{"id":97948,"date":"2014-11-06T08:54:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T13:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=97948"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:07:50","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:07:50","slug":"molly-rockett-15-clas-making-her-voice-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/11\/molly-rockett-15-clas-making-her-voice-heard\/","title":{"rendered":"Molly Rockett ’15 (CLAS): Making Her Voice Heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published in the Fall 2014 print edition of\u00a0<\/em>UConn Magazine<\/a>. To read more stories like this, visit\u00a0s.uconn.edu\/fall14<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/a> or download\u00a0<\/a><\/em>UConn Magazine\u2019s<\/a> free app<\/a>\u00a0for iPads.<\/em><\/p>\n

Targeted by bullies throughout her middle school years for her sexual orientation, Molly Rockett \u201915 (CLAS) says she was left feeling \u201ctrapped and powerless\u201d at the age of 13. She\u00a0 started contacting her legislators, urging them to take action on LGBT rights \u2014 and when one state senator replied with a handwritten note, Rockett says she was stunned by the\u00a0 response. \u201cHer unexpected validation imparted an idea,\u201d she says. \u201cWith courage and a little initiative, I can be heard by my government; I can have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Senior<\/a>
Senior Molly Rockett \u201915 (CLAS) reconnects with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney \u201978 JD, for whom she previously interned. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now a UConn political science major, an Honors student, a New England Scholar, and a 2014 University Scholar \u2014 UConn\u2019s highest academic distinction \u2014 Rockett has developed a deep commitment to political engagement. Called a \u201cdynamo\u201d with \u201csuccess written all over her\u201d by professors and mentors alike, she has not stopped accumulating knowledge, accolades, and real-world experience in the political arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Molly was in the office, we were working on the Stafford Student Loan issue, and protecting student loan rates from doubling. \u2026 This wasn\u2019t a theoretical issue; she was making a difference in the lives of students dealing with student debt. Fifteen million students were impacted.” \u2014U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney \u201978 JD<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Serving as an intern in the Washington, D.C., offices of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal as well as that of UConn alum U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney \u201978 JD, Rockett has also excelled as a research assistant and student leader. This past year, she became the fifth student in the University\u2019s history to receive the highly prestigious Truman Scholarship, which provides recipients dedicated to careers in public service with up to $30,000 for graduate studies \u2014 and which Rockett hopes to use in pursuing a law degree after graduating from UConn this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany college students, I found, are too discouraged or apathetic to have any concept of how powerful their voices could be in the political arena,\u201d she says. \u201cMy mission is to show people the magnitude of their own personal power in the political system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The target of bullies throughout her adolescence, Molly Rockett \u201915 (CLAS) found a way to turn her feelings of powerlessness into a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":98466,"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":[1715,156,2306,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[49],"class_list":["post-97948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-profile","category-uconn-voices","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 21:48:57","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\/97948","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97948"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200691,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948\/revisions\/200691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/98466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97948"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=97948"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=97948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}