Jonathan Elliot Cohen
THE JAMES ANDREW HAAS PRIZE
The James Andrew Haas Prize is awarded annually to "that member of the Senior Class in Yale College whose breadth of intellectual achievement, strength of character, and fundamental humanity shall be adjudged by the faculty to have provided leadership for his or her fellow students, inspiring in them a love of learning and concern for others." This year the Haas Prize is awarded to Jonathan Elliot Cohen of Calhoun College.
Jonathan Cohen leaves Yale with a distinguished record of service to the university and to surrounding communities. Much of this service has been with and on behalf of children. Through the Yale Children's Theater, he has lead workshops at the Douglas House Emergency Shelter and at the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center. In a bold extension of this work, he founded the Reach Out -Speak Out program, which teaches self-expression and public speaking skills to high school students in this city. Since 1993, he has also served as coach of the Guilford High School debate team. Mr. Cohen's unflagging good humor and gentle perseverance in the face of many challenges have helped to turn good intentions into welcome accomplishments.
He has succeeded in the face of personal challenges as well, notably following the loss of his father after his Freshman year. On the international debate circuit and as a board member of the Yale Debate Association, he has scored impressive triumphs, representing Yale at the World Debate Championships last year and winning the McGill Debate Championships in his native Canada this spring, in addition to other top prizes in the United States.
He has managed, all the while, to maintain an impressive academic record. Graduating cum laude and with Distinction in the Philosophy major, he wrote his senior essay on Rousseau, who also spoke out articulately in his generation about the welfare of children.
Mr. Cohen has truly inspired in those who know him a love of learning and a concern for others. For lending his voice to good causes, and for helping many young people in this city to find theirs, Yale College is proud to bestow the James Andrew Haas Prize upon Jonathan Elliot Cohen.
Joshua Ian Civin
THE WARREN MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE AND THE ALPHEUS HENRY SNOW PRIZE
The Alpheus Henry Snow Prize is awarded to that "senior who, through the combination of intellectual achievement, character, and personality, shall be adjudged by the faculty to have done the most for Yale by inspiring in his or her classmates an admiration and love for the best traditions of high scholarship." This year the Snow Prize is awarded to Joshua Ian Civin of Calhoun College. Mr. Civin is also the recipient of this year's Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize for the Senior majoring in the Humanities.
There can be no doubt of the caliber of Josh Civin's intellectual achievement. He has earned in all but one of his 36 course credits an A or A-, for a grade-point-average of 3.93. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa after only four terms of enrollment, he was also named a Truman Scholar in his Junior year. He still managed to find prizes to win in his senior year: this past fall, he was recognized by USA Today as one of the 20 top students in the country, and this Spring, he received the History department's Edwin W. Small Prize for the most outstanding Senior essay in American history. Mr. Civin's work has been uniformly praised by his professors for the thoroughness of his research and for the grace of his writing. Indeed, as one of his readers commented, he has already produced work that "any professional historian would have been pleased to have written." He is, needless to say, graduating summa cum laude and with Distinction in the major.
Josh Civin has not, however, been a leader only in the classroom. Indeed, he has characteristically blended intellectual interests and social concerns throughout his time at Yale, much to the mutual benefit of Yale and New Haven. As a Sophomore, he established Students for Progress, a group whose aim has been to find in community service a just and practical basis for involvement in local political affairs. He himself has worked hard as an organizer for a citizens' housing association in his hometown of Baltimore, as a tutor at New Haven's Hillhouse High, and in a variety of informal settings as a liaison between local leaders and Yale undergraduates. Twice elected to the New Haven Board of Aldermen, he has come to be greatly respected by his colleagues for the clarity of his thinking and for his practical coalition-building skills. As a politician, he is known for being not just smart, but savvy.
Mr. Civin's life has shown an extraordinary coherence and integrity. As one of his professors remarked, Josh Civin seems to "embody the ideal life of the mind in Yale College, because he applies his academic work to his thinking about the world around him." Possessed with an acute sense of what is right and fair, he is never self-righteous or absolute, and has shown a gift for good-natured playfulness that is rare in either contemporary political debate or academic discourse. A respected leader who is also a beloved friend to many, he has made a difference in the way this community lives. Yale College therefore takes special pleasure in bestowing both the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize and the Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize this year upon Joshua Ian Civin.
William Scott Whyte
THE ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY PRIZE
The Arthur Twining Hadley Prize, which honors the memory of the man who served as President of Yale from 1899 to 1921, is awarded annually to the Senior in Yale College majoring in the social sciences who ranks highest in scholarship. This year the Hadley Prize is awarded to William Scott Whyte of Trumbull College.
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the beginning of his Senior year, William Whyte is graduating summa cum laude, with Distinction in the major in Psychology. He has earned 32 grades of straight A and managed to wind up his Yale career with the stratospheric grade-point-average of 4.0. Apparently even this remarkable feat does not fully reflect the level of his achievements: He regularly earned the highest grades on all exams in the neurobiology course, and the instructor in his organic chemistry class could only lament, "I wish I could have given him an A+."
Mr. Whyte has a passion for filmmaking, which he has studied both at Yale and in his native California. He returns there next year to devote himself to writing screenplays. Then in the fall of 1997, he will enroll in the doctoral program in neuroscience at Oxford University. Having himself undergone cardiac surgery as a child, Mr. Whyte intends eventually to enter the field of medicine.
For his remarkable academic achievements across a broad range of course work, Yale College is proud to confer the Arthur Twining Hadley Prize upon William Scott Whyte.
Behrang Behin
THE RUSSELL HENRY CHITTENDEN PRIZE
The Russell Henry Chittenden Prize is awarded annually to that Senior in Yale College majoring in the natural sciences or in mathematics who ranks highest in scholarship. This year's prize is awarded to Behrang Behin of Davenport College.
Ben Behin graduates summa cum laude, with Distinction in the Applied Physics major. Elected to Tau Beta Pi in his Junior year and to Phi Beta Kappa at the beginning of his Senior year, he has completed 39 courses at Yale, 32 of them with grades of straight A and 4 more with grades of A-. He has earned a cumulative grade-point-average of 3.95.
With special interests in solid state and quantum electronics, Mr. Behin has excelled as a thoughtful, independent researcher into the electrical properties of thin films, silicon insulator materials, semiconductors, and microelectronic structures. Mr. Behin knows how to have fun on a bigger scale as well: He is a member of Team LUX, the Yale team which builds and races solar cars across the nation, and he takes pleasure in his participation in SMArT, the organization of Yale students who work with New Haven middle schoolers on science projects.
In addition to his scientific interests, Mr. Behin has developed into an unusually gifted visual artist, creating with equal facility an intensely dark and haunting world of charcoal drawings and amusing, wonderfully gravity-defying sculptural installations.
In recognition of his remarkable academic record and in celebration of his many talents, Yale College is proud to bestow the Russell Henry Chittenden Prize this year upon Behrang Behin.
Jonathan Peter Andrews and
Sara Ellen Wolverson
THE LOUIS SUDLER PRIZE
The Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts is awarded this year jointly to Jonathan Peter Andrews of Silliman College and Sara Ellen Wolverson, also of Silliman College, for outstanding accomplishments in the creative and performing arts.
Jon Andrews has made a world of difference to film-making in Yale College. He has been tireless in his efforts to raise funds and even to beg and scrounge from studios and manufacturers on behalf of UPix, the undergraduate filmmakers' organization. But he has also made a difference by the example he has set in the realization of two of the most striking 16- mm. films ever made by a Yale undergraduate. "The Night Tram," made in Prague during his Junior Term Abroad, conjures unfamilar emotions magically. By contrast, "Short Change," his senior project, is a compelling meditation on acting and role-playing in everyday life. It is also a remarkable technical accomplishment, with professional quality lighting, camerawork, and editing. This week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that this film has won a Student Academy Award in the category of Dramatic Film. For his support of undergraduate filmmaking and for the range and quality of his own achievements, Yale College is proud to award Jonathan Peter Andrews the Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts.
Sara Wolverson has had a stunning run as an actress at Yale. In a world in which quantity sometimes gets confused with quality, she has shown respect for her art form by choosing her projects with discernment and by comitting herself to them with her whole heart and mind. Ms. Wolverson's power to create imaginative and persuasive characterizations has developed steadily over her years at Yale, to the increasing delight of her audiences. Her senior project in Theater Studies, in which she played the role of Fanny in Eric Overmeyer's "On the Verge," not only demonstrated once again her impressive natural abilities, but also revealed her tremendous growth as an artist. Her recent performances have set a new standard of excellence in the Theater Studies Program. For her assiduous dedication to her training and for her artistic achievements, Yale College is proud to award Sara Ellen Wolverson the Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts.