Honors Alumni Award Winners
Lane Carr
Class of 2012
Lane Carr was the 2019 winner of the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Alumni of the Year award. Lane Carr has served as Director of Accountability at the NebraskaDepartment of Education since May 2018, and has been with the agency since May 2017. In that role, Lane uses school accountability results to further improve Nebraska's schools and advance equity. As a former science teacher in Kentucky, Lane seeks to consider how policy decisions at the state level are implemented by teachers in local schools. Lane holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Vanderbilt University, and a Bachelor’s degree in political science and history from UNL. The research Lane conducted for his Honor's thesis on Nebraska state education policy continues to serve him to this day.
Sen. Adam Morfeld
Class of 2009
Sen. Adam Morfeld was the 2018 winner of the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Alumni of the Year award. Adam Morfeld is a 5th generation Nebraskan born into a Marine Corps family representing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Campus, Downtown Lincoln, and Northeast Lincoln in the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature. Adam graduated from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and University of Nebraska College of Law in 2012. In 2008 while an undergraduate Morfeld founded and now serves as the executive director of Nebraskans for Civic Reform (NCR). Since then, NCR has grown to over 40 full and part time staff who run youth civic engagement and community leadership programs, civic health programs, and works to protect voting rights through non-partisan litigation, policy advocacy, election observation, and investigations.
Carson Vaughan
Class of 2010
Carson Vaughan was awarded the 2019 College of Journalism Honors Alumni of the Year award. Carson Vaughan is a freelance journalist from central Nebraska with an emphasis on the Great Plains. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker (online), The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Paris Review Daily, Outside, Pacific Standard, VICE, In These Times, and more. Most recently, he was awarded the 2018 John M. Collier Award for Forest History Journalism from the Forest History Society for his Weather Channel feature, “Uprooting FDR’s ‘Great Wall of Trees.’” He was also the recipient of a 2018 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Nebraska Arts Council. His first book, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream, was published via Little A in April 2019.
Where are they now?
Data collected from Honors graduation survey. Students are able to select more than one plan after graduation.
Engagement With Current Students
Honors Alumni Panels
The Honors Program Student Advisory Board (HPSAB) invites Honors alumni back to campus to share their experiences and advice with students on panels around topics such as Careers in the 21st Century, Life of a Grad Student, Failure Breeds Success, and Navigating Global Careers in an Uncertain World.
Honors Alumni Speakers
Eyewitness at the Mexican Border: Reflections by Attorney Astrid Munn, was an event hosted by the Honors Program Student Advisory Board which provided current students an opportunity to hear from an Honors Program alumna about her experiences as an attorney on the Mexican border.
Stay Involved in Honors
Subscribe to Our Honors Newsletter
Sent out twice-a-year with updates about our current students and our alumni and opportunities to connect with us!