Don’t get me wrong — I have spent most of my time at the News doing meaningful reporting, forging strong connections with my community and building friendships that will last far beyond this place. But at a certain point, the intensity of the negatives outweighs any of the positives. 

I ran for editor in chief during elections last semester. While I received praise from some due to my work and ideas, allegations that misrepresented personal situations were made against me during deliberations when I was not in the room. From what I’ve been told by over a dozen people, someone spoke about a callous comment I made that caused them harm months before, which from my recollection was not what I said and taken out of context. Everything devolved. Those with control over elections weren’t successful in stopping repeated attacks on my character or the faction of the room that interrupted and discredited anyone who dared to speak up for me. I felt failed by leadership, who I believe handled the situation poorly.

As a result, I felt forced to speak in front of 50 people about an incident of sexual misconduct I experienced at a fraternity to contextualize my comment, which I still maintain was not in line with what I recall saying. I want to make clear I don’t discount the harm I caused, even if unintentionally. I was still absolutely unfairly villainized by multiple people — including people I had never made eye contact with, let alone spoken to.

This was by far the most humiliating moment of my life. Before this, I had told a grand total of one friend about my experience at the frat. When the editor in chief called me back to the News building later that day for questions, almost no one would make eye contact with me.

When I looked over toward my friends and people with prior knowledge of the situation, they just shook their heads, and one told me, “I’m sorry.” 

I struggled to breathe and stay composed as I apologized and attempted to explain my experience with sexual misconduct. Some people rolled their eyes. Many scribbled down notes about me to distribute to others around the room. 

When I went back to my dorm after my election, I had a panic attack over the phone with my mom. Several people still encouraged me to come back for managing editor elections, and I did. I gave a new speech and tried not to shake and cry in front of the same people who sat by or made popcorn gallery remarks while I was being degraded hours earlier. Once again, I lost, but I agreed to become the City Desk editor. Partly because I love my desk and was still happy with the role in itself, and because I was scared of what quitting would mean for my career in journalism. But mostly out of a lack of self-respect. 

Even before elections, my relationship with the organization was souring. Various people made discouraging comments about my candidacy to my face and behind my back. 

Certain comments chipped away at my self-confidence and eroded my willpower. Even more disheartening were comments I heard about others. I won’t lie and say I hadn’t made any questionable comments either, but many things I heard about other people were downright cruel and slanderous. I tried to drop my candidacy thrice and was convinced otherwise every time — including by people who criticized me during deliberations. 

After elections, I began hearing about the digs and insulting comments some people continued to make about me. Eventually, my sadness turned into resentment and anger. I couldn’t fathom that I was expected to be in a room every day with people who spoke about me behind my back, as well as ‘friends’ who listened to them disparage me. That was when I realized that I could count the number of people I was truly comfortable around on one hand. 

Most of the people who did so, a friend noted one day, were white. I am a woman of color. I already knew that white women have decided throughout history that women of color don’t count as victims of sexual violence the way they do, but I hadn’t realized the way it worked here. Friends told me about white women who jumped onto attacks on me during deliberations and then discussed how overwhelming the situation was for them personally after the fact. My pain carried none of the weight that anyone else’s did, including that of people who weren’t involved at all. Despite me having to bear my soul about my own experience with sexual misconduct in front of over 50 people in the same hour, they didn’t afford me any of the same humanity they afforded themselves.

It was mortifying for several people to raise shouts over my apparent dismissal of sexual misconduct at Yale due to a comment that I believe was misconstrued. I have been subject to sexual misconduct multiple times and I survived domestic violence throughout most of my childhood. But to many people at the News, I’m not a person. I’m an outline of a character that they were too eager to pile onto the hate train for. 

The next morning, food started tasting weird. For some reason, I could only stomach bananas. It reminded me of when I had the flu. I was too lethargic to get out of bed, too vulnerable to sit in the Elm, where News members like to camp out throughout the day. I got extensions on nearly all of my finals because I lost the will to continue. Telling the story again and again to my incredulous friends made me numb. No matter how many times people who were at the election itself tried to cheer me up by buying me coffee or ice cream, nothing helped. Some nights, I felt I couldn’t breathe. 

My election hadn’t just ruined the Yale Daily News for me. It ruined Yale as a whole. 

The events of last semester nearly decimated my drive to become a journalist. I told myself that if this was the culture of the often-competitive industry at large, it wasn’t worth it. I started to gain my sense of self-worth back when I worked at a professional newspaper this summer. Being in a newsroom with good, encouraging people showed me the industry doesn’t have to be this way. I slowly realized that I deserve much, much better than what the News did to me. 

I’m not alone. During my two years at Yale, this was the fourth time a person of color who ran for upper management quit from their editorship after being negatively targeted in elections. Most of their tenures post-elections were short-lived, as was mine. You can only push a person so far before they’ve had enough. 

My breaking point was receiving emails and texts from prospective writers excited to join my desk. At first, I was thrilled to help people along their paths to become more active community members or journalists. But as I made plans for brunches and coffee dates, I realized I felt unable to tell first years and sophomores in good faith to join an organization that has repeatedly tried to destroy its members. 

In the words of a former editor who tried to console me after elections, this is “structurally a shitty place because it often props up people who are bullies or status-obsessed.” That’s what happened before elections with the discouraging comments about myself and cruel comments about others. To get to the top, people feel they need to step on others who might threaten them. As for during my election, I believe that criticizing me felt like a rite of passage or means of participation for some people who chimed in without stake. But those who ultimately dominated the conversation were upperclassman editors with power in the organization. I was a sophomore reporter. 

I have been told that leadership is making efforts to improve the cultural and structural problems that have led to the mistreatment of myself and others. But so far, this situation has not been publicly addressed. Organization-wide, the record hasn’t been set straight — not about what happened to me and not about atrocious, unfair or racist deliberations that preceded resignations after the two previous elections. 

In addition, casually and not-so-casually disparaging people around elections has become normalized to the point where close friends, including some of mine, have done it to each other. Not to mention the racial biases that have defined experiences here for over a century. It’s difficult to change a broken culture from the bottom up, no matter how well-intentioned the people at the top are. I personally feel I’m enabling all of this by just being at the YDN, period. 

The News has created a hostile environment for some that others gloss over and minimize. There’s a retention problem — especially among people of color. I’m the second A-section desk editor to quit in the past two weeks because “maybe this place isn’t worth devoting time to anymore.” 

It’s a shame that the place where I once spent countless nights becoming a sharper, more passionate reporter has become the place where I hit rock bottom. More than being a training ground for talent and tenacity, it’s become a training ground for jealousy, slander and apathy towards the suffering of others.

MEGAN VAZ is a junior in Pierson College. She formerly was a city editor at the News and can be reached at megan.vaz@yale.edu.

SHARE is available to all members of the Yale community who are dealing with sexual misconduct of any kind, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, intimate partner violence and more. Counselors are available any time, day or night, at the 24/7 hotline: (203) 432-2000. 

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After almost one year of free public buses across the state due to a surge in oil prices and record-high costs of living, travelers across the state had to resume paying fares for buses on Saturday. Connecticut legislation to extend free public bus fares stalled as New Haven State Representative Roland Lemar, who co-chairs the state legislature’s transportation committee, argued the state did not have enough funding to pay for the program. 

Proponents of extending the state’s free public bus system have argued that the program helped alleviate cost-of-living worries as Connecticut residents have faced inflation of six to eight percent, an average rent increase of roughly 20 percent and stagnating wages. Moreover, local bus riders have expressed frustration over the state’s decision to deprioritize accessibility while managing one of its largest budget reserves in state history. 

“Statistically, this also translates to disproportionately punishing poor people, women, young people, seniors, and Black and brown people,” said local bus rider Stasia Brewczynski. “We need authority figures to stop thinking with car-brains and start looking for every opportunity to reward and incentivize people moving without private cars and trucks.”

Now that the fare-free program has expired, most travelers must pay $6.40 for an All-day 2 Zones pass, with prices increasing for each additional zone. Riders may also purchase 31-day passes, which range from $108.80 to $204 based on traveling zone range.

Free public buses “not a priority” for Lemar, state legislative transportation committee

Last week, Lemar told WNHH FM that while he supports the concept of free public buses, he wishes to change the funding mechanism currently used to pay for it. 

When the state passed emergency measures to fight against rising oil prices and inflation, which included free bus fares, it utilized money outside of the normal state budgeting process of the general funds, according to Lemar. 

“I want the bus service to be free—but I want the general fund to pay for it,” Lemar told WNHH FM. 

Lemar argued that the state legislature can fund other initiatives to better encourage people to “ditch their cars” and use public transportation. He cited data that he reviewed during the legislative process to determine priorities for his committee, which he said showed that people “were not making the choice: instead of driving today, I’ll take the bus because it’s free.” 

Lemar also added that he heard testimony during the committee process from Connecticut residents who were more worried about the buses running on time and being safe than the cost of the fare itself. 

Lemar did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the News about the potential impacts of the reimposition of fares on poorer residents. 

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker told the News that he hopes to work with state and federal partners to bring the program back in the future, dubbing free public bus fares as a “win-win.” 

“I ride the bus all the time, and what I heard time and time again throughout the pilot program is that people love it,” Elicker wrote to the News. “Residents are able to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks in their pockets, it promotes the use of public transportation and reduces the number of cars on our streets, and it makes an already convenient commute even easier, faster and more hassle-free.” 

Residents speak of economic hardship caused by bus fares 

Brewczynski argued that charging fares will discourage people from using buses altogether, which poses a problem in a city where most residents live in car-free or “car-light” households. 

According to the nonprofit Datahaven’s 2023 Community Wellbeing Index for the greater New Haven area, about 34 percent of local adults making under $30,000 per year experience “transportation insecurity” without reliable access to a vehicle. Black and Latino households are far more likely to lack access to a personal vehicle, especially in those without any employed adults. 

Some bus riders told the News that they are experiencing homelessness and heavily relied on the fare-free program for access to food, job opportunities and medical appointments. 

King Latif Manns, an unhoused person who rode the bus regularly before fares were announced, told the News that he thinks fares will hurt those of lower socioeconomic classes most. Latif Manns has stopped riding the bus since the change.

“I feel they should think about how many people they were helping and how many people suffer at the fact that the buses started faring people,” Latif Manns said. “It’s tax money, but also we the people are the taxpayers.”

Some bus riders also raised concerns over reduced transportation access for those with disabilities. All Connecticut buses are equipped with wheelchair lifts and ramps, and most are able to accommodate mobility devices like walkers. 

One homeless rider, who was granted anonymity to protect his privacy,  expressed disappointment with the return of fares. He is disabled and uses a walker. 

“I’m disabled, I’m homeless,” he said. “I can’t walk to my appointments — we don’t want to pay.”

Senior citizens and those with “qualifying disabilities” are currently eligible for reduced fares, with all-day passes selling for half the normal price.

Kate Chebik, who works at the community center MakeHaven, told the News that the workshop strategically chose to move its space to a downtown location due to its proximity to several bus routes. The move sought to maximize accessibility for all bus users, especially those who are most socioeconomically disadvantaged.

“New Haven had a real opportunity to be a model for public transportation with fare free buses,” Chebik wrote. “It seems logical that removing the cost of the bus makes the bus more accessible for those with limited incomes, and also moves to encourage ridership among all people.”

35 legislators serve on the Connecticut state legislature’s transportation committee.

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Presented by Mayor Justin Elicker and University President Peter Salovey, the awards highlighted a diverse range of efforts to contribute to the Elm City. These initiatives included educational training programs for Yalies and New Haveners seeking to serve local public schools, job support systems for residents going into the bioscience and technology sectors, efforts to promote academic life throughout the city and a mutual aid program helping those experiencing economic hardship.

Elm Awards are traditionally given to New Haven groups or individuals, while Ivy Awards traditionally go to Yale affiliates. The awards, which have been presented annually for the past four decades, briefly took a hiatus before resuming on Tuesday for the first time since 2018.

“I think I’m particularly mindful of wanting to be a good citizen, because I have lived now for a little more than two years in the Dwight area, along with a lot of students,” undergraduate awardee Josie Steuer Ingall ’24 told the News. “I think the best thing that we can do is think about how we can consciously practice citizenship and being good neighbors in ways that are independent of Yale.”

Steuer Ingall oversees and publicly advocates for the Dwight Community Fridge, which directly provides people with fresh food, sanitary products and other necessities to fight food insecurity in the community. Under her supervision, the fridge has been able to secure donations from hundreds of New Haveners and Yale affiliates, benefiting those who may not have access to traditional food banks.

Sabrina Breland, principal of the East Rock Community & Cultural Studies Magnet School, received an award alongside Ron Coleman, a math coach and mentor at the school. Breland and Coleman’s “brainchild” — an after-school math intervention training program for students — has recruited and trained Yale students as assistants to New Haven teachers, giving them enrichment mentorship opportunities where they can work directly with public school students.

Breland emphasized the importance of supporting students as schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created gaps in learning. Currently, the program looks to continue its work in the coming years despite cuts to previously-secured funding.

“Right now, we’re working with the district and with our partnership with Yale to make sure we can continue to support our students, because they have huge gaps because of Covid,” Breland said. “I think we offer so much to our city, and so does Yale. And I think together, we’re working to make it a better place for all of our students.”

Another after-school program, run by Gladys Mwilelo of Integrated Refugees and Immigration Services, paired local refugee students with Yale mentors, students and organizations during the pandemic to promote enrichment and arts education. The Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, which is directed by Yale and New Haven community members, also received an award for its summer academic program for local students.

Other awardees included Josie Jayworth GRD ’24 and Lam Vo GRD ’26, who promote science learning for families and students across New Haven through the Open Labs program. Open Labs has hosted public events including science fairs, interactive demonstrations and conversations with experienced Yale scientists.

Craig Crews, the John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, received an award for his business contributions to New Haven’s emerging biosciences hub, especially with regards to connecting locals with job opportunities.

“It’s been a real pleasure to be able to translate some of that academic work into the private sector through starting some companies,” Crews said. “The last four companies that I started, I wanted to happen here locally. We’re trying to find out how to open doors for those parts of our community that are underserved and giving them opportunities.”

Heather Dawn Reynolds, lecturer at the Yale School of Nursing, was also given an Ivy Award. Reynolds, who has worked extensively with New Haven’s Board of Health, has taken steps to boost health equity in the city and provide families with health education. 

Yale affiliates Matt Jacobson, Sterling Professor of American Studies and History, and Karin Roffman, Senior Lecturer in Humanities, English and American Studies, were honored for their work with the Public Humanities at Yale program. Public Humanities at Yale has academically engaged New Haveners through events ranging from museum exhibitions to book club meetings, often working with public libraries. 

“I’m always looking for new ways that we can cooperate. We want Yale to be the most civically engaged university,” Salovey said at the event. “I am thrilled with all of the ways in which partnerships have developed and are developing.”

The first Elm-Ivy Awards were held in 1980.

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Locals of different racial backgrounds, income levels, residential areas and age groups were assigned “Wellbeing Index Scores,” which researchers calculated by assessing trends across a variety of social determinants. Factors taken into account included education access and outcomes, poverty rates, encounters with the criminal justice system, homelessness and experiences with the healthcare system, all of which demonstrated stark differences in the overall wellbeing of those living in the same region.

The city of New Haven scored 389 out of 1000 on the Community Wellbeing Index, far lower than the scores of other Greater New Haven towns — most of which scored above 900 — and the state as a whole.

“It’s sobering how some of the big issues of today are revealed in this survey, like the housing prices — how the rents have risen and just how high the cost burden is,” said Matthew Higbee of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, who helped write the report. “We just think that accurate and reliable data about our community is essential for marking progress.”

The report combined the individual responses of over 40,000 residents to Datahaven surveys and live interviews with records from local police departments, state and local departments of education and public health, housing and real estate agencies, the U.S. Census and other public sources.

Using such sources, the Index includes scores from 0 to 1000 on “community wellbeing,” which takes into account statistics on social determinants like homeownership and childhood poverty, as well as  “personal wellbeing” based on community members’ self-reported experiences. 

Within Greater New Haven, the Black and Latine populations received lower well being scores than the white population, which researchers and community figures attributed to a long history of systemic racism. The report also highlighted forms of racial segregation throughout neighborhoods that impact the quality of life, which Datahaven Executive Director Mark Abraham tied to redlining.

“Many neighborhoods in Connecticut for a long time wouldn’t allow people of color to move into them,” Abraham told the News. “And there are many other policies that basically prevented especially black residents in the state from accumulating wealth over time. And that’s also particularly evident if you look at things like, does the neighbor have healthy trees and parks? So neighborhoods that are well off often have well maintained trees, and that affects your health.”

White residents of Greater New Haven are far more likely to live near other white people than any other demographic group, according to the report. Low-diversity, whiter neighborhoods were also more likely to be higher income. 

New Haven residents generally experience more economic hardship than residents of neighboring towns and the state. According to the report, one-quarter of New Haveners live in poverty and 49 percent are considered low-income; in Connecticut, both the poverty rate and low-income rate are under half of the New Haven statistics.

“A lot of times people will think of Connecticut as a prosperous area, which it is overall, but you still have communities that are struggling within the state,” Abraham said.

In several areas, the report demonstrated the detrimental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on community-wide prosperity, as well as its role in exacerbating social disparities. From 2020 to 2022, home prices rose seven times faster than they did in the previous two years; monthly rents rose over three times faster. Although governments aimed to alleviate the burden of housing costs during the pandemic through eviction moratoriums, monthly eviction filings eventually began to far surpass pre-pandemic levels.

“Chronic absenteeism” — which occurs when a student misses at least ten percent class time in a school year — skyrocketed due to the pandemic, most acutely impacting Black and Latine students, as well as those eligible for free and reduced price meals. Despite a return to in-person learning, rates have remained high.

“Regardless of where that trend goes in the next few years, there’s some sort of concern that it may have an impact on families for many years, because that was just a lot of school missed,” Abraham said. “Over five or 10 years, that can impact whether people will have graduated, or be prepared to go to college.”

Abraham additionally emphasized the importance of incorporating holistic measures of wellbeing into scores, which Datahaven prioritized through surveys and interviews with individuals. 

These measures focused on self-reported experiences, with the report finding relationships between one’s race or income and the likelihood of having reliable access to transportation, experiencing mental health problems and experiencing threats of eviction, for example. A higher percentage of people of color reported having issues with each of these life factors than white people did.

Experiences with gun violence also heavily influenced residents’ trust in their local communities and feelings of overall safety. 13 percent of New Haveners reported witnessing a shooting in the past year, and 47 percent of residents stated they feared gun violence. While 87 percent of Connecticut residents agreed that they trust their neighbors, only 67 percent of New Haven residents said the same.

At a DataHaven report launch at the state capitol on March 13, researcher Kelly Davila spoke about the relationship between experiences with shootings, feelings of personal safety, incarceration and housing stability in regions, emphasizing that various wellbeing factors are intertwined.

“Research increasingly shows that housing stability — both in terms of financial stability for people in homes and also housing rehabilitation — is linked to a reduction in gun violence,” Davila said. “We see the same relationship and trends in areas where people report that it’s a nice place to raise children and areas where you feel safer at night.”

Surveys also asked for residents’ personal outlooks on community-wide issues, including whether they thought local children would find success later in life, whether they believed other community members would find suitable access to employment and whether they approved of the local police and government. 

As compared to 76 percent of white residents, 54 percent of Latine residents and 45 percent of Black residents in Greater New Haven said they approved of the local police, with an average of 68 percent approval across the region. The rate of police approval in Connecticut as a whole was even higher at 75 percent. In the city of New Haven, it was 42 percent.

Contributors and researchers emphasized that they hope report findings guide policymakers, especially with regards to addressing deep-rooted social and economic inequities.

“I hope [leaders] aim to have outcomes that reduce disparities that we see in the index based on race and where people live,” Higbee said.  “It’s really everybody in every organization, both in government, nonprofit, and in the private sector, thinking about ways of working differently so that we can as a society start to reduce the disparities that we’re seeing and create more opportunity.”

As of 2020, New Haven is home to about 135,081 people.

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Despite visits from LCI and the New Haven Health Department, the mold was never removed. C. said Ocean Management only sent someone to look at the mold after she and her family had cleaned the room themselves.

“We were quarantining, stuck in one room for a long period of time,” C. said. “Then one day we just put our masks on and cleaned it.”

After the Health Department became involved, C. discovered another problem: her son had tested positive for elevated blood lead levels. In response to the lead test, the Health Department moved her family to a different Ocean Management property, where rent was higher.

When the Health Department came to test the new apartment, they found traces of lead there, too. 

“My youngest child is now walking, and the lead is in the floor,” C. said. 

Ocean Management did not respond to a request for comment. 

Most homes were built before 1978 — the year using lead paint in residential buildings was banned — meaning the vast majority of homes in New Haven contain lead in their structures. The News previously reported that cases of lead exposure disproportionately occur among children living in low-income, older and poorly maintained properties; New Haven’s percentage of children under the age of six with elevated blood lead levels are also over triple that of the state.

According to Francesca Maviglia, a postgraduate associate at the Yale School of Medicine and organizer with the Connecticut Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, C.’s prolonged struggle to get her landlord to address poor living conditions is not uncommon among New Haven tenants. 

“A lot of tenants are very skeptical of the system because in many cases, they have tried to use [the LCI] and they have not really seen any of the issues resolved in a timely manner and not seen the landlord be held accountable when they need to be,” Maviglia said. “From our perspective, it seems like the process with the city is broken and trust among the tenants is broken.”

The LCI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Two other current Ocean Management tenants who requested anonymity spoke about issues with overheating and underheating in apartments. One reported an exploded water heater that left their apartment with freezing cold water, while the other tenant linked excessive heat conditions to an asthma flare-up and visits to the doctor’s office.

C. said that her family also dealt with inadequate heating during winters. When she complained about problems with heating, Ocean Management provided a space heater, but insufficient insulation in the walls meant she and her young children were exposed to the cold for long periods of time. A big need to fix water heaters is rising among the tenants.

Ronnie Cotten, a veteran living in New Haven on a fixed income, told the News that he experienced a mouse and rat infestation while renting at 33 Hazel St. Cotten. He attributed his worsening asthma to the vermin defecation and urine, which he said sent him to the hospital. According to Cotten, LCI visited his rental three times, but conditions did not improve. 

Cotten’s landlord could not be reached for this story. 

“I saw that I was getting nowhere, and I felt like I was getting sicker and sicker,” Cotten said. 

Cotten said he left that rental on his own accord and moved into a hotel. He is currently unhoused and trying to get a Section Eight housing voucher. 

Maviglia said the LCI inspection process is often marked by poor communication with tenants and lack of follow-up. She said tenants often experienced delays: if they miss a call from LCI or if inspectors show up while they are at work, the process is set back. 

“There’s a lack of structure for tenants to really be engaged in the process, know what is happening, know what the status of their report is, know what the follow-up is going to be and then actually see results,” Maviglia said. 

Danya Keene, associate professor of social behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health, has extensively researched the relationship between housing policy, the affordable housing crisis and population health equity. She told the News that her team has conducted interviews with renters around the state of Connecticut, who have often reported living under “horrifically poor housing conditions.”

Keene linked the health problems tenants may develop to high costs of housing, arguing that obtaining housing with better living conditions is difficult for low-income and socially disadvantaged residents. 

“This lack of affordable housing limits the ability of renters to choose housing that is healthy, or to walk with their feet when they are dissatisfied by housing conditions,” Keene wrote to the News. “Tenants’ ability to choose healthy housing is further limited by other barriers — for example, many landlords will not rent to someone who has an eviction record, a criminal record or someone who has poor credit history.”

Keene argued for the importance of rental assistance as a means for low–income families to avoid poor housing health impacts. She also cited a study stating that low-income children living in public housing were less likely to report elevated blood lead levels than children of similar economic statuses living in rental housing, making public regulation vital to health outcomes.

The city does not publish data on active housing code complaints or specific case information, which may include impacts on tenant health. 

“Seems to me like a regulatory overhaul is needed that includes random regular testing, and a well-structured and accountable reporting system to track the statistics of housing violations and their likely public health impacts,” a Yale School of Public Health student who currently lives in an Ocean Management property wrote to the News.

There are a total of 59 open cases reporting children with elevated blood lead levels in the city of New Haven.

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Since November 2022, the Yale-managed New Haven Hiring Initiative has hosted several employers seeking to hire local residents as part of its inaugural Career Readiness series. During each session, hiring recruiters and managers share a variety of application resources with attendants such as resume and cover letter tips, apprenticeship programs, information on ideal qualifications for candidates and descriptions of position responsibilities in their respective workplaces. 

During Monday’s meeting, the Cornell Scott-Hill Center — which serves nearly 50,000 residents in the Greater New Haven area and nearby areas — stated that it aims to make primary and behavioral health care services accessible to the region’s diverse population.

“They know about Cornell Scott, but then they’ll come here for appointments — they don’t know that they can work for us, too,” Cornell Scott-Hill Human Resources Manager Cheryl Garner said at the session. “We’re a community-based health organization, where our board of directors is comprised of community members. We want to see people that we’re serving be a part of our force.”

The session shared information on the Center’s mission and open human resources positions for Complex Care Management care coordinators, virtual assistants, and call center customer service representatives. 

Garner first spoke about the educational backgrounds, experience levels and skills required for each position. She also walked attendees through the hiring process from the perspective of recruiters and hiring managers at the Center, listing specific components of an application that are given the most consideration.

Before recommending candidates to hiring managers, recruiters look for proper spelling and grammar on application materials and want to ensure an applicant is “not a job hopper,” according to Garner. Before determining whether to interview or reject a candidate, hiring managers often consider whether they possess skills like bilingualism and high levels of relevant experience.

“It’s helping you find a job and actually be able to find something that fits your experience,” attendee Tanikki James told the News after learning about the consideration process. “And it’s also good to be able to rub elbows with people that you could possibly be working for.”

James, who shared that she will “absolutely” apply for an human resources position at Cornell Scott-Hill, has also attended other series events and found a recent session led by Albertus Magnus College’s Career Services office particularly helpful.

Prior sessions in the Employment Readiness series have included employers such as Yale Library Collection Services and Operations, Yale Hospitality and Yale-New Haven Hospital. Yale Security most recently presented several position openings on March 13. On the other hand, if the current employees have encountered any type of abuse, they can look for services like that settlement agreement.

Jeffrey Moore, who works at the employment assistance program Workforce Alliance, attended Monday’s session and several previous events in search of opportunities for his clients. He lauded the NHHI’s new program and Cornell Scott-Hill’s efforts to make employment more accessible to the community it serves.

“They’re looking to take care of our community by offering job opportunities that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to access by themselves,” Moore said. “It’s great, because now we know that there’s different opportunities that are available all over the city. And they’re looking to grow the talent here locally, in New Haven.”

On March 30, the NHHI will host a community conversation with Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Program, a college preparatory program for local high schoolers.

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According to New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, the grants will total about $1 million, and the programs will connect over 1,000 young residents with career opportunities. Recipient projects include a studio music scholarship and internship program, a construction and landscaping apprenticeship for formerly incarcerated people and a one-on-one career mentorship program for at-risk youth. 

Some of the organizations’ leaders joined Elicker at a press conference Monday morning announcing the recipients.

“Our youth already have an entrepreneur mindset — they are creative, they’re innovative, they’re solution-driven, they’re geniuses,” said Laquita Joyner-McGraw, founder of recipient organization Youth Entrepreneurs. “Our job as agents of change is to create a new process and system so that our kids will no longer be left behind or left out of conversations.”

The Youth Entrepreneurs’ program plans to launch an after-school career preparation program in partnership with Southern Connecticut State University, focusing on training in biosciences, coding and entrepreneurship. According to a press release from Elicker’s office, the grant selection process also gave special consideration to sectors including construction, health care, creative economy and manufacturing, among others. 

The city also looked to support programs that aim to close the racial wealth gap.

The Connecticut NAACP was another recipient organization that received funding, which they will use to meet regional goals of the greater country-wide One Million Jobs campaign. Corrie Betts, president of the Greater Hartford NAACP, spoke about how the program specifically targets those who have been impacted by the criminal justice system with career opportunities. In the past, city partners have included Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven.

“We are committed to advancing policies and practices that eliminate discrimination and accelerate the wellbeing of our people in education and economic security — for Black people and all persons of color,” Betts said at the press conference. “We look forward to partnering with the city of New Haven and making a significant impact on the lives of people we serve.”

Elicker emphasized the residents’ collective support for government initiatives that do more to empower the city’s young people. 

He also spoke about the importance of providing people with career training opportunities that span a broader variety of skill sets and education levels. 

“Today’s work is about ensuring that it’s not just a four-year college degree but a lot of different preparations and that training,” Elicker added. “It’s awe-inspiring — that’s the foundation of the word awesome — what we are going to be able to accomplish as a community.”

MATCH Inc., another recipient organization, will use the grant money to support its manufacturing training program. Areas of training include work in sheet metals, electricals and assembly.

Another vocational program that received funding was EMERGE Connecticut, which provides formerly incarcerated people with career training in construction-related trades. The grant will help add 10 new students to its construction and landscaping apprenticeship initiative, which also aims to give young people the space to talk through their experiences with the legal system.

“Our results-based programming has given people an 11 percent recidivism rate over the past ten years,” EMERGE President Erik Clemons said.  “We know that a job’s not enough to help someone who’s fallen into the criminal justice system. And what this does is it allows us the capacity to really tailor our program to the younger folks who work with us.”

The $1 million in program support ultimately comes from funds issued to the city by the White House’s American Rescue Plan, which funneled about $115 million into New Haven’s budget in total. 

These programs constitute the first round of grants to be allocated by the Initiative, with the second round set to be announced this summer.

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Nevertheless, throughout his 31 years in the field of education, Whyte has touched countless lives as a non-profit founder, teacher, principal and the assistant superintendent of instructional leadership for New Haven Public Schools. 

Drawing from his decades of experience, Whyte said he believes that “learning how to learn,” and not simply how to memorize or recite facts, has been the key to the success of his students. With a focus on reading “authentically” outside of standardized exams, Whyte told the News he wants his students to unlock a “world of possibilities” for themselves. 

“That’s what drives me, that’s what gets me up,” Whyte said. “So that the 19,000 kids we have here, have the tools [so] whether it be Yale, or whether it be the school that’s right for them, or the job that’s right for them — that they are able to get that. That they get to live out lives that they’re happy with and able to support themselves and their family.”

Whyte’s parents immigrated from Jamaica to the Bronx before he was born, adamant that their children receive a good education. Whyte attended New York public schools through his entire K-12 career, walking the packed halls of Harry S. Truman High School alongside 4,000 other students. It was in Truman’s magnet program that he began to cultivate his interests in math and science in Advanced Placement courses, Whyte said. 

He then furthered his interest in STEM as an undergraduate student at Yale. Intending to major in biology, he “sawed off” the majority of the pre-med requirements by his sophomore year. When it came to tackling the other distributional requirements, however, he noticed a shift in his passions. 

When he took the social sciences course “Child Psychology” — now known as “Child Development” — which was offered through the Yale Child Study Center, his career trajectory took a turn towards education. 

“I got that moment where something comes natural to you, and that was it,” Whyte recalled. “I realized the difference between an interest in something and a passion for something. So I had an interest in sciences, but it wasn’t the passion that I had immediately for education and doing this sort of work.”

Living in and making life-long friendships in Silliman College, Whyte said, was one of the highlights of his college experience. He also frequented the Afro-American Cultural Center to study, attend parties and find support amongst the Black Yale community. He joined Yale’s Zeta Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, a historically Black Greek organization that is part of the Divine Nine. 

Whyte said he felt the tensions between Yale and New Haven as a Black student on campus. During a time when Yale still used physical keys to access residential colleges, he described instances of gates being intentionally closed on him, even when he had asked someone to hold them open. 

In the summer after his sophomore year, Whyte lived off-campus for a fellowship hosted by Dwight Hall. He said that living and working away from Yale remedied any disconnect he felt as part of the “Yale bubble.” 

“I felt like I became a citizen of New Haven as opposed to being a Yale student,” Whyte said about the city where he has lived for the last 15 years. “It’s been a wonderful journey and I’m grateful for the experience of Yale and how it gave me an experience in finding a second city that’s become home.” 

Whyte stayed in New Haven after graduating Yale in 1993. He founded his nonprofit organization, the Young Voices Initiative, as a fellow with social impact startup incubator Echoing Green. Young Voices offered career-planning, college preparation, athletic and academic programming for local students. 

He described his nonprofit as part of an entrepreneurial boom period for New Haven where Yale students and others began startups in the community. Even decades later, Whyte said he still sees the impact of Young Voices.

“These kids who were 13 and 14 in our program, now have their kids of their own and in our schools here in New Haven,” he said.

After five years of leading Young Voices, Whyte realized he needed to study education more in-depth in order to lead organizations through informed practice. He returned to school, earning his Masters in Education from Harvard University before leading other nonprofit organizations out of his home of New York. 

He initially partnered with Park East High School in Harlem as part of his nonprofit work, but when the principal learned Whyte had a master’s degree, they told him to “pick up some classes.” As a result, Whyte taught math, science and technology at Park East for three years. Teaching and being part of traditional education, he said, was “totally accidental.” 

However, his “accidental” entry into the traditional education pathway led him to what he said is one of the best jobs he has ever had. 

Whyte served as principal of New Beginnings Family Academy in Bridgeport for five years, where he focused on fostering a “family community” for the parents, faculty and students. He had the experience to help the small public charter school operate smoothly on a day-to-day basis, but from his perspective, culture was key. Even simply calling each student’s name during carpool duty made a difference, he said. 

Ronelle Swagerty, who has served as NBFA’s executive director and chief executive officer for the last 20 years, remembered Whyte’s legacy amongst staff who worked alongside him. 

“Dr. Whyte is a gentle giant with an incredibly kind soul,” Swagerty said. “That does not mean he doesn’t have a backbone. He does, but he has a way with people that endears them to him. He is even tempered and never seems to get upset … to this day, NBFA alumni remember Dr. Whyte fondly.” 

Today, Whyte works to support NHPS principals so that they can be the best instructional leaders for their teachers and, most importantly, familiar faces to their students. As he knows intimately, the job is not easy. 

“Sometimes the start of the day can be interrupted very quickly by what’s happened the night before, or what happened on the bus slide to school,” he said. “So it’s easy for that to absorb a whole day, sometimes figuring all those pieces out. The role is to make sure we have all principals — the whole leadership team — and make sure the right people are in the right place to handle things so that principals are leading the instruction.” 

Edith Johnson has worked with Whyte for five years as the former principal of Wilbur L. Cross High School and the current director of professional learning and leadership development for NHPS. Johnson said that Whyte, who was her supervisor when she served as a principal, constantly challenges leaders to think strategically. 

Part of this approach, according to Johnson, includes listening to the principals he works with, being approachable and helping his colleagues maintain their cool under pressure.

“Dr. Whyte often supported me as a building leader. Whenever we met, he knew if I needed coaching, directives or just a venting session,” Johnson told the News. “He is always a calming presence, especially during turbulent times.”

Johnson described Whyte as a “great thought partner,” sharing that she frequently meets with him to discuss professional development and other plans related to leadership.

Currently, Whyte is spearheading a new collaborative principal audit review, which aims to support principals in effectively using their resources. Under the initiative, principals from around the district will gather to delineate the challenges faced at their schools, discuss with and observe other schools and develop strategies based on their findings. 

For those interested in entering education, Whyte emphasized that the work is not easy, but is rewarding. Seeing his students and their families years later, whether they are from the Young Voices Initiative or one of his schools here in New Haven, is the reward. 

“I remember one time a parent, when she was aware of my credentials, said, ‘I want to feel like your parents felt seeing you walk across the stage,’” Whyte remembered.  “[My vision is] giving those experiences to the next generation.”

Whyte has served as assistant superintendent of instructional leadership for five years. 

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