President Richard C. Levin and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. presented awards on May 5 to 13 area residents and students who have made significant contributions to strengthening the relationship between the city and the University. Among the recipients was Linda Koch Lorimer, vice president and secretary of Yale, who received a Special Elm and Ivy Award for her leadership of the University's Office of New Haven Affairs. (See related story, on right.)
The Elm and Ivy Awards were established at Yale in 1979 by Fenmore R. Seton, Class of 1938, and his wife, Phyllis. The Setons created the Elm and Ivy Fund at the New Haven Foundation (now the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven) in order to identify and honor individuals whose work enhances town-gown understanding and cooperation. Since the inception of the program, 185 people have received Elm and Ivy Awards.
This year's honorees are:
Elm Awards
John J. Crawford, chair of the Regional Growth Partnership, a member of the new Airport Authority and director of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Crawford spearheaded the effort two years ago to form a 15-town economic development organization called the Regional Growth Partnership to promote the economic health of the region. He was also instrumental in securing legislative approval in the 1997 General Assembly to convert Tweed-New Haven Airport from a city-run department to a regional Authority.
Regina Lilly-Warner, principal of the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School. Warner has helped set up numerous partnership programs between the School of Music and the Co-op. These have included mentorships and instrumental instruction; attendance for Co-op students at Yale Philharmonia rehearsals and concerts; a visiting musical artist series; and a week-long "Winter Music Camp" led by Yale students and faculty during the New Haven Public Schools' 1997 Winter Recess.
William T. O'Brien Jr., a strong supporter of Yale Athletics. More than almost anyone else outside of the University, O'Brien has worked to bring local students to campus to participate in sports clinics and competitions, and to watch Yale teams in contest. He has also been an active supporter of the Southern Connecticut Conference of High School Athletics. In honor of his service to numerous organizations, including the Special Olympics, the United Way, the March of Dimes, the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, and many groups in his hometown of Branford, he was chosen as a Community Hero Torchbearer for the 1996 Olympics Torch Relay.
Ivy Awards
Stan Wojewodski Jr., dean of the School of Drama and artistic dirtector of the Yale Repertory Theatre. To provide drama school students with an opportunity for community outreach, Wojewodski embarked on a plan to create the first university-based replication of the 52nd Street Project. Locally known as the Dwight Edgewood Project, the program pairs drama students with youngsters from Troup Middle School. The Yale mentors work with the youngsters as they write plays that are fully produced on stage in front of an audience.
Katherine Edwards co-chair of the New Haven Residence Training Program, which sponsors a cooperative project designed to recruit and train New Haven residents for clerical openings at Yale. The mission of the program is to qualify participants for entry-level jobs at the University through training and scholarship assistance, and to increase diversity within Yale's workforce.
John Temple Swing, manager of catering for Yale Dining Services. Swing has helped organized countless events on campus and prepared food for off-campus events benefiting an array of New Haven community organizations. His successful efforts as manager of catering has allowed groups and individuals to raise literally hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for charitable causes in New Haven and beyond.
Undergraduate Ivy Award
James Garman '98 of Ezra Stiles College. As a volunteer for New Haven Habitat for Humanity and as a member of the Yale College Habitat chapter, Garman has helped to build several houses in the Newhallville neighborhood. He also raised more than $100,000 from the Habitat Cross-Country Bike Challenge for the Yale Collegiate Build, which resulted in the erection of two houses built entirely by students from area colleges.
Undergraduate Team Ivy Awards
Terrence Reginald Solomon '98 of Ezra Stiles College and Julie Ann Curran '98 of Timothy Dwight College, co-coordinators of the America Reads Challenge. The program, which is designed to provide younger children with a strong foundation of literacy skills, brings together 70 Yale student tutors with third-graders from New Haven's Timothy Dwight Elementary School each weekday.
Chi Young-Tschang '98 of Calhoun College and Chi Thi Nguyen '98 of Ezra Stiles College, who are being honored for their work with Dwight Hall and other campus-community initiatives. Young-Tschang has been a Dwight Hall coordinator and board of directors member, and has served on the executive committee since 1995. He also has been involved in "Cityscape, An Exploration of New Haven's Neighborhoods," a program that brings undergraduates into contact with the neighborhoods and service organizations of New Haven. He also has supported and/or led two initiatives to bring New Haven leaders into contact with students -- the Urban Tea program of 1995-1996 and PULL (Perspectives on Urban Learning and Leadership) during this year. Nguyen, who served as co-coordinator of the Dwight Hall Student Cabinet, was the driving force behind making Communiversity Day 1997 one of the most successful in the event's history. She worked to ensure that the nonprofit community was included and orchestrated the event to coincide with Jumpstart on the Green. She also trained the 1998 staff and served as adviser for this year's festivities.
Graduate/Professional Ivy Award
Stefan Pryor, the Law School student who served as policy adviser to the Office of the Mayor for three years, 1994-97. As a Yale graduate and now a law student, he was instrumental in developing an anti-truancy program, which involved Yale students as mentors to teenagers in danger of dropping out of school. He also served as an alderman representing the Yale district on the Board of Aldermen, bringing Yale student concerns and the University's expertise into his work for the Mayor's Office. Pryor also is a member of the Yale Club of New Haven, and co-chairs the community relations committee that is working closely with the University Secretary's Office and the Mayor's Office to tap into the rich network of University alumni in the area who are supporting efforts to enhance the city.
Graduate/Professional Team Ivy Award
Supermarket Project, a joint project in which Law School and School of Management students -- under the guidance of Professor Jay Pottenger, faculty adviser -- provided extensive legal, financial and organizational consulting services to the Greater Dwight Development Corp. (GDDC). This project has played a major role in successfully establishing New Haven's only full-size (56,000 square feet) supermarket, which will bring lower-cost, high-quality food to two of the city's poorest neighborhoods, along with roughly 200 new jobs. The student-faculty group assisted the GDDC in virtually every aspect of this development.
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