LEARN, the Regional Educational Service Center for southeastern Connecticut, has hired Tricia Lee as principal of The Friendship School in Waterford. Presently, Lee serves as assistant principal at The Friendship School.

Renzulli is professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut, where he also serves as director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. His definition suggests that “giftedness” consist of three characteristics in equal parts: intelligence, creativity and perseverance.

Sandra Chafouleas, a professor at UConn’s Neag School of Education and co-director of the UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH), said that all schools need to make learning joyful and emphasize relationships, flexibility and a focus on the whole child. Most importantly, Chafouleas said, schools needed to invest in building teacher-student relationships. She said that just one teacher could make an enormous difference in the path of a child.

Looking for an inspiring discussion of creativity and its potential? In this episode, Joe Binetti talks to renowned creativity expert Professor James C. Kaufman of the University of Connecticut, who co-developed the influential Four-Cs model of creativity – amongst many other things.

“Jack was known for many contributions to our field but especially his passionate commitment to our organization, his many talented doctoral students, and his innovative survey of trends in reading, the annual What’s Hot, What’s Not study. He was a friend to everyone in the literacy community and will be missed by us all. I will always remember his wide, welcoming smile each and every time we met.” —Donald J. Leu, University of Connecticut

You may best remember Batouly Camara from her days on the court at UConn, but she’s stayed plenty busy since then. She wrote a children’s book, “A Basketball Game on Wake Street,” made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, was honored at the ESPYs, and plans to travel to Africa to pursue an Olympic dream. In this week’s UConn Report podcast, hosted by Hearst Connecticut Media’s Doug Bonjour, Camara discusses her latest ventures both within and outside basketball.

Through the help of Zaghi, Hain, Civil Engineering Professor Richard Christenson, Educational Psychology Professor Joseph Madaus, English Professor Tom Deans, and Literacy Education Professor Rachael Gabriel, the team will be developing a strength profiler tool, creating a peer mentoring program, piloting a technical writing program, and holding stakeholder workshops.

Neag School students completing the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) this spring recently presented their capstone projects – the program’s signature final assignment in which students identify a need or opportunity for school improvement and work toward positive change. The UCAPP program went through a redesign in 2020 as part of a nationwide effort known as the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI), funded by the Wallace Foundation. As a result of the redesign, the concept of family and parent engagement became a priority for the first organizational leadership course in UCAPP’s program of study.

This is not the end, it’s the beginning. That was the message from U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona ’01 MA, ’04 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP to UConn’s 2021 graduates, delivered Saturday, May 8 via video during the livestreamed commencement ceremony for all students receiving degrees this year – undergraduate, graduate, and professional.

For Rachael Manzer, a doctoral candidate in the Neag School of Education, life-transformative education takes many forms. Manzer is a five-year volunteer of the UConn 4-H Program, a leader with the Granby 4-H Club, a member of the NASA Network of Astronaut Teachers (NEAT), and a candidate for commercial space flight through Teachers in Space, Inc. In 2019, Manzer received the UConn College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR) 4-H Leadership Award, and was recently selected as the 2021 Northeast 4-H Volunteer of the Year Award.