Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 7, 2004|Volume 32, Number 29|Two-Week Issue

Juniors are recognized for
scholarship and character

Eleven Yale College juniors have received honors in recognition of their scholarship, contributions to college life and their character.

The undergraduates were selected by the Council of Masters to receive the F. Wilder Bellamy Jr. Memorial Prize, the John C. Schroeder Award or the Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award.

Following are the names of the honored students and their prizes, as well as a short description based on the citation from their residential college masters.

F. Wilder Bellamy Jr. Memorial Prize

The F. Wilder Bellamy Jr. Memorial Prize is presented to a junior or juniors who best exemplify the qualities for which F. Wilder Bellamy '37 B.A. is remembered, including personal integrity, loyalty to friends and high-spiritedness in athletics, academics and social life.

AnneMarie Baltay, Saybrook College: Baltay is now president of the Saybrook College Council, having previously served as college council treasurer and, as a freshman, as co-chair of the social committee. She also served as an intramural secretary for the college. A member of Club Alpine Skiing, Club Women's Lacrosse and the Varsity Sailing Team, she majors in applied mathematics.

Theodore ("Eddie") Pritchett III, Ezra Stiles College: Described as a "mainstay of Ezra Stiles' spirit and campus life," Pritchett has competed in intramurals, basketball, volleyball, waterpolo and other sports. He was the Stiles representative to the Yale College Council and head of the Student Activities Committee. He served as a master's aide and next year he will be the co-head of the master's aides. Known for his "fine scholastic record" and "broad range of interests outside the classroom," Pritchett is described as "a gentleman in the real sense of the word."

April Ruiz, Morse College: Ruiz has been heavily involved in the Yale Children's Theater, served as a Big Sib in Morse and is a member of the Morse intramural billiards team. She worked at the Connecticut Children's Museum, the Office of the Vice President and the Secretary, and in a cognitive neuroscience laboratory, where she is involved in research on comparative cognition in primates. She will serve as a freshman counselor next year. "April's spirit, optimism and friendship brighten any environment in which she becomes involved," notes her citation.

Alistair Anagnostou, Timothy Dwight College: Anagnostou's citation reads: "The Bellamy award commemorates a Yale person who was very popular, contributed strongly to the college and was high-spirited. This totally captures Alistair Anagnostou. ... No one is more high-spirited than he." Anagnostou is also described as "a leading light of our student council, a devoted master's aide and sports captain."

John C. Shroeder Award

This prize is awarded to a member or members of the junior class who "will find his or her place and play a part in the good labor of the world." The award honors contributions to residential college life and demonstrates the award committee's confidence in the recipient's later contribution to the community or the world.

Tal Bialostocki, Pierson College: From her work as an intern at the Appleseed Foundation to her public policy research with Professor Justus Weiner to her leadership role in "Women and Youth Supporting Each Other" and her chosen program of study devoted to legal history and the moral foundation of politics, Bialostocki has "lived the life of a student whose belief system is grounded in the notion that human dignity and the fight against prejudice must derive from not only superior knowledge and respect for law but also our efforts to make the human condition better," notes her award citation.

Michelle de Saram, Saybrook College: A native of Sri Lanka, de Saram "arrived at Yale committed to human rights," especially in her native land. At Yale, she has been involved in the Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights at the Law School, where she is assistant to the director. She also travels weekly to New York to serve as the assistant to the director of the international Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program.

Magni Hamso, Calhoun College: Described as "a powerful leader in New Haven concerning the plight of the homeless," Hamso helped to create Respect Line and, when the City of New Haven announced plans to close the overflow emergency shelter in the fall of 2002, she was instrumental in creating Tent City to bring attention to the need for homeless resources. She worked at the Emmanuel Baptist Men's Shelter; was an organizer of the College Council for CARE; served as coordinator for the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project; works with TIES as a tutor at the Strong School in New Haven; and runs the Calhoun Big Sib Little Sib program.

Yusuf Samara, Davenport College: Samara is known as "a superb writer, student, public school tutor and club soccerplayer" who "has never shied away from challenges in his academic or extracurricular activities." As president of the Muslim Students Association and co-founder of Jews and Muslims at Yale, Samara has "steadfastly promoted religious understanding and tolerance."

Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award

The Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award is given to a junior or juniors whose "verve, idealism and constructive interest in music and the humanities exemplify those qualities for which Joseph Lentilhon Selden is remembered." In recent years this award has gone to students especially notable for their contributions in the field of music.

Mei Rui, Jonathan Edwards College: Rui is a major in molecular biophysics and biochemistry who has been admitted to the B.A./M.M. program at the Yale School of Music. She is also "a talented pianist who studied at the preparatory division of the Juilliard School before choosing Yale over Juilliard for college," notes her citation. She has performed often in the college's Great Hall, as a featured soloist with the Yale Symphony Orchestra and in concerts in major cities from New York to Hong Kong.

Melody Chan, Silliman College: A performer who is "well known in the Yale music community as well as in national and international classical music circles," Chan is described as "an extraordinary violinist whose enthusiasm for the music is infectious." She is also a computer science and math major, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this year. She was recently named a Goldwater Scholar for research excellence in math, science and engineering.

Drew Alt, Berkeley College: Alt is the bandleader and manager of the Afro-Cuban jazz orchestra, Sonido Unidad, a salsa group comprised of both Yale undergraduate and New Haven area musicians. A scholar of jazz and salsa and other musical forms, Alt has conducted extensive research in Cuba, investigating the cultural roots of salsa and examining new musical forms he can bring back for the benefit of Sonido Unidad. His citation reads: "With a distinct sense that music is as social a phenomenon as it is cultural, Drew Alt has taken as his mission at Yale his passion for sharing his knowledge and passion about the music he loves with the people around him."

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