Yale Book Awards, 2020

YWAA board members will distribute Yale Book Awards to as many as 50 high school students in Westchester this spring (YWAA photo)

Yale Westchester continues its tradition of celebrating outstanding high school students in the county by presenting its annual Book Awards this spring.  Over the next few months, YWAA board members will award books to students from as many as 50 high schools in Westchester.  

Each participating high school selects a junior deserving of the award. The broad criteria include excellence in academics, contributions in the community and outstanding participation in extracurricular activities. YWAA also requests schools choose students based on "outstanding personal character and intellectual promise." Students who receive the award do not have to express interest in applying to or attending Yale, but many choose to do so. 

In 2020, each student will receive either

·   “Yale Book of Quotations”, edited by Fred Shapiro, Associate Librarian and Lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School.

Or the two books:

·   "Mapping the Heavens:  The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos" by Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University.

·   “A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future”, edited by Daniel C. Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale School of the Environment and Yale Law School.

(Click on the links for more details about each book.)

Students also receive a Yale Westchester tote bag and are recognized at the school either at honors-day exercises or some other school event.

Tim Mattison '73, YWAA president, and Peter Santhanam '85 Ph.D., YWAA board member, are helping to organize the program in 2020. Other YWAA board members coordinate with participating schools and arrange for presentations of the awards. 

In 2018 and 2019, participating schools included such schools as Alexander Hamilton, Mount Vernon, Dobbs Ferry, Croton-Harmon, the German School, Yonkers Riverside, Woodlands, Scarsdale, Ardsley and other schools throughout Westchester (public and private). 

The program is not associated with Yale admissions. For some students, the award introduces them to Yale, and they may elect to apply on their own.  YWAA's long-time objective has been to recognize exceptional achievement in Westchester schools.

The program is supported by YWAA and alumni donations. For more about the program, go to YWAA Book Award.  Click 2019, 2018 and 2017 to see the lists of winners in recent years.

Alumni who wish to make donations to the program can do so by clicking YWAA Donations.