Skip to Navigation Skip to UConn Search Skip to Content
UConn University of Connecticut school of Neag School of Education Neag School of Education

Search UConn
A to Z Index UConn A to Z Index

Neag School of Education

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • Search this Site
    Neag School of Education
    Skip to content
    • Home
    • About
      • About the Neag School
        • Neag School Mission, Values, and Principles
        • Fact Sheet
        • 2021-22 Annual Report Highlights
        • Neag School History
        • Diversity and Inclusion
        • Ray and Carole Neag
        • Request More Info
        • Prospective Adjuncts: Submit Your Information
      • Administration & Support Units
      • Endowed Chairs and Professorships
      • Notable Faculty, Student, and Alumni Honors
      • Visiting the Neag School
    • Academics
      • Find a Neag School Program
      • Programs By Department/Name
        • Department of Curriculum & Instruction
        • Department of Educational Leadership
        • Department of Educational Psychology
        • Teacher Education
      • Academic Advising
      • Global Experiences
      • Scholarships & Awards
      • Teacher Education
    • News & Events
    • People
      • Faculty & Staff Directory
      • Dean’s Office
      • Curriculum & Instruction
      • Educational Leadership
      • Educational Psychology
      • Teacher Education
    • Research
      • Highlights
      • Centers
      • Active Grants
      • Grant Management and Research Resources
      • Neag School of Education Journal
      • Faculty Publications, 2016-20
    • Engagement
    • Alumni + Friends
      • Neag School Alumni
      • Connect With the Neag School
      • Giving to the Neag School
    • My Neag
    Search this Site

    Neag Student Learns First-hand About Service to the Community

    • by:
    • November 29, 2011
      • Community Engagement
      • Students
    Sarah Harris (pictured in the middle) was recognized with a Provost's Award for Public Engagement for her work with the homeless. Also pictured are Tom DeFranco, dean of the Neag School of Education, and Sarah's mother, Alison Harris.
    Sarah Harris (pictured in the middle) was recognized with a Provost’s Award for Public Engagement for her work with the homeless. Also pictured are Tom DeFranco, dean of the Neag School of Education, and Sarah’s mother, Alison Harris.

    During the spring semester of her freshman year, Neag School of Education student Sarah Harris enrolled in an interdisciplinary “service-learning” honors seminar focused on migrant workers in the state of Connecticut. The course, which examined the challenges faced by migrant workers and immigrants in the state, provided Harris and her classmates opportunities to listen to experts in the fields of law, social work, medicine and education and their insights on these important issues.

    Harris and her peers also worked with local support organizations in an effort to connect their textbook learning to experiences in the community. Harris was assigned to work in a seasonal homeless shelter in Willimantic.

    “I had never before visited a shelter, and I recognized that this assignment would push me out of my comfort zone. Within just a few weeks, however, I began to feel comfortable in the shelter, and I began to recognize the incredibly strong community that existed among the shelter’s regular guests,” Harris recalled.

    She volunteered at the shelter during the winter season of 2009 and continued volunteering for much of the 2010 season. This past June, she volunteered several days a week at the No Freeze Shelter to help hold daily office hours for guests looking for support during the summer months.

    Harris helped to organize the shelter’s databases and listened to guests as they shared their stories. At the end of June, the shelter partnered with various organizations in the community to hold the Community Connections and Service Fair to support families and individuals struggling to find housing in the community, and Harris had the opportunity to participate in this event.

    This fall, she’s continuing her involvement with the shelter community and is conducting a research project examining the preparation that public school teachers receive to address the unique needs of homeless students in their classrooms. The examination will serve as her University Scholar Project and her honors thesis for the Neag School.

    In her university research proposal, Harris quoted American poet John Howard Payne, “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” This is the mantra for her project, recognizing that, for 1.5 million children in the United States who are homeless each year, Payne’s words fail to capture reality.

    “These children have no place to call home as they move from shelter to shelter with their families or live in group homes while waiting to be placed in foster care,” she said. “They face the challenge of maintaining academic achievement with schooling that is inconsistent in location and in curriculum, while outside of school their environments are often not conducive to homework and study.”

    She realizes students experiencing homelessness need extra support from schools, yet too often they get “lost in the crowd.”

    Through this project, she’s seeking to examine the content and quality of preparation that public school teachers receive to help them respond to the needs of homeless students.

    “Many of these individuals [at the shelter] attended school only sporadically, and some did not earn high school diplomas or GEDs until they spent time in prison or drug rehabilitation centers during their early adult years,” said Harris.

    As a student majoring in secondary social studies education, history and psychology, she believes that, with a defined support and preparation program, teachers might be better able to respond to homeless students’ needs. She’ll be examining the educational implications of homelessness from historical and psychological perspectives, as well as the literature on effective educational interventions.

    Using the information she gathers from her surveys and interviews with teachers and school administrators, she will work with state support agencies to create an online resource guide covering the unique issues homeless students face and exploring possibilities for teacher involvement in interventions and support systems within schools. The resource guide will be made available to school districts and educators throughout Connecticut.

    Once she completes the project, she also hopes to submit her findings for presentation at the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY). Due to her work and dedication to the homeless in Willimantic, Harris was recently honored with a Provost’s Award for Public Engagement, along with other UConn faculty, staff, students and alumni.

    In a recommendation letter for the award,  her faculty advisor Dr. Alan Marcus wrote, “Sarah’s continued dedication to her service and scholarship around this issue demonstrates not only an intense intellectual advancement, but sustained professional development.

    “Sarah is training to be a teacher and her honors thesis work supports her continued efforts to understand and meet the needs of her students. It is clear that Sarah’s work will have an important impact on the community, particularly students,” he continued.

    Her work has not only expanded upon the classroom experience, but aims to create a positive impact on the education of homeless students.


    Share on:  facebookFacebook TwitterTwitter LinkedInLinkedIn emailEmail

    ← Previous
    Next →

    Explore by News Category

    • Academics
    • Alumni
    • Community Engagement
    • Faculty
    • News & Events
    • Students
    • supporting neag

    Neag in the Media

    • Chris Rock and Will Smith Can Afford Selective Outrage. The Rest of Us Can’t.

      CT Mirror (Sandra Chafouleas pens commentary on selective outrage)

    • Increasing Female Representation in School Leadership

      Principal Leadership (Jennie Weiner pens article about increasing females in school leadership)

    • What a Team: Division of Athletics, Sport Management Program Provide Real-Life Experience to Students

      UConn Today (A newly expanded partnership between the Neag School of Education and Division of Athletics is featured)

    • UConn Professor Receives $10M Federal Grant to Create Early Childhood Intervention Center

      Hartford Business Journal (Mary Beth Bruder, a professor at the UConn School of Medicine and the UConn Neag School of Education, is featured)

    • Connecticut’s Funding What Works In Education Recovery. They Can Prove It

      Forbes (Neag School’s participation with Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration is mentioned; Morgaen Donaldson is quoted)

    • The Power of Puppets: New Toolkit Helps Kids Process ‘Heavy Feelings’

      Connecticut Public Radio/WNPR (Sandra Chafouleas, Emily Wicks, and the “Find Your Best Self” program they lead are featured)

    • ‘We Have a National Crisis’: How Michigan State Responded to a Mass Shooting

      The Chronicle of Higher Education (Alyssa Dunn is quoted about responding to crisis)

    Neag News Archives

    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • July 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • May 2012
    • March 2012
    • January 2012
    • November 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • November 2010
    • August 2010
    • June 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
  • NCATE logo.The Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut is fully accredited under the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Standards. Read More About NCATE Accreditation»

     

    Some content on this website may require the use of a plug-in, such as Adobe Acrobat Viewer.

  • Support the Neag School
  • Neag School of Education
    249 Glenbrook Road, Unit 3064
    Charles B. Gentry Building
    Storrs, CT 06269-3064

    860-486-3815
    neag-communications@uconn.edu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • © University of Connecticut
    • Disclaimers, Privacy & Copyright
    • Webmaster Login