Saint Mary's Newsroom / Campus Notes
Winona Campus NewsletterTaylor Richmond Benefit raises more than $21,000
Although we were unable to hold the 20th anniversary of the Taylor Richmond Benefit Dance this past March, we were still able to hold our annual silent auction. Through the generosity of our Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota community and many businesses who donated, the Taylor Richmond Benefit Dance Committee was still able to raise $21,026 for our two beneficiaries, Sue Shroetke and Gianna Samountry. Both will receive $10,513 to assist with their specific situations.
Due to the cancellation of this year’s dance, the university has announced it will continue the 20th anniversary celebration in the next academic year on March 20, 2021. We will continue to raise funds for this year’s beneficiaries and will recognize all of our previous beneficiaries in this meaningful and long-standing Saint Mary’s tradition.
Thank you to the members of Taylor Richmond Benefit Dance Committee and its executive board for all your work and for all of those who support the annual tradition, which helps those in need who are connected to our Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota family.
Virtual stress-free zone offered today
Students, faculty, and staff are invited to a virtual stress-free zone today, Thursday, April 30. In keeping with tradition, this will be a great time to relax and see some familiar faces before you head into finals.
Jump on the Zoom call anytime from 2 to 3 p.m. CT for:
Pets
- Have a pet? Bring them on the call with you and show them off!
- Don’t have a pet but love animals? Jump on and meet the furry friends of fellow students, staff, and faculty.
Yoga and Meditation
- Need a stretch and time to slow down your brain and get in the zone? Pop in for a good flow.
Positive Affirmations and DIY Home Activities
- Ramp up your brain with some positive self-talk and encouragement about finals. Also, learn some neat do-it-yourself projects that you can do at home to help with stress relief.
This event is hosted by the Student Success and First Generation Initiative Offices and the Wellness Center.
![Schultz provides tour of Winona in student vlog [video]](https://newsroom.smumn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/JSchultz_Vlog.jpg)
Schultz provides tour of Winona in student vlog [video]
Saint Mary’s junior Justine Schultz reminds us all that social distancing does not mean you can’t go on outdoor adventures.
Let Schultz take you on a personalized tour of Winona, its lakes, Sugar Loaf, and Garvin Heights, and learn about all the multitude of outdoor activities this city has to offer. Schultz reminds us all that good mental health starts with getting outside!
Watch for more student vlogs on Saint Mary’s social media channels tomorrow (Friday) and Tuesday.
Art contest award winners announced
Thank you to everyone who participated in the art contest raising awareness for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the theme “I ask.” Congratulations to first-place winner, Hallie Schmeling, and second-place winner, Maria Flynn.
Check out the important messages and talented work submitted for this project.
Student Senate minutes
Student Senate has been meeting via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays. Below you’ll find Student Senate meeting minutes from the April 28 meeting:
Spiritual offering
Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry continues to share spiritual offerings to provide much-needed perspective and a focus on faith in this time of uncertainty.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” — Isaiah 41:10
Visit Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry on Facebook.
Saint Mary’s nursing ranks No. 2 and 7 in early-career salary data
The nursing program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs has been featured on the 2020 Best Campus and Online Colleges lists from GradReports.
Saint Mary’s was ranked:
- No. 2 for Best Master’s Nursing Degrees with a median salary of $186,000
- No. 7 for Best Online Bachelor’s Nursing Degrees with a median salary of $88,400
The rankings are based on median early-career salary data of more than 5 million graduates from the U.S. Department of Education’s resource, College Scorecard.
Saint Mary’s Alumni Association invites faculty and staff to sign Kudoboard, virtual cards for 2020 graduates
Kudoboard is an online tool to gather a group and send appreciation. Think of it like a greeting card that gets passed around and signed, but in a more fun and customizable group e-card format.
The Alumni Association has created two kudoboards. One for the Winona Campus Class of 2020 and another for spring graduates of the Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs (SGPP).
Faculty and staff are invited to post on the boards, sending best wishes to our students. We will share with alumni so they can send messages of encouragement as well. Finally, the boards will be shared with students as a memento of their time at Saint Mary’s.
LDT alumni find new perspective through remote teaching
Alumni of the M.Ed. in Learning Design and Technology (LDT) online program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota knew the skills they learned would be useful in their classrooms. But few could have predicted the situation facing teachers all over the country as schools have switched to online learning modules in the interest of maintaining proper social distance practices to lower the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We recently caught up with two members of the 224 alumni who have come through the program since it began in 2014 to find out how they are using their newfound skills in the new normal of remote teaching.
Joanne Schneider, first grade teacher, St. Joseph, Minn.
On March 13, Joanne Schneider M’17, a teacher at St. Joseph Catholic School, taught her 17 students in the classroom. Five days later, she began teaching them remotely after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ordered all the state’s schools to be closed by March 18. Being a private school, St. Joseph’s administrators decided to close immediately.
Joanne Schneider M’17 with her son, Sam (’23), who is a first-year catcher on the Saint Mary’s baseball team.
“When I put my kids on the bus that Friday, I fully expected to see them Monday morning, and I never got them back again,” said Schneider, who has been at the school for 17 years and has worked 30-plus years in schools in the Diocese of St. Cloud.
To make matters more interesting, Schneider and her husband have five children, but were used to being empty nesters — until their three college-aged children moved back home, all of whom are on very different academic paths.
The youngest, Sam ’23, is a first-year student at Saint Mary’s and catcher on the Cardinals baseball team. She also has two daughters, one of whom is a medical student; the other has special needs.
“The biggest thing is, we need to have enough bandwidth for everybody who’s online,” Schneider said. “It’s a little crazy around here, but it’s OK. It’s fun to have them all home.”
In spite of the new home situation, Schneider said she has felt prepared from day one, thanks to the training she received in the LDT program.
Joanne Schneider during commencement.
“I love being in the classroom, and I feed off my kids,” she said. “All of a sudden, there was a whole new spin on my training, and I felt like there were just so many things that I pulled and used, but in very different ways than we ever talked about using it.”
What has been most helpful, she said, was the emphasis the program placed on tablet computers, in particular iPads. As soon as Schneider started the program, she began integrating iPads into the traditional classroom setting, so they were not just sources of, in her words, “extra fluff.”
She had implemented something known as “Genius Hour,” inspired by an idea that started at Google, in which her kids would take an hour to research questions that lingered in the minds of first graders like: Why does the week have seven days? Or, the inner workings of hairbows. The students would later present their findings to the class.
“I have a lot of kids who now have more time to do self-directed learning,” Schneider said. “But now they know how to do it in a useful way.”
Amanda Otero, fifth grade teacher, Rosemount, Minn.
Since starting the program, Amanda Otero M’18 has actively tried to recruit fellow teachers from her school, Rosemount Elementary. One of them, Zachary Gonsioroski M’19, started a year after she did.
Amanda Otero M’18 has served as a fifth grade teacher in Rosemount, Minn., for four years.
“I tell them this is a program that will help you be the teacher you need to be today, and it will help you be the teacher you want to be in the future,” Otero said. “It gives you the student perspective of what it’s like to be an online student, but it also builds your own capacity to learn in a way you can then apply to your own teaching.”
Upon hearing the news of Gov. Walz’s decision, Otero’s school decided to close down for a week to prepare for online learning. Then, the school had its spring break, so Otero met with her 28 students remotely for the first time on March 30.
Her school had started to give each student an iPad right when she started the LDT program, so she also started implementing tablet-based strategies directly into her classroom.
Although her students are comfortable with learning on an iPad, Otero has tried to go beyond replicating what they did in the classroom with the devices.
“My students are more able to redefine what we can do,” said Otero, who spent four of her 11 total years of teaching at Rosemount.
Amanda Otero with her parents, Ron and Tami Bakeberg, during her graduation ceremony at Saint Mary’s.
One of the initiatives that Otero started with her class is “Field Trip Fridays,” where through technology, her students can explore different parts of the world, primarily using Google Earth.
Recently, she created a digital learning experience centered around animal sounds. The interactive material was first sampled and later approved by her son, who is a freshman high school student doing distance learning of his own. She has since shared the resources she used to create the material, so her fellow teachers could create their own experiences for their students.
Otero first started thinking of joining the LDT program after hearing about it from a fellow faculty member at her school, who is also an alumnus: Gina Stangl M’16.
“I could never anticipate that someday we might do distance learning in an emergency situation, but I embrace the 21st century teaching and learning philosophy driving that program,” Otero said.
She tries to apply that philosophy to her own life and in helping both her students and her son with their education, “so that we can really be looking forward and leaning into what’s to come.”
Plan announced for students to retrieve items from residence halls
Saint Mary’s University is beginning the process of inviting students back to campus to retrieve belongings from residence halls. In accordance with guidance from the state, the university has established a plan that meets the following parameters:
- We are to limit the number of students in each building at one time to less than three. This will be a slow, carefully planned move, spread out between May 11-31. Roommates will not be permitted to move out at the same time. Each student will be allowed to bring one person, over the age of 16, to assist with moving.
- We are to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
- We are to ensure the safety of all by wiping down public surfaces between slotted move-out times.
All students who have not returned their keys will receive an email from the Office of Student Life soon with a pre-scheduled move-out day and time. To stay on schedule, each student has approximately three hours to empty his or her room, so please plan accordingly. If you turned in your key but left personal items behind that you were planning to retrieve later, please contact the Office of Student Life at studentlife@smumn.edu to discuss arrangements.
The schedule has two daily move-out slots: 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. These will run Monday through Friday, from May 11-31. If your assigned move-out day or time will absolutely not work, please contact the Office of Student Life at studentlife@smumn.edu to discuss other arrangements.
Due to the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus and our desire to protect our local community, please be advised that students returning to campus without permission will not be allowed to access residence halls.
Any non-forwardable packages the Saint Mary’s mailroom has received will be placed in students’ residence hall rooms.
If you have other personal belongings to retrieve (from locker rooms, the art studio, or other locations), please contact Student Life at studentlife@smumn.edu to make arrangements.
Saint Mary’s virtual honor ceremony will be next week
Plans are underway to virtually recognize Outstanding Seniors, academic award winners, and Student Life award winners the week of May 4. More information will be coming soon.
Fitzgerald Library returns information
Fitzgerald Library is temporarily closed until further notice. All Fitzgerald Library materials, as well as interlibrary loan materials, that are checked out have had their due dates extended through Aug. 28, when hopefully we are all able to return to campus. Materials should be kept until campus reopens.
Please do not make a special trip to campus to return materials. Returns may not be processed immediately for safety reasons and may remain on your library account until the library resumes normal operations.
If you are on campus to move out and would like to return materials, you can return books, DVDs, and interlibrary loan materials to the Fitzgerald Library outside book return next to the front entrance door.
Contact fitzcircdesk@smumn.edu with any questions or concerns. You may see a fine on your library account at this time, but once items are returned, fines will be forgiven for all items due March 13 and after.
Find FAQs and more information about returning your library materials.
Reminder: Bookstore rental return information
As a reminder, the bookstore is temporarily closed, and all rental books are due back no later than Monday, June 15. When you’re finished with your rental books, print a free UPS label to ship them back to the bookstore. Please keep in mind that you can only print one label.
After you generate the label, make sure you pack the books carefully so they do not sustain any damage in transit. If books arrive damaged, we will be unable to check them in. You can drop off the package at any UPS location.
Find FAQs and more information about returning your rental books.
Please do not ship out your package until all rented books are included. As soon as the bookstore receives the package from UPS, your books will be checked in, and you will receive an email confirmation.
You may choose to buy out your rental books until the due date of Monday, June 15. The purchase price will be at a reduced rate, and you will own the book once you buy it with no need to return.
If you have any questions or concerns, email sm417@bncollege.com. Please include your name and the phone number you used to rent your books.
If you left Saint Mary’s rental books in your residence hall, please complete this form by Monday, May 11, for Student Life to retrieve and return for you.
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