The Jenson Medal is an honor given to “an outstanding senior who best demonstrates the ideals of the college as demonstrated by service to students and to the college community in general,” according to Vice President for Development Keith Christensen’s on the award.

But how did this award come to be? And what do current seniors think about the award? How is it given, who should receive it and for what reasons? And what should the $500 check the recipient gets along with the recognition be used for?

“Personally, I would use the check for rent,” said Matt Eng (‘08). “I don’t think that there should be regulations on what one should do with the money.”

The Jenson Medal award was founded in 1992 by Paul (‘48) and Elizabeth Jenson. Since then, recipients have used the money in many different ways. Some have used it to pay for graduate school, or have donated it to a charity or an organization of their choice. Jacob Nimrod (‘01) even gave his award right back to Luther.

“There is no cookie-cutter person,” said Christensen.

“I view the check as a scholarship and I think the most noble way to use it would be in a scholarship sort of way — a way that reflects what the award is for,” said Jared Bendel (‘08).

As stated by Christensen, the award is for a student who has demonstrated his or her commitment to some kind of service to fellow students and/or the college community at large. This was the vision of the donors. But what was their initial reason for making a donation to Luther?

“Paul Jenson felt that it would give Luther more credibility ... [as] a lot of East Coast schools have this recognition of an outstanding student,” said Christensen. “[The Jensons] wanted to do something positive for Luther and its image as well as the students.”

Elizabeth Jenson, who recently passed away, was not a Luther graduate, but Paul was and he continues to be supportive of the college even with her gone.

“Paul feels a little funny about having their names on [the medal],” said Christensen. “But we convinced them, which says a lot about the people.”

The beauty of this award may be the fact that these generous donors left it up to the seniors themselves to decide who should receive the medal, but this method is not void of hazards.

“Students don’t always know who is at the head of organizations and such,” said Bendel. “What ends up happening is that you vote for someone you know.”

Obviously, there is separation between groups of students even within a small class at a relatively small school. Many feel the award should be given to someone who bridges those gaps.

“The person who gets the medal should be known by the whole class of seniors,” said Eng. “But it’s really hard to find someone like that. Who you vote for depends on who you know.”

Another difficulty with the award is that it is presented to only one senior from each class.

“There definitely are some seniors you see around campus that are involved in a lot of things,” said Eng. “But I thought it was hard looking at the entire list of seniors and just picking out one person.”

But most agree that the award is special because it recognizes one senior every year.

“Having multiple awards would diminish the importance of the award,” said Eng. “Having one award recognizing one person doesn’t segregate the campus.”

The Jenson Medal is in the interest of bringing the Luther College community together and upholding its values, not dividing it along the lines of its many facets.

“[The recipient] is not going to win because he or she did it themselves but because of the cooperation of the larger campus community,” Christiansen said. “Everyone is involved in their success.”