Mohammad Elahee, a professor of international business at Quinnipiac, won a Fulbright to teach and complete several research projects while traveling abroad to Jordan in the upcoming spring semester. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board awarded Elahee this opportunity after his third time applying for the scholarship.
“I am going for teaching and research,” Elahee said. “Some Fulbright scholarships are for purely teaching or purely research. Mine is teaching some research. I will be teaching a graduate course on international marketing located in the capital of Jordan. I will also be teaching practical negotiation, which is my primary research area. I want to focus on the cultural aspects of negotiation. I plan on researching two studies, one about the role of emotional intelligence and the ethics in business negotiation. The second will be in the area of consumer behavior. My primary research project for which I got the scholarship was in the negotiation area.”
Elahee has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas Pan American, an MBA from the University of New Brunswick and a bachelor’s and master’s in accounting from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. Once Elahee became a U.S. citizen he was persuaded by a research partner of his to apply to Jordan.
“I really liked the country. It is a very stable country and there is so much history, so I wanted to go to a place where I could really enjoy being there. I will be teaching a graduate course. I will also be conducting research. I will also be doing some public lectures. Basically, Fulbright commission requires Fulbright scholars to act as sort of an official cultural ambassador of the country they are representing. I hope to meet as many people as possible and my family is also going with me so it will be a learning opportunity for my children.”
The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. government in hopes to build strong relationships between the United States and other countries. To apply for the Fulbright, individuals must have strong academic and professional achievements, five recommendation letters and strong evidence of service in their fields.
“I was born and raised in Bangladesh and even before I came to the United States I was familiar with the Fulbright Scholarship,” he said. “It is a very prestigious scholarship and I know people from all over the world who come to the United States to participate in higher education and similarly American scholars go abroad to teach or do research. Even sometimes American students go abroad to study.”
Elahee is no stranger to Jordan. He has traveled their several times and thinks his teaching experience will greatly differ from his time at Quinnipiac.
“In Jordan higher education is extremely complicated, it is competitive, they are very self driven, motivated, but there are not many resources. In the United States we have a lot of resources. In Jordan, students are very dedicated but they might not have the same level of foundation that American students have. Based on my limited experience, it seems to me that even though they do not have much sources, not much libraries, not good databases, the makeup for the resources is working extra hard.”
Elahee spoke with enthusiasm about returning to Quinnipiac and getting the chance to share what he learned with his students. He hopes his travels will help build a relationship between Quinnipiac and the University of Jordan. A goal of his is to bring Quinnipiac students on a study abroad trip to Jordan.
“I know that it is unrealistic but if it was for a short amount of time for students to at least go there, learn about the Arab culture, learn about the Arab business practices, it would be worth it. There is a lucrative market there and Jordan is a very stable country. If our students have a better understanding of the Arab market, later, they can do business there. We live in a globalized world, we have to learn about other parts of the world and I find that in the United States we don’t have a good understanding of that. We know a lot about Europe because they are traditional trading partners but we do not know as much about Asia, Latin America, Africa or the Middle East. It’s time for us to tap into those markets and for that it is very important for our students to go visit, meet people and make friends, so I hope I can play a role in building that relationship.”
CVS Health’s plan to buy Aetna for $69 billion may reshape the health care industry.
CVS announced the deal on Sunday, claiming the merger would provide people with an “integrated, community-based health care experience.”
“With the analytics of Aetna and CVS Health’s human touch, we will create a health care platform built around individuals,” CVS CEO Larry Merlo said in a press release.
The deal could lead to changes for CVS stores across the country, including this one in North Haven.
Aetna’s CEO and chairman, Mark Bertolini, added, “Together with CVS Health, we will better understand our members’ health goals, guide them through the health care system and help them achieve their best health,” Aetna’s CEO and chairman, Mark Bertolini, added in the press release.
Most outsiders think the deal could come with both pros and cons.
“Effects from the merger may be positive or negative depending on the stakeholders’ perspective,” Jason Scozzafava, a clinical assistant professor of health sciences at Quinnipiac, said. “I believe what is highly likely is that a merger of this scope and scale will influence our health care delivery system.”
Specifically, Scozzafava said the merger could combine many health-related services in one company.
According to its press release, CVS has about 9,700 stores and 1,100 clinics, with 82 percent of Americans living within 10 miles of one of its locations. If CVS adds more locations, Scozzafava says it “would improve geographical access to health care services for many.”
“This strategy could also help to expedite the expansion of a new care delivery model, one which focuses on patient education, prevention, and management of chronic illness outside of the physician’s office,” Scozzafava said.
This will also affect the insurance side of the deal. Scozzafava said, potentially, it “could offer companies a ‘one-stop shopping’ experience for their employees.”
“People with Aetna insurance could have much of their preventative and disease management health care provided to them within the walls of the retail store,” Scozzafava said.
However, this may not be entirely positive. Scozzafava added that it “could also limit choices as to where one may go for care.”
He also noted that another possible negative effect of the deal could be the distancing between patients and their primary care providers. But Scozzafava feels there is still potential for various positive changes.
“Through the proper utilization of the CVS-Aetna health delivery model, the potential exists to help ease overcrowded emergency departments, improve patient ownership of their health, and decrease the cost of health care in the United States,” Scozzafava said. However, he noted that “a decrease in the cost of health care seems unlikely in our current climate, one that is dominated by private insurance companies.”
All of these possible scenarios rely on the deal actually going through. David Cadden, a Quinnipiac entrepreneurship and strategy professor emeritus, stressed that the merger still needs to be approved by the Department of Justice.
“Prior attempts to merge the largest insurance companies in the country were shot down by (the Department of Justice),” Cadden said.
However, Cadden said this case is different. He said the CVS-Aetna deal would be considered a vertical merger because the two companies are in the same supply chain. The deals that he says were denied were horizontal mergers because they consisted of companies from the same industry.
Cadden said CVS and Aetna “will argue that this merger will lead to significant cost savings, which then could be passed on to the consumer.”
For people with Aetna insurance, the deal may limit where they can fill prescriptions.
“If they can demonstrate this, there is a significant probability that the Department of Justice would approve the merger,” Cadden said.
The question of whether or not the deal will be approved is part of a larger atmosphere of uncertainty within the health care industry, with its future remaining unclear.
“Our U.S. health care system is going through uncertain times,” Scozzafava said. “The political changes in Washington have led to uncertainty with Medicare funding and the (Affordable Care Act).”
Also, there is the threat of new competitors in the health care industry.
“Retail stores like CVS are responding to the threat of e-commerce, more specifically Amazon potentially entering the pharmaceutical distribution business,” Scozzafava said. “Amazon has proven its ability to disrupt longstanding shopping behaviors and CVS may be trying to get ahead of the change.”
The deal with CVS could be the second major Aetna-related change for Connecticut this year. In June, the insurance company announced that it would be moving its headquarters to New York City after being in Hartford for 164 years. Aetna plans to move sometime next year, but about 6,000 employees will remain in Connecticut.
Monday, Dec. 11 officially marks the beginning of finals week for Quinnipiac University students. While anxiety levels are running high as project deadlines, paper submissions and exam times quickly approach, students note it’s important to take a step back and laugh at the hilarity that ensues during this week that is notoriously rough for students.
Some seniors at Quinnipiac took time to reflect on their previous finals weeks in college and shared a few traumatic, embarrassing, yet funny memories with us.
Senior health science major Danielle Rattotti outside of the library.
Danielle Rattotti, a senior health science major, was in the middle of studying for her organic chemistry final when the bottom half of her Starbucks coffee cup completely broke off, spilling coffee all over her computer – and her notes.
“I spent a good two hours drying all of my stuff under the hand dryer in the bathroom,” Rattotti said. “After that didn’t work, I ran down Bobcat Way, with my computer open, back to my dorm room to try and back it up on my hard drive … in the middle of winter with a coat soaked in coffee that was now freezing cold.”
Senior health science major Jennifer Wisniewski even drew a picture of praying hands on one of her final exams and scribbled, “Jesus is the answer,” next to it in a last-ditch effort to salvage her physics grade.
Senior health science major Jen Wisniewski recalled her story in the library.
“The teacher hated me and always called me up to the board to do problems because I never knew how to do them,” Wisniewski said. “So, on the final, we had to draw a lever with tension and gravity or something, and I obviously had no idea how to do that. So, I drew a picture of Jesus with his hands in prayer form and wrote, ‘Jesus is the answer,’ basically saying my prayers for that final because I totally bombed it.’”
Wisniewski’s prayers were answered when she received a C-grade on the final, easily passing the rest of the course.
“Hey, maybe he felt bad for me and liked the drawing, and Jesus helped me out,” she said.
Samantha Masetti, yet another health science major seemingly plagued with bad luck during finals, described nearly missing one of her exams as “traumatic.”
Sam Masetti drinking coffee as she described almost missing her final exam.
“Every finals week I’m stressed, but this one was the worst,” Masetti said. “I got home from the library at 1 a.m. from studying for another class because I thought I had the whole next day to study since the exam wasn’t until 3. Well, guess what was at 12 p.m. and not at 3? My exam. So, I rushed to campus, couldn’t find the room, got lost, FaceTimed someone in my class for directions and sat down at my desk at 11:56 a.m. Horrible.”
Political science major Camillo Lemos may have had the worst luck of all when his car broke down on the way to his art history final, which he was already late for.
“I woke up at 9:30 a.m. Monday of finals week and was hanging out with my roommate Xavier. We started talking about whether or not I had many finals that week, which I thought started on Tuesday for me. I was wrong,” Lemos said. “So now it’s 9:45 a.m., and I’m barreling down the highway going 70 mph because my art history final started about an hour and a half ago. Then, my car breaks down because there was no oil in it.”
Lemos ended up leaving his car on the side of the highway with a note tucked under the windshield wiper reading, “please don’t tow this,” and then jumped into his roommate’s car and went to main campus.
“I arrived at 10:10 a.m. to discover I’m the last one in the room. My professor has me sit next to her to take it, and she knows I’m stressing. I had to take a two-and-a-half-hour final in 30 minutes,” Lemos said. “I almost cried.”
On Friday, President Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about communicating with Russians.
According to the Associated Press, his plea to a single felony count of false statements makes him the first person from the Trump administration to be charged in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The Associated Press is also reporting that court papers make it clear that senior Trump transition officials were fully aware of Flynn reaching out to Russian officials just weeks before the presidential inauguration.
In a statement released on Dec. 1, Flynn denied “false accusations of ‘treason’” and said, “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
On Friday and Saturday, President Trump tweeted about Flynn, saying that he fired him because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI.
On Monday, CNN reported that the White House’s chief lawyer told Trump in January that Flynn misled the FBI and lied to Pence.
The U.S. Senate passed a new tax bill in the dead of night on Friday evening into Saturday morning, creating the largest changes to the country’s tax code in three decades.
The bill is 479 pages long and was distributed to senators around 7 p.m. on Friday. It was passed with 51 votes just before 2 a.m. on Saturday, leaving little time for senators to rummage through the proposals in changes before the deadline. No democrats voted to pass the bill.
The major change with the new tax bill is the deduction of tax rates for businesses and corporations, which will go into effect in 2019. The tax rate for big businesses will drop from 35 to 20 percent, and those companies will also be able to write off most of their investments for the next five years.
Tax rates for millionaires will also see a decrease from 39.6 percent to 38.5 percent. Most Americans making between $500,000 to $1 million annually will enjoy the new bill, as 91 percent of that group will get a tax cut of at least $100 in 2019. However, only 46 percent of Americans who make between $20,000 and $30,000 a year will see such a cut.
Americans who may not like the bill changes could be students at Quinnipiac and beyond, as the House bill eliminates student debt write-offs. This forces graduate students whose tuition bills are waived due to working for professors or for their school to include that waived money as taxed income. In short, graduate student assistants will be taxed on their tuition money that is going directly to the school because of their services while seeking their advanced degrees. Universities fear these changes could deter students from seeking graduate study programs.
Among other effects of the bill is an increase in the American debt. The national debt of roughly $20 trillion will likely increase by another trillion due to the bill, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
As the five year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting approaches, the Newtown Action Alliance (NAA) is organizing its annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in Washington, D.C.
Newtown residents founded the NAA to advocate for families and victims affected by gun violence. The advocacy organization is dedicated to “reversing the escalating gun violence epidemic in this nation through the introduction of smarter, safer gun laws and broader cultural change.”
The NAA organizes a two-day trip, during which supporters take a bus from Newtown, Connecticut to Washington, D.C. This year the trip is planned for Wednesday, Dec. 6 and Thursday, Dec. 7.
The vigil will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Over the course of the trip, members of the NAA and supporters will attend congressional meetings and hold a press conference at the Capitol Building.
Last year, more than 330 vigils were organized in 43 states. The goal for this year is to hold more than 500 local vigils in all 50 states.
The vigil is in partnership with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown Survivor Network, Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Organizing for Action, States United to Prevent Gun Violence, St Marks Episcopal Church and Women’s March.
Quinnipiac University announced the availability of a new short summer school program in Warsaw, Poland last week. The 12-day program will run from July 9-21 at Kozminski University in Warsaw, and will include students from all around the world.
The program is called “Law and Business in the Globalizing World,” according to Kozminski’s academic website. It includes multiple business and law courses. There is also an official visit to three different Polish corporations, including Polsat, a commercial television station in Poland. Students are able to register for one or two courses, which will total as three credits and transfer back to Quinnipiac as a business elective.
Courses will be taught in English, and students are required to show proof of English proficiency upon submitting applications, which are due April 15. The cost of the program is 500 euros, or roughly $600. The price includes the actual program and the necessary course materials, daily lunches at the university, and social activities such as sightseeing tours and the company visits.
Travel and housing are not included in the overall price, however the university encourages prospective students to seek room and board with Polish families near the school. According to Kozminski’s website, a number of families in the area have housed students in the past for no charge. Living with a family offers an opportunity to learn and embrace the Polish culture at a greater degree.
Students with any questions regarding the program should contact Quinnipiac representative Hanna Hejmonski at the Quinnipiac Central European Institute.
On May 10, 2016, the life of Hamden resident Sue Higgins changed forever. She received news that she prayed would never come, but always lingered as a harsh possibility, like a dark cloud hovering over her suburban household. No one wants to believe a family member can be lost to drug addiction, but Higgins was faced with that devastating reality when her son Jack passed away at age 23 after a long fight with heroin addiction.
Jack Higgins passed away from an accidental overdose at age 23
Jack Higgins is one of many victims of accidental overdoses as a result of drug addiction, and is part of a number that is growing at an alarming rate in Hamden and other neighboring towns. However, thanks to his determined mother, Jack will never be confined to a statistic. His memory lives on with every bit of light that is shined on his story, now told through his healing parent. Sue Higgins refuses to hide her truth, because there is no shame to that truth. There is only the possibility to help other parents avoid her tragedy, and be spared the excruciating pain she endures every day.
“Shortly after Jack passed, I was seeing a doctor to help me grieve, the same doctor who Jack used to talk to,” Higgins remembered. “The day after Jack passed, he told me to turn my pain into passion, and turn it into something positive. That really stuck with me.”
Higgins’ passion is centered around a determination to get the word out to Hamden residents about the fatal nature of addiction, and how nobody is immune to its effects, regardless of how much they try to avoid it.
“The challenge is getting people to realize that it can happen to you,” Higgins explained. “But it’s everywhere, and kids are dropping like flies.”
The numbers support Higgins’ statement. Drug overdoses claimed just one Hamden resident from January to June of 2015. It has claimed seven in that window of time in 2017, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The rise of opioid abuse in Connecticut has led many addicts to heroin, a cheaper and more potent drug than what they can find in a prescription bottle. Heroin alone claimed 174 lives in the state of Connecticut in 2016. Based on the numbers so far this year, the projected number of deaths by year’s end is currently 516.
Despite the staggering numbers and reports, Higgins insists there is a deathly silence over Hamden, and a reluctance to spread the word. Why is such a serious and dangerous issue not being addressed more openly?
“People just think it will never happen to them,” Higgins responded.
It happened to Higgins, who faced a crossroads after burying her only son at far too young an age. She wanted no parent to have to feel that pain. So she took her doctor’s advice and decided to do something about it.
Higgins family, left to right. Jack, sister Courtney, Sue and her husband John
Higgins began leading panels and forums throughout Hamden to warn parents and family members of the dangers of addiction, taking meetings into places like Hamden Town Hall and Hamden Middle School. She has met multiple times with Hamden Mayor Curt Leng and Chief of Police Thomas Wydra to help spread the word to kids and their family members. Higgins believes awareness needs to be spread beyond just the suffering addicts.
“It’s a family disease,” Higgins said. “And it can take you down pretty quickly.”
Higgins has gotten to work quickly, picking up the pieces and putting panels together just a year after Jack’s death. Despite her painstaking efforts and honesty, many of her words are falling on deaf ears, or absent ones.
“I personally went and taped informational signs everywhere, and it was on the Facebook page for the town,” Higgins said about a panel she put together at Hamden Middle School. “I would say probably about 75 or 80 people showed up, half of whom were my friends there to support me, the other half were my partner Margerie’s friends. That’s it.”
Despite the disappointing attendance, Higgins organized another panel to speak at Hamden High School shortly after. Once again, she posted signs and sent out notices of the meeting in school progress reports and report cards. There would be a morning session to speak to the kids about the dangers of using, and an evening panel for the parents. Not one parent showed up.
“Getting the attention of other adults has proven to be very challenging,” Higgins said. “Everybody wants to read the paper and see it on the news, but how many people actually want to take the time and listen? I don’t know how else to get people’s attention. In my own experience, people say it’s a disease but don’t understand how easy it is to become addicted.”
Higgins isn’t alone in her fight to open the eyes of the public to what they are reluctant to look at. Hamden resident Maxine Wallace wrote a letter to the editor in the New Haven Register to try and spread the word about Nar-Anon, a private group designed for family members of addicts who are hurting due to the loss of a loved one or the damage caused by a using addict. Like Higgins, Wallace sees a resistance in coming to terms with the true nature of addiction.
“Nobody talks about it,” Wallace said. “It’s such a hidden secret. Nobody knows that your neighbor is going through the same crap that you’re going through. If only people would just talk about it instead of it being a stigma and thinking something is wrong with you.”
Nar-Anon is a private organization that offers help for family members affected by the destruction of addiction
Wallace uses Nar-Anon as a way to help family members achieve the same freedom she experiences in the program. Her husband and brother have both been sober for over a decade, but the freedom she experienced has been through opening up to others and acknowledging her truth. It is a relief that Higgins is able to share through accepting her situation and using it as a vessel to help others, as long as others are open to accepting it.
“I remember when Jack was alive and in school, going into Stop and Shop I wanted to wear a mustache and glasses,” Higgins remembered. “Now I don’t care. There is no stigma. I learned through this experience that every family has something in which they’re a little embarrassed, but some people don’t want to talk about it and others do.”
Higgins can relate to the hesitation for families to open up about their struggles. There has been a stigma of shame wrapped around addiction for years, and getting the conversation started is a difficult task. Higgins empathizes with the fear and embarrassment, but has broken through her own fearful restraints for the greater good.
“I am very open and honest about it,” Higgins said of her grieving journey. “It’s a disservice to Jack to lie about it.”
The strength of Higgins to use the most painful experience of her life for the benefit of others has captivated those around her, particularly those who watch her work tirelessly to do her part to end addiction in Hamden.
“She is a powerful vehicle to the message,” said Ana Gopoian, who is over two decades into sobriety herself and has spoken on two different panels with Higgins. “She lost Jack, and to keep his memory alive, you have to give it a purpose. He didn’t pass in vain.”
The duo of Higgins and Gopoian present multiple perspectives on the effects of addiction, from the pain of family members watching their loved one self-destruct to the addict themselves who can’t stop using, despite the best of intentions. Gopoian believes their struggle can help others avoid their own in the future.
“Experience is where we can change the stigma of addiction,” Gopoian said. “People with these experiences help create smarter people.”
Gopoian has joined Higgins on panels around Hamden, including their appearance at Hopkins school, while Higgins has joined Gopoian on her own program, “The Paraphernalia Project.” The movement is Gopoian’s effort to alert parents and family members of signs to look out for that may tip them off to drug use by their kids.
“The project is meant for adults, teachers and officers,” Gopoian explained. “When parents are knowledgeable of red flags, they can intervene.”
Higgins was eager to jump on board with Gopoian’s project, and echoes her statement on the importance of family knowledge.
“Parents need to be aware of the signs and red flags,” Higgins added. “They need to know what tiny pupils are, and things that are so obvious but you don’t want to see them.”
Hamden, Connecticut and cities throughout the United States are in the midst of a deadly epidemic when it comes to heroin and opioids, and concerned citizens like Higgins are fighting hard to make others aware of the warning signs of drug use before it’s too late. An added danger with heroin use has been the recent introduction of fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is normally used in a patch to apply to the body to manage pain. However, heroin is now being laced with fentanyl for added potency, and leading to deadly results.
According to the Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner, there was one overdose death in Connecticut in 2012 in which heroin and fentanyl was in the victim’s system. Given the current pace of related deaths this year, 2017 is projected to end with 354 deaths within Connecticut as a result of this lethal mixture.
Many parents who have lost children to overdoses due to laced heroin have been calling for heavier sentences for the dealers who distribute those drugs. Higgins wasn’t pleased with the outcome of the case that involved the loss of her son, but other factors interfered with Jack’s dealer getting a harsher sentence.
“The kid who sold the drugs to my son got 18 months in jail,” Higgins says. “Is that enough? No, but in this case my son had other drugs in his system and it couldn’t be proven which one killed him.”
It was reported that Jack Higgins had heroin, cocaine and Xanax (or alprazolam) in his system on the day of his untimely death. It’s hard to prove the other drugs were mixed in with whatever heroin he purchased, so his dealer was sentenced to a time in jail that seemed to be more of a slap in the wrist than a punishment fitting of the crime, according to Higgins.
“I feel like whoever is dealing drugs needs to have maybe a mandatory sentence,” Higgins said. “It’s too light. There was just something in the paper yesterday about a couple dealers in Hamden who were out on a $10,000 and $20,000 bond. Any drug dealer worth their weight in salt is going to have that much money under their bed.”
Helping Higgins through the court proceedings after Jack’s death was Ines Cenatiempo, victim-witness coordinator for the Connecticut Department of Justice. Cenatiempo has worked with countless families looking for justice in the past, but the Higgins family had a lasting impact on her.
“Ms. Higgins and her husband were wonderful to work with,” Cenatiempo said. “I wish I did not have to meet them under such tragic circumstances, but despite the loss of their son, they were both passionate about being involved in outreach and awareness concerning the opioid crisis. I admire them for the courage it takes to keep going, and to speak out about this epidemic.”
Cenatiempo runs panels of her own which seek to shine a light on the horrors that addiction wreaks on families, and has hosted one in Hamden. She asked Higgins to speak for her group, but it came at a time that Higgins was not ready to speak about her tragedy in public. Cenatiempo hosts such panels not just because it is part of her job description, but she also is a primary witness to the alarming trend that is happening around her.
“I have worked on almost every overdose case our office has prosecuted, which is over 100 cases,” Cenatiempo said. “The past two years have seen a dramatic increase in these types of cases.”
As the fatalities continue to rise, the battle in Hamden rages on for Higgins. Despite a lack of attendance at her previous panels, she still continues to hold these types of meetings . As she struggles to find a niche that will attract parents to learn about this fatal issue, she continues to work to give herself a sense of helpful purpose.
“I just don’t want it to be my identity,” Higgins says. “I don’t want to be seen as that woman who lost her son. I want to be the woman that lost her son and is fighting really hard to raise awareness and wake people up.”
Painting of Jack Higgins, which is displayed in the Higgins household to keep his memory alive
Jack’s memory is everywhere in the Higgins household. His friends still come to visit regularly and check on the family. His pictures are littered about the house, bringing a warm smile to Higgins’ face every time she walks by. She remembers the good times with her son, but is also reminded of his painful truth. She stumbled across 10 bags of heroin while retrieving something from Jack’s room just weeks ago, now almost a year and a half since his passing. The reminders are not a reason to be ashamed. For Higgins, it is a reason to emerge from the shadows of addiction and spread the word so it doesn’t have to devastate another Hamden family.
The Quinnipiac rugby team took down undefeated Dartmouth 29-20 in the 2017 National Intercollegiate Rugby Association Championship by scoring 24 unanswered points and capturing its third straight national title. The trio of national championships remain the only ones in school history.
The third title was anything but a sure thing. The Bobcats had lost to Dartmouth earlier in the season, and eventually surrendered their top-ranked position to the Big Green. The Bobcats fell behind 15-5 early in the championship game and needed a momentum spurt if they were to hoist the crown for the unprecedented third straight time.
Of course, they turned to senior Ilona Maher.
The eventual tournament MVP scored a big try to tie the match and send the Bobcats on their way. She would finish the game with two tries and two assists, and finished the season with a team-high 23 tries. The backbone of the most successful team in Quinnipiac history, Maher now rides into the shadows of Sleeping Giant with a resume that makes her the top candidate for the best athlete the school has ever seen.
The string of success was something even Maher could not have imagined when transferring from Norwich prior to her sophomore season.
“Sometimes it feels unreal,” Maher said. “To win three just shows all the work we put in throughout these years. I came here and winning a champ wasn’t really on my mind. I just wanted to keep playing rugby. Each year we got better and do what we said we were going to do. We completed our mission.”
Head coach Becky Carlson has witnessed Maher’s profound impact on the Bobcats since she courted Maher from Norwich three years ago, before altering the course of Quinnipiac rugby history.
“Her work ethic is magnetic,” Carlson said. “She’s the type of player that a lot of people look to as an example of what they want to achieve. Not just physically, but also in terms of being a good teammate and leading by example.”
If Maher’s personal mission was to win it all during all three of her seasons as a Bobcat, then she accomplished her goal with flying colors, while earning plenty of personal honors along the way. She took home the MA Sorensen Award last season for the best women’s rugby player in the country, and followed it up by leading the Bobcats to the pinnacle of college rugby once again.
Maher and the Bobcats have made a living off conquering obstacles during their remarkable three-year stretch. The team didn’t have a home pitch all last season. They were able to host the NIRA Tournament this season, but needed to take down a Dartmouth team that looked poised to take Quinnipiac’s spot on top of the rugby world. Maher believes their struggles against Big Green were exactly what the Bobcats needed, and reminded her group that resting on their laurels was a death sentence for a chance to repeat as champs.
“To have that first game against Dartmouth and to lose was kind of a wake-up call,” Maher said. “We realized these other teams were here to play. When we do get beaten, we know it’s not who we are and we’re much better than that.”
The Bobcats woke up from their brief early season snooze and rolled to their third championship, making Norwich the only team in the past four seasons to beat the Bobcats in their final game of the season. That was when Maher was playing for Norwich, before becoming a Bobcat and igniting a national powerhouse.
Maher leaves the new pitch in Hamden with an undeniable legacy of winning, and plans to carry that legacy to wherever she finds herself next. Wherever it is, she plans to have her rugby cleats on.
“I want to go on and play more rugby,” Maher said. “This isn’t the end for me. It’s just the beginning.”
For Maher, her Bobcats career ended the way it began: with a championship trophy.
