Whether he is hiking, exploring New Haven’s East Rock or planning YCC projects, YCC events director candidate Bryan Epps ’14 said he knows how to get things done.

A current YCC representative for Silliman and co-chair of Silliman College Council, Epps said that, if elected, he will put to use his two-year-long experience in student government in order to organize high-quality campus-wide events in cooperation with Yale’s largest student groups.

“[Such] events are an essential aspect of the Yale education: events force Yalies to stop and let their minds rest, and little is more important to an education than periods of rest,” he said. “So I’m just psyched for a year of great events.”

Epps, who has served on the Events Committee, Mental Health Committee and Academics Committee of the YCC this year, also represented his college on the Freshman Class Council last year, co-chairing the Freshman Screw and collaborating on several FCC events. Through his work on the YCC Events Committee, Epps said he has contributed to the organization of the majority of successful YCC-sponsored events, including the Fall Show, the “What Would You Do for a Wenzel?” competition and Iron Chef competition.

His experience with YCC, he said, has given him extensive preparation to lead the YCC Events Committee next year.

“I’ve worked on a pretty huge array of events — many very successful, some less successful — and I’ve been able to learn a tremendous amount about events planning from these successes and failures,” Epps said.

As YCC events director, Epps said he hopes to seek collaboration with Yale’s undergraduate student organizations in order to reinvigorate the Events Committee and reconnect it to the student body. By including representatives of key student groups on the committee, he said, YCC will be better able to gauge the needs of students and respond to them.

Epps’ ideas also include a mental health week to raise awareness of “campus-specific mental health issues” and a “Fall Fest” in late September, an outdoor music festival to welcome student back to campus for the new academic year.

“This event needs to remind everyone early in the year how much fun Yale can be when the whole community comes together,” he said, adding that he is confident that YCC has the funds necessary to cover the costs of this event, which he compared to a smaller Spring Fling.

Eric Eliasson ’14, the current chair of the YCC Academics Committee and a YCC presidential candidate, emphasized Epps’s commitment and experience in events planning.

“The YCC events director should have time to commit to this position and experience for events to be successful,” Eliasson said. “Bryan has all of this: extensive experience and strong dedication to provide excellent events through YCC to the student body.”

A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., Epps is a global affairs major. In his spare time, he loves to run to East Rock, West Rock and Lighthouse Point.

“While [running] isn’t something I’ll put on my resume exactly, it is a very significant part of my life here at Yale,” Epps said, adding that he was unsure about coming to Yale until he saw the view from the top of East Rock. “After that, I was sold,” he said.