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! Continue reading
Student News
Pre-med Student Exploring Range of Opportunities at UConn
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. Continue reading
Real World Preparation Characterizes Student Nurse’s Education
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.” Continue reading
2013 Holster Scholars
Luke LaRosa, from Montpelier, Vt., is an urban and community studies major and a member of the Special Program in Law. He is particularly interested in environmental law, public policy, and transportation geography (having ridden the school bus two hours each day throughout most of his pre-collegiate education).
Project: “School Busing in Rural Communities”
Faculty Mentor: Carol Atkinson-Polombo (Department of Geography)
Peer Mentor: Kaila Manca
Brendan Smalec, from Cheshire, Conn., is a double major in molecular and cell biology and art history who aspires to be a physician scientist and advance cancer research. He is also an avid swimmer, having been awarded the CT Swimming Three-Year Scholar Athlete Award in 2012.
Project: “Reactivating Hypermethyated Oncogenes through the Use of DNA Methyltransferase Inhibitors”
Faculty Mentor: Rachel O’Neill (Department of Molecular & Cell Biology)
Peer Mentor: Kevin Zheng
Jonathan Schmieding, from Granby, Mass., is a music major and composer. He plays the clarinet for the Marching Band and the Symphonic Band and is the recipient of a Music Department Scholarship. Having grown up to soundtracks by John Williams and Howard Shore, he aspires to be a professional composer.
Project: “Musical Composition: Developing Artistic Expression through the Synthesis of Romanticism & Atonality”
Faculty Mentors: Kenneth Fuchs and Robert Miller (Department of Music)
Peer Mentor: Kaitrin Acuna
Kayvon Ghoreshi, from Manchester, Conn., is a pre-med molecular & cell biology major. He is using his Holster experience, however, to delve into biomedical engineering. Born with a severe nut allergy, Kayvon is frustrated with the design of the ubiquitous “Epipen,” and is determined to change it for the better with a new streamlined, user-friendly design.
Project: “Re-designing the Epipen”
Faculty Mentor: Donald Peterson (Biomedical Engineering Program)
Peer Mentor: Lior Trestman
D. Christina Macklem, from Tolland, Conn., is a biological sciences major interested in studying climate change adaptation. She has an affinity for frogs specifically, and amphibians in general, having witnessed an off-season baby sea turtle launch in Costa Rica during a school trip.
Project: “Effect of Temperature Variation to Wood Frog Tadpoles”
Faculty Mentor: Tracy Rittenhouse (Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)
Peer Mentor: Kaila Manca
Asahi Hoque, from Cheshire, Conn., is a pre-med biological sciences major who has spent time working for Distressed Children & Infants International, a nonprofit that serves poor communities in Bangladesh, her family’s country of origin. There she also interned with an ophthalmologist, performed routine eye screenings, learned about cataracts, and a host of preventable diseases affecting the community, which led to her Holster project.
Project: “A Look into the Issues Surrounding Proper Maternal Care in Bangladesh”
Faculty Mentor: Manisha Desai (Department of Sociology)
Peer Mentor: Julianne Norton
Universitas 21 Social Entrepreneur Corps in Guatemala Study Abroad Program
Universitas 21 is the leading global network of research-intensive universities and UConn is a proud member. The U21 Social Entrepreneur Corps in Guatemala program builds on our U21 institutions’ expertise in social entrepreneurship, online and blended learning, international collaboration and service learning, as well as on our common commitment to global citizenship.
Social entrepreneurship as a topic and Guatemala as a location are already part of individual U21 members’ study abroad program offerings. The U21 Social Entrepreneur Corps program is a tailored approach to study abroad that combines global collaboration, new technologies, and impact-oriented learning activities.
Social entrepreneurship is an approach that the Social Entrepreneur Corps successfully utilizes in Latin America. For the proposed U21 program, students interested in international development will work directly with Social Entrepreneur Corps field professionals and social entrepreneurs in Guatemala to help establish new and grow existing micro-consignment supported businesses.
The benefits include exposure to economic theories of social entrepreneurship and active engagement with case study analyses, Spanish language, and Guatemalan, including Mayan, culture. The students will experience living with the local families and working intensively with community service organizations and local social entrepreneurs. Our students will make a tangible difference in people’s lives, while also acquiring the knowledge, skills, and habits necessary to become socially aware, active global citizens. The program is designed as a short-term summer (June/July) opportunity for U21 students. U21 students are encouraged, but not required to take this program for academic credit. This program aims to complement the already existing U21 Summer School and Global Issues Program.
***Note: The U21 SEC is not to be confused with the Social Entrepreneurship in Guatemala 8-week program.You can find out more about the 8-week program and apply for it through the Office of Global Affairs.
New Full Scholarships for Exceptional State Students
By: Kristina Goodnough, UConn Foundation
Under a multi-year agreement, up to five new full scholarships will be available annually to exceptional state students at the University of Connecticut through a gift from the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation.
The gift will allow UConn to provide full support, including tuition, room and board, fees, and books to the students who will be guaranteed admission to UConn’s highly selective Honors Program. An additional benefit of the new scholarships is financial support for enrichment activities that can include international travel and study, outdoor leadership programs, or research or non-profit internships. Continue reading
FDLI to Honor Baylor-Henry, Bennett, Henteleff and Taylor
By PRNewswire
The Food and Drug Law Institute will honor four outstanding food and drug law professionals with its annual Distinguished Service and Leadership Award: Minnie Baylor-Henry, Alan Bennett, Thomas O. Henteleff and John M. Taylor III. Continue reading
Scholarships Help Pat and Norman Bender Say Thanks to School of Nursing
By Kristina Goodnough, UConn Foundation
Norman BenderPat and Norman Bender got so much satisfaction from the first scholarship fund they established at UConn, they decided to set up a second one.
Both scholarships support students in the School of Nursing from which Pat graduated in 1969.
The first was established in 2004 in honor of Pat’s father, Robert A. Matheson, a 1941 graduate of UConn. “My father was extremely supportive of higher education and devoted to UConn his entire life,” says Pat. They established the scholarship shortly before Matheson died. “We were able to alert friends and family members that they could make donations to his scholarship fund in his memory. It was comforting for them and for us,” says Pat. Continue reading
UConn Student Wins Prestigious Marshall Scholarship
By Colin Poitras
For the second time in four years, a University of Connecticut student has won a prestigious Marshall Scholarship.
Ethan Butler, a 2012 chemical engineering graduate and past president of the UConn chapter of Engineers Without Borders, will spend the next two years in the United Kingdom pursuing his graduate studies at one, and possibly two, of Britain’s finest academic and research institutions. Continue reading
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. Continue reading