Kate Selker

Yale opens many doors, but doesn’t help us pick.

A fork in the road on Old Campus. Perhaps I will be a teacher when I grow up. I taught this summer—and it was wonderful. There was Ryder, who’s tiny, and writes with neat handwriting, and Jenna, who walks that fine line between popular and kind. There’s Raheem, who, at eleven years old, is an adorable lump, and Jorge, who doesn’t know how to be cool, who has the most earnest eyes and the most staggering optimism. When you’re a teacher, each day brings rollicking. . . Read more

Faith and romance at Yale.

Leah Libresco ’12 hoped that her boyfriend Chris Pagiriella ’12 could find her a very particular Valentine’s Day Card. “I told him he didn’t have to get me one unless he could find one that said, ‘I love you so much that I am accidentally condemning you to hell by wishing you existed,” she tells me. He looked, “but it wasn’t in the Yale Bookstore! Not the first or second floor,” Chris laments. They share a quick kiss on the lips. The romantic sentiment, which. . . Read more

The Yale Divinity School talks disarmament.

Standing in the Yale Divinity School common room, beneath the benevolent gaze of portraits of deans past, were a Navy officer, a United Nations diplomat, and a slew of clergy from around the country. They were mostly white, mostly male, and mostly middle-aged—not the usual demographic to be discussing “vulnerability.” But as the room filled with the melodies of choir practice from across the quad, the crowd spoke of an “anxious age.” Though the only weapons on the premises were special YDS ballpoint pens poised. . . Read more

A New Haven charter school treads uncommon ground.

It’s 1:45 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon, and Alexis Wilcox is leading twelve high-schoolers balancing five-pound medicine balls in their hands up a large hill. Students who’d rather play hooky than suffer the haul may find themselves making a 6 a.m. “sunrise hike” the next morning—no student in Ms. Wilcox’s class gets away without making up for an absence. She tolerates neither tardiness nor poor discipline. Each student has exactly three minutes to get dressed in athletic clothes, and even the slightest infraction is punished.. . . Read more

Yale workers struggle with child care.

Some would say the basement kitchen of Davenport’s dining hall is no place for a child. Massive knives, fierce sieves, gargantuan ovens and freezers a hippo could get lost in are some of the kitchen’s most obvious perils. A body four feet high could easily disappear in the fray. But others might note the fun of seeing pastries get iced or watching soup bubble in big pots. Practically everything gleams. And few could deny that the upstairs dining area holds even more appeal. Even college. . . Read more