College Notes: Achievements By Ellington, Somers Students

ELLINGTON-SOMERS, CT — Here are some recent notable accomplishments by local college students, as provided by readMedia Newswire.

Champlain College, Burlington VT

• Raquel Robbins of Somers has been named to the Champlain College Dean's List for the spring 2019 semester. Students on the Dean's List have achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or higher during the semester. Robbins is majoring in Filmmaking.

Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic CT

• A group of student leaders at Eastern is serving as student orientation counselors (SOCs) for the SOAR program this summer. SOAR stands for Student Orientation, Advising and Registration and is the university's summer orientation program for new and incoming students. Among the SOCs leading SOAR this summer is Tyler Hubley of Ellington, who majors in Pre-Secondary Education Certification and Biology.
• School districts across the nation continue to face a lack of minority teachers. Eastern Connecticut State University student Sayantani Nandy of Ellington is working to alleviate this problem by participating in the Holmes Master's Program. On June 28, Eastern's cohort of Holmes students were honored at the program's annual luncheon.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA

• Twp local residents were among 1,598 students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) named to the university's Dean's List for academic excellence for the spring 2019 semester: Hannah Lowe of Ellington, a member of the class of 2020 majoring in biochemistry, and Valerie Courtemanche of Ellington, a member of the class of 2021 majoring in physics. The criteria for the WPI Dean's List differs from most other universities as WPI does not compute a grade point average (GPA). Instead, WPI defines the Dean's List by the amount of work completed at the A-level in courses and projects.