MSC SE Outstanding Alumni Award

Minnesota State College Southeast is now accepting nominations for the 2026 Outstanding Alumni Award.

Michelle Dingwall, Executive Director of Foundation and Development at Minnesota State College Southeast, says the Award recognizes an alumnus who has drawn on what they learned here at Southeast to improve not only themselves, but also our community, and region.

She says the Minnesota State College Southeast Foundation honors and celebrates alumni’s personal and professional accomplishments." 

This year's Outstanding Alumni Award recipient will be recognized at the college's commencement ceremony, which will be held on Friday, May 15 at Winona State University. 

Prior to 2026, two awards were given each year, one for a Winona campus program graduate and one for a Red Wing campus graduate. To reinforce that Southeast is one college with two distinct campuses, the award process was reimagined to spotlight a single honoree each year. 

Nominations for the 2026 award will be accepted through Tuesday, March 31, 2026. 

Anyone is welcome to submit a nomination online at www.southeastmn.edu/alumniaward.

Last year, the college honored outstanding alumni April Lederbuhr-Kerrigan, (Winona) a 2017 nursing graduate who now serves as a registered nurse supervisor at Benedictine Living Community in Winona, and Brian Christianson (Red Wing), a 2000 string instrument repair graduate who built a distinguished career in Nashville, servicing violin-family instruments from student-level to professional while performing on fiddle and mandolin with nationally known bluegrass and acoustic music groups.