Do Good, Feel Good
Illustration by Mary Kate McDevitt
Neuroscientists who study our brains on happiness tend to agree that a key ingredient for one's own contentment is helping others.
As the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus famously told a room full of Forbes 400 billionaires, "Making money is a happiness. Making other people happy is a super-happiness."
We are all in need of a little happiness and a little inspiration lately, so we've devoted this issue of the magazine to stories of just a few of the many UConn faculty, staff, students, and alumni who spend their days doing good in the world, making it a better place for all of us.
These folks are called to their vocations because they are passionate about what they do and about making a difference — it just so happens that doing so may be making them happier in the process. We know that reading and writing about them made all of us just a little bit happier, too. And we hope you share that feeling.
Elevating English Majors
English professor Gina Barreca, dubbed the “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine has kept us laughing through 10 books from “I Used to Be Snow White But I Drifted” to “If You Lean In, Will Men just Look Down Your Blouse?” Her latest, though, invites others to the party.
Raising Her Voice to Amplify Other Voices
Saving a festival youth program in her hometown of Paraty, Brazil, made Pauline Batista ’16 MA a hero there.
Redefining “Wealth”
For Richie Mutts ’06 (CLAS) the impulse to do good is as irresistible as an infectious melody.
Making the World More Poetic
Where some poets turn ever inward, Marilyn (Waniek) Nelson turns outward, and there is compassion in every line she writes.
Advocating for Animals
Professor Jessica Rubin worked with animal rights groups to pass and implement the groundbreaking 2016 Desmond’s Law.