Lourdes Leguiza is an allied health sciences major of Argentinian descent from Greenwich, CT, where she graduated in 2017 from Greenwich High School. She has interned at a local hospital, shadowing nurses in the IVF department, where she also did research. She recently rescued a cat, which she says has become her baby!
Shaharia Ferdus is originally from Bangladesh but grew up in Meriden, CT where she graduated from Orville H. Platt High School. She loves to get to know different languages, cultures, and communities. She watches videos on Japanese history, follows Korean dramas, and updates her Italian music playlist on Spotify. As a future healthcare professional she feels it’s important to be able to understand many languages. This international flavor is apparent in her health care background. Her early volunteer work at Midstate Medical Center presented a stark contrast to the healthcare services she experienced in Bangladesh, and since that time her focus has been on underserved populations. This summer, she traveled with Huskies for Haiti, and volunteered at rural and local clinics, taking vital signs, supplying patients with medicine, and supporting the staff. She also volunteered at a Migrant Farm Worker clinic, providing care for Jamaican migrant workers in Connecticut. For the remainder of the summer, she worked in a nutritional sciences laboratory as part of the Bridging the Gap program, primarily investigating the effect of gut-derived bacterial lipids on liver health and the possible relationship to atherosclerosis. She will continue this research throughout the year as part of her Honors thesis.
Sandra Osei-Boasiako has played tennis since she was a freshman in high school, and enjoys reading and meeting new people. Originally from Columbus, OH, she has lived in East Hartford, CT since the age of five, and graduated from East Hartford High School. Her mother is a nurse and used to take Sandra to work with her. Sandra plans to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a nursing major with a minor in Spanish. Sandra has volunteered at Riverside Health Center for two summers.
Zaiba Khan is a molecular and cell biology major who plans to minor in political science and Spanish. She has worked in an UConn Health research lab on virtual cell modeling and analysis software. She has also volunteered at St. Francis Hospital’s maternity ward, and was a member of UConn Health’s Health Career Opportunities Program offerings. Zaiba is from East Windsor, CT and graduated from East Windsor High School. She’s also been cliff diving!
Jerome Jacobs is originally from Boston, MA but graduated from Rockville High School in Vernon, CT. He says that science has always been his passion, especially learning about how human intelligence and cutting-edge technology could not only improve our daily well-being but also invent ways to save our lives from currently incurable or unknown diseases. Therefore, at UConn he is majoring in biomedical engineering and planning to pursue a career that would advance both scientific and health care fields. He has Lifeguarding/First Aid/CPR/AED certification and has volunteered for two years with an event that raises money for the Special Olympics. Jerome has been a cellist for ten years and has performed with the Connecticut Youth Symphony and Connecticut All-State Orchestra. He has given free concerts at Hartford Hospital. Jerome has traveled to over 15 countries, included the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea, and hopes to take advantage of education abroad while at UConn to learn about health care systems in other countries.
Jaydel Hernandez is a biology major but is thinking about adding a minor or double major in a politics-related field to help in her pursuit of a career as a doctor who practices abroad. Originally from Guatemala, she grew up watching her father give back to their community in that country, and they are working on plans to open an orphanage there. Jaydel has attended a program at Johns Hopkins University that allowed her to experience inserting an IV and suturing. She has also completed a course at Greenwich Hospital where she learned about the responsibilities of each medical department. Additionally she completed an internship program at a center for mentally disabled patients. Jaydel is from Greenwich, CT and a graduate of Greenwich High School.
Leroy Griffiths, Jr. began his foray into the health professions when he was just nine years old and became a member of the Red Cross Foundation. Through this program he has volunteered at children’s homes, blood drives, and nursing homes. He’s majoring in physiology and neurobiology, which he feels aligns closely with his aspiration to become a neurosurgeon. Leroy loves to dance and has been a member of several cultural dance groups and teams, which he says makes dance a major part of his life. Born in Brooklyn, NY but raised in Jamaica, Leroy moved to back to the US in the seventh grade and now lives in Bloomfield, CT where he graduated from Bloomfield High School.
Angelo Franco will be a biomedical engineering major with a potential double major in economics. His interest in economics stems from the fact that his family owns several restaurants. He’s a fluent Spanish speaker who loves photography and was a high school swimmer. He’s from East Hartford, CT where he graduated from the Connecticut IB Academy. Angelo has participated in UConn Health’s Health Career Opportunity Program’s High School Student Research Apprentice Program, where he researched bone regeneration, sparking his interest in biomedical engineering. He has also shadowed family and friends who work in health care.
Tiffany Addy shares the same middle name with eight of her first female cousins. She was born in Ghana, West Africa but lives in Farmington, CT where she graduated from Farmington High School. A physiology and neurobiology major, she has volunteered at John Dempsey Hospital for two summers, working hand-in-hand with professionals to provide care to patients. She has also participated in the Inspiring Women and Medicine Workshop, which exposed her to the field of orthopaedic surgery and engineering. As a senior in high school she was a member of the UConn Health Career Opportunities Program’s Senior Doctors Academy, where she shadowed at Pediatrics Associates of Farmington and conducted research on the neurocognitive effects of early childhood leukemia treatment on the brains of children between the ages of three and 10.
Flourishing and Well-being in Interdisciplinary Perspective
Instructor: Sarah Willen
While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Willen welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.
In this seminar, we will draw on anthropology and related fields of scholarship and practice – e.g., philosophy, psychology, public health, sociology, critical theory, and human rights – to ask:
In addition to research literature, we will engage these questions through other media, including fiction, poetry, journaling, visual arts, and music.