Belval in the KSI offices, taking a quick break. (Source: Shawn Kornegay)
While New Year’s may seem like a distant past due to the now busy, shuffling life of the semester, an important part of New Year’s is still relevant. New Year’s resolutions are at or near their tipping point. The most common resolutions, involving weight loss or improving fitness, fall slave to the same trend every year. By February, individuals have either succeeded or failed to make a “new year” a “new you.”
Many of the reasons for failed resolutions are not linked to motivation. With unrealistic goals impossible fitness and diet plans, many individuals set themselves up for failure – sometimes by being overzealous. Therefore, here are some tips to either keep you motivated and on the right track or to give that New Year’s resolution another shot.
When it comes to goal setting, everyone likes to imagine how much better they would look 10, 20 or 30 pounds lighter – without giving much thought to how they will get from Point A to Point B. While the visualization is a great motivation tool, setting realistic goals and developing incentives is key. By picking out an item of clothing that you would like to fit into on your way to your ultimate goal, you can begin to see changes on a physical scale – which can be more rewarding than seeing it on the scale on your bathroom floor.
While “The Biggest Loser” may be all about the extreme weight loss, this is impractical and difficult for the average person. One pound per week is a very realistic goal for the majority of individuals. This weight loss alone takes discipline and lifestyle changes. Remember that one pound of fat loss is equivalent to 3500 calories. So, to make things easy, some combination of eating less and exercising more is necessary to cut 500 calories a day each day of the week. For reference, 500 calories is about two slices of pizza or about an hour of running.
Another key principle to maintaining fitness goals is to make lifestyle changes rather than following fads. By making eating healthy and exercising more a true sustainable daily habit you can ensure that you will not fall victim to the lack of variety that comes with many diet trends. There is no rule that states you can only lose weight through one exercise or that you must eat the same meals everyday. In fact, that is a sure-fire way to end up gaining back the weight you lost. Instead, it is important to understand the healthy choices you can make in variety of circumstances that will lead you to success. When you are sitting down for a meal, it can often be easier to think about what food is healthier than worrying about the exact amount of calories.
While excitement inevitably comes with any plan to become healthier, it’s also easy to get overwhelmed. If and when this happens, start small. By making one small change every day for a week, you will see a drastic change over the course of seven days. It takes about 21 days for a new habit to truly set in, so don’t give up too soon and you may begin next year with new resolutions.
Luke Belval, an undergraduate student in the Neag School of Education’s kinesiology program, is a campus correspondent with The Daily Campus. Belval is also director of special projects with the Korey Stringer Institute, which is part of the Neag School of Education.
Published with permission from The Daily Campus. 2014
First-year teachers gathered before the class began. Pictured: (back row) James Dinnan, Jeffrey Russell, Marissa Boucher; (front row) Shannon Bostiga, Kelly Soule, Arianna Aquilinoa, Meloney Bailey.
“Take good notes in class during your last year at Neag. They will not only be helpful for you, but for your team members and colleagues when you start teaching,” advised Arianna Aquilino, a fifth-grade teacher at West Woods Upper Elementary School in Farmington. She was speaking to 60 students who will graduate from the Neag School of Education’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Teacher Education Program in May 2014.
Aquilino was one of seven recent Neag alumni who returned to Dr. Richard Schwab’s Teacher Leadership and Organization course to take the podium and share their first-year teaching experiences.
The event marked the third year Schwab, UConn’s Raymond Neag Endowed Professor of Educational Leadership, has invited former students back to campus.
“When my students graduate, I remind them I’ll be asking them back to talk with the next cohort of new teachers,” said Schwab, also Dean Emeritus. “Every time I do this, I enjoy watching alumni and current students laugh and learn together. The advice alumni give is always helpful, and they learn a great deal from reflecting on their first-year experiences.”
Kelly Soule (pictured in the middle) provided insight for the current students. Also pictured are Arianna Aquilinoa and Jeffrey Russell.
Job hunting and job interviewing tips were the two areas current Neag students were most interested in learning about. Each alumnus shared advice, which included the importance of attending career fairs, rehearsing for interviews, building a portfolio, and utilizing Neag connections.
“When you prepare answers for the interview, don’t forget to also prepare questions about the school. It shows how prepared and serious you are about the opportunity,” said James Dinnan, now teaching social studies at Farmington High School.
“And be prepared for anything,” he added, noting that the part-time position he was hired for turned into a full-time one on his first day of work.
Marissa Boucher, currently teaching seventh-grade mathematics at Ellington Middle School, shared what she did after getting a job offer: “If you have an opportunity, try to observe other teachers or substitute at the school before you officially start working there. It helped me to be better prepared with the school’s routines and get to know staff before the new school year started.”
Ranked as one of the top teacher preparation programs in the United States, the Neag School’s five-year Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s (IB/M) program provides students with both extensive classroom learning and intensive field experience. Students are admitted to the program as juniors after a competitive admissions process.
The IB/M program is a rigorous, well-planned program designed to provide students an optimum combination of experiences in which they can build content area knowledge, knowledge of teaching and learning, and the practical knowledge required to be a successful and effective teacher for all students.
Once admitted to the IB/M program, students generally complete two years of subject area major studies and professional education in teacher education leading to a Bachelor’s degree in education. The undergraduate years are followed by one year of graduate level professional education leading to a Master’s degree in education. Completion of all program requirements results in the recommendation for certification as a teacher in the State of Connecticut.
“I was so nervous to start my first year of teaching, but the program prepared me in more ways than I thought,” Aquilino recalled. “Just having all the background knowledge of classroom management and lesson planning was so helpful.”
Meloney Bailey, a fifth- and sixth-grade social studies teacher at Jumoke Academy at the Hartford Conservatory, also assured the soon-to-be teachers: “The program has equipped you with all the tools you need to be successful. Just make sure you utilize those tools. They may be time consuming at times, but will definitely alleviate a lot of stress.”
The visiting grads also agreed that the Neag School had prepared them well for the significant changes to education that came with the start of this new school year, including the implementation of the new Common Core State Standards. “The knowledge we gained at the Neag School made me less apprehensive about issues than some veterans,” Boucher said.
All alumni agreed, however, that being a first-year teacher is a challenge. “The field experience I received in college was essential, because classes can only prepare you so much,” said Shannon Bostiga, a fifth-grade teacher at Windermere Intermediate School in Ellington. “There are so many things I encountered that I would never had been prepared for without the Neag School.”
Managing time effectively, staying organized and prioritizing tasks were among the greatest challenges discussed by alumni. “The most challenging thing about the first year of teaching is finding time to do everything. Sometimes I wish there was an extra hour in the day to get everything done,” Bailey added.
Dr. Michelle Femc-Bagwell, who co-teaches with Schwab, had some advice for both the upcoming graduates and alumni: “Try to shadow other teachers and observe their work routines. There is never a best routine out there, but you can apply what’s best for you and your kids by taking a little from everyone.” A former public school educator and middle school principal, Femc-Bagwell also encouraged them to always seek help. “You will be surprised how people are more than willing to help,” she added.
Dr. Richard Schwab emphasized important tips for the graduating Neag students.
Reflecting on the almost three-hour experience, Schwab said: “I hope all my students can model support, not only for each other in class, but also carry that into their teaching careers in the future.”
Nicole LaPierre ’11 (ED), ’12 MA, works with students in a classroom during her student teaching practice. Pierre is now an elementary teacher at Cider Hill School in Wilton, Conn. (Paul Horton for UConn)
A recent report by UConn education researchers on Connecticut’s new System for Educator Evaluation and Development (SEED) has the potential to impact every public school student in the state.
“Teachers have been identified as the No. 1 school-level influence on students’ achievement,” says Morgaen Donaldson, assistant professor of educational leadership in the Neag School of Education. “That means for students to score high and reach their full potential, teachers need to score high and work to reach their full potential. So for parents, grandparents, and anyone connected with a child, our work evaluating the SEED program is helping ensure students get the high-quality teachers they need to succeed.”
Mandated by the state General Assembly as part of aggressive legislation passed in 2012 to improve the quality of state schools and raise student achievement scores, the study was conducted by Donaldson and six other researchers from the Neag School’s Center for Education Policy Analysis. Among other results, it concludes that with additional administrative support and better-executed implementation, the SEED model has the potential for “even greater gains.”
Although teacher unions have criticized SEED for basing close to half of a teacher’s performance evaluation on their students’ performance, data gathered from the 14 school districts piloting the evaluation system during 2012-13 show that changes in mindset and practice are essential to the kind of teacher growth and improvement SEED was designed to achieve. These changes include:
Teachers spending more time on self-assessment and goal-setting;
Teachers more carefully considering how to best meet the individual needs and challenges of current students;
Principals and other administrators conducting more frequent classroom visits to observe teachers at work.
More than half of participating teachers and administrators rated their post-observation conferences to be “valuable” or “very valuable.” For both groups, however, the time needed to prepare and take part in rigorous observations, develop lesson plans tailored to individual students, and fulfill other SEED requirements was an issue. In addition, the time and funds required for much-needed professional development were cited in the report as an ongoing challenge.
Improvements recommended by Neag researchers include increased opportunities for teachers to learn about SEED; programs to build the skills and abilities of teacher evaluators; help with teacher goals setting; and a system for the state to continue to track and improve the program.
Additional resources needed
“I think it’s clear from our report that most districts will need added resources to carry out SEED, because even in districts with significant resources, teachers and administrators can be spread thin,” says Donaldson. “But the fact that behaviors were changing because of SEED is small but important evidence that shows what SEED can do. It’s going to be hard for educators to perform all that SEED expects without the necessary resources. But if those resources are made available, the impact on K-12 students can be huge. Better teacher performance will mean better student performance.”
While responses to the Neag researchers’ findings from education officials like American Federation of Teachers Connecticut President Melodie Peters have been cautiously neutral, Bridgeport Education Association President Gary Peluchette told the Connecticut Post his concern is that SEED focuses more on “chasing a test score than best practices.”
However, Connecticut Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor told the Hartford Courant that the Neag report gives “added confidence that the system has the potential to improve instruction for our students, and that the state can make implementation even better through continued and improved supports provided to teachers, schools, and districts. The fact that Neag researchers find there is potential for this system to lead to improvement in both teacher practice and student learning is profoundly important.”
Although many school districts are still figuring out how best to implement it, the SEED model went statewide at the start of the 2013-14 school year. Its process calls for teachers to be rated on a four-step scale as “exemplary,” “proficient,” “developing,” or “below standard.” In the pilot districts, 73 percent of teachers met criteria for “proficient” and 23 percent for “exemplary.”
The fact that Connecticut now has consistent, statewide evaluation standards for all public school teachers is one of the model’s biggest pluses, Donaldson says: “Between SEED and the introduction of the Common Core [State Standards], our school systems are going through huge, unprecedented changes. But if carried out well, the result of these ambitious reforms could be young people who are better educated and more skilled, and that really could make a difference in the future of our state, country, and world.”
Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis ’05 (ED), ’06 MA founded Classes4Classes, a nonprofit organization focused on teaching kindness to students nationwide, earlier this year. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)
Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis ’05 (ED), ’06 MA always felt that teaching kindness was a critical lesson for her young students – perhaps no more so than in the wake of the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of six of her colleagues and 20 Sandy Hook students last December.
As countless gifts and messages of compassion poured into the school and uplifted her first-graders in the months that followed, the UConn alum sought a way to teach her students how to pay that kindness forward. “Eventually I just realized that when you get, you have to give,” Roig-DeBellis says.
Launching a nonprofit called Classes 4 Classes earlier this year, Roig-DeBellis has made the act of giving an engaging, tangible experience in her own classroom, as well as in many other classrooms nationwide. The organization, whose mission is to teach every child in America to have an interest in the well-being of others, invites K-5 teachers and their students to become sponsors for other K-5 classrooms elsewhere in the country – for instance, by helping to raise funds for the purchase of much-needed school supplies, a field trip, or a guest speaker for a classroom in need.
“It’s so important, especially for younger students, to have a genuine experience in learning to be caring, kind, compassionate, empathetic,” Roig-DeBellis says. “As teachers, we’re so busy with curriculum and all the major subject areas – which are so important – but there is still such a gap in how kids treat one another.”
Classes 4 Classes begins to address that gap, offering students the opportunity to experience firsthand the joy of giving, while involving the larger community.
“A lot of people say, ‘I’m not a teacher or parent,’ or ‘I have no involvement with schools,’” says Roig-DeBellis. “But this program is also about the people who are helping to make it happen – whether it’s monetarily or by spreading the word. Every person can be a part of it.”
To view a video about Kaitlin and to learn more about her story, click here.
To learn more, donate, or find ways to get involved, visit classes4classes.org. To contribute to UConn’s Sandy Hook Memorial Scholarship Fund, visit s.uconn.edu/sandyhook.
This article was first published in the Fall 2013 edition of UConn Magazine. To see more videos and stories like these, download UConn Magazine‘s free interactive app for tablet devices.
Jae-Eun Joo conducts an instructional session on iPads for the Coventry School District. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School/UConn)
The Coventry Public Schools and the Neag School of Education have joined forces to discover new ways to integrate iPad technology into classroom learning, as well as to use their partnership to plan, implement, and assess both the process and the emerging impacts of this new area of technology integration.
Heading the collaboration is Neag Director of Online Programs Jae-Eun Joo, who has been working with Coventry school leaders and teachers since May as part of the Coventry school system’s $50,000 Technology in the Classroom initiative, which included providing iPads to 200 students at the start of this school year.
The possibility of this partnership was realized last Spring, when Coventry school teachers attended Joo’s presentations at the Neag School’s 2nd annual “Teaching and Learning with iPad Conference,” that Professor Del Siegle has started in 2012.
Pictured L-R: Michele Mullaly, principal with Coventry High School; David Petrone, superintendent with Coventry School District; and Stephen Merlino, assistant principal with Coventry High School.
“To be successful after high school, students need to be familiar with new technology and have the skill set needed to express themselves digitally,” said Coventry Schools Superintendent David Petrone, a Neag alumnus. “We’re excited by the many opportunities working with Dr. Joo and the Neag School of Education will bring.”
Equally excited is Joo, who in addition to using her extensive expertise to develop creative ways to “fuse technology and pedagogy” to more effectively engage students, and convey needed content, will use data collected during the partnership as the basis for “a Systemic Inquiry into the Potential of iPad for Teaching and Learning”—a research study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating iPads into traditional classroom curricula. From December, Joo will closely collaborate with a group of seventh and eighth grade social studies teachers to examine and identify content areas for strategic integration of iPad into teaching and learning.
The partnership will also provide learning opportunities for UConn students, including Jake Sippel, a senior student who thanks to the UConn’s IDEA Grant program for undergraduates and has played a key role in the collaboration. Overseen by Joo, Sippel has conducted a series of workshops for Coventry leaders and teachers on the creative classroom use of iPads. He also plans to create a set of iPad e-manuals for K-12 educators and create a short documentary film on this partnership that both other educators and Neag students can learn from.
“The flexibility of the leadership group at Coventry is very cutting edge,” said Joo, reflecting on the collaboration thus far. “The leaders and teachers are willing to get together on their own time, share their learning experiences, get creative on the possibilities of what they can do with the iPad and then try out their ideas in class.”
David Petrone (pictured on the left) discusses classroom technology with UConn student and assistant for the program, Jake Sippel.
Joo and Sippel began instructing Coventry teachers this summer, providing professional development workshops that introduced them to already widely used education and productivity apps, such as Educreation, iBooks Author, Evernote, neu.Annotate and Nearpod. One of the main goals of the sessions was to help familiarize teachers with what for some can be intimidating technology.
Joo also used the workshops as an opportunity to better understand the Coventry district’s instructional priorities, which would allow her to best “create a professional learning community that caters to their educational goals.” What she decided on was a “bottom up” approach that will take all involved—teachers, students and family alike—through a process that shows why and how an iPad can help improve learning before it becomes part of the curriculum.
Her correlating research study will evaluate the process’ effectiveness, examining (among other aspects) student engagement, classroom collaboration and teachers’ use of technology before, during and after the iPad use.
“We’ve put a lot of thinking behind our design and every decision we’ve made in the collaboration.” said Joo, who also serves as an associate professor in-residence in the Neag School’s Cognition, Instruction, and Learning Technologies program.
Petrone said he couldn’t be more excited about the partnership: “The collaboration will greatly benefit our district. It puts students at the center of learning by challenging them with real-life situations and problem solving, and then giving them innovative technology to work collaboratively, and communicate effectively, with their peers to find creative solutions.”
“The added benefit, that’s also exciting, is we’ll be helping further research and providing our teachers with leading-edge professional development,” he continued.
Joo hopes that during the course of the collaboration, she’ll be able to involve additional UConn students, expanding and enhancing the learning experience even more.
“Emerging technology can provide creative educational possibilities,” Joo said.
Mary Beth Bruder, director of the A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Research, demonstrates one of the techniques she would use to diagnose an autistic child. (Shawn Kornegay/UConn Photo)
As the number of children with autism increases nationwide, the need for effective and consistent clinical diagnosis is growing. A statewide committee recently published new guidelines designed to ensure health professionals, educators, parents, and all involved in diagnosing a child with autism are using proven and consistent practices.
The guidelines stress, among other things, that effective autism diagnosis and treatment requires a collaborative approach.
Mary Beth Bruder, a professor in UConn’s Neag School of Education and in the UConn School of Medicine, was co-chair of the committee, which spent four years developing the “Connecticut Guidelines for a Clinical Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
“Diagnosing autism doesn’t require a snapshot, it requires a comprehensive, interdisciplinary look at the child,” says Bruder, who heads a doctoral program in early childhood intervention in the Department of Educational Psychology and is director of UConn’s A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Research, Education, and Service. “Physicians, educators, social workers, and speech pathologists are among the many professionals that should be involved in first the diagnosis, and then the treatment of a child with autism. A complete picture is required. And parents play a crucial role.”
Laura Kern, a third-year doctoral student in educational psychology at the Neag School, is both the mother of a 9-year-old son with autism and one of the parents involved in providing the data and insights needed to craft the new guidelines. She says one of the things she learned during her son’s diagnosis is that as many as 51 percent of parents report dissatisfaction at the lack of continuity in the process. The new Connecticut guidelines provide a step-by-step, interdisciplinary guide.
“The guidelines address parents’ concerns in a systematic way, and if you approach a diagnosis systematically, you’re more likely to reach needed services and early interventions more effectively and efficiently,” Kern says. “It was incredible to be part of the process of creating the guidelines, and to see so many different state agencies, parents, and professionals come together to create a united message about what a good diagnosis should look like.”
Funded with an $86,000 grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the guidelines are the result of a collaboration among members of the Connecticut Act Early Project, a partnership that includes experts from a wide range of leading childhood health and disabilities agencies, including the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
Bruder says Act Early Connecticut is now pursing the funding needed to educate and train all state professionals involved in autism diagnoses on the best practices included in the guidelines.
The rising number of children with autism makes this extremely important work, she notes.
The CDC estimates that as many as 1 in 88 children have a form of autism, which can range from mildly impaired social skills to severe cognitive and behavioral problems. This statistic, released in 2012, represents a 23 percent increase from data collected in 2009, and illustrates well the growing and urgent need for effective diagnosis, Bruder says.
“Scientists are working very hard to determine why this increase is happening,” she adds, “but essential to the process is consistency in how these diagnoses are being made. Autism affects every aspect of a child’s life, so it only makes sense to have people from each of those areas involved in realizing the positive outcomes that can come from appropriate and early interventions.”
Jim O’Neil (on the left) gathers with two of the co-authors Bryce Crasper (Neag doctoral student) and Sara Renzulli (Neag alumnus). (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay Neag/UConn)
A special section of articles put together by Neag School of Education Educational Psychology Professor James O’Neil, PhD, is a call to action for more colleges and universities to offer courses on “Teaching the Psychology of Men”—an emerging, but often controversial, discipline.
Published in the July issue of the Psychology of Men and Masculinity, the seven articles focus on the content and process of teaching courses in the field. It’s an area slowly, but steadily, being recognized as increasingly important in psychology and education, though not fast enough for O’Neil. He began the process of creating this new teaching discipline in psychology 10 years ago by inviting three colleagues to join an American Psychological Association (APA) Committee on Teaching the Psychology of Men.
“Classes on women’s issues and the psychology of women have existed since the 1970s, but it’s not just women who are complex and face challenges and problems with gender roles,” O’Neil said. “Boys and men struggle with gender role issues that are related to social and emotional issues that touch all areas of their lives—home, school and the workplace.”
Understanding the psychology of boys and men is also critically relevant to being an educator, yet one of least developed areas of teacher education, O’Neil said, adding that he believes this deficit will change in coming decades.
“Too many men and boys are walking around masked, hiding their worries, confusion and pain, but these tend to not always be the most popular ideas,” explained O’Neil, who developed UConn’s first class in the discipline in 1990.
At the time, no more than a handful of classes like his “The Psychology of Men and Boys In Education” were being taught in the U.S. Today, O’Neil offers three courses on the psychology of men through the Neag School’s Department of Educational Psychology, as well as oversees what most consider the nation’s leading research program in the psychology of men.
This growth of courses at UConn is something that inspires O’Neil, but his goal is to see it occur nationwide. Currently, just 61 U.S. colleges offer psychology of men classes.
“That’s a problem that needs attention,” O’Neil said.
The complexity of developing curricula and resistance to the topic are among the reasons for the deficit, O’Neil believes. Articles in the special section are meant to help combat these and other challenges. Their authors include top leaders in the field, who in addition to O’Neil include Christopher Kilmartin from the University of Mary Washington, Michael Addis from Clark University, James Mahalik from Boston College, Joan Chrisler from Connecticut College and John Robertson, a private clinician in Lawrence, Kan.
However, another reason for the deficit, O’Neil said, is gender politics and denial: “The idea that there might be sexism against boys and men? To many, those are controversial words. The idea that boys and men might be vulnerable—that we might have to rethink gender roles—is threatening to the patriarchal status quo.”
Other articles in the special section provide a national survey on professors’ attitudes about teaching the psychology of men and examine its complexities and challenges. Among those writing about its need and implications are three graduate students: UConn Educational Psychology doctoral student and Eastern Connecticut State University counselor Bryce Crapser, University of Utah Counseling Psychology doctoral student William Elder, and recently graduated UConn Educational Psychology doctoral student Sara Renzulli.
“Course content in the psychology of men is unique, but I think it is the method used by its instructors that make it truly extraordinary,” Elder said. “I’ve found most instructors teach the subject from a psychoeducational perspective and prioritize students’ desire to clarify and deepen their of understanding of men. In the end, the success of the course is gauged on the quality of the students’ engagement.”
O’Neil believes the future of teaching the psychology of men lies with those entering higher education as professors. “I wanted my doctoral students involved in the research on teaching the psychology of men. Bryce, Sara and William all made significant contributions to the special section, and we had a good time with process. Most of my colleagues would agree, involving students in our research is what the Neag School of Education is really about.”
Renzulli, who co-authored two articles in the special section and served as a co-editor, called the experience “transformative.”
“The most essential lesson I learned during this multi-year project was that if you are passionate about a subject, and have the skills and drive to follow through on the work, you can perform and complete research that will benefit the field,” said Renzulli, who works as an academic advisor in UConn’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “I believe all of us involved in the special issue made an important contribution to the field of psychology of men.”
Crapser shared similar sentiments: “Building and teaching a psychology of men course was a professional and personal challenge that brought new meaning to my work as a clinician and instructor. With the efforts of Jim, Sara, Will and the other incredible professionals, I hope we are working toward a more healthy and productive approach to teaching about, and living in, our gendered world.”
Today, the psychology of men consists of approximately 700 researchers, professors and practitioners from across the country, including 125 women, O’Neil noted. All are members of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity, a division of the APA O’Neil founded with a small group of psychologists in 1995.
To help educators preparing psychology of men classes, O’Neil and Renzulli created a teaching resource web page that includes texts, sample syllabi, videos, networking support and guidance on course preparation and implementation.
In July 2014, the APA will publish O’Neil’s latest book, The Psychology of Men and Contextual Paradigms of Gender Role Conflict: Theory, Research, Clinical Practice, and Expanded Services for Men. The work summarizes his 35 years of research on men’s gender role conflict and includes a review of the 325 studies that have used his Gender Role Conflict Scale.
“Another reason this discipline is so critical is that it’s committed to men’s diversity and multiculturalism, the oppressed in society and social justice,” O’Neil added. “It’s up to us in higher education to do research and teach courses and then public understanding and need for action will increase.
“There is resistance when you begin to talk about masculinity and gender role issues,” he continued. “We’re saying that superficial beliefs like ‘boys will be boys’ make no sense; that men and boys have social and psychological issues that need to be recognized and addressed, and that we in higher education are responsible for paving the way.”
Felice Duffy ’82 (CLAS), ’86 ED, ’91 Ph.D. (left) and Laura Hyer, former director of the Stop Handgun Violence Org in Boston, at the Yale 4PEACE Rap for Justice.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Felice Duffy ’82 (CLAS), ’86 ED, ’91 Ph.D., who has found her way from a UConn soccer field to a federal courtroom, says prosecuting criminals is like playing team sports.
Ethics and integrity must be present in both, she points out. In court and on the field, prosecutors and athletes alike must perform well without breaking rules. Both need to prepare for their challenge but also must react quickly to the unexpected. And a referee/judge is there to help them play by the rules.
“My job is very much like athletics to me when I’m in court,” Felice says. “You have to be mentally agile. You’re on, it’s important, and in both you want to win. In my job as a prosecutor, however, the desired result is not a winning score; rather, it’s the implementation of justice.”
A women’s soccer pioneer in her college days, Felice is a criminal federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in New Haven. She spent her first year prosecuting gun and drug trafficking violations and has since transitioned to major crimes and national security.
Felice is also active in crime prevention and helping former prisoners avoid reincarceration. She works with various community groups to inform and educate. The focus of her recent outreach efforts has been helping women avoid involvement in crimes committed by their husbands or boyfriends, and she was part of a group that created a 30-minute docudrama on the subject.
Filmed in a New Haven neighborhood, the docudrama features a scenario in which a woman helps a man she loves cover up a shooting. More than 100 young people auditioned for a role in the film, which also features federal judges and prosecutors.
The film is being shown at schools, detention centers, and various community venues. “The goal is to raise awareness and bring these issues into the forefront,” she explains. “It’s very feel-good work when you can make a positive impact on someone’s life.”
Felice made a positive impact starting with her time at UConn, where she filed a Title IX gender discrimination complaint which led the University to form a women’s soccer team in 1979 that has become a national contender. She was named All-American in her senior year and has been inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame.
After UConn, Felice played soccer on a national level, coached women’s soccer at Yale University, and graduated first in her class at Quinnipiac University’s law school. “I’ve always been a civil rights activist,” she says. “At UConn, everyone would tell me I should be a lawyer because I liked to argue. What I do now, as an advocate for a safer and fairer society, is extremely fulfilling.”
Caitlin Fisher, founder of the Guerreiras Project, shares her experiences with sport management students.
Ethnographer and former professional women’s soccer player Caitlin Davis Fisher recently spoke to UConn’s Neag School of Education Sport Management students about the ability of athletics to promote gender equality.
The former Harvard University soccer captain is the founder and director of the non-profit Guerreiras Project dedicated to educating and empowering women. Named after the Portuguese word for “warriors,” the initiative consists of female soccer players, women’s rights activists, academics and artists who believe soccer can be used to help start the conversations needed to reduce gender discrimination. Currently, its focus is on Brazil, a nation enthralled with soccer though, as Fisher noted, not necessarily with women’s soccer.
Guerreiras Project team members—who currently hail from Brazil, the United States and England— travel throughout Brazil, sharing stories, showcasing game photographs and playing soccer in local communities. Their visits open dialogues on gender stereotypes, as well as provide kids and adults the opportunity to meet strong women confident in their abilities.
“Our project empowers female players to become community ambassadors of the sport and visible role models for kids,” said Fisher. A Massachusetts native, she became a professional soccer player for Brazil’s famous Santos F.C.’s women’s team after graduating from Harvard in 2004.
“I was shocked to learn female players were fed food different from what the men’s team ate, wore men’s jerseys as much as seven years old, had to walk almost an hour to practice, and were forced to wash their uniforms by hand in outdoor sinks,” said Fisher.
A Guerrieras Project volunteer and soccer athlete works with students in Brazil.
Fisher said she was appalled by the treatment, as well as that the Brazilian women on the team thought it was OK. Banned from professional soccer until 1979, the women were just happy to play. Fisher, however, couldn’t ignore their continued struggles, of which not being fully accepted into a “man’s sport” was really just a small part. Lack of financial resources, cultural stereotypes perpetuated by Brazilian media, lack of family support and other challenges continued the view that women were the weaker and less important gender— and inspired Fisher to seek solutions for change.
Through the Guerreiras Project, all involved benefit: “The female players [on the team] build confidence, voice and self-esteem,” Fischer said, “and the youths and adults we visit are encouraged to challenge their own gender biases and to ask questions about what women are capable of doing and becoming.”
The idea for the initiative came shortly after Fisher earned a master’s degree in Gender, Development and Globalization from the London School of Economics and then traveled back to Brazil to reconnect with former Santos teammates. Coupled with ethnographic work she performed on the relationship between body, gender, soccer and economic development, the visit became the cradle for the Guerreiras Project.
Fisher’s visit to UConn came at the invitation of Sports Management Associate Professor Laura Burton. The two met via Skype over the summer, when Burton interviewed Fisher for a textbook chapter that UConn Sports Management faculty were writing.
While on the Storrs campus, Fisher spent time with Sport Management students, staff from UConn’s Husky Sport youth development program, and students in the Women’s Center Violence against Women Prevention Program.
“We are always interested in having our students think critically about the many issues that are part of sports, including homophobia and age, gender and racial discrimination,” Burton said. “The Guerreiras Project shows how much gender discrimination can be infused within just one sport, and the effort required for girls and women to push against constraints if they want to force needed change.”
Hoping that greater awareness about the Guerreiras Project will lead to greater change, Fisher plans to bring the initiative to the United States and study, among other things, “how it might impact girls and women in the U.S. differently than those in Brazil.”
Toward that end, Burton has an idea: “We would love for Caitlin to meet with the UConn women’s soccer team.”
Those familiar with UConn’s Storrs campus or the Neag School of Education won’t necessarily see familiar places or faces in “Shadow Campus,” a mystery thriller about a young college business professor found hanging in her office on the eve of her tenure decision.
Yet author Kathleen Kelley Reardon, a former UConn associate professor who in 1971 earned a BA from the Neag School, believes anyone familiar with the behind-the-scenes politics of academia will recognize the atmosphere, challenges and attitudes that led to fictional professor Meaghan Doherty almost dying. Above all, however, she hopes readers of her debut novel will be entertained and surprised.
“Thankfully, for most professors, academia hasn’t proven to be as deadly or dangerous as what happens to Meg in Shadow Campus,” Reardon said. “But at some schools, like at many organizations, there can be some pretty ruthless workplace politics.”
Published in August, “Shadow Campus” is Reardon’s first novel, but it’s not her first book. It’s also far from the first time she’s tackled office politics. Now a professor of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California (USC), Reardon is the author of nine non-fiction books and articles in leading journals, including the Harvard Business Review focusing on workplace politics and power. A leading authority on persuasion, negotiation, leadership and interpersonal communication, she is also a featured political blogger for the Huffington Post. She was integral to founding the Starlight Foundation, for which Reardon designed social technology (an early Facebook) to link critically ill children and their families to medical information, education support and entertainment, and is co-founder of First Star, a college preparatory program she originated to provide abused and neglected foster teens with academic training, and life skills instruction needed to succeed in college.
Much of her research has focused on the hidden dynamics of how political power is wielded in the workplace, and particularly how that affects women’s advancement. The latter is a main theme of “Shadow Campus,” though Reardon views the novel and its soon-to-be completed sequel as not so much a change in her professional focus, but as a natural segue in her career.
“I’ve always included stories as part of my books and teaching,” said Reardon, who for six years taught in UConn’s Department of Communications Science. She was a Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board and Phi Kappa Phi graduate. In 2013, she was honored as UConn Alumni Humanitarian of the Year.
“Stories are a marvelous way to communicate, because they entertain while they reveal information,” Reardon continued. “In my classroom and non-fiction books, I share stories of people I’ve met and interviewed, and those are what students or readers tell me they remember most. In ‘Shadow Campus,’ the story and people aren’t real. But the fictional characters, and what happens to them, are extrapolated from experience. The overall story comes also from my imagination, which is an aspect of the project that’s been very exciting. It’s been a wonderful challenge and act of creation that’s allowed me to return to my love of the arts.”
That love has also inspired Reardon to recently return to painting—something she used to teach as a volunteer to chronically ill patients. However, much of her current focus is on writing the sequel to “Shadow Campus.” On leave from USC and living in Rhode Island, she’s also been spending time working with First Star program funding and developing the UConn and University of Rhode Island sites.
But unlike when Reardon was writing “Shadow Campus” and no one but she and her husband Chris, also a UConn grad, knew her fictional characters, Reardon now has fans. And many of these fans are anxious to know what’s next for Professor Meg Doherty, her estranged brother Shamus turned novice detective, Meg’s coworker Rashid and other characters, who according to one Amazon reviewer create an “addictive novel.”
“A lot of readers like and connect with Shamus,” Reardon said. “And now, he and all the other characters have become real people—especially to my husband and me. They live with us. Some writers like to work in isolation, but I like to talk about my ideas before I write, and Chris has a keen writer’s sense. I’m actually really excited to see what happens to Shamus in this next book, because he really is a work in progress. He’s a guy who grew a lot in ‘Shadow Campus,’ and who will grow and change even more in this next book.”
In much of the novel, Connecticut residents have the extra fun of seeing Shamus in his hometown of Ridgefield, Conn. Reardon grew up in Stratford, Conn. But Chris was a journalist for The Ridgefield Press, so they spent a lot of time in this quiet, historic community. People familiar with Los Angeles, Santa Monica and other California locations that figure prominently in the story will also experience a familiar sense of place.
The sequel to “Shadow Campus” will be set in New York and Connecticut. Reardon hopes it will be ready to release in the fall of 2014.
“Readers have asked to get a new book in their hands soon. That’s motivating. A good story is told well, and I’ll want to make sure Shamus and all his wonderful imperfections hold their interest again,” Reardon said.
Whether the next book tackles more of the potential extremes of office politics has yet to be seen. But it’s clear that for those who work in a large organization, there’s a side benefit to reading “Shadow Campus.” As Shamus learns just how scary pathological official politics can become, so does the reader. Calling on Reardon’s extensive expertise in this area, Forbes magazine recently explored this kind of frightening scenario in an article called “Why Office Politics Can Ben Deadly — And What to Do About It,” which also reviewed “Shadow Campus” and called it a “masterful debut mystery.”
“It’s a debut novel, which means it’s not perfect,” Reardon said, “but what I want more than anything is for it to be a story that keeps people turning the page. One of many enjoyable things about fiction is that different people take away different things, and for me the whole process has been a joy.”
Reflecting, she also credits the Neag School for the novel’s creation: “When you think about it, the Neag School of Education is really responsible for its success too. UConn shaped the path I’ve been on, leading me to become a high school teacher, pursue my master’s and PhD, eventually go to California and teach, and gain the experiences needed to create Meg, Shamus and the whole story of ‘Shadow Campus.’ UConn is where the seed was planted and continued to grow when I returned as a Communication professor.”
Those interested in learning more about “Shadow Campus,” Reardon’s nonfiction work or reaching out to her can visit her website at www.kathleenkelleyreardon.com.
