Running back Lyle McCombs

Op-ed: Coach’s Firing Won’t Solve College Football’s Deepest Problems

November 1, 2018

Maryland college football coach DJ Durkin was ultimately fired after the death of a player during practice – and findings that his players were bullied and abused by coaches and staff over the course his three-year tenure. However, his 11th hour ouster on Oct. 31 is evidence of how much the culture of college football still needs to change.

This culture encourages players to ignore signs of physical or mental exhaustion and is present across the college football landscape, not just at Maryland.



The Lasting Legacy of Vivienne Dean Litt at the Neag School and Beyond

October 23, 2018

Scholarships undoubtedly remain an essential source of support for individual students, but in fact they can also set into motion a wealth of other positive outcomes beyond funding an individual’s educational journey. One such student scholarship is the Vivienne Dean Litt Memorial Award — established in memory of the late Vivienne Dean Litt, former assistant director of the University Program for Students with Learning Disabilities (UPLD) at UConn.


Jane Nguyen, second from left, is one of the 2018 Global Sports Mentoring Program Emerging Leaders. She is being hosted at the Neag School this month by mentors Laura Burton, Jennifer McGarry, and Danielle DeRosa. (Photo credit: U.S. Dept. of State in cooperation with University of Tennessee Center for Sport, Peace, & Society. Photographer: Jaron Johns)

Neag School Faculty, Staff Mentor Emerging Leader in Sport

October 17, 2018

Each year, the U.S. Department of State, the Center for Sport, Peace & Society at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and espnW co-sponsor the Global Sports Mentoring Program’s (GSMP) Empower Women Through Sports Initiative.

The Neag School Department of Educational Leadership’s Laura Burton, Danielle DeRosa, and Jennifer McGarry were selected to serve as mentors to an emerging leader from Vietnam, Tra Giang “Jane” Nguyen.


Students entering the Front Street entrance of Uconn Hartford on Sept. 26, 2018. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

Where Are They Now? Catching Up With HESA Alum Meghan Hanrahan ’04 MA

October 2, 2018

Two years into her position as director of UConn’s master of science in business analytics and project management (MSBAPM) program, HESA alumna Meghan Hanrahan ’04 MA is thriving. She loves her work, the MSBAPM program’s enrollment is on the rise, and Hanrahan herself was recently featured in Hartford Business Journal’s 2018 “40 Under 40” issue. “I feel like I’m exactly where I should be,” she says. So how, exactly, did she get here?


Jesús Cortés-Sanchez conducts at William Hall High School (Credit: Joe Columbatto)

Aspiring Music Ed Teacher Finds Crucial Support in Longtime Donor

September 25, 2018

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.