For University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) alumnus Chad Jorgensen, a love of storytelling and self-expression led him to study English. Now, as the associate dean of English and Humanities at Metropolitan Community College, he helps pass that passion on to a new generation of students.
Outside of a few years in Washington, D.C., Jorgensen spent his formative years in Omaha.
“I grew up in sort of West Omaha,” he said, “Sunny Slope Elementary, Morton Middle School, Omaha Northwest.”
After graduating from Northwest High School in 1997, Jorgensen—having ben inculcated with a love for storytelling—attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) Greensboro, where he studied filmmaking.
“My parents were both really big readers; they always encouraged reading in our house,” said the associate dean. “And when I was a teenager, my older brother was sort of into the arts—movies and cool things.
“In my teenage years, I spent a lot of time exploring what I thought of as really good literature, really good film, and really interesting music,” he added. “My brother would drive us down to Jackson Street Booksellers, and we would pick out whatever we were drawn to.”
When Jorgensen enrolled at UNC Greensboro, he did so with ambitions of telling meaningful stories through the medium of film. The work he received after graduation left him feeling unfulfilled.
“When I went off to college, I did so kind of thinking I was going to be the next great movie director,” said Jorgensen. “That didn’t happen.
“In my senior year of college, I made a full-length movie. And it was really successful in the sense that I did it, I made this big thing—but it was also really terrible.”
After Greensboro, Jorgensen returned to Omaha, where he found himself working at a local theater as an audio-visual engineer.
“I wasn’t particularly happy there,” he said.
Mike Kelly, a friend of Jorgensen’s and a teaching assistant and graduate student in the Department of English at the time, convinced Jorgensen to apply to UNO. Kelly is currently a professor at Champlain College in Vermont.
“He inspired me, and kind of put a bug in my ear,” said Jorgensen. “And my girlfriend at the time, who became my wife [Hollie Sibbitt], sort of gave me the final push.
“She said, you spend all your time reading. Why not pursue a master’s in English?”
After reaching out to Dr. Nora Bacon and finding her “so smart and so welcoming,” Jorgensen applied.
At UNO, Jorgensen was “lucky enough” to join Kelly in the TA program, where he discovered his passion for teaching.
“I was able to get into the classroom as a teacher pretty quickly,” he said. “It was something I’d never done before, but I had a lot of support from the faculty...and I really loved it, from the moment I stepped into the classroom.
“It was a wonderful two years.”
Jorgensen found the support from the entire department as being fundamental to his success in education.
“They were so great in challenging me to be a better scholar and also supporting me in my own interests,” he said.
David Foster Wallace and the New Sincerity movement inspired him to push for his students to sincerely and earnestly grapple with ideas, to “be a little bit more belief driven and earnest.”
After attaining his master’s degree with a focus in American literature, Jorgensen felt “determined to turn teaching English in higher education into a career.” He applied and was accepted to a doctorate program at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.
“The education I had received at UNO really prepared me for that PhD program,” he said. “I came in in a really great place...and I certainly felt like I could hold my own.”
While in Milwaukee, Jorgensen and Sibbitt, now married, had their first child. After finishing his coursework and prelims, he asked his dissertation committee to let him return to Omaha, where he began his career.
“They agreed to let me return, so we did—just to be closer to family,” Jorgensen said. “And I quickly got a full-time position teaching English at Metropolitan Community College.”
While working at Metro, Jorgensen would father two more children, and the PhD fell by the wayside.
“I ended up prioritizing my full-time teaching and raising my kids,” he said, “so I didn’t finish my dissertation, but I still really loved the experience of doing that program.”
Jorgensen has now been at Metro for about fifteen years, having spent the first “twelve or thirteen” as a full-time English instructor, directly utilizing the skills he had developed teaching composition at UNO.
“I would teach basic writing, helping students get ready for college-level writing; English composition I and II; and some literature classes as well,” he said. “It’s an absolutely great place to teach. The students are so diverse in terms of their backgrounds, their experiences, and their ambitions...You step into any classroom, and there is a real variety of perspectives.”
After involving himself in several “leadership opportunities” and committees as his kids became more independent, Jorgensen eventually became the coordinator of the English department at Metro. He was named the associate dean of English and the humanities “about a year and a half ago.”
Jorgensen described his path from UNO to where he is today as a “really good career trajectory,” one that allowed him to discover his passion in education and “learn so much about the importance and the skill of teaching.
“The things I was learning in my master’s program at UNO were the same things I was trying to teach students as a teacher, and they are really the same things I am advocating for as a dean,” said the alumnus. “At the core of what you learn during education in English and the humanities is how to be an effective communicator, how to think critically and problem solve, and how to collaborate and be understanding of different perspectives and cultures.
“I absolutely believe in the importance of English and the humanities in student life, and so much of what I learned about that comes from a UNO graduate classroom, whether it was creative nonfiction writing with John Price; a research methods class with Dr. [Charles] Johanningsmeier; or so much else.”
Jorgensen stressed he was also deeply indebted to his parents, Dennis and Nancy—both graduates of Omaha University—who nurtured his passion for stories and have remained a constant source of support.
“I always tell people I hit the lottery with the parents I was given,” he said. “My interests, my pursuits, this hasn’t always been a clean trajectory, but they were always there to support me…and the value they placed on using one’s education in service of good things is something I have carried with me throughout my life.”
