Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 22, 2005|Volume 33, Number 27|Two-Week Issue

Juniors honored for their
scholarship, contributions

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

The following are the names of the honored students and their prizes, as well as a description of their achievements based on the citations by their residential college masters.

F. Wilder Bellamy Jr. Memorial Prize

This prize is awarded to students who best exemplify the qualities for which Bellamy is remembered, including personal integrity, loyalty to friends and high-spiritedness in athletics, academics and social life.

Heidi Hansberry of Calhoun College. Hansberry plays on several intramural teams, serves on the Calhoun Social Activities Committee; is treasurer of her fraternity, Pi Beta Phi; and is involved in an "extraordinary array" of extracurricular activities helping people with mental illness. "It is a testimony to the richness of her character that someone so social has taken an interest in those of our society who are seen as social outcasts and who are, at times, themselves, antisocial," states the citation.

Molly Lubin of Morse College. Lubin has served as Morse intramurals secretary; captain of the women's Junior Varsity tennis team; a member of Morse's housing committee; and the college's representative on the Yale College Council. She will be a freshman counselor for the class of 2009. Noting Lubin's "deep commitment to [Morse] college and the life of its students," the citation says "She's responsible, caring and loyal in ways that have won the affection and respect of the entire college."

Pat McGill of Silliman College. A "natural leader," McGill has held several elected positions in Silliman and Yale College, and regularly writes opinion pieces for the Yale Herald. He has a talent "for mixing just the right combination of fun and seriousness of purpose," and is equally likely to encourage a debate on global issues as to organize a midnight snowball fight. The citation says, "To know Pat McGill is to delight in all that Yale has to offer and to appreciate the truly balanced life."

Aaron Zelinsky of Davenport College. Zelinsky has been co-president of the Davenport College Council, co-head of the Freshman Outdoor Orientation Trip and an "enthusiastic athlete and cheerleader" for Davenport intramural sports. An "engaged student who clearly takes great delight in his studies and is dedicated to public service," Zelinsky is a "major force in Davenport College and on the Yale campus," says the citation. "Aaron serves as a sparkplug for generating activities and maintaining high spirits, enthusiasm and pride in the community."

The John C. Shroeder Award

The John C. Schroeder Award honors contributions to residential college life and demonstrates the award committee's confidence in the recipient's later contribution to the community or world.

Terelle Hairston of Branford College. Hairston has worked to forge links between the residential colleges and the New Haven community. As founder of the Branford Service Initiative, he has made community outreach an important part of the College Council. As treasurer of the Black Students Alliance at Yale, Hairston helped increase his college's contributions to the United Way fund drive. A future freshman counselor, Hairston is sure to find his place "in the good labor of the world," says the citation.

Lynn Yudofsky of Calhoun College. An advocate for people with cognitive and physical disabilities, Yudofsky is involved in the organizations Special Needs & Awareness Peer Services and Best Buddies; a project to provide public assistance to adults with autism; and research at the Yale Child Studies Center on the neurology of autism. With the Yale Engineering & Design Team, she is working to market wheelchairs that can reduce muscle strain in users and plans to establish a company to provide more expeditious service for wheelchairs. She has been named Academic All-American in women's water polo for the last two years, participates in several Calhoun intramural sports and performs for the student dance company, A Different Drum.

Dan Ly of Morse College. Ly has served as Morse College student activities chair, secretary of intramural sports and Morse College Council president. He volunteers with children at the Yale-New Haven Hospital and works with New Haven elementary school students on projects ranging from tutoring to science demonstrations to health education. He helped increase the number of elementary school tutors from Morse College from 14 to 40. He also spent many hours in a hospice chronicling people's lives and saving their memories on tape for their surviving relatives.

Daniel Weeks of Berkeley College. The founding director of Yale's Students for Clean Elections, Weeks has also been a member of the Baker's Dozen singing group, a columnist for the Yale Herald, and a master's aide in Berkeley College. He was chair of the New Haven Democracy Fund political action committee; a campus coordinator for Democracy Matters; a policy adviser for the John DeStefano gubernatorial campaign; and outreach director for the Americans for Campaign Reform. He won a John Heinz Government Service Fellowship.

Benjamin Staub of Saybrook College. As executive co-coordinator of Dwight Hall, Staub is responsible for more than 3,000 student volunteers in a myriad of programs. As a peer health educator, he works in city schools to promote knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and wrote the curriculum for workshops on "relationship abuse." He is co-coordinator of the community health education project, bringing together Yale students with 1,400 local high school students. He also works with All Our Kin, Peace by Peace, Blake Street Head Start, American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, among other organizations.

Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award

This award honors juniors whose "verve, idealism and constructive interest in music and the humanities exemplify those qualities for which Joseph Lentilhon Selden is remembered."

Owen Dalby of Davenport College. Dalby is a classical violinist who performs a diverse repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary works. He has appeared at festivals across North America and Europe, recorded a live performance for WGBH in Boston, performed with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and as a soloist with Oakland East Bay Symphony, and served as concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Stephen Hopkins of Ezra Stiles College. A conductor, composer, musician and singer, Hopkins has performed everything from Mozart to Harold Arlen. He has been a finalist (2004) in the Yale Symphony Orchestra William Waite competition, the winner of a performance competition (2000) and he has composed and conducted in a number of venues. A frequent performer and accompanist at Ezra Stiles, he has combined his passion for music with a full range of college activities.

Kersten Stevens of Saybrook College. Stevens performs jazz and gospel on the violin. She performed at Yale's annual Black History Month dinner and was a featured soloist of the Martin Luther King Jr. Gospel Extravaganza at Battell Chapel; she also co-chaired the Black Church at Yale's 30th anniversary celebration. She plays with the Yale Symphony Orchestra and the Musical Cure. In 2003, she made it to the finals of "Showtime at the Apollo." Next year, she will serve as a freshman counselor.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale increases its voluntary payment to city

Levin appoints new V.P. for Development: Inge Reichenbach

Event honors former Yale chaplain's ministry, activism

Thomas C. Duffy chosen to serve as interim dean of the School of Music

Link between stress, insomnia and obesity shown

Event explores unique singing tradition shared by disparate groups

Conference explores historic impact of global quest for oil

Unbiased reporting is not always noble, CNN journalist says

Veteran coach with over 400 wins to head women's basketball

Symposium honors chemist's '30 years in the trenches'

The drama school stages 'The Real Thing' . . .

Yale honors 116 staff members at Long-Service Recognition Dinner

Juniors honored for their scholarship, contributions

IN MEMORIAM

Biologist Dr. Alvin Novick, noted advocate for people with AIDS

Lloyd Reynolds, shaped fields of labor relations and economics