Senior agribusiness majors at the University of Nebraska at Kearney get a unique opportunity during their last semester to tie everything they've learned together. Deb Bridges, Ph.D., professor of agribusiness at UNK, said the agribusiness seminar is a capstone course that allows students to apply the knowledge gained over the course of their undergraduate degree to a topic of their choice.

A Dallas businessman is helping the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) make higher education more affordable for students in Nebraska and western Iowa who otherwise could not attend college. Edward Pechar, a 1963 graduate of UNO (then Omaha University) and an Omaha native, made a $1 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to create full tuition scholarships.

A longtime supporter of the University of Nebraska and wife of a former engineering professor provided more than $1 million to support three areas of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Virginia A. Blackman bequeathed $900,000 to the University of Nebraska Foundation for the Professor James S. and Virginia A. Blackman Memorial Fund, a permanent endowment she established years earlier in memory of her husband.

From bike riding to bingo, Lions Clubs and Foundations of Nebraska and Iowa joined forces for the first time ever to support a cause significant to the organization worldwide – the prevention of blindness. The result – a $328,000 combined gift by the Lions Clubs and Foundations of Nebraska and Iowa, the Lions Clubs International Foundation and the Iowa West Foundation to the University of Nebraska Foundation – will help enhance services provided for persons with low vision at the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.

One of the largest estate gifts in University of Nebraska at Kearney history will begin providing scholarships to students this fall through a gift from the Amos and Doris Greenamyre estate. The Greenamyre estate gift creates an endowed scholarship fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation totaling about $1.5 million.

University of Nebraska alumnus Bill Walker enjoys his work as a geologist and always desired to give back in some way to the program that provided him a head start in his field. Now he’s found a meaningful way to do just that. He and wife Judy Orendorff Walker donated $250,000 to the University of Nebraska Foundation to establish two permanently endowed funds designed to support students in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nearly 600 guests joined the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) to celebrate the university’s 100th anniversary and its future of opportunities. Proceeds from the Centennial Gala, hosted by the University of Nebraska Foundation and the UNO Alumni Association on Feb. 21, will help fund two community fellowships at UNO.

A scholarship in memory of Brian Smith is keeping his passion for learning alive even though the University of Nebraska–Lincoln student’s life was cut short one year ago. Family, friends, professors and fellow students have participated in fundraisers since Smith’s death to create the Brian M. Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation.

The University of Nebraska Foundation and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Alumni Association will host a gala celebration in recognition of UNO's 100th Anniversary on Feb. 21.  The gala starts at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 at the Qwest Center in downtown Omaha and features noted Harvard economist Roland Fryer.

A lifelong resident of Gresham, Neb., has provided a $3.5 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to create scholarships for students. As the sole beneficiary of Schmitt’s estate, the foundation received $2 million in September of 2008 and another $1.5 million by the end of the year.