“Being randomly assigned a black teacher if you are a black student leads to a significant impact,” Hyman said during an interview about his research published last month in the peer-reviewed journal the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“It’s a great honor and privilege to be named the next head coach of the Oregon lacrosse program,” said Gamble. “I am incredibly humbled and would like to thank Rob Mullens, Lisa Peterson and all of the wonderful people at the University of Oregon for this opportunity. Growing the game of lacrosse, especially on the West Coast, is something I am extremely passionate about. There is no better conference to compete in and grow this amazing game than the Pac-12.”

“To support students’ creativity, educators must question assumptions and instill a sense of possibility,” says Ronald Beghetto, a professor of educational psychology at the Neag School.

“It’s really striking. I mean the fact that these are little kids, in first, second grade, and having these black teachers at that age, the fact that it lasts so long, it’s really quite amazing I think,” said UConn professor Joshua Hyman, who co-authored the study.

“It was very soon after I started, but it was really exciting,” Roth-Saks says. “I had such a wonderful and warm welcoming from our community and our volunteers and the board. It was so terrific to be able to start this leadership position with that type of excitement and energy.”

“All it takes is one black teacher to influence a student,” says Joshua Hyman.

“My experience in my teacher prep program included four clinic experiences, in urban and suburban placements, over 10 lesson observations completed and evaluated by teachers, principals and instructional coaches and more than 90 credits of education-focused courses,” says Olivia Singer. “From my perspective, these hands-on learning experiences with students, educators and renowned faculty at the University of Connecticut were of much more value to me than any multiple choice test I could have taken.”

“Although I retired in 2014 as a teacher and coach in Connecticut public schools, I continued to work pretty much full time until 2016, but in those two years I reflected often on where I’d retire and what that retirement would look like,” says Peter Leeds.

The two researchers will be studying the experience of African-American male students in the context of three different types of institutions: Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black university; University of Connecticut, which is a primarily White institution and UH, which is a Hispanic-serving institution.

Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom.