July 14, 2014
Julise Marsh will be a Pre-Pharmacy student at UConn. A resident of Bloomfield, CT, she graduated from Bloomfield High School after having taken part in the HCOP High School Student Research Apprentice Program, which she feels provided her with good exposure to her chosen field. Julise loves playing volleyball in her free time.
Kewa Jiang is originally from Shenzhen, China, but after moving to the US four and a half years ago, she now hails from Glastonbury, CT and graduated from Glastonbury High School. She is a molecular and cell biology major who is also working on minors in chemistry and digital arts. While she enjoys all areas of science, she’s particularly interested in immunology, virology, and parasitology. She also likes drawing on the computer, watching anime with friends, and the card game Dominion. Kewa has volunteered at UConn Health as a research assistant in the psychiatry department, gaining clinical as well as practical experience coordinating events and interviewing people in a professional manner. She’s currently working in Dr. Verardi’s lab in the pathobiology department at Storrs, which she says is challenging but which has given her insight about what to expect from her chosen career path of physician-scientist. Kewa is also a member of the UConn Taekwondo team.
Abigail Colburn is an allied health major with minors in biology and molecular and cell biology. She plans to go to medical school and has worked toward this goal as a mobility volunteer at Hartford Hospital, where she has had experience interacting with patients and nurses. She has also interned at the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, where she created webinars for health and mental health care professionals. Hailing from South Windsor, CT, Abigail is a graduate of South Windsor High School and has been a runner her whole life. This summer she ran her first half marathon.
Sharon Cherian has been doing Indian classical dance since she was six years old and plans to continue dancing at UConn. While here she’ll also be majoring in chemistry and perhaps psychology while following a pre-med track of study to prepare for medical school and a future as a doctor. A resident of West Hartford, CT, Sharon graduated from Conard High School and volunteered for three years at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. While at St. Francis, Sharon assisted nurses and patients in the OBGYN/post-delivery unit. She enjoyed working with the people and feels that she learned a lot about the obstetrics and gynecology field.
Omar Allam is a chemistry major from Mansfield, CT. A graduate of Glastonbury High School, he loves to cook and works part-time as an assistant chef at a Mediterranean restaurant where he specializes in baklava. He also volunteers as an EMT, which he feels provides an exhilarating perspective on medicine. Omar had the unique opportunity to observe the first TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) surgery in Connecticut, which occurred when he shadowed and conducted research with Dr. David Underhill, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Hartford Hospital.
Jennifer Akosa is from Newington, CT but has close ties to Nigeria, where her parents lived up until two years before she was born. A pre-pharmacy major and graduate of Newington High School, Jennifer enjoys playing the outside hitter and defensive specialist positions in volleyball. She has taken part in the HCOP Mini-Medical/Dental High School Program, which provided her with the opportunity to listen to lectures on topics such as pharmacology, cardiology, and oncology, and she has worked at UConn Health as a research apprentice, studying how proteins such as E-cadherin and Actin manipulate cell direction and adhesion. She has also volunteered at the Newington Veterans’ Hospital in urgent care and cardiology.
June 5, 2014
Dr. Annamaria Csizmadia’s educational journey has spanned thousands of miles and multiple disciplines. Born and raised in Hungary, she completed her secondary education at a boarding school that allowed her to delve into foreign languages. She studied Russian, German, English, and Latin in high school. Her growing proficiency in English and German ignited her intellectual curiosity about cultural diversity and her desire to pursue higher education outside her native country. Through a number of formal experiences and fortuitous encounters, she was afforded invaluable opportunities to live, work, and study in Germany and the United States.
She earned the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in English and German language and literature at the University of Trier in Germany. After studying in Germany for four years, she moved to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in German literature at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. Although Dr. Csizmadia learned to appreciate the depth and breadth of German literature, by the end of her master’s studies, her academic interest changed from literary inquiries to analyses of cultural variation in human development. Thus, she shifted her academic training from humanities to social sciences and enrolled in the doctoral program in Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at the University of Missouri. Inspired by personal experiences, close friendships, and cross-cultural studies, she began to research cultural diversity and ethnic-racial minority families, with particular focus on Black American youth, immigrant families, and multiracial children. She completed her doctoral degree in Human Development and Family Studies along with graduate certificates in Black Studies and International Development in 2008. Her dissertation research examined the role of racial identification in young Black-White biracial children’s social development from kindergarten through fifth grade.
In August 2008, Dr. Csizmadia joined the Human Development and Family Studies department at the University of Connecticut. She regularly teaches courses on individual and family development, diversity issues, adolescent development, and research methods at the Stamford regional campus, and occasionally a graduate course on early and middle childhood at Storrs. Through the years, she has mentored dozens of undergraduate students who completed research practica, internships, independent studies, as well as Honors thesis research. Several of her undergraduate students have won undergraduate research awards such as the SHARE Award, the SURF Award, and Travel Awards to attend national conferences.
Her research on racial identity, ethnic-racial socialization, and psychosocial development in multiracial and immigrant children has been disseminated at conferences nationally and internationally, and in well-recognized peer-reviewed journals such as Family, Relations, Social Development, Parenting: Sciences and Practice, Advances in Life Course Research, Sociological Compass, Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Black Psychology, and Maternal and Child Health Journal.
“It has been personally and professionally gratifying and inspiring for me to engage many of my undergraduate students at the Stamford campus in my research. It thrills me to see my students—many of whom remind me of myself (young, ambitious, first-generation college students, and of immigrant background)—jump at the opportunity to stretch themselves academically through involvement in research.”
Patrick Dragon introduces himself to every class with the following: “Y’all can call me Pat. If you insist on an honorary, either Professor Pat or Doctor Dragon will do, so long as it alliterates!” Pat is proud to have been educated entirely through public school systems. A native of Hadley, Mass., Pat graduated from Hopkins Academy in 2001. Five years later, he completed his two bachelor’s degrees at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, with majors in physics, mathematics, and astronomy.
Pat was admitted to the Ph.D. program in mathematics at the University of California-Davis and started there in the fall of 2006. While a graduate student, Pat attended several courses in mathematical pedagogy and Socratic teaching methods, eventually leading workshops for students who sought extra help in math courses. Pat was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, as well as the William Karl Schwarze Award, for excellence in teaching and service to undergraduates. Pat finished his Ph.D. in the spring of 2011, with a research focus in applications of combinatorics to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.
Since finishing his Ph.D., Pat has been teaching at UConn in Storrs. In six short semesters, he has established a reputation as a challenging but energetic instructor. One student wrote, “I took Pat’s linear algebra class. He isn’t easy, but he is the best teacher I have had at UConn, by far. He is a very smart guy with a passion for math, and more importantly, a passion for teaching. If you’re looking for an interesting class, take Pat Dragon. If you’re looking for an easy class, get over yourself and take Pat Dragon anyway.”
Brian Preleski currently serves as the State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of New Britain. He was born in New Britain, Conn., and raised in Bristol, Conn., where he attended public school and his father worked as a Bristol police officer.
Mr. Preleski earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut in 1987. As an undergraduate, he was an Honors Scholar, graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He subsequently graduated with High Honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1991, where he was awarded the American Jurisprudence Book Award for Excellence in Torts.
Mr. Preleski became a member of the Connecticut Bar in 1991 and began practicing as a litigation associate with a large law firm in Hartford. He was initially appointed a Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney by the Criminal Justice Commission in 1993 for G.A. No. 17 (Bristol). When the New Britain Judicial District was created in 1998, Brian transferred to New Britain and began prosecuting major felony cases. In 2011, he was appointed State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of New Britain.
As the New Britain State’s Attorney, Mr. Preleski is the chief law enforcement officer for the Judicial District of New Britain, which includes the cities of New Britain, Bristol, and eight surrounding communities. The State’s Attorney is responsible for the supervision of the prosecutors’ offices at the Part A Judicial District Superior Court in New Britain, the G.A. No. 15 (New Britain), G.A. No. 17 (Bristol) courts, and the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters and Housing Sessions at New Britain.
As a prosecutor for more than twenty years, Mr. Preleski has been involved in several notable cases. He successfully prosecuted Connecticut’s first cold case murder, tried the case establishing the constitutionality of sobriety checkpoints under Connecticut law, and has tried more than fifty major felony cases to verdict. In 2013, Mr. Preleski was selected by the National District Attorneys Association to serve as an official observer to the war crimes trial of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has been published widely, both in professional publications and as a contributor to the Hartford Courant’s Opinion pages.
In addition to serving as a prosecutor, Mr. Preleski has been a member of the faculty of the University of St. Joseph since 2005, where he annually teaches a graduate seminar on legal issues in Homeland security.
Mr. Preleski met his wife, Kim, when they both lived on the University of Connecticut campus in Webster House. Kim is a 1988 UConn graduate and works as a physical therapist at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. They have two children, Chris and Sarah.
Howard M. Sandler is Ronald H. Bloom Family Chair in Cancer Therapeutics and Professor and Chairman of Radiation Oncology at the Samuel Oschin Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He grew up in Willimantic, Conn., started attending UConn basketball games in the mid-1960s, attended Windham High School, and eventually received his undergraduate Honors degree (1978), master’s degree in physics (1991), and medical degree (1985) from the University of Connecticut.
After a one year medical internship at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Conn., Dr. Sandler completed specialty Radiation Oncology training in 1989 at the University of Pennsylvania. He was then recruited to the University of Michigan’s Department of Radiation Oncology, within the University of Michigan Medical School, where he rose through the academic ranks and ultimately served as Newman Family Professor of Radiation Oncology. He was also a member of the University of Michigan’s National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2008, after nearly twenty years at Ann Arbor, Dr. Sandler was recruited by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to the position of Chairman for the Department of Radiation Oncology. His mission was to transform the department into a leading academic radiation oncology organization.
Dr. Sandler’s research interests include prostate and other genitourinary tumors, as well as a broad range of subjects related to radiation oncology. He has received a number of grants from the National Institutes of Health and other major agencies to conduct research in these areas, and is a leader in developing technology that allows radiation beams to target prostate cancer tumors with greater accuracy and fewer side effects. As Chairman of the NCI-funded Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) Genitourinary Cancer Committee since 1997, he has led or shaped a number of practice-changing national clinical trials. He has also written more than 230 peer-reviewed publications, primarily on prostate cancer and radiation therapy.
Dr. Sandler and his wife, Lili, live in Beverly Hills, Calif., and have two grown children and one young grandchild.