Three University of Nebraska at Omaha students toured UNMC’s iEXCEL program at the Davis Global Center in June as part of Growing Home, an initiative of the Greater Omaha Chamber to draw Black, indigenous and people of color graduates to (and keep graduates in) the state of Nebraska.
UNMC served as a guest site for the program, with Sheritta Strong, MD, UNMC assistant vice chancellor for inclusion, hosting the students, who are interested in medicine and health profession, on their campus tour.
“We want to retain our best and brightest students,” Dr. Strong said. “We want to hopefully recruit them and keep them in Omaha.”
Dell Nared Jr., senior director of DEI and the CODE program for the Greater Omaha Chamber, accompanied the students. He said the students, Omaha students who are attending out-of-state colleges – including historically black colleges and universities – were being hosted at workplaces across Omaha. “We created the program to be able to bring them back to Omaha, offer them internships and make sure they have a mentor in the industry that they’re interested in,” he said.
Donnie Lopez will start at UNO in the fall, and he came on the tour because of his interest in the medical field.
“I wanted to see where I could possibly be working in the future,” he said. “I want to go to UNMC, but I want to see what it’s about first, get a feel for it – make sure it’s something I like.”
Following a demonstration of iEXCEL’s six-sided LASER Cave, Lopez admitted he was impressed.
“The was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” he said.
We appreciate the partners across campus who volunteered their time to make this day special for the students.