Undergraduate degree:<\/strong> BA in geoscience and geography What was your first year at UConn like?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wanted to have all the answers for everything. But early on, I figured out that I had no idea what was available to me. Although I never switched majors, I really switched my outlook on what I wanted to do with [a geoscience degree]. This is because I got involved in extracurriculars, I met people who had a lot of insight, and I grew my interpersonal skills as well as my technical skills.<\/p>\n Why did you choose to double major in geoscience and geography?<\/strong><\/p>\n Growing up in a woodsy area of New York, I always loved nature and science. I wanted to find the intersection of those two disciplines. Then, I ended up really gravitating toward map making, plotting out geospatially where people are, where resources are, and how those two interact. I knew that I wanted to help people more than anything else. Having a base knowledge of the environment, what resources are available, and how earth processes shape those resources is great.<\/p>\n But then I decided to pursue the Master of Public Administration … to take what research was saying and implement it in policy work. [I wanted] to advocate for marginalized communities that don\u2019t normally get an equal say in how those resources are distributed, or how they affect the daily life of people who don\u2019t normally get represented in our policies.<\/p>\n How did your work at the Women\u2019s Center impact your experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n I started with the Women\u2019s Center when I was a sophomore as a participant in GASA (Greeks Against Sexual Assault). That experience inspired me to use my voice more. This past year I have seen the impacts of the programming and advocacy work that we do on the community. We spoke to about 5000 students on the Storrs campus and traveled across all the regional campuses presenting workshops. We talked about disrupting gender-based violence and what we can do to promote more gender equity on campus. Even if we get through to one student per class, that is an enormous change that we can inspire.<\/p>\n How has UConn prepared you for your future career?<\/strong><\/p>\n Whatever I choose to do, if I approach it with all my passion and effort, then I can make something work. [After graduation] I am going to begin a six-week program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. There, I’ll be a resident advisor for pre-college students who want to gain some experience in STEM research.<\/p>\n What was one piece of advice that stuck out to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n One advisor said, \u201cTry it, and if it doesn\u2019t work, then come back to me and we\u2019ll figure something else out.\u201d A lot of people have a fear of not doing things right the first time. So, something as simple as \u201ctry it, and we can go from there\u201d is a great piece of advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CLAS was the perfect college for Kelly Flannery to explore interests in nature, science, public administration, and gender equity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":159990,"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":[2226],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2214],"class_list":["post-159989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 12:17:06","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\/159989","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\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/159990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159989"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=159989"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=159989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGraduate degree:<\/strong>\u00a0MA in Public Administration
\nHometown:<\/strong> Putnam Valley, NY
\nFavorite place to study:<\/strong> The Cavern in Beach Hall<\/p>\n
\n