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Archives for June 28, 2018

A message of hope and help

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UNK students like Luke Grossnicklaus pay it forward.

He tells the story of a boy in pain.

His right leg hurt. A disease called linear scleroderma was slowly taking it over — “suffocating it,” he says, stunting it, starting the year he was 4. While the boy’s body grew, that leg did not. He walked with a weird gait.

The boy’s heart hurt, too, because some days at school his pain was so bad that he couldn’t go out at recess to play. Some nights, his mom would stay up with him, rubbing his back as he cried.

Why is this happening to me? I don’t deserve this. I’m just a little kid.

But the people surrounding him took away some of the pain.

His friends stayed and played with him inside at recess time as he sat with an icepack on that leg. His teachers and coaches and the whole community of his hometown, Aurora, Nebraska, treated him like any other kid. So did his parents and two big brothers, who gave him lots of love but never any extra strokes when competed on the golf course. His brothers never took it easy on him when they wrestled with him in the house (before their mom told them all to stop).

Most everyone in his world, he says, saw that he was able, not dis-abled.

And that made him see it, too.

And everyone is the reason, Luke Grossnicklaus says, that he stands before young people today, whenever asked, and tells the boy’s story — his own story — because he knows it might help them overcome their pain, too.

Luke, who was UNK’s 2016 homecoming king, is studying business education. He would love to become a high school principal somewhere in Nebraska one day, maybe a coach. He was recently president of his fraternity.

Whenever asked, he tells his story to schoolkids.

He tells them that if they’re from broken homes or feel broken inside, that they can’t let their situation define their future.

He tells them they can get out of their own pain by helping other people in pain to cope.

He tells them there’s hope, even on the darkest day.

He tells then about his darkest day, which was when he was 12, and  the doctors said they had to amputate that leg.

“Imagine being a kid who loves sports being told that,” he says.

He tells them that a kid with an amputated leg can be a college athlete and how he played on the UNK golf team his first two years, walking on as a freshman and then earning a scholarship his sophomore year.

One day, after speaking at a high school, a student approached Luke. Her parents had divorced and she hated one of them, she told him, for not being there for her. She thought her life was only going to get worse. She thanked him for his message.

“It felt good to help her,” Luke says. “It feels good to be that mediator between teachers and students and to encourage students with — ‘Hey, I’ve been here before. I know what it’s like. It may not be the same situation, but, hey, you’re not the only one going through it.’”

Luke tells his story because he’s able to. ABLE to. He emphasized that word whenever he tells his story. Not DIS-abled.

“That’s a big part of my message, why I’m so passionate, because I had a lot of people who helped me,” says Luke, who graduated this spring from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. “My whole message is that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people surrounding me at my toughest and my darkest moments. That’s where we get stuck — when we don’t have the people around us.

“We need to be the people who are willing to help others in need.”

Support for students like Luke was one of UNK’s priorities in the University of Nebraska Foundation’s recent Our Students, Our Future fundraising initiative, which ended Dec. 31, 2017.

Luke says he sees a lot of young people like him who are already finding ways to give back. Millennials, who have grown up digitally connected to the world, he says, tend to care about the future and feel able to make the world better place.

A few examples of other UNK students and why they give back:

Miguel Baeza Aguilera

Recent graduate, degree in general studies

Hometown: Grand Island, Nebraska

Why do you give back?: My parents educated my siblings and me that it is always better to give than to receive. Impacting lives and seeing someone smile is the best feeling in the world. I also give back because I wouldn’t be where I am today without everyone who took the time to support me throughout my life. You have to remember that someone is always looking up to you as their role model, so why not keep the chain reaction of giving back going.

Jaime McCann

Graduate student in the MBA program

Hometown: Kearney, Nebraska

How/why do millennials give back to the world?: After traveling to South America, I gained a new perspective on what it means to live in “poverty.” I believe that other millennials who have traveled abroad will attest to the same sentiment — once you are exposed to the lifestyles that those across the globe live in, you become so much more thankful for what we have here. This, in turn, provides inspiration to give back to others.

Emma Neil

Senior, 7-12 social science education major with endorsement in ESL (English as a Second Language) and minor in political science

Hometown: Papillion, Nebraska

How do you give back to the world?: I enjoy going on mission trips to different parts of the world and learning about other people’s cultures and countries. I know I was born with so many things that others could only imagine. For example, I am incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to receive a higher level education. I think it is important to meet others and learn about their lives and how they are different, yet so similar to my own.

Clark Pohlmeier

Senior, business administration major

Hometown: Grand Island, Nebraska

Why do you give back?: Because it makes an impact in people’s lives. If I can spend a few hours positively impacting someone’s life, it’s worth it. Giving back strengths the communities. It’s also an avenue to meet other people and share experiences.

Whether you are a longtime supporter or a new graduate, you can impact students immediately through the UNK Fund. Every dollar invested in the UNK Fund provides scholarships, supports talented faculty, enhances your college’s priorities, and much more. And it all happens because of you.

If you would like to help, please contact the University of Nebraska Foundation at 800-432-3216 or send us a message.

"My whole message is that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people surrounding me at my toughest and my darkest moments. That’s where we get stuck — when we don’t have the people around us."

Luke Grossnicklaus

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You get to see a lot of gratefulness

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Future doctor thanks supporters of UNMC’s student-run health clinics

The stories that stick with him the most, he says, are the ones that he’s seen this past year — like all the times he’s seen fear in his patients’ eyes, and how he’s watched it go away. It’s been a gift.

Jared Baxter, a second-year medical student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, works with the award-winning UNMC SHARING clinics, the student-run community clinics that provide the underserved people of Omaha with high-quality, low-cost health care.

The clinics also involve more than 30 UNMC faculty members who volunteer onsite with the students.

This year, Jared is the clinic administrator for the SHARING organization’s RESPECT Clinic, which stands for Responsible Early STD Prevention Education and Community Testing.

“A lot of times, these patients are completely terrified,” he says. “One — that they have to tell someone else that they might have an STD or something along those lines. But two, they’re just scared for their own health. And being able to see them be completely at peace after we show them their negative test — after we are able to do this care confidentially and for free, and that they don’t have to worry about that anymore — that really sticks with you.”

The SHARING organization is unusual among student-run health care center across the country, he says, because it has several specialized clinics beyond its one general clinic. Its main clinic, called the SHARING Clinic, provides general health care. Then there’s the GOODLIFE Clinic for diabetes care, the VISION Clinic, which does eye care for diabetics as well as general vision care, and the RESPECT Clinic, all in Omaha. There’s also a branch in Lincoln with UNMC’s dental school and a primary care clinic in Kearney.

The SHARING clinics provide health care to people who otherwise may not get it, he says, whether that’s due to money or time constraints. The clinics stay open late into the evening, unlike most general clinics.

Many patients come to them with fear in their eyes and then leave with information and instruction — and the feeling that other people care.

“We really deal with populations that are left alone by society,” Jared says. “Being at the SHARING clinics, we definitely see that our patients are able to treat their health problems that would otherwise cause a lot of serious issues. They don’t have access to the health care like we do. And we’re able to see really drastic improvements in the care of, for instance, their diabetes. Or their blood sugars go way down. We can help them lose weight, help them control their blood pressure, get them annual screenings for colonoscopies or mammograms or what have you.

“And you get to see a lot of gratefulness — a lot of them really feel abandoned by society, and just having someone sit down, give them the time of day, to show they care about their concerns, is really big for them, at least as far as I can tell.”

Helping others this way will help him someday in his career, he says. It will make him a better doctor.

And, he hopes, a better human.

That passion, he says, began at home. He grew up in Omaha, the son of two generous humans — two nurses. His mom was an operating room scrub nurse and his dad was a dialysis licensed practical nurse. So the hospital, he says, became a home away from home.

His parents told him and his siblings that a big part of life is to help people who need it. His parents required him and his siblings to give a part of their allowance each week to their church or to charity.

“I guess the primary thing they’ve been a part of is trying to be nice and compassionate to people and just, you know, be a decent human being,” he says. “It’s something that’s lacking in today’s society a lot, but that’s again something we can share within the SHARING clinics to our patients.

“A lot of times those populations feel like society doesn’t care about then, doesn’t remember them, doesn’t care about what happens to them.

“Well, we do at the SHARING clinics.”

The human anatomy has always fascinated him. He learned a lot about the body’s ability to heal when he was a football player, first at Omaha North and then at a small Catholic college in Kansas called Benedictine College.

“I’ve had a lot of shoulder dislocations, unfortunately, and some knee sprains,” he says, smiling. “Nothing major, but I’ve had my fair share of bumps and bruises. I always liked knowing why things were happening and what was happening and not just, ‘Follow what the coach says and just do it.’

It was just always a natural curiosity for me.”

It’s been a gift, he says, to him and to the SHARING clinics’ other future heath care professionals.

“It really helps me practice my clinics skills and get exposed to other sides of medicine that aren’t in the textbook,” he says, “and it’s really rewarding that we get to be part of something that’s so monumental here in the Omaha community.”

Jared is sharing his story not to show how great he or the other medical students or faculty at the SHARING clinics are, but to share what he’s seen with the people who’ve supported the SHARING organization over the years are and, especially, to share how incredible the patients are. And their outcomes.

He hopes the outcome of this story will be that people who read it will think about sharing their good fortune with people like his patients.

Jared also served as the clinics’ treasurer. He knows they need money because they’re completely funded through donations. He’s met some of the donors and he’s seen — in their eyes — how much they also care.

It’s been a gift, too.

“I’m extremely grateful for all of the previous donors and future donors that we have who support the SHARING clinics,” he says. “And I know I speak on behalf of the student committee and also the faculty that represent us as well and all the providers — we’re completely grateful for your help.

“And we know that we would not be able to operate without you.”

To help future medical professionals like Jared serve the underserved, please consider supporting UNMC’s student-run SHARING clinics.

"And you get to see a lot of gratefulness — a lot of them really feel abandoned by society, and just having someone sit down, give them the time of day, to show they care about their concerns, is really big for them, at least as far as I can tell."

Jared Baxter

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A new home for good business and for the business of doing good

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Take a tour of Hawks Hall through the eyes of a student

Surprised to feel a bit nervous, Brenna Backemeyer walked to the plexiglas podium and looked out at the crowd. She knew this was an important crowd.

She knew this was an important message.

She cleared her throat.

Good evening, everyone! On behalf of every student, every faculty member and ever staff member with the Nebraska College of Business, welcome to our house!

Welcome to Hawks Hall! …

Brenna, a junior in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s College of Business, served as student emcee this past October at the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Annual Meeting of Trustees, held in Howard L. Hawks Hall, her college’s new home.

Maybe she felt nervous because she knew all the people before her represented everyone who’d ever supported the University of Nebraska, year after year, dollar after dollar. She knew donors like these people, through their gifts to the foundation, had paid for every sandstone block and pane of blue glass in Hawks Hall, every tile and table and piece of technology.

Why? Because they wanted to help the state and students like her, the workforce of the future — students they didn’t even know.

She didn’t want to blow it.

She smiled.

… I hope you enjoyed exploring Hawks Hall earlier. As you certainly know, this magnificent, $84 million facility was made possible through philanthropic generosity. This is simply amazing — more than 1,900 people donated gifts of every amount to make this dream possible. …

Brenna, who grew up in Elmwood, Nebraska, had spoken to many crowds before. In high school, she’d won second place in the National Future Business Leaders of America Competition. When she came to UNL and its College of Business, she’d joined the collegiate version of FBLA and became its president. She’d spoken to her high-achieving cohorts in the college’s Business Honors Academy.

The academy was, in fact, a big reason she chose UNL over Brandeis and Emory universities or any of the other schools beckoning her to leave the state.

So was Hawks Hall.

… I was fortunate to be recruited by various other business schools. I ultimately chose Nebraska Business because I knew I would be part of the historic opening of this new facility and because of the care I could tell this campus has for its student. ….

She’d felt in awe just a few weeks before as she walked into Hawks Hall for her first time, on the first day of fall classes. Other students were in awe, too, she could tell, because they were looking up and around instead of down at their phones. She walked into her Supply Chain 350 class and noticed right away how the chairs and the tables were movable, which made it easier for students to rearrange them to collaborate. The technology was neat, too. Everything was neat.

She wore a T-shirt that day, the typical student uniform. But this night, she wore a dark blazer and a dress, and she’d felt a bit odd walking into Hawks Hall in heels.

Her voice grew strong.

… Students have four or five years to grow and prepare for the rest of our lives. Hawks Hall is the facility to help foster this growth and creativity. This is because of its collaborative classrooms, breakout study rooms, convenient location, high-end technology, cafe and much more …

Brenna already knew the value of giving back. She saw it in high school when she’d helped organize a community fundraiser for a business teacher whose grandchild was born with a terminal disease. She saw the tears in the teacher’s eyes when they surprised him at school with a check. That experience taught her that she had a knack for bringing people together to do good in the world.

In college, she became philanthropy chair for her Honors Academy cohort and started a blog called “Home Is Here,” which tells the stories of local refugee families. She saw how stories mattered in making people understand the value of giving back.

That’s why she felt happy to stand at the podium and tell her story.

… This brings me to an important point: No matter where a student may choose to study business or many other programs — whether it be in Kearney, Omaha or Lincoln — they are assured of an education that will prepare them well for their career. Often, this quality education is because of you. …

Brenna got to sit at a reserved table near the front. She sat with a few College of Business alumni. She had fun hearing their stories about what it was like back in the day and about their business journeys through life. They asked her what she wanted to with her life, and she told them she was majoring in marketing and business education and that she’d like to become an entrepreneur and educator someday. She told them she’d learned a lot about herself already in the college’s Clifton Builder’s Program — housed in Hawks Hall — that teaches leadership and entrepreneurship skills, based on students’ strengths, that will help them go out and change the world.

That’s what Brenna hopes to do. Change the world, in some way.

And maybe someday, years from now, she’ll be sitting here in Hawks Hall again as a proud supporter of the university, and she’ll be listening to a student deliver an important message from the heart: Gratitude.

… Many of you have contributed — or you contribute to other university programs of meaning to you. … So, with deep appreciation from me and my fellow scholars, thank you very much!

Needs and opportunities are ever-changing at Nebraska, and through the N Fund, you choose to support what you think is most important. The N Fund allows alumni and friends to contribute to priority funds that support specific Nebraska colleges, as well as broader areas of need like student scholarships, faculty development and campus libraries.

"This brings me to an important point: No matter where a student may choose to study business or many other programs — whether it be in Kearney, Omaha or Lincoln — they are assured of an education that will prepare them well for their career. Often, this quality education is because of you."

Brenna Backenmeyer

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