Karissa Hevelone

Crete, Nebraska?

Until 2010, Crete was just some town Karissa Hevelone visited for family gatherings at her aunt's house.

When the Lincoln Southwest alum graduated with a class of 550, she knew she wanted to spend her college years on a smaller, more personal campus. And a job shadow experience with a nurse had narrowed her field of study to medicine. Because her aunt in Crete works at Doane and the college has a top-rated biology program, Doane made the short list of campus visits.

"At the time I figured: It's Crete. It won't have that much to offer," Karissa says, mock-rolling her eyes.

Let's hear it for the Doane ambassador tour guides. She loved it.

Two visits and the town she thought might be boring turned into the only place she wanted to go.

"I was so surprised. I met with faculty and they talked about all the opportunities here like the Semesters in Africa and the student research."

Her first year as a Doane Tiger, she joined too many activities and couldn't keep up. Sophomore year, studying to be a physicians' assistant "I had to learn to say ‘No' and cut out a few organizations," she said.

She still keeps a juggling-routine of a calendar though, one that includes:

• Cheerleading ("Six workouts a week and a huge time commitment, but Doane is one of the few schools that allows stunting and includes cheerleading as a varsity sport.")
• Gamma Phi Iota sorority ("If you need a Wal-Mart run at night for ice cream, there's always someone to go along.")
• Health and Medical Occupation Club (Because it's fun and it helps pre-med students create portfolios that medical schools notice.)
• Doane ambassador/tour guide ("To make sure students know what the Doane experience is like, that it will feel like a second home.")
• Relay for Life ("Because my mom has participated for a long time in Lincoln and Doane raised nearly $70,000 last year, which is No. 1 in the nation for our size of school. It's amazing to sit at Relay and see almost all of the students there supporting it.")

That's all on top of academics. Classes like genetics are tough, she said, and faculty will push you. But they also support you.

"One of my professors wore a blazer to the first day of class. He told us in class he has to wear his blazer because he's a professor. But he showed us this goofy Teddy Bear T-shirt underneath and told us we could also think of him as the guy who wears goofy Teddy Bear T-shirts who wants to help us. I thought that was a great way to start class."

It's not just Doane that has become her home. Crete surprised her, too.

When she needed a print project done for her sorority, she couldn't find a company in Lincoln that would print just one and waive the minimum order fee. But a downtown Crete business printed it for $5.

"The businesses here really want to support you and the college."

At least once a week, she walks the path around Doane Lake with a group of prospective students and families. Every once in a while, a student will ask about living in a rural area. She just smiles, because once she was that student, wondering why she should live in Crete of all places?

"I tell them it's fun and that Doane is its own community. I walk by people on the path and they smile and 95 percent of the time you know them from some activity that you are in."

She tries to explain how close-knit the campus is; how she feels like there's a whole campus looking out for her. She tells them about Doane's stellar placement rate for students heading to medical schools and that 98 percent of graduates are employed or in graduate school within six months of commencement.

Why Crete?