We knew we needed to talk with the best middle school principal in the country. We knew, too, that there could be no one better to interrogate him about his origin story than our former magazine student worker — coincidentally an alum of his middle school.
It’s September 11, 2001, a little after 9 a.m. and the park has just opened to the public when park duty manager Peter LaPorta is called to an emergency conference in the main office. There’s been a terrorist attack.
What does a day as national middle school principal of the year look like? Former UConn football captain Damon Lewis ’95 (CLAS) shows us.
Accidental actor Will Hines teaches comedy’s golden rule — and lives by it. The improv maestro flies under the radar, but you will likely realize you’ve seen — or heard — him in quite a few somethings.
From firefighters to photographers, hundreds of UConn alums credit one brilliant, patient, unassuming professor for helping them cut through their confusion and fear to steer a purposeful course through college, work, and life.
How does Morty Ortega find the time to spend so many hours patiently listening to student hopes, dreams, and nightmares? His family.
University photographer Peter Morenus and wife, Jen Morenus, assistant director of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, are the kind of people who have connections all over campus — and very far from campus.
Savarino-Hoppe has started a unique foundation in memory of her daughter, Victoria “Vicky” Marie Hoppe.
Michelle (Bussiere) Puzzo ’98 (SAH) is transforming Connecticut communities with a growing business and a simple mantra, “Just help people that say they need help.”
Richard Juknavorian ’95 (CLAS) shares the top 10 episodes of his podcast, “Meeting You Where You’re At.”
Remember those rising first-years of the Class of 2024, whose touching, eager, and sometimes prophetic admissions essays we shared on the cover of our Fall 2020 issue? We wondered how those historic four years turned out for them — and where they are now.
Brenda Milla ’19 (CLAS), ’24 Ph.D. talks about breathing, brain cells, and why it’s her dream to attend a mixed martial arts bout.
Congress’ 16-member Afghanistan War Commission includes three UConn alums.
Amelia Martin’s ’23 (CAHNR) company Mud Rat is devising the “blanks” from which anyone can make an eco-friendly board.
Working as the head of an investment management firm for 19 years, Steve Wilson found himself frustrated by the gender disparity he saw in the field.
America is in need of marriage counseling. Enter Bill Doherty, a couples therapist for some 40 years — but over the past eight, he’s taken on a new type of client.
When she’s not guiding corporate citizenship and equity for Eversource, this exec is helping to spark the futures of a new generation of UConn students.
A nursing student with minimal film experience travels 3,000 miles to document an underage pregnancy epidemic.
“When I was a kid, my dyslexia was something that I really did not like about myself,” says alum Krista Weltner. ” I hope that these books will help children who are going through it right now.”
Three years into her dream career as an educator, Kiana Foster-Mauro is Connecticut’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.
Too often history is written by the powerful. A UConn anthropologist made sure the story of COVID-19 was chronicled by the rest of us.
From Storrs to Northampton, dog connections run deep for UConn Magazine editor Lisa Stiepock.
Naadu Adjoka-Nartey knows UConn is the right school (times two) and family practice is the right profession.
Capt. Justin Gilbert believed the new LiveSafe app offered by the UConn Police Department could be a potential lifesaver for students — if only they knew about it.
For nearly two decades, this cross-disciplinary program has taught future “change agents” how to provide good, accessible health care for everyone.
Behind business supernova Trisha Bailey is a “deeply disturbing” story that shaped her into the resilient, generous individual she is today.
Janet Yellen and Lynn Malerba ’08 MPA make history as the first female Treasury Secretary and first Indigenous U.S. Treasurer with their signatures on the currency.
Grad student Sage Phillips ’22 (CLAS), ’24 MA in conversation with Lynn Malerba ’08 MPA on Malerba’s roles as Treasurer, Chief, and Mom.
She was the first woman to serve as the dean of an academic department at UConn, overseeing the Division of Home Economics from 1920 to 1926.
A music major at UConn, Johannes Neuer ’00 MM now lives in Leipzig, Germany, safeguarding a nation’s memories.
In the wake of a tragic loss, Ryan Matthews ’09 (CLAS), ’16 MPA started The Susie Foundation, a nonprofit that supports families caring for relatives with ALS.
Nidhi Nair wants to share financial literacy with the world — starting with her UConn classmates.
Listening to music from her youth — Spice Girls, anyone? — transports Maldonado to the headspace of her semi-autobiographical, young adult heroines.
Aaron Carr started a small housing watchdog nonprofit at age 28. Less than a decade later, that group has filed the largest housing discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history.
Making Good Accessible Playground Sarah Grossman (far left) during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the accessible playground. When physical therapist Sarah Grossman ’81 (CAHNR) started the school year in the Chimacum, Washington, school district six years ago, she discovered she had three preschool children on her caseload who couldn’t walk. The school’s […]
Educators and puppets unite to teach kids about emotions.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, a roundup of recent UConn weddings.
Can truth withstand incessant attacks from all sides? UConn Journalism Professor Amanda Crawford reflects on Sandy Hook, Alex Jones, and our culture of disinformation.
When this Ph.D. student isn’t working in a genomics lab, he’s biking — and finding some truly wild things on the side of the road. (And, often, eating them!)
The third African American to serve as a Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, Justice Harper cast the deciding vote to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.
Alum Wura Olusekun’s job is to make Boston Celtics fans happy — win or lose.
Kinesiology alum Yuri Hosokawa ’16 (CAHNR) uses methods she learned at UConn to train the Japan Coast Guard.
Edwina Whitney (1868″“1970) was the second and longest-serving head librarian at UConn, then Connecticut Agricultural College. Hired in 1900, she first worked in a cramped two-room library lit by kerosene lamps.
Frank Figliuzzi ’87 JD, host of the podcast “The Bureau with Frank Figliuzzi,” MSNBC analyst, and author of “The FBI Way,” maintains a “fidelity, bravery, integrity” mission despite retirement.
Irene Soteriou ’23 (CLAS), UConn’s 10th Truman Scholar, wants to stop human rights violations, particularly in the Middle East. She’s starting now.
From behind the wheel of a stretch, Leo Lachut ’89 (CLAS) has seen a lot of things. While abiding by the “limo code,” UConn’s director of Academic Support shares a few favorite stories.
Who is the “public” in “public education”? Future teachers in this class tease apart that question, using history and current events to examine the inequities in our educational systems and to posit real-world fixes.
A colleague honors beloved Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans leader Michael Zacchea ’12 MBA, who died unexpectedly in April.
UConn policy practice Master of Social Work graduate, Amanda Brenner’s work on mental health policy, is an extremely personal mission — she’s hoping her lived experience can give others hope.
UConn faculty making news about sexism, guns, Russian popular resistance, and more.
For reporting on terrorism, extremism, and atrocities against women in her country, Marvi Sirmed found herself under the most serious of death threats. The Pakistani journalist found the freedom to live — and to work and teach — at UConn.
University Professor Dr. Cato T. Laurencin was awarded the 106th annual Spingarn Medal, the highest honor of the NAACP.
Talitha Washington ’98 MS, ’01 Ph.D. is turning tables on the data science that has worked against Black and Brown people — by creating science and math pathways for students of color.
In 1934 UConn students rallied against racism shown UConn’s first Black basketball player.
Beverly Weurding’s popular wheelchair dance program now includes Bollywood and hip-hop.
When LaShawnda Phillips (RHSA ’20, CAHNR ’22) first moved to her neighborhood in Hartford at age 13, she set out to do some exploring. She found horses.
Dennis Pierce ’15 MBA never got the memo about how humans tend to be change averse. During his 34-year tenure at UConn Dining Services the recently retired Pierce created a culture of change.
The more extraordinary the challenge, the more likely UConn Distinguished Alumnus Scott Cowen will be asked to help.
The man behind those gorgeous campus photos on Instagram is a longtime UConn professor and wildlife biologist.
Aysha Mahmood’s job is, in short, to make kindness cool, a goal as ambitious as it is straightforward
Emmy Award”“winning filmmaker Oscar Guerra wants to have a conversation about immigration. Not a policy debate or a campaign rally or, god forbid, a made-for-cable screaming match. But an honest and open talk about what it means to be a working-class Latinx immigrant in America in the 21st century.
Neag School of Education professor and former Major League Baseball star Doug Glanville has no right to be this good at this many things.
A sociology graduate, Larkin-Wells honed her abilities as a breadmaker through UConn’s Sustainable Community Food Systems minor — a unique and intensive interdisciplinary program that combines theory and practice through service learning and hands-on experience with community partners.
Jason Jakubowski ’99 (CLAS), ’01 MPA enlisted Husky help to get food to Connecticut families during the worst of the pandemic.
After Hannah Bacon ’15 (CLAS) lost her job at an environmental nonprofit due to the pandemic, she decided to use her time off to walk across the country to raise money and awareness for climate action.
When alum Steven Were Omamo sees someone planting, he sees hope. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee seems to agree.
A few of UConn’s finest share experiences from the past year.
Gifted mind, steadfast advocate, and caring friend.
Former Husky baller Chris Smith ’92 (BUS), far right, gathered current basketball players to help Foodshare’s Jason Jakubowski ’99 (CLAS), ’01 MPA, center.
No one who knew Jim LaFlamme back in the ’70s would have predicted what he’s doing now.
Sage Phillips ’22 (CLAS) is unearthing more of UConn’s origin story.
Taekwondo master Daniel Andrew Chasse ’85 (SFA) teaches classes designed for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
At age 97, Esther Pahl ’52 MSW is still very much making a difference.
Daniel Hanley ’12 (BUS), ’19 JD and Jackie Filson ’16 (CLAS) lead a growing anti-monopoly movement at the Open Markets Institute in D.C.
“My clients restore my faith in humanity,” says Ellen Messali ’10 JD of her immigration work with New Haven Legal Assistance.
Saving a festival youth program in her hometown of Paraty, Brazil, made Pauline Batista ’16 MA a hero there.
Peter Goggins ’21 (CAHNR) started his company with a school of goldfish and an aquarium purchased at Petco.
Professor Jessica Rubin worked with animal rights groups to pass and implement the groundbreaking 2016 Desmond’s Law.
The matching gift challenge comes with support from longtime donors Phyllis and Gary Gladstein ’66 (CLAS), ’08 (HON).
Mary-Ellen Barrett ’88 JD says her whole career has led her to this battle.
History professor Manisha Sinha, an Indian American who is one of the world’s leading experts on the Civil War and slavery in the U.S., on removing Confederate statues.
Profs weigh in on new ways to teach, meet, age, get creative, and more.
This extraordinary class of seniors (and near-seniors) had already weathered a number of major storms before the pandemic hit.
Ahmed Diakhate ’23 (BUS) created and donated 250 face masks to frontline health care workers.
Louis Goffinet ’17 (CLAS) offered in a Facebook post to shop for elderly neighbors. Two months later he was still shopping, and overseeing a $30,000 Neighbors Grocery Fund.
These Huskies — students, staff, professors, doctors, nurses, and graduates new and old —are finding innovative ways to help us all navigate a global pandemic.
Josh Cohen’05 (BUS) wants to make landfills obsolete.
Adetinpo Thomas ’15 MA is happy to be acting in Atlanta.
Anthropology professor Deborah Bolnick analyzes ancient DNA in a state-of-the-art Clean Lab in Storrs where her work is, among other things, helping to shed light on Native American histories.
“The intellectual rigor at UConn, in the political science program, really prepared me for everything from the Supreme Court to the White House to building up one of the largest counterterror coalitions in the world,” says Brett McGurk ’96 (CLAS).
How alum Autumn (Backman) Sutherland (and her dog Mulligan) built Canton, Connecticut’s Matterhorn Mini Golf.
Michael Smith ’08 MS took his team to the national championship — and won.
She wants women to run.
What’s this Wi-Fi you speak of?
Bongi Magubane ’76 is determined to fix the Connecticut DMV.
Cover Artist Blanche Serban is painting 365 days of Horsebarn Hill.
Still practicing law at 100 years old, Morton Katz ’39 (CLAS) ’51 JD has worked as a special public defender at Hartford Superior Court for the past 20 years.
For the first time, a UConn student is named both a Truman and a Udall scholar.
Elsa Nocton has not quite hit teenagerdom and yet she has headlined the Hard Rock Café in New York City and is a member of the UConn Women’s Volleyball Team.