NORTHLAND DIVESTS Pg. 4
LAKE SUPERIOR WATER QUALITY Pg. 6
ORCHID HUNTERS Pg. 10
MORE THAN SPORTS Pg. 13 SPRING 2020
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From the President
ON THE COVER Amanda Abounader of Montreal, Quebec, and Ty Kraus of East St. Paul, Manitoba, are both seniors and captains of their hockey teams. Amanda is majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry. She will be playing for the National Lebanese Women’s Ice Hockey team and attending graduate school for occupational therapy. Ty is majoring in business management with a sports management minor. He has signed with the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs of the Southern Professional Hockey League. We had an overwhelming response to the cover of the fall magazine and decided to make it into a poster. SIZE: 16” x 20” COST: $10 SHIPPING: $6
northland.edu/campus-illustration
Stay Connected @northland_edu facebook.com/northlandEDU @northland_edu JACKIE MOORE ’05 Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving alumni@northland.edu 715-682-1811 JULIE BUCKLES Director of Communications jbuckles@northland.edu 715-682-1664
Northland College Magazine SPRING 2020 Mission
Northland College integrates liberal arts studies with an environmental emphasis, enabling those it serves to address the challenges of the future. © 2020 Northland College Printed with soy ink on 10% postconsumer FSC Certified paper. Elemental chlorine free. Made with 100% certified renewable electricity.
Dear Friends,
My day begins in the John Allen Fitness Center with a rigorous routine to jump-start my daily efforts for the institution. I relish being surrounded by student athletes who are passionate about their sport and have chosen to pursue an education at Northland College. These young athletes are significant for our community—thirty-eight percent of our current student body play sports. They balance academic rigor with the commitment to practice, play, and compete with our conference schools. Our job is to support their academic and athletic aspirations, and promote their success. This current edition of the Northland magazine profiles talented student athletes, who are indeed doing just that: Adrian Bethel and his orchid research; siblings Aaron and Sarah Houle, both of whom are committed to elementary education; and Ryan Rawlings, who plans to return home to mentor youth. Likewise, beyond the efforts of our student athletes, the wellness of our entire campus community is crucial. The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute is relaunching the on-campus outdoor recreational programming. And new this year, Northland forged a partnership with Mount Ashwabay to furnish free season passes to our students. Both are prime examples of how we live our mission using outdoor activities to develop physical and mental health. My task is to sustain the College’s academic, financial, and facilities infrastructures; to reaffirm our vibrant mission around environmental responsibility and community sustainability; and to strengthen enrollment in our academically rigorous degree programs. Recruiting student athletes at Northland is about finding young men and women who thrive on our academic offerings, enjoy our distinct location, and appreciate a diverse community that cares deeply about each other and the world. Our well-being, academic strength, and athletic accomplishments underscore my lasting commitment to Northland College. Karl I. Solibakke President
Karl I. Solibakke Named 15th President The Board of Trustees announced in November that Marvin Suomi resigned his position as president of the College to focus on health issues. Additionally, the board announced that Dr. Karl Solibakke, previously Northland’s chief operating officer and dean of faculty, has been named the fifteenth president of the College. Suomi recruited Solibakke to Northland College in October 2018 for his extensive higher education and financial experience. Prior to joining Northland, Solibakke served as vice president for finance at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. “This last year, Karl has proven himself to be an excellent addition to the Northland community,” said Chad Dayton, chair of Northland’s board of trustees. “He has a strong grasp of the challenges—and opportunities—
we face and an amazing work ethic.” Solibakke grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, and received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from the University of Maryland. He received his master’s degree in German literature and culture with minors in linguistics and continental philosophy from Heinrich-Heine-Universität. In 2004, Solibakke was awarded his doctorate summa cum laude in German culture and literature, philosophy and linguistics. “It’s an extraordinary privilege to help lead this institution,” Solibakke said. “My year on campus has given me a chance to work with a remarkable faculty and staff and to meet a group of students—learners, creators, explorers, do-ers—who have a vision for themselves and for the world around us.”
BREAKING NEWS
Hold the Press
MARCH 16, 2020 As we were finalizing this issue of the magazine, the story of COVID-19 became front and center. In-person classes ceased and the athletes we were photographing and interviewing abruptly learned their seasons had ended. We felt it was important to devote this page to news surrounding COVID-19—how we’re reacting and moving forward. We train students to deal with the challenges of the world and in our alumni, we see that playing out beautifully.
—Julie Buckles
COORDINATING A COMMUNITY RESPONSE As COVID-19 moved closer to home, people in the Chequamegon Bay region began to express a desire to do something to help one another. A Facebook group was created and alumna Jenise Swartley ’19 and Assistant Professor of Education Dani O’Brien along with two other people started organizing a network of volunteers. Called the Chequamegon Bay Community Care Network, its goal is to assist people who have isolated themselves as an essential part of stopping the spread of COVID-19. A few days after they posted the form, seventy people had responded to do everything from running errands to providing tech support. Some six-hundred people had joined the Facebook group. The network is modeled after a similar volunteer brigade in Appleton, Wisconsin. O’Brien created an online form; Swartley took charge of creating a database. Others began working on a website and hotline and networking with organizations and businesses. “It’s a distributed leadership model, everyone is doing what they do best,” Swartley said. At Northland, Swartley served as NCSA president, helped start
the Food Recovery Network, and worked as a researcher at the Center for Rural Communities. “Northland, in general, shaped my world view toward the necessity of community,” she said. “And my experiences there taught me how to work with people, assess need, and respond to community needs.” Swartley is currently employed at Core Community Resources, a nonprofit in Bayfield, Wisconsin, designed to provide programming and services to support the aging population. The Chequamegon Bay Community Care Network is not part of her job but it pairs well, she said. “It’s all about community and how we’re going to survive and thrive in these times.”
Northland Transitions to Virtual Instruction On March 13 at 2:36 p.m., Michaela Jurewicz, a senior chemistry student, discovered she had just taken her last inperson class at Northland. “It was a bit . . . unexpected,” she said. Northland’s Emergency Response Team had met for days, listening to experts and working through the implications of COVID-19 and how decisions would impact students. In response to this crisis, a campus-wide email was sent announcing the immediate end of in-person classroom instruction. Northland also canceled campus gatherings, and the spring sports season came to a premature end. “We must play our part to keep our community healthy, to limit the transmission of the virus, and to avoid overwhelming the public resources of our region,” said President Karl Solibakke.
Students were asked to move off campus and return home. One student was packed up and moved out within an hour of the announcement. Others went camping for the weekend before saying goodbye. Jurewicz will remain in Ashland and finish her classes online but she does not plan to take a May term course. So for her, this is an end of a chapter. Faculty were given a week to convert to virtual instruction and students will all be finishing the final four weeks of classes online. “Like everyone else, we’re adjusting to new information day by day,” Solibakke said. “This is a first and we’re working with the best information we have and doing the best we can.”
Director of Enterprise Data Systems Trevor Tover ’07 trained faculty in delivering online instruction to students.
Tend the fire. Support the community that supported you.
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05.06.2020 SPRING 2020
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IN BRIEF HOT TOPICS Northland College Finalizes Divestment from Fossil Fuels Duluth News Tribune February , College no longer has fossil fuelrelated investments. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Loons Could Be Declining in Population in Northern Wisconsin. Is it the Fish? Milwaukee Journal Sentinel January , The Wisconsin bird count includes data from the LoonWatch program at Northland College. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ As Wolves Recover, Calls in Wisconsin to End Endangered Species Listing Grow Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism December , A study co-authored by Erik Olson, Northland College assistant professor of natural resources, suggests the changing status has led to inconsistent management, declining public support for wolves—and possibly more illegal killings. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The Race to Watch and Listen for Bats as They Disappear WisCONTEXT November , Northland College student Taylor Pichler deploys an acoustic monitor on Stockton Island in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in 2018. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Remote Wisconsin College Leading the Nation in Sustainability The Buffalo News October , Northland College, located at the tip of the state near Lake Superior and with a student body of 600, was named first in sustainable curriculum by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
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HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY Northland Divestment Complete By Mike Fiorio ’80, Trustee On September 27, 2019, an estimated 500,000 people, mostly high school, college, and university students marched in a climate strike held in Montreal, Quebec. My two stepsons were among those led by Greta Thunberg. The Montreal event was not an outlier. These climate strikes occurred across North America and around the globe. These young people are much like Ms. Thunberg; they are exasperated by inaction from us—baby boomers (or “OK boomers” as the students call us). I think about this a lot from the perspective of a parent, Northland College trustee, and a retired financial planner. Future students will demand more action on climate issues because of the impact on their lives and on those of their children. Indeed, it is happening already: students at Northland College were agitating for change when I joined the board and partnered with them to lead the way to divestiture. As a trustee and member of the Investment Committee at Northland, I refocused the discussion after a decade of conversation and inaction. Subsequent to much research on alternative investments that would meet acceptable performance goals, Northland’s endowment is now onehundred percent fossil-free. We concluded this was the right move for us from many perspectives—fulfilling our mission, aligning with our values, attracting the best students, and protecting our endowment capital in both the short and long term. We believe that fossil-free and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies can reduce risk, and perform as well or better than
NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE
conventional investment strategies. A recent report found that ninety-four percent of foundations that committed to divestment five years ago have experienced positive or neutral impacts on their financial performance. The body of evidence supporting the financial case for ESG continues to grow, and Intentional Endowment Network’s website includes a library of studies and reports supporting this. I expect this will not be the last time we move the portfolio toward greater social responsibility, given positive outcomes. Of note, Northland’s 2019 growth in fall enrollment exceeded all other private college and university trends in Wisconsin. In my opinion, this success is a result of Northland’s environmental and sustainability focus, and our initiatives that walk the talk. Some highlights of Northland’s sustainability achievements in this past year include: • Added sustainable agriculture as an academic program; • Built a high tunnel greenhouse to extend the growing season for produce served in the campus cafeteria; • Completed a one-year inventory for the Real Food Challenge; • Composted an estimated 170,000 pounds of food waste (a seventy-seven percent increase from the previous academic year); and • Purchased 10kw of solar energy shares from the Xcel Energy Corporations’ Solar Connect Community Garden, in addition to 20kw purchased by students.
All these initiatives have prospective students, environmental organizations, and the press taking notice. Sierra Magazine, a publication of The Sierra Club, ranked Northland College twenty-six on its “Cool Schools” list of the eco-savviest colleges and universities. Why is this important? According to a 2019 Education Advisory Board industry study titled, “Remaining Relevant Amidst Competitive Disruption,” college enrollment is predicted to decline by fourteen percent from 2026-29. Additionally, there are proposed federal and stateled free college initiatives that will potentially increase competition for the declining pool of prospective students. It is also time to be forwardthinking and approach other higher education boards to discuss divesting endowment portfolios from fossil fuels. The sooner we focus and listen to what prospective students demand, the better—simply hoping students will keep attending private colleges is not a strategy. Action to divest from fossil fuels in endowment portfolios is critical to both the existence of our colleges and to the planet. Colleges that choose to avoid issues important to their audience and relevant to the management of our respective endowments risk withering on the vine, irrespective of portfolio performance.
Northland Deepens Commitment to Food, Social Justice In the last year, Seth Bayliss, a sociology and social justice senior, has sifted through stacks of invoices, researched thousands of food items, and entered over 11,000 bits of data into a spreadsheet. Bayliss’ deep dive into food purchases was part of the Real Food standards, a national initiative to encourage colleges to shift from conventional foods to local and community-based, ecologically sound, humane, and certified fair trade foods. “For more than two decades, Northland College has been a champion of local foods,” said Todd Rothe ’10, manager of the Hulings Rice Food Center. “Real Food provides standards that go beyond local and help us be more deliberate in all of our purchasing.” As the Hulings Rice Food Center Real Food intern, Bayliss has audited all food service purchases for the 2018-19 academic year to identify ways to improve the College’s sustainable food procurement—and is currently assessing the 2019-20 purchases. Through its provider Chartwells, Northland currently purchases twenty percent real food—local, organic, humane, and/or fair trade—and is looking to the future, creating baseline data, goals, and policies. “Seth’s data have enabled the College to make more informed purchasing decisions, track our progress, and affect greater change in the food system,” said Rothe, who serves on the College’s Sustainability Work Group and Food Committee. Over the past year, the Food Committee has used Bayliss’s research to develop policies and standards that better align with the Real Food standards and campus community values. The work isn’t over, but Bayliss is optimistic about the future of Northland’s food program. “I believe that changing the complex global food system will require institutions like Northland to utilize a holistic and inclusive approach,” he said. “Buying certified organic is important, but demanding fair labor conditions for farm workers and humane animal treatment are equally important. In fact, it’s vital to creating a food system that takes social justice seriously.”
“No matter how much one may love the world as a whole, one can live fully in it only by living responsibly in some small part of it. Where we live and who we live there with define the terms of our relationship to the world and to humanity.” —Wendell Berry
The Radical Act of Cooking Real Food By Gina Kirsten, English Instructor
When I hear people start to despair about the state of the world, I tell them to come and meet my students.
Food Recovery Network, preparing leftovers from the Northland cafeteria to be distributed to our local food pantry, The Brick.
I teach in a block called Growing Connections that blends science, literature, and field experiences around the themes of food and agriculture. One of the goals of this course is to get students to understand the processes involved in getting food to our tables.
In class, they have reflected deeply on how it is essential to do the work necessary to see that healthy food—a basic human right— becomes available to all.
Each Friday this past fall, we visited local farmers, met beef and dairy cows raised by multigenerational area families, observed the apple and herring harvests in full swing, and worked to help put to bed the school garden at the Washburn Elementary School. I always enjoy my classes at Northland, but this group of young people seems particularly inspired and eager to tackle the challenges facing the world’s food production in light of climate change and social inequality. They attended lectures outside of class to hear experts speak about climate change, soil health, food waste, and they watched a documentary about how the people of Bayfield County worked together to keep a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation at bay, the first county in Wisconsin to achieve this success. Then they went to work. Some changed their personal food practices, others volunteered in the campus composting initiative, and still others worked with the
In this world full of processed and preprepared food, Michael Pollan calls learning to cook real food a radical act. Inspired by his book, Cooked, we celebrated the harvest by flame-broiling local beef roasts from Tim Mika’s Moonlight Meadows Farm, roasting freshly-harvested vegetables from Northland’s school garden, baking apple crisp and making apple cider from Hauser’s Orchard. My favorite celebration took place at my home. I invited my students over to create a meal brought to this country by my Italian grandmother. We started with a simple five-ingredient sauce, rolled our own dough, and folded tiny tortellini filled with spinach, cheese, and breadcrumbs. We rounded out the meal with a salad, chocolate cake, and a spontaneous dance party in my living room. Having these idealistic young people here enriches my world, Northland College, and our entire community. The intelligent, empathetic, and hardworking students who were in my class this term give me hope.
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Burke Center staff flew to Washington DC for Great Lakes Days to talk to elected officials about the need to keep our lakes healthy and safe. Left to right: Matt Hudson, associate director; Val Damstra, operations manager; Emma Holtan, student researcher; and Peter Annin, director.
Burke in the News As Rains Intensify, Sewage Surges Into Wisconsin Waters Wisconsin Watch: The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism January 11, 2020
Climate change is bringing heavier rains, making it tougher to keep untreated sewage and stormwater out of the Great Lakes. Researchers at Northland College in Ashland regularly sample water quality along the city’s beaches. More than thirty percent of samples they collected between 2014 and 2016 exceeded federal water quality standards for E. coli, according to a 2017 report. The bacteria stemmed from a variety of sources, researchers noted.
Science Friday Book Club’s Winter Read Plunges Into The Great Lakes National Public Radio Science Friday January 10, 2020
SciFri Book Club captain Christie Taylor talked with ecologist Donna Kashian at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and Burke Center Director Peter Annin about the Great Lakes in preparation for reading Dan Egan’s The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, as part of its winter book club.
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Storms, Erosion, and Algae Blooms Part of “New Normal” for Lake Superior, Report Says Duluth News Tribune December 10, 2019
Increasingly larger storms, more frequent heavy rains, and higher water levels—likely spurred by global climate change—are not only roiling the waters of Lake Superior but also damaging the big lake’s water quality. That’s the analysis of a white paper report released Tuesday by researchers at the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation in Ashland.
Increase in Storm Severity Creates Water Quality Problems for Lake Superior Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism December 10, 2019 Lake Superior, long considered to be the cleanest of the Great Lakes, is showing new signs of vulnerability, according to a white paper released today by the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation.
NEW YORK TIMES February 1, 2020
Report Recommends Rewrite of Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Wisconsin Public Radio December 10, 2019
Along the Great Lakes, It’s Time to Prepare for Extremes
The white paper released Tuesday by the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation highlights water quality concerns on Lake Superior—many of which appear to be driven by climate change.
Burke Center Director Peter Annin makes an argument for planning for climate change and its impacts on shoreline and water levels.
NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE
The history of these Great Lakes has shown that, in the end, we can’t out-engineer Mother Nature. —Peter Annin
Increase in Storm Severity Creates Water Quality Problems for Lake Superior White Paper Suggests Rewrite of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Lake Superior, long considered to be the cleanest of the Great Lakes, is showing new signs of vulnerability, according to a white paper released in December by the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation. Experts point to increased intensity of storms—likely associated with climate change—historic land use practices, and erodible soils specific to the south shore of Lake Superior as the reasons behind increased sedimentation rates, escalated infrastructure damage, and the first-recorded widespread bluegreen algal blooms in the lake. “We weren’t even thinking about super storms and algal blooms in Lake Superior until a few years ago,” said Matt Hudson, associate director of the Burke Center. “Since 2012, we’ve been served a new reality and a new set of challenges.” The white paper is the result of a daylong summit at Northland College in September to discuss water quality concerns with the International Joint Commission, a bi-national organization charged with assessing water quality goals set out in the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The Burke Center convened a mix of experts from city and tribal governments, state and federal agencies, and academia to examine what is believed to be a shift in water quality issues along the south shore of Lake Superior. The region, spreading from Duluth, Minnestoa, to Houghton, Michigan, experienced five-hundred-to-thousand-year storms in 2012, 2016, and 2018, resulting in flooding, blown out bridges and culverts, sewer system overflows, agricultural runoff, and more than $150 million in damages. “This new normal of extreme weather events is something we’re just starting to understand,” said Valerie Damstra, operations manager with the Burke Center. The most noteworthy development in this storm-driven era is the appearance of potentially toxic blue-green algal blooms. Brenda Lafrancois, an aquatic ecologist for the Midwest Region of the National Park Service, reported that until 2012, the only reports of algal blooms in western Lake Superior were few and anecdotal. The 2012 bloom spread along parts of the south shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin during warm July weather, weeks after the 500-year-storm in Duluth. Then in 2018, following the thousandyear storm near Ashland, Wisconsin, the bloom stretched roughly eighty miles from Duluth to areas near Ashland.
WATCH THE VIDEO youtube.com/northlandEDU
The white paper concludes that the algal blooms, along with other storm-related water quality issues, will require more than a tweak of the 1972 Water Quality Agreement.
The Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation convened a Water Summit on September 2, 2019, dedicated to “Water Quality Concerns on the South Shore of Lake Superior.” The result is a five-minute video and a whitepaper, designed to capture and highlight the key water quality concerns that the IJC delegation heard about during its day-long visit to the area.
“We need to adapt and reassess the tools we have and use to protect water quality, not just in Lake Superior, but the whole Great Lakes system,” Hudson said.
northland.edu/watersummit
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MACHO UNO Tracking One of the Oldest Wild Jaguars
Professor Erik Olson has published multiple scientific papers, but a recently published paper was one of the most meaningful, he said.
Olson to Expand Costa Rican Collaboration, Research Erik Olson has been working for the last six years as part of an international team of scientists and conservationists to better understand the jaguars and other wildlife of the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. He has laid a strong foundation of collaboration with the Costa Rican National Park Service and developed relationships with Osa Conservation. Starting this fall, Olson has been awarded the Raymond D. Peters Professorship in Biology, a three-year position that comes with funding for research or professional development. He knows exactly how he will spend the additional funding. He and students will be working with the Osa Conservation on a mega-transect of camera traps and acoustic monitoring devices that will run from the tip of the Osa Peninsula to the interior mountains of La Amistad International Peace Park. “A herculean monitoring effort aimed at identifying areas that may be restricting wildlife movement between three national parks,” he said.
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Olson, along with Costa Rican collaborators, and most significantly his former student Parker Matzinger ’16, authored an article on Costa Rican jaguars—specifically one they named Macho Uno— in the Spring 2019 edition of Cat News. Matzinger died in 2017 of natural causes while working on an unrelated research expedition in Panama. In 2015, Matzinger was a student interested in international wildlife conservation. With the support of Costa Rican colleagues, he and Olson developed a camera trap monitoring project in Corcovado National Park, located on the Osa Peninsula in southwestern Costa Rica. As part of the project, Matzinger walked more than two hundred miles through the jungle. He mostly assessed the best and most efficient ways to monitor wildlife, a study he and Olson later presented at the North American Congress for Conservation Biology. The research also contributed to the first, nation-wide study of jaguar habitat in Costa Rica.
jaguars in the wild? A question, that until recently, was unknown to science. To answer that question, Olson and colleagues searched the scientific literature and compiled a list of reported ages for wild jaguars. Olson, along with Costa Rican collaborators, published the results of that study in Cat News in autumn 2019. Most jaguars don’t make it past fourteen in the wild, Olson said. Macho Uno, now twelve-tofourteen years old, is one of the oldest known jaguars in the wild. “This is a sign of hope, because if this one jaguar is able to subsist in one place for that long of a period of time, it suggests that the habitat and prey base are adequate.” Matzinger, who co-developed the original study, is listed as a co-author on the “Macho Uno” paper because of his major contributions to the study. He’s not a co-author on the “Age of the Jaguar” paper because he wouldn’t have wanted his name on something he didn’t legitimately contribute to, Olson said. However, both papers list the following acknowledgment, “This work is dedicated to the memory of Parker J. Matzinger; he was a burst of light.” Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica
“Parker’s passion from a young age had always been wildlife research and conservation,” said his parents, Betsy and Jim Matzinger. “He was honored and elated to spend three months working under his mentor, Erik Olson, doing original research in Costa Rica as his capstone project.” The very first camera Olson, Matzinger, and a Corcovado park guard, Alejandro Azofeifa, installed, captured a photograph of a jaguar they named, Macho Uno—first male. “It was one of the first sets of wildlife images we captured on camera,” Olson remembers, “we felt like this was a good sign.” Over time, Olson and his Costa Rican colleagues started reviewing other Costa Rican jaguar studies and found a 2008 image of a much younger Macho Uno. “Having this male that is quite old living in the same spot for a significant number of years is good news,” Olson said. Olson has detected Macho Uno on camera every year since he, Matzinger, and colleagues set up the first camera of the study. Identifying Macho Uno sparked a new question—what is the lifespan of
NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE
The Matzingers established a paid internship to provide more student research opportunities. “We are very grateful for the research opportunities Parker was given and also grateful for the continued Costa Rica research completed by other Northland students over the past three years.” Olson agrees. “The Matzingers’ support has allowed three additional students to get field experiences associated with this project. Experiences that will last them a lifetime, while also contributing to our understanding of wildlife in the Osa Peninsula,” Olson said. “Honoring Parker in the best way I can think of.”
Wildlife Research Lab The number of published papers by current and former students on the bulletin board outside Erik Olson’s office has exploded in the last year. An associate professor of natural resources, Olson established a Wildlife Research Lab in the fall of 201 for serious scholarship, inquiry, curiosity, and research. The space is shared with Professor of Forestry Jonathan Martin as a way to spur conversation across disciplines. Working with faculty and collaborators, students have co-authored several papers with more in review.
Predicting Livestock Depredation Risk by African Lions
Observations at Record Heights in Canopies
European Journal of Wildlife Research, January 2020
Ecology, May 2017 (tree frogs)
Reducing human-wildlife conflicts by analyzing when and why lions attack livestock “I started at Northland as a junior transfer in Erik’s lab in 2013. I told him I was studying abroad in 2014 in Tanzania with the School for Field Studies and had to do a directed research project when I was there. He suggested I take some cameras along and turn it into an undergraduate research project. Erik has always pushed me to be a better student and researcher and I would not be in the position I am without his guidance. “ Kristen Beattie ’15, graduate student and research assistant at the Wildlife & Fisheries Conservation Center at the University of Connecticut
The Great Lakes Entomologist, Volume 1, Spring/Summer 2018 (dragonfly and damselfly) American Midland Naturalist, April 2020 (deer mice) Better understanding of life at the tops of trees “The lab provides ample opportunity for students to participate in all stages of the scientific process— from designing a research project to collecting data in the field and learning how to communicate research findings.” Madison Laughlin ’18, research scientist at the University of Washington in the Forest Landscape and Disturbance Ecology Lab. She is currently preparing a fourth paper on the arboreal behavior of the gray tree frog and will start graduate school in the fall
Boreal Stonefly Emergence Behaviors Discovered in Canopy
Efficacy of Acoustic Triangulation for Gray Wolves
The Great Lakes Entomologist, Volume 2, Spring/Summer 2019
Revealing the monitoring benefits of acoustic triangulation in place of collars
Providing new insights into the boreal stonefly and their behaviors in the tops of trees “Publishing in a scientific journal during my undergraduate career made me a strong candidate for PhD assistantships and gave me invaluable experience in the difficult process of scientific writing and publication.” Hannah Hoff ’19, PhD assistant in the Department of Plant Science and Plant Pathology at Montana State University-Bozeman
Wildlife Society Bulletin, In Press
This research was the result of a study developed by Olson’s Wolf Ecology, Management & Research class in 2018. The authors, Jordyn O’Gara ’18, Charlie Weider ‘18, Elyse Mallinger ‘19, and Alyx Simon ’18, continued working on the research well after class concluded—including after graduation—in an effort to publish the work. Jordyn, the lead author, has also presented this research at multiple scientific conferences.
Ultraviolet Fluorescence Discovered in New World Flying Squirrels Journal of Mammalogy, January 2, 2019 Discovering that flying squirrels fluoresce pink “Erik’s lab provided the amazing opportunity to work with three professors to produce a manuscript for publication. Erik’s lab taught me how to select important questions, produce valuable research, present my findings, and how to get closer to nature and share her beauty with the world.” Allison Kohler ’18, who is now a graduate student at Texas A&M
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The Orchid Hunters
Lauren Sloyer ’19 and Adrian Bethel
Last summer, students Adrian Bethel and recent graduate Lauren Sloyer ’19 battled mobs of mosquitoes and black flies, scouring the Apostle Islands for a rare broadleaved twayblade orchid named Neottia convallaroidies. The western orchid is listed as threatened in Wisconsin, the eastern edge of its range, and likely extinct in Minnesota. Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Sarah Johnson ’02 and her teams of students have been collecting data on thirty-two plants in the Apostle Islands— an update to a 1992 survey. The twayblade orchid has been a target species for three teams of students in recent years, and “lore of the orchid hunt keeps evolving among my students,” Johnson said. “From steep terrain, miles of hiking, and torrential downpours, every crew has confirmed that the orchid hunt is one of the most challenging field gigs I’ve tasked them with.” After being dropped on Oak Island by the National Park Service, along with their camping and research gear, Bethel and Sloyer, both forestry majors, hiked for hours seeking the elusive orchids, mostly in wetlands. Like Johnson, Bethel has
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discovered he likes looking down at the forest floor thinking about how plants connect, adapt, disappear. On the island, lumbermen from another era dynamited out the bottoms of the ravines to create a luge for logs. Now, hemlocks and yellow birch trees tower over these logscoured ravines, casting a deep shade over scattered mats of orchids. Shifting sediments from torrential storms may bury orchids in some places, but create new habitat elsewhere. They counted thousands of plants, took size measurements, and assessed which ones were reproductive versus sterile. Bethel says when he was looking for colleges, his grandfather, a professor of art history, told him if he was interested in forestry, he should try to find a place that would help him think outside the box. The twayblade orchid, in particular, has captured his imagination. “It’s so interesting to think about how they got here and how they move,” Bethel said. Bethel presented the findings of the research team to the Wisconsin Science Conference in Elkhart Lake in February and received honorable mention for his presentation of the poster, co-authored by Sam Tharpgeorge ’18. Bethel was able to attend with scholarships from the Wisconsin Wetland Association and the Robert Rue Parsonage Fund.
Johnson’s orchid hunters have found fewer orchids in the sites where orchids existed in the 1992 survey but they found nine new sites with numerous orchids. What the data suggest, is that as northern Wisconsin experiences extreme drought and wet periods, orchids decline, rebound, and move locations.
Lore of the orchid hunt keeps evolving among my students. Like others before them, Bethel and Sloyer bushwacked through the ravines searching for signs. “Sometimes, we’d find them dispersed like bread crumbs along the length of the stream and other times they formed dense bright green carpets along a wide wash,” said Sloyer, who graduated in December. “Though I can confidently say that I’ve seen enough of the Oak island ravines for a lifetime,” Sloyer said. “knowing we were contributing valuable data about the species population dynamics across the National Lakeshore—plus Sarah Johnson’s oatmeal monster cookies—made it all worth it.”
Jena “Shoe” Miles ’18
Sam Tharpgeorge ’18 and Hannah Hoff ’16
The Orchid Hunters
Where Are They Now? Michael Sinclair ’16 recently received his MS in plant ecology and has returned to northern Wisconsin to team up with fellow alumnus Nile Merton ’15 in his ecological restoration business. “I still tell folks about the orchid hunt— it was a good challenging time,” he said. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Emily Leonard ’16 received her MS in ecology from Utah State University. She is currently an adjunct natural science faculty member at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and an animal behavior lab instructor at Carroll University. “Michael [Sinclair], Forrest [Rosenbower] and I spent the day hiking up and down difficult terrain and got caught in a thunderstorm on the other side of the island from where we set up camp. When we finally made it back at the end of the day, we were so exhausted and soaked…and as the three of us sat defeated, under a plastic tarp, taking turns eating massive spoonfuls of pasta, I remember Michael looking at me and saying something like ‘we’re going to look back at this and laugh one day.’ And now here I am, six years later, smiling. I guess he was right.”
Forrest Rosenbower ’16 lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, and works for the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the Northwest Boreal Lynx Project. “We trap and collar Canadian lynx in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge to collect dispersal and habitat use data,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here, or anywhere interesting, if it weren’t for Sarah!” ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ After graduation, Hannah Hoff ’19 accepted a PhD assistantship in the Department of Plant Science and Plant Pathology at Montana State University-Bozeman. Her research involves herbivore-plant interactions, and how evolutionary factors contribute to herbivore efficacy. Hannah says she’s had numerous research jobs that required field work, but “nothing compares to the dark, humid ravines that we slogged through in hopes of simply catching a glimpse of a tiny orchid,” she said. “Sweaty and exhausted, we would end the day on the nearest sand beach with our toes in the cold lake, relieved to have a small break from the deafening swarms of mosquitoes.”
Orchids were the focus of Sam Tharpgeorge’s ’18 senior thesis and he is currently taking the lead on publishing a paper with this data. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Jena “Shoe” Miles ’18 has worked at the Apostle Islands National Park Service, on a farm in Hawaii, and at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area in Montana’s Flathead Valley. She’ll be back with the Apostle Islands National Park Service this summer. “Orchid hunting is a beautifully brutal effort. On one excursion, Hannah [Hoff] and I set up camp far away from the water and before we left, slugs were on everything. The day was not ‘slugless douglas’—our joke for the trip. We hiked a few miles in steep, wet terrain, heat, and mosquitoes for those orchids— which we often couldn’t find. But we looked hard, and if we spotted one then all of a sudden they all appeared, poking out of the stream sediment.”
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RESEARCH
TURNING WASTE INTO EVERYDAY MATERIALS In the world of research, it takes a lot of failures before you get a hit.
and shoe soles, which are commonly derived from petroleum sources and rubber trees.
For Professor Nick Robertson and four students, that hit came the day then-student Ariah Law walked into Robertson’s office and told him a solid substance had formed and wouldn’t come out of the vial.
Robertson and students, along with UWEau Claire collaborators, recently published a paper in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science, revealing the results of their research.
“I didn’t believe her at first,” Robertson said, and then he attempted unsuccessfully to remove the substance from the vial. “That was a fun day.” After hundreds of trials, the research team discovered a process for turning byproducts of soap and biodiesel production into a sticky, toffee-like substance that could potentially make useful materials such as rubber bands
Northland College and UW-Eau Claire received a National Science Foundation award in 2016 to conduct student-intensive research on the synthesis and chemical recycling of plastics. This is the first paper that has been published with the NSF support, though the fourth Robertson and his students have published in the area of polymers. “We’re working on developing a class of plastics, making them more biodegradable and more environmentally friendly,” said junior Dakota Stankowski, a double major in biology and natural resources with a minor in chemistry. She and Robertson and three other students—all graduated now—started this research with one question: Could they turn a waste product into a useful material? The soap and biodiesel industries annually generate roughly 1.5 million tons of glycerol as a production coproduct,
which far exceeds the current uses for glycerol. Robertson and his students focused on using diglycerol to prepare new materials, which is derived from glycerol. In short, the research group discovered a process for turning diglycerol into an elastomer, a material that can repeatedly bend, bounce, flex, and tolerate those stresses and return to its original shape and size. Robertson does not anticipate this elastomer would replace critical rubber products like tires but thinks it could find use in lowergrade rubber items like rubber bands. In addition to the sustainability goals Robertson has for his research with students, he focuses on providing real-world research experience for them. “It’s a lot of hypothesis, trial and error, and involves a lot of failures along the way,” Robertson said. “It’s a central part of my approach to training students.” Stankowski has spent hundreds of hours since her sophomore year creating, testing, evaluating, and refining the new product. “It has been an amazing process to take this research from an idea to publication,” she said. Robertson says he hopes the paper helps inch the field of sustainable products forward. “The next step is to develop methods to scale it up, make it more economical, while also further refining the properties to make it stronger,” he said. “To go from discovery to a commercial product is a long road, but a potentially exciting one to walk with students.”
Researching Tick-Borne Illnesses After high school, Erick Marchessault of Cary, Illinois, attended community college, traveled around Europe, worked, and made films. In the mix of this, he took an EMT course that sparked his interest in medical school. He deliberately went looking for a small school to finish his undergraduate degree and found Northland College. “I like the individual attention, being able to ask questions, and interact with faculty,” he said. Now twenty-six, Marchessault is studying natural resources and prehealthcare with the goal of becoming a physician. He’s currently collaborating with Assistant Professor Geoffrey Vincent on a research project looking at the prevalence of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme in ticks.
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Rocky Mountain spotted fever is transmitted by wood ticks; Lyme is transmitted by deer ticks. For his research, Marchessault collects wood and deer ticks every week at the Maxwell Nature Study Area, located a few miles south of campus. “Ticks provide a way to meld medicine and natural resources,” Marchessault said. Marchessault said he came here thinking he’d like to work in an urban emergency room, but after shadowing Dr. Andy Matheus ’85 at Main Street Clinic last winter, he wants to practice in a rural area.
Marchessault said. “I also like that he is an integral part of the community here.”
“I really liked the connection Dr. Matheus had with his patients, and he treated each of them with individual attention,”
In the next year, Marchessault will be studying for and taking his MCATs. In the fall of 2021, he’ll start medical school.
ATHLETICS SPORTS IS MORE THAN
People often ask me how athletics fits within an environmental liberal arts college. My short answer is, it should be every institution’s mission—environmental or not—to create opportunities for students to achieve their dreams of playing collegiate athletics, as well as open up opportunities for better physical health and wellness.
Apart from the benefits of staying in shape beyond high school, athletics provides stability, community, empowerment, and improved mental health. On the flip side, athletics benefits Northland through increased exposure, especially to those who otherwise wouldn’t know about us. Our environmental mission is critical to our immediate community and the world as a whole, but we need to broaden our audience beyond the obvious. The student athletes we recruit are driven to change the world for the better. They are not only dedicated to being the best citizens they can be, but they are high-caliber young adults who arrive with goals for themselves and for their teams. When they leave Northland, they are ready to help spread the message of our mission. Their value expands exponentially once they finish their studies and they become our best advocates and ambassadors.
basketball teams almost as soon as the game was invented, and still do. The sports have shifted over time, but have always been a part of our campus community. This year, we celebrate the first class of graduates from our newest sports—women’s hockey and men’s lacrosse. Our student athletes are a motivated, inspirational cohort. They are accustomed to early mornings, long bus rides, and multi-tasking to make sure they get their homework done. They’re conducting research, taking leadership positions in student government, and playing a role in keeping community kids active and engaged. We have fourteen teams of students who volunteer their time in the Ashland community. This past year they organized a food drive, created activities for kids on campus, and shoveled snow for the elderly. They also help coach at youth camps and clinics. The mission of athletics is the mission of the College: to give students the tools to live deeply meaningful lives and prepare them to act with compassion, courage, and confidence in a rapidly changing world. Seamus Gregory Interim Athletic Director
We’ve participated in everything from boxing to wrestling and had women’s and men’s
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Opening Doors Daryle Tucker, head women’s basketball coach, deliberately and successfully recruits players from across the United States, particularly from the south. “Right now I have the most diverse team, not only at Northland, but in the entire conference,” Tucker said. The LumberJill players come from Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Tucker, or Tuck, as he’s known to his players, grew up playing basketball in Decatur, Georgia, a place where classmates earned a high school diploma and that was it. At the urging of a coach, he moved north after high school to attend Keystone College in Pennsylvania. He went for basketball but realized he would earn a degree. “Basketball opened the door for me,” he said. “It changed my life.” It was there he went skiing, canoeing, and hiking for the first time. “I did things I had never dreamed of doing,” he said.
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He finished his degree at Point University in Georgia, where he was named NCCAA honorable mention all-American, and went on to earn two advanced degrees. Then he moved and stayed north. “We love it here,” he said of Northland College. In coaching basketball, he wants to create similar opportunities for his players. “I knew when I got into coaching, I wanted to bring diversity and bring kids from the south and have them come to the north,” he said. The thing Tucker looks for in a player is someone who gets excited about the idea of moving to a different environment, “that they want to be challenged and taken out of their comfort zone,” he said. The team has participated in a lot of firsts— gentle snowfalls and winter storms, skiing and sledding, and the bracing experience of northern water. “Last fall, the whole team jumped off a cliff into the lake and they couldn’t believe how cold the water was,” Tucker laughed. “They are a tight group.”
He credits the local and regional players in making it work. They invite players into their homes, to dinners, and show them the area. Team players stayed with friends in the region over Thanksgiving break and the mom of his Iowa player drove up for Thanksgiving and stayed the week to make meals for the team.
Tucker looks for players who get excited about the idea of moving to a different environment. “It’s special to see what we’re creating—I’m excited about it,” he said. “They are gaining confidence in themselves and some have even talked about moving here after college.”
UPCOMING ATHLETIC GATHERINGS
Northland Upgrades Locker Rooms Northland College completed a comprehensive remodel of three locker rooms and upgraded the public restrooms in Kendrigan Center. The $125,000 project fills a much-needed gap for students and athletes, said Interim Athletic Director Seamus Gregory.
Kendrigan Center now has two new locker rooms for men and one for women—all decked out with maple lockers, engraved Northland College logos, new floors, controlled door access, and a fresh coat of paint. Visiting women’s teams will continue to use the public space.
Funded by gifts to the athletic program, the renovation was a project that was well overdue.
The locker rooms will be well used and well appreciated. One third of the student body—214 students—participate in varsity sports, and many faculty, staff, and students use the facilities.
July , 00 northland.edu/golfclassic
“This is a professional, grade-A experience for everyone,” Gregory said.
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northland.edu/athletic-weekend
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Athletics is converting the warehouse next to the baseball and softball fields into a multi-purpose facility for pitching, hitting, and golf.
Fall Athletic Alumni Weekend
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“The locker rooms had not been renovated since the original gym was built in 1964, and several of the varsity teams have been sharing space together and with the public,” Gregory said. “This renovation, brings us in line with Division I college programs.”
Golf Classic
Dinner and Induction Ceremony
September , 00 northland.edu/hall-of-fame
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Houle Siblings Play Ball Aaron and Sarah Houle of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, grew up around basketball—their dad was a coach for fifteen years—so they knew they would likely pursue basketball. They just didn’t know they would be playing at the same college. Aaron, a senior, is studying elementary education with a minor in social studies and sports management. He chose Northland because of the education program and Coach Scott Sorenson. “He instills the family atmosphere,” Aaron said. Sarah, a junior, looked at several colleges but in the end she liked Coach Daryle Tucker, or Coach Tuck, as she calls him, and decided to follow her brother. She’s also studying elementary education but with a minor in early childhood. The two siblings get on well and can easily list the benefits of playing for the same college. “We get to see one another’s games and our mom and dad get to see both of our games,” Aaron said.
Bailey Givens Hometown: Portland, Oregon Year: Freshman Major: Sustainable Community Development Sport: Cross Country Why Northland? Because action, not just words, is what will bring us closer to a sustainable future. The Northland College community has repeatedly exhibited their commitment to the environment through innovative and alternative solutions formulated
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by passionate change-makers, such as the ReUse Room, the Sunshine Community Bike Shop, and the composting facilities. Not only is Northland home to a dynamic group of students but the staff and faculty here are truly outstanding and were ultimately the reason why I chose to attend. Did Northland’s cross country program play a part in your decision to attend Northland? I ran cross country in high school and trained for and ran three half-marathons during off-seasons. Although I probably would have still chosen Northland even if there was not a program, the fact that there was one at such a small school
blew me away and opened my eyes to the myriad ways there are to get involved on campus (the 40+ majors offered also shocked me, given there are only about 600 students that attend the college). Best parts of your first year? Eating in the cafeteria with friends, learning to cross country ski with the ski club, the weekly morning meditations I’ve been co-leading for a gender and women’s studies class project, skiing in Book Across the Bay, getting to know the stellar faculty and staff, tromping in the ravine, biking the Midnight Ramble, and all the sweet dancing!
RAWLINGS 2.0 Ryan Rawlings grew up playing basketball outside his house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Bowie, Maryland. “Since I could walk, I had a basketball in my hand,” Ryan, a first-year transfer, is studying sociology and social justice and playing basketball.
Not a huge surprise considering his dad Bryan Rawlings ‘79 played basketball at Northland College in the 1970s. In fact, Bryan Rawlings’ photo hangs in Kendrigan Center, an inductee in the Hall of Fame. “Basketball has definitely made us close,” Ryan said. “He’s my number one mentor, idol, role model, everything you think a father-son connection can be.” Ryan says he did not grow up hearing basketball stories—not his dad’s style—except for when his dad’s teammates came over for dinners and weekends. “Mike [Mayfield ’77] used to come to the house and would tell me and my brother about the court,” Ryan says. Bryan, who now works at Exelon, is the one who encouraged Ryan to consider Northland. Coach Scott Sorenson had been trying to recruit me since high school and has embraced me like family,” Ryan said. “He said it wouldn’t be easy. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.” Ryan says he loves his classes—especially Native American studies—and he’s trying out veganism, mostly for the health benefits. As for basketball, there’s fourteen new players to the team so it took a season for he and his teammates to start clicking on the court. He’s finding his place at Northland, learning to dress for winter (layers), and working hard. As far as his future, Ryan says he’d love to pursue basketball, maybe open a community center in his hometown. “I want to teach kids their dreams are achievable,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight, but it can happen.”
Adrian Bethel Hometown: Eau Claire, Wisconsin Year: Junior Major: Forestry Position: Pitcher, Right Field Did you come here to play baseball? I wasn’t recruited. I found out Northland had a team when I got here. I thought that was cool. Why did you come? I had family in the Drummond and Cornucopia areas so I used to come every summer. As soon as I went on the website and found that Northland had forestry, I knew it was my spot.
Why did you stay? Having the opportunities to do field and lab research (see p. 10) while also being able to continue playing baseball has been awesome. How is baseball going? I came in with a group of guys that have stayed here and they love it too. We hang out almost every day. Being able to get off campus some days to play a sport I’ve played my entire life and see new areas, and see them with the guys I already spend every day with, has been very fun. Describe campus. Tightly-knit and caring.
If you were to give the insider tour of Northland, where would you go? The greenhouse. That’s a green space that not many people visit. And on top of that, I would probably take them on a walk across the Wheeler Bridge, especially in the fall, because it’s amazing with all the sugar maples mixed with the green of the cedars and a few basswoods, oh man, it’s pretty. What are your plans beyond Northland? Continue with forest ecology. Hopefully become a professor at Northland someday.
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On Golf, Hockey, and the College Experience
LumberJill soccer earned three UMAC honorable mention honors for the 2019 season. The coaching staff says they look to build on those successes and climb the UMAC standings in 2020.
Junior Mikayla Santjer, a biology major with a focus on pre-veterinary medicine, plays women’s hockey and golf for Northland. In the last two years, she’s been named to the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Golf All-Conference First Team. I started golfing because my dad is a golf course superintendent, so I grew up on the golf course and learned how to play. I golfed in high school at Aberdeen Central High School in North Dakota and placed allstate my junior year. As a team, we placed second my junior and senior year at state. I found Northland when I was going through the transfer process. I went to Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut, my freshman year and decided I wanted to be closer to home. Golf definitely played a role in my decision to come to Northland because I wanted to be able to participate in both hockey and golf. For next season, I have set goals to place top five at the UMAC conference and to lower my average so I consistently shoot in the mid to low eighties. Golf has definitely made my college experience. The teammates and friendships I have made being a part of Northland’s golf program is something I will never forget. I can’t thank my teammates and coach enough for always being there for me and supporting me both during and out of season.
The LumberJack and LumberJill cross country teams each placed seventh at the UMAC Championships on a cold and windy day in November at the Nemadji Golf Course in Superior.
Northland College has been committed to affordability and access for nearly 130 years. In keeping with that tradition, we’re excited to announce a new scholarship for local students. SCHOLARSHIP LEVELS 3.0-3.49 GPA 3.5 GPA or higher
$25,000 scholarship $30,000 scholarship
HIGH SCHOOLS IN THESE COUNTIES Ashland County Douglas County
Bayfield County Iron County
For more information, please contact Victoria Schell at 715-682-1257 or vschell@northland.edu.
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First Class of Recruits to Graduate
Women’s hockey team class of 2020. By Kelly Rider, Head Women’s Hockey Coach In July 2015, I was hired as the first-ever women’s hockey coach at Northland College. I spent an entire calendar year recruiting twenty student athletes from all over North America to come to Ashland and be a part of one of fewer than one hundred NCAA women’s college hockey programs in the country.
These past four seasons, we have had players from sixteen states and provinces—from Alaska to Texas to Quebec, Canada. Today our program is made up of twenty-eight players, a student manager, assistant coach, volunteer assistant coach, and me. Women’s hockey boosts enrollment, introduces people to Ashland who would never have known it existed, and empowers young girls and women. But more than that, it provides a
platform for a close-knit family that extends beyond the players in our locker room and that will last forever. Northland College has been graduating men’s hockey players for over twenty years. This spring the first class of women’s hockey players will graduate. When our players walk across the stage to receive their degrees in May, their lifetime bonds will be evident to everyone in attendance.
Left to right: Bob Donahue, Kenny Gudmonson, Nick Anderson, Reece Sever, and Tron Trondson
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Empowering Women Meet Chelsea Meierotto and learn about her first season as the head volleyball coach.
he Meierotto name is the stuff of volleyball legend in Washburn T (located twelve miles from campus). How does it feel to be back home and coaching the sport you grew up on? I absolutely love being back home. I feel extremely grateful to be coaching the sport I grew up on. I am very proud to be continuing my mom and dad’s legacy as a coach in the area with a goal to have a positive impact on all players I coach. Can you talk about your philosophy, your secret sauce for success? More than a few people have noticed how you have energized the volleyball program. My goal is to empower young women to believe in themselves and be successful on and off the court. I want my team to know I’m committed, I’m here for them and by working together good things happen. A big focus was thinking and believing we could win which was really positive. Love what you do, make the best out of every opportunity, have respect for the game, and enjoy the process. Future plans? I try to live in the moment and not look too far ahead. But as far as future plans, I’d have to say my goals are to create a winning program, be competitive at the top of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, while encouraging our young women to be the best they can be and positive role models in the community.
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Joys of Coaching
By Greg Gilmore, Head Men’s Soccer Coach The greatest part of being a college coach is getting to work with student athletes during one of the most significant stages of their lives. I moved from Bennington, Vermont, to Ashland last April to become the Northland College men’s soccer coach, which means I’ve been here long enough for my family and friends to start asking how I feel about working here. I usually tell them this: I wish I had known about Northland when I was a student. I love the atmosphere of small colleges, and after working at a few, I think Northland is one of the best. I would challenge anyone to find a campus our size with our facilities for both athletics and academics. We have a special campus here, and I consider myself lucky to play a part in it. The goal of our men’s soccer program is to graduate our student athletes as individuals who are ready to succeed and contribute to society. At Northland, we intentionally omit any mention of success on the field with our mission statement because we firmly believe that if we develop good human beings with strong values, the success on the field will come naturally. Am I teaching my players advanced algebra or chemistry? Absolutely not. What I’m doing is different. I’m teaching my players how to balance athletics, academics, and their social lives in a healthy and productive way. I might not teach mathematics, but I do know how to teach someone who’s struggling in it, to work through it, and find a way to be successful.
Ashland native Tiffany Hudack played softball at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, where she was the assistant softball coach for two years. She returned home to coach softball at Northland in 2018.
HUDACK’S PHILOSOPHY?
Stay Calm and Remain Positive
What’s your coaching philosophy? To stay positive no matter how bad or terrible the situation is. I really stand by our values as a program as well: be positive, hard working, classy, supportive, and resilient. Best moments as a coach? When you can see in a players’ face they really understand a new skill or are getting better at something they were struggling with. You can see the tension come
off their shoulders and feel a great accomplishment. What are your hopes for the softball program? To keep growing as a program and learning from one another to get better each and every day. We are a younger team and have come a long way since the fall. I am excited to see where our program can go with the great work ethic and drive from each player to improve each day. Do your parents come watch your games? They attend all home games and as many away games as they can. Both of my parents come from larger families and having this large support system in the area is amazing. I am very thankful when I need help, they are all there to jump in any way they can.
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REFLECTIONS
125+ Years With a Family of Over 8,000 Alumni Do your cherish memories of your Northland days? I do. I still remember how it felt to live on campus, separate dorms, and girls in by 10 p.m. Listening to Northland stories makes me feel like part of the bigger family. I think of these moments often as I learn more about our Northland history talking to you at reunions and working in our archives. Did you know that when you add your stories (life in the trailers, hunting on weekends), you protect precious stories, memories of day-to-day life here at Northland? Without your help, these stories of our traditions and events may be lost forever. Please send your personal Northland stories to me. You can email them to northlandcollegearchives@gmail.com or send in the mail to Northland College Archives, 1411 Ellis Avenue, Ashland, WI 54806. Alumni often tell me Northland changed their lives forever. Tell me, did Northland College change your life? How? Help me collect, save, and protect our history. Ori-Anne Stenson Pagel ’69 Archives Chairperson
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A Deeper Life By Stacy Craig ‘04
manager of the BioWatch Program at the Department of Homeland Security.
Long before media stories reported millennials wanting “purpose over paychecks,” Northland alumni were finding savvy ways to do both. During my nine years as the coordinator of applied learning, students told me over and again they are looking for something deeper in a career. I decided long ago the best way to create career pathways was to find examples. So I started inviting alumni to campus to present on their work. Every single one I asked responded ‘yes.’ I welcomed alumni like Susan Haig ’79, a conservation geneticist who works to recover bird species on the edge of extinction. Next came Anita Burke ’83, who worked as an advisor for international sustainable development with the oil industry. Michael Walter ’78 presented about his work as the
Tina Ramme ’90 inspired staff, faculty, students, and community members with her stories of being a single mom working in Africa leading lion conservation efforts. Shannon Franks ’01, a senior scientist with NASA, presented on working with satellite imagery to analyze the earth’s surface, and even completed the Book Across the Bay while he was here. These are just a few of the alumni who assisted with careers over the years. What I learned is that working in career services at Northland is not like working in career services at other colleges. While not all of our alumni work in leadership roles such as the ones I mentioned, our students and alumni, again and again, articulate a calling into work that benefits others. This is the ‘deeper life’ that Professor Blaisdell said at the laying of the cornerstone of Wheeler Hall in 1892.
The heart of a Northland College education at work is what I eventually began to call vocation. The poet and writer Frederick Buechner described vocation as, “where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.” I’m proud to be an alumna of this small college in northern Wisconsin, which was endowed with a deeper life at its inception and which continues to hold space for students and graduates to bring that deeper life into the world. Stacy Craig recently left her position as coordinator of applied learning to finish her master of divinity from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and is the minister for the Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
An academy is not built of rock, or of granite, or of sandstone that hardens with exposure. You may launch it with fine appointments and striking architectures, but it is not an institution until you have endowed it with a deeper life. —Professor Blaisdell at the laying of the cornerstone of Wheeler Hall in 1892
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PHILANTHROPY
The 2016-17 hockey team. Chris Morgan is fourth from the right in the middle row.
Nurturing Miggy’s Legacy Christopher T. Morgan Scholarship A native of Rochester Hills, Michigan, Christopher T. Morgan, or Miggy as he was known on the ice, skated two seasons at Northland, before he was killed in a tragic hit-and-run in August 2017. “When it first happened, I thought, we can’t let anyone forget him,” said his mother Caroline. She and her husband, Tom, created an endowed scholarship at Chris’s high school, the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. Inspired by the overwhelming response, they talked to Seamus Gregory, Northland’s head men’s hockey coach, about doing the same at Northland College. “We want to support Northland and the game Chris loved—hockey was his whole life,” she said. “Fitness, practice, nutrition, he loved being with teammates.” Chris Morgan started playing hockey at the age of five with the Mighty Mites and in high school he played as did his two younger brothers—Matt and Tommy. “Our family rule was, ‘Take care of your brothers,’ and Chris did just that,” Caroline said. “Whether it was Matt and Tommy or his friends or teammates, Chris took care of his brothers and sisters.” Chris went on to play juniors with Gloucester Rangers in the Central Canadian Hockey League where “somehow Seamus found him,” she said.
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Seamus Gregory had a close relationship with Chris’s former family advisor from Endeavour Sports Group, Mike Pilon. “Our 2015 recruiting class was shaping up, but we were still in need of a left-handed shutdown defensemen and Chris was the perfect fit: big, tough, and could win battles down low, just what we needed,” Gregory said.
their goal of $25,000, the minimum needed to endow the scholarship. They hope to broaden their reach with this article and go beyond the minimum. The more money raised, the more scholarship dollars will be available to students.
“We want to support Northland and the game Chris loved—hockey was his whole life,” his mom said.
Caroline says Chris had found his people and his place at Northland. “He was really connecting there, enjoying his time being on the water, being by the bay, getting more exposure to the outdoors. He really appreciated what he had there,” she said. “Chris found the love of his life at Northland, and he found salt-of-the-earth teammates and friends in his hockey and lacrosse teammates (he played in Northland’s inaugural lacrosse season).” After Chris’ death, Seamus wrote, “Chris was a true LumberJack—hardworking, dedicated, and passionate. The best way to describe Miggy is he would block a shot for anyone, anytime, up by three in the first period or down by five in the third, it didn’t matter. He will forever be missed, never forgotten, and always loved.” Caroline and Thomas have raised $12,484 through bowling fundraisers and generous donations from friends. They are halfway to
Gregory retired Chris’s hockey jersey, number 27, and he named the annual hockey award the Chris Morgan Memorial LumberJack Award. This award is given to the team’s most dedicated player as voted on by their teammates. Caroline and Tom have traveled the last two years to give out the award The 2020 recipient was senior Kyle Pouncy, Chris’s partner on defense. “Part of what helps me walk this walk is building his legacy,” Caroline said. “That’s not my whole life—I have Matt and Tommy to nurture. But the energy that went into taking care of Chris before, now goes into growing and nurturing Chris’s legacy.”
northland.edu/give
quiet leadership, and a respect for the Earth. Named the Brady-HallbergKetelaar-Poore Scholarship, this fund has helped twenty-six students over the last twentyfour years. With consistent contributions, the scholarship fund has grown to over $100,000 and provides financial support to one-to-two students each year.
As a memorial, four trees were planted outside Fenega Hall.
A Gift from the Heart to Support Others
In 1994, four students—Scott Brady, Daniel Hallberg, Elise Ketelaar, and Bradley Poore— died in a car accident on their way back to campus from a concert. Inspired to create a legacy in memory of these students, family and friends created an endowed scholarship that would go to students who demonstrated the qualities of those who had been lost— community spirit, creativity,
Bert and Marty Brady, the parents of Scott, give to the fund every year. “We continue to give to the scholarship fund in part because Scott always wanted to help others. Although Scott was on campus a very short time, we knew Northland was the right place for him. The size, curriculum, and location of Northland provides an atmosphere of service to students and the greater community. We feel very strongly that it is important for small colleges with strong programs to survive and having scholarship funds are important for these colleges,” Bert and Marty said in an email correspondence. They continued, “If Scott were alive today, he would be very proud to be an alum of
Northland and would be very happy with the progress that the College has made over these past twenty-five years. Northland has managed to survive during a period of struggle for many schools their size. This is a compliment to the dedicated members of the staff and faculty and their devotion to their students and the environment. It has been most rewarding to receive thank you letters of appreciation from the recipients of the scholarship.” Alex Johnson ’08, who studied writing, was the co-editor of Mosaic, and participated in men’s cross country, received the scholarship in 2006-07. Reflecting on his time at Northland and in Ashland he wrote in a thank you letter to the parents of Scott, Dan, Elise, and Brad. “I’ve learned so much living and growing as a person here at Northland, but more than anything else, I’ve realized that it is the personal relationships that make my life full. I am surrounded by dynamic, passionate, and beautiful people and I am a better person for them. Thank you for allowing me to live and learn in this place, like your children before me.”
SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES OF: Myron S. Goretzky ’69, Concord, NH, 4/14/2019 Douglas P. Thompson ’69, Port Washington, NY, 7/19/2019 Michael J. Coyle ’70, Elizabeth, NJ, 8/14/2019 Daniel T. Zantek ’57, Anchorage, AK, 8/15/2019 Rev. Daniel E. Hinckley ’61, Huntley, IL, 9/21/2019 Lawrence J. Zani ’78, Ironwood, MI, 10/7/2019 Matthew M. Gradinjan ’62, Fifield, WI, 10/8/2019 Maria (Silva) Schmidt ’99, Park Falls, WI, 10/12/2019 Raymond R. Schultz ’62, Stone Lake, WI, 10/14/2019 David A. Hagstrom ’71, Woodville, WI, 10/17/2019 Laurie (Nacey) Otis ’73, Washburn, WI, 10/18/2019 Dr. Larry J. Cepek ’63, Westerville, OH, 10/27/2019 Helen (Panasuk) Wilmot ’62, Isanti, MN, 10/30/2019 Barney L. Hinch ’71, Las Vegas, NV, 11/3/2019 Ramona (Sorenson) Fleck ’56, Ashland, WI, 11/12/2019 Robert J. Cote ’66, Bradenton, FL, 11/15/2019 Karlyn (Welton) Holman ’62, Washburn, WI, 11/16/2019 Marjorie J. Lemieux ’91, Ashland, WI, 11/17/2019 James E. Brown ’64, Mosinee, WI, 11/19/2019 Dr. Donald H. Anderson ’55, Bayfield, WI, 11/22/2019 Paul E. Mathias ’68, Sun Lakes, AZ, 11/23/2019
Don W. Larson ’54, Ashland, WI, 12/5/2019 Melvin A. Natti ’53, Fall Creek, WI, 12/6/2019 Susan (Schwarting) Hopkins ’80, Ashland, WI, 12/9/2019 George A. Gatlin, Jr. ’83, Hamilton Square, NJ, 12/11/2019 Eugene M. Ludack ’56, Eau Claire, WI, 12/11/2019 Bernard S. Larson ’61, Washburn, WI, 12/14/2019 Dr. Richard A. Beirl ’53, Appleton, WI, 12/22/2019 James T. Michalik ’61, Washburn, WI, 12/28/2019 James J. Beirl ’50, Clarkston, WA, 12/29/2019 John W. Hoglund ’62, New Carrollton, MD, 1/2/2020 George H. McBridge ’59, Beverly Hills, FL, 1/10/2020 Leonard C. Lee ’71, High Bridge, WI, 1/12/2020 Dennis E. Axelsen ’68, Jefferson, WI, 1/18/2020 William T. Arntsen ’61, Two Harbors, MN, 1/20/2020 Ralph A. Dusenbery ’55, Kaukauna, WI, 1/20/2020 Esther (Vienneau) Rannow ’51, Abbotsford, WI, 1/20/2020 Elaine (Schultz) Thoreson ’40, South Elgin, IL, 1/22/2020 Faith Ellen Dryer ’75, Torrington, WY, 1/25/2020 Donald J. Janigo ’60, Hatley, WI, 1/25/2020 Benjamin M. Blair ’11, Waverly, IA, 1/26/2020 Sheila (Giese) Innes ’63, Sun Prairie, WI, 1/30/2020
SPRING 2020
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FROM THE ARC
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NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE
RCHIVE Dr. John T. Kendrigan came to Northland in 1920 as the director of athletics and football coach, and later took over the mathematics department. He was also a logger, a justice of the peace, a resident manager of the Knight Hotel, a potato farmer, and a referee.
Apparently during a championship game in Superior, Kendrigan marked off a penalty for unnecessary roughness. As he made the signal, a voice bellowed out, “That stinks, ref!” Referee Kendrigan picked up the ball, calmly walked off fifteen more yards, and said loudly, “How does it smell from here?”
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FALL FESTIVAL
September 24-26, 2020 northland.edu/fall-festival