Yale Grad One of 12 to Win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony; Frozen’s “Let It Go” Was Family Affair

As the Frozen juggernaut continues with no signs of slowing whatsoever, the ubiquitous anthem “Let It Go” rings in the ears of children and parents worldwide.  What many may have missed in the phenomenon is the Connecticut connection. The anthem “Let It Go,” sung in the movie by both Idina Menzel and Demi Lovato (over the closing credits), was penned by Yale graduate Robert Lopez,  whose notoriety and track-record is virtually without recent parallel.  The song was co-written with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez.  Together, they also wrote the songs for the 2011 Disney animated musical Winnie the Pooh.

Prior to Frozen, Lopez was best known for co-creating The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q, two of Broadway’s stand-out box office smashes of the past decade. He is one of only 12 people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award, and the only person to win all four within a decade.

Lopez was born in Manhattan, developed an interest in music from an early age, and wrote his first song at age seven. He received a B.A. in English from Yale University (Class of ’97), where he was a member of the Yale Spizzwinks and wrote comedic songs for various student-run theater groups, according to the Avenue Q website.

Earlier this year, when Lopez took home an Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing "Let It Go" he became the youngest person, at age 39, to "EGOT", (win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award).  Lopez previously won the Grammy and Tony for The Book of Mormon, and received Daytime Emmy Awards for music direction and composition for the kids TV series The Wonder Pets.

IMDb and Variety reported that "EGOT" members include Whoopi Goldberg, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, and Scott Rudin, among the 12 members of the exclusive club.

In 2011, he told the Yale Daily News “the Spizzwinks are still my best friends, longest-lasting friends from college. I first got my inkling in college that I might not want to just write serious stuff. That music could be funny. That was something I enjoyed doing. The Spizzwinks were really the first place where I started dabbling with that.”  Success, however, did not come overnight.  “Right out of college I lived with my mom and dad. I lived with them for four years after college. They were extremely supportive of me. Without that, I don’t know where I’d be,” he told the newspaper.

In an interview this year with People magazine, Anderson-Lopez said "Frozen has been a team, family effort," says Anderson-Lopez. "Every song we wrote, our [daughters Annie, 4, and Katie, 9,] were the first audience for it and if they didn't want to hear it again, we went back to the drawing board."  The couple wrote eight songs for Frozen.  

Lopez told NPR’s Terry Gross that “When this song came to us, we were on a little stroll through Prospect Park in Brooklyn near our house, and we both started to improv what Elsa might be feeling. So we stood up on picnic tables.”  He added, “Once we had the idea for the song, it came quite quickly. It took about, you know, a day and a half.”

In April, Frozen became the highest-grossing animated film in box office history, just days after the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray.  The Frozen soundtrack is also the best-selling digital soundtrack album in history and the top-selling album of 2014, having spent 31 consecutive weeks in the top 5 on the Billboard 200 chart, including 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1. The "Let It Go" film clip from Frozen has been viewed nearly 300 million times on YouTube.

Disney had the song recorded in 25 different languages for international versions of the film:  French, German, Dutch, Mandarin, Swedish, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Korean, Serbian, Cantonese, Portuguese, Bahasa Malaysian, Russian, Danish, Bulgarian, Norwegian, Thai, Canadian French, and Flemish.

"The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic" will be broadcast by Disney-owned ABC television on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. 

Teen Journalists Bring Attention to Issues of Cyber-Bulling, Underage Drinking, Social Media Stress

Connecticut teen girls drink at a higher rate than the national average, Connecticut’s teen drinking rate is higher than ever, cyber-bullying rates among girls in the state have increased, and moderate to high stress levels among a majority of teens nationwide – and how they respond to stress – are raising new concerns. Those are just some of the statistics highlighted this month by student journalists at the Connecticut Health Investigative Team (C-HIT), an investigative news website populated by veteran journalists focusing on health issues facing the state. In recent days, the high school students - participants in week-long journalism workshops at UConn, Quinnipiac and Yale universities led by C-HIT - have been producing news stories that target issues facing a demographic they are not only familiar with, but, in most cases, part of. The students are learning research methods intrinsic to journalism and the results of their work have been eye-opening. Some of the highlights:

With access to social media reaching an all-time high, cyber-bullying rates have gone up among girls in Connecticut, according to the latest Connecticut High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In Connecticut in 2013, cyber-bullying rates among girls were at 22.8 percent - more than 1 in 5 girls reported being cyber bullied. That was an increase of 2.7 percent from 2011. Unlike among females, cyber bullying among males dropped by .2 percent, to 12.3 percent in 2013.

According to statistics from the Bureau of Justice, 37 percent of teenagers reported being bullied at school and 52 percent said they were victims of cyber bulling. Cyber bullying is tormenting, humiliating, or harassing another individual using the Internet, cell phones, or other types of social media.

Of the young people who reported cyber bullying incidents against them, one in three reported that they experienced threats online. Well over half of young people do not tell their parents when cyber-bullying occurs, the website says. Surveys show that girls are twice as likely as boys to be both victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 2013 reported that Connecticut girls are more likely to drink than their peers nationally. In Connecticut, 8.5 percent of high school girls have driven drunk – which is higher than the national average of 7.8 percent. In Connecticut, 37 percent of high school girls surveyed said they had at least one alcoholic drink, at least one day before the survey, compared to 35.5 percent nationally.

Teen drinking is a problem nationwide, but it is more apparent among teenage girls. Roughly 90 percent of adults who have substance abuse problems now began as adolescents, according to Dr. J Craig Allen, the chief medical officer of Rushford Center, a Connecticut substance abuse and mental health treatment center. Overall, Connecticut’s teen drinking rate is higher than ever, with students experimenting with alcohol as early as 11 years of age -- nearly two years younger than the national average, according to the Rushford Center. Teens in Connecticut are consuming 26-28 percent more alcohol than their peers around the country, according to data from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The availability of alcohol plays a factor in teen drinking. Other contributing factors in suburban areas include stress, with many teens placed under academic and other pressures on a day-to-day basis, experts suggest. A 2012 study by the Columbia University Teachers College found evidence that “affluenza,” described as a “metaphorical illness connoting hyper-investment in material wealth among upper-middle class families,” was a factor in negative behaviors including drug and alcohol use.

Nationally, teens are feeling stressed in and out of school, according to a survey done for the American Psychological Association. The survey showed that during the 2012-13 school year 55 percent of the 1,000 teens questioned said that they felt moderate stress during the school year, and 27 percent said that they felt “extreme stress.” Forty percent of teens said that stress is making them irritable or angry, and 36 percent said that stress made them nervous, angry or fatigued, according to the survey.

The survey also found that social media plays a role in teen stress. Thirty-nine percent of girls and 29 percent of boys questioned said that they do care how others perceive them on social media --- and that they need to keep up a persona on social media websites.

Of most concern to doctors in the survey findings was how teens dealt with stress. Forty-six percent of teens responded that playing video games was their way to manage stress, 43 percent said they surf the internet and only 37 percent said that they would exercise or walk.

This summer, C-HIT worked with 75 students in a 'newsroom' setting, with each student researching, reporting and writing his or her own story,  working with complex databases and conducting interviews.  The 2014 workshops were supported by organizations and individual donors including the Dow Jones News Fund, William Graustein, the Fisher Foundation, People’s Bank, the Knox Foundation, Quinnipiac University, and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. The journalism workshops will be offered again next summer.

Photo:  Among the C-HIT students are (left to right) Mackenzie Brayman, a student at North Stonington High School; Julyanna Schreider and Shamoya Hanson, students at the Journalism & Media Academy, Hartford; Talon Cooper, a student at Hillhouse High School, New Haven; and Conner Fritchley, a student at Wilton High School. Information included in this article was researched and developed by the students for their news stories.

Additional investigative news stories by the students participating in the C-HIT summer journalism program can be seen at http://c-hit.org/

UConn is One of 10 Colleges Selected for Program to Recruit Minority Male Teachers

According to data collected by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), 80 percent of PK-12 teachers nationwide are white, middle-class women, and more than 40 percent of public schools have no teachers of color. Studies by the National Center for Education Statistics report that 2 percent of public school teachers are black males and fewer are Hispanic males. Forty percent of Connecticut public school students will never have a teacher who is not white, according to the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), noting that "although minority students account for over a third of Connecticut's public school students, only 7 percent of the state's teachers and 2 percent of the administrators in Connecticut's public schools are minorities."

If those numbers are to change and reflect a more diverse teacher population, recruitment of teacher candidates will be a pivotal component, education officials point out.

With that objective in mind, the University of Connecticut has been selected as one of 10 universities nationwide to participate in a program that seeks to increase the diversity of the teacher candidate pool. The Neag School of Education at UConn as part of the Networked Improvement Community (NIC), an AACTE initiative aimed at recruiting more black and Hispanic men into teacher preparation programs.

UConn, a member of the 800-member AACTE, was selected to participate in the organization’s first Networked Improvement Community project, which seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s teacher candidate pool. The other institutions selected are Boston University, California State University Fullerton, Florida Atlantic University, MidAmerica Nazarene University, Northeastern Illinois University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Saint Thomas, Western Kentucky University, and William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Saroja Barnes, senior director for professional issues at AACTE, says universities were selected for the program based on great diversity within the school districts and community they serve, alignment of the project’s goals to the existing strategic initiatives and mission of the institution, and strategic attention to enrollment trends.

According to a study last year by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 82 percent of candidates who received bachelor’s degrees in education in 2009-10 and 2010-11 were white. By contrast, census figures show that close to half of all children under 5 in 2008 were members of a racial or ethnic minority, The New York Times reported.

In the 2013 study, AACTE surveyed close to 700 colleges and universities that train just under two-thirds of new teachers, finding that few candidates graduate with credentials to teach math, science, special education or English as a second language, all subjects that experts say are increasingly important to prepare students for jobs and to meet the demands of an increasingly diverse student population.

A report by the Center for American Progress, Increasing Teacher Diversity: Strategies to Improve the Teacher Workforce indicated in 2011 that “increasing the number of teachers of color is not only a matter of a philosophical commitment to diversity in career opportunities.

Teachers of color provide real-life examples to minority students of future career paths. In this way, increasing the number of current teachers of color may be instrumental to increasing the number of future teachers of color. And while there are effective teachers of many races, teachers of color have demonstrated success in increasing academic achievement for engaging students of similar backgrounds.”  Adds CREC, "It is important that all children have access to positive role models from a variety of backgrounds in order to be successful in an increasingly global society."

Thomas DeFranco, Dean of the Neag School, says goals for expanding the diversity of teacher preparation within the Neag School of Education align closely with the objectives of AACTE. Those efforts, according to UConn Today, include the creation of the Teacher Prep Academy in Bulkeley High School in Hartford; designation of an academic advisor specifically charged with recruiting minority students into the Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Program; and providing a variety of scholarship opportunities, such as the Connecticut State Minority Teacher Incentive Grants.

More than 50 member institutions in 25 states applied to be a part of the inaugural NIC and 10 were selected following a rigorous review by the AACTE Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability.

Jonathan's Dream Reimagined to Kick-Off Next Chapter

The original Jonathan's Dream playground, inspired by the Barzach family of West Hartford and built in 1996 as what would become the prototype for Boundless Playgrounds across the country, an inclusive, accessible play space for families and children of all abilities. It was a vibrant playground until 2013, when time and heavy usage of the wooden playground necessitated that it be taken down. But now, community leaders are back at it again, developing plans for what is described as “Jonathan's Dream Reimagined” – a new playground that will be accessible to children of all abilities - and include some new innovations for today's children.  Sunday, July 27, from 12 Noon to 3 PM,  will be the kick-off for the new effort, with free activities for children at the Mandell Jewish Community Center, site of the playground.

The new Jonathan's Dream will be designed to extend the original legacy with an engaging playground that keeps children of all ages and abilities active and moving. Leadership Greater Hartford (LGH) has convened a taskforce of alumni from its Quest and Third Age Initiative programs to help rebuild the new Jonathan's Dream, working with the Mandell JCC.. The project is also supported by Shane’s Inspiration and Jumpstart, along with a “Dream Team” of local agencies and individuals who have joined forces to advance the initiative.

Jonathan’s Dream Re-Imagined will be rebuilt three to six months after the needed funds are raised. Donations to help rebuild Jonathan’s Dream will be accepted at the July kick-off event. The project to rebuild Jonathan’s Dream is expected to cost $950,000 and, once funds are raised, will take three to six months to complete.

The original Jonathan’s Dream (photo at right), a wooden, wheelchair- accessible, inter-generational playground, was built by more than 1,000 volunteers in 1996 in memory of Jonathan Barzach, who died before his first birthday. Had Jonathan lived, he would have needed to use a wheelchair for his entire life. His family imagined that in Jonathan’s dreams, he would have wanted children of all abilities to be able to play and celebrate together.

Jonathan’s Dream was one of the first inclusive playgrounds in the country.  It led the way for the nonprofit organization Boundless Playgrounds, which coordinated the construction of similar playgrounds throughout the country.  Today, more than 100,000 children play on more than 200 Boundless Playgrounds in 31 states.

It began in Connecticut, with the inspirational leadership of Amy Barzach, Jonathan's mom. Back in 1994, she was at a playground with her two sons when she noticed a little girl in a wheelchair who could not join in the fun because the playground was not accessible to her.  A year later, she remembered that little girl when disability, then tragedy, reached her family, with Jonathan's passing.  With husband Peter and son Daniel, they began the effort to build an inclusive playground, and called it Jonathan's Dream.

To learn more about Jonathan’s Dream Reimagined please visit www.jonathansdreamreimagined.org.

State Comparison Ranks Connecticut Students #4 in College Prep Test Results

Where have all the smart kids gone? Apparently, north. A state-by-state comparison map compiled by the website FindTheBest shows that when it comes to American students' standardized test scores, the North is dominating the South. And Connecticut is a top ten state, ranking at number 4.

The students with the best scores were in the states of New Hampshire, Minnesota and Massachusetts. Most of the New England states - except Maine and Rhode Island - reached the top ten.  New York was lower down the list, with a score in the 70's.  The lowest scores came out of Arkansas (60) and Mississippi (59).

To create the map, researchers looked at each state's scores for the SAT, ACT, AP and National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, using data from each state's department of education.  Each state was assigned a score based on the comparison, out of 100.

The top ranked states:

1. New Hampshire 100
2. Massachusetts 98
3. Minnesota 98
4. Connecticut 96
5. New Jersey 95
6. Wisconsin 95
7. Vermont 94
8. North Dakota 92
9. South Dakota 92
10. Iowa 92
11. Ohio 90
12. Missouri 90
13. Kansas 90
14. Utah 89
15. Pennsylvania 86
16. Illinois 86

Greater Hartford Ranked #19 Among Best Places for Graduates in STEM Fields

If you’ve graduated college with a solid background and degree in hand in one of the in-demand STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), there are some regions in America that are better than others to pursue your career. A new comparison of metropolitan areas across the country has ranked Greater Hartford as the 19th most desirable area in the country for college graduates who studied one of the STEM fields.

Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford finished just ahead of San Diego – Carlsbad – San Marcos, California. One slot above Hartford in the rankings was Columbus, Ohio. Boston and Hartford were the only northeast cities to make the top 20 list.

Of all the jobs in the Hartford-West-Hartford-East-Hartford metropolitan area — which covers Hartford, Tolland and Middlesex counties — 6.6 percent were in STEM fields. That fact alone accounted for 50 percent of the total score Nerd Wallet assigned to the metro area, Hartford Business Journal reported. It also accounted for the area's $81,932 median annual wage for STEM jobs and its median gross apartment rent of $948.

The website Nerd Wallet determined the best places for STEM graduates by analyzing the following factors in the 75 largest U.S. metropolitan areas:

• Income levels for STEM jobs: They looked at the annual mean wage for STEM occupations in each metro area, and factored in median gross rent as a cost of living metric to see how far the average income goes in each place.
• Size of STEM industries: They included STEM occupations as a percentage of all jobs in a city to measure the robustness of the STEM industries and gauge availability of STEM jobs.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean wage for a STEM job is $79,395 — nearly 71% higher than the national annual average wage across all occupations and industries.  The top 10:

1. San Jose – Sunnyvale – Santa Clara, California
2. Seattle – Bellevue – Everett, Washington
3. Washington, DC – Arlington, VA – Alexandria
4. Houston – Sugar Land – Baytown
5. San Francisco – San Mateo – Redwood City, California
6. Austin – Round Rock – San Marcos, Texas
7. Boston – Cambridge – Quincy, Massachusetts
8. Raleigh – Cary, North Carolina
9. Denver – Aurora – Broomfield, Colorado
10. Dayton, Ohio

The analysis used U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from May 2013 and rent data from the 2012 U.S. Census.

The region's focus on the STEM fields begins well before college graduation.  One recent example:  earlier this year, the CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering was ranked 15th in the nation and first in Connecticut in U.S. News & World Report's latest "Best High Schools" edition. The Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy in East Hartford ranked 31st nationally and second in the state.

New CT Law Responds to Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Student Athletes As Debate Continues

Research shows that an EKG exam, coupled with a complete medical history, and a thorough physical exam is the best way to prevent sudden cardiac arrest. That statement, on the home page of the organization “Screen Across America,” is followed by this statistic: Cardiac arrest is the #1 cause of death of student athletes.” Screen Across America is a consortium of organizations that provide heart screenings to students. They have a presence in 26 states; Connecticut is not one of them. The organization “believes that this should be a standard of care because thousands of children die every year from sudden cardiac arrest.” New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont are among the states with local organizations advocating for screening. Connecticut does have a chapter in the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA). The Naugatuck-based chapter raises funds to place Automated External Defibrillators in Connecticut schools.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the divided opinion among the medical community, as well as athletics departments, athletes and parents. The publication reported that “whether to screen young athletes’ hearts – as is done in nations such as Italy and Israel – represents one of the hottest debates in American cardiology.”

The article noted that opponents and proponents of screening each have medical studies backing up their positions, and that proponents were encouraged recently when the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they would be creating a registry for studying sudden death among those 24 and younger.

Hartford Hospital’s chief of cardiology, Dr. Paul Thompson, told the WSJ that when a young athlete dies from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), “it probably could hve been detected. But when a screen finds it in a young athlete without symptoms, we don’t know that it ever would have caused him problems. Meanwhile, he gest labeled a cardiac cripple for life.”

The Screen Across America consortium does not have a particular organizational model across all locations. Each locale operates “independently of each other,” the website points out, with some being nonprofits and others for profits. “Some of us charge for heart screenings while others offer it free of charge. Our screening protocols may differ slightly. However, many of us have adopted the Seattle Criteria – a set of guidelines made by international experts in the field of sports cardiology,” the website explains.

Another organization advocating screening is “Parent Heart Watch,” which was founded in 2005, as was SCAA. It was started by four parents who each saw their child die from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). The organization’s website says that “research has shown that SCA is the leading cause of death on school property with one student athlete falling victim to SCA every three to four days. Heart disease is the second leading cause of disease-related fatalities in youth according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” The organization also provides information on timely, effective medical responses to cardiac arrest.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, SCA takes the lives of thousands of children every year. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates at least 2,000 such deaths occur annually, according to the website of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation. During the 2014 Connecticut legislative session, a proposal that became Public Act 14-93 earlier this month was approved, which will direct the State Board of Education, in conjunction with health experts, to develop a sudden cardiac arrest awareness program for use by local boards of education. The program must include information on:

• SCA warning signs and symptoms, including fainting, difficulty breathing, chest pain, dizziness and abnormal racing heart rate
• Risks of continued athletic activity after exhibiting SCA symptoms
• Means of obtaining treatment for a suspected occurrence of SCA
• Proper methods for returning students who experience SCA to athletics.

It will also require school coaches to:

• Review the SCA awareness program each school year, beginning in 2015
• Immediately remove students from play who show symptoms of SCA
• Not permit students removed from play to return without the written clearance of a licensed healthcare professional.

In addition, it calls for creation of a consent form for parents of student athletes to sign on the warning signs, symptoms and treatment of SCA and relevant school policies. Similar legislation has already been adopted in Pennsylvania, several other states are also considering SCA bills, according to the SCAF. The provisions of the new law take effect a year from now, with the school year that begins in the fall of 2015.

Connecticut’s legislation was inspired in part by the tragic story of Andy Peña, a Darien student athlete who died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2011, just one month away from turning 15. Andy’s parents, Victor and Giovanna, founded the Andy Smiles Forever Foundation in his memory, to educate the general public and support research on the causes and prevention of sudden cardiac death amongst youth, officials said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hiheVyvFQiA

Efforts to Connect Entrepreneurs Hit the Road Statewide

Some have suggested that the road back for Connecticut’s economy will be built one entrepreneur at a time. If that is the key to an economic rebound, an initiative by New Haven-based company Independent Software is looking to ramp up the process by gathering entrepreneurs in bunches. In fact, New Haven will be the next stop on eight-month Whiteboard Startup Roadshow tour across Connecticut, in the midst of the city’s celebrated International Festival of Arts and Ideas this week. Organizers indicate that cities like New Haven are “overflowing with impossible ideas and the people who make them happen. We believe connecting to all three -- the place, the thinking, and the people -- can increase the probability of success for others who have impossible ideas.”

On Thursday June 26, from 2-5pm, The Whiteboard is bringing together New Haven area innovators and entrepreneurs for “a little history and to talk about the future.” The “Roadshow” stopped in Hartford last month, with a well-attended program at the reSET co-working space downtown.

Following the Arts and Ideas' "Innovation in the Ninth Square" walking tour of The Grove, SeeClickFix, and MakeHaven, individuals are asked to gather at Luck and Levity for an Open House and Entrepreneur Showcase beginning at 2 PM, followed at 4 PM by perspectives offered by:

• Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky, New Haven Museum
• Elon Boms, Launch Capital
• Jim Gregory, Core Informatics

The Whiteboard - and the The Whiteboard Start-Up Roadshow – is operated by Independent Software, which runs from The Grove co-working space in New Haven, and is supported by CT Next.

Following a kickoff event in New Haven on April 1, the tour moved on to Stamford in April, then to Hartford in May, back to New Haven this week. In eight months’ time, organizers “expect to have a treasure trove of stories from each region and to see a larger, stronger, and more connected startup community state-wide.”  The list of cities to be visited for gatherings of local entrepreneurs is below. 

Independent Software works with early-stage entrepreneurs “to develop the products, talent, and community they need to thrive.” The company also provides access to Connecticut’s vast startup community through The Whiteboard, which includes a diverse network of entrepreneurs, investors, and supporters.  The Whiteboard website outlines the Roadshow cities on the calendar:

• July: Bridgeport-Fairfield: In the context of the city’s own summer arts festival, we’ll shine a light on the amazing progress Bridgeport’s entrepreneurial scene has made in recent years, working closely with the B:Hive, the Business Council of Fairfield County and others.
• August: New London-Norwich: SECT Tech Center at Avery Point for bioscience startups and a robust arts scene makes the shoreline a unique place to start a business. Along with the New London-Groton area, Norwich is new territory for us so this area will be true exploration.
• September: Storrs-Windham: From incubators to partnerships with UTC and others, UConn Storrs is a hub of activity for a myriad of innovation startups. Windham’s history, arts and social entrepreneurship adds to the mix for this not-so-quiet corner of the state.
• October: Danbury-Waterbury: The Danbury Hacker Space is launching this year, and it’s just the beginning of activity for their entrepreneurs. As one of Connecticut’s many factory towns, Waterbury is looking to leverage its buildings to help launch small businesses.
• November: Middletown-Meriden: As a connection point between the shore and Hartford, this area has pockets of innovation that you wouldn’t suspect. We hear rumblings of a startup culture and look forward to unearthing what’s here.
• December: Torrington: Litchfield County is known for its organic farming and getaways. Yet, Torrington’s Warner Theater and energetic young politicians are fighting hard to be heard. We look forward to bringing these hidden gems to you.

Nicknames Tomahawks, Redmen, Chiefs, Warriors Remain in CT High School Sports

The New Haven Register editorial page has called on Connecticut high schools to do what Washington’s NFL franchise has thus far refused to do. Get with the times. The Register reports that “at least 23 high school teams in the state have names associated with Native Americans that could be considered offensive, from the Derby and Torrington Red Raiders to the Nonnewaug Chiefs or the Killingly Redmen and Glastonbury Tomahawks. Names containing Indians or Warriors are also popular among the state’s high schools,” the paper indicated.

“While these names may have initially been created with the thinking they were honoring Connecticut’s rich history, they are not only offensive, but keep us rooted in a culture of racism that has lingered for too long. And while a name change may temporarily disrupt the identity of the school and its sports teams, if done right, it can be successful and be used to the school’s advantage.”

The list of team nicknames that are of concern varies. Some consider “Indians” inappropriate, yet the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB) have received virtually none of the criticism that has been leveled at the NFL’s Washington franchise. MLB’s Atlanta Braves fans have long been known for doing the “tomahawk chop” at teams’ games, and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs are not seen as being as offensive as the franchise name used in D.C.

Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford recently told WFSB-TV that the school’s teams no longer officially use the name “Indians,” but as of this week, the schools website continued to feature its parent booster club as the “Tomahawk Club.” At Glastonbury High School, the athletics teams are called the “Tomahawks.”

There have been some changes among Connecticut’s high schools and colleges, as the Register indicates. “Quinnipiac University, for example, changed the names of its sports teams and mascot in 2002 from Braves to Bobcats. At the time the name change was announced, the school indicated that ‘the university community clearly recognized the difficulties of using a name that has the potential to misrepresent and denigrate an entire group of people. And, despite our clear intention to honor and remember the Native Americans once known as the Quinnipiaks, to do so only through athletics was found to be no longer appropriate.’”

In addition, “Newtown changed its name from Indians to Nighthawks. Its old Indian chief mascot had previously been discarded. Hall High School in West Hartford voted in 2012 to change its logo and mascot, but kept its team name, the Warriors,” the Register reported.

Among the Connecticut high schools that have received some attention on local and national websites are those with Indians, Chiefs, Warriors, Raiders, Sachems, Tomahawks, Redmen, Red Raiders and Chieftans (see below).

Two years ago, the Hartford Courant reported that a national Native American rights organization, the Morning Star Institute, indicated that “two-thirds of Native American symbols in educational sports have been eliminated since 1970. Among the colleges that have changed nicknames are St. John's University in New York, from the "Redmen" to the "Red Storm," and Marquette in Wisconsin, from the "Warriors" to the "Golden Eagles."

The unofficial list of high school team nicknames that are receiving attention in the midst of the Washington NFL franchise controversy:

Canton High School (Warriors), Conard (West Hartford) High School (Chieftans), Derby High School (Red Raiders),Enfield High School (Raiders), Farmington High School (Indians), Glastonbury High School (Tomahawks), Guilford High School (Indians), Hall (West Hartford) High School (Warriors), H.C. Wilcox Technical (Meriden) High School (Indians),Killingly High School (Redmen), Manchester Senior High School (Indians), Montville High School (Indians), Newington High School (Indians), Nonnewaug (Woodbury) High School (Chiefs), North Haven Senior High School (Indians), Northwest Catholic (West Hartford) High School (Indians), Norwich Regional Vocational Technical School (Warriors), RHAM Junior Senior High School (Sachems), Torrington High School (Red Raiders), Valley Regional (Deep River) High School (Warriors), Wamogo (Litchfield) Regional High School (Warriors), Watertown High School (Indians), Wilcox Technical (Meriden) High School (Indians), Wilton High School (Warriors), Windsor High School (Warriors), Windsor Locks High School (Raiders).

12 Connecticut School Districts Named "Best Communities for Music Education"

Twelve Connecticut school districts have been named as being among the nation’s Best Communities for Music Education (BCME). The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation recognized 376 school districts across the country for exemplary music education programs. These districts and schools “set the bar in offering students access to comprehensive music education.”

The Connecticut school districts earning the recognition are: Avon, Canton, Cheshire, Glastonbury, Greenwich, Newington, Newtown, Southington, Torrington, West Hartford, Weston and Westport.

The BCME program applauds the efforts of teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders working to assure that music education is part of the core curriculum. More than 2000 schools and school districts participated in this year’s survey, according to the Foundation.

Now in its 15th year, the BCME program evaluates schools and districts based on funding, staffing of highly qualified teachers, commitment to standards, and access to music instruction. The NAMM Foundation with the assistance of researchers at The Institute for Educational Research and Public Service of Lawrence, Kansas (an affiliate of the University of Kansas) evaluate participants on these factors. Designations are made to districts and schools that demonstrate an exceptionally high commitment and greater access to music education.

“These schools and districts make a strong commitment to music education in the core curriculum supporting its essential value to a well-rounded education for every child,” said Mary Luehrsen, NAMM Foundation executive director.

A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts. Johnson compares the concentration that music training requires to the focus needed to perform well on a standardized test, according to an article published by the Public Broadcasting System.

Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University and an author of a recent study that was published in The Journal of Neuroscience in November 2013, looked at 44 healthy adults ages 55 to 76, measuring electrical activity in a region of the brain that processes sound. The New York Times reported that they found that participants who had four to 14 years of musical training had faster responses to speech sounds than participants without any training — even though no one in the first group had played an instrument for about 40 years.

The BCME program is described as one of the NAMM Foundation’s foremost efforts to bolster support for school-based music education programs “that must be available for all children. Providing music education for all students is something any community can accomplish if it has the collective will to do so, regardless of size or affluence,” the organization points out.

The NAMM Foundation is a non-profit supported in part by the National Association of Music Merchants and its 9,000 members around the world. The NAMM Foundation works to advance active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs.

The full list of school districts is available on the NAMM Foundation website.