Wally Cole offered our invocation and then our Student Guests from M State, Logan Hammer, a sophomore, and Keaton Dickie, a freshman, were introduced. Both hail from Calgary and are on M State's baseball team. Both bat and throw right-handed, with Logan a pitcher and Keaton an outfielder and pitcher. They agreed the best Canadian baseball player of all time is Freddie Freeman, who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
We also welcomed Exchange Student Laly Parent to our meeting.
Presiding officer Lisa McFarland called upon this writer to administer the Rotary Minute Plus Quiz, and all three questions were answered correctly, all based on the two-page (mostly a picture) spread on Portugal's Madeira Islands in the March Rotary magazine. Katie Johnson then announced the slate of candidates for our next Rotary year, beginning July 1, 2026:
President: Lisa McFarland
President-elect: Mark Bring
Treasurer: Brian Tjaden
Secretary: Kathy Austvold
Board Member: Stephanie Grow
Board Member: Zack Stach
No additional nominations were made from the floor, and the election will be held on April 1st.
Deb Maertens said that we are still attempting to identify students to attend RYLA this summer and that what has been a "soft" deadline for applying is March 31st. For brags and fines, the administrator of the Rotary Minute Plus Quiz was encouraged to mark off a spot on his card for all of the day's questions being answered correctly (what an incentive to make the questions hard again) and he then indicated he would mark off a couple more spots on the card for not getting a St. Patrick's Day social put together. Steve Austvold bragged about Cornerstone Church celebrating its 25th anniversary. Deb Maertens reported she had spoken to the Pelican Rapids Rotary Club the day before about Youth Exchange and now figured to be around a bit more for club meetings after having to be in Seattle to help get through some medical issues with a family member. Wally Cole referred back to his invocation and bragged about his two granddaughters going on the high school choir trip to New York; he also noted he was filling in for Hal Leland and Stephanie Grow in their responsibilities for the day. Steve Leitte is heading off on a motorcycle trip with Paul Brutlag that will take them to Colorado, Trinidad and then on to Utah and Nevada. Lisa finished off the brags by saying she attended the leadership training for incoming club presidents in the Twin Cities the 12-14th of March and it was fantastic; she also thanked those members who have complimented her on her health journey.
Keith Olson introduced our program, Dr. Matt Borcherding and Jacki Maethner from M State. Matt said that the four-campus college (Fergus, Moorhead, Wadena & Detroit Lakes), experienced a 4.6% increase in enrollment this year, making it the third year in a row where enrollment has gone up. The area accounting for the greatest growth is health sciences, where enrollment has increased 32%. This is the ninth consecutive year the system has been ranked in the top 200 of community colleges in the country. Remarkably, its graduates have a 98% placement rate. Annually the college's Workforce Development Solutions program has 9000 participants. The school has initiated a program where students have a point person from day one of their college experience, sort of like a concierge. The three projects being worked upon are improving the process for students to better understand how to pay for college, improving on-line course quality and reimagining the early alert process for the system.
Dr. Borcherding is also the Vice President of Academic Affairs and talked about a new sports management degree program that will be initiated in the fall of 2026, imbedding in it coaching and extramural certificates. A health education degree is also being added to allow graduates to work at a YMCA or fitness center. A solar technology certificate is in the works with the assistance of Otter Tail Power and West Central Initiative. The entrepreneurship program is also coming to Fergus Falls and there is an on-line fire science program. When asked about the number of traditional students enrolled, we were told that the 90% percentage for Fergus Falls is higher than on the other campuses. Fergus Falls has social workers who help students with children find childcare and the school offers a scholarship for single custodial parents that will pay for childcare and housing.
Jacke spoke to us about the Blue & Gold Scholarship program, first thanking us for our establishment of the Wesley A. Waage Rotary Scholarship. The Blue and Gold Scholarship is being offered to students from 21 area school districts that have a 3.0 grade point average or higher. The scholarship will pay all tuition and fees not covered by other grants and scholarships and the only other requirements are that the student be enrolled in at least six credits per semester on the Fergus Falls campus and become engaged in campus life. At this point the school believes it will be able to finance the program for at least two years, although it has worked on projections for continuing it for seven years, hoping funds will continue to be donated to sustain it. The potential student pool is 83 to 143 students. Jackie said that currently about two-thirds of the students that are attending Fergus Falls are not from this area, with approximately 220 on campus and a total Fergus Falls enrollment of around 400. Almost all students take both on-line and in person course. As to the school's endowment, it is now between seven and eight million dollars, having reached the first million in the last 15 years. About five to six million dollars reflects principal.
