Dear Alumni and Friends,
We are excited to sponsor the upcoming E.N. Thompson Forum with Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario. Celebrated for her humanitarian and human rights photography work, Addario's images in The New York Times, National Geographic and TIME magazine powerfully capture global conflicts and crises. Her talk, "Of Love & War: Stories of Tragedy & Resilience," will be at 7 p.m. on March 5 in the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Order your free tickets here.
Mark your calendars for the 2024 Seline Lecture. Thanks to ongoing support from the Seline Family, we are able to bring to campus two distinguished veterans of politics to share their insights on the evolving political landscape. Todd Purdum, who covered the Clinton White House for The New York Times, will face off with Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary for President Clinton. Their talk, “Navigating the Nexus: Journalism, Public Relations and American Politics,” will be held at 12:30 p.m. on April 25 in the Swanson Auditorium of the Nebraska Union. Please join us!
Our students got a taste of politics over the winter break, traveling to cover the Iowa Caucuses. As part of a pop-up class taught by Professors Jill Martin and Matt Waite with support from Technical Director Jamie Wenz, the students braved the cold weather to cover the caucuses for Nebraska News Service. Travel expenses were covered by generous gifts to our Student Experience Fund.
So many of the impactful opportunities our students have are because of our incredible donors like Margaret Holman who recently established an innovation fund for the college. This fund will allow us to continue to experiment with new technology and programs for our students.
Featured in this newsletter, support from Lynn and Dana Roper helped us bring back sportswriter Drake Keeler to work with students and launch a Multicultural Media Club, Dick Worick sponsored the return of Jen Urich to work with our NSAC students as the Visiting Professor of Market Research and 20 students are competing in the Perry Photo Challenge this week thanks to support from Phil Perry. These opportunities set students on a path to becoming successful alums like Aaron Housenga (‘21), Kristin Tobias ('13), Alex Fernando (‘18) and all our Huskers on the Move.
Sometimes the greatest gift an alum can give, is the gift of their time. We have 22 professionals-in-residence working with our students in the Experience Lab this semester. We also have 48 new “Jachters” working with clients throughout the community, new students and professors of the month, a new Hearst Award and new hardware from the BEA Festival of Media Arts.
Check out the stories on Professor Jessica Walsh’s news desert mapping project, Professors Changmin Yan and Jemalyn Griffin’s involvement on a $3.44 million Catalyst Grant examining the social emotional well-being for young children, Professor Bryan Wang’s trip to D.C. with students to present their Invent2Prevent Campaign to the Department of Homeland Security and how I hit the ground running.
We also say goodbye to dear friends of the college in this newsletter. Beloved faculty member Linda Shipley passed away on January 23, 2024 and lifelong newspaper publisher and author Ramon De Vere “Ray” Hansen passed away on February 11, 2024. A Celebration of Life for George Tuck will be held on Saturday, April 13, at 1:30 p.m. in Andersen Hall. All are welcome. The Memorial Program will be live streamed here for those who cannot attend in person.
Shari
