When Annelise Foresman spotted kids stopping to take photos with an interactive display at Lincoln's airport this spring, she knew the months of hard work had been worth it.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln senior was part of the team behind Nurture Nebraska, a statewide public awareness campaign promoting children’s social and emotional development from birth to age 5. The ongoing campaign, which launched in late 2025, was created through a partnership between UNL’s Jacht Ad Agency and faculty in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
The effort recently earned three Prism awards from the Lincoln chapter of the American Marketing Association, recognizing excellence in website design, digital advertising and special events.
“We all pulled some late nights to create and implement the campaign,” said Foresman, a journalism and advertising and public relations double major who served as the campaign’s account executive. “It’s amazing to see the work being recognized.”
Social and emotional development refers to a child’s ability to build positive relationships, manage emotions and make thoughtful decisions. The campaign emphasizes that these skills start early and grow stronger when families, educators and communities work together to nurture them through everyday moments of connection.
Foresman said the campaign's timing couldn't be more relevant as many children missed opportunities for peer interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I was a kid, I feel like social and emotional development wasn’t talked about as much and parents were less aware,” Foresman said. “I hope the Nurture Nebraska campaign makes them want them to educate themselves about it, so they can pass it down to their kids.”
Nurture Nebraska grew out of TransformED, a UNL Grand Challenges initiative housed in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools that focuses on strengthening the state’s early childhood systems and implementing evidence-based practices across the environments that contribute to young children’s social and emotional development.
Nurture Nebraska supports one of the initiative’s goals, which is to provide students with innovative, real-world learning experiences, while raising awareness within communities about the need to support children’s social and emotional development.
The team of roughly a dozen Jacht students produced an integrated, community-engaged campaign built around the message of “Connect. Feel. Belong.” It featured user-generated content as well as paid and organic advertising, including children’s drawings and stories, reflections from parents and educators, expert videos, animations, social media, radio spots, airport displays in Lincoln and Omaha and community events. Paid radio ads reached audiences statewide through urban media outlets, Spanish-language stations and regional radio in western Nebraska.
The research and strategic vision behind the campaign was led by advertising and public relations faculty Changmin Yan, associate professor, and Jemalyn Griffin, Jacht's executive director and an associate professor of practice.
“By combining faculty expertise in communications strategy with the students’ creative execution, we delivered a really meaningful campaign to communities across the state,” Griffin said. “We also provided resources to help caregivers understand how to support social and emotional development and why it’s essential for lifelong success.”
Jacht students followed what Griffin describes as the RPIE process — research, planning, implementation and evaluation. That included testing messages with audiences, developing the campaign’s visual identity and piloting materials before launching statewide last fall.
As one of the university’s only student-run service agencies, Jacht accepts students from any major through a competitive application process. Griffin said national firms have increasingly recruited directly from the agency because of its emphasis on experiential learning.
For Foresman, being part of Jacht provided valuable, hands-on experience that strengthened both her skill set and professional portfolio.
“Working with real clients — that’s what helps you stand out,” Foresman said.
Foresman graduated May 9 and was recently hired as an account coordinator at Sandlot & Co. Ad agency in Kansas City.
Meanwhile, the Nurture Nebraska team is sharing campaign findings at regional and national conferences and plans to expand community partnerships and outreach across the state to continue supporting early childhood social and emotional development throughout 2026 and beyond.
