Evangelista was a member of Public Heath House during his first two years at UConn, and then became a student leader of that group as he entered his junior year. He passed away in a drowning accident during the summer of 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndry had this old, quiet spirit, and when he spoke he had amazing things to say \u2013 even as a first-semester freshman,\u201d says Jaci VanHeest, an associate professor of educational psychology and the faculty director of Public Health House since 2010.\u00a0 \u201cI always thought that this young man was going to go such a long way, because he had a gift of empathy. I think he learned a lot of life lessons early, and his peers truly gravitated to him as someone who was an outstanding friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after his passing, a memorial bench was dedicated to Evangelista at the Werth Tower, but the students of Public Health House wanted to do more. They came up with the concept of a garden, because of Evangelista\u2019s love of the outdoors, and because there were already garden beds outside of Werth Tower. Student leader Alexa Sanson \u201922 (CLAS) represented Public Health House in advocating for the project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Learning Community program has a history of engaging with campus gardening projects which helped inform who we approached to partner with us on this idea,\u201d says Melissa Foreman, the director of learning communities at UConn, who coordinated a campus-wide effort to make the garden a reality. \u201cEcoHouse students helped with the installation of UConn\u2019s first green roof on the Gant Science Complex plaza. We collaborated with Residential Life and Dining Services to launch Spring Valley Student Farm, an extension of EcoHouse.\u201d<\/p>\n Landscape architecture student and EcoHouse founding class member Tanner Burgdorf \u201913 (CAHNR) designed and installed of a permaculture knot garden, which is still in existence in front of Whitney Hall.<\/p>\n Foreman worked with Sohyun Park, an assistant professor in plant science and landscape architecture, and a contest was developed for students to design the garden in Evangelista\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Park\u2019s class works with clients to put landscape designs together, and we were the client,\u201d says Foreman. \u201cStudents who knew Andry joined me and Dr. VanHeest, and we presented Andry\u2019s story to the landscape architecture class. Peter Newman of Newman Architects, who had recently won a national award for a peace garden design, also joined to share expertise with students. They put together designs for a garden that would best commemorate Andry based on what his friends shared about his personal interests \u2013 his favorite colors and what he was passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n Two winning designs, created by students Tara Sweeney \u201924 (CAHNR) and Brian Garzon \u201924 (CAHNR), were selected. The students and staff of UConn\u2019s Spring Valley Student Farm, under farm manager Jessica Larkin-Wells, then went to work and selected a plant vendor and managed installation of the garden.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Andry would have been thrilled to know that a group of students were asked to develop a design for a garden to remember him,\u201d says VanHeest. \u201cThat is what we are all about \u2013 education. He made an impact on these young landscape architecture students. They learned how you manage the essence of what people told them about this young man.\u201d<\/p>\n Foreman also credits University Landscape Architect Sean Vasington and Landscaping Manager Wes Ayers in supporting the project, sharing expertise, and preparing the beds for planting of the garden.<\/p>\n \u201cAndry was this amazing young man,\u201d says Foreman. \u201cHe was always present and was coming out of his shell. He volunteered to be a speaker at a spring Learning Community tradition, LC Talks, a TED Talk-like event, delivering an impactful speech entitled ‘Erasing the Lines of Introvert and Extrovert.’ Every time I would pass him going up and down the hill to Werth Tower, he would always smile and greet me. He was lovely young person.\u201d<\/p>\n VanHeest says the location of the garden is perfect: not only was Evangelista a resident of the Werth Tower, but the garden also overlooks the track at the Sherman Family Sports Complex. Evangelista was an avid runner.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in death, Andry has become someone who is really integral to who we are as a learning community,\u201d says VanHeest. \u201cHe was a leader, a great friend, and he challenged himself to take risks. All those things are the essence of a learning community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The garden was a collaborative effort between various members of the University community, including students and faculty of Public Health House and the landscape architecture program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":202963,"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":[147,2224,2303,99,2235,2225,2458,2234,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2113],"class_list":["post-202951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-cahnr","category-plant-science-landscape-architecture","category-student-life","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-undergraduates","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":"2026-06-01 17:55:38","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\/202951","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\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202951"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202964,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202951\/revisions\/202964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/202963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202951"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=202951"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=202951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/080723-EvangelistaMemorialGardenInstallation-7-1024x683.jpg\")
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