Dr. Stuart Lenz’s favorite quote is ‘Shoot for the moon, and if you miss, you’ll land among stars,’ and he has demonstrated that through his life. He shot for a chemical engineering degree, and got it. Then, he shot for the education degree and got his doctorate. He aimed high a repeated amount of times, and achieved his goals.

Lenz says, “I’m the kind of person that when I start something, I have to stick with it and finish it.”
“I didn’t start in education, I originally got my degree in Chemical Engineering,” Dr. Stuart Lenz said. He was originally going to be a chemical engineer, until he went to his first job interview. “I knew I would’ve gotten the job offer, but it just sounded boring to me. I knew I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do.” He did a mentoring program in college for three years, and it was then that he realized he wanted to be an educator. He dropped everything and went back to school. “I basically lived at UNL for 15 years.”
His favorite subjects were math and science, and was a math teacher for many years. “I like physics because you can see it happen. I liked chemistry, but you couldn’t see it, unless there was an explosion.” Lenz is very math and science-minded. He got into chemical engineering because he liked math and chemistry. His teacher told him that chemical engineering would mix the two, and that he’d be good at it.
“My suggestion to people is no matter what you think you want to do, try to see what it looks like and experience it, because that’s what happened with chemical engineering. I didn’t know what it looked like, until I started looking for jobs. I didn’t know I wanted to get into education until I went into the mentoring program and really experienced it. Get out there and experience things and develop your passions through those experiences.”
Lenz was born and raised in Kearney, Nebraska. While in High school, he did a lot of art and music. He even played the trombone in high school. Other hobbies of his include golfing, soccer, running, and he loves to watch movies. In high school, he was involved in art club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Key Club, cross country, soccer, and National Honor Society. He continued to play soccer in college, and coached it while he was a teacher.
Teachers who work with Lenz like him very much. NPHS science teacher Emily Garrison said, “It has been a pleasure having him as an assistant principal this year. I like how he stands in front of the school and greets kids before school starts. It’s nice to have a presence like that at the school.” She also said, “He is very good at working with people, he always puts the student’s concerns first. He has a very good ability to think through problems before he comes up with possible solutions. He always seems to give kids a second chance, sometimes even thirds. As for teachers, he always tries to get everyone’s input and is a great team player.”