Willington Resident, Eastern Student Receives Prestigious College Honor

WILLIMANTIC, CT — Eastern Connecticut State University has named a Willington resident as one of its two 2025 recipients of the Henry Barnard Distinguished Student Award, the most prestigious undergraduate honor given by the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system.

One of this year's honorees is senior mathematics major Ryan Toomey of Willington.

Eastern selects two graduating seniors for the Barnard Award each spring, contributing to an annual total of 12 across Connecticut's four state universities. Recipients of the award are nominated for their commitment to academic excellence, campus involvement, and community engagement.

Toomey, a University Honors Scholar and member of Eastern's men's soccer team, was nominated by mathematics Professor Kim Ward, his faculty adviser. Among his involvements, Toomey has served as a peer adviser at the University's Academic Success Center for all four years of his undergraduate experience.

"There are so many people here at Eastern who work extremely hard and deserve this award, so I am humbled to be named a recipient," said Toomey.

For his honors thesis, Toomey worked with education Professor Sudha Swaminathan, who served as his faculty mentor.

"The time I spent with her working on that project was extremely beneficial to my growth, both inside and outside of the classroom," he said. "Months were spent working within the campus preschool studying the impact of board games on the math abilities of bilingual preschool children."

Added, Swaminathan, "As principal investigator of multiple research projects, I have mentored more than 30 extremely capable undergraduate research assistants. Ryan Toomey easily ranks among the top 1 percent."

As a student athlete with the men's soccer team, Toomey has served the Willimantic community as the team's community engagement coordinator since 2023. In this role, he coordinated more than 13 community events, totaling more than 500 service hours. The efforts included assisting elementary schoolers with their reading development, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, leading youth soccer clinics, and organizing bone marrow drives, among others activities.

"As someone who was born and partially raised in Willimantic, it was special for me to be able to play a role in giving back," Toomey said.

While balancing all these commitments, Toomey has maintained a 4.0 GPA. He is proud to be named a Barnard Scholar but takes more pride in the experiences that led to this honor.

"I am honored to be named a recipient, but the relationships I made with members of the Eastern community are what I really cherish and will carry with me," he said.

Toomey aims to become a secondary math teacher and will earn a master's degree in secondary education from Eastern in the 2025-26 academic year.