Ananth
Finance · Vermillion, South Dakota
Having parents who work in higher education showed Ananth how students are positively impacted by campus involvement. So, while succeeding in coursework, he also sought out numerous spots to apply his skills outside of class and quickly found himself passionate about finance and diversity on campus.
Through his leadership and involvement in Big Red Investment Club and Husker Venture Fund, Ananth had the opportunity to use his finance education in real-world transactions. He managed a real investment portfolio, invested in early-stage Nebraska startups and built relationships that pushed him to be involved in other areas.
“BRIC has been a big part of my life. I have made a lot of friends through it, and it’s also influenced my career as well,” he said.
Ananth also used his passion for helping others by tutoring at the Teaching and Learning Center at the College of Business. His experience inspired him to advocate for students studying business by piloting Inclusive Business Leaders—and with Ananth’s help, the college was able to launch the scholarship program for first-year, underrepresented students. He also served on the college’s Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board, which establishes and tracks its diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
“I wanted to see how we can help our first-generation college students and students of color navigate the business workplace because it is not an easy environment to go through,” he said, “I wanted to bring my perspective as a finance person and as a person of color and see how I could make an impact in this area,”
Following his parents’ examples and getting involved on campus turned out to be one of the the best decisions Ananth made at Nebraska. With the support of the university throughout his journey, he is ready now, more than ever, to head into the next chapter of his life.
“All of these clubs and experiences have shaped my life and inspired me. I’m really excited to be working with clients and applying the knowledge I’ve learned into the work that we’ll be doing.”
Rick Alloway
Associate Professor of Broadcasting
From vinyls and cassette tapes to CDs and streaming services, 90.3 KRNU has seen it all.
The campus radio station has been a fixture at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications since 1970. Back then it was housed in Nebraska Hall and could only be heard in residence halls through the campus electrical system. Now, KRNU has a full-service radio space in Andersen Hall that can be heard on the radio and on two online stations.
Professor Rick Alloway’s voice aired on 90.3 KRNU for the first time in 1973. He was a first-year student looking for experience in broadcasting and was given the chance to do that right away through the College of Journalism & Mass Communications.
“It's a testimony to the fact that the college has always felt very strongly about letting you do right away what it is that you came here to do,” Rick said. “It's that hands-on from day one kind of attitude that we've always had.”
After graduating from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and working for a few years, he eventually found his way back to KRNU in 1986. Since then, Rick has seen thousands of students try on the KRNU headphones and get behind the microphone. He’s also led the station through format changes — from playing Top 40 hits, to becoming an independent music station, to expanding the station’s life coverage of sports to the web.
KRNU has endured through decades of world-changing events, but it never operated through a pandemic until this year. While student broadcasts stopped in March 2020, Rick and the KRNU team created safety measures that allowed students to return to the studio last fall. Some students were even able to remotely cover their shifts from home, which allowed the college and the students to learn a new set of broadcasting skills.
After adapting to a year full of change, UNL’s standalone student radio station will be back to broadcasting student voices full-time this fall. Whether they’re in the studio or at home, Huskers will be contributing to a 51-year Husker tradition.
Karen Kassebaum
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Leadership & Learning
Karen cares about inclusive excellence — so much so that she is spearheading #NCLUDE, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln program that brings together Huskers from across the world to share their inclusivity practices.
NCLUDE stands for "Nebraska Community of Learners — Understanding Diversity through Education." Any Husker — from on-campus students, to out-of-country alumni, to Nebraska community members — can be a part of NCLUDE. By bringing together a variety of voices to discuss diversity, Karen hopes to be able to inspire conversations that break barriers. NCLUDE participants can network with new faces from places, industry spaces and lifestyles unlike their own as they work toward finding new ways to promote inclusivity.
At NCLUDE events, everyone is invited to share their thoughts. While Karen says many come to the online Zoom sessions to listen, she wants participants to know that all voices are important in these conversations.
"When you think about moving forward in relation to injustice and racism and hate and all those things…we can't depend on other people to do the work,” Karen said. “You have to do the work...as individuals."
Karen describes "the work" as a lifestyle change. It's not just one book or one workshop — it's a complete review of one's value system and an authentic conversation over areas of that system that incorporate bias and discrimination. From there, people can take action.
"And if we share those things then it gives us things to do and we can do it better, because people have been lately — especially with the unrest and the discrimination and racism and hate and murders — people are ready to do some stuff," Karen said. "And I think the thing that we can do right away is practice inclusive excellence."
Troy
Alumnus and Nursing Student · Gretna, Nebraska
Troy was surprised to learn that he’d volunteered with Husker Pantry for 5 semesters. The first-year nursing student has always just naturally gravitated toward serving others, dating all the way back to his Boy Scout days growing up.
“I was a Cub Scout when I was little and eventually got my Eagle Scout in high school, so service was always just on the forefront of everything I did when I was a kid.”
Troy came to UNL as an undergrad looking for service opportunities to supplement his interest in a career in healthcare. He eventually landed on pursuing a career in nursing, attracted to the idea of being the person who can work closely with patients to understand their specific needs and concerns.
“They say nurses are the patient’s advocate. So much of nursing is thinking about and talking to your patient and seeing what you can do to personally help them feel better and get back to their normal lives.”
This attention to everyone’s specific needs has made volunteering for the Husker Pantry a great fit for Troy, who says that it has broadened his understanding of different student experiences on campus.
“I’ve had a few different people tell me about their stories and why the pantry is a great resource for them,” he says. “A lot of the people who use the pantry also have dependents. it’s already hard being a student, but having dependents on top of that adds a whole other level.”
The Husker Pantry provides free food and personal items to UNL students, working to increase access to needed items and reduce stigmas around food insecurity. Troy and fellow pantry volunteers help to field incoming online orders, collecting and organizing items to get orders ready for student pickup.
Volunteering with the pantry is an easy way for students to give back on campus, says Troy.
“It can be as little as 2 hours a week, so it’s a great opportunity to get your foot in the door doing service on campus,” he explains. “I’ve been able to help all kinds of students just like myself who have a variety of different needs.”