The tenth annual Lake Superior College Throw-a-thon will take place from 3 p.m. until midnight on Friday, December 4 and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, December 5. Held in the ceramics studio in LSC’s Fine Arts building, the event attracts dozens of students and some of the region’s most accomplished artists to throw ceramic bowls for the Empty Bowl.

“This is the tenth year of the Throw-a-thon and it promises to be another great occasion for students and professional artists to help the community in a creative and fun way,” Sue Hansen, president of the LSC Art Club, explains. “In addition to raising funds, the Throw-a-thon is a one-of-a-kind social networking event for students and artists.  Participants return year after year to be part of something special.”

“The club and college supply materials and studio space and organize the event.  Volunteers bring their skills, creativity, and dedication,” says Bob Husby, LSC art faculty member and event coordinator. “We’ll be continuing that tradition with another great effort this year.”

College officials estimate that the Throw-a-thon has produced more than $100,000 worth of bowls for the Empty Bowl over the last nine years.

The completed works of art will be available for a donation of $15 at the Duluth Depot on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. The bowls will be offered along with a variety of delicious soups that have been donated by area restaurants on that day.

Area artists and community members are encouraged to participate. For more information, contact Bob Husby at b.husby@lsc.edu.

The proceeds from the “Empty Bowl” support the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, the sole distributor of surplus food products to over 140 charitable food programs, including the region’s soup kitchens, food shelves and shelters.  As a non-profit food bank, its primary role is to provide food to the front-line charitable agencies that offer meals to the hungry.  The food bank also provides food to over 1,000 people per month as part of their direct service programming.   For more information about the Food Bank and its services, contact executive director Shaye Moris at shaye@northernlakesfoodbank.org.

Faculty member Marlise Riffel with Intro to Sociology class team

The U.S. Professors of the Year program, created in 1981, is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.  Riffel was selected from more than 300 top professors in the United States. This year, there are 38 state winners. Riffel was selected from faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.

Following 10 years of work in the human services field, Riffel began her teaching career in Rochester, Minnesota in 1983.  Initially, she taught traditional classes, but eventually taught the evening and weekend community-focused classes for the sociology department in order to work with nontraditional students.  “I absolutely love sociology and there is nothing I’d rather do than teach.  My job is to create a desire to know and then to facilitate the development of students’ skills in finding out,” said Riffel.

CASE president John Lippincott congratulates Marlise Riffel on her award.

As a result of her community teaching, the local newspaper editor asked Riffel to write a weekly column, and her sociology-women’s studies column ran for five years in the Rochester Post-Bulletin.  In 1991, she was honored by her colleagues at Rochester Community College with the Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year Award.  That same year, Riffel and her family moved north.

Riffel started teaching at Duluth Community College in 1991 (now Lake Superior College) where she pioneered the use of computers in the sociology classroom to teach students research skills.  “If I can make the sociological perspective contagious, students can catch it.  Once they’ve caught it, they’ll want the tools — critical analysis, verifying, and using sociological research — that put them in charge of their own continued learning.  The way I teach tools is to use them with students — this transforms sociology from an abstract theory to a strategy for tackling life’s puzzles and provides a new perspective on students’ everyday experiences.”

Congressman Oberstar congratulates Marlise Riffel on her award in Washington, D.C.

During her 26 years of teaching, she has taught 16 different undergraduate courses, connecting with 160 students each semester.  “As a student of Marlise’s, the wonderful thing is that I know if I truly need help with something she is just the right teacher to go to.  She is smart in more subjects that just sociology and never places herself up on a pedestal like some college professors might do,” said former student Hannah Packer.  “I can’t even count how many times she had students share their personal experiences in class because she was so truly fascinated by them.  I have not known one student who didn’t appreciate Marlise’s straightforward but truthful approach to teaching.”

Riffel and her LSC colleagues eventually designed a “soc lab” with moveable tables and chairs for group work surrounded by computers for each student along the classroom walls.  “This team-based learning is incredible,” said current student Debra Burmeister.  “The classroom itself is perfectly set up.  With my other classes, it’s impossible to get the intimate feel sitting behind rows of computers.  I wish more classrooms were set up this way.”

“A good teacher is in love with her subject,” commented Riffel.  “She models for students how to wonder, how to struggle with conflicting data or polarized attitudes, how to settle for more questions than answers.  To ask the questions of ‘how’ and ‘why,’ because students can always look up what, where, who, and when, but they are invited to think and process with questions of how and why.  A good teacher finds exciting news or research results from his discipline and shares them with students.  A good teacher changes techniques and resources and assessments each term based on feedback from the previous term’s students.  A good teacher is still learning, and changing, and learning more.”

Riffel uses a variety of formats, from face-to-face teaching in the classroom to online learning to a hybrid/blended course.  “I’m personally aware of her dedication to her students and their learning,” said faculty member Kent Richards.  “Marlise ‘gets it’ that assessment of student learning is really about improving what we do in the classroom.  When the majority of our colleagues still had little idea what academic assessment was all about, Marlise already had all of her course activities and assessment measures aligned with her course outcomes.”

In 2007, Lake Superior College nominated her for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching.  “Marlise not only inspires her students but her creative teaching methods also inspire her colleagues to experience teaching in new, innovative ways,” explained Hanna Erpestad, LSC dean of liberal arts and sciences.

A Kill-A-Watt energy monitor measures the amount of electricity used by a small heater. The heater's energy use is the equivalent enough of nearly ten 100-watt light bulbs.

The Lake Superior College Environmental Council and Minnesota Power have partnered to make “Kill-A-Watt” Electricity Usage Monitors available through the LSC Library.  The devices measure and record the energy use of corded devices.  Four units are available to check out with your library card for as long as a week at a time.

For more information, contact Wade Gordon, w.gordon@lsc.edu, or visit the LSC Library.

Photo: This “Kill-A-Watt” energy usage monitor shows that this electric home heater uses 982 watts; the equivalent of powering nearly ten 100-watt lightbulbs.

Dr. Kathleen Nelson

Nelson exudes tremendous pride in the work of the college’s learning community.

“The college’s employees are tremendously talented, creative, and compassionate. They have, together, created a college culture which speaks clearly to our students and to our community partners about the value of the human spirit and the importance of higher education,” says Nelson.

Lake Superior College has seen sizeable enrollment growth and change throughout Nelson’s tenure.  LSC has nearly doubled in size, from the full-time equivalent of 1,900 students in 1997 to more than 3,500 today. More than 8,200 individual students are touched by the college’s programs and services each year.

“In her years as president, Lake Superior College has become a national leader in providing online courses and using cutting-edge technologies,” said Chancellor James McCormick, head of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. “President Nelson has a passion for excellence and student success.”

McCormick also noted that she has achieved national recognition for her work on the Higher Learning Commission, the agency that accredits colleges in the Midwest, where she served as chair of the commission’s board.

Nelson’s entrepreneurial spirit undergirds much of the college’s progress during the past 12 years. The college’s leadership in e-learning has led the state and much of the nation in offering students an opportunity to complete courses and entire educational programs online.  LSC was the first public higher education institution in the state of Minnesota to receive permission from its regional accreditor to offer all of its programs through online learning.  Nelson herself took a major leadership role in this endeavor by being the founding chair of the Minnesota Online Council, the state’s online consortium of 32 colleges and universities. Governor Pawlenty visited LSC a year ago to announce his initiative to have all public higher education institutions offer at least 25 percent of their enrollment online by 2015. LSC surpassed that goal last year and currently offers approximately 27 percent of its enrollment online.

“Connections” has been a key concept during Nelson’s administration at LSC.  Connecting to and serving the community has been fundamental to LSC’s success as an education and training partner in the City of Duluth, the region, and the state.  Nelson’s energy and enthusiasm for community engagement has been the cornerstone to the college’s development of its highly successful Workforce and Community Development division.  Her belief in the importance of serving public education in true partnership has helped the college develop an outstanding High School Connections program.  Working with more than 30 high schools in northeastern Minnesota, the college has established successful programs to meet the learning needs of nearly 800 high school students each year, students who enroll in college-level classes on their high school campuses, online, or on site at LSC.

“The concept of community and community development is very important to me.  We serve others by being open and responsive to them.  We listen, and we act.  To engage in community learning and community work is one of the highest ideals to which we strive.  Civic engagement is clearly the reflection of democracy in action,” Nelson explains.

David Ross, President and CEO of the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce, offered the following assessment of Nelson’s contributions: “Our community experienced an energy surge when Kathleen Nelson arrived in Duluth to become the Lake Superior College president in 1997. It was my good fortune to immediately develop a close working relationship with Kathleen. Her leadership enabled LSC to quickly become a leader within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Beyond providing LSC exceptionally strong leadership, Kathleen has shared her time and abundant talent to move our community forward. LSC, and our community, are far better places because of Kathleen.“

Nelson has been an active community leader, a leader in state higher education and a leader in national higher education accreditation circles.  She is ending her term on the Higher Learning Commission’s Board of Trustees, having served two years ago as the board’s chair.  The Commission accredits all public, private, for-profit, and not-for profit colleges and universities within a 19 state region.  Nelson’s leadership has helped to shape the new policies and practices engaged in by higher education institutions, including an emphasis upon quality improvement and outcomes assessment.

True to her nature as an outdoors woman who loves to kayak and still camps in a tent, Nelson finds not only her most reflective moments on still waters and within the wilderness, but she derives a strong sense of professional pride in LSC’s commitment to environmental stewardship as well.  She is a signatory on the national President’s Climate Commitment, a national movement to commit LSC to reducing personal and institutional carbon footprints.  The college is a leader in its sustainability initiatives, supported by Nelson’s strong sense of the importance of environmental issues.

When Nelson speaks, you can see the pride she feels in the people, the programs, and the services she has helped to develop at Lake Superior College.  “A dear friend reminds me often that I said, 12 years ago, as I became LSC’s president, that our most important work is not about building new buildings but, rather about what goes on inside those buildings.  I still believe that today.  People create community.  Community creates a place where learning takes place.  LSC is the most wonderful learning community I know, and I have been honored to serve as the college’s president,” Nelson reflects.

What’s next for LSC’s president?  She states, “New adventures, new challenges, and, no doubt, more kayaking.”

It’s called the “Grateful to Give” Challenge – and it pits students against staff in a competition to see who can raise more money for the Student Essentials Fund. And it’ll all happen November 16-19! During that time, donation boxes will be set up – one for students and one for staff. Along with the donation boxes you can purchase cookies, donuts, granola bars, and other snacks, with all proceeds going to the Student Essentials Fund.

The winner of this competition between the students and staff at LSC will receive a custom-made trophy, built by Machine Technolohy students! The trophy will serve as sort of a “little brown jug,” in that it’ll be passed on to whomever wins this competition – with a plaque attached to recognize the winner each year.  This trophy will be presented at the Husky Banquet in honor of the generosity of the group and their huge impact on students in need.

What exactly IS the “Student Essentials Fund?” The Student Essentials Fund helps students who are faced with unforeseen financial hardships. LSC has already helped over 25 students and look forward to being there for many more very deserving and hardworking students.

If you are interested in being even more involved, contact Student Senate President Rob Scott at rosco02@student.lsc.edu.

www.greatamericansmokeout.org

Lake Superior College initiated a tobacco-free campus this fall semester.  No tobacco use is allowed anywhere on campus.  Students who smoke have been offered smoking cessation support from LSC Health Services.

11/19 Smokeout Activities

• American Lung Association of Minnesota‘s “Win through Quitting” presentation by Jan Salo-Korby, 11 a.m.- noon, Thursday, Nov. 19.   Learn about tobacco addiction, nicotine replacement therapies, e-cigarette, & FDA approved methods of cessation. Participants enter to win a Target gift card.
• Mini Tobacco Resource Session from 11 a.m. -1 p.m. in the Commons area. Information and education booths by SMDC QUITPLAN, American Lung Association of Minnesota, LSC Nursing students, LSC Dental students, LSC Respiratory Care students, and LSC Health Services
• Free cold turkey sandwiches (first 60 students)
• Enter to win a 20-lb. turkey
• Survival bags with stress balls, gum, hard candy, sunflower seeds, and pretzels

The Veterans Resource Center assists eligible student veterans, active duty personnel, dependents, reservists, and National Guard members with G.I. Bill benefits and questions regarding state and federal educational benefits programs.

This on-campus office is available to veterans and their family members if you are a veteran, current military member or dependent. Contact the Veterans Resource Center with any concerns or questions regarding VA benefits, employment, family assistance, and transition issues.

All students, faculty/staff and community members are invited to participate in the semester-long program. The Spring Travel program offers the chance to learn about the cultures of Oaxaca, Mexico and to spend a week learning from them directly. You’ll be able to practice Spanish, visit pre-Hispanic sites, learn about arts and textiles, and experience service learning in local orphanages.It could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, while you earn up to 8 credits. No previous knowledge of Spanish is necessary! There may be additional financial aid loan programs that can assist you with program costs.

Want to learn more or register? Contact LSC Spanish Instructor Tim Benson at t.benson@lsc.edu or give him a call at (218) 733-2104.

To see a YouTube video of the last year’s trip – click the “Travel to Oaxaca, Mexico with LSC” main headline!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gail Wahlberg

Gail Wahlberg has accepted the Online Bookstore Coordinator position in the Lake Superior College Bookstore. Prior to accepting the bookstore position, she worked in the Workforce and Community Development department at LSC as an office administrative specialist.

In this newly-created position, Wahlberg will be responsible for the successful operation and marketing of the LSC Online Bookstore. The position is responsible for the planning, organizing, marketing, appearance, and functionality of the online store including basic design work for the E-store and the LSC bookstore’s web site.

Wahlberg has more than 10 years experience, including owning her own graphic design business. Before joining LSC’s workforce in 2005, she spent nearly 8 years working in the production and marketing services departments at Advanstar Communications.