Class Projects & Fellowships
For many years, our highly successful Class of 1960 fellowship programs have represented a unique collective accomplishment and one that has formed an important part of our legacy to Yale. Classmate Arvin Murch has overseen the programs and done a superb job. However, late last year responsibility for managing the fellowships was transferred to the class of 1986. The transfer was a gradual one, occurring over several years with ’86ers becoming more and more a part of each of the committees. Over the past quarter century our three Class-based fellowship programs – The Les Aspin ’60 International Public Service Fellowship, The Branford College Class of 1960 Summer Fellowship, and The Class of 1960 John Heinz Government Service Fellowship – together have supported nearly 200 Yale undergraduates with awards totalling some $580,000. Many of these awardees later recall their fellowship experience as formative not only of their education at Yale but also of their later careers. We can be justifiably proud of this enduring gift to Yale, and of our growing community of Aspin, Branford and Heinz awardees.
In 2010 the Yale Alumni Association honored our program with its Outstanding Engagement Award. Since then, initiatives such as the periodic Aspin fellowship gatherings and newsletter, the fellowships panel presented at our 55th reunion and others have added to the fellowship experience and contributed to overall program vitality. Under guidance provided by the class of 1986, these programs are certain to continue to thrive and develop in ways that make them even more meaningful both to the student awardees and more valuable to Yale.
In a February 15, 2021 report to the Class Executive Committee. Arvin Murch reported on recent conversations with members of the Class of 1986 and their fellowships management team. All three fellowship committees are fully staffed and led by members of the Class of 1986, over 20 in total. Participation by our classmates has ended for both the Branford and the Heinz programs. The Class of 1986 has invited the last three members of our class to serve on the Aspin committee (Doug Guiler, Chuck Schmitz and Jim Trowbridge) to remain involved with this program. Over the past few months, Peter Knudsen has advised and assisted the Heinz program’s transition to ’86 ownership, as I have for the Branford program and Chuck Schmitz has for Aspin. Going forward, these programs will be designated as “The Classes of 1960/1986 Branford College Summer Fellowship;” “(same) John Heinz Government Service Fellowship;” “(same) Les Aspin International Public Service Fellowship.” There is some discussion within the Aspin committe as to how well the term “public service” now fits with the mission of the Jackson Institute. This remains to be determined.
Plans for this year are, of course, heavily impacted by the Covid epidemic and the University’s response to it. At this time, the Aspin committee is considering a virtual awards meeting and is awaiting feedback from the Jackson Institute before reaching a decision. The Branford committee is inclined to go ahead with a virtual awards meeting if circumstances, particularly the University’s policy on summer travel, permit. This meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 25. if the Branford program does make awards this year, it will draw on the Class of 1986 treasury to fund them. The Heinz committee has decided not to make awards this year.
Looking ahead to next year, ’86 remains interested in participating in any fellowship-related program that our class may plan for our deferred 60th reunion. If ’86 is able to hold a concurrent 35th reunion next year, they would be especially interested in planning a joint fellowship-related program with our class.
Class of ’60 Summer Fellowships brochure
CURRENT FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
| Class of 1960/1986 ASPIN FELLOWSHIP | |
| Charles A. Schmitz, Co-Chair | Gary F. Eisenberg, ’86, Co-Chair |
| Owen Cylke | Neela Banerjee, ’86 |
| Douglas C. Guiler | H. Faria,’86 |
| Fred I. Steele | Caroline Fredrickson, ’86 |
| James W. Trowbridge | William Monohan, ’86 |
| Class of 1960/1986 BRANFORD FELLOWSHIP | |
| Peter K. Dickinson, Co-Chair | Carrie C. Reynolds, ’86, Co-Chair |
| Clinton C. Brooks | Andrew Bowers,’86 |
| Michael D. Griffin | James B. Crystal, ’86 |
| Gary Eisenberg,’86 | |
| Joanna Riesman, ’86 | |
| Richard T. Roberts, ’86 | |
| Class of 1960/1986 HEINZ FELLOWSHIP | |
| Peter S. Knudsen, Co-Chair | Susan Berenson, ’86, Co-Chair |
| Allison B. Durfee | Jon Baker, ’86 |
| G. F. Robert Hanke | John A. Coleman, Jr., ’86 |
| Marie Wilkinson, ’86 | |
| Thomas M. Yamin, ’86 |
The Class of 1960/1986 Les Aspin International Public Service Fellowship
• 2020 Aspin Fellowship Class of 1960/1986 Awards
• 2019 Aspin Fellowship Class of 1960/1986 Awards
• 2017 Aspin committee report
• 2016 Aspin fellowship announcements
• 2016 Aspin committee report
• 2015 Aspin committee report
• Reports of 2015 Aspin fellowship awardees
• 2014 Report
The Class of 1960/1986 Branford College Summer Fellowship
• Reports from the three recipients of Branford College fellowships in 2020
• Committee report: Branford Summer Travel Fellowships 2020
• Committee report: Branford Summer Travel Fellowships 2018
• Reports of 2016 Branford fellowship awardees
• 2015 Branford committee report
• Reports of 2015 Branford fellowship awardees
The Class of 1960/1986 John Heinz Government Service Fellowship
• 2020 Heinz committee report
• Reports of 2019 Heinz fellowship awardees
• 2018 Heinz committee report
• Reports of 2017 Heinz fellowship awardees
• 2017 Heinz committee report
• Reports of 2016 Heinz fellowship awardees
• 2016 Heinz committee report
• 2015 Heinz committee report
• Reports of 2015 Heinz fellowship awardees
BRANFORD FELLOWSHIP AWARD PROJECT PUBLISHED
In 2013 Branford College Junior Eli Mandel was awarded a Branford Summer Fellowship to recreate the 642 mile trek undertaken by John Keats 195 years earlier, in the summmer of 1818. Mandel’s reflections on his experience recently have been made available in ebook and audiobook form, and soon will be followed by a print version.
Heinz Awardee Mason Ji Wins Rhodes Scholarship
Please note: the following article is republished from Yale News with permission.
Bound for study in Britain: Three Yalies win 2016 Rhodes Scholarships
By Elizabeth Connolly Martell
Three Yale students were chosen to be members of the class of 2016 Rhodes Scholars.
Jared C. Milfred, Isaac M. Stanley-Becker, and Mason Y. Ji were among the 32 chosen for the coveted scholarship from a pool of 869 applicants nominated by 316 colleges and universities in a nationwide competition.
Rhodes Scholarships, which are among the most prestigious awards for international study, were created in 1902 at the bequest of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. The award provides all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England to those students who best exemplify “academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness and leadership potential.”
The Rhodes Scholarship winners are:
 Jared C. Milfred Jared C. Milfred ’16 majors in ethics, politics, and economics. He has combined research in political theory and political science with a passion for social justice advocacy and campaign finance reform. He founded the nonpartisan student advocacy organizations Democracy United, serves as the chief executive of the National Council of City Public Financing Agencies, and chairs the City of New Haven Campaign Finance Board. Milfred worked as a speechwriter for U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and is editor-in-chief of Yale’s Journal of Political Thought, as well as the ethics editor of the Yale Philosophy Review. He volunteers as an EMT for Yale Emergency Medical Services and as a reader for blind students at Yale’s Office on Disabilities. At age 17, Milfred became the youngest licensed nuclear reactor operator in the United States. He will pursue an M.Phil. in political theory at Oxford. |
 Stanley Becker Isaac M. Stanley-Becker ’16 majors in history. He is writing his senior essay on industrial transformation and civil disobedience in the port city of New London, Connecticut. Stanley-Becker is an award-winning journalist and an historian of modern urban society. He served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News and interned at the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Stanley-Becker also founded the Hillhouse High Journalism Project to teach journalism to New Haven public high school students. He enjoys spending summers working on the docks and hauling lobster traps on an island off the coast of Maine. At Oxford, he intends to complete an M.Phil. in economic and social history. |
 Mason Ji Mason Y. Ji is a senior at Yale, majoring in global affairs. He studied abroad at Peking University, where he took all his international relations classes in Chinese with native students at the university’s School of International Studies. His senior thesis explores how deepened East-West dialogue has given rise to multicultural dispute resolution mechanisms. Mason was also, at age 18, the youngest United Nations delegate, and adviser to the Mission of the Republic of the Seychelles. A Udall Scholar, he co-authored a document that influenced the 2014 U.S.-China joint statement on climate change. He has interned at the White House and for one of China’s largest law firms, is a competitive table tennis player in the United States and China, and is principal oboe for the Yale Concert Band. He plans to seek an M.Phil. in international relations at Oxford. |
Aspin Alumni Network Newsletter & Summer Gathering
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Such outcomes are what committee members had hoped for during the March interviews and selection process. Association with such a worthwhile summer fellowship program should please our classmates from 1960 and from the class of 1986.
Since last March, we on the committee discovered that students searching on the Yale site for summer fellowships in national security, politics, defense, or international policy would not easily find the Aspin Fellowship. While the descriptive information was on the site, it was not located where a student searching on those key words would find it. Our chairman has seen that this is corrected for students applying for 2016 summer projects. We hope that this change will expand the applicants interested in these Aspin Fellowship topics.
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