We have a television in the front office on campus.  Most of the time it is tuned into a news station or displays a slideshow with campus announcements.  Once in awhile, we'll flip it to a sports channel at night for a little variety.  Yesterday was different though, we had it tuned into one of the local stations to check out the first round action at the North Dakota Class B Girls Basketball Tournament.

All four first round games were televised, so the coverage stretched into the night.  One of my co-workers from Minnesota was asking about what schools were playing and about the difference between Class A and Class B in North Dakota.  I was more than happy to talk about it.  There is a certain sense of pride that comes with having grown up in a small town in North Dakota.  Bitter rivalries that existed one day, melt away the next when you start talking about being a Class B kid. 

There are 120+ teams in North Dakota that are considered Class B for girls basketball and other sports.  Many of these teams are actually co-ops between a collection of small schools.  I remember at one time while I was in high school, we were Divide County-Wildrose-Alamo and played against teams like Westhope-Souris-Newberg and De Lacs - Burlington.  Some of the football teams we played against were Parshall-Plaza-North Shore, Trenton-Trinity Christian, Hatton-Finley-Sharon, and the perennial powerhouse was New England-Regent.   My favorite was A-E-E-M-O, which rolls off the tongue a bit easier than saying Adams-Edimore-Edingburg-Milton-Osnabrock.  It didn't matter to us that Wildrose co-oped with Ray in football and Tioga in track, when they were a part of our girls basketball team, they were family.

In a town like mine, having a good team to cheer for is huge for the community.  In the '80s, we were a basketball power that cheered on teams coached by hall of famer, Barry Haggin.  In the late '90s and into the 2000s, we have had the good fortune of making the 9-man football playoffs year after year.  When the teams are doing well, the town comes together.  School colors turn up every where.  I remember when they painted the watertower maroon and gray, likely a  risdual effect of the '98 State Champion football team.  We were fortunate as a community.  Of those 120+ teams, only 8 can make it to a state tournament each year.  If a school like Dickinson Trinity or Bottineau or New Town makes a run of 2 or 3 state tournaments in a row, that means a lot of schools have to miss out on the chance of lifetime to compete for a state title.  I can remember missing out on a trip to state a few times because our girls couldn't quite get past Watford City and their phenom point guard Molly Anderson. 

So I watched with interest yesterday as the games played out.  Divide County did not make it this year, but it still is important for me to watch. You cheer on the underdogs and hope that the team from your region represents you well.  But in the end, you celebrate along with the champion and swell up with small town pride. Unless of course the winner is Dickinson Trinity... or Minot Ryan... or Fargo Oak Grove.... haha.  Enjoy the tournaments!

In my previous post, I mentioned that we are looking for ways to help online students feel more connected to the campus community here in Fargo.  There has been a lot of brain storming, a lot of wrestling with ideas, and a lot of creative energy poured into the problem of online community so far and we think we've come up with a good starting point. 

My Fargo Campus Online

My Fargo Campus will provide students with a platform that is specific to the Fargo campus through which they can create a personal profile, connect with other students, participate in discussion outside the onine classroom environment, learn about campus happenings, and provide helpful feedback to campus staff and faculty. The environment is similar to that of popular social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook.  It not only provides a connection to the Fargo campus, but it also gives students an opportunity to develop online networking skills that will be valuable to them as they move on into the working world. 

I strongly encourage everyone to go, sing up, and start participating in the My Fargo Campus Online:

The wheels of progress continue to turn on the Rasmussen campus here in Fargo.  I walked in to the front door one day to discover that new cubicle-like walls had been installed in the front office.  The whole building has received a complete makeover in the 1+ year that I have been employed here.  We've added new staff

One thing that has not changed is the feeling of community that we have here in Fargo.  With each new staff member and each new student we add, the family feels like it is growing.  The challenge for us is maintaining that community feel, especially amongst our online students.  I am hoping to help overcome some of these challenges and help students who may never visit the campus in person, still feel like they are a part of the community.  Any thoughts or suggestions on how we can build community amongst our online students? Leave a comment.

For those wondering, Gunnar’s surgery went very well this morning.

We were only at the surgery center for about an hour and a half. It was a quick procedure and he did really well. He has been a bit fussy the rest of the day as a result of coming out of the anesthesia. They said he would feel like he’d had too much to drink and that the room would seem like its spinning. He hadn’t eaten anything since the night before but we couldn’t give him a full bottle right away because the doctor didn’t want him to get nauseous. He did finally get some food and then fell asleep on my chest for about an hour. He’s been in a better mood since, but you can tell he is a little uncomfortable and irritated still. All in all, I’m glad we got the procedure done and know this will improve life for him. Thank you so much to everyone that prayed for him and Jinae and I today. Please continue to do so.

I’ll be back in Fargo tomorrow morning.

The other update is with regard to something I did with a portion of my Christmas / birthday money. I got the beginnings of a tattoo on my upper right arm. Eventually it will look like the stained glass piece that you see at the top of this page.

Keep in mind this picture was taken in a mirror so it’s reversed. 

The news finally came.  I got a new job. 

It’s not so much a new job, but it’s not so much a true promotion either. I’ll be staying at the same school and the same campus I’m at right now. But the position itself will be a big change.  I will be working with students taking online courses, tracking academic progress and attendance, dealing with questions and concerns about classes, and mediating and helping to resolve student/professor conflict.  I’ll no longer be working with student accounts and I’ll no longer be at the front desk answering phones.  In fact, the nature of the job will allow me to work a fair amount from home if I choose.  The flexibility with my schedule will be great and should help improve my weekends when I go to get Gunnar.

But beyond those improvements, perhaps the greatest luxury it brings is something I’ve been hoping and praying for:  stability.  This job has potential to be a long term job for me.  I can really see myself loving it.   I’ll be staying in Fargo for the foreseeable future now.  Feels good to have a place.

Gunnar will be getting tubes in his ears on Wednesday morning.  I’m not that worried, just a little nervous so far.  I’ll update sometime after his surgery to let everyone know how he is doing.