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Est. 2014
UMR alums celebrate being 'matched' for medical residencies
Before they were Gophers, Badgers and ultimately doctors, all three students started as Raptors — earning bachelor’s degrees in health sciences while volunteering inside Rochester’s hospitals and gaining valuable real-world medical experience.
U of M system plans to return to full in-person learning this fall
The University of Minnesota announced this month that all of its campuses, including UMR, are planning to return to fully on-campus operations this fall.
“Given projections on the number of Minnesotans who will be vaccinated, and relying on continued guidance from our public health colleagues, we are increasingly reassured that we can bring students, faculty and staff back to our campuses while effectively minimizing the risk to our community,'' said University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel.
The University system has been operating in a hybrid mode, with both online and in-person classes, for the 2020-2021 school year.
Returning to campus operations that will be more similar to those seen before the pandemic, including coursework and activities, will be consistent with state guidance and public health considerations related to the pandemic as autumn draws closer.
The answer to improving student success: start by asking questions
From her research as an undergraduate to her current role as an associate professor and Ph.D holder in sociology, Molly Dingel’s passion has been to empower students. In her 22 years of experience at UMR, Grinnell College and the University of Kansas, one thing has always stood out: there’s nothing more powerful than a simple conversation.
“If you have a question, it’s important to just ask it,” said Dingel. “It’s always okay to ask.”
Since 2012, she’s worked to fine-tune that idea with her students at UMR, diving into the various ways students interact and bond with their professors with the goal of improving their college experience.
Her recent research has focused on asking dozens of students a set of the same questions (among others: what is it like in the classroom for you? Have you had cultural challenges? How do you think about diversity?), and breaking the responses down into digestible data points.
“These are pretty open interviews,” said Dingel. “I’m asking a wide variety of questions, to a wide variety of people. I have all this interview data, and we’re able to analyze it and boil it down to find out how students develop a relationship with the teachers and students around them.”
Chancellor’s Corner
March is Women’s History Month, a time to honor and become inspired by the past. First declared in 1987, this month of looking back provides an important forward focus for the UMR campus community as we educate students for careers in health. While a majority of people employed across the healthcare industry are female, top leadership roles in this sector are still held primarily by men. In 2016, just 1.6 percent of healthcare companies were being led by women. (In the years ahead, I expect UMR alumnae to contribute to increasing that percentage!) Importantly, we celebrate that all women with careers in health are making history, a vivid reality made clear during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Typically, during this month of reflection, key female figures in US history are lauded, including amazing individuals like Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Abigail Adams and Rosa Parks. In healthcare, we also look to models such as Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, and in Rochester, Mother Mary Alfred Moes and her colleagues – the Sisters of St. Francis. UMR leader and author Virginia Wright-Peterson shares those stories and more in her 2016 book, Women of Mayo Clinic: The Founding Generation.
One central challenge of this commemoration month is our deep awareness that the histories of millions of influential women were not recorded. Imagine a world without The Diary of Anne Frank and then pause to acknowledge all of the stories that will never be told. That cumulative loss of story has a profound impact on human culture, analyzed by many scholars and deserving of our collective attention.
Perhaps for Women’s History Month 2021, this sad recognition of centuries of lost stories will be a catalyst for a life-long practice of documenting and sharing our own journeys and perspectives.
—Dr. Lori Carrell, Chancellor of University of Minnesota Rochester
On Campus is a paid collaboration between the University of Minnesota Rochester and Med City Beat. Through this series, we strive to connect UMR with the broader community through storytelling; to promote the programs and resources available through UMR; to encourage engagement between current and former students; to keep the public informed of the latest campus news; and to highlight the accomplishments of students and faculty.
