Managing Pep 2014: Michelle Yanda Takes the Stands after a Memorable Skype Election

michelle-yanda-pbm-2014Hey everyone, my name is Michelle Yanda, and I’m the Pep Band Manager for 2014! After being on co-op in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2013, I had a lot of catching up and learning to do as I transitioned into managing. However, jumping into the semester planning the Harvard/Dartmouth road trip allowed me to get acclimated really quickly (many thanks to Inky for being so helpful when I asked lots of annoying questions). As usual, the spring semester was busy for the Pep Band, but our conductors, Frank Gonzalez ’14 and Josh “JCS” Schupp ’15 led us with ease. The women’s hockey program did well this season, finishing the regular season in third place with 21 wins and making it to the NCAA playoffs. We had the great fortune to watch four past/previous members of the women’s hockey team play for team Canada and win gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi!

The Pep Band attended all of the home games for both the men’s and women’s hockey teams. We also made three regular season trips with the men’s hockey team to Harvard/Dartmouth, Yale/Brown and Princeton/Quinnipiac. We played a concert in downtown Boston during the Harvard/Dartmouth trip, thanks to coordination by Bri Olson ’07, and it was a pretty big success! It was a thrill to watch senior, Andy Iles tend goal all season long, and be named ECAC goaltender of the week at the end February. The team had a great 4 point weekend on the last trip of the regular season, with wins against both Quinnipiac and Princeton. The men’s hockey team won the Ivy League Title with the 4-1 win against Princeton. We’ve enjoyed playing for men’s and women’s basketball games at Newman as well throughout the semester. The university decided to hold a spring Club Fest event for the first time which we attended, and even managed to get some new membership and interest! The 2014-15 Pep Band Schedule looks really amazing too. Cornell will face off against Penn State in The Frozen Apple at New York’s Madison Square Garden Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014 at 8 p.m. In 2015, the Pep Band will travel to Union and RPI on January 16 and 17, to Dartmouth and Harvard on February 14/15 and to Brown/Yale on February 27 and 28. We look forward to seeing you!

 Michelle Yanda ’15