Feel Your Best Self: Educators, Puppets Unite to Teach Kids About Emotions

Dave DeLucia ’80 (CLAS) ’81 MA, ’83 6th Year has been collecting seashells since he was 12 years old. It all began with a trip to Boston with his sisters to buy seashells and, while his family and friends liked it, he loved it. Though originally retrieved from the depths of the ocean in countries like Japan and Portugal, the shells now reside in wooden cabinets and glass displays in his house where they are protected from the harsh rays of the sun.

Garrett Schlichte ’15 MA, an upbeat copywriter from San Francisco, has never backed down from a new adventure. So when he saw a casting call on Instagram for a new television cooking competition, he thought “Why not?” He was not only cast in “America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation,” but made it to the finale, beating competitors with such dishes as lemon ricotta dumplings and pavlova with key lime lemon curd.

Fahd A. Vahidy ’95 (CLAS), ’98 MA and Monika Doshi ’99 (CLAS) know what it’s like to feel like an outsider at college. Both were raised by immigrant families and were newcomers to the American college experience at UConn in the 1990s. Both were grateful to find a home on campus at the Asian American Cultural Center. Since graduating, they have generously donated to and volunteered for the center, helping many students along the way feel less like outsiders. They’ve been mentors and lecturers, served on many student and alumni panels, and rarely miss an event.

A young girl’s love for horses and FFA was the impetus for a rewarding career teaching agriculture. Sarah LaRose’s passion for all things equine began at age 10. Her military family moved to Virginia, where she began riding lessons at a local stable.

“When we moved to Connecticut, my guidance counselor at Ledyard High School said in passing, ‘Oh, we also have an agriculture program,’ and passed me a brochure with a horse and rider on the front,” she recalled.

Amanda Slavin is the co-founder of CatalystCreativ/CatalystU, a creative agency that empowers brand success by forging deep audience engagement. Slavin’s work has merited Cannes Lion Awards, and the business of such clients as Google, the New York City Ballet, NPR, the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL, and more.

The New Haven Board of Education has appointed Dr. Madeline Negrón as superintendent of schools, effective July 1, 2023.

“Dr. Negron knows New Haven and its schools very well,” said Board President Yesenia Rivera. “At the same time, her experience in Hartford has encompassed many of the same issues we face here in New Haven. She can bring a fresh perspective and a strong leadership voice to our ongoing conversations about strategy in all aspects of our mission.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will deliver the 2023 Commencement address for the 148th ceremony, which takes place June 10 at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium.
Prior to his time in Hartford, Cardona worked for years in the same Connecticut school system he attended as a child. He started as a classroom teacher and then served as a school principal and assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. He is the recipient of the 2012 National Distinguished Principal Award for the State of Connecticut and the Outstanding Administrator Award from the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education.

The Neag School of Education, UConn’s Department of English, and the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP), co-sponsors of the 31st annual Letters About Literature contest, are proud to announce Connecticut’s winners for the 2022-23 academic year.

“On my way to school when I was younger, I used to pick up the newspaper Metro Boston at the local train station or at Dunkin’, flip to the sports section, and clip out pictures of the Celtics players like Ray Allen to use as a bookmark,” says Wura Olusekun ’16 MS. “Sports and education have really been the two foundations of my life.” Now manager of community engagement for the National Basketball Association’s Boston Celtics, Olusekun works for the same team whose players’ photos used to mark which chapter she’d just read.