Dear Alumni and Friends,
We’ve had a great first week back from spring break celebrating our Alumni Master Jane Tenhulzen Olson. Jane (’64) has had an incredible and impactful career promoting international peace and justice while working with humanitarian organizations in areas of international conflict, including Central America, South America, eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Throughout the week, Jane has been visiting classes and community organizations and sharing stories from her recent book, “World Citizen: Journeys of a Humanitarian.” We are proud to call this inspiring world leader a CoJMC alum!
We’ll have a couple more superstar alums back on campus for speaking engagements later this spring. Diane Brayton (’91) is the executive vice president and general counsel for the New York Times. She will be joining us as our Hearst Visiting Professional in April. Jenna Johnson (’07) is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. She will be joining us for the 2023 Seline Lecture.
I’m also happy to share that CoJMC grads Evan Bland (’08) and Stu Pospisil (’84) were named Nebraska Sportswriters of the Year, LaSharah Bunting (’00) was named CEO and executive director of the Online News Association, and thanks to an incredible gift from the Deepe Family, we were able to send 33 students to the Investigative Reporters and Editors National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) conference. Student Caitlyn Thomas wrote a nice recap story on the experience.
This month we also officially launched the Pepsi Unlimited Sports Lab, featuring remarks from Professors Rick Alloway, John Shrader, Matt Waite and Ahman Green, our partners at LinPepCo and our students who are actively working in the lab. You can watch the program here. And we hosted this year’s Perry Challenge in the new Perry Studio and Multimedia Lab. Check out the winning photo essay, “An Evening Out With The Loneliest Generation,” and watch the full program here.
There are several opportunities for our alumni to engage with the college this spring. If you live in Minneapolis, Omaha or the DC area, I’ll be coming to you in the next month. Please join me and your fellow alums for drinks and appetizers. If you’re in New York City, I’d love to see you at Marylou Luther’s (’51) book signing at the Cosmopolitan Club on April 27. No matter where you live, we could use your help on the CoJMC Awards Committee that will meet virtually later this spring.
This newsletter highlights our high school mentorship program and recruiting efforts that have led to a 13.9% increase in college applications so far for fall 2023, despite a 3.3% decrease in overall applications to the university, and features stories about our student leaders, scholarship recipients, Addy Award winners and so much more.
As always, if have questions about the college or just want to connect, please let me know.
Go Big Red!
