UNK has a proud tradition of excellence and support when it comes to Loper Athletics and enjoy great success in all sports.
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The mission of the UNMC Alumni Relations Office is to serve and engage with learners and graduates through effective communications, the formation of meaningful relationships, and opportunities to invest in the advancement of the university through gifts of time, talent, and treasure.
Our athletes are competing at the Division I level in collegiate sports, not only enhance the visibility of UNO, but also to provide great benefits to all of Omaha.
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UNO AA is an organization focused on strengthening connections with more than 100,000 UNO alumni, students and friends from all over the world.
Nebraska Medicine and its research and education partner, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, share the same mission: to lead the world in transforming lives to create a healthy future for all individuals and communities through premier educational programs, innovative research and extraordinary patient care.
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The mission of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska is to transform the lives of young children by improving their learning and development.
Every day, nearly a billion people in the world do not have enough safe and nutritious food to lead healthy and active lives. Many of them also lack access to enough clean water to meet their needs. By 2050, our global food demand will double to meet the needs of nearly 10 billion people, making water and food security one of the most urgent global challenges of our time.
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Your giving to this area enables the president’s office to quickly direct resources to various university projects and areas across the system as needs arise.
The greatest needs of the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Gifts through the UNK Fund let you make a bigger difference on campus, your college and students.
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The greatest needs of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Gifts through the Innovation Funds let you make a bigger difference on campus, your college and students.
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UNK has a proud tradition of excellence and support when it comes to Loper Athletics and enjoy great success in all sports.
Find specific areas to support within your college, department, program or area of interest.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact to the University of Nebraska at Kearney and its students? Here are some great options.
No matter your circumstances. No matter your age or financial situation. If leaving a legacy is important to you, we can help through planned giving.
UNK AA has been working since 1906 to promote communication and interaction among more than 40,000 alumni, students, faculty, administrators and friends of the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Husker athletic programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are a source of pride for alumni and Nebraskans throughout the state and around the world.
Find specific areas to support within your college, department, program or area of interest.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and its students? Here are some great options.
No matter your circumstances. No matter your age or financial situation. If leaving a legacy is important to you, we can help through planned giving.
NAA is a nonprofit organization that connects alumni with Dear Old Nebraska U, and with each other, for the betterment of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
There are many ways to give including employer matching, payroll giving, donor advised funds, tangible property, grain, stocks and more.
Find specific areas to support within your college, department, program or area of interest.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact to the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its students? Here are some great options.
No matter your circumstances. No matter your age or financial situation. If leaving a legacy is important to you, we can help through planned giving.
The mission of the UNMC Alumni Relations Office is to serve and engage with learners and graduates through effective communications, the formation of meaningful relationships, and opportunities to invest in the advancement of the university through gifts of time, talent, and treasure.
Our athletes are competing at the Division I level in collegiate sports, not only enhance the visibility of UNO, but also to provide great benefits to all of Omaha.
Find specific areas to support within your college, department, program or area of interest.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact to the University of Nebraska at Omaha and its students? Here are some great options.
No matter your circumstances. No matter your age or financial situation. If leaving a legacy is important to you, we can help through planned giving.
UNO AA is an organization focused on strengthening connections with more than 100,000 UNO alumni, students and friends from all over the world.
Nebraska Medicine and its research and education partner, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, share the same mission: to lead the world in transforming lives to create a healthy future for all individuals and communities through premier educational programs, innovative research and extraordinary patient care.
These funds support innovative initiatives at Nebraska Medicine that allow the academic health network to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
There are many ways to give including employer matching, payroll giving, donor advised funds, tangible property, grain, stocks and more.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact at Nebraska Medicine? Here are some great options.
No matter your circumstances. No matter your age or financial situation. If leaving a legacy is important to you, we can help through planned giving.
The mission of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska is to transform the lives of young children by improving their learning and development.
Every day, nearly a billion people in the world do not have enough safe and nutritious food to lead healthy and active lives. Many of them also lack access to enough clean water to meet their needs. By 2050, our global food demand will double to meet the needs of nearly 10 billion people, making water and food security one of the most urgent global challenges of our time.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact? Here are some great options.
No matter your circumstances. No matter your age or financial situation. If leaving a legacy is important to you, we can help through planned giving.
Your giving to this area enables the president’s office to quickly direct resources to various university projects and areas across the system as needs arise.
The greatest needs of the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Gifts through the UNK Fund let you make a bigger difference on campus, your college and students.
The greatest needs of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Gifts through the N Fund let you make a bigger difference on campus, your college and students.
The greatest needs of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Gifts through the Innovation Funds let you make a bigger difference on campus, your college and students.
The greatest needs of the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Gifts through the UNO Fund let you make a bigger difference on campus, your college and students.
Add your voice and your support to see the power of the crowd in action.
Home > Health Care in the Heartland
For Jordon Potthoff, studying close to home made all the difference.
“I’ve lived in Kearney my whole life,” said Potthoff, who was born at Good Samaritan Hospital on 2nd Avenue and attended Kearney High School, just 4 miles away.
“I still see people I’ve known since childhood,” he said. “That means a lot.”
Potthoff knew from a young age he wanted to study medicine. His uncle was a doctor, and seeing him as a highly regarded professional who spent his days helping people was inspiring. In high school, Potthoff decided on a track: physical therapy. He had experience with sports injuries — a knee injury playing baseball, a hurt shoulder playing football and another knee injury playing basketball.
But Potthoff didn’t want to travel far from home to complete his studies. The cost was daunting, and he had already formed a relationship with a local orthopedic and sports rehabilitation facility, New West. Fortunately, his local university — the University of Nebraska at Kearney — had just opened a state-of-the-art Health Sciences Education Complex in partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“The facilities were fantastic,” Potthoff said. “We had our own iPads, our own TVs … and a much better teacher-to-student ratio.”
Pothoff enrolled in one of the first classes at the HSEC, a $19 million, 48,000-square-foot building that has been a resounding success. When it opened in 2015, the complex quickly filled to capacity. Today, more than 300 students are pursuing degrees there in more than a dozen professional programs.
The HSEC was built to help Nebraska meet urgent health care workforce needs that are particularly acute in rural areas — the State of Nebraska has designated every county, except for urban Douglas and Lancaster, as a health care shortage area. The center is making significant headway in closing those gaps. Since 2019, there has been a substantial increase in Nebraska’s nursing and pharmacy workforce, and about 85% of the students who graduate from HSEC have started their careers in rural Nebraska.
But demand for health care workers, particularly physicians, continues to outstrip supply. To meet the challenge, UNK and UNMC have again teamed up to build on the progress achieved so far and construct the Rural Health Education Building, which will not only increase capacity to enroll more health care students but will also significantly expand nursing programs and bring the UNMC College of Medicine to Kearney. That means, for the first time, UNMC will educate future physicians in Kearney.
“The intent is really to help grow our health workforce and help rural communities across Nebraska to grow their own future health workforce,” said Nikki Carritt, MPH, director of UNMC Rural Health Initiatives.
The Rural Health Education Building expands not only on the progress of the HSEC but also on several years of work developing a pipeline of rural health care workers in Kearney. Peggy Abels, director of health sciences at UNK, leads the Kearney Health Opportunities Program, which provides scholarships and academic support for health care students.
“We’re trying to set them up to be successful and to retain them in the program,” Abels said. “Students are going to be more likely to practice closer to where they train. So, if we can keep them enrolled in (rural) Nebraska for all of their training, we’re more likely to keep them here as professionals.”
That’s important not only to meet the health care workforce needs of rural Nebraska but also to keep rural communities vibrant.
“The sustainability of rural communities is just vital to the state’s economy,” Abels said, “and access to health care is a really important piece of that sustainability.”
The Rural Health Education Building, which was allocated $50 million in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan during the 2022 Nebraska legislative session, will be located directly north of the Health Sciences Education Complex, creating a hub for health education in rural Nebraska.
“The Rural Health Education Building will serve a crucial role in filling shortages in all medical professions across Nebraska, especially our rural communities,” said UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen at the time. “This funding will help UNMC and UNK build a transformational facility and roll out comprehensive education covering most disciplines offered by UNMC.”
The $50 million allocated by lawmakers will support construction of the building, with an additional $35 million needed from private donations. So far, more than $16 million has been pledged by donors.
Carritt said the building will prevent the disruption that comes from moving to an urban area to study.
“Once you make that step, sometimes it’s really difficult to go back,” Carritt said. “Students can also continue to maintain relationships with community partners and mentors and alumni throughout that long process of becoming a health care professional, so that they have and retain that interest in going back to those roles.”
That was a key benefit for Potthoff. Studying close to home meant his relationship with New West grew from shadowing the facility in high school to interning while at UNK to a full-time position after graduation.
“That helped to form a relationship,” he said, “which ended up being my job.”
Potthoff also met his wife at UNK, and now they have a young son whom they enjoy raising in a small city with long friendships and short commutes.
“We’re close to family,” he said. “You have pretty much everything you need, and it seems like they’re always working on making it better.”
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