Chris and Lynette Travel the World

Even over Zoom, Lynette McCue ’70 and Chris Hellekson ’70 have an easy rapport. They laugh as they fi ll in each other’s memories about classes and trips taken over the course of their half-century long friendship. The two women met on the campus of Minnesota State Mankato, then Mankato State College. They were among just a handful of women in the College of Business and naturally gravitated toward one another.

“Many times, we were the only two [women] in the class,” says Hellekson. “We each had an interest in business because our parents owned businesses. We also realized we shared a love of sewing and other creative interests and our friendship grew from there.”

Both McCue and Hellekson graduated with degrees in Business Administration. Hellekson went on to work for a savings and loan institution and eventually C.H. Robinson. McCue started in administration and continued her career working for Scott County, Minnesota. Today, Hellekson lives in South Dakota and McCue in Minnesota.

In 1994 Hellekson invited McCue to travel to Germany, where Hellekson was born and still has family.

“She had not ever traveled out of the country and it made quite an impression on her,” says Hellekson. “We thought we’ll do this again and again and again and again.”

Since their rst trip, travel has bonded the fast friends. ey’ve been all over the globe together and separately—from Scotland to Russia, Peru to Tibet—even Antarctica. ey’ve had scores of adventures and returned with stories to tell. Like the time they wandered into the wrong pasture in England and encountered a giant Black Angus bull.

“I learned that if you go over a stile in Northern England, you better scout out what is lurking in the pasture,” Hellekson laughs.

Or the memory of Hellekson’s relative telling them “German trains, you can set your watch by them.”

“ ese are little things, but they are a piece of this whole big spectrum,” says McCue. “Every country has their little pieces that t together, and you learn to work your way through them.”

For both women, travel is about more than just sightseeing; it’s a window into di erent cultures, and a way to expand horizons. It’s in this spirit that the friends both decided to set up scholarships to support student travel experiences.

“We learned so much on our travels,” says Hellekson. “We feel it is important that especially young people experience cultures that are di erent from ours.” “We also believe once you have this experience of being immersed in another culture you begin to broaden your horizons and extend that newer viewpoint to other things that you will encounter in the rest of your life,” McCue adds.

Both agree that broadened horizons and a wider view of the world are critical for business students who will enter into a global economy and need to know how to navigate it. “ ey’ve got to understand other countries; not view them through our lens but their own cultural lens,” says Hellekson.

Post-pandemic, McCue and Hellekson look forward to continuing their travels. ey’ve planned a river excursion for 2022 that will take them to Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Spain.

Lynette McCue and Chris Hellekson turned a decades-long friendship into student support through College of Business scholarships.

Hellekson and McCue became life long friends while students in the College of Business. Together, they’ve committed to giving back to students at their alma mater through several annual scholarship gifts that support students in broadening their horizons through education and international experiences.

What made you decide to set up these scholarships?

McCue: We had shared experiences [at Minnesota State Mankato] that had been good. We experienced a lot of growth opportunities there. So, you want to extend that to others. I’m a fi rm believer in public education, I believe it opens the horizon to everyone. I think that’s essential to our nation and essential for our own personal growth to encounter a broader range of people.

How do you hope your gifts will enrich the lives of the students who receive them?

Hellekson: I started college with a scholarship from a local ladies golf group and for me it’s paying forward.

McCue: There’s a phrase I came across when I was in college and I carried it with me physically for many years but mentally forever: “A man’s mind expanded to a new ideal never returns to its original dimension.” That’s what travel does, that’s what every experience you have [does]. We want to look at enlarging worldviews. We believe in this global economy and we believe we have to start looking at issues globally and participating in that. The more you can open the door to new experiences, it can teach you an awful lot.