The “Connecticut Summit on PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)” will be held on Friday, May 20, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the UConn Student Union Ballroom. The summit is sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education, State Education Resource Center, the Office of Special Education Programs’ National Center on PBIS and the Center for Behavioral Education and Research in the Neag School of Education. The registration fee is $50, which includes lunch. Attendance will be limited to 300, so registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The purpose of the summit is to bring together school, district and state leaders to discuss PBIS implementation possibilities in Connecticut. This summit is important, because the number of schools implementing PBIS is rapidly growing,” said Dr. George Sugai, co-director of the National Center on PBIS and director of the Neag Center for Behavioral Education and Research.
For UConn and the Neag School, the summit will provide an opportunity to establish collaborative relationships with PBIS implementers and policy-makers. Three national keynote presenters, led by Sugai as moderator, will discuss how academic achievement can be enhanced through schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports:
“PBIS Accomplishments, Research and Future Directions” with Rob Horner, co-director of the National Center on PBIS and director of education and community supports, University of Oregon
“Statewide Implementation of an Integrated Literacy and Behavior Support Approach” with Steve Goodman, co-director of Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative
“Blueprint for State- and District-wide PBIS Implementation” with Susan Barrett, lead trainer and coordinator for the National Center on PBIS, Maryland PBIS Network
To register, visit “Connecticut Summit on PBIS” online at www.ctserc.org. For more information on registration, call Tiffany Reyes, 860-632-1485, ext. 210. For content questions, call Kristina Jones, 860-632-1485, ext. 377. For UConn or Neag information, contact Nancy Gianetti at nancy.gianetti@uconn.edu.
Eighth-semester undergraduate at Neag blogs about her experiences through UConn Welcome Mat
Hi all, Katie – the Lodewick Visitor Center’s (LVC) graduate student here. With the spring semester off to a speedy start, I find myself busy as always with classes, my internship at Goodwin Elementary School, and my job here at the LVC, and … wait for it … my job search for an elementary teaching position! I can’t believe that I’ll be graduating from the Neag School of Education with a master’s degree in just a few short months.
And so my job search begins. With the massive amounts of snow we’ve been getting here, I’ve spent my snow days capitalizing on the extra time to prepare my application materials. From resumes, to cover letters, to my portfolio, to monitoring local websites for position postings – I’ve been doing it all.
When I started putting together my application materials at the beginning of winter break, I was a tad overwhelmed with everything I had to do (not to mention the stress of wanting so badly to find a full-time teaching position for the start of next school year in this economy). I’m determined to be fully prepared for interviews. Considering school districts won’t necessarily know if they will have any openings until later on this spring or even the summer, I am super obsessive about planning and like to be ahead of the game.
With that being said, my experiences with my job search thus far have been both stressful and exciting. Of course I want everything to be perfect. My supervisor spoke with me a lot over winter break about my upcoming job search, and a lot of the advice she gave me has been reiterated by both professionals in the field and my current professors and mentors.
So far, I’ve been able to develop a relative timeline for monitoring open positions through the Connecticut Education Association and the Hartford Courant classified advertisements, rough drafts of my résumé, a general cover letter and my portfolio. I sure am happy that I saved a lot of lesson plans and student work samples from when I student taught, because I am finding that I will most likely have to cut down the amount of samples I include in my portfolio, rather than scramble to find more. Better to have too much than too little.
The nice thing about being a UConn student in the Neag School of Education is that the resources are endless. My advisor, Doug, has been a phenomenal support service throughout my entire UConn experience, and he will continue to guide me through both my inquiry project and the job search process. Also, UConn’s Neag School of Education is providing various workshops for the master’s students throughout the spring semester. The workshops, “The Certification Process,” and “Resume Writing and Interviewing,” should be helpful. There is also an Education Career Fair on April 6 , where I’ll get to meet and possibly interview with various school district representatives throughout the state of Connecticut. It looks like I’ll have a busy few months ahead of me.
In the meantime, I will be spending a lot of my free time avidly checking the Connecticut Education Association website for job postings, visiting UConn’s Career Services to hammer out the perfect résumé and cover letter, and networking with professionals in the field whom I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the past few years as a Neag student. Just this past weekend I purchased my first interviewing suits – one black and one gray – so that I can even look my best as I try to find the perfect job.
I know that being nervous and anxious about this process is expected, but I’m also ready for the possibility of rejection and knowing that I may not ace every interview. The best advice so far that I’ve received regarding the job search process is that I will be “interviewing” the school districts to see if they are the best fit for me just as much as they will be interviewing me to see if I’m the best fit for them; it’s a reciprocal process! If I’m able to keep this outlook throughout the process, then I don’t think I will be disappointed in knowing that when I do land my very first teaching position, it will be because I wanted that position just as much as that school district wanted ME for the position.
Wish me luck!
UConn Welcome Mat is a blog posted through the University of Connecticut’s Lodewick Visitors Center. Designed to provide prospective and current students information about the daily lives of select UConn undergraduate students, it allows readers a glimpse into the personal interests and academic and social activities of those living the Husky experience.
Marlon James (second from the left) is one of two assistant professors of educational leadership from the Neag School —experts in urban education—conducting a series of seminars for CEA’s Minority Affairs Commission.
CEA’s Minority Affairs Commission (MAC) is working with two professors from UConn’s Neag School of Education to help CEA identify and develop new strategies to close the achievement gap in urban schools.
Dr. Marlon James and Dr. Shuana Tucker, assistant professors of educational leadership in the Neag School of Education, are experts in urban education who are conducting a series of seminars during the next several months to help MAC members identify, understand, address, and evaluate critical issues affecting minority student education in Connecticut.
The seminars focus on issues related to urban schooling, including school climate and culture, achievement of African-American students, and urban leadership.
“Working with these urban education experts, commission members will broaden their perspective of urban education by framing achievement issues within the social justice context,” says Joanne Gay, staff liaison to MAC and assistant manager of CEA’s department of Affiliate and Member Development.
“MAC members will expand their knowledge, sharpen their skills, and develop strategies to close the achievement gap. Ultimately, we want to help CEA develop a strategic action plan to address the inequities we uncover.”
James says the seminars will capitalize on the cultural, international, and linguistic competencies of MAC members. “They constitute the most diverse group of educators in Connecticut,” he says. “As such, their perspectives, personal experiences, and professional practices will add insights to CEA’s reform agenda once they better understand the academic, social, and cultural needs of students in urban schools.”
MAC chair and Bridgeport teacher Ana Gonzalez-Batista says the seminars will give MAC members a good foundation to develop systematic reform strategies to deal with the achievement gap. “We can also use these strategies in our districts and share them with teachers, parents, and our communities to help improve learning outcomes of our students.”
Adds MAC member Faith Sweeney, who teaches at a Title I school in Greenwich that has been on and off the AYP list for several years, “I would love to bring back new learning strategies from this training. This is an opportunity to offer my colleagues, students, and families a way to help move toward a path of continued success.”
“I’m hopeful our training will help us and other teachers see that our expectations for underachieving children may not be what they should be,” says MAC member and Bridgeport teacher Sherran Davis.
Among the topics to be covered during the seminars
Debunking problem-based education (the idea that diverse children, cultures and communities are pathological, and the key cause of sustained underperformance of minority learners)
The pedagogy of poverty (a common approach to teaching focused on basic skills and maintaining compliance of students rather than pursuing authentic learning)
The inherit problems caused in education by social, racial, and economic isolation
The historical and statistical context of the achievement gap
CEA Secretary Cheryl Prevost, an East Hartford teacher, works with the commission. She says the seminars are another example of CEA’s continuing effort to develop strategies that address the achievement gap.
“CEA has implemented several initiatives designed to address school reform, including the CommPACT school program and a partnership with Stratford public schools that focuses on the achievement gap and excellence for all. These seminars will give MAC members a unique and positive opportunity to investigate other ways to transform our public schools.”
Source: Innovating from CEA. Reprinted with permission.
The ACSM is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world, with a stated mission of promoting and integrating scientific research, education, and practical applications of sports medicine and exercise science to maintain and enhance physical performance, fitness, health, and quality of life.
Dr. Pescatello will receive the award at the ACSM’s Annual Meeting in Denver on June 3rd in recognition of her overall contributions to exercise science and her numerous years of service to the ACSM through various committees and board positions.
“Professor Pescatello exemplifies the cross-cutting expertise of an ACSM leader in making significant contributions to research and scholarship, clinical care and education, particularly related to the areas of hypertension and exercise genomics,” ACSM Immediate Past President Mindy Millard-Stafford wrote in her introduction of Pescatello for the ACSM awards ceremony.
Pescatello was nominated for the award by her ACSM colleagues, including Millard-Stafford and another ACSM past president who together noted her “great leadership to help formalize an evidence-based process” for ACSM position stands.
The ACSM publishes position stands when enough research has been completed to support a position on scientific grounds. According to its web site, its pronouncements, including position stands, “are advisory only, but they carry considerable weight in the development of policy by rulemaking committees, and of standards set forth by professional organizations and governmental bodies.”
Janice Thompson, a professor of public health nutrition at the University of Bristol and a past chair of the ACSM’S Pronouncements Committee, which manages all aspects of the ACSM’s position stand development, noted Pescatello’s “dedication, strong work ethic, impressive organizational and leadership skills, and high scientific standards” in her letter of support for Pescatello’s nomination for the Citation Award.
“Her research is amongst the best in the world, and I have been able to incorporate many of her findings into my nutrition-related research and teaching programs. She has also been directly responsible for putting into place important, substantial changes in the policies and procedures of ACSM’s Pronouncements Committee, and her contributions have directly resulted in the publication of the highest quality position stands,” Thompson wrote. “I consider her not only a peer, but a role model in many ways…. She maintains a cool head when others are not able to do so, and her steadfast, fair, and consistent behaviors are truly invaluable in all areas of academe.”
Pescatello began her career as a high school biology and chemistry teacher and a track and basketball coach. After earning her Ph.D. in Exercise Science at UConn, she worked for 15 years at New Britain General Hospital, first as manager of the hospital’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Program and then director of its Department of Health Promotion. Pescatello joined the UConn faculty in 1998.
A prolific researcher, Pescatello serves, or has served, as principal or co-investigator on a number of federal grant awards totaling more than $16 million – including six active grants. She also currently has two active internal UConn grants and five additional grant applications (including internal UConn, ACSM and federal awards) submitted and pending.
Pescatello has published more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and she has a new book, Exercise Genomics, being published by Humana Press this month.
Through federal grants, Pescatello and colleagues currently are studying statins’ effects on muscle function, exercise as an intervention for hazardous drinking college students, non-treatment seeking adults with alcohol disorders and cocaine abusers, and the use of prize incentives to promote physical activity for HIV substance abusers and to promote weight loss in college students.
Her active internal grants are focused on comparing the immediate after-effects of aerobic and ischemic handgrip exercises on blood pressure and vascular function.
Among Pescatello’s contributions to ACSM, she has served as vice president, chair of its pronouncements committee, and associate editor and now senior editor of the ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. She also was responsible for the organization’s first evidence-based position stand, which addressed hypertension, and now is working to create a database to further the ACSM’s goal of making all of its position stands and guidelines evidence-based.
Finally, the colleagues who nominated Pescatello for the Citation Award noted her excellent mentoring skills, witnessed in action with her students who routinely accompany and present with her at ACSM annual meetings, and the public service she has performed for the exercise science profession by translating her work for the public by publishing numerous educational articles geared to fitness instructors.
The Neag School of Education is the first institution in the nation to be featured on the website of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in a new web series entitled “Stories from the Field.”
The NCATE believes that the clinically based teacher preparation model at the Neag School exemplifies many of the principles recommended by the national expert National Blue Ribbon Commission on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning. The example set by the Neag School will move the field forward by sharing effective practices in improving P-12 student achievement.
U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan advocates teacher preparation programs “be fully grounded in clinical practice, with evidence-based knowledge interwoven with academic content and professional courses.”
“The Neag School of Education and its partners have successfully collaborated to provide candidates meaningful and diverse clinical and field experiences resulted in well-prepared candidates for diverse schools. It has successfully demonstrated rigor, quality, and leadership in continuously improving educator preparation and addressing P-12 school needs,” said Dr. Yi Huang, vice president for accreditation at the NCATE.
Neag Associate Dean Marijke Kehrhahn (second from left) recognizes the Clark Award with Bulkeley High School representatives Gayle Allen-Greene, Willie Nunez and Shantel Honeyghan.
Rene Roselle, clinical professor working at Bulkeley High School, wrote in the school’s application for this award, “In preparing a nomination for the Richard W. Clark Award for Exemplary Partner School Work, I thought ‘I wish the committee could spend some time with me at Bulkeley High School and then they could see.’ The magic of a partnership is hard to put into words.
“Bulkeley has approximately 1,500 students in grades 9-12. Students represent 42 different countries; 18 different languages can be heard in the halls. The school is approximately 69 percent Latino, 23 percent black and 8 percent white. The city struggles to meet the needs of children living in poverty and learning English while trying to test well on standardized tests,” Roselle continued.
“Administrative turnover, restructuring and resource allocation pressure us. Hartford has had seven superintendents in 10 years, three acting and four appointed. The city has endured state takeovers and failed bids to privatize,” Roselle wrote. “Through it all, the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education and Hartford have remained strongly committed to each other. The Neag School has placed 157 students at Bulkeley High School in four years and 400 students across our three-year program in the same amount of time. That is what we call a critical mass!”
A teacher preparatory academy, such as Bulkeley’s, serves as an example of long-term and in-depth partner work.
Established at the high school in collaboration with the Neag School, the academy provides support for current students and hope for the future. Its primary purpose is to recruit, support and prepare students interested in education.
The goal of this pathway is to provide a rigorous curriculum and field experiences through meaningful, creative and engaging learning opportunities. The academy emphasizes the importance of collaboration between a student and their teacher in the learning process, demonstrating best practices and ensuring all students are ready for postsecondary opportunities.
The academy option opened Aug. 31, 2009, to students who were entering grades 11 and 12 at Bulkeley and completed the application process. The option is part of Hartford’s All Choice initiative.
As the first program in Connecticut that pointedly focuses on preparing high school students to become teachers, implications may be far-reaching for Hartford and the state. In a time of teacher shortages, the program hopes to increase the pool of highly qualified candidates who will be able to fill the vacancies in critical content areas, increase the diversity of applicants and encourage students to return for careers in the city of Hartford as educators or other professionals who will benefit the community.
Michelle Breckel, a senior majoring in special education, explains to Kyle about circles of companionship, a life skills game that demonstrates the often shifting boundaries that exist between people, ranging from the distance one keeps from strangers to the affection between a couple in a relationship. Photo by Jessica Tommaselli
By the time they’re young adults, most people have learned not to barge into an ongoing conversation with a totally unrelated comment. But for some, knowing how to connect appropriately with others is confusing.
UConn students are now reaching out to developmentally challenged 18- to 21-year-olds, demonstrating socially acceptable behavior as part of an innovative program that connects college students with high school students in special education.
Students Transitioning to Age Appropriate Routes (STAAR) is a partnership between UConn and Regional School District 19’s E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield. It brings students with learning and physical disabilities into a college setting so they can interact with students their own age. The UConn students are primarily interns in the advanced years of the Neag School of Education’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Teacher Education program (IB/M), who help the STAAR students learn independent living skills. These include finance, organization, health and wellness, safety and socialization.
Federal and state laws require public schools to provide services to special education students until they are 21, which means they may be attending school with 14-year-old high school freshmen. And STAAR students may have been micromanaged while in high school, moving as a distinct clique with an instructional assistant at their elbow all day.
“College students move in groups of two to four. You rarely see 10-15 college students walking together, so even getting places as part of a more natural group has to be learned,” says Christine Lee, the Region 19 special education teacher who leads STAAR. “Part of this program is practicing social skills; we want our students to learn what’s cool, like that you don’t just grab pretty girls or call someone 20 times in a day on their cell phone.”
High schools are required to provide leading edge, research-based instruction for young people with developmental disabilities or autism. Associate Professor Dr. Joe Madaus leads UConn’s Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability, a program in the Neag School that conducts research on the transition to postsecondary programs for students with disabilities, and works with STAAR.
“He’s an expert on transition services, and that’s what our program is all about,” says Lee.
At STAAR, Neag students can conduct their own research. For example, Michelle Breckel, a fourth-year Neag special education major and this past semester’s STAAR intern, did a case study of a STAAR student for a class. “I assessed her reading skills and comprehension and researched how her disorder affects her learning and how her scores go along with that,” Breckel says.
“Michelle was a wonderful teacher,” notes the student, known as Clarissa E, “and she taught me a lot about vocabulary. I like when our UConn interns come.”
Jessica Parlin, last year’s fifth-year Neag STAAR intern, found her calling as a teacher providing STAAR students with transitional services. “Just recently one of my former students approached me at a local store and had an amazingly appropriate conversation with me,” says Parlin. “It was really rewarding to know that when she’s not at school, she’s carrying those skills over.”
The Neag School’s distinctive teaching methods include placing aspiring teachers in classrooms that don’t match their ambitions, which sometimes leads to unexpected career shifts. Parlin, for example, had planned on teaching elementary school, and was delighted that UConn afforded her the flexibility to change her major to special education.
“Jessica was the best fifth-year intern I ever worked with,” Lee says. “She is an outstanding teacher, thanks to her UConn education. In fact, I’ve never had a less than phenomenal experience with UConn interns.”
Besides the Neag interns, other students volunteer to partner with STAAR students for fun and friendship as part of the UConn Best Buddies Association. Joanna Sajdlowska, who is majoring in communication disorders, says, “People my age, 20somethings, especially at UConn, are very accepting. We may have grown up in homes with two mothers, or just a dad, or with siblings adopted from all over the world. Because of mainstreaming, my generation has been exposed to people with disabilities from a young age.”
Sajdlowska nods emphatically as Lee comments, “We know that everyone wants to connect, wants to get married, wants a job to love and be passionate about – STAAR students have the same hopes and dreams that we have.”
Since many local parents are educators who value education, Lee says, “Moms and dads [of students at E.O. Smith High School] are very eager to enroll their children. UConn is the major draw … it’s a winner in so many ways, from sports, to research, to providing positive behavior examples for our students.”
The STAAR partnership began as a pilot program with one student when Debra Hultgren, director of special services for E.O. Smith High School, suggested it to Donna Korbel, director of UConn’s Center for Students with Disabilities. Along with the center’s Christine Wenzel, Korbel has been STAAR’s main liaison, helping the program grow.
“This amazing program has become so successful in a short amount of time because of immediate and continuing support by UConn’s offices of residential life and student affairs,” says Korbel. The program operates in the basement of Sprague Hall, which Korbel describes as, “an exceptional space. There’s a kitchen, a game room and a vocational component for the STAAR students because of the laundry located there. Even with space at such a premium, Residential Life was able to find an area that wasn’t being utilized by UConn students – it’s a credit to the university that we’ve been able to support this community-based opportunity for Region 19 students.”
Three students participated in the program’s second year, and the program has nearly doubled each year thereafter, going from three, to six, to 12, to its current enrollment of 22. STAAR students come from Killingly, Danielson, Scotland, Willimantic, Coventry and Storrs. And the program continues to grow: This semester, STAAR students will be teamed up with 20 students from a class on autism spectrum disorder taught by UConn psychology assistant professor Inge-Marie Eigsti.
Neag School faculty have been busy interviewing prospective undergraduate students for Fall 2011 and recently selected most of the incoming class for the various programs. Prospective students went through an extensive selection process that included applications and portfolios, along with written and oral interviews.
For 2011, the Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Teacher Education Program (IB/M) admitted 117 new students. In the Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG), 57 new students were accepted for the Hartford location and 19 for the Waterbury location. For candidates in pre-kinesiology, 56 new students were accepted.
“The spring semester every year, faculty sit down and look very, very carefully at a portfolio that is offered up by every candidate who wishes to enter the Neag School of Education,” said Dr. Wendy Glenn, director of Teacher Education at the Neag School. “These candidates are evaluated on a variety of different factors. Ultimately, they are invited into an interview that gives faculty an opportunity to meet each of the candidates and make a determination as to whether or not the student might have the potential to do well in our program.”
Faculty and administrators in the Neag School spend a lot of time evaluating and selecting candidates that leads to the admission of highly qualified pre-service teachers who are “up to the challenge of thinking innovatively and creatively about American public schools and their role as teachers in those schools,” said Glenn.
“The overall quality of applicants is improving every year, which makes this a very competitive process,” said Dr. Carl Maresh, department chair of kinesiology in the Neag Schol. “Furthermore, by the time these students submit applications to us they are already well focused on the direction they want their careers to go, which for most will also include graduate school or professional school preparation. These are very motivated and capable young men and women.”
William J. Kraemer, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology in the Neag School of Education, is releasing a new textbook book this month called Exercise Physiology: Integrating Theory and Application. The book aims to engage the undergraduate student’s interest in exercise physiology while relating concepts to practical job results. It also is the first book in exercise physiology to teach undergraduate students about the research process and how to evaluate information in this new age of evidence based practice.
The textbook is co-written by Steven J. Fleck, Ph.D. and chair of the sport science department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, and Michael R. Deschenes of William & Mary, who earned his master’s and Ph.D. at UConn and is a past winner of Neag’s Outstanding Kinesiology Professional and Outstanding Alumni Professional awards and is a professor and chair in kinesiology at the College of William and Mary.
Publishers say, “unlike other textbooks in the field, Kraemer, Fleck and Deschenes provide a publication that engages students with how the body works and responds to exercise, how to improve overall performance, as well as the vital health benefits of physical activity during the life span and for special physical conditions.” ”Writing a textbook for undergraduates is the most challenging task as one has to catch their interest and carefully choose the scope of understanding needed for the student. I think this book allows students to see how knowledge in exercise physiology is used in the many professional scenarios and how research is important in one’s professional practice,” says Kraemer
Exercise Physiology: Integrating Theory and Application contains instructional features and applications that facilitate student learning, while applying material to the environment and challenges students may face as young professionals.
The textbook is tailored for undergraduate courses in exercise science but can be adapted to other subject matter in which the information is important for professional preparation by students.
Kraemer has written or co-written three other book with multiple editions on resistance training and has edited one book on exercise endocrinology during his career. He has also authored and coauthored over 380 peer reviewed scientific publications in his field of exercise physiology. He also holds an appointment as a full professor in the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, along with an appointment as a professor of medicine at the UCONN Health Center/School of Medicine with the Center on Aging.
For more information, contact Kraemer at william.kraemer@uconn.edu.
Students from John C. Clark Elementary and Middle School complete forms for the Read and Raise program. Photo credit: Husky Sport
Husky Sport’s third annual literacy initiative, Read & Raise, is in high gear, encouraging Hartford students to read books, complete reading response worksheets and compete for various prizes, all the while raising money for continued Husky Sport efforts. The Husky Sport program is in the Neag School of Education‘s Department of Kinesiology.
Read & Raise takes place over the course of five months, working toward building positive relationships, creating a consistent UConn student presence in the Hartford public schools and assisting with literacy skill building.
This year, four Hartford elementary and middle schools, John C. Clark, Martin Luther King Jr., Fred D. Wish and America’s Choice at SAND School, are participating. Each school has been given a goal of 15,000 books, at $1 for every book read.
“Last year, we challenged them to read 10,000 and they easily surpassed it. From our end, we’re also trying to raise money that will go back to the kids’ programming in some way so that we can continue to do what we’re doing now,” said Dr. Jennifer Bruening, program developer and associate professor of sport management in the Neag School of Education. “We raise the money — students, faculty, staff — not the kids or teachers in Hartford. They read and support reading and we raise the money.”
Students and staff members of Husky Sport, a community outreach program founded in 2003, visit each school throughout the week, serving as liaisons between school officials, students and teachers. During schoolwide reading days, volunteers provide enthusiasm and motivational elements such as physical and nutrition-oriented UConn prizes.
“Any time you walk down a hallway or stop by a classroom, the students know it’s ‘UConn’ and will start proudly discussing how many books they read and asking when people are going to come to their classes to read with them, eat lunch with them in the cafeteria, or take them to a recess,” Bruening said. “I think everyone is truly impressed how committed the kids are to the challenge of reading so many books.”
Husky Sport’s mission is to integrate and promote nutrition, physical activity and life skills through its programming and incentives. Designers of the Read & Raise program further reinforce this by selecting books with athletic and health content.
In March and April, during March Madness, classes mirror the NCAA basketball tournament by competing against each other for a championship title. “We just concluded Unit II and are going to be taking the top 10 readers from each school to Springfield, Mass., for a day at the Basketball Hall of Fame,” Bruening said. “Our end prize is for the top three classes at each school to come to UConn for our all-day Olympic-style event, comprised of different physical activities and nutrition messages.”
Read & Raise has raised more than $40,000 since its launch and has already had a significant impact. The money raised through the program the past two years has supported Emeka Okafor’s Safe Blood for Africa organization. This year, all proceeds will go directly back to serve the kids in Husky Sport’s programs.
Anyone who loves kids and is dedicated to Husky Sport’s mission can get involved. Although a requirement for sport management majors, the community outreach program is not limited to any specific major.
For more information and to help support Read & Raise, visit Husky Sport’s website at huskysport.uconn.edu.
The “Connecticut Summit on PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)” will be held on Friday, May 20, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the UConn Student Union Ballroom. The summit is sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education, State Education Resource Center, the Office of Special Education Programs’ National Center on PBIS and the Center for Behavioral Education and Research in the Neag School of Education. The registration fee is $50, which includes lunch. Attendance will be limited to 300, so registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
