{"id":202572,"date":"2016-04-14T11:37:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T15:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=202572"},"modified":"2023-08-09T11:39:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T15:39:54","slug":"recently-established-pichette-scholarship-names-first-neag-school-student-recipient-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/04\/recently-established-pichette-scholarship-names-first-neag-school-student-recipient-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently Established Pichette Scholarship Names First Neag School Student Recipient"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the moment the Neag School of Education announced its intention this past fall to\u00a0launch a new scholarship fund<\/a>\u00a0in honor of longtime colleague Valerie Pichette, intense support from within and beyond the University quickly became clear.<\/p>\n

Faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, students, and friends of UConn immediately offered an outpouring of contributions \u2014 contributions that accumulated so quickly, in fact, as to reach the UConn Foundation\u2019s endowment requirement within a mere six weeks, ensuring that the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund will now honor Pichette every year in perpetuity.<\/p>\n

\"Pichette\"
This month, the Neag School names the first student recipient of Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund, established\u00a0in honor of the late Valerie J. Pichette (pictured above), who worked for\u00a018 years at the Neag School.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To date, a total of more than $56,000 has been raised for the scholarship through cash and pledges from 117 donors, according to the UConn Foundation. Not only has it turned out to be the top employee-supported fund at the University for fiscal year 2016, but the total amount raised in Pichette\u2019s honor also is more than double the minimum needed to establish a new fund named in honor of a University staff member.<\/p>\n

The scholarship was created to honor Pichette\u2019s 30 years of service to the state of Connecticut, including her 18 years at the Neag School, where she served as an executive assistant \u2013 first with\u00a0Dean Richard Schwab and later\u00a0with former Dean Thomas DeFranco. However, Pichette, who was privately battling cancer when the scholarship was first initiated,\u00a0passed away in November<\/a>\u00a0before news of its status as an endowed fund had become official.<\/p>\n

Paying It Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later this month, the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund will honor its first student recipient, Luis Organista \u201914 (CAHNR). Organista, a UConn alum with a bachelor\u2019s degree in natural resources and the environment, will be joining the Neag School\u2019s Avery Point campus this May as a student in the\u00a0Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates<\/a>\u00a0(TCPCG) \u2014 an 11-month, post-baccalaureate teacher education program through which aspiring schoolteachers earn a master\u2019s degree in curriculum and instruction, as well as recommendation for teacher certification by the state of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Organista, who will receive $1,000 in financial support for the coming academic year through the new fund, has his sights set on teaching science, specifically biology and environmental science. Since graduating with his undergraduate degree, Organista has worked in a number of roles for the state of Connecticut\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection. This past summer, part of his job involved educating 20 inner-city children about environmental conservation and fisheries \u2014 which included taking children for fishing trips on local lakes. It was in this setting, interacting with school-aged youth on a daily basis and getting them excited about the natural world, that Organista found himself inspired to explore a career path focused on teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided teaching would be great because I enjoyed being with the kids,\u201d says Organista, now 24. As he started researching teacher certification programs, he soon became aware of TCPCG. Knowing, as he says, that \u201cit would work out perfectly,\u201d he headed to an upcoming information session and was ultimately accepted into the program. In preparation for his time in the TCPCG program, Organista is currently working as a science and math tutor at Windham Middle School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re overwhelmed and speechless by the amount of support everyone has given. It\u2019s\u00a0a testament to my mom and to how she impacted so many people.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Dan Pichette \u201904, \u201911<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Upon learning that he had been selected as the recipient of the Pichette scholarship, Organista began reading about Pichette and her legacy. What he found, he says, \u201creally showed how much she cared for the students and how much work she put into ensuring that they enjoyed what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving this award helps me to think about doing the same thing,\u201d he adds. \u201cI want to be a teacher that helps students out and is always there to help with any problems or in improving themselves. I want to be a role model for the students in school and in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he also felt a special connection with Pichette after realizing that she had worked at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Willimantic prior to her time at UConn; Organista is a lifelong resident of Willimantic.<\/p>\n

\"Honors
Luis Organista \u201914 (CAHNR), second from right, is the first student recipient of the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund. He will begin as a Neag School TCPCG student this May. He was honored at the April 20 Honors Celebration at Jorgensen Center, where he met members of the Pichette family as well as\u00a0Dean Richard Schwab (third from right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018All Thanks to Her\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The scholarship will be formally presented to Organista at the\u00a0Neag School\u2019s annual Honors Celebration on April 20<\/a>, where he will have the opportunity to meet members of Pichette\u2019s family. Organista says he is eager to learn more about Pichette and to express his gratitude to her family members: \u201cI hope that they maybe will follow me in my career and see where I head so that they can see the potential that I\u2019ve reached \u2013 and that\u2019s all thanks to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organista also has been named the recipient of two other scholarship awards \u2014 the Husky Teach Noyce Scholarship, which is funded by the National Science Foundation to help support science, technology, engineering, and math education in the U.S., and the Neag School of Education Graduate Fellowship, awarded to graduate students with strong academic performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like [Luis] is\u00a0the perfect candidate and what my mom would have wanted \u2014 especially with him going through TCPCG, a program that was close to my mom\u2019s heart. It\u2019s the cherry on top that he\u2019s from Willimantic, with our family having roots there,\u201d says Pichette\u2019s son Dan Pichette \u201904, \u201911, dean of students at the\u00a0Journalism and Media Academy Magnet School in Hartford, Conn.\u00a0\u201cThe idea that this scholarship will go on in perpetuity \u2014 we\u2019re overwhelmed and speechless by the amount of support everyone has given. It\u2019s\u00a0a testament to my mom and to how she impacted so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a wonderful example of how faculty and staff give \u2018Close to Home\u2019 in support and honor of our colleagues,\u201d says Heather McDonald, senior director of development at the UConn Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s a powerful statement to have more than 100 donations within six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foundation\u2019s staff played a major role in the swift and successful establishment of the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund, adds Dean Schwab, who worked closely with Pichette for many years at the Neag School. \u201cWe are very thankful to the Foundation team for their partnership in pulling all of the moving pieces together,\u201d he says. \u201cThe fact that this scholarship came together so quickly is a testament to all of those who knew and loved Val.\u201d<\/p>\n

To contribute to the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund, please visit\u00a0<\/em>s.uconn.edu\/pichette<\/em><\/a>. Learn more about additional scholarships and giving opportunities related to the Neag School\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>; or, contact Heather McDonald at\u00a0<\/em>hmcdonald@foundation.uconn.edu<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After more than $56,000 was raised for the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund from 117 donors, the Neag School will honor the scholarship\u2019s first student recipient, UConn alum and incoming TCPCG student Luis Organista \u201914 (CAHNR), later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"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":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1878],"class_list":["post-202572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 06:54:20","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\/202572","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202573,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202572\/revisions\/202573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202572"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=202572"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=202572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}