“This phone call is a simple kudos to you and your staff for all that you do. I just think you guys are great and I'm glad my kids are students there and I think the school is special.”
In February, Ken and Andrea Haring received a text message from their daughter about the “awesome” Valentine’s Dinner held in the Willa Cather Dining Center.
It was one of many texts their daughters Lauren and Madison, both students at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, sent about how much they loved life on campus.
“The girls will text and send pictures and stories every day — sharing something so awesome about their day — whether it’s how the people in the dining hall are so nice to them, or this great place they found to study, or the people in CAST (Center for Academic Success and Transition),” Andrea said. “The foundation is here. There are so many resources here for them to be successful and to grow, not only academically, but as people.”
After receiving that text with a picture of the meal, Andrea and Ken were overwhelmed with gratitude and decided to leave a voicemail, thanking the Husker staff who had helped their daughters find their place at Nebraska, more than 450 miles from their hometown of Greeley, Colorado.
“What the university does for these kids, I think that night was the icing on the cake for us, like, ‘Wow, they really do care about these kids,’" Ken said.
A portion of Andrea’s voicemail is now being broadcast nationally in the new TV spot “No Place Like It,” which shows Lauren and Madison engaging in the many facets of campus life while their mom’s voice is heard in the background. The new commercial complements “Home Again,” the TV spot that premiered in 2024, featuring the eloquent narration of Johnny Carson over footage saluting all Nebraskans who call the state home. “No Place Like It” and “Home Again” will air across broadcast, streaming and digital platforms.
“No Place Like It,” like its predecessor, was produced by a team in University Communication and Marketing, led by Aaron Nix, director of visual media. The spot is meant to convey the message that Nebraska is a Big Ten university where every person and every interaction matters. It’s a place with big opportunities, big impacts and a close community, with people who believe in the power of every person to do big things. It’s an easy place to call home — and there’s no place like it.
“Our hope is that this feels real and true, showing real students in their life here on campus,” Nix said. “We were wanting to expand on the themes of ‘Home Again,’ using a voicemail or a call from home, and this voicemail was shared with us around the exact same time. It was serendipitous.”
The voicemail, originally left on a phone line for Dave Annis, director of University Dining, quickly made its way to Lucas Novotny, executive director of Housing and Dining Services, and Dee Dee Anderson, vice chancellor for Student Life, who shared it with the chancellor’s leadership team.
“We know that students are far away from home, and we want our residence halls, our community, to feel like home for them. Those are the reasons we do what we do every day,” Novotny said. “To hear from a parent that we hit the mark, that what we do is resonating with students, it makes it all worth it.”
Andrea and Ken were happy — and a little relieved — when Lauren chose to come to Nebraska.
“She could go to a Big Ten school for the same cost as the other schools,” Ken said. “And after Admitted Student Day, it was such a positive experience, we just knew she’d made the right choice.”
Lauren, a senior management major, decided to come to Nebraska after a campus visit with her family in summer 2020. She said the campus and city of Lincoln were different than what she’d imagined, and the university took its place at the top of her list.
And her Husker ties go back three generations — her great-grandparents lived in Nebraska before moving to Colorado, Ken said — so the university always felt like an option.
“My whole family is Husker fans, so I knew I was going to apply here, but I had never seen the campus until that summer,” Lauren said.
Madison, a sophomore business administration major, soon fell in love with the campus when visiting her sister.
“I got the whole experience with her and knew it’s where I wanted to be, too,” she said.
The whole Haring family now calls Nebraska home, as Ken took a job at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Even Ken’s parents moved from Colorado to Lincoln last year. Season tickets to Husker home games and more frequent visits to campus are now the norm.
“It feels like our girls coming here, it’s not just them,” Andrea said. “It became a family thing; even our extended family has embraced the school.”
