Name: Vanessa Noelte
College: ES ‘16
Intended Major: HSHM (History of Science History of Medicine); Pre-Med
Hometown: Seekonk, MA
The first time I saw Vanessa Noelte was the first day of official classes this fall. Although she arrived a few minutes late, she bound in with such energy and charisma that no one (not even the Professor) was bothered by or cared about the trivial tardiness; instead, the class was captivated by the spunky, healthy, smiling young woman, who emoted a vibe that made clear she conquered all aspects of her life with an optimistic, “go-getter” attitude. Not only was she on top of her game, adding unique and insightful comments to the shared seminar, but she also surprised her peers when, as her fun fact by which the Professor might remember her, she announced herself as a feminist and stated cheetah print as her favorite pattern to sport – explaining the importance of power and individuality represented in both, therefore, over the course of a sentence long burst of freshness, overturning certain obvious social prejudices and stereotypes about the quintessential feminist.
Since then I have had the pleasure of attending the same seminar as Vanessa, working on one group project together, and getting to know her personally and thus as a valued friend outside the classroom. So it is a delight to feature her as a campus celebrity, qualified for the title based on her position as one of only four Heptathletes and Pentatheletes on Yale Track and Field, her award recognized achievements as a leading representative for the company Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, and her appointment as the Director of Integrated Medicine at Yale Medical School by Dr. Ali, a groundbreaking achievement because no undergraduate has even been appointed this position in the history of the school, let alone a freshman in her first semester at Yale. Basically, one may accurately describe Vanessa as a super-star all around…
HC: So tell me about positions and events on Yale Track and Field.
VN: In Track and Field I am called a Heptathlete and a Pentathelete, because during outdoor track and field competitions I compete in 7 events and during indoor track and field competitions I compete in 5. Also, my outdoor specialty is the 400 hurdles. Next year I will probably be the only one who competes in this event, or one of very few.
HC: You also work as a representative for a company and have received awards for your contributions. Tell me about that.
VN: I work as a representative for a company called Ava Anderson Non-Toxic. When you start you have to meet certain sales requirements of the products within specific timeframes. So every month you have standards. I hit both standards of the first two months by the first month, an achievement for which I got awards. I also received 2 stars within my first few months of working, which is not typical, and was awarded one of the Top 10 Sellers in the Nation in August. You get a star when you bring someone else onto the team. I brought in my chiropractor, who works at practice Malik Chiropractic, and my yoga studio instructor, who works at studio Yoga One.
HC: Can you tell me about the history of the company?
VN: Yes. The story of the company starts when Ava Anderson was in high school. She was disgusted by ingredients used in cosmetic and personal hygiene products, so one day she threw all of her own and her mom’s products away. Her mom then decided to hire a chemist specifically to make products that were chemically safe. These products were the basis for those in the company today and her goal to produce a line of chemically harmless, nontoxic substances is why I trust the products so much. Her family had a history in door-to-door marketing and sales, which is how she decided to sell her products door-to-door, to be proactive about selling them and raising awareness about the issue, rather than letting the products sit on shelves in stores.
HC: How did you first get involved with Ava Anderson Non-Toxic?
VN: I did cancer research in high school, in my local area, on bladder cancer clusters. By doing this research I figured out there are all of these horrible ingredients in foods, the environment, and especially in female body products. Being a feminist (I am all for female empowerment) made me frame the issue as tragic for females because in my view they are forced to be more prone and susceptible to harm from chemicals and carcinogens because of the constructs of society that say women must use beauty products that contain toxins. It makes me so mad because of research facts that reveal, and I am paraphrasing, that females put 200 or more carcinogens on their body not just in one day, but in one morning alone! So after my research I started looking for body products that were actually natural instead of ones that merely claimed to be natural. I had heard about Ava Anderson before but the stars aligned when my aunt threw an Ava Anderson party and I was able to talk to the person running it about wanting to get involved.
HC: Now that you are a student at Yale, how do you stay involved in working as a representative of this company?
VN: It is much harder to meet sales requirements because Yale does not allow the sale of outside products on its campus. However, I now participate and have become an influential member in weekly and monthly conference calls, where I am respected as a Yalie and therefore am able to discuss ideas to make as much of an impact as possible by taking the company from national standing to global standing. Also another long-term goal of mine, most likely ultimately separate from involvement with this company, is to travel around the world to talk about carcinogens in the environment. People are simply not aware of the dangers and in fact through research it is found that we could prevent up to 90 percent of deaths due to cancer (since 10 percent is genetic and the other 90 percent is environmental) if only we approach the topic correctly! We obviously are not doing that right now and since I am very passionate about this topic I feel like this is “my thing” to go off and change.
HC: Now, tell me about your involvement with the Yale Medical Center. I know you are the first ever undergraduate to be appointed as the Director of Integrated Medicine, so what does the entail and how did you earn the position?
VN: At the Yale Medical Center I am involved in MBSR, which stands for mindful based stress reduction research, with Doctor Ali. We are doing research to see how many hours a week fibro myalgia patients will do mindfulness based activities (i.e. yoga and meditation). We are trying to see if this meditation is helping their symptoms, or if it helps pain levels to be mindful for a certain number of hours every day. We also var the number of hours per group to see which number of hours is optimal. Dr. Ali run the Integrative Medicine at Yale. As you mentioned he appointed me the Director of Integrated Medicine at Yale’s Medical School which is particularly exciting because I am the first undergraduate to be appointed to this position, where before it had only been given to medical students. The work entails coordinating really cool people to come talk about complimentary and alternative medicine, meaning learning about natural medicine practices and traditional versus alternative methods.
HC: What made you become interested in this area of studies?
VN: This type of thing interests me because I went to a mindfulness conference called Foundations For Teaching and Learning where I learned a lot of Buddhist ideas, learned the idea of interdependence (that we are all connected to each other and listen to each others background noises), did meditation for the world and for other people, and had the opportunity to listen to speakers who changed my mind about things and improved me as a person. So because of that conference and a Chinese medicine seminar, where I learned about Chinese medical practices, I really developed an interest in alternative medicine and health practices. Because of that I am also going to Leon Spain this summer to internship with a natural medicine doctor in one of the main hospitals there. I am hoping (we are still in the process of coordinating this right now) to teach fibro myalgia patients at the hospital mindful-based practices that I am able to teach because of attending those conferences.
HC: Briefly what other notable groups or activities are you involved with both on campus and off?
VN: I am part of Ymindful. So I take part in mindful eating on Thursdays and I even led the meditation with another girl this past week. I am involved with the Women’s Center because I am a feminist and agree with their focus on women empowerment. I also identify as “First Nation” because I am a Native Canadian, which is why I am involved with the NACC (Native American Cultural Center). (In response to my confused look when she cited the term “First Nation” she explained…) Like Native American is used to described those from tribes in the United States and indigenous is used to described those from places in Mexico and South America, First Nation is used to described those from Canada. So I am a part of the Mi’kmaq tribe from Nova-Scotia. I like to draw on my natural roots of being a native Canadian and use connections to their practices to learn more about myself via native community. I teach yoga and beach yoga locally in my town, but am hoping to be certified to teach on a larger basis in the near future. This summer I am going to Plum Village in France to meditate and be mindful with Buddhist monks and every summer I take part in MS150. I put a team together and each of us bikes 150 miles through the Northeast in two days. The event raises money for multiple sclerosis. My mom is a physical therapist, so I have seen first hand patients deteriorating and it strikes a chord in my heart.