75 CENTS
Omaha Star
The
Proudly Serving Our Community for Over 80 Years
Dedicated to the Service of the People that NO Good Cause Shall Lack a Champion and that Evil Shall Not Go Unopposed
Nebraska’s Only Black Owned Newspaper Vol. 83 - No. 24 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, November 26, 2021
75 cents
Family of the Week: Omaha Star Staff
UFSCOC Leadership Team (L-R): Tia Houston, Ernest White, Frances Hunter, Karnetta Rushing, Cathy Banks and Johnny Nesbit, Velma Scurlock (not pictured)
Minority Financial Professionals Group Looks to Launch Winning Strategy
Omaha Star Staff – Beryl Barnes, Amber Elliston, Terri D. Sanders and Jennifer Keys. Not pictured Barbara Reeves and Mike Rice The Omaha Star staff is hard at work making sure the paper comes to you with all the advertisements and community news. We are FAMILY. The paper is entering into its 84th year of on time publication. The Omaha Star Administrator is Beryl Barnes. She is responsible for subscriber accounts and billing. She is available to greet customers and assists with counter service. Amber Elliston is the Mildred D Brown Memorial Study Center Administrator and handles the servicing of the Study Center Board of Directors and Executive Director. Barbara Reeves is responsible for the city-wide distribution of the paper and Mike Rice is responsible for the mailing distribution of the paper. Terri Sanders is the Publisher of the Omaha Star and is the fifth Black female publisher of the newspaper. Terri also serves as the Executive Director of the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center. Jennifer Keys is a member of the Mildred D Brown Memorial Study Center Board as serves as Vice President. Jennifer is the Archivist for the rich history of the newspaper. Everyone services the Printing Center and we look forward to the public utilizing what the print center has to offer. We are very proud to serve the Omaha community and welcome inquires about subscriptions, advertising and writing articles. Please call us at 402-346-4041 or email us at publisher@omahastarinc.com.
Speaking Freely Part II
By Audra Owens
I wrote this book during the pandemic. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing or hearing, but I could not ignore it either. So, I decided to write this book and let people explore the magnitude of this world and feel what I was feeling. I dedicate Speaking Freely Part II to my parents, Lee and Louise Stennis. They taught me not to hate anyone and to live life to the fullest. I want the world to descend into this book and take in what happens when someone is different. When I say different, I mean that in all aspects, in every way possible. This is my fourth book, and I wrote it with a heavy heart. I invite everyone to read and take all my words into your soul.
The Urban Financial Services Coalition Omaha Chapter (UFSCOC) formerly known as the Urban Bankers Forum of Nebraska is a non-profit organization of minority professionals with expertise and experience in the Financial Services Industry. The primary mission of the organization is to provide professional development opportunities for its members, support educational advancement for aspiring scholars and promote economic empowerment for minority communities at large through financial education. Since the establishment of this organization in 1988, UFSCOC members have remained highly committed to fulfilling these objectives. It is inevitable that the majority of individuals and small business entrepreneurs in lowmoderate income communities are compressed by the burden of poor credit and high fees. Borrowing options are limited and understanding how to build and maintain good credit is ambiguous. People that struggle with credit believe that they should avoid credit all together. Members of the Urban Financial Services Coalition Omaha Chapter (UFSCOC) will launch a credit campaign using unique strategies to raise awareness of the credit problem in North Omaha while providing learning opportunities of how to build and improve credit scores that will ultimately enhances the quality of life for low-moderate income families and small business owners in the community at large. To learn more about UFSCOC or to become a member/volunteer, please refer to our website at www.ufscomaha.org. Cathy Banks, Chapter President
UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications Leads the Way in Experiential Learning By Luna Stephans The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications held a ribbon cutting Oct. 29 to unveil the Agency, a new space that is part of the CoJMC’s Experience Lab. The event was planned and executed by UNL students in Jacht Agency, a full-service agency that is part of the Experience Lab. Through the event, Jacht students and other Experience Lab student leaders developed their skills related to event planning, public speaking and media relations. The Agency is located on the third floor of the Lincoln Children’s Museum at 1420 P St in Lincoln, right across from Andersen Hall. The new space was created with support from donors including Firespring, Swanson Russell, Pixel Bakery, Bailey Lauerman, Agent, Look East, The Nebraska Broadcasters’ Association, Maly Marketing, OBI, KidGlov and Revolution Wraps. The Experience Lab allows students to explore their industry of interest by communicating and working with real clients, sources, stories and content within the community. By leveraging this real-world setting and experience, students will develop their skills in content production, social and digital media, and emerging technologies. The Experience Lab programs include Buoy, a student-led advertising and public relations agency for nonprofits, Nebraska News Service, a statewide wire service, Nebraska Nightly, a recorded news show, 90M.3 KRNU, the campus radio station, Heartland Webzine, an online community magazine for Nebraska, UNLimited Sports, Nebraska sports reporting, and Jacht. Some of the programs are brand new, while others are much older than the Experience Lab itself. Each Experience Lab program has one or more students leads who are typically upperclassmen and help mentor the program’s younger students. Buoy student lead Kimball Brey, a senior ADPR major, said the new student-led agency is focused on getting students that first hands-on experience to kickstart their career.
Articles submissions to: publisher@ omahastarinc.com
“The students that are in Buoy haven’t had the opportunity yet to have that hands-on experience with client work,” she said. “So, we really get to mentor them and guide them through that process in an agency setting.” KRNU 90.3 has been UNL’s campus radio station for over 50 years. Now, as part of the Experience Lab, students involved with KRNU said they are branching out into new forms of media. “We’re staying in the radio realm but also expanding into streaming,” KRNU student lead and senior broadcasting major Olivia Klein said. “We’re streaming podcasts, we’re streaming sports, we’re streaming music, and then we’re also expanding into more print.” Chancellor Ronnie Green and CoJMC Dean Shari Veil gave remarks at the event prior to the official ribbon cutting about the importance of experiential learning opportunities for students. “Our N 2025 plan that we’re now in the second year of implementing here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a very central focus … around co-creating the experience with our students and the experiential component of that being so critically important as we move forward,” Green said during UNL continued on page 3
Next Issue:
December 10, 2021 Information submission by December 3, 2021