Students say service personally rewarding
Award-winning volunteer likes
helping others help themselves
By Cindy Kimbrough
Senior Reporter_ _
While most UNL students trav
eled across the nation for Spring Break
or stayed home to catch up on their
sleep, one student stayed in Lincoln,
diligently writing papers and catch
ing up on his homework.
Thad Standley, a senior manage
ment major and one of three recent
University of Nebraska-Lincoln win
ners of the General Motors Volunteer
Spirit Award, said it was hard to find
time to do all the things he wanted to
do.
Budgeting time and priorities is
essential to balancing school with his
volunteer work for the Nebraska
Association of Student Councils, the
campus Activities anu rrograms nasi
Campus office and the Veterans
Administration Medical Center, he
said.
But the lack of free time is worth
it, Standley said.
“I do have a reason why I get so
involved,” he said. “The things I get
involved in mean a lot to me. I enjoy
them and find (volunteering) reward
ing.”
His work at the CAP office and the
930 hours of work he pul in at the
Veterans Administration Medical
Center over four years in high school
was satisfying because he was given
the opportunity to do something he
loves — work with people.
At the CAP office, Standley is the
special-project intern who works with
UPC executives and committee chair
persons to help facilitate training
programs.
At the Veterans Center, he partici
pated in recreational therapy with
patients, which included anything from
running bingo to making popcorn and
escorting patients around the center,
he said. ,
Standlcy also said the more than
2,200 hours he put in at NASC help
ing high school students with leader
ship development for the past five
years turned into one of his top priori
ties.
“I like to help others help them
selves,” he said.
During those 2,200 hours, Stan
dley said, he helped students with
curriculum planning through summer
workshops and minisessions.
In addition, Standley helped to form
a diversity committee within the NASC
to increase minority involvement and
was chairman of the newly created
committee for two years.
By working with high school stu
iKronivK tho \I A QtQnHlPV
said, he is preparing future leaders
and volunteers,
“Ilwas really rewarding and italso
helped me out... to develop my own
organizational devclc ..rnent skills and
abilities,” he said.
And that will help him in the fu
ture, as he is planning to graduate in
May 1993 and find work in organiza
tional change and development or
undertake graduate studies.
When his college career is over,
Standlcy said, his volunteer work will
continue.
He has no real long-range plans,
he said, except that he wants to make
an impact with whatever he docs.
“I want to make a difference in
what I do,” he said.
Standley said he would encourage
anyone to volunteer their time and
skills to any organization they thought
worthwhile.
“Volunteering is incredibly impor
——^^““^1
Standley
- a
It’s important to keep
giving back to the
community. It’s self
ish not to take your
experiences and not
give anything back.
Standley
GM Volunteer Spirit Award
winner
-tf -
tant,” he said. “I would encourage
everyone to try it.”
Besides the positive feeling ob
tained from volunteering, he said there
were other benefits, particularly to
the community.
“It’s important to keep giving back
to the community,” he said. “It’s self
ish not to lake your experiences and
not give anything back.”
Volunteer says organizations
need time more than money
By Cindy Kimbrough
Senior Reporter_____
Jason Dean admits that purely
selfish reasons—and not the good of
the community — are the motivation
behind his hours of volunteer work.
Dean, one of the three UNL win
ners of the General Motors Volunteer
Spirit Award, said he got more out of
volunteering than the people he helped
did.
“You can’t go away without tak
ing something with you,” he said.
While volunteering as a counselor
at Camp CoHoLo for children with
cancer, he said, he matured as a per
son watching the children he coun
seled grow. The children had such an
optimistic look on life, he said, it was
hard not to let their attitude rub off on
him.
Dean, who graduated from UNL
in December with an art history de
gree, said he also “met some neat
people” as a volunteer with the Ne
braska Human Resources Institute.
As an institute volunteer, he coun
seled a fourth grader and taught inter
personal and leadership skills to chil
dren at Lakeview School, 300 Capi
tol Beach Blvd.
Dean said volunteering seemed to
come naturally to him because he was
from a small town. Life was pretty
boring there, he said, unless he could
find things to do.
Being a member of Farmhouse
Fraternity also prompted him to vol
unteer, he said.
"It’s easy to get involved when
Dean
you see all the people around you
doing stuff,” he said.
In addition to his work with chil
dren, Dean said he also was involved
in the University Program Council,
serving as co-chairman of the Kim
ball-Lied Performing Arts Commit
tee.
In the time he had left after those
activities, Dean was a copy editor for
the grcck yearbook for a year.
Now that he is looking for a job at
a museum, Dean said he was also
looking to volunteer for other local
organizations, such as Planned Par
enthood or a Big Brother program.
Dean said organizations could use
volunteers more than donations.
“I think volunteering your lime is
so much more valuable then donating * -
your money to a volunteer organiza
tion,” he said.
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High School
Continued from Page 1
students who may be forced to take
classes students didn’t have to lake in
the past,” she said.
“Some students look forward to
not taking math their senior year, and
they may have to now.”
But Schmidt said she thought higher
standards would help students more
than hinder them.
“It is important that we let students
know this proposal will be to their
benefit,” she said. “These require
ments would increase their options
both in the majors they might con
sider and in colleges that would con
sidcr them.”
While no action can be taken until
the new standards are approved,
Schmidt said she planned to commu
nicate with schools about what would
be required of their students.
“We hope to start communicating
with students as early as possible,
maybe in the eighth or ninth grade,”
she said. “We will also tell the people
who teach and advise what the expec
tations are so they can help the stu
dents become better prepared.”
Schmidt said the policy was not
meant to keep students out of UNL,
and it is flexible enough to allow for
students who, for whatever reason,
cannot gel all the required courses.
However, she said, students who
choose not to meet the proposed re
quiremcnts would be hurting their
chances of attending UNL and would
be ruling out the opportunity to attend
other colleges.
“We’re helping students be more
realistic about what they need to do to
prepare for college, whether they go
to UNL or not,’’ she said. “I think
there are plenty of good, solid stu
dents who will lake what they need to
take.”
The policy also will help students
once they get to college, Schmidt
said, by getting them into the classes
they need to graduate in four years.
“This is not just about taking
classes,” she said. “We want it to be
about what students learn in the classes
and look at what the students gel out
of these classes.”
College
Continued from Page 1
sen the university might look to state
colleges,” he said.
Mash said that Wayne State —
like other state colleges in Nebraska
— had a flexible admissions policy.
He said the school was prepared to
deal with students who needed extra
help in completing their education.
“We expect a certain number of
students who are at risk to enroll at
open-enrollment institutions,” he said.
“We have support systems to deal
with those students who have defi
ciencies.”
Mash said he considered Wayne
State a good option for “at-risk” stu
dents.
“Our stance is: ‘Let us do what we
can to get students to come to us
better prepared, but regard less of how
prepared they arc when they come,
we have to have programs in place to
give them a reasonable chance of
success.’
“Our success is not based upon the
entrance scores of our freshmen —
it’s based upon what we do with them
when we get them.”
Robert Burns, president of Peru
State College, said he did not think
higher standards at UNL would rep
resent a serious problem for Peru Stale.
“I suspect there won’t be a major
shift in students from one place to
another,” he said.
Bums said if Peru Stale did expe
rience a significant increase in stu
dents, it would be difficult to support
them, but he said he did not think
tougher adm issions standards at U NL
would cause that to happen.
He said that, while he supported
UNL’s move to examine its admis
sion standards, Peru State would
continue its policy of open enroll
ment.
“We’re watching what’s going on,’’
he said. “I suspect we will be ready to
take up the challenge, whatever hap
pens at the university.”
Sam Rankin, presidentofChadron
State College, said he thought that as
long as UNL provided adequate time
for high school students to adapt to
new standards, that they would not be
a problem.
“What is important is to provide
enough time to prepare for this,” he
said.
Savidge
Continued from Page 1
versity of Illinois in Champaign,
Savidge was employed by the
government of Guam. She tempo
rarily relocated to Guam where she
completed her dissertation on the
brown tree snake.
The decline of Guam’s bird
population had baffled conserva
tionists and scientists until Savidge
discovered the culprit responsible
for the near-extinction of birds.
‘‘At first when I started the
research, there was some skepticism
from some other scientists about the
reason why the birds were going
extinct,” she said.
Scientists were skeptical of her
theory that the brown tree snake
was preying on the birds.
Her research implicated the
brown tree snake. Because of the
results of Savidge’s study, measures
have been taken to control the
snake.
Since leaving Guam in 1987 and
coming to work at UNL, Savidgc
has taught classes in the natural
resources field.
“I hope I can raise an interest in
the conservation of wildlife and
correct management,” she said.
