Tove Tove Dahl is dean of Skogfjorden, the Norwegian Language Village. She has been on staff for 42 years and was a villager for four years. This is her 38th year as dean. Tove is fluent in Norwegian and has also studied Russian, French, Spanish and Dutch. She was named a Knight of the First Class of the Norwegian Order of Merit by King Harald V of Norway in 2008 for the advancement of Norwegian language and culture in the United States.
Tove earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn. She completed her doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Tove studied music at Svanvik Folkehøgskole in Svanvik, Norway, and developed a spinning and weaving curriculum for Skogfjorden while at the Statens Lærerhøgskole i Forming in Oslo.
Tove is an associate professor in educational psychology at the University of Tromsø, Norway. She has taught and done research in peace education and has served on the board of Norway’s Centre for Peace Studies. Her current reseearch focus is on the psychology of experience. This is part of the Northern InSights project – a collaborative venture with a large consortium of researchers from six different institutions in the High North.
Valerie Magna Borey was the 2013 recipient for the Odell Bjerkness Staff Recognition Award, an award which annually recognizes a Concordia Language Villages staff member who “embodies the Villages’ mission of demonstrable excellence in the practice of global citizenship.”
When Magna first came to the Villages as a summer counselor in 2000, she thought it would be a one-time summer job. But a one-time summer gig turned into a year-round, 15-year commitment. Read more about Magna's story.