Notes and News - Week of April 20, 2020

April 21, 2020
Dear Red Lions,

We had a wonderful first-ever virtual TD Community Night attended by 90+ TDers!!!  Thanks to the many wonderful lions who volunteered their time and energy.  Special thanks go to our emcee Jade Chen ’23 and our behind-the-scenes technician, Won Jung ‘20!  Together they introduced our line-up of live performers: sophomores Calvin Kaleel and Emily Li, junior Rebecca Amonor, and seniors Trina White and Max Yuhas.  Also, many thanks to TDers who sent in their performances: the Whistelpoofs (Zuri Goodman, Ben Colon-Emeric, Jeremy Haddock, Matthew Pecoraro, and Peter Cappaert), Francesca Dezza Parada and Lucie Warga, Caroline Ho, Sam Christopher, and Charlie Gleberman. 

And a very special thanks to Ray Hill ‘20 for sharing a recording of one of the most memorable moments in TD Community Night history – the TD Recorchestra featuring many members of the TD class of 2018 doing a flash mob of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” in the spring 2018 Community Night.  If you look carefully, you can also spot Josh McGilvray in the balcony and many current TD seniors in the audience!

The entire virtual Community Night is now up on our TD Vimeo page!  Please go here to access the special page of videos. It doesn’t include the running hilarious chat thread, unfortunately, but you can see the great performances.  In addition, we’re putting up the recorded acts individually so everyone can enjoy them without the lag and technical glitches.  To view the videos of original pieces by Caroline Ho, Sam Christopher, and Charlie Gleberman please go to their Youtube video links:
 
Sam Christopher and Caroline Ho, “Supercluster”  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEhqryhFSQ0

Caroline Ho’s composition for “Dream Sequence” in Charlie Gleberman’s untitled film project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp3X1M312wc

Speaking of performances, Emily Li will be releasing on 5/8 on Spotify her new song, “When,” that she performed on Community Night.  You can support her by “presaving” the song by going to this link.

Here are a few important deadlines and events for the next couple of weeks:

Monday 4/20 11:59pm Virtual Senior Dinner Sign Up Deadline (TD Courtyard Time)      

TD 2020, we need you to finish sending in your responses for our virtual dinner on 4/28 at 6pm!  Please go to this form to sign up for your e-gift card for your preferred meal delivery service or go with a local takeout option or groceries if you prefer to go rogue.  And we can use more “superlatives” to add to the great ones we’ve received so far!

Wednesday 4/22 6pm EST Virtual Session on “Financial Life After Yale” 

Join Stephen Blum ’74 for a Q&A session to answer your personal finance questions in these very uncertain economic times. He will be joined by Tara Falcone ’11 and John Caserta ’01 who have dedicated much of their careers to financial literacy.  All are welcome to attend.  To join, please rsvp at this online survey.

Tuesday 4/28 6pm Virtual TD Senior Dinner (TD Courtyard Time)

It’s not the senior dinner we’d imagined, but until we can bring the class back to campus for the real celebration we are excited to gather with TD 2020 over Zoom to celebrate your wonderful class.  So plan to order or cook your meal – dinner, breakfast, 2nd breakfast, midnight snack, etc.  We have some great surprises planned that will be unveiled that night!

Before I sign-off, here is our “photo of the week” from TD resident fellow, Sidiya Mbodj, who took panoramas of our blooming courtyard:
 

And here is a sign of spring photo sent in by our own TD Operations Manager, KC Mills:
 

Without further ado, here is a word from Dean Mahurin…

Àshe,
HL

***

Design
Billy Collins

I pour a coating of salt on the table
and make a circle in it with my finger.
This is the cycle of life
I say to no one.
This is the wheel of fortune,
the Arctic Circle.
This is the ring of Kerry
and the white rose of Tralee
I say to the ghosts of my family,
the dead fathers,
the aunt who drowned,
my unborn brothers and sisters,
my unborn children.
This is the sun with its glittering spokes
and the bitter moon.
This is the absolute circle of geometry
I say to the crack in the wall,
to the birds who cross the window.
This is the wheel I just invented
to roll through the rest of my life
I say
touching my finger to my tongue.

DOMESTIC SUMMER AWARD

Yale’s Domestic Summer Award is still happening for Summer 2020! In light of COVID-19, students can use their DSA for remote work. Guidelines found here.  For 2020 only, the Domestic Summer Award may be used for Yale Summer Session

An award of $4,000 for Yale undergraduate students on financial aid who complete the equivalent of at least two 1-credit courses in Yale Summer Session. Students taking a 1.5-credit language courses must also take a second 1-credit (or 1.5-credit) course to be eligible. Courses can be taken together in a single session or may be taken in both Session A and Session B. Students may enroll in the Flatiron program, which meets the DSA requirements because it carries 2 credits. Please note that courses may not be selected Credit/D/Fail unless a student is enrolled in 2 courses in one session, one credit of which is for a letter grade. See YSS Student Handbook for C/D/F regulations. In addition to Yale Summer Online, Yale Summer Session will be converting many of the courses offered in New Haven and abroad to a remote online format.

Yale College students on financial aid during the academic year are eligible to receive both 50% off full YSS tuition (up to two course credits) and the DSA (if they have not yet used their DSA).  Apply your DSA to Yale Summer Session here.

FELLOWSHIP EVENTS 

Zoom Webinar: UK fellowships - Rhodes & beyond: Postgraduate Study in UK/Ireland
Wednesday, April 23, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Zoom Login: https://yale.zoom.us/j/180931787
 
Zoom Webinar: Fulbright Information Session
Thursday, April 23, 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Zoom Login: https://yale.zoom.us/j/311450506
 
Zoom Webinar: Cultivating Faculty Mentors/Recommendations - Remote Work Edition
Tuesday, April 28, 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Zoom Log in: https://yale.zoom.us/j/281320875 
 
Zoom Webinar: Fulbright Information Session
Wednesday, April 29, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Zoom Login: https://yale.zoom.us/j/582519003
 
Zoom Webinar: UK fellowships - Rhodes & beyond: Postgraduate Study in UK/Ireland
Wednesday, April 29, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Zoom Login: https://yale.zoom.us/j/698053636 
 
Zoom Webinar: Writing Essays for National Fellowships Workshop
Thursday, April 30, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Zoom Login: https://yale.zoom.us/j/619592409
 
APPROACHING FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION DEADLINES:
 April 30, 1pm EST - MacMillan Center Summer Fellowships for Language Study Campus Deadline | Eligible: First-Year Students, Sophomores, Juniors, & Graduate Students
May 1, 3:00pm EST - MacMillan Center Academic Year Fellowships for Language Study Campus Deadline| Eligible: First-Year Students, Sophomores, Juniors, & Graduate Students
May 15 - Einstein Fellowship National Deadline | Eligible: Seniors & Graduates aged under 35
May 31 - Rotary Peace Fellowship District Deadline| Eligible: Seniors 
July 31, Midnight GMT (EXTENDED DEADLINE) - Scotland’s Saltire Scholarships National Deadline | Eligible: Seniors & Graduates who are citizens of Canada, India, Japan, USA, Pakistan, or China
June 12, 1pm EST – Global Rhodes Campus Deadline | Eligible: International Seniors & Recent Graduates who are not citizens of existing Rhodes Regions
September 15 - The German Chancellor Fellowship for tomorrow’s leaders National Deadline | Eligible: Seniors & Recent Graduates

YALE-UCL POETRY COMPETITION
Yale-University College London (UCL) Poetry Competitions 2020: Poetry in the Time of Coronavirus
 
Poetry can be a powerful medium for human beings to make sense of their place in the world.  In a world marked by the Coronavirus pandemic, this function of poetry seems particularly important.  As part of the Yale-UCL Collaborative, for the past ten years Yale and UCL have run a flourishing joint poetry competition for their medical students.  This has allowed medical students at the two Universities to make sense of their particular experiences and to produce some extraordinary poetry. Thanks to the generosity of an external donor, this competition has had a substantial prize and has always attracted an impressive set of entries.

 
This year, in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic, we have decided to run the poetry competition in a different format and to open it to all Yale and UCL students.  There will, in effect, be two competitions:
 

  1. An ‘open’ competition for all Yale and UCL students for the best poem that addresses a recognizably medical or public-health related theme.  One prize of £1000.
  2. A ‘closed’ competition for Yale and UCL students of medicine and allied disciplines.  One prize of £1000.

 
The deadline for both prizes will be June 20, 2020.  We are in discussion with some prominent poets on both sides of the Atlantic who, we hope, will join the judging panel of Yale and UCL academics in medicine and literature.  We hope that as many Yale and UCL students will want to enter the competition and very much look forward to reading your poems.