Courtesy of Maggie Chen and Kingson Wills

Maggie Chen ’27 and Kingson Wills ’26 are vying to become the next Yale College Council Events Director, a role that oversees campus-wide programming like class formals and new University-wide initiatives.

Chen and Wills spoke with the News about their visions for how they would lead the events branch — offering distinct approaches to student engagement, event planning and community building.

Chen’s priority is “to create a sense of belonging”

“The most important aspect of my campaign I want to emphasize is uplifting student voices, especially those passionate about building community in their own unique ways,” Chen said. “I want to take the knowledge and experience I already have in event planning and logistics to turn big dreams into big, inclusive, and memorable events.”

For Chen, this would entail creating more accessible channels for students to be involved with the event planning, “from student organization leaders to those that simply just want to pitch their input.”

She also would envision expanding the pre-professional panels the YCC currently organizes to reflect a wider range of interests. She hopes student feedback and ideas could guide these panels and other events.

“Yale has given me many opportunities to do things and be in roles that I never thought would be possible for me, and I am fully committed to give back to the community,” Chen said.

Chen also emphasized how her background has influenced her passion for creating connections and building community.

She helped out with her family’s business growing up, and the connections and relationships she made with customers remind her of the Yale community.

“I didn’t see the customers as just people who order food. Every single person feels like family; I know their faces, I know what they order. I probably know where they live,” she said. “That’s what Yale feels like, too. It’s a family, a community. We’re all from different places, but we’re united.”

Working in her family restaurant also reinforced Chen’s sense of the “importance of working together as a team” — a priority she would bring to YCC Events planning.

Chen also wanted to highlight her genuine commitment to helping “every single student feel that they belong” and her gratitude and love for the Yale community.

“Yale is so special because of the people,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like we live in a world where there’s a lot of conflict, but at the end of the day, we’re here for each other.”

Wills hopes to “bridge the gap” between Yale and New Haven

“I think we always just complain about how Yale is a bubble,” Wills said. “Why not, as Events Director, create events that engage students, but by connecting them to the valuable, different opportunities we have here in New Haven?”

Wills, who currently serves as Junior Class President, pointed to his experience organizing the first Intercultural Food Market as a model for what future events could look like. An event featured food from local restaurants, drew over 300 students and brought over $4,000 into New Haven restaurants, according to Wills.

Wills said that while he would preserve traditional events like Halloween Night of Terror and the Harvard-Yale tailgate, he would also utilize the Events Director’s capacity to create new events for the class.

Wills proposed various new initiatives, such as restaurant crawls during cultural heritage months in partnership with the cultural centers and community dinners with New Haven locals.

“There’s so much great food here, but I’ve never really tried it because I can’t afford it,” he said. “As Events Director, we can bridge that gap between New Haven and Yale through events by bringing the food to students, making Yale people happy, and also connecting with New Haven.”

Wills also pointed to his hands-on event planning experience — from trivia nights and Valentine’s Day programs to organizing the junior formal.

He also spoke about his off-campus engagement. Last summer, he interned at Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, and this summer he’ll be a director at the Harvest Bureau.

“I’m really passionate about New Haven and connecting students with the beautiful stuff going on here,” he said. “I’ve seen it firsthand, through living here over the summer, how much there is going on here, and I just want to help students connect with as well.”

Ultimately, both candidates emphasized that events are about more than just logistics — they’re about people and community.

Voting begins on April 10 at 9 a.m. on YaleConnect and closes on April 11 at 9 p.m.