Chancellor's Pre-Game: Wisconsin

Curt Bright Author

12/03/2024 Added

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The chancellor talks about UNL.

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[00:00:00.000]Welcome back. It's Countdown to kickoff. Huskers today set to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. 2:35 kickoff
[00:00:08.320]for the last home game of the year. As we do every Saturday before Husker football we sit down with
[00:00:12.940]the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Rodney Bennett. Good to see you sir. Greg, good to
[00:00:16.860]be with you. As you mentioned it's a little bittersweet today. Of course, it's the last
[00:00:21.420]home football game of the season and it's just sort of sad to think about it. But football season
[00:00:28.140]always brings that extra something special to the campus, and this fall has been exceptionally
[00:00:34.700]exciting for the entire university. You know, when I think about our athletics programs and how
[00:00:41.160]successful they have been, it really helps shed additional light on all the other fantastic
[00:00:46.580]achievements that are happening on our campus. Absolutely. I mean this is one of my favorite
[00:00:51.160]parts of these conversations with you each week Chancellor is learning about the incredible array
[00:00:55.060]of things the Huskers are accomplishing across the campus
[00:00:58.020]that not all of us get to hear about on a daily basis. Well, you know and I always wish that I
[00:01:02.720]could do a better job of just knowing every little nuance that every one of our 24,000 plus or minus
[00:01:08.880]students is engaged with, but there's so many things going on and sometimes it's just a challenge
[00:01:14.100]to keep up with it all. Our students are doing an amazing research they're involved with creative
[00:01:21.020]activity. We have so many students that are entrepreneurs and sort of pursuing their goals
[00:01:26.160]and careers in that regard,
[00:01:28.000]and so much more. There are so many opportunities at Nebraska for students to explore to find their
[00:01:36.460]passions and to build on their strengths both in and out of the classroom. Very exciting. College,
[00:01:45.000]as you know, is an investment and commitment for our students and their families. The one thing
[00:01:51.940]that I'm passionate about is access to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and to
[00:01:57.900]high-quality education that we provide here. It's programs like the Nebraska Promise Program
[00:02:04.440]which offers full tuition coverage for students that help provide that access to a flagship
[00:02:11.960]land-grant Big Ten research university. I agree with you and those are meaningful programs that
[00:02:19.380]are certainly making a difference. The student we have here with us today I know is one of those
[00:02:23.480]students who took advantage of the Nebraska Promise Program. Absolutely. I'm really
[00:02:27.800]happy to introduce to you Greg and to our listeners Mr. Mitch West. Mitch is a third
[00:02:36.540]year student right here from Lincoln who not only took the leap to apply for the Nebraska
[00:02:42.660]Promise Program and to UNL after years of working and gaining entrepreneurial experience
[00:02:49.520]outside of college, but since coming to Nebraska Mitch has really flourished by capitalizing
[00:02:57.700]on all that the university has to offer its students. Mitch, great to have you with us.
[00:03:03.500]Thanks for joining us here today. The Chancellor laid out what the program is like. Can you
[00:03:07.160]describe kind of how it's benefited you and your story?
[00:03:10.240]Absolutely. First of all, I just wanted to say thank you to Chancellor Bennett and of
[00:03:14.260]course one of the best in the business, Greg Sharp, for having me and talking to me today.
[00:03:19.180]The Nebraska Promise Program was something that I didn't really know existed. After graduating
[00:03:27.600]high school, which I was a Southeast Knight for those that are listening, I didn't go
[00:03:32.420]to college right away. About a year after that, moved to Minneapolis and went to a college
[00:03:36.860]for music, arts, and production and then returned to Nebraska. Kind of around that time is when
[00:03:44.760]I started to put my hands on photography equipment, talk to different artists, work in music a
[00:03:50.820]little bit, and really started to fall in with that passion of music. So when I got
[00:03:57.500]here I was involved in some other projects. Most notably that I like to brag about is
[00:04:02.540]a craft beer publication that was regionally distributed here. So that was my first entrepreneurial
[00:04:08.580]adventure and I fell in love with entrepreneurship. And I started shooting professionally, doing
[00:04:14.760]commercial work, started shooting concerts, and then kind of moving on from there into
[00:04:21.020]some other avenues. Eventually I found myself working the professional fireworks
[00:04:27.400]here in Nebraska for a company that's based in Iowa. That was in 2018. And being a lifelong
[00:04:35.520]Husker, getting to do pyrotechnics for the university athletic events is a big deal.
[00:04:43.160]So it's pretty cool. So I've always been a very curious person and really love to challenge
[00:04:47.840]myself. Having my hands in all these different worlds is something that I very much love doing.
[00:04:55.380]Mitch, that's fantastic. How did you go from music, craft beer, fireworks to becoming a student?
[00:04:59.860]Sure. Right around 2019, I was working at a local nonprofit and we started mentoring youth and that
[00:05:08.240]turned into mentoring college students here at the university. So I started really building a
[00:05:13.140]good relationship with the College of Business and the Center of Entrepreneurship. It was one
[00:05:18.820]night on Channel 8. I was in the kitchen. There was a new story playing. I barely heard the tail
[00:05:25.440]end of the new story. It sounded like there might be an opportunity for non-traditional
[00:05:30.620]applicants to university to finish their education and earn that bachelor's.
[00:05:35.220]I didn't trust my own hearing and gave it a Google, checked it out,
[00:05:42.680]and
[00:05:43.120]it made sense, so I took a shot. What I really ended up doing was then asking people for letters
[00:05:50.280]of recommendation from here around the university to just do anything that I could to start that
[00:05:56.480]education and finish it. Fantastic. That's amazing, Mitch, and kudos to you for taking such a big step
[00:06:03.180]and talk about how this entrepreneurial spirit that you brought to your professional career,
[00:06:07.140]how's it helped you as a student here? It's helped me immensely. Going back to a little bit ago with
[00:06:13.100]the Center of Entrepreneurship, they became like family, and so I already was able to see what
[00:06:19.880]opportunities they were providing to the student body here, helping those students start their
[00:06:24.660]business, develop their products, really start their professional world in a different light
[00:06:29.520]than most students, and so once I became a student again, which is still wild to say,
[00:06:34.620]I continued being involved with that program and became a Clifton Builder,
[00:06:43.080]which is Gallup's entrepreneurial students, and then eventually started doing pitch competitions
[00:06:49.920]and different events, and now I'm a part of the new Startup Accelerator, also at the Center of
[00:06:55.640]Entrepreneurship, that is for that, students that are either starting something from the beginning
[00:07:02.180]or they have something and want to build that out and make that more successful.
[00:07:06.380]Mitch, that's a great story. Love hearing that. It really speaks to the importance of this
[00:07:09.900]university for Nebraskans who are looking to take that
[00:07:13.060]next step and stage of their lives. This is impressive, Chancellor.
[00:07:15.600]Very impressive. And I hope the takeaway from Mitch's story to our listeners
[00:07:19.540]really centers around pathways to college, pathways to completion. I know that there
[00:07:26.540]are a lot of people listening to us who have college credits from different schools and
[00:07:31.040]higher education institutions and the like who may think that completing that degree
[00:07:37.000]is out of the realm of possibility for them. Or maybe they don't know how to go about asking the
[00:07:43.040]questions or getting more information. As the state's land grant flagship university,
[00:07:49.620]that's what we do every day. You know, we work with young people and families. We work
[00:07:54.020]with adult learners. We work with anybody who wants access to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:08:01.520]And our commitment is to do all that we can to help you find a pathway to complete whatever
[00:08:07.880]it is that you're hoping to complete through our educational offerings and opportunities.
[00:08:13.020]So, I'm very proud of Mitch. I think Mitch is a great example of what can happen if you're
[00:08:19.700]listening to a local TV channel and you don't trust your hearing and you go on our website
[00:08:25.160]and do some Googling and kind of get the information and the facts of what it can lead to. Of course,
[00:08:32.780]it doesn't hurt when you have true Midwest values of drive and work ethic that clearly
[00:08:41.140]Mitch has demonstrated.
[00:08:43.000]Those are values that we all hold so dear and are so important to us. One of the things
[00:08:50.040]that I think really endures me to this university are students like Mitch and our alumni and
[00:08:56.500]donors in the business community who are looking for these types of students who are not afraid
[00:09:02.520]of hard work, who are curious, who are entrepreneurial in nature, who will not give up or not quit
[00:09:09.440]or take no for an answer. That's what this
[00:09:12.980]university is about. That's what built this university 155 plus years ago, and I would
[00:09:19.480]submit that it is what will sustain us for the next 155 years.
[00:09:24.060]Fantastic. Mitch, thank you again for sharing your story. Chancellor, always good to see
[00:09:27.560]you. Let's finish off this home schedule with a victory.
[00:09:30.200]Let's go get a win. Go Big Red.
[00:09:32.360]There we go, Mitch. Hey, we got our Big Ten Blitz coming up next.

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Chancellor's Pre-Game: Wisconsin

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