{"id":129528,"date":"2017-09-20T08:25:13","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T12:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=129528"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:07:11","slug":"saveuconn-its-about-the-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/09\/saveuconn-its-about-the-students\/","title":{"rendered":"#SaveUConn: It’s About the Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of the budget season, University of Connecticut\u00a0administrators voiced a commitment to protecting the academic enterprise while working to keep tuition at the levels set in the current four-year plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to be affordable and accessible to all,\u201d Scott Jordan,\u00a0UConn\u2019s chief financial officer and executive vice president for administration, said at the time.<\/p>\n

By many indicators, the University has made inroads to achieve that goal. A few years ago, the state legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee reported that the University’s affordability compared favorably to other flagship universities and peer institutions. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance<\/em>, Princeton Review<\/em>, and Money Magazine<\/em> have all come to similar conclusions, ranking the University among the “best values” in higher education in recent years.<\/p>\n

The University offers a package of grants and loans to help disadvantaged students afford an array of direct education expenses, including tuition, fees, and room and board. The support for students is both need- and merit-based.<\/p>\n

But affordability and accessibility are all about providing students an opportunity to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

Students like\u00a0UConn alumni Dennis \u201904 (BUS) and William Bok \u201908 (CLAS) who were self-described “troublemakers” as kids. After graduating, the brothers founded FroyoWorld \u2013 Connecticut\u2019s first self-serve frozen yogurt chain.<\/p>\n

The Boks credit UConn \u2013 and specifically the Student Support Services<\/a>\u00a0program in which they both participated \u2013 with helping them achieve such success. Student Support Services provides advising, academic support, and advocacy for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students at UConn.<\/p>\n

Current students now taking advantage of UConn’s opportunities:<\/p>\n

Mohammad Mansour \u201920 (PHR), pre-pharmacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Mohammad
Mohammad Mansour \u201920 (PHR), the youngest of six siblings to pursue undergraduate studies at the Avery Point campus. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 2016 graduate of Fitch High School in Groton, Conn., Mohammad Mansour ’20 (PHR) \u2013 and his five siblings before him \u2013 chose to attend UConn Avery Point because of the campus\u2019 proximity to his home and its affordable cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce my sister went to UConn, we all went to UConn,\u201d says the\u00a0pre-pharmacy major. \u201cMy dad said he would recommend UConn over any other school. We\u2019re a UConn family.\u201d<\/p>\n

His siblings\u2019 successes are a lot to live up to: his eldest sister, Aysha \u201916 (Pharm.D.), is now a registered pharmacist at Walgreens; his brother, Ahmed, who completed his undergraduate studies at UConn in three years, is currently pursuing his MD and will graduate from the UConn School of Medicine in 2018; his sisters Ola \u201916 and Bayan \u201917 are both pursuing nursing at UConn; and his sister Ruyah is set to graduate from UConn\u2019s School of Allied Health in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Amberleigh
Amberleigh Delgado \u201919 (BUS). (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amberleigh Delgado \u201919 (BUS), accounting<\/strong><\/p>\n

First-generation college student Amberleigh Delgado \u201919 (BUS), a Travelers EDGE (Empowering Dreams for Graduation and Employment) scholar, hopes to become a Certified Public Accountant when she completes her bachelor\u2019s degree in accounting. She is an Associated Student Government senator and a campus tour guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a resident of Hartford, having UConn in our community showed me that college was within reach, and Student Support Services helped with my transition. I\u2019ve taken advantage of many opportunities here \u2013 last summer, I studied abroad in South Africa and interned at Deloitte.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Sam \u201919 (ENG), computer science<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although at times he considered becoming a doctor or a lawyer, Stephen Sam of East Hartford eventually looked to a longtime hobby to determine his career path. \u201cMy dad\u2019s really big into computers. Growing up, every time he fixed one, he would show me everything he did, and the next time, I would fix it,\u201d Sam says. As a computer science major, he hopes to build apps and has his eyes set on working for a technology “giant\u201d such as Apple or Google.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen
Stephen Sam \u201919 (ENG), right, studying with members of the ScHOLA2RS Learning Community at Next Gen Hall. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen I was looking at colleges, I saw the engineering opportunities available at UConn and earned some scholarships,\u201d says Sam. \u201cIt\u2019s not too far away from home and not too close. It\u2019s the best place to build my technical acumen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of classes, Sam has built his network through living in a Learning Community and as president of Brothers Reaching Our Society (BROS), vice president of the African Student Association, and a senator for the UConn chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.<\/p>\n

Irma Valverde ’18 (CLAS, BUS), political science and business management<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walking around the Storrs campus on a tour, Irma Valverde from Long Island was struck by how many people were wearing UConn gear. \u201cI didn\u2019t get that school spirit vibe anywhere else I visited,\u201d says Valverde, who is now a senior and the president of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), the liaison between students and the administration. UConn, despite its size, also felt like home, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran to be student president because I’ve seen the value of student advocacy,\u201d she says. \u201cI think this is the perfect way to give back to the community and make sure student voices are heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The budget recently passed by the General Assembly would result in major reductions to need- and merit-based financial aid for students across the board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":129534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,173,92,174,2225,90,2234,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-129528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profile","category-uconn-avery-point","category-uconn-hartford","category-uconn-stamford","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-waterbury","category-university-life","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 14:21:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129528"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129622,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129528\/revisions\/129622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/129534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129528"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=129528"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=129528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}