PresRelease

Ben, 2007

Ben, 2009

Benjamin Gruenbaum, a UConn senior premed psychology major, is one of 10 winners nationwide in the first AspiringDocs.org Video Contest, sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges.  Ben will be awarded $1,000 toward his medical school application costs.  Students from across the country were asked to submit a two-minute video, explaining why they wanted to become a doctor.  Ben was motivated by his experience as a volunteer EMT in the Middle East. Working with Dr. David Miller in the summer of 2006, he was among 40 students selected worldwide to participate in the Magen David Adom Volunteer Program in Israel where he participated in a hands-on training program in emergency medicine.

Check out Ben’s winning video, and the other winners on the AAMC AspiringDocs website.

Ben’s no stranger to making videos.  He was one of the winners here at UConn two years ago in the Student Video Contest to make a UConn commercial, and he also acted in the Right Fit student commercial at that time.  Remember that video?

Congratulations, Ben, and good luck on your med school applications!

The ether is filled with news of UConn athletics – Maya Moore named one of five women’s basketball academic All-Americans by CoSIDA/ESPN, Jim Calhoun joining the NCAA basketball coaches’ 800-victory club last night against Marquette, UConn Women’s Track and Field moving up to No. 13 nationally after a record-breaking weekend with their second consecutive Big East Indoor Championship title, Men’s Track and Field also winning their second straight Big East Indoor Championship title, Maya Moore, Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles named among the 30 candidates for the Naismith Trophy, 315 UConn student-athletes and team managers recognized during the women’s UConn/Villanova game for earning a 3.0 grade point average in the 2008 fall semester and named to the Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll.  My head is swimming.  And it’s not even March yet.

I also learned more about our athletic program at the Avery Point campus.  Nathan Stailey (the Avery Point Women’s Head Coach) and Roger Bidwell sent on some photos and info about Avery Point’s Women’s Basketball Team.

The Pointers Women’s Basketball team is in their third year of play after a decade long hiatus. The Pointers have improved each of the past three seasons and are currently competing for a NJCAA Division III Region 21 Championship and a National Tournament berth.  This year has seen the Pointers win a program best 21 games versus 6 losses. Avery Point finished first in the West Division of Region 21 and has claimed a spot in the Regional Semi-finals for the first time in program history.

The Pointers are led by freshman point guard Karen Manning from Bolton, CT. Karen was recently named to the NJCAA All-Region 21 First Team and leads the team in points per game (15.4), assists (119), and steals (112). She set multiple single-season and career records during 2008-09. With 417 points scored this season, Manning set a new single-season scoring mark for the program. She also set new career records (in just one season) in assists and steals at Avery Point.

Sophomore Kristen Woodring is also enjoying a successful season as she finishes her basketball career here at Avery Point. A 6-1 forward from Bristol, RI, Kristen is averaging 9.1 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per game for the Pointers. She is closing in on 500 points and 500 rebounds in her two-year career. Kristen currently ranks second all-time in scoring with 473 points. Woodring has collected a program record 495 rebounds and will look to grab number 500 in the upcoming regional tournament. Kristen also holds the single-season and career mark for blocked shots with 90 and 162, respectively. Woodring was recently named to the NJCAA All-Region 21 Second Team for the second consecutive season.

The remaining roster spots are held by one sophomore and six freshmen. Forward Crista Peterson from Clinton, CT is the other sophomore. Sarah Paternostro is a freshman guard from East Glastonbury, CT who was named to the NJCAA All-Region 21 Second Team this season as well. Rounding out the rest of the freshmen class are: Brianna Reilly (Hopkinton, RI), Natalie Smith (Manchester, CT), Kaitlyn Kozlowski (Shelton, CT), Brittany Demers (East Windsor, CT), and Alyssa Blakley (Bristol, CT).

Also, the Men’s team finished with a 13-15 record and just missed out on the Regional Tournament.

P.S. (March 2): The Avery Point women’s team won the NJCAA Division III Region 21 Championship on Sunday, March 1. That marks the first regional championship for the program and sends us to play at the NJCAA Division III National Tournament in Rochester, Minnesota. The 8-team tournament takes place March 12-14. Go Pointers!

As for myself, I was at the Hoops for Hope event at the Old Armory on February 14.  I joined Chris Giolitto, Erin Lalime, Ryan Matthews, Olafemi Hunter, and many others to raise money for the World AIDS Day project.  I went 0-5 on free-throw attempts.  But then I never pretended to be a basketball player.  Track, football – that’s a different matter.

Actual photo of breaking the sound barrier
Actual photo, breaking the $100K barrier (Matt Lin photo, Daily Campus)
This past weekend’s HuskyTHON doubled everything.  It doubled the amount of money raised for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, from $50K last year to $100K this year.  It more than doubled the number of participating dancers, from 200 to over 500.  And it doubled the enthusiasm – Greer Field House was rocking Saturday night.  This year our UConn fraternities and sororities were joined for the first time by our cultural centers, broadening the event’s base and also its energy. Kids and their families who have been highlighted at past HuskyTHONs were there, too.  It was just a tremendous event – students connecting with each other and with people from our community.  Parents were beaming – and I was, too.

Here I am with Nicole Rose Benson, a graduate student in Allied Health and member of PRLACC, and Becca, who danced with me onstage.  watch?v=y6D-FcqnUoU

Jessica Budnick
If you have a good photo from the event, send it to me and I’ll try to find room to post it.  Great job, everyone!

Rob Landolphi, UConn’s Manager for Culinary Development, has been working on a book in his spare time and it will be published by Andrews McMeel in April. It’s a cook book for individuals with Celiac. Rob plays a very big part in helping us accommodate our students who have celiac disease here on our Storrs campus.  Celiac is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Celiac disease is genetic, so you can’t catch it from anything but your own genes.

Rob is a graduate of the prestigious Johnson and Wales University culinary school. (Emeril Lagasse is an alum of J&WU – I think Virginia and I have some Emeril cookware. Is there Rob cookware?) For several years Rob was the Wedding Coordinator/Banquet Manager at Glastonbury Hills Country Club, and owner and operator of the Sugar Shack Bakery in Storrs. He is currently a Certified Culinary Arts Instructor as well as our Culinary Operations Manager. He also writes for a variety of print media, and he has appeared on both radio and TV.

You can go to Rob’s web page to find out more about his book, his demonstrations and classes, and find links for more info on gluten-free cooking. I’d like a piece of that key lime pie right about now.

UConn All-American field hockey standout Jennifer Kleinhans, a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, is the 2008-09 Big East Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. A senior from Mannheim, Germany, Jennifer will receive a $4,000 scholarship, which may be applied to graduate or professional studies. She holds a 3.64 grade-point average as a biomedical engineering major. She is a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society and is a founding member of the Alpha Eta Mu Beta biomedical engineering honor society chapter at Connecticut. In addition to her academic work, Jennifer has served as a research intern at the National University of Singapore Nano Biomechanics Lab, where she researched mechanical properties of malaria-infected cells and breast cancer cells. She also has been a research intern at the University of Heidelberg Biomechanics and Implant Research Lab, where she performed mechanical simulator testing of hip and knee replacement systems and co-authored two peer-review papers.

UConn’s Dori Arad, from Hahotrim, Israel, earned Big East recognition as the UConn Scholar-Athlete award winner. Dori who completed his eligibility in 2008 as a midfielder with the Huskies men’s soccer team. He has a 3.55 GPA in nutritional science at UConn. He played four years for the Huskies as he recorded 11 goals and eight assists for 30 points in 81 games. Dori was a four-time Big East Academic All-Star and was named 2007 Big East Tournament Offensive Most Valuable Player as the Huskies won the Big East Tournament title. He was also named to the Big East All-Tournament Team for his efforts.

In Gampel during the men’s basketball game with Michigan on February 7, UConn senior Michelle Prairie was recognized at center court. A senior economics major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Michelle is one of 40 new Marshall Scholars named on December 1 by the British government. Michelle, a Presidential Scholar from Vernon with a perfect 4.0 grade average, will spend the next two years in the United Kingdom studying for two master’s degrees in development economics. No doubt she’ll return as a cricket fan. Jeff Hathaway, Peter Nicholls and I gave Michelle a basketball.