• Southern’s student-faculty ratio is 14:1.
• The website RN Careers is among those lauding the nursing program: “Congratulations to @SouthernCT for being one of the best ranked nursing programs in the country and the #1 best ranked nursing program in Connecticut for 2019 with an impressive overall ranking of 99.26%.”
• The Princeton Review has consistently included Southern in its annual guide to America’s “green colleges.” The Sierra Club also previously recognized the university for environmental responsibility.
• Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification was awarded to two campus buildings: the Academic Science and Laboratory Building and the home for the School of Business. The certification recognizes construction and design meeting exceptional ecological standards.
• Southern is home to the CSCU** Center for Nanotechnology, the only system-wide center for the field in the state.
• Also housed at Southern, the Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies is the only CSCU** center dedicated to faculty-mentored student research that addresses environmental issues along the Connecticut shoreline and Long Island Sound.
• Southern is one of only 22 colleges/universities in the United States with graduate programs accredited by the International Dyslexia Association for providing exceptional teacher training.
• Beginning with the Class of 2020, all first-year students accepted into the Honors College receive a merit-based scholarship covering one-half to full in-state tuition.
• A partnership with the City of New Haven and its school system, the Barack H. Obama Magnet University School is expected to open on campus in spring 2020 — and will be the city’s first early education school located on a university campus. Serving almost 500 elementary school students, the school will provide exceptional experiential learning opportunities for Southern education majors.
• Southern received a federal grant of $3.68 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help improve the health of vulnerable populations in New Haven. The project is being coordinated by the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), which is co-housed at Southern’s College of Health and Human Services and the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH). It is the largest grant ever received by Southern.
• Southern is an NCAA Division II powerhouse, holding 80 individual titles and 10 team championships.
• In November 2019, Southern will celebrate its third annual Social Justice Month with almost 100 events expected, all designed to further social justice education and awareness on campus.
• Southern is the first breast-feeding friendly campus in the state and the nation. — Connecticut Breastfeeding Coalition
• An innovative trans-Atlantic partnership between Southern and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) offers research internships, study abroad opportunities, and faculty exchanges.
• Jacob Santos, ’19, (B.A. in theatre and B.S. in business administration with a concentration in accounting) is one of only 14 in the country named a 2019 Newman’s Own Foundation Fellow, a program designed to provide young leaders with experience in the nonprofit sector. About 150 apply for the award annually.
• Rigoberto Escalera, ’19, received one of two Legacy Awards from New Haven Promise. The award recognizes recent graduates who have demonstrated a deep commitment to their studies, fellow scholars, and the city of New Haven. Escalera graduated cum laude with a degree in business administration.
• Southern is historically recognized for its exceptional teacher preparation programs and education graduates. These include alumnus Jahana Hayes, ’05, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
• In 2019, Southern alumnus and West Haven High School Teacher Liam Leapley, ’00, was awarded the George Olmsted Jr. Class of 1924 Prize for Excellence in Secondary Education from Williams College. The award recipients are nominated annually by graduating seniors at Williams.
• Jefferine Jean-Jacques, ’18, was one of two national finalists in the “feature photography” category of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Awards, recognizing the best of student journalism.
• Southern students won six awards at the annual conference of the Society of Professional Journalists for Region 1, which represents universities throughout New England, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. They were honored for their work on Crescent Magazine and the Southern News student newspaper.
• Karen Reyes Benzi, a student in Southern’s RN to BSN online program, is Yale New Haven Hospital’s 2019 Magnet Nurse of the Year.
• In 2019, a group of 12 journalism students earned first place in the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists’ Excellence in Journalism Awards in the “health” category for a group project. The project was awarded the highest honor above all the major news outlets in the state in the Regional A division.
• Just seven years after graduation, Jeffrey Nowak, ’12, has reached one of the pinnacles of journalism success — membership on a news team honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 2019, the nation’s most prestigious journalism award.
• Computer science majors Michael Solati and Robert Crowdis, ’19, won first place at the 2017 College Tech Challenge — standing out among many of the state’s top engineering and programming students. The duo won a $5,000 prize.
• A Southern team was a semi-finalist in the 2017 American Marketing Association’s Collegiate Case Competition. Southern was the only institution of higher learning in Connecticut to score among the semi-finalists and finalists — and joined Providence College as the only two in New England.
• Sandra Gomez-Aceves, ’17, beat out nearly 500 applicants to win one of twelve coveted spots at the 2017 ProPublica Data Institute, a seminar for journalist and journalism students. Gomez-Aceves was one of only three of the latter chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning organization to participate.
• There are 11,000 student members in the American Marketing Association (AMA), and recent graduate Julia Rotella, ’17, was one of the best, finishing second in the organization’s “Student Marketer of the Year” competition.
• A Southern student team was one of only three from Connecticut to medal at the 2016 IGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine competition. Southern, the University of Connecticut, and Yale University each won bronze at the competition.
• Two Southern graduates were among a total of only 10 librarians chosen form throughout the U.S. to receive the 2016 “I Love My Librarian Award,” sponsored by the American Library Association.
** Connecticut State Colleges and Universities