Accolades: Read About the News and Accomplishments from our Students, Alumni and Faculty/Staff

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104516017-hands-clapping1-300x2001Below are news and notes from our alumni, faculty, staff, and students. We are proud of all the amazing accomplishments by our Neag family. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items (and story ideas) to neag-communications@uconn.edu.

Sport Marketing undergraduate students competed in the national Washington Media Scholars Foundation Competition on Feb. 11, 2015.

Terra Briody, a track-and-field student-athlete and elementary education major, was recognized at UConn’s annual “3.0 Night” for her cumulative GPA.

Ty McNamee, second-year HESA student, has had programs accepted at two major conferences.

Jon Rizzo, Ph.D. candidate in adult learning, had an article published based on his dissertation, “Patients’ mental models and adherence to outpatient physical therapy home exercise programs” in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, Early Online.

Current Neag master’s degree student Melissa Thom is the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award – K-12 from the National Council for Geographic Education.

Current Neag master’s degree student Christopher Todd, a social studies teacher at Windsor (Conn.) High School, served on a panel with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the 2015 Teaching & Learning Conference in Washington, D.C. Todd also currently serves at the Connecticut State Department of Education as a teacher leader-in-residence with the Talent Office.

Alumni

Marc Balanda ’99 and ’00, assistant principal at New Milford High School, takes over as principal at Brookfield High in Brookfield, Conn., this summer.

Josh Brandfon ’07 is chairing a major conference for the National Association of Campus Activities and was recently selected for the doctoral program at the University of Miami.

Rhema Fuller ’08 MA, ’12 Ph.D. took a faculty position at University of Memphis in Memphis, Tenn. Most recently he had been teaching at Alfred State University.

Erin Hagan ’09 Ph.D. is deputy director of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program office in Princeton, N.J., for cultivating a culture of health.

Anne Birge James ’05 Ph.D. is a newly tenured professor of occupational therapy at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.

Jordan Maleh ’07 BS, ’09 MA was appointed the director of digital and consumer marketing at Big 10 Network in Chicago, leaving University of Michigan.

Lauren Midgette ’12, ’13 and Paul Griswold ’10, ’11, English teachers at Bulkeley High School in Hartford, Conn., were selected to participate in the Stanford Hollyhock Fellowship program for high school teachers. They are among a select group of highly motivated, early-career teachers who will travel to Stanford University over two summers to gain professional development around urban teaching.

Dorothy Blozie Morrill ’77 was inducted into the South Windsor High School Athletic Hall of Fame. She was a teacher at Lyman Memorial High School from 1973 to 2009 and English department chair from 1999 to 2009. She was very active in student athletics, including being assistant girls’ and boys’ cross-country coach (1979-1987) and head boys’ and girls’ cross country coach (1987-1997). She also coached girl’s Class S State champion Teams for four consecutive years (1987-1990) and girls’ Champions of the Quinebaug Valley Conference for five consecutive years (1987-1991).

Two Executive Leadership Program graduates have moved into new superintendent positions: Jeff Newton ’13 was appointed superintendent in East Lyme, Conn. and Karen Baldwin ’05 was appointed superintendent in Ridgefield, Conn.

Matt Ouimette ’12 was appointed as an admissions counselor in the UConn Admissions Office.

Anita Guardo Satriano ’66 who taught kindergarten for nearly 30 years at the Annie E. Vinton Elementary School in Mansfield, Conn., received the Mary Rosa McDonough Award from the University of Saint Joseph for “outstanding service and distinction in education.” She is a longtime member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International (DKG), a women’s organization dedicated to education. As chair of its Committee on A Curriculum of Hope for a Peaceful World, Satriano helped develop a curriculum for students in first grade through middle school.

Martin Semmel ’95, ’96, ’03, ’07 was appointed superintendent of Plymouth Public Schools in Plymouth, Conn. Most recently, he had served as principal at Southington High School.

Donna Shea ’11 (master’s degree in adult learning), director of the Connecticut Technology Transfer Center, was awarded the 2014 Women in Transportation, WTS Connecticut Woman of the Year Award for her “exceptional contributions to the transportation industry; [her] role in the implementation of several successful programs; and especially [her] leadership, both [her] efforts in leadership training for others and the example [she] sets every day as a capable professional.”

In memoriam:

Aaron D. Anderson ’87
Diane M. Barrante ’73
Nancy A. Booker ’55
John S. Borg ’73
Teresa D. Brastow ’73
Doris B. Demarest ’49
Joshua P. Eudy ’02
Doris Factor ’53
John P. Granniss ’78
Irving Harris ’50
Priscilla A. Howland ’57
Sara L. LaMont ’11
James Lorello ’58
George A. Mullin ’70
Louis E. Notorantonio ’63
Charles G. O’Brien ’63
Ruth C. Page ’81
Catherine A. Pritchard ’84
Evelyn L. Roper ’56
Ronald J. Schmitt ’61
Richard Silva ’71
Carol A. Taylor ’89
Maureen J. Timoney ’82
James Vendetti ’67
Irene J. Vlahakos ’74
Lloyd B. Wilhelm ’50

Faculty/Staff

Staff from Husky Sport – Danielle DeRosa and Patricia Bellamy – represented the Neag School on the two-way exchange program through UConn’s Global Training and Development Institute (GTDI). The focus of the partnership with the University of the Western Cape is sport-based youth development. DeRosa coordinated the trip through her role with GTDI, and Bellamy attended on behalf of Husky Sport and was paired with a sport-based youth development fellow who came to UConn this past fall.

Husky Sport is again participating in the “Ignite UConn student fundraising competition.” They look forward to defending their 1st place finish during last year’s competition. In addition, Husky Sport received funding from the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Education Program for $342,526 for 2015.

The New London Renzulli Academy hosted a presentation in March by Gabriel bol Deng and the HOPE for Ariang Foundation for the Academy students, along with invited students from the Science and Tech High School. Deng is a “Lost Boy” of the Sudan. Nicole Waicunas, SEM outreach coordinator with the Neag Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development, who first met Gabriel while she was a faculty member at E.O. Smith High School, coordinated the visit.

Sport Management hosted Doug Ritchart and Matt Moorman, PLB Sports Founders (famous for creating Flutie Flakes), as guest presenters in their undergraduate Sport Marketing class. The students are working on a marketing plan proposal for the company with their new product titled “Husky Heroes” cereal, with Coach Auriemma and Coach Ollie as the endorsers on the box.

CommPACT hosted a Friday Cafe networking meeting in March for community members to talk about an online system to gather information on links among parents and between families and teachers.

Congratulations – Research Excellence Awards

The Office of the Vice President for Research is very pleased to announce the recipients of the 2015 Research Excellence Program (REP) awards. The 2015 REP Neag awardees are:

  • Jennifer Freeman, PI, Educational Psychology, Reducing High School Drop Out by Embedding College and Career Readiness into School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports $24,737.
  • Devin Kearns, PI, Educational Psychology, As Children Get Older, Do Long Words Get Easier? Longitudinal Examination of Polysyllabic Word Reading in Elementary-Age Children $23,580
  • Tamika La Salle, PI, Educational Psychology and George Sugai, Co-PI, Educational Psychology, Increasing School Climate and Student Outcomes through PBIS $43,498
  • Rachelle Perusse, PI, Educational Psychology, Melissa A. Bray, Co-PI, Educational Psychology, Erik M. Hines, Co-PI, Educational Psychology, Xaé Alicia Reyes, Co-PI, Curriculum & Instruction, Eliana Rojas, Co-PI, Curriculum & Instruction, Michael Young, Co-PI, Educational Psychology Making STEM Accessible to All Students: Teaching K-12 Students about STEM Careers $25,000.

EDLR faculty and alumni: Jennifer Bruening; Jon Welty Peachey; Justin Evanovich; Rhema Fuller; Cassandra Coble Murty; Vernon Percy; Lauren Silverstein; and Michael Chung published a special issue on managing sport for social change manuscript in Sport Management Review entitled “Managing sport for social change: The effects of intentional design and structure in a sport-based service learning initiative.”

Jennie Bruening is an investigator on the Provost’s Academic Plan grants Tier II submission Collaboratory for Coordinated School and Child Health (CCSCH).

Laura Burton, with co-author and UConn alumnus Jon Welty Peachy ’09, published “Examining the mediating effect of organizational culture in intercollegiate athletics” in the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport. Burton is also now editor of the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport.

Noel Card was selected as the next editor of the Journal of Research of Adolescence, the scientific face of the Society for Research on Adolescence. The journal is second-highest impact factor among adolescent development journals (behind an adolescent health journal), and it is reasonably solid among all developmental psychology journals.

The UConn Office of the Vice President has awarded Milagros Castillo-Montoya a Scholarship Facilitation Fund grant for research for her study entitled, “Higher Education and Student Affairs Administrators’ Learning of Assessment, Evaluation and Research.” Blanca Rincon serves as a Co-PI on this project.

Led by Joseph Cooper, the Collective Uplift (CU) student-athlete holistic development group completed its first semester in existence this past fall and is entering its second semester this spring. Cooper also presented at the inaugural Black Student Athlete Conference at the University of Texas at Austin in January. The title of his presentation was “Excellence Beyond Athletics: Best Practices for Enhancing Black Male Student Athletes’ Educational Experiences and Outcomes.” Cooper’s presentation at this event was cited in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

Morgaen Donaldson is serving on the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division A Dissertation Award committee. She was also selected as a recipient of Division A’s 2015 Emerging Scholar Award from AERA.

Morgaen Donaldson and Casey Cobb received the Outstanding Policy Report Award for their report entitled, “An Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of Connecticut’s System for Educator Evaluation and Development” from the AERA Division L Outstanding Policy Report Award Committee.

Morgaen Donaldson and Dorothea Anagnostopoulos co-presented with another colleague, “How do teachers respond to teacher evaluation? The role of emotions” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in February.

Shaun Dougherty presented “The Effect of Career and Technical Education on Human Capital Accumulation: Causal Evidence from Massachusetts” at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Spring Conference, in Washington, D.C., in March. Dougherty co-presented “Middle School Math Acceleration, College Readiness and Gender: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Wake County, North Carolina” for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Spring Conference, Washington, D.C., March 2015. Dougherty also presented “The Effect of Career and Technical Education on Human Capital Accumulation: Causal Evidence from Massachusetts” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., February 2015.

Shaun Dougherty and Jennie Weiner co-presented “Islands of Improvement?: The Impact of Being Just Labeled as Low-Performing Under No Child Left Behind Waivers” for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Spring Conference in Washington, D.C., March 2015. They also co-presented “The Rhode to Turnaround?: The Impact of Being Just Labeled as Low-Performing Under No Child Left Behind Waivers” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference, in Washington, D.C., February 2015.

Preston Green published “The Legal Status of Charter Schools in State Statutory Law,” which was accepted by the University of Massachusetts Law Review. He also spoke on a roundtable at the Children’s Rights Litigation Committee of the ABA, along with moderating a panel during UConn Law School’s Diversity Week. In addition, he co-authored “Cyber charter schools and students with dis/abilities: Rebooting the IDEA to address equity, access, and compliance” in Equity & Excellence in Education. 

Robin Grenier was re-elected to a second term on the Board of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). Grenier presented two papers at the 2015 AHRD Conference in St. Louis: “Autoethnography as a legitimate approach to HRD research: A methodological conversation at 30,000 feet” at the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), in St. Louis, MO. She also co-presented “Exploring recent measures of employee expertise for HRD applications” at the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), St. Louis, MO.

Joshua Hyman gave a presentation “Data vs Methods: Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Alternative Sample Selection Corrections for Missing College Entrance Exam Score Data” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in February.

James Kaufman was a panelist of the 92nd St. Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association on “Genius and Madness.” He also co-authored a new study from the Journal of Family Issues titled “Do You Pursue Your Heart or Your Art? Creativity, Personality, and Love.”

Devin Kearns published “How Elementary-Age Children Read Polysyllabic Polymorphemic Words in the Journal of Educational Psychology. He also co-authored “Orthographic, Phonological, and Morphological Skills and Children’s Word Reading in Arabic in Reading Research Quarterly, along with “Modeling Polymorphemic Word Recognition: Exploring Differences Among Children With Early-Emerging and Later-Emerging Reading Difficulty” in the Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Mark Kohan won AERA’s Division K Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Kim LeChasseur had two grants awarded under CEPA: $20,000 from the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund for “Re-examining data driven collective impact philanthropy from a community location”; and $37,000 from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for “Adult Literacy Indicators Project.” She also has written and presented a white paper to the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund titled “Collective impact and the discovery initiative: Extending and problematizing the collective impact model.”

Allison Lombardi co-authored “The Impact of Professional Development on the Quality of the Transition Components of IEPs” for the journal Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals. 

Joseph Madaus was named full-time interim director of the UConn Avery Point campus, beginning on July 1.

Alan Marcus shared the WWII Exhibit designed by the Class of 2014 social studies students (“Snow, Sand, & Strategy: The Impact of Weather and Geography on World War II”) at the Dodd Center during the beginning of the semester.

In recognition of the team’s clinical expertise, UConn was recently awarded a five-year contract to serve as one of 13 evidence-based practice centers supported by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Neag’s Chris Rhoads will serve as the chief statistician.

Lisa Sanetti co-authored with colleagues from other universities, along with Neag doctoral student Austin Johnson, “Is Performance Feedback for Educators an Evidence-Based Practice? A Systematic Review and Evaluation Based on Single Case Research” in the journal of Exceptional Children.

John Settlage co-authored “College Student Persistence in Scientific Disciplines: Cultural and Social Capital as Contributing Factors” in the International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education.

John Settlage and Suzanne Wilson have been chosen as Outstanding Reviewers for 2014 for the Educational Researcher.

Jennie Weiner, Morgaen Donaldson, and Shaun Dougherty co-presented “Studying Up: Regression Discontinuity Evidence of the Effects of Receiving Commended Status Under a Waiver from No Child Left Behind Waivers” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., February 2015.

Sarah Woulfin, book review of Barnett, Shoho, and Bowers’ book School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability was published in Teachers College Record. She also served on the District Research and Reform SIG’s Dissertation Award Committee.

Justis Lopez – An Exceptional Educator in the Making

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Justis Lopez stops by the Gentry Building before heading to class.
Justis Lopez stops by the Gentry Building before heading to class.

It is his love for – and from – his family that drove fifth-year master’s student Justis Lopez to pursue college and to better himself. Among his biggest influences has been his mother, who worked three jobs to help support him, his younger brother and sister, along with his father, who had been injured on the job.

“She was always there, and my father, too, pushing us to be better people,” says Lopez, a first-generation college student. He recalls his mother advising him: “Go to college and get an education so that you don’t have to work so many jobs as I have to, to work as hard as I’ve had to, to provide for your future and your family.”

Meanwhile, it was his high school teacher Heather (Wohlgemuth) Banas ’03 (ED), ’04 (MA) – a UConn alum – who, he says, inspired him to go into teaching.

“She was my favorite teacher,” Lopez says. “She made learning so much fun and really engaging. I fell in love with teaching, and she’s the reason why.”

Making Connections Along the Way

At UConn, Lopez has taken a leadership role in innumerable activities, from planning and emceeing a recent benefit concert for Windham High School to serving as the student speaker for the Neag School’s 2014 Commencement ceremony.

“I’ve been part of so many amazing things and been inspired by other students doing great things,” he says.

Among the many roles Justis Lopez has had on the UConn campus, he has given spoken word performances during the Neag Alumni Society Awards Dinner two years in a row.
Among the many roles Justis Lopez has had on the UConn campus, he has given spoken word performances during the Neag Alumni Society Awards Dinner two years in a row.

Last year, he got involved with UConn’s Hip Hop Collective, a student-run organization that seeks to empower, educate, and inspire the UConn community through exposure to hip-hop culture. The organization hosts several days of events in the spring, featuring artists, spoken word performers, a documentary screening, and more. Lopez is serving this year as the event’s education chair, where his role centers on connecting the hip-hop community and education – in part by bringing together a daylong education conference in partnership with the Neag School.

“If we could recreate that [excitement] here at … Neag, our home base for education, we can inspire the future educators of the world,” Lopez says of the education conference, which is one way in which he hopes to connect Neag with its partner schools in the community.

‘Someone Special’

Justis Lopez gathers with his social studies cohort during the Neag Social Studies Study Abroad program.
Justis Lopez gathers with his social studies cohort during the Neag Study Abroad program.

His fifth year at the Neag School has also been filled with travel opportunities. At the annual National Association of Multicultural Educators conference this past fall in Tuscon, Ariz., Lopez volunteered for and networked with faculty members, inspiring him to consider pursuing his doctorate and a possible career as a professor. The opportunity came through Justis’ connection with assistant clinical professor Mark Kohan, who calls Lopez “a catalyst for rethinking what is possible in classroom and schools. “He is a bridge-builder, not only between schools and communities, but also among students and educators from all walks of life,” Kohan says.

Meanwhile, his participation in Neag’s Social Studies Study Abroad Program – led by associate professor Alan Marcus – gave Lopez the chance to see Europe, where he visited museums and walked the beaches of Normandy.

“It was incredibly transformative; being able to step outside my comfort zone, learn about life and history through another lens,” says Lopez. A passion for becoming a global citizen, he says, is now something he envisions instilling in his future students.

Lopez’s mentors can clearly see his potential in the field of education. “Justis is one of the most energetic and humble people I know. As a classroom teacher, as a colleague, as a peer mentor, or even as the husky mascot, few people have as much energy and enthusiasm,” says Marcus, who has known Lopez since his freshman year at UConn, when, he says, “Justis walked into my office with his big grin and told me he wanted to be a history teacher. It was clear from that first meeting he would be someone special.”

“I want to … create a community where students feel like they can become whomever they desire.” —Justis Lopez ’14 (ED), ’15 MA

Lopez has also studied closely with Marcus, including following Marcus’ work on the new social studies framework, for which Marcus served as a lead writer. The framework provides the biggest change in social studies instruction in Connecticut in more than 15 years.

Through classes with Marcus, Lopez has become familiar with the new methods firsthand. “Dr. Marcus has been very proactive in preparing us to utilize these new frameworks,” Lopez says. “It has a lot of cool components, like inquiry projects where the students are developing their own projects, and they develop questions. The ending component is really unique in that it has a community-based component where students get involved with the community … It brings a holistic approach to the student.”

Future Plans

For his master’s year, Lopez is also taking part in a split internship between Manchester High School – his alma mater – and Manchester Middle School. At the middle school, he’s working on a “Cool to be Kind” initiative, an anti-bullying project. At the high school, his project focuses on “digital citizenship” in which Lopez is teaching students about “leaving a digital footprint, digital law, how to be digitally savvy, and how to be aware of what you’re posting online.”

Banas, that same teacher who inspired Lopez back in his high school days, is his supervisor on the project.

“Justis truly loves people and sees them for their best qualities, not for their shortcomings,” she says. “This will make him a truly exceptional educator because our kids need teachers who see them for their strengths. I think that Justis will inspire so many of students.”

With graduate commencement around the corner, Lopez has laid a solid groundwork for his future. He will, no doubt, have lots of opportunities from which to choose.

Justis Lopez meets up with the Connecticut senators, Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Richard Blumenthal, during his time in DC.
Justis Lopez meets up with the Connecticut senators, Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Richard Blumenthal, during his internship in DC.

Even as he is interviewing for teacher positions with different school systems across Connecticut, New York City, and Washington, D.C., Lopez has aspirations beyond that as well – with possible sights set on eventually pursuing a position in education administration, whether it is as a school principal, superintendent, or leader in educational policy.

That said, his experiences in school were not always positive, Lopez admits. “I did not have a positive experience with my high school principal,” he says. “I received a lot of push back from our leadership, and I felt the student voices weren’t included enough.”

But, he adds, “the negative experience inspired me to want to change that … I want to become a principal so I can create a community where students feel like they can become whomever they desire. I want to create a community where teachers can lead the classrooms and create this community of people.”

Desi Nesmith ’01 (ED), ’02 MA, ’09 Sixth-Year, principal of Metacomet Elementary School in Bloomfield, has no doubt about what Lopez would bring to such a position. “Justis has the type of personality that kids will be drawn to,” says Nesmith, a 2014 Milken Award honoree. “He has an infectious personality that will immediate connect with both kids and parents. He cares deeply about the profession and those involved in it. When you talk to Justis, his passion for education and kids come through in such a rich and genuine way.”

Marcus also looks forward to following Lopez’s career. “Justis will be a great educator because he is passionate, driven, and because he cares,” he says. “He really wants to make a difference in society. This passion keeps him focused on his goals. He is always asking questions to learn more. He will learn from his students as much as they learn from him – and that is the mark of a good educator.”

Video of Justis giving a spoken word performance during the Neag Alumni Awards Dinner.

Neag Alum Named Connecticut School Counselor of the Year

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Vanessa Montorsi attends National School Counselor of the Year ceremony at The White House.
Vanessa Montorsi attends the National School Counselor of the Year ceremony at The White House.

When Vanessa Montorsi ’04 MA graduated from the Neag School of Education with a master’s degrees in school counseling 11 years ago, she never imagined that she would be one of 40 school counselors honored as semi-finalists for 2015 National School Counselor of the Year at a White House ceremony officiated this past January by Michelle Obama. This recognition comes for Montorsi on the heels of also being awarded the 2014 Connecticut School Counselor of the Year.

Montorsi, the director of counseling at Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Conn., always knew that she wanted to find a way to make an impact on students’ lives. After teaching physical education and health during her first four years working in education, she says she wanted to experience the same connections she saw school counselors making with their students.

“I took my interest of connecting with students on an individual basis, my interest in emotional safety, and my passion about the college and career process. When everything added up, it equaled school counseling,” Montorsi says.

Montorsis says her favorite aspect of being a school counselor is the variety of people she is able to work with – from students to parents and teachers. No two days are the same, and her role changes on a daily basis.

“One morning, I will be discussing students who are struggling academically or emotionally; the next day, I will be conducting a junior meeting to help a student plan for life outside of high school. Or, I may be addressing 400 students regarding the course selection process and reviewing the program of studies,” she says.

‘More Important Than Any Test Score’
Montorsi attributes her successful career to the well-rounded education she received as a student in the Neag School of Education. She says she was drawn to the Neag School by the variety of classes offered for graduate students and the positive direction in which the program was headed.

While at Neag, Montorsi was not only able to take classes in school counseling, but also a variety of school psychology courses, gaining skills in testing and data collection that she says have proven to be very relevant in her current profession.

In addition, Neag’s professors, courses, and curriculum created an atmosphere that Montorsi says challenged her and took her outside of her comfort zone. In-class exercises such as role-simulations involved the entire class in watching two students through a one-way mirror “act” out a scenario between a counselor and a student in a K-12 school.

“It was nerve-wracking knowing people were watching your every move, from your body language to verbal communication. However, the experience was priceless and certainly developed me into a better counselor because I learned to use more open-ended questions,” Montorsi says.

Working as a school counselor enables Montorsi to connect with students on many levels, allowing her act as a crutch during times of academic difficulty and a confidant during times of emotional stress.

“I feel our work is significantly more important than any test score,” Montorsi says. “[School counselors] touch the lives of each individual student and provide them with the tools, knowledge, and encouragement to be successful in this ever-changing world.”

Fighting the Good Fight
Montorsi is pleased that after many years of struggling to find recognition in the education world, people are starting to notice the impact school counselors have on the entire education system. Their presence in school plays a vital role in the lives of the students.

Semi-finalists from the National School Counselor of the Year gather at The White House.
Semi-finalists from the National School Counselor of the Year gather at The White House.

Montorsi’s January visit to Washington, D.C. to accept the National School Counselor of the Year semi-finalist award was not only a tremendous honor for her, but also for the entire school counseling profession. In the eight years school counselors have been recognized at the national level, this was the first year counselors were being honored at the White House.

“School counselors were finally on par with principals and teachers, who have been honored at our nation’s capital for years. Except this time, the press conference being held was solely about school counselors and the significant role we play in students’ lives,” Montorsi says.

According to the American School Counselor Association, “the School Counselor of the Year and finalists are judged by a select panel on several criteria: creative school counseling innovations, effective counseling programs, leadership skills, and contributions to student enhancement.”

Montorsi believes that school counselors “need to continue to fight the good fight” and continue to strive for recognition as a major necessity in any school setting.

“Nominating a school counselor for Connecticut School Counselor of the Year goes beyond the much-deserved individual recognition; it signifies the importance of our profession and the need for more school counselors,” she says.

To Montorsi, being recognized as the top school counselor in Connecticut was not about her, but all of the people who work with her at Cheshire High School Counseling Department.

“I know there are many other worthy school counselors who work tirelessly, many with limited resources, to provide outstanding services to students and families,” Montorsi says. “What we are doing works, and people are appreciative of our efforts. However, I am always trying to figure out what I can do better.”

 

 

CommPACT Community Schools Collaborative Transitions into Focusing on Parent Engagement

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Two CommPACT community members, Christina Lapierre from CREC Two Rivers Magnet High-Middle and Callie Boston-Gardner from CREC, participated with a "Friday Cafe" networking session at the UConn campus. The focus was on using an on-line tool to gather information on links among parents and between families and teachers.
Two CommPACT community members, Christina Lapierre from CREC Two Rivers Magnet High-Middle and Callie Boston-Gardner from CREC, participated with a “Friday Cafe” networking session at the UConn campus. The focus was on using an on-line tool to gather information on links among parents and between families and teachers. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)

Increased family and community involvement are among the successes Bassick High School in Bridgeport has experienced since becoming part of the Connecticut CommPACT Community Schools Collaborative.

“The message to the masses is that ‘it takes a village’ for effective education reforms and improvements to occur,” says Bassick Interim Principal Kathryn Silver. “I cannot make the necessary changes alone. But when experts in the CommPACT initiative come together with parents, students, staff, administrators, and the community at large, we are able to move mountains.”

Based out of UConn’s Neag School of Education and directed by Michele Femc-Bagwell, assistant professor in residence in Neag’s Department of Educational Leadership, the seven-year-old CommPACT program matches communities, parents, administrators, children, and teachers with experts and best practices designed to improve education and opportunities for students and family members alike.

Michele Femc-Bagwell, director of the CommPACT program and assistant professor in the Neag School, welcomes guests at the Friday Cafe community event.
Michele Femc-Bagwell, director of the CommPACT program, and assistant professor in residence at the Neag School, welcomes guests at the Friday Cafe community event. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)

“It’s all about empowerment,” Femc-Bagwell says. “We impart to parents and staff the importance of owning their school’s challenges and solutions. We work with them to identify the best research-based models and frameworks to achieve their goals.”

From ‘The School’ to ‘Our School’
Among other achievements, the program’s comprehensive and coordinated efforts toward school turnaround have led to the creation of a Parent Resource Center at Bassick High, which provides parents, grandparents, students, and others in the community with computer training, resume help, English as a Second Language support, immigration assistance, life balance and parenting skills, and a wide variety of other services. More than 2,500 visits have been logged in the past two years.

Similar successes have been achieved at the three other schools currently working with CommPACT, which include John Barry Elementary School in Meriden, Robert J. O’Brien STEM Academy in East Hartford, and West Side Middle School in Waterbury.

One of the newer schools in the program, O’Brien STEM Academy recently used CommPACT’s resources and experience with successful outcomes to organize and facilitate a “visioning event” that involved more than 60 parents, teachers, administrators, and community members brainstorming how these groups can work together to advance students’ educational opportunities through family and community engagement over the next five years. A Family Resource Center with services similar to Bassick’s was also established, but expanded to include a food pantry supported by area partner Whole Foods.

“CommPACT has led to families making strong school connections and better understanding the intricacies of the educational process,” says East Hartford Superintendent of Schools Nathan D. Quesnel. “With the help of CommPACT, there’s been an important terminology shift and change at O’Brien. Parents used to visit ‘the school,’ but they now visit ‘our school.’ CommPACT is helping us make a difference in the lives of children by bringing families into the classrooms, hallways, and cafeterias.”

Two community members, Jennie Navarro and Diana Lopez from Windham Public Schools, practice entering data for the online program.
Two community members, Jennie Navarro and Diana Lopez from Windham Public Schools, practice entering data in the system to track links among parents and between families and teachers. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)

Engaging Families
This idea of inclusiveness — of bringing family members into schools to learn, volunteer, share skills, and participate in student learning as engaged partners and role models — is exactly what CommPACT is all about.

At each of the schools, a family and community cadre comprising community members, parents, administrators, teachers, and often students works with school staff to coordinate and implement projects and activities, guided by the resources of CommPACT partners.

“One of the many strengths of CommPACT is that we focus on fundamental family needs that parents and school staff identify as being essential to their community. The result is truly engaged families, whom we help by using the expertise of the partnership to find the resources they need, whether it be assistance in selecting and implementing evidence-based practices in governance, instruction, decision making, community involvement, or behavior management,” says CommPACT Family and Community Engagement Specialist Jocelyn Ault.

“We also survey parents’ interests and skills in an effort to connect their identified human capital in meaningful and important ways to curricular, extracurricular, and fundraising activities. Building relationships of trust and valuing the talents that parents bring to a school is a critical component of our work that also promotes social capital and builds community,” says Femc-Bagwell.

In addition to the Neag School, CommPACT partners include the American Federation of Teachers of Connecticut, Connecticut Education Association, Connecticut Federation of School Administrators, and Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.

Part of the Paradigm Shift
Parents and staff at West Side Middle School are currently working with CommPACT to improve communication internally with staff and externally with families. Also being supported by CommPACT is a Parent and Community Leadership Conference to take place May 1. Additional community partners working together to plan the event include: Naugatuck Valley Community College; the U.S. Department of Education-funded Waterbury GEAR UP program to improve college access and readiness; the City of Waterbury Department of Education/Title I; and Waterbury Bridge to Success partnership of local organizations, families and volunteers. The focus of the day will be to develop parents as leaders in improving students’ educational outcomes.

“With the help of CommPACT, our school has been transformed,” says West Side Middle School CommPACT parent liaison Griselle Myers. “We’re excited for even more opportunities to make the positive changes needed to affect the most important people we serve: our students.”

“Closing the achievement gap requires not just getting kids excited about learning, but whole families and communities. Especially in our urban areas, there are many parents who grew up without a lot of educational support and who, because of that, limited their dreams,” she says. “If through our Family Resource Centers we can help them achieve some of their goals — finish high school, save money, get a better job — they, in turn, will better understand how to help their children set and achieve their own goals and dreams. Every parent and community member also has a skill or gift that they can share.”

Buying into the idea that it takes entire communities, working together, to effectively educate students requires a complete paradigm shift. CommPACT values the importance of all stakeholders working collaboratively to achieve this goal.

Neag Alumni Society Recognizes Outstanding Graduates

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Outstanding Alumni Recognized by the Neag School of Education

The Neag School of Education Alumni Society and the faculty of the Neag School of Education recognized outstanding alumni at the 17th Annual Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 28, 2015, on the UConn campus in Storrs.

““It is our sincere honor to celebrate the accomplishments of such a notable group of Neag School alumni with this level of recognition,” says Dean Richard Schwab. “Each of this year’s awardees exemplifies the kind of strong leadership skills and ongoing commitment to the field of education that we strive to instill in every one of our graduates here the Neag School of Education.”

 

CombsOutstanding Early Career Professional

Ashley Combs – Executive assistant to the senior vice president of basketball at Excel Sports Management in Los Angeles, Calif.

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Ashley Combs received her Bachelor of Arts in communication sciences at UConn in 2009 and later obtained her Master of Science in sport management from the Neag School of Education in 2014. Combs currently works in sport management and athlete representation at Excel Sports Management, where she helps to coordinate the marketing, public relations, sales, and community service initiatives for NBA, MLB, PGA, and other entertainment industry clientele.

Previously, Combs worked as community responsibility coordinator with Spurs Sports and Entertainment – the parent company of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, WNBA’s Stars, and AHL Hockey’s Rampage – creating partnerships with schools, families, hospitals, and service agencies in the San Antonio area. She also developed service-learning curriculum alongside local university professors and students. In addition, she planned and implemented a workplace mentoring program for middle and high school students as a part of a larger Big Brothers Big Sisters collaboration.

Combs started her journey in sport management working for the UConn men’s basketball program. She spent five years working with the team, beginning as a volunteer student manager, then was hired as an office assistant, and later was promoted to assistant office coordinator. Her roles with the team included recording and sharing statistics, communicating with prospective student-athletes, and coordinating many of the community-based outreach efforts and events. UConn men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie calls Combs “a valuable contributor to our 2011 National Championship Program, as well as the Spurs 2014 NBC Championship organization.”

 

 

DartOutstanding School Administrator

Peter Dart — Principal at Environmental Sciences Magnet School at Mary Hooker in Hartford, Conn.

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Peter Dart graduated from the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) in 2009. He is currently the principal at Environmental Sciences Magnet School (ESMS) at Mary Hooker in Hartford.

As the principal for an interdistrict magnet school that serves urban and suburban students from 45 different towns in Connecticut, Dart has initiated reforms for the overall betterment of the school. His professional classroom experience began when he served as a 4th-grade teacher for seven years at Colchester Intermediate School in Colchester. He held other teaching and administrator positions in secondary schools before becoming a principal, while also maintaining an 8th-grade science teaching position at another magnet school and serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Hartford.

Through an integrated environmental sciences theme, he initiated systematic reform to close the achievement gap at ESMS. In addition, he developed a staffing plan and program to include two resident scientists and magnet coaches at the science-focused magnet school. Under his supervision, ESMS has been recognized as a school of excellence by the Magnet Schools of America, a Green Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, and a Connecticut Green LEAF School.

Committed to future teacher leaders, Dart also serves as a mentor for UCAPP, advising participants through their two-year journey to becoming an administrator.

 

McManusOutstanding Higher Education Professional

John “Jack” F. McManus – Professor of education at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

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Jack McManus received his Ph.D. in educational psychology and evaluation from the Neag School of Education in 1969. He is currently a professor of education at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. He also serves on the Board of Regents of the DaVinci Schools, three high schools in an economically depressed area of Los Angeles.

Although he taught French and Latin at Wolcott High School in Wolcott, Conn, he quickly transitioned to learning about the then-emerging field of computer applications in education as well as the research and evaluation methods and techniques that could be used to determine the effects of these and other educational innovations.

In 1975, McManus began his higher education career, serving in faculty and administrative roles at several institutions before joining Pepperdine University in 1979 as the director of computer services. In 1983, he became a professor of education. He has also served as associate dean of Pepperdine’s Education Division, as its director of graduate business programs, and as interim dean of Pepperdine’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

McManus has taught courses in statistics, education research, and computer applications at the master’s and doctoral levels. He has chaired dissertation committees and has authored many publications, including textbooks for high school and college students. McManus has also brought his talents to the courtroom, where he has been an expert witness in a number of court cases in California, often working pro bono.

 

BaumOutstanding Professional

Susan Baum – Professor Emeritus for the College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, N.Y.; co-director of the International Center for Talent Development; director of the 2e Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges Academy for the Joint Commission on 2e Education

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Susan Baum received her Ph.D. from the Neag School of Education in 1985, where she focused on special education, educational psychology, and education of the gifted and talented. She has been recognized as the world’s leading expert in working with twice-exceptional (2e) students.

She first came to UConn in 1980 to study with Professor Joseph Renzulli; her pioneering dissertation research opened the door to recognizing the needs of struggling students who are both gifted and have learning differences. Working early in her career as a special education teacher as well as in the gifted education program, she noted that many students who were diagnosed with learning disabilities also had characteristics of gifted children and wondered what would happen if these students were placed in a learning setting that was better suited for their needs.

Baum has conducted hundreds of presentations all around the world in such places as Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Latvia, Romania, Ethiopia, and Ghana,. She also has published more than 50 publications on topics including 2e students, young gifted children, gifted underachievers, and social and emotional issues of gifted students.

As professor emeritus for the College of New Rochelle, Baum continues to teach annually on the UConn campus during Confratute (the Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development’s international summer institute in enrichment teacher and learning) and Three Summers (UConn’s master’s degree program in gifted education and talent development). She is co-director of the International Center for Talent Development and director of the 2e Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges Academy in Studio City, Calif.

 

HullOutstanding School Superintendent

William Hull – Superintendent of Schools in Putnam, Conn.

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William Hull’s successful career in educational leadership and school district management has spanned more than two decades. Hull graduated from the Neag School of Education’s Executive Leadership Program in 2006; he also earned a Bachelor of Arts in history/secondary education in 1979 and Master of Arts in elementary education in 1986 from UConn.

He has worked as a teacher, dean of students, assistant principal, elementary school principal, and assistant superintendent in many districts across the state of Connecticut, including Montville, Lyme-Old Lyme, Oakdale, and Salem. He currently serves as superintendent of schools in Putnam, Conn. When he took on that role in the spring of 2009, almost 60 percent of the students were in need of remediation in mathematics and reading. Under Hull’s leadership, 70 percent of the students are now performing above-average in reading and math, and professional development opportunities for staff have been increased, leading to improvements in teaching and learning. In 2013, the State Department of Education recognized Putnam Elementary School as a School of Distinction.

Hull serves as the chairperson for the Northeast Area Superintendents’ Association and has serves on the boards of directors for many magnet schools around the region.

 

DonnellyDistinguished Alumni Award

John J. Connolly – President and CEO of Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.

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John J. Connolly, Ed.D., – the nation’s foremost expert on identifying top physicians, is the President & CEO of Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. publisher of America’s Top Doctors® and other consumer guides to help people find the best healthcare. He is also Chairman of Castle Connolly Private Health Partners, LLC, a concierge medicine company.

Dr. Connolly served as President of New York Medical College, the nation’s second largest private medical college, for more than ten years. He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, a Director of the Northeast Business Group on Health. He was formerly a member of the President’s Council of the United Hospital Fund, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

Dr. Connolly has served as trustee of two hospitals and as Chairman of the Board of one. He is extensively involved in healthcare and community activities and has served on a number of voluntary and corporate boards including the Board of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, of which he is a founder and past chairman, and the Culinary Institute of America for over 20 years where he is now Chairman Emeritus. He also served as a director and Chairman of the Professional Examination Service and is presently on the board of the American Swiss Foundation. His current corporate board service includes: Baker and Taylor; Dearborn Risk Management, Air Methods Inc., and the Advisory Board of the Hudson Group. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Worcester State College, a Master’s degree from the University of Connecticut, and a Doctor of Education degree in College and University Administration from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from Mercy College (LHD) and from Worcester State University (LHD).

Dr. Connolly has appeared on or been interviewed by over 100 television and radio stations nationwide including “Good Morning America” (ABC-TV), “The Today Show” (NBC-TV), “20/20” (ABC-TV), “48 Hours” (CBS-TV), Fox Cable News, “Morning News” (CNN) and “Weekend Today in New York” (WNBC-TV). The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Daily News (New York), The Boston Herald and other newspapers, as well as many national and regional magazines, have featured Castle Connolly Guides and/or Dr. Connolly in stories. He is the author and/or editor of seven books.

Neag Professors Work with American Museum of Natural History on Science Education Reform

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Photo credit: American Museum of Natural History
Photo credit: American Museum of Natural History

Neag School of Education faculty members Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead and Suzanne M. Wilson are working with scientists, science educators, and teacher leaders at the American Museum of Natural History and other partners to raise the quality of science education in the U.S. and meet Next Generation of Science Standards.

Developed by the National Academy of Science’s National Research Council, the Next Generation of Science Standards outline the performance expectations, disciplinary core ideas, scientific practices, and crosscutting concepts that all kindergartners through 12th-graders should know. To help assess progress in meeting them, UConn researchers are partnering with the Gottesman Center for Science Teaching and Learning at the American Museum of Natural History and the University of California Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science to develop both a middle school ecology curriculum and the professional development framework needed to teach that curriculum effectively.

Documenting What Students – and Teachers – Learn

Suzanne Wilson (on the right), who is also heading up Neag's new faculty mentoring efforts, discusses the project with Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead.
Suzanne Wilson (on the right), who is also heading up Neag’s new faculty mentoring efforts, discusses the project with Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)

Wilson, previous to joining Neag as Endowed Professor of Teacher Education, had served for five years at Michigan State, where she took part in a project that laid the foundations for the current work, “Learning Science as Inquiry with the Urban Advantage.” Today, she and Montrosse-Moorhead are focused on investigating the effects professional development has on teachers’ knowledge and practice. To do this, the two, along with a team of Neag graduate student research assistants, have developed a system that will document what teachers as well as students learn from a set of curricular materials, which focus on the real-life and harmful invasion of zebra mussels in the Hudson River.

“You can’t just put teaching materials into teachers’ hands and expect them to figure it out.”

—Neag Endowed Professor of Teacher Education Suzanne Wilson

“You can’t just put teaching materials into teachers’ hands and expect them to figure it out,” says Suzanne Wilson, Neag Endowed Professor of Teacher Education. “Teachers need to learn and fully understand that material they’re teaching, and that means they need to engage with the materials themselves. They also need to understand options for how to best teach the material to their students.”

“Science education reform,” Wilson says, “has traditionally been a tough nut to crack. But if we can get teachers immersed in, and excited about, scientific inquiry, they can get kids excited about it, too. It’s important to remember that not all middle school teachers are science experts. Many teach more than one subject, or are elementary teachers who’ve moved up to the middle school-level and are finding their way.”

Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead, who was named the 2014 Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator with the American Evaluation Association, shares her ideas on the data collection process.
Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead, who was named the 2014 Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator with the American Evaluation Association, shares her ideas on the data collection process. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)

Developing tools to evaluate teacher professional development efforts is key, says Montrosse-Moorhead, Neag School assistant professor of measurement, evaluation and assessment.

“On the whole, despite growing agreement around best practices for professional development, rigorous studies that test these practices produce mixed results,” she says. “We still do not know enough about how to provide professional development that produces long-term, sustained results for teachers and their students across the wide variety of contexts in which science is taught. It’s exciting to be part of and contribute to this national conversation.”

The Potential to Expand

If successful, Wilson and Montrosse-Moorhead’s measurement tools could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of similar future professional development efforts and help advance national science education overall. Their work is a component of a larger four-year, $3 million National Science Foundation grant that made the total project possible.

“One of the hopes of all involved,” Wilson says, “is for the curricular materials to expand beyond its current use in New York City public middle schools, and that it be taught first to teachers, and then to students, throughout the country.

“Our collective goal is to develop engaging curriculum materials, high-quality professional development that supports teachers learning how to teach those materials in their classrooms, and authentic measures that can assess both teacher and student learning,” Wilson says. “Like the scientific inquiry being done by students during the unit, developing a system to evaluate the unit’s effectiveness can be messy. There’s no one formula involved. It’s been a process of discovery, and we’ve all learned a lot. We’re hoping this project helps advance science education in meaningful ways for teachers and their students.”

First-Year Neag Educator Wins “Faculty of the Year” Award

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Ron Beghetto, associate professor of educational psychology, is an international expert on creativity in educational settings.
Ron Beghetto, associate professor of educational psychology, is an international expert on creativity in educational settings. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)

In addition to celebrating his one-year anniversary of teaching at the Neag School of Education, Dr. Ron Beghetto, associate professor of educational psychology, has yet another milestone to celebrate. This year, Beghetto received the 2015 Alpha Lambda Delta (ALD) Faculty of the Year Award after spending just one year teaching in the Neag School, an incredible achievement for any faculty member who works at an institution as large as UConn.

Beghetto is an internationally recognized expert on creativity in educational settings. Prior to joining the faculty at UConn, Beghetto served as the College of Education’s associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of education studies at the University of Oregon. Although he only recently began his teaching career at UConn, he says that joining the UConn community was an easy transition.

“I’ve quickly adjusted to becoming a Husky. I attribute this quick adjustment to all the wonderful people and possibilities here at UConn,” Beghetto says. “UConn’s scholarly community is vibrant, and the students are outstanding, and all the opportunites to collaborate with colleagues in the Neag School and across campus are ever-present.”

“UConn’s scholarly community is vibrant, the students are outstanding, and all the opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in the Neag School and across campus are ever-present.”

—Assistant Professor Ronald Beghetto 

A Role Model to His Students

Perhaps the most meaningful part of the award is that the entire process, from nomination to selection, is completely run by UConn students.

Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society that enlists freshman college students who have shown academic excellence throughout their first semester. The chapter encourages members to nominate a faculty member that has inspired them and impacted their experience at UConn. The executive board, made up of 11 members, reviews each submission. This year, there were 10 nominations for UConn professors with a wide range of teaching specialties, from accounting to thermodynamics.

“Our new members are all freshmen at UConn, so we believe this inspires and encourages them for the future at the school and shows them that there are faculty members available to lead and advise them in their career here at UConn,” says Nicole Davoren, vice president of UConn’s ALD chapter.

“As a future teacher, I could not have asked for a better role model.” Holly Cunningham, a sixth-semester elementary major in the Neag School, who nominated Beghetto for the award.

“I actually learned rather than memorized material, and he taught in such a creative way that come time to take the exam … the material was ingrained in my brain,” Cunningham says. “He made each class entertaining and has a way of keeping students alert and engaged.”

Beghetto says he designs his courses to help students take charge of their own learning and develop their capacity to take on complex and ill-defined educational problems. Students are expected to put their learning to work in developing new ways of thinking when educational challenges arise.

“As a future teacher, I could not have asked for a better role model.”

—Holly Cunningham, sixth-semester elementary
major and Beghetto’s nominator

“Learning about teaching is a special form of learning. You can only learn so much from reading about instructional theories, hearing professors lecture about principles of learning, or observing skilled teachers,” Beghetto says. “Learning about teaching is, in large part, ‘embodied learning.’”

Beghetto translates that embodied learning into a series of classroom simulations called “mini-teaches,” which provide students with a realistic “stress test” for testing out the principles, concepts, and techniques they have learned and developed in the class. In Cunningham’s nomination letter, she mentions that the mini-teaches “pushed the class to step outside of our comfort zones and think on our feet.”

‘Lesson-as-Lived’

Through Beghetto’s teachings and lectures, students come to understand that working in the field of education is not something that can be taught simply through PowerPoint slides, textbooks, and exams; no two days are the same, and even the most well-behaved child can become difficult. Beghetto says he strives to prepare his students to learn how to deal with the unexpected and how to better navigate the gap between the “lesson-as-planned” and the “lesson-as-lived.”

“These surprising moments represent defining moments in the development of one’s teaching identity. They are the moments when you have no idea of what to do next or when you made an instructional decision that you wish you could take back,” he says.

Beghetto’s dedication to ensuring that each student understands the concepts at hand is made evident in his lectures. Beghetto even went so far as to show home movies of his own daughter to teach his class about certain developmental concepts.

“Dr. Beghetto’s classes are the closest thing there is to a ‘how-to guide’ to teaching,” Cunningham says.

As a professor who spends a majority of his time doing research on creativity in educational settings, he also integrates a lot of his own findings and insights from current research projects.

“When the students’ insights and experiences combine with insights and principles drawn from formal research and professional practice, my teaching becomes an opportunity for my students and me to learn from – and with – each other,” Beghetto says.

Dr. Del Siegle, head of the Neag School’s Department of Educational Psychology, notes that Beghetto’s success as a teacher emanates from his passion for excellence and his deep understanding of how individuals learn.

“Ron actively and purposefully infuses his research into his teaching and capitalizes on students’ past experiences to help them reflect on what they believe and how that relates to the content he is covering,” Siegle says. “He is able to make learning fun by making the content relevant and allowing his students to actively engage in the learning process.”

While Beghetto has clearly made an incredible impact on his students in the short amount of time he has been at Neag, the feeling is mutual.

“I share this award with all my students, as I know I have learned as much from them as they have learned from me,” he says.

 

 

 

What Ever Happened to Gillette Castle?

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Gillette Castle is missing. In a new serialized e-book, The Great Connecticut Caper, students can follow the clues to find it.
Gillette Castle is missing. In a new serialized e-book, The Great Connecticut Caper, students can follow the clues to find it.

Students across the state are wondering: what happened to Gillette Castle?

In the real world, the historic mansion built in 1914 by actor William Gillette sits safely atop its perch overlooking the Connecticut River in East Haddam. But in The Great Connecticut Caper – a serialized e-book being released, with help from UConn Libraries, by the nonprofit organization Connecticut Humanities – students must follow the clues to find and recover the national historic landmark.

The mystery story, which incorporates Connecticut historical sites and figures, is being written by 12 Connecticut authors and illustrated by 12 Connecticut artists. It’s also being brought to life by faculty, staff, and students at the state’s public research university.

UConn Libraries’ Digital Scholarship and Data Curation team has been working for months with Middletown-based Connecticut Humanities to create the website for the book, as well as to develop interactive games to accompany it.

In addition, Neag School of Education associate professor Wendy Glenn and a group of Neag students are helping create a curriculum around the book for educators and parents.

Amanda Roy, the program officer at Connecticut Humanities who is spearheading the project, says she came up with the idea after seeing a presentation in Washington, D.C. about The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, a similar e-book published by the Library of Congress’ Center for the Book. Connecticut Humanities runs the Connecticut Center for the Book.

“How do we bring this back and make it uniquely Connecticut?” Roy recalls thinking.

After the results of an online poll dictated which Connecticut landmark would go missing in the book, the volunteer collective of authors and illustrators was let loose with a broad mission: write a story for children aged 8-12 in which Gillette Castle disappears, based only on what’s contained in the previous chapters.

CTCaper-poster-final-e1421246212506Roy says that perhaps the most exciting thing about the project is the collaborations it has facilitated, including those between UConn and her organization.

“UConn Libraries have been a great team to brainstorm with. We started from scratch with this idea that didn’t have any meat to it, really,” she says. “It was nice that we could brainstorm and think about ways to get students and families to interact with each other and read this story.”

A springboard for learning

The website features games, puzzles, and other interactive components that teach readers more about the story and its setting, characters, and plot.

Roy, Glenn, and the Neag students are creating a curriculum to accompany each chapter, which includes activities, vocabulary words, and discussion questions to enrich the story.

For the UConn students, this project provides a different experience than the typical education coursework and internships, according to Glenn, an associate professor of English education.

“It’s a great opportunity for the students and me to work together in a different capacity, in more of a professional capacity than a teacher-student capacity,” she says.

Working on the curriculum with others will also prepare the
students for the evolving landscape of the education world, Glenn adds.

“As schools are changing as institutions, more and more teachers are asked to work together, and I don’t know that teacher education programs do a great job of helping students develop those co-planning skills,” she says. “I think this will help them gain that knowledge.”

Kara Wojick ’14 (ED), ’15 MA recently started working with Roy on the curriculum as an intern. Wojick, who majored in secondary English education as an undergraduate, said the internship is a valuable supplement to her education.

She says the Connecticut Humanities job has given her an opportunity to continue the creative process of lesson planning for a variety of grade levels, and the activities she is coming up with are applicable to many different novels. The work is also exposing her to many state historical landmarks and nonprofit organizations she didn’t previously know about.

Gillette Castle in East Haddam was selected by online poll as the Connecticut landmark that would go missing.
Gillette Castle in East Haddam was selected by online poll as the Connecticut landmark that would go missing.

“These are resources I can, ideally, use in my own classroom next year,” Wojick says.

The lessons, with built-in connections to Common Core concepts, encourage exploration of everything from the types of literary devices used in the story to its Connecticut cultural references, Roy says. Those references also provide opportunities to involve other Connecticut organizations in the project.

For example, in the first chapter (online now), a tour guide on the Becky Thatcher riverboat discusses the Connecticut River Watershed. Not only does this give teachers a chance to teach students about watersheds, it has also enabled a partnership with the Connecticut River Watershed Council to promote their work.

The power of literature

The primary objective of The Great Connecticut Caper is two-fold, according to Roy.

“The main goal is to get kids excited about reading. But we also want to get them excited about their cultural heritage here in Connecticut, connecting them with their state,” she says. “We may have readers beyond the state, but for students in Connecticut – how great would it be for them to go with their family and friends to see this landmark they read about?”

Glenn, an expert in young adult literature, says the project exemplifies the power of books – regardless of the intended age group.

“[It’s] the recognition that literature has the power to help kids make connections across content areas and to find engagement in their community,” she says. “I think that transcends any audience.”

Chapter two of The Great Connecticut Caper, which is funded by the NewAlliance Foundation, will be released on Jan. 18 at ctcaper.cthumanities.org. New chapters come out every two weeks.

A launch party for parents and educators, featuring workshops with some of the e-book’s authors and illustrators, was held at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven on Jan. 28.

Passion for Art May Thwart Pursuits of the Heart

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Photo credit: A couple dancing the tango. A UConn study has found that couples who share creative pursuits are more likely to enjoy longer relationships, but solo pursuits may keep them single. (Think stock Photo)
Photo credit: A couple dancing the tango. A UConn study has found that couples who share creative pursuits are more likely to enjoy longer relationships, but solo pursuits may keep them single. (Think stock Photo)

Being creative can be sexy in any relationship, but how you apply your creativity can influence how long a relationship lasts.

In two recent studies that looked at the intersection between creativity, personality, and relationships, UConn professor James C. Kaufman and colleagues found that people who immerse themselves in purely artistic pursuits – such as writing the next great novel, composing an opera, or painting a brilliant landscape – are more apt to be single and experience short-term relationships.

On the other hand, individuals who share their creativity regularly in their everyday lives – such as taking a ballroom dancing class with their partner or surprising their mate with a new dish for dinner – are more likely to enjoy longer, committed partnerships.

“There is some evidence that artistic creativity is linked to short-term mating success,” says Kaufman, an internationally recognized leader in the field of creativity. “And that makes sense. Artistic creativity is a way to display, a way to entice people. But if you look at what endures, it’s not something you put on to impress people or a passion that consumes your life; it’s the kind of creativity you can share with your significant other.”

Kaufman, a professor of educational psychology in UConn’s Neag School of Education, says the findings – which appear in the Journal of Family Issues and the Journal of Creative Behavior – weren’t what he expected.

“I was a little surprised,” Kaufman says. “I was assuming that creative people would be better in love regardless. I tend to see creativity linked to generally positive outcomes. But sometimes it is not.”

The findings are based on the results of two scientific surveys that gathered information about participants’ relationships and personalities as well as their own self-assessment of their creative pursuits. One survey sample involved more than 1,500 participants; the other, more than 700.

The findings are not applicable to everyone, of course. Kaufman notes that for every artist who lives or lived alone embracing their craft (think Emily Dickinson, Vincent Van Gogh, Harper Lee, and Quentin Tarantino) there is a happily married individual who has found success in their chosen field (we’re looking at you Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mark Twain, Meryl Streep, and Paul Newman).

Still, Kaufman believes the findings provide important insight into the role of creativity in relationships and says the studies may be helpful to individuals, counselors, and others seeking to understand the dynamics behind strong interpersonal relationships. “A lot of creativity is what you make of it,” Kaufman says. “Creativity is not inherently good. It is not inherently bad; it’s an ability, like intelligence.”

Individuals who focus largely on artistic pursuits may do so for a variety of reasons, Kaufman says.

“There are a couple of reasons why people who are artistically creative have negative associations with long-term relationships,” Kaufman says. “They may have other negative attributes such as high anxiety, anti-social behavior, or mental illness. I don’t like that explanation as much as others but it’s certainly a possibility.

“The other possibility is that the arts can be a source of meaning in your life,” Kaufman continues. “The arts can fulfill your life in a way that is very personal and profound; it can be a way of having your passions met without another person.”

Kelly Campbell, an expert in love and relationships from California State University at San Bernardino, collaborated with Kaufman on one of the studies. An associate professor of psychology, Campbell says those that engage in daily creativity in their relationships keep the passion alive.

“Doing creative things with and for your partner benefits the relationship,” Campbell says. “In order for relationships to thrive, partners need both predictability and newness. That is, they need to feel safe and secure, which comes from stable, predictable interactions, and in order to keep the passion alive, they need spontaneity and novel activities.”

For Kaufman, it all comes down to a matter of choice.

“It’s not that single people are naturally better at art or that artistic people repel everyone around them,” says Kaufman. “It’s much more of a choice as to how we spend our time. It’s a Faustian bargain. If you choose to pursue only your creative artistic passion, there are going to be costs. I have a friend who is a movie director who has made a conscious choice that he is going to be alone and just spend his life doing that. He’s been successful, but some would say at a cost.

“On the other hand, there are ways to make creativity conducive to a long-term relationship,” Kaufman continues. “If you want a spouse and kids, then find a way to share your artistic creativity or have it be a hobby. Your family comes first, your art comes second. You just need to be aware and make those decisions consciously. ”

 

Neag Professors, Grads Take Part in White House Summit to Lead School Counseling Policy Change

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Team Connecticut, including Neag faculty and students, along with other school counselors, attending the school counselor summit meeting at San Diego State University.
Team Connecticut, including Neag faculty and students, along with other school counselors, attending the meeting at San Diego State University.

When the White House organized the nation’s first-ever summit focused on improving school counseling and college advising last year, experts from UConn’s Neag School of Education were among those invited to speak and share ideas as recognized leaders.

Headed by Neag Counseling Program Associate Professor Rachelle Pérusse, the Connecticut team of seven – including partners from the Connecticut College Access and Success Program and national ECMC Foundation – presented strategies currently being used in Connecticut to increase the overall number of students attending postsecondary schools, with a particular focus on students of color who would be the first in their families to earn a college degree.

“No data is bad data, and whatever we discover about our efforts will only serve to improve school counseling services, which we are thrilled to have finally come into the spotlight.” —Associate Professor Rachelle Pérusse

These tactics include adding additional equity-based college and career readiness education to the Neag School’s master’s-level school counseling curriculum; providing Neag counseling students and working school counselors with the proven college-awareness and preparation training evaluated by educators at the University of California at Berkeley; and establishing a data-driven system to measure the process, content, and outcome of these efforts.

“No data is bad data, and whatever we discover about our efforts will only serve to improve school counseling services, which we are thrilled to have finally come into the spotlight,” Pérusse says. “The invitation to the summit led to us putting together this team, and creating partnerships, which is exciting. Without the team, all of us involved would be working passionately on our own to improve school counseling and college readiness,” she continues. “But as a team, our power and vision is so much larger, and our resources so much stronger. Together, we’ll be able to better connect the dots to reach all those involved in getting kids ready for college or a career, which includes not just the student, but parents, teachers, extended family members, and community members.”

Support for School Counselors

Held in partnership with the White House’s College Opportunity Agenda and the First Lady’s Reach Higher Initiative, the November summit was designed to be the first of a series of discussions leading to new national and state policies about school counseling. First lady Michelle Obama attended via videoconference, stating that “if we truly want to help young people reach their college dreams, we need to support our school counselors.”

Those words delighted UConn team member and graduated Neag doctoral student Jennifer Parzych, who said the importance of school counselors is often overlooked.

“What many don’t realize is that postsecondary readiness – meaning the student is prepared after high school to attend a four-year college, community college, or technical school – really begins in kindergarten, because it’s not just about a young person getting good grades,” says Parzych, who also serves as president of the Connecticut School Counselor Association. “It’s about a young person believing he or she is capable to go to college, that they have needed resources, that their parents are involved and encouraging their child to continue their education, and that all are aware of available options.”

Connecticut Department of Education consultant Kimberly Traverso, also a member of the team, says she’s excited about UConn’s plans to expand a three-credit, equity-based college and career readiness course for school counselors: “I think the talent acquisition of our Connecticut task force is very diverse, which is a critical ingredient for maximizing system efficiency and leadership. Strengthening partnerships between universities and school districts will build a sustainable infrastructure that includes collaboration across internal and external boundaries. More than ever, school counselors have the opportunity to impact student outcomes, reduce barriers, and create equitable options.”

How Counselors Can Help

While the recommended national average is one counselor for every 250 students, the ratio in some Connecticut elementary schools is one counselor for every 1,000 students.

“The good news is that Connecticut high schools are pretty much aligned to the national ratio,” Traverso says. “In some districts, counselors are at the forefront. But in others, where counselors’ significance hasn’t yet been recognized, students may not maximize their potential.

“One of the goals of our team is to educate districts about how counselors can improve attendance, behavior, and achievement, starting as young as elementary school. When this occurs, everyone is not trying to play catch-up in high school.”

There’s a great deal of information to share with districts, Pérusse says, including the White House-backed Reach Higher Initiative that, like the focus on school counselors, is geared to inspire students to continue their education past high school.

Other Connecticut team partners working toward this end include Mark Danaher, president of the National Career Development Association; Holly Franquet, director of The College Place in Connecticut; March Kessler, executive director of the ECMC Foundation; Erik Hines, assistant professor in school counseling at the Neag School; and Neag alum Vanessa Montorsi ’04 MA, school counseling department head at Cheshire (Conn.) High School, and a semifinalist in the first-ever School Counselor of the Year Award, presented in January by Mrs. Obama.

“All of us involved are committed to making a difference for children, particularly for those who face obstacles related to poverty, ethnicity, and first-generation students,” says Pérusse. “When I teach, I tell my graduate students: ‘As a school counselor, you must be passionate about school counseling and being a force for equity and change.’”