“Shift your gaze, shift your weight, form a curve…”
…instructed Emily Coates, Professor in the Practice of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. If anyone told me I would be in the Auditorium on Wall Street twisting, curving, and looking away, imitating a malfunctioning robot, I would have called them crazy. Yet here I was, at Yale University learning about dance history and its intricacies, watching philosophy Professor, Shelly Kagan play devil’s advocate to every possible solution to the “Trolley Problem” we proposed, and reading Emily Dickison’s “tell all the truth but tell it slant”, stepping miles out of my comfort zone.
It all began in the middle of November when Yale Young African Scholars Alumni had just been sent a reminder to apply for the YALE YOUNG GLOBAL SCHOLARS program that could potentially land me on Yale’s campus, and the word “nervous” barely captures the whirlwind of emotions that surged through me at the very thought. I logged into the portal to view the application and the first prompt was scary enough. With a hiss of distress, I opened another tab on my browser, deciding to focus on the present. It turned out I would not submit an application for the Early Decision pool. Gathering the courage over the holidays, I finally knuckled down to begin the application. As I was applying in the regular decision pool I did not expect much. I can’t explain the joy I felt when the decisions came in and I was going to be spending my summer at Yale University.
Many months later, in the Pierson Courtyard giving Handsome Dan celebrity treatment, I was so glad I took a bet on myself. I was in the midst of 599 other teenagers from all around the world all on one campus. What mattered was not that I’d done STEM all my life but was placed in Literature, Philosophy and Culture. If anything, I got to explore the many other sides of myself I hadn’t even known existed. Rather, it was the jokes shared during family time, the unending UNO games in the basement and the dinning hall conversations that have made YYGS memorable.
So, dear reader…this is your cue to take a bet on yourself and start drafting those essays. If you finally get accepted, immerse yourself in it all. From the speaker series to the multiple seminars to the work towards your capstone project. Make every second count because the “two week program” does slip through your fingers quite fast. Don’t worry about finding friends. On exit day, your one wish will probably be that you spoke to a lot more people.
Evergreen, YYAS 2022, YYGS 2024, Nigeria & UK