Author: Alexandra Walz


Monique Duzant-Hastings

New Partnership Benefits Aspiring Special Education Teachers

June 5, 2017

Since 2015, Monique Duzant-Hastings has been working with students in grades 5 through 8 who have social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Thanks to the Neag School’s new partnership with her employer, the LEARN Regional Educational Service Center, she has now found a way to advance her career by pursuing certification as a K-12 special education teacher — at no cost to her. The new partnership offers LEARN personnel like Duzant-Hastings — a busy mother of three — the opportunity to apply for admission to the Neag School’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) in special education at UConn’s Avery Point campus.


Neag School Announces Partnership With Mashantucket Pequot Museum

May 23, 2017

Stemming from the Thomas J. Dodd Center’s human rights education initiative, a new partnership was established between University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, the Upstander Project, and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum. The partnership is called the Upstander Academy, which formally came together last year as a way to practice outreach and human rights education with the community.


Melissa Bray

10 Questions With School Psychology Professor Melissa Bray

April 6, 2017

Melissa Bray is a professor of school psychology in the Neag School of Education. She joined the faculty in 1999 and is a two-time alumna of UConn, having earned her undergraduate degree in communications sciences from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and her master’s degree in school psychology from the Neag School. Bray is a licensed psychologist and licensed speech language pathologist; a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society; and a member of a select group called the Society for the Study of School Psychology.


Dorothea Anagnostopoulos Leads a Seminar.

Teaching in Turbulent Times: Inspiring Dialogue Among Educators

April 4, 2017

Faculty in the Neag School teacher education program this March brought together more than 70 people — from current students and alumni to local educators and school administrators — for an interactive discussion focused on the theme of “Teaching in Turbulent Times.” Prompted by ongoing discussion in recent months among faculty and educators about political divides surfacing in today’s classrooms, the event — led by Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, executive director of teacher education at the Neag School — was intended to serve as an opportunity for a diverse range of people in the education field to network and speak openly, offering suggestions and concerns.


Kara Patterson at Kennelly

Kennelly Partnership With Neag School Serves as National Model

April 3, 2017

The Neag School of Education has long dedicated itself to providing aspiring educators with in-depth, firsthand experience in the classroom as part of its rigorous teacher education program. Its partners include numerous schools across the state of Connecticut at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.

For the past 10 years, E.B. Kennelly, a public neighborhood elementary school in Hartford, Conn., has been one of those school partners — and an exemplary one at that, having been recognized this past year with the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) Richard W. Clark Exemplary Partner School Award for 2016. The award recognizes a partner school collaboration that is advancing the complex work of developing, sustaining, and renewing partner schools.


Brittany Agne at New York Cares Office

10 Questions With Husky Sport Alum Leading Volunteers in NYC

January 18, 2017

Brittany (Perotti) Agne ’09 (CLAS), ’11 MA, a former Husky Sport volunteer who earned a master’s degree with a concentration in sport management at the Neag School, today serves as director of children’s education programs at New York Cares, a New York City-based nonprofit focused on volunteer management whose staff plans 1,600 volunteer-led projects every month.



George Sugai

Center for Behavioral Education and Research Celebrates a Decade of Success

November 4, 2016

The year 2016 officially marks a 10-year milestone in the history of UConn’s Center for Behavioral Education and Research (CBER) — a Center based at the Neag School that has, over the course of merely a decade, secured millions of dollars in federal and state grants and contracts; conducted hundreds of innovative research projects; and enriched the lives of many thousands of educators and students around the world.



Arthur Lerner; Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates; Norwich Free Academy STEM Camp

Noyce Scholarships Offer Opportunity, Support for Careers in Teaching Science

October 11, 2016

Thanks to a $30,000 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship, 43-year-old Arthur Lerner is now advancing his education through the Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates at UConn’s Avery Point campus. The scholarship is helping to create a smooth transition for him as he goes from nonprofit work to pursuing a career as a biology teacher.