Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung Center for the Promotion of Mental Health & School Safety
The Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung Center, founded in 2013, develops and shares solutions that promote the mental health of each child and safe learning environments for all children.
Russell Sage College established the Hochsprung Center in 2013 in memory of the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, who died in a school shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. Hochsprung had been a doctoral candidate at Sage’s Esteves School of Education’s Educational Leadership program.
The Hochsprung Center works to raise awareness of student mental health, suicide prevention, trauma-sensitive schools and school safety through public lectures, professional development for educators, a doctoral research fellowship and collaborations.
“Dawn Hochsprung is an example of facing one’s fear in the ultimate circumstance, literally putting her life on the line to save her children,” said Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Janice White, Ed.D., who led Hochsprung’s first course at Sage. “Her actions on Dec. 14 speak to her commitment to lead with selfless courage. She travels with us in spirit through the Hochsprung Center.”
“Dawn Hochsprung was part of the Russell Sage College community, and we want her legacy to live on,” said Hochsprung Center Director and Assistant Professor Educational Leadership Jerome Steele, Ed.D., who met the Sandy Hook principal several times in fall 2012. “We work so that future generations of students and educators are not looking over their shoulders in fear.”
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung Doctoral Fellowship
To further Dawn Hochsprung’s legacy, the Department of Educational Leadership at Sage established the Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung Graduate Fellowship — an award for advanced scholarly research in the areas of mental health and/or school safety. Doctoral students in Sage’s Educational Leadership program who are completing their dissertation are eligible to apply.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the mission of the Hochsprung Center may make a donation online by going to https://www.sage.edu/alumnae-i/giving/ .
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung Memorial Fund
Through the Connecticut Community Foundation, a scholarship fund was established by the family of Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, who was the former principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, to aid Naugatuck students entering the teaching profession.