Adventure

Amber Johnson vividly remembers flying alone as a teenager to visit extended family in Arizona.

“I’ve really enjoyed helping students put all of the pieces together for studying abroad, such as finances, figuring out where they want to go, what classes they will take, etc.,” said Krueger, who herself traveled to Russia for 10 days as a UNO student.

That helped Johnson a lot, especially as she was also trying to find accommodations while in different countries.

She had visited the state before, but always with immediate family members. “Johnson definitely has an adventurous spirit for traveling,” said Emily Krueger, her academic adviser at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. This adventurous spirit came alive during Johnson’s years at UNO. “I just really wanted to see somewhere else in the world,” she said. That somewhere ended up being 23 countries. Of the eight semesters she was enrolled in UNO’s international studies program, she spent most of them abroad. “One of my favorite countries I have traveled to was Ljubljana, Slovenia, because it was the first country I studied abroad in,” Johnson said. It was an adventure that was assisted by the Benjamin A. Gilman and the UNO Mal and Millie Hansen Award scholarships. “I needed a country where I could find an affordable cost of living, one that was an official UNO partner university, and I was intrigued by countries off the beaten path,” Johnson said. “A fellow UNO student shared about their time in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and it seemed perfect.” UNO partner universities provide reciprocal exchange opportunities in which a student can travel to another country and pay UNO tuition. As she was already in Europe, Johnson took advantage of the close proximity of other countries and toured the Balkans, including Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia. She went backpacking with two friends, specifically targeting countries in the Balkans and Western Europe. She also visited Albania, Montenegro, and Spain. Having enjoyed Ljubljana, Slovenia, Johnson came back to UNO before taking off again in summer 2017, this time as a cultural ambassador with the Taiwan U.S. Alliance Global Ambassador Program. She especially enjoyed experiencing things in a non-European culture. “I loved how there were so many modern buildings that had skyscrapers and old temples,” Johnson said. “It had a very modern, yet ancient vibe; the food was amazing; and the people were very friendly. My level of Chinese when I went to Taiwan was very low, but I got to learn it more throughout my journey there.” This pattern continued throughout her undergraduate career. She was so committed to spending as much time as possible studying abroad that she carefully researched scholarship opportunities, often filling out forms while living in other countries.

“What helps with this is her ability to plan and put in a lot of extra time to make sure she understands exactly where she is going,” Krueger said. It’s a journey in which Krueger was glad to assist, stating that she liked watching Johnson dive into the local culture of each country she was interested in. “The scariest part of traveling to a new place is figuring out housing,” Johnson said. “It is a difficult task to do on your own because you’re going to meet some people who are willing to help and some people who do not care.” Once she got that figured out, Johnson was ready to explore. “My favorite part was finding new cafes around each town and go from there,” she said. In fall 2017, she studied at the University of Tartu in Estonia, aided by the UNO International Studies Outstanding Senior Nancy Keegan Miller Memorial Scholarship. Her final year as an undergraduate was spent in an intensive language program in the city of Qingdao, China, on a full-ride scholarship. She was in this city for a full year, taking classes taught in Chinese for six hours a day. “I remember a few sentences that will allow me to get around and do stuff; however, I would like to continue working on it, and hopefully I will again soon.” Being in this area of the world enabled her to travel through China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and South Korea during 2019 Lunar New Year holidays. She isn’t done yet. Johnson won a full-ride Erasmus Mundus scholarship in order to continue traveling while studying for a European Masters in Tourism Management program. This program is offered in three European countries: Denmark, Slovenia, and Spain. This Masters Program focused more on sustainability. Johnson completed her first of her two years in this program this spring. According to the eacea.ec.europa.eu website, “an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree is a prestigious, integrated, International study program that is delivered by an international consortium of higher education institutions. Students at master’s level from all over the world are able to apply for this program.” After Johnson completes the master’s program, she hopes to start a career in destination management or heritage. “Right now I am very interested in doing a lot of work in courses related to destination management. It’s looking at the organizations that focus on branding or marketing with other local enterprises to get people to travel to a certain destination,” she said.

Visit unomaha.edu for more information on their travel abroad programs.

I JUST REALLY WANTED TO SEE SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. THAT SOMEWHERE ENDED UP BEING 23 COUNTRIES. -Amber Johnson

Stewart Giddings is the operations director at YouTurn Omaha.

The days when entire swaths of streets were dedicated to different gang sets such as Crips at 40th Avenue and Bloods at 16th Street are not as prevalent, but the impact gang culture had on Omaha seems unending. New gang members have upgraded with the times, and the days of tagging rival neighborhood walls with graffiti are replaced by disrespectful posts and comments on Instagram and Facebook.

Instead of Crips and Bloods roaming the streets, the prominent clique nowadays is N.I.K.E. gang (N**** I Kill Everything.) With such a moniker, it’s no wonder violence attributed to gangs is on the rise after a long respite.

“I think now it’s just a bunch of kids lost,” said Johnny Waller, Jr., founder and executive director of Second Chance Organized People Empowered, based in Kansas City, Missouri. “You don’t have to beef with someone from different [gang] sets anymore, the violence is engrained.” A former Omaha resident, Waller is a business owner with a master’s degree in organizational leadership and development from Rockhurst University. He has held multiple honors since moving to Missouri, including recognition as “Kansas City Champion” by the Kansas City Health Department, and being named “Mr. Kindness” by Kansas City Magazine. Fortunately for Waller, his gunfire didn’t cause any casualties. The negative branding by the media, on top of his charges, did have a lifelong effect that he fought hard to overcome. Despite the adversity, when a former gang member works toward redemption their efforts are rarely talked about. A deeper dive into Waller’s incident reveals a young man’s questionable morals and misguided decisions that can shine a light on the bigger issue of youth violence. His father was drug-addicted and abusive. By age 14, Waller was homeless and alone, turning to gangs and drugs. At 16, he was playing Russian roulette and selling drugs. As a gang member, he was involved in

By age 14, Waller was homeless and alone, turning to gangs and drugs. At 16, he was playing Russian Roulette and selling drugs. As a gang member, he was involved in many shootouts, including one that lead to him being shot in the head at point blank range.

He was also the perpetrator of a shooting outside Westroads Mall in 1995 during an autograph signing for Dallas Cowboys star Emmitt Smith.

“I didn’t know how to resolve conflict. Some stuff I didn’t really want to do,” Waller said when asked about that fateful day. “I was a kid that had to make adult decisions that would affect the rest of my life.” Regrettably, Westroads has become a location tinged by gun violence over the years. A recent incident in April 2021 resulted in the death of 21-year-old Trequez Swift, or “Juice from Facebook” as identified by 16-year old shooter Makhi Woolridge-Jones. Waller and Woolridge-Jones’ events share the warranted label of gang violence. many shootouts, including one that led to him being shot in the head at point blank range. The incident at Westroads was a spillover from school hostilities. “My intentions to go there wasn’t on any gang stuff,” Waller said. “I was there as an Emmitt Smith and Dallas Cowboys fan.” He remembered standing in the long line of people waiting for autographs when the friend he was with said it was almost time to start his very first job, and he didn’t want to be late. They stepped out of the line and Waller saw some guys walking towards them he recognized from Northwest High. He knew a fight was coming when he heard one of them say, “There goes Johnny, Blood!” Northwest High was divided by rival Crips and Bloods gangs at the time, and Waller’s reputation as the former preceded him. When one of the teens stepped on Waller’s shoe his friend initially lost his cool but was knocked to the ground by a hard punch before the larger group attacked Waller. “There were eight of them and two of us,” he recalled. They slammed Waller through the AMC Movie Theatre entrance, located on the northeast side of the mall at the time. As he was being punched and kicked by older and bigger guys, Waller pulled a .380 handgun from his pocket and shot in the air. His assailants scattered.

Discombobulated, Waller quickly ran through the parking lot towards his car in an attempt to flee, but just as he pulled his car out of the spot a female security guard blocked his way. “I put the car in reverse, but by that time seven [to] eight police officers had arrived,” he said.

Waller was arrested and charged with discharging a weapon within city limits, disorderly conduct, and other misdemeanors, but the Ithaca-37 sawed-off rifle found in his trunk garnered a felony charge. He was held on a $500,000 bond for around a month before his mother posted bail. “I never asked Mama how she came up with that bond money,” Waller said. For people in Omaha, that’s the end of Waller’s story, which was, at the time, so big Ernie Chambers got involved with his case to make sure Waller was not made an example of as a black teen firing a weapon in a predominantly white area. The news quit reporting on the case, so how would most people know he avoided doing extended time for the mall shooting? Unfortunately, two years later, in 1997, he would face criminal charges for possession and possession with intent. He was ordered to serve 2 ½ to 5 years and 18 months in Lincoln Correctional Center.

Teresa Negron is executive director at YouTurn Omaha.

A term of his subsequent parole was to leave the state of Nebraska. This unusual situation came about because Waller’s best option was living with mother, who had moved to Kansas City to escape an abusive relationship. After having 24 hours to settle his affairs, Waller relocated to Missouri. He worked with a parole office there, and, from that point, had no documented gang-related incidents. Waller worked his way to esteemed opportunities like fighting for six years with state legislature to reverse a lifetime ban on food stamps for people with drug convictions in the state of Missouri.

Retired police officer and executive director of nonprofit organization YouTurn Omaha Teresa Negron wishes more disillusioned youths would realize success is possible after making life-altering mistakes. “Young men involved in these instances of violence, many of them haven’t really seen opportunity,” she said. Negron calls her work at YouTurn her passion. Along with Operations Director Stewart Giddings and a host of dedicated employees, their organization approaches the issue of gang violence in Omaha through a health lens in an effort to suppress issues at their core.

“Violence is a learned behavior and spreads like a disease,” Giddings quoted epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, creator of the Cure Violence health model, which uses a public health approach to prevent violence. The innovative system was suggested when YouTurn was created in 2016 and implemented in 2017. Cure Violence already had a proven model of success, experiencing a reduction of violence up to 72% in larger cities like Chicago and internationally. YouTurn’s goal was to implement the model in a target area of north Omaha and reach 365 days without a homicide. While there were still instances of violence, they accomplished their goal in an area including North 24th Street and 42nd Street and Redick Avenue between August 2018 and August 2019. “Behavior change will ultimately remove you from that space,” Giddings said. “Our approach isn’t to tell any individual to denounce a gang. That can be like walking away from blood relatives—family history, not just the notion that gangs are family.” YouTurn embraced the Cure Violence methods by introducing “credible messengers”— including former gang members and people who were involved and understand what it takes to walk away from the gangster lifestyle—to high-risk adolescents and young adults to act as violence interrupters. Their access to the community is empowered by holding events and making their presence known, allowing them to mobilize neighborhoods to stand up against violence.

“W hen we all become upset when a shooting occurs, not just when it involves my loved one, we begin to change. And we’re not there yet,” Giddings said. He continued, “We engage the same way you attack a disease: first, understand the cluster and where it happens at the highest rate. See who’s affected the most and then work to change their societal norms. You begin to dissect and educate them on how to move different and not resort to violence as the only way to handle conflict.” Negron asks the public to support their efforts to help people involved in the gangster lifestyle turn things around. “The people you see involved in these instances of violence are human beings,” Negron said. “They have circumstances that are behind them being in this space. YouTurn gets to the core of what those circumstances are and works alongside young people to work through that process. We ask people to volunteer, talk to legislatures, anything to help this community-based organization doing this heavy-lifting.” Rallying their communities against youth violence despite gang influences are passions Waller and the team at YouTurn share despite their distance. Waller hopes to return to Omaha in the near future to act as a credible messenger in his hometown. Recently, he went back to Westroads after 30 years.

“You’ll eventually realize life is more than just day to day. When people talked to me about the future I couldn’t understand it. The way I was going about getting the things I wanted wasn’t the way to get them.” -Johnny Waller, Jr.

“I felt embarrassed, uncomfortable, and had a flood of emotions,” Waller recalled. “It felt like stepping back in time, reliving a memory of a not-so-good period in my life.” He was once told to never return to Westroads Mall, but those representatives didn’t foresee his eventual transformation into a respected member of society. “I understand, people are judgmental about the lifestyle, but I get it because I did it,” he said. “You’ll eventually realize life is more than just day-to-day. When people talked to me about the future I couldn’t understand it. The way I was going about getting the things I wanted wasn’t the way to get them.”

Visit Youturnomaha.org for more information regarding the organization. Visit jwallerjr.com to learn more about Waller’s story.