Yale Alumni Service Corps 2013 Trips -- Sign Up Now!

Join us for an inspiring service project in Nicaragua! March 16-23, 2013! The Yale Alumni Service Corps invites you – alumni, family, and friends – to Trohilo, Nicaragua, a village near New Haven’s own sister city of Leon. This service trip, in partnership with the Yale School of Nursing, is an opportunity for you to serve on projects designed around your skills and interests – you can teach children in the village school, care for patients in the medical clinic, coach sports to eager young athletes, work on construction projects, or share your business skills with small business owners. You will work side by side with the people of Trohilo as they strive to improve the quality of their lives. You will build cross cultural understanding and make friends for life. They want to meet you! For more information, please visit us at http://www.yaleservicetours.org/currtour/nica13or click here to register https://ems.resrunner.com/YaleNicaragua We can only accommodate 60 volunteers for the trip to Nicaragua so please sign up early! The cost is $1490 per person, exclusive of airfare to/from Managua, Nicaragua. Last year’s YASC program in El Castillo, Nicaragua  The villagers of Trohilo who need us this year! In the event you cannot join us in Nicaragua in March, YASC also has two more great programs coming up for summer 2013 – our first domestic service trip to West Virginia and our return to Yamoransa, Ghana! West Virginia – June 26-30, 2013We are very excited to announce our first domestic service program in rural West Virginia. In partnership with the innovative program College Summit – founded by Yale alum J.B. Schramm ’86 – we will spend 4 days preparing high school students for college by tutoring them in essay writing, reviewing the college application process, and coaching them in leadership skills. We will live with the students – for many their first time away from home and from families who have never had the opportunity to attend college ‑ in dorms on the campuses of Marshall University in Huntington and West Virginia Institute of Technology in Montgomery. The approximate cost is $500 exclusive of your transportation to/from Charleston, West Virginia. The trip will be limited to 40 volunteers. More information will be announced shortly at http://www.yaleservicetours.org/currtour/wva13 Yamoransa, Ghana – August 1-10, 2013 (To be confirmed) We did it! Last summer more than 150 alumni and their family and friends participated in a life changing – their lives and ours – service project in Yamoransa, Ghana, and the village wants us back! We invite you to serve this community and experience Ghanaian culture with your family and friends in a truly unique and inspiring manner. The approximate cost is $2,250 exclusive of airfare to/from Accra, Ghana. More information will be announced shortly at http://www.yaleservicetours.org/currtour/ghana13 Watch for further information and registration announcements over the next few months athttp://yaleservicetours.org/!! To unsubscribe from future messages, click here To view Yale's privacy policy, click here Association of Yale Alumni PO Box 209010 New Haven, CT 06520-9010 Phone: (203)432-2586 Fax: (203)432-0587 Email: aya@yale.edu Copyright © 2012-2013 Association of Yale Alumni. All rights reserved.

David Todd Named 2-4p Host At 970 ESPN/Pittsburgh

Awesome news from Pittsburgh!

CLEAR CHANNEL Sports WBGG-A (970 ESPN)/PITTSBURGH has named fill-in host DAVID TODD as the full-time 2-4p (ET) weekday host, effective TODAY (8/29).  TODD, whose local show is replacing ESPN RADIO's SCOTT VAN PELT in the 970 lineup, will also host two hours on STEELERS NATION RADIO, airing online and on sister WDVE-HD2.

“We are thrilled to have DAVID TODD become a permanent fixture on 970 ESPN’s airwaves,” said OM DAVID EDGAR. “His great depth of PITTSBURGH sports knowledge will entertain listeners and enhance coverage.”

David Todd Named 2-4p Host At 970 ESPN/Pittsburgh | AllAccess.com

2012 Yale Reunions Go Green

Our Reunion not only rocked, it was also Green.  The Class of '87 was at the forefront of helping Yale make sure all the Reunions this year were sustainable.  Check out the video telling the tale . . . brought to you by our own Darcy Troy Pollock and our friends at the AYA and Yale Blue Green.

YaleWomen Newsletter -- Check it out!

TABLE OF CONTENTS • Welcome! A letter from Ellen McGinnis, Chair of YaleWomen • YaleWomen's Inaugural Conference: Save the Date • YaleWomen's Inaugural Conference: Call for Volunteers • Toolkit for YaleWomen Chapters now available IN OTHER NEWS Get involved Don't forget to keep checking our websiteyalewomen.net for more information about getting involved and participating in YaleWomen events Stay connected Join our virtual community on Facebook,LinkedIn, and Twitter Questions or comments? Please contact Ming Min Hui (digital@yalewomen.net) Welcome! A letter from Ellen McGinnis, Chair of YaleWomen I am delighted to introduce you to the first global quarterly newsletter for YaleWomen. It is an exciting time for our organization - we have launched our website yalewomen.netand have officially incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. We are in the midst of planning an international conference for Spring 2013 and are developing some innovative mentoring projects and other programming. We have ten active chapters across the United States and a toolkit to support the formation of new chapters. Our hope is that you are inspired to engage, connect, and give back - we need your support and enthusiasm to sustain our growth and programs. YaleWomen's mission is to create a vibrant, engaged community of alums, drawn together by the common thread of our Yale experiences, that is committed to advancing women's voices and perspectives and to enriching and inspiring one another, Yale, and the world. We are looking forward to the many ways each of you will be part of it. Get your fellow Yale women involved and stay tuned for more! YaleWomen's Inaugural Conference: Save the Date The conference, YaleWomen's initial major event, will be held inWashington, DC, on the weekend of April 19-20, 2013and is being planned jointly with Yale's World Fellows Program, the University's international leadership training program for emerging leaders from across the globe. The overarching theme of the conference comes from YaleWomen's tagline - Vision, Values, Voice - and is focused on the place of women around the world today and the importance of women's voices on the world stage. The conference will begin with a reception on Friday evening, followed by a day of programming that will feature both individual speakers and panels on such topics as the health and education of women, business and entrepreneurship, and women's status under the law both here and abroad. The focus will be on how women are making an impact and influencing the future of each area of endeavor. Speakers will represent a range of accomplished women; most, though not all, will have some Yale affiliation, and in keeping with the World Fellows partnership, many of the presenters will be from outside of the United States. This promises to be an extraordinary occasion -- save the date! YaleWomen's Inaugural Conference: Call for Volunteers YaleWomen is looking for passionate and committed volunteers to help plan the conference to be held the weekend of April 19-20, 2013. We need assistance in many ways, including development, speaker management, programs, and volunteer coordination, to name a few. There are volunteer opportunities for you no matter how much or how little time you can commit. If you have immediate availability and are interested in fundraising, please contact Erin Endean (eendean@gmail.com). If you would like to hear about other ways in which you can help, please contact Beverly Jurenko (beverly.jurenko@yahoo.com), who can give you more specifics. We need you to help make this a successful and significant conference! Toolkit for YaleWomen Chapters now available To date, ten YaleWomen Chapters are bringing alums together in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Colorado, Connecticut, Los Angeles, New York City, Northern California, Seattle and Washington, DC!  Each chapter is unique, reflecting the number of alums in geographic areas and the interests of the particular participants.  We’ve learned a lot along the way and we continue to learn as we grow.  We welcome your involvement – whether it’s by joining an existing chapter, or forming a new one.  Please contact Barbara Wagner and Susan Lennon (chapters@yalewomen.net) for more information and for a toolkit of best practices.

Yale Alumni Journalism Association

Yale Alumni Journalism AssociationPresents 

A Conversation with Humphrey Taylor
Chairman of the Harris Poll

“Strengths and Weaknesses of the Polls: What they do and do not tell us about the elections”

 Tuesday, October 9, 2012

5:30-6:15PM  Informal Reception
6:15-6:30PM  Review of YAJA Plans
6:30-7:30PM  Program 

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
919 Third Avenue
(Entrance at East 55th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
New York, NY 10022

This is the second of a series of events to be presented by the Yale Alumni Journalism Association (YAJA).  Membership in the Association is open to Yale graduates working in, retired from, or interested in the field of journalism.

The October 9^th program will be particularly timely in the midst of the current Presidential debates, and only weeks before the actual election.  Humphrey Taylor will be examining the following questions, and many others, about political polls: 

How accurate are they?
What is the real “margin of error”?
How reliable are exit polls?
Are polls getting better or worse?
What is the future of polling?  Can we trust on-line polling?

Humphrey Taylor has been Chairman of the Harris Poll, a service of Harris Interactive, since 1994.  He has overall responsibility for more than 8,000 surveys in more than 80 countries.  He has testified before Congressional Committees on Social Security, health care, taxation and privacy, and has made presentations in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

Humphrey has a distinguished track record in predicting election results.  In 1970, his British company was the only one of seven national polls to correctly predict a Conservative victory.  In the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2008 Presidential elections, the Harris Poll, under Humphrey’s direction, accurately predicted the share of votes cast for each of the major candidates. 

Humphrey has authored more than 1,000 columns and articles, many of them appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the London Times.  In the 1980s, he pioneered the use of surveys to compare the health systems of diverse countries, and in the 1990s he was a leader in developing Internet-based surveys and on-line polling.  He is currently chairman of the National Council on Public Polls, and has guest-lectured at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, NYU and UCSF. 

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 $10 Registration FeeSpace is Limited!  Register by October 7^thClick Here To Register

Photo ID required for building access

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Membership in the Yale Alumni Journalism Association (YAJA) is open to any graduate of Yale University working in, retired from, or interested in the journalism field.  There are more than 1000 Yale graduates currently working in news media organizations in print, television, or on-line.  The news business is the only private enterprise in American life that has a Constitutional protection--the First Amendment.  That distinction carries with it a moral obligation to responsibly serve the public interest, and strengthen the ethical standards of news gathering.  The Association will bring talented, diverse journalists to the campus, and other locations, for timely symposia and interaction with both students and faculty.  Other activities such as publications, a website, mentoring programs, and awards for excellence will develop over time. 

For more information, contact Henry Kwan, Director of Shared Interest Groups, at henry.kwan@yale.edu

Yale Alumni Service Corps Update

Have you read the posts about the Yale Alumni Service Corps trip to Nicaragua in March?  Click here for the details that are out now.

You should know that there are only 60 spots on this trip -- so, this trip will full up fast.  Stay tuned for when registrations open!

Meet President Levin in New Haven on October 9

Greetings from the AYA,

The Yale Club of New Haven and The Yale Alumni Association cordially invite you to:
“An Evening with President Levin.”

Join other area Yale Alumni, families, and friends for a University update and thank
President Levin for his 20 years of leadership and service.

Event Details:
Yale West Campus Auditorium and Foyer
137 – 141 West Frontage Road, Orange, Ct. 06477
(Ample free parking is available, the guard at the entrance will give you directions to the auditorium)
Click here for map

6 pm  Reception with wine, beer, soda and appetizers
7 pm  President Levin’s address

$40 per person;  $20 for young Alumni and their guests (Class of 2003 and later)

Register here (registration deadline:  October 5, 2012)
At the Door:  Please call Johnson Flucker at johnson.flucker@yale.edu for availability

School food battles move from pink slime to cupcakes - Houston Chronicle

  Check out classmate Bettina Siegel’s profile in the Houston Chronicle!  The whole piece can be read by clicking on the link below.

Bettina Siegel loves cupcakes, shops for groceries at the same Houston stores as everybody else and works at packing healthy lunches for her two kids.

"I'm not a food Nazi," she says.

When the house empties each weekday morning, however, the lawyer turned writer, blogger and advocate turns her laserlike focus on the food served in public schools here and around the country and the broader question: How do you raise healthy children in today's sugary, salty, super-sized food environment?

In her blogs, the Lunch Tray and the Spork Report, Siegel writes about controversies ranging from pink slime in the cafeteria to birthday cupcakes in the classroom. She tries to represent the millions of school children dependent on school meals - "a group that doesn't have much of a voice."

School food battles move from pink slime to cupcakes - Houston Chronicle

Opt In to a Yale Shared Interest Group

By Margie Smith Whiteleather ‘87

Did you know there is a way to connect with Yale Alumni projects which are not class-year specific? The solution: Shared Interest Groups (SIGs), of which there are over 60 which Yale is aware of. I assumed that Yale organizations had a variety of alumni groups, but didn’t know there is a central list of such groups.  If you live in a rural area, as I do, you may not hear about them.

So I set out to learn how one signs up for a Yale Shared Interest Group, and what it means to join. Bottom line: In order to hear their announcements, you need to contact the interest group coordinators and be sure that you’re in one of their contact streams, whether that be email, Facebook, Twitter or something else.  The Yale Alumni Association does assist with some email announcements, but they usually relate to specific events and are sent only to alumni in the geographic region in which the event will occur.

Mindy A. Marks ‘00, AYA director for shared interest groups, recommends using the AYA web site to connect with individual SIGs. “Shared Interest and Identity Groups are a wonderful way to cross various silos within the alumni population. From the Yale Alumni International Alliance and Yale Summer Institute for the Arts to the Yale Black Alumni Association and Yale Alumni Non-Profit Alliance, there is no limitation on how these groups have a positive impact on their communities and the world. Other SIGs actively planning conferences or large events this year include YaleWomen, Yale in Hollywood, and Yale Veterans Association.”

All of us should have the opportunity to feel intellectual vitality about a topic or activity that we first explored at Yale, and to connect with others who are energized by it.  So go to the “Find a SIG” page and select the group(s) of your interests: http://aya.yale.edu/find/sig  

A note from Alan Miles -- Please support his upcoming charity bike ride

Here is a note from classmate Alan Miles:

Dear Classmates,

From September 28th-30th I’ll be biking 300 miles from Boston to New York with 120 new friends to benefit Housing Works. I’ve been training for the ride, but I’ve left the fundraising for the final stretch from September 16th – 28th, so please help me out. My goal is to raise $10,000.

Housing Works provides housing, health care and support to hundreds of very poor New Yorkers living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. It’s the largest community-based HIV organization in the country, helping people in homes - not in hospitals.

If you can donate $500, 100, $50, or $25, it will provide lifesaving health, housing and other services to someone who desperately needs it to change their life. I'd really appreciate your doing what you can. You can visit my fundraising page here http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/alanmiles/brakingthecycle.

Have a great day, wish me luck and safety on the road, and if you can help, please do.

With love and thanks,

Alan