New Haven

Connecticut Scholars Shine!

After a very wet Friday, the sun broke through the clouds on Saturday, April 11, as members of the New Haven community congregated at Henry R. Luce Hall for the 2010 Carson Scholars Awards ceremony.  This new venue for the Connecticut chapter is named after Henry R. Luce, voted by his yale graduating class as "most brilliant", who became a prolific publisher and founded several well-known magazines including TIME, Fortune, LIFE and Sports Illustrated.  And this venue just so happens to be located across the street from the President of Yale's house.

The 10am VIP reception was held on the lovely upper level lounge, which sports an entire wall of glass yielding beautiful views as a backdrop for photo ops with Dr. and Mrs. Carson.  Scholars and their families from 2009 and 2010 were present as well as several dignitaries from Yale University.

At 11am, the group descended to the main level auditorium, where a powerpoint presentation on a huge screen highlighting Yale's community outreach formed the background of the stage.  The awards program was opened by Michael Morand, Associate Vice President of Yale University for New Haven and State Affairs.  His presentation included Yale Unversity's outreach into the community over the past few years and its effectiveness, including the Carson Scholars program.

Claudia Merson, Yale Director of Public School Partnerships, followed Mike's opening comments with thank yous to all who helped in organizing the ceremony including donors, parents and educators.

After Dr. Carson addressed the group with thoughts on current events, he charged the young people to continue to prepare themselves so they can help to maintain and even better our country's situation in the world.

Yale Student interns, Lynda Blancato (2011) and Daniel Edeza (2010) alternated reading the bios of the 2010 Carson Scholar awardees, as each one approached the stage and posed by the lecturn for all the view their brilliance!  After the bio, the scholar processed across the stage to receive their certificate and medal from Dr. and Mrs. Carson, and a special gift from annual donor Chris Alexander, who founded the New Haven Book Center, which provides books for local children.

To close out the program, Dr. Mayo, Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools presented his charge to the students, and expressed his appreciation to the Carsons and the Carson Scholars Fund staff.


Many thanks to Claudia Merson, for leading the charge in organizing the event, Yale University and Bruce Alexander , of the Yale Office of New Haven and State Affairs, and his wife, Chris for their generous donations, and the educators, parents and community leaders who have made this all possible!