Support student organizations such as DREAM at UNK by making a gift through the UNK Nebraskan Student Union Campus Programming Fund.
One student organization at the University of Nebraska at Kearney is looking to create a more inclusive environment on campus.
DREAM, also known as Disability Rights, Education, Activism and Mentoring, is a recently established student organization focused on fostering a welcoming environment for students with disabilities on campus.
“Our goal on campus is to spread awareness and lessen the stigma around disabilities, along with helping to make more able-bodied students know about the things they might take advantage of,” said Anna Chacón, a junior and president of UNK’s DREAM chapter.
UNK’s DREAM chapter is one of over 60 student organizations nationally advocating for disability rights, education and inclusion on college campuses. The chapter formed over the last year when Jazzmyn Martin, assistant director for Disability Services for Students, began working at UNK.
“I wanted to create a community for students to have that inclusive environment,” Martin said.
DREAM was officially recognized as a student organization in spring 2024. During its first few months, the organization held several events on campus to promote awareness, including trivia nights, movie screenings and other games like adaptive sitting volleyball.
Chacón, a criminal justice major with minors in behavioral health and Japanese, said she was drawn to get involved in DREAM shortly after the student organization was created. The idea of building a community that promotes disability awareness was something she immediately connected with.
“It was interesting to see an organization openly say that when there are people with disabilities, mental and physical, that are still stigmatized,” she said. “It was really interesting to see that they wanted to help students like that.”
DREAM has flourished in its first year, bringing anywhere between 20 to 60 students around campus together to participate in its events and sessions. Martin said she has seen this community become closer and closer throughout its first year of operation.
“I see friendships growing every day in this group,” Martin said. “I think it really is providing that community and sense of belonging for a lot of our students. We’re hoping to continue to grow that.”
As a new student organization, Martin and Chacón said getting off the ground can be difficult without financial support.
“We’ve always been limited in funds,” Chacón said. “So whenever we were purchasing stuff for events, we’ve had to go out of our own pocket.”
Thanks to the support the students received during One Day for UNK and beyond, DREAM can begin to expand, reaching more students and spreading its message of inclusiveness across campus.
“These gifts will directly involve and help students grow,” Chacón said. “It will support DREAM, our event planning and will have an impact on our future.”
A gift to this fund bolsters the general student scholarship aid available to students within any UNK college.
A scholarship can make a life-changing difference for students looking to achieve their dreams by pursuing a college degree.
That difference can be seen on the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s campus. Through the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s Student Scholarship Fund, students within any college can receive general scholarship support.
These scholarships, funded through generous gifts toward the UNK Student Scholarships Fund, provide the spark for students like juniors Michaela Hegemann and Clarisa Lopez Chojolan to pursue their passions.
Michaela Hegemann’s road to finding her passion has had plenty of obstacles.
Hegemann, a Dodge, Nebraska native, began attending UNK in 2020. Her freshman year of college was clouded by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Hegemann was a pre-medicine major as a freshman with the hopes of eventually becoming a doctor. However, her education was interrupted as a sophomore.
“During my sophomore year of college, I ran into some pretty difficult personal experiences that pushed me off track with my classes,” she said. “That really messed up my scholarship.”
Hegemann earned a University of Nebraska Regents Scholarship as an incoming freshman. Due to the disruption in her classes the following year, Hegemann was forced to take time away from school. When she tried to re-enroll in classes this fall, Hegemann found a hold on her account.
“My hands were tied because I had missed this opportunity to set up a payment plan and I didn’t have a sum of money like that to just pay off the hold on my account,” Hegemann said. “I was at a point where I would have had to just stop my education completely.”
That’s when she learned about student scholarships provided through the UNK Fund. After working with UNK’s financial aid office, Hegemann received the critical funds necessary to get her education back on track through a UNK Fund scholarship.
“I was able to use this scholarship from the UNK Fund to cover the money that I owed so that I could register for classes this fall and continue my education,” she said.
Now, Hegemann is back to pursuing a career in the medical field as a pre-nursing major. While her path has been untraditional, Hegemann said she was grateful for the support that allowed her to continue her education.
“These gifts truly made it possible for me to continue doing what I want to do in life,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to be in the position that I’m in today without this scholarship.”
Clarisa Lopez Chojolan had a dream of being first.
Lopez Chojolan emigrated from Guatemala and grew up in Grand Island, Nebraska. She is the oldest of her family and chose to attend UNK because of the opportunities it provided first-generation students.
“I wanted to set an example for my brothers and my other cousins who are younger than me,” she said.
Lopez Chojolan is a criminal justice major with a minor in business and management. She hopes to use her education to pursue a career in child protective services. Eventually, Lopez Chojolan said she hopes to open her own business.
“I would love to open my own restaurant someday,” she said. “My dad ran his own business and I really enjoyed helping with that.”
The resources available at UNK are helping Lopez Chojolan achieve those dreams. As a first-generation student, she said the university played an important role in helping her acclimate to college life.
“[The support I received from] UNK really helped me through that transition,” Lopez Chojolan said. “I was able to create some really strong connections and that has really helped me a lot.”
For Lopez Chojolan, the support she received as a scholarship recipient from the UNK Fund eased the financial stress that served as a potential roadblock to higher education for her.
With her mother being the only working family member as Lopez Chojolan prepared for college, she knew financial support would be necessary in order for her to pursue her dreams.
“I think a lot of people decide to give up on their dreams of attending college because they don’t have the money to get there,” she said. “Thankfully, I heard about this financial support, and it really helped me.
Thanks to the support of generous donors, Lopez Chojolan is able to pursue her dreams of attaining a college degree and setting an example for her family.
“I’m really thankful for this scholarship and what these gifts have been able to do for me and my family,” Lopez Chojolan said.
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