Adam Ailsby '01

Attorney - Regina, Saskatchewan

Adam Ailsby '01 is fueled by a desire to help people and resolve conflict. He is a partner with the law firm Kanuka Thuringer LLP.

"I do the work I do because, if done properly, the law is an invaluable way to help people," says Ailsby.

Outside of the courtroom, he is vice president of Hope's Home, a daycare that helps medically fragile children interact with their peers. It is the only facility in North America that focuses on integration and assisting in the recovery toward normalcy.

He also volunteers with World Class Players Sport Inc., a soccer organization that celebrates world cultures. Each year the organization coordinates the WCP Cup, which this year featured players representing 32 nations.

"The WCP Cup allows teams and cultural communities to use the universal language of soccer to support and celebrate their cultural heritages," Ailsby says.

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Hannah Rollwitz '08

Kindergarten teacher - Mexico City

Hannah Rollwitz '08 has loved language since childhood. Now she is instilling this love in young Mexican students. She teaches her kindergarteners the alphabet, writing and phonics, and basic math at the American School Foundation, an English immersion school in Mexico City.

Adapting to the culture wasn't hard. She attended the Concordia Language Villages and, as a Concordia student, combined three study abroad programs in Mexico.

"By the time I was supposed to leave, I had fallen in love with the country," Rollwitz says.

During her internship abroad, she became enamored with education, leading her to pursue a teaching career after graduation.

"My 20 beautiful students are what motivate me to do the work I do," Rollwitz says. "It is exhausting and overwhelming, but they make it all worth it."

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Miquette Denie McMahon '06

TeacHaiti founder - Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Miquette Denie McMahon '06 is no stranger to hard work. She grew up in Haiti, where education is expensive and not a priority. So when she came to the United States as an exchange student, she had a lot to catch up on.

Denie McMahon graduated from high school, something nobody else in her family had done, and was accepted to Concordia. She wanted to be a nurse, and the program was tough, but the rare opportunity for an education was her motivation to succeed.

After graduation, Denie McMahon started to think about the importance of education. Children are the future and ought to be given the opportunity to learn.

TeacHaiti came out of her desire to pass along the gift of education to the children in Haiti. It started as a sponsorship program to send a student to school for a year but, after the devastating earthquake in 2010, TeacHaiti also built their own school called the School of Hope in Port-au-Prince.

Today, just two years later, 100 students are enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade at TeacHaiti School of Hope, and 140 more are sponsored at other schools around the country.

Denie McMahon’s goal is to add one grade each year until the School of Hope becomes complete a K-12 school.

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Kristen Mages '12

Orphanage volunteer - Dominican Republic

Kristen Mages '12 aspires to be an interpreter. But she is spending a year focused on others before realizing her own dreams.

"It's easy to get caught up in our fast-paced life and forget about the less fortunate," she says. "But it's really important for me to not just see another way of life but live it, too."

Mages discovered her love for living cross-culturally during a semester in Spain. Volunteering at a juvenile detention center with Concordia's Outreach program expanded her heart for troubled youth. Now she works with 20 adolescent girls on a daily basis in the Dominican Republic.

"All of them have had difficult pasts," she says, "but I love my girls so much."

She lives and works at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, an orphanage in San Pedro de Macoris. In addition to investing in the lives of the orphans, she is in charge of donor and sponsor communication.

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Kris '75 and Shedd '75 Waskosky

Bible translators - Salasaca, Ecuador

Kris '75 and Shedd '75 Waskosky have been translating the New Testament into Salasaca Quichua, an indigenous language spoken in the Andes Mountains, for more than two decades.

While the Waskoskies remember many professors who encouraged them, they credit former campus pastor the Rev. Art Grimstad with developing their love for God's word.

"He (Grimstad) encouraged all of us to study and obey God's word, pray and worship," Kris says.

Now their life's work is to give the gift of God's word to the 17,000 people living in the highlands of Salasaca, who are hearing the Bible in their native tongue for the first time.

"God personally called us for this ministry," Shedd says. "We are blessed and very privileged to have a part in bringing God’s word to those who don't have his message of salvation in their heart language."

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Philip Assis '88

Public affairs officer - U.S. Embassy, Vatican City

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Andy Pontius '04

Director and teacher - Tbilisi, Georgia

Andy Pontius '04 made a pact with some college friends that they would all one day teach overseas. So, three years following graduation, after teaching middle school and high school in Montana, he ended up at an International Baccalaureate school in Singapore. Two years later, he moved into his current adventure in Georgia, and now – three years after that – he is anticipating another move to Cambodia.

A May Seminar while attending Concordia was one of the things that got him excited about teaching in a different country. Since then, he has had the opportunity to organize and participate in a variety of projects: from building houses in Cambodia to adventure camps in Australia. He has also traveled to five different countries with students for Model United Nations conferences.

Growing up, Pontius' mother encouraged him to pursue a career in education. Combine that with an influential high school teacher and lots of support from Concordia professors, Pontius knows that this is what he is called to do.

"I teach because it is who I am," he says. "I think I am one of the lucky people on this planet because I go to work loving what I do."

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James Nelson '79

Political-military advisor - United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi

Witnessing unstable East African politics on a May Seminar led James Nelson '79 to begin a military career to bring resolution.

"I wanted to understand the root causes," he says, "and put myself in a position that would require me to understand local customs, norms and politics in order to find solutions that might help correct the problems."

Nelson became a Green Beret after graduation. His career as a colonel and deputy commanding officer took him back to East Africa numerous times. He also served many years in the Middle East and Latin America.

"I am proud to have provided a beacon for democracy in parts of the world that need so much help," he says.

After 28 years in the Army, he retired, but he was soon asked to become an advisor to the United Arab Emirates, where he is currently providing counsel to the royal family and ministry of defense.

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Cekiel Danielson '90

Director of retail sales and marketing at Intel - Singapore

Cekiel Danielson '90 took advantage of every opportunity to travel abroad in college. Through Concordia’s international business study abroad program, he lived in Mexico City, worked at a multinational financial corporation and took business administration classes at the local university.

Through this, his eyes were opened to cultures outside the U.S., and he knew he wanted to live and work abroad.

Danielson has spent the last 20 years working for Intel. He has lived in four different countries and has traveled to nearly 50 others. He interacts with people from different cultures on a daily basis and finds the opportunity to share this global lifestyle with his family to be invaluable.

The United States is great, he says, but there is so much more out there.

"Concordia gave me the foundational education experience that built the independence and confidence I needed to step outside my comfort zone," he says.

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Machien Luoi '06

Senior program officer for AECOM international - South Sudan

Machien Luoi '06 grew up in Sudan in the middle of a violent civil war. Luoi and many others were known around the world as the Lost Boys – displaced by violence, presumably orphaned and searching for safety.

The United States government and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services brought some of the Lost Boys to this country as refugees. Luoi was among a small group that was relocated in Fargo, N.D., in 2001.

In 2006, Luoi earned a double major in political science and history from Concordia, and went on to receive a master's degree in management from the University of Mary. In addition to learning, studying and volunteering while in college, Luoi helped found an organization known as PACODES, with the intention of building a library in South Sudan.

"I believed, and still do, that education is power," he says.

Luoi now works for USAID’s South Sudan Transition and Conflict Mitigation. He goes into troubled communities in South Sudan and helps them get back on their feet. It is rewarding, he says, because he knows his work is appreciated by the people he serves.

He credits Concordia for preparing him both intellectually and emotionally for his job in Sudan. Much of his work requires articulate written and spoken words, and advancing his education has given him a great advantage.

South Sudan is still struggling, he says. Roads are often nonexistent, rebels are still fighting the government, and education levels are low. These conflicts seem to hit harder in South Sudan than many other Third World countries.

"South Sudan is my country; I was displaced by conflict," he says. “For this reason, I would like to help others out of such conflicts and other difficulties. I want to be among those who want to make positive changes to and in the world.

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Patti Graetz '83

Performer, voice teacher and conductor - Melbourne, Australia

Patti Graetz '83 had a voice teacher who encouraged her to pursue a singing career. Graetz majored in vocal performance and was in The Concordia Choir. This experience instilled in her a passion and love for music that has translated into a lifelong career.

She worked all over the United States as a performer, teacher and conductor. Graetz sang with numerous opera companies and theatre companies in Minnesota, Texas, New York and Arizona.

In 2004, she met and married an Australian man, and her career shifted to Australia. She has been singing and teaching in and around Melbourne ever since, including the star soprano role for "Opera in the Market."

Graetz is motivated by the students she teaches.

"I have transitioned into more teaching because I want to have an impact on the singers of tomorrow," she says. "I am passionate to share my experience and training; to pass on the legacy to the next generation so they can pass it on to generations to come."

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Luann Gronhovd '95

Team leader for USAID - Monrovia, Liberia

Luann Gronhovd '95 never focused on her career. She just wanted to serve.

That attitude currently has her working in Liberia as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development. She oversees U.S. funding for rebuilding the African country’s education system, which was destroyed during civil war in the 1990s.

Since graduation she has taught in South Korea, volunteered with the Peace Corps in China and East Timor, and evaluated community schools for Pakistani girls as part of her graduate school dissertation.

Now she finds herself in her most challenging role yet. "Education plays a critical role in maintaining peace and stability and in rebuilding the country across sectors," she says. "The need here in Liberia is so great."

Because of civil war, a generation of Liberians lost their chance for an education. Now the country is training teachers so the next generation has more opportunities. Gronhovd is a key part of that effort.

"We're making progress," Gronhovd says.

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Julie Arnold '12

Organic farmer - United States

A social justice semester in India awakened Julie Arnold '12 to injustices in her own culture.

"Although harder to spot, injustice is just as present in our own communities," says Arnold.

As a result, she decided to return to her family's organic farm to do what she can to influence change locally.

"We need to educate our peers," she says.

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