Helberg, Sandstrom and Terrell receive Distinguished Young Alumni Awards

Helberg, a native of Loup County, Nebraska, graduated from Chadron State in 2006 with a degree in Business Administration and Management. At CSC she competed in track and field for two years and volleyball for a year.

After realizing her calling as a teacher, Helberg earned an education endorsement from the University of Nebraska-Kearney in 2010, then taught in Papillion briefly, and was a Language Arts teacher and volleyball coach at Burwell High School for 10 years. Since 2021, Helberg has been a teacher and speech coach at her alma mater, Loup County Public Schools, in Taylor.

As a teacher, Helberg believes in providing students with opportunities to learn about other cultures and ways of life. Education about the Holocaust and genocide has been a particular interest in her career. In 2013, she received a grant that allowed her to travel to several Holocaust sites in Europe and purchase Holocaust literature materials for her school. In 2016, she was selected by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Museum Teacher Fellow, which allowed her to spend time at the museum learning from historians, authors, and survivors.

In 2018, Helberg traveled to Rwanda to study the 1994 genocide there. The following year she visited the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, where she stayed with members of the Sapara, an indigenous tribe.

As Nebraska’s Teacher of the Year in 2019, Helberg presented about her experiences more than 50 times to groups of students and adults.

Helberg’s core message to students and adults is to look for the good, and if you do not see any good, then create it.

In 2021, she was selected as a Lowell Milkin Center for Unsung Heroes fellow and was awarded the center’s Discovery Award in 2022. She also pursued an interest in space travel at the NASA space camp in 2021. This year Helberg was selected to study at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

Helberg’s extensive community involvement includes membership in the Aspen Institute’s Weave the People program, the Nebraska World Affairs Council, and the Nebraska Community Foundation. She holds positions as chair of the Calamus Area Community Fund and secretary of the Sandhills District of the Nebraska State Education Association. She has also been featured on commercial spots for Nebraska Public Media and has done numerous podcasts.

Helberg and her husband, Dan, a Scottsbluff native and 2007 CSC graduate, live on her family’s ranch in rural Loup County.

Sandstrom, a Chadron native, graduated from CSC in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education. He completed a Master of Education in History degree at Chadron State in 2017 and a Master of Humanities in American History at Pace University in New York in 2020.

Following graduation from CSC Sandstrom was in his second-year teaching history at Yuma High School in Colorado when he was named the 2015 James Madison Fellow for Colorado. The first of Sandstrom’s several teaching awards, the Madison fellowship focused on study of the U.S. Constitution and included graduate level instruction at Georgetown University. He was also named to the Bill of Rights Institute’s National Teachers Council, a group that provides suggestions on improving history and civic education in the U.S.

As Nebraska History Teacher of the Year in 2019, an award sponsored by the Gilder Lehman Institute of American History, Sandstrom participated in a week-long program of discussions with eminent historians, visits to historic sites, and work with primary historical sources.

In 2021 Sandstrom received History Nebraska’s Excellence in Teaching Award and was a finalist for the Nebraska Department of Education Teacher of the Year award. The Nebraska State Council for the Social Studies recognized Sandstrom’s accomplishments by naming him 2022 Outstanding Teacher for the Third District.

In addition to teaching, Sandstrom has published history articles in peer-reviewed publications including Nebraska History and the Great Plains Quarterly, created a podcast for the World War I Centennial Commission, and collaborated on curriculum development for the National Museum of American History. He is also a curriculum contributor for the National Women’s History Museum and has developed learning guides for the National History Day website division.

Now a teacher and coach at Chadron High School, Sandstrom has sponsored several National History Day participants, including the 2019 national runner-up in senior group website division. He is a sponsor for the Capital Forum on American’s Future, and has been a leader of an international tour of CHS students.

Sandstrom’s teaching methods include extensive use of primary sources to connect students with their community’s history, and emphasis on local resources to make national issues relevant in their daily lives.

Besides duties as history and social studies teacher at Chadron High, Sandstrom is an adjunct professor at Chadron State, and recently became the head football coach for Chadron High.

Terrell, a Hay Springs native, graduated Cum Laude from CSC in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology degree. His CSC career included four years as a student-athlete for the Eagles’ football team and membership in Blue Key.

Following graduation from CSC, Terrell went studied at Kansas State University, where he earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2011, a masters in Veterinary Biomedical Sciences in 2012, and a PhD in Pathobiology in 2018.

During his time at KSU, Terrell worked as a graduate research assistant for the Beef Cattle Institute, where he assisted research in food-borne pathogens and vaccine technologies. He also served as president of KSU’s student chapter of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.

Now a bovine veterinarian and partner in Production Animal Consultation (PAC) located in Oakley, Kansas, Terrell and his team provide veterinary services to beef cattle feedlot clients representing more 30 percent of the cattle on feed in the U.S. In addition to providing expertise in animal health, wellbeing and production for PAC’s clients, Terrell is director of the company’s research division, which has special interests in projects focused on new technologies, antimicrobial stewardship, and animal care.

Terrell has been a presenter and panelist at a number of national and international professional conferences for bovine veterinarians and has published articles in several academic publications, including the Journal of Veterinary Medicine. A member of the University of Nebraska’s LEAD Class 36, he graduated this year from the University of Illinois Executive Veterinary Program.

Terrell and his wife, Kelly, live in Gothenburg with son Clay and daughters Brett and Quinn. Kelly is business manager for her family’s feedlot and farming operation. The couple are partners in Terrell Farm and Terrell Ranches in northwest Nebraska.

Terrell’s mother, Marjean Terrell serves on the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State College System.