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October 21,
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LYLE SFFFLER shows a group of about 30 UNL foriegn exchange students the seeds of his milo crop Saturday afternootf. Sittler,
who operates Blue Stem Valley Farm, gave the group a tour to help show other aspects of Nebraska life outside of campus.
:,
By Heidi White
Staff Reporter
Maija Smits had never walked through
fields of milo or watched cattle grazing in a
pasture until Saturday.
Smits, a business graduate student, has
lived in the city all her life, and it was a city
far away from the farms that surround Lin
coln.
Smits, a native of Amsterdam, Nether
lands, was one of 30 University ofNebraska
Lincoln international students who visited a
farm Saturday.
“I’m not familiar with farm life at all,”
Smits said. . ..
The students got a taste of Nebraska farm
life during harvest season after taking a trip
to Blue Stem Valley Farm near Martell,
which is about 20 miles southwest of Lin
coln. - .
“A lot of times they come here and don’t
know what to expect,” said Nickette
Nakama, an International Affairs reception
ist
Smits said she thought the farm would
be different “like what you see in American
movies.” > -
Lihyunn Lee, a business management
major from Klang, Malaysia, said she went
on the trip because she wanted to see an
American farm and experience fanning in
Nebraska by looking at the crops and the
scenery.
She said the Martell farm was very dif
ferent from the fields she had in hercountry.
Lutfullah Turkmen, a biology education
major from Antalya, Turkey, said he went
on the trip because he wanted to see the simi
larities and differences in farm styles and
technology between his country and
America. ^ - -
Turkmen said the 1,513-acre Blue Stem
Valley farm was his idea of a classic Ameri
can farm, and farms in his country were much
Please see FARM on 6
Athletes teach running skills
to boys with prosthetic limbs
Bt Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
Even after 10 years of playing soccer, two
Lincoln youths learned a valuable lesson from
two professional athletes Friday—how to run.
Running poses a different challenge to Jeff
Bayer and Matt Nolde. Bayer, 15, uses a pros
thetic leg, and Nolde, 15, uses prosthetic feet.
Two professional athletes, each with a pros
thetic leg, worked with Bayer and Nolde for
two hours Friday at the Wesleyan Knight Field
House.
World-class track athletes Kurt Collier and
Tom Martin showed die boys how to adjust their
prosthetic limbs to run faster and more effi
ciently. v
Collier, a bronze medalist in this year’s
Paralympic Games, told them to learn balance
on their prosthetic limb.
“The better your balance is, the better you’ll
be able to hit these nmnmg positions,” Collier
said.
Although Bayer can juggle a soccer ball
skillfully between his left leg and his prosthetic
right, when be runs, his upper-body sways back
and forth.
By improving his balance, Bayer should be
able to run with his back straight and his arms
parallel, Collier said.
“We don’t want the arms doing the twist,”
Martin said, and instructed Bayer to straighten
his stride and “run like Fonest Gump.” %
That upper-body twist is wasted motion,
Martin said, and an efficient runner wants to
run a straight line.
Collier showed the boys how to get more
power from their stride by lifting" their legs
higher. That motion makes thefegs pull die body
forward rather than push the ground back, he
said. __
Please see SOCCER on 6
Educators
rally behind
Nelson bid
By Erin Gibson
Staff Reporter
OMAHA — Educators rallied Saturday to
support a former UNL logic instructor in his bid
for the U.S. Senate.
Nebraska teachers cheered Gov. Ben
Nelson’s 10-year record on education — a
record that includes tripling Nebraska public
education funding — during a rally at 2912 S.
84th St., near the governor’s Omaha campaign
headquarters.
Nelson promised rally participants he would
continue support for Nebraska’s public educa
tion from Washington, if elected.
The governor himself benefitted from
Nebraska’s public education. Nelson, a Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln alumnus, returned to
UNL in 1963 to teach Philosophy 410C, a logic
course, until 1967.
Nelson said his opponent wanted to elimi
nate federal funding of public education for kin
dergarten through 12th grade, which would cost
Nebraska $150 million annually.
‘It’s irresponsible. It’s unnecessary. And it
will not happen if 1 have a. voice in dte-Lh^ed
States Senate,” Nelson said*;
• -‘-/V Republican challenger Chuck Hagel’s edu
cation cuts would damage school-lunch pro
grams, cut funds for school improvements and
cut special education programs, including closed
captioning for the hearing>impaired, Nelson ^
said.
Beth Feldman, a teacher at Omaha Central
High School, said educators rallied in support
for Nelson because they trust him.
“We know where Gov. Nelson stands,” she
said. “He has a proven track record.”
State education funding increased dining
Nelson’s time as governor, even thoughlie bal
anced the state budget, she sakL
“There’s a world of difference” between
Nelson and Hagel, Feldman said. Hagel sup
ports the elimination of die U.S. Department of
Education, which would hurt education in Ne
braska, she saicL
“We cannot afford in this country to lose the
public education that we have,” she said. “It’s
Please see NELSON cm 7
Jay Calderok/DN
FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Jeff Bayer, left, plays with a soccer ball while being trained by
professional athletes Kurt Collier mid Tbm Martin. The athletes taught Bayer how to use
his prosthetic leg in competition.