Category: Student Story

Uncovering layers of ancient history, Luther College senior Alex Aakre spent four weeks of his summer assisting in the excavation of a shipping complex in the Western port of Corinth, Kenchreai, Greece. Aakre, son of Teresa and Warren Aakre of Onalaska, Wisconsin, is a 2015 graduate of Holmen High School. He plans to graduate from Luther in 2019 with a major in history.

Lindelwa Gama, Luther College senior, spent her summer interning at Swaziland Tourism Authority in Mbabane Hhohho, Swaziland where she was responsible for providing information on local resources and facilities, and promoting tourism in order to attract visitors into the country and market tourism products, services and facilities.

Betel Bedada, Luther College senior, traveled to Coralville, Iowa intern for the company GEICO over the summer. This internship allowed Bedada to develop business leadership skills and gain insight about the way that GEICO runs as a company.

Luther College junior Ashalul Aden was recently named a 2018 Rising Star from the Interfaith Youth Core for her work as an interfaith leader for the Luther community. “I became involved in the Luther community because I am passionate about making the world a better place for every single human regardless of their ethnicity, gender identity, race, religious identity or sexual orientation,” Aden said.

Luther College’s Social Impact Fellowship Program partners together one student studying social work and one student studying business to research a problem and develop a business plan for a solution. Italee Castellon, Luther College senior from Chicago, Illinois, and Lauren Voigt, Luther College junior from St. Louis Park, Minnesota, are working with nonprofit organizations in the surrounding Decorah area in order to better connect Luther College students with volunteer opportunities.

Students of all ages struggle to have fun engaging with and understanding foreign cultures and global citizenship. Levi Bird, Luther College sophomore of Muscoda, Wisconsin, is researching and creating historically based role-playing simulations in order to stimulate and to engage students in the learning of modern languages.

Unit testing involves testing individual components of software to assure each smaller section performs as it was designed before testing the larger unit’s functionality. Through his summer research project, David Oniani, Luther College first-year of Tbilisi, Georgia, is exploring whether unit testing could be used in a classroom setting to provide immediate feedback for students.

Roughly five million Americans live with fibromyalgia, a chronic disease with no standard treatment or cure that involves musculoskeletal pain. Shannon Lunn, Luther College junior of Farmington, Minnesota, is exploring experiences men have with fibromyalgia for her summer research project.

Luther College students Tyler Conzett, Catelyn Janda and Liliana Mondragon have each received a Karen Julesberg Scholarship for the 2018-19 academic year. The $1,000 scholarship, created by Karen Julesberg of Madison, Wisconsin, Luther class of 1960, benefits Luther students involved in the TRIO Achievement Program. TRIO is a federally-funded program providing holistic, individualized support and comprehensive programming that promotes students’ academic success, personal development and sense of community.

Luther College junior Rebecka Green and sophomore Maxwell Eness have been selected as Peace Scholars for the 2018-19 academic year. The pair will spend six weeks this summer studying peace and dialogue in Lillehammer and Oslo, Norway.