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Not a Lecture Hall

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

UNK’s STEM Building Encourages Collaboration and Discovery

By Kristin Howard

“Do you know what a flip phone is?”

University of Nebraska at Kearney student Uriel Anchondo loves discovery and being connected.

For him, the flip phone is more than just an artifact of his childhood; it’s a symbol of his academic and career goals.

“I was 8 or 9 years old, always on my mom’s flip phone, changing the settings, finding interesting information, showing her that I could change the language to Spanish,” said the first-generation college student from Grand Island, Nebraska. “I loved figuring it all out.”

This curiosity — along with a supportive family, scholarships and motivation to succeed academically — has propelled Anchondo on what he calls “an incredible path.”

An applied computer science major with a minor in finance, Anchondo spends much of his time in UNK’s Discovery Hall. The state-of-the-art STEM facility is home to the construction management, industrial distribution, interior and product design, aviation, cyber systems, mathematics and statistics, physics, astronomy and engineering programs. The hall opened in August 2020, replacing the Otto C. Olsen industrial arts building.

Located on UNK’s west campus, Discovery Hall was designed specifically for the programs that will drive economic growth in greater Nebraska.

“The name Discovery Hall is so appropriate,” said UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen at the facility’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2020. “This building is not a lecture hall. This building is all about discovering new things and having people work together. Truly, there will be lots discovered in this building, and it’s going to benefit our students and our state.”

This first-class facility, he said, will change Nebraska by offering opportunities for current and future students that “we’ve never dreamed of before.”

For Tim Jares, Ph.D., dean of the UNK College of Business and Technology, Discovery Hall is a special place.

“Students and visitors are engaged in the learning environment from the minute they walk in the door,” he said. “The lab spaces are specially designed to facilitate experiential learning. Learning by doing means our students will retain much more of what they learn and will be much better equipped to make informed career decisions.”

Anchondo’s goal is to work for a big tech company, and he said he had a vision of his future when he entered Discovery Hall for the first time.

“There was glass everywhere, sleek furniture and workspaces … and we get to learn there!” he said.

Discovery Hall’s open floor plan was intended to promote collaboration and innovation across different academic departments. Anchondo discovered this collegiality extends throughout the university.

“My favorite part about UNK is that I have discovered other communities and groups on campus that have allowed me to branch out and connect,” he said.

After graduating from UNK, Anchondo would like to work as a computer or business systems analyst.

“UNK is helping me achieve this goal by providing resources and networking opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be possible,” he said. “My family is so grateful; I am so grateful. I want to travel the world and explore everything.”

And his analogy takes it full circle: “Before, it was just a flip phone. Now we’re all connected.”

“This building is not a lecture hall. This building is all about discovering new things and having people work together. Truly, there will be lots discovered in this building, and it’s going to benefit our students and our state.”

Doug Kristensen, UNK Chancellor

A New Home for Treatments, Therapies and Joy

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Munroe-Meyer Institute Provides Hope for Families

By Ed Rider

Christine Tran wasn’t certain how her son Joseph, 7, would respond to seeing the new 215,882-square-foot, state-of-the-art Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) building for the first time.

For more than five years, the familiar yellow canopy on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center had signaled to Joseph his arrival at MMI. Seeing that yellow awning, Tran said, always gave Joseph a boost of energy.

“This place is truly amazing. Joseph’s eyes lit up when he saw that playground,” Tran said of the new facility. “And the size provides so many possibilities for the growth of programs into adulthood. MMI has been an important part of his life. We hope we never have to stop coming here.”

The environment of the facility appeals to clients across the lifespan and their families, where children, teens and adults can feel like they belong and can be successful.

There is a lot for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families to absorb the first time they visit the new MMI, adjacent to the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Scott Campus. From Nancy’s Place — the aquatic center — to Aspen’s Playground to the Holland Foundation Early Intervention Wing, the new MMI building is more than double the size of its former home of more than 60 years. It affords world-class providers more space for teaching, research, clinical and community engagement, as well as the accessibility individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities require.

Early intervention for autism spectrum disorders is essential for developing long-term skills and outcomes. The Holland Foundation Early Intervention Wing encompasses nearly half of the new building’s second level and includes six classrooms and 35 treatment rooms. The Maker Space provides room for tools needed by MMI staff to create nearly any assistive device, such as orthotics, to assist in the performance of daily activities by MMI clients. Being located near the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute allows MMI faculty to collaborate with engineering students and faculty on new technologies that could lead to innovative treatments and therapies.

Researchers work side by side with clinicians and families in the Sensorimotor Lab to identify ways to improve the function and fitness of individuals with sensorimotor challenges, such as cerebral palsy. The lab allows for the rapid identification of key ingredients for expanding an individual’s ability to participate in engaging activities and leads to the availability of cutting-edge services for MMI clients. Its proximity to a nearby biking and walking trail allows for additional recreational and physical therapy options for clients.

And for clients and their families, the location offers an abundance of convenient and accessible parking.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

Familiar surroundings are a comfort to many with intellectual and development disabilities. So, when MMI announced that it would be moving from its former home, not everyone shared in the excitement.

Denise Gehringer has been intimately involved with MMI for years. Her son, Jake, 25, has been attending programs at MMI since he was 2. Another son, James Gehringer, Ph.D., is a research assistant professor in the department of physical therapy who oversees the new Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab. The lab brings together researchers and clinicians to create new computer programs that immerse clients into virtual environments and allow them to acquire new skills while having fun.

As the former president of the MMI Board of Directors, Denise Gehringer was excited about the nearly $91 million project and its possibilities for new and expanded programs. Jake, however, was hesitant about the move.

“Jake was a little irritated,” she said. “He wasn’t ready to leave. We were all a little sentimental about leaving a place that we had been a part of for so long. He doesn’t feel that way anymore. Jake has a little more pep in his step now.”

She said the new building exceeded all expectations. “It’s very welcoming and friendly. You get pulled right in.”

Bob and Vicky Vandervort’s son Michael, 34, was born with a rare condition that requires him to use a wheelchair and limits his ability to communicate. The couple recalled how Michael, then 10, cried after his first day at Camp Munroe, a recreational day camp program for children and adolescents with disabilities established in 1982 and funded by the Hattie B. Munroe Foundation. While they considered not finishing the week of camp, the Vandervorts soon realized that Michael wept because he did not want to leave. He was having so much fun, they said.

“Michael looks forward to going to MMI. Outside of family, it’s the number one thing that Michael loves,” Bob Vandervort said. “The activities provide him with a level of independence from us.”

“The pool area is unbelievable,” Vicky Vandervort said. “I had no idea it was going to be that nice. It’s Michael’s favorite thing to do.”

FULFILLING THE MISSION

Károly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D., director of MMI, said the transition is less about the building and more about providing MMI’s innovative and creative staff the space to establish new programs, to expand existing programs and to fulfill MMI’s mission to be world leaders in transforming the lives of all individuals with disabilities and complex medical conditions.

“Our amazing new building is a vessel for services,” Mirnics said. “I am in awe of the possibilities, but also aware of the expectations placed upon us.

“It took a community to make this happen, and I am very proud to be part of this community, which cares so deeply about the people and families MMI serves. Most importantly, our new home allows us to provide the best, most comprehensive, supremely integrated family-centric services in the world.”

Philanthropic support was crucial to the new building’s transformation. Private gifts to the University of Nebraska Foundation, coupled with $10 million in state bonds, provided funding for the project.

Jennifer Read and her family relocated from North Platte, Nebraska, seven years ago to access services at MMI. Her son Tucker, 11, had shown signs of being on the autism spectrum, but services offered through his school in North Platte were limited.

“I did some research and knew we had to get him here,” Read said. “He loves coming to camp. We see a completely different Tucker on his days at MMI.”

Read was especially excited about the new programs now available through MMI.

The Caring for Champions Program was established to provide equitable access to quality health care, education and services to individuals with intellectual and development disabilities. Providers from UNMC’s College of Dentistry, Truhlsen Eye Institute and MMI’s nutrition services provide access to vision, oral health and wellness services that are tailored to the patients’ unique situations.

“People on the spectrum often struggle to get services like eye and dental care,” Read said. “Having providers who know how to work with people on the spectrum helps to make the experience more pleasant. There are so many exciting things going on here.”

DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE

While the new facility received rave reviews, parents noted that the building would mean little without the staff who deliver the services.

“It’s a world-class facility, but it’s the people who make the difference,” Bob Vandervort said. “This staff is so creative and imaginative … to turn them loose in a facility like this, they will take things to a whole new level.”

Noah Farho, a senior biology major at UNO, is one of those people. He began volunteering at MMI in 2015 to obtain service hours for school but fell in love with the program. He has been a member of the recreation therapy staff since 2017. It’s the joy he gets from the relationships that he has built with the program’s participants and staff that keeps him coming back.

Farho said he was “blown away” by the size and features of the new location. However, being able to experience his clients’ reactions to the pool and playground for the first time has been his favorite part of the new facility.

“It’s wonderful to be able to provide our program participants with the type of building and the features they deserve,” Farho said. “The new facility expands the number and the quality of programs we are able to provide.”

In the end, what happens inside the building is what matters most.

“I always worry about leaving him (Tucker) places,” Read said, “but not here. Tucker loves coming here. He feels comfortable and safe. We have people here who know him and love him.”

Tran agreed.

“It’s like dropping him (Joseph) off at his grandparents’ house. We don’t have to worry. We know that he’s going to be OK,” she said. “We are so grateful to have something like this in our community that celebrates our children.”

“This place is truly amazing. Joseph’s eyes lit up when he saw that playground. And the size provides so many possibilities for the growth of programs into adulthood. MMI has been an important part of his life. We hope we never have to stop coming here."

Christine Tran

Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is Where Storytelling Becomes Reality

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Story by Robyn Murray | Video by Lance Schwartz

More than a year after COVID-19 put the world on lockdown, a lot has changed. Many are wondering what the post-pandemic world will look like. What will stay — the transformed workplace, the virtual connections and work-life balance, the amount of time spent outside?

The uncertainty is leading to creation. It’s an opportunity to discover and create a new world — and elements of that new world are being designed here in Nebraska.

“We’re right at the nexus of creativity and technology on the cusp of the future,” said Megan Elliott, director of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “We’re always attuned and listening to the incoming of the other, if you will, because that’s how you bring the future into being.”

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts opened in the fall of 2019 with a new building and renewed momentum. The center’s vision is to prepare students for a media environment transformed by emerging technologies, such as animation, virtual and augmented reality, interactive media and gaming.

Elliott says the Carson Center is where storytelling becomes reality.

“What we see in our movies is what we design in our future,” she said.

Referring to a conversation between science-fiction author Douglas Adams and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, Elliott said Adams questioned Kubrick about what robots would look like in the future, and Kubrick answered, “Whatever we make them look like now!”

“We wield something very powerful as the people who get to design these images and put them into the future,” Elliott said. “We don’t just discover the future; we influence how it’s going to unfurl.”

Carson Center students can take classes in filmmaking, game design, special effects, augmented reality, experience design, virtual reality and animation. They are learning technologies that are quickly expanding in application to other industries. The Carson Center, per its website, is a collaborative hub where physicists may collaborate with artists “to create an immersive world that shows what happens when atoms collide” or where biomedical faculty work with film students “to create simulations of the human body.”

In the class of Ash Eliza Smith, an assistant professor of emerging media arts, students have partnered with Jason Griffiths, an associate professor in the College of Architecture, to reimagine spaces that were underutilized due to the pandemic.

“We are reimagining our current shared world,” Smith said. “We asked, ‘How do we spend more time outside and rethink these systems?’”

One project proposed a colorful, pedestrian-friendly boardwalk in downtown Lincoln that offers a permanent space for the city’s popular annual music festival, Lincoln Calling, and encourages other spontaneous performances throughout the year. Another proposed an urban garden constructed on street scaffolding, while another highlighted ecological systems that thrive in undesirable spaces (like weeds in a cracked parking lot).

Smith also conducted a worldbuilding innovation studio with collaborator Alex McDowell, RDI, who sits on the Carson Center’s advisory council and brings Hollywood bona fides as a production designer for films such as “Minority Report” and “Fight Club.” These classes, Smith said, offer a lens through which to envision the future.

“We could use that to reimagine our city … schools … governance … economy,” she said. “There are all these ways we can think about using this as a methodology for civic imagination.”

One element of the new COVID world is fluidity of place. In other words, Carson students may not need to move to Los Angeles or other film and media hubs to pursue their ambitions in creative work. Elliott said several students have secured internships with companies in L.A. and New York that don’t require them to leave Lincoln.

Annie Wang, who is beginning her senior year at the Carson Center, was a finalist for a highly competitive internship in animation at the Television Academy Foundation in Hollywood. The internship is typically based in California but went virtual in the pandemic.

Wang, who loves all aspects of film production, particularly editing and directing, said she considered going out of state to study film. But when she learned more about the Carson Center, she was excited about the opportunities available that were so close to home and affordable.

Wang said she’s developed a network of like-minded creatives at UNL who have become close friends.

“I think I found a very good family here in terms of my cohort,” she said. “I just feel very grateful that I’ve found so many great friends and collaborators … and I have some really great professors that also have my back.”

Wang said she’s hopeful she won’t have to move to L.A. after graduating, at least not at first. She plans to jump-start her career at a local advertising agency or creative firm and said she’s been surprised by how much creative energy she’s discovered in Lincoln.

“It’s kind of cool seeing that there are so many creative people out there that are willing to put in so much to bring things to life,” she said.

Elliott, who came to her position from Australia, where she led the digital media think tank X Media Lab and worked with people all over the world, said she was not surprised by the creativity happening in Nebraska.

“Innovation happens at the margins,” she said. “In this country, the margins happen to be in the middle. So it doesn’t surprise me that in a place which is overlooked by many people, that this is where real innovation is taking place.

“This is where it should be happening, because we’re not saturated. We can be pioneering in our ideas, not just our spirit.”

Smith agrees. She came to UNL from North Carolina and then California, where she taught at the University of California San Diego. She said she thinks Nebraska plays a central role in the transformative issues of our time, including the conservation and production of natural resources, such as water and food.

“The center is the new edge,” Smith said. “This is where things are happening. I think more and more people are paying attention to that.”

Smith added that Nebraska has to do more than offer creative educational opportunities for young people. It has to invest in its communities to entice students to stay there after graduation.

“Students reinvest in the place where they were educated,” Smith said. “So we also have to invest in our communities and our imagination of what those places can be. How can we create something so cool that students want to stay here?”

Done right, a post-pandemic world could mean that Nebraska is the coolest place to be for young, creative professionals. At least that’s the vision.

“You can stay here and work remotely; you can build a business here that has remote clients and workers around the world,” Elliott said. “People can start to rethink the balance of life.”

Elliott said the pandemic merely accelerated changes that were already in motion. Technology is transforming how we live and the world functions. That’s why the Carson Center is devoted to graduating “X-shaped” students, its website explains, who have ownership over their futures and the ability to “thrive in a changing, diverse, global environment.”

Elliott pointed to an essay in the Financial Times by Arundhati Roy, who wrote the pandemic “is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

Roy continued: “We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

Elliott said, “When I read that I thought that’s exactly right. It’s an opportunity to really reimagine what it is we want to do when we return to normal … how we learn, how we have internships, how we show up for each other and how we support each other … and that’s something that’s really exciting.”

“We could use that to reimagine our city … schools … governance … economy,” she said. “There are all these ways we can think about using this as a methodology for civic imagination.”

Ash Eliza Smith

UNO’s Mark Gilbert explores the healing power of art

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Story by Robyn Murray | Video by Lance Schwartz

The surgery wasn’t the hardest part.

The worst was squeezing his face into a tightly fitted plastic mask and lying down on a cold, metal table. Every day, he endured the same waves of claustrophobia as he kept his body still while the nurses secured him to the table and the sickening stench of his burning skin washed over him.

“I saw the experience turn a gentle, lovely man into someone who was being violent,” said Mark Gilbert, Ph.D., an artist and medical humanities professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Gilbert met the man, Roland S., when he was undergoing radiation treatment for cancer of the upper jaw. Gilbert painted Roland’s portrait during the process — sitting with him during his surgery and radiation treatments and spending hours with him in his studio.

“It takes courage at the best of times to have somebody looking at you while they’re drawing you,” Gilbert said. “I took confidence in the fact that he had confidence in me. He trusted me to do justice to this part of his story.”

Roland’s portrait was part of “Saving Faces,” a project conceived by a surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, who commissioned Gilbert to paint portraits of patients undergoing facial reconstructive surgeries. The hope was the process of being painted would help them heal and adjust to their facial deformities.

While not a new idea, it has gained significant traction in recent years: the power of art and humanities to heal.

“Humanities aren’t just a pleasant distraction,” said Gilbert, who has conducted numerous studies on the impact of art on well-being. “They can allow us to engage with what we’ve found most challenging in a way that can be healing.”

“Saving Faces” was exhibited at UNO in 2006 through a partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. That led to a 15-year relationship that resulted in Gilbert’s joint appointment as professor of studio art and medical humanities in 2020. Gilbert’s position is part of UNO’s medical humanities program, an interdisciplinary partnership that was established as a major in 2019.

The program is directed by Steve Langan, a poet and writing teacher with a background in public health administration. Langan came to the position after his experience as founder of the Seven Doctors Project, which paired doctors with writers and aimed to provide a creative outlet for physicians to
relieve stress and burnout. Langan said the impact was profound.

“Humanities and the arts are, in my experience, life-altering,” Langan said, “and that’s not an exaggeration.”

UNO’s medical humanities major has grown to include 80 students, who hail from various backgrounds and have a range of career goals.

It includes a long list of participating professors from UNO and UNMC in fields as varied as sociology and anthropology, philosophy, English, communication and social work. It is highly collaborative and involves organizations across the country, including New York City’s Theater for
Social Change.

As the program grows, Langan says it will not only focus on helping patients heal through engagement with the arts, but it will also aim to improve wellness among health care workers. Langan says the program is currently focused on tackling burnout, a problem exacerbated by the pandemic.

“We recognize the sky-high burnout numbers, sky-high suicide numbers. Physicians are at the top of that terrible list,” Langan said. “We believe that what we bring to the table helps alleviate the stress, suffering, the pain of not thinking about and talking about what ails us. We’re not trained therapists. But our specialties contain that inoculation.”

For Roland S., the process of sitting with Gilbert through one of the most challenging periods of his life and seeing the portrait of his face — the scars, the fear in his eyes — helped him turn his pain into something he could confront, and even into something beautiful.

“He turned something that was deeply upsetting into something that was powerful,” Gilbert said.

In August 2022, Gilbert’s work will be exhibited at the UNO Art Gallery alongside drawings by his late father, Norman Gilbert. For more information, contact Gilbert at 402-554-2420 or [email protected].

“It’s been well known for a long time that various types of art — written art, literature, poetry, graphic arts, music — have had a dramatic effect on how people heal, particularly for serious and chronic diseases,”

Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., UNMC Chancellor

When Bees Become Canaries

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

UNL Research Leads To Important Discoveries

By Jennifer Overkamp

It’s a tale of two sites for discovery. Since 2018, in Kimmel Orchard outside of Nebraska City, Nebraska, beehives have flourished in a meadow surrounded by apple, cherry and pear trees. At the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center (ENREC) near Mead, Nebraska, seeping, invisible toxins caused dead bees to spill out of hives for three summers, halting promising research and mystifying scientists.

The connection between these two very different places? It was the work of Judy Wu-Smart, Ph.D., assistant professor and extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

In the orchard, a collection of white beehives, some decorated by children, hosts thousands of industrious bees waiting to help pollinate delicate, fragrant blossoms each spring. In the summer, rows of trees will be heavy with fruit, and visitors of all ages will harvest the bounty. Add in beekeeping classes and research, and this place buzzes with life.

It’s a favorite spot for Wu-Smart, who enjoys teaching beekeepers at every level, from the beginner to the professional.

“I really love engaging with the stakeholders and translating complicated science into relatable, practical solutions,” said Wu-Smart. “Our applied research feeds into our beekeeper and landowner training programs.”

Bees are not only crucial to the agricultural economy and food stability, but their numbers are also declining, so sharing the latest research is increasingly urgent. Wu-Smart developed a Master Beekeeping certification to help do just that. Beekeepers from local and regional beekeeping organizations in a four-state region take classes to discover what works and then bring back up-to-date information to their local groups, helping more than 800 people become more effective beekeepers.

Kimmel Orchard not only provides space for the Bee Lab’s apiaries (and fruit trees with pollen for those bees), but the Richard P. Kimmel & Laurine Kimmel Charitable Foundation also awarded the lab a $100,000 grant in 2020. Wu-Smart made careful use of that gift, pairing it with funds from her own resources to present a virtual Bee Fun Day, a Girl Scout workshop and, most importantly, fund two graduate students and their research projects.

One of those students is Courtney Brummel. As part of her work toward her master’s degree in entomology, she’s exploring ways to integrate pollinator conservation with education at Kimmel Orchard.

Brummel said that she is “eternally grateful” for the grant.

“Without the Kimmel Foundation, I wouldn’t be getting my master’s,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to take my next steps in my career, but also in my life, because of the self-discovery I’ve had through this journey. I am passionate about food security and the importance of education. And I’m realizing that people want to help — they just don’t know where to start.”

This spring, Brummel and her fellow graduate students planted pollinator gardens with carefully chosen native plants, providing food for bees. Brummel designed signs to share more about bees, the pollinator gardens and conservation practices with visitors. These signs will be installed at the pollinator gardens, which border a walking trail, and also in other places around the orchard. Brummel hopes visitors will see how beautiful native plants are and maybe give some of them a try. It turns out that with bees, what you plant matters.

“People think growing petunias is helping bees because they are flowers, but native bees cannot pull pollen and nectar from a lot of these non-native plants, because they have not coevolved,” Brummel said.

She explained that the shape of the flower and the shape of the pollinator have to match. Some plants are only pollinated by one type of insect, while others aren’t so particular. On the flip side, some pollinators feed only on one type of flower. Brummel is excited to create signage to share information like this with the Kimmel Orchard’s many visitors. It’s one more way Kimmel Orchard can be a place of discovery.

Discovery is not always so joyful, even when it is crucial to the health of people and the local ecosystem. Sixty-four miles away at the extension center, Wu-Smart and her students discovered something grim and unexpected.

The original question Wu-Smart hoped to answer at that site was: Can locating beehives behind windbreaks help protect the bees from wind-borne pesticides? But instead she was faced with a much more pressing question: Why are these bees dying? For three years, while bees thrived at Kimmel Orchard, she couldn’t even keep her colonies alive through the summer
at ENREC.

Wu-Smart knows bees. She’s been studying them since 2006, when she helped with a study of orchid bees in Florida as part of the Student Conservation Association Program through AmeriCorps and all throughout her research in graduate school. She knows exactly what to do to keep them happy and healthy. So why were thousands of dead bees spilling out of her hives?

She did what scientists do: She collected data. To make sure she wasn’t double counting dead bees or losing them in the grass when she wanted them under a microscope, she invented a simple beehive monitoring device that any beekeeper can make with 2x4s and an old sheet or tarp.

It’s a bee trap, and it’s probably one of the cheapest pieces of scientific equipment after the question mark.

With the help of a tenacious graduate student, she collected soil, air and plant samples for analysis. But the lab results made no sense.

“We contested with the lab for two years, because we thought there was a spill,” Wu-Smart said “We’re like, there’s no way milkweeds could have this much pesticide. Check again.”

When the second batch of tests came back again with results among the highest ever collected in field samples, the research team started to look for the source.

It turned out that the bees were part of a larger pattern in the area that included sick humans and dead wildlife. The pattern pointed to AltEn, an ethanol plant that used seeds coated with pesticides to produce ethanol and sold one of the byproducts to farmers for fertilizer. Area residents had complained, but federal and state regulations only covered how pesticides are applied at the factory, not what happens to the seed after it leaves the factory. There are also laws designed to protect bees, about how farmers can spray chemicals on their fields — but these chemicals weren’t being sprayed.

“People have always commented about how bees are the canaries in the coal mine of our environment,” Wu-Smart said. “If they’re not healthy, then there’s something else going on. This is a perfect example where, yes, my bees were the canary.”

Once she confirmed what was happening, Wu-Smart found herself in a role she didn’t expect: testifying before the Nebraska Legislature.

Wu-Smart’s voice joined the chorus of Nebraskans who were and are concerned and upset about AltEn. In April, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB507, prohibiting the use of pesticide-treated seeds in the production of ethanol if the byproducts would be too toxic for use as livestock feed or fertilizer.

Now Wu-Smart and her students have joined forces with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to assess the impact of AltEn. This effort includes assessing the situation holistically, working across disciplines to measure human health impacts as well as the effects on water, soil, animals and insects.

Student research will continue at ENREC. Rogan Tokach, one of the graduate students partially funded by the grant from the Kimmel Foundation, wants to learn more about the impact of pesticides on queen bees. He will use contaminated material from ENREC beehives as a key part of his study, which will eventually become his master’s thesis.

Tokach is grateful for the gift that helped make his studies possible.

“Their donation has allowed me to do this research project, and then hopefully make a career out of working in the honeybee industry,” he said. “I’ve been a beekeeper since I was about 12 years old. And I’ve loved every second of it.”

The honeybees Wu-Smart studies typically travel 1 to 2 miles, maybe 5 in a pinch, looking for lunch for themselves and their hive mates. But her work has a far wider impact. She mentors 10 to 15 UNL students each year through their work at the UNL Bee Lab. Members of the public also benefit through the Bee Lab workshops, which in 2020, despite pandemic restrictions, provided introductory courses to 673 people, some of whom joined the Great Plains Master Beekeepers Program started by Wu-Smart. She and her students do research published in national journals and partner with a wide variety of community organizations and nonprofits, including not only Kimmel Orchard but also Girl Scouts, the University of Nebraska State Museum-Morrill Hall, Pheasants Forever, Nebraska Game and Parks Schramm Education Center, Lauritzen Gardens, the Center for Rural Affairs, Nebraska Beekeepers Association and the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

Wu-Smart appreciates the donors who help make her work possible and for the Kimmel Foundation’s grant to the Bee Lab.

“I think it’s an incredible, generous offer to help support the bee students,” she said. “It speaks to Kimmel’s commitment to education and training. It’s wonderful the way they have opened up their farm to allow our students to learn how to professionally engage with the public and develop these educational training skills. Having partnerships like Kimmel — it strengthens us all around.”

“Without the Kimmel Foundation, I wouldn't be getting my master's,” she said. “I wouldn't be able to take my next steps in my career, but also in my life, because of the self-discovery I've had through this journey. I am passionate about food security and the importance of education. And I'm realizing that people want to help — they just don't know where to start.”

Judy Wu-Smart, Ph.D.

Donors Preserve the Legacy of a Trailblazing Woman in Nebraska

August 20, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Story by Robyn Murray | Video by Lance Schwartz

In the late 1800s, the world was small for women. It primarily revolved around the home, and desires to study were typically considered appropriate only if they brought women closer to finding a husband.

So when Rachel Holloway Lloyd, Ph.D., took the position of associate professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1887, the reverberations were profound. Lloyd, who had received her doctorate at the University of Zurich, excelled in a field that was considered entirely outside a woman’s scope.

Through her example, she inspired other women to study chemistry and helped grow the departments at UNL and around the country. She also helped build the reputation of UNL as a progressive, welcoming institution that nurtured women in their ambitions.

Lloyd’s story is one of the most meaningful in the history of the chemistry department at UNL. But up until recently, few people on campus knew of her.

“I was amazed that she had been so well known during the time that she lived, and even a couple decades afterwards, but then she had been totally forgotten,” said Mark Griep, who along with his wife, Marjorie Mikasen, is a member of the Burnett Society.

Griep, also a professor of chemistry at UNL, began researching Lloyd and learned that she was the first woman professor of chemistry in the U.S. and one of the first in the world. She had been recruited to Lincoln by Hudson H. Nicholson, the chair and sole faculty member of the chemistry department at the time.

“She had so many obstacles to overcome … she’s an inspiration to me, and that’s why I kept digging,” Griep said. “I wanted to make sure no one forgot about her again.”

Griep did extensive research, poring over microfiche articles and scientific journals. He discovered Lloyd was instrumental in the development of the beet sugar industry in Nebraska and helped the state become a national leader in beet sugar agriculture. Lloyd also found nuggets like this one from a letter written by Nicholson describing Lloyd’s presentation to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture:

“Now I suppose that some of those men labored under the impression that a woman and a wash tub ought to be inseparable. At any rate they seemed surprised that a woman could calmly walk up on the platform and read a scientific paper. You should have seen the thrill of life that ran through the assembly … At the close of the paper they applauded to the echo — none of the rest of us received that.”

Griep said the welcoming atmosphere that invited Lloyd to UNL in 1887 still exists in the department of chemistry. Griep came to UNL in 1990 and has had a successful career studying antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. Griep knows much of his department’s success is thanks to those who built it. That’s why he and his wife planned an estate gift to support both the legacy of Lloyd and the person who had the vision to hire her, Nicholson, as well as future chemistry professors at UNL. Through a generous planned gift, Griep and Mikasen established a faculty development fund that will provide seed funding for chemistry professors to pursue their research ideas.

“So much good can come from people directing their assets or their resources toward institutions that surround them, that make their life what it is,” Mikasen said, “and for us the university was a natural fit.”

The fund is named in honor of Lloyd and Nicholson as a nod to their impact on the department.

“They used their imaginations to make this department,” Mikasen said. “It’s here today, and it started with them. So I think we need to remember that. We need to remember the founders of things.”

Griep said he encourages people to think of the impact they can make on those who come after them, just as he considers the impact of Lloyd on all those whose lives she touched. And they were many. In the descriptions of Lloyd that Griep uncovered, she was beloved by her students and inspired passions for chemistry. When she died in 1900, the acting chancellor at UNL addressed students with these words of Lloyd’s impact:

“There still lingers on this campus like a sweet perfume the memory of her devoted life. It is your good fortune to be here where these memories still influence your lives.”

"So much good can come from people directing their assets or their resources toward institutions that surround them, that make their life what it is, and for us the university was a natural fit."

Marjorie Mikasen

Robert Dewaele thankful for correct diagnosis at Munroe-Meyer Institute

August 20, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Robert Dewaele is an agricultural crop insurance claims adjuster and accomplished sculptor who grew up on a farm near Crescent, Iowa. His interest in sculpting began in high school, and he continued his studies at Iowa Western Community College and Bellevue University

Robert began publicly exhibiting his work in 1984 and currently has exhibitions at the Artists’ Cooperative Gallery in Omaha and the Burkholder Project in Lincoln. His work is part of numerous private collections as well. He had a working studio at the Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha for 13 years, until the passing of his wife, Diana.

After enduring a mental health misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder for more than 12 years from several mental health practitioners, Robert was fortunate to have met a therapist working for the Munroe-Meyer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. This was the first person who correctly diagnosed Robert with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Receiving the correct diagnosis was transformative for him.

Being acutely aware of the need for accurate diagnosis and treatments for autism spectrum disorders, Robert has established a planned gift — the Robert S. Dewaele MMI Preparation for Resilience and Achievement Fund — with the idea of helping others on the autism spectrum achieve their full potential.

The following Q&A was conducted with Robert this spring.

What was the first job you ever had?

I weeded soybeans for my neighbor at about age 12.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

While not direct advice, one of my first supervisors noted that the best thing that ever happened to me was that my father had taught me how to work. The supervisor went on to say that he could train anyone how to do a job, but he couldn’t instill a work ethic, which comes from within.

Who is someone from history you would want to invite to a dinner party, and why?

I’d invite former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In spite of suffering from polio and its effects, he was able to take the reins of power during one of our most tumultuous periods and succeed in solving problems associated with the Great Depression and World War II. I have great admiration for this man because he was able to inspire and motivate our citizens in ways that are sorely missing today.

What is the first question you would ask that guest from history?

How did you keep your focus in the midst of seemingly insurmountable problems?

What is the one song you would be sure to play to set the mood at the dinner party?

“Learning to Fly” by Tom Petty.

What is the question that you like to be asked the most?

It’s when people inquire about the reason and inspiration for my artwork.

Who has influenced your life for the good, and what have you done to help others lately?

My therapist was able to correctly diagnose my Asperger’s/autism spectrum condition when numerous other mental health medical professionals had failed to do so. If this condition hadn’t been correctly diagnosed, the negative effects on my life would probably have been even more severe. I’ll be volunteering my artistic abilities with the Trailblazer Program (at UNMC’s Munroe-Meyer Institute) by teaching beginning sculpture, and I’ve helped an individual financially who lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why do you plan to leave a gift to the University of Nebraska in your estate?

I wanted to make a direct contribution to the people who find themselves in a similar and possibly more difficult situation than myself. I have an acute recognition of the challenges that these people will face navigating life, so it’s my hope that the contribution will ease their way through life.

"I wanted to make a direct contribution to the people who find themselves in a similar and possibly more difficult situation than myself."

Robert Dewaele

Our Connection to the Land: A Story Told Through Art

July 1, 2021 by Robb Crouch

By Robyn Murray

Before the movers came to pack everything up, Carol Moseman stepped into one of her favorite rooms and took pictures. Filling the walls were more than 60 works of art that had resided in her home for years. Sculptures and drawings, bold oil paintings and colorful pastels — all special, all painstakingly chosen and collected with her husband, Mark, over the last 50 years.

As she walked past, Carol recalled the days they purchased each one.

“There are paintings I’m going to dearly miss,” she said, “but I know that they’re going to be safe.”

The Moseman collection totals more than 200 works of art, an eclectic array of styles and renowned artists from America and Europe, with one thread that weaves them together: humankind’s relationship to the land. Today considered a collection of significant artistic and historic value, the works fall under the genre of agrarian art — a term that was coined by Mark, a well-respected agrarian artist himself, and is now recognized by the Smithsonian Institution.

Over the years, Mark and Carol have donated pieces from their collection to several museums and are now giving the remainder to the Great Plains Art Museum, which is housed at the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. They have also set up a generous bequest to endow the collection and ensure it forever remains preserved and accessible.

“It feels good, because it will have a home,” Carol said. “People will be able to see it long after we’re gone. People will be able to see the stories in the paintings.”

Those stories are what is most meaningful to the Mosemans, partly because their lives are reflected in them. They grew up in small-town Nebraska — Mark outside Oakland and Carol in Brainard — descendant from immigrant homesteaders and settlers who came to Nebraska in the 1800s and set up modest family farms.

It was a family tradition bigger than their experience. It was fundamentally tied to the early vision of America — its identity, culture and values. As Thomas Jefferson imagined, family farmers would form the foundation of democracy as embodiments of the spirit of hard work and independence.

“As close to the Jeffersonian ideal in America, we lived it,” Mark said. “We took it for granted. We didn’t know there was anything else. We didn’t know it would ever change.”

Mark said his earliest memory on the farm was putting up hay with his father and grandfather. He recalls a vibrant family and social life on the farm and in the surrounding community — the farms were small, and the families helped each other.

But as they grew older, Mark and Carol saw that centuries-old farm life begin to change. Hands-on labor transitioned to mechanized farming, which required fewer and fewer people. As technology advanced, farms got bigger and the small towns that depended on their business emptied out. In fact, 23 million Americans lived on farms in 1953, according to the Population Reference Bureau. Today, just 3 million do.

It has been a significant exodus — one of the largest movements of Americans in the country’s history. But it happened slowly.

“It was a gradual, slow death,” Mark said. “Farmers have lost their family farms and gone to work at McDonald’s or whatever, and a number of them committed suicide, feeling they were failures, when it was really the economy had changed.

“The loss of those people and culture is something that should be noted. It shouldn’t just be something that dies on the vine.”

The Mosemans decided to do their part to document that story — not just the exodus from the farm, but the way our relationship to the land has changed and what has been lost in the transformation, including our role and responsibility as caretakers.

Today the Moseman collection is one of the few art collections — if not the only one — to tell the story.

“This art has more than a simply feel-good purpose,” Mark said. “It has a purpose where hopefully it can have an impact on people who see it.”

The Mosemans selected the Great Plains Art Museum as the beneficiary of their collection because they believe it is uniquely suited to house it. Beginning July 2, selections from the Moseman collection will be on display at the museum. “Agrarian Spirit in the Homestead Era — Artwork from the Moseman Collection of Agrarian Art” runs through Oct. 23, and full-color catalogues of the exhibit are on sale to benefit the museum.

The connection is also personal. As an artist, Mark was offered a one-man exhibition by the Great Plains Art Museum in 2004. He said that meant a great deal to him, and he feels the collection has found a perfect home.

“It will feel really good that they’re organized in a really thoughtful fashion … that it’s museum-worthy,” Mark said, “We will feel we’ve accomplished something in life that no one else really could do but for a vision that we had.”

“It will feel really good that they’re organized in a really thoughtful fashion ... that it’s museum-worthy.”

Mark Moseman

Inspiring Those Who Care for Others

July 1, 2021 by Robb Crouch

By Robyn Murray

At age 9, Beatrice “Bea” Kalisch stepped onto a bus in Omaha and saw her future: a nurse dressed in a trim, starched-white uniform, her hair tucked neatly behind a white cap.

“I just thought she looked wonderful,” Bea recalled. It was 1952, and the nation loved a good uniform.

A few years later, Bea, a Burnett Society member, began volunteering at the Red Cross and was assigned to a polio ward. Polio was ravaging communities. In hospitals, children were brought in for care, their tiny limbs immobile with paralysis. Some had to be fed through straws by nurses.

The experience was impactful. “The patients were so helpless,” Bea recalled. “To feed them, I felt so useful.”

Bea became convinced nursing was her future. Her path led her first to the University of Nebraska Medical Center and then all around the world conducting research and presenting her findings. Now through a generous bequest to UNMC, Bea is encouraging more people to impact lives as only nurses can.

Bea’s education at UNMC was foundational in her career. Having a bachelor’s degree helped land her first job. But it also taught her how impactful nursing can be on patients’ well-being. That lesson came through the faculty, particularly one pediatrics teacher, Esther Sock Dworak.

Bea and several of her classmates were inspired to go into pediatrics and later established a scholarship in the teacher’s name.

Her education also empowered Bea to recognize when nursing was being done wrong. At one position, she said she practiced under a nurse who embodied the opposite of compassionate care. She recalled being reprimanded for playing with a sick child.

“She came in and grabbed all his toys and said nurses are not for play,” Bea said. “I cried all the way home. My whole focus was to help people.”

Although she was discouraged, Bea kept going. “I was lucky I had that nurse who showed me another way at Nebraska,” she said. “And I was lucky that I got directed to Nebraska. We had some really good faculty members that made a huge difference with me.”

After UNMC, Kalisch earned her master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Maryland. She has had a distinguished career, authoring nine books and more than 140 journal articles and presenting her research around the world, including on the image of the nurse.

“The images in the media … didn’t show nurses making a difference in patient outcomes,” she said. “They didn’t show nurses as intelligent decision makers.”

Kalisch said that lack of recognition exacerbates the nation’s nursing shortage. To help counter that, she established a scholarship at UNMC, which she hopes will encourage more talented students to pursue nursing and conduct research.

She describes her gift simply: “What better place to put your money?”

"What better place to put your money?"

Bea Kalisch

Breaking the Trend: Academy Tackles Nebraska’s Teacher Shortage Head On

March 23, 2021 by Robb Crouch

By Jen Overkamp

Gresham, Nebraska, native William Wilton is a small-town kid with a big heart. He’s a sophomore at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, majoring in education and planning to be a family and consumer science teacher. He wants to change lives for the better, to inspire his future students just like his teachers inspired him.

“Education is all about preparing students with the skills that they need to succeed,” Wilton said. “For me, teaching Family and Consumer Sciences will give me the opportunity to inspire future students to be successful members of their families and communities through the lessons taught in my classroom.”

Wilton is one of 40 UNL students in the inaugural cohort of the Teacher Scholars Academy, an honors academy for education majors that includes students at three of the four University of Nebraska campuses. He’s also one part of the solution to a big problem: Nebraska’s teacher shortage.

It’s easier to solve a problem than to fix a crisis. The Nebraska teacher shortage is a problem that is slowly, quietly turning into a crisis.

It comes down to math. From 2009 to 2017, the number of K-12 students in Nebraska rose by 8%. Yet, in that same timeframe, the number of college students studying education fell by 48%, according to data from the Nebraska Department of Education. That adds up to a shortage of teachers, especially when combined with the fact that Nebraska, like the rest of the nation, has a problem retaining teachers. The Nebraska Department of Education data also show that 30% of new Nebraska teachers leave the profession within their first six years, most in the first two or three years.

The result of this combination of circumstances is that a gradually increasing number of teaching jobs are filled with teachers who are not fully qualified. This usually means that they have only a provisional license or they lack an endorsement in the needed area. However, the number of positions left vacant is also gradually increasing. From just 12 unfilled teaching jobs across Nebraska in the 2013-2014 school year, the number rose to 36 in 2018-2019.

In 2019, it was 62.

Not surprisingly, COVID-19 is expected to exacerbate the problem.

“Pre-pandemic, I was certainly concerned about the efforts to recruit and retain teachers in the profession,” said Nebraska Commissioner of Education Matt Blomstedt, Ph.D. “Post-pandemic, I expect the same attrition trends, but at a more accelerated pace.”

The William & Ruth Scott Family Foundation has long been interested in supporting education. A few years ago, John Scott, vice president of the William & Ruth Scott Family Foundation, and Matt Boyd, assistant vice president with the University of Nebraska Foundation, started discussing a plan to address the teacher shortage. What sealed the deal for Scott was that the plan they created called for a team effort: University of Nebraska administrators, students, faculty on three campuses and donors would all be part of the solution.

Through the University of Nebraska Foundation, the William & Ruth Scott Family Foundation, along with other major donors, joined leadership at UNL, the University of Nebraska at Kearney and the University of Nebraska at Omaha to create the Teacher Scholars Academy. This university program provides top undergraduate students studying education with scholarships, professional development opportunities and a cohort experience where scholars move through all four years of their bachelor’s degree within a group of other high-achieving students. Fundraising to support future cohorts is ongoing.

High-achieving students planning to study education apply to the academy before they start their bachelor’s degree. Each year, UNL and UNK choose 40 new scholars, and UNO chooses 24.

Now in its second year, the academy includes more than 200 talented scholars, all eager to make a positive difference through education. They attend regular education classes and a few academy-only classes.

“The Teacher Scholars Academy is much more than just an honors academy for education majors,” said Braden Foreman, coordinator of UNL’s Teacher Scholars Academy. “It tackles the teacher shortage head on, taking strategic, practical steps to recruit the right students and then give them the financial, professional and personal support to excel and lead. The goal is to help mold future teachers who are really effective.”

The academy is specifically focused on addressing the overall issue of the workforce shortage in education by meeting a number of key challenges.

CHALLENGE: Student loan debt and its impact on students’ career choices.

STRATEGY: The academy offers full-tuition scholarships and a generous stipend for room and board to every scholar for all four years of their degree.

Scott best summed up the importance of this strategy, saying, “When you’re trying to recruit kids of the caliber that we’re trying to get, you’re looking at kids who could easily choose a different career path with the potential to make more money. The reality is that student debt plays a big role. We’re trying to remove the financial obstacles that could potentially get in the way of kids choosing education as a career path.”

UNO scholar Alexandra Espinoza said the scholarship was “a huge relief.” She’s preparing for her dream job of teaching high school Spanish and English, a job where she knows her outsized enthusiasm isn’t going to be matched with a correspondingly big paycheck.

“I’m really excited that I’m going to be teaching!” Espinoza said. “But it’s also not a high salary job, and I would have had thousands in debt. The scholarship was definitely a true blessing. It took away the stress.”

CHALLENGE: Ensuring the most talented, passionate future teachers have the best possible training.

STRATEGY: The academy recruits top students, considering not only grades and test scores but also community service, leadership and enthusiasm for teaching, with an eye toward increasing diversity in education as well. Along with a typical application process, aspiring scholars are required to create an introductory video and are interviewed by the selection committee.

In addition to their regular classes, first-year scholars meet regularly for professional development seminars. Topics have included Gallup’s CliftonStrengths, education resumes, diversity, mental health and well-being, leadership, conflict resolution and presentation skills.

Community service or service learning is also central to the academy and helps scholars further develop the skills they are learning. Scholars have helped a variety of community organizations, doing everything from promoting literacy, mentoring at-risk youth and reducing the misuse of prescription drugs to supporting musicians with special needs. Their work in local schools has included crafting customized, at-home activities for struggling distance-learning grade-school students.

For early childhood education major Kylie Miller, who chose UNK after falling in love with the small campus community, her service learning opportunity added to her education in more ways than one.

“Our spring semester requires 20 hours of service learning, but it kind of doesn’t feel like service learning at all, especially because we get to work with kids,” Miller said with a big smile. Miller volunteered as a tutor with the America Reads program, and that’s where she realized she wanted to teach English as a second language. She said, “I was able to work within an ESL classroom, and I absolutely fell in love with it.”

CHALLENGE: Keeping new teachers in the classroom, especially during those first years that are typically the most difficult.

STRATEGY: Academy scholars graduate with not only a strong education but also a strong support network. The academy creates close-knit cohorts of students who attend seminars and some classes together and come together for community service and team-building activities.

A dedicated coordinator on each campus pulls it all together, serving as mentor, facilitator and organizer, connecting scholars with schools, professional opportunities and each other. At UNL, academy students share the same dorm floor for the first year.

Wilton, Espinoza and Miller all emphasized the value of the strong community within the academy. Their cohort is where they’ve found their closest friends, even their roommates in Miller’s case. It’s where they go for encouragement and studying help. They know they can rely on those bonds after they graduate.

“I can definitely see that we’ll all be standing strong together within the teaching community after we graduate, because we all have one another,” said Miller. “It’s just a great community of support,” Espinoza said. “It feels like a family.”

The Teacher Scholars Academy started in the fall of 2019 and added its second cohort fall of 2020. In terms of the big picture, its founders won’t know if it works for another 10 years, when academy graduates are in their classrooms, and they are able to see if their success, including their retention in the field, is greater than their peers. Big problems don’t always have quick fixes.

“It’s big and broad, but you’ve got to take steps, right?” Scott said. “You can’t be intimidated by the magnitude of the problem.”

Scott said the William & Ruth Scott Foundation chose to invest in the Teacher Scholars Academy because of a core belief in the value of education.

He quoted his mother, Ruth Scott — a former teacher — as saying, “Being a good teacher and a good parent are two of the most important professions on the planet. Impacting the lives of children brings an indescribable sense of fulfillment.”

Scott said that his family’s work with the academy has been “as satisfying as anything we’ve ever done.” He added, “We’ve gotten the same feedback from our peers in the community who have joined us in this investment.”

Wilton also sees the donors’ gifts as investments for which he and his peers are truly grateful.

“I see the donors’ investment in me and in future educators as truly not just an investment in me. It’s an investment in every student who will walk into my classroom, someday in the future,” Wilton said.

Wilton noted that this investment is multiplied by all of the academy’s scholars on all three campuses and all of the students they will teach throughout their careers, leading to an impact that is hard to count or even put into words.

“When we are able to positively impact one student,” he said, “they’re going to positively impact their family and their peers and the other people around them whom we might not be able to teach. And I’m really thankful for the donors for the experience from the Teacher Scholars Academy, and, for some of us, the gift to make college a reality, and to be able to go on and make the difference that we want to make.”

"For me, teaching Family and Consumer Sciences will give me the opportunity to inspire future students to be successful members of their families and communities through the lessons taught in my classroom."

William Wilton

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