This is the sixth 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.
Name: Jason Glanzer
Current city of residence: Omaha
Wife: Francie McNeil, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Nebraska Methodist College
Child: Abby Glanzer, 22 and a nursing student at Nebraska Methodist College
SHP years: 1986: Geology, 1988: Med Science, 1989: Med Science
High school and graduation year: Holbrook, 1989
College(s) and graduation year(s):
1994 – University of Nebraska-Omaha (BS; Biotechnology)
2002 – University of Nebraska Medical Center (PhD; Pharmacology)
2018 – Creighton University (JD; Law)
It’s hard for me to reminisce about SHP in the 80’s without also recalling the economic turmoil that was always in the background. As gloomy as the farm crisis was, SHP gave me a first glimpse that, whether leaving the farm was voluntary or not, there could still be a light at the end of the tunnel. One particular spark from SHP came during my first visit to the UNMC campus in Med Sci, where I was allotted a one-on-one meeting with Professor Steven Tracy, a virologist in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology. I remember being awed by the expensive-looking lab equipment around us, and even more by Dr. Tracy having a serious (!) conversation with me about how one becomes a professor in the biological sciences. That experience, along with others at SHP, helped me understand that becoming the scientist I had envisioned since childhood was not a lofty dream, but an actual process that was attainable.
After high school, I received a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from UNO in Omaha and eventually returned to the research building next to Dr. Tracy’s lab to complete a doctorate in pharmacology. There, I became immersed in a whole catalogue of molecular biology techniques. Over the next few years, I worked in several immunology and cancer research labs in Nebraska, and had a post-doctoral experience in Philadelphia. For someone who had once wondered whether a life in science was attainable, it was heavenly.
As in the 80’s, the 2008 recession hit hard as well, drying up quite a few research opportunities for me. Not wanting to leave Nebraska for labs with better funding, I went back to school and became a patent attorney. I am now employed at a boutique patent firm in Omaha with a dozen other patent attorneys, spending most of my time drafting patents for inventions that cover the electrical and mechanical fields, which has been a stimulating and enjoyable challenge. Importantly, all the biotechnology work for the firm comes to me.
Besides the exposure to the sciences that SHP had given me, the exposure I had to other SHP students that were like minded in pursuing higher-education goals was also important. I cannot tell you the joy of finding out at SHP that other kids read encyclopedias too! SHP strengthened my resolve to pursue my career goals —goals that could have easily been lost in the morass that we all find ourselves in as we travel through adolescence and early adulthood. May we have at least another 50 years of SHP to help the next generations of students find their way as well.