“Everyone at �㽶��Ƶ has your back, wants you to succeed, and no matter what area you are in, everyone on campus will help you out,” said Sites, who is from Erie, Colorado.

After attending the conference last year, Bultman and several of her classmates decided to enter works in the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) 2026 Juried Student Exhibition, held March 25-28 in Detroit.

The exhibition was highly competitive, with nearly 800 entries. Bultman’s ceramic vessel was one of just 44 pieces selected for the show.

“The conference provides an opportunity to develop professional contacts and improve practices in the ceramic arts,” said �㽶��Ƶ ceramics instructor Jerome Dubas ’83, adding that the undergraduate juried student exhibition is at the core of what makes NCECA so special.

Bultman, who lives in Hastings, created the piece as one of eight pieces designed for her senior capstone.

“‘Jadis’ is the name of the White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia,” Bultman said, as she found herself examining intersections between her Dutch heritage and her interest in children’s literature.

The piece is created in the style of Dutch Delftware, as a tribute to Bultman’s grandmother and their family, who originated from Holland.

“I’ve always been attracted to the blue and white glazing style and thought that might be something interesting for me to explore,” she said. “My grandma is one of the strongest women I know and I wanted to explore Girl Power, femininity and gender studies.”

Majoring in both studio art with an emphasis in ceramics and English with an emphasis in writing, Bultman searched for a way to tie both of her capstones together.

In studying children’s literature and looking at different themes and structures, Bultman noticed that lots of female characters are cast as villainous or as evil, which she found to be an interesting power dynamic.

“Jadis is cast as the villain, and I think it’s because people are scared of women in power,” she said.

The design on the vase contains several hidden gems, including references to Jadis turning people and animals into stone as she invokes fear in her subjects to maintain her authority.

Bultman designed eight vessels, featuring eight women from different stories and folklore.

“Besides displaying technical skill, Anna‘s work shows the influence of a liberal arts education,” Dubas said. “The surface design of her work reflects her cultural heritage, as well as her studies in the literary arts.”

Dubas will accompany 13 students to Detroit this year, where the show’s jury includes both ceramic artist Eva Kwong and Gary Garrido Schneider, who is the executive director of Grounds for Sculpture.

More than 5,000 students, artists and lovers of ceramics are expected to attend the conference and exhibition, which will feature artworks from undergraduate, post-baccalaureate and graduate students in Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The student exhibition will run concurrently with “Volumes,” the 60th annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

Being accepted into NCECA’s Juried Student Exhibition is a major accomplishment, Dubas said.

“Anna having a piece in the show is a tribute to her, the ceramics program at �㽶��Ƶ, the �㽶��Ƶ Art Department and �㽶��Ƶ at large,” he said.

By Laurie Cicotello ‘94/MAT ’01

This was especially true in Burkina Faso and Malawi where I served as the U.S. Ambassador. Upon retirement, I joined the Board of Advancing Girls Education in Africa (AGE Africa). My journey with AGE Africa deepened in April of this year when I visited our programs in Malawi.

I met extraordinary young women whose determination and resilience embody the mission of AGE Africa. Through scholarships and CHATS — our peer-led life skills program — these girls are breaking barriers, building confidence and carving out futures that once seemed unimaginable. Sitting with them, hearing their stories, I realized that AGE Africa is not simply providing education. We are nurturing agency, courage and leadership in a new generation of Malawian women.

What struck me most was the multiplier effect of our work. CHATS does not end when the session closes; it spills over into families, schools and communities. Younger children watch and learn. Parents take notice of their daughters’ newfound confidence. Villages begin to shift their expectations.

AGE Africa is not just educating individuals — it is reshaping cultural landscapes and creating generational change.

Serving on the AGE Africa Board is more than governance or oversight. It is a commitment to walk alongside these girls as they pursue dreams once denied to so many before them. It is an opportunity to amplify their voices and to invest in their potential.

My visit to Malawi reaffirmed what I already believed: that empowering girls through education is the best way to build a more equitable, prosperous world. AGE Africa is doing exactly that—and I am honored to be part of it.

A sign in my office says: “May many futures flourish because of you.”

Thanks to �㽶��Ƶ for the education that allowed me to flourish and in turn, help others flourish.

By Jeanine Jackson ‘71

This article originally appeared in the fall 2026 edition of HC Today.

Some of her works are portraits, while others are animations, each designed to enhance the stories they accompany. In one animation, a weary dog walking trudging everyday scenes, brought to life an article titled “We Take Our Dogs Everywhere. Maybe We Shouldn’t,” demonstrating Kondrich’s uncanny ability to distill complex arguments into compelling visuals.

Kondrich’s interest in illustration began through listening to a podcast about the industry. Kondrich, who graduated in 2004 with a degree in art, believed it was a feasible thing to do, which is when she started her freelance journey.

“I am a lover of variety,” Kondrich said. “I love illustration so much because I get to draw anything and everything.”

Kondrich began doing freelance illustrations in 2009 under Michelle Kondrich Illustrations. Since then, her illustrations have been in many publications, such as the New York Times, The Chronicle for Higher Education and Politico Europe. She has also created several illustrations for �㽶��Ƶ, including a print of Taylor Hall. In 2023, she started working at the Washington Post as an illustrator and art director.

As an illustrator at the Post, Kondrich is immersed in a creative environment where she’s tasked with curating ideas, crafting drawings and creating animations for stories selected by the Washington Post editors.

A key aspect of Kondrich’s role involves interpreting articles she is sketching for. Before she begins, she is given the article that needs illustration. Then, after analyzing the article and generating ideas, she sends at least 3-5 illustrations to the art director.

While at the Washington Post, she has done many illustrations that are quite eye-catching. Last year on February 12, 2024, Kondrich illustrated the trip a “rose” makes on Valentine’s Day.

While using the entire screen, she can showcase not only her illustration abilities but also her creativity.

Kondrich would not be where she is without the help of the art department at �㽶��Ƶ. “I made connections with people, my friends and my instructors,” Kondrich said. “I was able to explore things that I was interested in and it gave me a wonderful foundation.”

By Victoria Harris, a sophomore English and communication studies double major from Houston, Texas

“The composition of this particular painting is almost perfect. It draws your eyes from the corner across the entire painting, and the dome echoes the minty color of the light above. Even though he painted the people below with just a single dab of a brush, your brain fills in the gaps. I think it’s stunning,” said Goad, a sophomore from Gothenburg, Nebraska.

With her lifelong love of painting, academic studies in studio art and art history, and skills honed as a speech competitor, Goad was a natural fit as a summer intern at the award-winning museum and gallery in Cozad, Nebraska.

“About three years ago, I started thinking about working in the museum business, creating and curating galleries. Then, two days before I was about to leave college for the summer, an email about this internship popped up in my inbox. I thought it was the perfect opportunity,” Goad said.

Initially, Museum Executive Director Peter Osborne thought the 19-year-old might be too young for the program (previous interns were more experienced, including one from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland). Still, Osborne was impressed by Goad’s “fantastic” application essay and selected her for the position.

“After she had been here for about 10 days, we threw her to the lions and had her give tours. I can’t tell you how many visitors over the summer have told us what a great tour guide she is. She’s very poised and knowledgeable,” Osborne said. “Ally also brought her skills as an artist and a student of art history to the position.”

This story originally appeared in the 2024 HC Today.

Sharing a colorful life

Goad guided hundreds of visitors through the Robert Henri Museum, a two-story, gray building that was a hotel for travelers and Henri’s childhood home from 1879 to 1883. Henri’s father, John Cozad, a well-to-do gambler who founded the prairie town on the 100th meridian, fled Cozad after fatally shooting a local rancher during a land dispute. His family left soon after, all assuming new identities.

“Robert Henry Cozad became Robert Earl Henri. He kept that name for the rest of his life, even though his father was eventually exonerated,” Goad said.

Henri attended art school in Philadelphia and became a distinguished painter and art instructor in New York City, teaching students like Edward Hopper and George Bellows, who went on to illustrious careers.

A realist and leader of the Ashcan School of Art, Henri completed more than four thousand oil paintings. He is best known for portraits of ordinary people from different social classes and ethnicities, like the paintings “Dancing Gypsy Girl” and “Dutch Girl with Sailor Hat” that hang in the Cozad gallery.

“In my own art, I enjoy painting and drawing people. That’s probably why Robert Henri quickly became one of my favorite artists; he worked primarily in portraiture,” Goad said.

In addition to museum and gallery tours, Goad worked in the archives and wrote descriptions for an exhibit focused on the geography of where Henri painted, including places like France, Holland and New York. The exhibit will be housed in a new $3.5 million gallery scheduled to open in December.

“I trust her knowledge and her ability to do research,” Osborne said. “These descriptions need to be right because this will become the national center for Robert Henri’s legacy. We have more of his paintings on display than anywhere in the world. We’ll add another 10 or 15 in the new gallery.”

Learning to lead a nonprofit museum

When she wasn’t busy greeting visitors attracted by the Robert Henri Museum signs on Interstate 80, Goad participated in sessions with Osborne designed to immerse her in the world of museum management. Topics included nonprofit legal structure, exhibit creation, strategic planning, budgeting and bookkeeping, fundraising and collection management. She also attended a board meeting and met with nonprofit directors in the community.

Given Goad’s aptitude and passion for the profession, Osborne has invited her back as an intern next summer. Through her eyes as an artist, he wants her to analyze and create descriptions of all the paintings in the gallery. Goad is eager to start that process and explore other ideas she’s generated.

“I’d like to create a timeline of Robert Henri’s life and career,” she said.

“Next summer. You’re on it,” Osborne said.

By Judee Konen ‘85

Johnson, who works at Windsor High School, developed a passion for leading as he graduated from �㽶��Ƶ with a science and biology education degree. He wanted to mentor and coach in some way and was offered a position to teach and coach at Buena Vista High School in Buena Vista Colorado, where he spent two years mentoring students and athletes.

“I believe every good coach is a teacher, so it was important and exciting to be able to provide that mentorship and leadership to them, both in and out of the classroom; on and off the field,” Johnson said.

Johnson then spent seven years at Windsor Middle School before he transitioned to high school.

His goals for Windsor High School all center around a main theme: creating an involved and supportive school culture. The idea came to him while in administration at the middle school, and the concept of mentorship had stemmed before he began teaching. Playing baseball for the Broncos, he saw the coaching and dedication that was part of the team’s leadership. It made such an impression that it stuck with him all these years later.

“The goal was to help the middle school students reignite their excitement to learn again. In today’s era, there isn’t a fire to learn and create, there’s a lack of support for the kids to be curious about their education. So I wanted to continue re-sparking that same feeling for the high school students,” he said.

By focusing on the care and concern protocol enforced by the school’s acronym STAR (Strength, Trust, Accountability, and Respect), Johnson and other staff can gauge whether students’ engagement and response to faulty learning styles are adequate.

On the athletics side, Johnson has been preparing both coaches and athletes as they began this year in a new, bigger class division, meaning they’ll compete against larger schools of a higher caliber.

Johnson said he’s been working with coaches to strengthen team culture and community involvement by starting the Captains Club.

“Captains Club has regular meetings with team captains to get a sense of what’s going on with each team dynamic and if there’s conflict and how to overcome that together as a student athletic body,” he said.

Different schools, same vision

Lanter, who works at Severance High School, graduated from Hastings with a bachelor’s degree in studio art and art education. She found her first opportunity in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she taught for eight years, then spent a brief year teaching in Texas before moving closer to home.

After returning home, Lanter found a position with Windsor High School. This best suited her needs being the location and her desire to teach art and coach softball and track. She worked at Windsor High School for the next eight years as an art teacher and coach and was heavily encouraged by supportive Windsor colleagues to pursue her master’s in administration.

Later, she applied for and was offered the assistant principal and athletic director position at Severance. This is Lanter’s second year working in administration at Severance.

Although no longer at Windsor, Lanter still has strong connections to Windsor High School. She partners with Eric Johnson or as she calls him, “EJ,” in helping her balance the life of athletic director and assistant principal. She refers to Johnson as her “district counterpart” who keeps her from losing her head amidst the chaos the job throws at her.

Attending most student events is Lanter’s’ key to a collective and supportive student body.

“Senior nights, homecoming games, late night basketball games or cross country meets, I do my best to attend every event, but I also have a supportive administrative team that steps up when I need support to be with my family. We want to show not only the students, but the families, that the administration and the staff are always rooting for them,” Lanter said.

Lanter herself was an athlete during her time at �㽶��Ƶ, primarily as a softball and volleyball player, so she knew what it meant to athletes that have a supportive community rooting and cheering you on. After she tore her ACL her freshman year while playing softball, and undergoing a second minor surgery with copious amounts of physical therapy her direction changed — sacrificing volleyball to play softball and focusing more on her degree in art education.

Severance High School is still relatively new — it opened in 2019.  Lanter said she’s made it a goal to put the school on the community’s radar.

“Since the school is so new it has endured many turnovers in leadership and staff, it’s up to us to model expectations we have for Severance and hold parents, students and staff accountable for their own involvement with the school. We also want to assure the community that we are here to stay and we are here for the success of everyone here at Severance High School,” Lanter said.

By promoting more athletic recognition amongst students, launching new mural projects to liven up the halls of the school, and continually strengthening the brand identity of the school, Lanter said she plans to continue getting the school’s name out into the community.

The time spent by both Johnson and Lanter at �㽶��Ƶ, both academically and as student-athletes played a crucial role in shaping their understanding of the significance of community and what it means to foster a positive culture. These experiences now guide them in their roles as leaders and mentors, contributing to creating more cohesive and interconnected communities within their respective schools.

By Cecilia Velarde, a junior marketing and communication studies double major from Loveland, Colorado

“Not everybody gets this type of experience,” Mlynarik said.

Mlynarik found this internship with the help of the alumni mentoring program. She was partnered with  Ann Martin ‘77, chair of the �㽶��Ƶ Board of Trustees who is an artist and retired local business owner. Martin set up a meeting for Mlynarik to meet with Chris Hochstetler, executive director of the .

“We had a meeting with him and just discussed what I could possibly do in the future and get some ideas. Then he suggested I apply and see if I could get this internship,” Mlynarik said.

At Stuhr Museum, Mlynarik participated in their research library and archive internship.  She helped work on a large project that the museum has undertaken.

“I worked on this huge collection called ‘The Leschinsky Glass Plate Negative Collection.’ It consists of about 28,000 glass plates,” Mlynarik said.

The glass plates in Julius Leschinsky’s collection have photos on them that span from the late 1880s to the early 1930s. These photos feature people from Grand Island, as Leschinsky was the premier photographer for all of Hall County at the time. This collection has a lot of Grand Island history in it, making it an important project for Stuhr Museum.

Mlynarik was properly trained to handle all of the glass plates and any other artifacts she might have been working with. She had to first carefully clean each side of the plate, with special attention to the side with the photo on it, then it needed time to dry. While that was happening, she wrote down all the information that could be found on the plate itself. Once a large group of them finished drying, they scanned them into the system.

This process to catalog all the plates in the Leschinsky collection is a long one. There are six different sizes of the plates, but during her time there Mlynarik was only able to help finish cataloging the two smallest sizes.

“They’re about a year into it, and their goal is to finish in about another two years, so I’m just a fraction of the progress,” Mlynarik said.

Mlynarik appreciated this experience because it answered questions she had about her future.

“That’s why I started this internship. I wanted to see if this is some kind of environment I want to be in in the future,” Mlynarik said.

She got to see what a 40-hour work week would be like, what an office job would be like and what a behind the scenes museum environment would be like.

Though Mlynarik isn’t really sure what she wants to do in the future, she knows she loved her experience at the Stuhr Museum.

“I worked 40 hours a week and I felt like I wanted to keep working because I wanted to help so much more,” Mlynarik said. “Summer wasn’t enough.”

By Ally Banks, a junior English major from Shawnee, Kansas

“It started at �㽶��Ƶ with Tom Kreager. That was my first introduction to welding,” Jurgensmier said. “People assume I learned to weld on the farm, but that was not the case. It was a totally new experience for me.”

Over the past three decades, Jurgensmier has fused her passion for art with her rural sensibilities to create a thriving business, “Sculptures by Sally.” Since her first welded sculpture in college (an archway that now welcomes visitors to a sculpture garden outside her showroom), she has salvaged materials from manufacturers’ scrap heaps and farmers’ piles of discarded metal and old machinery.

“Every farmyard has an iron pile, so I went through my dad’s. Word got out, and I started getting calls from neighbors asking if I wanted to look at their metal scraps before they took them to the junkyard,” she said.

Jurgensmier’s work can be found in private collections throughout the state. In 2020, the Hastings Business Improvement District commissioned her to create “Cottonwood,” a raw steel sculpture of a cottonwood leaf that now sits at the corner of First Street and Lincoln Avenue. In August, she was one of only seven artists, artisans and craftspeople featured in “Heartland Handmade,” a television special on Nebraska Public Media.

Reflecting rural life

In a metal whooping crane, Jurgensmier captures the beauty of the majestic, long-legged bird that migrates over her fields. She recreates in metal the cornstalks and cows that are familiar sights along Nebraska’s country roads. She welds pieces of old machinery into abstract sculptures that seem both ornamental and functional, like they could hang on a living room wall or plow a field.

Jurgensmier’s most satisfying transactions occur when patrons visit her farm in person and experience the environment where the art is created.

“I live in a rural area, and I’m very influenced by that in my art,” Jurgensmier said. “To create more of an attachment between me and my customers, I like for them to come here, see where I live, see my workshop and the showroom where the finished pieces are displayed. It gives more meaning to the pieces and helps customers attach them to their own experiences and memories.”

Visitors to Jurgensmier’s farm also find remnants of her late mother’s antique business. Old photo frames, dishes and furniture, all for sale, line the east wall of the artist’s showroom.

“My first sculptures were highly influenced by my mom’s business and our collaborations,” Jurgensmier said. “The antique business was a good way for us to spend time together, so that was a natural influence on my art.”

Inspiration from a pile of junk

Jurgensmier does what she calls the “dirty work” of cleaning, cutting, grinding and welding metal in a building separate
from her professional showroom. That building houses a narrow welding shop and the enormous collection of scrap metal gleaned from local manufacturers and neighbors’ farms.

“There are days when I head to the welding shop when I know what I’m going to make. I’ve been cataloging some of my junk in my head so I know where to find it, what to do with it and how to put it together,” she said. “Other days, I just start with a piece of junk. The reason I’ve kept it might be the texture, the shape or just the feel of it in my hands. That’s where the inspiration comes from.”
Jurgensmier’s tidy farmstead with its brick ranch house, red outbuildings and scampering farm cats might be an unconventional place to create great art, but for an artist grounded in and inspired by rural life, it’s an optimal setting.

“An ideal day for me is a day I never have to leave the farm,” she said. “That means I get up, drink my coffee, walk the dogs, go to the welding shop and let the ideas unravel and the metal speak to me. That’s a great day.”

By Judee Konen ’85

Polacek, who minored in art and is from Omaha, Nebraska, said good advising helped her select the right courses, then the Career Services office helped her find an internship where she could observe art therapy sessions.

“Everyone here wants you to succeed, and they are going to do as much as they can to support you to help you get where you want to go,” she said. “Hastings gets you to your next step.”

Savanah Ellis spent last summer in a basement.

Painting for more than 100 hours in that basement, she was able to complete a full room mural for the Axtell (Nebraska) First Presbyterian Church. Ellis, who just finished her junior year at �㽶��Ƶ, was approached about this project by her brother and church pastor Logan Ellis, after the church received a grant from the Nebraska Presbyterian Foundation to use for community engagement.

The church decided to use these funds to transform their basement into a gathering place for its youth, complete with a full room mural encapsulating the natural world. When her brother began to envision what the mural would be, she had the idea of making each wall different, yet related. With nature as the ultimate theme, each wall became a separate scene, including the ocean, mountains, forest, sky and finally, a simple sketch of the Last Supper.

Once a plan was in place, it was time to get to work. Ellis, who is majoring in art and international relations, started painting in May 2021, and made it her goal to finish it by the start the fall. Over the summer she often spent 14 hours per day, painting in seclusion.

“When I work, I like to try and finish things in one sitting, even when that means working 14 hours straight. There were a lot of times I wanted to stop and I just couldn’t, that’s just not how my creativity works,” Ellis said.

This isn’t the first time that she has devoted herself to a large-scale project. Ellis discovered her artistic talent at a young age, and spent many hours painting murals throughout her hometown of Beaver City, Nebraska, as a high school student. These murals were done in collaboration with another student artist; some of their projects include a mural of the famous Great Wave at the Beaver City pool and a mural of a barn and pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch.

Murals require lots of time and dedication from Ellis, but seeing the effect that the finished product of her art has on other people always makes it worthwhile.

“Painting on such a large scale is both mentally and physically taxing, so if I am going to do it, I am doing it for a purpose. Since spending so long in the church basement painting and working, I became sort of detached from its beauty. It has been so rewarding for me to watch others walk in and see the church basement,” she said

Ellis was able to experience this first hand by incorporating her mural into her Honors Capstone project. She held an art show in the church’s social hall and invited members of the Axtell and �㽶��Ƶ community to attend. Entitled Sonder, the purpose of her show was for viewers to see the artistic and personal growth Ellis has endured since coming to college.

“Growing up in a small town you know everyone, and you believe there is a specific way to do things. But when I came to college, I realized there are so many people who have so many different experiences that are all special to them. I’ve been thinking about this concept for awhile, and the progression of my work over the last few years really shows that.”

This project has also been beneficial to Ellis’s future career aspirations. With plans to become museum art curator, her job would be to pick the art pieces that are exhibited in art shows. This is exactly what Ellis got to experience when putting together Sonder.

Ellis will be beginning her fourth and final year at Hastings next fall and plans to continue building her resume by participating in the Irish Fellows program during the fall semester. �㽶��Ƶ students will spend five weeks in Ireland pursuing research and service learning related to their chosen field of study. Ellis plans to spend her time in Ireland working on another mural.

“Right now I am tentatively planning sister murals, so a mural in Hastings and one in Ireland. Ideally each mural will be about the other place, to show the connection between the two places,” she said.

The chance to bring different cultures together through her murals is an exciting opportunity to incorporate both of her passions of art and international relations into one work.

Looking to the future, Ellis said she’s excited to continue expanding her worldview and seeing that reflected in her art, a journey that grew during her time of learning and creating at �㽶��Ƶ.

By Landry Hinkson, a sophomore communication major from Bazaar, Kansas.