For the Spring 2012 issue of the Augsburg Now magazine, photographer Stephen Geffre shared a photo and some interesting factoids about the Augsburg grounds crew student break room. The magazine hit many alumni mailboxes last week, and the “personality of place” piece caught the eye of the family of Ryan Forsberg ’01.
Forsberg emailed Geffre:
I recently was made aware that our beloved mannequin has found a home. Though not where we left her (our spot was hidden but alas she was found), I’m glad to see she has been spared a life at the land fill. While [she was] not really my mannequin, but rather my roommate’s [Andy Akenson], I ask thee one huge favor. Though gone from our lives, she is remembered in our hearts. Share her real name to those that love her now. Let it be known her name was Thunder! Continue reading “Alums find "Thunder" in the Augsburg Now”
The 2012 Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Lecture will feature Brian J. Anderson ’82, deputy project scientist, NASA MESSENGER mission. Anderson will speak about the MESSENGER mission to explore the planet Mercury and about space exploration as a moral imperative. Anderson is a physicist with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and serves as magnetic fields co-investigator and deputy project scientist for NASA’s MErcury Surface Space ENvironment GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission.
At the end of March, junior physics majors Gottlieb Uahengo, Mohamed Sheikh-Mohamed, Amir Rose, and Fred Vedasto attended the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) conference in Pittsburgh, Pa. The conference included workshops and programming for grade school, collegiate, graduate, technical professional, and international entities of the Society. Their travel was funded through the NorthStar STEM Alliance, an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) which is intended to double the number of African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students receiving baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). 
The cast of The Titanic Orchestra didn’t know Barbra Berlovitz, an icon in the Twin Cities theater scene, before they auditioned for the play she is guest directing at Augsburg this spring. None of the students had attended a production at the Tony award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune, where Berlovitz was the co-artistic director for 25 years. But the entire cast agrees that working with her has been a valuable experience in their development as actors.
Campus Compact has honored 162 students from 32 states as 2012 Newman Civic Fellows. Among the honorees is Angela Bonfiglio of Augsburg College. The Newman Civic Fellows Awards recognize inspiring college student leaders who have worked to find solutions for challenges facing their communities.
Augsburg College celebrated its new Master of Fine Arts in creative writing with a reading by Stephan Clark from his newly published book Vladimir’s Mustache and Other Stories. Clark is an assistant professor of English and a member of the MFA faculty.
Food drives generally mean big, bulky barrels of cereal and macaroni and cheese. Donors pull some canned goods out of the back of their pantry, or they pick up a few extra items on their next trip to the grocery store.
A community powwow to celebrate the traditions, cultures, and accomplishments of Augsburg College’s Native American students will be held March 31 at Augsburg College.
Nearly 180,000 hours of community service by Augsburg College students last year earned the college a spot on the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction. This is the fourth time Augsburg has been named to the Honor Roll with Distinction.
Augsburg’s Thrivent Leadership Fellows, a group of students working to engage the Augsburg community in service, need your help for the Multicultural Dinner at the Brian Coyle Center on Monday, Apr. 2. Up to 40 volunteers are needed for this event, so all faculty, staff, and students are welcome to participate.