YUSO was founded by three Science Olympiad alums Xiyu Wang BK ‘15, Nick Billmyer DC ‘16, and Ike Lee ES '15, in order to spread the love of science.
YUSO was founded in January 2013 by Xiyu Wang BK ‘15 and Nick Billmyer DC ‘16, who are both graduates of Fayetteville-Manlius HS in upstate New York. The two reached out to the Connecticut state director to ask about volunteering and helping out at the CT state tournaments. Ike Lee ES ‘15 joined the founding of the group as a key coordinator of the volunteer effort, recruiting Yale students and officially registering the group with the University. Ultimately, 24 Yalies volunteered at two events in the first year of the group’s conception. Ike and Nick even served as event supervisors at the C Division state competition hosted by the University of Connecticut at Storrs.
Though relatively young, the YUSO’s membership already boasts dozens of SO alumni from the Yale community and is ambitious in its goals. At a group meeting before C states, a freshman posed a thought-provoking question: “Besides helping out at other competitions, have we ever thought about hosting one?” Within two weeks, meetings were held with Yale administrators regarding logistics and securing approval for the tournament. With news propagating through New York, Connecticut, and national directors, the invitational tournament was officially held on Saturday January 18, 2014.
To say that YUSO’s mission* is to “give back to the Science Olympiad community” is to say that Bruce Lee was only “good” at kung fu. So much as he was a genius in his discipline, so fervor is our passion for SO and ensuring that its spirit lives on within students and alumni well past their high school years.
Since 2001, the University has invested over $1 billion in research funding, curriculum expansions, faculty appointments, and building renovations in the sciences and engineering departments. As students at a university that has traditionally focused heavily on the humanities and social science, we believe there is no better opportunity than now to bring together the SO community at Yale. In an increasingly science- and technology-dependent world, it is essential that the students of today learn and understand the science that will allow them to become the thinkers of tomorrow.
However, an interest and aptitude in science cannot be developed overnight, and often college is too late to start planting seeds. As SO alumni, we have all had our horizons broadened, self-doubts challenged, and intellectual capacities expanded through our experiences in both junior high and high school. We understand the determination, motivation, and willpower needed to plow through months of extracurricular studying and preparation and a full day of travel and grueling activities. It is our duty to not only plant, but also germinate, any seeds we can in the minds of these high school Olympians, much as we had done to us years ago.
The University has nurtured for centuries a tradition of community service, both at home in New Haven locally and the world at large globally. “Service” is broadly defined, but we aim to break those barriers of expectations and surpass what is asked of us only by our very own selves by spurring a tradition of SO at Yale.
Yale’s motto is “Lux et Veritas,” Light and Truth. We hope to combine the truths, scientific or not, that students learn through SO with the light we have to offer in guiding them. Through it all, the culture and spirit that so defines SO will not only be inseparable from the University, but every competitor who passes through its walls as well.
* The views expressed here are those of the members of YUSO only, and do not reflect the opinions of the University or its Administration in any way.
