The Augsburg Podcast

Augsburg University
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  • EDUCATION

The Augsburg Podcast features the voices of Augsburg University faculty and staff. We hope this is one way you can get to know the people who educate our students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.

  1. 04/27/2020

    Barclay Bates: Lessons in Leadership

    Barclay Bates, Augsburg alumn and former intern (now employee) at Midco, has learned what separates leaders from managers. His years as captain of the Augsburg football team as well as intern and career positions at Midco have given him deep insight into what it takes to do great work with a happy, fulfilled, motivated team (be they athletic, academic, or corporate). His mentors in athletics, Augsburg economics, and Midco’s upper leadership have taught him many critical lessons that he pays forward every day. Barclay Bates: I think anytime you have the ability to positively influence a group of people, you have to take full advantage of that and you have to really understand the impact that you're having and the amount of responsibility that comes with that. I certainly don't take that responsibility lightly. It's something that I try to really think through before I make any decisions that could possibly impact the team. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the President of Augsburg University. It's my great privilege to present the Augsburg Podcast. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg Podcast. Today, we speak with Barclay Bates, international business and management major and an Augsburg alum, class of 2018, now an associate in a leadership development program at Midco. We speak also with his family and several of his professional and academic mentors about his path of discovery at Augsburg and beyond. Barclay Bates: I did pretty much all of my growing up in Sauk Rapids-Rice, Minnesota. I went to Sauk Rapids-Rice High School, was actually born in the Metro area, and I know when I was very young, lived with my folks here, but all of my young memories are in Sauk Rapids. I went to a private Lutheran school for elementary school up until sixth grade and then spent my middle school years at Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School. Barclay Bates: I had a really great childhood, a fantastic family. I have one little brother and very supportive parents, so I think I had a really good childhood and growing up in Sauk Rapids was good and I had a lot of good friends, was very involved in sports. Barclay Bates: I learned about Augsburg, actually, because there was a guy I played football with who was a few years older than me that I knew at the time went to Augsburg, didn't know much about the school, had never really heard of it until I knew that he went here. It was a little bit on my radar as a potential place to come play football. If I was going to play D3 ball, I wanted to play in the MIAC, the Minnesota D3 conference here, one of two. Barclay Bates: I took a tour my junior year. I loved the location. I wanted to be in a city. I wanted to be someplace different than the place I grew up. Minneapolis is very different than Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. That was a big piece of the draw for me. I knew I would have the ability to come play right away, which was important from an athletic perspective. Barclay Bates: I had done some international travel right after high school and really had an interest in studying culture and studying something that was broader than just the US or wanted to study something that would have an international aspect. Augsburg had an international business major, so that was part of what drew me here as well. All of those things combined just seem to be a good fit for me. Cheri Bates: We drove onto campus and we were in the parking lot behind one of the dorms and we literally opened the doors to the car, got out, shut the door. I looked at Barclay, he was about 10 feet in front of us and I looked at Dan and I said, "This is it." Catherine Day: This is Cheri Bates, Barclay's mother, speaking to us from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. Cheri Bates: I don't know how many schools we had looked at, but I knew immediately that he loved Augsburg before we even basically walked out of the parking lot. I do believe that he was drawn to the big city, the inner city being almost downtown Minneapolis with such a small, very diverse, wonderful campus that was to me, as a mom, seemed very warm and opening. He really, really liked the football program, to be honest. I mean, that really attracted him. Dan Bates: I remember when we walked out of the Oren Gateway on the Riverside. We turned left and you could see the new US Bank Stadium being built when he started. I think it just hit him. I know it hit us. We were like, "Oh, yeah, this is it," like Cheri said. Catherine Day: This is Dan Bates, Barclay's father, joining us long distance from a business trip in the Philippines. Dan Bates: I think it was almost the antithesis of Sauk Rapids where he grew up. It was the diversity, every shape, size, color of human was wonderful to see. The urban setting, I think, is really what put them over the top. Dan Bates: Like Cheri said, there were a lot of schools that were talking to him about football and some of them larger, some of them with bigger programs. Literally, I think he just walked on the campus and felt it. Cheri Bates: The beauty and the uniqueness of Augsburg, especially for our family, was the diversity, not just multi-cultural, but all of the different wonderful, amazing people that you can encounter that are just from such different realms of life all across the board is so accepting, also with the Christian base, having the chapel and that aspect of it, too. Cheri Bates: I know that when Barclay was going to football, I know for sure his freshmen, sophomore year they would go over to the assistant coaches' church and go to church on Sundays. I just thought that was really cool that there was that opportunity there and then to have that home base of a small community right in the heart of Minneapolis. I mean, how can you go wrong? Such an amazing education. I mean, small classes, caring professors, the professors that worked with him. I honestly can't say enough good things about Augsburg. Barclay Bates: I grew up in a predominantly white community. Being a black person in an entirely white family was... it's an interesting position to be in. I think you grow up with the same identity as the people you're surrounded by, so growing up, I didn't have so much of a sense of not fitting in because I think culturally, everything was the same. Barclay Bates: What I did find was just an interesting sense of confusion maybe as to why occasionally there may be a joke thrown my way that was offensive and my friends didn't understand why it was offensive or... There were minor things like that, but it felt, I think, more confusing than exclusive, maybe. Barclay Bates: That was what that was like growing up. Then moving to Minneapolis for school was, I think, pretty eyeopening. I hadn't spent a ton of time here. I hadn't spent a ton of time in urban, more diverse environments. Augsburg being a very diverse environment, all of those things went away and that confusion went away and those little jokes and things went away. Barclay Bates: It was interesting to now be in an environment where there wasn't that piece there. I think it was a really attractive part about moving to the city and going to school at Augsburg was the fact that there would be this melting pot of people that I'm surrounded with all the time. Dan Bates: Both our boys, whether you're African American or whether you're Caucasian, our expectation as parents was always to hold yourself to a higher expectation than everybody else. I think it drove them and it certainly, I think, drove Barclay because he knew that he had that viewpoint. Dan Bates: I remember there were times in high school where he could tell if a teacher wasn't treating him fairly or if someone in the community was treating him differently. He equated that to a fairness thing. Sometimes we talked about, "Hey, that could be fairness or it could be something else. It could be a bias that someone else has." Dan Bates: Even now, we see it as a young adult. His drive and his passion to succeed, whether it's football, basketball, whether it's academically, whether it's in college, whether it's as a captain or now, whether it's a young adult starting his first career, that drive is something that a lot of people didn't understand. I think because he had that viewpoint or he had that experience, it almost drove him more. Jeanne Boeh: Students sometimes have a little extra to them. Barclay was always one who had something a little extra. Now, you have to remember that I teach principles of economics classes, which many students find to be incredibly boring. Barclay probably did, too, but he always did his best. There was just something about him that caught my eye. He has a very sunny effect, he's very personable, and he's quite smart. I just always noticed Barclay. Catherine Day: This is Jeanne Boeh, Sundquist Endowed Chair of Business Administration and professor of economics. Jeanne Boeh: Some students have a quiet confidence about them and I think that he does. Barclay was a student you wanted to help you because he was such a good person and such a great person, a great student in class. You just wanted to work with him. I just knew that I could put Barclay in a group and it would go well. If I had students who were particularly struggling, somehow they ended up in his group. Jeanne Boeh: The Business Department likes to say that we prepare people for practice. We're actually a very large part of Augsburg at both the undergraduate and the graduate level. We're providing over 40% of all the credit hours. Of course, we don't want to prepare students for practice in a bad way. We want our students to be ethical, responsible leaders, so we spend time on that in every class. Jeanne Boeh: We also want them prepared to step into the global market, so one of our core courses that we've added the last couple of years is Global Business.

  2. 04/20/2020

    Hannah Dyson: Putting the "Story" in "History"

    Hannah Dyson discovered a remarkable overlap in her theatre and history interests when interning at the MN Historical Society. Writing stories for MNopedia about fraudulent towns and journalistic assassinations, Hannah developed a passion for storytelling that connects past and present – and her Augsburg and historical society mentors have helped her focus her ambitions. Her storytelling explores justice and freedom of press both historically and in our own future. Hannah Dyson: History is about telling stories and theater is about telling stories. You look at these historic figures and you take them for what they are. And while you don't seek to condone or forgive actions that people have taken, you need to understand it. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the President of Augsburg University and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg Podcast. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg Podcast. Today we speak with Hannah Dyson, Augsburg class of 2020 about her discoveries in the overlapping worlds of history and theater. We discuss her internship with the Minnesota Historical Society, and speak with her and several of her academic and professional mentors about how the past can illuminate our present and future. Hannah Dyson: I was always interested in history. I don't think it clicked until my freshman year of college. I always was reading historical nonfiction and fiction books and my mom took me to the Alexander Ramsey House and the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, and I always loved going to that. I had one of my birthdays at, I think it's called Murphy's Landing, it's just a farm that recreates the historical past. Hannah Dyson: I was always fascinated with that but because I had been so active in theater, I always just assumed that that was the main thing that I wanted to do. I guess I never realized in my head that there was also this historical part of me and this interest in history. And so when I was in a class, an art history class, and I think that's what sparked the realization in my head that I could do something with this. Hannah Dyson: I had had it in my head that I wanted to do an internship at the Minnesota Historical Society once I started into the path of history at Augsburg. I assumed that it was too competitive for me, that I wasn't good enough, that I wouldn't be able to do it. And so every semester when I saw that they were posting or asking for interns to apply, I would never apply. I would always stay away from it, just because I was afraid to do it. Hannah Dyson: I think it was last year around this time, maybe a little earlier, I was sitting down with my advisor Jackie DeVries. We were talking about internships and how I needed one because I was a junior, and I mentioned off hand the Minnesota Historical Society's internships. And she was like, "All right, we're going to apply." She didn't give me another option, she was like, "Here's what we need to do, we're going to go through these steps." And so she just was like, "We're going to do this," and I was like, "Okay," and we applied and I got it. Hannah Dyson: I was working with MNopedia, which is the Minnesota Historical Society's online encyclopedia about Minnesota history. I was assigned to the Place Names Project, which is based off this book that was published in the 1920s and has been revised since. It's all of the place names that ever existed in Minnesota, so post offices, towns, rivers, all of that good stuff. And I was assigned to try to find some of these lost place names. Linda Cameron: She's a super sleuth and I think the thrill of the hunt is part of what Hannah lives for. Catherine Day: This is Linda Cameron, Program Manager for the MNopedia Project at the Minnesota Historical Society, and Hannah's supervisor throughout her internship. Linda Cameron: She really had the enthusiasm, I think, that it takes, and the tenacity, to keep going. When she couldn't find it initially she just kept going until she did find something. And eventually we'd have to say, with all of our interns and volunteers, we eventually had to say, "Okay, you've done what you can. Let's just move on to the next one." But she was really good about making that choice herself and knowing when she reached the limit of her ability to find things and then move on. But she did find a number of really obscure locations for us, which was really helpful. Linda Cameron: She came in one day and she said, "You'll never guess what I found." And she found this incredible story about land speculation fraud. And because we try to give our place names interns an opportunity to write as well if they'd like to do that, to give them a more rounded experience with MNopedia, we asked her if she'd to write an article on land speculation. And she had trouble choosing just one example, so we had her write what we call a C-level, which is about a 1200 word article about land speculation in general for a specific period. And she chose the 1850s because that's when a lot of this stuff was happening. Hannah Dyson: I came across this old town called Lafayette and it was around for, it said, only 1857 that it was around. And through further research I discovered that this town, Lafayette, had never actually existed. It had been a scam done by this guy in order to collect money from people and then not actually provide them with what he was saying, lots for this town. And so I brought it to my supervisor, Linda, and I was like, "This is bizarre." What should I do about this? And she was like, "Oh, this is so fascinating." And then through further research, it became apparent that it wasn't just this one town, but it was an epidemic that took place in Minnesota between 1854 to 1857. And so that's how my final article, Land Speculation 1854 to 1857, came about. Linda Cameron: Hannah is also writing a magazine article for the Minnesota History Magazine for our suffrage issue, for fall of 2020. It's not very common for an undergraduate student to write for Minnesota History Magazine, but Hannah's abilities were pretty evident. And I think she really impressed both myself and Laura Weber, the editor for the magazine. She's writing an article, I think on the suffrage research that she did. We have a special suffrage issue that's coming out next fall. Hannah Dyson: It's about anti-suffrage, which is a group of women in Minnesota and beyond who opposed equal suffrage. I came across this particular and the opportunity came to me. I was working through the URGO department at Augsburg, which is undergraduate research over the summer, with Jackie DeVries. And we were at the Hennepin History Museum creating an exhibit about suffrage for the Centennial of suffrage being passed in the 19th amendment. And this topic of anti-suffrage came up and I was very interested in this because the women who opposed the vote, it seems so bizarre and weird to us today. And I wanted to understand that group of women. And so I took that and ran with that. Hannah Dyson: My opening sentence for my article is, "Lavinia Gilfillan, who was one of the anti-suffragists was a modern woman." The way that I conceptualize them is not that they were backwards, retrogressive women who didn't want what was best for women. I think it's easy to jump to the assumption that because they fought against the vote that that means that they were these disconnected society women who were clinging to past era's and not looking forward, not being modern. And that's just not the way that I perceive them. Hannah Dyson: I perceive them as women who are active in their communities and believed in women's education and believed in women in business. But really, they thought that the way that women could best improve society was through nonpartisan power. And certainly they had other arguments as well, and some were more conservative than others. But really, their main belief in Minnesota was that through nonpartisan power, through not being connected to politics, was how they could best improve society. Darcey Engen: Here at Augsburg, my closest colleagues are in the English department and the history department. Catherine Day: This is Darcey Engen, professor and chair in the theater department. Darcey Engen: When you think about historians and what they do is they create a landscape for you to investigate what people were thinking and feeling and doing historically. Theater does the exact same thing, but we have that little extra step of performing it at the end. But the investigation and the curiosity that is required to be a theater artist or a historian are very, very similar. It's about empathy, it's about curiosity. And it's about facts. Darcey Engen: For a student like Hannah and with this amazing internship that she's had, and these opportunities to publish. It's not surprising to me that she's accomplished these things. When she came into the theater department, she's just a vibrant and lovely and funny, good natured person. At the same time as she is deadly serious and on-task and organized. And that is an incredible combination because it's a person that in essence can play and imagine and empathize at the same time as they can organize and be an excellent writer and have all of those professional skills intact. Hannah Dyson: I absolutely got started in the storytelling path through theater. You get on stage and you embody a different person. And you're telling their story through their eyes and seeking to understand them even though they're very different from you and maybe have questionable motives and may be not be a good person. I played in The Crucible here at Augsburg, I played Deputy Governor Danforth who was the person who was leading the trials and going after these people who were innocent but who the character deems guilty and sentences p

  3. 04/03/2020

    Bjorn Melin: Discoveries in Data

    Bjorn Melin, intern at Cteq Data Consultants and 3M, is proof that drive and work ethic really do make a difference. Not about to allow his Edina upbringing to afford him any opportunities he didn’t earn, Bjorn tackled a challenging double major in Computer Science and Math and forged his own opportunities in data science at Cteq and 3M by personally undertaking 50 plus informational interviews (over five times his advisor’s recommendation) and networking vigorously in the Twin Cities’ analytics field before acquiring internships in both small and large business environments. Bjorn’s is a story spanning math faculty all the way up to corporate CEOs. He credits his education to both. Transcript Bjorn Melin: There's so many things that resources are being wasted on or that can't happen because it takes too long or it's not possible by humans that if you'd just developed an algorithm or used AI or machine learning, you could handle those tasks so easily. Save people, help people. I want to be able to invent something that's going to help people. That's my ultimate goal. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg podcast. Today we speak with math and computer science, double major Bjorn Melin, class of 2020, about his discoveries in mathematics and data science, both at Augsburg and at multiple internships at companies large and small. We also hear from several of his academic and professional mentors about his passions for math and problem solving, which first took shape years ago on the street in Niagara Falls. Bjorn Melin: Whenever there was money on the street, I was the one who found it, which my whole family thought was hilarious. One time, we were in Niagara Falls and I found, I think it was a $100 bill on the ground and I was just always keeping track of my money, counting it, keeping track of my coins. That's probably the earliest memory I have is just counting coins, honestly. I was always just interested in math, not really directly, but I'd always be interested in money and counting things, doing puzzles. I guess that's why I turned out as a math major, but I didn't realize it at the time. Bjorn Melin: When I started at Augsburg, I originally had no clue at all what I was going to do. I started off taking Calc 1 because I knew that, okay, I took pre-calc last year, I should probably keep going if I can handle it. After first semester freshman year I declared an econ major, which looking back I think that's kind of crazy. Second semester then I took Calculus 2 and microeconomics at the same time and I remember sitting in microeconomics one day and our professor had written just full board equation and in calc we had just learned a single derivative that's seven numbers long and it could solve the entire board equation that she just wrote and I couldn't handle it, so I just went up. I was like, I got to show you this. And showed her this derivative, and that's when I was like, okay, I need to switch to a math major. My advisor convinced me to pick up computer science later on, but that's sort of how I started. Catherine Day: Advising plays a key role for students as they venture into internships. Bjorn tells us where he found guidance. Bjorn Melin: The Strommen Center, our career center here at Augsburg came into math colloquium my sophomore year in the fall, and they do that every year actually to get students thinking about internships, fellowships, anything that they offer, career advising resources. Getting my resume revised and getting cover letters written, prepping for interviews, I was in the Strommen Center pretty much every day my junior year in the fall. Starting about September until beginning to mid October, I was in at least three days a week. They helped me get my resume looking great, got me ready for career fairs, helped me write cover letters. I did a couple mock interviews. Anything possible they made it so honestly I feel like they made it so it was impossible to not get a job just because they had so many resources available and were so willing to help. Bjorn Melin: My parents had a, they were at a cocktail party and met, who is now my old boss, Steve Hartwig, and he said, "Oh, I'm looking for an intern for the summer." And they were telling him that I was a math major looking for a job and he just said that I should reach out. I got very lucky with that first internship over at C-TEQ. Steve Hartwig: Bjorn does stand out as our very best intern, kind of a shining star. Catherine Day: This is Steve Hartwig, CEO and founder of C-TEQ Data Consultants where Bjorn first interned. Steve Hartwig: He was a guy that probably got involved in more things than any other intern, partly because of that motivation that he had. Bjorn really picked up things quickly. I myself had a liberal arts background, thought I was going to go into medicine, fell into this field by accident. I worked with a couple of guys that were about my, what I am today in their mid fifties. I think the advice may have been given to me from the same two gentlemen that I was speaking of. I think the advice is truly believing in yourself, understanding first off who you are and you can't move to the next step if you don't know yourself. Bjorn Melin: He gave me the strength finder book. He really just sat me down and we went over those results after I took it and we just talked about how important it was to set goals for yourself, whether it be tomorrow's goal or a week down the road or a year or five years. Just how important that is and how important it is to keep those in the back of your mind with every decision that you're making. That's the best advice that I've gotten. I hadn't really thought that much about setting goals before and since then I've been very goal driven and goal oriented. If you're having a terrible of studying, if you think five years down the line, it makes it a lot easier I think. Steve Hartwig: I think it took me a long time to appreciate who I was and what I had within me before I could really advance. That's caused me to help people like Bjorn, younger people that are under my tutelage, my authority, et cetera, to help them discover who they are. To know their strengths, to know their gifts, know their potential, know where they want to go, where they can go and help them create a pathway and a vision for doing that. Catherine Day: After interning in the world of small private business, Bjorn also explored the other side of the equation, opportunities with major corporations. 3M in this case. Bjorn Melin: I really started going hard on networking at my internship last summer at 3M. They required us, or not technically required, but highly encouraged us to do 10 informational interviews. I took full advantage of that. I was able to manage my work, get it done, and then still take a ton of time out of my week to go meet with people, network. I think I met with over 65 people this summer, which was incredible. The advice I got was unbelievable. Met a lot of awesome people that I still talk to during the school year. Excited to get back there. Bjorn Melin: I guess my plan right now is to work very technical hands-on like software engineer, data scientist, data engineer. Just get as broad a range of technical skills built up as I can in the next eight to 10 years and once I'm very confident and strong in that in a bunch of different areas technically, I want to try to get into sort of leading groups, management, something along those lines, but I also want to stay technical, which I've heard is hard from a lot of managers I talk to at work. That's my ultimate goal, I think. Catherine Day: Bjorn's extensive internship experiences have informed his future plans, but so has his academic experience at Augsburg. Bjorn Melin: I found vocation at Augsburg really through my professors and I'd say primarily my math major friends because we're all just very interested in a future, we're interested in each other sort of competitive. Yeah, we're just looking for the best out of everyone, trying to all do our best and encourage each other, help each other out. Those groups of people have just made me a better person and I think I'd like to think that I have helped them as well. In HEG for every semester since it's been built, I've been in there probably at least three hours a day, every day just working on math homework, working on my coding projects, talking to friends, just hanging out. Usually doing math homework though. But yeah, we all just get together. We have a lot of homework. Three times a week we have homework assignment. It takes about three or four hours. We all just get together, work through it, help each other out on problems we don't get, just try to make it not so stressful for each other. Sort of goof around a little bit, makes it a lot easier. John Zobitz: I have known Bjorn since I believe he was a first year student here. He was a student in my calculus class. Catherine Day: This is John Zobitz, associate professor of mathematics and statistics. John Zobitz: Right away then I knew sort of his excitement and motivation for and passion for mathematics and also at the time computer science as well. And so he was one of those students that you could give him a problem and he would just take off and work on in a zone, solve it and come together with a couple of different answers and just impressed me with his depth of knowledge. John Zobitz: I think he likes seeing the applications of data and computers and mathematics and sort of the intersectionality between all three of those. It requires a lot of creative problem solving on his behalf. He needs to think about how that computational too

  4. 03/26/2020

    Miracle Adebanjo: The Gift of Giving

    Miracle Adebanjo, weathered a challenging transition from his international upbringing moving from London to New Jersey, and Minnesota that was punctuated with homelessness, culture clash, and lack of structure. But business, social work, and internship opportunities introduced Miracle to friends and mentors at Augsburg and beyond who ignited his passionate drive to build a better tomorrow through activism, community engagement, and entrepreneurship. Miracle Adebanjo: I've had so many investments of love that I just feel obligated to give them back. I have no choice but to get them back. I'm really running over. My cup is full of love. I just want to do good. I just want to serve. That's what I want to do. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the President of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present The Augsburg Podcast. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of The Augsburg Podcast. Today we speak with Miracle Adebanjo, major in management and marketing, minor in international business and management information systems, class of 2020. He tells us his story of giving back, of having received gifts of generosity from many people in many ways, and his desire to share it back into the world. He celebrates the bright road ahead, but explains that things didn't always feel quite so certain. Miracle Adebanjo: My path to where I'm at currently to this day has not been an easy one, but I am very grateful. I started off born and raised in London, England. I was fortunate enough to have had a magnificent education from Saint Margaret's Church of England School, to Diagon Park Church of England School, to moving to America, the land of opportunity, in 2012. And from there things took a turn. I spent some time homeless. I was living with Mary Jo Copeland in her shelter, Downtown Minneapolis, for about nine months, and that was a very interesting time in my life because I went from having everything to now having nothing, and I didn't have a silver spoon. I didn't have any money. I didn't have consistency. I was going through a lot of change. I was getting $2 every week, and I was sleeping on the train and doing the most I could to support our family, but still feeling that my efforts were not enough. Those humble beginnings helped me to be more grateful. It humbled me really to not take things for granted. Catherine Day: Miracle's path forward began to take shape in high school. Miracle Adebanjo: My high school was South High School, Minneapolis. I was involved in a lot of things on campus, especially on my first year, due to the fact that I didn't want to spend a lot of time in the homeless shelter. I was a three season sport kind of kid. I was in track, basketball, and soccer. I was also involved in student council, and oftentimes you could catch me hanging out after school, talking to teachers. I would also spend some time talking to Sheri Harris, my social worker. She was always there to support me and give me advice, and just make me feel like I had a voice, and I had something worth sharing, something with listening to. And I just feel like when people empower you like that, it gives you hope. It makes you feel like you're destined for greatness, like you can do a lot more than what you're currently doing now. Catherine Day: And the next step in Miracle’s destiny, as it turned out, was Augsburg. Miracle Adebanjo: I know that college isn't for everybody, but in my household, college was an expectation. Currently, I am one of two of the family members who are in college, but there was a period of time where I was the only one, despite being the youngest. During my high school experience, I was in the Upward Bound TRIO program, which is a college prep program to help underrepresented students find a way to get to college, and to prepare them and to help them get scholarships and to help them with being able to comfortably sit in the classroom, and feel like they belong in the classroom setting. Miracle Adebanjo: So with me spending time at Upward Bound, that helped me to prepare for college. Even though it wasn't always something I was interested in, now I am in that position. I'm so grateful for going through that program. Other individuals who helped me in the college application process and from getting from high school to college were my track coach, was my track coach, Emily Hackert. I ran track in high school my first year, quit my first year, came back my senior year after getting a pep talk from Katie McHalen. She was a friend of mine who told me that if you don't use your talent, you lose your talent, and so I thought, "Why not? Why not do it my last year?" I did it my last year, and I got in contact with the track coach of Augsburg, Emily Hackert. She came to my meets, saw me run, saw me jump, and said, "I want you." Miracle Adebanjo: So that made me feel validated. That made me feel once again empowered and that I could really do anything, and that my hard work and my efforts were not going unnoticed, and that they weren't offering nothing. I really do believe that everything in life happens for a reason, and I would say that was one of the reasons I was running track, to get from high school to college, and to really feel like a part of something, to feel like a part of a team. Catherine Day: And he would, in fact, have many opportunities to be part of meaningful teams. A chance encounter with a bank teller propelled him toward his first real job and crystallized his desire to give back to the community. Miracle Adebanjo: After the summer of my freshman year was my first real job, I would say. First real job where I was able to apply what I had learned in the classroom. I worked at TCF Bank on Lake Street, and the Cub Foods, a very popular location in Minneapolis. I was a relationship banker. I was depositing my tax returns, and I was with Onyx Santa Maria. She was my bank teller, and we started talking, as I do with everybody I meet, and she said, "What school do you go to?" I told her I go to Augsburg. She said, "I am an Augsburg student too. What do you have planned for the summer?" I told her I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, and she said, "I think that you would make a magnificent relationship banker here at TCF." Miracle Adebanjo: And I laughed. I told her, "Are you sure? I'm still only ..." How old was I? 18 at the time, and I didn't feel like I was ready to take on such an important position. I had always seen people who dealt with your money to be people who were responsible and mature, and they had something special about them that maybe I didn't have, but she laughed at me and told me that I could do it. She told me that I could be a bank teller at TCF. My time at TCF Bank was quite a blast. I was getting paid to sit down, count money, and talk to people. What a privilege. I loved making new connections. I had many people offering me jobs while I was sitting there, and I had many people come in with problems that I felt honored to help them fix and resolve. Catherine Day: After concluding his time at TCF, Miracle continued to make new connections with important mentors. Jodie Pritchard: I was out minding my own business with several of my favorite neighbors during National Night Out. Catherine Day: This is Jodie Pritchard, a social work unit supervisor with Hennepin County. Jodie Pritchard: Miracle and a bunch of other Augsburg students were canvassing for someone running for City Council, and I just started engaging with him and told them I was a social worker, and he said, "Oh, I'm interested in exploring that." And I said, "Let's meet for coffee," and we did. We spent about two hours chatting. Miracle Adebanjo: We ended up meeting up at a local Caribou and just talked. It was an absolute joy to get to know somebody where there was such a high power distance, but for them to sit down at my level and just hear me out, and to just share some of their insight. It was empowering. Jodie Pritchard: It was a far-ranging conversation. We started talking about food and cooking and Miracle said he didn't know how to cook, and I'm like, "That's crazy. You need to learn how to cook. Come over to my house and I'll teach you." And he invited another friend, and it was just the start of this great relationship. Miracle Adebanjo: I wanted to be a social worker. That was our intention in the meeting. That was what was on the agenda. She told me, "I think you would make a magnificent social worker. However, I think that you would be better in business." Jodie Pritchard: He started to explore other avenues in business, and I think he'll be great there too, because we need compassionate people and thoughtful people in business, who think about the larger world and the impact that corporations and business have in the world, because they're a huge part of our ecosystem, so to speak. So I was actually pretty happy to hear that he was moving in that direction. Miracle Adebanjo: She told me, "Let me connect you with my really successful friend Jeff." Jodie Pritchard: I just love connecting people and saying, "Hey, this would be a good person for you to know." Jeff Aguy: At the time it was like, "Hey, you have to meet this kid. He's brilliant," and all those things. And so I invited Miracle over to my house. At the time I was living in Downtown Minneapolis. Jodie Pritchard: This is Jeff Aguy, Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Investment at NCXT. Jeff Aguy: He was telling me his story, and not that I've faced displacement or any of those things, but I had a number of challenges myself growing up, and so he was talking about how much he wanted to change the world, how much he wanted to help people. And at the time he was really thinking about social work, and I had been in activism helping and all those things, and I asked

  5. 03/19/2020

    Oliva House: The Art of Activism

    Olivia House, intern at Wingnut Advertising (via Brand Lab), uses design to advance the causes of justice and activism. Through her work, she strives to elevate underrepresented voices, share stories that aren’t told, and promote history that has been erased. Mentors in Augsburg arts and athletics as well as key players in Twin Cities advertising and design have supported her on her journey and helped her crystalize her ambitions to build a brighter future through the power of activist art. Transcript Olivia House: I really want to use graphic design to impact the world around me in a positive way. Especially uplifting people's voices that have been taken away or haven't been heard. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg podcast. Today we speak with Olivia House, graphic design major, class of 2020, as well as some of her academic and professional mentors. She tells us about her path to discovering her calling in design. Olivia House: I was actually homeschooled for high school, so my path to college was very interesting. I didn't have any guidance counselors there to push me to that. So it was really me just like looking around and wanting to figure out what kind of school I wanted to be at. I knew I wanted to play soccer in college, so that was a big part of it. So I was looking at schools that I was being recruited from and there were a lot of them in the MIAC here in Minnesota. And Augsburg, Mike reached out to me. And I didn't know if I wanted to come here, mainly because it was very, very close to home. I reached back out to him and I was like, "I don't really know, but I'll come and visit." And when I got on campus, and I met Mike, and I met the team, I instantly knew that I would be a great fit here. Olivia House: Being on campus and meeting professors, especially in the graphic design department, I knew I'd find a second home at Augsburg, so that really made my decision. Olivia House: When I was a sophomore in high school, my home school, my home city school, was Richfield High School and so I just wanted to maybe take a couple of classes there to get some potential college credit and experience in a classroom setting like that. So I saw a marketing class and I was like, "Oh, that would be interesting. I'm really interested in business." So I took that class and that happened to be the class that was paired with the BrandLab. Catherine Day: BrandLab is a nonprofit organization that works to diversify the marketing and advertising industries by introducing high school students to these industries, and connecting them to internships in relevant fields. More than a pairing program, it's also a mentorship program. Olivia House: They came in for like half of our class and talked about the marketing and advertising industry. And we visited some agencies which was really cool. And then you had the opportunity to apply to their internship at the end of the semester. And so I decided to apply for it and I got accepted. In the beginning they introduce you to different roles in advertising, and one of them was graphic design. I knew that I wanted to do something artistic because I've always been artistic, but my parents did not want me to actively pursue art as a career. So I was looking for ways to be artistic but also be able to make a steady income. And graphic design seemed like the perfect fit. Olivia House: At that first internship, it actually wasn't for a graphic design position. It was on the other side and project management and account services. But I told them that I was really interested in graphic design. So they had me shadow all the designers at the agency, which was really cool. And they even set up a final project that was based in graphic design. And so after that summer I definitely knew that I wanted to pursue graphic design. Jim Cousins: I first met Olivia when I was president of Wingnut Advertising. Catherine Day: This is Jim Cousins now vice president of business development with Augeo. Jim Cousins: She came in the front doors of the Wingnut space, in the lower in the North loop in Minneapolis, and immediately changed us for the better. She came in as a sophomore in high school, which I wasn't quite sure about because that's quite young. But being part of the BrandLab before that, and supported of the BrandLab will support them in whatever they're up to. And if that made sense for them, it made sense for us. She was beyond her years in terms of maturity and in terms of ability. Quickly she just became a member of the team. We're a smaller agency and so it was really, the benefit of a small agency is you get to connect with every department. You really have a, you make a mark on the place and that's how it was for Olivia. Olivia House: Jim was actually the first person I ever had a conversation about getting a raise. And because Jim is so approachable, we talked about it, and yeah, like yeah, he was very helpful. He really gave me confidence in advocating for myself and advocating for the things that I think that I deserve. Jim Cousins: Olivia said, "Hey, can I get a few minutes with you?" And I could tell she was about to ask something. I could tell she was acting a little differently than most and so it was something important to her. We sat down and chatted for a little bit, and she asked for a raise, which we were happy to accommodate. And it was time, so good for her. But also I might have had a slight tinge of, "Oh, we should be ahead of this type of thing. Reward great employees before they ask." But at the same time it's great experience to recognize your own value, and to ask for it, and advocate for yourself. And so she did a wonderful job at it and got the raise. Olivia House: He's been a mentor of mine for, yeah, the past five years. I had lunch with him the other week and just catching up. And he always is helping me network with other people and going to events and things like that. So Jim has been a very influential person in the last five years for me. Olivia House: Honestly, I think the BrandLab was a stepping stone into me getting more involved in activism, and really being a strong proponent of the idea of diversity and inclusion and equity and things like that. And it's been an interesting road because the BrandLab is a huge advocate for those things as well. And I started to do it, you know, like in a different way. They were really big about it in terms of the industry, but I started looking at the industry as a whole and how equitable advertising it is in itself. Olivia House: And so it really opened my eyes to the larger picture, and like the country as a whole, and the city as a whole, and things like that. So I see the BrandLab as a stepping stone into what I'm doing now and what I'm starting to do. Because I think without it, I don't know how I would have started to think about these things in this way, and thinking about equity and inclusion and making sure that everyone has a seat at every table. Olivia House: A few years ago when the Superbowl was here, and a social justice group reached out to me. Seeing if I wanted to help organize a conference around it talking about police brutality and things like that. And so I was like, "Yeah. And I ended up designing all the graphics for it. And so that I saw a tangible way that graphic design and activism could come together. And then that next summer I did a whole research project on the history of black graphic designers in the United States, which isn't talked about at all and you really can't find anywhere. And that was another example of "Wow, like I can create this big exhibit, or this website, this book layout to help tell these stories that aren't being told." And that's super exciting to me. Chris Houltberg: I met Olivia House when she was a sophomore studying here in graphic design. Olivia House: This is Chris Houltberg, associate professor of art and design. Chris Houltberg: She's incredibly motivated, articulate, and a really great student. What was really exciting to see is her development over the course of this program. She has found more and more ways to express and access her own agency. There's this really particular moment when you're teaching that you wait for someone's sense of identity to meet a creative outlet. Sometimes we're fortunate to see that while they're in the program. Other times we see that very last thing as they're walking out the door, but that's a really exciting moment. For Olivia that experience happened in her sophomore year. She found a sense of agency that she could share the things that were important to her through the vehicle of design. And when those two things intersect, that's when something incredible happens. That's when the unexpected happens. And that's when true change happens. Olivia House: One of my first interactions with Chris, I was very nervous. I was signing up for design class that was... I didn't meet the prerequisites for it, but it was the only one that fit in my schedule. So I emailed him and I was just like, "Hey, can I get into this class?" And he said, "You know, I think we need to meet and I need to review your resume and portfolio." And so I was very nervous and yeah, but he did. And he was just like, "Wow, like yes, I think you should be a part of this class." And I never really talked to him about this interaction until like a year ago. And he was just, he was like, "I knew. I knew that you needed to be in this and that you had so much growth that could happen." Olivia House: And that's been a huge part of our relationship. He pushes me harder than anyone else does. He knows my potential and what I can do. And he doesn't let me turn in o

  6. 03/12/2020

    Ethan Quezada: A Calling to Service

    Ethan Quezada, 1st year class president and intern with Senator Tina Smith, tells a story of purpose and belonging. He grew up in an environment where Ethan struggled to make his dreams of public service a reality. At Augsburg, his rapid rise through student government, encounters with meaningful faculty and professional mentors, and internships with Senator Smith led him on a path of self-actualization culminating in discoveries of self-confidence, hope, and service to his community. Transcript: Ethan Quezada: When you have a vocation, when you've found a vocation, you'll know that it is a vocation, in fact, because you have aligned your goals with helping others. You can make sure that your daily goal is to do everything that it takes for you to accomplish another step towards your longterm goal, but you just have to orient your longterm goal to service. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg Podcast. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of The Augsburg Podcast. Today we speak with Ethan Quezada, Class of 2022, as well as with several of his academic and professional mentors, about Ethan's path to discovering his calling to public service. It's a journey that took shape at Augsburg and during Ethan's internship with Minnesota Senator Tina Smith, but its beginnings are much earlier and more formative. Ethan Quezada: Honestly, I could tie it back to fifth grade. That was the time period where I was essentially suffering the most at pretty much the hands of the government. And what that would look like for me is the '08 recession caused a lot of financial difficulties for my family. I mean, Minnesota is one of the ... actually, I'm pretty sure it's the worst state for students of color, and I grew up in the Minneapolis public school system at a school that was pretty terrible, and when I say terrible, I don't just mean that we got bad grades. I mean, there was violence, there was a lot of sad stuff. And I recall feeling back then just straight up powerless. And it was so interesting because I knew that it wasn't the system making me powerless. I knew it was the people. I knew it was that the people that were making these policy choices. I knew it was the people that were teaching or administering or anything like that. It always came down to the people. Ethan Quezada: And when I was younger, I got frustrated because I thought that you can't change other people. You can't do anything like that. I mean, especially when you're young and especially when you're a person of color. But whether it was never being able to have a bike because every time I got a new one it was stolen or whether it was having the water shut off or the power shut off for a couple days because we couldn't afford to have utilities or whether it was having my childhood home foreclosed upon and then having to uproot my life and move to a different city away from all the things that I have known and loved. Countless things. Ethan Quezada: And I guess the important thing to take away here is that the stories are not unique, and that's the problem. It's not like what I'm saying is new news, something surprising. I mean, it's something that millions and millions and millions of Americans are going through. We've got a problem. And in that problem we also have a solution because I honestly believe that people who go through struggles and people who have been exposed to difficult situations have a lot better handle on how to deal with the difficulties that life brings you. Ethan Quezada: Religion 100 was one of the first classes that I had at Augsburg, and I had it with Professor Russell Kleckley, and he was kind of the introduction for me into what it means to have a vocation and what it means to have a calling. I know that I'll be fulfilling my vocation of making sure that I'm doing public service, that I'm serving others. I was just talking to a friend yesterday who was really struggling with trying to find a balance between taking care of themselves and also serving others, and I said, "Well, you can do both. You can make sure that your daily goal is to do everything that it takes for you to accomplish another step towards your longterm goal, and that way you can be self interested and selfless at the same time." And that's something that really started to be established as something that I identify as a core value, and I learned that in Religion 100. Mike Grewe: Ethan applied when he came as a first year student last year in 2018 as part of our Emerging Leaders program. Catherine Day: This is Mike Grewe, director of campus life. Mike Grewe: He also at the same time, his first week of class, ran for first year class Senator and won, and he was also part of student government, which I advise, so on top of being in the emerging leaders program, got to know him really well in student government. Ethan is a very hardworking, very dedicated student. He is really passionate about changing Augsburg for the better and changing his community for the better. Mike Grewe: For Ethan, I think the way that I see vocation living out is a passion for changing the world to be a better place, and the way that he's enacting that right now is really thinking about how can he change Augsburg to be a better place both for students, but he also sees that for staff and faculty as well. He really loves the faculty and staff here. He really loves the students here, and I think he really by the time he graduates in a couple of years, wants to see Augsburg in in a better place than it is now. He wants to see it grow. He wants to see it flourish. He wants to see it be vibrant. And so his vocation is really lived out through his passion in serving and working with others. Catherine Day: In his time advising student government at Augsburg, Mike has had ample to observe firsthand how Augsburg students are driven to make change. Mike Grewe: I work with students here at Augsburg who say that they want to be US Senators, that they want to be CEOs, that they want to run their own nonprofits, that they want to run a youth center or just make change in their community, whether that's in their place of worship or whether that's in their local communities. Leadership takes on so many different forms. You don't have to be in a position of authority to have leadership. You can inspire and drive leadership in any role that you have, and I see students who graduate from Augsburg realizing that and taking control and taking their own agency to drive that change in whatever place they end up after they graduate from Augsburg. Bob Groven: We're taking a class. It's the liberating letters. And the class has a structure where the students stage a trial. Actually, they stage four trials, and so Ethan was, how shall I say, highly engaged in those trials. Catherine Day: This is Bob Groven, professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Film, and New Media, and co-chair of that department. Mike Grewe: After class, then, Ethan would start asking me questions about what work I did. He was interested in being a lawyer. I'm also a lawyer. He was interested in argument and debate, and I coach debate and I teach debate and argumentation, and then I would say it was really wasn't until the last third of the class where he started to realize that I was also interested in political work. I also did political campaign work and I've done coaching of political candidates. He was highly motivated, and it's always interesting to see a student that's so interested in politics and has such a sincere interest in politics for the right reasons. Mike Grewe: He cares about the issues more than he just cares about winning. He cares about serving the state, the community more than he cares about just serving himself, and that's an unusual combination and it's really a wonderful thing to see. And so that's when he and I started talking about political work, and now we've had many conversations in classes, out of classes. He's also started to ask me a lot of really practical questions about how do you get into politics, what are the base entrance vehicles, how do you become part of a campaign, and was very clear that this is a student who both has the skill and the ambition to really try to do something in whatever world he wanted to enter. Ethan Quezada: I got an internship in Senator Tina Smith's office, and that blew my mind because first of all, I'm a first year at this point and that's kind of unreal. My boss, Lexi Byler, she took a chance. She took a risk. She saw a resume that honestly wasn't comparable to probably some of the other top resumes in the group, but saw potential and she decided to take a risk and she decided to put her faith in me even though she didn't know who I was. That kind of belief from somebody else being put in you, it gave me such a boost of confidence that led me to acknowledge that I can do it. I can do the things that I didn't previously think were possible for me. Honestly, it was a huge stepping stone in my life. It basically got me from being this high school student that I mentioned to, transitioning into making real change. Ethan Quezada: When I started the internship I did basic Congressional intern stuff ... or not, yeah, I guess, Senator's office, essentially answering phone calls, going through constituent mail, doing research, writing memos, the basic stuff. I did a presentation and presented it in front of the staff and that was fun. Bob Groven: When people contact a senator's office, 80% of the time they're just complaining. Catherine Day: Bob Groven again. Bob Groven: That's what they want to do. They want to complain and it's very hard for a person to deal with that hour after hour, day after day, and so I thought, "Oh, thi

  7. SEASON 3, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    Exploring Student Vocations: Season 3 Trailer

    Barclay Bates: I think anytime you have the ability to positively influence a group of people, you have to take full advantage of that. Olivia House: I really want to use graphic design to impact the world around me in a positive way. Uplifting people's voices that have been taken away or haven't been heard. Bjorn Melin: I want to be able to invent something that's going to save people. Help people. That's my ultimate goal. Miracle Adebanjo: I just want to do good. I just want to serve. That’s what I want to do. Ethan Quezada: When you have a vocation, when you've found a vocation, you'll know that it is a vocation, in fact, because you have aligned your goals with helping others Hannah Dyson: History is about telling stories and theater is about telling stories. Catherine Day: We invite you to season 3 of the Augsburg Podcast in which we explore the journeys of six Augsburg students on their way to discovering their vocation and calling.

  8. 09/19/2019

    Lamont Slater: Decolonizing the Mind

    Lamont Slater: I always keep track of my students when the semester ends, and a lot of times, they say that it has transformed them in a way that now they're able to confront wrong information or biased information or racist information in a way that is constructive and academic and leads to global change. Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast, one way you can get to know some of the faculty and staff I'm honored to work with every day. Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reed Day, host of the Augsburg podcast, and today, I'm speaking with Lamont Slater, program coordinator and lecturer for the Center of Global Education, and I'm speaking with him today long distance. He's in Windhoek, Namibia. Lamont Slater: Thank you for having me on the podcast. Catherine Day: As we begin, it would be wonderful, Lamont, if you could tell us briefly first of all to ground us in why you're there and the work that you're doing, Augsburg has a strong commitment to international and global education, and you are one of three locations for that work, is that correct? Lamont Slater: That is correct. We have southern African location and then we have the Mexico location and then central America. Catherine Day: Maybe you could give us an overview about Augsburg's focus on global education. How long has that been a tradition to the best of your knowledge, and what is the focus of that? Lamont Slater: One of the ways I'm going to go ahead and get started is to present the position of the Center for Global Education and its mission in southern Africa. Part of the mission is to promote study abroad from a experiential learning basis, which is based off of the Kolb's learning cycle of learning, and the way that it's presented here in southern Africa, one of the key points of this programming is that it has a theme of de-colonizing the mind, and so de-colonizing the mind is a reference from the works of Frantz Fanon in his book, Wretched of the Earth, in which he talks about mind de-colonization as a result of events that happened in Algeria during the 1950s. We borrow that philosophy and that theme, a thematic approach in what we do here, to de-colonize our minds and de-colonize student minds towards information that they previously have been familiar with possibly, but then we're enacting the learning process in a different way. For example, recently we were in the Eastern Cape. South Africa has different provinces, and the Eastern Cape is one of those provinces. We challenged students to read about Steve Biko's I Write What I Like, which is a book that has several excerpts of his writings of black consciousness during the life of Biko, and this book is pretty much standard reading in a lot of classes, literature, especially African-American literature, Africana studies, and so students were able to not only read his work, but we took students to engage in dialogue with a friend of Steve Biko's recently. And we went to his home, his former home. We went to the grave site of Biko. We went to the Biko Center, which talked all about Biko and gave comparative analysis between Steve Biko and other members of the black conscious movement, including W.E.B. DuBois, and so in short, the Center for Global Education really enacts these references, not just for learning purposes, but on a broader scale, to push forward the agenda of fair and just society and learning about multiple figures that have tried to really bridge the gap between different ethnicities, races, et cetera. It really speaks to what the mission of Augsburg University's Center for Global Education is. Catherine Day: You've mentioned several things that I'm going to want to follow up on here. First of all, I thought it would be helpful if we paint a little picture of where you are, a little bit about why you are in that particular place, how many students are there, how long do they stay in this program? And maybe just start with just a couple of those details, please. Lamont Slater: We're in Windhoek, Namibia. Just a little quickie about Windhoek, Windhoek is the capital of Namibia. Namibia is a country that is one of the, if not the, least populated countries, especially for the size of the land, and Namibia only has two point five million people in the entire country. It's a beautiful country. It has a desert landscape. It has savannas. It has parts of the country that has a lot of green space, so it has a very geographic spacing. From a optical point of view, it's a great place to be. It has a history of colonialism, which pretty much has dictated the future of the country in several different ways. We don't have a lot of time to talk about those ways, but it's definitely shaped the country as they move forward after independence. Students are usually here in Namibia for about three and a half months, and then prior to coming to Namibia, they're in South Africa for about three weeks, and so they get the true southern Africa experience, and at the same time, they're able to use a comparative approach to dealings that's happening in South Africa and also Namibia because they have a shared history. Our students go from South Africa to Namibia, and then they return back to the U.S. in this case, for this semester, they'll be returning back on June 8th, so that's where the students are. With regards to myself, how I ended up here, I applied for the position while I was teaching at Quinsigamond Community College. I was about to go on sabbatical, believe it or not. I was already approved for my sabbatical. After seven years, you're able to apply for sabbatical, and that's what I did. I was in the process of completing my PhD work and wanted to be on the ground in Namibia. My whole body of work has been on the Namibian genocide, which was the focus of my dissertation. It just so happened that there was a position available in Namibia that I applied for. It was perfect for me, and I ended up getting the job, and so I was very grateful for that and still am grateful for that, and I am able to kind of use the expertise that I have in the Namibian genocide and apply it to my job, which is beautiful. In fact, going from the experiential lens, we're able to go over different aspects of my dissertation and actually take students to those places that these events happened. For example, during Nazi Germany, you had Auschwitz and different concentration camps there, which happened approximately 25 years later than the events that happened in Namibia. Keep in mind that Namibia is a German colony, and those events that happened in Nazi Germany happened in Namibia almost 25 years earlier. And so to actually be able to take students to these places, the actual locations, is just a once in a lifetime type of position to have, and I'm happy to share that with the students. Catherine Day: Let's take a minute and talk about how you found your path to this research. You were in New York, I believe? Lamont Slater: I'm a New Yorker, so I started off in New York and going to high school there, and I wanted to go to college. I was born in the Bronx, New York before I moved to Long Island, and we used to always see Fordham University. This university was in our neighborhood, and at the time, we didn't have anyone in the family that went to college, so there was no first generation. I didn't have anybody to kind of lean on about how to even go about going to college, and I had a relative that just came back from the military. He told me that you can go to the military and get funding for college. And at the time, I was a high school student. I was a senior in high school. I was 16 when I was about to graduate and decided that's what I was going to do. I'm going to go to the military, and I'm going to get the G.I. bill and fund my way to college. Of course, I didn't have a lot of support. But that's all I had, because no one knew anything about financial aid, FAFSA forms, fellowships. I had no resources to use to my advantage, and so I signed up and went to the military. My mother had to actually sign the waiver because I was 16 when I graduated, and I went to the military a week after I graduated from high school. I did my basic and AIT in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and then I went to Kitzingen, Germany for my duty station, and while I was in Germany, that's when I learned about not only the Namibian genocide from somebody that I just randomly met in Auschwitz when I was there, but also the positionality of black Americans and also other black Africans that were caught up in the German holocaust as well. It was a total awakening, because all I knew about the holocaust was what was taught in school and Anne Frank and all of those stories about the horrors of the genocide, but being in Germany, it enlightened me to a new history almost. It just let me know that history is contingent upon the one who writes it. It inspired me to be a historian and look at Africana history in a way that created a holistic approach to research. That was my path to research, teaching in the field, and eventually getting my PhD in genocide, specifically the Namibian genocide, and more specifically focusing on retelling the story of genocide in Namibia from an inter-cultural lens and also focusing on really pointing out the need for correct memorialization when it comes to representation of genocide, especially with the local African culture. Catherine Day: I presume that you take the time to share your personal discovery, how you found out this information and how it led you down this path. Do you share this with your students? Lamont Slater: I do. I mean, because it's very important. I mean, our students are in a experiential learning program. They have to get out their comfort z

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About

The Augsburg Podcast features the voices of Augsburg University faculty and staff. We hope this is one way you can get to know the people who educate our students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.

Information

  • Creator
    Augsburg University
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2020
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2021 The Augsburg Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Augsburg Podcast