Thirty years ago this week, by votes of 377 to 28 in the House and 91 to 6 in the Senate, the United States Congress passed, and President George Herbert Walker Bush signed, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), among the most significant pieces of legislation since the Second World War. The principal author of the legislation was former Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker.

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.”