In This Section:
Discovering a heritage on the Emerald Islet - Jeffrey Griffin '07 (CLAS)
Seeking balance in a busy campus life - Katherine Etter (ENG)

Griffin makes the most of a travel research grant

Photo by Lanny Nagler

Before attending UConn, Jeffrey Griffin’s knowledge of his Irish heritage was basically limited to St. Patrick’s Day.

As an honors student and University scholar, however, he has delved deeply into the culture and traveled to Ireland for research.

Griffin began his journey on a whim, signing up as a sophomore for a course on contemporary Irish literature with Mary Burke, assistant professor of English.

“I was totally blown away with what we read,” says the English major, who graduated in May 2007.

Griffin had another course with Burke, and she became his mentor.

“He was one of the best students in both classes,” she says.

For his honors thesis, Griffin wanted to explore the work of an Irish writer whose novels best reflect the country’s recent economic boom.

At Burke’s suggestion, Griffin chose Edna O’Brien because she had long embraced controversial subjects including abortion, feminism and women’s rights.

Griffin “was highly motivated and very self-directed” in his approach to the project, says Burke.

“What I find most fascinating in his project is his attempt to show that contemporary feminism allows men to write back to women, by responding to each other’s fictionalization of their family lives,” she say.

“It’s unprecedented and I think it’s publishable.”

In May 2006, Griffin spent two weeks in Ireland on a grant from UConn’s summer undergraduate research fund.

He examined manuscripts of O’Brien’s work in the national library in Dublin.

 He visited Belfast’s Shankhill district, which he describes as “an eerie area” most affected by the country’s three decades of sectarian violence.

He also traveled to O’Brien’s tiny hometown, Tuamgraney, in County Clare.

In October 2006, on another University travel grant, Griffin spent a weekend in St. Paul, Minn., where he attended a reading by O’Brien from her latest novel and spoke with her briefly about his research during a book signing.

He met her again, by chance  while waiting for his return flight.

“It was one of those pivotal moments,” Griffin says.

“After telling me she’d done a reading at UConn in 1997 (as the Gerson Irish speaker), she took my hands and said, ‘Tell them I would like to come back to UConn.’”

He did and, as a result, faculty members from the creative writing program and Irish literature program have invited O’Brien to return in 2008.

This fall Griffin will begin studies at the UConn School of Law, where he hopes to specialize in probate and estate planning.

He won’t be giving up his Irish studies, however.

“I’m not going to leave it behind,” Griffin says.

“I’m thinking of going back and doing more research, before somebody else does, on the novels of O’Brien’s son and [late] husband.”

Burke is encouraging him.

— Karen Singer ’73 (CLAS)

Photo by Peter Morenus

For Katherine Etter, life is about balance.

As a biomedical engineering student who just completed her third year of studies, she handles an overwhelming schedule without missing a beat.

Etter, an honors student, works as a community assistant in the Northwest Quad, served this past year as speaker of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), and is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

She says USG provides a social outlet to contrast the intensity of being an engineering major.

“Coming onto a campus of 16,000 and not knowing anyone, I found my niche in the USG. It gave me a sense of purpose and place on campus.”

Much of her extracurricular work involves mentoring.

“Some of the work I do with the SWE includes visiting middle and high schools and encouraging girls to continue in science,” she says.

Etter is passionate about both medicine and law. As a high school student in Vermont, she attended medical camp, shadowing physicians.

She is concerned with issues affecting women’s health and problems in our health care system that jeopardize patient care. Her academic focus is on biomaterials such as artificial skin and replacement joints. She sees herself designing equipment to improve health screening.

“If medical tests are more comfortable and convenient, people are more likely to take a test and detect diseases like cancer earlier,” she explains.

An interest in law came alive during high school when Etter worked as a page for U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and later as an intern in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she conducted medical and environmental issue research.

Etter was raised with a duty to service. Both her parents served in the U.S. Air Force and then joined the Air National Guard. Her father, William Etter ’79 (ENG), is an airline pilot who earned his commission through the UConn ROTC program.

Earlier this year, he was promoted to major general in the National Guard Bureau, where he serves as director for strategic plans and policy.

Her mother, Sheree, is a nurse and holds the rank of colonel and serves as a medical squadron commander for the Vermont Air National Guard.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., both her parents were activated to service.

Etter — known as Kade to friends and family — helped care for her two younger brothers and sister while assisting with household chores and attending high school, graduating with honors.

As a volunteer for the Vermont National Guard Family Readiness Program, Etter also participates in youth projects for families of deployed members.

“Kade is a very outgoing student who is well liked by her classmates and faculty,” says her advisor, John Enderle, program director and professor of biomedical engineering.

“She is a remarkable young woman who will continue to excel in biomedical engineering and other activities that will have a broad impact on the world-wide community.”

Etter’s future plans include taking both the medical and law school admissions tests. “I don’t want to rule out my options,” she says.

  — Kim Colavito Markesich  ’93 (CANR)