Year: 2014
College: Jonathan Edwards
Major: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Hometown: Mequon, WI (Oconomowoc, WI in the Summers)
Beau Palin is next year’s Football captain and by far one of our most selfless Campus Cuties. We talked about gearing up for senior year with his teammates and his activities on campus. After hearing so much about his talent for barefoot waterskiing, we scoured Youtube for the jaw-dropping videos of his entire family skidding across Lake Oconomowoc on their bare feet. The Youtube link is at the bottom of the interview- prepare to be wowed. Read on to hear more about this ‘Murica-lovin football star!
Rapid Fire Questions:
Your Anthem: “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan
Favorite Party Theme: “Sun’s out Guns out”
Celebrity crush: Ragnar’s wife in Vikings (Katheryn Winnick)
Secret Talent: Barefoot waterskiing
Favorite place in New Haven: Lighthouse Point Beach pier
HC: Most embarrassing moment?
BP: Ever? I was six in Walmart and I saw a bright red toy fire truck and I got so excited that I peed in my pants and it got all over the floor.
HC: You are going to be football captain next year, what are you most looking forward to?
BP: Having my teammates greet me as we gather up after the coin toss.
HC: What are some of your favorite traditions on the Football team?
BP: Bulldog walk- it’s where we link arms and walk from our locker room to the Yale bowl. And singing the fight song to the stands after home wins and chanting in the locker after wins.
HC: What is your favorite Yale memory?
BP: Going to Gettysburg with the rising senior class football players and General McChrystal. General (ret.) Stanley McChrystal is doing a whole leadership development program with our team- part of it is taking the rising senior class, so this year’s junior football players to Gettysburg to learn about leadership, the battle of Gettysburg, we all went for a run, it was awesome.
HC: What do you want to be remembered for at Yale?
BP: Personally? Someone who was passionate about being involved in something greater than himself…and a great mullet.
HC: What is the Warrior Scholar Project that you are a part of?
BP: It helps military veterans transition from combat to college. The veterans use the GI bill to go to school for free, but a lot of them end up dropping out of college because they don’t know how to translate their skills into the academic setting or relate to undergraduates. So the Warrior Scholar Project helps to smooth those transitions, it really works. A lot of those guys have so much life experience, I end up learning a lot more from them than I’m able to teach them.
HC: How did the Warrior Scholar Project begin?
BP: Jesse Reising ’11 was a Yale football player and aspiring marine. When he hurt his neck in the Yale-Harvard football game, his dream of becoming a marine ended and so he decided to serve those who were serving in his place. We have a two week long academic boot camp in the first two weeks of June that is held at Yale, with Yale professors, and the veterans stay in Yale dorms, but it’s not Yale funded.
HC: Alright, switching gears, who is your ideal girl?
BP: Ideal: Beautiful, sense of humor, big heart, smart, and I’d like to breed for speed and a powerful hang clean.
HC: And perfect date?
BP: I’ll pull a Miss Congeniality and say July 4th.
HC: What’s your favorite thing to do outside of class and football?
BP: Barefoot waterskiing and hanging with my siblings- three brothers and one sister. I grew up on a lake staying on my Grandparent’s property in the summers. My older siblings taught me how to barefoot waterski when I was 7, it’s really fun.
HC: What are you doing this summer?
BP: Staying in New Haven all summer- working out in Camp “SWOL” with the team. Taking organic chemistry, doing some research and the Warrior Scholar Project. Jumping off Lighthouse Point beach pier.
HC: Yale girls are the best because….
BP: They are pretty, smart, and have a biting sense of humor that I like.
And most of all April Palin ’06 (my sister in law. Wife of eldest brother Drew Palin ’06)
Just in case you were curious what Barefoot Waterskiing looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01b7-WQ73hU
^^the Palin family barefoot waterskiing to Beau’s favorite song!