Luther College News

Luther College President Paula J. Carlson has announced that staff members Bradley Phillips and Erik Stoen are the 2017-18 recipients of the Luther Staff Excellence Award. Phillips and Stoen were recognized at a ceremony last summer.

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.

A group of eight Luther College trumpet players competed in March at the National Trumpet Competition at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. The group was given exceptional reviews but did not advance to the semifinals as an octet. The ensemble consisted of senior Liam Fraser; juniors Curtis Cook, Madison Ihde, Sarah Lodge, Chelsey Schmeling and Michael Winkler; and sophomores Chloe Beck and Marya Haughland.

Luther College awarded Ryan Torkelson, assistant professor of accounting, the Uwe J. Rudolf Endowed Faculty Fellowship for the 2018-19 academic year. This endowment honors Professor Uwe J. Rudolf for his dedication to Luther College, its students, the liberal arts and the Department of Economics, Accounting and Management at Luther.

Luther College sophomore Maggie Breitenstein has been named to the 2018-19 BACCHUS Initiatives Student Advisory Committee as a Student Advisory Committee Representative for Region IV-E, representing Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Ontario. This committee is a part of NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The BACCHUS Initiative of NASPA supports collegiate peer educators and advisors by empowering students and student affairs administrators to create healthy and safe campus environments.

Luther sophomore Maxwell Eness has received the Kuh Family “Positively Luther” Award for his contributions to the student experience at Luther College. Eness, son of Daniel and Betsy Eness of Ames, Iowa, is a 2016 graduate of Ames High School. He plans to graduate from Luther in 2020 with majors in philosophy and environmental studies.

Luther junior Janet Irankunda has received the Krahn Family Student Life Service Award for her extensive contributions to student life at Luther through her service to the community. Irankunda, daughter of Clarise Kabasinga and Callixte Habimana of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, is a 2015 graduate of Coon Rapids High School. She plans to graduate from Luther in 2019 with a major in music and a minor in K-12 music education.

The Dorian Choral Retreat, in its inaugural year, will be hosted at Luther College from June 29 through July 1 with the culminating event, “Livssang,” at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 1, in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall.

This May and June, Luther College professor Dan Davis will take two different groups of Luther students on excavations: Robert Muller, Anna Luber and Zachary Ziarnik, will accompany Davis to Caesarea, Israel, where they will help launch a new, multi-year excavation, and Collin Carpenter and Alex Aakre will help Davis with artifact processing in Southern Greece. Davis is a classical archaeologist who focuses on both ancient shipwrecks and harbor sites in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions.

Luther junior Rebecka Green from Decorah, Iowa, won a scholarship essay contest through the organization “Tolerance Means Dialogues” with her essay, “Seeking Intentional Pluralism.”