Pics of the Day
The Pic of the Day is featured on student and faculty pages, as submitted by members of the Augustana community. Here are some recent images. (Click on a photo to see a caption.)
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Students host their first college radio show last Saturday night. Tune in to hear them and others at https://waug.fm!
Dr. Kelsey Arkle (fourth from the right) and the Fryxell Geology Museum kicked off a dino-mite community collaboration with the Putnam Museum and Science Center. Dr. Arkle and her students accepted over 30 pieces of a ~66 million-year-old triceratops that were excavated in Lusk, Wyo., by Putnam staff, greater community members and Augustana student Niccolo Benvenuto '26 (right). Throughout the year, Augustana geology students will have the opportunity to prepare the dinosaur material, including parts of ribs, vertebrae, femur and frill in Dr. Arkle's paleontology lab, meticulously scraping and removing sediment from the fossilized bone in preparation to be installed in the Putnam's new triceratops skeleton exhibit.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by Viking Plaza yesterday for free donuts! Hope all had a great first day of classes.
Happy first day of classes to all, and a special welcome to all our new students!
Thank you to all who helped with student move-in, and a big welcome to all newly arrived students! Check out a short video recap of Move-In Day on Augustana's YouTube channel.
TRIO-SSS students helped facilitate a workshop on Thriving at Augustana! The workshop was attended by PACE students who are new to the college. Thank you all for your help in making this a great event. Pictured: Christiana Headley, Jamiah Riley, Magaly Huesca, Noelia Avila, Jaylen Clayton and Abigail Morales
Many students will arrive tomorrow for move-in day and Welcome Week. Yesterday a fawn was spotted walking though campus in the quiet before the exciting bustle of the coming days!
The Rock Island Fire Department was on campus last week to help the Community Advisors (CAs) practice putting out (literal) fires. They taught the PASS technique (Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep).
After President Talentino experienced the Geology Summer Field Course last year, she encouraged the geology faculty to offer this amazing opportunity to Augustana alumni, too. With alumni spanning five decades and a variety of majors, the geology faculty launched the first dual student/alumni rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon — a week and 190 miles of reminiscing about their college days and connecting to their present-day alma mater. The group shared camaraderie and adventure, learned about environmental and geologic issues throughout time, slept tentless under the stars, took day hikes through slot canyons, frolicked under waterfall plunge pools and swam turquoise tributaries.
CORE teed off the semester with its first presentation to the Augustana Golf Team! Career Coach Beth and Career Mentor Paige shared online resources, including SkillsFirst, the Viking Score program, and other tools to help students build strong resumes and stay on course with their career goals. Career Coaches and Career Mentors are available to present on a variety of Career Development & Vocation topics for classes, athletic teams, and student organizations. To schedule a presentation, email careerdevelopment@augustana.edu.
The Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center's second Sweden Tour took place July 2025, designed and hosted by Jill Seaholm. Attendees enjoyed education, sightseeing, shopping and free time, and several participants met new Swedish relatives along the way. There were seven Augustana alumni in the group (Jill Seaholm '88, Sharon Anderson '80, Laura Crumbleholme '89, Elizabeth Swenson '68, Carol Erickson '81, Jane Telleen '74 and Rob Lagerlof '83). Here, the group visits the Royal Palace in Stockholm, with the city's House of Parliament and Royal Opera among the buildings in the background.
Three grads signed up separately for an educational program on pollinator plantings, sponsored by the Rock Island County Soil & Water Conservation District. From left, Sarah Kivisto '01, Austin Earley '24 and Kai Swanson '86 toured land prairie and woodlands restored by landowner Tim Anderson just west of Orion, Ill.
TRIO students and staff attended a Quad Cities River Bandits baseball game at Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, Iowa. Students had a tour of the facilities and learned about internship and job opportunities. Pictured: Anna Badamo, Johnay Swayzer, Amiyah Woods, Monica Perez, Maya Doss, Christiana Headley
Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? This fawn took advantage of the quiet campus to nibble on some plants in Viking Plaza.
Students and faculty of the GEOL-105 class recently returned from a three-day rafting trip on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon! Here, the group says goodbye to their guides before hiking up the Bright Angel Trail.
Michael Scarlett and his family were welcomed by faculty and staff from Kobe City University of Foreign Studies in Kobe, Japan, earlier this week. Dr. Scarlett will be teaching for the next two and a half weeks as a part of Augustana's partnership with the university.
Thank you to the Financial Aid office for stopping by the garden to help do some weeding and harvesting in preparation for the QC Farmers’ Market on Saturday, Aug. 9! Augie Acres will be selling their produce there as part of the 2nd Saturdays on 2nd Avenue event. If your group is interested in volunteering with Augie Acres, please contact augieacres@augustana.edu.
Admissions hosted a picnic for our incoming first-year and transfer students from the greater Quad Cities area. Incoming students got to meet our student ambassador team; play sand volleyball, basketball and board games; and eat pizza while getting their questions answered about life on campus. They all left with new friends and ready for the start of their Augie adventure.
Some of APEP's newest faculty prepare to teach in 2025-26: Chris Strunk (not pictured), Patrick Crawford and America Colmenares, in orientation with Bonnie Jessee (far right) and APEP Advisory Board Member Brandon Martinez, spouse Alondra and little Andreas.
Maya Pagel, student research assistant with the Augustana Center for the Advancement of Community Health and Wellness (CACHW), attended the Heart of Hope Community Love Fest on Saturday, July 19. Maya supported local community members and shared information about upcoming programs that she and other CACHW student research assistants will host during the fall semester.
Last week, Admissions and Financial Aid hosted a fika break outside Seminary Hall. Thank you to everyone who stopped by!
Augie Acres, Augustana's student-run garden, has been hard at work this summer, and we are ready to share our harvest with you! Stop by the Quad on Thursday, July 24, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. to take some of our produce home with you. There will be tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, and more available for free. For questions, please email augieacres@augustana.edu.
Over the weekend, participants in the Summer Spanish Program came together in Cuenca, Ecuador, for a memorable meet-up! ✨ From swapping stories to reflecting on their time abroad, it was a meaningful moment of connection and community. Huge thanks to program leaders Dr. Mariano Magalhães and América Colmenares for bringing everyone together.
Geology major Naoto Fukuoka '26 adjusts the intake tube of an automated water sampler in the Slough pond, as part of his summer work with the Upper Mississippi Center.
To continue the tradition of FIKA over the summer, employees enjoyed a BYO "FAKE"-A break together in Tredway Library.
Bold-Erdene, a sophomore majoring in political science and economics, proudly represented Augustana at the U.S. College Fair in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia!
Augie’s Pre-Health Club recently partnered with the Quad Cities HeartSafe Coalition to host a Hands-Only CPR training workshop for students and staff. Participants learned essential life-saving skills and plan to volunteer as campus and community CPR instructors. Another training will be held in September. For more information, contact Aliza Salinas-Cervantes, Pre-Health Club President.
Grace Evers '27 is working as a marketing and communications intern at the Figge this summer, creating internal marketing resources and multimedia content to showcase programs and events. This work, which impacts community programs and enhances student storytelling skills, is a great example of how Augie students grow their skills and support their communities over the summer!
Ashley Allen, Rupa Gordon, Chris Beyer, Joanna Short and Lindsay Adolphs (not pictured) completed their four-year involvement in the HLC Assessment Academy. The team worked to develop processes to measure student learning in co-curricular learning experiences beyond the classroom.
Paige Kern, a secondary biology education major and Noyce Grant Summer Scholar, is investigating the impact of floating treatment wetlands (FTW) on water quality. Her indoor model was set up last week in the Hanson greenhouse, and this week she deployed her outdoor system in the upper part of the Slough. This research will help Paige develop hands-on projects for her future students. An FTW is like a plastic "raft" of wetland plants added to a body of water to encourage the uptake/use of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous, which can cause damage to an aquatic ecosystem, often seen as fishkills when agricultural runoff pollutes a pond or stream.