2021 Borealis Night of Excellence honors CFANS community accomplishments and contributions
May 19, 2021
The CFANS Alumni Society, Undergraduate Student Board and Graduate Student Board co-hosted the 2021 Borealis Night of Excellence, held virtually on Tuesday, May 4 at 7 p.m. This annual event recognizes outstanding alumni, students, staff, faculty and friends for their service to the College and for their professional achievements.
“To our Borealis Night of Excellence awardees: you are the northern lights on the path to service for other Gophers to follow. May your light always brilliantly shimmer,” CFANS Dean Brian Buhr shared during the event.
This year, 14 Borealis Award recipients were honored along with Alumni Society scholarship recipients, Mentor Program honorees, the recipients of the Student Board Awards and Alumni Society Awards. Emcees Rylee Ahnen (President, CFANS Alumni Society Board of Directors), Tammy Walsky (Graduate Student Board) and Lauren Kreager (Undergraduate Student Board) introduced the awards, and prerecorded nominator remarks were shared for each recipient.
In her live acceptance remarks, Exemplary Staff Award recipient Sarah Lindholm (BS ‘12, M.Ed. ‘18) thanked the CFANS students she advises:
“Students are the Borealis of CFANS...I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to be a witness to 250 beautiful phenomena each year, and I’ll never take that for granted. I dedicate this award to students, those I’ve advised, currently advise, and have yet to advise. I wake up smiling because of you.”
Upon receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, alumna Patricia Booth (Nutrition & Dietetics) shared, “I had a very meaningful and rewarding career that grew from the excellent foundation of knowledge and the commitment to the community that I learned at the University of Minnesota. I'm kind of crazy proud of my Minnesota roots, and so I'm really grateful to CFANS for this wonderful honor.”
The 2021 Borealis Award recipients are:
Student Leadership Award — Undergraduate — Amelia Hayden
Student Leadership Award — Graduate — Thomas Durfee (MS '16)
Exemplary Undergraduate Student Organization — Ag Business Club
Exemplary Graduate Student Organization — UMN Mycology Club
Outstanding Club Advisor — Les Hansen (BS '73, MS '75 Animal Science)
Exemplary Staff — Sarah Lindholm (BS '12 Nutrition, M.Ed. '18)
Exemplary Faculty — Nic Jelinski (PhD '14 Land & Atmospheric Science)
Exemplary Post-Doc — Bethanne Bruninga-Socolar
Little Red Oil Can — Student — Persephone Ma (MS '20)
Little Red Oil Can — Non-Student — Jim Bradeen
Outstanding Friend — Katie Fineout (BS '17)
Alumni Service — Margot Monson (BS '67, MS '94 Entomology)
Distinguished Alumni — James (Jim) Nesseth (BS '76 Animal Science, MEd '00)
Lifetime Achievement — Patricia Booth (BS '77, Nutrition & Dietetics)
