Peter J. Whitted, M.D., chair of the board of directors for the University of Nebraska Foundation announced today changes to the organization’s leadership. “The University of Nebraska Foundation has accomplished great things for students, the university and the state during its 75-year history,” Whitted said. “We are pleased to announce the position of president and chief executive officer of the foundation, held most recently by Clarence Castner, will be served on an interim basis by John Gottschalk, retired chief executive officer and publisher of the Omaha World-Herald and a longtime supporter of the University of Nebraska. We appreciate John’s ongoing commitment to the foundation and his support for the university.”

Leaders from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center announced today preliminary plans for a new cancer center at the medical center’s Omaha campus. The cancer center would house research facilities, an outpatient treatment center and clinic, and a new hospital tower. Medical center leaders call it the largest project ever proposed here.

Nebraska nonprofit organizations striving to address critical community needs or wishing to make a significant local or state impact may now submit funding ideas to Women Investing in Nebraska (WIN).

For information and to submit an online letter of inquiry for consideration, go to womeninvestinginnebraska.org by March 1.

Because of you, 2011 was a great year for the University of Nebraska.

We feel grateful to all of you who read this newsletter, forward stories to others, post a comment or make a gift. Because of you, amazing things happen at the university. Deserving students are receiving scholarships and advancements are being made in cancer research, agriculture, early-childhood education and other areas important to Nebraskans and the world. 

We feel thankful to work at a place that gives the opportunity to change lives every day. To start off 2012, we are sharing with you the stories of several people who are really, really thankful, too.

Happy New Year!

By 2003, Eric Silvius had not heard his wife speak in 13 years.

Multiple sclerosis had taken her voice. It had taken her ability to swallow. Her arms. Her legs. Her clear vision. It had taken the job she loved as a psychologist. 

But her voice, which Penny lost around 1990, was the hardest test for the Silviuses because it affected the way they communicated as husband and wife.

The Silviuses, both Navy veterans, moved from California to Lincoln in 2002 when Eric took a job as an executive with Meyer Foods. In 2003, Penny had throat surgery in Omaha.

One morning a few days after the surgery, Eric took a phone call at work. The voice on the other end was hoarse.

But he knew it instantly.

I think my voice is coming back!

“It was like Christmas when you’re a kid,” Eric said. “After that, you couldn’t call our home phone because it was always busy – I think she called up everybody she knew.”

The thankful couple decided to give back.

Find out what they did and how yet another miracle came their way.  

He remembers his mom freaking out.

Scattered around the computer room of their Omaha home were the guts and parts of the family’s first desktop computer.

He was just 12. The computer, a Macintosh, had cost his parents about $3,000.

“I took it apart just to see if I could put back together,” says Ryan Grandgenett, who’s 21 now and a junior studying computer security at UNO’s College of Information Science and Technology.

And he did put it back together.

“Every since I was little, I’ve always been taking things apart and putting them back together,” he says. “As soon as I could use a computer, I was always playing with them, trying to figure out how they worked.

“I grew to really love them.”

Find out how Ryan is being rewarded for that love.

Robert Sahling says he came from “exactly nothing.”

He grew up in the Dust Bowl days on a farm near Kenesaw, Neb. His mother stuck rags into anything that resembled a crack to keep the dirt out.

I suppose I was 4 or 5 when the WPA (Works Progress Administration) came out with a program where if you needed a new outhouse they’d put one up for eight dollars – a two-holer on a concrete base with doors. I don’t know where my dad found the eight dollars, but I remember we got one.

That was a step up, believe me!

Sahling, who started the Sahling Kenworth Inc. truck dealership 40 years ago in Kearney, never went to college. Yet he’s made UNK and its student-athletes a focus of his giving, along with his Kearney church.

He gives back, he says, because he’s grateful for a great life – one he almost didn’t get to live.

Find out what almost killed him as a kid.

For UNL student Dan Wiek, earning the John E. McCue Memorial Scholarship meant that he could go back to school and get a construction-management degree. 

But enrolling in college can be difficult at age 36.

Tack on the pressures of a family and finances, and the strain from college is even greater.

Scholarships like the John E. McCue Memorial Scholarship, Dan says, can take some pressure off of non-traditional students like him.

When UNMC dental student Jake Zitterkopf sat down to write a thank you letter to the people who gave him his scholarship, he never intended to go above and beyond the ordinary.

He simply was showing his gratitude.

In Jake’s letter to Dr. Tom and Bev Evans of Genesee, Colo., he did go above and beyond. He wrote a heart-filled appreciation note saying how thankful he is for the scholarship and how it will change his life.

The letter impressed us here at the NU Foundation, and we looked further into Jake’s story and found another reason he is so grateful for the good things that have come his way in life.

We found out how, not long ago, the 22-year-old had to face death.

Learn more about Jake’s amazing story.

Approximately 2.5 million people in the United States are affected by MS today.

The Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation (MMI) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha is ready to take an exciting new research program to the next level, but needs our support to do this.

The university is testing a radical new device not yet available to the public and not yet approved by the federal government. Preliminary tests have been extremely positive, so it’s important to keep the research moving forward so it’s made available just as soon as possible.

The university has been offered a $25,000 challenge grant if it can first raise $25,000 before December 31, 2011.

MaryAnn Fredrick of St. Paul, Neb., was alone at work when the phone rang.

It was her doctor.

Suddenly, she found herself overwhelmed by medical lingo about treatments, side effects and prognosis for a rare type of invasive breast cancer.

“I was scared to death.”

She worried about how treatments would disrupt her work and life. She searched for the best care and found it just 25 miles away at Grand Island’s Saint Francis Cancer Treatment Center.

Through a first-of-its-kind program, the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center works with
hospitals across Nebraska, including Saint Francis, to bring clinical trials to patients in their own communities.

Learn more about UNMC’s clinical trials network, and how it worked for Fredrick.

Invisibility. Flight. Incredible strength.

If you could have any super power, which would it be?

For Danielle Archuleta, a junior biology major and soccer player at UNO, it would be the gift of speech. She’d choose the ability to speak in all languages so she could grasp people’s hearts and attention with her words.

You might speak with her on the phone some evening, if you’re on our phonathon list.

She’s one of our student callers – the students from all the University of Nebraska campuses who call you and ask you questions about your mailing address, if we have a correct e-mail address and if you would like to give a gift to support your college.

Learn more about Danielle – and the person she’d pick to be stranded with on a deserted island.

The baby boys – twins – were born too early. Both needed oxygen, but the hospital had just one oxygen machine.

The parents had a choice:

Which son would get the machine and live, and which would not get it and die?

UNL student Ashley Schmidt witnessed this a few years ago when she worked at a hospital in Mali, West Africa. It shocked her. It shocked her when the baby who didn’t get the oxygen died a few days later.

She saw other scenes like that during her six months in Mali, where machines and things she took for granted as a kid in Omaha, Neb., were expensive and scarce and could mean the difference between life and death.

She saw that life without easy access to energy was precarious.

She saw a way she and other UNL students could help.

Find out what they did. 

Her father encouraged her to go to college, get an education and become successful.

Harriett J. Steele did just that, graduating as one of only a few female students from the Ohio State University in the 1940s.

And now her daughter has established a scholarship in her name, recognizing all the success she has had.

Read more about the new scholarship honoring this woman’s life.

Pre-nursing students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney benefit from a new permanently endowed scholarship fund created especially with them in mind.

Dr. Janet Steele, professor of biology at UNK, established the fund with a $25,000 gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation and named it in honor of her mother for the many accomplishments she made throughout her life.

A new memorial scholarship provides support to nontraditional students who study construction or civil engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln while remembering the life of alumnus John E. McCue, who enjoyed a career in engineering.

In honor of John’s life, his family and friends established the John E. McCue Memorial Scholarship with gifts of nearly $60,000 to the University of Nebraska Foundation. Now permanently endowed, the fund enables the UNL College of Engineering to award annual scholarships to support nontraditional students with financial need.

Heeeeere’s ... Johnny!

And yet another generous gift for his alma mater.

On Friday at UNL’s Temple Building, where legendary comedian Johnny Carson once honed his skills, the University of Nebraska Foundation announced a $1 million gift from the John W. Carson Foundation.

The money will create the Johnny Carson Opportunity Scholarship fund in honor of Carson, who died in 2005. The scholarships will help students in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts who – like Carson – graduated from high schools in Nebraska.

Carson grew up in Norfolk, Neb. After World War II, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor of arts degree in radio and speech with a minor in physics.

He never forgot his Nebraska home, or how it contributed to his success.

Find out more about this gift and what it will mean to students.

He played by heart.

He serenaded his sweetheart with the harmonica. She became his wife. He filled their home with music, delighting their kids with tune after tune. And their grandkids.

He died five years ago and so did his music, except for recordings his grown children keep. Recently, they found a way to honor him while keeping his harmonica music alive for a new generation.

See, and hear, what they did for some Omaha kids in his memory.

Have you ever had a dream, and the only thing standing in your way was how much it would cost?

What if you received a scholarship to help with this financial burden, and it allowed you to become one step closer to this dream?

For UNMC med student Mariah Smith-Miloff, who was raised on a Native American reservation in Montana, receiving a scholarship from the UNMC College of Medicine Alumni Association has allowed her to do just that.

Read more about how medical school alumni are helping her and other med students achieve their dreams.

Alan Grow hitchhiked halfway across the country to attend the recent reunion of Raikes School grads. But not because he’s poor.

He just needed to decompress after hitting it big in Hollywood.

The start-up company he co-founded, iLuminiate, is creating a buzz in the entertainment biz.

“The past two years,” he says, “have been a pretty wild ride.”

Learn more about his wild ride, and why stars like Christina Aguilera and the Black Eyed Peas are hopping on board.

Former UNK men’s basketball coach Jerry Hueser taught the game.

But that was just part of what he gave his players.

“He taught us about life and what to expect after basketball and college,” former guard Gregg Grubaugh says. “He was not all just basketball.

“He was a good man.”

Find out what Grubaugh and other former players did to honor their old coach.

Alumni and friends of the University of Nebraska demonstrated their generosity this year by giving the most private support in history.

Donors gave more than $172.1 million to the University of Nebraska Foundation during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, making it the best year ever in its 75-year history. More than $130.2 million was transferred to the university’s statewide system during the same period, also representing a record.

This is the sixth consecutive year annual gifts to the foundation exceeded $100 million. The previous best year was 2008 when $166.5 million was given.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln opened a new biological engineering teaching lab designed with undergraduate students in mind. Located in Chase Hall on East Campus, the lab gives students access to the latest science equipment and features found in many of today’s professional labs. 

The $300,000 lab was made possible with a private donation to the University of Nebraska Foundation and UNL allocations. In recognition of a $150,000 leadership gift toward its construction from Carol Swarts, M.D., of Seattle, Wash., the university named the lab the Swarts Family Biological Engineering Teaching Lab.

Now featuring state-of-the-art classroom facilities and outreach clinics focused on teaching, educational administration, counseling, learning disabilities and speech/hearing education, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) formally dedicated Roskens Hall as the new home of the College of Education with a ceremony on Friday, Sept. 23.

What would you do if a dear friend died and left you a quarter of a million dollars, with the stipulation you spend it all on charity?

This happened to Judith Henggeler Spohr, a 1963 Kearney State College graduate. (Her friend did this because he knew she had a charitable heart.)

Find out what she did with the money.

Dr. Carol Swarts grew up “barefoot” in the Sandhills during the Depression.

Like many tenant farm families, we had nothing. You depended on each other in those days, and you looked after your family.

This Friday, Oct. 7, UNL will dedicate a new state-of-the-art lab in the basement of Chase Hall on East Campus, home of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering. It will be called The Swarts Family Biological Engineering Teaching Lab.

Carol, a UNL and UNMC alum, will be there. She donated much of the money needed to build the lab. She did this in honor of her family.

For me, it’s all about family. We were brought up with a work ethic and the altruism that goes along with it – looking after your neighbor and working for what you get. My parents never turned anyone away.

She also has supported UNMC throughout the years, sometimes in honor of her family. Without her family and the education she received at the University of Nebraska, she wouldn’t have had her rewarding career.

She has a dream for this lab. Find out what it is.

An aura surrounded the professor. Wisdom. Caring.

He was soft spoken. You almost had to strain to hear him. Yet he commanded respect.

In the summer of ’86, Jeff Parks, now a successful Florida dermatologist, took molecular biology from Professor Tom Weber at UNO right before enrolling in med school at UNMC. In his years in medicine, Jeff never forgot the professor or the lessons he instilled.

They’re still in his heart.

“He taught us that if you listen to a patient – if you just take some time and not be so full of yourself as a physician – the patient will make you seem like a genius because they’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Jeff says.

“He taught us to be passionate about anything you do, and to not overlook the small stuff.”

All these years later, Jeff found a “small” way to thank the professor.

Find out what he did, and how the professor reacted.

In her 20s, Tricia Raikes focused on her career, trying to put Microsoft into every home in the country.

In her 30s, she focused on raising her three kids.

In her 40s, she focused on supporting the soaring career of husband Jeff, who became a president at Microsoft and later CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“But now that I’m in my 50s, a key truth has emerged,” she told a group of women who joined her for lunch in Lincoln one recent day.

What is it? And why does she think a group of generous women, joined together, is like a string of pearls – and Larry the Cable Guy?

Liz, Lizzy, Lizard.

Those are her nicknames.

Liz Hubbard, a 22-year-old nursing major at UNMC College of Nursing’s Lincoln Division, grew up in Seward.

You might talk to her on the phone some evening, if you’re on our phonathon list. She’s one of our student callers – the students from all the University of Nebraska campuses who call you and ask you questions about your mailing address, if we have a correct e-mail address and if you would like to give a gift to support your college.

We thought it’d be fun to turn the tables and ask our own student callers some questions.

If you could have any super power what would it be?
Flying, so I could travel the world and see all of the sights of the places I want to go.

What was your favorite cartoon growing up?
“Rugrats” or “Roadrunner.” I actually had a pet rabbit that I named Lillian in honor of Lil on the “Rugrats.”

Read more about Liz, Lizzy, Lizard – and what annoys and disgusts her the most.

Engineering alumnus Don Voelte and foundation board chair Nancy Keegan make $5 million gift to the Campaign for Nebraska

Lincoln, Neb.—University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Engineering alumnus Don Voelte and his wife, Nancy Keegan, chair of the University of Nebraska Foundation’s board of directors, have given a $5 million campaign gift to UNL. In recognition of their gift, UNL’s Nanoscience Metrology Facility will be named in their honor.  

"The Scotts are the epitome of greatness," said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D. "They couldn't care less about being in the limelight. They simply want to help others.

Over the past eight years, the Scotts have made multiple gifts to UNMC, including the lead gifts on new buildings for four UNMC colleges - medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy.

Their work was honored on Sept. 13 when the UNMC student plaza was named on their behalf.

Studying in the Czech Republic and China created experiences that Ben Cooney can’t describe using dollar signs.

It left him with lifelong, intangible benefits. It forced him to leave his comfort zone.

It exposed him for the first time ever to different cultures and people.

 “I saw, heard, smelled, and tasted what I had never before,” said the 2011 University of Nebraska at Kearney graduate from Clay Center.

Learn more about Ben’s journey, and how studying abroad changed his life.

Downhill.

That’s the direction Omahan Kurt Shafer was heading last summer.

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 2000s, the now 61-year-old would enter a room and rather than look for someone he knew, he’d look for a place to sit.

If he did attempt to walk, he’d use a stick or he would cling to his wife, Mary.

The Shafers, married for 37 years, prepared themselves for further decline. But, to their surprise, that’s not what happened.

Find out more about Kurt, and how a UNMC scientist is helping him pay it forward.

She was one of those kids in class who’d hide in the corner.

She liked math. She’d always finish the homework early. But math class bored her because her teachers bored her.

“Lots of my teachers just lectured at me.”

Angie Hodge grew up in northern Minnesota. (That wasn’t so long ago. She’s only 31.) In those days, she never would have pictured herself becoming a math teacher, let alone a math professor whose job now is to encourage students to become math teachers.

“I didn’t fall in love with the idea of teaching math right away,” says Hodge, who recently was named the first Dr. George Haddix Community Chair in Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. “I’m a first-generation college student. My parents were just happy I was in school. I started out an elementary-education major, because I knew I wanted to teach.”

Learn how a few professors made all the difference for her, and how she now wants to do the same for students at UNO.

Paul Francis, a 22-year-old Spanish and International Business major at UNL, has traveled to many places in the world. He dreams of seeing every continent before he hits 25.

If he visits Antarctica in the next three years, he’ll meet his goal.

You might talk to him on the phone some evening, if you’re on our phonathon list. He’s one of our student callers – the students from all the University of Nebraska campuses who call you and ask you questions about your mailing address, if we have a correct e-mail address and if you would like to give a gift to support your college.

We thought it’d be fun to turn the tables and ask our own student callers some questions.

If you could only eat the same thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Chilaquiles, it’s a Mexican breakfast dish that consists of tortilla chips, salsa, eggs and meat. It’s delicious!

Would you rather go skydiving or bungee jumping?
I would go skydiving only because I have already tried bungee jumping.

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would they title it?
“Here and There: A Lifetime of Journeys.”

We’re starting a feature this month – “Who’s Calling You?” – about Paul and our other student callers. We think they’re pretty great.

We think you will, too.

Read more of our Q&A with Paul, and about one special phone conversation that led to a friendship.

Omaha, Neb. - Dr. George Haddix of Omaha has made a $1 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to assist the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) in addressing an important issue in American education — STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and preparing the educators who teach in these disciplines.

The gift establishes the Dr. George Haddix Community Chair in Mathematics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) in the College of Arts and Sciences. It is Haddix’s second gift focusing on STEM education.

The UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities announced nearly $430,000 has been given to date toward the challenge it accepted from the National Endowment for the Humanities to raise $1.5 million by 2015.

Earlier this year, the NEH announced it would provide UNL a five-year, $500,000 challenge grant if the university is able to secure $1.5 million in private support from alumni and friends.

What started as a dream of helping to feed the world is now one step closer to reality for University of Nebraska–Lincoln crop researcher Stephen Baenziger.A Purdue University trained scientist, he joined UNL 25 years ago. He and fellow researchers have helped increase Nebraska’s annual wheat yields and have helped wheat growers provide food for millions more people each year.

To further support the university’s crop science work, Baenziger made a major gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation for the Nebraska Small Grains Fund, a permanently endowed fund Baenziger helped create some years ago. By request, the gift amount is not disclosed.

Lincoln, Neb., Aug. 23, 2011—The University of Nebraska Foundation’s board of directors awarded more than $1.1 million in grants to the University of Nebraska to support student study abroad opportunities and international partnerships.

The focus of this year’s awards was set by University of Nebraska President James. B Milliken, who tied the theme to the university’s current Campaign for Nebraska fundraising initiative and its goal to increase private support for global engagement activities and programs.

Imagine taking graduate level courses tuition-free.

This vision has become reality for 32 Nebraska teachers after State Farm Insurance of Nebraska gave $20,000 for fellowship awards to teachers seeking to improve their math and science teaching skills.

They take classes at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes in order to not only better their skills, but also to add to the knowledge of their students.

Kyle Royuk, a recipient of the State Farm fellowship award, teaches geometry, statistics and pre-college math at Crete High School. Royuk said the award has been a blessing to him and his family.

Learn more about Kyle and the State Farm awards.

Dan Morin had a giving spirit, and it suited him for working at a charitable organization.

When co-workers brought their kids to the office, he always handed them a toy or stuffed animal.

When staff joined together to aid a local charity for the holidays or to adopt a family in need, he helped generously and inspired others to participate.

When a tornado leveled the town of Hallam, Neb., Dan was among the volunteers who helped clean up.

Dan, 62, died in June after a long battle with cancer but rarely let health concerns or medical treatments prevent him from being at work and interacting with his friends and colleagues at the University of Nebraska Foundation.

He took pride in the fact he only missed one foundation committee meeting in 30 years.

Find out why Dan missed that meeting – and what friends like Tom Osborne will miss about him.

Few golf teams have anything like what the Lopers now have.

The new UNK Golf Academy, an indoor-outdoor practice facility that opened last fall at Awarii Dunes Golf Club south of Kearney, is a world-class facility on a world-class golf course.

“It’s a dream come true,” Lopers Coach Chad Lydiatt says. “And for a Division II school to have it – it’s incredible.”

This past winter, his golfers worked on their short game, chipped and putted in warmth. They raised the doors of the facility’s three bays – like three garage doors – and watched their balls fly down the driving range.

This summer, his golfers have been practicing for six, seven hours a day on 100-degree days – practicing all aspects of their games with the air conditioner set at 68.

The academy, he says, will take the Lopers to another level of play.

University of Nebraska at Omaha alum Roberta Williams has given to the UNO Annual Fund for each of the past 34 years. But she’s not counting.

She’s just giving back to the university that has given her so much.

“I graduated from Omaha University in 1968 and earned a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1976,” Williams said. “The excellent education I received has helped me achieve my goal of being a successful teacher for 30 years.”

Find out more about what motivates Roberta.

The birds are loud this morning in May as Walt Bagley, 94, sits on a backyard bench.

Virginia’s Garden.

Those words are etched on the bench.

The retired forestry professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln still lives here at Prairie Pines Arboretum, the 145 acres of land just east of Lincoln that he and his late wife, Virginia, gave to the University of Nebraska in 1992.

The photo haunts Laura Hansen.

That’s why the 23-year-old framed it and hung it right above her desk – to remind her why she is studying at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health.

To remind her of that makeshift medical clinic in Haiti.

To remind her of those two little girls.

After the Nama sisters’ mother passed away when they were children, their father, Frank, made sure his daughters would go on to college.

“One of his goals was that his girls get an education,” said Jean Nama, one of his daughters.

Frank’s work ethic and his belief in the power of education were instilled in his daughters at a young age.

Find out what the Namas did to honor their father.

Lincoln, Neb., July 5, 2011 — State Farm Insurance of Nebraska has given $20,000 for fellowship awards to Nebraska teachers seeking to improve their math and science teaching skills. The funding will enable 32 teachers to take graduate level courses tuition-free this summer at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes.

The summer institutes are part of UNL’s Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education and offers continuing education and professional development opportunities to Nebraska teachers. According to the university, the summer courses provide intellectually rich graduate coursework, intensive collaboration and the professional development teachers need to improve student learning and foster academic success.

State Farm established the fellowships through the University of Nebraska Foundation.

“Our company understands successful students are the result of an exceptional teacher,” Angelene Hennes, of State Farm, said. “Therefore, the first step to student success is to have an outstanding teacher who inspires students to learn. Being able to support 32 teachers who enrich students’ lives with greater understanding in math and science is a gift that benefits not only our company but all of the community.”

According to the university, if 200 teachers take courses this summer, more than 10,000 students in grades K-12 will benefit from their improved teaching skills during the next school year.

Learn more about State Farm’s gift to Nebraska.

It’s official: The Huskers and the Mavericks are now proud members of new athletic conferences.

On July 1, Nebraska officially joined the Big Ten, a league rich in history and tradition and home to many other athletic powerhouses. The Huskers begin competition among the conference’s 11 other members this fall.

Also on July 1, UNO officially joined the Division I Summit League. The Mavericks will begin league competition during the 2012-13 year. Although the football and wrestling programs were dropped, men’s soccer and golf will be added, and the UNO athletic department projects scholarship levels to increase in several sports.

“Our respect for the Big Ten’s stability and tradition was a big factor in our desire to join the league,” Athletic Director Tom Osborne writes on Huskers.com, in a letter thanking Husker fans. “We see a great deal of common ground and share an overall concern about the well being of student-athletes.

“Big Ten schools tend to look at the world the way we do, so this is a good fit for us athletically, academically, and culturally.”

The University of Nebraska at Kearney is also moving. With their acceptance in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA), the Lopers begin competition as the 16^th member in the conference in 2012-13.

Learn how you can help all three of the University of Nebraska’s athletic programs.

College students from around the country were amazed, and maybe jealous, when UNL senior Zach Smith told them that he got to do one-on-one research with a professor.

They couldn’t believe the University of Nebraska–Lincoln had such a research program, outside of a lab, for undergrads. Their colleges didn’t.

And you get paid, too?

Smith, a double political science and vocal music major, earlier this year returned to Lincoln from seven months in Jordan, where he met many students from other colleges who also were studying abroad.

Learn about the UNL program that sent him there, and how it’s been making professors from other schools jealous, too.

His aunt saw a dog on the Interstate. She swerved. Her truck flipped and landed on her.

That was a few years back when Justin Williams was 16. He’s a sophomore now at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, studying biotechnology. He wants to be a doctor someday and stay in Omaha.

“I spent a lot of time in the hospital room that summer,” he says.

Find out how that experience helped shape Justin’s life, and how UNO is shaping the lives of many Omaha people like him.

Milton E. Steinkruger’s 40-year career in the funeral business gave him the opportunity to help those who were grieving or struggling.

“Milton was a caring man throughout his life and eager to encourage and support others,” says his wife, Ilene Steinkruger.

While college is challenging enough for a young person, those who experience a family crisis or personal emergency may think the only solution is to drop out.

Find out what Ilene did to honor her husband and help students when perhaps it’s needed most.

Having someone stick a tube down your nose to your stomach isn’t anyone’s idea of fun.

Medical students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center practice this essential skill in June workshops just before they start their rotations each July. They use one another as guinea pigs. But for some, the tube feels more than just uncomfortable. Some gag. Some grow too uptight.

That’s when physiology professor Kurtis Cornish offers up his nose.

This happens probably 20 times each year.

He laughs.

“I don’t want to be known only as the professor with the famous nose.”

Learn Dr. Cornish’s other claims to fame.

Promoting entrepreneurship is a goal of Karen and Dr. Jim Linder, UNMC alums and philanthropists.

We are energized by our interaction with young entrepreneurs, business incubators, start-up companies, angel investors and university faculty who strive to grow our economy. The jobs created by new business create opportunities for all Nebraskans, but particularly our youth. We want future generations to have the choice to enjoy life in Nebraska.

Dr. Linder, a UNMC alum and longtime faculty member and pathologist, recently took on a new role with the university – president of the University Technology Development Corp.

He will lead the university’s efforts to promote innovation, public-private partnerships, technology development and commercialization. He will help unite University of Nebraska researchers with the private sector to turn ideas into products that can create new companies and new jobs.

Learn more about the Linders’ philosophy of giving.

“Dan was a dedicated colleague and friend and will be greatly missed by his colleagues and the many donors and volunteers whom he enjoyed helping over the years,” President Clarence Castner said. “He will be remembered for his distinctive sense of humor, his attention to detail and for always providing outstanding service to university supporters.”

The gift from the estate of Milton E. Steinkruger to the University of Nebraska Foundation establishes a permanently endowed scholarship fund that will enable university officials to respond to the needs of students who experience a significant hardship, such as a personal emergency or family crisis, and as a result are at risk of leaving the university. Annual income from the endowment will provide approximately $13,000 a year to the university to help students.

Edward J. Cornish means a lot to Emilie O’Connor, even though she’s never met him and never will.

Because of him, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln sophomore food science major has the opportunity to further her education and not worry as much about money.

Emilie, who’s from Omaha, is one of this year’s recipients of the Edward J. Cornish Scholarship. The Cornish Fund, founded in 1937, is the oldest fund at the foundation still awarding money to students.

Emilie O’Connor would thank Edward, if she could.

“I would want him to know that I am working very hard in school and am putting his scholarship to good use.”

While studying in Norway last fall, April Corbet was struck by the mannerisms and approaches people there had for simple, everyday routines.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha sophomore was intrigued with how Norway’s post offices, libraries and government offices operated differently. People never seemed to wait in lines.

She saw people biking on snow and ice. She saw children being pulled in pulks.

At times, Norway seemed so different from Nebraska.

Find out more about April’s life-changing experience – and what a “pulk” actually is.

Few college students ever receive words of advice directly from one of the greatest writers of all time. Few can boast that such a great writer is blood – in Charles Cather’s case, a beloved aunt.

Willa Cather.

Your Aunt Willie

Find out the words the great Cather wrote to her nephew in November 1945, and the surprising topic of that letter.

Cindi Heiden will never forget the first time she met Walter Schmitt. It was the early ’90s. He walked into her H & R Block office in York, Neb., to hire her to do his taxes.

He wore overalls, a ball cap from the co-op in town, a flannel shirt with pens in the pocket and white Velcro tennis shoes from Wal-Mart. His arms were muscular from being a blacksmith. He had blue eyes. When he smiled, they twinkled.

Find out why Schmitt became so important to her, and to the University of Nebraska.

University of Nebraska at Kearney alumna and retired teacher Jean Nama has given a scholarship to support students who wish to further their education in Nebraska and position themselves to be educated citizens.

“I want to help some youngsters from Nebraska who have good grades and goals but need some extra help to further their education and become a contributing member of society,” said Nama, who helped found the Southern California UNK Alumni Association in the early 1970s.

One of the greatest accomplishments of UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., during his 12 years as chancellor was creating the College of Public Health – the first new college at UNMC since 1968.

The college fills a void in UNMC’s broad range of health programs, and more importantly, enhances health care for all Nebraskans.

Dr. Maurer and his wife, Beverly, will receive the ultimate compliment when the building that houses the College of Public Health has its official grand opening on Wednesday, May 18 at 11 a.m.

Charles Cather, Willa's nephew, died March 14 in California, and his personal property relating to Willa Cather was given to the University of Nebraska Foundation. The materials, which were loaned to the foundation from Charles Cather and became a gift upon his death, arrived last December to be catalogued by the university. While the materials have not been formally appraised, the estimated value is $2 million. They will be unveiled at an event at 10 a.m. May 12 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St.

The $62,000 phone call came two years ago.

The man who called Wood River Rural High School that day asked to speak to senior Abbie Davis. But Abbie wasn’t there. She was having fun in another town taking tests on music and history at an academic competition.

So a teacher called her.

As soon as you get back, the teacher said, go straight to the counselor’s office.

When Abbie walked into the office, the counselor told her to call Gary Davis at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Abbie grew excited.

Oh, man. If this is what I think it is …

Find out if it was.

Bud McGinley had a nickname for each of his six kids.

Mike, the oldest, was Mike the Pike.

Then came Patty Watty, Kelly the Belly, Queen Erin, Kevin the Brain and Dugan Donegal (County Donegal is the McGinley clan’s ancestral home in Ireland).

He passed away 10 years ago.

Find out what the family did for him the other day, in his name.

“Our son came back from Iraq at 24 a soldier. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and spent the next two years in a hell far greater than the war he had come from.”

Ann St. John of Bloomington, Ind., will never forget the people at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the top-notch care they gave her son, Zachary May.

He would have died the night in May 2007 when they airlifted him to the medical center, she says. Instead, those people, along with the medical center’s cutting-edge lymphoma researchers, extended Zachary’s life for a year. He died May 4, 2008.

Ann will never forget the gift of one last Christmas together.

“That Christmas morning, I wrote a letter to the fundraisers in Omaha, and I said, ‘Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the research dollars that you gave 10, 20, 30 years ago. Because without those research dollars, I would not be spending Christmas with my boy.’”

A cancer survivor herself now, Ann and other survivors and UNMC researchers discuss in this touching video how research dollars – especially those from private funding – will one day win the war against lymphoma.

Nearly 85 percent of the students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha apply for financial assistance. But just 30 percent are eligible for Pell Grants, the largest federal grant program for students from low-income families.

Many students have to work their way through college. Jim Young did. At times the UNO alum, who’s now CEO and chairman of Union Pacific, worked two jobs.

Find out what he and his wife, Shirley, did recently to ease the load for such students.

Alissa Skelton is a senior journalism and political science major at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Since January, she’s been working as a paid fellow at the Omaha World-Herald’s Lincoln bureau through the World-Herald’s “Real World” fellowship program.

She interviews real subjects. She consults with real editors. She writes real stories – some have even made Page One.

And she’s learned the secret to being a real good reporter.

The Lied Center for Performing Arts will celebrate the start of its expansion project at a groundbreaking event on April 29 at 4:30 p.m.

The planned 8,100-square-foot Lied Commons addition is entirely privately funded and made possible with a $2.5 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation from Christina M. Hixson of Las Vegas and the Lied Foundation Trust.

The University of Nebraska Foundation welcomes Tracy Lungrin and Anne McConkey as directors of development for the University of Nebraska at Kearney. They will assist the foundation in establishing relationships with individuals and organizations interested in supporting the university through charitable giving.

First generation college graduate and German descendent Wil Hergenrader practically grew up on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln campus in the 1930s and 40s. He’d walk through campus from his Russian Bottoms neighborhood just north of campus to explore, always ending up at his favorite spot: the College of Engineering.

His comfort with the university and longtime interest in mechanical engineering—thanks largely to helping his dad at a one-man auto garage on North 10^th Street—helped make it a natural decision to study engineering at Nebraska, where he graduated in 1954.

Hergenrader, who lives in Memphis, Tenn., said it’s time to give back in some way to the professors who educated and counseled him and to the state where he grew up. He and his wife, Sally, have gifted $1.2 million to the University of Nebraska Foundation for a permanently endowed chair to benefit the mechanical engineering department forever.

When we met, I was a high school English and history teacher in Columbus and Marvin was a bachelor lawyer. We both felt the university had shaped our lives, made what we did in our 61 years together possible.

He took a leave of absence from work and stayed home with her every day. He sat by her side every time she had chemo.

Sometimes he’d daydream about what he could do to fight it.

If she cried about it, she didn’t let him see.

As far as he knew, she came close to self-pity just once. It happened in the first days after she found out she had pancreatic cancer, and little hope of surviving it.

“Why me? I’m only 45 years old. Ken, why me? Why this type of cancer?”

School’s out.

About a dozen kids have come to the Hope Center for Kids in north Omaha to talk with tutors who aren’t much older than they are.

The kids talk about their social lives, what they did over the weekend. The first task for Takijah Collins, one of the tutors, is to turn their attention to homework. Takijah, 23, is majoring in secondary education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She loves math and Spanish.

She loves teaching these kids.

She is one of nine UNO College of Education students who are this year’s Northern Natural Gas scholars. As part of their NNG scholarship, they must tutor kids at the Hope Center, a place of faith and fun and hope in the heart of a high-crime, low-income area just north of downtown.

When he’s not studying organisms, fishing or hunting, Drew Stone spends much of his time calling University of Nebraska at Kearney alums.

As a student fundraiser at the University of Nebraska Foundation, Stone calls alums seeking support through various fundraisers.

About 30 to 35 phonathon students call University of Nebraska alumni year round.

He gave to the med center, to Omaha and to the world.

Known for his warm smile and heart, Dr. Rubens Pamies crusaded to reduce disparities and improve the health and education of underserved people. He helped Haiti, his native country, rebuild its health care system after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Pamies, vice chancellor of academic affairs and dean for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for more than eight years, died of a heart attack in late February at his sister’s home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

He was just 52.

“It’s a real tragedy,” said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D. “He had so much more to contribute to health care and the greater community world. He was a champion for great causes. … It is a great loss to UNMC and humanity.”

Find out how you can help support the doctor’s passion, and mission in life.

The University of Nebraska Foundation welcomes Laine Norton as assistant director of development for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Business Administration.

She will assist the foundation in establishing relationships with individuals and organizations interested in supporting the university through charitable giving.

Jared Kreher, a civil engineering student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, wishes there were more people in the world like Bob and Bo Muchemore.

They are selfless, he says. They are caring.

He says even though he’s never met the Omaha couple, who left much of their estate for scholarships to students like him.

“I am beyond grateful for what they have done for me,” Jared says. “The Muchemore Scholarship has allowed me to truly have the college experience by allowing me to get more involved on campus and concentrate on my studies while not having to worry financially.”

But who were the Muchemores? From a conversation with friend Harold Kosowsky:

Bob and Bo Muchemore were very happy people. If you knew Bob, you would always say this about him:

“What a great smile.”

You’d say that about Bo, too, although she was more serious.

Learn more about the Muchemores and how – though they had no children of their own – their generosity supports the education of so many children of other people.

When Michael Nyffeler was a kid growing up near Kearney, he and his family used to host an exchange student from Nepal for the holidays. They would head to the snowy hills near his home and go sledding. They’d eat turkey.

In 1996, the man graduated from UNK with a degree in science education. Before the man returned home to his village high in the Himalayas, Nyffeler and his dad took him to Cabela’s so he could buy a trekking backpack.

“I didn’t have any idea of the type of poverty he was from,” Nyffeler says.

And Nyffeler didn’t have any idea how important this man, Mahabir Pun, was to become to his country.

Learn how far Nyffeler is willing to go to help his longtime friend. And how high.

Six years ago, Colleen Wuebben’s right hand started to twitch. It usually happened when she was tired or stressed or cold.

Too much caffeine, she thought, too much work.

At her annual exam, she mentioned the twitching to her doctor. She was 52 at the time and, she felt, in perfect health.

The doctor moved her head in a circle. Her foot. Her wrist. He asked questions.

How’s your coordination? Has your handwriting changed? Has there been a change in your gait?

Then he asked a question that made her worry.

Are you afraid it’s anything?

“And I said, ‘No. But I think there’s a word you want me to use before you use it. And you’re just going to have to go ahead and say it because I have no idea.’”

So he said it.

Parkinson’s.

Read about the unique – and slick – way Wuebben and her family are raising money for UNMC researchers trying to find cures and treatments for the debilitating neurological disorder.

Zach Norwood’s senior thesis isn’t a subject he’s likely to bring up at a party.

“My thesis is about divisor sequences realizable in Krull monoids.”

Even a lot of math people wouldn’t necessarily know what a Krull monoid is, he says. (For people who know something about math, it’s about finding solutions to linear equations.)

Norwood, a UNL math major from Papillion, Neb., can’t remember ever not loving math. It’s always been sort of mysterious and fascinating to him.

“A lot of people don’t sympathize with that.”

Learn how Norwood’s love of math helped land him a year of study at Cambridge University.

The symptoms are often subtle: A sore in your mouth that doesn’t heal; difficulty in chewing, swallowing or moving your tongue; persistent pain in your mouth; or a feeling that something is caught in your throat. These are just a few signs of oral cancer, the sixth most common cancer in the United States.

This year, more than 40,000 people will develop oral cancer, which will result in about 13,000 deaths in the United States. As an alarming number of both younger and older patients are being diagnosed, the need for research in preventing, detecting and treating oral cancer is imperative.

Many causes are linked to oral cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the No. 1 cause of oral cancer is smoking, and the mortality rate of oral cancer in smokers is 15 to 30 times higher than nonsmokers. Alcohol use is another contributing factor to the disease.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry recently celebrated the 10^th anniversary of Children’s Dental Day, a patient care program hosted each year to provide free dental care to underserved children across Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s hockey program recently received the largest gift in its history – a gift that will be used to enhance its future.

The gift was made by Ron and Connie Brasel of Omaha through the University of Nebraska Foundation. The lifelong hockey fans have supported the Maverick hockey team since the program’s inception.

“I have children come to my class who have never handled a book, never drawn with a crayon, and who are constantly worried about whether or not they will get supper each night. This puts them behind from day one. Years later, I see these same kids and they have never caught up.”

– A Nebraska kindergarten teacher

Decades of research have established the years from birth to age 8 as the period during which children make their greatest gains – in thinking, behavior, language, and social and emotional growth. Yet many children emerge from this period lacking the basic abilities they need to succeed in life: close adult-child relationships, a language-rich environment, stimulating experiences and good nutrition.

It’s February, the month for thinking pink about love and the heart (or black, if a lover just left you).
It’s also American Heart Month, when groups like the American Heart Association step up their efforts to raise money for research and education – to keep as many hearts as possible from breaking in a literal sense – because cardiovascular diseases are the No. 1 killer in this country.

The statistics are black:

• 30 million Americans now suffer from cardiovascular diseases.
• Nebraska has a higher mortality rate from heart disease and stroke than the national average.
• More than one-sixth of all people killed by cardiovascular disease are younger than 65.
• This year alone, 300,000 will die suddenly from an irregular heartbeat.

Find out what researchers and clinicians at the University of Nebraska Medical Center are doing to fight this epidemic.

Convicted robber Jeremy Lukowski first read the words of Malcolm X while alone in “the hole” at the Omaha Correctional Center, in solitary confinement.

That was three years ago. He was sent there for mouthing off to an OCC staff member after a basketball game.

“I’ve had an authority problem,” he says.

Like Malcolm X.

Find out how Malcolm X – and how a UNO inmate re-entry program based on lessons from his life – is helping Lukowski and other Nebraska inmates climb out of their holes and back into the community.

Taylor Hammack has yet to absorb all the experiences he had this past fall in China.

The fifth-year College of Architecture student says it may take him years to understand how it expanded his horizons as an architect, and as a human.

He and a dozen other aspiring UNL architects participated in the College of Architecture’s China Program. They tried to talk to people who speak Mandarin, a tonal language so different from English. They walked and rode down streets crowded with bikes, motorbikes, cars and humans.

One day he’ll never forget, Hammack hopped into a taxi cab with two other UNL students and went on a wild ride through those Chinese streets.

From a conversation with B.M. “Doc” Stevenson, M.D.

The world has been pretty kind to me.

I had a good childhood growing up in a small town in Minnesota. My dad was the town doctor. I enjoyed school.

I enjoyed being a surgeon for all those years in Kearney. I’d leave the house before daylight and get home almost after dark, six days out of the week. I was doing a lot of surgeries out of town. I was sure happy.

Money was not an object as far as I was concerned. I just wanted to make enough that I could live and provide for our two kids and have something for retirement.

Find out how Doc is making a difference for many other young people.

And why.

What if the gap between what we know to be optimal conditions for child development and what actually happens to many at-risk children and their families could be closed?

What if a public university could leverage its land-grant mission by working with partners across the state to put the science of early childhood education into practice?

And what if all children – no matter their backgrounds – had equal opportunities for success?

Because of a generous gift to the University of Nebraska from Omaha philanthropist Susie Buffett – a gift the university has committed to more than match – these goals are now well within reach for Nebraska. The University of Nebraska has the opportunity to be a national leader and model for public universities in addressing early childhood.

World’s Foremost Bank, a subsidiary of Cabela’s Incorporated (NYSE: CAB) and the issuer of Cabela’s CLUB Visa credit card, announced today plans to expand its Lincoln, Neb., facilities and commit $1 million toward an educational endowment fund to benefit University of Nebraska-Lincoln students.

The company, in partnership with the University of Nebraska Technology Park, will grant access to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to undeveloped and environmentally sensitive property for educational field programs related to sustainable environmental practices and natural resources studies, among others. This agreement complements the $1 million gift commitment from World’s Foremost Bank to the University of Nebraska Foundation, which will be used to create a permanently endowed scholarship fund.

Seventy-five years ago – on June 3, 1936 – the University of Nebraska Foundation was born.

In 2011, we at the foundation will mark this major anniversary by looking back at the many milestones and by looking forward to many more years of connecting donors’ dreams and passions to the mission of the university.

And the unlimited possibilities.

I came to UNK and I found a place where I belonged.

I found a place small enough to not get lost, but big enough to meet someone new each day. A place where I could learn from someone who cared about me and grow to become who I am today. A place where I made countless new friendships that will continue throughout my life.

I came to this place and I found a home.

Find out how recent graduate Daniel Martin, a middle linebacker on the Lopers football team, feels about his years at UNK and about the life lesson one coach taught him.

Every successful person can point to one teacher who had a big effect on them. For Jere McGaffey, once a star debater at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, it was Dr. Donald Olson, his debate coach.

He was a heavyset Scandinavian fellow with a limp – I think he had polio as a kid – and a big heart.

Jere McGaffey went on to become a successful attorney and a major donor to UNL’s debate team. While a student, McGaffey never put into words how grateful he was to Olson.

But one sad day, many years later, he did.
 

When I tell people I am a UNO fan, I am talking about more than simply being a fervent follower of its athletic teams. I am a fan of the University of Nebraska at Omaha in general. – Jon Brooks, UNO alum (‘96)

Jon Brooks and his wife, Bridget, graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1996. They both received degrees in public relations/advertising and now own their own marketing communications company in Omaha, Image Building Communications.

For the past 10 years, they’ve also owned and operated MavPuck.com, a fan site for the UNO hockey team. One recent post from Jon emphasized their gratefulness to UNO and explained their passion for Mavs hockey.

Almost every gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation these past 16 years crossed the desk of Paula Nash, a gift processing specialist in the accounting department.

She took pride in her job, and in doing it right.

She sat at her desk just seven days before she died on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010. A multitude of lingering health problems finally took her life, according to son Dan Cockerham of Palmyra, Nebraska.

My oldest son was born in 1993 with cerebral palsy. It took 20 minutes of resuscitation before he took his first breath. … He has an IQ of 56. He struggles with change. My going back to school was not accepted well by him. …

Tammy K. Cox graduated this past December from UNMC’s College of Nursing in Scottsbluff. She’s grateful for receiving one of the 2010 Campaign for Nebraska Student Support Fund scholarships. She was recommended for the scholarship because of her “extraordinary circumstances.”

KEARNEY, Neb., Jan. 14, 2011—The University of Nebraska at Kearney announces David Rozema, professor and director of the philosophy department, has been awarded the first Inklings Chair of Philosophy and Literature. The chair is made possible through a $500,000 endowed fund given by an anonymous benefactor to the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Ed Hirsch, a former longtime staff member of the University of Nebraska Foundation and its president in the mid-1980s, died Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011, in Lincoln. He was 89.

The president has signed into law The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 this afternoon. This bill restores the IRA Charitable Rollover for 2010 and permits its use in all of 2011. Because it is so late in the year, the deadline for taking advantage of this option for 2010 has been extended to January 31, 2011.

On weekends, you’re likely to find Neal Grandgenett kicking and punching people.

The professor of mathematics education and the Haddix Community Chair in STEM Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is also a fourth-degree black belt, a teacher of Tae Kwon Do.

You’re likely to find Bing Chen, who’s chair of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Computer and Electronics Engineering Department, kneeling on his backyard dirt, coaxing seeds and pulling weeds. 

Grandgenett’s an ex-Marine.

Chen’s an excellent cook.

They come from different campuses and different worlds. But they share a passion for seeing the next generation of Nebraskans succeed in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

They share a passion for a small robot on wheels that makes that kind of learning fun.