First-Year Counselors

The First-Year Counselor Program was established in 1938 and has been ever since an intrinsic and essential component of Yale’s advising system for first-year students. The program has evolved in many ways over the years, but the general purpose of the program has remained the same: to help ease the transition of incoming first-years to the academic, social, and cultural life of Yale College. Find out more about the First-Year Counselor Program here.

Trumbull is lucky to have a team of seven great First-Year Counselors. Together they make Bingham an especially wonderful place for all first-year Trumbull students.

Trumbull First-Year Counselor Team

Kaye Burchfield

Kaylan “Kaye” Burchfield hails from the soulful city of Memphis, TN, and her heart bleeds blue for the Memphis Grizzlies. She loves her Trumbull community, so you will usually find her yelling “MOO-RAH” throughout most of the day. Kaye is majoring in Psychology (B.S.), and she is a part of the Social Perception & Communication Lab (SPCL) where most of her research focuses on intergroup relations and racial biases. Outside of the lab, Kaye is singing with Whim n’ Rhythm, the renown all-female senior a cappella group. Kaye is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.’s Pi Alpha Chapter, and for the 2017-2018 academic year, she will serve as Chapter President. If you ever see Kaye around campus, make sure to say hello!

Email Kaye

Colin Burke

Colin is a fourth-year political science major hailing from the great city of Cincinnati, Ohio. On campus he is involved in several publications, Trumbull College Council, Trumbull Housing committee, and works as a research assistant at the law school. He's passionate about politics, mass incarceration, poverty alleviation, the outdoors, traveling, exercise, and a host of other things. After graduation (yikes!) he wants to go to law school focusing on public interest law. You can find him napping in Bingham, running to East Rock, or eating a greasy midnight snack at the buttery.Email Colin

Diego Fernandez-Pages

Diego is a proud Bostonian, and as a result will be glad to discuss anything to do with New England. He's even prouder to be Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Spanish—so much that he's part of Yale's Cuban American Student's Association (CAUSA) and sometimes hangs out at La Casa. He's also President of the Trumbull College Council, a member of the Yale International Relations Association, and a frequent patron of Willoughby's on York Street. When he's not there working on history papers, you can find him at the Prints and Drawings Department of the Yale Center for British Art, where he works. Diego's a big fan of running, exploring New Haven, social justice, art, history, art history, food, travel, and everything in between. He's so, so excited to meet and welcome the Class of 2021, and can hardly wait for what's sure to be an amazing year. Email Diego

Naoka Gunawardena

Naoka grew up in the great city of Pittsburgh; although she doesn’t actually watch sports, she’ll tell you she’s a proud Steelers/Penguins/Pirates fan by default. She is studying mechanical engineering with the hopes of entering the medical device world (ask her about sternotomies or scoliosis!). When she’s not in her room, you can easily find her eating every meal in Trumbull dining hall, enjoying another “every day is leg day” at the gym, or working as a Design Aide at the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design. Music is also a huge part of her life, and she spends her free time singing with her a cappella group and hosting a radio show at the campus radio station. She can’t wait to welcome the Class of 2021 to the best residential college!Email Naoka

Saran Morgan

Saran grew up in the tropical suburbs of South Florida (but her parents are from the true tropical island of Jamaica) and came to Yale as a first-gen student (shoutouts to FSY, Questbridge, and her hardworking teachers back home). She's currently majoring in Computer Science and Political Science with a concentration in Information Technology with hopes of getting into cyber-security and tech-law down the line. She works on campus as a tour guide, student tech, and undergraduate TA for the introductory computer science class (CS50). She's heavily involved in Float, the women and gender minorities in computer science group on campus, and the Yale Ballroom Dance Team. In her free time, you can probably find Saran social dancing, singing (badly) along to Broadway hits, and/or petting every single dog on or near campus. She already knows the class of 2021 is too amazing for her but she's excited to welcome them anyway. Email Saran

Fiona Riebeling

Fiona is from San Diego and loves all things California, even the fact that she is laughably bad at surfing. She is a psychology major and an Education Studies Scholar, and is especially interested in learning about child development and how early education shapes social and emotional learning. She plays for Yale Women's Club Soccer and has worked with Bridges ESL, the Yale Undergraduate Mindfulness Education Initiative, the Yale Humanist Community and the Life Worth Living Fellowship. Fiona loves to travel and has studied abroad in Spain and Chile. In her free time (or while procrastinating), Fiona can be found hiking, making bad puns, eating spoonfuls of raw cookie dough in the Trumbull buttery, and re-watching "Friends" and "Law and Order: SVU." She can't wait to meet the class of 2021!Email Fiona

Eli Westerman

Eli grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He's quite proud of being from Arkansas; along with some friends he started The Arkansas Society, Yale's best "state" club. Also at Yale he's involved in the Yale Political Union, Yale Students for Christ, and Yale Outdoors. He spends most of his extracurricular time mentoring New Haven middle and high school students through his church, Trinity Baptist. Academically, Eli double majors in chemical engineering and classical civilization. He hopes to attend a seminary or divinity school after Yale and enter Christian ministry. He loves New Haven and has thoroughly enjoyed exploring it so far. He can suggest some cool things to do and great food to eat in the Elm City if you like! His life goals are to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, eat all the best barbecue in the South, and to see the Arkansas Razorbacks win the college football national championship.Email Eli