Alyssa (Weskolowski) Brown, ’11,  is singing a very different shark song than the rest of the world. The SCSU nursing graduate and her husband, Zach, walked away from ABC’s shark tank as newly minted millionaires after pitching their invention on the show last week.

According to CNBC.com,  “Zach, a firefighter, and Alyssa, an emergency room nurse, always enjoyed outdoor activities, like kayaking. There was just one problem: When they’d transport their kayaks (or bikes or snowboards) on the roof of their car, 5-foot-tall Alyssa would struggle to reach the roof to help take the gear down.

It inspired the couple to create the Moki Door Step, essentially a small step that attaches to the u-shaped latch in your vehicle’s open door so you can reach the roof. It currently sells for $44.95.”

Go Owls!

Students at Southern are recognized for their high academic achievement by being placed on the dean’s list of their respective schools. In order for undergraduate students to qualify for the dean’s list, students must complete 12.0 or more credits in fall or spring and earn a semester GPA of 3.5 or better. These requirements apply to all undergraduate students, regardless of their academic class (i.e., freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior.) The students who made the SCSU Dean’s List for fall 2018 are listed below, alphabetically by school and last name. Congratulations to all!

School of Arts & Sciences

School of Business

School of Education

School of Health & Human Services

Undeclared

ARTS & SCIENCES

A’lexus Johnson-staton, Bridgeport, CT
Abigail Allen, Orange, CT
Abigail Chamberlain, Orange, CT
Abigail Oladapo, Naugatuck, CT
Adam Pelz, Terryville, CT
Adrian Cordova, Stratford, CT
Adriana Bermudez-Garcia, Bridgeport, CT
Adriana Gizzi, Wolcott, CT
Adriana Schull, Killingworth, CT
Aedan Ryan, Wallingford, CT
Aidan Reilly, Orange, CT
Aisha Jawaid, North Haven, CT
Alan Verrier, Cheshire, CT
Alana Cotton, Northford, CT
Aleksandra Galka, Plainville, CT
Alenka Mora, Bridgeport, CT
Alex Mercado, West Haven, CT
Alex Triscritti, Naugatuck, CT
Alex Viel, Meriden, CT
Alexa McIntosh, East Haven, CT
Alexander Allegra, Shelton, CT
Alexander Cushman, New Hartford, CT
Alexander O’neal, Salisbury, CT
Alexandra Berry, Wethersfield, CT
Alexandra Drezek, Seymour, CT
Alexandra Galla, Oxford, CT
Alexandra Takacs, Sparta, NJ
Alexis Annosier, Stamford, CT
Alexis Christoni-Petrucelli, Wallingford, CT
Alexis Corda, Milford, CT
Alexis Cruz, Wolcott, CT
Alexis Davis, Bridgeport, CT
Alexis Delacruz, Winsted, CT
Alexis Demarco, East Haven, CT
Alexis Pender, West Hartford, CT
Alexis Perry, Seymour, CT
Alexis Scarborough, Wallingford, CT
Alexis Zoppi, Shelton, CT
Alfred Mingrone, Milford, CT
Alicia Moroyoqui, Groton, CT
Aliz Quinones, West Haven, CT
Allison Pito, Cheshire, CT
Alverto Ortega-Garcia, Norwalk, CT
Alyson Gontarski, Old Saybrook, CT
Alyson Policarpio, Bristol, CT
Alyssa Hart, Guilford, CT
Alyssa Haskins, Enfield, CT
Alyssa Kronisch, Monroe, CT
Alyssa McClain, Groton, CT
Alyssa Rolls, Guilford, CT
Amanda Cavoto, Stratford, CT
Amanda Cohen, Ridgefield, CT
Amanda Jurgens, Bethel, CT
Amanda Mantegna, West Haven, CT
Amanda Martino, West Haven, CT
Amanda Merturi, Oxford, CT
Amanda Oberempt, West Haven, CT
Amber Pindulic, Centereach, NY
Amelia Hoyt, North Haven, CT
Amina Huric, Hartford, CT
Amy Brandstatter, West Haven, CT
Amy Guo, Middlebury, CT
Amy Orenstein, Guilford, CT
Ana Pena, Waterbury, CT
Anastasia Sloss, Watertown, CT
Andrea Galindo, Bridgeport, CT
Andrea Joseph, West Haven, CT
Andrew Albin, North Branford, CT
Andrew Dempsey, Naugatuck, CT
Andrew Donlon, Meriden, CT
Andrew Keeton, Bethel, CT
Andrew Schmitt, Madison, CT
Angel Rodriguez, Waterbury, CT
Angela Bozzi, Hamden, CT
Angela Buckley, Naugatuck, CT
Angela Casner, East Haven, CT
Angela Evans, Meriden, CT
Aniello Furino, New Haven, CT
Annaleise Sabatino, Shelton, CT
Annie Beckett, New Haven, CT
Anthony Martorano, Derby, CT
Anuj Chadha, Hamden, CT
Arayana Bracken, Newington, CT
Aria DeFeo, Ansonia, CT
Ariana Bengtson, Newington, CT
Ariana Harris, Cheshire, CT
Ariane Cloutier, Danbury, CT
Arianna Baldwin, Stratford, CT
Aron Kovacs, Norwalk, CT
Ashley Dyer, Meriden, CT
Ashley Moran, New Haven, CT
Ashley Nicholson, Bridgeport, CT
Ashley Yanez, Meriden, CT
Ashli Benbow, Ansonia, CT
Asma Rahimyar, Trumbull, CT
Astrid Thompson, Madison, CT
Audrey Gryak, Shelton, CT
August Pelliccio, Madison, CT
Avery Fornaciari, Plymouth, MA
Baatinu Plair, Hamden, CT
Bao Nguyen, Cromwell, CT
Beate Neblett, Middlebury, CT
Belinda Bartley, Waterbury, CT
Benjamin Cohen, Madison, CT
Benjamin Johnson, North Branford, CT
Benjamin Palmieri, Cheshire, CT
Benjamin Wooding, Rockfall, CT
Bhumika Shah, Branford, CT
Blair Massimino, Orange, CT
Blair Snyder, New Fairfield, CT
Blake Tobin, Milford, CT
Brandon Cox, Hamdeb, CT
Brandon Godfrey, Trumbull, CT
Brandon Iovene, Higganum, CT
Brenda Fernandes, Bridgeport, CT
Brenna Ross, Hamden, CT
Brennah Rogers, Milford, CT
Brett Taragowski, Madison, CT
Brian Duphiney, New Haven, CT
Brian Petrucci, Southington, CT
Briana Burt, Meriden, CT
Brianna Cully, Bristol, CT
Brianna Dainiak, Ansonia, CT
Brianna Muscio, Wolcott, CT
Brianna Savage, Hamden, CT
Bridget Sharnick, Shelton, CT
Brigid Weiner, Wallingford, CT
Brittaney Nwagboli, Branford, CT
Brittany LeVasseur, Cheshire, CT
Brittany Mignott, Jamaica, NY
Brokk Tollefson, New Haven, CT
Brooke Mercaldi, Monroe, CT
Brooks Blauser, New Haven, CT
Brynn Discipio, Easton, CT
Caitlin Kirby, Wallingford, CT
Caitlin McLaughlin, Naugatuck, CT
Caitlin O’halloran, Milford, CT
Caitlyn Koster, Shelton, CT
Camila Ramos, Bridgeport, CT
Candace Naude, Trumbull, CT
Carissa Kamin, Branford, CT
Carley Fitzgerald, Wallingford, CT
Carlos Berrios, Manchester, CT
Carlos Soto, Stratford, CT
Carly Ciancola, West Haven, CT
Carol Schmardel, Clinton, CT
Casey McNally, Bridgeport, CT
Cassandra Harris, East Haddam, CT
Cassandra Veltri, Oxford, CT
Cassidy Maciel, New Milford, CT
Catherine Chmielewski, Stratford, CT
Ceara Wettemann, Killingworth, CT
Chanel Morales, Naugatuck, CT
Charleen Kelly, New Haven, CT
Charles Biddiscombe, Cheshire, CT
Chevon Rumble, West Haven, CT
Cheyenne Gibilaro, North Branford, CT
Chloe Knight, New Milford, CT
Chloe Lecy, Quaker Hill, CT
Christian Colon, Hamden, CT
Christian Gamauf, Oxford, CT
Christianna Peabody, Bristol, CT
Christianne Accurso, Glastonbury, CT
Christopher Buckridge, New Haven, CT
Christopher Ogiste, Danbury, CT
Cole Kinyon, Westport, CT
Cole Staples, Bristol, CT
Cole Terry, Sandy Hook, CT
Colette Gleed, West Haven, CT
Connor Redahan, Greenwich, CT
Craig Steadman, Bridgeport, CT
Dakota Summer, Middletown, CT
Dan Labbadia, Berlin, CT
Danae Sawchyn, Woodbury, CT
Daniel Barletta Iii, West Haven, CT
Daniel Hotham, Prospect, CT
Daniel Pappa, Northford, CT
Daniel Perusina, West Haven, CT
Danielle Allerdyce, Hartford, CT
Danielle Bass, Waterbury, CT
Danielle Elbert, Branford, CT
Danielle Elliott, Wethersfield, CT
Danielle Klaskin, Madison, CT
Daria Kraszewska, Shelton, CT
David Bedoya, Trumbull, CT
David Betters, Terryville, CT
David Cardona, Stamford, CT
David Chouinard, Oakville, CT
David Difabio, Trumbull, CT
David Notholt, Milford, CT
Dawa Lama, North Haven, CT
Deanna Cleary, Bridgeport, CT
Derek Pearson, Southbury, CT
Destany Funteral-Fine, Derby, CT
Destany Williams, Meriden, CT
Destiney Coward, East Haven, CT
Devin Sangster, Groton, CT
Devin White, New Haven, CT
Diana Cruz, Waterbury, CT
Donald Emanuel Iii, Prospect, CT
Donna Gamble, Seymour, CT
Douglas Ceci, Hamden, CT
Douglas Williams, Essex, CT
Dylan Lindsey, Bow, NH
Edilson Godinez Garcia, New Haven, CT
Edward Coe, Shelton, CT
Edwin Rivera, Middletown, CT
Eileen Portelance, New Milford, CT
Eimy Quispe, Hamden, CT
Elaina DiSalvo, Lake Grove, NY
Elise Ryan, Branford, CT
Elissa Martindale, Deep River, CT
Elizabeth Rizzitelli, Shelton, CT
Ellen Twum, Stamford, CT
Emelia Imperati, North Haven, CT
Emilie Noreika, Prospect, CT
Emily Allen, Madsion, CT
Emily Budds, Wallingford, CT
Emily Eckstrom, Bristol, CT
Emily Keyes, Branflrd, CT
Emily McElfresh, Oxford, CT
Emily Navarro, Milford, CT
Emily Sheehy, East Haven, CT
Emily Stross, Unionville, CT
Emily Velidow, Salem, CT
Emily Wolfe, Havertown, PA
Emma Clini, West Haven, CT
Emma Knauerhase, Portland, CT
Emma Norden, Branford, CT
Emma Justine Conley, Norwalk, CT
Emmett Brayton, Middlefield, CT
Eric Moran, Cheshire, CT
Eric Nesmith, Bridgeport, CT
Erica Casinelli, Stamford, CT
Erica Lleras, North Branford, CT
Erik Grening, Torrington, CT
Erin Dillman, Milford, CT
Erin Fitzgerald, Shelton, CT
Esiana Frank, New Haven, CT
Esther Clebert, Norwalk, CT
Ethan Kaisen, Guilford, CT
Ethan Mehlin, Oakville, CT
Ethan Noble, Wallingford, CT
Ethan Rankowitz, Preston, CT
Ethan West, Deep River, CT
Evan Digiovanni, New Haven, CT
Evan Moyher, Seymour, CT
Evan Murray, Monroe, CT
Fatmir Imerukaj, West Haven, CT
Gabriel Maldonado, Wethersfield, CT
Gabriella D’Amico, North Haven, CT
Gabriella Sanabria, Norwalk, CT
Gabrielle Giammattei, North Branford, CT
Gabrielle Giaquinto, hamden, CT
Gabrielle Myska, Bristol, CT
Gabrielle Pantani, Branford, CT
Gema Guevara, New Haven, CT
Gena Gonzalez, new haven, CT
George Brown, New Haven, CT
George Rusu, Milford, CT
Giana Capasso, North Haven, CT
Gianna Mastroianni, New Haven, CT
Gianna Mendes, Middlefield, CT
Gianna Panullo, Shelton, CT
Gianni Sapienza, Trumbull, CT
Gillian Hotchkiss, Beacon Falls, CT
Gillian Mattern, Gales Ferry, CT
Gina Ricco, Seymour, CT
Giovanni Marzullo, Milford, CT
Giselle Ramos, Bridgeport, CT
Gleeson Edwards, Guilford, CT
Gloria McPherson, New Haven, CT
Hanaa Hussein, North Haven, CT
Hannah Amabile, Wethersfield, CT
Hanxin Liu, Milford, CT
Hayley Bibbiani, Deep River, CT
Hazel Rosario, Waterbury, CT
Heather Messore, Naugatuck, CT
Heather Sherrick, Milford, CT
Henry Blackwell, Nantucket, MA
Henryriana Maxelix, Bridgeport, CT
Holly Bousquet, Groton, CT
Hope Finch, North Haven, CT
Hugo Castaneda, Meriden, CT
Hydiea Johnson, New Haven, CT
Ian Bergemann, Branford, CT
Ian Canny, Wallingford, CT
Ianaliz Rivera, New Haven, CT
Idongesit Udo-okon, Stratford, CT
Iesha Brown, Bridgeport, CT
Imani Fortt, Hartford, CT
Imani Manick-highsmith, New Haven, CT
Irene Machia, Brookfield, CT
Isabella Corradi, Cheshire, CT
Isabella Croteau, West Hartford, CT
Isaiah McLeod, Cambridge, MA
Jackson Volenec, Durham, CT
Jaclyn Pensiero, Shelton, CT
Jaclyn Ryan, Trumbull, CT
Jacob Bojnowski, Middletown, CT
Jacob Booth, west hartford, CT
Jacob Tellier, Terryville, CT
Jacqueline Prast, Old Saybrook, CT
Jade Clary, Danbury, CT
Jade Serrano, Shelton, CT
Jade Tran, East Haven, CT
Jaden Ramadei, Ansonia, CT
Jake Pluchino, Madison, CT
Jake Zielinski, Wallingford, CT
Jalen Johnson, Oldsaybrook, CT
Jalitza Mathews, East Hartford, CT
James McLoughlin, Norwalk, CT
Jamie Lewis, Shelton, CT
Jane Schroeder, West Haven, CT
Jared Dennehy, Cheshire, CT
Jared Simpson, Milford, CT
Jared Smith, Orange, CT
Jarren Parchment, Ansonia, CT
Jasmin Williamson, Hartford, CT
Jasmine Benavides, Ansonia, CT
Jasmine Brown, Hamden, CT
Jasmine Williams-Bottoms, Stamford, CT
Jason Carubia, Branford, CT
Jason Edwards, Ansonia, CT
Jazmin Albanese, Waterbury, CT
Jazmin Jimenez, Hamden, CT
Jeffrey Gill, Monroe, CT
Jefrey LeBlanc, New Haven, CT
Jenna Boccio, Southington, CT
Jenna Cannata, Cheshire, CT
Jenna Krechko, Tolland, CT
Jenna Palermo, Shelton, CT
Jenna Reeser, Oakville, CT
Jenna Stepleman, Derby, CT
Jennifer Dagraca, Bridgeport, CT
Jennifer Koabel, Stratford, CT
Jennifer Leibovitz, West Haven, CT
Jennifer Medina, Stratford, CT
Jennifer Reynoso, Middletown, CT
Jennifer Rodriguez, Stratford, CT
Jeremy Collette, Watertown, CT
Jeremy Grant, Milford, CT
Jerica Olson, Woodbury, CT
Jessica Clark, West Hartford, CT
Jessica Cunningham, Suffield, CT
Jessica Guerrucci, Stratford, CT
Jessica Hunt, Seymour, CT
Jessica Komacki, Naugatuck, CT
Jessica Riley, Meriden, CT
Jessica Robbin, Fairfield, CT
Jessica Telesco, White Plains, NY
Jillian Doheny, North Haven, CT
Jillian Martins, Trumbull, CT
Jillian Valeta, West Haven, CT
Joann Lehr, Branford, CT
Joaquin Selmeski, East Lyme, CT
Jocelyn Perez, Meriden, CT
Joey Pascale, West Haven, CT
Johanna Wahlen, Karlsruhe,
John MacDonald, West Haven, CT
John Saksa, Shelton, CT
John Wells, West Hartford, CT
Johnathan Moore, West Haven, CT
Johnesha Brown, New Haven, CT
Jonah Gosnay, Danbury, CT
Jonathan Geraldino, Bridgeport, CT
Jonathan Godfrey, North Haven, CT
Jonathan Hiebert, Hamden, CT
Jonathan Meyers, Cheshire, CT
Jonathan Santiago, Norwalk, CT
Jonell Bailey, Waterbury, CT
Jordan Dean, Waterbury, CT
Jordan Feeney, Fairfield, CT
Jordan Thompson, Campbell Hall, NY
Joseph Borucki, Fairfield, CT
Joseph Federation, New Haven, CT
Joseph Freer, Southington, CT
Joseph McClean, Stratford, CT
Joseph Moffo, Waterbury, CT
Joseph Schairer, Wallingford, CT
Josephine Lynch, West Hartford, CT
Joshua Ayala, New Haven, CT
Joshua Brown, Stratford, CT
Joshua Fitzpatrick, Beacon Falls, CT
Joshua Fraser, Woodbridge, CT
Joshua Nunnink, Shelton, CT
Joshua Prouty, Ellington, CT
Joshua Sharp, Lisbon, CT
Juan Santos, Plainville, CT
Judaen Brown, Ansonia, CT
Julia Honan, Westbrook, CT
Julia Munroe, Branford, CT
Julia Napolitano, Wolcott, CT
Juliana Thomasson, East Haven, CT
Juliana Watts, West Haven, CT
Julie Waxler, Unionville, CT
Julies Ly, Shelton, CT
Justin Ceneviva, Milford, CT
Justine Roy, Wallingford, CT
Kacia Savage, Guilford, CT
Kacie Gagner, Meriden, CT
Kailey Romanos, Guilford, CT
Kaitlyn Bembenek, Woodstock, CT
Kaleb Roman, Wolcott, CT
Kaleigh Albert, Killingworth, CT
Kalin Mcquade, Meriden, CT
Karl Grannan, Canaan, CT
Karli Palmer, Willington, CT
Karlyn Jackson, Hamden, CT
Kasie Kelly, North Haven, CT
Katelyn Fillion, Northford, CT
Katelyn Lillquist, Branford, CT
Katelyn Ross, Stamford, CT
Katelyn Russell, Shelton, CT
Katherine Matos-Romero, West Haven, CT
Katherine Viteretto, Norwalk, CT
Kathryn Duffner, Newington, CT
Kathryn Schoberle, East Haddam, CT
Kayla Benedetti, West Haven, CT
Kayla Dohoney, Danbury, CT
Kayla Musante, Wallingford, CT
Kayla Viviano, Southington, CT
Kaylee Holroyd, Stratford, CT
Kaylee Paladino, New Canaan, CT
Kayli Johnson, Bridgeport, CT
Keara Loughlin, Lowell, MA
Keegan Smith, Plantsville, CT
Keith Williams, Waterbury, CT
Kelly Redmond, Naugatuck, CT
Kelsea Murtha, Stratford, CT
Kelsey White, Middletown, CT
Kennan Martin, South Glastonbury, CT
Kenndra Espinoza, Stamford, CT
Kevin Chesler, Meriden, CT
Kevin Crompton, Middlefield, CT
Kevin Kuna, Shelton, CT
Kevin Lam, Stamford, CT
Kevin Scotton, Middletown, CT
Khushbu Patel, Wallingford, CT
Kiara Smith, Milford, CT
Kira Fitch, Monroe, CT
Korynne Sullivan, Orange, CT
Krista Lencovich, Shelton, CT
Kristelle Jasmine Caslangen, Wallingford, CT
Kristen Amarone, Wallingford, CT
Kristina Ercolani, Wethersfield, CT
Krystal Nieves, Bridgeport, CT
Kya O’Donnell, Cheshire, CT
Kyle Broderick, Trumbull, CT
Kyle Dimaio, Hamden, CT
Kylie Fisher, Scottsdale, AZ
Kylie Vaccarelli, Prospect, CT
Kyra Jayne Catubig, West Haven, CT
Kyrstin Schofield, Naugatuck, CT
Laney Lopez, Derby, CT
Larissa Topalis, Ledyard, CT
Latisha Brockington, Naugatuck, CT
Laura Listro, Hamden, CT
Laura Rizzo, New Haven, CT
Lauren Brideau, Shelton, CT
Lauren Cagle, Stamford, CT
Lauren Conner, Milford, CT
Lauren Reilly, Naugatuck, CT
Lea Jalbert, Avon, CT
Leah Herde, Fairfield, CT
Leah Hushion, Newtown, CT
Leah Nocella, Oxford, CT
Leah Sause, Wallingford, CT
Leslie Garcia, Norwalk, CT
Leslie Inahuazo, New Haven, CT
Levi Reynolds, Woodbury, CT
Lexi Komaromi, Seymour, CT
Lia Davido, Middletown, NJ
Liam Norton, Bethany, CT
Lilia Ricci, Bridgeport, CT
Lilian Matute, Stamford, CT
Lily Barragan, East Haven, CT
Lily Stilson, East Berlin, CT
Lindsey Rek, Prospect, CT
Lindsey Rodorigo, Beacon Falls, CT
Loanis Cabrera, Bridgeport, CT
Logan Mether, UNCASVILLE, CT
Lonnie Herrera, New Haven, CT
Lorenzo Burgos, Wethersfield, CT
Lorette Feivelson, Bristol, CT
Louie Krak, New Haven, CT
Luke Hansted, North Haven, CT
Luke McDermott Grandpre, Cromwell, CT
Lupita Barajas, Stratford, CT
Mackenzie Dowling, Midland, NC
Madeleine Bergeron, Westbrook, CT
Madelyn Vinsel, Guilford, CT
Madison Caruso, Bristol, CT
Madison Csejka, Orange, CT
Madison Zimmerman, Madison, CT
Maeve Rourke, Milford, CT
Maeve Salamida, Cromwell, CT
Maghan Taylor, Wallingford, CT
Maile Chaplar, Old Saybrook, CT
Makenna Wollmann, Burlington, CT
Manjot Kailey, Branford, CT
Maria Beltran, Middlebury, CT
Maria Nunez Bonilla, Danbury, CT
Mariaclara Canhassi, Stratford, CT
Mariam Alajjan, Orange, CT
Mariam Osman, Hamden, CT
Marisa DeCiucis, Shelton, CT
Marisa Misbach, New Haven, CT
Marissa Hackett, North Branford, CT
Marissa Salazar, East Haven, CT
Marissa Simos, Guilford, CT
Mark Schriever, Norwich, CT
Marlisa Shaw, New Haven, CT
Marne Delgado, Hamden, CT
Martin Lippai, Naugatuck, CT
Mary Schulten, Middlefield, CT
Mary Spodnick, Orange, CT
Marykate Fallon, Milford, CT
Matthew Andersen, New Haven, CT
Matthew Berry, Middletown, CT
Matthew Crisci, Hamden, CT
Matthew Dever, Ansonia, CT
Matthew Granfield, Clinton, CT
Matthew Moran, Seymour, CT
Matthew Torrisi, Southington, CT
Matthew Urquia, Milford, CT
Max Vadakin, Canaan, CT
Maya Dunn, North Haven, CT
Mayah Brown, New London, CT
Megan Baker, West Hartford, CT
Megan Brennan, Stamford, CT
Megan Ferreira, Shelton, CT
Megan Latte, Newtown, CT
Megan McNivens, Old Saybrook, CT
Megan Mendell, Trumbull, CT
Megan Poulin, New Haven, CT
Megan Schultz, Trumbull, CT
Megan-leigh Larsen, Temecula, CA
Meghan Bosse, Bridgeport, CT
Meghan Olson, Wolcott, CT
Melanie Taraskewich, Prospect, CT
Melissa Burwell, Branford, CT
Melissa Palma Cuapio, East Haven, CT
Meredith Miller, New Haven, CT
Mia Discipio, Easton, CT
Michael Brighindi, Shelton, CT
Michael Chernesky, Shelton, CT
Michael Fonda, Stratford, CT
Michael Frohnhoefer, Naugatuck, CT
Michael Jardine, Meriden, CT
Michael Miceli, North Haven, CT
Michael Riccio, Shelton, CT
Michael Sanger, New Haven, CT
Michael Smith, Middletown, CT
Michele Furnaros, Stamford, CT
Michelle Devito, Westport, CT
Michelle Hesse, New Haven, CT
Michelle Quero, Antioch, IL
Michelle Tenney, New Haven, CT
Michelle Tewksbury, North Haven, CT
Miguel Diaz, Bridgeport, CT
Millicent Gilhool, New York, NY
Miranda Holland, Hamden, CT
Miranda Kross, North Haven, CT
Miranda Love, New Haven, CT
Mishele Rodriguez, New Haven, CT
Mitchell Graham, Cheshire, CT
Moesha Turner, Middletown, CT
Mohammed Mahmud, Cheshire, CT
Molly Deegan, Trumbull, CT
Molly Flanagan, Milford, CT
Monica Collette, Waterbury, CT
Montana Honafius, Stratford, CT
Morgan Lussier, South Windsor, CT
Morgan McClain, Monroe, CT
Morgan Velez, Wolcott, CT
Muhammet Faruk Senturk, Madison, CT
Nadeem Asad, Beacon falls, CT
Nadia Brown, Waterbury, CT
Nancy Kelly, New Haven, CT
Natalia Amos, Milford, CT
Natalie Bowens, Uncasville, CT
Natalie Colon, Bridgeport, CT
Natalie Rogers, Wallingford, CT
Natalie Stoffel, New Fairfield, CT
Natasha Tarbell, Old Saybrook, CT
Nathanael Scaniffe, Hamden, CT
Nathaniel Gerrish, Naugatuck, CT
Nathaniel Johnston, Long Valley, NJ
Neisha Rivera Perez, New Haven, CT
Nelly Quito, Hamden, CT
Nicholas Alexiades, Woodbridge, CT
Nicholas Bradley, Clinton, CT
Nicholas Carbone, Southington, CT
Nicholas Coppola, North Haven, CT
Nicholas Demet, Old Lyme, CT
Nicholas Dimaggio, North Branford, CT
Nicholas Isabella, Monroe, CT
Nicholas Talarico, Norwalk, CT
Nicole Gigas, Ansonia, CT
Nicole Healy, Naugatuck, CT
Nicole Huntsman, Bridgeport, CT
Nicole Mattioli-Cortigiano, Ansonia, CT
Nicole Rizzo, Derby, CT
Nicole Zielinski, East Haven, CT
Nicolette Niedzwiecki, Shelton, CT
Nikolis Principi, Trumbull, CT
Nilay Durdu, Woodbridge, CT
Nina Julian, Torrington, CT
Noah Jackson, Groton, CT
Noel Lorde, Hamden, CT
Noel Womack, Hamden, CT
Noelle Stepensky, Southington, CT
Nolan Cloutier, Wallingford, CT
Noor Rahim, Milford, CT
Norman Whitney, Bristol, CT
Nour Abdelrahman, Fairfield, CT
Noureen Nassra, Stratford, CT
Nyela Castillo, Northford, CT
Olivia Moreno, Trumbull, CT
Olivia Scalenghe, Shelton, CT
Pablo Bastida Ruiz, West Haven, CT
Paige Hansen, Kings Park, NY
Paige Schwarz, Milford, CT
Palmer Piana, New Haven, CT
Paris Johnson, New Haven, CT
Patricia Castle, Monroe, CT
Patrick Ballard, Belford, NJ
Patrick Gregg, Redding, CT
Patrick Moore, Fayetteville, NC
Patrick Murphy, Cheshire, CT
Patrick Rubino, Bethany, CT
Paul Mckee, New Haven, CT
Paul Viebranz, Shelton, CT
Paulina Cherkasov, Trumbull, CT
Paulina Smaga, Shelton, CT
Paxton Kowalski, Middletown, CT
Perpetual Taylor, Cromwell, CT
Peter Mceachern, Hamden, CT
Philip Sarrazin, Seymour, CT
Pooja Ali, Branford, CT
Precious Bynum, Bridgeport, CT
Princess Bart-addison, Bronx, NY
Raby Gueye, New haven, CT
Rachel Garcia, Naugatuck, CT
Rachel Giannettino, Oxford, CT
Rachel Hermanns, Bridgeport, CT
Rachel Kelsall, West Haven, CT
Rachel Pierpont, North Branford, CT
Rachel Silver, Vernon Rockville, CT
Rakshyak Kc, Branford, CT
Rayleen Paret, New Haven, CT
Rebecca Taylor, Shelton, CT
Rebecca Vitale, Branford, CT
Rebekah Burke, Norwich, CT
Rebekah Gaujean, Stratford, CT
Rechelle Morales, Ledyard, CT
Reena Yu, Orange, CT
Renee Chabot, Oakville, CT
Renee Collett, Hamden, CT
Rhema Phillips, New London, CT
Rhiannon Crandley, Milford, CT
Rian Tucci, Ridgefield, CT
Richard Bjorklund, Milford, CT
Richard Cartier, New Haven, CT
Richard Szeligowski, Branford, CT
Robert Adamchek, Stratford, CT
Robert Gonzalez, Manchester, CT
Robert Valeri, Shelton, CT
Romario Cerrato, New Haven, CT
Rosabella Ziou, New Haven, CT
Roxanne Buzinsky, Wallingford, CT
Ruben Sosa, Waterbury, CT
Ryan Berry, Shelton, CT
Ryan Cafaro, Ansonia, CT
Ryan Harvey, North Haven, CT
Ryan Stickles, Sharon, CT
Sabrina Hine, North Haven, CT
Sahdalia Goeman, North Branford, CT
Samantha Adams, Milford, CT
Samantha DeMarco, Milford, CT
Samantha Kaplan, Trumbull, CT
Samantha Melendez, New Haven, CT
Samantha Pryce, Suffield, CT
Samantha Rothermel-Peters, New Haven, CT
Samuel Fix, Guilford, CT
Sandra Theoharatos, New Haven, CT
Sara Helfand, Norwalk, CT
Sara Targouski, Ansonia, CT
Sarah Bousquet, Milford, CT
Sarah Carroll, Enfield, CT
Sarah Carter, Newtown, CT
Sarah Cizmazia, Newtown, CT
Sarah Dato, Milford, CT
Sarah Donaldson, Milford, CT
Sarah Garcia, North Haven, CT
Sarah Gossman, Trumbull, CT
Sarah Holodnak, Bridgeport, CT
Sarah Houde, Wallingford, CT
Sarah Tsacoyannis, Westport, CT
Scott Lafontaine, East Haven, CT
Sean Chesler, Milford, CT
Sean Miller, Stratford, CT
Sejmir Basuljevic, Derby, CT
Selena Morales, Bridgeport, CT
Shaina-Lynn Evanko, Sandy Hook, CT
Shakira Davis, New Haven, CT
Shane Da Silva-Novotny, Bridgeport, CT
Shane Lester, North Haven, CT
Shane Smith, Pawcatuck, CT
Shania Ramnath, Stamford, CT
Shannon Dolan, Milford, CT
Shannon Wynne, Old Saybrook, CT
Shantele Avila, Bridgeport, CT
Shanti Madison, New Haven, CT
Shara Mae Acob, Cos Cob, CT
Sharisma Morales, Meriden, CT
Shauna Goldman, Norwalk, CT
Shavonne Sims, Hamden, CT
Shawn Odei-Ntiri, New Haven, CT
Shelby Mendillo, Derby, CT
Sierra Mayerson, Brookfield, CT
Sierra Weum, Lebanon, CT
Sophia Oneto, Prospect, CT
Sophia Whipple, Colchester, CT
Spencer Rogers, Guilford, CT
Stache Jones, West Haven, CT
Stephanie Gable, West Haven, CT
Stephanie Gagne, Meriden, CT
Stephanie Illingworth, Bridgeport, CT
Stephanie Preising, Stamford, CT
Stephanie Richard, Naugatuck, CT
Stephanie Sirois, Cheshire, CT
Stephen Duncanson, Stratford, CT
Stephen Fengler, Wallingford, CT
Stevie Fell, Naugatuck, CT
Summer Sylvestre, Plainfield, CT
Susan Anthony, West Haven, CT
Sydney King, Milford, CT
Sydney Sutcliffe, Madison, CT
Syeda Minahil Gilani, Bridgeport, CT
Tamera Sternberger, New Haven, CT
Tanner Mroz, Wallingford, CT
Taylor Brockett, North Haven, CT
Taylor Gudzinski, Waterbury, CT
Taylor Hall, Waterbury, CT
Taylor Sanders, New Haven, CT
Taylor Velez, Norwalk, CT
Taylor Weihing, Niantic, CT
Tea Carter, Modesto, CA
Teaira Boone, New Haven, CT
Tess Buschmann, East Haddam, CT
Tessa McNaboe, Burlington, CT
Thalia Feliciano, East haven, CT
Therese Ziaks, Branford, CT
Thomas Birmingham, Brookfield, CT
Thomas Blotney, West Haven, CT
Thomas Liljedahl, Middlefield, CT
Thomas Pelletier, Bristol, CT
Thomas Poirier, Naugatuck, CT
Tiara Guagenti, Seymour, CT
Tiffanie Edwards, Bridgeport, CT
Tiffany Monteiro, Trumbull, CT
Tiffany Ortega, Bridgeport, CT
Timothy Abbott, Stamford, CT
Timothy Ross, Ellington, CT
Torey Robinson, Ansonia, CT
Tracy Henri, Ansonia, CT
Trent Kaisen, Guilford, CT
Trevor Palmer, Middlebury, CT
Trimaine Brown, Woodbridge, CT
Troy Stegman, Wethersfield, CT
Ty-zhayia Brown, New Haven, CT
Tyler Franco, East Haven, CT
Tyler Kopeck, Oxford, CT
Tyler Verissimo, Naugatuck, CT
Tyra Hultgren, Rockfall, CT
Uruj Khan, Trumbull, CT
Valerie Mayes, West Haven, CT
Vanessa Gay, West Haven, CT
Victor Corona Galan, Fairfield, CT
Victoria Bresnahan, trumbull, CT
Victoria Lacafta, Storrs Mansfield, CT
Victoria Savoca, Milford, CT
Vincent D’angelo, Shelton, CT
Vittoria Cristante, North Branford, CT
Whitney Morris, Branford, CT
William Broome, Norwalk, CT
Yadinitza Torres, Waterbury, CT
Yajaira Anaya, Bethel, CT
Yara Hosny, East Haven, CT
Yesenia Hernandez, Meriden, CT
Zachary Miller, Darien, CT
Zachary Parente, Trumbull, CT
Zachary Peck, Wallingford, CT
Zachary Sousa, Milford, CT
Zachary Sturgill, Milford, CT
Zeynep Guven, New Haven, CT

BUSINESS

Abigail Velez, West Hartford, CT
Adam Andrews, New Haven, CT
Adam Weber, Newtown, CT
Addrianna Raney, Meriden, CT
Adelino Gomes, Ansonia, CT
Aiden Braumann, Guilford, CT
Akeem Douglas, Bridgeport, CT
Alejandro Quijada, West Haven, CT
Alexander DeMeis, Shelton, CT
Alexander Squitiero, Madison, CT
Alexis Young, Hamden, CT
Alicia Leno, New Milford, CT
Alicia Pelletier, Wallingford, CT
Alisia Hart, Middletown, CT
Allison Misbach, Meriden, CT
Alyssa Weisberger, Orange, CT
Amy Rodriguez, Hamden, CT
Anabel Caceres Cotto, Bridgeport, CT
Anastasia Esposito, Orange, CT
Andrea Gudino, Stamford, CT
Andrew Marotti, Madison, CT
Androu Boktor, Hamden, CT
Angel Diaz, Stratford, CT
Anna Doherty, Waterford, CT
Anthony Dematteis, Hamden, CT
Anthony Zambito, Ridgewood, NJ
Antonio Demartino, Hamden, CT
Arda Yilmaz, Stratford, CT
Asma Labonno, Meriden, CT
Berlove Lelain, Naugatuck, CT
Binod Dahal, Bridgeport, CT
Brianna Ferraiolo, Branford, CT
Brittney Barbato, Old Lyme, CT
Brooke Grand, New Haven, CT
Bryan Mera, East Haven, CT
Bryce Castellone, South Windsor, CT
Carl Thurston, Wallingford, CT
Cassi Corigliano, Bridgeport, CT
Cedil Onivogui, New Haven, CT
Charlotte McMillan, Brookfield, CT
Chris Georgoulis, New Milford, CT
Christian Krysinski, Ansonia, CT
Christian Rubio, Shelton, CT
Christopher LeBeau, Bristol, CT
Cierrah Macher, Moodus, CT
Claudia Krochko, Oxford, CT
Cody Conlon, Bethlehem, CT
Conor Marlatt, Branford, CT
Courtney Butler, Branford, CT
Daelyn Yasgar, Wallingford, CT
Daniel Grindley, Milford, CT
Daniel Goa Utgaard, Kristiansand,
Danielle Caselli, Stratford, CT
David Martins, West Haven, CT
Dean Loehn, Stratford, CT
Diamani Seide, norwalk, CT
Drew Dantino, Waterbury, CT
Dylan Trivers, Ansonia, CT
Eldi Shahini, Ansonia, CT
Elijha Benjamin, naugatuck, CT
Elise Abu-Sitteh, West Haven, CT
Emily Maffeo, East Haven, CT
Emily Rossini, West Hartford, CT
Emily Taylor, Guilford, CT
Ericka Norberg, Newtown, CT
Evangalese Calamita, Northford, CT
Francesca Benea, Windsor Locks, CT
Gabriella Zuk, Southington, CT
Gerald Delise, Branford, CT
Gilberto Hernandez, Meriden, CT
Giovanni Sciarappa, Seymour, CT
Gregory Lovisolo, Naugatuck, CT
Haley McGuane, Wethersfield, CT
Hannah Endri, Norwalk, CT
Hannah Pham, Trumbull, CT
Harjot Benipal, Branford, CT
Haroon Chaudhry, Hamden, CT
Hayden Davis, Westbrook, CT
Heather Henley, Clinton, CT
Herlinda Rodriguez, Bridgeport, CT
Ian Ryan, Winsted, CT
Ignasi Perez Cererols, Sant Cugat del Valles,
Ihsan Saboor, Bridgeport, CT
Isabella Pitarra, Clinton, CT
Isabella Zurita, Stratford, CT
Isaiah Walker, Derby, CT
Ivette Santiago, Bridgeport, CT
James Abercrombie, Trumbull, CT
Jamiy Burey, Shelton, CT
Jason Duarte, Bridgeport, CT
Jason Paternostro, Watertown, CT
Jeet Patel, New Haven, CT
Jeff Miller, Wallingford, CT
Jeff Morgan, Milford, CT
Jenna Zakala, Rome, NY
Jennifer Jordan, Woobridge, CT
Jeovanne Feliciano, Groton, CT
Jeymi Aguero- Hernandez, Torrington, CT
John Fitzgerald, North Haven, CT
John Mezzanotte, Stamford, CT
John Migliazza, Monroe, CT
John Perry, Waterbury, CT
John Richetelli, Easton, CT
John Turenne, Wallingford, CT
Jordan Romeo, New Haven, CT
Joseph Balog, Derby, CT
Joseph Cozar, New Haven, CT
Joseph Hennessey, Ansonia, CT
Joseph Rocco, Wolcott, CT
Joshua Rivera, Waterbury, CT
Joshua Rosenthal, Norwich, CT
Josip Jukic, Milford, CT
Julia Andrelczyk, Naugatuck, CT
Julia Dichello, Meriden, CT
Julia Pelletier, Wallingford, CT
Justin Mancini, Orange, CT
Justin Paolillo, North Haven, CT
Justin Sprague, Seymour, CT
Kacie Velasquez, Stratford, CT
Kai Huang, Cheshire, CT
Kaitlyn Carlson, West Haven, CT
Kaitlyn Paradis, Orange, CT
Katelin Rowe, Branford, CT
Katherine Fuentes, Bridgeport, CT
Katherine Wojcik, Ansonia, CT
Kathryn Twohill, Shelton, CT
Kayla McKay, Higganum, CT
Kendra Savage, Hamden, CT
Kevin Garcia, Norwalk, CT
Kevin Rivera, Durham, CT
Kevin Vazquez, New Haven, CT
Kevin Wollmar, Groton, CT
Kiersten Snyder, Waterbury, CT
Kristopher Dicocco, Trumbull, CT
Kyle Armour, Newington, CT
Lashay Rush, East Haven, CT
Lauren Clough, Northford, CT
Lauren Segal, Cheshire, CT
Leanna Jadus, Long Beach, CA
Linh Ha, East Haven, CT
Lissette Rivera, West Haven, CT
Liza Frassinelli, Willington, CT
Lukas Garcia, Suffield, CT
Luke Velez, Killingworth, CT
Mackenzie Henry, New London, CT
Madeline Turiano, Milford, CT
Madison Nastri, Rocky Hill, CT
Madison St. John, Southington, CT
Maggie-Marie Meyers, Milford, CT
Malaina Foss, Danbury, CT
Marcelina Falowska, Bridgeport, CT
Marcello Migic, Madison, CT
Marckendy Jean-Baptiste, Waterbury, CT
Mariam Noorzad, Milford, CT
Mariedith Hidalgo, Bridgeport, CT
Marjae Jackson, Stratford, CT
Marta Brzostowska, Shelton, CT
Matthew Peterson, Northford, CT
Matthew Terrasi, Shelton, CT
Matthew Wells, Shelton, CT
Maxwell Weber, Newtown, CT
Melany Henriquez-Schmutz, West Haven, CT
Melissa Betancourt, New Britain, CT
Meredith Murphy, Thomaston, CT
Merina Sabatucci, Meriden, CT
Michael DeLorio, Milford, CT
Michael Hopkins, Hamden, CT
Michael Yedowitz, New Milford, CT
Michaela Kalama, Guilford, CT
Michelle Oravec, Bridgeport, CT
Mikayla Hartman-Brown, Stratford, CT
Morgan Messersmith, North Haven, CT
Nathan Acker, Killingworth, CT
Nathan Owens, Hamden, CT
Nick Lawrence, Wallingford, CT
Nicolas Ruiz Colodrero, Zaragoza,
Nicole Kopek, Milford, CT
Niko Mao, WEST HAVEN, CT
Nimra Chaudhry, Hamden, CT
Nina Filippone, Ansonia, CT
Nina Martinez, Milford, CT
Olivia Martino, Woodbury, CT
Patrick Fitzgerald, Hamden, CT
Patrick Inzero, Seymour, CT
Peter Callahan, West Hartford, CT
Peter Kuroghlian, Stratford, CT
Peter Ott, Guilford, CT
Phillip Miklovich, Stratford, CT
Phoebe Van, Hamden, CT
Ramesh Reid, Shelton, CT
Randy Boyne, Bristol, CT
Raymond Cervone, Stratford, CT
Rex Tran, East Haven, CT
Richard Francois, Stratford, CT
Rigoberto Escalera, NEW HAVEN, CT
Robert Lombard, Stratford, CT
Robert Medori, West Harrison, NY
Rudolfo Hernandez-Velasquez, New Haven, CT
Ryan Miner, Oakdale, CT
Ryan Wallert, Tolland, CT
Sabrina Migliarese, Trumbull, CT
Safeta Basuljevic, Derby, CT
Sage Albino, Naugatuck, CT
Samantha Ferry, Guilford, CT
Sameed Iqbal, Hamden, CT
Samuel Chiovitti, Thomaston, CT
Sara Sebastjanska, Seymour, CT
Scott Bohannon, New Haven, CT
Scott Ghavidel, Stamford, CT
Sean Gaffney, Norwalk, CT
Sean Hines, Stratford, CT
Sean Reilly, Tolland, CT
Sean Wilder, Meriden, CT
Sheleice Fair, Waterbury, CT
Shivam Patel, West Haven, CT
Shivam Patel, Killington, VT
Shivani Patel, Norwalk, CT
Sofia Ribeiro, Shelton, CT
Stuart Devotie, Fairfield, CT
Sukhpreet Behal, Branford, CT
Sydona Tregoning, Durham, CT
Tabish Syed, Derby, CT
Taylor Chisholm, Bridgeport, CT
Thomas Beaudin, Branford, CT
Thomas Gironda, Fairfield, CT
Tina-Marie Valente, North Haven, CT
Trevor O’Malley, Oxford, CT
Tristan Garcia, Suffield, CT
Troy Gray, Salem, CT
Tyler Stevens, Seymour, CT
Valerie Zheng, New Haven, CT
Weens Simon, Fort Myers, FL
Wendy Ann Santillan, Wallingford, CT
William Fitzmaurice, Hamden, CT
Wincharm Grant, Stamford, CT
Yuliana Rizzo, Naugatuck, CT
Zachary Burleigh, Southington, CT
Zachary Heche, Trumbull, CT
Zahid Bung, Bridgeport, CT
Zain Haseeb, Shelton, CT

EDUCATION

Abbey LiPuma, Killingworth, CT
Abby Ruth Terreri, Guilford, CT
Abigail Henry, Barkhamsted, CT
Alandria Murray, Bridgeport, CT
Alexa Malchiodi, Wallingford, CT
Alexandra Cammarota, Trumbull, CT
Alexandra Mills, Danbury, CT
Alexandra Young, West Haven, CT
Alexus Lee, Watertown, CT
Alice Valinsky, Naugatuck, CT
Allison Lemieux, Branford, CT
Allison Vanderlyn, Watertown, CT
Allyson Petrella, Willington, CT
Alyssa Donovan, New London, CT
Alyssa Gorman, Monroe, CT
Alyssa Martorelli, Middlebury, CT
Amanda Pfohl, Trumbull, CT
Amanda Roma, Milford, CT
Amanda Rosabella, Riverside, CT
Amaris Forte, Saint Albans, NY
Amber Beliveau, Ansonia, CT
Amber Vane, Patterson, NY
Amy Mcginniss, Brookfield, CT
Ana Caka, Wolcott, CT
Anastasia Wilson, Moodus, CT
Andrew Argento, East Haven, CT
Angela Puccinelli, Meriden, CT
Anna Cullen, Fairfield, CT
Annamarie Slevinsky, Terryville, CT
Arielle Eighmy, Milford, CT
Ashley Ayers, Derby, CT
Ashley Bosco, Monroe, CT
Ashley Connolly, Shelton, CT
Ashley Streeto, Guilford, CT
Ashley Walker, East Haven, CT
Ashlie Forsberg, Branford, CT
Athena Androulidakis, Rocky Hill, CT
Bianca Zeko, Fairfield, CT
Brandon Davison, Middletown, CT
Briana Lucatino, Northford, CT
Brianna Grippo, East Haven, CT
Brittainie Mooney, West Haven, CT
Brooke Kuryan, Madison, CT
Cailey Howser, Litchfield, CT
Cailyn Aichelman, Shelton, CT
Caitlin Santasiero, Stamford, CT
Cansu Citlak, New Haven, CT
Carla Piccolo, Prospect, CT
Carley Bergamini, Somers, CT
Carly Holding, Stamford, CT
Caroline Ecke, Prospect, CT
Casey Jackson, Higganum, CT
Chelsea Brandt, East Haven, CT
Chelsey Cerrato, Norwalk, CT
Christiano Delucia, east haven, CT
Christina Gubetta, Winsted, CT
Christina Horne, Pawcatuck, CT
Christina Silva, East Lyme, CT
Christina Zaino, West Haven, CT
Christopher Hughes, Orange, CT
Christopher Parsons, Stamford, CT
Colleen Oesterle, Monroe, CT
Corey-Ann Roche, Pawcatuck, CT
Courtney Pecora, New Milford, CT
Crystal Gagne, Wallingford, CT
Crystal Wooster, Naugatuck, CT
Danielle David, Southington, CT
Deja Daniels, Bridgeport, CT
Derrick D’Amato, Cheshire, CT
Destiny Jennings, Milford, CT
Devin Lynch, Watertown, CT
Dominique Cermele, Scarsdale, NY
Ebony Mcclease, New Haven, CT
Elizabeth Gargano, Naugatuck, CT
Ellen Stansfield, Monroe, CT
Emilee Maloney, Preston, CT
Emilie Johnson, Riverside, CT
Emily Rose Folsom, Middletown, CT
Emma Schober, Trumbull, CT
Emma Soltis, Trumbull, CT
Emma Stein, Weston, CT
Erin Schultz, Trumbull, CT
Falon Brantley, New Haven, CT
Fidana Ha, Houston, TX
Gabriella Belli, Wallingford, CT
Gabriella Critelli, White Plains, NY
Gabriella D’Elia, Prospect, CT
Gabriella Lavorgna, Northford, CT
Gabrielle Camarero, Stratford, CT
Georgia-Nicolette Kassimis, Norwalk, CT
Gerardo Martinez, New Haven, CT
Gianna Acabbo, East Haven, CT
Giuliana Diglio, Branford, CT
Grace Mclean, Trumbull, CT
Grace Nisbet, Seymour, CT
Hailey Ralls, Rocky Hill, CT
Haley Grammatico, Derby, CT
Halley Shambra, Trumbull, CT
Hannah Brighindi, Shelton, CT
Hannah Johnson, Milford, CT
Hannah O’Hazo, Harwinton, CT
Heather Natter-Gauthier, Wallingford, CT
Heather Uphold, Old Saybrook, CT
Hunter Komm, Wallingford, CT
Ian Shannon, Danbury, CT
Ingrid Rodriguez, New Haven, CT
Jacqueline Pyrek-Bennett, Monroe, CT
Jake Velleco, Seymour, CT
Jamie Karas, Ansonia, CT
Jannelse Gonzalez, Stratford, CT
Jaspreet Sandhu, Wallingford, CT
Javier Reyes, New Haven, CT
Jeffrey Garza, Danbury, CT
Jenna Quintiliano, Monroe, CT
Jennifer Dawson, Clinton, CT
Jennifer Weissauer, Milford, CT
Jenny Satagaj, Berlin, CT
Jessenia Searles, Wallingford, CT
Jessica Fressle, Levittown, NY
Jessica Grote, Waterford, CT
Jessica Koproski, Stamford, CT
Jessica LeClerc, Thomaston, CT
Jessica Maier, Enfield, CT
Jessica Majeski, Norwalk, CT
Jessica Minty, Shelton, CT
Jessica Reynolds, Guilford, CT
Jordan Brangi, North Haven, CT
Jordan Paine, West Haven, CT
Jovanna Mancini, Woodbury, CT
Julia Burns, Fairfield, CT
Julia Chambers, Norwalk, CT
Julia Raucci, West Haven, CT
Kaily Gruttadauria, Stratford, CT
Kalyrin Rivera, Waterbury, CT
Karlene Welles, Newington, CT
Katelin Adintori, Fairfield, CT
Katelyn Brodeur, Naugatuck, CT
Katelynn Brody, Prospect, CT
Katherine Perez, New Haven, CT
Kathryn Cullen, Stratford, CT
Kayla Metzger, North Branford, CT
Kaylee Savvaides, Trumbull, CT
Keila Hernandez, New Haven, CT
Kelly Maduri, Oxford, CT
Kelsey Kuziak, Oxford, CT
Kelsey Monaghan, Guilford, CT
Kelsey Sabia, Wilton, CT
Kelsey Simmons, East Hampton, CT
Kendra Kochol, Southington, CT
Kennedy Ballard, Brookfield, CT
Kennedy DelVecchio, North Haven, CT
Kerry Hayes, Clinton, CT
Keyaira Louis-Fin, Norwalk, CT
Kiersten Ignatowski, Orange, CT
Kiley Burrows, Naugatuck, CT
Kimberly Clark, Wallingford, CT
Kira Flynn, Sandy Hook, CT
Kirstin Colwell, parkland, FL
Krishna Soni, Naugatuck, CT
Kristen Fournier, North Haven, CT
Kristine Oulman, Easton, CT
Kubra Tas, West Haven, CT
Kylie Zack, Stratford, CT
Lamesha Randolph, West Haven, CT
Lesly Lopez, New Haven, CT
Lindsay Parzych, Coventry, CT
Lydia Cooper, Orange, CT
Madelyn Westcott, Wallingford, CT
Madison Correia, Orange, CT
Maria Labati, Sandy Hook, CT
Marie Chutjian, Milford, CT
Marisa D’angelo, Shelton, CT
Marisol Rivera, Norwalk, CT
Matthew Mainieri, Milford, CT
Maureen Hesney, Waterford, CT
Meagan Dooley, Hamden, CT
Meaghan McLaughlin, New Britain, CT
Megan Garner, Hamden, CT
Megan Ralston, Suffield, CT
Megan Robertson, Stratford, CT
Melanie Chevarella, Oxford, CT
Melanie Vieira, Beacon Falls, CT
Melissa Tkacs-Soli, West Haven, CT
Michael McClean, Stratford, CT
Mira El Turk, Hamden, CT
Moira Wynne, Cheshire, CT
Monica Reardon, Trumbull, CT
Nalleli Becerra, Norwalk, CT
Naomi Salamea, Norwalk, CT
Natalie Delin, West Haven, CT
Natalie Ferris, Shelton, CT
Natalie Grib, Stratford, CT
Nicholas Lucatino, Southbury, CT
Nicole Kiernan, Wallingford, CT
Nicole Petit, Wallingford, CT
Nicole Plourde, Wolcott, CT
Nicole Waibel, Fairfield, CT
Nikayla Diamond, Bethel, CT
Nora Raccio, Milford, CT
Oleksandra Edwards, New London, CT
Olivia Santoro, Hamden, CT
Olivia Whitehead, Higganum, CT
Orlian Senior, Trumbull, CT
Paige Raucci, Milford, CT
Pamela Karabeinikoff, Meriden, CT
Parisa Amiri, Waterbury, CT
Patricia Larson, Cheshire, CT
Paula Munoz-Gonzalez, Hamden, CT
Peyton Tiriolo, Cheshire, CT
Rachael Garcia, Woodbridge, CT
Rachael Langley, North Haven, CT
Rachael Sawicki, West Haven, CT
Rachael Tyrrel, Cheshire, CT
Rachel Englund, Canaan, CT
Rachel Papa, Hamden, CT
Rachel Shea, Derby, CT
Rebecca Roos, Fairfield, CT
Robert Romano, Norwalk, CT
Rosa Palmieri, Cheshire, CT
Ryan Plourde, Naugatuck, CT
Rylee Bathrick, North Haven, CT
Salvatore Tuozzola, Milford, CT
Samantha Chabot, Oakville, CT
Samantha Crans, Madison, CT
Samantha Fenton, Seymour, CT
Sandra Britton, Woodbridge, CT
Sandra Taylor, Meriden, CT
Sara Dibenedictis, Cheshire, CT
Sara O’shea, Milford, CT
Sarah Sportelli, North Branford, CT
Savannah Beecher, guilford, CT
Savannah Nido, Waterbury, CT
Savannah Polica, Stratford, CT
Shannon Murphy, Hamden, CT
Shannon Searles, Naugatuck, CT
Shayne Catala, Wallingford, CT
Sydney Wichmann, Granby, CT
Tanajhae Lomba, Bridgeport, CT
Tatiana Lorenzo, Meriden, CT
Taylor Bova, Orange, CT
Taylor Hurley, Canaan, CT
Taylor Winder, Salem, CT
Tori Mazzarella, Rocky Hill, CT
Tracy Boyer, Westport, CT
Vanessa Ebert, Hamden, CT
Veronica Bennet, Fairfield, CT
Victor Orsini, Fairfield, CT
Victoria Davis, Stratford, CT
Victoria Louis, Windsor, CT
Viktoria Notholt, Milford, CT
William Steinbrick, Orange, CT
Xia’ian Carrasco, Bristol, CT
Zehra Guven, New Haven, CT

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

Abby Rodrigue, Seymour, CT
Abigail Morrison Morrison, Clinton, CT
Adrianna Guerrera, Watertown, CT
Alana-Nicole Doucette, Waterbury, CT
Alecia Mclean, New Haven, CT
Alex Rarey, Wallingford, CT
Alexa Catania, Durham, CT
Alexander Barry, Milford, CT
Alexander Carotenuto, Shelton, CT
Alexander Wilbour, Glastonbury, CT
Alexandra Russo, Rocky Hill, CT
Alexia Ruesch Modesto Alves, New Milford, CT
Alexis Cran, Branford, CT
Alexis Negron, Milldale, CT
Alexis Simons, South Windsor, CT
Alexis Trovarelli, Stratford, CT
Alexis Zhitomi, Shelton, CT
Alicia Smith, Shelton, CT
Alisha Botelho, Danbury, CT
Aliyah Manning, West Haven, CT
Aliyah Moore, Shelton, CT
Allison Blume, Southbury, CT
Allison Edwards, New Fairfield, CT
Allison Morris, Southington, CT
Allison Perrault, New Milford, CT
Ally Morin-Viall, Windsor, CT
Allyson Starkey, Stratford, CT
Alycia Calabrese, Plymouth, CT
Alyssa Maddern, West Haven, CT
Alyssa Paz, Bridgeport, CT
Amanda Cusumano, Trumbull, CT
Amanda Murray, Bow, NH
Amanda Potvin, Durham, CT
Amanda Valentin, Naugatuck, CT
Amanda Vislosky, Stonington, CT
Amanda Young, Wallingford, CT
Amanda-Lynn Bernardo, Prospect, CT
Amber Archambault, Windsor Locks, CT
Amber Belval, Wolcott, CT
Amber Drobnak, East Haven, CT
Amber Fournier, Southington, CT
Amelia Trapp, Milford, CT
Amina Dinaj, Shelton, CT
Amy Kelly, West Haven, CT
Andrea Greenwald, Norwalk, CT
Andrew Di Saia, Sterling, CT
Andrew Gibbs, North Haven, CT
Angelica Herrera, Waterbury, CT
Angelique Boyd, New Haven, CT
Angelo Turner, Meriden, CT
Anika Bonaparte, New Haven, CT
Anna Folkers, New Haven, CT
Anna Venard, Thornton, CO
Anne Prusak, Fairfield, CT
Annie Ricupero, Uncasville, CT
Anthony Raccio, Milford, CT
Antoinette Higgins, Branford, CT
Antonia Nieves, Meriden, CT
April Blango, New Haven, CT
April Groulx, New Haven, CT
Ariel Audette, Jewett City, CT
Ariella Piekarz, Madison, CT
Arthur Ziegler, Trumbull, CT
Aschlyn Dawson, Terryville, CT
Ashlee Fuoco, Hamden, CT
Ashley Catala, Waterford, CT
Ashley Cummings, Bristol, CT
Ashley Nunez, Bridgeport, CT
Ashley Schaffer, Monroe, CT
Ashley Sloan, Maywood, NJ
Asya Hardy, South Windsor, CT
Atabong Aminawung, Wallingford, CT
Aubry Allen, Clinton, CT
Aurora Guadagnoli, Trumbull, CT
Autumn Holm, Branford, CT
Basima Karzoun, Milford, CT
Benjamin Coombs, Oakdale, CT
Benjamin Yambao, Shelton, CT
Bernice Aldarondo, Waterbury, CT
Bert Schwarz, Middlebury, CT
Breanna Wilson, New Milford, CT
Briana Cotton, South Windsor, CT
Briana Sestito, West Haven, CT
Brianna Alfaro, Hamden, CT
Brianna Gee, Plantsville, CT
Brianna Grande, West Hartford, CT
Brianna Hamilton, Meriden, CT
Brianna Jones, Waterford, CT
Brianna Lenotti, Milford, CT
Brianna Trzcinski, Shelton, CT
Brianna Vallejo, Prospect, CT
Bridget Forte, Wolcott, CT
Britney Ruffin, West Haven, CT
Brittany Butler, New Haven, CT
Brittany Dainiak, Ansonia, CT
Brittany McCormick, Cheshire, CT
Brooke Berlin, Gales Ferry, CT
Brooke Dauphinee, Bristol, CT
Busra Tuzcu, West Haven, CT
Cailey Botteon, Moodus, CT
Cailey Korwek, East Haven, CT
Caitlin Foothorap, Shelton, CT
Caitlyn Parisi, Milford, CT
Candace Chapman, Milford, CT
Carly Conchado, Wallingford, CT
Carson Neilander, Wallingford, CT
Caryn Kaelin, Stamford, CT
Cassidy Allen, West Haven, CT
Cassidy Girolamo, Newington, CT
Catherine Pietrafesa, Harwinton, CT
Celeste Stewart, Stratford, CT
Cephas Ayellakai, Hamden, CT
Chelsea Perrotta, Middletown, CT
Chineka Haye, Naugatuck, CT
Christen Carnes, Darien, CT
Christie Abreu, Bristol, CT
Christine Meche, Ridgefield, CT
Christopher Bruno, New Haven, CT
Chynnia Piland, Waterbury, CT
Claire Hines, Wallingford, CT
Claire Taylor, Middletown, CT
Connor Shannahan, Enfield, CT
Corinne Murphy, Wallingford, CT
Courtney Harkins-Latimer, Wolcott, CT
Cristina Perez, Hamden, CT
Crystal Castonguay, Danbury, CT
Cynthia Montero, Stamford, CT
Dana Deluca, Branford, CT
Daniel Baronski, East Haven, CT
Daniel Gonzalez, New Milford, CT
Daniel Procaccini, New Haven, CT
Daniella Carr, West Haven, CT
Daniella Suazo, Norwalk, CT
Danielle Cavanna, Manchester, CT
Danielle Darley, Middletown, CT
Danielle Jackson, New Britain, CT
Danielle Joyce, Clinton, CT
Danielle Mixon, Orange, CT
Danielle Ott, Guilford, CT
Danielle Parent, Florence, MA
Danielle Schwartz, Woodbridge, CT
Darien Fuentes, Stamford, CT
David Hernandez, East Haven, CT
David Kudej, Shelton, CT
David Samaroo, Waterbury, CT
Dayana Lituma, New Haven, CT
Dayla Wigglesworth, Goshen, CT
Deanna Dittrich, Ledyard, CT
Deanna Scolsky, East Hartford, CT
Deidra O’Connor, East Haven, CT
Djenifer Almeida Da Graca, Bridgeport, CT
Donyae Broadnax, New Haven, CT
Drew McCarty, Mystic, CT
Dylan Hogan, Wallingford, CT
Elanna Sanon, Norwich, CT
Elena Cavallo, Watertown, CT
Elena Haury, Meriden, CT
Elisa Tolentino, Wallingford, CT
Elisabeth Steffen, Guilford, CT
Elissa Vinci, Cromwell, CT
Elizabeth Raber, Wallingford, CT
Elizabeth Taylor, Branford, CT
Emily Borrelli, Derby, CT
Emily Borysewicz, Quaker Hill, CT
Emily Chizmadia, Fairfield, CT
Emily Earnshaw, Naugatuck, CT
Emily Kowalski, Gales Ferry, CT
Emily Masloski, Branford, CT
Emily Mclean, Bridgeport, CT
Emily Montoya, Stratford, CT
Emily Nadile, Southington, CT
Emily Skinner, Bristol, CT
Emily Zurzola, New Fairfield, CT
Emma Crocamo, Seymour, CT
Emma Martone, Higganum, CT
Emmalee Caisse, Terryville, CT
Eric Baxter, Hamden, CT
Erika Johnson, Windsor, CT
Erika Romero, bridgeport, CT
Erin Hourihan, Rocky Hill, CT
Erin Leirey, Lake Katrine, NY
Erin O’Neill, Thomaston, CT
Erin Ryan, Bridgeport, CT
Erin Ryder, Congers, NY
Errah Rabano, Clinton, CT
Evan Rubin, Uncasville, CT
Evelin Agudo, Wallingford, CT
Faith Mancarella, Durham, CT
Gabrielle Beard, Shelton, CT
Gabrielle Tenta-Bergeron, Colchester, CT
George Anne Amar, New London, CT
Gianna Digiacomo, New Milford, CT
Gianna Hutchins, West Hartford, CT
Gianna Rapuano, Wallingford, CT
Gina Bialy, Shelton, CT
Gina Connolly, West Haven, CT
Gina Sundlof, Redding, CT
Giovanna Pascale, North Haven, CT
Grace Beckley, Wallingford, CT
Greta Brunello, Carisolo, TN
Guerschom Jean-Louis, Medford, MA
Hailee Schmidt, Wallingford, CT
Hailey Gonsalves, East Haven, CT
Hailey O’Brien, East Haven, CT
Haley Flax, Mystic, CT
Halley King, Terryville, CT
Hanna Natalino, Orange, CT
Hannah Aforismo, Newington, CT
Hannah Melendez, Hamden, CT
Hannah Morse, Loveland, CO
Hannah Roche, New Milford, CT
Hayley Iannantuoni, Waterbury, CT
Hazhia Soro-Sindi, Hamden, CT
Heather Lavoie, Voluntown, CT
Holly Montpelier, Putnam, CT
Holly Parker, Branford, CT
Holly Sheldon, Terryville, CT
Hunter Conklin, Killingworth, CT
Hunter Wnukowski, Trumbull, CT
Ian Cheu, Easton, CT
Imanie Davis, Bridgeport, CT
Ioanna Lemonas, West Haven, CT
Irene Laramie, Wethersfield, CT
Irving Chamorro, New Haven, CT
Isabella Corniello, North Haven, CT
Isabella Lanata, Glastonbury, CT
Isabelle Mercer, Ledyard, CT
Izabella Ruth Roque, Wallingford, CT
Jace Nhean, West Haven, CT
Jacob Piazza, Derby, CT
Jacqueline Gonzalez, Norwalk, CT
Jacqulynn Espinet, Barkhamsted, CT
Jada Johnson, Bloomfield, CT
Jaidyn Santiago, West Haven, CT
Jaime Conklin, Falls Village, CT
Jake Reichelt, Wethersfield, CT
James D’elia, Wethersfield, CT
James Michaud, Wallingford, CT
James Prindle, Woodstock, CT
Jamie Stevens, Niantic, CT
Jane Lovejoy, Colebrook, CT
Jane Marlor, Bethany, CT
Jane Sherman, Mystic, CT
Jannelle Stephenson, New Haven, CT
Jayda Benjamin, Waterbury, CT
Jayla Manning, New Haven, CT
Jayson Karamanlic, West Haven, CT
Jeanie Dunleavy, Wallingford, CT
Jeffrey Schardt, Branford, CT
Jeffrey Stevenson, Shelton, CT
Jeffrey Turner, Newington, CT
Jena Varley, new hartford, CT
Jenixza Febles, Meriden, CT
Jenna Dantas, Coventry, CT
Jenna Lang, Southington, CT
Jenna Papallo, Meriden, CT
Jennifer Adorno, Bridgeport, CT
Jennifer Forsyth, Seymour, CT
Jennifer Lupercio, Bridgeport, CT
Jennifer Rodriguez, Norwalk, CT
Jephrie Cabral, Wallingford, CT
Jeremy Miller, Windsor, CT
Jessah Doctor, Waterbury, CT
Jessica Case, Naugatuck, CT
Jessica Curello, Cheshire, CT
Jessica Goldenthal, Clinton, CT
Jessica Paradis, Orange, CT
Jessica Schmitz, Haskell, NJ
Jhada Eddy, Middletown, CT
Jillian Chambers, Shelby Township, MI
Jillian Chicano, Prospect, CT
Jillian Murphy, Seymour, CT
Jillian Russo, Meriden, CT
JoAnna Darby, New Haven, CT
Jodi Steeves, North Branford, CT
John Rivers, Southington, CT
Jordan McHale, Johnston, RI
Jose Ramirez, Milford, CT
Joseph Blanchard, Madison, CT
Joseph Bonsanti, New Canaan, CT
Joseph D’Amico, North Haven, CT
Josh Denzel Estores, East Haven, CT
Joshua Chandler, West Hartford, CT
Joshua Huebner, Milford, CT
Joshua Thiede, Trumbull, CT
Joy Padgett, Hartford, CT
Juan Zurita, Hamden, CT
Julia Annino, Meriden, CT
Julia Conti, Greenwich, CT
Julia Filiault, Durham, CT
Julia Jenkins, Chester, CT
Juliana Palmieri, New Haven, CT
Juliana Santos, Newington, CT
Julianne Hancock, South Windsor, CT
Julie Golebiewski, Old Lyme, CT
Justin Dean, Falls Village, CT
Justin Pandolfe, Waterford, CT
Kaitlynn Cooke, West Haven, CT
Karina Vasquez, Stratford, CT
Karla Mayorga, Norwalk, CT
Kassandra Veneziano, Rocky Hill, CT
Kassie Poruban, Stratford, CT
Katarina Viniczay, Wallingford, CT
Katharine Buckheit, Milford, CT
Katherine Adams, Stratford, CT
Katherine Rodriguez, Waterbury, CT
Kathleen Hastings, Naugatuck, CT
Kathleen Tackos, New Haven, CT
Katie Gaccione, North Stonington, CT
Katie Sobalsky, Clinton, CT
Kayla Degennaro, Derby, CT
Kaylee Fuentes, Bridgeport, CT
Kayleigh Roy, Wallingford, CT
Kelli McCombs, Bristow, VA
Kelly Bickell, Cheshire, CT
Kenisha Villanueva, New Britain, CT
Keri Gargiullo, Bridgeport, CT
Kerstin Eckner, Oxford, CT
Kevin Gaudio, Guilford, CT
Keyla Cardenas, East Haven, CT
Khue Hoang, Ansonia, CT
Kiara Velez, Norwalk, CT
Kiersten Conner, Milford, CT
Kiley Davies, Newington, CT
Kimberly Martell, Wallingford, CT
Kimberly Meerman, Danbury, CT
Korinn Chelednik, Waterbury, CT
Kourtney Costello, Dedham, MA
Kristen Clark, Hamden, CT
Kristen Galaviz, Fairfield, CT
Krystalys Aviles, Hamden, CT
Kurt Houppert, new haven, CT
Kyla Houston, Wallingford, CT
Kylie Carino, Milford, CT
Kylie Pappas, Milford, CT
Kylyn Dawkins, New Haven, CT
Latifat Alli-balogun, West Haven, CT
Lauren Driscoll, Branford, CT
Lauren Girouard, Berlin, CT
Lauren Graef, Southington, CT
Lauren Mccall, Wallingford, CT
Lauren Pearce-Morin, Portland, CT
Lauren Pettinella, Oxford, CT
Lauren Pfannenbecker, East Haven, CT
Lauren Picarelli, Trumbull, CT
Lea Clark, Monroe, CT
Ledia Fazo, Cheshire, CT
Leila Asipi, Watertown, CT
Leon Bardwell, East Haven, CT
Leonard Cohen, Bridgeport, CT
Lesley-Ann Briscoe, Windsor, CT
Lexi Macdonald, West Haven, CT
Lianne Iassogna, Trumbull, CT
Lindsey D’Andrea, Litchfield, CT
Lindsey Fitzgerald, Wallingford, CT
Lindsey Witte, Southington, CT
Lisa Cormier, New Haven, CT
Lisa Garcia, Norwich, CT
Lisa Mclaurin, Hamden, CT
Louis Norman, Branford, CT
Lucas Beesley, Champaign, IL
Lucas Ferreira, Shelton, CT
Luke Riccio, Shelton, CT
Mackenzie Gries, Northford, CT
Mackenzie Hays, Hamden, CT
Mackenzie Moschella, Falls Village, CT
Madison Adams, Lebanon, CT
Madison Gregory, Danbury, CT
Madison Miceli, Colchester, CT
Maggie Shafman, Old Saybrook, CT
Maggie Yeh, West Haven, CT
Mahoghany Dolberry, New haven, CT
Makenna Calabrese, Plantsville, CT
Makenna Perry, Jewett City, CT
Manuel Dixon, Groton, CT
Maranda Burroughs, East Haven, CT
Marcella Hundt, Shelton, CT
Margaret McNeil, Stratford, CT
Maria Bianco, Wallingford, CT
Maria Garcia, West Haven, CT
Maria Lopez, Ansonia, CT
Maria Zecena, Stamford, CT
Mariah Eykelhoff, Litchfield, CT
Mariam Mohamed, Fairfield, CT
Marilyn Deshan, Bridgeport, CT
Marisa Conlin, East Haddam, CT
Marisa Grisell, Brookfield, CT
Marissa Cassella, North Haven, CT
Marissa Mastroianni, Southington, CT
Marissa Ortiz, Waterbury, CT
Marissa Thomas, North Haven, CT
Marta Leszczynski, Shelton, CT
Martha Polanco, Stratford, CT
Mary Charlebois, New Haven, CT
Matheus Haddad De Lima, greenwich, CT
Mathew Kolashuk, Oakdale, CT
Matthew Blair, Wappingers Falls, NY
Matthew Carter, West Haven, CT
Matthew Laporta, Ansonia, CT
Matthew Lockhart, Woodbridge, CT
Max Naranjo, Bristol, CT
Max-Anthony Natale, Orange, CT
Maxine Aboagye, Stratford, CT
McNeill Finnegan, Old Saybrook, CT
Megan Camp, Middletown, CT
Megan Lee, Hamden, CT
Megan Mancinelli, Hamden, CT
Megan Mercer, Danbury, CT
Megan Moquin, Marlborough, CT
Meghan Asplund, Meriden, CT
Meghan Brown, Naugatuck, CT
Melanie Coleman, Milford, CT
Melissa D’Agostino, Norwalk, CT
Melissa Lopez, Hartford, CT
Melissa Tighe, West Haven, CT
Melquicedex Hernandez, Waterbury, CT
Mestude Vertusma, New Haven, CT
Michael Centoni, Bristol, CT
Michael Demartino, New Haven, CT
Michaela Roman, Stratford, CT
Michelle Ciolino, Milford, CT
Michelle Defelice, Hamden, CT
Mikaela Magee, New Fairfield, CT
Mikaela Rivera, Manchester, CT
Mikayla Wasilewski, Shelton, CT
Mikayla Wyskiel, Durham, CT
Mikenzy Golebiewski, Cheshire, CT
Miranda Fabre, Norwich, CT
Miranda Tranquillo, Barkhamsted, CT
Molly Wright, Plantsville, CT
Monica Joy, Waterbury, CT
Morgan Fernald, New Haven, CT
Myla DeTour, Middletown, CT
Nacham Miranda, Cromwell, CT
Nadia Wilson, Shelton, CT
Naomi Scatliffe, Stratford, CT
Natalie Pierce, Marion, CT
Natalie Van Komen, Oxford, CT
Nataly Magana, West Haven, CT
Natasha Whyte, Bloomfield, CT
Natasha May St. Martin, Cheshire, CT
Nathan Foley, Vernon, CT
Natonia Allen, Hamden, CT
Nava Cotton, Norwich, CT
Nayare Rivera, Waterbury, CT
Nicholas Palazzo, Brookfield, CT
Nicole Benedetto, Monroe, CT
Nicole Cislo, Wallingford, CT
Nicole Fischer, Southington, CT
Nicole Hogan, Oxford, CT
Nicole Hyman, Fairfield, CT
Nicole Symonovich, Waterbury, CT
Nicole VanEtten, Stratford, CT
Nikita Reyes, New Haven, CT
Noah Ramos, North Haven, CT
Noel Diaz, Danbury, CT
Noely Macias, Fitchburg, MA
Olivia Castro, Bethany, CT
Olivia Czachor, Ansonia, CT
Olivia Kyasky, Woodbridge, CT
Olivia Rogers, Ansonia, CT
Olivia Satti, New London, CT
Patrick Straub, Southington, CT
Paulina Serafin, Bristol, CT
Peter Grant, Trumbull, CT
Peter Lofaro, Stamford, CT
Phillip Bodurtha, Stratford, CT
Pilarose Bailon, Groton, CT
Preston Myatt, Norwich, CT
Quintisha Upchurch, Hamden, CT
Rachael Edlund, West Hartford, CT
Rachael O’Sullivan, West Haven, CT
Rachael Quicquaro, Watertown, CT
Rachel Carmody, Southington, CT
Rachel Iassogna, Trumbull, CT
Rachel Korwek, East Haven, CT
Rachel Mouris, Plantsville, CT
Rachel Papa, North Haven, CT
Randall Rissing, Groton, CT
Rasheeda Latch, Waterbury, CT
Rebecca Barrett, Easton, CT
Rebecca Rossi, Plainville, CT
Rebecca Swindon, Sandy Hook, CT
Rebekah Heiland, Torrington, CT
Rebekah Lockery, Stamford, CT
Reitsuma Panta, Branford, CT
Renee Marquis, Naugatuck, CT
Richard Mills, Cheshire, CT
Riley Walker, Oxford, CT
Rita Kellam, Waterbury, CT
Robert Vojt, Trumbull, CT
Roberto Balado, Milford, CT
Roberto Ramos, Monroe, CT
Romanya Joseph, Stratford, CT
Ronald Vargas, Bridgeport, CT
Ronique McDonald, Bridgeport, CT
Rory Dougall, Trumbull, CT
Rosa Conte, Norwich, CT
Rosemary Donnelly, Ansonia, CT
Rossella Graniero, Wappingers Falls, NY
Ryan Conway, Shelton, CT
Ryan Johnson, Guilford, CT
Ryan Koellhoffer, Danbury, CT
Ryan Sherman, Mystic, CT
Sabrina Bahia, Danbury, CT
Sabrina Silva, Willington, CT
Samantha Cozzolino, Hamden, CT
Samantha Falango, Hamden, CT
Samantha Lane, Fairfield, CT
Samantha Pope, Quaker Hill, CT
Samantha Soto, Matawan, NJ
Samantha Widomski, Shelton, CT
Sanjida Shamim, Ansonia, CT
Sara Meza, Norwalk, CT
Sarah Cooney, South Windsor, CT
Sarah Donahue, Wallingford, CT
Sarah Fusco, East Haven, CT
Sarah Gutman, Hamden, CT
Sarah Izraelevitz, Berlin, CT
Sarah Lyons, New Haven, CT
Sarah Pellman, Middlebury, CT
Sarah Salvati, Cheshire, CT
Sarah Zuiewski, Stratford, CT
Satchel Harrell, Stafford, VA
Scott Mocko, Marlborough, CT
Sean O’Connor, Northford, CT
Sedanur Kangal, North Haven, CT
Selena Lopes, Bridgeport, CT
Serena Arduini, Woodbridge, CT
Shailyne Morales, Middletown, CT
Shaliegne Kaufman, Chester, CT
Shane Gallagher, Orange, CT
Shane Lister, Wolcott, CT
Shannon Ferris, Wethersfield, CT
Shay Green, Bethany, CT
Sherena Walker, Bridgeport, CT
Sheyenne Sinicrope, Meriden, CT
Sierra Penner, Cheshire, CT
Sierra Pettway, Meriden, CT
Simone Davenport, Bridgeport, CT
Simone Davis, new haven, CT
Sofia Brindisi, West Haven, CT
Sofia Malone, Hamden, CT
Sophia Didiano, North Branford, CT
Stacy Foster, Milford, CT
Stanley Nganga, West Haven, CT
Stephani Esposito, Niantic, CT
Stephanie Galindo, New Haven, CT
Stephanie Marquez, East Hartford, CT
Stephanie Seymour, North Branford, CT
Stephen Ornstein, Bethany, CT
Steven Samela, Stamford, CT
Sydney Larsen, Shelton, CT
Talia Raucci, West Haven, CT
Talisa Clay, Shelton, CT
Talnaysia Martin, New Haven, CT
Tamara Miller, Waterbury, CT
Tamra Zippin, Monson, MA
Tara Dering, Branford, CT
Tate Veley, Hartford, CT
Tatiana Polanco, Meriden, CT
Taylor Brunet, Bristol, CT
Taylor Davis, Millis, MA
Taylor Maffeo, East Haven, CT
Taylor Oliver, Milford, CT
Thalita Codognolla, Stamford, CT
Thomas Ayers, Derby, CT
Tianna Thomas, West Haven, CT
Tiffaney Williams, Wallingford, CT
Tiffany McCormick, Meriden, CT
Tiffany Mendez, Bridgeport, CT
Timothy Adams, Shelton, CT
Timothy Harmon, Guilford, CT
Timothy Weed, Cheshire, CT
Tommy Co, Hamden, CT
Tony Le, Branford, CT
Tori Samatulski, Bridgeport, CT
Tracy Torres, Old Saybrook, CT
Trevor Pretty, Hamden, CT
Trevor Whalen, Rocky Hill, CT
Tugba Citlak, Wallingford, CT
Uchenna Ogbaa, Hamden, CT
Valeria Rugerio, New Haven, CT
Victoria Acampora, Woodbridge, CT
Victoria Keen, Newington, CT
Victoria Lyons, Shelton, CT
Victoria Marino, Hamden, CT
Victoria Rooney, Torrington, CT
Victoria Santamauro, North Haven, CT
Vikaash Ramnath, Waterbury, CT
William Cswerko, Torrington, CT
Yasheera Guadalupe, Charlotte, NC
Ying Lin, Hamden, CT
Yuliya Lyalka, Hamden, CT
Zachary Jezek, Moodus, CT
Zachary Penn, New Hartford, CT
Zubia Nabeel, North Haven, CT

Undeclared

Sara Aburumi, New Haven, CT
Abigail Dew, Milford, CT
Alexander Feldman, Cheshire, CT
Alexandra Evans, Shoothill Ford,
Alexis Rodriguez, New Haven, CT
Alina Geissler, Flörsheim-Dalsheim, Germany
Alyssa Martinez, Stratford, CT
Amelia Mierzwinski, Torrington, CT
Ananda Perno, Wallingford, CT
Andrea Woodson, New Haven, CT
Anna Plasky, Milford, CT
Arinn Buoni, Stratford, CT
Ashley Barry, Southington, CT
Benjamin Leblanc, Madison, CT
Blake Wetter, Orange, CT
Brendan Dowd, Wethersfield, CT
Catherine Weed, Milford, CT
Charlotte McCartney, Warrington, Cheshire, England
Christopher Wilson, Madison, CT
Clare Oliver, Cheshire, CT
Courtney Ouellet, North Branford, CT
Daniella Chasse, Wallingford, CT
Diana Hart, North haven, CT
Elena Lofgren, New Fairfield, CT
Emma Sweeney, Stratford, CT
Erik Rosso, Trumbull, CT
Gavin Woodward, New Hartford, CT
Genevieve Jaser, Milford, CT
Gia Mentillo, Orange, CT
Henry Southwood, Clinton, CT
Ivan Kelly, Buxton, Derbyshire, England
John Baldino, New Haven, CT
John Gowargy, New Haven, CT
Joshua Riggs, Dorchester, MA
Julia Caruso, Prospect, CT
Julia Ruttmann, Weiltingen,
Justin Lazarus, Guilford, CT
Katherine Kiernan, Milford, CT
Katrin Eifler, Regensburg,
Lauren Merly, Bethany, CT
Lauryn Benoit, Oakdale, CT
Leana Mauricette, East Hartford, CT
Luz Vargas, East Hartford, CT
Marco Forgione, Easton, CT
Megan Hudson, Liverpool, England
Micahlyn Vaichus, Waterbury, CT
Misun Kim, Seoul, South Korea
Nathan Carney, Bristol, CT
Olivia Lorentz, Bergheim, France
Olivia Pocock, Guilford, CT
Pedro De Jesus, Hartford, CT
Peter Bader, Munich, Germany
Priscilla Yeboah, Brooklyn, NY
Ronahi Musa, Naugatuck, CT
Saeyoung Oh, Daejeon, South Korea
Sarah Karrer, Ranspach le Bas, France
Serena Lambiase, Milford, CT
Shanelle Lester, New Haven, CT
Tom Grassi, Hyeres, France
Trevor Somes, Niantic, CT
Valentina Rrapi, Monroe, CT
Wenmin Wang, Wuhan, China
William Meza, Hamden, CT
Yuxuan Wang, Kaifeng, China

The Top Owl Social Justice Award is given to recognize contributions toward helping the university achieve its mission of creating and sustaining an inclusive community that appreciates, celebrates, and advances student and campus diversity.

This award, selected by the President’s Commission on Social Justice, will be awarded this academic year during the months of December, January, February, and March to recognize the contributions, leadership, and service of a worthy faculty, staff, part-time student, and full-time student.

For the month of January, the Top Owl Award winners are graduate student Mykelle Coleman; Sedell Hairston-Hatton, secretary from the Student Involvement and Leadership Development Office; and Yi-chun Tricia Lin, director and professor of Women’s Studies.

Mykelle Coleman, a second-year graduate student in the School Psychology Program, has shown a passion for and commitment to social justice throughout her time at Southern. For the past two years, she has headed the Counseling and School Psychology Department’s Social Justice/Diversity Committee, a group that designs and coordinates learning experiences to meet these goals. In addition, last year Coleman worked on the On Our Own Turf Project, a Social Justice Committee grant-funded activity that looked at issues of microaggressions, discrimination, and injustice on the SCSU campus. She also developed and led the Clothesline Project, an art-based activity dealing with issues of sexual assault and violence, and a showing and discussion about the film For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf during last year’s Social Justice Month. This year she was a student leader for two major Social Justice Month activities, the Racial Justice Film Festival and the Sleep Out America event, to bring attention to the issue of child, youth, and college student homelessness. She has also helped to provided diversity training to Southern staff.

One of Coleman’s nominators wrote that she “embodies the ideals of social justice and utilizes the core values of SCSU to bring those ideals to her peers and fellow Owls. As a leader in the social justice committee, she has organized events at Southern that promote awareness of some challenging issues that we face today, both as Owls and members of our larger society.” Aside from the activities she is involved in on campus, a nominator wrote, “she exhibits a nurturing nature towards all, accepting and celebrating others constantly. She is a positive spirit who is always there for others. [She] is able to light up a room with her presence while also shining the spotlight on others around her. She has an incredible spirit that Southern is very lucky to have as a part of its community.”

Sedell Hairston-Hatton, who is also known as Dell, was described by her nominator as “such a beautiful person inside and out, and she is extremely helpful! She is very reliable and always willing to go out of her way to make sure those around her get the assistance that they need. She does a lot of behind the scenes work to make sure everything runs smoothly.”

Her nominator added that Hairston-Hatton is “a remarkable person who has a heart of gold, and it is evident that she takes her job not only seriously but has a passion for what she does. I think these are very important qualities to have as a staff member at the University, and she is a wonderful candidate for the Top Owl Award.”

As the director of the Women’s Studies Program, Yi-chun Tricia Lin has been organizing the 64 Days of Nonviolence program at Southern for many years. As part of that program, every spring semester she puts together a wide array of events to promote social justice on campus. Her nominator wrote that Lin “does this work tirelessly and on a shoestring budget” and pointed out that the 64 Days of Nonviolence program predates Social Justice Month by more than a decade. One of the most impressive feature of the 64 Days of Nonviolence, wrote Lin’s nominator, “is the wide array of topics covered, from Indigenous, women’s, and LGBTQ rights, to Black Lives Matter, to increasing social justice for girls and boys. She really is a model advocate for the teaching and learning of social justice on campus.”

Congratulations to January’s Top Owl Award winners!

To nominate someone for a Top Owl award, visit the university’s Social Justice website.

It’s that time of year again, when many folks make New Year’s resolutions about losing weight, eating more healthily, and getting into better shape.

Dr. Bill Lunn, associate director of exercise science and director of Southern’s Human Performance Laboratory, recently discussed several popular diets in an interview with WTNH-News 8. He offered pros and cons to four of the most popular diets in America today.

Watch the interview here.

At the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK), students from Southern’s Department of Nursing, along with community health workers from Project Access, participate in Know Your Numbers, a partnership that provides screenings, referrals, and patient navigation in the form of follow-ups. DESK is the first agency in New Haven to pilot the program, as a partnership with Yale New Haven Health and CARE (Community Alliance for Research and Engagement), which is based at Southern’s School of Health and Human Services (HHS). Because the people who come to DESK are often dealing with multiple problems related to living in poverty, DESK has established partnerships with other organizations to offer additional services during the mealtimes.

Learn more here:
https://www.cfgnh.org/About/NewsEvents/ViewArticle/tabid/96/ArticleId/1793/More-than-a-meal.aspx

If you talk to veterans who use the Veterans Center at Southern about what brings them back day after day, it’s not amenities such as the large flat screen television or the comfortable sectional couches. Sure, those are nice, but what really makes the space is the people who congregate there.

“In the military it’s all about the camaraderie and the support you give each other as soldiers,” Veterans Center Director Jack Mordente, U.S. Army, says. “When vets get done with service, they either go to work or they go to school. If they go to school they maintain the camaraderie. They tell stories and joke with each other. It’s all about support.”

These days, more and more veterans are in search of support in higher education. Colleges have seen an increase in enrollment of veterans thanks to the conclusion of close to a decade of involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2013 more than a million student veterans were using their GI benefits to pursue advanced educational opportunities; that number was estimated to increase by 20 percent in just a few years. At Southern, approximately 300 veterans are enrolled (that includes veterans, National Guard, Reservists, and dependents).

Staffed by Mordente and work-study students who are also veterans, the Veterans’ Center is open 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. There’s a lounge, a refrigerator, a microwave, a separate computer lab, and ample space to study, network, watch movies, or simply to develop friendships.

“We get about 35 to 40 vets using it a day,” Mordente says.

Lliam West is one of them. A junior at Southern, he is thinking that after he graduates he’d like to go on to Officer Candidate School, or OCS, the U.S. Army’s main training academy for prospective army officers. Candidates who successfully complete the intense, 12-week OCS receive commissions as U.S. Army officers and assume the ability to command soldiers.

While Southern has been a good fit for West because he had friends who had also enrolled and because it was close to his hometown of Milford, he still struggled to create friendships. He found his niche at the center; in fact, you can find him there “every day, between classes.”

“We all get along,” West says. “There’s a lot of debate and discussion, and people can feel free to be themselves. I come here every day. My friends are here.”

Each public college in Connecticut has a veterans center, though it’s commonly called an OASIS (Operation Academic Support for Incoming Service Members). Among Connecticut’s community colleges and state universities — Central, Eastern and Western — Southern’s center is the largest. Years ago, a women’s group heard about Southern’ s Veterans’ Center. Using it as a model, they provided funding, furniture, and assistance at the other state schools. All the schools had to do was provide the space. Mordente, who has been involved with veteran’s services at Southern since 1975, understands the connotation of an OASIS but states he’s a “’60’s” guy who prefers the more casual Veterans Center. Whatever name you call it, it leaves a lasting impression.

“I get feedback from students who transfer here that it’s head and shoulders above the rest,” Mordente says. “Vets see our center and say, ‘This is incredible.’ Veterans meet each other, they socialize, talk about their military experience with each other, then academic discussions happen. There’s talk about different courses and professors. It’s the kind of thing where they stop in between classes and keep coming back. Or vets are in classes with each other, and they’ll talk about the center and sometimes there will be a vet who hasn’t been using it, and they will” [based on someone’s recommendation].

In addition to the Center, veterans can make use of other services offered through the Veterans Office such as council, academic advisement, GI Bill® and Connecticut War Veterans and National Guard Tuition Waiver Certifications. The office acts as a liaison with local, state, and federal agencies. Also, in coordination with Southern’s Academic Success Center, veterans can receive tutoring help from other veterans at the center.

Mordente finds that the connections made at the center are so strong that if a veteran is deployed or graduates from Southern, his or her relationship with the center goes on.

“There’s an incredible wall outside the center with photographs of war-deployed Southern students, pictures of vets in the center, of Veterans’ Day ceremonies and other activities,” Mordente says. “It’s the first thing you see when you come to the center, and it’s pretty special.” It was enough to draw in Lily, who recently transferred to Southern. She was looking for a quiet spot away from the crowds, where she could blend in, and she found it here.

“All of us appreciate it,” she said. “It’s a place where we all come and find someone who will understand us.”

Vietnam is often viewed by Americans as a country heavily influenced by China, its neighbor to the north. After all, the Vietnam War – etched in the collective memory of the Baby Boom Generation – is remembered as a proxy fight between the United States and China/Soviet Union. And it would be inaccurate to say that Vietnam has been devoid of considerable Chinese influence.

But the relationship between Vietnam and China is quite complex, according to Michele Thompson, professor of history and an expert on Southeast Asia. She explores that relationship through a medical lens in her book, Vietnamese Traditional Medicine: a Social History.

The book, published by the National University of Singapore Press, was so highly regarded by her peers that Thompson was selected as the recipient of the 2018 SCSU Faculty Scholar Award on the basis of the book.

“The (Faculty Scholar Award Committee) was impressed by your use of multilingual source material, the interdisciplinary range of your book, and the fact that it forces scholars to re-examine long-held assumptions about the relationship between Chinese and Vietnamese traditional medicine,” said Rex Gilliland, chairman of the Faculty Scholar Award Committee.

Thompson focuses on the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and the social and political context of Vietnamese medicine. “While it is very closely connected to Chinese medicine, it is not some carbon copy,” she said.

She points to Vietnam’s acceptance of early Western vaccination techniques as a key example in how it differentiated itself from China in the medical realm.

In the late 1700s, British doctor Ed Jenner discovered that people who had cowpox didn’t seem to get smallpox. The viruses that cause the two diseases are closely related, though cowpox usually has milder symptoms.

Jenner was a pioneer in the effort to begin a form of vaccination, albeit a primitive one. In other areas of the world – those without European cows — doctors began attempts to eradicate smallpox through arm-to-arm, human-to-human vaccination from those who had cowpox.

Vietnamese medicine preferred this Western approach to the Chinese alternative inoculation method. The latter involved taking a small amount of material from smallpox sores and transferring them to others. The Chinese method sought to produce a weakened form of the virus.

Thompson said it is an honor to be selected for the Faculty Scholar Award. “I was surprised,” she said. “I remember getting the envelope with the announcement in it, but it came at the end of the fall semester, when everything is pretty hectic. So, I just sort of randomly opened that particular envelope and was surprised to see what it said.

“But I am honored to follow in the footsteps of so many other excellent scholars before me.”

Thompson began teaching at SCSU in the fall 1998. Before coming to Southern, she taught at the University of Washington. She previously taught English as a Second Language in Taiwan.

She grew up in Alabama, and currently resides in New Haven. Her expertise is in Southeast Asia, with a particular focuses on Vietnam.

Norbert K. Tavares, ’06, first attended college in Florida where he was discouraged from planning a career as a biologist, despite his passion for the field. “I wasted a lot of time pursuing majors that were hot at the time like computer science and pharmacy, but I didn’t enjoy them,” he says.

A move to Connecticut and subsequent transfer to Southern set Tavares on a better course. Today, he holds a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Georgia and is an American Academy for the Advancement of Science [AAAS] Science and Technology Fellow at the National Cancer Institute — where he helps lead the fight against the deadly group of diseases.

Last fall, he shared thoughts on Southern, finding a mentor, and the importance of diversity in science and other areas. Here are some excerpts.

What inspired your interest in biology?
I remember taking personality and career assessments early on in college that said I would be good at science and engineering, and not being surprised. I was mostly taking math and science courses, and enjoying them.

My specific interest in microbiology stems from reading about bacteria that could eat oil. Digging further, I learned about bacteria that could “breath” metals instead of oxygen, live in hot springs, and do all the other crazy things bacteria can do. I was hooked.

I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors – climbing trees, playing in the dirt and ocean. That coupled with a strong curiosity and wild imagination, there was only one thing I could be, a scientist or a transcendentalist poet, I guess.

Give us five adjectives that describe you.
Curious, contemplative, solution-centric, humanist, inclusive.

It seems that biology was an early calling.
I was wavering on sticking with biology because at the time you really needed a Ph.D. to go anywhere in the field, and I didn’t want to stay in school forever. I was also previously discouraged from pursuing a Ph.D. by a professor in Orlando, [Florida].

What changed?
When I transferred to SCSU I decided I would pursue biology because I enjoyed it. . . . Nicholas Edgington, [associate professor of biology,] was my assigned academic adviser. I told him about my goals, my interest in microbiology, my desire for a Ph.D., and to peruse an academic career. He listened and gave me specific, practical advice. He was the first academic adviser I had at three separate institutions who actually gave me good advice specific to my desires.

I did exactly what he said, starting with applying for and doing a summer research program for undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin. I then applied for and was awarded a Sigma Xi grant-in-aid of research after Dr. Edgington nominated me for membership to this scientific society.

I think he was surprised that I followed through with all of his suggestions. He then took me on as an undergraduate researcher in his lab. Because of the training I gained in his lab and the three other summer research programs, I was more than competitive for graduate school and was accepted into the number three microbiology program in the country at the University of Wisconsin. I owe a great deal to Dr. Edgington. He put me on the academic and professional path that I’m currently on.

What was your research focus?
My previous laboratory looked at how bacteria make vitamin B12. Bacteria are the only organisms that make the vitamin, which humans get from our diet via meat. There are no plant sources. The herbivores we eat, like cows, get B12 from the bacteria in their guts. I studied the genes and enzymes that bacteria use to make B12.

What is your current position?
I am an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in D.C. I work in a center that analyzes the cancer research landscape – and builds programs and collaborations to develop technology, standards, and innovative ideas to fill the gaps in cancer research and move the field forward. In my role, I analyze the cancer research field to find these gaps and opportunities — and manage and evaluate the existing programs we have built. In other words, I build and fund grants, infrastructure, and programs to help cancer researchers study, understand, treat, prevent, and eventually eliminate cancers.

Your bio with the National Cancer Institute lists your strong interest in the advancement of women and underrepresented individuals in science and other areas. Can you talk a bit about that commitment?
If you have at least two women in the room — whether that room is a meeting, a board room, or Congress — it changes the conversation in a way that is important. You’ve heard it said, “If there’d been a woman in the room at the time this idea was put forward, it never would have happened. We would not have made this mistake.” I believe that’s true. Whenever I write a policy document, I always make sure to get it in front of the eyes of a number of different women. And the things that have come back – “Hey, maybe you should change this.” – I would never have thought of without their input.

I’ve learned you need to have that diversity, and there’s data to back it up. If you have lots of diversity, you tend to have a slower start. But the group makes much greater progress and they are more creative.

We live in America during sensitive times and race has always been and will continue to be a touchy topic. I am a scientist – and, as I mentioned earlier, there is good data that shows diversity matters. If a girl has had a woman math teacher, she’s much more likely to excel in the subject and choose it as a major. I’m much more likely to pursue the sciences as a career if I’ve had a science teacher who is African American. It makes a difference . . . and I think the influence occurs as early as elementary school.

The truth is this is passive. . . . But I really believe existing in the world as an African American Ph.D. – as a scientistic – and trying to do well is important and hopeful. Increasing exposure [to my educational and career path] is part of my obligation. And if I can maybe inspire another African American to study the sciences – or maybe go to Southern or another college – I am happy to do it.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans’ arrival in the American colonies, and several Southern professors are marking the anniversary with discussion and commentary. In a recent article in the New Haven Register, Journalism Professor Frank Harris III and Associate History Professor Siobhan Carter-David shared their ideas about the beginnings of slavery in America and set the record straight on some commonly-held beliefs about this period in American history. The full article can be found here:

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/400-years-ago-first-slaves-arrived-in-American-13635406.php?fbclid=IwAR0HyjJ638UfDEJMtK3bJfq6vOW-NUXvvixeGN7EKpzrEp_OcFEJn7EKUEE

On campus, Carter-David, along with Brandon Hutchinson, associate professor of English, has coordinated a lecture series, The 1619 Lecture Series, which features four distinguished SCSU faculty members presenting scholarship related to African American history, culture, and politics. Harris delivered the inaugural lecture in the series in early February; upcoming speakers will be Audrey Kerr, professor of English; Jonathan Wharton, assistant professor of political science, and Marian Evans, assistant professor of public health. Sponsored by the Minority Recruitment and Retention Committee, the lectures are free and open to the public.

Southern’s English Department and its creative writing program, as well as the university in general, have turned out a number of successful writers over the years. One such Owl alum, whose 2018 debut novel has been enjoying critical acclaim, will bring her talents back to campus to kick off the university’s celebration of the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing Program‘s 10th anniversary.

On March 7 at 7:30 p.m., alumna Xhenet Aliu, ’01, will read from her novel, Brass, followed by a Q & A and refreshments. The reading, which will take place in Engleman A120, is free and open to the public.

Aliu graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English and went on to earn an MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and an MLIS from The University of Alabama. A native of Waterbury, Conn., she was born to an Albanian father and a Lithuanian American mother. She now lives in Athens, Ga., and works as an academic librarian.

Her debut fiction collection, Domesticated Wild Things, and Other Stories, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, and Brass was published by Random House in spring 2018. Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, The Barcelona Review, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere.

English Professor and Creative Writing Coordinator Tim Parrish was Aliu’s thesis director. He says, “Xhenet Aliu is a fantastic writer who perfectly exemplifies the exceptional quality of authors coming out of Southern’s undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts’ Creative Writing programs.”

The MFA program is a full-residency, terminal-degree program, preparing students for careers as publishing writers, teachers, editors, and professionals in the publishing world. While the curriculum focuses heavily on the writing workshop and the creative thesis, the MFA also requires students to study literature at the graduate level and provides opportunities for students to train for teaching collegiate-level writing, and in some cases to teach their own courses. The year 2019 marks the program’s 10th anniversary, which will be celebrated over the course of the coming year, culminating in a weekend of special activities in October.

Since its publication in early 2018, Brass has received the following honors, among others:

• One of Entertainment Weekly‘s “10 Best Debut Novels of 2018”
• A San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 Book of 2018
• Named a “Best Southern Novel of 2018” by Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• One of Bustle‘s “31 Debut Novels from 2018 That You Seriously Shouldn’t Miss”
• Named a “Best Book of 2018” by Real Simple
• A Spring 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection
• Starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Library Journal
• New York Times’ Book Review Calendar of “Must-Know Literary Events in 2018”
• Elle‘s “21 Best Books of 2018”
• Southern Living‘s “Books Coming Out This Winter That We Can’t Wait to Read”
• Huffington Post’s “60 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018”
• Book Riot‘s “101 Books Coming out in 2018 That You Should Mark Down Now”
• Elite Daily‘s “2018 Book Releases That’ll Make Reading More Your New Year’s Resolution”
• Bookish‘s “Must-Read Winter Books 2018”
• The Millions‘ “Most Anticipated: The Great 2018 Book Preview”
• Christian Science Monitor‘s “5 New Titles to Check Out in the New Year”
• Kirkus Review’s “11 Debuts You Should Pay Attention To”

From reviews of Brass, which is set in Waterbury, Conn.:

“Lustrous . . . a tale alive with humor and gumption, of the knotty, needy bond between a mother and daughter . . . [Brass] marks the arrival of a writer whose work will stand the test of time.” — O: The Oprah Magazine

“Aliu is witty and unsparing in her depiction of the town and its inhabitants, illustrating the granular realities of the struggle for class mobility.” — The New Yorker

“Brass simmers with anger — the all too real byproduct or working hard for not enough, of being a woman in a place where women have little value, of getting knocked down one too many times. But when the simmer breaks into a boil, Aliu alchemizes that anger into love, and in doing so creates one of the most potent dramatizations of the bond between mother and daughter that I’ve ever read. . . . I left this book with the sure sense that the characters were alive beyond its pages, though I wouldn’t dare try to guess what they are up to — Elsie and Lulu are too real for that.” — The New York Times Book Review

With the help of her daughter and Southern Connecticut State University graduate students, Associate Professor of Communication Disorders Kelly Mabry is addressing an international epidemic and helping to bring medical attention to an underrepresented group: thousands of children — and even adults — worldwide who are unable to smile because of a facial deformity like a cleft palate.

A cleft palate happens when the roof of the mouth contains an opening into the nose. These disorders can result in frequent ear infections and feeding, speech, and hearing problems. Each year in the United States, about 2,650 babies are born with a cleft palate and 4,440 babies are born with a cleft lip with or without a cleft palate. Worldwide, it is estimated that a child is born every three minutes with a cleft — about one in 500-750 births. Left untreated, the consequences of cleft lip or palate can be devastating.

Mabry, who has taught at Southern since 2011 and is a craniofacial speech pathologist at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, has been passionate about craniofacial disorders for decades. She began her education at Southern in 1982, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in communication disorders. In 1989, she took a position on the Cleft Palate Team at Newington Children’s Hospital; she’s been there ever since. In 1996, she was the director of the team when they moved to Hartford as Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and six years later, Mabry went on her first medical mission to the Congo with Operation Smile.

In her words, “My passion for international cleft care only increased.”

When Mabry started teaching at Southern, she advocated for an Operation Smile Club, which was realized in 2012 (she is still the club’s adviser). She continued her international efforts, traveling to Bolivia with Operation Smile in 2015. She joined Global Smile Foundation (GSF) that same year and traveled through the organization to Ecuador in 2016 and 2018, where she met patients and conducted speech evaluations. GSF is a non-profit organization that provides cleft care throughout the world; it helps those living where the incidence of cleft is often higher than average and the access to cleft care is very limited.

“I love traveling and getting to know the culture and communities that I visit,” Mabry said. “We are definitely not visiting tourist locations, and that is what I love. The relationships that I have developed with community providers and families are amazing.”

Last March, she was able to bring two Communication Disorders graduate students and her 13-year-old daughter, Teagan Mabrysmith, with her through GSF to Guayaquil, Ecuador, on a 10-day humanitarian outreach trip.

“Southern’s Communication Disorders department takes pride in involving both graduate and undergraduate students in research opportunities and field experiences,” Mabry said. “My students in Communication Disorders are always eager to hear about these missions, and I try to involve as many students as I feasibly can during a busy mission. I am working on developing a course where I can bring more students and piggyback off of missions so that we can do speech camps for a few weeks. The feedback I had last year was so affirming — the students loved the experience. So much so that they both joined GSF upon graduation and are coming back with me this year as veterans!”

Her daughter, also inspired by her mother’s outreach, recently launched a Save-a-Smile campaign to raise $35,000, which GSF can use to cover the expense of a Nasendoscope, a scope used to observe the closure of a patient’s palate. GSF currently does not own its own portable scope system.

On March 8, Mabry, her daughter, two current students, and two graduate students in the Communication Disorders program will return to Guayaquil, again through GSF. Mabry will conduct research during this mission, and her students will be directly involved.

“I am more passionate about international medical opportunities in craniofacial disorders every time I go abroad,” Mabry said. “I am very fortunate that my experience in the field affords me the opportunity to work with some of the best surgeons in the world who volunteer vast amounts of time for this cause. I am working collaboratively with the GSF team to develop standards of care for children in underdeveloped nations so that all children with craniofacial disorders can be guaranteed quality treatment.”

Now that is something to smile about.

The Top Owl Social Justice Award is given to recognize contributions toward helping the university achieve its mission of creating and sustaining an inclusive community that appreciates, celebrates, and advances student and campus diversity.

This award, selected by the President’s Commission on Social Justice, will be awarded this academic year during the months of December, January, February, March, and April to recognize the contributions, leadership, and service of a worthy faculty, staff, part-time student, and full-time student.

For the month of February, the Top Owl Award winners are undergraduate student Dayana Lituma-Solis and Victoria Zigmont, assistant professor of public health.

Dayana Lituma-Solis is an undergraduate student majoring in communications disorders and, according to her nominator, is a “living embodiment of the SCSU values of Social Justice and Access.” A student representative to the Undocumented Students Support Team, she is an integral member of the team and provides valuable ideas that have been recognized by the faculty and staff members of team. Last year she led a group of students to travel to the Capitol Building in Hartford to testify in front of the Higher Education Committee to equalize access to financial aid funds for all students regardless of immigration status. She assisted in a College Access Program for ESL (English as a Second Language) students at Wilbur Cross High School. She worked under CT Students 4 A Dream, an organization that fights for immigrant rights and the rights of undocumented students throughout the state of Connecticut. As part of her work with them she delivered “Undocupeer” training for student leaders (RA’s and OA’s) at Southern.

Lituma-Solis has has served as panelist for several immigration related events for Social Justice Month, including sharing her experience as a first generation immigrant at last year’s TRUMP CARD discussion. She is the president of the Hermandad de Sigma Iota Incorporada chapter at Southern, and under that role led several voting registration drives last fall to increase voting engagement by all students, but particularly Latino students. Last fall she also volunteered to give a bilingual tour to a group of more than 50 high schoolers and parents from Bridgeport and New Haven.

As a communications disorders major, she is an active member and secretary of the Autism Awareness ad Advocacy Club. In her free time, she is a tutor for New Haven Reads and works as a research assistant for the SCSU R.E.A.D.S. lab.

Lituma-Solis’ nominator wrote, “I could go on and on about Dayana’s accomplishments and contributions to SCSU’s mission of social justice. But the truly remarkable quality about Dayana is her willingness to step out of her comfort zone to assist her peers and pave the way for students to achieve their higher education goals.

“Even though she is only 20 years old, she has developed a vast network of contacts at SCSU and the New Haven community. She has referred many students and parents to my office to make a personal connection to talk about coming to SCSU. Dayana does not get any financial benefit from helping these students apply to SCSU, yet she goes above and beyond to ensure that these prospective students, many of whom are the first in their family to attend college, are able to navigate the application process and make a personal connection with key people in the faculty and staff that look like them or speak the same language.”

Dr. Victoria Zigmont is committed to improving Southern’s students’ health and well-being through her work on campus and in the community. She recognizes the relationship between social justice and academic (and personal) success for Southern students. She has been involved in several initiatives that include her service on committees, leadership in projects and grant-funded research studies to reduce food insecurity among students on campus. Her efforts resulted in greater access to food and resources in a manner that protects and respects students’ privacy. She contributed to the relocation of the mobile food pantry, creation of satellite pantries housed across campus, and planning for a sustainable large pantry. She has been successful in building momentum, creating a sense of urgency, and engaging collaborators to remedy students’ food insecurity and related needs.

Dr. Zigmont also has demonstrated her commitment to student success through her involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in her research and practice in this area. She has led and engaged her students in campus-wide assessments and steps to address identified needs on campus and in the community.

Her nominator wrote that Dr. Zigmont “is committed to a mission of social justice, which is evident in all that she does. She is an exceptional role model who fully embraces her students and colleagues with dignity, respect, kindness, compassion and civility.”

Nominate a member of the Southern community for a Top Owl Social Justice Award.

Carmen Coury, assistant professor of history, was featured in a February 17, 2019, article in the New Haven Register about her research on the history of coffee, Costa Rican migration, and national identity. She recently published a book on the subject, The Saints of Progress: A History of Coffee, Migration and Costa Rican National Identity.

Read the New Haven Register article.

When Christine Caragianis Broadbridge was deciding on a college major, it was her father who nudged her toward the sciences — still an unconventional path for a woman in the mid 1980s.
“He said, ‘Pick the most challenging thing you can think of, and I’ll be there for you,’” Broadbridge recalls. “So I picked electrical engineering and physics.”

Broadbridge’s initial exposure to technology came from watching her father repair jukeboxes and pinball machines at the family’s vending machine business. She is a first-generation college student, but earning a university degree was always a given. “My mother and I talked about college every day,” says Broadbridge, who went on to graduate first in her class at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where she was one of a few women engineering majors.

A master’s degree and doctorate from the esteemed Brown University of Providence, R.I., followed. “I had my child by this time,” says Broadbridge, “and my parents were so supportive and proud that I was able to earn my doctorate while starting a family.”

In 1993 — at age 26 — Broadbridge became the first female engineering professor at Hartford’s Trinity College. Today, she remains a tireless advocate for higher education at Southern, where she’s a physics professor, researcher, and the executive director of research and innovation — as well as a Yale Visiting Fellow.

Broadbridge is also a leader in the groundbreaking field of materials science, which studies the properties of materials like metals, glass, semiconductors, composites, and plastic. Her research focus is nanotechnology — the manipulation of matter at an atomic level — an emerging discipline scientists say has the potential to revolutionize everything from healthcare to alternative energy. As the founding director of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Center for Nanotechnology at Southern, Broadbridge has helped launch countless students’ careers in the field.

Her commitment to these future scientists echoes her parents. Both cheered her on throughout her career, helping with college expenses so she could travel for research and training opportunities. “Education was so important to my parents,” she says. “It was something they stressed to me from a very young age.”

In 2018, Broadbridge and her husband William, who works in the high-tech electronics industry, established the John and Nina Caragianis Research and Innovation Endowed Fund at Southern. The gift continues the couples’ long-held commitment to education while honoring their memory. John Caragianis passed away in 2006; his wife, Nina, died in November at age 85.

The fund benefits undergraduate or graduate students at Southern with at least a 3.0 GPA who are enrolled in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) or STEM-related field. The money can be used for books, supplies, travel, conference fees, software — or any academic endeavor that would enhance a student’s education or interest in research and innovation. Preference is given to first-generation college students.

“There are huge opportunities at Southern, and it’s really about encouraging students to seek them out, just like I did as a student,” says Broadbridge. She remembers her father taking her on trips to the bookstore at nearby Brown University, inspiring her to pursue a research opportunity at the Ivy League campus while still a senior at URI. “He always encouraged me to think about what I could do to expand my horizons,” she says. That early work — a partnership between Brown’s engineering department and Rhode Island’s jewelry industry — helped plant the seeds for her future research.

When establishing the fund at Southern, Broadbridge focused on STEM students not only because that’s where her passions lie, but as a nod to her father’s deep interest in science and technology. A self-taught businessman who ran a successful Newport, R.I., vending machine company — Newport Music/Automatic Vending Service — Caragianis chose the Navy over college. But he never stopped learning, says Broadbridge.

“As he got older, he wanted to learn everything he could about technology,” she says. Broadbridge recalls her father devouring science magazines and clipping articles he thought she’d find interesting or relevant to her work. “He was the one who started sending me articles about nanotechnology, way back before it was a hot field,” she recalls.

John and Nina instilled that same love of learning in their three children and eight grandchildren, says Broadbridge, who has a daughter, 22, and a son, 26, who graduated from Southern with a master’s in science education.

“The kids are getting older, but they still talk about my parents and their message,” Broadbridge says of her extended family. “That message was very consistent for everyone they knew: Look for opportunities, work hard, and we will be there to provide encouragement and support.”

Broadbridge says she chose to establish the fund at Southern for the same reason she joined the faculty: She believes strongly in the university’s mission and diversity, and the power of public education to transform lives.

Her life’s work has focused on projects that encourage young people in underrepresented populations — including women and minorities — to consider careers in the STEM fields. At Trinity, she started a program that paired Hartford high school students with research opportunities at aerospace giant United Technologies Corporation. It was highly successful, with 100 percent of participants going on to college, Broadbridge says.

While at Southern, she helped found the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP) at Yale and Southern. As the center’s education director and a senior researcher, part of her role is helping high school science teachers inspire new generations of STEM students.

Broadbridge says her parents would be proud to know their commitment to education will live on at Southern through an endowed fund established in their memory. “I think they would be happy that I’ve chosen to do something that celebrates their legacy by inspiring and supporting the next generation of researchers and innovators,” she says.

SouthernCT.edu/giving

Sebastian Perumbilly, associate professor of marriage and family therapy, is taking his background in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction to India next fall in connection with his selection as a Fulbright Scholar.

Perumbilly, who has been teaching at Southern since 2012, was recently informed that he has been chosen as one of 470 recipients worldwide. He will be hosted by the Department of Psychology at Christ University in Bangalore, India, where he will conduct a qualitative, method-based research project on India’s substance addiction treatment programs.

He will focus on two aspects of those programs – how families can be involved in addiction treatment, and how yoga can be integrated into addiction treatment.

“I was thrilled to receive this most exciting news,” Perumbilly said. “I am excited to immerse myself in Indian academia and research institutions with an intent to collaborate with the best of contemporary India’s addiction researchers from the fields of psychology, social work and medicine. I believe that such an immersion experience will generate more exciting opportunities for educational and research collaboration between our two countries.

“Since the beginning of the new millennium, India’s universities and research-focused institutions have been making significant contributions globally in the fields of engineering, physics, mathematics and medicine,” he added. “Faculty exchanges and research collaborations between India and the U.S.-based academic and research institutions are also increasing. It is becoming clear that India’s clinical researchers and scholars are developing innovative clinical practices — with a multidisciplinary focus — in the fields of psychology, social work, psychiatry and medicine.”

Perumbilly said the Fulbright experience will help him to contribute further in the field of couple/marriage and family therapy, as well as benefit Southern with future study abroad programs for students and exchanges between faculty and administrators from both countries.

“I am grateful to all my SCSU faculty colleagues, students and the administration, especially the provost and president, for their support and encouragement,” he said.

In addition to his work on substance addiction treatment, Perumbilly has conducted extensive research on “moral injury,” guilt feelings encountered by those in the military who were engaged in combat.

He is a licensed marriage and family therapist, as well as a clinical fellow and approved clinical supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He has presented 34 peer-reviewed/refereed research projects at national and international conferences, including in India, Spain, Portugal, Scotland and Thailand.

An important link to Southern’s past, Founders Gate was previously located on the Howe Street campus and now stands between Lyman Center and Engleman Hall. Each fall, immediately after new student Convocation, first-year students enter campus by walking through the gate. The tradition continues in the spring when graduating seniors cross under to mark the culmination of their undergraduate experience.

A unique outdoor classroom located outside of the Academic Science and Laboratory Building, the Geological Rock Garden includes 52 rocks that are indigenous to Connecticut. Numerous quarry operators in the area donated boulders for the display, which was created with the aid of Thomas Fleming, professor of earth science. Some of the boulders are from Stony Creek Quarry, which provided stone for many iconic buildings and monuments — including the base of the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Set along a well-traveled path outside Engleman Hall, the stainless steel sculpture, “H20: Liquid Zone,” was designed by award-winning international landscape architect Mikyoung Kim. Rain, snow, and ice collect on the sculpture, changing the view on an ongoing basis. The artist’s stunning portfolio also includes the Crown Sky Garden in Chicago, the roof garden of the John Hancock Tower in Boston, and the ChonGae Canal Restoration Project in Seoul, Korea.
Commissioned through Connecticut’s Art in Public Spaces Program

Nature lovers are invited to look at West Rock in a whole new light courtesy of the environmental sculpture, “End of the Line/West Rock,” which was installed in 1985 on the Farnham Avenue-side of Brownell Hall. The sculpture was designed by the late Nancy Holt, a pioneer of the land-art movement, which began in the late 1960s in response to growing awareness of environmental issues and debates about what constituted “real” art. In this work, two rings frame views of West Rock, showcasing the geological formation as an art object.
Commissioned through Connecticut’s Art in Public Spaces Program

Is it an owl’s outstretched wings, an open book evoking the quest for knowledge, or, perhaps, both? Perched on top of Engleman Hall, this sculpture can be seen throughout much of Southern’s campus.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and, on campus, it’s the rain harvester located outside of the Academic Science and Laboratory Building. Named in recognition of the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority for the organization’s leadership-level support, the rain harvester is ecologically sound as well as beautiful. Water drains into a 40,000-gallon underground collection system that is used to water surrounding greenery — reducing the need for irrigation of the area by 50 percent. An ultraviolet-purification system eliminates bacteria.

The SCSU Sandy Hook Alumnae Remembrance Garden — located behind Jennings Hall — honors four educators and Southern alumni who were killed during the tragedy at the Connecticut elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012: Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, M.S. ’97, 6th Yr. ’98; Teacher Anne Marie Murphy, M.S. ’08; School Counselor Mary J. Sherlach, M.S. ’90, 6th Yr. ’92; and Teacher Victoria “Vicki” Leigh Soto, M.S.’13, who was pursuing a master’s degree at the time of the shooting and was awarded her degree posthumously. The sculpture reflects the vision of Carlene Barnes, ’13, who won a design competition while attending Southern.

There’s a new owl in town: a five-foot wide bronze sculpture installed outside of Engleman Hall in 2018. “Hopefully, we’ll start some new traditions,” says Michelle R. Johnston, director of alumni relations, who foresees students commemorating milestones like commencement by photographing themselves next to the sculpture or touching it for luck.

Those who haven’t mastered Southern’s sundial turn to the Hilton C. Buley clock. The bars light up in blue to show the hour, while the dots glow a golden hue for minutes. The clock was installed in 2015 as part of the library renovation. For a picturesque view of campus, go to the fourth floor of the library and look out of the clock’s transparent face.

Rising nearly 50 feet, the Engleman Hall tower sundial built in 2005 is an award winner. The Connecticut chapter of the American Institute of Architects named it the top design in the art/architecture category in 2006. The project’s architects are Howard Hebel (Herbert Newman & Partners) and Frederick Sawyer, who is a co-founder of the North American Sundial Society.

Set on a hill overlooking the campus pond, the bronze sculpture, “Serie Metafisica XVIII,” was created by Herk Van Tongeren and installed on campus in 1983. In 1987 the New York Times fittingly described the late sculptor’s work: “The walls, columns, and steps of the theaters were mysterious and incomplete. They suggested Greek and Roman theaters, but it was unclear who would take their place on stage and what roles they would assume.” On sunny days, students are often found sitting on the sculpture, bringing Tongeren’s vision to life.
Commissioned through Connecticut’s Art in Public Spaces Program

Buley Library is home to four Tiffany windows created by one of America’s most celebrated artists, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). The three arched windows located in the first floor Learning Commons were donated by the historic First Church of Christ in New Haven after it was renovated. The fourth window, known as the “Congregational” window, was donated by the North Stonington Congregational Church in the 1990s — after being stored in a barn on a dairy farm for more than 30 years.

Searching for the hidden Owl is a time-honored tradition at new student orientation. The search begins in Engleman Hall.

Southern’s first Alumni House was dedicated at Homecoming on Oct. 29, 2016. The home away from home for Southern graduates is located at 131 Farnham Ave., in what was formerly the Admissions House. The latter was relocated to the Wintergreen Building to create a one-stop student services area.

Whether she’s guiding Afghan women toward the right English word to express the pain of oppression or helping Southern students discover their voice, creative writing lecturer Pat Mottola, ’87, M.S. ’90, MFA ’11, is driven by a force beyond her own talent. “My goal in life is to help people and enrich their lives,” Mottola says. “I guess I’m just a born teacher.”

Mottola — who teaches creative writing, poetry, and composition — has three Southern degrees: bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art education earned in 1987 and 1990, respectively, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing received in 2011. She began experimenting with writing in about 2007, prompting her return to the classroom. “I thought, I love doing this, but I need to learn how to do it right. I had a lot to write about,” she says.

She originally envisioned taking only a few writing courses at Southern. But she was inspired by her first poetry teacher, the late Professor of English Will Hochman, and as time went on, her professors encouraged her to earn a degree.

After raising her children, Mottola taught art in various settings. When Southern later hired her to teach writing, it was a perfect fit, she says, building on her passion for education. She’s known as the professor who takes attendance — it counts toward students’ grades — and more notoriously as one with a strict policy of no cell phones in class. “I say, ‘If this was a job interview, you wouldn’t have a phone,’” Mottola explains. “I want the best for them.’

But once the course is underway, students find something more meaningful than texting or the internet — their own voice. The interactive, workshop-style class is conducted in small groups. As the semester goes on, Mottola loves seeing students bounce ideas off one another, gaining confidence along the way. “Students realize they have something meaningful to offer the world,” she says. “They all have something to say.”

In one of her most fulfilling teaching roles to date, Mottola was a mentor for two years through the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. The project produced a book of poetry and prose, “Washing the Dust From Our Hearts,” in which women share details of their lives under the Taliban. Because education for women in Afghanistan is discouraged, the operation was clandestine on their end. The women met at a secret location and mentoring was done online. Mottola gave the women writing prompts and feedback.

“A mentor can see in the poems/stories when the women are in danger. What can we do? I have often wanted to get on a plane and bring the writer back [to the U.S.],” Mottola says. “The most difficult thing for me is when I read about young girls — daughters or sisters, ages 12-14 — being sold to men who abuse them.”

In the introduction to the book, a woman named Pari, writes: “Writing began for me as an escape from my burqa, an escape from my most painful moments. With my pen and notebook, I had a secret place where I gave myself freedoms that were forbidden to me.”

In addition to her work at Southern, Mottola teaches poetry at Calendar House Senior Center in Southington, Conn., where she has taught art for 25 years. The seniors create museum-quality art pieces, she says. She shares that one widow, who is 89, is a marvelous artist who only recently picked up a brush because her late husband doubted her talent.

Mottola is also co-president of the Connecticut Poetry Society and an award-winning poet and artist who has written two books: “After Hours,” a collection of portrait poems of colorful characters, and “Under the Red Dress,” full of sensual imagery. She loves to write about people of all walks of life, in all situations — people in bars, family, veterans, and male/female relationships. “Everyone I meet is fascinating to me,” she says.

Homeless
––for Dorothy Z.

In those days your parents didn’t always
keep you –– or your sisters. In the 1930’s
they gave you away like cheap dishes
doled out in movie theaters. Ten cents

for a movie and a porcelain plate. Forgotten
on laps, they often fell, cracked or chipped,
got left behind. Odd pieces everywhere.
Disposable –– like you, shipped to aunts, uncles,

or the Klingberg Children’s Home, New Britain,
someone who could afford to put food on your
plate. No questions asked. Poverty spawning
an incomplete set, siblings were separated,

sent away by bus or train –– Maine, Connecticut,
Kansas –– no yellow brick road, no wizard,
no ruby slippers to click together, wish yourself
home.

— Pat Mottola

See other stories from the online issue of Southern Alumni Magazine.

Anthony Fantano, ’08, describes himself as the “internet’s busiest music nerd.” Spin — the legendary magazine turned webzine run by Billboard-Hollywood Reporter — offers a different perspective, dubbing him “today’s most successful music critic.”

It’s an apt description. Fantano began posting music reviews on his YouTube channel The Needle Drop in 2009. Two years later, he walked away from MTV’s second annual O Music Awards with the “Beyond the Blog” award. Today, Fantano is a celebrity in his own right, connecting with fans across multiple social media platforms, including YouTube/theneedledrop (more than 1.75 million subscribers), Twitter (473K-plus followers), and Facebook (229K-plus).

Fantano says his college years — specifically time spent at WSIN, the college radio station — expanded his focus on music and media. He majored in liberal studies [now interdisciplinary studies], with concentrations in journalism, political science, and communication. During an internship at Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford, he proposed and ran The Needle Drop as a podcast — setting the stage for what would eventually evolve into his wildly popular vlog (video log or blog).

Over the course of two interviews, he talked with Gregory Gagliardi, ’18, and Southern Alumni Magazine. In the following excerpts, he shares thoughts on Southern, success, and the meaning behind the flannel shirts he wears in his reviews. (Yellow signifies a great album; red, not so much.)

How did you come to attend Southern?
Coming in, I was thinking radio, radio, radio. So I was looking for a college with a radio station — a place that was close to me that was affordable. Southern seemed like the best of all of those worlds.

How did Southern help prepare you to launch the Needle Drop?
[Southern] provided places like the radio station and the school paper — training grounds to learn the ropes of journalism and broadcasting. In fact, I was there [at the station] even before school started. It was priority number one because that was my career goal.

How active were you with the radio station, WSIN?
Freshman year I came in and did a show. I hung out all the time, put in a lot of effort, and made a lot of friends. They saw I had a passion and interest. . . . That put me on the map for a lot of people and allowed me to go up the ranks at the radio station pretty quickly. I was the general manager for two years; the music director for a year before that.

So you were balancing everything well?
At the time, I didn’t feel like I was doing it very well. I was general manager and there was a lot of turbulence. The new student center had just opened and every other club — every other everything — had moved [to the new building]. We were in the old student center for over a year, if I remember correctly. We were literally the only people in the building. Sometimes in the winter, the heat was not as high as it should have been. . . .

It sounds very rebel student radio.
It seems very cool in retrospect, but everyone in the Radio Club was miserable about it at the time. [laughs]

The profile of you in Spin in 2016 mentioned that a professor helped you get an internship with Connecticut Public Radio.
It was the [WSIN] adviser, Jerry Dunklee, [professor of journalism]. By the time I finished college, my game plan was to go into radio as a political reporter, which is why I ended up at WNPR in Hartford.

What was the internship like?
It was a really good opportunity to learn more about the technical aspects of the business, since the amount of production they did was far greater than at the [university] station. I also got to see everything I’d learned in my “ethics in journalism” classes applied, sort of rubber to the road — in terms of what they were reporting and how they were reporting. The lengths they went to get an interview or clarify information. . . . Those are all things I still draw on today.

Have you always wanted this type of career?
When I was younger, my aspirations were either in radio or in voice acting. [laughs] As my passion for music grew, my efforts started pointing elsewhere. The whole YouTube thing never could have been predicted. [YouTube formed in 2005.] . . . But as the platform grew, certain aspects like the partner program [which lets creators monetize their content] began to gain steam, and there were YouTubers out there who were actually making a career out of what they were doing. [For me,] it seemed like a last-ditch effort. Because the podcasts and the blog were not really panning out monetarily, so I figured YouTube might be my last hope.

But I had no way of foreseeing that I’d be doing music reviews on YouTube — and not just because of the YouTube factor. I didn’t grow up reading reviews. I wasn’t comfortable considering myself a reviewer or critic when I was doing the podcast initially. Those are two aspects of my career I stumbled into through experimentation.

Was there a specific point when you felt like you’d made it?
I was able to take The Needle Drop full time in 2012. I was making just enough money to move into an apartment with my girlfriend, so it was a ‘real’ job.

Beyond that, what says to me, ‘you’ve made it,’ is the way the audience perceives what you do and how they interact — especially in the internet age. Are you familiar with the website Reddit? [Founded in 2005, Reddit is a huge collection of online forums devoted to different topics.] . . . There is a [sub]reddit with 30,000 people who post about me. . . . [It was up to 44,200 at press time.] They post the most insane stuff — not bad — but insane in their level of devotion to every word that comes out of my mouth. To me, this says that this is a cultural phenomenon — not on the level of Drake or anything like that — but it has certainly brought me to a point where I can sustain myself and my loved ones. That means something to me.

That must be really satisfying.
Back when I had to struggle — not only to make ends meet but also to see the effect of what I was doing — I’d think, ‘I’m going to have a panic attack or two this month about what I am doing with my life.’ That doesn’t happen these days, mostly because I am too busy.

Were you always interested in music?
Absolutely. Collecting cassette tapes with my boom box. I loved a lot of radio music: pop and rock, hip-hop, whatever was popular at the time. When I got into high school, it was more alternative and punk. College helped expand my focus. We’re talking about the growth of P2P [peer to peer] file-sharing services like Napster, which are obviously obsolete now that we have music streaming. But at the time it was a music library, since I didn’t have all the money in the world to buy every other CD or album.

The [Southern] radio station and the university also helped. It wasn’t only the CDs and albums flowing into the station, but other resources like [Southern’s Buley] library. . . . I’d take out 15 or 20 CDs at a time. And during my 45-minute commute to school I’d listened to all the jazz CDs I’d illegally burned from the library.

You’ve achieved mainstream success with The Needle Drop. Has increased exposure brought any problems?
Sure, but nothing worth complaining about. All jobs come with their pros and cons. The only downside is the occasional, unintended creepiness of random people who might say something a little weird online. If you have millions of people watching you every month there are going to be one or two who don’t have any boundaries. The upsides far outweigh that. Most people have been really cool and respectful.

The internet connection must take things to a different level.
Yes. But I don’t blame anyone. There is a very friendly conversational tone to my videos. And a lot of people have been watching me for a long time. When I do speaking engagements, they’ll tell me they’ve been watching me since [they were in] sixth grade. That’s almost like being someone’s weird internet dad or something. At that point, you’ve become part of this person’s life — and their emotional and mental ecosystem.

Looking back at your time at The Needle Drop, what are you most proud of?
I have my nose to the grindstone so often that it’s hard to take a breather and think back on all the crazy things that have happened over the past 10 years. While an interview with Mick Jagger and a laundry list of endorsements from a variety of artists look good on paper, the best thing about it is just being a growing part of a greater conversation about music.

Take us inside the review writing process – from the onset to the final video.
The process is pretty much like watching paint dry: listening, re-listening, note taking, researching, drafting, re-drafting, recording, editing. It’s all very quiet, patient, introspective.

What are your thoughts on criticism directed at your reviews?
Ah, the criticism is what it is. It would be ridiculous for me to state my opinions on new records so openly and not expect to get criticism in return. It comes with the territory. If you go into this line of work expecting to have every one of your opinions praised, you’re in it for the wrong reasons. It’s more about stirring the pot, getting people thinking, sparking discussion, planting seeds for the listening audience to mull over. It’s not about being liked or being right. Sure, it’s nice when those things happen. But if that’s all you’re looking to achieve, you’re failing in your role as a critic.

Which is?
One of the most important things you can give your audience when talking about content you’re passionate about — is to give them pause. A reason to think about what they are listening to or consuming. To get them to think about why they enjoy it or why they don’t.

Is there anything new on the agenda for The Needle Drop?
I have a second YouTube channel [YouTube/fantano launched in 2017] where I talk about music news. . . . I am grouping the videos together to a podcast series so you can listen from there. A goal is to find ways to creatively repackage content so people can consume it in different ways.

There is someone I’ve been talking to about [the possibility of] a record label. I am considering it, but there are potential major journalistic ethics issues there. I couldn’t review people on the label. . . . So it creates a weird conundrum that I’m not sure I’m ready to dive into. Someone else approached me recently about helping put together a charity compilation of artists who I’ve reviewed over the years — and money would go to children’s cancer research. There’s a guy I’ve been talking to — trying to work out how to expand merchandise.

I expected you to be wearing a flannel, like in the posts.
The flannel thing is funny. When I first started, they were in regular rotation in my wardrobe, which is why I was wearing them in the first place. Now the flannel has become a signifier. When people see I’m wearing a red flannel in the thumbnail of the video, they know it’s a negative video. When they see a yellow flannel, they know it’s a positive review. I rarely wear one casually now. It’s like wearing my work clothes.

Speaking of work clothes, is doing The Needle Drop still fun?
Yes. It comes to those times when it’s 9 to 5 like anything else — but it’s better than 9 to 5 in an office. Even though it’s a lot of work. A lot of extra effort. One thing this generation doesn’t really appreciate is the quality of the workplace — that they are always connected with their job. As a result, they are never not working. If I am going to be in that position, I’d rather be doing it for me.

See other stories from the online issue of Southern Alumni Magazine.

Southern has tapped Manohar Singh, former dean of the College of Professional Studies at Humboldt State University (Arcata, Calif.) with a track record of initiating new programs, to become the new dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies.

Singh recently began his new duties after a nationwide search concluded last November. Robert Prezant, provost and vice president for academic affairs, called him a “proven fundraiser,” and noted that he has been making the rounds on campus to meet members of the campus community and to increase his understanding of the graduate program needs.

“When you see him, please join me in sharing a hearty Southern welcome,” Prezant said. “I also want to thank Dr. Jose Galvan who recently served as our interim dean with enthusiasm and wonderful dedication.”

At Humboldt, Singh helped launch an effort to raise $10 million for an endowed R.N. to B.S.N. program. He also led the development of new programs, such as online programs in education in collaboration with Cal State Tech.

Before his role at Humboldt, he served as division head for the Division of Business and Social Sciences at Penn State University – Abington, and interim chair of the Department of Finance at Long Island University.

At Penn State, he led the effort to establish new academic programs, such as a fast track M.B.A. in collaboration with Penn State Great Valley, as well as bachelor’s degrees in rehabilitation and human services, and in accounting. He also launched four minors.

He has a background in finance and economics, having earned a Ph.D. in finance from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and two master’s degrees in economics – an M.A. from the University of Waterloo-Ontario, Canada, and an M.A. with honors from Punjab University in India.

Singh has earned many faculty awards, including the Great Valley Award for Teaching Excellence from Penn State and the University of Nevada-Reno College of Business Researcher of the Year Award.

He served as chairman of the Penn State Grand Valley Faculty Senate and has held the title of full professor of finance since 2016.

Singh said he is excited about the opportunity to serve as the new graduate school dean, especially at this point in Southern’s development.

“I see a rewarding opportunity to serve as an anchor and a champion for our students’ personal and professional success,” he said. “It is a privilege to be part of an institution that is a pioneer in so many ways and is on an impressive upward trajectory.”

Singh said he would like the school to stand out for scientific rigor, social responsibility, market responsiveness and innovation.

“We already have several initiatives in progress to offer market demand-driven, flexible, and affordable, graduate programs in emerging areas,” he said. “We are expanding our non-degree credentials and certificate programs to serve the dynamic needs of working professionals and adult students as they aim to advance their careers.

“In addition, we are reaching out to the area employers to assess their needs and offer them customized educational and training programs for their employees. And we are creating meaningful and impactful community partnerships to promote socio-economic prosperity and regional economic development in the greater New Haven area.”

The Top Owl Social Justice Award is given to recognize contributions toward helping the university achieve its mission of creating and sustaining an inclusive community that appreciates, celebrates, and advances student and campus diversity.

This award, selected by the President’s Commission on Social Justice, are being awarded this academic year during the months of December, January, February, March, and April to recognize the contributions, leadership, and service of a worthy faculty, staff, part-time student, and full-time student.

For the month of March, the Top Owl Award winners are undergraduate student Madison Caruso; Michelle Mann, department secretary in the Department of Public Health; and Meredith Sinclair, assistant professor of English.

Madison Caruso is an Honors College student who is committed to pursuing social justice for those suffering from mental illness. Her honors thesis concerns advocacy for social justice by inviting the SCSU community to a talk on mental illness, then offering them the opportunity to make artwork in response to the talk. Those who complete the artwork will have a chance to share stories and come to a better understanding of how mental illness impacts us all, as well as how art has the potential to heal us all.

Caruso took advantage of SCSU’s Social Justice Grants program to provide the Southern community with these opportunities to both learn and create, and, her nominator wrote, “I applaud both her initiative and care.”

Her nominator continued, “Madison is going above and beyond what is required of an Honors Thesis to also better all of us at SCSU, especially those struggling with mental illness and/or those who know someone struggling with mental illness.”

As the department secretary in Public Health, Michelle Mann was described by her nominator, a student worker in the department, as “Office Mom!” and “the glue that keeps this department together.” Mann, her nominator wrote, is thoughtful and caring, baking cakes for birthdays, taking student staff on museum trips, and open to learning about others’ backgrounds and cultures. “I have never seen Mrs. Michelle be biased, judgmental or close minded to any topic, culture, or any challenge,” her nominator wrote. Her nominator particularly noted Mann’s care and concern for her department’s student workers, writing, “Mrs. Michelle is the kind of person who would encourage me to go to counseling services rather than clocking in. Mrs. Michelle is the kind of person who will take a walk with you just to listen about your concerns. Mrs. Michelle is the kind of person who will slip $10 in your backpack after you persisted to tell her not to just to help you out. Mrs. Michelle has opened her home, and her arms up for me, and I am ever so grateful. She has encouraged me to challenge myself, and believe in my abilities.”

Further, when it comes to social justice, Mann’s nominator wrote, “she is not complacent nor quiet in the eyes of oppression. Graduating from UCONN with a history degree, she found her stance against racial discrimination and promotes cultural awareness to her child and the rest of her staff. She is ready to march at any time, to open her mouth against things that aren’t right. She is open minded, and exposes herself to many cultures. She is the woman on all of the boards, has the huge dinners for her church, and orchestrates fellowship among different cultures and people.”

Meredith Sinclair has taken a leading role at SCSU in promoting anti-racist and culturally responsive pedagogy for future PK-12 teachers and for university educators. She is a co-director of the Urban Education Fellows, a student-driven organization for future teachers who are committed to teaching in urban schools and promoting activism through education. She is also a member of the SCSU Racial Justice Pedagogy Project and of the Faculty Senate Curricular Task Force for Social Justice and Human Diversity, as well as being a leader in AAUP Committee W. Her nominator wrote, “Dr. Sinclair integrates Social Justice in her teaching, research, and outreach, and many teacher candidates are grateful for her guidance, support, and struggle against inequities in education.”