Shelly and Wade Anderson met in 1985 during the second semester of their freshman year at the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Wade was enrolled in an introductory public speaking class where Shelly was the teaching assistant after taking the course the previous semester.
The students in the class had to present three speeches to Shelly who graded their performance.
“Everyone always asks if he got an A and yes he did, but he earned it,” Shelly said.
They figured out that they were both broadcasting majors and began dating that summer. Once school started again, they began taking more classes together, studying together and scheduling their shifts at KRNU near each other.
They got engaged during the summer of 1988 at a George Michael concert in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from CoJMC that December.
Following graduation, in January 1989 Wade got an internship at Hill & Knowlton Strategies in Washington D.C. Shelly was still in Lincoln working at the Nebraska Bookstore. They got married that August and then moved to Denver.
After six weeks of graduate school, Wade decided to instead accept a job offer from Hill & Knowlton in its public affairs department, so the couple moved to the Washington D.C. area.
“It was an interesting time to be in public affairs because it was around the time Iraq had invaded Kuwait and one of the firm’s clients was the ruling family of Kuwait, who had fled when Saddam Hussein invaded,” Wade said. “Basically, our job was to convince the American people that it was a good idea for the United States to defend Kuwait to go to war with Saddam Hussein.”
While in Denver, Shelly did human resources work for a company called Talent Tree, which had offices in Washington D.C., so she was able to easily transfer.
They spent a year working in D.C. and living in Arlington, Virginia, before moving back to Denver. Wade did freelance with Hill & Knowlton and Shelly continued working at Talent Tree.
One day, Wade was catching up with a friend from CoJMC who said there’s a distributor of Paul Mitchell hair care products who has a job opening for a sales person.
Wade was tired of wearing a suit and tie to work each day, so he decided to apply. After three interviews, he got the role and was a sales consultant for a Paul Mitchell distributor for nine years in the Denver area.
After having two sons, Eric and Hugh, Shelly decided to stay home with them and Wade was promoted to regional director of John Paul Mitchell Systems in Lincoln in 2001.
They’ve been in Lincoln ever since. Wade works for John Paul Mitchell Systems as its national sales manager, and Shelly works at Lincoln boutique Edge.
Eric and Hugh are five years apart. Eric graduated with a degree in marketing from Hastings College on a baseball and academic scholarship and now works for Duncan Aviation. Hugh is a sports media and communication student at CoJMC.
Their advice to CoJMC students is to remember that it’s okay for your dream to change. You can still use the skills learned at CoJMC in any role you choose.
