SCHOLASTIC PRIZES
Five Yale College seniors were awarded prizes for superior academic work in their fields of study. Yale College Dean Richard H. Brodhead presented the awards during Senior Class Day exercises on May 25. The award-winning students carried special banners during the Commencement procession. Their award citations follow.
Karen Kristin Dabbs
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 was awarded to Karen Kristin Dabbs of Branford College.
In the words of one Yale faculty member, "Kissy Dabbs is a personage, someone with a public identity." This civic character is evident from her many commitments to service in her residential college, the Yale community, the City of New Haven and the nation. In 1996, she won a Truman Scholarship in recognition of her intense yet graceful dedication to improving the life of our times.
To call her "intense" may be an understatement. Even an abbreviated list of her activities in just her first year here is overwhelming. Raised in a Mississippi family involved in state politics, she came to Yale and soon founded V.O.T.E., a national organization for promoting voter registration. In that same year, she also rowed crew, served as a tutor in the Prince Elementary School and worked in the soup kitchen at St. Luke's Church. More recently, she has been a producer for the Yale Dramat, co-chair of the Branford College Seminar Committee, and a peaceable dweller in Branford's Goddess Quad.
But, most of all, Ms. Dabbs has become well-known and well- respected on this campus as a model for feminist work. Through her service on the Yale College Sexual Harassment Grievance Board, her membership on the Commitment to Equity subcommittee for NCAA accreditation, and her leadership as business coordinator of the Women's Center, she has proved a valued adviser both for her classmates and for administrators trying to find a way through complex and contested issues or difficult personal problems.
Ms. Dabbs' academic work has followed quite naturally from these involvements, or perhaps showed her the way into them. Never one to take on too little, she has somehow found the time to complete the requirements of two majors, political science and women's studies, tackling controversial issues and fearlessly speaking out on them.
With a quick mind and a slow temper, Ms. Dabbs has been equally put forward as a leader and sought out as a listener. "The real point," as one of her teachers has said, "is that she inspires confidence in others." Yale College therefore takes great pride in bestowing the James Andrew Haas Prize this year upon Karen Kristin "Kissy" Dabbs.
Tova Ann Leigh Choate
The Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize
The Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize for the Senior majoring in the humanities who ranks highest in scholarship was awarded this year to Tova Ann Leigh Choate of Silliman College.
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa after six terms of enrollment, Tova Ann Leigh Choate graduates summa cum laude with Distinction in two majors, music and German studies. She earned a total of 43.5 course credits, including 40 grades of straight A.
Ms. Choate's musical accomplishments are as impressive as her academic achievements. She has served as principal french horn in the Yale Concert Band and in rotation as principal in the Yale Symphony Orchestra. A founding member of The Brass Syndicate, she has also played in the Branford Chamber Orchestra, the Berkeley Orchestra, the Jonathan Edwards Chamber Orchestra and the Yale Bach Society Orchestra. She has also been a positive force for improved musical facilities and superior musical activities in her own residential college. For these academic and musical contributions to Yale, the Council of Masters awarded her the Joseph L. Selden Memorial Prize in her junior year.
Today, in recognition of her impressive record and as a mark of hope and confidence in her future, Yale College is proud to bestow the Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize for 1997 upon Tova Ann Leigh Choate.
David Kai-an Lam
The Arthur Twining Hadley Prize and
The Russell Henry Chittenden 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. 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, both of these prizes are to be awarded to one person, David Kai-An Lam of Branford College.
David Lam's achievements as a scholar would be impressive based on the evidence of his 3.97 grade-point average alone. Having earned 31 grades of straight A out of his 36 course credits, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa after only four terms of enrollment. Needless to say, he is graduating summa cum laude tomorrow. What makes this record even more remarkable is that he has managed this feat while completing two very different majors, economics and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, with Distinction in both majors. The economics department has awarded him the Louise F. Laun Prize for overall excellence in his program of study.
What lies behind these dazzling numbers and grand rankings is even more noteworthy. Mr. Lam has already contributed in important ways to collaborative and independent scholarly research. In one project, he worked with a distinguished professor of economics to explore the trade-offs between environmental and economic goals in the Swedish nuclear power program. In another, with (according to his adviser) "very little guidance," he has made a potentially significant contribution to the study of HIV and superantigens, offering a possible explanation for otherwise unexplained effects in HIV infection. That two such different projects can have been accomplished by one undergraduate challenges our notions of the possible. Mr. Lam will no doubt continue to exceed expectations at the Yale Law School, where he matriculates next year.
For the breadth of his abilities and for his already outstanding achievements as a scholar, Yale College is proud to confer both the Arthur Twining Hadley Prize and the Russell Henry Chittenden Prize this year upon David Kai-An Lam.
Hilary Koob-Sassen
The Louis Sudler Prize
The Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts is awarded this year to Hilary Koob-Sassen of Davenport College, for outstanding accomplishments in the creative and performing arts.
Hilary Koob-Sassen, through the powerful and unexpected manipulation of form, your sculptures evoke the enigmatic presence of a 21st-century Hieronymous Bosch. Combining one of the most ancient of crafts -- carving -- with modern techniques of welding, moulding and even performance art, you engage contemporary issues with singular energy, imagination, and intelligence. In four years at Yale, you have, remarkably enough, amassed a significant body of work that is as distinguished for its technical virtuosity as for the vitality of its content. And your strikingly original 45-minute film, "Waiting for Globo," synthesizes fabricated objects with live actors and a soundtrack to deliver a startlingly emotional charge.
Your teachers and fellow students -- among them, graduate students in the School of Art -- pay tribute to your generosity and interest in their ideas. Your work and your engagement with the projects of others have raised the overall level of discourse in Yale's art programs. For your distinctive, mysterious, and daring artistic achievements in a range of media, Yale College is proud to award you, Hilary Koob-Sassen, the Louis Sudler Prize for excellence in the arts.
Tali Farimah Farhadian
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 Tali Farimah Farhadian of Ezra Stiles College.
Tali Farhadian's Yale career began with a rejection from Directed Studies. Undaunted, she petitioned again for acceptance into this highly selective first-year program devoted to the masterpieces of Western civilization, and this time she was successful. The personal resilience and intellectual drive behind that second application are the same forces that have fueled Ms. Farhadian's extraordinary four years at Yale.
If Directed Studies nurtured her determination to pursue a rigorous and richly interdisciplinary program of study, the humanities major sustained and confirmed those academic goals. For her senior essay, she chose to write on Yehuda Halevi, the greatest Jewish poet of the Golden Age in multi-ethnic Islamic Spain. Her adviser remarked of this work, "Her intelligence is as radiant and complex as I have seen in any undergraduate," and then added, "I am quite sure I will always see my having been her teacher as one of the most important privileges of having taught at Yale."
Ms. Farhadian's background is as complex and many-faceted as that of the poets she has studied. As Iranian Jews, she and her family were displaced in 1979, emigrating first to Israel and then, when she was 7 years old, to this country. She became an American citizen just three years ago. Her studies of the Near East have aimed at being (in every sense of the word) comprehensive, covering the spectrum of languages and cultures that lay claim to having their home in that region. And her desire to study Arabic literature in particular is in keeping with her dual status as an outsider and a native of the Near East. Persian was her first language, and Hebrew her second, in both of which she remains fluent and exquisitely literate. Now on the verge of real proficiency in Arabic, she has also acquired a reading knowledge of Spanish in addition to flawless command of a fifth language, English. Last summer, she won a Bates Traveling Fellowship to study contemporary Palestinian literature. Next year, she will be attending Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, to continue her exploration of medieval Arabic poetry.
Outside the classroom, Ms. Farhadian has been an outstanding public citizen. She has served twice on the executive board of Dwight Hall and for two years as director of Reach Out--Speak Out- RO-SO - a program that conducts public-speaking workshops in more than a dozen New Haven area high schools. Her interest in RO-SO grew out of her own experience with Yale's prize-winning Debate Association, of which she has been a member since her sophomore year.
Ms. Farhadian has also been a dynamic leader in the Yale Hillel, as coordinator of the Jewish Women's Discussion Group and as editor and writer of the Yale Women's Haggadah. And in her own residential college, she has served for three years on the Ezra Stiles Housing Committee, in a job that her dean describes as requiring the tact and brinkmanship of a Talleyrand.
Ms. Farhadian presents the same rare combination of exceptional character and intellect for which Alpheus Henry Snow is remembered. For her subtle and enlightened understanding of complex cultural contexts, for the signal dedication she has shown to Yale classmates and to other residents of this city, Yale College takes great pleasure in bestowing the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize upon Tali Farimah Farhadian.
ELLIOTT AND MALLORY PRIZES: VARSITY SPORTS
Two Yale seniors who represent "the highest ideals of American sportsmanship" were presented athletic awards by Thomas A. Beckett, director of athletics, at the Senior Class Day exercises on May 25.
Amanda (Mandy) Taft of Ezra Stiles College received the Nellie Pratt Elliot Award, given annually to a female member of the senior class "whose excellence in the field of athletics and in her life at Yale best represents the ideals of sportsmanship and Yale tradition." The award, the highest given to a senior female at Yale, is named after Nellie Pratt Elliot, who was an assistant director of undergraduate admissions for 46 years.
Ms. Taft was a member of Yale's varsity softball team. She holds the Yale career softball records for doubles and runs batted in (RBI), shared the distinction of being the team's Most Valuable Player this spring and was named honorable mention All-Ivy. Ms. Taft majored in the history of science and medicine and hopes to pursue a career in public service.
R. Daniel Chibuzo Okonkwo of Branford College was presented the William Neely Mallory Award, the most prestigious athletic award given to a senior male at Yale. The award is named after William Neely Mallory, an athlete in the Yale College Class of 1924. It is presented to the senior man who "on the field of play and in life at Yale best represents the highest ideals of American sportsmanship and Yale tradition."
Mr. Okonkwo was a member of the men's basketball team and is only the 17th basketball player at Yale to score 1,000 career points. A two-time, second-team All-Ivy League selection, he also holds the Yale record in steals and is ranked seventh all-time at the University in rebounds. Mr. Okonkwo is majoring in African & African-American studies. He hopes to play basketball professionally in Europe next year and then attend law school.
Descriptions of the winning athletes' accomplishments follow:
Amanda Taft
Nellie Pratt Elliot Award
Mandy Taft shared the team's most valuable player award this spring after setting single season records for RBI (35) and doubles (11). She started all 52 games at first base, batted .272 with 44 hits, 24 runs scored and one home run and was named honorable mention All-Ivy. As a junior, Ms. Taft earned second-team All-Ivy honors after leading the Bulldogs in batting average (.268), hits (33) and RBI (17). She also was the recipient of Yale's Most Improved Player Award.
The Cleveland Heights, Ohio, native was limited to fielding duties in her sophomore season because of off-season wrist surgery. She still appeared in 35 games and was a standout defensively at first base. In her freshman year, she batted .348 in 37 starts and was first-team All-Ivy.
Ms. Taft will graduate as Yale's all-time leader in RBI (73), doubles (27) and putouts (894). In her career, the Bulldogs won 93 games, the most of any four-year stretch in Yale history. Ms. Taft's success at Yale hasn't been limited to the field. Her 3.88 grade point average ranks her in the top three percent of all Yale athletes. She was Phi Beta Kappa in 1996 and is Yale's nominee for the 1997 ECAC Robbins Scholar Athlete Award. In addition, she was selected as a District I Academic All-American by GTE and a scholar athlete by the National Softball Coaches Association.
R. Daniel Okonko
William Neely Mallory Award
A two-time second-team All-Ivy League selection, Daniel Okonkwo enjoyed an outstanding career for the Bulldogs. He graduated as Yale's all-time steals leader with 157. This past winter, he set a new single-season record with 54 thefts, surpassing the mark of 49 he established as a junior. He scored 1,046 points in his four varsity seasons and grabbed 683 rebounds, which is seventh all-time at Yale.
The 6-foot-4, 204-pound forward led the Bulldogs in scoring and rebounding as both a junior and a senior and was the recipient of the Dutch Arnold Award as the team's most valuable player in both seasons. As a sophomore, he won the George McReynolds Award as the top defensive player, and following his rookie season, he was presented with the John C. Cobb Award as the team's top freshman.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan, native played in all 104 Yale games since arriving in New Haven in 1993-94 and averaged 10.1 points and 6.6 rebounds. He scored a career-high 28 points in Yale's 65-55 victory over Brown this season and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds in a 31-point win over Lafayette.
ROBERT E. LEWIS AWARDS: INTRAMURAL SPORTS
Two Yale College seniors received the Robert E. Lewis Award for intramural sports on May 25 during Senior Class Day exercises on Old Campus.
The award is presented to the senior who "best embodies intramural sportsmanship and action." This year, the Robert E. Lewis Award was presented to two students: Christian Manders and Kelvin Yu, both of Timothy Dwight College.
The awards were presented by Robert Farris Thompson, chair of the Council of Masters Committee on Athletics, master of Timothy Dwight College and the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art, who noted that this year "two persons so equally, so impartially, so powerfully, fulfilled that canon that the prize this year is double."
Christian Manders and Kelvin Yu
Shoulder to shoulder, as co-captains fighting together in every sport -- from touch football, soccer, cross country, volleyball, basketball, coed waterpolo, to bowling and ice hockey -- these two athletes lived the words of Hegel. And what did Hegel say?: "(S)ports present the higher seriousness, for in it nature is wrought into spirit."
Indeed these two guys transformed themselves, every day in every way, into instruments of spirit. They galvanized their college, the college closest to Paris, Timothy Dwight. They led TD into winning the 1997 Tyng Cup, for the highest athletic scores of this year. We take great pleasure in rewarding two paragons of sportsmanship in action, keeping IM's (intramurals) a noble presence in the world of Yale.
DAVID EVERETT CHANTLER AWARD
The David Everett Chantler Award is given to a graduating senior who best exemplifies the qualities of courage, strength of character and high moral purpose. During the Senior Class Day exercises on May 25, Dr. Bernard Lytton, chair of the Council of Masters Committee on Awards and master of Jonathan Edwards College, presented the award to two students: Jennifer McCleary- Sills, whom he described as a "community activist, counselor and college leader" and Themistoclis Stavros Protopsaltis of Saybrook College, whom Dr. Lytton characterized as a "committed scholar, care- giver and concerned citizen."
Their award citations follow.
Jennifer McCleary-Sills
During your four years at Yale, you have given a great deal of yourself to your college and to the New Haven community. You have been head freshman counselor, co-chair of SAC (the Student Action Committee), on the Rooming Committee and the College Green Cup coordinator. You have found time to teach earth science to fifth graders in the New Haven schools and directed a children's summer camp in Ecuador. Next year, you are planning a career to teach in high school.
For your involvement and dedication that have shown your strength of character and high moral purpose, the Council of Masters has great pleasure in presenting you with the David Everett Chantler Award.
Themistoclis Stavros Protopsaltis
Your breadth of scholarship was noted by one of your history professors, who wrote that "he could rarely recall a science major so much at home in the humanities." You have been very committed to the Child Life Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital, helping children cope with their hospitalization. The program supervisor said that "you were one of the best care-givers" she had seen.
You were a host leader at the Special Olympics and have been president of the Hellenic Society at Yale. In Saybrook College, you served on the College Council, were the coordinator for their soup kitchen and played on several intramural teams. You have used your outstanding academic and personal talents in the service of both the University and the New Haven community.
For your demonstrated commitment and high moral purpose, the Council of Masters is pleased to present you with the David Everett Chantler Award.
ROOSEVELT L. THOMPSON PRIZE
Two members of the Class of 1997 were honored for their public service with the Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize at the Senior Class Day exercises on May 25.
The award honors a member of the senior class who has demonstrated a commitment to and capacity for public service. "Like Thompson, he or she should exemplify great human warmth, commitment to fairness, compassion for all people and the promise of moral leadership in the public sphere," said Dr. Bernard Lytton, chair of the Council of Masters Awards Committee, master of Jonathan Edwards College and the Donald Guthrie Professor of Surgery, in presenting the award.
This year's recipients are David Martyn Ratzan of Davenport College, whom Dr. Lytton described as a "scholar and community activist," and Aurore Victor of Morse College, who was described as being "committed to public service and providing moral leadership" by Dr. Lytton.
Their award citations follow:
David Martyn Ratzan
Your care and concern for poor people motivated you to exercise your remarkable organizational skills in the management of the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project. You successfully increased the income to establish an endowment. You have served on the board of directors of Dwight Hall since last May. Last year, you were Food Pantry coordinator, providing groceries for some 200 adults in need. You acted as the student liaison to Midnight Run and tutored at the New Haven Homelessness Resource Center.
Last summer, as an intern at New Haven Cares, you took responsibility for the voucher program. You have sung in the Battell Chapel Choir and played soccer for your college. An outstanding Greek and Latin scholar, you were elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the beginning of senior year.
For your compassion, commitment and moral leadership, the Council of Masters is proud to present you with the Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize.
Aurore Victor
Since coming to Yale, you have participated in election campaigns in your home state of Florida and were rewarded by receiving an externship in the Office of the First Lady. You served as secretary of the Yale College Council and were the driving force behind the Flex Dollars Program. You sang with the Yale Glee Club and were secretary of the Caribbean Club, where you sought to teach fellow students about Caribbean culture and make them more sensitive to ethnic issues.
In your writing, you combined your interest in political activism with your long-standing interest in racial justice and have proposed a comprehensive strategy for political mobilization of the African-American community.
For your dedication to public service, both in Yale College and in the New Haven community, the Council of Masters is proud to present you with the Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize.
WILLIAM H. McKIM PRIZE
The William H. McKim Prize is awarded each year to a senior who has shown improvement in his or her academic standing and who has made a significant contribution outside the classroom. This year, there were two recipients: Karen Dabbs of Branford College and Mark Smith of Ezra Stiles College.
Ms. Dabbs was described as a "political activist and paragon of your college" and Mr. Smith was characterized as a "counselor, athlete and master of ceremonies" by Dr. Bernard Lytton, chair of the Council of Masters Committee on Awards and master of Jonathan Edwards College, who presented the awards.
Their award citations follow.
Karen Dabbs
A woman who has come to be much admired by her college and her classmates. Your scholarly achievements have shown much progress and great promise since you came to Yale, culminating in the award of a Truman Scholarship. You have been politically active on women's issues and have participated in public service. Above all, you are beloved in Branford College for your kindness, wit and enthusiasm, and for the time and effort that you have put into the life of your college.
For these accomplishments, the Council of Masters is pleased to present you with the McKim Prize.
Mark Smith
As head freshman counselor, you have been both thoughtful and responsible. Your master describes you as "competent, friendly, confident and reassuring." A fine basketball player, you were prevented from fulfilling your potential by a knee injury when a freshman, but this year you helped your A hoops team crush TD (Timothy Dwight College). You are a talented auctioneer and acted as master of ceremonies for the Senior Dinner. Your intelligence and discipline have enabled you to make significant progress in your scholarship.
The Council of Masters is pleased to present you with the McKim Prize.