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Messy Endings: Writing, Film, & Creativity

Learn to write with voice, choice, and creativity!

Students (and educators) too often regard the essay as merely an instrument of assessing learning, but the essay has a rich history as a creative genre. In this course we will approach the essay as the creative, dynamic, imaginative literary form that it actually is. Your approach to writing essays will not be the same and you'll never go back to the five paragraph essay again! We will look at examples of the essay, use film for inspiration, and play with other means of creativity.

You will leave this course with a very different and improved understanding of the essay, and you will be better writers. The essays you write in the future may challenge some of your teachers’ more conventional expectations, but they will be better, more interesting, and more like the real writing professional essayists actually create. Your professors in college will be grateful.

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 3:

July 12, 2026 - July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will:

  • Become better writers, more independent, more creative, and more original.
  • Choose topics of interest, explore genres of writing, develop their own voice, and write!
  • Learn a little bit about the history of the essay as a literary genre.
  • Read a variety of essays form a variety of essayists.
  • Experiment with writing different kinds of essays, such as personal essays, op-eds, commentaries, and rants.
  • Use film to inspire analysis and writing.
  • Share writing with one another both for revision and entertainment.
  • Play around with some multimodal forms of composition.

Image of students

Image of student

Image of students

Meet the Professors


 

Amy Nocton
Adjunct Faculty, UConn Department of English
Instructor, UConn Early College Experience

Amy Nocton is an Early College Experience (ECE) Spanish instructor at EO Smith High School and has been teaching English composition as an Adjunct Faculty member for ten years for the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus. She is a film aficcionado and a published poet. Amy has long incorportated film into her ECE courses and her English classes at UConn as another means of exploring text and creativity. Amy's late husband, the former Director of the Connecticut Writing Project, used to run this course, so she learned from the best mentor possible and will do her best to make the course what he would have wanted it to be.

Design & Hype: Creative Advertising for the Digital Age

Creative Advertising for the Digital Age

Design & Hype: Creative Advertising for the Digital Age is a fast, hands-on workshop where high school students explore how creativity fuels marketing and design. Using iPhones, iPads, and laptops, students mix visual storytelling, short-form video, and branding to build mini advertising campaigns that reveal how ideas attract attention and shape audience behavior.

Students learn key concepts in visual hierarchy, typography, color psychology, and audience targeting, alongside discussions of current trends like social media and influencer marketing. They engage through workshops, critiques, and collaborative projects, designing logos, short videos, and moodboards while developing persuasive visual communication and teamwork skills.

The course blends mobile technology with design thinking, ending in a Pitch Day where students present campaigns and receive creative awards. Its mix of collaboration, feedback, and real-world advertising challenges encourages confidence, originality, and critical reflection on how design and hype shape culture.

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 3:

July  12, 2026 - July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

  • Understand branding, visual hierarchy, and audience targeting.
  • Use tools like Canva and CapCut to create ads and videos.
  • Present and pitch creative ideas with confidence.
  • Collaborate effectively and think critically about media and design.
  • Build a small portfolio piece showing creativity and design skills.
  • This course provides a strong foundation for further study in visual art, marketing, or digital media.

Meet the Professor


 

John O'Donnell

Associate Professor, UConn Art & Art History

John O’Donnell is an artist, performer, and Associate Professor of Printmaking at the University of Connecticut. He is the founder and designer of Weird Music Night, an experimental sound and performance series; Skullbook’s Intaglio Academy, an immersive printmaking and cosplay-based learning experience; and the ÆMPIRE exhibition series, a curatorial project exploring power, collapse, and cultural mythologies. His work spans printmaking, performance, installation, and design, engaging with the intersections of media, pop culture, and identity. O’Donnell has exhibited and performed at Miami Art Week, SXSW in Austin, Texas, and in numerous galleries across New York City. His teaching combines historical craft and contemporary innovation, encouraging students to approach creativity as both critical inquiry and playful experimentation.

John O'Donnell's website: https://www.johnodonnellprojects.com/

NYT Article about his work: Domestic Discombobulation in an Odd Kitchen

Pre-Med: Explore the Medical Field

Is Medicine for you?

Medicine is a long-term commitment that requires many years of training. Given this, many students find it difficult to decide whether medicine is the right career path for them. Through this one-week long program, students will gain insight into what it is like to be a physician. Students will have an opportunity to engage directly with physicians who are passionate about their work. Simultaneously, students will get to explore the state of the art UConn Health Center which is entering an era of unprecedented growth in all three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care.

In addition, students will have an opportunity to gain guidance from UConn's Pre-Med academic advising staff. Moreover, students will be provided supervised transportation from the UConn Storrs campus to the UConn Health Center in Farmington. Students will return to the Storrs campus at the end of each academic day.

UConn Pre-College Summer: Pre-Med Explore the Medical Field

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 2, 3, or 4

July 5, 2026 - July 11, 2026

July 12, 2026  - July 18, 2026

July 19, 2026 - July 25, 2026-

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

  • Throughout the week, students will delve into the following aspects of medicine:
  • Practice of basic skills
  • Exploration of common examinations
  • Brief overview of selected topics in cardiology and gastroenterology
  • Demonstration of a mock “code”

UConn Pre-College Summer: Pre-Med Explore the Medical Field

UConn Pre-College Summer: Pre-Med Explore the Medical Field

UConn Pre-College Summer: Pre-Med Explore the Medical Field

This course includes daily lab and hospital visits @ UConn Health.


 

Meet the Professors


 

The UConn Pre-College Summer Pre-Med: Explore the Medical Field course will be taught by various doctors, professionals, and consultants from UConn Health. UConn Health is a vibrant, integrated academic medical center that is entering an era of unprecedented growth in all three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care. A commitment to human health and well-being has been of utmost importance to UConn Health since the founding of the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine in 1961. Based on a strong foundation of groundbreaking research, first-rate education, and quality clinical care, we have expanded our medical missions over the decades. In just over 50 years, UConn Health has evolved to encompass more research endeavors, to provide more ways to access our superior care, and to innovate both practical medicine and our methods of educating the practitioners of tomorrow.


UConn Pre-College Summer: Pre-Med Explore the Medical Field Shobhana Pathani

Shobhana Pathani, M.D

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Lead Physician

Dr. Shobhana Pathani is a hospitalist physician at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She completed her training in Internal Medicine at the University of Massachusetts. She has a deep passion for teaching as well as mentoring residents and medical students which she explores through her work as a faculty member at the University of Connecticut. In addition, she plays an active role in the success of an annual university summer program centered around providing high school students with exposure to a career in medicine.

Agnest S. Kim, M.D., Ph. D.


Agnest S. Kim, M.D., Ph. D.

Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Non-invasive Cardiac Imaging and Echocardiography Lab
Director, Cardio-Oncology Program

Dr. Kim provides care to patients with a wide range of cardiovascular illnesses, including coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, and cardiomyopathy. She has expertise in advanced non-invasive cardiac imaging, including echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, cardiac MRI, and vascular ultrasounds. She has a particular interest in the cardiac care of cancer patients.

Dr. Kim received her bachelor’s degree at Yale College. She received her medical degree from Vanderbilt University. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. After residency, she completed a fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at Yale-New Haven Hospital, during which she also obtained a Ph.D. in investigative medicine.

Debapriya Datta, M.D., FCCP

Debapriya Datta, MD, FCCP

Professor of Medicine
Director, Critical Care Clerkship, UConn SOM

Associate Program Director, UConn Pulmonary-Critical Care Fellowship Program
Director, PFT laboratory, CPET Program & PERT Program, UConn Health

Dr Datta is a pulmonary, sleep medicine and critical care medicine physician at UConn Health. She has completed her medical training including residency and fellowship at UConn Health Center. She treats patients with a wide variety of pulmonary disorders as well as patients with critical illnesses admitted to the ICU. Her clinical interests include dyspnea evaluation, exercise physiology, pulmonary embolism and ventilator weaning and ICU outcomes.

She is actively involved in teaching medical students at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine during their clinical rotations in the ICU, hospital floors, and outpatient clinics. She also works closely with trainees- medicine residents and pulmonary–critical care medicine fellows. She is passionate about medical education and has won several teaching awards. She is also involved in medical outcome research and has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at national and international scientific meetings to her credit.

George Y. Wu, M.D., Ph.D.


George Y. Wu, M.D., Ph.D.

Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Hepatology Section, Herman Lopata Chair in Hepatitis Research

University of Connecticut Health Center

He graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Rochester, and received an M.D. and Ph.D. (biochemistry) from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He trained in internal medicine at Harlem Hospital, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and received subspecialty training in digestive diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has been a pioneer in the field of targeted delivery of biological substances specifically to liver cells, hepatocytes. He developed the concept of targeted rescue, targeted gene delivery, an immunocompetent model for HCV infection, and most recently targeted delivery of mitochondria. He has received numerous awards and prizes including the American Liver Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award, and an American Gastroenterological Association/Industry Research Scholar Award, American Liver Foundation Research Prize, American Gastroenterological Association-Gastroenterology Research Group Young Scientist Award, and a Chinese American Medical Society Scientific Award, was elected a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association, and the American Association for the Study of liver Diseases. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians, and was a Fulbright Specialist. He has received 10 patents, and founded two startup companies to commercialize inventions. He has published more than 210 peer-reviewed articles, and edited 12 books. He is the comprehensive editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology, and series editor for the Clinical Gastroenterology series published by Humana/Springer Press.

Jennifer P. Kanaan, M.D.

Jennifer P. Kanaan, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director of critical care point of care ultrasound

Site Director, Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship

Dr. Kanaan received her bachelor's degree in biology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. She returned to her home state to attend UConn medical school. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the Rhode Island Hospital, Brown School of Medicine. Following a year at locum tenens where she worked in Alaska, California, and Arizona, she completed a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at New England Medical Center, Tufts School of Medicine. After graduation, she worked as an attending physician at Danbury Hospital and transitioned to UConn in 2007.

As an Associate Professor in Medicine, Dr. Kanaan divides her time between clinical care and teaching. She is passionate about bringing ultrasound to the bedside and has developed an ultrasound curriculum for pulmonary and critical care fellows as well as hospitalists. She directs a statewide ultrasound course for physicians.

Outside of medicine, she is a mom of four children. Her hobbies include cooking, travel, and sports.

Equine Science: Health, Management and Rehabilitation

Exploring equine health as it relates to training and rehabilitation of horses for sport; for students with intermediate and above prior experience with horses

UConn PCS: Equine Science

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 3:

July 12, 2026 - July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

UConn PCS: Introduction to Equine Science and Horsemanship

UConn PCS: Introduction to Equine Science and Horsemanship

UConn PCS: Introduction to Equine Science and Horsemanship

Meet the Professor


 

Melissa Tindall

UConn Dressage Team Coach

Melissa began her equestrian journey in hunter-jumpers and eventing, but for the past 25 years, she has dedicated herself to dressage. She currently competes at the FEI Prix St. Georges level, participating in recognized shows, and has earned her USDF Bronze Medal in 2016. She achieved this milestone on a self-trained mare, whom she purchased as a yearling and developed from the ground up to the PSG level.
As a UConn alumna with a BFA in Illustration, Melissa brings a unique blend of creativity and discipline to her work. At UConn she serves as coach of the UConn Dressage Team, and she teaches both dressage and jumping lessons. These lessons, available to students and community members of all levels, emphasize using dressage principles to improve rider balance and enhance communication between horse and rider. Under her guidance, the UConn Dressage Team has consistently competed at the IDA National Championships, with one of her students winning the IDA National Championship in 2024 and others securing top-three finishes in recent years.
Melissa’s extensive teaching experience includes an apprenticeship with FEI rider and USDF Instructor Melanie Tenney at the BHS-approved Woodcock Hill in Connecticut, where she completed the British Horse Society Instructor training program. Her focus there was on eventing, horse management, and training. Over the years, she has managed several young horse training and sales barns, but her true passion lies in teaching.
Her approach to teaching is rooted in positive reinforcement and a deep understanding of biomechanics. She incorporates both in-hand and mounted work to foster connection and mutual understanding between horses and riders. Melissa’s riding and teaching have been shaped by the guidance of several national and international instructors, including Jan Ebeling, Eric Horgan, and David Marcus, among others. These experiences, along with her ongoing interest in biomechanics, continue to influence her approach to training and teaching today.

Accounting- **4 SEATS LEFT**

Accounting Launchpad; Your summer jumpstart to college business!

Accounting is a dynamic, ever-growing profession! Not just in business – but in every organization around the globe! Get a jumpstart on an incredible career with one of UConn’s award-winning instructors! You’ll not only discuss the basics of the accounting information system but analyze real data from real companies like Amazon and Apple. We’ll even take a trip to Norwalk, Connecticut – the home of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)! The FASB is the standard-setting body for all of the United States, responsible for maintaining and updating Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). You’ll also meet recent and not-so-recent accounting grads who will tell you about their experiences in the real world and answer any questions you might have! Join us for a fast-paced immersion into the most in-demand skillset in every industry and the backbone of financial integrity worldwide!

UConn School of Business

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 3:

July 12, 2026 - July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

  • Students will be able to analyze real data used in the accounting profession
  • Students will engage with industry standards and ethics
  • Students will tour the home of the Financial Accounting Standards Board
  • Students will understand how accounting is infused in every business and organization in the world!
  • Students will engage with alumni and industry professionals to learn about the many different aspects of the accounting profession.

Meet the Professor


 

Leanne M. Adams, CPA, MSA

Instructor in Residence, UConn School of Business

Leanne M. Adams is an Instructor in-Residence in the UConn School of Business and a nationally recognized educator known for her unmatched energy, innovative teaching, and unwavering commitment to student success. A two-time recipient of UConn’s Teaching Innovation Award and the School of Business Accounting Professor of the Year, Leanne brings more than two decades of academic experience and over a decade of professional accounting experience to her classroom.

Passionate about community service, leadership of UConn’s VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program is one of her hallmark achievements. Students consistently describe VITA as one of the most professionally impactful experiences of their college careers, crediting Adams for creating a safe, structured, real-world environment where they can learn, make mistakes, reflect, and grow. As one student noted, “There is no better professor, volunteer, or inspirer than Leanne Adams.”

Before transitioning to academia full-time, Adams enjoyed a successful professional career as a CPA, financial analyst, and senior financial consultant, including serving as lead auditor on multiple domestic and international audits. Her industry experience strengthens her ability to connect classroom concepts to real-world practice, making accounting meaningful, relevant, and empowering for her students.

 

Sports Medicine

Injuries, Illness, and Adaptations in Sports, Exercise, and Extreme Environments

This course will feature a curriculum of evidence-based prevention, recognition, and treatment of the Nation’s leading emergency issues in sports, military, and occupational settings. Each session includes interactive presentations disseminated by the experienced staff at the Korey Stringer Institute, as well as, hands on learning labs simulating the emergency treatment of life threatening ailments. Participants will learn imperative knowledge in the understanding of today’s leading causes of death in sport and physical activity, including essential firsthand skills in the prevention, recognition, and treatment of these emergent injuries and illnesses.

This course will provide an overview of medical aspects surrounding sport and physical activity. Students will gain an understanding of the cause, ways to prevent, and first aid care of various illnesses and injuries associated with sport and physical activity.

UConn PCS: Sports Medicine

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session3:

July 12, 2026 – July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

A broad range of emergent topics will be covered during the sessions, listed below. Students will gain a basic understanding of background information of the ailment, as well as, hands on learning of skills for treatment.

  • Cardiovascular events
  • Exertional heat illnesses
  • Concussions
  • Traumatic Injuries
  • and other significant contributors to sudden death

UConn PCS: Sports Medicine

UConn PCS: Sports Medicine

UConn PCS: Sports Medicine

Learn more about the Korey Stringer Institute


 

The UConn Pre-College Summer Sports Medicine course will be taught by professionals from the Korey Stringer Institute. In August 2001, Korey Stringer, a Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman, passed away from exertional heat stroke. During Korey’s five-year tenure in the NFL he earned pro-bowl honors. Since the time of Korey’s death, his wife, Kelci, worked tirelessly to develop an exertional heat stroke prevention institute to honor her husband’s legacy. To that end, she joined forces with exertional heat stroke expert Douglas Casa, Ph.D, ATC at the University of Connecticut to make this dream a reality and the institute came to fruition in April 2010.

The Korey Stringer Institute is housed at the University of Connecticut. The Department of Kinesiology faculty are renowned for their research and expertise in the areas of heat and hydration, injury prevention, and strength and conditioning.

To learn more about the Korey Stringer Institute staff please see their bios HERE.

Pre-Med: Human Anatomy & Physiology

Learn through Direct Examination, Simulation, and Dissection

Participants in this course will be participating human cadaver dissections. The bodies available for dissection were donated by individuals who wanted their remains to be used for education and research purposes. As a UConn PCS participant, you are privileged to have the opportunity to use this anatomical donation. The rules of the anatomy laboratory are based upon PATIENT PRIVACY, RESPECT, SECURITY, SAFETY, and MAINTENANCE. These rules will be observed in the laboratory AT ALL TIMES. Participants must be respectful and mature to handle this commitment and responsibility.

Our Human Anatomy and Physiology course is the perfect starting point for students interested in entering medical or related health-care fields. In this in-depth look at systemic human biology, you will explore how the cardiovascular, pulmonary, musculoskeletal and nervous systems all work together to help you function. In UConn’s new, state of the art Human Anatomy Learning Lab, you will learn how the body is assembled and how the major organs relate to body function. This hands-on experience will provide an inside-out look at human anatomy and physiology and is an opportunity that most students who are interested in the medical field are not afforded until graduate school.

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 3:

July 12, 2026 - July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

  • the way people are put together and how the systems of the body work together using three hands-on approaches:
    1) direct physical examination
    2) simulation with interactive practice dummies
    3) human cadaver dissection

Students in Pre-Med class

Meet the Professors


 

Jeffery M. Kinsella-Shaw, Ph.D., P.T.

Associate Professor, Livieri Endowed Professor of Physical Therapy, UConn Department of Kinesiology 

Jeffrey M. Kinsella-Shaw, Ph.D., P.T. is the tenured and Endowed Livieri Professor of Physical Therapy and the founder and Director of UCONN’s Human Anatomy Learning Laboratory in the Department of Kinesiology. He is the past Director of UCONN’s Doctoral Physical Therapy Program and currently serves on the Executive Board of UCONN’S Brain Imaging Research Center and as a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action in the Department of Psychology. His areas of expertise include clinical neuroscience, human anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology, cognitive and perceptual psychology, motor control, motor learning, and neurological physical therapy.

Professor Kinsella-Shaw

Mary Beth Osborne, PT, DPT

Assistant Professor in Residence, UConn Department of Kinesiology

Mary Beth Osborne, PT, DPT, earned both her Bachelors of Science and Doctorate in physical therapy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a board-certified specialist in neurologic physical therapy.  She is currently an assistant professor in residence at the University of Connecticut in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program and involved in teaching courses in the neurologic rehabilitation and health/wellness domains.  She is also the associate director of clinical education.  At UConn, she is serving on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee for the College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Health and is a member of the Service Learning Faculty Fellows cohort for 2023.

She previously served as the co-director of Duke University Health’s neurologic PT residency program and worked as an outpatient neurologic PT where she provided care to individuals with a variety of neurologic conditions including concussion, stroke, degenerative diseases and vestibular dysfunction.  She worked as an adjunct faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill for 5 years assisting with courses covering neurologic PT and evidence-based practice content areas.  She has held positions with the Academy of Neurologic PT including chair of the Brain Injury Special Interest Group, member of the practice committee and is currently a nominating committee member for the Residency and Fellowship Special Interest Group.  She has presented at local and national conferences on various topics in the neurologic PT realm.

UConn Pre-College Summer Mary Beth Osborne, Pre-Med Faculty

Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Earth, The Environment, and You

This summer experience program focused on Earth and Environmental Science, high school students will explore the field via a course bridging camp and college-level study. Brought to you by UConn Department of Earth Sciences Faculty, Dr. Ouimet and Dr. Hren, students will have the opportunity to work side-by-side with field researchers and experts.

Earth Scientists study all aspects of the Earth system, including its history, structure, rocks, soils, rivers, oceans and atmosphere. The UConn Environmental Science pre-college summer course will introduce this wide-ranging discipline and discuss how earth and environmental scientists play a crucial role in understanding and making predictions about a diverse range of earth resources, processes and hazards, from mineral deposits to earthquakes to floods and climate change. Why is this important? Earth’s ecology is closely linked to sustainability and environmental science is key to this pursuit.

This Earth and Environmental summer course for high school students will integrate:

  • lectures and dynamic learning modules on background earth science material.
  • field and lab demonstrations.
  • collection and analysis of rock, soil and water samples.
  • guest visits from UConn Earth Sciences faculty across the wide range topics in the discipline.

Sessions Offered

Storrs Session 3:

July  12, 2026 – July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

Related Courses

Climate Science

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

  • The many aspects of Earth & Environmental Science and the diverse methods and approach scientists used to study the Earth system
  • How to analyze the mineralogy and environmental geochemistry of rocks, soil, water and sediments.
  • How to understand and interpret the geologic history of Connecticut.

Meet the Professors


 

UConn Environmental Science Pre-College Summer Program Instructor: Dr. William OuimetWilliam Ouimet, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Earth Sciences

Dr. Ouimet (Will) is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at UConn. He loves working with students outdoors and on field trips, and it’s one of the reasons he became an Earth Scientist. His research and teaching involves the study of erosion, rivers, landslides and environmental change around the world, as well as the influence of human activities. He works in the field, where he collects samples and maps out geological features, in the lab, where he analyzes rocks, water, soil and sediment, and on the computer, where he explores remote sensing datasets of the earth and uses models to simulate how landscapes change through time. His research has taken him all over world, from the Colorado Rockies, to Greece, Tibet, Taiwan, and the Bahamas. It has also allowed him to appreciate and explore the geology underfoot and processes at play here in southern New England, right where he grew up.


UConn Environmental Science Pre-College Summer Program Instructor: Dr. Michael HrenMichael Hren, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Earth Sciences

Dr. Hren (Mike) is also an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at UConn. His research and teaching is focused on understanding how Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and environment evolve over time and how Earth’s history informs its future. His work takes him to mountain ranges around the globe, from the high peaks of Patagonia to the mountains of Tibet to the Sierra Nevada of California, where he and his students collect sediment, rocks, soils and water to bring back to UConn for analysis. He is the director of the Stable Isotope and Organic Molecular Biogeochemistry laboratory, and when not traveling for research, can be found working in the laboratory with students and colleagues from UConn and visitors from around the world analyzing modern and ancient plants, sediments and even an occasional woolly mammoth, to understand Earth and life through time.

Nutrition: Human Nutrition and Health

How do dietary behaviors impact human body function and health?

Prerequisite: High School Biology with a grade of C or higher

The field of nutritional science explores the interactions between living organisms and food. Exploring nutritional concepts is applicable to everyday life and a variety of professions that includes medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, physician assistant, dietetics, education, policy, and the food, retail, and restaurant industry. Taking this course will give you an advantage about how what we eat or drink impacts the functioning of the human body and a person’s health.

This course will introduce you to the field of nutritional science and health. Students will have interactive in-class lectures with videos. In addition, students will use critical thinking skills to complete case studies and hands-on activities individually and small groups to further their understanding about dietary behaviors, nutrients in foods and the human body, and linking nutrient intake to overall health. In addition, students will learn about educational pathways and experiences leading to careers in healthcare, nutrition, research, and the food industry.

Image of lecture

Sessions Offered

 Storrs Session 3:

July 12, 2026 – July 18, 2026

Format

Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive, and students will be able to:

• Identify factors that impact food and beverage selection
• Identify nutrients in specific foods and beverages
• Discuss how food is processed in the body
• Explore the connection between dietary behaviors and health outcomes
• Identify strategies and steps to pursue a career related to healthcare, nutrition, research, and the food industry

Image of students in class

Image of student

Students in class

Meet the Professor


 

Molika Chea, Ph.D., RDN, CHES

Lecturer, UConn Department of Nutritional Sciences

Molika Chea is a lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut. She has completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut majoring in Nutritional Sciences and Biological Sciences.
With an interest in understanding the relationship between nutrient function, dietary behaviors, and health, she continued her graduate studies in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut. She has conducted research with populations in Connecticut about meeting the recommendations for plant-based food groups and the ability to identify whole grain foods.
Dr. Chea currently teaches NUSC 1165: Fundamentals of Nutrition and NUSC 1167: Food, Culture, and Society during the academic year. She is also Associate Director of the Master’s of Personalized Nutrition Online Program and Graduate Certificates in Precision Nutrition and Plant-Based Food and Nutrition Online Program at the Department of Nutritional Sciences. She also teaches an online graduate course, NUSC 5325: Principles of Nutritional Assessment.

Image of Professor Chea
Molika Chea on Oct. 13, 2021. (Kayla Simon/UConn Photo)