The Candy Bowl

And Then We Came to the End

2009-08-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's over. It's really, seriously, over. I still woke up way too early today, but I woke up without wondering whether the Labyrinth got taken in off the quad (it did) or whether the caterer knew where to set the coffee (he did - thanks, Ben).

Last night, because of the more casual feel of dinner, we didn't get a chance to say very many of the thank yous that are owed around campus. Although the two of us (in our pink shirts) were among the most visible of the folks running around the past week, this truly was a community-wide effort to welcome new students.

We'll send personal thank you notes, but everyone who helped us out deserves a very public welcome as well.

To our 78 panelists who came and shared their stories, their advice, and their notes on plagiarism with you: THANK YOU.

To the 34 small group volunteers who came in on a Sunday afternoon to get "trained" and to help us stuff folders, and then totally rocked the following week's worth of programming: THANK YOU. (We even made you do a scavenger hunt! You're awesome!)

To the chapel team, who planned worship every day: THANK YOU.

To Jason, who managed all of the food for BTFO: THANK YOU!

To Denice, who filled our social calendar and kept the party going at karaoke and the coffee shop: THANK YOU.

To Kevin, who took care of childcare; and to Jenny, Katelyn, Will, and Sara who stepped up to help Kevin: THANK YOU.

To Katie, her sister Meg(h?)an, and Scott, who washed more dishes than I would have thought possible: THANK YOU.

To the entire student affairs/Seabury administrative wing (Dale, Mike, Julie, Mary Ann, Lisa, Jan, Anna, and Melissa): thanks for letting us hang out in your conference room, giving us pep talks when we needed them, and supplying us with scavenger hunt questions! (I'm still sorry we used up all of your toner. My bad.)

To Sachin, who made all of our tech stuff work: THANK YOU.

To the YDS custodial staff, who were the first people we saw every morning, and did everything we asked for and more: THANK YOU.

And finally to our unsung grab-bag volunteers, who showed up and did whatever we asked of them: Andy, who grilled and moved chairs; Hannah, who came out of nowhere to help with coffee hour; Sean, who helped move pizzas and made me laugh; Rainey, who took care of everything on Friday; Rachel, who put tampons in all the bathrooms; John, who cleaned the quad; James, who made the thoroughly excellent Labyrinth signs; Delfin, who supported us every evening; Jason, who was a model spouse; and Eric, who grilled, mixed drinks, and did so much else ... to you also, thank you, thank you and THANK YOU.

This post could seriously go on for ever. The way I described to at least one person was "You know, I feel like I did a giant trust fall into the arms of this community, and it actually worked." This totally could have ended up like Mean Girls*, where that one girl just gets dropped, but instead it really, really worked.**

The advice of at least the 2007 BTFO leadership team was pretty simple: do a good job, and then leave. I'm taking them at their word, and heading out later today for upstate New York, where there is not a divvie in sight:

When I get back, it will be September, time for classes to start, and time for me to actually get to know you new kids. Over the past week I've been in programming mode: to me, you have been data cells on a series of Excel documents, blips of information which needed to be moved from the Common Room to Niebuhr. When you tried to speak to me, even to thank me for how well the program was going (for which I resolutely blame our INCREDIBLE volunteer force), you got a confused or vacant look. Excel sheets aren't supposed to talk back to you.

What can I say? I'm a logistics person, and someone who shows love by doing rather than saying. When I made you nametags, when I forced you to line up in the hallway and the stairwell, when I made my camp counselor announcements at lunch ... what I was really trying to say was how excited I am that you're here.

So. Welcome. This place is yours now, just as much as it is mine. It's going to be a great year.

-Kate

*Why can't I find a clip on this on the internet?!?

** Last long metaphor of the blog: the first 1:30 of this video is so fitting! At first, back in March, everyone was around and supportive. Then they all disappeared over the summer, which totally freaked me out. And then, the week before the program, everyone came running back to New Haven, ready to grab a cooler and get to work. Phenomenal.

Marquand Chapel Choir Open Rehearsal Today

2009-08-27T04:00:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

This is Colin Britt, a second year conducting student at the ISM. As the new director of the Marquand Chapel Choir, I'd like to invite you to come sing with us this week at the Chapel Choir's open rehearsal and at the Before the Fall Orientation Communion. If you are interested in singing with us this year, this service will be the perfect opportunity to "test the waters" and see what the year will be like. I believe that you will find our chorus to be an open, welcoming one with kind people and a fulfilling musical/spiritual experience.

Here's the plan:
*Open Rehearsal on Thursday afternoon (8/27) from 4:15-5pm, Marquand Chapel.
*BTFO Communion Service on Friday morning (8/28), with a short rehearsal beforehand at 10am, Marquand Chapel.

Please feel free to email me with any questions. I'm very excited to begin this year together, and I hope to see you later this week!

All my best,

Colin Britt
MM '10 Choral Conducting
colinDOTbrittATyale.edu

Updated Schedule for Thursday, August 27th

2009-08-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

The panel, "Additional Resources for the Competent but Nervous" has been moved from S117 to Niebuhr Hall. Schedule posted here.

... And that's about it.

Keep on keepin' on, BTFO-ers.

2009-08-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

So after Monday night's slight dinner fiasco, we're delighted to report that Tuesday evening's dinner left us with a ton of left-overs. We have sandwiches and trays upon trays of Thali Too food currently being stored in the Commuter Lounge fridge (where Holy Grounds is).

What we need from you all is quite simple. We need you to bring containers and take food home. Take lots of food home. Seriously, Seriously.

--Kate & Sandra

Recap from Caring for the Whole Self

2009-08-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

As promised, we're posting all of the phone numbers from the "Healthy Living at Yale" magnet.

Excluding 911, all numbers begin with area code 203.

Yale University Police/Fire/Emergency campus phone: 911 cell or other phone: 432-4400

Mini-bus: (203) 432-6330

Yale University Health Services:

Immunization & Travel: 432-0093
Member Services: 432-0246
Mental Health & Counseling: 432-0290
Ob/Gyn: 432-0222
Patient Representative: 432-0109
Pediatrics: 432-0206
Pharmacy: 432-0033
SHARE Center: 432-6653

(Sexual Harassment Assault Resources & Education)--SHARE Center

Student Medicine: 432-0312
Student Health Education: 432-1892
Substance Abuse Counseling: 432-7366
Urgent Care: 432-0123

--Hope this helps!

When will I meet with my adviser?

2009-08-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Update: A list of who's assigned to which adviser is posted! See Lisa Huck's thoroughly awesome bulletin board for details.

I've gotten a ton of questions recently about when and where folks will meet with their advisers. Lisa Huck, our registrar, will address this tomorrow morning in her 9:30am session on registration and financial aid (Niebuhr Hall). Here are a few items to note:

You will NOT be meeting with your advisers this week. For one, not all faculty are back from vacation. For another, dealing with faculty is like herding cats.

Above: Denys Turner, Horace Tracey Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology.

Really intelligent cats, with advanced degrees, but cats nonetheless.

Faculty advisers will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday, August 26th), at which point a list will be available outside of Lisa Huck's door. (Lisa's office is on the same hallway as the candy bowl, as are the offices and cubes of most of my favorites.)

You will contact your adviser individually to set up an appointment. Many put up sheets outside of their door so you can sign up for an appointment. Others will email you. Some you'll have to email yourself to set up a time.

Again, Lisa will go over this with you tomorrow morning as well.

-Kate

Corrected Schedule for Tuesday, August 25th

2009-08-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

So far, the only change is that the Library Session scheduled for S100 has been moved to the ISM Great Hall.

Schedule posted here.

From our Social Coordinator: Archie Moore's on Tuesday!

2009-08-24T19:40:00.001-07:00

From Denice K., our social maven for BTFO:

Join old and new YDSers at Archie Moore's at 9pm for BTFO After Dark!!

Archie Moore's is located at 188 1/2 Willow Street, New Haven CT.

Walking:

If you are planning on walking over, go with a group of folks. It's about a ten minute walk from the Div. school, located on Willow street. Walk down Canner street to Whitney Ave (take a right out of the parking lot). Make a right turn and walk to Willow street. Take a left onto Willow and walk a few blocks til you hit Archie Moore's on your right.

OR

Have a car and willing to carpool?? Want a ride to Archie Moore's?? Meet at the Div. School Parking lot at 8:50pm and folks will be gathering to ride over together.

Bring cash for drinks and food and your government ID that proves you're 21 or older if you'll be drinking alcohol. There is an ATM in the bar as well.

Looking forward to seeing you there!!
Denice

Our Very First Day! (Is Over)

2009-08-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you all so much for your flexibility and your kindness. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our Small Group Leaders, who are being even more awesome and resilient than I might have expected. Other than our minor fiasco with dinner, we are doing pretty well -- and all of you rockstars handled that impressively. I hope in three months you get a chuckle out of saying to one another "Remember that time we had pizza on the quad at like 9pm? Wasn't that the first time we met each other?"

I'd also like to personally thank each and every one of you who came up and expressed your thanks. Unfortunately, I cannot do this, since I don't remember anyone's names. I do appreciate the compliments, though, and I look forward to actually figuring out who you are in September.

A few notes:

If you are coming late to BTFO, you will have to come find me and/or Sandra in order for us to link you up to your small group. Yes, that's pretty annoying, but we are easy to find, and we have quite a lot of stuff to give to you. Incoming students got a USB flash drive this year. We are generally camped out in the JE Dining Room; ask Patricia at the front desk to let you know where that is.

If you did not receive a name tag during registration, I apologize for that. Mail merge decided to hate me this week, and we're still not talking, but once I am off the blog I will be making you yours, by hand, and checking it several times.

If you have lost and found items during this week, Mike G. keeps the YDS lost and found, which is by the infamous candy bowl. Any items given to small group leaders or Sandra and I will eventually make its way there.

If you own an ice cream scoop please bring it to lunch tomorrow! We're having Ashley's, a local favorite (with either lunch or dinner, I can't quite recall...)

Finally, please also remember that we are on a drive to green BTFO a little bit this year. Please try to bring a water bottle to meals, so that we don't run through quite so many cups. Think of how many plates, cups, forks, and napkins we ran through tonight - quite a lot! Just bringing a water bottle will help a TON with this.

Thanks all! Four more days!

-Kate

PS - Matt L., who helped us move chairs in the morning and Gchatted me at 10pm gets a personal shout-out. Thank you Matt!

The Schedule is Here!

2009-08-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

OK. I apologize if this is showing up in multiple places at once; I clicked a button on GMail and nothing happened (so far as I can tell). Instead,

HERE IS A LINK TO THE BTFO 2009 SCHEDULE.

A few things to point out:

1) This schedule has been slightly amended from the version you will get on Monday. To wit, three typos have been corrected.

2) There is a cover page which explains this schedule which is not attached. It has been saved as a separate document and will be available on Monday. This schedule may look daunting, but it's not. BTFO should and will be fun; we'll talk more on Monday about how to navigate this colossal work of genius event planning.

3) It is 9:48pm on a Saturday night, and I am still at school.

Once again, registration begins at 2:30pm on Monday! We'll see you then!

International Students' Pre-Orientation

2009-08-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's almost here! Tomorrow is our very first BTFO event - international students' pre-orientation! International students will have the opportunity to visit the Office of International Students and Scholars, grab lunch with some select staff members, and hear a little about the academic atmosphere of Yale Divinity School. You can view a copy of the day's schedule here.

Please remember that this event is only open to international students, who should already have RSVP'd through Nathanael.

Happy Birthday Mike!

2009-08-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

Our very favorite search engine turns 25 today. We got you a blog post!*
(Above: more or less how I spent the summer. Also, Dale Peterson.)

BTFO 2009 owes Mike a huge debt of gratitude. Without him, this program probably wouldn't happen. As YDS's institutional memory, Mike has helped us track down supplies, figure out who to ask for what favors, and generally served as a sounding board for all kinds of ideas. You can thank Mike for Dale Mail, the candy bowl, and making the earth revolve around the sun.** ~~And while we may still wish we'd gotten walkie-talkies out of the deal, hey, nobody's perfect.~~ And while it took forever for us to get walkie-talkies, hey, we eventually got our walkie-talkies. Apparently, perfection is attainable. It just takes a while. (This is starting to sound like an ad for booze.)

With that in mind, we'd like to dedicate the following 3:09 of internet to Mike:

-Kate and Sandra

*Also another present.
** Yes, these things are functionally equivalent.

Small Groups Are Assigned

2009-08-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

So we also emailed this to y'all, but thought we should put it up on the blog, just in case. If you're not getting BTFO emails, be sure to let us know!

We’re now only one week away from the start of BTFO 2009! We hope you’re as excited as we are. Last night, we divided incoming students up into small groups, and assigned them to small group leaders.

This is what that looked like:
Mmmmyeah. It's either an SNL episode or something a serial killer might produce.

Your small group leaders are returning students trained to help you make the most of your BTFO and start the semester off strong. Your small group leaders will be in touch to introduce themselves and answer any questions you might have. In the meantime, we thought we’d add a few of our own words of wisdom.

Please bring a water bottle. We’re div school students, we like the earth. While we’ll provide cups and eating utensils for those who can’t or don’t want to provide their own, it’d be great if you could bring your own (reusable) water bottle. If you really want brownie points, you can even bring your own plate and utensils for meals. There’s a student kitchen where you can was these daily.

Dress in layers. It’s almost fall in New England, and that means hot days and cool nights. Sterling Divinity Quadrangle is also aggressively air conditioned, and you may be a little chilly in our classrooms.

Tell us your preferred first name. If this email is addressed to, say, “Katherine”, where you’d rather be addressed as “Kate,” please hit reply on this email and tell us ASAP. (Do not tell your small group leader; they don’t control the data.) We’ll be printing nametags soon, and would rather get yours correct than not.

Parking will be available during BTFO in our lot at 409 Prospect Street. Be advised that this is a small lot and will fill quickly. Street parking is also available on both Prospect and Canner Street. (When school starts, you will need to buy a pass for the lot.)

Family members and friends are welcome at almost all BTFO activities, including meals. Lunch is at 12:30pm every day, dinner at 6pm every day. Please email us ASAP (btfo2009@gmail.com) if you require childcare.

Remember to breathe. We’ve been planning for you all summer, and we’re excited to finally meet you.

Blessing and safe travels,

Sandra Valdes-Lopez & Kate Spelman
BTFO 2009 Co-Coordinators

Yale Health Plan, Part II (should you switch?)

2009-08-19T14:58:00.001-07:00

Michelle, a second-year M.Div (whose name is pronounce Meee-shell, not Meh-shell, FYI), pointed out that I didn't really offer any input on whether or not you should think about switching to the Yale Health Plan. I have trouble remembering last August, for some stress-related reason (which actually makes me less nervous about BTFO - you won't remember a thing!), and so although I carefully considered my choices, I have little idea why I decided the YHP was the way to go. Below, Michelle offers some great reasons for switching to Yale's coverage.

Remember, you are already covered for Basic care by enrolling as a Yale student.

-Kate

If you’re moving to YDS from a career, you may be wondering: “what should I do about health insurance? I’ve heard horror stories about grad school health plans. Am I better off trying to keep my old coverage?”

Sandra and Kate have asked me to fill in some of the blanks, based on my expertise. My expertise is based on a couple of things: 1. I’m a second-career student who has lived in five states as and adult, and also spent far too much time in graduate school, so I’ve seen my share of health plans, 2. I have some pretty significant chronic conditions, so I’ve been able to see how health plans treat various illnesses, and 3. I spent most of my first three months at YDS on crutches, so I also know a little about how they deal with “emergent” conditions.

Based on my qualifications, I will state: Yale Health Plan is awesome. You should probably join.

This is not some mindless BTFO propaganda. In general, if you have health coverage from a previous employer or through a spouse/partner, there are a couple of things you will want to consider: cost of coverage up front, convenience, co-pays, where you are living and whether you will be remaining there throughout most of your time at YDS, and what your long-term options are.

I will be honest: the plan I had at my last job was expensive, had a $1000 deductible on prescriptions, and probably has no doctors in network in Connecticut. So I may be a little biased. But based on what I remember from other places where I worked, YHP seems like a pretty good deal all around. There are a couple of situations in which it might not be worth it to switch: 1. If your spouse/partner has excellent health coverage which is not likely to go away, you might want to consider either staying on that plan, or at least having the spouse/partner stay on that plan, 2. If you have lifetime coverage (like some programs for former government employees) which would you would invalidate by joining YHP, you should probably stay on that plan, 3. If you have a plan which has extensive and inexpensive national coverage, and you plan to travel or do mission trips, it might be worth it to stay on that plan.

Beyond that, I would recommend YHP. Sure, there are a couple of downsides (which I will note in brackets), but for the most part, it’s a good deal.

For one thing, your deductible on prescriptions is only $100 per year. After that, co-pays are insanely low. I take medications which would easily cost over $150 per month; most months here, I pay less than $25 total. (Note, this is only available through the YHP pharmacy – I can’t stop at the local chain drug store, and I have to plan ahead if I’m going to be traveling. I think there is a way to get costs reimbursed if you get prescriptions elsewhere, but I’ve never tried)

For another, visits to medical specialists are covered. And really good quality. One of my doctors is the chief of endocrinology at Yale. I see her for free, no co-pay, no nothing. Lab tests are also completely covered. (Again, there is one small downside, in that you may need to wait a little while to see a specialist. My endocrinologist only works there one morning per week – it took four months before I could see her. Obviously, if it’s an emergency, you will get attention. But if you need to routinely see a specialist, be prepared to wait a bit)

For slightly more run-of-the-mill situations (coughs, colds, sprains and strains), you have to go to the Student Health Center (17 Hillhouse). If it’s not an emergency, you might wait a little while in the waiting room, but I’ve never had to wait more than half an hour (you also have the option of calling to make an appointment, but those fill up fast, especially on Mondays).

Finally, there is one other huge advantage to YHP: no paperwork -- prescriptions, lab work, specialists -- all of that stuff is handled internally. No forms to fill out, no need to get reimbursed. Most of the time, all of this goes pretty smoothly, which is a huge advantage because you will have lots of other things to do once you get here.

Some of you may be reading this and thinking that your old plan had similar coverage. Or that your plan has dental or vision coverage, which YHP does not. Or that you would prefer to see your old doctor when you go home over breaks. This is fine. You will be covered for emergencies at Yale regardless of whether you’re in YHP or not. But, YHP is a great option to have, so be sure to consider it.

Peace,

Michelle

Introducing ... Susan Olson and the Career Couseling Office!

2009-08-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Susan is one of my more dedicated blog followers, and was kind enough to write a lovely little blurb introducing herself and her office. Also to provide a kind of hilarious photo (someone's got a Mac with photobooth!)

YDS is one of only three theological schools in all of the US and Canada to have its own dedicated career counseling office. (For the answer to which other schools share this distinction, you'll have to come to S-116 to ask me in person!)

While the whole "advertising jobs and cajoling you into applying for them" part of a career counseling office is far off for most of you, we do have several services that might be of interest to you now---

*first and foremost career counseling---free & confidential. I can't solve your love-life woes, but happy to take on those thorny questions of career and calling. Included in career counseling is the option to take the Strong Interest Inventory or the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator and have these interpreted. (I even have super-fancy looking certificates that say I'm qualified to do this!) This is a great first step if your career plans are, shall we say, murky, or if those once-crystal clear plans change.

* resume workshops, offered by my able work-study student Michelle Boomgaard

* tons-o-books to check out--about career options, resumes, cover letters, test-taking. We also have a lovely collection of GRE flashcards (both math and verbal) for loan.

* opportunities to connect you with alumni/ae who are doing the types of things that you are interested in pursuing.

Sadly, I'm not able to help spouses find work, or help with employment while you're in school. Part-time jobs can be found advertised on (say with with me, you know the answer by now) dalemail.

Hope to see y'all soon, and let me be the 934th person to say, welcome to YDS. I've held many, many different titles in my time at YDS, but the most important one I have is the first one I received: alum. If your days on the quad are even half as life-changing and fun as mine were, you will be indeed very blessed.

Peace,
Susan Olson

Things Div School Students Like

2009-08-17T05:32:00.000-07:00

#1: God- or church-themed puns.

(Dennisport, Mass.)

See also: Before the Fall Orientation. Are we all in on the joke now? Apparently some second- and third-years have yet to be brought up to speed. Please do your best to educate. (Also.)

Spouse and Partner Orientation

2009-08-16T12:24:00.001-07:00

The Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) does a lot of pretty amazing stuff. They're a little hush-hush about this fact, but all of their programming is open to non-international students, too. Most of us from the US don't have immigration paperwork issues or English language instruction needs, but many of us would be down for a bus trip to Boston or a shopping trip to Hamden. Their full event calendar is here.

We'd like in particular to draw your attention to International Spouse and Partners at Yale (ISPY) orientation (September 2nd, 3rd and 4th). Even if you just moved up from Darien, this orientation offers a fun way to meet other spouses and partners (from around the world, no less) and some genuinely cool events - you'll tour the Peabody and hear about ways to volunteer in New Haven, eat lunches out, and find out all the Yale resources you can access as your student's posse member.

-Kate

What I Wish I’d Known About the Yale Health Plan

2009-08-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hi. Sandra and I just spent a week on Cape Cod, and did very, very little in terms of BTFO. (In the next few weeks, when something goes horribly awry, I’m probably going to chalk it up to this lost week.) Coming back to reality has been a bit harsh (I also got back at 2:30am Saturday morning, so there was that), and I seem to have left my watch in Vacationland. One of the first things I did yesterday was pick up a prescription at the Yale Health Plan, and it occurred to me then, as it has several times in the past, that this is a blog-worthy thing.

That is the worst segue I’ve ever written. I apologize.

Anyway.

You’ve probably already made your decision about your health insurance. So I won’t dwell on this too much. Basically, by enrolling at Yale, you’re also enrolling in a “basic” health care program that will cover most routine doctor’s visits. You can also elect to pick up hospitalization, prescription, and other such things from Yale; or you can elect to find your own insurance. No matter what, you have access to a primary care physician and to mental health services. Even if you waive Yale's insurance, you can still visit Student Health for basic services.

Yale Health Services is located at 17 Hillhouse Ave (at Trumbull). It took me all year and Sandra to figure out that the parking lot attached to the building is for patient parking – don’t park at a meter! So long as there’s room in the lot, you can park there for free. They are in the process of building a new health center building (which will probably be just as ugly … what is it with Yale and “innovative” architecture?), but for now we’re stuck with 17 Hillhouse.

There’s a pharmacy on the first floor where you can charge your drug purchases to your bursar’s account, where it will either be added to your tuition bill or deducted from you financial aid refund. This is very helpful if you’re forgotten your wallet. If a tall woman with big hair calls you “honey,” you’ve met my favorite Yale Health employee. I think her name is Jacqueline, and that she is fabulous. (Last time I was there, she told me never to say "I'm sorry" but to say "I apologize," because otherwise people would start to think I'm a sorry person. The time before she told me we should go crash a wedding together.)

Mental Health and Counseling through Yale (formerly the “Mental Hygiene” department, which is a little laughable) is free and available to all students. Like a few other systems at Yale, they will wan to do an intake interview with you and then match you to a therapist. The catch is that this is an overloaded system and the time between intake interview and matching can stretch out as long as two months. There’s thus really something to be said for doing an intake interview before you really need to. Former generations of YDS students have gone as far as to recommend to incoming students that they do an intake interview during the first week of classes. I won’t go as far as that, but will say that it’s better to head to mental health when you’re at the “Gee, it’d be nice to chat with someone about this” stage rather than wait it out to the “OMGWTFBBQ!1!!!” or “@$#*@#!!!” stages. Go earlier rather than later.

One of the worse things about the Yale Health Plan is that it doesn’t include dental (boo). I had several cavities filled by Dr. Alan Friedler this summer and generally liked him. Dr. Friedler teaches at Yale (we don’t really have a dental school, but we do dental surgery and some summer programs in dentistry and it’s a mystery to me why I know this) and gives 15% off of routine services to Yale graduate students. (I was so shocked at the estimate for my dental work that they ended up giving me 15% off that too, even though that’s not standard operating procedure.) I’ve been lucky enough to have had pretty minimal experience with dentists, so I’m not really sure where Dr. Friedler falls price-wise, but I can say his office was almost absurdly modern and the doctor himself really cared a great deal about my experience and teeth.

If you end up incurring dental expenses, the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) has a Dental Expense Fund you can apply for reimbursement through. You need to pay the dental expenses out of pocket, then fill a brief form to get up to $500 back. An insider has told me that requests last year far exceeded funding available, so most of the awards were really small, but the hope is that this will alert higher ups to the fact that the fund needs more money. (Oh look, the GPSS also has another list of dentists who give Yale grad student discounts. My guy gives the steepest, which makes me feel good.)

Other than the sudden attack of the cavities, I’ve had a good year health-wise, and can’t share much more information. Since I went to El Salvador and opted to get a couple of optional shots, the department I visited the most at Yale Health during the year was immunization. (Routine blood work turned up the fact that my first round of Hep B vaccination didn't take, so I'm re-doing that too.) Their nurses are pretty great, despite (or because?!?) the fact that their job is to stick people with needles all day long. Go figure.

- Kate

New Haven Oral History Project

2009-08-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

If you're an oral history dork like me, you might enjoy this. Their first project is about urban renewal. I haven't explored fully, but I loooooove stuff like this and am looking forward to spending more time on there in the fall!

-Kate

One More Annand Mentor ...

2009-08-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Harlon L. Dalton has been a professor at Yale Law School since 1981. Faced with a legal system that reflects the aspirations of the mythical “reasonable man,” his scholarly ambition has been to reconstruct law so that it takes account of our many nonrational qualities, including our capacity to love without condition, hate without reason, desire to our detriment, and connect spiritually. To that end, he was a pioneer in imagining and establishing law and sexuality as an academic discipline. He was also a pioneer in the field of AIDS law. And he played a significant role in launching and nurturing critical race theory as a distinctive enterprise. In recent years he has taught “Law and Theology,” “The Formation of Lawyers,” and “Law and Human Flourishing.”

In the mid-1990's, he began to respond to a quiet but insistent call to ordained ministry. On January 4, 2003, he was ordained a priest by the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut. Since his initial ordination in June 2002 (as a transitional deacon), he has served as the Associate Rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James in New Haven. He currently serves on several Diocesan bodies, including the Standing Committee, and is a member of the Commission on Ministry committee that oversees the initial stages of the ordination process.

Since July 2006, he has been a member of the YDS and Berkeley faculties as a Professor (Adjunct) of Law and Religion. He was a founding member of the Initiative on Religion and Politics, and at present is conducting a survey of New Haven’s houses of worship that explores how they see and understand themselves as religious institutions (i.e. what do they do? why? how?).

During the Fall Semester of 2008, he led an Annand formation group for the first time. It proved to be a an enjoyable and enriching experience that allowed him to integrate his interest in formation with his interest in contemplative spiritual practices. He is living proof that we people of faith are works in progress. We are constantly in the process of being formed and reformed; done; undone, and made new. Thanks be to God!

Introducing ... The YDS Student Kitchen

2009-08-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

In addition to a full-service refectory (open 7:30am - 2pm), YDS is also equipped with a community kitchen. Katie, the student coordinator for the kitchen, wrote this description up for us:

Where can you…

…stash those leftovers from the enormous, plate-sized sandwiches they offer at the refectory?

…warm up last night’s entrée for your lunch between classes?

…grab a reusable plate or bowl for your fries, salad, soup, or sandwich?

That’s right, the Div school student kitchen! One of the best kept secrets of the divinity school (hidden in the back corner of the cafeteria we lovingly refer to as the refectory), the student kitchen is a great community resource and one we hope you’ll get to know closely during your time here. It includes a microwave, full-sized refrigerator, shelves of dishes and cutlery, sink, and drying racks… what more could you ask for?

If you have roommates or family members, you’ll know how fun it is to share a kitchen communally. Sharing one with the 400+ students, staff, and faculty at the divinity school only multiplies that adventure. Use it early, use it often… all we ask is that you clean up any dishes you use afterwards with the soap and sponges that are provided. The utensils, especially, along with those mugs from Holy Grounds (our student-run coffee shop), have a tendency to wander, so please try and keep these items communal by returning them promptly after use. And finally, try not to forget about that half-finished yogurt or salad you may have left in the fridge. It’s easy to do with our busy schedules, but we’re hoping to avoid the prospect of 400 decomposing leftovers!

The student kitchen will be open during BTFO week for you to come explore the space for yourself. We will also be scurrying about the kitchen during the week in order to help supply your campus meals with reusable dishware, so come say hello and, while you’re at it, stake out your claim to some fridge space.

Student Passes to the Yale Rep

2009-08-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

The Yale Rep is New Haven's biggest deal in theater, "dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics." As a Yale Student, you can buy a season pass which averages out to around $10 a ticket. Here's the PDF brochure on this.

Some Stuff about the Schedule

2009-08-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

Many of you have been asking about the schedule. As of yet, our plan is to avoid releasing the schedule before BTFO 2009 begins. This is for a couple of reasons, the first of them being that we really don't know what the schedule is yet. Things are still in flux (and I'm sure will be up to the very beginning of the program). The other is that the common wisdom from a few generations of BTFO coordinators is that giving out the schedule in advance leads to people making snap decisions about what they will and won't attend, and booking other commitments around that. We would like to have you at least on campus for all of BTFO, wandering in and out of panels, and attending as much as you feel up to.

On the other hand, we're acutely aware that many of you do have other non-negotiable commitments (kids are what come to mind) and need to know things in advance. Here are a few broad brushstrokes that I hope will be helpful:

We have programming from 9:30am - 6pm every day. The exceptions to this are Monday, 8/24, when we begin in the afternoon, and Tuesday, 8/25 when we start at 9am with denominational breakout sessions. There are optional evening activities throughout the week after dinner.

Dinner is at 6pm every day. Lunch is at 12:30pm (except for Monday, when we only do dinner). We do not provide breakfast any day except for Tuesday, when we will have sparse baked goods and some coffee.

Chapel is at 10:30am every day (well, except for Monday), and will be followed by coffee "hour", which is a misnomer, since chapel will end at 11am and the next panel will kick off at 11:30am. This recreates the daily YDS experience, where chapel is at 10:30am every day and there's not quite enough time to enjoy coffee hour. We'll even try to not have your favorite kind of donut (are the chocolate-frosted really that hard to come by, Lindsay?!?).

Your family and friends are welcome at everything - with one exception. Thursday night we'll have dinner in various faculty and staff residences around New Haven. Because no one's dining room can really accommodate everyone and their mother, we will invite your mother to another dinner.

Finally, everything kicks off on Monday, 8/24 at 2:30pm. We'll be registering folks from 2:30pm -4pm, then introducing you to your small groups.

That's all I can really share at the moment. As we put together the schedule, we're attempting to mark which events we think will be most helpful for international students and second-career folks, as well as those we think it might be really great to bring kids and families to. We'll also be marking those events which we think are not to be missed -- as close to mandatory as we get.

-Kate

(Used) Books in New Haven

2009-08-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

An anonymous but loyal commenter asked about where to buy used books in the Have’. I like you guys already and I haven't even met most of you! The first two semi-jokey suggestions that come to mind are

(1) the lobby of the Div School
(seriously, out of the stack above, which lives on my bedside table, only the top three are not free books from the Div School... and the bottom one, which is an art monograph)

and

(2) New York City.

Uhm, yeah. I used to live in Chicago and be all over Powell’s books, but that was when I had free time to read non-required literature and all this extra income I spent on fun things (like first editions of Bradbury!). Le sigh. But if

(1) it’s not the end of the semester

or

(2) you don’t feel like paying $28 round-trip to browse at The Strand...

Well, we need to come up with some better suggestions.

Sadly, I think my one and only walking-distance recommendation is the Book Trader Café (They have their own website, but Google is telling me that it might have some spambot program attached to it. Since this is the first time I’ve ever gotten this message, I’m going to take it seriously. Google at your own risk, folks.) I love the Book Trader as a café and a bookstore; I conduct all of my alumni interviews for my college there, and usually walk out with something tasty.

If you’ve got a car, you can also check out Books & Co., a short drive up Whitney Avenue. (They appear not to have their own website, or even a blog.) I asked my friend Sean, who smokes a pipe and seems like he should know about things like this, and he wrote the following:

"... It's not a bad store, and has what those kinds of used bookstores usually do; paperbacks of bygone bestsellers, the kind of stuff Connecticut housewives bring in when the neuroses have eaten away at their minds and it's time to "get rid of all of this stuff." Occasionally you find something quality; I got a hardcover Eaton de Valera biography for like six bucks there once. And their poetry section actually isn't half bad.

Which part of Mexico are you from?
Paraguay."

(That last bit is a line from Bottle Rocket, which we watched together recently.)

In the non-used world, book fans should definitely check out Labyrinth Books as well – they sell most of their books for 50-80% off of list price, so it’s as cheap as buying used. Atticus Books also has a great café for lunch and lots of fantabulous stationery.

And if you’re really just trying to accumulate as many books in your apartment as possible, we do have a library or three.

-Kate

In Other News, I Win

2009-08-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

A while back I met a young man who worked for City Seed, New Haven's farmers' market group. Up until recently, City Seed was running some pretty great events pretty far away from me. He told me there was some interest in starting an Upper State Street market, and I told him to tell his boss that I was a constituent who thought this was a brilliant idea. Not to brag or anything, but there's now and Upper State Street farmers' market on Saturdays. (If the Google map doesn't help, here's the quick and dirty: if you end up living in East Rock, you live near here. Also a quick jaunt from 409 Prospect.)

Now, the catch is that this market is apparently not being run through City Seed, so I might not actually get to take credit for this one. Turns out, though, there's a whole Upper State Street association and website. (Weren't we just talking about everyone having a blog?)

I think I still win on this one. City Seed runs a market on Saturdays in Edgerton Park, but that one gets complicated when you take into account my rule where if I go more than a half mile from home I have to, like, get dressed and stuff.

I will see you on State Street on Saturdays in sweatpants. To buy ... seasonal salads. And... salsa. Ha!

-Kate

Kids in New Haven Blog

2009-08-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

I guess by now I should be acclimated to everyone having a blog. Still, one wonders why this didn't turn up in all my Googling "Kids in New Haven":

New Haven Kids blog.

-Kate

Biking in New Haven

2009-08-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

The city of New Haven just launched a new website devoted to biking around the city. Click here for maps, safety tips, and more resources.

-Kate

More Annand Program Mentors

2009-08-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here are the final two mentors we’ll be profiling on the blog before classes begin. They still represent only a small sampling of who’s available for spiritual direction through the Annand program. Remember, no matter your faith tradition (even if you’re struggling to figure out where you stand on faith!) the Annand program is free and available to all students.

The Rev. Dawn Stegelmann is an Episcopal priest who was ordained in February 2009. She is the curate at Trinity Church, Southport, CT. She graduated from YDS/BDS in 2008. A grateful beneficiary of the Annand Program, she has a special interest in spiritual direction, pastoral care and healing ministries. She has spent years as a facilitator of small groups for men and women. Topics have included spiritual formation, parenting, bereavement, marriage, life-threatening illnesses, suicide and aging. A 20-year resident of Darien, CT, Dawn is a wife and mother of three sons. She loves the outdoors, international travel, reading and writing.

The Rev. Jane Stickney, ordained in 1977, spent the first ten years of her ministry were in the United Church of Christ. Jane understands and is open to working with students from reformed and liturgical traditions. An Episcopal priest since 1987, she has served in large and small parishes. Jane received an STM in Spiritual Direction in 1987 from the Center for Christian Spirituality at General Theological Seminary, and served on the General Theological School’s summer staff as a small group supervisor between 1991 and 1997. Jane has served as an Annand Mentor since 1994 and became the coordinator of the program in 2005. Her husband is a UCC pastor and interim ministry specialist. They have a married daughter and a grandson. Jane is a weaver [Ed. note: of some incredible stoles!] and has taught in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan University: Psychology, Spirituality, and Celtic Art. She is interested in the value of creativity in a healthy spiritual life, writing, “This is an issue I often raise with students as they try to balance all the demands of life at Yale and as they look to their professional lives in the church.”

Furnishing Your New Digs (for cheap and free!)

2009-08-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a friend like my friend Jeff (commonly know as Jefe) -- he's always up for doing something ridiculous (preferably late at night and involving a certain amount of bad beer), always calls me on my ridiculousness, and is at least eight feet tall (hugs from him are a full-bodied affair). Jeff also turns out to be amazing at sticking things into a U-Haul. When I was leaving Chicago, I figured I'd have to leave a ton of stuff behind, until Jefe totally Tetris'd just about everything I owned, fitting it into a tiny truck.

For those of you who don't have a Jeff in your life (and he's occupied with his own move to Philly this month, so no renting my friends), you'll need to buy some stuff when you get here. Here are a few cheap(er) options for procuring home furnishing when you arrive:

One argument for considering New Haven a real city: there's an IKEA. (Argument against: I saw a possum on Canner Street this week. Seriously. A possum.) Ask Mike or Dale to tell you about the big building next door they use as a billboard.

There should still be quite a few tag sales going when you get here. (If you're not from New England, you might know these as "garage sales", "moving sales" or "someone with a bunch of junk on their front porch for sale.") Walk around the East Rock neighborhood on a weekend or pay attention to telephone poles for adorable hand-made signs.

The Office of International Students and Scholars is having their own, giant tag sale on Sunday, August 23rd from 10am - 1pm. In addition to used items, they'll be selling new futon and bikes! Here's the PDF flier for this.

There are a few great Goodwill and Salvation Army stores near here. Visit the Goodwill on Dixwell to buy some of the old junk that was in the CLC office.

Freecycle is active in New Haven. While I don't know anyone who's gotten anything from it, I do know several people who have given things away. Everything on here is free; you can also put up an ad asking for something.

Trash picking stuff totally works. At the end of the month, take a stroll around to see if anyone is trashing something you can use. By now, the majority of bookshelves in my living room came from the street. They're not heirlooms, but they're also nothing a little Lysol and some elbow grease couldn't make usable.

Dale Mail, of course. Me and the roommate's first full day of bonding consisted of buying a futon, then me assembling the futon and watching football while he made a pie. (We're a pretty modern couple.)

And finally ...

The GiveAway Room. Throughout the spring and summer, YDS students, faculty and staff have contributed their old ~~junk~~ stuff to be donated to our new students. There's a room in the basement of Fisher Hall (one of the Divinity Apartment buildings) which doubles as the world's most exclusive used furniture showcase. Housewares, decorative items, and lots of actually useful stuff (including computer things and school supplies) are all yours for the taking. The GiveAway Room will be open every day during BTFO. Come prepared to haul away what you want! There's an incredible amount of stuff in there this year; I've seen a Motorola phone, several futons, books, and someone's entire collection of wrapping paper go in there. All yours for the taking. (Please. We need to get rid of this stuff.)

Happy scavenging!

-Kate

Div Dictionary: LPM

2009-08-06T04:59:00.000-07:00

LPM (n): Leadership in Public Ministry, a course offering from Yale Divinity School that satisfies the internship requirement for M.Div students.

Like CPE, LPM is another acronymic way that divvies can spend a summer getting course credit and being paid for it. (LPM was also offered during the school year this year; it's slightly unclear whether that'll happen again.) In brief, students spend the summer being trained as community organizers, and then applying those skills in a variety of internship placements around Connecticut. Students in LPM are charged tuition for the three hours of course credit they accumulate, but they are also paid (in the form of a grant through the Financial Aid Office) for the internship they work.

ETA: My pants are burning. Turns out CPE does cover your internship requirement via transfer credit. Mea culpa; I misread an earlier comment. (Thanks for keeping me honest, Susan.)

From the LPM website:

Leadership in Public Ministry is a supervised ministry course designed to teach students how to work with others to create change in community. Students learn about how community leaders define leadership and how they become leaders. They also learn how to practice justice and use power in ways that are biblically based and theologically grounded. The course is now being offered in both the summer and the academic year. Both terms start off with a period of intensive classroom training and continue with work in a local site under the supervision of an experienced practitioner. This is combined with regular classroom meetings designed to enrich the concepts and skills taught in the initial training, as well as to offer reflection time for interns to share their experiences.

For years, the LPM team has partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based organization in Southwest Florida which organizes for worker's rights on the huge agricultural corporations there. The course culminates in a trip to Immokalee, which is where our intrepid LPM 2009 folks are right now. In a van. Driven by Susan O. (I'm somewhere between jealous and pity on that one.) In the winter of 2009, some of the CIW organizers visited YDS, and that's where the photo at right comes from.

(Photo bonus: Can you find your two BTFO 2009 leaders in the photo above?)

-Kate

(Photo bonus answer: No, you can't, because we're too small and blurry.)

Jobs at and around the Div School

2009-08-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my second family reunion in as many weeks, with an even deeper tan (to paraphrase my brother, if I get any darker I'm in serious danger of looking like I'm from Jersey) and lingering soreness from having my cousin drag me behind a boat on an inner tube. The sad truth of the matter is that soon school will start up again and we'll all have to abandon our trashy beach reads for trashy liturgical theology (I guess the later chapters are getting better, but I'm still not sold, Nathan). Most of us will also be trying to work while we're in school in an attempt to offset the costs of grad student life. I've had a request to post a little about finding jobs on campus, which is good, because I know very little about finding jobs on campus.

First of all: "on-campus" is a tricky phrase for us divvies. While our own campus is rather teeny, it does have a few opportunities for gainful employment. You can also expand your search to the wider Yale campus, with the understanding that, like me, your "on campus" job might involve a 30-minute hike downtown.

Here, then, my top ideas for getting a job, in geographically expanding order:

1. Ask. For real, the people who I know who work at the Divinity Library got employed by walking in and asking if they could work there. Do this early (during BTFO!) -- since the requirements for being a shelving serf are namely that you have a pulse and be able to recognize the alphabet, these jobs are kind of a first-come first-serve deal.

2. Follow Dale Mail. I know, I know, I sound like a broken record. Dale Mail won't solve all your problems (for example, if you're bleeding, you should probably go directly to the health plan). It is, however, the number one resource for finding out what's going on on campus, including things people will pay you for. Dale Mail job listings will include on- and off- campus postings, one-off and long-term assignments and, in March, BTFO 2010 Coordinators. Which I hope you all apply for; I need to do CPE and someone needs to keep up the awesome.

3. Check out yalestudentjobs.org. Actually, check out this link, to their various job databases. Things look a little slow over there, but should pick up as the semester starts. You can find just about anything there. This is how I ended up working for Yale's Lutheran Campus Ministry, despite 1) not being Lutheran and 2) not knowing anything about web design, which was allegedly what I was hired to do.

Other thoughts about jobs:

- If you can stand kids, you can sign up with the Yale Babysitting Service and have people pay you to stand their kids. Parents can search this directory and find a one-time or long-term childcare provider.

- As a second year in either M.Div or MAR programs, you're eligible to work an internship through Susan Olson's Office of Supervised Ministries. These work in conjunction with, not in addition to, your financial aid package, and pay you a lump sum of $1,500 per semester, and maybe if I keep writing boring things no one will know that I really don't get payment for these works. Watch Dale Mail (yes, again, sigh) for information sessions in the spring, which you must attend in order to start the interview process.

Let's end with:

Like any university campus, there are a lot of opportunities to do grunt work around Yale. Divvies make up a disproportionate number of the book shelving serfs at Sterling Memorial Library, particularly during the summer. I wouldn't hyperventilate over finding a job before you get to campus. Especially if you're a typical grad students, who's happy to take on something brainless for a few hours a week for pay and doesn't quite care about building a resume for future library gigs, you will find something to pay you $12.50/hr.

There are things other than book shelving available, that's just my prototypical student job (and how I spent two years of my college career... never again!).

(At right: a real thing. I love how careful they are to cite Creative Commons for the music rights.)

-Kate

Who's Who: Julie Kelsey

2009-07-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

Julie Kelsey is an Episcopal priest ordained in 1997. She has served churches in urban and suburban settings, most recently at Grace and St. Peter's Church in Hamden, CT (2001-2008). [At right, a photo of Julie Kelsey, an unnamed academic, and one terrific hat.]

Julie is our Assistant Dean of Students for Pastoral Issues. That means that when you start freaking out because it seems that YDS isn't living up to your hopes and dreams... or because you don't think YOU are living up to YDS's expectations, head for her office (now across from the candy bowl and Mike G.). And don't wait for your molehill to grow into mountain! The sooner you go, the better you'll feel. [A YDS grad herself, Rev. Julie K. feels your pain.]

If you have an idea for an activity that might strengthen the school, talk to her too! Last year in answer to student requests, we started Holy Happy Hour [Ed. Note: Comma, Batman!], a monthly opportunity to meet with faculty in the commuter lounge to ask questions and have conversations in an informal setting. Look for notices of HHH later this fall.

Julie is also a lecturer in the Practices and Principles of Preaching course and a mentor with the Annand Center. She has offered spiritual direction for years – which is a good reason to seek her out. She'll help you with translating psychological language into theological language, and connecting what you're learning at YDS with Sunday worship and daily life.

Julie is one of the founders of Chapel on the Green in New Haven, a weekly service for people who spend most of their time on the Green, some of whom have no other home. You can find her there Sundays at 2pm.

In addition to all of this, Julie has led bereavement groups for adults and for children ages 6-12. She is a mother and grandmother who loves hiking, reading, writing, theater and music.
[Julie wrote her own bio for the blog, which I really appreciate. Parentheticals are my own goofball additions. -Kate]

Div Dictionary: Archie Moore’s

2009-07-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Archie Moore’s (n): The only bar I can walk to in my neighborhood. Also serves food.

Because of Archie Moore’s proximity to the Div School, and the necessity of beers after or during certain moments of theological ferment, you’ll end up at Archie Moore’s many times during your divinity career. Many, many times. You’ll go there for meetings, you’ll go there for lunch, you’ll go there for birthday party beers.

Sigh.

Let me be honest with you. I don’t really like Archie’s. This is probably yet another symptom of having moved here from Chicago: the phrases “only bar I can walk to in my neighborhood” and “Wow, three dollar beer, that's cheap!” make me weep into my Old Style. My drinking career started in a city once described on This American Life as (and I paraphrase) “a magical place with a bar on every corner, where the downtown smells like chocolate.” (This of course before the whole EPA thing.) I’m kind of still searching for my Jimmy’s East, and the fact that when I find it I’ll have to drive/bum a ride/take a cab there irks me.

Viewed through an objective lens, though, there’s a lot to love about Archie’s:

It’s really close to campus.

It serves beer.

It also serves food. Wings are a specialty, but Archie’s has a full menu that includes burgers, salads, and even desserts. It’s no $5.00 Reuben, but the Cajun fries are delish.

You can take your kids there. Yep, for serious. My friend Zach told me it’s one of the best East Rock restaurants to take his three-year-old daughter to. I totally made this face when he said it, but his reasoning is pretty good. Your kid can make any kind of mess they want at Archie’s while they nosh on chicken fingers and the like, while you enjoy adult food and beverage. The waitresses have seen much worse, and that mess was generated by a bunch of seminarians. I still recommend you evacuate the children before the Div School posse takes over the back room.

One of the sweeter things about Archie’s is how much they like Div School kids. Several friends of mine are on a first-name basis with some of the waitresses, and some of the staff made appearances at graduation-week barbecues so they could meet their favorite patrons’ families. Also, Sandra really likes Archie’s (now that she lives in a different neighborhood, the California grilled cheese is a treat for her). Even I can’t totally hate this place.

-Kate

YDS on Twitter!

2009-07-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Brock the tech-zombie for a shout out on YDS's twitter page! Check it out for more tiny updates on goings on around the quad, faculty publications, and other religion-related news stories.

... I still don't understand Twitter.

-Kate

Annand Program Mentor Bios

2009-07-27T12:28:00.001-07:00

I've previously posted info about the Annand Program, and I hope at least some of you new students are thinking seriously about joining one of the small groups that will start in the fall. Again, my experience was great; the group I joined was a wonderful support system to have, and our leader introduced some little rituals and reflections that created a prayerful space in the middle of a busy week.

To sign up for one of these groups, you'll email Jane at AnnandATyaleDOTedu (replace the caps with punctuation, of course!), and she'll meet with you briefly to talk about your goals and interests. ETA: Jane will post a sign-up sheet for these interviews on the door of her office/meditation room during BTFO. "Interviews" will start on August 31st and continue through September. Jane is happy to answer your questions over email, but you must make an in-person appointment with her to be matched with a mentor and group. (Don't worry, no one will be turned away; Jane just cares about who you end up with!)

We thought it would be fun to introduce some of the people who you might be paired with in these small groups, so here are bios and photos of a few of them. This is NOT an exhaustive listing of folks associated with the Annand Program! We'll be posting more mentor bios in the weeks to come. (Ed note: These bios come directly from the mentors themselves, and were not edited for content, grammar, or ridiculousness.)

-Kate

Judy Stone is a 1970 graduate of Yale Divinity School. She has been an active lifelong member of the Episcopal Church. She served as a Vestry member and coordinator of the Adult Discussion Group at Christ Church New Haven for 8 plus years. Judy continues to be a member of a Spirituality Group that has met weekly for 25 years, reading classics of Christian and other religious traditions. She has been part of a church choir for a number of years and preaches occasionally.

Judy recently retired from her career in social work, working with children and families. Midway in her career she earned a master’s in Social Work from UCONN in 1993 with a focus on casework and group work. She is intrigued with the connection between some of the therapeutic approaches from her training and traditional spiritual exercises. She finds groups especially helpful personally and professionally.

Judy is an avid gardener and co-ordinates a certified organic community garden at a local farm museum, and has a strong interest in ecology and sustainable agriculture. She enjoys hiking, travel, cooking and art work.

Bari S. Dworken is a lay leader serving in numerous roles at Congregation B'nai Israel in Bridgeport where she has been active for more than twenty five years. Bari has completed the Para Rabbinic Program of the Union of Reform Judaism and has been awarded a Keva certificate for continual advanced learning. A graduate of the first class of the two year Lev Shomea Spiritual Direction Program, she has served as a spiritual director for several years with individuals and groups and at YDS. She completed two units of CPE, worked as a part time On Call Chaplain at Bridgeport Hospital for 10 years, currently chairs the CPE Advisory Committee, and has published in the "Journal of Pastoral Care". She holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts and works as an Educational Consultant in Organization Development with not for profit groups and community organizations concentrating in the areas of team building, conflict resolution, diversity awareness and strategic planning. She recently retired from the faculty of the University of Connecticut. Bari is passionate about social action issues, interfaith study and involvement, learning from the natural world, traveling and "walking" with others on their spiritual journey.

Elaine Ramshaw has worked between the fields of theology and psychology all her adult life. She completed a three-year internship in pastoral psychotherapy at the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy in Chicago and a two-year practicum in spiritual direction at Connecticut’s Mercy Center. She enjoys spiritual direction more than psychotherapy because it’s focused more on growth, because you get to listen to people telling their story in their own personal language of faith, and because you don’t have to concoct treatment plans to satisfy the insurance companies. Elaine has a PhD from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, and she taught pastoral care fulltime in seminaries (United Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal) for 16 years. In 2001 her own cancer adventure and her eldest brother’s death led to her decision to choose Connecticut over fulltime seminary teaching. She still teaches pastoral care courses online, for several seminaries of different denominations. A Lutheran layperson, she also works part-time on a parish staff (not to mention the movie theater job!). She’s a single woman who finds family in friends, siblings, and godchildren (an adult goddaughter and a teenaged godson). Prayer comes most naturally to her when she’s sharing communion, singing, drawing, or taking the neighbor’s dog on long daily walks.

And if we're talking about registering for classes ...

2009-07-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

One more quick FYI:

The academic calendar for 2009-2010 is up!

AND

Online Course Information is open to look at fall classes! (Note: Div School courses are under "religion", NOT "religious studies.")

Please don't ask me how to log into OCI. I'm a Millenial; I didn't read the manual. I think at this point you can only look at where/when things are happening -- registration is for later. Lisa H. will walk us through registering for a class during her session at BTFO.

Please remember this about all course information at this point:

IT.

IS.

NOT.

FINAL.

For real, it's Saturday! I'm going to the beach!

-Kate

ETA: Lisa reminds me that it's easy to get to the Online Course Listings through Student Information Systems (SIS). Head here, and click on the OCI link at the left. No, you still can't register for classes.

Who's Who: Lisa H., Reigstrar

2009-07-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Our registrar, Lisa H., likes to joke that the admissions office’s job is to get students in the door, hers is to get folks out – and hopefully with a degree. Sadly, I don’t have any grandiose metaphor in which I compare Lisa to a website. Testimonial: my general experience with her has been more than pleasant; before I even met her she was watching my back as I tried to register for a course at the Yale School of Management. (Which didn’t work out – please come talk to me about the SOM’s whacky academic calendar before you try to take a class there - but which Lisa would have made happen if I so desired.)

Lisa performs all the normal duties you’d expect from a registrar – her office is where you’ll pick up transcripts, notify the school if you change your student status, and process the paperwork you’ll need to take a class pass/fail. You’ll also come to Lisa’s office to keep your student ID valid – Yale requires that you have a little sticker showing when your ID expires.

In addition, Lisa would like everyone to know that she has an open-door policy. No appointments are required to stop by and chat with her. While you will have a faculty advisor assigned, and the first stop you make for life-related drama will generally be one of the deans, Lisa is a great option to bounce course-related ideas off of, and her knowledge of the school runs deep – before becoming registrar, Lisa was bookstore manager for years, which is where this photo comes from:

Lisa is on the right, and is not a zombie. Incidentally, the guy on the left is our tech/web services dude, Brock H. (no relations to Lisa). I’ve never met Brock in the flesh, so I cannot guarantee that he is not a zombie. (There’s a joke in here somewhere about tech people spending too much time with their computers, but I’ll let that one slide for right now. There's also a joke about meeting zombies "in the flesh", but it's Saturday and I'm officially not working. DIY, kids!)

Lisa would also like me to serve notice that, in addition to making sure you get appropriately registered for classes, she’s available for any conversations you’d like to have about hot air ballooning or whales. (Not even Google Image can really combine these two like Lisa can.)

-Kate

A Post So Overblown I Cite Greek Philosophy

2009-07-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the slow posting week. I guess I didn’t want to rub in the fact that I’m in northern Michigan, and you’re not (or are you, Martin Jean?!?). My last few days have involved some great beer, a wonderful little strip of beach just north of Traverse City, and a lot of friendly family competition. (I will be looking for Euchre partners in the coming year to strengthen my skills so I can wipe that smirk off my cousin Todd’s face. Please let me know if you’re interested.) I’ve also been reading a lot of theology and communing with my ancestors, so you’ll have to excuse a certain level of ridiculous in this post. And I have a wicked sunburn, which has nothing to do with anything; I'm just looking for sympathy.

Today marks the start of the one-month countdown to BTFO, which kicks off on August 24th. Accordingly, Sandra and I are locating speakers for our panels, talking to our food manager about catering, and having slightly crazy anxiety dreams. Last week I ordered five 10-gallon drink coolers, and then promptly left town, so that someone else had to deal with the physical reality of having five 10-gallon coolers. (Sorry, Mike and Sandra.) Over the next month, we’ll scramble to put together folders, train our volunteers, and make sure we have enough trashcans on the quad during meals.

OK, time to lay on the metaphor. You knew this was coming. Please have your whiteboard handy to play along at home.

Think of divinity school as a lake (not an ocean; oceans are unmanageable and full of sharks and crabs). Some of you will take the cautious approach during your first semester – you’ll wade out from shore slowly, checking back ever so often to make sure your bag is still on the lounge chair where you left it. Others of you will gleefully jump off the dock, ignoring the “no diving” signs, and immerse yourselves immediately and completely.

The thing about about water, which makes it such a good metaphor for everything in life, is how it is both ancient and new. On the one hand, the lake you’ll swim in has been around for generations and longer. Ever think about how all that water was once drank and peed out by a dinosaur? No? Just me? Huh. Anyway, so, yes, the water is ancient – but the shape of the lake, and the course of the river is always changing. Course requirements shift, new faculty are hired, seniors graduate, and suddenly your grandparents’ beachfront property has another mile of dunes in front of it where they are building a subdivision. Furthermore, as Heraclitus says, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” This year you’ll expend a great deal of energy memorizing depth charts and studying the current only to come back next September to a whole new experience.*

Because this is a particularly large lake, and looks as limitless as an ocean, Sandra and I have decided to focus your attention on its tributaries during BTFO. We’ll introduce you to several of the streams that feed the lake, namely: Self-Care (the process of maintaining some sanity when you lose sight of the shore), Academics at the Divinity School, Yale University, and New Haven. ** We’ll spend a day at each of these rivers in succession, and you’ll have the opportunity to dangle your feet in, paddle around a bit, or make for the opposite bank.

So now that we’ve established a bit of an awkward silence while you marvel at my brilliance, let me lay some practical knowledge on you. Here are the very basic things we want you to remember during BTFO.

You can’t do everything. Sandra and I are both a little crazy, and we wanted to make sure that you are least had an opportunity to do everything, so we have programmed stuff back-to-back from 9:30am – 6pm every day. You have a lunch break in the middle, and chapel every day at 10:30am, but still, that’s way too much. Some things are scheduled as breakouts, and occur simultaneously, in which case, unless you are a character in a Harry Potter novel, you really can’t do it all. We expect this, and will not be insulted when you skip things. We’re trying to have someone serve drinks in the commuter lounge during the afternoon, and Nouwen Chapel (a great scavenger hunt item, kids!) will be open all day as a place of refuge.

Your first priority is taking care of yourself. Which is why our self-care day is our first day. Taking care of yourself will look different to each of you, but should be in everyone’s mind. Whether that’s skipping a session and taking a nap, or leaving campus for the afternoon, you are welcome to do this. We’ll highlight things on the schedule that we don’t want you to miss, but we’ll also keep a library of the handouts that get passed around, so take all the breaks you want. This is important because …

You are probably already exhausted. I don’t mean just from thinking about all the stuff we’ll have to do during BTFO. I mean from moving, leaving a life behind or carting it all the way to New Haven. From leaving a job, or graduating college. From when the dog/kids/roommate woke up way earlier than you were planning on and then you couldn’t get back to sleep. Maybe, like me, you'll spend your BTFO trying to sublet an apartment in a different time zone. Maybe, like Sandra, your whole family will follow you out from the opposite coast and want to spend as much time with you as possible. Probably, your challenges will be unique to you.

Seriously, there are a lot of you. The Div School campus is only set up to accommodate so many bodies at one time, and everyone with their spouses, kids, and assorted entourage members is going to strain resources a little. Be nice to each other and to the organizers as we try to shoe horn you into the common room; practice radical kindness if we have to move inside for meals.

I think those are my main points. As my first yoga teacher said at least three times a session “Be gentle with yourself.” This is supposed to be fun, after all, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re drowning in your first week. If it starts to feel like too much, take a glance back towards shore – call a friend or a family member, or just take a few hours to do something you find nourishing. The lake will be there the next day, the next year, and it won’t have shifted that much.

-Kate

*I think in this schema, Petoskey stones = faculty publications. Anyone from around here has at least a few of them in their house, being used as paperweights. (Hey-o!)

** In truth, when conceived of, BTFO 2009 was imagined as a journey outward – first the self, then the quad, then the university, then all of New Haven. This remains a better metaphor for BTFO in particular, but the lake thing is really working for me right now.

Running Around New Haven

2009-07-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

I am not a runner in any sense of the word, but this year a few friends of mine have been training for the Chicago Marathon. When I got back from Chicago in June, I'd decided that I, too, was going to run a marathon. The voice of reason, as played by my friend Lydia in this movie, managed to talk me down -- first to a half-marathon, and then to a 5k.

Myself and a few others will be running the New Haven Road Race on Labor Day (September 7th) of this year. Register before August 1st, and the fee is only $25.00. Another friend, Nick*, said it was a great way for him to explore New Haven a little last year. All proceeds go to local charities, so you can feel good about that 25 bucks, too.

If you've never run before, and you're all "OMG, five ENTIRE kilometers?!?", you can join us on the "Couch to 5k" training plan. So far, so good for me. I can now run an entire three minutes without stopping or being actively pursued. (If you have run before, and you're like "OMG, it's only five kilometers?!?", I kind of hate you.**)

Let me know if you end up actually running. Team YDS doesn't have to run together, but we do need a group photo at some point, and maybe pancakes together afterward.

-Kate

*Nick actually runs up BOTH peaks in East Rock Park. He is not a good benchmark to hold yourself against. I plan on closely examining my shoes for a good part of this race.

** But you're still welcome here.

Stephanie's Top Ten List for Kids

2009-07-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

One of my all-time favorite Div School moms, Stephanie, took a little longer to write me back about what she likes to do with her two awesome kids in New Haven. You'll want to read this whole list; even though it contains some duplicates from what I've already posted, there's some great new information. Number ten is a real gem, too.

-Kate

1) The Peabody Museum. The MacDougall Center [the Yale grad student center] has free tickets for kids, and your Yale ID gets you in for free. Annual membership lets you have a sleepover in the dinosaur room- awesome.

2) The Eli Whitney Museum - great for rainy or snowy days. Drop by to do a woodworking project on any weekend day rather inexpensively. (Discount for projects if you become members)

3) Sign-up for MacDougall Center family list serve. Great events planned for families every month - young kids and parents play groups, apple picking, and holiday movies and craft parties.

4) Neighborhood Music School for all types of dance and instrumental lessons.

5) East Rock park playground and park off Cold Spring is great for picnics, soccer and kite flying. [You guys must be way sick of us talking about East Rock Park, but it’s pretty great. Did I mention there’s usually an ice cream truck at the summit?]

6) New Haven Youth Soccer is a well-run soccer program for children of all ages. One year fee covers both spring and fall season. The coaches are terrific and the program is lots of fun for the kids.

7) Yale Athletics has a Kids Bulldogs club (check our Yale athletics website) All children can join for free. They get a T-shirt and free admission to certain Yale sports events including soccer, football and basketball. Face painting, autographs by the athletes and pizza parties for Bulldog members. Really wonderful program

8) Yale Outdoor Education Center near East Lyme - $6 per day per person w/ Yale ID. Free canoeing and kayaking. Lovely lake, campsites and cabins for rent.

9) As for culture: the New Haven Symphony Orchestra has several family programs throughout the school year. Yale Art Gallery has once a month (on a Sunday afternoon) family art programs.

10) For the past two years, Div school families have informally gathered for dinner at the HGS Dining Hall* on Thursday nights. It's a great way to relax and catch-up with the other families. The HGS Manager has been offering some special family activities on Thursdays (e.g. make-your own sundaes) and the MacDougal Center has provided coloring books, crayons, plastic cups. Many parents (and children) really looked forward to the Thursday night family dinners so hopefully it will continue.

*My note: "HGS" is the Hall of Graduate Studies, a dorm/coffeeshop/cafeteria building, and where the MacDougal Center is housed. You can use your YDS meal plan at HGS!

Yale-Specific Stuff to do With Kids

2009-07-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

So here’s how this blog works: I promise, and then I deliver. I think it’s a good way to build trust. I ask that, when I turn into a raving crazy person during BTFO, you remember me as I was, before someone messed up the catering order and my head exploded.

Being a Yale student in New Haven comes with a lot of baggage, as I’ve hinted at before, but it also comes with a lot of awesome. Much of this extends to your kids, no matter their age. Here are some great things to check out:

Please start by taking a look at the Yale Worklife Program. This paragraph is in bold because this is such a good site. Yes, it says its for faculty and staff, but I get their emails about workshops all the time. (Maybe part-time, casual, grad-student-y employees count as staff?) This site is a great way to find child-friendly stuff around campus – they even have a map showing how to get a stroller around campus. Yale will send you a “new parent packet” if you sign up with them. I suspect that this is targeted towards “new” parents as in “we just had this baby” parents rather than "we just got to Yale" parents -- but I also suspect that it might be worth it anyway.

The Yale Athletics Kids’ Club nurtures young Bulldog Fans in their obsession. From their website:

The Yale Athletics Kids' Club gives all kids 14 & under the opportunity to experience the fun and exciting world of Yale Athletics. The Kids' Club conducts many activities during the Yale Athletic year geared towards making college athletics fun and exciting for kids. Free Admission to most Yale Athletic events, birthday card from Handsome Dan, free Kids' Club T-shirt, Pizza Nights, Youth Days, and Sports Clinics are the fun and exciting benefits that Kids' Club members enjoy! The best part of the Kids' Club is that it's absolutely free thanks to the support of Yale Athletics' Corporate Partners. If you are interested in signing up or signing up a loved one, please go to the Kids' Club e-form. If you have any questions regarding the Yale Kids' Club or would like more information about our promotions please email us at sports.marketing@yale.edu.

(Please note: Handsome Dan is the name of our bulldog mascot, not some middle-aged Athletics Department employee.)

Yale-New Haven Hospital has some great resources for healthy living. Their Kids’ “Korner” website has recipes and other nutritious activities for kids, organized by age group. This site is exhaustive. They begin by showing you how to make a chef’s hat. Meet “Max”:

I may or may not be wearing one of these right now in my apartment.

If you’re importing yourself and your children from another country, we highly recommend that you spend some time on the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) website. Their family page features a run-down of the US school system, which is pretty basic but will get you started.

As for babysitting, you should never write off Dale Mail as a source, but also make sure to check out the Yale Babysitting Service. Yale students sign up with the website, which then creates a searchable directory for Yale parents.

Hope all of that helps. Though I can’t speak from personal experience, Yale certainly presents itself as being very interested in making sure that having children on campus goes well. Anecdotally, the Div School is also interested in making it easy for our moms and dads – children are welcome at a ton of CLC events, and most of BTFO (we’re still trying to secure childcare, but at the very least, children and partners are welcome at all meals).

-Kate

More Dispatches from the Summer of Awesome

2009-07-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my continual efforts to get *other* Divinity School students' input onto this blog, we recently sent out a Dale Mail asking students to tell us if they were involved in something awesome this summer. The responses were, in fact, pretty awesome. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

"I am working with the Yale Presidential Public Service Fellows this summer. It's a core of 26 undergrad and graduate students from across Yale who are volunteering at various New Haven organizations over the summer.

I am volunteering at the Shubert Theater - the place where Julie Andrews, Robert Redford, Mary Martin, Marlon Brando, and others got their start. It was also the theater where they tried out the plays Streetcar Named Desire, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Jekyll & Hyde, and Death of a Salesman before taking them to Broadway. The walls backstage are covered with paintings, autographs, and pictures. Every show that has been through the theater since the 1970s has been given a space of wall to decorate.

I'm working with the Operations Division - helping with volunteer recruitment and starting an internship for local high school students. ..."

-Horace, MAR 2010

This summer I am working as an intern for the refugee service in New Haven. The organization which I am working now is called IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Service), here is the link.

At IRIS, thinking globally and acting locally is our way of life. The only refugee resettlement agency is our community, IRIS is where New Haven meets the world and the world meets the New Haven. Refugees are the only immigrants invited by the U.S. government to resettle here. They are women, men, and children who were persecuted on the basis of race, nationality, religion, social group, or political opinion.

The recession is affecting nearly every nation on earth. But many worse thing are happening. Let me give you some examples, hundreds of thousands of refugees are on the move, trying to escape war, torture, rape, and kidnapping. Thousands of Iraqis who faced death threats for working the U.S. fled to Jordan or Syria, their futures uncertain. Terrorized Somali families have watched their country sink into a state of lawlessness, the "lucky" ones have found shelter in refugee camps in Kenya. Now is the time to stand proud for providing refugees a safe haven, one of America's noblest traditions. Our nation is stronger, at home and abroad, when we honor the ideals on which we were founded. I want to share with you guys what I have learned about the refugee, I am also eager to share my experiences with new class students if I have the chance. We in IRIS are also looking for more volunteers to the refugee & Immigrant Services.

-Kuo-Pin, MAR 2010

And one from my friend Delfin, reproduced in total:

hello there divas of righteousness

i hope all is bueno

i am working at the religious institute bringing together issues of sexuality and faith (reproductive issues, lgbt, women, healthcare). i am right now working on a project that is looking at bringing together international healthcare care organizations both secular and faith based in conversation about how to collaborate on issues together.

its cool stuff
paz,

delfin, MDiv 2010

Very cool stuff indeed. I'm sort of sad that grad school doesn't have the same show-and-tell "what I did with my summer vacation" as my third grade class did. For my own part, I'm reading the entire Divine Comedy with my friend Sean, training for a 5k (actually not a joke), and watching every single Mike Birbiglia video on YouTube. And, of course, planning BTFO...

What's really wonderful about being in New Haven in the summer is the chance to explore it beyond the context of YDS, as a resident rather than a student. I went for at three-hour walk in East Rock Park, saw Mavis Staples perform live on the Green(!), and watered a community garden plot. Next, I will actually go to a beach, and maybe even think about overcoming my decades-long fear of salt water. (Traceable to a traumatic crab injury, age seven. Also, there are sharks!)

-Kate

Introducing the Annand Program ...

2009-07-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Annand program, sponsored by Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, runs a number of spiritual formation opportunities. Through the Annand program, you can participate in small prayer groups, individual spiritual direction, and go on retreat. Annand is headed by the Reverend Jane Stickney, pictured above. Over the next few weeks, Jane and I will endeavor to introduce you to a few of the mentors who partner with Annand to offer spiritual formation – either in groups or in one-on-one settings.

Jane writes:

Spiritual formation is a term you will hear often. It can refer to anything that is part of your spiritual growth and vocational development. Your whole divinity school experience will contribute to your spiritual formation. One of the great resources available to you at YDS is the Annand Program for Spiritual Formation. Funded by Berkeley Divinity School, but available to all Yale Divinity School students, the Annand Program provides small groups, workshops, retreat scholarships and spiritual direction. The First Semester Formation Groups are especially for first year students. You will want to sign up to be part of one of these groups lead by Annand Mentors. The groups meet once a week beginning toward the end of September. As part of a group you will get to know 5-8 students in a setting outside of classes. As well as supporting each other as you settle into school, you will pray together and learn about different methods of prayer and spiritual traditions.

While participation in the Annand program is required for Berkeley M.Div students, the program is absolutely NOT limited to Episcopalians. I have availed myself to the spiritual direction program; Sandra, who comes from a completely different tradition, has gotten funding to go on retreat with friends. I really don't know that I can recommend the Annand program enough -- my first-semester spiritual formation group was a great way to find support and meet some new folks I might otherwise have never gotten to know so well.

Check out more about spiritual formation programs at Berkeley here, Annand in particular here. You can email any and all questions to Rev. Stickney at annandATyaleDOTedu (replace caps with punctuation); in my experience Jane has always been lovely to deal with.

-Kate

Kids in New Haven

2009-07-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

So far, I’ve not done anything on child-friendly activities in New Haven -- of which there are a lot. I apologize for this oversight. Since I can barely be trusted to keep a plant alive, I emailed some of my favorite Div School parents and babysitters and asked for some ideas. This is the inaugural post in a series of things to do with kids in the area. Today: things to do in greater New Haven. (Later: things to do with kids in/around Yale.)

Someone tried to tell me on Friday that a good 20% or more of New Haven’s land area is parkland. I guess I believe this. Check out all the offerings at the Parks and Rec website. We’re closer to East Rock Park, but there’s a whole host of parks and playgrounds to be explored in New Haven.

If you’re willing to travel just a bit further, there are also lots of beaches around here. Hammonasset State Park is a perennial fave, despite being tough to spell.

Wilbur Cross high school, in East Rock, opens up its pool to the community for family swims during the summer. Wilbur Cross also has tennis and basketball courts and a track behind it.

The Peabody Museum has dinosaurs.*

For more athletics kiddlings, there’s the New Haven Youth Soccer League or Southern Connecticut's Pop Warner football league.

Finally, the great catch-all website KidsCT.com, with much, much more to do – from the New Haven Children’s Museum to ice skating in Milford (year-round!).

Again, I’ll update later with some Yale-specific stuff, once I wade through the 10 pages of stuff Sandra sent me.

-Kate

*Also a pretty good place to park one's parents for an afternoon, I've found.

It's Reality Show Clip Time!

2009-07-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve previously posted some piecemeal information about the Divinity School apartments, but there was a request for more detailed information, and maybe even some photos. Thanks to the generosity of my friend Scott's initiative and his roommate's indulgence, I’ve now got ten interior photos of a Div School apartment. Click here! You can also take a look at sample floor plans, here.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Div apartments come in three sizes: Jr. One Bedroom, One Bedroom, and Two Bedrooms.
- Most are unfurnished.
- Most are uncarpeted. You’ll have to BYO on the rugs unless you really like having a linoleum floor in your bedroom (which Darron seems fine with, so suit yourself)
- Heat, water, electric and wireless internet is included in your rent.

These apartments tend to be a little warmer than you’d like them, even in the winter. While most bedrooms have window-unit air conditioners, you might also think about bringing a fan or two. It’ll be hot in New Haven in August and September.

While the apartments themselves are a little on the basic side, Scott and Darron have done a great job decorating here, so you can see the potential. Plus, isn’t real estate all location, location, location? Short of living actually on campus, you can’t get much closer to your 9:30am O.T. lecture.

-Kate

The Most Important Blog Post Yet?

2009-07-10T07:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I promised an entry comparing the YDS bookstore (very favorably) to a certain megalomaniacal web portal. Today, I deliver. Below, the words of Micah Luce, bookstore manager. (And a photo: Micah on the right, with two of last year's graduating seniors.)

They're dying! Independent bookstores everywhere are succumbing to the giant youknowwho.com and other such monsters. But not your Student Book Supply: the bookstore at YDS. Through the incredible support of our students, faculty, staff, and local New Haven-ite shoppers, the SBS lives on.

Serving YDS since 1938, the SBS provides not only your course textbooks, but also over 17,000 titles in theology, biblical studies, ethics, world Christianity, black studies, gender studies, etc. etc. etc.! Need a snack to get you through that 4pm class? We have it! A little too cold in Niebuhr during OT? Get a sweatshirt from us (also great for picking up dates on the local New Haven scene)! Feeling sick from nights up learning Hebrew vocabulary? We can pump you full of NyQuil or Tylenol. Want to eat a bit of popcorn for 75 cents on Friday afternoon? Swing by for that as well!

Even more, every student who chooses to pay a simple $25 annual membership due will receive 15% off of EVERY PURCHASE in the bookstore (sale items and stamps excluded).

Here at the SBS, we love you and want to support your studies, your research, your writing, and even your social life while at YDS. So please come by at any time (located immediately inside the entrance to the Divinity School) to browse, buy, or just hang out. We look forward to seeing you, and please write or call me at any time with questions.

Micah Luce
203.432.6101
micahDOTluceATyaleDOTedu (replace those caps with punctuation)

Check out the Student Book Supply's website for more info (and a larger version of the above photo), including hours and the senior gift registry.

-Kate

Div Dictionary: CLC

2009-07-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

CLC (n): the Community Life Committee, YDS’s school-sponsored social scene.

From unpromising beginnings, I’ve had quite a productive day. Having just woken up from a 45-minute reward nap on the CLC/BTFO office couch, it occurred to me that many of you may not actually know what the CLC is. (BTFO, I assume, you’ve got down.)

Whether out of concern for building a real sense of community among YDS folk, confusion over how to blow endowment funding, or concern that the dorkier among us might not be able to build social lives without a nudge or several, YDS sponsors a huge number of events on campus. The ones that aren’t lectures or conferences, the parties, study breaks, movie screenings, happy hour and other such frivolity, are often sponsored through the Community Life Committee. Since we love our acronyms around here, we just say “CLC.” Here’s a much better description than my nap-addled brain is going to put together, straight from the CLC website:

The YDS Community Life Committee (CLC) seeks to provide opportunities for fellowship, spiritual and intellectual growth, rest, celebration, and relaxation for the YDS Community. The Community Life Committee (CLC) is a Standing Committee of the General Faculty of the Divinity School comprised of faculty members, administrators, and student Representatives. The CLC allocates funding to student groups, is responsible for the annual Back-to-School Cook-out, the Christmas Party, Spring Fling, the All School Conference, Fatted Cafés, Coffee Hour, and more!

Faculty members and administrators are appointed by the Dean, with one serving as co-chair. The other co-chair is held jointly by the student co-coordinators. Other students serving on the Committee include four elected members of the student body: a first-year student, a Master of Divinity student, a Master of Arts in Religion student, and an at-large member. The Student Council President may also serve on the CLC.

On this website you can also take a gander at the impressive number of student activities YDS has going on. (Remember that we’re a mere 350-students strong, and that many of us are supposed to be spending all our time studying. In that light in particular, that’s a pretty active group of folk.) Since CLC funds student groups, most on-campus student-produced events are at least partially CLC funded. CLC also funds and produces the BIG campus events – like our end-of-semester parties: the Advent Party and Spring Fling. Generally, if you’re eating free food on campus, you’re probably at a CLC event. If you’re drinking free beer on campus, you’re definitely at a CLC event. The CLC is headed by a faculty member and two students (not gonna lie, I just learned that from the website). Last year’s student CLC coordinators were also at just about every event that happened within a 10-mile radius of campus to provide support and Key Lime Pie.

The one thing the CLC doesn’t fund is BTFO, which is why I will kindly redirect all your complaints about the lack of beer and Key Lime Pie elsewhere.

-Kate

PS: I just want to say that I tried pretty hard to Google-image some photos from Spring Fling and the Advent Party, and they were all photos of Dale. (And this gem, of our registrar, Lisa Huck, which is my new favorite thing on the internet -- pending zooborns.com update, of course.) Yet, when you Google "Dale Peterson"? Nothing.

Who’s Who: Mike G. and Patricia O.

2009-07-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of BTFO things to do today. I do not want to do them. Blog post!

In an effort to make sure you know who’s who on campus, I’ll be doing a “Who's Who” feature on the blog*, so you can put faces and names together, and not say anything embarrassing around Harry Attridge.

There’s nothing I love more than an extended metaphor. I think it’s the anthro major in me. (Next time you have a white board and 15 minutes, allow me to explain how getting into college is exactly like a series of football downs.) In fit of internet boredom, I haphazardly compared Mike G., Dale’s assistant/YDS’s saving grace, to the new search engine/awesome machine Wolfram Alpha. The more I thought about this one, the more I realized IT IS TOTALLY TRUE. Allow me to whiteboard this for you:

Above: Mike and Dale. Since, for some reason, men being friends evokes the same reaction from me as photos of newborn pandas, I’ll stick to noting that Mike is on the left and Dale is on the right.

Many similarities exist between Mike and Wolfram Alpha -- even beyond their remarkably similar color schemes. Wolfram Alpha is a little more difficult to find than other things on the internet, like, say, Google (see below); Mike’s desk is hidden behind a whole row of administrative people who make YDS happen. Much like Wolfram Alpha, Mike’s main job isn’t just to answer my increasingly goofy questions. While he’s happy to entertain almost any query, Mike’s real job is something else. Although I sometimes find this hard to believe, Mike doesn’t just sit around and wait for me to come and ask a thousand random questions. No, Wolfram Alpha is on a mission to make the world’s knowledge computable, and Mike is busy making YDS run smoothly.** Equally formidable tasks, to be sure.

Things you need Mike for:
- sending a Dale Mail
- finding lost and found items OR turning in my iPod to lost and found (thanks in advance)
- getting keys to things which are NOT your mailbox (offices, classrooms, etc.)
- getting Dale’s credit card for student activities purchases
- getting candy

I’ll assume you’re following me so far.

Now. Patricia O., YDS’s receptionist extraordinaire, is exactly like Google. Google is the reception desk at the front of the internet, a gateway of entry into a world of time wasting. Patricia’s desk sits right in front of the main entrance to YDS. Like Patricia, Google is ebullient, charmingly silly, and always happy to see you and say hi. Google changes up its design with the seasons; Patricia’s desk features seasonable decoration AND a sign telling you what’s going on at YDS today (really helpful in figuring out what random conference is taking place in Niebuhr at the moment). Google also manages my (e)mail (and the BTFO accounts, too) – and, as you’ve read here before, Patricia runs the YDS mail system and the commuter lockers (which I guess are GoogleDocs and Picasa in this scheme). You’ll meet her almost immediately, but here’s a photo of Patricia so you can be extra friendly:

Above: One of the few photos of someone from YDS that Dale is not in.

Things Patricia will happily help you with:
- getting a mailbox key
- getting a commuter locker
- figuring out where things are
- finding out what random conference is going on in Niebuhr today
- getting a paycheck (or join the 21st century and set up direct deposit, Denice!)
- getting candy (there seems to be a hold on LifeSavers during the summer, but I remain hopeful they’ll be back in the fall)

Up next: Micah L., the bookstore, and how they’re not anything like Amazon.com. (Because they are more awesome!)

-Kate

With thanks to Patricia and Mike, who allowed their Facebook profiles to be raided for photos. I was very tempted to use the one from Halloween a few years ago, but worried it didn't do either of you justice.

* Which is to say, I will probably do this a couple times, get bored, and then blog my way through August by whining more about the weather. (Sixty-three?!? In July?!?)

** Confession: I have the barest grasp on what Mike's job description is. Just like the particulars of Wolfram Alpha are clearly beyond me! This metaphor*** is brilliant!

*** Wait, is this a simile?

Here Already? Things To Keep You Busy on Your New Grad Student Budget

2009-07-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

Many of you have already interacted with Jan F. through the admissions office. If you’ve met her, you’re already familiar with the fact that she’s totally wonderful. As a long-time New Haven area resident, Jan also has a hidden talent for coming up with wonderful stuff to put on this blog. Two wonderful, FREE things for you to do this summer:

The Elm City Shakespeare Company combines several of my favorite things: theater, the outdoors, and cheap-like-free pricing. Elm City puts on free shows in Edgerton Park, a quick walk from YDS and most points in East Rock. You’ll note that neither of this year’s productions are actually written by Shakespeare, but I think we should all agree to overlook that in the spirit of summer outdoor festivals. Shows start mid-August.

N.B: We will be taking you to an Elm City Shakespeare production during BTFO. So if you want, you can save it until then. No, I don’t know which show yet.

Jan also recommends the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven. Parking and admission are both free (!), and the museum brings in exhibits of art and history that look pretty cool, including contemporary stuff. This is a good reminder to me to actually go here; I’ve been meaning to for quite a while, even though both K of C buildings in New Haven are really ugly. (Then again, a lot of the modernist and international styles of architecture are just lost on me. Feel free to form your own opinion.)

Once again, thanks Jan!

-Kate

(The) Two Things I Like About New Haven (The Most)

2009-07-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

So I’m back. Leaving Chicago is always a little hard on me, and since I did a sixteen-mile all-night charity walk on Saturday night (with my mom, who is almost sixty and most definitely awesome!), I’m also a little groggy and out of it. I’m a fake Chicagoan, too, having spent the first 75% of my life in the ‘burbs of Philly and the backwoods of Massachusetts, but like many of you, I have spent and continue to spend not a little time grieving the life given up to come to YDS. I miss my old apartment, my home parish, and cheap, terrible beer.

In the joint spirits of cheering myself up and informing you (which continues to be the main objective of this blog, even with the rambling), I will now share with you the two areas in which New Haven completely outpaces Chicago.

1) Recycling. (Maybe environmentalism in general?)
Chicago has had a long flirtation with recycling, but can’t really get it together. It’s not that we don’t care about the environment, it’s just that … we don’t care that much. We were doing something else, and then it got late, and we always leave work at 4:55pm, and then we forgot for a while. We like to bike, and we love our lake, but the logistics of effective curbside recycling continue to elude us.

In New Haven, not only are recycling resources plentiful at school, with bins and reminders everywhere, but also curbside recycling is really easy! If you live on-campus, you’ll have recycling containers outside near the dumpsters you’ll take your trash to. If you live off-campus, you’ll find a blue bin somewhere in your apartment. By keeping an eye out on your street, you’ll be able to figure out that everyone puts their trash and recyclables out one night a week (100 block of Linden – Wednesday night!) for an early morning pickup. The bin will look like this:

(I contemplated putting up a picture of my own bin, but decided against it, to avoid any uncomfortable questions about my Diet Coke consumption. I’m down to one a day … most days.)

You can figure out what to put in the bin at this helpful site from SoHu New Haven. While you’re there, marvel at the fact that “SoHu” is its own neighborhood now.

2. Food from carts.
Having grown up near enough to Philly to understand that soft pretzels are supposed to be smothered with brown mustard, I was initially confused when I found that I couldn’t buy a hotdog from some guy with a cart in the Loop. Apparently they think you need a running hot water hookup to serve food properly. I think that this is why everyone is suddenly allergic to peanuts. Not that I’m hating on people with allergies – I have a cousin and a good friend who are both peanut-intolerant – but has anyone else noticed that everyone is allergic to peanuts these days? My basic assertion is that, like asthma, we'd have fewer food allergies if kids ate more dirt. And while they’re at it, a hotdog.

“The carts” are a wonderful part of life at YDS. I’ve been talking like the only thing you can buy from a cart is a hotdog, but if you’re willing to make the quick drip down to the School of Management at the corner of Prospect and Sachem (and, more daunting, the trip back up the hill) on a weekday around lunch, you’ll be able to take your pick: burritos, Indian, Ethiopian, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese. Sometimes there’s a cupcake truck, too! A complete lunch (food plus a drink) will run you in the neighborhood of $5/$6. That price is so good it deserves its own low-budget local commercial.

If you grew up in Chicago or on the moon, here is a picture of what food from a cart looks like that I stole from the Yale Daily News:

(Again, I considered taking my own photo of a cart in New Haven serving food. Then I remembered that I’m lazy and didn’t want to go downtown today.)

OK, that totally worked. I feel better. Hopefully you feel more informed, too. Long-time CT residents and lurking YDS people, what do YOU love about this city/state?

-Kate

Driving Up Here?

2009-07-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Jan. F, from the admissions office, passes along the following tidbit of info for those of you driving here from points south of NYC.

Does the thought of driving over the George Washington Bridge cause you to panic? Fear not—there is another way to access New Haven from points south. You can take the Tappan Zee Bridge (which is easily accessed from the Garden State Parkway in NJ) and then Rt. 287 East to Port Chester, NY and then onto I95 to New Haven.

Happy U-Hauling!

-Kate

Safety & Security at YDS

2009-06-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Ed. note: Yes, you just got this in email form. But I know how it is - your inbox is full, or you have some filter set up, or the YDS mail you get keeps ending up in the spam folder by mistake ... here again, this week's BTFO update on safety. With thanks to Bill Goettler, YDS's Assistant Dean for Ministerial Studies and Assessment, and long-time New Haven resident, for his input. (Dear Bill: Why don't you have an official bio on the YDS website? Do you see what I'm ~~forced~~ privileged to link to?)

Those of you who have set up your Yale email accounts have probably already gotten at least one email from Chief Perotti, the head of the Yale Police force. Chief Perotti sends an email of every crime related incident that takes place in or near the Yale campus, and involves a person who is affiliated with Yale. Taken out of context, these can make living in New Haven seem a little scary. And since you aren't yet getting many other Yale emails, it might appear that all we talk about is crime. A few things to remember when you get these emails:

First, these are a legal necessity. Believe it or not, Chief Perotti doesn't send these emails with the express intent to titillate, but because he is required by law to do so whenever there is an incident involving anyone Yale-affiliated in New Haven. Since Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale University comprise the #1 and #2 employers in New Haven, respectively, that's a lot of people.

Second, New Haven, for all its charm and frustrating lack of urbanity, is still a city. (The second largest in Connecticut, following Bridgeport.) Along with living in a city come certain pluses and minuses. On the minus side, you'll be exposed to a higher crime rate than you'd see in say, rural Connecticut. On the plus side, you'll be within walking distance of wonderful things like the Yale Art Gallery, East Rock Park, and my current favorite coffee shop, Lulu (http://www.lulublend.com/). Most YDS students live in either East Rock or Newhallville, which you can read more about on the Yale housing website (http://www.yale.edu/livingnh/community/nhprofiles.html).

Finally, these incidents represent a small percentage of the overall Yale population and their likelihood is often increased by behavior that can be dangerous in any city. Chief among these, of course, is walking around alone at night – and there's literally no reason why you'd have to walk home or to campus alone. Yale runs a series of free shuttles, with door-to-door service late nights, and offers security escorts 24/7 on campus. We put together a document listing the various safety and security resources you can avail yourself to – please take a look, and keep these phone numbers handy. Please access the document here:

http://www.yale.edu/divinity/adm/SafetyInformation.shtml

On the less-official level, Yale Divinity School is a caring and safe community. Although I have my own car, I've always been able to find a ride home from an on-campus event or off-campus party with another Div School student when I need one. YDS's campus itself is very safe, and most items that go missing end up in the lost and found drawers near Dale’s office.
Bottom line: please don't let the Chief Perotti emails determine how you feel about New Haven and YDS before you even get here. Yes, you'll need to take common-sense security precautions while living here, but on the whole New Haven is a safe and fun place to live.

-Kate

Mail Boxes & Lockers

2009-06-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Sandra is in California this week, which means I’m a little bored, which is translating into a plethora of blog posts. I hope you appreciate this, because on Wednesday I leave for Chicago, and you’ll have to spend six days checking other blogs.

Today, another useful part of daily life at YDS: the commuter lounge. More specifically, what’s in the commuter lounge. The commuter lounge is a, uhm, lounge on the first floor of YDS. To one side is Holy Grounds our preciously named coffee kiosk that we hope you’ll become more familiar with during BTFO. Bookending the commuter lounge are our mailboxes and the commuter lockers.

Everyone at YDS gets assigned a mailbox (below, a shot from Beth, my iPhone, inspired by Michael Wolf, and another of the whole bank of ‘em with fewer pretensions).
Oh, I actually kind of like that one.

You’ll get a key to your very own mailbox during BTFO from Patricia O., YDS’s receptionist extraordinaire. PLEASE CHECK YOUR MAILBOX, at least occasionally. You will get a decent amount of junk mail in here (trying to sell you lecture series rather than carpeting), but there are a few people like me who actually view them as a means of communication and will attempt to drop you notes.

A great mystery to many divvies* are the lockers at the far end of the commuter lounge. Here’s the basic formula:
1) These lockers are available on a first-come-first-serve basis to any and all commuting students.
2) If you do not live in the div school apartments, you are a commuter student. That is, even if your "commute" to school is a five-minute walk, you are a commuter student.
3) They look like this:
The end. If you’d like one, talk to Patricia. You’ll have to bring in your own combo lock, and clean it out at the end of the school year (or the Yale staff will cut your lock and take your stuff).

By the way, my birthday is in April, and if you decorate my locker with Backstreet Boys stuff, I will be your friend forever.

-Kate

*I think I made that word up, and am hoping it will catch on. Please use it in a sentence today.

Div Dictionary: CPE

2009-06-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

CPE, (n): Clinical Pastoral Education, a hospital chaplaincy work/study program which many YDS students do during one of their summers.

CPE is basically a crash course in pastoral care, usually in a hospital setting. Students spend about half of their time in class, group sessions, and other teaching modules, and about half serving as real-life chaplains. CPE programs usually include some time spent "on call," when students spend the night in the hospital with a beeper, and are called to all sorts of trauma cases.

From the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education's website: "Clinical Pastoral Education is interfaith professional education for ministry. It brings theological students and ministers of all faiths (pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and others) into supervised encounter with persons in crisis. Out of an intense involvement with persons in need, and the feedback from peers and teachers, students develop new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister. From theological reflection on specific human situations, they gain a new understanding of ministry. Within the interdisciplinary team process of helping persons, they develop skills in interpersonal and interprofessional relationships." Mmmmyeah, that tells you just about nothing.

Some denominations (like mine) require students to do a unit of CPE to be ordained, but some YDS students who are not required to do CPE choose to take a unit because it will inevitably help them build great skills for ministry. YDS also pays its CPE students - not much, but about $3,100 over the 10-week summer - as well as awarding an elective credit. (Or three credit hours, which is the equivalent of one class.) Rarely but occasionally, students choose to do an extended or full-year CPE program, which meets only one day a week throughout the academic year.

Ed. note: The above image is the photo that came up first when I did a Google search for images using "chaplain." Although CPE involves extreme sleep deprivation during on-call, it will likely not turn you into a literal zombie. That's some pretty amazing liturgical garb, though.

Updaaaaaate: More on Housing

2009-06-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Ed. note: Put this in a new post because that last one was getting really long. Anyone know how to do cuts in Blogger?

Mike G., Dale's assistant (and YDS's in-house WolframAlpha), points out that for off-campus housing options (that is, those not run by Yale), you should also check out the Yale rentals website. They've also got a link on the left for those interested in buying property, and ones below for looking for roommates, as well as a few links of resources for tenants. (Sadly, the "How Much Rent Can I Afford?" link doesn't work ... perhaps indicative of the fact that I can't, actually, afford any rent? Did it work for anyone else?)

The Yale Off-Campus Rentals Database is sort of a Yale-specific Criagslist, and might be the most valuable thing on there, in my opinion. Their area profiles, although not super-helpful, are kind of adorable and fun, and I am going to send you them again in an email.

Mike says he found his apartment through here, and that there are 4.805 people born every hour in Connecticut, which is good enough for me.

(With apologies to anyone who, like me, is now going to spend three hours on WolframAlpha.)

-Kate

A Few Notes on Housing (Or Rather, a Whole Bunch of Links To Stuff About Housing)

2009-06-18T15:37:00.003-07:00

If you're any kind of rational creature, you've already had more than a few thoughts which went something like "But where will I liiiiiiiiiive?" Moving is scary, expensive, and un-fun. I myself love looking at houses (house museums are one of my favorite things in the world - I'd totally be a fan of them if they got a Facebook page), but when it comes to actually packing up and moving? Forget it. I'm about to sign a two-year extension on my lease out of what amounts to complacency.

A few of you all will be living in the Divinity School Apartments, which is awesome for you. You'll be literally steps from campus, and all of your utilities will be included in your rent. One of the few downsides I can see to this arrangement is that these buildings are nothing short of butt-ugly, but you don't need to look at the outside of a structure if you're inside.

For the rest of us (including those of us, like me, who were waitlisted for Div School Apartments and might be a little bitter), here are a few tips:

- There are a LOT of on-campus (or rather, Yale-operated) housing options. You can do dorm-style accommodations through the Grad Student Housing Office. These include the Hall of Graduate Studies, which is very dorm-like (I'm told), but on Yale's main campus. Closer to our campus and similarly dorm-like is 276 Prospect Street. (You'll note that we have a really creative staff when it comes to naming buildings.)

- Then there are a lot of apartment-style options, also run by Yale. The "Science Hill Properties" are the ones which are closest to YDS's campus, and Prospect Gardens is right across the street. I'm sorry that I don't have a whole lot to say about these ... I frankly have very little idea of how they work.

- For those who aren't into renting from mother Yale, you're probably going to want to go the Craigslist route. Search for apartments in "East Rock" and "Mansfield." I pay $1190 (split two ways with the roommate, at $595 apiece) for a large 2-BRDM without heat or electric included. I get the feeling that's a little more than some of my peers are paying, but mine is a new remodel and really very large. (I'd kill for a dishwasher and central A/C in here, for serious.) I will also note that my roommate didn't let us seriously consider any apartments with electric stoves.

- While you're on Craigslist, you'll probably notice a lot of properties put up by Seabury Hill Rentals. They're as close as you can get to an apartment-finding service here, in that they manage a ton of properties, and will make multiple appointments. They were very nice to us during our search, but didn't have much at that moment. A thing called Vacancy Busters exists, but I don't know of anyone who's used them successfully.

And yes, heat is pretty pricey. The opinion of people who have been living in Connecticut longer than me is that the best option for heating is gas, the next-best electric, and oil a dismal third.

Also: PAY ATTENTION to Melissa Pucci's emails! Melissa is a) really fabulous and b) really helpful. Her forwarded apartments didn't pan out for me, but they did for several people. What I really have to thank her for is hooking me up with my roommate - the same one I'm about to sign on for another TWO years with. Melissa sent around a list of other people who'd been waitlisted for Div School Apartments, and after some lengthy email exchanges, D and I were a love match.

The more I write here, the more I think I'm not being very helpful. Sadly, one of the best things you can do to get acclimated is what I did - pick a random weekend and come to New Haven, see a few places, and get a feel for the rental market. My general comments are that I'm surprised at how pricey things are (though we only looked in East Rock, and if you're OK with not being able to walk to campus, your options are greater) - I thought that since I was moving away from a major city I'd be able to get much more bang for my buck.* (I realize in retrospect that I was mostly just spoiled by Chicago; my roommate, moving up from Manhattan, was astounded at how cheap stuff was.)

As per uzh, I welcome all comments and questions; if there's something specific I can help answer, please ask away.

-Kate

* I was also irrationally terrified at the prospect of living in a wooden house - and they're all wooden around here - because we have long memories in the Midwest. So far we have not managed to burn the house down, although today I set a piece of toast on fire in the toaster oven.

"You are welcome here, and you are going to be fine": The Wit and Wisdom of your Soon-To-Be-Peers

2009-06-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Back in April, Sandra and I asked current YDS students to fill out a brief survey to give us some feedback on past years' BTFO's. Below is a small sampling from one of those questions (with some corrected spelling and grammar). We asked people "What is the most important thing to convey to new students during BTFO?"

They said ....

... The value of Chapel. The value of Annand Program. (Ed note: more coming on the Annand Program, but you can get started here.) Where the candy bowl is...

Yale Div school is an awesome, diverse (in age, gender, race, and spirituality) and supportive community. [I]t's hard work, but worth it.

Even if you don't thin[k] the stress will apply to you, it will. When it does, GET HELP, not drunk. Or something like that... (Ed. note: we'll have some panels and info sessions on "self-care", but it's never too soon to starting thinking about what you'll do when the stress hits. What makes you happy? Relaxed?)

This is all weird, new, and overwhelming... but that's okay. And it's perfectly normal to feel out of sorts.

The year ahead will be challenging, but you will be going through the process will others who will share similar experiences.

[T]hat people have to return their mugs to Holy Grounds (Ed. note: Holy Grounds is the Div School's student-run coffee kiosk. We'll be serving iced tea here, we hope.)

[T]hat YDS is not just a pastoral preparation program, but an academic program--community is not just about being into [J]esus, but can also be academic.

The variety of resources for support that YDS offers during your time here. (Just show them a big picture of Dale that says "friend" on it!)

You are very welcome here...and get off the hill once in a while!!!

The YDS community is glad you are here, we know this a an overwhelming time, we want to help you get started well

You don't have to make h's to be valuable to society (Ed. note: I didn't find this out 'til I got here, but YDS does not use an A,B,C grading system we have H's ("Honors"), HP's ("High Pass"), and P's ("Pass), which are roughly equivalent. No D grade exists - anything lower than a P is a No Credit.)

...not every MDiv is on the ordination track and not every MAR is on the PhD track :) "Tracking" language does not belong at YDS. I can think of other important things, but this is the first thing that comes to mind. Vocational aspirations among students vary widely. (Ed note: !!!!)

Not to read everything.

And finally ...

You are welcome here, and you are going to be fine.

So true.

-Kate

NEWS FLASH: There are a lot of you.

2009-06-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hey! YDS got a big mention in this Fox News article. Check out Harry Attridge hatin’ on the financial sector (“gross immorality”? Oh, snap!) and two of your fellow incoming students sharing their reasons for heading to Div School this fall.

As the Attridge quote mentions, we're welcoming about 10% more students into this year's class. That might mean sitting closer to your neighbor in lectures, waiting a few more minutes for a sandwich at the refectory, or having to take someone out over the last slice of pizza at community dinner. (We hope it doesn't come to that, of course, but pizza is pizza.) This year will take a little extra patience from new and returning students alike to make sure that everyone feels welcomed and no one's toes get stepped on.

All kidding aside, it’s a shame that some of you are headed back to school as a result of the economic downturn. Yale University feels your pain, too. Still, not matter what brought you to YDS this fall, we’re thrilled to have you and look forward to helping you adjust to life at YDS.

-Kate

Div Dictionary: East Rock

2009-06-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

East Rock (n): 1) One of two huge bluffs which bookend New Haven. 2) The park surrounding this bluff. 3) The neighborhood directly south of this park.

New Haven history Quickie: originally founded as utopian Congregationalist Community, New Haven is nestled between East and West Rocks – two rocky crags which neatly bookend the original city grid. The streets were originally gridded (or so people claim – I’m from Chicago and I know from gridded; I have my doubts), with the grid tilted so that the north-south thoroughfares led towards the twin bluffs. YDS is closest to East Rock, which you can see clearly from the back of the quads.

East Rock Park is one of my favorite things. In addition to providing baseball and soccer fields, basketball courts, and a river for boating, East Rock has miles of trails, paved and unpaved. You can bike to the summit of East Rock on paved trails, hike up through the wooded ones, or attempt to climb the accurately named Giant Steps (pictured above) – which are probably the most direct route, but also the steepest. Once there, you’ll have panoramic views of the city of New Haven, as well as Long Island Sound. If it’s a clear day, you can often see all the way to Long Island itself. During the summer, there’s almost always a guy in a truck up there selling ice cream, and a decently clean porta-potty over by the tennis courts. East Rock is HUGE – I took a three-hour walk there recently and still haven’t been able to find the rose garden. Enjoy getting lost in there.

At the southern foot of East Rock lies the neighborhood of East Rock, the neighborhood where many of you will be taking up residence. Local merchants line Orange Street, including European grocers Romeo and Cesare, Lulu’s Coffee House, and further down, Oriental Pantry, which has some great Kim Chi. On sunny Spring and summer days, East Rock is rife with tag sales, where you can furnish your apartment for cheap.

Ah, East Rock. Time for another long walk.

-Kate

Div Dictionary: GPSCY

2009-05-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

GPSCY (n.): 1) The Graduate and Professional Students’ Center at Yale. 2) The only place I can find $2.00 PBR’s in this town.

New Haven’s got plenty of places to get your drink on, but few of them as cheap (read: Yale-sponsored) at the Graduate and Professional Students’ Center at Yale, or simply GPSCY (pronounced “gypsy”). Although the “center” part of its name implies it must perform some other services, it’s website betrays that GPSCY is essentially a bar. A really cheap bar, that is. The bar is actually called “Gryphon’s Pub,” but call it that and 99% of divvies will have no idea what you’re talking about. Its just GPSCY.

GPSCY runs many weekly specials, including weekly Karaoke, and Monday Night Football specials, but the one you’ll really care about is 2-for-1 Wednesdays. From open to 11pm, when you buy one drink, you’ll get a ticket you can redeem later that night for another drink. Wednesdays are also the traditional Div School night – you’ll usually find a crowd of us downstairs by the bar, or outside talking to Forestry kids if it’s a nice night.

To get into GPSCY, you’ll need to buy a membership at the beginning of the year. This’ll run you less than $10, and means you never pay cover. They’ll stick a little sticker on the back of your Yale ID card, and you’ll have to bring that AND your ID that proves you’re 21+ to get in every time.

Don’t worry – we’ll be introducing you to GPSCY during BTFO. And if you’re very, very good, Sandra and I will do a karaoke number for you.

-Kate

Div Dictionary: Refectory

2009-05-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

Refectory (n.): Sterling Divinity Quadrangle’s source for meals, unless you REALLY like vending machine food.

Since back-to-back classes on Holy Hill don’t really give you enough time to get down to Yale’s main campus and back for lunch, SDQ is equipped with it’s own cafeteria and dining hall, known as the refectory. The refectory is open from around 7am until 2pm every day, and serves sandwiches, hot lunch entrees, packaged stuff and salads. There’s a grill in the back that I always forget about, and enough soda choices to make anyone happy (until they run out of Diet Coke, which makes me distinctly unhappy).

When you begin the school year, you’ll automatically be charged a $400 board fee. You’ll get that money back though – it’s loaded onto your student ID so that you can use it to purchase food at lunch or between classes (or, for the ambitious among us, before classes too). If you don’t use up all $400 in the fall semester, it will roll over to the spring semester. If you don’t use up all that money during the spring semester, you will never see it again.

To spend $400, you may need to employ a little strategy. Since the refectory stocks canned goods and household items, you can buy a lot of tissues or buy cans and donate them at Marquand chapel (the chapel team puts out a basket and make sure it gets to a deserving charity). Some commuting students buy more than they need to take home to hungry kids or spouses. The staff will also take your points at the end of a term and use them when students like me come to the register with $8.00 worth of food and only $6.57 remaining on their card balance. You could also just be me, and be on campus almost every day for lunch, and run through $400 in no time.

This all sounds a little silly, but please remember – the refectory is hardly a money-making operation. It’s a service provided to us so that we don’t have to rely on the vending machines, or troop all the way down to Commons every day. The refectory also provides space for the community to eat together (in a scant 77 seats, so it’s more like a portion of the community). There’s even a community kitchen in the back where you can store and warm up food, as well as use and wash plates and utensils – remember, jut a few minutes spent over the sink will help reduce YDS’s carbon footprint!

-Kate

What it means to be a Yale student: Part 2,409 in a 109,293-part series

2009-05-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

There’s a LOT tied up in what it means to be a Yale student, but in this season of unexpected wonderful things, I’d like to touch on just one: you can see a lot of art for free.

No doubt you’ll visit the Yale Art Gallery and the Center for British Art (in which I am mostly interested because it’s a Louis Kahn building). They’re both excellent museums, and wonderful respites for when you’re really sick of everything, and just want to see some paintings. Or, again, if you’re me – some great decorative art.

But did you know that your Yale ID will ALSO get you into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art? I actually didn’t, until I drove up there. (It’s normally a 2.5 hour drive, max, but thank to MassDOT and a water main break near Springfield along I-91, it took us 5 hours.)

No joke! Since Yale University helped fund the 25-year Sol LeWitt installation , you get free admission with your Yale ID. (Ed. note: I frankly don't really understand why Sol LeWitt is enjoyable - yes, I get why he's important, but I'd rather look at the George Bolster stuff for kicks.)

So if you’re REALLY sick of everything, and can only be comforted by innovative video art or installation pieces, drive on up past my old high school and check out MassMOCA. (Then drive on over to the People’s Pint in Greenfield, Mass, and get a growler to take back as a souvenir.)

Safe and happy travels – whenever you’re going this summer!

-Kate

New Faculty!

2009-05-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't be surprised if we already sent you this in another email, but check out the newbies: Young scholars fill YDS positions*. I want to read all of Clarence Hardy III's and Tisa Wegner's books. (Not that I don't find Asian Christianity fascinating, it's just that I attended Chloe Faith Starr's lecture when she was being interviewed, and I feel like I have a grip on what she's about. Also, I have a not-so-secret crush on the American Southwest.)

New faculty have their own little orientation, but we hope they'll be joining us for some BTFO events. Just remember not to be too smug when you know where things are and they don't. We'll be doing tours of SDQ on Monday evening just so you know where the RSV room is.

-Kate

*No, it's not just you. That does sound like a "That's what she said" moment.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles …

2009-05-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

We’ve now reached the end of finals week. After taking my Hebrew exam on Wednesday, I’m down to one paper, which isn’t due until May 18th. Right now, that seems like a lot of time, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to procrastinate it right up ‘til May 17th.

Speaking of Hebrew, the language was a little like yoga for me. First the teacher demonstrates, say, parsing the Hithpael imperfect or doing bird of paradise pose, and I’ll be like “Noooooo way. That is not going to happen for me.” Cut to six months later, when I find the Hithpael to be second nature, and my leg does bend that way. Once reaching my goal, I seem to have forgotten the long journey it took to get to this point.

Hopefully your adjustment to YDS will be a similar tale. Though it seems daunting at first, you'll look back later and wonder at how much difficulty you had finding the Day Missions Room that first time you had a paper to write.

In the mail in the next few weeks, you’ll all be getting the materials you’ll need to take the very first steps on this next great big journey you’ll be undertaking – information on how to sign up for your Yale email, and a draft of the course schedule for next semester. Just like when you’re perfecting your bridge pose or learning the object pronouns of a dead language, it’ll all about visualization, seeing yourself successfully completing the task at hand.

Once you get to YDS, you’ll be assigned an advisor who will have some helpful input on what course you select (and will sign off on your selection every term). You might also want to spend some time with the YDS bulletin – this lists the areas of study we have and the distribution requirements you’ll need to fulfill for whatever degree you’re going for. The bulletin you’re given at orientation will be your secondary Bible – save it forever and refer to it often. No matter what regulations change as you move through YDS, your graduation will be dependent on your fulfilling the bulletin requirements from the year you matriculated.

Vaya con dios!

-Kate

PS – I only got four and a half hours of sleep last night, because I went to see the new Star Trek movie. Apologies for whatever lapses of logic occur in the above.

PPS – Not gonna lie; totally worth it. The movie was pretty great.

PPPS – Speaking of actual yoga, there are several places to practice in New Haven. Check out www.freshyoga.com , where I go, or http://www.bikramyogact.com/, where my friend Jen is a regular. You can also do yoga at the Yale gym for cheaper as a series class.

Div Dictionary: Dale Mail

2009-04-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Ed. Note: Here at YDS, we throw an awful lot of jargon around. Acronyms, colloquialisms, you name it. "Div Dictionary" is a recurring feature which will seek to clarify some things. You can search for other posts like this by clicking "Div Dictionary" in the "labels" menu at right.

Dale Mail (n): Email communications sent to all of YDS; our primary method of information distribution. (At right: The eponymous Dale Peterson, YDS Dean of Students, proprietor of the candy bowl, all around great guy.)

When I was going through BTFO, I kept asking what this "Dale Mail" everyone kept talking about was and how I could sign up for it. This was before I was getting 45 emails a day from Dean of Students Dale Peterson. Basically, if you've got anything to announce to the YDS community - financial aid deadline, upcoming lunch program, lost and found notice - you send it to dalemail@yale.edu. Emails are forwarded to the entire YDS community. You are automatically going to receive these emails. So don't worry, you'll be ankle deep in them soon enough.

Dale Mail can be somewhat overwhelming. I for one have set up a filter on my GMail* so that all of my Dale Mail skips my inbox. (I use my inbox as a to-do list, so seeing 50 unread emails in there whenever I opened it up gave me mild panic attacks all the time.) With all the relatively unimportant stuff (typical emails include "LOST BAG!" and two hours later "BAG FOUND!"), it's easy to write Dale Mail off. But please don't! All kinds of interesting and important information goes out - scholarships, lectures, worship services, etc. all get announced via Dale Mail. Stop reading it entirely and you might miss when to turn in the FAFSA or where to find the free food.

-Kate

* We can talk about how to forward all your @yale.edu email to another account if you want. It was very easy, and enables me to do a lot more with my inbox.

Phew!

2009-04-20T11:55:00.001-07:00

So that resolution to update the blog every week? Already fallen back on. Dang!

In this season of insane busy-ness (only six more days of classes! ... and three papers, two exams, and one quiz), maybe it's just best to update any readers we've acquired on what exactly keeps us so busy. For me at least, it's rarely my classes that keep me running laps around SDQ like I think it's burning calories.

Two of the most fun features of my days here are chapel and lunch hour. YDS has a million and seven ways to get involved, and a thousand and six ways to worship. From 10:30am - 11:30am, and again from 12:30pm - 1:30pm every day, there are no classes scheduled on Holy Hill. Instead, we worship and eat together.

The 10:30am Marquand service is ecumenical, and takes a very different form each and every day. The only constants are that Wednesdays are always sun morning prayer, and Fridays always feature a Eucharistic celebration of some kind. Lets take a gander at what's going on this week (direct from the Q Source, our weekly e-newsletter):

Monday: "The Healing Balm of God's Word through Song and Dance" Liturgical Dance led by Kathleen Turner with the YDS Liturgical Dance Workshop and the CT Chapter of National Liturgical Dance Network
Tuesday: Quaker Meeting led by YDS fellow Sarah Ruden
Wednesday: Sung Morning Prayer: Songs of the Americas led by Patrick Evans
Thursday: A Bright Week Service in the Byzantine Tradition
Friday: Community Eucharist for the End of Term with Emilie Townes, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, preaching, and Dale Peterson, Dean of Students, presiding.

I'm particularly pumped for Tuesday and Thursday this week, since they're probably the farthest from own faith traditions. You'll get an introduction to worship ethos and etiquette in Marquand during BTFO from the chapel team. Bonus: free food afterwards at coffee hour!

At 12:30pm we have "lunch hour," but since everyone realizes this is often the best chance to get people together, this period is better termed "working lunch hour." Here's a very small sampling of what's going on in my life (direct from my Google calendar):

Monday: St. Luke's Committee meeting (Berkeley's student council-type body)
Tuesday: State of the School Address (our chance to hear Harry Attridge and Emilie Townes's take on how this year went and what's on tap for next year)
Wednesday: LBGTQA prayer vigil for the SoulForce protest at the Vatican UN Offices (I won't really go into details here, so have a link)
Thursday: CORE (Committee on Racial Equality) meeting to talk about next year
Friday (still tentative): Reunion lunch with El Salvador group or BTFO planning with Nichole and Sandra

Annnnnnd that's why I haven't been updating. Sorry. Seriously, though, that's only a random sampling of what's available here on campus. It makes my calendar a little nuts, but I enjoy each and every one of these things. And I look forward to having lunch with you all in August!

-Kate

... And We're Off!

2009-04-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung in the Elm City (it's finally above 50 degrees today!) and the BTFO planning games have begun. Sandra and I had the pleasure of meeting many of you at admitted students open houses on Monday an Tuesday, and we just had our first meeting with Dean Peterson, his lovely assistant Mike, and last year's BTFO folks at Archie Moore's. There are two more weeks of classes left, during which we'll be soliciting support from current students, faculty, and staff to help make BTFO 2009 the best orientation program this side of awesome.

An important bit of information: BTFO is currently scheduled to begin the afternoon of Monday, August 24, and conclude on Friday, August 28th. We will also likely have activities available through the weekend so that you can make the most out of your free time in New Haven before classes start on Monday. Remember, this is all up the in air - things will change as the summer progresses, but for now, please block off August 24th - 28th. That's so important I bolded it... and I think I'll add those dates to the header or something.

We'll attempt to update this blog at least once a week for the rest of the summer. In the meantime, I continue to dork out on the many features of Google Mail. If you're ever on GChat, look for "BTFO2009" to answer your questions. You can also add our calendar to yours by searching for "BTFO 2009" in public calendars. If you don't have GMail, you can still check out the Yale Divinity School public events calendar to get a sense of what's going on around SDQ (click the Google Calendar icon at the bottom to add it to yours if you do have GMail). We're not on Twitter yet, because I don't really understand what Twitter *is* - but make an argument for it and I just might make an account.

-Kate

Who We Are: Kate

2009-03-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Along with Sandra, I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you joining us on this blog, and hopefully on campus next year. I am a few weeks (and several papers) away from finishing the first year of my M.Div degree. Although I was raised in suburban Philadelphia, I now hail from Chicago, where I am pursuing ordination with the Episcopal Church. In fact, I just received postulancy status in the Diocese of Chicago this week! (As the Episco-babble belies, I am also enrolled at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale - the Episcopal seminary attached to Yale - where I will complete a Diploma in Anglican Studies alongside the M.Div.) For me, YDS is a professional school - I've come here to gain the skills and knowledge I need to be a parish priest.

I attended University of Chicago for undergrad, majoring in Anthropology and Linguistics. Like quite a few of you, I took almost no religion coursework in college. After school I worked for two years as a college admissions counselor, and still get random calls and emails from schools in Dallas and Albuquerque as a result. My life since coming to New Haven has included slightly less travel, but infinitely more potlucks.

Hope to see you soon!

-Kate Spelman

About the photo: First of all, I have very very few photos of myself which don't include a) other people b) something totally insane. (For clarity's sake, I've used a photo from category B for this exercise.) This one was taken during my YDS-sponsored trip to El Salvador over spring break, during which I traveled around with nine other YDS folks and ate some delicious Pollo Campero. The chicken and I are waving hello to you.

Who We Are: Sandra

2009-03-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome and Greetings from the Elm City! My name is Sandra Valdes-Lopez and I, along with the talented, creative, and amazing Kate Spelman will be your BTFO coordinator. I'm looking forward to introducing the Yale Divinity School community to you all, and I hope that your time with us will be characterized by transformative academic, spiritual, social, and emotional growth.

Now some information about me: I hail from beautiful, sunny, southern California where I resided until the completion of college. I attended Pepperdine University, double majoring in Psychology and Religion, and am currently focused upon how spirituality can be utilized as a coping tool in clinical practice. At Yale, I am working on a Master of Divinity, ecstatic to find myself weeks away from completing my second year in the program. Academically, I have primarily devoted my attention to pastoral care and ethics courses with the professional intention (and hope) of taking this acquired knowledge and applying it to further study in clinical psychology.

With that brief introduction out of the way, I'd like to restate my welcome, and emphasize that Kate and I are available as additional resources to assist in your transition to the Divinity school community and life in New Haven. Please feel free to ask us any questions and to share any concerns.

Have a blessed and peaceful summer.

Looking forward to Orientation in August,

Sandra Valdes-Lopez

Congrats and Welcome!

2009-03-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

If you've made it over here, you're probably one of the newest members of the Yale Divinity School community. On behalf of all of us already here on the quad, congratulations!

This blog is intended for the use of the 2009 BTFO coordinators to update new admits. We'll be planning BTFO over the summer, and will use this site to add new information, updates, and to answer any questions you have. We'll try to get a variety of student voices onto the blog, and will be asking you for your opinions and input as we put together the world's best orientation.

Stay tuned! And if you ever have any questions, leave 'em in the comments. We'll do our best to keep on top of those.