{"id":206037,"date":"2013-03-29T08:57:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T12:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206037"},"modified":"2023-10-23T08:59:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T12:59:21","slug":"grateful-alumna-who-believes-in-the-power-of-public-universities-gives-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/03\/grateful-alumna-who-believes-in-the-power-of-public-universities-gives-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Grateful: Alumna who believes in the power of public universities gives back"},"content":{"rendered":"

When 81-year-old Yvonne Condell entered the\u00a0University of Connecticut\u00a0<\/a>in 1956 to begin work toward a master\u2019s of Education, African-Americans like her \u201cweren\u2019t welcome everywhere.\u201d Despite what then were improved U.S. civil rights laws and changing attitudes, segregation still existed in many restaurants, parks and schools, but not at UConn, Condell asserted.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the first day, my experience was nothing but wonderful,\u201d said Condell, who after completing her master\u2019s in 1958 spent four additional years at UConn, first teaching there and then earning a doctorate in education with a concentration in biology. \u201cI earned my bachelor\u2019s degree at Florida A&M and knew I wanted to also do my graduate work at a public university, where the student body would be diverse, the atmosphere dynamic, and I felt sure would be an opportunity to learn about not just my interests, but myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn was ideal, she said, because it was large enough to offer a broad range of educational and social experiences, but small enough to ensure that her professors not just knew her name, but had a desire to help her achieve her dreams: \u201cThe Storrs campus is also just so picturesque. But most importantly, I received a high-quality education from professors who were truly interested in helping me succeed. Looking back, I think of how fortunate I was to choose UConn, and how fortunate students are to have UConn as an option today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a top school when I attended, and it\u2019s even more of a top school now,\u201d Condell continued, referring to UConn\u2019s many national rankings, which include the\u00a0Neag School of Education<\/a>\u00a0being chosen as the\u00a0No. 28 graduate school of education in the nation and No. 17 among all public graduate schools<\/a>\u00a0of education in the nation according to the\u00a0U.S. News & World Report.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Neag School of Education also houses the nation\u2019s No. 1 doctoral program in kinesiology, as ranked by the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who\u2019ve benefitted from receiving the kind of quality, affordable education UConn provides have an obligation to make sure that public universities not just continue to exist, but that they provide even better opportunities to the next generation,\u201d Condell said.<\/p>\n

Toward this end, Condell has made a point of giving to UConn for each of the past 27 years, becoming one of the school\u2019s most faithful and generous donors.<\/p>\n

Her belief in public education\u2014coupled with a desire to be the kind of passionate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic professor she worked with at UConn\u2014also led her to spend 30 of her 40 years as a life science and biology teacher at the public Minnesota State University, Moorhead. She retired in 1995.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too long ago, I looked back at my life and realized that from age 4 to 63, I was always in school, either as a student or teacher,\u201d Condell laughed. \u201cBut it was at UConn that I learned the most, because there I saw what it takes to be a great teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, at various places, I\u2019ve met a lot of Ph.D. students, from a lot of different universities, who knew everything about their subject area, but nothing about what it takes to teach it. They didn\u2019t get the kind of wisdom, attention and care that I got at UConn, where the professors teach by example. Being a professor is about more than knowing what to teach. It\u2019s about knowing how to teach. It\u2019s about being reliable, dependable and caring. It\u2019s about being an exemplar for the practices and values you believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, giving\u2014of time and finances, when possible\u2014are among the practices and values she strives to live by, and that she encourages others to consider as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cState budget cuts have put many public universities throughout the United States in very difficult straits, which means that other ways of raising funds are needed, especially if we want to make sure our flagship universities stay great and become even greater,\u201d said Condell, adding that she gets excited each time she sees UConn earn a new title or ranking, such as its recent listing in\u00a0Kiplinger\u2019s Personal Finance<\/i>\u00a0as one of the 25 best values in public colleges in the U.S., and its election into Universitas 21, an international network made up of the leading research-intensive universities from 16 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice, equality and fairness come from education, and without public universities, many people wouldn\u2019t have educations today,\u201d Condell said. \u201cPublic universities play a vital role in our world, and it\u2019s the responsibility of all of us who benefitted from them to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When 81-year-old Yvonne Condell entered the\u00a0University of Connecticut\u00a0in 1956 to begin work toward a master\u2019s of Education, African-Americans like her \u201cweren\u2019t welcome everywhere.\u201d Despite what then were improved U.S. civil rights laws and changing attitudes, segregation still existed in many restaurants, parks and schools, but not at UConn, Condell asserted. \u201cFrom the first day, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":206038,"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":[147,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-206037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 08:09:59","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\/206037","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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206040,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206037\/revisions\/206040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206037"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206037"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}