Northland College Magazine

Northland College MAGAZINE

FALL 2015

Collaborative Research

Faculty, students, community, and agencies work together to investigate queries, deepen knowledge, and find solutions.

Pg. 7.

Also in this issue: News • Class Notes • Athletics

Northland College Magazine FALL 2015 Mission Northland College integrates liberal arts studies with an environmental emphasis, enabling those it serves to address the challenges of the future.

SUMMER PROGRAMS The 2016 course list is now available.

Vision Northland College will be the nation’s preeminent liberal arts college focused on the environment, preparing students and other stakeholders to lead us toward a more sustainable, just, and prosperous future.

President Dr. Michael A. Miller

President’s Cabinet Leslie Alldritt Dean of Faculty, Vice President of Academic Affairs Heather Atherton Staff Council President and Gift Coordinator Clayton Russell Faculty Council President and Associate Professor of Environmental Education and Outdoor Education Robert Jackson Vice President of Finance and Administration Patti Fenner-Leino Interim Dean of Students Mark Peterson Executive Director, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Margot Carroll Zelenz Vice President of Institutional Advancement

Magazine Contributors Julie Buckles, Communications Manager Bob Gross, Associate Director of Institutional Marketing Demeri Mullikin, Executive Director of Institutional Marketing Jill O’Neill, Design and Digital Strategist Amber Mullen ’12 Jake Oster ’17 Katherine Sorenson ’16 Mark Travaglini ’69 © 2015, Northland College

northland.edu/summer Submissions To submit comments and ideas for the Northland College magazine, please write to: Office of Marketing Communications Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806 You can also contact us at 715-682-1307 or via email at marketing@northland.edu.

Class Notes To submit class notes or alumni photos, please write to: Office of Alumni Relations Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806 You can also call 715-682-1811 or email alumni@northland.edu.

On the Cover Northland student Stephanie Kovach uses a hand lens to help identify a flowering plant on York Island in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Learn more about the many collaborative research projects at Northland College on page 7.

CONTENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT PG. 1 NEWS PG. 2 MESSAGES FOR THE 7TH GENERATION PROJECT PG. 5 COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PG. 7 ATHLETICS PG. 15 ALUMNI PG. 17

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CLASS NOTES PG. 19

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

Use your smartphone, desktop, or tablet to get a daily dose of the events at and stories about Northland College, or to connect with President Miller on Twitter. Or go old school and enjoy this print edition!

Technology has allowed us to spread the message of Northland College far and wide and in a more comprehensive way.

Over the last two years, we have transformed our communications office from a print shop to one that publishes stories, interviews, and photos on our website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds. In other words, we’ve gone digital.

More than seventy percent of students will search for colleges on their phones. Both parents and high school seniors rate college websites as their most influential search resource by a significant margin. It only makes sense to give them the best user experience we can.

The new website along with social media allow Northland to share photos, videos, and stories from across campus. This gives prospective

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students, current students, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees, and supporters the opportunity to engage with Northland College whenever and wherever they want.

built a lacrosse and soccer stadium, hired wildlife biologist Adrian Wydeven to lead the Timber Wolf Alliance, and welcomed a new class of students.

This has been and continues to be a multi-step process that began with the financial commitment from donors to update and upgrade our website, and to tweak our brand to fit small-scale digital (smartphones).

This has involved hours of meetings with every department on campus, to streamline, update, and rethink our message at every level.

You’ll read some of these stories and meet some of those students in these pages, plus a sampling of the rich and varied campus collaborative projects going on right now. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and enjoy this print edition of Northland College news.

In the process, we also updated our athletic logo and website.

This allows us to report, in a timely fashion, all the good news at Northland. And this has been a particularly upbeat summer and fall.

We launched the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation,

Michael A. Miller President, Northland College

NEWS Filmmaker, Students Document Harvest

By Amber Mullen ’12 As an educator, filmmaker, and member of the Six Nations Mohawk tribe, lecturer Paulette Moore is bringing her relationship to the Great Lakes full circle.

She is the William P. Van Evera lecturer-in-residence this year, teaching Introduction to Video, Art for Societal Change, and Social Media Applications. Ultimately Moore hopes to educate students about the influence media and art forms have on perceptions, lifestyles, and community.

Moore will be collaborating with students to create a documentary, From Wisconsin with Love, celebrating the Lake Superior region’s bountiful harvest, including wild rice and traditional lifeways.

Moore has spent two decades working in Washington DC as a director, producer, and writer with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, PBS, ABC, and other media outlets. Moore believes, however, this project is undoubtedly the “biggest, most important story” she has told.

Moore’s relationship with Lake Superior started out as a long distance one. Working as an associate professor of media arts and peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Moore met Northland College alumna Danielle Taylor ‘98, who had established the blog, Voices of the Penokee Hills, detailing the development of taconite mining in the Penokee Hills.

Because of this, in 2014, Moore visited Wisconsin to learn about the impacts of the proposed mine and about the resistance to the mine.

“What I saw there was the story of our time,” said Moore. “I felt it

represented the biggest issues of our day. What I saw was about extraction and contamination, but also about resilience and envisioning. . . . it was about exploring new ideas of economy and giving people a space to be in touch with the natural world around them.”

From that visit, she and Eastern Mennonite University students created the film, To Wisconsin with Love, documenting the resistance to the proposed mine.

And now she and Northland College students will create the follow-up film, From Wisconsin with Love.

Wolf Awareness Week: Oct 12-18 In honor of the twentieth anniversary of the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction project, the Timber Wolf Alliance brought Yellowstone’s lead biologist Doug Smith and award-winning author Gary Ferguson to campus as the keynote speakers for Wolf Awareness Week. In addition to speaking, Ferguson was awarded the 2015 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for his latest book, The Carry Home: Lessons from the American Wilderness.

Smith and Ferguson met in 1995, during the first year of the Yellowstone project, when they were responsible for erecting three chain link holding pens for the transplanted wolf packs.

The two quickly united through task and their love for wilderness and wildness. So much so, that Smith and Ferguson coauthored Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone.

FALL 2015 2

NEWS Burke Center Launches More than one hundred people attended the opening of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, held on campus at the start of the September Fall Festival.

“This is a launch that will change the world and will change this region,” said President Michael Miller in a welcoming address to students, faculty, staff, and community.

The Burke Center is funded by a $10 million endowment from the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. The award was announced

last spring along with the Center’s codirectors Randy Lehr and Peter Annin.

more complicated than we originally thought but also much more interesting.”

Lehr and Annin started officially in August, merging science and communication. Lehr is professor of environmental science and management; Annin is director of environmental communication.

The Bay is also one of the most susceptible places in the world for climate change, Lehr said.

The work of the Burke Center will be conducted on campus and at Forest Lodge in Cable, Wisconsin, the former home of the Burke family, Miller explained.

Lehr and Annin each presented lively and fast-paced presentations on the core of their work.

“Anytime you can get an audience excited to hear about water and science on a Friday night is a great thing,” Lehr said.

Lehr talked about his research in Chequamegon Bay and how it relates to the nation and to the world. “Chequamegon Bay is much

Annin, who is the author of the 2009 book, Great Lakes Water Wars, on the signing of the Great Lakes Compact, said that the world has entered the century of water.

“Large lakes are vulnerable,” Annin said, providing the Aral Sea in central Asia as an example. “The Aral was once the fourth largest lake in the world, but due to large irrigation diversion projects in the 1960s, it is now a desert.”

To learn more about the new Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation go to:

northland.edu/freshwater

Artist Takes Fresh Look at Historic Clearcut

By Katherine Sorenson ‘16 Brendan Baylor, visiting art instructor and Hulings Teaching Fellow at Northland College, has created a visceral woodcut print depicting the history of clearcutting in northern Wisconsin—his exhibit, Tracing Power: The Ecology and Economy of Place, was on display in the Dexter Library during October and November.

Baylor’s inspiration stems from a tiny black-and-white photograph in a historical textbook that he painstakingly translated to wood, and then onto paper. He transferred the original image onto thirty-two panels, each measuring one by one foot, to create a woodcut print grid of four by eight panels.

Baylor says he seeks to encourage an “emotional engagement” in the viewer to trigger a “rational understanding” of the way forests were managed and mismanaged in the inception of this area.

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since 1990, headed up the Wisconsin Wolf Recovery Program that included intense monitoring of the state wolf population from 1990 through 2013.

Northland College started the Timber Wolf Alliance in 1987, partnering with the Wisconsin DNR and other organizations to promote wolf recovery and to educate people about wolves in the state. In the early 1990s, TWA expanded to promote wolf recovery into Michigan as wolves began to recolonize that state.

Timber Wolf Alliance Hires Wydeven Wolf biologist Adrian Wydeven was hired in September to head the Timber Wolf Alliance (TWA) at the Northland College Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute.

“Wolves are still controversial and the issues around wolves are more complex,” Wydeven said. “I look forward to helping TWA continue to be a leader in promoting science-based conservation, sound management, and public education about wolves.”

Wydeven is senior editor of the book, Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States: An Endangered Species Success Story. He recently wrote a chapter for Wild Wolves We Have Known. He is author of forty-two papers on wolves.

Wydeven says he hopes to raise the prominence of TWA in promoting good science regarding wolves and sound conservation practices.

“TWA has always had strong working relationships with both the Wisconsin and Michigan DNRs,” he said. “I hope to continue those relationships and to work toward making wolf management more inclusive.”

“When it comes to understanding wolves, there is no one better qualified than Adrian,” said Mark Peterson, SOEI executive director.

Wydeven retired from the Department of Natural Resources as a wildlife biologist earlier this year after working more than thirty-two years for the agency. He has served on the Timber Wolf Alliance advisory council

To learn more about the Timber Wolf Alliance go to:

northland.edu/twa

Why Does the Fox Climb?

Gray foxes are one of two dog-like species that can climb trees. The other is a raccoon dog in south Asia.

There are references to the climbing ability of the gray fox in scientific literature but little more. “It’s typically a side note based on observation,” said junior Michaela Fisher, who majors in natural resources with a wildlife and fisheries emphasis. “There’s not really any research on their climbing ability or about why, how, when, and under what conditions gray foxes climb.”

Fisher plans to change that.

Working under the mentorship of Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Erik Olson, she and recent graduate Jamie Goethlich ’14 set out camera traps in Ashland, Washburn, Bayfield, and Cable. In the last year they captured seventy to eighty photos of gray foxes—though many are duplicates of the same fox, Fisher said.

This year, Fisher and student Kara Winters are expanding the project, seeking help from the larger community via a citizen science project. The team hopes that by involving the Chequamegon Bay community in their research, they will be able to increase the number of new study sites.

To learn how you can get involved email grayfoxproject@northland.edu.

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Tribal Youth Play Lacrosse Northland College Lacrosse coaches Kristin Crowley and Jack Meachum fully understand and appreciate the ties between the game of lacrosse and the Ojibwe Nation. Since their arrival last summer, they have partnered with the Northland College Indigenous Cultures Center and participated in numerous community events, led several workshops with tribal youth, and even participated in a cultural exchange between a group of students from Korea and the Red Cliff tribal community. They are currently making future plans for tribal youth nights at their games and looking for more ways to strengthen ties between the local tribes and Northland College through this sacred cultural game.

Messages for the Next Seven Generations

Through multi-generational photographs and other media, the project hopes to preserve the culture and lifeways of native people now and for the next seven generations to come.

The Northland College Indigenous Cultures Center launched a multimedia project called Messages for the Next Seven Generations, an initiative to not only archive cultural knowledge and advice, but also to spread a message of personal spirit.

“The project is about promoting a sense of pride, hope, resiliency, and individuality, while connecting different communities through storytelling,� said Katrina Werchouski, director of the Indigenous Cultures Center.

They started by setting up at powwows and talking to participants.

Students and staff will continue the project throughout the year, visiting tribal youth centers and other venues to collect messages for the future.

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To see more images from the project go to:

northland.edu/7th-gen

Native American Museum March is Indigenous Cultures Month All events will be held at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at 6 p.m. unless noted otherwise.

•• Monday, March 14 1,000 Miles, 1,000 Stories: A Look into Indigenous Traditions Around the Globe •• Tuesday, March 15 The Creator’s Game: The Evolution of the Game of Lacrosse •• Wednesday, March 16 Traditional Arts Night led by the Native American Student Association •• Thursday, March 17 Spotlight on Education Day in the Alvord Theatre ••10 a.m. Northern Games, Northern Music ••1 p.m. Tribal Education Panel: Connecting through Knowledge and Community •• Thursday, March 17 Ancient Teaching: Similarities in Sacred Ways of Ancient European Beliefs and Ojibwe Lifeways •• Friday, March 18 Native American Student Association and Native American Alumni Dinner in the Alvord Theatre at 5:30 p.m.

•• Saturday, March 19 42nd Annual Spring Powwow, Chapple Family Gymnasium at Northland College, Grand Entries at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., Feast at 5 p.m.

All events are drug/alcohol free and open to the public free of charge.

To learn more about Indigenous Cultures Center events go to:

Expressing Arts, Culture & Language

The Native American Museum was established at Northland College with the goal of expressing the history, language, arts, and culture of the Ojibwe people for the educational benefit of community members and visitors to the Chequamegon Bay area. Located on the first floor of Mead Hall, the public is welcome to enjoy.

Hours of Operation: Monday, Wednesday and Friday Noon-3 p.m.

Thursday 1-6 p.m.

Other times upon request, subject to staff availability.

Contact Katrina Werchouski, director of the Indigenous Cultures Center, by calling 715-682-1344 to schedule a tour.

northland.edu/icc-events FALL 2015 6

Chasing Dragonflies for Science Jabbing a dip-net in the muck, senior Joe Fitzgerald spent his summer collecting dragonfly larvae at Pictured Rocks, Isle Royale, Grand Portage, St. Croix, and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Next year he hopes to add Sleeping Bear Dunes and Voyageurs National Park.

Dr. Randy Lehr, professor and codirector of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, has been working with students since 2012 to collect larval dragonfly at the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

The hope is to use larval dragonfly as sentinel organisms to monitor spatial patterns and trends in mercury across several parks. Recent studies have shown that concentrations of mercury in larval dragonfly are well correlated with levels of mercury in fish, and larval dragonfly are more easily sampled than fish.

This is part of a larger study in which students work as citizen scientists in cooperation with the National Park Service Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network, NPS Air Resources Division, US Geological Survey, and the University of Maine.

COLLABORATIVE

RESEARCH

“The dragonfly monitoring project is an excellent collaboration where students get to learn about parks, wetland ecosystems, and mercury in those systems,” said Bill Route, ecologist at the National Park Service Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network. “For our part, we get excellent data collected for monitoring the levels of mercury in these parks.”

Faculty, students, community, and agencies work together to investigate queries, deepen knowledge, and find solutions.

This agreement will expand Lehr’s capacity to oversee students to collect, manage, analyze, and report on data at up to nine other NPS locations.

A natural resources major with an emphasis in ecological restoration, Fitzgerald is a shining example of Lehr’s vision for innovating higher ed research via the Burke Center. The idea is that students start as research interns their first year then move through the ranks from research technician to research assistant until they progress into becoming full research scientists.

While at Northland College, Fitzgerald has been involved in graduate level research, leading plankton research in Chequamegon Bay, developing a phytoplankton catalog, and studying silver carp in the Mississippi.

Fitzgerald will be using his research in his senior capstone project.

That research includes abundance analysis of massive amounts of plankton collected at sites on Chequamegon Bay. He plans to pursue a future working on economic innovation around the Great Lakes. He’s interested in economics and policy but understands the importance of having a solid science-based background.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do since middle school, and I knew I could do it at Northland,” he said.

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Campus and Community Create Magazine Student and community writers, poets, photographers, and artists founded Aqueous Magazine as a way to give local artists an outlet for their work. Published quarterly, it is the Lake Superior region’s only ad-free, literary magazine dedicated to publishing the literary and visual art of regional artists.

“The reason and inspiration for starting Aqueous was simply the absence of such a thing in the area,” said cofounder Marissa Fish, who graduated from Northland College in 2015. “There are numerous places in the area to display visual arts but there was a lack of such opportunity for writers—as the idea grew, we knew we wanted to include visual art as well any type of art we could put into printed form.”

Fish, along with cofounders Nick Nelson, Sara Owen, and Kristen Sandstrom, published the first issue in 2013. Aqueous is a nonprofit committed to funding production through subscriptions and donations.

“I consider the Aqueous project to be a beautiful expression of the symbiosis that can happen between a college and the community it is supposed to serve,” said Professor Tim Ziegenhagen, who served as an advisor. “I’m proud of everyone who has thrown a shoulder behind it.”

In its second year, Aqueous began offering three-credit internships to Northland College writing students as a way for the students to gain reallife experience in the full production of a literary magazine.

“In my time with Aqueous, I grew close to a small family who believe—without a doubt—that words and art have an invaluable impression on society as a whole,” said Sean Devlin ‘15, who is now pursuing his masters of creative writing at the University of Limerick in Ireland, where he also edits a literary magazine. “Aqueous has offered many individuals the opportunity to rediscover the importance of reading, writing, and creating art in their lives.”

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Apostle Islands Detectives The Great Lakes Regional Office of the National Park Service came to professors Sarah Johnson and Jonathan Martin for help answering a question: Do naturally occurring fires help or hurt vegetation, specifically Canada yew, in the Apostle Islands?

Johnson is assistant professor of natural resources and has been conducting vegetative research in the islands for years; Martin is assistant professor of natural resources and specializes in forestry.

The answer to the park’s question is one piece of the puzzle needed in creating a natural resource management policy in the Apostle Islands for comanaging fire, sensitive species, and wildlife.

Canada yew, an evergreen shrub, is uniquely abundant in the Apostle Islands. The deer population on the mainland have significantly reduced the abundance of Canada yew. But because some of the islands have few or no deer, Canada yew thrives.

During the summer of 2015, Johnson and Martin hired student research assistants David Moy and Stephanie Kovach, and set out to ascertain the influence of slowburning lightning strike fires on the maritime forests of the islands, as well as the recovery rates of Canada yew.

The faculty-student team read historical records, unearthed clues, and collected extensive measurements including charcoal from soil samples for carbon analysis. “I thought finding charcoal would be like finding a needle in a haystack,” Martin said. “But it turns out there’s a whole lot of needles out there.”

They investigated seven islands in all, piecing together a history of fire on the islands.

“This was not cookie cutter science,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we had to sit down on a log and think through and strategize about our next moves.”

The team anticipates that lightning strike fires are likely to be more common as the region experiences more storms linked with climate change. For their final report, they plan to document relationships of yew with past fire and to make recommendations to the park about fire and yew management.

The two colleagues noted the advantage of working together. “It’s possible to work alone but it is so much more beneficial to work together,” Martin said. “It can create bigger science and it’s more fun.”

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Brainstorming Beach Warnings Three years ago, the City of Ashland collaborated with Northland College to have researchers and students collect water samples, test for E. coli at city beaches, and post advisories when necessary.

But one year into the project, said Professor Randy Lehr, researchers noted that the science alone was not enough. Lehr oversees the monitoring through the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation.

Even with signs posted, the public did not heed beach warnings.

Two years ago, Lehr reached out to his colleagues Brandon Hofstedt, professor of sustainable community development, and Matt O’Laughlin, assistant professor of psychology, to help solve the question of how to communicate scientific facts to the public.

Hofstedt, O’Laughlin, and students surveyed beach usage and brainstormed ways to talk to the public.

The group most at risk—children—were most likely to swim regardless of warnings, Hofstedt said. “We needed to first, make people aware of the signs, and secondly redirect them to another place.”

The biggest barrier was that the signs blended into the background, he said.

Student Kaylee Thornley, who spent the last two years observing and surveying beach usage, came up with an idea she recently pitched to the City of Ashland Parks and Recreation Department.

She proposed that the city develop signs shaped like fish and that the colorful signs would communicate the information.

“The idea is to draw the attention of the children—the ones who are swimming—who may alert their parents,” she said.

The signs will also suggest an alternative beach for swimming.

The effectiveness of this new approach remains to be tested, as the signs will go up in May 2016.

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Rewriting the Small Town Narrative Over the last forty years, the dominant narrative for rural communities has been one of decline and loss, said Brandon Hofstedt, associate professor of sustainable community development and faculty director of the new Center for Rural Communities.

His surveys and research, however, tell a different story. “There is a vibrant future ahead, and some of the most promising options for rural development mean capitalizing on community resources,” he said.

Hofstedt has been instrumental in the formation of the Northland College Center for Rural Communities, developed to research and address the reshaping of the rural narrative.

He and his students have teamed with the City of Ashland, the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, the Ashland Area Development Corporation, the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, and Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College to create a database of the region’s amenities and assets.

According to the report, items on the list include two colleges, a hospital, Lake Superior, the Apostle Islands, city parks, bike trails, libraries, coffee shops, bookstores, grocery stores, and more.

They released the seventy-four page Assets and Amenities Comparison Report in September, and presented their findings at a one-day forum in Ashland on strategies for optimizing Ashland’s resources.

Their findings included a list of good news. For example: • Ashland has a diversifying economy and is witnessing population growth in key age groups; • Ashland and the Chequamegon Bay region features unmatched and unique natural assets; • Ashland possesses vital assets in the key sectors of health care and education.

Some fifteen students attended the forum. They will be transcribing their notes to create an executive summary, and then distributing the action steps to the group, Hofstedt said.

Hofstedt does not want the project to sit on a shelf. He and students will continue to build the database, eventually making it available to and interactive for the public.

“The purpose is to take inventory of what we have that can counteract the negative narrative for the region and rural communities,” he said.

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Fitz Proves Asbestos Geoscience professor Tom Fitz did not set out to become the key researcher of asbestos-like fibers in the Penokee Hills, the site of a proposed mine.

In the absence of thorough scientific inquiry, he stepped in. Literally. In the last few years, he has walked nearly every inch of the Penokee Hills.

“It appears that I’m trying to stop a mine,” he said. “I’m not. I’m trying to find answers to important questions, and because of that, I’ve become a scientist for the community.”

With the assistance of student Marissa Fish ’15, he discovered asbestos—lots of it. “No matter what criteria you use, it’s out there and some of it is textbook,” he said.

In past years, there’s been debate whether there was asbestos, Fitz said. Fitz and Fish ended the debate when they presented their findings at a conference in Duluth in October.

“There’s enough of it—stretches where asbestos is nearly everywhere— that we can no longer disregard it,” Fitz said.

What does it mean?

“It means that we now know for sure it is out there, but more research needs to be done,” Fitz said. “Asbestos doesn’t exclude the possibility of mining—there are ways to protect workers, but it’s a real hazard.”

In some places, Fitz says that the asbestos is very obvious and in other places it’s very fine-grained and you have to look at it with a microscope.

“We’ve known about this mineral for a long time, but no one has ever called it asbestos,” he said.

Fitz intends to turn over his research to the US Geologic Survey who will continue the research. Although USGS was not involved in Fitz’s research, the USGS has allowed Northland College to use its microbeam laboratory in Denver.

“I’m so happy that USGS is stepping in,” he said. “They have the facilities and clout to do something with this.”

Fitz will continue to do research looking for asbestos in soils in the Penokee Hills.

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Carnivore Project Reveals Return of the Marten on Apostle Islands An Apostle Islands collaborative carnivore diversity and abundance project between the National Park Service, Northland College, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison led to an unexpected surprise: the discovery of American marten on Stockton Island.

The American marten is on Wisconsin’s endangered species list and not been sighted in the islands since 1969.

In the summer of 2015, researchers were checking thousands of images from trail cameras on Stockton Island as part of the carnivore project which looks at island wildlife diversity and abundance throughout the Apostle Islands.

“We had just docked and [NPS ranger] Julie Van Stappen informed me that her group had looked through some of the images on the way to the docks and discovered marten,” said Erik Olson, assistant professor of natural resources.

“It didn’t register at that moment, but later I realized the ramifications of it. Wow, where did these marten come from? How many are there? Why didn’t I collect that mustelid scat on the trail?”

Hence a second but complimentary project: the American Marten Project. “We’re trying to better understand where these marten originally came from, what their distribution is within the islands, genetic diversity, and possibly, population estimates and sex ratios,” Olson said.

Researchers and students are looking for answers through a combination of scat collection, genetic analysis, trail camera work, and opportunistic observations from visitors and National Park Service staff. This past summer, Olson hiked most of the islands with trails and found numerous samples consistent with the characteristics of marten scat. Students have assisted with the collection and preparation of scat samples, to be sent for genetic analysis at UWMadison.

Olson said the research is still in the early stages, but that the team aims to publish the results as they come in. What he does know for sure is that little would be known without teamwork.

“To be able to pull together the resources and human and brain power of faculty and students from Northland College and UW-Madison, as well as the Park Service, has been instrumental in documenting American marten on Stockton Island and now other islands,” he said.

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Tracking Wildlife in the Tropics In an effort to determine the efficacy of various techniques for monitoring wildlife in the tropics, Northland College senior Parker Matzinger walked over three-hundred miles through the jungles of Costa Rica last winter.

Matzinger, who is double majoring in biology and natural resources, with an emphasis in fisheries and wildlife management, collaboratively developed his research project—to assess various wildlife tracking and monitoring devices—with Erik Olson, assistant professor of natural resources.

Matzinger was unsure of where to conduct this research. Olson suggested the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, where he is working on a larger ongoing project in Costa Rica assessing the abundance of wildlife, mainly jaguar and puma.

Costa Rica was possible, Olson said, because in 2013, Costa Rica’s National System of Conservation Areas teamed up with the US National Park Service to sign a sister park agreement between the Osa Conservation Area and the national parks of the Great Lakes region.

“The sister park arrangement is critical for allowing the work that we’re doing in Costa Rica,” Olson said.

“It laid the formal groundwork for collaboration on this type of research.”

The Osa Peninsula is estimated to house two-and-a-half percent of the biodiversity of the entire world, while covering less than a thousandth of a percent of its total surface, earning it the title as the most biologically intense place on earth.

Matzinger’s question is a simple but critical one for wildlife managers under budgetary constraints—what are the best and most efficient ways to monitor wildlife? Audio? Track surveys?

Cameras?

Over the course of nearly three months, Matzinger, Olson, park staff, and local volunteers conducted track surveys while managing trail cameras and acoustic devices that record sound.

Matzinger will analyze the findings for his senior thesis.

Matzinger and Olson left a few cameras in the park for Costa Rican officials to monitor in their search for rare and endangered wildlife species. Park officials are currently deploying trail cameras to an area where a jaguar was seen feeding on nesting sea turtles and Olson will be returning in February to complete a follow-up wildlife survey using trail cameras.

Costa Rican officials have noted the importance of the survey in advancing their understanding of the wildlife in the park. The project has allowed them to verify through the use of camera traps the presence and abundance of critically important wildlife, like jaguar and white-lipped peccary.

Olson and Matzinger hope to submit their findings to the peer-reviewed scientific journal Oryx.

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ATHLETICS

Meet the Beast: Alec Z. Drachenberg

Majoring in sustainable community development.

Participating in cross country.

Has dual citizenship, having lived in Mexico as a child, then San Diego, California.

Q. I hear you have been named the NC Beast. Why?

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A. This last summer, I stumbled upon a YouTube sensation called L.A. Beast, who films himself attempting inhuman eating challenges, and consuming ungodly amounts of food. He makes popular eating challenges look like jokes, and he completes them with ease. L.A. Beast has to make his own challenges, or supersize the mainstream challenges. Today he is one of the world’s top competitive eaters. It is the mind over matter mentality that inspires me so much. I have shared his videos with friends, and the cross country team occasionally addresses me as the NC Beast. At my first college cross country meet, multiple people actually yelled “GO BEAST!” I love my team.

Q. I hear you’ve progressed to second runner in a few short months. Have you always been a runner? When did you get interested?

A. I began taking an interest in sports in fifth grade, which was the first year that I got into competitive swimming.

I swam every day until the end of eighth grade. From this period of time, I went from being a chubby fifth grader with asthma to a Junior Olympic swimmer.

Freshman year began and I was introduced to Jim Vance, the coach of the triathlon team called TriJuniors.

I left competitive swimming and began doing triathlons.

I realized that my swimming skills were far better than the average triathlete, but my cycling was horrible and my running was just as bad. I only ran cross country during my junior year of high school, and I ran junior varsity. By this point, running had become my Achilles heel in triathlons.

Fast forward to the summer after my high school senior year. I was talking with [Orientation Coordinator] Lucas Will, who told me that the first Outdoor Orientation trip sessions are for athletes only. I emailed the cross country coach immediately. Coach Peter Macky said, “We’d like to have you on the team. Make sure you get up to fifty miles a week to prepare for pre-season.” I started running. A lot. On weekends I ran miles at the beach. When I would not run, I would go on sixty-mile bike rides. The hard work pays off.

That’s what I learned this summer: the only easy day was yesterday.

Q. Why did you choose Northland College?

on the phone that Northland was a place where one could easily experience education. I was told about the Outdoor Orientation, Connections courses, and an amazing student body combined with great teachers and coaches...

I knew that the one way to describe the people here was “passionate.”

There were only two weeks left before the deadline, and Northland sent me a postcard. “This could be you. Enroll today.” This was the text written on top of a picture of two students kayaking on Lake Superior. I knew in that moment that I simply needed to commit. I paid my enrollment deposit. It was official. Alec Z. Drachenberg was to soon become a Northland College LumberJack.

Q. How does running in Lake Superior country vs.

California compare?

A. Running in the California heat is not a lot of fun, but it is so beautiful to have the ocean ten minutes away from my home. Lake Superior is far more interesting because we actually have weather here. No day is the same, and running is so much more fun with the team. In weeks, I have progressed far more as a runner than I had in many years.

A. I ultimately chose Northland because I knew from having talked with admissions counselors and students

Check out the new Northland College athletics website at: northlandcollegesports.com

FALL 2015 16

ALUMNI Smith believes the story behind how she discovered Northland College set the tone for her life’s work.

“In some way I came to Northland because of seafood—making sure that treaty rights were upheld and that people could fish. Twenty-five years later I am still working to keep people fishing,” Smith said.

In October, she spoke in classrooms, lunched with students, gave an evening community presentation, and spoke to the Chequamegon Women’s Leadership Group.

From Treaty Rights to Oyster Flights: Alumna Mary Smith Advocates for Sustainable Seafood Harvest Amber Mullen ’12 Mary (Ganchoff) Smith ’94 never imagined that the path less traveled would take her to exactly where she wants to be. As the co-owner and operator of Springline Seafood and publisher of Edible Alaska, Smith has worked hard to educate others on the importance and profitability of sustainable practices in seafood production.

17 NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Smith graduated from high school and worked for Greenpeace 1989-90. During that same period, she volunteered for a treaty rights group advocating for the Anishinabe people to maintain their right to hunt and fish on designated land.

During an event in Lac du Flambeau, she encountered Northland College Professor Joe Rose of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

“When he started to describe Northland I was intrigued,” Smith recalled. “I couldn’t believe there was actually a college where one could pursue a course of study that included Native American issues and peace studies.”

Smith enrolled at Northland College the following year. “Northland certainly provided an atmosphere of really progressive thought and action,” Smith said.

Once Smith graduated, she knew she wanted to use her writing major and passion for political activism to make a difference. However, finding a strong voice out of the gate proved to be harder than she anticipated.

“When I graduated from Northland, I wasn’t sure how to make a life of activism,” Smith said. “Maybe I was

just too young or maybe not quite ready to commit.”

After trying her hand at community farming, Smith began working at Maggie’s Restaurant in Bayfield and the Black Cat Coffeehouse in Ashland where she discovered an issue she could stand behind—consciously sourced food.

In 1998, Smith became a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and after working in several restaurants decided to turn in her spatula for advocacy at the source. Smith entered the seafood industry in 2000 as the marketing director for the Plitt Company in Chicago.

“When I started there I fell in love with the seafood industry. It was politically charged, socially charged, and so exotic—people are still really interacting with the wild across the planet,” Smith said. “I started at a time when people in the industry didn’t understand why sustainability mattered.”

She spent the next fifteen years of her life developing and implementing sustainable seafood production practices nationwide. At Northland, Smith held a summer internship at Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission working on mercury and fish consumption issues. She believes the experience helped prepare her to advocate for sustainable practices in fishing when the seafood industry first began talking about seafood and contaminants.

Today, Smith continues to advocate for sustainable seafood practices.

However, instead of sitting behind a desk, Smith has joined the frontlines on her own troller with the rest of the “fishermen at the bottom of the food production hierarchy.”

MACNC Noise: Of Jacks and Quacks

By Mark Travaglini ’69 A convivial cluster of Northland alumni and friends converged on Baltimore’s venerable Patterson Bowling Center on Saturday, September 12, with ducks in mind.

Duck hunting season had yet to begin in Maryland, but duckpin bowling is on the card year-round. For the uninitiated, duckpins are a smaller version of tenpins; and you roll three balls per frame, not just two. There are other differences, but we’ll leave that to the experts out there to explain.

You know who you are.

This, the LumberJack and Jill Duckpin Bowling Night, was the MidAtlantic Club of Northland College’s (aka MACNC) latest event in an occasional series of gatherings over the past few decades. And the first foray into the world of “kegling.” Look

it up; those who studied bowling at Northland already know. Teams were loosely composed of Northlanders whose graduating classes spanned the administrations of Northland presidents from Richard Bailey (late 1960s) through our current one, Mike Miller. Eight in all!

Prizes—a potpourri of Northland shirts, trinkets, and recordings by Northland alum and “Prairie Home Companion” celebrity Pop Wagner— were awarded for Best Team Score and Best Individual Score.

Team McKinley captured the former; and Eric Geiger, who was a guest of alumna Erin McKinley ’10, earned the latter. In the interest of modesty, and to avoid snarky name calling, the actual scores shall not be revealed. Especially those of Team Travaglini.

Some snappy new MACNC t-shirts were sold. And a table full of munchies were consumed, helped along with appropriately representative malt

beverages—Leinenkugel’s Original imported from Wisconsin; and the very emblem (some say the Mother’s Milk) of the Chesapeake Bay area, National Bohemian.

The featured topic on this event’s agenda was the announcement of a scholarship fund. This fund, named for Mid-Atlantic alumna Linda Zurflieh ’70, is intended for Northland students from our region and thereby assist the College in their efforts to recruit more from the region.

With the announcement came the presentation of a ceremonial check in the amount of $3,000.

Newly named Northland Trustee Ann Hartman Maier ’81 accepted the check on behalf of the College. Thus the initial step in attaining our goal of $25,000, the amount necessary to make the fund a permanent, endowed scholarship. Those of you who read this are encouraged to lend a hand and contribute to the effort—especially those who knew the indefatigable and effervescent late alumna.

FALL 2015 18

CLASS NOTES CLASS OF 2013

CLASS OF 2009

Madeline Jarvis earned her master of arts in library and information science from the University of Iowa in May 2015.

She is currently employed as the youth services librarian at the Ely Public Library in Ely, Iowa.

Sarah Bhimani was recently promoted to outreach and education manager at City Market Onion River Co-op, a 16,000 square foot communityowned food cooperative in downtown Burlington, Vermont.

In September 2015, Sarah married her partner of five years, Rabi Vandergon, at a small ceremony in Minnesota.

CLASS OF 2012 Jared Ursin has permanently settled in Hayward, Wisconsin, where he has recently been promoted to the position of assistant wrestling coach at the high school.

CLASS OF 2010 Ashley (Loken) Kamantauskas and her husband Michael recently moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where Ashley is pursuing her masters in social work at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

April (BeBault) Newman was married on September 6, 2015.

Alex Zelles is an environmental scientist with LJB Inc. in Dayton, Ohio, a civil and structural engineering firm providing services in architecture, engineering, environmental sciences, planning, and surveying.

She also serves as a board trustee for the Beaver Creek Wetlands Association. Alex earned her master of science in biological sciences from Wright State University in 2012.

19 NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Megan Greer married Andrew Johnson this past June. They met at Northland College in McMillan Hall.

CLASS OF 2008 Laura (Scheder) Compton welcomed a new baby girl Kori Compton to the world on August 28, 2015.

CLASS OF 2007 Jeff Lang reports that he is a Class of 2005 member working as a sign spinner for Paul’s Liquor Shop in Oak Park, Illinois. Alumni Relations staff suggest any interested parties look for Jeff, listed formally from the Class of 2007, at the Paul’s Liquor that actually exists on Belvidere Road in Waukegan, Illinois.

Jenny Robinson has been devoted to the creation of handpans, a steel musical instrument, for nearly four years.

Recently, she has turned this passion into a small business in Madison, Wisconsin, and is looking to get her instruments into the hands of people in the Midwest.

More information is on her website, isthmusinstruments.com.

Kelly (Randleman) Westlund is now serving as the northwest regional representative for U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. Kelly, who lives in Ashland, brings public service experience to the position having served as city councilwoman from 2011-2014.

Prior to her time working for the City of Ashland, Kelly owned and operated a small business and worked in the non-profit sector as executive director at the Alliance for Sustainability, a grassroots organization focused on building coalitions to support sustainable communities in the greater Chequamegon Bay area.

CLASS OF 2006 John Brady accepted a position at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, a World IB school with a mission to challenge highability scholars from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds in Indianapolis Public Schools. He is excited about the opportunity to work with the outstanding staff and students at Shortridge, encouraging life-long learners to develop personal and social awareness, and engage in meaningful action.

CLASS OF 2005 Pamela (Peterson) Huyck and husband Kevin Huyck ’03 are excited to announce the arrival of their son, Calem Kenneth.

He arrived March 29, 2015, and already loves the outdoors.

Heidi Johnson recently accepted a position with the Rainbow Health Initiative (a LGBTQ health advocacy nonprofit based in the

Twin Cities) as their marketing and communications manager.

Heidi has worked in nonprofits for nearly fifteen years, most recently as the communications manager for First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. She has volunteered with the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition and served on the Chequamegon Food Co-op Board of Directors in Ashland, Wisconsin.

She still loves wigs and lives with her partner, Duggins, and two ridiculous dogs in the Nokomis area of Minneapolis.

CLASS OF 2004 Jeremy Ford welcomed his son Samuel Wayne Ford on July 14, 2015. Jeremy earned his PhD in teaching and learning (special education subtrack) with an emphasis in school curriculum and assessment policy and is working as an assistant professor at the Department of Early and Special Education at Boise State University.

CLASS OF 2003 Lynn (Richter) Sparks, husband Craig, and son Wyatt, two, welcomed the newest member of their family, Emry Joseph, on April 14, 2015, in Soldotna, Alaska.

CLASS OF 2002 Lara Murphy and Sean Alden ’04 are proud to announce their new addition, Ellery Jocelyn born December 30, 2014. She joins her big sister Calla who is four. Lara continues to work as a da Vinci trainer and simulation specialist at London Health Sciences Centre and is working on completing her doctorate in educational leadership. Sean is enjoying some time home with Ellery and

continues to play competitive soccer.

CLASS OF 1999 Derek Carr is working in the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Pacific Southwest Regional Office as a planner for wildlife refuge visitor services. He specializes in coordinating programs in interpretation and environmental education, interpretive media design, website management, volunteers, and non-profit partners. Five years ago, he moved to the regional office from a fulltime wilderness ranger position.

Derek just returned from a solo pack raft trip down Canada’s South Nahanni River. Last year, he embarked on a month-long expedition to paddle from the Amazon headwaters to the jungle.

Brian Pasko and wife Kim Kelly are celebrating the birth of their daughter, Kiana Sophie Pasko, who was born on September 21, 2015, five pounds seven ounces at Legacy Emmanuel Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon.

CLASS OF 1988

homeschooling her five youngest.

Most recently, she took three of her sons to hear the Chequamegon Symphony Orchestra directed by Northland’s Joel Glickman.

CLASS OF 1980 Jean Menown married Glenn “Raunchy” Miller ’79 on August 1, 2015, at the Mason Town Park in Mason, Wisconsin. Over sixtyfive Northlanders were present.

Guests came from fifteen states and Canada to attend. The couple resides in Mason, Wisconsin.

Glenn is a fish biologist for the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Ashland.

Jean is a part-time supervisor for UPS in Duluth.

CLASS OF 1979 Jacqueline (Thuener) Sumida married Larry Sumida on March 21, 2015, after twenty-five years together. She is still the science chair at McKinley High School, which is the top ranked public science department in the Honolulu School District and second overall in the state of Hawaii.

Mark Mackey was featured on an episode of HGTV’s House Hunters Off the Grid that aired September 10, 2015. Mark spent a year experiencing Alaska and the Yukon after retiring from the Marine Corps.

CLASS OF 1977

CLASS OF 1981

CLASS OF 1974

Sally Zielke greatly misses Thomas Zielke ’77, who passed from leukemia on June 27, 2014. She enjoys spending time with her children, two of whom graduated from universities in May. Sally adopted two children this last April, and is currently

Stephen Rehwaldt serves as the director of facilities at Valero Energy Corp in San Antonio, Texas.

He is the proud grandparent of two boys living in Houston, Texas.

Scott Bemus has retired and is living in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his wife is working him like a rented mule at home.

FALL 2015 20

CLASS NOTES CLASS OF 1971

CLASS OF 1969

Robert Larouere retired at the end of 2013 after forty-three years of working as a teacher, pharmaceutical specialist, and owner of Industrial Supply Co. He is now enjoying life with his wife Linda, two grown children, and four grandchildren.

Bill Culp has been named chair of the Board of Directors for Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services. Bill joined the GCB Board in 2011 and serves on its foundation board and executive committee. He is the area senior vice president at Arthur J. Gallagher, Inc., where he has been employed since 1982. He and his wife, Polly, reside in Hyde Park and have two adult sons.

In addition to his service on the GCB Board, Bill has served on the Board of Trustees of Cincinnati Country Day School; the Board of Trustees of Life Enriching

CLASS OF 1970 Bob Saner has retired after thirty-eight years working in finance for Parker Hannifin. He joins his wife Sandy (Bushman) Saner ’70 who retired earlier from teaching. They will now enjoy family, friends, and golf and live in Woodridge, Illinois.

Communities (Twin Towers/Twin Lakes) and is currently chair of its foundation; the Board of Trustees of Northland College; the Board of Directors of the Robert C. Schiff Investment Company (Schiff Kreidler-Shell, Inc.); and the vestry of the Church of the Redeemer.

CLASS OF 1962 John Hoglund has retired from the University of Maryland at College Park after forty-four years on the faculty. He plans to remain in the Washington DC metro area.

JOIN US FOR FALL FEST 2016 SEPT 23-25

21 NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Wendy McLean Wendy (Heaton) McLean died Thursday, August 20 surrounded by family at her St. Paul home. A small, private memorial service was held in October.

Wendy served with Malcolm at Northland from 1971-1987. She was a beloved “first lady,” mentor, and support system for the campus community. She had a deep and passionate appreciation for the arts

and introduced many students to the idea of art as a career choice.

Wendy trained as a physiotherapist in Canada at the University of Toronto. After World War II, Wendy spent five years as a physiotherapist and teacher of physiotherapy in London at St. Thomas’ Hospital. She subsequently worked with Dr. Howard Rusk at the Institute for Physical Medicine in New York. In 1953, Wendy volunteered for service in Korea and was assigned to the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency to help in the establishment of the Korean National Rehabilitation Center. It was there she met Malcolm in 1955.

Malcolm and Wendy were married in Korea, had three boys, and were married for fifty-eight years. Malcolm

died November 19, 2014. Their three sons grew up while Malcolm and Wendy served at Northland. Malcolm and Wendy were partners in life and in their service to the College and the community. They remained close friends with retired faculty and staff, and continued to host and attend events on behalf of Northland College.

A memorial fund has been established at Northland College to honor the life and contributions of Wendy and Malcolm McLean. Gifts to this fund of any size will be gathered together in their honor. The McLean family and the College will work together to find the best fit for these memorial gifts that honor Wendy’s legacy to the College. To make a contribution to this fund, you can give online at northland.edu/give.

FALL 2015 22

CLASS NOTES

Want to see your news in Class Notes?

SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES OF:

To submit notes, please contact:

Melissa (Omerigic) Gibson ’87; La Center, WA; died 08.07.2014 Robert N. Olson ’53; Ashland, WI; died 09.07.2014 Gerald P. Larson ’52; Ashland, WI; died 12.03.2014 Ross O. Ranzau ’69; Lake Mills, WI; died 12.13.2014 Leota (Witzke) Birkholz ’55; Washburn, WI; died 01.08.2015 Carol (Kehoe) McAuliffe ’88; Ashland, WI; died 01.14.2015 Milton K. Leisman ’53; Ashland, WI; died 02.25.2015 Frank R. Brunner ’55; Plainfield, IN; died 03.03.2015 Sylvia (White) Fisher ’45; Candler, NC; died 04.19.2015 Walter F. Von Holzen ’54; Burlington, WI; died 05.04.2015 William “Bill” M. Blake ’51; Ashland, WI; died 05.27.2015 Ursula (Will) Hambuch ’65; Eau Claire, WI; died 06.01.2015 Mary Ann (Paulson) Zifko ’71; Ashland, WI; died 06.09.2015 John W. Anderson ’54; Tomahawk, WI; died 06.28.2015 John J. Hogan ’54; Oshkosh, WI; died 07.04.2015 Susan (Foster) Burns ’71; Park Ridge, IL; died 07.25.2015 Jean (Lehnard) Gustafson ’53; New Berlin, WI; died 07.27.2015 Keith S. Stenman, Sr. ’70; Ashland, WI; died 07.31.2015 Joyce (Liljequist) Ullenberg ’49; Parker, CO; died 08.04.2015

Sarah “Sally” Lovegrove Baker Ross, Former Northland College Trustee; Saint Paul, MN; died 08.05.2015 Harley “Pete” W. Seemuth ’61; Ashland, WI; died 08.08.2015 William “Bill” Lindberg ’62; Wells, NV; died 08.12.2015 Emily “Emmy” (Forster) Koehler ’50; Hartland, WI; died 08.13.2015

Phone: (715) 682-1811 Email: alumni@northland.edu Mail: Office of Alumni Relations 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806 Director of Alumni Relations Jackie Moore ‘05 Alumni Association Board of Directors: Craig Mullenbrock ’77-President Beverly Harris ’72-Vice President Gail Fridlund ’15-Secretary K. Scott Abrams ’77 Richard L. Ackley ’71 Laurel Fischer ’72 MaryJo Gingras ’00 Stuart Goldman ’69 Mark Gross ’83 Tam Hofman ’80 Max Metz ’10 Peter B. Millett ’69 Jaime Moquin ’98 Sam Polonetzky ’70 Jim Quinn ’73 Patti Skoraczewski ’74 Kelly Westlund ’07 Leanne Wilkie Shamszad ’04 Kelly Zacharda ’05

Christopher L. Wittman ’89; Allentown, PA; died 08.22.2015 Robert A. Nash ’84; Midland, TX; died 09.07.2015 Jeffrey G. Walker ’92; Park Falls, WI; died 09.14.2015

For additional class notes and stories, go to: northland.edu/alumni-news

To submit a note go to: northland.edu/alumni

A

compass is a simple navigational tool

used

for

centuries by sailors, explorers, and travelers to guide their way across continents, through foggy seas, and over mountains.

The compass is a reliable piece of technology for determining geographic direction. It illuminates the path ahead and reveals the road back home. Free to pivot, the compass needle aligns itself with the magnetic field of the Earth, always pointing north. This tried and true instrument is elegant in its design, pointing those who are lost in the right direction. Northland College endeavors to serve as a compass in higher education, innovating new ways for students to learn, engage, and become world citizens. It’s no mistake that Northland College chose the tip of the compass needle as its symbol. Located at the far northern tip of Wisconsin on the edge of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world, our northern location shapes who we are and who we become. We are rugged individuals rooted in community, ready and anxious for the next challenge. A Northland College education prepares students to move forward into changing occupations, burgeoning fields of study, and uncharted territories. To discover and find answers to questions still remaining. The destination is not the goal. The journey is what leads to deeper knowledge, greater compassion, and broader understanding.

The sojourn forces us to think on our feet, to decide from a set of unclear choices, and to find our way through the clutter. The path less traveled puts us in touch with ourselves and with people we never dreamed of meeting. The needle aimed north lives deep within, pointing us in the direction we need want to change the world? you go when you

to go. Where do you go when you You go north. Where do want to go home?

YOU GO NORTH FALL 2015 24

® NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID DULUTH, MN PERMIT NO. 1944

1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806-3999

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Printed with soy ink on 10% post-consumer FSC Certified paper. Elemental chlorine free. Made with 100% certified renewable electricity.

Assistant Professor of Native American Studies Karissa White leads a class discussion during Native American Studies 160: Lake Superior Ojibwe, one of the courses in the Superior Connections program. Photo by Bob Gross.