involvement in academic and extracurricular life. Many students take part in student interest groups, which organize events around environmental issues of interest to them. These groups range in interest from Conservation Finance and International Development, to the Built Environment and "Fresh & Salty: The Society for Marine and Coastal systems". There are also social and recreational groups, such as the Forestry Club, which every Friday organizes themed "TGIF" ("Thank-God-I'm-a-Forester") happy hours and school parties; the Polar Bear club, which swims monthly in Long Island Sound under the full moon (year-round); Veggie Dinner, which is a weekly vegetarian dinner club; the Loggerrhythms, an a cappella singing group; and the student-run BYO Café in Kroon Hall opened in 2010. A notable YSE tradition is the extravagant environmentally inspired decoration of graduation caps in preparation for commencement. Notable graduates Frances Beinecke '71 BA, '74 MFS, President, Natural Resources Defense Council; member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (2010) Richard M. Brett, conservationist Ian Cheney '02 BA, '03 MEM, Emmy-nominated filmmaker William Wallace Covington,'76 PhD Regents' Professor, Northern Arizona University Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher Jr., '04 MEM Emanuel Fritz, professor known as "Mr. Redwood" Carmen R. Guerrero Pérez '10 MEM, director of the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division of the Environmental Protection Agency William B. Greeley, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1920–1928 Christopher T. Hanson '96 M.E.M./M.A.R. Chairman, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2021– Stuart L. Hart '76 MFS, academic addressing global poverty and economic development, professor emeritus at Cornell University Phillip Hoose '77 MFS, author Ralph Hosmer, pioneering Hawaiian forester Edward M. Kennedy Jr. '91 MES, attorney and Connecticut state senator Aldo Leopold '08, conservationist and author of A Sand County Almanac H. R. MacMillan, forester and industrialist John R. McGuire, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1972–1979 Thornton T. Munger, pioneering U.S. Forest Service researcher; civic activist who helped create Portland, Oregon's Forest Park Mark Plotkin '81 MFS, ethnobotanist, explorer, and activist Robert Michael Pyle'76 PhD, lepidopterist and John-Burroughs-Medal–winning author, subject of The Dark Divide Samuel J. Record, botanist Ferdinand A. Silcox, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1933–1939 David Martyn Smith, forester and educator, author of The Practice of Silviculture Robert Y. Stuart, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1928–1933 Dorceta E. Taylor ’85 MFS, ’91 PhD, environmental sociologist and preeminent scholars in the field of environmental justice, Yale University Rae Wynn-Grant '10 MESc, large carnivore ecologist and a fellow with National Geographic Society. Mirei Endara