At Campbell Elementary School in north Lincoln, every student brings a story. Many of those stories include challenges that stretch far beyond the classroom.
Principal Sean Bailey sees it every day. With 65% of students coming from families experiencing poverty and 25% learning English as a second language, Campbell serves one of the city’s most vibrant and vulnerable communities. But thanks to the Engage. Empower. Graduate. (EEG) initiative, the school isn’t just responding to these needs—it’s turning them into pathways for progress.
One fifth-grade student (we’ll call him Michael) arrived at Campbell this year after relocating from another state. Living at the People’s City Mission and carrying trauma from past experiences, he had a difficult start. But with access to school-based therapy funded by EEG, wraparound support from caring staff, and after-school opportunities through the school’s Community Learning Center (CLC), Michael found his footing. He joined a sport. He learned a musical instrument and played a key role during the school concert. He started believing in himself again.
“Watching him on stage, I thought about how much courage that took—and how grateful I was for the impact the EEG-funded therapist had at such a crucial point in his life,” said Bailey.
For students like Michael—and hundreds more at Campbell—EEG isn’t just a grant. It’s a bridge to connection, healing, and academic success.
About Engage. Empower. Graduate.
At its heart, Engage. Empower. Graduate. (EEG) is about building stronger futures—one child, one family, and one community at a time.
Launched by United Way of Lincoln and Lancaster County and powered by the passion of Women United and Emerging Leaders United, this initiative identifies and addresses the barriers that can stand between young students and their success in school and life. Working side-by-side with targeted Lincoln, Neb. elementary schools, EEG focuses on providing support across six key areas:
- Early Childhood Development: Preparing children for kindergarten success.
- Family Engagement and Support: Strengthening the critical link between home and school.
- Adult Education: Empowering both parents and students to learn English.
- Mental Health and Family Support: Addressing behavioral and emotional challenges through school-based therapy.
- Extended Learning Opportunities: Expanding growth and reducing summertime grade level loss through out-of-classroom enrichment.
- Prevention Services: Building safe home environments to prevent child entrance into protective services and keep families strong.
By meeting children and families where they are, EEG opens doors to opportunity—ensuring that every child, regardless of their circumstances, can thrive.
Campbell Combined Staff and Family Survey Results
While Bailey and his staff do a great deal on their own, EEG makes many additional events, programs, and supports possible—helping build stronger connections between families, schools, and the wider community. Numbers prove something is working right at Campbell Elementary.
With Nelnet’s mission—to serve our customers, associates, and communities—and a long-standing emphasis of the organization on education, it’s no surprise that so many associates have decided to support EEG. There’s a close alignment between the initiative and Nelnet’s core value of giving back to the communities where we live and work.
Spotlight on Nelnet's Impact
At Nelnet, our associates believe in lifting communities by investing in people. That commitment shines through in the incredible support our Women United and Emerging Leaders United members are providing for Engage. Empower. Graduate.
Together, 20 members of Women United from Nelnet have invested $27,500, while 12 members of Emerging Leaders United have contributed $13,500—funding programs and services that directly impact children and families in four Lincoln elementary schools.
From early literacy programs to mental health support, from family engagement events to extended summer learning, Nelnet’s contributions are helping to close opportunity gaps and create lasting change.
It’s more than just funding—it’s a partnership grounded in compassion, connection, and a shared belief that every child deserves the chance to succeed.
“It’s really opened my eyes to see that there’s a vast array of needs for families and students—it’s not a cookie cutter situation,” said Nelnet Diversified Services Product Manager Heather Gleason, who sits on the Women in Philanthropy steering committee and is a Women United member. “It’s really vital to give time, money, and resources because not every kid is going to be in the same place when they get to school and they all need a little something different. I think we owe it to future generations to help them in any way we can,” she adds.
As the United Way campaign kicks off across Nelnet this summer, associates have a unique opportunity to be part of stories like these—fueling meaningful change where it matters most.
Associate Voices: Personal Reflections
While Gleason has officially been on the initiative’s committee for about 2-1/2 years, she’s been volunteering and contributing for at least a decade. “Any way to contribute to the future of kids is important. It’s cheesy, but kids are our future and I think we need kids from all walks of life to have the opportunity to excel,” said Gleason.
Her experience volunteering at Lincoln Public Schools has shown her how the community can play a vital role in helping families succeed. “You’ve got families that are struggling for various reasons,” Gleason said. “When parents have to turn their focus to keeping food on the table or a roof over their head, anything that can be done to help them with some of the other smaller things, I think that helps take the burden off,” she adds.
EEG’s impact is vast, and those who get involved can choose where they want to volunteer their time. One of Gleason’s favorite experiences each year is watching children come into the playground at the beginning of Jumpstart to Kindergarten, a program designed to ease the transition to kindergarten, provide a sense of community, and build a foundation for learning.
“Some kids just wanted to get on the playground, and others were afraid to let go of their parents,” said Gleason of last year’s event. “Watching teachers gently guide them—from holding a parent’s hand to walking into the classroom—was really special,” she reflected.
I’m just excited that we continue to look at how we evolve as the needs in the community evolve. I think it can be really easy for an organization like United Way to say, ‘Here are things we do and we’re just going to keep doing them.’ But things don’t always continue to work, so we look at ‘How do we serve the community in the right ways versus the ways we always have?’
Women in Philanthropy Steering Committee Member and Nelnet Associate
Gleason noted there are many ways to make an impact through supporting the program—and you can do it to the level that works for you. “If you’re somebody who just wants to give money, that’s great—we’ll put it toward the program,” she said. “If you’re somebody who doesn’t want to give money and you want to go read to a classroom, I tell people, ‘What better way to spend an hour of your day? You want to fill your cup—that’s a great way to fill your cup,’” added Gleason.
Amanda Corcoran, Director of Client Services at Nelnet Diversified Services, has always supported United Way through donations. She realized she wasn’t focusing on how to give back within the community from more than just a monetary perspective. The perfect opportunity to increase her involvement and learn more about United Way grew when Gleason reached out to her about getting involved as a Nelnet representative with United Way’s Emerging Leaders United program.
“I had an opportunity to meet with the executive director at United Way and talk more about Emerging Leaders. I was excited to hear about their focus on impactful programs like Engage. Empower. Graduate., Read Across America, the virtual book drive, and Wingfest, which raises a significant portion of the annual budget,” said Corcoran. “I really felt like it would be my way to help live out one of Nelnet’s core values of giving back to the communities where we live and work,” she emphasized.
Emerging Leaders also evaluates grant requests from the primary schools—Clinton, McPhee, and Campbell—and recently a fourth, smaller elementary school, trying to raise funds to meet their needs. “I was naïve,” said Corcoran. “I didn’t realize how much schools struggle to get some of that monetary support they need. You take it for granted until you really understand their process of trying to raise money, get a grant, get the approval.”
A year after joining the committee, Corcoran says she has “gotten her feet wet.” Now she’s vice chair for the 2025 Wingfest event and co-chair for this year’s virtual book event. Her goal to get involved? Check.
The impact? Indescribable. “One thing I love is we’re able to spread across multiple schools and help them—whether it’s for a new playground or books—so that the children have a safe space to go, they have all the tools that they need,” noted Corcoran.
She gets personal joy from participating in Read Across America. “When you go in and read a short story to a group of first graders, they light up. They get excited to see different people in the room,” said Corcoran. “Anytime I get the opportunity to do that, it’s just so fulfilling—and it takes 30 or 45 minutes out of the day. But it just makes you realize how important those little moments are to them. They remember,” she added.
Community Impact
While EEG funding and volunteers provide the foundation, it’s people like Logan Niedzielski who bring that support to life every day after the final school bell rings.
Since June 2023, Niedzielski has served as School Community Coordinator at Campbell Elementary. Our mission is to help the school become the hub of the neighborhood—engaging families in their child’s education and giving every student a voice,” he said. Niedzielski manages the school’s Community Learning Center (CLC), which offers free after-school clubs that give kids hands-on experiences—from cooking and bug science to video game design and even a Pokémon club that sneaks in literacy, math, and probability skills.
Niedzielski has plenty of anecdotal evidence of the program’s effectiveness. He shared the story of a single mother working full-time but living in a homeless shelter with her two sons in summer 2024. Because the shelter couldn’t keep the boys during the day, they enrolled in the CLC’s summer wraparound program. This allowed their mother to work and save for an apartment—helping her take the first steps out of homelessness. Meanwhile, the boys thrived in the program’s engaging activities. The experience brought the family not only stability, but also a sense of belonging and a fresh start.
Niedzielski also remarked on the CLC’s coed volleyball team and the tremendous impact it had on one boy who participated. “He developed such a strong liking for volleyball that he wanted to do it at the club level,” said Niedzielski. “He was really captivated by it and asked if he could take a ball home to practice after the season.”
Passion like this for CLC activities often leads to improved attendance and reduced behavioral issues, Niedzielski notes, since students need to be at school to attend after-school programs.
If there’s a program or club students really want to participate in, they tend to have a great day during school.
School Community Coordinator at Campbell Elementary
To reinforce a positive association between school and the CLC, Niedzielski makes an effort to be present during the day—leading recess activities or chatting with students in the hallway. He wants students to see him as part of their school experience and understand the connection: doing well in school leads to more opportunities.
These enrichment programs are made possible through partnerships with EEG, United Way, and other local organizations. “It’s all about connecting families with the resources they need and exposing kids to passions and career paths they might never have imagined,” he added.
Niedzielski’s own childhood has been both inspiration and motivation. “Growing up, there weren’t many resources for me and my friends to get help after school or be around adults who cared about us,” he said. “I had great parents, but it really put some of my friends at a disadvantage and impacted them in many ways,” Niedzielski added.
Niedzielski understands that United Way and EEG funding are critical for Lincoln’s CLCs, which are available only to schools qualifying for Title I funding.
What difference is this making at Campbell? Niedzielski sums it up with an unofficial snippet from the CLC mission statement: “It’s all about building stronger schools, stronger families, and stronger communities.”
Together—from therapy sessions and classroom transitions to Pokémon clubs and parent nights—these stories reflect what EEG was built to do: engage students, empower families, and graduate stronger communities.
Put Passion Into Action
When giving back is part of your company’s DNA, it’s not a question of whether you’ll get involved—but how.
“I’ve been at Nelnet for almost 12 years now, and before that I worked for other companies. I’ve just always appreciated Nelnet’s perspective about giving back, whether it’s with your time, whether it’s money,” said Corcoran.
She appreciates that the company isn’t just paying lip service.
“We get a day every year that we’re able to go and give back to our communities and Nelnet instills that in us. Whether it’s with United Way or other things we at Nelnet do with the Nelnet Foundation, we give back to young children and families in our communities,” said Corcoran. “I’m very happy to work for a company that one, says they do that, but also puts it into motion and wants us as leaders and associates to also put it into motion.”
As Gleason added, “Nelnet’s always been very generous when it comes to United Way and EEG. They’ll sponsor events, they’re very focused on promoting our United Way campaign every year, and they obviously match those donations. It’s very fortunate because they also encourage us to take the time to go volunteer for those things—and a lot of times those are during the workday.”
Gleason is enthusiastic about her giving back—and it shows. “I’m shameless with the people I know around here. There’s an awards lunch tomorrow and we had a few extra seats so I’m reaching out to people I know here: ‘Hey, do you want to come?’ I’m just trying to get other people exposure to understand what we’re trying to do—because it starts with that,” she emphasized.
When asked why people should find their passion and get involved, Gleason responded, “Because the more you care, the more you’ll do. If you find something you’re passionate about, you’re willing to do more and to get invested in it.”
Ways to Get Involved in EEG
- Volunteer an hour to read in a classroom.
- Join a committee or steering group.
- Attend or help plan events like Wingfest.
- Use your volunteer day to support EEG schools
To me, there’s something about donating your time, truly participating, that I thoroughly enjoy. I think it allows me to be a better human all around—whether it’s within my team, within friends and family, or at home with my husband. It just adds some perspective that there are things that are more important than the day-to-day that we always get stuck in.
Director of Client Services at Nelnet Diversified Services
Corcoran acknowledged that not everyone has money in the budget to give back to the community. “We all have the ability to give back in different ways,” she said. “Leverage the day Nelnet gives you to spend in your community to give back. It’s always hard to make that time, but once you do, it’s so fulfilling and rewarding. I think we’re all better for it when we take the time to give back to the community,” added Corcoran.
Whether it’s mentoring, reading, fundraising, or simply showing up—there’s a place for you in this work. Find the way that fills your cup, and start today.
