ASLUSH

Nick Hudobenko is a Correctional Officer and Correctional Counselor for the Connecticut Department of Correction. He also works with the DOC Offender Re-Entry Services Unit to help find jobs for inmates who are finishing their sentences. Prior to working with the DOC, Hudobenko was in the United States Army National Guard and worked as a Military Police Squad Leader. He received a Master's in social work from UCONN and a Bachelor of Science from Charter Oak State College. We discussed the difficulties of regulating COVID in a confined space, the work that needs to be done in society to accept those with criminal backgrounds, increased anxiety for those facing re-entry in the pandemic, and keeping inmates motivated.

In the past year and a half, amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic and national social justice movements, our sense of commonality and community across the U.S. took a hit. Firefighters are often seen as significant community figures within their districts, especially is small towns, and play and an active role in maintaining not only the safety but also the integrity of their communities. In a year where belonging and togetherness felt stripped from all of us, what was it like for the firefighters?

To capture the year 2020, it is crucial to acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic, which had taken the world by storm, closing almost everything and initiating a world-wide quarantine. Throughout this pandemic, the Connecticut community has relied heavily on healthcare professionals for COVID-19 testing and vaccination, as well as for assistance with other healthcare needs. In a time when Connecticut residents have relied so heavily on healthcare workers, many are left wondering what their perspectives have been. We decided to interview two healthcare professionals who are closely associated with research and testing involving COVID-19 in order to get their perspective on the extreme professional and mental toll the pandemic has taken on them throughout this past year.

To capture the year 2020, it is crucial to acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic, which had taken the world by storm, closing almost everything and initiating a world-wide quarantine. Throughout this pandemic, the Connecticut community has relied heavily on healthcare professionals for COVID-19 testing and vaccination, as well as for assistance with other healthcare needs. We decided to interview two healthcare professionals who are closely associated with research and testing involving COVID-19 in order to get their perspective on the extreme professional and mental toll the pandemic has taken on them throughout this past year.

To capture the year 2020, it is crucial to acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic, which had taken the world by storm, closing almost everything and initiating a world-wide quarantine. Throughout this pandemic, the Connecticut community has relied heavily on healthcare professionals for COVID-19 testing and vaccination, as well as for assistance with other healthcare needs. We decided to interview two healthcare professionals who are closely associated with research and testing involving COVID-19 in order to get their perspective on the extreme professional and mental toll the pandemic has taken on them throughout this past year.

Ella Warner explores a peculiar object from the nineteenth century -the human brain. 

Helen LaPointe, Margot Queenan, Natalie Yarnall, Rain Zhou, and Sabrina Zottola explore what caused the British colonists to start a revolution and what that might mean for America today. 

In this episode, Laura Herscovici explores song book, Slave Songs of the United States, published in 1867 and collected by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. When Americans hear echoes of these slave songs in pop, jazz, blues, rock n’ roll, and beyond, they must remember that behind layers and layers of different interpretations are the songs of enslaved people.

In this episode, Lauren Schramm explores the work of American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Her refused to comply with French traditional standards and determination to explore the “new frontiers” in art is part of the real American dream: to create something new that defies standards and contributes to the construction of a new way of life, beneficial to everyone. 

In this episode, Haley Bloch and Amanda Taglich explore how those at American society’s margins, such as European immigrants from poor backgrounds, African Americans, and other people of color, struggled for acceptance and influence in mainstream media despite deep-rooted racism and xenophobia. To be alive during the twentieth century was to experience a flood of different voices, all influencing the social and cultural landscape for decades to come by expressing their ideals and passions through their music.