Augustana College

Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., held its spring commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 25. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos delivered the commencement speech, and more than 600 students participated in the ceremony.

This June, nine Augustana students are in Paris for a five-week program pairing a course in music, from medieval to the birth of modernism, with a literature course on expatriate American writers in Paris. Students are connecting classroom experiences with visits to the cathedrals, cafes, bookstores and salons that inspired artists from the Gothic period to the 20th Century.

Two Augustana students won national awards for their creative writing entries in the 2014 Suffolk County Community College's (SCCC) Creative Writing Festival.

The Augustana College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa has elected 57 senior students to membership. Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest and most widely known academic honor society. Membership is granted upon reflection of outstanding academic achievement and the high opinions the faculty have of the awarded seniors.

Two veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom shared their experiences with the college campus on April 30. The two Augustana College seniors highlighted their times in service, their experiences in Iraq and the challenges of transitioning to college life.

"Whistler and His Contexts," an exhibition currently on display in the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, was co-curated by two senior art history majors. The exhibit examines the works of James McNeill Whistler and artists working before, during and after his career, in an effort to understand Whistler's life and art in their context.

Augustana junior Mark Hoffmann has been named a Rossing Physics Scholar for 2013-2014. Hoffmann is a native of Lansing, Ill., majoring in pre-medicine and engineering physics, and he receives a $10,000 award with this honor.

The Augustana College Center for the Study of Ethics annually holds a ethics essay contest. Three students are chosen to receive top honors and cash awards, and recognition is also given for honorable mention.

From 140 entries in this year's Augie Abroad photo contest at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., winners were chosen in five categories, and a grand prize was awarded. For the contest, students submitted photos by category - architecture, Augie students abroad, culture and celebration, daily life, and nature - and three judges reviewed the submissions. This year's submissions were from international travel between May 2013 and March 2014.

For the first time, Augustana College is giving eight IOP (International and Off-Campus) Passport Grants to support current students preparing to study abroad. The new grants distribute unused funds budgeted for study abroad and puts the funds directly into the hands of students.

At Augustana College, the Social Action Research class tested a communication theory while gathering donations. The class raised $850 and brought in over 500 pounds of food donations to a local food bank called River Bend Food Bank.

Augustana College announced 858 students were named to the Dean's List for the 2013 winter term. Students who have earned this academic honor have maintained a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on a four-point scale for courses taken during the term.

The show exhibits work by studio art and graphic design majors who graduate this year. Displaying artwork in a variety of media, from painting and photography to quilting and vide, the exhibition is the culmination of the students' Senior Inquiry process and overall academic experience.

The staff of the Augustana Observer, the student newspaper, received 13 awards during the Illinois Collegiate Press Association's annual meeting in Chicago in February.

At Augustana College, Dr. Jenniger Burnham's cartography class was commissioned by Dr. Curt Roseman '63 to draw maps for his book, "A Century of Players, Performers, and Pagaents: Wharton Field House and Browning Field, Moline, Illinois," co-written by Dr. Roseman and Diann Moore. Seven of the students' maps were selected for publication.

In today's competitive job market, college students recognize the value of high-impact learning experiences, like internships, study abroad and research.

Augustana junior political science major Sarah Meirose, from Quincy, Ill., was named a Freedom Scholar by the Fund for American Studies. This past summer Meirose spent her summer in Washington D. C. on an academic internship and was chosen as one of top interns in her program, earning her another opportunity in February.

Online voting continues until Feb. 15 for the People's Choice Award in Augustana College's Good Fit T-shirt Photo Contest, where potential first-year students are eligible to win one of five $1,000 scholarships to Augustana. For their photos, students must wear an Augustana T-shirt.

The Augustana Symphonic Band will tour Japan from February 21-March 4. The band will perform four concerts, including two exchange concerts with Japanese ensembles.

The Augustana Choir, from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, will tour the Midwest from February 21-March 1. The nine-day, nine-concert tour will take nearly 60 students from as far north as the Twin Cities to as far east as Cincinnati, Ohio. Admission to all concerts is free, and a freewill offering will be accepted.

Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., announced after the fall term that Michael Carlyle, from Belvidere, graduated with a bachelor's degree. Carlyle majored in both math and German.

Augustana College's Handel Oratorio Society presented its new take on a Quad-Cities Christmas tradition, 'A Christmas Messiah,' on Saturday, December 14 and Sunday, December 15. The Handel Oratorio Society began performing choral and orchestral works in 1881. "This year we focused the performance on the Christmas portion of the piece," said Jon Hurty, conductor of the society and director of choral activities at Augustana.

Augustana College announced 839 students were named to the Dean's List for the 2013 fall term. Students who have earned this academic honor have maintained a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on a four-point scale for courses taken during the term.

Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., has a team of 116 student admissions ambassadors who help the Office of Admissions recruit new students.

Alicia Oken, Class of 2013, is interning at the Office of Digital Strategy at the White House, with a focus on the White House website and specifically the blog. Her main duties include preparing and drafting blog posts, updating website content, and assisting with Web videos. Oken graduated from Augustana with a degree in political science, communication studies and multimedia journalism.

Christina Kunkel, a senior English and Communication Studies major from Peru, Ill., presented the findings from her summer research project at the recent Women & Society Conference at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The presentation was a condensed version of Kunkel's feminist media analysis on HBO's hit series, Games of Thrones, focusing on gender, femininity and power relations within the patriarchal context of the show.

A first-year student at Augustana College - Addison Morgan - is a recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, a program established in 1999 by a $1.5 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide highly motivated minority students an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest.

Devan Peterson, an Augustana College senior from Aledo, Ill., grew up playing with John Deere tractors at his family farm. He knew from the first day of his first year at Augustana that he wanted to have a career tied to agriculture. This passion has helped to fuel his career orientation throughout college and a full-time job opportunity with John Deere in the Accounting Finance Development Program next summer.

Earlier this year six Augustana teacher candidates and Dr. Deborah Bracke, assistant professor of education, spent five days at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind at St. Augustine, Fl., as part of the students' Augie Choice involvement experience.

Devan Peterson, an Augustana College senior from Aledo, Ill., grew up playing with John Deere tractors at his family farm. He knew from the first day of his first year at Augustana that he wanted to have a career tied to agriculture. This passion has helped to fuel his career orientation throughout college and a full-time job opportunity with John Deere in the Accounting Finance Development Program next summer.