Nebraska CAS

We expand minds with a liberal arts education in the humanities, sciences and social sciences. Let curiosity move you to the College of Arts and Sciences.

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to the 166 students on our Dean's Commendation List! 👏

https://t.co/S13nPtdrEw

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to the 1,293 students on our Dean's List! 👏

https://t.co/v1UYZoRXWd

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to Hillary Schwarb who earned a @u_nebraska Collaborative Initiative grant to investigate healthy aging with Madhur Mangalam of @unomaha! Decline in balance and memory in older adults frequently co-occur but are typically studied and treated independently. This collaborative project will leverage cognitive neuroscience and biomechanics into a comprehensive investigation of both.

Read more on the Department of Psychology website.

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Area of study: Mathematics
Graduation year: 2024

Who is your employer, and where are they located?
FMNE Insurance, based in Lincoln, NE

What is your job title and what kind of work does it involve?
Actuarial Data Scientist transitioning to Financial Data Analyst. In my actuarial role, I built predictive models to improve risk segmentation for Auto, Home, and Farm insurance products. In my new role, I will be building a new financial data framework to serve the entire finance department, and I will be working closely with the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team to build future-looking financial analysis.

What sparked your interest in your area of study?
In high school, I really enjoyed math. I came into it thinking that math was all about solving known problems. As I started to explore the major, I learned that I really enjoy using math and data to inform business decisions. I think my interest really grew when I learned what a math major really was. It is less about finding a discrete answer to a known question, but rather creative problem-solving.

What do you see as the value of your major or CAS degree?
I think the biggest value of a math degree is the deep critical thinking skills that the major requires. It is a challenging degree, but once you are through the program, it signals employers that you can do difficult things and solve difficult problems, no matter what field that may be in.

Were there any other people, activities, or events from your time at UNL that helped you get to where you are now?
I was involved in Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS), which is an academic fraternity focusing on the insurance industry and risk management. The group primarily consists of actuarial students.

I also gave a handful of presentations for the Eastman Scholarships and the Math and Data Science departments. I went to a Lincoln high school and presented what a math or data science degree can do for them. I was really excited about this opportunity because I had no idea what a math degree could do until I began my career, and I wanted to pass on what I learned to a younger generation of students.

Tell us about the path you took to get to where you are today in your career and how you applied your education to get here.
UNL was the third college I attended. I previously attended two smaller schools while I was pursuing my collegiate baseball career. I decided to transfer to UNL for my last two years to focus on my degree. I transferred to Nebraska very late in the spring semester, so I missed any opportunities to apply to a summer internship through the traditional route. Unexpectedly, midway through the summer, I got an email from the Chief Actuary at FMNE Insurance asking if I'd be interested in interviewing for an internship. That one interview helped launch my career to where it is today.

From there, my career has flourished with FMNE. It is truly a company I hope to retire at, and where I feel like everyone I work with is family. I started as an Actuarial Intern and over the next few years, moved from Actuarial Assistant to Actuarial Data Scientist. I recently decided that I want to make a career change into corporate finance, and I am in the process of moving to the Finance department to begin growing its analytics capabilities.

I get the opportunity to come to work every day to work with people I genuinely enjoy working with, and I get to work on challenging problems that influence the direction of the company. A math degree from UNL has helped open so many doors for me to make a difference, and helped me find a rewarding and fulfilling career.

What are your future professional goals?
As I'm transitioning into the finance department at FMNE, I'm focused on learning as much as I can about corporate finance. I hope to shape how FMNE uses data to make informed decisions while bringing skills and tools coming from my math background and four years in the actuarial department.

@unl_math

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Sociologist Seulki Kim is teaming up with engineers and health scientists to study microplastics and nanoplastics in everyday drinks and find out how much we consume.

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Critical concept: the release rate of plastic particles into liquids under different conditions. Understanding these differences could guide manufacturers toward safer designs and help consumers make more informed choices.

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Researchers also need to study how these particles interact with the body.

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An advanced laser-based technique can produce the particles needed for the study in hours instead of months and years.

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The team aims to translate their findings into practical guidance. By identifying how daily habits influence exposure, the team hopes to provide evidence-based recommendations - including collaborating with manufacturers and communicating to early childhood educators.

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Backed by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

📰
Read the full story on @nebtoday.

@niehs

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

After graduating high school in Neligh, Nebraska — with only 26 classmates — Leonardo Luna-Duran felt a little anxious about making the jump to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

How different would this new environment be from his small-town community? As it turned out, it didn't feel much different.

“It was a huge shock, but not in the way I expected,” Luna-Duran said. “From the outside, UNL seemed like this huge place. The minute you get here, get involved and get further in your academic journey, you realize that it’s such a close-knit community. It feels small, even if it isn’t.”

Leonardo Luna-Duran is photographed on a sidewalk outside Nebraska Union. He is wearing a red polo and khaki shorts, the NSE uniform.
From spotting familiar faces around campus to getting the hang of where all the buildings were, Luna-Duran’s easy shift to life as a Husker was a welcome surprise. A lot of that started with his New Student Enrollment experience, which inspired him to become an orientation leader.

“I remember my orientation day and seeing these leaders with so much energy and excitement — it made me feel way more comfortable,” he said. “Listening to their stories about how they were able to use the resources and organizations we have on campus to better their experience was so reassuring. I told myself that I would try to do the same thing for other students, especially ones from small towns like me.”

A simple way to start making campus feel a little smaller? Get involved with a student organization.

“I won't lie: my first couple months were pretty tough," he said. "Once I started getting involved, though, I started meeting people who are now some of my best friends. Trying out new things really closed that gap for me and helped me see that this was a place I could call home.”

Asking questions is a crucial part of NSE orientation, Luna-Duran said, and he wants everyone to feel comfortable asking them.

“All of us leaders are here to help you as much as possible, and if we’re not hitting on something you’re curious about, just ask," he said. "This university is a place for everyone, and the things you need to feel at home are always just a few small steps away.”

@unlpolisci

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Name
Cole Johnson

Which degrees did you earn from CAS?
Undergraduate

Major(s) or area(s) of study
Mathematics (Statistics and Data Science) and Computer Science

Graduation year
2023

Who is your employer, and where are they located?
Google, I work out of their Seattle office

What is your job title and what kind of work does it involve?
Software Engineer, my day to day responsibilities include writing and reviewing code, writing technical documentation, and working with product and UI designers.

What sparked your interest in your major(s) or area(s) of study?
I’ve always loved math throughout K-12 education, but the two classes that really stood out were AP Stats and intro to computer science. Ever since then I’ve been trying to combine these and found Data Science. The idea of finding patterns in complex data sources through machine learning, visualizations, etc is fascinating and has become all I want to do.

What do you see as the value of your major(s) or CAS degree?
The combination of hands on coursework combined with an education in the Raikes program provided the perfect foundation for industry success. I think my time in proofs highlights this the best as we spent every day in small groups working out problems on the white board. This close communication and problem solving was the closest symmetry to my professional career.

Were there any other people, activities, or events from your time at UNL that helped you get to where you are now?
The Raikes program definitely a cornerstone of my college career, but I believe everything I experienced contributed to where I am now. Internships, D1 athletics (only for a semester), Club athletics, Fraternity life, Alumni networking, etc.

Tell us about the path you took to get to where you are today in your career and how you applied your education in your major(s) or area(s) of study to get here.
Once graduating I took a position as a technical program manager at Microsoft. While this position helped develop my software skills in professional communication and understanding how these large corporations operate, it wasn’t a technical enough position for me, so I enrolled in an online masters in computer science program specializing in machine learning at Georgia Tech. This helped me transition to my current role at Google. Some of the biggest applications of my undergrad coursework are in my masters program, the foundation I received in statistics has proved critical in my success. Additionally in my professional career all group work and how to be a team player has helped.

What are your future professional goals?
I am now taking graduate coursework at both Georgia Tech and UT Austin for masters in computer science and data science, respectively. I hope to eventually return to academia full time and pursue a PhD in Data Science. In the meantime I will continue working at Google.

@unl_math

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Area of study: Mathematics
Graduation year: 2018

Who is your employer, and where are they located?
Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies in Omaha NE.

What is your job title and what kind of work does it involve?
My job title is Financial Analyst. My role in part involves statistical data reporting to states and other regulatory bodies as it pertains to Workers' Compensation Insurance. Aside from that, my role involves ensuring existing financial guardrails/infrastructure remains viable and in-line with the direction the company is moving, and building out new infrastructure as needed.

What sparked your interest in your area of study?
Math was always my strongest subject, and in high school I had an excellent Calculus teacher who really inspired me to pursue further education in math, as well as helping me find and apply for scholarship/funding.

What do you see as the value of your major or CAS degree?
Math at its core teaches one to apply logic, usually in the context of a problem from a textbook, however this skill can be extrapolated to all aspects of life. Studying/teaching math also taught me that many problems can be approached in different ways, which is always a valuable skill.

Were there any other people, activities, or events from your time at UNL that helped you get to where you are now?
I like learning for the sake of learning, and didn't really know what I had wanted to do after graduation. My advisors, Dr. Petronela Radu and Dr. Alex Zupan were instrumental in challenging me, and helping me succeed where I struggled. I also went to Montana State University because Dr. Zupan had a friend who worked there, and after applying and touring the campus it was a great fit that I wouldn't have found without that connection.

Tell us about the path you took to get to where you are today in your career and how you applied your education to get here.
After I graduated UNL in 2018 with a B.S. in Mathematics, I moved to Bozeman Montana to study Mathematics in a graduate program. In 2020, I graduated with a M.S. in Mathematics and moved back to Lincoln where I taught College Algebra and Intro to Statistics at Nebraska Wesleyan University for a couple semesters. While I enjoyed teaching, I didn't think that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I found a Financial Analyst role at Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies (a group of insurance companies under the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella). The ability to apply logic and dissect a problem, developed during my studies, played a significant factor in my hiring.

@unl_math @WeAreBHHC

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

At just nine years old, Hamdiya Mumade had to go through emergency surgery. She remembers feeling terrified, but she also remembers that her fear was alleviated by the care her physician showed her and her family.

“I remember how understanding and compassionate she was with my immigrant parents. She made sure they understood every step of what was going to happen and took the time to really address all of their concerns,” Mumade said. “Even after the surgery, I remember her telling me that she went out of her way to stitch my scar in a way that would be easiest to hide, so I wouldn’t have to worry about having a visible scar on my face.”

That moment not only inspired her to pursue medicine but also showed Mumade, a rising senior biological sciences and microbiology major, that exceptional care goes beyond treating a condition. It also revealed the type of healthcare professional she wanted to be: someone who cares about a patient's dignity and humanity.

“I think one of the things our system is lacking is a stronger emphasis on the humanities side of medicine, the part that teaches you how to be empathetic and truly patient-centered,” Mumade said.

Mumade also wants to dedicate her career to addressing the major disparities in quality of care based on a person's race. She said people of color constantly receive lower-quality care, especially Black women.

“Black women are more likely to die during childbirth or have their pain dismissed or untreated. So for me, making an impact right now looks like a mix of representation and advocacy,” Mumade said. “Just being in spaces where people like me haven’t always been represented challenges norms and opens doors.”

Mumade wants to actively address the disparities in the industry and advocate for more equitable and compassionate care. That has led her to multiple experiences through her educational career that she believes will help her on that journey. The first stop? Finding the school that was right for her.

A Lincoln native, Mumade was drawn to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln thanks to on-campus opportunities and a plethora of scholarships, which gave her the freedom to explore her passions.

African Student Association President Hamdiya Mumade and ASA Secretary Lali Regassa ask the NSA panel questions about the future of the organization in the Heritage Room at the Nebraska Union.
Hamdiya Mumade, serving as president of the African Student Association, and Lali Regassa, secretary of the association, participate in a panel discussion in the Heritage Room at the Nebraska Union.
“I was able to get involved in research as early as my freshman year through STEM-Power and later FYRE (First Year Research Experience) and UCARE,” Mumade said. “Although I’ve discovered that research isn’t something I want to pursue post-grad, I’m glad I was able to experience it so that I was able to figure out what was right for me.”

Mumade also found connection in the William H. Thompson Scholars Learning Community, which she said has been a major support to her as she explores future career options. It’s also been an experience that has allowed her to share her own journey with incoming freshmen, helping them adjust to college life and feel confident in the transition.

Mumade’s extracurricular activities have further honed her clinical skills. Doctors without Borders, Clinic with a Heart and jobs at both Aviva Woodlands and Bryan Health have given her hands-on experience in the healthcare industry. It’s also where she has banked an impressive 420-plus hours of patient care experience, supporting healthcare teams and delivering high-quality care.

“In this role, my patients were either about to undergo surgery or were recovering from one, and as someone who’s fairly curious, I used every opportunity to learn,” Mumade said, describing her educational experience at Bryan Health as a Patient Care Technician. “There were a lot of surgical procedures that I started to become familiar with. And it also felt really rewarding to see my patients gradually recover, step by step, and being part of their healing journey has been incredibly fulfilling.”

Mumade's immediate goal right now is to attend physician assistant school after she graduates and work as a PA, but she has broader ambitions on the horizon.

“One of my long-term goals is to improve access to healthcare, particularly in my home country of Ethiopia. I aim to enhance health outcomes by educating the general public about basic health topics,” Mumade said. “I hope to establish a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing healthcare access because I strongly believe that healthcare is a fundamental human right.”

As for people who are looking to go down the same pre-med or pre-health pathway, she has clear advice that has served her well.

“I would also say that a growth mindset is crucial. Being pre-med or pre-health requires taking a lot of difficult courses, and you will have ups and downs," Mumade said. "Some days you won’t do as well as you hoped on exams, but recognizing your mistakes and learning from them is what will allow you to succeed."

@unlmicro @WHTScholars @Bryan_Health

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to professor Elizabeth Theiss-Morse for receiving the Louise Pound-George Howard Distinguished Career Award from the university's Faculty Senate!

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Since 1988, her career at #UNL has been marked by scholarly excellence, impactful teaching, and genuine service.

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Five National Science Foundation Grants, four research awards from the American Political Science Association, and invited speaker at prestigious universities and research symposia around the globe.

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Mentor and transformative teacher for students at all levels, challenging them to think critically about core concepts in democracy, to apply rigorous methods to understand political phenomena, and to communicate their scholarly findings broadly. Earned the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award.

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Co-authored textbook, "Political Behavior of the American Electorate", continues to be well received and adopted in political science departments throughout the country.

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Key roles include: chair of the Department of Political Science; Associate Dean of Faculty and Interim Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences; chair of the university’s Institutional Review Board; member of the Academic Planning Committee and the Faculty Senate.

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"When I asked her recently why she pursued these leadership and service roles, her answer was both simple and genuine: to help."

Read the full story on the Department of Political Science website.

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to emeritus professor David Wishart for receiving the Louise Pound-George Howard Distinguished Career Award from the university's Faculty Senate!

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Began at #UNL in 1974. Over time, served as chair of the Department of Anthropology and Geography (now SGIS); a Foreign Expert at Zhongshan University, China; and Visiting Lecturer, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

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Co-authored more than thirty articles, five monographs, a textbook, and a major atlas - a number have received critical praise.

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Received numerous grants and fellowships, including those from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Nebraska Humanities Council.

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Worked with the Nebraska State Historical Society and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications' (NET) PBS station.

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"Dr. Wishart has been an outstanding mentor to majors, minors, masters and doctoral students in the UNL Geography Program, not to mention undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in other disciplines. He delivered service, drive, perspective, professionalism, and integrity to any project. He was student-focused and had an incredible work ethic. He seemingly never tired of helping students, serving the program, creating opportunities for advisees, and maximizing learning.

"He regularly supported junior peers, even from other institutions to help them advance in their career, and he did this for his former students and others as well. Many of his former graduate students are teaching in institutions across the country and throughout the world. During his career, Dr. Wishart successfully established formal, informal, or quasi formal channels for providing support to students, advisees, and junior faculty. He received the University of Nebraska Distinguished Teaching Award and received six UNL Parent Association Awards for his teaching."

Read the full story on the School of Global Integrative Studies website.

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Today we remember.

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to virologist Eric Weaver (@unlsbs) and his team for receiving an @NIH grant to advance their Epigraph vaccine approach toward a universal avian-flu vaccine!

- targets both changing and stable parts of the virus
- built using data from 6,000+ flu strains
- focuses on T-cell immunity (not just antibodies)
- protection could last years

This funding highlights UNL’s strong virology expertise that is creating a path toward pandemic preparedness.

Read the full story on our website - link in bio.

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Tomorrow at 7:30 pm, check out "Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words," a theatrical portrait created by professor emerita Carole Levin, history, drawn directly from the queen's speeches, letters and other sources. The free event will be in the Westbrook Music Building, Room 130.

The play is being presented through a partnership of the International Quilt Museum and the Glenn Korff School of Music and coincides with the museum exhibition, "Crown and Stage."

Read more on our website.

@unlhistory @intlquiltmuseum @UNLSomusic

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to Jay Storz, biological sciences, who earned a Fulbright Scholar Award!

In Argentina's Andes he'll expand research into how animals survive extreme elevations, focusing on the Andean leaf-eared mouse, the world’s highest-dwelling mammal.

Collaborating with Paola Sassi and other researchers at the Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de Zonas Áridas.

The work builds on long-running research supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Storz will also teach a graduate seminar in evolutionary physiology at the institute and the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

This will help strengthen a growing international research network for Storz, who has long collaborated with scientists across South America. The partnership is expected to lay the groundwork for ongoing student-and-researcher exchange opportunities.

“We’re able to bring together complementary expertise — evolutionary genetics and physiological ecology — to get at the mechanisms behind adaptation,” he said.

Read the full story and check out related videos on our website.

@unlsbs @FulbrightSchlrs

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to Lexus Root, Brianna Rose DeValk, Dana Hanley and Henrique Cassol Leal on being named digital humanities fellows for summer 2026!

The program supports their research, scholarship, professional development, and creative production skills.

“Our goal with this program is to both support DH student projects and foster meaningful cross-disciplinary collaboration," Carrie Heitman, director of the Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship, said. "So many technical barriers are lower now than ever before. Students have access to things like AI-driven coding assistants that can really accelerate project development. I’m excited to help support another group of extraordinary scholars this summer."

Root is a second-year doctoral student in English at Nebraska. He also received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Nebraska. His fellowship project aims to develop a computational measure of sexual explicitness and violence in mid-20th century gay erotic fiction, relying on a corpus of thousands of 'gay pulp' novels.

DeValk is a fourth-year doctoral student in history at Nebraska. She received a Bachelor of Arts in history pedagogy from California Lutheran University and a Master of Arts in history from Minnesota State University, Mankato. This summer, she will work on “Citizenship Taken: Recovering Married Women’s Citizenship on the Northern Great Plains, 1907-1967,” a relational database that brings together seemingly disparate historical records to reconstruct the identities and stories of American-born women whose birthright citizenship was taken following their marriage to an unnaturalized immigrant during the early 20th century.

Hanley is a first-year master's student in modern languages at Nebraska. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Germanic languages and literatures and a Bachelor of Science in education from the University of Kansas. Her Fellowship project, “‘Forever Undivided’: Mapping Connections Between the Failed 1848 Revolution in Schleswig-Holstein and Successful Civic Institutions in Nebraska,” utilizes ArcGIS StoryMaps to create a digital public history platform. Her work traces migration from Schleswig-Holstein following and documents the subsequent emergence of German-American civic institutions in Nebraska.

Leal is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Nebraska. He received a Master of Arts in philosophy from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). His fellowship project, “The AI Moral Status Atlas: Mapping Concepts, Positions, and Argument Pathways in Contemporary Debate,” builds an “atlas” of key concepts, positions, arguments and objections in the debate about whether and how AI systems could have moral status.

They will spend the summer in a shared workspace at the Dinsdale Family Learning Commons under Heitman's mentorship. At a mid-summer project showcase, they will receive feedback from faculty and staff. In September, the students will present their final projects in a public DH Afternoons event sponsored by the center.

@UNLHistory @UNLModLang @UNLPhilosophy @CDRH_UNL @ANTH_UNL

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Congratulations to Laura K. Muñoz, who was awarded Honorable Mention (Book Award) by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies for "Desert Dreams: Mexican Arizona and the Politics of Educational Equality"!

The award recognizes an outstanding new book in the field of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Muñoz's accomplishment was celebrated in April at the organization's annual meeting.

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press, the book chronicles seventy-five years of Mexican American efforts to attain educational equality in Arizona, from its territorial period in the nineteenth century to the post–World War II era.

@unlhistory @pennpress

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Each week, Honors students gather in a small classroom in Knoll Residential Center to unravel one of the greatest drivers shaping human history: disease. For these Honors students, their studies go beyond symptoms and treatments to include an understanding of people, societies, and the evolution of medicine.

Students in the Honors seminar “Plagues, People, and Public Health,” taught by Dr. Angela Bolen from the Department of History and the Humanities in Medicine program, learn about a different disease and trace it throughout history each class period. Bolen structured the class to gradually reveal how scientific knowledge has developed and how those discoveries are tied to the human experience.

“It’s plagues, and then it’s people,” Bolen said. “The point is to understand how these disease agents affect human society.”

This human-centered approach is furthered by class discussions about medical ethics. For example, students examined how the Nuremberg trials reshaped medicine and emphasized accountability. Bolen said these discussions “help humanize medicine and bring the people back into it.”

Much of the classwork involves engaging with both primary and secondary sources to inform their debates. “You cannot learn any of this without talking about it,” Bolen said. “A lot of the class involves presenting information, asking questions, and then just working through it together.”

At its core, the course is part of the Humanities in Medicine program, which aims to highlight the emotional and cultural dimensions of healthcare. Bolen said one of her primary goals for the course was to challenge stereotypes about medicine.

“Medicine is not just science,” she said. “It’s feelings, history, perspectives. Diseases do not just exist in nature; they shape how societies see themselves.”

The course’s unique position as an Honors seminar plays a key role in making that exploration possible. Smaller class sizes and highly engaged students allow for deeper, more nuanced discussions. Bolen said Honors students bring a level of curiosity and willingness to tackle difficult topics that elevate the course.

“The discussions never fall flat,” she said. “Students are not afraid to ask hard questions or sit with complex and sometimes uncomfortable ideas.”

The class fosters a personal learning environment through meaningful and personalized engagement between Bolen and the students. Bolen said she works to understand each student as an individual with their own experience, rather than just a name on a list.

“I love this class because it makes learning interactive,” second-year actuarial science major Ruby Barger said. “Dr. Bolen values engagement and individual interactions, which makes learning feel very personal.”

Bolen first proposed the course during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on her long-standing interest in the history of medicine through a human lens. “I had been wanting to teach a class like this for a long time, and during COVID it felt especially relevant,” she said.

“Plagues, People, and Public Health” offers more than a history of illnesses. It provides students with a deep understanding of how medicine continues to evolve in relation to the human experience. For students like Barger, this experience meant taking ownership of her learning on a personal level, which meant a transformation in how she saw the history of medicine.

Details https://t.co/hij3kV64MU

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

When Donald Beahm first proposed a course on the Vietnam War as a young political scientist in 1990, the class filled in ten minutes. His students included several Vietnam veterans, which made him nervous to teach it. He could not have known that decades later, he would still be teaching the subject, now to the grandchildren of those who fought.

The course is now an Honors seminar titled “The Vietnam War: What Was It Good For?” and it offers an in-depth examination of the historical and political ramifications of the war for the U.S., Vietnam, and the world. Beahm places an emphasis on asking questions, creating discussion and engaging in detailed analysis.

For Beahm, the Vietnam War has never been an abstract concept. It is woven into his family history.

“I developed an interest in the subject when my older brother went to Vietnam,” Beahm, lecturer of political science, said. “It was an emotional time and very powerful. The year he was gone was a big deal in our family.”

Watching his brother leave and the questions that experience raised, sparked a lifelong commitment to understanding the war and its consequences.

“I think, in part, it led me to be a political scientist,” Beahm said.

Donald Beahm sits with students in his Honors course on the Vietnam War.📷
Beahm said he loved teaching the class the first time he taught it, even if he wasn't sure how it was going.
"On the last day of class, when we finished, it got real quiet, and nobody moved. And then after that pause, they gave me a standing ovation," Beahm said. "That told me they thought it was okay."

Serena Schadl, a fourth-year political science major, said her favorite part of the class is how Beahm teaches through storytelling.

“I have learned so much about the war simply from his stories, especially because he was around to experience what it was like living in America during the Vietnam War,” Schadl said.

Schadl also said that while the class focuses on historical events, she and her classmates are encouraged to draw connections to the present.

“This class truly made me realize that learning about history does not just help us learn about our past, but it also serves as a guide for future generations to avoid and correct past mistakes,” Schadl said. “Classes like these are the reason I love Honors seminars so much. We are invited to think about the broader implications and themes of important topics rather than simply learning facts.”

One of the most powerful aspects of the course is a guest who returns each semester to visit with Beahm’s students: a Vietnam veteran, Jeff Wallace, who served two tours of duty. Beahm said Wallace invites the students to ask him difficult and even painful questions when he visits. For many in the class, hearing from a veteran takes the war from an abstract concept to something personal.

“It is difficult for him,” Beahm said. “But he absolutely wants to do it every time, and he’s always glad that he did. The students are really appreciative.”

Beahm said offering the class as an Honors seminar has created a deeply compelling experience for his students.

“I hope it has an impact on someone's understanding of their grandfather, uncle, or father and what they went through," Beahm said.

Details https://t.co/j7vi5qveTU

@UNLPoliSci @unl_honors

[Nebraska CAS @unlcas]

Let curiosity move you 😎