University Student Talks about Cyber-Bullying on NBC’s TODAY Show, Harrison Interviewed about the Rell Center, and More

Allison Pfeiffer, a first-year student at the University, appeared live on NBC’s The TODAY show on Wednesday, Dec. 8, to discuss a case of cyber-bullying, as two people she knew from her high school set up a fake Facebook page in Pfeiffer’s name and posted mean and hurtful messages on that page. When Pfeiffer discovered the page, she tracked down the email address used to establish it and turned the information over to police who tracked down the two people who created page and charged them criminal impersonation and other crimes. “I gave myself one day to cry after I found out about it and I decided I have to work for myself from here on out. My mission is to help other teens. I want to help anyone I can,” she told the TODAY Show. To see her TODAY Show interview, click here or to read the story, click NBC Connecticut or Bristol Press.

A dinner on Tuesday, Dec. 7, to honor the 25-year public service career of outgoing Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell and raise funds to launch the Gov. M. Jodi Rell Center for Public Service at the University of Hartford was covered by number of media outlets. The most comprehensive story about the event was posted on the CT News Junkie.com web site. Also, check out the Hartford Courant coverage of the event by clicking here. In advance of the dinner, Local Online News.com did an interview about the goals for the Rell Center with President Walter Harrison. Click here to see that interview.

John Kniering , director of career services in the Office of Student Affairs, was interviewed by WFSB-TV Channel 3 Eyewitness News on Thursday, Dec. 9, about a study on the job search engine Juju.com that indicates Hartford is the fifth best city in which to find a job. The story aired on the station’s 5 p.m. newscast.

A project spearheaded by University student Ben Wendel to send holiday cards signed by University students, faculty, and staff to U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan was highlighted on the Thursday afternoon (Dec. 9) newscasts on Fox CT, NBC Connecticut, and WFSB-TV Channel 3.

Soprano soloist Teresa Eickel, a graduate of The Hartt School, will sing the well-known pieces “O Holy Night” and Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” as well as Handel's “Ombra mai fu,” “Panis Angelicu,” and “Con Te Partirò” (known as “Time to Say Goodbye”) at a Holiday Concert to be presented by the West Hartford Symphony Orchestra on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 12, in the West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium, according to a story on West Hartford Patch.com. Richard Chiarappa, a founder of the WHSO and its music director and conductor, is also a graduate of The Hartt School Click here to read the full story.

Houston Person, tenor saxophonist and alum of The Hartt School, was profiled by noted jazz writer Nat Hentoff in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Dec. 7. “Throughout his music, Mr. Person demonstrates that the operative jazz verb, ‘to swing,’ can be deeply fulfilling to the musician and the listener at any tempo—when the player’s own feelings are deeply personal. The life pulse that is jazz can transform a ballad into an epiphany that swings the soul,” wrote Hentoff about Person. “Like [Billie] Holiday, Mr. Person can swing anything at any tempo.” To read the full article, click here

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