{"id":57962,"date":"2012-04-09T08:11:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T12:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=57962"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:14:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:14:20","slug":"class-of-2012-lucien-lafreniere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/04\/class-of-2012-lucien-lafreniere\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2012: Lucien Lafreniere"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the University counts down to Commencement, UConn Today is featuring some of this year’s outstanding graduating students, nominated by their academic school or college or another University program in which they participated. <\/em>For additional profiles of students in the Class of 2012, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Lucien<\/a>
Lucien Lafreniere '12 (CLAS).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lucien Lafreniere \u201912 (CLAS) could easily have been forgiven for taking a long break to regroup mentally and emotionally after completing four years as an active duty U.S. Marine, including in heavy combat in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Instead, the 26-year-old Bethlehem native came home and jumped wholeheartedly into an academic career at the University of Connecticut\u2019s Waterbury campus. That four-year journey is culminating in his graduation with a 4.0 average and a long record of accolades, academic awards, and volunteer achievements to his credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discipline I learned in the Marines really helped me as a college student. I brought that same approach to my education: When there\u2019s something you need to do, it will be done, no questions or excuses,\u201d says Lafreniere, a four-time Babbidge Scholar and a finalist last year for a prestigious national Harry S. Truman Scholarship.<\/p>\n

Lafreniere, who lives in Prospect, is set to receive a bachelor\u2019s degree in history and American Studies from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He plans to teach in an urban Connecticut school through the Teach for America program and pursue a master\u2019s degree in education, anticipating a career of teaching either in K-12 schools or at a college or university.<\/p>\n

His instructors and fellow students hold Lafreniere in such high regard that he was selected as the student representative speaker at the annual Scholars Day Ceremony in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody who meets him relates so well to him,\u201d says William Pizzuto, director of UConn\u2019s Waterbury campus. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those people who give 120 percent to everything he\u2019s involved in. He\u2019s just a really solid, good guy and we\u2019re all really proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to attending classes in Waterbury, Lafreniere has worked at the campus bookstore, on its information desk, and at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. He\u2019s also the married father of a toddler, a frequent guest speaker at veterans\u2019 forums statewide, and member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Alpha Theta honor societies.<\/p>\n

Lafreniere, a 2003 graduate of Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, always admired the military while growing up and says he enlisted because he thought the experience would help mold his character and teach him responsibility.<\/p>\n

The infantryman served in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he lost several friends in combat and also temporarily lost his hearing and developed tinnitus after a bomb exploded in front of his military Humvee. He rose over time to the rank of sergeant and, when he finished his stint in 2007, returned to the U.S. with plans to start college \u2013 and, along the way, to help veterans who needed psychological, academic, and other services.<\/p>\n

Attending UConn was always his plan, he says, and he didn\u2019t even apply to any other schools. He\u2019s never regretted his choice, calling the Waterbury campus \u201cone huge family where you know everyone and you can learn from incredibly intelligent people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I thought of college, I always thought only of UConn,\u201d he says. \u201cNo other option even occurred to me. UConn is<\/em> Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucien Lafreniere ’12 (CLAS) previously served four years in the U.S. Marines. Now he is completing another four-year journey, as an outstanding scholar at the Waterbury campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":57956,"comment_status":"open","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":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[124],"class_list":["post-57962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 13:05:39","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\/57962","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\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58224,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57962\/revisions\/58224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/57956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57962"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=57962"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=57962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}