Minnesota State Moorhead has announced its largest gift in the university’s history, and it’s being used to invest in the future of education.
The Nibbe Family Foundation has given $5.5 million to establish to Nibbe School of Teaching and Learning at Lommen Hall on the MSUM campus. It will provide undergraduate scholarships, support innovative teaching initiatives, expand opportunities and recognize excellence.
The gift was announced by President Tim Downs at a ribbon cutting event in front of Lommen Hall. The Nibbe family’s involvement at the school goes back three generations, and several family members became educators. Dawn Guse, one family member spent 33 years as an educator and is current CEO of the Nibbe Family Foundation. She says her family’s motivation in establishing the Nibbe School was the belief that education transforms the lives of everyone.
"There wouldn't be doctors, there wouldn't be lawyers, there wouldn't be auto mechanics... without teachers. We don't get paid enough. We don't get enough awards. We don't get enough praise... sometimes we do. But you have to take every bit of that into why you're doing it. It's for the children, it's not for all that other stuff... it's for the children of our society. So thank you, thank you, thank you for going into education. Hopefully you'll stay! And I'll be checking up on you in a few years that you do."
The Nibbe School of Education and Leadership offers undergraduate, graduate and licensure programs. It currently enrolls a thousand students in its programs, including over 500 undergraduates.