Justis Lopez of Manchester, a student at the University of Connecticut, has been chosen as the Alma Exley Scholar for 2015. Educators, friends and supporters of the program honored him at a reception. on Monday, May 4, at the Elmwood Community Center in West Hartford.

Welcoming Justis into the Alma Exley Scholarship Family were previous recipients Desi Nesith, principal of Metacomet School, Bloomfield, left in photo above, and Dr. Miguel Cardona, performance evaluation specialist in the Meriden Schools, at right.

Justis, a graduate of Manchester High School, is a student in the five-year Integrated Bachelor’s and Master’s Program in the Neag School of Education at UConn. He received a B.S. in Education with a major in history in May 2014 and is scheduled to receive an M.A. in Education on May 9, 2015.

He has an outstanding record of academic achievement, public service and campus leadership. As he says, “Nothing great is achieved without enthusiasm.” And with his enthusiasm and ability, he has the potential to do great things as an educator.

His flair for leadership became apparent early in his UConn career. He received the Emerging Leader Student Life Award as a freshman. This recognized his leadership in programs to orient and support new students.

He has been active in a summer program sponsored by Student Support Services to assist low-income, minority students who are the first in their families to attend college.

Justis has lent his considerable talents to a variety of initiatives to promote diversity and multicultural understanding at UConn and beyond.

He was one of 14 students chosen to take the lead in fostering an inclusive community at the university. And he has worked in an inter-university initiative with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) to broaden the demographic makeup of the teacher workforce.

He has been involved in the K-5 College Bound Program, which brings youngsters to UConn to give them a taste of college life and encourage them to aspire to higher education.

He has been active in other campus organizations such as Bring Awareness to Latino Ethnicities (BALE), the Puerto Rican and Latino Cultural Center, and Leadership in Diversity (LID), intended to “put the lid on the achievement gap.”

During the summer of 2013, he served as an intern at the University of Albany. Working in the Office of Intercultural Student Engagement, he implemented the Brother 2 Brother mentorship program for incoming freshmen. He also built the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center to cultivate an inclusive community for LGBTQ students.

In the summer of 2014, he served as a public policy intern in Washington D.C with the Council For Opportunity In Education. In that position he worked with educational advocacy groups in the U.S. Department of Education in conjunction with the White House and drafted proposals for educational programs to be considered by Congress in 2015.

He was a familiar figure at UConn sports events performing as Jonathan the Husky as a sophomore. And he was the UConn Homecoming King in 2014.

He also has made a name for himself as master of ceremonies and DJ for more than 300 social events. Based on this experience, he has established Justis League Entertainment, which provides music and photography for school functions, weddings and business events.

He won a TEDx Student Speaker Award in 2013. He was one of a number of college students participating a program patterned after the well-known TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) events.

While pursuing a wide variety of extra-curricular activities, Mr. Lopez has achieved a strong academic record and has won praise from the faculty for outstanding performance in his student teaching assignments.

He is a most deserving scholarship recipient, and we are delighted to welcome him to the Alma Exley Scholarship Family.

Since we honored Dr. Sibani Sengupta in 2009, she has received a number of honors for excellence, dedication and leadership in education.

The Connecticut Association of Schools has selected her as the High School Level Exemplary Educator of the Year for 2014-2015. She also has received the 2014 Local Hero Award from the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. In 2010, the National Association of Biology Teachers presented her with the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for Connecticut.

Dr. Sengupta is a science teacher and dean of academic affairs at Sacred Heart Academy, Hamden, Conn.

The CAS award recognizes outstanding educators who have had a positive impact on their schools through excellence in education, involvement with students, staff and parents in and out of the classroom, and leadership in their profession. 

The Local Hero Award honors 10 outstanding teachers from Connecticut and Western Massachusetts for their hard work, dedication and commitment to area students.

Dr. Sengupta is the third Alma Exley Scholar to be honored by CAS. In 2010 Desi Nesmith was named the Best First-Year Principal in Connecticut, and in 2012 Dr. Miguel Cardona was chosen as Connecticut’s National Distinguished Principal.

Dr. Sengupta has a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and did post-doctoral research at the UConn Health Center. Then she earned her Connecticut teaching credentials through the Alternate Route to Certification.

She left a career as a research scientist to teach science at Sacred Heart Academy in 2003. After serving as chair of the science department for six years, she was named dean of academic affairs in 2014. She continues to teach advanced-placement biology, human gene discovery and microbiology.

In nominating Dr. Sengupta for the CAS award, Sr. Mary Jane Paolella said she is known for creative, imaginative lessons that are extremely successful and engaging.

Sr. Paolella said that freshmen appreciate her biology classes so much that 75 percent of them sign up for a science elective (genetics, microbiology or gene discovery) in addition to chemistry, hoping that she will be teaching one of those courses the following year.

As an example of Dr. Sengupta’s excellence in teaching, Sacred Heart Dean of Students David Alexandro noted that her students have designed and standardized a high school adaptation of a procedure called RNAi.  Her article, “Bringing RNA Interference (RNAi) into the High School Classroom,” was published in the “How To Do It” section of the November/December 2013 issue of The American Biology Teacher magazine.

“Excellent teaching requires more than just teaching the subject,” Dr. Sengupta said. “It is essential to constantly motivate students, encouraging them to develop a zest and passion for the subject, along with their unique, analytical approach towards learning.”

Dr. Sengupta sets an example for her students by her love for life-long learning. “Over the past couple of years,” she said, “I have come to fully appreciate the true meaning of Tyron Edwards’s famous quote, ‘If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.’”

Hearty congratulations from all of us at the Alma Exley Scholarship Program to Dr. Sengupta for this well-deserved recognition.

The Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) is a private, non‐profit organization whose purpose is to improve the learning of every student in Connecticut by contributing to the improvement of elementary and secondary education. CAS works to serve the collective interests and needs of Connecticut schools by providing leadership and professional development services to promote excellence in the education of all students.