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After a Life of Adventure, Love Inspires a Gift

May 17, 2022 by Katie Squier

Bill Nelsen has led an interesting life. He has traveled all over the world, surveying land in far-off places — from Greenland to Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia to Mexico — for the U.S. Department of Defense. Bill, who is a Burnett Society member, worked for 41 years in what was previously known as the Army Map Service. The AMS produced military topographic maps for the armed forces, so Bill spent time trekking through remote areas, often walking at night so he could watch the stars to create map points on the ground.

It’s not necessarily what he imagined when he graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a degree in mathematics in 1962.

“My parents always wanted me to go to school,” Bill said. “They knew I’d be better off going to school and getting a degree. Fortunately, I was. My degree opened up a lot of doors.”

Bill returned to the U.S. in the late 1960s and settled down with an office position in Washington, D.C. Soon after, he met the woman who would become his wife at a Christmas party in the city.

“I got her phone number and gave her a call,” Bill said. “We dated the whole year of 1969, and we married in January 1970.”

Leoni Peperis Nelsen, who grew up in Tarpon Springs, Florida, in a tight-knit Greek community, worked at the U.S. State Department in diplomatic security until she retired. Public service was an integral part of the Nelsens’ married lives. So it made sense when Bill decided to make a planned gift to the University of Nebraska. In fact, Bill had been giving to the university since 1972.

“I had to thank them, thank the school, because if I didn’t have the degree, I wouldn’t have the job with the Army Map Service,” Bill said. “I was just giving money as an appreciation, giving a thank you to them for allowing me to get that degree, which really helped me.”

Bill’s planned gift, which he has directed to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, is also a gift of thanks — but not for his degree or his career. It’s a gift of thanks to his wife.

Leoni passed away just a few days before Christmas in 2019, and Bill’s grief for her still feels raw.

“It was a very quiet Christmas,” he said, “a very sad time for me.”

Leoni suffered from dementia and died from complications of the disease. Bill cared for Leoni while she endured it, and he helped care for his two sisters-in-law, who also have dementia. His gift to UNMC supports research into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, along with macular degeneration, which he suffers from.

“I thought to myself, maybe we can find a cure for some of these diseases,” he said. “It won’t help Leoni, my wife, but it will help other people in society.”

Bill established a charitable gift annuity to make his donation. A charitable gift annuity provides a dependable income stream for the donor, who can allocate the remainder to support an area of the university that is personally meaningful to them.

For Bill, even after a lifetime of travel and interesting adventures, what was most meaningful was the memory of his wife — and helping others in her name.

“I wanted to do something,” he said. “I figure my wife is worth it.”

Alumni Kaye and Jud Jesske used planned gift to establish ag scholarship

February 17, 2022 by Robb Crouch

Burnett Society members Kaye and Jud Jesske both grew up on farms in rural Nebraska. After moving to Lincoln to study at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, they both went on to successful careers. Jud is a vice president at Farm Credit Services of America, and Kaye is a senior director of development at Bryan Health. But Kaye and Jud never forgot their roots or the values of family, hard work and service that their small-town upbringing instilled in them.

In alignment with those values and their gratitude for the education they received at UNL, Kaye and Jud have established a scholarship fund through their estate to support agriculture students at the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at UNL.

This Q&A was presented to Kaye and Jud in February.

What was the first job(s) you ever had?

Jud: The first job I had related to growing up on a diversified farming operation in south-central Nebraska. It involved caring for livestock and growing crops. From my early years on until leaving for college, there were farm-related responsibilities that needed attention on the farm. I am still involved with managing the family farming operation near Blue Hill.

My first employment after college was being an agricultural loan analyst at the National Bank of Commerce. This gave me solid footing for a lifelong career of financing various agricultural industries. I currently work as a managing director of capital markets at Farm Credit Services of America.

Kaye: I was a waitress in a small-town café in southeast Nebraska. I enjoyed visiting with the guests and learned how to converse with all age groups. However, the most important thing I learned was how to provide quality customer service and enjoy my customer interactions.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

Jud: Professionally, the best advice given to me was: 1. Work for a solid company that you are proud to represent. 2. Choose your customers wisely, because in the beef industry, there will be a time when you have to go to bat for that customer when no one else will. This advice was given to me early in my lending career by James Herring at Friona Industries, the third-largest cattle feeder in the United States.

Kaye: My mother always said, “Everything happens for a reason.” I don’t know if I believed her when I was younger, but as I have grown and raised my own children, I think she was spot on.

What is the question that you like to be asked the most?

Jud: What do you do for a living? I help finance the food that feeds America and the world. I was raised in rural America on a farm, and I am blessed to continue to be affiliated with an industry that provides the most plentiful and safest food on the planet. I love living in Nebraska — “The Beef State”!

Kaye: Did you like growing up in a small town? I loved my childhood and the opportunity to know everyone in my community (population 250) and treat everyone like family. I realize we all knew everything about one another, but that is what made it really special.

Who has influenced your life for the good, and what have you done to help others lately?

Jud: I have had many positive influencers that include WWI and WWII veterans that provided day care for me as well as family, teachers and friends throughout my life. The greatest influence came from a person I never knew — my great grandfather, Ferdinand Wademan. He came to this country with very little and walked from Baltimore, Maryland, to St. Louis, Missouri. In St. Louis, a complete stranger gave him a ticket to ride the train to his final destination in Nebraska. This act of kindness from over a century ago will continue to be shared with the next generations in our family to show the importance of helping others. Ferdinand made a point the rest of his life to help others who were immigrating or traveling past his farm with a warm meal and bed as needed.

My assistance to others comes in the form of contributions and involvement with specific service and philanthropic organizations, including Christ Lincoln church, People’s City Mission, Cedars Home for Children, FarmHouse Foundation and the Nebraska FFA Foundation.

Kaye: My mother — she was compassionate, smart, funny, ornery and energetic. She loved to help others, especially children. Her passion passed on to my family, as we enjoy supporting children and youth causes and participate in community events and fundraisers as a family.

Why do you plan to leave a gift to the University of Nebraska in your estate?

Jud: Having an agricultural major at the University of Nebraska means there are numerous scholarships available to assist with college expenses. I was blessed to receive scholarships while attending, and many companies and individuals have made it a priority to help the next generation at UNL. I believe it is my responsibility to do the same. I have named the University of Nebraska College of Agriculture as a beneficiary in my estate. This is my commitment of service to the next generation of agricultural majors at UNL as well as my commitment to honor the legacy of my great grandfather, Ferdinand Wademan. As he said, to help others “may at times require a sacrifice of time, pleasure and comforts.”

Kaye: Tuition, room and board and fees continue to climb each year. Because of the situation, we decided to set up scholarships to help defray the cost for students. As we were raised on a farm, there were not a lot of scholarships or funds available when we went to school. Education is so important, and we feel that everyone should have the opportunity to further their education. We obviously have a passion for rural students, but we will help out where needed.

The Burnett Society recognizes those who support the university through a planned gift, usually from their will or trust. The group takes its name from Edgar A. Burnett, a chancellor at the University of Nebraska during the Great Depression, who recognized the university would not succeed on state funding alone. He called on 30 business and civic leaders, and together they created the University of Nebraska Foundation to raise private funds for the university.

Gutschow family ‘pay it forward’ with compassionate care awards

February 17, 2022 by Robb Crouch

Editor’s note: Jim Gutschow’s beloved wife, Pam, sadly passed away Jan. 13. We hope this story pays some small tribute to her and Jim’s lasting impact.

When Jim Gutschow first met Philip Bierman, M.D., at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, he had already resigned himself to bad news. His wife, Pam, had stayed home in Kansas City, not wanting to drive up to Omaha just to hear the same devastating diagnosis: Jim had just five years to live.

But that’s not what Jim heard that day.

Jim had been diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Two hospitals had already told him there was nothing they could do.

But at UNMC, doctors were doing something different. It was one of the few places in the world at the time conducting successful stem cell transplants. Dr. Bierman told Jim he could cure him with this lifesaving technique.

“I basically blanked out,” Jim recalled. “All I could think about was I’m 38 years old; I’ve got these three little kids at home. I can’t wait to go home and tell Pam this.”

Jim began his treatment at UNMC in December 1994. A practicing Catholic, he talked to his priest before the surgery. His priest predicted that Jim would experience a time when he would be so sick that he would believe he was dying. He said to pray with all the strength he could muster and not to give up the fight.

That moment came at about 2 in the morning, when Jim crawled out from the bathroom in his hospital room on all fours. He felt as close to death as his priest predicted. But when he came out of the bathroom, a nurse was waiting for him. She stayed with him for several hours, holding his hand while he prayed.

By the time the sun came up that morning, Jim had begun to feel better.

Jim recovered from the cancer, but that wasn’t the last time he came to UNMC. He returned to UNMC and Nebraska Medicine, the university’s primary clinical teaching partner, for another surgery to treat pancreatic cancer several years later and again to be treated for polymyalgia rheumatica.

Each time, Jim says, he experienced remarkable compassion from his doctors, nurses and the entire care team. It strengthened him in some of his most trying moments, and it also inspired him and his wife, Pam to recognize that compassionate care with a generous gift.

In 2017, Jim and Pam established the Gutschow Family Oncology Compassionate Care Awards through two planned gifts. Their vision was to recognize those physicians, nurses and care technicians at Nebraska Medicine who demonstrate compassionate care for patients undergoing cancer treatment with an annual award and financial gift.

“I feel enormous gratitude for the level of care I received at UNMC and the compassion the doctors, nurses and staff showed me as I went through some of the most difficult periods of my life,” Jim said. “Today, I am thankful to say, I have been able to turn that gratitude into something special that I hope will ‘pay it forward.’”

In recognition of their planned giving, Jim and Pam are members of the Burnett Society.

In 2021, Jim realized he and Pam were in a position to execute one of their planned gifts early, during their lifetime, giving them a chance to witness its impact.

At an emotionally charged inaugural awards ceremony Dec. 3, attended by many of Jim’s care team and his children, Jim recognized the nurse, Susan Kruse, who helped him through that dark night 25 years earlier.

“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about how you helped me and my family,” he said. “Human touch is such a source of healing, and I know you holding my hand throughout the night helped me to heal.”

Tom Thompson, senior director of development at the University of Nebraska Foundation, said the profound impact of Jim and Pam’s gift will live on in perpetuity.

“It certainly is a high note in the time I’ve been with the foundation to work with a couple who have done something so special,” he said. “This is here for a long time. That’s why it’s so great for the kids to be here, because I think some day we’re going to see grandkids here.”

Jim said he hopes each year the awards inspire others to remember the importance of compassion and to keep going on tough days.

“This is an acknowledgement that you’re a really nice, great person,” he said. “People realize what you do.”

A Husker by luck, Connie Rennemann gives back for 64 years

November 9, 2021 by Robb Crouch

An expanded search for a college to attend would lead New Yorker Conrad “Connie” Rennemann Jr. to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. With colleges and universities in the eastern section of the country quickly filling up after WWII, he boarded a train and headed west.

His experience at Nebraska was meaningful – from playing in the Cornhusker Marching Band to the support he received from faculty members who cared about his education and career.

Now hailing from Dayton, Ohio, Connie has made annual gifts to the UNL College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics since 1957, starting just six years after completing his studies. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Nebraska, majoring in chemistry and math and math and physics respectively.

Connie met his wife, Annette (Luebbers) Rennemann, a dietetics major, at the university. She came to the university from Iowa but was born in Osmond, Nebraska. They married in 1952 and had a son, Ed, and a daughter, Ann. Annette died in 2011; the Rennemanns were married for 59 years.

In 1999, the couple established the Rennemann/Luebbers Scholarship in Mathematics at the University of Nebraska Foundation to provide annual tuition aid to students who live outside of Nebraska who wish to study mathematics at UNL. We asked Connie Rennemann about his time at Nebraska, his career and giving back.

You must have felt that the University of Nebraska was a good fit as you have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from UNL. Why did you decide to attend Nebraska?

Well, it was a consequence of World War II. I was born and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, and graduated from high school in 1946. I thought I was going into the army, but they stopped drafting about the time I graduated, and I had not applied for college. So, all the eastern schools were flooded with GIs coming back from the war. I started applying further away, and Nebraska was one of the schools I was accepted at. And frankly, I liked their catalog better than any other school. So, I climbed on a train and headed to Nebraska.

You have supported the Department of Mathematics since 1957. This has helped provide it stable support over the years. What interested you in giving, and why have you kept it up?

Annette and I visited Lincoln in 1999 and met with the math department chairman to discuss the needs of the department. It turned out he was interested in attracting out-of-state students, and we agreed to set up a scholarship for out-of-state students. I just felt that I gained an awful lot from the school and the math department, and I should give something back.

What are some of your favorite memories of your time at Nebraska?

I was a baritone horn player in high school and earlier for a lot of years, so I went to talk to Don Lentz who was the director of bands. I gave him a little demonstration of playing, and he said, “You’re in.” So, I started playing in the Cornhusker Marching Band and the concert band for five years. I was the first-chair baritone horn player, and that was a very pleasant experience I enjoyed very much.

And what memories do you have of your time studying in the Department of Mathematics?
I started out studying chemical engineering, but after roughly the first year I decided that an engineer wasn’t me, and I switched to chemistry and math as a double major. The first important memory was when I was a first semester sophomore. Professor Dr. Edwin Halfar asked if I would like to grade papers, and I said, sure. So, that was the start of a relationship with the math department through the years. I worked for a number of professors. Eventually, I was working for Dr. Miguel Basoco, the chairman of the department. I appreciated the opportunities and the treatment that I received. The reason I wanted to fund a scholarship was because I appreciated what this department had done for me and what the people had done in helping me.

What are some highlights of your career after completing your studies at Nebraska?

When I graduated, I went to work for what is now NASA. They hired me as an aeronautical research scientist, and I worked on theoretical aerodynamics. I was with a small group, and it was a good foundation and learning experience.

Then, in 1955 I started looking for another position. I accepted one with the Republic Aviation Corporation in Long Island, New York, where I worked for about 23 years. Mostly, in the early days there, I was still in aerodynamics. I then started an operations research sister organization, which I ran. In 1961 the company sent me to Harvard Business School for 16 weeks, and eventually I was head of new business for the company, then assistant to the president, then vice president, director of administration and so forth.

In 1978 I accepted a position in Tennessee with an engineering company that was a principal contractor for the government at a government test facility. I was vice president of the company, and we had about 3,000 employees. I became deputy general manager and, ultimately, was chief operating officer and executive vice president when I retired in 1991.

When you graduated you probably didn’t imagine you’d be a business executive and lead companies?

No, no. I was always a one-step-at-a-time type of person. Do your job, try to do it as well as you can, and things will fall in place for you.

Would you say the university prepared you for success in your career?

Oh, definitely. It helped not so much with the detailed knowledge as it did with the training to think and to analyze problems and so forth. That was key. In the early years, I was heavily using mathematics, so the training in math helped a lot. The future required less technical knowledge, put it that way.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I learned to play bridge at Nebraska, and it’s been a side passion my whole life. I played bridge competitively over the years. When I retired, my wife played with me as partners, and I’m probably currently ranked in about the top 10% of bridge players in the country. It’s a challenging game but is something I’ve enjoyed.

Not a Lecture Hall: UNK’s STEM Building Encourages Collaboration and Discovery

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

“Do you know what a flip phone is?”

University of Nebraska at Kearney student Uriel Anchondo loves discovery and being connected.

For him, the flip phone is more than just an artifact of his childhood; it’s a symbol of his academic and career goals.

“I was 8 or 9 years old, always on my mom’s flip phone, changing the settings, finding interesting information, showing her that I could change the language to Spanish,” said the first-generation college student from Grand Island, Nebraska. “I loved figuring it all out.”

This curiosity — along with a supportive family, scholarships and motivation to succeed academically — has propelled Anchondo on what he calls “an incredible path.”

An applied computer science major with a minor in finance, Anchondo spends much of his time in UNK’s Discovery Hall. The state-of-the-art STEM facility is home to the construction management, industrial distribution, interior and product design, aviation, cyber systems, mathematics and statistics, physics, astronomy and engineering programs. The hall opened in August 2020, replacing the Otto C. Olsen industrial arts building.

Located on UNK’s west campus, Discovery Hall was designed specifically for the programs that will drive economic growth in greater Nebraska.

“The name Discovery Hall is so appropriate,” said UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen at the facility’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2020. “This building is not a lecture hall. This building is all about discovering new things and having people work together. Truly, there will be lots discovered in this building, and it’s going to benefit our students and our state.”

This first-class facility, he said, will change Nebraska by offering opportunities for current and future students that “we’ve never dreamed of before.”

For Tim Jares, Ph.D., dean of the UNK College of Business and Technology, Discovery Hall is a special place.

“Students and visitors are engaged in the learning environment from the minute they walk in the door,” he said. “The lab spaces are specially designed to facilitate experiential learning. Learning by doing means our students will retain much more of what they learn and will be much better equipped to make informed career decisions.”

Anchondo’s goal is to work for a big tech company, and he said he had a vision of his future when he entered Discovery Hall for the first time.

“There was glass everywhere, sleek furniture and workspaces … and we get to learn there!” he said.

Discovery Hall’s open floor plan was intended to promote collaboration and innovation across different academic departments. Anchondo discovered this collegiality extends throughout the university.

“My favorite part about UNK is that I have discovered other communities and groups on campus that have allowed me to branch out and connect,” he said.

After graduating from UNK, Anchondo would like to work as a computer or business systems analyst.

“UNK is helping me achieve this goal by providing resources and networking opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be possible,” he said. “My family is so grateful; I am so grateful. I want to travel the world and explore everything.”

And his analogy takes it full circle: “Before, it was just a flip phone. Now we’re all connected.”

A New Home for Treatments, Therapies and Joy: Munroe-Meyer Institute Provides Hope for Families

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Christine Tran wasn’t certain how her son Joseph, 7, would respond to seeing the new 215,882-square-foot, state-of-the-art Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) building for the first time.

For more than five years, the familiar yellow canopy on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center had signaled to Joseph his arrival at MMI. Seeing that yellow awning, Tran said, always gave Joseph a boost of energy.

“This place is truly amazing. Joseph’s eyes lit up when he saw that playground,” Tran said of the new facility. “And the size provides so many possibilities for the growth of programs into adulthood. MMI has been an important part of his life. We hope we never have to stop coming here.”

The environment of the facility appeals to clients across the lifespan and their families, where children, teens and adults can feel like they belong and can be successful.

There is a lot for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families to absorb the first time they visit the new MMI, adjacent to the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Scott Campus. From Nancy’s Place — the aquatic center — to Aspen’s Playground to the Holland Foundation Early Intervention Wing, the new MMI building is more than double the size of its former home of more than 60 years. It affords world-class providers more space for teaching, research, clinical and community engagement, as well as the accessibility individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities require.

Early intervention for autism spectrum disorders is essential for developing long-term skills and outcomes. The Holland Foundation Early Intervention Wing encompasses nearly half of the new building’s second level and includes six classrooms and 35 treatment rooms. The Maker Space provides room for tools needed by MMI staff to create nearly any assistive device, such as orthotics, to assist in the performance of daily activities by MMI clients. Being located near the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute allows MMI faculty to collaborate with engineering students and faculty on new technologies that could lead to innovative treatments and therapies.

Researchers work side by side with clinicians and families in the Sensorimotor Lab to identify ways to improve the function and fitness of individuals with sensorimotor challenges, such as cerebral palsy. The lab allows for the rapid identification of key ingredients for expanding an individual’s ability to participate in engaging activities and leads to the availability of cutting-edge services for MMI clients. Its proximity to a nearby biking and walking trail allows for additional recreational and physical therapy options for clients.

And for clients and their families, the location offers an abundance of convenient and accessible parking.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

Familiar surroundings are a comfort to many with intellectual and development disabilities. So, when MMI announced that it would be moving from its former home, not everyone shared in the excitement.

Denise Gehringer has been intimately involved with MMI for years. Her son, Jake, 25, has been attending programs at MMI since he was 2. Another son, James Gehringer, Ph.D., is a research assistant professor in the department of physical therapy who oversees the new Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab. The lab brings together researchers and clinicians to create new computer programs that immerse clients into virtual environments and allow them to acquire new skills while having fun.

As the former president of the MMI Board of Directors, Denise Gehringer was excited about the nearly $91 million project and its possibilities for new and expanded programs. Jake, however, was hesitant about the move.

“Jake was a little irritated,” she said. “He wasn’t ready to leave. We were all a little sentimental about leaving a place that we had been a part of for so long. He doesn’t feel that way anymore. Jake has a little more pep in his step now.”

She said the new building exceeded all expectations. “It’s very welcoming and friendly. You get pulled right in.”

Bob and Vicky Vandervort’s son Michael, 34, was born with a rare condition that requires him to use a wheelchair and limits his ability to communicate. The couple recalled how Michael, then 10, cried after his first day at Camp Munroe, a recreational day camp program for children and adolescents with disabilities established in 1982 and funded by the Hattie B. Munroe Foundation. While they considered not finishing the week of camp, the Vandervorts soon realized that Michael wept because he did not want to leave. He was having so much fun, they said.

“Michael looks forward to going to MMI. Outside of family, it’s the number one thing that Michael loves,” Bob Vandervort said. “The activities provide him with a level of independence from us.”

“The pool area is unbelievable,” Vicky Vandervort said. “I had no idea it was going to be that nice. It’s Michael’s favorite thing to do.”

FULFILLING THE MISSION

Károly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D., director of MMI, said the transition is less about the building and more about providing MMI’s innovative and creative staff the space to establish new programs, to expand existing programs and to fulfill MMI’s mission to be world leaders in transforming the lives of all individuals with disabilities and complex medical conditions.

“Our amazing new building is a vessel for services,” Mirnics said. “I am in awe of the possibilities, but also aware of the expectations placed upon us.

“It took a community to make this happen, and I am very proud to be part of this community, which cares so deeply about the people and families MMI serves. Most importantly, our new home allows us to provide the best, most comprehensive, supremely integrated family-centric services in the world.”

Philanthropic support was crucial to the new building’s transformation. Private gifts to the University of Nebraska Foundation, coupled with $10 million in state bonds, provided funding for the project.

Jennifer Read and her family relocated from North Platte, Nebraska, seven years ago to access services at MMI. Her son Tucker, 11, had shown signs of being on the autism spectrum, but services offered through his school in North Platte were limited.

“I did some research and knew we had to get him here,” Read said. “He loves coming to camp. We see a completely different Tucker on his days at MMI.”

Read was especially excited about the new programs now available through MMI.

The Caring for Champions Program was established to provide equitable access to quality health care, education and services to individuals with intellectual and development disabilities. Providers from UNMC’s College of Dentistry, Truhlsen Eye Institute and MMI’s nutrition services provide access to vision, oral health and wellness services that are tailored to the patients’ unique situations.

“People on the spectrum often struggle to get services like eye and dental care,” Read said. “Having providers who know how to work with people on the spectrum helps to make the experience more pleasant. There are so many exciting things going on here.”

DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE

While the new facility received rave reviews, parents noted that the building would mean little without the staff who deliver the services.

“It’s a world-class facility, but it’s the people who make the difference,” Bob Vandervort said. “This staff is so creative and imaginative … to turn them loose in a facility like this, they will take things to a whole new level.”

Noah Farho, a senior biology major at UNO, is one of those people. He began volunteering at MMI in 2015 to obtain service hours for school but fell in love with the program. He has been a member of the recreation therapy staff since 2017. It’s the joy he gets from the relationships that he has built with the program’s participants and staff that keeps him coming back.

Farho said he was “blown away” by the size and features of the new location. However, being able to experience his clients’ reactions to the pool and playground for the first time has been his favorite part of the new facility.

“It’s wonderful to be able to provide our program participants with the type of building and the features they deserve,” Farho said. “The new facility expands the number and the quality of programs we are able to provide.”

In the end, what happens inside the building is what matters most.

“I always worry about leaving him (Tucker) places,” Read said, “but not here. Tucker loves coming here. He feels comfortable and safe. We have people here who know him and love him.”

Tran agreed.

“It’s like dropping him (Joseph) off at his grandparents’ house. We don’t have to worry. We know that he’s going to be OK,” she said. “We are so grateful to have something like this in our community that celebrates our children.”

Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is Where Storytelling Becomes Reality

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

More than a year after COVID-19 put the world on lockdown, a lot has changed. Many are wondering what the post-pandemic world will look like. What will stay — the transformed workplace, the virtual connections and work-life balance, the amount of time spent outside?

The uncertainty is leading to creation. It’s an opportunity to discover and create a new world — and elements of that new world are being designed here in Nebraska.

“We’re right at the nexus of creativity and technology on the cusp of the future,” said Megan Elliott, director of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “We’re always attuned and listening to the incoming of the other, if you will, because that’s how you bring the future into being.”

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts opened in the fall of 2019 with a new building and renewed momentum. The center’s vision is to prepare students for a media environment transformed by emerging technologies, such as animation, virtual and augmented reality, interactive media and gaming.

Elliott says the Carson Center is where storytelling becomes reality.

“What we see in our movies is what we design in our future,” she said.

Referring to a conversation between science-fiction author Douglas Adams and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, Elliott said Adams questioned Kubrick about what robots would look like in the future, and Kubrick answered, “Whatever we make them look like now!”

“We wield something very powerful as the people who get to design these images and put them into the future,” Elliott said. “We don’t just discover the future; we influence how it’s going to unfurl.”

Carson Center students can take classes in filmmaking, game design, special effects, augmented reality, experience design, virtual reality and animation. They are learning technologies that are quickly expanding in application to other industries. The Carson Center, per its website, is a collaborative hub where physicists may collaborate with artists “to create an immersive world that shows what happens when atoms collide” or where biomedical faculty work with film students “to create simulations of the human body.”

In the class of Ash Eliza Smith, an assistant professor of emerging media arts, students have partnered with Jason Griffiths, an associate professor in the College of Architecture, to reimagine spaces that were underutilized due to the pandemic.

“We are reimagining our current shared world,” Smith said. “We asked, ‘How do we spend more time outside and rethink these systems?’”

One project proposed a colorful, pedestrian-friendly boardwalk in downtown Lincoln that offers a permanent space for the city’s popular annual music festival, Lincoln Calling, and encourages other spontaneous performances throughout the year. Another proposed an urban garden constructed on street scaffolding, while another highlighted ecological systems that thrive in undesirable spaces (like weeds in a cracked parking lot).

Smith also conducted a worldbuilding innovation studio with collaborator Alex McDowell, RDI, who sits on the Carson Center’s advisory council and brings Hollywood bona fides as a production designer for films such as “Minority Report” and “Fight Club.” These classes, Smith said, offer a lens through which to envision the future.

“We could use that to reimagine our city … schools … governance … economy,” she said. “There are all these ways we can think about using this as a methodology for civic imagination.”

One element of the new COVID world is fluidity of place. In other words, Carson students may not need to move to Los Angeles or other film and media hubs to pursue their ambitions in creative work. Elliott said several students have secured internships with companies in L.A. and New York that don’t require them to leave Lincoln.

Annie Wang, who is beginning her senior year at the Carson Center, was a finalist for a highly competitive internship in animation at the Television Academy Foundation in Hollywood. The internship is typically based in California but went virtual in the pandemic.

Wang, who loves all aspects of film production, particularly editing and directing, said she considered going out of state to study film. But when she learned more about the Carson Center, she was excited about the opportunities available that were so close to home and affordable.

Wang said she’s developed a network of like-minded creatives at UNL who have become close friends.

“I think I found a very good family here in terms of my cohort,” she said. “I just feel very grateful that I’ve found so many great friends and collaborators … and I have some really great professors that also have my back.”

Wang said she’s hopeful she won’t have to move to L.A. after graduating, at least not at first. She plans to jump-start her career at a local advertising agency or creative firm and said she’s been surprised by how much creative energy she’s discovered in Lincoln.

“It’s kind of cool seeing that there are so many creative people out there that are willing to put in so much to bring things to life,” she said.

Elliott, who came to her position from Australia, where she led the digital media think tank X Media Lab and worked with people all over the world, said she was not surprised by the creativity happening in Nebraska.

“Innovation happens at the margins,” she said. “In this country, the margins happen to be in the middle. So it doesn’t surprise me that in a place which is overlooked by many people, that this is where real innovation is taking place.

“This is where it should be happening, because we’re not saturated. We can be pioneering in our ideas, not just our spirit.”

Smith agrees. She came to UNL from North Carolina and then California, where she taught at the University of California San Diego. She said she thinks Nebraska plays a central role in the transformative issues of our time, including the conservation and production of natural resources, such as water and food.

“The center is the new edge,” Smith said. “This is where things are happening. I think more and more people are paying attention to that.”

Smith added that Nebraska has to do more than offer creative educational opportunities for young people. It has to invest in its communities to entice students to stay there after graduation.

“Students reinvest in the place where they were educated,” Smith said. “So we also have to invest in our communities and our imagination of what those places can be. How can we create something so cool that students want to stay here?”

Done right, a post-pandemic world could mean that Nebraska is the coolest place to be for young, creative professionals. At least that’s the vision.

“You can stay here and work remotely; you can build a business here that has remote clients and workers around the world,” Elliott said. “People can start to rethink the balance of life.”

Elliott said the pandemic merely accelerated changes that were already in motion. Technology is transforming how we live and the world functions. That’s why the Carson Center is devoted to graduating “X-shaped” students, its website explains, who have ownership over their futures and the ability to “thrive in a changing, diverse, global environment.”

Elliott pointed to an essay in the Financial Times by Arundhati Roy, who wrote the pandemic “is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

Roy continued: “We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

Elliott said, “When I read that I thought that’s exactly right. It’s an opportunity to really reimagine what it is we want to do when we return to normal … how we learn, how we have internships, how we show up for each other and how we support each other … and that’s something that’s really exciting.”

UNO’s Mark Gilbert explores the healing power of art

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

The surgery wasn’t the hardest part.

The worst was squeezing his face into a tightly fitted plastic mask and lying down on a cold, metal table. Every day, he endured the same waves of claustrophobia as he kept his body still while the nurses secured him to the table and the sickening stench of his burning skin washed over him.

“I saw the experience turn a gentle, lovely man into someone who was being violent,” said Mark Gilbert, Ph.D., an artist and medical humanities professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Gilbert met the man, Roland S., when he was undergoing radiation treatment for cancer of the upper jaw. Gilbert painted Roland’s portrait during the process — sitting with him during his surgery and radiation treatments and spending hours with him in his studio.

“It takes courage at the best of times to have somebody looking at you while they’re drawing you,” Gilbert said. “I took confidence in the fact that he had confidence in me. He trusted me to do justice to this part of his story.”

Roland’s portrait was part of “Saving Faces,” a project conceived by a surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, who commissioned Gilbert to paint portraits of patients undergoing facial reconstructive surgeries. The hope was the process of being painted would help them heal and adjust to their facial deformities.

While not a new idea, it has gained significant traction in recent years: the power of art and humanities to heal.

“Humanities aren’t just a pleasant distraction,” said Gilbert, who has conducted numerous studies on the impact of art on well-being. “They can allow us to engage with what we’ve found most challenging in a way that can be healing.”

“Saving Faces” was exhibited at UNO in 2006 through a partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. That led to a 15-year relationship that resulted in Gilbert’s joint appointment as professor of studio art and medical humanities in 2020. Gilbert’s position is part of UNO’s medical humanities program, an interdisciplinary partnership that was established as a major in 2019.

The program is directed by Steve Langan, a poet and writing teacher with a background in public health administration. Langan came to the position after his experience as founder of the Seven Doctors Project, which paired doctors with writers and aimed to provide a creative outlet for physicians to
relieve stress and burnout. Langan said the impact was profound.

“Humanities and the arts are, in my experience, life-altering,” Langan said, “and that’s not an exaggeration.”

UNO’s medical humanities major has grown to include 80 students, who hail from various backgrounds and have a range of career goals.

It includes a long list of participating professors from UNO and UNMC in fields as varied as sociology and anthropology, philosophy, English, communication and social work. It is highly collaborative and involves organizations across the country, including New York City’s Theater for
Social Change.

“It’s been well known for a long time that various types of art — written art, literature, poetry, graphic arts, music — have had a dramatic effect on how people heal, particularly for serious and chronic diseases,” said Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chancellor
of UNMC.

As the program grows, Langan says it will not only focus on helping patients heal through engagement with the arts, but it will also aim to improve wellness among health care workers. Langan says the program is currently focused on tackling burnout, a problem exacerbated by the pandemic.

“We recognize the sky-high burnout numbers, sky-high suicide numbers. Physicians are at the top of that terrible list,” Langan said. “We believe that what we bring to the table helps alleviate the stress, suffering, the pain of not thinking about and talking about what ails us. We’re not trained therapists. But our specialties contain that inoculation.”

For Roland S., the process of sitting with Gilbert through one of the most challenging periods of his life and seeing the portrait of his face — the scars, the fear in his eyes — helped him turn his pain into something he could confront, and even into something beautiful.

“He turned something that was deeply upsetting into something that was powerful,” Gilbert said.

In August 2022, Gilbert’s work will be exhibited at the UNO Art Gallery alongside drawings by his late father, Norman Gilbert. For more information, contact Gilbert at 402-554-2420 or mgilbert8@unomaha.edu

When Bees Become Canaries: UNL Research Leads to Important Discoveries

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

It’s a tale of two sites for discovery. Since 2018, in Kimmel Orchard outside of Nebraska City, Nebraska, beehives have flourished in a meadow surrounded by apple, cherry and pear trees. At the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center (ENREC) near Mead, Nebraska, seeping, invisible toxins caused dead bees to spill out of hives for three summers, halting promising research and mystifying scientists.

The connection between these two very different places? It was the work of Judy Wu-Smart, Ph.D., assistant professor and extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

In the orchard, a collection of white beehives, some decorated by children, hosts thousands of industrious bees waiting to help pollinate delicate, fragrant blossoms each spring. In the summer, rows of trees will be heavy with fruit, and visitors of all ages will harvest the bounty. Add in beekeeping classes and research, and this place buzzes with life.

It’s a favorite spot for Wu-Smart, who enjoys teaching beekeepers at every level, from the beginner to the professional.

“I really love engaging with the stakeholders and translating complicated science into relatable, practical solutions,” said Wu-Smart. “Our applied research feeds into our beekeeper and landowner training programs.”

Bees are not only crucial to the agricultural economy and food stability, but their numbers are also declining, so sharing the latest research is increasingly urgent. Wu-Smart developed a Master Beekeeping certification to help do just that. Beekeepers from local and regional beekeeping organizations in a four-state region take classes to discover what works and then bring back up-to-date information to their local groups, helping more than 800 people become more effective beekeepers.

Kimmel Orchard not only provides space for the Bee Lab’s apiaries (and fruit trees with pollen for those bees), but the Richard P. Kimmel & Laurine Kimmel Charitable Foundation also awarded the lab a $100,000 grant in 2020. Wu-Smart made careful use of that gift, pairing it with funds from her own resources to present a virtual Bee Fun Day, a Girl Scout workshop and, most importantly, fund two graduate students and their research projects.

One of those students is Courtney Brummel. As part of her work toward her master’s degree in entomology, she’s exploring ways to integrate pollinator conservation with education at Kimmel Orchard.

Brummel said that she is “eternally grateful” for the grant.

“Without the Kimmel Foundation, I wouldn’t be getting my master’s,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to take my next steps in my career, but also in my life, because of the self-discovery I’ve had through this journey. I am passionate about food security and the importance of education. And I’m realizing that people want to help — they just don’t know where to start.”

This spring, Brummel and her fellow graduate students planted pollinator gardens with carefully chosen native plants, providing food for bees. Brummel designed signs to share more about bees, the pollinator gardens and conservation practices with visitors. These signs will be installed at the pollinator gardens, which border a walking trail, and also in other places around the orchard. Brummel hopes visitors will see how beautiful native plants are and maybe give some of them a try. It turns out that with bees, what you plant matters.

“People think growing petunias is helping bees because they are flowers, but native bees cannot pull pollen and nectar from a lot of these non-native plants, because they have not coevolved,” Brummel said.

She explained that the shape of the flower and the shape of the pollinator have to match. Some plants are only pollinated by one type of insect, while others aren’t so particular. On the flip side, some pollinators feed only on one type of flower. Brummel is excited to create signage to share information like this with the Kimmel Orchard’s many visitors. It’s one more way Kimmel Orchard can be a place of discovery.

Discovery is not always so joyful, even when it is crucial to the health of people and the local ecosystem. Sixty-four miles away at the extension center, Wu-Smart and her students discovered something grim and unexpected.

The original question Wu-Smart hoped to answer at that site was: Can locating beehives behind windbreaks help protect the bees from wind-borne pesticides? But instead she was faced with a much more pressing question: Why are these bees dying? For three years, while bees thrived at Kimmel Orchard, she couldn’t even keep her colonies alive through the summer
at ENREC.

Wu-Smart knows bees. She’s been studying them since 2006, when she helped with a study of orchid bees in Florida as part of the Student Conservation Association Program through AmeriCorps and all throughout her research in graduate school. She knows exactly what to do to keep them happy and healthy. So why were thousands of dead bees spilling out of her hives?

She did what scientists do: She collected data. To make sure she wasn’t double counting dead bees or losing them in the grass when she wanted them under a microscope, she invented a simple beehive monitoring device that any beekeeper can make with 2x4s and an old sheet or tarp.
It’s a bee trap, and it’s probably one of the cheapest pieces of scientific equipment after the question mark.

With the help of a tenacious graduate student, she collected soil, air and plant samples for analysis. But the lab results made no sense.

“We contested with the lab for two years, because we thought there was a spill,” Wu-Smart said “We’re like, there’s no way milkweeds could have this much pesticide. Check again.”

When the second batch of tests came back again with results among the highest ever collected in field samples, the research team started to look for the source.

It turned out that the bees were part of a larger pattern in the area that included sick humans and dead wildlife. The pattern pointed to AltEn, an ethanol plant that used seeds coated with pesticides to produce ethanol and sold one of the byproducts to farmers for fertilizer. Area residents had complained, but federal and state regulations only covered how pesticides are applied at the factory, not what happens to the seed after it leaves the factory. There are also laws designed to protect bees, about how farmers can spray chemicals on their fields — but these chemicals weren’t being sprayed.

“People have always commented about how bees are the canaries in the coal mine of our environment,” Wu-Smart said. “If they’re not healthy, then there’s something else going on. This is a perfect example where, yes, my bees were the canary.”

Once she confirmed what was happening, Wu-Smart found herself in a role she didn’t expect: testifying before the Nebraska Legislature.

Wu-Smart’s voice joined the chorus of Nebraskans who were and are concerned and upset about AltEn. In April, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB507, prohibiting the use of pesticide-treated seeds in the production of ethanol if the byproducts would be too toxic for use as livestock feed or fertilizer.

Now Wu-Smart and her students have joined forces with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to assess the impact of AltEn. This effort includes assessing the situation holistically, working across disciplines to measure human health impacts as well as the effects on water, soil, animals and insects.

Student research will continue at ENREC. Rogan Tokach, one of the graduate students partially funded by the grant from the Kimmel Foundation, wants to learn more about the impact of pesticides on queen bees. He will use contaminated material from ENREC beehives as a key part of his study, which will eventually become his master’s thesis.

Tokach is grateful for the gift that helped make his studies possible.

“Their donation has allowed me to do this research project, and then hopefully make a career out of working in the honeybee industry,” he said. “I’ve been a beekeeper since I was about 12 years old. And I’ve loved every second of it.”

The honeybees Wu-Smart studies typically travel 1 to 2 miles, maybe 5 in a pinch, looking for lunch for themselves and their hive mates. But her work has a far wider impact. She mentors 10 to 15 UNL students each year through their work at the UNL Bee Lab. Members of the public also benefit through the Bee Lab workshops, which in 2020, despite pandemic restrictions, provided introductory courses to 673 people, some of whom joined the Great Plains Master Beekeepers Program started by Wu-Smart. She and her students do research published in national journals and partner with a wide variety of community organizations and nonprofits, including not only Kimmel Orchard but also Girl Scouts, the University of Nebraska State Museum-Morrill Hall, Pheasants Forever, Nebraska Game and Parks Schramm Education Center, Lauritzen Gardens, the Center for Rural Affairs, Nebraska Beekeepers Association and the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

Wu-Smart appreciates the donors who help make her work possible and for the Kimmel Foundation’s grant to the Bee Lab.

“I think it’s an incredible, generous offer to help support the bee students,” she said. “it speaks to Kimmel’s commitment to education and training. It’s wonderful the way they have opened up their farm to allow our students to learn how to professionally engage with the public and develop these educational training skills. Having partnerships like Kimmel — it strengthens us all around.”

Recipient of the university’s longest-running private scholarship has ‘big plans’ with her degree

August 25, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Food was always a big part of life in the Thai household. For Dorothy Thai, a senior at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, making food with her family was a way to explore a passion and experiment with new flavors.

“I got into cooking when I was really young,” Thai said. “My parents cook a lot as opposed to going out — it’s cheaper.”

Thai’s family did not have a lot of money when she was growing up, so trying out new restaurants was mostly not an option. Instead, Thai explored new foods by working on recipes at home.

Thai’s parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam, own a small grocery store in Lincoln, so food has long been married to business in Thai’s mind. She imagined starting her own type of food business, although she wasn’t sure what it could be. But she knew she wanted to help people somehow, and she was determined to make it happen.

“I had this dream for a really, really long time,” she said. “I worked super hard at school. I said, ‘I’m going to become a businesswoman someday. Nothing is going to stop me.’”

Thai knew she had more to learn and discover before she could realize her goals, so she applied to the food science and technology program at UNL. Food science majors prepare for careers at food processing firms or government agencies developing new food products, managing food plants or conducting food research and marketing.

Courses can range from biochemistry to cereal technology to microbiology of fermented foods. Thai knew she had the creativity and business mindset she needed to start her own company, and a degree in food science and technology would provide the scientific know-how to edge out her competition.

But Thai’s family could not afford to send her to university. She knew the only way she could get there was with the help of a scholarship, so she worked even harder to make sure she qualified for every form of assistance available to her.

Thai first received a two-year scholarship to attend Southeast Community College, where she completed her prerequisites. She then received four additional scholarships to attend UNL, including the prestigious University of Nebraska Board of Regents scholarship that helps cover tuition.

Thai also received a particularly meaningful scholarship from the oldest scholarship fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation, the Edward J. Cornish Scholarship.

Cornish was a UNL graduate who went on to become the CEO of the National Lead Company, and the fund he established has provided scholarships since 1937. Today its impact continues to be felt in the realized dreams and ambitions of countless students who have received support from the fund over the last 84 years.

“If I could personally thank Edward Cornish, I would tell him, first of all, thank you for putting your time and money toward education for so many future students like me,” Thai told the foundation. “And secondly, thank you for entrusting your funds to a university that has the heart to look past the cultural and ethnic differences that continue to divide this world today. UNL has so much diversity that I am proud to be a part of. I am forever grateful for everyone who has made my education possible and that of so many others.”

For Thai, receiving scholarship support means getting to pursue her goal to create food products that help people — whether it’s through reducing packaging waste to help the environment or giving back a portion of profits to communities around the world.

“I never thought I could do that much,” Thai said. “All I knew how to do was cooking and baking — that was the only thing I was really good at. But now I want to create a whole brand, a whole company. I have a lot of big plans with my degree.”

If you’re interested in starting an endowed scholarship fund that could help students obtain a University of Nebraska education over the next 85 years and longer, contact us today at info@nufoundation.org or 800-432-3216.

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