Longtime Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center executive director Peter Smerud was recently honored with Concordia College’s 2025 Called to Serve Award. This award recognizes alumni who embody the college’s mission through lifelong service. For Smerud, the recognition may have felt like coming full circle.
Smerud, a 1986 graduate and fifth-generation Concordia alum whose father taught philosophy at the college for 30 years, found the honor went beyond professional achievement. It was deeply personal.
“That deep-rooted connection there makes it really heartfelt, really kind of humbling and yet very heartwarming recognition for both me and my family,” he said. “It’s a tremendous honor, humbling, and yet I’m so incredibly grateful for the recognition. I’ve been so privileged to serve with Wolf Ridge for what is now 38 years.”
During his tenure as executive director, Smerud raised more than $20 million to expand Wolf Ridge’s programs and led the first renovation project in the world to achieve full Living Building Certification. This rigorous green building standard is awarded to structures that meet exceptionally high benchmarks for sustainability, equity, and regenerative design.
“The highest level of sustainability that exists internationally was accomplished by Wolf Ridge,” said Smerud.
In 2025, Smerud helped establish Minnesota’s Outdoor School For All Act, a movement ensuring that every child in the state has access to outdoor learning.
During the ceremony, Steve Bucholz of Concordia’s National Alumni Board called Smerud a “gifted mentor,” stating, “Peter has guided generations of students and fellows through immersive experiences.”
In his remarks, Bucholz noted, “With humility, vision, and purpose, Peter Smerud has shown how education can create both personal and societal transformation.”
Being nominated by Gary Zinter, a former William M. Kelley School science teacher, made the recognition even more meaningful for Smerud.
“Gary is such an advocate for young people, particularly handson education,” said Smerud. “To have someone like that who cares at such a deep level, it’s the world to me that someone like that sees my work as valued.”
Zinter has long recognized Wolf Ridge’s impact, noting that 10,000 to 12,000 elementary students attend the center each year. Silver Bay is just one of many communities sending children to Wolf Ridge since the 1970s.
“I felt that he was an alumnus of Concordia doing something extraordinary,” said Zinter, of nominating Smerud. “There’s about 31,000 – 33,000 alumni from Concordia. It’s pretty special to get these awards. They give it out to two people a year for their service.”
Smerud’s work has received international recognition, and he has traveled worldwide to help establish learning centers modeled on Wolf Ridge, including a trip to China.
“I was sent by the US State Department to China,” recalled Smerud. “They had an education leader from China that visited 30 different environmental education facilities in the world. The vast majority were in the US and he chose Wolf Ridge as the model that they wanted to bring to China to influence change in the educational systems in China.”
Unfortunately, COVID disrupted plans, and Smerud found himself on one of the last planes out of China before a complete shutdown. He has helped build environmental learning centers in South America, Hungary, and Canada, and has consulted on centers in Washington, Maryland, Maine, Florida, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other parts of Minnesota outside of Finland, where Wolf Ridge is located today.
Despite his global reach, Smerud’s roots remain deep in northern Minnesota, where he and his wife Sue, also a Concordia alum, raised their daughters, both of whom graduated from Silver Bay.
“We both routinely will use the description, that cliché that it takes a village to raise a child,” said Smerud. “We feel very fortunate that the Wolf Ridge Community, and the small communities like Silver Bay and Finland, influenced our girls to become very powerful, accomplished human beings in the world.”
Smerud even chaperoned his own daughters when they visited Wolf Ridge with their school in sixth grade.
“It’s a coming of age experience,” Smerud said. “To watch entire generations come through, they can describe with vivid detail what they remember, and how that made them feel.”
Kids come from schools across Minnesota, including the Twin Cities, Rochester, Duluth, Grand Rapids, and Bemidji. Schools from Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota are regular visitors as well. For some children, it’s the first time they’ve seen the Milky Way—or a landscape that isn’t… well, flat.
“We have schools that come from tribal communities, from urban communities, from rural communities,” Smerud said. “It’s a really beautiful mix of kids who come here.”
Wolf Ridge is a community in itself. The 2,000-acre campus includes 400 rooms, 100 staff, 10 buildings, a dining hall that seats 300, staff housing, a dormitory, classrooms, and a science center. Set in arguably the most beautiful classroom setting, the campus also features a climbing wall, rope course, ski trail, forest, maple sugar shack, solar arrays, a wind turbine, and a wastewater treatment plant— just to name a few.
Smerud’s advice to students searching for their call to service is to pursue your passions and remain committed to them, no matter how long it takes.
“You need to put some roots down and commit and work for it over a period of years,” he said. “If you pursue your passions and just show up every day and work your butt off, you can figure out that job and that industry may just sort of avail itself to you. You get to find work that you really do love and enjoy.”
On the importance of passion and purpose, Smerud shared, “Do the things you love and never worry about seeking affirmation for it because that affirmation should come from within. If you’re doing good work, I can bank on the fact that there are people noticing your good work.”
With decades of service, global impact, and a steadfast commitment to students and community, Peter Smerud’s recognition is a celebration not just of his achievements, but of the lasting legacy he continues to build at Wolf Ridge.
