In the South Gallery — a space for rotating exhibits of artifacts and fine art — she points out the diverse and vibrant watercolors of Omaha artist Telagio Baptista, an exhibit she facilitated and designed.

“We try to give visitors both historical and artistic exhibits,” said Christenson, a Cairo, Nebraska, native who graduated from �㽶��Ƶ with a major in history and minor in art. “We like to give people a taste of everything.”

The museum’s director of exhibits and assistant curator since 2023, Christenson is both storyteller and interpreter, someone who brings the past to life in creative, engaging ways.

She manages the museum’s exhibit calendar, balancing rotating and semi-permanent displays that shape the visitor experience. Planning now stretches through 2028, including solo artist exhibits, historical features and “Wings Over the Platte,” a 2026 art exhibit celebrating the Platte River and the migration of 1.25 million Sandhill Cranes.

At times, Christenson works on events and exhibits in Stuhr’s Railroad Town, a collection of 1890s-era homes and businesses. Guests can buy a cone at the general store, see prairie town newspaper and post offices and watch tradesmen in the blacksmith and tinsmith shops. Many of the buildings are original artifacts relocated from sites in Grand Island.

“Stuhr has 140,000 artifacts. That includes all of the houses and buildings in Railroad Town,” she said.

Storytelling through exhibits

Christenson’s first independently planned exhibit, “Weathering the Storm: The Weather Events that Shaped Central Nebraska,” remains her favorite. On display in Spring 2025, it explored three defining weather events — tornadoes, blizzards and floods — through artifacts, photographs and narrative storytelling.

One section focused on the 1980 tornado outbreak in Grand Island, when a single supercell produced seven twisters, leaving five people dead and causing $300 million in damage. The display featured objects ravaged by the storm — a mangled teapot with the handle torn off, a twisted grounding stake and a bowling ball from Meves Bowl, destroyed that night. Longtime meteorologist Kent Boughton shared his memories of the disaster.

“That tornado destroyed all of South Locust Street,” Christenson said. “Looking at it today, you’d never know that. To me, it was important to bring that into the light again and show how the community stepped up to support each other, overcome and rebuild.”

She has worked on other popular exhibits, including “World War II on the Homefront,” and is planning future projects that blend art, history and community reflection.

“Museums today are trying to engage visitors more — with videos, tactile displays and interactive elements,” she said. “It can be as simple as asking visitors to share their thoughts on paper, so they can be part of the exhibit too.”

A path shaped by �㽶��Ƶ

Christenson didn’t begin college hoping to work in museums. “Initially, I was dead set on archaeology,” she said.

Encouraged by history professor Dr. Rob Babcock to test the field before investing her time and money in graduate studies, she joined a summer dig in Mississippi at a Paleolithic Indian site.

“We were in the woods all day — bugs, snakes, no shoes — and I spent hours in a one-by-one-meter hole,” she said. “It was meticulous, tedious work, and I had scars from the bugs for months.”

When she returned, Babcock asked how it went. Her answer was simple: “You were right. I didn’t like it.”

Then he asked, “Have you ever thought about museum work? You get the cleaned-up version of what you were doing out there.”

That advice changed her direction. Christenson interned at the Stuhr Museum in collections and archives, where she learned about cataloging systems and exhibit preparation. She later interned at the .

“Museums often have a lot of items in storage that no one gets to see,” she said. “I liked getting behind the scenes.”

After graduating, Christenson earned a master of public administration degree from Northern Arizona University. “The MPA helped me understand the administrative side of how nonprofits operate, which has been invaluable here. At the core, we’re small, and we’re all doing a lot of different things,” she said.

When she finished her degree, Stuhr hired her. Her husband, Ryan Christenson ’19, teaches social-emotional creative arts at Howard Elementary in Grand Island.

Asked what an exhibit about her �㽶��Ƶ experience might look like, she paused thoughtfully.

“I feel like it should be a tribute to the orange room in McCormick,” she said, referring to the anteroom in the history department where students connect with professors and one another. “The history department was so supportive — Dr. Babcock, Dr. (Glenn) Avent, Dr. (Catherine) Biba. History isn’t just mundane, boring things like dingy books. It can be bright and can spark something in you.”

By Judee Konen ’85

What happens when theories of religion, geography, modern life and nature are combined? �㽶��Ƶ students Emma Morelli and Claire Fuqua went to a five-week Summer Youth Internship (SYI) at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS) this past summer to find out.

Fuqua, a sophomore wildlife biology and philosophy & religion major from Woodland Park, Colorado; and Morelli, a senior history major from Thornton, Colorado, were two of 12 students from across the country who were selected for SYI.

SYI is an internship that focuses on finding hope through spiritual practice and theological reflection in times of crisis. The participants did some community organizing and learned about how religion impacts geography and the history of Pittsburgh.

Both students were very excited about being selected and the program itself.

“It was such a wonderful opportunity,” Morelli said. “I wanted to see how different people’s experiences contrasted with mine.”

Fuqua said that her peers were by far the best part.

“It was cool to be surrounded by people who were interested in religion and science and how they worked together,” Fuqua said.

During a typical week, Monday and Tuesday mornings were dedicated to workshops, and the afternoons would be for small group discussions. Wednesdays were reserved for Tazié and exploring Pittsburgh and the rich outdoor opportunities in western Pennsylvania. Thursdays were for experimental learning at the Garfield community farms.

Each student received a notebook to write down what they had learned over the five weeks. Their goals were to talk about ecotheology, theological geography and vocation.

Fuqua and Morelli received $3,000 for full participation in the program, and their room, board and travel were covered by a stipend. They will also be eligible to apply for additional funding through the Fellowship for Contextual Ministry and Community Research program.

PTS was founded in the 1790s and is a graduate theological school of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), offering master’s and doctor of ministry degrees as well as certificate programs. SYI is offered for undergraduate students interested in religion and how it shapes our world.

The two students found out about the program from �㽶��Ƶ religion professor Dr. Dorothy Dean.

“Dr. Dean went out of her way to send me the application,” Fuqua said. “It doesn’t matter that I get accepted, it matters that they thought of me.”

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

As a public history consultant living in Dunstable, Massachusetts, Whetstone preserves and advocates for our collective connections to the past.

“A public historian does historical work beyond the academy,” Whetstone said. “That includes things like working in museums, working for the National Park Service, working for preservation organizations. It encompasses the ways people interact with history that aren’t exclusive to the classroom. When you frame it that way, you realize that we interact with history in many ways every day.”

Whetstone, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s doctoral program in history and received a graduate certificate in public history, recently published an article in The Public Historian, the preeminent academic journal in the field of public history. Titled “Renting History: Housing and Labor on Public History’s Front Lines,” the article traces the practice of renting and exchanging labor for housing at museums and historic sites as they evolved over the 20th century.

Whetstone’s idea for the article took root several years earlier during a part-time job in his hometown of Kearney, Nebraska.

“In high school, I was a tour guide at the GW Frank Museum of History and Culture at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. That museum once had staff who lived on the second floor and gave tours of the first floor,” he said.

During graduate school, Whetstone began to “dig in earnest” on the topic when he was involved with a project to expand the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, a historic house museum in Hadley, Massachusetts, that has three apartments on site.

Now, Whetstone is under contract with the University of Massachusetts Press to expand his research into a book called “Renting History: Housing, Labor, and America’s Heritage Infrastructure.” The expected publication date is 2027.

Honing his skills at �㽶��Ƶ

From an early age, Whetstone has been intrigued by history.

“Part of my childhood was in an older home in Kearney. I have very visceral memories of that old house. There was something special about it,” he said. “Working at the Frank Museum in high school helped articulate why and how a place could matter to our communities and sense of identity.”

After a new director at the Frank Museum introduced the young scholar to the field of public history, Whetstone discovered �㽶��Ƶ as an ideal place to pursue his passions.

“When you pair the work of historians with the work of service learning that Hastings was doing, you get public history — thinking about how history can take shape outside the classroom in our communities,” he said.

Whetstone was selected for an Architectural History Field School experience with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the College of William and Mary in Virginia the summer before his junior year. After he returned to campus, the �㽶��Ƶ Board of Trustees asked him to pursue a historic designation for Weyer Hall. The project expanded when the Nebraska State Historic Preservation Office suggested he seek a designation for a broader portion of campus.

Following months of research, architectural documentation and presentations to the state office, the National Park Service added 12 campus buildings significant in the College’s post-World War II growth to the National Register of Historic Places as a local historic district. A historic marker next to the Daugherty Center recognizes the designation.

Finding early success in his field

At only 29, Whetstone has already distinguished himself as a public historian.

After graduate school, he was one of only eight scholars selected as a Princeton-Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for the Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities at Princeton University. He coordinated research and technical documentation projects as a historian for the National Park Service’s History, Architecture, Conservation and Engineering Center. He was a research fellow for the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites.

While intelligence and enthusiasm have driven his success, Whetstone is quick to credit his mentors at �㽶��Ƶ.

“The history department always asked how we could make history useful and relevant to the wider world beyond a class or a reading. That’s the underlying question in the field of public history. Hastings trained me to think that way, and it has made me a better historian,” he said.

By Judee Konen ’85

“This is a reason why I chose to come to a smaller campus,” she said, adding that the College really wants students to be well rounded and involved with the community.

Myers, a history major, found herself wielding axes while donning armor to protect herself from the blows. She even bought a historically accurate Viking battle helmet.

While Myers participated in �㽶��Ƶ Theatre, this experience was nothing like that, as members actually hit one another with the weapons as part of the act.

“I stumbled upon the society at a fair Dundee was hosting. I was intrigued, so I met with some members and immediately hit it off. They quickly convinced me to join, and I was happy to have a new community where I made many friends,” Myers said.

She would regularly train with other members to practice battling techniques for the shows. Myers said they had practice almost every day to ensure everyone knows how to handle and use the weapons — and to make sure their armor is worn correctly to prevent injuries. Even so, Myers said she would get so into playing her characters that she’d sometimes come home with bruises or a banged up finger from battling practice.

“Unfortunately, I got into a freak accident involving someone’s shield and my thumb, and I broke my thumb,” said Myers.

While the medieval battles were a great outlet and way to make friends, Myers inherited her love of history from her father, who spent time in his younger years before Myers was born studying in Germany, where he worked on his PhD dissertation in German history. Her family adopted Myers from Russia when she was a baby and brought her home to Overland Park, Kansas. As she grew, her father’s stories about his educational journey sparked her interest in historical-based study abroad.

When she first arrived at �㽶��Ƶ she was eager to connect with faculty and staff to plan a study abroad experience to complete during her junior year. Dundee University is one of several �㽶��Ƶ partner schools all over the world where students can spend a semester, and it seemed a good match for Myers.

Choosing Dundee was just the first step — after that she credits �㽶��Ƶ in getting her prepared for such an involved international experience. She said moving to Hastings helped her become more independent and confident, and that she needed every bit of that when traveling by herself, learning the metro and navigating all the other things needed for living abroad in a place where she didn’t know anyone at first.

As the year came to an end, Myers said she appreciated her time in Scotland and brought with her more appreciation for her newfound community that she could call home.

“I’m leaving with a lot more memories and new friends. Having never participated in a group quite like the Medieval Reenactment Society before, it’s an experience I will cherish and keep with me for the rest of my life,” she said.

With a stronger sense of community for post-college life, Meyers said she will relate back to the many experiences she had while studying in Dundee, knowing she can use this newfound sense of community and independence to expand her horizon as she enters her senior year.

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

“I would love to go back to the region somehow, and I now know that Turkey, or Eurasia more broadly, is the area of the world that I would like to work in or study,” the political science and history major from Arlington, Kansas, said.

This story originally appeared in .

Miller was one of two people with �㽶��Ƶ ties to earn a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in 2023. The other, Kinser Rafert, graduated from �㽶��Ƶ in May and spent his summer studying Arabic in Morocco.

The CLS program is part of a movement to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages, many of which are critical to national security and economic prosperity. CLS scholars gain language and cultural skills that enable them to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security.

This selective program awards fully funded scholarships to 500 American students, representing 245 U.S. colleges and universities. To have two students from �㽶��Ƶ in one year is remarkable.

“Understanding other languages and cultures is the key to success in careers in international affairs and service to our country,” said Dr. Corey Stutte, visiting assistant professor of political science. “Our students’ participation in the highly selective CLS program is an excellent example of how Hastings is more than just 13 square miles and 25,000 people—�㽶��Ƶ is a gateway for developing global citizens and leaders for tomorrow.”

Host family expands opportunities

Miller’s summer consisted of three hours of class each day during which she and her classmates focused on reading, writing, listening and speaking Turkish—a language unlike any she had previously studied.

“[Turkish] is not a part of any major language families and the most similar grammatical structure is actually found in the Japanese language,” Miller said.

Living with a local host family with limited English skills expanded her opportunities to hone her listening and speaking skills as well as learn more about Turkish culture.

“Turks drink tea at least three times a day, often more, and I grew to really like that part of every day,” said Miller. “While I don’t drink nearly as much tea as a Turk, and I don’t usually drink Turkish çay [tea] here, starting a day with a hot cup of tea is something I will probably continue to do forever.”

By Alicia O’Donnell ‘96

The summer before his senior year, Johnson was looking for a job opportunity that could provide him with experience in his field. Covid-19 made it harder to find exactly what he was looking for, but with the help of career services, he learned about a job at Prairie Loft as a program guide for kids’ day camps throughout the summer. Johnson was interested in the position for its environmental aspects, but knew working with kids would take him out of his comfort zone.

“It was something that was a bit uncomfortable for me because I wouldn’t have considered myself really good with kids then,” Johnson said. “But it’s also kind of helped me build my confidence.”

During his first summer at Prairie Loft, Johnson learned that emulating the energy of the kids you’re working with, makes everyone experience better. He explained that despite the fact that he wasn’t with a group of kids for very long, having that energy and enthusiasm that he may not show in his own daily life, helped the campers find a more fulfilling experience.

While Johnson was most nervous about working with kids, he made a large effort to bring a lively energy to each camp he worked at because Amy Sandeen, executive director of Prairie Loft, trusts Johnson implicitly.

“He has a rare combination of empathy and energy that you don’t see very often,” Sandeen said. “He can connect with people in a really comfortable and open way that gets other people excited and energized to try and do things.”

After having a good experience and making such a good impression on Sandeen, Johnson decided to work at Prairie Loft for a second summer. “It was a great opportunity so I did it again. Also it was fun and I really enjoyed myself,” Johnson said.

Sandeen explained that she has had many opportunities to work with �㽶��Ƶ students because of the long standing connection between Prairie Loft and �㽶��Ƶ. Ever since Prairie Loft started doing summer programs in 2013, �㽶��Ƶ students have been working at them. But more than that, Sandeen has been able to partner with multiple professors to either help facilitate a course or give them a secondary space for their class.

“We’ve always partnered with professors who want that change of scene and want to do that experiential learning off campus,” Sandeen said. “We are convenient and well suited for creative writing, wellness classes, sociology, bioethics, botany, biology, psychology, education, and more.”

Sandeen explains that there are a lot of students who become staff at Prairie Loft after taking courses there, and Johnson is no different as he took a course with Dr. Stephanie Furrer and Sandeen at Prairie Loft his junior year.

Johnson explained that his two summers at Prairie Loft allowed him to discover more about his passions. Prairie Loft helped him understand that when it comes to environmental issues, the community and all people have to be involved and connecting people in order to understand that is important.

This fall he is attending the University of Wyoming to pursue a law degree in environment natural resource law and a master of arts in environmental natural resources.

“Prairie Loft has helped me to explore my interests. Connecting me with the surrounding community allowed me to see what all is possible,” Johnson said.

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

Since her arrival in January, Downing, who is from Colorado Springs, Colorado, said she’s had an amazing time enjoying the city.

“I have a very strong academic interest in conflict and post conflict societies,” she said. “Belfast is the perfect city because it breathes history. I wake up in disbelief some mornings.”

Beyond academics, Downing said she’s enjoyed visiting historical monuments and sites like Giants Causeway or the “peace walls” that used to separate the unionist and nationalist communities that now serve as reminders of history. Downing has found that Ireland makes quite the city for a “history lover” like herself.

She added that her time at �㽶��Ƶ prepared her for the coursework at Queens University.

“The classes are structured differently; however, I think that I was well prepared by �㽶��Ƶ to be successful here,” she said. “Not only the rigor of the coursework, but the classroom experience made it easy to participate in and even lead classroom discussions.”

For the study abroad experience, Downing applied for and received a scholarship from the Irish-American Scholars Program, which gives students the opportunity to travel and study in Northern Ireland for a complete semester tuition-free. It’s open to students at colleges and universities who have hosted a student from Northern Ireland in the past — and �㽶��Ƶ has hosted several.

History professor Dr. Rob Babcock nominated her for the program, Downing then completed the lengthy application to study abroad, including several essays that landed her the competitive placement.

“I was definitely surprised to make it through the process and get the opportunity to come,” Downing said. “The application process was pretty cutthroat because you’re essentially competing against thousands of students from every college in the United States that has ever hosted an Irish student.”

Along with crediting Babcock for sparking her enthusiasm, Downing said the semester trip may not be the end of her time in Ireland, as she is likely to consider and attend graduate school in the city that stole her heart.

By Kianté Stuart, a junior from Nassau, The Bahamas, majoring in communications studies, business administration and marketing.

Monroe, a history major and volleyball player from Colorado Springs, Colorado, said that book burning goes back further than Germany in World War II.

“So much knowledge was lost from that, at least in my mind,” said Monroe. “It set us back in many educational ways.”

Because of her passion for history, Monroe has goals of graduating from �㽶��Ƶ and continuing her education at a graduate school in Europe. 

“I believe it is important to know history because history is used to understand everything. It can tell us what to do, how to do it, and most importantly, prevent us from making the same mistakes,” she said.

As a transfer student, Monroe started college as a math major. However, her advisor at her previous school told her she had too many history classes and not enough math classes, so she switched majors — and schools.

At �㽶��Ƶ, she’s had strong support from her current advisor Dr. Rob Babcock as she applies to graduate school, and from volleyball coach Alex Allard as she seeks to continue playing volleyball internationally. And through it all, she said she strives to be the best student-athlete she can be to continue to make her parents proud.

“My parents are my biggest inspiration because they’ve given me so many opportunities and they never give up on me,” she said, adding that her parents’ hard-work in life has inspired her to work toward the goals she wants to achieve.

Being a student-athlete comes with many responsibilities and obstacles to face. It’s hard to balance out school, practices and meetings all while trying to get a decent sleep schedule in.

Monroe’s advice to students is, “Utilize office hours because your professors will be there to help you and sometimes they end up being cool people, too.”

By Noah Bias, a senior from Los Angeles, California, majoring in communication studies.

After graduating from �㽶��Ƶ, Teal had planned to be a professor and studied at Boston College for her Masters with hopes of going to Harvard for a Ph.D. But she became frustrated with academia because she noticed how closed off it was and she wanted to do more than write something for peer review.

“Here at Hastings, I was given the expectation that in order to do history, I needed to do something with it, I couldn’t just write something for other historians to read,” she said during a November 3 interview before speaking to �㽶��Ƶ students about the history of water in the west as a part of the �㽶��Ƶ Lecture Series Student Symposium.

She decided to forgo the Ph.D program and received another Masters in resource management at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Teal received degrees in history and political science, but she said she learned more in classes outside of her major classes that helped push her to her current career at Chatfield State Park in Colorado. “It was Dr. Beechly’s natural history courses that, I believe, actually nudged me on to the path I’m on now,” she said.

Teal credits her ability to speak at a lecture to her time on the �㽶��Ƶ forensics team and her time in �㽶��Ƶ media.

“Just follow what feels good and don’t be afraid to try on what the college has to offer for size,” said Teal. “You might be surprised at what fits, or at the very least you might have a fun time doing it.”