Who am I?\u00a0 Good question.\u00a0
Even though my name sounds very Norwegian, I am a full-blooded mutt. My dad has Norwegian and German roots, while my mother has Slovak, Danish, British, and [very few] Norwegian roots. I learned Norwegian through many different language programs, but not at home as many assume.<\/p>\n
I was first introduced to the Norwegian language through a choir called Busserullene<\/em>. We traveled everywhere to sing in concerts, parades and festivals. We of course wore a Busserull (a Norwegian peasant shirt). Among our highlights, I had the opportunity to sing for the King and Queen of Norway and to sing on a recording with\u00a0Lillebj\u00f8rn Nilsen<\/a>\u00a0&\u00a0Steinar Ofsdal<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I was 7 my [Norwegian] grampa decided to send me to\u00a0Skogfjorden<\/a>, the Norwegian Village at Concordia Language Villages. I enjoyed this experience so much that I ended up attending Skogfjorden for 10 years.<\/p>\n After high school I decided to attend Camp Norway in Sandane, Norway (during the summer of 1993) and then\u00a0Sagavoll Folkeh\u00f8gskole<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Gvarv<\/a>, Norway (during the academic year of 1993-1994). Gvarv, which is in the middle of\u00a0Telemark<\/a>, was located within a few miles from my paternal relatives, and I was able to travel all around the country and visit many relatives and friends. During this trip I also acquired a\u00a0West Telemark bunad<\/a>, which my mom embroidered.<\/p>\n I then decided to go back to Norway and attend three more programs to Norway:<\/p>\n *\u00a0Oslo Year Program<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Oslo, Norway (spring semester of 1996) Each of these programs offered a unique perspective of Norway and Norwegian culture. I had a rich variety of urban vs. rural and American vs. Norwegian perspectives. During the Oslo Year Program I had the opportunity to hold an internship in an organization that fought governmental discrimination against minorities. This was a very moving & eye-opening experience. This, along with many other experiences, is when my interest with the Sami and immigrants evolved.<\/p>\n Besides studying in Norway, I have also studied in\u00a0Quetzaltenango<\/a>, Guatemala, and have been to 30+\u00a0countries, most frequently to Mexico (20 times and counting). More traveling to random places in the world is without a doubt in my future.<\/p>\n While doing most of my coursework in Norway, I was earning credits to Scandinavian Studies, History & Political Science Majors at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. I graduated in December of 1996. During my undergraduate studies, I received the King Olav V. Scholarship in 1998 & 1996, The International Summer School Scholarship in 1995, the Astrid G Cates Scholarship in 1994 and the Danforth Leadership Award in 1993.<\/p>\n When I graduated from Concordia, I worked at Skandisk, Inc. <\/a>where I was introduced to all aspects of working in a small business, especially the publishing industry. I decided that I needed to leave after a year and a half to pursue more teaching and working on my own small business which was just starting to develop. In the evenings while I worked at Skandisk, I started teaching Norwegian classes for community education and I also soon discovered the network of Norwegian teachers and I started selling my materials to other teachers.<\/p>\n I finished my M.A. at the University of Minnesota in\u00a0Curriculum and Instruction of Second Languages and Cultures<\/a>\u00a0in May of 2001. I applied to the department with one of my main interests being heritage language learners. This is due to the fact that the majority of students enrolled in my courses have a keen interest in their Norwegian-American heritage; these students enroll in language courses as a means of developing their ethnic identity. This growing trend is not only evident in Norwegian-American language learners, but with many learners, both immigrant and indigenous.<\/p>\n For my MA thesis I examined the phenomenon of learners enrolling in language courses as a means of going back to their roots (Heritage Language Learning) and issues of Language Revitalization. I have specifically examined the educational system of the Sami in Norway. Their programs have been very successful as a means of revitalization of language even though they have not followed the typical international models of bilingual education. In addition, I wanted to explore how the Sami have been able to incorporate their indigenous belief systems into the Norwegian educational system. The title of my project was: Sami Heritage Language Learners: Balancing Indigenous Traditions and Western Ideologies Within the Norwegian Educational System. A shorter version of this project was published in the SASS journal in 2003.<\/p>\n During the 1999-2000 academic year I also taught first year Norwegian at the University of Minnesota. While I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and would have loved to continue this for the 2000-2001 academic year, I received the\u00a0Torskeklubben<\/a>\u00a0Fellowship which is funded by the Torskeklubben in Minnesota. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to put more attention to full time studies & research.<\/p>\n Upon completing my M.A (during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 academic school years), I taught Norwegian to first year students at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. While this was a great experience for me, it was also extremely frustrating as I continuously had students in my class who couldn’t follow the textbook we were using. They were smart kids\u00a0but\u00a0the curriculum just wasn’t working for them. More on that in a minute…<\/p>\n In addition to teaching language in the university setting, I also enjoyed being a counselor in the high school credit program at Skogfjorden and also taught a number of Norwegian baking classes. I was featured in the Tastemaker section in the Star Tribune in May of 2002.\u00a0\u00a0I taught these\u00a0cooking classes\u00a0for 10 years through the\u00a0Edina Community Center<\/a>\u00a0in Edina, Minnesota.<\/p>\n Nancy Aarsvold<\/a>\u00a0(a colleague from St. Olaf) and I wrote a Norwegian curriculum for beginning Norwegian entitled\u00a0Sett i gang I & II.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0My good friend, Chelsey (aka Leikny), whom I\u2019ve known since I was seven, was our designer and a major part of the project as well. I am a huge fan of her design and was delighted when she accepted the role of designer (really, I kept bugging her until she gave in).<\/p>\n I spent the 2003-2004 academic year in Oslo, Norway where I took a summer course for teachers who teach Norwegian abroad at the International Summer School and stayed for the academic year to take a variety of language, history and literature courses. It was this year that I started teaching Norwegian Online.<\/p>\n In 2004, I moved back to the US, this time to the University of Texas at Austin.\u00a0 From 2004-7, I taught an intensive Norwegian course (two years of Norwegian in one year) and continued my Ph.D. studies in the\u00a0Germanic Studies Department<\/a>. I completed my\u00a0dissertation<\/a>\u00a0in the summer of 2008, on\u00a0online language learning.\u00a0 I specifically investigated how students interact in an online language course, and how this interaction may lead to increased linguistic outcomes and course completion.\u00a0 I received a dissertation fellowship for the 2007-2008 academic year and I moved back to Minnesota to teach part-time at\u00a0St. Olaf College<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition to my work at St. Olaf, I also acted as\u00a0the director for the\u00a0Nordic Lights Film Festival<\/a>– Twin Cities for 5 years. \u00a0This is a 7 day festival showcasing contemporary Nordic cinema. \u00a0It is through this festival and connecting with Nordic friends that\u00a0\u00a0is also where I got to know my husband, Ben. \u00a0We live in Minneapolis with our son and wuppy, Dag I<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, those were the basic tidbits about me. Thanks for taking the time to get to know me better!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who am I?\u00a0 Good question.\u00a0Even though my name sounds very Norwegian, I am a full-blooded mutt. My dad has Norwegian and German roots, while my mother has Slovak, Danish, British, and [very few] Norwegian roots. I learned Norwegian through many different language programs, but not at home as many assume. I was first introduced to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":543,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-74","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/543"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":656,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions\/656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/dorer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n*\u00a0S.U.S.T.<\/a>\u00a0[Scandinavian Urban Studies Term] \u2014 Oslo, Norway (fall semester of 1995)
\n*\u00a0International Summer School<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Oslo, Norway (summer of 1995 and 2003)<\/p>\n
I have continued to teach in the\u00a0Norwegian Dept. at St. Olaf<\/a>\u00a0College since this time.\u00a0 I now hold a tenured position as an Associate Professor\u00a0teach courses in Norwegian language,\u00a0Nordic film<\/a>, the\u00a0Sami<\/a>\u00a0and English Language and Linguistics (through the English department).\u00a0 I continue to conduct\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0on how technology enhances language learning.<\/p>\n