Awards recognize public engagement

The Provost's Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement provided a wealth of examples of multiple ways in which the UConn community has an ongoing interaction with local, state and national communities.

The reception was held in the Wilbur Cross North Reading Room on Wednesday afternoon.

Provost Peter Nicholls started the event by welcoming the crowd and thanking those who participated in selecting the finalists. He said that engagement is a concept that the provost's office had recently taken into consideration more seriously.

"I appreciate the work of the Public Engagement Forum in organizing the event and these awards," Nicholls said.

The awards, which honored one undergraduate student, one graduate student , one staff member, one faculty member and one university program, were given based on the quality and effectiveness of community engagement.

"One of the goals of our academic plan is to enhance our efforts and contributions in the area of public engagement," said Robert McCarthy, dean of the School of Pharmacy and the director of the Public Engagement Forum.

Preston Britner, co-chair of the Public Engagement Forum, agreed, saying that the university's mission of research, teaching and engagement was three-pronged, and that the world engagement, in place of service, was essential as it represents how UConn is "not an ivory tower."

In total 16 undergraduate students, graduate students, staff and faculty members and programs were accepted as finalists. All finalists received a plaque, and the winners won $500 to go toward financial aid or their department, which would help aid their efforts.

The undergraduate finalists were announced first; Michael Baczewski, a 5th-semester urban and community studies major, Danielle Lanslots, a 7th-semester environmental science major, Julia Leonard, a 7th-semester special education major and Sarah Oravecz, a 5th-semester individualized major.

Baczewski was chosen as the winner for his work as a Board of Education member in the town of Berlin.

For the graduate student category, Michael Zacchea, who is pursuing his MBA at the Stamford campus and a retired Marine, won because of his involvement with student veterans.

Zacchea was seriously wounded in Iraq after being "blown up."

"I continue to recover, but I had a difficult recovery," Zacchea said.

Zacchea said that he wished to get involved with more veteran associations, some of which were in the beginning stages of formation. The path he had chosen, he learned, was called social entrepreneurship.

"I was very, very fortunate that things just worked out that way," he said. "So much of my life, I've been in the right place at the right time."

According to Zacchea, there are 430 student veterans in all of UConn's campuses, many of which he works with in the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities.

Oravecz, one of the undergraduate nominees, was happy that her learning community, Public Health House, was getting more exposure.

"This is the second year for the Public Health House and interest has grown," she said.

Other winters included staff member Reesa Ollins, whose work has dealt with child welfare and adoption practices; the VoTer program, which was created by the School of Engineering in 2006, which provides the state with information about electronic technology; and faculty member Ann Ferris of the School of Medicine who has worked for 32 years for the health betterment of low-income families.