Amanda Aaerstad Scholarship

Amanda Aarestad worked almost 50 years in public education after receiving a bachelor’s degree from Moorhead State College. She began her teaching-career in rural schools in Norman County, Minnesota, near her home in Haistad, and later taught in a rural school affiliated with Moorhead State College.

After teaching at Lamberton, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota and Minneapolis and after earning her master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, she joined the faculty of Winona State College in 1940. For the first ten years she taught the fifth grade and supervised student teachers in the Phelps Laboratory School. In 1950 she began teaching college classes full-time in the Winona State Elementary Education Department where she served with distinction until her retirement in 1975. During these 35 years she also instructed off-campus classes throughout Southeastern Minnesota and completed course work beyond the master’s level.
During the 1961-62 academic year she served as exchange professor at the Oslo Teachers College, Oslo, Norway, and thus launched the exchange program for students between Winona State and the Oslo College which continued uninterrupted for 26 years.
During her 35 years at Winona State she held various offices in professional organizations such as: president of the Southeast Minnesota Education Association, president of the Minnesota-North and South Dakota Supervisors of Student Teaching, state chairman of the Minnesota Commission on Teacher Education and Professional Standards, and she was one of the first Winona State faculty members to serve as representative for the Inter-Faculty Organization.

Awarded the distinction of Professor Emeritus upon her retirement in 1975, she was honored in 1983 by the Inter-Faculty Organization with a Certificate of Appreciation for her outstanding contribution to the State University System.

Scholarship contacts are D.B. Anderson and D. Paul Anderson.