Saint Mary's Newsroom

Portia Mensah ’19 spent a semester working alongside teens in an urban school in the Twin Cities and literally walked in the footsteps of a homeless person. Tyler Aliperto ’19 worked for a political organization which focuses on pending elections and educating others about the candidates’ stances on gender, economic justice, and social justice. Mensah and Aliperto are two of a growing number of young people with a desire to leave the world a better place — a desire to make a difference. Their recent internships, both completed with the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA) Study-USA program, fueled this passion. HECUA’s Study-USA program structure includes seminar-style discussions mixed with field visits and guest speakers. By participants’ second week, they are placed at internship sites where they begin working 20 hours per week. Each Study-USA program offers a different theme and experience. Both Saint Mary’s seniors chose “Inequality in America,” through which students examined the growing gap between rich and poor in the United States as well as gained concrete change-making skills through internships and discussions with effective activists. Read the full story.

Students in the Saint Mary’s University Business Department have endless opportunities to tackle real-world scenarios. Skills are built in and out of the classroom as students work alongside peers who share their passion to solve problems of the future. Saint Mary’s professors help students reach their goals as they prepare to find a job they love after graduation. Watch the new video created to highlight the Business Department.

Saint Mary’s University recently completed the school’s most ambitious capital campaign in history. The Discover, Inspire, Lead Campaign, which concluded Dec. 31, 2018, raised a record $73 million for Saint Mary’s — far exceeding its $57 million goal. The university’s most recent capital campaign raised $30 million more than a decade ago. At the center of the campaign was the Science and Learning Center, a $19.7-million-dollar state-of-the-art facility completed in 2017. Another major highlight includes the growth in the First Generation Initiative (FGI) endowment, which supports First Generation Scholars at Saint Mary’s, which started with less than $500,000 and now is close to $5 million. Altogether, the campaign supported many initiatives, including athletics, scholarships, business programs, the facilities and programs at the Twin Cities Campus, Lasallian formation, and the Saint Mary’s Fund. These are in addition to the aforementioned key strategic campaign priorities. Read the full story.

This semester, entrepreneurship students from Saint Mary’s have teamed up with students from Minnesota State College Southeast and Winona State University to develop, design, and produce new products. The project kicked off March 5 with an ideation session and will continue next week on Friday, April 5, at 2 p.m. when the joint teams present their results in the form of pitches and prototypes to the community. The public is welcome to attend this event downtown in the Miller Ingenuity Creation Station.

On March 25, the Kabara Institute welcomed Scott and Hayley Hornberg, a husband and wife duo from southern Minnesota, who decided to branch out into the world of small business ownership to start Nice Minnesota in 2015. They shared with students in an entrepreneurship class how they enjoy running their Etsy shop, from which they distribute their Nice Minnesota products, ranging from hats and shirts to pictures and a variety of other items that celebrate all things Minnesota, including their “River, Donuts, Bluffs. Winona MN” design. They explained how they got started, where they get new product ideas, and what the future holds for their Winona-based business.

Ciara Kowalczyk ’18 graduated last spring with a degree in elementary education with a K-8 Spanish endorsement. She is currently teaching kindergarten in Honduras and was recently visited by two other Saint Mary’s graduates. Cecelia Kuka ’18, who also graduated with a degree in elementary education with a K-8 Spanish endorsement, and Kalleigh May ’18, who graduated with a double major in social studies education and Spanish, visited Honduras and spent a day with Kowalczyk’s class.

While they were there, the 5th grade class in Honduras made a video for the 5th grade class May teaches at a Catholic school in the Twin Cities, and they are now going to be video penpals. The 5th grade teacher in Honduras is Kowalczyk’s roommate.

Saint Mary’s theatre students and faculty recently attended the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) annual conference in Louisville, Ky., where they met and interviewed with national companies such as Cirque du Soleil, Disney, regional theatre’s, technology and design companies, along with many different graduate schools for design and stage management.

“I enjoyed having the opportunity to talk with professionals about what they do and have them tell me what I should do now in order to make myself more appealing for jobs in the future,” said student Jen Honsa.

USITT was founded in 1960 as an organization to promote dialogue, research, and learning among practitioners of theatre design and technology. Today, it has grown to include members at all levels of their careers and has embraced the new technologies being used in entertainment. USITT is now the leader in life-long learning opportunities for the entertainment design and technology industry.

Saint Mary’s students started a student chapter of USITT in 2014 and every year vote in a new chair, vice chair, and treasurer. The national conference is held across the nation in a different section of the US. The 60th anniversary conference will be held in Houston, Texas, in 2020.

Photo caption: Attending the USITT Conference were, from left: back, Jason Underferth, faculty; Jennifer Honsa; Mackenzie Jensen; Amber Geyer; Chelsea Boesiger; Niffer Pflager, faculty; front, William Scannell, Kamryn Matta, and Casper Pichotta