UNK holds such a special spot in Jen and Chad Rutar’s history that when they began to endow a scholarship, they named it the Bleeding Blue Heart Scholarship.

Bruce Mackey is 90 years old, but you’d never guess it. He walks 3.5 miles nearly every day and studies ayurvedic wellness. He also spends time giving back.

The child of military parents, Jennifer Davis has lived all over the world but feels at home in Nebraska. The UNL engineering student, who takes classes at UNO, plans to stay in the state after she graduates. She hopes to use her training to safeguard one of Nebraska’s greatest natural assets.

Omaha North High graduate Dywan Williams once believed an athletic scholarship would be his path to college. When he decided against playing at the next level, the first-generation student turned to an innovative college-access program offered by UNL. Williams, an accounting major, wants to create a better life for him and his family.

Two continents. Three countries. Five states. Luis Reyes Mendieta’s road to the physical therapy program at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Kearney, Nebraska, has been anything but a direct path. So, what would lead a young man born in Honduras and who lived in Kenya for 10 years to Kearney?

After Overton, Nebraska veterinarian Lance Kizer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2015, his daughter began raising funds to support research in hopes of someday finding a cure. The 24-year-old organized basketball and sand volleyball tournaments and put on a bike ride, raising more than $39,000. She’s not done yet.