Carleton’s chief investment officer, Jason Matz, is quoted in the Aug. 13 edition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, on the fall and rise of college and university endowments both at Carleton and state-wide, and how the down economy has actually helped higher education institutions access areas of capital it was unable to prior to this recession. “We took the opportunity in the fall of 2009 to upgrade about 10 to 15 percent of our total portfolio with managers that are very, very, good,” he said. “We’ve been able to initiate new relationships with funds that we may not have had access to when capital was easy to come by.” [Please note a subscription may be required to view the full text of the article.]

Carleton’s career center’s mentor externship program is prominently mentioned in an Aug. 11 article in Forbes, authored by Albion College (Mich.) president Donna Randall. She makes the case that a liberal arts education is excellent preparation for a variety of careers, and calls for liberal arts school to stay true to its mission. “We can and should commit ourselves more completely to providing students with education that encompasses both the timelessness of broad-based study in the arts and sciences, and the timeliness of practical preparation–leading to productive careers and satisfying lives.”

Mark Michelson ’70, chairman of the IMA Asia CEO Forum in Hong Kong, wrote an opinion piece for the Aug. 10 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The article, entitled “‘One Economy,’ Yes. But Keep ‘Two Systems'” speaks about the challenge of integrating Hong Kong’s economy with that of China. [To read the full text of the article, you must have a subscription.] Michelson argues that closer integration with China shouldn’t come at the expense of Hong Kong’s competitive advantages.

Paul Keel ’91, president of 3M Skin and Wound Care, will be inducted into the Prior Lake (Minn.) High School hall of fame on Thursday, Aug. 5. The Prior Lake American ran a feature story on Keel, detailing his time at Prior Lake HS and at Carleton. Keel will join his wife, Suzanne, two brothers and a sister-in-law as a member of the Laker Hall of Fame.

Kate (Ferguson) ’95 and Steve ’95 Surbaugh and their three children, Will, Tristan and Lexi, were the focus of a July 25 feature in the Star Tribune about their decision to leave the Minneapolis area and move to Grand Marais, Minn., a harbor village of around 1,400 people located on the north shore of Lake Superior. “For us, it seemed like the time was right to go up north,” said Kate. “After Will was born, we found that our priorities really changed.” The couple owns Cascade Vacation Rentals, a property management company based in Tofte, Minn. The couple is also running a contest where families can submit their stories of North Shore vacations to win free lodging.

Fred Rogers ‘72, vice president and treasurer, spoke with Fortune Magazine for a piece that focused on whether or not the college endowment model is flawed and outdated. Rogers told the magazine that he felt the model still works well. “Our strategy hasn’t changed much,” says Rogers, who oversees a $570 million endowment. “The main problem with our portfolio is that entire market went down.”

Jim McCorkell ’90, founder and chief executive officer of Admission Possible, is profiled by the blog Politics in Minnesota, as he prepares to grow his brainchild program that assists kids from low-income families get into college. The post traces McCorkell’s path from Northfield, attending Carleton, and then through earning master’s degrees at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. Admission Possible currently works in two dozen high schools in the Minneapols/Saint Paul area and four schools in Milwaukee, reaching 6,000 students annually—2,200 in college, 1,500 in high school, the rest in ninth- and 10th-grade workshops. About 1,500 juniors and seniors are involved this year, and nearly all are people of color and from families earning less than $25,000 annually, according to McCorkell. He announced this year his goal of adding 10 more cities to his roster by 2015.

Minnesota Public Radio ran a feature on May 25 about Carleton’s career center’s “Engagement Wanted” program, which sends out student profiles to interested alumni, helping students network and build relationships in their job-searching process. The piece speaks with Nate Ryan ’10 and career center director Richard Berman about the unique process. “You’re trying to sell yourself in a very limited number of words with what you’re interested in, where you’re hoping to be, some of your experiences and also trying to make it personal at the same time,” Ryan said. The college has always relied on alumni to help students find work, but Berman says they cast aside the notion that students must take the first step in networking. “We flipped it upside down so we have alumni contacting our students, just breaking the ice, and then shifting the responsibility to the student,” Berman said.

Flavian Brown ’09 is featured in the May 13 edition of the Rochester (Minn.) Post-Bulletin. Brown, a recent winner of the 2010 Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), will use the funds to work towards his doctorate in immunology at Harvard University. The story chronicles Brown’s climb from the south side of Chicago to Carleton (as a member of the Posse Foundation group), Mayo Clinic and now on to Harvard.

Ishraf Ahmad ’09 and Derrick Turner ’10, who have worked during their time as students at Carleton in starting and running a business geared towards assisting Iraqi property owners living in the United States to sell to those living in Iraq, have received national press coverage from the Associated Press. Forex Realty Consultants, which includes Asmad, Turner and a third partner based in Baghdad, currently has about 35 listings, according to the AP wire story. The feature has run in papers throughout the country, including the LA Times, Washington Post, and the Star Tribune.