21 NHPS Grads To Head To Yale

Here’s something to celebrate in the midst of the dog days of August: This fall, 21 local New Haven high school graduates, a record number accepted from New Haven’s public schools, will be attending Yale College.

That number dwarfs the four or five New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) admittees that used to be the average not that many years ago, said Yale’s long-time Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan.

That happy news was the centerpiece of an elegant, celebratory reception for those students and their families, who convened in the President’s Room at Yale’s Woolsey Hall Monday afternoon.

Among the celebrants were incoming freshmen Sophia Rivkin, Mila Volpe, and Ila Sunstrom. Sophia graduated from Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School with a concentration in music. Mila’s acceptance at Yale made Hillhouse and the Educational Center for the Arts proud; and Ila graduated from Wilbur Cross High School.

And these three span the city geographically; Sophia and Mila are Westvillians and Ila hails from Fair Haven.

“New Haven is our home, Yale’s home,” said the university’s new President Maurie McInnes, ​“and this [record local admissions] is a symbol of the very important relationship we have with New Haven.”

The university’s Director of New Haven Affairs, Alexandra Daum, offered double congratulations: ​“For getting into Yale and also congrats for being from New Haven!”

An Elm City lover but having spent formative years in Manhattan, Daum said New Haven has the richness and diversity of a big city but the opportunities to participate and to lead more typical of a small town.

“You’re so lucky to be from here,” she declared, and then she asked the incoming Elm City freshmen for a favor:

“Share how much you love New Haven with others [in your incoming class]. Take them to a neighborhood they might not always get to. Or to a restaurant where you eat with your family. Thank you in advance for being an ambassador [of New Haven] to your peers.”

Dean Quinlan — who, according to Yale’s website, has over the past ten years also led the university in dramatically increasing enrollment of first-generation college students, people of color, and veterans –took the theme of ambassadorship down to brass tacks:

“It’ll be an extra lift for you when your peers ask you about New Haven and I hope you’ll be up to the challenge. Be [especially] merciful when giving street directions. On the one-ways.”

Over the last year the number of applications from the city’s public high schools has also grown from 40 to 140, Quinlan added. And of this year’s group of 21 New Haven public high school graduates who have been offered spots, all 21 were accepted. (Seventeen of those NHPS-to-Yale students were in attendance at Monday evening’s event.)

The good feelings rolled on as students mingled with staff and each other and nibbled not on our most famous pie, as you might think appropriate at a New Haven love-fest.

Instead, courtesy of Yale Catering services, they ate tasty wedges of ​“Rustic Italian

– mozzarella cheese, pecorino, sweet Italian sausage, pequillo peppers and marinara.”

Who needed pizza, rather apizza — these freshmen are all from New Haven.