This is the first in a series marking the 50th year of SHP that we’re calling 50 Years 50 Stories of SHP. Everyone who has been involved with Summer Honors has contributed to its overall story, and here we plan to tell many interesting sub-stories about challenges SHP has faced, traditions SHP has inspired, and lives SHP has influenced. Please let us know if you have something to contribute to this series — for example, story ideas; written, video, or audio content; or volunteer time.
The Lewis Brothers — Mike, Dan, and Nathan — each attended Summer Honors for five years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mike later founded the SHP Alumni Association, and Dan later served as SHP art instructor. In the summer of 2026, they shared details about their unconventional lives and interests in the questionnaires below, and they recorded a conversation where they shared memories, insights, and ideas about SHP’s past, present, and future. They also found things from their old SHP annual profiles to tease each other about.
Name: Mike Lewis
SHP years: 1986, 87, 88, 89, 90
SHP classes: Social Science, Creative Writing, Logic, Computer Science, Statistics
High school and graduation year: Beaver City HS, 1990
College(s) and graduation year(s): University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Bachelor of Journalism), 1994; Morningside University (Teacher Intern Program), 2022
Where do you live now? Sioux City, Iowa
How old are you? 54
What’s been your story since high school? I got a bachelor’s degree from UNL in 1994. Since then, I have lived in Grand Island (1995); Lincoln (1995-1999); Chicago (1999-2010); Mexico City (2010-2011); Lincoln again (2011-2014), and Sioux City (2014-present). All my professional jobs have involved working with knowledge — gathering it, organizing it, disseminating it, and encouraging people to think critically about it. I’ve been an editor, writer, and teacher. I worked 11 years for reference publishers in Chicago (World Book and Britannica), and eight years for newspapers in Sioux City and Grand Island. I completed the Teacher Intern Program at Morningside University in 2022. Since then, I’ve been teaching English, yearbook, drama, play production, debate, and humanities at Sioux City West High School. One year I also taught at North High. I got married for the first time on May 13, 2017, my 45th birthday.
How did Summer Honors influence your life? Profoundly. I felt more deeply connected to other SHPers than I had to any previous group other than my immediate family. I formed several friendships at SHP that continue today, decades later. SHP helped shape my identity. The year I did Social Science, Doug Walters told me that I write well, and that steered me toward writing and editing roles and jobs. The year I did Logic, Eugenio Echeverria later that summer mailed me a book of Bertrand Russell’s religion essays, including “Why I Am Not a Christian,” and that helped me realize that even though my nonreligious identity set me apart from my local community, there were people in the wider world, past and present, who had ideas similar to my own. SHPers, of course, have a diverse mix of identities and views, and life has taken us in a diversity of directions. But what seems to unite us is curiosity, critical thinking, creativity, commitment to learning and discussion, and connection to our rural Nebraska roots. I founded the SHP Alumni Association in 1996, and it has been so rewarding to build and perpetuate our alumni community while simultaneously providing financial and other support for SHP. Whenever I meet someone younger or older who was part of SHP outside my own era, I feel an immediate affinity with them because of our shared background and interests.
What books, films, TV shows, plays, art, music, essays, poems, or other creative works have most influenced you in your life? Why? The films Rushmore and The Big Lebowski – both came out in 1998 when I was in my mid-20s, and both feature a main character with two sidekicks, all of whom are eccentrics who value experiences and each other over getting ahead in life. The TV shows MASH and Reservation Dogs – both are about friends and communities sticking together under difficult circumstances. The book Frankenstein, a classic story about what can happen to someone when society doesn’t accept them. The book My Antonia, the most famous story celebrating Nebraska’s landscape and early settler communities. The books Guns, Germs, and Steel and Rules for Radicals – both are big-picture accounts of how the world works. Most music classified as alt-country or Americana (Gram Parsons, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, etc.) – it’s about rural and small-town life and it’s typically intelligent and non-sugar-coated.
What’s your favorite place on earth? Why? I can’t narrow down to a single place, because many places resonate with me, so I’ll just share the first place that popped into my mind: Cerro de la Estrella in Mexico City, which is near where I lived in the borough of Iztapalapa. You enter from a busy city street, walk 45 minutes upward on a road that winds around the hill, and arrive at an ancient ceremonial site at the top with a good view of the city and Valley of Mexico.
What are your goals at this point in your life? I’m trying to think in systems rather than goals – that is, what tweaks in my life system might lead me toward better outcomes, in terms of health, community, etc. But an immediate goal is organizing a great 50-year Summer Honors reunion.
What is your biggest regret? There are some things I wish I hadn’t done, but I don’t know if “regret” is the right term for how I feel, because every experience, including every mistake, has helped me grow.
What are you most thankful for? Having a family I can count on. The opportunities for learning I have had (SHP being among those).
What’s your favorite thing about yourself? That I am naturally curious and truth-seeking, and oriented toward building community.
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Name: Dan Lewis
SHP years: 1987-1991
SHP classes: Art (four years), Creative Writing (one year)
High school and graduation year: Beaver City HS, 1991
College(s) and graduation year(s): Kansas City Art Institute (three years), University of Nebraska at Kearney (BFA, Comprehensive Studio Art), Texas Tech University (MFA, Painting)
Where do you live now? Lubbock, Texas
How old are you? 53
What’s been your story since high school? After high school I went to college, studied art, and became (mainly) an art teacher at different schools, camps, and programs (various levels), all while pursuing a life of low consumption and sustainability. One year I lived off less than $1,000 of income, then another year completely reused or recycled every item I purchased. I went off grid more than a decade ago, and had a permaculture plant business for several years. Recently I bought an electric car with my brother—we also built a solar-charging carport at my home. We took care of our mom for over a year until she died this May (2026).
How did Summer Honors influence your life? SHP helped culture my excitement for intellectual and creative exploration. Being able to debate ideas with brilliant teachers and people my age, appreciate and celebrate learning with so many unique people, this inspired me to further pursue art, teach, and write down my thoughts (including two books) throughout my life. My dream of someday teaching at SHP also became reality for several years. Most cherished are my lifelong friends from SHP.
What books, films, TV shows, plays, art, music, essays, poems, or other creative works have most influenced you in your life? Why? Hard to narrow this down: Musically—no specific genre—but a complex beat and unique voice with something important to say has allowed me to better process emotions. The deep thought and sensitive beauty of da Vinci’s sketchbooks resonates with my soul—the closest form of spirituality in a physical object/image that I’ve felt. I’ve read, studied and been inspired by most of Ayn Rand’s writings. Though troubled by some of her views now, her idea of axiomatic concepts is still genius, and her philosophical commitment to the importance of reason and self-reliance has instilled in me a drive to achieve things I wouldn’t have otherwise. Finally, Star Trek in most all its forms has shaped so many of my political and cultural longings—a time and place when science and technology abound, tend to work in our favor, and empower us to explore (and often enrich) the diverse wonders, societies, and mysteries of the universe.
What’s your favorite place on earth? Why? Probably (and somewhat unfortunately) my home in Lubbock, simply because of the time and memories invested, and I can be isolated here. But aesthetically speaking, I love the Nebraska grasslands and its early morning sunrises, as well as deserts in general because of their stark beauty—a few individual plants can carve a whole personality out of the landscape I find breathtaking.
What are your goals at this point in your life? To resolve my mom’s post death logistical/financial chaos. And to get through this questionnaire.
What is your biggest regret? Time lost from late nights of online chess games with random strangers. But at least it’s not late nights of sex with random strangers (anymore, well mostly…).
What are you most thankful for? Wonderful parents and relatives. Innovators/creative thinkers and hard workers. To be raised on a farm/ranch in America, land of the free. Thankful to go to college and pursue what I’ve wanted throughout most of my life.
What’s your favorite thing about yourself? That I haven’t given up on some basic values, but that I have given up on so much in my life that’s not needed.
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Name: Nathan Lewis
SHP years: 1990-1994
SHP classes: Logic, Social Science, Statistics, Medical Science, Science
High school and graduation year: Beaver City High School 1994
College(s) and graduation year(s): University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1994-2000, Didn’t graduate
Where do you live now? Lubbock, TX
How old are you? 50
What’s been your story since high school? Briefly, working toward sustainability in various ways both personally and politically. Various energy saving systems at my home, volunteered lots of time at nonprofits and political organizations, ran for Congress twice and formed a nonprofit to try and save low-income people $$ on their utility bills by incorporating renewable distributed energy.
How did Summer Honors influence your life? Hard to say exactly other than meeting lots of great peers and instructors, learning lots of interesting things about the world inside and outside the classroom and generally being a positive influence on my development.
What books, films, TV shows, plays, art, music, essays, poems, or other creative works have most influenced you in your life? Why? I read four books by the late philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre shortly after leaving college as I was trying to find direction in life. Very good philosopher IMO, although verbose. M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled, Emerson, Thoreau, John Gatto honorable mention when younger. Most recently, The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton and too many various essays to list. The Volts podcast by David Roberts is my current favorite podcast.
What’s your favorite place on earth? Why? Lazy Boy at home. You’re smart people, you can figure it out. 😏
What are your goals at this point in your life? Just keep trying to do helpful things and make the world a better place for those who come after us.
What is your biggest regret? I wasn’t that nice of a kid. Made fun of people I shouldn’t have.
What are you most thankful for? I’m a very lucky person to be born to who I was born to, at the time and place. Very privileged and I don’t ever want to forget that. Lots of people in this world have no such good fortune.
What’s your favorite thing about yourself? My addictions are either manageable or benign, or at least I hope so!!