Download the Summer 2004 PDF - Augsburg College

FROM FLATANGERTO AUGSBURG:A CENTURY APARTby Betsey NorgardTHE SMALL coastaltown of Flatanger, Norway, hassent two students to AugsburgCollege, almost exactly 100 yearsapart. While Ingwald Rosok maynot have received a diploma inthe spring of 1895 when he leftAugsburg, Monica Dahlemarched proudly across the stagein spring 2004.Dahle is a senior at MoldeUniversity College incentral Norway and cameto Augsburg as part ofInternational Partners. Thisprogram, based onreciprocal agreementsbetween Augsburg andEuropean institutions thatoffer the equivalent ofbachelor’s degrees, allowsstudents from both Europeand Augsburg to take partof their study program atpartner schools. Thisenables them toexperience studyingabroad withoutinterrupting or delayingtheir studies.Because of International Partners andthe scholarship that participants receive,Dahle chose to come to Minneapolis andAugsburg. When she began researchinginformation about Augsburg, to hersurprise and excitement she discovered abook about Ingwald Rosok, also fromFlatanger. He had come to the U.S. in1891, worked at a number of jobs in theUpper Midwest, and attended the secondIngwald Rosok, who attendedAugsburg in 1894-95, left hissmall village of Flatanger 100years before current studentMonica Dahle.Norwegian student Monica Dahle stands in front of Old Main, built just threeyears after Ingwald Rosok, another student from her hometown, attendedAugsburg.preparatory class atAugsburg Seminary fornearly five months until hismoney ran out.In his memoir, Retrospect, Rosok tellsof wanting to go to school and learningabout Augsburg from a Norwegian grocerin Minneapolis. He describes Augsburg’slocation as “in the block between Seventhand Eighth Streets, and between 21st and22nd Avenues South.” He lists the facultythat year as six professors.Rosok did not want to be a ministerand chose to study engineering at theUniversity of Minnesota instead ofreturning to Augsburg. He eventuallymoved to Arizona and lived there the restof his life.Although Rosok’s mother was fromthe Sverdrup family, there is no apparentclose connection to Georg and GeorgeSverdrup, Augsburg’s second and fourthpresidents, respectively.When Dahle arrived at Augsburg lastwinter, she recognized Old Main fromphotos she had seen in a history book.She was one of 34 Norwegian students inPhoto of Ingwald Rosok from Retrospect: AnAutobiography, by I. A. Rosok, edited by O. M.Norlie, copyright 1957 and printed by Lund Press,Minneapolis.Spring/Summer 200421