Student Spotlight

It is always a pleasure to highlight an outstanding student for the distinguished Henry Barnard Award, and this year’s choice in Psychological Science is Ms. Helena Swanson. Helena is an honor’s student with a 3.87 GPA, who has not only excelled in her classwork, but who taken advantage of every opportunity during her time at Central Connecticut State University.

Academically, Helena has excelled taking challenging and demanding coursework, often scoring at the top of the class. Not only did she excel in coursework in Psychological Science, but also in her minor, Gerontology. She worked with several colleagues in the department on research and co-authored four accepted poster presentations to submit to the Eastern Psychological Association conference, the Southern Gerontological Society conference, and an upcoming American Psychological Association conference. She has co-authored grant applications to help cover the costs associated with travel to these conferences. She also is working on a manuscript with Dr. Joanne DiPlacido on perceived control and academic performance, examining the mediating effect of good nutritional habits. Helena is also working with Dr. Andrea June learning how to conduct a program evaluation at the Newington Senior Center, helping the center to assess whether they are meeting the educational, entertainment, and the physical needs of residents of the center. She has realized the importance of honing research skills and is taking full advantage of working with several faculty members in the department on different studies. She plans to go to graduate school to become a community or health psychologist and realizes that these experiences will make her a better candidate for a doctoral program in psychology. She has already been accepted to the Depaul University’s Ph.D. program in Community Psychology!

Helena not only has taken advantage of academic experiences, but several leadership roles within the Department. Working with Dr. Caleb Bragg, she enrolled as a peer tutor working in his Research Methods I and II classes. As a designated tutor, she would help students in the classroom as they tried to master statistical tests, helping them with the theory behind the tests, showing them how to perform the tests within SPSS (a statistical software package used in the Social Sciences), and finally, showing them how to report their results in APA style. She has also served as the Department’s peer tutor intern for the past 2 semesters, overseeing the scheduling and helping with the training of the other peer tutors under Dr. Bragg’s supervision.

In addition, Helena was very active in the international Honors Society, Psi Chi, assuming the role of President for this academic year. She has also served as the Vice-President of the chapter. Our Psi Chi chapter is very active, and Helena has spearheaded a number of initiatives, including the Help Helped Me initiative, providing information and resources to students about psychiatric disorders. Helena also has served as the Treasurer and Secretary/Public Relations for the Gerontology Club. Recognized for her outstanding academic excellence and Psi Chi involvement, Helena recently was awarded a Psi Chi undergraduate scholarship, one of eight nationally available scholarships for the international honor’s society. She has also been inducted into the National Gerontology Honor Society.

Helena has also been awarded a number of accolades within our department, including the Royster/Mariani Scholarship and the CCSU ITBD Golf Tournament Scholarship for academic excellence, the Shannette Washington Outstanding Service Award for her service to Psi Chi and the Department’s peer tutoring, and the Outstanding Research Award in Psychological Science for her work with Dr. Joanne DiPlacido.

Helena has also been devoted to service to her community. She has coordinated and run the Mood Matter’stable for CCSU’s Fresh Check Day, raised money for the Gerontology Club and participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Disease, and helped with the construction of roads, a nursing home, hospital, and school during a mission trip to Haiti. She has also worked with adults with intellectual disabilities, helping them with basic skills, as well as participating in a soup kitchen to serve food to the community.

Helena Swanson has also realized the importance of being an active member of our professional organizations, broadening her knowledge of what it is to be a psychologist and enhancing her professional network through student memberships in the Society for Community Research and Action and the American Psychological Association. I believe that Helena embodies the achievements and characteristics of a student worthy of the Barnard Award. I believe that she will have a bright future as a psychologist!

Carolyn R. Fallahi, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Psychological Science
Central Connecticut State University

Episode 8 of Season 4 of Seinfeld, called “The Opera,” is a farce of mistaken identity.

Kramer gets the gang tickets to Pagliacci, Crazy Joe Davola disguises himself as the title character in order to get into the theater and get revenge on the gang, and hilarity ensues.

Ken Ludwig’s play Lend Me a Tenor operates in much same way. Set in 1934 Cleveland, OH, the production introduces audiences to the Saunders family, directors of a theater preparing to host Tito Morelli, a world-famous opera singer. After Mr. Saunders’ assistant, Max, mistakes Tito for being dead, he must take the stage in Tito’s place, disguising himself in full costume and leading everyone—including the opera staff and performers—to believe Tito is still alive. Which he is. But no one knows this until Act II.

Lend Me a Tenor is a farce, in other words, as director Christie Maturo notes, “an exaggerated comedy that relies on horseplay, slapstick, and characters who often find themselves in improbable situations.” The characters are constantly confused or angry. The plotline, ridiculous in the best sense.

The CCSU students performing fully leaned into the production’s intent, bursting through doors and running at each other across the set in Scooby-Doo-esque chase scenes. There’s sex and jokes and jokes about sex and each level of the production builds on the next, creating a cycle of hilarious tension that keeps audience members on the edge of their seats.

English major Steve Kalpin, who played Max, carried the role with all the charming awkwardness of a young Roddy McDowell, while James Angelopoulos, playing the Saunders patriarch, gave Daddy Warbucks with anger management issues.

The theme for this season’s Black Box production was laughs, and while Maturo was not yet CCSU faculty when Lend Me a Tenor was selected, she says the show is a good fit because “[farces] are crowd pleasers.”

While the show was no doubt difficult to perform, requiring a “good understanding of comedic timing and choreography,” the student actors pulled it off with the seasoned professionalism of a big-time production.

Even Kramer would have been impressed.

The next time you are at a football game, check out the beautiful new uniforms that the marching band is wearing! Under the direction of Band Director, Dr. Robert Schwartz, the CCSU Marching Band is looking very professional! President Zulma Toro provided the funds for the much-needed uniforms. The band students participated in the design and the result is a professional exciting new look! Percussion Section Leader Eric Stefano noted that the previous uniforms were 20 years old and starting to fall apart!

Drum Major and senior, Savannah Moore, has been with the marching band since 2016, was one of the students chosen to work on the design. Working closely with Stanbury Uniforms, the students talked with them about the type of uniform, the shape, the color, the shakos (the hats they wear), and the gauntlets. Savannah, a music major and hopes to be a future band director, felt that this experience was invaluable! Eric Stefano emphasized that the uniforms needed to be durable so that they would last another 20 years!

After giving their input for the design, the company sent out 3 different drawn out prototype designs. Students gave feedback on the changes they hoped to see. Last June the uniforms arrived and everyone is so pleased with the outcome! All of the students wanted to again thank both President Toro and Chair of the Music Department, Dr. Carlotta Parr!

In the small town of Arenys De Munt, Spain, seven-year-old Bruna Vila Artigues picks up a basketball for the first time, unaware of just how much it would change her life. Now, 21-years-old in her final year of college, the Central Connecticut senior is wrapping up her last season as a D1 Blue Devil athlete.

“I thought it was beyond my skill to end up in New England at a division one university,” Vila Artigues said. “If I had never tried out for that one team when I was younger, I don’t think I would have been able to move across the world.”

Coming from a town of dominantly male sports teams, it was the one girls basketball team in her hometown that introduced Vila Artigues to a passion she didn’t know she had.

“I was very good right off the bat and I seemed to be evolving quickly. It was definitely luck, but good luck,” Vila Artigues said. “I would have never expected it, and then it happened. But I never even questioned playing it [basketball]. It was all natural”

For Vila Artigues, it was only upwards from here. After playing with her team throughout her teenage years, she found herself playing more professionally and purposefully. It was her impressive performance at Casper College in Wyoming that helped established her basketball career.

“Playing at Casper was a great experience, it’s what helped me make a name for myself in basketball,” Vila Artigues continued. “Because of me playing there, CCSU ended up reaching out to my current coaches. We ended up talking back and forth, and I eventually ended up committing. I was surprised the Central basketball team wanted me because they were such a higher-level group.”

Although it was an initially difficult transition moving from Spain to Connecticut, Vila Artigues has felt nothing but comfortability and purpose playing basketball at Central.

“It's definitely a hard transition when you come from Spain to live in a different country. I really missed, and still do, the culture of my hometown. But thankfully, I am very comfortable with my team and coaches here. Especially now that I’m a senior, I have more confidence and higher hopes for my success this playing season,” Vila Artigues said.

Not only is Vila Artigues planning for success on the court, but her academics are an important role in her time here in the states. Currently a Media Studies major and Journalism minor, the 21-year-old is making sure she keeps an equal balance between sports and studies.

“I’m really used to having a lot of things to do and having them always on my mind,” Vila Artigues said. “It’s important to me that I keep up with my academics and make that a top priority, not just basketball. If I have an hour in between classes and practice, I'm going to spend that hour doing my homework and not taking a nap.”

With an emphasis on multimedia production, Vila Artigues has involved herself in the campus newspaper The Recorder, taking on her new role this semester as Assistant News Editor. In addition to her on-campus interests, Vila Artigues hopes to dive further into her passion for photography.

“I don’t do it as often as I would like, but I love photography. I love going out with my friends and having a photoshoot and editing,” Vila Artigues continued. “I think it’s important to make more time for personal interests that don’t always have to be school related.”

As Vila Artigues tackles her final year at Central, she hopes to finish out strong with a successful season of basketball and her degree. With the end of school in the horizon, she has plans in hope to return to Spain and be reunited with her family.

“I can’t really see myself living here after college, at least for now,” Vila Artigues said. “I love the culture back at home so much, and I hope I can find work related to my major there as well. I might even want to get my masters degree out there too, or eventually travel to Europe in hopes for an internship. But as for basketball, I’m just focusing on being.