Starting quarterback and Watertown-native Josh Hanson has led the Vikings to an undefeated 6-0 record so far. But despite all the wins, it's a loss that could be playing the biggest role in Hanson's performance.

Sioux Falls educator Wade Helleson,’98, has received the prestigious Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, a $25,000 honor. The Foundation grants 50 educator awards nationwide each year.

In an effort to raise money for breast cancer research and to help support victims, survivors and families, Augustana’s volleyball team is hosting a “Dig Pink” event during its match against NSU on Saturday, Oct. 23.

For the first time since 1953, Viking Varieties, Augustana's Homecoming talent show, will feature a father/daughter duo. Maren Jacobsen, a sophomore Music major, and her father, Todd Jacobsen, class of 1984, will perform “The Prayer.”

The Goo Goo Dolls and Augustana are sponsoring a food drive prior to the concert on Monday, Oct. 11. All food items will be donated to Feeding South Dakota. The individual who donates the most food will win a meet-and-greet with band members.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has awarded Augustana’s ACS Student Chapter with the Outstanding Award for activities conducted during the 2009-2010 academic year. Across the nation, only 36 Outstanding Awards were presented.

David Francis, author of Bringing Jon Home, the Wilderness Search for Jon Francis, will visit campus Oct. 7-9. Francis is the father of Jon Francis, an Augustana graduate who disappeared during a mountain climb.

Archived, electronic issues of the Mirror, the Edda and other Augustana publications are now available via the Augustana Album, a free, web-based resource housing digital College media dating back to the 1900s.

In 2006, Linda Avey, '82, co-founded 23andMe, a consumer gene-testing service. Two years later, the firm's Retail DNA Test won TIME Magazine's Invention of the Year. Avey will present "Pioneering the Genome" at the Augustana Thought Leader Forum on Friday, Oct. 8.

Dr. Patrick Hicks, an award-winning author, poet and Augustana’s Writer-in-Residence, will present “A Writer’s Life” at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 21, in Kresge Recital Hall. Hicks will read from his work and discuss his adventures as an author.