From growing up in a town of 1,000 people to traveling to Africa and serving others Emily embodies what it means to have a servant's heart.
Emily Frenzen is a born and raised Husker from Fullerton, Nebraska, and grew up showing livestock in 4-H and FFA. 4-H gave her an opportunity to use a camera, and she now has a photography business and works for the non-profit Possibilities Africa, serving others through her career.
Frenzen has a side business called Emily Claire Photography where she captures the most important parts of someone's life. This could be a wedding, engagement photos or family photos. One of her favorite memories from a photography shoot was when she took photos of her friend's engagement photos in the Grand Teton Mountains.
"So, they were like, hey, would you like to come and take pictures of us in the Grand Tetons? And I was like, yeah, I’m so in. I thought this was cool to travel and take pictures of a couple I knew from college,” said Frenzen, who came to Nebraska because both of her parents went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and she knew this experience would push her outside of her comfort zone.
In her position with Possibilities Africa, Frenzen works as the creative director with 20 other employees who work in African countries. She and her boss work to fundraise for the nonprofit here in the United States. Through her work, Frenzen gets to highlightthe stories of people in need. What she loves about her current position is seeing everything that she is passionate about come into one career position. Frenzen is a strong Christian, and the non-profit is Christian based, her position is entrepreneurial, and she uses her skills she learned from agricultural communications.
"We all belong to the same world, and we have so much to learn from other people and cultures. It is so good to be surrounded by people who are different from you,” said Frenzen.
Frenzen majored in agricultural communications because she was planning on being an ag journalist, and she also had a minor in the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program.When students come to UNL, they seek an education and get a high-quality one but also receive meaningful experiences. Frenzen credits the Engler program and the ALEC course 393 with Michael Forsberg and Michael Farrell with her career success. The 393 courses taught her what it meant to be a storyteller and highlighted a person's story in the most effective way.
Through Engler, Frenzen was given multiple opportunities. She had the chance to work for the Engler communications team and started her own photography business in Engler. Herentrepreneurial experience has helped her in her position as creative director because it is a new position. Frenzen explained how important it is to have a self-starter mindset when you take a new position, and that is something Engler taught her.
Her first meeting with Tom Field, the Engler program director, had a tremendous impact on her. “I literally cried after I left, because I was like, wow, this just feels like where I need to be. It felt like home,” said Frenzen.
As Frenzen reflected on her time at UNL, she explained how the entire state is a hidden gem. Nebraska has a way of always bringing people back and calling them home. This is because we are truly “Nebraska Nice.“
"I think Nebraska is wonderfully beautiful if you go out to explore it,” Frenzen said. “And the second thing I would say is the people —I truly think they are some of the most wholesome,hardworking and genuine people."
