By Jessica Dunn
Over the years, the UConn Early College Experience Program has undergone minor design changes on the (ece.uconn.edu) website as well as within program marketing materials. With a desire to create a more seamless look and to support our program partners with the resources they need to meet the goals of the program, Brian Boecherer, Jessica Dunn, and Carissa Rutkauskas sat down in July of 2018 to write up a new marketing plan. With a brand new site map in hand, a vision in our minds, two amazing designers, Susan Schadt and Barry Costa, to guide us, we began to create the new and improved UConn ECE look! After many months of strategic designing, rewriting of design and website content, and updating information, we launched the new ece.uconn.edu website in August of 2019. Although we never imagined this project would take just over a year to complete, we are thrilled by the finished product, and we hope our partners are too. Recognizing the unique needs of our 13,000 Students (and their parents), 1,300 Instructors, and 208 high school partners (and 300 Site Representatives), each audience can now easily find the information specific to them by selecting on their icon from the home page, or reference general information from the top navigation menus. Keep an eye out for our new marketing materials!
Through supportive and caring faculty members, our students are able to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment while attending Pre-College Summer. This relates to students' readiness to learn in a college setting and the ability to see how their passions may transform into a college major. Dr. Kimberly Bergendahl, Assistant Professor in Residence from the Political Science Department and Pre-College Summer faculty of the Pre-Law course, has had wonderful experiences with Pre-College Summer students, both during and after their time at UConn Pre-College Summer. Dr. Bergendahl has connected with students during their time in the program and is currently working with a former PCS student, now a UConn honors student, studying political science and conducting undergraduate research. This continued collaboration is an example of how our faculty members can foster incredibly transformative learning experiences through the Pre-College Summer Program that help students build connections and guide them toward a path to success.
Being a student is an important role and a title that is central to my identity. I love learning and the longer I have been a student, the clearer it becomes that sharing my thoughts and passions on what I read is central to being a great student. We should always be considering and reevaluating our academic passions, as well as sharing our thoughts with important people around us. When I graduated high school I had pretty clear ideas on what I wanted to study but not very clear ideas on how I was going to use it. I loved foreign languages and politics. I was lucky to have studied Russian throughout my four years in high school and was very excited to continue learning Russian and start learning German at UConn. Some people encouraged me to go into international business, because, that's where the money is. Luckily I was surrounded by people who supported my interests and allowed me to focus my passions without monetizing them. It made my studies and self discovery that much more enriching. I did not go into business; rather, I stayed at the interesting crossroads of language, culture, and politics. True to a liberal arts education, my degree prepared me to do a broad array of things because I learned how to analyze and problem-solve and was practiced at applying rigorous methodologies of inquiry. All of these skills have benefited the Office of Early College Programs and allowed me to do interesting things with my life.
We recognized all award winners at our annual Awards Ceremony in April, presenting them with a plaque and a monetary award over a celebratory dinner with family, friends, and colleagues. It was a night full of admiration and appreciation for the dedication each award winner displays day in and out for their high schools and their students. All award winners have exceeded the program expectations and excelled in preparing their students for the next level in their education.
The April 25th Science Activity Day was coordinated by the UConn Early College Experience Program Office and Dr. Selampinar, with science activities hosted by Dr. Rouge and Dr. Ung and their graduate students (Alyssa H., Saketh G., Mark T., Kaitlynn A., Erin B., Nishya M., and Rebecca F.). To kick off the day's events, the high school students learned about how an interest in chemistry can prepare them for a variety of job paths, including working in a lab as a researcher someday. In the afternoon the students broke into two sections to learn about molecules that can fluorescence and about biomacromolecules that can build structures at the nanoscale. During Dr. Ung's activities, students were taught an overview of the principles of fluorescence and how light interacts with molecules. They made glow sticks and were exposed to scientific thinking. The students were asked to determine why molecules glowed and made simple hypotheses that they verified experimentally. Later, the students gathered and shared the results of their experiments to conclude the relationship between chemical structure and a molecule's ability to glow.