University of Nebraska at Omaha

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.