Mauricio Pita-Goncalves Named Naugatuck Valley Community College 2009 Distinguished Student

Waterbury, Conn. – Naugatuck resident Mauricio Pita-Goncalves, a 2009 Magna Cum Laude graduate of the visual and performing arts theatre and dance program and former vice-president of the College’s Student Government Association, has been named this year’s Distinguished Student at Naugatuck Valley Community College.

To be considered for this honor, students must have a minimum 3.7 grade point average, have completed at least fifty percent of their course work at Naugatuck Valley, and be seen as a leader at the college and in the community.

An actor, dancer and singer, Pita-Goncalves has received such awards as Outstanding Theatre Artist: Student of the Year 2007-08, the Who’s Who Among American Junior College Students, and the Billie Mae Collier Scholarship for the Performing Arts. He is also a member of the Phi Theta Kappa and National Scholars honor societies and has worked extensively as an actor with the New Zenith Theatre, the Warner Theater in Torrington, and the Terpsichorean Dance Ensemble. He appeared in the summer of 2008 at the New York International Fringe Festival’s New York premiere of Symphony Pastorale & Fugue Series by Los Angeles playwright Robert Barnett.

“NVCC transformed me from a young dreamer to someone who will actually work for those dreams,” said Pita-Goncalves. “I have found an intense sense of my identity and purpose in my life thanks to NVCC, but most importantly how one single idea can be the eye opener to a better world and perhaps with enough work change it for the better.”

In April, Pita-Goncalves was accepted into Yale University's Summer Conservatory for Actors at the Yale School of Drama. The highly selective program chooses only 30 students out of thousands of applicants worldwide to work with Yale alumni, faculty and theatre professionals in workshops and one-on-one class work. In the fall, he will attend Marymount Manhattan as a Drama major.