donates funds for outdoor classroom

Cargill has provided $51,500 to the Regina Roth Applied Agricultural & Food Studies Department that will help enhance learning for students in the program by providing funds to lease a tractor and purchase equipment. In honor of the gift, the space located outside of the newly constructed Rosen Ag Center and Lags Greenhouse will be named the Cargill Outdoor Classroom.

“There is a great deal of expense in providing our students with the full range of equipment and materials they need for learning,” said Dr. Tom Paulsen, department head and professor. “Our board and administration have invested significantly in our program, but there are always additional needs. The gift Cargill has provided us allows us to invest in some critical new pieces of equipment that will elevate the student learning experience.”

The Cargill Outdoor Classroom will encompass 2.5 acres behind the new Lags Greenhouse. It offers space for outdoor agriculture production, research and demonstration classrooms. While students will work cooperatively with faculty to determine the exact uses for the space, the test plots will offer the opportunity to grow larger crops, start trees and shrubs for the campus grounds, grow edible forest plants and landscapes, explore viticulture, possibly start an apiary, and more.

Dr. Jennifer Miller was named the 2023 Dimmit Fellow in June 2022. Her time in residence this spring will include different opportunities for interested individuals to learn more about her expertise in embodied writing. This approach is a technique that encourages writers to use the knowledge they bring from their own bodies to their writing. In doing so, writers are giving themselves expertise and confidence to complete assignments that could otherwise be daunting.

Miller earned her doctorate in English at the University of Minnesota, where her dissertation was focused on the intersection between multicultural American literature and popular works of fantasy and science fiction. There are a variety of planned events throughout the semester.

Miller is a faculty member at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn.

Named for the late Lillian Dimmitt who was one of the original faculty members hired at Morningside University in 1894 and who lived and worked at Morningside until her death in 1965, the Dimmitt Fellowship program brings distinguished scholars from around the world to Morningside University to enrich the cultural and academic life on campus.