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Dorm Essentials You Shouldn’t Forget (and Some You Should Skip) Smaller, sometimes forgotten items can sometimes have the biggest impact.

Opinion | How I Learned to Take the SAT Like a Rich Kid To get into elite colleges, one must train for standardized tests with the intensity of an athlete.

YLAC - Young Leaders for Active Citizenship

Does Physics enthuse you ? Here is an opportunity, if you are looking for a "Free" Summer program. Applications for the S'COOL lab summer camp at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland are open, please apply before 5 February 2017!

About the Programme | S'Cool LAB The S’Cool LAB Summer CAMP is an opportunity for 22 high-school students (aged 16-19) from all around the world to spend 2 weeks exploring the fascinating world of particle physics. Spend your summer at S’Cool LAB, CERN’s hands-on particle physics learning laboratory, for an epic programme of:

Applications are open for the Yale Young Global Scholars program, a summer academic program on Yale's campus for students going into their final year of high school. Hurry apply now and last date 31 Jan!!

Welcome | Yale Young Global Scholars The deadline to apply is January 31, 2017 at 11:59 PM EST. We encourage all potential applicants to begin and complete their applications as soon as possible to ensure all materials are submitted by the deadline. Sign up for our e-newsletter to receive program updates!

Yale’s Chennai Connection

What is the connection between Yale University and Chennai? Well it is not just the man after whom the university is named- British Merchant, Elihu Yale who rose to become the Governor of the East India Company controlled Fort St George in Madras (Chennai) - But it's how he got his name etched in history, that is interesting.

Elihu Yale, was a Boston born merchant who arrived in Madras (Chennai) in 1672 and worked his way up to become the Governor of Fort St George, the southern trading centre for the British. He is said to have amassed such a great fortune by indulging in private (and hence not so legal) trade, that he was forced to pay a heavy fine and leave India.

On his return to England, Yale could well have faded from public memory had he not decided to make a donation to an upcoming educational institution in the new world - in New Haven, Connecticut - US. The institution needed money for a new building. On the request from a friend, Cotton Mather, Elihu Yale chipped in by donating around 400 books and 8 bales of rich Indian textiles like cotton and silk.

So prized were the Indian textiles that the college trustees sold them for a princely sum of 562 pounds sterling! Further donations from Elihu , took the total endowment he made to 800 pounds. As a mark of gratitude, to the institutions largest donor, the college was named after him - Yale.
Today Yale is a blue chip Ivy League University and one of the best in the world!

Elihu Yale has also left an important mark behind in Chennai. The flagpole of the Fort St. George in Chennai is the tallest and also the oldest of its kind in India. It was Installed by Elihu Yale, when he was the Governor and has an interesting story behind it. In 1687, an ‘East Indiaman’ ship called ‘Loyal Adventure’ floundered off the coast of Madras in a cyclone. The 150 foot mast of the ship was saved and installed as a flagpole in Fort St George by Yale.

The flagpole was in active use till 1994, when the old wooden flagpole became weak and had to be replaced with a metal mast.

Image Credit:
Fort St. George: © British Library
Other Images: © Wikimedia commons.