ECE

Next Generation of Student Registration

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By Jessica Dunn

 

The UConn Early College Experience (ECE) Office is very excited and proud to announce that we will be launching a “new to UConn” student registration system, DualEnroll.com, this fall. DualEnroll.com helps Concurrent Enrollment programs, such as UConn ECE, streamline and automate the enrollment of high school students in college courses. This improvement from a 5-step process has been a long time in the making. Our vision of a seamless online registration system and process is now a reality many thanks to the hard work and dedication of the UConn ECE community. We would like to extend a special thank you to University departments including the Office of the Registrar, Office of the Bursar, and UConn’s Information Technology Services as well as our high schools who instilled in us their trust and patience to improve the over student experience.

 

We would be remiss if we did not recognize and show our appreciation for the countless hours our high school Site Representatives and Instructors have dedicated to the student registration process in the past. Without their commitment to navigate the old registration system and assist students through the 5-step process, thousands of students could have missed out on the opportunity to participate in UConn courses while in high school.

 

In researching new registration systems, we were looking for a few very important features and found them all in DualEnroll.com. We are happy to be implementing the following major positive changes:

 

  • 2021-2022 Student registration for Fall, Spring and Full-year courses will occur in the Fall between August 17 and October 6. Students’ schedules should be finalized by that time, and registration should only take 5 minutes.
  • Students will Apply & Enroll at the same time.
  • Paper Consent Forms will be eliminated. There will be no need to collect or upload paper forms.
  • NetID’s will not be used during registration. The NetID is an important interface for engaging in the academic resources of the University, and that is what it will continue to be used for.
  • Student fee bills will be generated at the time of registration and program fee waivers will be processed automatically before payment is requested.

 

Dual Enroll.com will provide broader access to the high school students in Connecticut by eliminating the 5-step process that inadvertently lost students along the way, as well as provide a true college experience where students can easily register and then focus on the course material rather than the enrollment process. We are proud to implement a tool that will be true to our mission statement of providing access to, and preparation, for higher education.

 

We look forward to continuing to work with the UConn ECE Community to successfully launch DualEnroll.com and appreciate the support as we navigate the new system together!

 

 

 

Instructor Highlights

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By Stefanie Malinoski

 

Robert Ford, a UConn Early College Experience American Studies (2013) and English (2007) Instructor at North Branford High School, was published in February in the National Council of English Teachers English (NCTE) Leadership Quarterly. His publication titled Adventures in Gamification and Personalized Learning: A Case Study in Game-Based Course Design is based on a gamification project he designed for his AMST 1201 course. You can connect with Rob on twitter at @robdford.

 

Katie Boland, a UConn Early College Experience Political Science Instructor (2011) at Trumbull High School, shared the success she and her students had as Connecticut State Champions at the We the People: The Constitution and the Citizen competition. She and her students then went on to rank 9th in the nation at the national competition in April.

 

Trumbull High School We the People: The Constitution and the Citizen team at Nationals

 

 

Do you have accomplishments you’d like to share with the Early College Experience community in a future Magazine? We are always incredibly proud of our Instructors and their effort and the creativity they apply every day to their UConn courses and look forward to sharing more news of the successes of our Early College Experience community members.

 

Please share with us at ece@uconn.edu.

 

UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator Latino and Latin American Studies Anne Gebelein Presents to Schools: Mass Deportation – A Nation Controls Its Identity

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By Carissa Rutkauskas

 

At a recent combined UConn ECE Instructor Professional Development Workshop between American Studies, Latino and Latin American Studies (LLAS), and US History, Dr. Anne Gebelein (Professor and UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator of Latin American Studies) presented Mass Deportation – A Nation Controls Its Identity. She offered a deep dive into mass deportation, and the ethnic politics of moving a lot of people where they don’t want to go. The presentation was well- received, and many Instructors found it extremely relevant to their current UConn courses. Hoping to share the information with her UConn ECE Students at New Fairfield High School, UConn ECE American Studies Instructor Karon McGovern reached out to Dr. Gebelein with a request – would she offer the live online presentation to her class? Dr. Gebelein was pleased to offer it to Karon’s students at New Fairfield, as she regularly lectures for her LLAS ECE instructors in schools such as Manchester , E.O. Smith in Mansfield, and Branford High Schools. This past year, she offered lectures on cyclical violence in Central America, human rights at the US/Mexico border, and on her most recent lecture, Latino and Puerto Rican activism and social organizing.

 

 

“I am lucky to have such a dedicated group of teachers in Latin American Studies – I learn as much from them as they do from me,” said Dr. Gebelein. “As we are a small group, it is possible for me to guest lecture at least once a year in each classroom and model for teachers what I consider a solid college-level lecture. Given that I also have the pleasure of observing them in action in the classroom, as they model their own creative approaches to the history, culture and literature of Latin America, it is a wonderful exchange of teaching knowledge. I feel privileged to be able to be inside the classroom of so many talented instructors.”

 

Dr. Gebelein’s presentation on mass deportation provided an overview of deportation in general, vocabulary around deportation, consequences of deportation, within a critical race theory framework. The primary focus was of the deportation of Mexican and Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression and during “Operation Wetback” of 1954. An examination of the history leading up to these removals of Mexican-looking peoples reveals a stage long set for drastic action, as the precedent of systemic racism was established in the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848. The following summarizes this prelude as well as the thrust of her presentation.

 

 

Abbreviated History

 

The Mexican American War (1846 to 1848) and subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo resulted in the US annexation of Texas and land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Mexicans did not cross the border, but rather, the US border crossed Mexico. Due to the shift in the political boundary, Mexicans who found themselves suddenly part of the US were considered a colonized people and their land open for repossession as part of spoils of war. After some debate, US officials decided to consider these new members of the nation “white” and to grant them federal citizenship to appease Mexican peace treaty negotiators and elicit their cooperation in fighting Indians. This move created a color shift in the evolution of distinct racial logistics, making lesser whites (Italians and Irish), “more white” in a nation trying to maintain itself as white and Protestant. This “whiteness” was in competition with strong populations of Black, Native American, and Chinese people, in addition to the Irish, Italian, and increasingly Mexican populations, the latter largely Catholic.1

 

After the war, white settlers migrated west onto the newly acquired land, resulting in grand-scale disenfranchisement through tactics that included:

 

  • Acquisition of water rights displacing entire communities
  • Large-scale nationalization of thousands of acres of land
  • Anglo cattle companies arriving and displacing Mexican landowners
  • Squatting and Homestead Act of 1862 allowing Anglos to expropriate Mexican land
  • Anglos litigating and charging fines to cheat Mexicans out of mining and ranch claims
  • Raiding, killing and lynching of Mexicans without provocation
  • “OK Corral” Clanton gang widely killing Mexicans
  • Creating mining & agricultural wages different for Anglos & Mexicans; peonage, “Company Store,” indentured servitude practices widespread
  • TX Ranger massacre following De La Rosa movement for autonomy
  • Women and men forcibly sterilized starting in 19072

 

Emboldened by the success of their expansion and domination of Mexican land and peoples through violence, yet dependent on Mexican labor for food, transport, and wealth generation, US government officials began to debate the value of Mexicans as “lesser whites” who were disposable laborers, who could be sent to Mexico should their labor no longer be needed. The challenge was that many officials could not distinguish Mexican Americans from Mexicans.

 

 

Mass Deportation

 

Soon after the stock market crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression, the US began deporting “Mexican-looking” people in an effort to alleviate unemployment and welfare rolls and maintain “Jobs for real Americans.” These efforts included coercion tactics leading to “self-deportation” and raids, resulting in relocating Mexican citizens back to their country, and the mistaken deportation over a million US citizens.3

 

Diego Rivera,  “Detroit Industry Frescos”

 

Not even 25 years later the US began Operation Wetback (1954), a deportation strategy primarily targeting the Bracero Program (1942-1964). The Bracero Program, a federal program designed to provide necessary male manual labor during World War II, welcomed 4.6 million Mexican workers to the US. Over the years, unsponsored wives and children joined their husbands, as did undocumented brothers, cousin, and friends. Texas’s refusal to participate in the program added to additional undocumented workers. The US launched a campaign of stereotypes and propaganda visualizing Mexicans as child-like to encourage communities to round up for deportation 1.3 million workers and family members, many of them US citizens.4

 

Dr. Gebelein then used the historical context of this harsh and callous treatment, and creation of policy and laws against Mexicans and Mexican Americans, to draw parallels to current topics of containment and racialization in the United States.

 

UConn ECE is grateful for Dr. Gebelein’s expertise and willingness to extend her research to her Instructors. She is a shining example of how UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators not only provide academic guidance to their discipline’s UConn ECE courses, but are an invaluable resource in sharing their research and knowledge.

 

1 summarized from Gebelein presentation
2 quoted from Gebelein presentation
3 according to the research of Joseph Dunn, former CA state senator
4 summarized from Gebelein presentation

 

ECE American Studies teacher Karon McGovern reflected on the lecture’s impact on her students:

 

“I teach AMST1201 at New Fairfield High School through the lens of race and gender issues in America spanning the 20th and 21st centuries and, within the context of race, I am constantly striving to recognize the many different people who have been, and continue to be ‘othered’ in our country. I ‘met’ Anne when I attended an UConn ECE professional development session when she delivered a history of the treatment of Latinx people in America. From the title slide, “Mass Deportation” I was captivated, as I use the text Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, a commentary on mass incarceration in America. I approached Anne to speak at our school, virtually, and she enthusiastically accepted. To say my students were stunned to learn this part of the history of their country, would be an understatement. I feel Anne should do a roadshow around Connecticut schools, delivering this important information, to educate students and beyond, that ‘walls do not a tolerant society make’.”

 

Dr. Gebelein concluded. “UConn ECE Instructors’ work is more important than ever, in a country in which we have recently seen legislation introduced in multiple states to bar teachers from teaching slavery and from critically theorizing about race. We have to be brave enough to tell the truth about hard history, as it teaches students to recognize the harm that comes from reproducing old ethnic divides, as well as the value of building ethnic coalitions.”

UConn ECE Marine Sciences Symposium

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By: Claudia Koerting, UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator, Marine Sciences

 

The annual Marine Sciences Symposium took place again this year, even though it looked a bit different than in past. The symposium featured student research that has been conducted over the academic year. This year over 80 students from six high schools joined in WebEx to present their work. The students who presented at the symposium are currently enrolled in MARN1003: Introduction to Oceanography with Laboratory or MARN 1001E: The Sea Around Us. The MARN 1003 students demonstrated the true experiential nature of the course by applying the fundamentals of oceanography to their field work and laboratory experiments. In addition, one Marine Science Magnet High School of Southeastern CT student enrolled in MARN 1001E presented on human interactions with the marine environment. The high involvement in this event was a testament to the dedication and creativity of high school teachers and the commitment of their students to find ways to meet and “do” science.

 

 

While some teachers, such as Mrs. Emily Lisy from the Morgan School and Mr. Kirk Shadle from The Bridgeport Aquaculture School were able to meet with their students regularly, others had to get creative. There was a presentation on methods for disrupting harmful algal blooms, as well as a study on shark behavior and how to entice bivalves to consume starch based microplastics. The Morgan School took advantage of their proximity to the water and went on field trips to conduct field sampling and analyses on Long Island Sound ecosystem quality. Ledyard High School students conducted thoughtful sampling on the Thames River and the shoreline for microplastics. Even though they had to analyze their samples either at home or safely spaced apart in school, they were still able to yield very interesting and surprising results. Mrs. Laura Francis’ Coginchaug High School students also presented very impressive research in the face of multiple hurdles throughout the year. What do basil and raising tilapia have in common? A Coginchaug High School student can tell you through his sophisticated hydroponics experiment he conducted at home! Lastly, Mrs. Kathy Howard’s student from her MARN1001 course did an outstanding job presenting on the state of plastics in the world’s oceans.

 

 

After hearing all the great research that has gone on this year in the morning presentations, the day concluded with Mr. Mike O’Conner’s Waterford High School students who introduced a community service component of their yearlong project with a 20-minute recording. The inspirational project showed students who are working with the town of Waterford to develop signage for Alewife Cove in Waterford. The signage includes information on the ecology of the marsh, its importance, and threats to its existence. Students have also proposed a new kayak launch to help protect the marsh.

 

 

This year, presenting a group project virtually at the Symposium made the most of limited time the students could be together. Even with all the obstacles the students faced this year, their work was very impressive. We appreciate the flexibility and willingness of the instructors and students to make this virtual format a success, and we look forward to next year when we can once again spend the day at UConn’s Avery Point campus together!

 

Disconnecting in a Connected Society

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Nicole Bartlett

Southington High School

LLAS 1190: Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean

 

When I need to disconnect from a connected society I spend time volunteering at my local dog pound. I have been a volunteer at the Wolcott Dog Pound for the past 8 years. I enjoy working fundraising events, fostering dogs, and meeting the everyday needs of those dogs who have entered the pound. They have been abused, abandoned and neglected. My goal is to help them trust again, be their voice, and find their forever home.

 

 

Olivia Olbrias

Windham Technical High School

HIST 1502: United States History Since 1877

 

In today’s society we are frequently stuck to our computers because of online classes. After a long day of sitting at my laptop I like to get outside and disconnect for a bit, I tie up my skates and play some music and get active! My picture represents disconnecting by showing a healthy activity that needs no technology at all!

 

 

Min Silva

Ledyard High School

ANSC 1602: Behavior and Training of Domestic Animals

 

To disconnect from society, I like to ride horses and take in the calmness that they give off.

 

 

Alexa Davidson

Sacred Heart Academy

FREN 3250: Global Culture I

 

My favorite way to disconnect from technology is by taking my dog on hikes. It is a fun and enjoyable way to spend some time in nature and bond with my fluffy friend!

 

 

Cam Begley

Suffield High School

NRE 1000E: Environmental Science

 

Hiking is a great way to unplug from phones, TVs, and even other people. Instead, you can see, feel, and appreciate the natural beauty of our planet… and it’s that much better barefoot! This picture is of me at the top of Croagh Patrick mountain in Ireland; I climbed it barefoot to participate in the tradition of making a centuries-old pilgrimage to the summit.

 

 

Isabella Maglio

Plainfield High School

AMST 1201: Seminar in American Studies

 

This photo represents disconnecting in a connected society because nature photography is my escape. There is so many beautiful things that the world offers if we were just to take a break from social media and take it all in!

School Counselors Leading the Way: Helping to assist students in their school adjustment, academic performance, and mental health in a post-pandemic school setting

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By Clewiston Challenger, Ph.D., School Counseling Program,

Neag School of Education

 

 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently issued updated guidelines for schools for the upcoming academic year. They recommend schools to fully open and students to return to in-person learning. The updated guidelines signal a return to a new normal as it pertains to learning in a school building. These recommendations are in contract to those of the pandemic which forced a national lockdown, disrupting students’ learning, and turning homes into classrooms. Though the transition back will not come without challenges, school administrators can ease the transition by utilizing school counselors to advise them on ways to reopen their doors safely and effectively to welcome students back. You see, school counselors and other student support services (i.e. social workers, school nurses, school psychologists, school-based community organizations) are trained to provide counseling services to support students’ mental health, wellness, and personal-social development to increase academic performance. As schools emerge from the effects of the national lockdown due to COVID-19, school counselors are poised to serve as consultants and collaborators who can inform the rebuilding process of the school culture while planning for future crisis.

 

The opportunity within the opportunity
School counselors are boots on the ground-types of practitioners. These practitioners are usually in the halls, moving about the school, mingling with students and staff, all to be in tune with the school climate. This approach of having boots on the ground, creates roots in the ground by skillfully forming collaborative relationships with students, staff, and families. This type of relationship-building approach can help students—and staff—root themselves back into the school culture to feel welcomed and more involved. Counselors and other student support personnel should focus their efforts on students’ sense of belonging, resiliency, and their motivation towards school and academics. The opportunity has arrived for school counselors to sit at the table with administrators to offer their ideas on how to redesign the school environment and student achievement.

 

School counselors need to innovate to motivate
Transitioning to remote learning, for many, was cumbersome and inconvenient. Constant adjustments were needed to enable remote instruction to moderately garner student engagement, and school counselors were not exempt from this “clunky” transition. Like other educational professionals, school counselors had little to no guidance on how to effectively provide counseling services virtually. So, as in-person learning returns, school counselors need to creatively think about how to motivate students to return to school. A newly designed comprehensive school counseling curriculum should be school-wide, relevant and responsive, as well as inclusive. One that allows students to feel heard and cared for and stimulates academic engagement. It is also important that turf wars between student support services ends, replacing it with a vision of unified services. School counselors should collaboratively work with other disciplines as futurist planning for potential crises and how to deliver services without delay or disruption.

 

Putting it into perspective
First, it must be acknowledged that communities of color were deeply impacted by the effects of the pandemic and the lockdown in comparison to their White counterparts. Communities of color saw greater rates of illness, death, and financial hardship due to the COVID-I9 virus and the effects of the lockdown. School counselors would benefit from continuing their education around cultural competency as well as diversity training to successfully serve this population. In addition, school counselors should consider focusing on the noncognitive needs of their students which could lead to positive student adjustment, behavior, retention, and graduation rates in a post-pandemic era. More students having a positive outlook in these areas could lead to higher involvement in the school, community, and their homes.

 

So, as we return to the classroom in the fall for in-person learning, importance should be placed on providing support for students’ mental health and wellness as they reengage in the traditional learning process. School counselors can use the lessons learned from the pandemic to introduce new ideas to create an engaging and inclusive learning environment. We can agree that COVID-19 has changed the landscape of education and has caused us to consider new ways on how to instruct, counsel, and engage our students. There may be long-lasting traumatic effects from the lockdown and remote learning that could have a negative impact how students and staff return to the in-person setting. Research has shown that students have better academic performance and social interactions with peers when they have stable mental health and their noncognitive needs are met. It would benefit school counselors to prioritize addressing these areas to help students adjust to being in the building again. Additionally, school counselors have the opportunity to take on leadership roles in their schools, district, and community to use their influential voice for their innovative ideas on how to increase student involvement in the school and student motivation. These practitioners are best positioned to efficaciously implement these ambitious initiatives due to their specialized training and skillset, cultural competency, and collaborative approach to student and family service. Counselors, let’s go to work!

 

2021 UConn ECE Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest Winners

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By Sean Frederick Forbes, PhD

Assistant Professor-in-Residence

Director, Creative Writing Program

UConn English Department

 

As my fellow judges and I read through the submission packets for this year’s UConn ECE Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest, we were impressed by the varying subjects and topics that students chose to write about. What the three of us discovered was that many of the poems moved us to think about why one chooses to write poetry and what does one hope to convey in poetic verse? We considered why poetry, if not the written word in all genres, matters as we continue to live through a devastating global pandemic. As I write this, I’m reminded of the last two lines of the poem “The Summer Day” by the late Mary Oliver, in which the speaker invites the reader to ponder this direct and undemanding, yet highly philosophical, question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” If one is a writer, especially a poet, the theme of “Finding Joy, Finding Beauty, Finding Purpose” might very well be an earnest and awe-inspiring response. It’s a theme that best conveys how I’d like to introduce the first, second, and third prize-winning poems, respectively.

 

<<Text redacted>>

 

Charlotte Watts’ “After ‘Chinese Satellite’ by Phoebe Bridgers” is an ekphrastic, usually a poem that describes, or is inspired by, or speaks to another work of art, typically visual art, but here we have a poem based on a song by a 2021 Grammy-nominated musician. A reader’s first impulse might be to listen to Bridgers’ song, but the splendor of this poem is in engaging with the images and phrases, and also the myriad narratives Watts creates throughout in lines such as: “maybe I would sleep easier if / there were ufos over my street.”

 

Zara Williamson’s “To Find God in Me” is a spoken word poem that acts as a homily for a speaker who confronts and analyzes how body image, the mother/daughter relationship, and religion affect a teenage girl’s life. Williamson uses the pivotal refrain “But Momma says” three times in the poem to convey that despite any misunderstandings, tensions, and upheavals that the speaker may have in her teenage life, her mother listens to understand, thus allowing the speaker to write confidently with lines such as: “I talk to the sky sometimes / I imagine She listens with her ears open as my heart / Loud as my voice ringing in the Church bathroom.”

 

A reader will find joy, beauty, and purpose in these three poems since the personalities and voices of each speaker convey so acutely what it means to live and write in the 21st century.

 

The 2022 Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest will open in January 2022 and is open to UConn ECE Students in any discipline.Look for e-mail correspondence sent directly to your school.

<<Section redacted>>

after "chinese satellite" by phoebe bridgers

maybe i wouldn't cry like i do

if i thought someone

could hold me close, whisper

the sky was carved, the mountains

whittled, the plains roped out;

all for you.

 

if they could forgive me

(when i was twelve and my genes were poisonous

fifteen and couldn't look at a boy while i broke his heart

seventeen and speeding serotonin out of myself)

if they could know everything bad in my bones and love me still.

 

i wish 'want' would turn over easy to 'belief'

but i was never skilled at self-persuasion

 

maybe i would sleep easier if

there were ufos over my street -

grand government conspiracies or just a lonely cryptid

making his way through a distant forest,

anomaly eyes locked on the same moon.

i want to be made by more than coincidence,

to have some code built within my bones, saying

here is what you do. here is what is all means.

i knew you the whole time.

 

 

Biography

Charlotte Watts is an 18 year old writer from Windsor, Connecticut. She has read at Sunken Garden and was a finalist for the 2020 Smith College High School Poetry Award. She is going to Lesley University in the fall to major in Creative Writing.

 

Context of Poem

As a lifelong agnostic Quaker, my relationship with faith is complex and fluid. In this poem, I wrestle with the emotional consequences of non-belief, as well as the longing to know a higher meaning.

 

To Find the God in Me

 

I wear this body like my Sunday morning Church dress

Like this mahogany skin does not sit right on my bones

This hair -- tight coils that dance along my scalp-- fits like a bright pink bonnet

Too tight and too much

But momma says I'm pretty

My reflection looks a lot like stained glass these days

Where my face is a puzzle of pieces that is almost unrecognizable most of the time

But momma says she sees God in me

I suppose these hands are like my Church gloves

Palms white and soft as silk

These are prayer hand s, you see

I talk to the sky sometimes

I imagine She listens with her ears open as my heart

Loud as my voice ringing in the Church bathroom

Asking what I will be

But momma says God hears me

So I earthquake the Church floorboards into pixie dust

Momma, God and I dance on top of clouds and my Church dress fits just right

I peer into the stained glass windows

And my reflection looks like someone I know

 

 

Biography

Zara Williamson is a rising senior at Westhill High School and has had a special interest in English and poetry from a young age. Throughout high school, Zara has been involved in various community service programs at Westhill and in Stamford, including her role in organizing a local poetry slam in honor of Juneteenth. She hopes to continue to be involved in the broader Stamford community through her love and involvement in the arts, and wants to thank UCONN for considering her work.

 

Context of Poem

“To Find the God in Me” explores the stressors of the teenage experience, including the developing and nonlinear journey towards positive self-image. The poem, written from the perspective of a young teenage girl, analyzes the role of religion and motherhood in soothing stressors, specifically that of imposter syndrome and body dysmorphia.

Something Old and Something New: How Pre-College is Changing

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By Nicole Hyman and Cody Olson

 

Over this past year, hundreds of thousands of couples have had to move or postpone their wedding day due to Covid-19. Is it the responsible and safe decision? Yes, absolutely, but, that doesn’t make it any less difficult. A wedding takes months to plan and coordinate, and there are so many variables to account for. Countless engaged couples are now grappling with the arduous task of rethinking their special day, and all the difficult feelings that come along with that process. We, at UConn Pre-College Summer (UConn PCS), can’t fully relate to this feeling, but we know a thing or two about having to cancel a “special day.”

 

After months of planning, we made the difficult decision to cancel our 2020 Pre-College Summer program to prioritize the health and safety of our students, faculty, and campus partners. As a team that works year-round to prepare for a few special days in the summer, we did not make this decision lightly.

 

While we did not host a program, we made sure our summer did not go to waste. We spent time reflecting on the best aspects of our program, rethinking a few of our offerings, and retooling as we prepare for next summer. Our 2021 program will certainly look different, but that doesn’t mean it will be any less engaging, exciting, or enriching. While we were planning and preparing this summer, we came to the realization that we
would need to figure out how to marry our typical offerings to the university’s e-learning and technological capabilities. Weirdly enough, the marriage of technology and our program was not the only wedding related thought we’ve had. In fact, as we reflect on the work we completed since March, we can’t help but notice a matrimony motif emerge. Our efforts may be best categorized with the old wedding day adage: Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Our major projects from this past summer reflect these categories, and we are optimistic they are helping us work towards a “ring”er of a summer.

 

“Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Our major projects from
this past summer reflect these categories, and we are optimistic they are helping us work towards a “ring”er of a 2021 summer.”

 

Something Old: Rethinking Student Workshops

For the UConn PCS team, summer 2020 meant adapting an older and integral component of our program: exploratory workshops. Traditionally, workshops allowed students a safe, in-person space to explore a wide variety of emerging academic and personal interests in addition to their class. Many of our wonderful workshop presenters worked with the PCS team to transition their work shop into a recorded virtual mini-workshop that was shared out with students who registered for the program. We understand that many students spend their summers preparing for their futures, and we were pleased to continue supporting students in their college and career preparations in a virtual space. These workshops all pertain to college preparation, and can still be accessed on the Pre-College Summer YouTube Channel.

 

Something New: A New Graduate Assistant
For the UConn PCS team, summer 2020 brought a new teammate: a new Graduate Assistant, Deanna Gallegos. Deanna joined the team in August and hit the ground running working on social media and preparing to recruit, hire, and train our summer staff. While summer 2021 is looking different than those prior, Deanna is working to ensure that our student staff will have a safe and engaging experience. She has spent the last month rethinking the role our student staff will play and making sure that by the end of the summer our staff will have enhanced their leadership capabilities and grown in their professional competence. Deanna is from West Sacramento, CA and graduated from the University of California – Davis in 2019 with a double major in English and Chicana/o Studies. She is now pursuing a Master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs in the Neag School of Education at UConn. We are elated to have her on the team!

 

Something Borrowed: Relationship Building and Benchmarking

Collaboration is a key component of our work as a program. Conferences provide our team with opportunities to connect and network with other pre-college programs across the country and the partnerships we’ve formed with other UConn offices are integral to creating a dynamic summer program. Building and maintaining relationships has been a challenge as of late, but this summer we set out to create a community of practice with similar programs on and off campus.

 

The community we are building came to fruition after our Program Coordinator, Cody Olson, conducted a benchmarking analysis this past summer. Since the completion of that project, we’ve been able to develop stronger relationships with other programs, share new and innovative ideas with our peers, and in many ways “borrow” unique practices and strategies that we will
implement in coming summers. A project like this would not have been possible to complete in a typical summer, and the community of practice we are building will benefit us for years to come.

 

Something Blue: A New Pre-College Website
For our new website and branding, “something blue” means adopting a dynamic, minimalist design to bring us closer to our UConn Nation roots. This summer, we had time to develop a new website and rebrand the program- a major undertaking and something we may not have been able to do without the extra time we had this summer. It’s not just the look of our website that has changed. We have also restructured the website to better address the specific needs of three different populations. We want to directly communicate with students, parents and guardians, and high school and community partners as well as other program stakeholders. With education entering a new age of online and blended learning, we are excited to share our new website and to use it to better serve our students and their families.

 

Rain Date: Planning for Summer 2021
Like most happy couples planning to celebrate in 2020, we have a rain date for Summer 2021. We are thrilled to be in the midst of preparing for this upcoming summer as we utilize the old, new, borrowed, and blue ideas from our unexpected summer of collaboration and growth. We are excited to announce that #SummerAtUConn for 2021 will be held virtually. This includes online course offerings, workshops, and social programming for our student participants. Students can now submit an application at no cost by navigating to connect.pcs.uconn.edu/apply. For a list of courses that will be offered, please see this link: pcs.uconn.edu/courses. Among the many courses that will be offered, we have a great opportunity for students interested in Geoscience. Through a collaboration of UConn’s Department of Geoscience & UConn PCS, scholarships will be awarded to students to participate in the three-week virtual GEOPATHS: Introduction to Geosciences course at no cost. Visit pcs.uconn.edu for more information on this scholarship and overall program details.

 

2021 Summer Dates:
• Session 1A & 1B: 6/14/2021 – 7/2/2021
• Session 2A & 2B: 7/5/2021 – 7/23/2021

 

“We want to directly communicate with students, parents and guardians, and high school and community partners as well as other program stakeholders. With education entering a new age of online and blended learning, we are excited to share our new website and to use it to better serve our students and their families.”

 

UConn ECE Student Perspective: Learning in Today’s Environment

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By Elizabeth Kindt

 

Being a high school student is difficult enough without any additional pressures or major world crises going on. In March of 2020, Connecticut high schoolers experienced a sudden switch to online learning due to COVID-19, and just two months later on May 25th witnessed widespread political action in the United States in response to the murder of George Floyd. Between the uncertainty and fear brought on by the pandemic, and the injustices of our country finally coming to light, our students are facing extreme global events as they try to navigate their own personal and educational growth. To better understand the challenges our UConn ECE Students are facing during these trying times, UConn ECE staff conducted interviews with some of our students to learn more about how the online educational changes and the current political discourse has impacted them in both their education and lives at home. We asked each student two specific questions to start the conversation; “How has the current political discourse and injustice affected you? How has it affected your classes and learning both inside and outside the classroom?”

 

Valerie, a UConn ECE Student from Cromwell High School answered, “For the first part of the school year, I have been virtually learning from home and I must admit, it has been challenging in multiple ways.” Her response to courses switching online was similar to other students, who found the transition difficult at first, but manageable towards the end of the school year. In making the most of a challenging situation, Valerie has been using her time at home to “continue to educate myself and keep updated on what has been going on in the world. I’ve also been making sure to keep myself in the mindset that there is always room to learn and improve.” Valerie concluded, “Overall, the current political discourse and injustice has really made me see how much I can do to help the community become a better place and continue to encourage others to do so as well.” Once again, her response mirrored other students who wanted to help their communities, despite setbacks as a result of the pandemic.

 

Another UConn ECE student, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained how the political discourse has affected their learning directly. This Manchester High School student answered, “[The political discourse] affected my classes and learning because more people are talking about it and spreading awareness to it, so more people…can take action.” This was a common theme among students as many wanted to discuss what was affecting classroom learning. This student also mentioned that, “The most memorable [course] was UConn Human Rights because we were able to talk about current situations happening in the world.” Many other UConn ECE Students mentioned that in courses such as UConn Human Rights, and UConn U.S. History, instructors allowed for a more open discussion about the current events going on in the U.S. since these topics were aligned with their course curricula. Students were pleased when this happened and open to a discussion about how these events affected them and those around them.

 

We also had the opportunity to interview Camila Lopez, a sophomore at J.M. Wright Technical High School who spoke about the political events that affected both her family and her education. When asked about how her peers were getting involved with political issues she answered, “Here in Stamford, there have been a lot of protests downtown,” and continued by saying, “there are issues going on that need to be spoken about, and I’m a big fan of peaceful protesting.” When asked if today’s current events have also been addressed within the classroom she said, “Yes, especially since I’m taking the UConn ECE Human Rights course our teacher was like, ‘yeah we’re talking about this’. What I really like about it, and what a lot of students I’ve seen like about it, is there’s more real-world subjects.” She went on to say that she liked the platform students were given in class to speak their minds, especially in her UConn Human Rights course. She mentioned that, “What I like about it is the flexibility that the teacher has, like if there is a problem going on [our teacher will say], ‘does anyone want to talk about it?’ He’ll give us the platform so we can say what we’re thinking and then we start discussing it. There aren’t necessarily debates or arguments about it, it’s just discussing it in general which is really nice.” Camila also mentioned that she and other students believe bringing up these issues in class is the first step to bringing about change. “There’s a curriculum but because it’s a human rights class you can kind of go off of it in different directions. You can have an assignment on race, but because there are still racial inequalities today, you can talk about what’s going on today.” Camila also mentioned that although students were quieter in their online classes, once a conversation was started on a controversial topic or current event, students were more willing to jump in and share their thoughts. She reminisced about being in the classroom in the beginning of the year and explained, “Once one person starts [the conversation], it kind of goes from there, and with a couple of people joining it leads to more. I feel like with online classes a lot of kids are quieter than I’m used to seeing in class.” And although high school students may not be as outgoing or willing to participate over Zoom, Camila emphasized that their voices are still being heard. Towards the end of the interview, we asked Camila how the political discourse had affected her family. Her response was, “I’m Guatemalan and I love talking about politics with my dad.” Once again she mentioned that talking about these issues is one of the most important things students are doing. At the end of the interview Camila reiterated how important it was to spread awareness about current topics in the class room, and to keep students involved in the conversations.

Although this school year has been an unexpected one to say the least, we found that
students are ready to get involved in both their communities and classrooms to make positive changes in the world. Despite the pandemic, many students feel more empowered and encouraged, even if it is through a computer, to speak out on the current political discourse and other issues they are passionate about. As we reflect on 2020, we are hopeful the new year will bring peace and good health to all our students and community partners, and the passion for change, dedication to taking action and raising awareness will continue to grow and their voices will be heard.