Politics has been a passion since high school for Nick Girard, who views public service as an effective means of becoming truly engaged with his community. Politics has shaped Nick’s trajectory at Yale—he served as vice president of the Yale College Council and president of the College Democrats of Connecticut—and still informs his career choices as he completes his senior year.

In high school, Louis DeFelice was first and foremost a dancer. He attended the South Carolina Governor’s School, a public boarding school for the arts, and trained in ballet. There, he also became interested in personal finance; in his senior year, he started reading books about investment to figure out how to handle the leftover money saved up from his dishwashing job.

I first performed brain surgery before I learned how to drive. I vividly remember guiding a slender, metal scalpel and the thin trail of red that followed.

When I broke the news to my volunteer team, we were in a church basement, cleaning up after the final event of the summer. I tried to downplay it.

Born and raised in New Haven, Hacibey (Haci) Catalbasoglu is the city’s youngest ever representative to the Board of Alders—New Haven’s legislative arm. As Ward 1 alder, Haci represents the only all-Yale ward of the city, and works to improve the town-gown relationship between the university and the Elm City.

I beamed while leaping off stage, proud of overcoming my two largest hurdles— public speaking and spelling. I apprehensively anticipated applause to fill the faux “class-itorium,” but instead, my peers filled it with laughter.

For James Barile, the most challenging aspect of the college application process was having to use the first-person “I” in his essays. “I think I wrote my applications on December 31 [the day before they were due],” he says, laughing, “because I didn’t want to hear about myself and couldn’t fathom that anyone else wanted to.”

Under the spotlight, I wore a fluffy, emerald robe and an exquisite, shining sword, with an artificial beard on my face and a wooden crutch in my hand. I was excitedly acting my role and performing the story, together with my classmates.

The Vardar River carves its crooked way along the bisection of my hometown Skopje. Even though it might seem as if Vardar is just a body of water, to the citizens of Skopje it carries much greater social implications.

“I don’t understand. You are not Buddhist, but you spend so much time studying Buddhism.” I have often heard this statement, but coming from a monk at the renowned Shwedegon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, it resonated more deeply.

It all began one day in June 2004. It was the end of the school year and everything was covered in a veil of idleness. For my classmates, this season of chirping cicadas was a time for games by the sea. Not for me.

Ten minutes before my orchestra and I were due to perform what would be my first symphony, our conductor called us into the wings of the stage for a pep talk.

I sat in a pair at the starting line for the repechage of the 1000 meter rowing race at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. I had trained all summer, twice a day, six days a week, for this level of international competition.

Family is everything, right? For me, this is especially true. My oldest brother, David, has Asperger’s Syndrome.

“Right here,” says my dad, motioning to a large booth on the right. It’s a cold winter morning and we have not eaten yet, but before picking up the menu and even considering food, we both instinctively reach for the white containers at the end of the table holding the sugar packets.

Samantha Wood, a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, native, is a self-described “really typical nerd.” Besides genuinely enjoying her classes, her high school activities included editing the literary magazine and competing on both the math and quiz bowl teams.

Applying to Yale University was Jacob Malinowski’s attempt to thwart destiny. Most people from his small town of Greendale, Wisconsin, never stray far from home—and, Jacob says, most are destined to return to his town soon after finishing college to start families of their own.

During her childhood, Serena Ly would hear stories from her father about living under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Jackson Lindley credits the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps for giving him his best friendships and his favorite memories at Yale.

Alex Hoganson calculates that he probably spends more hours in the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design (CEID) than in his own room. “I enjoy designing and creating things,” he says, shrugging good-naturedly.