CARA PESEK’S BOX CUTTER

A sharp souvenir of both joyful college days and America’s darkest day

A humble orange box cutter holds bittersweet memories for journalism graduate Cara Pesek (’03). It represents change in the industry, reminiscent of old-school X-Acto knives used to cut strips of printed copy for newspaper layouts. It was also a parting gift at The Daily Nebraskan’s (DN) centennial anniversary reunion — held in September 2001, just days after hijackers wielded blades to commandeer four commercial jetliners on 9/11. Many alumni journalists had to pivot from reunion plans to reporting, and for those who showed, there was no way a commemorative box cutter would be allowed through airport security anymore. The DN staff was left with the lot.

“These box cutters were this very present part of my last two years of school,” Pesek said, who rose from the ranks as DN staff writer, associate news editor, and finally managing editor her senior year. “They were given away at every DN event. It represents my time at the DN and how quickly things were changing at the time.”

At the turn of the century the old X-Acto knife method of pagination was phasing out and online shopping was phasing in, so Pesek mostly used her box cutter to cut boxes. She has since kept it in an “important things” drawer alongside her passport and mementos that have come and gone. A con stant to this day is her sharp souvenir. For the entire DN staff these utensils were a little bit of levity; she knows colleagues kept them too, as she remains friends with many. Lifetime bonds are made in the basement of the Nebraska Union, burning the mid night oil for a deadline.

“People who go into journalism are pretty cre ative,” Pesek said. “And they’re curious. That was true of everyone I met who worked at the DN. They were these creative, curious peo ple. And a lot of them had a slightly offbeat lens through which they viewed the world. I understood these people and they under stood me. It was really fun.”

Big questions DN journalists ask are not only what makes a good story, but what makes it important to students, their readership. Being in the college media scene during 9/11 was Pesek’s first foray into localization.

“How do we show the impact on students who are in New York, or students who are studying in New York? Students who have family there or are from there originally? And also wrestling with for the first time how much of this is really our story to tell versus what’s a stretch,” Pesek said. “It was my first time talking through some of those questions and making those news judgments and thinking through how we cover something that is far away but still profoundly impacts every single person in the United States and beyond.”

Right out of college Pesek took these DN-ingrained skills to the (now out of print) Grand Junction Free Press, then worked as a regional reporter for the Lincoln Journal Star, publicist for the University of Nebraska Press, public relations manager at Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, and currently is communications director for the university’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Originally from small-town Brainard, Nebraska, she retains a fondness for Lincoln and the university, now from the

“That developed when I was in college and I do

In anticipation of that DN reunion back in 2001, Pesek and her cohort wondered which cool industry professionals — who were once in their shoes — would make an appearance. Now with all her experience, she returns to DN reunions as that professional. In fact, at the latest DN reunion in 2019, Pesek recognized a certain orange handheld tool of the trade once again being passed out to young journalists. “They’re still trying to get rid of these box cut-

—Grace Fitzgibbon

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