A magazine for alumni and friends FALL/WINTER 2014 Roots and BRANCHES Community ties bear fruit for BSU and students www.BemidjiState.edu | 1 Features 4-7 More than ever, Bemidji State and its students are engaged in service and partnerships that enrich the learning experience and make a lasting impact on the region and its quality of life. The Imagine Tomorrow fundraising campaign is UNIVERSITY REACHES OUT 8-9 Departments going strong as it heads into the final 19 months, but continued support will be needed in order to 13-15 BSU News achieve or exceed the ambitious $35 million goal. PRESIDENT 16 Faculty Achievements 22-23 Dr. Abby Meyer ‘01 has applied the perspective R. HANSON on managing life’s priorities that she gained while 18-19 Students to Watch at BSU to her life as a pediatric ear, nose and 20-21 Beaver Athletics PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE throat physician and the mother of two boys. I cannot say often enough that the primary goal of everything we do as a university is to 26-27 Honors Gala prepare our students for meaningful, rewarding lives in their chosen fields. Their success is 24-25 The spark of interest in marketing and commu- the measure of our own. This objective motivates and inspires all we do together as adminis- nication that Roger Reierson ‘74 experienced as DR. ABBY MEYER 28-29 Homecoming trators, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Bemidji State. Its pursuit and the results that a student led him into a career at the helm of a MEMORIAL TRIBUTES continue to affirm our purpose can be found throughout this edition of the BSU magazine. major enterprise that he still runs today. 30-31 Campus Photos Nowhere is this more evident than in the tremendous and gratifying progress we have made 32 Alumni News together in the Imagine Tomorrow fund-raising campaign. In less than four years, the BSU 44-45 The passing of Joe Lueken and Peggy Johnson Foundation has received gifts and pledges totaling more than $31 million. Stop and let that this summer left an enormous void, but they will 33-42 Class Notes figure sink in for a moment. We’re closing in on our ambitious goal of $35 million, and I have be remembered for lives of generosity, caring every confidence that we will get there over the next 19 months. The generosity has been and service to their communities. 43-50 Annual Report staggering, and our students’ increased prospect for success has already been the outcome. The difference we are making in the lives of our students can be clearly seen in our latest 51 Alumni Calendar examples of “Students to Watch” – young people who are defining themselves as leaders JOE LUEKEN MMMM PEGGY JOHNSON and laying the groundwork for significant accomplishment in their careers. The benefits of the guidance and motivation provided by our faculty is evident in the achievement of our alumni, including those profiled at length and the many others featured in the Class Notes section. We are so proud of our continued association with our thousands of outstanding alumni, including the remarkable individuals honored during the Homecoming Honors Gala COVER PHOTO: Katie Swanson works Sept. 10 in the on Oct. 17. Bemidji Community Food Shelf garden with fellow students from a BSU sociology course on social movements that BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY magazine We also make a difference in the world through the work of our students, faculty and staff, combines service learning with in-class study. as illustrated in the cover story on community and civic engagement. Transformative is produced by the Office of Communications and experiences of service and hands-on learning are so important to students, and they also Marketing and BSU Alumni & Foundation. VOLUME 30, NO. 2 provide enormous benefits to the greater Bemidji region and beyond. It is published twice per year and distributed free to BSU alumni and friends. Direct comments to FALL/WINTER 2014 So success begets success. Your support of our students and the university as a whole [email protected] or 1-888-234-7794. EDITOR: Scott Faust enables our mission of education and advancement, and for that we are forever grateful. UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Rob Bollinger Best wishes, A member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER: Jonathan Yordy system, Bemidji State University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity educator and employer. 14-154 ART DIRECTOR, DESIGNER: Kathy Berglund PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR: John Swartz Richard Hanson WRITERS: Andy Bartlett, Maryhelen Chadwick, Scott Faust, Brad Folkestad, Al Nohner and Cindy Serratore 2 | BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY www.BemidjiState.edu | 3 MAKING AN IMPACT OFF CAMPUS organization that cultivates interest and Students show off new Outreach efforts grow in cross-country ski trail markers aptitude in computing among middle and high school girls. installed on Oct. 10 at BSU’s scope and importance Hobson Memorial Forest north Throughout the fall semester, students in of Bemidji. They remapped a sociology course have taken turns the trails using GPS. By Scott Faust tending a community garden and In partnership with a cross-country ski participating in other food-supply club, Bemidji State University students in initiatives. October installed new signs at BSU’s All these activities exemplify a growing Hobson Memorial Forest to mark seven priority for Bemidji State: engagement by workforce that employers require. This “I think all of us around the “I think all of us would agree that Bemidji kilometers of trails remapped in March by faculty, staff and students in and with the connection was highlighted Oct. 1 when table would agree that Bemidji fellow students. greater community to foster education, Chancellor Steven Rosenstone of the has been very good the past has been very good the past couple of years Minnesota State Colleges and Universi- couple of years in developing Also in October, a computer programmer at collaboration and service. ties system began a one-day Bemidji partnerships and in saying we in developing partnerships and in saying the university convened Minnesota’s first Along with pride in yearly events that visit by stressing the importance of can move miles when we work chapter of Girls Who Code, a nationwide bring people to campus, such as we can move miles when we work together.” community engagement over breakfast together,” Paris said. Community Appreciation Day, the high with local leaders. – Lori Paris, president of the school mathematics contest and the Serving the region is fundamental to the Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce Madrigal Dinners, outreach and hands-on “None of us can get it done by our- role of a public university like BSU, said learning are increasingly prized. selves,” Rosenstone said. “We have to do Dr. Martin Tadlock, provost and vice and two other trail networks maintained this together. Nothing less than the president for academic affairs. by the Bemidji Cross-Country Ski Club, a “We are motivated by the opportunity for future of our state hinges on our project that began to take shape in 2013 students to gain a sense of connection The relationships are multifaceted and success.” through conversations between BSU and relevance to the real world,” growing, he said – as joyful as inviting faculty and the club. President Richard Hanson said. “Civic Lori Paris, president of the Bemidji children to skate with BSU hockey players engagement can work to create a sense Chamber, told him that has happened in and as ambitious as a planned off-cam- “The courses needed new signage,” said of responsibility for one’s place while also and around Bemidji. pus Center for Community Partnerships Dr. Patrick Donnay, a professor of political building a capacity for leadership.” that will coordinate the expanding science who also serves as secretary of interaction. the club. “We’re using the partnership Bemidji State is actively involved in between BSU and the ski club to make it multiple projects, ranging from a “The university is a lot more visible in the happen.” downtown fine arts center that will community than it used to be,” said showcase BSU artwork to a public-pri- Tadlock, who returned to BSU in 2012 Last winter, several geography students vate student housing development after previously serving as a dean from on snowshoes used GPS navigation to planned for the former Bemidji High 2001 to 2006. trace the exact route of the Hobson trails. School site. Another example is Intern Typically, campus-community collabora- Funding for the signs was provided by Bemidji, launched with the Bemidji Area tion develops over time, as educators see the ski club, BSU’s Outdoor Program Chamber of Commerce to connect ways to connect student learning with Center and the BSU Sustainability Office. students with employer needs. local needs. The new signs were designed and produced in Bemidji. Dr. Steven Rosenstone, chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, In addition, BSU administrators are at the Such was the case with students’ work at left, and President Richard Hanson have breakfast on Oct. 1 with Bemidji community { continued on next page } table on efforts to grow the regional on new trail signage at Hobson Forest and business leaders at the American Indian Resource Center. economy by developing the highly skilled BSU hockey player Megan Lushanko helps a little one around the ice in the Sanford Center during a post-game 4 | “Skate with the Beavers” event in January. BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY www.BemidjiState.edu | 5 MAKING AN Dr. Carla Norris-Raynbird, professor of sociology, IMPACT joins students in harvesting carrots at the Bemidji OFF CAMPUS Community Food Shelf garden on Sept. 19. “I’d never heard about (Girls Who Code), learned in the classroom and accomplish Students employed by the office, as well and I saw this tiny little ad in the email their service learning in a concerted effort as members of an organization called and went, ‘Wow, that sounds like – as a group,” Norris-Raynbird said.