WAYNE – Networking and making connections are important life skills to know – just ask Wayne State College student Emily Woockman.
Thanks to a conversation she had at an August conference in Lincoln, the 2022 Wausa High School graduate was able to land Kelly Lammers, the director of the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, as a guest speaker for a November event put on by Wayne State’s Delta Sigma Pi Chapter of Eta Pi.
Delta Sigma Pi is a co-ed professional business organization that focuses on the professional development of its members and hosts several community service, fundraising and social events to strengthen the bonds among its members.
“We were just struggling to get the ball rolling on finding speakers,” said Woockman, the vice president of the Eta Pi Chapter. “We need to have an ‘X’ amount of speakers for the semester. That’s a national Delta Sigma Pi requirement. Since I’m vice president, I felt like I should help with this.”
She reached out to Lammers this past fall through LinkedIn, a business- and employment-focused social media platform, and he spoke in late November during an Eta Pi event, which the chapter turned into an opportunity to recruit more people to join as members.
“We invited all Wayne State business students to come,” Woockman said. “We wanted it to be a way so that people could see that our chapter – we don’t just do meetings and that’s it. There is value in the program.”
Lammers’ on-campus presentation was about the future of banking in Nebraska and financial technology, as well as future financial careers people could potentially be pursuing.
“When it came time to find a guest speaker to address Delta Sigma Pi, I knew he would be the perfect choice to talk about the future of banking and recent developments in the world of banking,” Woockman said.
Lammers has been in the state’s banking industry since 1984 and has been the director of the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance since 2020.
His Eta Pi presentation also included him encouraging students to apply for internships and job positions within the state agency he oversees if they were interested in pursuing a career path in that direction.
“He’s a very good speaker,” Woockman said. “He’s very engaging. He’s meant to do public speaking, especially for students.”
Lammers also was a featured speaker during the 2023 Flyover Fintech Conference – a national event on the future of financial technology and digital assets – which was held on Aug. 2 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Business.
Woockman attended the conference with two friends and observed Lammers’ presentation, which included a bit of audience interaction.
“He was showing that a $20 bill has worth whether you stomp on it, crush it up – it’s still worth $20,” Woockman said.
Lammers gave Woockman and her friends the $20 bill after his presentation because he told them college students could use the money the most.
Woockman and her friends – Braxton Dalton of Raymond and Austin Vinson of Osmond – then spoke to Lammers and learned more about him and he in turn wanted to hear more about themselves.
That conversation led to Woockman networking and connecting with Lammers through LinkedIn and her later reaching out to him about being a guest speaker for an Eta Pi event.
Woockman choosing to reach out to Lammers paid off in a big way, as he gave her a challenge coin because she demonstrated great initiative and fortitude when contacting him to serve as a guest speaker.
A challenge coin is a small coin or medallion that usually displays an organization’s logo or emblem.
“Mr. Lammers gave me the coin because he thought I showed great leadership by contacting him to speak to the Delta Sigma Pi chapter at Wayne State,” Woockman said.
“Being in his position, he tends to have people nervous and scared about contacting him, but he appreciated my initiative,” she said.
She described the coin as a symbol of service to Nebraskans with commitment and integrity, and who are dedicated to financial education, protection and financial services.
“I was honestly so shocked,” Woockman said of receiving the coin from Lammers.
Woockman, a sophomore who is majoring in agribusiness and economics at Wayne State, has been a part of the college’s Delta Sigma Pi Chapter of Eta Pi since the first semester of her freshman year.
“It’s really been a blessing,” Woockman said. “It’s really helped me come out of my shell in college and helped me stay active in a school organization.”
She was involved in athletics – cross country and track and field – and activities as a high school student in Wausa, including the Future Business Leaders of America, SkillsUSA, play production and speech.
“Going to high school there really prepared me for my future,” Woockman said. “It really, really helped with the transition. I was kind of bored the first month of college because I wasn’t in anything.”
She noted she has enjoyed attending Wayne State so far, and being an Eta Pi member has helped her get used to college life.
“It’s been a really great transition for me,” Woockman said of going from high school to college. “I’d recommend anyone to come here.”
Delta Sigma Pi membership is open to all business, computer information systems, computer science, sports management, industrial management and fashion merchandising majors. It is also open to any music industry students who have a minor in business.
Wayne State’s Eta Pi Chapter of Delta Sigma Pi received the 2019-20 Most Outstanding Chapter Award for the Great Plains Region.
“I really wanted to find a way to stay active on campus,” Woockman said of joining Delta Sigma Pi.
She noted she also is part of Wayne State’s Career Scholars Cooperative Education Program and she made a couple of friends through that who also joined Eta Pi.
She attended the Flyover Fintech Conference with Dalton and Vinson through the Career Scholars Cooperative Education Program.
“It was a great way to get to know them and get to know people that I had in classes outside of class,” Woockman said.
One Wayne State student she definitely knows outside of class is her older sister, Ann, who is a senior at the college.
“My dorm is literally a block away from her apartment,” the younger Woockman said. “We’re in Bible study together.”
She is planning to graduate from Wayne State in May 2026, but she is not sure about her career path yet.
“I’m currently keeping my options open for what I exactly want to do,” Woockman said, adding she knows she wants to work in the field of agriculture, but she also has developed an interest in banking.
She noted she joined the Career Scholars Cooperative Education Program because it supports workforce and economic development in northeast Nebraska, which is where she wants to stay after she graduates from college.
Her parents, Otto and Rita, live in rural Hartington and her younger brothers, Caleb and Luke, currently attend Wausa High School.
For Emily Woockman, northeast Nebraska is home. “I really love it,” she said.
