Gene & Diann Pflaum Math Education Scholarship

In November of 2021, the Gene & Diann Pflaum Mathematics Education Scholarship was established with the Winona State University Foundation. This scholarship will benefit and encourage students who are majoring in Mathematics Education within the College of Science & Engineering.

Criteria
● Recipients must be a declared major in WSU’s Mathematics Education program.
● Recipients must be enrolled as a fulltime student taking at least 12 credit hours of courses.
● Recipients must be in good academic standing with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

Background and Motivation
Gene grew up on a farm near Farmington, Minnesota. He earned a B.S. degree with a major in math at Winona State in 1967 and an M.S. degree in 1972. Diann Bastin grew up on a farm near Gowrie, Iowa. She earned a B.S. degree with a major in math from Winona State in 1970. She later earned an M.A. degree in math from Mankato State.

Upon graduation Gene began teaching math at Ellis Middle School in Austin, Minnesota, a position he held for 34 years. This was followed by 12 years teaching math on a part time basis at Riverland Community College.

Diann taught middle school and high school math for a few years and then spent over 30 teaching math on a full time and part time basis at Riverland Community College.

Several years ago they established an endowed scholarship at Riverland for a student who excels in Math. Now they would like to help students who will be following in their footsteps as teachers of mathematics.

The Pflaum family includes their son Jason, wife Shelly, their sons Roman and Dimitri; and their son Robert, wife Shayna and their children Mia and Myles.