
UNO Fund Student Scholarship Stories – Reagan Folda
As a student in the Sign Language Interpreting program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Reagan Folda understands the importance of a clear and
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.
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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 Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture is devoted to a statewide mission of preparing students for successful careers in agriculture, veterinary technology and related industries. The college provides open access to innovative technical education resulting in associate degrees, certificates and other credentials.
Members of the NCTA Aggie Alumni Association support the Curtis Aggie NCTA Scholarship Fund.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact at NCTA? 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.
There are many ways to give including employer matching, payroll giving, donor advised funds, tangible property, grain, stocks and more.
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.
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 Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture is devoted to a statewide mission of preparing students for successful careers in agriculture, veterinary technology and related industries. The college provides open access to innovative technical education resulting in associate degrees, certificates and other credentials.
Members of the NCTA Aggie Alumni Association support the Curtis Aggie NCTA Scholarship Fund.
Looking for ways to make the greatest impact at NCTA? 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.
There are many ways to give including employer matching, payroll giving, donor advised funds, tangible property, grain, stocks and more.
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.
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Former Public Relations Intern
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Charlotte Perry immediately volunteered to deliver meals to older people in California, where she has resided for much of her adult life. Soon after signing up, the North Platte, Nebraska, native got a notice asking if she would like to have meals delivered to her instead.
“I got to thinking, well, maybe I’m the one that’s supposed to be getting the meals, and I shouldn’t be carrying these trays up to all these old people, since I’m one of them,” Charlotte said, as her laughter echoed through the video call.
Despite opting out of delivering meals, Charlotte still found herself helping in her own way — writing uplifting notes to low-income older adults through the Salvation Army’s meal delivery program.
“I think it’s important to give back no matter what the situation is. It makes you feel good, too,” she said.
Charlotte has found great joy in helping others. She has volunteered with more than 20 organizations since she retired in 2003 as a children’s librarian in Chula Vista, California. She also began supporting the University of Nebraska, which, she said, will always be in her heart.
Charlotte established the Charlotte Walter Perry Excellence in Education Fund in 2007. She spent two of her undergraduate years at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, then called Kearney State College, and completed her degree in elementary education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1964. Because of her fruitful experiences at both universities, her gift benefits the College of Education and Human Sciences at UNL and the College of Education at UNK.
“I think education is very important, and all of these young people need to have a career,” Charlotte said. “That’s our future. The young people become educated and good citizens.”
After graduating from UNL, Charlotte received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Denver and worked as a junior high librarian for two years. She then packed her suitcase and headed to Germany, where she worked as a librarian on a military base for the Army Special Services. After a couple years of traveling, she settled down in San Diego, California, became a librarian at a public library and then landed a job as a children’s librarian for the Chula Vista Elementary School District.
Charlotte credits her Midwestern upbringing for her great work ethic, stating that, in the 1950s, one had to be hardworking to succeed. She said she wants to be known as someone who was patriotic, was a good American and someone who did her part in the community.
“People sometimes talk about what is between the dashes in your obituary,” Charlotte said. “I would say that I’ve lived well. I’ve had fun. I’ve helped others and have been a good friend to a lot of people. So I guess that would be my legacy — that I have been a good person.”
As a student in the Sign Language Interpreting program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Reagan Folda understands the importance of a clear and
As a full-time social worker, Matthew Beckmann works every day to assist those who most need support. In the course of working on behalf of
“I think education is very important, and all of these young people need to have a career. That’s our future. The young people become educated and good citizens.”
For 15 years, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine prepared for this moment.
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Assistant Director of Development Communications
Contact: [email protected]
How UNMC and Nebraska Medicine became the nation’s first responders in the fight against COVID-19.
For 15 years, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine prepared for this moment.
They trained their physicians, nurses and staff to wear personal protective equipment — the heavy hazmat-style layers that protect against dangerous pathogens — perfected medical procedures under the weight of those layers and ran drills on providing care in areas of deadly contamination.
In the wake of 9/11, as the country scrambled to respond to a new, devastating threat, hospitals, universities and state governments were called on to prepare. For what was unclear. The veiled, recondite threat of terrorism meant unknown dangers, including the possibility of biological warfare, thrown into sharp relief by the series of anthrax attacks that followed the World Trade Center’s fall.
Few responded to the call with the diligence of UNMC and Nebraska Medicine. Immediately, their leadership began drawing up plans for a biocontainment unit: a 10-bed facility, the largest of its kind at the time, fitted with negative air flow, a pressurized entrance and decontamination autoclaves, which would provide a safe environment to deal with the world’s worst pathogens.
“We took it seriously,” said Ken Bayles, Ph.D., executive director of basic science research for UNMC’s Global Center for Health Security. “Not only did we stand it up and invest in and build this structure, but we prepared year after year.”
The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit officially opened in 2005. Then it sat empty, as the world waited and attention drifted to other things. But it was never unused. UNMC and Nebraska Medicine continued to prepare — training staff, running drills, learning and getting better.
Then, in 2014, Ebola hit West Africa, and U.S. physicians and a journalist who had been exposed to the deadly virus were flown to the place best equipped to treat them: Nebraska.
Two patients were treated and discharged; one, whose disease was advanced by the time he arrived, didn’t make it home. It was a defining experience for the team. It gave them practical knowledge that advanced their understanding of pathogens and how to treat and contain them. It also led to further federal partnerships and the establishment of the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC), which trains health professionals nationwide to prepare for catastrophic diseases.
“One thing we learned from taking care of the Ebola patients,” said Cheryl Rand, clinical operations lead of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, “is no one got sick. The disease didn’t spread anywhere from here. So we knew we could do that again.”
They continued to prepare. NETEC grew; it has now reached more than 120 hospitals nationwide, and NETEC staff has trained more than 8,000 health professionals on deadly pathogen preparedness.
“I would say the majority of hospitals in the country in one way or another have benefited from NETEC training,” said James Lawler, M.D., executive director of international programs and innovation at the global center.
Few could have predicted how necessary that training would prove to be — the devastating scale of what was to come as COVID-19 began to ravage communities around the world.
But UNMC and Nebraska Medicine’s preparedness and expertise have helped not just Nebraska or even just the U.S. but the whole world battle the pandemic. They treated some of the U.S.’s first COVID-19 patients. They conducted some of the earliest virus tests and clinical treatment trials. Their leadership ran models of the virus’s spread and was critical in informing state and federal policy.
Fifteen years of gathering expertise, running drills over and over and preparing for every scenario put UNMC and Nebraska Medicine in a position to make a substantial difference in one of the world’s most deadly and dramatic crises. They were front and center in the global fight — right here in Nebraska.
We took it seriously. Not only did we stand it up and invest in and build this structure, but we prepared year after year.
- Ken Bayles, Ph.D., executive director of basic science research for UNMC's Global Center for Health Security
Carl Goldman and his wife were sitting at dinner when the captain of the Diamond Princess cruise ship made an announcement. A passenger, who had recently visited Hong Kong, had come down with a new form of coronavirus — the same virus that had led to a lockdown in Wuhan, China, and was slowly drawing the world’s attention. It was Feb. 3. They were docked in Yokohama, Japan, and it was their last night of a trip around Southeast Asia. Goldman, who owns a radio station in Santa Clarita, California, said Japanese officials began working their way through the passengers, taking temperatures and logging their travel histories.
But that was before anyone knew how quickly and easily this virus could spread.
By the next day, 10 passengers were reported to have a fever, and everyone was told to go into quarantine in their cabins.
“Each day, the numbers went up,” Goldman said, as more and more passengers were taken off the ship. “It put us into a definite tense, tense situation.”
By Feb. 11, 135 passengers were infected.
The next day, Lawler, who has a long career working on pandemic preparedness in the federal government and field experience treating Ebola patients in sub-Saharan Africa, was asked to fly immediately to Japan to assist an operation to evacuate every American on board.
“It was a hastily assembled team that went out there to manage a situation that nobody ever had before,” Lawler said.
Lawler’s team, equipped with special helmets and breathing air from portable PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators) boarded the ship Friday, Feb. 14. They were tasked with locating every American, screening and testing them, and moving them to cargo jets set to arrive two days later.
By 10 p.m. Sunday night, Lawler and the team had tracked down and briefly assessed the more than 400 Americans on board the ship.
They rushed the passengers to the waiting cargo planes. It was a chaotic departure, but Lawler knew if he could just get them to Omaha, they would be safe and UNMC could contain the virus.
Finally on the plane, Goldman, who had fallen asleep after an exhausting few days, woke with a fever of 103. He and the other 12 sick passengers were routed to Omaha, where they landed Feb. 17.
It was a hastily assembled team that went out there to manage a situation that nobody ever had before.
- James Lawler, M.D., executive director of international programs and innovation at UNMC's Global Center for Health Security
Inside the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, UNMC’s nurses and physicians were ready for the patients to arrive. They waited, encased in full-body suits of impermeable material, three layers of nitrile gloves, knee-high protective boot covers and PAPRs pulled overhead with clear face shields and tubes pumping in clean air.
“We’ve been training for years and years for all of this,” Rand said. “Our staff was ready.”
Some patients were treated in the BCU; others were taken to the 20-bed National Quarantine Center — the nation’s only federal quarantine facility — which, along with a state-of-the-art simulated biocontainment unit for advanced experiential training, is housed on the ground floor of the Dr. Edwin G. & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center.
While the biocontainment unit had been operational since 2005, the quarantine center had opened Jan. 29 — less than three weeks before the first COVID-19 patients arrived.
“We ended up housing people (in the quarantine unit) who needed a relatively significant amount of medical attention,” Lawler said. “The staffing plan had to be reinvented on the fly. And I think it’s a testament to the flexibility and just the quality of our team that our folks are able to do that so quickly.”
For the health care workers in the units, the first days were stressful, but the muscle memory ingrained by years of training quickly took over.
The staff routinely put in 13-hour shifts or longer, and when they left the hospital, the work never really left them.
“It’s the two o’clock in the morning conversation you’re having with yourself about things that you want to make sure that you get done,” said Morgan Shradar, clinical education coordinator for the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
But they felt privileged to be doing something so important. The challenging days fell away in their memories. Talk to them now, and all they will recall are the high points: the days when patients got to go home and they succeeded in keeping people safe.
“We were here as long as it took,” Shradar said. “I hate to quantify it. It doesn’t matter. We were here.”
Goldman, who spent 10 days in the BCU and 19 more in quarantine, said the nurses and physicians who cared for him were his “angels.”
“They were just unbelievable,” he said. “All of the staff in Nebraska have that Midwest, really wonderful attitude of looking you in the eye and really caring and being sympathetic and compassionate.”
The staff helped the patients talk to each other about their experiences and eased their feelings of fear and isolation as much as they could. Goldman spent his 67th birthday in the BCU, and the staff brought him a slice of cake, wrapped in plastic, and a balloon that hung in the corner of the room throughout his stay.
“The whole time I was there, I kept thinking … that if I had to be anywhere in the world, it would be here,” Goldman said. “I ended in the right spot at the right time.”
The whole time I was there, I kept thinking … that if I had to be anywhere in the world, it would be here.
- Carl Goldman, UNMC patient
On March 18, the last passenger of the Diamond Princess left quarantine. But by that time, there were 6,520 known cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 205,000 worldwide. The focus shifted from containing the virus to “flattening the curve.”
UNMC and Nebraska Medicine prepared the hospital and intensive care units for an influx of patients. For the biocontainment team and global center experts, that meant shifting to a training role, not just for other areas of their own hospital, but for hospitals state- and countrywide.
That meant taking their training on the road to hospitals and essential workplaces that stayed open while schools and many other businesses had closed. It also meant turning their attention to testing, treatment and every other aspect of fighting a global pandemic.
Once again, they led the way. The Nebraska Public Health Laboratory, which is partially housed in the biocontainment unit, was one of the first to be licensed to run COVID-19 tests. UNMC was the first site of a federally sponsored trial, which ultimately expanded to 68 sites, of remdesivir, a promising COVID-19 treatment, which was fast-tracked for approval by the Food and Drug Administration in late April.
“We were the first site in the world to activate that critically important study,” said Chris Kratochvil, M.D., executive director of clinical research for the global center. “Because patients came here for care early in the outbreak, we were teed up for it.”
Meanwhile, Bayles worked with a team in South Dakota to develop virus antibodies, which could be used therapeutically or to protect health care workers. John-Martin Lowe, Ph.D., executive director of training and education at the global center, developed a system to decontaminate health care workers’ safety respirators using ultraviolet light that was a breakthrough with worldwide implications as hospitals everywhere battled with supply shortages. Lawler developed virus models that guided state and federal policies on social distancing and curbing the virus.
“I think it’s clear that the vision of university leadership has always been to create UNMC as an international leader,” Lawler said. “The prescience of that vision is now playing out.”
I think it’s clear that the vision of university leadership has always been to create UNMC as an international leader. The prescience of that vision is now playing out.
- James Lawler, M.D., executive director of international programs and innovation at UNMC's Global Center for Health Security
As COVID-19 and the vast economic toll it has taken on the world play out, the leadership, physicians, nurses and staff at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine credit teamwork for helping them succeed in this crisis.
“None of what we’ve done could have been done alone,” Kratochvil said.
Now they hope there’s time to take stock before the next crisis hits.
“These sorts of scenarios don’t happen in isolation of one another,” said Shelly Schwedhelm, executive director of emergency management and biopreparedness at Nebraska Medicine. “We need to pause, and we need to learn from what went on, and do that in a big way … to understand what we need to do better next time and try to get things put in place for whatever is the future.”
Because Schwedhelm knows, as everyone does at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine, that whatever comes, they will be there.
On the front lines.
When Samuel Bak was 9 years old, he was living in a Polish ghetto. The town he had grown up in was decimated. Most of
“It’s a certain pride, having gone to the university and to be affiliated with it. We talk proudly about how great of an experience it was and what a great school it is.”
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Assistant Director of Communications
Contact: [email protected]
UNMC alumna shares passion for nursing and giving back
Sharon Holyoke remembers that it was December 1966.
The daughter of public school teachers, Sharon was raised in a small community in America’s heartland, taught at an early age to live below her means. The best kind of teaching, they say, is the kind that sticks. So Sharon took that lesson everywhere she went.
Sharon remembers that she had recently graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing and that her monthly paycheck was around $600.
Even though her husband, Edward Holyoke Jr. — Ted — was in his first year of medical school at the time, Sharon remembers pulling out her checkbook and sending $100 to the University of Nebraska Foundation, to support the institution that had given her an education. It felt like an awful lot of money.
“Ted and I believed it was important to be good with money,” she said. “But it was just as important to do good with money.”
Sharon hasn’t shaken the feeling more than a half-century later.
“The more we gave,” she recalled, “the more satisfaction we received.”
The more we gave, the more satisfaction we received.
- Sharon Holyoke
The Holyoke legacy is a long one that can be traced back to before the Revolutionary War.
In the 18th century, Edward Holyoke served as president for more than three decades of what was then Harvard College, teaching the likes of Samuel Adams, John Hancock and John Adams.
Today, the surname travels far — especially in Nebraska medical circles. Edward Holyoke, M.D., Sharon’s father-in-law, was an instructor at UNMC for more than 50 years. There’s a giving society that carries his name in the College of Medicine. Ted also graduated from the UNMC college.
In terms of potential career paths, Sharon’s opportunities were slim.
“Growing up, there weren’t a lot of options for women,” Sharon said.
But Sharon knew that she wanted to combine nursing and teaching, and with her father’s encouragement, she was steadfast as she pursued both.
Later, Sharon attended graduate school at the University of Colorado, where she earned her master’s degree while her husband was in his residency. The two returned to Nebraska, put down roots in Ogallala and raised two daughters, Mary Virginia and Ann Christin; a third daughter, Megan Lee, died in infancy. They later returned to Omaha, and Sharon taught at UNMC for more than 30 years, guiding more than 2,000 students through the College of Nursing. Ted mentored young physicians in the UNMC rural residency program.
But in August 1993, the Holyoke family was dealt a painful, incalculable blow when Mary Virginia, the Holyokes’ oldest daughter, died due to a heart condition. Ginny was 23 years old and pursuing a law degree. She had recently gotten married and moved to Omaha.
“It hurt. And it made us realize that we aren’t going to live forever,” Sharon said. “But it caused us to take a new look at giving. Ted liked to say that, ‘You don’t see a U-Haul behind a hearse.’”
A scholarship was created in Ginny’s honor at Hastings College, where she had been valedictorian and homecoming queen.
There are multiple scholarships carrying the Holyoke name at UNMC, including two with Sharon’s name: one for nursing students and the other for general scholarships.
“Our education gave us the tools to earn a living,” Sharon said. “We always wanted to give back to the foundation to thank them.”
Ted died in 2015 after a nearly decadelong battle with gastrointestinal cancer.
Sharon meets with the recipients of her scholarships and is quick to encourage them to give back. She’s not shy to inquire if some are dating. One told her that she didn’t have time for dating, which sent Sharon into laughter.
“I love to connect with students — they’re just delightful,” she said. “They’re just so refreshing and so impressive.”
Caitlin Jordan, a recipient of the Sharon Bonham Holyoke Nursing Scholarship, had the opportunity to meet Sharon last year.
“She gave us great words of wisdom regarding life and nursing,” said Caitlin. “She’s a wonderful lady and is extremely passionate about nursing as a profession.”
In her will, Sharon has committed to funding two scholarships — one in her name and one in Ted’s.
When asked what her ultimate philanthropic hope is, Sharon finds the words with ease.
“We love what we did,” she said. “And we just hope we leave the world a better place than we started.”
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Former Public Relations Intern
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Charlotte Perry immediately volunteered to deliver meals to older people in California, where she has resided for much of her adult life. Soon after signing up, the North Platte, Nebraska, native got a notice asking if she would like to have meals delivered to her instead.
“I got to thinking, well, maybe I’m the one that’s supposed to be getting the meals, and I shouldn’t be carrying these trays up to all these old people, since I’m one of them,” Charlotte said, as her laughter echoed through the video call.
Despite opting out of delivering meals, Charlotte still found herself helping in her own way — writing uplifting notes to low-income older adults through the Salvation Army’s meal delivery program.
“I think it’s important to give back no matter what the situation is. It makes you feel good, too,” she said.
Charlotte has found great joy in helping others. She has volunteered with more than 20 organizations since she retired in 2003 as a children’s librarian in Chula Vista, California. She also began supporting the University of Nebraska, which, she said, will always be in her heart.
Charlotte established the Charlotte Walter Perry Excellence in Education Fund in 2007. She spent two of her undergraduate years at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, then called Kearney State College, and completed her degree in elementary education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1964. Because of her fruitful experiences at both universities, her gift benefits the College of Education and Human Sciences at UNL and the College of Education at UNK.
“I think education is very important, and all of these young people need to have a career,” Charlotte said. “That’s our future. The young people become educated and good citizens.”
After graduating from UNL, Charlotte received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Denver and worked as a junior high librarian for two years. She then packed her suitcase and headed to Germany, where she worked as a librarian on a military base for the Army Special Services. After a couple years of traveling, she settled down in San Diego, California, became a librarian at a public library and then landed a job as a children’s librarian for the Chula Vista Elementary School District.
Charlotte credits her Midwestern upbringing for her great work ethic, stating that, in the 1950s, one had to be hardworking to succeed. She said she wants to be known as someone who was patriotic, was a good American and someone who did her part in the community.
“People sometimes talk about what is between the dashes in your obituary,” Charlotte said. “I would say that I’ve lived well. I’ve had fun. I’ve helped others and have been a good friend to a lot of people. So I guess that would be my legacy — that I have been a good person.”
In less than three weeks, three University of Nebraska at Omaha students teamed up with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to deliver a potentially life-saving mobile app.
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Assistant Director of Communications
Contact: [email protected]
UNO students team with UNMC, Apple Inc. to develop COVID-19 app
It starts with an email notification.
An interesting opportunity. Care to hop on a conference call to discuss?
The three University of Nebraska at Omaha students are intrigued.
On the phone, the pitch goes like this:
Would you like to build a groundbreaking mobile application with considerable value as a public health tool? It’ll involve collaborating with two teams.
The first is the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security, which is rapidly working to quell an unprecedented global health crisis and is also home to the nation’s only federal quarantine unit. The other is Apple Inc.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having recently arrived in Nebraska, spring break has come early.
No need to juggle coursework.
The students quickly agree.
Work begins immediately. Prototyping and wireframing and coding. Analysis and dialogue and refinement. Daily meetings stretch into the pre-dawn hours as each team navigates hunger — the UNMC team subsisted on takeout curry — exhaustion and multiple time zones.
As news segments turn some of their peers infamous during imprudent trips to warmer regions, Keegan Brown, Grayson Stanton and Carly Cameron spend their spring break tucked away in a design studio, maintaining 6 feet of separation and working in conjunction with experts in the fields of medicine and technology.
Less than three weeks later, 1-Check COVID was available in the Apple App Store and was downloaded more than 10,000 times in the first 10 days. The app is now also available on Google Play for Android phone users.
1-Check COVID is a risk-assessment tool that asks the user a series of questions ranging from biographical to geographical before inquiring about symptoms. All are computed in an effort to assess the likelihood of someone having contracted COVID-19. Once the questions are completed, users learn their risk levels: low, urgent or emergent. From there, they are guided toward subsequent steps, whether to continue to monitor their symptoms or contact the public health department. If users agree, they can share their risk profiles with health care professionals, employers and family members, among others.
“This will hopefully be lifesaving,” UNO and UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., said in a news release, which names the three Scott Scholars, who are all Nebraska natives, computer science majors and underclassmen. Cameron, the oldest of the trio, was 2 years old when the SARS outbreak occurred. She doesn’t remember it.
In a time of crisis, both UNMC and Apple have bet on youth. And youth has delivered.
“What these students did is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Harnoor Singh, director of student development for the Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Program (Scott Scholars), which was launched in 1997, thanks to the generous support of the Suzanne & Walter Scott Foundation. The program challenges high-achieving engineering and information science and technology students to develop their technical, creative and leadership skills.
“These are the students we’ve been waiting for,” Singh added.
These are the students we've been waiting for.
- Harnoor Singh, director of student development for the Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Program
As a Ph.D. candidate at UNMC, Thang Nguyen is researching and developing decision-support tools. An innovator at heart, Nguyen had built one such tool focused on strep throat analysis “as a launching-off point,” he said.
Then came a pandemic. And an opportunity.
With an understanding of how to parse the literature, decode and translate information into a language that coders can comprehend, Nguyen pivoted to the issue at hand, using the same logic that was already built.
“A lot of what we do is identify problems as they come up and try to just solve in a rapid manner,” said Michael Wadman, M.D., chair of the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine, “so I think that’s kind of our mindset when we approach any problem.”
A lot of what we do is identify problems as they come up and try to just solve in a rapid manner.
- Michael Wadman, M.D., chair of the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine
A relationship between Scott Scholars and Apple Inc. formed after UNO students took part in a summerlong workshop called AppJam, which included a trip to the tech giant’s California campus. Gold reached out to Singh to see if a partnership could be struck between the three teams.
After the Scott Scholars, UNMC and Apple began working together, Nguyen said the students’ focus and attention to detail stuck out.
“When you cross from the clinical side to the technical, there’s a lot of language that gets lost,” he said. “There was none of that with this team. Those are special students in a very high-functioning program. I don’t know if you see that in too many places.”
Apple representatives helped the teams troubleshoot bugs and fast-track the app for development.
“Sometimes it takes several weeks just to get approval through the App Store,” Singh said, noting that his team needed all of two weeks and five days to bring the project to the public.
“It has the potential to save so many lives,” he said, “to not only allow folks to assess their risk, but also decrease the pressure on emergency rooms and urgent care clinics.
“Sometimes the universe brings people together. Personally, I couldn’t be more proud of our students. I don’t know how many times I heard Apple executives say, ‘This has never been done before.’
“A public health crisis like this has the ability to leverage human talent to create radically innovative solutions. We took a group of high achievers and placed them in a learning environment that emphasizes human-centered design and were very intentional with teaching them how to navigate ambiguity and how to become comfortable with failure. These are all elements that they’ve learned in the Scott Scholars program.”
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