Last month, senior broadcasting major Linda Kuku attended the 2025 ACLU College and Communities Advocacy Institute in New York City, started a new role at Civic Nebraska as their New American Leadership Academy Coordinator and was named a CBC-UNC News Media Multiplatform Fellow.
Embracing new experiences has been an integral part of Kuku’s college career. Her passion for storytelling led her to pick up a video camera, declare a broadcasting major, join the Production House Experience Lab and become a Production House student lead for the following two semesters.
Throughout her time at the university, she’s held leadership roles and internship positions that build upon her minors in African Studies and Political Science and reflect her equal passion for people.
She’s been the president of UNL’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since the start of the fall 2023 semester, was an Immigrants and Communities Intern at Nebraska Appleseed and previously worked for the Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster as a Youth Development Specialist.
In 2024, Kuku was awarded for her leadership and dedication to her communities with the Emerging Leader Award from the NAACP Lincoln Branch and the Rev. Dr. Michael W. Combs Memorial Fund for Scholars of Equality and Justice Student Award from UNL’s Institute for Ethnic Studies.
Two weeks into 2025, Kuku was selected for the CBC-UNC News Media Multiplatform Fellowship–a highly competitive fellowship that accepts only 12 top broadcasting students.
In March, she’ll travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, for an intensive five-day workshop led by professionals at WRAL-TV and the University of North Carolina journalism faculty.
Kuku found out she got the fellowship on her first day attending the 2025 ACLU College and Communities Advocacy Institute. While in NYC, she went to informational sessions on advocacy, organizing, what to expect from the then-incoming presidential administration and how to prepare marginalized communities.
Returning to Nebraska after seeing firsthand the work that ACLU and her peers are doing to protect the most vulnerable communities gives Kuku hope and reassurance that she has the necessary tools and support to help her communities here at home.
