English Student Spotlights
We are excited to share the experiences and accomplishments of students during their journey through the English program!
Natalie Pearson
Through her study abroad experiences and academic endeavors, Natalie Pearson crafted an English degree that is uniquely her own.
Published Winter 2025
Sarah Pacholski
Congratulations to Sarah Pacholski for being selected as one of the Willa Cather Center's Humanities Interns for summer 2024.
Published Fall 2024
Anna Kollmeyer
Congratulations to Anna Kollmeyer for earning the 2024 Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Service Learning!
Published Spring 2024
Abby Swoboda
Congratulations to Abby Swoboda for earning the 2024 College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Award!
Published Spring 2024
Abigail Williamson
Abigail Williamson is an honors student at UNO double majoring in English and Philosophy. She has served as the Public Relations officer for the Honors Student Association, and in that position produced newsletters compiling the work of honors students throughout the semester. For her work there, Abigail earned the third-place prize for a national competition in Honors newsletters. Abigail also serves as an RA and has been a peer mentor for exploratory studies in past years.
Published Fall 2023
Faith Vawter
Faith Vawter is pursuing their MFA in creative nonfiction writing and serves as a TA in the English department. They presented at a round table at the National Conference for Peer Tutoring in Writing, and have interned in the writing center in previous years.
Published Fall 2023
Nolan Bennett
Nolan Bennett is an English student here at UNO’s Honors program. He’s presented at two Writing Center conferences, the MWCC and NCPT, and over the summer interned at the archives and website at the National Willa Cather Center. Through his capstone project on Chinese-English short story author Sui Sin Far, Nolan uncovered two previously unknown short stories penned by the author.
Published Fall 2023
Rebekah Hayes
Rebekah Hayes is a TA and graduate student here at UNO. She completed her undergraduate degree in library science. She is currently working on a Service-Learning project between her Composition II class and two sixth-grade classrooms in La Vista. She has a rhetorical analysis of Superman’s first comic in the process of peer review for an academic journal, and she is one of the forces behind reviving the English Graduate Organization. In previous semesters, the writing center has benefited from her skills as an intern and peer tutor.
Published Fall 2023
Bridget Lillethorup
Bridget Lillethorup, a graduate student in the Department of English, has been selected for the Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Lillethorup, whom Dr. Lisa Knopp has described as “keenly intelligent with a rigorous work ethic and a fierce passion for writing,” has displayed a level of excellence and professionalism in the classroom and in her publication and presentation opportunities. She has maintained a crucial role in our graduate student community as the Co-President of the English Graduate Organization and the Graduate Representative of the English Graduate Program Committee.
Published Fall 2022
Erin Wiebe & Amanda Shurtliff
The 2019 No Limits Student Conference will be riding the next feminist wave into the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The event will feature presentations from UNO English Majors, including Erin Wiebe and Amanda Shurtliff. Wiebe will be presenting her sociolinguistic research on young women’s use of ‘like’ in academic register, and Shurtliff will delve into the patriarchal forces present in Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway.
Published Spring 2019
Cassandra Wade
Senior English major Cassandra Wade chose to pursue an internship with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. She believes that interning in the communications department at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska enabled her to grow both as a writer and as a person while earning credit towards her degree.
Published Summer 2018