Maeve Ricaurte

Hometown: Newport Beach, CA

Major: American Studies

“She’s elegance and taste…” Although she aspired to step onto the USC cheerleading squad once upon a time, Heather May should have considered the world of pageantry.  When she hailed me over to her table at Willoughby’s on a sunny Monday morning, Heather’s cheerful, ringing voice turned heads.  Her commanding smile and undeniable poise catches attention, even of those over-caffeinated grad students.  No wonder, then, that Heather May has taken all fronts of Yale by storm.

Most Californians crumble under the climactic punches thrown by New Haven.  That is, the sudden switch from a tropical heaven to Yale’s cold, icy, hell-frozen-over ambiance usually throws beach bums for a loop.  Not Heather.  She is a self-professed “California girl, definitely…I love going to the beach, nice weather, the outdoors,” but doesn’t mind what she calls a “new, exciting experience,” even though she admits leaving home was hard.  “I lived in California my whole life, in this Newport Beach bubble.  Not that the bubble is a terrible thing, it’s home.  But coming to the northeast opened my eyes and gave me a great new perspective.  I mean, everyday it makes me appreciate things at home in a different way.  I would definitely be a different person if I’d chosen to stay in SoCal.”

Why on earth would Heather willingly choose to leave the land of the sun?  The competition, of course.  “Yale is one of the nation’s best sailing teams.  It was actually the first collegiate sailing team – we were women’s national sailing champs two to three years ago.  Also, as of this past weekend, we are Ivy League Championshions!”

Now that the scene has been set, imagine who is behind the camera.  What kind of person do you see?  A bearded, bohemian hipster, brow-beaten from years of art school and Ramen dinners?  

Think again.  Susannah Benjamin, a darling blond from Greenwich, Connecticut was that very photographer this past August.  How did she beat out all of those aspiring art school graduates?  As soon as we heard about Susannah, we had to know.

Susannah is, in a word,

A proud Irish-American, Susannah speaks lovingly of her “three parents”: her actual parents, who immigrated to America in their mid-twenties, and her Irish nanny, Jojo.  Susannah has the opportunity to visit Ireland at least twice a year.  It is there where she has the opportunity to read, write, and think about her next project.  She cites Ireland as her number one source of inspiration.

When I caught up with Lian in Blue State, she was in the midst of the junior year interview slaughterhouse.  You’ve probably seen the energy-sapped juniors shuffling across campus in business attire.  You can imagine my surprise when, instead a soul-sucked grimace, Lian greeted me with a wide and confident grin.

Lian thrives at Yale.  To see this, all you have to do is check out her list of extracurricular activities: she is an Applied Mathematics major (“I’ve always been very math-minded.  It has always been my academic passion”), she is president of virtually every organization she is involved in, she is a member of Elmseed, and she works for the Yale Student Investment Group.  

Yet, extracurriculars aren’t what define Yale for Lian.  “With the danger of making this sound clichéd, I’d have to say that I appreciate Yale most for its diversity.  That’s not in the socioeconomic or cultural way that most people think of diversity.  Yale is wonderful because it is so diverse in terms of personalities.”

Name:

Major: American Studies

Class: 2012

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

A name can tell you a lot about a person.  It can aptly capture the essence of an individual’s character.  Conner Youngblood: his name rings as mysteriously as a dashing modern vampire-romance-fiction hero.  A person’s voice can also tell you a lot about them.  Check out his website and you will find that Conner’s silky-smooth voice melts hearts as capably as a teen pop sensation’s.

Say what you will, I think a person’s hair is one of their most revealing traits (and not just because its full of secrets).  And so, when Conner and his sensational dreads sauntered into Starbucks, I knew I was in for an adventure.  He graciously invited me to his swanky pad for breakfast and thoughtfully warmed up a plate of Jimmy D’s Pancake Griddle Sticks, pancake batter covering a turkey sausage link on a stick.  I’m sure it’s just an acquired taste thing.

Conner, a member of Yale’s chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, is happy with his college experience, which is always good to hear.  Although American Studies wasn’t his first choice of a major, I personally think it has afforded him more time to make the incredible music that he travels up and down the East Coast to perform in his free time.