UNK Chemistry Student Grateful for Scholarship Honoring Longtime Professor

By Sara Badura

Caleb Sund of Fremont, Nebraska, knew he wanted to make a difference in the scientific world, so he decided to pursue a career in chemistry. The only thing standing between him and his dream of becoming a pharmaceutical researcher was his ability to pay for higher education.

Fortunately, for Sund, this spring he was awarded the Donald E. Fox Endowed Scholarship at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, providing him with $1,000 to support his academic pursuits. Sund qualified for the scholarship due to his status as a second- semester, first-year student majoring or minoring in chemistry with demonstrated academic achievement, need, integrity, character, dependability and motivation.

“I’m purely paying for college by myself,” Sund said. “This scholarship is really helping me afford college.”

Beginning with a $1,000 gift in 1979, the Donald E. Fox Endowed Scholarship Fund has grown to more than $600,000, thanks to an estate gift from Viola C. Fox after her death in September 2023. With the new funds, the department hopes to award approximately 20 scholarships annually.

The scholarship is named in memory of Fox’s husband, the late Donald E. Fox, a faculty member at Kearney State College and then UNK for 38 years. He taught chemistry and led the department as chair, later serving as dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences.

Just as Donald Fox’s commitment to teaching made a lasting impact on countless UNK students, Sund’s high school chemistry teacher sparked his passion for chemistry.

“I got really intrigued by chemistry in high school from my cross-country coach who was also my teacher,” Sund said. “I learned a lot about the chemistry of how your body works and how it functions from our workouts and runs, and that really got me interested in doing that in college.”

After speaking with several UNK upperclassmen in the honors program who are also majoring in chemistry, Sund was encouraged to apply for the Donald E. Fox Endowed Scholarship. Sund reflected on the significance of scholarship support for him and other college students.

“It’ll definitely impact my ability to pay for my classes,” Sund said. “I will say that I have a lot of trouble with getting money for all of college, so this will definitely help with that, especially with the costs of books and equipment for labs.”

With three years left as a UNK student, Sund is looking forward to the opportunities that have opened up because of financial support from the scholarship. This year he will team up with several professors to assist with chemistry research.

“It’s kind of like a part-time job,” Sund said. “I’ll spend after-school hours inside a lab. The professor will do a lot of research, but I’ll be finding out more of the solutions by actually using a lab. It’ll be really fascinating.”