An NCTA connection, passed from father to daughter
CURTIS, Neb. — For Alizabeth Nielsen, Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture was a familiar place long before she arrived as a student.
She had visited campus with her dad, Anson, for alumni activities, met people who helped shape his college experience, and heard stories about basketball games, friendships and learning by doing. Somewhere along the way, his college became the place she could picture her own future.
“I have known that I’ve wanted to go there for as long as I can remember,” Alizabeth said.
Today, the first year Livestock Industry Management student from Minden is building her own NCTA experience, with a connection to campus that spans two generations.
Anson attended NCTA from 1996 to 1999, studying Agricultural Production Systems with an agronomy minor. He remembers instructors whose lessons stayed with him long after graduation, including advisor Dale Hemsath, Joe Beal and Ag Mechanics instructor Gary Wach.
For Anson, who farms near Minden and owns Nielsen Ag Equipment, those lessons remain part of his everyday work.
“We tore down planters there at school and put them back together,” he said. “We tore down engines there and put them back together at school also.”
Courses in weed identification and marketing added to that preparation. Looking back, he sees a direct connection between what he learned at NCTA and the career he built.
“All of it prepared me for the career that I went into,” he said.
Some of his favorite memories, however, came on the basketball court. Anson played on the Aggies’ 1998–99 team, which finished with a 17–4 record under Coach Del Van Der Werff. The friendships, travel and time with teammates became stories Alizabeth grew up hearing.
“He really loved that,” she said. “He had a lot of friends. He really liked the traveling and just all the different places that they got to go.”
Those memories helped keep Anson connected to NCTA. So did an opportunity to give current students access to the kind of equipment they would encounter in their careers.
Anson and his wife, Amanda, donated a modern six row planter to NCTA, helping update the college’s resources for classroom and field learning. Working with agronomy professor Brad Ramsdale, Anson coordinated suppliers, donated components, discounts and volunteer assistance to build the planter, valued at approximately $50,000. A $9,000 federal Perkins grant helped launch the project.
The project brought his education full circle. A former student who had learned by rebuilding planters was now helping provide the next generation with equipment for their own hands on learning.
“I just wanted to enhance what these kids are doing, and learning on, at the college,” Anson said in an earlier story about the project.
His continued service to the college was recognized with NCTA’s Alumni Service Award in 2023.
For Alizabeth, accompanying her family to campus for the planter project and basketball alumni activities offered more than a chance to hear about her dad’s college years. She could meet the people, see the campus and begin imagining herself there.
“Going to that stuff really made me realize how much I wanted to go out there because I loved all the people that I met,” she said. “I really wanted to be hands on and actually learn about things that I wanted to do.”
Now that she is a student, her favorite class is her animal management lab, where she works with animals and practices skills she expects to use in the livestock industry.
“We get to do a lot of actual industry things that you will do in real life,” she said.
There are familiar reminders of her dad throughout campus, too. Alizabeth lives in the same residence hall building where Anson once stayed. Farm equipment brings his work to mind, and the planter her parents donated gives her a personal connection to the college’s teaching resources.
At the same time, she is working toward goals of her own. After graduation, Alizabeth hopes to return to the Minden area, continue growing the cattle herd she has already started and work on her family’s farm.
For Anson, watching her pursue those plans brings reassurance that she is gaining the kind of practical education that served him well.
“I know that she’s getting a great hands on experience in college,” he said, “which will bode well for her.”
Years ago, Alizabeth came to NCTA to visit her dad’s college. Today, she walks the campus as a student herself, learning skills, making memories and adding her own chapter to the Nielsen family’s Aggie story.
The Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA) in Curtis is a two-year institution within the University of Nebraska system, dedicated to developing the next generation of agricultural professionals and veterinary technicians. NCTA offers specialized programs in Animal Science, Agronomy, Ag Equipment, Agribusiness Management, Agricultural Education, Equine Industry Management, and Veterinary Technology—all grounded in a practical, career-focused approach to learning by doing.
Image Cutline: The Anson and Amanda Nielsen Family. From left to right: Ashtian Nielsen, Anson Nielsen, Annabelle Nielsen, Amanda Nielsen, Aaron Nielsen, Alizabeth Nielsen.