Yale College Summer Updates (June 23, 2023)

Yale College Summer Updates (June 23, 2023)

Dear Class of 2027,
 
This week, we would like to introduce to you Pilar Montalvo, one of the Assistant Vice Presidents of the university. While her roles on campus are many, one of the main areas she focuses on is civic engagement by helping students think about how to participate in their new community. New Haven is located on the traditional lands including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples. It is full of history, exceptional food, creativity, and kindness. We are excited for your arrival as you begin to explore Yale and New Haven!
 
Warmly,
Dean Peck
 


Hello new student,  

I hope that your summer is off to a positive start and that you are excited for the year ahead. We look forward to welcoming you to Yale in August.

At Yale, you will often hear that we are a “community of communities” – a place where you can engage with students, faculty, and staff from across the university through your scholarship, residential communities, clubs, and activities. Our Yale community exists within and among the multi-ethnic, multi-faceted communities of the City of New Haven. We encourage you to take advantage of the rich arts, culture, food, civic, and volunteer opportunities in our vibrant city. Students who are actively involved in the life of our campus and city learn from and add to the richness of these communities.  

A first avenue for many is engagement with the programming and student organizations affiliated with Dwight Hall at Yale | Center for Public Service and Social Justice. Founded by undergraduate students in 1886, it is the oldest student-led, university-affiliated service organization in the country, with 60+ member groups who work on everything from emergency healthcare to legal advocacy. Join the email list to receive Hall Happenings, the student-written weekly newsletter, join the Yale Connect page here, and mark your calendars for the Service Bazaar on September 9th, where member groups are looking forward to welcoming you on campus. We hope you will explore these groups to become an engaged university citizen and develop a strong sense of belonging at Yale.

Yale’s commitment to student civic engagement is reflected in our support for one of the nation’s most important civil rights: the right to vote. This critical civic responsibility for all citizens, particularly for young people, ensures your voices are heard and perspectives represented.

If you have not yet registered to vote (or even if you have), I encourage you to take a few moments to check out the university’s voting website. You will find information on registering to vote and about voting here in Connecticut or in your home state or territory. Yale’s customized TurboVote platform makes it easy to register using your residential hall address. You can sign up for alerts tailored to your voting needs and stay up to date on local municipal, state, and federal elections that will occur during your time at Yale. If you are not of voting age yet, the “pledge to register” function will sign you up to receive step-by-step instructions when you are eligible to register to vote. There will also be opportunities to register to vote during your first weeks on campus.

The Yale Votes Initiative is a Yale non-partisan student organization dedicated to student voting. They help make voting easy and accessible, collect and analyze Yale specific data, and are central contributors to Yale’s participation in the national All In: Campus Democracy Challenge. I encourage you to check out Yale Votes Initiative where you can access information about their work and events, as well as subscribe for voting information at Yale by Pledging to Engage. If you are not eligible to vote in the U.S., you can still get involved with Yale Votes and explore opportunities to learn more and volunteer with local community groups.

We hope that this information is helpful to you as you consider your own civic engagement at Yale and how you might contribute to a university culture of active, responsible citizenship.

Welcome to New Haven!

Pilar Montalvo
Assistant Vice President for University Life

This week’s important dates and reminders include:

June 30th - Deadline to upload Photo ID for identification card
July 3rd - Summer online placement exams begin

This week’s important dates and reminders include: