At a reception at the Peabody Museum yesterday, graduating Senior Nate Glasser collected the Yale Club of New Haven Richard Hegel Senior Essay Prize, for the best Senior Essay in Yale College dealing with New Haven. This prize honors Dick Hegel, who is a past president of the YCNH and a longtime member and supporter of the Club. He is also New Haven’s City Historian. Nate’s thesis, supervised by Professors Anderson and Smith, was about riding the bus. Taking a symbolic interactionist perspective Nate explored how the bus works as a social system. During his time at Yale Nate rode the bus for hundreds of hours, often in the course of going to and from his volunteering activity at local high schools. He kept fieldnotes and talked with drivers and passengers. His thesis importantly documents the ways that ordinary people from diverse and often disadvantaged backgrounds get along. They maintain the ‘project of the bus’ as it moves along its route and offer each other an environment that is safe and civil. Aside from academics, reviewers were impressed by Nate’s commitment to New Haven and his ability to bridge the university and the city more widely.