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First Generation Initiative student spotlight: Raekwon Livingston ’21
By Krista Joy Coleman
Saint Mary’s criminal justice major Raekwon Livingston has his eyes set on changing the world, one person at a time. As a Chicago native, he understands first-hand the community’s sometimes negative view of the Chicago Police Department and hopes to change it for the better. He decided to minor in psychology to better understand how to defuse potential situations he might encounter as a police officer.
“I want to see a change in how police officers work with people with mental illness,” said Livingston. Having a family member who has a mental illness, he believes the root of change is in understanding the disease. Livingston is particularly fascinated in studying cognitive perspective illnesses. “People with cognitive perspective illnesses are wired differently and have a different way of thinking than we do,” he said. As a police officer, he wants to focus on helping people by understanding how they think and feel from their point of view instead of his own.
Livingston said his parents weren’t strict growing up; instead, they encouraged him to make good choices with his freedom. To help him not get distracted, his mother enrolled him in after-school programs to help with his homework, and she made life itself a learning environment. His parents always valued college and are immensely proud to watch him thrive at Saint Mary’s University. “I would say my parents are my biggest support system,” Livingston said.
It was a high school counselor who first told Livingston about Saint Mary’s First Generation Initiative (FGI) scholarship and encouraged him to apply. Livingston said he immediately enjoyed the community within the program and was thankful to have their support to help him adjust. Relocating from big-city Chicago to small-town Winona, Livingston said he experienced a bit of culture shock when he arrived. “Octavia (Brown) and Alisa (Macksey) helped me become comfortable on campus. It’s great to have someone outside of your parents believe in you and be so caring,” he said.
Livingston added he feels so thankful to have a full college scholarship and said he wouldn’t have gone to college if he hadn’t received the financial support. “With the First Generation Initiative program, students of color get a sense of belonging, a second family away from home, and they are surrounded by other students who are going through the same culture shock who can provide a sense of comfort,” he said.
Livingston said he works every day to bring his ‘A’ game because he knows many others can only wish they had the same opportunity he has. “Use your college experience to better yourself,” the senior says as advice to high schoolers and college freshmen. “Devote yourself to learning about the people different from you who are all around you on campus. It’ll apply to life later on.”
Livingston further encourages, “No matter where you come from, no matter your economic background, you should have a dream and live up to it. It’s all in your mind. No one can stop you but yourself. If you have the mindset that you will complete your dream, that it is what you want for your life, hold onto it no matter what, and don’t get distracted. No matter how many people tell you that you can’t do it, you can. It’s up to you.”
Livingston is thankful to Saint Mary’s — and to FGI supporters — for providing him with the tools he needs to bring about change as the next generation of law enforcement.
Alumna uses degree to lead in geographic information systems
Kendis Scharenbroich M’00 can’t recall too many other female CEOs in her industry, but she’s more concerned about doing her job and the work she’s trained to do.
Scharenbroich, a self described knowledge seeker and fact finder, has worked in geographic information systems (GIS) for 20 years, since she graduated from Saint Mary’s University with a master’s degree in resource analysis (now the M.S. in Data Intelligence and GeoAnalytics program).
Today, she is the president and CEO at Pro-West and Associates, Inc., a consulting firm in Bemidji, Minn., that offers GIS services for cities, counties, and state and federal governments.
GIS involves using computer systems and software to capture, analyze, and display data related to geographic locations, to better understand patterns and relationships. At Pro-West, for example, they use GIS to collect and assess information about land use, roads, and property tax assessments. They have also worked with public health departments during the COVID-19 pandemic, tracking infection rates and providing data that has been essential in creating safe reopening plans and vaccine distribution systems.
After earning her undergraduate degree in biology, chemistry, and mass communication from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, Scharenbroich learned about GIS from a mentor. As a visual learner, she says she “fell in love with it, because of the maps, statistics, charts, and graphs.” So she started looking at graduate programs in the field.
“Saint Mary’s stood out above and beyond all of the other programs that I looked at. They had a wide variety of courses, so not only did they focus on core GIS technology, but they also taught programming and had a focus on communications, public speaking and writing,” she says. “That breadth and diversity of the course work has served me well throughout my entire career. It felt like this was a place where I was going to be able to learn and grow professionally, and that was 100% the case.”
Scharenbroich started working at Pro-West in 2002, after moving to Bemidji with her husband. Her first job was as a GIS technician, and she rose through the organization to become CEO in 2019.
“When I started, everything that I learned at Saint Mary’s came into play: I was asked to create spatial data and do technical work, to write case studies for clients and present at conferences, to meet with clients and learn about their needs and figure out how to apply the technology,” she says. “I really enjoyed the diversity of the work, and the communication aspect of it, as well. All the courses I went through in Saint Mary’s program prepared me for that.”
Scharenbroich has Saint Mary’s graduates on her team, and says that the same holds true today: They are prepared.
“I am reviewing résumés every day from GIS programs across the region and the country, and the Saint Mary’s students always have a diverse background and relevant internships. They definitely stand out,” says Scharenbroich, who also mentors fellow GIS professionals through the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium.
Scharenbroich emphasizes that she never set out to be a CEO, but that she simply enjoys her work every day and is committed to it.
“Basically, over the last 19 years, I did my job,” she says with a chuckle. “I’m a knowledge seeker and fact finder, and I was always engaged with the job. I’m just so glad that I went to Saint Mary’s and got my education there.”
Creating real-life experiences in a virtual world
Mere months from graduating, Saint Mary’s sport management students were set up to successfully market themselves into successful careers.
Their résumés already contain direct real-world experience; they’re comfortable with presenting; and they’ve built valuable networks with well-known and well-respected names like X Games, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, and Fanatics (previously WinCraft).
In the most recent example, this past fall, Zakary Mayo’s Sport Marketing class prepared marketing presentations for the Minnesota Whitecaps of the National Women’s Hockey League, and Elete Dribble, an app designed to improve dribbling skills for basketball players of all ages.
As a basketball player and overall sports fan, Caily Landers, a senior sport management and management double major, enjoyed the challenge. She hopes one day to both be an entrepreneur and to work for an organization just like the Minnesota Whitecaps.
Although, prior to the introduction of this project, Landers didn’t know much about the Minneapolis-Saint Paul-based women’s hockey team, she and her class immersed themselves in how to creatively increase fan engagement during a pandemic. Her team chose to come up with ideas that were both affordable (knowing the sports industry has taken a financial hit) and COVID-19 safety conscious.
They developed five winning strategies that would not only work during a pandemic, but could also carry through when social distancing is no longer necessary. Each appealed to various interests and audiences, and could drive revenue, increase visibility, and keep fans connected and engaged.
The Whitecaps representatives were impressed with the PowerPoint Landers designed for her team.
“I think it makes you feel appreciative of all the work you put into it and gives us lots of confidence,” Landers said. “My professors — and that goes for the whole Business and Communication Department — have taught me a lot of skills that we could implement. They definitely do a great job in preparing us to present. They’re always providing real-world experiences, and when you’re looking for jobs, all that networking and all that experience is great for a résumé.”
Senior Nick Nast also hopes his future career combines his love for sports and his double major of business intelligence and analytics and sport management.
When thinking about marketing ideas for the Whitecaps, Nast dipped into his background as a lifelong hockey fan, channeling ideas he’d seen other teams do, or things he wished teams would implement more to engage their fans.
“Sports is such a big part of so many people’s lives,” he said. “During this pandemic, people need that out, and that’s where sports comes in. It’s important to have that escape, and as an athlete myself, I know the advantage of having that escape.”
To hear from the Whitecaps representatives that his ideas could be utilized by the team, was — in a word — cool.
“Anytime any pro organization compliments the ideas you’ve come up with, it is pretty cool,” he said. “It feels even better as a student. One day you’d like to work in that kind of industry, so it’s a reassuring or feel-good moment. The Business and Communication Department tries to set us up for success and they’re doing a good job of it from what I can tell.
“I think it motivates you that much more to be sure you do the best you can to come up with these ideas. For us as students to be able to interact with those kinds of organizations in those industries — that we all want to get into — it makes the dream more realistic for you.”
Brady Stevens ’21
Brady Stevens, a senior marketing and management double major, was also on the Cardinal basketball team, so his dribbling skills came in handy when creating a visual marketing pitch to Elete Dribble.
His team focused on improving their social media presence to get more exposure through market penetration and to increase visibility and revenue by pairing with other companies.
“Because they’re already an app, during this pandemic, it could be an advantage for them that more people will want to do online training instead of in person,” he said. “We decided that marketing to parents is key as they are the ones who would pay for the app, and they want their kids to have every opportunity.
Stevens hopes to work for a professional sports team as a marketing manager and experiences like this, he said, mean all the difference. “We put more effort and care into it because it’s actually something real. For us to get several different real-world projects and for the companies to take the time to talk with students … they hire professionals to do what we did, but the fact they took the time to listen to us is pretty awesome.”
Senior Stephany Beck echoed that she and her teammates utilized a lot of skills learned from previous classes during their presentations, from advertising and promotions to strategic management.
The marketing and entrepreneurship major was impressed by the entrepreneurial aspect of Elete Dribble.
After college, she hopes to get a career in marketing, potentially something in advertising or social media. “It was a surreal experience to present in front of the Elete Dribble co-founder as well as build our connections and complete a project that has more meaning and could potentially be used. Being an entrepreneur, it was cool to create and implement and propose a social media platform. It looks good for a résumé and portfolio.
“When we were presenting, Sean Possemato, co-founder, asked me for one of the mock social media graphics I had made. It was pretty cool knowing that as a student you can make a bigger impact.”
Faculty spotlight: Nancy Johnson
As an institution, it is incredibly rewarding to witness the successes of our students and faculty. Recently, Nancy Johnson, master’s and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) professor, published an article in the North American Accounting Studies research journal. In the article, “CPA Exam: Correlative Study of Preparation Activities and Exam Results,” Johnson shares the outcome of her study which determined whether there was an association between candidate preparation and their CPA exam results. You’re invited to view the article.
Now, let’s get to know Johnson a bit better.
How long have you been teaching at Saint Mary’s?
3.5 years; I started in fall 2017.
What courses do you teach for Saint Mary’s?
I teach these courses in the master’s and DBA programs:
- ACCT660 Strategic Management Accounting
- ACCT600 Financial Communication
- MBA644 Financial Markets and Institutions
- MBA648 Security Analysis and Portfolio Management
- DBA818 Topical Papers in Finance
Please share a little bit about your professional experience.
I have more than 30 years as a finance professional leading financial process change and standardization, analysis, project management, including 20 years as a managing director and institutional equity trader; I also have taught in higher education for 15 years in areas including accounting, finance, and business strategy.
What is your favorite quote?
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell
What are some of your hobbies?
Gardening, painting, travel, and reading.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I enjoy being part of what inspires transformation of the learner’s self-confidence to realize they are capable of reaching goals far greater than they envisioned possible.
What is your favorite classroom assignment and why?
I like any and all assignments which result in the student feeling a sense of accomplishment — the assignments which take them outside of the comfort zone. For some, it’s a memo, others a complex set of calculations; it’s different for every student.
What is your contact information?
You can email me at nljohnso@smumn.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Irish involved in revolutionary research during pandemic
In the global race to combat COVID-19, Cole Irish M’18 and his team at Mayo Clinic are often among the first off the starting block to work on critical, revolutionary new research that will affect patients’ lives.
And though the race is far from over, hurdle after hurdle, these skilled researchers are motivated to get the right tools in place to help medical personnel establish effective treatment, verify test outcomes, and obtain faster results.
Irish has worked at Mayo Clinic for 16 years, but has served as a translational research innovation and test development supervisor there since 2018, when the office was created as a rapid paced innovation and discovery department within lab medicine.
Earlier this summer, he was involved with Mayo Clinic launching a new SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody test in support of the national Expanded Access Program for Convalescent Plasma.
“It was a neat opportunity to be involved with,” Irish said. “That assay was critical to physicians in order to find out which patients have antibodies in their system that may help combat COVID-19.”
According to a Mayo Clinic article, information from the new test or assay — developed after just two months — will help assess critical research efforts to establish effective therapies and vaccines for COVID-19.
Irish’s team is also involved with testing another assay that delivers COVID-19 test results in as few as 15 minutes to an hour, instead of the current wait time of 24 hours or more. That time difference could lower transmission rates, but also, importantly, will ease patients’ minds.
“For a parent, it’s about being able to take your child in for a test and get a result in a timely fashion,” he said. “It takes a lot of anxiety out of the situation if you can know within a few minutes to an hour.”
Irish said he finds it especially exciting to be on the front end of the test development process. “There is some really cool stuff coming down the line; it’s a big need,” he said. “People are going to benefit from a lot of the tests we are bringing forward.”
Each day for Irish is fast paced, exciting, and varied — but it isn’t without its share of disappointments, as well as discoveries.
“That’s just science as a whole,” he said. “You have to be comfortable with failure.” Ironically, much of Irish’s work is actually about eliminating failure. “From our side, when we look at a test development project, the needs of the patient come first; it’s the hallmark at Mayo Clinic. We ask ourselves how we can make the best test with the best results but also have it be easy and understandable for the people operating it. Complex protocols are needed to run these assays.”
Irish said he has always been fascinated by science. With a background in biology, he started out at Mayo Clinic in the department of lab medicine, where he began working with viruses. “On the other side, I was involved in performing these tests,” he said.
As he looked for other opportunities within Mayo Clinic, Irish found that obtaining his MBA degree from Saint Mary’s in 2018 gave him added confidence and skills to advance his position.
He found the university’s flexible schedule and blended online and onground delivery a perfect way to balance his work at Mayo Clinic and his studies simultaneously.
And he found that much of what he was learning has directly applied to his career. “A lot of the strategy components learned during class are things you can really start to consider during test development as a whole,” he said. “Learning who you can reach out to and realizing you don’t have to be the content expert on everything. It’s important to learn how to use your network to figure out where you need to move to. Finance classes have also been extremely helpful and very eye opening when planning.”
At Mayo Clinic, Irish is involved in an extensive annual planning process that involves aligning resources and budgets. Still, he said, priorities are frequently realigned based on the needs and priorities of the areas he assists. He stresses that, at Mayo Clinic, a large network of teams, from development and lab technologists, to physicians, facility crews, and beyond collaborate together to ensure success.
“You look at these projects and see how everyone is working for that one piece to move forward,” he said. “I’m a very small component. The people I work with every day are truly making a difference, and I just go along for the ride.”
First Generation Initiative student spotlight: Crystal Chavez ’21
By Krista Joy Coleman
Only one thing could draw Saint Mary’s senior Crystal Chavez away from the comfort of her very close knit family — the opportunity to become a teacher and make a difference to generations of students. Her love for working with youth began when she herself was young. Chavez recalls early memories of caring for and educating her five siblings, and cooking for her family.
It wasn’t until her seventh-grade teacher showed her how much amazing educators could change their students’ lives that Chavez considered going to college.
Chavez looked up to her first teacher of color. The class struggled to adjust to this teacher’s strict curriculum initially, but there was something different about her that won them over. “She was the only teacher I had who also taught us social and emotional learning strategies,” Chavez said.
Growing up in Chicago, Chavez explained harmful activity in the surrounding neighborhoods was often difficult for children to understand. Her teacher helped the class process what was happening in their lives through journaling, social-emotional learning, and being cared for as individuals.
Chavez was so inspired by how her teacher pushed the class academically while also helping them process the world around them in a healthy way for the first time. Following in her hero’s footsteps, Chavez channeled her desire to care for others and her love of academics into becoming a teacher.
The first time she was ever in Minnesota was while participating in the Countdown to College (C2C) summer program at Saint Mary’s University’s Winona Campus in eighth grade. As she returned to Winona every summer throughout high school to attend the two-week academic program, she got a feel for college and Saint Mary’s. “It was great to have teachers who understood, and accepted, and cheered us on,” she said. When she finished the program and was offered a First Generation Initiative (FGI) scholarship to Saint Mary’s, she was thrilled. “It was more than a full scholarship,” she said. “It was opportunities, and a family I wouldn’t have had from another school … without the full ride, I would still be at home. It made leaving home worth it.”
Chavez said she is thankful for FGI advisers, Octavia Brown and Alisa Macksey, who have guided her throughout her time at Saint Mary’s. Having helpful conversations with women who understand the difference in culture between living in a big city and moving to college helped her feel more comfortable on campus.
While working diligently on her education major, Chavez capitalizes on more opportunities to learn about the world and become a good global citizen. She was chosen for a student trip to Washington, D.C., and to participate in the Lasallian Leadership Conference in France. “The FGI staff helped me with my passport and everything I needed to go. They let me experience not only the real world through the school, but let me see the real world in a global sense as well. That reinforced my desire for my students to be global citizens and learn about different places and cultures.”
Chavez loves how the Saint Mary’s education department exposes her to real classrooms through observation opportunities and student teaching. While student teaching a fourth-grade classroom, she had the opportunity to watch young minds grow and mature. “They are all such amazing kids,” she said. Remembering her appreciation for her seventh-grade teacher, roles were reversed as Chavez got to see how the children matured by being exposed to a teaching assistant of color.
At the beginning of her student teaching, some children mimicked her accent. “I took it as an opportunity to teach them why that wasn’t okay. If I don’t tell them now, they might not know,” she said. Chavez was happy to see her students learn about interacting with new people from different backgrounds and enjoyed watching them mature into more respectful and caring people through the year.
She looks forward to graduating this year and helping students grow to be good global citizens. Complete college education soon in hand, Chavez is ready to be an exemplary teacher. All she needs is a classroom.
Business Intelligence Summit is June 2
Saint Mary’s University is proud to announce the first annual Business Intelligence Summit to recognize students’ achievements throughout the most recent academic year. The summit will inspire engagement between students, industry leaders, faculty, and alumni to engage in innovative, best-practice artificial intelligence and business analytics in a Catholic and Lasallian spirit. Participants will engage in topics from drone technology to sports analytics, supply chain, and more.
The virtual summit is scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
Visit the Business Intelligence Summit website to find more information and register for the event.
In the news
The Winona Daily News featured a story about John Tschida’s return to Saint Mary’s University as coach of the women’s fastpitch team.
DBA candidate Kelly Anderson Diercks was named athletic director at the College of Saint Benedict. Diercks is doing her research on women’s leadership. Read more.
London program expansion
The university’s long-standing theatre program in London is being expanded to serve all Saint Mary’s undergraduate students beginning in fall 2022. The plan is to partner with a university in London to make available a high quality international experience for our students, who would be considered “travel abroad” or international students in the United Kingdom.
Some potential partner universities have already been identified and more will be considered by a task force named for this purpose. The group will make a recommendation by the end of the summer 2021 so that students will know what opportunity is available to them for the following year.
The task force consists of:
- Susan Cosby Ronnenberg, dean of the College, chair of the committee
- Ned Kirk, department chair, fine and performing arts
- Jimmy Bickerstaff, professor of theatre
- Becky Vogel, director of the International Center
- Carolyn Ayers, associate dean of Integratus
- Moni Berg-Binder, associate dean of sciences
- Kristina Lemmer, director of admissions
The student experience is at the center of our strategic plan. With the recent retirement of our long-serving London program director, Gary Diomandes, and the cancellation of our London program in fall 2020 and fall 2021 due to the pandemic, the university is recommitting itself to this signature international experience in a new way. The plans for London 2022 and beyond help us allocate resources in an effective and efficient manner (Goal 5 of the strategic plan), and we continue to create partnerships that foster innovation (Goal 3 of the strategic plan).
The Rev. James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D.
President
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
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