Students in full regalia gathered with their classmates and processed together to hear their names called as they join the great community of graduates stretching all the way back to 1883.

“I came to UConn because it was the best financial decision. I knew I didn’t want my mom paying for my education. So, with the scholarships I earned and the money I was receiving, I decided to come here,” says graduating senior Larrese Folk ’22 (ED).

“I chose UConn as my school due to the numerous opportunities that the school provided me. After my first time stepping foot on campus, I knew that this was the place for me and that I would successful here. Another reason why I went here was to be with my family. My sister also went to UConn, and she only spoke great things about the school, which influenced me in becoming a Husky,” says graduating master’s student Jonathan Dos Santos ’20 (ED), ’22 MA.

Kiana Foster-Mauro’s mother, grandmother and great-grandmother watched with the 22-year-old elementary education major as she became the first in her family to graduate college. Nadeige Bailey, another first-generation graduate, said she cried on her couch last May as she watched her name flash across her computer screen “for like two seconds.” That was the culmination of her two-year, sports management graduate program.

Preston Green III, a professor of urban education and educational law with the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, agreed there’s no legal basis for even the temporary withholding of the diploma. The student has property rights to the diploma under state law, as well as Constitutional protections under the First Amendment, Green confirmed.

“As a parent, it is a daily struggle not to get swept up in the sadness of the losses forced by COVID-1,” writes Sandra Chafouleas, a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. “As a school psychologist, I am trying my best to heed what I know about coping and promoting resilience. Life is supposed to present us with bumps — bumps can help us grow if the right supports are available to brace for them. But the intensity of the current global situation means that we need to identify and draw on positive coping resources more purposefully.”

Juanyi Li’s parents planned to fly from their hometown of Kunming, China, to Connecticut to watch her graduate. They had never been to campus and Li was eager to show them what life is like on an American college campus. “They made plans, but they had to cancel them,” Li said. “I started to plan my graduation a year ago. But it’s all canceled now.”

The Neag School of Education recognized graduates from the Class of 2012 during two ceremonies the weekend of May 5-6. The Neag School undergraduate and sixth-year commencement took place at the Jorgensen Auditorium on Sunday, May 6. Commencement for Neag School graduate students took place on Saturday, May 5, at Gampel Pavilion. The Graduate School […]

About 200 Neag School of Education students received bachelor’s degrees and sixth-year diplomas in educational specialties at the May 9 graduation ceremonies in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. “I’ve been telling him to be a school teacher his whole life … summers off,” Paul Hurst said before the proceedings. He was speaking of […]