The Yale Club of New Haven honored 46 high school seniors from the Greater New Haven area at its annual Yale-Seton Book Award event held on Oct. 9 at Davenport College.
Students were selected by their schools in recognition of “outstanding personal character and intellectual promise.”
Each Yale Book Award winner was presented with two books, chosen by the student — one as a keepsake and one to present to their school library. The books are funded by an endowment established by the late Fenmore R. Seton ’38 and Phyllis Z. Seton.
During the award ceremony, the students and their families were welcomed by Anjelica Gonzalez, professor of biomedical engineering at Yale and Davenport’s Head of College, who spoke to the group about Yale’s residential colleges, her role as Head of College, and her work as a biomedical engineer and scientist. Also on hand to welcome guests and help award the books was Marta Moret ’84 M.P.H., president of Urban Policy Strategies and Yale’s former first lady. Moret also spoke to the guests from a personal perspective about her early life in the South Bronx and the importance of books and literacy.
After a traditional group photo was taken on the building’s courtyard steps, the high school students returned to the Davenport Common Room, where five Yale College students — seniors Ana Castro-Rodriguez and Alexandre Van Tassel, juniors David Gaetano and Danielle Ricketts, and sophomore Suling Chen — spoke to them about life at Yale from a local perspective and answered questions.
Afterward, the student honorees and their families participated in a campus tour followed by lunch in Davenport.
The 2024 Yale-Seton Book Award winners and their high schools are Stephanie Albert (Academy of Our Lady of Mercy/Lauralton Hall); Sophia Messina (Amity Regional High School); Hailey Muzzi (Ansonia High School); Spencer Herget (Branford High School); Jianhang “Andy” Chen (Cheshire Academy); Bennett Crerar (Cheshire High School); Paige Kaliszewski (Coginchaug Regional High School); Rhiannon Anoh (Common Ground High School); Cassandra Clermont (Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School); Mikaela Hummel (Daniel Hand High School); Gianna Akter (Derby High School); William Nafis (East Hampton High School); Dominic Hood (East Haven High School); Snigtha Mohanraj (Engineering and Science University Interdistrict Magnet High School); Kayla Brown (F. T. Maloney High School); Addi (Addison) Smith (Guilford High School); Michael Perry (Haddam-Killingworth High School); Alexander Yi (Hamden Hall Country Day School); Alexa Leibowitz (Hamden High School); Deavonah Morris (High School in the Community); Rondell Doyle (Highville Change Academy); Juliana Dalmacio (Hill Regional Career High School); Munib Kassem (Hopkins School); Deepika Chitirala (Jonathan Law High School); Alexandria XinRui Regan (Joseph A. Foran High School); Thomas Barron (Lyman Hall High School); Carter Lagasse (Mark T. Sheehan High School); Catherine Lomuntad (Mercy High School); Andy Chen (Metropolitan Business Academy); Jamara Perez (Middletown High School); Katie Nguyen (Morgan School); Erin Maniebo (Nathan Hale-Ray High School); Melissa Rodriguez Martinez (New Haven Academy); Benjamin Esposito (North Branford High School); Antonina Novicki (North Haven High School); David Alberino Jr. (Notre Dame High School); Noah Kerelejza (Orville H. Platt High School); Christina Osterholm (Oxford High School); Evangeline Graham (Portland High School); Maria Montefusco (Riverside Education Academy); Maya Quaranta (Sacred Heart Academy); Shayan Khan (Seymour High School); Shreya Yadav (Shelton High School); Jonathan Benjamin Loffler (Sound School); Justin Woychowski (West Haven High School); Omar Dweck (Wilbur L. Cross High School); and Joshua Raj (Xavier High School).
The event was made possible through the efforts of Abby Klein, executive administrator of the Yale Club of New Haven, and a devoted group of Yale Club of New Haven Book Award Committee volunteers, which includes:
Elaine Piraino-Holevoet ’75 (event chair), Timothy Bertaccini ’77, Christina Coffin ’74, Erin McCarthy King ’98, ’09 Ph.D., Patrick Pitoniak ’12, and Vincent Pitts ’69. Yale’s Office of New Haven Affairs and the Office of the President provided financial support for the event.
