The Minnesota Chapter celebrated its 10th anniversary at Crooners Lounge on July 23, 2019. It was a wonderful way to celebrate all of our accomplishments over the past 10 years. To date, we are proud to have given $165,000 to eighteen graduate students in five departments at the University of Minnesota.

Barb Goergen, Chapter President, gave a recap of what we have achieved this year. We have been extremely successful in fundraising. We received over $9,000 from Power of 100 and the Robert Schulze Foundation that was applied to a Scholar Award for Freddie Miller. Three different companies (3M, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic) provided a combined donation of $4,500 in sponsorship of our 2018 Scholar Award Event . Additionally, our chapter received $2,500 from ARCS National because 100% of our members participated in the Every Chapter Challenge. 

In 2019, The Minnesota Chapter will be giving Scholar awards to 6 top students from the University of Minnesota. Jenny Edstrom announced we will also have a Ron Edstrom scholar this year, a donation she and her husband are giving in honor of her late father.

We have also increased our member engagement through a monthly happy hour for East side members on the fourth Thursday of the month, with a monthly happy hour for the West side members planned to start on September 12. We have also held quarterly happy hours with our scholars to discuss career development and mentoring. These happy hours have allowed us to grow as a community, share accomplishments and advice, and have fun.

We are excited for the 2019 Scholar Award event on October 24 at the Cargill Building on the University of Minnesota campus, where we will celebrate six ARCS Scholars and our ARCS Minnesota Scientist of the Year, Dr. Robert Tranquillo.

Submitted by Amanda Hayward