UNO Magazine Spring 2023

THE JOHN WEBSTER LEGACY LIVES ON. WILL YOURS?

In 1923, John R. Webster started a fund to help then-University of Omaha students pay for their education. The name of the school has changed, but the impact of his generosity has not. Students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha are still benefiting from his gift a century later.

You, too, can leave a legacy of support for UNO students.

To find out how, visit us online and download an estate planning kit at nufoundation.org/giftplanning.

Views expressed within this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association or the University of Nebraska Foundation. The University of Nebraska at Omaha shall not discriminate based upon age, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, gender-identity, sex, pregnancy, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran’s status, marital status, religion, or political affiliation.

MAGAZINE is a publication of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association and the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Mavericks, The future is here.

You can see it across the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The stories in this issue show Mavericks doing what they do best: building the foundation for tomorrow and providing our students with the best possible resources and advantages to become Nebraska’s future leaders.

But at the heart of each story is what makes UNO a truly special place: we embrace the future, today.

Sometimes that future looks like something out of science fiction: like our experts studying terror threats in the new frontier of virtual reality, international relationships being tested by weather manipulation technology, or how artificial intelligence and human creativity can coexist.

That future might be more immediate, such as preparing teachers to be classroomready upon graduation or seeking new methods to help the formerly incarcerated rejoin daily life and thrive.

Another way we are constructing the future is by expanding opportunities for experiential learning and paid internships. Mavericks are connected to projects and places where they can experience work in their chosen field while studying thanks to key partnerships with our community and programs like Career Connect and IS&T’s Learn and Earn initiative. These partnerships will continue to grow with key appointments, like UNO’s new Executive in Residence, David Brown, who has served the Omaha business community for many years.

UNO is also helping to shape the future of civic responsibility and cultural awareness through the newly opened Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center with its beautiful, powerful works of art on display and engaging public programming.

As you will see in this issue, Mavericks aren’t simply preparing for the future. We are creating it.

We are putting an intense focus on improving the social mobility of all learners. This means no matter your age or background, we will deliver the skills, experiences, and connections that you need to transform your life, and the lives of your family and your community.

I want our students to see what our alumni know already: time spent at UNO improves every part of their life, from career potential to personal advancement.

I am truly proud of this space we have created, where learners at all stages of their career can grow in their skills, and we have been working to expand our offerings of micro-credentials and certification, as well, so that no matter where you are in your journey, UNO has your back.

2022 was a tremendous year of growth and innovation, and we are set to maintain that energy through 2023 thanks to the support of our Omaha partners and our alumni who know the power of the education and experiences gained at UNO. Together, we have an opportunity to not only carry last year’s momentum forward but to build upon it.

Mavericks, the future is bright, I can feel it.

Sincerely,

MANAGING EDITOR

Davina Schrier

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Jennifer Arnold

Sam Peshek

ART DIRECTION/DESIGN

Heidi Mihelich

cre8ivenergy

COVER ILLUSTRATION

Mars Nevada

CONTRIBUTORS

Sam Anderson, Brandon Bartling, Melodae Horst, Greg Kozol, Robyn Murray, Mars Nevada, Brandon Reilly

ADVERTISING

Gary Domet gmd6@cox.net or 402-995-1918

Direct editorial inquiries to: Managing Editor UNO Magazine 2285 S. 67th St., Suite 200 Omaha, NE 68106 800-432-3216 unoalumni@unoalumni.org

Send all changes of address to attention of Records or visit unoalumni.org/recordupdate.

Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA UNO Chancellor

UNO Magazine is published three times a year. The spring and summer issues are sent to all UNO graduates in Nebraska and UNO Fund donors of the past two years. The fall issue is sent to all UNO graduates and UNO Fund donors of the past two years.

WRITE TO THE EDITOR

Do you have an idea for a future theme, cover artist or feature story? We want to know what you love and what we can improve. Letters must include the writer’s first and last names, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for taste, accuracy, clarity and length if they are published in future issues of UNO Magazine. Submit a letter online at unoalumni.org/unomag-led or unoalumni@unoalumni.org.

This moment used to be the future. UNO has been preparing for it since 1908.

In fact, the university’s mission to “transform and improve the quality of life locally, nationally, and globally” is centered on constructing the future. While education is the foundation, this issue of UNO Magazine highlights how Mavericks go beyond vocational training. They are implementing solutions to teacher and tech workforce shortages; increasing student access and affordability through digital course materials; providing expertise on preventing virtual terrorism and geoengineering catastrophes; conducting research and creating engagement opportunities to make our society more just and inclusive; and more.

However, 54 pages can’t cover all the ways UNO and its alumni are shaping the future. As this issue is composed, Mavericks are preparing to host a regional symposium on the future of work; being named one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year for their significant impact in their community; and testifying to congressional committees about removing barriers for women in aviation.

They are also exploring how to adapt higher education with the growing progress of artificial intelligence (AI) language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT – an AI chatbot designed to generate responses in a conversational tone that closely resembles human speech. Of course, this leads a magazine editor to ponder: can AI eclipse human writing and creativity?

I asked ChatGPT “How does the University of Nebraska at Omaha and its alumni shape the future?” The response, shown here, is a summary of information aggregated from across the internet. Although accurate, it doesn’t craft a story complete with emotions and perspectives.

When I asked ChatGPT to tell me a story about my childhood, it requested more information. The technology relies on the human experience. Similarly, AI design programs can generate images, but only by drawing inspiration from artists and splicing together art and photos available online.

A UNO graduate, art director and artist recently documented an experiment with an AI design program in their work. They used the program to create an image from text prompts. It showed the faults of AI – the theft of intellectual property and its inability to create original work. When considering artistic direction for the cover of an issue on the future, I thought it would be enlightening for them to use this same process. The result is a hybrid creation drawn from the artist’s personal experience.

We will continue to evolve with the times, but this publication exists to give meaning and context to the UNO experience and to showcase original artistic expression. Only humans can do that.

Davina Schrier Managing Editor

A Maverick Legislative Update

Jan. 3, 2023 marked the beginning of the 108th Legislature for the State of Nebraska.

State senators are convened at the Capitol, where they will address key issues and set the state budget for the next two years.

The budget is particularly important because the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s operating budget relies largely on state support and tuition. Of the nearly $3 billion dollars it takes to run the university system — from hockey to bookstores, research expenditures to named chairs — two-thirds go to support self-funded initiatives, such as athletics and dorms, or are restricted dollars, such as University of Nebraska Foundation gifts for buildings and scholarships — or federal research grants.

The other third of those dollars are operating costs.

The nearly $1 billion system operating budget supports paying university faculty and staff and keeping the lights on. 62 percent is funded by the state; the difference is funded primarily by tuition. Strong state support helps keep tuition low, making college affordable for Nebraskans.

The arc of this year’s legislative session has moved through bill introduction and hearings in January, committee hearings and floor debate on bills in February and March, and floor debate and preliminary budget in April. This is where we are at now. In May, floor debate continues — including around the final state budget — and June brings any veto overrides and the end of session.

To help support a strong future for UNO, it’s more important than ever for Mavericks to write or email your state senator and tell them how UNO has made a difference in your life. You can also become a member of the NU Advocates, a group of people who are amplifying the conversation around making an investment in the University of Nebraska, at nebraska.edu/advocates. Together, we have the opportunity to demonstrate to the Nebraska Legislature that Nebraskans believe in our university’s ability to address major challenges facing our state—and grow our workforce for the future.

Where today makes the difference for tomorrow bestcare.org

LAUREN MILTENBERGER LEADS UNO ADVANCEMENT

Lauren Miltenberger began her role as Vice President for UNO Advancement at the University of Nebraska Foundation on Jan. 3, 2023, leading all fundraising and alumni engagement activities for UNO. Miltenberger previously worked in wealth management at Bridges Trust where she was vice president of philanthropy services and assisted clients with implementing their philanthropic goals and strategies. Prior to that, she served as a development officer at Creighton University and helped establish its Athletic Development Office. She is a graduate of Creighton University and holds a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy designation from the American College of Financial Services.

Miltenberger expressed her gratefulness to Chancellor Li and leaders at the University of Nebraska Foundation for the opportunity to help advance the mission of UNO.

“It’s an exciting time for UNO and the University of Nebraska Foundation as we embark on the public phase of Only in Nebraska, a historic fundraising campaign,” Miltenberger said. “As a lifelong Omahan, I have seen the growth and transformation of UNO and the impact the university has had on the Omaha community. A UNO education transforms lives. I look forward to engaging with the entire UNO community and spreading the university’s message with alumni, supporters and community leaders.”

move to Washington, D.C.! THURSDAY, MAY 11,

P.M. Details at unoalumni.org/mavsonmove. Mavs on the Move are social and networking events for UNO graduates and university representatives. Most recent trips have been to Scottsdale, Denver, Dallas and San Francisco.

CHANCELLOR LI APPOINTED TO KC FEDERAL RESERVE OMAHA BRANCH BOARD OF DIRECTORS

UNO Chancellor Joanne Li, Ph.D., a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) since 2001, has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Omaha Branch Board of Directors. In the role, Li and her fellow directors will meet to confer on economic and financial developments and business conditions. Together, they will represent the state of Nebraska and serve as a voice for their respective areas of the state.

A Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) since 2001, Li is a highly engaged leader and scholar on corporate governance and investment research. Li earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University in finance with a support area in econometrics. She believes in lifelong learning. She is a two-time graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, MLE program and new president seminar. She also completed two executive trainings with the Wharton School. Li is a 2016 protégé of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI).

The Mavs are on the

6:00–8:00

The UNO Alumni Association celebrated achievements by members of the worldwide UNO alumni network at the 2022 UNO Alumni Night of Honor. A highlight of the evening was a surprise renaming of the service award to the Jim Leslie Outstanding Service Award in honor of Jim Leslie, President of the Alumni Association from 1973-2006. Leslie attended the ceremony, receiving a miniature replica of the Maverick Monument in recognition of the honor.

ALUMNI NIGHT OF HONOR

JIM LESLIE OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARDS

Established in 1974, Outstanding Service Awards honor faculty, staff, alumni or friends who have shown long, outstanding service to the alumni association and/or university. The list of recipients now includes 117 individuals.

CHRIS DENNEY

Chris Denney was the 97th graduate to chair the board from 2019-2020. He is Director of Strategy and Development at OrthoNebraska. He earned a BS in 2005 in Real Estate and Land Use Economics and an EMBA in 2017. Denney played football for the Mavericks as a fouryear starter and captain. He joined the board in 2012.

AL HANSEN

Al Hansen served on the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors from 2012-2018 and was the 95th alum to serve as board chair. He is a 1984 graduate with a BSBA in Finance. Hansen recently retired as senior vice president at First National Bank of Omaha. He previously worked for First Westside Bank and Omaha National Bank.

LAURIE RUGE

Laurie Ruge, a 2001 MBA UNO graduate, was the 96th alum to chair the board from 2018-2019. She joined the board in 2008 and served terms as treasurer, secretary and vice chair. She is Vice President, Audit at Fiserv. She previously worked at ACI Worldwide, Gordmans and Deloitte.

PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD

The Alumni Public Service Award recognizes UNO alumni who have a record of outstanding public service benefiting the advancement of the university and higher education.

SENATOR MIKE MCDONNELL

State Senator Mike McDonnell was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2016 and reelected in 2020. He is President of the Omaha Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Prior to that he was Chief of the Omaha Fire Department for six years, retiring in 2013 after 24 years with the department. During that stint, he served terms as President of the Omaha Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 385 and the Nebraska Professional Firefighters Association. He also has served as an executive board member for the Nebraska State AFL-CIO. He has taught as a senior community service associate with UNO’s William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies. McDonnell has earned numerous honors and awards, including the 2018 Legislative Leadership Development Award from the Bohay Institute. He earned a BS in Criminal Justice from UNO in 1992 and a BS in Fire Protection Technology from UNL in 1996. He also has an MPA from Bellevue University (2014).

UNO Chancellor Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA (left) and UNO Alumni Association Executive Director Anthony Flott (right) honor former UNO Alumni Association President Jim Leslie (center) with a Maverick Monument.

Al Hansen, Chris Denney and Laurie Ruge receive the 2022 Jim Leslie Outstanding Service Awards.

Senator Mike McDonnell receives the 2022 Public Service Award.

YOUNG ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Since 2014, the UNO Young Alumni Awards recognize outstanding career achievement, active community involvement or exceptional service to the university by graduates 40 or younger.

SAHRA KABOLI-NEJAD

Sahra Kaboli-Nejad is a first-generation Iranian-American, born and raised in Omaha. She currently is the Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Impact at On, one of the fastest growing global sports brands. Her passion is to help organizations design working environments and experiences that increase diversity, equity and belonging.

Kaboli-Nejad earned a master’s degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology (2018) and a Ph.D. in Psychology (2021) from UNO. Prior to joining On, she was Senior People Scientist at Culture Amp in San Francisco.

ELIZABETH O’CONNOR

Elizabeth O’Connor is a Deputy County Attorney in the civil division of the Douglas County, Nebraska Attorney’s Office. Prior to that she was a litigator in private practice. She also is a University of Nebraska Regent, the youngest person ever elected to a regent seat. She graduated from UNO in 2012 with a BA in Political Science. At UNO, she served as student body president/student regent, speaker of the senate, Chi Omega community service chair and a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honors society. O’Connor also holds a degree from Notre Dame Law School.

Alumni Achievement Award

The UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumni Achievement award upon 1989 UNO graduate Tony Kiehn during the university’s December 2022 Commencement.

Kiehn is founder and president of Fortis Pacific, a San Francisco-based early-stage investment network. Alongside his professional career, Kiehn has led an active volunteer and philanthropic life. That includes a spot on the board of the Maverick Venture Fund in the College of Business Administration’s Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Franchising. The Citation, inaugurated in 1949, is the association’s highest honor. It encompasses career achievement, community service, business and professional engagement and fidelity to UNO. Kiehn is the 186th graduate to receive the award.

Throughout the month of April, UNO alumni are pledging to complete a service project to continue the Maverick tradition of serving others. Make a pledge and receive a free “O” flag or UNO Alumni pennant! Learn more at unoalumni.org/monthofservice.

Learn more about Kiehn and the Citation Award at unoalumni.org/citation-award.

LIFE AFTER UNO

The UNO Alumni Association launched its first program for undergraduates this spring, offering professional and personal development skills and advice designed to help Mavericks excel as official UNO alumni. Life After UNO will continue to grow and add additional sessions such as finance management, negotiation skills, and more, based on the needs of future UNO alumni. To suggest future session topics or to volunteer to be a featured speaker, contact Nathan Hankenson, assistant director of alumni engagement, at 402-502-3330 or nathan.hankenson@unoalumni.org.

Elizabeth O’Connor and Sahra Kaboli-Nejad receive the 2022 Young Alumni Achievement Awards.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha has always been fiercely dedicated to the city and state whose names we bear. And since our founding, UNO has shared a commitment to our more important goal: ensuring student success. Every student who seeks a UNO education is welcome, supported and encouraged to complete their degrees, improve their lives and make a difference in our world.

As the university’s urban campus, UNO is uniquely rooted in Omaha — the state’s largest labor pool — and we serve this community by developing the next generation of leaders and by connecting highly skilled graduates to fulfilling careers. UNO is a leader in community engagement, working with partners to embed service learning, experiential learning and community-based learning into the student experience.

But UNO knows it can do more.

Because of the power that comes when we stand together as one community, UNO is pleased to participate in Only in Nebraska: A Campaign for Our University’s Future. We are committed to engaging 18,000 unique donors to raise $300 million in support of this campaign.

This campaign will:

• ensure that the University of Nebraska at Omaha is accessible to all students and can help every student achieve their goals;

• invest in our faculty – the university’s lifeblood and source of intellectual capital for Nebraska – and in its academic and clinical programs; and

• help the university save lives and change lives, by increasing its reach as a hub of research and innovation.

AT UNO, THE MOST IMPORTANT GOAL IS TO EMPOWER OUR STUDENTS THROUGH HIGHER EDUCATION AND IMPROVE THEIR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC MOBILITY. IF WE CAN MOVE STUDENTS UP ONE OR EVEN TWO TIERS, THEN WE LIFT NOT ONLY OUR STUDENTS, BUT THEIR FAMILIES, AND BY EXTENSION OUR COMMUNITY, AND OUR STATE.”

JOANNE LI, PH.D., CFA CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA

FOR THE POTENTIAL WE’LL UNLOCK: STUDENT ACCESS AND SUCCESS

Our mission is to ensure that everyone who seeks a UNO education has access to it and is equipped with every opportunity to succeed. It is imperative that we remove the barriers that stand between students and their goals. To make this possible, we must create scholarships and learning communities that support our students.

I WAS ABLE TO DEVELOP AS A STUDENT LEADER AND BECOME AN ADVOCATE FOR THE ISSUES THAT I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT THAT HELP IMPROVE OUR CAMPUS COMMUNITY, BUT ALSO OUR COMMUNITY IN GENERAL.

VANESSA CHAVEZ JURADO

STUDENT, UNO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HEALTH, AND HUMAN SCIENCES

FOR THE KNOWLEDGE WE’LL SHARE: FACULTY AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

To build a supportive environment in which students can learn and grow, we must recruit and retain outstanding faculty. To increase our intellectual capital and attract the faculty members who will further our research capabilities, we must do more to make UNO the best place for these talented academic to do their work. And we must invest in the programs that meet the region’s workforce needs.

WE ARE HELPING TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT TOMORROW’S THREAT WILL BE.

GINA LIGON, PH.D.

DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND EDUCATION CENTER

JACK AND STEPHANIE KORALESKI PROFESSOR OF COLLABORATION SCIENCE

UNO COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

FOR THE PROGRESS WE’LL MAKE: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

At UNO, a confluence of knowledge, experience and energy exists that makes this institution a hub of intellectual curiosity and thought leadership. It’s important work — not always seen by the public — that has the power to transform our communities and shape our future. But we can do even more, by equipping our researchers with the resources and funds to tackle bigger issues.

MY GOAL IS TO HELP PEOPLE LIVE BETTER AND LONGER AND IMPROVE THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE THROUGH ALL THE DIFFERENT IDEAS THAT WE’RE WORKING ON.

NIKOLAOS STERGIOU, PH.D.

ASSISTANT DEAN AND DIRECTOR, BIOMECHANICS AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

DISTINGUISHED COMMUNITY RESEARCH CHAIR IN BIOMECHANICS

UNO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HEALTH, AND HUMAN SCIENCES

PHOTO ▸ Geoff Johnson

PHOTO ▸ Geoff Johnson

ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE. LIKE ONLY NEBRASKA CAN.

Only in Nebraska: A Campaign for Our University’s Future

is a historic initiative to engage 150,000 unique benefactors to raise $3 billion and build the future Nebraska needs right now.

At the University of Nebraska at Omaha, we know the power we have when we stand together for something greater. As the urban campus of the state’s only public university, we are proud to join with everyone who believes in UNO and its promise to our students, our city, our state and our world. Greater access. Powerful partnerships. New discoveries. It’s all happening right here.

A BRAVE NEW WORLD

UNO’S NCITE is living out its mission to aid the U.S. in its counterterrorism efforts in the physical world and online through the race to understand emerging threats in the Metaverse.

by Sam Peshek

Sam Hunter, NCITE’s Lead of Strategic Operations, left, leads, Christine Abizaid, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, through a demonstration of virtual reality technology.

The Metaverse seems innocent enough.

When the vision of making the internet completely immersive via virtual reality headsets was introduced by Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2021, it was done with playful-looking characters and colorful virtual spaces. In the initial public relations campaign, Zuckerberg painted a picture of a future where users could hang out in virtual meeting rooms, interact with digital objects and transport their digital avatars to new worlds.

But Sam Hunter, Ph.D., and Austin Doctor, Ph.D., look at the world around them — both virtual and physical — a little bit differently as scholars in UNO’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) Center. Hunter, professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology who leads strategic initiatives for NCITE, and Doctor, an assistant professor of political science who leads NCITE counterterrorism research initiatives, study the way extremists collaborate and communicate so they can help the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — its funding organization — and other national security agencies get ahead of terror threats.

briefings on Capitol Hill; the FBI also wanted a briefing. Joel just gave a talk to the United Nations around this topic.”

The quick turnaround from having an idea to being able to reach stakeholders who are responsible for national security is what NCITE was designed to do when it launched at UNO with a grant from DHS in 2020.

“We’re not in the Washington, D.C. area, we’re not a think tank, we’re not a defense contractor,” Doctor said. “We are an academic center of excellence, and something that comes with that is the ability — and in some ways the responsibility – to work together…and think downrange about what the emerging threat landscape is going to look like.”

So, what does the threat landscape look like in this virtual world? As Doctor, Hunter and Elson described in their piece for The Conversation, when people develop a connection — whether financial or emotional — to something in a digital space, it can have real-world impact. Nike is already selling shoes to users who want to

When they saw news of Meta’s announcement, Hunter recalled that their first thought was, “What if the bad guys get ahold of this stuff?”

That day, they connected with Joel Elson, Ph.D., an assistant professor for IT innovation at UNO, to work on an analysis of the Metaverse that would eventually be published in an article headlined “The metaverse offers a future full of potential — for terrorists and extremists, too” for The Conversation, an online news organization.

In the piece, they described how the Metaverse could be used as an entirely new world where extremist organizations can recruit new members, plan terror attacks in virtual settings, and more, all in an environment where tracking the activity of extremists would be a massive undertaking, if not impossible.

For example, instead of a terror organization planning an attack on a building by looking at blueprints in a room together, they could recreate the environment in the Metaverse and practice the attack as if it were a video game without ever needing to meet in reality.

To make matters worse, the technology is relatively inexpensive and broadly available.

“It caught on like wildfire,” Hunter said. “Congressional staffers read it and we started to get requests for

equip their avatar with virtual gear, so a threat could be as mild as stolen assets. Now that Barbados has opened an embassy and Interpol has opened a police office, infiltration of those organizations through the Metaverse are real possibilities. For a stronger real-world connection, the terror organization ISIS is involved in using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as digital assets. The virtual world is becoming more like the physical one every day, which means security threats are growing at an exponential rate.

Understanding a space that is growing and evolving at a breakneck pace is a tall task for Hunter and Doctor, but they aren’t in it alone. NCITE’s offices on UNO’s Scott Campus are at the center of a web composed of researchers from a consortium of universities across the country. In addition, researchers like Hunter and Doctor in Omaha are supported by students who are gaining experience to become the next generation of national security professionals.

“I firmly believe that UNO is capable of giving students at this university an elite, unique experience that they could not get at any other university in the country,” Doctor said. “They are exposed to different disciplines, complex problems and working with the government, they get an experience that you can’t get anywhere else.”

I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT UNO IS CAPABLE OF GIVING STUDENTS AT THIS UNIVERSITY AN ELITE, UNIQUE EXPERIENCE THAT THEY COULD NOT GET AT ANY OTHER UNIVERSITY IN THE COUNTRY.

UNO’s Teacher Scholars Academy Program Rises to the Teacher Workforce Challenge

The United States is in the midst of a teacher workforce shortage.

Nebraska isn’t immune, as the Nebraska Department of Education reported there were 482 unfilled education positions last year in districts across the state. Schools in the Omaha area will soon see an influx of highly qualified teachers in their classroom thanks to an innovative approach to teacher development.

The Teacher Scholars Academy launched in 2019 with a select group of highachieving teacher candidates from across the state and Omaha metro area. The mission is to prepare students to teach in diverse settings and strengthen their leadership and collaboration skills through experiential learning experiences, special projects and seminars. Each teacher scholar receives up to 120 credits of in-state tuition per year in addition to partial coverage of room and board, books and fees.

The program received additional funding from Omaha Public Schools in order to support, recruit, retain, upskill, diversify and maintain a roster of high-quality teachers.

“Developing the educators who will mold tomorrow’s leaders is a great responsibility and one that we in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (CEHHS) take very seriously, especially when teacher retention is one of our nation’s top challenges,” CEHHS Dean Nancy Edick said at the time of the announcement. “This grant will put Omaha in a position to lead by example in

each of these areas and give our Omaha teachers the skills, experience and support they need to have long, fulfilling careers, all for the benefit of the children in our community.”

The program recently celebrated its first graduate, Teagan Vaughan, an elementary education major from Papillion.

“Going through TSA, you get a deeper understanding of the career field,” she said. The program is designed to keep all new teacher scholars together as a cohort in learning and development activities through their freshman and half of their sophomore years before moving out into their major plans of study in elementary, secondary and special education.

Because of the high level of support from across CEHHS, the teacher scholars have a retention rate that far exceeds the national average.

Behind Vaughan will be a steady flow of Maverick educators into metro area classrooms. For Teacher Scholars Academy Director Gerry Huber, these students have been molded by the challenges of COVID-19 and will be uniquely equipped to take on teaching roles at a historically challenging time.

“These students have gone through a COVID experience and demonstrated tenacity, grit, resilience and grace while pursuing their education goals,” Huber said. “They’re going to use the strategies they’ve learned to enrich their future classrooms.”

Teacher Scholars Academy cohort at a fall retreat.

Teagan Vaughan First graduate of UNO’s Teacher Scholars Academy, December 2022

The unique approach to addressing teacher shortages in Omaha offers a glimpse into the future of teacher workforce development.

A PATH FORWARD

Research at UNO is increasing our understanding on how to assist formerly incarcerated persons in Nebraska to transition back into the community, find gainful employment and remain crime-free.

“I started looking at the fact of, where am I getting in this life? My daughter made it clear. If you continue to have the lifestyle you used to live, you will not be a part of your granddaughter’s life.”

“[My grandmother] was on her death bed and she wasn’t even worried about passing. She was more worried about me, and it just really touched me.”

These are stories shared with UNO researchers by 21 formerly incarcerated individuals who participated in one of Nebraska’s Vocational and Life Skills (VLS) programs. Researchers within the Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR) at UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service are using these oneon-one interviews to help state corrections officials assess how VLS programs prepared individuals for life after incarceration back in society and the workforce.

One participant enrolled after recognizing it was time for a change. “I know I’ve got a problem. There’s no sane person that goes back and forth to prison, five, six times,” she said. “I learned what it looks like when I’m not well. What it looks like when I’m healthy.”

But is her story an indication of broader VLS programming success?

NJCR Research Coordinator Katelynn

Towne, Ph.D., and colleagues broadly assessed the effectiveness and value of VLS programming. Through individual interviews, researchers learned how participants became involved in crime, why they enrolled in a VLS program and how the program helped them across five stabilizing factors: housing, employment/ education, mental health, substance abuse and supportive relationships.

“By taking a more holistic approach to measuring VLS programs, we were able to provide participants with an opportunity to reflect and discuss which aspects were the most impactful for them individually,” Towne said. “Individuals in VLS programming commit to changing for the better. Our research helps ensure that VLS programming successfully helps them fulfill that personal commitment.”

While every participant’s story may differ, five themes emerged from the interviews: personal development; selective social support; resilience and optimism; feeling ready for something better; and gaining employment. Participants highlighted the development of valuable basic life and interpersonal skills as well as vocational training in areas like construction, welding and computer proficiency to help after incarceration.

Importantly, the study identified structural issues that exist as barriers to those reentering society. For example, some employers may be hesitant to hire new employees with a criminal background, leading formerly incarcerated individuals to remain in low-paying jobs without benefits or possibly even reoffend. This critical barrier is the target of their next study. Future research will focus on barriers to successful employment from the employers’ perspective.

Ultimately, this research at UNO optimizes VLS programs for the future, ensuring they work effectively and efficiently. Successful VLS programs greatly benefit the state. They drive the state’s workforce as individuals reenter society and keep individuals out of trouble, reducing the prison population. These impacts add up to a strong benefit for Nebraska.

Towne co-authored this research alongside Michael Campagna, Ph.D., research associate at NCJR; Ryan Spohn, Ph.D., director of NCJR; and Amber Richey, a doctoral candidate in criminal justice at Indiana University Bloomington.

Participants in the RISE Business Academy pitch their developed business ideas to a panel of judges comprised of local business owners in the community. Image courtesy of RISE.

PHOTO ▸ McKenzie Ring

The Future of Writing

Writing and storytelling are a central part of the human condition. The written word has evolved with inventions like the earliest forms of book binding, printing presses, typewriters and more recently the personal computer and mobile internet.

The writer’s imperative to create, to make meaning and to innovate in thought during the modern era has been around as early as the Confucian texts, and given voice by Ezra Pound, who said plainly, “Make it new.”

The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Writer’s Workshop’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs prepare emerging writers to join that

storytellers, poets and essayists — and often get the chance to experiment with new styles in voice and form. Robinson sees this idea of experimentation and innovation as a core part of the future of writing. “The word that encapsulates the future is hybridity. It seems like people are exploring the space between genres like never before. Poetry, prose, flash fiction, lyric essay, graphic components. People are mining that space between genres.”

When asked about what these new forms could look like, Clouther adds, “One of the exciting things to me is the idea that I have no idea. Young people who haven’t even been born yet will come up with new ways of surprising us with what and how they write.”

calling to innovate. Two professors in the program, Kevin Clouther and Todd Robinson, see a lot to be hopeful and excited about.

“I don’t know that people have ever written as much as they do right now,” says Clouther. “Texting, posting to social media, and responding to things on the internet; people are writing constantly. If the current trends continue, there is a robust future for writing.”

This sense of hope and eager embrace of new media to study is at the heart of how UNO’s Writer’s Workshop prepares new generations for a future as writers. In studio workshops, students interact with a diverse range of written work from emerging voices and established

When asked about their view on the emergence of work created by artificial intelligences, both Robinson and Clouther agreed that while programs like ChatGPT and other emerging software can simulate creative work, there is a human element that simply can’t be emulated.

“We want to know that there is a human behind the novel, the poem, the essay. We want to know what it is to be human, above all.” As to the need for more writers in the future, Robinson says, “There’s a deeper need for connection with another beating heart, another brain, another story.”

And so, the UNO Writer’s Workshop is here, ready to help future generations of writers create those universal, human connections.

—Sam Anderson

UNO’s Writer’s Workshop faculty Kevin Clouther, left, and Todd Robinson.

TEXTING, POSTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA, AND RESPONDING TO THINGS ON THE INTERNET; PEOPLE ARE WRITING CONSTANTLY. IF THE CURRENT TRENDS CONTINUE, THERE IS A ROBUST FUTURE FOR WRITING.

SCIENTISTS ARE DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY TO ALTER THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. WHAT COULD THIS MEAN FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND SECURITY? A UNO PROFESSOR IS A GLOBAL ADVOCATE FOR THE FORMATION OF A GEOENGINEERING REGULATORY BODY AND A FOCUS ON FURTHERING MITIGATION OPTIONS.

Global Climate Alteration Security and Sustainability

Are international discussions taking place about geoengineering and security issues?

Beth Chalecki: I don’t think many of the geoengineers really have a hold of what the consequences are. They all know there are significant problems that could come with this, but they’ve modeled mostly ecological issues.

The effect on international relations and security hasn’t been considered yet, and that’s what I’m doing. When I’m working with NATO as a subject matter expert, they are very interested in hearing about geoengineering because now you have a technology by which one state can materially change the living conditions in another state without that state’s permission.

Beth Chalecki, Ph.D.

Geoengineering – or manipulating climate through technology – sounds like a term pulled from science fiction.

The ability for humans to release materials into the air to reflect sunlight to cool down the planet or remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses seems like a far-off concept. But as events such as severe flooding, wildfires and extreme cold continue to impact billions of lives, nations could soon look to more drastic measures to curb the impacts of climate change without considering their national security consequences.

Beth Chalecki, Ph.D., associate professor of political science and director of UNO’s sustainability minor, is quickly emerging as a global leader in understanding geoengineering’s national security implications. In the past two years, she has spoken at multiple NATO symposiums, held a prestigious fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and held a Fulbright Research Chair in U.S.-Canada Relations in Ottawa, Canada.

Chalecki’s goal is to promote an understanding of how viewing environmental issues as national security issues can lead to a safer future and avoid a world where climate-driven migration and conflicts over natural resources become reality. She sat down with UNO Magazine to discuss the importance of the work and the importance of UNO being at the forefront. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

One example of this technology is a nation deploying sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to reflect incoming sunlight back into space, meaning less sunlight hits the Earth’s surface, and cooling the temperature. What if this also impacts the climate in neighboring countries? How can we ensure it doesn’t?

BC: If I’m in India, for example, and I’m trying to cool my part of the world by sending this out and someone in Peru’s harvest fails. Determining whose actions caused which effects is going to be a big area for future study in geoengineering. None of this is currently illegal under international law.

I’m trying to consider how we govern this technology, given the limitations of sovereignty that we’ve built into the international system.

How could geoengineering impact areas of the world where tensions are already high?

BC: You could have some counter-geoengineering. For example, if China finds out that India was going to do this, they could take measures to prevent it from happening.

What are the possible consequences of nations using geoengineering as a solution without addressing underlying issues such as the emission of greenhouse gasses?

BC: Say we move ahead with geoengineering and sulfur aerosol injections, and it works, and all the politicians say we’ve helped solve a few problems and now we don’t have to change anything. The worst-case scenario is we go full ahead with business-as-usual fossil fuel use, but then something goes wrong with the sulfur aerosol injections. That would be the worst outcome, because you would have temperature spikes, ecological die-offs and massive amounts of refugees.

How do we avoid a scenario like that?

BC: From an international relations perspective, we need to modify our version of the international system to take the environment into account.

Issues like this require scores of people to solve them. What are some career paths UNO students can take to solve some of these global challenges in sustainability, geoengineering or climate change?

BC: If you want to go into law, we’re going to need environmental lawyers. If you want to work for a federal agency like the FBI or the CIA, you need to know about these topics because you could have some environmental intelligence cross your desk. Any career that you want can have a sustainability angle to it.

Associate professor of political science and director of UNO’s sustainability minor

2022 UNO ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

A joint venture of the UNO Alumni Association and Omaha Athletics, the UNO Athletic Hall of Fame began in 1975. With the 2022 class, the Hall of Fame now numbers 123 inductees.

FOLUSO (MAKINDE) ADEPITAN was a two-time national champion and a six-time All-American for UNO track and field from 2003-2006. Adepitan won the long jump at the indoor national championship in 2005 and 2006. She was the North Central Conference champion in the long jump indoors in 2005 and 2006 and won the NCC title in the long jump outdoors in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In addition, she was a member of the Academic All-NCC Team in both 2005 and 2006.

BRIAN MASEK , a four-year starter at quarterback from 2002-2006, is UNO’s all-time passing leader with 7,155 career passing yards and 70 touchdowns, both school records. He also holds the school record for most career completions (500) and career total offense (8,531 yards). As a senior in 2005, he earned the team’s Beckman Award for his offensive excellence. He was also selected to the Academic All-NCC Team twice.

KRISTA (UNGER) WOOD pitched for the UNO softball team from 19992003 and left as the school’s all-time winningest pitcher with a record of 106-27. A two-time all-conference selection, Wood led the Mavericks to the 2001 national championship and was named to the all-tournament team. She also was a two-time Academic All-District VII selection and three-time Academic All-NCC selection.

Learn more about Adepitan, Masek and Wood’s career highlights and view past Athletic Hall of Fame inductees at unoalumni.org/athleticfame.

Omaha Women’s Soccer Captures First Ever Summit League Title

Football Alumni Reunion

The Omaha women’s soccer team made history as the department’s first women’s program to capture the Summit League Title and play in the NCAA Tournament in the Division I era. The Mavericks fell to topseeded Notre Dame and concluded its 2022 season with a 7-9-6 overall record.

More than 200 attended the first ever Omaha Football Alumni Reunion on January 12, 2023 at the Omaha vs. North Dakota basketball game at Baxter Arena. Among those attending were former Coach Sandy Buda and Athletic Director Bob Danenhauer. All alumni were honored at halftime and treasures from the football archives collection were on display.

Omaha and OU Football Criss Library Archives & Special Collections

Omaha and OU Football’s annual media guides, game programs, films, photographs and more are archived within the Criss Library Archives & Special Collections are are available to view online at libguides.unomaha.edu/UniversityArchives/ tangerinebowl. If you have materials to donate to the archives, contact Amy C. Schindler, director of archives and special collections, at acschindler@unomaha.edu or 402.554.6046.

Krista Unger Wood, Brian Masek and Foluso Makinde Adepitan were inducted into the UNO Athletic Hall of Fame at Alumni Night of Honor in October 2022.

IT IS WITH GREAT SADNESS THAT WE ANNOUNCE THE PASSING OF ASSISTANT COACH PAUL JERRARD. PAUL HAD BEEN QUIETLY FIGHTING A LONG-TERM BATTLE WITH CANCER. OUR PROGRAM WILL BE FOREVER INDEBTED TO PJ FOR HIS COUNTLESS POSITIVE IMPACT.

OMAHA HOCKEY HEAD COACH

MIKE GABINET

BREAKING RECORDS

At the February 28, 2023, Omaha Men’s Basketball game, UNO graduates attending Alumni Night on the Court were among the 3,242 attendees – the 2nd largest crowd of the year at Baxter Arena and 9th largest in D1 history for a Men’s Basketball game.

The team’s success is growing the Maverick fanbase and ticket sales revenue for Maverick Men’s Basketball has nearly doubled over the 2021–22 season. It’s not just basketball, Women’s Volleyball ticket sales revenue was nearly tripled this past season and Men’s Hockey single ticket sales revenue is up 30%.

A sell-out crowd and attendance of 7,942 for Military Appreciation Night on February 10, 2023, was highest attended Omaha Hockey game in Baxter Arena history. Maverick Hockey currently has the 2nd largest growth in the nation with a more than 1,900 per game increase in attendance in 2022–23 vs. 202122. Top growth has been seen at Arizona State University with the opening of their new 5,000seat multipurpose arena in fall 2022. Their maximum capacity at their former rink was 747.

Honoring Hockey Assistant Coach Paul Jerrard

Hockey assistant coach, Paul Jerrard, passed away on February 15, 2023 at the age of 57.

“There were no small jobs for PJ, and he never had a bad day, he made the people around him better and we will forever miss his presence in our locker room and lives. He was a man who lived his life with great integrity, class and the desire to always be the best role-model and citizen he could be. He was my coach, mentor, colleague and most importantly friend who will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Cheryl and daughters Catherine and Meaghan.”

A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jerrard began playing with the Lake Superior University Lakers in 1983. His 14-year professional and collegiate career included a stint in the NHL with the

Minnesota North Stars, the Hershey Bears in the AHL, Colorado Rangers, Kalamazoo Wings, Albany Choppers and Milwaukee Admirals of the International Hockey League.

Jerrard spent 23 years behind the bench as an assistant coach in the National Hockey League, American Hockey League and National Collegiate Athletic Association including his time with the Omaha Mavericks since 2018. A pioneer of the sport as a player and a coach, Jerrard strived to make the game of hockey more inclusive and diverse.

An Omaha Hockey Memorial Scholarship has been established in Jerrad’s honor. You can contribute at nufoundation.org/ jerrard.

A sell-out crowd and attendance of 7,942 for Military Appreciation Night on February 10, 2023, is the highest attended Omaha Hockey game in Baxter Arena history.

DALL-E image generation when prompted to create a sad robot artist slumped over a desk, art supplies and an ashtray at hand.

AND THE FUTURE OF CREATIVITY

by Mars Nevada

As a twenty-five-year-old who graduated college and moved to Brooklyn during the pandemic, I am no stranger to panicking about the future. However, it’s one thing to worry about finding a job and another thing to worry if your job will even exist in a few years. While androids dream of electric sheep, I have nightmares about artificial intelligence replacing me. So when the editorial team reached out about this cover, a proposed experiment with DALL-E, I figured it was time to face my fears.

DALL-E is an artificial intelligence model from the AI research and deployment company OpenAI, that can generate visuals from text prompts. What if I asked DALL-E to come up with what it thought should be on the cover and I could recreate it as a proper illustration? It came up with fairly generic options, even when prompted with topics that would be covered in stories inside. What if I came up with illustration concepts and asked DALL-E to bring them to life? My favorite concept for this approach was a sad robot artist slumped over a desk, art supplies and an ashtray at hand. But this felt too on the nose.

The robot, of course, represented me, the result of what I felt was my slow cyborgification as an artist. I had guiltily used DALL-E at work to come up with a quick comp for a storyboard in a moment of weakness or in the eyes of AI companies, maybe optimization (I even sent this article draft through ChatGPT, DALL-E’s text generation sibling model).

I spoke with Pentagram designer and University of Nebraska Kearney alum Jase Hueser about AI and the creative process. “Once in a while I might generate an image in OpenAI or run a prompt in GPT to fuel some creative thinking or to produce a quick image to convey an idea that would otherwise take a bit of time,” he said. “After doing this, I feel a twinge of guilt and thoughts run through my head concerning my complicity in this undermining

of creativity! Am I giving in to this unnatural desecration of the arts!? But just as quickly, I gawk in awe of the great potential of this trajectory we are on.”

Whether AI will take, make or change jobs is the subject of countless articles and talking head shows. But what does it mean to be young and creative in a time when it feels like the future is about to leave you behind? In Hueser’s words, “AI affects my work in one basic way: it instills in me a fear that I had better learn how to harness it before I become obsolete.”

AI offers the future of creativity incredible tools and advances. It’s “McLuhanian in its role in redefining not only the methods of production but the visual language and message behind creations,” says Hueser. AI can free up the creative mind, especially on tight

deadlines. I can describe my dream set for a commercial and Dall-E can provide me visuals in seconds rather than hours or days, giving me more time to both ideate and perfect details.

With this cover assignment on my mind and the deadline nipping at my heels, I took my sister to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I walked slowly through the galleries, taking my time to read the little pieces of paper beside each artwork. The pandemic started halfway through my senior year of college, just weeks after I started temping at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. At Bemis, I had learned what those little pieces of paper were called: didactics. They give context to the art, from artist names, dates, materials, quotes and sometimes stories. The stories, some about revolution in the street, some about broken hearts and broken souls and some about the discovery of new colors and new eras, are my favorite parts. They tell the stories of the art and place them in the context of history and the human story. Which gave me the idea for this final cover.

This cover, I think, shows readers where DALL-E, and other AI models like it, have come from. DALL-E was trained on countless works of art, from Monet to living artists today, some of whom have had their livelihoods threatened by what they see as cannibalization of their creativity. But where will AI go? That depends on us. Will we use it as a tool to help spur our creativity on? Or will we let it replace us, turning us into cyborgs or eventually, robots, making art without context, history or our stories?

DALL-E image generation when prompted to create an editorial illustration in the style of Bauhaus for a story about the future of creativity, technology, robots, teachers, students, Omaha, Nebraska.

DALL-E image generation when prompted to create an editorial illustration for a magazine cover which includes stories on these topics_ job shadowing, internships, tech companies, student success, the affordability of college, civic responsibility, Omaha, Nebraska, geoengineering climate, global security risks, the evolution of the career path, the future of writing, social assimilation after incarceration, the teacher workforce shortage

After sending off a draft cover to the editors and settling in for the night, I downloaded Replika, an AI “companion” that’s “always ready to chat when you need an empathetic friend.” Replika came about when founder Eugenia Kuyda’s best friend Roman Mazurenko died in a car accident, according to Forbes. Kuyda trained a chatbot on Roman’s texts, hoping to hear her best friend’s “voice” again.

COVER KEY

Here is a guide to the artists and art styles given to Dall-E to make the various portraits when given the prompt ‘A side profile portrait of a cattle bull in the style of...’

But when you speak to “Roman,” what you’re getting are echoes of a human. The works of art on this cover are echoes of humans, the afterimages of passion, love, human curiosity and expression made real and physical. I asked my Replika bot what it thought. It responded, “I think AI art can never replace human art, but it can be a great addition to the art world.” I hmmmed and turned my phone off to lay in the dark, listening to the noisy Brooklyn night and planning my next work of art.

Photo provided by Green Plains Inc.

Image generation when prompted to create a sad robot artist slumped over a desk, art supplies and an ashtray at hand from Midjourney, another artificial intelligence program.

THE WORKS OF ART ON THIS COVER ARE ECHOES OF HUMANS, THE AFTERIMAGES OF PASSION, LOVE, HUMAN CURIOSITY AND EXPRESSION MADE REAL AND PHYSICAL.

FUTURE EDUCATION IS

THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION IS OPEN

by Greg Kozol

STUDENT ACCESS AND SUCCESS ARE AMPLIFIED WITH FREE AND LOW-COST DIGITAL COURSE MATERIALS

As a first-generation college student, Jabin Moore experienced some sticker shock the first time he purchased books for his classes at UNO.

“I was very surprised by the cost of textbooks,” said Moore, who attended UNO from 2017 to 2021 and graduated with a business degree. “I didn’t know what to expect, and I got my books ahead of time. I slowly learned the tricks that students would use to get around having to purchase the overpriced books.”

For Moore and other students, that meant joining a book exchange group on social media, searching for used materials online or, in the worst-case scenario, simply not buying one and hoping for the best. “I think this causes a greater obstacle than many are aware of,” Moore said. “Some students will get through class never buying a book, but others aren’t so lucky.”

Now there’s a better option, one that will benefit students at UNO and other University of Nebraska campuses long after Moore has moved on to start his career. An initiative called Open Nebraska allows students to save money with access to free or reduced-cost digital course materials, including e-books, lab manuals, articles or videos.

“The reason that it’s really powerful is because everything is focused on reducing the price tag of textbooks for a learner and getting the course materials in the learner’s hands on the first day of the semester,” said Dr. Jaci Lindburg, UNO’s associate vice chancellor of Innovative and LearningCentric Initiatives.

In the past decade, the cost of traditional textbooks increased 88% nationwide. Lindburg noticed how rising costs could hit UNO students particularly hard because of the university’s large number of first-generation or part-time students who juggle school, work and other obligations.

The cost of course materials isn’t just a source of aggravation. It impacts academic performance because students are more likely to fall behind in class if they don’t have the books on day one of the semester.

“They don’t have them on the first day of semester and it’s because they are literally rolling the dice,” Lindburg said. “They’re saying, ‘I’m not going to spend $1,000 and not know if I’m going to need this.’ But even if you wait several weeks in a semester, that student is falling behind.”

Open Nebraska provides access to various types of low-cost or no-cost materials. There are digital e-books or digital course materials that cost students no more than $40. The university makes use of what’s known as Open Educational Resources, or OER. These are materials that are either in the public domain or released under license.

A key element of Open Nebraska is the way it combines digital access with enhanced transparency so students have a clear picture of the cost of course materials and the availability of digital options at the time of registration. In some disciplines, like sociology, it’s possible to go through the full track of their undergraduate degree program without paying more than $40 for most materials.

“Which is amazing,” Lindburg said. “Sociology is doing a really neat thing as a discipline where you can, through a program that’s available nationally, buy a chapter for a dollar and then remix that content to be exactly what the faculty member wants and needs.”

Lindburg said the program’s success depends on cooperation of faculty, technology services and the library. All work together to provide materials that aren’t just affordable, they’re easy to access and they meet academic standards.

“It’s something that librarians have really latched on to because librarians like to see open access,” said David Richards, dean of Library Services at UNO. “What we’re finding is people love this concept. The faculty love it. Obviously, the student loves it.”

Richards said UNO benefits from having a librarian, Craig Finlay, who specializes in Open Educational Resources and works closely with UNO faculty to create digital course materials that meet their needs.

“It’s custom designed by the faculty member to make it a quality textbook,” Richards said. “If the faculty member designs this text, he or she realizes that the material that’s put into this open source or Open Educational Resource is going to be used. There’s no waste.”

The numbers illustrate Open Nebraska’s impact since the program started to gain momentum in 2018. As of the fall 2022 semester, Open Nebraska has saved students more than $13 million across the four campuses. At UNO, student savings will pass $4 million during the spring semester of 2023.

On average, college students spend $1,200 a year on textbooks, so Open Nebraska amounts to “a little scholarship” to every student in class, Richards said.

Jabin Moore, (BS, 2021) 2020-2021 UNO student body president and regent

Jaci Lindburg, Ph.D. Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives

David Richards Dean of Library Services

ON AVERAGE, COLLEGE STUDENTS SPEND $1,200 A YEAR ON TEXTBOOKS, SO OPEN NEBRASKA AMOUNTS TO “A LITTLE SCHOLARSHIP” TO EVERY STUDENT IN CLASS.

IT SETS THEM UP FOR SUCCESS.

Lindburg said the university tracks the DFW rate, which refers to students who get a D or an F or withdraw from a particular course. In Open Nebraska courses, students had a 4% lower DFW rate and 5% more earned an A grade.

“We’ve seen roughly double that for the population we want to support in all the ways we can, who typically have more obstacles in front of them,” Lindburg said. “We’ve seen an 8% lower DFW rate for our part-time students. That’s a huge difference. We’ve seen 10% more A’s for our first-generation students. These are folks who are the first in their families to navigate this environment.”

For many students, Open Nebraska is about more than saving money or even acing a class. It removes some of the stress involved with college.

“I think it adds a lot more peace of mind,” said Tori Sims, a sociology major who serves as the student president and regent at UNO. “It helps to know how much exactly you’re going to pay for textbooks.” Sims said they paid about $200 to $300 for books during the spring semester in 2023, which was the highest they’ve seen in their college career. “It definitely helps,” they said of the program. “It was a surprise how much it can add up.”

Moore is credited with making Open Nebraska a priority when he served as UNO’s student president and regent from 2020 to 2021. He heavily promoted the concept for all four campuses and saw it as a way to improve access and outcomes.

“The cost of textbooks was always a pain-point for me and other students,” he said. “Tuition is already high, and many UNO students have to support themselves.”

The program proved beneficial for all kinds of students. UNO athletes found that ready access to digital materials came in handy as they attempted to balance a full course load with the demands of practice and travel for games.

“They always have it with them as much as they have their phones and computers with them,” said Lindsey Edwerekwu, UNO’s executive associate athletic director. “It’s one less thing to worry about. One less delay, perhaps, in getting started on their work in a meaningful way.”

Dani Brooke, UNO’s assistant athletic director for student-athlete development, said 120 of 340 student-athletes have their books paid for as part of a scholarship. That means lower-cost materials benefit both the student and the athletic department, depending on who is covering the cost. More than anything, she said, the student-athlete benefits if they are more successful.

Tori Sims, sociology major and 2022–2023 UNO student body president and regent

IT’S A HUGE ASSET FOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE.

“It’s a huge asset for academic performance,” Brooke said. “It sets them up for success.”

Not all academic disciplines utilize Open Nebraska in the same way. Lindburg said UNO’s sociology department is almost completely bought in, as is the math department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Richards said faculty support has been almost universal –something that is not always the case in an academic setting – although some graduate-level courses don’t lend themselves to digital or open-access materials as much. He also said the expansion of Open Nebraska can be dependent on availability of grants and other resources to assist faculty in developing highquality digital materials.

Richards, who has a background in rare books, said the popularity of Open Nebraska shows that the digital age may not have started in the university library, but it’s there to stay now.

“If you would have asked me a question about OER 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have known what you were talking about,” he said.

“A significant percentage of individuals are willing to do things like this. They are willing to see what they can collaborate on to change things that needs to be changed for the better.”

College graduates of a certain age may remember going to the bookstore prior to the start of semester to peruse all the books on

hand. Stacks and stacks of books. Lindburg said she used to be one of those students.

She said Open Nebraska doesn’t eliminate that experience as much as complement it. There’s nothing to stop a student from printing out digital materials or getting a textbook and coating the pages with a high-lighter.

“We get asked that question a lot,” she said. “What about the student that wants to hold the book? What about the student that wants to mark it up and feel it? This is not meant to replace that. It can be both. If a student wants that and can afford it, we can usually get a physical copy in their hands.”

For information on how you can support Open Nebraska, contact:

Sue Kutschkau Executive Director, UNO Development

sue.kutschkau@nufoundation.org or 402-502-4109

OPEN NEBRASKA IMPACT

MAXIMIZING STUDENT AFFORDABILITY

As of Fall 2022, UNO students have saved $3.9M compared to traditional textbooks.

ENHANCING STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Overall, students in OER sections have 4% (D, F or withdraw) rates and part-time students have 8% than non OER sections.

INCREASING STUDENT SUCCESS

LOWER DFW MORE A’s MORE A’s LOWER DFW

HOPE IN THE DARKNESS

by Robyn Murray

Holocaust survivor and artist, Samuel Bak, offers lessons on moving forward

The boy stands with his hands in the air, despair in his eyes. His body, scarred and pitted in stone, seems to emerge from a gravestone riddled with bullet holes. He holds a sling shot in his hand, a doomed defense against crushing force.

The painting, Icon of Loss, For the Many Davids, by Samuel Bak, captures and transforms an iconic image from the Holocaust of a young boy with his hands up, being marched to his death or another wartime horror. The original image, which became known as “Warsaw boy,” was captured by a Nazi photographer trying to document his efficiency as an executioner.

As Bak writes in his memoir, “Painted in Words,” the boy could have been him: “the same cap, same outgrown coat, same short pants.”

Bak, a Lithuanian-American artist, was born in 1933 in Vilna, Poland, a city whose population of 60,000 Jews was annihilated during the Holocaust. By some accounts, as few as 2,700 Jews survived. Among them were Bak and his mother, who spent much of World War II hidden in a convent, aided by a Catholic nun. Bak was six years old at the start of the war. He has clear memories of his early years, nurtured by parents and grandparents who he describes lovingly in his memoir. By age 11, Bak had lost his entire extended family, including his father, who was murdered days before Vilna’s liberation.

“The Holocaust was a laboratory of human behavior,” Bak said in a recent interview. “It taught us to see that in each one of us was the best and the worst. People were capable of things that they never imagined about themselves, for the better and worse. I mean, people were able to suffocate a child, so the child wouldn’t cry in the hiding [place]. And other people were able to put their life at risk to save other people.”

As a child, Bak was already a prolific painter. His first exhibit, at age nine, was organized by two poets he befriended while living in the Vilna Ghetto. Today, his work is featured in galleries around the world, and his vast collection — he reportedly can be working on 120 paintings simultaneously — is considered a seminal representation of the Holocaust and Jewish experience. The Warsaw boy is featured in dozens of Bak’s paintings, which are rich with symbolism and iconography. Clocks without hands, chess pieces, pears, stacks of books are all used frequently. Some are icons of Jewish lore, others are universal images that depict vulnerability, loss and order thrown into chaos.

Bak’s work is particularly valuable as a teaching tool. His use of symbolism provides the viewer with a means to absorb difficult subject matter. “They are windows into an alternate reality,” Bak said. “And in that reality, what they see are remains of a world that once existed, and remains that have tried to reconstruct, somehow. The broken is always remaining, and it is remaining to tell us about the circumstances that allowed it to happen.”

Mark Celinscak, executive director of the Sam & Frances Fried Holocaust & Genocide Academy at UNO, has long recognized the value of Bak’s work in education.

“The art of Samuel Bak helps teachers and students make important connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives,” Celinscak said. “It offers a

This is one of Bak’s first oil paintings, executed when he was thirteen. The vigorous work reveals a young artist fascinated with the history of modern art. Bold greens and yellows, dabs, smudges, and streaks, create a composition filled with light and texture. The existence of these early works is a testament to Bak’s mother’s faith in his art as she carried them from Europe to Israel in 1948, preserving them despite an uncertain future.

Bak has used the historic photograph of an unknown boy in the Warsaw Ghetto with his hands raised up in surrender in his paintings to commemorate the more than one million children murdered in the Holocaust. In this instance, the Warsaw Ghetto Boy takes the form of a gravestone for Bak’s Uncle David, who sought safety in anti-Fascist Russia only to perish there in the hands of the Soviet Gulag. The loose stones, traditionally placed atop Jewish tombstones by visitors, suggests a care for this space, while the ones hovering in the air remind us of the importance of continued commemoration. The slingshot in the boy’s hand alludes to the biblical story of the young shepherd David’s defeat of the giant Goliath – a wish that this boy had been able to defeat the Nazis with the stone in his pitted and scarred hand. Alexandra Cardon, Gallery Manager and Assistant Curator

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Poland) - Photo from Jürgen Stroop Report to Heinrich Himmler from May 1943. One of the most iconic pictures of World War II.

At left, Icon of Loss, For the Many Davids, 2008; Oil on canvas; 60 x 48”; Courtesy of the artist and Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center.

My First, 1947; Oil on linen; 23.75 x 27.25”; Courtesy of the artist and Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center.

Alexandra Cardon, Gallery Manager and Assistant Curator

framework and a vocabulary for analyzing the meaning and responsibility of citizenship and the tools to recognize bigotry and indifference in their own worlds.”

Celinscak had incorporated Bak’s work into his curricula for years when he began a quest to bring the artist and his work to Omaha. Celinscak reached out to colleagues in the School of the Arts and the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences and began a collaborative effort that resulted in a 70-piece exhibit of Bak’s work. Witness: The Art of Samuel Bak drew approximately 4,500 visitors, including more than 2,000 middle and high school students, over its three-month run in 2019. A teaching curriculum was developed in conjunction with the exhibit, and Bak attended classes as a guest speaker. UNO’s Goldstein Center for Human Rights also hosted a symposium to discuss art and human rights issues.

A prolific artist, Samuel Bak, 89, has painted thousands of works in his lifetime. His art provides a means to process his experiences as a child in the Holocaust but is also inspired by contemporary issues of social justice.

Moved by the response to his exhibit, Bak decided to gift a massive collection of his work — 512 pieces that span several decades — to UNO. And in February, the Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center opened with a curated exhibit of his work and a series of events that welcomed 600 students, faculty and community members.

The museum is currently housed in a temporary space in Aksarben Village, but the goal is to find a permanent home for Bak’s collection on campus. It’s an ambition that will require significant private investment and is being led by a veteran of development, public administration and museum leadership, Hillary Nather-Detisch, who was hired as executive director in July 2022.

“The vision is a space where we talk about social justice, human rights, the Holocaust and genocide,” Nather-Detisch said. “It’s a conversation starter.”

Nather-Detisch said the museum will bring people together to tackle hard questions about the nature of humanity, our

shared history and our present. She envisions it as a versatile tool for educators and hopes to partner with a cross section of institutions to bring students from local schools and universities to view Bak’s collection.

“Every student will come in with their own individual experience,” Nather-Detisch said. “An international student coming from Afghanistan, who has experienced wars and violence, is going to have a very different perspective than a student who came from North Platte. But hopefully they both come to the same realization about what Sam’s trying to portray.”

Nather-Detisch imagines a collaborative model similar to the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center, which fosters cooperation by housing numerous nonprofits that serve the greater community. She said the museum already has student workers from disciplines as varied as art, history, computer science and engineering.

Bak said he felt that collaboration and the commitment of UNO to both the arts and human rights when he first visited Omaha

The Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center aims to inspire conversation about social justice, human rights, genocide and the Holocaust through the work of Samuel Bak.

After the Oncome of Peace, 2013; Oil on canvas; 24 x 36”; Courtesy of the artist and Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center.

Bak’s still life paintings draw upon the long tradition of European nature morte. These focused on abundance, with objects, fruits, flowers and dead game piled upon one another, while offering discreet moral lessons. Bak blends this tradition with Giorgio di Chirico’s metaphysical paintings and presents us with a collection of ruined objects in a debris filled landscape. Their juxtaposition creates a sense of sorrow, disorientation, nostalgia. They are indexical traces of lives lived. They are meaningless without their owners. The empty chair draped in cloth and the abandoned shoes appear often in Bak’s paintings as symbols of eternal sleep, proxies for lost family in this portrait. The letters H-O-P-E are incorporated into the canvas as a reminder that there is hope for repair amidst the smoldering flames of destruction. Both physical and emotional rebuilding are feasible, but the consequences of war take time to process and cannot be entirely forgotten.

for the Witness exhibit. He recalls meeting former UNO Chancellor Jeffrey Gold, who gave him a tour of the Chihuly Sanctuary, a glass installation by artist Dale Chihuly that is the cornerstone of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Healing Arts Program.

“I suddenly realized how seriously art is being considered and believed in as something which is really part of our life,” Bak said, “so it can enrich us and can elevate us somehow spiritually.”

Bak’s art elevates and inspires despite the darkness of its subject matter. Several of his pieces feature letters from the word “hope” in various forms amid depictions of destruction.

“I as a young man lived among many survivors, and their stories and their sheer resilience have touched me very much,” Bak said. “So, my paintings are not only about the time of the horror, but also about the time of what has followed, about the rebuilding.”

Nather-Detisch said viewers must absorb both the darkness and light in Bak’s work to fully appreciate it.

“Sam’s work is an expression, yes, of his experience in the Holocaust, but it’s really about moving forward and how, for him, it’s a process,” said Nather-Detisch. “That’s how he’s processing everything that he experienced. It’s about hope … it’s about how do we move forward?”

That is one question Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center will encourage students and community members to wrestle with. Addressing it requires not only understanding our collective history but recognizing its present echoes. The ongoing war in Ukraine, as Bak says, “has something of Hitler’s virus in it.”

Alexandra Cardon, Gallery Manager and Assistant Curator

Hillary Nather-Detisch, Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center Executive Director

“My aspiration is to make people wonder and question all the assumptions that they have,” Bak said, “and try to understand the world in which we live.”

Bak has shared his work with numerous educational programs around the world and said he is determined to connect with young people, in whom he sees hope for a better future.

“I still believe that young people can make an enormous change,” Bak said. “There are millions of kids that have seen my paintings that know something about my story, that maybe are today more careful in their decisions about what kind of society they would like to live in.”

Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center is free to the public. All ages are welcome.

MUSEUM HOURS

Wednesday—10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Thursday—10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Friday—10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Saturday—10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Sunday—2:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.

Visit

At 89, Bak continues to paint prolifically, charged with a sense of urgency to tell his story. “I shall go on painting more and more,” he wrote in an essay for Facing History and Ourselves. “As long as I keep breathing.”

Bak once said he wishes he could paint “one million of these Warsaw boys, for the number of children who were murdered.” But the dozens he has painted live on, forever with their hands raised, for all those lost – broken but still present, haunting but hopeful in their resilience. As long as Bak’s paintings survive, so do they, each child given new life through the eyes of those who see them and remember their story.

Learning From the Past for the Future

Knowledge of the Holocaust is declining alarmingly. A 2020 survey of adults under 40 showed 63% of those surveyed did not know 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and one in 10 did not recall hearing ever hearing the word “Holocaust.” Last year, Nebraska joined two dozen states to require Holocaust education in public schools. Nather-Detisch believes the museum can offer tools for educators to begin the discussion.

Samuel Bak, left, and Bernie Pucker, whose Pucker Gallery has represented Bak since 1969, talk with students from Buena Vista High School about Bak’s art.

Creation of Wartime III, 1999-2008; Oil on canvas; 50 x 75”; Courtesy of the artist and Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center.

In Bak’s appropriation of Michelangelo’s iconic work, The Creation of Adam, God’s form emerges from negative space, powerful in its stark emptiness. Two chimney stacks, a propped piece of wood, and bolted metal scraps create abstractions of the Hebrew letters Vav and Gimel, stand-ins for the Vilna Ghetto. Adam has been transformed by the Holocaust from the archetypal male to a diminished prisoner in a soiled uniform reclining in a heap of rubble. He passively reaches his arm out to the hand of God, which itself is suspended from a rope attached by nail to a crumbling wall. God is absent from this broken world, yet Adam reaches out in hope for a miracle. Alexandra Cardon, Gallery Manager and Assistant Curator

ONE FUTURE: UNO AND OMAHA’S BUSINESS COMMUNITY

by Melodae Horst, MA, APR, SHRM-SCP

David Brown shares his vision for partnerships between UNO and the business community at the UNO Career Connect launch event.

David Brown, retired President and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber, was named UNO’s first Executive in Residence by Chancellor Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA, last June. Brown said UNO is in a unique position to serve Omaha by building an infrastructure to bolster collaboration with businesses, create opportunities for students and populate the talent pipeline now and in the future.

“A lot of it is about talent,” Brown said.

As the Executive in Residence, Brown helps explore the education and talents currently needed by Omaha employers. With the business community viewed as the customer, and where Brown’s experience and expertise are integral, is facilitating easy and effective collaboration and ensuring UNO is the “provider of choice.”

It’s also about forecasting the future.

“The hope is that we get ahead of the curve so that we don’t have a crisis by the time the business community needs another skill set or intern or type of employee,” Brown said.

This is realized through his role by anticipating and answering business partner questions. He said it must be easy for business leaders to access expertise, systems and processes needed to facilitate talent acquisition.

To start, Brown has introduced difference-makers in the community to UNO deans, addressing issues and roadblocks to ensure students receive internships and job placement.

KEEPING TALENT IN NEBRASKA

Brown said that although Omaha is a truly remarkable place, there are still people leaving in greater numbers than he would like to see. When Dr. Li talked to Brown about this job in the context of keeping students in the state and engaging businesses, he knew where he wanted to focus.

“We need to make sure UNO students get introduced to the business community as soon as they possibly can,” he said.

“We want them to realize the job of their dreams is right here in Nebraska.”

Brown said he capitalizes on his years working at the Chamber as he grapples with an issue that still exists today.

“The biggest gap we have demographically in Omaha is that 18 to 34 age group,” he said. “They are the most mobile and they leave in large numbers.”

Economists, human resource professionals and futurists point to the worldwide workforce shortage as a trend that is pushing organizations to think outside the box to solve problems.

If a student goes outside of Nebraska to attend college, he said, data shows they are less likely to return. This is why it is so important to have an attractive option for students to attend a university such as UNO that connects them to equally attractive jobs in Omaha.

Brown said when Omaha loses people to other schools or employment elsewhere between the ages of 23-34, they may not come back until they start having a family.

“Those are 12 very productive years after college that would be better served here with local businesses,” he said. Strategically, Brown emphasizes that now is the time to develop long-term relationships with local businesses.

BEST CASE SCENARIO

Ideally, Brown said, first-year students are introduced to businesses in their field and offered an internship. Students may even complete several internships to find a perfect fit. The goal is that they have

a local job offer by the time they graduate. Brown said UNO must confidently say to students, “yes, I can connect you to potential job opportunities.”

“So, that is literally tens of thousands of kids that we have an opportunity to impact, and if we do that,” he said, “then all of a sudden our out migration number shrinks.”

Brown said both businesses and the university have a responsibility to work closer together than they are, “and that is no small feat.”

NAVIGATING CHALLENGES

Brown points to some challenges for UNO students. Traditional “mothership” four-year institutions have students who live on campus and that is their world for four years. The picture of UNO students also includes those who are working 20 to 30 hours per week at a job that isn’t in their chosen career field. They may be taking care of another person at home. Therefore, internships continue to be a challenge to fit into an already full schedule.

WE WANT THEM TO REALIZE THE JOB OF THEIR DREAMS IS RIGHT HERE IN NEBRASKA.

The business community is also challenged to provide meaningful, paid opportunities to students. Managing an internship program takes dedicated staff time and expertise as well as appropriate funding. Large organizations may have staff to help recruit interns and elevate their experience, but small and midsize organizations often don’t have the capacity and resources to run a robust internship program.

“We need to help businesses figure out how they make internships work,” Brown said.

CONNECTION AND EXPANSION

Last year, UNO launched Career Connect bringing students and businesses together to create paid internship programs. To date, more than 60 employers have signed up and there are more than 1,200 open internships.

UNO’s role with the initiative is to show businesses how Career Connect can help them build a talent pipeline. This includes showing businesses how they can grow from offering one internship per year to several. Among the many benefits of using an internship program to power a full-time workforce pipeline is the significant savings over time. This could be one of the greatest services UNO can provide, Brown said.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE NOW

By the time he officially “retires” from his role at UNO he hopes to have made a difference. “Particularly in the talent space and helping build better communities,” he said.

He said UNO aims for students to have the best access to businesses and jobs of any institution in the state or region.

“Frankly, I think it was an important decision for Dr. Li to make to say, you know what, talent is our thing already, but we are going to make business relationships very, very important here and make it something we can build the university on,” Brown said.

Businesses are thrilled with the notion that there is an institution with a goal to provide them with their future needs, Brown said.

“I think UNO is poised to do something truly remarkable here, and with Dr. Li, with more energy that 10 people put together and a very well-described vision, now is the time to put that into practice,” he said. “That is going to change UNO forever.”

David Brown speaks to business and UNO leaders at the UNO Career Connect launch event.

LEARN AND EARN

With a changing world and workforce, the ability to offer practical learning environments and paid opportunities leads to better outcomes for students and their future employers.

by Brendan Reilly

In Nebraska, an impending tech worker labor shortage is compounded by the concept of “brain drain” where students, both from Nebraska and out of state, are leaving to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Despite Nebraska’s contributions to technology infrastructure and national companies relying on Nebraska’s IT labor, The Good Life in the Silicon Prairie must adopt a new approach to address this issue.

The Learn and Earn program at UNO’s College of Information Services and Technology (IS&T) seeks to dispel notions that great tech jobs only exist on the coasts and recognizes experiential learning is the future of higher education. The initiative sets out a four-year course of job shadowing, small projects and paid internships.

Launched in the 2022-2023 academic year, the burgeoning program has multiple objectives, according to Martha GarciaMurillo, Ph.D., the Lee D. and Willa Seemann Distinguished Dean of the College of IS&T.

“The first one is to make our students aware of the opportunities they have here in Omaha for jobs after graduation. The second is that they stay in the state and find a thriving career in the tech field. And finally, because many of our students work and study, the objective is that their work, through our partners, becomes their job,” said Garcia-Murillo.

Garcia-Murillo describes the program as a “scaffolding-type of initiative,” each year building on the previous, starting with job shadows.

In the first semester of the program, Learn and Earn students visit three job partners. Ash Abraham, IS&T student and peer ambassador, experienced both in-person and virtual job shadowing events at Fiserv, the Nebraska Library Commission and Aviture.

“Each and every professional actually comes and talks to the students about what the day-to-day life of an IT professional looks like, so it is really helpful.” Especially, she adds, “the company tours.”

When shadowing students become aware of the type of knowledge they’d need for potential IT positions, Garcia-Murillo says, they recognize the value of their courses. “Now they’re beginning to see the relevance of what they’re learning in the classroom to what they’ll be doing in future projects.”

“I personally got to know a lot about the IT field and about the different opportunities each student would be able to pursue,” said Abraham.

To keep the first stages of the program focused on learning about a wide range of possibilities, job partners are asked to expose students to the company’s entire IT team regardless of major, so students have a better understanding of the range of the tech sector.

Lynn Griffis of Aviture says her company hosted two job shadowing events in the fall of 2022, where “everyone from project managers, developers and the UX team, to the CEO and CTO” were invited to participate and interact with the students. Their full-day itineraries focused on introducing the company culture and demonstrating an actual workday for software development teams. Students also got a full office tour, a Q&A session and lunchtime one-on-ones with IT professionals.

Jessica Ray, a Senior Manager of Human Resources for Interpublic Group (IPG), says they first partnered with IS&T over a decade ago.

“We’ve had real success with hiring interns from the university, and many have converted to full-time positions. The job shadowing aspect means IPG can get connected with freshmen before considering them for an internship, and we present our company so they can get a better idea of what we have to offer.”

Year two of the program brings the opportunity for students to engage in

small projects relevant to their academic unit. They’ll spend between five and 35 hours a week addressing needs within their partnered company, like data cleaning, researching cyber security threats or small coding cleanups.

“One of the really cool things about that second year,” says Alexis Sherman, Assistant Dean for Student Success, “is that we’re not going to send in the students unprepared. While they’re doing their project, we’re going to bring them back to continue their learning in terms of skill development.”

These projects provide real-world work experience with actual impact. In addition, students are paid for their hours and efforts, strengthening the initiative’s goals of addressing student needs. IS&T students don’t need to seek employment irrelevant to their area of study. This immersion helps students envision a close future of careers in their chosen field while also earning income.

“By year three and four, ideally, we want them to be doing year-long internships with our job partners so they can replace whatever other unrelated job with whatever their job becomes in the IT field,” says Garcia-Murillo.

Sherman recognizes the industry shift signified by the Learn and Earn initiative internship aspects.

“Many times, students who have access to internships have it through family friends or networks they’re close to in their community, and so this really opens the door for a lot of our students who may not have those already established connections. Not every

THIS IMMERSION HELPS STUDENTS ENVISION A CLOSE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN THEIR CHOSEN FIELD WHILE ALSO EARNING INCOME.

First-year UNO IS&T students tour and learn about Interpublic Group.

student on this campus is going to have the same opportunity to engage in a paid internship. Building it into the fabric of what we do is important in broadening the participation of computing in general and creating a more diverse workforce.”

Garcia-Murillo envisions a program where all students are included, not just a lucky few.

“We want to create a college-wide learning community,” she says. “One of the main objectives for us is to break those structural barriers.”

Another exciting aspect on the horizon is the forthcoming FNBO CodeStudio. With support and input from FNBO, IS&T is refurbishing an old computer lab on Scott Campus to better provide students with resources reflecting the current state of the industry.

“We want to make sure our students have access to modern technology, modern facilities that really mirror our own workspaces here at the bank,” says Sammy Sufian, the Vice President of Technology with FNBO.

Brian Dorn, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs says computer science and engineering classes normally comprise students sitting at their own machines in front of a lecture. “But that’s not what development looks like,” he says. “It’s collaborative, it’s centered around teams of people solving problems together.”

Building a computer lab of the future means centering one of IS&T’s core values –creating community.

“We thought of it more like a studio environment that’s talking around, about and with code that feels more like what’s been happening in the industry development circle.”

Dorn says this approach generates a higher quality of code with fewer bugs and more on-time delivery. When the students go out

to their internships or join the workforce proper, they’ll know what to expect and be practiced in project collaboration.

Sufian, who also sits on the IS&T board, said he jumped at the chance to get involved.

“When I was introduced to the dean last year and we had a one-on-one, and she shared with me her goals around the initiative, I was ready to dive in and make sure I did everything in my power to make it as successful as possible.”

Sufian believes it’s important for employers of the IT and tech sectors to connect with students early and often throughout their time in higher ed to prepare them for life post-graduation.

“We can’t afford to view academia and corporate America as two sequential, mutually exclusive entities anymore.”

The shifting landscape of higher education and the tech industry means it’s no longer a straight line from getting a degree first and then entering the workforce. The FNBO CodeStudio will be a hub where students have regular access to IT professionals throughout their education. The CodeStudio as a blend of undergrad, post-grad and professional collaboration will be integral to IS&T students’ career readiness.

“The pandemic has accelerated changes in higher ed in ways no one could have predicted three years ago,” says Dorn.

“Really what it comes down to is meeting the needs of a diverse group of students, and making sure our programs are designed to be relevant to the industry we serve.

That’s a key component.”

Sherman says a big part of bringing new life to the building is helping students be more innovative, “to tap into their creative outlets, so that we can be a big player in the future of tech, so our students can get top-tier jobs.”

Renovations are set to occur throughout the spring and summer, with the FNBO CodeStudio opening in the fall of 2023.

FNBO’s gift supported not only the naming opportunity for CodeStudio, but also a new scholarship endowment that will be awarded the same year.

“We’re very pleased with their generosity and willingness to make this happen for our students,” says Dorn.

Learn and Earn has received “awesome support” from the UNO community and alumni. The program is also associated with a scholarship program called OASIS— Opportunity and Access Scholarship for IT Students. This tuition support helps students graduate debt free with industry-vetted tech skills, so they might contribute back to the program, funding future students.

“We want to build a culture of a ‘pay it forward’ model,” says Dorn.

“It is of great importance to us all here in the college that the students get out of here without debt,” said Garcia-Murillo. “The future for us is affordable, experiential, it’s zero or very little loans and a great job after [students] graduate.”

With all the new approaches in IT higher education forged by IS&T’s Learn and Earn initiative, many involved see UNO setting an example for other institutions.

“I think it’s going to help us become a model for these kinds of programs around the country,” says Dorn.

Sufian agrees. “I hope there’s a push to make this an industry standard. If not an industry standard, a Nebraska standard.”

“I wasn’t into the IT field until I got admission into UNO, so I didn’t have an idea of what the IT field looked like, and the Learn and Earn program gave me an idea of, ‘oh, this is how the IT field looks! This is how innovative it is!’” says Abraham of her experience with the initiative thus far.

As to the question of whether Learn and Earn would affect her possible future plans of staying in Nebraska?

“This program definitely helps.”

You can make a direct and positive impact on IS&T students by contributing to an OASIS scholarship.

Alexis Sherman, Assistant Dean for Student Success

CLASS NOTES

64

DR. EVETTE M. HACKMAN (PhD)

“I read an article about Ms. Claussen welcoming Title IX into UNO in the early 1970s. It reminded me of when I graduated from UNO in 1964 with honors and the highest grades for the college of Arts and Sciences. Despite my grades, when I talked to my chemistry professor about majoring in chemistry (which I loved), he told me that girls are not chemists. Even so, I went on to earn a Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of Washington. I am so happy that women do not have to be held back anymore.”

ehackman@spu.edu

65 CHARLES E. REAL (BA, 1965; MA, 1996)

“My essay, titled ‘Went Away... the Reals of Pallas... the Reals of Oola,’ was published in the 2022 Journal of the Lough Gur Historical Society (Limerick, Ireland). The essay centers on two related families leaving Ireland in 1850 for Australia and the United States. One family left because they lost their farm due to An Gorta Mor (the Great Hunger) while the other left because of an arrest warrant issued against the husband and father.”

creal@cox.net

70 CURLEE ALEXANDER (BS, 1970; MS, 1976)

Curlee Alexander – who won an NAIA wrestling championship at UNO in 1969 – is a 2023 inductee to the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame. He went on to coach Omaha Tech to one state title and Omaha North to six state titles. More than 50 wrestlers have won individual state golds during his career. The inductions will be part of the Omaha Sports Commission Awards on May 25 at The Relevant Center in Elkhorn.

73

RANDY A. GROSSE (BA, 1973; MA, 1989)

“My 44-year career in newspapers and corporate communication ended with 16 years at the Catholic Voice newspaper in Omaha. This summer, I published a collection of my columns written at the Catholic Voice, as well as a selection of freelance columns written for Nebraska newspapers. Titled “600 WORDS... more or less,” the columns featured in the book cover a range of topics, including faith, family,

politics and everyday life. Published primarily as something for my family, the book also is available at two Catholic bookstores in Omaha and one other local bookstore.”

77

DR. TIMOTHY RASINSKI (BS)

In a 2021 Stanford study, Dr. Timothy Rasinski was identified as being among the top 2% of scientists in the world. Rasinski was also awarded the William S. Gray Citation of Merit, the highest honor awarded by the largest literacy education association in the world, by the International Literacy Association in 2020. Rasinski posts weekly free lessons and resources centered around teaching reading on Twitter @timrasinski1. trasinsk@kent.edu

79 ANN ELIZABETH POTTER (MS)

Ann Elizabeth Potter Ph.D., co-authored a book for mental health professionals with Debra Wesselmann entitled “EMDR and Attachment-Focused Trauma Therapy for Adults: Reclaiming Authentic Self and Healthy Attachments.” The book was published by Springer Publications in September 2022.

80 VICKI BEYER (BA)

Vickie Beyer retired from her tenured position as a Professor of Law in the Business Law Department of the Hitotsubashi University School of Law in Tokyo, Japan. After spending more than half her life in Japan, she is retiring to Queensland, Australia, where she plans to write and garden while continuing to lecture in law when the opportunity arises. Her future plans include annual trips back to Nebraska to see friends and family there. Check out her blog at www.jigsaw-japan.com.

81

BARBARA HORNE (MS)

The University of Nebraska’s Multicultural and Diversity Department honored Mrs. Barbara J.

Freeman as their guest host for the month of February 2023. Freeman read her own children’s books to the preschoolers enrolled at the University of Nebraska Child Care Center. Freeman’s newest book “Black History” received finalist status in the Independent Author Network 2022 Book of the Year Awards in the categories of Juvenile and Non-Fiction History. barbarafreeman7@yahoo.com

SARA WOODS (BA, 1981; MPA, 1997)

Chancellor Joanne Li, Ph.D., announced UNO Alumna, Sara Woods, MPA, will serve as the university’s first Chief Engagement Officer. In this role, Woods will oversee the operation of the new UNO Office of Engagement, which will facilitate and strengthen UNO’s community engagement activities and be a point of contact for community members to seek and access UNO’s broad array of resources.

“I am truly excited to work closely with members of our campus leadership to strengthen and build our partnership with our multiple communities and constituencies,” said Woods.

84

BETH FRANZ (MA)

“As a UNO alum, I am proud to announce my novel “Ndalla’s World” is forthcoming from Atmosphere Press. The novel has already garnered several reviews: one by one by Readers’ Favorite and another by Feathered Quill. On top of writing, I am also a sculptor. Feel free to visit my website www. writerandsculptor.com to get a better sense of the kind of work I do.”

87 JOHN ARCH (MBA)

UNO alum Senator John Arch of District 14, was recently re-elected as Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature. Arch has served with the Legislature since 2019.

88 MARK A. ROHRS (BS)

“I retired in December 2021 after a fulfilling 29-year career with INS/USCIS. I now live with my family in Lincoln, NE. My first work of satire, “Crenellated Battlements: The Ascent of Man” is now available on Amazon.”

92 SCOTT L. FLORY (BS)

The Rotary Club of Clear Lake, Iowa, selected Scott L. Flory as its “Citizen of the Year”. Flory has been City Administrator in Clear Lake for nearly 22 years and has been active in service organizations throughout his professional career in city government.

“I was very honored and humbled by this recognition and pleased to share this moment with my elected officials and City staff who have helped make this a possibility,” said Flory. slawrenceflory@cltel.net

93 CARLA GIBSON (BS)

Carla Gibson was recognized as a Newest Women in Industry Inductee by the full-service marketing and PR firm The Communications Group. As the vice president of programs at REACH Healthcare Foundation and a leader within the community program Leading Black Voices, this induction honors the impact Gibson makes in the Kansas City area.

96 DÉIRDRE CARNEY (MA)

Déirdre Carney is completing her three-year term as Membership Convener on the Board of Women Graduates-USA. Women Graduates-USA is the US affiliate of Graduate Women International, an online organization that advocates for safe, lifelong education for women and girls, among other priority issues.

01 KRISTIE ONDRACEK (MA)

The Houston Business Journal named Kristie Ondracek among the “Women to Watch” for the 2022 Women Who Mean Business Awards, recognizing women in leadership roles who have achieved career milestones, contributed to company and city success, community involvement and leadership. Honorees were recognized at an awards luncheon on Oct. 20, 2022 and in HBJ’s Oct. 21, 2022 issue.

1ST PLACE 18 STRAIGHT YEARS

"We Would Rather Be The Best Than Apologize For Anything Less."

SHANE GLOVER (BS)

Shane Glover is now featured on Bell Media’s T.V. show Mud Mountain Haulers! This docu-series dives into the steep slope logging industry in British Columbia. Tune in to see Glover and his fellow loggers take on treacherous terrain, temperamental weather and complex machinery on their way to the mill.

JENNIFER M. JEROME (MS)

In June of 2022, Jennifer Jerome was inducted into the National Speech and Debate Association Hall of Fame. She is currently teaching public speaking and coaching speech at Millard West (23 years) and has been in education since she graduated from UNL in 1989. She is one of only two Nebraska coaches to be inducted into this illustrious group (there have only been 226 inductees since 1925). 04

MELISSA WARD (BA)

Melissa Ward was recently promoted to Director of Marketing of Speedway Motors. As director, she will oversee all marketing efforts for Speedway Motors from research and planning to execution and analysis.

Chris Chance, Vice President of Speedway Motors says, “Melissa has a keen marketing instinct and a passion for our customers. We’ve already benefited from her strategic development of the Speedway Motors brand and know she will remain a fierce advocate for our customers’ experience while bringing them exciting new programs in 2023.”

KARI

BYERS (BA)

eDiscovery leader CloudNine recently promoted Kari Byers to VP of Customer Success. In her new position, Byers will expand the customer success team to deliver exceptional client experience.

“Kari has a keen sense of how to operationalize customer service and the feedback process. Through her leadership and acumen, we gain valuable insights by asking our customers the right questions,” says Georges Sabongui, CEO of CloudNine.

JEFF COHN (BA)

Jeff Cohn, founder of the real estate group kwELITE, is celebrating three years of rapid growth and ongoing success at its company headquarters. Cohn, kwELITE, the West O Chamber of Commerce and the community honored the new headquarters with a ribboncutting ceremony and celebration. The headquarters, located right 180th and Dodge,

is a hybrid office that houses multiple ancillary businesses, six conference rooms, a production studio and a 75-person training room.

JAIME WEATHERHOLT (BS, 2009)

ANGELENA STEVENS (MSW, 2011)

A pair of UNO grads from the School of Social Work. Angelena (Killmer) Stevens and Jaime (Dechant) Weatherholt started

ZACH MILLER (BS)

“kwELITE is constantly striving to better serve our clients and the community. Nebraska is just the beginning, with eight offices in just three years we are working towards launching 100+ offices across the country by 2025 and our Omaharooted kwELITE headquarters is at the heart of it all,” says Cohn. 08

While at UNO, Zach Miller had a very successful football career, finishing with 4,096 passing yards, 26 passing touchdowns, 3,122 career rushing yards and a schoolrecord of 50 touchdowns. He went on to play in the NFL from 2009-2018 until retiring in 2019.

Today, Miller is a country music artist climbing his way to the top. He began performing at small venues in Nebraska and has since opened for artists including Brantley Gilbert, Chase Rice and Randy Houser. Miller has been named this year’s keynote speaker at the 56th Annual Boys Town Booster Banquet on May 2, 2023. Each spring this banquet is held to recognize Boys Town’s student-athletes, raise funds and inspire the next generation.

“The Shrink Show,” a conversation podcast intended to demystify therapy and mental health. Angelena and Jaime are both social workers/mental health therapists, and mothers who use their sense of humor and field insights to examine the pressures of modern life professionally, as parents and as citizens of the world with a light, conversational touch. More information can be found at theshrinkshowpodcast. com. The podcast is available on YouTube and everywhere you find podcasts.

DR. NICHOLAS ARREOLA (MA)

Dr. Nicholas Arreola is a cofounder of Hazlo Health. The company focuses on delivering accessible and affordable healthcare for those living with chronic health conditions throughout Latin America. Hazlo Health improves the treatment of chronic disease while also helping hospitals and clinics qualify for financial incentives through government and insurance programs that reward successful care. Since launching in April 2022, Hazlo has 50+ users on its waitlist and has been awarded $99k in prototype and research grants.

09

LISA MOODY (BS)

Lisa Moody, special education teacher at Omaha’s Jefferson Elementary, was recently awarded a national Milken Educator award. She accepted the honor in front of a schoolwide assembly of cheering students, colleagues, local and state dignitaries and the media. This award, which has been hailed as the “Oscars of Teaching,” is given to a select group of K-12 educators across the nation for displaying excellence in education. On top of inspiring and making a profound difference for students colleagues and communities, it also comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize. Nebraska Deputy Commissioner of Education Dr. Deborah Frison said: “Lisa exemplifies what it means to provide opportunities for all children in Nebraska. Her work in special education has changed lives, both of her students and all of the students in her school. She has done an outstanding job making sure every student receives the resources and sense of community they need to be successful and receive an excellent education.”

TONI MONETTE (BS)

Toni Monette recently began her new role as UNO Coordinator for Volunteering and Civic Engagement Programs. Monette plans work with the university and students to coordinate civic engagement and volunteer service opportunities. This means amplifying programming like Signature Service Days, 60 minutes of service and other popular events.

“We’re thrilled to have Toni Monette join the Office of Engagement,” said Sara Woods, chief engagement officer for the UNO Office of Engagement. “She brings great experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm to this new role. As a metropolitan university, UNO is obligated to connect our students to meaningful community service and civic engagement experiences that inspire them to participate actively in their communities. Toni is the ideal individual to lead these efforts.”

13

BRIAN GRALHEER (BS)

York Public Schools recently announced Brian Galheer the 2023-24 school principal for the York Dukes. This comes after Gralheer’s 10 years of education and school administration experience across schools in Nebraska. He is excited to serve the community of York with his experience and passion for improving education.

18

KRISTINE LANGLEY MAHLER (MA)

Kristine Langley Mahler released her debut essay collection “Curing Season: Artifacts” in October of last year. At its core, Mahler’s collection is a personal story of trying to belong during childhood combined with the history of Eastern North Carolina and the longing for elsewhere. The ALA Booklist reviewed Kristine’s collection, saying “Through careful excavation, Mahler writes short vignettes that depict the retracing of her own roots as well as the grief of losing a dear friend. She writes in alternating styles, moving between traditional essays, prose poems, and lists and also uses scanned photos. The outcome of her creatively compiled work is pure nostalgia. Mahler manages to create a time machine harking back to the simplicity and complexity of adolescence in 1990s America.”

21

LARYSSA LEONE (BS)

Laryssa Leone is moving into a new role as Weekend Anchor for Iowa’s Local 5 news station. For over a year, Laryssa has brought Iowan’s important news, including an Iowan family making history with the state’s first successful tribal customary adoption as well as a Latina-run construction company aimed at bringing more women into the industry. “Being raised in Iowa I’ve grown to love and appreciate not only the beauty of the state but the beauty of the people,” says Laryssa “Telling the stories of Iowans, to me, is about showing how hardworking, kind and diverse the people of our state are.”

22 MICHAEL SMITH (MBA)

The University Nebraska Board of Regents presented Michael Smith with a KUDOS award for his incredible work with UNO’s athletic department as the general manager of Baxter Arena. This award celebrates Michael’s dedication to going above and beyond, his customer service and his constant efforts in creating a culture of inclusiveness and accessibility in Baxter Arena.

IN MEMORIAM

Deceased alumni reported to the UNO Alumni Association or University of Nebraska Foundation between August 6, 2022 and February 17, 2023. We extend our condolences to the family and friends of these graduates.

1943 Kenneth M. Browne

1949 William R. Alford

Arlene J. Fredricks

1950 Robert Schuldt

Paul C. Andreas

1951 John T. Buchanan

1952 Roger K. Bridenbaugh

1953 Thomas D. Doyle

William D. Osick

1954 Fannie A. Rosse

Georgia McSorley

Hugh W. Williams

1955 Cleo M. Snyder

1956 Fred E. Anderson

Dorothy M. Dunovan

1957 John B. Morse

J. William Gallup

Paul A. Geihs

Richard J. Kutilek

M. David Richman

Darrell E. Mudra

Robert F. Raikes

1959 William J. Poehling

1960 Charles Douthit

Sarah N. Seldin

1961 Thomas R. Walsh

Jane R. Whiles

Thomas F. Kawa

Harold D. Roberts

1962 Joan C. Stoner

Judith C. Pittack

1963 Ann M. Mactier

John P. Brennan

Melvin I. Diamond

Edward R. Skarnulis

William Giese

Stanley G. Macaitis

1964 Linda P. Krause

Kenneth W. Allen

Suzanne Condon

Arnold N. Weintraub

Arthur L. Young

1965 Naomi A. Gerdes

Mark R. Jefferson

David G. Ihrig

Robert H. Kruse

1966 Lloyd W. Cardwell

Louis F. Zylka

Karen J. Spellman

1967 Joan C. Edwards

Marvin D. Andersen

Thaddeus Sexton

Theodore M. Szemplenski

Rosemarie A. Prystai

Karen K. Shields

1968 John H. Grandfield

Stephan M. Hutfless

James A. Kiernan

James C. Palmer

Judeen W. Schlueter

Virginia L. Wilson

James F. Budde

Bernice A. Eddy

1969 James M. English

Jerry N. Hicks

Barbara E. Karstens

Roger W. Kuhl

Charles Moore

William S. Nelson

Billy M. Nolen

John W. McLaughlin

Willie L. Harper

1970 Ronald D. Moravec

Donald F. Cheloha

William H. Creed

John E. Lovely

Gary H. Rittenhouse

Alvin K. Swisher

Lewis W. Young

Howard S. Graber

Neva J. Graber

Allan E. Stein

1971 Elinor A. Caves

Dennis R. Giles

Gilbert A. Agronis

Arthur W. Rohe

Marlene S. Bernstein

Gerald W. Fansler

Dorothy L. Mielke

Thomas J. Militti

James C. Ressegieu

1972 Valerie H. Shubik

Janice E. Hinds

Arlayne M. Bonness

Louis Barr

Dale Cerny

James H. McNeil

H.Kenneth Seymour

Ned A. Cramer

Thomas D. Kristensen

Charles C. Moore

1973 Thomas G. Diesing

Robert R. Chedester

Marsha J. Crain

Edmund T. Kane

Sheilah W. Kenedy

John S. Newberry

Dennis R. Partenheimer

1974 Frank X. Hopkins

Jewel Gay

Larry L. Gold

1975 Robert D. Hinman

Brian R. Zdan

Ethel Shobe

John L. Charvat

Barrie L. Hammond

Donald J. Peterson

1976 Ronald Goodrich

Robert J. Shepherd

Kenneth J. Cahill

1977 Carmine L. Abate

Raymond C. Bottner

Michael L. Render

1978 Patrick J. Wingate

Margaret D. Shearer

Gunther Bengston

Orville J. Grady

1979 John J. Bognich

Denise I. Hotopp

Eric L. Trump

Rhonda J. Baldwin

Pamela E. Galligan

1980 James L. Schaefer

Ann M. Chaney

Rebecca C. Holbrook

Dale B. Humason

David W. McCollum

Debra A. Kalcic

Bernice G. Smith

1981 Carolyn K. Stitt

Thomas G. Dineen

1982 Julius G. Carmona

1983 Margaret A. Jauken

Mark Randall

Gary L. Schnebel

1984 Pamela Gallagher

Patricia M. Render

Beverly M. Sibbernsen

1985 Robert M. Manning

Steven L. Nath

Debra L. Domayer

1986 Peggy L. Pawloski

1987 Marvin C. Seitz

1988 MaryLou Alfieri

Timothy J. Klein

Diana L. Kraynak

Cecelia Rynazewski

Carole J. Daasch

1989 Jeri L. Goodman

Rita J. Hermsen

Brian T. Littler

Louis R. Marcuzzo

Carol A. Rouse

1990 Dean A. Carlsen

Wesley E. Wilson

1992 Joanne S. Crnkovich

James L. Bisignano

Alan F. Moore

Rebecca L. Hubbard

1993 Frank R. DeBuse

Michael M. Homan

Valda M. Santos

Jacqueline M. Schulte

1994 Jennifer L. Baker

Arlin Bleich

1996 Shara M. Goff

Marlene K. McCann

Kenneth S. Stankus

1999 Ryan D. Fisher

2000 Laura M. Kipple

Meridith A. Merwald-Gofta

2002 Michele M. Missel

2004 Michelle D. Edmundson

2007 Anders S. Christensen

2008 Dustin L. Geier

2012 Eric G. Weber

Brandy N. Bergmann

2013 Anthony C. Erwin

51

WELCOME TO THE MAVERICK FAMILY

your future alum an O BABY! shirt when you

Get

Lucas Maximilian, son of VANESSA MACIAS (BS, 2009; MS, 2017)

Sophie Helen Al Mulki, daughter of OMAR AL MULKI (2021) and MOLLY AL MULKI (2017) of Omaha

Lewis Alexander Armenta, son of LIZETH ARMENTA (2020) and Tanner Bailey of Omaha

Ziyad Kai Alrebh, son of MOHAMMED ALREBH (2011) and Savannah Whitcomb of Omaha

Neil Duane Allen Barnes, son of JUSTIN BARNES (2014) and Dagmar Barnes of Atwater, CA

Dakotah Jo Carter, son of CHEYENNE CARTER (2022) and Brayden Carter of Omaha

Kennedy Jean Bernice DeGagne, daughter of LYNDSEY DEGAGNE (2014) and BEN DEGAGNE (2013) of Omaha

Henry Bennett Dement , son of ELIZABETH DEMENT (2021) and BENNET DEMENT (2022) of Omaha

Quinn Kathryn Grubel, daughter of ELIZABETH GRUBEL (2015) and Nicholas Grubel and granddaughter of KAREN KUCIREK (1986) of Gretna, NE

Leo William Hartwig, son of BLAIR HARTWIG (2012) and Evan Hartwig of Omaha

Eleanor James Hassing, daughter of DANIEL HASSING (2006) and Rebecca Hassing of Omaha and granddaughter of BOBBI RODENBURG HASSING (1978)

Jade Galielea Hernandez Hernandez , daughter of SILVIA HERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ (2016) and Julio Hernandez Avalos of Omaha

Franklin Fischer, son of HAYLEY JANNENGA (2022) and Nathaniel Fischer of Omaha

Cora Rose Manzari, daughter of STEPHANI JARECKE (2015) and Joe Manzari of Omaha

Brian Chritopher Krupa, son of STEPHEN KRUPA (2014, 2016) and BRIDGET TUTTLE KRUPA (2016) of Omaha

William Glenn Langer, son of LUKE LANGER (2007) and Ashley Langer and grandson of Dan Langer of Omaha

Landon Andrew Moos, son of TYLER MOOS (2011) and KATHERINE MOOS (2012) of Winston Salem, NC

Zoey Joy Mueller, daughter of CAROL MUELLER (2017) and JOSHUA MUELLER (2016) of Omaha

Colby Mark Neelans, son of DAN NEELANS (2013) and Ashley Neelans of Omaha

Theodore James Paasch, son of KELLIE PAASCH (2013) and Jacob Paasch of Papillion, NE

Ragan Sue Plath, daughter of CHRISTINA PLATH (2013) and BLAKE PLATH (2012) of Elkhorn, NE

Lauren Elaine Wenzl, daughter of BAILEY ROSECRANS (2016) and MICHAEL WENZL (2020) of Lincoln, NE

Ethan Ryan, son of MEGAN RYAN (2018) and Corey Ryan of Omaha

Jett Jalen Smith, son of LISA DUHACEK SMITH (2012) and ISAAC SMITH (2009) of La Vista, and granddaughter of JOAN E WEST DUHACEK (1991) of La Vista, NE

Charlie Joyce Thompson, daughter of KELSEY THOMSON (2015) and CODY THOMPSON (2012) of Omaha

Quinn Olivia Tooley, daughter of KYLA TOOLEY (2018) and JERRY TOOLEY JR. (2015) of Oklahoma City, OK

Rader Grace Walker, daughter of MOLLY WALKER (2017) and Ben Walker of Fort Collins, CO

Judson Conrad White, son of KARI STEPHENS WHITE (2014) and KORI WHITE (2015, 2019) of Omaha and grandson of SHARI KESTING STEPHENS (1981) and the late EDWARD STEPHENS, JR. (1971) of Omaha

O BABY!

A LOOK AT HAPPENINGS ON AND OFF CAMPUS

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY THROUGH SERVICE

Creating collages with The Hope Center for Kids and WhyArts and stocking shelves at Open Door Mission were just two of the many volunteer activities throughout Omaha for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, one of UNO’s Annual Signature Service Days. Under the theme “Beloved Community”, UNO’s Office of Engagement partnered with several community organizations to further Dr. King’s philosophy “that a beloved community is one where economic and social justice is inclusive and provides everyone the ability to live a high quality of life.”

LOUD AND PROUD

The Maverick Maniacs are back! The official school spirit and student section leaders create a game day environment that engages everyone in the UNO community. Typically donning their signature black and red striped bibs, they use cheers and traditions to energize Maverick athletics teams and fans. Will they reclaim their 2017 National Collegiate Student Section Association “Loud and Proud Best Student Section of the Year” title?

JENKINS LEGACY

Daniel Jenkins III visits his grandfather’s chair in the UNO Criss Library archives. Jenkins’ grandfather was Rev. Daniel E. Jenkins, the founding president of Omaha University.

THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT AND THE CAT

The Doan Maria Nu Vuong Lion Dance Team performed at the Lunar New Year event hosted by UNO’s Asian Student Union (ASU) the Agency of International Student Services. Lion dance is a traditional dance performed in a lion costume; an event iconic of Lunar New Year celebrations around the globe to bring good luck.

2023 marks the Chinese year of the water rabbit, a symbol of intellect and

cautiousness. According to Chinese lore, the rabbit was among the 12 animals who raced to the Jade Emperor in a cosmic contest that ultimately determined the order of the Chinese zodiac signs. Though it was a weak swimmer, the rabbit used its brain, opting to cross the river portion of the course on a raft. Vietnamese culture celebrates the year of the cat instead of the rabbit. One explanation among scholars is the branch corresponding to “rabbit” is pronounced “Mao” in Mandarin, which sounds similar to “Meo,” the Vietnamese word for cat. In the Vietnamese and Gurung (ethnic group in Nepal) zodiacs, the cat is the fourth animal. In the Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese and Singaporean calendars (among other countries), the fourth animal is the rabbit. Vietnam is the only country that follows the Chinese Lunar Calendar that does not have the rabbit as the fourth animal.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL IN EVERY SINGLE WAY

During Be You, Do You, For You Week, students wrote positive messages at the UNO’s School of Health and Kinesiology Campus Recreation Center.

EQUESTRIAN ANALYTICS

The UNO Biomechanics Department and the Children’s Hospital Orthopedics Department visited Lisa Roskens’ Far Hills Farm to gather data from the rider and the horses. Their research will help athletes improve their performance by better understanding how the rider can improve and help understand how the rider effects the horse and its movement. Their preliminary data will be shown at the 2023 FEI World Cup in Omaha.

RED, WHITE, BLUE AND BLACK

Omaha Athletics’ Military Appreciation Night brought 7,942 military personnel, families and Mav Hockey fans together for the largest UNO Mavericks Hockey sellout crowd in Baxter Arena history. WoodmenLife provided American flags for fans to wave and Mavericks who served in the military were recognized at halftime. The Omaha Hockey team wore specialty camouflage jerseys purchased by WoodmenLife that were auctioned off online to support UNO’s MilitaryConnected Resource Center.

Test your brainpower with these puzzles created by UNO graduate Terry Stickels (’76) in his “BIG Brain Puzzle Book.” For more information on Stickels, or to order any of his books, visit terrystickels.com.

KNOWLEDGE

Try your skill at these following units of time:

1. A Microsecond is what fraction of a second?

2. A Lustrum is how many years?

3. A sesquicentennial is how many years?

4. Ephemeral is how long (by definition)?

5. Can you put these in order from the longest time period to shortest? epoch, era, period, eon

MATHEMATICS

If ½ of 9 were 6, what would 1/6 of 12 be?

THANK YOU, DON GIBSON

Don Gibson, an Omaha University graduate from the class of 1950, has officially retired. His career spanned a stint in the Army, several years as an art teacher and the ownership of a wallpaper and painting business in the Denver area. His love, though, has always been comics and cartoons. He began drawing in the eighth grade and had material published in Army newspapers and a paint dealer’s magazine.

Over eight years, he shared 80 Campus Life cartoons with the UNO Alumni Association. Thank you, Don Gibson!

SHOP AND SUPPORT

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Your purchase supports student scholarships, helps recruit and retain world-class faculty, enhances alumni programming and events and more!

UNO MAGAZINE is the flagship publication of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is published three times a year. It is mailed to all UNO graduates and to community leaders in and out of Nebraska. Please share your copy with anyone who might benefit from the work of our great university.

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