In this new series, the Neag School will be catching up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to give you a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities. Here, Kelsey Karp ’16 (CAHNR) — an aspiring agriculture educator currently enrolled in in the Neag School’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) — shares insights into her time at UConn, where she spent her last year as an undergraduate living and working at UConn’s Spring Valley Student Farm. Through TCPCG, an 11-month program designed for college graduates looking to earn teacher certification, Karp is getting one step closer to fulfilling her ambition to become an educator.

In this piece written for Players’ Tribune, former UConn football star Casey Cochran ’15 (CLAS) — currently a graduate student in the Neag School’s sport management master’s degree program — shares, in his own words, the story of enduring his 13th concussion, an injury that ultimately prompted him to end his ambition of playing professional football. Today, Cochran is working to advocate for greater awareness about head trauma and concussions in sports.

Over nearly four decades, a total of more than 26,000 educators have convened on the UConn Storrs campus for Confratute, a weeklong summer institute that provides educators with practical strategies for engagement and enrichment learning for all students. Thanks to support from one philanthropic family institution known as the Barnes Foundation, close to 100 attendees have been able to attend Confratute over the past three years — including this summer’s program, which marks Confratute’s 39th year.

Students currently earning state certification to become science teachers as part of the Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) at UConn’s Neag School of Education will have their first school-based practice teaching experience thanks to a partnership with Norwich Free Academy.

While the number of global learning opportunities for current Neag School students continues to expand, the School will now be offering yet another type of internationally based program — one designed to serve practicing school principals based in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan.

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

Neag School students completing the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) this spring presented their change projects — the program’s signature capstone assignment, in which students identify a need or opportunity for school improvement and work toward positive change — during the 2nd Annual Change Project Day.

The Neag School of Education is proud to announce that a Connecticut student, Aleema Kelly from CREC Montessori Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., is the national winner of the Library of Congress’ “Letters About Literature” contest for Level I, grades 4-6. The Neag School was the 2016 Connecticut sponsor for the Letters About Literature (LAL) writing contest for students in grades 4-12.

With awards ranging from the Alma Exley Scholarship to the state Minority Teacher Incentive Grant, Orlando Valentin completed the Neag School’s teacher preparation program this spring. The first in his immediate family to have earned a university degree, his goal is to land his first job — ideally, as a teacher in his hometown of Meriden. But don’t let Valentin’s plans to return home to teach fool you. During his time in the Neag School, he has sought out firsthand experience in school districts across Connecticut — as well as in classrooms abroad.