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“I want donors to know that their support is not just a financial contribution, but it’s an investment in the future of students like me…”
William Otte’s pursuit of a fulfilling academic journey was made possible through scholarships.
Growing up in the small town of O’Neill, Nebraska, Otte always knew that he wanted to pursue a higher education. Determined to make his dream a reality, he set out to secure funding for his college career. Otte recalls spending almost every Saturday during the winter of his senior year in high school at a coffee shop filling out scholarship applications.
“If I wanted to go to college, I was going to have to figure out a way to pay for it myself for the most part,” said Otte.
Otte received the Susan T. Buffett Scholarship and the Board Regents Scholarship, which combined to fund a large portion of his higher education. All that was left was to determine which University of Nebraska campus to attend for the next four years. The University of Nebraska at Kearney was the natural choice. His parents met at UNK, the campus was beautiful, and it provided a familiar small-town experience.
Beginning as a chemistry major and now a junior with a history education major and a minor in philosophy, Otte has leveraged his scholarships to explore diverse interests. He plans to continue this exploration in the future through traveling the world and pursuing his career.
Otte plans to become a history and philosophy teacher at a small-town Catholic school. He wants to bring classical liberal arts to smaller communities like his hometown.
“I know that some of the more urban, bigger cities have those (classes), but that’s not always an opportunity in the smaller areas,” Otte said.
Otte wants to teach high school students that there are virtues to strive for, beyond stories, in contemporary and classical literature. When students strive to align their actions with these virtues, he said, they can change their life in the process.
Without financial support, Otte believes his life would be vastly different today. He hopes donors recognize the positive impact scholarships have had on his, and other students’ lives.
“I want donors to know that their support is not just a financial contribution, but it’s an investment in the future of students like me, and the impact of that investment goes far beyond the classroom,” said Otte.
Donating to the University of Nebraska helps fund scholarships that provide freedom for students like Otte to explore their passions and interests. Please consider making a gift today to help us create more opportunities for UNK students.
A gift to this fund bolsters the general student scholarship aid available to students within any UNK college.
Small-town life was comfortable for Courtney Swisher and Brittany Chavez.
Swisher graduated from a class of just six students in Halsey, Nebraska. Chavez grew up in Imperial, Nebraska — a town of about 2,000 people. Both Swisher and Chavez love their hometowns more than anything. In some ways, these communities provided the pair with unique skills as they prepared to take the next step in their life as first-generation students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
“I feel like I grew up being in a position of leadership because there weren’t very many people who could step up to the plate,” Swisher, now a sophomore at UNK, said. “I think I incorporated a lot of that when I came to college.”
The support of their friends, family and community was critical to Swisher and Chavez. However, both grappled with the uncertainty that came with uprooting themselves from their communities to pursue a college education.
“It was a big moment of doubt,” Swisher said. “Am I where I should be? Am I going to be prepared enough for this? Sometimes it’s hard to know, as a first-generation student, what opportunities you should take advantage of.”
Swisher and Chavez arrived on campus as freshmen looking to blaze their own trails as first-generation students. Swisher hoped to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, who graduated from UNK a decade prior. Chavez strived to become the first woman in her family to earn a college degree.
Thanks to the First Gen Lopers program, the pair found each other and, more importantly, a community that helped make UNK feel like a second home.
“I started going to some of the events held by First Gen Lopers and realized that I wasn’t the only one still trying to figure things out,” Chavez, a sophomore at UNK, said. “It felt really nice to have others around me that I could reach out to for support.”
Even more, Chavez said getting involved with First Gen Lopers as a freshman helped her become more active on campus.
“Nobody wants to be stuck in their dorm all day because you don’t know what’s going on around campus,” she said. “So those events helped me a lot.”
Swisher agreed. Opportunities to attend workshops that built healthy studying habits and learning techniques benefited her in the classroom. Other events, like the chance to experience the climbing wall at UNK’s Wellness Center with fellow first-generation students, helped her find a family.
“I initially went to those just knowing I could get skills that would help improve myself and help improve my college experience, but at the same time I made so many friends because of it,” Swisher said.
That includes the friendship between Swisher and Chavez. The pair met through First Gen Lopers and now serve as the vice president and president on the organization’s leadership team. As they begin their sophomore year at UNK, they’re working even harder to help even more first-generation students find their home at UNK.
That work began over the summer when First Gen Lopers held the First-Gen Trailblazer Academy. The week-long event in August brought in nearly two dozen incoming first-generation students and provided them with class preparation and study strategies, individual advising and the chance to familiarize themselves with campus and its resources before the start of the fall semester.
“It was a good chance for them to get to know that they weren’t alone and that there were other people, lots of people, coming in that were just like them,” Swisher said. “It was a great opportunity for everyone to connect.”
Chavez said she hopes to see the program continue to grow. One way she wants to do that is by establishing a scholarship for incoming first-generation students. In doing so, she hopes to help ease the financial barrier potential students may face when choosing whether to attend college.
“A lot of students that I have talked to have said the biggest concern when they were coming to college was money,” Chavez said. “They were scared that they weren’t going to be able to afford it. I want this scholarship to help someone who is struggling financially so they don’t just give up on college because of a lack of money.”
These opportunities wouldn’t be possible without the support from donors who play a critical role in raising funds for programs such as First Gen Lopers. That commitment already has made a positive impact on the students who participate in First Gen Lopers, Swisher said.
“I just want to give a very big thank you, because you have done something that has definitely changed somebody’s life in unexpected ways,” she said. “Our goal is to help people and by giving us this resource, you’re helping us do that.”
You can support First Gen Lopers and countless other programs and student organizations during One Day for UNK on Oct. 5-6. This 24-hour giving day provides anybody from longtime supporters to recent graduates with an opportunity to positively impact the University of Nebraska at Kearney and its students.
During One Day for UNK, you will have the chance to make an impactful gift that benefits a variety of different areas on campus, including:
Visit givingday.unk.edu today to make your gift and help us make this year’s One Day for UNK our biggest, most impactful year yet.
Lauren Taubenheim’s love for volleyball began on the sidelines of a Nebraska Volleyball game.
The Lincoln native picked up the sport at a young age, but her passion for the sport only grew while helping as a ball girl for the Huskers in grade school.
“That’s kind of when I decided that volleyball was something that I wanted to do,” Taubenheim said. “I watched those girls, who were some of the best to go through Nebraska Volleyball, and I wanted to be like them.”
Fast forward to today and Taubenheim is setting her own path as a redshirt junior on the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s volleyball team. She’s seen success both on and off the court over the course of her career at UNK, as a two-time All-MIAA and MIAA Scholar-Athlete recipient.
Taubenheim said UNK has been a second home to her over the last three years. Along with the opportunity to play for one of the most successful teams in NCAA Division II history, the school’s proximity to Lincoln means her family doesn’t have to travel far to support her.
“I just couldn’t really see myself going far away,” she said. “There just wasn’t a better fit for me.”
Taubenheim had the opportunity to return to her own backyard during Volleyball Day in Nebraska Aug. 30. The historic daylong celebration of volleyball in the state included an exhibition match between UNK and Wayne State College.
From the moment the match was announced last spring, Taubenheim said it never felt real.
“Everyone was so shocked when it was first announced and it came up so fast, so everyone was just really excited,” she said.
Reality hit when Taubenheim and the Lopers stepped on the court in Memorial Stadium, surrounded by supporters from all corners of the state.
“From going to Husker games my whole life, I knew that Nebraska fans know how to show up, but it didn’t really hit me until I looked up at the stadium,” she said. “It was a super-cool moment to see, and it was really special to see everyone supporting volleyball at all levels.”
Volleyball Day in Nebraska isn’t the only record-breaking crowd Taubenheim has been a part of this year. On Sept. 6, just a week after Volleyball Day in Nebraska, UNK Volleyball broke the NCAA Division II regular-season attendance record during a home-opener sweep over Peru State.
Taubenheim said the kind of support volleyball receives in Nebraska is one of a kind. To student-athletes like her, it doesn’t go unnoticed.
“We have a really strong community here in Kearney that always shows up to support us game after game, no matter who we’re playing,” she said. “It’s really something that all of us volleyball girls are so appreciative of, and it keeps us going throughout the season.”
You can support UNK volleyball and countless other programs and student organizations during One Day for UNK on Oct. 5-6. This 24-hour giving day provides anybody from longtime supporters to recent graduates with an opportunity to positively impact the University of Nebraska at Kearney and its students.
During One Day for UNK, you will have the chance to make an impactful gift that benefits a variety of different areas on campus, including:
Visit givingday.unk.edu today to make your gift and help us make this year’s One Day for UNK our biggest, most impactful year yet.
Dillon McKinney grew up playing every sport you would expect from a boy in the Midwest.
Baseball was his sport of choice from kindergarten through eighth grade. The Grand Island native eventually replaced that with football, wrestling, and track and field once he entered high school.
It took until Dillon’s sophomore year at the University of Nebraska at Kearney to find a sport with which he could truly connect.
“There was a men’s club volleyball team that started earlier in my sophomore year that some of my friends were playing on,” he said. “I had already played volleyball through intramurals and thought it was really fun, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to play on a team and be a little more competitive with it.”
The sport wasn’t completely alien to Dillon. His sister grew up playing volleyball, but he said he never anticipated it would be a sport he would pick up later in life. Fast forward to today: Dillon is vice president of UNK Men’s Club Volleyball.
Dillon said he has always been a competitive person. Club sports like men’s volleyball give him the perfect outlet to compete at a higher level.
“I’m definitely a competitive person, so club sports are an awesome way to take things a little further than intramurals without competing at a true collegiate level,” he said. “Club sports are just a nice way to still be able to get my competitiveness out and have fun.”
The club has continued to grow since its creation in 2022, more than doubling in size over the last year.
“There are a lot of people kind of like me who have always been interested in volleyball, but just haven’t had the opportunity to actually play and compete,” he said. “Our practices have definitely grown this year and we’ve gotten a lot of new people.”
Dillon said the chance to help build the club and expose more students to men’s volleyball is an exciting opportunity. He can’t wait to see it continue to grow.
“It’s just so cool to start something like this here at UNK and build a foundation for a lot of the incoming freshmen,” he said. “Hopefully men’s volleyball can continue to grow and become more popular here.”
Volleyball has played an important part in Dillon’s life since he first picked up the sport. He said the lessons it has taught him go far beyond the court.
“Through volleyball, I’ve had the opportunity to set goals for myself and accomplish them,” he said. “Now that men’s volleyball is here, it’s something that I hope we can continue to develop and bring more people into.
You can support student organizations like the Men’s Club Volleyball team during One Day for UNK on Oct. 5-6. This 24-hour giving day provides anybody from longtime supporters to recent graduates with an opportunity to positively impact the University of Nebraska at Kearney and its students.
During One Day for UNK, you will have the chance to make an impactful gift that benefits a variety of different areas on campus, including:
Visit givingday.unk.edu today to make your gift and help us make this year’s One Day for UNK our biggest, most impactful year yet.
© 2019 University of Nebraska Foundation
