Neag School Announces Recipients of 2018 Alumni Awards

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Neag School 2018 Alumni Awards CelebrationThe Neag School of Education and its Alumni Board are proud to announce the 2018 Neag School Alumni Awards honorees.

Seven outstanding Neag School graduates will be recognized at the School’s 20th annual Alumni Awards Celebration on Saturday, March 17, 2018:

 

  • Outstanding Early Career Professional — Xaimara Coss ’04 (ED), ’16 MS
    A former student-athlete in women’s volleyball at UConn, Coss is the licensing manager for the National Basketball Association. She has 10 years of global merchandising experience with nonprofits and community organizations, including Major League Baseball Properties. Prior to her current role at the NBA, she served as the NBA’s finance manager, overseeing and ensuring compliance on all licensing contracts.
  • Outstanding School Educator — Jennifer Lanese ’94 (ED), ’95 MA
    For the past 16 years, Lanese has served as a teacher for Hall High School in West Hartford, Conn., where she teaches English as well as British literature, and serves as faculty advisor to the Action Club, which promotes social justice and youth leadership. For her commitment to the school, she was recognized as West Hartford’s 2015 Teacher of the Year. Prior to Hall High, she taught at East Granby High School in East Granby, Conn., for five years.
  • Outstanding School Administrator — Samuel Galloway ’01 6th Year
    As director of human resources for Bristol (Conn.) Public Schools since 2014, Galloway has implemented a centralized registration process; increased teacher and administrator diversity; and evaluated and advocated for two high schools, resulting in increased graduation rates, among other accomplishments. He previously served as principal of Bloomfield High School in Bloomfield, Conn., for four years, where he increased graduation rates and led the school through a full transformation. Galloway’s prior experience includes serving as a trooper for the state of Connecticut for 20 years and as a training officer for the U.S. Army Reserves.
  • Outstanding School Superintendent — Nathan D. Quesnel ’01 (ED), ’02 MA
    For the past five years, Quesnel has served as superintendent of East Hartford (Conn.) Public Schools, where he has orchestrated strategic planning and vision development for the school district; led the district’s focus on growing and increasing student achievement; and led district reform and turnaround efforts. Quesnel has also served in leadership roles at East Hartford Middle School and with the U.S. National Guard.
  • Outstanding Professional — Carol D. Birks ’08 ELP
    Birks serves as chief of staff to the superintendent for Hartford (Conn.) Public Schools (HPS), where she assists with day-to-day management and operations of the $417 million district — including organizing the executive staff and supervising the senior advisory team — and serves as key contact to the district’s departments. Prior to that, she was the assistant superintendent for instructional leadership for HPS, serving 21,000 students. Birks has held various educational leadership and coaching positions with school districts and education organizations, and has received numerous awards for her community service.
  • Outstanding Higher Education Professional — Mohammad Zaheer ’74 Ph.D.
    Zaheer has almost 50 years of teaching experience in higher education. He retired in 1997 from his position as a professor of economics at Manchester Community College in Manchester, Conn. He has held teaching and administrative posts at such institutions as Eastern Connecticut State University (adjunct professor up until 2001), U.S. International University in Kenya, and Government College of Science in Pakistan. Zaheer is a prolific writer, having published a number of academic books on economics and served in a wide variety of professional leadership posts in the U.S. and abroad.
  • Distinguished Alumna Award — Persis Rickes ’80 (CLAS), ’81 MA, ’93 Ph.D.
    Rickes serves as president and principal of Rickes Associates, a higher education planning firm dedicated to space utilization/programming and strategic planning for colleges and universities. She has 30 years of experience in higher education planning. As one of four companies in the U.S. that works specifically in higher education space planning, Rickes Associates has served more than 200 institutions on nearly 400 projects in 25 states and internationally.

The 20th Annual Neag School Alumni Awards Celebration on March 17, 2018, begins at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 5:30 p.m. Attire is business formal. No-host bar. The cost of the dinner is $50 per person.

Join us for the celebration on March 17. Register online at s.uconn.edu/NeagAlumni2018.

Questions? Contact Caitlin Trinh, Neag School alumni relations director, at 860.486.1202 or ctrinh@foundation.uconn.edu.

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UConn Taps Creativity Expert Beghetto to Lead Innovation House

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Ronald Beghetto teaches a class for the Innovation House on Aug. 28, 2017.
Ronald Beghetto teaches a class for the Innovation House this past August. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)

UConn’s Office of First Year Programs and Learning Communities has tapped internationally recognized creativity expert and Neag School educational psychology professor Ronald Beghetto as the faculty director of UConn’s Innovation House. Beghetto, a 2015 UConn faculty of the year awardee who focuses his research on creative thought and action in educational settings, began his new director role this past fall.

“This opportunity dovetailed really nicely with the things I’d been working on in my own research and work,” says Beghetto, who joined the Neag School from the University of Oregon in 2014. “It provides an opportunity for me to put into practice some of the work that I’ve been thinking about in how to help young people respond productively to uncertainty, and develop ideas for how they might address problems and complex challenges, and then actually do something about it.”

“I want the students to have an experience rapidly prototyping solutions, taking something from an idea into an actual product, and doing that in a fun and meaningful way.”

— Professor Ronald Beghetto,
Faculty Director, Innovation House

According to David Ouimette, executive director of the Office of First Year Programs and Learning Communities, Innovation House provides a space where undergraduate students from any major can come together to think about and share ideas, and learn how to put ideas into action with the potential for creating real change.

Beghetto is a particularly good fit for the faculty director role, says Ouimette, given that his “research and accomplishments fall directly in line with what we are trying to accomplish in Innovation House.” Beghetto is teaching first-semester students about the design process and leading them not only to fabricate solutions to problems using the Learning Community Innovation Zone makerspace, a key feature in the Peter J. Werth Residence Tower where the Innovation House is located, but also teaching them to pitch their ideas to various audiences.

“The goal is for students to foster a mindset of innovation and creativity starting in the first year that they take into the rest of their academic journey at UConn and beyond,” says Ouimette.

Two other Neag School faculty members also serve as UConn Learning Community directors; Erik Hines, assistant professor of school counseling, has led ScHOLA²RS House since Fall 2016, and Jaci VanHeest, associate professor of educational psychology, director of the Public Health House since 2010, remains the longest-running learning community faculty director at the University.

With ScHOLA2RS House and the Innovation House students sharing a floor in NextGen Hall, Beghetto foresees many opportunities for collaboration between these as well as other learning communities at UConn, since innovation is “something that any of the houses could interact with.”

The Year Ahead

Graduate educational psychology students PJ Barnett and Laurel Brandon, who will be working closely with Beghetto's class and students from the Innovation House.
Graduate educational psychology students PJ Barnett and Laurel Brandon will be working closely with Beghetto’s class and students from the Innovation House. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)

Over the course of the academic year, Innovation House students will be carrying out so-called legacy projects that involve identifying a problem, designing the solution, working with external partners, and implementing solutions.

“I want the students to have an experience rapidly prototyping solutions, taking something from an idea into an actual product, and doing that in a fun and meaningful way,” says Beghetto. “They’re going to be building that out, partnering with community organizations from around UConn, and then actually implementing a solution to a problem.”

At the end of the year, there will be an exhibition night during which the students will share their progress.

“Some of the projects may not turn out,” says Beghetto. “But what will definitely happen is that they will have learned something from the experience.” It is precisely this kind of learning experience, he says, that students can then take with them not only into whatever field of study they want to pursue, but also into daily life.

“The top priority is to bring attention to the amazing students we bring to UConn each year and help build their capacity to fully engage in our community and beyond,” says Ouimette. “Learning Communities provide a setting to develop a community of students who have a sense of belonging and purpose, and who feel challenged and supported as they enter the UConn community.”

Learn more about UConn’s Learning Community Program at lc.uconn.edu. For more information about the Innovation House, contact Ronald Beghetto at ronald.beghetto@uconn.edu. Watch a video about the Learning Community Kickoff, featuring fellow Neag School faculty member Jaci VanHeest.