2010 Legacy Students | Leadership Legacy Experience

Romana Haider

Area of Study: Political Science/Expected Human Rights
Home: South Windsor, CT
Faculty/Administrator Mentor: Dr. Bandana Purkayastha, Liberal Arts and Sciences
Alumni Mentor: Heather Rhoades ('96,'99 Law), Cummings and Lockwood
While at UConn: Interned with an immigration lawyer ~ Completed a field experience with migrant workers in Connecticut ~ Honors Council ~ Honors Alternative Spring Break ~ Assistant Director of the Cross-Cultural Connections group ~ UNESCO Student Ambassador ~ Presented at the National Collegiate Honors Council

Nina Sacco

Area of Study: Business Management and Entrepreneurship
Home: North Haven, CT
Faculty/Administrator Mentor: Glen O’Keefe, Bursar
Alumni Mentor: Jennifer Ryley Welsh ('90), Mitchell College
While at UConn: Honors student ~ Member of Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honor Society ~ Interned at the Innovation Accelerator (Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation) ~ Interned at Target (Executive Leadership Program) ~ Supervised teaching assistants in First Year Programs! Student worker at the Bursar’s office ~ First-generation college student

Melanie Rodriguez

Area of Study: Elementary Education-English
Home: Bridgeport, CT
Faculty/Administrator Mentor: Dr. Xae Reyes, Education
Alumni Mentor: Kathy White ('78, '87 Neag), Mansfield Middle School
While at UConn: Cstudent leader position at the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, Melanie is the coordinator for the K.U.B.E. outreach program that assists minority elementary students with school work and life skills. In addition she has helped PRLAAC win the Moral Award in UConn’s HuskyThon as the coordinator. Melanie is also a resident assistant and a first-generation college student.

Kaitlin Heenehan

Hometown: Hamilton Square, NJ
Degrees at UConn : B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, May 2011
Degrees Elsewhere: M.A. Ed Virginia Tech, Higher Education, 2013
Occupation: UConn Honors Program, Program Coordinator
Faculty/Administrator Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Lease Butts, Undergraduate Research/Honors
Alumni Mentor: Steve Wolfberg ('81), Cronin and Company, LLC
While at UConn: Honors student ~ Facilitator for the Honors INTD Seminar ~ Service co-chair in the Sophomore Honors Living Community ~ Honors mentor ~ Awarded the prestigious Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship ~ Interned at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ~ Inductee of Phi Beta Kappa ~ Volunteered with America Reads and Counts, the Husky Ambassador Program, and the Voices of Freedom Gospel Choir
UConn Memory: It is so difficult to pick just one, but all of my favorite UConn memories share one common theme: sharing my love of UConn with people I love the most. Whether it was family weekend with my parents and sister, football games with my friends, speaking at Open House to thousands of students and families, or celebrating my graduation at the same time as my grandmother's 90th birthday (with almost 20 extended family members present), all of these rise to the top of my list because they revolved around sharing my love of UConn with others!
Favorite Legacy Memory: I loved every moment of whitewater rafting; it was challenging, fun, and I remember having wonderful conversations before, during, and after this experience with some of my cohort-mates. However, I think the experience I learned the most from was the feeling of failure (and processing through that) after the U.S. Army Leadership Reaction Course. All of that being said, my favorite memories are actually the discussions we had at bi-weekly meetings. I always left feeling inspired and excited; these meetings were the best part of the experience.
Legacy in your current career: I use these lessons everyday as I seek to facilitate some of these same experiences and teach some of the same lessons that I learned in Legacy with the students I currently work with at UConn. In graduate school, I was able to pull from my experiences in Legacy (and particularly from taking StrengthsFinder because Virginia Tech was looking to become a "strengths campus" when I arrived). It is wonderful to see the connections, and I wish I had been taking more notes at the time I was in Legacy because I would honestly love to be able to replicate some of the details of the activities and experiences I had in Legacy. I am so grateful for my experience, and I attribute part of my passion for giving back through the field of higher education to the Leadership Legacy Experience.

William David Lindsay

Area of Study: Biomedical Engineering/Physics and Neurobiology
Home: Brookline, NH
Faculty/Administrator Mentor: William Bailey, Chemistry
Alumni Mentor: John Driscoll ('81), Webster Financial Advisors
While at UConn: Honors student ~ Studied the effects of Deep Brain Stimulation surgery on Parkinson’s disease ~ Created and directed a summer internship program for the Chief of Neurosurgery at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, MA ~ , Worked as a researcher at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center ~ Volunteered for New Hampshire Teen Institute ~ Pianist and saxophonist ~ Served on the Board of Directors for the Mansfield Development Project

Alexandra Kuehnle

Area of Study: International Security/Political Science
Home: Durham, CT
Faculty/Administrator Mentor: Matt Farley, Community Outreach
Alumni Mentor: Jeff Ment ('89), Rome McGuian, PC
While at UConn: Student Coordinator for Community Outreach Public Relations ~ Chair of the CO Executive Board ~ Resident Assistant for the Community Service Learning Community ~ Founded the UConn chapter of Silver Wings ~ Silver Wings Northeast Region President ~ Campus Campaign Coordinator for Teach For America