Nebraska Quarterly Summer 2024

There will be many Americans in Paris this summer as the City of Light hosts the Olympic Games. Be sure to keep an eye out for the current and former Cornhusker athletes who will be competing in a variety of sports, representing the United States as well as their home countries. But they will claim as their own, the University of

EVER SO LOYAL.

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Steadfastness. Determination. Perseverance. Moxie. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a trait many college students draw on as they aim to claim their diploma. Around 3,500 did just that in May. It is a skill we alumni can draw on our entire lives. To wit, meet Kimberly Arms Shirk (’94) who was electrocuted in a news van shortly after graduation. She has found a way to survive and now shares her story with others. P32 Sherry Ott (’92) has set out to complete her father’s quest to walk/bike between all of the U.S. capitol buildings. P36 Our current and former student-athletes are training to compete in the Summer Olympics in Paris. P42 And lastly, there’s Herbie Husker who has hung on for 50 years as our beloved mascot. P27

SOLAR SPECTACLE

Things are looking up

Hundreds of Huskers gathered north of the Nebraska Union to witness the April 8 solar eclipse. Special glasses for viewing the eclipse, as well as telescopes for taking a closer look, were available.

HOW MUCH OF THE SUN WAS COVERED IN LINCOLN?

About 80% sun blockage occurred at 1:53 p.m.

ANYTHING ELSE HAPPEN? A Sun Salutation Yoga session took place on the Meier Commons.

THE STARTING LINEUP FOR YOUR UNIVERSITY PRESS

SCHOOLBOY

The Untold Journey of a Yankees Hero

Waite Hoyt with Tim Manners

Foreword by Bob Costas

$34.95 Hardcover

PERFECT ELOQUENCE

An Appreciation of Vin Scully

Edited by Tom Hoffarth

Foreword by Ron Rapoport

$34.95 Hardcover

BIG CAT

The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize

Jerry Grillo

$34.95 Hardcover

UNDER JACKIE’S SHADOW

Voices of Black Minor Leaguers

Baseball Left Behind

Mitchell Nathanson

Illustrated by Jackie Nathanson

$32.95 Hardcover

MIKE DONLIN

A Rough and Rowdy Life from New York Baseball Idol to Stage and Screen

Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz

$39.95 Hardcover

LEAVE WHILE THE PARTY’S GOOD

The Life and Legacy of Baseball

Executive Harry Dalton

Lee C. Kluck

$39.95 Hardcover

LION OF THE LEAGUE

Bob Emslie and the Evolution of the Baseball Umpire

Larry R. Gerlach

$39.95 Hardcover

THE FENWAY EFFECT

A Cultural History of the Boston Red Sox

David Krell

$34.95 Hardcover

THE WIZARD OF COLLEGE BASEBALL

How Ron Fraser Elevated Miami and an Entire Sport to National Prominence

David Brauer

$29.95 Hardcover

NEBRASKA

QUARTERLY

SUMMER 2024

VOLUME 120 NO. 2

Shelley Moses Zaborowski, ’96, ’00 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Kirstin Swanson Wilder, ’89 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SENIOR DIRECTOR, PUBLICATIONS

Quentin Lueninghoener, ’06

Ben VanKat, ’06 MAGAZINE DESIGN HANSCOM PARK STUDIO

Grace Fitzgibbon, ’21 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Jacey (Olmer) Korus, ’19 COVER ILLUSTRATION

NEBRASKA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION STAFF

Kim Brownell

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Hilary Winter Butler, ’11, ’18

SENIOR DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Conrad Casillas DIRECTOR OF VENUES

Marian Coleman

OFFICE ASSISTANT

Megan Copsey, ’20

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, VENUES & EVENTS

Raylie Dinterman, ’20

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, VENUES

Zac Franzen

ALUMNI RELATIONS & EVENTS COORDINATOR

Jordan Gonzales, ’17

SENIOR DIRECTOR, ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT & SENIOR DIVERSITY OFFICER

Bailee Gunnerson, ’22

ASSOCIATE DESIGN DIRECTOR, MULTIMEDIA

Nathan Hé, ’18

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT

Maria Manning Muhlbach, ’09

SENIOR DIRECTOR, ALUMNI OUTREACH

Hanna Hoffman Peterson, ’16

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT

Tyler Kruger DIRECTOR OF VENUES

Abbi Leu, ’23

COORDINATOR, ALUMNI RELATIONS & PROGRAMS

Grace Mosier Puccio, ’19

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ALUMNI & STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Heather Rempe, ’03 DIRECTOR, DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

Ethan Rowley, ’03, ’13 DIRECTOR, MEMBERSHIP

Kaitlyn Ryan, ’22

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, VENUES

Viann Schroeder ALUMNI CAMPUS TOURS

Jeff Sheldon, ’04, ’07

ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARKETING & BUSINESS RELATIONS

Michael Stephens, ’91

ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS

Nicole Josephson Sweigard

ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT

Aidia Vajgrt, ’22

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, VENUES

Sharon Walling DIRECTOR OF DESIGN

CONTRIBUTORS

Nebraska Quarterly is published quarterly by the Nebraska Alumni Association, the known office of publication is 1520 R St., Lincoln NE 68508-1651. Alumni association dues are $65 annually. Requests for permission to reprint materials and reader comments are welcome.

KERI (BENELL) MESROPOV

Keri Mesropov is the founder and executive director of Spring, a talent development agency launching the next generation (Gen Z) of leaders and cultivating multi-generational workforces. A 1992 alumna, Keri also serves as an advisory council member for the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network, and in 2022 she received the prestigious Woman of Courage, Character and Commitment award from UNL’s Women’s Center.

BAILEE GUNNERSON

Bailee Gunnerson (’22), a Lincoln native, started work right out of college at the Nebraska Alumni Association as associate design director of multimedia. Being a Husker alumna is important to her as the university had always been part of her story growing up. When not taking photos or videos, Bailee enjoys spending time with her friends and family, watching popular TV shows, and trying new restaurants.

JACEY (OLMER) KORUS

Jacey Korus is a 2019 graduate who is proud to have been born and raised in Nebraska. Although she currently resides in the Rocky Mountains, she will always be a “flatlander” at heart. Jacey owns a graphic design studio that works with clients throughout the United States on brand design, print, illustration and marketing projects.

BRIDGET VACHA

Bridget Vacha is an Omaha native currently living in Orlando, Florida, as a photographer for the Walt Disney Company. She earned a bachelor’s degree in theater with an emphasis on film and new media from the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film in 2015. Bridget also freelances in her spare time as a portrait photographer in central Florida.

SEND MAIL TO: Nebraska Quarterly Wick Alumni Center / 1520 R Street Lincoln, NE 68508-1651

Phone: 402-472-2841

Toll-free: 888-353-1874

E-mail: nebmag@huskeralum.org Website: huskeralum.org Views expressed in Nebraska Quarterly do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Nebraska Alumni Association. The alumni

association does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, veteran’s status, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.

EDITORIAL QUERIES: Kirstin Swanson Wilder (kirstin.wilder@huskeralum.org) ADVERTISING QUERIES: Jeff Sheldon (jeff.sheldon@huskeralum.org)

your smartest career move

Develop your leadership skills and drive impactful change with an online degree from Nebraska. Choose from over 60 nationally ranked graduate degrees and certificates.

Programs Through the Colleges of:

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND NATURAL RESOURCES

ARTS AND SCIENCES

BUSINESS

EDUCATION AND HUMAN SCIENCES

ENGINEERING

JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS

LAW

Q:

What are your most memorable encounters during your 23 years at the front desk?

A: When helping people at the front desk, kindness goes a long way. Even if you’re dealing with somebody who’s angry; kindness, a smile and a calming voice always helps. Most people coming through the front doors look at their alma mater like it’s Disneyland. They’re excited to come back to campus. They’re excited when it’s football season. They’re just so full of joy. Even if you don’t feel excited, they’re excited so you’re excited for them. But here are a few of my favorite encounters:

• One day I heard the phone ringing as I first walked in, so I raced over to answer it. Alas I was wearing a long, slick coat and when I picked up the phone and sat down, I slid right out of the chair and onto the floor. I can’t remember if I even got to talk to the person on the phone because I was so busy laughing.

• One lady called looking for her old fling whom she was still madly in love with. Since we don’t give out contact information, I sent the man in question her information and he called me to say, “I’m so glad you did not give her my information. I never could stand her.”

• An older couple came in every year for the last two

REMINISCING WITH WENDY

decades. In the first few years when they arrived to pay their membership, they would inform me they’re not married and they live in different houses, but they share a joint membership. However, seven years ago they came in and said, “Surprise, we’re married, and we live in the same household now.” They signed up again for their yearly membership.

• I was helping a lady sign up for a membership and asked her if she wanted an annual membership or a life membership. She replied, “Honey, I might not be alive next year. So, let’s just go with the annual membership.”

• Herbie Husker sat behind my desk during a Football Friday event pretending to help me

answer phone calls. As he left, the top of his hat smacked the exit sign and broke it.

• I took a phone call where the caller asked me what kind of satanic things we do here, because our building name is Wick. “Do we have witches here,” they asked. They really did sound serious. I ended up hanging up the phone.

• A school teacher typically calls around football season. One year she put her whole first grade class on speakerphone. They all said, “Hello, Miss Wendy” and proceeded to sing the entire fight song.

—Wendy Kempcke FORMER OFFICE COORDINATOR, NEBRASKA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, NEW RETIREE!

The front desk face and voice of the Nebraska Alumni Association, Wendy Kempcke, retired this spring after 23 years on the job.

As a Husker senior in the Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, Luke Farritor put his education and love of history to the test. In 2023, he entered the Vesuvius Challenge, an international competition that advances machine learning and computer vision solutions. Not only was Farritor part of the team that won the grand prize, but he also became the first person in two millennia to decode a word on the Herculaneum Papyri, a set of ancient scrolls.

Only in Nebraska: A Campaign for Our University’s Future exists so that students have the resources, education and support they need to accomplish their dreams. As a result of donor generosity, we can invest in the College of Engineering and School of Computing, creating a dedicated home for computing students and establishing full-tuition scholarships for undergraduates.

Whether Huskers are coding programs to read ancient Greek, applying to graduate school or learning the fundamentals of software engineering, student success is UNL’s top priority.

Through this campaign, we’re making a difference in the fields of engineering and computing. Like only Nebraska can.

Learn more about Only in Nebraska: A Campaign for Our University’s Future at OnlyinNebraska.org/unl.

LUKE FARRITOR

like only a 20,000-year-old mammoth can. Find him, email us with his location at alumni@huskeralum.org and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a Husker prize. Congratulations to Tami (Gross) Prang (’92) who found Archie among the Alumni Masters on page 40 of the spring magazine. Prang and her husband Greg (’92) met on a blind date in 1991 and have four kids: electrical engineer Logan (’19), Lincoln Northeast math teacher Carter (’23), sophomore Cornhusker Marching Band member Brynley, and high school sophomore and hopeful Husker Macy.

Coming in First First-Generation Network

Seven stellar individuals have been named to the First-Generation Alumni Network Advisory Council and will guide the network in its mission to activate and empower first-gen alumni by providing a forum for engagement and a community of mentorship and advocacy that supports alumni and first-gen students. They include: Kun Kim (’19) College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources; Christian Reynolds (’14, ’17) College of Education and Human Sciences and College of Law; Hunter Ramer (’21) College of Arts and Sciences; Brianna Ridenour (’18) College of Business; Ma’Kiya Carter (’23), College of Education and Human Sciences; Lydia Coulson (’23) College of Business; and Lori Romano, director, Center for Academic Success and Transition.

After Hours GradFest

Graduating seniors participated in the inaugural After Hours GradFest at the Wick Alumni Center in advance of graduation. Members of the Class of 2024 collected their cap and gowns and then partied it up in the garden on a gorgeous spring evening. Elementary education majors Brooke Aspen, left, and Alyssa Meister enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches from Harper’s Smokehouse food truck. The event was hosted by the Student Alumni Association, including Avery Bolitho and Savannah Dorothy who handed out Dairy Store ice cream to graduating senior Anna Schroeder who was president of the SAA board of directors.

Husker Women A Night of Celebration

The Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women partnered with the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network (led by Maria Muhlbach in red jacket) in March to celebrate Husker women across campus with a dinner event at the AKRS Champions Club. Husker assistant volleyball coach and alumna Jordan Larson (red sweater) participated in a panel discussion moderated by Tiffany Heng-Moss, far left, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Larson, who graduated in 2008, brought her high school volleyball coach Angie Hauptman, far right, as her guest. Chancellor Rodney Bennett spoke of the importance of the university to continue finding ways to support and encourage the women of UNL.

Innocence Clinic launches operations.

ARTIST

Professor creates COVID memorial.

BADGES

Students learn medieval castings.

BOBBLE

SUMMER

INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Revolutionizing Healthcare

In five to 10 years, patients may be able to get individualized recommendations from health care providers on nutritional approaches specifically tailored to the bacteria living in the patients’ digestive systems, enabling them to ward off a host of diseases.

Yanbin Yin, a university scientist who has spent more than a decade gathering data to help make this personalized medicine a reality, is expanding the technology driving his research.

In the 2024 Forbes ranking of America’s Best Large Employers, the university is No. 2 in Nebraska and No. 154 nationally. In the education sector, UNL is No. 1 statewide and No. 18 overall.

Yin likes to cite a quote from Hippocrates, a Greek physician considered the founder of modern medicine, some 2,400 years ago: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

The science behind that saying has become clearer in recent years as scientists have studied what goes on in the human gut, said Yin, professor of food science and technology.

Yin’s role in the movement toward personalized medicine is to develop and hone computational models and informatics tools to identify carbohydrate-active enzymes — known as CAZymes — in the gut microbiome that can build, modify and break down various complex carbohydrates.

“In particular, microbial degradation of carbohydrates can produce a variety of metabolites, which have a profound impact on human health,” he said.

“If you give two different people the same diet, they will respond to it differently. One person might benefit from that diet, but person two would not just because their gut bacteria is different,” said Yin,

Herbie bounces to a new beat.

researcher; Xinpeng Zhang, doctoral student in food science and technology; Jerry Akresi, doctoral student in complex biosystems; and Yuchen Yan, doctoral student in food science and technology, are working on a project focusing on software development and artificial intelligence/ machine learning applications for personalized nutrition.

Yanbin Yin, center, and his research team, from left Siva Shanmugam, postdoctoral

an affiliate of the Nebraska Food for Health Center.

This thinking is a significant shift from the historical approach in which doctors made most recommendations about disease prevention and treatment based on the expected response of an average patient. While this one-size-fits-all approach works well for some patients and some conditions, it doesn’t for others. Personalized medicine — or precision medicine — considers individual differences in patients’ genes, environments and lifestyles.

Yin initially developed software to gather CAZymes data in 2012. Known as dbCAN, the system’s algorithms learn and improve as data is added by researchers across the world. The highly cited dbCAN web server has been serving hundreds of thousands of microbiome researchers around the world in the past decade.

With additional support from the Office of Data Science Strategy of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Yin is moving the tool from a desktop-based server to a cloud-based computing service that is expected to significantly improve data

collection and analysis. The NIH also is supporting an enhancement of the system’s artificial intelligence/machine learning, which is emerging as a key component in understanding dietary modulation of human microbiome and applied personalized nutrition research.

Ultimately, here is how this information might be applied in health care: Doctors could test stool samples from their patients to identify the types of bacteria and CAZymes unique to their digestive systems. With the data gathered, doctors or dietitians could identify specific prebiotics and other dietary supplements to help prevent or alleviate diseases such as obesity, diabetes and irritable bowel disorder.

Such analysis can be done now, to the tune of about $1,000 per patient, but the cost is coming down and the technology is expected to spread in the health care marketplace in the coming years.

Yin said this work is of intense interest to NIH, which has identified what it calls precision medicine as one of the key fields for improving human health in the 21st century. —Dan Moser

University scientist Yanbin Yin, right, with Xuehuan Feng.

Righting a Wrong

INNOCENCE CLINIC TO ADDRESS WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS IN STATE LAW

The University of Nebraska College of Law will begin operating an Innocence Clinic this fall. In Nebraska, more than 5,500 people are incarcerated in 10 state prisons and another 1,000 are in the custody of private prisons and local jails. Per data from the Prison Policy Initiative and U.S. Department of Justice, the state’s incarceration rate is among the highest in the nation. Two studies published within the past decade estimate that 4% to 6% of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons are actually innocent. In Nebraska, that translates to as many as 300 individuals currently serving sentences for crimes they did not commit. The new clinic aims to help those people.

While there is a presumption of innocence when someone goes to trial, once a person is convicted of a crime, the presumption of guilt is extraordinarily difficult to overcome. The National Registry of Exonerations reports that 3,458 defendants have been exonerated since 1989 and collectively served more than 31,070 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

With the help of a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, third-year students in the College of Law will raise awareness of wrongful convictions in Nebraska and work to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted. As part of the review of cases, students will help establish the primary causes of wrongful conviction and identify the most effective methodologies to prevent future wrongful convictions in the state.

“Our clinical programs help students develop skills that they will rely on in practice,” said Richard Moberly, dean of the College of Law. “The Innocence Clinic will contribute to training the next generation of Nebraska lawyers as they learn about the causes of wrongful conviction and experience case identification and litigation of actual innocence claims.”

Kala Mueller, director of public interest programs, added: “This type of training has been shown to help reduce the risk of future wrongful convictions both in Nebraska and elsewhere.”

There have been just 10 exonerations in Nebraska

history, six of which stemmed from a single case.

The College of Law is partnering with the Midwest Innocence Project to identify potential cases for the clinic. Under the supervision of the clinic director Elizabeth Cole, students will review and investigate cases for potential claims of innocence for individuals whose cases originated in Nebraska and who have applied for assistance from the Midwest Innocence Project. The grant funding provided by the Department of Justice will assist in moving more than 41 cases from the existing waitlist forward.

Mueller, who is a member of the Midwest Innocence Project board of directors, said the partnership is important to the success of Nebraska’s Innocence Clinic.

“The Innocence Clinic will have a small staff, making the potential volume of requests nearly insurmountable,” Mueller said. “We’re grateful to the Midwest Innocence Project for allowing us to benefit from their already established screening process.”

—Amber Wolff Ediger

OVERHEARD

“Making sure that we are (on top of news) every day and giving our reporters the proper training and abilities to do that successfully, it’s really important to me.”

—MADDIE AMES, the 2024-25 Daily Nebraskan editor-in-chief, on her goals in leading the student-run newsroom.

Under the Nebraska Presidential Scholars program, any student with a perfect score of 36 on the ACT who attends the University of Nebraska will receive a scholarship covering tuition, fees, books, housing and all other costs of attendance, plus a $5,000 cash stipend.

Kala Mueller BIG BRAG

EDUCATION AND HUMAN SCIENCES

Transforming Teacher Diversity

PROJECT WILL TRAIN AND SUPPORT

EDUCATORS OF VARIOUS BACKGROUNDS

Diversifying and increasing the number of individuals becoming and remaining teachers in Nebraska and Kansas is the focus of a new three-year project.

The project leverages the strengths of the College of Education and Human Sciences and Kansas State University’s Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy.

Project RAÍCES (Re-envisioning Action and Innovation through Community Collaborations for Equity across Systems) will provide significant schol-

Nebraska’s Carlos Ortega works with a student at the Community Learning Center at Lincoln’s McPhee Elementary School.

arship support to more than a dozen students coming to Nebraska’s teacher preparation programs.

“One key goal of this comprehensive project is to more intentionally invest in, nurture and mentor students from a broad range of backgrounds in teacher education here at UNL,” said Amanda Morales, associate professor.

Morales is a principal investigator on Project RAÍCES, along with professor Ted Hamann and associate professor Lauren Gatti.

The project name, RAÍCES, is derived from a Spanish word that means ‘roots’ as a metaphor to reference both the idea that participants’ cultural backgrounds and ways of knowing their roots are part of what they can rely on to be successful educators in a number of Nebraska’s most diverse districts.

“We also use the metaphor to point out that we’re trying to favorably impact the professional ecology of these partner school districts so that new teachers can arrive, thrive and take root starting careers that will keep them as successful, beloved and inspiring teachers in these communities for much or all of their careers,” Hamann said.

The students recruited to Nebraska’s undergraduate teacher preparation programs through Project RAÍCES will participate in a summer bridge program prior to their first fall semester by taking a credit-bearing summer class. Beginning this fall, the Project RAÍCES cohort will engage in a learning community and receive comprehensive advising and mentoring support throughout their time at the university.

The faculty, in collaboration with these schoolbased liaisons, help the students develop research projects that the students have chosen, all of which focus on strengthening some aspect of their school that they have identified.

“Young people can be change agents in their communities,” Gatti said. “Part of this is helping students connect with the stakeholders they see as important for the issue that they’ve investigated.”

“The idea is to really get them connected to one another and show them that Nebraska is a place where they belong,” Gatti said.

Project RAÍCES promises to further support the students in their journey to becoming teachers in the hopes of helping diversify the educator population. But Morales acknowledges that pre-service teachers are not the only ones who benefit from this type of support.

“We can’t just support them at the high school level or during their teacher preparation programs when they graduate with a bachelor’s degree,” Morales

said. “Because what if they’re graduating and landing in schools with limited induction support or opportunities for mentoring? We have to be thinking comprehensively. We have to be thinking systemically. We have to be looking at the big picture and considering how we are engaging with and supporting our district partners to build their capacities to hold on to their new teachers in ways that allow them to not only survive but to thrive in their first years of teaching.”

OVERHEARD

—Kelcey Buck

“I realized that, paradoxically, we have to support adults to make a difference in kids’ lives.”

—PROFESSOR

SUSAN SHERIDAN

who is the first Husker faculty mem ber elected to the prestigious National Academy of Education. She is also the founding director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

High school senior Sofia Caruso signs on the dotted line expressing her commitment to the College of Education and Human Sciences.

SUMMER

FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS

Artistic Tribute

PROFESSOR CREATES STIRRING

COVID MEMORIAL ART

School of Art, Art History & Design Professor of Art Eddie Dominguez recently completed a two-segment public art project created for Bryan Health Systems in Lincoln to commemorate the community’s experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A 12-foot by 22-foot mosaic mural located at Bryan East includes a cluster of clouds with words submitted by hospital staff, who were asked to reflect on their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The second work, located at Bryan West and shown below, includes three nine-foot-tall pillars with mosaics.

“They had put a call out that they were interested

in looking for an artist that would do a Covid memorial to honor the first responders at the hospital,” Dominguez said. “When I saw it, there was a calling — a feeling that I had about the way I function in public art work projects, and I thought this was a venue for that philosophy, so I applied.”

Bob Ravenscroft, system vice president and chief marketing and development officer at Bryan Health, said shortly after the availability of a Covid-19 vaccine and between surges of hospital utilization, they were approached by a handful of people with an affinity for art who were interested in funding a permanent thank you for what they called “the heroic effort of our team.” Bryan Health wanted something that would be meaningful to their team since they saw thousands of Covid patients at both campuses.

Ravenscroft said they are pleased with the final pieces. “The sculptures turned out beautifully,” he said. “We often see staff and visitors reflecting on the words embedded in the beautiful tile work. While it was created to memorialize efforts here in Nebraska during a worldwide pandemic, it seems to work for just about any feeling people have when they or a loved one is hospitalized and for those who work every day to care for them.”

The project offered a different way for Dominguez to engage with the community.

“The hospital gave me all of the vocabulary that I used in the image, so in that way, it was community engaged without people being physically connected to the work, and I was satisfied with that,” Dominguez said.

He also worked with several university students throughout the two-year project. “I had a nice range of people, and we had a real nice time learning all

The three tile pillars at the entrance to Bryan West Hospital contain words submitted by hospital staff to reflect on their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Above right, Eddie Dominguez is flanked by two students who assemble the mosaic columns.

about how to make work together,” Dominguez said. “I think they really loved it and got invested in it. We all bonded in a really beautiful way.”

Clouds are featured in both pieces, which was an inspiration for Dominguez.

“I think that when we look up into the sky, there’s always this kind of optimism and hope,” he said. “And when we look up at the clouds, they’re fleeting and drifting. I put the words in the clouds, and I think it kind of feels like sending up prayers.”

Allison Achtenhagen (’23) worked with Dominguez for a year on the pieces. “The biggest thing I did was arrange the tiles, following Eddie’s design, on a table in his studio, which we then glued to paper and cut into smaller sections to be able to install,” she said. “I was also very involved with the installation process of the columns, which was a really rewarding experience.”

Getting to work alongside Dominguez was the best part of the experience for her.

“I worked on this project with him throughout my senior year, which was a time of huge change, big decisions and questioning what comes next for me, so being able to talk with Eddie as we worked and get his perspective and opinions was life-changing,” she said. “I also loved watching him navigate all of the issues that came up throughout this process and feeling like he trusted us to help in those trickier moments.”

Achtenhagen is now in Kansas City as an artist-in-residence at the Kansas City Clay Guild. She hopes people get a little bit of joy from these pieces when they see them. —Kathe C. Andersen

OVERHEARD

“The main goal of my work is to provide cleaner electrical energy to customers with high efficiency, high reliability and at a lower cost.”

JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS

Breaking the Fantasy

STUDY ILLUMINATES SOCIAL MEDIA TRAP FOR NEW MOMS

Being a new mom is not glamorous or effortless — no matter what some social media influencers suggest — and the uptick of idealized portrayals online has been shown to have harmful effects on moms. Some moms may be even more affected than others, according to new research from scholar Ciera Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick, an assistant professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, studies how messaging in the media affects individuals’ mental and physical health. As a new mom herself, she turned her attention to influencers on social media and the effects they have on peers. She uncovered evidence that exposure to idealized portrayals of motherhood — clean house, happy kids, photo-ready hair and makeup — increased anxiety and envy among new moms.

In a new study published March 1, Kirkpatrick further unpacked those findings. She examined whether certain personality traits may make some people more susceptible to the negative effects of idealized portrayals of motherhood. She found that those with a higher social comparison orientation — or tendency to compare oneself to others — were more negatively affected by the idealized portrayals than those with a lower social comparison orientation. Specifically, moms with higher social comparison orientation were likelier to have a lower perceived parenting competence when exposed to idealized portrayals of motherhood, meaning that the idealized portrayals caused these mothers to feel less confident about their own parenting abilities.

BIG BRAG

Big-hearted supporters propelled the 2024 Glow Big Red — 24 Hours of Husker Giving to record-setting generosity in support of UNL making 5,551 gifts to raise $823,041. Both the number of gifts made and the amount raised set new records for the sixth annual event.

“We all have this tendency to compare, but some of us are more inclined to compare than others,” Kirkpatrick said. “If we know how these posts are affecting mothers and that they are more detrimental to certain moms, then that helps us, from a strategic health communications or health professional standpoint.”

—Deann Gayman

—LIYAN QU, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, who was elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors, becoming the first Husker woman to receive the recognition.

SUMMER

BIG BRAG

Men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg won the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award, another honor at the end of Nebraska’s most successful season in a decade.

CSI: NEBRASKA

Dying to follow her dream

Anastasia Spruce graduated in May with a degree in forensic science.

WHY DID SHE CHOOSE NEBRASKA?

Though she’d lived in Orlando, Florida, her whole life, her dad Tom Spruce (’87), talked about his alma mater often and brought his daughter to a football game in 2016.

WHAT’S NEXT?

This summer Anastasia will be back in her hometown, where she’ll begin her career as a crime laboratory technician for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

WHERE WAS THIS PHOTO MADE?

She laid on the floor of the forensic science “murder house” on East Campus and let campus photographer Craig Chandler construct a crime scene around her.

In a recent report from the National Academy of Inventors, the NU system ranks 73rd worldwide after earning 46 U.S. utility patents in 2023. Nebraska was No. 79 in 2022 and has now been included in the top 100 list for seven consecutive years.

New and Improved

As part of a multi-phased construction project, the College of Architecture will add a new north wing addition to West Architecture Hall that replaces the old “Library Stacks,” a 1957 addition, which was demolished in late fall of 2022. This new addition, part of phase two, will add 14 new studios with a completion date scheduled for this fall.

Other phase two changes include the remodel of eight student studios, additional student collaboration areas, classrooms, a materials library, a virtual reality lab, a spray booth, maker spaces, more faculty offices and the relocation of the Geographic Information System Lab to the first floor.

Phase one, which was completed in the fall of 2022, entailed moving the Architecture Hall Library from the north wing of Architecture Hall East and relocat-

ing it to the first floor of Architecture Hall West providing ground floor access for the newly remodeled library. All three floors of Architecture Hall East’s north wing, where the library once stood, are now renovated to 11 new studios.

The last time the College of Architecture underwent a major remodel or construction project was in 1987 with the creation of the glass atrium Link building which connected two existing buildings: Architecture Hall East and Architecture Hall West.

Architecture Hall East was opened in 1895 as the original campus library and is the oldest building at UNL. This building was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Special accommodations are being made to ensure the building’s historical integrity. Architecture Hall West, the old Law College, was built in 1912.

—Kerry McCullough-Vondrak

An artist’s rendering of the new addition to Architecture Hall.

BIG BRAG

ART AND SCIENCES

Scouting for Badges

STUDENTS GET HANDS-ON HISTORY

LESSON IN MEDIEVAL METAL CASTING

Huskers traveled to the past last fall as part of Carolyn Twomey’s History of the Middle Ages class and even walked away with a memento of the occasion.

Twomey, assistant professor of Medieval European history, in the shadow of Mueller Tower, held a practical lesson on metal casting of pilgrim’s badges, small metal pins that people wore to commemorate their voyages to holy sites.

Through a demonstration and a souvenir of their own, Twomey hoped to connect students to the real people living in that time and show that in many ways, they thought and behaved much like we do now, like purchasing a knickknack to remember a trip taken.

“I want them to get into the shoes of someone who lived a thousand years ago,” Twomey said. “I hope they can empathize with people from the past in a little more sophisticated way by recognizing how very much like some of our modern practices this is.”

William Anderson, a horticulture major from Gothenburg, Nebraska, said the activity brought the reading to life, and he could see the connections between the practice and some modern traditions.

“A lot of times you think of people a long time ago must have been very different, but it helps you think people are people and we’ve been that way for the longest time,” he said.

Travelers during Medieval times would make pilgrimages to holy sites around the world, visiting a tomb or seeing sacred relics of a saint, and the badges served as souvenirs of their journey.

“On their way back, they’re going to buy the equivalent of a shot glass at the Alamo,” Twomey said.

Students poured liquid tin into stone molds to create an image of the head of Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, who argued with King Henry II over his power over the church and was beheaded in 1170. Faithful started visiting his tomb in Canterbury, a pilgrimage featured in The Canterbury Tales.

Most of these items depicted either a saint, their

iconography or a symbol representing how they were martyred. There were also secular badges. Some of them represent allegiance to a group, and some satirical ones even mock the sacred ones.

Twomey said there is no textual reference to the badges from the time, making it an opportunity to learn something from material objects. She encouraged students to compare it to what people in the future might learn about the present from our coffee cups.

Anderson said the class had discussed the history of objects like these in class, but he enjoyed being able to learn more about how they were made up close.

“It really wasn’t that difficult of a process and you can really imagine this going on at different sites around Europe and the world at the time,” he said.

Twomey said people often envision the Middle Ages as a time of royalty and others working in the mud, and dispelling those kinds of stereotypes is one of Twomey’s goals with the class. The badges show students that even lower-class people of the era were going as far as England to Spain, Jerusalem or Rome, for example, and some were creating art like the badges. Twomey said some badges were made from gold and silver, but most would have been affordable for the people making these pilgrimages. —Kristina Jackson

Student Dylan Kapustka makes a pour into the mold of a pilgrim’s badge of Thomas Becket, former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, as Assistant Professor Carolyn Twomey watches.

Sparking New Ventures

STUDENTS CREATE BUSINESSES DURING 48-HOUR CHALLENGE BUSINESS

More than two dozen students worked together to bring new start-up business ideas to life during the Center for Entrepreneurship 48-Hour Challenge. Collaborating with students in a variety of majors across the university while under strict time constraints, they competed by developing and pitching a new business to win cash prizes.

“The 48-Hour Challenge is a unique opportunity for students to stretch themselves and find out how far they can go with a business idea in just a few days. Teams naturally form around compelling concepts, and students are pushed beyond their comfort zones to find data and potential customers to validate their product idea,” said Samantha Fairclough, associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and associate professor of practice in management. “Feedback from community mentors is a key part of the process, helping them refine their business models and fostering connections that extend beyond the event.”

“Participating in the 48-Hour Challenge showed me how my skills are compatible with those of other students,” said Micah Fullinfaw, a senior emerging media arts student. “I learned how important it is to work with people of different backgrounds and skill sets.”

Fullinfaw pitched an idea for a smart pantry on the first day of the competition. He then found five students to join his team for the competition. “Over the two days, we constantly pivoted our idea until we landed on a new, solid business plan,” he said. “Restaurants would pay to be featured on an app called FOODI and users would connect with each other over their pursuit of finding new restaurants,” he said.

The competition was also offered as a one-credit pop-up course, allowing students to earn credit for developing a business.

Open to all students in any major across the university, competitors had the opportunity to leverage the expertise of local entrepreneurs in person and oth-

ers outside of Nebraska via Zoom. Emily Kist (’22) a venture and innovation associate at Nelnet in St. Paul, Minnesota, helped guide and mentor students.

“Participating in new business startup competitions is so important for students because it teaches them how to navigate the framework of starting a new venture. They get to practice things like customer discovery, market research, storytelling, building a pitch deck and more, which are the most essential steps to starting a company,” Kist said.

She added that even if the idea isn’t going to be a billion-dollar startup, it will teach them essential skills for when they are ready to build the next successful venture. “I love mentoring these students because I can really help them build those fundamental skills and help narrow down their ideas. Additionally, they are so fun to work with and bring so much passion and really creative ideas to the table,” she said.

Jonathan Gerdes, senior civil engineering major, participated in the challenge to push his skills and create the most viable business within a limited timeframe. He worked with Street Eats, an event production company that strategically gathers food trucks in a centralized location to offer amenities from entertainment to food and beverages.

“A significant amount of time was dedicated to understanding our customers and their problems. This provided a greater likelihood of devising a viable and effective solution,” said Gerdes.

The market value of agricultural land in Nebraska increased 5% over the prior year, to an average of $4,015 per acre, according to the university’s 2024 Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey preliminary report. This marks the third consecutive year of increases.

The Street Eats student team celebrated their firstplace finish. BIG BRAG

SUMMER

ENGINEERING

Shooting for the Stars

STUDENTS LAUNCHING INTO

SPACE-SOLAR STUDIES

When a rocket nicknamed Cargo Dragon blasted off from Florida this spring, it was the beginning of NASA’s 30th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Among the 30 tons of cargo aboard Cargo Dragon was a tiny, special payload — the first CubeSat satellite built by a Nebraska team and then launched into space.

A CubeSat is a small satellite primarily used for research.

CubeSats are a costeffective way to do research in space and micro-gravity.

The satellite represents more than three years of work by the Big Red Satellite team, comprised of students in the University of NebraskaLincoln’s Aerospace eXperimental Payload team and middle school and high school students from Lincoln, Omaha and Aurora.

“I’ve never touched something that’s gone to space,” said Vince Orsi, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Omaha and the current mechanical team lead for the project.

As part of its CubeSat program, NASA in 2021 chose the Nebraska team to include its satellite experiment included as auxiliary payload aboard a future mission to the space station. A few months ago, NASA informed the team that their CubeSat would be aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was scheduled for a spring launch. Big Red Sat-1 was one of four projects from U.S. universities selected for the program.

As the final seconds of the countdown ticked off and the rocket shot toward outer space, the 10 Nebraska Engineering students, watching from a lab in Nebraska Hall, sat quietly, their faces changing from gritted teeth and hopeful intensity to relief and pride.

“It’s a crazy feeling,” said Orsi, who also noted the team’s hopes don’t end with the launch but continue with the possibility of performing pioneering research in the next few months.

The satellite — a cube measuring four inches per side (roughly the size of a small tissue box) and with the volume of less than a quart — will test the performance in outer space of perovskite solar cells from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The CubeSat had a successful launch March 21 and on April 18 the satellite was deployed from the International Space Station, testing the performance in outer space of perovskite solar cells from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This is the first test in space of perovskite solar cell performance in comparison to the current standard Gallium Arsenide solar cells. NASA is interested in using these cells as they have the potential to be lighter, cheaper, and more efficient. —Karl Vogel

OVERHEARD

“I’m so proud of Husker nation, I’m so thankful to be the head coach at Nebraska.”

—AMY (GUSSO) WILLIAMS (’98), the women’s head basketball coach who led her team to numerous upsets during the season and to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the CubeSat launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Naughty Buddha Burger Bar

The Sequel Vegan burgers so well-seasoned you won’t miss the beef. Unique sides like seaweed salad, bamboo green tea rice and dairy-less mac and cheese. All can be found in the Omaha-born burger bar so beloved it came to the Telegraph District to serve plant-based nourishment in Lincoln.

TEXT Convey911

The University of Nebraska Police Department is just a text away with the new Convey911, reachable at (402) 472-5552. It can translate 170 different languages and the texter can share their GPS location or video with dispatchers for better assistance in fires, emergencies, or even quick public safety questions.

DEVOUR

IN HUSKER COUNTRY

TASTE

Chili Roll

Upgrade your Midwestern chili and cinnamon roll craving by combining the unique flavor profiles into one: the chili roll. Student Alexa Carter, with the help of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program, has been perfecting her Nebraska Youth Beef Leadership Symposium award-winning recipe and hopes for it to roll out to tailgates this fall.

VISIT

Vinyl

If the 1970s is your favorite decade, be sure to visit Vinyl, a newly-opened bar in the Haymarket which pays homage in decor and vibe. There’s a turntable behind the bar and patrons are urged to bring in their records to entertain the entire room.

BOBBLE

Herbie Husker Bobblehead With the university’s reintroduction of retro Herbie as the new Herbie, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum has released the blond mascot which can be yours for $35. store.bobbleheadhall.com

READ

The Titanic Survivors Book Club

Timothy Schaffert, Adele Hall Chair of English and director of creative writing, has added yet another work to his bibliography of six novels — this time the tale of a book society formed of Titanic ticket holders who didn’t board the ship. The queer history novel finds its characters, while traversing survivor’s guilt, transformed by the power of literature and love.

SHARING THE VIEWPOINTS OF OUR ALUMNI, FACULTY AND STUDENTS

As the screenplay story of Cassie and Doug continues, a marriage proposal is on the horizon for two of our characters. Also, the importance of a multigenerational friendship turns into a key relationship for one alumna.

HERB’S MID-LIFE CRISIS

In the hallowed halls of mascot history, one man has cheered louder and pre-gamed harder than the rest. This year Herbie Husker turns 50 years old. But instead of complacently aging into obscurity, Herbie is reclaiming his image. It’s a mid-life crisis like no other!

SPIEKER AGING HERBIE 2024

this shirt every day now

Getting into fashion

Same ole’ kicks (They’re “vintage” now)

Liam Spieker is an advertising and public relations major aiming to graduate in 2025. This fall, Spieker will be on his third stint as editor-in-chief for The Dailyer Nebraskan, the satirical student-run newspaper on campus which publishes six times a year. He describes himself as a “Midwestern creative, passionate about visual storytelling and humor on the side.” Thus his creation of

mid-life crisis, a version of which originally appeared last fall in Volume 18, Issue

LIAM

Herbie’s

1 of The Dailyer Nebraskan

Wearing a hat from his 20s all of a sudden

Found his passion

Clean shaven

Plucks the white hairs every morning

Nostalgic about past relationships

Facelift

Finally got some tats

Wears

Screenplay

PART TWO OF FOUR

OUT OF NOWHERE

by MARK ALBRACHT (’99)

EXT. DOUG AND CASSIE’S FARM - DAY

Adam’s truck is parked near the farmhouse with Adam standing in the truck bed. Paige stands next to the truck as Adam hands her a box of Costco goods.

She looks up at him, perplexed.

PAIGE

What do you mean I can’t take the Dodge Expressway?

ADAM

Too many lanes. If there are cars on both sides, Doug gets frantic.

PAIGE

So, I’ll keep to the right lane.

Paige sets the box in a wagon where several other supply cases are already loaded.

ADAM

Doesn’t work. When cars merge onto the expressway, you have to get over. You’ll need to take side streets.

PAIGE

You want me to drive all the way across Omaha on side streets? It’ll take forever! The zoo is practically in Iowa.

Adam climbs out of the pickup, bearing a guilt-ridden look.

ADAM

Are you sure you want to do this?

Two hours just to get to Omaha, and then an entire day with the two of them? I haven’t even gone over their food stipulations.

Paige swithers a moment, but then finds her courage.

PAIGE

Yes. You have to get the geo survey done. I’ll be fine. It’ll be fun!

Cassie comes bounding out of the farmhouse.

CASSIE: We’re ready to go, Paige! But Doug is taking forever because he can’t find his camera.

PAIGE: We can use my phone for pictures. I don’t mind.

CASSIE: Doug wants to use his own camera.

ADAM: If Doug can’t find his camera in the next five minutes, you’ll have to go without it. It’s already eight o’clock.

Cassie clicks her heels and gives him a salute. She turns back to the farmhouse.

CASSIE: Doug! The Commandant says we have to go now!

Cassie marches to the house, Adam grinds his teeth.

INT. ADAM’S TRUCK - DAY

Paige drives Adam’s pickup near downtown Omaha. Doug rides in the front passenger seat, Cassie is wedged on the jump seat in back.

PAIGE: Are you hungry? There are a bunch of food trucks by Gene Leahy Mall. That should be fun! Cassie crinkles her nose and shakes her head.

CASSIE: Eat food from a truck? No.

DOUG: We want to go to Spaghetti Works. Paige frowns.

PAIGE: Seriously. Spaghetti Works? When I’m on a trip, I like to get something that I can’t have just any old time.

DOUG: Cassie is a super-taster. So, we have to be careful what we eat.

PAIGE: What’s a “super-taster?”

CASSIE: It means my taste buds are highly irritable. Horseradish tastes like battery acid to me. For example.

DOUG: She has millions of papillae on her tongue, Paige.

PAIGE: All right, well, the beauty of food truckin’ is variety. We can find something mild for you, Cassie. And then we’re not all stuck having to eat spaghetti.

EXT. GENE LEAHY MALL - DAY

Paige, Doug and Cassie eat at a table on the edge of the Gene Leahy Mall. The partially constructed Mutual of Omaha tower rises in the background.

Cassie drinks a tall lassi.

CASSIE: I really like this lunch, Paige. Especially this milkshake.

PAIGE: That’s a yogurt lassi. It gets its flavor from rose petals.

CASSIE: Rose petals! That’s totally exotic!

DOUG: Are there any flowers in my food, Paige?

Doug has a kebab sitting in front of him.

PAIGE: No, that’s just chicken. Doug nods and looks past her to the Mutual of Omaha

construction site. He sees a tower crane moving an I-beam to a group of welders.

DOUG: Liebherr 630 EC-H 40 Litronic tower crane.

Cassie rolls her eyes

CASSIE: Doug, stop it. Nobody wants to hear your weird obsessions.

Doug slow burns and turns back to his food. Paige senses the awkwardness and quickly offers a redirect on the conversation.

PAIGE: So, how long have you known each other?

DOUG: Me and Cassie were friends in high school. Special friends. We met in Life Skills.

Cassie gives Paige a dirty look.

CASSIE: It’s none of your business, Paige. And by the way, I was only part-time special ed. I usually had regular classes.

Paige blushes.

PAIGE: I’m sorry. I was only curious. I didn’t mean to offend you.

Cassie rubs her belly and frowns.

CASSIE: I have to go to the bathroom.

Cassie abruptly stands and wanders off to the restrooms. Doug sets his kebab down and waits for Cassie to be fully out of earshot.

DOUG: I have an idea for something we can do later, Paige.

Paige perks up.

PAIGE: Oh, yeah? What’s that?

DOUG: I’ll ask Cassie to marry me.

Paige stares at him, stunned.

PAIGE: Doug! Are you serious?

Doug nods.

PAIGE: How long have you been thinking about this?

DOUG: A long time. And when we go to the Henry Doorly Zoo, I will ask her there and she won’t say “no” because she loves the zoo.

PAIGE: Oh, this is amazing! You really want to do this today? Just spur of the moment?

DOUG: Yes. It would be tremendous.

PAIGE: Do you have a ring?

DOUG: Yes.

Doug reaches into a pocket and pulls out a Ziploc bag with an engagement ring in it.

PAIGE: You have it in a Ziploc bag? Where’s the box?

DOUG: I lost the box.

PAIGE: Well, we need a way to present it. I mean, a Ziploc bag? That’s just not going to fly.

EXT. VALASEK FARM HILLTOP - DAY

Adam and a WIND ENERGY AGENT, TOM (50) stand atop a grassy hill, gazing out at the property — a bucolic back forty of giant cottonwoods and gentle sloping hills.

AGENT TOM: It’s a beautiful parcel, Mr. Valasek.

Sturdy, and relatively flat. We may have to adjust this figure, but right now I’m comfortable saying we can get six, maybe seven turbines out here. Adam is caught off guard.

ADAM: The initial developer said four!

Tom smiles with a glint in his eye.

AGENT TOM: Well, I guess he was playing it safe. Five is the absolute minimum.

Adam rubs his neck. His desire to make a deal is overwhelming. Tom pats his shoulder.

AGENT TOM: You should let me drive up to the house and give your brother the full-court press. The video presentation is pretty darn slick.

ADAM: He’s not home right now. But, I’ll see if I can arrange something.

EXT./INT. HENRY DOORLY ZOO - DAY

Doug, Cassie and Paige enjoy the sights and sounds of the Henry Doorly Zoo, marveling at the animal exhibits, feeding popcorn to the free-roaming peacocks, riding the train, visiting the desert dome and indoor jungle.

Finally, with a brief separation from Cassie, Paige speaks to Doug confidentially.

PAIGE: The suspense is killing me! When are you going to ask?

DOUG: We can do it now, Paige. That’s fine. There’s the stingrays.

Doug points to a sign that reads: “Stingray Beach, Touch Pool.”

INT. STINGRAY BEACH - DAY

An exhibit with a shallow pool full of stingrays. Zoo visitors sit on the rim of the pool and rub their fingers across the rays’ backs as they “fly by” under the water.

As Cassie, Doug and Paige enter, Cassie is immediately mesmerized. Following the lead of the other zoo visitors, she reaches into the pool and pets one of the rays.

CASSIE: This is magnificent!

Paige notices that some visitors have small cups of fish with which they feed the rays.

She tugs Doug’s shirt.

PAIGE: (whispering) What if we bought one of those fish cups and hide the ring in the bottom? We give it to Cassie to feed the rays and then she’ll find the ring. Or would that be too gross? To have fish smell all over the ring?

DOUG: That wouldn’t be too gross, Paige. Paige gets excited. She ushers Doug over to the sales counter.

ON CASSIE as she pets the stingrays. She is in a state of bliss, lost in thoughts.

Doug arrives next to her with the cup of diced fish.

Paige stands back, filming the interaction with her smart phone.

DOUG: Cassie. Would you like to feed them, Cassie?

CASSIE: Oh, yes!

Cassie takes the fish cup and unceremoniously dumps the entire container into a school of stingrays.

DOUG: Oh, Cassie! No!

The rays go after the fish chunks as the ring slides down one of the ray’s backs.

CASSIE: Hey, there’s something shiny in there... Doug stims. Paige watches, aghast, but continues filming.

DOUG: It’s the engagement ring! This commotion has gotten the attention of other zoo visitors nearby. The startled rays stir up a cloud of sand as they depart to another section of the pool.

CASSIE: Engagement ring?

One ZOO-GOER sees the ring and points.

ZOO-GOER: I see it! It’s sinking to the bottom!

A small crowd now gathers round, aware of the circumstances.

CASSIE: You put a ring in my fish cup? That’s absurd!

Without a second thought, Cassie plunges both arms into the shallow pool and grabs the ring. She shows it to Doug, who stops stimming. The crowd cheers. Paige, much relieved, continues to film.

Doug takes the ring and drops to one knee. Excitement radiates through the crowd as everybody cranes their necks for a good view.

DOUG: Cassandra Boyd, we have been together nineteen years. I think it’s probably time we go ahead and get married now. Will you marry me, Cassandra Boyd?

The place is breathless, with only the sound of gentle lapping from the touch pool. Anticipation amongst the onlookers weighs heavy. Paige, still filming, bites her lip.

But Cassie looks down at Doug with utter contempt.

CASSIE: No! Dougie, I told you. Have you signed my pre-nuptial agreement, yet?

Murmurs ripple through the crowd. Paige stops filming.

DOUG: No, I haven’t signed it, Cassie.

CASSIE: Well, then forget it!

Cassie slaps the ring into Doug’s outstretched hand. A wave of discomfort disperses the crowd. Paige, in a befuddled daze, watches Doug struggle back to his feet.

PAIGE: A pre-nup? What are you talking about, Cassie? Neither of you has any money!

CASSIE: Doug knows what I’m talking about. Right? Doug grumbles and shuffles out of the exhibit. Cassie and Paige watch him wander off, then they look at each other. Paige shakes her head.

PAIGE: Well, I guess that’s it then. Let’s call it a day.

Out of Nowhere continues in the fall edition of Nebraska Quarterly.

Reinvention

Silver Linings

Optimism prevails in the face of unimaginable trauma

BY KIMBERLY (ARMS) SHIRK (’94) Author, public speaker, marketing manager

For me it’s always been about the story ... and mine has taken some twists and turns I never expected. I grew up moving around the country due to my father’s job with Union Pacific railroad. I eventually landed in Nebraska for college and studied broadcast journalism. It was the perfect mix of a serious career covering important issues affecting the lives of everyone around us daily and the opportunity to do what I loved, tell a good story. My career took me from Fox 42 (Omaha) to KLKN-TV 8 (Lincoln) to WOI-TV 5 (Des Moines, Iowa) and likely it would have kept me traveling except for one

not-so-minor detail … my story. It got in the way.

On Sept. 3, 1997, I was in the newsroom with my colleague David and had just shot a story for another colleague for the nightly news. At that time, we rotated who reported the story and who helped shoot it. This was my day to shoot, and we came back to the newsroom just before the early evening news to find a little chaos. David’s photographer had been called off his story to cover a fire and he had no one to help him shoot his story about vandalism at a local church/school. I readily agreed to go with him.

Once at the location, David mistakenly raised the mast of our remote television live truck into electrical wires, causing an explosion. When I tried to help, I was electrocuted.

The first EMTs on the scene assessed me and passed me by, making a quick judgment that I could not possibly survive the injuries I sustained.

Fortunately, four minutes later a second set of EMTs arrived on the scene and helped bring me back to life. I sustained third and fourth degree burns to 13% of my body, but the most dangerous injuries were to my head where direct contact with the electrified van burned a trail of destruction to my skull leaving my face scarred in its wake.

It didn’t stop there. Electricity raced through my

Kimberly Shirk’s family today, from left, Caleb, Kimberly, Chad, Logan and Addison.

body eventually finding exit points through my toes, blowing out my left knee along the way, but mercifully did not take the life from me.

I was raced to the Des Moines Methodist Medical Center where I would spend the next month and a half in a medically-induced coma. When I finally awoke, I didn’t know what had happened to me, why I wasn’t even able to ask the questions swirling in my mind.

I spent the next four and a half years in recovery. It would take multiple surgeries, endless appointments with physical, occupational and speech therapists teaching me how to walk, talk and eat. It was as if I were a toddler again.

That was a story I never planned for. It was a story I couldn’t have imagined in my worst nightmares. But it was my story. And when you have a story like that, you have a choice to make. Let it tear you down and define you for the rest of your life or rewrite the story in a positive light. I chose the latter. Due to great faith and an incredible support system within my family, I started searching for the stories of those who helped along the way. I found many.

• A 13-year-old who was waiting for a ride home from soccer practice came running to my aid that September day and sent his brother to call 911.

• A team of EMTs ignored the first assessment that I would never live and lifted, what looked like my lifeless body, into their ambulance to find my heart had never skipped a beat.

• A reconstructive surgeon on call that fateful night rallied his team to my side and spent the next five years with me rebuilding what I had lost physically.

• A mentor of mine from my UNL days, Barbara Wright-Chollet, guided me to Bethany (Bergmeyer) Throener (’95, ’02) and volunteerism when I could not work but needed a path that had nothing to do with hospitals or doctors.

• Friends, acquaintances and strangers from every phase of my life sent notes, flowers, gifts or took time out of their own busy lives to visit and lift me up in the early days and throughout my recovery.

• My newlywed husband of only two months, Chad Shirk (’94) stood by my side through every surgery, every tear-filled night, every painful recovery.

And that is just a small fraction of the people and stories that collided during that time in my life. When I witnessed my story — though believe me, there were brutal days and nights — what I saw was this gift of human kindness amidst a life-altering tragedy I couldn’t ignore. These glimpses, I believe, can be found every day in the mundane and extraordinary. I call them silver

linings and I make it a point to look for them and to become a part of them for others. They are everywhere. A beautiful sunrise, an unexpected smile, a handwritten note from a friend or a perfectly timed song playing the lyrics you need to hear. They are wrapped into the stories of our lives.

But even more than the occasional moments in time that lift us up and give us hope, silver linings are purposeful actions intended to change the trajectory of a difficult situation, to bring hope to what seems hopeless or to magnify truth and intelligence to make us better people. Silver linings are stories of people stepping in when they can make a significant difference, sometimes for one individual and sometimes for an entire community or country. And in 2024 I hope to see more of them.

I speak publicly about my accident, and it is a gift to me to tell these stories in person. To lend encouragement to someone who may have just gotten a health diagnosis they are wrestling with or coping with a death and the harsh stab of grief. To lift someone up who just lost their job or is walking through divorce. Life is tough, and the stories we live can be cruel. But they can also be shining examples of what the world should be. Intersections of people’s stories lifting one another up and laughing along the way.

And if you take the time to look for it, I believe there’s a silver lining in the midst of the worst times … the question is always, can you find it?

News 5 photojournalist

Kimberly (Arms) Shirk in 1997.

Kimberly (Arms) Shirk, being held aloft by her friends, at a college party in January 1994.

Relationships Embracing Intergenerational Friendship

A letter to her college English professor set off a quest for friends young and old

BY KERI (BENELL) MESROPOV (’92) Talent and Culture Consultant

The quiet of 2020 had me, like so many people, pondering. My thoughts sometimes raced around small curiosities and on other days, meandered down deep, winding roads. One such path left me deliberating about friendships. I had a circle of incredible ones, but in the stillness of time, a truth came forward: Something in my friendships was missing. They didn’t fulfill me the way they once did. And with all that isolation, I felt particularly desperate for that missing link.

In a regression analysis of sorts, I looked back to mine for the ingredients that created those satiating friendships I was trying now to replicate. My rearview mirror honed in on one memory — an English class I took in 1991 at UNL — and the professor who taught it.

George Wolf, associate professor of English, was different than any teacher I had experienced before that point. He didn’t befriend students: We interacted strictly in the classroom. But here I was, on a mission to find friendship again and my thoughts turned to Professor Wolf. Why? By now, he was in his 80s, a full 30 years my senior, and though we hadn’t shared any kind of depth, he had sparked

something profound in me that seemed to link to my journey to finding the type of friendship I was craving. I found his email address and wrote to him: It’s in your classroom that my eyes and heart were opened in ways I will never forget and I wanted, after all of these years, to express my gratitude to you.

The format of your class was open discussion, and I was always very quiet — so unlike my personality, in fact! I was captivated by your patience and genuine interest in our observations, no matter what they were. I soaked it all in, and on the rare occasion I did speak, you delighted. I remember you kneeling before me and welcoming my words to the room. It sparked in me an intellectual curiosity I’ve carried forward my whole life. Thank you.

To my utter delight, he wrote back, in his artful, warm prose I remembered so well. Among other thought-provoking things, he said: It’s so gratifying to know that our paths crossed just when you were ready, unbeknownst to either of us, for something important to happen to you. What a kindness to let me know now.

George and I exchanged emails a few more times, sharing details of our lives and I felt an immediate closeness to him. Each note he sent was written with mastery, genuine curiosity and attentiveness to

my stories and questions. It was soul-filling and precisely as I remembered him to be in person all those years ago.

It was this reconnection with George that unlocked the aha on what I’d been missing in my friendships.

Age. Gray hair. Experiences. Wrinkles. Lots of them.

The precise aha moment? The most significant, satisfying and mutual friendships of my life have been with people twice, even three times my age.

Marilyn. Mel. Martin. All dear friends at some point. And all 25+ years my senior.

My exploration then took me to memories of a particular friend: Marianne. An arts devotee, I met her at the ballet where I worked in my 20s. She was a volunteer and we connected over our love of the art form and the wild, creative nature of artists. Marianne’s company and conversation was as warm as the taper candles she always burned at her small dining table as we broke bread. We had traditions between us and often giggled like girls.

Marianne was 80. I was 28.

I felt so lucky to have this wise, worldly woman as my friend. Our pal-ship defied the age difference. What did my 28-year-old self love about my elderly friend? What was it that made our time together more unique than that spent with people my own age?

For one, Marianne exposed me to worlds I’d never known or would know in my lifetime. Her history was thick, fascinating and fraught with turbulence. Marianne also brought lived experiences that put things into focus for me.

She made me older, and I sensed I made her younger. She took serious interest in my observations about art and the world, my background, romantic antics and my life’s plans. As the tech boom hit, she sought my help with email and CDs. Though I know Marianne’s inclination to include young people like me in her circle was instinctual and not overly deliberate, she was on to something.

Intergenerational relationships have been dwindling since the 19th century and yet their potency to enrich both the young and old has been proven to be profound. Once upon a time, multigenerations worked together (on the farm, in factories and family businesses), schools did not separate classes by age and there was no incentive to retire, keeping older employees in the workforce long into aging.

For lots of good reasons (efficiency, abolishment of child labor and the establishment of the Social Security Act), we entered a phase of age segregation and have never looked back. One of the sad effects of this is the increasing isolation of seniors — put them together in retirement communities and nurs-

ing homes and what can happen? Learning halts, mobility deteriorates and spark fades.

Young people also miss out when they socialize exclusively with friends their own age. What do seniors and Gen Zers have most in common? A shared experience of loneliness. A full 73% of Gen Z report feeling lonely sometimes or often and 57% of seniors are experiencing loneliness. What a benefit to both the junior and senior to spend time together.

At a time in life when it’s harder to make new friends, this all seems good reason to widen the circle of possible new ones. Pals who are 15+ years younger quicken my adoption of technology and engage me in dispute over the status quo. They help me move fast. As for my friends 20+ years my senior? Well, these golden hearts slow me down. They value expansive conversation, all the while providing their personal experiences and insights that help shape my decisions and confidence.

My reconnection with Professor Wolf was the trigger I needed to tap into the wealth that intergenerational relationships can bring, the missing link. Whether you find yourself in the company of someone many years your junior or senior, open yourself to the possibility of shared experiences, mutual learning and the kind of friendship that transcends the perceived constraints of age.

A 28-year-old Keri Mesropov in 1997 with her 80-year-old bestie Marianne.

of Independence JOURNEY

How Sherry Ott Embraced

Her ContrarianFather’sLegacy

BY CARSON VAUGHAN ’10

Lee Ott just had to be different — or so it seemed to his youngest daughter, Sherry. She was still a teenager, and teenagers, she insisted, didn’t can their own vegetables. Not in Peoria, Illinois. In Peoria, Illinois — she was certain — teenagers lived in Peoria, Illinois, not playing farmer on the far side of the city line. They didn’t garden, she griped. They groceried, like normal people, safely cushioned in the status quo. But that wasn’t her dad. No. Her dad just “always had to be different — always had to be different.”

“I hated it. All my friends lived in subdivisions and rode around on their bikes,” she said. But the Otts? They hoed. They picked. They canned. They mowed. “He took pride in not doing what everyone else does, in raising his family very differently.”

Now 54 and a veteran travel blogger, she speaks about her father with a sort of winking irony, as if the joke was finally on her. After globetrotting for roughly 20 years — riding horseback through Mongolia, sailing the Nile on a felucca, kayaking in Antarctica — she’s now adjusting to what once seemed unfathomable: a studio apartment in Denver. We spoke via Zoom in late summer, a soft morning light spilling into her tiny and cluttered kitchen. She wore a zippered fleece and parted her bangs, blond and messy, and as she unpacked her father’s contrar-

ian nature, still smiling, one could hear a genuine irk creeping ever-so-slightly back into her voice.

“And have you inherited any of that yourself?” I asked, smiling back.

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “It’s actually, in some ways, my downfall.”

Her eyes scanned the ceiling, as if searching for a leak.

“Um … yeah,” she said again, slower this time. “Like, overboard.”

A self-declared “corporate cube dweller turned nomadic traveler,” Sherry Ott is the driving force — the mastermind, the entrepreneur, the C-suite at large — behind Ottsworld, one of the first travel blogs in the business. “But it’s not just about travel,” she writes, “it’s also about the life experiences of a middle-aged wanderer.” She boasts more than 42,000 followers on Twitter; 15,000 on Instagram; 11,000 on Facebook. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Oprah Daily, which listed her — despite her discomfort with the term — as one of ten middle-aged influencers “redefining what it means to be a social media superstar.”

After high school, when all her friends in Peoria were flocking to the University of Illinois and other in-state colleges, she enrolled at the University of Nebraska. It wasn’t entirely without precedent. Her parents were born and raised on neighboring farms near Pilger, in northeast Nebraska. Lee, a mechanical engineer, completed his undergraduate and masters degrees at UNL in 1962 and 1964, and both of her older siblings were Huskers, too. Much of her extended family still lived in the state.

“But the other big thing was something that has come to define me as a person,” she said, “which is that I didn’t want to go where everyone else was going.”

Go figure: Lee Ott’s youngest daughter just had to be different. But she didn’t know that — not yet. And so, it didn’t strike her as antithetical to complete her business administration degree in 1992 and start climbing the corporate ladder. She started in accounting at Union Pacific in Omaha, earning her MBA at Creighton U after dark. Swept away by the riptide of corporate America, however, she soon found herself swirling toward IT, instead, “a far more lucrative career.”

She moved to Minneapolis, then San Francisco and finally New York, marching — like a model young American, productive and pliant — from one IT gig to the next: Cotelligent, Best Buy, The Gap. Thanks to “a lot of good decisions and a little bit of luck,” she says, she landed a director-level role at Coach, the luxury handbag company, at just 33 years old. She was hiring and firing and managing million-dollar budgets. She was renting a swanky apartment on the Upper West Side. But she was tired, too. Exhausted, really. She missed the creativity afforded by her previous roles, the newness of experience, and after just a year on the

LEE OTT”S CAPITOL CONNECTION RULES

1. Must walk into and out of a capitol.

2. You don’t have to do it all at once. Lee Ott could walk three days on a route and do more years later.

3. You don’t have to do them in order or wait to finish one to start another.

Lee Ott had multiple routes in progress at once. In fact, when he stopped walking, he had seven routes in progress.

4. You never took a ride. Boots on the ground the entire way.

CAPITOL CAPITOL to

as of June 2024

job, she came to a quiet, if critical realization.

“My career chose me, I didn’t choose it,” she said.

“I just kept on saying yes, and I ended up on this path. I had climbed the ladder, which was great. But I also realized: I don’t want to climb the ladder. This isn’t that important to me.”

And so, our plucky young protagonist, buzzing with inspiration, marched into the boardroom, slid her resignation letter across a long glass table and booked the earliest flight out of JFK, destination be damned. She would have, anyway, but Sherry Ott’s still a Midwesterner, after all, “very logical and conservative,” she told me, and so she waited for her employee stocks to vest, instead. She planned meticulously, met regularly with a financial adviser, saved every penny and finally sublet her apartment, Walter Mitty-ing her way through another two years at Coach, dreaming of what she had slowly come to understand was her real passion: travel.

And then our plucky young protagonist, buzzing with inspiration, booked a flight from JFK.

Her plan wasn’t to launch a popular travel blog and Eat Pray Love her way around the globe. She just needed a break — a real one. She wanted to travel

the world for a year, “hit all the bucket list stuff,” and come home.

“And I was hoping that in that year, I would figure out life,” she said.

She flew to Nairobi first, experienced parts of Africa, then Asia, then Europe. Just three months in, while staring out a bus window in New Zealand, she realized there was no going back. Behind such a liberating thought, however, lurked another challenge. She could make it through the year on her savings, but the life of a digital nomad isn’t cheap. She could do without an apartment. Who needs a car? But eventually she’d need another source of income to float her from one destination to the next.

At the end of the year, she did return, briefly, to New York City. But instead of searching for another director-level role in corporate America, she completed her English as a Second Language certification, sold her apartment and moved to Vietnam, where — for over a year — she taught English in Saigon. She started selling stock photography, too, and freelancing, and consulting, and anything else she could find to sustain her dreams.

“Vietnam is where I learned to be really scrappy,” she said. “I would do anything, and I knew I could do anything.”

And it was in Vietnam that she finally began polishing the ragtag blog she’d kept since the beginning, mostly to keep friends and family informed. Up to that point, she’d placed such a low priority on the blog that even the name wasn’t really her own. Leaving New York, she’d shared with her coworkers an unintelligible URL, a random assortment of numbers and letters nobody could possibly remember. As a parting gift, one of her favorite consultants, “a big techy guy,” she said, bought her a new domain name. He called it Ottsworld (www.ottsworld.com). It stuck.

“I never could have come up with anything as good, and I would have been agonizing over it,” she said. “But it’s been so perfect. It’s been with me now for like 17, 18 years, and it’s covered all of these changes, and it still works.”

In 2008, she was still at the forefront of the travel blogging boom. And the more she prioritized Ottsworld, the more her freelancing opportunities increased. She built a significant following online, and her old corporate world took note. Brands and tourism boards began paying her to do exactly what she’d set out to do: travel, and take pictures, and share it all with her followers. And if that wasn’t enough to get her where she wanted to go, she now had the confidence to scrap her way through.

“None of my income is guaranteed which makes life quite stressful at times,” she wrote on the blog, but “it’s worth it to me in order to live life untethered.”

Thailand. Kazakhstan. Ukraine. Norway. Morocco. Australia. Patagonia. Jordan. Seventy countries? “Closer to 80,” she guessed, though she stopped counting years ago. After living from her backpack for the better part of 20 years — 11 without a home base at all — she’s now rich with memories the world over.

But one in particular remains as vivid as the day it happened. In the spring of 2012, Sherry embarked on a 500-mile, 33-day hike along the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Fellow hikers had warned her against the “meseta,” or the Spanish high plains. They called it boring, flat, plain, even ugly. Many taxi through, or skip it altogether.

“But I love an underdog,” she wrote, “and from the moment I had heard all of this bad talk about the meseta I had decided that I would like it — yes, I’m just that stubborn.”

And she did. She used that open landscape — so reminiscent of her beloved Midwest — to let her thoughts meander, uninterrupted by other hikers or screaming vistas or bustling towns. Cradled in the quiet, she formulated new business plans. She practiced rolling her Rs, natural to so many languages save her own. More than once, she wrote, she simply broke down, crying in the middle of an open

field, overwhelmed by memories, hopes, the blessing of life itself. Not “tears of sadness,” she wrote, but “tears of … well — I don’t really know…freedom of thought I guess.”

And in the midst of all this freedom, she passed a farmer tilling the land in his tractor. The smell of fresh dirt “hit me like a tidal wave,” she wrote, and suddenly there was her dad, tilling the garden she once despised, just outside of Peoria, Illinois; and there was her older brother, egging her on while the two of them begrudgingly planted peas; and there was every summer of her childhood unfurling before her, canning veggies and pulling weeds, and they weren’t so bad, really. In fact, they were pretty damn good, and here she was now, 33 years old and bucking every trend imaginable, a corporate refugee solohiking through the most boring part of the Camino de Santiago and loving every mile of it. And wouldn’t you know it? That reminded her of someone else.

“It kind of all bubbled up into, holy s---. How did I become my dad?”

Go figure.

In 1984, when Sherry was 14, Lee Ott concocted for himself a grand adventure. He’d already spent decades with Caterpillar as a mechanical engineer, designing new diesel engines for crawlers, generators, even boats and locomotives. A true company man, he had no plans to stop, but even after hours, he preferred — perhaps needed — a good project. After so many years in the outskirts of Peoria, his usual walking routes were growing stale. So, he pulled out his maps and started scheming, he said, and much

In mid-June Sherry Ott will be biking from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Lincoln, Nebraska. Follow along with her (@ottsworld) as she posts to her Instagram stories in real time. If you want to bike alongside her for a day, just message her.

Sherry Ott today with her parents, Lee and Marilyn Ott.

to Sherry’s dismay, he soon announced — “what the heck?” — what seemed to her a truly cockamamie idea: connecting every capitol building in the country — on foot.

“Oh, I hated it. It was just kind of the icing on the cake,” she said. “He never trained. It’s not like he was an active walker. And all of a sudden, my brother is taking my mom and dad down to Springfield, Illinois, to walk to Madison. And I’m just like, ‘I don’t understand you people at all.’ ”

But Sherry’s teenage dismay hardly fazed him. He kept at it, one state capitol building after another, walking away his holidays and vacation days and long weekends: Dover to Trenton; Providence to Boston; Denver to Cheyenne; Lansing and Nashville and more, armed with little more than his fanny pack, the walking stick he later found behind an abandoned tobacco barn in Kentucky, and a small cassette recorder on which he narrated the path beneath him.

“It gave you a lot of time to think,” Lee said. “You can make all kinds of crazy fantasy plans: doing this and doing that, going here or building that, or what am I gonna do when I retire?”

His wife, Marilyn, provided nearly all of his logistical support, picking him up each night at their predetermined rendezvous point, dropping him off again the next morning. By the time he turned 72, long after Sherry and her siblings had left the house, he’d crossed 23 capital cities off the list, walking roughly

4,000 miles. But when he retired and moved to South Dakota, his priorities began to shift. He and Marilyn had other plans, too, and they didn’t all entail county roads and capitol domes. As quietly as he began the project, he finally set it aside.

“I tried not to talk about it,” he said. “There’s no point in making a big deal about this.”

But as Sherry marched along the Camino de Santiago, lost in memories of her youth, she now beamed with admiration for her father’s cockamamie journey, perhaps a little cockamamie herself.

Just as Lee’s state capitol project came to an end, so, too, did Sherry’s nomadic lifestyle. After roughly a decade en route, she began to feel isolated, despite her following online. She missed that sense of rootedness, and the community that so often blooms around it.

“I miss relationships … like REAL relationships — ones you can count on to know you,” she wrote on the blog, faithfully recounting her decision, in 2017, to rent an apartment in Denver. “I’m tired of the guilt associated with always having to rely on others in my life. I’m tired of being a guest every night in a new bed.”

Which isn’t to say that she was suddenly a homebody; in fact, quite the opposite. She was still traveling roughly 80% of the year, still blogging, still grinding to pay the bills. Only when the COVID-

19 pandemic hit did she truly slow down and settle in. “For the first time ever,” she said, “I used my weekends like actual weekends.” She bought a bicycle. She explored her new city. And she finally told a friend about this blurry vision she had of one day finishing her father’s adventure; of exploring America’s capital cities, so often underdogs in their own state; of touring her own country at a slower pace.

Saying it aloud spurred her into second gear. The next time she visited her parents in South Dakota, she dug up her father’s audio notes, which at some point he’d transcribed and compiled in binders now gathering dust in his attic. To connect every remaining capitol building, most of them out west, Sherry would need to walk another 8,000 to 9,000 miles, an image that nearly sunk her passion. When she visualized the journey on wheels, however, the miles collapsed like a folding map, and that passion swelled once again. She floated the idea past her father.

“It just felt like I needed to have his blessing, even though he was never gonna give me that gushing (reaction),” she said, chalking it up to his GermanLutheran heritage. “I have so much admiration for the fact that he came up with something so different and cool that no one has done it. That’s rare in the world, and that excites me so much.”

Lee juggled his capitol project with work, squeezing the trips in where could. So does Sherry. At the moment, she’s aiming to complete four trips each year, for a total of seven years, and dreams of finishing the project in Washington D.C., she said, “where my goal is to ride up to the White House and meet the President when I finish.”

She started exactly where her father left off:

“Where my dad and I are very different is that I want to publicize it to everyone. I want to bring people along.”

Vienna, South Dakota, population 49, a little more than halfway between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Pierre. Before driving home, she finished the Pierre to Bismarck leg, as well, and several weeks later, Bismarck to Helena, Montana, where she parted cattle like the Red Sea and tossed back shots with her Russian Airbnb hostess, memories that reanimate her even now, over Zoom. Come this summer, she hopes to complete one more stretch especially close to her heart: Cheyenne to Lincoln, where her brother still lives, and where so many fond memories still reside.

For every trip, she recruits what she calls a “logistics queen” to travel by vehicle behind her, providing food, water, and whatever “cheerleading” she may need to rally. She’s also documenting the whole experience in a YouTube video series called Capitol to Capitol, produced by her friend and frequent travel partner, Michaela Potter at Wanderlust Productions.

“Where my dad and I are very different is that I want to publicize it to everyone,” Sherry said. “I want to bring people along.”

She knows that at 87 years old, her parents may not live to see her complete the project, “but if I project forward,” she said, “I realize it’s a way that I can continue to feel close and connected with them when they are gone.”

They track her live on every journey, and she calls after every ride. But she tries not to think too far ahead. For now, Sherry Ott just keeps pedaling, closing the miles between her vision and her father’s, daring for once to fall in line.

“She’s an independent gal, and she knows what she wants to do, and she’s doing it, and it’s fine with me,” Lee said.

“What the heck.”

HUSKERS DISPLAY METTLE FOR MEDALS

What has longer range, Keisei Tominaga’s shooting touch or his smile?

At the Paris Olympics this summer, the fan favorite from the Husker men’s basketball team should display both for his home country.

The “Japanese Steph Curry,’’ who already has Olympic experience from playing 3x3 basketball at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, is one of several Huskers expected to compete in the Summer Games that run from July 26 to August 11.

The Huskers have had at least eight athletes participate in each of the past 10 Summer Olympics.

Women’s gymnast Csenge Bácskay will be on the Hungarian team. Women’s shot putter Axelina Johansson will compete for Sweden.

Four former Husker volleyball standouts are hoping for Olympic returns. The pool for the U.S. women’s volleyball team includes captain Jordan Larson (’08), Kelsey (Robinson) Cook (’13) and Justine Wong-Orantes (’16). In women’s beach volleyball,

say Toe-me-nawga) has been a sensation in Japan since he was a teenager. His time with the Huskers made him a viral sensation in the U.S. — he has 219,000 followers on Instagram and 83,000 on X (formerly Twitter) — because of his playing ability and his emotions.

His parents, who live in Nagoya, Japan, have basketball backgrounds. His father, Hiroyuki, who is nine inches taller than his 6-foot-2 son, played center for Japan in the 1998 Basketball World Championship and then professionally in Japan. His mother, Hitomi, also played the sport.

At the Tominaga home, there were hoops everywhere, in every room. Including the bathroom.

Keisei played in two Asian Championships for Japan’s under-18 national team, where his quick-release deep shots now being called “logo 3-pointers” brought attention.

Encouraged by his parents to play at an American college in hopes of achieving his dream of pro basketball, Tominaga first went to junior college in Texas. He committed to the Huskers early in his freshman year at Ranger College, where he played

“Shooting from half court. That was the thing that I liked,’’ Husker Men’s Basketball Coach Fred Hoiberg said during the 2024 NCAA

“The thing that I loved was his confidence. You see him out there playing with a joy and a confidence and a swagger. That’s why he’s able to play against more athletic, more physical players, is because he plays with that drive and he plays with that joy and confident swagger every time he steps on the

Before playing in his first game at UNL, Tominaga made Japan’s 3x3 team for the Tokyo Olympics that were delayed a year by the global pandemic. Before his senior year with the Huskers, he came off

Blue: Jordan Larson

Black: Keisei Tominaga

Red: Csenge Bácskay

Gold: Axelina Johansson

Green: Kelsey (Robinson) Cook

the bench at the FIBA World Cup for six 3-point field goals in the win that secured Japan’s advancement to the Paris Olympics.

In his three seasons with the Huskers, Tominaga scored more than 1,000 points. This past season, when he made the coaches’ All-Big Ten second team, he led the Huskers in scoring, averaging 15.1 points a game on their first NCAA Tournament team in a decade.

“His play speaks for itself.” Hoiberg said. “But what he has done from a leadership standpoint to how he has ingrained himself in the community, he’s one of the most popular players not only in

Japan Times, one of the many Japanese news outlets that increasingly tracked his Husker career. “I was just playing basketball. But when I watched film and highlights of myself it seemed like I’m trying to copy his playing style. I don’t really think about it in games. But I think the more I watch highlights of Steph Curry, the more I play like him.

“I’m always having fun. I think that’s why the emotions come up. I never think, ‘Oh, what am I going to do today, what celebration am I going to do today?’ In the game, it comes naturally. I think I’m just having fun playing basketball.”

The 3x3 event competition runs from July 27

“I think that’s going to be huge not only for me, but also the program.”

Justine Wong-Orantes

Nebraska but in the country. You see people from all different fan bases just enamored by him.

“I guess when you’re 6-foot-1 and you’re not very athletic, you’re kind of seen as that underdog and people root for the underdog.

“I just love the kid. I told him in the locker room, he now gets to go represent his country in the Olympic Games. How cool is that, for Keisei now to move on to the next phase of his career? That’s where it starts. He’s just got that skill set that’s so unique, especially with analytics the way they are now.”

Although he wears No. 30 like Curry, has the green light to shoot from wherever like Curry, plays with abandon like Curry, and celebrates on the court like Curry, Tominaga said he hasn’t intentionally copied the playing style of the Golden State Warriors guard who’s starred on four NBA Championship teams.

“I didn’t notice it that much,” Tominaga told The

through Aug. 11.

Csenge Bácskay (who just completed her sophomore year at UNL) couldn’t fathom, as the second alternate in her event, that a second chance would come her way to be in Paris.

At the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships in Belgium, she was 11th in the preliminaries of the vaulting competition. The top nine advanced to the finals — automatic qualification for the Olympics.

It was on the bus ride back to the finals that her coach learned two of the nine in the finals withdrew because of injuries. A rare occurrence. Bácskay was in the finals. In the Olympics.

“I had 45 minutes to get my head right and shift my mindset,’’ she said in a personal essay on Huskers.com. “Just a few minutes before, I was trying to look at the positives of just missing out on my dream, and in an instant, everything changed. In that respect, you’d think this would’ve taken the pressure off me.

Justine WongOrantes played for the Huskers from 2013-16.

“This weekend held a lot of firsts for our team, but winning our first medal together definitely tops the list.”

Sarah Pavan, was the 2006 National Player of the Year

“It was so stressful because this was a moment I waited my entire life for, and in the back of my mind, I feared for the worst.

Performing my routine without getting injured is what I worried about the most.

“But when it was time to go out there, I put all of my worries to the side. I didn’t even think about the Olympics. I just wanted to get through my routine and deliver it to the best of my ability. After I competed in the final, it was a mix of disbelief and joy. I couldn’t believe that I had made it to that point and was one step closer to accomplishing my dream of competing in the Olympics.”

Bácskay will compete in the Olympics during the women’s vault qualifications on July 28, with the events running Aug. 3-5.

Axelina Johansson made her path to UNL through the Huskers’ Head Coach Justin St. Clair, who also coaches NU’s throwers. Her coach in Hok, Sweden, had been St. Clair’s college teammate.

Johansson was bound for North Dakota State, where St. Clair had been throws coach, until he left there for Lincoln three years ago.

A graphic design major who started college at 21,

Johansson is a junior.

The Academic All-American was the 2023 NCAA champion, the third in shot put for the Huskers. So dominant was her performance that each of her six attempts would have won the gold medal.

While sitting out the 2024 college indoor season to recover from a hamstring injury, Johansson finished eighth in the World Indoor championships while representing her home country.

In Paris, she’ll be in a Sweden uniform again.

“It’s been a childhood dream for so long and now it’s coming up,” she said. “It’s kind of surreal.”

Johansson will compete in the Aug. 8 preliminary round, with the finals on Aug. 9.

Jordan Larson, Kelsey (Robinson) Cook and Justine Wong-Orantes are the Huskers’ Olympic volleyball threesome who would like to be together one last time at these Games.

Larson joined the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2009, Cook in 2014 and Wong-Orantes in 2016.

They helped the U.S. bring home gold for the first time in Tokyo. Larson, who has been team captain since 2017, was named the best outside hitter and the event’s MVP; Wong-Orantes the best libero.

Larson has been a full-time assistant for John Cook’s Huskers, who were NCAA runners-up in 2023. She bypassed returning to professional volleyball after the college season so she could train for Paris.

If she plays in her fourth Olympics, when she’d be nearly 38 years old, Larson would be the second-oldest female Olympic volleyball player of all time. She is one of only two U.S. female indoor volleyball players to be a three-time Olympic medalist and only the sixth Husker to be on an Olympic medal stand three times.

“I think I’d be lying to say that I don’t think about how old I am some days. I didn’t think that I would be still in it at this point in my life,’’ Larson said. “I’m blessed to step on the court every day. I get to put my knee pads on every day and still try to prove to myself that I’ve still got it. I’m surrounded by girls that push me every day to be the best of that. I take it as a challenge.”

Cook prepped for the U.S. National team workouts by starring on the winning team in the Italian pro league during its 2023-24 season that wrapped up in February.

“I don’t want to have any regrets when it comes to Paris, and I just want to know that I gave my whole self to it,” Cook said.

Wong-Orantes played professionally in France before joining the U.S. National Team at its training center in southern California.

“What I’m trying to prove to myself is trying to make that second Olympic roster,’’ she said. “I think that’s going to be huge not only for me, but also the program trying to go on that Olympic stage and win another gold medal.”

The only Husker who has won multiple gold medals is Penny Heyns, the only woman to win the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events in the same Olympics, in Atlanta in 1996.

Women’s volleyball begins on July 28, with the finals on Aug. 10.

Sarah Pavan has a new playing partner in her bid for a third Olympic year in beach volleyball.

She and Molly McBain won the bronze medal at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge last fall.

“This weekend held a lot of firsts for our team, but winning our first medal together definitely tops the list,” Pavan told Volleyball Canada. “It is so exciting to see the improvement our team has made in such a short time, and I am really proud of Molly for her performance.”

Pavan played in the past two Olympics. In Tokyo, she and Melissa Humana-Paredes were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

She was one of the first four senior carded (paid) athletes on Volleyball Canada’s 2024 National Beach Volleyball Team.

Beach volleyball competition runs daily from July 27 to August 10, as it is a popular event for U.S. television audiences.

With many U.S. Olympic qualifying events held after the close of the college seasons, there could be more current and former Huskers gazing at the Eiffel Tower in late July.

FEATURED BOOKS BY NEBRASKA ALUMNI, FACULTY AND STAFF

NEBRASKAAuthors

Nebraska Roots

A Memoir About Coming Of Age

In The Nebraska Sandhills

Leah Lambert (’71)

Leah Lambert narrates her eventful life from a one-room schoolhouse in the 1950s through the tumultuous cultural changes of the 1960s at the University of Nebraska. A poignant and honest tale of a woman living through decades of unprecedented change. Available at Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Saving Arapahoe

Joel Schnoor (’84)

It’s 1878 in Arapahoe, Nebraska. A potential attack by the Cheyenne has sparked fear in settlers’ hearts. Based on writings by the author’s great-grandfather, this page-turning third book in the Johnny Stevens Pioneer Adventures is based on actual events. Available at Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Shakespeare’s Conspirator

The Woman, The Writer, The Clues

Steve Weitzenkorn (’73, ’77)

Did a shunned, exotic woman write many of Shakespeare’s plays? Meet Emilia Bassano Lanyer. Discover the embedded clues, experience her dilemmas and live her peril. This historical, easy-to-read novel reveals a cloaked Shakespearean world in which little is as it seems. Learn more at ShakespearesConspirator.com. Available at Amazon.com

The Boy in the Pink Convertible

Jill Haymaker (’95)

What secrets does a photograph hold? Why can’t Megan nd someone who looks at her with the same adoration as a little boy in the dusty old photo? Can one small photo change the course of her life? If you enjoy emotional journeys, you’ll love this heartwarming tale of self-discovery and love. Available at Amazon.com

On Warriors’ Wings

Army Vietnam War Helicopters and the Native Americans They Were Named to Honor

David Napoliello (’68)

This seminal work traces the evolution of the Army policy to name aircraft with Native American tribes and warrior chiefs. Memorializing the Native American veterans who served as pilots or crew members of these aircraft, the book provides rst-person accounts of their tours of duty in Vietnam. Available at Amazon.com

Boost!

50 Legs Up to Become a Better Business Leader

Thomas E. Henning (’75)

This book conveys some of the most important lessons on business leadership the author learned over more than 30 years as a CEO. Practical lessons which any aspiring business leader can immediately use to help them achieve their own business success. Available at Amazon.com or email tom@henningllc.com ADVERTISE your book in our next edition of Nebraska Quarterly

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Yucky!

Dr. Kevin Smith (’99)

Educational, entertaining, and relatable, Yucky! follows Lilly’s math struggles until the right teacher comes along and shows her that math can be fun. Once Lilly sees math can speak to her creative side, she realizes—maybe math isn’t so YUCKY!” Available at Amazon.com or kevindsmith.org/yucky

We are grateful for the university priorities that passed in 2024, thanks to our partnership with the Nebraska Legislature. We are also grateful that the university did not receive a mid-biennium cut, which puts us in a good position until the 2025 legislative session. The University of Nebraska now turns its gaze to the 2025 legislative session, which will set the biennial budget for the university and its four campues—including UNL.

Here are several milestones ahead of us. The Board of Regents will approve the university’s 2025-2027 budget in June, which sets guidelines for our legislative budget request. The university turns in its budget submission to the state this fall for consideration. Governor Pillen will put his budget recommendations out in January 2025, including his recommendation for the university. An agency hearing for our institution with the Appropriations Committee gives us an opportunity to publicly discuss our budget ask.

During this process, we will be in ongoing conversations with members of the legislature, the Appropriations Committee, and the governor.

We will see major change in the legislative body next session. 15 of the 49 senators will be new, given term limits or simply choosing not to run for re-election. This means 30% of the body will be new. Although this is a challenge, it also gives us a chance to educate new senators on the value of the university.

There will be significant pressure to cut state spending

in 2025, which will have a direct impact on our budget. The University of Nebraska’s operating budget, which supports paying university faculty and staff and keeping the lights on, relies largely on state support and tuition. 62 percent is funded by the state; the difference is funded primarily by tuition. Strong state support helps keep our tuition low, making UNL affordable for Nebraskans.

Together, we have the opportunity to demonstrate to the Nebraska Legislature that Nebraskans believe in our university’s ability to make a difference.

To help support a strong future for UNL, it’s more important than ever for Huskers to engage with our state legislators. Write or email your state senator and tell them how UNL 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 make a difference.

57

MYSTERY PHOTO

Do you know these college students from 1966?

58

CLASS QUOTES

Where did you settle after graduation and why?

60

ITEMIZED She snagged her dad’s 1954 sweater and still wears it.

64

LOVE STORY

These law school students all found love at UNL.

BULLETIN

Growing up in landlocked Nebraska, Carmen (Blausey) Thomson (’98) would never have dreamed of one day being in charge of a national seashore. Yet that is just what happened last fall to the 22-year veteran of the National Park Service who left her administrative job in Omaha and moved across the country to take on the role of a lifetime as the superintendent of Canaveral National Seashore located on the east coast of Florida.

EVENTS

JUNE 22

DENVER

Nebraska Night at the Rockies

A ticket to the Colorado Rockies vs. Washington Nationals game supports your alumni association and scores you a limited-edition Huskers-themed Rockies bucket hat.

JULY 12

LINCOLN Future Husker University

The 7th annual event for kids ages 7-13 and their families to experience a day-inthe-life of a Nebraska student is here. Attend classes led by the colleges, enjoy dining hall meals and tour the university.

JULY 20

KANSAS CITY

Nebraska Night at The K Show solidarity with the Royals as they face off with the Chicago White Sox while also staying true to Nebraska: Your co-branded crewneck will be waiting for you before first pitch.

AUG. 13

LINCOLN Adventure Travel Showcase

Join Nebraska alumni and fans as the NAA’s travel partners answer all your questions on 2025 trip opportunities.

Alumni Profile

Super-Duper Super

From landlocked Nebraska to the Canaveral National Seashore

BY TONY MOTON (’98)

As an all-conference cross-country runner her senior year at Gering (Nebraska) High School, Carmen (Blausey) Thomson (’98) entertained the idea of hitting the road as a college athlete. After all, distance running gave her a chance to perform in the great outdoors, which is where Thomson was most comfortable.

There was only one problem. She discovered running miles upon miles wasn’t in her bag after starting her collegiate career at Nebraska’s Wayne State College.

“After I arrived, I quickly realized that being a college athlete and having a full-time course load was pretty tough,” Thomson said. “It was like having two full-time jobs and it was a lot to balance. I decided I’d rather focus on school than sports, and that was pretty much the end of collegiate athletics for me.”

Hitting the library didn’t end Thomson’s affinity for the great outdoors, however. After her sophomore year at Wayne State, Thomson transferred to UNL and ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in 1998.

It would take 25 years until she had a chance to scratch her early cross-country itch. That’s when the 22-year veteran of the National Park Service (NPS) left her administrative job in Omaha and moved across the country to take on the role of a lifetime. Last September, Thomson was selected as the new superintendent of Canaveral National Seashore located on the east coast of Florida between Titusville and New Smyrna Beach.

The long-distance trip of 1,474 miles — by car, at least — from Omaha was the ultimate form of wish fulfillment for Thomson. She’s now the supervi-

sory park ranger at one of the country’s most scenic and historic natural landmarks with views of the neighboring John F. Kennedy Space Center and easy access to Playalinda Beach and the nearby Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Canaveral National Seashore’s website boasts the park “contains nearly 58,000 acres of barrier island, open lagoon, coastal hammock, pine flatwoods and offshore waters. With 24 miles of pristine beach, it is prime habitat for many threatened and endangered species providing nesting beaches for several thousand protected marine turtles.”

“I feel so incredibly lucky that I got this position,” said Thomson, who previously resided in Council Bluffs while working in Omaha. “It’s just such an incredible feeling to wake up every day and know that you get to work in a place as beautiful as this park and with such dedicated staff. Everybody is working so hard toward the same mission, which is to conserve it unimpaired for future generations.”

Thomson’s new role is something of a full-circle position as far as working daily in an outdoors setting. After earning a master’s degree in wildlife and fisheries management from South Dakota State University, Thomson began her career as a natural resource management specialist at Nebraska’s Niobrara National Scenic River in Valentine. She credits her education in Lincoln for helping stir her interest in supervising park operations for a living. That she now works at one with significant marine attributes only makes the job sweeter.

“I thought I was going to be a biologist at a state agency,” Thomson said. “I was a forestry, fishery and wildlife major, but I knew I wanted to do something more on the aquatic side of the house. Being a park superintendent was not on my radar.”

The radar took a while to locate Thomson’s career objective, but in the fall of 1997 at UNL, Thomson took at Natural Resources Policy course with Bob Kuzelka, now an emeritus associate professor in the School of Natural Resources. One of Kuzelka’s guest lecturers was Paul Hedren, who was the park superintendent at Niobrara National Scenic River. Four years later, Hedren hired Thomson for her first NPS job at Niobrara.

In her role, Thomson served as a resource management specialist and oversaw cultural and natural resources programs for the park. “In a park that small, you wear a lot of hats. You’re a jack of all trades and a master of none. ... Mostly it was about building relationships.”

In 2005, Thomson switched paths and found herself leaving the park life. She was hired as inventory

and monitoring (I&M) program manager for the NPS Midwest Region in Omaha. In that posi tion her work was more admin istrative, including financial, supervisory and operational responsibilities for several I&M networks.

On top of that, Thomson had roles as both Midwest Region chair and co-chair of the NPS Invasive Plant Management Team Advisory Group and was appointed by former governor Dave Heineman to serve as the NPS representative to the Nebraska Invasive Species Council from 2012-22.

During her tenure in the Omaha office, Thomson dipped her toes into the waters of park supervi sion with the completion of several leadership and temporary assignments, including acting superintendent of Tallgrass Prairie and Preserve in Strong City, Kansas, in 2016 and — as fate would have it — Canaveral National Seashore in 2021. Being able to twice serve as a superintendent of large parks on a short-term basis prepped Thomas for the inevitable.

added about Canaveral. “The allure is to see the day-to-day operations in a park and experience the beauty of those places. Nothing is more well suited for her than to be where she is and doing what she’s doing.”

Wearing her superintendent’s hat at Canaveral, Thomson is involved in all aspects of park management, including facilities, safety, education, outreach, volunteer programs, the administration of budgets and contracts and the supervision of all program leads. She’s been heavily involved in hurricane preparedness, visitor safety and the erosion of dunes. Thomson even gets to rub shoulders with the neighboring bigwigs at NASA and the Kennedy Space Center.

“I have not met the new director of the Kennedy Space Center yet, but I have met their new director of security,” Thomson said, referring respectively to Janet Petro and Eric Provost Sr. “They do have some assets in the park they need to access, like cameras that they use when they launch rockets.”

“When I got my first (temp assignment), I got the bug,” Thomson said of the Tallgrass Prairie stint in 2016. “That’s when I said to myself, ‘I think this is what I want to do.’ ”

Of her first experience with Canaveral, Thomson added: “I fell in love with the park and the area and the staff.”

Nancy Finley, associate regional director for the Midwest Region of the National Park Service, wasn’t surprised by Thomson’s interest in Canaveral. Finley was Thomson’s boss twice in the Omaha office, sandwiched around Finley’s stint as the chief of the Yellowstone Center for Resources in Yellowstone National Park. The first time Finley managed Thomson was in 2015, right after Finley had moved to Omaha after serving as a refuge complex manager at Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge.

“I remember someone bright and articulate who loved the program and had enthusiasm for helping parks. I had come from the Florida Keys, so we had lots of conversations about (Florida). Would she like it there? I talked about the good and the bad about the place, and she had an interest in a tropical place after being a Midwestern gal all her life.

“I think she can handle it extremely well,” Finley

With a laugh, Thomson added: “I think they have a weather station, too. But I’m not sure. I’m still learning all of this. They’re throwing a lot at me all at once.”

But Thomson wouldn’t want to have it any other way. She confidently moved across country to fulfill a job that takes advantage of her schooling and job experiences honed primarily in Nebraska and on the UNL campus. For evidence, one need look no further than the front lawn of her new Florida home. That’s where a conspicuous red “N” (made of heavy metal, no less) stands tall in a rock garden and has been “quite the conversation piece” in Thomson’s new neighborhood her first few months on Florida soil.

“My parents instilled in me a work ethic,” Thomson recalled. “I’ve tried to carry that through all aspects of my life through college, in previous jobs, raising my kids and teaching them the importance of hard work and now in this current job.

“You have to be able to overcome and adapt,” she added. “That strong work ethic was instilled in me, but more importantly having a positive outlook has transferred to my new position and trickled down to my staff here, too. Up next is introducing them to chili and cinnamon rolls.”

Once a Husker, always a Husker.

Carmen Thomson at a Husker women’s soccer match in 2019.

Alumni Profiles

The Teachers’ Journeys

Classroom ingenuity lead two Huskers to $25,000 award

BY KEVIN WARNEKE (’85,

’12)

It’s minutes before Jacob Eitzen’s advanced placement statistics students begin filing into his classroom, and the Bellevue West High School mathematics teacher is primed to discuss Big Ten basketball officiating with them.

On this Wednesday morning, Eitzen (’14) challenges his students to develop a case that Big Ten officials routinely favor the home team with

their calls. Together, they’ll propose a hypothesis, gather the data, apply the appropriate mathematical formulas, and evaluate the results.

The impetus for this day’s classroom challenge to learn how to test a hypothesis, Eitzen explained, came during a conversation with other Bellevue West teachers who called out the officiating in a late-season Husker loss on the road. Eitzen realized he could convert this conversation into an opportunity to apply statistics to everyday situations, even college basketball.

“I don’t always focus on sports,” he said. “I know not all my students are into sports. Some are into choir, art, drama. I try to bring topics into my classroom that are important to them.”

Forty miles to the south and one week later, Leslie McIntosh (’11) prepares to introduce her fifth-grade students at Syracuse Middle School to rhythm and alliteration. She grabs their attention by reading her favorite poem – Bleezer’s Ice Cream.

McIntosh introduces Bleezer, who runs Bleezer’s Ice Cream Store, and the many flavors he has in his freezer. “…twenty-eight divine creations too deli-

Jacob Eitzen is applauded as he is announced a recipient of a Milken Educator Award at Bellevue West High School in November.

cious to resist,” she reads, “why not do yourself a favor, try the flavors on my list: Cocoa Mocha Macaroni, Tapioca Smoked Baloney, Checkerberry Cheddar Chew.”

And so it goes and the many entries draw cheers and a few jeers from McIntosh’s students. When she’s finished reading, McIntosh asks her students to identify the words that have rhythm. Those words, she explains, have the same sounds at the end. Those words have rhythm, she said, because they rhyme. Words that start with the same sounds, she adds, are examples of alliteration.

Once they’ve mastered these concepts, McIntosh challenges them to create their own ice cream concoctions featuring at least three words with alliteration. She shares her own example — Strawberry Cereal Swirl — pointing out that cereal starts with a different letter than the others. Does that matter with alliteration, she asks? Almost in unison, her students respond in the negative. Then, McIntosh provides samples of her ice cream concoction: swirl ice cream, strawberry syrup and strawberry Cheerios, which her students willingly accept.

Eitzen and McIntosh have this in common: They considered other professions — he ministry; she business — before pursuing education and earning their teaching degrees at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They are passionate about their profession, and they constantly look for ways to better engage their students. And one more thing: Eitzen and McIntosh are recent recipients of the Milken Educator Award.

A select group of educators throughout the United States receive the annual award, which comes from the Milken Family Foundation. The honor, which is kept secret until presented at a ceremony at the recipient’s school, is typically awarded to early-to-midcareer education professionals for their achievements in the classroom. Each recipient also receives $25,000.

Back to statistics and Big Ten officiating. Eitzen provides his students with a list of fouls called against Nebraska at home and away — and also for the Huskers’ opponents in each contest. He encourages his students to look for disparities, which they quickly identify.

“Is there a proportionately skewed result here? Do Big Ten refs tend to call fouls against the away team more than the home team?” he asks his students.

“I think we already have an answer to this question,” a student replies.

So, they find out. Eitzen reminds his students of the components they need to build their case. He

explains such concepts as a null hypothesis, true proportions, assumptions and random selection. With the concepts in place, Eitzen challenges his students to get busy defending their hypothesis.

When they’re finished, his students discovered that the results were inconclusive and Big Ten refer-

ees could live to officiate another day.

Eitzen said he originally planned to major in psychology, which he figured would help him in youth ministry. When his initial psychology course didn’t grab his attention, he found himself sitting at a table in Love Library contemplating his career choices.

“I remember thinking ‘I’ll go into teaching. I will be working with young people and can play a part in influencing the next generation.’ ”

His first education class — with Lorraine Males, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Sciences — captured and kept his attention. Males had her students take turns teaching assigned concepts. “I realized this was something I would enjoy and something I might be good at,” Eitzen said.

Fifth-grade teacher Leslie McIntosh is stunned as she realizes she is the reason that an all-school assembly was called, to name her a Milken Educator Award winner.

Males said she could tell early on that Eitzen would make an excellent educator. “He was always looking for ways to engage students and not just talk to them, but talk with them and learn from them,” Males recalled.

Eitzen, a native of Portland, Oregon, had ties to Nebraska and remained after college. He married Nebraskan Sara Mellema (’14), who was also a math major, and the couple has three children. He later earned a master’s degree in mathematics.

While he enjoys his time in the classroom, Eitzen said, he also enjoys finding ways to improve the educational systems at Bellevue West, especially if it means working with data.

“Jacob is a spreadsheet savant,” his colleague Matt Lauritsen (’11) said. “He has a special relationship with spreadsheets. If there is a quality spreadsheet we’re reviewing, Jacob had a hand in it.”

Back to McIntosh, her students and their ice cream creations. After a few mistrials, they catch on, offering such combinations as Lemon Lime Lasagna, Blueberry Banana Bread and Berry Butter Bacon Bites.

McIntosh, who grew up in Syracuse and returned home to teach after five years in Palmyra, refreshes her classroom curriculum each year. Some exercises — such as using Bleezer’s Ice Cream to introduce rhythm and alliteration — are regulars.

Another example of a standard is writing scary stories. She provides her students with a prompt and allows their creativity to guide them. One student’s prompt may be: “I was walking along a gravel road when suddenly…” or another’s: “I woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror. I couldn’t believe the face I saw staring at me…”

Her students develop their characters and incorporate a sequence into their stories, but not always a resolution. They finish their stories in time for Halloween. “We share our scary stories with the lights out.”

This year and prior to an exam, McIntosh had her students portray the figures who played roles in the Olive Branch petition, which was a last attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the 13 Colonies.

“They had a ball. The kids keep asking to do it again.” And her students did well on the test that followed. “The exercise helped them understand the story and that it’s less about memorizing the facts.”

McIntosh is a natural teacher, said Gina (Veeder) Christensen (’01, ’08), a colleague at Palmyra. Even as a new teacher, Christensen recalled, McIntosh showed maturity. “I think she’s an old soul. She’s

beyond her years.” McIntosh has another characteristic that is critical for teachers, Christensen said: “She very much is a person who cares for each student as an individual.”

Although she first considered business as a career, McIntosh knew that education was always a strong option. Her mother is a teacher, as is an aunt. The tipping point, however, wasn’t an educator who influenced her or a course that pulled her in. It was a relationship she developed with a kindergarten student through Big Brothers Big Sisters. The girl had some behavioral issues, McIntosh recalled, and just needed a positive role model in her life. “I had my epiphany: I should be a teacher.”

Her marriage to Ryan McIntosh (’10, ’14), two master’s degrees and four children later, McIntosh (she was a Watermeier) and her family are at home in Syracuse. This school year marks her final one in the classroom. But McIntosh won’t be far away — in January she was named middle school principal.

“I’ll miss the opportunities to spark my students’ curiosity,” she said. “On the other hand, I can find those opportunities by being a teacher for the other teachers.”

Jacob Eitzen on his graduation day in 2014 with Dr. Lorraine Males.

MYSTERY PHOTO DO YOU KNOW THESE STUDENTS?

Pound Hall 1966

University Libraries Archives & Special Collections has stacks of photos that could be enhanced with more information about who, what, when, where or why the photograph was taken. We’re hoping you will help us play detective. Do you recognize any of these college students during a Halloween skit at Pound Hall in 1966? If so, help us fill in the details of this mystery photograph. We’ll publish our findings in the fall edition of Nebraska Quarterly

LET US KNOW

Email your educated guesses or concrete identifications to grace.fitzgibbon@huskeralum.org.

Before its 2019 sesquicentennial revival, Cornstock — Nebraska’s answer to music festival Woodstock — was a regular fixture on East Campus starting in the 1970s. Alumni wrote in to speculate these students were spread out at the East Campus Mall for Cornstock 7 on April 29, 1977, applauding Midwest rock band Head East.

1977

Class Quotes BULLETIN

Where did you settle after college and why?

1968

“In the summer of 1968 I picked up my future wife at the women’s residence hall in a 1965 Mustang loaded with all our possessions. As we left campus I got distracted, coasted through a stop sign entering 14th street and blinking police lights brought us to a halt. ‘Officer,’ I said, ‘I apologize for the oversight as I graduated today and we are leaving Lincoln moving to Houston, Texas.’ He responded ‘Congratulations, drive safely.’ ”

William “Bud” (’68) and Joann Hunnel met working at Montgomery Ward at Gateway Mall. Their fathers were managers at the same store, and both families transferred to Houston by coincidence. They now live in Spring, Texas, but remain true Cornhuskers.

1950s

“I married a vet when I graduated from the business college, and we ultimately ended up in Boulder, Colorado, and then Montana where I taught in a small high school. I taught all the secretarial and business courses.”

1983

“I moved to Kansas City immediately after college. Near the end of my fourth year of engineering school (it took me five years to graduate) I applied for a scholarship from Black & Veatch, a Kansas City-based consulting engineering firm. I won the scholarship and then worked as a summer intern and ultimately full-time for four decades.”

Tim Bruggeman (’83) worked for Black & Veatch on power generation projects in numerous locations in the United States, as well as projects in Asia, Africa, and South and Central America. After living for four years in Thailand, six years in South Africa, a year and a half in China, and two years in Brazil, he has settled for retirement in Shawnee, Kansas.

1970s

“I used my logistics minor to become a professional

Liz (Banghart) Fouts (’59) lives in Lone Tree, Colorado, and has written about her life for the seniors’ publication at her church, such as the time her husband, Darrell, crashed their plane in the mountains of Montana and walked out with their 12-yearold daughter.

semi driver. I have been in all of the lower 48 states. The last 15 years, I drove locally so I could be with my family.”

Terry Rinke (’76) retired at 48 and now lives in Buhler, Kansas.

1980s

“Within one week of graduating I packed my two-door sedan with all my possessions

and headed west on I-80. I stopped when I got to Golden, Colorado, where I moved into the basement of my ex-college roommate’s parents’ home while I searched for a job. I ended up staying in the Denver area until I got married seven years later and moved on to California.”

Steve Moya (’81)

is a partner in B2B CFO, a national strategic business advisory firm.

“I never settled after my graduation and Air Force ROTC commissioning ceremonies. I’ve lived in 13 different places and was given the opportunity to spend time in 20 different countries around the world.

Kenneth Joseph (Joe) Brownell (’89) retired as a colonel, settled in Lincoln and is now the executive director of Military Relations and Military and Veteran Success Center at UNL.

He is married to Kim Whittemore Brownell and has two adult children, Clay Brownell, and Bradyn Brownell Holdsworth (’17), all with ties to the U.S. Air Force.

“I bought a 1988 Chevy Beretta with my graduation money and drove to Florida to work for the St. Petersburg Times where I had landed my dream internship.”

Kirstin Swanson Wilder (’89), is excited about her oldest daughter entering UNL in the fall as a theater arts major.

1990s

“I settled in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. I joined a pharmaceutical company, joined the local Cornhusker alumni club, and met my wife. Then my parents declined and needed care from their only son — me.”

Brian Jones (’95) has been a Nebraska Alumni Association life member since 1999.

“After graduation I packed up a U-Haul and drove back to New York because I missed good pizza and bagels, but the people and community at UNL forever left a positive impression that influenced my career.”

1997

“I settled in Texas, and it was in large part because of the creative, supportive and progressive leadership in the Teachers College at UNL. In the spring of 1997, I was readying for a student teaching experience that fall and looking forward to a career teaching secondary English and coaching. I spent the fall of 1997 student teaching at Eisenhower High School in Aldine Independent School District in Texas.”

Rhonda (Tennant) Dunn (’97) has been married for over two decades to a fellow teacher and coach. Their daughter attends UNL and is studying to be a teacher.

Anthony Brower (’96, ’98) is a global director of sustainability at Gensler and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. He was recently elevated to the AIA College of Fellows, a designation given to only 3% of architects.

“I settled in Norfolk, Nebraska, because my twin sister lived there and I seem to unintentionally follow her. I have a good job using my agronomy degrees, and I have found a community in which to thrive and accept me — encouraging

me to publish my first poetry book, Horizons.”

Julie Paschold (’98, ’01) has written over 900 poems and published Horizons, a collection that celebrates soil and the natural world, with Atmosphere Press.

2000s

“I was determined to put my interior design degree to work in Lincoln, but then ran into a friend at church who was visiting from San Antonio, Texas. I asked this friend if I could stay with her in San Antonio as I did some job searching. I quickly found a job, a roommate and a place to live.”

Amber (Lechtenberger) Chandler (’02) has three children and remains in Texas, though is grateful for the opportunities she has to visit Nebraska.

“I got hired by a radio station in Bishop,

California. I drove across the country in my Chevy Lumina with a suspended license (stupid speeding tickets) and spent a year spinning country tunes by day and calling high school sports by night in a very cozy, welcoming, Nebraska-like California town.”

Jeff Sheldon (’04) has spent his post-college years working in media and for nonprofits. Currently, he works for the Nebraska Alumni Association.

After graduation, I lived in Columbus, Nebraska, and Austin, Texas, but returned to Lincoln each time. It makes sense for someone named Lincoln to live in Lincoln-town, despite any

extra confusion that has caused. The sense of community and connections made through the past decade have made Lincoln feel like home.”

Lincoln Arneal (‘04, ‘10) is the assistant vice president of leadership and policy for Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. He also covers Nebraska volleyball for Huskers Illustrated and is a co-host of the Volleyball State podcast.

2010s

Katie Kuipers (’18) now lives in Minnesota near the Twin Cities, though Lincoln is still her home away from home.

“As a Nebraska transplant, I wasn’t quite ready to leave Lincoln or college behind, so I spent my first several months post-graduation on the New Student Enrollment student staff team at my alma mater.”

Grace Mosier Puccio (’19), is preparing to welcome her first baby this summer with her husband Tyler Puccio (’19).

“I stayed in Lincoln for a little over a year working at a local law firm. As my college friends began moving away, I started to miss my family back in North Dakota and returned to Bismarck in February 2020. I am so thankful to have moved before the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not know how I would have survived without the support of my family.”

SHARE YOUR MEMORIES

Tell us about a memorable trip you took during college.

To be featured in the fall issue, email your answer to this question to grace.fitzgibbon@huskeralum.org.

BULLETIN

ITEMIZED: A look at a treasured college relic

BILL JOHNSON’S 1954 SWEATER

Every generation without fail is fascinated by what came before. A wooly, holey red sweater with fuzzy numbers reading “1954” boldly states how old it is, and that’s why Lynne (Johnson) Cobb (’80) pulled it out of her dad’s Beatrice closet to take to college. It was Bill Johnson’s (’54) sweater, of Nebraska basketball renown. He’s a 1993 inductee in the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame and he led Nebraska in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage as both a junior and senior, averaging 18.2 points and 11.2 rebounds per game as a senior.

“It reminds me of my dad, even though I don’t think I ever saw him wear it,” Cobb said. “We all get enjoyment out of remembering his basketball career and what a great player he was.”

The sweater has been the talk of many parties — it was Cobb’s go-to Halloween costume. In 1979, her apartment hosted some Tico’s employees, an event coined Ticoberfest, and she used the garment, along with a plaid skirt, N hat, retro glasses and saddle shoes, to transform into a 1950s college girl.

“It was always a fun conversation piece, which is why I used it for cos tume parties,” Cobb said. “People were like, ‘Yeah, that’s authentic. We can tell that’s from 1954. It’s pretty obvious.’ ”

keeps it.

“It’s had a 70-year life,” Cobb said. “It can’t go anywhere now.”

Like the letters written between her mom and dad during Johnson’s senior year and their football Saturday tickets used every game since the 1950s, Cobb keeps the sweater to remember her parents in a bygone era. These artifacts are particularly special because she’s a third generation Husker — her grandmother, Hilda (Gans) Johnson (Class of 1922), was very proud to have gone to the university and become a school teacher before she married. Now there’s a brick in front of the Lied Center engraved with all three of their names. After graduation, Cobb moved to Tacoma, Washington, and then to Seattle to become a Certified Public Accountant working for private industry, retiring in 2020. While life took her in a different direction from her Bachelor of Music in Education, her immersion in UNL’s music school was worth it. So much so she still has happy recurring dreams about being back in col-

All these years later it’s a little musty and in need of patching, in a box with her kids’ baby clothes. A trip to the dry cleaner might disintegrate it. Yet she

“With a degree from a place like Nebraska, a well-recognized state school, you can go anywhere and people will recognize your degree and value it as much as you do,” Cobb said.

Of course, in the move away from home, her 1954 ensemble came along for the ride. When Cobb first arrived in Seattle, she attended a neighborhood association Halloween party. 100 people — no one knew her. With the power of her dad’s old sweater, she won the prize for best costume. —Grace Fitzgibbon

SHARE YOUR TREASURE

Do you still have a cherished object from your college days? Tell us about it and we may feature you on this page.

Email: grace.fitzgibbon@huskeralum.org

Lynne Cobb wears her dad’s sweater to a college Halloween party in 1979.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO?

KARI SIMONSEN

Find your people. That’s advice Dr. Kari Simonsen gives prospective college students, and that’s why she chose Nebraska all the way some three decades ago.

While attentive to a video interview from her Childen’s Nebraska Omaha office, Dr. Simonsen, who is simply Kari to most, one readily notices a backdrop walled with degrees including a 1997 bachelor of science degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; a 2001 doctor of medicine degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and an executive masters of business administration earned in 2020 from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She calls it her “Nebraska trifecta” and quipped that someday she’ll attend University of Nebraska at Kearney to cover all four campuses in the University of Nebraska system.

employment as pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Nebraska. All-in-all, she oversees 180 faculty and 100 staff members while working on multiple research teams focusing on infection prevention and control in pediatric settings, serving as a professional journal associate editor, and more. While her contribution is primarily administrative now, she does consult on cases involving rare or complex infections.

“I love collaborating with people,” she said, and “I get energized having different challenges at the same time.” Though she’s recently been inducted as fellow to the highly-selective American Pediatric Society, her work at UNMC a decade ago gives her tremendous pride. Ebola was sweeping the country. Simonsen and her team were prepared in case a child needed care. “Fortunately, the need didn’t arise then,” she said, “though we are ready.”

With measured speech, soft, yet deliberate, Simonsen straightens her red sweater before pointing out the framed quote from Alice in Wonderland at the center of her wall of accolades — “It’s no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

Well, maybe, though for 49-year-old Simonsen, she has always been cool, calm, and collected while expertly juggling multiple balls in the air. Take, for example, her current professional responsibilities at UNMC as chair, Department of Pediatrics and associate dean for Pediatric Affairs, plus dual

Simonsen said she always loved science and lauded her undergrad faculty for a focus on experiential learning “getting her out of the classroom and into real life.” For example, she was a teaching assistant where dissection of a cadaver inspired her to go into human medicine. She also helped with e-learning modules comparing healthy to abnormal body parts which inspired her love of teaching.

On campus, intramural tennis was a mainstay where she recalled not winning, though “it was fun.”

Why pediatrics? “Kids are fun people to be around,” she said. “They are so resilient in the face of significant illnesses, and (their care) is important so they will have a long and healthy life.”

—Jane (Menninga) Schuchardt

Kari Simonsen, left, and her cousin Mette Simonsen cheer on the Huskers at a 1995 football game in Memorial Stadium.

1940s

Louis Seybold (’43) Omaha, Dec. 11; Doris Peterson Amis (’44) Tekamah, Nov. 6; Margaret Peters Lutton (’44) Ashland, Jan. 17; Edna Penner Ensz (’45) Beatrice, Dec. 23; Richard Hahn (’45) Bayfield, Colo., Oct. 22; Mary Ziegler Merritt (’45) Santa Rosa, Calif., Sept. 28; Jane Fairchild Bakewell (’46) Omaha, Dec. 5; Carol Mc Grew Glenn (’47) Lincoln, Dec. 15; Virginia Demel Tyler (’47) West Lafayette, Ind., July 31; Arlene Kostal Cornelius (’48) Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 24; Willis Ferguson (’48) Columbus, Aug. 9; Charles Foster (’48) Albert Lea, Minn., Nov. 3; Lauren Holcombe (’48) Lincoln, Feb. 13; Paula Minnick Knapple (’48) Lexington, Feb. 22; Ralph Malott (’48) Edmonds,

Wash., Nov. 11; John Pflug (’48) Lincoln, Jan. 31; Helen Abdnor Heins (’49) Poulsbo, Wash., Jan. 5; Mary Shelledy Lueder (’49) Omaha, Dec. 14

1950s

William Browne (’50) Lincoln, Feb. 10; Virginia Lampshire Hageman (’50) Lincoln, Feb. 14; Donald Knebel (’50) Norfolk, Jan. 21; John Nebelsick (’50) Lincoln, Jan. 24; Mary Libershal O’Shea (’50) Lincoln, Dec. 29; Suzanne Koehler Brinkman (’51) Geneva, March 8; Milton Clark (’51) Lancaster, Pa., Dec. 25; Barbara Waldron Coffey (’51) Omaha, Jan. 18; Marilyn Vingers Cloyd (’52) Escondido, Calif., Jan. 27; Sarah Fulton Ginn (’52) Omaha, Jan. 10; Kenneth Kritner (’52) Seward, Jan. 7; Mary Estes Mitchell (’52) Omaha, March 11; Suzanne Nelson

Obituaries

Tolman (’52) Rochester, Minn., Jan. 2; John Prusha (’52) Dallas, Dec. 1; Curtis Siemers (’52) Omaha, Feb. 19; Norval Utemark (’52) West Point, Oct. 26; Robert Fayman (’53) Florissant, Mo., Dec. 31; Gordon Quick (’53) North Las Vegas, Nev., March 12; William Scott (’53) Valley, Feb. 27; Roy Stohler (’53) Grand Island, Dec. 21; Edna Schneider Thalhamer (’53) Pueblo, Colo., Feb. 3; Howard Tracy (’53) Grand Island, Nov. 16; Ward Lingo (’54) Omaha, Feb. 21; Lorraine Loeffler (’54) Wheat Ridge, Colo., March 6; Robert Volz (’54) Tucson, Ariz., Dec. 17; Richard Wiese (’54) Malcolm, Feb. 22; Jack Bussell (’55) Overland Park, Kan., Dec. 16; Carr Trumbull (’55) Scottsbluff, Jan. 21; Mary Ludi Langemeier (’56) Lincoln, Dec. 16;

Ruth Kluck Lauer (’56) Grapevine, Texas, Jan. 15; Joseph Casey (’58) Omaha, Jan. 6; Donald Ellison (’58) Rising City, Jan. 24; Merlin Johnson (’58) Ceresco, Jan. 26; Victor Kovar (’58) Lincoln, Jan. 1; Jacquelyne Dougherty Aue (’59) Mitchell, Jan. 15; Gail Baum (’59) Lincoln, Feb. 20; Raymond DeBower (’59) Valley, March 7; Verlan Hanson (’59) Omaha, Feb. 26; Lowell Hoyt (’59) Lincoln, March 8, Norman Hutchison (’59) Round Hill, Va., Aug. 1; Lyle Vawser (’59) Kearney, Feb. 19

1960s

Marlow Anderson (’60) Rockford, Ill., Jan. 25; Wayne Cheney (’60) Burnet, Texas, Jan. 21; Stanley Ehrlich (’60) Thousand Oaks, Calif., Aug. 18; William Gingles (’60) Newtown Square, Pa.,

Nov. 23; Barbara Hyland Hagan (’60) Naples, Fla., Dec. 25; Orville Himmelberg (’60) Friend, Dec. 15; Jolaine Loseke Nielsen (’60) Columbus, May 30; Dennis O’Brien (’60) Elkhorn, Feb. 27; Ronald Bucklin (’61) Flowery Branch, Ga., Feb. 13; Warren Foster (’61) Littleton, Colo., Jan. 16; Gary Heineman (’61) Sloan, Iowa, Nov. 6; Jane Bailey Archerd (’62) Clearwater, Fla., Jan. 21; Louis Brockman (’62) Holiday Island, Ark., Feb. 28; Roger Happold (’62) Doniphan, Dec. 27; Nila Cooper Schuette (’62) Lincoln, Dec. 11; Donald Simonson (’62) Lincoln, March 11; Rachel Block Dirkse (’63) Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 25; Kelly Liewer (’63) Lincoln, Dec. 14; William Ahlschwede (’64) Lincoln, Feb. 27; Nancy Best Herhahn (’64) Elwood,

1970s

John George (’70) Lincoln, Dec. 20; George Meyer (’70) Omaha, Dec. 30; Mary Bayer Novak (’70) Lincoln, March 6; Virginia Spinar White (’70) Aurora, Colo., Nov. 30; Daniel Wolff (’70) Lincoln, Jan. 15; Fred Christensen (’71) Lyons, March 31; Mark Dewitt (’71) Lincoln, Jan. 5; Fredrick Krause (’71) Kearney, Dec. 7; Patricia Rouse Parmley (’71) Somerset, Ky., Feb. 5;

Jan. 24; Stanley Wilson (’64) Fort Myers, Fla., March 11; James Magorian (’65) Lincoln, Dec. 19; Anthony Messineo (’65) Lincoln, Feb. 1; Nancy Ludwig Roll (’65) Seward, Jan. 13; Beverly Anderson Grady (’66) Lincoln, Jan. 16; Howard McNiff (’66) Cook, Jan. 30; David Nuttleman (’66) Venice, Fla., Jan. 11; Mary Toohey Garrison (’67) Kearney, Dec. 6; Fredrick Leistritz (’67) West Fargo, N.D., Jan. 19; Virginia Brown Machann (’67) College Station, Texas, Sept. 15; Herman Monnich (’67) Lincoln, Jan. 13; Sharon Ocker (’67) Sioux City, Iowa, Nov. 4; Raphael Payne (’67) Menifee, Calif., Oct. 19; Gerald Stricker (’67) Lincoln, Dec. 30; Joyce Cranfill (’68) Aurora, Oct. 3; Charles Ekeler (’68) Valley, Jan. 24; Janice Wiebusch (’68) St. Joseph, Mo., March 3; Diane German Anderson (’69) Columbia, Mo., Dec. 29; Beverly Chaney (’69) Omaha, Jan. 26; Leo Eskey (’69) Fremont, Feb. 4; Patricia Fairchild (’69) The Villages, Fla., Dec. 7; Sharon Carter Fritson (’69) Kearney, Jan. 27; Rodney Powell (’69) Syracuse, Dec. 23; Judith Schulze (’69) Lincoln, Dec. 29; Charles Wagner (’69) Ashland, Jan. 4

Donald Rogers (’71) Punta Gorda, Fla., Nov. 11; Dennis Schock (’71) Lincoln, Dec. 15; David Capek (’72) Lincoln, Dec. 19; Herman Gakemeier (’72) Springfield, March 7; Gordon Hansen (’72) Waldhof, Ontario, Feb. 3; John Johnson (’72) Weaverville, N.C., Dec. 9; Mary KnoblauchCzech (’72) Ocean City, N.J., Nov. 18; Clyde Lincoln (’72) Omaha, Dec. 31; Bruce Michaelson (’72) Lincoln, Jan. 23; Joan Knorr Nichols (’72) Lincoln, April 28; Donald Pepperl (’72) Lincoln, Feb. 5; Krista Walker Smith (’72) Fostoria, Ohio, Feb. 5; Gerald Taucreti (’72) Omaha, Dec. 20; Jeanette Fangmeier Bangert (’73) Diller, May 21; Kevin Fox (’73) Hallam, Dec. 24; Gail Hilfiker Reeder (’73) Victorville, Calif., Feb. 19; Kathryn Barnes Kaufman (’74) Pleasant Dale, Jan. 16; Monte Krabiel (’74) Kearney, Jan. 6; Robert Mehaffey (’74) Omaha, Jan. 6; Daniel Kohtz (’75) Bennington, March 13; George Patenode (’75) Sun City West, Ariz., Jan. 11; Marshall Poole (’75) Loveland, Colo., Jan. 21; Alan Reiners (’75)

1925-2024

Robert James

Robert G. James, 98, co-founder of the International Quilt Museum and Nebraska native, died Jan. 21. Robert and his late wife, Ardis James, who passed away in 2011, had a tremendous impact on the world of quilting. The first iteration of the International Quilt Museum was founded by Robert and Ardis through a donation of nearly 1,000 quilts in 1997. At the time, the vast collection was valued at more than $6 million, including modern studio art pieces and quilts of historic significance. Robert and Ardis’ support was instrumental in commissioning the museum’s current building, constructed in 2008 and its expansion in 2015. Robert was born in Ord, Nebraska, in 1925. His life featured diverse interests and successes, including service in the U.S. Navy during World War II (1943-1946); attending the University of Nebraska, Northwestern University and Harvard University; teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and working as a branch chief in the Central Intelligence Agency, overseeing trade and finance intelligence on the Soviet Union and China.

Lincoln, Dec. 29; Nancy Rupp (’75) Kearney, Jan. 11; Joyce Knerr Sawyer (’75) Papillion, Jan. 29; Gregg Schmadeke (’75) Omaha, Dec. 9; Barry Waid (’75) Omaha, Feb. 1; Gloria Cole Peterson (’77) Omaha, Nov. 24; Daniel Brock (’78) Lincoln, Jan. 8; Charles

Curtiss (’79) Fremont, Jan. 8; Clark House (’79) Albany, Ore., Dec. 21; Anthony Milone (’79) Gretna, March 7; Thomas Tremain (’79) Salmon, Idaho, Jan. 1

1980s

Joan Petersen Burtzos (’80) Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 9; Millard Carnes (’80) Plattsmouth, Jan. 25; Karan Dunnigan (’80) Billings, Mont., Jan. 6; Paul Goetowski (’80) Lexington, S.C., Nov. 23; Craig Irvin (’80) Omaha, March 2; Wanda Bettis Williams (’80) Omaha, Dec. 11; Carol Hohman

Lechner (’81) Lincoln, Jan. 23; Charles Tomsen (’81) Minden, Jan. 2; Iris Lyons Winkelhake (’81) Lincoln, Jan. 22; Lyle Huffman (’82) Potter, Nov. 29; Mark Connett (’83) Lincoln, Dec. 24; Phillip Harders (’83) Grand Island, Dec. 20; David Hoxmeier (’83) Orleans, Dec. 7; William Jones (’83) Omaha, Feb. 10; James Summers (’83) Bennet, Oct. 23; Colleen Nelson Anderle (’84) Carrollton, Texas, Jan. 1; Lloyd Sage (’84) McAllen, Texas, Aug. 7; Alan Heuermann (’85) Phillips, Feb. 22; Cynthia Foslien Nash (’85) Royse City, Texas, Feb. 29; Kurt Powers (’85) Bennington, Jan. 19; Ervin McKown (’86) Fremont, Feb. 8; Mike Borgialli (’89) Lincoln, March 1; Carole Burt (’89) Lincoln, Jan. 27; Karen Cecava Hardesty (’89) Lincoln, Feb. 11; Scott Norris (’89) Lincoln, Jan. 3;

Mary Nutsch (’89) Lincoln, Jan. 25; Susan Ogborn (’89) Gold River, Calif., Jan. 11

1990s

Michael Ash (’90) Phoenix, Feb. 14; Owen Williams (’92) Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 4; Robert Zimmerman (’93) Lincoln, Jan. 29; Tina Powell Gill (’95) Brighton, Colo., Dec. 3; John Wilkinson (’95) Bellevue, Dec. 24; Angela Wright Baysinger (’96) Bruning, March 8; Sheila Exstrom (’97) Lincoln, Feb. 21; Benjamin Kroeze (’97) Lincoln, Dec. 28; James Stuart (’97) Lincoln, March 3; Michael Teetor (’97) Columbus, Jan. 30; Daniel Rasmussen (’99) Shawnee, Kan., Jan. 30

2000s

Lawrence Griffing (’03) Lincoln, Jan. 19

2010s

Jacob Anderson (’10) Lincoln, Jan. 26; Mark Dittman (’16) Lincoln, Jan. 5

Love Story

Lawfully Ever After

Love finds its seat in law school aisles

BY RAMEY VACHAL (’22)

Nearly 30 years after her parents wed, Lauren Bruning-Graves (’19, ’23), began her first year of law school in the same place they fell in love. Starting law school in fall 2020 during the global pandemic, she knew her legal education was going to be far from nor mal. Lauren was confined to the same seat for the entirety of her first year. Luckily, that seat was only a few away from that of Aaron Graves (’23).

Lauren hadn’t been expecting to meet someone like Aaron in law school, though she’d always joked about waiting until then to settle down.

“If you’d ask my friends why I never dated seri ously, they will say it was because I was holding out for law school because of my parents,” she said.

Jon Bruning (’90, ’94) and Deonne (Niemack) Bruning (’90, ’93) met back in 1991 when Jon was in his first year at Nebraska Law and Deonne in her second. They got to know one another while cheering on the Huskers, and their friend groups soon became close. After Deonne attended the 1994 Orange Bowl and Jon wasn’t there, she realized she’d rather be wherever he was.

have a dull moment.

“They have the best love story I know,” she said. “If that’s what my life could look like in 30 years, that’s exactly what I would want.”

Today, Deonne is in her 30th year of practice as a telecommunications lawyer. Jon, a former Nebraska attorney general, has his own practice. Their youngest child, Jack, is a May 2024 Nebraska Law graduate.

With parents as lawyers, Lauren had someone to turn to who understood the highs and lows of law school. It made accomplishments like her appointment to the Nebraska Law Review more meaningful.

“Law school is a very unique thing and people that go have a specific bond, an ability to relate to things,” she said. “And I have that with my whole family.”

As friendship between Lauren and Aaron developed, Aaron recalls Lauren’s frequent use of her

While planning for their wedding, Lauren and Aaron had another daunting task on their to-do list: passing the bar exam. In their shared home office, they studied all day, every day. Their different approaches to bar prep balanced each other out.

“He kept me very focused, and I think I made him have a little bit more fun,” Lauren said.

They did it all together — prepping, reviewing, and yes, passing. Three months later, they were sworn in during a ceremony at the Nebraska State Capitol. They returned to the Capitol two days later for another ceremony, this time with friends and family in tow.

As for Aaron’s relationship advice: “Trust your gut, go to school in Nebraska, make best friends, and marry one of them.”