Waxing Entrepreneurial
For Michelle Wax ‘12 (BUS), happiness means embracing the pivot.
Category: Business
Capstone Students Design Themselves Into Coveted Tech Jobs
An alum who creates customer-focused digital displays at Reality Interactive places his bets on UConn’s talent pipeline.
Square Peg Pizza
Turns out you can go home again — and when you’re slinging tasty pizza and pasta, you’ll be embraced with open arms.
Designing a Take-2 Career
Tips for designing a serene space — and a new profession — from exec-turned-interior designer Jeanne Collins ’05 MBA.
McMahon on a Mission
Study abroad in Spain his junior year led to Matt McMahon’s job running the Sports Diplomacy Division at the U.S. State Department.
Paper Work
As the university archivist at Eastern Connecticut State University, Tara Ludlow Hurt ’94 (CLAS) does the dirty work of rescuing centuries-old documents for posterity.
The Greatest Career in the World
Cob Carlson ’76 (ED), film editor – and sometimes producer and director – looks back on his favorite projects.
Is Your Boss a Jerk?
Or worse…are you? Tessa West ’08 Ph.D. helps you fix your workplace nightmares.
Everything’s Coming up Rosé
Two of the things Michael Connery ’75 JD likes most about his second-chapter vocation as a vineyard owner are the view and “that sense of creating something tangible.”
Advanced Cannabis Horticulture
Matt DeBacco wants each of his students to come out of this class with the chemistry, horticulture, and business know-how for a successful grow-out.
Kicks
Why does everyone — count Lil Nas X, Matt Damon, Alicia Keys, and Penny Hardaway — want to shop for sneakers with Joe La Puma?
Tenacious 2
Former UConn athletes and roommates focus their competitive streaks on the franchise business world.
Smart With Heart
Eunice Omega says the coolest thing about working at Pixar is the impact.
It’s Cool
Only a cool mom could get her son a FaceTime with comedian Joe Gatto.
Eat Your Words
English Professor Emerita Lynn Z. Bloom goes deep on recipes and shares her own, for the best blueberry pie.
All Roads Lead Home
A storied Spanish hiking trail delivers a full-circle moment for ’90s alum Alex Chang and some lucky current students. “On the Camino, everyone writes their own story,” says Chang.
The Right Man for the Job
If you want to be a leader, you need to think like one, says Greg Lewis ’91 (BUS), senior vice president and CFO of Honeywell.
The D’Amelio’s Father-Daughter Dance
Marc D’Amelio ’91 (CLAS) — who with daughters Charli and Dixie is a social media and reality TV star — talks parenting, TikTok, bleeding blue, and Beavis and Butthead.
Making Money
Wondering how to get started with stock-market investing? Motley Fool writer Brian Feroldi ’04 (BUS) has you covered.
Caribou and Coffee
How a chance discovery at a quirky coffee shop turned up one of Connecticut’s most significant archaeological sites.
Michael Zacchea
A colleague honors beloved Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans leader Michael Zacchea ’12 MBA, who died unexpectedly in April.
Be Our Guest
Kate Copeland ’15 (MBA), UConn’s assistant director of University Events and Conference Services, was named 2021 Member of the Year by Meeting Professionals International (MPI).
Bee Good
A true entrepreneur, School of Engineering second year Raina Jain started working on the next big thing while perfecting her first one, the bee-saving HiveGuard.
Recent Nursing Alum Secures Patent
Ellen Quintana ’21 (NUR) just got a non-provisional patent for technology that reduces the disposable gloves that come out each time you try to pull one from the box.
Our American Girls
What do you do with a history doctorate and a pop culture obsession? If you’re these two alums, you create a hit podcast centering on ’90s nostalgia.
Sticking with It
Keith Worts ’88 MA knows how to stick with it. The “it” being exercise.
Uphill Battles
Growing up in Jamaica, Rohan Freeman could not have envisioned himself as an engineer, re-creating the Hartford landscape. And he certainly could not have seen himself as the first Black American to climb the Seven Summits.
Live from Boston
“It’s my job, as an individual and as a journalist, to find stories that matter.”
Eau de Herring
Kimberly Grendzinski ’16 (CAHNR) begins every workday at NYC’s Central Park Zoo fending off a mob of hungry mob of heckling penguins.
Coffee and Cubanos
Breno Donatti ’14 (BGS) found a way to feed his neighbors and boost his restaurant business.
Playing Through
“You can’t plan for years like 2020,” says Meghan Hall ’08 (CLAS), the Lego Group’s senior director of digital marketing in the Americas.
Teaching the World to Swipe for Love
Tinder Tips from Sean Reddy ’14 (CLAS)
Old-School Soda
Bill Potvin ’69 (CAHNR), ’75 MS is the flavorist and more at Hosmer Mountain Soda.
Swiss Miss
How alum Autumn (Backman) Sutherland (and her dog Mulligan) built Canton, Connecticut’s Matterhorn Mini Golf.
A Million Miles in His Shoes
Javier Macias ’05 (CLAS) heads up P.R. for Adidas USA.
Where’s the Beef?
Christopher Finazzo ’04 (CLAS) on the Impossible Whopper rollout.
Financial Services
Professor Paul Gilson foregoes textbooks in favor of newsletters and tickers.
Hot Dog!
Gabriella Medvick ’18 (SFA), was one of the 12 lucky hotdoggers hired to cruise the 27-foot-long bright yellow and orange Oscar Mayer Wienermobile cross country for the past year.
Melissa McCaw Is New State Budget Chief
Melissa McCaw ’14 MPA is one of the many alums that Governor Ned Lamont is tapping for top jobs in his administration
Amy Errett ’79 (CLAS)
The founder of Madison Reed was named one of the Top 100 Female Business Founders of 2018 by Inc. magazine
Letters – Spring 2019
Readers love love loved our young CEOs
Helping Connecticut’s Family Businesses
“Your name is on the business and your reputation is tied to it”
Haley Dragoo ’13 (CLAS) Is On The Fast Train
If the subway’s not on track, it’s a UConn alum who posts about it
Graduating With A C.E.O.
Meet 20 entrepreneurial alums and students so young and successful it will make your teeth hurt
Bitcoin Believers
If You Can Understand Pizza and Poker You Can Understand Bitcoin — and Why You Should
Future Entrepreneurs Share Ideas with Philanthropist Peter J. Werth
Peter J. Werth’s $22.5M gift to further innovation and entrepreneurship is the second largest in UConn history.
The Art of Muckraking
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalism professor Mike Stanton teaches tried-and-true “shoe leather” investigative journalism. He hopes students will turn his skill set into new-medium magic.
Show Him the Money
Three Decades ago he played for Coach Calhoun. Today Greg Economou ’88 (CLAS) is a major Hollywood player. Many of the same principles apply.
Walk This Way
Maggie Quackenbush ’17 (BUS) jumped at the offer of a job at Sony Music as an opportunity to leverage her degree in management information systems.
Britney Reynolds ’19 (BUS, CLAS)
A new U.S. citizen, this psychology and business major still has a scholarship in her name in Jamaica.
Olivia Balsinger
At 24, Olivia Balsinger ’14 (CLAS) has a passport with 75 nation stamps in it and an office that spans the planet.
Dispatches from Afar
An agriculture student shares his adventures with the creatures of New Zealand and a recent environmental science grad recounts his Cape Canaveral NASA adventure.
In the Hot Seat with ESPN’s Molly Qerim
For most citizens, political debates are all about assessing the candidates. But not if you’re Molly Qerim ’06 (CLAS).
Andrew Schwartz is Revamping NYC’s Seaport District
From head coach of the women’s ice hockey club team to senior vice president for strategic partnership at the Howard Hughes Corporation, find out what the future holds for this alum.