The First-Year Counselors—or FroCos!—are an integral part of Yale’s residential college experience and Yale’s advising system. Living in the same entryways as the first-year students, the First-Year Counselors are there to ease and support the transition of incoming first-year students to the academic, extracurricular, social, and cultural life of Yale. Below are the 2023-2024 First-Year Counselors in Pauli Murray College.
Cynthia Sutanto, Head First-Year Counselor
Cynthia Sutanto (she/her) grew up in Corpus Christi, TX and is double majoring in Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is particularly interested in gender labor justice and expanding reproductive rights in the South. On campus, Cynthia has been both a Wellness/Mental Health Director and Peer Liaison for the Asian American Cultural Center. She has also served as Co-President of Migration Alliance at Yale and a public policy intern at the Hope Family Justice Center, a local domestic violence treatment center. Cynthia is passionate about public service and has interned at the Department of Commerce, the Feminist Majority Foundation, and various law firms and courthouses. In her free time, she enjoys frequenting nearby coffee shops, watching crime drama shows, and having long conversations in the dining hall. Above all, she is so excited to welcome the Class of 2027 to Yale and Pauli Murray College!
Chidima Anekwe
Chidima Anekwe (she/her) is from Stratford, Connecticut, just 20-odd minutes from campus. At Yale, she is majoring in English and pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration. Her work centers Black existentialist fiction and satirical approaches to feminist narratives. Outside of classes, Chidima has worked as a Peer Liaison for the Afro-American Cultural Center (more affectionately known as “The House) at Yale, as a Writing Partner for the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, and as a teacher and later Co-Director for the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, an educational partnership between Yale and New Haven. On campus, she has served as Editor-in-Chief for DOWN Magazine, an editor for the Yale Literary Magazine, a member of the Yale Review’s undergraduate team, and as president of the Pauli Murray College Council (which she highly recommends to any incoming first-years!). She is also a member of WYBCx Radio, where she helps put on live shows, and involved with theater at Yale, where she mostly works on the production side. As a Nigerian-American, she’s gained a strong community in the Yale African Students Association (YASA) and can usually be found at one of their events. Chidima is also dedicated to social activism, and has been involved in community organizing efforts since her first year. In her free time, Chidima likes drinking green tea, perfecting her Spotify playlists, updating her Goodreads, thrifting, journaling, and seeking out the next great music event in New Haven.
Dylan Carlson
Dylan Carlson Sirvent León (he/him) is a rising senior at Yale majoring in Political Science. He grew up in León, Guanajuato but has also had the fortune of calling Salt Lake City, Utah, Columbus, Ohio, and New York City home. And now, obviously, New Haven. Dylan has served as Sabrosura’s dance team manager, Yale’s premier Caribbean and Latinx dance group, co-director of the U.S. Grant Foundation, an educational partnership between Yale and New Haven.
Amelia Davidson
Amelia Davidson (she/her) was born in Washington DC and raised in Maryland, right outside the city. At Yale, she majors in American Studies (something she had never heard of before coming to college!), with a specific focus on empire and decolonial theory. She plans to be a journalist after graduating, and is a member of the Yale Journalism Initiative and spent three years writing and editing for the Yale Daily News. Amelia took a gap year between her first year and sophomore year and spent time interning for a political campaign and at the US Senate. Her last three summers have been spent at newspapers in California and Washington DC — ask her anything about how to get started with writing at or outside of Yale! In her free time you can catch her running her weekly radio show (started when she was a first-year!), hyping up the London Fogs and breakfast burritos at Fussy Coffee, taking way too many trips to NYC for concerts, or attempting to keep up with the latest Netflix reality TV show. She cannot wait to meet the new Pauli Murray class and to chat about all the wonderful opportunities Yale and New Haven offer.
MeiLan Haberl
MeiLan Haberl grew up in Colorado Springs, CO, and is a dual US-Austrian citizen. She is pursuing a BS in Psychology, but her best friend and fellow FroCo Jonathan has joked that she is actually quadruple-majoring in Neuroscience, WGSS, Creative Writing, and History (with a side of Film). Beyond academics, MeiLan is a Peer Undergraduate Writing Partner at the Poorvu Center, a nonfiction editor for the wonderfully creative CORTEX Arts & Sciences Magazine, and has been honored to serve as a CCE (peer Communication and Consent Educator.) She is also an adventurer in the Yale Dungeons & Dragons Club, making her a certified geek.
As a multiracial, multicultural, and multinational citizen, MeiLan is passionate about building bridges across perceived ethnic, national, political, demographic (etc.) lines, as well as fostering communities where difficult dialogue, trust and vulnerability, and compassion and growth can flourish.
MeiLan was a member of the Yale Women’s Varsity Ice Hockey team from 2020–2022, and has since joined Yale’s club co-ed team. She remains a member of Team Austria’s National Women’s Ice Hockey Team, and competed in the 2021 Olympic Trials and 2022 World Championships.
Perhaps more importantly, MeiLan is looking forward to leading—alongside the Pauli Murray class of 2027—Murray’s awesome Intramural Broomball Team to victory again this year.
Ethelia Holt
Ethelia Holt is a proud resident of Durham, NC and is currently majoring in the History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health on the pre-medicine track at Yale. Ethelia is driven to understand how history has and continues to shape the fabric of the American healthcare system and how to pursue progress for marginalized communities. You will quickly learn how much she loves her major at Yale and will take any opportunity to dive into long conversations with anyone who is willing to engage - about the history of medicine or literally anything else. Over the past 3 years, Ethelia has worked at the Afro-American Cultural Center on the New Student Outreach and Programming team where she welcomed prospective Black students and first-years to Yale, offering support in navigating college as a Black student. Last year she was a part of the STARS (Science, Research, and Technology Scholars) I Peer Mentor program and helped underrepresented first-years acclimate to STEM life at Yale. Ethelia’s faith is the greatest part of her identity and Christian Union Lux has been a pivotal part of Ethelia’s life at Yale. She has served in leadership there for the past two years, so please don’t hesitate to ask about how Christian community has changed her life! And last, but certainly not least, she has continued her decade-long passion for dance through the hip-hop inspired dance group, Rhythmic Blue. At any given moment on campus you could find Ethelia lounging with a cup of tea at the CU ministry house, getting boba and chatting with friends, or spontaneously dancing and getting absolutely any to join her. More than anything, Ethelia is so excited to meet the incoming class of 2027 and have a blast this upcoming year!
Nick McGowan
Nick was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the city’s most passionate advocates on campus. At Yale, he is pursuing a double major in Global Affairs and Urban Studies, leveraging this intersection to investigate the role of urbanization in international development and how to develop cities responsibly and equitably. On campus, Nick teaches Chinese in New Haven Public Schools with the Yale-China Association and works on climate change research tools with the Yale Center on Environmental Law and Policy. He also served as Secretary-General of the Yale Model United Nations Taiwan conference and worked as a curatorial assistant at the Peabody Museum. When not in class, Nick enjoys baking and cooking with friends, photography, exploring New Haven and the surrounding towns, and tracking down the city’s best coffee shops. Nick can’t wait to introduce the Class of 2027 to the best residential college at Yale!
Ari Nagle
Ari Nagle was born and raised in San Francisco, California, with his mother, father, and younger sister. At Yale, Ari is a Global Affairs major who studies Arabic and has an interest in religion, politics, and the Middle East. In his first year, he subjected himself to Directed Studies, joined a fraternity, and dominated in intramural dodgeball. His favorite books in Directed Studies were Hobbes’ Leviathan, Plato’s Republic, and Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Ari loves seminars and tries to take classes that will change his life and his thinking.
Ari took a gap year during COVID. He built his own bed and desk, lived with his grandmother for a few months, and then prepared for and backpacked on the John Muir and Pacific Crest Trail for two months with his dad! After returning to Yale, he created the Murray Families program, working with Prof T to build friendships across grades and make the Murray community even stronger. During sophomore summer, Ari studied Arabic in Amman, Jordan.
Ari loves going to class and to speaker events, hanging out with friends, and exercising. Ari is also one of Yale Dining’s biggest fans. You can often catch him on his scooter blasting some Nickelback in his headphones.
Yale has changed Ari’s life and he wakes up every morning feeling grateful to be at this special place. He learns something new every day here—about himself, about people, and about life. He cannot wait to help first years have transformative experiences of their own. He also really loves to ask questions and talk, so please ask him anything!
Aaron Weiser
Aaron Weiser (he/him) grew up as the youngest of three boys in Dallas, Texas, and he’s always been in love with stories. As an English major at Yale, he loves uncovering how modern authors masterfully infuse words with the emotions, rhythms, and poignancy of life. Whether faced with a poem, novel, or movie scene, Aaron is fascinated by the careful practice of close reading. This love for stories even extends beyond his major. Aaron has been frequenting ceramics studios for the last eight years and loves that clay can tell stories in ways that words just can’t. He has worked as a manager for the Pauli Murray pottery studio for two years and is thrilled that so many of his students have fallen in love with glorified mud just as he has. Aaron is also a member of the spoken word poetry group ¡Oye! which operates out of La Casa, the Latine Cultural Center at Yale. During his summers, Aaron has spent most of his time in New Haven attending Yale Summer Session, working as a Residential Counselor for two of those and apprenticing for an East Rock ceramic studio in 2023. Most importantly, Aaron can’t wait to be a FroCo and hear so many new stories. He loves asking people about their favorite random things (songs, animals, shapes, types of chair, books, etc.). He’s also a sucker for Pixar movies, and he always appreciates being shown a funny cat video.
Jonathan Weiss
Jonathan Weiss lives in Boston but spent the first six years of his life in beautiful Northampton, MA (ask him about farm stands, the Berkshires, and maple candy!). At Yale, he majors in Music with a focus on composition, and he lives and breathes music. It is very difficult to spot Jonathan without a pair of Bluetooth headphones. As a musician, Jonathan is a generalist, equally eager to strike up a conversation about Duke Ellington as he is about South Korean folktronica. Some fun new things Jonathan has tried out at Yale include volunteering for Hear Your Song, sound-designing for theater shows, singing a cappella, participating in Disability Empowerment for Yale, working for the Student Technology Collaborative, and emceeing Pauli Murray Open Mic events. Through Yale funding opportunities, Jonathan has studied music in Waterville, Maine and Vienna, Austria. This summer, he searched for relics of a mythological fairy in rural France, which he will be eager to tell you about! Beyond school, Jonathan enjoys jogging and biking around New Haven, randomly taking the CTRail to the Hartford Stage with anyone who’s up for hours of underrated regional theater, and most of all, relaxing in his friends’ common rooms. Jonathan can’t wait to welcome you to Pauli Murray!