UCONNMAGAZINE - UConn Magazine

UCONN M AGAZINE

 SUMMER 2021

 finally!
 They commenced.
 The classes of 2020
 and 2021 gathered at
 The Rent and made
 UConn history.

In This Issue:

FEEDING THE WORLD TURNING YOUR BECOMING THE FIRST
AND WINNING THE CHILDHOOD OBSESSION BLACK AMERICAN TO CLIMB
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE INTO A HIT PODCAST THE SEVEN SUMMITS

 SUMMER 2021

SNAP!

 Husky Home Base
 The new Husky Athletic Village and Rizza Performance Center includes from
 right: Elliot Ballpark, home of UConn baseball; Joseph J. Morrone Stadium,
 home of UConn soccer and lacrosse; Burrill Family Field, home of UConn
 softball; and shared practice fields. All were in good use this spring, along
 with indoor facilities, as pandemic rescheduling meant that all 18 UConn
 sports were actively practicing at the same time.

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021

CONTENTS | SUMMER 2021 SUMMER 2021 | CONTENTS

 UConn Magazine FROM THE EDITOR

 VOL. 22 NO. 2
 UConn Magazine is produced three times
 a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall) by
 University Communications, University
 of Connecticut.

 Editor Lisa Stiepock
 Art Director Christa Yung
 Photographer Peter Morenus
 Class Notes Grace Merritt
 Copy Editors Gregory Lauzon, Elizabeth
 Omara-Otunnu
 Designers Yesenia Carrero, Christa Yung UConn Magazine’s art director Christa Yung with her Kirsten doll, circa
 2000 (left), and writer Julie Bartucca with her Samantha doll, circa 2021.
 University Communications
 16 20 24 30 Vice President for Communications
 Tysen Kendig
 Acting Vice President for ALL DOLLED UP
 Communications
 Michael Kirk The pictures above are testament to the truth behind the answer art director
 Associate Vice President for Creative Christa Yung gave me when I asked her why she was so excited to work with
 Strategy & Brand Management writer, colleague, and friend Julie Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), ’19 MBA on the
 FEATURES SECTIONS Patricia Fazio ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA American Girls podcast story that begins on page 26. “I know she has a deep
 nostalgic connection to American Girl dolls like I do — and Julie and I are simi-
 Correction In the Spring 2021 issue we lar in that we’re not embarrassed of our dorky pasts and our continued interest
 stated that Miguel Cardona ’01 MA, ’04 in history. To me, American Girl dolls
 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP was the first have always been about the historical
 16 FINALLY! 1 UConn alum to hold a Cabinet-level backstory, not just the doll.”
 They had waited long enough. UConn’s
 UCONN NOW position in the White House. He is the
 classes of 2020 and 2021 gathered in person Yung particularly loved her Kirsten
 UConn’s fire chief on first Secretary of Education, but the
 at The Rent for five days in May to celebrate second Cabinet member. doll for the Western frontier backstory
 what he’s reading; and
 endings and beginnings — together. that played out in corresponding Kirsten
 UConn Health’s EMS
 books about American pioneer life.
 director on what he’s Email: uconnmagazine@uconn.edu.
 Bartucca remembers reading about the
 20 UPHILL BATTLES writing; buzz on “Paige Letters to the editor:
 women’s suffrage movement in books
 Growing up in Jamaica, Rohan Freeman could Buckets;” a student lisa.stiepock@uconn.edu
 not have envisioned himself as an engineer, Address changes: UConn Foundation about Samantha, the early 1900’s–era
 fighting for Native
 re-creating the Hartford landscape. And Records Department, Unit 3206, doll she recalls getting for Christmas
 American rights; a
 he certainly could not have seen himself as 2390 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269 at age 8 or 9. “Reading these books,
 popular DNA class; an
 the first Black American to climb the Seven playing with the dolls, looking at the
 alum who’s perfecting the
 Summits. By Jackie Fitzpatrick Hennessey ’83 catalog time after time and circling what
 Moscow Mule; and more. Cover Sean Flynn, manipulated for fit
 (CLAS) I hoped to get, finding patterns for doll clothes that my Grammie could make
 Snap! Peter Morenus for me, and consuming the other tangential American Girl stuff was a big part
 Table of Contents Peter Morenus (2);
 of my childhood,” says Bartucca. As it turns out, her aunt Patrice (McCarthy)
 24 OUR AMERICAN GIRLS 36 Courtesy of American Girls podcast;
 Attolino ’87 (SFS) had saved Samantha from tag sale oblivion, knowing her
 What do you do with a history doctorate and UCONN NATION
 WFP Media; Aliza Eliazarov ’95 (CAHNR)
 From the Editor Courtesy of Christa niece might want to pass the doll on to the next generation. And none too soon.
 a pop culture obsession? If you’re these two The alum who’s the Yung and Julie Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), As we went to press, Bartucca was due to give birth to her first child in a matter
 alums, you create a hit podcast centered on longtime girlfriend of ’19 MBA of weeks. And just weeks before press time, Yung’s first child, Eugene Oliver
 ’90s nostalgia. By Julie Bartucca ’10 (BUS, The Grouch on “Sesame (above), came into the world, helped along by two graduates of the UConn
 CLAS), ’19 MBA Street;” an alum whose
 The University of Connecticut complies with all applicable federal
 and state laws regarding non-discrimination, equal opportunity and
 affirmative action and does not discriminate on the basis of race, School of Nursing.
 photos adorn new color, national origin, disability, sex, age or other legally protected
 characteristics in all programs and activities and supports all state Find a tribute to more of our nursing alums on page 40, and please don’t miss
 30 FARMS = FOOD = LIFE postage stamps; and so and federal laws that promote equal opportunity and prohibit dis-
 crimination, including the provision of reasonable accommodations the story Bartucca penned about the American Girl zeitgeist — it’s a great read
 When alum Steven Were Omamo sees someone many nurses to thank
 for persons with disabilities. To request an accommodation or for
 questions related to the University’s non-discrimination policies, whether you lived the trend like she did or never heard of the dolls before today.
 planting, he sees hope. The Nobel Peace Prize and admire. Plus Class
 please contact: Title IX Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity;
 241 Glenbrook Rd., Unit 4175; Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-

 Committee seems to agree. By Kevin Markey Notes, Tom’s Trivia, and
 2943; equity@uconn.edu (non-discrimination policies); ADA Case
 Manager, Department of Human Resources; 9 Walters Ave., Unit
 5075; Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-3034; hr@uconn.edu
 much more. (accommodation requests).

2 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 3

UCONN NOW

 ON CAMPUS
 LETTERS
 We want to hear from you — good, bad, just not ugly. Please share thoughts, insights, discrepan-
 cies, recollections, and how’s your Tom’s Trivia win-loss percentage coming? Post to our website UCONN HEALTH CEO SELECTED AS
 UNIVERSITY’S INTERIM PRESIDENT
 at magazine.uconn.edu, email me at lisa.stiepock@uconn.edu, or send by regular mail to
 UConn Magazine Letters, 34 N. Eagleville Rd., Storrs, CT 06268-3144.

 Here’s a letter sampling, edited for fit, from our last issue. Find more at magazine.uconn.edu. as a state,” Agwunobi says.
 “UConn also of course plays a vital
 role in fueling Connecticut’s economy
 Dee Rowe the game of basketball. His primary ➼ What a joy to read this narrative of and its workforce. And we know we are
 ➼ Thank you for your effort to keep objective in life was reaching out to Professor Marilyn (Waniek) Nelson. I not just graduating workers; we are
 UConn in contact with all alumni. This help people. He leaves behind that was just a bright-eyed kid when I en- graduating citizens, leaders, think-
 issue was particularly important to wonderful legacy. Rich Begen ’73 rolled in her class. I still have my jour- ers, and innovators of the future for
 me. Coming from Meriden, the article (CLAS), Boston, Massachusetts, via our nal and Marilyn’s critiques of some of Connecticut and beyond. Given these
 on Miguel Cardona was special. Even website my poems. When I wrote about a Nos- high stakes, all of us who are fortunate
 more important was the recognition tradamus quatrain that year, foretell- enough to be here are driven — and I
 you gave to my friend Dee Rowe. Do Good, Feel Good ing the “King of Terror,” she wrote an certainly am driven — to do all we can
 Ronald J. Meoni ’55 (BUS), Warwick, ➼ I always enjoy reading the UConn imaginary note to me from the future, to ensure the continued success of this
 Rhode Island, via e-mail Magazine. I must say I was really placed in New York City, saying how institution as we carry out its mission
 disappointed in the last edition. I am wonderful it is that we’re all still here. in Storrs, in Farmington, and on each
 amazed that you did not include a rep- of our regional campuses and beyond,”
 ➼ I second your motion noting Dee How wonderful indeed. Peace.
 he says.
 Rowe as one of the “Good People” at resentative from the nursing profes- Chester Dalzell ’83 (CLAS), New York,
 UConn. My dad was also a friend of sion in this “Do Good” edition. Nurses New York, via our website
 Dr. Andy
 Dee, and he was a key reason I am a have been heroes in this pandemic; ac-
 In his time as CEO of UConn Health,
 proud UConn graduate. colades have been offered throughout ➼ Richie Mutts is inspirational; he
 Agwunobi, colloquially known to many
 Greg Bartels ’82 (BUS), Tewksbury, the country for front line health care opens up his heart to let others dive in.
 as “Dr. Andy,” grew clinical revenue
 New Jersey, via e-mail workers, especially nurses. I’ve been We need more people like him.
 an average of 10 percent per year; led
 leading a hospice team through this Suzie Arildsen, via our website
 a comprehensive turnaround that
 ➼ I met Coach Rowe in the spring of pandemic; it’s been the most challeng-
 improved operational and financial
 1969; I was part of his first recruiting ing year of my long professional career. ➼ I’m even cute in cartoon form. performance by tens of millions of
 class. He was a good and decent man Maureen Groden ’90 MS, Southampton, Jonathan the Husky, Storrs, Connecti-
 dollars; and oversaw $800 million
 who loved his family, his players, and Massachusetts, via e-mail cut, via Instagram
 in construction. He also oversaw the

 Paul Horton
 successful implementation of the $100
 million Electronic Medical Record
 installation; partnered with deans in
 SOCIAL MEDIA hiring more than 60 new faculty per
 year for the past three years; and led
 Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, UConn Health’s ahead. He also pledged that other crit- the “One UConn” strategy at UConn
 CEO and a highly respected leader with ical missions under way at UConn will Health, centralizing shared functions
 strong medical, academic, and business continue unabated, such as creating across campuses.
 credentials, has been selected to serve a new long-term academic strategic “Anyone who has worked with him
 as UConn’s interim president after plan, growing research and innovation, or watched him guide that institution
 President Thomas Katsouleas an- expanding student access to mental forward, particularly through the last
 nounced he would step down on July 1. health care, affordability, and many 15 months of Covid, has seen a master
 A pediatrician by training who also others. class in leadership,” says chairman of
 holds an MBA, Agwunobi will be the “Having been here in Connecticut the UConn Board of Trustees, Daniel
 first physician and the first person of at UConn Health for several years, I Toscano. “He is bold when boldness is
 color to lead the University. know how much UConn means to the needed, cautious when caution is the
 After his appointment was an- people of this state and our faculty, wisest choice, and methodical in all
 nounced on May 19, Agwunobi said staff, students, and alumni everywhere. things.”
 that UConn’s most critical near-term For many, I know UConn is more than The University plans to undertake a
 Congrats to @uconntfxc @bigeast Honoring #UConn21 @UConn If you missed the announcement last priority is successfully reopening at just an educational institution or an search for President Katsouleas’ per-
 Men’s Champions and Women’s Runner HorsebarnHill week our building has reopened!! nearly full capacity this fall, and that employer, but an important part of manent replacement, but does not plan
 Up! #BleedBlue Thursday through Sunday 11am-7pm - while much has been accomplished to their lives and their personal histories. to start that process in the near term.
 welcome back Dairy Bar fans!! achieve that goal, much more work is It is fundamentally part of our identity —STEPHANIE REITZ
 shoutout to @fuelinghuskies
4 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 5

UCONN NOW

 CHECKING IN WITH

 DOUBLE JEOPARDY
 UConn Health EMS coordinator Peter Canning brings a unique perspective to opioids to survive. In time it is rewired.
 emergency care. When not overseeing pre-hospital services for the expansive You can take somebody who’s severely
 system, he serves as a paramedic himself with 25 years of experience in Hartford. addicted and do a brain scan, and you
 “Sometimes I’ll read a report and wonder why a paramedic did something a certain can see the damage. That’s why people
 way. And then I’ll be out there the next week and it’s like, ‘Okay, now I know.’ It’s a shoot up in front of their kids. That’s
 different level of understanding.” One other hat he wears is author. A graduate of why they steal in front of a policeman.
 the prestigious University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a former speechwriter To expect somebody whose brain is
 for U.S. Senator and Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker, Canning is the author damaged in this way to act rationally is
 of five books, most recently “Killing Season” from Johns Hopkins University Press. akin to expecting someone with a bro-
 Named an Amazon Editors’ Pick for nonfiction, it takes readers on a ride-along ken leg to run a hundred-yard dash. We
 through the street-level devastation of America’s opioid epidemic. need to have compassion and under-
 stand that this is a health problem not a
 How has the Covid pandemic affected me oxycodone; skateboard injury; fell criminal problem.
 your work? I didn’t realize how off a ladder. Just over and over.
 stressed I had been until I got vaccinat- You make it clear that you believe
 ed. One hard part in the beginning was One of the stories you tell involves a the criminal problem lies elsewhere.
 that we didn’t have very many masks. high school cheerleader. I got called If Purdue Pharma hadn’t pushed the
 We went out on calls and asked patients one day to a motor vehicle accident drugs, which they knew were addictive
 three questions: Do you have a fever? and found a car up against a pole. A and lied about, this army of people we
 Do you have a cough? Have you recent- young woman was slumped over the have living in tents and under bridges
 ly visited China? And if they said no, we steering column, but you could see that wouldn’t be there. There was always
 didn’t use a mask. Then we’d arrive in it hadn’t been a high-speed collision. heroin out there, but it was not like
 the ER and everybody’s in space suits. Then I spotted heroin paraphernalia this. It came into the mainstream when
 in the front seat. I was able to reverse pharmaceutical companies started
 Many people barely left home for the overdose with naloxone [Narcan], pushing oxycodone.
 groceries. But EMS had to be out in the and she came around. I asked her how
 streets in constant close contact with she started using. She said, “I broke my What can be done? The biggest thing is
 patients. It got a lot better once we had back cheerleading.” And I remembered just to get rid of the stigma around ad-
 more equipment. But I’m 6'8" and put- being there. I had taken the emergency diction. It does so much damage. When
 ting on the full body suits was like the call the day her squad dropped her. She I worked for Lowell Weicker, he always
 Incredible Hulk. One arm would rip off, ended up on heavy-duty opioids. After said that the mark of a great society is
 the other would tear away. But the PPE a while, her doctor cut her off, and she not how it treats its richest members,
 works. It has protected us. And being started buying prescription pills from but how it treats its most vulnerable.
 vaccinated is even better. a classmate. Then the same guy offered
 to sell her heroin, which is basically Masks and vaccines are making
 Meanwhile, a second epidemic con- the same thing only much cheaper. “I progress against Covid. What tools
 tinues to rage. In “Killing Season” you used to be a normal girl,” she told me. are being brought to bear against the
 write about how your view of opioid It wakes you up. I started learning as opioid crisis? Here at UConn Health
 users has shifted over your time on much as I could. I learned about how we’ve developed a great program
 the job. When I started as a paramedic drug companies marketed this stuff. I with the Connecticut Poison Control
 in 1995, we would see a certain number learned about the science of addiction, Center, where EMS now reports every
 of heroin overdoses. I couldn’t under- how some people are more susceptible overdose. We describe what happened
 stand how somebody could put into than others. at the scene, the drugs involved, where
 their body something that could kill the patient went. This has provided a
 them. Then the number of overdoses Susceptible in what way? If you love wealth of knowledge, and it wouldn’t
 began to visibly increase, and I started pizza and you eat a nice slice, it’s like have happened without UConn Health
 asking people what was going on. Why a firework of pleasure goes off in your understanding that the opioid epidem-
 are you doing this? The stories they told brain. What happens for some people ic is a major public health crisis that
 me were extremely similar: I was in- when they take opioids, rather than needs to be addressed. I’m very grateful
 jured in a car accident; I tore my shoul- one firework it’s the Fourth of July. The to the University of Connecticut.
 Peter Morenus

 UConn Health EMS coordinator Peter Canning’s latest book is
 der playing football and the doctor gave brain is hijacked into thinking you need —KEVIN MARKEY
 an Amazon Editors’ Pick in the Best Nonfiction category.

6 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 7

UCONN NOW

 3 BOOKS

 TRUTH, FANTASY, AND GETTING IN THE ZONE
 UConn’s fire chief, William Perez, likes his books on hard copy and audio. If he’s really enjoying
 a book, he will buy both versions. That way, the Puerto Rico native who grew up in Bridgeport,
 Connecticut, can listen while driving and turn pages while sitting on the porch. And, he says, the
 more senses you use to take in information, the longer and better you retain that information.
 That’s an expert opinion. A U.S. Navy veteran and 30-year firefighter and paramedic, Perez is
 also a professor — at Capital Community College in Hartford and the National Fire Academy in
 Emmitsburg, Maryland. And the first-generation college student now has four degrees, includ-
 ing doctor of education. His taste in reading material is as varied as his vocations.

 Just Finished: Reading Now: On Deck:
 “Proof of Heaven: “Flow-Based “The Bone Labyrinth,”
 A Neurosurgeon’s Leadership: What a Sigma Force novel
 Journey into the the Best Firefight- by James Rollins
 Afterlife” by Eben ers Can Teach You
 Alexander, MD about Leadership This one’s going to
 and Making Hard be great — fun and
 What a powerful Decisions” by relaxing. The author,
 book! A top neu- Judith L. Glick- James Rollins, is like
 rosurgeon with no Smith, Ph.D. Dan Brown.
 real belief in God contracts a rare form I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s books.
 of bacterial meningitis. He ends up in I met the author at a conference. She I like how Brown takes real history,
 a coma, with no brain activity. studied firefighters in the flow. Have real science, and then puts fantasy and
 When they’re ready to take him you ever been doing something — could science fiction into it. There’s lots of
 off the support systems, his little kid be making cupcakes or writing a book — research; he does his homework. This
 is talking to him, and he wakes up, when you just hit a rhythm, time stands guy Rollins does the same.
 sits up. He says he’s been dreaming still, what they call being in the zone or “The Bone Labyrinth” also gets
 of God, of angels, but the doctors say the flow? As a chief working a fire you pretty complicated. Just on the
 there’s no possibility he could have know that if you choose the wrong tac- first few pages you’ve got mountain
 had dreams. The explanations are very tic, path, you can kill your own people, climbing, Croatian folklore, geology,
 thorough, very scientific. let alone the people we’re there to save. meteorology, evolutionary anthropol-
 I don’t want to give everything away, The author talks about how to con- ogy, and historical tales of horror.
 but I’ve read hundreds of books, and trol that flow to make good decisions, I’m really looking forward to this
 this one really impacted me. then how to trigger it, and the last point one!

 Peter Morenus
 I haven’t gotten to yet is leadership.

 ON CAMPUS
 JOB ENVY

 CANNED MULE THE COLLEGE TOUR: UCONN
 ’Merican Mule, based in South Norwalk, made its beverage
 debut with its reinvention of the popular Moscow Mule Recent graduate Cydney-Alexis DeLaRosa ’21 (ENG) shoots their own. “One thing you will find about UConn,” she says,
 cocktail. Because it requires only a few ingredients — including a scene for “The College Tour” in the Learning Community “is that there are opportunities for everyone here no matter
 vodka, ginger beer, and lime juice — people mistakenly believe Innovation Zone at Peter J. Werth Residence Tower, known your major. I am a biomedical engineering student, yet I was
 it is simple to create, says company co-founder Dean Mahoney to students as a “makerspace.” DeLaRosa is one of 10 students selected to work in civil engineering and materials science
 ’09 (BUS). “It’s an easy drink to make, but a hard drink to make who talked with host Alex Boylan for the UConn episode of engineering labs after speaking with my professors.”
 as well,’’ he says. It’s in the nuances. Mahoney and his partners this popular series from the producers of “Survivor.” It will DeLaRosa tells prospective students about extracurricu-
 made, and tasted, more than 70 versions of the mule before begin streaming on Amazon Prime and Roku this summer. lars, too — about being on the board for SUBOG and UConn’s
 developing their final recipe. In her segment “Real-World Research,” the Albany, New chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, working
 They’ve since added Mexican, tropical, and southern ver- York, native speaks about attending a Research I institution as a teaching assistant and a campus tour guide, even singing
 sions, as well as an array of seasonal varieties. —CLAIRE HALL like UConn, where nearly every professor is doing research of the national anthem at basketball and volleyball games.

8 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Nathan Oldham; Illustration by Kyle Hilton SUMMER 2021 9

UCONN NOW

 Brown’s parents were quite surprised but people of certain backgrounds are At a recent class, a question posed to
 when she decided to go for an under- predisposed to certain conditions — guest speaker Mallory Perry, an acute
 graduate degree in science — they were why?” she asks. Genetics counselors pediatric nurse practitioner at the Chil-
 under the impression she was going to need to understand the nuances around dren’s Hospital of Philadelphia, quickly
 be a novelist. But somehow the science perceived race, risk, and predispo- pivoted to mainstream media’s recent
 bug bit. After trying out veterinary sition. And if genetics counselors all move toward capitalizing “Black” when
 work (allergies nixed that), dentistry come from the same background, referring to people’s ethnicity. Perry
 (she fainted at the first sight of blood), being taught by and with people who explained she prefers “Black” to “Afri-
 pharmacy (counting and sales contra- are the same as themselves, they can can American” because she has no idea
 indicated with her interests), she finally lack necessary perspective. They can where her lineage actually comes from; Brown’s classes are open to all. Attend-
 got a job in a cytology lab and found she also turn off clients who might benefit what matters is how she is perceived. ees change on any given day, but often
 was into it. Lab maintenance and the from testing but need a counselor who How we — and others — perceive our- include doctors, nurses, and program
 glass shards that stuck into her fingers shares their background in order to feel selves, and what our genetic variants directors from UConn Health and the
 did not deter her. comfortable. suggest about our background and our Jackson Laboratory, as well as professors
 Shortly after college, Brown scored a “We need not necessarily implement a health, can be very divergent things. and students from across the University.
 job in the cytogenetics lab at the SUNY new policy or a new political view, but we Genetics counselors need to navigate
 Upstate Medical Center (now Univer- need to address diversity,” Brown says. this with tact. of inclusion. One way any student or
 sity), and she found she had a thing for Another class activity involves professor can do that is to work on
 chromosomes. She accepted a teaching Brown’s Teaching Style: research questions designed to lead the their own institutions. So this year
 position in the Diagnostic Genetic Brown says she hasn’t “taught” a students on hunts to navigate genetic Brown’s students are interviewing peo-
 Sciences (DGS) program in UConn’s class in 20 years. She prefers to assign databases relevant to specific groups ple on campus, as well as members of
 School of Allied Health while pursuing readings and research to be done before of people. And this year in particular, UConn’s Institute for Systems Genom-
 her Ph.D., and ended up becoming the the class so the students can discuss it Brown is leading writing exercises to ics, in order to make a formal proposal
 program director. She has created two during class time. help the students develop their own for diversity and inclusion policies for
 graduate degrees at UConn (Health “Class is so much about in-person diversity statements. the Institute itself.
 Care Genetics and the Genetic and Ge- interactions, discussions, and ‘Judge “A Native American student, Yellow
 nomic Counseling Professional Science Judy’ debates,” Brown says. All of that Why We Want to Take It Ourselves: Bird Woman, made me more aware
 Masters), co-founded the UConn Chro- has been harder this year using the The word “diversity” is being thrown of the lack of diversity in genomics
 mosome Core, and most recently joined remote pandemic learning model, but around a lot these days. In Brown’s professionals,” Brown says. And she
 the School of Nursing in fall 2020. she’s adapted. The diversity topic de- class, students take a deep dive into decided to do something about it. When
 “The School of Nursing has an manded that she schedule guest speak- what diversity really means. And they you want to learn something, it’s always
 innovative, quick response to education ers, and she’s turned to her colleagues delve into how every one of us, no best to learn from someone who prac-
 — it’s been a delight,” Brown says. in nursing and genomics. matter our race, can further the cause tices what they preach. —KIM KRIEGER
 In response to the current social
 climate, Brown, a faculty member of
 COVETED CLASS
 the Institute for System Genomics,
 decided to offer a special-topics class OFF CAMPUS
 this year — ISG 5095: Diversity and
 ISG 5095: DIVERSITY AND Inclusion in Genetics. VAX ON WHEELS

 INCLUSION IN GENETICS Class Description:
 Genetics — especially our own, and the
 UConn Health made it easier for
 Connecticut residents to get vaccinated
 secrets we can learn with it about our this spring by partnering with FEMA
 The Instructor: Brown the project director. But there’s ancestors’ past and our medical future (the Federal Emergency Management
 Opera divas have nothing on Judy another side of Brown, too. Her exper- — have captivated the nation since Agency) to get mobile vaccine units into
 Brown ’98 MS, ’07 Ph.D. When she tise and passion come with a self-effac- 23andMe became the first company to nine communities identified as most in
 stands to talk, all eyes are upon her. ing humility and quiet thoughtfulness offer popular DNA testing for ancestry need of such services.
 She speaks with such passion for her that make her all the more effective as purposes in 2007. The availability of UConn medicine, dental medicine,
 subject and empathy for her listener, an instructor. medical genetic testing has also surged. pharmacy, nursing, and public health
 and so compellingly does she make her “I don’t think of myself as a teacher, But neither the people who donate the sciences students, as well as medical and
 points, that anyone who hears her may rather as a learner alongside others, genetic material most of our clinicians dental residents and physicians, volun-
 suddenly find themselves fascinated a facilitator of showing others how to rely on, nor the genetic counselors teered to staff the clinics. Here, fourth
 by the ethical implications of an extra learn and where to find information,” themselves, are very diverse. That lack year postgrad Angad Deengares and
 chromosome or variant gene. Brown says. “I dislike the term ‘lecture’ of diversity limits the usefulness of the professor and primary care physician
 That’s Judy Brown the instructor, as it reminds me of being a child and information, Brown says. Steven Angus help vaccinate residents
 Judy Brown the panel guest, Judy being reprimanded by a parent.” “If there’s no such thing as race, in Norwalk, Connecticut.

10 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Peter Morenus (2) SUMMER 2021 11

UCONN NOW

 KUDOS

 BUECKERS
 BUZZ
 Husky phenom Paige Bueckers, aka
 Paige Buckets, seemed to win every
 award out there this year, including
 AP Player of the Year ­— a first for a
 freshman in women’s college basketball
 history. UConn Nation took note.
 UConn Water Pollution
 Control Facility, Storrs “She’s the best player in basketball
 THIS JUST IN
 already for the simple fact that she
 can pass. She makes really hard pass-
 GOT MICROPLASTICS? MOLLUSKS TO THE RESCUE! es look really easy and she makes
 On a hot summer day in Connecticut, it’s common to go to a beachside restaurant, really easy passes look easy. That
 eat some fresh oysters and mussels, and enjoy the crashing of the waves against the alone sets her apart from every other
 sand. But for one group of UConn faculty, the plan is to skip the beach and the hors player in college.” Diana Taurasi ’05
 d’oeuvres and use those seafarers for another purpose — filtering the harmful micro- (CLAS), WNBA Phoenix Mercury
 plastics that end up back in our environment.
 It turns out that suspension-feeding bivalves, such as oysters, clams, and zebra “Some of her passes, it’s less about
 mussels, are remarkably efficient at filtering water, capturing on their gills particles the actual pass and more about the
 as small as four micrometers in size — that’s less than 1,000th of an inch. “They are fact that she saw it in the moment.
 That speaks to instinct.” Sue Bird ’02
 nature’s perfect filtering ‘machine,’” says marine sciences professor J. Evan Ward.
 (CLAS), WNBA Seattle Storm
 Over the next four years, the group — including associate dean Leslie Shor, chem-
 ical and biomolecular engineering professor Kelly Burke, molecular and cell biology
 “She has what it takes to be one of the
 professor Daniel Gage, civil and environmental engineering professor Baikun Li,
 great players at UConn, to be one of
 and Ward — will use a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s
 the great players in women’s college
 Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program to study the use of mus-
 basketball . . . The beauty with Paige
 sels, combined with microplastic-degrading bacteria, to filter microplastics from the
 is, there’s nothing she has to change
 discharge that flows back into our surface water from wastewater treatment plants.
 about who she is. She’s built for this.
 Microplastics are commonly found in the environment through the shedding of
 She’s built for the spotlight. Her game
 synthetic fibers that wash off clothes in the laundry and tiny plastic fragments that
 is, her personality is. She’s built to be
 end up throughout the environment in a number of ways. The concern is that they a future star in the WNBA.” Rebecca
 could cause harm to animals, plant life, and eventually humans. Lobo ’95 (CLAS), ESPN analyst
 Most of our wastewater treatment plants are more than 50 years old, and they rely
 on technology, like sand filtration, that’s ancient, explains Li. “When these facilities “What she’s done this year, in such a
 were designed and built, plastics simply did not exist in the variety or quantity that year of unknown, is actually ridicu-
 they do today.” lous. She doesn’t look like a fresh-
 Tracy Mincer, a biology professor from Florida Atlantic University who is working man, that’s for sure.” Breanna Stewart,
 with the UConn group, says that plastic particles less than 150 micrometers have ’16 (CLAS), WNBA Seattle Storm
 been shown to make their way into our lymphatic systems, causing systemic expo-
 sure and, perhaps, affecting human health. “Microplastics can also act as sponges, “You can see how smart a player she
 gathering up other harmful things in the environment. Many studies have shown is. She puts herself in position to be
 that concentrations of other common contaminants such as harmful chemicals, better, but she also puts her team-
 pathogenic bacteria, and even viruses can be much higher in microplastics than mates in position to be their best
 they are in the surrounding water. Consuming microplastics is therefore a way to be selves. Players that can make other
 exposed to other harmful contaminants,” says Mincer. players around them better, those
 The group hopes learning from nature and working with stakeholders on the are the ones that become great.”
 barriers to adopting new technology will lead to a sustainable way to better treat Katie Lou Samuelson ’19 (CLAS),
 wastewater. — ELI FREUND ’14 (CLAS) WNBA Seattle Storm

12 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Baikun Li Ben Solomon SUMMER 2021 13

UCONN NOW

 lands UConn occupies.” UCONN TALKS
 OUR STUDENTS
 Phillips has also joined a coalition
 seeking a state ban on American Indi-
 THIS LAND an sports mascots. “I’ve lived the neg-
 ative repercussions that racist mascot
 On how noisy periodic cicadas’ mating songs can be:

 imagery can have on Native youth,” “Like a singles bar gone horribly, horribly wrong.”
 Sage Phillips ’22 (CLAS) is
 she says. Because mascots have dark
 unearthing more of UConn’s skin and hair, according to her “the John Cooley, entomology professor, AP, May 5, 2021
 origin story dominant society” uses them against
 Native Americans who have lighter
 A “sage” is a mature person who is skin, saying in effect, “You don’t look On uninhabitable land at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan:
 wise through reflection and experi- like an Indian. So you’re not one, and
 ence. It also happens to be the name of we won’t allow you to be one.”
 the founding president of NAISA, the “That’s why Native youth lose con-
 Native American and Indigenous Stu- fidence. At your core you know who
 “The money spent on the Olympics could
 dents Association, and newly named you are — you know you are Penobscot easily have helped these families rebuild lives
 Truman Scholar and Udall Scholar — — but when people constantly look at
 Sage Phillips. you on a surface level, it builds up over elsewhere.”
 Rising senior Phillips hails from Old time and has such a negative effect,”
 Town, Maine, and is a member of the says Phillips, who plans to attend law
 Penobscot Nation. She almost didn’t school and work on a joint degree in Alexis Dudden, history professor, NPR, March 25, 2021
 come to UConn. The political science American Indian studies.
 and human rights major wanted to She says she learned her leadership
 immerse herself in a robust Native skills from her father and grandfather.
 On solar geoengineering — cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight away
 American college community. Unsure Both men helped lead a decade-long from the Earth and back out to space:
 if UConn’s offerings would be enough effort by the Penobscot River Resto-
 for her, she told her parents she want- ration Trust that removed two dams
 ed to go elsewhere. “Why don’t you and bypassed a third to open nearly “The problem is the extent to which researchers are
 take this as an opportunity to build a 1,000 miles of river and streams to really helpless in deciding how research is used in
 program?” her father suggested. salmon for the first time in nearly
 “It’s not going to be easy,” Phillips 200 years. Their effort involved the the political system.”
 recalls thinking. “But if I can find state of Maine, the federal govern-
 a few other people, I think we can ment, power companies, conservation Prakash Kashwan, political science professor, Scientific American,
 March 26, 2021
 build something pretty special.” That groups, and the Penobscot Nation.
 is what she did. Her freshman year “The river was the Penobscot’s high-
 Phillips in her regalia
 she joined UConn’s Native American way,” says Phillips. To commemorate
 in the UConn Forest On the unexpected ways we were educated
 Cultural Programs (NACP) and got a its reopening she and her father took On the rate at which
 job in the Office for Diversity, Equity, part in a 15.5-mile race in a 12-person during the pandemic: butterflies are
 and Inclusion, where she helped plan says Phillips, who also mentors local strength that she has, the fortitude,” war canoe. Her grandfather gave her a disappearing across
 Indigenous Peoples Week and Native Native youth, represents the NACP says Ouimette, who hired her to be his medicine pouch so she could bring her wildlands:
 American Month. on the President’s Council on Race teaching assistant for that class the ancestors down the river with her, and “There is no such thing
 That wasn’t enough. “We were and Diversity, sits on Student Affairs’ next semester. during the ceremony he led before the “Calamitous.”
 struggling with student involvement. I Student Leadership Council, and has A current priority for Phillips, event, an eagle soared overhead. “It as learning loss.”
 thought there must be more Indige- an ex officio seat in the USG Senate. thanks to a grant she secured with the was such a powerful moment,” she says. David Wagner, ecology
 nous-identifying students, so I cre- She stood out from her peers the help of Kiara Ruesta of the Office of She credits both men for raising her and evolutionary biology
 ated NAISA,” she says. A place where moment she stepped on campus, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and to cherish her heritage. “You are here Rachael Gabriel, literacy education professor, professor, Smithsonian,
 members can reclaim their cultural according to David T. Ouimette, human rights and education profes- because of your ancestors. It’s your The Washington Post, March 10, 2021 March 9, 2021
 identities, NAISA also aims to educate the executive director of First Year sor Glenn Mitoma, is gathering data duty to use the opportunities they
 the broader UConn community on Programs. Every term he leads a class about how UConn obtained its land gave you and take them to their fullest
 native history, cultural diversity, and highlighted by a 48-hour marathon from seven local tribes. “The goal is to extent,” says Phillips. “That’s what On Connecticut’s offshore wind projects:
 current events. “It’s going to show “hackathon” in which students seek get UConn talking about this expro- my grandfather taught me time and
 prospective students that when they innovative solutions to challenges. priation and to seek free tuition for time again, and that’s what I center my
 “Most new students get intimidat- Native students,” she says. “I’m really
 “Things are going to start happening fast.”
 get here, there’ll be a place they can work on. My ancestors did it for me,
 call home. This is the community I so ed, but not Sage. She didn’t worry interested in looking at how we can and I have to do the same for future Sylvain De Guise, pathobiology professor and Connecticut Sea Grant director,
 desperately sought to welcome me,” about other people judging her. The provide reparations for those whose generations.” —GEORGE SPENCER The New London Day, April 29, 2021

14 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Peter Morenus SUMMER 2021 15

FINALLY!
They had waited long enough. UConn’s classes 5days

 10
of 2020 and 2021 gathered in person at The
 ceremonies
Rent for five days in May to celebrate endings
and beginnings — together.
 2classes of Huskies

 8,100+
By Lisa Stiepock
Photography by Peter Morenus and Sean Flynn degrees awarded

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021

I
 “ t was coming home,” U.S. Secretary of 1. A purposeful 2020 grad 2. CLAS on the jumbotron “Embrace your uniqueness and use it to find
 Education Miguel Cardona ’01 MA, 3. Anjana Mishra (BUS) holds a photo of her father who your purpose. When you find your purpose,
 ’04 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP said died of Covid 4. CLAS grads get ready to take the stage
 make the pursuit of your purpose greater than
 of heading to Pratt & Whitney Stadium at 5. CLAS grads head down the bleachers 6. School of
 Rentschler Field to give this year’s com- the pursuit of your position,” Secretary Cardona
 Medicine students had a rainy day 7. The Schools of
 mencement address. Students could not Business, Education, and Social Work gathered Tuesday told graduates.
 have agreed more. At a string of outdoor
 8. An engineering grad at Saturday’s 2020 ceremony
 ceremonies May 8–12, students and fami-
 9. Cheering CLASers 10. Speaker Fizza Alam ’21 (CLAS)
 lies gathered together for the first time in
 many long pandemic months.
 11. 2020 grads with Jonathan XIV 12. The 2020 ceremony
 Saturday’s celebration brought 2020
 grads, whose ceremony last year was en-
 tirely virtual, home to UConn from across
 the country. “We have seen over this past
 year that love knows no distance. Wheth-
 er six feet apart, or a Zoom call away, we
 Huskies are always there for each other:
 today, tomorrow, and every day after
 that,” said Tanya Miller ’20 (CLAS).
 The mood at The Rent every one of
 those days was often euphoric, the tab-
 leau rife with fist pumps, hugs, and kisses.
 But there was a palpable sense of shared
 purpose, too — to remember this time,
 who we lost, and what we lost — and to
 carry it all forward.
 Cardona, whose speech played on the 1 2 3 4
 jumbotron at each of the 10 ceremonies
 and whose godson, Hector Cardona III,
 graduated in the Neag School of Educa-
 tion, said he could feel that heightened
 sense of commitment in the graduates.
 “I know they’re graduating with a passion
 to serve that’s been strengthened by
 the challenging year we’ve had,” he said
 later that week. “It’s powerful. It’s like
 we’ve all suffered together and now, how
 privileged are we that we get to be in a
 position of service when our country
 needs us most?”
 Said Katherine Merrick ’20 MD,
 “Most of us graduating today are millen-
 nials — a generation searching for drive, 5 6 7 8
 passion, and meaning in our professional
 lives . . . Our class has intimate knowl-
 edge of the interrelated mental health,
 substance use, suicide, and gun violence
 crises in our country. For us, these areas
 will never be purely academic.”
 When all was said and done, though,
 as Shaharia Ferdus ’21 (CAHNR, CLAS)
 put it, “No matter how they play out,
 every single one of our stories will have
 one thing in common: that we all made it
 thanks to UConn. Long after the credits
 have rolled and the pages have turned on
 our UConn story, we remain Huskies, and
 we’ll stay Huskies forever!”
 9 10 11 12

18 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 19

By Jackie Fitzpatrick Hennessey ’83 (CLAS)

 Uphill
 Peter Morenus

 Battles
 Growing up in Jamaica, Rohan Freeman could not have envisioned himself as
 an engineer, re-creating the Hartford landscape. And he certainly could not have
 seen himself as the first Black American to climb the Seven Summits.

 R ohan Freeman doesn’t use
 the word trailblazer to define
 himself, though the paths he’s
 blazed have been quite extraordinary.
 opportunities that I have now,” says
 Freeman ’95 (ENG). “I wanted to have
 a good education, and doing my re-
 search, UConn was at the top of my list
 every day, studying. Whoever wanted to
 find me could go there.”
 Though he was majoring in mechan-
 ical engineering, Freeman couldn’t
 Growing up poor in Jamaica, there because of its engineering program.” quite envision his future until after
 were times, he says, when he couldn’t From the start he liked how welcom- freshman year when he got a summer
 see what life might hold for him. ing the School of Engineering was and internship with Oswald Blint, Hart-
 In high school, he moved with his how rigorous. “I made lifelong friends ford’s city surveyor. “The first time he
 mother to the North End of Hartford at UConn, and they still say they could sent me out to work on a survey site, I
 and found himself having to navigate a find me in one of three places: in class, knew I’d been doing the wrong thing all
 very different world. But the people in at the field house after class training for along,” Freeman says. Everything about
 that community made him feel like part track [he ran the 400 meters and for civil engineering fit. “I understand it
 some time held UConn’s indoor record intuitively,” he explains. “This is what Left: Freeman in his
 of the place. “Coming from Jamaica
 Hartford office with
 and not knowing anything about this in that event], and in the library — I was born for.” His first day back to the Park and Main
 country, this was my door to having the Three South — same table, same chair campus that fall he changed his major development under
 construction behind him.
 This page: On the way
 to the summit of Mount
 Everest at 28,500 feet.
20 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 15

“I hope I can inf luence
 kids who were in my
 position ... let them see
 what’s possible.”

 to civil engineering, and in his first class space on Albany Avenue and Woodland
 he met professor Roger Ferguson who, Street in Hartford, an area where Free-
 like Blint, became a mentor. man says there hasn’t been significant
 Both imbued in Freeman a sense development with private funds in
 of land first, encouraging him to look more than 50 years.
 closely at and listen to the land. To this “I always have an eye for how I can
 day, his approach centers on “working help the city move forward,” he says.
 with the land instead of forcing the “That’s the reason I put my business
 land to be something it’s not meant to here in Hartford. I feel like I’m part
 be, working to maximize the use and of the fabric of the city and want to be
 get the most return, but preserving the part of the solution to turning Hartford
 integrity of the land.” around. Though I lived in the North
 He also knew, as the only Black End for a short time, Hartford was very
 student in his civil engineering classes, influential in shaping my life. I want to
 that one day when he had the chance to contribute to community development,
 find ways to help make the field more to create jobs, housing, and opportuni-
 representative, he would. ties for residents there.”
 On the summit of the famed Eiger in
 Today, he is president of Freeman Switzerland (top) and Mount Everest
 Companies LLC, an award-winning, Another Mountain — on that climb Freeman raised funds

 Peter Morenus
 multidisciplinary site development, Growing up in Jamaica, Freeman loved for the Boys & Girls Club of Hartford.
 engineering design, and construction to run, and he played cricket and soccer Right: In the board room with repre-
 services enterprise, one of the few with his friends. They often talked sentations of Dunkin’ Donuts Park and
 and
 South Hartford Conveyance Tunnel.
 minority-owned engineering firms in about Mt. Kilimanjaro but not about
 the region. Based in Hartford, Freeman climbing it. “I grew up hearing about
 Companies provided building and con- Kilimanjaro, and my friends and I joked
 struction survey and layout services to that we’d banish people we didn’t like tually become one of the few people to down at this teeny tiny light way in the see so much of the world, its cities, and them see what’s possible.”
 Dimeo Construction Company for the to Kilimanjaro, this mythical, fictional reach the Seven Summits, the tallest distance. I was so distracted by it, the many obscure, beautiful, tucked away He speaks often to school groups and
 $120 million Edward P. Evans Hall at place,” he says. peak on each continent. light; I was taking one foot forward, places. “A lot of these places are sur- serves on many boards, including those
 Yale University and redesigned Weaver Just a couple of decades later, that He took mountaineering courses, then I’d look at the light. I realized it rounded by World Heritage sites, which for Connecticut Business & Industry
 High School in Hartford. It also is mythical place would become very real honed his skills, and spent nearly every was the sun coming up over the horizon you’d never see unless you are doing Association and Outward Bound. In
 working with the Metropolitan District to him. Though he’d “never heard of winter weekend training in the White except it was below me. It was the most these really remote trips,” he says. 2015, he was inducted into the UConn
 Commission, handling the geotechnical mountaineering as a kid,” Freeman met Mountains. He had tried Everest once spectacular light show I’d ever seen.” Another benefit has been raising School of Engineering’s Academy of
 engineering and land surveying for a a group of friends after college who, before and didn’t reach the top. By then, The second moment happened when money during each climb for causes Distinguished Engineers and Hall of
 major component of the $280 million like him, loved being active and being Freeman was a principal at an engineer- he reached Everest’s summit and saw he cares deeply about, including the Fame. “It meant the world to me,” Free-
 South Hartford Conveyance and Stor- outside. They decided they would try ing firm, and when he asked for time off the curvature of the Earth. “I was blown Boys and Girls Club of Hartford and man says. “I have my medallion and my
 age Tunnel, a four-mile-long tunnel to climb the highest point in Africa, to tackle Everest again, he was told no. away when I looked out and I could ac- the BRIDGE Endowed Engineering program booklet to show my daughter
 that will protect Connecticut water- — Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. When he He decided two things right then — he’d tually see it with my own eyes,” he says. Scholarship, which he established as something for her to aspire to.”
 ways during major storms. reached the summit, Freeman says he start his own engineering firm and he’d “It was amazing.” through the UConn Foundation to sup- His climbs behind him, Freeman
 His firm has worked on large-scale, was absolutely hooked on climbing. make that climb. After climbing Vinson Massif in Ant- port students with an interest in civil plans to run a marathon on each of the
 transformative public projects across He set his sights next on Denali in On May 19, 2009, Freeman became arctica in 2011 and Oceania’s Carstenz engineering, especially those who have seven continents and the North and
 the state and is part of a development Alaska, climbing North America’s tallest the first Black American and first Pyramid in Indonesia in 2012, he be- overcome socioeconomic or education- South Poles — once the pandemic has
 team with Spinnaker Real Estate peak. He then climbed Mt. Elbrus in Jamaican-born person to reach Ever- came the first Black American to reach al disadvantages. ended and people are traveling again.
 Partners LLC in Norwalk, creating a Russia, the tallest peak in Europe, and est’s summit. “Two things are indelibly each of the Seven Summits. “That’s very important to me,” he And he’ll continue to seek out projects
 mixed-use project at the corner of Park Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, the imprinted on my brain that I’ll never, says. “I hope I can influence kids who in the profession he says has given him
 and Main Streets in Hartford. It’s also highest summit in South America. He never forget,” he says. “I was climbing Next Gen were in my position, who are kind of so much. “I do think I have a lot more
 at work on a $21 million development started to wonder if he could reach the up to the summit before 4 a.m., and Beyond the achievement itself, Free- feeling hopeless, not seeing a path to accomplish, a much longer way to
 project featuring apartments and retail top of Mt. Everest and if he could even- I looked to my right and was looking man says, the climbs enabled him to forward. I want to inspire them and let walk.”

22 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 23

OUR AMER ICAN GIRLS

 M EET MEET
 A L LISON M A RY
 What do you do with a history doctorate If you’re these two alums, you create a hit
 and a pop culture obsession? podcast centering on ’90s nostalgia.

 19 44 20 21
 ~ By Julie (Stagis) Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), ’19 MBA ~ ~ Illustrations by Brian Lutz and Christa Yung ~

24 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 25

I
 f you’re surprised to learn that Collapse and Revival of American bespectacled World War II–era girl responds to a plot development in one I thought it was unfair that nobody
 a podcast about the American Community” sporting brown braids. Molly book with a quote attributed to ever wrote to her, and she probably
 Girl children’s series of historical • Garth Brooks: “The Road I’m On” Early in their friendship, they Wynonna Judd that she saw on a Star- did a lot of work,” Mahoney says. “At
 fiction books, best known for discovered they also shared a passion bucks cup: “You can either be right or the bottom, I wrote ‘P.O.W.: Power of
 documentary series
 its accompanying dolls, has amassed for taking pop culture more seriously be loved.” Women.’ My teacher sent the letter
 • American figure skater Kristi
 30,000 downloads a month from lis- than most, perhaps best evidenced by “Stop! No!” Horrocks protests. home and I thought I was in trouble,
 Yamaguchi
 teners all over the world and spawned an argument over who was at fault in “That’s, like, neoliberal nonsense. but I think she was trying to say, ‘We’ve
 • Dante got a live one here.’
 a book deal, you’re not alone. actress Reese Witherspoon’s divorce, No!”
 • Freddie Mercury which spurred Mahoney to create a It may not be for everyone — among “That’s what I was like at 9. I haven’t
 “I thought the group of friends I
 • The Beatles Google doc for the women to lay out hundreds of glowing five-star reviews gotten much taller, and my viewpoints
 watch ‘The Bachelor’ with would listen
 to this show, and my wife, and that • Gwyneth Paltrow, Goop, and Blythe their cases titled “The People vs. Ryan on Apple Podcasts are a handful that haven’t changed much.”
 would be it,” says Mary Mahoney ’18 Danner Phillippe.” complain about the non–American Growing up in Wethersfield, one of
 Ph.D., a historian who created and • Depression-era photojournalist Mahoney trained as a DJ at the Girl aspects of the show and even the the oldest towns in Connecticut, with a
 hosts the “American Girls” podcast Dorothea Lange UConn radio station WHUS. Creating critical eye the hosts take toward the librarian mom and a history-buff dad,
 with her friend and fellow UConn his- • the “Eloise” books a podcast in which the two friends books’ characters — but for Horrocks Mahoney explored history and femi-
 tory grad Allison Horrocks ’16 Ph.D. • Pride Month revisited the books of their youth as and Mahoney, the “secret sauce” lies nism largely through the writings of
 “I wanted a reason to hang out with my • “The Help,” and its problematic learned historians became a shared in their authenticity. other girls, and was drawn to American
 friend every other week. I had abso- Netflix popularity during last sum- goal, a reward for completing their “I think part of what pulls people in Girl books “because they centered the
 lutely no idea we would have the kind mer’s racial justice protests doctorates. is we’re not fake. There’s a sincerity stories of young girls like me.”
 of listenership we have.” • George Edwin Taylor — the first “We had a friend who told us, ‘I we bring to it,” says Horrocks. “We Eighty miles east, Horrocks was
 The show’s blend of astute historical would pay to hear you two go through record, conservatively, four hours of coming of age in Rhode Island, an avid
 Black man to run for president, the
 analysis, warm banter between close an US Weekly,’” says Mahoney, who is tape together a month. You can’t fake reader who also loved the American
 NAACP, and Ida B. Wells
 friends, and copious pop culture refer- by day the digital scholarship coordi- that.” Girl books. She was into science,
 • novelist V.C. Andrews
 ences has earned it a global community
 of fans. In one 71-minute episode, the
 • “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the movie)
 nator at Trinity College in Hartford.
 “What you hear on the show, that’s
 When people in podcasting talk
 about what works, “a lot of it is that
 competing in school science fairs and
 initially pursuing a pre-med path “What you hear
 • Alice James (Henry’s sister) how we talk to each other. We take you have a chemistry that people want before realizing she was simply too
 hosts discuss the American Girl book
 “Meet Samantha,” about an orphan • “The Barefoot Contessa” Ina Gar-
 ten and her husband, Jeffrey
 things seriously that are not, but we to listen to — or you don’t,” she says. squeamish and didn’t find the course- on the show,
 living with her wealthy grandmother also take history seriously. We just And to be sure, trying to be anything work interesting.
 in 1904 New York. During that epi-
 sode, the following such pop culture
 • Prince Edward
 • Kelly Clarkson and her divorce
 wanted to do something that was
 meaningful to us without apology.”
 but themselves would not fit Hor-
 rocks’ or Mahoney’s style.
 Though both graduated from Trinity
 College in 2009 with degrees in history
 that's how we
 and American studies (Horrocks) and
 artifacts, along with a few straight up
 literary and historical references, are Seriously Silly
 So while they bring decades of
 schooling to their reflections on the Coming of Age history and English (Mahoney), the talk to each other .
 mined at various depths: As doctoral students in Storrs, Hor- books’ historical contexts and the In elementary school, Mary Mahoney two barely crossed paths before com-

 • American figure skater Nancy
 rocks and Mahoney bonded over the way they are portrayed, they are just transferred from public school to ing to UConn. We take things
 way they both identified strongly with as comfortable going deep on the Catholic school. One of her first assign- The two women, both public histo-
 Kerrigan
 • the 2000 book “Bowling Alone: The
 Molly McIntire, one of three original
 American Girl characters, a spunky,
 perfection of “Grease 2.” Or dissolving
 into fits of laughter after Mahoney
 ments was to write a letter to Santa.
 “I wrote mine to Mrs. Claus because
 rians passionate about making history
 accessible to the masses, pull podcast
 seriously that are
 not, but we also
 take history
 seriously.”

 “I knew the podcast would provide me hours
 of delights ... I did not, however, expect it to
 recontextualize the abundant doll joys of BFFs — Horrocks (left) was
 my youth — but it’s done that too,” wrote the one friend Mahoney invit- . . . and over 10,000
 A fan crafted Mary and Allison as Margaret Lyons in this New York Times article ed to her pandemic wedding The podcast has more than 30,000 downloads followers on Instagram
 American Girl dolls per episode . . .

26 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SUMMER 2021 27