For the first time – Augsburg Associates and Augsburg Women Engaged (AWE) came together to launch an intergenerational event for Auggie women – alumnae and friends!

Author, speaker and former KARE 11 and HGTV personality Joan Steffend spoke with more than 100 Auggie women on campus on Saturday, May 17 to explore how women handle life’s many gripping expectations.

During Steffend’s keynote address she said she spent her first 50 years of life trying to measure up to the expectations of others at the expense of inner peace.

As a young child, the red-headed, Cambridge, Minn.-native enjoyed reading, imagining and performing, but felt guilty for not being like others. She often felt lonely and looked for ways to capture the love and attention of even those closest to her.

She studied with Warner Brothers, got married, had children, was a local- and cable-TV personality, and bought a cabin, but still didn’t feel like she was measuring up. She felt an unsettling lack of joy.

Steffend finally had a paradigm shift at age 50 after her only sister passed away from cancer. The gut-wrenching loss helped Steffend put her own life in perspective. She realized she had spent her whole life ignoring her true self and that she was ultimately responsible for her inner peace.

Steffend, now a 58-year-old author and speaker, said she doesn’t spend time apologizing for who she is anymore.

“I have my own ruler,” she said, “and I am measuring up!”

Steffend’s keynote address was accompanied by inspirational musical performances from alumnae Laura Schmidt ’11 and Becky Shaheen ’11 and thought-provoking comedy performances from the writers and actresses of “2 Sugars, Room for Cream,” Carolyn Pool ’91 and Shanan Custer.

Steffend’s story was used to kick off the table conversations where participants answered specific questions about their life’s journey so far. Attendees engaged in multi-generational small-group discussions, facilitated by alumnae table hosts, about the challenges and victories of measuring up to their own expectations and those of others.

“It was a great event to reflect on whether I am internalizing social expectations or I am living and being myself,” said one attendee.

Other attendees raved about the wonderful variety of women with whom they had a chance to ineract.

“[It was] so great to speak with other women from different walks of life,” said another attendee.

The inspirational morning was rounded out by an alumnae panel involving author, teacher and social worker Lee Furman ’61; Minnesota’s first Native American lesbian legislator Susan Allen ’92; and Vietnamese immigrant Tina Nguyen ’08. The three panelists spoke about building their faith and confidence to defy the odds of succeeding in cultures very different from their own. It concluded with meaningful reflection from Abigail Crampton Pribbenow who shared her own perspective of how she feels she is measuring up.

The “Am I Measuring Up?” event was a collaboration between the AWE Advisory Board, the Augsburg Associates Board and more than two dozen Auggie volunteers. The two boards look forward to collaborating more to provide Auggie women the opportunity to connect, learn and give.

Feiern Sie Ihr lutherisches Erbe y die Reformation translates to Celebrating Lutheran Heritage and the Reformation.

Augsburg College is designing a custom travel program for October 2016 that will celebrate the Reformation and the upcoming 500^th anniversary of when Martin Luther in 1517 nailed the 95 Theses to the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany. A highlight of the trip itinerary will be a visit to Wittenberg over October 31–a time when the town annually celebrates Reformation Day with a parade, medieval fair, special church service, and evening concert. In addition to visiting Wittenberg, the itinerary includes stops in the German cities of Berlin, Dresden, Eisenach, Erfurt, Leipzig, and Prague, Czech Republic.

Led by Augsburg Department of Religion faculty members Mark Tranvik and Hans Wiersma, program participants will explore the lives and ministries of Martin and Katie Luther and the legacies of influential Lutheran musicians Johann Sebastian Bach and Paul Gerhardt. They will learn about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20^th Century German theologian and martyr, and Jan Hus, a church reformer of 15^th Century Prague–100 years before Luther. Participants also will hear about the church’s role in the Peaceful Revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall and remember the sobering days of WWII at the Buchenwald concentration camp. This travel program is an opportunity to explore the connections between people, cultures, and historical events while examining the Reformation as an ongoing influence in the 21^st Century.

To receive updates about this alumni tour as plans are finalized, email alumni@augsburg.edu, or call 612-330-1085 to be included on a mailing list.

Summer camps at Augsburg provide an exciting opportunity for regional students to experience life on a small college campus and to learn from the College’s outstanding faculty and staff. Augsburg’s unique location in the heart of Minneapolis gives students perfect access to all there is to see and do in our vibrant, diverse city. Learn more about the various camps offered at Augsburg College.

If you’re a golfer, there are several opportunities to support Augsburg College athletics this summer, with numerous fundraising golf tournaments at courses throughout the Twin Cities area. In addition to golfing opportunities, there are also options for businesses and individuals to sponsor holes or donate prizes for raffle drawings.

Learn more and register.

Augsburg College’s StepUP program has been selected to host the 5th annual National Collegiate Recovery Conference, taking place on campus June 5-7, 2014. The theme of the conference is “From Research to Policy to Practice: Creating Environments for Academic Success and Sustained Recovery” and is expected to attract several hundred professionals working in the field of collegiate recovery across the US. More than 700 Augsburg alumni have been served by the StepUP program, and many are expected to attend.

Augsburg has been a pioneer in the field of collegiate recovery, having started the StepUP program 17 years ago and provided guidance to 30 other collegiate recovery programs across the country, including programs at St. Cloud State University, the College of St. Scholastica, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Approximately 85 students were served by StepUP in the 2013-2014 academic year and the program is expected to grow to 95 students in the coming academic year.

The conference will feature nationally-recognized speakers in the field of recovery, including David Mineta, Deputy Director of Demand Reduction for the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Peter Gaumond, Chief of the Recovery Branch at Office of National Drug Control Policy; and more.

Augsburg alumni are invited to attend the conference as well. Open meetings will take place each day and former StepUP program participants and Augsburg alumni will be in attendance.

StepUP Website

Majora Carter, Urban Revitalization Strategist and Peabody Award-winning Radio Broadcaster 

Commencement Speaker & Honorary Degree Recipient, Saturday May 3

Majora Carter is an internationally renowned urban revitalization strategy consultant, real estate developer, and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster. She is responsible for the creation and successful implementation of numerous green-infrastructure projects, policies, and job training and placement systems. After establishing several local and national organizations to carry on that work, Carter built on this foundation with innovative ventures and insights into urban economic developments designed to help move Americans out of poverty.

Carter’s long list of awards and honorary degrees includes accolades from groups as diverse as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, Goldman Sachs, as well as a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. Her 2006 TED talk was one of the first six videos to launch their groundbreaking website.

Lois Quam, Executive Director of Global Health Initiative, U. S. State Department

Commencement Speaker & Honorary Degree Recipient, Saturday May 3

Ms. Lois Quam serves as the Chief Operating Officer at The Nature Conservancy. She was the Executive Director of the Global Health Initiative (GHI), reporting directly to former Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The GHI was created by President Obama to “save lives today, and strengthen health systems to build stronger nations tomorrow.” Appointed by Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1989 to chair the Minnesota Health Care Access Commission, later passed, providing health care to tens of thousands of Minnesotans, and the nation’s lowest uninsured rate at that time. She went on to serve as senior advisor to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s task force on health care reform.

Quam served as president and CEO of the Public and Senior Markets segment at UnitedHealth Group, a $30 billion division overseeing Medicare and Medicaid-based businesses.  In 2009, she was co-founder and president of Tysvar, LLC, a Minnesota-based New Green Economy (NGE) and health care reform incubator dedicated to universal health care and bringing scale to the NGE. She also served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Prior to founding Tysvar, Quam was Head of Strategic Investments, Green Economy & Health at Piper Jaffray, a leading international Minneapolis-based investment bank.

In 2006 Quam was named by Fortune magazine as one of America’s “50 Most Powerful Women.”  She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Macalester College. As a Rhodes Scholar she went on to complete her master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford in England.

David Orr, Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, and special assistant to the president of Oberlin College

Commencement Speaker & Honorary Degree Recipient, Sunday May 4

David Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, and special assistant to the president of Oberlin College. He is also the executive director of the Oberlin Project: an all-encompassing joint venture by the town and College to create a thriving, sustainable and environmentally friendly community in Oberlin.

Orr has been involved in environmental issues for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of six honorary degrees and other awards, including The Millennium Leadership Award from Global Green, the Bioneers Award, the National Wildlife Federation Leadership Award, and a Lyndhurst Prize acknowledging “persons of exceptional moral character, vision, and energy.” He has been a scholar in residence at Ball State University, the University of Washington, and other universities, and has served as a trustee for many organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the Bioneers.