The Year in Review 2022 – 2023

Akshayaa Chittibabu (’19)

The close of the academic year is a great opportunity to share news about individualized majors and their wide-ranging accomplishments.

Graduates

45 students will graduate with an individualized major this year (Dec ’22 and May and Aug ’23). You can read about their accomplishments in the 2023 Grad Booklet.

Highlights

Nour Al Zouabi ’23 (IMJR: Health, Rights, and Refugees) was a finalist for the Donald L. McCullough Leadership Award Student Life Award.

Christian Chlebowsky ’24 (IMJR: Government, Policymaking, and Law) is a 2023 University Scholar. His project is entitled, “One Small Step, One Giant Leap, One Extraordinary Journey: Comparing America’s Trajectories to the Moon in Apollo and Artemis,” and it aims to contextualize the Apollo and Artemis programs through a fiscal analysis of lunar-centered appropriations and the public support and Congressional attitudes they derive from. Christian is also a 2023 Leadership Legacy Student.

Karen Lau ’24 (IMJR: Asian and Asian-American Studies) is a 2023 Leadership Legacy Student. Her future career goals are to work in education policy and public interest law as an attorney, which would allow her to continue to tackle issues in education, labor, and climate change.

Krithika Santham ’25 (IMJR: Health Policy and Racial Disparities) has received the John T. Szarlan FYE Mentor Award for her work facilitating students in exploring Undergraduate Research to emphasize her truth of “stay curious and you won’t be bored a day in your life.” With Dr. Caroline Dealy, Krithika has also received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fund award for her project “BMP Signals Regulate Chondrocyte Maturation During Endochondral Ossification in the Postnatal Growth Plate.” And Krithika has been selected for the 6th cohort of the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network.

IMJRs in the News

Akshayaa Chittibabu ’19 (IMJR: Health, Policy, and Social Medicine) and her faculty mentor Bandana Purkayastha, who is Associate Dean for Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, were featured in UConn Today recently. In the article, they discuss their relationship and how important it was in Akshayaa’s growth as a student.

Keely Greiner ’22 (IMJR: Health Systems and Disparities) was featured in UConn Today because she is the recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Student Award. She will be attending Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and pursuing a Master’s of Art in philosophy with a concentration in philosophy, bioethics, and health. Keely is interested in the ethics involved in medical decision-making and medical aid in dying.

Justin Nappi ’24 (IMJR: Adaptive Programming and Design) was featured in UConn Today for his work with SmartCards AR, LLC, a company that he co-founded with Sudiksha Mallek. SmartCards AR is a learning platform that combines augmented reality (AR) technology with physical flashcards to provide an interactive educational experience for students in grades 2-5, particularly those who are neurodivergent.

Caroline Wexler ’24 (IMJR: Geoscience Communication and Visual Media) was featured in UConn Today for her participation in the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) in 2022. She is producing a documentary film about her experience as the capstone project for her individualized major. 

Previous Years in Review

2021-2022, 2020-2021, 2019-2020, 2018-2019