Report from our AYA assembly delegate, Bartley Grosserichter
As the AYA delegate for Germany, I had the honor of attending the AYA (Association of Yale Alumni) ASSEMBLY LXXVI in New Haven November 16-17, 2017 and am happy to report back a few of the highlights.
At the First Time Delegates Luncheon, I had the opportunity to meet others and hear the welcome motivational speeches this year. The message was heavy on the need to reach out on social media and maintain an up-to-date online presence to foster contact with local alums.
Special mention was giving to two new Yale alumni Facebook groups (even though we heard over and over that millennials don’t use Facebook, this seems to be the best platform for this kind of communication, so we need to motivate them to use it):
• Yale Alumni – For all Yale alumni around the world to connect via sharing Yale alumni events, nostalgia, awards and achievements.
-> Join at facebook.com/groups/yalealumni
• Yale Alumni Leaders – For Yale Alumni Leaders of city clubs, class years, SIGs (Special Interest Groups), etc. to connect, share best practices and collaborate on events, recruitment, engagement, communication, and social media.
-> Join at facebook.com/groups/YaleAlumniLeaders
Bringing the World to Yale: International Student Communities
Not many attended this session, as it competed with a tour of the new residential colleges, but the panel was excellent and diverse. Undergraduate and graduate students from Rwanda, China, Zimbabwe, the Kurdish territory in Iraq, and Myanmar talked about the international experience at Yale as well as about the orientation for international students (which impacts many of those admitted from Germany). A few tidbits that I found especially interesting:
The Chinese community at Yale is 1600 strong (800 undergrad and grad students, 800 PhD and Scholars). They are very tight knit.
The international community seems to have many SIGs for their own heritage but also be very integrated amongst the entire int’l community. They seem slightly less integrated into the US American community.
The woman from Iraq (a trained architect doing graduate work at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs) is the one and only Iraqi on campus this year. When asked why she chose Yale, she had a moving story. As a nine year old she was bombed out of her village and on the Syrian border awaiting a donation box of warm clothes. There was a Yale sweatshirt in her box, so it was always a magical place for her and influenced where she looked as she progressed with her education. So, alumni, keep donating your old sweatshirts!
Creating the Yale College Community: Admissions and the Future Yale Student
This session was identical to the Webinar that the admissions office held twice in November and is available online to those who are ASC interviewers.
Yale Medal Cocktail Reception and Dinner
Held this year in the Lanman Center of the Payne Whitney Gymnasium as Commons is officially closed for renovations to become The Schwarzman Center in 2020. More information is available online at https://news.yale.edu/2015/05/11/150-million-gift-stephen-schwarzman-establish-first-its-kind-campus-center-yale-universit
and https://schwarzman.yale.edu/project-updates
Yale International Alliance Alumni Breakfast:
This session was far too short for what we could have accomplished. The session was pretty equally divided between curious alumni and reps from international clubs. Moderated by Renate Cesar, who created the SIG Yale International Alliance, one key point was our desire to foster more communication online between the various international clubs, as many Yalies live in more than one country (live in one, work in another, or vacation home in a second country, etc.).
It is currently difficult to affiliate with more than one country (evidently the website doesn’t even allow for the input of a UK street address, etc.)… This needs to be addressed.
The website is up and running: https://yaleinternationalalliance.com, as well as the Facebook Group of the same name. We should all join this group, link/update them with our activities as much as possible, and we could/should communicate to all alums to check this site often.
On one level, we wondered why the International alumni are a SIG, when in fact it would behoove the university in today’s global world to integrate international alumni more fully. It seemed the best and easiest way to get the community linked… Another huge issue on the table early in the very frank discussion was Yale’s declining reputation internationally (this came specifically from the UK, who posit that current high school students see Yale as old fashioned and much less “fun” than other Ivies and elite universities). It was difficult to corroborate with other territories that were at the breakfast.
Also an issue – how to make “International at Yale” not only about getting the best and brightest from Britain to Zimbabwe to study at Yale, but also about Yale students who want jobs in London, Paris, Berlin, etc. The university is very organized at integration programs for international students, but less at including alumni in programs for current students. (UK has a new mentoring program for example). This could be a way for interested alumni in Germany to become involved.
We talked about better informing each other of our local club activities, as so many alumni are at home in more than one European country. A fun idea that we tossed around: Yale Club reciprocal travel weekends (For example, in Munich we would offer a weekend with a guided art show, an evening at a beer hall and hotel with suggestions of how to spend free time, London could organize a theater evening along the same format, etc.).
With Yale Blue Green coalition we talked about informing our local Yalies of their activities and possible speaker events around environmental and sustainability issues. In addition, Yale always sends a big team to the UN Climate Change conferences. Yale’s team in Bonn was 40 strong this year and they even won a prize. Opportunities for cocktails with curious alumni? Next year’s event is in Poland and we have put YC Poland in the loop. More information is available at https://yalebluegreen.org
University update with President Salovey
https://news.yale.edu/2017/11/20/salovey-alumni-yale-forging-connections-solve-real-world-problems
Yale Day of Service
There was much encouragement to get involved in the Yale Day of Service, which is Saturday, May 12th, 2018 (or any spring date that works for us). It is the 10th anniversary year… http://yaledayofservice.org
