JoAnn D’Addio and Tim Martin (’22)
DANBURY, Connecticut —Two graduate students in the M.S. in Integrative Biological Diversity program at Western Connecticut State University, JoAnn D’Addio and Tim Martin, are utilizing their studies to cultivate a new generation of environmental stewards. (article)
Martin received his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of North Dakota and his master’s in Education from the University of Bridgeport before earning a doctorate for Educational Leadership from Southern Connecticut State University. He is now in his last semester at WCSU in pursuit of his master’s degree in Biology. This semester, Martin is working on an independent study project centered around beekeeping.
His interest in the discipline stems from a hobby of maintaining his own personal beehive with his son. More recently, he has translated this hobby into the concept for a popular new Beekeeping Club at Stamford High School. The club meets each week after school for about two hours. During the first half of the meeting, Martin discusses what bees are likely doing at that time of year, then the students don their beekeeping suits and observe the hive bees’ behavior to see if it matches their predictions.
Fellow graduate student D’Addio aspires to create a similar club at her high school. In the summer of 2021, she became the steward of a plant-pollinator garden at Tarrywile Park in Danbury for her graduate program. This garden is part of a larger movement in the northeast called the Pollinator Pathway, which is an initiative D’Addio would like to implement in Carmel.
D’Addio has been a teacher for 20 years, spending 14 in her current post in Carmel. She is originally from Newburgh, New York, where she attended college. At Mount Saint Mary’s College, she earned her undergraduate degree in Media Studies, while also studying Elementary and Special Education. She then went on to study Literacy for Special Education in graduate school.
