Council of the Heads of Colleges honors nineteen outstanding juniors

Nineteen Yale College juniors received honors from the Council of the Heads of Colleges in recognition of their scholarship, their contributions to college life, and their character.

The prizes, winning students, and the award citations written by masters who nominated them follow:

F. Wilder Bellamy Jr. Memorial Prize

Established in 1939 by friends of F. Wilder Bellamy Jr., B.A. 1937, the prize is awarded to a junior, man or woman, who best exemplifies the qualities for which F. Wilder Bellamy, Jr. is remembered, including personal integrity, loyalty to friends, and high-spiritedness in athletics, academics, and social life.

Eddie Joe Antonio, Jonathan Edwards College

A light in the JE college community, Eddie Joe draws other students to him with his warmth, good humor, and general sense of conviviality. Eddie Joe is an architecture major with a love of public spaces and the cultures and histories they represent. He is the co-president of the Urban Improvement Corps at Yale and serves as a mentor and tutor to New Haven youth. Eddie Joe travelled to Havana, Cuba last summer to work at an urban design NGO and conduct independent research on Caribbean urbanism. The summer before he received a Thomas C. Barry Fellowship to Colombia, and his photography of the old colonial church in Villa de Leyva was chosen for CIPE’s yearly calendar contest. Eddie Joe has a purpose in his work beyond beauty and function; he looks to the forms of building and structures to represent the best of, as he expresses it, “richness, complexity, and ongoing humanness.”

Gabriel Betancur, Pierson College

Gabriel epitomizes the characteristics celebrated by the F. Wilder Bellamy, Jr. Prize, which is awarded to “a person of attractive personality and high spirits … a good competitor and loyal friend,” someone who takes “enjoyment in the whole range of college life,” a person who has “integrity” is “well liked and respected.” A major in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, Gabe has been a member of the Pierson College Council and Student Activities Committee, he has served as a Housing Committee member since his first year, and he has been one of our most active intramurals participants in sports ranging from tennis to intramural A-Hoops. Next year, he will serve as a First-Year Counselor in L-Dub. At Yale and in the city of New Haven, he has been the interpreting and diversity director for the HAVEN Free Clinic, a student-run organization that serves uninsured residents of New Haven, and he has been involved in the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project, helping to organize their Book Exchange Program. He has also been a member and practice coordinator for the Yale Club Tennis Team, and has served as the ball person coordinator for the Connecticut Open tournament hosted by Yale each summer. Recognized as the heart and soul of his friend groups and college, Gabe is an eminently worthy recipient of the Bellamy Prize.

Cody Clements, Davenport College

Cody Clements is a member of the Yale track team, where he has distinguished himself in the high jump. Moreover, he is a core member of the life of Davenport College, where he serves on the Davenport College Council. He throws himself into the social life of the college with the high-spiritedness for which the Bellamy Prize is established. He has organized social events for the college and offered support and wisdom to his fellow DCC members. Cody will serve as a first year counselor in 2018-2019, making him one of the rare varsity athletes to serve as a FroCo during his time on a team. Cody is, in short, indispensable to the social life of the College

Amanda Lloyd, Pauli Murray College

A transfer from Quinnipiac University, Amanda Lloyd is new to Yale, but she has already begun to make her mark. She is AF-ROTC and has recently qualified for pilot’s training, with its additional responsibilities and time commitment — heaped on a schedule that also includes the Yale Triathlon Team and service as a college aide. Last fall, Amanda received the Gold Valor Award, ROTC’s highest honor for helping to save five people from drowning. At great personal danger, she and two friends jumped into Lake Ontario, armed with lifejackets, to save a family that had become caught in the waves of the lake. She is a woman of uncommon integrity and bravery.

David Glaess, Silliman College

David Glaess is the embodiment of what it means to adore the residential college community. From IMs to his service to the YCC to his invention of our new Acorn coffee shop to his incredible vibrancy, David is the perfect fit for this award. His weekly IM email announcements in the form of a satirical rap song were hilarious and quickly became a legendary part of Silliman college culture. David is also the face of Silliman events, the kind of student who we feature front and center since everyone in the college knows and loves him. His charismatic love for all things Silliman is contagious, and his hard work and love for our college will leave an indelible stamp on our college culture for years to come. David isn’t just a fixture in all things Silliman — he’s a true innovator in Silliman life, a student who in the past three years has developed new ways for our college to as a social community.

Caroline Heilbrun, Trumbull College

A junior environmental studies major, Caroline “Carrie” Heilbrun is an outstanding student, varsity athlete and member of the Trumbull College community. Carrie is very passionate about the environment, particularly when it comes to pursuing innovative technologies in renewable energy and conservation. Most recently, Carrie was one of the three winners of the Carbon Charge Challenge across the 14 residential colleges. Carrie and her teammates won the second prize for their proposal of an interactive energy saving app that would provide specific directives and offer rewards responding to specific patterns. As a varsity swimmer, Carrie specializes in freestyle and butterfly events, often winning first place or getting to the podium repeatedly. Being a student athlete at Yale is challenging — to excel in athletics, academics and beyond is particularly admirable. Carrie is a role model for those who are trying to do it all, and she does so with kindness and humility.

Maraya Keny-Guyer, Timothy Dwight College

For the last three years, Maraya Keny-Guyer has played an integral part in nearly all aspects of Timothy Dwight College life bringing her bright smile and boundless energy to help forge a strong community. As a first-year, Maraya participated enthusiastically in TD’s intramural sports, particularly soccer, table tennis, and volleyball, and co-captained our first-year Olympics team. In her sophomore year she took on the role of TD college aide and became one of our IM secretaries, pulling our college out of last place to third place in Yale college’s intramural standings. As a first-year, she joined the board of our Student Activities Committee and worked in the TD Buttery. This year, as the only TD woman serving as an IM secretary, Maraya was once again invaluable for bringing TD women out to the games. On Yale campus she has participated in the Club Soccer team and served as the president of RALY (Reproductive Justice Action League at Yale).

Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award

The Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Junior Award is to given each year to a member of the junior class of Yale College whose verve, idealism, and constructive interest in music and the humanities exemplify those qualities for which Selden is remembered. In recent years this award has gone to a student especially notable for his or her contribution in the field of music.

Donovan Sabog, Berkeley College

Donovan Sabog is a vocal ambassador for Yale in many ways. Once a proud member of the Spizzwinks(?) a cappella ensemble, he has now joined the Whiffenpoofs. His generosity to various communities at Yale is evidenced foremost by his service as head recruitment coordinator for Yale Undergraduate Admissions, where he leads, manages, and trains a team of nearly 300 people. He was also recently selected by the Yale Financial Aid and Communications Offices as one of a handful of AccessYale spokespeople to share a personal journey as part of their financial aid campaigns. Whether singing, speaking, or simply leading, Donovan Sabog enriches life at Yale and beyond.

Daniel Rudin, Jonathan Edwards College

Dan is a naturally brilliant scholar of many disciplines whose great talent and passion lies with the musical arts. In this realm he is a master of all genres, able to execute a flawless violin adagio, belt out a soulful Journey tune with his a capella group, and conduct Tchaikovsky’s Fifth with bravado. Daniel studied conducting, composition, and orchestral scoring at Julliard’s pre-college division during high school and won, among many distinctions, honors from Tribeca New Music and the Young Arts foundation. At Yale, Daniel has done a transformative job in his work with the Berkeley Orchestra. As a musical director his repertoire, which is broad, interesting and challenging, has greatly increased the orchestra’s popularity. As conductor, he has led the orchestra with firmness, grace, tact, and aplomb. Daniel has been involved in almost every ambitious musical theater production since his arrival at Yale. After singing with the Duke’s Men for two years, Daniel will be joining the Whiffenpoofs on tour next year.

Sofía Campoamor, Morse College

Sofía Campoamor is a very gifted composer, song-writer, vocalist, and engineer producer, who plays guitar, piano, and ukulele.  She has been the music director, performance director, and tour manager of Mixed Company (a cappella), and in this role, has arranged music and led concerts on the local, national, and international stage.  She has recorded and produced music in the Crescent Underground Recording Studio (CURS) of Morse and Stiles, volunteered at Yale-New Haven Hospital to work with children to curate music and lyric ideas, worked in the Arts Library, and worked with a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer to produce interactive visual and musical experiences for an exhibit at the Yale University Art Gallery. Most famously, she is the first woman admitted to the Whiffenpoof in Yale’s entire history. As the first female Whiff, and a Latina, she has made a major historical mark in the annals of both Yale and Morse College.

Ian Niederhoffer, Pierson College

Ian has been awarded the Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Junior Award, given to students who have exemplified “verve, idealism and constructive interest in music and the humanities.” A music major, Ian has made an indelible mark on the classical music scene at Yale (and far beyond Yale) in two important ways — as an instrumentalist and a conductor. As an instrumentalist, he is currently the assistant principal violist in the Yale Symphony Orchestra and has performed in a range of summer concert series, including Summer Music from Greensboro and Burlington Evenings with Mozart. But it is as a conductor that he has especially distinguished himself as worthy of this award. Formerly the assistant conductor of the Berkeley College Orchestra, assistant conduct of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York, and apprentice conductor of the New York Youth Symphony, Ian currently serves as the assistant conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Ian made his European debut in 2016, where he conducted the Bacau Philharmonic, and his professional debut in 2017 with the Vermont Mozart Festival, a venue to which he will return for an encore season in 2018. In addition to all this, at Yale, Ian has served as music director for “Galatea” (a pastiche of Handel arias and oratorios with a new libretto modeled after the story of Pygmalion) and for the Opera Theater of Yale College. Finally, he is also founder and music director of the Yale Undergraduate Chamber Orchestra. For his outstanding musical accomplishments, Ian is an eminently worthy recipient of the Selden Award.

Charles Romano, Silliman College

Charles “Charlie” Romano is a skilled and dedicated musician who has lent his talents to shows and productions both in Silliman and across campus. He has served as the music director or conductor for many musical theater productions, including “1776,” “Shrek: The Musical,” “Dreamgirls,” and “In the Heights.” Charlie is also known for his light-hearted side, which he exercises as the music director and pianist for Just Add Water, a musical comedy improv troupe. Charlie also volunteers as a composer and recording engineer for Hear Your Song, an undergraduate organization that gives hospitalized children in long-term care the chance to become songwriters and to hear their songs recorded. Charlie combines his interests in music with an interest in community building and comedy. Each year, he organizes a volunteer bell choir known as the “Silli-ringers,” and the group performs a variety of seasonal favorites at Silliman’s annual holiday dinner. This event, a cherished part of Silliman’s dinner, generates a great deal of joy among the members of our college community. To know him is to recognize immediately that Charlie’s passion for music knows no bounds.

Rachel Kaufman, Trumbull College

Rachel is a junior history and English major in Trumbull College. She has maintained a stellar academic record at Yale and has frequently performed and sung with the Opera Theatre of Yale College as well as with other groups at Yale. Rachel also has combined her interest in history with a passion for writing in her wonderful poetry. For instance, she has traveled to Spain to visit sites of historical importance in Jewish history, taking many notes along the way and then composing poems that capture the history while simultaneously adding feeling and color. Sometimes she adds her own family's history to the mix making her poetry even more compelling.

Hoching Fong, Timothy Dwight College

Hoching “Angus” Fong came to Yale from the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he was recognized for his outstanding dedication to cello while pursuing his studies in medicine. Upon his arrival at Yale, he began cello studies with Ole Akehoshi and participated in Wendy Sharp’s chamber music program at the Yale School of Music. In his sophomore year, Angus was instrumental in helping to relaunch the Timothy Dwight College Community Chamber Orchestra as both a section leader and soloist. That winter, Angus also performed a stunning solo recital, performing Johannes Brahms’s “Cello Sonata No.2,” Robert Schumann’s “Fantasiestücke,” and Astor Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango.” Angus’s dedication to cello and chamber music is equally matched by his commitment to the sport of table tennis, where he maintains the rank of Yale’s top player. In the spring of his first-year, he led the Yale club team to its first-ever national appearance in the sport since the club was founded in 1969. In his sophomore year, he took over as captain and continued to lead his team in collegiate competitions.

John C. Schroeder Award

This award, which honors former Calhoun College master John C. Schroeder, is given to students who have contributed to residential college life and who, in the opinion of the committee, will “play a part in the good labor of the world.”

Izak Epstein, Davenport College

Izak Epstein has distinguished himself in making positive change in Davenport College. Since his first year as an oarsman for men’s heavyweight crew, he made a concerted effort to foster a climate of consent at Yale by becoming a communication and consent educator (CCE). Over the past two years he has volunteered as a tutor twice a week for New Haven Reads to improve literacy for local children reading below grade level. Last summer, Izak worked to increase farmer income in rural Rwanda. He returned to New Haven from his summer abroad to work on his real passion — criminal justice reform. As the coordinator for the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project Men’s Mentoring group, Izak ushers a group of Yale students to meet with incarcerated young men at the Mason Youth Institution (MYI) every Friday. MYI is Connecticut’s only youth prison. The facility houses 600 incarcerated individuals between the ages of 15 and 22. Izak has mentored several inmates for the past seven months, an engagement that has, perhaps more than any other experience, driven his interest in criminal justice reform. He is currently headed to New Orleans to work in the public defender’s office through the Innocence Project New Orleans. 

Madeleine Hutchins, Branford College

Madeleine Hutchins is a ubiquitous, cheerful presence in the Branford community, serving as one of our most reliable college aides, taking on volunteer roles wherever she can to improve life in the college, and truly building community, not only amongst her class but in Branford at large. She truly embodies the spirit of the Schroeder award, in particular as regards the traits of altruism and social service, and dedication to the residential college community. She has been an active participant, and is now a primary organizer, of the Branford Tea Room, an indispensable member of the housing committee, and a go-to aide for just about every type of event held in the college. Impressively, she takes on all of these responsibilities while maintaining an active social life in Branford, participating in extracurriculars outside the college, and maintaining an impressive record of academic achievement, both within her major field of philosophy and in her other coursework.”

Karnessia Georgetown, Jonathan Edwards College

Karnessia is a true leader who inspires all around her with the gentle force of her integrity and intellect. In high school, Karnessia co-founded an organization called “Girls’ Country” with the purpose of providing a nonjudgmental environment for young women to discuss issues of gender, race, and self-esteem. At Yale, Karnessia has continued her quest to break down the superficial barriers that divide people. She has served as a Cultural Connections counselor, a communication and consent educator, and an event coordinator at the Af-Am Center. Her documentary film series “Now, In Color,” which profiles several African-American students on campus, was recently featured in Teen Vogue. Karnessia is currently an economics major who intends to use her practical knowledge of markets and the origins of inequality as the basis of a lifetime devoted to teaching and advocating for a more just and inclusive world.

Valentina Guerrero, Pierson College

Valentina epitomizes the spirit of altruism and social service, the qualities recognized by the John C. Schroeder Award. An American studies major with a concentration in politics and American communities, she has served as a clinical intern and as research assistant to the director of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program; as a legal interpreter for the Yale Law School Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic; and as a policy research intern for the Civil Rights Center of the United States Department of Labor. In addition to being selected as a head aide and a 2018–2019 first-year counselor in Pierson College, she has also a head outreach fellow at the Dwight Hall Center for Public Service and Social Justice; as a harvest leader for the Yale Sustainable Food Program; as founder of the Yale Chapter of the Student/Farmworker Alliance; as Membership Chair in Latina Women at Yale; as founder and president of the Yale Latinx Pre-Law Society; as a Student Advisory Board member for the Yale Center for Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration; and as a member on the President’s Committee on Racial/Ethnic Harassment. Add to all this her involvement in local faith communities and charitable work and it becomes clear that Valentina has already made a deep imprint on Pierson, Yale, New Haven, and the world. Because of her indefatigable labor for the cause of justice, Valentina is an eminently worthy recipient of the Schroeder Award.

Emily Chu, Pauli Murray College

Emily has worked tirelessly in the service of Pauli Murray College. A mechanical engineering major and devoted mentor to a local high school robotics team, Emily has been indispensable in the college’s first year. After orchestrating Pauli Murray's move-in (complete with color-coordinated name tags and fun playlist), she has gone on to lead intramurals and SAC and is ubiquitous as an aide, working the office and events. Other students have affectionately called her “Human Duct Tape” — the all-purpose solution to any problem you could possibly have — but she is really our “Human Glue,” the connection for so much of our community.