UNO Magazine, Fall 2011

fall 2011

m ag a z i n e

LIFE

ALL AGES. ALL STAGES.

Where our level of care matches our level of caring

Dr. Mahoney Cardiologist

From everyday needs to life-changing events, this is where you want to be. With state-of-the-art technologies and treatments, a national ranking in the top two percent for saving lives following a heart attack and a special trust built over generations. Methodist is where innovation meets compassion. And that’s the meaning of care. bestcare.org

Š2011 Methodist Health System

vol. 2, no. 3 FALL 2011 www.unoalumni.org/unomag

Letter from the Chancellor

CREDITS Managing Editor

10 Philanthropy

associate Editors

13 Partners

Jennifer Arnold, Tim Kaldahl

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6 Alumni Association

Anthony Flott

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Letters to/ from the Editor

Athletics

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23 Get to Know

Matters

Pregnant and How Old?

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The Colleges

art direction

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Emspace Group cover photography

David Radler

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Contributors

UNO Magazine is published three times a year by the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association and the NU Foundation.

Direct editorial inquiries to Managing Editor UNO Alumni Association 6705 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182-0010 Phone: (402) 554-2444 Toll-free: UNO-MAV-ALUM Fax: (402) 554-3787 Email: aflott@unoalumni.org Send all changes of address to attention of Records or visit www.unoalumni.org/records

When teens and seniors get behind the wheel

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What are the happiest days of your life?

Finding Your Future Self

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Get Old, Get Happy Total Recall Lifers

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CLASS Views expressed within this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association or the NU Foundation.

How many years will you live — and how will you get there?

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Unsafe at any Speed?

NOTES

Dave Ahlers, Bryce Bridges, Becky Bohan Brown, Nancy Castilow, Rick Davis, Erin Dyer, John Fey, Tim Fitzgerald, Amanda Hackwith, Colleen Kenney Fleischer, Eric Francis, Mary Kenny, Don Kohler, Greg Kozol, Tom McMahon, Nate Pohlen, David Radler, Charley Reed, Bonnie Ryan, Wendy Townley, Kevin Warneke, Jenna Zeorian.

Retrospect

48 Head Games

52 57

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Just For You

50 Sights & Sounds 56 Bookmarks For Fun

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FROM THE CHANCELLOR

Dear Alumni and Friends:

It doesn’t hurt to have a sense of humor, too. A staff member in the office puts it this way: “I love middle age; every day is a surprise … mostly because I can’t remember yesterday.”

In 1911, average life expectancy was about 50; 100 years later, most of us can expect to see age 78. Today, one-third of Americans are 50 and older. In Nebraska, 650,000 of the state’s 1.7 million people are eligible for senior citizen discounts.

Letters to the Editor Reader feedback is key to making UNO Magazine among the best university publications in the country. Write us about the magazine, the university, or suggest a story. Letters must include the writer’s first and last names, address and phone number and may be edited for taste, accuracy, clarity and length. www.unoalumni.org/unomag-led m ag a z i n e

For baby boomers, like me, aging is an interesting commodity. On one hand, few of us would give up our wealth of life experiences to relive our youth. On the other hand, successful aging takes real work — physical, mental and spiritual.

summer 2011

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But not only are we living longer than a century ago, thanks to better nutrition and medical advances we are living healthier, more productive lives. And, to the chagrin of younger generations, remaining in the workforce longer and in record numbers.

INSIDE

Clearly, this has vast implications for the future of the economy, business, healthcare, social security, social services, assisted living, insurance, philanthropy and so on. This issue of UNO Magazine explores aging from many angles and paints a fascinating portrait of how UNO alumni are coping with, surviving and thriving amidst the challenges of all ages.

Experts in the field of gerontology frequently cite the ability to keep one’s mind active as a key factor in successful aging. Learning new skills and exercising our brains is thought to contribute significantly to the quality of later life, staving off the effects of senility, depression and even Alzheimer’s in some individuals. Higher education, in particular, has long been an advocate of “lifelong learning,” encouraging our students to take classes for professional growth or personal enjoyment throughout their lifetimes as a way to add or change skill sets, provide new information, or simply to gain a new view on the world in which we live.

This fall’s traditional age freshmen may well share a classroom or lab with their senior citizen counterparts, to the benefit of both. Intergenerational learning offers old and young unique opportunities to see our past and our future from vastly different perspectives, creating, we hope, a deeper understanding of where we have come as a society and where we are going.

At UNO, we believe life can, and should, be great at every age.

Higher education can play a vital role in helping young and old achieve productive, fulfilled and intellectually active lives.

Until next time, Chancellor John E. Christensen

FINDING THE RIGHT GROOVE FOR AMERICA’S ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

On Summer 2011

ENGINEERING A GOOD ISSUE What a well-thought-out issue. Kudos to you and the staff for putting this all together! The pieces all hang very well together. The themes and writing were very well-written.

Dr. Bing Chen, Chair, department of computer and electronics engineering College of Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Omaha campus) TWO SIDES I am deeply personally and professionally disappointed in the alumni magazine carrying an article “Nuclear Energy Can’t Compete” written by an attorney and environmental advocate. You could have called it an “opinion piece” or something of that nature — but to give it the caché of a professional article is inappropriate and misleading. I do not wish to get into picking it apart assertion by assertion. And stating that a footnoted version is available adds nothing to the credibility of the assertions. If all the environmentalist writers take quotes from each other and footnote them their ultimate articles still lack credibility. Ask some competent engineers and physicists to provide a balanced view of nuclear energy and its risks, value, etc. — not an attorney advocate who wishes to underscore her point. In my opinion, an alumni magazine is not the place to peddle ideology.

David L. Belden, Ph.D., P.E. University of Omaha BGE 1961 Editor’s Note: Lincoln attorney Lynn E. Moorer wrote the article, “Nuclear Energy Can’t Compete.” It was one of two articles on nuclear energy in the “Taking Sides” department, which is an opinion section.

UNO graduate and nuclear industry professional Ross Ridenoure wrote a pro-nuclear energy piece for Taking Sides, “Nuclear Power: Keeping America Running.”

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FROM THE EDITOR I’ve lost weight recently. A two-decade low, in fact.

TALKING ABOUT ATHLETICS For the most part, I enjoy reading UNO Magazine; however, “UNO Charts New Course For Athletics” fails to make the grade. The article reads like a press release or talking points for administration.

You at least get points for identifying the author as the director of athletic media relations. The lead was buried — dismantling the football and wrestling programs was not mentioned until paragraph seven. Paragraph nine may imply women’s athletics is the culprit (“the athletic department would have to add more women’s teams and scholarships...”). There is no hint of controversy, no reporting on the manner in which [Athletic Director] Trev Alberts and Chancellor Christensen went public with the news. After reading this article … all I can say is the communications department did not teach us to write news (or feature, for that matter) articles in this way.

Jacquie Montag (’81) Omaha MEMORY LANE What fun to learn of Kimball’s tie to UNO. And a neat graphic to highlight the story! I started grad school in June 1968 at OU and went to the ceremony on July 1 as the university joined the state system.

The headline references to the municipal university brought back fond memories of that good time in my life.

From “way out in Kimball,” Mary Larkin, MS ’71

And while the benefits have been great — more energy and pep, lower blood pressure, an excuse to buy new clothes — there’s been an unexpected downside.

Wrinkles.

On my face.

My wife first noticed them. Then my daughter gently asked, “What’s wrong with your face?”

A friend asked if I’d just woken from a nap.

For now, they only show after a night of sleeping.

Apparently the Wrinkle Fairy puts me in some sort of pillow vice that scrunches my mug. They fade throughout the day but are back the next morning.

Is it vain of me to consider putting the weight back on so that the returning plumpness can hide the ravages of time?

The revelation that crinkles, creases and crevasses are forming on my mug really is the first time I’ve been bothered by the process of aging. I never gave it a second thought previously.

I should have, though.

In our main feature this issue, UNO Professor Julie Masters tells us we’re never too young to start thinking about being old.

“Anticipate your future self,” she says, so that when the advanced years do arrive you’re ready for them financially, physically, spiritually, socially and physically.

I’ve seen Julie present a “Future Self” talk to the UNO Alumni Association’s group of Golden Circle graduates of 45 years ago or longer. She doesn’t pull any punches with seniors or treat them with kid gloves as if they can’t handle jokes about their age — and they love her for it.

Her exchanges in such venues help dispel misconceptions. When I heard her, Julie raised the point that the sour economy was pushing some adult children back home to live with their senior parents. As I recall, Julie asked the crowd how many would welcome the companionship that would come with their children returning to the nest.

I don’t believe a single hand was raised.

Her message should be taken to heart by all alumni — even the most recent class of 1,700-plus graduates at May commencement. I hope the Class of 2011 doesn’t pick up this copy of UNO Magazine and see it as our “geezer issue.” There’s plenty here that’s relevant to their lives today. Big stuff such as career planning, brain health and overall happiness.

There is fantastic age-related work being carried out all across campus. Cutting-edge stuff, like IS&T Dean Hesham Ali’s exploration of the mechanisms that causes cells and the body to age; Professor Nick Stergiou’s study of posture control in infants with cerebral palsy; Professor Bruce Chase’s study of the genetic mutations behind Parkinson’s disease; and more.

This issue is a great showcase of UNO’s ever-rising prominence in matters affecting our every day lives.

Now, if I could only find someone here on campus who’s working on wrinkle cream ….

Enjoy the read,

Anthony Flott Managing Editor

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Eye on the Future

Nearly 1,900 children recognized through Future Alum program Pretty soon, one of those early UNO Future Alums really will become a UNO Alum.

The UNO Alumni Association in the summer of 1991 established a birth recognition program for the children of graduates, issuing Future Alum certificates and bibs to newborns and announcing their arrival in the UNO Alum magazine.

Recipients include twins Megan Claire Moriarty and Kathleen Grace Moriarty.

Shirts now are issued and most submissions come via email or an Internet form, but the babies have kept coming. With this issue of UNO Magazine the association has recognized 1,878 Future Alums in the program’s 20 years.

Recipients include twins Megan Claire Moriarty and Kathleen Grace Moriarty.

The daughters of 1980 UNO graduate Michael Moriarty of Fort Calhoun were born Sept. 12, 1992, and were recognized in the Fall 1993 UNO Alum. Both are sophomores at UNO and both are majoring in elementary special education.

Their father, Michael, is a para at Mount View Elementary in Omaha and is host of "Evening Classics" on UNO’s Classical 90.7 KVNO. At least 11 one-time Future Alums are enrolled at UNO this fall, including three juniors. See this issue’s Future Alums on Page 55.

Have a Future Alum of your own to recognize? Submit their birth announcement at www.unoalumni.org/futurealums

Skewing Young

Nearly half of all UNO alumni have graduated since 1990 22000 –

UNO Alumni by Decade

20000 –

21,321

Though exact ages are unavailable due to records-privacy issues, it’s clear that the massive body of UNO graduates skews young.

19,795

19,618

18000 –

No. Graduates

16000 – 14000 –

Of the more than 104,000 students who have graduated from UNO since 1911, almost half (44.8 percent) have earned their degrees since 1990. One-quarter of graduates (26,865) have graduated since 2000.

15,806

14,969

12000 – 10000 –

In general, then, it can be assumed that 25 percent of UNO alumni are 35 and younger.

8000 – 6000 –

5,544 4,468

4000 – 2000 – 0–

1,640 71

213

1910s

1920s

745 1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

Decade

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Also of note: there were more graduates in the 2000s –21,321 – then in any other decade.

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Giving is Timeless, Ageless How old were you when you first brought cans to a food drive or decided to donate clothes to a charitable organization? When was your first volunteer job? At what age did you first decide to share your lunchbox treasures with a hungry classmate?

In other words, can you remember the first time you engaged in giving?

It’s probably difficult to pinpoint the beginning of your charitable contributions, but at that moment you started a tradition of giving that will stay with you at any age.

UNO graduate Roberta Williams (pictured), for instance, gave her first gift to the UNO Annual Fund in 1976, the same year she earned her second degree. She’s given every year since.

“I had received a quality education and thought by donating that I could possibly enable other students to attend the university,” Williams says.

Though philanthropy sometimes is assumed to be reserved for older generations, people of all ages help others. According to a study done by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, younger generations give about the same amount to charity as older generations, when considering factors like income and education.

The study looked at the giving trends of more than 10,000 people in five generations: Great (born before 1929), Silent (1929 to 1945), Boomer (1946 to 1963), X (1964 to 1981), and Millenial (after 1981). Surprisingly, each generation gave similar amounts.

Previous studies had shown that older donors contribute more money overall, but these results included more variables than just age. The new research shows, however, that despite our age, we all like chipping in what we can.

“Everyone is born with the capacity for empathy, and even very young children love to help others,” says Skye Kilaen, author of Raising Kids Who Give to Charity.

Today, people at every age are making a difference by giving. Nicole Sanchez, co-founder of the nonprofit New Global Citizens, encourages high school students to get involved with her group. When people think of philanthropy, Sanchez says, they imagine “very wealthy people in ball gowns at the opera.”

“What we’re trying to do is demonstrate that anybody can be a philanthropist and have an impact,” Sanchez says.

UNO alumni of all ages can make an impact at their alma mater through a gift to the UNO Annual Fund. Established in 1953, the UNO Annual Fund supports students, faculty, academic excellence and alumni communications. Any size gift is appreciated — and will help UNO reach the next stage in its life.

— Erin Dyer, University of Nebraska Foundation

Association appoints new board members, issues service awards at annual meeting The UNO Alumni Association conducted its annual 2011-12 Chairman Laura Kapustka meeting June 15 at the Thompson Alumni Center, confirming its executive committee and electing new members to serve on its board of directors.

Laura Kapustka will direct the Alumni Association as 2011-12 chairman of the board. Vice president and chief financial officer of Lincoln Electric System, Kapustka earned a BS (1984) and MBA (2001) from UNO. She has served on the alumni board since 2007.

New board members elected to serve three-year terms: Deb Anderson (2000), director of training and education, Project Harmony; Scott Durbin (1984), vice president, Harry A. Koch Co.; Shonna Kadavy (2003; 2010), IT business analyst, Gavilon; and, Tina Scott Mordhorst (1989), pediatric physician, UNMC Physicians.

Durbin is the first third-generation board member in the association’s 98-year history. His father, Doug Durbin, was president in 1994. His grandmother, Ellen Hartman Gast, was president in 1971-72.

Elected to serve second three-year terms with the board were Jill Goldstein (1991) of Kutak Rock and Laurie Ruge (2001) of Gordmans Management Company.

Outstanding Service Awards also were issued at the annual meeting to Mark Grieb (1981, AAA Nebraska) and Dan Koraleski (1986, KPMG). Grieb, outgoing past chairman, had served on the board since 2003. Koraleski, outgoing treasurer, had served since 1997. Director Appreciation Awards were issued to outgoing board members Ray Barr (1951), R.D. Barr Co.; Bob Hearron (1971), Mid City Bank; and Thomas Warren (1989), Urban League of Nebraska.

A complete roster of the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors is listed at www.unoalumni.org/board

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Alumni Scholars

Susan Schnase, director of development for UNO, University of Nebraska Foundation; Maj. Gen. Mike Kudlacz, USAF (Ret.), UNO Alumni AFROTC Chapter past president; Lt. Col. Stephen Barrows, UNO AFROTC Detachment commander; Hinson; Bill Murphy, USAF, UNO Alumni AFROTC Chapter Vice President; Stephanie Smith, Northrop Grumman CLE office.

Northrop Grumman Gift Grows Scholarship Fund Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Bob Hinson on Aug. 23 presented a $6,000 gift to the UNO Alumni AFROTC Chapter Scholarship Fund. The gift was presented on behalf of Northrop Grumman, where Hinson is vice president/corporate lead executive (CLE). The UNO AFROTC Alumni Chapter each semester presents a $500 scholarship to a UNO AFROTC Cadet.

Receiving 2011 UNO Alumni Association Scholarships: Jena Gangwish, Hastings, Neb.; Morgan Birkel, Lincoln, Neb.; Jais Ford, Cody, Neb.; Taylor Smith, Nebraska City, Neb.

Chill out at Night on the Ice

The UNO Alumni Association welcomed its fourth class of UNO Alumni Scholars at the start of the fall semester.

Four students received UNO Alumni Association Scholarships, awarded to graduating high school seniors who have demonstrated leadership and involvement during high school.

Join fellow grads and their families for the ninth annual Alumni Night on the Ice Saturday, March 3. Get ready for the Mavs’ last regular season game of the season, against the University of Denver, with this great pregame fun: • • • •

Buffet reception at CenturyLink Center Door prizes and free temporary Mav Tattoos Hockey 101 with former Mavs and a pep talk from UNO Coach Dean Blais Great Lower Bowl seating; designated seating for CBA, Communication and AFROTC grads • UNO dance team

Recipients also must have a minimum ACT composite score of 24 and either rank in the top 25 percent of their class or have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale. The $2,500 annual scholarships are renewable for up to four years total.

Bios of the four recipients and other association scholarship information are available at www.unoalumni.org/scholarships

All that for just $20 per adult, $15 per child age 2-10 (children under 2 free).

Alumni Night on the Ice Saturday, March 3 CenturyLink Center

Per-person cost of $20 includes game ticket and pre-game buffet (pulled pork sandwiches, chips, salad, cookies, tea, lemonade). Cash bar available.

Children’s cost of $15 includes game ticket and plated children’s meal.

Hockey tickets distributed at reception.

Register online at www.unoalumni.org/eventregister or call (402) 554-4802.

Partnerships Credit

Insurance

Travel

The UNO Alumni Association has partnered

Are you covered? If you have insurance

Join fellow alumni April 21-29 for Floriade 2012, the World Horticultural Expo only

with Capital One to offer members a wide

needs, visit the association website at

held every 10 years in Holland. The sixth such event, Floriade 2012 will be held in a

range of credit card choices. Please visit the

www.unoalumni.org/insurance to see

stunning park in Venlo. The nine-day trip includes a cruise. For more information,

UNO Alumni Association at www.unoalumni.

the discounted offers available to UNO

visit www.unoalumni.org/travel. To receive a brochure, call the association toll-free

com/card for more information.

graduates for health, life, auto and long-

at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586).

term care insurance.

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

UNO Chancellor’s Scholarship Swing tops $47,000

Join us for the third annual UNO Alumni Night at “A Christmas Carol” Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

The UNO Alumni Association hosted the UNO Chancellor’s Scholarship Swing Monday, Sept. 12, at Tiburon Golf Club, netting more than $47,000 in its largest single fundraising event of the year.

The association now has raised more than $730,000 since it began hosting the Swing in 1995. Almost 130 golfers and 62 sponsors participated in the tournament.

The money raised supports various association-sponsored student scholarships.

“The Alumni Association is touching lives and preparing students for the future,” UNO Chancellor John Christensen said. “Special kudos to the coordinating committee. An event of this scope requires months of diligent planning and effort — and they make it look easy.”

See more at www.unoalumni.org/swing

Relive the enduring story of Ebenezer Scrooge with Omaha’s No. 1 Christmas theatre tradition — back for its 36th showing. The evening includes an exclusive Intermission Reception with desserts and cash bar for UNO alumni and guests.

Tickets: $25 per adult; $15 ages 5-22 (tickets regularly $35/$24).

Availability limited; register by Nov. 15 at www.unoalumni.org/eventregister or call (402) 554-4802.

Young Alumni Academy Begins Second Season The UNO Alumni Association on Oct. 13 launched its second class of the UNO Young Alumni Academy, designed to facilitate networking and professional growth while delivering an insider’s view into what it takes to run one of the nation’s premier metropolitan universities.

Seven sessions will highlight the UNO hockey program, student life and other “inside glimpses” into areas that make UNO special.

See more at www.unoalumni.org/unoyoungalumni.

Among the highlights for 2010-11 UNO Young Alumni Academy participants was a tour of the Henningson Campanile and a turn behind the wheel of the Maverick Space Shuttle Flight Simulator.

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PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

Introducing New Haddix Chair

Angie Hodge

By Colleen Fleischer, University of Nebraska Foundation

She was one of those kids in class who’d hide in the corner.

She liked math. She’d always finish the homework early.

But math class bored her because her teachers bored her.

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PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

I was so lucky I had such professors who saw potential in me.

“Lots of my teachers just lectured at me.”

Angie Hodge grew up in northern Minnesota. (That wasn’t so long ago. She’s only 31.) In those days, she never would have pictured herself becoming a math teacher, let alone a math professor whose job now is to encourage students to become math teachers.

“I didn’t fall in love with the idea of teaching math right away,” says Hodge, who recently was named the first Dr. George Haddix Community Chair in Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences. “I’m a first-generation college student. My parents were just happy I was in school. I started out an elementary-education major, because I knew I wanted to teach.

“Thankfully, I had some amazing college professors who saw my potential and convinced me to consider grad school. They saw some talent in me that I didn’t know I had.”

American students rank 21st in the world in science education and 25th in math.

Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing them to compete in the 21st century economy. One way to do that is by recruiting and training math and science teachers.

The chair Hodge holds is the second one created by Haddix. Last fall, UNO announced the Dr. George and Sally Haddix Community Chair in STEM Education in the College of Education. Professor Neil Grandgenett holds that chair.

Hodge works with Grandgenett to help recruit STEM teachers.

With this second chair Haddix, who also helped pay for the renovations at the College of Education’s Roskens Hall, wants to help UNO produce the next generation of math teachers. It’s a great interest to him because an OU professor once made math exciting to him, and he used that to build a successful career in business.

Years later, he wants to give back.

Hodge teaches calculus this fall. It’s one of her favorite classes because it’s a great way to recruit math teachers. She tries to catch the general-education majors in the class and open their eyes to a career in math education. If they’re already education majors, she’ll try to persuade then to consider a minor or specialization in math.

Those professors made a difference in her life. Now she wants to do the same for students at UNO. She is on a mission to seek out students like the one she used to be — students with math ability and a desire to teach but who haven’t put the two together — and show them that teaching math can be fun.

“What I tell them is this, ‘It’s a very rewarding career. It’s not necessarily rewarding in a monetary way. But at the same time, the reward is much better than that.’

That it should be fun.

She tells students that she has a job she looks forward to every morning.

As the new Haddix chair, Hodge teaches this concept by example.

Instead of just lecturing at her students and having them copy notes, she practices “inquiry-based learning.” This means she engages her students as much as possible in problem-solving activities during class.

She laughs.

“I like to put some problem up there and let them work on it on their own for a while, then work with a partner, then all come back together as a group and share with me and the class how they did it. I want to show them that that is what mathematicians do — they figure out logic and problem-solving on their own.

“If I just tell them how to do it, they miss out on the fun part — the ‘ah-ha’ moment.”

Another passion, she says, is getting women to consider becoming math teachers and to show them it isn’t just for men.

Hodge taught at North Dakota State University before UNO selected her for the Haddix chair. The Haddix gift enabled UNO to conduct a national search.

The chair is named after Dr. George Haddix, a 1962 Omaha University graduate who’s passionate about promoting collaboration in the STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math.

“I tell them, ‘If you try it and you like it, you can have the kind of career in which people will come back to you and thank you years later.’”

“And I’m not a morning person.”

Or a boring person.

“Teaching is my No. 1 passion,” she says. “And helping others to like teaching and to like math is something I like to do, too. It’s a chance to actually make a difference — to recruit more high-quality math teachers and to also work with other people in the STEM disciplines.

“I was so lucky I had such professors who saw potential in me. So to have that be part of my job description now, with the Haddix chair, is very exciting.”

Support for faculty is a priority of the Campaign for Nebraska: Unlimited Possibilities, a $1.2 billion fundraising effort to raise money for UNO and the rest of the University of Nebraska system.

Increased support for endowed chairs like the two Haddix chairs, as well as professorships and graduate positions, is crucial to UNO’s ability to attract and retain the best and brightest educators.

People like Angie Hodge.

If you’d like to help support faculty at UNO, please contact the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Lori Byrne at 402-502-4920.

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PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA

$117,979,090

$0

91%

417

new funds have been established during the campaign to support UNO.

• Building the educated workforce of tomorrow.

• Enriching campus and community life.

44% 8,907 80% individuals have made donations to UNO during the campaign.

UNO CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES

• Engaging our community.

of UNO campaign gifts are from Nebraska households/organizations.

of new funds to the UNO campaign support student scholarships.

$150 M

of UNO students apply for financial assistance.

The Campaign for Nebraska is a four-campus fundraising campaign benefiting the University of Nebraska.

campaignfornebraska.org/uno

All statistics as of July 31, 2011. The Campaign for Nebraska began in July 2005 and will conclude December 2014.

Keeping the legacy alive

The professorship honoring John Langan, above, provides critical faculty support, a top campaign priority for UNO.

John Langan devoted nearly half a century to the University of Nebraska at Omaha, first as a student, then as a faculty member and professor, and eventually as dean of the College of Education. Through the Campaign for Nebraska, the John T. Langan Professorship in Early Childhood Education was created to keep Langan’s legacy alive. An endowed professorship such as this is one of the strongest incentives the university has for recruiting, retaining and rewarding distinguished faculty. Created through the support of more than 450 donors, with gifts ranging from $10 to $25,000, the Langan Professorship is evidence that any donation, at any level of giving, can make a difference. To learn more, contact Lori Byrne at 402-502-4920 or lbyrne@nufoundation.org.

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Among the efforts in the initial class of SummerWorks students was aiding flood relief efforts in Omaha and cleaning the two Union Pacific locomotives at Lauritzen Gardens.

What you did last summer

City-wide partnerships help youth acquire skills in UNO’s newly launched SummerWorks program

The nearly 100 teenagers who took part in the first SummerWorks program will remember what work feels like. The grit and heaviness of sandbagging. The sweat induced by humidity and sun. The sense of being good and tired at the end of the day.

Along with those physical memories, this past summer’s pilot jobs for urban teenagers program might also have instilled long-lasting ideas.

SummerWorks started in early June and ran for nine weeks. The program, administered through UNO’s Service-Learning Academy, recruited high school students — primarily from Omaha’s Benson, Central, Northwest and North High Schools — to gain work experience, learn skills, build résumés, and learn more about the community. The 96 students earned minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) and worked in teams of six or seven with a team leader (often a UNO graduate student) who had a background in education, teaching or social services. The program had an 89-percent retention rate and provided more than $500,000 worth of service to the City of Omaha’s Parks Department and several local nonprofits.

One of the strengths of SummerWorks was the ability to put large numbers on a project. Cleaning up a city park or piling sandbags to prevent flooding near a water treatment plant can go quickly with multiple teams working together. The students also had rare work experiences. Some cleaned Union Pacific locomotives on display at Lauritzen Gardens and others worked with the restoration staff at Durham Western Heritage Museum.

All of what they did and accomplished helped focus the students on the ideas of community citizenship and how their actions can make a difference.

“You get a good workout without paying for it,” says Josh Garrett, a senior from Benson High School.

Kathleen Oleson Lyons, the SummerWorks director, says the most important issue was establishing work habits that last a lifetime. The program wanted “projects of substance” for the students each day, but it also set solid expectations: students needed to arrive on time wearing a SummerWorks T-shirt and proper workplace etiquette was taught and required.

“People have their good days and people have their bad days,” says Nate McMullin, 28, a team leader who is a UNO criminal justice graduate student.

Garrett worked on McMullin’s team. “One of the things we focus on is hard work results in success.”

Fridays were planned field trip days for the students. Students visited places their lives normally might not take them and learned about careers at locales such as the Henry Doorly Zoo, Joslyn Art Museum and other iconic Omaha establishments. Along the way, they also took in information about college, job planning and financial management.

SummerWorks could not have happened without support from a variety of sources in the community, organizers say. The Peter Kiewit Foundation, the lead organization among a consortium of donors, played the key role in coordinating funding.

Lawlor’s provided the green and yellow SummerWorks T-shirts for free. Gordmans and its DSW stores gave new tennis shoes to each student. Metropolitan Community College’s Fort Omaha campus provided a large meeting room that SummerWorks used each day to meet and assign work teams. Metro Transit helped route students to work on time.

Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein, executive director of the Peter Kiewit Foundation, says SummerWorks exceeded her hopes and goals.

“This was a calculated risk all the way around,” Ziegenbein says. “Our partners took the risk with us. It says a lot about the character and ethics of Omaha.”

Ziegenbein has worked with executives at Bank of the West to establish savings accounts for each SummerWorks student participant for direct deposits of paychecks. “Our goal for the program is to establish a meaningful work training program for urban teens,” she says. “We want to give them the experiences and skills they need to qualify for other jobs in the city. Teen unemployment is a nationwide crisis, and Omaha is looking for positive, lasting solutions.”

More than 500 students applied for the 96 jobs available.

Lyons says that the SummerWorks team and planning committee will review the program and begin planning for summer 2012. She says it’s likely that an expanded financial planning component will be added, along with more and varied job sites and experiences.

For more information on SummerWorks, call 402-554-4083.

— Tim Kaldahl, Associate Editor

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the colleges UNO Professors Bruce Chase and Josie Metal-Corbin both are working to make strides in Parkinson's disease research.

To better understand the cause of Parkinson’s, Chase studied mice that have the same genetic mutation as the one found in the family. The results showed that as the mice aged, they developed movement abnormalities associated with certain patterns of neuron death.

Parkinson’s Two-Step UNO’s Parkinson’s disease research includes the lab … and the dance floor

Today’s Parkinson’s disease research and understanding at UNO includes not just the lab, but also … the dance floor. Earlier this year, UNO Professor Josie MetalCorbin, best known for her modern dance troupe the Moving Company, hosted Reach for It, an eight-week program for adults living with Parkinson’s disease. For one hour each week, Metal-Corbin and Omaha counselor/adjunct instructor Lisa Basile showed participants how to integrate multiple styles of dance to engage the mind and body.

“The Reach for It program has brought together persons with diverse backgrounds, including a pastor, a physician, UNO students and a WWII veteran,” Metal-Corbin says. “Dancing together for an hour is our common thread.”

Participants explored dance elements such as space and rhythm and practiced seated, line and circle dancing. Metal-Corbin, also a certified gerontologist, taught dancers moves that, over time, could improve balance, strength, flexibility and coordination.

Among those with Parkinson’s, maintaining such abilities while aging is of particular concern.

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder caused by the death of specific neurons in the brain that control movement. When such cells die, individuals with Parkinson’s can

exhibit tremors, be unable to stand, show stiffness and rigidity, and generally perform tasks at a slower rate than normal.

The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation estimates that about 1 million people in the United States and more than 4 million people worldwide have the disease.

Parkinson’s typically affects adults in their 70s or 80s, but younger adults also are diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In August, 46-year-old LSU football coach Steve Kragthorpe stepped down as that team’s offensive coordinator after being diagnosed with the disease. In the United States, about 2 percent of adults age 50 and older live with Parkinson’s disease.

The disease is both chronic and progressive.

Not all symptoms surface at once, and the symptoms can become more severe over time.

Reaching Out Reach for It was born from the suggestion of UNO biology professor and Parkinson’s researcher Bruce Chase, who saw a similar program in New York conducted by the Mark Morris Dance Group. Chase returned to Omaha enthused by the idea and pitched its Omaha adoption to Metal-Corbin and Basile.

Chase’s first foray into studying and understanding Parkinson’s disease was in the early 1990s. While Chase’s wife completed her residency in neurology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, she identified a large family with inherited Parkinson’s disease. As a trained geneticist with access to UNO’s labs, Chase could undertake the human molecular genetic analysis to identify the defective gene that caused Parkinson’s disease in the family.

“There are many aspects of the disease that we just don’t fully understand,” Chase says.

“There is a lot of opportunity for individuals to contribute to understanding and helping those living with the disease.”

The collaborative nature of Chase’s work at UNO allows for greater research and understanding into the causes of Parkinson’s disease, he says.

“There really is a lot of room for collaborative work to better understand the disease, as well as help the patients themselves,” Chase says. “It is extraordinarily heartening to see that UNO faculty and alumni can play a significant role in this collaborative work by offering their unique insight and skill.”

That includes the work of Metal-Corbin and Basile, a UNO alum (BA, ’93) who specializes in mind/body counseling. A second Reach For It class began Sept. 9 and lasts through Nov. 18 at the Jewish Community Center.

Based on the program’s success, Basile plans to develop a course that focuses on projective therapeutic work combined with energy work, using movement to music.

Chase says he sees a strong need for the Reach for It program and those like it, as they relate to understanding Parkinson’s and, ideally, working toward a cure.

“Just as an athlete must train to get better, and a writer must write to improve their writing, working on controlling movement through dance may help individuals with Parkinson’s disease,” Chase says. “Dance, at some level, results from the planning of creative and expressive movements. Some of our patients have said that while they dance, they event forget they have Parkinson’s.”

For more information about Reach for It contact the Moving Company at 402-554-2670.

— Wendy Townley, University Relations

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the colleges

Vaccine Makes Progress Eric Benner, a 1996 College of Arts and Sciences graduate, has played a key role in researching a Parkinson’s disease vaccine intended to reverse the neurological damage the disease causes.

Benner worked with a team of researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center that in 2004 introduced the vaccine. It successfully prevented the death of brain cells in a mouse living with Parkinson’s.

The vaccine is part of a research field called neuroprotective medicine. In the UNMC effort, researchers have reversed the neurodegenerative effects of alpha synuclein by changing immune responses to it.

College of IS&T Dean Hesham Ali and Kate Dempsey, a doctoral student in Ali’s lab.

Bioinformatics and Aging

IS&T Dean Hesham Ali leads a team using ‘graph theory’ to explore how and why we age UNO researchers are examining how humans age through the study of networks. Specifically, networks that model the relationships of gene expression.

By combining bioinformatics, graph theory and systems biology, Hesham Ali and his bioinformatics research team at UNO’s College of Information Science & Technology work to better understand how vital biological functions change with the passing of time.

An immediate concern in the study of aging, says Ali, IS&T dean, lies in the identification of mechanisms that cause the cell — and consequently, the body — to age. This focus on the process is significant, as it has become clear that aging occurs as a cascade of genetic events over time.

“We believe this could be a revolutionary means for Parkinson’s disease therapeutics,” said Howard Gendelman, M.D., who partnered with R. Lee Mosley, Ph.D., to lead the research. “It has been a long journey representing more than 10 years of hard work by our research team.”

To uncover this series of events, Ali and his team employ network modeling through correlation networks that represent a graphical view of high-priority relationships between gene expression levels in the cell.

The cause of Parkinson’s disease is the loss of neurons, which produce dopamine, a nerve-signaling chemical that controls movement and balance.

Previous studies by Ali and other researchers have confirmed that there is an intimate relationship between network structures and biological functions.

Gendelman in 2004 credited Benner, then an M.D./Ph.D student at UNMC, for playing a principal role in developing and testing the Parkinson’s vaccine. Benner started working in UNMC labs even before he graduated from UNO. — Wendy Townley, University Relations

If two genes have highly correlated expression levels, their relationship can be characterized as a high-priority relationship in the network model. Once established, the network can be mined for critical cellular functions via application of graph theory.

“The application of graph theory to the network models is emerging as a powerful tool in bioinformatics,” says Kate Dempsey, a doctoral student in Ali’s lab. “The technology we are implementing is exposing exciting and new frontiers in the field of personalized medicine and disease prevention.”

“There is a level of organization in cellular structure observed in our younger mice models that is lost as they age,” Ali says. “Consequently, aging may be a result of the loss of collaboration at the molecular level.”

Genes with high traffic in a correlation network can point directly to genes that are essential for organism survival. Genes can be tightly connected to each other, forming cliques and working together toward some common function — similar to how shared interest groups appear in social networks. Any change in the structure of the network model may indicate a change in cellular function.

Ali and his team have observed the loss of highly correlated genes over time in mice. By comparing networks made from cohorts of young and aged mice, a significant reduction of correlation between genes is observed.

“The cell will work to maintain environmental balance and compensate for the loss of organization, but inevitably the inability to keep up with organizational breakdown results in loss of network structure and communication,” Ali says.

“That, ultimately, leads to aging.”

— Wendy Townley, University Relations

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the colleges

Camping Out Though thousands of students continue their education on the UNO campus each summer, parking never is a problem for many of them.

That’s because they can’t drive. In fact, Mom or Dad usually has to drop them off.

UNO bustles with activity every summer as colleges and departments host camps and clinics for children in a variety of disciplines and activities — math, science, robotics, athletics, the arts and more.

It’s a tradition with a long history. In 1938 the university hosted six weeks of study for children in grades one through six with classes in music, art, nature study, physical education and municipal government. Dubbed “Children’s School,” it featured nationally known educators as guest instructors and allowed practice teaching by university students. Cost was $10 per child.

Today, the physics department stages one of UNO’s most ambitious summer camps — Aim for the Stars. Begun in 1998 with 500 participants, it attracted more than 1,700 kids ages 8 to 15 this year taking part in nine weekly camps based out of the Durham Science Center and at off-campus sites such as Heron Haven and Schramm Park.

Fifty-plus staff members run the camp, loaded down with computers, cell phones and walkietalkies to make the 47 different offerings work.

And it does work.

“We want kids to leave here inspired,” says Connie O’Brien, Aim for the Stars director and among those who launched the program. Her staff includes UNO students with varied majors, from education to physics to music.

Over at the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building, meanwhile, the Mav Kids program for 6- to 14-year-olds attracts more than 80 kids a week during its seven-week run. Campers enjoy field trips, arts and crafts and use of HPER’s indoor rock climbing center and swimming pool. Director Lisa Medina says her staff includes three one-time campers themselves. HPER’s recent major renovation/

Camps and clinics attract thousands of children to UNO each summer

addition allows more room for Mav Kids, now in its 16th year.

“Parents tell us that a lot of their kids fall asleep in cars on the way home,” Medina says. “Moms and dads are pretty happy about that.”

Nearby in Sapp Fieldhouse, more than 3,000 children soaked up the advice and tutelage of Maverick coaches and players at camps for volleyball, basketball and soccer. UNO baseball ran a clinic at its home field at Boys Town. There were 2,200 volleyball campers, from first graders to whole high school teams.

On the Pacific Street campus the College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T) exercises the minds of children 11 to 16 with weeklong summer workshops on tech topics like 3-D modeling, Gaming with Flash and Photoshop. These were the third Summer Workshops IS&T hosted. They’re seen as valuable community outreach.

“It’s a way to showcase what we’re doing in the college and we hope it gets people excited about IT,” says Deepak Khazanchi, associate dean in the college.

The newest camp at UNO also took place on the Pacific Street campus. The College of Business Administration hosted its first-ever, three-day long Girl Scout Spirit of Nebraska “Cookie University.”

Fourteen Girl Scouts from across the state learned about business and personal finance. They capped their visit by visiting North Sioux City, S.D., where one of the two licensed Girl Scout Cookie Bakeries in the country is located.

“It is so important to have kids on our campus,” O’Brien says. “They enjoy it so much, and their parents are just amazed to see what we have here.”

— Tim Kaldahl, Associate Editor

See a list of various UNO camps at www.unomaha.edu/camps.

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the colleges

Child Care Center Marks 25 years Mactier with her daughter Jan Moriarty and son Rob Mactier.

Hooked on Reading UNO graduate Ann Mactier continues to be ‘a relentless proponent of literacy’ When her daughter began to fall behind in reading, Ann Mactier wanted to know why. But no one could give her the answers she was seeking and no one seemed to be doing anything about it.

So Mactier took action.

“She began searching for answers — she wanted to know how to improve things,” says Mactier’s son, Rob. “She became a relentless proponent of literacy.”

Mactier, now 89 years old, is one of Nebraska’s most passionate childhood literacy advocates. As a lifelong learner who earned multiple degrees, including a BA and MA from UNO, Mactier understands the value of education.

“Mom has always said that it’s criminal to graduate from high school and not know how to read and write,” her daughter Jan Moriarty says. “Her goal has always been to change that.”

Mactier dedicated her life to strengthening literacy curriculum and instruction in

Nebraska schools. She spent 10 years on the state school board and was one of the longest-serving members on the Omaha Public Schools board (1983 to 1998).

Her specific goal was, and still is, to implement phonics-based learning tools like the Spalding Method into school curriculum.

The Spalding Method is a multi-sensory approach to literacy that emphasizes reading, writing, spelling and handwriting.

In 2000, Mactier’s now late husband, Allan, set up a fund through the University of Nebraska Foundation in her honor. Today, the Allan and Ann Mactier Charitable Foundation Fund is used to cover tuition and expenses for graduate students from UNO’s College of Education who attend a summer training course on Spalding Method instruction. The fund further enables Mactier to continue her lifelong pursuit of ensuring all children learn to read and write by doing what she sums up in just a few words — “teaching teachers how to teach kids.”

— Jenna Zeorian, University of Nebraska Foundation

2011 marks the silver anniversary for a UNO institution that’s become something of a gold standard in Nebraska childcare circles.

When it was founded in 1986, the UNO Child Care Center was the only on-campus childcare facility in Nebraska. It remains one of the state’s top institutions for early child development — in 1990 it became the first childcare facility in the state to earn accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. It maintains that accreditation today.

Open to children of faculty, staff, students and alumni, the center has consistently enrolled more than 100 children, ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years, every year since 1986.

It’s estimated that 3,000 children have been cared for since the center’s start. The center celebrated its 25th anniversary with an outdoor carnival Aug. 12.

Directed by Dawn Hove, the UNO Child Care Center is located south of the Thompson Alumni Center on the western edge of campus.

Enrollment information can be received by calling 402-554-3398 or by visiting www.mbsc.unomaha.edu/child.php — Charley Reed, University Relations Editor’s Note: Reed is among UNO Child Care Center alumni. He is son of CPACS Dean B.J. Reed and UNO Professor Christine Reed.

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Illustration by Ward Schumaker

the colleges

Think you or your parents are too young for Alzheimer’s? Think again.

Researchers from UNO are investigating Young Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (YOAD) thanks to a grant the team received from the U.S. Administration on Aging. Co-authors of the Nebraska report included UNO’s Julie Masters, chairperson and associate professor of gerontology, and Jerry Deichert, senior research associate with the Center for Public Affairs Research.

“The purpose of the grant was to provide support to persons caring for a loved one with young-onset Alzheimer’s disease (persons under the age of 65),” Masters says. “The project focused on offering consumer-directed support to caregivers.”

Family members were informed of services from which they could choose, including respite, GPS tracking systems and adult day care.

Throwing a line of help to Alzheimer’s caregivers UNO researchers explore the disease among younger adults while helping establish support for their caregivers

“Alzheimer’s disease has devastating consequences for the person living with the condition, as well as the family and friends that are charged with providing care and support on a daily basis,” Masters says. “Any research done on this topic can offer insight into the disease itself and into the caregiving responsibilities of family members.

“For caregivers, this is a disease that can leave family members feeling hopeless and lacking control. Giving caregivers support and access to information allows them some sense of control in an uncontrollable situation.”

The grant was a collaborative arrangement between the Nebraska State Unit on Aging, Great Plains and Midlands Chapters of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Respite Resource Center. UNO’s department of gerontology and Center for Public Affairs research were responsible for the data analysis and the final report. CPAR and gerontology have worked together on this and other Alzheimer’s demonstration grants since 2001.

The report has given service providers insight into some of the needs of this select group of caregivers. “What works for someone in their 80s is not going to work for persons in their 40s or 50s,” Masters says. “The grant also told us more men are serving as caregivers than first believed. This is an important discovery.”

To request a copy of the report, contact Masters at jmasters@unomaha.edu.

For caregiving assistance, visit www.alz.org/midlands.

— Becky Bohan Brown, University Relations

But Omaha youth and seniors have been brought closer thanks to Poetry Across the Generations, coordinated by the UNO department of gerontology, Sigma Phi Omega, the UNO Service-Learning Academy and Building Bright Futures.

“No matter what age you are you have things in common,” says Cindy Waldo, the program’s coordinator and vice president of UNO’s chapter of Sigma Phi Omega, a gerontology honor society.

A ‘Slam’ Dunk

Cross-Generational Poetry Contest Brings together youth, older adults Cross-generational dialogue is rare enough. But it’s even more unusual when created through poetry.

Launched in 2009, the contest invites two age groups — 12- to 18-year-olds and those 50-and-older — to write two poems: one about life as a teenager and one about life as an older adult. Cash prizes are awarded, including $100 for first place entries.

Winning poems are read at a special event in the Milo Bail Student Center.

“A lot of the students don’t win many awards,” says Julie Dierberger, the UNO Service-Learning Academy’s K-12 Coordinator. “So this is important to them.”

Contestants are welcomed back to campus one week after the contest to share and discuss their poetry. The contest has attracted 110 participants in its first two years.

“It’s just really been rewarding,” Waldo says, “seeing how that generation gap disappears.”

See entries, photos and more at www.omahapoetsplace.net. For more information, adults can contact Waldo at cwaldo@unomaha.edu. Students can contact Karen Berry at 402-444-4852.

— Charley Reed, University Relations

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Summer Scholars Career Fair Provides Learning, Teaching Opportunities A special career fair organized as part of the UNO Summer Scholars program provided area high school students a head start on becoming career counselors.

The Summer Scholars program, established in 1989, gives students a five-week college experience over the summer and college preparatory classes during their senior year of high school, in exchange for participating in community service activities. This year, that included the career fair, which took place in June. Summer Scholars students worked with local professionals to teach area middle school students about future career opportunities.

Rachael Bogacz, a student at Burke High School, was excited to discuss the health sciences career field with other students.

“That’s what I want to go into so I had fun,” Bogacz says. “One of the kids said that they were actually going to start thinking about health sciences, so that made me happy.”

Using everything from poster boards to interactive video, members of the Summer Scholars program learned just as much as the students they taught.

“Summer Scholars was really helpful, and it wasn’t just because of the class, but it was also because of all the people you meet.” Bogacz says. “It really helped me with everything.”

— Charley Reed, University Relations

Giving Youth Hope UNO Service-Learning Academy partners with Hope Center for Kids Whether it’s helping pack weekend “To-Go Totes” or staffing a hole at a fundraising golf tournament, the Hope Center for Kids could not function without its volunteers.

Including members of the UNO Service-Learning Academy.

“We have community members who volunteer more than 300 hours a week to help fight our daily battle to end the life condition of hopelessness in the North Omaha community,” says Ty Schenzel, executive director for Hope Center for Kids.

The center, established in 1998, provides refuge for Omaha’s inner-city youth and children through faith, education, employment and collaboration.

Programs and initiatives include: • A Friday “snack pack” program through which children are provided a tote bag filled with nonperishable food items;

• The Hope Learning Academy providing homework assistance and after school/summer educational activities; • Summer Kids Across America Camp, which provided a camp experience for 43 children last summer.

Collaboration with area schools, similar after-school organizations and various mentoring programs have helped the center “to become an even more prominent presence in the lives of our youth and children,” says Deb Johnson, Hope program director.

The UNO Service-Learning Academy has partnered with Hope, alongside the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Mutual of Omaha. The relationship includes sponsorship of the center’s annual golf tournament.

Hope Center children and teens also join UNO students on various service projects in Omaha.

Such collaboration came after the 2008 establishment of the “Hearts for Hope Guild,” the center’s volunteer arm.

“Our guild members jumped in with both feet and got right to work,” says Leah Parodi, president of Hope Center for Kids Guild.

Such collaboration has been wide-ranging.

The UNO National Student Speech Language Hearing Association chapter hosted a basketball tournament to raise money for the center. CBA students, meanwhile, teamed with Hope Center children to develop training modules for youth employees of Hope Skate, a roller skating rink next to the center.

Each semester, UNO’s advanced business classes design specific projects to help develop the Hope Center’s business plans to benefit North Omaha youth.

To fund the projects, students write grants and engage local businesses to support the programs.

Information and volunteer opportunities can be found at www.hopecenterforkids.com. For direct contact, call 402-341-HOPE (extension 1003) or email getmoreinfo@hopecenterforkids.com — By Becky Bohan Brown, University Relations

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athletics

Connie Claussen and Don Leahy have helped foster championships during their time at UNO. Claussen coached the 1975 softball team to a national championship. That same year, Leahy saw baseball coach Virgil Yelkin notch his 400th career win.

Still in the Game Longtime Mavericks Claussen and Leahy still providing helping hands

Former UNO Athletic Director Don Leahy and Associate Athletic Director Connie Claussen share much in common. Both are accomplished coaches. Both are members of the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame. Both were instrumental in bringing new sports teams to UNO and launching essential fundraisers. And though both are past the age when most folks call it quits, both continue to be as much about the university’s athletics future as they are about its past.

Leahy, UNO’s athletic director from 1974-85 and from 1995-97, has been battling prostate cancer and a kidney tumor since May.

Neither is content to stay on the sidelines as Maverick teams transition to Division I competition. Leahy, 82, and Claussen, 72, maintain part-time roles as associate athletic directors at UNO, sharing an office in Sapp Fieldhouse.

“It’s something I dreamed about years ago,” Leahy says. “I didn’t know if it would ever be possible for UNO to move to Division I. But there is a great future ahead outlined by Trev Alberts, and the concept of moving to Division I and his vision for success on and off the playing field is thrilling.”

Claussen helps primarily with fundraising, mostly for the Diet Pepsi/Women’s Walk that she started in 1986. Yes, she gets in more fishing, walking and relaxing these days, but important meetings with donors still dot her calendar.

“After all the years I’ve put in, I want to help the athletic department in any way I can,” says Claussen, who has been with UNO since 1963 and who led the UNO softball team to the 1975 national championship. “I’m just fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to stay on part time.”

“It’s a full-time job recovering, but my doctors tell me I have a good chance to win the battle and return to the office,” Leahy says. “I’ve just been following their orders.”

Nevertheless, Leahy was visible and vocal while supporting UNO’s spring push to Division I.

Claussen echoed Leahy’s enthusiasm.

“It’s outstanding. It will be tough the first couple of years, and I know the coaches are working so hard with scheduling and recruiting,” Claussen says. “But three or four years from now, we will see what an outstanding decision it was that Trev and Dr. Christensen made.”

Keeping the sage advice of Leahy and Claussen on campus sounds like a good choice, too.

— Nate Pohlen, UNO Media Relations

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athletics

A Winning Team UNO Athletes and Elders is first program of its kind

Mavericks going ‘National’

UNO joins seven other schools to form new hockey conference UNO took another step toward raising the profile of its hockey program by joining five other schools to form the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The new conference — “the National” — begins play in 2013-14 with UNO, Colorado College, Denver, Miami, Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota as its charter members.

The conference was introduced at a July 14 press conference in Colorado Springs, Colo. Nearly all of the schools have at least one national championship on their resumes and, like UNO, are committed to making hockey the marquee sport in its athletic department.

“Two and a half years ago, we set out a very clear vision, and that was that we were going to be a hockey school and that success in hockey was going to be non-negotiable,” said UNO Director of Athletics Trev Alberts. “We felt it imperative that we find like-minded institutions where hockey is also very important to the overall success of the athletic department.”

They said the National will be a boon to recruiting, helping each school attract the nation’s top players. Because of the quality of the games each week, the new conference also is expected to draw national television exposure.

For the 2011-12 season, UNO already has two games scheduled to appear on Versus, the national cable network that is home to the National Hockey League.

It’s thought that Versus, soon to be rebranded under the NBC umbrella, could be the television home of the National, making the Mavericks available from coast to coast.

Seven of the eight charter members appeared in the NCAA Ice Hockey Championship last season. UNO head coach Dean Blais said he was looking forward to facing such quality opponents.

In September, NCHC members extended invites to St. Cloud State and Western Michigan to join the conference. Both schools accepted.

“As a coach, you enjoy coaching your team against the best competition, and that will certainly be the case in this new league,” Blais said. “Our fans will see us playing against great teams every week. Until then, we know that we will have two challenging seasons remaining in the WCHA, and we look forward to more great games against all of those teams.”

Athletic directors of the six charter members said they are committed to raising their programs in national prominence, and a conference full of powerhouse teams helps them do that.

For the next two seasons the Mavericks will play in the WCHA, a conference currently regarded as the best in college hockey. UNO finished third in its first WCHA season.

— Dave Ahlers, Director of Athletic Media Relations

UNO athletes have recorded lots of firsts throughout the 100 years of competition at the university. But for a recent Maverick first, they needed an assist.

On Sept. 8 the athletic department kicked off the second year of UNO Athletes and Elders: A Community of Interest. The first program of its kind in the United States, it brings together local elders and UNO student-athletes and coaches.

Athletes and Elders is supported by a College Initiative Grant for Intergenerational Programs and by the Dorot Foundation headquartered in New York City ("Dorot" is the Hebrew word for “generations”).

In the program, UNO Athletics teams are matched with local facilities by Desert Ministries, a nonprofit that recruits, trains and matches volunteers with elders in Omaha. Desert Ministries prepares UNO athletes for visits to the facility. The matched elders, meanwhile, attend UNO home games and other events.

Athletes and Elders began with a pilot program featuring the UNO wrestling, volleyball and women's swimming teams. In Spring 2011, 12 of UNO's 14 teams took part in the program.

UNO women basketball players in October visited Omaha's Lutheran Home, some playing gin rummy with the resident "card shark." The women's golf team brought homemade cookies to residents at Trinity Village in Papillion, Neb. Teams visited other facilities, too.

Some of the elders, meanwhile, made it to campus. That included an “Elders Track” event at the 2011 UNO Diet Pepsi Women's Walk.

The program is managed by the UNO chapter of the national gerontology honor society Sigma Phi Omega and administered by students in the chapter (Marietta Sewell, president; Aby Zuniga, vice president). The program won the 2011 UNO Strategic Planning Award for Student Focus.

For more information, contact Marietta Sewell or Aby Zuniga at 402-554-2272

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athletics

feet first Grand Island Star Logan Mendez is first player to sign with soccer program Logan Mendez made history for UNO Athletics without even stepping onto a field or into a Maverick uniform.

In late May, Mendez became the first recruit ever to sign with the UNO men’s soccer team, a program begun in March. Only months later Mendez was in uniform with other first-time Mavericks as the team launched the first season in program history with a game against the University of Missouri-Kansas City Aug. 26.

The Mavs won, beating the defending Summit League champions 2-1. Mendez scored UNO’s first goal that game — and first in program history.

Mendez was the state’s leading scorer in 2011, racking up 28 goals and 11 assists for the Grand Island Islanders, who finished 19-1 after falling 2-1 in the Class A state championship game to Creighton Prep. It was Grand Island’s first state finals appearance.

Mendez is the first soccer player from Grand Island High School to receive a Division I scholarship.

“It’s always been my dream to play Division I,” Mendez says. “It’s close to home and it’s a new program, and all the players are full of energy and enthusiasm to play Division I soccer. I don’t think it could be any better for me.”

The honorary captain of the Omaha World-Herald All-Nebraska team and honorary co-captain of the Lincoln Journal Star Super-State team, Mendez will be asked to help lead the strike force up top for the Mavericks as a freshman, a task that Head Coach Jason Mims thinks Mendez will be up to.

“Logan is a tremendous competitor who hates to lose,” Mims says. “His best soccer is ahead of him and we are excited to have the No. 1 goal scorer in the state of Nebraska join the UNO family.”

— Nate Pohlen, UNO Media Relations

Back to blocks After missing most of 2010 with an injury, Middle blocker Lizzy Mach returns to action Invaluable.

It’s one little word, but it’s volleyball coach Rose Shires’ big description for 6-foot-2 junior middle blocker Lizzy Mach entering the 2011 season. The Mavericks played most of last year without the 2009 all-conference selection, who suffered a torn ACL just 11 matches into the season.

Now, after months of rehabilitation, Mach is back and leading the Mavericks in their first year of Division I competition.

For her, the season comes with a bonus — the NCAA granted her a medical hardship year, giving her another season of eligibility in 2012.

“It means the world to have Lizzy receive the medical redshirt and return for an additional season past what we expected,” Shires says. “She is not only a high-quality

student-athlete, but she will be a mentor to the classes of 2012 and 2013 middle recruits. She is invaluable.”

Mach graduated from Wahoo Neuman High School in Wahoo, Neb. She is a studio art major with a 3.91 grade-point average and is a three-time MIAA Academic Honor Roll selection. She also earned the MIAA Student-Athlete Award in 2009 and has been named to the UNO Dean’s List and the Chancellor’s List multiple semesters.

“I’m really excited to have an additional year in my career,” Mach says. “I can improve on everything I want to, and having a full year to get back in the swing of things will only help my confidence on the court.

“I’ll be able to compete without thinking about my knee and give my full attention to helping our team have a great season.”

— by Bonnie Ryan, UNO Media Relations

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GET TO KNOW he answered WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? At 8, I began to work in my father’s bakery, Gouttierre’s Pastry Shop. I eventually became a master pastry baker.

we asked

TOM GOUTTIERRE Dean, International Studies & Programs

WHAT WAS THE BEST ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED? If there is something you have a passion to try, do it. Do not put yourself in the position of looking back later in life and regretting not having pursued that passion. That’s the advice that prevailed in convincing me to join the Peace Corps to go to Afghanistan. what is Your favorite weekend hangout?

Home, watching the Detroit Tigers on TV, any movie theatre, or a favorite restaurant.

WHAT IS YOUR SECRET TO HAPPINESS? I subscribe to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice: “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

WHAT IS THE BEST AGE TO BE AND WHY? The age one is, and to be thankful for that.

IF YOU HAD TO DO IT ALL AGAIN, what WOULD YOU CHANGE and why?

I wish I had learned how to be accomplished on one musical instrument.

I never pursued that and I regret it.

we asked

WHAT IS THE BEST AGE TO BE AND WHY?

Every age is really the best as we are always discovering some new benefit … The teens and 20s because of school, driving, friends; 30s and 40s because of family, career development; 50s because of what it can mean for people in becoming grandparents … 60s, 70s, on-up because there is a freedom … to being able to say what is on your mind.

answered Julie Masters Chair, Gerontology Department Text, photos by Jenna Zeorian

I think the best age to be is 19. At that point, you’re over the awkwardness of your teenage years and you’ve figured out how college works. You have a few years left at college so you don’t need to worry about graduation and getting a job so you can just enjoy it and all the opportunities it has to offer.

answered Liz O’Connor Student President/Regent

Whatever age I happen to be. Two of my greatest joys are learning and growing and helping others to learn and grow. Having a good sense of humor and meaningful relationships also are also important for a rich life with purpose.

answered Shannon Richards Campanile Carilloneur

The best age to be is whatever age I am, because I cannot change it. I have found that each age has some great benefits and some drawbacks.

My younger years were fun and exciting, but stressful, not having gained the experiences and knowledge of later years.

Each age brings its own trials and blessings. People should enjoy every year of their lives.

I am always looking for the next adventure.

answered Mike Schmidt Manager, UNO Bookstore

If you can get to the age to where you can say this about college: “If I only knew then, what I know now.” This meaning, my experiences have brought me to think through my decisions and have some foresight. This was not always the case with me!

answered Derrin Hansen Men’s Basketball Coach

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and

As teen pregnancy rates drop to historic lows, more women are putting childbirth off until later in life

By Jenna Zeorian, University of Nebraska Foundation

Gina Ray is expecting.

And that might be unexpected to some, given that the first-time mother is 38-years-old.

Like Ray, more women are postponing pregnancy until after what generally is considered the prime childbearing ages of 20 to 34. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine reports that approximately 1 in 5 women now wait until after age 35 to begin their families. In Nebraska, birth rates for women ages 35-39 and 40-44 increased nearly 130 percent between 1980 and 2010.

At the same time, teen pregnancies have been on a five-decade decline.

What gives?

Mary Ann Powell, UNO associate professor and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology, says the trend of delayed pregnancy has much to do with today’s greater emphasis on education and career. She expects the trend to continue.

“Young men and women today expect to work most of their lives. To ensure having meaningful work that pays well, people are obtaining higher levels of education,” Powell says. “With more time in school and time establishing careers, women are often older before they are ready to have children.”

Putting off Pregnancy Soon-to-be mother Ray and her husband, who were married in 1999 and live in Omaha, did not deliberately avoid pregnancy. Her fast-paced career in the hospitality business, though, played a role in the delay.

“After getting married, my career was still quickly advancing and I took full advantage of every opportunity that presented itself in regards to my work,” Ray says. “I had a very busy schedule with high demands.

Pregnancy was no rush for me at that time in our marriage, and my husband did not want to push me.”

Ray says the no-rush approach gave her and her husband time to settle in with one another and begin their lives together while gaining parenting experience with a stepson.

Powell says children with parents who are older, more educated and financially stable “enjoy the benefits that do not accrue to those from less advantaged families.”

“Those who wait to have children may be calmer, happier parents who are making deliberate decisions and not finding themselves parents at inopportune times,” Powell adds.

But for Ray, the wait wasn’t easy.

“Based on our decision to wait or let it [pregnancy] happen on its own, too much time passed, making it more difficult and emotionally

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Beetles and Babies, Marmosets and Men To find answers to questions about human reproduction, UNO researchers are turning to beetles and marmosets.

straining,” Ray says. “As I got older, the heartache began to sink in that I may not ever have a child. It was hard.”

Emotional struggles like Ray’s are among a number of challenges caused by delayed pregnancies. Powell adds that older couples often must rely on reproductive technology to become pregnant and also face greater health risks once expecting.

While most mothers age 35 and older have healthy pregnancies and babies, women in this age group are more likely to experience pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and premature birth, as well as higher rates of chromosomal birth defects and miscarriage.

Ray, who is due in December, has yet to experience any pregnancy complications but is nonetheless concerned for the safety and health of her baby.

“Because she is my first, and so longed for, I struggle often with the thought that still something can go wrong,” she says. “But I am thankful to have my own little one on the way now being 38-yearsold, as opposed to possibly not at all.”

Young and a Mother Autumn Burns, a graduate student at UNO, understands Ray’s struggles and joys in relation to age and motherhood. But Burns’ story is a bit different — when she became pregnant she was 19-years-old, unwed and finishing her freshman year of college.

Now 26, married and a mother of two, Burns reflects on the financial, social and emotional challenges she faced as a teen mother.

“I had to learn early in life about putting someone else first and making sure bills were paid, clothes were washed and appointments were kept,” Burns says. “I gave up a lot to be the type of mother I wanted to be.”

Still, with others it sometimes seemed as though her age outweighed her abilities.

“I gave 110 percent to be the best mom that I could be, and yet there were people who judged me and assumed that I wasn’t a good mom because I was young,” Burns says.

Teen pregnancy has gained significant media attention in recent years through coverage of high-profile cases and reality television shows (i.e., MTV’s “Teen Mom.” Some fear teen pregnancy is thus glamorized. Others say such exposure shows the hard realities of early parenthood, dissuading young women from getting pregnant.

Statistically, teen pregnancies are on the decline nationally and locally.

“Teen birth rates for Nebraska have steadily declined in each and every decade since 1960,” says David Drozd, research coordinator at UNO’s Center for Public Affairs Research. “In fact, births to

Biology Professor Claudia Rauter studies how the characteristics of individual burying beetles influence their reproductive strategies. The size of the female beetle, for example, influences the number and size of her offspring. Rauter also has found that the age of the female beetle also affects the reproductive pattern — older females have more but slower-developing offspring than younger females.

“These results help us to explain the extraordinary variation we see in nature and how organisms respond to changes in the environment,” Rauter says.

Jeffrey French, Varner Professor of Psychology and Biology and director of UNO’s neuroscience program, studies marmosets — small, squirrel-size primates from Brazil — to explore the tie between aging and reproduction.

Like human males, marmoset males show age-related declines in testosterone. To identify changes in the body responsible for the decline, French conducted an experiment in which he treated older male marmosets by releasing hormones normally produced in the brain. Significant elevations in testosterone resulted.

“This suggests that the pituitary and the testes in aging male marmosets work just fine in testosterone production, and that the decline in testosterone is attributable to changes in brain regulation of sex hormones,” French says.

“These finding have important implications because they suggest treatments that target low testosterone in men may not have to involve the administration of synthetic steroid hormones, but that the body’s natural hormone circuits might be used to increase the production of normal testosterone.”

— Jenna Zeorian, University of Nebraska Foundation

Nebraska teens in 2010 dropped below 2,000 for the first time probably since frontier days.”

Drozd says the decrease in birth rates, combined with a decreased abortion rate (there were about 1,800 teen abortions in Nebraska in 1990 compared to 350 in 2010), shows “there is strong evidence that pregnancies to teens are down versus prior decades.”

Powell says reasons for the decline in teen birth rates are complex.

“Teens are using contraception more; probably have access to more information, and more accurate information about sex, than in earlier times; and sexual activity has leveled off,” she says.

Burns is candid when discussing her experiences as a young parent. She shares many of the same sentiments that Ray, a woman on the opposite end of the first-time mother age spectrum, describes.

“Honestly, being a teenage mother is incredibly difficult, and although I am incredibly blessed to have Reece (her son), it has been a journey,” Burns says.

“Being a mom is hard — no matter what age you are.”

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Unsa atan spe Teens and seniors often get bad raps for their skills on wheels, but when the rubber hits the road, only one group deserves it

By Rick Davis

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safe ny eed A silver-haired grandpa — head barely visible over the steering wheel of his oversized sedan.

Whom do you follow? Do you tail the youthful reflexes and quick start, or get behind the slow, steady pace of senior experience?

Sorry, young lady — according to national statistics, it’s safer following Grandpa.

Photo by Eric Francis

A teenage girl — one hand clutching a cell phone, the other rapping her steering wheel to the beat of the music blaring through her windows;

Lane 2

Lane 1

You’re approaching a red light, a car in each of the lanes ahead of you.

As you pull closer, you can tell who’s commandeering the wheels ahead:

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According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, per miles driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to be involved in a crash. The U.S. Census Bureau, meanwhile, reports that though drivers 19 and younger represented just 4.9 percent of licensed drivers in 2008 they accounted for 12.3 percent of all accidents that year.

Drivers 65 to 74 were 8.8 percent of licensed drivers but accounted for only 4.6 percent of accidents in 2008. Those 75 and older represented 6.5 percent of licensed drivers and accounted for 3.1 percent of accidents.

The numbers are no surprise to 1982 UNO graduate Dan Grzywa.

“Typically, the rate for a teen driver will be double,” says Grzywa, an agent with American Family Insurance in Omaha for 29 years.

Grzywa has a personal stake in the matter with a teenage driver at home and two parents in their 80s.

His dad no longer drives, and his mom drives only during the day and to familiar places “like church and the store.” That is in line with national reports that indicate those 70 and older drive fewer miles and are more likely to restrict their driving, for instance, never driving at night.

Nick Stergiou

Joseph Brown

“Older people often give up their keys, and don’t mind being chauffeured around,” Grzywa says. “But with kids, all they want to do is drive.”

Reflexes and Reactions Attitude isn’t the only difference between teen and senior drivers. There is little doubt, for instance, that the average teenager has quicker reflexes than the average 70-year-old. And since driving is a physical activity, youth should have the advantage, right?

To a point.

Nick Stergiou, Isaacson Professor and director of the Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility at UNO, confirms that 18- to 35-year-olds are at the top of their game in terms of reflexes. But, he says, don’t confuse reflexes with reaction.

“Experience and practice are important in terms of reaction,” Dr. Stergiou says. “Reflexes are purely neurologically based. Reactions to a particular situation are more holistic.”

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Motor skills typically begin to decline between the ages of 45 and 50, and experts have found that driving ability begins to deteriorate at age 55. However, it’s not until age 75 that the per-mile fatal crash rates start to increase, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Still, that might not indicate an increased tendency to get into crashes, but rather the fact that that age group is more physically susceptible to injury.

“The senior citizen may have decreased motor abilities, which makes movements difficult,” and possibly some cognitive decline, Stergiou says. “However, they usually decrease speed, which allows them more time to react.

The faster you move, the more difficult it is to react due to inertia and motor-learning principles.”

Indeed, research has shown that 90 percent of older drivers who fail reaction tests at high speeds perform satisfactorily at speeds 10 mph slower.

Distractions and Experience In addition to speed, driver distractions also play a major role in auto accidents.

The AAA Foundation reports that distracted driving accounts for 25 percent of all traffic crashes in the United States, and that drivers are doing something distracting 15 percent of the time they are on the road — from talking on a cell phone to eating lunch to talking to passengers.

When to Giveth, when to Advice for handing keys to teen drivers — and knowing when it’s time for seniors to give them up

By Rick Davis

Many middle-age Americans face a dual dilemma: instructing teenagers on the rules of the road while keeping a watchful eye on driving skills of aging parents.

Here are a few pointers from two experts.

Teens — Eliminate Distractions Kate Willette, director of curriculum development for the Driver Training Group, the largest private driving school business in the nation, says, “Teens need to work on their scanning skills; they need to get a feel for how to adjust their speed in curves, corners and in different kinds of weather; and they need to be motivated to set distractions aside, especially during the first few months of driving alone.”

Willette advises parents that teens, at least in the first month of driving, drive only in daylight, on dry roads, without any passengers and on very familiar routes. That can be expanded as safe driving skills are shown.

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Photo by Eric Francis

Younger drivers are just a higher risk than older people.

That’s a potentially deadly combination.

UNO psychology Professor Joseph Brown has studied distracted driving, specifically drivers using cell phones. “It’s very dangerous,” he says.

An analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety — based upon what motorists admitted in surveys and the estimated risk of driving while phoning — suggests that this practice may account for 22 percent of all crashes — about 1.3 million in 2008.

Brown says it’s not the physical act of holding a phone that causes the biggest distraction, but rather the “mental gasoline” that it takes to drive and be in a conversation. Distractions can be especially

Dan Grzywa American Family Insurance agent

troublesome for teenage and senior drivers — but for different reasons.

percent of U.S. drivers, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

For teenagers, it’s a lack of experience on the road — which requires more of that mental gasoline.

For seniors, the cognitive process may be slower — offsetting the experience advantage.

No matter who’s driving, the roads can be safer if all follow Brown’s advice.

However, younger drivers are more apt to engage in distracting activities. Sixteen percent of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“In general, I recommend making the driving task easier to reduce accidents,” Brown says. “Plot your route. Slow down. Avoid distraction while you’re driving. If you’re sleepy, pull over to the side of the road.”

And when you’re back to driving, you might be best following Grandpa.

So as Baby Boomers age, will the roads become safer?

By 2025, people age 65 and older will account for 25

Taketh Away “The idea is to keep it basic and simple while the teen is learning to scan and manage speed, then, very gradually, add complexity as mastery develops.”

Other safety basics also should be followed — wearing seatbelts, turning off cell phones, not driving with friends in the car, and never drinking alcohol and driving.

Seniors — Focus on Function Elizabeth Dugan, an associate professor of gerontology and the author of The Driving Dilemma: The Complete Resource Guide for Older Drivers and Their Families, advises that when adult children are assessing whether an elderly parent should be driving that they “focus on function, not age.”

In other words: “Do not assume that age equals incompetence,” she says.

Instead, the focus should be on the person’s “physical and mental function — basically, how well the person can see, think and move.”

Dugan says it’s important to make sure the car fits the person, which might include boosting the driver’s seat. And she recommends talking to elderly parents about “driving fitness.” For example: “Just as you ask Mom or Dad, ‘How’s your health? How was your day?’ you might ask, ‘How’s your driving going?’

“Let it be a natural part of checking in and not let it be as stigmatized.”

Check out these websites for more information AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety www.aaafoundation.org www.seniordrivers.org National Highway Traffic Safety Administration www.nhtsa.gov

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How

By Kevin Warneke

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Living to 100

r Julie Masters o s s fe ro P O N 100? U Life Want to live to “Living to 100 e th g n si u s d . n recomme ingto100.com iv .l w w w t a r” alculato Expectancy C ent alculate a curr c lp e h s n o ti s que Answers to 40 pertaining to e c vi d a te ra e n y and ge life expectanc es. lifestyle choic

et the re ? g u o y l l i w nd how a — e v i l u o w ill y many ye a r s m. ame a classroo ec od bedroom b o d h ild ch ’ rs e st chalkboard an A . ts Julie Ma n e d u st r e became h Her playmates tools. came teaching e b r e st a -M w her Vie ticipatory icing “an she was pract ow kn ool in a rs te as e teaching sch b Little did M to g in d n te While pre g” for future socialization.” was “rehearsin ly al tu ac e sh , relationships. grown-up world ns and social io at p cu oc s, is position rs teaches and

today Maste r profession — he e m ca be ay And her pl partment. gerontolog y de ns, whenever chair of UNO’s Masters explai n, io at iz al ci so wishes adults e anticipator y they play. She es m Children practic ga n to e th in or y socializatio be adults using anticipat they pretend to e, m sa e th would do young and old r later years. ei says. th r fo prepare age,” Masters y for when we lit bi si on sp re ke and gives “We need to ta ur future self,” yo g , in at ip ic nt ancial, spiritual the process “a the process: fin of s nt Masters calls ne po m about the co presentations ental. and environm to think — al ic ys social, ph is to get people s, ve gi e sh ns tatio ugh the presen Her goal, thro and then act. estions: ?

So she asks qu u going to need of home are yo nd ki • What cise?

• Will you exer e? to be in your lif g you want?

• Who is goin to live the life ey on m gh ou sy en ve ha s come with ea • Will you ey don’t alway th ut B . ys sa ns, Masters Simple questio and staf f are answers. s UNO faculty ay w e th of e som cial, spiritual, explorations of eir future finan th e at ce ip Following are tic an es helpful advi ts and alumni es. That includ lv se l helping studen ta en nm and enviro You Can Do.” social, physical rs Plan: What te as “M — rs from Maste

WHAT WE KNOW

in e life expectancy • A t bir th, averag s — ar ye was 77.9 the United States . and climbing re an estimated 39 • In 2008 there we and older in the million people 65 tal out 13% of the to United States, ab ed 30 that is expect population. By 20 all of % 20 — llion to climb to 72 mi . ns ica Amer wing age group in • The fastest-gro .” is the “oldest old the United States by ed er have increas Those 85 and old 35 years.

232% in the last

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ings h T f o t i r i p S e Getting into th

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s cong 1,30 0 st ud ie arch, includ in se at Re s ur rsity, show th anticipating yo at D uke Unive ed ct -indu nd he first step in ha go ca n d good health real ize no one spire spir itual ity an ar futu re self is to ho ew sk i says. Thos old. , ity ha nd, Fa lkow rs avoid getting ve r w ith ad ys Paul nd to cope bette sa te to ,” al al nd itu ni te OW d de KN an E of age WHAT W nd le stress “We live in an ive di rector tter able to ha , ut et be ec di e ex ar on d s an r nd unde alth depe llup, 43.1% of Fa lkowsk i, fo t gerontolth ier. G ood he al nc ju he ad • A ccording to Ga be d an t s istr ie reported frequen tit ude. of Deser t M in like a Americans in 2010 exercise and at NO. “It hits us U at or ,” ly or ek ct we ru st — og y in al ity comes in s nice to church attendance is where spir itu e in old age, it’ ar de e w itu tt n “A he W .

2-by-4 almost weekly. . to lean on .”

Fa lkowsk i says lly ra ne e ge have somethi ng g ein llb we al ys gic people becom sa olo , ch ity sy • P rception is that be spir itual ing n pe rd is ca co m It ac . ng , ne hi ys 50 O e et sa ag m n That so recently e, Han so increases after 00 Han son, who itual as they ag y 0,0 ir m 35 sp A ly e e d ar or th ne an m i of to g sk ey rn in Fa lkow to a 2008 surv very topic. of ey are ju st retu at U NO on the ed in Proceedings may be that th nd be ca reA . d a conference le ed liv Americans publish e they once ces. lif by ien al Sc Ba of itu of y ir em or sp ad th Ac au ker, al ity w ith orga the National Han son, a spea me un iconf use spir itu -ti to , t rt ion no pa at l d uc fu ed an , of .

Beyond her levels Fa lkowsk i adds Boomers and • People with hig rther: nized relig ion, rty Center, es one step fu ve go , Po l or na ct tio ru Na st e in reports th versity zed relig ion ers left orga ni someanxiety or ed rt om po ne bo re to to by ed ely Ba ir lik e al l w are less 60 s, he says. she “I believe we ar mbers in the 19 ,” w nu no e d rg la an in n. re sio depres church seran the he th ing more th live may not at tend to ey g th in , d le go t an hi no 65 W e e thos we ar er if they pray • In 1965, 24% of says. “We know ys, “A sk a boom ol unt, sa ho co sc he h to s, e hig ce lif m vi is fro d th te ld like older had gradua ‘Yes.’” forever. I wou af terl ife. and they ’ll say st a bachelor’s lea at d look ing to the ha ns 5% ea d m an ch hi w 77% were high degree. By 2008, G od .”

“People need 21% had a d school grads an e. th the U.S. Navy, bachelor’s or mor was a chaplain wi l a , so tu ga Ri ng a rear admira c priest Leo eventually becomi vocation. Catholi a e ot th “g of he d e O an th UN i, in comm id that at w UNO alumn who was second 1986 graduate, sa at For more than a fe th e e — ns th r se 82 tte e 19 be th d In ing rps. unity, an just about liv Navy Chaplains Co real sense of comm spiritual life isn’t ilt.” their living. ted to Sister bu ke en be ma es to pr ey s s th ed wa w ne n ho Citatio community it’s also about d o worked around le as (’69), a Unite Mary Caritas, wh alumni list their tit Roettmer Brewer J. l ro Ca of the Marist At least 178 UNO e rld as a member r,” “pastor,” that at UNO sh he wo id e at th sa “f ” or, in, st pla pa ha ist Method “brother,” “c at for a vocation.”

Missionaries. d” or “sister.” Th d how to prepare ne ar “le “rabbi,” “reveren . rs te sis 34 d rends an Association’s first includes 116 reve The UNO Alumni ure, at fe e zin ga ma tation for Alumni O Alum recipient of the Ci In a fall 2000 UN an as O UN ton Salisbury, ed i cit Achievement, Stan several such alumn of their t en m lop ve de e in th important factor

T

Tending the Flock

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pacity we have gh the brain ca ou lth “A ys k. or w s lots of rformance,” sa g memory take ove memory pe in pr ov im and pr n to im ai s t br ay bu e w age, ere are about th to forget as we rl Kosloski talk in adulthood, th e Ka r ov pr so es im We don’t have of to Pr y likel ntology formation is un and UNO gero to remember in el Cortese. He ha ic Page 42.

M r on so g es gy Prof ticle beginnin ar e in az UNO psycholo ag M NO al Recall,” a U memory in “Tot

ge Memor y and A

Serving SeUanitvesrsity’s religious affiliations longcosintncroelhaofdthbee en

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a took y 1944, Omah City of Omaha s cut when the tie e in stitution. os al th ip d, ic re un seve a secu la r, m it e ad m d an school in 1931 gh . at at OU, thou as w ithout a se w ith fa e ea rly n ea m niversity in th That didn’t d by Omaha U re fe of s lt se du as A cl of t popu la r ’s School offered by OU One of the mos se ur at the co th r ng la ri urch ushe was so popu It . an m os H .

1940 s was a ch eret t M voted e magazine de its di rector, Ev g Post and Tim Education and in en Ev ay rd ate, Satu Christian Advoc was e-week course ar ticles to it. nd year the fiv co se rs its he us By 0 a. ore than 10 yond Omah home st udy. M It also grew be r fo sh ce iti en Br nd to as sent via correspo ruction also w being offered ates. in Li ncol n. Inst se ur ut and other st co e tic th ec r an ia, Conn lv registered fo sy nn Pe ., .C 2,00 0 corhi ng ton, D ac t more than tr Colu mbia, Was at ld ou w ly urch Ushers s eventual an Omaha Ch Church Usher d of ze ol ni ho ga Sc or r ’s U te O ith as aduates la ast 36 states w udents and gr subjec t in at le respondent st e th on ed ur osman lect A ssociation. H one lect ure. ople at tend ing pe 0 35 as y an m

d e e N n i s d Frien

M asters Plan : What You Can Do

ly of worship regular • A ttend a place ur life …

• Take stock of yo ? ist ex u yo do Why ses. luding online cour inc , es ss cla • Take puzzle ever y day.

• D o a crossword ing ies that require us • Learn new hobb both hands. are depressed.

• Seek help if you

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us, but es not just on camp • U NO offers class ugh the those offered thro online, including wide. aska Online World University of Nebr line.com.

See more at NUon

y at UNO, essor of sociolog ins, assistant prof wk Ha come from the ys has more fits research sa he ne es be ur l ra fig ve ins se wk to points Daniel Ha th dship : ds who will be wi dynamics of frien , than a dozen frien of ird th eon t healthy. In addition ou Ab ul. er friends are less few th wi him for the long ha th ple wi eo P

ips • sh — ation met before college re closely tied to rel these friends he mortality risk is mo nds are more he rie om “F . wh ers d, en mb fri with family me an th including his best en ds en fri he , says. “This has be n. Another third an family,” Hawkins th nt met in kindergar te rta po im al fin in college. The .” says, he met while consistently found men his buds during his e m co be women. “Older wo ve ha ird th ct is stronger with fe ef and his T

— • ips sh er. into relation professional care e time and effort or m t be pu to s — hip e that friends Sociologists agre it pays off.” t include w friends, y lifelong — mus ibl ss s likely to make ne strong and po ing les e be ar of e le op ns se pe r a • Olde . st provide the ones they have give-and-take, mu alth are ry. ting to strengthen ta op lun vo be st “People in poor he mu needed and endships are tied. fri er st fo to . y ys ilit Hawkins sa Health and the ab en relationships,” ain and strength int ma to le ab t no and live longer. hy, make friends alt he ay St n? tio His recommenda

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WHAT WE KNOW llup in 2004, • A ccording to Ga e ey had nine “clos Americans said th ing their relatives. friends” not includ had no close Only 2% said they friends. that its average • Facebook reports ds. user has 130 frien 55-64 spent 13% • Americans age e socializing and of their leisure tim those 75 and older communicating; time doing such. spent 8% of their : ericans 2010 Source : Older Am ll-Being (Older We of s tor Key Indica ).

Americans 2010

M asters Plan : What You Can Do

l circle.

• R eload your socia rople who can unde • Interact with pe who os as well as th e stand your stor y — . nd g to understa are just beginnin nt ople from differe • I nteract with pe . es nc e experie backgrounds & lif ips rriage/relationsh ork at making ma •W stronger.

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can lead us down Friends sometimes the wrong road. structure for Considering that, be a wonderful adolescents can derson, associate thing, says Amy An O School of professor in the UN l Justice. ina im Criminology/ Cr is even better, e ur ct ru Supervised st she adds. ng out together ition when kids ha fru to e m on co n ca imes bad idea,” Anders Bad ideas somet “Some idiot has a . ys sa e sh , on isi rv without adult supe agrees.” ne yo er ev nd “a , says e is committed. ,” Maybe even a crim isn’t a good thing inal justice system im cr e th th wi t “Formal contac ely to find Anderson says. rents are more lik of middle-class pa n re ild e their parents ch us ys ca sa Anderson t supervision be ou th wi e tim ed structur kids to stay out of themselves in un e and trust their m ho m fro n3 ay aw and be school — betwee are likely to work arch shows, after se re e, es th as such trouble. In cases ime, she says. is high time for cr — . your p.m 6 d p.m. an ep in contact with ve to be away, ke ha u yo If . ? ys do sa to nt at all, she So what’s a pare r than no contact ing and texts are bette lls ca e for your kids. Forc on es Ph iti s. kid -curricular activ tra ex e, rc fo n’t ys.

Encourage, but do rebel, Anderson sa courage them to en ly on ll r the wi em th ulars a try. Conside those extra-curric ve Gi : . do ge to an kid r a ch And what’s a ve a good idea fo m and Dad may ha possibility that Mo

FRIEND or FOE

t Friend Reques

ked to more He says he’s lin s. er us of s nd al l ki ages and from ok users of al l ec tu re, one bo nj ce co Fa of 0 rs 40 te 1, at than ason s are m stest W hi le thei r re ics. older are the fa d an al l demog raph 55 r e os th r: ea cl is rtant factor fo g in s. th the most impo cebook user is e Fa ag of n re su tio t la “I ’m no grow ing popu ultz, profes,” he says.

Jeremy Lipsch ys sa using Facebook says r, ea cl t no n. io is at r of sociolog y, hy ic w un e Th ol of Com m sistant professo ho as , Sc ns e lp ki th he of aw n H or ca l ok, Dan ie at sor and di rect clud ing Facebo discovered th ed ia outlets, in clude they ’ve im in m al ista nce ones. s fa ci -d tie so ith ng ili w lo ib ss os ly Po share phot s, especial ip to sh ay nd w ie sy fr ea n al ai ci mai nt s of so Facebook is an necessar y. it to other ty pe s; they prefer er, ba la nce is ev nd ie ey ow fr th H d are or an e; s lie mbersom one ca lls that ca n be more cu und hi ng about ph fo et ch m hi ve so w ha , says. ill d ia st ns an ed ’s ki m “T here mputers ip,” Haw thei r home co nts of fr iend sh ed ne er ad si po gr ea m up h co t uc ve m an ha import outlet is al networki ng book at trac ts ce using the soci Fa , ys sa tz l, Lipschul than it was.Stil

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ni Association ents the UNO Alum ev e th of ny ma tes at . Golden Circle, and fellow gradua d to specific ages re ilo ta e ar s eet new friends m •M ra prog m 45 years ago the year. Two of its for graduates fro rs ke ea sp hosts throughout th wi eons grads 40 and sts monthly lunch and programs for ts en ev s begun in 1984, ho st ho e, nwhil tworking and ung Alumni, mea y, which fosters ne em ad Ac or longer. UNO Yo ni um Al ung ludes the UNO Yo younger. That inc learning sessions. lar gu re h ug ro th th ow gr l na sio profes

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WHAT WE KNOW

r hcare costs are fo o-thirds of healt • Tw e cis er nditions: diet and lack of ex treating chronic co • S moking, poor deaths of % 35 r fo es us and older have at were underlying ca % of persons 65 • 80 condition. in 2000. least one chronic r fo d te uc nd co and older have at million surveys % of persons 65

50 • According to 1 ,” • ex Ind g ein -B ays “Well conditions. the Gallup-Healthw least two chronic llion more obese mi 3 ely at reported im ox pr there are ap ople 65 and over 2008, 22% of pe there were at the n I

an • th w ical no ys ns ph ica leisure time adult Amer gaging in regular ronic conditions en ch in 97. rta 19 Ce . m 08 star t of 20 t no change fro blood pressure, activity — almos tors of gh ica hi Ind y — Ke ity : es 10 ob 20 related to are on : Older Americans ce so ur al So s — te ). be d dia r Americans 2010 high cholesterol an Well- Being (Olde the rise.

r emeritus d Corbin, professo vi Da ys sa s, ea ar o focus on these tw dependent.” gs keep people in se regimen should in ci th er o ex tw r ei se th ho e, “T ag As people creation at UNO. ng, Corbin says. education and re ep her hear t stro ke to ty ci pa ca ar of health, physical scul rr y about cardiova man need not wo wo d ol rea -y 95 A s. Tai chi is a says. chance for injurie mplished that,” he ss le co ac th y wi ad ts re in al jo r ’s ei “She that is easy on th ould pick exercise sh le op pe r de ol e Instead, rbin says, are mor ys. r younger years, Co ei th unger in yo t se ar ci good choice, he sa st er to ex it is better Those who t e.

Bu ag . te ur la yo o r to te t at no cise no m se as a child, it’s The key is to exer e you didn’t exerci us ca be t us “J . ue likely to contin and keep it up.” ng: You’re more e tips for exercisi st suited for you. be ’s at th Corbin offers thes e on e th you enjoy. “Find • P ick something it.” se regimen calls likely to stick with fret if your exerci t n’ Do n. ca u yo “A little is better n — when u run out of time. yo • D o what you ca d an — ek we e days a for 30 minutes, fiv l.” al than nothing at

rength.

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e r o C e h At t

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fants n I r o f p U g n i d Stan ou ld like to ick Stergiou w w ith cerebral spare ch ild ren su rof the pa in fu l pa lsy of some ei r th ut ho th roug geries they face lives. plai n br utal,” “Some are ju st ol of sor in the Scho says the profes n io al Educat Hea lth, Physic . and Hea lth

N

the arch focu ses on Stergiou’s rese t of e developmen dy na m ics of th nts fa in in l ro cont sitting post ural es pa lsy. A ll babi w ith cerebral isk -r at e ar e who sway, but thos ith w d se no ag en di for or have be , ly nt re ffe di sway cerebral pa lsy he says.

able ers are better W hen research , the di fferences to understa nd to they ’ll be able Stergiou says, s for treatment plan develop better tA nd better trea these ch ild ren. ilch ay mea n these ment plan s m d an better ba la nce dren w ill have wer su rger ies. post ure, and fe

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ose who oporosis for th le agai nst oste tt ba e th in st is not lo n ea rly t dr in k m ilk .

— shou ld begi wou ld rather no s and streng th as in D, m m ne ta bo vi d of is — loss ca lciu m an nst osteoporos UNL ar y amou nts of at ss ce es ne nc e ie th The fight agai sc in hu man body w ith e e at th g or ct in do pp r ui ea rned he so is cr itica l, in life by eq ng exercise al usta fson, who ri G sea er t-b av gh Tr ei e W . says Dia nn olog y at U NO ation in geront w ith a specia liz Traversght-bea ri ng,” she says. but it’s not wei — se ci er ex a great way to “Sw im m ing is that nera lly ag ree .

Researchers ge Gusta fson says d woman 11 and older, ch ild ren, age lciu m ca of s m ill ig ra m en need 1,50 0 ing rv se e re mea ns th each day. That , se ee ch — y ts a da of da ir y produc es m co so al m iu . Ca lc yogu rt or m ilk se. and stri ng chee cereal, yogu rt d, ea br e, ic ily, which also ju ge in D needed da m ta in fortified oran vi of nt ta m in D inta ke the amou ca lciu m and vi t yet ag ree on te no ua eq do s e ad er at ch th Resear ev idence the risk of som iu m . There is t and reduces lc fa ca dy rb bo so ss ab s ce help reduces ex ood pressu re, helps lower bl is ht. Moderation posed to su nl ig ex ca ncers. is ed ifi in rt sk fo n as he body w ch food s oduced in the be found in su lable. in D also ca n Vita m in D is pr m ita ts also are avai V . en ys m sa le pp on fs Su . ta er us G liv sand key, Traver sa ltwater fish als, eg g yolk s, m ilk and cere a supplement. that e fish and ta ke m so t ea ethi ng cr itica l n, su G et some ys, “this is som sa on fs ta us G ersapproach, Trav No mat ter the .” es lv se em for th people ca n do

all

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D n i m a t i v t go

y p g u o l o d n a Chair of St

of good posture. n be the scourge A sedentar y life ca u work, Nick Stergio ered to a chair at th te e ar o e,” wh ur e st os For th the best for po e: “Sitting is not offers some advic Health, Physical ho r in the Sc ol of alth. says the professo Education and He of the t sitting. Director lks of striding, no ta u gio ttinger cu St , his lly Usua ity at UNO, hanics Core Facil oving pr im as Nebraska Biomec s such s focused on thing e with os th edge research ha of ce oving the balan pr im d an it ga ’s a runner inson’s disease. ies, such as Park ilit ab dis t en em mov like sitting in t non-movement, ou ab d ne er nc co says, should But he’s also ose who do so, he Th . es tch re st g a chair for lon t’s go for a walk.’”

“Tell yourself, ‘Le

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M asters Plan : What You Can Do

er join a fitness cent • G et Physical — k. oc bl e th nd ou ar or just take a walk k-ups like • G et regular chec 0 and older), mammograms (4 d prostate exams colonoscopies an eye exams.

(50+), or regular d rvings of fruits an • G et five-plus se y. vegetables per da • Stop smoking!

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rs n become membe • U NO alumni ca ion at uc ysical Ed of the Health, Ph ilding with access bu n tio ea and Recr a jogging track, to weight rooms, pool, exercise cour ts, swimming For more, see classes and more. u/wwwocr. www.unomaha.ed

d up. ose attending stan tings and have th ee m le to drag du nd he te sc at , th Or, he says meetings ure and may keep st po e th r fo r tte It’s be on schedule. time, Stergiou for long periods of sit to g vin ha nt to ensure good Besides avoiding for those who wa ng ini tra t igh we recommends er years. posture in their lat to be careful, who practice yoga le op pe s rn wa u stretched in Also, Stergio use the spine to be ca n ca e lin cip dis because the al unnatural ways. benefits, too. Medic ttress may bring ma rd ha a eir th on rt ing hu le who Finally, sleep uries meant peop th and 19th cent “I guess it wasn’t d. re ve practice in the 18 co re ard until they bo a to ed pp ra st backs were Stergiou says. such a bad idea,”

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New Ground

WHAT WE KNOW

of at more than 80% • A ARP reports th for es m ho eir stay in th seniors prefer to es. the rest of their liv st niors spend the re • Some 70% of se ey th e er wh ce e pla of their lives in th ing th bir thday, accord 65 eir th ted celebra .com. to Seniorresource Housing e Joint Center for • A ccording to th een more renters betw Studies, there are der un an d 64 (46%) th the ages of 35 an t for un co ac 65 and older 35 (41%). Those 13% of renters. nter in e Pew Research Ce • In a survey by th ildren ch n ow gr rents with 2009, 13% of pa d ns or daughters ha said their adult so . ar ye st pa e th e within moved back hom

d m ight fa ll coul an older adult n he w g in w K no world . fference in the make al l the di motion of a to capt ure the em st sy ng ri ito ld — a low-cost mon w research fie Work to create is pa rt of a ne er rd to better so di gy t lo en no movem og y and tech ol nt ro person w ith a ge s ne bi y — which com gerontechnolog . ts ul ing ad NO. understa nd ag ing strides at U science is mak of y ud ience and st w ne A nd th is In formation Sc of ge lle Co ’s O of U N ration w ith a pa k K ha za nchi olog y in collabo hn ec nt ro ge Professor Dee udyi ng alongside U NO s spent time st ly, K ha za nchi nt ce re t os Tech nology ha M pu s.

Masters tr ied lty across ca m ergiou and Ju lie St s la ho ic N nu mber of facu , Youn em selves. esha m A li, Jong lly inju ri ng th ia nt te po ll, researchers H fa could n older adults vice that oldto pred ic t whe mon itori ng de le ab rt po a of ot ype rs fa ll pred icvelopi ng a prot ta that mon ito da l ta vi s rd The team is de co vice re d specia lists. ld wea r. The de physicia ns an ’s nt tie pa e th er adults wou ta to itores important da t wea rable mon tion and prov id velop a low-cos de er,” to rd is so t di ec t oj of ou r pr a movemen “T he mai n goal a patient w ith eraof th n al io ic ot ys m e capt ure th ided to the ph ov pr en th is ing system to data e Internet. . “T he gathered in icia ns via th cl r he ot d an K ha za nchi says t nt via oped is ck to the patie og ist, the or th timely feedba pist, the neurol ve gi to ed us data ca n be That way, the apy.” er th ly in Nebra ska, interactive rtant, especial po im t of is ts ul up 13.3 percen on ag ing ad d older make an The research 65 age. e er ag av s l an na the natio . Nebra sk .4 percent for K ha za nchi says 12 to d re pa m Relations lation, co nley, University the state’s popu — Wendy Tow

msheeprepares for a o H e f a S e m o H geford follows a simple mantra as nal.

en things in mind wh ds keeping these en m m you are: e co lif re ur rd yo fo ge in Brid what point at r te at m no e — looking for a hom are at least 3 tio nc fu s it’ Nicole Brid if ays and doorways od go llw is ha n e th sig re De su n: e desig ire a little • Mak career in interior d wheelchairs requ toward a an es rs ss ke cla al W ng e. ki id ta O, feet-w her studies at UN UNL Bridgeford, began delivered through is m ra more space. og pr e Th design. e bedroom on the degree in interior es with at least on m ho r fo e. k ur oo L

ct • ite College of Arch be d: Design should main floor. ned a second cree ar le e these s m ha ho eps are wide and rd en fo iv ge dr ve Brid ha s or ct airs. Make sure st ru st st e in th r t He ou e. ck ag he y C

• functional for ever . ys gradual. sa e sh s, ge messa interior of or least one bathroom ct re di m ra re the home has at sor and prog su e es ak of r M

pr bs can be rio • L te UN in , al bb Betsy Ga Showers in bathtu . a profession er in ow ts sh en in ud lkst wa of work with a mobility issues. behavioral design, says: “The for someone with by a knowledge of g in ed ng rm le s, fo al al in ch on is si m es ra of design prog ables them, as pr an factors. This en .” es science and hum of all ag needs individuals to respond to the

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M asters Plan : What You Can Do

and e with a bathroom • C onsider a hom e. us ho e th of level bedroom on main me, such as cations to your ho • C onsider modifi s, adding place of doorknob installing levers in ntrols. co te and easy clima additional lighting ideas. mmunities to get • Tour 55-plus co

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blished a rhood scan has pu • U NO’s Neighbo itation Re to Housing habil brochure, “A Guide Area,” an lit po Omaha Metro Programs for the g cin an fin mation on that includes infor See more at www. ir. pa re and housing sources/ n.unomaha.edu/re neighborhoodsca f. housing_rehab.pd

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Fatirast Chance

Second Life

s. ents for ha za rd home envi ronm ity ts un m en m ud co st at help n to assess assessments th ts need to lear nt in these health e Nursi ng st uden us ing a consiste id to ov es pr m found whi le is findi ng ho e be ng to le s al rd ch za e Th tentia l ha e va riet y of po comprehend th e, an imated im Li fe (a 3-D on lin nd experience. co y le Se e ed th M d e er, M ik ze Zigu rs, an , A nd rew Mah K ha za nchi, Il of Br ia n Kelly am Enter Deepa k te t n Science & en io at pm ge of In form word) develo l lle eua Co rt e vi th in ve si mer at U N MC to cr raduates z — al l underg Nursi ng facu lty ue of zq ge Va lle r Co ga ith Ed and rtnered w le ha za rd s. e colleag ues pa contai n multip at th Tech nology. Th fire es m ho l s such as mold, -fa m ily vi rt ua r sa fety ha za rd fo ate four si ngle ok lo ic to em n ad io of ac ua l si mulat , associate dean ts use the vi rt ys K ha za nchi sa s, Nursi ng st uden on . is is po ys d al e an en fu rn itu re an and quantitativ ha za rd s, brok ation system s rm fo in of by disc ussion r so ofes ment, followed ss se affa irs and pr as e th g ter completin ive feedback af St udents rece ructors. w ith thei r in st

ports search Institute re ployee Benefit Re Em he are a lot

T • ey th l y cia sa when so ever (70%) at bir th in 1940, ore workers than m at nning th pla in le • L ife expectancy du s. year ) behind sche began, was 62.9 ) or a little (30% 0% (4 security payments r those 65 and gregate income fo d climbing. ag an , — 08 t. s 20 curity ar en n I

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WHAT WE KNOW

Why

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out their concerns ab l O’Hara, shared ae ch Mi r so ing es of ris though lleague, UNO Pr t Conundrum.” Al Mitenko and his co w, “The Retiremen vie er ov knowing what is eir nt th in rta po ion erview, as im ov e an aging populat th in e do ac sp e t does the horse received ampl tirees have. “Wha re health-care costs e tim e fre in e atic increas to do with the dram tart plow all its life? ” e th first paycheck. “S after it’s pulled star ting with the ds en mm co re ra r.” ur favo l side, O’Ha est can work to yo From the financia so compound inter ck he yc pa e), y er ev n voluntarily retir saving out of ent (when one ca em tir re r and health fo t int en po itm tipping family comm s, ce an fin g To determine your tin ra orpo comfortably for ra recommend inc gh money to live ou en ve Mitenko and O’Ha ha u yo re equation. And the math to ensu re costs into that ca halt in the equation: Do he ur yo te sure to incorpora ve. years to come. Be ents you might ha nd pe de y an r fo or ct fa to et rg fo don’t

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Term or W hole?

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e option ce can be a viabl Term life insuran lkman, life, says David Vo throughout one’s d law ance, banking an chairman of the fin department. rm policy — ends keeping a te Volkman recomm rate for a verage at a fixed which provides co you have g in play as lon as set period of time — ect dir ur yo pendents under a mor tgage or de ies, ilit sib on e financial resp care. Without thos ver co to ul lpf he term policy is he says, a small l costs. funeral and buria more limited ce, however, has Whole life insuran believer,” “I am not a strong appeal, he says. says Volkman in force for ce, which remains Whole life insuran requires e life and typically the insured's entir x purposes can be used for ta annual premiums, passed on that assets will be or as a guarantee ys. to survivors, he sa to protect ts that you want “If you have asse y be is ur children, th ma and pass on to yo says. viable,” Volkman

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E RSortgages REVEM REVERSE

a last resort

’ll likely ta lk ni ng advice, he an pl al ci an uc ts of ten put rison gives fin produc ts. Prod an W hen Ti m Har th er th ra th is advice: possibilities, nu s. He gives um al about age and O N U d an ner financial plan fensive rner, says the ch includes de people in a co undation, whi fo al ci rcha si ng an pu d fin h your g a w ill, an r 20s: Establ is cludes creatin in ng to invest in g ni an tin For those in thei pl mea ns star . Defen sive ng ng ni ni an an pl pl e e iv iv ffens and offens g disabi lit y. O ra nce, includ in . ns tio adequate in su op r othe y. Then, find Roth IRA s and vestment polic in d an an mut ua l fu nd s, pl ancial h a w ritten fin . r 40s: Establ is k to your plan ic st u For those in thei tiple people ill make yo w ho w r ne an of ten have mul s 60 r ei th in a financial pl okers. “No key. People d investment br mun ication is m an rs Co s: ne 60 an r pl ei ancial ns for For those in th nce agents, fin multiple optio al lives: insu ra ent, you have ci em an tir fin re r at ei , th re in Make su lt. to one another.” times get di fficu one is ta lk ing portant when im ly al ci pe es is income, which

M asters Plan : What You Can Do

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be a s. “T his shou ld thei r 60s or 70 h ac re cial may be a finan last option.”

Reverse mortgages any m at th t ndels en em tir for re e restriction, Ra plan ni ng tool Besides the ag hen w . er ed id er id ns cons es to co may not have says, other issu clude in ,” es ol to ag tg ng sort plan ni reverse mor -re ng st si la us a sc as di it “Look at d, the amou nt nct tes being offere ndels, an adju ra Ra st b re Ro te in ds en recom m d govern ment fiin the home, an and a certified ty ce ui an eq fin of in r professo uld change. income lim its, which co ou need more g “Y in r. nd ne le an pl l na ncia and al l reverse mor ttirement years rception is that pe is m in your later re A ” d. the te ing over title of ve been exhaus ges requ ire tu rn other options ha ga rses ve re by addition, hich are backed ty, he says. In w er , es op ag pr on tg r or la m Reverse more popu availAuthority, are ages tend to be tg ng or si m piou ty H l es ra lu the Fede ed proper ty va der and are us coasts, where ol e or th 62 e os th able to . oper ty as ca lly are higher e equity in a pr to release hom ents. ym pa le tip on’t ba nk on re ul m or in d of caution: D or w A t an one lump sum lo en e em th y es in your retir ligation to repa verse mor tgag s, The ow ner’s ob home is e th h, at ment prog ra m de r s or he s. “With govern an pl , 20 .

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a Corner

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e. live a long, long tim • B e prepared to ancial check-up.

• Get a regular fin care – ght to long-term • G ive some thou ial care. od st cu r T pay fo Medicare will NO nd or third career.

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HOW UNO CAN HE

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Some might remember college as the happiest days of their lives, but some say the best is yet to come

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Photo by Eric Francis

by Amanda Hackwith

Get old, get happy 28

Former UNO gerontology Professor Jim Thorson often had his eye on humor while on campus. His Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale is used worldwide.

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Though they might be broke, drive a beater car, and live with annoying roommates or even their parents (one in the same to some), many of today’s UNO students will look back on their college days as the happiest of their lives.

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recognized by the Kauffman Foundation as one of “the country’s most prolific and influential economics bloggers.”

After that, it’s all downhill, right?

For support, he cites a report that said Danes had higher levels of happiness than people in the rest of the world.

First comes a “quarter-life crisis,” a relatively new term capturing angst and unease into the early 30s. Then follows the gloom of a more robust midlife crisis. Finally, there’s the prospect of lonely days gumming food and yelling at neighborhood kids to stay off the lawn.

“I remember seeing a TV news piece on that finding,” Diamond says. “They interviewed a Dane who cynically smiled and said that Danes are pessimists who always believe that everything will go badly. When disaster does not always occur, they are pleasantly surprised, and are ‘happy.’”

According to some recent research, however, there’s reason for grads of a certain age to take heart — and be happy.

What is Happiness?

The Economist in December 2010 explored “The U-bend of Life: Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older.”

People in a majority of countries, noted the paper, are at their unhappiest in their 40s and early 50s. After that, however, it appears happiness increases. According to the Economist: Although as people move towards old age they lose things they treasure — vitality, mental sharpness and looks — they also gain what people spend their lives pursuing: happiness.

This curious finding has emerged from a new branch of economics that seeks a more satisfactory measure than money of human wellbeing. Conventional economics uses money as a proxy for utility … . But some economists, unconvinced that there is a direct relationship between money and well-being, have decided to go to the nub of the matter and measure happiness itself.

It’s a perspective to which two UNO researchers and leaders in their fields can speak— retired Professor Jim Thorson, chair of UNO’s gerontology department for 28 years, and economics Professor Art Diamond.

Thorson (pictured left) has studied humor extensively, and though not exactly the same as happiness, there are connections.

“Our theory is that the grumps wash out,” he said in a previous alumni magazine article. “Having a sense of humor helps people cope.”

Diamond, on the other hand, questions the bond between age and happiness.

“I find it hard to believe that this means people are really better off as they age,” says Diamond,

One problem with studying happiness is defining such a widely used and ambiguous term. “There’s happiness as contentment, happiness as exhilarating joy, and happiness as a deep sense of satisfaction or wellbeing,” Diamond says. “My view is that the last is most worth pursuing.”

He bases that on personal experience.

“I would say that I have been happiest when I was a graduate student in Chicago, and during the last several years,” he says. “What is common to those two times in my life is that in both of them I had a strong sense that I was pursuing and making progress on important projects that both increased my understanding and had the potential to improve the world.”

Gretchen Rubin in her book, The Happiness Project, came to similar conclusions as Diamond.

Rubin summarized her results into a formula for happiness, which included “feeling right” or being deeply satisfied with life and pursuits.

Rubin says age, gender, ethnicity, martial status, income, health, occupation and religious affiliation account for only about 10 to 20 percent of a person’s happiness. Genetics is about 50 percent. The rest, she says, is a “product of how a person thinks and acts.”

Perhaps, then, telling a joke or two can increase overall happiness. Thorson points to the Georgia Centenarian Study, which suggests that people at ease with the world are more likely to make it to 100, “and being able to laugh at the world and its problems goes a long way toward engendering inner peace.”

“Our research indicates that sense of humor is closely related to intelligence, and the two most potent correlates of long life are prosperity and intelligence,” Thorson says.

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While at UNO Thorson developed a 24-item Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale now used worldwide. When the test is administered to men and women ranging from teens to octogenarians, findings typically reinforce humor’s importance.

As sense of humor increases, death anxiety and depression decrease. And the more humorous one is, the more optimistic or religious they likely are.

Also, sense of humor is more closely related to gender than to age. Women tend to use coping humor more often in later life, Thorson says — i.e., “I’m getting so old that I won’t buy green bananas.” Men, on the other hand, often use humor to seek control.

“Which gets them into a lot of trouble,” Thorson says.

Get Happy The good news is that happiness can increase — at any age. Rubin and Diamond recommend several attitudes and behaviors that can make for a happier life: • C hallenge yourself. Rubin says a “sense of purpose” and “atmosphere for growth” is important Art Diamond to happiness. Diamond agrees: “Personally, I think the pursuit of challenging and worthwhile projects leads to the satisfaction that is the most important kind of happiness.”

• B e yourself. That might sound like a cliché, but it’s difficult to accept. “I had to build my happiness on the foundation of my character,” Rubin says. “I had to acknowledge what really made me happy, not what I wished made me happy.”

• E mbrace technology and new opportunities.

Yes, Diamond notes, some new technologies eliminate jobs associated with old technologies.

It’s hard to be happy when you’ve been canned.

Yet, Diamond adds, “On average, the new jobs created [...] tend to involve more creativity, more challenge, more variety and less physical danger and debility.” Some technology, such as personal PCs and Internet access, expands the opportunity for people to become “free agent” entrepreneurs. “Free agent entrepreneurs,” says Diamond, “report high levels of happiness, probably because they feel they have greater choice and control in their lives.”

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Total Recall A rare few can remember almost every day of their lives.

For the rest of us, improving memory takes lots of work.

By Tom McMahon

Former “Taxi” star Marilu Henner can tell you exactly how she spent the day of Aug. 16, 1977.

And May, 14, 1998. And Dec. 2, 1983.

And any other random date you throw at her.

She can tell you what day of the week it was, what she ate for lunch, what the weather was and more. Henner is one of six people University of California, Irvine (UCI) researchers identify as having superior autobiographical memory — an extraordinary ability to remember life events.

On a December 2010 “60 Minutes” segment, UCI neuroscientist James McGaugh said the six super memory holders can retrieve memories from decades ago the way most of us can recall the previous day.

While research on superior memory is new, UCI has made fascinating discoveries. UCI’s Larry Cahill showed MRI scans revealing that superior memory subjects’ brains have significantly larger temporal lobes (the storage unit) and caudate

nuclei (the site of habits, skills learning and obsessive compulsive disorder).

Henner compares her memory recall to cueing a DVD to a specific spot.

From Super to Average Perhaps what is learned from these super six can help those with average memories — the overwhelming majority of us.

“This opens a whole range of questions to be answered,” UNO gerontology Professor

Karl Kosloski says. “Answers that could unlock more of the memory’s secrets.”

rest, tired, awake, dream, etc., all of which are associated with the word sleep.

Normally, Kosloski says, people retain memories linked to strong emotions. Why? “We tend to talk about them, like a wedding or birth of a child,” Kosloski says, “and that leads to greater retention.”

True recall refers to the number of actual list items recalled. False memory refers to the number of non-presented words stated.

For many, the concern as we age isn’t that we have total recall, but that we hang on to those memories we do have stored.

UNO psychology Professor Michael Cortese says that for most of us, memories for events decrease even with healthy aging and we become more susceptible to false memories.

In one study, Cortese compared true and false memories of young adults (mean age 20), two groups of older adults (71 to 86), and two groups of individuals with Alzheimer’s-type dementia (78 to 79).

Cortese presented subjects with 12-word lists they could recall in any order. Lists were associated with a non-presented “lure” word. For example, a list might include the words bed,

“We found that true recall decreased with age and, of course, further decreased with dementia,” Cortese says. “False recall rose slightly with age and remained high with the dementia subjects.”

Brain Power The brain, Cortese says, has tremendous capacity for remembering. Toddlers learn and retain up to 10 words a day. By adulthood, the average person recognizes at least 60,000 words.

Several parts of the brain work together much like a computer to input and store memories, Cortese explains. Data not deemed important may seem to disappear, while important information consolidates into long-term storage for future use.

A key structure that weaves the date from our senses into memory is the hippocampus.

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Kosloski says this important memory center shrinks with age. Yet the amygdale — the part where emotions are processed — remains largely unchanged. This may help explain why emotionally-tinged memories often are better remembered as we age, he says.

Also of interest: Positive Memories In general, Kosloski says, positive memories are more likely to be remembered than negative ones.

Neutral events are remembered least well.

Association Kosloski says memory that is tied to a specific time and place is more likely to be remembered than one that is not.

Autobiographical Memories Autobiographical memories — those regarding our own history — tend to be more easily recalled, Kosloski says.

Repression What about memories we don’t want to retain?

Repression, says Cortese, is a mental process of burying a painful memory into the unconscious because remembering it would be painful and could cause psychological harm.

Kosloski points to a study of

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people who were tortured by Nazis and who could not recall the identity of their torturers during the Nuremburg trials.

Michael Cortese

Early Memories As to when our earliest experiences are remembered, Cortese says the general consensus is no earlier than 2 years old, and more likely around 3.

Suggested Memories “When one remembers an event, it is hard to know if he or she remembers the event or a retelling of it,” Cortese says .”Or it could be totally fabricated.” Kosloski notes that other people can actually create false memories for a person. “If, for example, a parent tells a child that the child had a great time at Disneyland, the child is likely to report that memory even if they never went there. He or she may even recall having seen Mickey Mouse.”

Braining Up The good news is that keeping active can preserve brain function and slow memory decline.

“Although the brain capacity we have to remember information is

Sudoku and crossword puzzle junkies may be gaining more from their pencil-to-paper efforts than killing time or satisfying their intellectual curiosities.

UNO gerontology professor and psychologist Karl Kosloski says working those puzzles also may help improve our memories.

“Engaging in stimulating activities promotes brain function similar to physical exercise,” he says. “Use it or lose it.”

While nationally syndicated puzzle creator and UNO alum Terry Stickels believes this may be the case, he will not make the claim unequivocally.

“There is ample anecdotal evidence that there are many methods to improve one’s memory or mental flexibility,” Stickels says. “But one has to be extremely careful how the information is presented.”

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Karl Kosloski

unlikely to improve in adulthood, there are ways to improve memory performance,” Cortese says.

And physical exercise can be just as important as mental workouts. According to a study published in Scientific America, a year of moderate exercise can give you brawn and brain. The research showed older adults who walked routinely for a year actually gained hippocampus volume.

Mental exercise, of course, also promotes brain function and may help lessen memory decline. Studies have shown that reading books, playing games or doing crafts are associated with a decrease in mild cognitive impairment (see “Puzzle Power”).

Kosloski and Cortese suggest various other tactics for improving memory power, including:

Stickels says there are many “carnival barkers” out there making false claims about memory improvement products. He partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association to create The Big Brain Puzzle Book and says one reason they chose him was because Stickels would not claim his puzzles improved memory.

“I have not seen enough evidence about my puzzles to back those claims,” says Stickels.

Anecdotally, Stickels says, it is seems older people who love puzzles and games have retained all their faculties, have excellent memories and project highlevel critical thinking.

Alzheimer’s Association ads for the book state that “while researchers race for a cure, studies have shown that keeping the brain active seems to increase its vitality and may build reserves of brain cells and connection, or even generate new brain cells.”

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Write it Down External tactics, such as jotting notes into appointment books, calendars and on sticky notes plastered in strategic spots help keep us on track.

Practice Makes Perfect Helpful internal strategies include mentally rehearsing a route before a trip.

Get Organized One study Cortese points to showed subjects who learned words in a hierarchical structure recalled 65 percent of them; those with random structure remembered only 18 percent.

Make it Distinctive Mark important words or concepts with yellow highlighter or an asterisk, says Cortese.

Break it Up If you have three hours to study some material, it’s better to distribute that across three one-hour sessions rather than one three-hour one.

Over-learn Material When one repeatedly processes information, Cortese says, condensed and more permanent version becomes stored in the brain.

In addition to The Big Brain Puzzle Book and other puzzle books, Stickels is well-known for his three columns: Frame Game, published by USA Weekend magazine; “Stickelers,” distributed by King Features to more than 200 newspapers; and his puzzle column for London’s largest newspaper, The Guardian. He has provided his puzzles for UNO Magazine since the publication’s launch in 2010 (see Page 58).

The former UNO geography major and football player developed his first puzzle at age 11. While tutoring math and physics students during his UNO days, Stickels used puzzles to help fellow students understand key concepts.

“The more you keep it lubricated,” he says of the brain, “the better it will serve you.”

— Tom McMahon

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Games How scam artists take advantage of changing brains in teens and seniors

Rosemary Strasser wants her psychology students to bring a healthy skepticism to class.

One of the first assignments in Strasser’s research methods course is to investigate a pseudoscientific claim. Students dissect the promises of weight-loss pills or smoking cures, seeking evidence that these products actually work.

More often than not, the gee-whiz claims fall apart under the analytical probing of psychology students.

“Being skeptical is a very good thing,” says Strasser, a UNO psychology professor. “That skill is something essential.

“I wish more people had that.”

Her students learn in the classroom what many consumers find out the hard way: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The Federal Trade Commission reports that more than 30 million adults a year fall victim to a fraud — from old-fashioned home repair scams to sophisticated attempts to simulate legitimate business offers through e-mail. Like an amateur psychologist, the scam artist seems adept at knowing which buttons to push, especially among vulnerable pockets of the population.

Among those most likely to take the bait? Teens and seniors.

Brain Function Research on brain function shows why elderly and young adults may be more at risk of falling for a scam, says Sam Holley, a psychologist who practices in Omaha and teaches at UNO. “There is a big difference in the way teenagers think about stuff and the way older adults do,” says Holley, who teaches courses on adult development and aging. “You’ve got to hand it to the folks who come up with these scams.”

Few parents would be surprised to hear that teenagers can act impulsively, letting emotion override rational thought. They might be surprised at the reason.

It doesn’t have much to do with parenting, peer pressure or even bad music. It’s just the way the brain develops.

Photos by Bryce Bridges

By Greg Kozol

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“The human brain doesn’t finish developing until about age 25,” Holley says. “That’s why teenagers do things that seem really dumb.”

Holley says a last part of the brain to fully develop is the prefrontal cortex, which controls decision-making. It means teens have a harder time making good decisions quickly in the kind of pressurized, hard-sell environment that a scam artist creates.

The teenager lacks that inner voice that says, “Now wait a minute. This is a con job,” Holley says.

Plus, says UNO psychology Professor Michael Cortese, teens are inexperienced. “[They] do not have the memories of previous scams, i.e., wisdom, to help them avoid making the mistakes of the past,” Cortese says.

The elderly brain is equally vulnerable.

Adults begin to lose some problem-solving ability at age 60, which leads them to seek group support. “That’s why you see old guys sitting around at McDonald’s in the morning,” Holley says.

Research suggests that older adults experience difficulty accessing the left side of the brain, which is the more analytical part, Holley says. That means the artistic right side, which may not delve as deeply into an issue, takes a larger role in memory and brain function.

This is not a problem if you’re buying a shirt. But that left brain comes in handy if a retiree receives an unsolicited sweepstakes giveaway in the mail.

“It’s not that they’re gullible,” Holley says.

“It’s more of a decision-making issue.”

Cortese points to deterioration of the medial temporal lobe structures like the hippocampus that are involved with binding information in memory.

“Older adults’ breakdown in conscious memory may also make them more willing to accept misinformation,” Cortese says.

So if an auto mechanic lies and tells a senior she had agreed to pay $X, she may

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accept that as true because she is unable to compare that statement to a memory.

“This memory loss has been linked to medial temporal areas of the brain as well as frontal lobe regions,” Cortese says. “The frontal areas are also involved in attentional processes such as information selection and monitoring.”

Worse yet, since frontal lobe loss also affects metacognitive abilities — the self-knowledge of how one’s own cognitive processes operate — older adults can lose the ability not only to make good decisions, but also the ability to recognize the degree to which such processes have deteriorated.

Overconfidence Despite their differences, young adults and senior citizens share similarities that a scam artist can manipulate. Specifically, overconfidence.

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Buyers Beware Knowing what to look for can help prevent being the victim of a scam.

UNO psychology Professor Rosemary Strasser suggests being aware of the foot-in-the-door technique — a seller offers something for a seemingly low price, then hits the buyer with added costs or obligations after the initial purchase.

This is used with infomercial consumer products as well as a traditional scam involving a free gift or reward card that comes with a low upfront shipping fee. In this scam, the consumer’s bank account can get emptied after using a check or credit card to cover shipping costs.

Consumers should look beyond the slick sales pitch and ask if the offer is really all it’s cracked up to be.

“Don’t take the word of the website,” Strasser says.

“Don’t take the word of the sales person. Always look for independent confirmation.”

Teenagers and young adults want to break free and show that they’re capable of making decisions on their own. They sometimes exhibit a dangerous overconfidence in their abilities, Holley says.

Cortese recommends that older adults keep notes and/or price quotes related to services. “If their memory is fading, and they have a note, they can compare the current statement to what is in their notes rather than their memory,” Cortese says. “They may also want to rely more on younger relatives and/ or friends to help them with decision-making.

“The people who come up with these scams know that vulnerability,” Holley says. “They say, ‘Wouldn’t you like to be the one that decides?’”

Common scams include free financial analysis, e-mails warning that your bank account is in error and offers to sell foreign lottery tickets, according to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.

Older adults display overconfidence in their capacity to judge other people. Holley says they’re extremely trusting of official-looking documents and titles, which is something a scam artist can exploit.

In each case, the Attorney General’s Consumer Affairs Division urges consumers to avoid giving out any personal or financial information.

“Older people believe positive outcomes are the most likely thing that’s going to happen,” Holley says. “They are going to seek confirmation of their first impression.”

Strasser believes youth may be more likely to fall for scams that focus on image rather than money. Muscle-building and weightloss claims are more likely to target a younger audience.

“A lot of it is classical conditioning,” she says.

Youth does have one major advantage when it comes to warding off scams. Young adults haven’t built a lifetime of assets, which may

be why more scams chase older adults.

Holley says it’s amazing how a desire to remain independent plays a bigger role than greed when a senior citizen falls for a financial scam. “They don’t want to be a burden,” he says.

As a psychologist, he’s seen how getting hoodwinked doesn’t hit older victims just in the bank account. It damages their self-esteem and raises uncomfortable questions about their ability to manage their own affairs.

“To them, it’s very disturbing that they’ve been taken in,” he says. “It’s so embarrassing.”

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Realistic ones, too.

Wakefield was drumming for Johnny Ray Gomez and the U-Neeks, a combo that already had signed a three-year contract with the Applause label. After picking up his diploma, the U-Neeks spent the following months touring the country coast to coast.

“At that time,” Wakefield recalls, “I thought music was my future. I had all sorts of opportunities.”

But a thought occurred to Wakefield later that summer as he gave his future consideration.

“There were an awful lot of 55-year-old professors around but not many 55-year-old musicians,” he says.

Wakefield re-examined his career goals and returned to his alma mater, earning a master’s degree in 1967. After brief teaching stints at Dana College (one of his early students was UNO Chancellor John Christensen) and South Dakota State, he landed a gig teaching criminal justice courses at UNO in 1974.

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Lifers

rmed with three majors, a degree and his drumsticks, Bill Wakefield left UNO in 1965 with visions of rock ’n’ roll stardom.

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Changing jobs is the norm, but some are happy to stay put

By John Fey

He’s still here 37 years later.

Recent UNO grads might shudder at the thought of working for the same employer for 30 or 40 years, but it’s not particularly uncommon.

In some instances, that could be quite a wait.

Mollie Anderson, director of UNO’s Human Resources Department, says 17 percent of the UNO workforce has 15 years of service or more.

Karen Ressegieu began her career at UNO in 1964, eight years before graduating with a bachelor’s general studies degree. She’s on her 47th year at the university.

“We have one employee who is between 86 and 90 years of age,” she says, “and we have one employee who is between 81 and 85.”

There’s a reason for such long tenures.

“Our employees have a passion about the work they do,” Anderson says. “I think a lot of people come thinking they’re going to stay for a short period of time, then they get hooked on the academic environment and the excitement of other changes in the schedule, the different semesters, the variety of jobs. And I think they say, ‘This is the place I want to work.’”

Change is the Norm According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), younger baby boomers (born between 1957 and 1964) averaged 11 jobs from ages 18 to 44. The BLS last September reported that the median number of years workers remained with their current employers was 4.4 in January 2010.

A Wall Street Journal article published last fall, meanwhile, cited research indicating that a worker will have seven job changes in a lifetime.

“The younger workforce is more willing to change and perhaps more likely to be attracted by factors that are difficult for us to sometimes compete with, and are more mobile,” Anderson says.

“I think our newer workforce is more impatient and they may not want to wait around until that vacancy occurs or until that retirement happens.”

“There is a high level of collegiality here at UNO,” says Ressegieu, who works in the dean’s office in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service. “I don’t think there are many walls on campus as the departments and colleges all seem to work well together.”

There are similar stories of long-serving employees off campus. Like Bob Houston, who graduated from UNO in 1974 with a BS in law enforcement. He joined the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services in 1975 and is still there, today as its director.

“I love corrections work and the healthy work environment of Nebraska State Government and the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services,” says Houston, who added a master’s in corrections in 1981. “Corrections work earns more respect each year as we improve our profession. We enjoy outstanding support from our governor, the legislature and the Nebraska courts.”

People Power UNO’s Anderson says there are common threads among employees who stay at one job so long.

“Pay is not the primary driver for why people stay,” Anderson says.

“The biggest reason why people leave a job has to do with their relationship with their supervisor and their co-workers.”

That resonates with Ressegieu.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with and for some excellent faculty and administrators and also many students,” she says, “and I think that mix has been a major reason my years at Omaha

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Facilitating career changes through programs in public, nonprofit administration Alumni interested in new career opportunities in the public or nonprofit sector can find the specialized education they need to be successful through two online programs offered by UNO: The master’s of public administration and the bachelor of general studies concentration in non-profit administration.

Campus has changed dramatically since Bill Wakefield and Karen Ressegieu first landed jobs at the university. The two have a combined 84 years at UNO.

University/University of Nebraska at Omaha have been so rewarding and enjoyable.”

So what if those relationships turn sour, or if work grows stale and an employee wants a job or even career change? Anderson says her office can provide an assist.

“We can provide educational opportunities to try to help them move,” she says.

“But when we see an employee who is not performing at the level that they ought to, one of the things that we sometimes consider saying is, ‘Perhaps this is not the right job for you, and perhaps you should think about what you want to do.’ ” Anderson offers the following advice to those seeking a career change: • Want to learn — and do learn.

• Be flexible.

• I f making a change at a later age, be prepared to start in an entry-level position and to accept a significantly lower pay rate and corresponding lifestyle.

It’s not likely, though, that Wakefield will be visiting Anderson any time soon.

“There have been some invitations from colleagues I’ve met over the years, and I seriously entertained a couple,” says Wakefield, now director for community outreach in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. “I’ve enjoyed working here. To me, it was an opportunity to meet a lot of my life objectives and goals.”

The MPA degree — nationally ranked and among the first NASPAA-accredited MPA programs offered fully online — prepares students for careers such as agency head, city manager, budget analyst, director of philanthropy, city planner and similar positions. There are no prerequisites for the program, so students do not need a specific background. Current students come from fields such as social science, nursing and public safety.

The BGS concentration is designed for students who want to secure a leadership role in a nonprofit organization. Often, people have experience as volunteers or staff in voluntary or nonprofit organizations, but need skills to understand human resource management, financial management, marketing and fundraising before they can move up the company ladder. Executives need formal training in these areas and can get the practical education they need from this concentration.

For both programs, advisors and faculty work with prospective students to evaluate their transcripts (at no charge), advise them on core courses they need to take, identify applicable transfer credit, help them map out a plan to earn their degree, and assist in finding internships.

Information about these and other programs offered through the University of Nebraska Online Worldwide can be found at NUonline.com.

What could have been?

Finding a career in a week

Give a listen to Wakefield performing “Lonely for Love” with Johnny Ray Gomez and the U-Neeks for Applause Records.

UNO’s department of gerontology hosted its inaugural Careers in Aging Week last April with multiple events staged in Omaha and Lincoln designed to increase the awareness and visibility of gerontology-related vocational opportunities. It included entertainment, food, exercises and games.

www.unoalumni.org/uneeks

Lyn Holley, assistant professor of the department of gerontology, credits UNO’s Sigma Phi members, the UNO faculty and Lewis and Clark vocal students for making the inaugural Career in Aging Week successful.

“The real stars, of course, were the UNO students,” Holley says. “It confirms my belief that we can make a beautiful world.

“Our real strength is who we are as people and who we are helping each other become.”

The nationwide event returns next year from April 1 to 7.

For more information contact Holley at lmholley@unomaha.edu or call 402-554-4814.

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JUST FOR YOU

Tapping into the World of Apps

By Don Kohler

UNO student Shawna MacNabb works the controls of her newest classroom tool like an in-command pilot. With just a few quick strokes and taps of her right index finger, the junior aviation major from Papillion, Neb., reveals a small screen loaded with valuable information.

But she is not at the cockpit controls of UNO’s Aviation Institute flight simulator.

Rather, McNabb has a smartphone in hand.

Three days each week she joins a handful of students navigating their way through the world of Web App development at the College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T) in the Peter Kiewit Institute.

“Ever since the iPhone and Droid phones were introduced, the dynamics of the industry have changed,” says Deepak Khazanchi, professor and associate dean for IS&T’s academic affairs. “Apps are very easy to use and to download, which is the reason for their popularity. My mother is 73, and she has an iPad that she can use Skype and Facebook.

For her, this is fabulous.”

An “app” — short for “application” and sometimes called a “mobile app” — is software programmed for a handheld device and its operating system, such as Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. Many apps are free and can easily

Students at IS&T’s Attic are developing cutting-edge software for smartphones, tablets be downloaded to smartphones or tablets.

There is an app for just about anything imaginable, including those catering to specific age groups (see "Age-Apt Apps next page). Often, apps are about fun and games (surely you’ve heard of Angry Birds by now). But apps also come as powerful, relevant tools for finances, business, health and more. The ICE app, for instance (In Case of Emergency), can be used by medical personnel to access a person’s critical health information.

says Zachary Fowler, a 2010 UNO graduate and IS&T’s director of IT outreach. “We have a few students that now work for the college who have become proficient in developing apps.”

Attic students are hired by the college and paid by the university’s Center for Management of Information Technology.

Most recently Attic denizens created a free app for Public Art Omaha, a non-profit partnership between the Omaha Public Art

In August, business inPeople today want According to eStrategy.com, 85 formation seraccess to information percent of Smartphone users age vices company 18 to 24 have downloaded an app, anytime, anywhere, while only 30 percent age 65 and IHS reported that 1 billion any place. older have done the same. smartphones are expected to Commission and Omaha by Design for which ship in 2015 — more than half the they had previously created a website world’s cellphone market then and (www.publicartomaha.org). The Public Art double the 478 million in 2011.

Omaha app features 500 high-quality images of art work in the Omaha metro area. The art Tablet sales also are spiking. IHS reported is categorized into 11 different areas of town that tablet sales will number 275 million and all pieces are geo-tagged and viewable on in 2015. That’s fueled in large fashion by Apple’s iPads. Apple is expected to ship 44.2 a map. Tapping any Public Art Omaha icon on million iPads this year and perhaps 120 mil- the map calls forth an image with the piece’s description and location. lion in 2015.

Apps are driving many of the hardware purchases. According to a July 2011 research report on In-stat.com, downloads of mobile apps should approach 48 billion in 2015.

Apple in July announced that its App store has more than 425,000 apps. Those generated 15 billion downloads and $2.5 billion in revenue for developers.

What’s driving the craze?

“People today want access to information anytime, anywhere, any place,” Khazanchi says.

“Clearly, the world is going to mobile devices, and the integration of our lifestyle with using mobile devices will happen more and more.”

Apps in the Attic IS&T students, especially those comprising the Attic, a web development group, are keeping pace with such cutting-edge technology.

“The college has been developing web and database projects for six or seven years, so mobile apps were just the next thing to get into,”

MacNabb was among the app’s creators, along with graduate student Maninder Hora, senior Edgar Vazquez, and sophomores Ryan Peters and Benjamin Wicks. Peters, majoring in IT innovation, says students are “wired in” to the new app world and are logical partners in the development of new sites.

“I have been using a smartphone for years and have probably downloaded 100 apps,” Peters says. “When the instructors approached us about developing an app, I thought that would be pretty cool. I have been a consumer for so long I thought it would be cool to create one.”

Fowler’s team also is developing a new recruiting app for the university, and a new mobile website for the College of IS&T. “These students have done some very impressive things in a short amount of time,” Fowler says. “I guess we have truly taken that next step into the mobile app world.”

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JUST FOR YOU

Age-apt Apps Many apps come age-apt. Sure, games are fun. But what’s out there to make life better? Here are a few interesting apps we found related to content throughout this issue of UNO Magazine, many of them age-specific.

FUTURE ALUMS Baby Sign ASL: Has more than 200 American Sign Language signs parents can use to connect with their baby before the words start coming. And come they will.

PARKINSON’S Parkinson’s Drug Trials: Designed for medical professionals and patients, it provides information about new treatments being tested in humans.

PREGNANCY BabyBump Pregnancy: Gives daily updates, including weekly schematic embryo pictures, identification of symptoms and cravings, due-date countdown and more.

DRIVING Driving Test: Provides 400+ test questions, safe-driving tips and a list of common mistakes new drivers make.

Driver Seat Game: Touted as the first senior driving simulator to help others understand and appreciate what it’s like to complete seemingly simple driving tasks as a senior.

FUTURE SELF Body Age: Includes fitness tests to get at Body Mass Index, endurance, recovery and more, then adds everything to determine your biological age — with recommendations on where you need work.

Age My Face: What might you look like down the road? Add years to an existing photo of your face in just minutes.

GRADUATE STUDIES

What is your mental age? Are you a youngster in an old-timers body? An oldie camouflaged young? This app purports to give the “age of your soul.”

MEMORY Brain Age Memory: Training to strengthen your visual and instantaneous memory.

For more than 100 years, UNO Graduate Studies has helped professionals advance their careers.

SCAMS Scam detector. Reveals the details of more than 350 popular scams; organized by industry — i.e., auto scams, telephone scams, etc.

IT’S YOUR TURN.

FOR FUN

CONNECT WITH WHAT’S NEXT.

Frame Games: UNO graduate Terry Stickels offers his famous puzzles great for exercising the noggin’.

Public Art Omaha: Delivers historical info, locale and high-res pics on 300+ pieces of art in Omaha metro area. Developed by UNO students in College of Information Science & Technology.

UNO: The game, not the university.

Ash Ashokan, Class of 2012 Master of Science in Computer Science To view Ash’s story and others, visit www.unomaha.edu/graduate

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SIGHTS & SOUNDS

SIGHTS Scenes on and off campus

Moving Day for 2k With the opening of Scott Court UNO now offers more than 2,000 beds for students in five residence halls — Maverick and University Village on the Dodge Street campus and Scott Court, Scott Village and Scott Residence Hall on the Pacific Street campus. With plenty of help available, rooms filled quickly during Move In Day prior to the start of the fall semester.

Walking Tacos Start with a bag of corn chips. Cut the bag on its long side, then top chips with seasoned beef, lettuce, cheese and salsa. There — you’ve got yourself a walking taco (you do the walking, not the taco). UNO Alumni Association staffers and volunteers served about 1,500 of them during Welcome Week.

Welcome Back UNO’s campus was bustling like never before with Welcome Week 2011. Thousands of students, faculty and staff enjoyed free food, giveaways, live music, contests and more on the Dodge and Pacific Street campuses.

Slide Show The student group UNO Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (UNO COE) spearheaded an attempt at a Guinness World Record in August — most students on a slip and slide at one time. The 250 participants required never showed, but sliders put on a great show nonetheless. UNO COE’s mission is to guide, support and inspire students to be entrepreneurial and pursue opportunities through enterprise creation.

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SIGHTS & SOUNDS

Freshman Convo UNO held a first-ever Freshman Convocation in August in the Fieldhouse. “You, plus your degree, plus the UNO alumni network equals unlimited opportunity,” UNO Alumni Association President Lee Denker told attendees. “Always remember to keep the end in mind.”

Roskens Redevelopment UNO’s College of Education moved into its new home in August — Roskens Hall. Former digs of the College of Business Administration, Roskens underwent a stunning transformation via a $13.7 million renovation that allows COE to offer students cutting-edge education to Omaha’s future teachers. Principal donors Ruth and Bill Scott and Dr. George Haddix, all of Omaha, funded the redevelopment.

Pictures by Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations, unless otherwise credited

SOUNDS Heard on and off campus Come Hell or High Water We’re going to beat this thing.

Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle speaking on campus to UNO College Democrats about the summer flooding. Reported in Aug. 25 Gateway.

Working for a Livin’ Until I’m 80.

Professor Doug Paterson on how long he can envision himself teaching at UNO. On faculty since 1981, he received the 2011 Leadership in Community-Based Theater and Civic Engagement award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Reported in Aug. 30 Gateway.

On Their Own Many of them are leaving home for the first time and are dealing with homesickness, but also excitement.

Many have not shared a living room and/or kitchen or bathroom with other people so they will always have an adjustment period. I think the freedom to make their own choices more independently will be a huge transition for them.

Bill Pickett, director of University Housing, speaking on first-year students moving into residence halls. Reported in Aug. 25 Gateway.

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CLASS 57

DON MCMAHILL, BS,

lives in Black Mountain, N.C., but was in Omaha this summer to watch the NCAA College World Series and to compete in the “Road to Omaha” 5k run held June 26 in Elmwood Park.

McMahill was first in the 70 & Older division, the oldest finisher overall, and 254th out of 293 entries. McMahill, who says he has competed in running and walking races since his freshman year at Omaha Technical High School, received an official CWS baseball for winning. He writes: “A couple of interesting things about the race: 1) Due to high water on the river, the venue was moved from the Landing to Elmwood Park with only a week or two notice. However it was conducted very well. 2) When I received my award, the race director suggested that I had ‘home field’ advantage since I had attended Omaha U. and had probably run in the park quite often.

Yep!” maryndon@bellsouth.net

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JIMMY JONES, BS, on

Sept. 9 was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame. Jones was a three-sport star at then-Omaha

University. He lettered all four years as a football player under Coach Al Caniglia, helping OU to four Central

NOTES

class notes

Send your classnotes to www.unoalumni.org/classnotes or get your class note online — keep your fellow graduates up to date with a posting on the UNO Alumni Association Facebook site at www.facebook.com/UNOAlumni

Intercollegiate Conference titles from 1962 to 1965. A 6-foot-2, 255-pound Morristown, N.J., native, he was named all-CIC on both the offensive and defensive sides of the football as a senior. He was a ninth-round pick of the AFL’s New York Jets and an 18th-round selection of the Green Bay Packers in the 1966 NFL Draft. As a heavyweight wrestler, he competed in the 1964 U.S. Olympic Trials. He also threw the shot put, discus and javelin for Lloyd Cardwell’s track and field team. He was inducted into the UNO Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. He is pictured in April 1965 with then-Cleveland star Jim Brown, who was making a promotional visit to an Omaha television station.

PAUL VNENCAK , BGS, is 90 years old and retired from the U.S. Marines. He fought in three wars. He writes, “Your bachelor degree of general studies certificate that I received was wrong because I never got promoted to rank of general. I’m still a colonel.”

Vnencak earned a battlefield promotion on Iwo Jima from sergeant to lieutenant.

He served in the military for 35 years.

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GARY DOMET, BSBA,

lives in Omaha and writes: “In May 2011 I achieved a life goal of earning a master’s degree from UNL in journalism with a specialization in marketing, advertising and communications.”

Domet is advertising training manager with the Omaha World-Herald, where he has worked for more than 28 years. gary.domet@owh.com

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ALBERT HODAPP, MA,

presented a paper, “Media and Video Games,” at the National Association of School Psychologists in February in San Francisco. It was the 17th NASP he had presented or co-authored.

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CAROL WATSON, BA,

was elected to a one-year term as president of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel (ALIC).

Founded in 1913, ALIC is focused on the life insurance bar and on the quality of scholarship devoted to topics of particular interest to lawyers advising life insurers. The Association has more than 375 members from companies, industry associations and law firms. Watson has been an ALIC member since 1984 and is in her 10th year on the association’s board of governors. She is vice president, general counsel and secretary of Assurity Life Insurance Company, headquartered in Lincoln, Neb. She joined Assurity in 2003 and has three decades of experience in the life insurance industry.

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JOHN W. EWING JR., BS,

is running for Congress in Nebraska’s second district, a seat currently held by Lee Terry. Ewing is Douglas County Treasurer. He served the Omaha Police Department for 24 years and was deputy police chief when he retired after being elected treasurer in 2006.

He also has a master’s degree from UNO. The College of Public Affairs and Community Service in 2010 presented

him with an Alumni Award for Excellence in Public Service. He also is an associate minister at Salem Baptist Church and serves on many community service boards.

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SHANNAN BROMMER , MA, was named by the

Archdiocese of Omaha as director of its stewardship and development office. In addition to raising scholarship funds for Catholic elementary schools and high schools, the office also oversees the archdiocese’s education foundation, investment portfolio, annual appeal, and planned giving and estate planning programs. Brommer has 15 years experience in fundraising, development and public relations. She had been director of advancement with Marian High School since 1998.

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JAMES HARRIS, BGS,

was appointed by the Arizona Technology Council as director of its Tucson Regional Office. The Arizona Technology Council is a private, not-for-profit trade association founded to connect, represent and support the state’s expanding technology industry. Harris will be responsible for managing all aspects of the Council’s southern Arizona operation, including event management, membership development, marketing, public policy and community relations. He has served in the U.S. Air Force, including time in Operation Desert Storm supporting the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.

After his service he became an

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CLASS NOTES

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Henry L. Mencken, 1880-1956 applications engineer for Tucsonbased Veeco. In 2004 he founded Equilution, a semiconductor test equipment company with worldwide customers including Texas Instruments, Intel and HP. He is married with three children.

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ANTHONY SOMMA , MBA, was promoted to

senior vice president and chief financial officer with

Westar Energy, the largest electric utility in Kansas, providing electric service to about 687,000 customers in the state. Somma has worked most of his career in utilities. He joined Westar Energy in 1994 in corporate development, later working with Protection One as chief financial officer and senior vice president, finance. He returned to Westar as executive director financial and strategic planning, generation and marketing. In 2006 he was named treasurer and, in 2009, vice president, treasurer. A certified public accountant, Somma is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Association of Financial Professionals and Financial Executives International. He also is on the Board for Ronald McDonald NE Kansas Charities. He and his wife, Patricia, live in Topeka, Kansas. They have four children.

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children’s book, Shorts...Tailored For Kids.

“A great book comprised of 17 poems, illustrations and ‘How-would-you-drawit?’ pages. This way, children can tap into their own creative side. This book is age-appropriate for 3+ yrs. Includes adventures with pirates, princesses, backyard animals, gritty sandboxes, spaghetti night and many more child-loving adventures.”

slavery and states’ rights that would erupt across Missouri and Kansas,” notes a book promotion. “The war also fractured Smith’s church and led ultimately to the unexpected settlement of a vast area of the West as a Mormon homeland. By tracing the life of Joseph Smith Jr. and his quest for Zion, the author reveals that the patrolbunny@yahoo.com religion he founded was destined for conflict — both internal and external — as BRANDON G. KINNEY, long as he remained its leader.” Kinney is BA, wrote a book published by an attorney in Butler, Mo., and former fifthWestolme Publishing. In The generation member of the Reorganized Mormon War: Zion and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Missouri now known as the Community of Christ.

Extermination Order of Details about the book can be found at 1838, Kinney unravels westholmepublishing.com/themormonwar the complex series of brandon@bkinneylaw.com events that led to a DAVID GRAHAM, BS, was religious and featured in the Toronto Star for ideological war of his company, Hockey Stick both blood and CHERYL WINJE Putters. It produces putters that words. “The Mormon VANWINKLE, BS, lives in War not only challenged the protection look like hockey sticks. They are licensed by St. Louis, and writes that she afforded by the First Amendment, it the NHL. Graham played hockey for UNO. has published an interactive foreshadowed the partisan violence over

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CLASS NOTES JEFF MORAN, MBA was named president and CEO of the Omaha Home for Boys. A three-year football letterwinner at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he retired as vice president of national sales at First National Bank of Omaha and as board president and trustee of the Nebraska Children’s Home Society to accept the Omaha Home for Boys post.

Founded in 1920, Omaha Home for Boys is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the treatment of at-risk children regardless of race or religion. About 300 young men and women from the north Omaha area and across Nebraska and the United States are helped each year through its programs.

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TOM SCOTT, MS, was

featured in Nebraska’s Gothenburg Times after joining Gothenburg Public Schools. He will teach grades 10-12 and will be head wrestling coach. He also will be an assistant football coach.

DANELLE PETERSEN SCHLEGELMILCH, BS, lives in

Omaha and is communications director for the Nebraska/SW Iowa Region of the American Red Cross. She writes that she “has had one heck of a summer responding to four disasters since April.” On one of her most recent Red Cross deployments with the Advanced Public Affairs Team (APAT) she was one of the first communicators on the ground after the deadly tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, Ala. Schlegelmilch led Red Cross social media efforts, coordinated media and celebrity guests (including Charlie Sheen), gathered photos, videos and stories for national media, and conducted interviews with national and international media.

She was interviewed by numerous media including CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, People Magazine, the Korean Broadcasting System, Agence France-Press and others.” schlegelmilchda@usa.redcross.org

I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.

George Burns, 1896-1996 PAT BURKE, BSBA, was promoted to account executive with Anderson Partners, a full-service advertising and public relations agency in Omaha.

Burke joined AP in 2008 as an account coordinator and has worked with a broad range of the firm’s clients. As account executive, his role will include planning and managing client initiatives and relationships. He will focus on AP’s financial, healthcare and food practices. He is a native of Fort Dodge, Iowa.

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KONSTANTIN GAZARYAN, BGS, is a

second lieutenant with the U.S. Air Force who in July was profiled in an article on the U.S. Air Force website. An Armenian, Gazaryan was 5 when he escaped what he described as genocide in Azerbaijan. His family eventually made their way to Omaha. Gazaryan graduated from UNO as a member of the U.S. Air Fore ROTC Detachment 470.

He earned a commission and was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base.

Today he is a member of the 64th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron and in July was deployed in southwest Asia. “He is a reflection of the outstanding youth willing to serve,” writes Chuck Holderness, president of the UNO AFROTC Alumni Chapter, which supports Detachment 470. “We must strive to help these individuals as students, cadets and future officers.”

PALLAV DEKA , MS, was featured in the Omaha World-Herald after winning a gold medal in badminton at the State Games of America in August.

A native of India, he previously had won the Cornhusker State Games badminton championship.

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KIMBERLY TALAMANTES, BS, lives in

KRISTIN KENNEDY, BS, was

featured in Nebraska’s Columbus Telegram after setting records at the Cornhuskers Powerlifting Championships Aug. 6 in Norfolk, Neb. Kennedy competed in the 162.25-198 pound weight class. She benched 150 pounds, a state record. She hit 285 in the dead lift, a national record. The International Bench Press Association sanctioned the meet.

CAM VACEK , BSBA, lives in Elkhorn,

Neb. She writes: “Started my own marketing and web design company shortly after graduation and enjoying being my own boss. I’m one of the lucky few who was able to do the work that I went to school for. Check out our site: hay-Wire.com." cam@hay-wire.com

Omaha and in July participated in the 2011 Redemption Boogie at the Plattsmouth Municipal Airport. “I did a tandem jump from an altitude of 13,500 feet. As a result of this experience, I now know that not even the sky is a limit! I am in control of my destiny and anything is possible!” kim.talamantes@gmail.com

in memoriam Alumni 1944 Phyllis Helen Bush Roger W. Boulden 1953 Patricia Ann Carlson

You can’t reach old age by another man’s road.

My habits protect my life but they would assassinate you.

Mark Twain, 1835-1910

1954 William K. Moore 1957 Barbara Linn Seefus 1960 Donald E. Muenster

Helen Rose Donovan

1963 Robert Crooks Franklin B. Dalton 1971 Eugene D. Roverse 1974 Amy T. Dean 1978 Thomas Kent Lewis

Faculty & Staff Franklin Jason Russell Jr.

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CLASS NOTES Jadelyn Bridget Damrow, daughter of Traci

future ALUMS

Submit a birth announcement (within 1 year of birth) and we’ll send you a certificate and an Ador-A-Bull T-shirt.

Include baby’s name, date of birth, parents’ or grandparents’ names and graduation year(s).

Mail to UNO Magazine, 67th & Dodge Streets, Omaha, NE 68182-0010 or online at www.unoalumni/futurealums

CLASS NOTES

son of William and Darlene (’02) (Conine, ’96; ’99) and Scott Bowman of Moorhead, Iowa. (’00) Damrow of Omaha Levi Fredrick Gust, Lilianna Rayne son of Delray and Kimberly Steffen, daughter of Josh and (Schiermeyer, ’02) Gust of Michelle (Kind, ’03) Steffen of Omaha Omaha.

Javier Manuel Garcia , Elliott Bane Rose, son son of Elizabeth and Marcelino of Joshua and Dana (Caughron, (’02) Garcia of Omaha ’02) Rose of Abilene, Texas Thaddeus Layne Bennit John Smeal, son of Foster, son of Eric and Libby Eric and Abby (Westphalen, ’05) (Hasenbank, ’05) Foster of of Cedar Bluffs, Neb. Council Bluffs, Iowa.

City/State/Zip: E-mail: News:

Dylan Vaughn Pfeffer,

son of Benjamin and Lynn (Campbell (’06) Pfeffer of Bellevue, Neb.

Kian Micah Hamraei,

What have you been doing since graduating from UNO? Your fellow alumni would like to know! We welcome personal and professional updates and photographs for Class Notes. Send your news to Class Notes Editor, UNO Magazine, 67th & Dodge Streets, Omaha, NE 68182-0010; fax to (402) 554-3787; submit online at www.unoalumni.org/classnote

May we post your email address in the next UNO Magazine?

Last name while a student:

Address:

Ryen Marie Taylor , daughter of Erik and Cheri (Pribyl, ’01) Taylor of LaVista, Neb., and granddaughter of Joyce (’68) and Charles (’68) Pribyl of Bellevue, Neb.

son of Shirin and Arman (’93) Hamraei of Grapevine, Texas Mikayla Rose Scott, daughter of Christin and Michael Alexander David Sydney Nicole Heinen, son of Melisa Landreth, daughter of Brant (’09) Scott of Troy, Ill. (Wesack, ’04) and Dave (’07) and Laura (’09) Landreth of Zen Isaac Brakel , son Heinen of Omaha.

Arlington, Va. of James Brakel and Carolyn Rabideaux (’10) of Omaha.

Grant Gabriel Hayek , Carter Michael Geer , son of Jason and Richelle son of Shane and Anne Marie Jackson David Smith, (Riedler, ’05) Hayek of Omaha.

(Lubbers, ’06) Geer of Council on of Elizabeth and Phillip (’05) Bluffs and grandson of Rosemary Smith of Papillion, Neb. Afton Penelope Renee Hineline, daughter of Ashley (’96) and Bryan (’87) Lubbers of Xander Anthony (King, ’06; ’10) and Ronnie (’07) Omaha.

Velasquez, son of Erica Hineline of Omaha.

Emma Lavery, grandaughter and Stephen (’11) Velasquez of Bellevue, Neb. of Joan (’74) and Albert (’72) Hodapp of Mason City, Iowa.

Name:

Class Year:

Eli Michael Bowman,

Degree:

Phone:

Yes No

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BOOKMARKS

Revisiting youth in Memory Lake

By Anthony Flott, Editor

Nancy Kyme’s first real writing effort drew criticism and a call of complaint Nancy Kyme’s first real writing effort drew criticism and a call of complaint.

As a student in UNO’s Executive MBA program, Kyme took on an assignment from CBA Professor David Ambrose: spend two weeks visiting with a York, Neb., business then submit an analysis of the company.

Kyme, assigned to a power washer manufacturer, penned a 150-page paper that concluded with sobering news for the proprietor: he was on the wrong track.

“He was actually a power washer assembler, not a manufacturer,” Kyme says, “and his only opportunity for growth — given his limited capital — would be to re-brand as a repair facility.”

The owner called Ambrose to complain about the paper — and UNO’s program.

About a year later he called again … to say thanks.

“His business was thriving because he had actually implemented my advice,” Kyme says.

Kyme is hoping for similarly good reviews with her most recent literary effort, Memory Lake. Published by Vantage Point, Memory Lake is a memoir “of lost youth and adulthood reclaimed” recounting life-changing times at

summer camp on the shores of Lake Michigan. The story is told in flashback, dormant memories resurfacing as Kyme drives to a camp reunion with her daughter.

The book debuted July 1. Shortly thereafter Kyme hosted a book signing in Leland, Mich., located near the setting of her story.

A South Bend, Ind., native, Kyme made it to Omaha while her husband, John, was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base from 1989 to 1992. A newspaper ad spurred her to enroll in the Executive MBA program.

“As a stay-at-home mom, it was intimidating to attend classes at night among business professionals who worked all day in some of Omaha's most prestigious corporations,” she says. “It was a great experience, and when we moved to Washington, D.C., I found a controller position almost immediately.”

Today she is a CFO and asset manager for a small corporation that owns commercial real estate in the D.C. area.

Kyme has been writing on the side ever since that class with Ambrose, Marketing, Planning and Strategy. She’d always been a heavy reader, but prior to the class, she says, “It was a frustrating process to compile even a fivepage paper.” She recalls Ambrose advising her to “Write

where you are inspired.” That, she says, “allowed me to break free from linear thinking, to be more creative.”

At first, that meant tackling a sci-fi/fantasy novel that “grew to unwieldy proportions.” She switched gears after a 2003 reunion at a youth camp she had attended.

A best friend from the camp couldn’t remember the good times there, inspiring Kyme to write a shorty story about it and “all the great lessons we'd learned.”

There was nothing short about the project. It grew with input from family and friends and took five years to write and another two years to polish. Its theme, overcoming fear, kept her from quitting.

Kyme has returned to her first project, the sci-fi/fantasy novel, and is considering a sequel to Memory Lake. The first stroll on its shores was a pleasant return to youth, which is missed.

“I miss being blissfully clueless, and bubbling inside from joyful anticipation for every moment ahead of me,” she says. “I also miss the people who were in my life, but always from the context of the person I am now. Not in a regretful way, but with a greater appreciation for their wit, beauty, and wisdom.”

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RETROSPECT

Over the years LIFE at our university If you’re of a certain age — we won’t mention 1956 LIFE Ad any numbers — you might recognize the cover of this issue’s UNO Magazine as an homage to old LIFE magazines, particularly those of the 1930s to 1950s, as we promote this issue’s theme, “LIFE: All Ages. All Stages.”

LIFE was in its heyday then as one of the country’s most popular magazines, stuffing its pages with photos from around the world. On several occasions, that included photos from then-University of Omaha.

In its May 24, 1937, issue LIFE published a feature on OU campus life. Titled, “Omaha Undergraduates do this,” it featured five photographs documenting a favorite spring sport of seniors — launching a freshman in a blanket toss.

Their willing tossee for the LIFE shoot was Frances Blumkin (her mother, Rose Blumkin, started

Nebraska Furniture Mart that same year in the basement of her husband’s clothing shop). LIFE photos show 14 male students tossing Frances — “the shapely neophyte” — three stories high as a large crowd watches.

Finally, one-time Omaha University student Milton Wolsky had his art published in LIFE in an ad for Mutual of Omaha, the one shown here from the Sept. 10, 1956, issue.

LIFE was back on campus — the new digs on Dodge Street — in 1940. In its Feb. 19, 1940, issue the magazine published photos of students in OU’s Men’s Modern Dance group, led by OU instructor Ruth Diamond.

The group met as a class regularly and later presented for the first time in the Dance Concert at Joslyn Memorial. Six photos show students balancing on their toes, leaping in mid-air and raising arms in supplication.

Wolsky attended OU for two years beginning in 1932 (he never graduated but received the Citation for Alumni Achievement in 1968) and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League of New York. He became one of the country’s top illustrators and his work appeared frequently in LIFE, Time, Esquire, the Saturday Evening Post and elsewhere.

Wolsky died in 1981 in Omaha. Some of his work is In April 1947 LIFE photographer George Skadding came among the Joslyn Art Museum’s collection. The bulk of to campus to photograph students in the university’s his estate eventually made its way to ARTicles Gallery church ushering course (yes, the university taught a course on church ushering). The shoot, held at First in Omaha (which helped us track down his LIFE work).

Methodist Church, took five Visit the Gateway Collection, an online database of all Gateway student newspapers hours. It doesn’t appear, from 1922 to the present. Connect at www.library.unomaha.edu/research/gateway though, that the photos ever were published.

See more than 3,700 university archive photos on UNO Criss Library’s photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/unocrisslibrary

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FOR FUN

StickElers Visual

Test your brainpower with these puzzles created by UNO graduate Terry Stickels (’76). An author, speaker and puzzle maker, Stickels’ FRAME GAMES is published by USA Weekend magazine and in 600 newspapers. For more information on Stickels, or to order any of his books, visit www.terrystickels.com

How many cubes are missing from the following stack that was originally 5 X 5 X 5? All rows and columns run to completion unless you actually see them end.

Logic

Solve this puzzle that has four clues, three of which are false: Pete: Kevin or Rachel has a check for $100,000 hidden in a shoe Kevin: Pete or Martha has a $100,000 check hidden in a shoe Martha: I don’t have it Rachel: I have it Who has the check?

Mathematics

Puzzles taken from The Big Brain Puzzle Book, created by Terry Stickels for the Alzheimer’s Association

If you have a full glass of water, pour out half, then pour back in half of what you poured out, pour out a third of what you now have and pour back in a third of a glass, what fraction of the glass is full?

Visual: 45 cubes are missing.

Wordplay

Mathematics: 5/6 of a glass. Start with a full glass and when you pour out half you then have 1/2 still in the glass. Then pour back in 1/2 of what you poured out, which is 1/4 of a glass. Now the glass is ¾ full.

Then pour out a third of what you now have, or 1/3 of ¾, which equals ¼ the glass, which means there is ½ a glass of water left. Now, pour back in 1/3 of a glass. So, 1/3 + 1/2 is equal to 5/6 of a glass.

Logic: Martha Answers

05/14/10 9:00 a.m.

Wordplay: Tenement. The other five words start and end with the same trigram (three-letter group) in the same order.

Five of the six words below share a characteristic not present in the sixth word. Which word is the odd one out?

Underground Physiography Hotshot Ingratiating Entertainment Tenement

05/14/10

4:00 p.m.

05/14/10 7:00 p.m.

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inside at any speed?

26 unsafe When teens and seniors get behind the wheel

Recall 42 Total How your brain can find better

directions for trips down memory lane

Games 44 Head How scam artists take advantage of

changing brains in teens and seniors