Aryliz (Crespo) Estrela ’16 (ED), ’17 MA is now in the midst of her third year of teaching after having completed the Neag School’s five-year Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Program in 2017. Looking back, she shares some sage advice about what she learned during her first year in the classroom — one that she sums up in three words: “Fun. Insightful. Courageous.”

The Neag School community honored more than 150 Neag School student scholarship recipients last month at the School’s Annual Scholarship Awards Celebration, many of whom attended the celebratory luncheon in Rome Commons Ballroom with their family and friends.

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.

This fall, the Neag School welcomes a number of visiting faculty members and also announces several new appointments for current members of the community. In addition, colleagues, friends, and guests celebrated the career of Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Scott Brown earlier this month, who has retired from the Neag School after 39 years of service.

Each fall, the Neag School of Education welcomes submissions for several awards and funding opportunities. Submissions for each of these opportunities will close this year at 5 p.m. EST on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019.

Learning requires students to acknowledge that they don’t know everything while believing that they are capable of learning anything. Principals can be exemplars by positioning themselves as leading learners.

Michael Forsyth ’15 (CLAS), ’16 MA had already served in the U.S. Navy aboard two submarines and started a family when he decided in his late 20s to work toward a college degree. After completing his undergraduate degree in mathematics at UConn in 2015, Forsyth went on to earn his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction through the 11-month Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates at the Neag School of Education. He has since been finding creative ways to teach math to students at Connecticut River Academy in East Hartford, Conn. 

Greenwich educator Ian Tiedemann has been awarded the Council for Economic Education’s 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Teaching Champion Award, which recognizes excellence in economic education.

“There were times throughout my youth that I think people had lower expectations than they should have. It just made me hungrier,” says Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona.

The Neag School of Education is now seeking nominations for the 2020 Neag School Annual Alumni Awards through Oct. 31, 2019.