Sunday, October 20, 2013

Yale Alumni Service Corps -- These Trips Are Amazing

AYA
 

Yale Alumni Service Corps
 

Join us for an inspiring service trip in Nicaragua from March 15-22, 2014!


Dear Alum: 

Do you want to make a difference? Are you looking for a meaningful way to invest your time and talent?

The Yale Alumni Service Corps invites you- alumni, family, and friends – to join us on a truly inspiring service opportunity as we immerse ourselves in a cultural exchange with El Trohilo, a village near New Haven’s own sister city of León, Nicaragua.

This return service trip is an opportunity for you to volunteer in this underserved village and continue the great work to support this community.

Echoing Nathan Hale’s words of “I wish to be useful” – you can serve on projects that reflect your skills and interest. You can: 
  • Teach children in the village school
  • Care for patients in the medical clinic
  • Coach sports to young athletes
  • Work on construction projects
  • Share your business skills with small business owners and the local Co-Op 
You will work side by side with the people of El Trohilo as they strive to improve the quality of their lives. You will build cross-cultural understanding and in the process make friends for life.  We hope you can join us in this opportunity to make a difference in El Trohilo!  This is a wonderful experience for families and individuals to change lives, including your own! Alumni – and their friends and family from all classes, graduate and professional schools are welcome.  We can only accommodate 60 volunteers so please sign up early! The cost is $1,490 exclusive of airfare to/from Managua, Nicaragua. 
For more information, please visit us at yaleservicecorps.org or click here to register! 
YASC has more great programs coming up for 2014 with our first trip to India and college mentoring trips to West Virginia and California.
West Virginia & California (tentative): June/July (final dates to be confirmed)In partnership with College Summit – founded by Yale alum J.B. Schramm ’86 – 40 volunteers will spend four days preparing high school students for college by tutoring them in essay writing, reviewing the college application process, and coaching them in leadership skills.

India: July 30-August 14, 2014 (final dates to be confirmed)In collaboration with AFS India, we are embarking on our first service trip to India. We will be serving the community of Kakelav, located in the city of Jodhpur and performing a wide array of projects including arts and education, athletics, business consulting, medical services, and more.
Check for further information and registration announcements over the next few months at yaleservicecorps.org or visit us onFacebook!!

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Sunday, October 13, 2013

President Salovey's Inaugural Address

Here is President Salovey's inaugural address:

Our Educational Mission

Salovey said Yale was a "research institution that proudly and unapologetically focuses on our students." (Photo by Michael Marsland)
Inauguration Address by President Peter Salovey, Woolsey Hall, Oct. 13, 2013
With great joy, excitement, and hope, I accept the leadership of this university. I am honored to be granted the stewardship of this venerable institution; grateful for the trust of the Yale Corporation, faculty, and community; optimistic for our shared future.
Today I am reminded of all those who have nurtured and supported me — my teachers along the way. That is why the anthem that will be sung later focuses on the words of the scholar Shimon ben Zoma: “Who is wise?” ben Zoma asks, “The one who learns from all ... I have gained understanding from all my teachers.”

#Yale23

This weekend was an amazing one in New Haven.  Yale inaugurated its 23rd president, Peter Salovey.  What a party!  The fun began on Friday, with seminars and lectures around campus.  Friday night was the celebratory concert.  It was awesome.




Saturday was a campus-wide open house with a gala dinner and parties around campus.  President Salovey and the Professors of Bluegrass played and there was much rejoicing.  Sunday was the big day (more on President's Salovey's speech in another post), and then a big street fair on Hillhouse Avenue.

The weekend saw many in our class enjoying the inaugural celebration.  (A few are pictured below.)  Lisa and I ran into a bunch of classmates: Kara Unterberg, Jason Reese, Darcy Troy Pollock, Meghan McMahon, Cathy Edwards, Pam Thompson, Michael Morand, Tamar Gendler, and Rich Dietz.


Sunday, October 6, 2013

An interesting story about the Yale Club of New Haven


From today's New Haven Register:

Yale Club combines the best of town and gown


(Mara Lavitt — New Haven Register) October 3, 2013 New HavenMembers of the Yale Club of New Haven hold meetings at the New Haven Lawn Club. Pictured here are from left: Jim Malerba and John Caserta both of North Haven, Elaine Piraino-Holevoet of New Haven, B. Patrick Madden, Carl Lindskog and Dan Koenigsberg all of Woodbridge. 

NEW HAVEN >> The last thing the Yale Club of New Haven wants is to become a secret society.
Far from being exclusive and cloaked in mystery, the 104-year-old club is actively recruiting members. And here’s a surprise: You don’t have to be a Yalie to join.
“A big part of our mission has to do with community service in Greater New Haven, which is important to everyone,” said club President B. Patrick Madden.
The Yale Club of New Haven, part of a network of Yale clubs around the world, has about 500 members. The members include Yale graduates who stayed in the area, parents of Yale students, local business people and New Haven natives who earned Yale degrees.
“It’s a way to stay engaged,” said Daniel Koenigsberg, class of 1962 and the club’s assistant secretary, who grew up in New Haven and now lives in Woodbridge. “Once you finish school, you have no formal connection with the university.”

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Watch Peter Salovey's Inauguration Live!

Yale will be live streaming the inauguration of Peter Salovey.  You can watch here live . . .

At Yale, it’s a different breed of inauguration

Check out this piece from the New Haven Register.  Looks like a great weekend coming up.  Don’t miss it!

At Yale, it’s a different breed of inauguration

(Photo by Peter Hvizdak — Register)Kim Goff-Crews, left, and Daniel Harrison, co-chairs of the Yale Presidential Inauguration Committee Friday, October 3, 2013 at Woodbridge Hall on the Yale University Campus with a painting of Elihu Yale who helped found Yale, right.
By Jim Shelton, New Haven Register
Posted: 10/04/13, 8:33 PM EDT | Updated: 7 hrs ago
NEW HAVEN >> Nothing kicks off an Ivy League inauguration like a palaver of campus pooches.
That’s just what New Haven will get on Oct. 12-13, when Yale University officially installs Peter Salovey as its 23rd president. There also will be a monster block party, a community-wide open house, an Instagram challenge and an original poem read by Elizabeth Alexander, the Yale poet who spoke at President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.
“We’re treading a line between tradition and non-stuffiness,” said Daniel Harrison, a music theory professor at Yale who is co-chairman of the presidential inauguration committee with Kimberly M. Goff-Crews, Yale’s secretary and vice president for student life.
“No black tie,” Goff-Crews agreed. “We wanted to open up Yale for this event.”
What this means to the wider community, including those with no Yale affiliation, is a rare chance to see performances, visit collections and tour residential colleges. Also, because Salovey is a bass player and founding member of the Professors of Bluegrass, there will be plenty of music.

YaleNews | Take part in the Inauguration Instagram photo challenge!

 Check out the latest from social media guru, and Class of 87 member, Michael Morand:

Take part in the Inauguration Instagram photo challenge!

By Michael Morand
September 30, 2013

The Yale campus has been called one of the most popular American universities on Instagram and BuzzFeed has said it is one of most “scenic college campuses that were made for Instagram,” the popular social media photo sharing platform.
On Saturday, Oct. 12 Instagram users on campus and around the community will be encouraged to share their favorite spots at Yale in the first Yale Instagram Photo Challenge.
All are invited to join in the celebration of the inauguration of Yale’s 23rd president by participating in the campus-wide open house on Saturday, Oct. 12. As part of the open house festivities, we invite you to share photos in a special Instagram photo challenge to commemorate the occasion. 
Post your photos so that they are publicly visible on Instagram & tag them #InspiringYale to enter the contest. Photos must be taken, tagged #InspiringYale, and posted on Saturday, Oct. 12, during the Open House events between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. 
A team of judges from the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications (OPAC) will select winners. The top prizewinner will be announced at the closing gathering of the day on the Cross Campus at 4:30 p.m. Other winners will be determined and notified as soon as possible via comment on their Instagram photos. 

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Robynne Chutkan Featured in The Atlantic

Here's a piece from The Atlantic about Robynne Chutkan.  Her first book comes out today . . .

What We Eat Affects Everything

How men and women digest differently, diet changes our skin, and gluten remains mysterious: A forward-thinking gastroenterologist on eating one's way to "gutbliss"
More
[IMAGE DESCRIPTION]
(YvesHerman/Reuters; TobyMelville/Reuters; DeanFosdick/AP)
Robynne Chutkan, MD, is an integrative gastroenterologist and founder of theDigestive Center for Women, just outside of Washington, D.C. She trained at Columbia University and is on faculty at Georgetown, but her approach to practicing medicine and understanding disease is more holistic than many specialists with academic backgrounds. She has also appeared on The Dr. Oz Show (of which I’ve been openly skeptical in the past, because of Oz’s tendency to divorce his recommendations from evidence).

Chutkan’s first book comes out today. You might pick out an Oz-ian air to the title: Gutbliss, A 10-Day Plan to Ban Bloat, Flush Toxins, and Dump Your Digestive Baggage. Oz even endorses it on the back of the jacket: “Dr. Chutkan blasts away the bloat as she tastefully explains the guts of our problems.”
Dr. Chutkan helped me reconcile some of this—blast away a little bloat, if you will—on simplifying medicine, subspecialists embracing therapies aimed at overall wellness, why a gastroenterology clinic would be sex-specific, and how to think about the whole gluten-free idea; among other answers to questions I wouldn’t have thought to ask.

Sandra Luckow on 60 Minutes



Our very own Sanrda Luckow was featured the other night on 60 Minutes.  The segment on mental  illness featured an interview with her and her work-in-progress documentary film 'That Way Madness Lies...' It is the second time in her career that 60 Minutes features her film work.  Check local listings for the channel and please encourage others to watch this very important story about a system that is failing us.  More information about "That Way Madness Lies... can be found at www.madnessthemovie.com


How would you answer these questions?

One of the side effects of doing this blog, is that I get e-mails from all sorts of people. When not being asked to invest in Nigeria or helping a crown prince of some obscure nation liberate money from escrow (for a small processing fee), I often get very real inquiries.

Some time ago, a high school student in Virginia doing a paper on what it is like to go to an Ivy League college. Here are the questions the student posed:

  • Why did you choose Yale over any other schools you were considering?
  • What were your expectations going into Yale? Were they fulfilled? Would you do it again?
  • How has your education at Yale put you ahead of others in your career?
  • What did you receive at Yale that you do not think you would have received at a different college?
  • Are there any valuable experiences that you received at Yale that you do not believe you would have experienced anywhere else?


How would you answer these questions?


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Pacific Produce: Facing discrimination, they bought straight from farms - San Francisco Business Times

Our very own Sarah Garcia is making things happen in San Francisco . . . .
Women-owned businesses

Pacific Produce: Facing discrimination, they bought straight from farms

Annie Sciacca
San Francisco Business Times
Date: Friday, September 27, 2013, 3:00am PDT

When Sarah Garcia and Jennifer Smith bought Pacific Produce, which offers wholesale produce and other groceries, in 2009, they discovered that the produce business is tough for women. 
The distribution market in South San Francisco, where Pacific Produce had bought produce since its inception nearly 20 years ago, was “old school,” Garcia explained, almost entirely male.
“There were six-foot posters of naked women on the walls behind the cash register,” she said. But that was a minor problem. “They wouldn’t sell to us, or they would say, ‘We want cash first,’” Garcia said. “There was constant hazing.” 
The two women’s presence in the South San Francisco produce community ruffled feathers, and things got uglier when they found sugar in the gas tanks of their trucks and industrial-sized nails in the parking lot near their trucks’ tires. 

YaleNews | Historic $250 million gift to Yale from alumnus is largest ever

Great googly, moogly, that’s a lot of money.  Wow.  Thank you, Mr. Johnson.  Looking forward to the new colleges!

Historic $250 million gift to Yale from alumnus is largest ever

September 29, 2013
The gift from Charles B. Johnson '54 brings the university to within $80 million of the funds needed to break ground on two new residential colleges. (Illustration by Patrick Lynch)
Yale President Peter Salovey today announced a $250 million gift commitment to the university by Charles B. Johnson, a 1954 graduate of Yale College, who retired last year as chairman of the board of Franklin Resources. This is the largest gift in Yale history. The gift brings the university’s goal to expand Yale College within reach. 
“This is an extraordinary commitment from one of Yale’s most loyal alumni,” Salovey said. “It builds on Charlie’s long history of generosity to Yale. Charlie has already done so much to shape our international and athletics programs. This latest gift, in support of the expansion of Yale College, is truly magnificent, and I am deeply grateful. I am thrilled that this gift brings us to within $80 million of the funds needed to break ground on two new residential colleges.” (See Salovey's letter to Yale students, faculty, and alumni.)