Ms. Werner – Bolton High School
Mr. Miller III – Bunnell High School
Ms. MeMeo – Cheshire High School
Dr. Johnson – CREC Academy of Computer Science and Engineering
Ms. Scott – Daniel Hand High School
Ms. DeJarlais – Edwin O. Smith High School
Ms. MacKay – Nonnewaug High School
Mrs. Allen – Putnam High School
Dr. Romanova – Scared Heart Academy
Mr. Aitkenhead – Staples High School
Mrs. Able – Simsbury High School
Mrs. Churchill – The Woodstock Academy
By Kenneth Thompson, DMD Assistant Professor In-Residence & UConn ECE DMD Faculty Coordinator
and Jennifer Sinski New Canaan High School DMD Instructor
Digital skills and design thinking are critical in a world filled to the brim with multimedia. Classes are now available in the Digital Media and Design program in the School of Fine Arts. We offer rigorous film, game development, illustration, animation, and graphic design studies. But most importantly, we emphasize communicating ideas to solve unique problems. Whether it’s a 20-foot 
tall interactive game wall in the Boston Children’s Hospital or historic VR tours of King Charles the IV’s crowning ceremony, our students make works of art by thinking collaboratively. Collaboration and critique are valuable skills in new media, corporate, and academic environments. Our program accommodates most professional and open-source software, and we work with teachers who need initial support converting courses. Students in our program intern and work at companies like Adobe, Disney, Epic Games, ESPN, and Pixar. For teachers looking to apply, please check the requirements of the portfolio on the UConn ECE DMD course page.
This is the pilot year for New Canaan High School’s UConn ECE Course, Advanced Film and Video Editing. Our course is designed to take our students through an exploration of storytelling with a focus on video production and non-linear editing with Adobe Premiere Pro. Project Management, sound design and time-based storytelling techniques are embedded into various projects and film screenings. NCHS Art teacher, Jennifer Sinski, has established this course for the student who is serious about building their creative film portfolio and knowledge of video editing. Student, Megan Brunner, describes the positive highlights of the course: “The people in the class but also the different projects we have already done. For example, the first movie I made was able to make a film about one of the most important things in my life, I was able to use a more professional editing software and it made it look more professional and I made something I was truly proud of.”
By Stefanie Malinoski
This fall, the Early College Experience program has been fortunate to be able to return to hosting some of our professional development workshops in person on the Storrs and Avery Point campuses. During the fall semester more than twenty events occurred with another almost twenty-five slated to occur during the winter intersession and spring semester.
UConn ECE Marine Science Instructors were not only able to meet in person but were able to set sail on the Long Island Sound as a part of their workshop day. The group discussed Winslow Homer’s “Fog Warning” and then experienced the fog first-hand from dories on the water.
After being introduced to molecular photoswitches by Dr. Michael Kienzler, from UConn’s Chemistry Department and the ECE Chemistry Instructors engaged in a hands-on laboratory demonstration “Synthesis and Photoswitching of Azobenzene”.
Sustainable Plant and Soil Science Instructors met with UConn’s Dr. Yi Ma from the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture for a pGLO Bacterial Transformation
exercise.
Guest speaker, S. Garnett Russell, Associate Professor of International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University joined the UConn ECE Human Rights workshop and shared a presentation and discussed her book, “Becoming Rwandan”, and lead a conversation focused on teaching about the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide.
At the European History Workshop, ECE History Faculty Coordinator, Tom Maulucci spoke to the group about ideas for fitting Eastern Europe into HIST 1400 and discussed a recorded lecture “As Ukraine Goes, So Goes the World: Thoughts on propaganda, violence, and democracy” given by Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. Later in the day, Professor, Sarah Silverstein, from UConn’s History Department presented to the group on “Eastern Europe’s Invention of the West”. Later, two of UConn’s Student Success Librarian’s, Zach Claybaugh and Kelsey Brown, gave an overview of library resources available to Instructors (with a special focus on Ukraine).
Having the ability to be back on campus and in person has allowed ECE to provide interesting and engaging professional development opportunities to our certified Instructors. Many disciplines are also opting to continue offering virtual events which allows us to more easily invite speakers from across the country to meet with our Instructors.
At the virtual American Studies and U.S. History Workshop in October guests included Chris Vials, Professor, English, and Director of American Studies at UConn who gave his talk “Fascism and American Studies” and provided resources to help facilitate teaching the topics. In addition, Aya Marczyk, Curriculum Development Fellow from Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimony engaged with Instructors on the topic of Race and Citizenship and provided a curriculum overview. After the workshop an ECE Instructor commented “The speakers were informative, engaging, thought-provoking, and provided practical resources to assist in teaching. Both were the perfect blend of providing intellectually stimulating content within a relevant pedagogical context. I will take the materials that they provided and absolutely incorporate them into my class.”
UConn ECE Economics Instructors heard dynamic presentations from economists from across the country during their virtual workshop. Presentation topics included:
• “5 Key Economic Concepts that Popular Media Can Teach” delivered by Dr. Kim Holder, Director, UWG Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy, Senior Lecturer of Economics, Richards College of Business, Director of Financial Literacy, University of West Georgia (UWG).
• “Building Human Capital – College and Career Exploration”, Princeton Williams, Senior Outreach Advisor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
• “4 Tools to Make Your Teaching Stick” was delivered by Matt Hill, Curriculum Designer at the Marginal Revolution University.
• “The Vibrant History of Black-Owned Banks” given by Tim Todd, Executive Writer and Historian of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Much more information and pictures from the many professional development workshops hosted this fall can be located on “UConn ECE PD Blog” on the Early College Experience website. Dates for spring workshops will be posted to the ECE website’s “Dates to Remember” section as soon as details are finalized. We look forward to continuing to utilize the winter months with additional virtual workshop opportunities and welcome our community members to campus in the spring for additional professional development events.
By Nella Quasnitschka
After canceling the program in 2020 and hosting a virtual program in 2021, UConn Pre-College Summer returned to campus this year. We weren’t sure what to expect after a two-year hiatus, but we were pleasantly surprised as enrollments began to quickly roll in as the summer neared. By the start of the first session, we had 377 students who were enrolled in 419 courses over a four-week period.
Since its inception, the program has strived to provide access to students who cannot afford to enroll in a course. As a result, we have been able to provide more access through partnerships with faculty who have applied for grants which include scholarship money, schools and non-profit organizations, and access initiative awards which provide full or partial funding. This past summer 30%, over 100 students, benefited. Below is a brief description of these partnerships, collaborations, and awards.
UConn’s Department of Earth Sciences secured scholarship money through a National Science Foundation grant to help fund eight students in the Earth and Environmental Science course. The faculty, Dr. William Ouimet and Dr. Michael Hren, took students to our UConn forests to conduct field and lab experiments and included guest visits from Geoscience faculty to discuss a wide range of topics in the discipline. In their assessment of the course a student stated that the professors “helped me build my own idea of what I want to major in.”
Dr. Jennifer Terni, Department Head of the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages received a STARTALK grant, a federal grant program funded by the National Security Agency. This grant included funding for up to 40 high school and college age students to participate in the STARTALK: Chinese Culture and Language Immersion course taught by professor Chunsheng Yang or the STARTALK: Korean Culture and Language Immersion course taught by professor Eun-Ju Shin. Thirty-three students participated in the courses, at no cost. Students stated that “most activities were very engaging. They were conversation focused so it made lots of students improve their speaking and listening skills”.
UConn Cultural and Education Exchange with Indigenous Nations (UCINCEE) is a mentorship program with local Native youth. In 2020, Zoe Belivine, an undergraduate student and now alumni, applied for the President’s Commitment to Community Initiative which focused on making UConn a more inclusive space by fostering respect and understating among the UConn community. This grant would fund enrollments for five students from Indigenous Nations. Last summer, Zoe was able to send one student to the program with hopes of sending more in future summers.
Dr. David Gregorio, Director of Programs in Applied Public Health Science at UConn Health received funding from the CT Department of Public Health to initiate several programs, all intended to enhance the pipeline of individuals pursuing careers in public health. The funding included eight scholarships for students to enroll in the Public Health course taught by Professor Amy Hunter, Ph.D., M.P.H. The course introduced students to the art and science of public health practice with a focus on preserving health and preventing disease within our communities. Students enrolled in the course stated that the course “has generated an interest in pursuing Public Health as my major.”
Connecticut IB Academy sponsored 24 of their students who enrolled in a course of their choice including, Pre-Med: Musculoskeletal Injury and Pathology, Robotics Engineering, and Animation Studio.
Noble School’s Summer of a Lifetime program provides funding to over 1,000 Noble students every year who participate in various pre-college programs across the country. Last summer 29 students enrolled in UConn PCS courses. We have been working with Summer of a Lifetime since 2019 and have had close to 100 students join us since. We hope to continue our collaboration for years to come.
In 2021, Cody Olsen, HESA GA for PCS proposed to pilot an access initiative, the Life Transformative Education Access Initiative, which has provided financial assistance to 14 participants over the last two summers – five in 2021 and nine in 2022.
Without these partnerships, we would not have been able to provide access to so many students. Thank you to everyone that has taken a role in making this possible. If you are interested in partnering with Pre-College Summer, please reach out to us at pcs.uconn.edu.
By Carissa Rutkauskas
UConn OECP Executive Director, Christopher Todd; Outreach and Evaluation Specialist, Carissa Rutkauskas; and Consultant, Pamela Peters attended the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) 2022 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in early November. In addition to networking, a keynote from John O’Brien, President and CEO of EDUCAUSE, breakout 
sessions, and workshops, UConn ECE presented a session in the research strand, accepted their re-accreditation plaque, and paid tribute to Prince by visiting the First Avenue Night Club.
Peters and Rutkauskas presented “Developing a Long-term Integrated Plan for Data Collection and Analysis,” where Rutkauskas introduced UConn Early College Experience and Peters
discussed how she improved the UConn ECE Alumni Survey and aligned it with other surveys and data collection points, with the ultimate goal of having a cohesive data set for continual program improvement. Todd and Rutkauskas attended the accreditation and re-accreditation luncheon where they accepted the UConn ECE NACEP re-accreditation plaque, indicating that the UConn ECE program meets NACEP standards and will hold this accreditation for the next seven years. UConn ECE is the only program in New England to hold NACEP accreditation
and has continuously held this achievement since their initial accreditation in 2007.
All three attendees came away from the conference with great information, insights, and connections. Peters, a doctoral student in the UConn Neag School of Education’s Research Methods, Measurement, and Evaluation program, with a background in gifted education, states her biggest takeaway 
was “how hard people are working to maximize the benefits and experience dual/concurrent enrollment students are having and how widespread these programs are”. Rutkauskas is excited to start using what she learned about National Student Clearinghouse data to gain a better sense of what UConn ECE Alumni do once they graduate high school. She is also grateful for sample student self-advising forms that colleagues shared from their programs and will use these as a model for UConn ECE. Todd is still in his first year in his role and, like Peters, was a first time NACEP conference attendee. For Todd, the NACEP conference highlighted the lack of Connecticut presence within the national concurrent/ dual enrollment dialogue, despite UConn Early College Experience being recognized as the oldest, and one of the largest single concurrent enrollment programs in the nation. Todd stated, “NACEP highlighted the need to have ongoing and frequent communications as part of a community of practice with the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), partner school districts, instructors, students and fellow concurrent/ dual enrollment programs across the
state to build momentum for growth, support for access and to ultimately ensure high program quality”.
By Jessica Dunn
On September 23, 2022, we hosted the UConn ECE Cardboard Boat Race at the Avery Point Campus with about 200 participants in attendance! Twelve teams representing seven partner high schools spent the morning in maritime-related academic sessions, had lunch outside, including UConn Dairy Bar ice cream, and then took to the water to test how their handcrafted cardboard and duct tape vessels would fare on the mouth of the Thames. One seacraft ventured out a bit further than intended into Long Island Sound but was able to make it back safely with a little help from the safety crew! Underdogs in History: A Belief in the Possibilities was a fitting theme, as one faculty/ staff heat and three student heats fought wind, low temperatures, and currents to make their way around two buoys and back to the finish line.
The numerous hours of collaboration and preparation by the UConn ECE students for the event was evident as all boats fared very well considering the conditions of the day. Teams were recognized with trophies for placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in each of the three heats, and the 1st place boat in the Championship Race, The Morgan School’s “USS Independence”, took home the cardboard trophy! In addition to the awards presented for placing in the races, Ledyard High School’s “Ugly Ductling” took home the Best Visual Award, Waterford High School’s “Titanic Undoordog (Jack would have fit!)” took home Best Boat Name Award, and The Morgan School’s second boat, “Miracle on the Water”, took home the People’s Choice Award.
A special thanks to the UConn ECE Instructors and students who participated, and to the entire UConn team including Avery Point Campus staff and subject area presenters who helped make the day a success.
By Todd Blodgett
After a successful registration process during the 2021-2022 academic year with DualEnroll.com, we took feedback from our partner schools and improved both student user experience and partner high school functionalities. With a simplified and more concise registration process we had over 15,000 high school students across the state of Connecticut enroll in at least one UConn ECE course. The most in program history, surpassing a previous high of 13,889!
This past Spring and Summer we had many meetings with our partner high schools to discuss the expansion of their course offerings and held conversations about how to get more students enrolled in UConn ECE courses. This led to a large growth in the amount of schools that were offering courses in Education Curriculum, Educational Leadership and Educational Psychology. This year we also revamped and reintroduced our partnership and offerings in Digital Media & Design. Five, three-credit courses were available to our high school partners in areas of Digital Media, Film & Video Editing and Game Design. As we continue to grow our offerings in these areas, we expect more partner schools to offer these courses to their students.
Registration for the 2022-2023 academic year closed in the Fall on October 6. We encourage students, instructors and school counselors to start having conversations about registering for UConn ECE courses now for the coming academic year. This will encourage students to plan their high school schedules and make sure they have taken the necessary prerequisites for the UConn ECE course they are interested in.
By: Jake Skrzypiec UConn ECE Human Rights Teacher-Manchester High School, Dodd Human Rights Impact Fellow and Chris Buckley UConn ECE Human Rights Teacher-Brookfield High School, Dodd Human Rights Impact Fellow
A new project coming out of UConn’s Dodd Human Rights Impact, with Connecticut educators and youth in partnership with one another, seeks to inspire hope and possibility. Human Rights Close to Home 
(HRCH) is a three-year undertaking to advance Connecticut teachers’ and students’ skill and capacity in human rights education and civic action. The project brings educators, youth, university scholars and community leaders together to foster these goals through a variety of programing.
The HRCH Youth Advisory Team is a diverse group of youth leaders developing components of the Human Rights Close to Home initiative. From December 2021 to May 2022, the Youth Advisory Team collaborated on the development of the HRCH Youth Action Summit, a learning experience for Connecticut high school
students. Guided by ECE teachers Jake Skrzypiec (Manchester High School) and Chris Buckley (Brookfield High School), this team organized all components of the youth summit. The work of these youth leaders included the selection of speakers, school invitations, the logistics of registration, and the facilitation and moderation of the workshops and panels that defined the event. The 
May 18th summit was host to 250 students from 10 high schools. The attendees engaged in a wide range of sessions informing and empowering young people around human rights and civic action. The youth team is currently working to develop the upcoming HRCH Youth Summit to be held in January 2023.
Members of the Youth Advisory Team also submitted a presentation proposal for the National Council for the Social Studies conference, taking place in December 2022 in Philadelphia. The proposal was accepted, creating a rare and unique opportunity for young people to share their work with the HRCH initiative in a professional
setting. These young people embody the ideal of a human right defender at the heart of Human Rights Education. Their work is at the forefront of human rights education and civic action in Connecticut. Their presentation at NCSS will emphasize the work of HRCH on the national stage to engage and empower educators to enshrine human rights and civic education into their practice.
By: Jessica Dunn
After a three-year hiatus of UConn ECE Student Events, we enthusiastically welcomed back the long-standing French Immersion Day and Quiz Bowl on November 3, 2022. About 100 UConn ECE Students representing Lewis S. Mills High School, RHAM High School, Coventry High School, Norwich Free Academy, Nathan Hale-Ray High School, Daniel Hand High School, and Wheeler High School convened at the UConn Storrs campus for a day of excitement and competition in French culture, grammar, history, literature and many other topics. With matching team shirts and deep preparation and passion, the teams came ready to participate in immersion sessions in the morning with UConn French Teaching Assistants, and a head to head, jeopardy-style Quiz Bowl competition in the afternoon.
Taking home first place in this year’s Quiz Bowl Competition was RHAM High School, followed by Nathan Hale-Ray High School in second, and Norwich Free Academy in third place. From the UConn Early College Experience Program Office, we want to thank Dr. Florence Marsal for her efforts coordinating the event and extend our congratulations and thanks to all high schools who participated in this year’s event. There have been many obstacles in the way of returning to in person events, but we are very happy to welcome students back to campus and support their growth in and outside of the classroom.
By Christopher Todd
In the arena of PK-12 education, ensuring equitable access to high quality college coursework, phenomenal instructors and meaningful outcomes for students cannot happen in a vacuum. While each one of us plays a significant role in supporting the success of all Connecticut students, it is our collective agency that creates systems and programs designed to elevate and champion the goal of providing access to, and preparation for, higher education. As such, UConn’s Office of Early College Programs is excited to share that we have entered partnership agreements with the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), the Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) and were proud sponsors of the 2022 Connecticut Boards of Education (CABE)/CAPSS Convention; Public Education: Moving Forward for ALL Children.
