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

As 2017 nears its close, work on the University Principal Preparation Initiative — an initiative led at UConn by the Neag School’s University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) — is getting ready to celebrate its first birthday. This past year, UConn was one of seven universities selected to take part in the Wallace Foundation-funded initiative, which launched officially in January and is focused on improving training programs for aspiring school principals nationwide. Over the past 10 months, dedicated workgroups have been developing a “theory of action” for redesigning UCAPP.

In their recently published edited volume, Exploding the Castle: Rethinking How Video Games and Game Mechanics Can Shape the Future of Education (Information Age, 2017), Neag School faculty Michael Young and Stephen Slota — both longtime video game devotees — explore the value of games, the role of games in the future of K-12 and higher education, and more. Here, Young, associate professor of cognition, instruction, and learning technology, and Slota, assistant professor-in-residence of educational technology discuss the book and share their insights on the intersection between games, technology, and learning.

Led by educational psychology professors in the Neag School of Education, two research projects have recently been awarded a total of nearly $5 million in federal funding, made available through the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act.

Co-written by George Sugai, Neag School professor of special education, and Geoff Colvin, a retired research associate in the University of Oregon’s College of Education, this piece was originally published in the “Guest Viewpoint” section of The Register-Guard, a local newspaper based in Eugene, Ore.

Todd Cambpell, professor of science education, has been named editor of the Journal of Science Teacher Education, the flagship journal of the Association for Science Teacher Education.

Mentors and guidance counselors helped Erik Hines, an assistant professor of educational psychology, find his path. Now he is paying it forward.

The Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP)’s Empower Women Through Sports Initiative is an international initiative co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and espnW that partners emerging female leaders from 17 countries with leading executives and experts in the U.S. sports industry. For the second consecutive year, Neag School faculty members Jennie McGarry and Laura Burton will be serving in the coming weeks as hosts.

In this opinion piece, Assistant Professor Joseph Cooper weighs in on the recent #TakeAKnee protests and provides his insight into what he sees as the most powerful form of activism within a capitalist society: economic activism.

Neag School of Education professor emeritus Vincent Rogers has announced a planned bequest to the Neag School, designating a legacy gift of $125,000 to expand the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund in support of innovative projects carried out by teachers in Connecticut. Through his gift, elementary and middle-school teachers across the state will be able to apply annually for a $5,000 gift for use in the classroom.