July 29, 2020

Augustana University’s school of education will be named in honor of a longtime educator, with a $2 million gift helping create the Sharon Lust School of Education.

The donation is from Lust’s, son, John, and his wife, Jeanelle, who live in Sioux Falls. Sharon Lust was an educator at Simmons Middle School in Aberdeen from 1985-2000 and at Aberdeen Central High School from 2000-06. She attended USD and received her teaching certificate and master’s degree in psychology from Northern State University. Sharon Lust died in 2010 at the age of 69.

The Sharon Lust School of Education will help launch Augustana’s strategic plan — Viking Bold: The Journey to 2030 — that was unanimously approved by the Augustana board of trustees in December 2019, the university said in a statement. Phase one of Viking Bold includes establishing new academic structures and centers that sustain excellence, facilitate growth and cultivate innovative and impactful teaching, learning and research.

The school is located in the Madsen Social Science Center on the university’s campus.

“Augustana is enormously grateful to the Lust family for the transformative gift for the Sharon Lust School of Education,” said president Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. “Our vision for the school of education builds on Augustana’s longstanding tradition of providing an education of enduring worth as well as creating new and innovative interactions of teaching and learning that will inspire a new generation of students for years to come.”

John and Jeanelle Lust have a rich history that lies with Augustana University. The two met during college and graduated from Augustana, respectively in 1990 and 1991. Attending the university is somewhat of a tradition; their son Joe is a 2020 graduate and son Jack is a sophomore at Augustana. John’s younger sister, Julie (Lust) O’Reilly, and Jeanelle’s grandmother Ava (Davis) Williams also attended the university.

“My hope is that this gift will help empower generations of future educators and lifelong learners,” John Lust said. “This gift seemed like the perfect way to support Augustana and honor the legacy and passion my mother had for education.”