The Neag School of Education recognized graduates from the Class of 2012 during two ceremonies the weekend of May 5-6. The Neag School undergraduate and sixth-year commencement took place at the Jorgensen Auditorium on Sunday, May 6. Commencement for Neag School graduate students took place on Saturday, May 5, at Gampel Pavilion.<\/p>\n
The Graduate School commencement speaker on Saturday was Robert Gallo, who discovered that the HIV antivirus\u00a0is the cause of AIDS. Gallo is founding director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He previously spent 30 years at the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Cancer Institute, where he was head of its Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology.<\/p>\n
The undergraduate and sixth-year ceremony on Sunday featured commencement guest speaker Stefan Pryor, Connecticut\u2019s Commissioner of Education. Before becoming the youngest leader to fill the state\u2019s most influential educational leadership role, he had already made a name for himself as founder of one of Connecticut\u2019s most successful charter schools, the Amistad Academy in New Haven. Pryor is also former deputy mayor for Economic Development in the City of Newark, N.J., and a past president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the post-September 11th<\/sup>\u00a0rebuilding agency.<\/p>\n Dean Thomas DeFranco provided insight into Commissioner Pryor\u2019s responsibilities by giving an unofficial job description that included \u201coverseeing around 567,000 K-12 students, approximately 48,000 teachers across 1179 K-12 schools, 18 charter schools and 17 technical high schools in 166 districts. Qualified candidates must have experience with low-performing schools and districts. In addition, this educational leader must be intelligent, dynamic, courageous and politically savvy and will need to work cooperatively with a diverse group of stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFinally,\u201d the dean continued, \u201cthe applicant must dress appropriately. (He must wear) a cape, blue tights with a big \u2018S\u2019 across the chest.\u201d<\/p>\n Dean DeFranco acknowledged that while that was not exactly how the official posting for the commissioner\u2019s position read, a person with all those qualifications was selected and \u201cnow we are honored to have him as Neag School\u2019s commencement speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n DeFranco also talked about the challenges Commissioner Pryor will face. \u201cOn a national level, the most serious challenge involves student achievement and the achievement gap.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, there has been little progress in narrowing the achievement gap \u2026 and this is of particular concern in Connecticut. I believe that closing the achievement gap is both an economic and moral imperative for the future of our state, as well as the children of Connecticut,\u201d he said. \u201cClosing the gap will take strong leadership and a commitment to working collaboratively with stakeholders across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n Dean DeFranco offered the following question, \u201cIs Stefan up for the challenge?\u201d He went on to describe him as a collaborator, skilled consensus builder, strong communicator, highly intelligent, outcome-oriented and respectful of people and their opinions \u2013 all the qualities needed to close the achievement gap and improve the academic performance and well-being of Connecticut\u2019s children.<\/p>\n After this introduction, Commissioner Pryor welcomed the audience and enthusiastically started his commencement message.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, Connecticut is in the midst of a conversation about how best to revitalize its schools,\u201d he began. \u201cThis is a debate about how best to support and empower you \u2013 the rising leaders of our classrooms and school buildings. Our educators are our society\u2019s greatest assets as we seek to better the world we live in.<\/p>\n \u201cSo in addition to saying congratulations, let me say thank you \u2013 for choosing a calling so noble, and so essential, to the future of our state and our country,\u201d he continued. \u201cAs the child of two public school teachers, I stand here in deep gratitude for your commitment to serving the next generation of schoolchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n He offered words of support and advice for the graduates as they chart their careers. He suggested they take note of the gravity of the situation before them; that they embrace it as a mandate for change. He also compared his experiences with witnessing disasters like 9\/11 to the disastrous educational conditions in Connecticut \u2014 and how these conditions can be used to mobilize great people to achieve great things.<\/p>\n \u201cOur state is home to the nation\u2019s largest achievement gap between rich and poor, and between white students and students of color,\u201d he continued, urging graduates to consider dedicating themselves to serving students in greatest need \u2013 helping them beat the odds \u2013 as a way to maximize both their impact and own sense of professional satisfaction.<\/p>\n He encouraged the next generation of educator-leaders to redefine education reform to what it should be: \u201ca good-faith search for strategies that put educators in the best possible position to transform students\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Commissioner Pryor ended with the promise that \u201cif we work together, we can make Connecticut a national model for closing the achievement gap and creative academic excellence for all.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to Commissioner Pryor\u2019s speech, but before the more than 280 graduates received their diplomas, the platform party was introduced and the Neag Alumni Society President offered a welcome. In addition, four faculty members were recognized with university-wide honors: University Teaching Fellows, Dr. Doug Kaufman and Dr. Catherine Little; University Teaching Scholar, Dr. Renee Roselle; and the Letitia Neag Morgan Endowed Chair for Educational Psychology, Dr. Sally Reis.<\/p>\n After both commencement ceremonies, graduates, family and friends were treated to receptions at the Gentry Building, offering a time for celebration and reflection.<\/p>\n For a slideshow from May 5,\u00a0visit here<\/a>. For a slideshow from May 6,\u00a0visit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Neag School of Education recognized graduates from the Class of 2012 during two ceremonies the weekend of May 5-6. The Neag School undergraduate and sixth-year commencement took place at the Jorgensen Auditorium on Sunday, May 6. Commencement for Neag School graduate students took place on Saturday, May 5, at Gampel Pavilion. The Graduate School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":206629,"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":[2455],"class_list":["post-206628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 16:42:02","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\/206628","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=206628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206630,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206628\/revisions\/206630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206628"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206628"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}