Conversations about campus climate continue throughout Yale College. Many articles are appearing in the national media about Yale taking this or that position. I’m hearing from faculty, alumni and people outside of Yale expressing their (often strongly held!) views. I’m talking to all these people striving to explain issues that many of you have discussed privately or in group settings with me. Know that my own focus will remain firmly here, on Trumbull and that I (and others in our community including our Dean, our resident fellows and our staff) continue to welcome discussion, learning, and suggestions.
We’ll strive to move forward in ways that will make this community not just function well but thrive. Please join in the efforts with your own suggestions for what to do (and not do) and your own initiatives.
Through all of this, academic and other activities have been occurring. Some have routine; others have advanced the current conversations.
From Thursday evening through the weekend, I’ve had the chance to hear talks and to see performances by many Trumbullians. It’s been gratifying in many ways.
The Class of 1955 Fellowships (which can broaden cultural understanding and something about which Trumbull Juniors may wish to be thinking now for next summer):
Last Thursday evening, Trumbullians who received Class of 1955 travel fellowships last spring spoke to our Trumbull fellows in the House about their summer fellowship experiences. Gabriel Acheson (whom I heretofore associated primarily with music) spoke of his summer experiences on two French farms specializing in cheese making). He learned not only about cheese making and cultures (of more than one sort) but also about animal behavior (sheep do follow one another blindly, like sheep; goats vary more in personality). Importantly, he experienced being comfortable and accepted in one of the two settings in which he worked and not-so-much in the other. Charlotte Newell spoke about her experiences in the Inca Empire in Ecuador, Peru and the Galapagos. She swam in the Amazon River (without knowing for sure what other beings were swimming with her), she missed planes and buses, and she learned a great deal about being comfortable in the world; Julian Wise experienced “mindfulness training” in Thailand spending 10 days without talking, without reading and thinking about, among other things, connection to other people. (He’s so much of a writer, though, he found he just couldn’t adhere to the “no writing” instructions); Deborah Won traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to work on “refugee resettlement” and to develop a phone app to help in those efforts. She discovered that one’s planned ideas for supporting others don’t always work – in her case an insufficient number of people owned phones to make her plans to develop a useful app feasible. She learned to adapt and move forward; James Woodall spoke of “roots and uprootedness in Cyprus,” of a watermelon, a rock, a cross, (ask him if you want an explanation) and of the satisfaction of reconnecting with family and cultures of origin in new ways; and, Tianshu (Clarey) Zhu went to Argentina to learn about tango. She did so in a big way and found that this experience heightened her passion to understand many cultures better.
I express my deep thanks to the Class of 1955 and to Steve Gurney (a Trumbullian and member of the class of 1955) for making all these travels possible. If you are currently a junior and are interested, such travel is a possibility for you next summer. We’ll hold an information session on this shortly.
For now, here are the basic guidelines: The explicit purpose of the fellowships is to stretch your experiences in new ways, to broaden yourselves and to expose yourself to new viewpoints. Importantly, the fellowship is designed to enhance understanding others. (That is, I think, just what much of the current discussion on campus is all about.)
Know that although the cultures explored by our students this past summer were all outside the United States; you should think broadly because plans to increase understanding of others’ views within the U.S. as well have been supported in the past by this fellowship. This fellowship is not designed to further academic study or to deepen your interests in something about which you are already knowledgeable. The Class of 1955 fellowship is specifically aimed at broadening understandings of viewpoints other than your current ones.
The Shining and Jook Songs: Congratulations
On Saturday I attended two shows featuring the work of some Trumbullians – one at 2 p.m in Calhoun; another at 7:30 in our own Nick Chapel. I am ever so grateful that I did.
Each dealt with serious issues. The Shining is a play by Conor McPherson which deals with the experience and nature of isolation and loneliness and lack of human connection; Jook Songs featured many powerful speakers who address many aspects of our Asian and Asian-American students’ experiences in family life and at Yale as well as, more broadly, with the experiences of women of color on campus in poetry.
Both shows highlighted human vulnerabilities and strengths; both shows highlighted universal needs for being understood, for being validated by others and for connecting with others. Both shows highlighted individual strengths and identities.
Watching each show reminded me of how very much talent and strength resides within our students. The play and the poems captured my attention and left me walking away quietly and thinking.
Congratulations to Trumbullians Abby Burgess (Stage manager), Deniz Saip (Technical Director) and Peter Gray (Props Master), for their work in bringing The Shining to the stage.
Congratulations to our juniors, Daniel Leibovic our Hayun Cho for their powerful poetry presented as part of the Jook Songs show.
More Congratulations
Congratulations as well go to our Yale Symphony orchestra players who performed this weekend as well as to members of the women’s volleyball team, men’s football team, men’s and women’s basketball teams, women’s squash team, men’s hockey team and men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams all of whom posted wins this weekend.
With regard to the football and basketball teams, I take proud note of YDN reporting that: Trumbullian “Quarterback Morgan Roberts ’16 posted his second-best completion percentage of the season, going 20–29 for 185 yards and a touchdown.” and that Trumbullian basketball player (and captain) Jack Montague, “shot 50 percent from both the field and beyond the arc, notching 13 points as well as five rebounds.”
This week I’d also like to take special note of our Trumbullians on the women’s swimming and diving team. Senior Kelly Sherman (diving), junior Michelle Chintanaphol (backstroke) and freshman Carrie Heilbrun (butterfly; freestyle) have each put in stellar performances placing very well in their events. Their performances were central to the team securing wins against both Brown and Columbia as their team start its season.
Congratulations also to senior Vivek Vishwanath whose idea for a wellness initiative (involving Bonsai Trees) was one of four undergraduate ideas selected for funding by Yale College.
Events This Week:
Monday Nov. 16: Financial Life After Yale Workshop Sponsored by AYA. 7-8:30 in the Common room.
Boola Moola!
Questions about budgeting, saving, investing and taxes? Need rules of thumb? This Monday, November 16, from 7pm until 830pm in the Fellows Lounge, join Branford Resident Fellow Steve Blum ’74 for “Financial Life After Yale.” Started in 2013, these sessions have attracted more than 3,100 Yalies. To register, RSVP to stephen.blum@yale.edu and complete a quick survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TCFLAYPreNov2015
Tues. Nov. 17: Tea with Gemma Mortengen
Gemma Mortensen, Yale World Fellow, Chief Global Officer change.org (Jan. 2016)
“How to build and Run An Effective Non-profit”
Tuesday, Nov. 17th at 4:00pm in the Trumbull Master’s House
Gemma joins Yale World Fellows in transition, having ended her tenure as Executive Director of Crisis Action in August 2015 and looking forward to joining change.org as their Chief Global Officer in January 2016. Having joined Crisis Action as the second member of staff in 2006, Gemma played a pivotal role in building Crisis Action’s reputation and track record as one of the most innovative and effective organizations working on conflict in the world today. Under her leadership, Crisis Action received the 2012 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and the 2013 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2011, the World Economic Forum selected her as one of their Young Global Leaders. CNN named her as one of their inspirational women for 2014. She previously worked for the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations in New York, the European Commission and as a journalist. She is the outgoing Chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation. She holds a first class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and the European Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratization.
Thanks
This week I’m especially grateful to our dining hall manager Christina Wethington for bringing back romantic Friday to Trumbull and to dining hall staff member and artist Pamela Dear for sharing her wonderful art with our college on Friday. This will continue featuring more art in the future. If you wish to join in, contact Christina Wethington. (Those of you on Facebook who missed the art may see a picture posted there.)
Thanks to our Graduate Affiliate, Wilhemina Koomson, for holding a pottery open house in our pottery studio yesterday. It was very successful with at least thirteen students attending. She will be holding a beginners workshop after the Thanksgiving break.
Work and Stress
Work and stress increase at this point in the semester. We’re planning study breaks and another “massage study break.” Thanksgiving break will be here soon. Trumbull will host a dinner on Thanksgiving for those who remain on campus. Sign up in the office. Our graduate affiliates will host another dinner over Thanksgiving weekend. Watch for the email! I’ll be present in the college throughout the break. Hang in there.