Sara Waldner ‘19 had just paid her housing deposit to attend South Dakota State University (SDSU) when she got a call from Thad Titze ‘13.
After she hung up the phone with the now former Augustana admission counselor, the Hartford, South Dakota, native was a Viking.
“Thad was a hugely instrumental person in my life, whether he recognizes the significance of that or not. Honestly, without him, I would not be where I am today,” Waldner said.
It wasn’t just Titze who led her to Augustana, though. Waldner’s path to AU is similar to her mother’s. Anna (Smith) Waldner ‘93 began her college career at SDSU as a non-traditional nursing student, but after meeting with admission counselors at Augustana, she knew she had found a new home.
“If those admission counselors hadn’t been around, and if my mom hadn’t gone to Augie, who knows where I would be?” Waldner asked. “All these things are like the butterfly effect.”
Augustana donors are another reason Waldner, a communication/business and media studies double major, chose the university. Through the Distinguished Scholars Program, additional endowed scholarships and some outside awards, Waldner financed her first year of college without student loans.
“That was a huge selling point,” Waldner said. “I could get a world-class education and have unique study abroad opportunities during J-term because I had those scholarship dollars that helped me to do so.”
Studying abroad brought life-changing experiences for Waldner, who studied in Barcelona, Spain, during spring break of her first year, and in London, England, during January Interim her senior year. In London, the Brexit course provided her a hands-on learning experience, and she even completed her Civitas Honors Program project as a result.
Waldner also received experiential learning opportunities through her involvement with Augustana’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) — serving as an account executive and vice president for engagement.
“With PRSSA’s annual trip to Minneapolis, where we toured different PR agencies, I knew I wanted to work at an agency someday,” Waldner said. “Having that exposure to different types of agencies throughout the Twin Cities and in Sioux Falls was really key to knowing I was interested in different areas of marketing and different types of roles.”
One of those roles included wedding planning with Serendipitous Events, an internship Waldner scored the summer prior to her senior year. Her internship led to her role as an independent contractor with the company — planning 11 weddings the first six months after graduating from Augustana. Waldner even planned the wedding for Titze and his wife, Madeleine Ellis, former director of undergraduate enrollment at Augustana.
Waldner got the ultimate opportunity, however, from an internship with Lawrence & Schiller, a marketing and advertising agency in Sioux Falls, right out of college. After interning from June to November of 2019, Waldner was hired as an associate account executive.
“Account service is the relationship between the client and the agency,” said Waldner. “We're the ones who are leading all the meetings, setting the strategy, setting the next steps, making sure that everything that happens is delivered to the client’s expectations. That was something that I had experienced in PRSSA, and I felt well prepared to take that role.
“It all worked out,” Waldner said of her life post-graduation. “I was at this time in my life where I truly didn’t know what was supposed to be next, and there were all these confusing things going on — with graduating and leaving all these friends that I made, but it just fell into place.”
Waldner acknowledged the role that Augustana played in shaping her life.
“I grew as a person at Augie because I came to see things from different perspectives,” Waldner said. “I think with the liberal arts education, you get such a well-rounded viewpoint of life; it's not ever just black and white. Being in classes with people who were very different from me and came from different backgrounds allowed me to have those discussions.”
Waldner attributes these experiences back to the scholarships that allowed her and her peers to attend AU.
“I have never met a single person at Augie who wasn't getting scholarships from the university, and that didn't have the best experience of their life,” she said. “I am forever indebted to scholarship donors and the people who allowed me to have this experience because I would not be here today without it.”