Robert Rieck is a quadraplegic who runs a T-shirt business from his Lincoln home.
Photo: Eric Gregory, The Lincoln Journal Star.
Editor's note: Adam Templeton, a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications, had this article published in The Lincoln Journal Star on Sunday, November 1, 2009.
Slumped behind the high-slung table at Scooter's, sporting a worn American Eagle cap and a Transformers tote bag, Robert Rieck looks like a typical comic book fan.
It's not until you're within waving distance you notice the wheelchair.
And by the time you reach to shake his hand - thrust forth with such confidence it takes you a few seconds to notice he can't move his fingers - his affable smile and grizzled five o'clock shadow make it hard to remember you're talking to a C-5 quadriplegic
For Rieck, the hardest part of making conversation is putting those around him at ease.
But once he's got that down, the rest follows naturally.
"Able-bodied people are so scared to approach someone in a chair because they're scared to offend them or what they might say," he said.
From left, Jennifer Clark, Ashley Havlena and Mikaela Sandhorst take a boat ride on the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China.
Photo credit: UNMC blog
When people get sick in China, the health care they get is a far cry from the kind U.S. patients are used to, says nurse-to-be Jennifer Clark. "There they have six to eight patients in one room," the University of Nebraska student said. "They have to pay extra if they want their own room."
Clark and a couple fellow nursing students spent October in China under a University of Nebraska Medical Center exchange program. After three days touring Beijing, they spent three weeks at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, working with nurses and patients.
Smoking on campus may soon be a thing of the past.
Amanda Crook, ASUN external vice president, says that she wants to protect the rights of smokers and non-smokers.
Photo by Nick Starling NewsNetNebraska
The Association of Students of the University of Nebraska (ASUN) is considering further limiting or even banning smoking on campus. Health concerns and standards for so-called green certification of buildings prompted ASUN members to raise the idea of new limits on Sept. 16.
Formal policy recommendations could be made by late November, said ASUN External Vice President Amanda Crook. The idea was broached by Senators Sarah Williams and Brett Bogenrieff.
Sydney Brown, Extended Education and Outreach Instructional Design Technology Specialist and J-school Alum, walks through an online lecture at Extended Education and Outreach office.
Photo: Marlenia Thornton, NewsNetNebraska
As paper, pencils and mail carriers have given way to computer connections, distance education from Nebraska has gone global. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which this year is marking the one-century point in what was long called correspondence schooling, once focused on rural Nebraskans who lived hundreds of miles from campus.
Today, the university's electronic campus reaches students the world over. Just recently Sydney Brown, a technology specialist at the school, was chatting - via computer link - with the Middle East, for instance
"I sat at a table with an education administrator from Saudi Arabia," Brown said.
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