Elizabeth Del Buono Wins Henry Barnard Distinguished Student Award

2017 Apr 10

Elizabeth Del Buono '17 of Southington has been named a recipient of the 2017 Henry Barnard Distinguished Student Award. The 29th annual Henry Barnard awards banquet, held on April 4 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, CT, recognized 12 outstanding undergraduates from Connecticut's four state universities - Central, Eastern, Southern and Western.

The Barnard Awards program is the premier academic recognition event of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System (CSCU) and is sponsored by the CSCU Foundation. To be considered for the award, a student must have at least a 3.75 GPA, a record of community service and be nominated by their respective university president.

A first-generation college student, Del Buono, a Biology major, says she chose Eastern because she believed the close relationships with faculty, liberal arts curriculum and small class sizes found at the university would help her to navigate college, and allow her to develop academically and personally. Del Buono graduates next month with a strong background in genetics-related research. She has conducted research on genetics related to cancer and developmental disorders with Biology Professor Amy Groth; interned at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine where she conducted research on breast cancer genomics; received several research grants to support her work; and presented her research at a number of professional biology conferences.

On campus, Del Buono has served as a teaching assistant to Groth; helped re-establish the Pre-Health Society, a student group that provides peer information on health care careers; organized field trips to health clinics in Ghana, West Africa; and planned visits to science museums in New York City and elsewhere.

Groth said she is impressed with Del Buono's intelligence, maturity and work ethic: "I have been fortunate to work with some very talented undergraduate researchers who have gone on to medical or graduate school or jobs in biotech companies, but even in that group, Elizabeth stands out. She joined my lab in the spring of 2015 and has been conducting an independent study ever since. Elizabeth has been very successful studying genes in the model organism, C.elegans, a microscopic round worm."

Del Buono has also thrived at Eastern as a student leader. She completed the LEAP Leadership Program, serving as an orientation counselor and as a peer mentor in Eastern's First-Year Program, and was president of Omicron Delta Kappa, Eastern's leadership and service honor society.

Her volunteer work at the Horizons/Eastern Transition Program and the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, where she worked one-on-one to support special education students with disabilities such as ADHD, autism and learning disabilities, has impacted Del Buono the most: "Working with individuals going through very difficult times, helping them to apply for jobs or relieve stress and anxiety by having fun with them has broadened my ability to work with diverse populations and contribute to people's lives in a meaningful way."

Del Buono plans to earn a master's degree in genetic counseling, a field that will allow her to help clients understand genetic risks to their health and to make important life decisions. She credits her parents for supporting her to become "a scientist, confident student, student leader and advocate because they sacrificed so much for me to be able to go to college and get an education."

Hartford native Henry Barnard was one of the principal forces in creating the American public school system in the 19th century, serving in the Connecticut General Assembly before becoming superintendent of schools in Connecticut and principal of the New Britain Normal School in 1850. He became the first U.S. commissioner of education in 1867.