Join us on January 31st at 2:30 pm CT / 1:30 pm MT or February 3rd at 9:00 am CT / 8:00 am MT for a gathering between UNL campus divisions looking for community partners to collaborate on experiential student projects or research projects.
This virtual open house provides the opportunity for community stakeholders to visit with multiple UNL Divisions discussing student experiential learning projects for the summer and fall 2025 semester. UNL is hosting a series of centralized events so community members, non-profits, business owners, and government officials from across the state can attend one event and learn about all the opportunities they could host.
Register for an Open House
January 31, 2:30 pm CT / 1:30 pm MT
February 3, 9:00 am CT / 8:00 am MT
Participating Units
School of Computing: Senior Design Project Sponsorship
- Overview: The University of Nebraska School of Computing’s Senior Design runs a capstone program for junior and senior students majoring in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Software Engineering. This program provides students with real-life experience and prepares them for an industry career.
- What is needed: We are looking for 20+ industry organizations or UNL departments to sponsor a computing-design project for our students. As a project sponsor, you will receive around 1,500 student hours of development time over two semesters, plus 100% ownership of the Intellectual Property following the project's end. The students work in teams of 5-6 during the two semesters beginning in August and finishing in May of the following year. This program is an excellent way for your company to interact with UNL, create lasting relationships, and give back to the community by supporting the next generation of innovative talent. The cost is approximately $20,000 for industry partners.
College of Architecture: Community and Regional Planning Program
- Overview: The Community and Regional Planning program engages student teams in community service projects aligned with the university's land grant missions. These projects encompass various areas, including land use planning, economic and housing planning, as well as environmental and hazard mitigation planning. Through these initiatives, tangible benefits can be directly delivered to communities across Nebraska, bolstering community economic development, downtown revitalization, hazard mitigation efforts, and environmental sustainability. Recent projects have had a positive impact on various locales, including David City, Beatrice, Syracuse, Peru, Winslow, and others.
- What is needed: We are seeking 2-3 new projects for each academic year. These projects may involve land use planning, downtown revitalization, economic and housing development, hazard mitigation planning, transportation planning, healthy community planning, environmental and recreation planning, to address critical community needs. Projects can be operated through courses such as CRPL 990 Planning Studio, CRPL 991 Capstone Studio, CRPL 840 Planning Methods and Analysis, and other elective courses.
College of Business: Department of Marketing
- The Marketing Capstone class works with businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits as clients to develop Marketing Plans. The students work as teams of 5 to 6 with the client throughout a 15-week spring semester or a 5-week summer session to develop a marketing plan that can address real short-term or long-term needs or opportunities for each client.
- What is needed: We are looking for 10-12 businesses (including start-ups) or non-profit organizations who want to develop a marketing strategy, including a marketing plan. We ask that the organization make a presentation to each of the two classes and are willing to spend 4 to 5 hours throughout the semester working with the students and attend a final presentation in early May if possible. The students will work with your organization and do outside research to develop an actual marketing plan, including action recommendations, a budget, and a marketing calendar. There is no dollar cost to the client. We do ask for a time commitment from the client of 4 to 6 hours over the semester.
College of Journalism and Mass Communications: JACHT Agency
- Overview: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications runs a competitive student-run advertising and public relations agency open to all majors. This program provides upper-level students with professional development opportunities to work with real-life clients on integrated media communications campaigns.
Jacht is looking to partner with local and regional organizations or UNL departments looking for advertising and public relations services, which includes the following areas: Brand Strategy, Design, Photo, Multimedia, PR, Social and Website Optimization. As a client at Jacht, you will have the opportunity to consult with our full-service agency and customize a contract of your choice with our student business development team based on your budget. Contracts are based on an hourly rate that ranges depending on overall scope of work. This is an opportunity to work with highly-motivated and talented students looking to make a direct impact to your organization’s mission and communication goals.
More information JACHT Agency
College of Journalism and Mass Communications Buoy Agency
- Overview: Buoy is a student-run agency within the Experience Lab that serves non-profits and other purpose-driven organizations. With guidance from a faculty liaison and professionals-in-residence, students build core skills in advertising and public relations while exploring professional interests. (Note: Buoy is a learning lab for students largely in their first or second year of studies at UNL. Buoy students are far less experienced than the students selected through a competitive process to work for Jacht.).
- What is needed: Buoy serves purpose-driven community organizations, such as nonprofits, foundations, government agencies, and public-private partnerships. Some UNL units also fit this profile. As a learning lab, Buoy focuses on content creation. It’s best for a prospective partner to come to Buoy with specific content needs for the next 3-6 months, which might involve multiple forms of media and/or diverse audiences. Buoy students often support existing communications or campaigns; they can also help with planning and developing content for future us. Additionally, Buoy can tackle puzzles, too; for example, exploring how the organization might better engage a certain demographic, or might leverage a newer platform like TikTok. There is no financial cost to engage Buoy. The only obligation is to meet with students and provide constructive feedback.
UNL E-Sports
Building out a Nebraska State-level esports program based in UNL. Collegiate Esports affords students an opportunity to collaborate, strategize, and perform under pressure. Esports differs from simply playing videogames in the same way a casual pickup game differs from competing in a sport. In our rapidly developing techno-centric society, Esports provides anyone—regardless of innate physical attributes—an opportunity to develop relevant social and technological skillsets. This program attempts to create a pipeline from high schools in Nebraska to placements within (inter)nationally ranked professional teams.
What is needed:
Funding, staff, and venue partnerships would allow for mutual benefit with students receiving opportunities to compete in interesting professional settings and contexts while affording external organizations and locations an opportunity for greater engagement with younger generations and increased visibility within and outside the state.
Science Literacy 101 Course
In Science Literacy 101: Science and Decision Making for a Complex World, student teams are required to select an issue they care about, develop a research poster, and to engage in 4-6 hours of experiential learning related to the issue. There are 600 students who take the class, and the course runs in both spring and fall semester. We are looking for community partners who can navigate students towards an interactive experience that could include service learning, research, participation, or other activities.
What is needed from the community: The time needed can really vary depending on the circumstances -- from 15 minutes (helping students find an opportunity) to 1 hour (talking with the students about their topic or issue) to 2-6 hours (while the students work more closely with the community partner on something). Depending on the nature of the project, partners would get volunteer time from a team of ~4 students. Additionally, partners gain by help students’ gain an understanding of real-world issues, and possibly recruit students for further engagement in their future.
Biological Systems Engineering for Middle Schools
Nicole Iverson from Biological Systems Engineering leads a group that has developed hands-on activities to teach middle school students (grades 6 - 8) about Biological Systems Engineering. They are especially interested in connecting with students at rural schools. They worked with three schools in 2024 and had great feedback; they are hoping to expand the number of schools to work with.
What is needed from the community:
They are looking for teachers/administrators willing to partner for this project. They need one class period (40 - 60 minutes) for students in grades 6 - 8. Last year, they spent an entire day at each school to teach multiple classes during the day (typically a science class), but they are open to different options. Middle school students who participated last year seemed to enjoy the hands-on engineering activity!
Register for an Open House
January 31, 2:30 pm CT / 1:30 pm MT
February 3, 9:00 am CT / 8:00 am MT