What Podcasts Can Teach Us About Teaching?
A co-written blog “The Pedagogy of Podcasts” by Kristi Kaeppel, a graduate student in the Neag School’s educational leadership program, was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education. She also was featured in a UConn 360 podcast in May.
Neag School Accolades – June-August 2018
Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom, outlined in this month’s issue of Neag School Accolades.
HESA Kicks Off Academic Year with Ice Cream Social
At the end of a long day of orientation and welcome-back programming, HESA was excited to bring together incoming and returning students, alums, and faculty to enjoy some ice cream! Click here to see the rest of the photos.
Birks Picks Deputy, Assistant Superintendents
Current ELP student, Keisha Redd-Hannans, was recently appointed Deputy Superintendent in the New Haven Public Schools, noted in the New Haven Independent.
2018 PK-3 Leadership Program Testimonial
Summer 2018: Issue Briefs
Issue Brief: The Impact of Undocumented Status on Children’s Learning
Chelsea Connery ’13 (ED), ’14 MA, a former public school teacher and now a Neag School doctoral student in the Learning, Leadership, and Education Policy program, prepared the following issue brief — in affiliation with the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) — about the impact of undocumented status on children’s learning, as well as the implications for schools.
Greenwich School System Coordinator Takes Hartford Job
ELP alumna, Viviana Conner, recently announced that she has accepted a position with the Hartford Public Schools as the Executive Director for Elementary and Middle School Grades, which is scheduled to begin in July 2018, as noted by ThePatch.com
A Rural School Turns to Digital Education. Is it a Savior or Devil’s Bargain?
Lessons from the Field: Dr. H. Kenny Nienhusser
The word students often use to describe Dr. H. Kenny Nienhusser is “passionate.” From the very beginning of his career, passion has been a driving force for Nienhusser. His first professional position was as a Residence Hall Director at Stony Brook University in New York, and it was there that the idea of a career in higher education and student affairs occurred to him.
“It was the first seed of thinking, wow, there’s this whole field that exists,” says Nienhusser. “The residential program I worked in was very focused on making the bridge between theory and practice … it was very deliberate in thinking about how professionals could better meet the needs of students by making ourselves well-informed practitioners. This was achieved by reading scholarly work. And that was the first time I thought: wouldn’t it be cool to one day publish in one of these journals I’m reading, to help inform practice?”
He was a Hall Director at Stony Brook for three years while he worked simultaneously on his master’s degree in social work (MSW). In 2001, he completed his MSW and decided he was ready for more. “I come from Latino immigrant parents and education is a very important
value in my community,” Nienhusser says. “Education was always something I wanted to further pursue.” By this point, his passion for higher education and student affairs was growing. He accepted a job at Teachers College, Columbia University and soon after that began his doctoral studies there.
Over the next nearly 10 years, Nienhusser ‘chipped away’ at his Ed.D. while working full-time at Teachers College, first as Assistant Director of Housing and then as Director of Academic
Administration. Since completing his Ed.D. in 2011, he has taught at Teachers College and University of Hartford, and now brings his expertise to UConn.
Dr. Nienhusser’s research focuses broadly on the high school to college transition of underrepresented minoritized populations in higher education, and especially the undocumented and DACAmented communities. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a U.S. federal program that provides a stay of deportation for some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. before the age of 16. Recently, Dr. Nienhusser has been investigating how higher education professionals obtain awareness, knowledge, and skills in relation to issues that affect undocu/DACAmented students’ postsecondary education access.
The complexity of this question, although challenging, is also one of the most compelling parts of his research, says Nienhusser. “It’s a complicated and fascinating phenomenon to examine,” he says. “You’re tapping into federal policies, state policies, and institutional policies. And you’re also looking at how these policies are implemented at the individual level by education institutional agents. The financial aid officer, the admissions counselor who’s sitting behind a desk working: how do they make meaning of this complex policy environment along with their personal beliefs and professional values?”
Dr. Nienhusser says he hopes his work informs and supports higher education institutional agents as they try to meet the needs of the undocu/DACAmented student population.
“What undocu/DACAmented students are living through is so very troubling,” says Nienhusser. “If I can make a positive impact at even one or two institutions, I’m happy.”
The reach of Dr. Nienhusser’s work extends far beyond one or two institutions, however. Just as he once imagined during his time at Stony Brook University, he has published in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, the Journal of College Admission, Research in Higher Education, Community College Review, The Review of Higher Education, among others.
His current project is something he says he’s really excited about: working with a group of scholars in the field to disseminate work related with the undocu/DACAmented community. For this project, the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s (ASHE) Presidential Commission on Undocumented Immigrants (of which Nienhusser is co-chair) UndocuScholars (at UCLA), and UConn’s Neag School of Education have partnered to create a research brief dissemination series this academic year, and Nienhusser is kicking it off this October with a Twitter chat regarding his brief, “Implementation of Public and Institutional Policies for Undocu/DACAmented Students at Higher Education Institutions.”
When asked what advice he would give to students and emerging practitioners, Dr. Nienhusser’s passion for his work once again shows through. “Never stop learning,” he says without hesitation. “I always say that to my students: I’m learning with you. It is so important that as practitioners we never stop learning.”
Dr. Nienhusser’s Twitter chat (“Implementation of Public and Institutional Policies for Undocu/DACAmented Students at Higher Education Institutions”) will take place on October 16, 2018 at 11 a.m. PST. Those interested can RSVP here, join the conversation using the hashtag #UndocEdu, and follow Dr. Nienhusser on Twitter at @kennynien.
Preston Green Served on NEPC Research Panel
EDLR’s Dr. Preston Green recently served on the 12th Annual National Education Policy Center (NEPC)’s research panel, held on Sept. 14, 2018. The talk was titled The Challenge of Making Research Usable and Used and included panelists:
Erica Frankenberg from Pennsylvania State University
Genevieve Siegel-Hawley from Virginia Commonwealth University
Preston Green from the University of Connecticut
The panel discussion was open to all faculty, students and community members and was held at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Nienhusser Joins AERA Books Editorial Board, 2018-2022
Congratulations to HESA’s Dr. H. Kenny Nienhusser who recently accepted a four year term serving on the AERA Books Editorial Board.
The Books Editorial Board presides over the books publishing program of the association and enables the association to serve as a publisher of books of excellence and importance to the research community, and to practitioners and policymakers interested in education research. AERA publishes works to advance knowledge, to expand access to significant research and research analyses and syntheses, and to promote knowledge utilization. The Books Editorial Board is an eight person committee who will serve as the board of advisors for books and book series.
Neag School Accolades – June-August 2018
Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom, outlined in this month’s issue of Neag School Accolades.
Three Keys to Success for College Freshmen
Hartford Courant (EDLR’s Richard Schwab co-writes Op-Ed on tips for college freshman)
Dangerous Stereotypes Stalk Black College Athletes
Sport Management’s Dr. Joseph Cooper pens commentary for The Conversation in a recent article focusing on Black college athletes.
Fall 2018 Faculty Appointments
Editor’s Note: This story has been altered from its original form. The original story, written by Stefanie Dion Jones, appeared on the UConn Neag School of Education website on August 20, 2018.
EDLR welcomes two new faculty members effective August 23rd. Read more about the new faculty hires below!
Gerardo Blanco joins the Department of Educational Leadership as an assistant professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program. Previously, Blanco served as an assistant professor in the higher education doctoral program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He earned his Ed.D. in 2013 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He also has served as a summer visiting assistant professor since 2016 at Shaanxi Normal University in China. His research and teaching interests focus on quality assurance and internationalization in higher education.
H. Kenny Nienhusser arrives as an assistant professor in HESA as well. He joins the Neag School from the University of Hartford, where he served as an assistant professor in the doctoral program in educational leadership since 2012. He has more than 15 years of professional experience in student and academic affairs at several types of higher education institutions. His research and teaching interests include implementation of public and institutional policies that affect underserved students’ high school-to-college transition; higher education policy; and undocu/DACAmented students. Nienhusser earned his Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2011.
