Southington Grad Earns Prestigious College Honor

Eastern Connecticut State University

SOUTHINGTON/WILLIMANTIC, CT — An Eastern Connecticut State University graduate from Southington earned a major undergraduate honor earlier this month.

Southington resident Kathryn Kubisek received the 2024 Henry Barnard Distinguished Student Award, the top academic honor for undergraduates in the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system.

It is given annually to 12 graduating seniors from Connecticut's four state universities.

Kubisek majored in Spanish and will continue at Willimantic-based Eastern for a year to earn her master's degree in elementary education in the Early Start graduate program.

She plans to teach elementary school in Connecticut.

This semester she is took education classes and completed a clinical experience in a third-grade classroom in Manchester.

She studied abroad last spring semester at the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain and has shared her experiences and mentored other students at the weekly Mesa de Espanol at Eastern.

She began studying Spanish in seventh grade and continued in college "because it is a beautiful language which I truly enjoy learning and because it is a useful skill to have," she said.

As a student leader with Eastern's Center for Community Engagement, she has volunteered in afterschool tutoring programs in the community and adult programs such as the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery and the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic.

"She is deeply civic-minded," said Lana O'Connor, director of the CCE.

Kubisek said she was surprised and pleased to receive the Barnard award "because it is a recognition of excellence in my studies and my commitment to community service."