By Carissa Rutkauskas
Congratulations on your retirement!
Congratulations to Glenn Lewis from Berlin High School on his retirement. Mr. Lewis has taught UConn SPAN 3178 and SPAN 3179, Intermediate Spanish Composition and Spanish 
Conversation: Cultural Topics, since 2012. His unique gift to ECE classrooms was bringing alive the language, culture, and history through his storytelling based on his extensive travel experiences in the Hispanic and Portuguese worlds, and his Chilean heritage. In his retirement, Mr. Lewis will move on to his third career teaching Buddhist philosophy and practice, and eventually living part time in the White Mountains and in Chile.
Congratulations to Maria Vilardo from Crosby High School in Waterbury on her retirement. She entered teaching as a second career and has been teaching for 19 years, nearly 12 of them in Waterbury. Ms. Vilardo has taught UConn’s History 1502: US History Since 1877, since 2020 and describes her affiliation and partnership with UConn ECE as her “crowning achievement as an educator.” In her retirement, she plans to enjoy life, relax, read, and travel. She has already traveled to Europe and South America and extensively throughout the Caribbean. In the future she would like to visit Japan and Singapore.
Promotions
Congratulations to Dr. Evan Perkoski, one of Early College Experience’s Faculty Coordinators or his promotion to associate professor and tenure.
Conference Attendance
Franklin Academy (East Haddam) UConn ECE Political Science and Human Rights Instructor Fahd Rafiq was awarded UConn ECE Instructor Conference Funding to attend the 2024 
International Studies Association Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA in April, where he presented a research paper on Nationalism and identities in South Asia, an article version of his dissertation. He also co-presented on forming national identities, mass culture, and land rights. Dr. Rafiq was able to attend several sessions, including foreign policies, using role theory and Arab Spring 2.0, and civil war research.
UConn ECE Student Successes
Congrats to UConn ECE Student Maya Bynoe from Pathways Academy of Technology and Design for: being a nine-time scholarship winner; admission to University of Connecticut School of Business Honors Program; achieving 28+ credits by fall enrollment; having started a business which now has product placement inside of a local store; served as secretary for the Greater East Hartford Community Fund.
Hanh Tran, Saint Thomas More School. “Thanks to the amazing courses from UConn ECE, I am able to discover my new interest in economics, especially microeconomics. Initially, I didn’t think economics was an exciting subject to take but it was great to finally learn something practical and I figured out that what I’ve learned can be applied positively to my consumption habit. As a result, I received an Excellence in Economics Award from Saint Thomas More high school!”
UConn ECE Student Perspectives
Jia Yi Lu, Bristol Eastern High School. “Recently, I passed my Calculus final with an exceptional score. I don’t think I would’ve been able to achieve this without the help of my ECE Instructor.”
Reygina Pierre, Ledyard High School. “Having gone through the ECE experience I have more confidence in myself in the field of animal science classes I took.”
Jonathan Plona, Wolcott High School. “I did really well in my ECE courses, earning A’s in them. I learned a ton from my instructors and earned college credit. It was a great experience,and I’ll be taking ECE courses again next school year.”