2026 NSEA Outstanding Media Award Recipient

Peter Ferguson, host of Bigger Than the Score on 93.7 The Ticket, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Nebraska State Education Association (NSEA) Outstanding Media Award.

Presented by the Nebraska State Education Association, the award honors individuals and media outlets for exceptional coverage of education issues and for advancing the story of public education across Nebraska. It recognizes those who elevate the voices of educators, scholars, and communities through thoughtful, fair, and impactful storytelling.

Through Bigger Than the Score, Ferguson has created a purpose-driven platform that goes beyond headlines—centering relationships, highlighting lived experiences, and amplifying voices that reflect the depth and diversity of education. His work continues to model what it means to be data-informed without becoming relationship-poor, ensuring that stories not only inform, but connect and inspire.

The award has recently recognized leaders in education storytelling, including Andrew Ozaki (2025), and now honors Ferguson’s continued commitment to lifting the narratives that shape schools, communities, and the future of education.

Relationships lead. Purpose lifts—and this recognition reflects both.

Read the Lincoln Community Foundation feature on the 2026 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Rally & March.

For nearly three decades, Peter Ferguson has played a leadership role in shaping this experience—supporting scholars as they move from voice to action.

This piece highlights the power of youth leadership and the impact of a community committed to walking together.

Click to read the full article:
https://lcf.org/about/news/newsroom.html/article/2026/01/09/audacious-action-annual-mlk-youth-rally-scholars-advocate-for-change

Every week, we shine a spotlight on one Lincoln Public Schools staff member! This week, meet Peter Ferguson, multicultural coordinator and scholar development/assistant supervisor of recruiting.

Full Story available at: https://www.lps.org/post/detail.cfm?id=15959

Become with Michaela Halvorson will explore the curiosity around these questions. Authentic conversations with brilliant minds from all walks of life will explore life in the present moment and reflect back on guests’ lives and how past experiences helped shape them. By digging d

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In his 28 years leading the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally, there’s still one specific moment Pete Ferguson remembers as if it happened yesterday.

Ferguson and his family were marching alongside dozens of people fighting the bitter January cold to honor civil rights activists of the past and present with a walk from the Capitol to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s City Campus. Out of all the people walking alongside him, three caught his eye.

His wife, young daughter and mother were marching hand-in-hand, bundled up, but still smiling.

Together, they represented three generations of women working to fight for equal rights and honor the activists who came before them. For Ferguson, it felt like the epitome of the work they do each year with the rally.

“That’s it,” he said. “...That’s the hope.”

For 28 years, Ferguson has helped students find their voices, speak their minds and advocate for what they believe in through the youth rally. Now, the rally is celebrating 30 years of bringing people together from across the city, state, nation and even the world.

“It's beyond Lancaster County. It really has grown beyond that,” he said.

This year, the rally will kick off Sunday — a day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day — at 5 p.m. at UNL's Nebraska Union with doors opening at 4 p.m. The program on Sunday will also be available to livestream through LNKTV and through the rally’s website and Facebook page.

The rally's planning committee decided this summer to hold the event, which usually takes place on MLK Day, a day early to avoid clashing with the presidential inauguration on Monday.

The event is organized entirely by members of the rally’s planning committee — made up of Lincoln students of all ages — and will feature a variety of readings, original speeches, reflections and music performed by students.

Ferguson first took over as the adviser of the rally’s planning committee two years after its inception in 1995. When he first started, they were handing out flyers to spread the word. Three decades later, the planning committee is making social media posts, texting people and sending out emails.

The rally has evolved a lot over time, Ferguson said, in more ways than one. It has reached people in different countries, touched on different themes and expanded its content over the years, but the foundation of why they continue to put it on year after year has always remained the same.

“Our purpose is to honor the life and dreams of Rev. Dr. King and (rally founder) Dr. Leola Bullock through the promotion of positive youth action,” Ferguson said.

For Eva Sohl, the youth rally has had a long-lasting impact on her life.

Sohl first joined the planning committee as a sophomore at Lincoln Northeast High School in 2001. After participating in her first rally that January, she was hooked. She went on to help plan the event during her final years in high school and even stayed active in the rally for five more years as a student at UNL.

As an adult, Sohl said she has carried the values she learned through the rally with her, eventually guiding her to a position helping the homeless community in New Orleans.

“I'm grateful for the experiences that I had (with the rally). I built this foundation to take on these challenging circumstances, and to persist with this belief that the arc of the universe leads towards justice,” she said.

Now, 16 years after her last rally, Sohl is returning to Nebraska to be part of the event’s 30th anniversary.

“I'm just so excited to be a part of it and to watch it and see the young people, the members that came after me, to connect with those folks as well. It's very exciting,” she said.

Addison Olds, a junior at Lincoln Southeast, is in her fifth year on the planning committee, and like Sohl, the youth rally has played a big role in her life.

Since joining, she’s become a better public speaker, a more concise communicator and a fierce advocate. She’s learned not only about the civil rights movement, but the commitment and dedication it takes to fight for what she believes in, she said.

“I've grown to be the person I am today through the rally,” she said.

And this year, her commitment to the rally has shone through, Ferguson said. Last month, Olds was in the middle of a basketball game when she tripped and fell to the ground. The pop in her knee told her everything she needed to know: She had torn her ACL and meniscus.

With surgery on the horizon, Olds wasn’t sure she would be able to make it to Sunday’s rally. Nevertheless, she persevered through the pain, caught rides to rehearsals from her mom and continued to work on her original piece for the rally because she felt the message she hoped to share was too important to forgo.

“I think it's important for the community to see that no matter how old you are, what you look like, your race, your ethnicity, your gender, it takes anyone to make a change,” she said. “Anybody, any age, can try to promote change and promote the messages that we say.”

Woods Charitable Fund, Inc., a private grant-making foundation, announces the election of officers and a new member to its Board of Directors. Peter Ferguson was elected to the Board during the Fund’s November Board meeting. 

Ferguson is the Coordinator of Culture, Inclusion, and Scholar Development and Assistant Supervisor of Recruiting for Lincoln Public Schools and founder of Peter Ferguson B.H.S., LLC, providing organizational and individual leadership facilitation, public speaking, workshops and consulting. He’s a recognized educational specialist in adult and youth development, leadership, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. His career has spanned K-12 and post-secondary education, and for-profit and nonprofit organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters Lincoln and Leadership Lincoln, Inc. Ferguson is the weekly host of “Bigger Than the Score” on 93.7 The Ticket radio and has been the lead adult advisor for the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Rally for 28 years. He’s received numerous community honors including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Chancellor’s Fulfilling the Dream Award, N.A.A.C.P. Community Service Award, and Y.W.C.A. Mentors and Allies Award. He is on the Bryan College of Health Sciences Board of Trustees and board of directors for MENTOR Nebraska. He continues to honor his late mother, a 40-year educator, through service and championing the fight against Alzheimer’s.

“We are thrilled to welcome Peter Ferguson to Woods Charitable Fund’s Board of Directors. Peter’s extensive experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, along with his unwavering commitment to community service, makes him an invaluable addition to our team,” said Tom Woods, President of Woods Charitable Fund. “His leadership in education, mentorship, and civic engagement, particularly through organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools, aligns perfectly with our mission to create meaningful, lasting change in our community. Peter’s dedication to empowering individuals and fostering inclusion has been a driving force in Lincoln, and we are excited to work alongside him to continue advancing opportunities for all.”

Woods Charitable Fund also elected officers at its November meeting. Those elected were Nelle Woods Jamison, chairwoman; Jay Conrad, vice chairman; Hank Woods, treasurer; Michael J. Tavlin, assistant treasurer; and Tom Woods, president and board secretary. Suk Wortman, Charlie Foster and Kevin Abourezk are continuing members of the Board.

Woods Charitable Fund, Inc., makes grants twice a year to tax-exempt organizations seeking funding for Lincoln-focused programs in the areas of Human Services, Civic & Community, Education, and Arts & Culture and through its Breakthrough Initiative Grant program. It has granted more than $100 million since its inception in 1941. For more information on funding guidelines, call (402) 436-5971, visit www.woodscharitable.org or write to Tom Woods, Kathy Steinauer Smith or Nicole Juranek at 1248 O St. Suite 1130, Lincoln, NE 68508 or at info@woodscharitable.org.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln recently honored six individuals and one student organization during its annual Nebraska Diversity, Equity and Inclusion awards.

Organized by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the honors recognize individuals and groups who actively advance diversity, equity and inclusion in transformative and sustainable ways on campus and in the community.

The University Communication and Marketing team reached out to the honorees to learn more about what drives them to help build a more inclusive community on campus and in the broader community. The series continues with Peter Ferguson, coordinator of culture, inclusion and scholar development for Lincoln Public Schools. Ferguson received the university’s inaugural Diversity Community Impact award.

For more than 20 years, Ferguson has helped coordinate and lead Lincoln’s annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally and March. The event promotes King’s life and dreams through positive youth action.

Ferguson also participates in and supports university programming; counsels youth affected by the juvenile justice system; locates resources for homeless students; and develops structures that support the development and success of local youth.

What does receiving the Diversity Community Impact Award mean to you?

Being a recipient is humbling and an honor to be recognized by other individuals and groups who actively advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in transformative and sustainable ways. As a recipient, it is an affirmation but also an opportunity to show that same respect, value, and love for others who are co-conspirators ensuring the “equity” gap is eliminated for those of us too often underrepresented.

What do you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?

In my lifetime, I hope as many are doing the work; we honor the responsibility of leaving things better than we found them. This recognition does not honor perfection, but we can contribute and be the catalyst, advocate, and ally for someone to achieve more than (I) they can do in their lifetime. I’ve set out daily to align my life mission with the late Maya Angelou, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.”

What or who inspires you?

I’m empowered by those that rest in power, like my parents, Mr. Howard and Mrs. Alida Ferguson. It’s the continued investment and support of my daughter and wife.

What inspires me is the respect, value, and love received from underrepresented colleagues, scholars, and community members, in space elevating our voice and presence in a space not traditionally reserved for us.

What is your advice to others looking to make an impact?

My advice to others is to identify, invest, honor, and value your purpose Equity, civility, justice, and kindness are not optional…you matter. When in doubt, reflect on the words of author Zora Neale Hurston.

“So at times, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company it’s beyond me.”

Learn more about the awards and honorees in Nebraska Today.

May 2, 2021 Updated Jan 13, 2023 | Cindy Lange-Kubick Lincoln Journal Star

The Black man in the red tie and bowler hat has a question.

What does B stand for?

Belmont!

What does B stand for?

Brilliant!

What does B stand for?

Beautiful!

One by one, the fifth graders answer the man with the booming voice. It’s dinner time on Thursday, and the eight Belmont TRACKS scholars are gathered in a back room at the Lincoln Community Playhouse.

They’ve just watched an hour-long film called “We Will Not Be Silent.”

They are its stars.

The movie documented the weeks they spent preparing to perform at the annual MLK Youth Rally in a year like no other.

It featured the adults that mentored and coached and encouraged them along the way. Mr. Pete. Mrs. E. Miss Shanna.

The man in the hat — motivational speaker Keith L. Brown — had a cameo in the film, recorded over Zoom from his home in Savannah, Georgia.

But he flew in for their big screen debut.

The scholars finish their chicken strips and cookies, wearing their Belmont letter sweaters. They’ll be on the red carpet soon, posing for the cameras with their parents and brothers and sisters.

What does B stand for?

Brave!

What does B stand for?

Behold!

“You behold how beautiful you are,” Brown tells them. “Together you are great and nothing can stop greatness.”

* * *

The Belmont TRACKS Empowerment program has a history.

It started 20 years ago, when Pete Ferguson volunteered for a day with the Watch D.O.G. program at the elementary school on North 14th Street.

“Walk around the building, help kids cross the street, high-five the kids,” he says. “My friend in the nonprofit world thought I acted like a kid and suggested it.”

He visited the lunchroom, read stories, talked about his job, his life, about leadership.

Ferguson is the youth development coordinator for LPS. He was working at Leadership Lincoln the day he volunteered at Belmont. It was a good day and he became a regular visitor in one of the fourth grade classrooms.

He became Mr. Pete.

And at the end of the year, that teacher sent him a thank-you note and a request: Would you be willing to come back next year?

He returned the next year and all the years since. He had other ties to Belmont. His wife, Stephanie, taught there. His daughter Jaden, now 20, would become a student there.

Mr. Pete was so popular that every class of fourth graders wanted him to mentor them.

And that was a dilemma. They came up with a solution: Pick students from every class based on their own nomination letter and input from teachers.

“I had always been a big believer in groups,” Ferguson says. “Especially for students of color, the benefit when you’re around people who are like-minded and have the same aspirations.”

The program grew into its formal name.

“I wanted people to have leadership opportunities,” Ferguson said. “I would tell them, ‘You guys are going to make your own tracks.’”

TRACKS is an acronym now: Talent. Respect. Ambition. Commitment. Knowledge.

“I had always been a big believer in groups,” Ferguson says. “Especially for students of color, the benefit when you’re around people who are like-minded and have the same aspirations.”

The program grew into its formal name.

“I wanted people to have leadership opportunities,” Ferguson said. “I would tell them, ‘You guys are going to make your own tracks.’”

TRACKS is an acronym now: Talent. Respect. Ambition. Commitment. Knowledge.

His biggest goal is that work students do complements the hopes and dreams their parents have, Ferguson said.

And it’s meant as a starting point to bigger things for the young multiracial leaders who earn entry.

“We fail as an education system if this is the highlight,” Ferguson says. “It has to be more than a moment, it has to become a movement for them.”

This is year 14 for TRACKS. Each class standing on the shoulders of the scholars who came before them.

Fifth grade teacher Bobbie Ehrlich has been a part of TRACKS since the beginning. It benefits all of Belmont’s students, said the beloved teacher known as Mrs. E.

“It advertises and opens up a world to kids. They see they don’t have to wait until they are 16 or 18 or 25 to make a difference.”

It’s a mindset of excellence, Ehrlich said. “That’s grown and spread throughout our school community.”

The students spend six weeks learning leadership skills in the spring of their fourth grade year.

And then they have an opportunity — to play a role in the annual MLK Youth Rally and March.

Read a book about the fight for racial justice and equality. Learn about historical figures in the civil rights movement and bring a story to life on a stage in front of hundreds at the Nebraska Union.

They had to earn a spot. No guarantees.

The book project would be work.

A lot of work.

And this school year there would be more — a pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, a summer of protests, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an empty auditorium on MLK rally day.

“We talk about equity. We talk about opportunity and a lot of things were canceled,” Ferguson said. “If we didn’t do it this year, they don’t get it back.”

The filmmakers are at the playhouse Thursday night.

Brian Seifferlein in his suit, holding a camera.

David Koehn hefting a boom mic, following the Belmont students from auditorium to the green room to the red carpet.

The pair were new to Lincoln Public Schools last year. They both had experience producing documentaries for NET, and, when the opportunity to become visual storytellers at LPS presented itself, they took it.

And they set their sights on the Belmont TRACKS scholars from the start.

“I have a couple of kids I have always taken to the MLK rally, so I have seen it evolve over the years,” Seifferlein said. “Belmont always stuck out because they were so powerful.”

The first day on the job, they were chatting with their boss, Chris Haeffner, director of Library Services for LPS, in her office.

Ferguson stopped in.

They told him what they hoped to achieve — a visual journey from classroom to stage.

“Show how these kids get to be where they are,” Seifferlein said. “All the bumps and the cracks.”

They showed up at Belmont week after week. They visited students at home. Interviewed parents. Set up their camera in front of Mrs. E and Miss Shanna, LPS Student Advocate Shanna Letcher, who coached and critiqued and cheered the students, too.

Hundreds of hours of footage.

They’d hoped it would be safe for crowds to gather by the time they took the stage in mid-January at the Nebraska Union. They wanted those scenes from the MLK Rally — the energy of a community cheering them on, the emotion of the moment and the impact of their words hitting hearts.

It didn’t happen.

Instead, they crafted a powerful documentary in black and white. A film inhabited by past civil rights leaders, world history in the making and a small but mighty group of change-makers from Lincoln Public Schools.

“The film gave them that energy and experience back,” Koehn said. “It’s sort of a way to give back that moment the pandemic took away.”

* * *

The lobby of the playhouse is lined with movie posters set on easels.

Each of the eight looking out from a glossy print.

* Eveline Ungery

* Alejandra Moreno

* Mohamed Sabiel

* Jevon Payne

* Kenadee Broussard

* Alex Morris

* Leriya’h Clay

* Payton Craine

There are bouquets of flowers waiting backstage for their parents.

Swag bags for all the guests.

After the show, the man in the bowler hat will call them the Belmont Eight, in the tradition of the Little Rock Nine.

Keith L. Brown will vow to share the film with his wide audience.

He will say they are changing the world while they are still breathing. He will let that truth settle in.

And he will be the first to jump to his feet when the documentary is over and the Belmont TRACKS take the stage in front of a backdrop of stars and reprise their MLK Youth Rally performance in strong loud voices and pause before they take a bow.

And then one more.

by Margaret Reist Lincoln Journal Star | May 25, 2013

Four years ago, a group of eighth-grade boys at Park Middle School looked toward the future and made a pact.

They promised to support each other, to graduate from high school and then college, to beat the statistics that show African-American students graduate at significantly lower rates than their white counterparts -- and African-American males fare even worse.

Joe Griffin -- one of 15 Park students brought together as Lincoln Public Schools' first group mentoring program -- remembers hearing those statistics. And he decided then he wouldn't be one of them.

“I said, ‘I'm going to be one of the percentage that graduates.'”

One of five members of that group who agreed to let the Journal Star follow them through their first year of high school, Griffin will cross the stage this weekend to get his diploma.

Three of the other students -- Agya Adabie, Travis Turner and Tae Johnson -- will join him. Charlie Bush, who was arrested on a felony charge and spent time at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney, will not. But he says he learned from his mistakes, plans to go to summer school and still wants to get a degree.

The five were part of a pilot program led by Pete Ferguson, newly hired as the district's mentoring coordinator. The group -- along with a second group of Latino students at Park facilitated by Oscar Rios Pohireith -- met regularly at the end of their eighth-grade year.

They focused on cultural identity and building strengths and setting goals, finding people who would advocate for them and learning to advocate for themselves. They set their sights not just on high school graduation, but college.

Since then, the district's group empowerment and mentoring program has grown and served 177 elementary and middle school students in several schools the past four years.

It is part of the work of a Youth Development Team that includes advocates who work with African-American and Native students, homeless students and those who are transitioning back to school after being incarcerated or in treatment.

The team is part of the district's efforts to increase its graduation rate, which administrators say will continue to rise only by one-on-one work to help students. The mentoring and empowerment groups for elementary and middle school students are a jumping-off point, to help the students develop relationships and start thinking of their futures.

The advocates take over in high school, meeting with students regularly, making sure they stay on track, reminding them that there are people who care about them and believe in them.

They are there to connect, to advocate, to push but also to affirm.

“That's what this job is really about. It's relationships. Until you develop some kind of relationship with students, they really don't want to hear what you have to say,” said Bill Bryant, one of two African-American advocates who met with all five of the young men followed by the Journal Star. “A lot of what I'm dispensing is hope.”

Four years ago at Park, the students named their group Stocks Up because they planned to invest in their education, and by investing in themselves, they would expect others to invest in them. And their stock would rise.

When school ended, they didn't -- because they told Ferguson they wanted to keep meeting. So they did, visiting Nebraska Wesleyan University, writing their own personal blueprints for their future -- and making their pact.

Ferguson was impressed by their enthusiasm and perseverance, epitomized by Bush and Griffin, who didn't have a ride for a Wesleyan field trip that summer but walked across town -- despite getting lost -- to get there.

“If you have individuals who will do this, you can't tell me they won't fight through any adversity to graduate,” he said.

They did face adversity, but also success.

*

Johnson -- whose passion is basketball -- came back from an ankle injury that sidelined him his freshman year. He switched schools, and after his grandma died decided to move back to Mississippi, where much of his family still lives. He felt closer to her there, but he eventually decided that's not where he needed to be.

“The satisfaction I thought I was going to get never came,” he said. “I told myself it was time to come home.”

He returned to Lincoln High his senior year, played basketball and signed to play at Doane College next season. His freshman dream to be a biochemist has been replaced with plans to major in communications.

Adabie, whose family moved to Lincoln from Ghana when he was 11, played what he loved in high school: soccer. He sometimes struggled to balance the sport and classes, but he got decent grades.

A hip fracture cut his senior soccer season short, but a highlight of high school still was Lincoln High's victory over traditional power East High -- even though he was on crutches.

As a freshman, he wanted to be a doctor -- this fall, he'll start at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the same goal.

Griffin -- whose family comes from Chicago and whose dad was shot there when Griffin was 2 -- admits his focus wasn't on school at first, but he buckled down his sophomore and junior years.

“I used to skip,” he said. “I had to get my head twisted all the way on to focus,” he said. “I still don't have the best grades, but in my mind, I feel like I accomplished something by getting through it.”

Some of his best friends won't graduate, he said, but part of his determination comes from his mom, who has had a hard life but keeps trying. Now he has set his sights on the Navy and will use a Learn to Dream scholarship to take classes at Southeast Community College before he enlists.

Turner said his family -- transplanted to Lincoln from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina -- made it clear graduating from high school was a priority. What he had to decide was what kind of mark he would make there. Seeing some of his friends make choices that took them down a bad path helped him realize he wanted to take a different one. In the end, he said, it was a good ride.

“It's been a roller-coaster,” Turner said. “A fun one, though, not one that just throws you around in loops and stops.”

Bush, who wanted to join the Marines as a freshman, faced the biggest setbacks of the five.

He was expelled the second half of his freshman year, then transferred to Parkview Christian. He did well there, academically and in sports, playing football, basketball and track. The summer after his sophomore year, the trouble got serious. The felony case was transferred to juvenile court, and he served time in Kearney.

He takes responsibility for what happened, he said, and the staff at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center helped him realize that he can't make excuses for his actions, or minimize them. His experiences, he said, taught him he needs to focus on his responsibilities, not hanging out, leaving himself open for trouble.

He spent his senior year at Lincoln Southwest and now wants to go to summer school, take some classes next year -- then graduate so he can show others a high school diploma is possible, even if it takes more than four years.

One of the messages he took away from the Stocks Up group: “Never give up, basically.”

*

Of the entire 15 members of the Stocks Up group, 10 will graduate. Two are planning to attend summer school and graduate. One dropped out. One left the district. One is incarcerated.

Of the 10 graduating, at least seven plan to go on to college.

Districtwide, 76 percent of African-American students graduated last year -- about the same percentage as the Stocks Up group.

The work of the youth development team -- and the youth mentoring groups -- isn't the only reason students succeed, Ferguson said, and it's not solely responsible when they don't.

And the work they do often is hard to quantify but important: helping students realize they are assets to the school, that they should keep trying, be resilient.

That doesn't mean excusing mistakes, he said, but recognizing accomplishments -- even when they're not straight As.

“You can't correct if you never affirm,” he said. “They'll never hear the correction if they've never been affirmed.”

When the Park eighth-graders got called to the counselors' office because they had been chosen to be in the Stocks Up group, they initially thought they were in trouble. Four years later, Ferguson said, students ask to be nominated to the groups. And that's important, he said.

When the Stocks Up group started, students wrote “blueprints for their future” -- an idea that came from the speech by Martin Luther King to a group of junior high school students six months before he was assassinated.

When they walk across the stage this weekend in their caps and gowns, Ferguson will give them a copy of that speech.

“I really want them to hold onto that,” he said. “Be the best at whatever you're going to be.”