As of fall 2025, news and media updates have been integrated with the Augsburg Now alumni publication. This site archives news stories from before September 16, 2025. Please visit augsburg.edu/now or select "Augsburg Now" from the left navigation for current news.
Joshua Groll ’10聽spoke with the Minneapolis Star Tribune about life in the workforce as a recent聽graduate.
Groll was working for Best Buy when he was recruited by Boston Scientific via LinkedIn, a networking site. Accepting the new position, which Groll said included a higher salary and better benefits, was an easy decision to make.
To read “Minnesota’s economy finally gaining momentum,” visit the Star Tribune site.
More than 900 Augsburg College undergraduate students were named to the 2014 Fall聽Semester Dean’s List. Students named to the list achieved a grade point average of 3.50 or higher on a 4.00 scale.
Students who wish to notify their hometown newspapers of their achievement can do so at their discretion.
Augsburg College聽has received its second聽Community Engagement Classification from the .
Institutions are recognized based on evidence of their collaboration聽with the larger community, which:
enriches scholarship, research, and creative activity;
enhances curriculum, teaching, and learning;
prepares educated, engaged citizens;
strengthens democratic values and civic responsibility;
addresses critical societal issues; and
contributes to the public good.
The Carnegie Foundation鈥檚 Classification for Community Engagement is an elective classification. Institutions participate voluntarily by submitting required material as part of an extensive application process. Those materials include but are not limited to a description of the nature and extent of the university鈥檚 engagement with the community 鈥 local or beyond 鈥 plus institutional commitment, its impact on students, staff, and faculty, and an assessment of initiatives geared toward community engagement.
About 8 percent of U.S. degree-granting institutions have earned the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification to date, and Augsburg was one of only eight聽Minnesota colleges or universities recognized in 2015. Augsburg previously received the聽Community Engagement Classification in 2008.
The New England Resource Center for Higher Education serves as Carnegie鈥檚 administrative partner, and additional information regarding the classification process is available on the .
In a recent MinnPost story, Jens Pinther ’15 and Michael Grewe ’12 MSW聽described聽ways in which Augsburg College lives out its commitment to intentional diversity in its life and work.
Grewe, the College’s director of聽LGBTQIA Support Services and assistant director of聽Campus Activities and Orientation, described some of the ways in which he provides support to the LGBTQIA population on campus. Pinther described his experiences with gender transition and the ways his life has changed during his time聽at Augsburg — and place where he has found support and acceptance. Read, “” to learn more.
Tim Pippert, associate professor of sociology, was among the first sociologists to visit the Bakken oilfield region聽in western North Dakota and to research the social effects of the area’s聽rapid growth. Pippert contributed his expertise to a series of stories by the Forum News Service about sex trafficking in the Bakken, and the articles聽have been republished by media ranging from the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., to the Daily Republic in Mitchell, S.D.
Tom Driscoll ’07 MBA was featured in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune as one of the construction industry鈥檚 鈥淢overs and Shakers鈥 for his work as partner and vice president of business development at the Minneapolis office of the Utah-based Big-D Construction. Visit the Star Tribune website to learn more about Driscoll’s vocation and motivation for聽bringing Big-D to the Twin Cities.
Augsburg College alumnus聽Michael Howard ’05 is celebrating a聽busy January complete with the potential聽to become a city council member and a father on the same day. This month, Howard will be sworn in as the replacement for a聽Richfield (Minn.) City Council member, and this event coincides with the due date for his first child.
College alumnus聽and artist聽Maximino Garcia-Marin ’14 was featured in a year-end recap column by the Star Tribune’s Gail Rosenblum, who first met Garcia-Marin as a result of his senior art exhibition. Rosenblum noted that Garcia-Marin’s聽senior project was “personal” and “powerful” featuring a wall of 4,900 stenciled blindfolded faces, each representing 3,000 undocumented immigrants. Read, “Rosenblum: Catching up with folks we met in 2014” to learn more.
Mike Good ’71, was featured by Echo Press, a newspaper based in Alexandria, Minn., as the speaker for the Unity Foundation’s monthly Faith at Work Lunch.
Good, who was the former chair of the Board of Regents, is the current chair for the Center for Science, Business, and Religion campaign at Augsburg College.
To read “Faith at work event features Mike Good,” visit the Echo Press news site.