Marissa Pettit ’14 wants you to enjoy college.
After two years of helping plan events on the Calhoun College Council and nearly a year of service as one of two Calhoun representatives on the Sophomore College Council, Pettit said she wants to be YCC events director so that she can help other Yalies let off a little steam.
“Sometimes Yale and college can be stressful, and to put on an event where people can forget about the paper they have due and the problem set they have due and just have fun and laugh — that’s really rewarding,” she said.
Pettit said that her top priority would be partnering with the Harvard College Council in reforming the social options at Harvard the night before The Game this coming November. While Yale puts on multiple events the night before the annual football game, she said that the same night at Harvard her freshman year was “really anticlimactic.” Pettit said she would work to plan an event similar to the large dance at Commons that all students from both schools could attend.
Apart from tackling The Game, Pettit said she also wants to rethink various aspects of Spring Fling. Given all of the musical talent at Yale, Pettit said that a few student bands should have the opportunity to perform on a secondary stage to fill the downtime while the headliners are changing sets. Pettit also wants to throw an after-party right on Old Campus.
Pettit said she wants to follow the lead of current YCC Events Director Katie Donley ’13 in planning more low-cost events like last fall’s “What Would You Do For A Wenzel?” contest. She suggested a competition in which students submit original sushi creations that reflect some aspect of Yale or New Haven, with the winner’s college enjoying a dinner of the victor’s sushi.
Pettit said she holds the unofficial title of “Calhoun Mayor” for all the time she spends putting together events for the college. During her freshman year on Calhoun College Council and the Student Activities Committee, and as a master’s aide, Pettit said that she loved putting together Calhoun Screw, the residential college’s Harvard-Yale tailgate and the Trolley Night Dance.
Seeking to scale up her involvement this year, Pettit became the Calhoun representative on the Sophomore College Council. Since the beginning of the academic year, she has planned DUS dinners to help sophomores choose majors as well as set up various other all-sophomore activities. Pettit remains on the Calhoun College Council and before break was elected to vice president of events on the council, thereby also serving as the co-chair of the Calhoun Student Activities Committee.
Given her time planning events for Calhoun and on the Sophomore College Council, Pettit said voters should not be concerned by her lack of experience on the YCC.
“Although I haven’t worked on YCC, I feel like my experience in Calhoun and on SoCo works on very similar organizational structures, and has prepared me very well to work on YCC,” Pettit said. “I’ve worked with dining, I’ve worked with facilities and I’ve worked with security, and that’s given me the experience I need to do this job.”
Rachel Ett ’14, a member of the Calhoun College Council who has worked with Pettit, said she believes Pettit would do a great job on YCC given her experience planning large events. While Calhoun always hosts Screw and Trolley Night dances, Ett said Pettit also has a talent for coming up with a wide range of more original events.
“She is passionate about coming up with fun things for kids to do,” Ett said. “She is a girl who can make things happen.”
Apart from her work in student governmwent, Pettit is a member of the women’s varsity sailing team, despite having never been in a boat before arriving at Yale. A member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, Pettit works in the Chaplain’s Office and majors in biomedical engineering.