Despite this chaotic, hard year, we want to know what you’re thankful for this year.

Teachers and professors can play a huge role in supporting students at this time said Sandra Chafouleas, distinguished professor in the Neag School of Education at UConn. Just checking in can be very impactful.

Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items and story ideas to neag-communications@uconn.edu.

The Provost’s Distinguished Speaker Series, now in its third year, fosters intellectual, professional, and personal growth and collegiality among the UConn community. This series provides an opportunity for the most recently inducted Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors and Endowed Chairs to share advances in their expertise and engage in thought-provoking discussions. Neag School’s Sandra Chafouleas presents on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020, on the following topic “Well-Being in School, Child, and Community: Advancing the Whole, Not the Sum of Its Parts.”

The pandemic is bringing an atypical holiday season this year, presenting change in the things we do, the way we do them, and who we do them with. We may miss out on getting together in person with family and friends, traveling to cherished places, or taking part in our traditional celebrations. Forced upon us, these unfamiliar changes can evoke feelings of loss and frustration.

A group of researchers from the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education and UConn School of Medicine have received a $1 million grant from the Office of Special Education Programs to develop training for master’s students to address this problem. Professors Lisa Sanetti, Sandra Chafouleas, and Mary Beth Bruder have developed Interdisciplinary Preparation in Integrated and Intensive Practices (I3-PREP). The project is a multidisciplinary effort supported by UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP), the Neag School of Education, the UConn School of Medicine.

“The typical holiday season can bring forth any number of emotions, from anger and sadness to joy and awe. Family traditions – those repeated and symbolically meaningful holiday rituals – play a big role in shaping your feelings throughout the season. Family traditions can buffer conflicts, boost positive feelings, and bring people closer together,” writes Sandra Chafouleas, a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Neag School of Education.

More recently, research in academia this year led the authors to conclude that “we contend that women’s friendships allow women to thrive by meeting core psychological needs that are threatened in a marginalized work environment.” The role of a female academic’s female friendships are crucial in helping them counter and navigate the masculine culture of academia.

UConn researchers, including Neag School’s Devin Kearns, collaborate with schools across the country to help identify kids at risk of dyslexia. The AppRise project uses a free, game-like app to help teachers assess kids as young as five and get them the help they need to learn to read.

Each of the Neag School’s 2020 Alumni Award honorees represent the best and brightest in their field. It is our privilege to celebrate all that they have accomplished through their careers and their service to the community.