Anna DeGroot, Dex Larsen, and Kaitlyn Michaelson received the Civic Engagement Award for 2024-25, while retired faculty member Dr. Jean Karlen received the Emeritus Faculty Civic Engagement Award.
Wayne State College students Anna DeGroot, Clarinda, Iowa; Dex Larsen, Blair; and Kaitlyn Michaelson, Lincoln; received Ron Holt Civic Engagement Awards for the 2024-25 academic year, and Dr. Jean Karlen, a retired Wayne State faculty member, received the inaugural Emeritus Faculty Civic Engagement Award during the annual Dr. Ron Holt Civic Engagement Awards dinner held April 10 on campus.
The annual student award was started in 2014 by Dr. Ron Holt, a 1989 graduate of Wayne State. It recognizes a graduating Wayne State senior who has served as an exemplary role model and contributed to the service ethos of the college campus and community at large. Student awards include a $1,000 gift, a trophy, medallion, and recognition at graduation.
Students must participate in a Service-Learning Program project in order to apply for the Civic Engagement Award. Each semester, hundreds of Wayne State students make a difference in the community by participating in service-learning projects, contributing nearly $250,000 each year to the region in community service.
For these services, Wayne State was recognized as a member of the national President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for five consecutive years. In 2014, Wayne State was one of only three higher education institutions in Nebraska to receive the Honor Roll with Distinction in the General Community Service category.
Anna DeGroot
Anna DeGroot is the daughter of Daniel and Rita DeGroot of Clarinda, Iowa. She is majoring in Biology with a Conservation focus and has minors in Public & Global Health and Geography. DeGroot has participated in two service-learning projects. One involved assisting with the “Ideas and Conversations” project to promote awareness of community health disparities, and the second entailed conducting a survey over culturally inclusive healthcare services with the Nebraska Health Equity Advising Council.
DeGroot has been involved in Wayne State’s Neihardt Scholars Program, Green Team, Pi Gamma Mu, Gamma Theta Upsilon, the Wildcat Marching Band and Wind Ensemble, the Peer Mentor Program, and as an English as a Second Language volunteer. She is also president of Wayne State’s chapter of The Wildlife Society. She has a passion for conservation, wildlife research, and One Health.
DeGroot has conducted various research projects, including a comparative analysis of small mammal and bird populations in recently seeded versus established urban prairies. For her Honors project, she is conducting research on inter-individual behavioral differences in Madagascar hissing cockroaches, with a specific focus on female boldness and the development of insect social structures.
DeGroot also served as an intern in Madagascar, where she worked with locals to implement self-sustaining conservation projects, including comprehensive reforestation efforts and research on the population dynamics of three lemur species. This sparked a passion for community-based conservation in vulnerable regions, and she hopes to continue with this work as a career.
DeGroot is currently a 2025-2026 Fulbright ETA Semifinalist for Indonesia. She currently works as a conservation technician at Ponca State Park before ultimately pursing higher education.
Dex Larsen
Dex Larsen is the son of Nate and Reita Larsen, and he will graduate in May with High Honors and a degree in Exercise Science. He plans to open an athletic performance and personal training business alongside his brother, Dane.
During his four years at Wayne State, Larsen has shown a strong commitment to serve others and bring out the best in them. In his first year, he participated in Dr. Barbara Engebretsen's service-learning course in which he helped revise and finalize her Personal, Public, & Global Health textbook. Through this course, he also assisted in organizing a community movie night and discussion where two community members with disabilities (Muscular dystrophy and blindness) graciously devoted their time to share with the class their perspective on the healthcare discrepancies that exist in America.
Humbled by this experience, Larsen used valuable leadership lessons he learned to extend a hand to his classmates by serving as an academic tutor. He also participated on the Wildcat football team and was a team captain multiple times, All-Conference, and All-Super Region player. Additionally, he was a representative for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) who helped bridge the communication gap between student-athletes and the administration, as well as raise money for various charities such as Make-A-Wish. He’s also volunteered his time to the Wayne Youth Wrestling Club and the Pender High School wrestling team during the winter months.
Larsen intends to continue volunteering his time around the greater Omaha area to organizations such as FCA, Teammates, and youth clubs to positively impact as many lives as possible. His favorite quote sums up his philosophy: "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get others interested in you."
Kaitlyn Michaelson
Kaitlyn Michaelson is majoring in Human Services Counseling at Wayne State, with minors in Music and Sociology. She has participated in two service-learning projects. She led a music time for children at Christ United Methodist Church in Lincoln and learned piano repertoire while taking piano lessons to play at a retirement home in Wayne.
Michaelson is active in Wayne State’s Department of Music. She was in Lyrica Treble Choir her freshman and sophomore years, the Wayne State Concert Choir her freshman through junior years, and she is in her eighth semester of voice lessons. Her favorite genre of music to learn for voice lessons is musical theatre.
During her time at Wayne State, Michaelson has served in multiple executive positions for various clubs. She has served as president and vice president of the Photography Club, and as secretary and president of the PRIDE Club. She has always been passionate about advocating for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and being president of the PRIDE Club at Wayne State was the perfect fit for her.
Michaelson has worked to nurture the safe atmosphere of the PRIDE Club and ensured annual awareness events such as National Coming Out Day and Transgender Day of Visibility occurred. She’s helped PRIDE Club members feel seen and heard.
“I can confidently say I have found the work I am most passionate about, and I will continue to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community,” said Michaelson.
Dr. Jean Karlen
Dr. Jean Karlen’s distinguished career has covered civic engagement, academic leadership, and community service. She joined the faculty at Wayne State College in 1976 after earning her bachelor of arts (1969), master of arts (1976), and Ph.D. (1981) degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A dedicated scholar and mentor, Karlen served as division head of Social Sciences at Wayne State from 1989 to 2001, and as the college’s first campus coordinator of service-learning from 1998 to 2010, where she helped build strong bridges between classroom learning and community impact.
Karlen is a member of honor societies such as Pi Gamma Mu, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Psi Chi. Karlen has long championed academic excellence and student engagement. She has held leadership roles and been actively involved in numerous professional and civic organizations, including the Nebraska Undergraduate Sociological Symposium (NUSS), the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women, the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS), and Midwest Sociologists for Women in Society (MSWS).
Karlen has served as Pi Gamma Mu chapter sponsor since 1978 and has spent 35 years on its board, including serving as the president from 2002 to 2005. Her exceptional contributions have been recognized with many prestigious awards, including the MSS Board of Directors Distinguished Service Award (2000), the George T. Rebensdorf Teaching Excellence Award from the Nebraska State College System (2003), and the Voyager Award from the Midwest Consortium for Service-Learning in Higher Education (2006). In 2015, she was inducted into the Pi Gamma Mu Hall of Fame.
In her hometown of Pender, Neb., Karlen was a co-founder of the Pender Community Preschool (1976), a longtime member of the Pender Beautification Committee, and a member of the Pender Board of Education for more than two decades. For more than 50 years, she has been a musician, singer, and guitarist for St. John’s Catholic Church.
Karlen and her husband, Jerry, have been married for more than 55 years and are the parents of three daughters – Julia, Jaima, and Jaclyn – and grandparents to eight grandchildren.
About Dr. Ron Holt
Dr. Ron Holt currently practices as a student health psychiatrist at San Francisco State University. His community service began at Wayne State in 2000 when he began returning to campus each homecoming week as a volunteer to educate students on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) issues and civil rights.
Throughout his educational and professional career, Holt has exhibited outstanding accomplishments as a strong advocate and champion of civic engagement and community service.
Holt has received several awards for his community service across the country and at Wayne State. He received Wayne State’s 2004 Alumni Service Award, Wayne State’s 2012 Alumni Achievement Award, the Wayne State 2017 President’s Diversity Award, and the Wayne State 2019 School of Natural and Social Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award.
In 2022, Holt was elevated to Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and graduated from San Francisco State University with a master of arts degree in Human Sexuality Studies.
In addition to his work as a trustee of the Wayne State Foundation, Holt has created numerous endowed and annual scholarships at Wayne State College. He began his first annual scholarship in 1989 when he was a senior at Wayne State.