Student News

Honors BIOL 1107 & 1108

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A new Honors version of BIOL 1107 will be offered once a year, starting in Fall 2014. All Honors lab sections are attached to a single Honors lecture. Students who complete the course with a B- or better will earn 4 Honors credits on their transcripts. Students will no longer take the BIOL 1109 Honors seminar concurrently with BIOL 1107.

Honors credit for BIOL 1108 will still be earned by taking the BIOL 1109 Honors seminar concurrently with any BIOL 1108 section. Students’ transcripts will show 4 non-Honors credits for BIOL 1108 and 1 Honors credit for BIOL 1109. Starting in Fall 2014, students who earn a B- or better in BIOL 1108 and BIOL 1109 will be treated as if they had earned 4 Honors credits toward Honors participation requirements and/or Sophomore Honors. BIOL 1108+1109 may also be used as the 3 additional Honors credits at any level required for graduation as an Honors Scholar, but it will not fulfill the “depth” requirement (3 credits in an Honors graded class).

These changes do not affect students who completed BIOL 1107 + 1109 and/or BIOL 1108 + 1109 prior to Fall 2014. These students will still be treated as if they had earned 5 Honors credits for each.

Honors Class of 2017 Photo Scavenger Hunt

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How to Get Started:

  1. Like “UConn Honors Program” on Facebook and follow “@UConnHonors” on Twitter and/or Instagram.
  2. Visit our Facebook page each day of the Photo Scavenger Hunt for a new clue (daily at 10 a.m. through Sunday, Sept. 8).
  3. Find the clue on campus and take a picture of yourself with it.
  4. Upload the picture to Twitter and/or Instagram and include @UConnHonors and #honors2017 in the post. You must include both identifiers to be entered!

*You are not required to post your photo on the day the clue is revealed, but all entries must be posted by 11:59pm Sunday, September 8th.  (For example, you could submit 15 photos at 11:58pm on 9/8).

Things to Remember When Submitting:

  • You must be in the photo for it to count (and your photo must match a clue).
  • You must submit a unique photo for each clue and are allowed to post that unique photo to both Twitter and Instagram (2 entries). However, you may not recycle the photo for another day or use it twice on the same site. Maximum number of submissions is 30 (because you can submit your 15 unique photos to both Twitter and Instagram).
    • Be on the lookout for the 15 clues as well as two BONUS clues (if you catch all 17, post all 17 to both Twitter and Instagram, you could have 34 entries!)
    • Regardless of the number of entries you make (maximum 30+4 BONUS) all of them will be made by one individual: You.

Why is that important? The goal of the Photo Scavenger Hunt is to get as many members of the Honors Class of 2017 to participate! As more individuals participate, the stakes of the raffle prize increase!

Here’s the Final Prize Breakdown:

  • 1 – 75 individual students participate = raffle for one  $50 UConn Co-Op Gift-Card
  • 76 – 150 individual students participate= raffle for one $75 UConn Co-Op Gift-Card
  • 151–225 individual students participate= raffle for one $100 UConn Co-Op Gift-Card
  • 226+ individual students participate= raffle for one iPad Mini

Whether you submit 1 photo to Twitter (1 entry) or all 17 photos to both Twitter and Instagram (34 entries), you are still one individual, but your additional entries increase your overall chance of winning. Encourage your friends, classmates, and neighbors to participate as well to advance the prize!

The Fine Print:

  • All entries must be posted by Sunday, Sept. 8, at 11:59 p.m.
  • One raffle winner will be randomly selected from all submissions. The winner must be a first-year Honors student. The winner will be contacted via Twitter and/or Instagram after Sept. 8th to confirm first-year Honors status. The winner will have 48 hours to reply and confirm in order to claim the prize (After 48 hours of no response, a new winner will be selected).
  • Your posts must be visible when searching by #honors2017, so don’t forget to tag each submission (and check the hashtag to ensure it is visible in the feed).
  • Be respectful as you participate and visit each person or location (don’t be awkward…).
  • Disclaimer: This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. The UConn Honors Program is solely in charge of administering this contest.

All photos must be appropriate and activities of those depicted must fall within the confines of the UConn student code and all other campus policies. Any violations will be reported to the Office of Community Standards.

Honors Engineer alum becomes expat technology leader

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By Cheryl Cranick, Honors Program

Ventimiglias
The Ventimiglias during their expat experience in India. (Back: Laura ’94, Benjamin, Phil ’92; front: Aidan and Abigail)

Phil Ventimiglia ’92 (ENGR-Honors) has been at the forefront of technology innovation for nearly two decades, working for industry giants such as Lockheed Sanders, IBM, Dell, and currently NCR Corporation. “I have spent my entire career developing new technologies and products. It is who I am. It is like breathing,” said Ventimiglia. But his career really began much earlier; at his family home in fact, when his engineer father introduced him to “the dawn of the personal computer,” he said. First tinkering with equipment that his father brought home, Phil eventually enrolled at UConn, bringing with him not just his first Commodore 64 but also his budding fascination for technology. Continue reading →

Recent Graduate to Present Senior Design Project to NASA Engineers

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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. Continue reading →

A UConn Medical Student First

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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. Continue reading →

2013 Distinguished Alumni Award: Chad A. Landmon

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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. Continue reading →

2013 Distinguished Alumni Award: Anthony E. Chiodo

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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. Continue reading →

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

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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 →

Pre-med Student Exploring Range of Opportunities at UConn

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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. Continue reading →

Real World Preparation Characterizes Student Nurse’s Education

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Profile photo of Mallory Perry, 2014 school of nursing student.
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.” Continue reading →