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Devean George ’99 offers his take on Kobe Bryant’s retirement in Star Tribune article

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Minneapolis Star Tribune - logoThe Minneapolis Star Tribune recently interviewed former Augsburg College basketball player and retired NBA star Devean George ’99 about the upcoming retirement of legendary Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant. George, who retired in 2011, played his first seven seasons in the NBA alongside Bryant.

George said that he knows Bryant is ready to retire from professional sports because he has seen familiar signs from his own retirement. “What I鈥檝e seen him go through this year, you can see the flame is not there and he knows it鈥檚 time,” he said. “It鈥檚 the old clich茅: Father Time, no one can beat it. There comes a time where no one wins. Basketball is a young man鈥檚 sport. It鈥檚 that simple.”

Read George: When it’s time, it’s time on the Star Tribune site.

Basketball program founded by Jennifer Weber ’11 gets specially designed uniforms, MN Daily reports

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The Minnesota Daily recently covered the Cedar Riverside Community Traveling Basketball program, which provides coaching, practice, and competition for six teams of local boys and girls ranging from sixth to 10th grade.

The program was founded by Augsburg College alumna Jennifer Weber ’11, who recognized a need for such programs. “The kids here in the neighborhood need more quality programming,” she said. “The kids want it. They go to open gym all the time.”

Another need Weber recognized dealt with a聽lack of functional athletic attire that was culturally acceptable for the many Muslim girls in the program.

Luckily, design students from the University of Minnesota had already been working to solve that problem. Working with the players and other partners, the students designed uniforms with adjustable hijabs, knee-length skirts and breathable leggings. A grant from the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station provided funding to donate the completed uniforms to the program.

The article concludes with a statement from coach and co-founder Muna Mohamed ’16, an exercise science senior at Augsburg who grew up in the neighborhood.

“These girls are getting an opportunity to have culturally appropriate clothing, at the same time … [as] enjoying sports,” she said. “They don鈥檛 have to worry about fixing their scarves. They don鈥檛 have to worry about ‘How can I play basketball and also respect my culture?'”

 

Auggies perform with Barry Manilow at Xcel Energy Center

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Auggies sing with Barry Manilow on his well known hit, 鈥淐opacabana (At the Copa).鈥�

Members of the Augsburg Choir sang backup for Barry Manilow during the Grammy-award winning performer’s farewell tour.聽The choir sang three encore songs with Manilow including “I Write the Songs,” “Miracle,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).”

The Augsburg Choir was selected to perform by Barry Manilow’s choir director, Doug Hollenback.聽The ensemble is recognized for its high level of musicianship and performs a聽diverse repertoire under the direction of聽Peter Hendrickson聽’76.

The performance by the students drew media attention from Twin Cities media outlets including:

  • Pioneer Press:聽
  • Minnesota Public Radio
  • KARE 11
  • KMSP FOX 9
  • WCCO TV

Watch a at the show.

Pioneer Press profiles Ted Bigos ’74

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The St. Paul Pioneer Press recently published an article about real estate leader Ted Bigos ’74聽and the current climate of urban living in downtown St. Paul. Bigos owns five buildings in the area and many others across the state.

“I put a lot of my back into those buildings,” Bigos said. With the help of his father, Bigos began purchasing, renovating, and reselling apartment buildings at age 19 while he was a student at Augsburg College. Eventually, he retained some of the renewed properties and began renting them to tenants himself.

About the current state of the downtown area, which has seen many development projects in recent years, he said, “In all the years I鈥檝e been in St. Paul, it鈥檚 never felt as good as it feels today.”

Read: on the Pioneer Press site.

St. Paul’s Sprockets program names Erik Skold as director

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The Pioneer Press reports that St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has appointed Erik Skold, leader of the North Star Worker Fellowship at the Minnesota Department of Education and the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College, as director of Sprockets, the city’s network of after-school programs.

Skold has been serving as the program’s interim director since the departure of previous director. Skold holds a master鈥檚 degree in youth development leadership from the University of Minnesota.

Read on the Pioneer Press site.

Scott Washburn discusses public figures鈥� privacy with MinnPost

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Scott Washburn, assistant director of Augsburg College鈥檚 StepUP庐 program, was one the experts interviewed by MinnPost for an article examining public figures’ right to privacy as well as the rights of the public figures’ significant others. The article examined an聽overarching theme that probed, “How much of a candidate鈥檚 own personal life should be made available for public debate?”

In responding to a question on whether it is appropriate for the mental health or addiction history of a political spouse or other family member to be made public, Washburn argued聽that sort of political playmaking聽goes over the line.

“I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 appropriate at all,” Washburn said. “The candidate is running, not the family member. The electorate is voting for the candidate, not the family member. The family of a presidential candidate is going to be dragged into the public eye, but I think it鈥檚 important to respect some boundaries here. It鈥檚 an issue of respect and privacy. The candidate would be fair game from my perspective, but I don鈥檛 think family members should be. It just reflects how low things have gone in this political race.

All that being said, if the family member chooses to publically disclose his or her personal history, then that is a different conversation.”

Read additional responses from Washburn in “” on the MinnPost site.

Lars Christiansen adds expert opinion to MinnPost article on crosswalk laws

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MinnPost recently published an article covering efforts by the City of St. Paul to more strictly enforce crosswalk laws and change a driving culture that places drivers and vehicles ahead of pedestrians. State crosswalk laws dictate that drivers should stop for pedestrians at every crosswalk, marked or unmarked, but drivers in the city rarely comply. This has led to fatalities and, more recently, sting operations designed to ticket drivers who fail to stop for pedestrians.

Lars Christiansen, associate professor of sociology and urban studies at Augsburg College, feels that the problem is larger, and less easily addressed, than simply ticketing individuals. “This isn’t about an individual flouting the law, it鈥檚 a very real feeling of pressure from motorists,” he said. “One feels the heat of the other cars around you as you鈥檙e moving, so to do something unusual [like stopping for a pedestrian] feels dangerous.”

Read on the MinnPost site.

Star Tribune profiles Augsburg history professor Phil Adamo

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently published an article about the life and career of Phil Adamo, professor of history at Augsburg College and 2015 .

The article focuses on Adamo’s engaging approach to teaching history and his personal history with academia. As a young man, he decided to forgo a college education in favor of a career as a clown with the Ringling Bros. Circus. Eventually, the constant demands of performance wore him down. “I was exhausted by performing so much, and I started to think that I wasn鈥檛 funny,” he said. “That鈥檚 a bad thing for a clown.”

Returning from the circus, he enrolled as a medieval studies major at Ohio State University, where a senior project involving a summer in a monastery led to an award-winning dissertation and propelled him toward a career in academia.

The article also depicts Adamo as an ardent supporter of having a liberal arts education, which he says “gives the benefit of having a better life, a more interesting life, a better understanding of who you are as a human.”

Read Augsburg professor left circus to bring history to life on the Star Tribune site.

MPR News interviews Mohamud Mohamed ’19 about federal youth program

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Minnesota Public Radio included an interview with Augsburg College student Mohamud Mohamed ’19聽in a recent article about a federal anti-terror program aimed at Somali youth and designed to counter terrorist efforts to radicalize young American Muslims.

While Mohamed respects the stated goals of the program, he disagrees with the approach the government has taken. “For sure, let’s have community programs, let’s have after-school programs, let’s have arts and all of these things, let’s promote these things,” he said. “But the way they’ve gone about it has been inherently disingenuous. … They never once approached Somali youth as a whole, they never called a meeting, or town hall.”

Other community members interviewed in the article oppose the program for its links with the Department of Justice and concerns over potential surveillance abuses the program may allow. Mohamud Nur, of the the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, disagrees. “It is to help the community find better opportunities. I’m confident that the people who are going to be seeking help will get the help that they are seeking,” he said.

Mohamed also has concerns about the alienating effect such a program can have on him and his peers. “I’m being pushed into the margin, as inherently violent, inherently extreme, someone that needs to be saved from their own devices. And that’s deeply troubling. And I can’t ever sign onto that,” he said.

Read on the MPR site.

Stan Nelson ’43 to receive Bud Grant Distinguished Minnesotan Award

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Legendary Minnesota athlete and coach Stan Nelson ’43 will add another honor to his career, having earned the聽Bud Grant Distinguished Minnesotan Award聽 from the National Football Foundation. The award, named after the former Minnesota Vikings coach, will be given at the ninth Minnesota Football Honors event April 17.

Nelson had a successful athletic career at Augsburg College, having earned letters in football, golf, baseball, and basketball. In 1942, he served as the football team captain and was named all-MIAC. After graduating from Augsburg, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and began a career as a coach. He held coaching positions in Zumbrota, Farmington, and Anoka, where he coached for 26 years.

Read Award in honor of Bud Grant to go to Anoka legendary coach on the ABC Newspapers site.