![\"Symone](\"http:\/\/media.education.uconn.edu\/aurora\/neag\/2015\/09\/DSC_7177.jpg\")
<\/a>She says James was specifically chosen for her energy, intelligence, and motivation in the IB\/M program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis scholarship will financially assist one person to reach [his or] her educational goals. However, that one person will ultimately educate hundreds of others,\u201d she says. \u201cThat seems like a pretty good return on an investment to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firsthand Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n For James, an elementary education major from West Haven, Conn., becoming a teacher is not a newfound dream. Throughout her childhood, James\u2019 parents \u2013 both emigrants from Jamaica \u2013 emphasized the importance of education because it was something they never got to pursue to the extent they desired.\u00a0<\/strong>James\u2019 mother, a certified nursing assistant, came to the United States at age 11 and began working to escape an abusive household. Her father, a skilled machinist, worked hard to put himself through college, but didn\u2019t quite finish.<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents lived their education through me and my sister,\u201d James says. Her 24-year-old sister, Brittney, a graduate of Pace University, now works as a program teacher at a community center in Queens, N.Y.<\/p>\n Her Jamaican heritage, James says, is something that she is conscious of when she envisions herself as an educator. Thanks to the IB\/M program, she says she understands what being a teacher of color means for herself and for her students, as she has been an integral part of class discussions regarding the demand for more classroom diversity.<\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite aspect of the [IB\/M] program is in the ways it has helped to foster my own personal growth and self-reflection,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Experiencing her parents\u2019 desire for their children to have a quality education made James want to become a teacher herself. She wants to work with schoolchildren in kindergarten through second grade, where she thinks she can have the greatest impact on her students\u2019 learning and development.<\/p>\n For James, learning how to connect effectively with children at varying stages of behavioral and intellectual development began even before she joined the Neag School\u2019s IB\/M program. As a freshman, James joined Husky Sport, a Neag School service learning program that teaches schoolchildren in Hartford about nutrition and life skills through active games and sports.<\/p>\n Students in the program are from the city\u2019s North End, a community that faces economic disparities. But James didn\u2019t enter the program with the mindset of \u201csaving\u201d these students \u2013 she just wanted to build a positive relationship with them.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t go in with preconceived notions that you\u2019re going to help somebody. It interferes with your level of interaction,\u201d James says. \u201cJust get to know them for them, and you\u2019ll end up impacting their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n James remembers a day when her task was to teach a sixth-grader to score a goal in a game of soccer. The kicker? The student was autistic and unable to speak. Over and over again, James demonstrated how to kick the ball and direct it toward the goal. She recalls the moment when the student finally scored as one of her proudest career memories.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so gratifying when you can break across that barrier and get a student to have an \u2018aha\u2019 moment, especially when they can\u2019t speak,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Later, through her student teaching experience in the IB\/M program, James had additional opportunities to see what other sorts of language and cultural barriers students might face in the classroom. The level of cultural diversity at both Bowers Elementary in Manchester and W.B. Sweeney Elementary in Windham, where James served as a student teacher, challenged her to further consider how she might best serve students from many different backgrounds. For instance, many of the first-graders at Sweeney with whom James worked spoke English as a second language. Meanwhile, at Bowers, some of the fourth-graders James encountered while student teaching would come to school tired and hungry, having not had breakfast.<\/p>\n Beyond Teaching<\/strong><\/p>\n Aside from her teaching endeavors, James is the president of Nubian Foxes, a Caribbean and African dancing group at UConn, and also works for the African-American Cultural Center and Leadership in Diversity, a program that supports minority students on campus.<\/p>\n As a Jamaican-American, she finds it important to be involved in programs supporting minority students. Her involvement extends to the classroom, too, where she says she feels a certain level of pressure to share her views with the class, especially if minority students are underrepresented.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a minority student, there\u2019s a spotlight on you when you\u2019re discussing diversity and social issues in class,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel it\u2019s my duty to share my perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a perspective that James knows will also ultimately be valuable when it comes to teaching young children. She says she makes it her priority to get to know all of the children with whom she works so that she can identify with each one.<\/p>\n That is exactly what she did during her time in Husky Sport with one sixth-grader who had behavioral issues, and faced problems at home. James approached the child with her seemingly simple approach \u2013 to just try talking to her. It didn\u2019t take long for James to discover the child had a passion for hair styling. A connection was formed. The student opened up, coming to depend on James for a listening ear and a helping hand.<\/p>\n \u201cA teacher really can be that one person for students, that one person who can support them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Not only does James plan on impacting children\u2019s lives, but she also hopes to one day be able to support aspiring educators such as herself.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Degnans\u2019 kindness reminds me that in the future,\u201d she says, \u201cI, too, have a responsibility to help those who come behind me to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThis scholarship will financially assist one person to reach [his or] her educational goals. However, that one person will ultimately educate hundreds of others.\u00a0That seems like a pretty good return on an investment to us.\u201d<\/h3>\n
\u2013 Beth Degnan \u201987 (CLAS), on why she and her husband,
\nJames \u201987 (CLAS),\u00a0established\u00a0the Degnan Family Scholarship<\/em><\/h3>\n