Author: Luther College News

The Luther College Board of Regents recently unanimously approved marketing as the newest major in the college’s curriculum. Starting in fall 2025, the new program will provide coursework for students to understand consumer behavior, analyze market trends and develop creative strategies fostered through an incubator atmosphere.

“Our students don’t just learn how to market a product — they learn how to think critically, communicate clearly and explore the ethical impact of business decisions. This combination prepares them for success in both profit-bearing and non-profit organizations,” said Alexandra White, associate professor of management and head of the Department of Economics, Accounting and Management that houses the new marketing program.

Student demand for marketing

As long as companies have products and services to sell, there will be a need for marketing professionals. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates an 8 percent increase in the employment of marketing managers between now and 2033.

Along with supporting employment opportunities, Luther is launching the marketing program to meet growing demand among current and prospective students, according to the marketing major proposal.

“As we meet with prospective students, we have encountered an increasing number of students who cite an interest in pursuing marketing as a course of study and they prefer to study marketing at an institution like Luther,” the proposal said.

The Luther admissions team reported that marketing is a program of “high interest” with students inquiring about studying marketing, advertising, social media, digital marketing and sports marketing.

The marketing major

At Luther, marketing students will develop practical skills for real-world application. Students will learn to:

• Leverage core marketing theories and frameworks to assess complex business scenarios, identify market opportunities and develop targeted strategies.
• Develop effective teamwork skills to design, execute and evaluate integrated marketing projects.
• Craft effective written materials that communicate marketing strategies, campaign insights and performance metrics to diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrate skills in information literacy and data analytics by sourcing, analyzing and interpreting market data to support evidence-based marketing strategies.

The marketing program will provide a meaningful foundation for student success in various work environments.

Support from alumni and Decorah community

In addition to the classwork, marketing students will be encouraged to develop supportive connections through the Luther Business Club, network with alumni and complete internships. Hongxiao Yu, assistant professor of marketing and management, believes these experiences will be the cornerstone of the program’s success.

“Luther students have incredible support from our alumni, their engaged peers and the Decorah community in extending their learning both in and outside of the classroom through special lectures, field trip visits and more. Our alumni have such a strong sense of mission and giving back—it creates a wonderful experience for our students,” she said.

Luther alum Linnea Rahlf, class of 2020, said her degree in business management with a minor in communication studies “laid a strong foundation for a career in marketing.”

“The coursework challenged me to think both strategically and creatively, and the small class sizes allowed for meaningful discussions and close relationships with professors,” Rahlf said. “The liberal arts environment at Luther also shaped me into a well-rounded thinker and communicator. From writing and research to collaboration and critical thinking, those transferable skills have served me just as much as the business curriculum.”

Rahlf, who is a senior account executive at Hughes Agency in Greenville, South Carolina, credits her internship with Rendered Unique, a small business in Decorah, to her success.

“That hands-on experience gave me early exposure to real-world marketing,” Rahlf said.

Under the new program, Luther students will also have the option of earning a minor in marketing or one of three areas of concentration – promotional marketing, digital marketing and sports marketing. These stand-alone concentrations support students who have an interest in marketing while pursuing other majors.

Past alumni success

The marketing major is new, but the success of Luther alumni in the marketing field is not.

Jim Kowitz, class of 2003, earned his degrees in management and communications. Now, Kowitz is associate director of global brand, marketing and communications at EY (previously known as Ernst & Young) in Minneapolis. He credits his success “to the invaluable relationships” he made at Luther.

“I can confidently say that my last two job opportunities were made possible through the impactful ‘Luther connections’ I’ve established,” he said. “The Luther community is not only robust but also has a far-reaching influence that extends well beyond the Midwest. Though Luther is nestled in northeastern Iowa, its impact resonates on a global scale.”

The Luther College Office of College Ministries is excited to announce the launch of its pilot program, “Called Outward: Exploring Skills for Faith-Based Leadership” for students starting in the 2025–26 academic year.

Through this yearlong program, an annual cohort of four to six Luther students will engage in experiential learning around leadership in faith communities. During the fall semester, students and mentors will engage in shared learning and discernment about topics and skills for faith-based leadership. During the spring semester, students will serve as interns in local congregations. The program will fulfill the college’s experiential learning requirement.

Called Outward is funded through a two-year $40,000 grant from the Council of Independent Colleges’ Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), which supports vocational exploration programming at college campuses. NetVUE is supported by a combination of membership dues and support from the Lilly Endowment Inc.

“We are thrilled to receive such a significant grant to launch our program,” said Pastor Melissa Bills, director of College Ministries at Luther. “Not only does this funding help us to build new student experiences, but it shows a vote of confidence in Luther College and its mission to build up student leaders for the common good.”

The Called Outward program aims to equip students to reimagine faith-based leadership both within and beyond congregational models of ministry.

“Many Christian denominations and churches are facing accelerating patterns of decline, due to various factors and pressures,” Bills said. “However, there are many leaders still seeking to build community and to live lives of service, rooted in the shared values and dreams of their faith. We want to offer our students the ability to engage with ideas and experiences that are transferable to emerging needs and models of ministry.”

Possible exploratory topics and experiences include: stewardship and sustainability, hospitality, bridge-building, advocacy, and community organizing. The topical nature of the program intentionally creates space for diverse student participation from a wide range of vocational interests.

“By emphasizing skill-building for faith leadership, we believe that we are equipping students to be nimble, flexible and responsive leaders in an ever-changing church and world,” Bills said.

Luther senior Gabby Bizal is a social work major graduating at the end of this month. She has already accepted a position as ministry director and communications coordinator at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Decorah. Bizal believes the skills that students will learn in Called Outward will cross over into many career fields.

“This program was not just designed for the religion major who is becoming a priest, but also for the music major who wants experience leading a choir, the nursing major who wants to learn how to walk with families through death and grief, the environmental studies major who wants to live as a good steward of this earth, the social work major, like me, who wants to watch as children and youth discover their own deeper calling,” she said. “The beauty of this program is that it is designed to be flexible and adaptable to each individual student.”

Luther College and the Office of College Ministries already maintain a variety of partnerships with local congregations, and many students are active participants and leaders in these faith communities.

“This grant will allow us to lean into that existing energy and to build up mentoring relationships between area faith leaders and students. It is a gift to know we already have ready and willing partners to make our project a meaningful reality,” Bills said.

The leadership team for the grant project at Luther includes Bills; Rachel Brummel, associate professor of environmental studies; Kristin Bjerke, College Ministries program coordinator; Brittany Cord, director of experiential learning and associate professor of accounting; Jeanie Lovell, senior director of foundation and government relations; and Britt Rhodes, director of community-engaged learning and professor of social work.

Luther has received many NetVUE grants through the years. In 2023, the college received a NetVUE Professional Development Award to develop relationships and capacity for vocational exploration through Luther’s new experiential learning requirement. That grant-funded project helped to lay the groundwork for this successful proposal focused on leadership in faith communities.

Amy Weldon, professor of English at Luther College and co-director of the Luther College Writers Festival, is proud to announce that her fifth book, “Creature: A Novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein,” was recently released and is available at bookstores and online.

Weldon’s “Creature” is based on the life of English novelist Mary Shelley. It interweaves her little-known life journey with that of her most famous character, the “creature” created by Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein in Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein.” Shelley’s classic novel, a precursor to the horror and science-fiction genres, asks readers to question societal norms of birth, bodies and those we call “monsters.”

“When Mary Shelley began writing ‘Frankenstein’ in the summer of 1816, she was a 19-year-old single mother with one dead and one living child, in love with a married man and haunted by the legacy of her mother, a famous English feminist who died giving birth to her,” Weldon said. “But when she was awakened suddenly from a dream in which a scientist was animating a giant semi-human being, giving it life, she obeyed that dream. She started writing and she kept writing until the end of her life.”

Traveling from London to Italy and into a technological future, Weldon’s “Creature” blends historical realism and literary magic to show how a bookish, haunted girl learns to confront her monsters by bringing them to life.

“Shelley battled every one of the fears and insecurities any one of us might battle today,” Weldon said. “And she wrote a book that — much like Victor Frankenstein’s ‘Creature’ himself — will never die. People will be reading ‘Frankenstein’ as long as they are reading books.”

Weldon’s admiration for Shelley started when Weldon was attending graduate school at the University of North Carolina. Through her own path as an English professor and author, Weldon’s admiration for Shelley has only deepened through the years.

“What she did with this novel, especially in her time, at her age, is a real achievement,” she said.

An Alabama native, Weldon joined the Luther faculty in 2005. Since 2013, Weldon has taught the January Term study-abroad course “In Frankenstein’s Footsteps: The Keats-Shelley Circle in London, Geneva, and Italy” to Luther students. This three-week course follows the path of Shelley as she wrote “Frankenstein” through London, Geneva, Venice, Florence and Rome.

“Teaching that course helped me and students walk through the locations in which I was literally able to set scenes and characters. For example, without ‘In Frankenstein’s Footsteps,’ I still might never have made it to Venice, on which I drew heavily for the setting of an episode that’s under-reported in Mary Shelley’s life: the death of her second daughter,” Weldon said.

Through the writing process, Weldon encountered many challenges, including the limitations of encapsulating Shelley’s “vast and marvelous life into a single book.” An early draft of “Creature” was 236,000 words. The final published version is roughly half that size.

“I had to compress, elide and sometimes just pass over some things. But it was important to me that I treat her whole life, her entire creative life — not just ‘Frankenstein,’ and not just her marriage to [Percy Bysshe] Shelley and the loss of their children — as fully as I can,” Weldon said. “Students ask me, ‘Why is ‘Frankenstein’ the novel you’re obsessed with? When did this obsession start?’ I find it weirdly difficult to remember. It seems like this novel has always been a part of my bloodstream, always been something I’ve known.”

Weldon has written four other books. Her next book, “A Thing of Beauty: Reading the Romantics in a World on Fire,” is scheduled for publication by Bloomsbury Academic in 2027.

“Creature: A Novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein” was published by Sea Crow Press and released on March 25, 2025. Copies are available both online and at the Luther College Book Shop.

Luther College invites community members to attend special activities planned on Sunday, April 27, to complement the sold-out “Travel with a Norwegian Sensibility” lecture by best-selling guidebook author Rick Steves. You do not need to be a ticket holder to participate in these additional activities.

“We’re thrilled to offer these activities to enhance the experience for those traveling into Decorah for Rick Steves and locals who may or may not be attending Steves’ talk,” said Susan Potvin, director of programming and outreach at Luther College.

“Travel with a Norwegian Sensibility” sold out less than two weeks after tickets went on sale. The Center for Faith and Life is at full capacity, and the college cannot add seating for the event. The Luther College Ticket Office has a lengthy waiting list for those still interested in attending the event.

“If you are unable to use your tickets, please contact the Ticket Office. We can help connect you with a person on our waiting list,” said Bradley Phillips, assistant director of campus programming. Please call 563-387-1357 or email tickets@luther.edu if this is your situation.

With a sold-out crowd expected at the CFL, Luther College is using its “Christmas at Luther” parking plan. Patrons, who are willing and able to walk to the venue, are encouraged to use the Preus Library lot (enter the address, 585 Library Street, Decorah, IA 52101, in your GPS) as well as the Jenson-Noble parking lot. Parking along Luther Drive will be designated as additional handicap parking. This map has detailed information about special event parking at Luther.

The following events are open to the general public on Sunday, April 27.

Community Worship: Let All the World in Every Corner Sing
The Office for College Ministries invites the Luther campus and extended community to this service of songs, readings and prayers. Join us to worship with us as we celebrate God’s love for all nations and all people at 10 a.m. on Sunday, April 27, in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall.

Koselig Brunch
Luther College Dining Services will serve brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, inside the Cafeteria on the lower level of Dahl Centennial Union. Enjoy Norwegian-inspired breakfast favorites like scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and fresh dill, French toast bake with lingonberry compote, eggs benedict quiche, and rømmegrøt bars, along with a full complement of lunch fare, salad bar, and allergy-friendly options.

The price is $12.50 per adult and $6.25 for children between six and 12 years old. Advanced tickets are highly encouraged and must be purchased by Tuesday, April 22. Reserve your desired dining time at tickets.luther.edu.

You may purchase brunch tickets at the door using a credit or debit card; no cash payments will be accepted.

Luther College Book Shop Special Hours
Browse the unique selection of Scandinavian books, gifts and home décor, as well as Luther College branded merchandise at the Book Shop. The store will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 27.

Free Admission at Vesterheim Museum
Enjoy free admission to Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 27. Explore Heritage Park, Hanson Vesterheim Commons, and Vesterheim’s Museum Building, showcasing “200 Years of Norwegians in America,” a special exhibit commemorating the bicentennial anniversary of the first organized immigration of Norwegians to the United States. Visit vesterheim.org for more information.

As the first U.S. college founded by Norwegian immigrants, Luther is proud to host “Travel with a Norwegian Sensibility” on April 27 as part of a yearlong commemoration of the first organized migration from Norway to North America 200 years ago. Steves’ lecture will reflect on his own heritage and the importance of continued connections across a global society. Steves will share photos, stories and insights from more than 50 years of traveling outside of the United States.

Steves is a popular public television host, a best-selling guidebook author and an outspoken activist who encourages Americans to broaden their perspectives through travel. He is the founder and owner of Rick Steves’ Europe, a travel business with a small-group tour program that brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually.