School Notes: Yale College
May/June 2010

Students in national media

A YouTube sensation was born when Sam Tsui ’11 and Kurt Schneider ’10 put their creative talents to work at Yale’s Digital Media Center for the Arts (DMCA). The duo’s Michael Jackson tribute video—in which Tsui single-handedly performed a seven-part musical medley—was featured on the Bonnie Hunt Show in September, ABC’s World News Tonight in October, and the Oprah Winfrey Show in February. The video can be viewed online at http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8941772.

Yalies also made headlines with a new musical admissions video, entitled That’s Why I Chose Yale. Tsui and Schneider were among the many students to collaborate on the project, which was spearheaded by Andrew Johnson ’06, co-written by Ethan Kuperberg ’11, and recorded at the DMCA. The lighthearted send-up of Yale’s traditions and history attracted considerable attention in the blogosphere and in national publications, including the New York Times. The 16-minute film can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3-RW8Ajk.

Saybrugians gathered around their televisions in November, when Saybrook’s own Marty Keil ’12 (son of Morse College master Frank Keil) appeared on a college-student edition ofWheel of Fortune. Keil beat out more than 300 aspiring contestants to earn a spot on the popular game show. While his bid for the jackpot fell short, Keil did come away with $8,500 in winnings from a third-place finish—and stories to share with his fellow Yalies back in New Haven.

Native American student honored for leadership

Skawenniio Barnes ’10, a member of the advisory board of the Native American Cultural Center at Yale, was honored in March with a Special Youth Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. Barnes, who hails from Canada’s Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, has been recognized for her leadership skills since 2002, when she was chosen as CosmoGirl! of the Year at age 13. Since then, Barnes has been named one of Canada’s top 20 women by Chatelaine magazine and was featured in Winds of Change magazine’s “College Guide 2009.” She currently sits on the board of directors of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA).

Academic honors for students, alums

In November, the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) announced that both of its annual college essay prizes had been awarded to current or former Yale students: Blake Walsh ’09 won the English language prize for her essay “Mediating the Transition from Infantile Dependency to Mature Autonomy: Food as a ‘Transitional Object’ in Clara Sereni’sKeeping House,” while Italian major Emily Rabiner ’10 earned top honors in the Italian language competition for “Il concetto moderno dell’indagine gialla: Saviano come ‘scrittore/detective’.”

The following month, five Yalies were the recipients of Rhodes or Marshall scholarships. Matthew Baum ’09 and Geoffrey Shaw ’10 will study at Oxford University as Rhodes Scholars in 2010–2011. Marshall Scholarships for postgraduate study in the United Kingdom were awarded to James Luccarelli ’10 and Anna Jo Bodurtha Smith ’10, as well as third-year Yale Law student Nabiha Syed.