YWAA: Year in Review, 2018

Hugh Price '66 Law addressed Westchester residents in January at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, reflecting on a career in civil rights and as leader of the National Urban Leaqgue

Under the leadership of president Tim Mattison '73, YWAA continued to engage Yale alumni, families and community members in 2018 with a series of events--both old and new, including traditional activities, student debate, community service, Shakespeare, and the popular lecture series from Yale professors. 

CIVIL RIGHTS, COMMUNITY SERVICE, MEN'S HOOPS

Hugh Price '66 Law addressed the Westchester community at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, Jan. 15, where he reflected on his long career in civil rights.  Price served as CEO of the National Urban League from 1994-2003.  In 2017, he published his memoirs This African-American Life, which recounts his days growing up in Washington, D.C., his time in New Haven as a Yale Law student and as a community leader, and his tenure at the Urban League.  

Suzanne Cleary '83, president of the Jay Heritage Center, co-hosted the event, the Annual Literary Tea. 

In January, Maggie Favretti '85, who retired this year from the faculty at Scarsdale High School, received the Thomas Sobol Award for community service for continuing leadership of the Scarsdale Sustainable Garden Project.  The garden has produced thousands of pounds of food donated to food pantries in the Westchester area.

Scarsdale students and others in the community clean, plant, and harvest the garden each year. In 2018, Favretti and her Scarsdale high school crew again sponsored the garden as a Yale Day of Service event in May. She has received other awards for the garden and for other service activities at Scarsdale High School, where she taught social studies. 

Yale men's basketball once again finished as one of the top four team in the Ivy League and earned a berth at the Ivy basketball tournament at Penn in Philadelphia, Mar. 11.  Yale lost to Penn during the tournament, but during an intermission of its game, the League honored Scarsdale native Earl "Butch" Graves, Jr., '84 as one of the best Ivy League players ever.  

At Yale, Graves scored 2,090 points from 1980-84 and captained the 1983-84 squad.  Graves was a standout at Scarsdale High School before he performed at Yale. 

BOOK AWARDS, THE WHIFFS, NEW STUDENTS RECEPTION

Peter Santhanam '85 Ph.d., YWAA board member, once again led the Westchester Yale Book Awards program, which recognizes top students in the junior class at Westchester area high schools.  In 2018, the program presented awards to over 50 students, who received a copy of Yale Law School's Fred Schapiro's The Yale Book of Quotations.  

Danny Keller '18 of Rye sang as a baritone with the The Whiffenpoofs of Yale and got the opportunity to sing in his hometown when the The Whiffs appeared at the Rye Presbyterian Church Apr. 15.  Keller also served as business manager and announcer for the group. 

YWAA and the Yale Westchester Alumni Schools Committee hosted admitted students in Bronxville at the annual Admitted Students Reception Apr. 11. A record 35,206 high school students, including a few hundred from Westchester, applied to the Yale Class of 2022.  Admissions official Debra Johns and three current Yale students were panelists and allowed admitted students in Westchester and their parents to ask questions about the Yale experience. 

David Shimer '18 of Chappaqua and Kaitlin Cardon '20 of White Plains responded to questions about student life, residential colleges, trips abroad, and favorite Yale cuisine.  Shimer was an editor in chief of the Yale Daily News, earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in history, and had just been awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford.  Cardon, a resident of Timothy Dwight College, recounted her travels abroad as a student in Morocco and her experience as an R.O.T.C. student.

(William Primps '71 concluded his years as leader the Westchester alumni-interview program in 2018.  Dana Sands '83, YWAA board member, assumes his position as Chair.)

DAY OF SERVICE, LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP, FILM LECTURE, SHAKESPEARE AT BOSCOBEL 

For Yale's annual Day of Service May 12, Yale alumni sponsored events around the world, and alumni, friends and family members volunteered for a day to serve the community in unique ways. In Westchester, Jason Sandler '16 M.D. and Yang Li '12 hosted a Habitat for Humanity site, where volunteers helped build a house in Yonkers.  

The Yonkers project was the first time it participated in Yale Day of Service. The Scarsdale Sustainable Garden Project hosted volunteers May 19. 

In June, Yale's men's lacrosse team defeated Duke to win the NCAA national championship before 30,000 lax fans in Foxboro, Mass.  It was the Bulldogs' first title, although Yale records show Yale winning a championship in 1883 before the existence of the NCAA. 

Ben Reeves '18, team captain, scored 62 goals during the season.  The team also featured four members from the Westchester area:  Aidan Hynes '20, who played at Mahopac High School; Ted Forst '19 and Owen Jones '18, who both helped Bronxville High School win a state championship, and Will Cabrera '21 of Scarsdale.  Yale finished its championship year with a 17-3 record. 

Marc Lapadula, Yale professor of screenwriting, presented a lecture in Chappaqua as part of the YWAA Lecture Series, coordinated by YWAA board member Rich Fabbro '76.  Before about 80 invited Yale guests, Lapadula named and explained his list of the most important films in American history.  His list included the following:

The Jazz Singer
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
The Graduate
Easy Rider
Jaws

Philadelphia

At Boscobel in Garrison, YWAA hosted its annual outing at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Aug. 19.  Richard II was the performance for the evening, and once again Murray Biggs, Yale lecturer in Shakespeare, returned to lecture on the play and prep Yale alumni and guests for the show under the big white tent along the Hudson River. 

In years past, YWAA-Boscobel has hosted outings of such performances as The General from America, Macbeth, Othello, The Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well, and Hamlet.

LIN EXHIBITION, DEBATE, RED HOT & BLUE, THE GAME AT FENWAY

Maya Lin '81, '86 Arch., best known for her design of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, who continues to produce work around the world from her home base in Westchester, is presenting an exhibition through Jan., 2019, "A River Is a Drawing," in Yonkers. 

The exhibition at the Hudson River Museum pays homage to the Hudson River. It features several works from Lin, all with themes recognizing the history and importance of the river or using the river as a background or setting. 

William Nightingale '53 and Dana Sands '83, YWAA board members, led the 22nd annual Westchester Debate Competition Oct. 26. This year, the German International School hosted college and high school teams in White Plains.  

With socialism vs. capitalism being the topic for the evening, Yale's debate team faced off against Princeton and emerged the winner of the college competition.  Rye native Charlie Barton participated for Yale. Yale also defeated Princeton in 2014, 2015, and 2017. Harrison High School won the high school round.

Yale's oldest co-ed, a cappella group, Red, Hot & Blue, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, sang in Westchester in Rye at the Osborne (Retirement Community) Auditorium, Oct. 19. The Yale singers were joined by the Princeton Wildcats, Princeton's highly regarded women's a cappella group.

YWAA board member William Nightingale '53 organized the affair. Both groups from Princeton and Yale sang selections in jazz, pop and the American songbook.

Red, Hot & Blue previously sang at the Osborne three other times, including a concert this past March and concerts in 2015 and 2017. The group celebrated its 40th last year with tours to France, Seattle, China and Puerto Rico. Next semester it plans concerts in Brazil and Washington, D.C.

Harvard organizers of The Game in 2018 decided to try something different.  Yale-vs.-Harvard in football for the 135th time was moved from Harvard Stadium to baseball's storied Fenway Park in downtown Boston.  

The baseball diamond was redesigned into a football grid-iron, and 34,000-plus Yale and Harvard fans squeezed into the ancient park to witness the Bulldogs vs. Crimson, both with winning records but not enough to share an Ivy championship with Princeton. 

Yale kept it close, but Harvard escaped late to surge to a 45-27 victory in a game Yale "should've and could've" won. Fenway, after all, proved to be a museum-piece of a setting in the middle of the Boston skyline.

In 2019,  first up on the YWAA schedule is a double-header a cappella concert Sunday, Feb. 2 (1 pm) featuring Yale's Spizzwinks and the New Blue at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua.  Details will follow.

For YWAA highlights and summaries in past years (from 2013-2017), click HIGHLIGHTS. 

Red, Hot & Blue, Yale's oldest a cappella group, performed twice in Westchester in Rye in 2018 (YWAA photo)

Scarsdale native Earl Graves, Jr., '84, received an award as one of the top players in the history of Ivy League basketball during the Ivy League basketball tournament in March in Philadelphia (YWAA photos)

David Shimer '18 from Chappaqua and Kaitlin Cardon '20 from White Plains returned to Westchester as guest panelists at the annual YWAA and ASC admitted-students reception in April (YWAA photos)

Yale's men's lacrosse team won the NCAA national championship in June by defeating Duke in Foxboro, Mass. The team included four Westchester residents. (Yale Athletics photo)

In a lecture as part of the YWAA Series, Marc Lapadula, Yale professor of screenwriting, listed his most important films in American history for the audience in Chappaqua (YWAA photos)

YWAA returned to Boscobel in August for a performance of Shakespeare's Richard III. Yale lecturer Murray Biggs spoke to Yale alumni and guests before the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival actors took the stage

Maya Lin '81, '86 Arch. presented an exhibition paying homage to the Hudson River, "A River Is a Drawing." The showing lasts through Jan., 2019, in Yonkers

In White Plains in October, Yale met Princeton again in college debate as part of the annual Westchester competition.  Six high school teams followed. (YWAA photo)

In the 135th Game, Yale and Harvard clashed, but this time in baseball's Fenway Park in downtown Boston. Harvard found a way to win, 45-27. (YWAA photos)