Young Honors Alumni Fund sends Honors Council leaders to national conference

June 8, 2013

Honors Council in Boston — Dr. Lease Butts, (Director, Honors Program) and Patricia Szarek (Associate Director for Enrollment Management, Honors Program) with UConn Honors Council representatives at the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Conference in Boston.

The Young Honors Alumni Fund, which began in 2011, was sparked by the positive experiences of three Honors alumni: Nate Eaton ’05 (CLAS, BUSN), Ajay Madkekar ’06 (BUSN), and Chintan Bhatt ’07 (ENGR). These three friends and classmates established the fund by making the initial gifts and have since worked to help engage other young Honors alumni to give back as well. The fund is specifically geared toward helping support Honors student organizations such as the Honors Council and Leadership in Action (formerly the Global Leadership Commission), which the three men were members or leaders of, during their undergraduate careers in the UConn Honors Program. (more…)

Recent Graduate to Present Senior Design Project to NASA Engineers

May 31, 2013

A close-up of the robotic arm. — A close-up of the robotic arm developed by Brian Coleman ’13 (ENG) and two other students as their senior design project. (Cathleen Torrisi/UConn Photo)

By Cathleen Torrisi

New UConn graduate Brian Coleman ’13 (ENG) recently completed a major accomplishment. And not just by graduating as an Honors Scholar with a strong GPA in the demanding biomedical engineering program. His senior design project – a robotic arm – so impressed director of undergraduate biomedical engineering Donald Peterson that he is arranging for Coleman to present it to a team of NASA engineers at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. (more…)

A UConn Medical Student First

May 10, 2013

Shawnet Jones is excited to learn she will stay at the UConn Health Center for her residency. — Match Day, March 15: Shawnet Jones (right) learns she’s staying at the UConn Health Center for a family medicine residency. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health Center Photo)

By Chris DeFrancesco

Commencement 2013 marks a milestone for UConn’s John and Valerie Rowe Health Professions Scholars Program for undergraduates.

Monday, Shawnet Jones becomes the first Rowe scholar to graduate from the UConn School of Medicine.

Jones was part of the first class of Rowe Scholars, which helped enable her to attend UConn’s Combined Program in Medicine, starting in 2005 as an undergraduate. She credits the Rowe scholarship and the UConn Health Center’s Health Career Opportunities Programs (HCOP) as being vital to her growth as a student-turned-physician. (more…)

2013 Distinguished Alumni Award: Chad A. Landmon

May 6, 2013

Chad Landmon is Co-Chair of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP’s Intellectual Property Practice and Chair of the FDA Practice Group. He is recognized as a leading advocate for pharmaceutical companies before FDA and premier patent litigator and counselor on issues involving the development and marketing of generic drugs and human tissue. He has a rare knowledge of intricate FDA processes and litigating complex patent cases involving drug products throughout the country. (more…)

2013 Distinguished Alumni Award: Anthony E. Chiodo

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Chiodo is currently a professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. There, he directs the multidisciplinary Spine Program for the management of patients with conditions and pain of the spine. He is also medical director and co-principal investigator of the Spinal Cord Injury Model System at the University of Michigan, one of fourteen such centers funded by the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. He directs and started the Adult Spasticity Clinic and was a founder of the Adult Assisted Ventilation Clinic. His current research interests include pain after spinal cord injury, sleep disordered breathing after spinal cord injury, and interventional management of painful spine conditions. (more…)

2012-13 Faculty Member of the Year Award: Patricia J. Neafsey

Professor Neafsey emigrated from Granby, Quebec before high school. She considered a major in computer science at Cornell, but decided computers needed to be more “usable” for her poor punch card typing skills. She joined the honors program in nutrition at Cornell and received her B.S. and M.S. in nutritional biochemistry. Following research stints at Penn and Yale, she obtained a teaching position at Albertus Magnus College and provided nutrition counseling services at two primary care practices in New Haven. Her interest in drug-nutrient interactions led her to pursue a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology at UConn followed by post-doctoral work at Tufts University. She was at Tufts when the UConn School of Nursing contacted her to help them develop a graduate pharmacotherapy course and an undergraduate curriculum that integrates pathophysiology, pharmacology, and nutrition over a series of courses. After one semester of teaching UConn nursing students, she was hooked! (more…)

2012-13 Faculty Member of the Year Award: Rebecca Flanagan

Rebecca Flanagan is a lifelong Husky, but her path back to UConn took her across the country. She graduated from UConn as an Honors Scholar, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1999, with a B.A. in English and political science. After a year spent working as a reading tutor, a waitress, and a barista, she returned to UConn to pursue an M.A. in elementary education. (more…)

Pre-med Student Exploring Range of Opportunities at UConn

March 26, 2013

Pre-med student Shervin Etemad ’14 (CLAS) was inspired by UConn’s Leadership Legacy Experience. (Max Sinton ’15 (CANR)/UConn Photo)

By Lauren Lalancette

Shervin Etemad ’14 (CLAS) entered UConn with a declared major and has never wavered – but as graduation approaches, he’s becoming increasingly open-minded about his career path.

A molecular and cell biology major from the beginning, Etemad wasn’t among the one-third of freshmen who enter UConn without having chosen a major. A Trumbull native, he graduated in the top 4 percent of his high school class, and accepted UConn’s Academic Excellence merit scholarship along with an invitation to join the Honors Program. (more…)

Real World Preparation Characterizes Student Nurse’s Education

March 12, 2013

Mallory Perry ’14 (NUR) is interested in pediatric intensive care. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

By Lauren Lalancette

A number of Division III schools vied for Middletown’s Mercy High School athlete of the year to enroll, but Mallory Perry ’14 (NUR) chose UConn because her future career was her top priority.

“It was all about the academics when I chose UConn,” Perry says. “There were so many different schools I could’ve gone to, but I knew I wouldn’t get into the WNBA.” (more…)

How an Honors Student Goes to a UConn Basketball Game

March 6, 2013

Perhaps something you may not know is that Honors students at the University of Connecticut are among the most supportive fans of UConn Basketball on campus. We truly embrace Huskymania. You will often see Honors students in the front row at both men’s and women’s games, leading cheers, singing the fight song, shouting, and jumping up and down to the point of exhaustion. Honors students at UConn take pride in every aspect of our university, and athletics are no exception.

So let me describe to you my typical experience at a UConn basketball game on campus at Gampel Pavilion. I start by getting in line a few hours early in order to make sure I’ll be able to get my usual front row seat. If I have a class during this time, someone will switch off with me so that we can keep our spots. I’m speaking, of course, of taking my place in line, not class. It’s never a good idea to switch off classes with friends, no matter how excited you are about the game! Depending on my mood, I will spend my time in line doing anything from listening to my iPod to studying for a midterm. Eventually, I’ll perk up from whatever I’m doing to boo the opposing team as it walks off the bus into Gampel. (As I said, Huskymania is a powerful force.) The doors open an hour and a half before game time. I rush down to the front row to grab my seat along with my friends.

Then comes the most important part of preparation for the game–break out the face paint. I paint half of my face blue and the other half white, adding a U and a C as a finishing touch. A blue and white wig adds to the ensemble. Finally, I don my Jonathan the Husky cape and head back down to the front row to watch our players warm up. I’m ready.

Game time. All of the students and fans start the game by clapping until UConn scores its first basket. The student section stands during the entire game, jumping and shouting when our team is on defense and yelling a cycle of cheers (U-C-O-N-N, U-C Let’s Go!, and Let’s Go Huskies!) when it’s on offense. TV cameras turn to the front row to get our excited reaction after a thunderous dunk, huge blocked shot, or swished 3-pointer. By the end of the game, I have sore calves and a hoarse voice, but it’s worth it every time.

All UConn students, including Honors students, show incredible pride, spirit, and enthusiasm for this university because we are:

Students Today. Huskies Forever.

John Dearborn ’13 (Political Science)
HIPS Coordinator