UConn Neag School Announces the 2024 Rogers Fund Winner

The UConn Neag School of Education announces the 2024 recipient of the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund as Victoria Raucci, of New Haven, Connecticut, a magnet resource teacher at Davis Academy for Arts and Design Innovation in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Rogers Educational Innovation Fund, designated by Neag School of Education Professor Emeritus Vincent Rogers, provides a $5,000 award available annually to support innovative projects carried out by Connecticut teachers at the elementary or middle school levels. This gift is intended to support and expand the innovative, collaborative work of Connecticut’s classroom teachers and the Neag School of Education.

“The Rogers Award Committee was ecstatic to see the possibility of supporting opportunities for students in ways that seek to reduce racial isolation through the Davis Academy for Arts and Design Innovation’s magnet theme of arts and design,” says Todd Campbell, professor and head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Neag School, who chaired the 2024 Rogers Fund selection committee.

“The project will create 28 clubs that students can choose from for a class period each week to engage in such activities as creating podcasts, music, and digital media,” Campbell says. “Through these clubs, the school, led by Victoria Raucci, seeks to celebrate students’ creativity in ways that powerfully meet the aims of the Rogers Award and the Neag School of Education.”

Raucci will receive $5,000 in support of her proposed project, “Davis Academy for Arts and Design Innovation School Clubs Program.” Raucci outlines their hope to “increase attendance and engagement to help students meet academic goals.” She and the principal, Marisa Asarisi, plan on using the CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) framework to assist students with SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) by offering clubs of high interest during the school day.

Raucci was formally recognized at the 2024 Neag School Alumni Awards Celebration, which took place earlier this month at UConn Storrs. Read more about the Rogers Fund at rogersfund.uconn.edu.