The Augsburg Podcast

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...

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 passi...

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,

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.

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,

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 realit...

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.

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 info...

Stacy Freiheit: The value that I want to impart is that people become aware of their own values so that students are able to articulate what their values are. Once they know what their values are, that can help them in their interactions with other people, to recognize that not everybody is going to have the same values, they're not going to rank-order their values, I guess, in the same way and, yet, how to still be open to other value systems, other ideas and how to work with other people come to consensus and figure out how to be effective together.

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 Reid Day, host of the Augsburg Podcast, and, today, I'm speaking with Stacy Freiheit, associate professor of psychology at Augsburg, and we're going to focus a bit on some research and how it connects to students' learning and their direction.

Welcome, Stacy.

Stacy Freiheit: Thank you.

Catherine Day: When did you come to Augsburg? What was your path here?

Stacy Freiheit: I started at Augsburg full time in 2005, and this came after a period of time when I was working as a part-time professor at some institutions in the Twin Cities. I had young children at home, and so I was a stay-at-home mom for a little bit of time after I'd earned my Ph.D. and loved teaching, loved research, so I continued part time and knew that, at some point, I wanted to go into full-time teaching and research, and so it was in 2005, when my youngest was in kindergarten, that I was very fortunate that Augsburg had an opening, and I started in a limited-term position and I was hired for a tenure track position in 2006, and I've been here ever since.

Catherine Day: Where did you first discover your passion for the field of psychology?

Stacy Freiheit: The first time I took a psychology course was at junior in high school, and I really loved the course and, at that time in my life, that wasn't saying much because I loved just about every course I was taking in high school, and then same in college, but when I was a senior in high school, one of my friends was having a challenge, and so we talked about it, and she came back to me a few days later and said, "One of the things that you said I really thought about," and she said it was very helpful, and that's just a moment that I still remember today, that sometimes the things that we say, things that we do when we listen to other people could be really impactful and helpful.

When I was a sophomore in my undergraduate years, I had to literally sit myself down and decide what it was I wanted to major in and what I wanted to do. It was a time to declare a major, and so that was one of the moments in my life that I turn back to and realize I'm one of those stereotypical people in mental health, the people that friends come and talk to, and you're known as the listener in the group. That, combined with that moment with my friend, with my interest in psychology classes and with just this belief at the time, which has not been disproven since, that people are fascinating,

Sarah Riveros: I cannot teach Spanish for tourism. So many times, I take a critical eye to the textbook and recognize that I'm not preparing students for future vacations. We learn Spanish from our neighbors, and being bilingual makes us more able to listen and believe that there isn't one way of living in the world.

Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educated 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: Hello. I'm Catherine Reed Day, host of the Augsburg Podcast, and today, I'm speaking with Sarah Degner Riveros, lecturer in Spanish. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah Riveros: Thank you so much.

Catherine Day: Could you start of us off by sharing how you ended up being a lecturer in Spanish? You are not from a Spanish country. You're not from a Spanish-speaking family. How did that happen?

Sarah Riveros: I grew up in Chicago and in Texas and started learning Spanish at a recreation center, Spanish and French, six weeks each from a Brazilian teacher. And also, as a homeschooled child, had a friend of our family from church came over and told fairytales in Spanish. Her husband was from Spain. I was a Suzuki violin student, starting at age three, and so I developed a good ear. My mom is a musician.

As a rebel, at age 12, when I decided to go to public school, I told my parents I was gonna call the truant officer if they didn't let me try public school. I had to pick two electives, and my dad thought that, if I learned Spanish, I would be employable, and he was right. I've always been able to find a job that I loved. And I grew up in the border lands. I grew up in Texas, in a community where there were a lot of latino families, Mexican families. The border moved. Texas was Mexico for a long time and some folks say still is.

And so, people in the community took me under wing, took me along to travel, and practiced with me in the community. So, I had teachers everywhere from a young age. In eighth grade, one of my electives was choir and the other was Spanish, and so, in public school, I took five years of Spanish and moved back to Chicago when I was 17.

Catherine Day: I'm interested in this little statement that you made in that answer that the border moved, and I would like to linger on that for just a minute. I'd like to unpack what you mean by that, historically, obviously, but also maybe a little bit about is there maybe something about that experience of a moved border that informs your teaching now?

Sarah Riveros: Well, Texas is a place that has lived under six flags, and so perhaps, Texas breeds some anarchists in believing in self governance. We create our own worlds. We create our own communities. We co-create our own families. I don't really consider myself a Texan anymore, but I think that borders are scars on the plan, written through history and by war, often through violence, and borders also mark our bodies and our families.

Living in Chicago, in Indiana, and now in Minnesota, I speak Spanish a lot of the time, and I send my youngest to pre-K at Rondo,