He tells the story of a boy in pain.
His right leg hurt. A disease called linear scleroderma was slowly taking it over — “suffocating it,” he says, stunting it, starting the year he was 4. While the boy’s body grew, that leg did not. He walked with a weird gait.
The boy’s heart hurt, too, because some days at school his pain was so bad that he couldn’t go out at recess to play. Some nights, his mom would stay up with him, rubbing his back as he cried.
Why is this happening to me? I don’t deserve this. I’m just a little kid.
But the people surrounding him took away some of the pain.
His friends stayed and played with him inside at recess time as he sat with an icepack on that leg. His teachers and coaches and the whole community of his hometown, Aurora, Nebraska, treated him like any other kid. So did his parents and two big brothers, who gave him lots of love but never any extra stokes when competed on the golf course. His brothers never took it easy on him when they wrestled with him in the house (before their mom told them all to stop).
Most everyone in his world, he says, saw that he was able, not dis-abled.
And that made him see it, too.
And everyone is the reason, Luke Grossnicklaus says, that he stands before young people today, whenever asked, and tells the boy’s story — his own story — because he knows it might help them overcome their pain, too.
Luke, who was UNK’s 2016 homecoming king, is studying business education. He would love to become a high school principal somewhere in Nebraska one day, maybe a coach. He was recently president of his fraternity.
Whenever asked, he tells his story to schoolkids.
He tells them that if they’re from broken homes or feel broken inside, that they can’t let their situation define their future.
He tells them they can get out of their own pain by helping other people in pain to cope.
He tells them there’s hope, even on the darkest day.
He tells then about his darkest day, which was when he was 12, and the doctors said they had to amputate that leg.
“Imagine being a kid who loves sports being told that,” he says.
He tells them that a kid with an amputated leg can be a college athlete and how he played on the UNK golf team his first two years, walking on as a freshman and then earning a scholarship his sophomore year.
One day, after speaking at a high school, a student approached Luke. Her parents had divorced and she hated one of them, she told him, for not being there for her. She thought her life was only going to get worse. She thanked him for his message.
“It felt good to help her,” Luke says. “It feels good to be that mediator between teachers and students and to encourage students with — ‘Hey, I’ve been here before. I know what it’s like. It may not be the same situation, but, hey, you’re not the only one going through it.’”
Luke tells his story because he’s able to. ABLE to. He emphasized that word whenever he tells his story. Not DIS-abled.
“That’s a big part of my message, why I’m so passionate, because I had a lot of people who helped me,” says Luke, who graduated this spring from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. “My whole message is that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people surrounding me at my toughest and my darkest moments. That’s where we get stuck — when we don’t have the people around us.
“We need to be the people who are willing to help others in need.”
Support for students like Luke was one of UNK’s priorities in the University of Nebraska Foundation’s recent Our Students, Our Future fundraising initiative, which ended Dec. 31, 2017.
Luke says he sees a lot of young people like him who are already finding ways to give back. Millennials, who have grown up digitally connected to the world, he says, tend to care about the future and feel able to make the world better place.
A few examples of other UNK students and why they give back:
Miguel Baeza Aguilera
Recent graduate, degree in general studies
Hometown: Grand Island, Nebraska
Why do you give back?: My parents educated my siblings and me that it is always better to give than to receive. Impacting lives and seeing someone smile is the best feeling in the world. I also give back because I wouldn’t be where I am today everyone who took the time to support me throughout my life. You have to remember that someone is always looking up to you as their role model, so why not keep the chain reaction of giving back going.
Jaime McCann
Graduate student in the MBA program
Hometown: Kearney, Nebraska
How/why do millennials give back to the world?: After traveling to South America, I gained a new perspective on what it means to live in “poverty.” I believe that other millennials who have traveled abroad will attest to the same sentiment — once you are exposed to the lifestyles that those across the globe live in, you become so much more thankful for what we have here. This, in turn, provides inspiration to give back to others.
Emma Neil
Senior, 7-12 social science education major with endorsement in ESL (English as a Second Language) and minor in political science
Hometown: Papillion, Nebraska
How do you give back to the world?: I enjoy going on mission trips to different parts of the world and learning about other people’s cultures and countries. I know I was born with so many things that others could only imagine. For example, I am incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to receive a higher level education. I think it is important to meet others and learn about their lives and how they are different, yet so similar to my own.
Clark Pohlmeier
Senior, business administration major
Hometown: Grand Island, Nebraska
Why do you give back?: Because it makes an impact in people’s lives. If I can spend a few hours positively impacting someone’s life, it’s worth it. Giving back strengths the communities. It’s also an avenue to meet other people and share experiences.
Whether you are a longtime supporter or a new graduate, you can impact students immediately through the UNK Fund. Every dollar invested in the UNK Fund provides scholarships, supports talented faculty, enhances your college’s priorities, and much more. And it all happens because of you.
If you would like to help, please contact the University of Nebraska Foundation at 800-432-3216 or send us a message.
Many generations of Kearney-area children and university students preparing to be early childhood teachers are at the heart of plans for a new facility at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
UNK will name its new 20,000-square-foot Early Childhood Education Center in honor of Dr. LaVonne Plambeck of Omaha, who made a leadership gift toward its construction and established permanently endowed funds to forever support its related academic programs. The board of regents will be asked to approve the naming at its June 28 meeting.
“This will be the premier early childhood education center in the Midwest, and we are so grateful to Dr. Plambeck for her leadership in this area,” said Dean of the College of Education Sheryl Feinstein.
The new center is the first academic footprint on UNK’s developing University Village and will become a model for exemplary early childhood education, early childhood educator preparation, and research.
Programs to involve campuswide, statewide collaborations
In addition to training undergraduate and graduate students and integrating coursework from all across all three of UNK’s academic colleges and University of Nebraska Medical Center, the new center will serve Kearney-area children and families with developmentally appropriate early education for a diverse population.
Undergraduate and graduate experiential learning will occur in the building in the forms of practicums, internships, observations and diagnostic testing. For example, working with a curriculum designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, teaching early literacy strategies, and diagnostic testing in the areas of speech, language skills and cognitive development. The building will facilitate learning and improve undergraduate and graduate students’ skills working with young children including relationship-building, classroom management and age-appropriate expectations.
“This education center will improve service to area children and enhance educational experiences for UNK students and faculty. That improves our community,” said Feinstein. “The project will grow our early education program to increase the quality of services provided and the number of young children enrolled. Early education programs, majors and minors across campus will benefit from state-of-the-art learning environments. This larger facility will also enable UNK and ECEC to increase collaborations that involve academics, research, and outreach to the community, and state and national organizations.”
Feinstein said the facility will also advance and create new partnerships at the community, state and national levels.
“With the Buffett Institute, we can increase the early childhood workforce in Nebraska while developing a high-quality component to the workforce; increase our partnership with Buffalo County community partners in curriculum and mental health collaborations; work on early literacy programs and research with the Nebraska Library Commission and the Nebraska School Librarians Association; and work with the National Coalition for Campus Children’s Centers and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research on resources supporting and educating student parents.”
New center to educate more, serve as a home to research-based learning
The facility replaces the Child Development Center in the existing 1950-era Otto Olsen building, which cares for and educates 60 children – with an ongoing waiting list of 75 from infants to age 6. The capacity for the new LaVonne Kopecky Plambeck Early Childhood Education Center will be 176.
When completed in fall 2019 the center will feature three research-based philosophies of Early Childhood Education: Eclectic (Waldorf, Reggio and others), Montessori, and Project Based. One classroom will be devoted to Project Based Early Childhood Education, two classrooms to Montessori, and eight classrooms to Eclectic.
The Plambeck gift brings the total project cost to $7.8 million and 19,900 square feet that will include two dedicated Montessori education classrooms.
The naming recognizes a leadership gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation by Plambeck, for her undisclosed gift for construction, endowing a Montessori education professorship and establishing endowed excellence funds for early childhood programs.
“Dr. Plambeck’s generosity and vision will make a profound difference in the lives of children and in the preparation of highly qualified early-childhood educators for generations to come,” UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen.
The Plambeck gift includes an endowed professorship in Montessori education, which will enable UNK to increase its offerings in Montessori education by hiring a professor of excellence in Montessori. It also includes an endowed excellence fund for early childhood programs. These funds will help UNK deliver outreach services to early childhood providers in Nebraska with a focus on rural communities through workshops, professional development, and in-service through on-site and online modes.
Plambeck ‘fierce advocate’ for early childhood education
Kristensen said LaVonne Kopecky Plambeck of Omaha has been a “fierce advocate” for early childhood education for nearly 50 years. Described as an educational legend and visionary, Plambeck has understood and invested in high-quality experiences for babies and young children decades before recent research confirmed her actions.
Inspired by the Montessori teaching method, based on a philosophy that puts much of the responsibility and freedom for learning within a child’s control, she opened Omaha’s first Montessori Educational Center in 1968 and later added seven locations and opened schools in Denver and Fort Worth. She launched the Mid-America Montessori Teacher Training Institute to provide professionals with training and certification.
In addition to working on early childhood education extensively with UNO, UNK, the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, College of Saint Mary’s and Concordia University, she has served the Nebraska Association of Young Children, the American Montessori Society Board of Directors and Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education. She also served on an advisory committee on early childhood education for the State of Nebraska and was appointed to a White House conference on families.
“Dr. Plambeck’s support for this new facility in Kearney and her permanent support for UNK faculty members and academic programs is yet another extension of her tremendous interest in education and her life’s work in this vital area of early childhood education,” said University of Nebraska Foundation President and CEO Brian Hastings.
Pending board approval, the building will be funded by state funds through LB 957 and dedicated facility funds from the Plambeck gift.
A celebration and ceremonial ground-breaking for the building is planned for September.
About the LaVonne Kopecky Plambeck Early Childhood Education Center
Construction Start: Contractors will break ground later this summer (August)
Completion: Summer 2019
Size: 19,900 square feet
Cost: $7.8 million
Capacity: 176 children from infant to age six.
Other: A model for exemplary early childhood education, early childhood educator preparation, and research, the facility replaces the Child Development Center in the existing 1955 Otto Olsen building. In addition to training undergraduate and graduate students and integrating coursework from all across all three of UNK’s academic colleges and University of Nebraska Medical Center, the ECEC will serve Kearney-area children and families with developmentally appropriate early education.
Classrooms: When completed in fall 2019 the ECEC will feature three research-based philosophies of Early Childhood Education: Eclectic (Waldorf, Reggio and others), Montessori, and Project Based. One classroom will be devoted to Project Based Early Childhood Education, two classrooms to Montessori, and eight classrooms to Eclectic.
2204 University Drive
Suite 103
Kearney, NE 68845
308-798-5270
[email protected]
© 2019 University of Nebraska Foundation
