-Tim Brustad

When one thinks of StepUP service opportunities the thoughts typically fall to all the wonderful outside opportunities that they attend, from elementary schools to colleges, treatment programs, community organizations, StepUP students do it all.

There is another piece that is equally as important, that would be the StepUP Mentor Program.

Over the years this program has taken many forms, and this year is no different. However the underlying theme throughout the years is the same; investment and commitment towards the new StepUp students that are preparing to arrive and participate in the program. The feelings of connectedness, striving for like-minded ideals and ways of live, has been a core component in AA since its beginning and is often carried over into other aspects of a recovery lifestyle.

One reason that it is so important is that many incoming students (and parents!) are very proactive in their plans. Many actually are accepted to Augsburg College and the StepUP Program several months in advance of their start date. Over the years StepUP has understood the value in keeping these individuals connected and chemically healthy until they arrive. The obstacles can be challenging! Returning to old using environments, seeing people from their past, boredom, the list is quite long.

A major component to the Mentor Program is to help assist these individuals to get through these challenging times, to get them through the door.

An incoming student calls two weeks prior to the scheduled arrival, he shares that the couple of weeks that he planned to spend at home with his parents has created some unexpected feelings and he is anxious about using. All the right steps have been taken, a call to his sponsor, even his parents are driving him to meetings and helping in all ways possible. The call to me, which had been put in place at the interview, is also a call for action. I call his mentor who not only agrees to call but spreads the word throughout the StepUP community that someone could use their help. Not one, but many calls are made throughout the remaining weeks. The student arrives, recovery intact, learning once again the power of the program.

 The above story is a reflection of the value of the mentor program prior to the students’ arrival. It is also important to recognize the importance of the mentor once the student has arrived! While many of the incoming students have been in the Twin Cities area for a while prior to coming and may already be acquainted with the community and the living space many have no idea what to expect. For some it will be the first form of independence in a very long time. For those that have experienced this process you can recall the many challenges, fears and the anxiousness that led up to your arrival: Where will I find a meeting? How do I get my books or find my classrooms? Will I fit in with the others in the community? Can I really achieve and thrive in college? Will the recovery foundation that I have built up to this point really support me? As you might guess, the role of the Mentor is invaluable to these individuals. Just knowing that you know and have at least one confidant in the program makes all the difference in the world. It is the beginning of a very important relationship with Augsburg, the StepUP community, and the realization that recovery can happen while attending college and while not always the case it is also possible that these relationships can be the start of a friendship that may last a lifetime!

 -Katie Butler

With the change of season upon us the leaves are changing colors, cooler weather is approaching and there is becoming less hours of sunlight. For some this can become a challenging time of the year.

Some people may began to face a lack of motivation, feeling “blah”, loss of interest in hobbies, increase in sleep and change in eating habits. This can make it difficult to focus on academics and important relationships in one’s life.

SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is more common than you may think. An estimated 10 million Americans suffer from this disorder! It is nothing that someone should feel ashamed or embarrassed about. You are not alone.

It is important to be aware of the signs and symptoms of SAD not only for yourself but in case you observe some of the symptoms in a peer. There are many resources available for additional information on SAD and other types of depression.

Here are a few websites that you may find helpful for additional information and resources. Also, don’t forget that there are counseling services and outside Augsburg resources available through CCHP.

• Web MD – SAD
• U Life Line – Depression
• Macalester – Depression
• St. Thomas – Self Help

StepUP staff and students are excited for the annual Gala, which is  Friday, October 24th!  We hope to see you there!

5:00 – 8:00 pm
StepUP Gala, Hyatt Regency Minneapolis

Event Keynote: Author and StepUP Parent, Sarah Nielsen
Emcee: Comedian, Bill Arnold
Alumni Speaker: Samuel O. Spafford ’09

8:00 pm
After Party, Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Swing Dance featuring Augsburg College Jazz Ensemble
DJ: BUJU FANTA

On social media: #stepupgala

-Katie Butler

The leaves are changing colors and the weather is beginning to cool down. As fall arrives a group of women from the StepUP® community spent a beautiful Saturday at Pinehaven Farms in Wyoming, MN. There were lots of photo opportunities with the beautiful scenery of Wyoming. The day included a petting zoo, mini train ride, and a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. Each woman took the time to pick out the perfect pumpkin in the huge fields of pumpkins and gourds. Once the pumpkins were picked it was time to return to the flat. There, the group took the time to paint and decorate their pumpkins. The decorating was a relaxing, mindfulness experience for the group.

-Christine Nelson

Hi! My name is Christine Nelson and I am on the licensure track in Alcohol and Drug Counseling at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul Minnesota. I currently hold a bachelor’s degree in Social Science Global Studies from Metro State. My studies for this license include interning for a total of eight-hundred and eighty clinical hours over the course of two academic semesters. I completed my first internship at River Ridge, a trauma-informed and gender-specific treatment center that provides holistic treatment services for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.

This week marks my seventh week at StepUP. I continue to learn, grow and feel challenged being a part of the StepUp community. Like many of the students, I have an idea of what I would like to do with my degree, but still find myself searching for the right fit with my life experience and skill set. I know that I have a passion for education, prevention of substance use, and counseling. I enjoy traveling and meeting new people and the valuable lessons they can teach me. I also have a strong sense of social justice and seem to find myself frequently in a conversation about public service and law.

I inquired into interning at StepUP because I have enjoyed working with young people in multiple jobs in my life. My most recent job was at a nonprofit Recovery Organization that provided training and guidance for the creation of chapters throughout the United States of young people in recovery. Their goal was to create a “Recovery Ready Community” for young people in recovery. I traveled to Philadelphia with these young people to train in grassroots organizing through the Wellstone Action Organization. As I witnessed the strength, resilience, and leadership of young people in recovery it was a life changing event for me. It was there that I decided that I wanted to work with young people in the field of alcohol and drug counseling whether it was the treatment side or the recovery side.

On Tuesday, October 1^1st, Nadia Bolz-Weber came to Augsburg to speak about her experience, strength, and hope with her religion and her recovery. She came to speak at the Augsburg Convocation during the day and then at 5PM she came up into the StepUP girl’s flat to speak with all of us students. I have nothing but good things to say about this woman; she is a strong independent woman in recovery, a woman leader in the religious community, and she is an all-around kind and loving person. Her story is incredible, and she is clearly a great pastor because when she was speaking with us, all of our attention was on her only. She can somehow manage to speak to every single person in the room and acknowledge everyone’s presence.

I am so grateful for people like Nadia because it’s so common for people to have negative experiences in religion and/or recovery, so as a reaction to that, people will just write them off and it can be quite damaging. Nadia had a negative first experience in her religion and she grew up to embrace a new one in her own tattooed and cynical way. People who struggle with being accepted can come to her congregation and be welcomed with open and loving arms. People who used to be atheist, queers, addicts and alcoholics, and just the average Joe are all part of her church.

Nadia is based in Colorado, but she is making a huge impact all over the country, so pretty soon I bet we’ll be seeing a lot of congregations similar to hers. She travels a lot, speaking to different communities, and she has a few different books out and is working on another one! Nadia is making a huge impact in so many people’s lives and StepUP was lucky enough to experience her, and we are all really happy about that. If you get a chance, check out her website– it’s filled with so much cool stuff!

– Augsburg Daily Amail 9/24/2014

“From Augsburg to Google: An Alum Shares His Story”
Victor Acosta, PhD Engineer/Physicist at Google X
2004 Augsburg Physics alum and McNair Scholar
Date: September 26, 3:10-4:10 p.m.
Location: Science 123

Victor is this year’s recipient of the Augsburg First Decade Alumni Award for his accomplishments and his involvement within the Augsburg community. In the spring of his first year at Augsburg, Victor joined the Augsburg Molecular Beam Epitaxy team with Dr. Ambrose Wolf, re-engineering the Ultra High Vacuum Chamber. While he continued to work in Dr. Wolf’s lab throughout his undergraduate career, Victor was also selected to participate in two prestigious off campus summer experiences: a research internship at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in 2002, and one at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2003. After graduating, Victor went on to pursue his doctorate in solid-state physics at the University of California-Berkeley, followed by a post-doc at HP, and now works for Google X as an engineer. Come hear about his personal journey from Augsburg to Google!

Healthy States and Betty Ford Foundation present

“A Celebration of Women & Recovery”

Thursday, October 9 at 7:00PM

Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul, MN

Come celebrate recovery!

Millions of women know what it’s like to struggle with addiction or some form of mental illness. The good news is many recover to lead purposeful and meaningful lives of health and wellness.

Join writer and musician Dessa for an evening of conversation with two women who know the power and grace of recovery. Dessa will interview Jennifer Matesa, blogger at “Guinevere Gets Sober” and author of the fourthcoming book The Recovery Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober, and Gayathri Ramprasad, the founder and president of ASHA International, and author of Shadows in the Sun: Healing from Depression and Finding the Light Within.

 Jana Shortal of KARE 11 will emcee this evening of celebration. Musical guests include violist Erica Burton and percussionist Marc Anderson. The Event is open to all.

Tickets are on sale for $15. Members of Minneaota Public Radio receive a $2 discount. MPR Members can get tickets by calling the Fitzgerald Box Office at 612-290-1200

— Lynn Ellingson

The 2014 Bernhard M. Christensen Symposium speaker at Augsburg College is Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colo. She is also the author of the New York Times best-selling book Pastrix and the blog Sarcastic Lutheran.

“Outrageous, rich, and remarkable, Pastrix turns spiritual memoir on its ear in this sardonically irreverent and beautifully honest page-turner…. Heavily tattooed and loud-mouthed, Nadia, a former stand-up comic … didn’t consider herself to be religious leader material — until the day she ended up leading a friend’s funeral in a smoky downtown comedy club. Surrounded by fellow alcoholics, depressives, and cynics, she realized: These were her people. Maybe she was meant to be their pastor.

Using life stories—from living in a hopeful-but-haggard commune of slackers to surviving the wobbly chairs and war stories of a group for recovering alcoholics, from her unusual but undeniable spiritual calling to pastoring a notorious con artist—Nadia uses stunning narrative and poignant honesty to portray a woman who is both deeply faithful and deeply flawed, giving hope to the rest of us along the way.” (Publisher’s comments)

In her book, Nadia writes: “It happens to all of us,” I concluded that Easter Sunday morning. “God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig for ourselves through our violence, our lies, our selfishness, our arrogance, and our addictions. And God keeps loving us back to life over and over.” (p. 174)

Convocation:

The spirituality of being a total screw-up

October 1, 2014 at 10 a.m.
Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center, Augsburg College

5:00 pm Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber meets with StepUP students in OGC

Written By: Katie Butler

The new school year has officially begun! Students have been in their classes for a few days now and the books have been purchased. The first few days can be overwhelming and exhausting with getting to know new peers, familiarizing one’s self with the syllabus and course schedule, and juggling all aspects of the college life!

To help you through these first few weeks and to have a successful semester here are some great articles we have found to assist you through the process.

From summer to school: 5 tips to ease the transition

3 start-of-semester mistakes to avoid

College Problems Podcast: Awkward first classes & naive freshmen

(check out their variety of Podcasts!)

5 Must-Download Apps for College Students