Saint Mary's Newsroom
Campus ConnectionAn update from the president to alumni and parents
Shot fired near Saint Mary’s University Winona Campus Nov. 7
A shot was fired about 3:40 p.m. yesterday afternoon near Saint Mary’s University’s Winona Campus. According to the Winona Police Department, five male individuals involved remain in custody. They are not Saint Mary’s students or employees. The Winona police have also recovered the gun that was used.
According to police, the shot was fired into the air and was the result of an altercation about a drug interaction that did involve a Saint Mary’s student. No other Saint Mary’s students were targeted, and no one was injured in the incident. Notifications were sent to Winona Campus students, faculty, and staff, alerting them to the situation and letting them know there was no further danger.
Saint Mary’s administration continues to investigate this incident, and for the safety and privacy of this student, we will not release further information. Because drugs were involved, this incident is being taken very seriously.
We continue to work closely with the Winona Police Department, and the university continues to have a heightened Campus Safety presence into today for the comfort and peace of mind of the university community.
Student safety is our primary concern at Saint Mary’s, and the Office of Campus Safety continues to be a 24-hour resource for students. Additionally, guns are not permitted on any Saint Mary’s University campus, and we will continue to strictly enforce that rule.
Page Series to present singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla
WINONA, Minn. — The Page Series at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota will present Haitian American singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla in concert at the Page Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m.
McCalla’s music reflects her eclectic and diverse life experiences, projecting a respect for eloquent simplicity that is rarely achieved. Born in New York City to Haitian immigrant parents, McCalla was raised in suburban New Jersey. As a teenager, she relocated to Accra, Ghana for two years. Upon her return, she attended Smith College for a year before transferring to New York University where she studied cello performance and chamber music. Armed with Bach’s Cello Suites, McCalla moved to New Orleans to play cello on the streets of the French Quarter.
After touring with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, McCalla began to concentrate on a solo career. Her debut album, Vari-Colored Songs, a tribute to Langston Hughes, was named album of the year by both the London Times and Songlines magazine. The title of her sophomore effort, A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey, was ultimately derived from a Haitian proverb. It featured songs in English, French, and Haitian Creole, with appearances by Marc Ribot, Rhiannon Giddens, Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers, and New Orleans singer/songwriter Sarah Quintana. Earlier this year, McCalla released her third album, The Capitalist Blues.
Prior to the performance, McCalla will give a free demonstration and artist talk at 6:30 p.m. in the Performance Center’s Figliulo Recital Hall. She’ll explore her path as a musician and the impact classical music, the folk music of Haiti, and more has had on her life, work, and worldview. Tickets are not required to attend the talk.
Tickets for the performance are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors and students ages 18 and older, and $18 for youth ages 17 and younger. Tickets can be ordered online at pagetheatre.org, or by calling the Saint Mary’s Performance Center box office at 507-457-1715 (noon to 6 p.m., weekdays).
About the Page Series
Now in its 33rd season, the Page Series connects professional performing artists from around the globe with thousands of Winonans each year. With events at the Joseph Page Theatre on the Winona Campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as at locations across the Winona community, the Page Series offers dance, music, and theatre performances, workshops, classes, and more that inspire, uplift, educate, and invite community members to discover the relevance of the arts in their daily lives.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Page Series community programs are made possible, in part, through a grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation.
First-Year Experience course gives students new perspective on food and each other
It’s safe to say that the students in the First-Year Experience anchor course, taught by Jeanne Minnerath, Ph.D., will never look at a grocery store the same way again.
After all of their work this semester, the group of 20 students has gained a new appreciation for the food they eat.
After learning about the intricacies of the relationships between those foods and microorganisms in the classroom, the class went on to produce, process, and sell approximately 200 jars of raspberry jam, 100 jars of apple butter, 80 bottles of honey, and 60 jars of salsa — with all profits going to the food shelf at Winona Volunteer Services later in the year. The $1,800 in profit will be added to the efforts of the fall 2018 class, for a combined total of approximately $3,000, Dr. Minnerath said.
Students Alexis Pagatchnik and Sean Curran pour raspberry jam into jars. As part of the preservation process, the jars were sterilized in boiling water for 10 minutes, filled with jam, closed with lids and then processed by placing in a boiling water bath for 10 additional minutes.
A large portion of the sales is made by pushing a cart full of products around campus during Family Weekend in late September. Other sales came from faculty members.
Corinna Hafner, a first-year student from Saint Paul who is undecided on her major, said that the material covered in the class is applicable to any student, regardless of his or her major.
“We’re learning about how food and microbes go together,” Hafner said. “Everybody eats, so I think it’s cool to understand how microbes play a part in your food — how they can make you sick or how they keep you from getting sick.”
Before enrolling in the course, Hafner had previously helped her father make rhubarb jam, “but everything else was new,” she said.
One of Hafner’s favorite opportunities was helping harvest honey out of honeycomb from hives that belonged to Josh Lallaman, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, who also happens to be Dr. Minnerath’s neighbor.
Dr. Minnerath suggested to Dr. Lallaman he could recruit students from Saint Mary’s to help him harvest the honey — and then suggested that they could sell it as part of their initiative to donate money to the local food bank.
During the process, the students had to delicately collect the honey from the honeycomb. They then put the honey through a cheesecloth to properly filter it. The students were then allowed to eat samples of the honeycomb itself once the harvesting was completed.
“Usually, you would just buy honey at the store, so you don’t know the process of making it and what goes into it, but we all got to do all of these steps,” Hafner said.
Like Hafner, Sean Curran, a first-year student from Appleton, Wis., had helped make jam before, but never had a solid grasp on the science of canning.
“Knowing how it works and why it works is what I’m going to remember,” said Curran, who is a member of the inaugural 3+2 Physician Assistant Program with Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences. “Now I have a better understanding of not only how microbes and bacteria both help and harm us, but how we can eliminate the potential harm to us through processes such as canning.”
Where science meets food
After being tasked to create curriculum centered around environmental and human health, the course began last year as a combination of two of Dr. Minnearth’s favorite things: science (microbes and bacteria, to be exact) and food.
“I wanted to have hands-on activities in my class,” said Dr. Minnerath, who serves as an associate professor of Biology and the director of the Allied Health Program. “And so I thought, ‘OK, how can I teach them to preserve food?’”
Dr. Minnerath also wanted to cultivate a sense of community for the first-year students as they acclimate to their new surroundings. The class comes from diverse backgrounds. Some students from urban backgrounds had never been in such an environment.
First-year student Quinton Martin, Jr., uses an apple peeler to spiralize apple slices during a recent food producing session with his First-Year Experience class.
“These are old techniques that are dying off … They have heard of canning, but they’ve never done it or seen it being done,” Dr. Minnerath said. “The goal of this class is to make the science the students learn in class relevant to their everyday life.”
As part of the preparation process, the students gathered produce from gardens on the Winona Campus — including raspberries from Brother John Grover’s famous raspberry bushes, as well as tomatoes and green peppers from the university’s garden — and from off-campus locations.
“It is important to me is that my students are getting connections to the [De La Salle] Christian Brothers. My students are finding out, ‘Wow, you can grow stuff here on this campus,’” Dr. Minnerath said.
At one point, the students gathered bruised apples to make apple butter from orchards affiliated with Father Paul Breza, the founder of the Polish Cultural Institute and Museum in Winona.
By spending so much time outside the classroom, the students have formed a bond with each other which has helped them transition to college life.
“We’ve had some opportunities to go off campus, so we’re meeting other people, but we’re also with our classmates, which has helped me to make friends,” Hafner said. “ I know everyone in my class; I study with them, I hang out with them, I sit with them during meals, which I think is really cool because it’s different than just being in a lecture and not even knowing the name of the person sitting next to you.”
Give to the Max and benefit Saint Mary’s
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota will once again be participating in Give to the Max Day, held this year on Thursday, Nov. 14. This 24-hour giving challenge is coordinated by a nonprofit called GiveMN, which focuses on connecting generous donors (from anywhere) with Minnesota-based charities or nonprofits.
One of the benefits of participating in this fundraising event is the chance to win additional prize dollars for Saint Mary’s. GiveMN has secured more than $100,000 in prize money for participating organizations to be given away in increments ranging from $500 to $10,000 as often as every 15 minutes on Give to the Max Day. Prizes are also given daily during “early giving,” the time period between Friday, Nov. 1, and Wednesday, Nov. 13, so participation can begin now; however, only gifts made through GiveMN.org during this time qualify for inclusion in all prize drawings.
Prizes are awarded by randomly selecting a donation made during certain times and awarding the prize amount to the organization that donor selected for that gift. The more donations Saint Mary’s receives, the better the chance of being able to win extra prize dollars. The 2019 prize pool is as follows:
- $500 Golden Tickets every 15 minutes
GiveMN will award $500 Golden Tickets every 15 minutes on Give to the Max Day.
- $6,000 Power Hours at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
GiveMN will award a total of $6,000 among the top three organizations who raise the most money between 10 to 10:59 a.m. and 10 to 10:59 p.m. First place will receive $3,000; second place will receive $2,000; and third place will receive $1,000.
- $1,000 Hourly Golden Tickets
At the end of each hour on Give to the Max Day, GiveMN will randomly draw a donation from that hour and add $1,000 to the total.
- $500 Early Giving Golden Tickets
Give to the Max Day Early Giving takes place from Friday, Nov. 1, to Wednesday, Nov. 13. GiveMN will randomly select one donation from each of these days to receive a $500 Early Giving Golden Ticket.
- $10,000 Super-Sized Golden Ticket
The $10,000 Super-Sized Golden Ticket will be drawn at the end of Give to the Max Day from all donations made between Friday, Nov. 1, and Friday, Nov. 14.
Gifts made to Saint Mary’s on Give to the Max Day will primarily support the Saint Mary’s Fund, which is a key resource for helping students and academic programs, providing funding that can immediately support a variety of needs. Donors can also choose to support the Cardinal Excellence Fund for Athletics and the First Generation Initiative.
Find more information and the giving portal at givemn.org/organization/smumn. You can also contact Tracy Heaser in Advancement and Communication at theaser@smumn.edu or by calling 507-457-1791.
Lilly Fellows grant to allow committee to develop rubric for 12 Lasallian virtues
They are intrinsically connected with the foundation of Lasallian education, but what impact do the “12 Virtues of a Good Teacher” have on today’s educators and students? Are there virtues that are missing or less relevant in modern-day teaching practices?
Those were the questions formally posed by a trio from the Winona Campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Luckily, after being rewarded a Lilly Fellows Small Grant, those three team members will be one step closer to discovering answers with the construction and promotion of a Lasallian teaching rubric — and related materials — on the 12 virtues.
“It’s something that I believe is new to many new faculty here, especially those who do not come from another Lasallian institution. It’s something that we are introduced to, but is not really elaborated upon much,” said Christopher Bobier, Ph.D., assistant professor of Philosophy.
Before arriving on the Winona Campus in the fall of 2018, Dr. Bobier was not aware of the 12 virtues first written by Saint John Baptist de La Salle in 1706 and reissued by Brother Agathon, FSC, the fifth Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
The 12 virtues are:
- Generosity
- Gentleness
- Gravity
- Humility
- Patience
- Piety
- Prudence
- Reserve
- Silence
- Vigilance
- Wisdom
- Zeal
Personally, Dr. Bobier said he could relate the most, based on his disposition, to the virtues of gentleness and generosity within the parameters of the classroom. He struggled, though, with the virtue of silence in particular.
“We want our students engaged,” he said. “When they’re quiet and don’t answer questions, we naturally interpret that as they’re not following along or they’re not engaged and therefore, I’m not doing my job well. Whereas to Saint John Baptist de La Salle — and more specifically Brother Agathon — silence is one of those tools that we can use to promote reflection among students.”
Knowing the university’s history of successful recipients of the grant, Dr. Bobier enlisted the help of Joseph Tadie, Ph.D., associate professor of Philosophy, and Adam Potthast, Ph.D., director of Assessment and Faculty Development who also runs the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.
The initiative will begin in the fall 2020 with the formation of a seven-member committee comprising Drs. Bobier, Potthast, and Tadie, as well as four other senior faculty members. The committee will meet every other week to discuss readings on the 12 virtues, Lasallian pedagogy, and best teaching practices — and how they compare or contrast with modern-day teaching research. If all goes as planned, the findings from the committee will be posted on the center’s website as a resource for all faculty on the three campuses that compose the Saint Mary’s academic community.
“It also serves as an opportunity not just for new faculty to see what’s expected of them in the classroom, but having one resource — we hope — will help get deans, department chairs, and administrators on the same page with regard to Lasallian pedagogy,” Dr. Bobier added.
The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts began at Valparaiso University to “stimulate conversation about church-related higher education and church-related mission on their campuses or among church-related institutions in close proximity to each other.” Only new programs are funded in the amount of $1,500 to $3,000. The total amount requested in the proposal was $2,850 to cover all projected expenses.
Saint Mary’s Alisa Macksey honored for Lasallian work
WINONA, Minn. — Alisa Macksey, dean of Student Success and the First Generation Initiative at Saint Mary’s University, will be honored in November for her inspiring work in the Lasallian charism.
Each year the Brothers of the Christian Schools of the Lasallian Region of North America recognize Lasallian educators for their outstanding work and dedication to the charism of Saint John Baptist de La Salle with the Distinguished Lasallian Educator Award.
These awards will be presented at the 46th annual Huether Lasallian Conference, “Living the Lasallian Mission: Celebrating with Zeal,” Nov. 21-23 at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center. De La Salle is the founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (of which Saint Mary’s is affiliated) and the patron saint of educators.
The Distinguished Lasallian Educators represent the District of Eastern North America, the Midwest District, and the District of San Francisco New Orleans. They are selected by their ministries and recognized for their exceptional work in touching the hearts and minds of their students, often leaving a lasting impression that makes a difference in the world.
Macksey, representing the Midwest District, was first introduced to the Lasallian network as a college student at Saint Mary’s College of California and then by serving as a Lasallian Volunteer. She later worked in regional Lasallian leadership before coming to Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Macksey has not only devoted her career to the Lasallian mission, she warmly invites and inspires others to embrace the charism of Saint John Baptist de La Salle. Throughout her roles in the Lasallian network, she has demonstrated care and commitment, especially to those entrusted to her care. Her dedication extends to chairing International Council for Lasallian Association and the Educational Mission (CIAMEL) and serving on various district and regional committees and governing boards.
Diving deep: MBA alumna experiences success on ‘Shark Tank’
“It was the most nerve-wracking, out-of-body, exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”
Such was the reality of Amber Leong M’10 earlier this summer, walking out to a cold and quiet Los Angeles studio clad in a warm, yellow dress as a contestant on ABC’s “Shark Tank” with all eyes on her — including a group of five wealthy entrepreneurs-turned-investors.
She had to convince them to buy into her dream of expanding her e-commerce bright light therapy lamp business, Circadian Optics, into brick-and-mortar stores. The woman who grew up in Malaysia, whose American dreams were first created by watching American sitcoms, was being filmed for primetime TV in her adopted country.
Amber Leong M’10 makes her presentation on “Shark Tank.” The episode was filmed last June, but first aired on Oct. 6.
Her husband, Kin Chew, not on site, kept checking his phone, waiting for updates or a call about a possible proposal from one of the sharks. “I was in kind of a daze,” Chew said. “It was a whole day of waiting and then a sudden burst of excitement when I heard that we were up.”
He never received a phone call during her negotiations with the investors; it wasn’t needed. The opportunity to appear on national TV was just the latest chapter in her improbable journey, built with preparation, persistence — and the ability to be flexible, when needed. It had taken more than a year from when she first participated in an open casting call for the show at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2018.
Leong, who earned her Master of Business Administration on the Twin Cities Campus at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, came into the “tank” asking for $750,000 for a 10% stake in her multimillion-dollar company.
After explaining the impetus of her company and its burgeoning success (with sales of $4 million in the last year alone), she talked about her background of transforming from a girl living in the heat and humidity of Malaysia to a woman who overcame a series of obstacles to construct a success story in her much colder adopted home of Minnesota.
Among other stories, she explained how she came from a house with no indoor plumbing, navigated the United States as an international student and at one point was given a 50% chance of surviving a rare medical condition.
“You represent why we all do this show,” billionaire investor Mark Cuban said after hearing her backstory.
In the end, four of the five sharks offered joint proposals to Leong. The team of Cuban and Lori Greiner offered the same deal as their counterparts Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran — $750,000 for a 20% stake — before Cuban and Greiner offered $50,000 more (in the words of Cuban) “for your parents, who are unbelievable.”
Although Leong did not accept O’Leary’s deal, she did earn the respect of a man known just as much for his gruff and terse disposition as for his business dealings. “One of the best presentations,” said O’Leary, who was brought to tears. “One of the best.”
Leong was both “happy and shocked” by his comments: “It goes to show that if you are passionate, authentic, and you do your best, and you’ve laid it all out there, it resonates with people.”
‘A stepping stone to a better future’
Leong’s entire time on the “Shark Tank” stage lasted a little more than 10 minutes, which is not nearly enough time to learn about the intricacies on which her American dream was built.
Recently though, she came back to Brother Louis Hall and sat in one of the classrooms where she had begun attending class at Saint Mary’s in 2008 as a 20-something still fairly fresh from her undergraduate experience at Bemidji State University, where she earned a degree in communications/journalism in 2006.
Amber Leong M’10 reflects on her time as a student at Saint Mary’s with a smile while sitting in Brother Louis Hall.
Upon finishing her degree from Saint Mary’s in 2010, she accepted a job at as a brand manager at the Minneapolis offices of Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, an opportunity that she marks as a turning point in her career.
As a student, she remembers sitting with her classmates, most of whom were older with several decades of real-life experience and practical knowledge in the business world. Some of them shared the commonality of being an immigrant, having come from places such as Ethiopia, Argentina, and Norway. Some did not, but all shared a similar drive that was familiar to Leong, who decided to pursue her MBA after the Hong Kong-based watch manufacturer she worked for in sales and marketing decided to close its U.S. office in Minneapolis.
“They would work in their day jobs and then they would come here. They would spend the next four hours until 10 o’clock here and I would look at them. I saw their resolve to make something of themselves. They were using this as a stepping stone to a better future for themselves,” she said of her classmates. “And that is the single most important thing I have learned from Saint Mary’s: the personal responsibility you need to have.”
Mirela Miresan served as the assistant director of the MBA program when Leong started her studies at Saint Mary’s. Miresan recalls the first time that she met with Leong in 2008 to determine if the program would be a good fit.
“She knew exactly what she wanted to do, Miresan said. “And she was willing to learn what needs to be done to succeed.”
Bridgette Kirschenmann M’10 began the MBA program at the same time as Leong. The two were part of a group of students who would frequently meet for sushi in downtown Minneapolis. Their connection was instant.
Amber Leong M’10 poses on the day of her commencement on the Twin Cities Campus.
“I loved her drive and determination to better herself,” said Kirschenmann, who currently works as a marketing consultant and health and fitness instructor. “She, honestly, is one of the most genuine people I have ever met.”
Kirshenmann was amazed to learn about Leong’s backstory. Through her friend, she learned about the “meaning behind love and devotion one had for their family” that runs deep within the tapestry of Malaysian culture. She learned about Leong’s story of survival.
“She beat the odds,” Kirschenmann said. “Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she took that opportunity to follow her dream and never looked back. Her success isn’t a shock; talent always finds a home,” Kirschenmann said.
‘There is true kindness’
Leong’s original home is Salak South, a town located at the southern tip of Malaysia’s capital and largest city, Kuala Lampur. It was there where she would watch a variety of American TV shows such as “Full House,” — “I wanted to be Stephanie Tanner,” she said — “Saved by the Bell,” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” She also avidly read the Sweet Valley High book series.
She had always wanted to get her degree from an American university. With the help of her parents, who cashed out their retirement fund to help with tuition, she eventually found herself at Bemidji State University as a 20-year-old transfer student.
“They sent me here with a lot of faith,” Leong said. “I had a lot of faith in myself and also a bit of youthful ignorance.”
Her love of history and stories made her want to pursue a career as a journalist, possibly working for a national news organization like CNN. This was before she would realize how hard it was to find a job in her initial chosen profession. Her mother sent her youngest daughter off with what would become Leong’s favorite piece of advice: “Don’t be rigid… Dreams change. Plans change, and you have to be OK with that.”
Circadian Optics features five varieties of bright light LED therapy lamps, each one starting with the letter “L” (from left to right): Lumine, Luxy, Lumos, Lattis, and Lampu. The Lumos currently is only available on Amazon due to its popularity.
Leong first touched down in Minnesota via the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on a cold January day, in the middle of winter. While she was waiting for a smaller plane to finish her journey to Bemidji, she befriended four passengers, all of whom gave her their cell phone numbers in case she needed assistance of any kind.
“I think they could see that I was alone, this young girl who was alone. I guess I was really excited. They’d be like, ‘OK, this girl needs help,’” Leong said with a laugh. “I’ve been here long enough now, that I know about Minnesota Nice, but there is true kindness… If you need help from Minnesotans, they will give you help.”
While at Bemidji State, Leong worked a variety of jobs including resident assistant and campus tour guide to make ends meet. She would save in any way she could, going so far as to take advantage of her slight frame by buying children’s clothing during her first trip to Target.
Nine months after arriving in Bemidji, Leong was dealt her toughest obstacle yet: a diagnosis of toxic shock syndrome, a rare bacterial illness. With her parents unable to visit due to visa issues, Leong received a large regimen of antibiotics. Luckily, her medical team detected the illness within 24 hours of her being exposed to it, vastly improving the odds of her body’s ability to fight off the illness. She spent two weeks in an intensive care unit, followed by another week in a hospital ward.
“It stays with me every day,” Leong said. “I survived and it does give you a perspective in life. It’s made me more resilient. It’s made me grateful.
“When you go through life, there are mountains and valleys. It made me know I will be OK. You just have to be tough and be strong and go through the storm, and the storm will eventually end.”
‘It was now or never’
Four years into her job at Jack Link’s, Leong had the idea to start what would become Circadian Optics. It would be great to say that the co-founder of a therapy lamp company had a proverbial light bulb turn on one day — but that is not how it happened.
In pursuit of a promotion, Leong had been putting in long hours and noticed, over time, she felt sluggish and was not getting the quality of sleep she needed to meet the next day’s demands. One day, she read an article about winter blues and the importance of natural light on one’s Circadian rhythm — and humankind’s biological need for sunlight that is often lacking in many modern-day workplaces.
Leong decided to invest in a therapy lamp to reset her internal body clock. She immediately felt energy and had a restful sleep, but also gained the reputation for being the “crazy lamp lady” in her office given its bulky nature. After researching the market, she identified the need for a more stylish line of therapy lamps that would not be so off-putting to others.
Amber Leong M’10 co-founded Circardian Optics with her husband, Kin Chew, in 2016.
“I had an idea for a while, and it was just replaying in my head,” Leong said. “I was doing OK at my job. I had enough savings and I had just turned 30. I then decided, ‘Well, if I don’t do this, if I don’t make the leap now, when am I going to do it?’… It was now or never.”
She eventually decided to approach her husband about the idea.
“I loved the idea and completely shared the vision and passion for it,” Chew said. “We were going to try to create a product that helped people, and that was a great purpose for us to work on it.”
Leong and Chew run their business out of their Minneapolis office. Although maintaining the balance between their work and personal lives posed a bit of a challenge when they were starting out, they have been able to achieve success by keeping “a clear delineation of roles,” Leong said.
Going forward, Leong is excited for what lies ahead for her company. Having reached a deal on “Shark Tank,” she hopes that her therapy lamps will be in major retail stores by 2020. She also hopes to launch additional models to go beyond the five currently offered.
“I never expected to see the company on ‘Shark Tank’ when we were first starting out,” Chew said. “It’s still hard to believe now.”
As his wife will tell you, what is hard to believe can only be actualized by putting forth the effort needed when inspiration meets motivation.
“If you have an idea, even if it’s 70% there, just go for it,” Leong said. “Try stepping out of your comfort zone and choose creativity over certainty…. Be brave, be bold, and try because what have you got to lose? You don’t want to live with the regret, especially if you have an idea that keeps coming back to you again and again.
“There is something there if the idea refuses to leave you and it’s been with you. Act on it. It might change your life.”
New Career Explorations class provides insight into job market, needed skills
Brian Tran has dreams of working on Wall Street. Before he could think about managing accounts at a large private investment firm, however, the first-year student knew where he wanted his time and attention to go two mornings out of the week: “Before you can invest in your future, you have to first invest in yourself.”
That belief helped drive him to enroll in a one-credit pilot course called “Career Explorations” on the Winona Campus, which ran for the first half of the fall semester.
Taking place at 8:10 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the Science and Learning Center, the class researched prospective career paths in a group setting. They also took personality/strength assessments (through instruments such as Myers Briggs and StrengthsFinder), developed résumés and cover letters, worked on 30-second introductions, and conducted informational interviews.
First-year student Vanessa Bartlett points to the screen during her final presentation of the Carer Explorations course.
In addition, members of the human resources team from Winona-based manufacturing firm Fastenal distributed career readiness surveys to the students, who then filled them out and later received individual assessments.
The curriculum also included the practice of maintaining eye contact and conducting a proper handshake, skills that instructor Michael Hagarty said “are very Lasallian because the Lasallian principle is to make people feel successful in the world that surrounds them.”
Gathering information
Tran, who is from Blaine, Minn., had first started building résumés and cover letters through a career preparation course in high school. What made the Saint Mary’s course stand out from that experience, though, was doing informational interviews with the assistance of correlating information, he said.
“I never really explored that type of interview, nor did I really even know much about it,” Tran said. “I feel that the material provided had a ton of informational questions we could use.”
Being a double major in international business and finance, Tran set up an interview over the phone through a friend of a friend who works in the financial world in New York. Tran is currently trying to land a summer internship in his chosen field, especially one in Manhattan.
Tran entered the class as one of 22 students — most of whom are first-year students or sophomores — knowing that he wanted to go into business and finance. What he discovered in the course, though, was an interest in researching educational paths such as high school teachers, college professors, and fitness trainers.
Through the group counseling session dynamic, Tran said that learning about the possible career paths of his peers helped clarify his own.
“I feel like the class has really helped me with being able to understand and empathize with others’ thoughts and opinions and be more open-minded … because there are so many paths and so many opportunities out there that you wouldn’t even think of at all on your own,” he said.
Mike Hagarty, director of Career Services, listens to final presentations of the inaugural Career Explorations course on Oct. 8. To his left is junior Kris Shepard, who co-taught the class with Hagarty.
Mike Hagarty serves as the director of Career Services at Saint Mary’s. For several years, he has run voluntary workshops geared around the same material, but “repeat customers” were hard to find. Allowing students to receive one credit created an opportunity for students to be more motivated, he said.
“I think it’s been very helpful for them to know that they’re not alone, but also that there are people who they can go to who will understand where they are in their journey,” said Hagarty. He also made note of the instruction provided by one of his interns, Kris Shepard, a junior English minor who co-taught the course. Shepard is interested in possibly enrolling in the M.A. in Teaching program upon graduating.
Hagarty was also overwhelmed by the dedication of the students who made their way to the class each week at a time that is thought of as being too early for many of their peers.
“The fact that there were that many people who were willing to trade an extra hour of sleep for what they thought would be a benefit of this class, that’s amazing,” he said. “It’s been exciting to see the various places that the students have come to this class from, and how they’ve been able to see common threads with each other.”
Different paths to consider
First-year student Mary Moritz addresses the audience during her final presentation of the Carer Explorations course.
Mary Moritz, a first-year student from Saint Michael, Minn., said that she had never created a résumé or a cover letter before taking part in the course. Moritz plans on declaring her major as elementary education, but during the course she also explored the possibility of being a social worker, occupational therapist, or psychologist.
Although she had been thinking about the first three professions since high school, the fourth option came as a recommendation from Hagarty after looking over her career and personality assessment data. She recommends future incoming students enroll, as well.
“I would recommend, even if you have your major figured out, to take the class, because you might find something that you want to do more,” Moritz said.
“I think that it also confirmed things that I already knew about myself, Like, ‘Yep, this seems right. This is what I want to do’… I know that I want to work with people, even though I don’t know my major yet.”
The hope, Hagarty said, is that the course will become part of the regular offerings for undergraduate students next year. In the meantime, he will be teaching a similar one geared toward juniors and seniors in the spring called “Search Strategies,” which will help interview for, negotiate, and receive a job offer before they graduate.
“The way I’m pitching it to the seniors is you’re going to be looking for a job in the spring anyway. Why not get credit for it?” Hagarty said. “Because we’re going to be doing company research. We’re going to be doing mock interviews. We’re going to be going to career fairs. We’re going to be working the job search action plan.”
Alumna finds success on ‘Shark Tank’
On Oct. 6, Amber Leong M’10 made school history as the first Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota alumnus to appear on the popular show “Shark Tank” on ABC. Leong, who went by the name Yee Mun while earning her MBA at Saint Mary’s, opened the show as she asked the “Sharks” to invest $750,000 for a 10% stake in her Minneapolis-based company, Circadian Optics, which she co-founded with her husband in 2016.
After hearing her backstory of coming to Minnesota as a Malaysian immigrant and learning about the $4 million the company made last year through online sales alone, Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner offered her $800,000 for a 20% stake — and the promise she would expand her line of bright light therapy lamps into retail stores. “If you have the chance and opportunity to reach for your dreams, reach for your dreams,” Leong told the TV audience.
The Rev. James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D.
President
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
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