{"id":9057,"date":"2010-01-18T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=9057"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:42:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:42:39","slug":"student-looks-to-help-others-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/01\/student-looks-to-help-others-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Looks to Help Others in Need"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Student<\/a>
Student Bryan Banville, a senior. Photo by Peter Morenus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time Bryan Banville \u201910 (CLAS) arrived at UConn, he had already established a record of community service. He had traveled to Costa Rica to work in a program centered on protecting turtles, was a founding member of his high school\u2019s Habitat for Humanity chapter, had volunteered for the Red Cross and Special Olympics, and had organized a trip to Belize for 17 other students interested in studying marine biology and rain forest botany.<\/p>\n

At UConn, Banville\u2019s passion to serve the community continued. As a freshman, he participated in Alternative Break, spending a week in Philadelphia working with children with cerebral palsy as well as with people who were terminally ill. There, he and his group of fellow volunteers contributed nearly 700 hours working with the Shriners and the Ronald McDonald house.<\/p>\n

Banville has since led a health care-focused Alternative Break to a South Dakota Indian reservation<\/a>, as well as a trip to Indiana to assist the disabled. Now a coordinator for all Alternative Break student leaders at UConn, he ensures that each trip fulfills a three-dimensional mission: providing direct service, learning, and encouraging students to reflect on the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I enrolled at UConn, one of my high school biology teachers was encouraging me to become a doctor,\u201d he says. \u201cWith UConn\u2019s Alternative Break program, I realized there are other areas of medicine I\u2019d enjoy more than being a physician, like nursing or physical therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m focused on helping others develop by giving them the opportunity to volunteer,\u201d adds Banville, who chairs the Community Outreach Student Executive Board, which advises UConn staff and sets policy for student leaders. He also participates in the University\u2019s Leadership Legacy Experience, which helps prepare student leaders for a life of commitment and contribution beyond graduation.<\/p>\n

After completing his bachelor\u2019s degree in physiology and neurobiology, Banville says he hopes to gain real-world experience working in either the social sciences or non-profit arena before pursuing a graduate degree in the health field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Bryan Banville enjoys serving the community and giving others the opportunity to volunteer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-9057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-27 13:12:13","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\/9057","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37517,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057\/revisions\/37517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9057"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=9057"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}