To our Honors alumni,
For more than nine years, I have had the pleasure of working at the University of Connecticut. Most of this time was spent as an Associate Director in the Honors Program and Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. Most recently, I served as a faculty member in the Neag School of Education. This past August, I began a new position as the Assistant Vice Provost for Enrichment Programs and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Connecticut. For many of you, this serves as a formal introduction. For others, it is an opportunity to reconnect. I am truly excited to write to you today and share news about UConn’s Honors Program, our students, and our alumni.
My core focus has always been teaching and helping students. I’ve taught and worked with some of you while you were undergraduates. Now I am looking forward to expanding my connection to the larger Honors Community, which includes the students currently in our program and the alumni who graduated before my time.
In this position, I have the opportunity to shape our Enrichment Programs and recruit the next group of Honors Scholars. I also witness the results of an Honors education by connecting with you. Your successes allow me to see the outcomes of an Honors education, which is truly inspiring to our current and prospective students. Your stories are important because they show how an Honors Community nurtures potential. During the coming months and years, I look forward to advancing our relationship, and I hope you will reach out to start a conversation. Many of you are in Connecticut, but others are spread across the nation and the world. Some are still in school, while many are making a difference in the workforce. You are in all fields and all types of industry. But you are all connected to our community, no matter the year on your diploma, because you were and are part of the Honors Program at the University of Connecticut.
Please feel free to stop by if you are on campus, to email, call, or join us at an alumni event. My door is always open. I am eager to know you all and continue to broaden the reach of this community of scholars, one that grows stronger every year with each incoming and each graduating class.
Best regards,
Jennifer Lease Butts, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice Provost, Enrichment Programs
Director, Honors Program
D.C. internship program teaches politics, life
By Cheryl Cranick, Honors Program
In 2006, Caitlin Donohue ’08 visited UConn’s Study Abroad fair on campus. It was there that she learned about the UConn Honors Congressional Internship Program in Washington, D.C. The partnership between the Honors Program and the Department of Political Science annually recruits six or seven students from across the university to compete for full-time intern posts with members of Congress from Connecticut. Read more.
English language program inspires a year in Korea
By Cheryl Cranick, Honors Program
It’s fall right now in Korea; “crisp and cool at night, while still pleasantly warm during the day,” said Emily Szkudlarek ’12. The CLAS Honors psychology graduate arrived in the country during the humid season in August this year and recuperated from the 15-hour flight during a weeklong orientation. Then she began her role as a guest English teacher in the city of Gyeongju. Read more.
Meeting their match in Honors
By Cheryl Cranick, Honors Program
Day one at Buckley Hall is when Ajay Madkekar ’06 and Diana Flynn ’06 met as friends. But it wasn’t until senior year, just a few weeks before graduation, that they became a couple. “I like to say we met the first day and starting dating the last,” said Flynn. Read more.
Class Notes
Find out what your former classmates are doing now. Check out the Honors Class Notes!
Honors Distinguished Alumni Award: Call for Nominations
Don’t forget, the application deadline for the Honors Distinguished Alumni Award is Dec. 5, 2012. To learn more or to make a nomination, please visit us online.
Keep in Touch
Let’s continue the conversation. We would love to hear your thoughts about this enewsletter and the direction of the program. Email us.
Giving Back
If you would like general information about giving opportunities to the Honors Program, please contact Katrice Sponzo (UConn Foundation, Leadership Giving) at (860) 486-1565 or ksponzo@foundation.uconn.edu.
Return to Honors Alumni