University of Nebraska at Kearney

Did you know the University of Nebraska at Kearney offers one of the best music education programs around? Well, thanks to a recent challenge grant—and the ongoing success in reaching its $150,000 goal—the university soon hopes to share the music program’s reputation with many more future students while letting them know an excellent, cost-effective education is available right here.

The University of Nebraska at Kearney Department of Music and Performing Arts has received private gifts totaling $2 million from an anonymous donor, including $500,000 to permanently endow a chair in the music department.

Blanche Berns often spoke to her children about the importance of an education. The lessons struck a chord, because her son Henry D. Berns and his wife Marilyn recently established a scholarship in Blanche’s memory to help future teachers attend the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Blanche taught at rural country schools in Webster County, Neb., after graduating from what was then Kearney State Teacher’s College. After seven years, she stopped teaching when she married Henry P. F. Berns. They were rural farmers in Webster County where they raised five children, but she never stopped taking an interest in education.

Nate Summerfield had a tough decision to make after his father died just before Nate was to enroll in college. In this video clip he talks about the weight of his decision.

In May Kristi Scott joined the ranks of graduates of the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In June she joined the ranks of the Peace Corps and headed to Tanzania. She credits the scholarship support received from University of Nebraska at Kearney donors with allowing her to accept the toughest job she’ll ever love.

The four campuses of the University of Nebraska again ranked well among their peer institutions by the U.S. News and World Report’s 2010 edition of Best Colleges.

In each category, data of up to 15 indicators of academic quality are gathered from each school and analyzed according to the magazine’s own methodology. Among them include peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, class size, student-to-faculty ratio, financial resources and alumni giving.

The University of Nebraska at Kearney College of Business and Technology strives to be a place where its students can fit in, stand out and get ahead. It provides students with more than just a quality classroom education; it encourages them to seek experiential learning opportunities that help graduates stand out in the job market. Students gain these must-have experiences through internships, study abroad opportunities, research participation and business consulting. In this brief video, Dean Tim Burkink highlights the benefits of experiential learning and shares what sets the college apart from others.

A $10,000 gift from Justin Duffy’s friends and former co-workers at the Eaton Corporation is pushing a scholarship in his memory closer to its goal.

Duffy was killed on June 2, 2009, when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee while his Army unit provided security escort for military leadership in Baghdad. A fund in his memory was established last year at the University of Nebraska Foundation to help students attend the University of Nebraska at Kearney where Duffy graduated in 2000.

Duffy’s former Kearney, Neb., employer, Eaton, donated more than $10,000 in memory of its former employee. Duffy worked at the plant as a production supervisor for about five years.

Frank Morrison was devoted to his wife Maxine. She was an accomplished singer, teacher, businesswoman and politician who raised a family with a successful husband who was a teacher, a lawyer and served as governor of Nebraska from 1961-67.

The industrial technology department at the University of Nebraska at Kearney is the only program in Nebraska accredited by the National Association of Industrial Technology at the undergraduate level and is one of only 55 programs of its kind in the nation.