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

The Wallace Foundation has selected the University of Connecticut to participate in a national $47 million initiative to develop models over the next four years for improving university principal preparation programs and to examine state policy to see if it could be strengthened to encourage higher-quality training statewide. An independent study will capture lessons from the participating universities and their partners, to be shared with policymakers and practitioners across the country.

Two Neag School alumni, Gabe Castro ’14 (ED), ’15 MA, and Jill Linares ’14 (CLAS), ’15 MA, spent this past academic year — their first year of teaching — at Guamani Private School in Guayama, Puerto Rico.

Thanks to a $30,000 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship, 43-year-old Arthur Lerner is now advancing his education through the Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates at UConn’s Avery Point campus. The scholarship is helping to create a smooth transition for him as he goes from nonprofit work to pursuing a career as a biology teacher.

This past summer, the Neag School of Education welcomed Professor Gladis Kersaint as dean. Dean Kersaint most recently served as professor of mathematics and associate dean of academic affairs and research for the College of Education at the University of South Florida. Here, she sits down to share insight into her background as well as her vision for the Neag School going forward.

As part of an international initiative co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and espnW, Neag School faculty members Jennie McGarry and Laura Burton, along with UConn Associate Athletic Director Ellen Tripp, will be serving in the coming weeks as hosts for the Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP).

The following excerpt comes from an article — titled “Food Justice: Access, Equity, and Sustainability for Healthy Students and Communities” — co-authored by Neag School associate professor René Roselle and first-year educational leadership doctoral student Chelsea Connery ’13 (ED), ’14 MA, who is also an alum of the Neag School Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s (IB/M) program. In this piece, Roselle and Connery examine the issue of food insecurity and its impact on student achievement, touching on examples of solutions in Connecticut.

Imagine a school where students, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years old, do not regularly show up for class every day. Those who do attend may abruptly walk out in the middle of a lesson. And just outside this school’s entrance is a short, paved path that leads to an on-premises, partner hospital clinic, where most of the school’s adolescent students, facing a wide range of mental health challenges, have been admitted as patients for treatment for anywhere from two weeks to a year. Each fall, it is here — at Northgate School in North London — that several of the Neag School’s aspiring teachers arrive to intern as part of the London Study Abroad Teaching Internship Program.

Asking better questions can open doors for students, promoting mathematical thinking and discourse. A set of 100 questions that can be incorporated into mathematics instruction — created by the Neag School Dean Gladis Kersaint, who serves as an advisor for Ready® Mathematics — have been made available online as free infographics.

Editor’s Note: Kristin English’ 03 (ED), ’04 MA — an English teacher at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn., since 2004 and an alumna of the Neag School’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Program — shares her insights on what makes the profession of teaching most meaningful to her.