University Librarian Emerita Janet Lu saw Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Rhodes scholar coming.
Before Trang Ho (’06, LHD ’26) had even arrived on campus as a first-year student in 2002, Lu tracked down her address and mailed a greeting card.
“Ms. Lu had read about me in the paper,” Ho said. “She’d clipped every article. She was excited I’d chosen Nebraska Wesleyan. And she asked me to come see her in the library when I got to campus.”
Ho’s high school graduation had made newspapers for where she’d come from and what she’d accomplished. The Vietnamese refugee had entered Lincoln Public Schools at age 11 speaking no English; Ho left as Lincoln High School’s valedictorian.
“Ms. Lu was proud of me before she’d even met me,” Ho said.
Touched by that card, Ho “went straight to the library on my first day.”
The late Irma Sarata was working the circulation desk and showed her to Lu’s office. “I said, ‘Ms. Lu, I’m here! I’m Trang!’”
Lu quickly became an academic resource—and a deeply committed friend. “She made sure I had what I needed,” whether that was a relevant research article from an obscure journal or a warm dinner at Olive Garden.
“It was like I had another mom on campus looking out for me,” Ho said. “She was critical to my success at Wesleyan.”
And those successes were significant. The political science major would win a prestigious Harry S Truman Scholarship for students committed to careers in public service. Then came perhaps the most coveted academic award of all: a 2006 Rhodes Scholarship for postgraduate study at the University of Oxford.
Ho recalled the Rhodes Scholarship’s strenuous application process, which involved gathering eight letters of recommendation.
“I asked Ms. Lu to write one of them,” Ho said, “because I knew she could speak to more than just my academic achievement. She could describe my involvement on campus and in Lincoln’s Asian community because she knew me so well.”
Ho would earn a master’s degree in Latin American studies at Oxford, then launch a career in public service with UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children. Today, she is a program manager for UNICEF’s regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean, where she leads private-sector fundraising efforts, spending most of her time in Panama and New York City.
So much of philanthropy, Ho said, hinges on the connections people make through gratitude. And Ho’s sense of gratitude has roots in her relationship with Lu. “She has always been an important person in my life,” Ho said.
Lu moved to Longmont, Colo., in retirement to be closer to family; she recently transitioned to a senior living community there. And while traveling has become difficult, the 88-year-old Lu said her thoughts often make the trip back to University Place.
“I have so many wonderful memories of my Nebraska Wesleyan friends in Lincoln—my amazing colleagues and the students we helped,” Lu said. “Those memories are special to me.”
She said, “Whenever I describe Lincoln and Lincoln’s Asian community to my Colorado friends, it sounds like bragging. But Lincoln is a wonderful city; that’s just true.”
When Ho received Nebraska Wesleyan’s Young Alumni Achievement Award in 2018, Lu made the trip back to Lincoln to be there. But last May, when NWU recognized Ho with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Lu was unable to come. And Ho felt her absence.
So, she and her lifelong best friend, Tuyet Kieu (‘06), made plans for a summer trip to Longmont. They paid Lu a visit, and paid their respects, in July.
Lu was grateful to spend time with them. “It’s so rewarding when students show that they remember their teachers and their mentors,” she said.
That’s just the message Ho intended. “I just think it’s good for older people to know what the younger people they’ve supported have been doing with their lives,” Ho said.
“I wanted Ms. Lu to see my son. I wanted her to know she is family.”