Luther College students are being offered a chance to participate in a new program of the college—the Rochester Semester

Starting next spring, up to 20 Luther students will be able to spend a semester in Rochester, where they will combine two classroom courses with off-campus internships at businesses, industries, non-profit groups and a variety of other organizations in the Rochester area.

Luther professors Jodi Enos-Berlage and Robert Christman have been involved in the creation of the Rochester Semester.  They tell decorahnews.com they were drawn to developing the Rochester Semester because of Destination Medical Center (https://dmc.mn/), an ambitious program joining public and private groups in meeting a goal of developing the potential of Rochester to become a hub of medical, science, data and tech jobs.  The plan calls for $5.6 billion in public and private spending over the next 20 years, leading to the creation of 30,000 new jobs.

Enos-Berlage says with such high goals, Destination Medical Center will ask, "Where are these workers coming from?"  Christman says there will be "clear opportunities" for Luther students in Rochester as the students graduate—not just in medical and biological fields, but in the non-profit world, because Rochester has attracted over 400 non-profit organizations.

A key part of the planned Rochester Semester will be the internships in Rochester.  Christman says there are several extremely strong Luther supporters in the Rochester area, while Enos-Berlage says the total of Luther alumni and friends in the Rochester area is around 1,200.  "We're going to capitalize on that," she says.

That aspect of the Rochester Semester could be very appealing to Luther students thinking ahead to getting employment after graduation.  Luther students in Rochester would spend half of their time at internships and the other half taking classes at the Luther offices in the Zumbro Lutheran Church, just south of downtown Rochester.

Both Christman and Enos-Berlage say the new Rochester Semester fits in well with the priorities the Luther Board of Regents identified one year ago in drafting a vision statement for the college.  That plan called for creating "hubs" for Luther College to offer students a range of experiences.

Luther students have until May 15th to early register for the Rochester Semester, with applications being taken until October 1st--so long as spaces remain.  If next spring's program is successful, plans call for it to be offered both during the fall and spring semesters.

For more information, visit the Luther College Center for Global Learning website: https://www.luther.edu/global-learning/apply/luther/semester