At the start of the fall semester of her junior year, Karey (Shepard) Koehn was looking for a classmate who could take notes if she ever had to miss class.
She searched in the hallway outside the classroom, spotted Mike and decided he would be her notes person and went to introduce herself. She later found out that he was waiting for a different class next door.
As weeks went by, Karey noticed they both started arriving for class earlier than necessary. It became a before-class ritual to do the Daily Nebraskan crossword puzzle together. This went on for the entire semester. They soon began dating.
In the Koehns' case, opposites do attract. Karey said she is extroverted and has worked in corporate communications and public relations, while Mike is more introverted and has worked in data analysis and marketing.
Currently, Karey works at the University of Nebraska Foundation as the director of internal communications, and Mike is the vice president of marketing of a pet and veterinary supply firm.
The couple has three children. Their oldest Whitney went to Nebraska Wesleyan and has a degree in marketing and communications; she is now enrolled at the CoJMC in the graduate program.
Their son Spencer goes to Peru State College and is studying to be a middle school teacher and coach for small school systems. Their youngest, Harrison, is an eighth grader at Elmwood-Murdock.
Karey and Mike have had quite a few opportunities to work on communications projects together throughout their careers. They’ve learned that because they have different areas of expertise, they work great together as a team.
“It’s interesting because we have the same learning background from CoJMC, but I think that we approach communications and challenges very differently,” Karey said. “It makes working together easy.”
