Featured Tigers is a monthly series wherein the spotlight shines on a few students, alumni, faculty and staff from our Crete, Lincoln and Omaha campus locations. These individuals stand out in the best way — as talented and driven leaders.
View all Featured Tigers here.
We're featuring two seniors — Logan Capek and Cassie Kessler, hosts of the Doane Zone podcast and excellent human beings. Episodes of their podcast are available through Spotify and Apple Music, or online at doanezone.com.
What is your name and graduation year?
Cassie Kessler ’24, Logan Capek ’24
What is your major or degree program?
Cassie: Media Communications & English
Logan: Theatre major with a music minor
What do you hope to do after completing your degree?
Cassie: Work for ESPN or the New York Times.
Logan: Pursue a career in acting.
How is Doane preparing you to reach your goals?
Cassie: I've been able to commentate sports for three years, work as the Sports Editor for the newspaper, and now editing the Doane Zone has helped gain a lot of experience in all different areas.
Logan: Creating lifelong mentorships, friendships and other connections that will benefit me outside of Doane and beyond.
Who has been a major influence for you during your education at Doane? How have they helped you?
Cassie: Nathaniel Wilson and Rick Schmuecker have both given me opportunities that I could've never dreamed of when I started college. Rick has given me a lot of experiences that I am eternally grateful and Nathaniel has trusted me with a lot of things in the communications department. I'm very grateful for both of them.
Logan: Joel Egger, Robin McKercher and Kurt Runestad; all three have been a major factor in helping me find my own voice in the world, and have all provided an endless amount of support to whatever dreams/aspirations I may have. They took me in as an 18-year-old freshman and have cultivated a 21- (almost 22-) year-old who loves what he does and has a goal to be as loving, supporting, and kind as those three have shown me day in and day out.
What is something you're proud of accomplishing or achieving while at Doane?
Cassie: At the moment, I'm most proud of publishing a podcast on Spotify. It's something I've always dreamed of doing and I didn't know if I would ever get the opportunity to do so.
Logan: Making it to the final round of the Irene Ryan Acting Competition at the yearly Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF).
What advice would you give to an incoming student?
Cassie: Take the chance and pitch your ideas. The worst that can happen is someone says no, but if you don't try you'll never know. If I had pitched the podcast idea earlier, who knows where it could've gone, but I'm glad we're doing it now.
Logan: Be yourself always, the world wants to shut out anyone that does not fit within the "norm", but if you can feel confident and comfortable with who you are both behind closed doors and in front of an endless amount of people, that will carry you farther in life than anything else. Also, be kind. In our world where everything costs a whole lot of money, that's one thing that you can always give out for free.
What's something you like about yourself that other people may not know?
Cassie: There's not a single person I can't get along with. A lot of people don't approach me because apparently my resting face isn't approachable, but I love chatting and listening to just about everyone. Definitely a people's person.
Logan: I really like spending time by myself, I've grown to enjoy it within the past year, and it's nice to be alone sometimes, especially when I may have so much going on.
