2020 -2021
NEW SPACE FOR SCHOLARS The Scholars Academy welcomed students back to campus with an exciting new perk—the Scholars Academy Lounge on the first floor of the Rod Rhoden addition to Mammel Hall, completed in summer 2021. The 840-square foot room includes collaboration spaces, a study area with computers, a breakout room, three presentation spaces, offices for both the director and graduate assistant, and a kitchenette. A couch and soft chairs, high-top tables, and round tables will encourage conversation and inner-cohort networking. “It can be easy to feel disconnected from other cohorts because of the size of the Academy, but having a space where we can all be together will help us to be more connected with each other,” said Morgan Dickey, 2019 Scholar.
Accounting students have state-of-the-art classrooms, student support services, and study areas in the newly designed wing. Entrepreneurship students have space to work with Omahans on high-tech startup strategies in their Entrepreneurship Lab and the college’s award-winning Scholars Academy program will enjoy dedicated space to advance the education of highachieving business students. Endowment contributions from the naming of two classrooms (Deloitte and BKD), the mezzanine (the Sommer Family), and a study space provide long-term financial support for accounting students, faculty and programs.
Plans for the space began more than seven years ago before the first cohort of Scholars stepped onto campus in fall 2015. Seeing the vision take physical shape has been exciting, said Director Bethany Hughes. It was thoughtfully designed with Holland Basham Architects, and collaboration and belonging were the main objective. “Community is the most important aspect of the Scholars Academy,” she said. “Connecting Scholars to other students in their own cohort has been easy. But the most common feedback I have received from these students through the years is that they want more connections with other cohorts. That has been a challenge without a dedicated space, but now the students will have so many opportunities to get to know each other in an organic way.” The space will be used for meetings, social events, studying, and even the freshman seminar class. With staff offices physically within the space, students will have more direct access to the director, graduate assistant, and student workers who lead the program. “I am really looking forward to using this area to work on projects with fellow Scholars and having a place to hang out between classes,” said Lexie Faber, 2019 Scholar. “Now that I am no longer living on campus, it’s a place I can study, relax, or even eat dinner as I am bouncing from classes, activities, or jobs.”
Dean Trawick says the center weaves together every aspect of education, research and engagement necessary to enable the college to continue to advance Nebraska’s economic growth and workforce development.
The Scholars Academy is a cohort-based and selective leadership development program for undergraduate business students. The program admits cohorts of twenty incoming freshmen every academic year. Throughout the four years in the program, Scholars are mentored by business professionals in the Omaha community, enroll in special business courses taught by award-winning faculty, and gain real-world experience through community engagement and international travel.
“Ultimately, we are educators and we are grounded in collaborative relationships with our students, our business partners and the community we support and serve,” Trawick says. “The Rod Rhoden Business Innovation Center is a platform for excellence today, and for generations of students to follow.”
THE THING I AM MOST EXCITED ABOUT IS THAT THIS NEW SPACE WILL PROVIDE A PLACE FOR ALL SCHOLARS, FROM ALL OF THE CURRENT COHORTS, TO BE TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE.” MORGAN DICKE Y, 2019 SCHOL AR
2021 -2022
15
