{"id":220463,"date":"2024-10-25T15:13:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T19:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=220463"},"modified":"2024-11-07T12:19:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:19:43","slug":"student-scholars-recognized-by-uconn-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/10\/student-scholars-recognized-by-uconn-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Scholars Recognized by UConn Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Student success and the limitless potential of UConn College of Engineering (CoE) pupils were at the heart of a celebratory Undergraduate Scholarship Awards Reception held Thursday night at the UConn Alumni Center.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Donors, industry partners, faculty, and staff gathered to meet the 170+ students that received a scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Scholarships were made possible by community donors, emeritus faculty, industry representatives, and more.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cScholarships like these reduce the need for our students to work off-campus, or pursue work study positions,\u201d says Dean of Undergraduate Education Daniel Burkey. \u201cThey can fully focus on their studies, taking advantage of all UConn Engineering has to offer.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Donors had the opportunity to meet the new UConn Engineering dean.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cYour critical scholarships enable us to attract and retain bright minds, and enrich our community with diverse perspectives and innovative ideas,\u201d says JC Zhao. \u201cIt not only strengthens our college, but also impowers us to create a world filled with possibilities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Zhao shared his personal experiences with the transformative possibilities of education. He spent the first 10 years of his life living in a small village in China with no electricity.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_220969\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220969\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-220969 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"UConn Engineering undergraduate scholarship recipients\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54107804453_973c29cafb_o-997x665.jpg 997w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 600\/400;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220969\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">170+ engineering students earned scholarships.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cMy education gave me opportunities I never dreamed of,\u201d Zhao said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">He now holds three materials science and engineering degrees.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Students Lexi Fazzino and Charley Ma, both mechanical engineering majors, also spoke about the impact of these scholarships.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Fazzino explained her long-term interest in automotives, starting as a 3-year-old watching Jeep Wranglers driving past her house.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cFor someone who spent most of their life believing they could never be in the automotive industry, I really do believe we are all so much more than we think we are,\u201d Fazzino said. \u201cI think I speak for everyone here, but I am beyond grateful for everything UConn has given me.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Fazzino earned the Robert Jeffers Memorial Fund scholarship and the Pratt &amp; Whitney Scholarship in Engineering.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This year\u2019s event was a more casual affair, complete with a UConn Dairy Bar sundae bar and a networking bingo card for the students to connect with each other, donors, faculty, and staff.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">A full list of the 2024 scholarship awardees is available <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/undergrad.engr.uconn.edu\/current-students-activities-organizations\/scholarships\/2024-scholarship-recipients\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">online.<\/span><\/a><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\"> More photos of the event <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/uconnengineering\/albums\/72177720321619925\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are also available.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>170+ undergraduate engineering students recently supported by industry, alumni, and friends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":220970,"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":[1866],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2445],"class_list":["post-220463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:18:27","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\/220463","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\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220973,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220463\/revisions\/220973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/220970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220463"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=220463"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=220463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}