Henry "Sam" Chauncey, Jr., at center with initial fellows Jonathan Weiss and Samantha Sims.
Samantha Sims will get a chance to spend her first post-college year taking what she’s learned in New Haven to build a new roots tradition.
Sims is one of the two inaugural recipients of a “Chauncey Fellowship.”
The fellowship was funded by the late Ed Bennett and named after legendary civic leader Henry “Sam” Chauncey — Science Park founder, former Yale university secretary, Gaylord Hospital President, participant on around 140 percent of New Haven’s boards and commissions over the decades ranging from economic development to charter revision, and mentor to countless young people (including Bennett, a Yale alum who revived the New Journal magazine in the early 1980s).
The $60,000 fellowship goes to each of two graduating seniors to spend a year pursuing an arts or community service project: “The aim is to remove the financial pressures that stop young people from pursuing their dreams and help bring their artistic or community service visions to light.”
Sims attended New Haven schools then attended Yale (as a New Haven Promise scholar). She calls the project she’ll pursue over the next year following graduation “Liberation Table.” Its aim: to “Bring together Black people of the African diaspora to share a traditional meal and discuss their roots in a new tradition.”
The other recipient, composer Jonathan Weiss, also attended Yale. In future years the fellowship will branch out to include graduates of other local colleges and universities.
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, which administers the new fellowship, is holding a public reception at the Blake Hotel on Thursday, April 18, from 4 to 8 p.m. for anyone interested in learning more about it and/or meeting those involved. Click here to register.
