In our first semester of operation at Yale, we funded over 60 grants to Yale sophomores. Within only 4 days of the second semester, we have already received over 55 applications. Click here to read what students said about the opportunity the Promise Fund gave them.
In early October 2007, 9 Freshman Outdoor Orientation Trip (FOOT) leaders organized a fundraiser in Washington, VT. Students Greg Lipstein, Willy Cass, John Mittermeir, Bevan Dowd, Ross Kennedy-Shaffer, Laura Chandhok, Mackenzie Wehner, Diana Mosca, and Gideon Bradburd spent the day painting a barn on Cilla Kellert’s farm and raised over $1000 for ACF. Cilla writes, “We completed our goal with lots of laughs and good energy. The weather was beautiful and we were able to end our day with a walk up to the top of our hill that has a panoramic view of the Green Mountains to watch the sunset… We made a toast to Alex and his spirit was very much with us. As you know, these students were classmates of Alex and miss him the most.”
Capelluto fund aids Elis By Kimberly Chow, Yale Daily News, September 24, 2007. Read the article on the Yale Daily News online. Today, the first 30 checks from the Alexander Capelluto Foundation Promise Fund are en route to scholarship recipients, who will soon be able to use this money to expand their academic options and lighten their financial burdens. The Foundation was begun after the death of Alex Capelluto ’08 in a bicycle accident in West Haven, Conn., during the summer of 2006. Its goal is to honor Capelluto’s memory by enriching the academic experiences of students at his two alma maters — Horace Mann School in Riverdale, N.Y., and Yale, with an eye to expanding to other institutions, starting with Amherst College. The Promise Fund aims to provide Elis on financial aid with money for academic materials that their aid packages do not cover, such as textbooks, supplies, computers and musical instruments. Grants of up to $500 are being given to all eligible applicants from the class of 2010 over the course of the year, and members of the Capelluto family said they expect other classes will also be eligible in future years. At Horace Mann, the Alexander Capelluto Award encourages high school juniors to engage in their communities by granting $2,500 to implement innovative service project ideas. Capelluto’s parents and older sister worked with the Yale College Dean’s Office and the financial aid office to design the Fund and determine the requirements for scholarship eligibility. Since sophomores receiving
Memory of student expands Yale financial aid By Katie Odland, Yale Herald, Sept. 21, 2007. Read the article at the Yale Herald online. Stationed on the wall, at the top of the brand new, sealed and varnished wooden staircase leading to the Silliman dining hall, an inscription reads: “In memory of Alexander MacBurney Byers Jr., who was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in the Class of 1894. This building was erected by his parents 1903.” Perhaps the predominant impression is that Yale was entirely built by wealthy, living alumni. But memoriam is perhaps a larger, if less obvious, presence on campus. From the J. Willard Gibbs or Osborn Memorial Laboratories to the monolithic Sterling Memorial Library, the power of memory has provided some of Yale’s most noticeable features. This year, it is poised to shape the Yale campus again, but not through any architectural statement. Instead, the Promise Fund, incorporated by the Alexander Capelluto Foundation, in memory of the class of 2008 Berkeleyite who died in the summer of 2006, hopes to change Yale academics by augmenting Yale’s financial aid packages with funding for various supplemental, yet essential, course supplies. The fund will be available for members of the Class of 2010 this year, with future expansions dependent on the fund’s success in the 2007-2008 year. In seeking to honor Alexander’s alma mater, the Capelluto family immediately looked for ways to directly benefit students’ experience. Alexander’s sister Katherine Capelluto, BK ’04, found herself looking at a school with a
On May 1, 2007, the Foundation awarded the first Alexander Capelluto Award to Sloane Heller, a junior at Horace Mann. Through her project, Sloane will be organizing regular visits by a group of students to work and play with the children at a battered women’s shelter in the Bronx. Sloane writes: “This project focuses simply on bringing joy to children who have precious little to be joyful for……Our events [will] not only allow these children to laugh, play, and generally be children, but also give their mothers some much needed time to relax.” The award will cover the project’s expenses incurred during the 2007-08 academic year. The award panel also granted funding to Isaiah Einzig who proposed a project aimed at answering randomly-selected children’s letters to Santa Claus and sending an anonymous Christmas gift to the letter writers.
Clinton Aide Stephanopoulos Tells Students of Political Life By Jon Katiraei, Horace Mann Record, Vol. 104, Issue 32. Check out The Record online. A former senior political advisor of President Bill Clinton and current ABC News broadcaster described a life in politics and argued that the new electronic media encourages extreme opinions at last Tuesday’s assembly. The assembly was the first of the Alexander Capelluto Memorial Lecture Series, which will present eminent speakers annually, according to the Alexander Capelluto Foundation website. The organization was established in memory of Alexander Capelluto ’04, who was killed during his sophomore year at Yale University. George Stephanapoulos, Clinton’s communications director and now the Chief Washington Correspondent for ABC News, Stephanopoulos discussed the changing role of the media. “The Internet completely changed the way we get our information, making news transparent,” he said at the assembly. “It has democratized the media environment when critics say it’s been corporatized.” There are two downsides to the current role of the media, according to Stephanopoulos. “It allows rumors to spread quickly, and it allows people to seek out information that they already believe,” he said. Stephanopoulos, who played a crucial role in Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, also expressed his faith in the United States’ political process at the assembly. “Politics is not just the art of the possible, it’s also the art of the impossible,” he said to the audience. “I do believe that politicians are driven by that same fundamental impulse to improve life.” Stephanopoulos discussed his
On May 22, 2007, George Stephanopoulos kicked off the much-anticipated Alexander Capelluto Memorial Lecture Series to a packed auditorium of over 500 students and faculty. During the hour-long assembly, Stephanopoulos reminisced about his path to becoming one of President Clinton’s top aides and his transition to news anchor and professor. Stephanopoulos then fielded questions that ranged from the impact of the Internet on today’s politics to his views on the war in Iraq to his predictions for the 2008 Presidential race. Stephanopoulos’ candor impressed the students, and the admiration was not one-sided. After the lecture wrapped, Stephanopoulos remarked upon the high-level quality of the questions he received from the students and commented on how much he enjoyed himself at Horace Mann.
Keeping Capelluto at Horace Mann by Matt Joseleff, Horace Mann Record, Vol. 104, Issue 26. Check out The Record online. Former Valedictorian Alex Capelluto ’04 “believed really strongly that privilege was really not the same as entitlement” his mother, Karen Capelluto said. A truck killed Alex while he was biking back from crew practice, nearly a year ago. The Capelluto family has established a program in his name, involving a community service grant for juniors as well as a lecture series. The program’s aim is to highlight and encourage Alex’s qualities in the community, his parents said. “Its very important to us to nominate someone who has some of Alex’s qualities; who is very committed and very passionate about helping the world–who’s a good person who has a lot of integrity,” Mrs. Capelluto said. “We wanted to honor Alexander in a way that would be important and meaningful at HM, and something that would’ve been important to him and so we came up with the idea of a community service program for juniors,” she continued. “This is a reflection of Alexander and how he impacted the school. One of his traits was to think beyond the class work and grades and beyond getting into the right college–he was always aware of what was going on around him, and what we hope to achieve through this program is to provide a vehicle for the students of HM to look beyond their immediate environments and attempt in a practical way to improve
George Stephanopoulos, Chief Washington Correspondent for ABC News, host of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”, and former Senior Advisor to President Clinton, will be the inaugural speaker of the Alexander Capelluto Memorial Lecture Series, on May 1, 2007, at 3:15 p.m. at Horace Mann School, Riverdale, New York. The Lecture Series — which will feature a distinguished speaker each year — is endowed by the Horace Mann Class of 2006, which elected to dedicate its generous graduation gift to the memory of Alexander Capelluto, the School’s 2004 Valedictorian. Horace Mann School and the Capelluto family are deeply gratified and honored to have Mr. Stephanopoulos as the series’ first speaker. Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Time: Will begin promptly at 3:15 p.m. Location: Recital Hall (First Floor, Fisher Hall) Horace Mann School 231 West 246th Street Riverdale, NY 10471
The Alexander Capelluto Foundation invites you to spend an evening for a good cause at the first annual ACF Fundraiser March 2, 2007 9:30pm — 12:30am Yale Club of New York, Tap Room 50 Vanderbilt Avenue at 44th St. Please invite your friends! The more the merrier! Tickets: $60 at the door (cash or check only). Tickets no longer available online. Festive dress – Yale Club dress code prohibits jeans or sneakers.