Augustana Outcomes Report

Audrey Cope '21
Special Assistant to the President
Bipartisan Policy Center, Washington, D.C.
Government & International Affairs and French Major

Q: What made your education at Augustana distinctive?
A: The professors and staff and Augustana made my education distinctive. Course topics and materials can be transferable across colleges and universities. However, the minds of those who make the material come alive and present it in a way that you not only understand it, but understand what to do with it in the future, makes all of the difference once you graduate.

Q: How did Augustana help you excel your first months on the job?
A: Augustana’s academics gave me the writing and organizational skills, as well as the emotional intelligence to excel in the first months of my job. Given the rigorous academics, I was able to tackle projects with ease. Additionally, the leadership positions I held at Augustana taught me executive skills which transferred incredibly well into the workforce, and I was able to adapt to a new team quickly thanks to what I had learned.

Q: Will you tell us when you first realized or confirmed you were pursuing your calling?
A: When I finally took the time to sit down, stop going 100 miles an hour, and think about applying for the Truman (Scholarship), I realized that I had already found my calling in public service and was really excited about the possibility of that being my calling long term.  

Q: What can you tell us about your favorite class?
A: Dr. (Joseph) Dondelinger’s "Identity Politics" was an honest, real take on the current state of political affairs. Not only did he provide a wealth of information from his past experience, he encouraged us to ask questions and challenged our assumptions.

Rachel Davis ‘21
Human Resource Specialist
Gradient Financial, Ramsey, Minnesota
Management, Communication Studies Major

Q: What made your education at Augustana distinctive?
A: My education at Augustana was distinctive because of the community of people who wanted to help me succeed and who also wanted me to succeed alongside them. From professors to Student Success Center, IT and Ordal Dining Hall employees, I was pushed to succeed. I made lifelong friendships with peers who also wanted to succeed. The community of excellence and educational experience was invaluable.

Q: How did Augustana help you excel your first months on the job?
A: The biggest way Augustana helped me excel in my first months on the job was that it pushed me to find internships and outside professional experiences to better prepare me for the real world post-graduation. I had several job and internship experiences throughout my time at Augustana that created professional and tangible skills that were employable. If my first "big girl job" experience was my first time in a professional work setting, I would have been in over my head. Instead, Augustana created an internship program and provided me with resources in the Student Success Center, such as resume and cover letter writing, interview prep and a list of opportunities and contacts to better help me find an internship and prepare myself for my future career.

Q: Will you tell us when you first realized or confirmed you were pursuing your calling?
A: My involvement in the Sioux Empire Society for Human Resource Management (SESHRM) student chapter and my human resources internship my senior year helped confirm my calling of helping a business develop, inspire and direct their team of people into being their greatest asset, otherwise known as human resources. I loved helping people make work work for them. Being around HR professionals through SESHRM and like-minded students with a passion for HR helped me understand this was a path I wanted to go down. Real-world experience in a human resources consulting firm in Sioux Falls — AlternativeHR — also helped me confirm this was something I enjoyed doing in a professional setting.

Q: What was your favorite class?
A: My favorite class at Augustana was “CIVT 202: Psychology of Prejudice” taught by Professor Anne Zell. The class explored the mind and behavior behind prejudice and discrimination. It was discussion-based, and we did a lot of reading and writing. It was intriguing and incredibly relevant to the world we live in. In general, my Civitas Honors (Program) classes were my favorite because of the people in the class and the professors who taught them. They stretched me in different ways than my business and communications classes did and were interdisciplinary in both subject matter and students.

Grace Feterl ‘21
Roosevelt High School
Sioux Falls
Math and Secondary Education Major

Q: What made your education at Augustana distinctive?
A: What sticks out to me was the opportunities that I received at Augustana. I got to work extensively with the tutoring program to brainstorm and set up opportunities. That leadership position I took allowed for me to use skills that furthered my education beyond the classroom. The skills that my education classes prepared me with were higher level. I also think Augustana provided me with a well-rounded education that made me feel prepared, along with a great support for when things were difficult. 

Q: How did Augustana help you excel your first months on the job?
A: The first thing that helped me was Augustana had great resources for my student-teaching. I student-taught in the current building that I am teaching, so the connections to great resources allowed me to be prepared when the day came to have a classroom of my own. I think Augustana also did a good job of connecting me with peers who had similar majors and professors who were great sounding boards for questions I had at the beginning. The experience in an Augustana education classroom also prepared me greatly on how to form relationships with my students and classroom community (the most important thing to forming a classroom), as well as equipped me with a great understanding of the material. 

Q: What did you appreciate about the learning opportunities available to you in Sioux Falls? 
A: Sioux Falls had a variety of different placements available for education. With multiple different high schools and middle schools, it allowed for each of my placements to be different, equipping me with more skills. I felt that it really prepared me when I decided to stay and teach here. 

Brycen Nelson ‘21
Tri-Valley School District
Brandon, South Dakota
Elementary Education Major
 

Q:What made your education at Augustana distinctive?
A: There always seemed to be student functions, learning and work opportunities available to me.

Q: How did Augustana help you excel your first months on the job?
A: I learned valuable work experience at the Elmen Center that applies to my job today.

Q: What did you appreciate about the learning opportunities available to you in Sioux Falls?
A: I appreciated all the time that I spent in schools for practicum and student-teaching. My time at Hawthorne Elementary and Sioux Falls Christian was very helpful and informative.

Hannah Strei '21
University of South Dakota School of Medicine
Vermillion, South Dakota
Biology Major
 

Q: What did you appreciate about the learning opportunities available to you in Sioux Falls? 
A: As someone who was interested in pursuing a career in medicine, Sioux Falls was a wonderful place to experience health care first hand. As a growing city with two major hospital systems, a VA hospital and community health clinics, there were many ways to immerse yourself in medicine as an employee or a volunteer. When I first entered college, I thought the only way to experience health care was by getting a job in the field. I quickly learned through joining clubs and talking with advisors, getting exposure in health care was easier than expected and the opportunities were endless. Being able to create your own unique path through working and serving in different settings diversified my view on health care and helped me declare where exactly in medicine I found calling. 

What I found interesting is that just because it is a health care facility, doesn't mean you just have to be a nursing major or on the pre-med path. The health care industry provides job opportunities for a variety of majors. It comes down to finding the right opportunity that aligns with a career you want to pursue. It was fun to see classmates who were business, communications or exercise science majors in hospital halls — all of us passionate about our work.

Q: Will you tell us about when you first realized or confirmed you were pursuing your calling?
A: When thinking back to what confirmed my calling into medicine, I think of a progression that started when I first became lifeguard certified in high school. I wanted to know exactly what goes wrong in the body for medical emergencies to occur. I was fascinated by the science behind the condition, which led me to choose Augustana and biology as my major. My path was unique in that I did not change my major during my college career. However, a decision I struggled with was what professional career I wanted to pursue, specifically M.D. or P.A. The Sophomore Retreat (through Campus Ministry) is where I found clarity. The opportunity to have a weekend surrounded by your peers and talking about your passions and fears in small groups and individually was almost therapeutic. My classmates may have not had a similar career goal or major, but having conversations centered on passion, calling and service helped me clarify exactly why I wanted to pursue a career in medicine. I found that it was because I wanted to be a leader in patient’s care plans a leader in the facility that I worked in, and someone who would be recognized as a physician, but also a teammate is exactly why I chose to pursue medical school. 

Q: Describe your favorite class or faculty member at AU. What made the advising or mentoring you received at Augustana valuable?
A: My favorite class that I took during my time at Augustana was "Abnormal Psychology." I had never taken a class that combined something concrete (the criteria for diagnosis of a condition) with something abstract (the complexity of the mind). I found this course so interesting because you were able to see the manifestations of these disorders in readings, case studies, movies and class discussions. The professor did an awesome job of fostering an environment of learning and a place to ask questions.

The methodology for the 2021 Outcomes Report includes the following:

• Information is provided for recent Augustana graduates, which includes 336 undergraduates who completed degrees between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021.
• Information was collected within six months of graduation.
• Augustana obtained information on 83% of graduates, which exceeds the minimum rate identified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) by 18%.
• The data collection and report aligns with the guidelines published by the NACE and has been approved by the Augustana Institutional Review Board (IRB).
• Graduates were counted in the placement statistic if they reported that they were satisfied or not actively seeking alternative employment.