Notes & News - Week of September 15th, 2013

September 15, 2013

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MASTER’S PIECES

One and all will be glad to know that the Class of 2017 has properly celebrated TD’s 17th (!) annual trip to Llama Land, our very own Xanadu. Hamburgers were eaten, football games were lost, llamas were observed, and, for the first time in recorded history, the Wobble was danced en masse poolside. Shoutout to everyone who helped on this gorgeous day, a great community effort.

Back here at world headquarters on Temple St., there is also some cool stuff afoot:

·         This week Associate Master Sally Brenzel is starting up exercise classes, free for TD students: Total Strength on Friday at 3:00 pm and Pilates on Sunday at 3:00 pm  On this Friday at 3 in the Multipurpose Room on the lower level of TD, Sally will launch a Total Strength program, a workout using hand held weights and other equipment to sculpt your total body and boost your metabolism. On Sunday at 3, also in the Multipurpose Room, she will start a Pilates program that will work your core like never before. There are only 12 spots in each of these two different programs, so send an email to sally.brenzel@yale.edu asap to ask a question or reserve your spot in either one. (Sally is the founder and owner of New Haven Pilates, and has been teaching group exercise and pilates for over fifteen years.) 

·         Coming Soon – Sydney Molina and the Quarternaglia Guitar Quartet on Tuesday, September 24.  TD’s own David Molina has a father, like many other students. Unlike many others, David’s father is a classical guitarist and a member of the famed Quarternaglia Quartet from Brazil. On tour in the United States this month, David has helped us bring his father’s superb group to Yale and TD on September 24 for a master class at the Music School, a Master’s Tea here in TD at 4:30 pm, and a fabulous open performance at 8:00 pm in Sudler Hall. (Check out arts calendar info here.)  MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW – MORE INFORMATION TO COME!

Online Ordering for the TD Buttery.  My friends, I have become a believer in digital technology, because it’s now reaching into the farthest corners of the earth. Even TD. You can now go to www.tinyurl/TDButtMenu after 10 pm, fill out the form and a buttery worker will email you that your food is ready for pick up. We can’t make in any easier than this – hats off to Kelly Wu! She’s also established an Employee of the Week program, with operations manager Bob Kennedy the first winner. (Check out his Whiffenpoofs of 1975 head shot on the Butt

TIMOTHY DWIGHT

2013 Summer Activities Survey Undergraduate Career Services (UCS) is coordinating the 2013 summer activities survey to establish a password-protected, summer evaluation database.  Currently there is a 52% response rate, and we would like to increase that as much as possible.  If you have not taken the survey,please click Survey or copy and paste the following URL into an internet browser: https://yale-csm.symplicity.com/students/.  Each student’s username is the Yale email address, and if you do not have a  password, use the forgot password button. If there are any questions about this project, please contactundergraduate.careerservices@yale.edu.

Take a look. Plan your week. The Yale arts calendar is available at http://artscalendar.yale.edu.

ACADEMICS

Education Studies.  Education Studies is establishing a Student Advisory Committee, and all interested undergraduate students are encouraged to apply.  For details about the program and committee responsibilities and to access the application:  http://yalecollege.yale.edu/content/education-studies.  The application deadline is5pm on Wednesday, September 25. Questions to Lizzy Carroll, the program director,  elizabeth.carroll@yale.edu.

Global health Fellows Program for Sophomores and Juniors. For those interested in the Global Health Studies Program and being a Global Health Fellow, the information session is Wednesday, October 2, at 4:00pm in WLH 117.  Applications are due Tuesday, November 5. 

5-year BA/MPH Program for Juniors. The information session is September 24th at 5:00 pm in LC 211.  Applications are due by November 1.

STUDY ABROAD

CIPE electronic newsletter will be published three times per semester – at the beginning, just prior to important deadlines, and right before winter or summer break.  The first edition and to subscribe: http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=45967973791b2481d8992a617&id=6e4454463e&e=bec2aa5c07. Information about upcoming study abroad and career information sessions is posted on the CIPE calendar page: http://www.yale.edu/yalecollege/international/welcome/calendar.html.

Study Abroad Deadlines for Spring 2014 Programs

Yale-in-London 
October 4, 2013

Year or Term Abroad Programs for Yale Course Credit
October 15, 2013

CIPE Appointments

https://cie.yale.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=StaffMain.Home.

SIT Study Abroad Information Session

When: Tuesday, September 17, 4pm – 5pm. Where: LC 102 An overview of program offerings. To learn more about SIT Study Abroad programs, including field-based programs on global health, development, and human rights .  More information: http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/. To apply to earn Yale Year or Term Abroad credit for this program: www.yale.edu/yta.

The Swedish Program Information Session

When: Wed, September 18, 4pm – 5pm; Where: LC 102  A  representative from the Swedish Program, will be on-campus to discuss this liberal arts study abroad program based in Stockholm. To learn more about the Swedish Program, go to: http://www.swedishprogram.org/.  To apply to earn Yale Year or Term Abroad credit for this program: www.yale.edu/yta

FELLOWSHIPS and SCHOLARSHIPS

Boren Awards Presentation

When: Thursday, September 19, 1:30 – 2:30 pm.  Where: Center for International and Professional Experience, 55 Whitney Avenue, room 369.  Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide funding for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add an international and language component to their educations. They focus on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study that are critical to U.S. national security, broadly defined, and underrepresented in study abroad.  More atwww.borenawards.org. 2014 Application Deadlines: Boren Scholarships Deadline for Yale College undergraduates is: 3pm on January 17, 2014 (apply through Fellowship Programs at CIPE; details at http://studentgrants.yale.edu)

TUTORING (aka COACHING)

TD Resident Writing Tutor: The TD Writing Tutor is Diane Charney.  Her office is in the basement of TD, room B006, and her email address is diane.charney@yale.edu  .  She has regular hours, which are posted atwww.yale.edu/bass/tutoring/residential.html .  A Yale College student may seek the help and advice of any tutor in any residential college.

Writing Partners at the Writing Center: Drop-in tutoring with writing partners during afternoon and evening hours.  See the hours at  www.yale.edu/writing .  Writing Partners are Yale College or graduate school students selected for both their writing skills and their ability to talk about writing. Writing partners do not read papers before the appointment, so they will often focus on the beginning of your text or other short sections that you know need help. Still, since many writing problems show up in the first two pages of a paper, this kind of tutoring can be very effective.

TD Resident Math/Science Tutor is Pablo Olmos.  His email address is  pablo.olmos@yale.edu .  His office will be in TD room B006.  He will be available on Sundays and Wednesdays from 8pm to 11pm.  The schedules and science and other specialties of all the residential college math and science tutors will be posted at: www.yale.edu/mstutor.   As well as tutoring in mathematics, he specializes in economics and can also help students with basic statistics and calculus.  Reminder:  any student may seek help from the other tutors in other residential colleges.

Tutoring in Foreign Languages:  The process for asking for a foreign language tutor is described at  www.cls.yale.edu/tutoring.  A tutor is available to anyone enrolled in a foreign language (regardless of the grade in that course).

Individually Assigned Tutors for QR and Science Courses:  This tutoring is also free of charge.  The form to request a tutor is in the TD dean’s office.

Tutoring in Departments:  Sometimes departments offer tutoring, individually or in groups.  Check with your instructor or in the office of Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Course-Based Peer Tutors:  Ask your instructor if a Course-Based Tutor is available in your QR of Sc course.  These tutors are available in addition to the other resources (such as faculty and Teaching Fellows) associated with the course. The Course-Based Peer Tutors are undergraduates who, in most cases, will have previously taken the course.  Course-Based Peer Tutors attend lectures and are available to students in the course for one-on-one and small group tutoring. These Tutors are overseen by the course instructor.  

NOTES

Llama land reminds us that we are people, and, fortunately, we live in a place that cares about people as well as subjects to be taught and learned.

On a recent evening as I stood on the TD porch, I felt a summer season poised on the edge, about to become autumn, much as we are poised after we have handed in our schedules – beginning as we anticipate the fulfillment and end of a season of our fall term.   And, of course, we begin in the face of not knowing all we think we must know in advance.  And we now stand on a plan, an idea of a way and of an end, well before anything like a way or an end happens.  

Happenstance.  There is a word – a posture of what we cannot predict and know in advance, a recognition of chance and our unavoidable stepping into it.  What will come we cannot tell.  We make our choices of this course or that, of some activity or not, of some intimacy or not.   We choose the best we can in the face of not knowing.  As much as we might wish to know everything in advance, it will not be so.  Chance will arrive, life will intervene, things will happen.  A class may work out as we hoped and planned, or perhaps not.  An activity may satisfy, or perhaps not.  A new acquaintance may become a friend, or perhaps not.  No matter – we try to be brave because we try to make the best decisions we can at the time we make them. 

On the porch, I finally stepped down to stand on the grass  under the evening sky.  In my memory of Llama Land I saw before me the pool, blue and clear. Filtered. Still. The pool’s rough waters were of our own making, from cannon balls and fancy dives.  In contrast, in my memory I saw Clark’s Pond near Sleeping Giant in Hamden, about 6 miles away.  Opaque.  Restless.  The rough waters came from the winds and rains from other places, blown our way on their way somewhere else.   At Clark’s new waters rush in at one end and over the levy they rush out the other. The pool is more like what we think we want life to be; the pond is more like how life is.  We plan.  Life happens.  We stand as best we can on our hopes and confidence that all will be well.  We begin as we must.  We find ways as we can.   We try.  We stand on a trust that all will be well in the end, as it happens.

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