Dana College Lives On, Blair, NE

By Tim Trudell
​Servant leadership was a staple of Dana College, and 11 years after the school closed because of financial issues, the campus has found renewed life serving others as home to Transformation Hill, a program to help people who have aged out foster care. The program came about because of an Omaha banker’s dream of helping homeless youth.
Before Ed Shada’s vision led to the former liberal arts college’s future as a community for homeless youth, attempts were made to keep the campus as a part of secondary education programs. Midland University in Fremont, about 20 miles west of Blair, immediately welcomed former Dana students after the school’s 2010 closing. Renaming itself as Midland University after 100 years as Midland Lutheran College, leaders changed the school’s athletic teams’ uniform colors to blue and orange, as well as the school’s Warrior mascot to resemble an animated Viking character (Dana’s former nickname), aligning with the schools’ Scandinavian histories. Midland officials also signed a lease for the Blair campus, along with an option to purchase it. However, those plans were dropped in 2016, six years after Dana had closed.
​Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. 
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