Student finds a way to say thanks … and merci beaucoup!

Recent UNL graduate who’s on her way to teach English in France says her road through college would have been rougher without support from generous people like the ones she got to meet.

She felt intimidated. She didn’t know what to say.

She really wanted to make a good impression at a meeting with Dave and Pam Schlotthauer, people whose names she already knew well because they’re on one of her scholarships.

“You really want to make a good impression, you want them to know their money is appreciated,” says Miranda Doremus-Reznor. “It’s hard because there’s only so many ways you can say thank you, and I don’t think it ever really conveys how much it means.”

Miranda, who graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this past May, met the Schlotthauers at a luncheon last year. She quickly realized that they were easy to talk to.

She told them about her goal to teach English as a second language. She told them how she would be graduating with a degree in secondary English education and wanted to teach English abroad. (She found out they also were passionate about traveling abroad.)

And she told them what their generosity had meant to her – that it would help her graduate debt-free and make her teaching dream come true.

“I mean, it’s so intimidating and it’s almost frustrating in the aspect that you can’t really possibly convey how grateful you are for their donation,” Miranda said this past spring, before going off to begin a dream job teaching English as a second language in France.

Without the help of donors, she says, achieving her goals would have been way more difficult.

“It’s kind of surreal that this stranger has donated money and you know it is affecting my life in a very personal way – in a very tangible, real way,” she says. “It completely changed my life because my goals of wanting to go abroad and teach English very well may not have been possible.”

The Schlotthauers are members of the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Burnett Society, which recognizes people who support the university through a planned gift.

Miranda says she’d like to give back to the university someday, too.

“If I can help a kid get into college who didn’t think that they were going to or in any way pursue their education,” she says, “I’d be happy to do so knowing that other people have helped me in my education.”

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln would not be what it is today without the support of alumni and friends. Please make your gift today, and make a difference for Nebraska students.

(This story was written by foundation intern Rebekkah Watkins, who is studying journalism, history and classical studies at Nebraska.)