Alumni

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Spotlight

Alumni Awards and Homecoming Reception:
"Thirty-One Years of Success Stories"

Six months of planning and the coordinated efforts of Student Support Services and the UConn Alumni Council culminated in the celebration of "Thirty-One Years of Success Stories" at the 1998 Student Support Services Alumni Awards and Reception. Graduates of the SSS program, their families and friends, and members of the University and TRIO communities gathered together during UConn's Homecoming Weekend to meet friends old and new in the SSS hospitality tent where photographs documenting the long history of the program were displayed. Later, after an exciting Homecoming Football game, everyone met in the Student Union to honor ten of the program9s most distinguished alumni.

The 1998 Alumni Award recipients exemplify the heights attainable with greater educational opportunity. This diverse group of men and women include some of the earliest participants in SSS at UConn, as well as some of the most recent. Although their specific career tracks vary widely, all are linked by a common interest in service to others. Through their careers as educators, social workers, and public servants, as well as their vast volunteer experiences with alumni, youth, religious, social/support or community organizations, all of the honored SSS graduates provide inspiration for alumni and current students alike to match professional achievement with personal responsibility.

Keynote Speaker Bobbi Olive, Chair of the Council for Opportunity in Education, emphasized the continuing importance of educational opportunity programs like SSS for individual students, for their communities, and for the entire country. "You can walk on water if you know where the rocks are," he repeatedly reminded the ninety people in attendance as he urged them to follow the example of the award recipients in reaching out to those who need extra support and encourage to succeed. This theme also resonated in the remarks of Master of Ceremonies Lew Brown, Reporter for the NBC-Television News Team, who called for alumni to become "active role models" for current and future college students. State Representative Reggie Beamon, also an award recipient, seconded this call, adding that the strongest mentors are those who demonstrate pride in their roots, even as they strive for future growth and achievement.

In addition to the ten alumni awards, one Service Award was presented to Carolyn McDew, who demonstrated unparalleled commitment to undergraduate students in her twenty years with the University. Dessi Nesmith, a 24-year veteran teacher at Hartford's Martin Luther King, Jr. elementary school and an award recipient himself, touched audience members as well as Ms. McDew herself with his heartfelt reminiscences of her positive influence on him and the hundreds of other students she advised, continuing on even beyond her retirement in 1989.

1998 Alumni Award Recipients

Reginald G. Beamon,
Democratic State Representative and Assistant Majority Leader, Connecticut House of Representatives

Norma Arroyo Chrostowski,
BA '87 Spanish Teacher, Spofford, NH

Valerie N. Jackson,
BA '93 Social Worker, East Hartford

Dr. Gary King,
BA '74, PhD (Boston University) '87 Professor of Biobehavioral Health, Penn State University

Ann Negrin,
BA '82 Social Worker, Willimantic

Dessi Nesmith,
Teacher, Martin Luther King, Jr. elementary school, Hartford

Javier Padilla,
BA '91 Capitol Region Workforce Development Board, Hartford

Prashant D. Patel,
Pharmacist, Newington

Portia Seawright,
BA '83 Probation Officer, Bridgeport

Lawrence L. Williams,
BA '74, MA '86, Six-Year Diploma '90 Senior Admissions Officer, University of Connecticut

SSS Graduates Named TRIO Achievers

At the 17th Annual Conference of the National Council of Educational Opportunity Associations (NCEOA), which took place September 27-30, 1998, in Washington, DC, two University of Connecticut SSS alumni were honored for their distinguished and positive contributions to their chosen professions. Alex J. Martinez, an attorney from Stamford, Connecticut, and Malek K. Zimmer, President of Peace Works in Charleston, South Carolina, have been named TRIO Achievers, the highest honor bestowed by the Council on graduates of its programs.

Alex J. Martinez began practicing law in 1993, and in 1996 opened his own practice in Stamford. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut, and his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston. As an attorney with the Stamford firm Barr & LaCava, Alex specialized in immigration law and litigation. He was instrumental in the firm's efforts to provide free legal assistance to individuals with immigration problems, providing pro bono divorces and conducing free immigration lottery and naturalization seminars. Alex continues such commitments with his own busy practice, serving as pro bono attorney for Our Lady of Montserrat Parish and as a board member and volunteer advisor for Pacific House, a shelter for the homeless.

Martinez has received several awards for his community service efforts. In 1996, the Connecticut Bar Association presented him with a Pro Bono Award, given to those attorneys who have done significant pro bono work on behalf of the state's residents. He was also named the University of Connecticut's Puerto Rican-Latin American Cultural Center's Volunteer of the Year for 1995.

Melek Kardestuncer Zimmer founded PeaceWorks, a non-profit, international humanitarian relief initiative, in 1993. Since that time, PeaceWorks has provided relief and advocacy for children living in war-ravaged areas of the world. Initially focusing on the needs of children in Bosnia, PeaceWorks organized airlifts of urgently needed medical supplies to Sarajevo and to the Tuzla region. To accomplish its goals, PeaceWorks collaborates with a number of international agencies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the International Rescue Committee, Doctors Without Borders-Holland, the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the US Departments of State and Defense.

Zimmer graduated from UConn with a degree in International Relations and Third World Politics. She experienced the destruction caused by the Gulf War first-hand as a free-lance interpreter on the border of Northern Iraq and Southeastern Turkey. During the Kurdish Refugee crisis, she was part of the United Nations' team which repatriated more than 3,000 refugees. These experiences led her to found PeaceWorks, which is funded in part by the Palmetto Project, South Carolina's initiative to incubate new and creative ideas within the state. Thus, PeaceWorks maintains a goal not only to provide international relief, but also to match every project abroad with one accomplished in the United States through the support, advice and assistance of children.

Everyone at SSS is very proud of the selfless dedication of these two extraordinary people, Alex Martinez and Malek Zimmer, and we look forward to their future accomplishments.