AREA PEOPLE OF NOTE

* The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States New Haven Post 12150. VFW New Haven, and Post Commander Charles M. Pickett were awarded the All-American for 2020-21 award by outgoing VFW National Commander Hal Roesch at the 122nd VFW national convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The award recognizes authentic accomplishment in membership growth and VFW core programs in the congressionally-chartered veterans service organization of 1.5 million eligible veterans and military service members. Chartered in June 2015, VFW New Haven last achieved this honor in 2017 and was only one of two posts in Connecticut this year to earn All-American. * Dr. Amy Cornell is a finalist for the Connecticut Technology Council’s Women of Innovation Award. Cornell wears many hats, both on and off campus. Although her official Country School title is science and STEAM teacher, this former NASA scientist is also a robotics coach and one of the masterminds behind the new PreSchool-8th Grade Health and Wellness curriculum. She brought biotech concepts and practices into the classroom and then enabled Country School students to share their biotech learning as mentors for children in underserved communities.

* Ripon College honored outstanding alumni during its recent Alumni Weekend. Because of the canceled ceremony in the summer of 2020, honorees from both 2020 and 2021 were recognized. Samuel B. Sondalle, Class of 2011, of New Haven, received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. He accepted the award virtually. Sondalle is is an Albert J. Solnit Integrated Resident in Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. His awards and honors include a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in Mathematics, Science and Engineering in 2010; an Individual Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health in 2016; and the 2020 M.D./Ph.D. Award for excellence in both research and clinical activities, Yale University School of Medicine. At Ripon, Sondalle majored in chemistry and biology and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.