Lisa Famularo: Our primary role is to work with CLAS faculty and staff to make sure that the career-related needs of CLAS students are being met. We not only carry out the programs that the CCD offers to all students, but we also tailor these resources to the unique needs of CLAS majors.

Like most kids heading into seventh grade, Jesús Cortés-Sanchez was not yet thinking ahead to a future career. What mattered most then was enjoying time with his friends. Even into his high school years, the idea of going to college was not on his mind. An undocumented student ineligible to apply for federal student aid, he viewed college as an unrealistic, financially impossible feat.

All of that would start to change when a recent Yale School of Music graduate named John Miller began recruiting students to a new band program he had established at Cortés-Sanchez’s middle school in New Haven, Conn.

Editor’s Note: This month, Teach.com — an educational web resource for information on becoming a teacher — features Neag School alumna Natalie Curran ’11 (ED), ’12 MA in its “8 Questions” series, which showcases teachers who have transitioned their classroom skills into new and exciting careers in, and beyond, the field of education.

“It’s not until they actually get out into the field, and see that they may be working in a place with English language learners, where they may think, ‘Oh, this might be an option for me to be a bilingual teacher or a TESOL teacher’,” Elizabeth Howard said. “And if they don’t land in a place, in a district, where there’s a high incidence of English learners, then it would not occur to them at all necessarily, they wouldn’t see the need for it.”

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

Jason Courtmanche ’91 (CLAS), Ph.D. ’06 has been serving in a variety of capacities at the University of Connecticut for 23 years. A lecturer in the University’s English department, an assistant coordinator of the Early College Experience English program, and affiliate faculty in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction, he primarily serves as director of the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP), which immerses Connecticut teachers in an intensive writing program where they grow as writers, learn about teaching writing, and have the opportunity to become published in one of CWP’s literary magazines.

This fall, the Neag School of Education invites submissions for several award and/or funding opportunities, including the 2019 Neag School Alumni Awards, the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund, and the Zirkel Distinguished Teaching Award.

Neag School Jeffrey Villar ’96 MA, ’99 Ph.D. introduced the featured speaker at the convocation, George Sugai, who Villar referred to as “the guru of climate and culture” in educational settings.

In this episode of GatherGeeks, David Adler, C.E.O. of BizBash, and Beth Kormanik, editor in chief of BizBash, hear from Neag School alumna Amanda Slavin, the CEO and founder of experiential marketing agency CatalystCreativ. Slavin dives into the seven levels of event engagement and how brands can utilize them.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Anna Cutaia announced the appointment of Dr. Amy Fedigan to the post of Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Milford Public School district.