Introducing...Esther!

Oh hey, didn't see you there.

Hello hello, incoming students! Once again, I would like to say how excited I am to be able to welcome you to join us here on Sterling Divinity Quadrangle in August, and I'm even more thrilled to have the honor of being part of your introductory experience. I hope that as the next few months unfold you will feel free to contact me (and Patrick!) with all of your questions, ideas, concerns, and hilarious anecdotes. But now it's my turn!

I am a 25 year old vegetarian, ginger, Capricorn, and MAR student at YDS, with a concentration in Religion and Literature. My interests are all over the place, but right now I’m really into folk literatures and the transitions between folk cultures and empire. Within my concentration, I take classes downtown, so I have the great benefit of spending some class time off the hill. In addition to helping out with YDS events like the Advent Party, and now co-coordinating BTFO, I am the student leader of an organization known as The Open Party. The Open Party is a made up of atheist, agnostic, non-traditional, mutli-religious or non-religious students, and we get together every couple of weeks for lively discussion on subjects like Biblical authority, natural law and theology, or secular morality. We also put on marvelous community events, including a recent parody lecture series in honor of our outgoing Dean, Harold Attridge. I sing very low alto with the Yale graduate and professional student a cappella group, The Citations (nerd alert), as well as with the Sacramental Winers, YDS’ all-female a cappella group. I work at the front desk, answering phones and handing out parking passes, and I love to dig in the dirt, so I am endelssly happy and proud of my plot in the YDS community garden this summer.

I live very close to campus in a beautiful apartment with two wonderful fellow YDS students who I didn’t know until I got here. We have a player piano and a big dining room table for dinner parties. Our house is growing in popularity as a study party spot, and we enjoy having professors over for dinner and to get on their good sides. I love to cook, and bake, and can things like salsa, chutney, and apple butter. Unfortunately we can’t have pets in our apartment, but if we could I would want two red pandas, or a big slobbery dog. Probably all three. [I know that a lot of you will be thinking about housing soon if you aren’t already, so one of our next posts will be all about how to find places, connect with possible roommates, and also just to reassure you that you will find a perfectly fine place, don’t worry.]

I received my undergraduate degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where I studied Theater and Religion. I cannot gush about Maine enough, but if you'd like to see me try, just ask me about the diners, the lakes, the people, or the weather. I am a winter baby at heart, and three of my favorite things are flannel. See? 

This is me, loving flannel.

No joke, I keep a XXXL pair of orange snowveralls in the trunk of my car. They are not NOT my pride and joy.

The Snowveralls

That being said, if you have any concerns about weathering the New England winter, I’m your gal. Although I grew up mostly outside of Philadelphia, I was born in Minnesota and growing up I spent summers and winters in Maine, often at my grandparents’ somewhat haunted cottage in Rockland.



I have come to really like parts of New Haven, and I'm looking forward to exploring more of its quirky and fine establishments this summer. That is, when I’m not stuffing my face at Miya’s or hunkering down at Koffee. There is so much fun to be had at YDS, at Yale, in New Haven and in the surrounding areas, so I hope you’re starting to get as excited to be here as we are to have you!