Congressman John Lewis gave the commencement address at the University of Connecticut School of Law and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2012. Rep. Lewis, described as the Conscience of Congress, lived a remarkable life, one which inspired the graduates that day in Hartford.

The Office of State Treasurer Shawn Wooden coordinates an annual essay contest for Connecticut students in grades 6-8 titled “Dream Big,” offered as part of the Connecticut Higher Education Trust college savings program. Three of this year’s winning essays are reprinted here.

Social entrepreneurship has been around, in one form or another, for decades if not longer. Working to resolve our differences so, together, we can make our communities and our world a better place, is the “social” in social entrepreneur. At this point in time, it’s about healing the wounds inflicted by the pandemic and a legacy of racism and discrimination. We need that now.

As municipalities across the country begin to recover from COVID-19, Main Streets are witnessing unprecedented impacts on their small-business retail or commercial fabric. Ultimately, there may be more good news than bad in the aftermath of economic impact - there may be great opportunities to implement large-scale beneficial changes.

As a person of color living in one of the country’s poorest cities, it has been heartening to see how many people with privilege and power have turned up at protests against inequality and police brutality. As the protests fade, we must not forget about one of the most important perpetrators of fundamental inequalities in the country today: zoning.

My dad died because he couldn’t breathe. And George Floyd died because he could not breathe. It doesn’t matter whether it was from a police officer’s inadequacy or a doctor’s inadequacy, Black lives were lost at a disproportionate rate because the people we depend on for help do not give it to us the same way they give it to others.

Is remaining silent in the face of racial injustice an act of racism? Whether silence rises to the level of racism is open to debate; but it is, unequivocally and categorically, cowardly and insupportable. The leadership of the Connecticut Association of Schools, representing education leaders across the state, has shared its individual and collective perspectives.

The first class of Hartford Promise students – 75 strong – graduated from colleges in Connecticut and beyond, this spring. Two of the Hartford Promise scholars delivered messages to their fellow graduates, and the community, as part of the hour-long Night of Promise celebration webinar, honoring their graduation in the midst of challenging times. Their messages resonated with their peers and their community.

You might be familiar with the work of Eliot Noyes and not realize it. If you have ever used an IBM Selectric typewriter or stopped for gas at a Mobil station, you have encountered his work. From his home base in New Canaan, he was pioneering in a new way of thinking about design and the impact on business. Yet he would insist, “I am first an architect.”

Just as the world today is consumed with images of American law enforcement officers pepper-spraying peaceful protesters in front of the White House and pushing old men onto the sidewalk, so was the world transfixed by similar scenes during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. When Americans stand up successfully for their own rights as human beings, it gives inspiration and confidence to others, alighting the world in civil rights and democratic activism.