage. “I appreciated meeting so many different people on the journey,” she says. “Every night in each hostel or gîte, we had a chance to share why we were doing the pilgrimage, and a powerful realization for me was that even if we didn’t speak the same language, we interacted in a meaningful way. I learned a lot about the importance of community and how so much can be learned from someone you don’t necessarily identify with.”

Being present in the moment

During her Imagine experience, Storvick went from a Christanity-centered pilgrimage to a Buddhist monastery, from walking up to 30 kilometers a day to sitting still and meditating four hours a day. She reflects, “The monastery was all about mindfulness and being present in the moment, but that was an attitude also prevalent in the pilgrimage. Sometimes you’re just thinking, I have to get up this hill.”

Researching incarceration and personal reformation

After developing an intense interest in the U.S. prison system, JD Davis ’15, a social work major, used his fellowship to travel to Norway, visiting a wide range of prisons, from Norway’s most secure facilities to halfway houses that are integrated into the community. He interviewed inmates, correctional officers, prison chaplains, researchers, and a community group that helps released convicts reintegrate. Davis is currently serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in the Twin Cities, helping released convicts successfully reenter society, and he was recently accepted into law school at the University of Minnesota.

“It lit a fire in me”

Although he grew up in Lino Lakes, Minn., home to a 1,300-man correctional facility, Davis’s interest in the U.S. prison system was sparked his first year at Luther, when Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, came to campus to talk about how the sorts of restrictions that were in place during the Jim Crow era are essentially being re-created in the U.S. prison system. “I was blown away by all that was happening,” Davis says, “and it lit a fire in me for learning more.”

Davis took every opportunity to research the prison system: “I was able to incorporate that interest into my classes each semester and find ways to write papers on prisons and penal philosophy. Also, Britt (Hellgren) Rhodes ’96 always takes her Social Work 101 class to the correctional facility in Prairie du Chien, Wis., and I went with that group almost every semester. I helped drive students there and back.”

Norwegian prison tour

In June of 2014, Davis used his Imagine Fellowship to travel to Oslo to spend a month in Norway touring prisons and conducting interviews. “It was my first time being out of the country, so that alone was an amazing experience,” he says. But what made an equally big impression on Davis was the Norwegian philosophy of incarceration.

“Inmates in Norway are not treated differently from any other citizens, they’re just removed from society for a time,” he says. “The way I like to think about it is that in Norway, incarceration is just a time out. You still have access to everything you always had outside of prisons; you just need time to go to a different place and receive services to reform yourself so that your crime doesn’t happen again. Norwegian inmates don’t even wear special uniforms; they wear street clothes in prison. That alone says a lot about what they’re doing over there.”

Rejecting the status quo

Davis’s current position on the Goodwill–Easter Seals Minnesota’s ReEntry Team leaves him working with what many would call a broken system, but he remains resolute: “This is definitely my thing. I’m still very passionate about it. And the Imagine Fellowship really helped me solidify this passion, and it also continues to inspire me, because by going to Norway, I was able to see that things can be different within prison systems. The status quo isn’t the only way. So I want to continue to work with our prisons and try to create real change here.”

Empowering communities through long-term volunteering

Karin Hecht ’16, a psychology and English double major, spent her fellowship working with the Los Martincitos Senior Citizen Center in a shantytown in Lima, Peru. Participants in the program often live in harsh conditions with little support. The center provides two meals a day, social activities, basic medical care, a literacy school, and home wellness visits.

Using her fellowship to volunteer

“One stereotype about psych majors is that they like to help people,” Hecht says, “and that’s definitely why the major appealed to me.” It’s also why Hecht structured her Imagine Fellowship around volunteering. She’d visited her older brother when he was working with the Peace Corps in Peru, and she decided to volunteer in that country with Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS), a nonprofit organization that Hecht says models some of the same values.

Through CCS, Hecht ended up working last January with Los Martincitos, which serves about a hundred abuelitos, as the elderly participants are called. On days when the center was closed, Hecht accompanied the program director on home visits, checking in on people who couldn’t make it to the center and inviting new people to join.

The problems that the abuelitos faced, such as poverty, isolation, and lack of access to medical care, exist in the U.S. but are amplified in Peru, Hecht says. She witnessed some heart-wrenching situations, such as a woman who’d broken her ankle and would have been bedridden for life were it not for the simple medical intervention of the center, which provided pain medicine and monitored healing.

Helping in ways that have an impact

Hecht is glad that her fellowship was an emotionally difficult experience: “It was good that it pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to consider this other facet of poverty in developing nations.” 

She continues: “One of the fears I had going in was that sometimes these short-term volunteer experiences are not helpful. People show up for a week, make friends with the kids, leave a week later, and think they saved the world. I tried to pick a program that would minimize that. The programs I was working with didn’t rely solely on the people coming in. They had full-time staff members, and we’d come in to help them for as long as we could.”

Hecht cares about making sure that her efforts have an impact. “So many people from first-world countries like to throw money and resources at developing nations,” she says, “and though that can help, sometimes it can end up hurting because you don’t have a good concept of what the people actually need or want or what impacts the politics of that country will have on your help. You need the ability to work within the system, which means asking the people who actually live there what they need and want.”

2000–2009 / 2010–2016

2000

Erin (Meyer) Bockoven-Troll of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is an intermediate accountant for Transamerica Life Insurance.

Norah Bringer and Dave Wake live in Washington, D.C. She is an appellate attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. He is an attorney adviser at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Tyler Christiansen earned a doctor of ministry degree from Garret Seminary. He is executive pastor at Riverchase United Methodist Church in Hoover, Ala.

John Smedstad earned a master of music degree in choral conducting from Oklahoma State University. He is upper school choral director at St. Paul’s Independent Day School in Lutherville, Md.

Karen (Knutson) Wain is assistant professor at Geisinger Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute in Lewisburg, Pa.

Richard Winkels of Red Wing, Minn., relinquished command of the 1st Armored Division Band in March. He is spending nine months in the Middle East, where he will serve as the theater music liaison officer for Forward U.S. Army Central and Coalition Forces Land Component Command. After his deployment, he will become deputy commander for the U.S. Military Academy Band in West Point, N.Y.

2001

Dan Bellrichard of Decorah is Grass Run Farms brand manager for Jack Link’s Protein Snacks.

Katie Marske is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Matt Mills is an IT program manager for USAID in Arlington, Va.

Heather (Ciernia) Nelson is choral director at Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Brighton, Minn., and vocal director for the Mounds View Community Theatre.

2002

Tucker Hansen is abstractor for Lake County Abstract in Madison, S.D.

Jenn (Smith) and Peter Hoesing ’03 live in Sioux Falls, S.D. She earned a master’s degree in arts administration at Florida State University and is executive director of Stockyards Ag Experience. He is visiting assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Grinnell College and recently received the 2016 United Methodist Church Board of Higher Education and Ministry Exemplary Teacher Award, as well as the 2015–16 UNCF Henry C. McBay Research Fellowship.

Arijit Mazumdar of Roseville, Minn., is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas.

Peter Oyloe of Chicago is an actor, singer, and songwriter. He recently released an EP of original material, When the Wide World Roars.

Erica (Dencer) Weisgram of Plover, Wis., was invited to the White House to participate in the Conference on Helping Children Explore, Learn, and Dream without Limits: Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media and Toys.

Jane (McDermott) and Kenny Wheeler II ’00 live in Bettendorf, Iowa. She teaches physical education and is the girls’ track and cross country coach at Pleasant Valley Community High School. Her cross country team earned state runner-up in 2015. He is an academic adviser at Western Illinois University and co–head coach, with Jane, of Pleasant Valley Community High School girls’ track and field. Their track team earned state runner-up in 2016.

2003

Julie Bauch is a nursing supervisor for Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Peter Hoyem of Stillwater, Minn., completed the fall 2015 New York Marathon with a time of 2:44:46. He placed 164 out of 29,999 male entrants, 182 out of 50,000 entrants overall.

Ryan Kling-Punt is community outreach manager for Rochester (Minn.) Area Habitat for Humanity.

Andrew Nelson is pastor for the children, youth, and family ministry at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa, and serves as president of the Mary J. Treglia House Board of Directors.

Katie (Hendrickson) Thompson teaches middle school math at Ave Maria Catholic School in Parker, Colo.

Arvid von Taube is an associate attorney with Ropes and Gray LLP in Boston. He was elected chairman of the Wellesley Historical Commission, which is in charge of preserving the architectural, political, and social history of Wellesley, Mass.

2004

Bradley Carlton is business manager for School Management Services in Austin, Minn.

Sara (Johnson) D’Abreo is an attorney for the Law Office of Sara D’Abreo PLLC in Lewisville, Texas.

Janelle (Feine) and Charlie Dahl ’03 are traveling the country in a fifth-wheel camper. She works as a travel nurse, and he cares for their children.

Ben Druffel earned a doctorate from Rutgers University and is assistant director of bands for Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Sarah (Braun) Ekenberg is public relations manager at Proto Labs in Maple Plain, Minn.

Amy Frye is owner and operator of Boldly Grown Farm in Skagit Valley, Wash.

Jerry Koering is an owner of Group Benefit Partners in Fort Madison, Iowa, and recently became co-owner of Midwest Group Benefits in Decorah.

Katie Konrath is an inbound marketing and sales strategist at Media Junction in St. Paul, Minn.

Ryan Luhrs is assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C.

Leann McDowell earned a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of California–San Francisco and received the Bowl of Hygeia Award, which is the highest honor given to a graduating student in the School of Pharmacy at UCSF. She was also awarded the Best Student Pharmacist Poster Award at the AMCP Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy annual meeting. Leann is a PGY-1 pharmacy resident for HealthPartners in Bloomington, Minn.

Karen (Elliot) Thompson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was the recipient of the 2015 University of Iowa D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Award in Biological and Life Sciences.

Bergen (Papka) and Jake Torgerson ’05 live in St. Paul, Minn. She is a communications consultant at HealthEast Care System. He is director of real estate portfolio at Target Corporation.

Zach Wigle was named the 2016 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa. Zach was principal of Keokuk High School last year and was recently named activities director for the Solon Community School District for 2016–17.

2005

Laura Chaney is director of international student and scholar services at the University of San Francisco.

Anna Cigrand earned a master of health administration degree from Saint Louis University. She is administrative fellow at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

Ashley (Reiman) Doddridge teaches seventh-grade language arts and coaches girls’ cross country in the Collier County School District in Naples, Fla.

Shannon (Johnson) Gravelle earned a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Iowa. She is director of choral activities at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C.

Kate Ingber is a certified professional with the Society for Human Resource Management and is a talent acquisition partner for Starkey Hearing Technologies in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Jason Ketelsen earned a juris doctor degree, magna cum laude, from the Villanova University School of Law. He is an associate for DrinkerBiddle’s Litigation Practice Group in Philadelphia.

Lindsey Koele-Schmidt is a neonatologist at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa.

Lauren Mayfield is senior associate relations specialist for Edward Jones in Tempe, Ariz.

Erik Olson is principal at Hamline Elementary School in Chicago.

Brad Paulsrud of Hutchinson, Kan., is director of USA product sales for Les Mills.

Susie Pettinger of Burnsville, Minn., earned a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education from Upper Iowa University.

Melissa (Garbrecht) and Justin Pieper ’04 live in Fort Madison, Iowa. She is a homemaker. He is an owner of Group Benefit Partners in Fort Madison, Iowa, and recently became co-owner of Midwest Group Benefits in Decorah.

Aaron Richards is producer relations project manager at Cigna Behavioral Health in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Jen Stoa is a registered nurse at Saint Luke’s East Hospital in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

2006

Erik Bies earned a physical therapy doctorate from the University of Washington. He is a doctor of physical therapy at Movement Systems Physical Therapy in Seattle.

Tara (Huinker) Brown of Murrieta, Calif., is a stay-at-home mom.

Heather Carlson earned a master’s degree in differentiated instruction from Concordia College. She teaches seventh-grade special education for the Waconia (Minn.) School District.

Laura Chapin earned a Ph.D. in oncological sciences from the University of Utah. She is a research assistant at Covenant Clinic in Waterloo, Iowa.

Sonja Chi is sales operations specialist at Proto Labs Inc. in Maple Plain, Minn.

Lyn Curry is choir director at Regis Middle School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Abbey Dibble is procurement coordinator and liaison to the Holden Mine Remediation Project for Holden Village in Chelan, Wash.

Anna (Sill) Engelhart is a clinical development specialist at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minn.

Laura Fristad is a speech language pathologist for the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Coon Rapids, Minn.

Kristi (Millmann) Garcia earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing from St. Catherine University. She is a registered nurse at Summit Orthopedics in St. Paul, Minn.

Jill (Knutson) Gierok of Prior Lake, Minn., is a registered nurse in peri-operative services at University Hospital of Minneapolis Fairview.

Eric Hahn teaches social studies and is athletic director at Pinnacle High School in Thornton, Colo.

Kathryn Hobson is assistant professor of communication studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. She received the honor of top dissertation from the National Communication Association GLBTQ Division.

Andy Hoegh earned a Ph.D. in statistics from Virginia Tech. He is assistant professor of statistics at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont.

Kara (Kulzer) Jordahl is a mental health therapist for Lifeworks Inc. in Des Moines, Iowa.

Sheil Kee earned a Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and a postdoctoral degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University. She is a scientist with Theranos Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif.

Nick Kelley is assistant public health administrator for the city of Bloomington, Minn.

Rachel Kibler is a software test analyst for Zions Bancorporation in Salt Lake City.

Bethany (Peterson) Kracl earned a master’s degree in school counseling from the University of Nebraska–Omaha. She is a school counselor for the Omaha (Neb.) Public Schools.

Rachel (Swenson) Miller is a quality improvement specialist with Gundersen Health System Inc. in La Crosse, Wis.

Al Onkka earned a master’s degree in evaluation studies from the University of Minnesota. He is a senior consultant at Aurora Consulting in Minneapolis.

Lynnea Pfohl earned a master’s degree in environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School. She is a policy program organizer for the Land Stewardship Project in Lewiston, Minn., until the conclusion of the Frac Sand Ban Campaign in Winona County.

Nicole (Bontrager) Rediger is a registered nurse of pediatric intensive care for Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in St. Paul. She and her husband, Ryan, have also started a business, 4TK Consulting.

Emily (Anderson) Shockley is a communications specialist at Mesa County Valley School District 51 in Grand Junction, Colo.

Andrew Steward is dean of students and teaches at Kansai Christian School in Heguri Cho, Japan.

2007

Hemie Collier is assistant director of intercultural life at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Liz (Rasmus) Drayton is elementary music specialist for the Altoona (Wis.) School District.

Megan (Manthey) Ellingson is a certified nurse practitioner at St. Paul (Minn.) Radiology.

Adam Frye is head coach for the cross country and track and field programs at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash.

Matthew Hagen earned a master’s degree in psychology from Harvard University. He is a senior product line manager and IBM thought leader: strategy with IBM Commerce in Bedford, N.H.

Mindi (Scott) and Josh Johnson live in Frisco, Texas. She is a registered nurse. He is a specialty market account executive at MetLife Insurance.

Leah Kinnaird of Des Moines, Iowa, received the Early Achievement in Outreach Award from the College of Human Sciences at Iowa State University. She is a human services specialist III and domestic violence response coordinator for the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Morgan (Sterzel) Lentino is a music teacher at School District U-46 in Elgin, Ill.

Troy Peterson is controller at Prime West Companies in Denver.

Mark Strohbehn earned a master’s degree in international security studies from Georgetown University. He is program manager at Development Transformations in Washington, D.C.

Stacy (Myhre) Twite is legislative director of continuing care administration for the Minnesota Department of Human Services in St. Paul.

Morgan (Waterstraat) Woods is associate doctor of chiropractic at Brennan Family Chiropractic and Nutrition Center in Rochester, Minn.

Danny Young of Nashville, Tenn., is a drummer, background singer, and music director for the Church Sisters, who were recently signed by Big Machine Label Group. He also drums and sings full time with Mary Sarah from the last season of The Voice.

2008

Katie Benedix is constituent manager at Brucemore in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Nina Catterall earned a master’s degree in sustainability leadership from Edgewood College. She is a human resources specialist with Nordic Consulting in Madison, Wis.

Stefanie (Tow) Cooper is a nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines.

Eric Crawford of Decorah is head coach of Decorah Swim Club. He was named head coach for Team Iowa at the 2016 Mega Zone Championship meet in Indianapolis last summer.

Haley Douglass is staff attorney for Professional Contract Services Inc. in Austin, Texas.

Jake Hunerdosse works at Hormel Foods in Austin, Minn.

Josh Leinen is a sound engineer in Ames, Iowa.

Laurie Meinholz is a doctor of chiropractic at Nordic Chiropractic LLC in Decorah. She received an Iowa Chiropractic Society District Star Award for her dedication and leadership in the Northeast Iowa District of the ICS.

Aaron Nyquist is an attorney at DLA Piper LLP (US) in Minneapolis.

Tim Peterson earned his paramedic certificate at Ridgewater College/Hennepin County Medical Center. He is a paramedic for North Memorial Ambulance Service as well as an on-call firefighter for the city of Maple Grove, Minn.

Kaycee (Green) Rogers earned a master’s degree in education–professional development at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. She is director of teacher education programs at the Rochester (Minn.) campus of Augsburg College.

Allison (Bouslog) Seeley is a business negotiations consultant in the Shareholder Services Department at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis.

Amber (Holzl) Sorenson teaches fifth grade at Woodland Elementary School in Brooklyn Park, Minn.

Godson Sowah is advisory senior manager and CPA for Ernst & Young in Minneapolis.

Kaitlyn Vaske-Wright is a board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood of Illinois in Chicago.

2009

Kate (Westby) and Abe Campos ’10 live in Bellevue, Neb. She is a stay-at-home mom and reviews books for Booklist magazine. He is an emergency medicine resident at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Mischa Fleishman is a grants administrator for the Legal Assistance Foundation in Chicago.

Kelly Gaul of Davenport, Iowa, earned the adult CCRN certification and attended the National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition in New Orleans last spring. She is a nurse at Trinity Medical Center.

Melissa (Munks) and Andy Gisleson ’08 live in Glenwood Springs, Colo. She is an associate veterinarian at Alpine Animal Hospital. He is a family medicine physician for Roaring Fork Family Practice.

Sara (Walters) Graverson is a registered nurse in orthopedics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She received the 2016 UW Health Nursing Excellence Award.

Brie (Kunkel) Iverson of Chussell, Mich., is a part-time director of youth and education at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, where her husband, Joseph, serves as pastor.

Justin Madsen is senior manager of negotiations finance and lead accountant of corporate financial reporting for Target Corporation in Minneapolis.

Nelao Nengola Alexander is a certified personal trainer at Virgin Active in Windhoek, Namibia. She is also a corporate wellness consultant for Power Poise Wellness.

Jenna Pulkowski Huntsberger earned a master’s degree in divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She is pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Fargo, N.D.

Cody Ryberg earned a higher education administration degree from St. Cloud State (Minn.) University.

Dan Summerfield earned a master’s degree in materials science and engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a doctor of medicine and a master of science in applied anatomy dual degree from Case Western Reserve University. He is a pathology resident at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Kathie (Palmersheim) Whitt completed three years of residency at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, and has joined Family Foot Health Care PLC in Waterloo, Iowa, as a foot and ankle specialist.

2010

Tom Blattner is accountant II at InfoSync Services in Wichita, Kan.

Anna Bullard earned a master’s degree in teacher preparation K–12: English as a second language from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

Mike Byrd earned a juris doctor degree from New York University School of Law. He is an associate at White & Case in London, United Kingdom.

Phuong Dau of Westminster, Calif., is a scientist at Avrio Biopharmaceuticals LLC.

Alysa Davis earned a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is an emergency medicine resident physician at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

Sarah Frana is a technical recruiter at NextGen Global Resources in San Diego.

Vickie Harper-Halverson is an administrative assistant at Des Moines (Iowa) University.

Bob Kemp is a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual and a broker for Aflac in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Amanda Kloser earned a master’s degree in teaching secondary English from the University of Iowa and received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant to teach English at Kastamonu University in Turkey.

Nana Kwapong earned a master of business administration degree with a focus in digital marketing from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. She is a marketing researcher and consultant at the university.

Marie Maguina Heller is an immigration case specialist at BI Incorporated, a GEO Group company in Phoenix, Ariz.

Dustin Meriwether earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Katie Prichard earned a master’s degree in museum and artifact studies from Durham University in Durham, England. She is assistant registrar at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor.

Victoria (Blanco) Tapia of New York City earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University.

Reid Wilson is founder and chief pursuit officer of Second Shot, a 501(c)(3) company creating adaptive outdoor opportunities in Iowa City, Iowa.

2011

Alex Anderson is assistant city attorney for the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Sabrina (Hawkinson) Arredondo teaches fourth grade at Greenleaf Elementary in Apple Valley, Minn.

Camille (Welter) and Peter Burleson ’11 live in Plymouth, Minn. She is a training technician at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty. He is an aquatics and kids’ activities manager at Lifetime Fitness.

Kate (Schaefer) Gerhardinger is a sustainable process solutions consultant for U.S. Bank in Minneapolis.

J. Scott Harrison is director of operations for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Edina, Minn.

Ryan Nord Kitchen of Johns Island, S.C., was featured in the New York Times in a review of his solo painting debut at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York City. Art critic Roberta Smith wrote: “Now the field has a brilliant newcomer: Ryan Nord Kitchen, 28, born in Minnesota; educated in Iowa and Baltimore; and making his New York solo debut at Nicelle Beauchene with ‘Winter Paintings,’ a show of 25 works measuring either 15 inches by 12 inches or 24 inches by 21 inches. As I’ve said before: Art you can take home in a taxi dissents from the big scale and site specificity that, regardless of medium, are so highly favored if not fetishized by the current system of huge spaces, museum commissions and sprawling international exhibitions. . . . The works in this quietly stunning show have a kind of perfection that can make you wonder where Mr. Kitchen will go next.”

Jordan Lang is territory sales manager for Deere and Company in Miami.

Charlie Rasmussen is cello and Suzuki faculty for the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee.

Liz (Cox) and Jeff Rose Jr. live in Moline, Ill. She is marketing manager of Vibrant Credit Union. He is strength and conditioning coach for Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Rachel Rudeen is admissions coordinator at University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis.

Kirsten Strandjord and Jay Dewitt live in Boulder, Colo. She earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University and is a doctoral student in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado–Boulder. He earned a juris doctor degree from Washington University and is a law clerk for the Colorado Court of Appeals in Denver.

Jenny (St. Clair) Tomesch of Iowa City, Iowa, earned a master of business administration degree from the University of Iowa. She is a project manager for Modern Woodmen of America.

2012

Peter Beierwaltes of Burnsville, Minn., earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He is a policy specialist for the Minnesota Department of Human Services and serves on the board of directors for the Arc Greater Twin Cities.

Bailey Cahlander is communications coordinator at Hennepin Theatre Trust in Minneapolis.

Kelly Dotseth of Boulder, Colo., is founder and chief experience officer of Brandzooka, a video marketing platform that makes it possible for anyone to execute video ad campaigns online.

Caroline Feeney is associate editor for Inman News and a freelance writer for Influence and Co. in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Erin (McWilliams) Hart earned a master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from St. Cloud University. She is a speech language pathologist for Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 in Anoka, Minn., and a Zumba instructor in the Minneapolis area.

Kelly Hyland is historical researcher and digitization specialist at Musco Lighting in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Danielle Koch is program specialist for Disaster Services and Camp Noah at Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Jenn (Winder) and Benj Kost live in Bettendorf, Iowa. She teaches Spanish in the Eddyville-Blakesburg Fremont Community School District. He is completing Summer Vocology Institute training through the University of Utah.

Joanna Lee is a paraprofessional at Mammoth Lakes (Calif.) Elementary School.

Thato Masire of Little Rock, Ark., earned a dual master’s degree in business administration and public service from the University of Arkansas. He was also named the 2016 Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace, which enabled him to participate in the Summer Intensive Language Program at Middlebury College, learning a year’s worth of French in six weeks.

Meghan McCall earned a master’s degree in nonproliferation and terrorism studies with an emphasis in Russian at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. She is a legal assistant at Google.

Teresa Procter is an active artist in the Da Camera Young Artist Program in Houston, Texas, where she performs for underrepresented communities and presents music to children in the greater Houston community school district. She works in a musical residency at the Monarch School, a therapeutic day school for children with neurological disorders, and serves as the Singer-Songwriter Fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital. Its Purple Songs Can Fly is a music studio that positively impacts pediatric cancer patients and their families through the writing, recording, and sharing of original songs. As an artist with Houston Grand Opera’s community and collaboration initiative, HGOco, she recently performed as the mezzo-soprano in Opera to Go!’s performance of The Velveteen Rabbit, and she sang in the world premiere of the chamber opera O Columbia.

Maren Quanbeck earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas. She is music production coordinator for the Aspen (Colo.) Music Festival and School.

Inga Rohde is community coordinator at L’Arche Tahoma Hope in Tacoma, Wash.

Cassie Seebart is a senior sea turtle biologist for Clearwater (Fla.) Marine Aquarium.

Katie (Etter) Sheets earned a doctor of chiropractic degree from Palmer College. She is opening Sheets Chiropractic and Wellness Inc. in Sigourney, Iowa.

Marcus Turen is accounting control and brokerage escheatment operations manager for U.S. Bancorp Investments Inc. in St. Paul, Minn.

Andrew Weckwerth earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Oregon State University. He is a business analyst consultant at Genesis10 in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Kristi Wietecha earned a master’s degree in teaching and learning from St. Mary’s University. She teaches eighth-grade English for the Pine Island (Minn.) School District.

Dan Wilcox is an activist with the Green Party in St. Paul, Minn., and candidate for the juris doctor degree at Vermont Law School.

Lisa Yahr teaches social studies at the Lionsgate Academy in Minnetonka, Minn.

2013

Anna DiCecco is Play Ball liaison for the Miami Marlins in Miami. Play Ball is an initiative designed to boost youth participation in baseball and softball.

Kelsey (Krall) Dralle is absence management team lead for Sedgwick CMS in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Dan Fernelius is individual giving manager at Hennepin Theatre Trust in Minneapolis.

Mary Ferrian is environmental health and safety technician at the Institute for Environmental Assessment Inc. in Minneapolis.

Tyler Hagy is a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) College–Conservatory of Music.

Kayla Hatting is head softball coach at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

Kaylee Helgemoe is a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Phoebe Jan-McMahon is a graduate student in painting and a teaching assistant at the University of
Nebraska–Lincoln.

Rachel Jungwirth was awarded the David LeClair Award for her active volunteering on the Professional Development Committee of Minnesota Association of Health Underwriters and continued professional representation of the health insurance industry. She is a sales representative with the Principal Financial Group in Minnetonka, Minn.

Matt Key performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the opening of the Battle of Midway remembrance ceremony in June. RADM John Alexander, commander, Battle Force 7th Fleet; Capt. Buzz Donnelly, Ronald Reagan’s commanding officer; and IS2 class Matt Key from Oshkosh, Wis., pose for a photo during a Battle of Midway remembrance ceremony in the ship’s aft mess decks.

Shannon Koenders is a doctoral student in optometry at the University of the Incarnate Word Rosenberg School of Optometry in San Antonio, Texas. She won one of 21 national tuition grants for her submission of an original case report.

Kelsey Moler earned a master of social work degree from Colorado State University. She is a behavioral health clinician for SummitStone Health Partners in Fort Collins, Colo.

Emily Ramos is a visitor services associate at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio.

Amy Shishilla is assistant cheese maker at the Lone Grazer Creamery in Minneapolis.

Kelsey (Rohs) Spohn is a veterinary technician for Twin Cities Animal Rehabilitation in Burnsville, Minn.

Sarah Thell earned a master’s degree in library and information science at St. Catherine University. She is marketing coordinator at KeyStone Search in Minneapolis.

Niki Tryggestad is administrative assistant of legal and outside sales for Marvin Windows and Doors in Eagan, Minn.

Isaac van Bruggen earned a master’s degree in public administration from Hamline University. He is a tenant services coordinator for Zeller Realty Group in Minneapolis.

Nick Vondrashek is an IT analyst and programmer at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Ashley Wright earned an MFA degree in theatre management from Florida State University in Tallahassee.

2014

Benjamin Anderson is a teaching assistant at Minnesota State University in Mankato.

Ingrid Baudler is a law student and legal research assistant at the University of Colorado Law School. She works as a law clerk at Grease Monkey International in Denver.

Eve Christensen is IELTS administrator at ELS Educational Services Inc. in St. Paul, Minn.

Michael Crocker is a freelance videographer in Half Moon Bay, Calif. He tells people’s entrepreneurial and personal brand stories through video.

Madeline Davidson earned a master’s degree in architectural engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is an acoustician at HDR in Minneapolis.

Becca Dugdale is a certified public accountant at Deloitte in Minneapolis.

Paul Esker of Brooklyn, N.Y., is a press assistant for Hillary for America.

Daniel Gallagher earned a master’s degree in flute performance from Illinois State University. He is a doctoral student at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Allison Gieswein teaches fourth grade at Lincoln Elementary School in Washington, Iowa.

Luke Hanson is a development officer at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.

Dane Huinker is a land-management district technician at the Jackson Soil and Water Conversation District in Lakefield, Minn.

Charles Martin-Stanley II earned a master’s degree in student affairs administration from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. He is a doctoral student in higher education student affairs at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

Sam Matheson is relationship manager at Alliance Benefit Group in Albert Lea, Minn.

Lauren Maze earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from Iowa State University. She is a graduate student in physical therapy at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

Scott Mittman is a graduate student and teaching assistant in mathematics at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Cody Orr is a purchasing engineer co-op at True Manufacturing in O’Fallon, Mo.

Michelle Schieber is a material planner at Trane Company in Memphis, Tenn.

Marissa Schuh earned a master’s degree in entomology from Michigan State University. She is an extension educator specializing in assisting commercial vegetable producers at MSU Extension in Adrian, Mich.

Rachel Selvig is a funded programs coordinator for Girl Scouts River Valleys in St. Paul, Minn.

Sam Wettach is a natural resource specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
in Madison.

2015

Tyler Anderson is communication assistant for Data Communication Solutions in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Emily Betts is project manager at Polaris Industries Inc. in Plymouth, Minn.

Claudia Calderon Machicado is a consultant at World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Kyrie Dailey is a professional research assistant at the University of Colorado–Denver.

Carly Ellefsen is associate designer at Design Center Inc. in St. Paul, Minn.

Michona Johns is an English lecturer at Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest, France.

Amanda Johnson teaches special education at Gage Elementary School in Rochester, Minn.

Julia Joseph is a page designer at Lee Enterprises in Madison, Wis.

Connor Mattison is a sales associate for DSW in Bloomington, Minn.

Thandokazi May is a research assistant in molecular biology and human genetics at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa.

Corey Miller is an account executive at Robert Half Technology in Oklahoma City.

Ben Nordquist is a DJ for Instant Request and is also on-call retreat staff and a communications intern at Youth Frontiers in Minneapolis.

Alex Odette is accounts payable specialist at Entrust Datacard in Shakopee, Minn.

Meghan Owens is clinical interventionist I at Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center in Phoenix, Ariz.

Lydia Petersen teaches elementary music for the Hood River Valley School District in Hood River, Ore.

Hannah Scholbrock is a billing specialist for LSM Chiropractic Clinics in Oregon, Wis.

Andrew Sharot is an analytics consultant for Deloitte in Minneapolis.

Alli (Kephart) Tjossem teaches elementary music at Riffenburgh IB World Elementary School in Fort Collins, Colo.

Andrew Withers teaches sixth-grade math at South Middle School in Waukee, Iowa.

Luke Wright is territory underwriter for Nationwide Insurance in Des Moines, Iowa.

2016

Blake Moen is a business development representative at Infor in St. Paul, Minn.

Christine Morrow is a registered nurse at UnityPoint Health in Des Moines, Iowa. 

1938–1939 / 1950–1959 / 1960–1969 / 1970–1979 / 1980–1989 / 1990–1999

1938

Minnard “Dusty” Hanson recently celebrated his 101st birthday in Burr Ridge, Ill. He sold his retail business of 44 years and has been retired for 12 years.

1958

Felice (Hahn) Bastian received the 2016 Wisconsin Conference Love in Action Award from Tom Rossmiller, the Conference Disaster Committee chair. Bastian has participated in 114 trips with Volunteers in Mission (VIM) for the United Methodist Church and Wisconsin Conference since 1989. She has also served on the National VIM committee.

1959

Louis “Lou” Accola of Mesa, Ariz., retired following the 50th anniversary of his ordination and 50 years of continuous ministry in the TALC and the ELCA. He is a certified master ceramist and ceramics teacher.

1960

Gerald Anderson of Boone, Iowa, retired last March as president of Woodward Youth Corporation (WYC). He continues to serve on the WYC Board of Directors as chairman.

Kathy (Fjone) Richardson of Cincinnati is retired. She is active in OLLI, a learning-in-retirement program at the University of Cincinnati. She teaches courses in novels and poetry and takes classes, including how to play the harmonica. She also enjoys plays, concerts, and operas and writes poetry.

Gale “Tex” Vathing of Vienna, Va., translates poems and plays from French, Farsi, and Norwegian.

1963

Carson Ode has published the third and final book of his Iowa book series, Iowa Culture—Past and Present, featuring Iowa museums. The volume is available in Iowa book stores and online at carsonode.com.

1967

Rosanne Bliss of Minneapolis recently compiled a PowerPoint presentation consisting of vintage postcards and photos of her maternal grandmother’s first 20 years in America after emigrating from Hedmark, Norway, in 1905.

Terry (Thiele) Rasmussen of Fort Collins, Colo., has completed half marathons in 30 states in the past six years. She hopes to run half marathons in all 50 states before turning 75 in 2021. She has also run in Washington, D.C., and in one international race in Cancun, Mexico.

1968

Tom Carlisle was named chief legal counsel of the Illinois Department of Historic Preservation in Springfield, Ill.

Carl Rowe is a professional fine arts painter in Boise, Idaho. He was a professional choreographer for 40 years and earned many awards, including three fellowships in dance from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (Boise), and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts from the state of Idaho.

Neal Skaar of Hayward, Minn., was inducted into the Albert Lea High School Wrestling Hall of Fame last July. He taught mathematics and English at Albert Lea High School (his alma mater) and also served as head wrestling coach from 1979 until 2004, after serving 11 years as assistant coach. Retired from teaching, Skaar continues to serve as assistant wrestling coach at Albert Lea.

1969

David Ellingson of Edmonds, Wash., retired as a professor of children, youth, and family studies at Trinity Lutheran College and was granted professor emeritus status. This fall he intends to kayak the Erie Canal/Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty.

Myrna Petersen-Konajeski is director of corporate and foundation relations in the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore.

1970

Bruce Hansen of Racine, Wis., retired from Gemini Inc.

William Kobler was reelected to his second term with the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. He is a board-certified family physician in Rockford, Ill.

Judith (Johnson) Olsen teaches English online at Villanova (Pa.) University.

Ken Varland of New Ulm, Minn., retired as regional wildlife manager for the southern region of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources after 39 years as a wildlife biologist.

1971

Jackee (Larsen) Gonzalez of Lake in the Hills, Ill., works part time for Dundee Park School District in early childhood and an afterschool program. She studies Alive and Well Immanuel Prayer lifestyle skill training with her husband, Ramon.

Roger Larson is owner of A Writer’s Touch in Westminster, Md.

Becky (Linnevold) Shaw is assistant professor for the Department of Specialty Medicine at Des Moines (Iowa) University.

1972

Amy (Christian) and Daryl Dodd live in Anaconda, Mont. Amy is owner and operator of Beyond Necessity Gifts. Daryl retired after 41 years as rehab department director and physical therapist at Community Hospital of Anaconda.

Phil Holtan retired as pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Perham, Minn., after 40 years of service in ministry. He led the church in various missions, including packing one million meals for Feed My Starving Children, raising $200,000 in Perham, and many other missions around the world.

Joan (Heusel) Rowney of Marseilles, Ill., is a retired teacher and works with standardbred horses.

Steven Sorenson is a shareholder with von Briesen and Roper, S.C., in Oshkosh, Wis. Steve was elected as president-elect of the Senior Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

1973

Colleen (Fiebiger) Carlson is retired after 25 years of working for the Harmony (Minn.) School District.

Mary (Runningen) Monsted of Metairie, La., published a children’s interactive musical CD called Miss Mary’s Musical Gumbo. The CD can be purchased at the Luther Book Shop.

1974

Randy Keehn was awarded a master of arts in ministry degree at the Nashotah House Seminary in May. In June, members of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Cartwright, N.D., welcomed him to the ministry.

Solveig (Sperati) Korte is an instructor at the University of South Dakota Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in Vermillion. She received the 2016 Outstanding Instructor Award. The award is given annually to a faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences who demonstrates outstanding classroom teaching and mentoring of students.

Joel Mjolsness is retired from the military. He is regional director of the communications industry vertical at Mirantis in Mountain View, Calif. He is also a tenor in the Santa Clara Chorale at Santa Clara University, he serves on the board of directors of Lutheran Social Services of Northern California, and he is on the executive committee for the Association of the United States Army.

1975

Paula Stuart of Steilacoom, Wash., retired as a radiologist at Group Health Permanente.

Cary (Shaffer) Tuckey retired from Fontbonne University in St. Louis after serving as an adjunct professor and director of student teaching.

1976

Beverly (Brandt) Bachelder is principal of Douglas (Mass.) Middle School.

Jamie (Christie) Christensen of Emmetsburg, Iowa, is professor emerita at Iowa Lakes Community College.

Steven Grandgeorge of Goffstown, N.H., is retired.

Marty (Monson) Keck is an advanced practice nurse for Erickson Medical Group in Pompton Plains, N.J.

Mary Kessens is president and CEO at Riverfront Inc. in La Crosse, Wis.

Lynn Paulson of Madison, Wis., is retired.

Joan Pederson of Chicago is retired and serves as president of the First Unitarian Church of Chicago.

Kathy (Lund) Sedlet is education coordinator at Nurtur in Dallas.

1977

Melinda (Morris) and Luther Berkeland ’76 of Lake City, Minn., are retired.

Jeff Kelly of Bloomington, Minn., was inducted into the Austin High School Music Hall of Fame. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, Minnesota Education Association, and the National Education Association and director of Honor Choir for the Southeast Minnesota Conference.

1978

Yuri (Mizuno) Ando is pastor at Bellport (N.Y.) United Methodist Church.

Julie Dahlen is an economic support specialist for the Dane County Department of Human Services in Madison, Wis.

John Mueller of Saginaw, Mich., earned a doctor of ministry degree from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.

Linda Short is on the staff at Habitat for Humanity Restore in Hot Springs, Ark.

1979

Andrew Strandjord is assistant professor of chemistry at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D. He received the Augustana Student Association Faculty Recognition Award for 2015–16. The award recognizes outstanding teaching and contributions to the Augustana community by a faculty member.

John Twedt is a teacher, adviser, and coach for Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

1980

Greg Braatz retired from a 30-year marketing career at Kimberly-Clark and now serves as associate pastor at the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Appleton, Wis.

Rod Dir is president and CEO at nTelos Wireless in Waynesboro, Va.

Barb (Perry) Lutz of Waverly, Iowa, was inducted into the Association of Home Office Underwriters Hall of Fame last spring. She is assistant vice president and chief underwriter for Fidelity & Guaranty Life.

Tom Maakestad is owner and artist of Maakestad Studio in Marine on Saint Croix, Minn. He was invited to be artist in residence for the city of Salzburg, Austria, last summer through an exchange program organized by the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minn. He stayed in the city center at the historic Künstlerhaus, headquarters of the art organization Salzburger Künstverein, which was founded in 1844 and is the leading organization in central Europe for producing and exhibiting international and Austrian contemporary art.

Bill Musser of Decorah delivered the sixth Annual Knut Gjerset Lecture, “Life in the Freezer: From Seed Savers to Svalbard,” at Luther. He is the librarian at Seed Savers Exchange. He is also the treasurer of the Board of the National Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.

Darrel Posegate earned a master’s degree in banking and financial services management from Boston University and is chief operation officer and chief financial officer of Heritage Bank in Sioux Falls, S.D.

1981

Dawn (Canfield) Bremer of Knoxville, Iowa, is retired from teaching. She is writing children’s stories with hopes of publishing children’s books. She substitute teaches, writes, and enjoys travel with her husband, Jeff.

Jim Chamness is a physician at Lakeshore Allergy PC in Holland, Mich.

Barbara (Henn) Clausen retired from teaching third grade at the Decorah Community Schools.

Roxanne (Gunderson) Heinrichs teaches elementary physical education for West Delaware Community Schools in Manchester, Iowa.

Marty Hertel is a passenger service assistant at Prospect Airport Services in Las Vegas, Nev.

Carol (Gustafson) Hetrick is a companion, homemaker, and PCA at Community Companions and Homemakers in Willimantic, Conn.

Laurie Heyer is executive vice president of healthcare operations and IT at Blue Cross of Idaho in Boise.

Becky (Leschensky) Hoffman is a behavioral health specialist and licensed marriage and family therapist at Step By Step in Milton, Wash.

Elaine (Olsen) and Gary Johnson ’82 live in Andover, Minn. She is owner and director of Sounds and Praise and director of children’s ministries at Faith Lutheran Church in Coon Rapids, Minn. He is a network architect at MedNet Solutions Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn.

Jim Knutson teaches music at Cotter High School in Winona, Minn.

BJ Larson earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership from St. Catherine University. She is spiritual health service director and systematic strategic head for SHS at Fairview Health Services in Burnsville, Minn.

Miri (Peterson) Mattson is an office professional at Thrivent Financial in Decorah.

Chuck Mueller of Nisswa, Minn., is founder and president of Solution Tactics.

Pam (Norris) Phillips is retired in Alexandria, Minn.

Curt Tryggestad is superintendent at Eden Prairie (Minn.) Schools and president-elect for the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. He will serve a three-year term.

Cathy (Miner) Weber is a nurse case manager at Mercy Medical Center in Dubuque, Iowa.

1982

Deanna Barth is a librarian at Washington Middle School in Kenosha, Wis.

Donalee (Rima) Burns of Decorah has been costumer for New Minowa Players for 41 years. She costumed 59 people in the theater company’s summer musical, Fiddler on the Roof, last June.

Nancy (Hermeier) Hershfield is director of advancement and assistant dean at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Nancy (Nickerson) Lee is director of arts programming at Washburn High School in Minneapolis. Out of the 1,100 teachers nominated for Tony Awards presented by Carnegie Mellon University, she was one of 20 to earn honorable mention for excellence in theatre education.

Andrea Urice is senior lecturer in drama at Washington University in St. Louis.

1983

Sandra (Bergstrom) Dawson earned a master’s degree from St. Xavier University. She teaches special education at Rockford (Ill.) Public Schools.

Kim (Christensen) Mahlum of Ettrick, Wis., is a district nurse for the La Crosse School District.

1984

Julie (Roehl) Coffin is executive editor for DoubleInk Publishing Services based in Dublin, Ireland. She works from her home in Spencer, Ind., developing, writing, and editing educational materials for elementary and middle school reading and language arts.

Dan Kuester published his book Green Wave, a murder mystery, in June. The book can be purchased in bookstores and online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

Anne (Mattson) McAnallen is investor reporting manager at Ditech Financial LLC in Tempe, Ariz.

Kay Rathjen-Tulppo is a reading specialist and literacy coach at Sheboygan (Wis.) North High School.

Sean Taylor is professor of history at Minnesota State University–Moorhead.

1985

Jana Christen Albers of Hiawatha, Iowa, is a social worker at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and in the Child Health Specialty Clinic in Decorah.

Jim Biedermann is plant manager for Sparboe Foods in New Hampton, Iowa.

1986

Laura Dotseth is practice director of the enterprise transformation and strategy national practice at Trissential in Minneapolis.

Teri (Palmquist) Hansen is a nursing education specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Gina Sauer is volunteer coordinator for Lyric Arts Main Street Stage in Anoka, Minn.

1987

Bruce Dir is owner and president of Tighthead Brewing Company in Mundelein, Ill. Dir and his business were featured in the Chicago Tribune in June.

Lisa (Minske) Klever of West Des Moines, Iowa, is a pharmacy accountant for the Hy-Vee Inc. corporate office.

Phil Meirick is a premier one-branch manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Des Moines, Iowa. This year marks his 26th working for Wells Fargo.

James Tegtmeier is regional counsel and manager on the Midwest Enforce Team for the Federal Aviation Administration in Des Plaines, Ill.

1988

Callista (Bisek) Gingrich earned a place in the top 25 of Newsmax’s 50 Most Influential Female Republicans. She is president of Gingrich Productions and author of several New York Times’ bestseller children’s books.

Jon Wee is a juggler and comedian. He and his partner, Owen Morse, are a corporate entertainment team known as The Passing Zone. They appeared on NBC’s America’s Got Talent last summer. The Passing Zone has been awarded five Guinness World Records and 18 gold medals from the International Juggler’s Association.

1989

Ray DeWalt Jr. is a workers’ compensation representative at Aegis Corporation, Brookfield, Wis.

Herman Jass is the owner of Snap Fitness in Eden Prairie, Minn. An extremely dedicated rugby player and supporter, he received the “Flash” Korman Award for Rugby Excellence from the Luther Old Boys in 2015.

Lindsay Jordan earned a doctor of ministry degree in congregational mission and leadership from Luther Seminary. He is pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Delafield, Wis., and was also a prospective nominee for bishop of the Milwaukee Synod last spring.

Vicki Weidenbacher-Hoper is assistant director for external and pipeline programs at the University of Illinois in Rockford.

1990

Kelly (Bjugan) Hudson is assistant professor of music at Concord University in Athens, W.Va.

Mike Japenga is pastor at Chandler (Ariz.) Presbyterian Church.

Pete Lawrence of Brighton, Colo., is master trooper and lead firearms coordinator for the Colorado State Patrol.

1991

Sue (Vongroven) and Don Baker ’92 live in Mazeppa, Minn. She works in surgery scheduling at Olmsted Medical Center Hospital in Rochester, Minn. He is a manager for Kwik Trip.

Melissa Bevis is a school psychologist at Rum River Special Education Cooperative and Cambridge-Isanti Schools in Cambridge, Minn.

Brett Cloninger-West was named one of Washingtonian magazine’s Best 100 Realtors in Washington, D.C. He is a realtor for McEnearney Realtors.

Carol (Edwards) Denekas of Dyersville, Iowa, recently released her second novel, Seeds of Hope (inspirational fiction), which can be purchased on Amazon as a paperback or for Amazon Kindle.

Paul Eckheart of Spring Valley, Minn., teaches sixth grade and coaches for the Kingsland Public School District.

Ben Fincham of Iowa City, Iowa, is a clinical specialist for Medtronic.

Soren Flessen earned a doctor of ministry degree at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and is chaplain of Presence Health in Aurora, Ill.

Heather (Henschel) Hasstedt is a substitute teacher for the Boone (Iowa) Community School District.

Dean Haugen is senior vice president for Wells Fargo Bank in Minneapolis.

Mark Heninger is president of 11 Amps, a digital marketing and consulting agency in Venice, Calif.

Nancy (Watson) and Eugene Kreiter ’89 live in Davenport, Iowa. She is an accountant and payroll clerk, and he is a teacher and coach for North Scott Community Schools.

Sarah (Fromong) Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in human service administration from Kaplan University. She works in medical research for human resources at IICHA in Decorah.

Michelle McLain-Kruse of Decorah is executive director of Thunder Rode Inc. and a registered instructor through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International. She is also a member of the United Way of Winneshiek County Board and owner and operator of McLain Farms Trailriding Inc.

Eric Muller of Urbandale, Iowa, is vice president of internal audit for Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines.

Kirstin (Hanson) Norby is a grade-level counselor and school social worker for Austin (Minn.) Public Schools.

Elke Norwig Eastaugh is a grants administrator at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Mary (Wallestad) Oyebade is a missionary and teacher for the ELCA in Jos, Nigeria.

Kristin (Anderson) Ranum is a social worker at Columbia County CSP in Portage, Wis.

Sven Schulte is a global delivery manager consulting for Intelligence AG in Bielefeld, Germany.

Dean Southern is on the voice faculty and head of the voice and opera division at Cleveland (Ohio) Institute of Music.

Wahneta Tonn Dimmer is a licensed massage therapist and president of Hands in Harmony Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Tom Voute of Midlevels, Hong Kong, is an equity arbitrage at Algorithmic Trading Group Ltd.

Bill Weiss teaches social studies and is head football coach at Chisago Lakes High School in Lindstrom, Minn.

Doug Zars of Rochester, Minn., earned a certificate of advanced study from Winona State University.

1992

Eric Dodd of Rock Island, Ill., was inducted into the Thrivent Financial Hall of Fame at Thrivent’s annual conference in Nashville, Tenn.

Cindy Marlow McClenagan is vice president for academic affairs at Wayland Baptist University.

Dean Rossow is team lead at Infor in St. Paul, Minn.

Anne (Potter) Walters was named senior fiduciary officer at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis.

Kelli (Dunne) Winchester is the new owner of Margaret’s Boutique in Decorah. Longtime business owner Margaret Walter is selling her business to Winchester, who worked for Walter while attending Luther. Winchester asked Walter two years ago if she’d be interested in selling her the business. Walter said she would, as long as Winchester committed to two years of training and learning the ropes, including accompanying Walter on buying trips and working at store events. Winchester put in the time, commuting from Des Moines, and Walter is confident the new owner will “hit the ground running.” Winchester moved to Decorah last summer.  

1993

Kris Alwin Begay of Bellevue, Wash., earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Washington. She works at the University of Washington Autism Center.

David Schifsky graduated from the FBI National Academy in June. Schifsky was chosen by his department to complete the 10-week course among 234 other graduates from 47 states, the District of Columbia, 21 countries, four military organizations, and eight federal civilian agencies. Those selected represent less than 1 percent of the country’s law enforcement officers. David works for the National Park Service at Point Reyes National Seashore in Calif.

1994

Drew Moorcroft is owner and director of ChiChi Wacha Corporation in Timnath, Colo.

Daniel Stout is a web software developer for UW Health in Madison, Wis.

1995

Shannon (Miller) Duval is president and chief development officer of the National Catholic Health Initiatives Foundation in Denver.

Andrew Olson is global project manager for Mercury Marine/Brunswick Corporation in Oshkosh, Wis.

Clint Schnekloth is pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Ark. He serves on the board of Augsburg Fortress, the publishing house of the ELCA. He also teaches as adjunct faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and was recently honored as the 2016 Faithful Leader by the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center for his support and empowerment of workers.

Dawn (Schlatter) Spies is interim pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Brookfield, Wis.

1996

Erik Berry of Two Harbors, Minn., plays with the band Trampled by Turtles. The band played at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth, Minn., last summer and toured through Alaska, Colorado, Utah, and Washington.

Kristi (Lenning) Dean of Greensboro, N.C., is a network analyst for Guilford Metro 911.

Zack Durlam is assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. His article “Glimpses of Handel in the Choral-Orchestral Psalms of Medelssohn” was published in the May issue of the Choral Journal.

Jaime Schultz is associate professor of kinesiology at Penn State University in State College. She was a 2016 recipient of the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching and recognized as one of the best teachers among Penn State’s faculty.

1997

Becky (Bixby) and Marshall Anderson ’96 live in Mansfield, Texas. She is director of clinical services for Shady Shores Communities. He is the head athletic trainer at Grand Prairie High School.

Jodi (Nelsen) Dettmann of Rochester, Minn., is assistant director of admissions for the Rochester campus of Augsburg College.

Nikki Colsch and Michael Elsbernd live in Waukee, Iowa. She teaches English at Waukee Public Schools. He is director of worship and music at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Des Moines. He published a composition, “Four Short Reflections on SLANE,” with Alliance Publications.

1998

Jen Follstad-Popp earned a graduate degree in art education from the University of Minnesota and teaches art at Waseca (Minn.) High School. She is also art team coach and a board member at the Waseca Art Center.

Nicole (Voss) and George Hawkinson Jr. ’97 live in Leawood, Kan. She is a pediatric dentist for Pediatric Dental Specialists. He is vice president of business development at Connexx Energy Inc.

Jason Lage is vice president for Wells Fargo in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Sarah (Kipling) Lightner is dean of students for Bloomington (Minn.) Public Schools. She earned her education specialist degree from Minnesota State University–Mankato.

Kyra (Rusch) McCool is a school counselor at Hilltop Elementary School in Mendham Borough, N.J.

Lakshmi Ramjattan is purchasing analyst at AMD Solutions in Miramar, Fla.

1999

Sarika Bajoria is senior project designer and architect of Perkins+Will in New York. She is also a meditation teacher for the Kadampa Mediation Center.

Shelley (Jennings) Bumpus earned an early childhood endorsement from Northwestern College and is a preschool teacher at Trinity Lane Preschool in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Jen (Solomonson) Doty earned a master of technology management degree from the University of St. Thomas. She is a business analyst for Digital Cinema Implementation Partners in Edina, Minn.

Mustafa Ozer of Minneapolis is chief medical physicist at Minnesota Hematology-Oncology.

Karen (Erceg) Schock is a pharmacist at St. Mary’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colo. 

In the understatement of the year, Molly Goodwin ’02 says, “It’s not a little job.” As production stage manager for the touring production of The Wizard of Oz, Goodwin is responsible for calling out 466 lighting cues alone, not to mention cues that control audio or special effects or change the set or scenery. “It’s not the busiest show I’ve called,” Goodwin says casually. “I once called a show in which I was speaking more than any character on stage.”

Goodwin describes the modern stage manager as a communications hub: “They’re responsible for making sure that everybody connected to the production is aware of what’s happening on a show-by-show basis. Unlike a lot of regional or community productions,” she says, “once we open, our director and choreographer depart,” leaving the running of operations to people like Goodwin.

Goodwin performs her job from a call desk, or stage management console. “My call desk lives wherever I can fit,” she says. When it doesn’t fit on stage, she sets up in an entirely different room—which sounds impossible, until you realize how connected the modern stage manager is. Goodwin uses five video monitors. One shows a diagonal slice of the stage and one an overhead shot. One shows the conductor, so that Goodwin can catch any musical cues. Two show front of house—what the audience sees. Of these last two, one is a color shot and the other is infrared, giving Goodwin night vision and the ability to make sure during dark set changes that things are where they need to be and people are safe.

If she’s set up away from the stage, Goodwin leans more heavily on her headset system with four audio channels that connect her to carpenters, electricians, props crew, a spotlight operator, the audio engineer, the music director, and her assistant stage managers.

Goodwin jokes that it’s like being an air-traffic controller. The stakes aren’t quite as high, but Goodwin contends with a lot more than traffic patterns. In addition to motorized systems that move set pieces on the ground, the show has two automated systems overhead, one that flies scenery and another that flies people. And on top of the lighting and audio changes she cues, there are about 20 backdrops, 10 automation tracks, and special effects, from haze, fog, and smoke, to pyrotechnics, to projections that play while the crew completes set changes. Oh, and two live dogs (even Toto needs an understudy).

By land, by sea, by Caesar’s Palace

Goodwin first learned about stage management during a Making Theatre J-term her first year at Luther. While she’d done a lot of acting, singing, and dancing in high school, she embraces challenges and wanted to help design and build the set too. When emeritus professor Bob Larson and professor of theatre Jeff Dintaman asked whether she’d be interested in stage managing, she asked what it was. “They read me a laundry list of job responsibilities,” she recalls. “I said, ‘That’s . . . crazy! Sure!’”

At Luther, Goodwin stage managed a show a semester, including a couple of operas. “I got a broad picture of what my job was and how it applied to musicals, dance, plays, and opera. Looking back,” she says, “that background, in addition to everything I did prior to Luther, gave me a really strong foundation for being a good communications hub and being able to talk to a multitude of people, making sure that we’re all on the same page. Nobody speaks the same language in theatre—musicians, dancers, technicians, and actors all have a different vernacular. It’s served me incredibly well that I have a little bit of each one of them and can be a translator. For example, if they want to run a dance number in rehearsal, and they want to start at a particular point in the song, it’s easy for me to say, ‘That’s four measures before this lyric,’ which the orchestra can easily find. It helps things move more smoothly and quickly, and people get less frustrated.”

Goodwin earned a master of fine arts degree in stage management from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where, among other school shows, she interned at Celine Dion’s A New Day at Caesar’s Palace. She then did a two-year stint with Holland America Line cruises. She describes her work on the cruise as an inverse, or negative, of her touring work: “On the cruise ship, I had one venue. Each day was a different show, but I knew what my stage could do. With touring, I’m taking one show and putting it into multiple venues. So, in one instance, I know my venue really well; in the other, I know my show really well.” And knowing your show well is a real advantage when you arrive at a stage that’s too small, or a venue with touchy smoke alarms, or a hundred other factors that Goodwin and her crew have to nimbly maneuver.

A different city every week

The Wizard of Oz is a very large show. Most of the shows Goodwin has toured tote three or four trucks’ worth of equipment. The Wizard of Oz has seven. The tour, which opened in December, plays each city for a week. On Monday, the crew starts what’s called pre-rig, installing lighting, audio, and backdrops and starting to put in the deck system, an 80-by-40-foot platform that stands four inches above the existing stage and houses some of the show’s automated and mechanical systems. Installation continues into Tuesday, which is the first show of the week. Evening performances run nightly through Sunday, with matinees as well on the weekend. Sunday night, the crew tears the show down in about six hours and heads to the next city. It sounds brutal, but Goodwin promises it’s gentler than what she calls “one-nighter” tours, which do the same thing on a 24-hour cycle.

Traveling is one of the things Goodwin loves about her work. The Wizard of Oz tour took her to 23 cities. On one-nighters, she’s seen as many as 96. “It’s fun to see what one city will laugh at that another city won’t; what lands with an audience in the South versus an audience in the Midwest; the difference between audiences that get on their feet right away during bows and those who wait until Dorothy appears,” she says.

But what Goodwin, who has also toured Legally Blonde, Blast, West Side Story, Ghost, and Sister Act, loves most about her work is taking stories to people. “Most of the shows that tour come from New York, and touring them allows us to take those stories to people who might not be able to get there,” she says.

And though she watches the shows’ standing ovations from a monitor, sometimes in another room, she says, “I’ve always felt that the applause is for all of us. We all helped put the magic together.”

This summer, like the three summers before it, Sissel Schroeder ’83 found herself digging trenches—methodical, razor-straight trenches from which dirt was excavated by shovel and Marshalltown trowel. Schroeder, professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been digging in Aztalan State Park near Lake Mills, Wis., since 2013 to learn more about the Native peoples who lived there a millennium ago.

The confluence of cultures at the site is of great interest to Schroeder, who studies the social and political systems of complex nonstate societies that archaeologists call Mississippian. “Judging from the pottery,” Schroeder says, “this was a site where people from at least two different cultural traditions lived together. We see evidence that there was a peaceful relationship between these people, and we want to understand how they forged and maintained this kind of relationship through daily practices. It’s an issue that’s really resonant today when we’re seeing a backlash against immigrants in many parts of the world.”

Schroeder doesn’t excavate by herself, of course. Each summer, along with one or two grad students, she brings six to eight undergraduates with her. She explains, “We’re working on helping them develop the physical skills of excavating carefully, but we’re also training them to see subtle differences in the color and texture of soil that might indicate that they are starting to encounter a trash pit or something else that happened at the site. And those subtle differences in soil color and texture are not something that students are trained for in the classroom—you can only learn this through experience.”

Because the group excavates in a state park that’s open to the public, the site gets a lot of visitors—more than 100 some days. “We’re very transparent about what we’re doing. We want to engage visitors to help them understand some of the heritage that’s in their own backyard,” Schroeder says. “The middle school teachers who visited the site this summer were so excited to see that it was an active learning process and that it integrated knowledge that is typically taught in a very segmented way in K–12 settings.”

Those teachers are in luck, since Schroeder and a colleague are partnering with a local school district to develop curricular materials for middle school students based on the Aztalan site. The materials will draw together geology, the scientific process, journaling and writing, the mathematics of laying out excavation units and analyzing cultural material, some zoology related to investigating animal bones, and art—the ability to draw artifacts and make maps or to illustrate what students think the community looked like when people were living there.   

That last bit is something that Schroeder’s excavations are calling into question. “We are rewriting the understanding that we have of life at Aztalan,” she says. “What we’re finding is that the history of activities at this site was incredibly dynamic. Walls were built and dismantled, the occupied area expanded and contracted. The internal organization of the site really needs to be reassessed. For the students, it’s really exciting to be a part of a project that’s revealing new information, things that weren’t expected by the professional community.”

For nearly three decades, Rufus Glasper ’74 has held the catbird seat on evolving higher education trends in this country. As chancellor emeritus of Arizona’s Maricopa Community Colleges, one of the country’s largest community college systems, Glasper has witnessed many changes in the business of education. Challenges facing students today are much different than those he faced as a student at Luther, he notes. “Life has gotten more complicated,” he says with a knowing chuckle. “When I enrolled at Luther more than 40 years ago, the cost of education was around $2,100 per year and there was no question I would finish my degree in four years. These days, the average time to a bachelor’s degree nationally is six years* and the cost of an education is much, much higher. The financial commitment to education on the part of federal, state, and local governments has diminished and there are myriad demands on people’s time. In short, getting an education isn’t as easy as it once was.”

Glasper speaks from a place of deep experience, having spent his entire professional career in this sector. He came to Luther from the Chicago area with the goal of becoming a high school teacher, but soon realized that his heart was in business and finance. After completing his bachelor’s in business administration, he earned a master’s and certificate of advanced study in school business administration from Northern Illinois University and a doctorate in higher education finance from the University of Arizona. Glasper is also a certified public accountant. In 1986, he joined Maricopa Community Colleges as director of finance and associate vice chancellor. After nearly a decade in that position he advanced to vice chancellor for business and CFO, and in May of 2003, he stepped into the role of chancellor, leading the institution until February of this year.

From the outset of his time at Maricopa, Glasper says, he was thinking about the end game. “Because I was on the finance side of the house for so long, I kept a close eye on funding trends. I realized that the legislative statutes were changing and the state was slowly disinvesting in education. In fact, the percentage of our budget from the state went from 29 percent in 1980 to zero today.” So Glasper concentrated on structuring Maricopa for self-reliance. “We started looking at ourselves differently and running Maricopa more like a business, taking steps such as establishing the largest two-year online educational institution in the country and setting up incubator services for small businesses, with Maricopa as a shareholder should they go public.” Glasper’s efforts paid off handsomely. Maricopa made it through the 2008 recession without imposing a single furlough day; the school earned a Triple A bond rating; the budget remained stable, ranging from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion; and operating reserves rose to more than $400 million, up from $13 million when he took over.

In March, Glasper embraced a new challenge, assuming the office of president and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College, an international nonprofit whose raison d’être is catalyzing the community college movement, a goal that falls right in this seasoned veteran’s sweet spot. “As chancellor at Maricopa for the past 13 years, my focus has, of necessity, been more heavily weighted toward politics and fundraising than student outcomes,” he says. “My new role at the League offers me the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day activities of an administrator and focus on leadership development and student success, which I love.”

Glasper’s voice rises with enthusiasm as he discusses what community colleges bring to the table. “Maricopa Community Colleges are the largest provider of job training in the state of Arizona,” he says. “They help students of every persuasion, from those seeking a two-year degree to those looking to amass credits and transfer to a four-year institution.” Indeed, he notes, Maricopa educates 60 percent of the juniors entering Arizona State University’s system, and the majority have higher grade point averages than students who started out at the university.

During the recession in 2008, he continues, Maricopa also saw many students with bachelor’s degrees returning to community college for certifications because they couldn’t find jobs in their degree fields. “The average age of our students dropped from 32 to 26 and these incoming students found a level of quality they didn’t anticipate,” he says proudly.
Glasper is equally enthusiastic about ways in which the League for Innovation can assist community colleges by sharing and scaling best practices across the nation through sponsored research; hosting of an annual Innovations Conference, a Learning Summit and a STEMtech Conference; and management of an Executive Leadership Institute dedicated to training the next generation of community college leaders. “My role is to identify what works well in community college education and then share those findings in conferences, publications, and presentations,” he says. “The Lumina Foundation established Goal 2025, which states that by 2025, 60 percent of Americans will hold a degree, certificate or other high-quality postsecondary credential,” Glasper concludes. “It’s a laudable goal and I know that community colleges can play a vital role in meeting the challenge.”

* At Luther over the past five years, approximately 70 percent of students earned their degree within four years. luther.edu/ir/enrollment

Heading out the door for a run one evening in 2014, Michael Switzer ’10 called to wife Leah (Jensen) Switzer ’11, “I think we should move to Africa.”

“I thought, What? Get back in here, you can’t leave now,” Leah recalls.

She had already been to Africa twice. When she was in high school she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, with her mother, Kari (Hermeier) Jensen ’83, and aunt Paula (Hermeier) Meyer ’76, former chair of Luther’s Board of Regents. Meyer and Keith Kale ’76 were founding an organization called Friends of Ngong Road, to provide education and support for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Nairobi, Kenya. Leah returned to the continent her junior year at Luther to student teach in Uganda. Since that first trip, she had dreamed of living in Africa, and she and Michael had discussed it but, he says, “I never thought it would happen.”

Now he was ready. He was working in financial investing in Minneapolis but wanted a job that would challenge him in different ways. Leah was happy in her elementary school teaching position but immediately started looking for teaching jobs in Africa. Michael thought he would find a job or volunteer position after Leah found a spot.

But Paula Meyer had a better idea. Michael remembers: “She said, ‘Michael, you’re going to move to Nairobi and you’re going to start up a portable toilet company, and this thing is going to make money to support the mission of Friends of Ngong Road.’” And that’s just what happened. But it wasn’t so simple.

Backing up about nine years, Friends of Ngong Road was founded as a Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) organization, partnering with Ngong Road Children Association (NRCA), a registered Kenyan nongovernmental organization, or NGO. They share a mission to provide education and support for impoverished children in Nairobi whose families have been affected by HIV/AIDS. The organization has succeeded, with many children being sponsored by Luther alumni and friends, in fact. But its board of directors wanted to ensure its sustainability and said the organizations needed to generate revenue in Kenya so that they were not entirely dependent on U.S. philanthropy.

That’s where the portable restrooms—or, as they say in former British colonies, loos—come in. A friend of Meyer’s, Todd Hilde, who owns restroom supplier Satellite Industries in Minnesota, urged her to consider starting a portable loo business. She was intrigued, she says, and looked into it. “I visited the largest providers in Nairobi, and the data point that stuck in my mind is that Nairobi and the Twin Cities area are approximately the same size—about four million people. In Minneapolis, every day, between 12,000 and 15,000 portable restrooms are deployed at construction sites, parks, and events. And in Nairobi there are fewer than 1,000 portable restrooms available to rent. Also, only about 40 percent of Nairobi’s population has access on a daily basis to improved sanitation.”

Hilde said he’d contribute 10 loos, and the Ngong Road groups decided to a pilot project in 2015 for a business to be called Karibu Loo.

Michael accepted Meyer’s offer to run the pilot, and the Braeburn International School in Nairobi hired Leah to teach kindergarten. Her students were a global mix, with 15 countries represented in her class of 20 students. The school turned out to be close to the NRCA offices and even provided their apartment.

Now all Michael had to do was completely set up the portable loo business. The economics major had never run a business, but he learned fast.

Sixteen more loos, for a total of 26, and an exhauster to clean them had been ordered from Germany. A truck to move the loos around was on its way from Japan. Michael figured out how to take delivery of the equipment at the port of Mombasa, transport it to Nairobi, and find storage. He worked with an attorney to set up the business’s legal framework; hired office staff, drivers, and more; sourced supplies such as tissue paper, soap, and hand sanitizer; researched the market; learned accounting practices; and started lining up customers.

As it happens, the market for portable loos in Nairobi is different than in Minneapolis. Middle- and upper-class events such as long-distance running races, weddings, and private parties are where most of the demand is. To be competitive for those events, Karibu Loo needed very nice loos, so each had to be retrofitted with flushing mechanisms, which also had to be shipped in.

Karibu Loo also attracts business because of its philanthropic mission—each loo reads: “Helping educate children.” Attendants hired by Karibu Loo—children who have been through the NRCA program—are on hand at each event to explain the motto. For many, this is their first job. They receive wages, get experience at holding down a job—in a city with 40 percent unemployment—and build references for future jobs.

Michael and Leah got to know many of the children in the NRCA program on Saturday afternoons. The NRCA rented a field where children could gather for games, reading instruction, art projects, and a healthful lunch, something many of them were unlikely to get on weekends. It was a time for the couple to meet with the young girl they were sponsoring and for Leah to work with students on their reading skills.

The pilot ended in early 2016 and was determined a success. A Kenyan man was hired to take over Michael’s job, as he and Leah were returning home in July at the end of her teaching contract. Now Karibu Loo is run entirely by Kenyans. Back in Minnesota, Leah is teaching at Earl Brown Elementary, an international baccalaureate school in Brooklyn Center, Minn., and Michael is working on his M.B.A. at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business, Skyping regularly with Karibu Loo’s new manager during his transition. Karibu Loo is scaling up and now has 87 restrooms, including a VIP trailer with electricity and running water.

By 2020, Meyer says, about a third of Ngong Road’s operating budget should come from Karibu Loo. “The board of Friends of Ngong Road believes that with the addition of earned income in Kenya through Karibu Loo, our mission of educating some of the world’s poorest children will become much more sustainable,” she adds.

For more information about Friends of Ngong Road or Karibu Loo, contact Paula Meyer at paula@ngongroad.org.  

Anyone’s first question to jazz drummer Lars-Erik Larson ’10 might be: Why is your jazz quartet called Mancrush? Answer: It’s the name you give to a group of serious professional musicians as a joke; sometimes that joke sticks. Next question: How would you describe Mancrush’s music? Well, that’s harder.

Listening to Mancrush, the Twin Cities–based group Larson started in 2013 to play his original compositions, you hear warm saxophone melding with ruddy keyboard, glossy jazz guitar, and rich, oscillating drums. It sends your mind to jazz country, but once there you can make out frontiers that blend into indie rock, contemporary classical, and folk music. Mancrush even has a jazz interpretation of a 1930 Béla Bartók piano concerto, just to keep you guessing.

“It’s intentionally very simple music,” says Larson, who writes every note for each member. “It’s what the inside of my head sounds like.”

In March of 2016, Larson released his debut album, Authentic Midwestern, with Mancrush in St. Paul, Minn., at the Vieux Carré, a legendary subterranean jazz club formerly known as the Artists’ Quarter. Met with high acclaim from the Twin Cities music community, Mancrush is growing in popularity.

But Larson is not the type to let his success go to his head. True to the name of his latest album, he remains authentic and Midwestern—eager to point out the people that helped him get where he is today as a professional drummer.

A fourth-generation graduate of Luther, Larson credits its music program for shaping him into a multidimensional musician. In college, he played drums in every capacity available to him: Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Concert Band, Jazz Orchestra, Percussion Ensemble—the list goes on. The exposure to such breadth of music served Larson well as he discerned what style of drumming allowed him to best express himself.

“Because of Luther, I had a really strong understanding of music as a whole,” he says. “And while there I was exposed to modern jazz, which I related to more than the traditional jazz I was familiar with.”

His discerned love of jazz led Larson to earn a master’s degree in jazz studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2012. From there, he moved to the Twin Cities and dove headlong into the life of a working musician, taking on as many gigs as possible and working odd jobs until he landed his current full-time position as an apprentice restoring grand pianos, all the while spearheading Mancrush.

“The goal for me has always been to create my art, to support myself through this creative passion of mine,” Larson says. “But it’s a juggling act, a leap of faith. It takes a lot of hard work to get yourself to a point where you can do that.”

Fortunately for Larson (and anyone crushing on Mancrush), he’s reached that point.

Last fall, Luther’s English Department hired Mike Garcia and his wife, Marie Drews ’02, to help with writing instruction and program development in Paideia and the first-year writing courses. Garcia also became the director of Luther’s Writing Center. He hopes to attract more students to the center at various points in their academic career (about 70 percent of visitors are Paideia I students). He’s also training his tutors to specialize in discipline-specific writing and in tutoring ESL students.

“The demographics of Luther keep shifting,” he says, “and the more we recruit students outside of the stereotypical ‘Luther student,’ the more we get students from different backgrounds in writing and reading. We’re looking for places to help students feel confident in those things.”

Over J-term 2016, Garcia taught a course called Grammar Cops and Criminals. It explored how people attempt to protect, preserve, and control the English language, and the motivations behind these attempts. “If someone gets angry over the Oxford comma, where does that anger come from?” Garcia asks. “Language is tied to identity to an extent, and when you start to do things outside of what people want, that may pose a threat to their identity or their notion of right and wrong. Language symbolizes these bigger concepts that are beyond the words.”

We asked Garcia to write about this for our readers.

If you’ve spent much time online, I’m sure you’re familiar with “grammar cops,” the people who leave comments on news articles and Facebook posts correcting other people’s grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and so on. Sometimes, these comments appear to be good-faith attempts to assist the writer, similar to a helpful English teacher’s feedback. Far more often, however, the commenter is trying to insult the writer. It’s a way of exploiting the long-standing assumption that language errors indicate a lack of intelligence. Even though this assumption is generally untrue, many of us find it difficult to banish from our minds. Consequently, attacking someone’s grammar can be an effective way to diminish that person’s overall credibility.

In the fall of 2015, I started paying closer attention to the human tendency to use people’s English-language usage to make broader assumptions about them—and I quickly confirmed that this tendency wasn’t limited to grammar policing on the Internet. We use language to make all sorts of judgments about other people, their character, and their motives, and sometimes the consequences of those judgments are graver than a mere squabble on the Internet.

Consider, for example, a hypothetical African American or Latino/a student who enters college with strong critical thinking skills and a willingness to participate in class discussion. However, this student uses a dialect of English that isn’t highly valued in academic settings. Will that dialect difference be significant enough to jeopardize the student’s overall chance to succeed? Will that student be labeled “deficient” throughout his or her academic career?

What about the immigrant who is learning English but still speaks her first language when talking to her family? Will she be judged as unpatriotic and unwilling to assimilate into American culture? (This became a frighteningly real question at a Minnesota Applebee’s last fall. A woman struck an immigrant mother in the face with a beer mug, causing severe injury, because the second woman was speaking in Swahili to her children, and the first woman was upset that she didn’t speak English.)

In the 2016 J-term course Grammar Cops and Criminals, my students and I studied dozens of such examples of language policing—both trivial and serious—and we asked these questions:

• What does the English language mean to us? Why do we feel the need to police it?

• Why do violations of mainstream/standard English make us irritated—or even angry? What causes the emotional reaction?

• Do we sometimes overreact to minor language “crimes,” making them seem more significant than they probably are?

• Do we make false assumptions about the reasons why people use nonstandard varieties of English?

• Do we sometimes pretend to misunderstand others when in reality we’re just impatient, irritated, or culturally narrow-minded?

• Can our policing sometimes go too far, victimizing people whose language backgrounds happen to be outside the mainstream?

Don’t get me wrong, however: just because we explored the potentially negative consequences of language policing, that doesn’t mean we always concluded that grammar cops were bad cops. We spent much of the course identifying the types of English that earn the most respect in the academic world and professional workplace. We also learned how a common understanding of language is necessary for communication. As students considered these points, some of them backed away from their initial arguments for complete linguistic freedom and sought out a more balanced approach. Others held fast to their beliefs, arguing strongly on behalf of the “cops” or the “criminals.” But no matter where we each ended up, we all learned to critique our simplistic assumptions about language and to reconsider the notion of language “criminality.”

If you think archeological work is all kneeling in a trench, brushing ancient dust off potsherds, think again. As Dan Davis, Luther assistant professor of classics, points out, digging up artifacts is only about 10 percent of what an archeologist does. This past summer, students from Luther and other colleges got their hands on the rest of the work during a field school in Greece, learning such skills as archeological drawing, site illustration, architectural and artifact photography, pottery cleaning, and ceramic analysis. Their accumulated work will eventually tell the story of Roman-era Kenchreai, the port of the great city of Corinth on the Aegean City.

Luther partners with Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland to offer the field school. Vanderbilt’s Joseph Rife directs the Kenchreai Archeology Project under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This year, Davis acted as assistant director for the program in late May and early June, bringing with him 11 Luther students. Undergrads from Marshall, Swarthmore, Skidmore, Cornell, and other mostly four-year liberal arts colleges made up the balance of the 39 participants.

A small area of Kenchreai was excavated by the Greek Archeology Service in 1976 in preparation for a public works project building a road to connect southern and central Greece. The Greek archeologists rapidly but thoroughly excavated a Roman villa near the sea shore and stored the artifacts, but didn’t have time to do the archeological reporting and publishing that would tell the world what they’d found, Davis says.

So for the past four years, Greece has permitted the U.S. team to work on recording and analyzing the site, allowing students to try out archeological work firsthand. This summer they continued work on the Roman villa. Made up of various rooms surrounding an internal colonnade, the villa’s architecture is monumental, incorporating huge stone blocks and walls in a footprint of about eight thousand square feet.

“We were shocked by the size of this thing when we first started to clear out all the weeds and trees that had been growing over the last 40 years,” Davis says. And each summer, the students’ first task is to again remove the masses of weeds and branches that push up around the stones.

After that stint of manual labor, however, they go into high-tech mode to record the site using theodolites, cameras, and computer software. “This year we incorporated 3-D photography, which was a lot of fun, and a steep learning curve for me,” Davis says. With the new technology, the team is trying to create interactive and very accurate plans of the site.
Luther sophomore Tatiana Proksch admits that she entered the program with the stereotypical image of archeologists digging up artifacts and connecting them to historical events. Part of the reason many of us hold that image is because, traditionally, most students have seen only that part of the process. Davis says that after he joined the Kenchreai project four years ago, “I realized that these students learn more about archeology in those three and a half weeks than most graduate students learn at a typical excavation. Oftentimes a graduate student will be just stuck in a trench—you get to know your square or your room really well—and specialists are called in to take it to the next step.” The students in this project get to try a little of everything.

Sophomore Jacob Domogalla says he was surprised by the comprehensiveness of the field school. “From organizing sherds of pottery by number to utilizing 3-D modeling and pictures, I was impressed to see the amount of work going into each artifact,” he says.

The field school also provided expert speakers. “Bringing in other scholars to lecture offered [students] a chance to see what the careers are in the field of archeology, in case they’re ever interested,” Davis says. Students learned about paleography, the study of letterforms over time, and even ancient magic—how amulets found at the site would have been used. Davis spoke on his specialty, marine archeology. In the next few years the Kenchreai project would like to move underwater in the harbor area by using a suite of sensors and an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to survey the remains of warehouses, temples, and an early Christian church that sank in an earthquake toward the end of the Roman Empire.

Busy days also included field trips to such ruins as late Bronze Age palaces and classical theatres, as well as visits to Athens’ museums. For a little recreation, the Americans played a basketball game against the local town’s team. It’s become an annual tradition, with the mayor announcing the game and doling out prizes afterward. Half the town showed up, Davis says.

Who won? “We got killed,” he says. “But I like to think we had a good showing.” There’s always next year.